Scrap that Poetry GDT

I was so excited when I found Scrap that Poetry challenge blog. I LOVE poetry. I'm a big fan of Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, and Edgar Allen Poe. I love children's poetry. Heck I love songs that have poetic prose! So when I won one of the challenges recently I was asked if I wanted to do a guest designer spot for the next challenge. HECK YES!

The poem for the July 1st prompt is: First Love by John Clare

I came up with this digital layout. I thought the poem fit it perfectly. I love this layout. Its something I think I'll look back on and be like "oh yeah! I was very into Twilight then like everyone else! That was so 2010!"

























I got to stretch my lovely photoshop legs while doing this one too. I love that. Most of the elements are from createwings designs who can be found on Afterfivedesigns shoppe.

Yesterday. Hmm.. getting back into the groove was not in the cards. We did not go anywhere. I'm in full potty training mode with Leo and I spent most of the day getting him to pee in the potty. I managed this by letting him run around naked all day. He did pee in the pot many times and pooped twice! But... He also peed on my couch, peed on my end table, peed on my area rug and pooped in the full sized bed in his room. *sigh*

Thank god for waterproof mattress covers.

Today will be gym! I'm starting fresh again. I keep falling off the wagon and not doing what I need to stay healthy. I have to choose this and believe it can be done.

Lewis will be home soon today and I'm very very excited. Its rough breaking up kid fights all day all by yourself. I miss talking to him face to face.

Well off to do some arty stuff involving paint, and fabric!

Thanks for stopping by!

End of June

I had a great time in D.C. I'm kinda wishing I had stayed a few more days. Being back feels almost like ..."What to do?". I want to get back into old routines, but in a way I want to go DO stuff too. Like today I'm struggling with either
A. Going to gym and doing normal stuff
or
B. Going to zoo with boys here and playing there and getting more pictures, but being hot and tired and cranky tonight. (which I totally would be lol)

I realized the things I liked about DC. Everyone seemed to relish in the summer. Its like they had a greater appreciation for it than we do because of their cold winters. Right now is Florida's time to stay inside mostly because its so sweltering hot. But there they are soaking up every bit of sunshine they can because they know the winter is coming.

You can feel it from the locals. The women all get dressed up being in urban areas. It was like a fashion show. I constantly was saying to Lewis.."I love that dress!" or "Ooh that bag!". They all looked so cute. Compared to the soccer mom tees and shorts look many suburban mommies like myself sport daily. I try to dress up every day, but its difficult. I mean all I do is play with kids all day or go to the gym. lol. Also I paint alot and then whatever cuteness I have gets messed up.

We went to the National zoo. I got to see the pandas which was my main goal. I love them. I got Logan a huge stuffed panda that he grabs and shakes and says "Its SO FLUFFY!!". (this is from the promo commercial for Despicable me movie we can't wait to see.)

We also went to the Smithsonian castle and Natural history museum. It was great. I loved taking the metro everywhere. I wish I lived in an urban area where I didn't need a car and could live like that. I'd prefer it. I loved walking everywhere. I probably wouldn't in the winter so much though.

Last big highlight for me was that I got to see lightening bugs!! There were tons of them. I haven't been able to catch lightening bugs since I was little. Logan's never seen one before. So I caught a few and showed him. We don't have them down here in Florida, but I grew up with them in Indiana. I only wish I had a glass jar to catch them in for Logan. He thought they were cool too. Its all about the little things ya know?

I'll be showing lots of pics from our trip over the next few weeks in layouts and such. But today I just wanted to post my digital layout for June! I have to get working on July's. Thanks for listening to my ramblings.

Leo is sleeping in and will be up soon and I have to decide to go to the gym or do something fun.

Have a great hump day!

Tues Flutter card

I made a card this week with Kathy Martin's digital doodle. I also made a hand carved stamp with the doodle to MAKE this card! How cool right? I'm loving this color palette. Grey and yellow are gorgeous together.












D.C was a blast. I had so much fun. I'm still tired and trying to catch up so real blog post tomorrow hopefully! Thanks for stopping by. Hope to catch up on my fav bloggers today!

Heart the arts prompt week 26

You know what amazes me? How hot its gotten already this season. I realized that "summer" didn't officially start till this week. Now how that is possible when its freakin' hot as all get out here in Florida for months makes my brain hurt a little. I mean its getting to the point where its almost too hot for me. (really there is no such thing. I'm a Florida girl, but my hair is getting a bit wavier than usual)

So I figured for this week I'd do something fun. Just document summer. My fav summer things.

This week's prompt is .... Summer

Just so happens we are on our summer vacation right now!

Here's my page.





















Hope you all are having a great summer weekend!

OH!! And please go check out Etsy Inspired today! There is some new "inspiration" for this week and a chance to win some of my stuff!!

2S4Y Friday Card!

Gettin' it in just in time right? I used the weekly sketch from 2S4Y this week and made a card I'm in love with! I used my hand carved hermit crab stamp on it.




















Still on vacation! Will have a new heart the art prompt tomorrow ready to go!

Thanks for stopping by!

Vacday1

I'm officially on vacation. This does not mean I didn't set up some lovely blog posts for you to ogle over while I'm gone!

I had to do the Etsy Inspired challenge with White birch designs from Etsy's shop as inspiration. I used this picture of a gorgeous piece of jewelry she made to make my digital piece.



















I drew the rose in photoshop. I printed it out on canvas paper with the saying "The rose and the thorn, and sorrow and gladness are linked together" by Saadi.





























I used this sketch from Sketchy Thursdays to make the card. So I killed two birds with one stone! I love combining challenges. Thanks for stopping by!

Blue and White

This week is going by so fast! May seemed to drag on forever, but June is a booming! Love it. I've been getting things ready for our trip. I am currently reading "Vampire Diaries" that was written before Twilight, but still kinda similar in ways. Its good. An enjoyable fluff read. I want to watch the series, but am waiting till I read a little more of the books.

I'll tell you what series I've started watching that is brand new and I LOVE! Its called "Pretty Little Liars". Good show if you like teenager type drama and mystery. I like it. I am so sick of reality shows. Now since I like this show it will probably only last like 2 seasons. haha I lose all the shows I really like.











I've been busy working on different things. I'd really like to start working on another digital kit, but the oomph just hasn't been there. Maybe since Leo will be at my parents for a few days I might be more energized to do something.




I do love making different things. It challenges me. Like the blog Something Completely Different. So much fun! I made a skinny this week for the challenge. The challenge was to do something blue and white on a skinnie (3x5 card)

Here's what I came up with.













Its distress inked background, with spritz spray and then oil pastel waves with white and blue paint splatter. I stamped one of my small hand carved hearts on it and outlined the heart. The sticker I've had forever. Not sure who made the title sticker.

Last but not least I thought I'd share a video of Leo saying his name. He's so cute! You can now hear how he says "Eo! Eo!" instead of his name. hehe



Have a great Thursday!

Happy Tues!

I have had the best day so far. I've been to the gym and did 30mins of cardio + an ab class. I made a trip to Target where I bought needed things, but it was nice. Then I sat down and had a nice lunch. The boys are happy and not fighting. Its all good!

Its of course Tuesday too. I love Tuesdays. I love showing off my Kathy Martin digital doodle project I made with her doodle this week. It was a cute cat. I made this card.

























I love Tuesday's at digi chick they have 2 dollar specials. I don't always find something, but I love looking at very least! They have some cute hybrid patterns this Tuesday.

I got more Coke Zero at Target. That alone made my day. I love the stuff. I've been without for a week now!

I also had a great mail day yesterday. Lauren and I did an art o' mat swap where you swap things in a ATC sized box. I got her stuff in the mail yesterday. If you click on her name you can see the stuff I sent her.

I am totally psyched at what she sent!! A bird themed swap. A billion little great emphera type bird pieces. AND the coolest small mini album EVER!! Its gorgeous. I LOVE it Lauren!! Thank you!


Gotta go! Have a great day!

I-F weekly drawing

I finally downloaded the CS5 version of photoshop last night. The real deal!!! Oh my goodness I love it. I really can't wait to download Adobe Illustrator too. Then we are going to buy both after the trials are over. I feel muscular when playing with them. I feel as I'm sure men do when they get those big muscle cars and drive around. Though I'm still learning how to use Adobe Photoshop up to its full potential. On Elements I felt like I was close to knowing all its bells and whistles for the most part. Now I have all a whole new set!
This week's prompt on Illustration Friday was Paisley. So here's my little robin who you've seen as a hand carved stamp with a paisley belly. Just for fun drawing. :) I had to play with my new photoshop!

I also finished my traditional layout for the current prompt at Scrap that Poetry. The poem is "footprints in the sand" by Mary Stevenson. Here is what I came up with.


Today Logan's little friend is coming over so no gym for me. This week is going to be busy busy. I feel today will be alot of playing with photoshop, crafting, and maybe some hunting down of food. We have nothing! I have needed to go to the grocery for like 4 days now. lol. We have eggs, milk, bread, and frozen meals, but no produce what so ever! We always have fruit in this house. Its a travesty!

Have a great Monday Monday everyone!

Heart the arts prompt week 25

Lately I've struggled with images. My body image, my art and what I want it to be, I've just doubted over the weeks and hidden things away. Now this week I've decided to just find the beauty in things. The beauty that is already there. When you see something that strikes you as beautiful, or something that once you look at awhile you realize how beautiful it is.

That's why I chose this week's prompt to be .... Beauty.

What do you find beautiful? Is there something that always strikes you and makes you sigh with awe? What do you wish you found beautiful? What do you think is beautiful maybe others don't?

Here's what I came up with. I've really loved this color palette for awhile now. Thats where the page started at. Its a hand drawn rose in pencil and oil pastels matted on BG paper.




















I love that we've been doing this for 25 weeks now! I've been debating about joining a contest on Scraptastic. I love doing their yearly American Idol contest, but I've not really been feeling 12x12 layouts and I really don't like 8x10's. (with traditional paper) So I've been holding myself back from entering. I do enjoy it though. Usually I make 7 or so layouts I really enjoy when being in these contests. It starts in July. Those that do make traditional layouts should totally enter its so much fun weekly. I might still join in. I have to think about it another week. I really had more drawing plans set up for July. I guess I could incorporate that. Hmmm..

Well have a good weekend everyone!!

Fav things and 2S4Y

The days are going slow, my weight loss progress is going slow, I'm ready for summer to start moving along! I have been a challenge fiend lately though.

I finished the sketch for 2S4Y this week. Here's the sketch.. Here's what I came up with. Its a loose interpretation. lol




















I also managed to fit in time to do the challenge for Scrap that baby. The challenge was to scrap what baby's favorite things are right now. I love how this turned out. I'm glad I did one before he got any older and forgot any of these things!

Busy day today. Making mac and cheese for Logan for lunch. Gotta Go. New heart the art prompt tomorrow!!

Embossed + winner!

I have such a good time doing the Caardvarks challenges. I really wanted to do the current "embossed" one. I took a cardstock card embossed it with my circle hand carved stamp in clear embossing powder. Then I dabbed Distress inks in a row of different colors. I added a cap of orange BG paper to the card with some border paper punching. It turned out so pretty. The sticker on the card is from BG also.

Yesterday I was able to get in my week's drawing for Illustration Friday. This is what I drew for the theme "Ripple".








Before I forget I wanted to announce the winner of my robin hand carved stamp!


Its.... Alice Wertz
"hummingbird is my fave! =) thanks for the chance to win your fab stamp!!". Congrats Alice!! Email me your addy at tyggereye@yahoo.com and I'll send it out this week.

Not too much else going on. Trip to the gym is in the cards today. Possibly stop by the library. I'm really craving going to my fav scrapbook store that is across town about 45 minutes. Not that I need anything specific, but dang.. I'd really like some more tattered angels mist. Maybe I'll just order a couple bottles online.

This weekend for Father's day we think we are going to go see Marmaduke with the kids. I think it'll be cute. Leo loves dogs. Lewis and I both talk about having a great dane dog one day. We both like them very much. Though I am really REALLY wanting something smaller next time we get a dog. Small and easy to travel with. We're going to D.C soon and I don't even want to think what the dog boarder bill will be for the dogs. Eep!

Off to start my day! Thanks for stopping by.

Forgot to add ST layout and Pink Ninja

The current Sketchy Thursday sketch is this. (talk about last minute posting. Lauren's post reminded me!)
















And here's the digital sketch I made. It is also for the current Pink Ninja challenge.
I will be posting the stamp giveaway winner tomorrow. So if you haven't left a comment on what your fav bird is on this post do so today!

Thanks for stopping by!

S-completely different kitties

This week's challenge on Something Completely Different is to do a skinnie with cats. This is what I drew up real quick. Its pencil and oil pastels. I stapled it into my remains of the day book. I love doing these little drawings.

I've been thinking that I need to work on my drawing more and less on other things for a little while. I think starting for all of July I'm going to do a drawing piece a day. For all of July. Sort of a way for me to stretch my arty drawing limbs and see what I can do. That means no cards or excess stuff other than my one DT commitment. That'll be hard. I do have one other GDT commitment that looks like it has come up which will happen too. That shouldn't be too bad. I think I can do it. I might have to set up my scanner somewhere better though.

Today I'm taking Logan to his Tech zone summer camp thing and then I have to take Leo for shots. Eep! I'm not looking forward to that at all. He's going to be monstrous!

Off to draw!

Little mousey can

I have to start with my very big happiness to be featured on Scrap that Poetry winner of week 17! My giving tree layout won!

Today I wanted to show another card this week for Kathy Martin's digital doodles.


















Its a cute little image to work with. I did most of the stuff in photoshop. I added a font on top of the metal watering can just to give it some depth. I colored the mouse and everything in photoshop. The Love font is from the monthly free kit on Afterfivedesigns. I then printed it out and cut it into a 3.5x3.5 square. Using purple distress ink I added lots of shading then sprinkled the image with water drops to give it a water color canvas look. I added the grey cardstock card.


I wanted to share pictures of the vintage readers I got from the fleamarket the other day. I'm so excited about them. They are gorgeous. I did find that one of them has 2 pages ripped out. :( Not cool. But still gorgeous. I collect different vintage children readers. I love the children illustrations. They are gorgeous. Enjoy the photos! Be back tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

Etsy Inspired

We had a great time yesterday on our date day. We went to my fav Cuban restaurant over near Oldsmar and then to the flea market. I bought books mainly. I got a set of vintage children's readers I LOVE. I collect them. I got four in the set. I also got tons of books for Logan to read. He's reading chapter books similar to Captain Underpants and books similar to it. Around 98 page books with every few pages having an illustration on them. He's an excellent reader.

Now I found another challenge blog I can't live with out. Its called Etsy Inspired. This week the Etsy store being featured was this lovely artist. I took this piece and it inspired me to make this art journal page. (There will be something special on Etsy Inspired blog on June 26th! a surprise! I'll remind ya.)

Pretty literal BUT gorgeous! This was actually a page in my art journal I didn't like. That I hadn't shown. I just had it sitting there and when I'd flip through my book I'd dislike that page. I've been reading this book the Illustrated Life and one of the things so many art journalers say is that their only rule is that they will keep redoing a page if they don't like it. They will work over and over on it till it gets to a point they really like. Thats what I did with this page. I love it now!



















Today I'm taking Logan to his week long Lego robotics classes. He is so excited. I'm excited to get some time this summer with him there so I can go to the gym with out having to drag him. I am ready for this summer, but not. Only a few more weeks till we go to D.C!

Gotta go work on stuff. Thanks for stopping by!

ST layout scrappiness

I did another scrapbook layout. I do like doing layouts, I hate getting pictures developed. I also realize I totally dislike 12x12 and 8x8's are more my speed. I am sewing together an album of sorts to keep them in that I like more than I would any reg. 12x12 album. Very cool.

This month'ss July DT sketch on Sketchy Thursday is this sketch.

















Here is my layout for it.
This is one of my fav pictures of Leo and my mom. We were on vacation last year and this was just so cute. We were driving around on a tour of Tortola Island and Leo fell asleep. So sweet. I love how his belly sticks out in the photo.

Today is Date Day for Lewis and I. I'm so excited! I can't wait. I think we're going to go across town go out to eat somewhere fun with out kids and go to this flea market over there I love. WITH OUT KIDS!

Once you have to do all your shopping with a 2 year old that is a terror in a store or a 7 yr old who only wants toys and is bored unless that is what you are looking at, you relish the moments where you can go do things without them once in awhile. I can actually LOOK at things! With full attention! It'll be great!

Yesterday was a rough day with Leo. I need a day off. Well I guess I should say a half day, I'll take it! We watched Leap Year together last night from Netflix. What a cute movie! It has that Amy Adams in it. I love it.

Well going to take my little point and shoot for fun with me. :)

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Heart the arts prompt week 24 and June giveaway!

There are days where lately I've wondered what do I do? Do I have any skills or am I mediocre? I think I'll never be the size I want to be or for very long. I worry that I am a housewife. A mom. Maybe not even a great mom. Just a good mom. Who is that inner critic that tears up my mind? I know others have theirs. It causes strife and doubt in your mind and holds you into this self destroying mood.

Thats where this week's page prompt came from.

This week's prompt is...Doubt

What do you doubt? What do you think you are hard on yourself about? Are you doubtful of someone else's true intentions? Do you doubt you'll ever be able to kick a certain habit or fulfill a specific goal?

Here's my page for the week. The scanner did a bit of messing up on it, but you can see it pretty good.















I took an image from a magazine added painting stamping, layering. I stamped my lily hand carved stamp on there and added the flower. I hand cut the doubt title out of a mixed painted paper out of a magazine.

I realized today that we are almost half way through June already. I need to do my monthly giveaway! This month I am giving away this robin stamp.



















All you have to do to be entered is tell me what type of bird is your favorite. Thats it. Leave a comment! Good luck everyone.

cakecard

I'm making coffee right now in my handy dandy newly cleaned out coffee maker. I hadn't done anything but clean it with vinegar and dishsoap for the last ....2 years? It needed something more. Coffee was gross. So I bought this stuff at Walmart called coffee cleaner or some such stuff in the coffee maker section and voila! It works. Hopefully the coffee is delicious. We will see. Otherwise I'm totally going to dunkin donuts for a coffee again today.

I made a card this week for 2S4Y. The sketch is this and the card I made. The background pp is BG packaging paper.




































Ooh my coffee is great. Yeah! Today is Logan's last day of 1st grade. I can't believe it. Its only a half day too. I'm trying to decide what to do. What I'd like to do is go to my fav scrap store that is about 40 mins from here and get some stuff. But... Its a distance and I really don't NEED any scrap stuff. I also need to go to the grocery store and make up some food. I will probably do that.

I didn't do it yesterday. Ah.. what you can put off to craft instead.

Well its finally Friday! Very glad. Ready for a great weekend.

Thanks for stopping by.

Scrap that Poetry

Another challenge blog you say? Yep. I love myself some challenge blogs. I found this one... via someone. jeez.. I don't even remember. But I love poetry. I love being inspired by poetry so this is one of my newest fav challenge blogs! Its called Scrap that Poetry
This week's prompt is the poem the "Giving Tree".

I came up with this layout which I LOVE. I digitally made that tree yesterday just for the layout. Didn't it come out so cute? I LOVE that tree. Don't be surprised that I base a whole digital kit around that big beautiful tree. (eventually)

The patterned paper is by Julia Makotinski and the alpha is from Afterfive designs.



Took some self portraits of myself yesterday mainly for my WW blog. I'm trying really hard to stay on point. I am starting to like my hair.


















Got lots of stuff I'm working on. Tomorrow is Logan's last day of 1st grade! I can't believe it. Summer here we come! Thanks for stopping by!

DigiDareswhite

I love playing along with Digi Dares weekly. Sometimes I dont' have the time, but I did this week. I did a new type of techinque on this layout using a mask when doing a lift of Amanda's layout. Here's her layout. It doesn't have a frame so its a bit hard to see.












And here's my lift of what I made. All we had to do this week was do a lift of one of the DT's layouts. Pretty fun!
























I'm actually going to skip the gym today. Leo has had a runny nose the last few days and I'm just wanting a break. The blasted dog next door is barking like a fool. I swear I hate that dog. Its 6 am. If he wakes up Leo so help me god. Stupid collie. Why my neighbors don't bring him in when he barks is beyond me. I swear it takes all I have to not go out into my backyard and shout over the fence "SHUD UP!" But that really would wake up Leo. lol. The dog only seems to bark during "sleeping" hours. Grr..

We watched Alice and Wonderland last night. Well I watched most of it. Leo was still up and Logan was talking and I didn't get to hear all I wanted or see all I wanted. I loved the parts I watched. I didn't get to watch the ending. I want to watch it one night when the little ones are asleep. Maybe tomorrow night. It was so pretty.

---

I painted this the other day. I think it turned out pretty. I love these little ATC sized canvas's you can get from Joann's. So cute! I am going to make a ton of them and do some kind of artwork piece with them. I need to buy more of them! Gotta go the dog woke up Leo. Grr.. Maybe I'll get more alone morning time tomorrow morning. *sigh*

Yellow polka dot

This week with Kathy Martin's digi sketch I made this layout. Can you tell my mind is all about weight loss?

I bought the new Eclipse soundtrack this morning! I can't wait to listen to it today.

Yesterday I decided to go get my hair cut. I just told Lewis I was going to get it cut which to him meant a trim. To me meant I think I'm going to get an actual hair cut style. No more ponytails all summer because my hair is so long and hot. Here's how it turned out.


























He was pretty shocked. I got about 5 inches off. He is "getting used to it". I haven't had it this short ever I don't think. I like it, but I don't. I'm undecided myself. It is cooler though! I use like a teeny tiny bit of shampoo compared to before too. I was shocked. I like that. I also like not having to dig through my hair to brush it out. Very nice.

Well I have to get Leo down for a nap. Then I'd like to go to Target to get a few t-shirts and shorts for this summer. They are on sale.

I bought Alice and Wonderland yesterday and hope to watch it tonight. I can't wait. I've been digging the soundtrack for months!

Have a good Tuesday!

Meet me at Mikes

I found a new swap that I instantly became obsessed with. I have a link in my side bar, but you can read about it here. Its a Australia swap that you send an envelope full of little goodies and decorate the envelope. They'll show off your envelope in the store window and have a flickr group. An envelope will be drawn and the winner gets ALL the contents of the envelopes!

How cool would that be?

Here's the contents of my envelope. A close up of the ATC I made and painted and put in the envelope. The ATC is an illustration for this week's Illustration Friday's theme "trail".
















































Outside of the envelope




















I've been doing all of this on my NEW desk that is now tall enough to stand and work on. I got my drawers for it and put it together this weekend. So now I don't have to worry about grabby hands Mr. Two year old getting my stuff. I love it. NO more working on kitchen counters!!

I gotta go make some lunch. Have a great day everyone!