Busy busy busy

Summer is finally here! wwoohhooo! For those not in my area of Japan, allow me to fill you in. The hot humid weather we are used to in this area finally arrived. Well, not that you ever get "used to" the hot humid weather. lol It was 60 degrees in early June. VERY unusual from what I understand. June also brings out 2 year anniversary of living in Japan. It ALSO means, just 1 more year left here. Boy have we got a lot of traveling to do in the next 12 months! Oh so back to the busy part. lol Well, I decided to sell some of my cards online. I plan to eventually start up an etsy store. For now, I am listing them on a site owned buy a guy here locally. I vow to no longer do the craft fairs on base. Their fees are too high for such a low turnout of customers.
I am now the President of the Middle School PTO here. This is my first time in an officer position for PTO. I'm sure it will be a learning experience. I'm looking forward to an exciting year.
Yesterday, I went to Key Spouse training. I can't wait to offer help and support to our squadron families.
And finally the biggest news...we have a new addition to our family. I'm sure by now you have noticed her picture. How could you not? lol A lady was moving and couldnt take her Silkie Terrier with her. We adopted this sweetie into our home. Her name is Princess. We aren't loving that name. It just feels weird to us all to yell Princess outside or even say it. lol We just aren't fru fru name people I guess. Plus, it doesnt seem to really suit her. So, we are debating changing it. She doesnt really answer to Princess anyway. We have already trained her to walk on the leash and stay off the furniture. (for the most part) She seems to know "sit" but not lay down. She loves playing with her tennis ball. The lady we got her from said she never got a cage or house for her to sleep in. She said her bed was the sofa. Not in our home! lol She is very happy sleeping in her house. She goes in there at various times so we know she likes it in there.
Well, thats about it for now. I have a doctor's appointment shortly. The girls are coming over for lunch. We just might get crafty. Depends on how much talking we do. lol I hope you are all having a wonderful week. Do something crafty!

I just had to....

So most of my readers know, I do not like word verification on comments. When I am blog hopping, it slows me down when I have to take that extra step to leave a comment. I even had the "say no to word verification" pic posted on the side of my blog. I selected to monitor all comments and require my approval. That did not work. They still tried over and over again to post their SPAM comments on my blog. So, sadly, after NUMEROUS spam comments from the SAME source, I have had to add word verification to my blog. :(
Now, on to crafty things.......I am working on a canvas (well, 2 actually) right now that uses my Tim Holtz inspired 12 Tags of Christmas. Yes, I know, Christmas is over 6 months away. However, I was inspired by the Chaos Swap on All Things Tim. I will post pics when I am finished.
I plan to sell some of my creations. So far, I only have them posted on APO Ads. I listed my "Panthers" albums for a start. I plan to list cards later. Hopefully, I will work on getting some things listed on Etsy soon. I am running out of room to store my goodies! lol I hope you are having a wonderful weekend and get to have some crafty time!!

Newbie Swap - LONG post lol

When I saw Kylie's Newbie Encouragement Swap posted on All Things Tim, I just knew I HAD to participate!!! She would assign an experienced crafter to send a goodie to a newbie crafter. I wasn't sure what I would make. Once I saw Linda's Grungeboard Faux Leather Journal, the ideas started flowing!! Now my cover is a tad different, ok a lot different lol, than Linda's. I have no smooth solid grungeboard. All mine are textures. So I chose the harlequin design. My Vintage Photo ink pad isn't very juicy. Its my fav so it gets well used. In fact, I have 2. I know, I know, buy a reinker already! lol Anyway, I decided to spray the grungeboard with Adirondack Espresso Color Wash. That came out MUCH darker than I planned. What to do....what to do.... I decided to try and rinse some of the color out. After all, the Color Wash IS water based. If it didn't work, then I'm just out 1 small sheet of grungeboard. Guess what? It worked! At least enough to make me happy. it was still a tad dark. Next, I grabbed my Adirondack Gold Acrylic Paint Dabber. I smeared it all over the grungeboard. While that dried, I started work on my inside pages. I wanted to try different techniques from Tim's new book, "A Compendium of Curiosities".

Page 1 is using Tim's "Wrinkle Free Distress". I used Broken China, Faded Jeans and Tumbled Glass Distress inks. I used Staz On black for my stamping. I added Glossy Accents for "rain".

Page 2 is "Scribble Stain Distress". Since I don't have a Distress reinker, I used my Adirondack Cranberry reinker. It didn't work quite the way Tim's did but I love the end result. Other supplies used are: Vintage Photo, Fired Brick and Walnut Stain Distress inks, Staz on black ink, Adirondack Gold Paint Dabber, grungeboard heart, Adirondack Snow Cap Paint Dabber.

Page 3 is "Water Stamping". I used Dusty Concord, Black Soot and Vintage photo Distress inks. I stamped "Artist" with black Staz On.

Page 4 is "Blended Batik". I used Shabby Shutters and Faded Jeans Distress ink. The bird is stamped with black Staz On. The crown was added with Copper Metallic Staz On. The chandelier is stamped in Faded Jeans.

Page 5 is "Dabber Resist". I used Tumbled Glass and Dusty Concord Distress inks, Snow Cap and Gold Paint Dabbers and Black Staz On.

Page 6 is "Perfect Distress". Supplies used: Vintage Photo and Fired Brick Distress inks, Copper Perfect Pearls. Believe it or not, this was my first time using Perfect Pearls!!!! I finally bought some when I was back stateside in April. They have been waiting on my shelf until now. Thanks Tim for inspiring me to use more stash!!!

Page 7 is "Distress Powder". This one is my least fav. I just do not get good results using Distress Embossing Powder. Maybe I'm not heating it enough. I don't know. Guess I will continue to try it and eventually get it right. lol I used Spun Sugar and Dusty Concord Distress inks and Black Distress Embossing Powder.

Page 8 is "Shabby Chic". I used Pitch Black and Copper Dabber Paint and Clear Embossing Powder.


I wanted to show you 2 different shots of Page 9. You can't really see the distress cracks in the one shot and the stamped images don't show up well in the other. lol I used Rock Candy Distress Paint all over the image. Tim called for Stickles but I didn't have enough. lol I also used Staz On black ink, Aged Mahogany Distress ink and scrap paper.

And Finally page 10...Thanks for reading this far! lol Page 10 is "Extreme Masking". This one was tons of fun!!! I used Tim Masks, Faded Jeans & Fired Brick Distress inks as well as Staz On black ink.
I bound all these pages together using my Bind It All. I used the Copper Staz On to age the metal rings. The latch is one of Tim's grungeboard shapes. I inked it with Spiced Marmalade and Black Soot Distress ink. I did the same thing for the corners. Oh and about those corners, they are cut out of extra grungeboard. I always keep scraps for just this reason! I stamped the "title" for the journal on a scrap of paper, inked all over it with Aged Mahogany and Black Soot Distress ink. I attached everything to the cover with Glossy Accents. I really wish y'all could see this in person!! The details just dont show up very well in the photos. I hope you are all having a wonderful and crafty week!!