28 Years!

28 years ago tonight I married my best friend and true love. Happy Anniversary Andy! I love you!

Working on the new Craft Room

So I'm finally in my new craft room. It's still a work in progress, but at least it's mostly done. This first picture is of my old space in the study. Very cramped!
Here's hubby installing my Bygel rails from Ikea for my punches. Our daughter lives in New Jersey and Ikea is only an hour away, so you know where we went when we visited her last month.
This table is Ikea as well. It was given to our daughter by a friend when she graduated college. He was moving into a tiny apartment and didn't have room. So guess who got to store it until she found a place of her own? Since she was given an antique dining room table and didn't need it, we made her a deal she couldn't refuse....We kept the table and chairs and in turn we gave her money towards her new sofa.
I found these Jetmax Cubes at AC Moore on sale. You know me, I can't refuse a good deal.
I re-purposed white shelving from our kid's closets for my storage. It's not like the kids are using them. The table is a garage sale find. The totes under the table store my card stock and I had hubby mount a shelf just above the table for my stamps. It works perfect because I'm able to use the shelf brackets as bookends for my stamps. I unmounted most of my stamps this summer and it was the best thing I could have done. The boxes, also from Ikea, on the white shelf hold various papers, envelopes and cards I've completed.
The closet houses wood mounted stamps, 12 X 12 paper and will hold a bunch of other stuff.......like I said, it's a work in progress.
And this corner? This is the pile of stuff I have yet to sort through and store. Eventually I want to have some comfy seating here and a place for hubby's guitar. I also want to find a black and white print of Audrey Hepburn to hang on this wall as well. So thanks for stopping by and seeing my new space.
Blessings!
Roxy

Retirement Journals

I haven't been blogging lately because I've been busy. Recently we had 10 people retire from our department at work. I was asked to do their journals. Whenever someone retires, we always have a journal of well wishes that everybody signs. You'll also find pictures of the retirees from days past scattered throughout the journal as well.

What I did was alter composition notebooks. I had never altered books before. Let me tell you, taking on the task of doing 10 of them in only a couple pf weeks was quite a challenge......but it was a labor of love. I tried to personalize each journal by highlighting the retiree's interests.
Themes I used were : cooking, art, theater, fishing, golf, sports, antiques, classic cars, beagles, and bling. One woman has such a sparkling personality and lovers her bling I just had to make her journal sparkle.
I was honored to be able to make keepsakes for my former co-workers and friends. and now they are all sporting that perpetual retiree smile......and that makes me happy.
Blessings!
Roxy

A Sneak Peak and a Couple of Cards

In my last post I said some changes were coming. Well, they've begun. I'm in the process of changing the guest room over to my craft room. Part of it will be for guests, but mostly it will be my craft room. This is a wall decal to give you a hint into the way the room is headed. What sold me on the decals was the bling that went along with it. A girl's gotta have some sparkle.
This first card is part of a set of thank you cards for some friends who are expecting their first baby. They're going with a nautical theme for the nursery, so I thought these would be nice for shower thank yous.
And this is a birthday card for my favorite 7 year old, Braedon. I just thought this little guy was so like him.

More to come as things progress.

Blessings!
Roxy

Changes Coming

It's been forever since I've posted. Life has a habit of getting in the way. Well changes are coming and changing my background is just the beginning. This card is my inspiration. It reminds me that no matter how insane things get. God is good and is ALWAYS with me. With God, all things are possible.

So how about some updates on the family. Our oldest moved out to California back in January and is doing well. Our youngest is moving her stuff out of our house next month ans I will get my very own craft room! Woohoo! I don't know if I'll get to post Before then......lots of things going on.....but I will definitely be posting once I get my craft room up and running.
Blessings!
Roxy

Blessings Galore!

Hi All!

It's been over a month since my last post, but it has been insane. I'm happy to say that my daughter who graduated last month fomr the Culinary Institute of America is now employed! Woohoo! She and her sweetie are working in their field in New Jersey. My eldest son proposed to his sweetie, and she said yes! Yea!!!! another daughter!!! I put in for a transfer at work last month and they approved it. I'll still be in the Design department, but working for ROW/Mapping instead of Bridge Inspection.

And when you think things couldn't get better, they do. I won a gorgeous stamp set from Belinda at Clear Artistic Stamps. It's called Shadows of Memories. Here are some of the cards I made with it. It's hard to see in the photos, but the gold paper is shimmer paper that I got from CAS and the red paper is textured paper that lends itself nicely to the Asian theme. The images are embossed in gold. The sentiment on the last card is from an SU set....can't remember which one though.




I also won a stamp set and some embellishments from a wonderful lady named Wendy. She's a blogging sister of my friend Kim. I hope to show some cards using those goodies in my next post.....which I hope won't be too long from now.

Can you say GOD is Good! I sure can!
Blessings!
Roxy

A Lot to Celebrate!

Hi All,

My darling hubby and I just got back this evening from a trip downstate. Our daughter received her bachelor's degree from The Culinary Institute of America yesterday in Hyde Park. I actually was able to get one decent photo of her in her cap and gown. Isn't she beautiful?

While we were down there, we ventured out onto the new Walkway across the Hudson, which just opened on October 3rd. It crosses the Hudson River between Poughkeepsie and Highland. The walkway is the world's longest pedestrian bridge, over 6,000 feet long. It's 25 ft wide and bumps out to 35 ft at the lookouts.

Now, this was a BIG deal for me. I have height issues. More importantly, I have bridge issues. I love bridges, architechturally speaking, but am not so keen about being on them....Heck, they terrify me! So with the help of my darling hubby, I walked the bridge. Of course I stayed in the middle of the bridge and clung tight to Andy's arm, but I did it. This is me standing in the middle of the bridge freezing my tush off. That's the Mid-Hudson Bridge in the back ground.

Here's Andy. He's not afraid to stand by the rail. In fact, when I got home and looked at the pictures, I could tell which ones I took and which ones Andy took. Mine have rail in the photo,( since I wouldn't leave the center of the bridge), and Andy's all have no rail in them.

Here's the plaque that's on the rail at the center of the bridge,( and yes, Andy took this photo). If you click on the photo it should come up big enough to read.

Here's another photo Andy took. Though you can't see it too well, the building in the photo is of Roth Hall at The Culinary Institute of America.

Well, it's late and I'm tired. Goodnight all.

Blessings!

Roxy

Happy Mail from CAS

Hi All,
I know it's been awhile, but I've been kind of busy. So on Friday I got some happy mail from Clear Artistic Stamps. And of course I had to play as ASAP. These first two cards are from Belinda's Sympathy Garden set. Isn't this pink shimmer paper just gorgeous! It was an unexpected treat I found in my order. I used colored pencils and Gamsol to color the image.
On this card I used copic markers to color the image. You know, when SU came out with groovy guava a couple of years ago, I wasn't too impressed with the color. But I still have some and pulled it out the other day. I was surprised at how well it goes with the blush blossom that I used for the card base. Then I matted the image with mellow moss and it all seemed to come together.

I used the fairy image from Belinda's Whisper in the Wood set for this card. I used a mixture of copics and water color crayons to color the image.

Well, that's about it for now. Hopefully I'll have a post ready for this weekend. We're headed to Hyde Park in a couple of days for our daughter's graduation from the Culinary Institute of America.

Blessings!

Roxy

CAS-Can't get enough!

Have you ever gotten on a kick where you only use one set of colors, one technique or one artist's stamp sets? Well, I'm on a CAS kick at the moment. Ok, so here is yet another card featuring a Clear Artistic Stamp set. Autumn Treats by Belinda Landtroop. This is such an adorable set. I'm sure to be using it a lot in the near future.

This card is the invitation for my daughter's graduation party. She graduates next month from the Culinary Institute of America, (CIA). I chose the grape vine image because wine is a big part of cooking. And it's more grown up looking than a peice of cake.

Blessings!
Roxy

Some Cards!

Hi All,
I finally got a chance to play with my stamps again. My friend, Kim, blessed me with this set a couple of weeks back and I finally got to ink it up. The stamp set is called Whispers in the Woods and was designed by Belinda Landtroop of Clear Artistic Stamps. Paper, ink and ribbon are from SU. I used my watercolor crayons and blender pens to color the image.
With this card, I used my SU markers to color the stamp and then "thumped" with two other colors to get the variation in the leaves.

Hopefully I'll have a few more cards to share soon.

Blessings!

Roxy

Stamp Camp

Hi All!
I just survived my first stamp camp! Man am I exhausted! Ruth's hearty laughter in this first picture says it all.....We had so much fun!!!!
And this is my good friend Angie. Showing one of the cards she made.

And here is Doris, our newest convert. She told us in church this morning that she went home and spent the evening just thinking of ways to create.

From what I'm told, this stamp camp was a bit different than most. We spent the first part of the morning teaching techniques, then a yummy lunch and then we did the make and takes. Oh yeah, and did I mention we had chocolate too? You can't have a room full of womaen and NOT have some chocolate.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully I'll be back soon with another post.

Blessings!

Roxy

I'm still around

Hi All,
I know it's been a long time since I've posted. My laptop is up and running again so postings will be on their way. Some of my friends and I are hosting a stamp camp this Saturday, so things are crazy right now tryong to get ready for it. Im hoping to have some photos to share with you on Sunday. So until then..........
Blessings!
Roxy

Proud, but tired Momma

Yes, I am one proud Mom. This photo,( fixed by the wonderful Etha),is of our oldest. It was taken this past Friday. He was down at Ft. Dix in NJ for a leadership training course. This was taken at the graduation. But I'm also a tired Mom as well. You see, our son's car went in the shop before he headed to Dix and it wasn't ready in time for him to drive it there. He rented a car for the drive down, but it was extremely expensive. So Hubby and I drove down to get him.

This is where the adventure begins. We were supposed to leave around lunch time on Thursday. But I couldn't get the time off from work, so we had to leave late afternoon. We drove down to NJ and spent the night with friends. Got up bright and early Friday to go to Ft. Dix for the 10 am ceremony. After the ceremony, we brought our son and another soldier back to upstate NY. Here's where it gets crazy. Our son lives almost 2 hours north west of us. And because he left his keys at our house, we had to go back to our house to get the keys before continuing on to his place. I took this opportunity to bow out of the last leg of the trip. I got our other son to ride along to keep hubby company for the ride back.

So our New Jersey adventure started in Rochester at 4 :30 Thursday afternoon when we got on the Thruway. It ended 931 miles and 31 hours later ,(11:30 pm Friday night),when hubby pulled in our driveway after dropping our son off at his place.

Oh yeah.....no cruise control either.
Blessings!
Roxy

It's been awhile

Hi All,
I know it's been awhile since I've posted. I went back to work June 1st after having the entire month of May off for recovery. Needless to say, things have been crazy! And the laptop is down again so computer access is limited.

This first card was for a nephew who graduated highschool this year. He's very involved in his local volunteer fire dept and his graduation invitation featured that along with a patriotic theme. So I ran with that theme to come up with the colors for this. the pattern paper is from Gina K's free digi downloads on Stamp TV.
I recently purchased an Ott lamp for my work space.....thank goodness for 50% off coupons :-)
This was the first card I made using my new lamp. I just stamped some random images and then colored them with my Copics. Amazing how good lighting can improve your coloring.

This card was made using an image my friend, Kim, gave me. I made it for a 3 year old's birthday. Again, playing with the Copics. The purple flower was made from the Cricut that my friend, Deby, let me play with for a few days.

So that's it for now.

Blessings!

Roxy

Clean and Simple

Here are some clean and simple cards I made recently. I've been really trying to go this route with my cards. Sometimes I tend to get heavy into the layers and the embellishments.
I paper pieced the purses on this one and colored the flower with my marker to give it a deeper color.

I went for my first motorcycle ride of the season last night. Baby brother stopped by on his Harley. It was good to get out of the house for a couple of hours. I don't go back to work until next week and I'm going stir crazy! I've only been out of the house this past month for church, doctor appointments and my son's graduation.

Time to do some laundry.

Blessings!

Roxy

Today's challenge at SCS

Here's one of the cards I made for today's challenge at SCS. This was fun to make. Here's what it looks like closed.
And this is what it looks like opened. Once again, the photo loaded sideways

Blessings!

Roxy

The Happy Graduates

Hi All,
Here's a picture of my eldest taken on Saturday after he graduated from SUNY Fredonia. And the pretty girl with him is his girlfriend, Amber. She graduated from University of Buffalo Saturday morning. Yes, I am a proud mama!
Blessings!
Roxy

Kutie Pie Ketos

Hi All,
I just wanted to share a couple of cards I made today with images given to me by my friend, Kim. This is a Keto image found at Stampingbella. I used Koh-i-noor pencils and gamsol to color the images. Paper comes from SU and PTI. Th sentiments are from PTI's Handwritten Notes.

I'm not a fan of the color orange, but used in small amounts it's not too bad.
It's all about the bling baby!

Time for a nap,

Blessings!

Roxy

From the Minds of Engineers

Today I received a big envelope from my office in the mail. I couldn't figure out what they would be sending me. Turned out to be a get well card....civil engineering style. I work for New York State Dept. of Transportation. I work in the Regional office in the Bridge Inspection and Inventory Unit with a bunch of engineers. So this is what they sent me.....I LOVE IT!!!!
Gotta love these guys,( and gals).

Info behind the comment in the photo below: When a bridge gets inspected, sometimes the inspectors find issues with the bridge that need to be repaired. When that happens, it gets flagged. Then the paperwork starts and the owner of the bridge is responsible for repairing what casued the inspector to issue the flag. An engineer with a professional engineer's license is required to inspect the repair and certify that it is acceptable. Engineers..... what a crazy bunch!Another comment from a friend.

Of course when my husband saw this card, he said the gang at work knew they couldn't get away with sending me a store bought card.

My next Dr. appointment is Monday and if all goes well, I'll be back to work later next week. Hopefully things at work aren't in too bad of shape. I don't know though, a lot can happen when you leave a bunch of engineers to fend for themselves.

Blessings!

Roxy

More cards

Hi All,
Here is a card that I made yesterday. I made about a dozen of them. Francis Bellamy, author of the Pledge of Allegiance, was born in near by Mt. Morris. Because I did mass production on this one, I stamped and cut everything before assembling them. It wasn't until I assembled the first one that I noticed how perfectly things lined up. Notice how the flag lines up perfectly between two of the lines of the pledge.
I did a bit of an experiment on this one. I embossed the leaves on the cardstock and then colored them with a versamarker. Then I embossed it again with the flowers. I think it looks kind of cool.

That's all for now.

Blessings!

Roxy