Lovely Little Labels Tiny Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Tending To Your Garden Tends To Your Soul
It was only about 10 minutes.  I walked out the front door to look at the new number sign that had been drilled into the brick of the house and I noticed the tall grass growing in between the emerging lilies.  I was only going to look at the sign and come back inside the house, but the grass had caught my attention and I started to pull as the grass tugged.  It was only about 10 minutes of pulling up the errant grasses, but after those 10 minutes I felt refreshed, calmed - I could breathe again.  Tending to your garden tends to your soul - whether it's planting a seed, pulling up grass or trimming whatever is growing around you.
Today's card is tiny!  Just 2"x2"!  I figure it will make a nice pillow message for Michael one day :)  I began with a Naturals Ivory card base and added a strip of Gumball Green dsp.  Next I punched a designer label and cut it in half and adhered it to the card.  I then used the mini curly label punch on some Gumball Green card stock, stamped it with a word from Lovely Little Labels and added that with a dimensional.  Then I stamped the frame and sentiments from Lovely Little Labels with Gumball Green ink and punched it out with the coordinating punch.  A few hearts were stamped as well.  I then folded a small piece of Natural Trim in half and added a Vintage Trinket safety pin.  This was then adhered to the card with glue dots.
For those of you following my blog this week, here is the current condition of one of my canvases.  I keep wondering if any of these stages will be recognizable by the time I am done....I guess we'll find out together :)

Pleasant Poppies Wonderful You Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Money Is What We Make It
As you can imagine, as I continue to consider the possibility of purchasing a new home, money has become the focus of many of my thoughts.  After a book about money and work was recommended to me, I went searching on-line for the book and somehow found my way to the movie Money & Life.  I already want to watch it again because it was a lot to take in.  You can watch it on-line for free and choose whether or not to make a donation.  I would love to know what you think!  It's made me wonder about how we value ourselves and others.  It's made me question the power we have given these thin pieces of paper.  It's gotten me curious about other forms of currency that we can create.  Money is what we make it.  That is my mantra for today.
Today's card was simple and bold.  I just inked up the Pleasant Poppies background stamp with Tangerine Tango ink and stamped it onto a Very Vanilla card base.  Next, with the help of the stamp-a-ma-jig, I stamped the sentiment from Loving Thoughts using Early Espresso ink.  A touch of dazzling diamonds on the small buds added a bit of sparkle to the card.  I hope you like it!  And, if you read my blog yesterday, you saw that I have begun playing around with some canvases.  I played a little bit more (and am trying to be patient with the drying process).  Here's what one of the canvases now looks like...

I cannot end this post without sending my thoughts and prayers to all of you impacted by the recent tornadoes in Oklahoma and other parts of the country.  You are in our hearts!!!!!

Canvases In Progress

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  I Know Something Has Touched Me Deeply When I Am Brought To Tears.  It Is This Emotion I Must Pay Attention To.
I volunteer for a radio reading service.  Every week I record two programs that are then made available to the visually impaired.  One of the programs is a reading of a newspaper published in a mountain community here in Colorado.  The other program is the New York Times Travel Section.  I have 28 minutes of recording time, so usually I scroll through the articles and choose ones that speak to me in some way.  Little did I know how much one of the articles would impact me - it brought me to tears.  The article was titled innocently enough A Case for Getting Far, Far Away by Christopher Solomon.  It was when I was recording and got to the last paragraph that I had to stop because I started sobbing.  Here is what I read, "Gretel Ehrlich said of those yawning Wyoming spaces that she loves, "Its absolute indifference steadied me."  I know what she meant.  We spend our days trying to be big.  In the middle of nowhere, though, we can surrender to smallness again and instead find where we fit in the landscape.  Out there, where there's nothing, is where there's the most to learn."  I knew this had touched me deeply - speaking to that part of me that holds my truth - my wisdom.  I believe this is why I am drawn to the mountains and open spaces right now.  I must pay attention to this emotion and honor it.
As part of honoring my emotion, I was drawn to pull out some canvases yesterday and start painting.  I have continued the process today and am sharing these images with you.  Both of these are canvases "in progress" - I have no idea where they will take me.  I am enjoying the process of applying paint, sometimes spraying it with water, sometimes applying it with my fingers...and then letting it dry before applying the next color (so I don't end up with a canvas of mud!).  I may share what becomes of these canvases - not sure how long that might take.  But for now I will pay attention to what I am feeling and keep painting.