Are you REDdy for Twisted Thursday?

The whole week seemed to get away from me. I've been beginning with Chemo Angels and packing care packages for soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq and dodging flash floods, and Thursday seemed to come around faster than I was expecting it to! But here's the card with the "twist" being to use red as a predominant color! Hope you like it!

It's Twisted Thursday!!! S2GSC22

This week's Twisted Thursday Challenges from Shirley's 2 Girls was to use the sketch below with the "twist" being to use a punch somewhere in the design. This was a fun sketch to use and I really like the result. I'll likely make a few cards using it as it seemed to work with the new berry stuff I used. Hope you like it!

Creative Reading

I've been absent from the blog for several days to enjoy a lovely visit from my oldest friend. Melanie drove in from Pennsylvania and we enjoyed a wonderful weekend together with lots of shopping, visiting, and some lovely wines she brought with her.

Getting treats in the mail, whether they be from your favorite stamp company or from amazon.com, is always a reason to celebrate! The blogging has inspired me to gather my resources and prepare myself to start infusing more creativity into my writing. One of my little treats is a book by Tara Frey called Blogging for Bliss. This book is filled with wonderful resources for templates, photography tips, design elements...all sorts of things to help you make your blog beautiful.

Those of you who like to journal old school, I picked up two great books on adding visual elements to your journalling and breaking free of habit and structure in journalling. How to Make a Journal of Your Life by D. Price is a great resource for just getting started, and adding visual elements to your writing. Then there's Wreck this Journal by Keri Smith, which is a terrific tool for breaking free from restraints. It's an actual journal you can do all sorts of things in, including chewing up, thrashing, writing backwards, and gluing random items to the pages!

Even for those of us who are card makers, rubber stampers, or scrap bookers, these books can be very useful in fostering creativeness even if it's in ways we don't normally express ourselves from.

In other creative news, I was elated to be assigned to my very first patient in the Chemo Angels program. Chemo Angels is a program you can use your creative talents for bringing some joy into the life of someone who is undergoing IV chemo treatment or radiation. It's a serious commitment, but I'm really excited about getting started. I sent off my first card and letter in this afternoon's mail. If you are interested in the program, please go to chemoangels.net for more information.

Day 167 Challenge

Today--Day 167 was all about making your card look like a beautifully wrapped gift in the 365 Cards daily challenge. Anyone who knows me knows I am a cherry fanatic, and I used one of the stamps from a brand new set from Taylor's Expressions. The paper is some Mary Englebreit paper I've had since--dar I tell you 2003 maybe?!

Twisted Thursday S2GSC21

It's Thursday again and Shirley's 2 Girls has challenged us to design a card using the sketch provided and to incorporate 4 brads. Most of you know I just moved across the country from Lacey, Washington to Gaithersburg, Maryland. Well, we've been here since the end of June, but I immediately fell and injured my back, so we still have a lot of boxes left packed. My challenge today was doing this cards and trying to figure out where on earth my box of brads were so I could use them! I never did find them, but I remembered I just happened to get a pack of doggy paws, and of course I LOVE Shirley's 2 Girls stamps of the simply adorable Domino!

365 Cards Color Challenge

I just discover this wonderful website: http://365cards.blogspot.com. This Tuesday's challenge was to design using a color palette (red, purple, yellow, orange, and turquoise) I might not have ever selected on my own. I hope you like the results.

The stamp used was from Flourishes. The papers used were from the Basic Grey June Bug collection. As always, my favorite satin ribbon was from Midori!

Poppy Stamps!

Last night I worked on a couple cards for my friends. They are getting ready to go out in the mail today actually! The stamp set is from poppystamps, a small independent stamp company I just discovered. The stamps are very "cute", but the are unusual looking and that's what I look for in stamp designs. The paper I used for these cards is from the new Basic Grey June Bug collection.

Shirley's 2 Girl Challenge of the Week (S2GSC20)

This is my first week to participate in any online art challenges, and I am thrilled to participate in the S2G challenge for August 6, 2009. This is a great stamp company...and as you can see, I love their doggy images! For my non-art pals who are viewing this, the challenge this week was to use the design sketch of the circle over the rectangles (as you can see in both of my images) as well as incorporating polka dots into the mix. I mean, who doesn't love polka dots?! Feel free to leave your comments.

Baby Steps

I bought a sketchbook today--the first one I've had in many years. I want to start doodling again. I want those doodles to become my own line of stamps eventually. There have been a lot of changes in my life--most notably, a move across the country from Washington to Maryland. So as long as I've uprooted myself, left my family and all my friends behind, I might as well use all my new free time to enrich myself. It all begins with baby steps, and today I took one.