Blooming Diary - Crocus!

I'm not much of a gardener at all, but i do appreciate the beauty of flowers very much and for several years, I've wanted to keep a "blooming diary" to record when various flowers bloom in my area (Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky). So this is my first entry for 2014...let's see how long I can keep at it :).

It's been such a long, hard winter for so many of us, so I was very happy to see the Crocus blooming in my front yard this week. I first spotted them on St. Patrick's Day, so that's the date I'm "officially" recording.

Have you seen anything flowering in your yard yet?

Crocus is a genus of flowering plants in the iris family comprising 90 species of perennials growing from corms. Many are cultivated for their flowers appearing in autumn, winter, or spring.

Scientific name: Crocus

Rank: Genus

Higher classification: Crocoideae

Lower classifications: Crocus ligusticus, Crocus flavus, Crocus tommasinianus, Crocus sieberi, Saffron, Crocus vernus, Crocus chrysanthus, Crocus banaticus, Crocus cartwrightianus

Celebrating St Patrick's Day with an MFT card sketch

I liked the simplicity of card sketch #167 at My Favorite Things blog this week, so I used it to make several St Patrick's Day Cards (which hopefully are arriving in mailboxes today).

I'm trying to use up the many card bases I have from Club Scrap's Greetings to Go kits, so I looked through for anything green and found these tall cards. My shamrock embossing folder isn't long enough to cover the whole front, so my tip of the day here is to use 2 smaller pieces and then mask the separation with another strip (the diagonal in this case). I made a variety of sizes, but all matching the sketch.
The word Lucky was cut on my Silhouette several times (5 for each card) and then inked with distress ink in a rainbow of colors, then glued together in a staggered pattern, then covered with clear wink of stella glitter pen (completely inspired by Jen Mcguire's post here). I printed the sentiment "to have you as a friend" to adhere the lucky word to, and added different embellishments to each (some have twine, some have washi tape, etc).

Thanks for looking and may the luck of the Irish be with you today and everyday!

Wicked Pendant for a Wonderful show

Below is a photo of me (wearing the pendant) and my BFF Lisa at dinner before the show.

Maybe I will give a full review of the show on another post, but I can sum it up in two words. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!!

Can I also just state for the record that I love having friends that "get me"....

and Lisa definitely "gets me"! I love you girl!

Now...onto the explanation: As is often the case, inspiration came to me just hours before a deadline! I don't know how to summon (perhaps I need to learn a spell??) this type of inspiration earlier in the creative process, but I guess that's just how I roll. Anyway, I needed a Wicked accessory to wear to the theater with my "little black dress". While searching online for the images used on the card in my previous post, I came across an image of the program bundle and I just loved the multiple color choices and most especially, I love the design with the gears in the upper left (but I needed/wanted green!).

So, I dug through my crafty stash and found an unopened package of Ideology Ornate Plates (image is from Etsy seller: PrettyPaperz).

I printed the image on white cardstock and then I simply traced the oval opening on the ornate plate on another piece of cardstock and cut it out for a template. I transferred the template to the printed image, cut the oval shape and glued it to the plate with glossy accents. As printed, the image was a bit small for the oval opening, so I added the green gems at the bottom to mask the shortage plus I thought a little green bling was called for! I then went to my bead stash and found some beautiful green cat eye like beads, a couple appropriately sized bead caps, and a bronze chain, and just attached all with a few jump rings. If time had allowed, I would have added alcohol ink to the bead caps to make them match the bronze finish on the chain and the ornate plate, AND...I would have covered/sealed the image with glossy accents, but since time didn't allow, I just went with it as is. It was the perfect accessory for a perfect show!

 

If you love musicals and all things Oz, you MUST see this show. Heck, I'd even reco it if you don't love musicals or Oz. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed it. Simply magical and an experience of a lifetime!

Wicked - The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz

The day has finally arrived....I'm going to see Wicked tonight with a couple of my bestest friends!! I'm positively giddy with excitement and I'm listening to the soundtrack as I write this post :)

The tickets were a gift for my girlfriend Lisa's birthday, so, in honor of this wonderful occasion, I made an appropriate birthday card and I thought I'd share. Chances are she won't be perusing my blog before tonight so she won't see it!

Try to ignore the fact that the photo is wonky and that I've "borrowed" someone's image for the inside greeting (c'mon...i'm not selling it or anything!)