Brrrrrr.....the chill is on....!!

  What a difference a day can make!   We've had a lot of mild weather this winter and the past two days have been pouring rain, but that's all about to change and I can already feel the chill in the air.  It's getting very very windy and tonight we are expected to have temps down in the single digits!!!!   Brrrrrr!  That is too cold for this girl and I sure HOPE it doesn't last too long.

   Tomorrow, I will be up and off early to head to my LSS to take a new class.  I'm trying something totally different and new, but thought it might be a great thing to go along with my Smash Book.  I'm taking a Zentangle class, which looks like it will be fun.  If you have never heard of it, it's almost a form of doodling, but can also be very advances.  They are several books and levels, but I'll be taking the beginner class and will let you know how it goes.

   Today, I have been working on a variety of projects including my Smash Book, which I had been slacking on.  After seeing how fabulous some of the gals pages are over at our Smash Group, I knew I wanted to re-vamp my very first page and then also manged to finish up the start of my second page.  I love the idea of these very cool and colorful journals and I'm so happy that Suzanne Dean added a free group to her Color Me Creative Classroom.  It's open to all, so please free free to come on over and join the fun.

    These are my two completed pages!  I did a lot of changes to the first page, which is pretty much all about my passion for purple.  The first challenge in our group is to create your first pages and there are some fun themes you can follow along.   I went with new beginnings and also added the very first card I created this year on my second page, which I finished off today.   The backgrounds on my first page were also brand new stamps that I had bought in early January and that's how I tied in that new theme.

     My next project that I need to finish up is the Stick Pin Swap that I joined over at CDAC.  I have all my pins done, now it's a matter of packaging them up and shipping them out.   I am in two groups and one is a Love theme and the other is a Spring Theme.  You make three pins for each member of the group (6) for a total of 18.  You also need to come up with some fun little way to package them, like a little gift.  That has been the hardest part, but I did finally come up with a few ideas and they were all done with my Silhouette Cameo.  I'm so lucky to have this die cut machine and LOVE it.  It's so much easier to use than a Cricut and I love that I can edit each of the designs, or even create my own.  So far, this is what I plan to use for the LOVE packaging...

  

  I'm still working on the spring set, but have something similar, but I thought I might try something totally different.  That will be another project I must finish up on the weekend, so that I can plan to enjoy another full week in my CAS Class.

  And last, but not least, I have two new cards to share that were designed based on new inspiration from today's CAS Class.   I am so loving this, even more than I had thought I would, as I'm not great with this style, but I've learned a lot and have so many new and fun ideas to try.  Now I have lots of do, but not enough time...sound familiar.

   This first card is my favorite of the day and was based on a cute new technique that Jennifer shared with use.  I won't hare all the details, you'll have to take the class for that, but it's very easy and uses Distress Inks, Perfect Pearls Mist and the wonderful blender tools from Ranger.   The cute little images that are in the centers are from another Hero Arts Stamp Set....and were stamped very Versamark and then heat embossed in white.   This is a card style I could easily do over in lots of colors and designs.  I especially loved some of the more intricate designs that Jennifer used on one of her cards!   Stunning!!

   And my last card, was kind of a bust, that I re-vamped into a different idea and it ended up being so much better.   It had started much like the one above, only I had used different colors in various areas.  But, the colors were too close, and there was not enough contrast, so I used the base of what I had and made it into a background using the Classic Fabric Background Stamp.  I then simply stamped on the large Wildflower (from the first stamp set) and heat embossed it, again in white and added a little bling!!  For a different look, I used a Carnation Card  (from Hero Arts) and put the pink on the inside and then used a border punch on the bottom front, so that the pink would show through.  

  And that is all that I'm going to be able to finish today.  It's now almost 6 pm and the winds are howling.  I dread this kind of weather and will be much happier when Spring is here!   

  Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!  I hope my class is fun and I'll be looking forward to spending time creating on Sunday.  I also wanted to give a CHEER to my home team and wish them well in the big game tomorrow night.   GO PATS!!!