Happy Friday the 13th!!!

  Wow, am I ever behind on my blog...!    It's been such a busy and fun Summer and even this week, we still have been having some wonderful Summer-like days, but I have a feeling they will all be over soon!  

  With Fall coming soon, I'm very excited to be back to spending more time creating and have already enrolled in two new classes that will be hosted by Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner over in their Online Card Classroom.  The first class starts on September 25th and is called the "Insider" and it will focus on all kinds of fun and creative ideas for the "Inside" of your cards!!  You can find MORE details and sign up at the Main Classroom page, which is HERE!

  And if you love Tim Holtz and you took his first "Creative Chemistry 101" class, then you'll be thrilled to know that he's offering "Creative Chemistry 102" in the Online Card Classroom in October, and this is an Exclusive class open ONLY to those to have taken or are now taking the CC101 class, which you still enroll in.   I took that class last year and it's a wonderful technique class.  I've also met Tim and had the opportunity to take a LIVE class with him at my LSS and I totally enjoy his teaching style and how much you learn.  While I do admit that I'm not a fan of the same colors and style that he creates in, I do LOVE techniques and that's why I'm already signed up for this new version too.  More details can be found on the classroom site.  

    

   Right now I'm just finishing up another fantastic Silhouette Class that is being offered and taught by Kerri Bradford on her site HERE!!   It's been an amazing class and I've learned all kinds of wonderful new tips and really am loving that I am learning to to edit my store bought designs and also now create my own.   This latest class is an Intermediate Class and Kerri suggest that you have taken at least ONE of her beginner classes, which I have already completed!   Much like other online classes, Kerri classes are "forever" classes and you can go back anytime and re-fresh your memory on how to do certain tasks.  You'll always have access to the PDF files and the Videos too.   This latest class is called -- Design Secrets and you'll truly learn a lot of wonderful hints and tips on how to do things, I'll be you never even knew you could do with your Silhouette!  I'm loving it and like all her previous classes, it's been fabulous.  SHe is amazing when it comes to the Silhouette and teaches in way that makes it easy to follow along.  She also gives you a nice variety of "freebies" to use with each of the tasks.   I totally LOVE taking classes online and LOVE that I can go back to ANY of them at any time!!  

   Needless to say, between the classes and raising my little Puppy, I have had another busy couple of weeks.   I am still working on some new "Dachshund-themed" cards for Little Paws Dachshund Rescue and was thrilled to learn that "Fabre" raised almost $1,400 in here huge yard sale!   Yippee!!  I was very excited to donate lots of craft goodies and it also helped me to clean out my stash!     Here are some of the new cards that will be donated in the next batch for the Etsy Store!!

    And that brings me back to some more creative time and I have finally had time to play in some of my favorite challenges!  Yippee!!  I started with this week's new Cas(E) This Sketch Challenge and I am also included a copy of the the Sketch Card for this week.   Being that I'm so loving my Silhouette "Design Secrets"  Class, I used it to create this my very own"Print and Cut" card design based on this week's Case image.    It went together pretty well and I was excited to put my new class tips to work!      

CTS # 45/Inspiration

My Card

    I was really excited that this worked out, like I hope!  I started by finding to leafy vine type designs that I liked and then first draw a rectangle in the size of a A2 card   I then added a black border and placed account with the vines to create my design.  I filled them in with black and then began my search for butterflies  I chose three different styles from my library and filled two with dark purple and one with a pattern design I had added to my library.  I also had this fun sentiment in my collection and edited it to turn the star purple!!   One it was all printed, I simply cut it down and mounted it onto a black cardbase!

  Next is a new card I also created today and this one was inspired by this week's CASology Challenge where the Cue Card is "Silhouette"

   And I again put my Silhouette "Cameo" to good use once again and used it to cut this cute little "Black Cat" in a Silhouette image and then added too little Googly eyes to make it more of a fun little card!!

  My next card today was inspired by this week's new MUSE Card Challenge and this adorable "Home" themed card that was created by Therese!

Therese's Muse Card

My Card

  For my little home, I decided to go with the theme of a little Dachshund and created a cute little Dog House, (his home), again using my Silhouette!  I edited the image and added a little red heart, which has been coated with Crystal Lacquer.  I also cut the cute little Puppy and then colored on a few spots, with a Black Wink of Stella Glitter Marker.  His little collar was made from twine and I hand drew on two little eyes.  My little "Sentiment" is from a older set a CTMH Stamps and was perfect for this card!!  Hope you like it!!  

  And my final card today is a very simple card I creating with one of Hero Art's Digital Watercolor Flower images.   These have always been a favorite and I love that you can very quickly create a fun and easy card!!  Hero has recently changed how some of the older digital images are sold.  Instead of buying individual images, they have grouped the onto these wonderful CD's.   This particular CD contains 150 different digital floral images, in a wonderful array or colors and designs and you get them all for $15, which is a great value!    I think I may even add to CD to my wish list, so that I have them all and have back up to those which I already own!

   Phew....that was long, but I had a lot to catch up on, as you can see!   As much as I do NOT like winter or cold weather, I do enjoy Fall and after having such a hot and humid Summer, the nice refreshing air feels nice, although the last week has been all over...from a frost warning one night, to an Extreme Heat Advisory just two days ago!   One day, you almost want to turn on the heat to take the chill out of the air and the next day, the AC's are running on high!   Welcome to New England and our crazy weather!!

  A special hello from Skye, who finally can sit at my feet while I create, without stealing my craft supplies from under my desk!  She's growing so fast and when I took Scout for his Physical this week, I was shocked to find that she now weighs 18 pounds and is not even 9 months.  The Vet did say that it's very likely that she's very close to full grown, as that is typical of small breeds.  She may fill in a bit more, but won't likely get much taller.  She also told me to start weaning her off of Puppy food and move her on to an adult food.  It's amazing how different a dog's age is compared to ours.  At her age now, according to the Farmer's Almanac Dog Age Calculator, she is close to being  the equivalent of a 13 year old..(oh no a teen in the house again)...LOL!!   Just kidding, she's turned out to be quite a wonderful  young lady!!  Love her to pieces -- just like Scout!!