Good Day

When I awoke this morning my goals were to do something creative. For several days I had been thinking about some tags, so I sat down and made a tag that reflected traveling through Europe. Since I had done a lot of traveling throughout Europe while stationed there in the Air Force, I've always dreamed what it would be like to have visited these wonderful and romantic places in the early 1900's.

As I was rummaging through my paper I found a piece that I thought would go well on another tag I made, "Give your imagination wings" and has butterflies, dragon flies and a hummingbird - all the wings for your imagination.

My last two pieces were a couple of cards that I had been thinking about. A birthday card that would do well for a male and a "under the weather" card. I never seem to have one handy when I need it. It was a good day, I had fun and I loved dreaming about traveling in the 1900's. I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think.

Busy Month

It has been a very busy month for me. I've had several medical appointments to followup with a problem I've been having. To keep my mind off these tests, I've had to find ways to keep busy. Since we aren't on the road traveling, my other keep busy projects are to shop! I don't think I know anybody that doesn't like to shop and especially for craft supplies. There were some good deals on Cricut cartridges at CricutMachine.com, so I picked up Batman, Superman, Old West and Dinosaur Tracks at $22.95 each. I'm hoping to make more children's cards with these cartridges! While blog-hopping and looking at other art pieces I noticed some wonderful paper - Graphic 45, so I was able to find a good on-line shop for that, Zutter came out with the Distrezz-it-All, a wonderful electric tool for as they state "achieving that shabby-chic look" without using sandpaper, and files! More browsing on-line and was able to find Tim Holtz products of clock faces, sprockets and gears, keyholes, keys, etc., wonderful embellishments. I finally found this wonderful paper - Mariposa. It is gorgeous - I'm really going to have a hard time cutting this paper!

When I wasn't busy catching up with e-mail and shopping on-line, I participated in a couple of swaps with my Yahoo group, ARTHavenCreations_Friendships. One swap was to create a blue tag no bigger than 5.5"x3" and embellished in blue. That was fun because blue happens to be my favorite color. The other swap was to make these wonderfully easy corner bookmarks. You take a sealed envelope, measure down 4" on two sides (forming a triangle) and cut across using your decorative scissors to make a fancy edge. Decorate the object in anyway you like and then swap with the assigned partner. These were fun, so easy and make wonderful RAKs. You can also make them using your favorite paper, make your own envelope, or cut a strip of paper roughly 8" long and 4" wide. Fold over, forming a triangle and seal with your favorite glue and decorate as you like. I'm going to attach pictures of the bookmarks and tags I made and later I'll upload pictures of the ones I received.

That's it for me today.

Always,
Kerry P.

Sooo MIA!

I'm so sorry to be MIA. Just when you think you've got a handle on things, life gets in the way! We are finally home and unloading the RV. It was a fantastic trip, we had a wonderful time and saw some awesome sites. Now to get back to crafting. I've been working hard to get my ARTHaven back up and running. Now I will work hard on posting every day and getting some of my pieces posted.

I was lucky and bid on some cartridges- picked up Independence Day and Summer in Paris. Both of the cartridges look like they have loads of interesting items. I also got most of the new cartridges - Just Because Cards, Create a Critter, Serenade, and Nursery Rhymes. I also picked up good deals on Give a Hoot, Preserves, Straight from the Nest, and Serenade. And finally, the long awaited pre-order for Picturesque - it was shipped and I received earlier this month. I'm anxious to try all the carts out and have ideas for quite a few.

So that's about it for now. Thanks for following.

Sunny Sunday in Arizona

Good day all! It has been a beautiful day, mild temps, clear blue skies but some quite strong winds. Fortunately they have calmed down as the afternoon winds down. My husband and I spent the afternoon putting things away, packing up the outdoor chairs, cleaning the grill and basically getting ready to bring in the slides and get on the road tomorrow. The sad part is leaving the friends I've made over the winter and I had to pack up the Cricut and crafting stuff while we are on the road.

I heard a wonderful tutorial that Capadia Designs made on Cricut Design Studio Hide, Select and Contour - I've attached the link here, http://capadiadesigns.blogspot.com/2009/07/video-hide-selected-contour.html. It really was very helpful in learning how to cut an item that has several layers and only cutting once in all the colors you want.

I am still working on getting pictures of the cards I've made on my blog, and changing a few things around. I am not very computer savvy so need some help on these new things. I'm adding more pictures that I've taken of Grand Canyon, Sedona, blooming cactus and other beautiful sights along the way. I hope you enjoy them.

That's about it for today. I'll see you tomorrow.

Winter is Just About Over!

It seems like such a short time ago we left Maryland to spend the winter in Arizona - land of warmth and sunshine! Unknowing to us, it was one of the worst winters on record for Maryland with a total of 65 inches of snow in two storms and the coldest and wettest winter on record for Arizona! Nonetheless, we managed to have a good time, see the sights of Tucson and surrounding mountains. We spent an afternoon with Wyatt and the clan in Tombstone and lunched at the Long Branch Saloon. Then a visit to Boot Hill to see the residents. I managed to find some beautiful turquoise jewelry and will come home with a two beautiful necklaces, two bracelets, five pair of earrings and three rings. And we found some wonderful Mexican food and it doesn't come in mild or spicy! It only comes in one temperature! We also enjoyed watching many air shows the air base (Davis Monthan AFB) put on with the sorties they flew daily. We really did have an Air Show this past weekend when the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds put on a show that is fantastic every time I see them.

The weather in Arizona is like any other place - it can be severe at times. We had many storms but the worst part is the wind. Wind gusts of 60-70 mph sound like nothing, but in an RV they feel like you are flying through the air to Kansas! The rains can be light or heavy but after every rain, we've had the most spectacular rainbows and one time we had a double rainbow. I'll will miss the beautiful sunsets we've seen just about every night. But most of all I will remember the wonderful friendships that were made and we hope to see these folks again on the road.

We do have a short trip to take up to the northern part of Arizona, we'll be spending a week or so visiting Sedona, the Grand Canyon, Montezuma's Castle and then to Las Vegas and Hoover Dam. After that the long trek across the country to home. I'm kind of anxious to get there and get back to my craft room! Oh, I can imagine the shape I left it in. Thanks for stopping by. I'm attaching pictures of a few of the places.

Tuesday and the week rushes by!

We woke this morning cold! Sometime late yesterday, during the all day rain, our furnace decided to take a break. As the outside temps got colder and colder, the inside temps began to drop also. The furnace would come on but it was only blowing cold air! We tried to find someone to come in and fix it, but nobody worked after hours. And my goodness, this is Tucson, Arizona - the land of sun and heat! And they were having the coldest winter on record in some time. The actual temp this morning was 37 degrees and there had been a hard frost outside. The inside temp of our RV was 47! We were chilled to the bone. Actually, I think chilled through the bone. Our repairman arrived at 08:00 a.m. and quickly found the trouble and got us started. While the sun came out, the wind was still harsh and the temps didn't rise above 52 degrees. We actually started to warm up late afternoon! But it doesn't take long for the temps to drop once the sun goes down for the day.

I tried to keep up with my e-mail - I belong to two Yahoo groups that are quite active. And, I've mentioned yesterday, I've decided to join the masses and create blog. As soon as I figure it all out, I will post my pictures of my creativity. I hope you visit me and please feel free to leave any and all comments and suggestions. Kerry

The Beginning!

Well, I've joined the masses and created my own blog. I figured it wouldn't be long before I had to create a blog. It's the easiest way to be able to share my creations and my ArtHaven.