Yes, I'm still alive

Hi legionnaires. Took a little unannounced hiatus there. My dd decided she was rather exhausted by me & dh moving into her home and took off to house-sit somebody apartment for 2 weeks, leaving her poor dh and me to take care of the kids and house. Have you ever heard of such a thing. She said her counselor (marriage) said it would be wise. Well, he should know, I suppose.

Sooo, along with that came 4 birthdays (including mine), one anniversary to celebrate, and what appeared to have been some kind of pinched nerve in my neck, not to mention putting the finishing touches (for now) on my craftroom, and you have one heck of a busy month.

Now and then, I squeezed in a card, but was too lazy to take a picture and I still haven't found the perfect location outdoors for taking photos. We get plenty of sun so that's not the problem, just the background has me puzzled. So here's one I did snap, but the colors are not true and no amount of fiddlin' with Picassa's "feelin lucky" button would get it right. Suffice it to say, it did start out with a muted monotone sorta look. I was determined to use this recently purchased piece of crochet and so I have.

Here's some other stuff I've been doing.
- saw Eclipse on opening night...best of the series IMO
- re-joined Stampin' Up as a demo...couldn't resist the $35 invite
- re-organized my new craft space twice...had to make room for all the new
SU stuff I plan on getting.
- read over 1,000 stamping blogs in one week....WHEW, I really do subscribe
to that many. Is it any wonder I neglect mine?

Soooo, summer is half-over and I hope everyone is enjoying what's left of it. I know I plan to.

Hugs & Blessings,
Erica

I accepted the challenge

Evenin' legionnaires.
First up...I gotta apologize for not following with the contest posted last month.
Well, of course I had very few respondees and they must trust my mug, 'cause they thought I was tellin' the truth. Actually, all but one was a lie or in some cases, barely a half truth. The truth was I didn't learn to drive until I was 43. As a bonafide inner-city New Yorker, I took public transportation or just walked.
So, today, I was determined to find a challenge that I could use my new Hero Arts stamp set on. This sweet little girl is from the new How Does Your Garden Grow? Isn't she the sweetest? I'm not much for "people" stamps, but this one caught my eye. You may have read my stance on Magnolias....the mouthless tots...and Bellas never did if for me. This little gal, however, won my heart.
She was colored completely with Copics. I have taken one basic (non-cert) class, and I own about 40 pens, but I'm so scared to try them on large images. I went for it this time in response to  Verve's 100th Color Throwdown. To give myself a headstart, (a.k.a. a kick in the butt, I visited several of the hop blogs and got my mojo working with this card from Wanda at Cullen-ary Creations.
I've read that people have difficulty coloring black toned skins, Well, let tell me you, all white folks don't have the same skintones either. I forgot to give her a little cheek rosiness. I'm not sure wheather she's Italian, Yugoslavian, or Scandinavian, but I sure was happy when I was done and I know practice makes perfect. Well, I hope you like her, 'cause you're gonna see her around my blog now & then. The punches I used are Quilt from MS and an EK Success big scallop punch. The butterflies are MS too and the dots is a BG stamp from Inkadinkadoo, I have been wanting forever. Did I mention that I love the color combo? It's a keeper. Oh, and I'm really happy that I didn't feel compelled to use ribbon and I even plunged into stamping the sentiment sideways...a rarity for moi. Now, go and check out the challenge. They're giving away lots of prizes.

Hugs & Blessings,
Erica

Still Here...really

Hello legionnaires. Contrary to popular belief, I haven't fallen off the earth. I have, however, been busy adjusting to my new way of living and a bit under the weather with a UTI. I now believe this latter inconvenience is brought on by stress. I am attacking it with cranberry pills, Vitamin D, and a slew of other vitamins. I hope to also get more rest, but so far, that has alluded me.
My craftroom is not complete. Those dang cabinets proved to be rather expensive, so I only have one wall done and the rest of the room is my menagerie of carts and more carts. I may show a photo one day, but I'm not in a rush. The good thing is that I'm set-up for stamping and have been doing quite a bit of CASEing, since I saved ginormous numbers of cards while blog-hopping when I couldn't stamp.
This one is a bookmark. See this week's SSC Newsletter for a tutorial. I have been wanting to make these forever. Beatte's video finally got me going. I was aiming for masculinity here and I made another femme that my dd loved so much she took it before I could snap it. I'll see if I can get it back.
I think that this bookmark may also satisfy Sharon Johnson's No Time To Stamp  challenge this week, as it uses stars. I used SU real red for my base, Paper Studio ds, non-SU other colors, EK punches, and the stars are done with an inked Star embossing folder from Cuttlebug. The words are from a Fiskars clear stamp set, and the ribbon is from my stash. These really work best on hard-covered books with sturdy pages, They're a bit clumsy-looking on paperbacks I think.
I will be back tomorrow with a card. I'll bet your are saying, "Yeah right." I do have a poor track record.
Alas, give me grace. If God can, so can you. :D.

Hugs & Blessings,
Erica