Notealope for Valentine's Day

One the the projects that we made last week in the workshop that I host at my house used the Notealope die.  This is a fun die cut that I have used for many things.  I used a couple of my Fun Stamper's Journey stamps and embellishments to make this Valentine's Day "Card".

Here are the pics:

This is the closed up Notealope:

This is the outside of the Notealope, love this stamp:

This is the inside of the Notelope.  This stamp set comes with a bunch of different stamps for many occasions:

Happy Monday!

Hugs, Meg

Work, Wine, and Design

Ok, you know I love to paint at these parties.  Well, we got together a few people from the office to do it together after work.  We had so much fun!  I love trees.  Not sure what it is about them, but just love them.

We started with this:

Then we added yellow:

These trees were supposed to be mostly fall colors but the sun was shining through!  We added some orange:

Then we added some red:

I wasn't sure what this was going to look like.  I didn't like it at this stage.

Then it started looking better and became a painting that I love and have hung in the office.

Hugs, Meg

DIY on Antique Chairs

We bought an antique kitchen table and chairs when we were living in Virginia, which has been at least 21 years ago.  The original leather and padding was starting to look really bad - it was splitting around the edges and on the tops.  These two chairs were not even the worst ones.

We decided to redo these chairs ourselves.  I figured it was pretty easy, and that we could handle it.  We bought an ostrich type of leather at the Mill Outlet with two different kinds of padding.  First we pushed the bottoms out of the chair.

We stripped off the fabric and then the padding.

It was in pretty bad shape.  I used these for my patterns for the filler and the leather.  We put the padding on the frame and then wrapped with the leather.  This is where we needed two people, 4 hands, and a staple gun.  We pulled it tight and smooth and stapled it onto the frame.  The outcome was amazing.  You might not be able to tell how amazing it is in the pics, but we truly made these chairs like new.

I think I will need to do more DIY projects!  It was a lot of fun.

Hugs, Meg

Sending Warm Wishes

Happy Friday!

I love trees and leaves!  I just love working with tree stamps as well.  I adore this tree stamp from Fun Stampers Journey, and this sentiment.  I sponged several colors of ink to make this card look like there were mountains in the back and a sun rise with the trees in the foreground.  I hope you like the card.  

Hugs, Meg

Hydrangeas

As you know, if you have followed me for a while, I love to go to the painting places and drink wine with my friends and paint a picture.  The last one that I went to, I painted a vase of hydrangeas.

Of course we started off with a blank canvas.  We painted the background with yellow and then started putting some green on it:

We then painted the vase:

Then we added some leaves that would be behind the flowers we eventually paint:

We then put in some background shadowing that would look good after the flowers are painted, but at the moment I thought they looked awful:

We then started painting the hydrangea flowers.  Now it is starting to look like a painting:

This is the final picture of the painting.  I actually think it turned out good.

Hugs, Meg

Double Dog Dare

These are my boxer puppies!  We adore them.  They are about 5 months apart in age.  Sampson, the youngest and the shortest, turned 1 on December 1st.  Maximus turned 1 on August 18th.  They have totally made our lives fun and busy.  We really missed our other two dogs that died over the last year and they have brought joy back into our lives.  This is the picture that I sent out on my Christmas cards this year.  My husband took this picture as they were waiting for me to come home from work.  This is what they do everyday!

New Year, New Post

Has it really been a year since I posted last?  I guess it has.  I cannot believe how time has flown.  I have spent the last year being a consultant for Fun Stamper's Journey - absolutely love this company.  My web address is www.funstampersjourney.com/368.  Please look at what the amazing products that we have.  I think you will love the dies and stamp sets.  I teach workshops in my home, so if you are in the Raleigh area, you might want to get involved.

I have also been selling my creations at a local artist store.  I have really enjoyed doing that and have gotten a lot of followers.  The store in Raleigh closed on Christmas, but is moving to the Wilmington, NC area right on the main drag.  I will still be selling my cards there and will have more exposure.  It has been great fun doing this.

My husband and I bought a cabin in Western North Carolina in 2015 and have been enjoying having some great down time in the mountains with our two boxer puppies.

I am vowing to publish more on my blog this year - I know, I know, I have said that before.  I have actually made a calendar entry in my phone to remind me to do it daily.  We will see if this works.

For now, I will leave you with a photo we took in Italy when we were there for 2.5 weeks in July, 2015.  We had the best time.  Our daughter, Brittany, was there for two months before us studying abroad.  What a trip that was.  I will post more about it in the weeks to come!