Sabby Blue Bird

I am so glad to be in my craft room right now (even though it looks like a tornado has hit it). Beginning of a new school year is always hetic and challengeing and this year is no exception. A has really been enjoying his Pre-K school and teacher (still find it funny that his teacher lives on our street), but he is a boy of few words. I don't get much from him in the way of words, but his face lights up when we talk about it. One of the biggest change for us is the getting up early part as it makes for a long day. Everyone has been coming home tired and after the boys go to bed DH and I have just been hanging out in our room watching tv/playing on the laptops. I really want to change some of that as I do miss my books and my craft room has been feeling neglated. I also miss talking to my DH and not just being in the room with him yet do different things. Don't get me wrong, it nice just being around him but it feels as though that's all we do - no real conversation. It's time to get my body and mind into gear and start acting on the changes I want to see. My problem is finding the time to do it all and so this is something I really should be praying about and listening to His answer.

Anyways, let's get down to business: the project ya'll are here to see. LOL. It's my day at Your Memories Here and I've created a cute little card for ya'll. I thought I would try my hand at the whole Shabby Chic style again. YMH has this beautiful shimmery paper called Lovebirds by SEI that has birdcages, birds, and keys on one side while the back side is a solid copper color (both sides shimmer). I paired up the paper with some cream lace found at YMH and some Maya Road chipboard cut outs that I've had for awhile but haven't really used. The base of the card is PTI's vanilla c/s with their Background Basics: Text Style stamped in Antique Linen Distress Ink and sponged on the edges with PTI's Tea Duo ink set. I then dry rubbed some Adirondack's Pearl paint to give it a little something extra when light hit. Next I punched the scallop boarder from some coral cardstock as a base for the cream lace. I raised the SEI paper on pop dots so the lace would cause any bumps underneath it.

The banch got a coat of Walnut Stain Distress Crackle Paint and then once dried I rubbed in some of the Pearl paint. My sweet little blue bird was base painted with a coral pink and then covered with Broken China Distress Crackle Paint. I love how the pink just peeks through the cracks. As a bonus, I put the paint on thick is some parts and thin in others so that I could get a variation of crack sizes. LOVE this stuff! For the eye I used a light blue rhinestone from Prima that also came from YMH.

I had lots of fun with this card and it came together surprisingly fast (got love using the heat gun on the paints to quicken their drying time, lol). I think that maybe, just maybe, I'm getting the hang of this Shabby Chic thing :)

Challenges used:

clean and simple - scketch (I flipped the sketch)

A spoon full of sugar - animals

My Time to Craft - jeweled (the eye for my bird)

Fab 'n' Funky - anything goes

Fresh Brewed - use brown

If the shoe fits - color challenge

Now for a bit of crafting honesty. Besides work overload, there is another reason why I haven't been crafting as much. The room has gotten so messy that I really just can't stand to be in here for more than a few minutes at a time. It overwhelms me to the point where I don't even want to clean. I get so caught up in creating and getting the ideas from head to paper that I don't clean up after myself. This is something I really need to adjust as it stiffles my mojo and makes it hard not only in finding things but in getting around too. Here are pictures to prove this (guess I really do need to clean). I'm not the only one with this problem right? How do ya'll keep your space clean?