• collection of my life & design •

track town USA

Today marks the start of history in the making. Eugene, Oregon will host the Olympic Trails! Since graduation from College on a swimming scholarship I have since taken up running and picked a great town to do so. Running is huge here, so the good running trails are a plenty, as well as "celebrity" sightings. I do weekly runs with the local Eugene Running Company and have made some great friends doing so. 

Last night the group had a great send off to one of our greatest Thusday night Preformance group Coaches Max King. Go MAX!! Bejing 2008. Also good luck to the founder of Fast Runners Matt Sherer in the Mens 800M! A shout out to my fellow runners fast or slow ;) (that's me). I want to wish all the athletes good luck and see you at the track at 5:00!! for more details and updates visit THIS WEBSITE!

I will be posting photos of tonight's races as well as some throughout this amazing 10 days. I have tickets for tonight and two other days, can't contain myself ;)

i blinked and the week is gone

This week went by so fast. I have been really busy with a couple of new client projects for some new clients! I have a 28 signs to do for an educational company's trade show and a tr-ifold for the a City project. This on top of a logo that I am putting the finishing touches on for a friend. I did however manage to make time to see a fellow stamper this afternoon to make some cards. Her name is Jenni.  The story goes: my dad brought home a card making class flyer that he found in town, my mother and I decided to go to on a whim and had such a great time that we have been back a few times since. Jenni shows us little tips and tricks in each class and we sit around and chat while making fun things ;)

I wanted to show you one of the cards that I plan on giving to my neighbor who had a terrible accident last weekend in her garden. There is a flap in the back where you can tuck a little seed packet. I thought it was perfect for a gardener, and now my neighbor has something to plant after her recovery. This is sure to make her smile. Jenni showed us how to put this wonderful card together with brads and ribbon. We used colored pencils to color in this cute little watering can stamp and a tan colored chalk to dust around the sides to create a more aged look. 

Have a great weekend!

birds of a feather, what do you see?

I wanted to answer the forum question about what kind of birds are featured in "Birds of a Feather?"  

"I have a question about the Birds of a Feather Set. I would like to know what each bird is in the set. I read that one is a raven and one is a hummingbird but what about the others? Not very good at identification but I think another is a dove."

Thanks so much.

Lisa

My response:

When I decided to design a set with a bird "theme", I went to the library and checkout many bird books. I flooded my mind with everything bird and then started to draw. 
Some came out looking like more a specific bird and some well, your guess is as good as mine.  I let my imagination take hold and created. I hope this is a good enough answer. 
I will post a sheet on my blog with more specifics to what I think the bird looks like. Thanks so much for this great question.

request for more wedding photos

Ok, I've had a few requests for more wedding photos and while twisting my arm I will go back into my files and look at them again and choose some to post ;) I had to do the very same thing for my father's day gift to my dad, talk about torture to relive that wonderful day, ha ha. We framed a photo of the two sets of parents and the bride and groom shown below. We helped my parents on the farm yesterday getting it ready for the upcoming reception. We wanted to celebrate just one more time and included the friends and family that were not in Mexico with us. It's coming along quite nicely and we really enjoy making it a family affair by working together. Darren and my dad finished a huge fire pit for after party marshmallows! I will make sure to get some photos next weekend when we go out there. I totally forgot to bring the camera, darn.

last post before tonight's release

Ok, I kinda got some tips from Nichole's last post that featured the bird nest and eggs, but I was so impressed by it I thought I would give it a try myself. I actually used a fan shaped paint brush for the edged effect and I think it worked pretty well, just pat it on the ink pad (PTI Plum Pudding) and it shows up as looking dusted on! I loved the tag idea, so I created my own version with the sentiment and the bird image from Birds of a Feather. I have a collection of hand made paper that I decided to pull out and add some texture. The small touches I think make all the difference and who can not just love the PTI Plum Pudding Saddle Stiched Ribbon?? 

Well, glad I could share the results of another creative session with you and look forward to tonight's release I can't wait to see what you come up with using the newest addition to The Madra Design Collection ;)

Candice

getting closer

If you haven't stopped by Nichole's Blog today, oh my gosh you must go right away. The project that she posted is spectacular. She has such an eye for color combinations and I just LOVE how she used the bird eggs and nest images and the Just Hatched sentiment in a little tag. So talented. It's really hard to put up what I have created after something that impressive ;) Well here it goes:

This one is so simple, but doesn't it just get the point across ;) I have included a "wire" for the birds to sit on in the set that you can extend as you please. You can also use any of the many different birds in this set to perch on it.  

Also if you get a chance pop on by Amy's Blog to see yet another beautiful creation featuring stamps from "Birds of a Feather." She has used three more that you have yet to see!

another bird creation

I'm having so much fun creating with this new set "Birds of a Feather". Here is another sample that I'd like to share that includes a couple new images from the set! I love this month's new color Plum Pudding featured on Nichole's Blog.  It's such a rich color that couples very nicely with some of the softer colors at PTI, such as Sping Moss shown below, a real color punch! With this bird image I decided to hand draw in an eye with a felt pen, but there is always the option of a pearl or a jewel as well. I plan on using a bird image to create my thank you cards for our recent wedding, now just how to choose which on to use, hummm. 

In this little yellow number I wish you could see the light bird "foot prints" in the background. I stamped a pattern on the PTI Summer Sunrise Card Stock in the Lemon Tart Ink so it's pretty faint, but adds that nice touch. Here is what the prints look like:

WIth this little fella you can tilt him down at more of an angle and he looks like he's pecking at the ground. Like the other bird you have the option of adding a hand drawn eye dot as well. With the sentiment "A little birdie told me," well told me what? You are expecting, you got a recent promotion, you are engaged, it's your B-day? What did the little birdie tell you? 

first birds of a feather design

Well here is one of the many little projects that I created last night with Birds of a Feather. I had a blast with the set and I was in full creative mode that my new husband was feeling left out ;) The script that was used in this set is a new personal fav called "Feel Script." It is so delicate, but not to to feminine and nice to pair with all the fun versatile elements in this set. The humming bird in this card has just the right amount of lean on the branch that the sentiments fit nicely to the left of even underneath. I used the PTI Summer Sunrise ribbon to add some dimension along with the corrugated paper. I love these colors together! The punch of Cote d' Azure Palette ink with the semi neutrals, yummy.

birds of a feather

So here is another big peek into the next set release for this month called "Birds of a Feather". I know that Nichole had one last week as well and as I read quite a few of the comments you thought it might be a bird, well you were right! I'm so excited to dive into this stamp set, as I just received it in the mail yesterday! Stay tuned....

nichole's sneak peek

If you haven't already go check out Nichole Heady's blog she has a nice little peek of what The Madra Design Collection has in store for you this June 15th. I have to say that this was a blast to create and I'm in love with the results, I really hope you all are too! I don't want to give to much away just yet, but I'm really excited for the release. I plan on using this set to create the thank you cards for my wedding. 

P.S. make sure you pop over to Lisa Johnson's Blog to give her some congrats, she will be coming out with her very first stamp set this month and it's sure to be spectacular!

Candice