It's HOT!

Hi all, It is SOOOOO HOTTTT here in Houston and it saps the desire and strength to do anything, the reason that I haven't posted much lately. Please pray that we get some rain, everything that was green is now brown! The above picture is from out little get-a-way to Brazos Bend Park. Our opportunist friend here was so hot he came right up next to my DH outside our travel trailer door and decided to help himself to Mason's ice water! When Mason was taking his picture the little bandit wanted to make sure he got a close-up and investigated the camera! Our friend continued to feast from the "buffet's" at all the other campsites delighting the kids!

I do have some cards to post but will do so tomorrow because I want to spotlight some really "HOT" sites for awesome quilling artists and a new resource for embossing templates and supplies today.

The first quilling artist is Inna from Inna's Creations and she her quilling art is near perfection in it's design and execution. Her quills are symmetrical beauty and she combines the quilling shapes to create stunning artwork. Most of us quillers use pre-cut strips but Inna cuts her own with amazing results! Above is a peek at her latest creation, drop by her site to see some awesome quilling and some great tutorials.

The next quiller is Ann Martin of All Things Paper. Her site not only has some amazing and exquisite quilling but she also has posts of "all things paper". You will find her posts spotlighting all facets and ranges of paper artistry that will leave you wondering "how do they do that with paper?" Mixed in between these truly stunning paper art posts you will see Ann's quilling artistry, and you will see why she has been featured in a museum exhibition recently. Above is a peek at one of Ann's beautiful cards, one of my favorites, and she has much more to awe you on her site. I have yet to finish exploring all the links and wonderful things that both these quillers have on their sites!

If you like the embossed cut out cards that I have done here, then you will love this new webstore for the supplies to make them! Jerri K of A Touch of Grace where I have been inspired to try my hand at embossed cut out work (which I do not come close to compare to Jerri's artistry), has opened a webstore and she has the most beautiful imported templates to knock your socks off! Along with the templates she has imported embossing paper and other supplies that she uses in her awesome projects. You can see all that she has to offer here at her webstore. Her blog with her most recent jaw-dropping projects can be seen here. I will have her store button link (above) on my sidebar so you will always know where to find it!

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Well that is all until tomorrow, enjoy exploring these great sites and all they have to offer!

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Shalom,

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Sonya

The Lord Keep You

Hi all it has been soooooo HOT here in Houston and it kinda takes the desire to to anything out of ya! That and we were out of town for a few days is the reason that I haven't posted for a few days. So I finally finshed up this card and have a couple of others in pieces ready to put together to post this week.

The verse on this card inspired the color of yellow for the Son "shine"! So I printed out one of Fred She Said digi stamp flowers and colored them in with my yellow Prisma pencils, gave them some dimension with my ball stylus, layered three sizes of them and added a black button for the center. Of course I couldn't stop with that and I added yellow glitter to the petals for bling! The flower looks like a bright sun! You will see this flower again later this week only used differently. The black panel is embossed with my Cuttlebug embossing folder and the verse is embossed in black and cut out with Nesties. I had wanted to pair up the FSS digi flowers with quilling and made some tri-colored fringe flowers, quilled leaves and vines. To finish up I punched accent flowers out of yellow pearlescent paper, added black crystal centers and a little velum butterfly. You can find these beautiful Fred She Said digi stamp flowers here.

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FSS digi stamps are so easy to use and versatile! I will be showing different ways you can use them in the next few days! Still working on a tutorial, but it isn't finished yet. Off to create more cards!

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Shalom,

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Sonya

Comments are welcome, love to hear from you!

Lily Sympathy Card

Hi all. Yet another sympathy card. I had to make this one quickly and wanted to use lilies because the sweet lady was a member of the Day Lily Society. Because the verse and lilies were the focal point I used a muted gold DP. The sheer gold three loop bow serves as a backdrop and was used to perch the lilies and leaves on. The lilies are two sizes and I looked up the many varieties and colors and pared down my choices to use these. I used flower soft on the stamens and it lends a realistic look to them.

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I thought it might be a bit much with all those flowers, but I really wanted it to be a remembrance for her daughter who now cares for the garden that is full of these lilies she loved. These lilies are easy to make and you can make four different sizes from one punch! These are one of the flowers that Susan T. Cockburn taught in the most recent floral punch class and you can see more of her fantastic floral punch in her book "Paper Bouquet". Just a short post today and I have a few more projects to finish up this week. Thank you for all your kind and encouraging comments, I appreciate each one!!!!

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Shalom,

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Sonya

Comments welcome as always, I love to hear from you!

Fred She Said Take Out Box

Hi all! Here is another project using Tracey's digital flowers. The box is Sizzix's Take Out Box and is in a medium yellow CS. This little box is so versatile and can be used for small gifts, gift cards, table favors for parties and weddings! I used the digital Dahlia's from Fred She Said and printed three sizes of the dahlia's outline along with the leaves on 90lb watercolor paper. Then I watercolored them with my Tombow markers. After the were dry I cut them out and glued the three dahlia sizes together and "fluffed" the petals up. Yellow glitter glue was added to the center, but a quilled coil or fringe flower, flower soft, button or a crystal could be used also for a different look.

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I added the floral punched daisy that has a tight coil center and some green quilled "vines" along side the blue dahlia. The flowers along with a punched sentiment tag accented with a blue crystal sit upon a yellow Nestability label 2, which is popped up with dimensionals onto another label 2 die cut. Both label die cut edges were inked in a corresponding color, the blue one also has a pierced border. It is hard to see in the picture but the blue dahlia and leaves are accented with a Sakura pen.

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To help open the box I added a ribbon tab with a small flower brad, and the top is held closed with a velcro dot under the label. The box is finished with a gold wire handle and blue grosgrain bow on front. It was really easy and fun to make and the box becomes another gift!

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If you haven't tried Fred She Said digi flowers and stamps, hope on over to Tracey's site and see all the great things she has to offer! You don't even have to color to use them, she has some wonderful sets that come in color and ready to use! Just print and cut them out and embellish them how you like! Check out the Fred She Said Design Team's blogs links listed on the right sidebar under the FSS blinkie for more great designs using these digi stamps!

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Until the next post,

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Shalom,

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Sonya

Comments always welcome! If you want to see "how you do that" on any project, just let me know!

Galveston June 2009 Update

There have been a few questions about whether or not Galveston is "tourist ready" for this summer, so I thought that I would answer them here in a post. The links below are of my previous posts which have pictures for you to look at and my observations from those times.
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http://appelquilling.blogspot.com/2009/04/red-and-turqouise-card-and-galveston.html
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http://appelquilling.blogspot.com/2009/02/febuary-2009-update-on-galveston-texas.html
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The pictures posted in the above posts are from February and April 2009 (scroll down past red card info) and show that there are indeed beaches to play on! Galveston has been busily repairing and bring sand in by the truck loads to make the beaches summer ready. We were down in Galveston about a month and half ago and were on the beach with many other people having fun. There are some places in Galveston that are still in need of repair but a lot of the island is up and running again.
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Rebuilding takes time and the city has done an amazing job of repair. The hotels on the seawall are open with some undergoing renovation and are closed. The Flagship was severely damaged and may not be repaired and is closed. You will have to call the individual hotels/motels for their status. Here is a link to a blog that tells some of the hurdles that Galveston has to face after Ike: http://blogs.chron.com/galveston/2009/03/texas_islanders_hold_out_hope.html
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When we visited the Strand there were many business rebuilding and restocking and would soon be open, and are probably by now. Maybe 40 - 50%? Others have not yet started the repair. Landscaping took a hard hit by the surge of seawater and is being replaced or waiting to regrow so someplaces are not that "green" yet. The clean-up is ongoing and each time we visit the debris is less and more repairs/rebuilding has taken place. It definitely isn't the war zone that it was right after the storm, but it isn't 100% either.
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Does it look like it did? No. Is it 100%, No. Do you want to see REAL TIME - click on this link for web cams of different places on the island including the beach: http://www.galveston.com/webcams/ .
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If you want visit Galveston to have fun at the beach, or go to Moody Gardens (http://www.moodygardens.com/), or Schliterbahn (sp?) you will have fun, just don't let your expectations be that of pre-Ike or of a 5 star resort town. The beaches are there and waiting for you! The island and it's people could use your tourists dollars to get back on it's feet. They are working hard to get back to the business of tourism and fun in the sun! It just takes time, money and people! We have been down there several times since the storm and will again throughout the summer and will keep you updated. IF YOU HAVE A SPECIFIC QUESTION ABOUT GALVESTON PLEASE EMAIL ME AT THE LINK ON THE SIDEBAR or here is the email: APPELQUILLINGGARDEN@YAHOO.COM . I will try my best to get you an answer. Thanks for having such an intrest in Galveston!
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Shalom,
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Sonya
Comments are always welcome!

Exciting News!

Hi all, I have been waiting to tell you some exciting news! I am so honored to be among 11 other talented ladies who were chosen for the Fred She Said Design Team!!!! Here is a list of the new DT and their blogs/sites:

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Bonnie Rose http://www.alifeunrehearsed2.blogspot.com/

Donna http://bearlymine.blogspot.com/

Erin http://www.scrapstampandbemerry.blogspot.com/

Jen http://www.expressivelyme.blogspot.com/

Lisa C. http://www.bylisac.blogspot.com/

Lora http://www.lorascards.blogspot.com/

LORi http://byloridesigns.blogspot.com/

Maria http://www.joyfulstamper.blogspot.com/

Michelle http://www.inspirationblooms.blogspot.com/

Robin http://rockinrobin1973.blogspot.com/

Sonya http://www.appelquilling.blogspot.com/

: ) Thanks Tracey!!! : )

True http://truesgiftsfromtheheart.blogspot.com/

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Tracey has great digi stamps and Foldy Flowers at Fred She Said which I have admired for some time and you will see in the coming weeks on my card designs. The above card was made from a from a free digi stamp on her site. I printed the image three times, then colored them with Prismacolor pencils and OMS. Each image was cut out and layered with dimensionals and punched flowers with pearl centers were added for accents. The sparkle from the Sakura pen outline doesn't show up well because it was an overcast day, it is really pretty IRL.

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Tracey has a great blog and store where you can find cute digi stamps and Foldy Flowers which I have been eyeing for some time! The flowers come either colored or white so you can color them in with whatever medium you like, even with your favorite computer drawing program! Check out her site to see some awesome cards that she has created with these flowers and images!

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It is so exciting to start working with the new DT and I am having fun exploring all their blogs and looking at all their great paperart!

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There is another secret I have, but I can't tell you until the end of the month, so check back to hear what it is!!!

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Until the next post,

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Shalom,

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Sonya

Comments welcome as always!