Merry Christmas

I just wanted to take a moment to wish you all

a very Merry Christmas!

You are all such an encouragement to me and

I treasure your friendship.

I hope you enjoy some time with family and friends

and tell those you love how much they mean to you!

This card was inspired by my Hero Art's flicker friend Barb.

You can see her beautiful, winning tags here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/somecards/6328278408/in/photostream

However you celebrate I wish you Peace, Love, and Blessings!

Hugs!

Karen

It's been so long...

since I posted...and I sure have missed it!! I have missed you, my friends, the creating and the posting!!

I ended my temp job with the staffing agency this past week and I'm so glad, it just wasn't a good fit! So this past Thursday I took the test/all day seminar for my California Notary. I won't know if I passed for 10 days or so and then the FBI background check....I know your thinking FBI!!! Yes the laws have changed quite a bit. I was a Notary in Nevada 10 years ago and it's soooo different. But it really is a good thing, especially for the mortgage industry. Anyway I also have an interview on Monday that I'm excited about...so we will see.

As for some creativity here are just a few cards I made yesterday.....I really need to get these done and sent. Yes I'm a bit late but that job was just killing me!!!!

For this card I used the new Basic Grey set from Hero Arts. I purchased it over  Thanksgiving and this is the first chance I've had to ink it up!!!

For this one I used my Copic's to color the ornament and then I cut it out, and popped it up on a simple white card. These are both quick and easy cards.

This card is one I had done a while ago for a scramble over on the HA flicker group. So...

 I thought I would give it a try in traditional Christmas colors. I think I like the original better.

Well Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season. I hope to be back soon with some more to share.

And Dana D. you crack me up!! I loved your 2nd comment on my last post!!! Thank You!!!

Hero Art's November Challenge

I have to say I'm really missing my blog and the time to create. Working full time again in an office setting is more challenging than I remember. Sitting in front of a computer all day just exhausts me.

I did find a little creative time on Sunday so I thought I'd share with you what I came up with. This month's challenge over on the Hero Art's flicker group is ...



So here is my Gift Card holder made from a CD holder. Love it when I can recycle something.

Here is the front of the CD case. I opened it so you could see the spine. I love how that little sentiment fit just perfectly in that little space. I used a glue pad to stamp the starry background and added some fine white glitter. For the snow on the mound I used Polar White Flower soft. The reindeer was colored with Copics.

                                  

For the inside I created a little pocket for the gift card. 

And to finish it off I extended the scene over to the back.

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. We are looking forward to having all 3 of our kids together and spending time with good friends, family and good food, yum!!

Hugs!

Found an hour today...

and made a tag for this month's Hero Art's Challenge.

The past month has been such a whirl wind. First I participated in an amazing R.A.K. with my Hero Art's friends, then we went on an amazing vacation and upon returning I was finally getting call back's for interviews and started a new job...wheew! I was afraid I had left my creative mojo in the Philippines! Here are a few more photos from the trip and one of the pieces I tried to create using this photo as the inspiration. I was a bit frustrated with it and decided to put it aside...maybe I will give it a go another time.

The pink coral blooms yellow flowers, if you get to close the flowers disappear. I only saw a few with the flowers blooming and I just loved it. And here was my feeble attempt...so not what I hoped for.

These next 4 photos are different types of anenomes.

The colors and design are just magnificent.

 

I think this one above looks like a crazy hat, LOL!

I'm not sure I have ever dove anywhere that had such intense colors.

As for the new job, I am working as a customer service/dispatch representative for a National Glass and Door company. The company services, repairs and replaces glass, locks, doors, windows ect for commercial clients all across the U.S., Canada and Pureto Rico. The types of accounts are businesses like Banks, Restaurants and Retail chains.

Thanks again for stopping by, I truly do appreciate your visits and sweet comments.

Hugs!!!!

Happy Halloween!!

I thought I would share this wonderful tag my friend Dana sent me. I LOVE the distress inks she blended here in the background along with that spooky glowing moon! And the Cat is sparkly!! Thanks Dana for letting me share this here on my blog!! As I did not get one Halloween card made this year!

If you can believe it I still have photos from our trip to share!! Since Ive been home I have not created anything to share here on the blog :-(  I have been trying to create something using some of these photo's as inspiration but I just can't do them justice! I guess my Mojo is still on vacation, lol.

I never knew there were so many types of clown fish....I felt like I was finding Nemo.

Thanks for stopping by!!! And Happy Halloween!!!

Hugs!!



More Creatures from the Deep

I hope everyone is enjoying these posts from the deep blue sea. I'm enjoying re-playing my dives through the photos.

We saw eels on almost every dive. You really have to look for them, they live in holes in the coral and really don't come out. In fact I've only seen one swimming though the water once back in 2003 in the Cayman Islands.

My nephew says the eel's look mad and ugly, lol.

These 2 sharks were hanging out under a ledge and really didn't want to be bothered. They were small white tipped sharks.

These next few fish are called "Stone Fish", can you see them? They are hard to spot, they blend into the coral and on two separate occasions both my husband and I almost grabbed one when we had to hold onto the coral because of the current. We each stopped the other just before we grabbed onto the rock.

 As I'm looking things up on the Internet to tell you about the things we saw I've come to find out that these stone fish can be deadly!! I ask my husband "What the HECK?" His response, "that's why I made you wear gloves". Then he got a pillow in the face, lol.

Well tomorrow I'm going back to posting safe & pretty pictures of our trip!  LOL!

Until next time!
Hugs!

The amazing Octopus

There are many different species of Octopus. I don't know much about them but I've been told that in this area Mimic Octopus are very common. I also need to give credit where credit is due, these pictures were taken by our friends that were on the trip with us. While I love to take underwater pictures and I do often get some good shots my camera is older and I don't have a strobe so at times my lighting isn't as good. These Octopus pictures were taken by Derek, Karen W. and Padoy. Awesome job guys!!!

I love this little guy sitting in his shell. He wasn't very big and he really didn't want to leave his shell so as his space was being invaded he put his legs around the shell and scurried across the sand.

I love the color on this one, and again whoever took this one put their hand in to give a reference to the size.

This one tried to hide in the sand, but we were able to coax him out.

 To me this one looks Alien like....or maybe the makers of the Alien's got their inspiration for the deep blue sea. LOL

I thought I would also include a few pictures of the spotted bat ray we saw. The blue was so vibrant, truly amazing.

I was surprised that we didn't see as many sting ray in the Philippines as we have in places like Mexico and the Cayman's.

Thanks again for stopping by, I will be back again with more tomorrow.

Hugs!

I'm Back...

What an incredible trip!!! 10 days of diving in the Philippines. I'm still a bit jet lagged but it was worth it. I thought I would share some of our photos here over the next couple of days, there are sooooo many :-)

This photo gives a pretty good idea of the colors we saw. Some photos the colors aren't as crisp because of the depth that we were at or if it's a close up.

This was my favorite star fish. It reminded me of a Christmas cookie, with frosting on it! They are very large, in fact this one is being held in our Dive Master's hand which you can't even see!

These star fish were also very big. You can see my hand to the left of the frame. I did this to give an idea of the size. The color of blue doesn't even compare to the picture. I thought of bright play dough blue when I saw it. These star fish are everywhere.

This little guy here is called a "Nudibranch" pronounced "nud a brank". I had never seen these anywhere else we have dove and they come in many colors. I don't think they get much bigger, my husband says typically 3 inches is about the max. These were all about an inch. (It's the blue thing at the bottom with the yellow dots)

 This one is longer in white with blue stripes and a bit of yellow on it's head. (In the top of the frame is a fish, I should have cropped it out)

This was the most colorful Nudibranch I saw. It is black and white with red/orange antennae looking things. The blue part is a type of soft coral. It looks like he has his head in the coral, but I'm not really sure where it's head is at.

This is another soft coral without a Nudibranch.

This is a sea snail, still in the Nudibranch family. It totally amazes me the fluorescent colors on some of the sea life we saw. And that it actually came out in this picture is even more amazing.

There were 13 in our group, here are a few of us getting ready to head for the boats. The 2 small guys with the darker skin are our Dive Master's. Super great guys!!!

This is my husband and I at a sight called Cathedral. According to our dive master they actually have wedding ceremony's there!!! The day we were there the current was pretty strong so I had to hold onto the cross to get the picture.

I've always said scuba isn't the most attractive sport, LOL!!!

Thanks for stopping by, tomorrow I will share some photos of the Octopus and more of God's amazing creatures.

I hope I will get back in my craft room this week as well. It's been taking me a while to just get caught up on house stuff and of course the job hunt was first on my list when I arrived home.

Hugs!!!