SAILING THE HIGH SEAS WITH SCRAPALICIOUS USA

Well I came across another bi weekly challenge while visiting the Paper Squirrel http://papersquirrel.blogspot.com/2012/06/siren-of-sea.html
She had posted a tag with a mermaid on it and of course I had to check out. She is on the design team for the bi weekly challenge that starts every other Wednesday at Scrapalicious USA. So I had to check out that site just to see what they do and low and behold the theme this time 'Vacations'. Well I love tall ships, huge sailing ships (not little sailboats) maybe because I have always loved romance novels set in the time period of huge sailing ships and all the romance that surrounds them. Yes I know it was a hard and dangerous life, but this is my dream and my make- believe so it can be a romantic as I want it.  I guess everyone has a 'bucket list' these days and at the very top of mine was to take a week long trip on a 'tall ship'!  
 I recently destroyed my bucket list and let the ashes drift away on a gentle breeze because I finally accepted the fact that I would never get to do anything on my bucket list. I have to admit though that when I see pics of beautiful sailing ships my heart beats a little faster and my mind wanders away to follow that ship.  Recently Abby over at Little Birdie Blessings http://littlebirdieblessings.blogspot.com/ posted some beautiful tall ships pics and of course I saved them so now we come full circle to Scrapalicious USA's challenge about vacations. I created a tag with my favorite ship and used flags for the words, some yarn and a piece of wallpaper sample I altered and printed out and presto! you have my entry for the current ScrapaliciousUSA challenge.
http://scrapalicioususa.blogspot.com/2012/06/oh-what-do-you-do-in-summertime.html

I can hear the sail popping in the wind and the creak of the ship as it dips and comes up over the next wave, the shout of the men up in the sails and the captain's orders. I can feel the wind on my face and the spray in the air. Oh how I wish I were really there.
God's Blessings to each of you.
Mary

POSTING TO BRAG MONDAY AT THE GRAPHICS FAIRY

Well, today is Monday which means time to post about Brag Monday over at the Graphics Fairy http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/2012/06/brag-monday-hydrangea-card-french.html where she comes up with some of the neatest usuable clip art around.  She has a linky party if you have never visited Karen, so you can check out what fantastic ideas OTHER PEOPLE have come up with to use her images. Some of the uses are really fantastic.
Here are a few tags I have listed on ETSY that I created with some of her images.

Well, gotta go ~ I'm working on more unique tags than simple pics so you can see them soon.
Blessings to all~
Smiles and hugs
Mary

FIRST TIME ON PINK SATURDAY ~ MAMA'S CAT PITCHER

So, after watching everyone else on Pink Saturday, I decided to join the fun.  While still going thru boxes and boxes of stuff from moving (I know it was 7 yrs ago!!) I am STILL unpacking stuff.  This is my latest really interesting discovery ~ Mama's cat pitcher ~ I don't remember her ever actually pouring anything liquid or otherwise out of the pitcher. She just liked cats and bought interesting cat things.  Inside the pitcher I found a dozen plastic and glass pill bottles (empty thank goodness!!) in the pitcher. They dated back to 1965 to the early 1970's.  I'm not really surprised at the bottles because she always saved them to put pins, needles, and tiny loose thingies in them. Yeah my mom was recycling waaaaay before someone coined the term.  Her motto was "waste not, want not" but then you have realize she survived the depression and WW2 rationing. Folks today don't really have a clue about 'making do and doing without'.  Not really, I mean, you might not be able to afford something ~ but atleast it is on the store shelf.  Back then it wasn't on the shelf!! Anyway here's the pics ~ I have no idea who made this as there are NO markings on it. If you know please share with me, I am always curious. http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/06/a-fathers-day-pink-saturday-june-16-2012.html 

I included a closeup trying to show the crackling in the finish but I'm not a great photographer.
Hope all the fathers out there have a great weekend, my father died 12 yrs ago and I still stop breathing when I think about it.
Blessings to all of you.
Hugs and Smiles
Mary

NEW LISTINGS ON ETSY AND I HAVE BEEN WORKING HARD (for a change)

If you saw my right side bar, you know what I have been doing.  I have spent the last 3 weeks reading, experimenting, deleting, adding, re-arranging, clipping, enlarging everything it seems like.  I have been playing with my PRINTMASTER program. It's not new, I have had it for a couple of years, my original copy I bought when I got my FIRST computer (back in the dark ages of 2003 and Windows XP.  I never did much with the original except make business cards and labels for my crafted items and a few other odds and ends.  Three weeks ago I decided that I had to figure out how to make the beautiful tags I keep seeing on ETSY and other sites and I started exploring my PRINTMASTER program. I know I haven't scratched the surface of this program, but I have managed to do some neat things.  I wish I had the money for PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS, but I don't and I will have to sell a lot of stuff to get it.  PRINTMASTER has some neat stuff on it, if you can figure out how to access it. It is cheap enough at $10 at STAPLES.  So here goes. These are some of the things I have managed to put together:

The program will auto crop these shapes (I wish it had more shapes that I want like scalloped shapes, hearts, squares etc) But I will deal with what I have for now. These are the simple tags. I have printed out elements and cut them out, created some background sheets, and collected ribbons, stickers, yarns, lace and such to use on more elaborate designs to post later. I have spent hours and hours and several ink cartridges getting this together. I will be posting tags on ETSY every day for a while (that takes almost as much time as creating does, and we won't even start on photographing everything!!!!). Anyway, as the old radio announcers used to say~ Ya'll stay tuned, the best is yet to come!!

Blessings to all~

Smiles and hugs~

Mary