Through The Craft Room Door

I am celebrating two firsts today. One, I am posting my first DT entry for the Through The Craft Room Door DT. I am totally thrilled to be a part of this group of uber-talented people! And I can hardly believe it! I am covered in bruises from pinching myself, which would be OK, because I look so good in black and blue. However, it's when the bruises turn yellow and green that I find it's not such a good look for me. So I am gorgeous now, but in a few days, not so much. Sigh...

My second first that I am celebrating is that today is the first day of the rest of my life. 'Nuf said.

I am certain that all of you who love me, and those who are on the fence about it, and those who definitely don't, are undoubtedly extremely happy anyway for me this week. Not just because of my new DT, but because my Arizona Cardinals won on Sunday!  Oooh, though if you are a New England Patriots' fan, you might not be too thrilled, huh? Too bad. Pffffffft! (Sorry, I just couldn't help myself. She made me say that.) This was such a big game for us, as we were underdogs by about 14 points, and we won by 2. NFL.com said it was the surprise upset of the week--really? I never would have known. I do have to admit: I couldn't watch the tail end of the game after our running back, (that's the guy who carries the football, securely, for those of you who don't know), fumbled the ball away after we had the game pretty well in hand, or foot, as the case may be. Securely is not the way I would describe how he carried the ball. Gag. Anyway, the Patriots' kicker is "kick-a**", so I knew, I just knew, that he would kick a field goal and win the game for his team. And I was so upset, I just couldn't watch that. But. he. missed. the. field goal. Whaaaaaaat? Gary was yelling "He missed it, he missed it, he missed it", from the other room. OMG, OMG, OMG, we won, we won, we won!!! And there was hugging and screaming in our house for a bit. Or a bunch. Oh, and barking. Because Don doesn't like it when Gary and I hug without him included. Nor does he like it when we scream. There was a lot of disbelief turned into pure joy in my house. But I am pretty certain that there were other homes across the Valley of the Sun that were rocking and rolling then, too! I can hardly wait for the game this Sunday at home. Maniacal giggle.

OK, to calm down now and describe my card, I shall have to pinch myself once again. Ooooh, that smarts. And now I have a new bruise. Lovely.

I used this month's CLP Sketch Challenge #51 for my design. I truly tried to follow it to the best of my ability. You know how that is...(clearing throat)

We had an anything goes challenge with an anything goes image. Kewl. So I chose a Halloween-ish image from Dilly Beans, called Pinky's Skull Bow. Megan's images are fresh and unique and fun to color. I printed her on MIC Blending Card. I am still working with this CS for Copics, and, so far, I love it. (Just wish the shipping wasn't so danged expensive!) I love the sentiment, which I got from Create with TLC, but I can't remember if it was from the Halloween club or her store. My bad.

I bought several 6 x 6 pads of Halloween DP. (Shhhhh....don't tell Gary.) It was actually fun to pick out paper to use from my new stash. (Short confession--Halloween has never been my favorite holiday, and I never made cards for it. But it is growing on me this year.) I chose DP from the Carta Bella All Hallow's Eve collection. It has mostly neutral tones to it. Then I decided, for some unknown reason, to add purple tones to my die cuts and image. I guess I wanted some dramatic contrast--yeah, that's it, that's what I wanted! And I'm stickin' to it. Oh, I also distressed my paper with my Zutter Distrezz-it-All.

Boy, howdy, did I have fun with my new dies! (Shhhhh...again, don't mention this to Gary.) I used Memory Box Dancing Skeleton, Creepy Spider, Dangling Spider, and Creepy Web. I gotta say, the spiders really did give me the creeps--they look far too much like the black widows we have hanging around the outside of our house. (Oh, and at least one is in the garage. Ewwww!) Spiders are my least favorite bug. I tend to go postal on them when I can. But I am really afraid of the black widows; I don't even want to get bitten by one of those. So I have trouble getting close enough after dark, ('cuz that's the only time you'll actually see them in their webs), to kill them. Have I creeped you out enough yet? Good. Because my skin is actually crawling right now, so yours should be, too.

I also used Spellbinders classic oval and lacey dies for my sentiment. Because I could. So there. That's how I roll.

Other items of interest:  some Copic-dyed cheesecloth, Doodlebug ribbon, and fiber from the gift Pryn gave me a couple of months back. Also some cardboard from my stash of torn boxes.

Now to the Copics I used with great abandon: E0000, E000, E00, E11, E21, E23, E25, E40, E42, BV0000, BV00, BV01, BV02, BV04, BV11, R20, R22, R24, V12, V17. I used a bit of white gel pen after I was finished coloring.

I am also going to enter this card into the current color challenge at Lady Anne's Paper Crafts. I don't have all the colors in my card by any stretch, but the color I did use does fit the color palette.

The challenge this week at The Paper Shelter is to use punches or dies. Well, I have that covered in spades with this card. I am entering this at the last moment. Sorry about that, but it couldn't be helped!

And that does it for this edition. Stay tuned, because tomorrow I'll be Bach, (you can be Beethoven), with another card for a GD spot.

On a more serious note, I am going to my craft room to create a speedy recovery card for the father of my son-in-law. Jon's dad, Phil, is having quadruple by-pass surgery on Wednesday. It may turn into quintuple by-pass, if the doctor can't repair the fifth vessel by other means. (I had never heard of quintuple by-pass before this.) So, if any of you are so inclined, the family would definitely appreciate prayers sent Phil's way. Thank you.

Have a great Tuesday. And grab yourself a subscription to Through The Craft Room Door ezine, if you don't already have one. You'll be glad you did. Details about the latest issue are in the video to the right. Yeah, your right, not the screen's.