Good afternoon everyone!  I've been suffering from heat exhaustion the last few days.  Were on a well with 40 other families and on Saturday our pump went out.  We've been suffering without water since then.  I live in Tucson, AZ and it's 108 degrees outside today, and will continue to be all week.  In Arizona a lot of us use swamp coolers, which means that our houses are cooled with water dripping onto straw pads, that then, blows into our houses.  They work great normally, and costs a lot less to use than air conditioning.  They don't work at all with no water.  Needless to say the inside of our house is over 95 degrees.  We've been so miserable.  Our well company has delivered one truck full of water so far, and hopefully will deliver another truck load tomorrow.  Unfortunantly, when they delivered the water they didn't tell anyone that the well was still broken and to stock up with the water they gave us.  So no one knew to store any water.  Did I tell you that I just love our well company?  Their supposed to start working on the pump tomorrow.  This happened last year and we were without water for over 5 days in the same kind of heat.  Very miserable.

Unfortunantly with the heat I haven't got much crafting done.  I did make a card last year for my mom's 81st birthday.  I just love the rubber stamp of the roses that I used.  The stamps are from Sweet Stamps.  You can't tell in the picture, but I stamped mutiple images of the roses, and cut out different areas and elevated them with foam adhesive, which give the roses a lot of dimension.  I believe the paper is by My Minds Eye.  Roses are my favorite flower, and I just love this card.  I think my mom loved it to.  Please keep us in your prayers, we could sure use it.  I hope you enjoy the rest of your day!

Today I thought I'd share a collage piece that I did through a course I took through the Brave Girls Club. Melody Ross teaches these classes called, Brave Girl Art School 1, through her website.  You can find her at bravegirlsclub.com.  These classes have changed my life.  She tries to teach you to alter the course of your life for the better.  She teaches so many creative techniques.  She's so inspiring, and I hope you all check her out.  It could change your life.  It did mine.

This collage is made on a 11x14 canvas that I textured with paint.  The butterflies and the flowers are by Martha Stewart, and I used bakers twine for the stem.  The small framed area to the right is a embroidered piece I did that I bought at Michaels.  I mounted this onto cardboard, then applied foam adhesive dots to the back to pop it up some.  The letters are wood magnets that I painted, then applied a dimensional glaze to the top.  I just love the colors of this collage, and it just reminds me to continue to grow, and try new things.  I hope your all inspired to go out of your comfort zone and try something new.  You'll be pleasantly surprised if you do.

Today I wanted to share a canvas collage that I did that was inspired by Julie Nutting.  She has a book out called Collage Couture.  It's such an inspiring book, and she teaches you so many techniques.  I just love everything that she creates, and have been inspired to create some of my own.  I used Martha Stewart paper, and used my Cricut expression 2 to cut the trees out of old book pages.  The large flower was made by me with some flower punches.  The kite and birds are from Martha.  The clouds, sun, and small felt flowers are by Pebbles. If you like this style then take a look at her book, you will learn a lot.  You can find it on Amazon.   

I thought I'd share a masculine card that I made recently.  It's so hard to come up with cards for the guys in our lives.  That's why I love Tim Holtz and his products.  The car die cuts is from Sizzix, and is made by Time Holtz.  The patterned paper is from Tim Holtz Ideaology.  The door lock is just a small brad that I smashed with a screwdriver.  The birthday banner was from an old fashion label maker that I found at a yard sale.  This was a joy to make, and I hope it gives you all some ideas of your own.