It's Friday!!!

It has been yet another long week and I'm glad that it is Friday. I didn't get much of anything stamping related done this week with the exception of the sb pages that I made last night. Hopefully the weekend will prove to be more productive. And speaking of last night's sb pages-they honestly look 100x better in real life. I was just looking at the photos and they really don't do the pages justice. I thought they turned out pretty good, although I looked back at some older pages and all of my pages are starting to look alike. I need to get some sb pointers from Delia, her pages are always so terrific!
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Finally doing a little scrappin!

Tonight we had sloppy joes for supper. The kids aren't exactly huge fans of this particular choice so as a bribe (yes, we bribe) we told them if they ate their sloppy joes we would go to a carnival tomorrow night. You have to know I only gave them each 1/2 of a hotdog bun of sloppy joe. Well over an hour later Beckett was still sitting at the table. In the end he got so tired of sitting there he, well...fell asleep. Even though it was pretty early we took him upstairs to bed and I had the rest of the night to scrap! YAY! Annabelle actually did some scrappin of her own while I worked so I thought I would share her scrapbook page first. Because I wouldn't give her any of my photos (I only have one copy and no negatives or digital copies of these pictures so I have to be extremely careful not to waste them, otherwise I would have given her some pictures) she decided to draw her own. She went with a playground theme just like my pages but I think hers are much better than mine :)
Her pictures included her and Beckett going on a slide, crossing a bridge, playing basketball, playing on monkey bars, playing on a jungle gym and swinging. I thought it turned out simply lovely!
Here are the pages I worked on. They aren't complete (as usual). I think I may add some type of journaling on the left hand page, bottom right corner - just haven't decided on that yet.
I love these pictures of the kids. They are so honest and true. The kids were just having a wonderful time playing at the park.
Close-up of left hand page
Close-up of right hand page

The cardstock used was SU. DP was Basic Grey. Stamps and rub-ons are Heidi Grace. Flowers are from Petaloo. Nothing else.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

CF fundraiser update

I just thought I would give a little update on Chava's CF fundraising efforts. I just checked her site and she is at $1065. That is so awesome! I'm sure she is thrilled. I haven't talked to her since last week but when I last heard from her they were moving Alex out of intensive care. Hopefully things have continued to improve since last week. Thanks again to all of you who donated. I am in the process of making some thank you cards to get out to all of you; hopefully I have them out by next week. Sara, I sent your blog candy winnings with my dad when I saw him on Sunday so hopefully he has dropped them off to you or will do so soon.
Thanks again to all of you!!! Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday already?

I can't believe how fast my weeks have been going lately. I seem to lose track of days more often than I lose my car keys. For some reason this morning I thought it was Tuesday.
I haven't stamped all week but I thought I'd share one of the cards I made last week. When my friend Kris asked me to make a bunch of cards for her, she requested some say "with love" or have a love theme. She was giving the set of 10 different cards to her 96 year old grandmother who is in a nursing home. I don't typically make "love" cards so once again another challenge. For this one I kinda had an idea of what I wanted to do so I picked the primas I wanted and then chose cs and dp to coordinate with them. The stamp set is "So Very" from SU!'s SAB last year. I really like that set. The dp is from a promotion SU had last spring, "Palette O Prints".

Thanks for stopping by today. Hopefully I get to stamp something today so that I have something to share tomorrow, unfortunately I first have to tackle a lot of laundry, dishes and toys. Wish me luck!

An old card

Nothing new to share, again, so I searched through some old pictures for a card that I made over a year ago. I have always loved this stamp from TAC's "Flower Collage Trio". I've made this card in many different versions. Of all the versions I've made, I like this color combo the best. The background is SU "French Script" and "Canvas".
The colors used are SU chocolate chip, Ruby Red and either garden green or always artichoke. I don't actually have this card anymore so I'm guessing the colors from looking at the picture.

I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Another Monday

I hate Mondays! I had so much to do today and I got next to nothing done. I showed this same card in different colors a couple weeks ago but I since I have pretty much nothing else new to share I thought I would share this version. I am totally loving this butterfly stamp from Inkadinkado. The dp is from DCWV. I got a smudge of ink in the bottom right corner so I added the gems to cover it up. Hard to see in the picture but I added glitter to the circles and lines on the main image. The pink base cs is retired SU Positively Pink and the right cs panel is SU Pretty in Pink.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I spent Mother's Day relaxing on the couch watching a chick flick and stamping for a few hours (along with doing a little laundry). For those of you following my new movie watching addiction, I've seen a few good ones lately:

The Jane Austen Book Club (This is what I watched yesterday) - I loved it - very chick flicky
Juno -Seen it twice - loved it! Actually ended up buying this one.
Dan in Real Life - a good movie
Stardust - a little slow to get going but overall a really good movie
Martian Child - I really like it but it is a little slow.
Across the Universe - VERY weird
The Upside of Anger - Interesting. Kinda depressing.
Transformers - not really a chick flick but I really liked it!
Superbad - Some of the humor was a little too crude for me, extremely funny in some parts, a little too much profanity/sex talk for me.

My next couple coming up in our netflix queue are:
Avatar Book 3 vol.3 (I LOVE Avatar and I can't wait for this one to get here...unfortunately it has a very long wait on netflix right now)
27 Dresses
Becoming Jane (I'm kinda on a Jane Austen kick lately)
Always
and about 25 other chick flicks.
I'll let you know what I think of them!

Thanks for stopping by - hope you all have a wonderful week!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to you all! I wanted to get this posted before we head off to church because I'm not sure if I will get time later today. Annabelle is in the children's choir at church and they are singing for the last time today until choir resumes in the fall. I can't wait to hear them. This morning when she got up Annabelle gave me this card that she made. She made it last week and kept it hidden under her bed until this morning. I thought it was so sweet! I hope you all have a great Mother's Day!
Along with being Mother's Day, today is also our 6th wedding anniversary. Our wedding day was exactly like today...cold, windy, raining. It has been cold, windy and raining on every single May 11th since we got married. The weather for today says rainy, winds 10-15mph, high in the 50's. I think on our wedding day the high was only in the 40's, VERY windy and pouring rain. Funny thing is we were going to get married in November or May and Tom looked in the almanac to try and figure out which month would have better weather for us...obviously we should never let a man do important research like that. November would have been much better weather! Anyway, I thought I would share a couple pictures from our wedding. I don't typically show pictures of myself but since these are the pre-children skinny days I don't mind showing them. BTW, our wedding photos pretty much sucked so I don't have many good ones to share (our pictures sucked but at least we had a rockin cake!). I also have to apologize for the crappy quality of the photos. We got married before digital was all the rage so I had to scan these pictures this morning on our not so great, dusty scanner.
This first picture is me coming in at the back of the church with my friend Kelly.
Here is a picture from the ceremony from the back of the church.
This was the one and only great picture our photographer took. I have it in a black and white version framed and hanging in our living room. The scanning quality wasn't great and Tom's tux looks extremely dusty...it wasn't.


I hope you all have a terrific day! Thanks for stopping by!

Pink, Green and Gray Challenge

I made this card for a pink, green and gray challenge hosted by one of the new Jacksonbelle DT members, Amber. I had been hoping to do this all week and just never found the time.
Nothing like waiting till the very last minute. For this card I used SU cardstock, Basic Grey DP, Basic Grey brads, a stamp set from Inkadinkadoo , some SU ribbon and misc. fibers, and of coarse...GLITTER! I actually may try to add a sentiment to this card but I wanted to get it in by the deadline so I stopped at this point to take a picture. I love this stamp set from Inkadinkadoo. I typically don't take the time to paper piece but I love the extra wow the dp adds to the butterfly wings. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a wonderful night!

It looks much better in real life

I finally found some time to actually make a card today. This card is a CASE of a card that Kisa made for our monthly card swap a long time ago (I can't find the card in her SCS gallery so I will take a picture of it later today and add it to this post). The card she made has always been one of my absolute favs (along with all the other cards she makes). Mine didn't turn out quite as elegant looking as her card but it is ok. The background is done using one of the new cb folders (don't know the name). The flower is done with SU large oval punch and a 1" circle punch. The stem is cut freehand. Of coarse there is glitter and a little bit of some funky green fibers. The sentiment is from PTI's "Out On A Limb" set.

I hope you are all having a terrific Friday. We did a little garage sale shopping this morning and I am hoping to find some time to make at least one more card yet today. We'll see.
Thanks for stopping by!

TGIF (and it is actually Friday this time)! and a blog candy winner

Now I can say TGIF!! What a long week. My confidence in my parenting skills has hit rock bottom this week. I realize that almost everything that goes on with my kids is a phase but I'm not all that confident that I can make it through the latest "phase".
I am tired and crabby and it isn't even 6am...this is way to early for me to be awake, but I haven't gotten my 10 cards done for today yet so I gotta get motivated...FAST!

Now as for a blog candy winner... (chosen by random.org)

Here are your random numbers:

4 

Timestamp: 2008-05-09 10:46:27 UTC

Congratulations Sara!!!


For the rest of you who didn't win the big prize, I have a little "thank you" to send to you also. If all of you who donated could please leave me a comment (don't worry I won't publish them) or an email with your mailing address I would appreciate it.


I got an email from Chava earlier this week and she is very grateful to all of you who donated. Alex is doing a little better and has been moved out of intensive care. Hopefully he will continue to improve enough to go home soon!

Thanks again to all of you who donated. It really means a lot to me that you all helped out!
Have a great day and check back later for some cards!

TGIT...What???

It has been a crazy week around here. In fact when I started this post I titled it TGIF. I started typing and though...Hello...it isn't Friday. Not sure what goes on in my brain sometimes. I haven't been able to stamp all week. In fact, I'm really not sure what I accomplished this week. It all seems like a blur. I will definitely have something new to post tomorrow because I have an order of 10 cards that I NEED to have done by tomorrow afternoon. I have them sort of designed I just need to put them together. A friend of mine wanted me to put together 25 cards for her...only problem is she wants 25 different cards. Because she isn't a paper crafter she has no idea how long it take me to come up with a single card let alone 25 different ones. She asked me about this last Friday and I told her I could have 10 by tomorrow and then the rest by the following Friday. I need to find some time to get working on these. Since I don't have anything new to post I picked this card that I made back in December to share today (who knows I may have posted this before, I can't remember - fried brain problem again). I cased the idea some someone on SCS (sorry I can't remember who) and then added my own personal touches. I thought the card turned out pretty cute. The main images are a Michael's $1 stamp, the sentiment is from Inky Antics and the background is from SU!. As always there is a little glitter to pretty things up.


Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you all have a wonderful THURSDAY. Check back tomorrow for the winner of my blog candy and hopefully for a peak at some cards I get done today!

Inspiration Challenge!

This coming Sunday is our 6th wedding anniversary. I can't believe it has been six years already. To celebrate this upcoming anniversary I decided to do an inspiration challenge. These pictures are pictures of our wedding cake (I had a former co-worker make my cakes and they turned out PERFECT!). My challenge to all of you is to use the photos to inspire you to make either a card or a scrapbook page. You can use the colors or the flower theme or anything else about the photos for inspiration. Please post a link in the comments of this post by this Sunday. Anyone who participates will be in a drawing for some fun goodies!

Hope you all have a wonderful day. Don't forget to check out my blog candy post, you still have a few days left!

Blog Candy Reminder!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. This is just a reminder that if you haven't checked out my blog candy post you still have a few more days. Check it out HERE.
A little bit of an update on Chava's fundraising efforts: I just checked and she is at $525 (way over her $150 goal, YAY!!!). Thank you to all who have donated so far!
Unfortunately I got an email from her a couple days ago and Alex (her 6 mo. son) is in the hospital. He is having a lot of problems stemming from his cystic fibrosis and is struggling right now. Please say a prayer for baby Alex and Chava's family as they go through these difficult times. If anyone would like to send a card to Chava to help brighten her day please let me know and I will forward on her address to you. Thanks again for stopping by. Hope you all have a wonderful day!!

Don't forget to check out my blog candy in the previous post!

Tonight a friend of mine called at 7:30 and asked if I could whip up a "First Communion" card by tomorrow morning. Um....No, it is almost my bedtime. Well, that isn't exactly what I said, I think the words were "sure, I'll see if I can come up with something for you". I went down to my stamp room at 8:00 and told Tom to yell for me at 8:30. If I didn't have a card done by then, well I tried...So here is my half hour First Communion card. I have to tell you, I have never made a first communion card. I wasn't even sure what kind of sentiment it should have. I didn't think congratulations was the correct thing to say so I decided to go with "blessings" from the PaperTrey Ink set "Out on a Limb". The main cross image is from an old retired SU! set called "Inspirational Images". I actually had it on my for sale list but I might have to keep it now that I actually used it. The paper is all from PaperTrey Ink except for the brushed silver which is from SU! Pretty plain but ok considering I hadn't planned on stamping tonight and I didn't have much advance notice to put it together.


Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a great evening.
If you haven't already, please check out my blog candy post right below this post.

Blog Candy for a GREAT cause!!!!

Happy Wednesday everyone! Today I have a challenge for all of you. My good friend Chava (who I've known for almost 30 years - yikes, does that make me feel old!) has a 6 month old son Alex. Shortly after Alex was born he was diagnosed with having Cystic Fibrosis. For those of you unfamiliar with CF here is a brief description:

Cystic fibrosis is an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States (70,000 worldwide). A defective gene and its protein product cause the body to produce unusually thick, sticky mucus that:

• clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening lung infections; and
• obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping the body break down and absorb food.

Chava is participating in one of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's Great Strides walks. She is trying to raise money to help support the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Research and care supported by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is making a huge difference in extending
the quality of life for those with CF. To learn more about CF and the CF Foundation you can visit there site HERE.

Here is where my challenge comes in. Chava is doing the Great Strides walk in Des Moines, IA on 5/17/08. Her fundraising goal is $150. I'd love to help her reach this goal (I am happy to say I was the first person to place a donation on her site). To help her out I am offering a chance at some fun blog candy to anyone who donates. There is no minimum donation. You can donate $1 or more. All you need to do for a chance at the blog candy is go to Chava's donation site HERE and donate (don't worry if your name doesn't show up on the donation list instantly, I've noticed that in some cases it takes several hours). After you donate, leave a comment on this post. You do not have to tell me how much you donated. I just appreciate any help you can give! I will pick a blog candy winner on Friday May 9th. I'd love for any of you to mention my post on your blogs, the more exposure the better.

Now for the blog candy: It is a clear stamp extravaganza!! The stash includes "Winter Holidays" set from Autumn Leaves, a package of misc Studio G clear stamps, a package of birthday themed Studio G stamps, a cute flip-flops stamp from Imaginisce, a cute hula penguin from Imaginisce, a popsicle stamp from Imaginise, a package of Magic Mesh, a package of self adhesive pearls and a package of self adhesive rhinestones.

I hope you all have a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by!

Think Pink!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by today!

Masculine card Monday

I always have a hard time with masculine cards. Part of the problem being, I like to add lots of glitter to everything I make. Tom is always telling me I should make things more simple. These are my attempts at simple masculine cards with *gasp* no glitter. I wanted to add glitter to the golf ball SO bad but instead I just added some SU! Crystal Effects to give it a glossy look. I thought the tiny bubbles cuttlebug folder did a fair job at giving a golf ball look. What do you think? Are they simple enough for a man?



Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a marvelous Monday!!!

More Happy Mail to Share!

I was so spoiled this past week. I got tons of Happy Mail. Since I haven't stamped all weekend I thought I would share some of the beautiful cards I received in the past week:

This beauty came from Kisa. If you haven't checked out her blog yet, I HIGHLY recommend it. She is incredibly talented and extremely funny. Her stories always put a smile on my face.
I got this gorgeous card from Danyelle. Her blog is also one of my favs. You have to go and check out her ribbon weaving, it is fantastic!!
This adorable card came from my SBS-13 sister Jo. Jo is incredibly talented. She is absolutely amazing at coloring images. Everything she makes is completely adorable!
Jo also sent me this wonderful folder card stuffed full of these cute images. I can't wait to play with them!!
And last, but definitely not least, I got this terrific card filled with PIF goodies from my SBS-13 sister Richelle. Thanks for the sweet PIF goodies!!! I will have some PIF goodies to share later this week so make sure you check back in.
I hope you are all having an enjoyable weekend. Annabelle is spending the day playing with her cousin Raechell, Tom is going to see a movie and stopping in at work for a bit and Beckett and I are just chillin at home. Hopefully I can find some time to throw together a card or two later tonight. Thanks again for stopping by!

INCREDIBLE HAPPY MAIL DAY! (warning: VERY LONG POST)

Yesterday I received the absolute most incredible happy mail ever!
A little background info is probably needed for everyone to understand: for several months on SCS I have been hosting a friendship appreciation thread. We are currently in round 3. It is somewhat of a secret sister concept except that people nominate friends that they would like to send a little happy mail to. The response has been tremendous (I think round 2 had something like 150 nominees). What I do is keep track of the nominees/nominators, send quetionaires to nominees that I send back to the nominators, keep track of postal and received packages. It is a lot of fun to see all the love shared and all of the wonderful friendships that people have made through SCS. This round I received a message from Renee (happystamper05 on SCS) that I was being nominated by someone her or maybe not her. I was totally floored. A week or so ago I received $25 gift certificates to Gina K and PTI from my secret friend "Renee or maybe not Renee". I was totally overwhelmed by the generosity of my secret friend/s. I used the Gina K gc to order Kindred Spirits Sentiments and Kindred Spirit Naomi. The PTI didn't last long either...I got TONS of fun goodies from them...ink, paper, ribbon...
After all of that, yesterday I received a HUGE box in the mail with a return address of Secret Friend (Renee or maybe not Renee). This was TOTALLY unexpected. The gc's were already INCREDIBLY generous. I opened the box and literally broke out into tears. It was full of WONDERFUL goodies! TONS of stuff! I still get choked up trying to write about this. Whomever you are you have totally made my day, week, month, etc.
The friendships I have made on SCS are so precious to me. I've gotten to know so many of you over the past several months/rounds and it is so fun to keep the friendship apprec thread going. When I first started this I wasn't sure if it would catch on or not, but after seeing the hostess appreciation thread I immediately wanted to start a friendship one. I know a lot of you don't know me really well, but I have to share this with you...before I "found" SCS I was a VERY lonely stay at home mom. I had quit my job as a scientist about a year before finding this site. I didn't really know any other stay at home moms and I felt isolated and completely depressed. After finding SCS and joining and hosting a few swaps I quickly found a few ladies (You know who you are) that I can honestly say are now my absolute best friends in the entire world. They have helped me through my hardest times and my happiest. I feel like I am so incredibly blessed to have found a family of such loving, caring, generous souls. As I've hosted this thread I've met some new and wonderful groups of ladies...PSF's, the dorks, and others. It has been awesome to see the love these ladies have for each other. The PM's I get are always so great...I have lots of people tell me that they wish they could send to more people. The love that goes into so many of these packages is so evident. The personalized items have so much meaning. I have absolutely loved doing this. I keep reading over this post and it honestly just doesn't come close to conveying the thanks and love I have for whomever (Renee or maybe not Renee) for brightening my day with this tremendous gift! You (all of you) are INCREDIBLE and I love you all dearly!

I found this poem that I felt very fitting to share:

My husband has finally gone to work
My children have finished their play
they've gone to bed their stories read
Now it's my time of day.

I've had one of those days
you know what I mean
so I sit back and relax
and turn on my screen.

I'll talk to all my friends
who know just what to say
to make my stresses go
and my troubles fade away.

My friends you're always there for me
whenever I feel blue
and though we've never met before
I know our friendships true.

And although we haven't been friends for long
in this short time it seems
we shared so many things already
our hopes, our fears, our dreams.

We come from different walks of life
but we share a common bond
and it's time to say that of all of you
I've grown so very fond.

So thank you friends for being there
whenever I've needed you
I know you're always there for me
and you know I'm there for you.






Here are some pictures of all of the wonderful goodies that I received. The envelope says Do NOT open until 5/2 (which is our reveal date for this round). Thank Goodness they didn't send the package any earlier as I am not very good at waiting! I'm being good this time though!
After opening the box it was almost as someone had been stalking me. A lot of the stuff was stuff that I have wanted so bad lately. The DCWV dp pack is something that I wanted SO bad but I'm currently on a spending freeze. I've put that pack in my cart at Joann's probably 20 times just so I can cart it around the store for awhile and then put it back. I LOVE it!!
I am still just completely overwhlemed. There is just so much stuff here!
Here is some Martha Stewart ribbon, some Art Institue glitter (my FAVORITE!), an adorable bella, some bing (also my FAV!)












I got TONS of glitter. If you follow my blog you know that glitter is my staple product. I pretty much make NOTHING without it. There is more Art Institute glitter (Once again my FAVORITE glitter evah!), some Martha Stewart glitter (I also love this stuff too!) and some totally cool chunky glitter. I absolutely can't wait to open these babies up!






I also got some stamped Elyzabells images. They are totally adorable. Along with those came this adorable tin filled with TONS of colored baubles. I LOVE these things!!!
















I also got TONS of embellishments. The BoBunny brads are some of my FAVS to. I can't believe how much stuff was in that package. There were these adorable Elyzabells stamps, Primas, more bling (you can NEVER have too much glitter or bling!). and OMG, these metal flower brads...I have wanted them SOOOOOOO bad. Every time I go to Michael's I look at them. They are totally gorgeous. Seriously, someone had to have been stalking me.
I also got this fantastic Stamper's Survival Kit. This is the first time I have seen this and it is totally adorable!
Also in the package was this awesome Camping themed frame. TOTALLY adorable!!! I love it!

I can't believe I'm still

typing. I got this FANTASTIC magnetic frame. I LOVE it! It is so special and I can't wait to put a picture of my kids on there. When I find out who you (or you all) are I'd love to know where I can get some of these frames! It is AWESOME! I got a bunch of scrapbooking embellishment packages. I love it all. LOVE all of the camping themed stuff. I have TONS of camping pictures that I need to scrap! Love it!!
I got another bella stamp, a vellum quote pack, and absolutely adorable clear camping set (LOVE THIS!) and last but DEFINITELY not least, a very generous gc for All That Scraps.

Whomever you are....YOU (you all) ARE AWESOME. I truly could never convey in words how much this means to me. Thanks for EVERYTHING!!!!!