My newest little granddaughter is a kangaroo today!
And this is one of my favorite pictures of my oldest son. Raggedy Andy is 30 years old now!
Life is good.
Happy Halloween!
Oct 312009
Oct 282009
This past week I discovered a wonderful blog Stampin’ Sisters in Christ. Each week they have a challenge based on a scripture. This week’s scripture is I Chronicles 16:34 “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good: his love endures forever.” (NIV).
The challenge is to “Make a card that expresses your thankfulness for someone or something they have done, or that encourages someone to be thankful.” The card I made is to encourage me to be thankful for this beautiful world that He created. Every time I see a sunset I am reminded of how grateful I am that He would share it with me.
I first sponged all the colors onto a cream card stock. Then all the images were stamped with Memento “Tuxedo Black” ink. The ground was made by using the ink pad directly onto the card stock. The birds have been colored in with a Copic Marker.
I hope you have something beautiful in your life that you can be thankful for. Maybe join in the fun and play along, too!
Happy Crafting!!
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Stamps: Viva Las Vegastamps ‘Tree With No Leaves’ and Flock O’ Birds; Cornish Heritage Farms TK ‘The Heavens Declare’; Inque Boutique ‘Boutique Grunge’; IBB
Papers: Very Vanilla and Basic Black
Inks: Memento ‘Tuxedo Black’; 
Copic Marker; Ruby Red, More Mustard, Yoyo Yellow and Taken with Teal
Accessories: GG Ribbon, Brads, Paper Piercer and Template
Oct 202009
It’s time for another Dirty Challenge over on Splitcoaststampers. The challenge was to use paper piecing. Another part of the challenge was to use Fall or Christmas colors. I didn’t remember that part and made the birthday card first. Oops.
So I made the Christmas card, too, to qualify for the challenge. Since I wanted the cards to be a set, I used Unity’s cute little floral image from their “Gratitude=Joy” Kit across the bottom of both cards. For the Christmas card, I added the little red “berries” with a marker.
I love to paper piece, but sometimes I get a little crazy with lots of teeny tiny pieces of paper to glue. But you can have just as much fun and make it a whole lot easier by using a simple shape to piece such as this square gift. The paper pattern is repeated elsewhere on the card, too, which helps to emphasize the paper piecing on the gift.
The gifts are actually popped up on the inside of the cards. They show through windows that have been punched on the front of the cards. This is such a quick and easy way to add an element of fun!
Plus when the card is open, you still get to see the main event!!
Happy Crafting!
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Stamps: Unity “Gratitude=Joy” (floral) & “Birthday Chic” (birthday sentiment); Victorine Originals (gift); Flourishes “Holiday Greetings (Christmas sentiment)
Papers: Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Ballet Blue (birthday butterfly), Old Olive (Christmas pines); Provo Craft DP
Inks: Memento “Tuxedo Black”; Yellow, Blue, Red, Green and Black Markers
Accessories: Nestabilities; Brads; Yellow and Green Dotted Ribbons; Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch; McGill Pine Punch
Oct 192009
Today’s card is for Unity’s Bachelor Challenge #5. The challenge was to use something on your card or project from around the house that you do not normally use on your paper crafting. Well I chose some cute little seashells and used them with some of my new Unity Stamps! Yup.. they arrived, and they are WONDERFUL!!
I used my Nestabilities to cut a 4-1/4″ square card into a shell shape to keep with the theme. To get your card to sit straight after cutting, make sure that you cut it with two scallops across the bottom that are straight with the fold.
The shells are attached with little glue dots. The boat and sails have been cut out and popped up with dimensionals. Copics were used to color the boat and shell images. A Copic Multiliner was used to draw fine lines between the stripes on the largest sail.
Aren’t these stamps the cutest! They are from Unity’s Kit called “Beach Days & Sun Rays”. Thank you, Unity, for sending me such a wonderful and fun assortment of stamps!
Happy Crafting (for sure!!)
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Stamps: Unity “Beach Days & Sun Rays”
Papers: DP K&Co. “Hannah Blue & Ivory; Very Vanilla and Taken with Teal
Inks: Memento “Tuxedo Black”; Taken with Teal; Copic Black Multiliner 0.1 and Copic Markers:
Accessories: Nestabilities; Seashells, Sheer Ribbon, Kaiser Pearl
Oct 142009
Let’s start off with the Blog Candy winner! Random.org has selected:
“I love reading your blog and seeing your creations. Good luck in the future, and thanks for the chance to win your blog candy!”
I am very appreciative of all your comments of support. One thing though… I never said that I wasn’t going to continue using SU! lol I am just dropping my demonstratorship. I will admit that I’m having a bit of trouble being inspired by any of their images right now, but this too will pass. So, the words of encouragement and support were very much appreciated!! Life is good! Mary I will be emailing you so that you can send me your set choice and your snail addy. Congrats!!
Last week I played along in Unity’s Bachelor Bro Challenge #3 to use polka dots and plaids on a project. Well I love Basic Grey’s June Bug collection, so I used that on my challenge card. While putting it away… a second card happened! How fun is that! lol
The designer paper may be called “June Bug”, but it sure looked like it had Christmas possibilities. Using some of the scrap and already cut pieces, Polka Dots & Plaid II came together. I was wishing that I had some lace ribbon that suggested snowflakes, so decided to take a floral lace and clip off part of the design. What was left? Snowflakes! (sorta)
The sentiment is from Cornish Heritage Farms Mona Lisa Moments “Christmas Expressions”.
Hope everyone has a wonderful day. We are having lots of wind and rain here in Seattle. Our power and internet has been in and out. So I’m going to get this posted while I can! lol
Happy Crafting!
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Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms Mona Lisa Moments “Christmas Expressions”
Papers: Basic Grey’s June Bug
Inks: Black Marker (colored directly onto the rubber stamp)
Accessories: Lace Ribbon, Dotted Ribbon, Snowflake Brad, Nestabilities
Oct 102009
Recently SU changed their Demonstrator’s Contract to state that if you are a demonstrator for SU you can no longer blog about other craft company’s stamps, papers, accessories… anything that competes with SU. Well, it didn’t take me any time at all to decide that I would be dropping my demonstratorship. Goodness, there are SO MANY OTHER WONDERFUL STAMP COMPANIES out there that limiting myself to just one line of product was never even an option for me.
So I have been going through some of my SU stamp sets, both current and retired, and have decided to sell a few of them. See up there… yup clear up at the top of my blog in the right hand corner. There is a tab that says STAMPS FOR SALE. Check it out!
And while you’re at it, leave a comment here on this post. I will use random.org this Wednesday, October 14th, to choose someone to pick any one set from the stamp sets for sale; and I will send it to you for free! How fun is that!!
Happy Crafting!
Oct 052009
One thing to be sure of… if I’m posting a card for a contest, then the deadline to post for that contest must be just minutes away.
Yup, here I go again!! 
This card is for week 3 of the 7 week long Unity Bachelor Challenges.
Bro wanted to see some polka dots and plaid. Hope he doesn’t mind that I threw in this big wonderful paisley image, too! *grin* I colored it with markers before stamping which makes it so much easier to use multiple colors.
Okay.. I’ve got to run on over to the Unity gallery for this challenge on SCS to upload. You’ll find all the weekly Unity challenges posted each Thursday here. Come on and play. The more the merrier!
Happy Crafting!
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Stamps: Unity ‘Paisley Polka Dots’ and ‘Gratitude=Joy’
Papers: Whisper White, Real Red, Basic Black; DP is Basic Grey ‘June Bug’
Inks: Old Olive, Real Red, Summer Sun, Basic Black Markers
Accessories: Gingham Ribbon, Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Paper Piercer and Template, Build-a-Brad
Oct 032009
Just a quick post today. SO much going on everywhere with all the fun celebrations in honor of World Card Making Day. I played along in the Inspiration Challenge on Splitcoaststampers again this week. The inspiration piece is a water bottle from Kir DeVries found here.
Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. There are so many great challenges going on today. Of course one of my favorites is the party going on over at Ellen Hutson’s the CLASSroom. She is giving away BLOG CANDY with every challenge… and lot’s of it. If you have a chance, check it out. All you have to do to enter each challenges’ blog candy is leave a comment! Of course, you can play along in the challenges as well! Happy Crafting!!
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Stamps: Asian Artistry and Teeny Tiny Wishes
Papers: Whisper White, Basic Black, DP Yellow Bicycle ‘Red Herringbone’
Inks: Jet Black Stazon, White Gel Pen, Copics:
Accessories: Black GG Ribbon, Paper Piercer and Template, Rhinestones, Cuttlebug ‘Vintage’ Diecut
Oct 032009
There’s a party in the CLASSroom!! The celebration is for World Card Making Day! I have a Sketch Challenge there with fabulous BLOG CANDY!! ALL the challenges have fabulous BLOG CANDY! So check out the fun!
Happy Crafting!!
Oct 022009
I love Friday! And today I got to play along in Sharon’s Stamp Simply Challenge ABC/123. The challenge was to make “letters or numbers a focal point” of your project. Well in a few weeks my DH and I will be celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary. So I decided to make him a card… not that he would care if I didn’t, but it was fun anyway.
I used JustRite’s Times New Roman Uppercase Font Set for the custom sentiment.
I decided to make a second card with this simple layout.
I love this sentiment! We all have those “rainy days”! *grin*
Here is the inside.
Here’s hoping that you have a wonderful Friday! Don’t forget about Ellen Hutson’s World Card Making Celebration tomorrow!!
Happy Crafting!
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Stamps: Rainbow – D231, Santa Rosa, CA; Viva Las Vegas Stamps Rainbow Sentiment; EK Success “Don’t Give Up”; JustRite “Times New Roman Uppercase Font Set”
Papers: Whisper White, Brocade Blue, Bashful Blue
Inks: Memento “Tuxedo Black”; Copics:
Accessories: Corner Rounder Punch; Cuttlebug “Frills” and “Heart Blocks” Embossing Folders; Rhinestones; Ric Rak; Oval Nestabilities
