Feeling Very Blessed!

I'm feeling very blessed this evening! I've been feeling kind of overwhelmed with everything going on, the holidays, my new online store, my husband's job search.... but today I'm feeling very, very blessed!!! My MIL went into the hospital yesterday morning thinking she had appendicitus. Well, it turned out she had a growth on her ovary. They scheduled surgery for today and in the meantime, my dh and daughter got in the car and drove down there. We got the news this afternoon that the growth is benign and she is all taken care of after this surgery. My great neice went into the hospital on Christmas Eve being tested for RSV. She was only 11 days old at the time. She was in the hospital with RSV for about 5 days. They were out of town from where they live then too. Today the are at their own home being greatful for what they've come through. My son received his score for the ACT he took. He won't let me broadcast his score, but it's a good one. We're so proud of him and are thankful that he may be getting some scholarship money for school too :) God is great!!

Thanks for reading my gratitudes for today, I appreciate you letting me share that with you.

Now onto the card. I got some new paper today. The one I used is Black Magic from Core'dinations. It's pretty cool. It's black on the surface, but color in the middle.

I used it to make the card base and then used a cuttlebug embossing folder for the swirls. Then I sanded the swirls so the purple would show through. I stamped the MyFavoriteThings lavender stamp with Memento ink and colored it with Copics. White highlights were made with my Inksentials white pen. I airbrushed some yellow onto the background and adhered it to Bazzill bling paper adding dew drops to the corners. I used the SCS Sketch #207 and added May Arts ribbon to the sides. This paper is pretty cool and I love my airbrush system :)

Our quote for the day: "People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within." - Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great evening!!!

My new Christmas toy :)

Good Morning! I did it!! I finally hooked up my Christmas toy. Cliff bought me the Copic airbrush system and an air compressor for Christmas - he's such a keeper! :) I LOVE it!!! When I went to the Copic certification class we got to play with them and that's when I decided I really wanted one. This is the first time I've played with mine so the results are definitely not 'professional' but it's so cool!

You'll notice I also used colors other than blue and green although I snuck the blue and green in there on Willow's clothes :)

I started with a Bazzill card base which is not quite as bright as this pic is showing it, but I didn't have time to play that much with the colors on PhotoShop. Then I use October Afternoon's Paper Lanterns from the Daydream Collection and KM Building from the Hometown collection. For the image I stamped Willow twice, colored her once with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits and then cut the 2nd one out and used it to mask the first while I airbrushed around her. It was so much fun! Then I added the primas and the dew drops.

This is also the same sketch that I used from www.fridaysketchersblog.blogspot.com. Sketch #30. If you like sketches you should really check it out!

Our quote for the day: "Love, like a river, will cut a new path Whenever it meets an obstacle." - Crystal Middlemas

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!!!

I'm hooked on blues and greens!

Good Morning! Yes, it's still morning here! :) I made this card last night and I have to say, I just love these little mice. I was talking to my mom on the phone yesterday and she said that she loves them too. She also said, "Well, you know I love all your cards, but sometimes some of them just jump out at me. Those little mice cards do." Can you get any more support than that? I love you Mom!!!

I'm stuck on the blues and greens!! I just love them. This card started with a bazzill cardstock base and then I used October Afternoon's Hometown collection of paper. Again, they are all double-sided, which you know I love! But, on this card, I used 3 different pieces, Woolsworths is the floral, KM Building is the background lined paper, and County Library is the one with leaves. I stamped Mudpie (the House Mouse) onto cream colored paper with Memento black ink and colored him with Copics. I added glitter and some doodling along with inking the edges and attached him to some green Bazzill Bling. Then I added the flowers and ribbon with a brad. I did decorate the inside a bit with the same papers.

The sketch I used is from www.fridaysketchersblog.blogspot.com and I used sketch #32.

Our quote for the day: "The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. " — Nelson Mandela

Thanks so much for stopping by and remember to jump on over the the 2RedBananas blog to enter our challenge for some blog candy :)

A 2RedBananas Challenge

Hi!! I hope everyone had a great Christmas, we sure did! It's snowing again here, but since I'm inside, I sure do like watching it :)

We have posted a challenge over on the 2RedBananas blog and we would love for you to go check it out and participate, blog candy is involved :)

This is the card I made for the challenge and I won't ask you to read the details twice as they are already on the 2RedBananas blog.

It's a fun one so we hope you have a few minutes to jump on over there and give it a whirl!

Our quote for the day: "The manner of giving is worth more than the gift. " — Pierre Corneille

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Keeping Warm :)

Hi! I know I'm WAY later than I try to be, but believe it or not, I'm STILL not finished Christmas shopping. I only have a couple things to get, but .......insert lots of whining here :)

I'd rather be like Mudpie Mouse here in this cup of coffee :)

These stamps are so cute and really versatile too. For this card I started with a Bazzill base and added some Bazzill bling and October Afternoon paper (Daydream: Patio Umbrella) - guess where you can get them :) I stamped the image onto white cardstock and then onto the flowered side of the patterned paper. I also stamped another image on white cardstock. I paper pieced the coffee cup onto the image stamped on white. Then on the other image stamped on white, I colored with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits, then I cut Mudpie Mouse out and pop-dotted him onto the original image. I added some glitter to the steam, but you can't see it from my picture. The ribbon I used is pink sheer twinkle ribbon and is very dainty, but sparkly. I cut the blue flower in the corner from the patterned paper and then added a Fresh Mowed Grass dew drop to it. I think that's it. I'm having fun with these little guys, that's for certain.

Our quote of the day: "She gives most who gives with joy. " — Mother Teresa

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a wonderful holiday filled with peace, joy and happiness.

House Mouse Cuteness :)

WOW! Things are moving very quickly around here. Thank you so much for your warm response to 2RedBananas. We are making things happen as quickly as we can and now you can go to the 2RedBananas blog. You can also go to the store. We really appreciate the support that you all have given us, it's a really nice feeling. After you check out the store, we would love you to leave comments about what you would like to see us carry. You can either leave a comment here or on the 2RedBananas blog. We want to carry the things that you would like to have. Our grand opening with prizes and lots of fun will be after our exclusive stamps arrive and we will then just have a BIG OLE party :)

Okay, now to the card for today: For this one I used a bazzill green card base and some October Afternooon papers from the Hometown collection, specifically Main Street (the stripes) and Depot Park (the yellow dots). These papers are double sided and on the inside of this card I punched one of the flowers from the opposite side of the Depot Park paper and attached it to a strip of the stripes from the Main Street paper. These are nice medium weight papers, not too heavy, but definitely not thin. Very nice to work with.

The stamps I used are Lip Smackin' Relaxin', which is one of the Jan 09 House Mouse Stamp of the Month collection. New stamps for each month will be released monthly! I also used the sentiment stamps "Very Mice Day"


I colored the image in prismacolor pencils and then added glitter pen, white flock, and Wintergreen Blingz. These Blingz are cool!! I had only used the Shimmerz before and I love them, but the Blingz give you a little more texture in the sparkle :) I used Nestabilities to cut out the image and the Bazzill Bling behind it. I also used photo corners to ground the squares and then of course I added the Fresh Mowed Grass dew drops :) We will be getting Glue Dots in the store because they are my FAVORITE thing to attach these dew drops. I actually use the mini glue dots for these.

Okay, our quote of the day: "Great necessities call out great virtues. " — Abigail Adams

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful warm day!

BIG, HUGE NEWS :)

Announcing the grand opening of a new online store " 2RedBananas ". You can visit the site at http://2redbananas.com/. This is something I've been thinking about for a while now and things have just been falling into place...well other than the fact that I'm opening the week before Christmas when everyone is crazy busy.

We are going to be carrying many products that are great for stampers, scrapbookers, as well as paper artists. We will also be carrying stamps that are exclusive to 2RedBananas. Many of you already know Jami Bova from her blog as well as other design teams. Well I'm thrilled to let you know that she is not only on the 2RedBananas design team, she will also be illustrating stamps! Woo Hoo. Our exclusive stamps are not ready yet, so we will wait until we have them ready to sell before doing an actual "grand opening" party. But the site is up and running and we have some great products in our inventory and more on the way. House Mouse stamps, The Robin's Nest Dew Drops, Tsukineko inks ( including Memento, Versafine and Brilliance), Webster's Pages, May Arts Ribbons, Maya Road products just to name some of them. We have also received October Afternoon, but they are not up on the website quite yet. They will be today though.



The other members of our design team are fresh faces to blogs and design teams although they all are incredibly talented and have been chosen because they diversify our team. Some are more scrapbookers, some more card makers, everyone does it all at least a little bit. So I hope you find great inspiration from them as I know I have. So here are the 2RedBananas Design Team members and links to their blogs.



Jami Bova - http://westamphappy.blogspot.com/

Maraya Gates - http://itsmybailiwick.blogspot.com/

Wendy Kastner - http://nowherebayou.blogspot.com/

Teresa Grau - http://leftyscrapper.blogspot.com/

and me :)



I am also starting a new blog just for 2RedBananas and you can find it at http://2redbananas.blogspot.com/. Please be patient, I haven't worked on it as much as I should have by now :)



So here's my card for today, which of course uses products available at 2RedBananas :)

I LOVE this House Mouse stamp called: Warmth for Winter and the sentiment called Friendship Warms. I colored them with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits. The background paper is bazzill with October Afternoon's Patio Umbrella paper (it's double sided, my favorite). The ribbon is from May Arts and is also available at 2RedBananas as well as the dew drops, I used Fresh Mowed Grass and Island Blossoms.



Wow, that was a pretty long post, but I'm just so excited!!!! I hope you find lots of inspiration and fun at 2RedBananas.



Our quote for the day: "He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree. " - Roy L. Smith

Thanks so much for stopping by and for sharing this very exciting time with me!

More Snow Buddies and more Blue

Hi! You would think by my last couple of posts that my favorite color is blue. It's not, it's actually red, but I love using blues and greens for winter cards. It's DEFINITELY winter here today. Sara and I went out for just a couple minutes earlier and the thermometer in my car said it was 12 degrees. The flurries are blowing and the wind is blowing hard! The radio station said that we will get down to between 0 and -5 degrees tonight/early tomorrow morning! BRRRRR!!

This card uses one of my new Riley stamps! I love this little guy and they were on sale, so I bought a couple of them. It also uses Bazzill Bling, Doodlebug Sugar Coated paper, Quickutz flower cookie cutter dies, prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits, white pen for highlighting, Stampendous sentiment stamp, EKSuccess photo corner punch, cuttlebug embossing folders, glitter, flocking and glitter pen. I made it for a challenge over on SCS. The challenge is here
if you would like to play too!


Some really sweet news!!! My first great niece was born yesterday. She has an older brother so now I have a great nephew and a great niece. Her name is Berit Hannah and I will show you a picture when I get one. They are are doing very well! :)

Our quote for the day: "It is not the strongest of the species that survive,
nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulously warm day!

Snow Buddies

Good Morning! This card shows what it COULD look like at my house right not, but it was much warmer making these little guys inside instead of outside :)

The funny news is that my parents who live in southern Louisiana woke up yesterday to SNOW!! My Mom called me because in southern Louisiana you only get snow about every 7 ish years or so. She was so excited and my Dad only likes to come see us in the warm months, although he has come when it was cold. They both grew up in West Virginia so they have both seen their share of snow. They got 1 - 1 1/2" and Mom said everything was white :) It was gone by 11:00 am!

These little guys are made with the Sugarplum Snowmen set from CC Designs. I focused on just the snowmen cause I think they are so cute! the paper I used is Swell Noel from K&Co. This time I colored with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits and added glitter :) I punched snowflakes with an old snowflake punch and added dew drops to the centers. The word window punch I used is from McGill.

I love these colors and you can tell from my last couple posts :) Christmas cards still haven't been mailed, maybe today.

OOooo, another fun thing I get to do today. My daughter has asked me to come to school for a Role Model Appreciation time. She is a freshman in high school, so it kind of surprised me that they are doing this, but it really made me feel good that she chose me as her Role Model....WOW! She is going to read part of a letter that she wrote to me, so I'm going to bring tissues with me :)

Our quote for the day: "Whoever is happy will make others happy, too. " — Anne Frank

Have a wonderful day and stay warm!! Thanks for stopping by!

Cutie Patootie!

Good Morning! Still snow on the ground here - It's okay though because the sun is shining :) Do you ever feel so busy that you think you're going to meet yourself coming and going? That's where I am right now. Many, many things going on and some really exciting ones too!! :) I can't wait to be able to share them with you. I know that's a tease, and I'm sorry about that, but I'm really excited!

Okay, onto the card. This is one of Christine's digi images from All That Scraps. This set is a set of 3 Gingersnaps - Snow Bunnies, I just love the names. I am not at all a digi scrapper, but I really like adding the digi images to my cards.
For this one, I started with a Bazzill base and added some K & Co paper matted with pink Bazzill. I colored the Gingersnap with Copics and added white highlights and white flocking. Stamped the pink sentiment piece with the snowflake folder and then cuttlebugged it with the snowflake folder. Added some punched snowflakes with glitter brads and some dew drops :) Oh, the Gingersnap is pop-dotted for some dimension. Hope you enjoy her.

Our quote for the day: "My basic principle is that you don't make decisions
because they are easy;
you don't make them because they are cheap;
you don't make them because they're popular;
you make them because they're right." - Theodore Hesburgh

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fabulous day!

It's Penguin Weather

Good Monday Morning! I hope everyone had a great weekend. It's getting closer and closer to Christmas and I'm still not ready. My Christmas cards haven't gone out yet, so I'm showing you another one today!

I love these little guys. The stamps are from Hampton Arts, but I can't tell you the name of the set because my studio is so messy that I can't find where I put the packaging :) I'm sure it's under some paper. I got to use lots of fun things on this card. I started with chili colored cardstock (it's really red, I don't know who named it!) Then the polka dot paper is from BoBunny and the green circle is Bazzill Bling. I colored the penguins with Copics and added glitter, flocking, glitter pens and diamond glaze. Then I added the red and green bling. Fun and easy!

My posts are going to be short for a while because I've got some really exciting things going on and also I have to get ready for Christmas. I'm supposed to be mailing packages today, but they aren't ready yet and I'm playing Bunco tonight!

Our quote for the day: "Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born." - Dale Turner

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fabulous day!

Got Snow?

We sure do. It snowed again yesterday. Cliff took Sara to school early and about 2 hours later you couldn't see the tire tracks where he pulled out of the driveway! It's sunny today, but cold, brrrrr. A good day to stay in and stamp :)

These little guys are from the new Sugarplum Snowmen set by CC Designs. Christine is so good at drawing these little guys!! I colored in Copics and did some fun little things with my colorless blender like polka dots on the snowman's scarf and faded the little boy's jeans. I also used Cuttlebug Tree Top set which cuts the trees and then lets you emboss them, very fun. You can find it here. Lots of glitter, lots of dew drops :) It's a great set!!!

Our quote for the day: "Love is like a mountain, Hard to climb, But once you get to the top The view is beautiful." -Daniel Monroe Tuttle

I hope you have a fabulously warm day, unless you like the cold :) Thanks so much for stopping by!

Gift Card Holder

Good Morning! Snow is still on the ground here today, but the sun is shining, how about for you?
This morning's card was actually made for one of the SCS Challenges, but I didn't get it finished for a while so it hasn't been uploaded to the gallery over there yet, but it will :) Better late than never right???

I love how all these CC Designs sets work together. They are so much fun!! For this card I used the elf from Sugarplum North Pole, the tree and the gifts from Sugarplum Christmas Scenery Set and the "Merry & Bright" from AmyR Stamps - Christmas Sentiments set. I colored everything with Copics and added my essentials white highlights and liquid applique to the puff on the elf's hat, gems to the gree and glitter pen various places. I also used my EK Success corner punch.

On the inside I used again a gift from the Sugarplum Christmas Scenery Set and the circle stamps are from an Art Warehouse clear set. Another fun part about this card is that the middle section folds and there is a slit in it where the gift card fits right in so it doesn't fall all over inside the card, it has it's very own place :)

Another fun one to make and I hope to make some more because I am giving some gift cards this year. :)

Our quote of the day: "Doubt, of whatever kind, can be ended by action alone."

- Thomas Carlyle

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!

The Caterpillar

Good Morning! I decided to show a card that has some warm colors in it today, because we have snow covering the ground this morning :) It's beautful, but COLD! I made this card a while back but forgot that I hadn't shared it.......so.....today it is :)

The butterfly is one of Karen Lockhart's images that I colored in my Copic class and used the airbrush piece for the background. I forgot how much I loved it. The quote is from a Verve Visual set and I absolutely love this quote. I have other ideas for it too, just haven't finished them yet. I just used scrap papers for this card and some ribbon, dew drops, gems and glitter pen to finish it! Very simple.

Anyone finished with their Christmas shopping yet? Not me, but I am on schedule.....at least for now. I better get to making some more Christmas cards though :)

Our quote of the day: "What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master call a butterfly." - Richard Bach

Have a wonderful and warm day and thanks for stopping by!

More Sneak Peeks for tomorrow night's release :)

Good Morning! I have two more sneak peeks to show you of the stamp sets that will be released at All That Scraps, tomorrow at 10pm est. We will have a release party so come have some fun!
This first set is called Winter Bear. He's just adorable! All I did was color him with Copics and added some highlighting and some liquid applique to his hat, oh and glitter to the snowman, what snowman can be without glitter :)

It's a FUN set!!
The next card uses Sadie. This set is called Wintertime Sadie and Pepper by Jen at Stampin Spot Studio. The sentiment comes in the set too :) I love the Sadies, she's just so adorable!
I paired Sadie with some snowflake paper and some Bazzill cardstock. I used my nestabilities to cut the salmon frame. I colored everything with Copics and added the highlighting. Then I added the embellishments from Sandylion and the ribbon. The card is a little brighter IRL. I couldn't quite get the colors right on my computer, sorry :( Another fun Sadie set!!!


Our quote for the day: "Nothing is too small to know, and nothing too big to attempt. " — Sir William Van Horne

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderfully warm day (it's snowing here and we have about 1 1/2 on the table on our deck!)

Sneak Peek of Sugarplum Snowy Scenery

Good Morning! Sneak Peeks for the new All That Scraps stamps have started. These two cards are made with the Sugarplum Snowy Scenery set.


I really enjoyed making these cards. Other than the pop-dotted snowmen, they are one-layer cards. That doesn't happen too often! There are so many pieces in this set, it's fun to create scenes. I used only stamps from this set for both of these cards, see LOTS of pieces, sentiments too :)

For both of them, I stamped in Memento black and the snowflakes in Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue, colored with Copics, and then added lots of glitter, shimmerz (in the windows), white highlights and a ribbon. You should try a one layer card, the focus is definitely on the stamp set! :)

Our quote for the day: "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. " — John Fitzgerald Kennedy


Have a wonderful day and I hope you got some of your Christmas shopping finished yesterday.......(I didn't go shopping yesterday, I worked instead. I'm not a crowd shopper and would happily pay a little more to avoid the crowds :)

ATSDTC28 - Christmas Ornaments

Good Morning! I love these challenge mornings, it makes me get my blog post done in the morning! This week's was a bit of a challenge for me........thus why it's called a challenge :) I love to alter things, but making something completely from paper isn't something I usually do. I was blog hopping the other day and saw these on Taylor Van Bruggen's blog and I couldn't wait to try them.

So, this is what I came up with. I LOVE them and I'm planning on using some as name tags for Christmas gifts too!! Mine are double sided, I cut two of the backgrounds and punched them at the same time so the punching would match and then used my Xyron to put the adhesive on so they would be completely attached at all points. You have to play around with the size of the squares you use based on the punch you use. I used a Fiskars punch and my outside squares were 3" and the inside ones were 2 5/8"

I colored Monkey with Copics and added liquid applique and glitter to his hat. (I add the glitter while the liquid applique is wet, before I heat it). I added the white highlights with my essentials white pen (I think I like this one even better than my souffle pen if you can believe that :) I pop-dotted Monkey up so he sticks out a bit. Dew drops were added to the points of both squares and then I added the ribbon. These were fun! I will be making some more!

We'd love for you to play along with the challenge. Be sure to check out the ATS blog a little bit later to see other projects.

Our quote for the day: "Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." - Marcel Proust

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Sit Back, Relax & Enjoy

It's that time of year. Be thankful and enjoy your blessings :) We will be home for Thanksgiving this year and that means no turkey for us! I'm not a huge fan of turkey and Cliff isn't stuck on having it for Thanksgiving either although both of us grew up having turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. Anyway, we've started a new tradition in our house and when we're home for Thanksgiving we have something other than turkey. The past couple of years it's been King Crab Legs....YUM! Ben and Sara chose what we are having so they are very much into this tradition although they both like turkey and would also be happy having that. Oh well on to the card :)

This one was done for the Color Challenge on SCS - this week it's very vanilla, going gray, and really rust. I don't have the Stampin Up colors so I always improvise :) This is a stamp I saw on someone's blog (sorry I don't remember who) a long time ago and I loved it so I googled until I found it, it still makes me smile :) The sentiment is from Stamping Bella and the papers are from Basic Grey - Ambrosia, Bazzill and Cosmo Cricket. I also used Bazzill Stitches for the flourish and may arts ribbon. It was another fun challenge.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving week (if you don't live in the US - I hope you are having a great week :) Any different Thanksgiving traditions you have in your family? I'd love to hear about them. Leave a comment and lets hear some!!

Our quote for the day: "My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me." - Henry Ford

Thanks for stopping by and try to Color Challenge on SCS if you get a chance :)

Sneak Peek of new AmyR stamps!

Good Morning! Today's cards are sneak peeks of AmyR's new stamps which will be released tomorrow (Monday, Nov. 24th) at 10:00pm est at All That Scraps.

On to the cards: the little onesie is part of the set as well as the sentiment :) You know Amy, she wants us to have everything we need when designing a card and she's good at providing it in her sets too!

I also used the Nestabilities Labels 2 set for the mattings of the onesie! Of course I added ribbon and dew drops. I also used scraps of paper I had. Sorry, I'm on a roll using scraps :)

The next card was soooooooo much fun! I love this sentiment!!!! Again I used scrap papers, but coloring these shoes was a blast! I used Copics and then my essentials white pen for highlights. There is also a little glitter pen (silver) on the rain boots :) Gotta get some bling in there somewhere :)

Our quote for the day: "There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort. "

— Jane Austen

That quote is me to a "T" :) Have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by!!

Monogram Cards

I'm back again :)
These are what I've been working on. I recently purchased the JustRite Monogram sets and decided they would make GREAT Gift Card sets. I sent some to my sister and here are mine :)
I LOVE that I can make them with whatever kind of theme I want. Christmas, snow, flowers, spring, summer, plaid, polka dot, blue, pink, green whatever!

Here are pictures of them up close. They're FUN and everyone needs cards to have on hand....just in case :)

Just wanted to share :)

Have a GREAT evening!

Giving Thanks

Good Morning! Yes, I still have a couple minutes till noon :) It's snowing here this morning, so everyone at my house is moving pretty slowly :) The snow is beautiful though, since I don't have to go out in it :)

I have finished up my Thanksgiving cards and soon they will all be on their way to their recipients. This is the last one I made. I looked on the back of the Hero Arts November stamp set and there was a card with this leaf background and I just loved it so I used that as my starting point. The cornucopia is from Kim Hughes at Cornish Heritage Farms. I used eyelets on this card (they had done that part on the hero arts card too) - I was excited because I hardly ever use eyelets anymore, mostly brads.....hmmmmm! I used scrap papers and I colored with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits.

I have some other things I would like to finish today and maybe even post, so maybe, just maybe, I'll post twice in one day :) We'll see though because we found Guitar Hero World Tour (the one with the drums, mic and guitars) so I've been playing that some lately too :) Ben and I already played this morning :)

Our quote for the day: "There’s always room for improvement, you know—it’s the biggest room in the house. " — Louise Heath Leber

Thanks so much for stopping by and check back soon, you might find something new before tomorrow! :)

ATS Wednesday Challenge

Good Morning! It's ATS Wednesday Challenge morning! As you can see below our challenge this week was to use acetate!


You can't see the acetate on my card very well and I took some pics at different angles to see if I could make it more obvious, but that didn't work, so I'll just tell you about it :)

I stamped and colored my Glam Girl first and then used her to determine how big I wanted the window in my card. I cut the window then covered the whole card front with my Basic Grey paper and cut the window out of that too. Then I put the acetate over the window from the inside of the card. I stamped the background of the red background paper and attached Glam Girl to it and then pop-dotted the background to the back side of the front of the card to make a sort of shadow box. The I embellished the front of the card. It was fun!!

You can go to the gallery of All That Scraps or later on today to the blog and see more examples of using acetate. Then you can participate too, by going to the Challenges section of the Message Board at All That Scraps. We'd love to see your creations!

Our quote of the day: "I base my fashion taste on what doesn't itch." - Gilda Radner

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

I wanna be a Rock Star

Good Morning! I know I missed Halloween this year, but next year I think I'll dress up like Miss Rock Star below :) How fun is this??? As I was making this card, I just kept singing rock songs. :)

She is part of the new Glam Girls III set from All That Scraps. The background paper is from DCWV and all the other pieces are scraps, including Bazzill Bling scraps. The silver paper is a thin metallic paper that I got at Hobby Lobby a LONG time ago. I colored with Copics, twinklettes and stardust pens. You can't tell from the picture, but EVERYTHING sparkles on this card :)

On the agenda for today.....laundry. What are you doing today? Something fun I hope, I did get a Christmas present finished last night and hope to do another one tonight. Hope to have some stamping time too :)

Our quote for the day: "In giving advice seek to help, not to please, your friend." - Solon

Have a fabulously productive day :)

Happy Thanksgiving.....almost :)

Good Morning! Do you realize Thanksgiving is in 10 days? I really have to get my Thanksgiving cards out, but the problem is, I'm not finished making them. So today's card is from a challenge on SCS. The challenge is here. I decided to make mine into a Thanksgiving card. This challenge was definitely a challenge for me. Putting together the folds took me a few minutes, but I love the way the medallion turned out.

Also on my list for today is to get some things for Christmas ready. Since we live so far away from our families I always have to mail our gifts early. Last week I really felt like I was doing well getting things together, but yesterday dh told me that Christmas is only 6 weeks away........ACK!!! I LOVE the advent season and I love to have all my stuff finished so I can really reflect and enjoy it! So today will be a busy day :)

Our quote for the day: "The love we give away is the only love we keep. " — Elbert Hubbard

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful and productive day! :)

Ready for some hot Coffee?

Hi! It's 5:44 pm and it looks like it's 10:00 pm outside. We went to our high school's Volleyball game today, they were playing for the state championship. We lost to a team we had already beat this season. Both teams played very well and it was so much fun to watch. Since Sara plays volleyball it was fun for her to get to see the varsity girls go so far with their team. We just got home about an hour ago and I already have my pajamas on. Friday was a really long day for me so I'm ready to RELAX!

Remember I told you that Quickutz was selling these tag sets 2 tags for $1? Well this great one is the other style I was telling you about. There really is a white little note card that goes on the inside of it, but I took that out and put a gift card in it instead. I used lots of scrap papers and some hero arts stamps. I paper pieced the cup and colored the "coffee" with Copics. I also added glitter to the 'steam'. Oh, the tags are just solid green, I added the dp strips to it.

I didn't get my scrapbooking room cleaned yet, imagine that! But I'm going to make this short so I can relax a bit and maybe get a card or two made :)

Our quote of the day:

Believe while others .. By William Arthur Ward

Believe while others are doubting.
Plan while others are playing.
Study while others are sleeping.
Decide while others are delaying.
Prepare while others are daydreaming.
Begin while others are procrastinating.
Work while others are wishing.
Save while others are wasting.
Listen while others are talking.
Smile while others are frowning.
Commend while others are criticizing.
Persist while others are quitting.


Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful evening!

Friday's Review Preview

Good Morning! We have a chance of SNOW again today......brrrrrrrrrrr!
Today is
This is such a fun set illustated by Diane Zechman. You can cover lots of occasions with this fun cupcake set! My card below is obviously for Christmas. The fun part was adding all the details to the penguin. He has white flocking on his hat, glitter on the candy cane and the ornament top, shimmerz on the cupcake top and I paper pieced the cupcake liner. FUN!!! The Happy Christmas sentiment is from "Christmas Around the World" (I love that set too)!

You can go to the ATS blog to see more previews of the Cupcake Occasions set.

Our quote of the day: "Fashion can be bought. Style one must possess. " - Edna Woolman Chase

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

Happy Turkey Day

Good Morning! I guess it's time for some Thanksgiving cards mixed in with Christmas cards and winter cards, maybe a birthday card and a thank you card for good measure. There certainly are lots of choices of cards to make this time of year. :)

This Thanksgiving card was inspired by the Quickutz tag. It comes with the belly band around it and the stitching around the tag. They were $1 for 2 of them at Archivers. So of course I bought some. There is a different style too but I'll wait to share those when I come up with a project :)

I started with a brown card base. I used Cosmo Cricket dp ( both sides again :) and distressed all the edges. I used my turkey Quickutz die and Quickutz Moxie font for the Happy Thanksgiving. I really like that font!

I added ribbon and dew drops and some doodling around the turkey and that was it. Easy as can be!

I have to do TONS of laundry today because I haven't done any since before the girls and Tyler came and I also want to clean my scrapbooking room again. For some reason, when I clean it, I only clean off my table so I have room to work. This time I would really like to clean the whole room. We'll see how that works :) Then we have a chorus concert tonight, I love those :)

Our quote for today: "We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. " — Joseph Campbell

I think I have shared this quote before, but it's one of my favorites so I am sharing it again!
Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Wednesday's ATS Challenge

Good Wednesday morning! It's time for another ATS Challenge. This week's challenge was to make a Christmas card that would be easy to mass produce for those of us who make LOTS of Christmas cards. :)


This is my take on the challenge. I just took strips of Bo Bunny's Christmas line and created a background for my focal image. Wow, what is that focal angel you might be saying :)
Well, Christine has released a Digi Line of images. For $4 you can download a sheet full of angels to color and use on your cards or scrapbooks. They are adorable. The one I used, I printed the full sheet of all of them and this is the size it came out, perfect for my card. You can also use them individually and re-size them.

I am definitely NOT a digi scrapper, but using these as the focal image and still getting to use my papers, ribbon and dew drops etc. worked out really well for me. In fact, it was FUN!! The sentiment I used on the one is from Amy R's Christmas Sentiments set.

You can play too! Make your card and upload it to the ATS Gallery and be sure to use the keyword ATSDTC26. We would love to see your creations!

Our quote of the day: "Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours. " -Dale Carnegie

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fabulous day!

Here are my babies :)

Good Morning! Just thought I'd share what I've really been doing for the last 5 days! Don't you think he's worth doing NOTHING else??? :) We really had a great time with Erin, Amy & Tyler being here. I miss them already (they went home yesterday evening). Tyler is so much fun. If you're a grandparent you know what I mean :)

Poppa was taking pictures and these are two of many that I love. He has a bunch more than I will probably be sharing with you in the next week or so (he takes huge files so it takes me a while to get them like I want them for the blog). I'm just so thankful that they came up to see us.

In this picture Amy and Ben are standing and Sara and Erin are sitting. They were playing around and laughing at Dad during this 'pose'. I just love this picture!!!

Okay, this has to be a quick post so I will share the quote of the day, I just wanted you to see my babies :)

Our quote of the day: "A life lived with integrity - even if it lacks the trappings of fame and fortune is a shinning star in whose light others may follow in the years to come. " - Denis Waitley

Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll be back tomorrow with something new :)

A Sugarplum Preview :)

Good Morning! It's cold here, no snow, but it looks very cold outside!

Today's card is a preview for more Sugarplum images. This one is Sugarplum North Pole. There are so many cute images, Santa, Rudolph, elves, toys, just fun stuff! You can go to the ATS blog to see more samples made with this set. Remember that they will be released Monday evening at 10:00pm eastern time.

For this card, I stamped the images in Memento black ink and colored them with Copics with some glitter pen touches and some white souffle pen highlights. I used Imaginisce papers and glitter brads and Offray ribbon. I just LOVE these stamps. They are so much fun to play with!!

Our quote for the day: "In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. " — Albert Camus

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a warm and wonderful day!!

the Glam Girls Return!!!

Good Morning! We're going to take pictures of all the kids and Tyler tomorrow so I can show you who I've been talking about for so long! Although Tyler keeps saying that he doesn't want to take pictures.......hmmmmmmm! Bribing usually works though ......... :)

This card is made with the NEW Glam Girls - woo hoo!! They are so much fun! You can go to the ATS blog to see more samples of the set. The set will be released Monday, November 10th.

For this card, I used the birthday glam girl and SEI papers with some ribbon and some prima flowers. The background red-ish paper is from a package of paper from Target, the infamous dollar spot :)




Our quote for the day: "Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless." - Jamie Paolinetti


Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fabulous day!

Introducing Forest Friends by Stampin' Spot Studio

Good Morning! It was so much fun this morning, when I woke up and heard our grandson, Tyler, talking in his bed, but his Mom wasn't quite ready to get up yet, so I went and got him and took him down with me to get Ben and Sara's breakfast ready for them. Tyler was so warm and snuggly :) He helped me get Ben and Sara ready for school and we watched them drive away and waved to them. I'm already enjoying him sooooooo much. Last night, Cliff and I took him to Target with us to get some groceries and of course a little toy for Tyler. He got Maracas that sing and count and tell colors. I'm sure the people on the plane with them when they are going home will 'love' me :)

My card today, is using a soon to be released set by Jen Ofiana - Stampin' Spot Studio. It's called Forest Friends and is filled with LOTS of little animals and sayings and such. It's adorable!! You can go to the ATS blog to see some fabulous samples using this set. I colored my image with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits. I can see myself using this set for many many occasions!

Remember the sketch from Amy Westerman from a few days ago. I used it again today :)

Our quote for the day: "A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men." - Anonymous

Have a wonderful day and thanks so much for stopping by!

Introducing Cupcake Occasions

Good Morning! Our girls and grandson are coming today - Woo Hoo!!!!!! :)
This morning's card is to introduce you to yet another set that will be released Monday, November 10th. This one is called Cupcake Occasions and is illustrated by Diane Zechman.

It's is so much fun to play with. There are two cupcake bases and LOTS of cupcake toppings to add. My sentiment on this card is from the set as well. This is going to be such a great release....LOTS of new sets available and they are all fabulous!!!

For my card, I started with Bazzill cardbase and added Heidi Grace We are family/ medium trees dp (I love this paper). The back side of this paper is the brown with white polka dots that is matting the turkey cupcake. The photo corners and scalloped circle were cut with Cosmo Cricket dp (some scraps I had left :) I inked pretty much everything, added some ricrac, some doodling, some dew drops :) and some bling. That's it! This is a great set! You can go to the ATS blog to see some more samples made with this set. You can also go to the dt's blogs listed on the right of my blog for more :)

Another new set will be previewing tomorrow so check back :)

Our quote for the day: "You were born to win, but to be a winner you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win." - Zig Ziglar

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful day :)

Wednesday's ATS Challenge and November Release Preview (whew...)

Good Morning! It's getting colder here. Tomorrow the high is supposed to be in the 50's and we've been in the high 70's and 80's lately! We also have a chance of snow Friday, they say just flurries........ But our girls and grandson will be here tomorrow so I really don't care what the weather does....they don't get to see much snow so that is the upside of it :)

Okay, on to today's ATS Challenge, it's a sketch challenge as you can see below :) Another tip of mine....I have a sketch journal (it's actually just a spiral bound medium sized notebook that my husband got on one of his business trips and I haven't even altered it yet........someday :) I put all the sketch challenges in this journal whether I use them at the time or not and I always put the "key words" by them so when I do use them eventually I can give credit to the proper person. For instance the "key words" for this one is ATSDTC25. When you go to Jen's post about this sketch challenge she tells you that. Anyway, by having them all in one place (and I put sketches from many different places in the same journal) I can flip through them and find one that will work for me anytime I need to. Okay off my soapbox again :)


Here is my take on this sketch challenge. As you can see I flipped it so I could use it for my preview of CC Designs "Christmas Around the World" set that will be released on Monday, October 10th! This set features Birdie from Olivia's birdies set and Monkey is also featured in this set along with Merry Christmas sentiment in many languages (I stamped mine on the perimeter of my card :)

I used Bo Bunny's Christmas line for this one and colored with Copics, with some white souffle highlights. I also used white flocking for Birdie's hat (I love flocking :) Around the 'Merry Christmas circle I punched holes with my paper piercer and used DMC embroidery floss to backstitch around the circle then when I cut out my extra ornaments I cut a slit in the hanger so they could hang from the floss. This was a fun sketch to use. You should try it and upload to our gallery :) You can find the details here.


Our quote for the day: "We must not allow other people's limited perceptions to define us. " - Virginia Satir

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!