Happy Birthday to me cards

Here are two cards that I received for my Bday! The square one is from Lou in the UK and she has a fabulous blog here. She is one of my sistahs/friends in the blogging stampers group called SBS29.
The card is 5 1/4 inch square. Isn't she the cutest, most adorable little sweetie holding a basket full of flowers that have shiny soft centers!! I'll have to ask Lou what she used for those centers. It appears that she hand cut the scallop square. Her embellishment with just the piece of ribbon is an awesome idea when a card, not only gets mailed, but across the Atlantic, it helps keep the bulk and price down a bit.

Not to give preference, one card over another, I am going to talk about each one and then post the pics side by side, I hope.

Jeanne's card, she gave me at our breakfast party two Sunday's ago. If you remember, which I don't expect you would, she gave me the birdhouse that I can't bear to stick outside.

It's going up in my creative space as soon as I go look for a hook to get it in the wall!

I digress...back to the card. Jeanne hand cut her flowers and popped them up. How lovely is this card? Jeanne does not have a blog to link .

Lily has been sick and expecting more 'hold me, Mims', time. Creative space has been rather empty the past two days and it's been calling my name....to no avail. She is a bit better today and I'm taking advantage of the free time to get some blogging and 'visiting' in.
Thank you Jeanne and Lou for the absolute lovely cards and the loving sentiments inside them. Good friends are hard to find. The old saying, "you can't pick your family, but you sure can pick your friends." I'm happy to have been picked by you both.

Thanks to the rest of you for coming by!

News flash

The Greeting Farm canceled their CHA Relay challenge. BOOHOO! I really felt like I might make it to the end of the week. Oh well. No harm, no foul! the image was the cutest little prince. He's free now that they ended it. So I can show him here in all his cuteness.  Just click on the image of Prince Ian and you can go to The Greeting Farm. The image was removed by the author. You can see him in another post on one of my cards.

Can't decide if I want to color him and make him a home on a card front. Will think about it for now. I had sorted through my Cricut cartridges for a crown and found one, but just not decided what to do. Sorta bummer to enter into a contest and then.....if you want to go read all about it............. here.

There is no color on this page...how about a card?

 A masculine card, I don't make enough of these!!!! simple and can be mailed for 44 cents! I took a Bazzill brown paper and rolled it through the CB using Tiny Bubbles ef. then I turned it over and sanded off some of the brown. Distressed around the edges, ever so lightly, of the stamped image.

Sanding, distressed - Masculine.

RX

STAMPS: Wonderful Woodcuts SU- Ebay 2005

PAPER: More Mustard and Club Scrap dark brown brown with white core

INK: Only Orange

TOOLS: CB efolders- tiny bubbles and argyle

HARDWARE: Three brads

INCIDENTALS: Cutter tool set from SU- paper distresser

Thanks for coming by!

OOps, wanted this to post Thursday, not today!

julie's blog candy

Everybody's  giving away candy! Why can't they give cookies? Cookies are my go to! anyhoo, here's the pic and you should go see the other photos and list of candy that she's giving away, like worth $200.00!!!!

 For more of Julie's candy!

Here's Toby

The Greeting Farm's CHA Relay is on Day 3 and I'm still with it! The site has had a few problems due to the volume of creative challengers. Some folks have been excused from the challenge due to time constraints beyond their control. anyhoo, here's Toby Cub:

Due to my lack of techno babble I am limited to the size and orientation of my digital images. I cannot mirror image in the  program I'm working. Nor can I adjust the size to my liking. I printed out Toby in the three sizes that I am comfortable with and will fit on a card. One was a wee bit big, the second wasn't doin' it for me. The third was cute but had the title of the pic with it. I could not get rid of the title, so I changed it to Toby Cub. There is a photo size on my program that's called 'contact size'. I Selected 35 pics to fill the sheet of Buckaroo Blue and made sure that it was on black ink only. Cut my new bg paper to size and here you have Toby in multiples. Eat your hearts out Kate and Octomom. I can have multiples, too! Anyhoo, back to the card. I printed five more tiny Tobies on white and colored one, cut him out, and glued him right on top of one of the blue ones. This card is 5 x 5 1/2 inches so that I could have toby falling off both sides of the bg paper.

I started big because I thought I'd use the largest image and changed my mind.

RX

STAMPS: Polka Dots and Paisley

PAPER: Marigold Morning and Buckaroo Blue

INK: Basic Gray

TOOLS: Wide Oval punch, my computer

INCIDENTALS: ribbon, markers-CCaramel, Pretty in Pink, Brocade Blue

had a great day with my brother, got all of our business and pleasure done. Met Micki and walked our three miles, or was it two? We talked so much that I lost count of our times around the youth center. We walked Sunday am and made it four miles, again talking so much we missed our three mile cut off and just kept going.

Thanks for coming by!

Charlotte

Relay Challenge Day 2

I have a very important date to take care of some business with my brother, Bill. After our banking appointments we'll see a movie and have lunch. Very important!

I'll get back to this blog later. There is so much more to this card that you can't see!

Such a tease!

My very first digital

This was so much fun, learning some thing new.

The Greeting Farm has a relay over on their blog here. This little merman's name is Ian. Assuming he's born today I made him a BIRTH day card. My card today is 5 1/4 inch square card, a little out of my comfort zone, but I needed the extra real estate for Ian and his fish friends from SU's little layers. I used So Saffron to ink up Borderlines just around the edges of the So Saffron card base. I had a piece of generic blue paper already cut to size and ran it through the CB with the ef- Tiny Bubbles and sponged on some Green Galore at the bottom and then ran it across the spongy part of the ink pad at the very edges to get a clean tiny colored edge. The fish were stamped with Palette Noir and covered with pieces of vellum and then cut out. The left fish was stamped onto a blank bg stamp and then stamped on white cs to mirror image it. The Dsp is scrap so I have no info. i used my SU markers and ink pads with an aqua painter to color Ian and then I cut him out. He is popped up with the remnants of SU's alphabet foam. The alphabet foam is thinner than the regular and I like to interchange the thicknesses. the sentiment I put together with my horizontal wooden stamper from Just Rite and the 15 pt alphabet. It's so accommodating.

Here's the Mojo Sketch

Thanks for coming by!

Some of you for the second time!

I am waiting for the digital image for Tuesday. guess you know what I'll be doing all week. and I so wanted to share some photos of my creative space---maybe next week--I'm such a tease---huh?

ED-almost did not remember to tell you that this sketch is from Mojo Monday!

Credit due!!!!

Punching a border all the way around

SU has a new border punch and coordinating corner punch that will allow you to punch all the way around a piece of cardstock. Well, Andrea and Marlene and I tried it according to SU's instructions. Bah, no way was that gonna do what we wanted! We tried all different ways. First, Andrea, then me and then Marlene. Give it up girls it wasn't gonna happen! That was Wednesday. Andrea has decided that her corner punch is defective and SU agrees and will send her a new one. Gotta love SU! Tonight I was looking up through some of my bookmarks and when I opened up one of my faves there staring me in the face was a link to Gretchen Barron's blog with the directions in living color on how to punch a border all the way around the cs using the Scallop Trim Border punch and the Scallop Trim Corner  punch. For all of you out there with the punches and want to know the 411 just click on Gretchen's name above and you'll enter the magical world of punching that border!

Thanks for coming by!

I'll be back with more today, but later.

See you then.

Happy 101

Has anyone told you lately that you are not a happy person? No, well I'm gonna make myself happy here in this post. Kim sent me this awesome award and now I have to list 10 things that make me happy!! WooHoo!!

The picture is a little fuzzy, maybe because it's been passed around the cyber area so many times.
This award came from one of my fantastic sisters in the SBS29 group that came to be in 2010. Kim is our moderator extraordinaire! I believe she is a happy person--look at the smile on her face! (scroll down just a hair and you can view her smile on the right side bar) Look at her list of happy! do you believe she's happy?
I DO.

Here's my list of happy.
I am happy to be alive, to have family that loves me, for the friends that I love and love me back, for the family members that are no longer with me that gave me life, strength, and fondest memories. I am happy in my creative space and as my blog states creating with my heart and hands for the people that mean so much to me. YOU for coming by and reading and leaving comments. I am happy that I am healthy as is the rest of my immediate family and basically so are my five siblings. I am very happy in my kitchen, cooking, baking, putting ingredients together with herbs and spices and putting smiles on those that eat my creations, especially my DH. I am extremely happy to have time to read and time to spend with family whether it's the movies, lunch, arts and crafts, ot just hanging out playing Wii. I have more happy but I've reached my limit. So I will end with number eleven and thank God for my life and all my happiness here and with Jesus and His Mother, Mary with whom I will spend eternal happiness.

Now, it's time to pass the award on to five more happy bloggers!
                                        Kristin
                                        Andrea
                                        Lorraine
                                        Ronnie
                                        Bonnie
You happy five were chosen because when I look at your blogs I see happy art. The kind of creative happy art that puts those happy smiles on your faces. Happy smiles on the faces of your readers! Two of you are sisters of the blogging stampers that were chosen randomly and two are friends in my community and one is an acquaintance from SCS and a follower that has unbelievable grace and peace and light, hint, hint, hint.

So to you new Happy Award winners here are the rules:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. List who gave the award to you and use a link to her blog.
3. List 10 things that make you happy.
4. Pass the award on to other bloggers and visit their blog to let them know!
                                       
                                     

kellie's blog candy

 

ED - Kellie's giving away her candy on February 10th - this year!!

You can go click on Kellie's blog over on the right, My Magnolia Madness. OR you can go see her new blog here to see what all the hub bub is about. There's a bunch o' candy and you just need to follow her directions. Just look at all the stuff that she is giving away! She has listed every item on her new blog and will add more as she gets more candyaholics like you and me.

Thank yous and a tiny treat.

I had a ton of Barely banana strips left over from when Megan was born. LMS had made So Very cute announcements using lots of pastel colors and there were  lots of BB and Pretty in Pink scraps. These small 3" x 3" cards are fab for using all the other scraps, too. As you can see the only thing the same with each one is the flower and the Curly label punch with the coordinating stamp set Cute and Curly. The wee yellow flowers and their leaves are from the same small five flower punch from EK success. Added a homemade dew drop in butterscotch from Adirondack Ink. The little goodie is a butterscotch, chocolate, peanut butter, rice krispie, toasted pecans, mini marshmallow treat that I made using a recipe from the local newspaper. MMMMM MMMMM GOOD.

Love and Friendship

This was the quickest card evah. Less than five minutes if you don't count reinking my Pallette Noir stamp pad.

Black cs and grosgrain ribbon and stamp pad. White cs stamped with the medallion, once in black and once in Green Galore, cut out green, add brad, pop up using leftover foam from SU sets. Stamp sentiment from Waltzingmouse Irish Blessings, tie bow. It took me as long to make it as to put it up as a post here.

Off to enter this submission to SCS. Had to go to Echo website and use an item for inspiration. The pillow looked like an easy target and as I have two bday parties today easy had it's name all over me!

Thanks for coming by!

Delightful Things

This stamp set is from CTMH. I bought it for the great flourish and borders. The challenge over at the Sweet Spot was to use a sentiment as the focal image. And the color challenge came from SCS Bashful blue Suede rubies. my sponging technique on this card is different than usual. this time I just take the card stock edge and run in into the sponge edge of the SU ink pad. So quick, so easy. Here again I incorporated the labels Five into three elements small, medium, and large. i like to get my money's worth! and who doesn't?
OK, do I need to point out the inside or front? Didn't think so!!  although the inside could be inspiration for another card front...IMHO

Thanks for coming by!

Dream come true

Learned a new technique when I made this card. Don't you just love the 'Brick wall' technique? click on Beate's name and see for yourself how easy it is. Just scroll down towards the bottom and you can watch Beate's video beneath the picture tutorial. Be careful as you cut your bricks to keep the picture intact on a scrap piece of paper. I cut my backing one quarter bigger than my image. If you want space between your bricks cut a little larger, but not much. I did use two different cs for the image and the backing. The image was stamped on Natural Ivory and the backing is Confetti  Cream. I took the Noble Deer stamp and inked it up in Creamy Caramel then I took four markers, Brocade Blue (the cloud outlines), Chocolate Chip (the tree trunks, and parts of the deer), Mellow Moss (the trees and grass), Old Olive (more trees and grass) and hit a few areas for color contrast. Then I took a sponge and inked it up with Mellow Moss and hit the grass a couple of times. then I 'huffed' and stamped.  My deer's face sorta disappeared so I made his nose with Ch Chip, his eye with black and a smidge of white, underlined his jaw, and his face appeared like magic. I have a thing about not using ribbon on a masculine card, but twill is acceptable in my mind especially if it's inked up a bit to look dungy. DH's bday is just around the corner and he is a hunter, so the sentiment is just perfect for him. Any one for looking at my picture over at SCS? Click.

Happy twenty-first birthday, Amanda

Hello! What happened? I typed in the info and a two line story and this morning when I go look....it's gone. Everything but the pic is gone. I must have done something wrong, huh? and now I can't get anything-typing or pic, etc to move to the left. Believe me, I tried. Oh, well. ONWARD....

My friend, Micki's DD, Amanda has a birthday today and guess how old she is?
(Well, without anything fixed or button pushed, now my text is on the left. I just hit enter and there every thing went. Go figure.) there was a challenge over at our Creative Corner for a card using blues and greens of all hues.
I used scraps mostly and pushed the Sizzlits alphabet through my CB and whoa this card was created. I like using the CB for the Sizzlits cuz I can put more dies on the CB and 'get 'er dun' quicker. If there is a shortcut in this creative world I am all for it. Actually a shortcut in my life anywhere and I'm all WooHoo! the card looked a little needy and I added the prima and button and....much better. The numbers were originally covered in the same stipe DSP but OH NO it was all washed out. Pulled a scrap from the blue folder and it was looking better already. Too lazy to pull the sewing machine out so paper piercing ended up all over the place. In the long run sewing would have been quicker, but after the first pierce it's too late! I'm happy with it and I know Amanda will love the card as much as what she'll find inside.
When I went to Our Creative Corner this morning another challenge was already posted, so I guess I'll lose out on that one! Oh, well. Today is a new day and I'll just have to move quicker to get posted in time on the challenges. Off to look for a few more.

Thanks for coming by!

Clean and simple sympathy card

the title says it all. I needed to make a card  using Taken with Teal and white cs.  that's all. When it came time to pick out a sentiment, I realized that a friend of mine's Mom had just passed away and this would definitely make a pleasant sympathy card. If there is such a thing as pleasant sympathy- NOT! Used my new pendant from Spellbinders, Fleur de lis. Think you all might get tired of seeing this die? I love it and am so glad that I bought this and not labels four. (which I will buy next shopping trip as I have another J's gift card burning a hole in the bottom of my purse). The paper is from SU, Autumn Meadow and the ink  is, of course, Taken with Teal. I used a scrap sample from the fleur de Lis borderabilies to use as a stencil for the sponging on top of the card and the two bottom corners.

Thanks for coming by!

Celebrate

Every once in a while i need to make a rather flat card for mailing purposes. This card is one of those times. It was being mailed to the UK to a blogging sister, Louise. If you'd like to take a look at her blog she's over on the sidebar under Lulu and card making. Does this card look familiar? It has a fraternal twin that was made for a challenge a while back. The circles are one inch punches adhered to white cs. the stamp set is SU, an old set of mine called Tag Time. The card would not stay closed for the pic so the candle is there doing the job. next day, I bought the easel card holder and that does wonders for holding the cards shut when needed.

Thanks for coming by!                           

New Spellbinder

At least it's MY new Spellbinder, Fleur De Lis Shapeabilities. There are four elements in this set, two pendants and two 'fleurs'. I used these first because I wanted to incorporate them into 2 challenges.

The first challenge is over at Stipple Shapes 

 

and this is the second challenge that I have done on her blog.

The second is over at Fab 'n' Funky Challenges and this is number 6. I found this one over on Lou's blog.

I am just a linking fool today. Give credit where credit is due they always say.

I made, again, my own embellishments using the 1/4" hole punch, glue and Glossy Accents. The GA isn't exactly dry on the card, but I needed to get it posted and now!

RX

STAMPS: Warmest Regards

PAPER: Regal Rose, black, white

INK: Regal Rose

TOOLS: Spellbinders, CB machine, 1/4" hole punch, Eyelet border punch

INCIDENTALS: Ribbon-black, white, pink grosgrains

Thanks for coming by!

Local shopping

Had  a lovely breakfast with Jeanne and Micki today. We sat had an Asiago breakfast bagel and coffee and chit chatted for 2 hours. Then we shopped over at M's. I needed Cricut  blades and Jeanne needed meringue powder for her frosting. There were no blades of any kind so I took Micki home and headed to J's. None. I decided to go ask at the front desk and sure enough the salesperson was willing to go check the back where she found several packs. Woohoo.

Just wait that's not the point of the shopping story.

I had a Joann, oops, J's coupon for 50% off x 2, a 40% x 1, and a gift card that I got for Christmas. Well, I had to keep looking and see what was out there that i wanted. I picked up a few things, nothing dire, nothing that I was running short of at the creative desk. The clear stamp set from the card I posted yesterday was by Inkadinkadoo and was called You Rock. I put a Cricut cartridge card in my basket-Mother's Day 2010. Some Glossy Accents to make some home made dew drops/skittles. I could go on for an hour here. Let's make this story shorter. After one hour of looking at fabric, etc. A small little stand next to an end cap caught my eye. SPELLBINDERS. There were about twelve different ones. Two labels-four and nine. Fleur d lis pendant and border, several different flower nesties, etc. You get the picture. Not a lot of choices, but I was shocked to see them there. I had those coupons and I couldn't buy the three that I wanted. HOLD ON! I showed immense restraint and only bought two. I won't go into my reasoning and save you the boredom.
My point J's sells SB's and you can use your coupon. AMAZING!!

Micki showered me with gift cards for my bday and an amazing card about friendship and how much our friendship meant to her. SOB, where's the tissues. Ajeanne gave me the most adorable birdhouse with birdseed. It is so cute that I will not put it outside. I'm gonna find a place in my creative place to hang it. The birdseed? Anyone need any? i won't ship, it's too heavy but I will find some good bird soul to give it to.
She also gave me the cutest water container so I don't use the plastic bottles. You know the ad - one hour on the treadmill, a lifetime in the landfill. And she made a frame.
Here's a pic of my loot.  

Here's a pic of all loot, shopping and bday. what a haul.

And a close up of the inside of the frame that Jeanne put together with SU elements. She said, "Easy peasy. One piece of paper, one piece of ribbon and a stamped, sponged punch."

I am so excited, I need to go make something with my new stuff, hang a bird feeder in my house, hang a gorgeous picture frame, give away some birdseed, (Jeanne said it was OK to give away since i loved the house too much to put it outside), fill my h2o bottle, make some drops with GA, and plan on spending my gift cards! ETC., ETC., ETC.

Thanks for coming by!
Almost forgot---Jeanne bought me the most beautiful hydrangea plant. It is big and gorgeous. No pic.

Happy Birthday

This is a happy Birthday card for my daughter to give to her husband. The one I showed her got changed around a bit. He really is her rock star husband.

RX

STAMPS: U and R from Outline On the Edge alphabet from SU, my from a Gaelic alpha set, Rockstar and guitar are from a clear set that I bought from J's in their clear stamp dept. I didn't save the packaging, sorry. CTMH has something similar.

PAPER: SU Cranberry Crisp, Soft Suede, Natural Ivory, Crushed Curry

INK: Going Gray, CCrisp, SSuede

TOOLS: ef from CB- Allegro, star punches

INCIDENTALS: gold cording because it looked bare without it.

The CCrisp around the guitar was scraped with my fingernail to rough it up a bit and it sorta hugged the guitar and I kinda like that look.

Thanks for coming by!

Made this card Saturday but just never got around to posting it. Out to breakfast with my friends, Jeanne and Micki--for my birthday--woohoo!!!!! Don't you just love it when your bday last for weeks? Got a gift on Thursday, in the mail, from my DD. It was from I heart papers in NJ. Inside was a Spellbinders label five and an oval wood stamper from Just Rite. Coming home later to see if I can come up with something  to use that label 5!! WOOHOO!!!!

Blog Candy 2010

She Stamps is giving away candy that when you are done you won't need a dentist.
Follow her directions and you can win a really neat stamp set. I see 'The Princess and the Frog' all over that set. see the little frog with a crown. doesn't that look just like the frogs in the movie? My grand daughters would love to play with that stamp.

One of Lily's favorite sayings is 'may all your wishes come true'. And Megan will love stamping and coloring the fairies, both of them. As for me, the worm coming out of an apple...oops already did that! LOL

Thanks for coming by!

I've sat at my desk and made a few things, none of which can be posted until the receiver's receive. I don't want to spoil the surprise for them. I made two birthday cards earlier this week and a set of thank you's today and a little sweet treat that you will just have to wait to see. Be patient! Good things come to those who wait.

I almost forgot. I went online shopping today to purchase some blog candy for my blog to celebrate all my good fortune - followers, comments, challenges, etc.

So stay tuned!

Spread the Love

Found this challenge Wednesday and I didn't have time to get to it. So here's the Sweet Stampin challenge card that I entered. The challenge: you had to use a minimum of three of these four colors- Almost Amethyst, Rose, Red, Certainly Celery, and Pretty in Pink.
My card base is C Celery followed by Rose Red. I took a PP scrap and stamped several of the stamps from Butterflies of Happiness and stamped them into a baby wipe that had reinker drops of the four colors and stamped randomly makiing a background DSP of my own. Two of the butterflies I used the same stamping technique and stamped them on white cs, then cut them out. The butterflies' bodies were then stamped on white cs using Going Gray, cut out and glued to the butterflies' wings. The larger butterfly was glued directly to the cs and it's rings were raised using SU recycled foam. The second butterfly was glued down entirely on the left side and the top half of the right wing was popped up in the same manner as the first. On the A Amethyst scrap I used a CTMH set, Delightful Things, inked in AA. My friend Kristin is a CTMH consultant.  My Sentiment is a little askew on purpose. Just trying to be a wee bit different cuz everything is always lined up and I try to get it perfect. One of my cards this week was not perfect and it seems no one would have known if I hadn't mentioned it!! This was enough of an RX so I will skip that element today. Just a wee bit different.

Thanks for coming by!

P.S. Started another fire today, all by myself. Lily was with me to witness the event. No worries, no more pics!

Louie and Isabelle

There's a challenge over at SCS about Where's the Bad Apple...?   I had a crazy idea about worms and apples and Louie was born. He was so much fun to make that I decided that he needed a girl friend, hence, Isabelle. I couldn't come up with the sentiments that I wanted and have it look like a decent card, so I went with the Be mine and am happy with this outcome. When it was picture taking time, I was having difficulty with the ink smears on BE  and Mine being smudgy and shiny. It was a mess that I didn't notice until I was editing the pics. Back to the photo shoot and I placed the card at an angle so that the smudges might not pick up. I got lucky!! No smudges with either picture that was taken on an angle. However, the last pic was the head on shot and you can see the problem that I was having. Actually the entire card is better IRL. The rick rack body of Isa is so much more 3-D than you see here. Both wormy apples are popped up and Louie and Isa faces are so darn cute, if I do say so myself.

Louie was, excuse me, is a piece of white cotton yarn/string that I dropped Lettuce and Butterscotch onto and then blew dry with my heat gun. (Lettuce and Butterscotch are two colors of Adirondack ink.)   His eyes are 1/16th hole punches with a black dot on a face from 1/4 inch hole punch. He's living in an apple made from the tab punch in red and white, sponged with C Caramel and black seeds. Be Mine is Brilliant Blue punched out with Sizzlits Alpha set. Isabelle is making her home in an apple that was cut with my Cricut. Used the slot punch and put some green rick rack through the holes for her body. She needed to have eylashes so her head needed to be punched from 3/4" circle to hold those big blue eyes

and red lips. I just bought the MS deep edge punch yesterday and had to use it, so there it is in G Green behind Miss Isa. Gold cording and a rhinestone make for a necklace on Isa.  Don't you just love her fashion statement!!!
There was just too much going on for me to wrap a ribbon and bow around this card, so I opted for gold cording to bring out the cord in Isa's necklace.
I definitely wanted different backgrounds for Louie and Isa so the greens don't match on purpose, obviously. they are two worms that are from  two different worlds. Louie likes the simple one with eaten apples and plain old wormy ways. While Isa is living the life in a big red apple and hoping for bigger and better things to come her way. Will love prevail and Louie will win Isa's heart and they will be happily ever after worms. Or will Isa want for the wondrous orchard where she can have all the apples and her pie, too. Will she give up the good life and follow her heart?

Thanks for coming by!

To Someone Special

One of the Sisters of SBS had a challenge posted last week and I finally got around to getting it done, photoed, uploaded, resized, etc. Check out Stephanie's blog challenge. I had until 12 noon today and was waiting for the Glossy Accents to dry overnight. Now I see that it's a little crooked and the adhesive will not give up easily so here it is in all it's crookedness. Why do we not see the flaws til after the glue has dried and the photo is taken?

RX: circles of scraps in the red and green families of color secured to white cs then cut to fit the top of the card. The other half will appear on this blog probably next week. (Making a card for someone and it's a surprise.). Green and pink hearts cut out four times each, glued together and covered with GA and a wee jewel added while the GA was still wet. Green rick rack that I found while purging my sewing bin last month. The sentiment in Basic Gray from SU Flower Garden set and covered with GA and another jewel. the big hearts were punched with Su heart punch. and that about wraps it up!

Thanks for coming by!

Recycled paper, etc

This is the recycled wrapping paper and ribbon that was on my bday present Friday evening. I glued the copper tulle down on my white card base, then the wrapping paper over it. I made the lamp shade from SU scallop circle punch. Decorated it with more copper paper cut with decorative scissors and applied red bling from HSwapp. The vase-- I used Distressed Embossing powder on copper and cut it out, used RRHood on copper and cut that out to be glued to the red and then popped up the embossed one on top of that. Cut a strip from the copper tulle and made a knot and attached that with a big glue dot. On the left I made my own red 'brads' to match by punch out many red dots, gluing together, and applying Glossy Accents on the top after I adhered them to the card. The vase is from Vases in Vogue by SU and the thank you is from SU, too, Wonderful Words.

Thanks for coming by!

Forgot to mention that I edges almost every element with a Krylon Copper Leafing Pen. Love those Krylon pens and they come in various metallics and red. Bought mine at J's with a coupon.

When there's fire there's smoke in the chimney!

 If you want to follow the fire story.......
While I was typing and filing pics for the post below my phone rings.......

Kevin, DS, just called, "Mom, do you have a fire going? Are you home by yourself?"
"Yes, Son, I am home, and yes, I do have a fire going, why?"
DS says,"There's smoke coming from your chimney!"
Me, " Yes, DS, that's what happens when one has a fire going in the fire place."
"No!" DS says, "I mean you have a fire going all by your self?"
"Yep, son", I said, "I have a fire going all by myself, and are you outside?"
He says, "Yes, I came to pick up something at the house for a job that I am working on and as I drive up the street I see smoke pouring out the chimney. With Dad gone, I thought maybe something was wrong."
"Nope, nothing wrong, just making fodder for my blog. Hey, are you still outside?"
"Nope, I'm at the stop sign heading back to work."......"Why?" he asks.
I said, "Because I want to hand you the camera and have you take a picture of our house with smoke coming out of the chimney from a fire that I have going!" I had walked out earlier to get the mail and , of course had to look at the chimney to see the smoke, but didn't want to go back out into the freezing cold to get a pic. Why would I want to leave my cozy little nest with a fire to go out in that terrible weather?
DS with a come back. "Oh, you want me to go stand out side and take a picture in the freezing cold?"
"No," I said. "Take the picture from your work van from down the street."
He just laughed and by then he was back at the job running a new water service for his cousin's restaurant on Duhme Road, not even a mile from here.

FIRE

If you're not into FIRE just scroll down. However, all you wannabe pyros stick to the chatter and see what's at the end.

Right now I'm in between my actual bday and the family celebration bday! This year I'll be sharing my birthday with my DGD, Megan who turns five tomorrow! On my actual bday I didn't want anything cuz DH was leaving on Friday to go hunting with his buddy, Van. DH always takes the dog with him. Brandy, the dog, stays back at camp and guards the fortress. As she is afraid of her own shadow she could never be allowed as a hunting dog. She doesn't really know that she is a dog and if she knew she would call herself a Golden Retriever. She and my DH are inseparable except when he goes off on a call/work. OK, getting to the point! Thursday evening DH set up the fireplace with kindle wood, logs, a flame starter, etc. so that I could have a fire while he was off doing his thing, hunting. Yes, I am a hunting widow, but it's a good thing. I get to be home and do what ever, eat what ever, have girl friends over, be alone, play Wii, surf the blog, play mind numbing free cell or bubbles when ever I want AND. NOT. FEEL. GUILTY. He was a hunter when we met, made me a hunter til the kids came along, and will be hunter in heaven when his time comes. Still getting to the point! THE. FIRE. I lit it. I kept it lit. I added more logs. I. I. I. I did it almost all by myself. Do you know how hard it is to get a good pic of the flames with a flash and how hard it is to get a good pic of the fireplace without a flash? with just a point and shoot?

I live in Florida, a stone's throw from the Inter-coastal, and wee bit further than that is the Gulf of Mexico. It's been a bit unusually cold for a length of time now and we have had several fires burning in our hearth. DH lets the smoke out of the fireplace and right into my nose, the smell, and lungs, trying to breathe here. Today, all by myself I can control that smoke and have a fire of my own. Big, small, burning embers, huge flames. It's all mine. This is the first time in my life that I had started a fire in a fire place. Girl Scouts doesn't count here. I have added new logs, now, three times and it is blazing as I write this. I have taken oodles of pics and believe that I just might make a double page layout, actual scrapbooking of this event.

RX

STAMPS: none

PAPER: Newspaper to get some flames going the first time. Some mail that I didn't want to shred, paper only.

INK: Black-only what was on the newspaper and mail

TOOLS: Fire poker, fire shovel, my hands, fire thrower-that little thingy that shoots flames out the end when you are coordinated enough to hold the locking mechanism and the trigger simultaneously.

INCIDENTALS: Wood, wintery cold day in West Florida, Tampa Bay area, near the Gulf, pyromania, a fireplace

Here's the latest pic, no flash. Love the reflection off the fire screen glass on the right.

The exact same fire, one second later, with the flash.

Two minutes later, with a new log, with the flash.

Thanks for coming by!

I do have a card started using the wrap and ribbon from my birthday present from my brother Mike's wife, Becky. I want a fashion lamp on the front of the card and am working it out in my mind. Like punches, stamps, etc. Stay tuned!

A little thank you

This card would have been done in a jiffy if it hadn't been for so many interruptions. Very welcome interruptions, thank you, but interruptions none the less. Lily needed attention, DUH, phone calls, DH needing something that, of course, was right under his nose. I was pulling paper for a challenge over at SCS and I only had one sheet remaining of Handsome Hunter, so I pulled the three colors and placed them on my desk--got interrupted about six times. Came back to my desk and was not crazy about one,  the color combo, and two, about using the last sheet of HH. sitting right next to the cc was a piece of Really Rust and that looked a little more exciting and fun. So here's my color combo of C Celery, Really Rust, and Taken with Teal with some neutral scraps that were in my piece file. A couple more interruptions and I was back at the computer looking for an invoice for DH which led me to SCS again and a sketch challenge. well, before you say anything-I know it barely resembles the challenge. this is the first  time that I looked at the challenge since earlier today. I drew the challenge in my notebook and took it to my studio to create the card and I swear the card I made looked like my sketch not the actual sketch from SCS. So it is safe to assume that my finished product is my interpretation of the SCS sketch and that's truly all that matters. I like the card. I have plans for who, what, and when.
Interruptions, sometimes, are a good thing!

RX

STAMPS: CTMH for the clock and numbers behind the main image from the set Count On It; SU for the sentiment from the set Happy harmony

PAPER: R Rust, CCelery, Taken with Teal, neutral

INK: RRust, Teal

TOOLS: CB ef- Mesh, Curly label punch, circle punch, clock hands punch.

Also, used Curly label punch to get decorative edge on frame behind main image.

INCIDENTALS: Twill, brad, homemade "brad" using Teal and 1/4 inch punch under clock, lots of dimensionals

Thanks for coming by!

A big fat THANKS to all of you that leave comments as it is so nice to receive kudos for the time spent  trying to earn them.

Rag Quilt

Combined three challenges this go round.
1. SC261 - the diagonal background
2. TLC254 - paper quilting using a die or punch
3. WT251 - it's about time
When I think quilt I think rag quilt so I used my finger nail to 'rag-up' the edges and glued them down to a 4 x 5 inch scrap that had birds on it from a previous card. Then I used the SU Top Note die and used a pink marker to add faux stitching. I used the machine to sew the background to the card base. I stamped the clock in R Red and KKiss and punched out the hands in black paper. I had a green button brad and used pink DMC to tie the button. Popped up all the elements. This card did not take long. The one inch squares took only minutes to make look 'raggy'. I have sewn many a quilt in my day and the piecing together was a cinch. This can be a birthday card, a congrats card, a new job card, a retirement card depending on the sentiment on the inside. AND the hands move!

Thanks for coming by, again!

  

pogo sticks

Remember the story of the gift that I gave up in the store to a gentleman that needed a pink one for a little girl?
Well, John and I had bought pogo sticks for the two grand children that are always outside playing and having a great time with all the kids in their neighborhood. The little boy's was too big and the 6 year old did not even like the pogo stick. they both went back to the store January 1 and they picked out new toys. Do you think I should give up buying anything for other people? NO, I'll keep on trying til they are teens and only want money. It was a good story. It was published on November 28-the title "The Last One." I don't know how to link back to my own previous posts so, sorry, you'll have to go to the side bar and look it up if you'd like.
meanwhile, come on back. I'll have a card up-it's so darn stinking adorable.

Chaos!!!

When the Mom and the Grandmother are addicted to jigsaw puzzles and five wee ones under the age of six are playing in the same room chaos ensues. My DH walked through and could not believe that Mims, the grandmother, was allowing this kind of mess in her living room! The girls had drug the play kitchen into the middle of my living room (you can see the back of it) and I hadn't even noticed. There is a picture of the puzzle table to show you the close proximity of 5 wee ones and the addicts!

The kids were happy, we were deliriously happy to be working together uninterrupted. All the kids knew where we were, they could see us every moment so there was no screaming, crying, looking for attention. They did not and still do not know that we were there in the same room for purely selfish reasons. Every body was happy, OH, I said that already! Little Lily and big Emma were not available for the photo ops! Truly, my LR is not at all like this when the children are not here. The kids are 6,5 (in 5 days),4, almost 3 and almost 2; four girls and one boy. They get along famously and love to run and scream, and jump on beds and scream, and go run in circles through the house and scream, chase each other in one long line and scream. Did I mention SCREAM. The travelers left Monday before I p/u Megan. Let me tell you how quiet my house is! Today as I write this it's Tuesday and I am the only one here at 3 PM. The quiet is deafening-is that ringing in my ears? The TV is on to keep me company, I can't stand the dead quiet, it is eerie.

Thought I would share some of the goings on at my home when the kids come to visit. Emma's parents were here to pick her up and celebrate Tommy's 4th bday. Megan and Lily live close by and spend a lot of time here since I babysit them during the week. They have never even thought of moving the kitchen to another spot and I hope they don't get any crazy ideas of that sort this week.

Irish Twins

My brother and I are the same age for two weeks during the Christmas holidays. I was born in January and he was born in December of the exact same year! Mom always called us her Irish twins. My Dad's Dad was Irish and his wife was French. We have always claimed Irish heritage even though my Mom's side 'threw' in the English. With a name like Duffy we played the Irish ancestry to the limit, as if we were only born to Daddy's side of the fam.
Since I had Waltzingmouse's Celtic Heritage stamp set I made the best of it and made Mike's card. It was made back in early December and he still does not have ownership of it. He and his fam were out of town for his bday, so I still have the card. He did not come to the last family get together cuz he had to work. I'll just give the card to his wife when I see her this week. Better late than never.
All the stamps on this card are Waltzingmouse stamps from either the Celtic Heritage or Irish Blessings sets.
The paper is SU's Soft Suede, Natural Ivory, and Cranberry Crisp. Just about every element is sponged with SSuede. There is a library clip holding the Irish sentiment on the center image. Happy and Birthday are from the same set but there are different fonts and you can mix and match which makes the set awesome.

Thanks for coming by!

Jig Saw puzzle

 This is the third post today-who'd have thought?
Bought em a puzzle cuz she loves putting them together. However, this puzzle was for 12 year olds+. I did not see that age on the box when I bought it. We started putting it together December 31. Got the big white table out and I had all the girls start sorting all the pieces. They had that done in about 15 minutes. This was a very difficult puzzle, but it is done. Em lost interest in about one hour, if that, because her cousins were over and they had a lot of play time to get in. Em's Mom got interested in it on Friday, January first. Happy New Year. Then we got to it first thing on Saturday morning, the birthday party day. Twenty-eight people were due at 4 pm and we were squeezing in cooking and baking while doing the puzzle. Needless to say not much house work got done. We all p/u the toys and such, I gave the bath rooms a quick once over on Friday, so that was done! Oh, I did sweep up after the kids ate lunch and that was the extent of our duties so we could get back to the addicting puzzle. Our company had a couple of good laughs over our addiction and some had their own stories. Lois said when her daughter was young she would constantly be found zig saw piece in hand instead of doing her house work. They did not own many puzzles so Kathy got so bored with the pictures that she would put them together with the picture face down. How funny is that?
Guess what? We finished the puzzle Sunday morning and we were missing just one piece. Emma knew exactly where it was-on the dresser in her parents bedroom.
Emma took pictures and here it is!

A wee one

FYI--this is an easel card and I should have taken the pic a little from the side so you could see it better. Was making this card and was stuck on a sentiment until I remembered that one of my cousin's children is expecting their second bundle of joy this year.                                                  

 I just found out in their Christmas letter.

 I can just imagine how excited they are to add another member to the family. They are such a cute couple and he is getting ready to graduate from The Master's Seminary with his Masters of Divinity degree in May 2010. Double good fortune for this family this year. As they don't want to know if it's a boy or girl until he/she arrives, this color combo, though unusual for a baby is just what the stork ordered!

RX

STAMPS: Circle of Friendship

PAPER: All SU-Barely Banana, Really Rust, Basic Gray

INK:  Really Rust, Basic Gray

TOOLS: border punches SU- eyelet, scallop; Curly label punch, one inch circle punch, 3/4 inch  circle punch, Cuttlebug and ef

INCIDENTALS: Ribbon, brads

I sponged nearly everything with RRust ink, so the gray looks almost brown. The brads are pushed through RRust and then through the ribbon layer and the stamped image. I made this card using three challenges. One, SCS TLC 242, the easel card. Two, SCS CC251, RRust, BBanana, BGray. Three, The Corrosive Challenge, 2 favorite embellishments-ribbon and brads. There was a fourth that I saw on another blog using something recycled but I can't remember. The BBanana embossed pieces were sitting in a scrap file, thus recycled, right?

Thanks for coming by!