Season of Joy

Good afternoon, Friends! I hope that your week is going great! Mine is going quickly! I had a little 'down' time and thought I would get a quick post up. I am hoping that I will have some time to stamp this weekend. I got a few new sets and some fun stuff from 'other companies'. I don't know if I am supposed to say that out loud or not but I did. I just can't help myself! So, I just hope that I get some time to play.

This is the final result of my Christmas card swap that I participated in. I used a sketch from the Clean & Simple blog. I have used this sketch on a few other cards. I just love the versatility of it! And it was super simple to do!. The most time consuming part was cutting out the Christmas tree. And that's not that bad. These were a lot of fun to make. I got my other swaps back and they are just gorgeous! I look forward to recreating some of them!! Thanks for stopping by and have a super day!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Season of Joy; Paper- Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Merry Moments designer paper; Ink- Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Real Red; Accessories- gold brad, Real Red grosgrain, corner rounder, dimensionals

Delightful Decorations #2

Good Sunday morning everyone! The sun is definitely NOT shining this morning. Hmmm. Looks like it will be a cold blustery soccer game. Better get my coffee to help keep me warm. If we win today we will be in the championship this afternoon. This is a tough team. I know we can do it but they are a lot more aggressive than we are. I just hope the boys are awake for this game! But if we don't win, then we hop in the car and get back to Fruita for a flag football game. I don't want you all to think that we will have any down time!! Then my son must get to work on his book report that's due tomorrow. Yeah, he's not going to enjoy that one!

Today's card is the second of a set of Christmas cards that I made for our school's silent auction. Again, super easy and not a lot of 'bulk' for mailing. I did forget to mention yesterday that I used the ornament punch to punch out the stamped ornaments. That make it so much faster when putting these together. Love that thing!! Well, have a super day! Tomorrow it's back to work. UGH!!

Card Recipe: Stamps: Delightful Decorations, Four the Holidays; Paper- Whisper White, Taken With Teal, Holiday Lounge designer paper; Ink- Taken With Teal; Accessories- silver brad, silver cording, ornament punch, Perfect Details texturz plate, Big Shot, dimensionals

Delightful Decorations #1

Good afternoon, Friends! I hope that your weekend is fantastic! We started out very early today. Not something I am fond of doing on my weekend but we didn't have a choice. In fact, my husband didn't get up as early as he had wanted and that made for a harried morning. But we made it to our first game on time. It was cold but sunny. We did lose our first game 5-0 but won our second game (against a different team) 4-0. We have one more game tomorrow against a team that we have lost to before but I know that we can do it! It is just so much fun to watch!

Today's card is one that I did for my school's silent auction this next week. I made twelve of this kind and twelve of another. They will be packaged separately. I wanted to make something very simple but nice. And I wanted to make sure that they could be mailed without having to have extra postage. So, neither of the cards got ribbon. I think that they should mail just fine. We will see what happens! Thanks for stopping by and have a super day!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Four the Holidays, Delightful Decorations; Paper- Sahara Sand, Real Red, Whisper White, Holiday Lounge designer paper; Ink- Real Red; Accessories- silver brad, Perfect Details texturz plate, Big Shot, corner rounder, silver cording, dimensionals

Sweet Treats

Good Friday afternoon! I hope that you all are ready for a fabulous weekend! I know I am! We started our weekend a little earlier. We didn't have school today - Yea!!! I took this opportunity to sleep in and it felt so great! The weather has turned colder here the last few days so it felt so good to snuggle under the covers and sleep. Then I got up and lounged in my jammies with a cup of coffee and browsed blogs and found some new card sketches. I came up with some really easy Christmas card ideas to make for our school's silent auction. I will be sharing these later. I am going over to stamp with some friend's this evening and will be working on these. When you have been out of the stamping loop for so long, it is really hard to get back into it. It's like I have to re-train my brain to think creatively. So, I am hoping that I can get back into it this weekend. My son has a big soccer tournament this weekend so I will be kept busy but still hope to find time.

So, while browsing some of my favorite blogs I came across Becky Roberts' tutorial on making these little cards using the new Sweet Centers stamp set. I bought this way back when demonstrators could get it for $5. Yeah, I wasn't passing up that deal! But I haven't even broken it out yet. So when I saw her tutorial I thought that I would give it a try. I didn't have any Halloween candy to put in the little cup (which reminds me that I need to get some). But I did find some black jelly beans that my friend Judy Smith passed out at last month's shoebox meeting. Thanks, Judy!! I don't really care for black jelly beans but I thought they would work great for my project! Do you see that little tab on the side? Well, when you pull on that tab, the black jelly beans will come falling out! You don't even have to 'tear' into the cute little card to get them. Isn't that just so clever? I can't wait to try it again! Thanks for stopping by and have a super day!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Sweet Centers, Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper- Green Galore, Only Orange, Whisper White; Ink- Basic Black; Accessories- 1 3/4" circle punch, round tab punch, sweet treat cups, black jelly beans

Serene and Peaceful

Good afternoon, Friends! WOW! Did you all give up on me? I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted! Shame on me! But I haven't had much time (actually, NO time) to stamp. Yikes! And now September is practically waving 'goodbye' to us. Where does all this time go? I know I am sounding very cliche' but it is so true! I get up, get ready, go to work, teach a full day, send the kids home, question my son about homework, get him going on homework, change for whatever sport he has practice for that particular evening, drive him there, eat dinner out somewhere, go home, finish homework, go to bed just to get up and do it all over again! Sound familiar to anyone else? Well, this last weekend I got to go to a Women of Faith conference in Denver. It was so awesome!!! I had so much fun. Another teacher (and my very good friend) and I took Friday off and left for Denver. The conference was Friday night and then Saturday morning and afternoon. Then Saturday after it was over we got tickets to a Rockies game!! I had way too much fun! But now it's back to reality. And I do hope that I can squeeze in some stamping time this weekend. But we have a soccer tournament so we will see. Wow! I have really babbled! Sorry about that!

Today's card is one that I did for a recent swap I was in. It uses a set from the current holiday mini catalog, Serene Snowflakes. I just love this set! I love the vintage look of it. Anyway, I got my swaps back yesterday and decided that it was 'safe' to let you all see it, too. I hope you like it. Thanks for stopping by and have a super day!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Serene Snowflakes, Four the Holidays; Paper- Very Vanilla, Bordering Blue, Kraft; Ink- Bordering Blue, Very Vanilla craft; Accessories- Boho Blossoms punch, silver brad, scallop border punch, Perfect Details texturz plate, Big Shot, dimensionals

Thankful Thoughts

Hello, Friends! I am so happy to be posting right now! I got to leave school a little earlier because I had a hair cut. But when I got to my stylist, we were talking about how much we liked the length of my hair and that it was looking really good and everything, that she just trimmed my bangs and cleaned up the back a little and that was it! It literally took about 5 minutes! Thankfully, she only charged me $5 to do that. So, then I am thinking, wow, I can go home before I have to be at church. And when I get home, my husband has taken Nick to football practice so I have the house to myself!!! Yea!!! Every mom out there knows how wonderful it is to have the house to herself! Do I hear an AMEN?!

Anyway, now that you all know how peaceful I am feeling at the moment, I can tell you about my card. I actually made it the other day. I got the layout from the Clean & Simple Stamping site. It is one of their more recent sketches. I think I am in love with this sketch! This sketch is so very versatile! I will definitely be using this one a ton! Just a super simple fall type card. Not too much to say about it. I hope you all have a super day and thanks for stopping by!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Grateful Greetings, Asian Artistry; Paper- Soft Suede, Naturals Ivory, Dusty Durango, Crushed Curry; Ink- Black StazOn, Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Soft Suede, Dusty Durango; Accessories- vintage brads, corner rounder, blender pen, dimensionals

Jack-o-Lantern Smile

Good Monday morning, Friends! Ready for another week? Not so sure I am. The weekends just seem to fly by! But here we are. And September is quickly coming to a close. My favorite time of year is here - Fall! I love it! I get to start wearing clothes that will cover more of my body up!!

Today's card comes from a card I saw on Stampin' Kub's blog. I really liked the layout of this card. And I really wanted to make more fall cards. It seems that I have been in this Christmas mode for a while. So I thought this would be a nice switch. I used some of our new Night and Day specialty paper and sponged some Pumpkin Pie ink onto it. With this designer paper you can customize it for whatever you are doing! It's great! A fun card and really pretty easy! Thanks for stopping by and have a great start to your week!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Eat, Drink, & Be Scary; Paper- Sahara Sand, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Night and Day specialty paper; Ink- Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Basic Black; Accessories- black brad, scallop border punch, sponge, dimensionals

A Real Contender

Hello everyone! I am so frustrated that I haven't posted in a while. I just can't seem to get caught up on everything. And any down time that I seem to have, all I want to do is sleep! And the weather hasn't been helping. When it's cloudy and rainy it really makes me want to stay in bed! So, it's another busy sports season. I do love it all, though. Saturday we had a soccer game. It was our first real taste of what is to come. Our boys are playing an age level up so while this is their first year of playing on a full sized field and with 11 players, the other teams that we play are more experienced by at least a year. After saying all that, we won our game last Wednesday but lost quite badly on Saturday. At least they played the second half much better! The other team didn't score any on us in the second half! Today we had a double header flag football game. This is Nick's first year playing and he is quite an asset to the team! He is really good at running the ball and weaving and turning his hips so that the other team has a really hard time grabbing his flags! It's quite fun to watch! So that's been our routine around here lately. Like I said, I am loving the sports!

Today's card was a real contender for my swap card that is due this week. At the last minute I decided to go with a different design. I do have them ready to mail out tomorrow! I used a card from the current mini catalog to come up with this design. I do like how it turned out and I might use it for the cards that I am making for our school's silent auction next month. It's all pretty simple! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Season of Joy; Paper- Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive designer paper; Ink- Old Olive, Chocolate Chip; Accessories- Sleigh Bells ribbon, gold brad, scallop border punch, dimensionals

Trick or Treat!

Good morning everyone! I will have to make this very quick as I am trying to get us to school a little earlier. I have some things I need to take care of before the day gets started. And I have a staff meeting.

So for today's card I wanted to get away from Christmas for a while. I thought I might focus on the more recent holidays that are coming up. I know that Halloween is not a favorite holiday of many but I happen to like it. There are so many cute Halloween things out and I love the dressing up and the little downtown trick-or-treating that our small town does. But I don't like the blood and guts that some have turned it into. So I stay away from all that. Anyway, I just had to make a Halloween card using the Eat, Drink & Be Scary set. I love this set! I did substitute the words from the Grateful Greetings (new mini catalog). I do apologize for the picture being blurry. Not sure what that's about but I will hopefully get that taken care of. Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous Wednesday!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Eat, Drink & Be Scary, Grateful Greetings; Paper- Old Olive, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Old Olive designer paper; Ink- Basic Black; Accessories- Old Olive grosgrain, black brad, dimensionals

And The Thunder Rolls...

Good afternoon, Friends! Wow!! What a storm we had last night!! I didn't get hardly any sleep. The electricity kept going off and I was afraid of oversleeping until I finally went and got my cell phone and set the alarm on that. The thunder was incredible!! And just as soon as you thought that it was over another round came a rumblin' through. I wanted to download my card this morning and do the post at school but another storm came through right at that time so I just decided to wait. While it has been quiet for a while today, I think that we are in store for more. And I am glad about that since it has been a while since we have seen any rain. It's a nice change and a reminder that fall is in the air!

Today's card is one that I am seriously thinking about for my Christmas cards. I really liked the way this one came together. And it was really simple. I stamped the Serene Snowflakes on Kraft cardstock using Bordering Blue, Vanilla Craft, and VersaMark. Then I used my new Merry Details sizzlit and die cut two snowflakes. Super simple! Thanks for stopping by and have a super day!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Serene Snowflakes, Four the Holidays; Paper- Bordering Blue, Kraft, Very Vanilla; Ink- Vanilla Craft, VersaMark, Bordering Blue; Accessories- vintage brads, Merry Details sizzlit, Big Shot, dimensionals

Good Works

Good evening! I am posting a little late but I wanted to get a card up. My brother came over this morning to spend the day with Nick. Nick was so excited that he got to miss school to play with his uncle! But now he has to pay the piper as he needs to get caught up with all the day's school work! And that's after soccer practice. He should be wiped out but here he is all wired up!

So, today's card is one that I received in a swap last month. The creator was Tammy Mullins from Puyallup, WA. I loved it so much that I had to recreate it and use it for my shoebox project. It turned out to be really easy! I did change the colors and the greeting just a bit but the overall design is from her. There is a lot of sponging on this card but it sure turned out cute! Enjoy your evening! Hopefully, I will get a post up earlier tomorrow! I really must be off to bed now.

Card Recipe: Stamps- Inspired By Nature; Paper- Creamy Caramel, Basic Black, Whisper White, More Mustard; Ink- Old Olive, Basic Black, Creamy Caramel; Accessories- Old Olive grosgrain, sponge, white gel pen, Boho Blossoms punch, 1/2" circle punch, Top Note die, Big Shot, dimensionals

Petals-a-Plenty

Good Sunday morning, Friends! I just loved all your comments from yesterday! I am thrilled that I got my computer working yesterday and can just come in here and post my next card. I was also able to figure out how to get my e-mail! Now that is a complete miracle!! I got out one of my old computers and just looked at how that account was set up. I did have to tweak a few things but I did it all by myself! You all are probably a lot more computer savvy than me. I wish I was. But it works and all is good!

My son has his first flag football game this afternoon. He was asked to be on a team when (friends of ours) because they didn't have enough players. So now we have flag football (won't let him play tackle) and soccer for the next two months. Do you think we will be busy?

Today's card is "reject" number two. I actually liked how this one came out. I seems really "festive" to me. I just love the Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder. I borrowed this one so I may have to order my own. The card is very simple. Not too much say about it. Thanks for stopping by and have a super day!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Season of Joy; Paper- Very Vanilla, Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Merry Moments designer paper; Ink- Old Olive, Chocolate Chip; Accessories- Real Red wide grosgrain, gold brad, Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder, Big Shot, dimensionals

Feels Like Christmas!

Hey you all!!! I am back!!! I got my new computer yesterday! I am so excited to be back in the "game"! I LOVE my new computer. It is smaller than my other one and I am still getting used to all the stuff it has to offer but I really love it! Thankfully, my brother is visiting and will be able (I really hope) to get my other stuff from the broken computer onto this one. I am still crossing my fingers on this one as we really don't know if it is possible. In the meantime I am waiting for him to help me get my e-mail set up on this computer. I will be glad when I don't have to use my phone for e-mail. But I am thankful that I was still able to get it.

So, because of all the computer technicalities, I didn't post anything. I just felt very discombobulated. I couldn't search all my favorite blogs and sites for wonderful challenges to participate in and I hadn't been able to look for new sketches. I was really bummed about that! Now I have to try and remember all my favorite sites so that I can go and plug them back in! I had already started to write them down. But here I am and I plan to spend this day getting some cards made for the week. Yea!!

During my "down" time I was asked to be in the Control Freaks group. I am so honored and thrilled!! I have admired the work of these ladies for quite some time! So to have someone recognize my work and ask me to be a part of this group is such an honor! I will be finding out their blog sites and posting them to my favorites in the next few weeks so you, too, can see their marvelous work! So, the first thing I am doing as a member is participating in a Christmas swap. My task is to use the Season of Joy set and come up with a Christmas card. I sat down to play a little last weekend and came up with a few. While I can't show you the final result, I can show you the "rejects". This is the first one. I don't hate it but I just don't love it. I used my new Merry embosslit to emboss the little tag. It was an easy card and fun to make using my Big Shot (the card is embossed with the Perfect Details texturz plate).

I also want to thank everyone for your wonderful comments! Thank you for missing me! It sure is nice to know that people are waiting for you! And I do want you all to know that I do read all your comments! You all are the BEST!! Have a super weekend!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Teeny Tiny Wishes, Season of Joy; Paper- Very Vanilla, Real Red, Old Olive; Ink- Old Olive, Chocolate Chip; Accessories- gold brad, Sleigh Bells ribbon, Merry embosslit, Perfect Details texturz plate, Big Shot, dimensionals

Dirt Bike Extreme

Good Monday morning! Are you all ready for another week? I can't believe that August is done. That sure went fast! I will be making this quick as I have to hustle my son to get everything we need and get out the door to school. Sometimes he can be so poky!! Last night my husband ordered me a new computer! It should be here in the next few weeks. I am so excited!

Today's card was based on a sketch from Karen Giron. The sketch was from two weeks ago but I didn't get a chance to post it and you know all the details of that. Anyway, I really liked how this one turned out. I just love this "extreme" look. I used the colors from our recent Stampin' Success magazine to get the background. I did emboss the biker but I didn't cut him (or her) out this time. Anyway, this was a fun card for me. Thanks for stopping by and have a super day!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Extreme Elements, Extreme Dirt Bike, Fundamental Phrases; Paper- Crushed Curry (textured), Bermuda Bay, Basic Black, Whisper White; Ink- Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango, Bermuda Bay, Soft Suede, VersaMark, Basic Black; Accessories- vintage brads, black emboss powder, punch (I forgot the name-yikes), dimensionals

Fifth Avenue Newlyweds

Good Sunday morning, Friends! I hope that your weekend is going super! I helped at a yard school that our school's parents were putting on. It was a huge yard sale and we sold a ton! In fact we made over $2500!! I say that it was pretty successful! But it was hot out there and I did get a little sunburned. After that my friend and I went out to Olive Garden for a great lunch/dinner. YUM! And then, when I got home, I realized that my ankles were really swollen. So I slept really good last night!!

Today's card is one that I made from a sketch. I can't remember where I got it. Since my computer died, I haven't been able to visit all my favorite websites/blogs. I really like this black and white paper from the new mini catalog. This layout is so versatile. I know that I will be using it again! Thanks for stopping by and have a super day!

Card Recipe: Stamps- Fifth Avenue Floral, Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper- Basic Black, Whisper White, Night and Day specialty paper; Ink- Black StazOn; Accessories- Whisper White taffeta ribbon, scallop border punch, word window punch, dimensionals