Happy Place

I don't know what's come over me...this is three for three...SCS challenges that is, in a row. Today is 'Sketch' day, where they give us the layout and we take it from there. This card seems pretty basic to me, but I like it. I haven't used this set it a long time, and they are kinda cute. I used blender pens and ink pads to color and I took the River Rock and shaded around the images and the sentiment, then sponged around the edges as well, just to give it something.

I'm having fun this week, though...using my supplies and keeping busy during little one's nap times. I can only do so much house work, right?? LOL With this card I pulled out In-Colors from all three years...and even my Vanilla HP which I had never used. I had a piece on another card I posted here, but it was a piece that was given to me.

Set: Very Punny & Cute Converse (both SU)
Accessories: Baja Breeze, River Rock, True Thyme cardstocks, Sentimental Journey DP, Vanilla HP, River Rock Ribbon, Square Scallop Punch, Sponge, Blender Pens w/Inks.

Circle of Friends

Today I thought I'd try another of the SCS challenges. For Tuesday it's always a color challenge and today's colors are: Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun and Kiwi Kiss. So, after taking a look at the colors I was thinking of what I'd like to do...then I spied my new Circle Scissors Plus that I hadn't used yet, so that made up my mind...circles it is!!

All these circles and I thought of the saying "Circles of Friendship"! I had this sentiment in my God's Blessings set from SU and it's a perfect fit for this card. Hardly any stamping, but it was fun to make.

Set: God's Blessings (SU)
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sum, Kiwi Kiss and Very Vanilla cardstocks, Jumbo Eyelet, Vintage Brads, Kiwi Kiss/Very Vanilla Satin Ribbon, Swiss Dots CuttleBug folder, and I sponged some Pumpkin Pie around the sentiment.

For those that sent their kind thoughts yesterday....Mom's total snowfall was 17" and she was without power from Monday afternoon until breakfast Tuesday. Luckily she has a wood stove and she slept through the night :) God is good.

Hen Scratches

Today I thought I'd take on one of the challenges that SCS puts out. The challenge today was Rubber Band Stamping.

First I was to take a block and wrap rubber bands around it. Then take that banded block and using VersaMark, stamp a piece of cardstock. From there I took embossing powder in orange and embossed my banded image. After that we were to take sponges and sponge over the embossed image.

This made my background layer and we could do anything we wanted with it. Well, once I had it done all I could think of was hen scratches. So, that's where my creativity lay today...in the hen house :)

Since I was in the hen house I needed to use some 'chicken' wire accents on my card as well.

Set: Best of Cluck

Accessories: Acrylic Block, Rubber Bands, VersaMark, Orange Embossing Powder, Cutter Kit, Sponges, Only Orange, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, So Saffron and Gable Green cardstocks, Orange Grosgrain, black wire, beads, StazOn Black ink, Only Orange, So Saffron, Gable Green & Close to Cocoa inks, Blender Pens, Prima flower, Rhinestone Brad, Filigree Brad

Thinking of my family up in Maine today, they were hit hard with snow. Mom told me this morning it was about 15" and this evening she is one of many without power. Prayers going out to them that power is restored soon.

Have you heard of Blurfing??

Well, I've joined my second Bloggers group, so I spend lots of time Blog Surfing...Blurfing! It's fun and you get to see so many wonderful inspirational bloggers! We all check out each others blog each week, which helps to keep me motivated to keep my blog updated weekly.

You really should check out my rolls on the left column. First I joined Blog group #5 and I've had so much fun with the ladies on those blogs that last night I joined "Surfin' Oceans 11" and checking out their blogs over the past 24 hours has not been boring, they have so many great projects and cards, scrapbook pages and interesting tales about their lives.

Off to do more Blurfing!!

Check it out...

Not that I want to send you away from my blog, but you should really check out the great blog candy on Blogging Jen's blog! What's blog candy you ask?? Well, every so often bloggers decide that they'd like to just give away some really great goodies! And no...it's not actual candy, well not in a stamper's case...it's goodies for stampin'!! That's the best kind of candy to a stamper!! This one is no exception. So, head on over, give her a comment...and start wishin' and hopin' :)

Oh...and leave me a comment while you are at it, so that we will know who sent you :)

Honey of a Day

Another card with my bee loving friends! They are just too cute! Dancing in the flowers enjoying their honey.

Again (like the last bee card) I have dimension on this card. I stamped/colored and cut out my bees and flowers before putting them on the card with dimensionals. They are justa buzzin' around happily.

The Cuttlebug folder that I used reminded me of honey comb, so I used that for the back ground. I sponged a bit of Garden Green around the top layer to give it that 'garden' feel.

Set: Just Buzzin' By (SU)
Accessories: Really Rust, More Mustard, Summer Sun & Whisper White cardstocks, Chocolate Chip Grosgrain, Primas, Stickles, Clear EP, Ticket Corner punch, Cuttlebug Folder, Spong with Garden Green Ink, Dazzling Diamonds, Water Color Crayons w/Blender Pens

Phenomenal Woman

My daughter was part of a Black History month concert at school tonight. She's in the chorus and they sang a few songs and did an excellent job. I love how they are able to sing hymn type songs on nights like this...in a school....where the Word of God is usually kept quiet.

Anyway, they sang then later the drama teacher read a poem which I'll post here. I've always liked Maya Angelou and this poem is great! And then to end the night was the schools STEP team. I view it as a combo of cheering and the group STOMP, lol. They are excellent.

For those that don't know what STEP teams are, here is a YouTube link from previous years: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDejCEb8rdw the group we saw tonight had way more energy then this group, but it's all fun.

Here's the poem....to all my girlfriends out there :)

Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
~Maya Angelou

Buzzin' By

I finally got time to sit with my new Buzzin' By stamp set! It's been sitting on my craft table just calling out to me and I've had to keep saying "I haven't forgotten you....I'll get to you soon" I really felt like I was a bad stamp parent, lol.

Anyway, I had this retired designer paper that looked just like honey comb! And it went along with the color that I wanted to use, so voila!

This card has lots of dimension. I even dug out my Stamp-A-Majig for this one. Since my flowers and bees went beyond just one layer, I had to Majig it to make sure that it would all line up. I didn't wan their little legs to be all crooked :)

I saw that someone else had cut out the door to the hive on their card so I did that too, it looks like our little bee friends could really fly inside.

I used gold Stickles on the flowers and black Stickles on the bees antennae. Their wings have Dazzling Diamonds while the hive and the flowers are embossed with clear EP. I had just purchased these large colorful Primas, so they were used here too!! This card was a lot of fun!!

Set: Just Buzzin' By (SU)
Accessories: More Mustard & Whisper White cardstock, Garden Green Textured cardstock, Designer Paper, Primas, Stickles, Scallop Edge Punch, Clear EP, Water Color Crayons w/Blender Pens, Dazzling Diamonds.

Happy President's Day

When I was a kid in school, we had two days off this time of the year. One for President Lincoln and one for President Washington. I guess I must be so OLD that they figured there were so many more Presidents that they would just all have to share one day, HA!

Today was supposed to be a day off from school for my daughter, but back in January they had a snow day. Yup, here in coastal Virginia, a snow day....however that day it never snowed. They were certainly expecting it to, it came up through North Carolina, but went out to sea before it came to us. So, they had a day off from school with no snow. Back home, we would never have missed a day 'in case of snow'....there would've had to actually been snow on the ground. And not just an inch...I mean a real snow!

Funny enough, we woke today to a dusting on the ground!! But, today being their 'make up day' for the day missed in January, they didn't cancel the school day over the dusting. I was shocked. People around here can't drive in even a dusting, there are always tons of accidents reported. But, I thought for sure this would be a big funny....the make up day needs to be made up, but no....off she went. I thought I just had to snap a couple pictures to share.

Being from Maine, this is nothing, but I still think it's pretty.

Too bad the birds flew off when I went outside to snap this picture:

And here the snow is just sitting on the tops of the fence:

And this is a path in the back yard, I love how the snow doesn't cling to the stones.

Happy President's Day! Remember how hard those men work. Whether we voted for them or not, I wouldn't want their job. Pray for our President, he has a hard job ahead of him.

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is always a special day in our family. It's also my Mom's birthday! So this year when I was thinking of her birthday card...my Mommy and Me group solved that for me. We went and stamped our babies feet into the shape of a heart. It was so much fun. Of course always an event when trying to do something like that with squirmy babies, but I think way more precious then anything I could've stamped with rubber!

I came home with my card that only had the feet on it and finished it off with some Primas and heart RainDots and of course a SU sentiment.

I'm sure that Mom wasn't disappointed not to get a handmade card from me this year for her birthday, this tops any that I could do.

Also, a couple weeks ago when our little bundle approached the 2 month mark, my daughter and I took him to have his picture taken. We had so much fun! He's our STAR! He enjoyed it very much. He had 3 different outfits and he just smiled though the whole thing. I'm in love with my blue bundle. All his pictures came out great, it was hard to narrow it down to the dozen I got :)

Here is his Valentine picture to everyone! Isn't he just the cutest!! Enjoy!

Unfrogettable Valentine

A friend of mine asked the question recently: "What was your first Valentine's day with your husband?" This was something I hadn't thought about in a long time. It was so nice to dig back in my memories to that special time.

He made the plans and we headed up to a ski resort for the weekend. I don't ski, but instead we went snowshoeing, which I really love. It gets you out into nature and it's great exercise! Anyway, we had so much fun. The resort had special things going on for the weekend, so we were able to take part in the festivities and enjoy our time together. And we had a romantic dinner at the lodge!

This year, my sailor is off in the middle of the ocean, so our Valentine's Day is long distance. Luckily with the modern technology, we are able to email just about daily. And I sent him a Valentine's care package which arrived to him earlier this week. And here is the card I made him this year.

I didn't have the right sentiment to use, so instead I printed this off the computer in a fun font. I do love these frogs, as you can tell. I seem to go back to them often.

I sponged the primas to give them a two-tone color effect. And I found that I had the perfect 'RainDots' for the occasion, and used a heart on my Prince's chest :)

Set: Unfrogettable (SU)
Accessories: Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, Rose Red, Brocade Blue Classic Inks and cardstocks, Confetti White cardstock, Black Stazon, Computer Generated Sentiment, White Gel Pen, Sponge, Primas, Rhinestones, RainDots, Ziggy, SU Markers, Bluebird Grosgrain

Sale~A~Bration

It's that time of year again! The time that we all look forward to, save our wish lists for...the time where our purchases let us earn more goodies!! FREE stuff is always a bonus!! This year is no exception. Stampin' UP has expanded the goodie line! Where it used to be just stamps, then they added designer paper, this year there is also a ribbon bundle!! I know that will be the first one I'm aiming to earn. I have a soft spot for ribbon!!

For every $50 of product you purchase, you are able to choose from the great SAB products. Click here to see the full brochure! Contact me if something catches your eye!! This special runs from February 1st-March 31st 2009.