FS121 ~ It's Been A Great Ride!

Congratulations to Roxie for being selected as this week's Featured Stamper at Splitcoaststampers! I thoroughly enjoyed browsing her gallery...it ROX!!! :)

I selected one of her Father's Day cards to c.a.s.e. because I loved the layout and it worked for the image I wanted to use.

So, I kept the same layout and basic details, but changed the stamped image and paper. This card is for my hubby ~ MW (aka Mr Wonderful). We're celebrating our 36th wedding anniversary on June 2nd and it really has been a GREAT ride! :)

A little background...MW sold his motorcycle before we got married so we could buy a car. It was a classic... orange '73 Nova hatchback! Somewhere I have photos and I really should try to find one to post. You would LOL! Anyway, Jim has wanted a Harley all these years and reminds me of it often. It's just never seemed to fit into the budget.

The sentiment is computer generated and came from one of my clever Stamp Shack friends. I asked them to make suggestions and they had me laughing out loud. On the inside, I put: "After all these years you still make my heart RUMBLE!" :)

I'm not sure about this wild paisley background paper, although it is totally 70's! I like it, but not sure it goes with this image. It's "Traditions Floral Paisley" by the Paper Studio and goes well with the Stampin Up tangerine tango and metallic silver cardstock. I think I'm going to try something a little more subtle and see how that looks. What do you think?

The stamp I've used is "Snoopy and His Sidekick" by Stampabilities and I've colored it with copic markers. And what is a motorcycle without a little CHROME? Note the shiney silver brads on the bottom. ;)

This week sure did ZOOM by! I haven't done much stamping / cardmaking this week...but, yesterday I sat on the deck soaking up the beautiful sunshine and colored some images and sorted my buttons. :) No kidding, I want to start using buttons on my cards and decided to sort them by color into the little glass jars in my spice rack. Did you see the post where I shared what I found "junkin" and repurposed it for embellishments?

Well, I best finish the laundry and make the bed before it's time to use it again! I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend, finding time for YOU and doing what you love!

Smiles....

Quote for Today ~

A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity. The order varies for any given year. ~Paul Sweeney

Oh Mercy! {Splitcoast Featured Stamper}

One of my favorite bloggers has been selected as this week's featured stamper at Splitcoast Stampers!

Congratulations to Mercy Kerin from Lord Have Mercy!

When I saw that Mercy was chosen, I was doing the happy dance for her! I've always admired her fabulous creations and her blog is a great source of inspiration!

To see Mercy's card that I cased, click on this link. You'll notice that I've used the same Stampin Up set ~ Thoughts and Prayers ~ and the same basic layout, but I've changed the colors and, instead of paper piercing all around the layers like Mercy did, I decided to zigzag stitch with my Janome Sew Mini.

If you want to view Mercy's incredible creations at Splitcoaststampers, her ID is mkstampin74. Or, be sure to stop by her fantastic blog ~ Lord Have Mercy! You'll be so glad you did!

This has been such a nice relaxing weekend for me and I hope for all of you as well. The weather was much better than expected with plenty of sunshine today! Hubby and our son, Andy, planted a "celebration maple" tree in the front yard and DIL Jami and I planted onions and potatoes in our little garden.

Have a wonderful week dear friends and thanks so much for stopping by. Have I told you lately how much I enjoy your coMments? They really brighten my day and make me SMILE!

Quote for Today ~

I believe in prayer. It's the best way we have to draw strength from Heaven. ~Josephine Baker

Memorial Day Blog Hop! Honoring our Nation's Heroes ~

CardsforHeroes.org is sponsoring an amazing Memorial Day Blog Hop of patriotic cards and if you haven't already hopped through the links, I highly recommend you do! There is such a beautiful array of red, white and blue creations from many of our favorite super-talented bloggers!


Cards For Heroes collects and sends blank greeting cards to those brave men and women serving in our Armed Forces so that they in turn can send cards home to their families and loved ones. If you'd like to donate cards to this great cause, please visit the Cards for Heroes website for all the details.

My card was created using the Stampin Up "God Bless America" set, and I colored it with markers to get the red stripes and blue heart. I started with a 6 x 6 piece of natural cardstock folded in half, distressed all the edges and stitched on a piece of crackled navy paper (Karen Foster). This was an easy card to make and one that I can easily mass-produce for such a worthwhile cause.

I hope you're enjoying your Memorial Day weekend as much as I am! Thanks so much for stopping by!


God Bless America!





Quote for Today ~

This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave. ~Elmer Davis

My Friend ~ {Color Throwdown Challenge #43}

When I saw this recent Color Throwdown Challenge, I said "Count Me In!" I adore these colors together and the combination immediately made me think of lilacs in the springtime!

This is a two-step stamp set by Stampin' Up called "Blossoms Abound". I stamped one lilac layer in lavender lace and the other in elegant eggplant. For the leaves and sentiment I used old olive. I've used three different background stamps for this. The old olive cardstock has the crosshatch and the lavender lace is stamped with linen and then with the polka dots. Do you think the big button and ribbon is too much? I wasn't sure. At first I tied a small purple polka dot ribbon through the button and I liked it, but in the photo it looked funky...like the colors didn't match.

Gosh, it's getting really late and I do have to work tomorrow...TGIF!!! Am I ever looking forward to a nice 3-day holiday weekend! Yes indeedee! :)

So that's all for now my friends...Smiles 2 U!

Quote for Today ~
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~Marcel Proust

Cheers To You! {Birthday Bracelet in a Bag}

This card was created especially for one of my friends at work who's celebrating her birthday tomorrow. I wanted to give her just a little something and I found the perfect gift...a handmade bracelet created by my DIL Jami! :)
It's SO pretty that I wanted to keep it for myself! The photo makes it look blue, which would be beautiful too, but it's lavender...more like the color of the card and tag I made to go with it.

I think she'll like it, don't you?






As for the card, this is a color I rarely use ~ orchid opulence by Stampin' Up! The designer paper is from a glitter DCWV pack which gives the card a little extra sparkle. I've layered and stitched it onto a piece of soft sky. The sentiment is from "Lots of Thoughts" also by Stampin' Up! I used the "Simple Stripes" background stamp and orchid opulence ink on the bottom half.

I'm not sure what happened to our weather, but it went from chilly to HOT in one day! I usually don't mind the heat, but it's very WINDY too. Because of that, we shut the windows and turned on the air conditioner, only to find out it isn't working! Hopefully, it's nothing major and someone can fix it tomorrow.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope you're having a great week so far!

Smiles,




Quote for Today ~
The best kind of friend is the one you could sit on a porch with, never saying a word, and walk away feeling like that was the best conversation you've had. ~Author Unknown

Just Finished 3 ATC Swaps ~ Wanna See?

It seems like I go in spurts signing up for ATC swaps. I really enjoy making them and it's even more fun to get them back in the mail and see what everyone else has created.

All three of these swaps were hosted by my stampin' friends at the Stamp Shack. The first one is for Traci's "Tooty Fruity" swap. When I think of fruit, I don't think of watermelon, but I really wanted to use this cute little bee stamp by Stampendous.

As you can see by my photos, when I create ATC's, I do it in assembly line style. Once I have my plan in place, I cut out all the cardstock, stamp and color the images and assemble.

Appropriately, God Bless America is the title for this ATC....for Traci's "Patriotic" swap due on July 1st. It will be such fun to get them back in the mail around the 4th of July!

This stamp was a "special edition" sold by Stampin Up in 2001. I used markers to ink the rubber so I could get the red stripes and blue heart.

Last but not least is this silly "Interactive" ATC for Joanne's swap. We were to create an artist trading card with a movable or "interactive" part. I got sucked into this one and had no idea what I was going to do! : /

So...I created a little folder with a quote and it opens up with the ribbon tab. Not really very clever, but I went with it! :) When I get my swap back in the mail, I will be sure to post all the others so you can see just how creative everyone can be. It's amazing!

I didn't go into much detail about these, but if you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask! Just leave a comment and it will go directly to my email.

At the last Stampin' Up workshop I went to, I ordered the "Thoughts and Prayers" set and have yet to ink it up! I need to make a few sympathy cards and have them on hand so that may be what I'll do this afternoon.

It has warmed up outside so I should really go do some yardwork and enjoy the sunshine!

Smiles,

Quote for Today ~

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes, ART is knowing which ones to keep. ~ unknown

{WSC81} Just droppin' in to say . . .

. . . you made my day! :)

I'm so glad I've had time to stamp today and create a card for the Weekend Sketch Challenge hosted by Charmaine at Oodabug Alley.

When I first saw this sketch, I thought it would be easy to create a card with it, but for some reason I struggled! Mainly because the first image I had colored didn't work well with the ribbon and scalloped circle. So, I went to Plan B and stamped and colored another Changito monkey from the same set ~ Changito Birthday ~ by Stampendous. I ordered it when I was at The Stamp Garden in Sioux Falls last month and she mailed it to me.

The FUN designer paper is from the Basic Grey Cupcake paper pad I received from winning Sue's blog candy last week. There are several different wonderful prints in this pad and I'm going to enjoy them all! The sentiment for this challenge was supposed to be under the square, but I'll have to try another one with it that way. Be sure you go to Charmaine's blog and see her super CUTE get well card and all the other awesome challenge cards as well!

On another topic . . . have you ever had a microdermabrasion facial? For Christmas, the kids gave me a gift certificate to a local spa and I decided to use it this morning. It didn't hurt, but I could feel it, and it sounded like she was sand-blasting my face off. LOL :) Now my face feels like a baby's butt! :) The esthetician said... at MY AGE it's very important to remove those dead skin cells. :) And, of course she sold me a bottle of miracle hydrating anti-aging cream too! I'll keep you posted if I begin to look years younger! HA! :)

Smiles 2 U my friends!

Quote for Today ~

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been. ~Mark Twain

In the Perfect World...

Another wonderful weekend! YaY! :)

I want to share the fabulous Mother's Day card that my sweet DIL Jami made for me. Don't you love the designer paper and that big beautiful flower?

Several of you use to follow Jami's blog {Crazy Daisy Creations} and know she hasn't had much time for stamping and blogging lately. Since graduating last December, she's been busy substitute teaching and also doing a lot of jewelry making. My photo doesn't begin to do it justice, but check out this GORGEOUS silver and black necklace & earrings set she made me for Mother's Day!...

The next photo is of Jami (on the left) and her friend Karmen at a recent craft fair. They had such a beautiful display of handmade jewelry! Sadly, they didn't have a lot of customers, but I think they had fun doing it!

The next photo was taken on Mother's Day... our son Andrew (Andy) with Jami and their german wirehair - Ber. They are in front of the apple tree in our backyard.

I wish our daughter Katie and her fiance Warrick could have been here too, but they're living in Nevada now and busy with work. She called and always sends me a great card too, rotating between funny or "mushy". This year's card was really cute with the following sentiment...

"In the perfect world...

there would be no such thing as work... calories wouldn't exist... every day would be a good hair day... and everyone would have a Mom like you!"

How sweet is that?! It makes my heart SMILE. :)

Wishing you a wonderful weekend filled with all good things...and especially time to do as you please!

Smiles,

Quote for Today ~

When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses. ~Joyce Brothers

Distressing with Dapple Designs!

Last week I mentioned that I had a couple more cards to show you that I created especially for the Ink-A-Palooza challenges at The Stamp Shack.


This card was for Tami's {Teabear} "Distress Delight" challenge. Check out the awesome tutorial on her blog at Dapple Designs. Tami is the queen of special ink techniques and convinced me to try this!


In fact, it was so FUN, that I made another one... :)




I hope you're all having a terrific week! Tomorrow is FRIDAY! YaY! :) It's been a bit stressful at work lately and that makes me enjoy my weekends more than ever!


Thanks for stopping by! Smiles 2 U,








Thought for Today ~

During my second year of nursing school our professor gave us a quiz. I breezed through the questions until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?" Surely this was a joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Before the class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our grade. "Absolutely," the professor said. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say hello." I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy. ~Joann C. Jones

More Happy Mail! : )

I'm doing the HAPPY DANCE again today! Just look at what I found in my mailbox tonight! This FABULOUS card was created by the one and only Charmaine from Oodabug Alley! I just *love* it and she knew that I would! Isn't it just the most cheerful card ever?

It's such a wonderful layout too...the Weekend Sketch Challenge #80, hosted by Cambria. Charmaine says she recently bought this adorable Stampendous stamp called "Smile Curve" from Stamper's Dream. I especially love how she's colored it and layered the image with the blossom Nestiblilities. WoW!

For more info about this incredible creation, please visit Charmaine's blog. You'll be so glad you did!

And a personal note to Charmaine... THANK U dear friend, you really made my heart SMILE! :) Bless you for sending the images too! I'm going to have FUN with these!






Quote for Today ~
A kind heart is a fountain of gladness,making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles. ~ Washington Irving

Happiness is Winning Blog Candy!

What a WONDERFUL surprise to find all this in my mailbox yesterday!!!

I had totally forgotten about winning this awesome blog candy at Sue's Stamping Stuff in honor of her first year blog anniversary and 30,000 posts! {Congratulations Sue!}

Just look at all this! There is some Tim Holtz grungeboard...which I've never used before. It looks like chipboard, but it feels like leather! There is also a package of cuttlebug border embossers that I've been wanting, super cute Basic Grey cupcake designer 6x6 paper and a clear cupcake stamp set by Doodlebug Designs! WoW! Lucky, Lucky ME! :)

OMG! I can't forget to mention Sue's unbelievably ADORABLE Snoopy card she sent along with the package! This is a first-rate exquisite creation with such exceptional detail! My photo doesn't do it justice. There are several layers and that is a shiny silver cardstock. This is one of the most professional looking handmade cards I've ever seen!

After seeing this card, I had to find out who makes the Snoopy stamps and they are by Stampabilities. I can't believe I don't have any yet! There are SO many cute ones and they would be really FUN to color! :)

I wish Sue had been here to see me open this! I was smiling from ear to ear and doing the HAPPY DANCE!! :)

That's all for now, but I'm still planning to post some cards I've made this week, so stay tuned for more later!

Have a Happy Day!

Smiles,





Quote for Today ~
Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open. ~John Barrymore

From Spice Rack to Embelli Rack!

My sister Susie and I love to go "junkin" and
today was our first outting of the garage sale season. It was pretty chilly...only in the 40's this morning when we started out, but we dressed warm and away we went!

There isn't much either one of us *needs*, but we are both obsessive collectors and our motto is "You just never know!" ...meaning we just never know what treasures we might find...even at the most unlikely places! There are times we've wanted to drive on by some sales, but we stop and end up finding the best deal of the day! :)

Susie is an avid reader and "book collector" and has thousands! They are all cataloged and neatly shelved in her home. Today, she found several more...most of them like new for .25-.50 each. I always drive and she reads the ads and navigates. We've both lived here all our lives, so we know our way around for the most part. Although today we never did find Gingerberry Drive. We knew it was in Berry Hill with all the other berry streets and we were on Hackberry, Mulberry and Blackberry, but apparently Gingerberry is a new one because it wasn't on our map! Oh well, we probably saved a few bucks by not finding it. :)

Where am I going with this story? Well, I want to tell you about my "find" of the day! I spotted this nice wooden spice rack with glass bottles and immediately thought of repurposing it for my embellishments! I've already dumped out all the spices, ran the bottles through the dishwasher, washed off the labels (with the help of goo-gone) and filled up the bottles with my clips, large brads, buttons, etc. Now I've got it on the shelf above my stamping table. Cool, huh? I thought about making labels for the bottles, but it really isn't necessary since you can easily see what's in them.

My "find" of the day...
I'm sure you're wondering if I bought anything else....well, I found a pair of denim capris for $1, taking a chance they would fit...and they did! :) I also bought a small americana quilt from a sweet gramma for $5. Good times! :)

Now, I really need to clean up my messy stamp room and then I'll post a few other cards that I made this past week for INK-A-PALOOZA at the Stamp Shack.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Please let me know if you have any ideas for other items that could be recycled like this. I always enjoy hearing from you!

Happy Weekend! Smiles...





Quote for the Day ~
Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping. ~Bo Derek

Baby Shower Creations!

Last Saturday, my sweet DIL Jami hosted a baby shower for her special friend Mandey. Since Jami has been too busy lately to post to her blog {Crazy Daisy Creations} , I'm going to post some photos for her. :) I know many of you know Jami and would enjoy seeing these. The shower was beautiful and she put so much thought and effort into it!

The card to the left is the one I made for Mandey to go with my gift. It's one of my favorite baby cards to create and I've posted it before. It's not my original idea and I don't know who the creative genious was that thought of it! I've made it in a variety of colors and used different stamped images for the center.


The night before the shower, Jami asked me if I would like to create a couple sets of cards for prizes and then she sensed my hesitation. I had to think about it awhile and then a terrific thought came to my mind to case my dear stamping friend Charmaine of Oodabug Alley fame. Way back when I first discovered Charmaine's blog, I won her blog candy for an awesome gift set of cards. I still have them because they are just too adorable to use or giveaway! {If I can find the link, I'll post it so you can see them!}


Basically, I created two sets of 4 note cards each with matching envelopes and then made matching folders to put them in. The folder cover is decorated to match, tied together with ribbon and wrapped up in a clear cellophane gift bag.

I'm not going to go into detailed instructions, but if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!
























Now, I know you've been waiting to see a few photos from the shower too...the decorations were wonderful, the food was delicious and it was such FUN! Now, we're just waiting patiently for Mandey to have her precious Baby K! :) I think it's going to be anyday now...














It's a bright sunny day here and I really should get outside and enjoy it!
Smiles 2 U all...






Quote for Today ~

Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ~Elizabeth Stone

Stamp Out Swine Flu!

Today's silly card is for Joan's INK-A-PALOOZA "Time for a Laugh" challenge at The Stamp Shack. She asked us to take any stamped image and create a card that would make you SMILE!

I selected my "Blue Alien" stamp by Stampabilities with the intention of making a funny birthday card with a saying like... "I hope your birthday is out of this world" or something along those lines. As I was coloring the image with my Copic markers, I thought of this sentiment. There has been SO much press about the swine flu this week and I hope and pray it isn't as serious as they're making it out to be!

Do you like this bright geometric designer paper? I found it today at The Red Apple Scrapbook Store in Columbus, NE. It is Kaiser Scrapbook paper ~ made in Australia. I've never heard of it before, have you?

We had such a beautiful day today and I'm hoping for more weather like this tomorrow. I do believe that SPRING has finally sprung! YaY!!!

Enjoy your weekend and do what makes you SMILE! :)






Quote for Today ~

There comes a time in life when you have to let go of all the pointless drama and the people who create it and surround yourself with people who make you laugh so hard you forget the bad and focus solely on the good . After all, life is too short to be anything but happy.
-Author Unknown