Good Monday morning!

I run a local home school support group in our county and every month we load up and take our kids roller skating! Well, we found out a couple of months ago that the girl that owns the rink was expecting! We wanted to do something nice for her because she always takes such good care of us, so we threw her a surprise baby shower! We all showed up bearing gifts right before Christmas! She was so excited...made my heart feel all warm and fuzzy! This is the card I made to go with my gift! I kept it simple! I used letter brads to spell 'baby' in the corners of the focal point and a few beaded flowers to add a little something! I love the bunny from this SU! set! It has been over a week and a half since I made this card so the exact ingredients are long gone from my brain, but I thought I would share the card! : )

Whew! Made it!

Well we did it! We made it through all of the Christmas hustle and bustle!! : ) Well, almost! We still have one more Christmas celebration to have until we roll up the Christmas table cloths and undecorate the tree! My children are lucky enough to have a wonderful set of surrogate grandparents! We always get together with them shortly after Christmas for a nice visit! We tried to plan it early this year, but between our schedules Saturday was the best we could do! So, Sunday will be our pack up Christmas day! Saturday works well for me also because it will give me the chance to put the finishing touches on their Christmas gift! (Ok, we are all friends here...I can be honest! It will buy me enough time to start their gift! Shhhh! I make them a calendar every year! Complete with pictures of their 'grandkids'! They really love it! They keep all the calendars up and flip them all each month (those are truly dedicated grandfolks!) I have just been so swamped this year that I haven't had time to make one! I am excited about it though because this year there will be much stamping involved! : ) I will post a picture when I am done!

I hope that everyone had a full and very Merry Christmas!

I have been tagged...!!!

Ok, I must admit I was very excited to be tagged! I was tagged by The Lucky Clucker! (link on the right side of my blog!) If you haven't checked out her blog, hurry over! She does beautiful work! What a fun thing! Ok, here goes!

These are the rules of the game:


Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, we all want to know them.

Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

Let each person know that they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.


1) I graduated high school in Puerto Rico! The building that my graduation was held in is no longer standing due to a hurricane.

2) I married my first love! We met when I was 12 years old.

3) I make a pot of coffee about three times a week and make a great big cup, but usually only drink about three sips! I really just love the way it smells!

4) I am really freaked out by snakes! I am not a panic-y person, but snakes really, really creep me out!

5) I am a Navy brat! I have lived in the Phillipines and attended over 12 different schools!

6) I love chocolate, windy nights, sausage and mushroom pizza, sunflower seeds on my cottage cheese, the beach, the way play doh smells, fuzzy little animals, winged things, movie theater popcorn, hanging out with my kids and the color pink! I don't love fish (the smell or taste!), Monty Python movies, classical music, saying goodbye, when cashiers are rude, polyester or extreme cold!

7) I am allergic to vinegar!

Since it is so close to Christmas, I will refrain from tagging anyone HOWEVER...if anyone would like to be tagged just say so!

Thanks Lucky Clucker, this was fun! : )

Aaaaargh!!! Did ye say cookies, matey?!

I participated in a recipe card and cookie exchange with some of my fellow SU! demo's recently! It was so much fun! (and yummy!) We were supposed to decorate a 6 X 6 recipe card and make a dozen cookies per demo to exchange. I made hidden treasure cookies and decorated my card with the Ahoy Matey stamp set from SU!. I used the coordinating wheel for the background and rubbed the edges of the base paper with cranberry crisp ink to give it a tattered and worn treasure map sort of look! I mounted the recipe on black and sponged with cranberry ink. I also roughed up the edges to make it look old! I stamped the chest and cut it open and added a brad to make it look hinged! I used some bling from the Michael's dollar spot to add treasure to the chest and added some sparkle to the water with Stickles. This was such a fun project! I am hoping to do something similar in the future!

In addition to the paper recipe I will include the cookie recipe here! My kids all really love these cookies!

Recipe:
Paper: SU! Close to Cocoa, Cool Carri bean, Real Red, Basic Black and Very Vanilla
Ink: SU! Cranberry Crisp, Brilliant Blue and Basic Black
Stamps: Ahoy Matey! and coordinating Wheel
Extras: Stickles, Gold Brad, Bling from Michael's Dollar Spot and Silver gel pen

HIDDEN TREASURE CHEST COOKIES:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 14oz can condensed milk
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups flaked coconut
1 package chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts

**Preheat oven to 375. In a small mixing bowl mix graham crumbs, flour and baking powder. Set aside. In a large bowl mix all other ingredients. Combine the two bowls. Drop by rounded teaspoons and bake 9-10 minutes one tray at a time. Enjoy! : )

Bagalopes!!!! What fun!!!

I know these have been around for a while, but I just learned to make them and couldn't be more excited!! What a fun idea! They are called bagalopes because they are made from envelopes and transform into the cutest gift bags ever! I took the idea and supplies to my Homeschool meeting and taught the moms how to make them! Once they made theirs I went around and filled them with Hershey's kisses and we tied them up with a festive ribbon added a tag that I premade and viola!! That was everyone's Christmas gift from me! : ) It was a fun project! You can make them from any envelope and the possibilities are limitless!

Just for funsies...!

Wanted to use a stamp this morning that had never touched ink, so I dug this one out!! How cute is she? She reminds me of my youngest daughter! I used purple as the card base because that is my daughter's favorite color! I used my coluzzle to cut the half circles and the vanilla circle. I took the guard off my corner rounder and made the scallops around the edges of the center circle. I folded the card so that the edges meet in the center and the top layer slightly overlaps the other layer. I used Stickles to brighten the centers of the flowers and added a strip of flowers along the edge. They were a clearence find in the fabric dept at Wal-Mart! It was a fun, happy project!

Recipe:
Paper: SU! Orchid Opulence, Very Vanilla, Old Olive and Pixie Pink
Ink: (markers)
Extras: Flowered ribbon, coluzzle and Stickles

Cone Ornament!

This morning while blog hopping I came across this really amazing cone ornament on Dannie's blog! (http://danniesdesigns.typepad.com/) I thought it was so pretty so I set out to make one of my own! I went through my stash and discovered that I have no patterned Christmas paper left, so I made my own! I sponged Very Vanilla front and back and cut it into the 24 necessary squares. In hindsight I think that the patterned paper would work better because it is thinner. I was pretty darn happy with the finished project though! Isn't it pretty??!!! Dannie did a great job with instructions on her blog...check it out! I am going to try a few more with some patterned papers.

Recipe:
Paper: SU! Very Vanilla and Old Olive
Ink: Wild Wasabi, Cranberry Crisp, Handsome Hunter, More Mustard and Real Red
Stamps: Perfect Presentation
Extras: Spiral Punch, Circle Punch, and brads

Ever wonder what your name would be if you were an elf?!

Your Elf Name Is...

Giggles Snowballer

What's Your Elf Name?

Just hear those sleigh bells ring-a-ling!!

Good morning! I woke up this morning with my Christmas to do list racing through my head! Does it seem to you that it gets more stressful every year?! I always cave in and try to do it all, but have decided to try to scale back some this year. I want to enjoy things more and stress less! I want to bake a ton of fun food with my kids because they will enjoy it and not because I feel obligated! I want to decorate leisurely and not feel like such a heel if I don't do a little something for everyone in the world! I mean do not get me wrong! I LOVE to do things for people and wish that I could do a little something nice for everyone I know, but this year I just want things to be a little calmer! In fact, I have decided that rather than try to complete my usual 1,000,000 thing full to do list that I will do much less and try to do lots of little things for people during the upcoming year! That being said! I made a single Christmas card this morning! Just one! I enjoyed it very much! : ) I will be making a few more and will share them once they are finished!

I sponged the So Saffron with More Mustard and paper pierced the border. I dug out some of my scrap booking punches and made snowflakes and holly leaves! I used some shiny baubles for the holly berries and the accents off to the side. These were a find from the Michael's dollar bin! I roughed up the edges of the Handsome Hunter to give it a distressed look and made two corners for color and mounted the top right corner against them. The gold ribbon came from the Dollar store and I used my paper crimper for the strip of Very Vanilla and added some green accent dots with a marker. I colored the stars silver and then added some Stickles shine to them! I love sparkle! : )

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Recipe:
Paper: SU! So Saffron, Handsome Hunter, Real Red and Very Vanilla
Ink: More Mustard and Handsome Hunter
Stamps: Stamp from Michael's dollar bin
Extras: Punches, Gold ribbon, Stickles, Rhinestones from Michael's, paper crimper and silver pen

A few birthday goodies!

There is a mom in my home school group that has a birthday this week and one of her daughter's shares the same birth date (I think that is so cool!)!! I wanted to do a little something for them and so this is what they got! I made a basket (which I later filled with chocolate!) and altered a mini composition notebook and pen. I also altered a pail from the Target dollar spot and filled it with chocolate and a stuffed puppy dog! The recipients were very pleased! Smiles all around!

I made the card with the help of my cuttlebug and will include the recipe for that!

Recipe:
Paper: Old Olive and Pixie Pink from SU!
Stamps: Make a Wish by Gina K Designs
Ink: Pixie Pink
Extras: Stickles, pop dots, Old Olive ribbon

Christmas is in how many days...?!

My kids used to counts down the days to big events by counting 'how many sleeps' were left! They have started the Christmas countdown and so I thought it would be fun to make an advent calendar! We have never made one of these! I loved the tutorial on SplitCoast, but wasn't interested in paying that much for the tins to make it, so as per usual...we got creative! We used heart shaped baking tins ($1.00 for 24!), posterboard ($.47), wrapping paper ($2.00) tissue paper ($.97) some store bought stickers and bling ($3.00), candy ($3.00) and scrounged up the rest of the supplies from things we already had laying around the house! I wrapped all of the candy this morning before the kids woke up so that when it is their turn to open for the day it will be a surprise! I have four kids and they will get to take turns breaking the tissue paper and getting the candy! Youngest to oldest! I used the SU! spiral punch to stamp the numbers and we put them on the inside and the outside so that the numbers will still be visible after the tissue is broken! This was a fun project and the kids really enjoyed it!

Hanna has arrived!

Hanna made her way into my mailbox yesterday! She is so adorable! I do not have very much experience with acrylic stamps, but I have really enjoyed playing with these! She is such a happy stamp! She is just over flowing with positive attitude and spunk! I paper pieced Hanna's coat and boots! I added the little ducky on with a pop dot and glittered the whole thing up with Stickles! More Hanna to come...

Recipe:
Paper: SU River Rock and Very Vanilla Misc other papers
Stamps: Hanna's Rain Day
Inks: SU Navy, Basic Black, Groovy Guava and More Mustard Pads, Earth Elements Markers
Extras: Prima Flowers, Mauve Brads by SEI, Blender Pen and Pop Dots

Time Well Spent

I have to say the more I play with this set the more I really, really like it! It offers a ton of possibilities!! I used it to make a birthday card for someone special! I used pop up dots to add some dimension and used lots of Stickles to make everything sparkle! I used the masking technique to layer the flowers on top of each other and kept the colors bright and happy looking! It shimmers much nicer in person than in the photo! Happy, happy birthday!

Recipe:
Paper: SU!'s Pink Passion, Very Vanilla and Blue Bayou, Generic Burgandy
Stamps: SU!'s Time Well Spent & Holiday Cheer
Ink: SU!'s Sage Shadow, Orchid Opulence, More Mustard and Pink Passion
Extras: Stickles, Pop Up Dots, Eyelets, Blender Pen and Flower Embellishments

Wishing You Well!

My new Gina K Designs stamps arrived! I LOVE them! I ordered The Make a Wish set because a portion of the price goes to the Make A Wish Foundation. I really like this set! I also ordered some other goodies that I will share later as I make things from them! I am experimenting with non mounted stamps and thought this was a good place to start! I was right...they are so much fun! Gina has a great company and offers wonderful customer service! Plus she includes the cutest little thank you for ordering m&m's with her name on them!
I made this card with simplicity in mind. I kept the colors subtle and added a touch of bling to dress things up just a bit! I used a blender pen to shade the well and add a touch of green to the grass. I used my crop-o-dile to set the eyelets and left the inside blank.

Recipe:
Paper: SU!'s Old Olive, Close to Cocoa, River Rock and Very Vanilla
Stamps: Gina K Designs Make A Wish
Ink: SU!'s Bravo Burgandy
Extras: Silver Eyelets from M'Bellish!, Old Olive Ribbon and Finishing Accents by Darice

Free Stuff...Woo Hoo!!!

Stampin' Up! sent all of their demonstrators a free stamp set to say thank you for doing what we do! I received mine yesterday and absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! I will be mounting it tonight and hopefully will find a few free minutes tomorrow to play with it!

Thanks Stampin' Up! :)

A double pocket fold card!

This is a really fun little card to make! It is called the Double Pocket Fold card and despite the way it looks is very easy to put together! It is made from one piece of 8 1/2 X 11 piece of card stock! The inserts (bookmarks in this case!) take an additional piece or scraps! This would be a nice card to stick a gift card into!

Recipe:
Stamps: SU! Wild Rose, Teddy Bear stamp by Whipper Snapper Designs and Priceless by Inkadinkadoo
Paper: No name find from Micheal's, Stampin Up! Old Olive, River Rock and Handsome Hunter
Ink: SU! Old Olive, Pink Passion and Pomegranate
Extras: Ribbon, Silver Eyelets and Gold cord from SU!

A double pocket fold card!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...!

Here are the gorgeous gift tags that I promised to share from my demo meeting! Aren't they preeeety?! These will dress my Christmas gifts up nicely this year! : ) We meet monthly and have a different themed swap each month. I love seeing all the creative ideas these ladies come up with! They are really amazing! Enjoy!

Sisterhood of the Blogging Stampers 2

I joined a bloggers group this morning and I must say I am really excited about it! It is called the Sisterhood 2 of Blogging Stampers! Cute, huh?! This is the beginning of a second group of stamping bloggers that were interested in exchanging comments and sharing things on their blog! There are 30 bloggers in the first group and I make #7 for the second group! As a member of this blogging group you agree to check out the blogs of your new sisters at least weekly and leave comments! Also, you agree to leave a tidbit or two about yourself on your own blog so your new sisters can get to know you and finally you agree to post links to their sites on your blog! I will be adding these as the group fills up!

Now for that tidbit:

I turned 20+17 a few months ago! I am a sahm to 4 pretty amazing kids! We homeschool! Been married for 17 years! I coach soccer even though I am the world's least athletic person ever! I am a chocolate addict! I LOVE pizza!! I like to exercise and am hopelessly addicted to rubber stamping! I have developed what may be a semi unhealthy addiction to paper and cutsie little embellishments! I love the beach! My mom (greatest mom ever!!) lives in Alaska. I am a Navy brat! I am allergic to vinegar...yuck!! I am a procrastinator extradonaire , but a pretty decent organizer/leader! I like things with wings...butterflies, dragonflies and fairies (but not flies!) Happy is my favorite mood! Thats me in a nutshell!

Ok, off to work on my new blog roll!

Have a great day! Pictures of something to follow soon...promise!

So, they say the mind is the first thing to go...!

I spent several hours working on swaps for my demonstrator's meeting today and was so excited about how they came out! I went to the meeting and had a really great time and then tonight after dinner it occurred to me that I completely forgot to take a picture of them! I made 84 Christmas gift tags! It was a fun project and I got several beautiful tags in return! I will spread those out tomorrow and take a picture of them to share!

Have a great night!:)

Well, we did it!

We made it through the soccer season! We had over 115 games (of which we personally attended 114+ of them!) including tournament games! Overall, it was a very successful season! We are a soccer family and really enjoy running the program, but the break will be a welcome one! It seems that everything in our lives gets put on a back burner because it is so time intensive. So, now I will have more time in my schedule to get back to my exercise routine and get my grungy house cleaned up and of course stamp! :) Stamping has become really good therapy for me! I really enjoy it...it challenges that creative side of my brain! As they say...use it or lose it! Happy Stamping!

I have a few things to share that I managed to squeeze in time wise over the last few weeks!

I will also be working on a holiday tag swap later today and will get that posted soonest!

AnnMarie : )

Hug a Coach!

If you have children that play a sport you should make a point of hugging your coach! I am a soccer coach and have been for several years! There is a lot that goes into coaching and sometimes it can be kind of a thankless job. Because I also organize our coaches I know how important it is to say a great big thank you to our coaches!! Sometimes you get lucky and your children get a good coach, sometimes you get really lucky though and your children get a wonderful coach! We were lucky in our league to have several wonderful coaches this year and so I wanted to do a little something for them to say a special thank you!

I made the baskets from 12 X 12 paper and stamped a simple thank you on them. I filled them with floral foam and then stamped the flowers and assembled them around wooden dowels. I made the center of each flower a soccer ball and mounted them onto the spiral punch. I filled the baskets with shredded paper and of course...chocolate! They were a a big hit!

Remember to hug a coach today!

Recipe:
Stamps: Stampin' Ups Pick A Petal, Just Soccer and a Thank you Stamp (no brand name)
Paper: Stampin' Ups Old Olive, Groovy Guava, Sky Blue, Basic Black and Pixie Pink, Misc papers
Ink: Stampin' Ups! Purely Pomegranite, Old Olive, Brilliant Blue, Groovy Guava
Extras: Spiral Punch, Wooden Dowels, Floral Foam

Thank you! Thank you!! Thank you!!!

Part of wrapping soccer up this season was to say thank you to some very special people! So, what better way to say thank you than a home made gift filled with chocolate! I made our referee's a little something! I filled bags with chocolate and made a little bag topper with a soccer ball as the center piece. I used Stampin' Ups! spiral punch and stamp sets. Yum! Thank you's should always be tasty! :)

Halloween Card!

Ok! I know a Halloween has come and gone, but since I am running so far behind I thought I would post this card anyhow! I mean how can you go wrong with such a cute witch?! This card made me laugh out loud! I bought this stamp from Whipper Snapper Designs (Sorry about the lack of link...I thought I had it figured out but for some reason it is still not working! Note to self...have hubby troubleshoot my lack of link trouble!!) They make some of the cutest stamps!! I plan on starting a fine little collection of those big guys!! : )

I will skip the recipe on this one since Halloween is a thing of this years past! I will, however, post a photo of both the outside and the inside!

Booooooooo!

BeeHave Dog!!

I saw this stamp and had to have it for my mom! She loves animals and this stamp had her name written all over it! Happy to say she loved it! She used to own a dog that was full of mischief and this stamp says it all! I tapped the background blue with a cranberry crisp stamp pad. I used my Crop-o-dile to set the eyelets (LOVE that toy!!) and used a blender pen and a sponge to color the image.

Recipe:
Stamps: Penny Black's BeeHave Stamp
Paper: Stampin' Ups Brocade Blue, River Rock, Close to Cocoa and Very Vanilla
Ink: Cranberry Crisp Stamp Pad, Misc Bold Bright Markers
Extra's: White ribbon, Pastel Eyelets, Flower Eyelets, Stardust Stickles
Techniques: Sponging

Dare to be Fabulous!

This was such a fun card to make! I fell in love with Vellum the first time I saw it! It just looks and feels so soft and elegant. I liked the way the soft look of vellum balanced out the boldness of this stamp set! I was not crazy about this set the first time I saw it in the catalog, but it grew on me and has become one of my favorites! It is funny to me how that happens! I used white pigment ink on the vellum and used my heat gun to speed the drying process up! I plan to duplicate this design in the future! I really liked the way it came out!

Recipe:
Stamps: Stampin'Ups Dare to be Fabulous
Paper: Vellum, Stampin' Ups Groovy Guava and Wild Wasabi
Ink: White Pigment Ink and White Gel Pen
Extra's: Rhinestone Brads, Silver Eyelets, Stardust Stickles and double layered flower made from vellum

Wow!! 17 Years!

This October Cory and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary! I made a simple card that said simple things, but was full of love. Sometimes the things you don't say are heard the loudest! I am not going to post the recipe this time. Just wanted to share the photo! : ) Happy Anniversary to a very special man. <3

Hubby's birthday Card!

I LOVE this set from Stampin' Up! He just looks so festive and happy! The saying never trust a skinny chef comes to mind every time I see him! I paper layered the chef's shirt and the cake twice. It may be hard to see in the photo though. I paper pierced the edges and added gold brads to his buttons and some shiny red bling to his kerchief! Hubby scored with an Ipod this year so the card was simple! :) Happy Birthday, Cory!

Stamps: Stampin' Ups Viola'
Paper: Stampin' Ups Real Read, Basic Black and Very Vanilla
Extra's: Gold brads, Red crystal bead
Techniques: Paper Piercing and Paper Toling

I am still alive!!

I am back!!! It has been so nutso around here and I have had very little spare time to stamp! Between soccer and home schooling the hours in my days have run out waaay quicker than my to do lists have been marked as done! : ) I finally decided that I was taking Sunday off from everything to get some stamping done! I got quite a bit accomplished though and wanted to share! So here are some of the things I worked on!

A birthday card for Gus!

Gus is my step dad and is is such a great guy! He and my mom live in Alaska...picture Grizzly Adams! : ) I wanted to make him a special birthday card and this is what I came up with! I used Black, Very Vanilla, River Rock and Wild Wasabi card stock. I used the Wanted stamp set from Stampin' Up! and embossed the horse and cowboy in gold and used white ink on the Genuine stamp. I sponged the light card stock with cranberry crisp and used my edge distressor to rough up the edges. I used Antique and Pewter eyelets and set them with my crop-o-dile! It came out very masculine looking! I was pretty excited by this one!

Cindy's Birthday Card

This is the card I made for Cindy to go with her other goodies! I used the Joseph's Coat technique again with this card! I added a piece of shimmery card stock with butterflies to compliment the stamped and embossed butterflies! She really liked all of her goodies! : )

Cindy's Birthday paper bag album!

Here is a paper bag album that I made to go along with Cindy's gift! (See last post!) This was so much fun to make!! I plan to make more of these! I decorated the front with the Fabulous Flowers from Stampin' Up! and then used miscellaneous patterned papers throughout to make it an album ready for pictures! Cindy will be taking her daughter on a weekend trip soon and I thought this would be the perfect way to document their trip! : )

Some birthday gifts for a wonderful friend!

Do you have a friend that is always around when you need them?! Someone who is happy to listen to you gripe and puts up with you even when you are in the world's foulest mood and still loves you anyhow!? Someone who lets you be yourself and says things to make you feel better when you feel on the bottom of the heap?! I have a very dear friend like that! She is wonderful! Stable and normal and kind and supportive! She laughs at all of my jokes and is just fun to be with! I made her some goodies for her birthday because I wanted her to know how special I think she is! Happy Birthday, Cindy!! Big hug!

First thing is a book mark that I made from a jumbo paper clip! Those things are just fun!! I used very vanilla, the 1/4" circle punch, scallop punch, a few pop dots and the Whimsical alphabet stamp set. I tied a few ribbons on for color and stuck it in a card that I used the word window punch and The Watercolor Mini's stamp set from Stampin' Up! on! I used Groovy Guava paper and ink. I also used Old Olive and White ink on the flowers. Also pictured are the letter "C" covered with patterned paper, a few ribbons and one prima flower, a few glitzy flowers and the card that I stuck the bookmark into for delivery!

A card for my pen pal!

If you are reading this Julia...close your eyes now!! : ) I used the Joseph's Coat technique for this card! I LOVE this technique! I stamped Very Vanilla with Stampin Up's! French Flair background stamp and then sponged it with Groovy Guava, Old Olive and Orchid Opulence. Then I stamped a butterfly in Versamark and embossed it in white. I then used my new brayer (fun tool!!) to roll over the butterflies with the above mentioned colors. I sprayed a scrunched up paper towel with cleaning mist and wiped the color off of the embossed images. Then I added a little flower and hello stamp and a couple of purple and green brads and matted it against Orchid Opulence!

I want to play with this technique some more! It has a ton of color possibilities! I found the technique on JanTink's blog! (She is a riot!) I still do not know how to link, but you can find her blog in my blogroll to the left!

And the second of two!

Here is the second card I made for my pen pal! I used Close to Cocoa as my base and So Saffron and Orchid Opulence. I used a piece of no name patterned paper as my background. The stamp set I used was Polka Dot and Paisleys from Stampin' Up! I also added a little yellow shimmery flower to embellish the front! I thought it made it look happy! : ) I was pleased with the way it came out!

New Toy!

My wonderful hubby surprised me with the best bday gift ever!! He got me a Cuttlebug! *Bouncing up and down!!!* I asked him, "How did you ever know?!!!" and he replied, "Oh I don't know! Must have been the 40 times you mentioned wanting one!" LOL He is too good to me! He didn't get any dies because he wasn't sure how to shop for those, but we are heading to town tomorrow and I am going to peruse the die aisle!! : ) I cannot wait to play with it!! If anyone has any comments or suggestions for using it...please share! :)

It begins! : )

Please forgive my lack of a fun picture post today! Our soccer season has begun and it keeps us quite busy! My oldest son is coaching a U6 team and reffing, my hubby is coaching the team that my two middle kids are on and I am coaching the U10 team that my youngest is on! Besides that we run the show! Lining up refs, buying, organizing and selling concessions (my two middle kids do the bulk of the selling!), lining fields, field maintenance, game scheduling and attendance at all of the games. Doing all of this and still holding our own practices becomes pretty challenging! My U10 team had their first game today and I am so very excited to say they won! Yay!! Go Dragons!! :) 4-0. The other team had several more players than we did and we barely had enough to field 8, but my little guys held their own and played beautifully! What a fun day! 6 games down 90 to go!

I am going to try to stamp later, but in case I do not make it back today...have a great day!

AnnMarie : )

The beginning's of an altered paper bag album!

Several weeks ago I attended a scrap booking convention and saw some altered paper bag albums. I really liked them, but haven't had the time to make one yet! It is, however, #3,467 on my current to do list! While browsing some of the many wonderful blogs out there I stumbled upon some really beautiful altered paper bag albums on Stampin' D'Amour's blog. (I am sorry I have not learned to link yet...that is #3,466 on my list!!) ((Pamela, if you happen to read this please let me now if it is ok to add you to my blog roll!)) : ) Anyhow, her albums are gorgeous! I thought I would attempt to start one of my own! So far...I have just this one page! : ) The cover! I used three brown paper bags and some miscellaneous ribbon scraps to tie it together. I used Old Olive and Very Vanilla card stock. I used the Fabulous Flowers Stampin' Up! stamp set and Old Olive and Pink Passion ink. I embossed the flowers and used pop dots to layer for a 3d look. I put a Fire Ice Brad in the center and added some flower embellishments for some sparkle! I haven't decided yet what I am going to use this for but am looking forward to working on the insides! I will post more as I work on it!

AnnMarie : )

Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my birthday and I must be the luckiest girl ever! I have had a ton of really wonderful happy bday wishes wished upon me today! We had a homeschool meeting this morning (I co run our group with two really good friends of mine!) and I showed up to a bunch of hugs and wonderful birthday surprises! A very dear friend called and sang me bday wishes in two different languages (Thank you, Mario!) and my sweet hubby showed up and surprised me to wish me a happy day! : ) My very special kids made me signs and brought me yummy stuff and my youngest had everyone secretly sign a humongeous banner for me! I took a picture of a couple of my goodies! Anyone noticing a trend?! ((I seem to have a little chocolate addiction that the people who love me dearly are nice enough to feed!)) :) My mom and dad sent me money to buy some new...you guessed it stamps(!!) and my sweet grandma sent me money. I am such a lucky girl! : )

P.S. The diet starts next week!

P.P.S. In case you were wondering...today I am 20+17! : )

AnnMarie : )

I've been tagged! : )

I have been tagged by Princess Matilda (Hiya Michelle!)!

Ok! Here goes!

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Pixie Sienna

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Rocky Road Chocolate Chip

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) Abry

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Pink Cow

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) None Denver

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) Bry An

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put “The”) The Green Dr. Pepper

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)- Herbert Vincent

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) Japanese Blossom Dove

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) Jean Vincent

Giggles!! That was too much fun!

I tag: Cory, Mario, Kelly, Cindy and Holly

Fall card for Grandma!

My grandma is having kind of a rough time right now and has been on my mind a lot lately. I was thinking of her this morning when I made this card.

I used the With Gratitude stamp set from Stampin' Up! It has become one of my very favorite sets! I was drawn back to the colors that I used for my Holiday Card Swap. I used Old Olive, Really Rust, So Saffron and Very Vanilla. I stressed the edges with a fun tool that I bought at a scrapbook convention back in August! I antiqued the edges of my rectangles with a charcoal cat's eye stamp pad and used Old Olive for the rest of the stamped images. I used bright gold brads and ribbon that matches the old olive to a tee! I embossed the large maple leaf and used a pop dot to lift it off the page. I loved the way the gold and red melted together!

I wound up making a second card like this for my mom and a third for my new pen pal! So if you guys are reading this...close your eyes!! :)

Happy Monday everyone!

AnnMarie : )

Old bag, new bag!

I feel like I have abandoned my poor new blog! I have been having computer issues and my wonderful hubby has been kind enough to transfer the brains of my laptop to a loaner for me! I am very slooooow to adapt to change and have been fighting the transfer tooth and nail!! I finally caved when my poor laptop started playing taps! I am using new picture software that I am trying to get the hang of, so please bear with me!

Ok, just a quickie project to share! I needed a gift bag, but was fresh out of anything generic! So, I did what any stamper would do in a moment of crisis! I took out an old Bath & Body (LOVE them!!) gift bag and altered it! I used Blue Bayou and Very Vanilla card stock. Stamp sets were Baroque and Doodle This from Stampin' Up. I used Navy, White, Pink Passion and Old Olive ink pads and blended all of the color with a blender pen. I curled the large flowers to make them look more 3D and topped them all of with purple and green Stickles. I used jumbo flower brads in the center of the big flowers! My recipient went ga ga over the bag! In fact, she seemed more excited about the bag than the contents! Next time she just gets the bag! Big, toothy grin! :)

Have a great day everyone!

AnnMarie : )

Holiday Card Swap!

Here are all of the cards for my upcoming Holiday Card Swap! Making these made me want to put on a sweater and have a big ole' slice of whipped cream topped pumpkin pie! : ) Yummmy! Hurry Fall!

Holiday Swap Card!

I am participating in a holiday card (front) swap. You could choose any upcoming holiday. I chose Thanksgiving because Fall is trying to make an appearance here and that was the mood I was in! I LOVE Fall! We live in the Blue Ridge Mountains very close to the parkway and the world becomes an amazing beautiful place this time of the year!
I used Handsome Hunter, Old Olive, Really Rust, So Saffron and Very Vanilla card stock. The stamp set is With Gratitude from Stampin' Up! I paper pierced the corners of the so saffron and Really Rust. I made faux pierced white marks around the scalloped edges and raised it with a pop dot. I was pleased with the simplicity of this card! Did I mention...I LOVE Fall! : ) Here is a close up of the card.

Birthday Party Gifts!

My nieces both have birthdays in August and usually ask for duplicate gifts to avoid any arguments! I made each of them an altered letter and a mix and match flip card! I also filled tuperwares with art supplies which should keep them both busy for a while! I made each of them a name plate with a pinwheel to go on the outside of each of their boxes. I didn't get a picture of the boxes, but they came out real cute! Here are their letters and cards!

Flowers for my Mom and Grandma!

I had so much fun making the pinwheel flowers for my scrapbook page I thought I would make a couple more! I made these cards for my Mom and my Grandma. I used paper from American Traditional Designs to make the flowers and as the background. I used the small tag punch from Stampin' Up! to make the petals of the flowers and the leaves and then used jumbo brads as the center of each flower.

My sweet flower garden!

This is one of my favorite pictures of my youngest child! We were on a trip to Canada (driving from Virginia!) and she was mesmerized by the world passing by! She has the sweetest smile and it melts my heart to look at this picture!

I used paper from The American Traditions Company. I used the small and large tag punch from Stampin' Up! to make all of the flowers! I punched them, folded them and then glued them all down to a spiral punch (also from Stampin' Up!). I used jumbo brads to add a center to each flower. They were so much fun to make!