WLG Challenge #2

This is the card I made for one of the fun groups I am in! The challenge was to use glossy paper! I did not have any glossy paper, so I thought I would try photo paper! Some people have great luck...I did not! *Note to self...invest in glossy card stock for future use! LOL This was a fun challenge though! I enjoyed playing! I tried the ghosting technique, but was unsuccessful! The ink did not blot off of my Versa mark-ed images! Instead it just swallowed them and made them disappear! I wound up restamping my butterfly image over the originals in a darker color. I used a brayer and then sponged over that with Rose Red to give it some extra color. It turned out just fine, but I think the real stuff would have made it better! Thanks April for the fun challenge! : )




Recipe:
Paper: SU! Pacific Point, Whisper White, Sahara Sand and Photo Paper
Stamps: SU! Dreams du Jour
Ink: SU! Pacific Point, Almost Amethyst and Rose Red
Extras: Dazzling Diamonds, Pretty in Pink Ribbon, Gems

Anybody Facebook?!

I dabble a little in Facebook! I have found several old high school friends and find it to be a fun networking thing! My mom and I even exchange wall messages! LOL Recently one of my high school buddies (my true BFF!!) posted a couple of pictures that made me laugh out loud! She and I were inseparable during my junior and senior year! We did drama together and she practically lived at my house! It was about a 20 minute walk from her house to mine and we would meet in the middle on a back path and laugh and gossip and giggle the whole time! We spent so many nights talking and laughing! We were both Navy brats and bonded immediately due to common interests! I was soooo lucky to have her! She was the world's most wonderful confidant and friend! We still keep in touch all these years later and I miss her terribly! Anyhow, she posted a picture on her Facebook page of a drawing she did of me from our high school days and I wanted to share! She is an amazing artist!! Here is a picture of she and I about 100 years ago and her drawing!






Kelly, you are the best and I miss you lots!!!

If anyone would like to come visit me on facebook I am there! Just send me a friend invite!

Awwwww! Catherine you are the best!!

I was so excited to receive these very sweet (and very flattering!!!) awards from my wonderful blogging sister and friend Catherine! Catherine, thank you so much! You always know how to bring a smile to my face! You are really wonderful! If you haven't had the pleasure of stopping by Catherine's blog, go now!! She is truly talented! Thanks again soooo much! Great big hug! : )

Thinking of you!

Good morning! : ) Hope that everyone is having a wonderful Thursday! I wanted to share a card with you that I made the other night. It is a sympathy card. I have a hard time making sympathy cards. I always feel like they need to say absolutely everything, but do it in a very quiet low key kind of a way. I kept the colors kind of muted, but added the pink to offer hope. I think flowers are a nice way to convey sympathy as well. Ok, sorry about the brief post, but I have a to do list today that is longer than I am tall!

I have a few more things to share and will try to stop back by! Have a wonderful day!





Recipe:
Stamps: SU Still Life Stems and Greetings Galore
Paper: SU Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette and Whisper White
Ink: Cameo Coral and Old Olive
Extras: White gel pen, chocolate chip ribbon, scalloped border punch and circle punches

Dollar Store Challenge!

Hello! Good Monday morning! : ) We got our first real snow last night! It only amounted to about an inch, but my kiddo's were thrilled! They ran outside in the cold dark to feel it and see it up close and play in all inch of it! Kids are amazing! We should all take lessons from their unbridled wonder at the little things!

Ok, so my demonstrator's meeting challenge this time was to find something from the dollar store and alter it! I must say this has been one of my favorite challenges so far! It was really fun wandering around the dollar store looking for something to give a make over to! I finally decided to go with some dollar frames and transformed them into dry erase boards! I spent almost as much on the accompanying pens (they came from a different store!) as I did on the frames themselves! (that made me laugh!) This was such a simple easy peasy project! I have the tendency to over simplify things sometimes (blush!!). I just know going into project that it is going to be a super quick, slap those suckers out kinda thing, but then without fail it turns into a two or three hour ordeal! LOL Well, this actually was a quick project! I was very pleasantly surprised to be done with these in less than an hour! : ) I did keep them very simple, but it was just enough! I made 8 of them! I stamped the images from SU!'s True Friend set and then drew my lines adding dots to the end of each line to compliment the dots in the stamps. I washed all the glass inserts front and back and layered them together and Viola! These little boards are great! They work like a charm for jotting down notes! Write your note, erase it with a piece of felt (or napkin) and start over!

I have tons to do today so I am off! Have a happy Monday everyone! : )




Recipe:
Stamps: Stampin Up! True Friend
Paper: Old Olive and Whisper White
Ink: Old Olive and Cameo Coral
Extras: Frames

Birthday gift and an update!

Good morning! Hope that you are having a nice weekend! It is still coooooolllldddd here! I like the cold, but only when I can come out of it into the warmth! : ) Our little heaters are having a tough time keeping up with the cold so we have all been sweater snuggled for the past few days! : ) I really shouldn't complain though! My mom lives in Alaska where it is many degrees below freezing right now!

I wanted to share a little gift that I made for my bil for his birthday. He prefers not to make a big deal of his birthday so it needed to be a low key kind of gift. I threw together a 2,4,6,8 box and added some birthday 'splash' to the front! I filled it with Ande's mints and added a chocolate chip ribbon! Stampin Up! really has the best ribbon around! I just love this color too! I didn't even include a card (now that is really low key!) LOL

Also, wanted to share an update of my resolutions! I have been ubber faithful about exercising (I even walked 2 miles in the 22 degree temp on Thursday!) and have been very faithful to drinking tons of water and watching what I eat! I just had a two week weigh in and I have lost 2 pounds! WooHoo! I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but I am a super slooooooow loser and so that was a happy number for me!

As for my 365 day scrapbook, I have fallen a wee bit behind! I am not throwing in the towel as of yet though! I think that if I schedule my time a little better that I can still make it happen! I will keep you posted on that! : )

Ok, I have another post that I will be back later for! Have a great day and stay warm!






Recipe:
Stamps: SU! Tags for all Seasons
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla and Baja Breeze
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip and Misc Bold Bright Markers
Extras: White gel pen, pop dots, scalloped border punch, square scallop border punch, ticket punch, chocolate chip ribbon, square punch

Thank you card and Scrapbook page #2

I always have such a hard time making masculine cards! I needed a thank you card for my step dad-in-law and this one just kind of put itself together! The color combo was perfect for this guy card! Warm and caring, but not fru fru! My work area is piled high with scraps and bits and pieces of other creations! I just started placing and piecing until this card came to life! I have been using this blue/chocolate chip combo a lot lately. I really like it! : ) This is a simple card, but said exactly what I needed it to! I used one of the new single Stampin Up! stamps for the Thank You sentiment and punched it out with my scalloped square punch! (fits perfectly!) I pop dotted it up on top of a Top Note die, which I ran through my Cuttlebug and wrapped some chocolate chip ribbon around. The really cool part is that I actually mailed it! LOL I seem to be guilty of making cards and never mailing them! : )

The second photo is of my second scrapbook page! Now I know it is the 15th and it appears that I am a little behind! LOL I will be posting several pages at once soon! : ) This is my youngest daughter on her birthday! She wanted to pose this way for her birthday photo! It truly capures her spirit though! Very sweet and carefree! : )

Long day! I am heading to bed!

See you soon!

WLG Challenge #1

Recently I became part of a group on SCS that has been a wonderful source of inspiration! It is a group of crafter's that had another goal in mind. It is called the WLG and we all signed up to offer support and encouragement to one another. It is a very lively, very fun group of gals! It is a weight loss support group!

A challenge was posted and I couldn't wait to play! The challenge was to make a card that offered encouragement, but that incorporated a triangle somewhere/somehow! I had an idea right away! Once I sat down to execute the idea though...it just would not come together! LOL I tried and tried! Triangles are tough! After much playing around (and a suggestion from my 13 year old son!) this was what I came up with!

Scrapbook page #1

Hello! So sorry about the lack of posts lately! I have been so busy that I am almost dizzy! The New Year breezed in and I have been doing my absolute best to uphold my resolutions! I have been very faithful to my quest for improved health! I have walked every day since the first (23 miles in all so far!)! I have consumed enough water so that I am fairly certain that my eyeballs are floating in my head and have been very conscious of what I have been eating! I have cut out all soda (that has been tough...I am a Dr.Pepper girl!) since the first and have cut my chocolate/sweets consumption to almost none! I believe that I even lost a pound or two since the first! I am super excited about this because I think I have the beginnings of a bum thyroid and am a super, duper slooooow loser! Yay me! : ) I plan on incorporating some workout dvds and weight lifting starting next week!

I have also been working on my 365 page scrapbook! If you missed my post about this...I have plans of scrapping a picture/page a day all year long! I am making a 6 X 6 scrapbook! I think I am going to do it month by month so it doesn't get too large for one book. I am really excited about this! I am hopeful that I will be able to make time for and remain faithful to this, because I think it will make a wonderful keepsake! I will share my pages and progress here. : ) This is page #1 of my book. The photo is of my oldest daughter. It was taken on January 1st. I may be biased, but I happen to think she is a real beauty! : ) Hope you like it!



Recipe:
Paper: SU! Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla and Garden Green DSP
Stamps: SU! Goody, goody Gumdrops
Ink: SU! Real Red and River Rock
Extras: Confetti wedding flowers (from Michaels), White Gel Pen and Sparkle gems

My baby child turned 10!

Well, it is official. I have no more babies...sniffle! My youngest daughter turned 10 over the weekend. All of my kiddo's are now in the double digits! She wanted to do something extra fun (but stay at home!) LOL this year! No pressure there, huh?! So, after lots of back and fourth-ing we decided on a "Make Your Own Sundae" party! When, on Sunday, of course! : ) We invited our extended family over and we did crafts (each girl got to make their own dry erase board!) with ice cream and cupcake stamps! Then we all made our own sundaes and all played charades! It was a nice evening and I think she had a nice time!

I just cannot believe that she is 10 already! It seems like just yesterday we were heading to the hospital to have her! It was freezing out and we were having the worst ice storm of the year! We live an hour and a half from the hospital and sweet hubby called ahead to our local VDOT (VA Dept of Transportation) to get the conditions of all the roads we had to take! Let me tell you...that was a loooong drive! Contractions every five minutes and ice everywhere! LOL She is our fourth child so I was concerned with delivering in the car! It all worked out ok though and we made it in plenty of time!

Here are a couple of photo's of our sweet little girl! Happy Birthday Hannah! We love you lots!





Be back soon! : )

Last Christmas gift!! Woo Hoo!

I just have a few minutes and wanted to share my last Christmas gift of the year with you guys! I saw the cutest idea and thought it would be a perfect gift for the guy that has everything! It is a dry erase board made from a picture frame! I stamped that adorable bear from SU!'s Under the Stars set in the corner and used my Just Right monogramming set for the name! I matted it against a piece of DS paper from SU! and then drew lines on it using a ruler and grid paper (otherwise they would have been unbelievably crooked!) and there you have it! I included a set of colored dry erase markers and a piece of felt (for erasing!) ! It is perfect for making little notes! I saw this idea one day while blurfing, but if anyone knows of the origin of this project PLEASE let me know so I can give credit where credit is due!

I have to run, but will be back later to make another post! : )

Christmas has finally come to an end!

Well we had our final Christmas celebration last night! My kids surrogate grandparents came over and we exchanged gifts and had a nice dinner! These folks are some of my favorite people! They have always been so wonderful to our kids and to us! It was a very nice visit! : )

I made their gifts this year and wanted to share them with you! The first thing I made was a greeting card keeper! If I were more organized this past year it would have come complete with a card in every pocket...2009 New Year's Resolution #2) GET MORE ORGANIZED! : ) , but seeing as how I was putting the final touches on this 20 minutes before they arrived it didn't come with cards! These are so much fun to make! I got the directions from Split Coast here. It goes together very quickly and has tons of possibilities! I debated doing the same images throughout or changing each page to match the month/season and that second option won!

It was a big hit! She seemed to really like it! : ) I just love it when my time spent is truly appreciated!

Wanted to share a few other ideas with you! I mentioned that resolution #2) is to get more organized this year, well #1) is to take control of my health. I want to change some of my habits and improve the way I eat. I eat good for me foods, but I am also a sweet junkie! I want to lose weight and regain my energy. I am super gifted at starting to exercise and get in shape and then dropping the ball and relapsing back to my old ways just when I start to see some progress. I have decided to try and change my mindset and just take it one day at a time! I have started walking again. I walked 1 mile on the 1st and 3 miles today. I have started drinking my weight in water as well (well not really, but it sure feels like it!). I keep running to the bathroom to pee! Giggles! I plan on incorporating some dvd work outs into my regimen next week and am working on a new food plan (hate the word diet!) that will keep me in check! Wish me luck! : )

Another thing I have resolved to try to do this year is to scrap book a page a day! I am going to take family pictures...one a day every day and then do a 6 X 6 page a day and hope to have 365 pages done by the end of the year! I figured 6 X 6 would be a manageable size and would make such a nice keepsake! I will share my pages here as I get them done! I have already taken two pictures so far, but have not scraped them yet. It may work out that I skip a day and then scrap a couple the next day, but will be sure to have seven done at the end of each week! I am really excited about this project! I just bought a personal photo printer to print out my pictures! : )

Tomorrow is my youngest daughter's bday! She will be 10...sigh! Double digits! We are having a "make your your sundae" party (on Sunday, of course!). After her party I will clean up all of the Christmas hoopla and party chaos and then feel like it will be time to concentrate on the new year!

If you managed to make it this far without falling asleep or getting bored and wandering away LOL I thank you! I hope that everyone had a safe and wonderful New Year's celebration!

Be back tomorrow to share more! Have a wonderful night! : )