Wonderful weekend!

Hello! Happy Thursday! My post today is more of a personal post than a crafty post! I wanted to share some photos from our weekend trip! It was a total spur of the moment, impromptu thing! We drove 5.5 hours to the beach so our youngest kiddo could stick her toes in the ocean! As I mentioned in the last post she has developed a fascination with the ocean and we want to gently encourage that! (insert marine biologist here!) We had an absolutely wonderful time! We were only there for one night and two half days, but we managed to squeeze a ton of stuff into the weekend! After we left the beach we headed to the Living Museum! It was awesome! Learned a ton of new things and spent some real quality time with the kids! The only thing that would have made it more perfect was if our oldest son could have come with! Despite my very best efforts these loaded backwards! Anyhow here are some photos from the trip:


Cory and Tyler are petting a screech owl at the Living Museum! He was adorable!! He turned his head almost completely around!


An opossum! She was actually very cute!


We got to touch lots of sea creatures here! My favorite was the decorating crab! The tour guide girlie said they call them that because they look for to stuff to attach to their shells to decorate them! Thought that was too funny!


Kids and I at an outside exhibit at the museum!


Daniel in the pool!


Hannah in the pool!


Cory and I watching the kids in the pool! LOL Notice the Stampin Up! catalog in my lap! :)


Silly kids!


The sky at the beach!


Sandy toes at the beach!


Daniel chasing Tyler!


Hannah...the reason we went to the beach!


Here are Tyler and Hannah at Daniel's soccer game the morning we left! They are good buddies (except when they are fighting like sisters of course!) I am glad they have each other!

I have a bazillion more photos but did not want to bore you! Those were just some of my favorites! If you made it all the way to the end...thanks for hanging in there! :) LOL I will be back soonest with some crafty eye candy! In the meantime, have a wonderful day!

Magnet Swap!

Hello! How are you? I am writing to you tonight from the beach!!! Hubby suggested on the very spur of the moment that we take an impromtu over nighter to the beach! Our youngest kiddo has developed a fascination for the ocean recently! She spends a lot of time with her nose in a large stack of books about the ocean! So seeing as how we are a home schooling family when one of our kids expresses an interest in something we try to encourage it! This time we wound up at the beach! Since the beach happens to be my most very favorite place in the entire world I am just thrilled! :) Hannah is loving it here too! She has already collected a bucket full of shells and taken tons of pictures! I will post some photos from our trip tomorrow, but wanted to share the results of my last swap with you tonight! One of my good buddies Kristin (Hiya Kristin!!!) hosted a fun magnet swap. No holds barred...simply create some magnets! It was a really fun swap! Here is what I came up with:


Colored these with Stampin Up! markers to get a blend of colors on the flowers. They are simple, but I thought they would make a good fridge decoration!



The staple is green to match the stems! The sentiment is done in chocolate chip.


Cased these from Dawn's Stamping Thoughts blog! She is amazing!! I thought they were just adorable! I plan to make several more to flutter around my fridge front! :)


Here is a close up of the flutterby!

Ok, I have beach-y breezes to take in and family to play with! Hope that you have a wonderful night! I will be back tomorrow to post some beach pictures! See you soonest! :)

Wiper Card!

Hello! Happy Friday! This past week has just flown by! It is going to be time to trim the tree and wrap up another whole year before we know it! Gosh! Time really flies!

I met this past weekend with some of my Stampin Up! demo buddies for our monthly meeting. We had a wonderful time! These ladies are all so talented! I just love hanging out with them and exchanging ideas! We always exchange a swap of some sort as well and this months theme was a Christmas card. I wanted to do something different so I went with a wiper card! This is such a fun card! You can make them in a rectangle shape or a square shape! They are called wiper cards because when you tug on the edges a pop up surprise wooshes up and out across the top of the card! I used traditional Real Red, Glorious Green, Whisper White and then threw in Not Quite Navy! I glittered all of the snowflakes with Dazzling Diamonds and used a gold paint pen to outline my edges! The stamp sets I used were Stampin Ups! Delightful Decorations, Four the Holidays and Serene Snowflakes. These are all from SU!'s mini holiday catalog.

Here is my wiper card:


This is the card closed.


This is the side view!


This is the card laying flat.


If you haven't made one of these I think you should! They are really fun! Ok, I am sleepy so i am heading to bed! Have a wonderful night! I will be back soonest! :)

Crafty Critters Challenge #10

Good morning! How are you today?! Doing well, I hope! My life has been a whirlwind of busy lately! Seems we are always on the go! My To Do list is longer than I am tall and my Craft To Do list is even longer! LOL

I finished up my Crafty Critter Challenge card in the nick of time this morning and ran straight over here to get it posted! Big grin! Despite all of the incriminating evidence though...I did not put this baby off til the last minute! I have sat down three times to work on this and just couldn't wrap my head around it! Don't get me wrong! It is an awesome challenge (Thanks Melanie! *waves!!*) Here are the rules:

1. Use the sketch SC246
2. Make your card a fall theme
3. Use the color purple
4. Use at least 1 embellishment

I did fine until Melanie threw that "Use Purple" stipulation in there!! Purple in a Fall card...see this is what I am saying! LOL Now I know it is possible because all of my fellow Crafty Critter's have done an amazing job with this challenge! So after several attempts at this here is my take on Challenge #10:


I used a retired set from SU! called All About Autumn that I was lucky enough to score from a wonderful sweet demo friend at a super duper price! (Thanks Kaye!) I hand colored the leaves with shades of PURPLE, red, orange and brown! I stuck pretty close to the sketch pattern and added some purple sparkle-ly blink as my embellishment! I must admit...the purple fell into this card pretty easily and I do like the way it came out! Thank you Melanie for an awesome challenge and gently pushing me to craft outside of the crayon box!

I went to a fun SU! demo meeting yesterday and had a really nice time! It is always fun to chat with like minded stamping folks and share fun new ideas and as usual the food was yumm-o!!!

I have a super busy day ahead of me, but wanted to stop in to say hello! Have a wonderful day! I will be back soonest! :)

Card kit fun!

Hello! How are you today? Doing well, I hope! I spent my morning putting together cards from my October card kit swap! They are all finished and ready to be mailed back out! I am trying to get ahead on my massive swap commitment list and so have been spending some extra time at my craft table. It has been good therapy! Busy hands ease monkey mind! I suffer from monkey mind when things get crazy in my life and I have had my fair share of crazy lately!

Anyhow, the image that came in my kit this month is a real beauty! I couldn't decide whether to color it or not and after going back and fourth about it decided to leave it plain. I used my Nesties to cut it out and then to make a shimmery frame for it. I added a single green gem stone to pull out the green from the paper. I used every scrap of the paper that came with each kit on each card! I absolutely loved the paper! I added a few flowers and a sparkly center to each to further pull all of the colors together. I am kind of partial to this color combo. You cannot go wrong with green, brown and cream. I really like the way this card came out! :)



Ok, I have tons to do today! Hope that you have a great day! I will be back soonest! :)

Hot and cold card candy!

Hello! Happy Tuesday to you! I just finished up a swap called card candy hosted by my good buddy Melissa! *waves very big!!!* Hiya Melissa!! The rules were to make 3-5 pieces of card candy or small decorations to embellish a card or scrapbook page for each category that you signed up for! This was a really fun swap! I chose Winter and Beach. This is what I came up with for each one:






Each piece was duplicated 6 times! I liked making the winter ones, but loved, loved, loved making the beach ones! The beach has a special place in my heart! I added lots of glitter-y snow to the cold ones and lots of gritty glitter-y sand the the hot ones! I cannot wait to get these back!

I wish you a happy day! Be back soonest! :)

Birthday wishes times Three!

Hello! How are you today? Hope everyone had a nice weekend. :)

I only have a few minutes but wanted to share this tri shutter card with you! I fell head over heels when I saw this pattern! I was so excited to make one and once I sat down to try it...it took me forever! LOL It seriously took me almost 4 1/2 hours from start to finish! I had a hard time getting all of the matting and measurements just right, but was so tickled with it once I did! Then I spent forever adding stuff to it! I used my Nesties to mat my main image and then double matted it. I used all Stampin Up' stamps. I used one of my favorite color combos and then added a bunch of flutter-bys and flowers! This was a birthday card for one of my dearest friends! Hope she likes it!

Here it is:







Have a great night! I will be back soonest!

6 x 6 Crock Pot recipe swap!

Hello! How are you?! Doing wonderful, I hope! I had a really good day today! Nothing at all special happened...it was just a good day! :)

Anyone else a crock pot fan? Once the air turns cool and the leaves begin to change my crock pot comes out of hiding! I LOVE my crock pot!! It gets a lot of use during the fall and winter months around here! I am always on the lookout for new recipes though! My hubby has become a vegetarian since last crock pot season though and so I am on the hunt for meatless crock pot meals now. If any of you happen to have any please feel free to share! :)

I signed up for a crock pot recipe swap recently and cannot wait to get some recipes back! I made a recipe card for my personal favorite crock pot recipe ever. It is called Cheesy Ham and Potatoes. My kids just call it 'dinner'! LOL I wanted it to have a warm feeling to it so I used greens and golds. I added lots of sparkle to it though! It may be tough to see in the picture, but each flower center has a tiny sparkle to it! I used my Cricut (LOVE it!!!) to cut out the gold plate and utensils and made a pocket from torn paper to house the recipe. I am pleased as potatoes with the way it turned out! :) Here is my card:






I am really sleepy tonight so I am headed straight for bed, but I wanted to be sure to stop by and spend a few minutes with you guys first! Have a great night! Be back soonest! :)

A place for my To "Dues"!

Hello!! How are you today?! Hope that you have had a wonderful weekend! I sure did! I spent the morning dabbling in my craft area and then went to a college soccer game! The game was awesome!! After the game we tried a new restaurant for dinner. It was called Salad Creations....yummmmm-o! They made me a giant salad with everything I wanted on it! Ever have fruit on your salad?! I highly recommend it! I love fruit on my salad! Mandarin oranges, pineapple, blueberries and my favorite...strawberries! We got to the restaurant just as they were closing, but they let us in and made us dinner anyhow! They were really nice and then they pawned the last of their cookies off on us since they were closing for the night! Scorrrrrreeee!! Big grin!

So, anyhow back to the craft room dabbling! I went in with the intentions of finishing 14 projects, 9 cards and 3 swaps! **LOL's at myself!!** Something I have discovered about myself over the years is that I have a horrible (I mean awful!!!) sense of time perception! I always underestimate the amount of time a project (or 10!) may take me to finish! I figure I can knock out this project or that project in 20 minutes tops and 3 hours later I am still plugging away at it! LOL This morning I sat thinking about all the craft To Do's on my list and started to feel a bit overwhelmed! Don't get me wrong...those are my favorite kinds of To Do's! My feelings came more from being unorganized than having too many obligations! I am the kind of person that prefers to be busy! I have several lists going all the time and that is what was making me feel crazed this morning! I decided the first thing I needed to do was to organize my Craft To Do's! So I consolidated all of my lists into one along with due dates and then found a notebook to put it all in! I covered the front to make it personal and of course prettier! Somewhere in my pea brain I feel like if it is pretty I will use it regularly! So this is my new Craft To Do (or due!) book! I plan to write my commitments in here as they pop up and check it daily! I love being able to check things off as I do them too! I know, I know...very OCD of me, but oh so true! :)

This is the notebook before:



And after:



This would make a great gift for someone and oh so economical! :) You could cover it in Christmas paper and call it a Holiday Planner! You could cover it in someone's favorite colors and images and call it a journal! You could even add a matching pen! The possibilities are truly endless!

Wow-wow-wow! I have just rambled on and on! :) Time for me to call it a day! Have a wonderful night! I will be back soonest!

...and the rest!

Hello! How are you today? Doing wonderful, I hope! I have had a really nice day today! I started the day off by watching my son's soccer game (which they won! WooHoo!)!! Then we stopped by a gigantic craft fair and browsed! Now we are home and I am getting ready to settle into my craft space for some much needed catching up! I have three swaps to finish and oodles of cards to make! Seems like my Craft To Do list is never quite caught up! Anyone else like that?! :)

I thought I would come spend a few minutes with you lovely folks though and share the rest of the cards I made for my Grandma! :) Hope you like them! Here they are:












Have a wonderful weekend! I will be back soonest! :)

Cards for my Grandma!

Hello! It is such a beautiful Fall day here! There is a slight chill in the air and a little breeze! LOVE it!

While I was up visiting my Grandma several weeks ago I took her grocery shopping. While we were there she spent about 25 minutes on the card aisle. She was looking for cards for her friend's birthdays. She was very particular about the ones she chose and commented several times about how much cards cost 'these days!' She wound up picking out 3 and putting back 2 because like the rest of us she is paying a little extra attention to money. She told me on the drive home that she has cut back on the number of cards she sends because of the cost. So, I did what any card making good grand-daughter would have done...I came home and made her several cards to send out to her friends on their special occasions! I included envelopes and stamps and most importantly a box of double stuffed oreo cookies! She loves them, but won't buy them for herself. I put them all in the mail yesterday and cannot wait to hear her reaction! :) Here are a couple of the cards I sent:












Have a wonderful day! I will be back soonest to show you the rest! :)