Ready, Set, Brayer!

Hello and happy Monday! Are you ready to get this week rolling?! It is going to be a busy, full one for me! I have tons of stuff on my to do list every day this week! We have 3 doctor's visits scheduled and Fall soccer is starting this week, I still have 1 kiddo in gymnastics and I have a stamp club this Friday! WooHoo! If you would like to come and eat junk food with us and giggle and make cute stuff just let me know and I will be happy to save you a seat! :)

I spent some time playing with my brayer yesterday! Do you have one?! They are so much fun and it is just amazing the effects you can get from using one! I drug out lots and lots of colors and cracked the seal on my new stamp set Lovely As A Tree. I am probably the last demonstrator in all of the world to finally buy this set, but I did and I just love it! I cannot wait to play more with it! I used three different shades of blue, two of purple and two of pink to make this late afternoon sky. I used three shades of green trying to go for the hilly pasture grass. I masked the sun and stamped the image in Early Espresso. (all Stampin Up!) I used the new giant label punch and faux stitched around the edges in brown. I made this card for some very special people in my life to say thank you for always being there for me. I am a very lucky girl! :) Ok on the the card:



What do you think?! I was working on glossy white paper which was new to me! This was a really fun card to do!

Stamps: Lovely As A Tree
Paper: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Glossy White, Whisper White
Ink: Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Tempting Turquoise, Marina Mist, Almost Amethyst, Orchid Opulence, Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette, Daffodil Delight and Early Espresso
Extras: Extra Large Punch

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I also wanted to share some photos we snapped this weekend with you. My oldest son was best man in a wedding for one of his buddies who also happened to be one of the young men that I watched grow up in my home school group for the last 8+ years! Gosh! They grow and fly so quickly! The wedding was very simple and very sweet. It was an outdoor wedding and since the temperature was 904 degrees everyone dressed super casual. My son was so handsome standing up there doing his best man thing! Here is a picture of the best man with three other gorgeous kids who also happen to be mine! Big grin!



Here is a shot of me with my children. I am so proud of all of them. :)


This one is of my handsome hubby and son.


I am so excited that you stopped by today! Be sure to come again soon because I have lots more to share with you! Have a great day and be sure to do something that makes you happy! :) I will be back soonest!

Paper Princess Challenge throwdown!!

Hello and happy Friday! Here it is already the 20th of the month and it is time for our Paper Princess challenge!! We are having a little friendly competition between two halves of our group! Our hostess this month ( Hiya April!!!) sent each of us a kit and we had to make a card using the pieces in the kit. We are all posting today! Our theme this month is Summer. I believe this gorgeous image is a mermaid, but I chose to leave off her tail and give her the look of fire. Here is my card:



I couldn't resist including this one too!! This is our cat Rooster and she insisted on being in the picture! :)



Have a wonderful and happy Friday! I will be back soonest! :)

Owls are the cutest!

Hello! I have the cutest tiny owl card to share with you today! I have discovered recently that I have a small mushy soft spot in my heart for those little guys! I mean how cute are they?! They have those funny little tufts of feathers on their faces and they speak a really cute language and whooooooo could not love a creature that can almost turn it's head completely around?! In my opinion that is why they are so wise because they can see where they are going AND where they have been!! :) Stampin Up! has come out with the most adorable punch ever!! I scooped this up as soon as it was available and have had the best time playing with it! I plan to put owls on everything!! Here is a 3 X 3 card that I made recently:



Here is the matching envelope:


I used the polka dot stamp from For All You Do to make his belly spotty!

Supplies all Stampin Up!
Paper: Daffodil Delight, Baja Breeze and Very Vanilla
Ink: Baja Breeze
Stamps: Punch Potpourri and For All You Do
Punches: Owl Punch and 2 Step Bird Punch
Extras: Button from new Button's Collection

Cannot wait to do more with this little guy! He is so much fun to put together!

Hope you have a great day! ! I will be back soonest with more to share!

Yummy treats!

Hello! Thought I would stop in and share some treats I made for my last Stamp Club meeting with you! I made brownies, cupcakes and candy truffles (all from paper)! The theme of our evening was Sweet Treats so I also served oodles of sweet treats! Unfortunately, those were all loaded with calories, but oh so yummy! :) I have the world's biggest sweet tooth so throwing this meeting together was easy peasy! Here are my calorie free treats:

These are the brownies! I used Chocolate Chip paper and the new square lattice embossing folder which are all from SU! I 'iced' a few, but decided the plain ones were just as yummy!


Next are the cupcakes! I halved a Styrofoam ball and punched out lots of 1/2" circles using my SU! circle punch. I layered them around the edges working my way in toward the center adhering them with straight pins! The cherry on top is a button from the new button collection at SU! and the cupcake papers are made from strips of paper that I scored at every 1/2" interval and then fan folded back and fourth.


These are my favorites!! These are the chocolate truffles! I used Chocolate Chip paper again here with Very Vanilla accents! Some are embossed and some are doodled on and some have punches and pearls on them! Tthese look pretty real in person! My club girls all got to make a mini box to hold four truffles and then make their own truffles! It was almost as much fun as eating the real thing! ;)


Here they all are together! They were a big hit!


I absolutely loved making these! They made a great table decoration and I barely gained an ounce!

Lots to do today so I am off! Have a super day! I will be back soonest with more cuteness!

Friday the 13th...Yikes!

Hello there! :) I must admit that I am a wee bit superstitious! I won't walk over grated things in the ground. I won't pick up a penny that is tail's side up and I won't walk under a ladder (that last one is mostly due to fear of a tool falling on my head though!) I do however like the number 13 (it is my favorite!). I have never really viewed Friday the 13th as a negative thing! Fess up...do you?! LOL Last night I was feeling quite the opposite though. We had quite a rotten Friday the 13th. My daughter's and I were involved in a nasty car accident yesterday. My youngest daughter is 11 and was riding in the back and my oldest daughter was driving and I was in the passenger seat. She is only 17 and was driving with her learner's permit. We came around a blind curve and met a pilot truck followed by a tractor trailer truck hauling half a house. The trailer truck was taking up both lanes of a small two lane bridge. There was nowhere for us to go so my daughter veered to the right and we made contact with the concrete pillar of the bridge. The truck then hit us on the left side. Both doors were dented closed so I had to pry mine open to get around to my daughter's on the other side. There is NO worse feeling in the world than to think your children may be injured or harmed. I was able to pry her door open (adrenaline is an amazing thing!) and get her out and get my other daughter out as well. Fortunately, my youngest was fine. My older daughter and I were taken to the hospital on back boards though as a pre-caution. We spent several hours in the ER and they did x-rays. We are all banged up pretty good and speaking for myself I feel like I have been hit by a dang truck this morning! We are all okay and I know that things could have been so much worse, but now I have to think about and deal with all of the practical things. I absolutely loved my van! We were 6 payments away from having it paid off. It about broke my heart to watch my hubby and son clean it out last night. It is completely totaled and will never drive again. I am, however, very grateful that my children are ok. The EMT's told us all several times that we were very lucky. The driver of the truck was ticketed as it turns out he was driving with an expired hauling license. The police also said they should have been out of their truck stopping traffic before the curve. Well, what's done is done. Life is funny like that sometimes and since I am semi-superstitious I believe that things happen for a reason and now it is up to me to puzzle out what this crazy reason could possibly have been. Here are some photos of my poor van:

This is the passenger side front where we hit the concrete pillar:


Another view:


Driver's side door where the truck hit us after we hit the bridge:


Another view:




This was a view of the front before they lifted it and put it on the wrecker:


My hubby pointed out to me that Friday the 13th is not an unlucky number at all, but actually a lucky one! We were all able to walk away from this so 13 will remain my favorite and newly 'lucky' number! So happy to be writing this post today! Be sure to squeeze the folks you love, because you just never know what life has in store!

I will be back soonest with something more fun and creative! Big hug friends!

The last of the Convention photos!

Hello there! Hope you have had a wonderful weekend! We have been super busy around here! Just the way I like it! :) I wanted to share the last of my convention photos with you guys! Hope that I have not bored you to tears! I promise to start again soon with some crafty projects! Until then though here are the last of the convention pics:


On Friday night we went to the Joseph Smith Memorial building for a special dinner event that was hosted by the famous (and wonderful!) Linda Hansen! She planned a magnificent evening! The building itself was absolutely gorgeous! This is what we saw as soon as we entered!


This was the ceiling! Soooo pretty!


Jo and I met a wonderful new friend named Jen! Hiya Jen! We volunteered to help her with her swap the next day and were lucky enough to meet her early and have dinner with her! She was really sweet!


Here is Linda saying hello and getting ready to introduce the special guests for the evening!


Jarron Winder was the special guest! He sang and was very entertaining! :)


Here are 50 of us swapping after dinner! It was really fun!


Here is the Stampin Up! Welcome Wagon! This was one of my favorite parts of the festivities! Each morning as we entered the Main Stage all of the Stampin Up! employees were waiting to say good morning with high fives and hugs and they were all so happy! They were dancing and singing and having a grand time! So much fun!!


Here are Shelli and Sara doing a demonstration and cutting up! They did an awesome presentation! They are both very cute and funny and made a really great team.


This is Dale Filmore. He is the President of Stampin Up! He was hanging out in the hallway during lunch one day and I went to say thank you for such an amazing event and we had a nice chat! He seems to be very down to earth and just plain ole' nice! I love that this company is full of folks like that! We also had the opportunity to meet Aaron (whose last name escapes me...yikes!)! We shared a shuttle to the airport with him. He is the president of the Australian office. We had no idea until after we chatted with him for several minutes about convention and stamping! Nice people everywhere we went!! Love that!


Here I am trading my very last swap!! LOL 432 swaps and I managed to swap em all out!! It was so much fun! I think I made the exact right number!


Here is the Starbucks in the Marriott lobby! We went every morning...yummmm-o!! I have become quite fond of the Java Chip!! On our last day there things had quieted down considerably and we had time to chat with the barristas! They were all super nice too!


Here is Jo on the last day after the last session!


And me! :)


This was an adorable bear that was sitting outside of a chocolate shop at the airport! I happen to have a thing for teddy bears! I just LOVE them! I wish he would have fit in my suitcase because he was adorable!! I could just see him sitting on my bed! :) He did manage to lure me into the candy shop to make a purchase though! Yum! (Had nothing to do with the fact that we had 2.5 hours to kill at the airport! :)


And finally! The view of Salt Lake City from the window at our gate! Thought it only fitting that I end with the same sort of picture that I started with!

I had such a wonderful time! I am already making plans to go next year! Thanks for hanging out until the very end with me! :) I do promise to come back soonest with some crafty type posts! Have a wonderful day! See you soon!