L(etter) O(f) T(he) W(ord)!!

Hello everyone! Hope you are doing well today! :)

I recently received some of my LOTW swaps back in the mail and I must say I am head over heels about these little guys! They are such a fun swap!! You choose a word, choose a letter and then create as many letters as there are in the word plus one for the hostess! When everything is said and done you get back the completed word! They make awesome scrapbook page titles! LOVE them! I did the 'r' in soccer and the 'c' in beach! Look how cute these little guys are!




I really enjoyed these swaps and cannot wait to get back my other LOTW's! I have a few more to share with you tomorrow! Have a wonderful night! :)

Inspiration for my new space!

Hello everybody! :) Hope you are having a wonderful day! I sure am! The sun is shining here today and the weather has been just beautiful! :) I went out to lunch with an extra special friend and it was so nice to just sit and visit and enjoy each others company! She and I have been friends for a long time and she is getting ready to relocate to another state. It won't be that far away, but far enough so that our hectic schedules will keep us from visiting regularly. I am really, really going to miss her.

On a whole other note...I have been slowly chipping away to create a stamping space all of my own! :) We have a library in our house that doubles as a school room! We have used it mostly for storage though the last few months. I decided I was going to clean it out and turn half of it into my space! It has proven to be a giant job though! I had no idea how much stuff we had accumulated! LOL I am right in the middle of it which means that my stuff is all over the place! I took a break though to make a little something to offer inspiration once things get settled! I found the prettiest 12 X 12 paper pack at Wal Mart on sale (some of my very favorite words!!) and it included several sheets of punch out letters! Normally these wouldn't appeal to me, but the colors were just so pretty I couldn't resist! So I bought it and a frame and took it all home to get to work! Recently I purchased a stamp that I fell head over heels for and was looking for just the right project to ink it up on! This was going to be it!! I laid everything out and it just kind of came together! No fuss, no muss...just worked out the very first time! I love these colors together too! I used background paper from the mat pack and the letters and border strip as well! I used leaves from my Sizzex die and added some bridal flowers and some pretty pink bling! Once the whole thing was finished I stamped my new stamp and added some clear stickles and mounted it on the upper corner! Just as soon as my space is complete I am going to hang this up! :) If you look closely at the stamped image you will see that there are several hidden images in the stamp! It is an Inkadinkadoo stamp. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! ;)

Here it is:





Hope you like it! I sure do! :) Have a super day!

Wedding Bells and blog apology!

Dear Poor, sad, neglected blog!

I know it has been a couple of weeks since I have posted to you and and I thought I better stop by and explain my absence to you. I have been busy with life and although I have thought of you often and missed you a great deal, my time has been slim. I hope that you can forgive me! I keep promising to spend more time with you and then having a hard time keeping my promise. I am very, very, very, very, very, very, very sorry! Please forgive me and try to believe me when I say I will try to spend more time with you in the future!

Sincerely,
Me <3

Hello wonderful blog readers! I am sorry to you too for my lack of crafty goodness! I have missed creating and blogging so much! It just seems that there is always so much going on! I really will try to do better and be more faithful here! :)

I wanted to share a little something with you that I threw together this weekend! I have to share the story behind it first though! I have a friend that I have known now for almost 11 years! She home schools her children also. She and I (and another wonderful mom!) have mutually run a home school group together for the last several years! I have known her children since they were small people! Well this weekend her son got married and my oldest son was his best man! I have been involved in her son's life since he was just a little guy and to watch him stand up there and tie the knot put a lump in my throat for sure! He is such a sweet boy and it was a beautiful wedding, but boy am I feeling old! LOL He came to visit with me after the wedding and told me how happy he was that we were there...made me all misty eyed! My son was so handsome standing up there for him! Gosh! Talk about lots of sniffles! Ah sigh! :)

Anyhow, I wanted to make them something really special! I stamped their names in Old Olive and cut out the wedding date from the actual invitation and mounted that on Old Olive. I added bridal flowers and the leaves from my SU! Sizzex die to give it an elegant wispy look! I used Whisper White as the focal image background and mounted that against green, brown and then some really pretty paper with a gold weave running through it! The colors all worked really well together!

I used my Cuttlebug Swirl folder for the background on the card and the stamp set is To Have and To Hold by SU!. I used brushed gold and added some clear bling! The strip running down the side of the card is from the same paper I used as the back ground in the frame! I was super pleased with the way it came together! Hope they like it! :)

I have another little something to share tomorrow that I created for my new stamping area! I can't wait to show you! Until tomorrow...have a wonderful night!




Recipe:
Card:
Paper: SU! Garden Green, Brushed Gold, DSP
Stamps: SU! To Have and to Hold
Ink: SU! Old Olive
Extras: Cuttlebug Swirl Folder, Clear sparkly bling

Gift:
Paper: SU! Garden Green, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White and DSP
Stamps: Lovely Letters
Ink: Old Olive
Extras: Sizzex leaves die, bridal flowers and Clear sparkly bling

Thinking about you!

Hello and happy Monday! Hope you are all doing wonderfully! :) I wanted to share a few things I whipped together this weekend! I am in the process of trying to relocate and reorganize my stamp area and boy oh boy have I created the world's most gigantic mess! I have stuff here and there and all over the place! I was determined to crank out something crafty though this weekend and guess what...I did!! I was actually on a roll and got several things on my crafty to do list 'to done!' LOL I etched out a little space big enough to create and got busy! I had several thank you gifts to create and a couple of get well/thinking of you cards to make! Here are somethings that I worked on:


This was a card I made for a friend who just had surgery. She did wonderfully with he surgery and is recovering nicely! I just wanted to send her a little I am thinking of you! I used SU's new Soft Suede for my ink along with Blush Blossom and I must say I reeeeaaaaallyyy like the Soft Suede! I didn't love it at first, but the more I stamped with it the more I liked it! The stamps are a combination of a Studio G set and a hostess set from SU! The ribbon was one of my favorites from a ribbon swap I participated in! I wanted the card to be simple and pretty! I Dazzling Diamond-ed (technical term!) the top flower (because you can never go wrong with sparkle!) and layered it into the bottom flower and curled the edges down and under!



This card is a thank you card for a friend that I have met recently, but feel like I have known forever! She is simply amazing! She has a kind heart and is always doing something nice for someone! This was my attempt to squoosh a hug into an envelope and mail it to her!


This was just a little gift I made to go along with the card! Hope she likes!! :)


I must say that I have met so many sweet and wonderful folks in the stamping community! I am so happy and excited to be a part of these fun groups!

I have hours upon hours of crafty reorganizing t get to today, but wanted to spend some time this morning with you guys! Have a wonderful day!!

Pound cake...yummy!!

Hello to all of you, my wonderful blogging friends! My life has been caught in a whirlwind of chaos lately and it feels like I have been busy up to my eyeballs! I am so sorry to have been MIA around here! This hobby truly, truly makes me happy and I have discovered lately when I cannot squeeze in the time to make it happen I really miss it!

Summer is here and so that means that hopefully my time will free up some! My home school group schedule will lighten for a few months and must rush to activities should be fewer too! I am planning to try to spend much more time crafting and blogging! :)

I have a fun little recipe card to share today! I signed up for a 6 X 6 Pound Cake recipe card swap hosted by one of my wonderful friends at SCS, Melissa! (Hiya Melissa!!!) I met Melissa through another swap and am so grateful! She is so much fun and really wonderful! I have been really fortunate to find so many really special friends in the stamping community!

The design is simple! I used one of my favorite color combos. Pink, brown and blue just scream to be used together! I faux stitched around all of the pieces and added some 3d flowers that I made from a template. I used Something Yummy from Stampin Up' for my stamped imaged. I cannot wait to get these cards back and turn them into a book! :) Here is my card:



One can never have too many Pound Cake recipes in my opinion!

Recipe:
Paper: SU Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette DSP and Baja Blue
Ink: SU Chocolate Chip, White Gel Pen
Extras: Flowers, Pastel Brads

I will be back soon to share some of the other fun swaps I have received back recently! :)

Have a wonderful night! :)

Hello! Happy weekend! How are you?! Hope everyone is doing well!

I am co-coordinator of my counties home school group and this weekend was our Graduation/dinner and prom! It took us over a month to prepare for this function! We had 4 graduates this time and fed 100 people dinner! Afterwards we had a prom for our kids! We had about 30 kids in attendance and they had a blast! Our theme was "A Night in Paradise!" and so we went luau style with all of the decorations! We made a giant lei by attaching flowers to white Christmas lights and hung it from the ceiling! We hung flowers from the doorways and hung flowers from the ceiling down stairs in the dinner area! We used mini pools as our drink coolers and had mini tiki torches as our prom table centerpieces! We laid out lei's and sunglasses on the tables and hung sparkly palm trees! I cut out over 2000 flowers! We decorated peppermint patties by adding flowers and leaves and a mini banner that displayed the year! This was our 3rd graduation ceremony and as of last night we have officially graduated 10 kids! :) We have a wonderful support group and amazing kids! We are really lucky! Here are some photos from our night:

The main room pre-decorations!



Main room all set up!



The main room set up with the giant lei lit up!


This was the room before we turned it into a party!



This was the downstairs where we served dinner!

These flowers are all attached to a peppermint patty! :)



We made 100 of these!



These were at each seat!



The food table stared here!

Our graduates after the ceremony!


Little Ole Me!


The whole gang sporting their shades!


Limbo anyone?!


...and more limbo!


Hope that you are all having a wonderful long weekend! I will be back soonest! :)

Butterfly baskets and baskets of Butterflies!

Hello and happy Friday! :) I participated in a 3D Swap with my demonstrator's group this past weekend and this is the project I took! I found this project at SplitCoast and had to rabbit trail through several sites to get to the template which I found here! The ones I saw were made by Qbee and she did a beautiful job! I fell in love with these little baskets! I added handles to the fronts and tied a ribbon at the top edge! These would make excellent party favor boxes or little gift baskets! Mt gift of choice of course would be to fill em to the top with chocolate, but to each her own! ;) I will be making lots of these little beauties!




Recipe:
Paper: So Saffron, Sage Shadow and Chocolate Chip Pink Pirouette DSP
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Extras: Butterfly Sizzex Die, Pink Pirouette Ribbon

I have a full day, but wanted to share this with you guys! Have a wonderful day! Be back soonest!

Crafty Space!

Hello! :) How are ya?! How are ya?! I have been super, crazy, busy the last week! My home school group is getting ready to have our graduation and Prom and I have been running around like a crazy person trying to get things done!

One of my Crafty Critter buddies, Meg (hiya Meg!!), posted a challenge to us this week! She wanted to see our craft space! I am sooo embarrassed to admit that my craft space looks like a tornado whipped through it twice!! LOL I have been promising myself to get my space all organized and clean and together, but I have been so short on time and when it comes down to it...if I only have a little bit of time to spare I would rather craft in a mess than spend it cleaning and organizing! LOL Hence the laundry piled to the ceiling and the toilets that need to be scrubbed! (Sorry honey!!) Big cheesy grin! Fortunatley for me I have a wonderful very understanding hubby! :)

Anyhow, I almost graciously bowed out of this challenge! My space is just too too messy to share, but then I figured Oh what the heck!! Hopefully this tiny little sneak peek will be incentive for me to kick my own tail into gear and get the organizing into full on production mode! (I really cannot believe I am putting this out there!) LOL This is a piece of my stamping space! I usually lug everything out into the dinning room to work because I like to be with my family! That means the dinning room table gets piled high with project upon project! I didn't take any photos of that yet though! Doing this has sparked an even greater interest in getting things organized! Once I get things cleaned up and organized I will take more pictures and share those! :)

Here is my little messy sneak peek! I keep tons and tons of stuff in these drawers! Paper, stamps, embellishments, ribbon, stamp cleaner, bling, adhesives, pens, markers, magazines, stickers, punches, scissors...



Crazy, huh?! LOL What a mess!! I promise to take and share more photos of my stamp area soon! Have a super day! I will be back soonest! :)

CCC#5

Hey there! How is everyone?! Doing wonderfully, I hope!! I am! :)

It is time for another Crafty Critter Challenge! I LOVE these! They are always so much fun! :) This one was hosted by Moira (Hi Moira!!) aka Smartbug! This was another excellent challenge! Here are the rules:

Your challenge is to create a card of any size that has the following elements:
1. Use sketch #49 from Spiltcoast
2. Use the color red somewhere, anywhere.
3. Use a stamp you have not used in the last 3 months.
4. Your card must have ribbon on it somewhere

I chose the Living Large set from Stampin Up! It has been forever since I used this set and it made me realize just how cute I think it is! LOL I kept my color scheme very simple. I used brown, red and white throughout! My ribbon was even chocolate chip! I added some bridal flowers and some red bling! I ran the the red background piece through my swirl Cuttlebug and slapped it all together!

Thank you Moira for the great challenge!



Recipe:
Paper: SU! Chocolate Chip, Real Red and Whisper White
Stamps: SU! Living Large
Ink: Riding Hood Red and Chocolate Chip
Extras: Bridal flowers, Swirl Cuttlebug folder, circle punches, red bling

Have a wonderful day! Be back soonest! :)

Hello, hello, hello!!! Happy weekend! I am sooooo excited to be sharing one of my all time favorite projects today! I belong to a group called SBS2 and I feel really incredibly fortunate to have met these ladies! They are such a wonderful bunch of people! This group was started quite a while ago and I am sad to say that it has been going through some growing pains. People get busy, lives get nutty and interest's start to wane. It really does make me a little sad, but I couldn't be more thrilled and excited by the very lovely ladies that I have met because of this group!

This is a project that a couple of us worked on together! It is a coaster friendship book! We each (HIYA CRISSY and MICHELLE!!!!!) made our own book and then sent it around round robin style to each other! We each added a few pages to each others books! I was in awe when I got my book back! These ladies are both amazingly talented and did such a beautiful job! I have included a few of the pages in my new Coaster Friendship book here! Thanks you guys! I LOVE it! You guys are the best! Great big hugs to you both! :)
















Hope you have a wonderful weekend! Big, big hug! I will be back soonest! :)

CCC#4 Flower Challenge

Hello! I spent this morning working on a fun challenge posted by Kelly! ((Hiya Kelly! *waves!!*)) She requested that our card use flowers! I happen to love flowers so I had a super hard time trying to decide which ones to use! I have a ton of flower stamps and flower punches and flower stickies so it was a really tough choice! I finally decided on a flower stencil and my Sizzex leaves die! I Cuttlebugged the back ground and added these three flowers and leaves. I faux stitched around the edges and added some sparkle bling! I also drew little white highlights on the leaves to make them look less flat! I adhered thee leaves flat down and the flowers flat down, but popped the background image off of the second layer! Flowers...preeeetttyy! :)

Back packing anyone?! :)

Hello! :) The weather has been absolutely beautiful here the last few days! It makes me want to pack a back pack full of goodies and hit the hiking trails! We have an absolutely amazing hiking spot here that ends in a giant waterfall! It is a 2 mile hike out and then back! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!! I would go every weekend if I could!

I am feeling doubly inspired by this cute back pack we made at my demo meeting last weekend! I think the only thing that could make this little guy any better would be if it were stuffed with chocolate! :) I fell in love with this project and will be making more of these!





Ok, I am off to the grocery store and them back home to work on more swaps! Have a wonderful day! I will be back soon! :)