It's really been too long...

Hello! Well, it's finally Friday. There is just something about Friday's that I love. Maybe because it's the end of the week and maybe because you know that (if you work a M-F/ 9-5 type job) you don't feel rushed to get everything in before bed.  You know that you have a few days to just relax and chill, ya know? I love it no matter the reason. Tonight, Aaron went up to the VFW so it was just Ava and I. We sat out on the back patio and just talked..it was fun! It's dark now, so we came inside. Sometimes it's just nice to sit and talk..about everything and nothing with those you love.

I made this card for no one in particular, but I'm going to find someone to send this to that I miss..someone I haven't thought about maybe in a while or just haven't seen in a while. It'll be good to reconnect..it always is.  I was thinking this morning on our commute that up until about 5 years ago people had high school reunions to reconnect. They hadn't seen each other in years and they all were anxious to see how everyone looked and what they had been up to. Now, however, with things like Twitter and Facebook we already know these things. There is no need to REALLY reconnect with people because all you have to do is turn on the computer and you can see in living color what they're up to.  As much as I love my Facebook and all, I sure do miss being able to talk to people and let them tell you how things are and what they're up to...something just really sweet about that. Ok, well enough of my crazy talk..here is the card I made.

 It's for the Waltzingmouse sketch challenge . I love the sketch...such a fun and girly feeling sketch. I don't own any Waltzingmouse stamps (yet), so I knew that my Gossipabella would be perfect for the largest panel. And I felt the sentiment from Friends till the End by papertrey fit perfectly with my nostalgic mood for tonight. :0)

Ok, well that's it for now. I may stamp more tonight, but no more posts...hubby is home! Later! Thanks for stopping by..


Stamps: Gossipabella (stamping bella) ; Friends till the End (papertrey)
Cardstock: White, Black, Real Red, and Rockabilly dsp (stampin up)
Inks: Basic black, Real Red ink and grey, real red, and old olive markers (stampin up)
Extras: Gunmetal Stickles, button and black grosgrain (stampin up)

My Mojo is Off the Wall..

Ok, so the play on challenge words wasn't that great. It's late here (ok, just 9:00, but still..) and my brain is half asleep! What do you expect? lol

I decided to go ahead and break my *No stamping after 7pm* rule cause I wanted to get these two challenges done while I had the idea in my head. The card isn't exactly what I had envisioned, but it's close. The panel at the top with the circle seems to need something..not sure what, though. This card was created for the Mojo Monday Challenge (my second entry..lol) and the Off the Wall Craftiness challenge. The colors rock the house, and the layout is fantastic! I'm not usually a bright color person, so this was a challenge for my eyes..lol..but I like the way they all worked together and I think this bella (Strumabella) is perfect for it. She looks like me...if I was really thin, could play guitar, and was rocking the Afro. :0) Ok, so without further ado...

I took about 15 pictures of this card and it just doesn't want to look right on here. It's so much more vibrant in person..it truly is. Not sure if you can tell, but the rug and her jeans are paper pieced. As much as it annoys me to cut out little bitty pieces, I just can't stop doing it. I love having designs or textures that I cannot duplicate with a marker on my cards..it just adds something to it that I love. Ok, well that's it for now. I'll have something new to share tomorrow probably so y'all come back now..ya hear? :0)

Seriously, though, someone please call my husband and tell him I need a camera..lol. My poor iPhone can't handle much more. Either a camera or at least a 3Gs iPhone. I'm still rocking out the original version...lol. Good thing my birthday is in a couple of months! Haha.



Stamps: Strumabella (stamping bella); Signature Greetings, Friends till the End, and Wonderfully Whimsical (the little birdie) all from Papertreyink.
Cardstock: Hibiscus Burst (papertreyink); White, Only Orange and Green Galore (stampin up)
Ink: Basic Black, Old Olive, and Green Galore (stampin up); Copics
Extras: White grosgrain (stampin up); Rickrack border die (papertreyink)

Poolside Inspiration

I so wish I was at poolside. As it stands, I'm at home watching hubby grill some pork chops while Ava is quizzing me on New Moon. Right now, i've gotten every question correct, but hey..I am a Genius. A Twilight Genius, anyway..lol.

Ok, so today I did the Tuesday Trigger on Moxie Fab World blog. I loved this picture and immediately thought of an island wedding. Does that not sound great? Here is what I came up with....do you like?

It was a ton of fun to make. Sorry about our fence in the background. Being outside, I really didn't think about it until after I uploaded it and I liked the way the sun hit it. Maybe I should take all of my pics outside..lol. Ok, well my family is waiting on me. Gotta get a pork chop and love on my mom who's over for a visit. Thanks for stopping by...Oh! But before you go, take a look at what Ava did in Art class this week. She hates it, but I think it's wicked cool. She's 11.

Stamps: Blissful Bride (stampin up - summer catalog); Signature Greetings (papertreyink)
Cardstock: Kraft, White (stampin up); Patterned paper from DCWV
Ink: Basic Brown, Old Olive, Chocolate Chp (stampin up)
Extras: Twine, Button (stampin up)

I'm drooling...and stamping

Now I know most of y'all haven't known me for long, but I detest the dentist.  NO offense at all to dentists out there, but they freak me out! Today I was scheduled for a deep clean and a crown (somebody stop me with the cotton candy, please). I get there and have to have 4 - read it again - FOUR shots. Are you kidding me? On American Idol night? Really? Four shots is unnecessary if you're not getting all of your teeth pulled. Ugh. I'm not a happy camper at all.

Even in the blubber that is my mouth, I knew I needed to get a post in today. I'm sure at least one of y'all waits by the Mac for my posts, right? :0) Plus, I told you guys yesterday that I was going to post my Mojo Monday card tonight. This isn't the one I was working on last night. I trashed that one as soon as I saw the man in brown pull up the street. He had my BELLA's! Yay! I've been waiting on those little buggers and couldn't wait to get into that package. So, pain pills be darned - I have to stamp! Here she is...

I really wanted this card to be fun with all of the dots and stuff, but when I decided to paper piece her chair..well, let's just say that was a bad idea. It took forever to get between her little arms and next to her neck. Of course, once I started, I couldn't stop. Ugh. I like the way she came out, though, and I'm not a huge fan of polka dots (again, no offense to people who like dots or the Polka for that matter..lol) I also paper pieced her rug. If you have to work in an office, we all know that the best way to make it better is to personalize it a tad. :0)

Ok, well..i've got to get in bed. My mouth is throbbing and my husband is wondering why I am on the computer. Gotta get in the bed...oh, but first I gotta vote for Lee and Crystal on Idol. Anybody catch those text numbers?? lol!

 Thanks for visiting!!


Stamps: Execubella (stampingbella) ; sentiment is from Chic Boutique (stampin up)
Cardstock:  White, Old Olive, and Rockabilly dsp (stampin up); Yellow background paper and paper for rug from DCWV
Ink: Basic Black; Real Red, Old Olive, Going Grey, Summer Sun, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa (stampin up)
Extras: Old Olive grosgrain (stampin up)

Sketch Happy

That's what I am tonight, folks...Sketch Happy! All day at work I was bored and did nothing but look at blogs and think about stamping! So, as soon as I got home I headed up to the stamp room to get busy on the Taylored Expressions Challenge and the Mojo Monday sketch. So much fun! The owl card just cracks me up. That little guy drives? Really? Yep! Apparently, he does! Haha.

Here is the Taylored Expressions card:

The background papers are cut into squares, but once I put the ribbon on it made it seem like continuos pieces. I purposely arranged the squares so that they would look like they created little branches.  All in all, I love this card. Oh! And my 7 Copics from papertrey came in the mail today, so I got to play with those a wee bit. I colored the car in with a Copic and used the colorless blender in the middle to add some shading to the car. I KNOW I am really going to love them once I get more colors. I only used RV14 and the colorless blender on this card. Of course I also used Stickles..I really just love 'em! I used pearls for the headlights and instead of using the sentiments that came with Enjoy the Ride, I used a sentiment from the Wise Owl set. It matched better and made more sense with the owl driving the car. I love how the words fit within the plate - very cool, papertrey, very cool!

I made a card for the Mojo Monday challenge, but it's just not *right*. Something is too plain, so I'm going to redo it and post it tomorrow night, maybe. :0)

Have a great night y'all! Thanks for visiting!!


Stamps: Wise Owl and Enjoy the Ride (papertreyink)
Cardstock: Hibiscus Burst, White (papertreyink); Raspberry Tart dsp (stampin up)
Ink: Basic Grey (stampin up); Copics - RV14 and 0 (papertreyink)
Extras: Enjoy the Ride die (papertreyink); Stickles, pearls; old olive grosgrain and corner rounder (stampin up)

No card..just words

Can I just say that I had such high hopes for today. On my facebook status last night I wrote that I was ready for a wonderful week. Well, it's Monday morning and I am already living the opposite! Ugh!! I woke up at 6 this morning (I'm supposed to get up at 5:45) and even though I had my clothes picked out, I still had to wash my hair and get that mess under control! I stayed up way too late on the papertrey blog hop and then someone from out of state prank calls us about 2am. Really? Is this what it's come to now? With all of the technology we have out there - internet, video games, etc - people are reduced to 1986 modes of fun. Prank calling? Gosh.

Anyway, so I get up and out of the door and as we're leaving Ava's school I realize that I don't have Igor. Igor is my iPhone and we are inseparable. He's always by my side to entertain me, give me access to things I can't get from work, and take pictures indiscrimately when I'm bored. So, I look over at Aaron and this is how our conversation went:

Me: Oh, man..I left my phone at home!
Aaron: Hmm, oh well. You left it at home yesterday, too. Maybe you need Gingko.
Me: Well, are you going to turn around? (we're only 2 miles from home, folks!!)
Aaron: Nope. You'll just have to entertain yourself today...or I have an idea..why don't you just work?

Do you guys see what I have to deal with? Work? Pfftt...why would I do that all day? ;0)

Oh well...my boss is out of town today, so I have no one to talk to and now I also have nothing to listen to. At least my hair looks nice. I would take a picture and show y'all, but..well, you know....no Igor.

Oh! I do want to share with you guys this picture of my husband that I love.

He's NOT a smiler, by nature. Smiles are few and far between with him. This is a picture of him in Iraq the last time he was there and I find it so cute that he is smiling, but the thing that really struck me the first time I saw this picture was the fact that he is 1. In Iraq on a bike and 2. Not wearing a helmet. I mean, really? You're in the middle of a war zone riding a bike..you would think he would at least wear a helmet. Safety first, people!

Ok, well that's all for now. I'll be back later tonight with my card for the Mojo Monday sketch!

Papertrey Blog Hop

Hey everyone! If this is your first time here, welcome. I'm a new blogger, and so far it's been a lot of fun. I hope you guys come back even after the *blog hop* festivities!

So let's get to why you're probably here tonight. The Papertreyink blog hop! This month's challenge was to use tissue paper on our card in some way. Now, Papertreyink ships their stamps wrapped lovingly IN tissue paper, so it was free and easy to use. Of course, just because I had lots of it lying around didn't mean my card was a given. In fact, it was wayyyy tough! I wanted to go all out and make something that would make the papers..lol..make people fall in love. What I ended up with according to my husband looks like I "left it out in the rain". Isn't he a sweetie? lol

Here's my card:

It's not what I wanted to do even though it was the idea I had in my head. Oh well, I'm putting it out here anyway cause even though it isn't my favorite, it may inspire one of y'all to make something similar (and better). And when you do, please let me know so I can see how it should be! ;0)

So, here is what I did. I put the tissue paper over the cardstock as usual, but then I decided it needed a bit of shine (I'm way too addicted to the shine, folks..lol) so I added crystal effects to the entire card. At first it kinda had a sticky thing going on, but now that it's dry it's kinda neat. I tried to add some background color behind the trees to give it a Northern Lights feel, but I'm not sure that comes across in the finished product.

Ok, well that's it for me. Enjoy the rest of the blog hop and come back soon!




Stamps:  Through the Trees (papertreyink); Wellness Wishes (stampin up)
Cardstock: Smoky Shadow, Stampers select, and Raspberry Fizz (papertreyink)
Ink: Old Olive and Pink Passion (stampin up)
Extras: button and black grosgrain (stampin up); tissue paper courtesy of papertreyink 

Last minute baby....

Ok, was I the one that said I wasn't going to be posting a lot? Gosh, I suppose I underestimated the time I spend stamping and the need I have for attention..lol.

So, my mom calls tonight as I'm in the middle of creating a card for tomorrow's Blog Hop over at papertreyink and says, 'I need two cards for tomorrow. One from you and one from me." Hmm. Well, ok, mom...let me just drop what I'm doing and get on that. ;0)

Actually, I am quite happy with the way they turned out. What do you think?

The yellow one is a close case of this one by Debbie Olson. I basically changed the background paper to one with clouds and changed up the ribbon. That card is so classic that it just jumps off the page at you, ya know? She's awesome.  The second one was just one I thought of while stamping the first one. I used Stickles on the yellow card and crystal effects on the bear in the pink one. I love shine and sparkle!

Ok, seriously..this is it. No more two post days! It's bedtime..ok, well time to get in the bed and watch cartoons...have a great night!

Hootin in the Rain...

Happy Saturday everyone! Can I just go on record as saying that when I woke up this morning, I had this card in mind. It rained all night and is still raining now. Tornado watches are in effect and everything and so I knew that I was going to pack myself in my stamping room and make *the* card I had in my head. Aaron made breakfast and I scarfed it up like a 16 year old boy. I was in a race to get upstairs and create. The card itself was supposed to be inspired by this pillow from Green Rainbow. It was part of the Saturday inspiration challenges they have on splitcoast every week (click here to check out all of the challenges they have all week long), and as soon as I saw that pillow I thought of my Wise Owl set from papertrey. I love owls..well, ok I love cartoon and inanimate owls. I especially love the one that sits on the front porch keeping the birds away from our holly berry bushes. Unfortunately, we got him a day too late this year and by the time we got home with him, the poor berries were all gone. We're ready for next year, though!

Ok, so back to the card. The card I had in mind was simple and neat. It took a life of it's own, however, when I decided to incorporate the Mojo Monday challenge sketch into the design. The sketch itself is great, but trying to force two challenges into one card wasn't working for me. So after an hour in the room listening to the rain and wondering how long till our Spring Game (less than 15 minutes, if you want to know), I emerged with this little ditty:

This little owl is adorable! There are so many ways you can put him together....different eyes, bellies, noses...he's just a little darling, no? Well, that's it for now. I hear Big Ten network on in the other room and Ava's little friend who slept over is getting ready to head out, so until later...thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Wise Owl and A Little Argyle from Papertrey
Ink: Hawaiian Shores - papertrey, Basic Brown, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Really Rust - SU
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Old Olive - SU; Hawaiian Shores - papertrey
Extras: Hawaiian Shores 5/8 grosgrain  papertrey; Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder; Scallop border punch, hemp, and button - SU 

One Layer Madness

You know, there are not many challenges I shy away from regarding cards. The one that I always do, however, is the "one layer" card. There is just something about it that's not natural. Even the novice stamper knows that you MUST add layers to a card to make it work. Well, I finally decided to give it a go when I saw the challenge on Kristina's blog . It called out to me and said, "Try me"....kinda like those samples in Publix. You really don't want to try, but you must. It's a fact of life.

Some people can do this kind of card no problem. They look like a great handmade Hallmark card, you know? The ones that make you go, "Now, why don't mine look like that?!" So, I came home this afternoon still beaming from all of the blog love I received from you guys earlier and decided to give it a go. Let me just say...it was a serious challenge to not add any layers or even a stinkin' button to this card. I did, however, fool myself by putting the little bird in the tree and calling it a separate layer...lol. The things I tell myself to get through the day would astound y'all! So, this is what I came up with....

What do you think? It's plain and boring (or shall I say solemn...heehee), but I kinda dig it. I won't be making anymore anytime soon, but at least I tried it.

Wacky Wedding Wishes...

So I made this card last night for a sketch challenge over on splitcoast. I love the layout and the card was so much fun to make. The only thing is.....I need a camera, people! I used my iPhone for this and while it works OK, it is not nearly as good as it should be. I've pointed one out at Target and I'm hoping I get it for Mother's Day. It's doubtful, but you never know..lol. Maybe once my husband sees how desperately I need one, he'll get it. This little ditty is so much prettier IRL. :0(

I used the new papertreyink stamp set, Enjoy the Ride. It has a coordinating die that is Fab!! I made the mistake of stamping the image first and then trying to run it through the Cuttlebug. I quickly realized my mistake and had to do it the other way...so much fun this little set is! Everyone should have one. There, I said it..now, go to papertrey and buy it. I made the lines in the "road" using the papertrey rickrack die. Have I said how much I love the dies that everyone is using? It makes it so much easier to make fun cards! The wedding cake is from a Stampin' Up stamp set that is in the upcoming Summer mini catalog called Blissful Bride. That's it for now!!

hello folks!

Well, hello World! It's Earth Day and I've decided that the Earth wants me to blog. lol

I'm a stamper. No, I don't collect stamps, silly! I make cards! It's fun. I stamped for about 5 years and then suddenly stopped 3 years ago. Sold everything I had and never looked at another catalog, website, or blog. Then all of a sudden 2 months ago, I decided that I needed to stamp again and i've been going ever since. It's been fun and I love that I have something that makes me happy...er, other than my family and church, of course!

Well, ok...let's see how this goes. As much as I love to chat and all, i'm not sure how often i'll be blogging especially since right now it feels as if i am talking to myself. Ha! My plan is to be here every other day...but we'll see. Life can sometimes get in the way of itself, ya know?

Later!