Crafter's Workshop

Saturday Challenge 146- 2nd try

2010-04-12T11:12:00.000-07:00

This is my second shot at the sketch challenge from Stamping 411. I had an intresting idea and wanted to try it out. Actually it is several ideas. I made the paper flowers from the boho blossoms punch

. The box uses the matchbox die (i got that die just last week and I LOVE it.) I used rich razzleberry for the outside sleeve, the inside base of the box is old olive. I used bermuda bay, whisper white, and taken with teal for the flat pieces on the top of the box I used cottage wall DSP for the flowers and i used white taffeta ribbon. I like working in minature it has been fun. I did 'cheat' a little on the bow. I tied the bow and then adhered it to the box with a glue dot. I really like how well it came together. I also love the texture folders SU has the texture they put onto the cardstock just rocks. Thanks Stamping 411 for the awesome sketch!

Stamping 411 challenge: #146

2010-04-11T19:22:00.000-07:00

It is time for another sketch challenge at Stamping 411. I have used the bermuda bay with the cottage wall DSP before and I loved the look, so that is how I started on my card. I just got the vintage vogue stamp set Thursday so I have been wanting to ink it up and put it on a card *LOVE IT*. This sketch is so awesome ! I just love the scallops AND the ribbon with a bow. (I don't use full bows very often. I also used dazzling diamonds on the center of the small flower because it looked a little naked and was just crying out for SOMETHING. :D

Pals Paper Arts Challenge 36

2010-04-04T20:28:00.000-07:00

I have discovered a awesome site that has cool challenges to play with. This week's challenge was a color challenge: to use lavendar lace, barely banana, and certainly celery. I decided to use the SU Tea Party DSP because it has those colors. I had fun dreaming this card up. Once I got the idea sketched out it was simple to pull everything out, cut, stamp and put it together.

After I created the front of the card I got to thinking that the inside needed dressing up a bit. I was not quite sure what I would do at first, but I finally decided to echo parts of the front on the inside to have a 'common theme' going on with the card. Now I know the card will not be able to go through the standard postal mailing, but I think it would be so awesome to put inside a gift for a wedding shower or an annivesary.

Randy's birthday card

2010-04-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

I got this idea from another lady I met at my SU! demonstrator's house the last time I went to a class.

I had made a different birthday card for Randy, but my mom said that I needed to do something at least somewhat funny for him. Well I remembered the other card and set out to make my own version. Emily laughed when I showed it to her. :D

Saturday Sketch Challenge 145

2010-04-02T20:02:00.000-07:00

This will possibly be the annivesary card I give to my parents for their 29th wedding annivesary. I wanted to try out some of the patterns from the Sweet Pea patterns pack that I hadn't used yet. I love this stamp set, but I am just not quite sure I like the way this card came together.

DCBD 171

2010-03-31T11:14:00.000-07:00

I like the colors that I used on this card. Plus I love, Love, LOVE the words I used and the embossing folder. The embossing folder gives such crisp texture. It is a wonderful tool. I am also loving the taffeta ribbon. I will be sad when the soft suede color is retired because I love it.

Sunday Sketch Challenge

2010-03-29T09:23:00.001-07:00

I used Heather's sketch for the inspiration for my card. I am pretty excited about this card except that I had to keep taking stuff up so that I could layer stuff under it. Oh, well. I love the card.

Sweet Purple Flower Frame

2010-03-28T21:48:00.000-07:00

A dear friend is expecting a little girl. I heard that she is thinking about doing purple and green in the baby's room. I LOVE purple and green so I wanted to make her something special. I used Cottage Wall DSP, black cardstock, pale plum cardstock, orchid opulence ink, rich razzelberry ink, the heart to heart punch, the XL fancy flower punch, and the finial press embossing folder. I wanted to find pearls, but I couldn't find it, but I didn't so I grabbed some adhesive backed rhinestones. I love how this turned out. :D

Sketch Challenge

2010-03-26T18:39:00.000-07:00

Stamping 411 always has such excellent sketches I love it when I get to play along. This one is Saturday Sketch Challenge 144. I enjoy adding texture to my cards with the embossing folders. I think texture makes the card POP. I also love these colors together. Of course the DP kind-of made the choices obvious, but I still like them. Let me know what you think. :D I looooove comments.

3 challenges!

2010-03-25T09:33:00.001-07:00

I am so excited. I have managed to combine three challenges in my card. First a sketch challenge from Stamping 411, a color challenge from The Color Dare and a concept challenge from Stamp with Heather. Let me know what you think of my card.

Cherries!

2010-03-10T13:23:00.000-08:00

I love this stamp. Of course I have to ink it with my markers, but that still doesn't make much difference to me. I like the cuteness. I did this card for the last stamping session I had at my house. It was one of the two or three cards we made in addition to some projects. (My kids loved the projects more b/c they were FUN and some included CANDY.)

Congrats Hannah!

2010-03-09T13:06:00.000-08:00

My youngest sister is graduating from High School. She finished her courses last week. So I have two cards here to give to her. One will be from me, the DH and the kiddos. The other one will be from Maw-Maw. I love the way both of them went together. Plus I love the Sweet Pea felt flowers. I hope, hope, hope Stamping Up will keep them around for their IBC for 2010-2011. :D

Butterfly Post-It holder

2010-03-08T15:27:00.000-08:00

This post-it note holder was intended to go to someone for their birthday, but I forgot it as home. SO, it is still sitting around the house so I thought I would make good use of it by using it for a blog post. :D I do want to point out the rows of poked holes above and below the butterfly as well as the texture on the butterfly itself. I love to texture things with my Big Shot. It seems to me that it just adds so much visual appeal to have a bit of texture to a piece of solid colored cardstock.

Birthday Card

2010-03-07T15:55:00.000-08:00

I discovered this little lion on chic 'n' scratch and I just loved him. The candy holder it is on was also a creation of hers. She posts videos of her projects so they are SO easy to follow along with. I made this little treat for my cousin Cassie's son, Kayden. I think he will really enjoy it.

Cottage Wall

2010-03-06T15:48:00.000-08:00

I love this card. The paper is so cute and the colors just seem to go together so well. Esther has asked that we make it at our next card session. So I have ordered more paper because I did not have quite enough pale plum to make 8 of these or so.

SSC 141

2010-03-06T07:48:00.001-08:00

I used this week's sketch from Stamping 411 for the inspiration for my card. I love the colors I used. I don't know that I have ever tried Ruby Red and Regal Rose together. However, since I was using the paper (Candy Shop, I think?) I tried to get what went together the best and obviously that was Ruby Red and Regal Rose. I also like the rounded diagonal corners. It is a technique that I occassionally employ on my own, but haven't in a while, so I was thrilled when I noticed that aspect of this week's sketch. I also stretched myself a little bit when I used cut the combo of coaster and paper for my card. I don't think I have ever managed to incorporate that technique into any of my cards to where I actually liked the way it looked. BUT I like it today. :D I think this will be a birthday card for one of my aunts. I am trying to make cards for the entire year ahead so that I will be able to send cards out with out having to frantically make cards at the last moment. (I reallly DON'T like doing that)

Enjoy!

P.S. I would love to have new followers to my blog.

Clean and Simple Challenge #81

2010-03-05T15:34:00.000-08:00

This is my try at some cards where I use the sketch from the Clean and Simple Sketch Challenge. I loved how simple these cards are. :D

Soft and Lovely Card

2010-03-03T14:46:00.000-08:00

I had fun creating this card for a lady I heard of through the homeschool play group. I wanted something fun with soft colors to help cheer her up as she is healing from (I believe) surgery. Love the beautiful DP ...

Mojo Butterflies

2010-03-02T14:33:00.000-08:00

I used the mojo monday challenge for this week as my inspiration for this card. I love the way it turned out. I turned the circles into butterflies and I LOVE the way it turned out.

Saturday Sketch Challenge # 137

2010-02-08T07:04:00.000-08:00

I LOVE this sketch. Stamping 411 had an awesome challenge this weekend. I made two cards that I have taken pictures of and I have another one on my stamp table awaiting assembly. Thanks for the awesome sketch!

I inked the tree with old olive and soft suede markers and decided to use a second generation stamping of it on the inside of the card. I like how not re-inking the stamp leaves a much softer look. I also stamped a phrase in soft suede. This card is a sympathy card for the family of a high school friend. He recently died of cancer and I found out Friday night so this sketch got used as my sympathy card mojo.

My second card using this sketch I took Saturday to my demo. She was having a class at her house and I thought she would enjoy a card to thank her for being such a great demo (I have known her for probably 10 years she is SO awesome). I wanted to decorate the inside of the card so i used the same stamp as I had on the front, but instead of inking it white, I inked it bermuda bay and I stamped it off so the inside image would be softer.I also like how rich razzelberry and bermuda bay go together. I also made this card into an easel style card. I must say I have figured out for myself why so many of the people making these style cards make them square...so that the front will stand up more (a very DUH! moment).

Josiah!

2010-02-04T08:34:00.000-08:00

This is my sweet boy. About two weeks ago the weather on a friday was GORGEOUS! so we went out into the back yard of gran's house and took some pictures in the green grass. By this point he was getting tired of having his picture snapped, but he still posed for me. He is so fun.

Mojo Monday Challenge 124 card.

2010-02-03T11:40:00.000-08:00

I combined two challenges. I did the sketch challenge over at Mojo Monday (#124)http://mojomonday.blogspot.com/2010/02/mojo-monday-125-contest.html as well as a color challenge to use the colors: old olive, not quite navy, bordering blue, certainly celery, and soft suede. I had to scratch my head a few times as I puzzled out this card, but I like the end result pretty well.

Will's Birthday Card 2010

2010-02-03T09:49:00.000-08:00

Josiah loved helping me make this card that I got the base idea from www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjE4q7l63Ug. We cut out two extra top notes and he helped me stamp them. We used creamy caramel cardstock for the base, very vanilla and chocolate chip for the front top notes. We stamped in creamy caramel, close to cocoa and chocolate chip. Josiah had tons of fun just stamping this. As a matter of fact it touched off a new phase in my house. It is now a great treat for my kids to get to stamp and make cards during their break times from homeschooling. LOL. I hadn't thought of trying that before, but we are getting more school done now than I had hoped to in one day. :D Yay us!

Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch Challenge 136

2010-01-29T22:03:00.000-08:00

Long title for (probably) a pretty short post. This is my first time to play at this challenge and I am so totally excited to be posting a card for a challenge. I used Stampin' Up! stuff on it and am excited about that, too. I also LOVE the colors on this card. Let me know what YOU think. :D

New Me!

2010-01-27T11:40:00.000-08:00

Yes, I have lost almost 50 pounds since this time last year and I am feeling GREAT! I am more flexible, have more energy and (I hope) more upbeat and positive about myself. I HIGHLY recomend to anyone over weight to try out Weight Watchers. I think they have an adaptable plan that will work with any lifestyle.

Ok. Enough of the advertisment for Weight Watchers.

I hope everyone is having a God blessed New Year. :D

Car trouble

2010-01-21T17:03:00.000-08:00

My blue Tahoe has had an annoying problem. The moulding on the passenger side doors has been trying to pop off. We took it into the shop several weeks back for them to look at and to try to get them to fix it. Sadly enough they did not have the parts for one of the doors so we had to wait until they got the part in. Then it had to be painted. Then I had to find the time (and energy) to drop it off and the weather had to cooperate. Today I finally got it to the shop. When I went to pick it up at about 4:15 the service guy went out with me to inspect the job the mechanics did. As he walked past the moulding on the rear passenger door he pressed on it to see if it was sticking properly. To my surprise, the moulding seemed to be resisting the glue. The service guy got some tape to put on the Tahoe to hold the moulding in place in the hopes that the glue will have time to totally bond to the moulding before I take the tape off tomorrow. I hope it does because I don't want to have to take it back again.

cards 1/20/2010

2010-01-20T14:18:00.000-08:00

The inspiration for these two cards came from some blogs I follow. I can't remember the name of the first one, but the second one is Diva Coffee Break Designs. I like how the second design is so simple. I am thinking about trying another card with that sketch, but that will have to happen later. :D

Back from a looong break.

2010-01-18T12:12:00.000-08:00

Ok. So I have been away for a long time. Sorry guys. I guess I am not really cut out to be a GREAT blogger. I have found some inspiration, so I may (in between everything else) be able to make some cards.

Zoo-Bears

2009-08-23T18:00:00.000-07:00

These are the Brown and Black bears the Alaska Zoo had. The polar bear was sleeping when we went to see him, so I don't think we actually took a picture of him. It was VERY neat to get to see a polar bear IRL b/c I have NEVER seen one anywhere else. (Black bear top pix, brown bottom pix)

Zoo-coyote.

2009-08-22T19:47:00.000-07:00

This coyote was VERY intrested in us. It came right up to the edge of the enclosure and watched us closely. It paced back and forth right in front. When we were leaving, I saw some girls taking a picture by the cage. The one that was posing, snapped her fingers at it and it came right away. It seemed SO odd.

Fishing

2009-08-21T19:33:00.001-07:00

The otter they saw from the boat on their way back in.

Caleb working at fishing.

Hannah and Josiah getting ready to go out.

Sadly, none of our fishers (Jonathan, Josh, Hannah, Josiah, Caleb) got anything, but I think they had a pretty good time and they did get to see some neat things.

Alaska!

2009-08-21T19:27:00.000-07:00

We had fun even if we got rained on and Rained On and RAINED ON while we were in Alaska. =) The kiddos are growing SO much. It seems to me like Ben went overnight from crawling when we were there last, to walking when they were in TX this spring to running and CLIMBING while we were there this year. I know that it took time, but since I hadn't seen him in so long it seemed like it happened very suddenly. This is Ben and Bethany.

BIG tractor

2009-08-06T19:13:00.000-07:00

This is the lego tractor Jonathan and Josiah put together the other night. Jonathan had been playing with Josiah and the legos for quite a while so I went to see what they were doing and Jonathan showed me what they had built. :D

2009-08-06T15:36:00.000-07:00

Almost ready to go! I am waiting for Jonathan to get home tonight to finish up the packing. He has some things he wants to pack that are hiding in his study and I don't want to go rooting around in it to find them because just as sure as I do that, he won't be able to find something. (I tend to misplace stuff when I am searching for stuff to pack.)

3D card

2009-08-06T06:15:00.000-07:00

This card is a (slighty) involved card. LOTS of cutting, folding and scoring. I found a tutorial on www.splitcoaststampers.com in their resource section (this is called tri-fold shutter card if you want to look for the instructions). I love playing with this card because of all the cool colors you can put on it and the way it folds up. :D SO much fun. I also made a card kit of this type of card just not in the same colors because I didn't have enough of the front and back papers.

Card again!

2009-08-05T06:11:00.000-07:00

This is another card I have made a kit to take to Alaska. This one I 'tweaked' the kit after I put this card together. I changed which dark pink I used and I textured the Bermuda Bay strip. I really like how this card has bright colors (espically on the flower). fun, fun, fun!

Another Card!

2009-08-03T21:30:00.000-07:00

I have made some card kits to take with me to Alaska. I am looking forward to getting to make some cards with Rachel and Hannah. I want to post one of the cards that I am working on the kit for now.

I inked the SU! Manhattan Flower embosing folder with Dusty Durango ink. I used a 3 3/4" x5" piece of Blush Blossom cardstock. I used a half sheet of Very Vanilla for the card base. I layered a 2"x4.25" piece of Dusty Durango under the embossed flower and then I adhered three pearls on the flower. Inside I have a phrase stamped on Very Vanilla with Dusty Durango with DD daubed on the edge and then layered on Dusty Durango also.

Getting Ready!

2009-08-01T19:40:00.001-07:00

We're getting ready to spend 12 days in Alaska! I am so excited and I don't think that I need to say that the kids are excited, too. I can't wait to get to the cooler weather and the family up there. I love going this time of year because the weather is so temperate and the landscape is so lush. When we are totally parched and everything looks like straw it is wonderful to see the beautiful green mountains and trees. :D

New In Color Card

2009-08-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

I made a new card today and am so excited about it that I wanted to post it on the internet.

Supplies:

SU! Melon Mambo, Taken with Teal and Bermuda Bay cardstock

Basic Grey's Lemonade DP

SU! Stamp

SU! Markers in Bermuda Bay, Taken with Teal, Certainly Celery and Mellow Moss

Spellbinders Nestabilites: Circle and Scalloped Circle

The base is a 5 1/4" square. I adhered a 1 1/2 x 5 1/4 strip of Bermuda Bay cardstock on the bottom of the card. Then I adhered a 1"x 5 1/4" strip of Melon Mambo directly above the Bermuda Bay. I then scalloped one edge of the 2" x 5 1/4" strip of DP then I adhered it over the Melon Mambo and the Bermda Bay. I cut a circle out of white cardstock. The scalloped circle is cut out of taken with teal. I stamped the flower with stazon and colored it with the markers. I daubed the edge of the white cardstock with Melon Mambo. Then I adhered it to the Taken with Teal scalloped circle and adhered both to the front of the card. :D

LIVESTOCK!

2009-06-29T19:44:00.000-07:00

Yes, we now officially have livestock. We are the 'proud' owners of one cow, one dog and 7 chicks. I am starting to feel a little overwhelmed at the prospect of being responsible for the health and well being of so many animals. Right now the chicks are in a cardboard box on our front porch with a grate of some sort on top. We also have a cow that may have a calf come october or november. (DH just informed me that it is more likely to be november or december).

White on White

2009-06-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

These are my white on white cards for a swap on Splitcoast stampers. I have loved this swap. I hope to do at least one more. When (if) I do I will post it, too. :D

Swap cards

2009-06-08T19:14:00.000-07:00

These are some cards I have made from my christian card kit swap. I love some of these kits. I have had a great time going through my stuff and adding a few things to make more than one card from most of the kits.

More Cactus.

2009-04-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

I am really getting to doing lots of cactus pictures. I am frustrated that one

of the others I took and posted was blurry so I decided to try again. I just love the peachy/ orange colors of the blooms I am seeing this year. :D

Some Flower pictures

2009-04-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

Some pictures of the cactus in my backyard. One of them did not turn out very well. But some of them are neat. :D

Announcements:

2009-04-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

1. Volleyball this Friday night at my parents house. 7:30 p.m. looking forward to seeing any and everyone who can come.

2. Grandma (Helen Willhoite) fractured her hip last night. She has had surgery and as far as I know she is doing as well as can be expected.

3. I plan to have a Stampin Up! party on May 4 in Lorena. Contact me if you are intrested in coming. I am looking forward to seeing all who can come.

Back again

2009-04-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

To those of you who read this blog, but haven't heard, Jonathan's grandmother died last Friday. We got back late last night from the funeral. We left on Monday and stayed up there until about 3:30 Wed. afternoon. The trip was pretty uneventful. Josh and Rachel are down, so we will be traveling again this weekend only it will be up to Waco for Friday eve and part of Sat. :) Should be lots of fun.

alterations

2009-04-10T19:20:00.000-07:00

I am playing with my blog and I am trying to turn on comments (which I thought were already turned on, but obviously weren't) Plz. bear with me.

Card-a-thon pix 1

2009-04-10T18:42:00.000-07:00

Ribbon and primas.

So, these are some card front size DP mats and some Punches that I no longer use.

Next, some embellishments (wire, brads, unbuttons) and some cards and envelopes.

Tired tonight

2009-04-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

I'm tired tonight. I have been on my feet cooking and cleaning most of today. Wow. I did get a lot done, but there is still more to do.

Jonathan's grandmother is not doing very well. SO we may need to make a quick trip to see her soon if we can.

I hope we have a good b-day party tomorrow. If me being tired is any indicator, it will be GREAT.

2009-03-30T18:22:00.000-07:00

New post with pictures of new cards coming soon!

We had a VERY good day with school. Josiah did about 15 minutes twice on ABCs Lickety-Split, two pages in his English workbook and three pages in his math workbook. AWESOME! I hope to keep him doing a bunch of school work this week if I can except maybe Wed. We may take it completely off of school to go to Austin to shop for birthday party stuff. (ie: food, drinks, dessert NOT presents) Jonathan and I went to Home Depot (the "big boy toy store") last week after a date and bought him a tool box and a small assortment of (cheap, but real) tools for a birthday present. I think Josiah will really like it.

White on White 1

2009-03-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

This is my first white on white card. I was a little dubious of my ability to make one. I hope you enjoy looking at this.

Wildflowers

2009-03-26T18:09:00.000-07:00

I LOVE wild flowers and the kids and I took some pictures in Mom and Dad's front yard the other day. I hope you enjoy looking at our pictures.

Card-a-thon

2009-03-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

To all stampers: please check out the Card-a-thon on SCS. http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=427076

Kiddos In the Bluebonnets.

2009-03-25T21:27:00.000-07:00

I wanted to title this Babies in the Bluebonnets, but well, my kids aren't really babies anymore.

Simple Cards

2009-03-24T22:51:00.000-07:00

I took some quick pix of these cards in the back of Hannah's Tahoe so I could remember what I had given to Aunt Lisa. :D

Post-It Note Holder for Talitha

2009-03-24T22:48:00.000-07:00

I made this for Talitha because I thought she would like it. The direction is different from the one I made for Hannah and the background is not changeable b/c I had to tie the ribbon around the acrylic frame in order to make it stay together properly. I used pink paper and a dark brown rub-on.

Post-It Note Holder for HJ

2009-03-24T22:44:00.000-07:00

I created this post-it note holder for Hannah (after she asked me) she requested pink or black and this is what I came up with. One side is pink with a stamped flouish and one side is black with a white rubon. I liked the way especially the black one turned out. :D

Bird Cards

2009-03-24T10:42:00.000-07:00

More cards. I used my new sizzix Big Shot (an awesome scrapbooking/ card making tool for those of you who have no clue what it is) to emboss the background on the "Thinking of You" card and to cut the cute scalloped background on the blue, cream and pink card. :)

Abbi's cards

2009-03-24T08:52:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I bought a die cut that will cut out flowers. I had foam sheets that I had bought at the Dollar Tree, so today we cut out flowers and Abbi used them to make cards. I helped with cutting the paper for the front and adhering it to the card. I also put sticky on the back, but Abbi INSISTED on placing to flowers herself.

My 'pretty'.

2009-03-22T21:16:00.000-07:00

Esther and I went hiking with the kids on Thursday. We went to McKinney Falls State Park and hiked the Rock Shelter/ Nature Trail. We finished the first time in about 20 minutes so we decided to go again to get a good work out in. :) The second time through, I was in the front and we were travelling faster. Suddenly about 1/2 way through I stepped on something, lost my balance and fell. My leg smarted, but it wasn't until we were almost at the end of the trail that I looked at my leg. I had scraped a part of my leg about the size of my hand raw. It was very painful, so not to scare the kids and to reduce the importance I started refering to it as 'my pretty'. No picture of this. Probably a good thing.

More Cards II

2009-03-22T20:18:00.001-07:00

These are the cards I made using a card kit I put together.

More Cards!

2009-03-22T20:12:00.001-07:00

One of these was made for a SCS swap, one went to Aunt Lisa, and one went for SCS cards for a cause .

Josiah's 6th birthday

2009-03-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

Rebecca bought Josiah some legos. One kit made a rocket, a jet, and a boat. Seth helped Josiah put it together. Josiah has loved this jet and probably hasn't been with out it when he is awake. (big grin)

Tiled Bathroom!

2009-03-17T07:56:00.001-07:00

So excited about this! For two and a half years, we have had bare plywood in the bathrooms (except for the dressing area in the master bathroom) I love the look of this tile and I am SO excited that two of our three bathrooms are this much closer to being finished. My grateful thanks goes out of GFCS and Herman Waters, GFCS for the awesome tile and Herman for his time and tools in explaining and showing Jonathan exactly how it was done.

2009-03-12T21:34:00.000-07:00

No pictures with todays blog. I just want to post a quick update on our home improvement projects. Jonathan just managed to put the toilets back in two of the bathrooms. Yes, we had them up for the last week in order to put tile down and grout it. Jonathan and Herman Waters did it. I didn't realize until this month that Herman did tile work for a living. Anyways the tile looks GREAT. I am so happy about that!

On another great note: I have lost a little over 15 pounds since the beginning of the year. So that is REALLY exciting. I plan to post a picture of myself sometime later (perhaps after 25 pounds lost).

Goodnight all.

2009-03-09T19:21:00.000-07:00

I have recently become involoved with Splitcoast Stampers. (Well more than I have ever been in the 3 years I have been a member/ known about it.) Some of these cards you are seeing are products of my work on swaps or random-acts-of-kindness cards that I send out to various people who then mail them on to someone else. (ie: people who have recently lost a baby, cancer patients, nursing home patients....the list can go on and on.)

2009-03-09T19:15:00.000-07:00

Josiah and Abbi with Lady. They had been running around and Lady had been chasing the kids as well as racing back and forth between them and me. She is such a good dog to have. She tolerates so much from those kids. It is also awesome to have her because we can teach Josiah some sense of responsibility because he is in charge of feeding her. It almost looks sometimes when the kids are in the dog pen with her that she is watching over them and grinning...

2009-03-09T19:09:00.000-07:00

New card. Yes, I can hear those of you who are not card makers out there groan. Sorry. I just want somewhere to post my pix so that I can look at them quickly and easily.

Josiah and his lady.

2009-03-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

Josiah and Lady. It has been a while since Josiah has been allowed to play with Lady outside of her pen. Then other day, however, I finally let him take her out. She loved being out. Even though her pen is relatively large, there is still something about being outside of it. Josiah loves Lady a whole lot and I think she loves him, too.

Ps. 1:1

2009-03-04T10:31:00.000-08:00

I have been teaching the children psalms 1:1 - Blessed is the man that walketh not in the council of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

Josiah knows it all pretty well and he was telling it to Jonathan the other night on the way home from Austin. All of a sudden he changed it:

"Blessed is the naughty man for he shall get away from the law." lol

I had to swallow laughter and Jonathan had to explain that it is not good for naughty people to get away from the law.

Little kids, gotta love them.

Play Doh Time!

2009-03-03T07:52:00.000-08:00

Josiah and Abbi managed to save enough money along with the coupon I gave them to buy this set of play doh and tools (I think the tools were the part that they liked the most.) So I let them play with it. They had lots of fun and then they put it away for me (most of it) so I finished putting it away. (I hid it a little so they aren't asking to play with it every day.) BTW abbi saw the pictures as I was typing this post and she started asking "Momma, where is the play-doh stuff? I wantto play with play-doh!" LOL.

2009-03-03T07:42:00.000-08:00

So this is another guy card. This time I used a hunter green for the base. I also colored the trees so it looked kind-of like fall. I like it.

2009-03-03T07:38:00.000-08:00

These are some projects I picked up after Valentine's day at Joann's for 70% off. Josiah did three. I did three. Abbi did six. She loved it. These were so easy it was just peel and stick. The kids had a great time.

Invitations for Josiah's 6th Birthday Party!

2009-03-03T07:29:00.000-08:00

We (Josiah and I) are pretty excited about these cards. Josiah was not convinced at first that they would be very nice looking, but I think I managed to convince him that they would be ok. Then when I made them he got very excited. There are two colors because there are two birthday parties. We have one in Waco for Jonathan's family and our close friends up there and then we have one at our house. I really didn't like the idea much when I was a kid and some of my cousins would have two parties one for us and one for the other family. I almost felt like my cousins would feel the other party was more fun than the one I had gone to. So, because of that I didn't want to have two parties for my kids. Now, however, we live further away than we did when the kids were born and some of the family can't travel this far, so we do it. I am going to have to re-write the party info for the Austin party becuase I have been forced to reschedule it. A meeting came up unexpectedly on the weekend I had his party scheduled for. Josiah is a little sad about that, but I think that actually it will stretch out the fun of birthday longer.

2009-03-03T07:24:00.000-08:00

Another masculine card. I am trying to stock up on cards as I think you can see. The scalloped medallion on the inside (see below) is just the perfect size to hold a stamped sentiment that I have punched out with a 1 1/4" circle punch. All I need to do now is choose the appropriate phrase and adhere it to the middle of the circle. Easy b/c most of the work has already been done.

2009-03-03T07:22:00.000-08:00

This is two cards I made that have the same layout, they are just color opposites of each other. I really like the colors together and the hearts!

2009-03-03T07:17:00.000-08:00

Ok. This card is really cute in real life, but the lighting and the colors just didn't want to cooperate very well, but I decided to post it anyway.

2009-03-03T07:15:00.000-08:00

This is a card I copied from the Stampin' Up! catalog. I changed the type of flower and the color scheme, but otherwise it is the same.

2009-03-03T07:12:00.000-08:00

The picture to the right here is the front. Below is the inside of the card. This card didn't quite turn out how I wanted it to, but well, I guess I am ok with it. :)

Baby card

2009-03-03T07:10:00.001-08:00

A baby card I made. I did this one in pinks, and I am thinking about trying to make a blue one (for a boy).

2009-02-27T17:13:00.000-08:00

This is yet another 'guy' card that I have put together. One of the ladies whose blog I follow does beautiful, elaborate insides to her cards. So I am trying to do a little bit on the inside of my cards. Like I have said before, I love to use the Lovely as a Tree set. I also used another technique that I really like. On the image on the front of the card, I rounded two corners and left two square. I also used two colors of ribbon which I think was fun. :)

2009-02-27T17:06:00.000-08:00

The inside and the front of one of my most recent cards. I dug out my Lovely as a Tree stamp set and have been going to town . I really like the trees for guy cards. I wasn't sure about the color combo, but Esther said that it wouldn't be too bad for a guy card if it only had a little bit of apricot. I hope I didn't over do it too much with the apricot on the inside, but I figured that something was needed to make it fancy and to make it easier to write on and to read what is written. :)

For the stampers this is made using Apricot Appeal, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Ruby Red, Bella Rose DP, two brads, the Print Pattern bkgd stamp and the watercolor wonder crayons. ( I really like those)

2009-02-24T10:05:00.000-08:00

This is a *very* special card. Meaning it took me a bit of thinking to figure out how to adhere all my layers with out the adhesive showing through the card. I made this card out of acetate (ie transparancy like teachers use for overhead projecters) I folded it in half and then stamped the white swirls and layered my other papers and my stamped images on it. I think it is a great card.

2009-02-24T09:52:00.000-08:00

Some more papercraft projects I have done lately. The bag is made from one piece of 12x12 paper with some snazzy folds, a little adhesive, four punched holes, four eyelets and two pieces of ribbon. It is pretty easy to do. The hardest thing for me was to get the stripes running the right way.

The blue project is a little holder to put a package of candies in or maybe some sticky notes to give as a gift.

The last project is an altered notebook. I found this book at target in their dollar section. I added some patterned paper, a stamped butterfly, some hearts stamped on the front in white ink, and a binder clip that I had attached some patterned paper to also.

2009-02-24T09:15:00.000-08:00

I decorated some cheap pens the other day. I bought a package of pens 12/ $1.00. I already had most of the flowers and the floral tape. So I went to town and decorated all twelve. I had lots of fun and now I have all these pretty pens that I need to give away....

This second picture is of one of my favs. I love those roses because of the variation in the shading. I know these are kind-of large pens, but that is part of the beauty of them, next to nobody will walk off with them because they are large and won't easily fit in a pocket or a purse. :)

2009-02-24T09:08:00.000-08:00

Well it has been a few days since I have been able to post on my blog. :) Jonathan stayed home sick, yesterday (some sort of stomach bug) but I think it was just a 24 hour virus because he went to work today. (So glad.) I tried to explain to Josiah about viruses and how they can make people sick. How bad bacteria get into you and that the good bacteria inside you fight them off and that is why you are sick. This morning, when I had told him that Jonathan had gone to work he asked me if the "Good guys had gotten the bad guys off of Dada" lol. He is so sweet.

2009-02-20T07:09:00.000-08:00

We went skating a few weeks ago. It was the first time Josiah or Abbi had ever been. It had been several years since I had gone and I don't know if Jonathan had ever been either.

Abbi was pretty unsteady. Matter of fact keeping her up on her skates gave me a pretty good work out. We had gone and bought her some mittens at Target from their clearance winter clothing. She loved them. The problem is that she insisted on wearing them even when she couldn't hold our hands properly because her hands kept slipping out of the mittens.

At first Josiah was a little unsure of how to go. He had to have at least one hand and sometimes two like Abbi.

But before we left, he was skating all by himself. I was really impressed with how he would skate along, fall, smile, and bounce right back up. He was so precious

Sunset

2009-02-19T08:15:00.000-08:00

Since Uncle Dan and Aunt Joyce are following this blog, I decided to go ahead and post this picture now. I took it a few months ago and forgot that I had taken it. Jonathan had been working outside and I had been fixing supper when he came in grabbed his camera and told me to grab mine. When we got outside there was this beautiful sunset. The clouds were awesome. We got to take pictures for maybe 2 minutes before the sun moved enought to where the colors of the clouds changed.

School!

2009-02-19T08:07:00.000-08:00

Josiah is moving right along with his school work. We have him doing Kindergarten level math and language arts. The math he seems to be catching on to right away. We are stuggling a little with the language arts. Sometimes he seems not to remember the letters/ sounds we have already learned. We took some time off back in the fall and he is doing better now, but I just don't know how to get it across to him to where he will understand me all the time.

Peeps!

2009-02-19T07:06:00.000-08:00

I don't know how many of my blog readers know what peeps even are, so for those of you who don't they are sugar-coated marshmallow candies. They have a slightly crunchy outside and a soft fluffy indside. Anyways, I like them strange as they sound. And Donna likes them, too. So this post is mainly for Donna. I found sugar-free peeps hearts at Wal-Greens last night. (They are made with Splenda.) I had to stop in to get some hydrogen peroxide for Jonathan (I had forgotten to get it when I was grocery shopping) and so I decided to peruse the valentine's clearance aisle. I saw some Dove candy that looked good and some hershey kisses, and even some of the regular peeps. Which drew my attention to the packaging that I hadn't seen before. And the more I looked at it the more intresting it sounded. So, three packages of three peeps hearts came home with me last night. ;)

Ducky Fleece Blanket

2009-02-18T09:55:00.000-08:00

This blanket is for a new baby. I haven't decided who will be the recipent of this quilt, but the duckies were SO cute, so I thought that I would buy the fleece to make the present. This is just a basic fleece knot quilt-- no sewing needed! I love that. :)

2009-02-18T09:51:00.001-08:00

This an altered tin that I made prior to the one posted earlier in the blog. I haven't given it to anybody yet so it took me a little longer to get around to taking a picture of it. I used decorative paper, ribbon, ink and one stamp. I really had fun figuring out how to do the project. :)

2009-02-18T09:48:00.000-08:00

Moving card! I saw a tutorial on the internet for this cute card. I changed some things from what the lady did because I didn't have all the right paper, but I think I made do with what I have.

Card for Ms. Bonnie

2009-02-18T09:43:00.000-08:00

I made this card to give to the Bastrop children's librarian. She is really nice and does a GREAT job of story time and I just wanted to give her a card to let her know that I really appreciated her effort.

Origami Box

2009-02-18T09:16:00.000-08:00

I found a wonderful tutorial on one of the blogs I am following on how to make these CUTE boxes. I am pretty excited about this little box I made for Josiah. I think he was pretty excited to be receiving something special on an ordinary day.

Bookbag

2009-02-17T21:12:00.000-08:00

I made this bag to go with a rag quilt I made for a friend's granddaughter quite a few months ago. I finally clipped it, bought some webbing to use for handles, sewed THEM on and washed the poor thing. I am glad to finally have that project out of the way. Now the only problem left is getting the cute little bag to its' rightful owner.

Stamping Projects 2-17-2009

2009-02-17T21:02:00.000-08:00

Jonathan kept the kids this evening so I could have some (much needed) quiet time. It was wonderful (love you honey!). When Esther and Hannah got ready to take the kids from my house to Austin, Abbi was reluctant to leave.

"But I will miss you Momma!" she almost cried. "I will miss you at Grangran's house."

After I reassured her that she would be going with Dada on a haul she still wasn't consoled until I suggested that I make her something while she was gone. I had seen some tutorials on the internet on how to make the Tic-Tac covers and I thought they were cute. (Plus my kids LOVE tic-tacs -- the orange ones.) So I made the two little projects. Plus I found some 3 1/2" paper clips this evening at Walmart ($ 0.97) so I thought that I would make them some bookmarks too.

Josiah's Horse Throw Quilt

2009-02-17T20:53:00.000-08:00

While Donna and I were doing all our shopping at Joann's (love that store) I was getting material for baby projects (for all my expectant friends) and she was getting fleece to make knot quilts. I was struck by the thought that Josiah might like a throw quilt that I had made just for him as much or maybe even more than some of the other things I was thinking about giving him for his birthday (which is coming up in March). So I bought some fleece with horses printed on it. I could not bring myself to purchase orange fleece for the backing (orange is his current favorite color) so I did the next best thing -- I got bright red.

New Skirt for Abbi!

2009-02-17T20:12:00.000-08:00

Mom bought the jeans for this skirt before Abbi's birthday in Dec. along with two others. I got the others converted into skirts, but I had to put this one away so that I could clean up for the birthday party. I am just now getting it back out. Donna came down last weekend and we went to Joann's because they had a President's Day sale where all their red-tagged cloth was sold half-off the marked price. I got the material for the middle at that sale along with a TON of other material and patterns ($1 each!) so now I have to get cracking to do some of the fabulous projects that I bought stuff for.

Birthday Gift

2009-02-17T20:05:00.000-08:00

Last week, Mom told me she was going to givea friend a gift card for her birthday. As life would have it, I had just bought some clearance gift card tins left over from the holiday season. So I told her that I would decorate one and also make her a card to go along with it. :) So here is the tin and the card.