Paint Chip Cards

I am part of a challenge group called CardTradersRUs and I know some of you already know this LOL but for those of you that don't, we make up a challenge twice a month and swap it with someone on the group. This last time it was a Paint Chip Card and if you're like me you are thinking what the heck????? Well I received this beautiful card from my partner Julia and it all fell into place. Isn't it just gorgeous? The color combo is perfect. I had to share it with you, hope you have a great Saturday. We are off to an auction at my brother in law's fathers house. It's only 18 degrees........I'm thinking we are crazy. Happy Saturday!

PS - changes to my blog are coming soonnnnnnnnn! :)

Happy Birthday Honey

Today is my DH birthday, he's sooo old now LOL. He finally hit 35! I'm very lucky to have such a wonderful husband and I wanted to make him a card that was big manly with tractors on it since he likes those but nothing I made came out right. It seems like when I try to make something that doesn't come natural to me it doesn't work right and it's very frustrating. However our own PPS DT member Lindsay has created some new digi images for PPS and when I saw this one I knew I loved it. Yep I made him a "sexy" card for his bday. LOL. I showed my son before he left for school and he just rolled his eyes and said "MOMMMMM it has flowers on it". Woops :) I guess I got carried away. Well if you check out Lindsays blog you'll see her beautiful work and the card she made that I cased using this set. I know I know her designs are just fabulous aren't they? Thanks Lindsay for making such gorgeous stamps.

Diva Sketch Challenge

Belonging to a Diva group is so much fun, we all love to swap and participate in challenges. This month our sketch was so cute that I had to join and play along. I still don't care for Magnolias but I finally went over to the "dark" side and gave in and got some of these cute WOF joy stamps. She reminds me sort of a Holly Hobby which I liked as a little girl. Ok that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it :) I bought 2 of them so you'll have to keep an eye out for them to show up once in awhile. LOL.

PPS DT Wed Challenge

Sometimes I see a lot of cards that are "inspired by something" and I never really thought about what makes me want to create a card..........until I saw this......... I cracked up and am still thinking about ordering this tshirt :) When I was able to get a new digi image from Amy at PPS I knew I had to have this one! I just love her with her old sweeper, we used to have a pink Hoover that looked just like this one. It was a monster and smelled bad LOL. Fond memories of it NOT :) Anyway our DT challenge this week was to use flowers in order to get rid of those winter blues. I have to admit right now it's so cold it would be easy to get them. However this card will surely help chase those away with a good laugh. I printed the digi image onto GP cardstock and also again onto printed paper and paper pieced her dress. Then I used the same printed paper for accents and used my old trust CM circle cutter for the shape of the card. I also discovered something new (to me anyway LOL) that if you have a bigger piece of paper than will fit into your cuttlebug folder, you can reline it up and stick it back in and emboss the piece that didn't get it the first time. Yes I know I am slow to realize things :) I have no classes today so I'm going to have lunch with a friend and get some homework and housework done (but no sweeping LOL) . I hope you have a great "hump day".

Template Tuesday 1/20/09

What a historic day for this county. I'll be in class today so I won't be able to see the ceremony live but I know I'll catch repeats all day today. I hope you get a chance to see it.

Today is also Template Tuesday and we have a new member. I hope you will join me in welcoming Kimmie to our little group. Please make sure you check out her blog as well as the other fabulous girls in the group. I hope you enjoy this weeks sketch, it's from the lovely miss Maria and I had fun with it. Enjoy your day.

Birthday Invites

I cannot believe my baby is going to be 11 years old. Where did time go? She was the most beautiful newborn I've ever seen and is growing up to be exactly the same inside and out. I'm a very lucky mom to have two super kids that are awesome. This year she wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do for her birthday since most of her favorite activities are outside and being winter that doesn't work well. LOL. We decided on a sleepover for a few friends and going to Naked Clay Cafe where they are all going to paint pottery. I think it will be a lot of fun for them. These invitations were made using the new PinkPaperyStudios digi image of a cupcake and colored it with my Copics. I also added some sparkle to the flames on the candle and embossed the navy cardstock with my birthday cuttlebug folder. Well we are off to the mall today since both the kids and I have no school. I hope you enjoy the inauguration festivities on tv the next couple days. Enjoy!

Colddddddddd

It's been so cold here that on Friday our natural gas lines began to freeze. I don't ever remember that happening around here. Of course when it gets down to MINUS 14 to MINUS 19 in this area things like that happen. My husband made sure our bird feeder had food in it last week and the prettiest red and brown birds showed up Saturday. At first I thought they were female cardinals but my husband said he didn't think so. Whatever they are they sure are pretty. I took these photos through the side windows near my front door so I didn't scare them by opening the door. I hope they come back. Have a blessed Sunday.

RAK's

I received two super cute RAK's this week and I just had to share them with you. They were both sent to me to wish we luck with going back to school. The school house is from Marcia and the fabulous diva looking girl is from Angie. I really appreciate you both thinking of me! :)

Make sure you visit both of these ladies blogs. They are on my blog list over on the right. Have a great weekend!

Changes Coming Soon!

I've been looking over my blog and decided it may be time for a change. I don't like things to stay the same for long so I've got some new things coming and I hope you will enjoy them! Stay tuned :)

PeekABookCard

This cheerful card came from my swap partner, Melissa. She did such a great job on it! I love the embossing up in the corner, I'm going to have to try that since Angie gave me a few of the smaller cuttlebug folders for Christmas. I hope you all have a toasty warm day wherever you are. It was MINUS 14 here this morning and we have had trouble with our gas lines freezing in our neighborhood. I think it's been a strange weather year for us. This morning our furnace wouldn't work and it turns out it was the gas line not the furnace. (Thank goodness Nipsco doesn't charge service trips unlike the furnace people!)

Have a great weekend!

Thursday Tutorial Peekaboo Card

This week I have a video tutorial for you to enjoy. This was a challenge that we had to do in the CTRUS group I am in. It was so much easier after I received my partners card and could see what I was doing wrong LOLLLL. After all was said and done it was so much easier than I realized it could be. I know there are a lot of "peekaboo" cards and tutorials but you really should give this one a try! This is the one I made for my swap partner. I purchased the stamp set at Archivers on sale in the Valentine section. Enjoy the tutorial, she did a great job making it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHNEpH6LZjQ&feature=channel_page

Altered Tin PinkPaperyStudios DT Challenge

I am not one for making "altered items" but this week our challenge was to make one. I looked around and thought oh no what am I going to do?? Then I remembered my friend Angie gave me this little white tin for Christmas, what a great gift! I went to the ever trust SCS and found this really easy tutorial here. Turns out it was a really fun project and I enjoyed making it minus the smell of the modge podge UGH. Thanks Kimmie for suggesting it! This new super cute scrappy girl came from PinkPaperyStudios of course :) Please make sure you check out all the great digi images. They are so easy to download and print! Have a super great Wednesday!

011309 Template Tuesday

It's Template Tuesday and I have to say this is too much fun for me each week. Very simple but I enjoy them so much.

This week the sketch came to us from my dear birthday friend Angie. I could not figure out what I was going to use and I then I pulled out my trusty bombshell stash. Those are just so cool to use. Ok maybe it's because I love retro :) Last week I showed you the Lil Angel so this week I used his nemisis Lil Devil. I'm almost out of my "found" stash of black sparkle paper and I'm wishing I had more. LOL. Stay tuned tomorrow for a tutorial and altered item from me!

Happy Monday

I can honestly say it's now a Happy Monday for me after I took two tests today in school :) I was pretty nervous about them but they both went well. I was able to come home and work on this super cute bee that was sent to me from the RAK group for a Challenge. Everyone on the group received the same images and we were to make a card using the same images. The card can be anything but the images have to be the same. I really enjoy these because it's so much fun to see how different they all come out. I used my copics to color the image and then added glitter to the wings, basket and some of the hearts. I hope you all get a chance to sprinkle some luv.

SNOWWWW!

Wooooo Hooooo we finally have a little bit of snow. I think our total was about 4 inches which is not much but it's still very pretty and I'm thankful for it. Here are some photos from our driveway and the front of the house and yes my son still plays basketball outside during the winter. LOL. Both my kids are outside a lot. I hope you are having a toasty warm winter day wherever you are with lots of hot chocolate.

Sympathy Cards

Happy Saturday! I wanted to show you a couple of cards I received after my grandma passed away. These gorgeous cards came from a couple of my online friends. They are so pretty and I really appreciate them very much. The pink rose came from Danni and beautiful rust colored one is from Julia on the CTRUS yahoo group I am in. I cannot get over how pretty they both are. THANK YOU for thinking of my family!

Happy Birthday Dear Angie

I know this probably seems like a strange birthday card, but Angie has been through so much dental work lately and now it's all done! She has the prettiest pearly whites I've ever seen, so I found this Bella image and thought it would be a perfect card for her. It was one I received in an image swap and I don't know what ink or paper it is, but you know I colored it with my copics LOL. I used several different white flowers and added some brads with bling. I hope you all have a great Friday and Angie - HAVE A HAPPY BIRTHDAY! PS - you may be peeking at your birthday card right now Angie....but I'm not showing you your present yet hahahahhah.

Thursday Tutorial

Oh my gosh how did it get to be almost the end of the week already? My first week of school has flown by. I now have three days of school under my belt and two tests coming up on Monday and a lot of reading and studying to do this weekend. I'm nervous yet so thankful to be in school! **** Update on my scholarship - unfortunately still no news. I checked again and they are still selecting the winners so as soon as I know anything I'll pass it along.

I have purchased a couple sets of nesties and am struggling to use them and get them to look the way I want them to look LOL. Trust me it's a "me" issue, ask Angie she'll tell you :) And speaking of Angie.......her birthday is tomorrow. Please visit her blog and wish her a happy birthday! You can do that here. Anyway back to the nesties....I found this tutorial and wanted to share it with you because it's just a little different way to use them. I hope you enjoy it and if you try it please let me know how it works out for you! I'll be making one myself as soon as I have a spare second :)

http://craftstorejunkie.blogspot.com/2008/11/nestabilities-tip-4-window-cards-and.html

Wednesday PPS DTChallenge 010709

Finallllllly Blogger is letting me load photos! This is such a cute dress and I think it could be used in so many different ways. I downloaded it as a digital image and printed it right onto my printed paper, easy as pie. It's super easy to paper piece with a digital image just like stamping. Our challenge this week is in honor of "Auld Lang Syne", we were to use sparkle and shine or metallics in our card this week. I finally dug around long enough in my stash and found this totally cool metallic cardstock and what better way to use it! I also could not find a black flower so I took a white daisy and colored it with my Copics. It worked perfectly! Please make sure you check out the other Design Team Members from PinkPaperyStudios and what they created this week. They are over to the side for you to check out. If you want to see the dress as a digital image to order it please check it out here. Have a great day!

Template Tuesday 1/6/09

I think I really like today's sketch, it's simple yet gets right to the point. The sketch for this week came from Melinda. I used my new set from Bombshell Stamps. I love their stuff, it's really retro and just too fun to work with. I colored my "lil angel" wish my Copics and layered it with embossed cardstock. I hope you'll give it a try and if you do please let us see your work!

Brrrrr it's cold outside

Holy smokes Batman, today has been the longest day. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until about 345pm when I simply had to take a nap. Today was my first day of classes and I have three classes that all went well.....and homework.........LOL. Then I came home and had to pick up my Aunt and my cousin and take them to the airport to head back to Miami and when I finally got home I realized from the stress of last week, getting nervous about school today etc. etc. I was just ready to collapse. We didn't even have dinner until 8pm tonight which was great for my son because that's when he gets home from wrestling. I just finished my homework so now I get computer time wooooo hooooo. Little things excite me hahahahhahah. Ok so now on to this card. I made it quite awhile ago for another DT member, Lindsay on PPS. I was her secret santa so I guess this is ok to post now :) I printed the digital image onto my white cardstock and then colored it with my copics. The paper and ribbon and flowers are all from my stash. I just can't seem to finish a card without using those items. What are things you can't make cards without? I hope you had a great Monday. Don't forget to look for Template Tuesday tomorrow but it will not be posted until afternoon. Thanks :)

Just wanted to let you all know that I do have a card ready for posting but I'm going to post it tomorrow after my very first day of school. YAYYYYYY. It really could not have come at a better time for me. I'm just so tired after this past couple weeks. My kids go back to school tomorrow and Jason heads back to work and I'm off to my first day of classes. I will also be taking my Aunt and cousin to the airport to head back to warm sunny Miami and that will be sad. I've enjoyed having all my family here. I'll leave you with one last family photo :) Have a wonderful week!

Family

I don't usually let photos of myself be seen in public LOL but I'm going to make an exception for once. These are a couple of my favorite photos. The first one is my nephew Dustin and my niece Lexie and my daughter Andrea and the second photo is my sister and I with our daughters. I wish I had thought to get my Aunt and her daughter in on that photo. PS - my whole family is blonde including both of my children except me and my step mom LOL. We sort of stick out :)

Dottie

Tonight was the viewing for my grandmother and it turned out quite nice. My whole family was there and that was great for us all to be together instead of scattered all over. I wanted to show you one of my favorite photos of my grandmother. I think this may have been about 15 years ago or so. She always had her red lipstick on :) Wish I could wear it but I swear it ends up all over me so I stick to neutral lipgloss instead. LOL. My grandma was always very into fashion and had some awesome shoes. My niece is lucky enough to wear a size 6 so she has quite a few of her high heels now and she wore a pair tonight and they looked so great on her. We all had a nice time sharing stories and laughing over things that have happened through the years. I hope you all make many pleasant family memories as well.

New Years Resolutions?

So do you make them? Do you stick to them? I don't usually do them but I did make one last year and I'd say it worked better than I thought it would so I'm going with it again. I am choosing to work on tackling small projects once a month versus freaking out over one big task in the house. I have taken Clean House Niecy Nash to heart when she says being surrounded by clutter is not good for your life. LOL. Wow she is one true diva isn't she? I do not have a room that looks like the rooms in the houses she works on but I still have too many "things" and it's easy to think you need them all the time. I'm also making it a point to send more notes to my friends and family as well as a card. I am always good about sending a card but I think I need to do a better job remembering why that person is important to me. Whatever you decide to make as your resolution I wish you good luck in keeping it! That's the hard part for me :) I am posting one last thank you card that I made using a Christmas image. My friend Angie had this stamp and thought I would like it and of course I did. I had soooo much fun coloring it. I just look at it and laugh because it's so not traditional. I hope you all have a blessed New Year. I'm not sure when I will be back online over the next few days because the viewing for my grandma is tomorrow and the funeral is Saturday. Thank you all for your good wishes and prayers! They mean a lot to me and to my family.