Babies....

It's been a good summer for babies this year in our family. First, my niece Amy (my younger sister's daughter),  had Logan Michael, then little Emma Marie (older sister's granddaughter), came along, and there's a baby coming in September too. My son and his wife are expecting baby #4...and this one's a surprise. Babies. How cool are they?!!

Also expecting this summer was Melissa over at CASology, who after three little cutie pie boys, had a sweet little baby girl yesterday. Nothing makes me smile more than new babies. Head on over to CASology for the baby's deets, and to check out what the DT has done; then you can link up a card too and offer her blessings and congratulations. So, if you read this Melissa, God bless your family and congratulations of the birth of a healthy daughter.

And I thought I'd make a card. I'm not quite sure how it turned out. I've been on a migraine run for a few days now, and the meds I take make me a little loopy, so if this card isn't what it should be, let me know...heaven knows I've tried.

Bad lighting and no matter what I tried in Picasa, it still looks bad. Seriously better irl.  Bazzill white base, scraps of pink and green. SU flowers and leaves. The letters have been stamped with AE Texture Tiles: Be Cool, then cut with the Silhouette Cameo. Some Studio G ink. Rounded corners and scalloped edges. Happy dances everyone

Once again, I'm a great auntie!

Emma Marie was born 25 July at 1:21 am, and she weighed 8.8 pounds and is 20.75" long. Both mother and daughter are fine, and daddy is beaming! She's a tall baby, which comes as no surprise since both my nephew and his lovely wife are tall. She got the cutest little chubby cheeks... I'll post a photo in a later post if they say it's alright. Very happy for them. My sister Sue is the new grandma. Not proud or anything....lol.

I've got company coming for dinner - well, family. It was also dd Cathy's birthday on the 25th and we're having a little gathering here. Fancy-schmancy burgers, Cathy fries, fruit, and homemade mint chocolate chip cheesecake. Well, I'm going to get to this now...

Jackie over at Rockwell Designs has this cool challenge going on, and I knew I wanted to play. I haven't had the chance much, and the one card I did make I sent to Ardyth, and wanted to wait until she got it before I posted. Sweet Jackie is offering a free blog header to the winner. How cool would that be??!! I love her designs and her colors, and well, just about everything about her.

I love that green. It's just a happy, sweet color, and with that gray...perfect!

This is my card:

White Bazzill card base, MFT die, SU sentiment, Memento ink, Spellbinders dies, and scraps of gray and green. Gotta run. Happy dances everyone! : )

Sometimes...

Sometimes you've got it going on like gangbusters, and other times...not so much. Get the cuts straight, make perfect gold dots, just have to get the stamp done without smearing...Way too many in the recycle bin today. Guess I should have quit and restarted the whole darn thing tomorrow. This one did work. Mostly.

Playing along over at CASology and also at Moxie Fab World: The Birthday Card Challenge. 

My card looks like this:

Rather simple actually. White Bazzill card base, and scraps of aqua and gold paper. PTI stamp with Stampabilities gold ink. I made my own bling by punching out gold circles and adding drops of Glossy Accents. The hardest part about that was waiting for the little buggers to dry. And my niece-in-law is in labor! I'm getting a new great-niece today! Woohoo! Happy dances everyone.

Quick Post

Have a million things to today, so will keep this short. Made a card and am submitting this to Retro Sketches #73. Very cool sketch and really wanted to play.

For a change I made a square card, something I rarely do. Bazzill white card base, I cut the star panel out of a scrap with the Cameo, popped brightly colored scraps behind it, and added a legless brad with a few strips of raffia, and the sentiment is from MFT colored with an FC pen. That's it. (sorry about the reflection in the brad....) Happy dances everyone.

The new toy works!!

It's official. The Cricut Expressions machine has found a new home up at church, and my new toy, the Silhouette Cameo is sitting right next to me, even as I type. She's so pretty. And darn it all....I'm figuring it out pretty well. At least as far as I've needed it. She's a good girl, and even sings to me!! Who knew??!!

I've got one card for two challenges today. What started out with circles and a tag has morphed into something completely different. I know I'm not alone when what I create turns out (at least in my mind) blecchhh, and then it has a short rest on the desk. After it's little nap, a bit o' cussing (the kind Fred Flintstone used only, no 'real' words), and a completely different direction, I reworked it. And then did it all over again. And again. But my kitchen inspired me...the newish glass tile backsplash. You'll see where I'm going with this in a sec. First I'm playing over at CAS - Colours and Sketches. They've got a Fallish color palette going on over there, and I really need some cool here. Check out the colors:

I didn't have anything quite like Summer Starfruit, but I think I came pretty close with my color choice. And over at Little Tangles, they've got a fun challenge that I knew, without a doubt, that I wanted to partake in (isn't that just a fun word...partake...kind of cracks me up...). 

At Little Tangles, we are supposed to use some kind of wood or natural materials when making our card. See what you think. I've got wood veneer, browns, and leaves. I've used the colors for the first challenge too. Even though it took a few tries, I'm liking how it turned out.

It's a thank you card. I don't remember who made the dp, I've had it for several years, and is reversible as you can tell. The base and small cream colored squares are SU, and some unknown brown card stock scraps. Studio Calico made the little lady, Neat & Tangled stamps, and some of my favorite unusual fun stuff -- drywall tape. That cracks me up....Happy dances everyone!

I also want to send out a thank you to Nina over at Waffle Flower Paper Crafts. I was a very lucky girl, and my comment was drawn at random to win the AE Texture Tiles: Be Cool set. Anyone out there hear me scream this morning?!!

Staying indoors today...

Yep, too hot to work outdoors, so I'm staying in my craft room and playing all day. And do a bit of reorganizing in preparation for the new Cameo. I'm supposed to go walking a little past 5:00, but it may just be a bit too warm for me. Could be circuits in the basement rather than outdoors.

Have to say thank you to the DT over at Color Throwdown. This card was chosen as one of the winners in celebration of their Five Year Anniversary. I am honored and terribly humbled by this. Thank you so much, and congrats to CT again.

I've never played over at A Blog Named Hero before today. After seeing posts by Stef and Ardyth, I thought I'd look into it a bit more. I wasn't sure if I could play along because I only have a couple of HA sets...or so I thought! Going through the drawers and bins, I found that I owned more sets than I remembered, always a woohoo! The gist of this specific challenge, is to choose one of the Hero Arts Artists, and either garner inspiration from one of their cards, or their overall style. I checked them all out. Dang. This would not be an easy choice to make. Then I got a wild idea!  Pick one at random, and see if she is on Pinterest, and, if she is, you can look through the whole gallery in one swell foop. I only needed that one random pick. I instantly fell in love with the cards made by Shari Carroll. So then I had to ask myself what was it about Shari's cards that drew me in. There are a number of factors about her work that appealed to me: her color choices, circles, vertical and horizontal lines, simplicity, bits of bling, the way she puts the elements of her cards together in such a way that your eye knows right where to go, and most importantly; the cards evoked a good feeling. So a quick thanks to Shari for the inspiration.

This is my card:

I hope I have captured the essence of my inspiration. Bazzill white cardstock, scraps of dp and cardstock. The polka dot circle is made with washi and was punched out. Random button, N&T sequins, Colorbox inks, HA stamps, and Kaiser craft brown pearls. The two tan circles have been stamped and punched. That's all I have for now. Thanks for stopping. Happy dances everyone.

There's a new challenge in town...

Have you visited the new Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge yet? Well, if you haven't you really must. The Design Team should be renamed the "Dream Team"! So not kidding on that one. Pop on over there, and see what I mean. I'll wait. (insert Jeopardy theme here) Reads like a 'who's who' doesn't it?! I was very excited when I saw this was coming. So. And am playing along with their first. This is their inspiration photo:

Right away I was drawn to the yellow and bright blue. I don't have much in the line of nautical stamps or stickers, so I winged it. Turned out alright (at least in my own mind). 

You'll notice first off that there's no sentiment on the outside. Got too busy for my taste, so the whole thing's on the inside. It reads "Hope You're Feeling Ship-Shape Soon". Might be another one for Marilyn (haven't had any news about her this week..). Now to the deets. Bazzill white, blue, & yellow card stock. Baler's twine, pulled apart to this strand, PTI Square Prints stamps, a fussy cut clip art anchor, and some sea-quins which came as a bonus from my Neat & Tangled order (thanks for that!) I fussy cut the polaroid frame too. Gotta get a die like that sometime... And that's it. Happy dances everyone.

eta:  I almost forgot...okay...I did forget, but not entirely... to add that I wanted to thank the DT over at the Little Tangles challenge blog for choosing my card as a Lovely Little Tangle. Am looking forward to the next challenge there.

How did I get so far behind?

I have no idea how things have gotten so far out of control...I spent the last couple of hours commenting on those whose blogs I love to visit, and I still have the cards on the different challenges to comment on, AND then a few emails to do. I'm just wondering if the rose bed can wait for its weeding and spraying one more day, or if I should try to 'do it all'... Well, only time will tell today.

I've got a card for the Fusion Card Challenge. A while back, I got this cute stamp set from My Cute Stamps, and I find I still get a chuckle out of these little critters. Some stamps you just know you'll love forever. That's this set...among many. In the past, I've tried to do the fusion of both challenges, but today, I am only doing the "Lesley" side of the Fusion. (Sorry to the whole left side of the DT...), but I had fun with it and hope you'll find a little giggle at this stack of critters. This is the inspiration:

Both sides are pretty darn cool. 

This is my take:

Can you guess which animal is my favorite? Hint: I'm from 'Wiscownsin'...hahahaha (sorry). Bazzill white card base, red and black scraps, We R Memory Keepers green gingham, the Twinery twine, Su black ink, various Copics, and the sentiment is from TAWS Adorabowl and has been masked so that just the HI shows. And that's it! Have a good rest of your Sunday. Happy dances everyone. 

Couldn't Resist Any Longer

It was no use. I've given in. I couldn't help it. And I'm blaming Geri over at Manitoba Stamper. Yes, that's right. Arriving by the mail (or by another 'present truck') in a few days is my heart's desire....at least as far as electronic die cutting machines go...a brand spankin' new Silhouette Cameo!!!!!! Geri let me know that there was a sale going on, and I just couldn't resist that?!! Currently I have a Cricut Expressions, which is fine, but I've found it has it's limits. It's still in good working order, so as soon as box arrives with my new baby, I'll be taking the Cricut up to church for use by Sunday school teachers, and all those who come for the monthly Scrap & Stamp (every 3rd Saturday from noon-7p.m.). Hmmmm....now I'm wondering if I should have paid extra for the expedited shipping.....no...I need to practice some patience. Lol.

Had a very nice anniversary, and a big thank you for all of you who sent such nice wishes. I am blessed by the numerous friends I have made through this wonderful world of card making and blogging and I treasure each and every one of you. Big hugs.

Now onto today's card. I have had a new set of stamps from Neat & Tangled, which I have been dying to ink up. Today was the day. They've got a sweet challenge over there, and since I now have one of their stamp sets (which is not required, btw, to play along), I thought I'd play. Check out the Little Tangles blog for all the deets!

I'm also playing along with Color Throwdown.  They have the most delicious color palette chosen by the delightful and inspiring Lori and I couldn't resist. Not only that, but they're celebrating their Fifth Year anniversary. Big congrats to them! They're celebrating with a fantastic prizes, and all you have to do is play along! Check out the colors below, then party along with them!

And here's my take:

I've used a white Bazzill for the card base, scraps out the both the pattern box, and the card stock box, a smidgen of twine from Timeless Twine, SU black ink for the 'Sparkle and Shine' part of the sentiment, and the rest of the sentiment is computer generated. The diamonds are also from N&T's Sparkle and Shine set. The large diamond was stamped with Rubber Stampede ink, and SU black for the small diamond on a teensy blue scrap. MME enamel dots and that's the whole shebang! Happy dances everyone.

Twenty Years

Today is our Twentieth Wedding Anniversary. I've been sitting here in front of that first sentence, trying to decide what to say next, and finding it difficult. Me, the wordsmith, the talker...can't find the words. So I'll pour out a little of what's in my heart, share some photos, and a card. There's no challenge involved, so some of you may want to bail now.

We'd both been married before. I'd been widowed, and he'd been divorced. Neither of us were beginners at life or marriage. Each of us had raised/were raising children. He had five, I had three. Blended family, though only the youngest was at home full time. A few of the others were in and out in between college, graduate school, med school...well, you get the idea. The kids got along well, which was a blessing. Some were married, and by the time we got married, there were four grandchildren already. We'd wanted to just go to the courthouse, and have a really quiet wedding, but things got out of control when we realized it would already be a big wedding if only the kids showed up. We managed to keep it fairly small, with a brunch reception that followed. All of our kids stood up in the wedding, plus a future (now ex...) daughter-in-law, and a friend. My dad even gave me away. We were married at the DeKoven Chapel, a non-air conditioned, small chapel in July. What the heck were we thinking????? Thank goodness the ceremony was at 10:00 in the morning. It was one of those sultry summer days better spent in the water or in air conditioned rooms. But we all made it through and neither of us, nor the bridal party, nor any of the guests fainted from the heat.

Fast forward twenty years. And I mean really fast!!!!! They've flown by. John and I are still a good match. Somehow, we've managed to grow together as a couple. He retired from UWP where he taught American History to undergrads for many years. Now, anyone married to a workaholic knows that workaholics never really retire...he continues to write, do book reviews, guest lecture....me, I make cards and play with the grandkids!! We've been empty nesters for the last 15 years, and have enjoyed watching our kids mature, and we continue to watch the ever growing gaggle of grandchildren with much love and pride. Our count will be up to 19 by my birthday in September. And yes, I can give you their complete name, date of birth, and either list them by family or in chronological order. Each one is a blessing, and I am truly thankful. I'm pretty sure we're still a good match.

So does anyone remember linking up to Darnell's blog in January when she and the "Mister" celebrated their 42nd anniversary? We got to post our wedding pix. At that time, since I knew I wanted to post this anniversary, I posted a photo of Paul and I. He's the one who died some 23 years ago now. Today is different. I've got a few photos of my wedding to John. Bear with me here, I only get to have one 20th wedding anniversary.....

A quick note here... none of the photos are very good...and my scanner's not hooked up...


The first one is rather amusing. You need to know that on a good day, I can stretch alllll the way up to 5'1". Before I got into my dress, but after I had my crinoline on, I sat on the couch while the girls were getting my gown out. Jeanne snapped this photo. Notice my feet don't touch the floor.

This is my dad and me walking down the aisle...

The newlyweds. Life has changed, and so have we. I'm no longer a size 4. My hair is no longer dark, dark brown, and there are a pair of trifocals sitting on my face. John's lost weight (doo-doo head), and his comb over has been a thing of the past for quite some time, thanks to son Tom!

Cutting cake. And like silly kids, we did save the top and had it on our 1st anniversary. Wasn't so good after a year....and what a goofy veil...what was I thinking....?

And here's a bye-bye photo. With granddaughter Alyssa who loved having her photo taken...even with a booboo on her chin. And just so you know, she's 21 now.

Did you notice the collar bones??  They've seemed to have disappeared some where....probably on the bottom of one of my paper scraps boxes...

And last, I seriously do promise, the last photo is of the card he's getting. He wanted blue.

And now an end to this. Wonderful life. We are blessed and happy. Thanks for listening.

Beatin' the heat

It's 90 degrees outside with, and I am positive this is true, a 3,000,000% humidity reading. I'll bet that if I looked really closely at our house's exterior, it would be sweating...I've been out there, and unless this place turns to liquid, I'm not going out there again. At least for today. Isn't central air conditioning a blessing?! It's one of those things that I think about, and try to remember being a little one, when no one had a.c. in their homes. How did we manage?

Went to Madison Saturday to watch Grant, Lily, and Drew. They are so darn funny. And boy am I crazy for them. We made cookies, played cards, ate pizza for dinner, made paper hats out of newspaper, and laughed. I had such a good time with them. I hated it when bedtime came. We read a story and then we sang a song. When my son was a baby, he got a wind up baby Big Bird that played the song "Yellow Bird" while it's legs and arms waved. He loved that thing. We'd sing it together as he grew older, and since his first little one was born, we've been singing it to him (and the others who followed). I put it on my iPod. Guess what bedtime song they wanted....yep, "Yellow Bird." It' so sweet and the kids love it. If you haven't heard it, or heard of it and are curious, just google the Mills Brothers, and you can find it, I'm sure.

Now you all know the fabulous Darnell....and if you don't, well, goodness, I don't know where you've been! She is one of those people you want to know! Well, she found a new-to-her challenge, and when you see the inspiration photo, you'll understand why I had to jump on that bandwagon too! First go over and check out Darnell's blog, then come back and see which direction I took. Alrighty then...

I'm sure I've checked out the City Crafter Challenge Blog before, but I haven't played along with them...up till now. So had to play along. Go and see what they're all about, you'll be glad you did.

Killer colors. Don't they just feel like a breath of fresh, cool air?  And this is my take:

Pretty easy to construct. White Bazzill card base, scraps of kraft and vellum, PTI stamp, VersaMagic chalk ink, All Night Media leaves, and Bubbles & Bling blings. That's it. Cool. Happy dances everyone!

Who knew??....

I'm back for a second post today. What's up with that? But it's not really my fault; nope, it the fault of the DT over at CAS(E) this Sketch. More specifically Chrissy, who came up with this week's sketch! It's so much fun, I can't believe it. When I first saw it, I'll admit that I thought, "what the heck can I do with that???...I don't have any splatter stamps!!...ummmmm, ahhhhh, oh yes I do...." *sheepish grin* here. What I don't have is any kind of spritz, or sprayer, or anything that can make 'homemade' splats. The whole splatter thing was important to me; I wanted to try to keep as close to the sketch as possible and toss a bit of my own personality in for good measure. Have a look at the sketch first:

Doesn't that just look like fun?!! You can see why I had to play along.

The only think I really took a little liberty with, was the perpendicular line going down the left side. Rather than use a ribbon, or some kind of paper strip, I chose to use a grunge 'line'. I think it fits well. The small grunge blotches are from a PTI set, and the long schmear is from CFC and is stamped twice. The sentiment is a brand spankin' new set from Wplus9. Scraps for the sentiment panel and StazOn black ink. If you look closely at the splattery parts, you'll see a few green blings added for good measure; they're from Kaiser. And that's it. It's been a pretty good day! Happy dances everyone.

And Suddenly....!

....it all comes together. I'd seen all the buzz over at Mojo Monday. It's their 300th challenge -- how exciting! And you should go over and check out all the wonderful cards that have been submitted, and play along too, if you haven't already. Not only can you help them celebrate by submitting a card, but 23 paper crafting companies are helping them by offering prizes. How cool is that?! I'll admit that I struggled all day yesterday with this. Okay...not all day, but at least for a good part of it. And then this morning, ping! went the old brain, and in just a few short minutes, a card appeared on my work desk.  First you've got to see the sketch:

There are just so many possibilities in this sketch. And seriously, if you haven't gone over there yet, please do, there are so many wonderful cards posted. And I'm going to add this one:

I stuck with two main colors, and kept it relatively flat (not much dimension, that is). You'll notice that I only outlined two of the sections with a Copic marker. I thought long and hard about it, and decided that what I wanted emphasized, was the sentiment. It works for me. For this card, the base is Bazzill, and all the dps are from Echo Park, and all were scraps except the small yellow polka dots. The sentiment is a sticker from Dear Lizzy, the dots are MME, and the twine is a chunk that I saved from the wrapping of our family portrait. I knew I could use it someday, somehow! This will also get sent over to Marilyn. We haven't heard anything else about her condition, but I'll assume no news is at least 'better' news. And now, it's time to head out and work on something in the yard and get the laundry started. I really need to win the lottery so I can just concentrate on paper crafting and not on house and yard work! Happy dances everyone.

A little making up...

...for not being terribly productive yesterday, that is. I'll keep this short, and get right down to business. I must tell you, however, that I had stared at the sketch over at CAS(E) this Sketch alllllllllllll week. Tried a couple of things, even made a card for one of the bazillions of granddaughters, but came up empty every darn time. Except for this one....Here's the very cool sketch by Karolyn:

This is my late entry into this challenge:

Looks way nicer irl....Bazzill white card base. Scraps of kraft and the bit of white, MME enamel dots, PTI stamp, SU ink on the bird, some old Fiskars rickrack stickers, and Sn@p Studio by Simple Stories faux washi tape, striped paper, and "hello" sticker. That's it. Later dudettes! Happy dances.

As Charles Dickens once wrote...

"I am behind my time." (from A Christmas Carol). Yesterday was going to be my email and comment day, and maybe even get a card or two made. You know, catch up on a few things that I hadn't gotten to in the previous couple of days. Then I got in trouble. Big trouble (well....maybe just a little to medium trouble). I met my sister, and we went shopping and out to lunch. She's newly moved to the area and I am thrilled that for the first time in my adult life, one of my sisters lives near me. Rather than being 5 hours away, she's within an hours drive! And we have lots of paper crafting to do!!! Some of you might know that Sue is not only my (older, chuckle, snort, lol, now everyone knows, Sue) sister, she's also my best friend. So I am twice blessed. It's always good to hang with her. If you met her, you'd love her! (Even though I'm the nicer, younger sister! more snorting & chuckling here...) I HAD to pick up some new ProMarkers, a few sheets of paper, and some stickers for the Disney book I'm working on, oh!, and a sweet new die from MFT. You'll see that in use later on.

I have a couple of thank you's to make here. First, I'd like to thank all those who voted for my card over at Muse. It was chosen as one of the Top Three Featured Members. I'm dancing on air for that! Congrats also to Darnell and Lori. And then a thank you to the DT over at CASology for choosing this card as an HM. I do so appreciate having been chosen. So, thanks!! : )

I've been working hard all day on cards and cooking and other things. I actually have a card to share for this week's Muse challenge. The fabulous Laurie Willison created this very cool card to inspire us all. I love what she did here, and have been staring at it for a long time. Great elements, great colors, and well, it's just great overall!

Here is my take on her card:

For this card, I dug in my ever multiplying box of card stock. I swear that I rarely cut up new sheets, so I'm thinking that during the wee hours of the morning, something magical happens and new scraps are subsequently born...You know exactly what I'm talking about, admit it.  After finding these scraps, I used my MB Parker alphabet and cut out the "happy" and backed it with a white paper I had typed using an English font. I embossed the green, using a Sizzix folder. I can't quite recall who made the button, though I think it may have been We R Memory Keepers. Finished it off with three black blings from want 2 scrap (Hi Sharon, I know I got these at your store!). It went together pretty easily. So there you have it. Happy dances everyone.