I'm a great auntie again!

Here's a card I made for my great niece...Evelyn Marie. I don't have a picture to show you because I haven't seen her in person yet. I did see a picture from Great Grammy and Great Papa...and she's beautiful. The little princess stamp is from a kids' set that my daughter got me for Christmas (from Michael's). So sweet. It's colored with Prismacolors. I found the pink velvet ribbon at Target. Love it.




The "sweet girl" is really two separate stamps of the $1 ones. I cut apart two different ones so I could form "sweet girl" from "sweetheart" and "party girl". Isn't the scalloped circle behind this so pretty? It's really from the corner adorner punch! I think it adds a royal touch.










And some terribly exciting news...I got a crop-a-dile for Christmas!!! It's awesome and I love it. Now, how did I survive without it? AND...I went shopping yesterday and got a Cuttlebug for 50% off at Michael's. I was so excited I felt like I had had 18 1/2 cups of espresso!!! I have all of the embossing folders on my wish list now! Spoiled rotten!

My Christmas case cards (finally)!

Doesn't Amy Westerman at Heartfelt Greetings make the best cards? How could I not case when my friend had this stamp that I could borrow? I absolutely love this snowman!! He's just the image of "rejoice" to me! So here are mine.








And here's one of the pics that might find its way
in the card.

Favorite decorations

This isn't quite as elegant as Becky's decorations, but this is a fave of mine. My 13 yo dd has done this two years in a row...cutting out random snowflakes and hanging them from the ceiling. They make everything so Christmasy! I love it.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday to you...happy birthday to you...happy birthday to the most wonderful mom....happy birthday to you! Yep...I have the best mom in the entire world! She oohed and aahed over her card just like she was supposed to (tee hee) Blue, silver, white, and patterned paper, brads, silver ink, and $1 stamps.

I did a challenge!

I've accepted Mojo Monday challenge! I'm not sure it's acceptable, since I changed its orientation, but I sure do like it!

This is from Julee's sight, Poetic Artistry.

The stamps are Impression Obsession. Aren't they just beautiful!?!

I used Cranberry Crisp ink and Apricot Appeal ink and paper. I'm loving this sketch!!!

A Christmas Case

I absolutely loved Ana's card at Ink a Stamp so I cased!

I would probably not ever have combined the colors if I hadn't seen them, but I do really, really like them together. I've wanting to use this old Santa stamp that I was about to get rid of...but I changed my mind. I think he'd look really good with a vintage look.

Thinking of You

I have been in the Christmas card making mood, but I HAD to use these stamps. They were calling my name. Aren't they incredible? They are from Purple Onion Designs. I LOVE them!

I got the little "thinking of you" as an extra thrown in, and it's just perfect!

The background paper is from the Hot Off the Press warehouse sale. And I used my little slit punch that was at the top of my wish list. Now I think the word window might have taken that spot!

My card class went really, really well. I had seven ladies attend and they were all very happy with the cards we made. Whew! I think I will be leading a card class once a month at the local senior center. That's really good for me because I really dislike speaking in front of a group of people. So it will be a good challenge!

New cards!

I did the emboss and crack technique on the ornament. It's very elegant looking.


I used Phyllis's Wizard to cut out the letters for JOY.
I used a $1 stamp for the sentiment...I really like it, even in its simplicity.

Then...I finally got a House Mouse stamp (well, actually three!!) I put the "If Friends were flowers, I'd pick you" sentiment on the inside of the card. Isn't he just the cutest little mouse? Maybe...if mice were REALLY this cute, I'd be tempted. Not!!! I also used the cutest paper punch to make the flower (a gift from the afore mentioned Phyllis...who doesn't have a blog yet). It is really five punches layered. I love it! And the scalloped circle is made with the SU slit punch. I had it on the top of my wish list and now I finally have it. My list keeps growing instead of diminishing though!! What's up with that?

Erika has CANDY!!!

Wow...a muse candy!!! Erika has reached the 10,000th hit on her blog and she's offering up an a muse alphabet!!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed to win!

Can I do this?

Can I teach a card class? Can I stand in front of ten seniors at the senior center and instruct them on how to put together a card??? These are the cards I'm planning on putting together with them and I just hope it goes well. Of course, this one is the Criss Cross card using Beate's tutorial, and I love it! The "scallop" is made from a McGill daisy punch that I laboriously cut and pieced (a small scallop circle punch sounds mighty good right now!) The stamps are $1 Michael's stamps.

The second card was made almost entirely out of patterned paper. I cut out the pieces of the trees and layered them, adding some dimension. The stamp is a $1 Michael's stamp. I really like how bright and cheery it is!

The winner is...

There was only one person that really guessed all of the costumes correctly...and that is Melissas!!! Congratulations Melissas...I will gather the candy (that I haven't taken a picture of yet) and get that sent. Please e-mail me your addy! (waldee@juno.com ) Thank you. Oh, and for those of you that are wondering...the one that most of you guessed as the Honeymooners were Lucy, Desi, Fred, and Ethel. And the ones that were guessed as Lemony Snicket (sp)...those were the 3 Stooges. I'm sure it would have been easier if the tall one had gotten on his knees, but he had to be Moe...then we gave little one a buzz cut and little girl curls in her hair. Melissas got ALL of them right! Thanks so much for playing everybody!!!

CASEing a MFT?? And a few more days to guess for blog candy!

I loved Mary Jo Albright's card shown here. Then, when I got the javabellas, I just HAD to case! I loved the creativity of Mary Jo...and wish I had thought of it myself!

Don't forget to guess on the previous post for some blog candy! I only have eight guesses so far (somebody's gonna win!)

Guessing Game for blog candy...

I am posting years and years worth of costumes of the kids...and you get to guess what they're supposed to be! I have done theme costumes forever...well, not the first few Halloweens, but ever since. My poor kids have always just been agreeable. Your job is to guess from 1992 all the way through 2007. I'll leave this up until Sunday, the 4th. Please pass on this guessing game so there's more than one person entering. I'll try to post a picture of the candy before the game is over. I'll pick a winner based on how many correct answers there are. If more than one person guessed them ALL, then I'll draw between the names.
1992












1993




1994



1995





1996
1997

1998 1999

2000 2001





















2002
















2003

2004

2005


















2006

2007






The tall one 2007

"footbal player"

Edited to add "the football player" so people can see where the missing "tall one" is. I think he decided he was too old to participate and be silly. He's a jr. at the local high school. He plays second string tight end and free safety...and we're SO excited about basketball to get going (but we have to wait until football playoffs are done!)

My RAK'n friend!!!

Here's my shy bestest buddy...

She currently resides in a very warm state and she brought her family to Oregon for a vacation this summer!

It was incredible to be able to hang out with her and her family!

This second photo was of us being silly...and holding up the camera hoping we were both in the frame! I love it!

Now here's my exciting news. She RAK'd me!!! She is a Creative Memories consultant and she blessed me incredibly with gifts!!! But not only all of that, she has given me my very first, VERY OWN Bella stamp! I knew she was ordering some because she saw them and loved them.


She asked me what my favorite one would be...and I chose "java bellas". Yep! Favorite. And she GAVE one to me!!!! I am beyond excited! I love everything...but I must say, I am just so excited about having a bella!!! Taunya, you are the best!!!

I cased...sort of.

I saw the cutest card on Lisa Bohler's site. I knew I needed to make a snowman that looked up!! Here's my case! I love it! I found the santa hat brads at the Hot Off The Press warehouse sale and knew they'd be perfect for this!!! I just love it! The "arms" are from a tree punch, the carrot nose is a small heart punch cut in half, the "celebrate" stamps is from a $1 Michael's set, and the adorable ribbon is from my recent win (see previous post). I LOVE that ribbon! It is from AMuse. I punched the snowflakes out with my punches (I love snowflakes).

Wow...I won some wonderful goodies!

I got runner up!! I just can't believe the wonderful stuff Elena sent me!!! I didn't have any of the chalk inks and I had been wanting to try them!! Isn't the little Inuit girl just the cutest?!?! And Elena's card is wonderful! You rock Elena!!!

Success!

My parents' 50th wedding anniversary party was a smashing success! We had 30 people on the little paddleboat for lunch and a one hour cruise. Then we went to their house for cake. This is the "wedding cake topper" that I made for them so they could have their own cake. It's not perfect, but they were very happy with it. The little cake topper isn't their original wedding day one, but it IS from their 25th wedding anniversary celebration!!! They felt really special and just loved having people come and visit and celebrate! I really hope to put more cards on soon!

Cards for Mom and Dad

I couldn't make up my mind, so I'm giving them two!

Below is the inside of the card.

Then I've also been wanting to try a transparent card, so here's my attempt. I used gold embossing powder and I also used some foil for the hearts on the transparency and for some of the swirls on the front.

Ahhh...the invitations are done!

I saw this beautiful card at Inksicles and grabbed the idea! I thought it would be perfect for the 50th wedding anniversary invitations. I used a very large background stamp that was from dots, I think, with gold ink. I made the "50" out of that kids' craft foam to create my own stamp and then I embossed that in gold, using versarmark ink. I dry embossed the circle with a chipboard circle that I cut out, and then I added "years" with a gold pen. I did a little foil glue and foil on one of the leaves just to add some glitz. I like that! The glitter wasn't a very good idea. I found a can of spray glitter that I thought would be perfect...and it does look pretty, but it's not very "stuck". You can rub the card and have a handful of sparkles. Bummer!!!

This one is to show the glitter. I like the look...just wish it stuck better!!! And the bows ended up not sticking (as you can see that it is falling off in this picture), so I ended up threading some gold wire through it and securing it.

And here's the inside of the card. I printed Mom and Dad's wedding picture on vellum as somebody suggested. I printed out the invitations on the computer first, so the date shows through. I think that looks great too! I secured the vellum on the bottom with a creased area, glue, and the ribbon through the holes. Then I secured the top of the vellum with two glue dots. They work so well.

Here's a close up of Mom and Dad 50 years ago. I made about 35 or 40 of these invitations and I can tell you I'm so glad to be done. I still need to address the envelopes and get them to the post office. Yikes! Time is flying!

We did go to Seaside for a couple of days and enjoyed some time goofing off. We had fantastic weather, but it didn't help getting anything done. And I have over 1,000 blogs to catch up on now!!! You can guess what I'll be doing in my spare time!