Sweet Baby

First off, I want to say thanks to all of those who have left comments to far!! It's great to hear about the designs to wanna see out there!!

Secondly, only 3 more days till my mini vacay!!! Yay me!

Thirdly, I have a card to share! One of Joe's friends at work asked if we had any baby stuff to give his niece because she is close to delivering and they don't have anything. Her mom just recently died and it has been really hard on her (the girl is my age) plus she and her husband don't have the most *ideal* jobs. I was so happy to help! I sent a Pack and Play, bouncy seat, johnny jump up, high chair, and tons of clothes (thank goodness she is having a boy!) along with him. My sisters and friends have helped me out so much with passing clothes and toys down that it was nice to be able to do the same for someone else!

Anyhoo, I made her this card to send with the stuff and just told her a few things about what I sent. I swear, every time I need a baby card I ALWAYS reach for the Special Delivery TAC set! It is the cutest baby set I have ever seen! I just love this tiny baby in a pod! So, here is my easy peasy 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 card.

• STAMPS- Special Delivery (TAC), 1/8 inch Snap Stamps (Karen Foster)
• PAPER- Bashful Blue CS, I *think* this is Paper Studio paper. Somehow I always cut off the piece that has the name on it!
• INK- Palette Hybrid Noir
• OTHER- Nestabilities oval and scalloped oval dies, Word Window punch, Copic markers, Prismacolors and OMS, ribbon, pop dots

If you haven't already, be sure to comment on this post to win 2 free Queen Kat Designs stamp sets!!

Thanks for stopping and have a great day! Don't forget to come back tomorrow for the bi weekly Tea Party smARTworks challenge!

Big News! And Blog Candy too!!

I have some exciting news in my neck of the woods!! I am now a proud member of the Queen Kat Designs design team! I am so excited to be working with Vicki and the rest of the QKD team! They have welcomed me so nicely too! Thanks guys! You need to stop in and see the awesome sets she has and she also sells *super cute* monthly kits too!



So, in celebration, I want to put a few of their sets up for grabs!! All you have to do is leave a comment telling me what stamp(s) you'd like to see on the market that you can't seem to find. Like for instance, I'd like to see a guitar! Not a real looking guitar but maybe a simple line guitar or maybe a few different styles of guitars. I mean really, how popular is rock star stuff right now?! It's as simple as that! Fill me in and you could win TWO free sets!! I will draw a random name on Thursday at Noon so make sure you come back to see if you won!

**If you are not a regular to my blog (are you crazy!? lol) and you sign up for the blog candy it's a good idea to either make a note to yourself for the day I will draw or bookmark my page to check back! There have been times in the past where I had to re-draw because I did not hear back from the winner! I want you guys to get your goods!**

You must be a US or Canada resident to be able to be entered. Sorry international readers!

Well, don't you wanna see what you will win!?!

Happy Skullz and



Paisley

Too cute huh?! I can't wait to get mine! Well, good luck and please post a link to here on your blog if you'd like! The more the merrier!

Have a great Monday!

Inque-ing it up!

I am in love with my Inque Botique stamps and I had been so busy lately that it had been awhile since I had gotten to use them. Last week I made sure I did though and this is what came out of it. I really really love this card!!! I have no clue who I am going to send it to or maybe I won't. Maybe it will be one of those cards you like so much that you keep it on your scrap shelf or in your card basket just to look at it every once in a while to remind yourself that you can make really cool cards.

• STAMPS- Mini Birdi, Petals (Inque Botique)
• PAPER- Dasher DP (Basic Grey), kraft CS
• INK- Chocolate Chip, Walnut Distress Ink
• OTHER- PearlEx (for bird), Cuttlebug square dot embossing folder, scalloped edge scissors, pop dots

I am soooo excited! Joe and I are getting to go away for the weekend! Its his birthday on Friday and for the past 2 years I have had a party for him at our house with his friends and a few of my sisters, but this year I wanted to take him somewhere. I really wanted to take him to Vegas but tickets alone were close to $500! Whew, maybe for our 10 year anniversary or something. So, I figured I would take him to a casino that's over on the Ohio river about an hour and a half away. He was happy that I had planned it and decided what we were doing. I am just looking forward to 1 on 1 time with him. We are leaving Friday evening and coming back Sunday evening so we won't be gone long but it will be fun!

Well, I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with an exciting announcement!!! No, I'm not pregnant, lol.

My Funny Valentine

Hello there! Hope everyone is doing well! I swear I really need to get better at posting regularly! Sometimes I just don't have the time to type it up. That's my biggest problem. I think I need a program that will type what I say. I'm sure they are out there and I know how lazy that sounds on my part, but I can fold laundry and talk at the same time.

Joe had to go to the dentist to have 2 teeth pulled on Monday and he was alright when he got home. However, that quickly changed. He started feeling dizzy and sick to his stomach so I started him a bath and told him to go relax. He was in there for almost 2 hours and I was just walking out of the kids' room from putting them to bed when he called my name. He was sitting in the middle of the stairs (our bathroom is right at the top of the stairs) telling me he thought he was going to get sick. So, in true mom fashion I ran and got a cold washcloth and a bag so I wouldn't have to clean puke off my stairs. I held the washcloth on his head for a minute or two and he said he just wanted to make it to the couch to lay down. "Take it slow" I say as he is sliding down the stairs on his butt so he doesn't have to get up. Well, he makes it a few steps until he PASSES OUT! Yep, falls straight forward onto me, trying to catch him. He is twice my size but somehow I managed to catch him and avoid him hitting his head on the doorway. He was only out about 5 seconds but that was long enough to scare the crap out of me. I laid with him on the floor for a while until he got enough energy to get to the couch. When he got to the couch, I slept on the coffee table pushed up against the couch so he could be close to me. Although I would do anything for him, my left hip was screaming never again! LOL Anyway, his mom had told me before he never did well with loosing blood and he would always pass out which made me realize that up until now I had never seen him loose any! He really didn't bleed all that much but it was enough for him! He is doing just fine now and feels a lot better now that his wisdom tooth is pulled. Well, that is until he has to get the other 2 cut out by an oral surgeon. Yow!

I would like to move on now and get to my Valentine's that I have been making lately. I am going to share them all right now because I have several other cards that I haven't even shared yet so I really need to catch up. Plus, I just got some new stamps to play with from Starving Artistamps so I will be working on those too.

My first 2 are Doodle Factory ones {which I completely *love*}.

I used Blox the piggy to make this non traditional colored Valentine. I was trying to think of a cute sentiment when this popped into my head. I love it! Valenswine, LOL.

• STAMPS- Blox (Doodle Factory), Small Alpha (Starving Artistamps)
• PAPER- It's old paper but I think it's Chatterbox, possibly Making Memories
• INK- Palette Hybrid Noir, Colorbox Chestnut Roan
  
• OTHER- Sakura white Souffle pen (for dots on brads), Copic markers, ribbon, scalloped edge scissors, brads, push pin, pop dots
  

This one was done using the DF Valentine set. It's hard to tell by the picture but I have a black mat under the white card and it's even all the way around.

• STAMPS- Doodle Factory Valentine set (found at Starving Artistamps)
• PAPER- black CS
• INK- Stazon jet black, Colorbox Warm Red
• OTHER- pink Copic marker, ribbon, sponge, stickles

When Nicole Heady released her new set called 'Out on a Limb' I fell in love with it but thought I should try to do more with the Take a Bough one that I already have. This is what I came up with. I had to look through my whole stamp collection to find a heart that fit well with it and finally ended up using one from my Inque Botique stash.

• STAMPS- Take a Bough and Paper Tray (Paper Trey Ink), Mini Calendar *heart* (Inque Botique)
• PAPER- Paper Trey white
• INK- Colorbox Chestnut Roan and Warm Red
• OTHER- ribbon
  

And lastly (and least impressive), my take on Julee Tillman's Mojo Monday sketch from last week. Never got a chance to enter it though. I'm pretty iffy on this card. I don't think I should have added the stickles to the black CS.

• STAMPS- Awesome (Inque Botique)
• PAPER- Only Orange CS, black CS, KI Memories DP
• INK- Versamark
  
• OTHER- pink chalk, rhinestones, eyelets, stickles, Cuttlebug embossing folder
  

Well, I'm off to the grocery now! I don't really want to go out in this cold but I avoided it yesterday because of the 12 degree temp, but how long can you last without bread and milk, really? Hmmmm, I just checked the temp right now and it's 8. Maybe I'll wait a few more hours! Have a great day!

Tea Party Wednesday!

So, for the second week in a row I am a day late for the Tea Party! This time though I was sparing you from the hideous picture I had to take of this weeks card! I had my card made on Tuesday and was all ready to take pics and post on Wednesday morning but hubby ended up taking the day off and had to have an emergency visit to the Dentist so that threw off my day a tad. Ended up taking care of him most of the day and then last night when I went to take the picture and post I realized my battery was dead on my camera. AAAAGGHH! So, I tried to take a picture with my small Sony, which normally takes perfectly fine pictures, but not so much at night, with a close up, using flash. Anyhow, I couldn't bear to share the hideous picture so I waited till this morning when my battery was fully charged. So, here it is.

Trish provided the sketch this week and I figured out that I need more smARTworks stamps! LOL I didn't have a whole lot of stamps that fit this sketch except for Christmas ones. Therefore, I decided that I need to order a few more sets! Now, I just have to decide which ones to get!

• STAMPS- Spring #1, Middie Messages #2 (smARTworks)
  
• PAPER- MME Wild Asparagus DP, Baroque Burgundy CS
• INK- Palette Hybrid Noir, Tim Holtz Walnut ink (with sponge)
• OTHER- Nestabilities rectangle and scalloped rectangle dies, Word Window punch, Copic markers, sponge, pop dots

If you want to check out what everyone else did for the sketch then just hop on over to their blogs and see! We have something different in store for you for our next Tea Party so be looking forward to that!!
In the Works.....smARTworks
Mama Dini's Stamperia
Tah Dah!
SusieStampsAlot
Dee's Studio

I'm getting ready to make a post over on my Photography blog as soon as I get off here so if you have a minute, go check it out here! Have a great day!!

Happy Monday!

Well hello everyone and happy Monday! I know Monday isn't always the most looked forward to day of the week but it's a nice day here in Ohio! It's 60 right now with a high of 64! It will be 60 again tomorrow too. Now, if it would only stay that way! At least the kids will be able to play out a bit.

So, I have a question for you guys. What die cut machine do you have and how well do you like them? I have my article running on Craft Critique today about the love for my Sizzix. It got me thinking though if everyone else is as passionate about their own machine like I am. So, leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Also, I am trying to get things lined up for specific days of the week on here. I enjoyed doing it before but things just got so hectic around here. I think that I am in a good position now to do that. I have my own laptop now so I don't have to keep running back and forth between computers. That is such a help! Anyway, I am thinking a Nestabilities day, a Super Simple Day, a smARTworks day, possibly a Starving Artistamps day, or maybe sketch day. I don't want to fill the whole week up, just 2-3 days so I can challenge myself and possibly others. So, if you have any input please share!

Both of these next cards are made with Nestabilities. I was having a hard time thinking of what I could use the tiny rectangles for but once I pulled these ornaments out they worked perfectlt. And yes, I know Christmas is over but I didn't get the dies till after Christmas so I had to try them out with whatever I had on my desk!

• STAMPS- Ornate tooled leather background, Ornaments 45.08 (Starving Artistamps)
• PAPER- Real Red, green CS
• INK- Palette Hybrid Nior, Versamagic Cloud White
• OTHER- Nestabilities rectangle and scalloped rectangle dies, Cuttlebug Swirls embossing folder, ZIG markers, Sakura Stardust pen, pop dots

This one is a set of 8 I made for my momma. As soon as I saw this stamp I thought of her. She is always joking about being a queen. But the truth is, I think she is! Size is 4 1/4 x 4 1/4.

• STAMPS- Just the Queen (American Art Stamp)
• PAPER- pink CS, black CS
• INK- Palette Hybrid Nior
• OTHER- Nestabilities rectangle and scalloped rectangle dies, Cuttlebug Circles embossing folder, Copic markers, Sakura Stardust pen

Well, thanks for stopping by and everyone enjoy their Monday!!!!

New Nestabilities

So, as I mentioned on Wednesday, I got new Nestabilities from my In-Laws. Woo-Hoo! The cards I have to share for the next few posts will most likely have scalloped edges with some embossing! Those things are so amazing though, really! I was telling hubby how I'd like to have the circle and square set too. We'll see! By the way, we are going to look at a house tomorrow. First one ever. I am nervous and excited all at the same time. We all would love a place of our own but I just get scared to death of being in debt like that. It's bad enough that we are still paying on Joe's school and will be for a long while still. But, at least when we pay monthly it would actually be going towards something if we got a house. Anyway, if it's meant to be right now then it's meant to be!

Well, onto the cards. I made this one in the Perfect Plum and liked it to much that I wanted to do it in different colors. In the end the Brocade Blue ended up being my favorite.

• STAMPS- Blossoms Abound (SU), Paper Tray (Paper Trey Ink)
• PAPER- Perfect Plum, Brocade Blue, Positively Pink (yes, I still have this color!)
• INK- Perfect Plum, Brocade Blue, Positively Pink, Stazon Jet Black
• OTHER- Nestabilities rectangle and scalloped rectangle dies, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Pearl Ex

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope everyone has a good weekend! It's like 20 degrees out right now but I hear it's supposed to be 50 next week. Let's see how that goes!

Late for Tea!!!

How was everyone's Christmas? Ours was great!! We had lots of family time together and enjoyed every minute of it! Joe only got Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off so the time we did have was precious. It was a blast watching the kids open their gifts and this year I actually got to open some!! Joe is not a gift giver. He is the kind of guy that says "Get what you want." Which is okay with me sometimes. Sometimes being the key word. The last time be bought be something for Christmas was right after we got married and I'm not sure if he has ever wrapped anything. Well, this year I was out shopping with his mom when he called me and told me he had to work over. We continued shopping for what we needed and I got home and was cleaning and whatnot when he got home an hour early. He works in a shop so when he works over he has to work over 4 hours. Anyway, he brought bags into the house, grabbed the wrapping paper and tape, went into the kids' room and spent 2 hours wrapping everything up (granted, it took him that long because the kids helped!). You should have seen the smile on my face!!!! He even went upstairs into the Christmas tote, got my stocking out, and hung it up by everyone else's. He did a great job with the presents too! I got new pink Cutterbee scissors, a Hot Marks kit (which I am still trying to figure out, so if anyone has any tips!), new paint brushes, the Photoshop CS Bible (this book is huge!), along with lots of other goodies! I almost cried! I told him that now I am going to expect it every year! He is a good hubby and I love him no matter what he buys or doesn't buy me but this was a really special Christmas!

Sorry I got so long winded! I was just excited! I also got Nestabilities from my fabulous in laws!!! Wow, they love me! I got the complete oval and rectangle sets. She got them from www.ucutathome.com with the 40% off coupon for each. I haven't stopped using them since!! All the cards you will see tomorrow will have a Nestability die on them!

Clinton turned 2 on the 26th! He is so precious! Mamaw and Papaw got him the big Imaginext Dinosaur and the two smaller ones that stomp. He freaked out! In a bad way. He always plays with them at the store but once they were stomping towards him and getting so close he was not happy! Trink (MIL) got it on video and if it's good enough I might actually send it to America's Funniest Videos.

Okay, onto the Tea Party. I am a day late but yesterday got way more hectic than I had planned. But I'm here now and that's what matters, right? It was my turn to do the sketch this time around. I think I will make some more cards with this one too. This one came together very quickly and I finally got a chance to use my Rock Star paper again!! Yay me!

Here was my sketch:


And here is my card:

• STAMPS- WD-89 Kings, DK-01 Combo Sentiments (smARTworks)
  
• PAPER- DCWV Rock Star stack, Positively Pink CS
• INK- Tim Holtz Walnut Ink
• OTHER- Sakura Stardust gel pen, rhinestones, sponge
  

If you'd like to play along just post a link here and show us what you've got! Also, check out what the other ladies did with my sketch!
In the Works.....smARTworks
Mama Dini's Stamperia
Tah Dah!
SusieStampsAlot
Dee's Studio

By the way, I will be updating my Sweet Life photography blog today or tomorrow too. I have gotten requests to share more things and it's about time I did! Be sure to check in!

Have a great day! Stay warm!

About me....

Carole Burrage tagged me on her blog to share 7 things about myself. I have done this before but it's been a while ago so I will do it again.

1. I love my steak Medium Rare. I used to eat it Rare but I have found it tastes better at least warm!
2. I have a mole on my eyelid exactly where my dad had one and one of my sisters has one in the same spot too.
3. I tend to procrastinate. Then again, you guys might already know that about me!
4. I can't have Christmas without listening to Roger Whittaker. I'm serious. I had to have my sister burn me both his Christmas CD's and send them to me because my originals got damaged.
5. I just bought 'The Best of Air Supply' and I haven't taken it out of my van since. Love them!
6. I took 3 years of Spanish in school and can still hold a small conversation in Spanish.
7. My favorite sandwich is Bologna on soft wheat bread with Miracle Whip, American cheese, lettuce, and Doritos.

So, there you go. A peek into what makes me, well, me!

I am the master........of disaster.

Hey guys! When coming up with my post title all I had to do was look at my stamp area. What a mess! I have been stamping and stacking and scooting and pushing things around to finish up all of the Christmas stuff I have needed to get done. And by the way, I'm still not done with tags for my hot chocolate bags or the labels for the cookies and muffins I haven't made yet. No worries! I work better under pressure! Who needs sleep anyway!

I wrote up my top 5 favorite blogs over on Craft Critique yesterday and let me tell you, it was REALLY hard to choose! I think I did a good job though at showcasing the ones I really love and if I was able to do a top 15 that would have been even better! Heather shared a link that I wanted to post here that I thought was pretty cool. SheetLoad of Cards is a blog that has a monthly free ezine for card layouts. Their motto is 'Our goal is to increase your card stash using one layout, a few sheets of paper, and a short amount of time.' Sounds good to me! Anyway, it's definitely worth checking out!

Okay, so I have finished quite a few cards since I posted last and they are all Christmas ones soooooo I am going to post quite a few today. I will save a few for a few days from now but since it's so close to Christmas I'm probably going to pack them all into a few posts. We'll start with the penguin ones. These guys are just so cute! I colored them all with Prismacolors and OMS and then outlined them with my Copic B21 Baby Blue marker. Then of course you've gotta add glitter and rhinestones!

• STAMPS- Penguin Games (Stampendous), Merry Christmas (Studio G)
  
• PAPER- Rob and Bob Studios Christmas Stack (last years), black CS, Certainly Celery CS
• INK- Palette Hybrid Nior
• OTHER- Snowflake brads (JoAnn's), rhinestones, glitter, snowflake button, ribbon

Well, I need to get back to the Photo Story (slideshow with music) I'm making for hubby's grandparents. Still have quite a bit to do. If any of you guys are interested you can go to the Microsoft website and search 'Photo Story 3' and it will bring up a post to let you download it for free. I used it 2 years ago when I did one for my dad's memorial and I had to pay $30 for it but now it is free. I like it and it really does make a special gift. If you decide to try it out and have any questions then feel free to email me and I can help you out as best I can.

Hope you all have a great day! I'll be back tomorrow (trust me, I'm gonna type my entry up tonight while I'm snuggling on the couch with Joe!).