School Days Mini-Album

My daughter started Kindergarten this year and I wanted to make a mini-album for her that I could showcase photos and keepsakes of her school days. I made this at the beginning of the school year, but hadn't shared it here. I handmade the album myself and used the fantastic "School Days" set from TJ Designs which can be found here: http://www.tweetyjill.com/ I also used papers from "The European Collection" from TJ Designs. I used embellishments from my stash including buttons, ribbon, glitter and lace to complete the cover. I had a lot of fun making this and I can't wait to fill it with memories!

Mr. Brown is on his way to my house delivering all kinds of fun SU! goodies, so stay tuned in the next few days for some fun new designs.

Game On!

Tomorrow is my son's last football game for the year. They are playing an awesome team that will really give them a challenge. It will definitely be exciting. I wanted to make a card for my son to let him know how much fun we have had seeing him play, how much we love him and last but not least, GOOD LUCK! I know our team will do well, just as they have all season. When I saw Jen's sketch for this Saturday, I knew it would be a perfect fit for all of the elements that I wanted to incorporate into this card. I loved the 3 circles on the side that worked so well for other sentiments and images. I absolutely love playing in Jen's sketch challenge. She always does such a great job. You can check her stuff out at http://www.iheart2stamp.com/ I used the retired "Sporting Goods" and "Stamp of Authenticity". I also used my small stack of DSP that had garden green in it that is one of our team's colors. It has retired as well. I did, however, use the current "Sporting" stamp set. Sometimes you need to pull out the oldies but goodies. I have lots of those! LOL! Anyway, wish our team luck and I will let you know how it goes!!!! Thanks for fluttering by!

P.S. The other day my son said, "Mom, where is the "Stud Muffin" card you made for me?" I told him that it was in his drawer. He had it displayed for so long, I decided to take it down and put it in his drawer. He said,"I really liked when you made that for me!" I felt so happy that even though he is a boy and he is 8, he really appreciates what I do for him. I hope that he appreciates this card, too!

From our House...to Yours!

****ETA**** Did you notice the change? I put up a new banner for my blog to ring in the Holiday Season! I had a lot of fun making it and I hope it brings inspiration and *JOY* to your life!

Yes...another "Winter Post" card. This is just a little sneak peek into the project that I have been working on this evening. I can't photograph it until tomorrow, so you will have to wait. I used my delicious "Holiday Treasures" DSP again also. I am really loving it if you can't tell. LOL! I decided to color my skating couple image with copics this time and have to say that I don't like it as well as the blender pens. I am so limited in colors that I can't shade the way I would like. I took a trip to Hobby Lobby today to pick up something I needed for some design work that I really should be finishing and picked up a few other items. I don't know about you, but a few new goodies here and there really help me get in the mood to create. I picked up some fun stuff including "Vintage Photo" distress ink by Ranger. I did all of my sponging with that. It gave it just the right bit of aging that I was looking for. I also added a few buttons from my stash and some Martha Stewart glitter that I got from Michaels a year or so ago. It is a coarse glitter that I really like. Of course it needed some ribbon so I used some Kiwi Kiss striped grosgrain from SU! for the finishing touch. I will be showing you the project I have been working on tomorrow and then I promise...no more Winter Post (for a few days at least)!!! Thanks for fluttering by!

Winter Post!

The one set that I *had* t0 have from the Holiday Mini was "Winter Post". It took me forever to finally buy it, but now it is here and I am loving it. This is my first creation using it. I also used the Holiday Treasures DSP which I love. They used it quite a bit at convention and I was so excited to get it. I colored the image with my inkpads and a blender pen. Normally I would just watercolor it, but since the image was so small, I didn't want to take all of that effort and then have the paper warp. I guess maybe it is just laziness on my part. LOL! I have bin M.I.A. in the stamping world as of late. Even though my stamp area is *right* there, sometimes it feels like a million miles away. It has been one of those weeks. Monday was definitely a *Monday*. I started 4 cards and didn't finish one. I guess that set the whole tone of the week, but I decided to salvage this little image that I started on Monday. I like the way the card turned out and it has the *feel* I was after. Thanks for hanging in there with me when I have a bad week! Thanks for fluttering by!

A Saltbox Sunday and Jen's Sketch for you to Try!

Say that 10 times fast! LOL! Jen has done it again with a fabulous sketch that I had to try! I decided to use two of the new sets from The Saltbox Studio; "Pumpkin Oak" and "Give Thanks". I absolutely love these pilgrims. I decided to use one of the large pumpkins from "Pumkpkin Oak" as well. What would Thanksgiving be without pumpkins? One of the things I love about both of these sets is the great sentiments and the fonts that they come in. I opted for the simple Happy Thanksgiving, but there are quite a few to choose from. All of the stamps can be found at http://www.amuseartstamps.com/ . I paired it with some old DS paper from SU!. I loved this paper when it came out and I still have quite a bit of it left. I thought it worked well with these images. Everything is colored with a combination of Prismacolor markers, Copics and a few SU! markers.

I know that I had mentioned before that Football was over, but we decided to do one more tournament so this week has been filled with more practices and then a game yesterday. Our team won, so we have another game next Saturday. The plan is that the boys will get to play at the Real SaltLake Stadium which is where SLC professional Soccer Team plays. I am really hoping the weather will stay nice. It was an exciting game, because we had never played this particular team and we didn't know what we were up against. Looking at the opponents, I could have sworn they were at least 2 or 3 years older than my son's team, but we played them anyway. You should have seen the boy my son was up against on the line! Eek! He was large! Anyway...they were big, but they went down hard and fast. The score ended up being 41-7. I think in the end, the other team just sortof gave up. GO THUNDER!!!!! Thanks for fluttering by!

Getting Organized!!!

Last night was the first stamp club I have had since July. I know...it has been a while. I love being organized for the Holidays, so I decided to create an organizer that could fit in your purse. I guess it depends on what size of purse you prefer to carry around. I needed to make it long enough to fit a business size envelope, because that is one of the items inside. I like having somewhere to put all of my Christmas receipts in one place so that if I need to return something or keep track of my spending (LOL!) then it is all together.The Riding Hood Red cardstock measures 8 1/2 by 9 1/2 and then it is folded in half at 4 1/4. I printed out a calendar in my calendar wizard program, stamped snoflakes on it and attached it to the inside. I also printed out a list that I attached to the envelope that had a place to write the name of the person the gift was for, the item that was purchased, how much it cost and which receipt number it was. I will be numbering all of my receipts as I purchase gifts with a number circled at the top for easy reference. I know...I am a little freaky. I also printed up a list that I stapled to the inside for lists. Next, I sealed a 3 by 3 envelope, cut a smidge off the top and cut a notch with my circle punch and adhered that to the calendar so that I could put coupons and such into. I get quite a few coupons from Toys R US, Bath and Body Works, Macy's, etc. that would fit perfectly into the envelope.

Now...you may be wondering,"Why doesn't she just show us the inside?" There is a great reason. Mine has many imperfections as I was ironing out the details to have my club make it. Let's just say mine has character!!!LOL! I have one left that I will make up and show you how the inside "should" look! The clip holds it all together and adds a little detail and a place to add some ribbon! Thanks for fluttering by!

Drawn From Nature

I was thrilled to play along in today's Featured Stamper challenge over at SCS. I decided to make a hanging cone using some of the great TJ Designs stamps that can be found at http://www.tweetyjill.com/ . I used "Songbirds" and "Design Elements" to create the stamped images for my cone. I also used the collage and scrapbook papers from TJ Designs as well.

I really loved the fern image paper because it worked so well with the "drawn from nature" stamp that I used. I wanted to take a picture of it hanging in my house, but it is overcast and raining, so I didn't have a lot of good light to use...so...imagine the key hanging down from the bottom rather than laying flat! LOL! I used my Martha Stewart butterfly punch to punch out the butterflies. I used more of the collage and scrapbook papers and added a Kaiser self adhesive pearl to the middle. I added a few buttons, lace and ribbon for embellishments. I had a lot of fun making this. Thanks for fluttering by!