Vintage Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of my dear friends. I hope you have a wonderful and happy holiday season. I made this card for my daughter's teacher, it is one of the gift card holders that Gina K has on her blog. I used CTMH topiary CS, American Crafts patterned paper and the image is from Crafty Secrets Images & Journal Notes. The gold on the image was outlined with LuminArts Iridescent Gold. I really like how it turned out and so quick and easy to make.

Recipe book

The cute stamps on this recipe book are made by Crafty Secrets. I just love the vintage look of everything on their site. I made the recipe books for our hospital auxiliary ladies. After the spring luncheon, there were many requests for the desserts that were provided by the Auxiliary officers and I was approached to create a recipe book for everyone. The volunteer coordinator for the hospital, Annette, typed and printed the recipes up. I cut the recipes to size and put them into a booklet. I got the idea for the recipe book on the Crafty Secrets website in the Sample Gallery (there are so many lovely items there, I wish I could buy one of everything on the site).

I used CTMH papers and the Cuttlebug Swiss Dot for the green strip of paper on the left side and Nestabilities for the scalloped green square behind the image of the little chef. I bought the green stripe ribbon at Scrapfest '08 in Minneapolis. And even though it is barely visible, I used red Stickles on the cherries that are on the apron. I just love that apron. I have 2 crocheted ones like that in a drawer somewhere here at home. I need to be digging them out. After the visit with my aunt in Minnesota, I learned that my grandmother almost always had an apron on.

Blog Candy Alert!

Head over to Twisted Chick Creations now and check out the beautiful Chocolate Snowflake card and wonderful chance to win some blog candy from Michelle! I love this card. I think I shall have to "case" this idea is some way.

Whirlwind week...

Where does the time go? This last week just flew by...and can you believe the weekend is already almost over. I want to share a card I made for an In The Jungle swap last week. I used CTMH stamps and paper and Cuttlebug's Mesh texture embossing plate for this one. I think he is just so darn cute. My inspiration for this card came from my side-line Kim's blog, Clearly Inspired.

Now, it's time to get some sleep. Spending the entire week vacuuming and doing laundry because DD brought home a case of head lice from school is exhausting. And to think, tomorrow, I get to continue with the laundry and vacuuming and more "nit-picking" at DD's head as the case would be to make sure we have this thing under control. Between the Rid Shampoo kit and shampoo with tea tree oil, vacuuming, laundry and quarantining stuffed animals to giant ziplocs for 3 weeks, I don't know what else can be done. If anyone has any tips or hints for getting rid of the little creepy crawlies I would love to hear from you!

Scrapfest '08

In a real freaky turn of events it worked out that I was in Minnesota at the same time Archiver's was hosting Scrapfest '08. My parents and I were staying with my Aunt Gwen. When I mentioned I had never been to Mall of America my mom convinced my dad we should all go. So on Saturday the 13th we all headed out in the rain to the mall. I completely forgot about Scrapfest until we were about 2 miles from the mall. We only had about 2 1/2 hours at the mall. Did I check it all out? Of course not...I went straight to the Rotunda, bought my Scrapfest pin and proceeded to check out the make and takes. I spent well over 1/2 hour in line at the K & Co. make and take. It was the only one I did but it was worth it to me though. My card from the make and take and my purchases at Archiver's is all I have to show for my trip. Not including the apples purchased from the roadside stand. While in Archiver's I purchased Joanna Campbell Slan's book Paper, Death, Scissors...it is a really good book and it's autographed for me. It had all the elements I like - mystery, humor and of course scrapbooking!

This is the make and take:

This was a cute and easy card to make, you can find instructions for it at K&Company. K&Company has a beautiful 12x12 sheet of die cut butterflies that I really am going to have to buy. I loved it!

Pink and Yellow

The swap challenge: Make a card using only pink and yellow as the colors. Here was my interpretation for the swap. The stamps used were CTMH stamps. The papers I bought at Archivers. The background pink one the images are glittered and made by Doodlebug. The pink with yellow polka dots is made by Paper Salon. I used Holographic embossing powder on the bird image and went over it with Stickles. Rhinestones added to the Flourish stamp are from CTMH.

Going for the Olympic Gold

Can you believe Michael Phelps has gotten so many gold medals in this years Olympics? Normally, I am not a sports fan. I really don't make it a habit to watch sports on TV. However, this year DH, DD and I got to attend the Olympic Swim Trials in Omaha, NE. That was one of the most awesome things I have ever done. We sat about 4 rows up from the #4 starting block. We saw Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Katie Hoff and many other great athletes. I took my camera with me, a Canon Digital Rebel XTi. I loved some of the shots I got. Here are just a couple of them. Now, off to scour the web for the latest Olympic results.

I'm Back...

Yikes! April was the last time I posted on here. Well it has been a busy summer. There was a trip to Chicago for summer vacation. I've been painting some on the inside of the house. DD now has a new turquoise color on her bedroom walls. When we bought the house last summer her bedroom was stop sign red and yield sign yellow with a tie dye border. I also painted the kitchen/dining/family room, entry way and hall way. Whew!! Now I have middle ds room left. His room is currently a girly coral color from the previous owners. He has chosen 2 shades of grey. He has Jayhawk bedding so I think I am going to order a Jayhawk wall design from Fathead.com to complete the room.

Now for some fun stuff. I have been making this card (actually 70 of them) for the local hospital auxiliary. They are having weekly coffee's and wanted invites made for it. The stamp is an image from Hanna Stamps. I am going to have to get some more of these stamps. I really like the designs. The paper is CTMH. I used watercolor crayons and Copics to color the image.

Wax Paper Resist

I belong to the Yahoo group Stop N Swap. Every month there is a card of the month swap. The March COTM swap was to use the Wax Paper Resist technique. After all of the cards are sent to their respective swap partner, Tammy, the list mom puts the photos in the Photos section and everyone votes for their favorite. I had the winning card this month. Yippee!! I had fun making the wax resist background for this one. In the past I have just crumpled my wax paper into a ball and unfolded to use it. This time, I folded it like I would have if I were making a paper snowflake and then gave it a twist in both directions before unfolding it. I really like the look that I got. Ycan also score a design into it with an embossing tool. I did a grid pattern for a different background. Experiment and let me know what other things you have done for the wax paper resist background.

The Fun Table!!

Yeah!!! I got to go to BB this last weekend and scrapbook with all my scrappin' buddies. It was so much fun to get caught up on all of the latest news. And yes, I even got a few more Disney pages scrapped. Our table was the FUN table (even the delivery guy from Pizza Hut said so). Not terribly noisy, but we shared some laughs. This picture is me with friends Penny and Heidi.

Wow...or should I say Wii

Talk about a crazy last 7 days. My dad had back surgery last Thursday. It went pretty well. He had a herniated disc and a bone spur on one of his discs. The doctor removed tissue/hollowed out the lower disc that was smashing his sciatic nerve flat. He also worked on another disc up higher in the back. My dad, the pessimist that he is, did not think he would survive. But, the last time I spoke with him, he is very glad he made the decision to have surgery. I got home from Lincoln in time to meet DH for lunch. He came home toting a Nintendo Wii. He won it in a raffle at work. The money for the raffle is going to the American Cancer Society Relay for Life. Now, DD has a favorite new toy.

Here is some more artwork you might enjoy...I made this last year.

Glitter card

Do you know what my 14 y.o. son calls glitter?
The Herpes of the craft world.

Every time I spend time in my scrappin' space and I use glitter I get it everywhere. On my project of course, but also my clothes and body. In fact, it ends up everywhere! On the kids, my husband, the cat the laundry...you name it! I still like to use it though and everyone will just have to deal with it. Here is a card I made yesterday with CTMH's Endless Love and Playful Flourishes stamp sets.

Sillhouette scrapbook layouts

So....I said I would post some pictures of the pages using the new Silhouette papers from Close To My Heart. Here goes....

What little treat do you allow yourself in order to feel better when the weather is keeping you inside?

I hate cold weather. Always have. Always will. I am just thankful I don't live in Alaska like my brother where it has been -36 degrees for the high temps. Lately in Nebraska, the temps have ranged from single digits on certain days or as high as 40 degrees yesterday. Today it is really windy and that makes for bone chilling cold. On days like these, I like to hole up in my scrapbook room with my space heater on and create. On the agenda for today is to make samples for a crop I will be at in May using the CTMH Silhouette Papers. These are the most elegant papers. I will post some pics later today of what I have gotten done.

New to Blogging

Well, here it is. I have been wanting to start a blog for months. I was stuck on the title though. Did you know that you can Google "what to name your blog" and find the most common used words in a blog title? Bear with me as I learn the ins and outs of the blogging world.

My favorite blog to visit is Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. If you have never been to Ree's site, go check it out now. It is awesome. She shares the wonders of ranch life and raising her four punks with her DH Marlboro Man.