What a Month

Well I have taken loads of pictures and just have not uploaded them yet =(. It has been quite a month for me, health wise. I have been able to spend some time with my family and my cute little nieces and nephews, who one day will be able to wear mascara and I will see how long Conner's eyelashes really are =). Later today I'll get their Halloween pictures on here. Savannah was the cutest Frog and Madeline freaked me out by being Dracula's bride. I don't think she has ever been a scary creature before. Conner was the most bulk Ironman I have ever seen and Ian was so much Spongebob it was amazing. Trust me you'll love the pics.

Swaps Weekend

Well another club is coming up at the end of this month and as fast as this month has gone, I thought that I would get my swaps finished being I'm so OCD and love layers. Here is what I can up with the help of this design from splitcoast, I tried making the panel for it and it came out way to big. In a way though, I like mine better (no offense) =). The card base is River Rock with Very Vanilla and Ginger Blossom as the layers above it. I used the Big Shot's Top Note for the main piece and inks were, Ruby Red, River Rock and Chocolate Chip. I also added some nice Chocolate Chip ribbon to it and the brads to finish off. The stamp sets were Flight of the Butterfly, Heard from the Heart and Inspired by Nature.

I hope the gals at club like this one!!!

Family Fun

One more post today should do it =). I would like to have everyone see my cutest family. Here is Chris/Jill and baby Izzy: they're my favs!!

Here is my sister in law Jennifer with her youngest Savannah. They know that they are my favs as well (right) =)

The next one is my brother Kenny who is married to Jen and they have four children. Madeline is the oldest, who just became a pre-teen on the 4th. Ian is 9 and will one day be an artist, he has the most creative mind. Connor is 4 and just loves his baby sister Savannah. She'll be the boss of him =)

Here is my lovely niece Madeline and her brother Ian, it looks like they were having a great day doesn't it?

Here is Grandpa with Izzy:

Nothing would be complete without Grandma and Savannah:

Cutest Nieces in the World

Well as I mentioned earlier I have the cutest life sometimes and by that I mean I have the cutest nieces and nephews. I bought me a camera for my birthday (need to treat yourself right). So I thought I would start showing off how lovely they all are. Hope my sis in laws don't mind. Now disregard the one standing in the middle =), but look how cute little Izzy is (left) and little Savannah (right) is. Izzy is now 6 months old-yesterday, and her mom Jill and dad Chris could not more thrilled on how much of a genius she already is =). Little Savannah is 18 months and just loves to talk and run with Grandma and Grandpa's baby stroller they have at the house. I have a feeling she'll be getting one for Christmas!!

Acetate Fun

Well first off, it has been like a week since I lasted posted anything and I thought to myself; why not post other things on here then just cards. I mean why not let others see the cutest that is my life (at times). Here is the cutest cat Jasper (kinda evil) =). Yet he does know how to sleep very well. Wish I had his life at times!!

Of course he needs to have his blanket and bed or he is not a happy camper =)

Well back to the task at hand. I experimented during conference today on acetate cards (transparency film) being I wanted something different for my holiday cards this year. Figured I would keep it simple right: WRONG =). Here is what I have come up with so far:

I used Old Olive for the scalloped edge and Real Red/Old Olive ink to match. I heat embossed the tree with craft Old Olive. The base is the normal cardbase 4.25x5.5, scored at 5.5. I used a piece of Whisper White card stock for the backing measured 4.25x5.5. I adhered it to the back front using glue dots. Embellish as needed. A little simple for my tatse but it will have to do. Here are some other angles of this card:

On this other card, I like the strip of Real Red around the front, but the Brads are not perfect and people knowing m, that is an issue =). I heat embossed the snowflakes using the Snowburst set from last years SU mini. The tree gets covered up a little when it is closed but when it is opened, I guess that is the look it is suppose to have. Old Olive ink was used as well.

Here is what is looks like closed. I do like the images on the inside, I just need to get used to working with a see through card base =)

Thinking of You

Well here it is Sunday and after hearing some sad news I thought that I would put together a nice Thinking of You card for both families. I just love this Afternoon Tea paper and can never get enough of the Garden Whimsy. This is also SC193 which I tweaked of course. Recipe is quite simple: Chocolate Chip for the card base, with Afternoon Tea DP for the layer above. Groovy Guava for the strip. Chocolate Chip, Groovy Guava and Whisper White finish the card. The ink is the same. I hope that this cards cheers both of them up.

File Folder Experiment

My cutest friend Elisabeth showed me this template on how to make an album out of a file folder and some DP. Or it could be used for one ginormous card =). Being it is my brother and sister in laws 4th anniversary, I thought I would put together just a little something that they could put on their entry table in their house. This is my first one of these and I think it turned out OK:

It is a little simple for my taste but rather cute when you think what can be made from file folders now...right =) I used the Summer Picnic paper and the Enjoy Every Moment set. Of course had to embellish quite a bit and I am loving hardware right about now!

You can find the template and the details for this lovely project here. What fun these would be to have on your desk at work to display. I'm thinking I need all my nieces and nephews now on my desk at work!!!

Who could also be cuter on here then my bro and sis in law, just had to get Cody in his Ping hat and Aubry when she graduated with her LPN. They are my fav's =) Not sure I like the white background but it'll grow on me I'm sure.

Madeline's Birthday

My cutest niece Madeline will be celebrating her BIG 12 birthday on October 4th and this idea just came to me for her card. She looks the cutest in Pink so what could be better then a Pink butterfly. She also wants one of those FurReal Friends from her Aunt (me) and of course she'll get one, I am a sucker for spoiling my nieces and nephews =). The layout for this card was based on a SC but for the life of me cannot remember which one. I changed it up by adding layer upon layer as I am all for...layers!! Recipe: I used the Flight of the Butterfly set and Pink Pirouette/Banbury DP/Bashful Blue (who would have thought there would be that color on the Banbury DP, oh but there is)/Certainly Celery and Whisper White for the paper. Used the scallop edge punch (again my fav), for the scallops on the bottom layer and added dimensions for the top layer. Kinda fell in love with this one, only after it was made =) This next card was CASE'd (well not completely) from my rockin demonstrator Cindy. She is fantastic with her ideas and so loves showing off her talent and I don't blame her, do you =). The recipe for this one is: Pacific Point for the base of the card layered with Kiwi Kiss. Flight of the Butterfly would be the set. You add the Bella Rose DP and then cut out (using the scallop punch) the scallop. You can wrap the ribbon around before adding the Kiwi to the base of the card. I used Versamark for the butterfly on the card and Pacific Point for the cute little butterfly in the scallop.

This last one was another one that I kinda stole from Cindy, but who could blame me, it is the flippin cutest:

Here I used the Tasty Sweet set that is new this catty and what fun this set has been. Along with the Ghostly Greetings for the DP and SU ribbon. Stazon Black worked better on this one because it so doesn't smear. Scalloped the edge and used Crystal Effects on the candy corn to give it the heat embossed look. I would assemble before applying the effects. Don' learn the hard way =). How cute could this card be I ask you!!!

Playing Catchup

Since I am playing catchup on some of the cards that I have done I thought I would show off this one cause I think it is lovely as simple as it may look. I love heat embossing and this Enjoy Every Moment set has the biggest stamp and looks great when it is embossed. The recipe for this card is quite simple really: Close to Cocoa for the card base with Whisper White as the layer above. I used non-SU (oh no) DP for the two layers on the Whisper White. They measured 2.5 X 3.75. For the stamped box I used Whisper White of course/Pretty in Pink and Close to Cocoa. The ink was Close to Cocoa (craft). The flowers were the cutest when I saw them and said to myself...I need to experiment with more embellishments so here they are!!

My brother and sister in laws 4th Anniversary is coming up here on October 1st and they are celebrating by going on a Carribean Cruise this year. I got the new Heard from the Heart set from SU and just fell in love with it and needed to make a card with it and what better celebration then an Anniversary. Thanks to Mira for the layout, I think it was her demo swap and she is nicest and said I could CASE it. I changed it around a bit so I could utilize the new Autumn Vine paper from the mini (available Oct 1). This paper could be up there on my short list =)

Recipe: I used More Mustard for the card base and layered with Really Rust. The DP is SU's Autumn Vine paper with the wording stamped on a piece of Whisper White. I used non-SU hardware, I love playing with it. Still getting used to it =). Stamp set is Heard from the Heart and non-SU ribbon. There will come the day when I can afford the SU ribbon. I do love the matchy matchy that it brings to the card!! Thanks for being patient on this new adventure hopfully it will get better =) So I just could not resist putting this card on even though it has my fingers in it =). I made this card back in Feburary for my friends birthday here at work. I just love her and I love these colors. The recipe for this one is: Purely Pomegrante for the card base with layers of Whisper White and Chocolate Chip. I used Rose Red DP on top of the CC paper. The box is Purely Pomegrante, Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip. I love this hostess set: In the Spotlight. I added some bling of course. The wording is Warm Words. Well tonight is club and I can't wait to give out my swaps. Of course I will have to post the lovely items I make because Mira is a fabulous demonstrator =)

Weekend Fun

Well the blogging has begun. Being it was my birthday a few weekends ago I received a bunch of lovely gifts from my parents and friends. Also with swaps coming up this month I thought I would put them to good use and make my swaps with the gifts and my Thank You cards. Here is what I came up with for the cards over this past weekend: The card base is Riding Hood Red (standard size) with Pink Pirouette and Whisper White. I used the Flight of the Butterfly set and ink to match, with Chocolate Chip for the wording. Embellish as needed. I found this one quite fun to put together being it was so simple (KISS)!!

I also was able to get together with my friend Elisabeth and play with some stamps and techniques this weekend, which I found quite fun as well. With my Aunt feeling a little down I thought it would be nice to get her card together and mail it to her. I think that everyone enjoys getting things in the mail when they are fun =). Here was a lovely card that Elisabeth showed me and of course I had to CASE it to some degree:

The recipe for this card is: Bashful Blue for the card base (standard size) with the layers being Chocolate Chip and Whisper White. The set is: Pocket Silhouettes and for the life of me I cannot remember the what set the wording belongs to. I used the same ink and Close to Cocoa ribbon and just embellished a little bit. I do love to deviate =)

For my dads birthday this year I thought I would experiment in the Brayered Effect. My dads birthday is on Halloween so what fun it always is in making his card. Elisabeth showed me how much fun this technique is and I just had to give it a shot for my dad of course:

The recipe for this card was quite simple really. I used the Spectrum ink pad that is now retired (how sad) and a brayer. I used Basic Black for the card base and Old Olive for the layer under the stamped. I brayed on Whisper White and also used the Frightful Fence jumbo wheel. Also on the card is Eat Cake. As you can see very hard (not). Once the brayered technique is mastered anything is possible =)

On the last project this weekend, I sampled my Thanksgiving cards using the Brayered Effect. This one was more complicated being I needed to use like multiple ink pads. I'm amazed it did not turn out to look like a blob. The recipe for this was: So Saffron for the card base. Chocolate Chip for the layer under the Whisper White. I brayed on Whisper White with So Saffron to begin. I then cut a post it note using the 1 3/8" circle punch and placed that on the Saffron ink layer. I brayered over that with Pumpkin Pie. I used a sponge to add Rose Red (or Ruby Red) around the edges. Also Close to Cocoa on top of that with a sponge. The stamp sets are: Inspired by Nature (which I'm gonna love) and Thoroughly Thankful. This is beautiful I think and elegant in its own way!!!

Getting Started

Well I am off and running on the blogging bandwagon =). Hopefully this will give me something to do in the evenings other then stampin'. But what could be better =)