Special Visitors

Looks like girl's day here at our house. This is Sarah (in the Michigan hoodie) and her cousin from Milwaukee.

Next is my fraternal twin on the left, and me.

Then it's all of us, mothers and daughters together. It was such a beautiful day here in Ohio. Our backyard has woods behind it so we spent the afternoon catching up, watching kids swim and watching deer and hummingbirds.

Ann and her family will be going back to Wisconsin tomorrow morning. It's been a short visit, but a nice visit. I am praying for safe travel.

Both Ben and Sarah got home from West Virginia yesterday and were very tired. Ben immediately went to sleep at 4 and didn't wake until 8 a.m. this morning. Sarah stopped to eat then went to sleep and didn't wake until 9 when I woke her for church. They were exhausted from the work, late nights and fun they had on the retreat.

They made 15 benches and 20 flower boxes for the main street in this town in WV. The people love to talk there and only had one bench and asked if the church group could make more benches. The kids loved watching the faces of the people as the benches were delivered and used. The people loved sitting and talking on main street.....We can make a difference in our world by what we do. Sometimes actions do speak louder than words.........

Bless you for stopping by.

Inspiring Lilacs

One of the many challenges I like to do on SCS is the inspiration challenge. In this challenge you look at a picture of something and design a card which is inspired by what you are looking at.

This is my card for Inspiration challenge 188. This is the dress which inspired this card.


I used one of my fav retired sets, blossoms abound with amethyst and lilac inks. I used celery and olive for the leaves. Once stamped I put it through the cuttlebug then the crimper, then the cuttlebug again. I added the orange strip to the bottom like the bottom layer in the dress. I cut off some of the flower paper and added it to the inside of the card so it looks layered. I added celery ribbon and the Thinking of you with a dimensional.

This has been a busy busy day. My husband and I cleaned and got ready for my sister and her husband and daughter to visit for lunch. I don't get to see my sister, who is also my fraternal twin too often since she lives in Milwaukee. So I'm off to visit with her and her family.
Ben and Sarah will be picked up later this afternoon after their short-term missions trip to West Virginia. I can't wait to see them!
Hope you're enjoying your weekend and thanks for stopping by!
Blessings to you and yours.

One Sheet Wonders

I got a few One Sheet Wonders put together for Card Ministry ladies to put together. This is the set that my DD Sarah put together for me as a sample to show the ladies at Card Ministry. The templates were originally created by LeeAnn Greff a few years ago but I can't find them on her website. But at least you know who came up with the templates I used to make all of these cards.

This is the first set of One Sheet Wonders we made as encouragement cards for Card Ministry. I used the set Friends 24-7.

This is the set of baby boy cards we made using I'm Here, a retired SU set that I'll never get rid of. I just love the hands and feet in that set.

I love how the cards are all different yet could be boxed as a set or broken up and given as several gifts.

I needed a quick design for a female sympathy card and this card came to be. We used the Fifth Ave. Floral folder then added ribbon and the scallop oval punch. I like the elegance and simplicity of it. Hope, can you believe this? A simple card from me! LOL

Here's another card that came due to God's goodness. I needed some cards to make which were a last minute request for the Card Ministry to make. I used the frame left over from the top note die cut project we did last month for card ministry. I used it as a frame for this card. I love how it came together. I know it wasn't my design at all. God inspired it and created it in less than 5 minutes. That's how I know whose design it was!

This card was a fun one to make for Card Ministry. It will be going to Shut-ins in our church in August. I like to sometimes use bright colors to cheer them up. This should do the trick don't you think?

This is another last minute God inspired card. I had scallop ovals left from another project so I used them as a frame for this cute bunny. I like how it all came together. It almost looks like an ornament.


Thank you for visiting today to see what I've been up to. May God richly bless you today and always. Bless you for checking up on me.

Pouches, Boxes and Ice Cream

This is a cute pouch that I got fromhttp://elissacreates.blogspot.com/20...i-made-up.htmlI am working on a video in case there are others out there who have difficulty with paper folding. Thanks Elissa for your tutorial!When this is finished you can fit two cards and envelopes in the front envelope and the same in the back envelope. This looks the same in the back and front, except the front has the ribbon. I used Bella Bleu double sided paper from Stampin' Up to make this.

This is a paper holder I made from an 8"x8" piece of Bella Bleu design paper. I love the colors in this pack of papers. When cutting the square to glue the box together, instead of cutting straight down the folded line, I cut diagonally then folded one corner in to hold the box together and one folded to the outside of the box so it would show the opposite side of the paper. I added a two inch strip of paper at the top and added the wide oval punch, the scallop oval punch and the large oval punch with Bella Bleu papers and not quite navy. I added whisper white on the inside to make it sturdier under the strip that went on top, and the side that the strip covers. This will hold 4x4 loose paper to be used by the phone or on a desk.

Look at this gorgeous card from Hope! She stamped little suns for a background then colored the rose after embossing with black ep. This was to wish me a great summr since I'm a teacher and am on vacation now. Hope give me a hard time when it's time to go on vacation ten come back to school in august. Everyone should have such a freind!

Wow what a challenge this was for me to use 4 colors! Thanks for that kind of challenge Faith.I love how this came out. I used turquoise and apricot for the background. I colored the stem with cocoa marker and a blender pen for the blue. I added turquoise adhesive ribbon and one of my favorite gingham ribbons.

This is my card for the IC187 challenge using posters. My card design came from this poster http://www.posters.com/pv-497780_Ice-Cream.html I got the idea for the ice cream cones from Theresa Momber which I altered a bit-http://craftingtheweb.blogspot.com/2...-tutorial.htmlI used the cuttlebug for the SU background then sponged pretty in pink and cocoa on the white paper. Next I scored cocoa paper then used choc chip and sponged it on the cone. I punched out the ice cream then used a 1 3/4" circle punch to round off the top. The bit that was taken off the scallop circle, I used for making the dripping ice cream. I stamped and cut out enjoy and added a small choc chip brown circle punched piece of paper to the j in enjoy. I used the word window punch for the words, the little things. This is for my upline.

I love the way this ice cream card came together. Love the dripping ice cream too.

Makes me want to go and get some to eat ya know? You too? Well, let's go see what we cand find shall we?

Bless you for stopping by.

What's Little, Fast, Pretty and Breathtaking? A Hummingbird

One of my favorite things about summer is that the hummingbirds come to our garden and to our feeder. This year my husband got a hanger for our feeder so it's very close to where we sit on our screened in porch. I got a few pictures of this little guy just after I set up my tripod on the table outside on the porch.

Isn't he beautiful? I usually can't continue conversations I have going on when I see one of these. It doesn't matter how many I see, I usually have to stop talking in a conversation and comment on the beauty or something else about these birds!

I have been playing more since I've been on summer vacation and am enjoying learning more new things.

This is a new set to me and I especially wanted to play with the decorative stamp that I used for the background. This is ridinghood red, bordering blue, kiwi and navy cardstock and inks. I also used cocoa and celery markers for the bird.The words were stamped then sponged with navy ink.

I had fun with this challenge yesterday. I got two cards from the same piece of paper. Here's the first one. I used berry bliss paper with morning soft flowers in pink. close to cocoa sponged around the edges. I added dimensionals to everything to pop it up. The saying is a sticker I had. I added two green eyelets to finish this off.

This is something I came up with to hold 4x4" loose paper for my desk. I love this paper, raspberry tart.

This is my card for the IC187 challenge using posters. My card design came from this poster http://www.posters.com/pv-512651_Ice...-Parlor-I.htmlI got the idea for the ice cream cones from Theresa Momber which I altered a bit-http://craftingtheweb.blogspot.com/2008/07/scallop-punch-ice-cream-cone-tutorial.htmlI used the cuttlebug for the background then sponged pretty in pink and cocoa on the white paper. Next I scored cocoa paper then used choc chip and sponged it on the cone. I punched out the ice cream then used a 1 3/4" circle punch to round off the top. The bit that was taken off the scallop circle, I used for making the dripping ice cream. I added choc chips to my cone since that's one of my very favorite ice creams.

Well, that's it for today. Stop and see some of God's beautiful creations. Tell Him how much you appreciate all He's given you and me.

My Bag is updated

This is the bag my upline gave me that has 5 clear pockets typically pictures would go in here. We use it to show the new stampin' Up sets and what you can make with them.



This is a set called Branch Out which is on the dormant list for some reason............I stamped in suede for the tree and tire. I also used the stamp-a-ma-jig to put the flowers and birds in the tree. I used ballet blue directly on the paper around the edges. I stamped embrace life on paper and punched it out with the word window punch.



This is the petal card cut out with the Bigshot. My upline gave me some samples to play with. Here's what I came up with. I closed the box and used the stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp the curry and mambo images in the center of each flap. I used dtp with mambo ink around the edges. I use the wide oval punch and the scallop oval punches.

This card I stamped the butterfly first in versamark then curry and embossed with clear embossing powder. While it was still hot I put more ep on it to layer several on it. I wanted to protect the yellow color for when I used the blue ink. I stamped in versamark the swirls from simple friendship then used ep. I swiped bashful blue over the whole front of the shiny cardstock. I wiped the extra ink off the embossed areas. I stamped friend and punched it out using my scallop circle punch. I purposely made the area around the butterfly white...

I stamped using razzleberry on shiny cardstock. Next I sponged curry ink on top then suede around the edges. I used the oval scallop punch and raspberry lemonade paper on dimensionals.

This is a card made with glossy cardstock for the base. I stamped with versamark, then embossed with clear ep. Next I used Bermuda Bay swiped over the background. I cut a top note in half and used large and small circles for the owl's eyes. I also found if I cut the friend circle so the friend side had more white, I could color it and it would look like a watermelon. Cute huh? I edged the owl with soft suede marker. Just love the fact that we have in-color markers. I mounted the owl on raspberry lemonade paper.

I hope you all had a happy 4th of July. We didn't have fireworks here in our area. It is a sign of the times I guess........they couldn't afford it. Businesses usually donate to it and the city adds money to it but not this year.

Take time to pray and talk to God today. There is so much beauty all around us, thank Him for what He's done for you and me.

Blessings,

Thank you and challenges

These are the cards I sent to my customers so they could see the new, In Colors. Before them they can see the ink which was used on the large flower, words and the center of the scallop circle.

I used the marker for the small flower and the name of the color on the side of the card. The paper is shown with the scallop circle. The last thing I added was some ribbon under the flowers. I think it is so much better to see the colors in person like this. I have to tell you that the first customer I gave it to wanted 4/6 colors right away!

Michelle makes it so EASY to create works of art with her wonderful tutorials. Check the one out for this card. http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/I changed my a bit but love what Michelle taught me. I added a sentiment and ribbon in suede. I also added gel pen to the dots on the ribbon, the flower and the bee. I wanted to see more of the pretty coral color so I stamped a second flower in coral and added some coral marker to it and cut it out and popped it up on dimensionals. Michelle you are an amazing artist! Thank you for your wonderful tutorials.
I used the colors in the raspberry lemonade paper to stamp with then add the scallop oval and the wide oval punch. I also loved the eyelet border punch with this card too.

This was a fun challenge. I immediately thought of the daisies sizzix die that I hadn't used. I also have a challenge to use my old paper a few times then some new paper. That way my old paper will disappear instead of sitting in my paper crate. I cut out 6 flowers using berry bliss designer paper. I altered the colors and mounted it on a top note cut in half also using berry bliss paper. I used a build a brad for the center of the card and printed out a mini pink daisy then typed the message.

I am enjoying being on vacation for the summer and am getting lots of stamping done. Thanks for visiting.

Bless you.