Keep It Simple Birthday Card

I made this card for my Aunt's birthday that is on the 12th. I have stamped a flower and sentiment inside. The inks I used are the SU new "In Colors" Riding Hood Red and Pacific Point! I LOVE those new colors!

I used a set I picked up from Hobbylobby that I just love! It's a See d's set, and it stamps beautifully! Its funny, but I was on SCS early this am reading some of the Forums, and I read that someone just joined SU and wanted to know what they should do with all their non-SU items! I say KEEP THEM! But, I was amazed at how many said they got rid of all their non SU items after joining. Now, I am a SU demo, and I LOVE SU and I order-order-order, but there is noway I could even think of getting rid of my other products, in fact I still buy all kinds of other items and stamps, they all work so well together. No, you can't use the non SU items at a workshop if you want to sell the SU stuff, but its not like you are doing a workshop everyday. I guess I am just a packrat, but look at all thats out there to "drool" for......I need to win the lotto to get it all...and that new SU Holiday mini (its not mini) it is full of stuff I HAVE to have! I think about it nonstop!

From Courtney's Closet #14

Here is my card for the inspiration challenge "From Courtney's Closet". Because of the busy weekend I "kept it simple" for me this week. I actually liked how it turned out and as I have lots of upcoming birthdays I will need cards for, this should come in handy! I used the small flower from Stampin Up's Blooming With Love set and made my own designer paper using the Stampin Spots. Aren't these just the perfect size for adding more then one color? I also used one I had never used before "Anytime Greetings". I noticed that in the background of the dock "Courtney" was sitting on, there were a few boats, so I added in the little sailboat. I used my CB embossing folder "Just My Type" for the edge of the card. If you would like to play along you can find the site here . Also you can see more of the other cards on SCS under FCCC.

Monkey Business!

I bought the new SU Sock Monkey set as soon as we could. I have to admit I am not much of a "monkey lover", but I always did like the sock monkey's! I made a girlie monky and one for a boy. Both were paper peiced, the boy monkey I used some of the brown textured "core" paper and sanded it, giving it the look of a "real" sock monkey.

The sentiment "You're so sweet" on the girlie monkey card is from my new set I purchased from Gina K Designs , it was in the diabetes set.

Wild Life Reserve Bear Card

I seem to never have much in "guy" cards, so I made this bear card using the SU Wild Life Reserve set and Lovely As A Tree. I bought the set as soon as I noticed it was going to "retire". I sure am glad I did as it has great images to make a manly card! I used chalk for the background and stamped the bear first, then masked him and stamped in the trees. Think I will use this next month for my brother's birthday.

Fourth Post for Today~Pastel Christmas Tree

I used the CB embossing folder for this tree, the background tree is embossed on watercolor paper and the the front tree on SU Whisper White CS. I used my SU Pastel Chalks to add the color. The Background CS is the new SU Baja Breeze. The little stamped saying says "Tis the Season to Glitter". The card is larger then a normal card. I added ribbon and some little stick-on jewels for "bling"! I also used a silver glitter pen and the Baja breeze ink for the sentiment.

Morning Glory

I love this stamp set from SU called Morning Soft. I used the houndstooth CB embossing folder for the back ground, and Going Gray CS from SU.

SCS Limitied Supplies Challenge #LSC182

This week on Split Coast Stampers the limited Supply challenge was to use OLD items that you haven't used ever or in along time. This was an easy challenge, as I have tons of "old" never used items in my stash.

These tiles were a faux metal strip that was hooked together and I cut apart. I purchased these about 6 or 7 years ago from our quilt shop when they used to carry scrapbook supplies! The top paper is several years old, the bottom paper I purchased last year, the ribbon has been around for ages! The Rejoice stamp was a markdown maybe last year! I guess I met the challenge!

Doe and Fawn Visiting At The Creek

A couple of nights ago my hubby was "doing hay" so I took the JD Gator to see how much longer he would be in the field. When I drove back home and in the driveway, I saw these two eyeballing my flower garden! The pictures are a bit blurry, but it was almost dark! The last photo is the same little "imp" coming back again last night, but at least, it was across the creek this time!

Designer Bag & Card Set

I have to say I LOVE how this set turned out! I have made the other designer bags that I pictured a few on earlier posts, but this one is a bit different. It is made wider to hold a set of cards. I made 4 cards for mine. I saw the instructions on Andrea Walford's blog. She designed the bag to be a bit bigger then the original design so it could hold cards. What a perfect gift. I believe she calls it "Bag in a Box". I made my set all in Fall colors and tried to cordinate designs and colors. I have tied the envelopes together with a pretty gold ribbon, it all fits perfect inside the bag. A few of the products I used was the Quickutz Maple Leaf die, embossing glitter, a few Maple Leaf stamps, ribbon brads, etc.

What a perfect gift! I think I will make a couple more, maybe Halloween and Christmas.

From Courtney's Closet Challenge #13

Here is my card for the From Courtney's Closet Inspiration Challenge. You can find the challenge HERE if you would like to join in!

I am late, for me in getting my card done. I also made a big mistake on it, can you see it?? Plus, I was wanting to use my Cotton Candy Stickles on it, but all that would come out was the clear, not the color, so I shook it real good, ran a needle thru the nozzle, and still nothing, and its a NEW bottle. So I cut a tiny more off the nozzle and tried it on a scrap piece and it was fine. So, I put it on my flowers and this HUGE glob came out....grrrrr! So I had to use a different Stickles to try and "fix" it. I guess it wasn't my day for card making, ever get one of those days??

I have lots of new things to share. One is a set of Fall cards with a matching purse like bag/box to hold them. The cards are all done, but I ran out of red line tape, all 8 of my tape runners are empty, and I am out of double sided tape. So, I have to run to the store and stock up before I can continue. The only thing I will use for that bag is the red line as it holds really good! I also am working on and am almost done, on some of my new Cuttlebug folders, so check back today, I will have the card set on for sure and maybe the others tomorrow!!

Fall Flip Book Part 2

Here is part 2 of my Fall Flip book. I just realized I didn't take the back of the pages...oh well, I guess you all have probably seen enough!!

Fall Flip Book

I first saw this "Flip Book" on Andrea Walford's blog. I knew it looked like alot of work, but I just had to try it! Mine is all dedicated to Fall. I had a hard time with the Fall theme once I started, as I found out I didn't have much in the way of fall stamps or items at all! I used what I found and I think it all turned out well, plus I used up some items I have had for ages!

The pictures aren't the best as it was harder to photograph then it was to make the book. I will have to do a couple of posts just to get them all in!! I also have to say, that it is much nicer and more detailed thenthese photos show!

At least now I will have an excuse to purchase some more, much needed fall items to work with!!

JDRF Scrapbook 2nd Posting

These photos I am sharing are some of my family. The first one is of two of my granddaughters, Mariah is the first one in the front of the photo. She is sixteen and this was her first scrap booking day. She really, really got into it and ended doing at least 6 or 7 pages and leaving with a bag of scrapbook goodies!

Next to her is my granddaughter Ally, she is 14. Ally has been scrap booking for several years and has lots of her own supplies. I think both girls had lots of fun. Ally is part of what this fundraiser is all about, she has had Juvenile Diabetes since she was 18 months old, I am hoping she can see a cure in her lifetime!

The next picture is of my Daughter Lori and her friend Heather. Lori is on the right. They have been friends since as long as I can remember (sometimes longer then I want to remember...LOL), but Heather is always there for Lori! I took lots more photos I might share later...but hope you all enjoyed these!

JDRF Scrapbook Day First Posting

Our JDRF fund raiser crop was a huge success! We only had 2 no shows, that was great! It started at 9 and ended at 9 for the scrapbookers, but our day was much longer, the preparing and the cleanup, made us a pretty long day! I want to share a few photos I took with you! Some in this post and some in the next one.

We had our door prize drawing with lots of goodies. As I mentioned in my previous post, my good friend from Canada and her scrapbook store PaperBag Scrapbooking in Brandon, MB had donated a wonderful prize for our event! I have posted a very happy winner and when she picked up her prize I told her, "Now you will have to visit Canada so you can scrapbook the Canadian pages." She told me she had visited Canada already twice, so she was all set. It couldn't have gone to a better person!.

I also had the pleasure of talking to 3 very dedicated scrapbookers that actually came the night before to set up their space. Now these gals know what they are doing, I saw a few of their pages made with the Cricut and they were beautiful, they came with everything you could think of, including a small sewing machine...my kind of gals! Did I mention they are also very dedicated Cricut fans and they all wore their green "I love My Bug" shirts. I love to see people enjoy what they do and have fun! I hope to run into them again, as I don't own a Cricut (yet) and they are very knowledgeable and I am sure I will have questions for them!

The next picture is of a group of gals that brought (in their own words) everything but the kitchen sink! They arrived about 5 mintues after I did and they stayed with us the entire 12 hours. I wish I would of taken a picture as they were unloading as it was amazing and fun to see!! I just want to say "thanks ladies" for all your support!

No Time To Post Today!

Well, its early, but I am off to the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes) fundraiser at our local (Mishawaka, In) scrapbook store "Pages In Time". My daughter hosts this event every year, and last year she had me helping. If you live in the area, join us, as of yesterday we had 15 openings left out of 68! We have great prizes and I was in charge of that this year...one of them is the Big Bite!!
I also want to thank my friend Lana from Brandon, MB Canada for sending us such a great package for the prizes and also her local scrapbook store PaperBag Scrapbooking for its donation! It is an awesome prize and I want to keep it! I will post more on that later!! You can visit them at www.paperbagscrapbooking.net.
Well, off to load the car and get on the road. I hopefully will have more cards to post tomorrow!!

I will leave you "with more visitors at the creek"!

Just To Say Hello

A fun card I made this morning. This card started out be way different then what I ended up with! I actually did some stitching with my machine on this one. Took longer then I anticipated as I had "hidden" my sewing machine "foot" away from the cats (they like to chew cords), I could of sewn without it, but its harder to control the speed. Well, let me tell you, I hid it so good, I couldn't even begin to remember where I put it! Anyhow this was made with just a few things I had "laying" around!

Freighter passing thru at Detour Village, Michigan

My hubby and I spent almost an entire week, finally, at our North home, we took a few day trips and one was across the Mackinac Bridge on I75 to Hessel, Cedarville, and Detour Village in the UP. You can "catch" the ferry at Detour Village to Drummond Island if you want, and why we didn't do that is beyond me! We did have a very nice day. But, anyhow, the first photo is of a freighter that was "passing thru" Detour Village and Drummond Island.

The other freighter is again, one in front our home on Lake Huron and the other pictures are about as much of a sunset as we get! I posted these for his benefit as the "guys" where he works like to see the "freighters", must be a "guy" thing!!!

We also took another day trip south of us to Alpena, Michigan and I found a cute little scrapbook store, where I purchased 6 of the new CB embossing folders, now thats a "girl thing"!!!

From Courtney's Closet #12

Here is the card I made for last weeks inspiration challenge From Courtney's Closet, I have included a picture of Courtney that we used for the challenge. If you want to join, you can find the challenge here so go and check it out and have some fun with us. Isn't Courtney the cutest!!!!! You can see all the other Inspiration cards made for the challenges on SCS under FCCC.

Stampin'Up! Fall & Winter 2008 Catty

Please note that I have a link at the left of my blog that you can browse thru the new fall-winter catalog. It will take slightly longer to load, as its 208 pages and is pdf format. The new winter mini will be available to order from on Oct 1st, it is FULL of awesome new stamps, paper and lots of surprises! It has an awesome 32 pages.....wait til you see it!!!

Stampin'Up! Vinyl Rub On

Stampin'Up! sent all the demo's a free flower sample of the new Decor Elements rub ons that are now available to purchase. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with mine, but I was at TJ Max's and saw this flower pot and thought hmm, perfect for the rub on and perfect for the "log" home. What do you think???

Mechanical Skeleton Card & Witch Card

I had fun putting this "mechanical girlie" together. I purchased the new Haunted Die Cuts from Cosmo Cricket and matching paper called Haunted: Them Bones! The die cuts are really stickers that I mounted onto black CS, then cut apart and added brads to make her "mechanical"! I also used my new MS pumpkin edge punch and because the card was quite large, I made a matching envelope. I used the CB Haunted embossing folder for the background (I found this while on vacation!) and used a black glitter pen for the bats!

Second card is one I had started last year using the SU chalks (which I love!), and also a retired SU wheel. I punched out a moon and added a witch punch from the new MS Halloween line. Check back "later" for more cards and posts!

FALL!

This was Fall card I made last year. The stamp is a retired SU, not sure which set it is from as I purchased it off Ebay as a single stamp. I embossed a few fall leaves and the "stitched" word "FALL" is a Rub-On! You must know I am desparate to show these older cards, but I knew I would be off my blog for awhile and wanted to "keep it going". More NEW cards to come!

Paper Pieced Cat

I made this Halloween card last year (before my blog), so thought I would share it. The only thing I added was the scalloped trim at the bottom of the dress using the new SU scallop punch. I added little pumpkin brads to the dress at the bottom. The cats head is stamped with a 2003 SU retired stamp, I used a puffy embossing powder on her head. The rest is all free hand cut by me......check back tomorrow for another card!

BOO!

This was the second card I made yesterday morning. The background paper is actually the other side of the paper I used on the previous post. The Spider web is a Rub-On I just purchased this week. The spider is a rubber stamp from last year's MS Halloween line. I added some black diamond Stickles to his body. I used the SU photo corner punch, and kind of like how it added to the web! The "BOO" was also from last year's MS, I stamped it, then cut it apart to run it down the long side of the card. Check back tomorrow for another card!

Tricks or Treats

I got up early, as usual, but since I am done babysitting I was kind of not knowing what to do first, so I said to heck with the gardens, to heck with housework, and "come on" cards! I had fun putting this Halloween card together. I used some new paper I just purchased from Making Memories, the new Martha Stewart pumpkin border punch (it cuts and embosses), the fence stamp is from MS's last years line of Halloween. I think it came together pretty well!

Check back the next few days, as I have scheduled a few more Halloween cards!

Visitor At The Creek

We have this nice visitor everyday at the creek a beautiful Blue Heron. We call him Big Bird. He drives our poor Goldendoodle nuts. She goes from window to window trying to get him, he for the most part ignores her! It must be good eating in the creek as he comes around to "fish" a couple of times a day!

Sad Day At The "B" House!

I have been babysitting four of my grandchildren since last Sept. Today was my last day as their Mom (my daughter) is leaving her job and going to try and stay home with them. So, today when I arrived my grandchildren 2, 5, 7, and almost 14 had these flowers, bagels and cream cheese and a card that my 7 yearold grandson made for me. The front of the card said Sad Last Day, inside he had hand written We enjoyed having you as our babysitter. We'll really miss you! We're really sorry that today is your last day. Love~it was signed by all of them.

Now I have to say it brought tears to my eyes. I have enjoyed watching them grow and the changes that I otherwise would have missed this last year. They are all characters and kept me "entertained" to say the least. The best thing for them, is they will have Mom~good for her and good for them, and my much neglected house will maybe shine again!

Even though I am ready to be home again~I will miss you guys!! Love Gma

More Designer Bags As Promised!!

Here are a couple more of my Designer Bags I did. I still have more of them to post later...I just have to "show" them off, as they are so darn fun!! The instructions for them can be found here ,so why not try some of your own. Let me warn you, they are addicting and they are fast. We are going to make them at a workshop in Sept using all Stampin'Up! products with all the NEW Designer Papers!

I just bought these two papers at our local paper store. The bat one is using a Mike's ribbon, MS Eeeeeeeeek stamp and the bat is cut out from a new clear stamp I just bought yesterday from Making Memories. I am not sure if you can tell, but at the bottom I have a row of clear R.I.P. stickers I have had for about 10 years, I liked it, as they were semi-transparent and you can see the bats "peeking" out from behind the tombstones!

The sprinkling can one just reminds me of summer days, the ink I used is SU's new Tangerine Tango, that is sure going to come in handy for Halloween! The Sprinkling can paper is from Paper Salon, its a Karen Neuburger called ~sorbet: Sprinkles. More bags to come soon!