I am ready for spring!!!!

We have been SO spoiled here for the past week!!! It has been deliciously sunny, not a drop of rain, and in the 50's! Positively balmy and WONDERFUL!!!! I was starting to feel slightly soggy, so the sun was very welcome! I got my flowers beds turned over and some primroses planted. Happy, happy girl! And all this wonderful weather put me in a serious spring mood for stamping! I found this wonderful goose stamp at Craft Warehouse. It's actually a Christmas stamp (you can see the holly around their necks) but I thought it would make a perfect spring/Easter stamp. This was my first try at watercoloring with SU's Watercolor Wonder crayons. I've been stalking Anna Wright's blog, Sweet Miss Daisy, to pick up some coloring hints. Let me tell you, that girl is a wonder! Anyway, here's my first try:

I love it, but I think it needs a little tag that says "Spring" or something. What do you think? And that leads me to my second card. . . another watercoloring attempt! I definitely need some more practice but I really do like the card and my aunt will LOVE it! :-)

Thanks for stopping by. . . it makes me happy to know that someone out there is visiting! :-) Have a blessed day!

Now this was a fun challenge!!!

I think I may be just a tidge slow on the techie side because I really just discovered the world of blogging this past year. Late bloomer, that's me! :-) I was really delighted when I found the tons and tons of card-making-paper-crafting-stamping blogs out there to peruse! It does become a bit time consuming though, so I've decided it's best to narrow my daily blog hopping down to just a few that really inspire me, teach me and challenge me as a stamper. Julee, of Poetic Artistry and Verve Visual fame, has one of those must-read blogs. She really rocks each card she makes. Clean stamping, clean cutting, great designs. . . . When I saw her new challenge, the Honored Guest Sketch Challenge Contest, I thought I would give it a try. I mostly decided to play along because the sketch just didn't really appeal to me when I first glanced at it. Here's her layout:

I figured my initial reaction to the sketch would make it a really good challenge for me! I wanted to see if I could make a good/great/fabulous card from a layout that just didn't appeal. Well, here's the result.

Despite starting with a sketch I wasn't sure about, I gotta tell you that I really, really love this card. The sketch turned out to be really fun! And this color combo is just stunning! The paper is from Daisy Bucket Designs and it was the inspiration for the rest of the card. I couldn't bear to cover any of it up, so the strip that goes across the center of the card is done with vellum. I scalloped the edges and punched tiny holes in each scallop. I also stamped and embossed the white hearts across it.

The little "Adore You" is from the $1 bin at Michaels (how cool is that?!). I colored it in with Marvy markers and added a little glitter to the flower for fun. What do you think? Do you likey as much as I likey? :-) Okay, long enough post. . . good night and have a blessed evening!

If You Give a Girl a Mixer. . .

Have you ever read those books? "If You Give a Moose a Muffin", "If You Give a Pig a Pancake". . . cute, cute, cute kids books about how one things leads to another, to another, to another. Anyway, just wanted to quickly share that "If You Give a Girl a Mixer", she'll do this:

and this. . ..

and this. . .

Are you just drooling yet?!?!?! :-) Guess what? This is MY VERY FIRST TRY at making bread and cinnamon rolls! I bought a Kitchenaid mixer from amazon.com and I LOVE IT!!!!! It is the most wondrous thing! Trust me on this! I'm the girl who cannot for the life of me make cookies. Cannot. Ever. Make. Cookies. But these rolls and this bread. . . delish! This does however leave me with one nagging question: What do they put into (or leave out of) store bought bread that makes it takes like ewwww compared to homemade? Hmmmm. . . .

Happy today to you! :-)

My Best New Favorite

No card to show at the moment, but I just had to point you all to MY favorite new blog. . . Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. This lady is so funny and the photographs she takes are simply amazing! Be sure to check out this post and imagine what she really looked like while she was taking these pictures: Cows and the Positions of Classical Ballet. Have fun!

Harleys and Margins

Okay, that sounds really weird, doesn't it? Let me explain. . . last Sunday, our pastor talked about "Increasing Your Margins". Margins are the space between you and your limit. The passage of Scripture he focused on was Psalm 23. . . "He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul". . . His point was that in today's world, we are SO busy, SO over-extended, SO stressed, SO financially strapped, SO over-committed that we have no space between us and the point where we just can't function well anymore. That's not God's plan for our lives! So, as my husband and I sat listening to the pastor, I was really convicted about how much we do that is just unnecessary. How much extra running around doing errands, how much money we spend on things we just don't need, how little time we take to just chill, relax, and be refreshed. That's not what I want for me or my family!! We are really striving to increase our margins. . .and we're loving it!!!! Since our pastor's message really impacted us, I wanted to send him a thank you card. Well, he is a HUGE Harley guy, so I inked up my motorcycle stamp (it DOES look like a Harley, right?!?!?!) and tackled my first ever masculine card. No ribbon, no flowers, no pink. . . And guess what? I LOVE THIS CARD!!! Doesn't it just rock?

And check out the shiny chrome. .. .

So enjoy the card, but more importantly, enjoy the stillness, the moments that bring you joy and peace and increase your margins!!

Love is everywhere. . .

Can you believe we JUST finished Christmas and we're off and running (FAST) towards Valentine's Day?!?!?! Okay, personally, I'd be just fine slowing time down a smidge, but then I found this CUTEY PATOOTIE paper and I just HAD to made a Valentine's Day card. . . or two or three or more. . . :-) So that's what's gonna be on display today! Here's my first card that I did to participate in the Splitcoaststampers challenges for layout and supplies. I used Cloud 9 Design paper and Stampin' Up's Be Mine set. And see the shine on the hearts? It's Dimensional Glaze and gives cool texture! Isn't it just so much fun?!?!?! And on to the cupcake craze. Have you noticed how cupcakes are all the rage these days? I had to join the fun, so here's my Be Mine Valentine. .. I used glitter on the hearts, puffy paint and microbeads (gotta have sprinkles!) on the cupcake and some red glitter on the heart on the cupcake. Don't ya love it?

Finally, just in case you are getting seriously overdosed on mooshy-smooshy-lovey-dovey Valentine's Day cards, I'm gonna switch over to big time bragging on my babies. Hey, it's a momma's job, right?!?!? Well, my little men are, at 4 and 5, quite amazing bakers. The other day they wanted to make some banana bread, so we strapped on our aprons (thank you, Grandma!) and whipped up some AMAZING, DELICIOUS, and BEAUTIFUL banana bread. It lasted less than a day, but we sure enjoyed it!!!! Check this out. . . .
Is your mouth watering yet?!?!?! :-) Cya later!

It's 2008!!!!

Happy new year, everyone! You, the few, the faithful, the What Nots and Whimsies readers! Did you have a wonderful Christmas and New Years? We sure did and now we are happily back into our school/work/stamping routine! AND, since I think I semi figured out how to take a picture with the gloomy, rainy Oregon skies as the background, I thought I would show you a couple of my fun things I've done lately! The first is a little wooden box that I papered up for my sister-in-law. I'm working really hard to get her hooked on stamping, so I made this cute little box and filled it with a bunch of those Studio G $1 stamp sets from Michaels. . . isn't it so fun? I bought a couple more just because it was such a fun project to do.

Then I got to bust out my new set from Stampin' Up called Bronc Buster. I love this set! I made a thank you card for my husband's boss. Check this out. . . my husband works at Garmin (remember the TV ad for their GPS units: "getta, getta, getta Garmin") and has been putting in some long hours and overtime on a project. One day his boss gave him a note thanking him for all his hard work and included movie tickets and gift cards for dinner at Red Robin. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!?!?! Seriously, Garmin is an amazing company. . . great products AND they treat their people so well! So, on my first try with Bronc Buster, I whipped up this cool hemp cord/copper embossed/sorta masculine thank you card. Check it out. . .

Since the card is on dark brown cardstock, I put a cream colored liner inside, aged it with some distressing ink and stamped the "Thank U" stamps from the True Friend set. Love it!

Well, folks, that's it for today. . . have a wondrous afternoon. . . blessings to you!