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!

I Wish it Would Snow!

And since that is probably not gonna happen. . . I'm settling for this beeeyootiful paper with some silver snowflakes! I got this stamp on clearance last year. . . not sure why. Didn't even really like it that much but I cannot, I repeat, cannot pass up a good sale! (My husband tells me that it really isn't a good deal if you didn't really need it in the first place! :-) I'm sure he's right, but it's this silly stamping addiction thing I have! :-) ) Anyway, I thought it would be perfect with this paper. And if the snowflake paper wasn't pretty enough, I caved and bought a piece of shimmer white cardstock. Oh my goodness! It is stunning! Can you see the pretty sparkles in it? Then I Cuttlebugged some snowflakes, embossed them with silver EP and voila! What a pretty snowflake card if I do say so myself! So, enjoy my pretty! I'm off to figure out the best way to photograph a card now that the sun is on the other side of the world! Blessings. . . .

The Tale of a Unique Boutique

Hi all, I just spent the day selling my creations at a fun little craft sale called "A Unique Boutique". Cute name, isn't it?!?!? And you know what I've learned? Craft sale patrons are an unpredictable lot!!! I've done several sales this year and it's fun to watch how one item just WILL NOT SELL at one sale and turns out to be the best seller at the next! Favored items at today's sale? These cute little tins! Each is covered with designer paper, fluffed with LOTS of ribbon and then features some little stamped item on it. The favorites today were covered with a paper that had chocolate chips all over it or sported a scrumptious mug of coffee (courtesy of Stampin Up's Like it a Latte set!) I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of them before they went to the sale. . . you'll have to just trust me that they were way cute! Anyway, they are just the best for giving chocolates or gift cards! Here's a picture of some of the other fun stuff that went to the sale with me today. . . hope you enjoy!

Grateful, that's me!

Hi everyone! Can you believe Thanksgiving is over? And we're almost into December? Yikes! We had a really wonderful Thanksgiving at my house. . . the food was SO good! My sister sorta deviated from the usual sweet potato thing we do (that would be fried with salt, pepper and sugar. . .delish!) and brought this sweet potato casserole thing with a brown sugar/pecan crumble on top. OH MY WORD!!! Can you just imagine how happy I was that I had hosted Thanksgiving and all (ALL) the leftovers were staying at my house!?!?!?!?! :-) Naughty, but very good planning on my part!

Well, I've got a beauty of a card to share with you. It's one of a few thank you cards I've sent out recently. Let me tell you, God has really blessed me with some amazing people who encourage, uplift and love me! I thought I would try out some of those Tic Tac covers I saw on Splitcoaststampers and made them to match the card. . . hope you enjoy!

Blog candy. . .

Isn't blog candy fun?!?! Well, actually I don't know for sure because I've never won any, but I'm thinking it's got to be a blast to get free stuff! :-) Anyway, I know someone who's giving some away. . . Erika over at Erika Designs is having an A Muse blog candy offering. . . head over and see what's up! Oh, and while you're there, check out her different posts for some of her pictures! She's an aspiring photog and really, really good! :-) Have fun!

See, I really have been busy!

I got to thinking the other day that I must really be a slacker! I haven't updated my blog with any cutesy stuff in quite a while nor have I uploaded to SCS. Then I realized it's not me being a craft slacker, just a blogger slacker. "Hi, my name is Cheri. I'm a blogger slacker". :-) Just as a little side note here, from all the blogs I check out that have posts that start like this: "No, I'm not dead, I've just been. . . ", I KNOW I'm not gonna be alone at the Blogger Slacker Anonymous meetings! Anyhow, on to the fun stuff. . . I bought some paper at Michaels after Christmas last year. It was 90% off. So, in other words, one mat stack wasn't enough. I bought FOUR BIG, IDENTICAL MAT STACKS!!!! In all fairness, that made them about $1.00 a piece and the paper really can be used for other than Christmas stuff, so I guess it wasn't all that bad of a splurge! Well, I got some out and thought I would make some cards for my upcoming sales. Here's the first two: These are fun little kickstand cards complete with Fun Flock on the "J" stocking. Now that I'm thinking about it, they sure could use a little bling here and there. Time for some glitter! And here are the next two with the same paper:

See what I mean about the paper? It could be used for a lot of different things! These cards have dimensional glaze on the ornaments so they look glassy and a little rhinestone up by the "merry". And here is the last poor lonely card that didn't get a mate:

This card has my first try at freehand doodling around the border. What do you think? I think it's kind of fun! Okay, so there you have my first installment of proof that even though I haven't posted, I have been having fun!!!! Enjoy and have yourself a wondrous day!

The Tag Finally Found Me!

Hi all,
It's been a bit crazy around here lately. . .I've been trying to get ready for craft sales. . . had two this weekend. They went okay, but not superb. I have another one coming up in December and am going to revamp my inventory and how I display it. Hopefully that will help! The best fun part of it is that my mom is a painter and is doing these sales with me, so even if I don't make any money, I sure have fun chillin' with my mama! (Hi Mom! Am I your favorite now?!?!?!) Anyway, no card to show today, but Melissa over at Stamp It, Scrap It, Share It tagged me so I thought I would rack my brain for seven interesting things to say about myself. Okay, on to the dirt! :-)

1. I really can touch my nose with my tongue. (Don't think about that one too long, it'll freak you out!)
2. I was born in the wrong era. I want to be Anne of Avonlea and live at Green Gables.
3. I took two years of Spanish in high school and only remember the swear words. Not even sure how I learned them. I'm pretty sure Mrs. Yeager never covered that!
4. I lived in an Eskimo village on the Yukon River in Alaska.
5. My sister calls me Cherbyface. Come to think of it, I'm not sure where that came from either.
6. I don't like dogs. At all.
7. Someday I want to live on a farm and have my very own horse to ride. No dogs though.

So that covers me. . . and since I KNOW I'm the last to be tagged, I'm not sending the tag on. . . did you just heave a big sigh of relief?!?!?!? :-)
Okay, gotta run. . . time to head to swim practice!

I would chortle if I was the type to do that sort of thing. . . .

Okay, these Thanksgiving stamps from Missy B Designs are just cracking me up! The set, Fall Fun, comes with four different turkeys and five different sentiments. But the fun part comes when you take a look at some of these turkey's faces. For instance. . . check out this little guy. Just sitting there in the stew pot. Like turkeys do that every day of their lives! It made me laugh (chortle, if you will) so I just had to type up my own sentiment and add it to the card!

Hope it gets you laughing too!

And the Winner is. . .

Oh, for pete's sake! I've been watching my little counter go up day by day and thought that it would be such a fun thing to do a little blog candy when my number of visitors reached 1000! Now I know 1000 isn't all that much compared to some of these craft blogs out there, but doggone it! I'm pretty proud of that milestone! So while I've been pondering what to do for blog candy, my number creeped up and up and finally I decided to pop in and check out where I was. And guess who lucky number 1000 was. Yep. Me. And here I was trying to be SO careful NOT to be the one to win the blog candy!! I guess some things were just meant to be! Unfortunately (tee hee), under the circumstances, I just don't see any other solution. . . I'll have uphold my end of the intended offer and go get myself that blog candy prize!!!! (Okay. Seriously. Isn't that just the lamest excuse for going out and buying more craft stuff!?!?!?! Lame. . . .but I love it!) Anyhow, to all of you who have visited my blog and to those who actually subscribe--THANK YOU! YOU make MY heart happy each time you visit and each time you comment! So, shall we start planning NOW for the 1500 mark candy? :-)

Thinking, editing, getting ready to publish, the author is overcome with guilt and offers up this consolation prize. . . .

How about some eye candy? :-) It's craft show season and I'm getting some little pretties ready to go. This is my current favorite:

This little guy is a metal strip with magnets on the back so it can stick to your fridge, filing cabinets, etc. Each of the little flowers is a magnet as well so you can use it as a note holder, picture holder, whatever. ISN'T THIS SO CUTE?!?! What do you think? Would you buy it at a craft show? Especially if it cost under $5? Let me know what you think!!!!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Don't you just think FALL gives Christmas a run for it's money as the Most Wonderful Time of the Year?!?!? I LOVE FALL! The leaves are absolutely stunning here! When I moved to Oregon (wow! 18 years ago now!) I was amazed to see red leaves on the trees at fall time! Don't get me wrong. . .Montana, my home state, is gorgeous beyond reason, but I so stunned by the beauty of the trees here in Oregon! And that, of course, leads me to the truly sad part of fall: harvesting all the vegies and having our once thriving garden reduced to a mud patch. It's sad to see our garden go, but check out this photo. . . .

Our final, lone tomato and delicata squash right along with ALL THOSE WALLA WALLA ONIONS AND BASIL!!!!!! Yumm!! We even scored a couple of raspberries and strawberries before the rain started to fall! Delightful! I was so thrilled with all of this, I had to head inside and ink up my cute, cute Vegibella stamp. If you haven't gotten a Bella stamp yet, you so should! I think they are the very funnest stamps to paper piece! Check out her demin overalls. . .

Well, folks, that's all for today. . . except this. . . . .have a wondrous, blessed fall day and don't forget to stop and enjoy the colors!

Just for total and complete fun!

Okay, in the world of card making, I have to say that it is really, really easy to get caught up in doing all the challenges: sketch challenges, color challenges, technique challenges. I 've been doing some of those lately primarily to learn more, practice more and be a better card maker. Somewhere along the way, however, I've found that it is really easy to make cards for the challenges only and not just because you wanna have fun. . . yeah, girls just wanna have fun! Oooh, does that take you on a frightening flashback to the 80's?!?!?! :-) Well, this next card kind of originated as a challenge. I went into my local stamp shop, Stampin' Cat Studio, and found a fun little challenge: you had to use this black and white gift wrap paper somewhere in your card. Well, thinks me, I have just the stamp to go with that paper!!!!! And suddenly, with my little Hambo skunk stamp, this went from a challenge to making a fun card just because I LOVE PEPE LA PUE!! So, here is my "just for fun" card. . . hope it finds you having a fun day too!

You are SO gonna want some of these stamps!!!

Okay, one night I was perusing different blogs. . . dreaming of the day my little blog will ARRIVE. . . .okay, what I was really doing was neglecting my poor little blog and dreaming of all the stamps that I ABSOLUTELY NEED!!!!! And in the midst of the dreaming, I find a treasure! And I mean a FUN treasure! Have you heard of Missy B Designs? Was I the last one to find them?!!?!?!? Okay, focus! Melissa Barstow, aka Missy B, has some seriously cute, cute stamps! So, I ramped up my courage and emailed her. The conversation went something like this. . . "I like your stamps! I LOVE your stamps! Can I please, please, pulleeze, design for you?!?!?!" Much to my complete delight, she emailed me back and said "YES"!!!!!! And that, my friends, leads me to this little card. . . When I saw that Melissa had sent me this duck set, I was so happy! This little guy on the end reminds me of someone in my family. Hmmmm. . . must be my sister! :-) Anyway, check out this little fun family and then head on over to Missy B Designs and GET SOME!! Great stamps, awesome prices and wonderful fun await you!!!!

We are SO trying this again. . . .

I have to say, the card I did for Julee's Mojo Monday challenge just wasn't doing it for me. I think I've narrowed the offending aspect down to the frayed edges around the card. Just doesn't fit somehow. Anyway, before I figured that out, I decided to just give the whole Mojo challenge another try. I LIKE THIS ONE SO MUCH BETTER!!!! Is it because I'm really into Bellas? Is it the microbeads that just "speak to me"?! (I sorta doubt it because seriously, how many microbeads have EVER talked to me?!?!?!) I digress. I think it might be the sentiment. . . . love it! It's one of the way hysterical stamps that come from River City Rubberworks. Check them out--they have the funniest sentiments! So, here we go with my Mojo Monday Cruisabella card with a special shoutout to Melissa Craig for the awesome Cruisabella images she so kindly shared with me!!! Thank you SO much!

Mojo Monday

Hi all! Well, it's time for my first Mojo Monday sketch! Julee at Poetic Artistry does this challenge every Monday and she really comes up with some good sketches! She specifically designed the sketch to make use of those stamps that are a little longer. . . like these beautiful cherry blossoms. I wish you could see all the glitter and shine this card has in real life but you'll just have to use your imagination! It's got gold embossing and glitter (bling, bling, bling! :-) )

Enjoy the card and head over to Julee's blog and try out the sketch yourself! If you do, leave a comment for me with a link--I'd love to see it!