Merry Christmas

Eyelet trim and punches with some pretty green ribbon inspired this card for my sister.  The green background was stamped with VersaMark and embossed.  A brad adds just the right amount of bling.

I've been working feverishly on some very special Christmas gifts.  This elf is for Cam, my six year old grandson.  I hope he likes him.  I found a wonderful little poem who inspired this little fellow.

Three New Birthday Cards

This is the card I made for Cammie's birthday.  He just turned 6!  I love the "Bring On The Cake" stamp from Stampin' Up!

This is the card I made for my son, John.  He just turned 40!  He recently bought a sail boat.  John has always loved the water.  So do I.  Can't wait to go sailing with him.  I think I'll wait for warmer weather.  The stamps are all from Stampin' Up!

My BFF Rita had a birthday yesterday.  Better not say how old she is (although she IS younger than I am!)  I also baked her a chocolate cake.  She just loves chocolate.  And she is an amazing seamstress, so I chose the paper and Pattern Pieces from Stampin' Up! for her card.  We had cake and tea after lunch today.  What a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Today Is a Special Day

Forty years ago today, I gave birth to this adorable little bundle we call Baby John.  John Richard to be exact.  He was the second of my two very special little boys.  He has brought me much happiness and is an all around great guy.  Talented and smart, he is a son any mother would be proud of.  We share a special kind of bond.  We love some of the same movies (nobody will watch The Young Frankenstein with us because we know the entire dialog and are not shy about giving away the punch line!)  We both share a deep and abiding love of all kinds of music (except C&W - it' so co-dependent!).  He enables me to remain a child in an old lady's body by giving me gifts like Elmo dolls and silly tee-shirts.  He makes me smile.  He makes me happy.  He makes me very glad that I am his mother.  He's mine.  No one else's.  Just mine.  My baby boy.  My very big baby boy!  I gladly share him with his adorable and adoring wife, Andra.  But he's still my baby and only my baby.  Get over it.  Happy Birthday, sweet Baby John.  Yo momma loves ya!

A Week's Worth

Several more cards I made this past week for the "Hope You Can Cling To" breast cancer awareness challenge on Split Coast Stampers.  www.splitcoaststampers.com

A Couple More

A couple more cards I've made in the past week.

Pretty in Pink

I have been far too stressed out this past week.  I'm blaming the full moon! 

The carriage house project is progressing way too slowly for my taste.  But then patience is not my strong suit.  Costs keep rising.  We need a tourniquet on our bank account!

Went to choir rehearsal Wednesday in pain from this blasted shoulder problem.  My soprano sax was on the fritz!  Dropped a leak light into it yesterday and found the problem.  Bent the key back into place that was leaking.  I have to play with the choir in church today so I had to fix it or move to plan B.

I've been keeping up with the Hope You Can Cling To challenge on Split Coast Stampers.  That has been my creative outlet for a couple of weeks.  I really need to do some sewing.  However, it seems all I want to do is play with paper and ink!

Next Sunday I am supposed to portray another dead person in the Gasconade County Historical Society's cemetary walk.  I must get my act together for that.  Since I have lost so much weight, my period costumes don't fit anymore.  I really need to do some sewing!

Lots of Layers!

This card has all the elements of a very Victorian lady's jewel box.  Lace, pearls, a silk ribbon rose and an angel to remind us of God's presence.  The embossed background shows off the lace and pearls with a tiny cameo tucked into the corner.  The rose can be removed and worn as a pin on the lapel of a favorite blazer.  Just untie the ribbon!

More Fun

Finally got a chance to make some cards today.  This challenge was to use the colors Green and Yellow which represent Hope and brown which represents comfort.  I used my favorite Stampin' Up! yellow, So Saffron (the ribbon) and the wonderful Old Olive cardstock for the background.  The inspiration was a look outside the window where I can see the changing colors of the maple trees.

Not Happy

This was taken Wednesday afternoon

No card this morning.  Just a lot of angst about the skyrocketing costs of the infamous "Carriage House."  So far, it already costs more than the first house my first husband and I bought!  We may have to move into the "Carriage House" and rent out the house.  There's no plumbing in the carriage house, so that may be problematic.  To add plumbing would have added another several grand!  I'm thinking outhouse at this point.  Are they still legal?   I do have a really pretty antique chamber pot (with lid).  That could work for the middle of the night.  Perhaps Richard could build one of those chairs with the chamber pot secreted under a hole with a discreet lid.  He could probably use the scrap from this very expensive building project.  We did have a hose bib installed right outside the "Carriage House" so we could run a hose into the building for tooth brushing and hand washing.  Tossing the water out the window would be good for the bushes we may or may not be able to afford for landscaping the "Carriage House."  At this point we will probably have to use volunteers from the many plants we have growing already.  I'm getting really, really cranky!

October 6th Birthday

I made this card for someone who was born on October 6th a looooong time ago!

Windows

This is my interpretation of a 'window' card.  Works for me!

Circles

 

I just realized that almost every card I've made for this challenge series is pink and green.  Well, I like pink and green.  A lot!  However, I think my next one will be a completely different color scheme.

Quandry

I can't figure out why my stark white background keeps coming up gray in my photos.  This is a new aborition.  My older photos didn't have this problem.  What has changed?  I keep changing the setting on my camera but it keeps happening.  Would someone in the Universe please help me solve this problem? 

As an interior design, I know lighting changes color.  I've tried it under 'color corrected' light and halogen.  Still getting this nasty gray background.  I really hate gray!  Redheads don't do gray!!!



This challenge was to use only paper.  No ribbon, brads, bling, or any embellishments other than paper.  Turned out pretty didn't it!

Encircled with Love

This challenge was to make a circular card.  I loved playing with my new Spellbinders dies.  The fancy label makes a great hinge when you score it in the center and fold it around the circles.  The stamp is from Stampin' Up! as is the butterfly die.  That is one of my go to dies because it cuts and embosses five butterflies in graduated sizes.  Love, love, love it!

Real Men Wear PINK!

Another challenge card:  Make it masculine, but add some pink!

Bling the Cling

In response to the Split Coast Stampers "Hope You Can Cling to" challenge I created a card with some bling.  This one has just enough bling to be tasteful!  One large karat gem is enough.

I made this card today for the "Hope You Can Cling To Challenge" on SplitCoastStampers.  October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and this challenge supports that cause.  The cards will be sent to M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to be given to patients and their families.  This particular challenge was to make a card with a "Pink Critter" on it.  My favorite critters are kitties so this is my pink kitty.  I had lots of fun playing with a bunch of new dies and embossing folders.

This is one of the Christmas cards I made using two of my favorite colors: Old Olive and Real Red.  These are all Stampin' Up! stamps.  I stamped the background with Whisper White craft ink and Early Espresso.  The tree is stamped on watercolor paper.   I really love this background!

This is a Halloween card I created using the Ovals and Scalloped Circles dies from Stampin' Up!.
The little "witch" is from SU's Greeting Card Kids stamp set.  She was stamped onto the larger Scalloped Circle and I picked out a few elements to color with the Pumpkin Pie marker.

The pumpkin was made with three of the smallest ovals (there are three graduated sizes on this die) cut from Pumpkin Pie cardstock.  I overlapped the two back ovals, glued them on and shaded them with the Pumpkin Pie marker.  The center oval is set on with dimensionals and shaded as well.   I colored the stem with the Early Espresso marker.

The card is made from Crumb Cake cardstock with the front panel cut from Basic Black.  The irridescent orange ribbon was wrapped around the black panel and the Scalloped Circle attached with brads before mounting on the card base.  (The ribbon was something I had in my stash.)

This is a card I recently made for my sister.  She's a very special person and we have lots of fun when we are together.  We play lots of music and sing and do a lot of laughing.  I wish we could spend more time together.

Day One!

After a frantic two weeks of non-stop sewing, I was able to get back to my current favorite craft:  card making.

Today I made a card for my son who's birthday is the 29th.  I hope he likes it.  I know he will like the check inside!