I'm Baa-aack!

Hey there peeps!! I'm finally back home and I'm ready to stay for a while :-)  For the last two weeks I've been away at two different camps. The first one was a five-day girls camp, here in Missouri, where my sisters and I were leading worship.  We had a great time and met a ton of super amazing people.

I was home for a Saturday, then crazy early on Sunday morning I left on a week-long mission trip to New Orleans, LA with a group of teenagers, most of whom are getting ready to go into their freshman year of highschool.  I learned a lot and had plenty of experiences that pushed me waaaay out of my comfort zone. Haha.  It was a long week and we definitely had our challenges, but I'm so glad I went!

This week I've been getting back into the regular swing of things, finishing up some projects and working on getting the classrooms ready for the kiddos at school.  That also means it's time to get back into my cards!!  The card I have to show you is for today's "Ad Inspired" challenge at 365 Cards.  All you have to do to play along is use this image as your inspiration:

Here's what I came up with:

My favorite dress form was the black one with polka dots.  I also used some of the colors from the ad, and used tulle to mimic the curtains.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you'll play along :-)

Quickie post!

Hey everyone!  This is gonna be a super short post because I'm quite literally on my way out the door to help with the middle school summer camp at church.  I'll be out until Sunday, so I wanted to make sure I was able to show you my cards for this week.

The challenge for today at 365 Cards is to use a sentiment that has somewhat of a crossword effect.  Our sponsor this week is Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps and More.  Here's the card I created using an image from her collection:

But THEN, I was thinking about it and I had another idea for a completely different card, so I made two:

Fun, huh?  You should give it a try.  The post for this challenge should be up on the 365 Cards blog pretty soon, then you'll be able to link up your creations :-)  Can't wait to see them!

Cars

I found it a little ironic that today's challenge for 365 Cards had to do with cars.  Just this week my car decided to crap out on me.  I knew it was coming but, you see, my car and I had this love-hate relationship :-)  I can't help but love a vehicle that got me wherever I needed to go, but there were a lot of things wrong with it that I wasn't about to fork out the money to fix.  My car was nice enough to hang on to life over the past several months while I saved up enough cash to replace it.  But just to get back at me, it waited until the most inconvenient moment possible (on the way to an 8 a.m. choir rehearsal) to die.

But anyway, back to the challenge...

Today is "Mega Movie Thursday."  All week we've been using movie posters from this summer's movie releases as our inspiration.  Today is no different!  I really liked the original "Cars" movie and I'm looking forward to seeing the second one.

For my card I decided to attempt to duplicate the Cars logo.  I think I got close. Haha.  Since Father's Day is right around the corner, I thought this would be a fun theme to work with.  I used watercolors to create a "road" for the background.  Super-shiny silver cardstock worked great for the "chrome" but it was a little tricky cutting the words!  Here's my final card:

You don't have to take this challenge quite as literally as I did!  I'd love to see how this movie poster inspired you, so make sure to link up your cards on the 365 blog!

Words to Inspire

Hello, friends!   It's Thursday, so I've got a card to show you for today's challenge on the 365 Cards blog.  Today we're supposed to incorporate an inspirational sentiment on our cards...

I'd love to see what inspiring words YOU would include on your card, so hop on over to 365 Cards and link up your cards!

As We Commence...

'Tis the season to be graduating.  My parents are going to an open house this afternoon, so this is a card I put together for the graduate...

I love these Basic Grey papers!  Love, love, love :-)

Thanks for checking out my blog!

B is for...

Apparently, I'm on some kind of baby card kick. Lol.  I don't know why.  I guess they're just kinda cute and fun to make.

This is my DT card for today's 365 Cards challenge, "Button Blitz."  Use at least TWENTY buttons on your card and be sure to stack at least SIX of them.

I have to admit that when I saw "20 buttons" I was a little intimidated.  As a rule I try to stay away from bulky cards, simply because they don't fit in envelopes.  But once I started looking through my stash and playing around with the placement of the buttons, it actually wasn't too bad.  This one would probably fit into a slightly oversized envelope quite nicely :-)

As always, thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to stop by the 365 Cards blog-- we'd love to have you play along!

Fun With Old Cardboard

Today I'm playing along with City Crafter Challenge Blog.  I've been following for a while, but this is my first time joining in :-)  The challenge is to use paint and recycled cardboard.

 

I have a stash of cardboard that I've saved from different packaging and boxes and whatnot, but today I had a cardboard mailing envelope sitting at the top of my wastebasket, so I decided to go with that! Haha.  I cut the star and anchor with my Cricut, then used white acrylic paint to create the distressed look.  My favorite part about this card is that rope-looking trim in the background.  I cut super thin strips from the cardboard, then carefully twisted them as tight as I could without breaking it.  Since one side of the envelope was coated white, it looked pretty cool.  I did that with several trips, then glued them side by side.  Kinda nifty, huh?  I also used a piece on the rope for the anchor.  I thought about putting a sentiment on there, but I just think it makes a great summery generic card for anytime.

Thanks for stopping by!!  Have a great day :-)

Baby Boom

I've got another baby card for today.  This one is just for fun... I don't know very many people having babies any time soon :-)

This week's challenge for Our Creative Corner is to make a baby card, including kraft paper, trim and at least one button.  I thought it worked rather nicely with the sketch for today's Mojo Monday.  I know I've said it already, but I'm so excited to have more time to play along with all of my favorite challenges now that school's out!

Thanks for stopping by! I love reading your comments :-)

Sing it, Alice!

SchooOoooOOool's out. For. Summer!


Haha.  I don't think today really counts as the first day off since it's Saturday and we wouldn't have school anyway, but I've been doing the happy dance since we put the last preschooler into their car yesterday afternoon :-) It's gonna be a great summer, I can already tell.  My brother got into St. Louis late last night (or this morning, rather) and he'll be here at least until Monday.  Dad bought a new barbecue grill.  It's red :-)

AND (drum roll please...)  I actually got a card done!  The Shabby Tea Room has a challenge this week to create a baby-themed card. This one is for a friend of mine who's having a little girl sometime around the end of June.  I know that they're decorating the nursery with pink, brown and green, so I used that color scheme on the card.

I pieced the patterned paper together for the turtles shell from 1" scraps, then added some faux stitching.  The letters are from the "Car Decal" Cricut cartridge.  I like it.  Whaddya think?

Thanks for stopping by!

Unconventional Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day! Or Single's Awareness Day... whichever one you're celebrating today. Haha ;-)

I'm quite literally on my way out the door to work this morning, but I wanted to share this card with you first.  I've been itching to make something with the "From My Kitchen" cartridge and this is what I came up with:

Kinda fun, no?

Happy Monday to ya! :-)

Fabulous

Hey there, friends!  It's been a while.  I'm sorry. :-)

It's Day 347 at 365 Cards!  The challenge for today is to "divide your card into three parts so that none of embellishments or the sentiment overlaps from one section to another."

Here's how I did it:

The sentiment is from this week's sponsor, Digis With Attitude.  The silhouette is from the Forever Young Cricut cartridge.  It's definitely one of my favorites.  I haven't used eyelets in a while, but I finally have a Crop-a-dile tool.  I should have gotten myself one of those a loooong time ago. Lol.  It's SO much easier than that ridiculous hammer!

I'd love to see your take on the challenge, so link it up right HERE!

Peace

Happy Thursday, everyone!  I'll be celebrating with a snow day.  It started falling last night, and this morning I woke up to this:

My sister, attempting to clean off the cars... I'm not sure why.  I don't plan on going ANYWHERE today.

The patio furniture in the backyard is a pretty good indicator of how much snow actually fell...

I will be spending the rest of my day nice and warm inside the house. Lol.

But anyway, back to business...

The card I have to share with you today is for "Inspiration Week" at 365 Cards.  The word I picked for today is "Peace." This word means a lot to me right now.  It seems these last couple of months have been a little crazy.  Lots of family stuff, ridiculous stuff at work, but I feel like I've been able to maintain at least some peace in the middle of it all.  It'd like to think I'm not a person who's not easily stressed out, but I guess we all have our moments. :-) I came across this quote sort of by accident, while I was googling something else.  But I think it's absolutely perfect for today's word.

This card is made from a hodgepodge of scraps: some lace, wallpaper, a wedding invitation and the last scrap of some shimmery cardstock I've been trying to use up.  I think it's fun to make cards that way... except that it's very unlikely that it will ever be duplicated!  I guess we'll have to go for variations on a theme ;-)

Now it's your turn!  Head on over to the 365 Cards blog to check out the other words of inspiration from this week and maybe pick a few (or all of them!) to play along with.

Since I began this post, I've been informed by my sisters that I will NOT be allowed to stay inside today.  I guess I should go find something warm to wear.... ughhhh... ;-)

Busy, busy!

Well, this week has been interesting.  Started off pretty good, got a little weird toward the middle, ended a little crummy on Friday, but then got a whole lot better with taco night and some fabulous friends ;-)

Somewhere in the middle of that, I did find time to put together my card for Thursday's challenge at 365 Cards, but I'm running a little late again with posting. Oops.

The challenge was to create a photo frame card.  It's not too complicated.  The trickiest part for me was figuring out what size to make the card.  Mine ended up being 6.5 x 5 in.  I made it so that the photo slides in on the side.

That cute frog image is from Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps and More, our sponsor for this week.  Make sure to link up all your cards for this week!  The winner gets 5 digi stamps OR 4 digi stamps and a paper set.

Hi there, friends!

The year 2010 has come to a close and we're kickin' off the new year with hopes for another 12 months of endless possibilities.  I can't wait to see what happens :-)

These last couple of weeks have flown by.  We've enjoyed having my brother home for the holidays.  He'll be leaving on Monday already, and I have to go back to work.  I have to start getting up early again. Ugh.

I do have a card to share with you.  This is a little late, but there's still time to play along!  We're doing a "flashback week" at 365 Cards, so we're revisiting a challenge from June called "Stunning Silhouettes- With a Twist."  Obviously, there should be a silhouette on your card, but the "twist" is that the whole card should have a black and white color scheme.  I'm a big fan of black and white.  Here's what I did:

The silhouette is from the "Sweethearts" Cricut cartridge.  I created the "charm" by punching out a heart from the patterned paper and then covering it with diamond glaze.

Thanks to all of you who've dropped by over this past year! It's been fun :-)

Deck the Card

Hey friends!  It's SUPER icy on the roads this morning, so school is canceled... can I get a "Woot, woot!?"

It's Thursday, which means I've got a card for today's challenge at 365 Cards.  All you have to do is create a detachable ornament for your card.  It doesn't necessarily have to be a Christmas ornament.  This was such a great idea and a lot of fun to make!  Here's what I did...

The ornament was pretty easy to make.  I Googled images of "paper ornaments" and got a lot of great ideas.  I found this blog with some absolutely GORGEOUS examples.  My ornament came together mostly by trial and error, since I didn't follow instructions. Hehe.  But I like how it turned out.  I used super fine gold glitter on the edges for a little sparkle.  It looks so pretty, but unfortunately I will also be sparkling for weeks to come.  My sister stopped to talk to me for, like, two seconds and even she had glitter on her. Lol. And so continues my love-hate relationship with glitter.

I used my "Accent Essentials" CC for the frame, and the "Home Decor" cartridge for the center of the ornament.  Sparkly ribbon, silver button, sticky pearl and "Voila!"

The trickiest part of this card was deciding how to attach the ornament so that it could be removed later.  I ended up just using some gold thread and tacking the bow to the top of the card.  Seems to work just fine.  To gift this, I'd probably have to figure out a way to stick the actual ornament down.  I thought some kind of re-positionable glue dot would work... I just don't have any.

I really hope you give this a try!! Since I've got plenty of unscheduled time today, I'm thinking I might have to make some more of these ;-)  Thanks for stopping by!

Let's Catch Up... or Ketchup... However You Wanna Do This

Hey there, everyone.  I can't believe I've let over two weeks go by without posting.  *facepalm*

I've got a card to show you, but first I just wanted to say "way to go!" to everyone who participated in the 365 Cards Vintage Love Blog Hop.  You all came up with some flippin' AMAZING cards.  But also, I wanted to say thanks to all of you who commented on my blog with the things that you are thankful for.  Some of the stories you shared were so touching.  I see so many of your names all across Blog-land, but it's kinda cool to learn one more little thing about the person behind the link :-)

Okay, so here's my card for the Day 284 challenge from Thursday.  The challenge was to create a card with two pockets.  You can interpret that just about any way you want, but here's what I came up with:

 

Kinda cute, huh? lol.  The stickers are from E.A.D. Designs. I actually managed to create a SVG file to cut this with my Cricut.  It needs to be tweaked a bit, but if I ever get around to it, I'll share the file with y'all.

Again, I know this is late, but you still have a little time to play along.  You have until Sunday at midnight to get your cards linked up!

F-F-F-Fun

Hey there peeps! It's Thursday! (Well, it is as I begin to type this entry, but we'll see if I actually finish it before midnight.  Probably not.  I've already restarted this twice.  But anyway....)  Thursday means it's my turn again to show y'all what's up over at 365 Cards.

Today our challenge is to use these three "F's":  Fabric, Fringe and Floss.   This one was super challenging for me!  First of all, those are three things that I don't use very often.  And then even what I did have didn't necessarily go together.  But you know how that goes... you just keep experimenting and hope you come up with something spiffy.

Here's what I finally came up with:

I've got the red embroidery floss, some red fabric that I cut into a strip and then twisted.  For the "fringe" I just used my CutterBee scissors and veeeeery carefully cut the black paper.  I think it worked out pretty well.  I absolutely love the "Lantern Rin" stamp from Sparkle Creations-- in fact, they're all really cute, so I hope you'll go check out the other designers' cards from this week!  OH, and as a bonus, the little tag is from the Pagoda Cricut cartridge-- it means "friend." Extra "F" points!! :-)

Check me out... it's 11:58. Hehe.

Lovely... Most of the time ;-)

Hello my friends! How are you this fine (cloudy, gray, wet) Wednesday afternoon? Hehe.

On Monday, Scrap It With a Song kicked off yet another song-inspired challenge with "Isn't She Lovely" by Stevie Wonder.  Can you believe we're on week #20 already?? It's gone by super fast and I've been so honored to be a part of the DT with a lovely group of talented ladies.  But, as I've been trying to burn into the brains of my little 4-yr-old charges, we have to share and take turns and let another fabulous group of designers take over :-) That being said, this is my last project as a member of the DT, but I think I'll definitely be playing along in the future!

After spending so much time looking through hundreds of beautiful scrapbook layouts on the Scrap It With a Song challenges, I decided to try creating my own.  I haven't made a scrapbook page in a LONG time, but this idea was in my head and I really wanted to make it! This project features my little sister, Gina Marie, as a precocious 4-year-old.  She's 16 now. Back in the day we used to call her "Gina Marie Princess."  Now we just lovingly refer to her as "turdy-head" because we're SO mature ;-) Lol.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by! Hope to see you playing along this week!!

Warm Wishes

Hellooo again, friends.  Two posts in one day!

This time I'd like to share with you my card for today's "White Space" challenge at 365 Cards.  These kinds of challenges are always a little... ummm... challenging. LOL. But they're fun! ;-)

Here's the white space sketch...

And my card...

The "warmest wishes" sentiment is from this week's sponsor, KLM Designs.  They have some super cute digi images, so make sure you check them out and then hop on over to 365 Cards and share your take on the challenge :-)

This whole 5 a.m. thing is gonna kill me...

*Yawn*

Hey guys! Didja miss me?  This week has been quite an adjustment.  Monday was the first day of school, so that means it's back to work for me.  Last year I was the aftercare person, so I only worked a few hours in the evening.  THIS year I'm working full time and I'm opening in the morning, so I have to wake up at ungodly hours.  But that's not really the tricky part.  I'm usually a night owl, and that's when I did all of my card making.  So I'm just working on rearranging my schedule ;-)

In all of the craziness leading up to the first day of school, I didn't get a chance to show you my card for the challenge at Scrap It With a Song this week.  When I first watched the video for "Summertime", I definitely LOL'd.  But you just gotta love The Fresh Prince ;-)  My card is super simple, but I just really like the green striped paper:

Your turn! You still have until Sunday at noon to upload your creations-- can't wait to see them!