Thank you!

I wanted to send out a great big THANK YOU to Laurie. Check out her blog, Charming Designs. She is such a talented lady, and she creates the most gorgeous items! She is also a treasure hunter, and you should see the amazing things that she "finds" on her shopping trips!


She bagged up some old buttons, and she asked who wanted some buttons . . . ME! I love buttons! Laurie sent me this amazing assortment of buttons! What fun! Look at the envelope that they're sitting on. She handpainted the envelope! Isn't that envelope gorgeous? She is an amazing artist. You should see her vintage felt bird creations that she makes. Laurie also posts the funniest photos of her cute cats! Thanks so much Laurie! Your kindness is very much appreciated!

I had more snow to shovel this morning. Wow, I'm getting tired of this snow and how cold it's been! I'm very anxious for Spring! I need to make a baby shower card for my husband's cousin, so off I go to do just that. I'm thrilled, because it fits in with the Caardvarks baby card challenge this week! Hopefully I'm going to use some buttons! Thanks for stopping by!

Eat Dessert First!

I got this great image in an image swap from Flossie. It just cracks me up! Words to live by though, don't you think?!!


This is for Nicola's Sketch #4. I've never made a tent topper card before, so I wasn't really sure of sizes, etc., but this turned out just fine. I wanted it to fit into an envelope, so I used that as my size guideline. The card itself is a 4 1/4" square with rounded corners. The square scallop was cut using Mini Monograms. I used colored pencils and gamsol for the coloring, and I added a couple of Primas with a rhinestone. The card front is DCWV Pocket Full of Posies.


Here are my girls after the music competition on Saturday. They're proudly wearing their medals! Them both wearing striped sweaters was an accident . . . they normally don't dress alike!! I was really proud of them! Then again, I'm always proud of them!

Thanks for stopping by!

Guest Designers Today! Personalized Plaques!

I'm very excited to show you the WONDERFUL plaques that my girls finished up on Saturday morning. We started off with 50 cent clearance plaques from Michael's.


This is what the plaque looked like before we started. The wire hanger with the beads is fantastic!


Then a few weeks ago, we stopped in Archiver's, and my girls just fell in love with these Love, Elsie Zoe soft charms. They're cute, colorful, and whimsical. We decided that we would let the charms inspire the plaque design!


Isn't this FANTASTIC?!! After choosing her charm, Jessica picked out her background sheet of paper. This is from a My Mind's Eye slab of paper. She then picked out scraps of paper for me to cut out her name using my QuicKutz squeeze. She said that she's silly, so we used an Autumn Leaves circular sentiment to emphasize that fact. I cut the sentiment and the mat out with my Coluzzle. She selected her Primas, and they were layered on in two places. I sewed the one flower stack with the button on the wire hanger. Her last selection was a little bit of ribbon. WOW! I'm seriously impressed with how GREAT this looks!


This one is completely GORGEOUS and totally different from what Jessica made! Emily started off picking a sheet of My Mind's Eye slab paper too. She wanted to emphasize all of the colors that are on the "CREATE" soft charm. She used paper scraps too, and I cut her name out with a different QuicKutz alphabet. She added some orange mulberry under her matted name. She had me detail cut a big lime green flower out of the background paper, but then she thought it was too big for the plaque. I suggested cutting it in half and using it as a scallop design hanging off the bottom. She loved that idea, and when it didn't go across the entire bottom, I detail cut one more flower, and we filled in the middle section. Doesn't it look GREAT? Once again, she selected her Primas for layered stacks, and she picked out three ribbons that she liked. She finished it up by adding rhinestones on the patterned paper and on the scallop flower bottom edge. FANTASTIC!

I'm totally impressed with these! You should click on the photos, and look at the enlarged views! They're just so colorful and FUN!! I helped my girls quite a bit with the mechanics: the cutting, the gluing (because I'm an ATG gun hog!), and the ribbon tying, but the design of these is all them! They have a great eye for color, and they give a lot of thought to the placement of each element! I'm so proud of them, because these are AMAZING!

I'll post a photo tomorrow of my girls after the musical competition. Thanks for the good luck wishes for them, and for the happy birthday wishes for my mom! The girls did great! Emily performed twice (singing and flute), and she got two first place awards, and Jessica performed once (french horn), and she also got a first place award! They were fantastic, and so were their girlfriends that they partnered up with. I'm impressed with their musical talent, because my husband and I have none! It's a COLD one today, and wow, is it WINDY!! The wind was howling all night long! Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday! She doesn't have a computer, so she won't see this, but I still have to wish her a Happy Birthday! My girls and I stopped by to see her yesterday for her birthday. My girls have their musical competition day today, so we won't have a chance to see her today.

I want to mention that I'm way behind on blog hopping for all of my blog friends and for my SBS2 sisters. I'll catch up with all of that later today and tomorrow.

I just have to share this link for our local newspaper. Princess is the Pet of the Week! Wow, as I just typed that, I realized that it sounds like a Hugh Hefner Playboy kind of thing! Nope, she's a different kind of pet!! We're going to be campaigning to get her to be Pet of the Month for February, and then our ultimate goal is for her to be Pet of the Year! Why? Because it's fun, and we love her! We think she's worthy!

Last, both Wendy and Patsy tagged me for the middle name game. Let me give this a try! My middle name is Joan.

J - Joyful, Jovial (makes me sound like Santa!)
O - Outgoing, Outspoken, Optimistic
A - Appreciative, Ambitious
N - Nice, Noticeable

My girls helped me with my words! Since my middle name has four letters, I need to tag 4 others to post their middle name on their blog, and they need to use all of the letters to describe their personality. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use your maiden name). Make sense? So, I'm going to tag: Alex, Jules, Kristy, and Nicola.

Last, but not least, WOW, did I get the goodies from the big brown truck yesterday! My QVC TSV came. It's a wonderful Cosmo Cricket package. I hope to dig in today and play with it! It's gorgeous! Then, I got My Mind's Eye Tres Jolie . . . beautiful! Last, I got Lisa Bearnson's Bling It On kit. It's nice too, and it comes in a storage tin. I LOVE when things come in their own organizational container! I hope to PLAY later today and tomorrow! It's like Christmas all over again over here. I really need to stop buying, but the QVC values make me crazy. You get SO MUCH for the money. The Cosmo Cricket was $30 something plus shipping. I'm not sure you could go in a scrapbook store and get the two 8x8 albums with the storage sleeve box for $30, and that's only one small part of the kit! Yes, I'm justifying my purchases, but I just can't help it!

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be by to visit you all very soon! Have a great weekend!!

Sketches {by Tamara} Card Sketch #30

This is my card for Sketches! {by Tamara} Card Sketch #30. I'm still so thrilled to be a part of the card design team! Stop by Tamara's site to take a look at her sketch and all of the other fantastic cards by the design team. If you make a card for the sketch, stop back by and let me know! I would love to take a look at your card!

I pulled a sheet of paper from my Glitter Mat Stack for my card front, and I let it inspire me on how I created this card. I really wanted to emphasize the blue and orange. The "you rock" and the three stars are stamps from Love, Elsie Roxie. The ribbon is American Crafts. This is a simple card, but I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. I struggle with masculine cards most of the time, and when I was done with this one, I realized that it would be great for anyone.

My girls are home from school today, because it's parent/teacher conferences at school. My girls are doing very well in school, so we don't need to go see any teachers. We'll be relaxing and hanging out. Maybe we'll craft a little! Maybe I'll have some guest designers featured on my blog tomorrow or on Sunday! Thanks for stopping by!

I just visited Lisa Bearnson's blog. Take a look at her most recent post. She put out a plea for stickers for a young man that she met. My girls and I just totally cleared out our PSB (Paper Sticker Binder) and we're going to send A LOT of stickers to Brian today. We hardly ever use stickers anymore, so we're thrilled to send them all to him! We're off to the post office!

Rock Star

I was anxious to use the stamp that I won from Elaine. This Rock Star stamp is very cute.


I made this card for my girlfriend Kathy's son. He just started guitar lessons, so I'm going to send this to her so that she can give it to him. He's blond, and he has a black guitar, so I tried to personalize it a little with my coloring. I used colored pencils and gamsol. I even used pretty paper! I used Basic Grey Skate Shoppe paper for my card front. The extra guitar stamp is from ki Memories. The "you rock" stamp is Love, Elsie Roxie. I even broke out the Tim Holtz texture hammer, and I smashed my brads! Look at me . . . using stuff! Woohoo! By the way, did you notice that I drew the mouth on the image? Some of these images don't have mouths, and I wanted him to have a mouth. Does it look OK?

Thanks for stopping by!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CONNOR & Happy Mail!

First off . . . HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY CONNOR! Connor is my nephew and godson, and today he is 7 years old! I don't know where the time goes! Isn't he a cutie patootie?!! Love you sweetie! Have the best birthday EVER!!



Next, I got more HAPPY MAIL! This gorgeous Bella card came from my SBS2 Secret Sister. Isn't it gorgeous! I'm telling you, the colors are perfect, because I'm SO READY for Spring! Right now, I would settle for seeing the sun! I have no idea WHO my Secret Sister is, but she knows I don't have any Bellas, because look what she sent to me with this gorgeous card . . . .


. . . Bella images for me to color and play around with! How fun! I'm so excited! I love Bella, and I have yet to make a Bella purchase! Yeah! Thank you so much! This was the perfect little extra to send with my card . . . I'm thrilled!!


This is my prize from Brandy at the Paper Crafts Blog! Can you believe this? Once again, PERFECT, because it's so colorful, vibrant, and spring-like! I'm going to force myself to cut this paper. It's honestly one of the packs that I'm going to have a problem using, because I hoard my pretty paper. I know you know what I'm talking about. If I actually cut it and use it, I won't have it anymore! However, within the next week or two, I'm going to force myself to create something with at least one sheet of this paper! Well, I'll try!


Last, I was waitlisted for this huge selection of brads from QVC, and I completely forgot about them, and they showed up on the craft fair day! How cool, I was ordering items, and then the big brown truck stops by my house, brings a package to my door, and it was like instant gratification with a QVC product! My friend Queen Diva Sue tells me that when you're waitlisted for an item on QVC, it's not really a purchase, it's more like a gift! I don't quite agree, but I like the way she thinks!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Hanna - But I Need It . . .

Thanks to the SBS2 image swap, I got this Hanna image from Bonnie. Isn't Hanna fun?


This is a theme card for me yesterday with the QVC craft day! Except, I know that I don't need it, I just WANT it! Once again, I let a DCWV Glitter Mat Stack inspire my card. I used gamsol and colored pencils to color Hanna. I used my Coluzzle to cut the circles. I added a flower gem to one shopping bag, and three gems off to the side, because Hanna needs a little bling!

We have more bad weather heading our way. More snow . . . yuck! Thanks for stopping by!

Beatriz's / Caardvarks' Card Challenge

Beatriz had a challenge to create a Valentine card using some of her favorite things, including: 1 heart, ribbon, chipboard, at least one flower, glitter, and buttons. What fun! This card also works for Caardvarks' Challenge this week for a Valentine!


The card front is glittered Cloud 9, and it's ticket punched. The glitter chipboard pieces are from ScrapWorks. The flowers are from Beatriz herself, and there is a glitter chipboard heart in the center. The gingham ribbon is from Michael's. I have three Making Memories buttons on the card . . . two are on the ribbon, and one is camouflaged on the patterned paper on the upper right. This was a fun card to make. Great challenge!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Mail

I have a couple of thank yous to give out today to a couple of SBS2 sisters. First off, Lori discovered that she had two Cuttlebug Halloween dies, and she sent the extra off to me. I'm thrilled! I can't wait until Halloween again to use this! I've never seen this before. It's 3" x 3", so the die cuts are small, and they're going to be so cute on a card! Thanks Lori!

Next, Elaine gave away this Rock Star Sugar Nellie stamp, and I was the lucky recipient! Thanks Elaine! I hope to get this little Rock Star boy inked up this week!

Look at the gorgeous card Elaine sent too! I love this image, and the bling is perfect!

Then, Elaine also sent some images for me to play around with. These are all Magnolia images. These will be fun for me to color in and create some cards. Thanks so much Elaine! I'm very appreciative of your kindness!

My husband FINALLY made it home from Florida, and believe it or not, last night his flight was delayed around two hours! Crazy! He is home though! Yeah! The Super Bowl is tonight, and I could care less who wins. I do like seeing some of the commercials. I'm excited, because tomorrow is QVC craft day all day long! I've already preordered the Today's Special Value on auto-delivery! It's a huge Cosmo Cricket kit. I love craft day, and I can't wait to see all the new goodies! Have a great Sunday, and thanks for stopping by!