smooches = thank you

At least it does to me and this great cow stamp!! The stamp set is from Paper Smooches. Love their adorable characters and the phrases. The stamps work amazingly well. Even for someone like me who is not that great when it comes to stamping. Good thing I have lots of paper to practice on!! :)

Yesterday on the Paper Smooches blog a lovely prize package was being offered up to a randomly drawn winner for posting a Thank You card. I do believe that smooches does equal saying thank you!

I made this card for a sample for my card party last month. I LOVE the cow. I mean seriously- how cute. And pink. Well what fun is it to color in a white cow?? Absolutely none. I used my EK Success colored pencils that I have had forever to color the image. I don't think I am ready for Copics. I certainly know my hubby is not ready for me to be into Copics. And neither is the bank account. I can see that becoming a costly addiction/ necessity.

I used paper from DCWV summer stack from eons ago. I like how the pink pops out from the other colors. I used my nesties to cut the cow out, popped with pop dots and a paper punch for the sentiment. A little bit of rick rack I had in my stash and there you go... a heartfelt thank you card.

I would love to win the drawing. Really I would. I have one package of their stamps. I NEED more. :) I have a rather large list of Paper Smooches stamps that I would give my firstborn to own. Seriously... they are that amazing. Check them out.

May your day be full of smooches!!

superstorm sandy

I mean just look at her!! WOW! What a storm. Flooding in NYC, snow in West Virginia, crazy winds everywhere. I am happy to see her fade away but I know the aftermath will continue for days (weeks) to come. 

We were so very lucky to have not lost our power this go around with Mother Nature. I am very grateful. Of course we were more than prepared to lose it. Hubby spent four days cleaning up the yard of sticks, branches and leaves so they wouldn't go flying through windows. We cleaned up the garage and did a test run of the generator. That was tricky as the spark plug was quite disgusting and not easy to get to. But we were set. We even had the cord running up the deck stairs and attached to the railing to the kitchen so we wouldn't have to do that during the storm (been there done that). Last night before it got dark, we ran another cord into the house for the downstairs. 

I had also been baking like a crazy woman to ensure we had yummy treats for our tummies. Now I have chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, brownies and chocolate chip mini muffins. Guess we should get eating! I am sure they won't go to waste. :)

Hubby and I went to Walmart on Friday and loaded up two carts of stuff for the storm. Okay some of which was Christmas related but we love to get that stuff done before the craziness begins and we didn't have the kids! Always a plus.

Maybe we were so prepared we scared Sandy away from us. Probably not but I'll go with that. Glad to see her gone. I am keeping everyone who has been affected by Sandy in my thoughts and prayers. Nature is nothing to mess with. And on the plus side, we are ready for the snow to fly this winter. The generator is all gassed up and ready to go and we have two five gallon containers of gas to run it. Not to mention the water we now have on hand!!

Very happy to see the sun today.

May Mother Nature shine down on you as well.

hole in the smile

Yup it happened. Alex worked that tooth until it popped out while he was at school. Such a brave boy. Much more than his mom or his sister!! Look at that smile!!

I was volunteering in his classroom so I was able to snap this picture of him wearing his tooth necklace from the nurse. He was so proud of himself. I am thinking the others around the new tooth don't stand a chance of being around for long as the new tooth is pretty darn big!! I think we will have many visits from the tooth fairy in our future. And don't forget to look at that terrible bedhead he has!! oh my. You would never know I did run a comb through his hair before school!!

First tooth = $5 and a set of mini Muggs in Captain America and Red Skull. He was happy so that is what is important. :)

May the holes in your life be filled with happiness!

october sketch challenge card

I have been a busy little creator the past couple of days. Love it!! Below is the sketch for the Christmas card Facebook group I am in.

This is a really fun sketch. So much so I used it for this card as well as on a card I made my mom and a set of birthday cards. Totally loved it. Really I did.

Papers from a holiday stack from years ago. Heat embossed the sentiment and the snowflakes with gold embossing powder. Sewed around the edges, added some white twine-looking string and pop dotted the scalloped circle. Very happy with it.

Thanks for looking and stopping by!! 

october sketch challenge

It is that time again! Time for another sketch challenge reveal! I know you all couldn't hold your breath waiting. LMBO!

Anywho... here is the sketch we got to use. One of those amazing PageMaps I totally love to use!!

And here is my take on it. I dug out some pictures from our 2010 Walt Disney World trip for this sketch. I had found these papers and knew exactly what pictures I would use with them. I totally love these pictures of the kids driving the race cars in TomorrowLand. Alex was a pretty good driver. Kira was a crazy all over the place driver. She used the rail the cars run on to steer. It made for quite a neck jarring experience!

I think I need to work on a tooth fairy box for Alex. He has his first loose tooth and he keeps playing with it. I don't think I am ready for my baby to start loosing his teeth.

May all your journeys be smooth today!

liebster award

*I can't fix the white on this post. And do not really want to retype this whole thing. Sorry*

Susan!! I love you so much! Thank you for adding me to this great list of winners. My blog was started as a way for me to share with family and friends what I do with all my scrapping stuff that I collect. And to tell tales of the kids and their happenings growing up. It is nice to think there are others out there who are inspired by my ramblings and postings. Thank you for thinking of me and following my blog.

ABOUT THE AWARD

Liebster is a German word meaning "Beloved," "Favorite," or "Dearest." This award is a peer to peer award in which fellow bloggers present the award to their favorite bloggers with less than 200 followers. The origins of this award is unclear, but is believed to have originated by a German blogger. This award was designed to be a blog award in the pay it forward fashion to share your dearest and most beloved blogs that have less than 200 followers.

RULES FOR ACCEPTANCE

Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog. Post the award onto your blog. Give the award to five bloggers who you appreciate that have less than 200 followers. Leave a comment on their blog letting them know that you have given them this awesome award!

PAY IT FORWARD
Now comes the hard part… choosing 5 bloggers to share this award with!  Wow not an easy task. I follow many great blogs and it was hard to choose just five. 

I would send this back to Susan in an instant as she is an amazing scrapper/ artist. Seriously check out her blog and you will be following her and loving on her instantly.

Onto my list-

• Kory's SCRAPiVERSE: Seriously an amazing talent! I stumbled onto Kory at Scrapbook.com on the message boards. His sense of humor is only  matched by his scrapping talent. I enjoy reading about his shopping adventures and seeing the end results of his projects. You need to be following him. Go. Now. I will wait. 
• Tina's Wooded Views: I have enjoyed looking at Tina's creations since MSN Groups. She has a huge heart and intensely amazing talent. You will enjoy your time hanging at her blog. Trust me.  You will be just as hooked as me!
• Debbie's Telling Our Story: I love looking at all her amazing layouts. My favorite part is her use of sketches. I love me some sketches and Debbie uses them so wonderfully. If you have hit a scrapping block, check out her blog and those creative juices will once again be motoring. Oh yes they will!!
• Nicole's A Scrapper Mom's World: I have known Nicole for many years. We met at an MSN Group and I have loved her style since then. Her cards are little works of art and her layouts make me green with envy. (all in a good way) You will love what you see, so go look!!
• Shabby Jo Designs: I found this gal on Scrapbook.com and love her work. The cards she creates with scraps makes me want to run naked through her scraps as they are incredible. Okay maybe not naked but you get the idea!! She has some of the best scraps and has this talent to make them look amazing when she is done with them. You totally need to go and check it out.

Please take the time to visit all these fantastical blogs. Seriously these artists are some of my favorites and I know they will soon be some of yours as well. Leave the love when you visit. Thank you!!

And thanks again to Susan for thinking of me. Love you girl!!

did you feel that?

Tonight we had a bit of a scare at the house. There was a 4.5 earthquake in Maine which shook us here in New Hampshire. Heck, I have friends in Rhode Island that felt it. (story) 

I would like to say I felt it, but alas I did not. Alex and I were downstairs getting him ready for bed while Kira went upstairs to finish her bedtime prep. I heard a rumble which I thought was a train since they go by all the time and have become common place for us (twelve years will do that to you) and didn't think anything of it...

Until Kira came running down the stairs freaking out. I mean seriously I thought she had come face to face with a live critter in her room she was so scared. She tried to explain to me that the house shook and she felt a bang. I start thinking that maybe a branch had smacked into the house from our two maple trees that need to be removed before they actually do fall on the house. It was quite windy today and it could have happened.

I got dressed for the weather (chilly) and went out to investigate turning on all the outside lights that I could. Grabbed the flashlight too to scare away whatever might have been climbing the house (hey you never know!) Checked the back of the house by Kira's room. Nothing. Roof looked good. Side of the house looked good. Time to check the front of the house. No major branches on the ground or against the house. Walked up the front lawn to the road to see if anything had landed on the roof- nope nothing up there either.

Having no clue and the house looked good, I went back inside to tuck the little monsters in for the night. As we were all getting into the fun of relaxing and going to sleep, the phone rang. Hubby calling. He asked if I felt it. Felt what?? That is when he told me about the earthquake that I missed even though I was in the thick of it. I heard it, does that count?? And it did freak my munchkin out so I guess I can say I survived it.

Then I hopped on to Facebook and man... what a chatty bunch of characters I call my friends. My whole news feed was about the earthquake. Then my cell beeped with the update from the local television station. I feel so left out. Like I missed something big.

Of course I say this in with a note of humor, I do not need to live through anything bigger than that or any closer. Being on the outskirts suits me just fine for this type of adventure.

May your day be house shaking free!

you are invited

To look at these fun Halloween party invitations I created for an amazing lady I know. I love challenges and that is what these were. She wanted something simple and cute Halloween not scary Halloween. I saw these papers and knew I was hooked!! Too bad I didn't buy enough of them!! Augh! I calculated wrong in my head. Lesson learned. Write down the amounts before heading out to the store. Not saying they didn't work out, but not exactly as planned. :)

This first one there are three of these. I love the double sided goodness that is these papers. Yummy!!

These are the ones that I messed up on the quantity of paper. There are six of this invite. But like I said, I like them both so much!!

And here is the insert all ready to be filled in. I had to use many different Studio G dollar stamps to get this. I do believe I need to invest in an invitation stamp for the future. Not that this didn't work and it didn't really take that long, but I think it could be easier.

Orange gingham ribbon was from my stash and has been here for quite awhile! I put a piece of orange cardstock on the back of the pocket to cover my less than wonderful stitching. I could not get the tension right to save my life. It looked fine on the front but the back was a nightmare (definitely headed for the scary Halloween) Plus adding the cardstock helped with the fact that the pattern paper was upside down from being folded in half. Next time I know what I will do different. So I guess it is all good in the long run.

I am now all done with my orders and will be bored if I don't get any soon. Seriously... going to work on some of my own stuff for a bit. It will be a nice change.

May your day be as wonderful as a party!!

triple the fun!

I had an order for a set of cards for a set of triplets. How cool is that?? They are eighth grade girls so I went with some bright (but not too bright) colors with bling. Because who can resist bling?? Not me!

I made each of them a card portfolio to hold their set of four cards and put their initial on the front as well as on the cards. I used the same design on all of them but with different paper combinations from the same paper line. Totally fun. The first three pictures show the portfolios closed and set to go.

This one shows you the inside of the portfolio with the cards inside.

And here are the cards for each girl. Used a bunch of bling and liquid pearls and some sewing.

May your day be triple special!!

do you like mice?

And I mean the cute ones. The ones NOT in your house or garage. The ones from House-Mouse are some of my favorites (besides the obvious love of Mickey). The images I used were from their e-card section. So darn cute!! I could NEVER and I really mean NEVER ever hope to color these images in from a stamp. I have my limits and know what I can and cannot do. Coloring in these adorable mice is nothing I could achieve. All the paper used on these cards is DCWV Nana's Kids stack. I love the colors and the images went along so well. 

The card box below is what houses these adorable mouse cards. I really hope the lady who receives this box of goodies enjoys them as much as I have.

May there never be mouse droppings in your house!

card order

Another card order from my card party that is complete! So very happy for that. I totally love making these cards but it feels so darn good when they are complete and I can get them to their new owners. Love that!!

These papers were from a Holiday stack I picked up a couple years back. Then Sybill got to cut out the Noel. A little sewing and bling and Merry Christmas to you!!

I love the springy-ness of this card and better still... I got to use some of my twill stash from eons ago!

A couple of criss cross thank you cards. I used my Cuttlebug for the present stamp and added some of my newly purchased bakers twine from K. Andrews website. It is lovely but feel I might have to hit up the Twinery for some other colors that she doesn't carry. I need a couple of pinks, a dark blue, light orange, brown and maybe a dark green. :)

Same card different color grouping.

May you always find the correct sentiment for your day!

for an eight year old girl

I made the following cards for an eight year old girl. Her mom made the request at my card party and I had a total blast making these cards for her. The little girl's favorite colors are green, orange and purple. I mean could I possibly choose a better color palette?? So much fun and the DCWV Nana's Kids stack was full of that deliciousness. Plus glitter which all girls simply L O V E!!

I colored the owls with her favorite colors since they are such cute owls!! They are from Paper Smooches and are so much fun!! They have a ton more sets of stamps that I would kill to have. Of course I would have to win the lottery or suddenly fall into money excess but they are fun to drool over and dream about.

I used my Spellbinders Nesties to cut out the images that I stamped. And did some embossing with my Cuttlebug. Totally fun cards to work on!

Here is another of the Paper Smooches critters that I have. So darn cute!! I used the scraps from creating the other cards to do the background on the chickie cards. Plus using my border punch and sewing machine. And no card is complete without some bling!!

This is the card box that all eight cards are stored in. I am very happy with how this set turned out.

May your day be full of bling and happy colors!!

ordination card

While my mom was hanging out with us last month, she asked me if I could make an ordination card for her for a gentleman at church. Sure! Why not??

I had to search the internet for some ideas as I have never done that type of card before. I found a few ideas and crammed them all together and this is what I came up with.

The dark brown on the side where the writing is turned a bit black in the picture. And the cross... I love it so much!! Sybill cut that out of DCWV metallic cardstock. I embossed the flourishes on vellum with my Cuttlebug. The letters were cut with my red Sizzix using Sizzlit font Playground.

I printed the Bible verse onto vellum and then attached it to the brown paper with the tan paper as accents for the inside of the card.

Mom was pretty happy with it and so am I! Somehow it is always my mom who comes up with these great challenges for me. She is testing me, I know it!! (love you mom!!)

May your day be not so challenging.

happy world card making birthday!

So if things are going well, you've just come from my amazingly talented and very good friend Anessa's blog in celebration of her Smokin'HotHubby having calculated, chronologically speaking of course, the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. 

Doesn't that just give ya the shivers??


Happy Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything Day, Bill aka SHH! 

When your wife hit me up with this idea, I thought "What better way to celebrate both SHH's 'Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" Day and World Card Making Day?!'" The only logical way would be to have a blog hop with some pretty special cards made just for SHH!

SO................

Bill darling....

SHH....

We have both physical and virtual cards for YOU, and today is a celebrated sharing of your virtual ones. Ohhh, and, uh, by the way, I secretly wonder what it's like to be married to an alien {and not just any alien, mind you}. Maybe someday you could write a book or something? Maybe have a world-reknowned blog about it? ...just a few ideas. There truly are several inquiring minds who want to know! (me, me, me!! Now there are some serious questions that need to be answered!!)

Here are some shots of my contribution to your birthday celebration!!

As I remember, the guide is an amazing book because it has those two words on the front so ease your mind while hitchhiking. I thought they would be appropriate for your card as well. Of course I had to use some space themed papers and looky there... a cute little fella is coming to help you celebrate as well!!

This is the inside with the one flap opened. Lots of birthday love happening here. I mean 42 is an amazing accomplishment!! Congrats!

This is the total inside of the card. Many many birthday wishes are yours!

And we finish up with the backside of your card. I bet you can be found hiding in a storage area on that ship!! May your journey be safe! So long and thank you for all the fish!

Up next on this blog hop, we have the wonderful Amy Tsuruta's blog, and you simply aren't going to believe her creation. You aren't. I'll prove it. Go to her blog and see! :)

Here's the order of the hop:

Alien~neilA Planet
"You are here" Planet
Amy Tsuruta's Most Awesome Planet
Tina Hale-to-the-Mail Planet

SHH, we all hope that your day is extra Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything special, particularly since we know that it's very important to our planet's one and only Alien wife! (Now where is that book/ blog/ infomercial on Alien??)

Thanks for hopping with us on this extra special day!

sigh

Major terri sigh.

Another one.

Heck I will even throw in another one for good measure.

I am getting good at the sigh thing. Kira is perfecting them on us on a daily basis. Loving the tween drama...

NOT!!

What has got me in my funk? I shall tell you. I worked on these great Christmas cards for one of my orders and this morning they are not at all looking good. I used the wrong color paper so the accent piece gets lost. Even with a boatload of stickles, I could not save these cards. Such a shame.

Off I go to work on another set in the hopes that I can get my act together and use the right color papers this time around. Hey you never know... it could happen.

May your colors match perfectly today.

terri's treasures samples

I am working very hard on my orders from my card party. I lost a few days when I was hit with a cold. And hit me it did. I was wiped out. Stuffy, chills, runny nose, cough, hot flashes and some aches and pains thrown in for good measure. I seem to be on the upswing and can manage to sit at my desk for longer than a minute which is helpful when creating!

Sharing some samples I made for the card party. This is a card drawer box that I love to make. It holds about eight cards with their envelopes. Could probably get ten inside as long as they were flat. I made this one out of a heavy pattern paper. I think it is a Basic Grey but can't remember. It is very pretty with the greens.

This is my card box that I totally love doing. It can hold eight cards and are so much fun to make. I made this one out of Basic Grey and yes I remember that since I LOVE the paper. I don't have a link to the instructions. I wrote them out from a video I think. I'll have to see if I can find it again.

And the card purse. These are great too!! These can hold from ten to sixteen cards. Again it depends on how thick the cards end up being. I believe this is Basic Grey paper. As you can see I went on a Basic Grey binge and picked up many greens. I guess I will have to change my favorite color to green instead of purple. :)

Off to work on orders. I am getting into the groove and need to get working.

May your day be anything but Basic (Grey) LOL!!

birthday week at beckyhiggins.com

And it's time to share the love!! I totally am in love with Project Life. Capturing the everyday and having fun doing it. I mean seriously it doesn't feel like work at all! Just fun captured. 

Love that!!

Join the celebration on Becky's blog for this week. Click HERE for Monday's blog.