Monsters V. Cookies

Just some fun shots from this evening.

Everyone had a special cookie to enjoy after dinner...

But I think Bradley enjoyed his the MOST!

He had cream in his hair!

Needless to say, tonight became an unscheduled Bath Night!

Enjoy!

Click on the collage to view the photos larger.

Papertake Weekly #11

This one is for the Papertake Weekly sketch challenge this week. I was also thinking of the Sugar Bowl challenge, as it is to make a card your Mother would like. (I think my Mom would love this card!) But you can't combine their challenge with any other, so I'll just go with Papertake this time. The Papertake sketch is awesome! I just love it and I know I will use it again!
This card uses: Great Impressions stamps, Stampin' Up! cardstock (Perfect Plum, Pale Plum and Whisper White), Stampin' Up! DSP, Making Memories brads, Stampin' Up! inks, markers and blender pens, Diamond Stickles, Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder and Cuttlebug.

Card Patterns - Sketch #7

I'm a little behind on my CardPatterns entries... I just realized that my last entry was Sketch #3! Oops! Well, let's see if I can keep up for a few weeks!
Here's my entry for Sketch #7...
This is one of those cases where the picture in my head looks nothing like the card in front of me... I'm not happy with the coloring and if it weren't for Stickles, this card probably would have been scrapped! Still think the frosting is too dark, but the Stickles went a long way towards saving it!
All products by Stampin' Up! except - oval and scallop oval Nesties, Distress Stickles and ribbon from my stash.

An Award! Thanks, Joanne!

My new friend and fellow DT member, Joanne gave each of the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge DT members an award! Sooo cool! Thank you so much Joanne!

This award is given to blogs that inspire you, make you smile or laugh, give you great information, are a good read, have a wonderful design or for any reason that you think makes them "Uber-Amazing"!! So, share the love with the bloggers you love!

Of course, there are rules!
-Add the logo to your side bar or post
-Nominate 5 blogs that you think are "Uber-Amazing"
-Remember to link the person who gave you this award

I would like to share this award with...
My dear sweet friend Callie!
The always amazing Lisa!
The wonderfully creative Carisa!
The awfully talented Heather!
The background queen Anna!

Happy Stamping, ladies!

Emily's adventure...

I wish I had a picture to go with this story, but I just have to share this with you!

Monday was a school day for Miss Emily, but Mommy was feeling horrible with the flu and couldn't muster up the energy to drive her there, so we stayed home.

Later in the afternoon, Emily said that she really wanted to go to school and see her friends. I explained that I didn't feel good and couldn't drive her there. So, she quietly got up and went to her room. She came out a few minutes later fully dressed, shoes on and backpack ready. She said, "That's OK, Mommy, I'll go without you!" I was so tired and ill that I just nodded and said "Ok, Emily, I'll miss you!" She says, "I'll miss you, too" as she goes through the door to the garage.

I'm thinking, no worries, she can't reach the button to open the garage door... just as I hear the garage door go UP! Ummm... adrenaline is a wonderful thing... I jump up and run to the garage to find Emily IN my car, IN the driver's seat... ready to go! She had pushed the button on the garage door remote!

I open the car door, trying not to fall over laughing and tell her she needs to come back inside and she says "But, Mommy, I can go to school without you! I'm a Good Driver!"

Oh, Emily... sometimes you're just too smart and too cute!

PuppyBella A2 Card Box

This one is for a challenge on CafeMom in the Addicted 2 Bellas group. We are to make an A2 card box to store cards in and if we want to, we can make matching cards. But I saw this dog bone paper and thought it would be cute with my PuppyBella stamp by Stamping Bella! So, I created a box to fill with doggie treats to give to someone.. I have no idea who yet, but I'm sure I'll figure it out!
I used Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip and Confetti Cream cardstock, Stamping Bella's PuppyBella stamp and a Stampin' Up! alphabet. Stampin' Up! photo corner punch. Patterned paper is from DCWV, ribbon from my stash. Image colored with Copic Markers.

Cute Photo of the Kids

Courtesy of Daddy while Mommy was working late...

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad's birthday! You've all seen the card that I made for him here and there is a chance that he may actually receive his card today! Assuming we can count on the US Postal Service to deliver it in time!
Dad, I hope it makes you smile! Thanks for always being there for me and teaching me the important things in life! Emily, Bradley, Iain and I are all thinking of you today and hoping that you have a wonderful day!
I love you, Daddy!

Everything Dad

A little girl needs her daddy
To love her with manly charm,
To soothe her when she’s hurt,
And keep her safe from harm.

A girl needs her dad
To show her a man who’s good,
To help her make right choices,
As only a father could.

A woman needs her father
Just to be aware,
He’ll always be there for her
To sustain her and to care.

You’ve been all these things, Dad.
I hope that you can see
How much I treasure you;
You mean everything to me.By Joanna Fuchs

image courtesy of www.housemouse.com

Special Candy From A Special Gal!

My dear, sweet, wonderful friend Callie is giving away AWESOME blog candy to celebrate her posting as Guest Designer with Queen Kat Designs! Go check it out! Become a follower, leave lots and lots of comments - you can leave up to 1 a day and if you link to her blog on your blog, you'll get 2 entries! That's a lot of chances to win! She wants to have 250 comments and every 50th comment gets a special mini-surprise! So, go on, check it out! She's super talented and super sweet!

St. Pat's Happy Day!

This card was for 3 challenges this week, but it looks like I just slightly missed out on one! Oh well.. I will be submitting this card to The Corrosive Challenge blog for Challenge #3 and to Stamp Something for their Green Challenge!
This one was quick and simple, and uses just about every green I could find in my craft room! Green paper, Green patterned paper, 2 green inks, green flowers, and a green rhinestone!
Hope you like it!Update! This card won the Corrosive Challenge! Yay for Green!

Happy Cupcake Day!

I made this card a little while ago, but I realized that I never actually posted it on my blog! Shame on me! And, it qualifies for the Papertake Weekly challenge this week! Yay! This is one of my favorite cards, as it uses many of my favorite things!

I Love Cupcakes!
I Love my CuttleBug!
I Love my Bella's!
I Love this shimmery, sparkley paper from PaperZone!
The challenge this week is to make a card with something edible on it! That's easy - let's eat cupcakes!!
Stamps: CuppacakeaBella by Stamping Bella
Cardstock: PaperZone
Stardust Glitter Pens
Cuttlebug: Spots & Dots

Friday Sketchers #43 & Little Paper Shop

Update: My Sweet friend, Callie introduced me to another challenge blog by Little Paper Shop, and they are having a stitching challenge this week! So I entered this one there as well! This is a wonderful blog and shop with adorable stamps that I will be checking out regularly from now on! Thanks, Callie!

I love a good sketch to get my mojo flowing! Here's another fun sketch from another fun blog! Friday Sketchers, go check them out, if you haven't already!
Here's my card! I was trying to come up with a card for a swap to take to the Stampin' Up! regional seminar... but the idea that I wanted and the stamp set that I wanted use weren't working together, so I put this together instead. I had a bit of a stitching "incident" in the upper corner, so I covered it with another pretty flower! This card uses Stampin' Up! Riding Hood Red, Whisper White and Pirouette Pink cardstock and Candy Lane DSP. And Stampin' Up! Good Friend stamp set. I also added Prima Flowers, rhinestone brads and a small Martha Stewart pearl for the birdies eye.

Truly Scrumptious Challenge #2

I love the sketches put up on the Truly Scrumptious blog! I just wish I was "feeling" this one a bit more! It didn't turn out quite like I wanted. I cut out the image with my new Labels Two Nesties, then I colored it.. but I didn't like the coloring, so I stamped it again, colored it and then cut it out again.. but I cut it out sideways! Argh! Then, I think I should have cut my 4 rectangles just a tad smaller and matted them on coordinating paper.. but.. well.. I didn't. So this is what I got! Part of the challenge this week was to make our own buttons. Make our own?? I wandered around my craft room staring at stuff, thinking what on earth am I going to use to make a button? I finally decided on just punching a circle out of my Cuttlebugged paper and punching a few holes in it. Hey, it's a button! Magic! If you haven't checked out Truly Scrumptious, you really should!For this project, I used Stampin' Up! Whisper White, Chocolate Chip and Green Galore cardstock. DCWV Green Stack, Cuttlebug Textile Embossing folder and Labels Two Nesties. I used my Giddy Up House Mouse stamp and colored it with a combo of Copics and Stampin' Up! markers. I "popped" my image with Stampin' Up! dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by!

My favorite people!

Just wanted to share a photo with you of my 3 favorite people!

My sweet little girl is growing up...

Emily wanted a blog. Yes, my 4-year old wanted a blog! She came up to me, out of the blue, and said, "Mommy, I want a blog!" Who am I to deny the creative mind of a 4-year old? Not like I don't have enough blogs to keep track of, right? Well, Emily has a blog and I invite You!, my friends to go check it out! Remember, though.. when reading the blog of a 4-year old.. you must think like a 4-year old! All I do is type. She talks and I type what she says, so it may not make sense, most of the time it doesn't, but it's still fun to hear what goes on in her head! And, now, everytime I snap a picture of her, she says she wants to put it on her blog! So, go check it out, if you need your preschool fix today!
And leave her comments - she loves comments!
It's A Rainbow World!

House Mouse Monday Challenge #27

And a big shout out to my Dad! Dad's birthday is coming up, and even though he'll see this before the card even goes in the mail, he'll understand! My Dad is an awesome dude. He has a hat that says "Old Guys Rule".. well, he has a lot of hats that say a lot of things, but he's definitely an Old Guy that Rules. He has always been there for me, always has a word of good advice that I may or may not follow and he always knows how I'm feeling. He is supportive of anything that my brother and I decide to do. He is a sounding board when my Mom or I have "creative carding block!" And he is a great Grandpa to my little ones. I love my Dad.. he served our country, he served our family and I will forever thank him, appreciate him and consider him My Hero. All that being said... My Daddy loves his coffee! So, Dad.. this one's for you!This card features a first for me! This is the first time that I have "successfully" machine stitched on a card! I'm quite excited! I tried this before, years and years ago, and even purchased a special tiny little sewing machine to use on my paper, and it didn't work. So, I dusted off my big sewing machine that Mom & Dad bought me for Christmas years ago, and this is what I got! I did a test piece of paper, just to get my spacing right, but other than that, this is the first attempt! The image is kinda big, so adding a lot of embellishements wasn't really an option. But, that's ok, the challenge over at House Mouse Monday Challenge is to make a "Man Card" and for some reason men don't like flowers and rhinestones... (what's up with that??) So, I kept it simple and let the stitching do the talking.

House Mouse stamps, Stampin' Up! cardstock in Chocolate Chip, Close To Cocoa and Very Vanilla. Patterned paper from The Stack. Dollar Bin alphabet stamps, brads and ribbon from my stash. Colored with Copics and Stampin' Up! markers and blender pens.

I realized that I don't have a lot of photos of my Dad, and he probably likes it that way, but here he is! This is from last month, when we were finally able to get over the mountains for a visit. My Dad loves to feed his birds and was glad to have a little helping hand when Emily came to visit.Happy Birthday, Daddy! I love you!

A couple of cards for you

Here are 2 cards that I made today... I think my "big" card, my House Mouse Monday Challenge card stole all my Mojo before I got to these 2.. but here they are anyway!
This first card uses my new High Hopes stamp, Huggable Hank. I was trying to follow a sketch posted in the Cute Critters Club.. but I didn't stick much to the sketch, and it didn't turn out like I wanted. I'm not entirely happy with the coloring that I did on poor Hank, he ended up looking almost like an astronaut to me. Ah well.
High Hopes stamps, Huggable Hank, Stampin' Up! cardstock in Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla. Stampin' Up! stamp set, Lots of Thoughts. Patterned paper from The Stack. Orange patterned paper from my scrap pile. The ribbon is some that I saved from a shirt that Iain had bought last year.. it came wrapped in this wide brown ribbon. Colored with Copics and Stampin' Up! markers and blender pens.

This second card was also trying to follow a sketch in the Cute Critters Club... I just now realized I forgot to use a critter. Again, Ah Well.. I have no idea who makes this stamp, I found it in a pile of unmounted rubber in my craft room and said, "Hey, I've never inked this!" So, now I have. He's a cutie and I like the dimension and coloring and layout of this card.. but I think it's missing something. Maybe patterned paper in the background would have been nice. And this weird ribbon won't lay straight, no matter how I try!Stampin' Up! cardstock in Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla. Red cardstock from my stash, has some sparkle to it. Ribbon and embellies from my stash as well. Colored with Copics and Stampin' Up! markers.

Happy Anniversay Mom & Dad!

Sunday was my parent's wedding anniversary! They've been together for 40 wonderful years! So, I was a little late in getting their anniversary card made for them... and even later in getting it mailed to them! Mom said that I could just post it on my blog and they'd see it there and I don't even have to mail it! Haha! What a blogging world I live in where I don't even send the card anymore, I just tell Mom to go look on my blog!
I kept this one simple and straight to the point! I tried not to "girlie" it up too much, as it is my Dad's anniversary as well! Iain really likes this one because of it's simplicity and he likes the blue sparkly paper.
Stampin' Up! cardstock in Pumpkin Pie, Imaginesce patterned paper, Top Note die, Cuttlebug, Stampin' Up! stamp set (All Year Cheer) and blue sparkly paper from Target.

Mojo Monday #77

This is (believe it or not!) my first ever Mojo Monday entry! I enjoy looking at everyone's cards all week long, but I have never managed to find the time, or the "Mojo" needed to play along. Until today! Hubby just happened to mention that tomorrow is his neice's 18th birthday. That's kind of a big one, isn't it? So, I should probably make a card, shouldn't I? Even if it is tomorrow and there's no way it will ever make it all the way to England on time... I still made her a card. And I really hope she likes it! It's a little hard for me to part with my favorites, and as I was putting this one together, it became a favorite! The colors are way out of the box for me.. not colors that I would normally put together, and being my first MojoMonday card... it's got that special factor!
So, without further delay, here is my card. I hope you like it as much as I do!
This card uses PaperZone cardstock, Whiff of Joy image (I think? Thank You, Norma!), Scallop circle and classic circle Nesties, Top Note Die, Stampin' Up! Markers, Copic Markers, Stampin' Up blender pens. Brads, patterned paper and gold filigree from my stash.
Thanks for stopping by!