Crafty Calendar Challenge

The current challenge is to have a winter themed project with the addition of a snowflake. This is a trifold card that I made using a snowflake cut out using Wausau White Gold Metallic Cardstock. The background papers came from DCWV Christmas Cardstack purchased last year. Embellishments include a white snowflake brad along with Michael's store ribbon that was on clearance.

I just love the festive colors and it is a nice break from the traditional colors associated with Christmas. The card came together in 10 minutes so it was easy and quick to make in multiples! Isn't if fun when something comes together so quickly? I hope I've inspired someone to have fun in their cardmaking and crafting.

Have a wonderful day!

Debbie

Surgery

There will be a slight intermission in my life for a few weeks. I had to have emergency gallbladder surgery this past week, so now I'm unable to craft for a bit. Sunday was my birthday, what a way to spend the day, recovering from surgery. Ugh. Hopefully I'll be back to things very soon and feeling better.

Life has been busy

It seems that life has been very busy for hubby and myself this summer. That alone has kept me from blogging. I just had to take some time off and re-charge my batteries. We kept very busy over the summer building gardens around our decks and a little experimentation in growing watermelons, snow peas and cucumbers in a small garden. Needless to say with the heat from the summer, it basically took quite some time for things to grow. The only thing that didn't grow decently were our cucumbers. This is the first time we ever had them grow so deformed and basically they were not edible. The watermelons grew and ended up looking like bowling balls and oh my goodness, they were as sweet and juicy as could be. I was so surprised with them. Our snow peas really threw us for a loop. I have never had them grow for more than a month before the stems died out. Where we live now, because there is a lot of sand under the dirt, we had snow peas growing all summer long. Talk about a shocker, but we were so pleased at how delicious they were and that we were able to pick them all summer long. Our tomato plants grew quite large, to the point that some of them had to have double cages just to hold them up. Talk about super sweet and yummy. We did can a few batches of sauce which will last us through the winter.

So now that I am back to crafting, I will start posting cards that I have made recently.

Debbie

Card Swap and Sad News

I recently participated in a card swap for Cricutscraplifters. I just love making cards and I surprised myself at how nice these turned out.

The first card is my summertime beach card. I did the background using SU inks and a SU seashell border stamp. The umbrella and chair were cut out using Life is a Beach Cricut cartridge. The pink cardstock on the umbrella was outlined using Cri-Kit Metallic pen made for the Cricut machine. It looks much nicer than what you can see in the photo.



This next card is for the 4th of July. I used SU cardstock and inks. The star paper is from some paper I purchased years ago but I can't remember where. All the cut items are from the Stand and Salute Cricut cartridge and some things were pop dotted. The inside of the card was drawn on the Cricut using the Cri-Kit pens. I just love the way this card turned out.



On a sad note, my best friend, Mary Powell has closed her store. She made such beautiful designs for cutting machines. I know her store and designs will be missed but maybe later in life she will start designing and selling again. Right now, she is taking a break and being very creative making cards and posting on her blog. Head on over to http://mamawslegacy.wordpress.com/ to see her beautiful cards. She just inspires me in so many ways. I can only hope that one day I can make such beautiful cards like she does.

It's another rainy day here so I will be working on cards and catch up on scrapbooking vacation photos from over a year ago. Better late than never, right?

Have a wonderful day!

It's Been A While

I can't believe I haven't updated the blog for the past two months. I must admit it has been busy around here. Since we has such early summer weather starting in the last week of May, there have been some very busy bees here.

Hubby and I have built 3 veggie and flower gardens which are blooming just beautifully now. We love fresh vegetables, so we put in tomato plants, pepper plants, radishes, bib lettuce, cucumbers, snow peas and watermelon. I've noticed that one tomato plant is not doing well at all so it may be a dud. I picked a few radishes the past two days. Wow, the radishes have a real bite to them. Whoo, it sneaks up on you. Talk about eating good and healthy. Sad to say, out of all the lettuce seeds I put down, only one set has come up. Hmmm. I guess I'll try replanting them. I have a feeling that when someone was weeding the garden (me), I may have pulled them when they were just tiny sprouts in the ground, thinking they were mini weeds. I like to weed as soon as possible. Guess I'll just have to replant lettuce and more radishes. Nothing like eating fresh homegrown vegetables!

The dogs are doing beautifully here. Jett is growing like a weed and soon will be almost the same size as Storm. They have been busy swimming at the lake, splashing in their plastic pool in the backyard and having fun with the water sprinkler out back. It's a good thing we don't live on a lake because we would have a hard time keeping them out of the water.

Next posting will show some cards I made for a swap. Hope you had a wonderful and safe 4th of July holiday.

New Ideas for Cards and more

If you are looking for some new ideas for cards, head on over to http://mamawslegacy.wordpress.com/ for see her latest creations. Once you see what she has come up with, head on over to her store at http://shop.mamawslegacy.com/zencart/to purchase her files. Oh my goodness, what a fabulous way to make cards super fast using a cutting machine. Just beautiful ! Mary really puts in a lot of time and talent in making her designs. Yes I am biased, she's my best friend !!

Something new for the Cricut machine are gel pens and swirl gel pens available at http://www.cri-kits.com/index.html. They have a magnetic pen holder and gel pens that fit in the blade housing. Just swap the blade out and put the magnetic pen holder in and let the Cricut draw the design. I purchased all 4 sets of the gel pens and they work amazingly well. Today I received the swirl gel pens and as the pen puts out ink, the color of the ink changes as it flows. Super neat idea. I just love the pens. Now they are coming out with an embosser that will fit right into the magnetic pen holder. Does it get any better than this? Wow...I guarantee you will get hooked on their pens.

I will be posting some new cards that I used with Mary's new designs and using the Cri-Kits gel pens. I can't wait to start creating. Oh the ideas that are just flowing in my head!

Til next time, Happy Crafting!

Debbie

Vellum Butterfly for Card Swap

Let's see if blogger will let me post the second card now. I tried on the previous post, but it must have been running some kind of glitch. (It looks better if you click on the photo, because on here it looks too blurry).

For this card I cut the border and butterfly from the Gypsy Wanderings that is already pre-loaded on the Gypsy. I colored the vellum with SU Regal Rose, same color as the border paper with the circles. I stamped a flourish on the paper before I cut it out to give it some depth, in Whisper White. Put a little dab of Stickles in the center of the circles and done! I stamped the back of the envelope with a butterfly and used the same stamp to also stamp it very lightly inside the card. That's it, quick and easy!

Happy crafting!

Debbie

Cards for Swap

Finally my cards are done and in the mail as of yesterday. Woohoo! That is a good feeling. organized. The first card with the vellum glass was an idea I saw over at http://dawnsstampingthoughts.typepad.com.
The challenge for the cards were to do them completely on the Cricut. Trust me, when you have other things around, it's hard to stick with just that approach. I did try to be true to the card swap and this is what I came up with.



The only thing I didn't add was the stamped banner like Dawn's because I felt that whoever would use this card could add their own sentiment.

I WON BLOG CANDY!

Oh my goodness, I just found out today that I won blog candy from jenthecrazyscrapbooker.blogspot.com. Wow...I won a whole box of papers!! Woohoo!!! If you get a chance, head over to her blog and look at all of her cute projects she has. Oh my goodness, I'm going to paper heaven soon!!

I didn't get all my cards done today like I was sure I would. I have half of them done, so that's a god thing. Raising a new puppy is busy, busy, busy and my little Jett is not one to let me sit around on the computer or in my craft area. She is quite demanding as she gets older. She's growing by leaps and bounds which reminds me, I need to get her puppy book updated with her photos. The latest thing she is driving me crazy with is at night. The moon has been so bright here lately, and she sees her image in the patio doors from the living room. She runs to the patio door and stares at herself and barks. I've had to start closing the patio curtains. We have noticed in the past that she will see herself in the glass door on the fireplace and she walks right up on the seating area and sits there and stares at herself. Same for the glass on the stereo cabinet. Yet I pick her up and let her see herself in the mirror and she doesn't see herself. Weird. She is a handful and we love her to pieces. Her little tongue comes out and just licks away at our faces. She loves giving kisses. What a little stinker!

Hope you all have a wonderful week and check back later to see my cards.

Debbie

Happy Palm Sunday

Hope everyone is having and enjoyable Palm Sunday. Whether going to church, visiting with family or just relaxing, I hope all is well for you.

I had to go MIA for awhile, tending to some family business. All is well and wonderful. I'm busy on making my 12 swap cards today for Cricutscraplifters and hope to get them in the mail either Monday or Tuesday. I've been busy this morning already catching up on reading the blogs I faithfully visit and getting tons of inspiration! I hope to start inspiring others myself. I've been sadly lacking in posting and am going to change that starting today!!

Spring is starting to show around here. I looked out in the front garden this morning and saw signs of the green leaves for the irises peeking out of the wood mulch. Woohoo....bring on the warmer weather! We are so ready for it. Talk about cabin fever this past winter. Some days it was just unbearable and some of us became a little grouchy and crabby but the dogs would sense it and start playing and acting silly and get us laughing again. Love our labs! Mommy's two crazy, silly girls know when we need a good laugh.

I will be posting cards later tonight, so keep an eye out and mark it on the calendar. LOL. Seriously, I hope to post much more often than I have in the past.

Have a wonderful day and week!

Debbie

Looking Forward to Spring

It's been a slow month around here. I feel there are some days I'm just moving in slow motion. The snow is melting slowly with the warmer temps but spring and summer can't get here fast enough for my liking. I have to remind myself that it's only March and we've been known to get more snow as late as May in WI. Ugh, we are so sick of looking at the white stuff no matter how pretty it is in the woods.

Our newest addition, Jett, is quite a bundle of energy. I wish I had her energy to keep up with her. She's like a jet fighter flying through the house and at times she makes plenty of what I call Jett Noise to go along with it. The best thing with Jett is she has really healed my heart over the loss of Pepper, better yet, she's pulled Storm out of her blue funk also. Jett gets Storm to play with her and stand back because they play hard with each other. Storm may be 9 years old now and Jett is almost 4 months, but Storm is acting like she's a new puppy again. Jett is a lover and yet she's tough, just like Pepper was. She is a joy to have around!

Jett's brother that had the tough start to his little life, has been placed in a very good home according to our breeder. That's wonderful news. If she couldn't place him, he would have been coming here as the last option. Hopefully he will thrive in his new home and have a long and wonderful life.

My crafting passion has waned over the past month but it's getting kick started again. With the sun shining all day long around here, it puts me in a really good mood and I start getting ideas again. Today is not one of those days but I'm going to play around with making cards anyway since I just joined a card swap. Will post photos as I get them done.

Hope everyone is enjoying the warmer weather and look forward to hearing from you. Have a wonderful day!

Beautiful Cards Sent to Me

Check out these two beautiful cards sent to me by my best friend, Mary Powell. She has a website where she has cutting files for sale and also has freebies. The first card she sent me for my birthday and the second card is for my wedding anniversary. They are such works of art that I just had to frame them. She does such beautiful work. Check out her website at mamawslegacy.com/.


The pictures don't do justice to the beautiful stamping and coloring that she incorporated. The flowers on the second card sparkle. I think she used Spica glitter pens. When the light hits the card, it just shimmers so softly. Just beautiful!

Thank you Mary for you beautiful cards.

Want Beautiful SVG's...

I recently joined the group SureCutsAlotUsers. What a fun group! One member is Paulo Guimaraes who has a blog at scale-files.blogspot.com/. He has so many wonderful and beautiful files to download free. I could spend all day and night just cutting out his files. Reading his blog I learned that he is a doctor in Brazil and he works with children. He's a gorgeous hunk of a man too! Want to bet some of his patients have a crush on him? I would!! Who wouldn't want a wonderful guy like this that not only takes care of children but takes the time to make such beautiful art too!!

Paulo, thank you for sharing your talents! Your designs really take my breath away!!

Blessings to all!

I WON BLOG CANDY !

I have ready so many blogs over the past year and have entered so many comments in hopes of winning blog candy. There are so many talented people in the crafting world! Recently I had the pleasure of visiting Cindy McVey's blog at crazy4crafting.blogspot.com. She is a Cricut designer and Stampin Up! demonstrator. Seeing some of the papers and creations she has on her blog really is an inspiration.

I was lucky enough to post a comment on her blog and she recently notified me that I won a limited edition Cricut cartridge called Mother's Day 2010! Here's what it looks like in the package:

Woohoo, I'm so excited and can't wait to receive my new cartridge. What a wonderful surprise! Thank you Cindy for offering the chance to win this!

Happy crafting to everyone!

New Inspiration

One of my goals for the new year is to craft more. Since October I lost most of my oomph for crafting after losing my dog, Pepper. Since the week of Christmas, it has been busy around here with the new puppy and she really keeps us busy, especially me. Mommy's new shadow. She gives me hope that we will have many, many years together. She really has pulled me out of a slump.

With Valentine's day coming in a few weeks, I decided to start making a few cards for some very special people. Here is a card that I made to send to my parents from the doggies.


Step Ladder Card

I used all SU supplies: Real Read & Whisper White Cardstock, Love You Much stamp set, and a Fiskar's Heart border punch. The tiny hearts are from what was punched out of the border punch. I wrote a message on the back of the card. For the heart I stamped it in Versamark and Real Red ink. I added Dazzling Diamonds glitter and embossing powder and heat seat that. Inside the main heart I added a little clear color diamond which really looks neat! I think it's super cute!

Hope you are having a great week and have fun crafting!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone! It's been quite busy around here with the new puppy. I've also been trying to get time to make cards and work on scrapbooking. I'm not getting as much done as I would like since we've added to the family. Making her debut on mommy's blog, please say hello to:

Jett

Hi everyone! My name is Jett and I'm 9 weeks old now. I love my new home and I'm having so much fun around here. I have a new friend, Storm and she's reminds me of my mommy. Storm plays with me, now that I'm starting to get bigger. We have so much fun together and she is teaching me so many neat things. I've got a huge box of toys to play with so I'm never bored. I fly around the house like a jet fighter and when I bark, mommy says I'm making "Jett" noise. That's why mommy named me Jett.

Isn't she a cutie? I took this picture when she was barking at me. Sometimes puppies bounce up and down when they bark and that's the picture I was trying to get. Imagine my surprise when I looked in the camera and saw that her ears went straight out like wings. So I call this one Jett wings. The best thing about Jett, is that she is healing my heart over the loss of my beloved Pepper. At this very second, Jett is sleeping under my chair as I write this. Yep, she is my little shadow, which by the way is her birth mommy's name.

We didn't bring home the little yellow lab that was affectionately labeled Trooper. His tail healed up and his fur grew back according to the latest email I got from Laurel, our breeder. He is growing by leaps and bounds so we are sure she will be able to place him. If she can't find a home for him, then we will be the last resort and he can come here. I believe Laurel will find him an awesome family to take him. He is such a cute little boy to begin with!

I hope everyone is enjoying the new year and wish everyone the best of health and happiness!

More later...