Round cards for a challenge

It's gonna be a short post as I'm not feeling chatty today. I've got a ton of PCS stuff to get done with all the medical stuff and paperwork to fill out. ANYWAYS... I did these two cards for a Gina K. Release sketch challenge. The sketch was to make a round card, so I did. I hope you like the cards. Also, have a great week. It's already Thursday, can you believe it? Until next post, be blessed.

Mountains and Kazoos

Happy last day of summer vacation!!! Yup, the boys start school TOMORROW! WooHoo! As I've mentioned before, Andrew is going into 4th grade and Ashton is starting Kindergarten. It's so exciting for all of us that both boys are now going to school. Andrew is a little upset that summer is over (of course) and Ashton is still a little unsure of the whole thing. He really liked going to preschool, but now that he is going to "brother's school" he's nervous. We've been trying to enjoy the end of the summer and this weekend we went to a birthday party for the little girl I babysit. It was at the Hale Ewa Beach park and we had a lot of fun. It was a great day and the kids had a blast. Here is a pic of the boys enjoying some of the treats they got on our way home from the party.Yes, they are wearing their disguises and playing Kazoos! LOL! That's my boys for ya!
Well, I wanted to post a couple pictures of two holiday cards that I've gotten done, but I just saved ALL my pictures onto discs and erased them from my computer! Now my laptop is running smoother, but I don't have the pics readily available for download onto my blog. So, if you want to see them you will have to click HERE and HERE (on the words "HERE"). That will lead you to my SCS Gallery and you can see the cards. I had loaded them to my gallery a few days ago because I entered them into a challenge on the Caardvarks blog. I love their challenges but never got around to entering them. These are my first two entries. Did you like them? Since I think blogs should have lots of pics on them (and so the posts aren't too boring) here is a picture of the mountains you can see while driving on the H3 from one side of Oahu to the other. Last Sunday we drove to the marine base (Kaneohe Bay) for some lunch and shopping after church. It was such a beautiful day I had to snap a photo. Sorry it's kinda fuzzy, we were driving...
On another note, did you notice the two new buttons on my sidebar? One is proclaiming my love for Melanie Muenchinger's stamps (my way of "shouting it from the rooftops" lol!) and the other is for the Monthly Birthday RAK group I'm in. If you want more info on either of these things, go ahead and click on the image and it should take you to their sites.
Sorry for the super long post today, I hadn't posted so I needed to catch up on things. I hope you all have a blessed week and thanks for stopping by!

The other Batch of Riley's!

Hello all. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I went a little crazy with my Riley stamps and made a second batch of cards. These cards use my favorite Riley stamp; Riley with Coffee and a Cupcake! I did discover a new Riley stamp today that has Riley holding a pan of freshly baked cupcakes, but since I don't own that one... But I digress. Here is an upclose photo of one of the cards. Can you see the subtle patterened paper in the background? I've loved this paper for a while (I used to have some argyle socks that were similar) but didn't have any idea of what to do with it. This swap used up most of it, and I'm happy with the outcome. It's a masculine card, but it does have a flower in it.
You know, I do these swaps becuase they are fun, and it's always great to get a little "paper sunshine" in the mail, especially when it's not expected. There are people living their lives without much sunshine, and I don't like that. Without getting into much detail, there is a family that is near and dear to my heart and they need some sunshine. It doesn't have to be in the form of a card, but a prayer for them could do wonders. Please pray for this family and the trials they are currently going through. Thanks everyone.
Until next post, be blessed with some sunshine!

Me: Defined

Copying Jen, who copied Jan and Allison:

Angelina --

[adjective]: Fuzzy to the touch

'How" will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Riley Swap-first batch

It's Thursday! WooHoo! Next week the boys start school already. They are in a year-round school, so Summer break is pretty much over and the new school year begins. Andrew is a 4th grader this year, and Ashton is starting Kindergarten! Boy, time sure does fly. I'll have to post pictures of them on their first day of school...
So, here's the first batch of Riley cards that I made for the Riley swap. I had a little trouble getting this group going. As I posted earlier, I had a different idea of how I wanted this card to turn out, but since that didn't quite work this one came about. It's the same layout, only I changed the papers, and the embellishments. With the embellishments, I didn't have anything that I wanted to use, so I decided to make my own! I used clear rain drops, and stuck them onto pieces of the Basic Gray paper. Then I cut it out, and waalaa! There they are!
Well, after I finished this set I stamped a few more Riley images and found some patterned paper that I liked and made another batch of Riley cards! But I'll post them on another day.
Until then, be blessed and thanks for stopping by.

Spring Riley

Happy Wednesday Blog readers! I've decided to be a part of another swap. I need to use up a lot of my supplies so I won't have to worry about shipping them to Italy, so I figured fun swaps would work to use up some stuff! Also, since I got reaquainted with my Riley stamps with the challenge card I made, I decided to join a Riley swap. So, I got working making a card that I could like to duplicate for the swap. I made this card, then realized I didn't have enough of that patterened paper to make all the cards I needed. So, I decided to just finish the card and keep it for a future occasion. You can't tell in this blurry pic, but I added sparkly stuff to the flowers in the top square panel and to the spade and the flower that Riley is watering. I also added glaze to the watering can and the handle of the spade.
I'm really not liking this picture, so I think I'll retake the photo and repost the pic a little later. *Edited: I reposted with a better pic, hope you can all see it now!*
Thanks for stopping by my blog again today. Tomorrow I'll post the first set of Riley cards I made for the swap.

A RAK from Colleen

I got a great little package in the mail on Saturday! Like I mentioned in a previous post, I am part of a monthly Random Act of Kindness group. I got paired up with Colleen and these are the goodies she sent me! There is a card and matching candy snack, some ribbon, beads, and three stamped images! I'm especially excited about making something great with the Bella image, and the monster is going to be so fun to color! Thanks so very much Colleen, I love this stuff!
This has got to be a quick post for today as I'm typing this up on Sunday night and I'm in the middle of one of my favorite movies, Labyrinth! Ok, so I hope everyone has a wonderful week and tomorrow I'll be posting some of the cards I got completed this weekend.
Until next post, be blessed!

Riley likes coffee and cupcakes too!

I love these Riley stamps. I haven't bought any new ones since the very first release, but I still love them, and the new ones are so dang cute. I want them! But it's not in the budget right now so I'll just be happy with what I have... for now. lol! Taylor VanBruggen always does a Cupcake Friday sketch challenge, and while I have admired all the sketches and the resulting cards I've seen, I never seem able to participate for one reason or another. Well, this week I got the card done, photographed, edited, uploaded, and all of this on time! WooHoo for me! The lighting is a little funky because it's been a cloudy, gray, and rainy day. The upclose photo is so you can see my coloring. This is the first Riley I've colored with my copics. I bought the browns with Riley in mind, but it's taken me a month to finally color one! Boy, time flies when you have kids to chase after...If you'd like to check out Taylor's challenge (she gives away prizes too!) you can click HERE. I hope everyone has a great Sunday, with lots of blessings.

My Purple Penguin

Happy Saturday Blog Readers! This is going to be a quick post since I'm writing this on Friday to be posted on Saturday, and I want to get busy with some more projects... This adorable little penguin is one of the stamps in one of the Christmas sets I bought to do my Christmas cards with this year. I'm going to get a big head start on them since I'll be moving during the Christmas Holiday and I won't have any time to stamp and send them out. So, hopefully I'll get them all done before Thanksgiving and they'll be sent out by then! When I opened the box, this little penguin just jumped out at me. I had to ink her up and make a quick little card. She doesn't have to be used for a Winter card, so I made this quick little card. In the past, I would have never used purple and green together, but Tinkerbell always has purple and green and this pad of paper has purple and green, so I've been using that color combo a lot lately.
Once again, thanks so much for stopping by and reading my blog. I hope you are all having a great weekend!

A sketch challenge

Happy Friday everyone! It's been a quick week here, even though not much has been going on. I took Angel Baby into her 9 month checkup/follow-up appointment on Wednesday and she's good to go! Taking into account her "corrected age" is 6.5 months, she's right on track for all her milestones, weight, height, etc. That's great news! God sure has blessed us with our Angel Baby. And just in case you wanted to know, she's 27 inches long and 16.5 pounds now!
Well, last weekend I made this card for a sketch challenge that Gina K. posted on her blog. We needed to have the card completed and uploaded into our SCS Gallery by Monday morning (Gina K. time-Eastern I think) in order to be in the contest. Well, I got the card done on Saturday, forgot to upload on Sunday, and woke up Monday morning knowing that I had missed the deadline. Oh well! I like the way the card turned out anyway, and it was a challenge to use this sketch. I'm not usually one for doing something a little off, like the turned up corner of DP, but it was fun to step out of my "comfort zone" and give it a try. I also received my stamps that I plan on using for my Christmas cards this year and used one for a quick little card, but I'll post that one tomorrow probably.
I hope everyone had a great week and that you all have an even greater weekend! What's everyone up to this weekend? We may hit the theater and check out the new kid movie (the Space Monkey one, what's it called?).
Thanks for stopping by again and be blessed!

Magnets and Toes

Yes, Magnets and toes! I've decided to keep a lot of my wood mounted stamps unmounted, so thye don't weigh as much and will be easier to take with me to Italy when we move. Well, that means that I have a lot of wood blocks! When I got this new set of stamps, I decided to use the blocks to make magnets! I stamped the images with classic Stampin' Up! ink, added some glaze with my Sakura Glaze pen, used my Signo white Gel pen to add some white, and finally put some rain drop embellishments on the cherries. Once everything was dry, I put the magnets on the back of the blocks, and waalaa! These magnets are so cute in real life, I wish you could all see them.
I think I mentioned in my previous post that I spent all day Sunday in the ER for Angel Baby. Well, here is a picture of her with her rash. It's actually not that easy to see the rash in the pic, but it's a cute picture of her eating her toes anyway! But can you see the red blotchy-ness on her face? Luckily the rash is pretty much gone today, and it wasn't an itchy rash so we didn't have to deal with all that irritation.
Well, that's it for today. I hope your week is going well and until next post, be blessed.

A gift set and a RAK

Hi Everyone! We had a busy weekend so I didn't get a chance to post, sorry about that. Saturday we had a yard sale that wasn't all that successful, but I did sell a couple stamp sets. I still have more that I need to sell before I move to Italy, but I have to get them photographed and posted somewhere. I'm thinking on SCS or Ebay, but I don't want to pay on Ebay. I tried Craigslist and that didn't do me any good. Maybe the second time will work better. Also, Angel's been a little sick, and she broke out into a rash on Saturday. It got worse on Sunday so we spent ALL day on Sunday in the ER. MAN! Everyone was sick and we waited for 5 (yes, FIVE!) hours in the waiting room! Sheesh! Oh well, she is doing great now.
Anyway, I am part of a monthly Random Act of Kindness group and I made this gift set to send out. I made a coaster magnet, a post-it note holder magnet, a notebook and matching pen, and an altered tin. I just need to get something to put in the tin (I ate all the gummy bears!Lol!) I used the Summer Picnic paper again. I think it's so happy and fun. Also, I was part of a Gina K. Designs Secret Swap and I got a beautiful decoration from JenMarie! She used the "He is Risen" stamp set which is so pretty in real life. I love the silver embossed cross. Thanks so much JenMarie!
Thanks again for stopping by, and until next post, be blessed!

He's Baaack.....

Gary that is! Gary the Gecko made another appearance this morning. He was hanging out on the window screen (a great place to catch flying bugs) only he was on the INSIDE of the screen. He was looking particularly yucky today, so I decided to snap a pic to share. Here he is being yucky: And here he is being even yuckier with the sun shining through his skin! Gross, huh? Isn't is crazy how translucent his legs are? Anyways, I used the Summer Picnic DP to make another card using a sketch by Lauren Meader and Melanie Muenchinger's stamps of course! It's a busy card, but I like it. It seems "happy" to me. Lauren always does such great work, I wish I cold attend one of her classes. But alas, she is about a hemisphere away.
So, last night I went out and got some ink! Tattoo ink that is! (yes, I know I'm a dork) What do you think? I love it. Obviously it's Angel wings folded into a heart. All my tattoos so far are hearts. It's still healing so that is why there is so much red. My skin is irritated of course, but after about 2 weeks it will be completely healed and looking all gorgeous! I'll take another pic then, and post it for you all to ogle at. LOL!
Well, thanks for stopping by again. Until next post, be blessed!

Designer paper and more blogs

Hi Everyone! It's already Thursday already, can you believe it? For some reason this week has gone pretty quickly for me. I haven't been super busy or anything but the week has still gone by quite quick. I recently got new paper to craft with and I've been inspired by it! You saw some of it on the card posted yesterday and here are two more cards using Summer Picnic Paper by Stampin' Up! I used the bear from Melanie Muenchinger's Jumping for Joy stamp set (I promise to use other stamps eventually-lol!) because he was already colored and made these cards quick and easy to put together.

I have these cards in my SCS Gallery with all the stuff used on them listed, in case you're wondering. You can just use the link on the right and it will take you to my gallery. Speaking of links...

My SIL Patty has a blog now too! When I was visiting them last month she mentioned wanting to start up a blog and I encouraged her to do so. She has a great love for God, and her blog really reflects that as well as being really encouraging to read. She's linked up on the side too, so click on it and check her out.

Also, I've found another blogger with amazing coloring skills! You have to go look at Frances' blog, Franmade. You can click on her blog name, or click the link on my right panel. And she's having a blog candy contest if you're interested!

I hope the rest of your week in wonderful and until next post, be blessed!

I want to win some Magnolia's!

Hi Everyone! So, I updated my blogroll a little bit (that's the list of blogs on the right column of my blog) with some of the blogs I frequent, but didn't have listed. First off, I have Pretty Pressings! You have got to check out the amazing cards Rosa makes. She uses a lot of Magnolia stamps, and they are so adorable. I've been wanting some for awhile now, but they are a little pricey and a bit difficult to get in the US. Well, Rosa is having a blog candy contest to win 200 images! Not only that, but they come in an adorable little album that she made, and there is a Magnolia Stamp too! So, this is my attempt to win the great blog candy.

Also, I added a blog called "Not Quite What I Had Planned" by Kristie. I stumbled upon it one day and she is hilarious! She tells stories of her life being a surrogate, adopting, and just day to day stuff.

Then, there are two blogs I linked up from "real life" friends of mine. "My Life" is my friend Nicole's blog. Check it out! She does great work, I've even put a few of the cards she's sent me here on my blog. The other blog is my dear SIL's blog, "My Opinion". Kristel is a Vegan and she talks about her life, and trials, of being a Vegan in a world (and family!) of carniferous people. Seriously, she's got some interesting stuff on there! I've also posted a card of hers here... The Tinkerbell one!

Finally, here is a card I made for Split Coast Stamper's Sketch Challenge #182. When I was coloring a bunch of images from Melanie Muenchinger's stamp sets (have I mentioned how much I {heart} her images? lol) I decided that I wanted to try to make this cute froggy look like a Red Eyed tree Frog. So, I asked my hubby to google images of them for me, and I followed a photograph to color this image. Then, I got this wonderful paper from SU! and thought the colors matched the froggy just right. So here is the card. I'm quite happy that it coordinated so well.

Well, thanks again for stopping by my blog. It took me over an hour to get this post done! Not only did I have two sleepy baby girls to take care of, I lost the internet connection! Well, at least it's done right?
Until next post, by blessed.

RAK's and my little friend

Happy Tuesday Blog Readers! I hope today is terrific for you. I have to take my Angel Baby to the Physical Therapist for a routine checkup. Hopefully they can clue me in on how to get her to start crawling...

This is going to be a short post today since I need to get moving with my day. First up is a wonderful RAK I got from my dear friend Julie. I love that she randomly sends me cards. It's like getting an automatic "happy day" in the mail. Thanks so much Julie! Next up is a RAK from my dear SIL Kristel. She's not a cardmaker, but she and I have a shared love of Tinkerbell! Inside this wonderful card was an even more wonderful poem, and a picture of the tattoo that I'll be getting with her next time I'm in California for a visit. I can't wait! And finally, here is my little friend. I like to call him Gary the Gecko. Unfortunately, Gary does not like me. You see, I stepped on him! Oh, it was the most horrible feeling to walk across the living room carpet and feel a soft, cool thing under my foot. That's what I get for attempting to do laundry! LOL! Luckily, while I was screaming and squealing and jumping onto the couch, I noticed that little Gary was alright. I think I stunned him, and maybe broke the end of his tail, but it was nothing too serious. I decided to snap this photo of little Gary and share it with you all. He later climbed all the way up the wall to the second story of the house (vaulted living room ceiling, so I could see him) and he made it all the way to the top. So I think he's ok. Well blog readers, thank you so much for stopping in today and reading my little blog world. I hope you leave me a comment just to say Hi. I only know of 2 or 3 people that actually read this! Have a Blessed day.

Some patriotic cards.

Sunday morning at church I noticed a lot of people wearing our Country's colors. There were so many red, white, and blue Aloha shirts that I thought for a second it was still July 4th. Admittedly, I dressed Angel Baby in red and white that morning on purpose, but she's just cute in red... Anyway, here are some more cards I made with the intention of sending them out to someone for Independence Day. I decided to just mess around with all my red, white, and blue papers and buttons and things and see what would happen. Again, I threw in some silver, and also some rhinestones on the second card. They came out ok, even if I didn't have an appropriate sentiment to stamp on them.
Sunday was somewhat of an emotional day for me. Without going into all kinds of details and rambling on and on... The sermon made me think about how blessed I am to live and raise my children in our country. I have been so anxious to get into another country, that I've been taking this one for granted. I've also been thinking about the other things in my life that I've been taking for granted, and I want to stop doing that. There is a ton more I could write about my thoughts and emotions from Sunday, but that's for a whole 'nother book...
Thanks so much for stopping by and reading my blog again. I think I've lost some readers, but this isn't just for them, it's for me too.
Have a Blessed Week Everyone.

Independence Day events!

Warning: This post has a ton of pictures, and only one is craft related... I decided that I needed to make a few "patriotic" cards and this is one of the few I made. I pulled out all my stamps and the most appropriate image I had was this shooting star one from a Gina K. Designs set. I made it work for all the cards I made, and I kept the colors red, white, blue and silver. They came out decent, but I didn't get ANY in the mail! LOL! Oh well, maybe next year...

We had a good time yesterday. After picking up a few fireworks at Wal Mart, we came home and the boys messed around with them. Here they are throwing Pop-Its at eachothers feet.Later we all went to Schofield Barracks (Army Base) for the festivities they had going on there. First we lounged on the blanket and ate some yummy food.While we were eating we watched Billy Ray Cyrus. Yup! He was there as our entertainment for the evening. He was good, and I enjoyed the part of his concert that I got to watch. I couldn't watch all of it because the boys wanted to go to the rides...This is them looking all happy on the spinning bathtub ride... And them after getting their hair sprayed with colors. They were out of red, white, and blue (of course) so Andrew opted for orange and green and Ashton got silver and gold (although his just makes him look like he's go gray hair!). We had a good time, but it started to rain so we decided to pack up and go home to watch the fireworks. Can you see those clouds in the sky? I don't know if it actually rained there but it didn't at home. Oh well. We all had a good time anyway. I hope you all had a great day as well. Until next post, thanks for stopping by!

Sorry it's been so long...

I'm sorry it's been so long since I posted! My husband went back to Korea on the 26th of June, and I feel like time has gotten all jumbled since then. I can't believe it's already the 4th of July! Happy Independence Day Everyone! I hope your day is filled with fun, and also take a moment or two to remember how blessed we are to live in this country. Here is a picture of the Five of Us the day before David had to go back.We are quite the motley crew aren't we? LOL! And yes, Andrew is growing out his hair! He wants it to curl, but so far it's just sticking straight out of his head like a 'fro. He doesn't mind it so much, so I'm trying not too...
And here is a cute little pink card I made a while back for a Gina K. Release Party Challenge. I think Olivia Ostich (that's what I call her anyway) is adorable in PINK. And since today is a day that a lot of people get together to party, I figure it's kinda appropriate (minus the color scheme anyway). I'll try not to have such big gaps between my posts anymore, but no promises. Life tends to slip away from me most days. I suppose that is a good thing when you are counting down for something (Approximately 148 days to ITALY!) but not so good when you miss out on your daily blessings. Do you see how big Angel Baby is getting? So, Happy Independence Day to all of you. And thanks so much for stopping by! Leave me a comment and let me know what you're up to today, and that you were here. I didn't lose all my readers did I?