I still haven't broken in any of my new stamp sets, but I will this weekend. That's the plan anyway. And yesterday I got this beautiful card in the mail! 
It's from Adrienne; you can check out her great blog HERE. We were partnered up for Jen's August Aloha RAK group. As if the card wasn't enough, inside were tons of stamped images and a stamp!
I don't have any of these images so I'm so excited to play with them! And here's the peak I told you about! This is the other set of owl cards that I made for the owl swap that I'm in. 
I altered a daisy button to make the center a black, sparkly brad and added it to her hair... uh, feathers. I decided that this owl needed to be pink. She is a girl afterall, and this way she matches her red branch! You know what, the owl in the other swap cards are girls too. Did you notice the purple, sparkly eyeshadow on that one? You'll have to go back to that post and check it out! Well, thanks so much for stopping by again.Until next post, be blessed!
I actually signed up for two spots, so this is my first set of cards. I finished my second set of cards today, but it was too dark out to take a decent picture of them. And because my middle child is such a "middle child" I wanted to share this funny picture of him. 
He is such a goofball! He loves to dress up and pretend to be other people. He wears his halloween costumes year-round and he'll wear his costumes instead of pj's most nights too! Well, thanks so much for stopping in again. Until next post, be blessed.
Here you can see Ashton in the front window of the jumper, he has the yellow shirt on. (Yes, we all wore yellow and blue; Spongebob colors!). It was a great day. Everyone had fun, even though Ashton got a little emotional and needed a break in his room (I didn't send him there, he went on his own!). Before the party, Ashton tried one of his party hats on Angel. She didn't really care for it .
Angel's still in her pj's here, yes she wore yellow! When I asked Ashton what kind of cake he wanted, he said Chocolate cake AND cupcakes! So, I made both! 
You can never have too much cake or cupcakes. I made white cupcakes also, and it was a good thing I did because some of the kids didn't like chocolate! I know! I couldn't believe it either!!! LOL! One of the sweetest things about the day was that Andrew wanted to make Ashton's birthday card himself. I guess I'm rubbing off on him! He colored one of the owl images that I had stamped for an owl swap I'm in. He thought it was so cool that I let him use my Copic Markers! I watched him like a hawk though, and I kept telling him, "Now don't push too hard! Be careful with the lid! Ok, that's enough of the eraser marker!" (We call the colorless blender pen the eraser marker). He did an excellent job with the markers and with putting the card together! He went through my papers and picked out Spongebob colors, decided what layout and layers to use, and after I cut them all to his satisfaction, he glued it all together. Then, I showed him a little ribbon looking button and the birthday hat, so he colored the hat and glued the button on. He made a little mess with the glue, so ignore the glue spots! 
I think he has a real future in the card-making business. I swear I didn't coach him! That adorable owl is from Kim Hughes' 
I had to use the monkey from Melanie M.'s 
It's a flip album. I got the directions from Jessica Fick. You can check out her blog 
I kept it pretty simple without much embellishment because I didn't want to detract from the adorable pictures, or any of the journaling that my friend may add in the journaling blocks. 
I love the paper that I found at my LSS. It wasn't too "baby boyish" and it had some great blues in it. I used a couple of the adorable animal images from Melanie Muenchinger's stamp sets by paper piecing them into the book. (Have I mentioned how much I LOVE M.M.'s stamps? Check them out at 
They gave just enough embellishment on this section of the book without being overwhelming. Please ignow all the stuff in the background! It was hard to get a picture of the book open this far without having all the background stuff showing! See the 3 center panels? They each open up for another page.
I only had a few pictures, so I didn't fill in all the photo mats. And isn't my friend adorable with her big baby belly? 
Her name is Melanie too, not to be confused with the stamp designer! LOL!
And here are all her boys together! 
She is quite outnumbered in her house being the only female with 5 guys to take care of. And just so you don't need to ask, YES, they are all natural red-heads! LOL! I love you Mel and I'm glad you enjoyed the little gift. I can't wait to meet your little gift in November!
LOL! I know, I need to be a fashion designer, haha! And YES, I am a star! Kidding! I've had a lot of fun messing around with all the different ways to decorate the tees from the Little Tees stamp set. In a couple days I'll be able to post some of the things I've made with them. I did find the most adorable little favor bottles in the wedding section of Party City. I knew they would be perfect for a little project using my rubons. I completely forgot that I had some rubons from DCWV's Rock Star line, so I made this little "potion bottle."
Andrew wants this bottle (of course) so he messed with it, frayed the ribbon and made the cork fall in it. Oh well, I guess it's not so "cute" anymore and it's scarier.
Thanks so much Melanie!
They were hot and sweaty after the long hike up the mountain, but they had a great time regardless. Next up is my gorgeous hubby: 
He's the guy on the right with the blindingly white legs! LOL! He took a 26 mile bike ride with a couple of his buddies. He's in Korea; isn't it beautiful there? Wow, I wish I could've gone to visit him.
Since I obviously don't have any of the brand new stuff, I used what I had. The paper is Summer Picnic Designer Paper and the stamp set is Wild About You. I have to say that this stamp set is one of my favorites. I have used it SO many times for various things.
These two cards are made from a very special stamp set called 
Well, I know birds like mirrors, but geez, these birds take it a little far! I have seen them checking themselves out on my car, Grampabob's car, the neighbors car, even a car parked at the park! I think they are funny because they will hang out at the side-view mirror of cars and just CHIRP away! And just so everyone knows they've been there, they leave poop behind! Yup, I've got bird poop in front of my side view mirror! LOL! 
See the poop? lol! Well, on to some crafty stuff. Jen Young is a local gal who has been doing some weekly challenges on her blog. Last week, the third challenge was to alter something from around the house. I chose to alter some baby food jars (got PLENTY of those!) to hold some of my Basic Gray embellishments. I think the pictures speak for themselves...
Next up we have the first card I made with my new basic Gray Euphoria paper. I love this paper and these hippos look great dressed in it!
I paper pieced the hippos, added some white signo gel pen to their teeth, and colored their eyes and toe nails with Copic Markers. The embellies are Euphoria as well. I hope you can click on the picture to get a close up view because the hippos are so cute in their pink paper and purple toe nails! And last but in NO WAY least I got some happy mail yesterday! Linsey Rickett (my bff from Washington state-Blogging Friend Forever!) sent me this Wonderful card! 
The dragon is from Artful Inkables. I never heard of this company until I saw this card on Linsey's blog. I will have to check them out... although the stamping budget won't be allowing a purchase from them, poo! 
I cut the arms short on the baseball type tee, and embossed a lightning bolt on both tees. Andrew said that his looks a little girly, but no one at school said anything to him about it, so we're cool! I covered the tags with some business card laminate that my mom had laying around the house and added a ring through a punched hole, and waalaa! Ashton likes his a lot; Andrew really doesn't care (but he hasn't taken it off either...).
It's some type of fowl; a chicken perhaps? I honestly don't know, but there is a family of them! A mom, dad, and FIVE youngsters. The mom and dad are a bit redder than the younger ones, so we can tell the adults from the kids. Quite interesting, huh? Well, thanks so much for stopping by, I truly appreciate it! Until next post, be blessed!
I used stamps designed by Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms. Kim's designs have a specific style to them that I really like. These owls are from her stamp set "U R A Hoot!" I used Lauren Meader's Saturday Sketch for this card, and it worked out so well with these buttons and images. I also decorated the inside of the card because it needed a little extra "specialness" for my Grandpa. 
The sentiment on the outside is from the same stamp set, but the sentiment on the inside is from a Gina K. Set (her owl one, maybe). I added glitter to the polka dots on the birthday hat with my Sakura glitter pen and I colored the rest of the image with my Copic markers. The designer paper is My Mind's Eye, the solid white is Georgia Pacific, the light blue is Paperbilitiesm and the buttons came from Wal Mart. They are some of my favorite embellishments because brown and blue is one of my favorite color combos! Oh yeah, and the ribbon is Offray. 
Doesn't it look like she was trying to do the Cha Cha? LOL! She was actually just trying to balance herself. She is learning how to stand on her own. I hope you all have a Great Thursday and Happy Birthday to Carin and Grandpa again! Until next post, thanks so much for stopping by and be blessed. Oh yeah! And Happy first day of the Olympics! 
I covered a mini composition book, made a bookmark, a magnetic post-it note, and a double pocket card. I used the little animales from Hip Hop Accessories and DP from DCWV's Nana's Nursery. See the plaque on the cover of the book? It's a plastic tag from Gina K. designs with Making Memories heart brads through the corners. Also, the ribbon is Stampin' Up.
Ashton was ready to go! LOL! This was Andrew's second week of school so he wasn't all that excited anymore...
He has a guy teacher for the first time this year and he likes his class. He says his teacher is cool cuz he's not strict! LOL! AND, the girl that Andrew has a crush on is in his class again this year. So far it's all been good. Also, it's been busy around here because we have a new member of the family! 
This adorable little guy is Einstein! He's a mini schnauzer, and the best little playmate ever! Angel baby adores him and loves to grab him. He doesn't seem to mind too much. I am trying to house train him... Yeah, that's a little bit of a task. It's going ok, but it could be going better if you know what I mean. Well, that's about it for today. Tomorrow I'm gonna post a pic of the card I made for my Grandpa for his birthday! Grandma, if you read this, don't let im see it until it comes in the mail! heehee!
Joanne is somewhat of a celebrity in my book as she's known for her 
I already had this frog colored and he fit perfectly with this paper. He's hopping and this paper has the "bouncy" looking design on it! And I think those flowers look kinda like waterlilies so it all coordinates (at least I think so). Also, for the 
I don't know why I like that, I just do. Probably because it was something different for me, and I thought it up all on my own... dunno. And then, I decided I needed to let the zebra do a little dancing on this yummy paper so I made this card. This one used a sketch for the July Release party too. 
This sketch was given by Julie 
She is a local girl who has a great blog and does the RAK groups that I'm in. This was for her first challenge. She currently has a second one going on but it ends today and I don't think I'll have time to get it completed. I love this image from Rupa Shevde's first stamp set that she designed for Gina K. Designs. It actually has another chair for the other side of the table but since I sent this to a coffee-loving friend of mine that I dearly miss, I left the other chair off. You can't tell but I outlines the image with a Sakura Glitter pen to give it shimmer. The DCWV pattern paper has glitter on it as well. The other DPs are from Daisy Bucket Designs. I love that they are reversible that way I know that they all coordinate! Next up is the other square card I made. This one was for a sketch challenge at the last Gina K. Designs release party.
I used more designer paper that is two-sided for easy coordination, only this is from Stampin' Up! and it's called Summer Picnic. When I found out it was going to be retired, I had to get a pack to play with. I really love all the bright colors and the animals from Melanie Muenchinger's stamp sets all look so great with the bright colors! I kept it pretty simple with the layers and just added some self adhesive rhinestones for some sparkle.