Brotherly Love...

Hey there everyone! This is my THIRD post this week, can you believe it? I can't promise that I'll keep this up, but I'd like to try. That way I can keep you all updated on what's going on in our lives and with my stamping, but I can't make any promises. I know life is going to be getting busier as we get more established here. Yesterday I signed up to participate in the parent co-op program on base. It's a great program run by volunteers who spend about 3.5 hours a week providing child care, and in turn get 4 days of childcare for their own children. I'm looking forward to participating, having a place for Angel to meet and play with other kids, and meet other moms too. I'll have some free time to take care of errands, appointments, or just relax (by stamping of course!). Anywho, onto my card for today. It's another TGF image! When I saw these sumo wrestlers, I immediately thought of my boys! ROFL!!! They have been at eachother constantly lately. So I thought of them to whole time I made this card. I used some papers that I got at Office Max (or was it Office Depot?) in a pack of Christmas papers. I love repurposing papers for other things besides what they were intended. Also, the sentiment and "Pow!" and "Bam!!" were handwritten by me. I didn't have the appropriate stamp, so I wrote it myself. Here's a closeup of my coloring on the main image:

I used my copics to color the guys, and the stars are from Just Jawing by SU! are stamped in gray ink. Oh, BTW, this card was done for The Case of the Curious Card Challenge over on The Greeting Farm blog! I CASED the layout of the chosen card, and just turned it sideways. Well, that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed my post.

Until next post, be blessed!

My Stamping Room & a Finished Card

Well hello blog readers! I know some of you have been patiently waiting to see some pics of my home, well, here's a teaser for you... Pics of my stamping room! Disclaimer: it's NOT done! I have some wall decor to put up and more shelving to purchase. And the room is only about 6.5x7.5 feet big! But it's working for now so... Here is a picture from the hallway: That is the box for our TV (which we have to keep because DH said so, and it won't fit in the attic! One of these days it will be OUT of my room, heeheehee). In the meantime, the box is the temporary home to my Big Shot, my embellishments, and some designer papers. To the right you see my bookcase. Here's a shot of that:

The bookcase is a little crowded right now, but all the papers that are on the bottom will be moved whenever I get more shelves. There are also magazines and some scrapbooks down there. The second-to-bottom shelf holds all my stamps from companies other than Stampin' Up. I think they are too crowded also... Next up is the shelf with all my SU! stamps, then above that are all my inks, and a box full of dies for the Big Shot. The top shelf holds some cherished momentos... And the top of the bookcase holds a few more momentos and a plastic box full of finished cards (from swaps, friends, and some I made too). This next picture is the corner behind my stamping desk:

That neat little rack is a garbage find! It barely fit into our little rental car at the time, but I HAD to have it! I think it held snacks at a gas station, but now it's perfect for my 8.5x11 papers! Well, until I get more papers anyway. Here's the pic of my desk:

You can't tell, but the desk is AWESOME! We got it at IKEA (Yes, there's one just 1.5 hours from here, well worth the drive! It was the first IKEA I'd ever been in, and I loved it!) and the right side of it is 5 drawers. I love my desk! I picked the black top, with white drawers for the right side and 2 white legs for the left side. It works perfect in that spot of my little room. You can see on my desk that things are a little disorderly, well... I had to take a break from stamping but didn't feel like cleaning up. Things are much cleaner now that I'm done for the night. On the wall above my desk are a few things that help inspire me. The center picture is a shadowbox type of picture I found at the BX of a Lily (nuff said!) then there are two black floating shelves on either side. The cards on the shelves are ones that I made (and match my black/white room decor) and two pretty bottles of mini prima flowers. And see that card in the far corner of my desk? Well...

Here it is! I finally finished my rose card. I added a simple sentiment in Gray ink and a ribbon. I had to color the ribbon with my Rose Red SU! marker to get it the color I wanted it. I punched two holes on either side of the stems, then ran the ribbon through the card and tied a pretty bow. I also added some glaze to the flowers in areas that would have been wet with dew if I'd just picked these out of a garden. How do you like the end result? And my stamping room? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think! I still have a long way to go on the stamping room, so any and all advice will be taken and appreciated!

Until next post, be blessed.

TGF Sketch Challenge

Happy Monday Everyone! Can you believe it is the last week of the month already? It's going to be March before we know it. I'm glad that spring is just around the corner though. There is a lot more "green" in the fields and the plants are starting to flower. I can't wait to see this place in full bloom! I'll be sure to take some pictures and post them here on the blog.
Well, last night I spent some time in my stamp room! I love my little stamp room. It still isn't finished, needs a couple more shelves, organization, and a bigscreen tv box removed, but my desk is all set up and I can craft there, so that's what counts.
I don't know if you all have noticed from some recent blog posts, but... I have fallen in love with a new stamp company and the line of stamps that they sell there. I've mentioned them before, but I've never gushed about how much I love the images! The company is called The Greeting Farm (TGF), and one of their STAR images is named Anya (she has her own fan club, check it out at the Club Anya blog). You have to pop over to the website and check out all they have to offer. There are also some other images such as a Unicorn, hedgehogs, farm animals, Ian, and lots more. AND, she also sells digi images from The House of Mental. I love the sumo wrestlers! Ok, so go check out the site HERE but come back and look at my cards too! This first card was inspired by a sketch challenge that TGF's owner, Marie, issued us:

This is one of the digital Anya/Ian images you can purchase. I think it's called 50's sweethearts, and since my rubber stamps still haven't made it to me all the way over here on another continent (don't even get me started on how incredibly SLOW things in Italy are!) I've been using this image a lot lately. This is the FIRST card I made, from start to finish, in my stamping room. I used SEI patterned paper, SU! solid papers, PL cardstock from GKD, and the ribbon is from Walmart. The "for you" sentiment is from my SU! Fresh Cuts stamp set and the long, scalloped rectangle was part of the blog candy I got from Diana Gibbs. I love how this card turned out, and it's on display in my stamp room! (It just happens to match the color scheme I'm going for in the room, heehee). Next up is a card a made about a week ago with an image I colored a LONG time ago. This is the adorable little unicorn (and butterfly friend) that is another digital image from TGF.:
This guy is colored with my copic markers. I used some new Prima flowers in the corner of the card, and the sentiment is from SU!'s old Hostess Set, Best Yet. My mojo was missing the day I made this card, so I'm not entirely happy with it, but I knew I needed to put this image on a card and working through my "stamping block" is the only way I know to get my mojo back!
I hope you all enjoyed today's blog post; leave me a comment to let me know you stopped by, ok?
Until next post, be blessed!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Hey there Blog Readers! Today's the day, our 8 year anniversary and the day you all find out who won my yummy blog candy. But first, here's the card I made for my hubby. I used the digital image from The Greeting Farm again, only this time it's a lot bigger! I colored me and my husband (well, at least they are us on this card ;) with my copics again, only this time I took more time on the details. Notice the curly hair and the makeup on "me"? And I outlined the lips with my zig pen to make lips more defined. Also, the sentiment is from Stampin' Up!. So, I know you all want to know who won my blog candy.
Well, I put all the names in a hat and randomly choose... Pamela! Congratulations Pamela! I'll be emailing you to get your mailing address. I hope you all have a great week, and until next post, be blessed!

Happy Valentines Day!

Hey there everyone! How are you all this sunny V-Day? I hope you are feeling the love, lol! I just wanted to post a quick post here to show you all what I made for the guys in my life. For my hubby, I made him a Valentines Day card a couple months ago. Remember THIS card? It was the first card I ever sewed on. I also made him this milk carton holder for some of his favorite candies: Here's a pic of the yummy Peanut M&M's on the inside. If you are curious as to how to make one of these milk cartons, you can go to Splitcoaststampers.com and search for the milk carton tutorial. That's what I did and the directions were easy peasy.
Next up are a couple cards I made for my two boys. I used the first Sketch Challenge from Club Anya and this adorable digi image:
Both cards are the same, simple design, just used different shapes in the background.
And on the inside:
The boys loved the chocolate best of all. I knew they wouldn't care for all the details and embellishments on the cards, as long as they got their chocolate! Well, I hope you all have a wonderful day with your loved ones, and don't forget to enter into my blog candy on the previous post!
Until next post, be blessed!

Who Wants CANDY???

Yes, it is finally time for my illusive blog candy. I have been planning on this since before we received our orders, but things kept getting in the way! I have had a lot to celebrate and I wanted to celebrate it with YOU, my blog readers and friends, by giving you the opportunity to win some goodies from me. Some of the reasons for celebration include our long awaited orders to Italy, our MOVE to Italy, Christmas, New Year's, My Birthday, My 1 year Blogaversary, and now Valentines Day and Our 8 year Wedding Anniversary! So here is the candy: Here is a list of the things included in the candy:
a pack of 3 ribbon spools from K & Company
a Martha Stewart Crafts paper bead kit
a Marthe Stewart Crafts charm bracelet kit
2 packs of oval page pebbles by Making Memories
a pack of black Pop Dots
Basic Grey Metal Art embellishments
a pack of 20 Studio K Round Word Brads
A STAMP SET By Melanie Muenchinger!!! ("hip hop accessories" from GKD; I have this set and LOVE it!)
And not pictured: a pack of SU! 6x6 paper and a black ink spot

So what do you think? You want to win this? All you have to do is leave a comment here on this blog post. That's all! AND, if you want 2 chances to win, mention my blog candy on your blog with a link to this post. I will randomly choose a winner on the 16th (because it's our 8th anniversary that day) and post the winner here on the blog. I hope you all try to win, and send some friends over here as well. Since the move, my visitor counter has SLOWED down and hopefully this will help pick it back up! LOL!
On another subject, I went to my first ACES meeting last night. The ACES are the Aviano Community Enlisted Spouses group. It was fun meeting new people and we even Stamped! Yes, we made cards for Valentines day. It was right up my alley. :) Here are the cards we made:
This first one will go to one of my boys, and this second one will go to my Brother:

This "Love Bird" card was actually supposed to use a different stamp set, but since the DP says "love bird" I needed to go back to the owl table and us the winking owl. It was just too cute not to ink up.

And we also made a little tag to go on a treat bag full of M&M's. It was quite difficult to photo this tag, hence the reason it is in my dry, wrinkled hand! lol!

AND, as if that weren't enough... they gave out prizes and I got one! I happened to have the biggest heart tattoo so I won this prize:

I plan on using these goodies to make my hubby an anniversary card. And finally, I'll leave you with this picture of my view from my kitchen window.

Aren't the mountains gorgeous? God sure knew what He was doing when He designed our beautiful world.

Well, that's it for this post. I hope to hear from you all (even you who come by but never comment) when you enter for the blog candy.

Until next post, be blessed!

We're Moving in Tomorrow!

Hey there everyone! Tomorrow is the big day. We will finally be moving into our home. We're all pretty excited and ready to be in our final (FINAL) destination for the next few years. Unfortunately, that means my blog candy is on hold... I'm sorry! AND, I don't have any pictures to show you! I've been coloring with my copics, but that's all the craftiness I've had a chance to do lately. Good news is that tomorrow I get to start setting up my little stamping room! Yea! It's actually a storage room, but it's big enough for my stamping stuff and a little desk so it will work for me. On another sad note, we won't have internet at our home for a few WEEKS. Yes, I said WEEKS. I don't really know how I'll survive! Seriously, I keep track of everything through the internet. My bills, my family, my friends, my blogs... I think I'll be making daily trips to the base library to check in. I don't really know what else to do! Well, it's late here and tomorrow is our big day, so I'll leave you all with some funny pics of the kids. Ashton trying on Dad's helmet:

Angel trying on Mommy's hat and scarf:
Andrew trying on Dad's gas mask:
Grandpa Bob and Ashton saying CHEESE!!!!!! the last time we all had dinner together:

Until next post (whenever that will be) be blessed!

Happy Groundhog Day!

Hey there everyone! So, today is Groundhog day, and I was going to put my blog candy on here today, but the day got a little away from me. This morning we had parent/teacher conferences and during the second conference I got a call from the Housing office. We were offered a four-bedroom house! We immediately went to look at it, and decided to take it. It's a little further from the base than the house we originally signed a rental lease on, but the extra bedroom, bigger yard, and a few other things makes it worth the extra 5-10 minute drive. So, I'm hoping to get my blog candy together and photographed and posted tomorrow, but no promises! It will happen soon, I just can't guarantee exactly when.We'll be moving into our 4 bedroom house on Thursday so we've got a few preparations to take care of. Hopefully we'll get it all done in time! In the meantime, here's a picture of the Dolomite Mountains that we can see from our hotel room: This was taken about a week ago, on the last clear day that I was able to take pictures on. It snowed here yesterday! So we haven't had many clear days lately, but the change in weather is fun and we're enjoying the new experiences. Well, it's really late and we have an early morning tomorrow, so thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you again tomorrow.
Until next post, be blessed!