I did it again!

Yes, some of you may have noticed... I changed up my blog again. But just a little. I have really been wanting a 3 column blog so that some of my sidebar thingies would be higher up for you all to view. I know that if you are reading just one blog post, you may not see some of the widgets that are lower on the sidepanel. Well, now things are rearranged and you can see more! What do you all think? Better? Oh, and I added some blogs and changed my pic again. My SIL and I decided that this one is a bit better since it looks more like me ;) and I realized that it's facing "into" my blog now, and that's better! Ok, so on to some projects. This first card was made for a Twisted Thursday challenge, but I never uploaded it so I didn't enter it into the challenge. I like it anyway, and it's my first Christmas card of the year! Yea! I need to get these started NOW in order to have them all done in time for Christmas. Seriously. I have had this Bella image colored since LAST Christmas and finally put her on a card! I love this combo of colors and elements, and I think I may duplicate it! I can even change the sentiment and image and make it into a Valentine's card, or anniversary card... Hmmm, the possibilities! And here is yet another note holder I made (ignore the horrible lighting, this just would NOT photo properly!):

I don't have any post it notes that match this holder, that is why there aren't any on it yet. I used all TGF Sunny Glen papers, Stampin' Up retired (I think) ribbon and the digital image from TGF is colored with watercolor pencils and OMS. OH! Actually the polka dot and green hearts are Cosmo Cricket, sorry about that. Well, let me know what you think of the projects and my new (again) blog layout!

Until next post, be blessed!

Another quick Friday post

I'm at MY computer now so I can post these pics of this card! Woohoo! I participated in two challenges with this card. The first challenge was from Secret Crafters Saturday to use 3 ribbons, and the second challenge was from Twisted Thursday to use something clear (I used rhinestones), use the free digi image, and use their sketch. So here's the card: I based the whole color scheme off the christmas papers I got from a BIG pack of papers I bought from Taylor of Taylored Expressions. I totally scored with the pack! But more about that on another post. I really wanted to have the main image matted, so I used a top note cut with my Big Shot! Here is how I did it: First I die cut the Top Note shape in Really Rust cardstock. Then I cut the middle out of it as you can see here:

Next I lined up the two end pieces to make sure they would line up nicely as you can see here:

Sorry it's so blurry. Finally, I placed my main image on the pieces to make sure it was right:

WaaLaa! I worked! I then gluedthe two pieces of the top note togeter, glued a piece of ribbon over the seam to hide it (and for a little extra decor), then I stuck the main image on with foam tape. Cool yeah?

That's it for this late-night post. Angel in cuddling in my lap trying to sleep but my typing is keeping her up so I need to get off this machine.

Until next post, be blessed!

A quick Friday post

Hey All! I just wanted to post a quick little something for you all to let you know about this:

CLUB ANYA VIRTUAL STAMP NIGHT EXTRAVAGANZA!

When: Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Where: Our Club Anya Group Page (on Papercraft Planet)

Time: 9 PM CST

Since Club Anya has fans all over the world, and many of us are not able to actually attend the event due to the time difference, all the challenges have been posted in ADVANCE on the Club Anya blog! Yippee! I have already started on one of them... but that will be for another post. Go check out the challenges and join in with us! It's going to be so fun, even if we can't all be at the ACTUAL VSN on Tuesday (although, I may try to be there. 9pm CST is 5am the next day for me-I think). Of course there will be prizes for the winners of the challenges, but you can read all the nitty-gritty details HERE. Now since no blog post is complete without a picture or two, and since I'm not on my laptop where I have all the pics of my cards and such (I'm on the desktop) here are some pics that may interest some of you (Kristel): Obviously that first one is of me and 4 of my 10 brothers... heehee(yes, I have a HUGE-mongous family, and I love it! And Yes, I include my inlaws because I love em like blood!). Can you tell which one out of those 4 is from the same mom and dad as me? Of the three others, two of them are stepbrothers and one is an inlaw. Can you tell? And this next one is of me and Ashton:

These are all from about 2 or 3 years ago. So, why post them? Well, my Sister (or sis-inlaw, we're so close it's hard to remember which is true!) commented that she saw my new profile pic on my blog and didn't recognize me! She said my face looks different and my hair is super long now. Yeah, compared to how it used to be my hair IS super long. And my face, well, I didn't do anything to change it, maybe the hair makes it look different? Ok, that's enough blabber for today. I hope you all have a Fantastic Friday and hopefully I'll hear from you all soon (in the comments maybe? heehee).

Until next post, be blessed!

CANDY, CANDY, CANDY!!!

***This is my second post for today, so if you haven't already, please scroll down and read my other post as well.

Hi there! I wanted to share some SUPER DELICIOUS Blog Candy offers with you! First up, Kirsten's Birthday Candy! These gorgeous Gorjuss images are being offered by Kirsten in celebration of her birthday this week. The candy ends on July 31st. HOp on over to her blog, Kirsten's Krafty Place, and find out how to enter to win this wonderful prize.
Next up I want to show you this delicious candy from Kimmi!
Kimmi is celebrating the end of 6 months of Chemotherapy by offering all of US this super sweet candy! Hop on over to her blog, Poppy Petal Designs, and find out about entering to win.
Next up we have Bona's Achingly Sweet Pink Candy! YOu have to go over to Bona's blog, Keep on Scrappin, to fully grasp the extent of this pink candy! Wow! She is celebrating making the top 100 list on Youtube's list of most subscribed (did that make sense? lol!). So hop on over there and tell her I sent ya! And last but not least, Jodi's candy!
Did you see those TWO spellbinders??? This yummy candy is being offered on Jodi's blog, Inked Inspirations, in celebration of her birthday as well. So hop over there also to enter to win.
I hope your teeth aren't aching too much from all this candy! My 10,000 hit candy will be tasty, but I don't know if it will compare with all this deliciousness. LOL!
Thanks for coming by, be blessed!

Can't leave well enough alone...

That's right, I just can't. I could not make up my mind on how I wanted my blog to look, so I've been messing with it and changing it ALOT these last few days. I think that's why I havent put up an actual blog post, sorry about that. I think I really like the way it looks now, so I think I'll be leaving it this way for a bit. Although... I think I'm going to change up my music a little. We'll see.
Well, The Greeting Farm had one of their Farm Fresh Friday challenges and it was a sketch. Here is the sketch:
And here is my entry: Andrew totally inspired this card. I told him I had no inspiration for the sketch and I didn't know what to do and he said "Well, make these three circles into stars." And that's how this whole card started! I used Space Ian since I haven't put him on a card yet. The "moon" is a diecut that was sent to me in a Blog Candy from Diana Gibbs. The ribbon was also given to me by my neighbor before she moved. The star brads are making memories and the star paper is from the DCWV rockstar pack. Oh, the dark grey paper is Stampin' Up! Here is the inside of the card:

I cut the crescent moon out of the other half of the diecut circle that the half moon on the front of the card came from. The rocket ship and star trail is from a Studio G clear stamp set and I wrote in the sentiment. I wrote a little personal note in the card and left it in Andrew's room for him to find when he woke up this morning. He really liked it :)

So, remember the Post it note holder I made with Pink Dahlia? Here is one that I made with Teal Annika!

I really love how her hair came out. I wanted to match it to the Post it notes, and it worked! The flowers were all made using Sunny Glen Designer paper from The Greeting Farm and brads from Basic Grey. It came out so nicely that I don't know if I'll be able to part with it, lol! I do have one more note holder that I made and one waiting in the wings... so as soon as I finish up the last one, I'll post them both for you all to see.

I hope you liked todays post, and come back again soon! OH!!! I just noticed on my profile page that I had 1,000 visitors to it! So I decided to check how many hits I've had to my blog and I've had over 8,900! Wow! Thanks so much for coming by and making my hit counter move up. As soon as I hit 10,000 I'm going to have a blog candy and I have lots of yumminess in store for it too!

Until next post, be blessed!

Lots of Cards

Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts. Since the kids are on Summer break, I haven't had the time to sit and post anything. So this post is going to have a lot of pictures on it, please bear with me! I made a bunch of birthday and Anniversary cards for the Spouses club a few weeks back. Here's a hippo birthday card: I paper pieced the hippo and balloons and drew in the border. Here are a couple simple birthday cards:

I sponged the edges of the cards, glued on some scalloped papers, tied a bow and stamped the sentiment; so simple! This is a mini birthday card that I ended up keeping for future use:

I used Stampin' Up stuff to make it and colored it with my watercolor pencils. Here are two cupcake birthday cards:

I masked the words that are actually on this stamp and stamped it onto several patterened papers. Then I cut out the papers and pieced the cupcakes together onto the card fronts. I added the self-adhesive rhinestones to the cupcake sprinkles and waalaa! Here is another little card that I made and kept for future use:

Again I used all Stampin Up stuff on it and watercolored the balloon. Here are two birthday cards that I made using Melanie Muenchinger's card that she sent me as inspiration. You can see the card she sent me on a previous post HERE.

And finally, two anniversary cards that I made:

The first one uses a Gina K. Designs flower stamp and the second one uses a Stampin' Up flower stamp (not sure of the names of the sets they came from). The second one is tiny again and I kept it for my use later. I hope you like this photo-filled post today. I am going to try to be more consistent throughout the summer with my posts!

Oh, and before I sign off for the day, did you notice the changes on my blog? I redid the layout and added a bunch of widgets on the side panel. I love challenges so I decided to add a widget for all my favorite challenges. Hopefully I'll get to participate in all of them regularly. When I do, you'll be able to click on the widget and go right to the challenge blog to participate yourself!

Thanks for stopping by today and until next post, be blessed!

Dotty Spotty Challenge

Happy Wednesday Blog Readers! How are you all doing this week? For a lot of us, this is a short week because of the Independence Day holiday on Saturday. We're looking forward to a fun 4th at the base, enjoying the festivities, games, music, food and fireworks. What are you all doing to celebrate?
Well, right now on The Greeting Farm Blog there is a challenge going on. The challenge is to use polka dots in your creation with TGF stamps! (the challenge has been extended through THURSDAY rather than Wednesday because of Galleria upload issues-so join in!) I made two projects. Here is the first one: I like to call it my Pink Dahlia Post-it holder. You can barely see the paper, but I did use polka dot paper! I colored Dahlia's hair Pink and I love it! I got the idea for the note holder from Joy over on her blog; A Place to be Me...

If you want to make one, it's SO simple. Click HERE and Joy will show you how simple it is! Here is a close up of Dahlia and all her gorgeous-ness: I have to admit, I orginally began this project thinking that it was going to be a RAK for someone someday, but I lvoe it so much that I'm keeping it! Heeheehee! I did buy three more acrylic frames so I will be making some for RAKs eventually. The big pink flowers that I used showed up in my house one day after our neighbor (well, exneighbor-Miss you Kylie!) came over to play. I don't know where she got them... The white flowers and pink little flowers are from Stampin' Up's pretties kit. I colored the pink flowers (which were originally white) with my copic marker and they came out just perfect for this project. The centers of the biggest flowers are Basic Grey brads and the other brads are from the Pretties kit (again, colored with my pink copic). Well, my second project for the Dotty Spotty Challenge is my Space Anya card:

I actually made this one first, but it didn't come out as originally planned. Oh well. AND I don't know what is up with the photo. I could not get a good picture of this card (probably because of all the white?) so please excuse the poor quality. Oh, and the water mark at the bottom... I didn't put that there! LOL! I don't know why it's there, and there is NO Stampin' Up product on this card so it shouldn't be there anyway! Oh well. I wanted my Space Ian to be Anya, so I stamped and cut out Ballerina Anya's head and put it on Space Ian's body.

So those are my two dotted projects for today. I hope you liked them.

Until next post, be blessed!