You are My Sunshine

I had full intentions of spending this rainy day doing some much needed scrapping.  However, as is what happens to all of us, life gets in the way!  But I do have a fun card to show you. that I made a couple of weeks ago.

I've used Bo Bunny Max & Whiskers paper for this card.  It truly was so simple to make!  The stamp set is CTMH's Treasure Life.  Those weeds are individual, and I randomly stamped them with Versamark before embossing them with Vanilla Zing.  Simple, but sweet - and could easily be given to a honey.

Do any of you have allergies to your pets?  I have been so allergy ridden this spring, and I finally found out it would be best to have shots.  I am good with Sassy but I think my pretty little Chanel causes me some allergy problems.  Now I just have to get over my fear of shots so that I can do this!

My last stops of the day were Target and Cub Foods.  This is never a fun trip, but I went in armed with my coupons today.  I just have to share how much I saved.  Between the two stops, I saved $133.86!!  Yippee!!  That doesn't happen too often, but it sure is fun when I do!

Happy Mother's Day!

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. ~Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty

If you are a mother, you know that this rings very true.  I hope you have a blessed Mother's Day filled with loads of good things! 

Treasure Life's Little Moments

I sat down to make the cards for our swap at work.  I recently discovered a new technique, and I thought I'd use that to make the cards.  I think you're going to like, so I'll share.

This is a negative image stamp from Hero Arts - Silhouette Bells.  The first thing I did was take a 12x12 piece of white cardstock.  I misted it with Moonlight and Yellow Daisy glimmer mist.  After I dried the paper with my heat gun, I stamped Silhouette Bells with Versamark and embossed with Vanilla Zing embossing powder.  (I was able to get twelve of these rectangles from my cardstock.)  As you can see, the glimmer mist shows through the negative image.  I left a little edge and then mounted this on Bazzill splash cardstock.  The card base is made from CTMH Key Lime.  A layer of two ribbons and an embossed sentiment finished off this simple card.  If you'd like to see this card in more detail, just click on the image.

UPDATE: A negative image stamp is when the background is brought to the foreground.  For instance, the flowers in my card do not have ink on them but rather the background is inked and embossed. 

Love

I was blessed to be chosen in a drawing over at Imaginisce, and I received their new line "To Love and Cherish" last week.  Paper, rub-ons, stickers as well as loads of flowers and stamps were delivered to my door.  Yippee!!  I have been thinking about what I wanted to do with these goodies.  The papers are black, white, and grey, and they shout "love" when you look at them. 

Today I was thinking about that I am blessed to live with and be married to my very best friend.  Jerry's love for me is as unconditional as a human can give.  If anything is wrong, he swoops in as my best friend, and there is nothing better than that.  Have I ever told you how much I love watching comedies with him?  My dear husband has the most infectious laugh!  We will celebrate our 20th anniversary in a few months, and I decided this morning just what I wanted to do with this beautiful paper.  I used a Bo Bunny word book, and here are my results:

This morning I was outside and decided to pick a few vases of lilacs for the house.  Yes, they only last a day or so, but they can live here in my house with me for that time or out on the shrubs - and boy do we have shrubs.  Don't they look pretty on my dining room table?  They smell so good!!

Happy

Jerry is at a meeting tonight, so I just might take this opportunity to spend in my craft room.  Other than the sound of the furry kids scampering about, I'll have a quiet house, and of course, there's always plenty to do!

Bo Bunny is having a card challenge using flowers.  I love the inspiration I get from their blog.  Today they posted some really great quotes in honor of mothers along with some fabulous ideas for gifts.  Here is my card for the challenge:

I wanted to show you a close up of the flower I built.  Other than the green Prima flower, these flowers are actually cut from the patterned paper.  The folder scalloped edge is a border sticker.  This collection is called Flower Child, and I love that rich colors are mixed in with the bright.  Perfect!  This card is all Bo Bunny except for the Hero Arts sentiment.  I've distressed everything with Colorbox chestnut roan ink to give everything even more warmth.

Thinking of You

I snuck in some crafting time this morning - such a busy week already!  I saw this sketch from Card Patterns and was really inspired to create.  Round cards appeal to me as they are such a fun change.

Items used:  Paper Source round card, Swiss Dots Bazzill paper, CTMH Silhouette, SU sentiment, Bazzill and Prima flowers, May Arts ribbon, CTMH pearls

Hey, Here's a Tidbit for You!

I was thinking today as I was doing my Rusted Sun layout  (see the previous post) , that I would have loved to have some perfectly matched cardstock.  I found this tool at Bazzill paper:

Bazzill Matchmaker

Well, I thought this was just great, and I had to share.  They match so many companies and papers!!

Rusted Sun Layout

I have been trying to finish this layout so that I could share it with you.  It has been sitting on my desk for 3 days, but I have just been so busy!!  I hope you all had a wonderful National Scrapbooking Day weekend.  I had a blast at work teaching a free make and take.  It's always so much fun to introduce new products to people!!

For this layout, I used Rusted Sun paper, ribbon, and brads from Fancy Pants.  The letters are from Making Memories.  "21" and the sun where cut with my Fall Slice card.  This was such a fun evening with Shane, and I wanted to be sure to scrapbook it with with warm, bold colors.  As you probably have been able to tell, I am a simple scrapbooker adding just enough. I like when the picture and journaling are the focal point of a layout.

A Card, a Page, and an Altered Gift

I have some quick artwork to show you this morning.  Do you remember that it is National Scrapbooking Day tomorrow?  We are celebrating the whole weekend at Archiver's, so I am on my way to work.  Lots of fun things going on in a lot of places for NSD!

The first project I am showing you fits into two challenges - Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab (the picture below) and the Heart 2 Heart challenge which is using two ribbons.

I have used all CTMH products for this card:

This next project is an altered canvas.  You can pick them up at our local craft stores in a variety of sizes.  I needed a gift, and I thought this would be lovely.  First I sprayed the canvas with wheatfields glimmer mist.  It's such a nice base for additional work.  From there, I used a glimmer screen and sprayed again with moonlight glimmer mist.  I did the same with the flowers - two coats of glimmer mist.  The letter was cut with my Slice, and I covered it with glossy accents for extra shine.

Finally, I put together a page with some photos we toook of Chanel last week.  What a cutie!!  I've used Bo Bunny papers for this, AC Thickers, CTMH ribbon, and some random accessories.  You have to admit this is a way cute picture of our beagle sleeping with her favorite toy!!

I'll be back later this evening to check out what everyone is up to today!!

Backyard Girl

Over at a blog for Adorn It, the gals are having a challenge using three elements:

1. You must have something scalloped
2. You must have a picture of yourself in the layout, and
3. You must use little letter

I haven't seen much Adorn It at all, so you can imagine how happy I was to see it come in at Archiver's!  I grabbed three sheets of paper, and this is the layout I came up with:

Items used are Adorn It Bee Happy and Bug Buddies paper, some gems, and a little random ribbon.  The flower is a gerbera daisy from my "big vase of random flowers for crafting" (yes, that is what I call it) and I made the center paper flower with scraps of Adorn It paper. 

These are the cutest lines!  Cute little bumblebees, flowers, and lots of other flying bugs that are really cute.  If you have a bug-lovin' kid like I did, this is a great line to look for! 

Need 4 Speed

Do you remember - or even have - one of the Little Tykes cars?  Shane loved his, had a gas station for it, and even fixed it with his "tools."  One of the best things I thought about it is that it wasn't motorized.  he had to walk or run ot move it anywhere - great exercise to for a very active little boy!

Bo Bunny has a layout sketch challenge going on:

I grabbed two sheets of Grease Monkey paper and the matching sticker sheet to complete this layout.  That's it.  One of the reasons I love Bo Bunny is all their matching accessories for a page.  So easy to finish a layout!!

If you haven't seen pictures yet from Shane's birthday dinner last night, scroll on down to take a look.  We had a fun evening celebrating Shane's 21st birthday!!