Creation Day!!

Time to Create!!



Yes!! I was finally able to get up to the Haven and C-R-E-A-T-E!! Yippee! Instead of doing the cards that I need to do for the month of August, I took on 2 of the sketch challenges for the SCS Dare to Get Dirty Challenges. Fun, fun!!


This one was for both the pet challenge (by SweetMissDaisy) and the sketch (by genie1314) challenge on Wednesday.








And this one was for Beate's sketch challenge on Thursday. I found this one *much* harder to visualize and complete for some reason. The colors just wouldn't come together or something. They were both terribly fun, though.






It ROCKS to be a SCS Fan Club Member!!!!

I took pictures of my Haven tonight. It was *clean* for a change......




This is my work area. It's in a "U" shape.










This is my stamp storage, cabinet, and Cricut area.











This is the stereo, bin storage, and Jaydin's play area.











Here is the rest of Jaydin's play area.







Ok ... I'm off for the night. I hope you guys have Happy Stamping this week!!! And go join the Dare to Get Dirty challenges if you are a fan club member on SCS - and if you're not a member .... SHAME on you!!!!!! :)

Punchy

So, I'm *always* looking for better ways to store things in the Haven (my stamping space). My punches have been a major source of frustration. I've seen so many people that use the 'over the door' organizer things with pockets. That won't work for me because my door is too far from my stamping area. Oh ... did I mention that I want *EVERYTHING* within arm's reach??? LOL!! Seriously, though, the door was just too far away. Lately, I've just had them on a shelf in one of my cabinets. It worked for the most part. They weren't organized, but they were safe and protected.

Yesterday, a special friend mentioned how she stores her punches, and a light bulb went on for me!! Woohoo!!! This system just might work for me.

Basically, the punches are hooked over a wooden dowel suspended by pegboard hooks. How simple! How perfect! I even had all of the needed items for this. Cool! Last night, I gathered the supplies and set off to create my new punch storage area. After some rearranging and organizing, I learned 2 things:

1. This works *great*!!!
2. I have TOO many punches!!!!!!! LOL!!
   

Now, some will argue with that 2nd statement, but considering the fact that I have a Cricut, I seriously have too many punches.

Ok ... here's the picture. I really, really like the way the storage works. Thanks sooooooo much to Krista (krista_stampinfun on SCS_)!!!! Great inspiration.




I'm going to work on the DD challenges on SCS, but can't just yet. Way too much going on around here. I will post my creations here when I get them done!


Happy Stampin', my friends!!!

Yippee! Finally!

I finally made 2 cards. Wow. The first one is a quick card that I needed to send a note to a friend. The other one took a little more time. When in Michael's the other day, I found some cool embossed cards in a big set just waiting to be embellished and stamped. That's what I used on the first card. It was already a great background, and I just added a focal point. Doodle This was the stamp set used - and the little flourish behind the flower was from Doodle That. The watercolor crayons and Aquapainter were used to color the flower. The brad was from a kit that I got on sale. I have no idea what brand it is.




On the second card, I used the set Loving Hearts (I think that's the name!!). I made my own 'designer paper' with the 4-square stamp and, 4 different color inks, and the stamp-a-ma-jig. I like the way it came out, but it took forever. I'm loving (still) those great tag punches that SU put out last year. The cute little square brad was from that same kit that I found on sale. It ties in with the square stamp pattern.





And a special, special THANK YOU to my Quacker friends. They sent a beautiful card - made by Dody!!! - and a gift card to me today. The gift card is to purchase a tree to plant in memory of my daddy. It was such a sweet, sweet, sweet thing for them to do, and I appreciate it so very much.

So ... life happens

Ok ... so I was GOING to work on some cards, but sometimes, life has a different idea of what we need to be doing. So, my freezer dies. Yep, just after I buy a ton of stuff to put in there. Well, the new one should be here today. Unfortunately, I can't stamp today, though. We already had plans to go help my mom. Maybe tomorrow?? Or Monday ..? Or ....





I'll let you know ....

Sorry

I'm sorry. I feel like I'm letting any of my readers down. I haven't been able to get a card up in a while. Hopefully, I can create tomorrow or Friday. Things are just so busy here with all that needs to be done after my dad's death. Also, I'm editing and reorganizing my church's website. I'm not done, but it's a lot better than it was. If you want to take a look, it's at First Baptist Church. You don't have to tell me that it needs work - I'm well aware of that. But your comments and suggestions are welcome. Let me know what information you would be looking for if you went to check out a site like this or if there's too much stuff on a page.

Well, time to sign off for the night. Forgive me for the lack of creations at the moment. I promise I will get something up soon.

Picture Day

Well, today, I'm sharing pictures from our weekend. I would share the pictures of the cards that I made on Saturday, but ..... I *forgot* to take pictures before I sealed up the envies. Now .... should I unseal them and post??????

For now, I'm going to go with the pictures from the weekend. I will continue to debate whether to open the envies to take shots of the cards. (Why in the world did I forget to take those pictures?!!!)


My family went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens on Saturday. Here are some random shots from the day ...



Here are my 3 babies. We really did have a good day, and I was thrilled that I was able to get a picture of the 3 of them together.







This is a picture from our first few minutes in the park. I thought that it turned out really well.






A water lily just begged to be photographed. Who could resist this shot??









Walking a beautiful path .... brother and sister. Special picture and special love.






Happy smiles from the sunshine girl!!







This purple/pink daisy was another flower begging to be photographed.







Here's our whole family on Saturday. It was a nice day - even with a little rain.











Thanks for sharing a moment in our lives!!

Thinking of a Friend

I have a friend that's going through a tough time with her mom right now. The decisions that she has to make aren't easy ones, and I just want to encourage her during this time. The card that I made is kind of weird, but I thought it turned out pretty well. It does look MUCH better in real life, but what can I do?!

Using a paper cutter, I cut a window in a 4 x 5 1/2 inch card and in a 4 x 5 1/2 inch piece of garden green (I think). Alcohol inks made the pattern on the window sheet, along with the leaves stamped in black Staz-On. I did 'smear' the leaves just a tad to make them stand out a little more on the background. The sentiment is on the inside, and you can just get a teaser of it through the window sheet and the alcohol inks. There was a bit of a glare on the window sheet .... sorry about that.




Time for creating will be hard to come by this week. We will be going to get my son from camp at the end of the week and will spend the night. Perhaps, I will be creative tomorrow night. We'll see!!!

Sadness and Gratitude

It's amazing that it takes a sad time in our lives to find out how many friends and how much support we have in our lives. My dad has been sick for a while (since his surgery on 4/3), and on Sunday morning, he died. The out-pouring of love, caring, concern, and help has been overwhelming. My family has been so touched by all of it.

The memorial service was last night, and it could not have gone better. My friends led the service and the music. It was a celebration of my dad's life. It was truly awesome. Our friend sang the beautiful song "Come to Jesus," and he did a wonderful job on it. The lyrics are so precious to me ......

Artist : Chris Rice

Lyrics :

Weak and wounded sinner
Lost and left to die
O, raise your head, for love is passing by
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus and live!

Now your burden's lifted
And carried far away
And precious blood has washed away the stain, so
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus and live!

And like a newborn baby
Don't be afraid to crawl
And remember when you walk
Sometimes we fall...so
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus and live!

Sometimes the way is lonely
And steep and filled with pain
So if your sky is dark and pours the rain, then
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus and live!

O, and when the love spills over
And music fills the night
And when you can't contain your joy inside, then
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus and live!

And with your final heartbeat
Kiss the world goodbye
Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory's side, and
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus and live!




I spent part of my Independence Day making some Thank You cards. I'm hoping they are appropriate for the occasion (I made 9 of the same kind). I've seen so many beautiful cards done with the Lovely As A Tree set, so I thought I would try my hand at it. This card uses unusual colors for me.... Always Artichoke and Night of Navy. I used the White Craft Ink to do the faux embossing technique. I know it's retired, but I will always love that organdy ribbon. It's got such a classy feel to it. I put a little of the Night of Navy around the oval to set it apart and stamped the "Thank You" with the same thing. I used the big oval punch to punch the piece used for the words. That punch was also used to punch the 'ticket corners' in the layers. I don't have the ticket corner punch, so I improvise. :)




Thanks to all who have sent their prayers and thoughts. They have been greatly appreciated.