Graduation Cards

So we had a few of our friends and family graduating high school this year. Wow. I graduated high school with one of the mommies. :/
I made up some graduation cards and I had to get some use out of my craft room and these adorable stamp sets.
I used Papertreys "Wise Owl" set and a few different Stampin' Up! sets for the wording.

Let's see if I remember everything...
For the Cardstock: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, and Whisper White.
Inks: Really Rust, Chocolate Chip, Only Orange, Close to Cocoa, and Basic Black.
I used a scallop and circle punch from SU!
A Little Leaves SU! Sizzlets die cut for the tree branch from SU! and my Big Shot machine.
To create the bark on the tree I spritzed some Close to Cocoa with water, crumpled it, uncrumpled it, let it dry and then rubbed chocolate chip ink (direct to paper) from the ink pad.
I used my Colluzle to make my bigger circle so the word selection could change as you rotated the large white circle.
I've always wanted to make one of these rotating sayings cards and let me tell you it took a bit of time to play with it and get it just right. I went thru a few large white discs getting the words just right (upside down, wrong position, etc) but I really like the finished cards and hope you will too!

Visit To Arizona in March

My trip started with a pom pom fight. All the girls (including the dog) got into it, Grandma, Alexandra, Stacy and Me.
Then In and Out burger for a yummy dinner.











The next day was Alexandra's First Holy Communion. She really has a heart full of God's love. She was so excited to celebrate this special day!












She may have a few stuffed animals, just a few...









We took a couple of nature hikes, one up in Catalina State Park, where we saw this prickly pear cactus growing ON a tree! I've never seen something like that before. ON a tree. Nature has its ways I guess...







Then, on the last day of my trip we were able to find a geocache! It was my mom's and Alexandra's first geocache find. They were pretty happy to finally find one. We had been looking the whole weekend. One had been 'muggled' and another we were on the wrong path and running out of daylight. Another, one of the clues said to watch out for a healthy rattlesnake guarding the cache, so I decided to skip that one... We finally found this little microcache. Success! Now Alexandra and her mom and dad have been geocaching a few times and have had good success. YEAH!!

Such a fun little trip, so sad to leave though. I miss them all very much but was thrilled to spend the time with them. It went by so quickly!

WJIE Sweetheart Dinner

So I have this group of friends, and for whatever reason (something to do with Fried Green Tomatoes, the movie) we call ourselves the Bees. This is my lovely group of BeeFriends, all great women. We and our husbands went to a little dinner concert with Aaron Hurst and Sidewalk Prophets. The food was delicious, the music was great, and the company was the best!
Most of us met in church and we all meet often and share our love of Christ and our lives and faith with each other. What more could you ask for?

Moda Bake Shop Progressive Dinner

I've been a big fan of the Moda Bake Shop when it comes to getting ideas for sewing or quilting. RIght now they're having a Progressive Dinner blog hop and this is one of my favorite blogs so far. The Polka Dot Chair. Lots of great tutorials and recipes in all of these so far, very impressive. Take a peek!

My First Quilt!!

ok So I haven't made too many new 'original" designs for cards this year. I have mostly CASED. Which is the case for my Christmas cards that I made this year. (so in my opinion not worth showing)
However...I made my first ever quilt for my niece, Ainsley. I tried to keep it simple and used Moda Fabrics, "Soiree", Charm packs. I love the colors in this line of fabrics. I was inspired after seeing it used often in a lot of quilting blogs such as Crazy Mom Quilts. I truly could not have done it without the help of my friend, Maria. She really was a blessing!


It's not real pretty close up, I stitched in the ditch for my quilt top, kinda. I hope to do better on my next quilt. After trying to quilt on my old 1960 model Kenmore and then using Maria's Bernina, I was quickly convinced I need a new machine. The difference was huge!

Christmas in Chicago

We had a great trip visiting my family in Chicago this year. We got a white Christmas- my niece Alexandra couldn't have been happier about that. Multiple times a day she was ready to go out and play in the snow- her specialty- snowball fights.
Got some great cuddle time with my niece, Ainsley too! It was a great little trip but as usual, not long enough.

Thanksgiving 2010

My Dad and his wife, Linda, were able to come out for Thanksgiving this year. It was a great weekend. We went to Lynn's Paradise Cafe and to the Woodford Reserve Distillery. They have delicious bourbon balls. YUM! As you can see- we had a great time.



My friend, Guen, who I have known since high school, joined us for a bit of dinner, wine and chocolate pecan pie (yum!). It was great catching up again.

Breeder's Cup 2010

We went to the Breeder's Cup this year. The big attraction was Zenyatta. Unbeated in all of her 19 career starts. AMAZING! These are the best pictures I was able to get. She lost for the first time in her career to a horse named Blame, by a nose. Sadly in the next stride she beat him.
In this picture she is the number 8 horse (third from the front). Click on the picture to see it better. She came from dead last to almost win. It was seriously the kind of race you see in the movies, except without the happy ending.

Dog day at the Pool Closing

The city pools let people bring their dogs in to play in the pool when they are ready to close for the winter. This was Rocks' first time swimming with other dogs around. This poor Golden Retriever all she wanted to do was get her tennis balls and Rocks kept trying to jump on her in the water. She was a good sport and so was her owner.

He went out in the deep end to swim after her a couple of times. The first time he realized that he was in really deep water was kinda funny.

Welcome Baby Ainsley Helen!

Early in September we drove up to Chicago to welcome my new niece to the world. Ainsley Helen was born Sept. 3rd. She is so very, very precious! Look at all that hair! :) What a blessing!

Thank you cards gift

My brother and his wife are expecting their first child soon. Very soon. I made them some cards to use for their thank you's. I used a few different colors to create some different looks.

For cardstock and inks I went with Certainly Celery, Marina Mist, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip and So Saffron. The stamp set Baby Bundle worked out perfectly for this. I used some of the Nursery Suite Quick Accents and I loved the way they fit with the Baby Bundle set.




The last one is a bit blurry, but I had to add it because I like the little dangles I hung off the bar. I stamped both sides, did a little watercoloring and punched them out.

Bookmark Agape

In July my friends and I got together to do some crafting. We made a lot of agape (bookmarks) for a recent Emmaus retreat group. Basically you shower the retreaters with "agape" or love, and it can be done in many different ways (food, etc) not just making bookmarks :). I somehow don't have a picture of the end result but we made about 100 bookmarks and laminated them all.



I hope we'll be able to get together again soon to make some more agape! The Emmaus walk is a spiritual retreat that I would highly recommend. They have them all across the country as well.

Happy Birthday Birdie!

I gave this little birdie card to a friend for her birthday. I used the Pun Fun stamp sets (this is one of my favorites because I love the cute little images). I used Pixie Pink, Old Olive and Barely Banana card stocks and inks (and Only Orange ink). I used Pink Passion ink for the flower border on the bottom of the card. I stamped the bird image with Jet Black Staz On so I could water color the image. I used all Stampin' Up! items except for the embossed flower border image which I dotted with Crystal Effects and drizzled with Dazzling Diamond glitter. I used an Old Olive Designer Button- Playground for a little added dimension.



Have a great day! Thanks for looking!

well that was a long break!

I didn't realize I had not posted anything on my site in almost a year! I guess you could say I've been enjoying my time on Facebook and catching up with friends, old and new.
I have been making cards in the last few months that I can share. This one is a case that I did for my sister in law for her birthday. I cased it out of a catalog, sometimes it just seems to work better for me that way. I use a card as a template and voila!

I used Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose and So Saffron card stock and for inks I liked Sahara Sand, Rose Red, Regal Rose and Chocolate Chip. I used the "It's beautiful" wheel and the "Party Hearty" stamp set. I didn't have any of the hemp or linen thread so I used some DMC floss for cross stitching. I used the Scallop Trim border punch I got from Sale-a-bration this year.
Thanks for looking!

Manners and More

I met the nicest boy at work today. He wants to be a veterinarian someday, so he came in to shadow the veterinarian to find out more about what it takes. He helped bathe some kittens that we are looking to adopt out. They got quite messy with their food and being so young with no momma cat, they had poopy butts. :) He didn't mind at all and got right in there to help. Other than pitching in to help out like that, what stuck out was his amazing manners!!! I was very impressed with him that when his cell phone rang he excused himself from our conversation and then answered the phone. When finished with his phone call he apologized for the interruption. When he left for the day he shook my hand and thanked me for the opportunity to shadow the vet there.
Ok. So this may not impress everyone but how about when I tell you he is only about 13 years old.

Thinking Of You

I redid this Thinking of You card with Always Artichoke and Ruby Red inks as well as Bordering Blue and Very Vanilla card stocks. I used Hodgepodge Hardware brads and stamped the Thinking of You in Sincere Salutations and used Pocket Silhouettes for the accent piece.

I like to keep it simple if it works!
Thanks for looking!

Praying For You

I was inspired for this card from a card we made at convention years ago. I used the Happiness background stamp to create the multiple sections by stamping them in different colors and then cutting them out. I used the Old Olive Flower Fusion accent under the Rose Red to give a hint of leaves. I also used Everyday Flexible Phrases stamp set, and Old Olive, Rose Red, So Saffron and Kraft inks and cards stocks.

I used the template from the Classy Brass template Punches Plus and punched out the detail behind the flowers on the circle.
Thanks for looking!

Card for Pastor Pam

Pastor Pam has been an intern at our church this past year. She gave me some great insight this past year. She has also become an unexpected friend!
I made her this simple little card with Cameo Coral and Ruby Red inks and Whisper White and Cameo Coral cardstocks. I used retired stamp sets: God's Blessings, Refuge and Strength, and Sincere Salutations. I used the large 1 3/8" square punch to cut my initial window then I just used my paper cutter to enlarge it to a triangle. No time for embellishments on this card!
Thanks for looking!

Updates

I've had quite a bit of changes in the last few months. I was in a car accident back in June (note rear axle), I am in the middle of changing jobs and recently attended my brother's wedding in Chicago.


Having supportive friends are so important in life. They can really help you through some tough things. I am very grateful for all of my great friends far and near. All their prayers have certainly carried me through much of this. When I started asking for people to pray for me I really felt much calmer and less worried and stressed out within days. Definitely more peaceful. (Here are only a few of my great supportive friends.)

I start my new job next week and I am really looking forward to doing different things.

This past week was great, spending time with family and friends. Of course it went by too fast but it was great to officially welcome Jade into our family.

She was a beautiful bride and her family was wonderful.

Barouque Motifs

I made a few thank you cards recently for some of my friends that helped me out. I had made this card awhile back in Barely Banana and Soft Sky (see here) and decided to try it with different colors. I used Pale Plum and Perfect Plum colors (inks and card stock) this time around. I again used the Fire Circle Brads (this time the pink since it was close enough in color to the Pale Plum). I also used the Scallop edge punch to create the scallops on the right side of the card. I also used either the Whisper White grosgrain or the Elegant Eggplant grosgrain ribbon. You can click on the picture to see it a little closer in detail.
Thanks for looking!