Wishes for You

Hiya Sweeties! Happy Friday! Wow, has this week ever flown by. I’ve been hoping to get around to visit with all of you, but my tour guide duties have been keeping me just a wee bit too busy these days. I’ve now taken my buddy, Jon, to all sorts of wonderful places like historic downtown Apex and Cary, the Page Walker History & Arts Center, the Ashworth Pharmacy lunch counter for a real soda-jerk experience, and even the Cary Citizen’s Convenience Recycling Center. Today we’re going on a road trip to find one of the few remaining Piggly Wiggly markets so Jon can buy the T-shirt.

Boy………..do I ever know how to show a visitor a good time!!

With all this crazy running around, I haven’t had much time to hang out in my craft studio, but I do have a card to share with you today. Another butterfly creation, in one of my favorite color schemes. Just makes me happy!

Lots more Jillibean Soup here. A mix of patterned papers, and one of their oooooold Bean Sprout journaling spots. Some stamping and a bit of pretty trims. Always love those Webster’s Pages fabric Bloomers!

Well, we’re off for more wild adventures! I sure hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I promise to be around to visit you soon. Next week is going to be a big one for me. Not only is it Thankgiving week for us in the States, but it’s also my birthday week! Yup, Thanksgiving Day is my actual birthday this year…..and……

I’m super honored and thrilled to be guest designing all next week on the SEI Lifestyle blog!

What a great birthday present, huh?

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Warm Thoughts

Hi everyone and happy Wednesday to you! I’m sorry for not being around much to visit with you all these past few days. My visitor has arrived from California, and we are busy taking in the sights. Since he’s never been to North Carolina, I’ve been giving him the full tour.

So far I’ve taken him to historic downtown Apex, lunch at our famous Salem Street Pub, dinner at a local hot-spot barbeque joint for some real NC bbq, and even out for frozen custard. Oh, and we’ve checked out a shop or two, including my neighborhood Wal-Mart Market Center. Snicker. Snort.

Let the good times roll, people!

Although I’ve been a busy little bee, I do have a card to share with you all today. Made with a mix of Jillibean Soup papers and Unity stamps. A few buttons and frills, and my favorite kraft cardstock. Love this warm color combo for fall.

Thanks so much for stopping by everyone! We’re off for new adventures today. Perhaps since we checked out the Wal-Mart yesterday, we’ll have to stop by the Tar-jay next……..

Woo Hoo!!

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Be Everything

Hiya Sweetie Peas! Happy Thursday! Goodness, I cannot believe how quickly this week is going. Just the blink of an eye, and it’s almost the weekend. I sure don’t mind that, but I would love to think I had accomplished a lot more this week than I actually have.

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time getting my house spooked up for Halloween the last few days. The girls and I are starting our annual Haunted Halloween House Tour next week, and I’ve got to get everything ready. You know I’m determined to beat those girlies again this year. They don’t think it’s a competition……..but puh-leeze….I’m not fooled by that!

Haven’t spent much time in my scraproom this week, but I do have a layout to share that I made recently on my beach retreat weekend of my sweet Missy Nik. I really love this photo of her. Check out that fun grim reaper henna tattoo. The week before school started, Nik spent the week at the beach with her girlfriend, and one day they got tattoos. Rachel chose a small, diminutive Chinese symbol that she tucked away on her ankle. Very discrete. But not Nik. No. She chose this giant grim reaper right in bold view. She was quite the hit the first few days of high school until the tattoo wore off, I can tell you that. Talk about your ice breaker.

Used a real mix of Jillibean Soup papers here and some old Making Memories, too. Cut apart word strips from a journaling card and layered them onto old Bean Sprout journaling spots for a fun embellishment. And couldn’t resist that fun Robin Williams quote. Seemed pretty perfect for this.

Thanks so much for stopping by everyone! I hope you all have a fabulous day!

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Boo

Hi Sweeties! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

So happy that this weekend we officially hit the start of my favorite season. I am definitely ready for the change. Saturday we had a Fall Faire at the garden center where I work, and if I wasn’t ready for autumn before, I sure am now. After being surrounded by all the adorable Halloween decorations in the gift shop and all the pansies, mums, pumpkins and gourds in the garden, I am in the mood for all the joys this season will bring!

Today I am sharing my last design team project for Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps. And for my final project, I thought it was only fitting to re-visit some of my very favorite Prickley Pear sets.

Along with my favorite stamp sets, I used lots of my favorite scrappy supplies here. Kraft cardstock and happy polka dots, a bright orange button and baker’s twine tie. I used my new Papertrey Ink herringbone embossing plate on the kraft cardstock. The pumpkin and leaves are from the Pumpkin Clear Stamps Set 2. I die cut both the leaves and pumpkin shape from kraft cardstock using the matching Pumpkin Die and stamped the images in black ink. Colored the pumpkin using Prismas blended with Gamsol. The sweet Boo sentiment is from the Bats Clear Stamps Set, stamped in black on a die cut banner.

For more stampy inspiration using Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps, be sure to visit the blog. The rest of the team has some beautiful things to share with you today. Thanks so much for stopping by everyone! Wishing you all a wonderful day!

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Happy Spot

Last weekend while I was away on my beach retreat, I surprised myself by actually getting quite a bit of scrapping done. Usually I’m too busy snacking and chatting to get much work in during a crop………and of course this time there was the beach to distract me, too. I told myself that if I came home with at least one project, I would be pleased. I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself, after all.

I’m happy to say that I met my goal. Today I’m sharing one of the pages I did. Full of lots of Jillibean Soup goodies.

Some of you may remember this photo of my daughter that I shared here on my bloggity blog last spring. It was taken out on the pier at the lake where she loves to go to sketch and unwind. This lake is a very special spot. For Nik, it is the place that relieves every stress, eases every pain, and makes everything seem better.

Seems my Little Fish still loves to be near water.

Thanks so much for stopping by everyone! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

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No Place Like Home

Hi everyone! Hope you are all having a fabulous holiday week and that your Christmas was very merry! Not surprisingly, time is going way toooo fast for me. Still trying to digest Christmas being over, and here we are half way through the week already. But what a wonderful week it has been! Bowling, movies, dominoes, puzzles, Netflix, Clue….priceless family time, for sure. I’m so grateful that the holidays bring us all together.

Here’s me with my gang on Christmas day. My parents and my two kiddos, along with our sweet pup Crissy, of course. And then later that day, our little clan grew by one, when Nik’s best friend flew out from California to spend the week with us. As you can imagine, that was the best holiday gift of all!

I’m slowly getting back into scrappy mode after taking a few days off for the holidays. Today I have a card to share. This little guy was made from pure scrappy chaos.

I must admit that my scraproom is in a terrible state of mess right now. I’ve got piles and piles of papers and goodies all over my floor and desk, and walking through there is like trying to step over landmines. I would be rather embarrassed if you could see it. But from that hodge podge that I randomly stacked together came this card, and I rather like the combo. Pure chance.

Do you all ever create that way?

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The Shabby Tea Room- The Colors of Nature

*This is my second post of the day. Please scroll down to see my Kraft Journal project for this week

Hi again, everyone! This month, I’ve had the pleasure of guest designing over at The Shabby Tea Room. And today, we have a new challenge for you. This week’s theme, The Colors of Nature, is to create a card or project using the colors and inspiration of this lovely photo.

Here is my card.

I was really drawn to the bright red leaves and crisp green apples in the inspiration photo, and mimicked that look in my own version of a fall wreath on this card. Really love the color combo. Such a traditional palette for Christmas, yet a very striking look for fall, too. I added in elements of bright white to make the colors really pop.

Layered two shapes of die-cut felt leaves onto a paper doily for the wreath shape. Added a bow made of seam binding and hang tag string and topped the whole with a chipboard apple sticker. Finished things off with a hand-stamped sentiment banner.

Be sure to check out The Shabby Tea Room blog for lots more inspiration from the design team and to play along. Thanks again to Debbie for having me as guest designer this month. And a huge thank you to all of YOU for stopping by today.

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Week of the Man Cards

Lately, I’ve been finding myself in need of masculine cards. Not only did my brother recently celebrate a birthday, my good friend, Jon, is also having a birthday next week. So it’s been time for me to break out the man goods and get crafty.

Although I usually like to dress a card up with pretty flowers and ribbons, I’ve tried to stick with a more manly approach here. The rugged and rustic look of kraft cardstock always works well for me, and I’ve paired that here with brown patterned papers, a variety of shipping tags and labels, raw chipboard, and metal embellishments. You may have noticed I’ve also added a small snippet of the recycled printed paper bag I’ve been playing with lately. All these elements combined give this card a masculine appeal.

Although I kept the overall look on the rugged side, I’ve still managed to slip in a few feminine touches that I love, like this ornate french frame from the Graphics Fairy, polka dotted patterned paper and pearl buttons from my Grandmother. I believe elements from both spectrums work harmoniously and add great visual interest to a project.

Just like yin and yang.

Hope you all have a wonderful day today! Thanks so much for stopping by.

 

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Banner Bird Meets Home Sweet Home

Good Friday evening everyone! Are you all ready for the start of another weekend? I know I am. Even though we are on full summer mode here, there’s still something magical about the thought of a couple of days with no schedule, no special wake-up time, and no routine. That’s my kind of living! In order to fully enjoy these next few days off, I’ve been super productive today.  I figure that way, I can relax tomorrow.  Sounds good to me!

I have been a busy little bee in my scrap room, working on some projects that I can’t quite show you yet, but that I’m very excited about.  I can hint and tell you that some of it is for a special event we have coming up for Webster’s Pages. This month, the Webster’s Pages Design Team will be featured guests at the online scrapbook store A Cherry on Top. You can join us on Wednesday, July 14 at 6pmPST/9pmEST as we chat and share loads of inspiring layouts. Shhh, word has it, that there might be a sneak peek to be seen floating about as well! Here’s just a small look at what I’ve been working on.

I do have a fun project to share with you today that I created using two digital stamp images from Digital Doodles. This is Banner Bird meets Home Sweet Home.

I have been loving the kraft cardstock this week! Guess that’s not too surprising considering that brown is my favorite color. I know a lot of people don’t particularly care for it, but brown makes me think of comfort, like a hot cup of coffee or dark chocolate.  It makes me think of trees and the great outdoors and Mother Nature, more of my favorite things. And it also happens to be the color I see when I look into my children’s eyes.

I printed my Banner Bird onto kraft cardstock and stamped a little welcome greeting on the banner.  I love that this area is blank, making it perfectly adaptable to all kinds of sentiments. I added a small touch of color to the bird using chalk pastels, cut the image out, and adhered it with pop dots over a pair of freehand clouds.

I also printed the Home Sweet Home images onto kraft cardstock. Cut them out and layered them on some of my favorite patterned papers from Jillibean Soup. Kept the design rather monochromatic except for the pops of bright red on the strip of paper and button.  The touch of coloring on the Banner Bird image pulls all the red together.

I hope you all get a chance to stop by the Digital Doodles blog and see the fabulous creations the team came up with this week using other combinations of Digital Doodle images. Once you start combining these little cuties, you’ll quickly see that the possibilities are endless.

Thanks so much for stopping by everyone!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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Hello You

Hi everyone, and happy Sunday to you!  I want to take a moment to wish all you wonderful, dedicated, and hard-working dads out there a fabulous Father’s Day. I know, for myself, I wouldn’t be where I am today without the love and support of my father and all the help he’s given me over the years.  I love you, Dad!  Hope you have a relaxing and peaceful day, with just a touch of pampering, too!

I have a little card project to share with you today that features the current challenge over at the Cardalicious blog.

You are to create a card using the color green, a flower, and polka dots. Sound like fun? Come and play along with us!

I used some of my most-favorite scrappy goodies here.  Papers from Jillibean Soup, trim from Webster’s Pages, buttons, and twine.  I had fun creating a large focal flower by layering several flowers and elements together for a very dimensional look.

The base is one of my last remaining vintage hat flowers I picked up at the antiques store.  On top of that are a spiral cut flower made from a Jillibean Soup Sprouts journaling card, a large pearled button, and a petite Prima blossom. Added a tiny jeweler’s tag with a hand-stamped greeting and a touch of hemp cord.

A few scalloped edges and a bit of machine stitching finish off my card with a touch of light inking around the outside.

Hope you take a moment to check out the fabulous designs from the rest of the team, and hook me up in the comments if you play along.  I would love to see what you did!

Thanks so much for stopping by, everyone!  Enjoy your special day with the wonderful men in your lives!

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