Doodles and Dragonflies

I'M STILL ALIVE..TRUE STORY

2009-03-12T10:53:00.004-05:00

Well, I'll be amazed if anyone is still lingering out there. But the answer is yes, I'm still alive. Between a computer crash, a trip to Jamaica, 20 horses that required food in the dead of winter, and maybe a little slacking off....well I fell of the face of the blogging planet. But I'm back....

So today's goal is to share just a little bit of Jamaica with you and then in the coming days I will catch you up with my life...and maybe I'll try walking into my craft room...we'll see.

All I can say is yes...a lot of locals really do look like this...and yes they smoke A LOT of the wacky weed.

We went on this "girls" trip because our friend Kristy was getting married. A sunset wedding on Valentines day, in Jamaica. It truly was amazingly beautiful!!!!!

Sunsets like this EVERY NIGHT....it never got old. In fact....can I go back???

Here was the view from the lobby of our resort. It was beautiful every day!!!!

This is a crazy cliff diver at Rick's Cafe. 90 feet in the air. Won't jump until he has $20 in his little money bucket. Rough day at the office for these guys.

I hope you are all well....I promise to try to catch up!!!

Kat

The Wonder of Winter

2009-01-01T12:46:00.006-06:00

If your going to live in Minnesota, you have to be ready to embrace that it's gonna snow and it's gonna get cold. And I'll be the first to say that by the end of January I'm thinking "Why the heck to we live in this God forsaken ice box." But I'm not there yet. I'm still embracing and loving the snow, because part of me loves it. I think if you live here too, you need to be able to know how to play in the snow or your gonna go crazy.

And I think maybe I've succeed at teaching my kids to embrace it too.

So 3 days ago after dragging the boys through the 70% off Christmas sales at Target, and then $150 dollar grocery trip (because the little hooligans are eating me out of house and home while on "winter" break), it started to snow on our half an hour drive home.

And not just your average snow. Big huge, gorgeous flakes. The kind that make you feel like some giant has just shook the snow globe that you are living in and now you just stand there while they descend.

These are the kinds of snow falls you live for each year. Because you don't think about the fact that it's not as pretty when you are shoveling it. And because it's not that pretty when you slide off the highway and your car is stuck in the stuff.

Years ago when the boys where little I would get all excited over these snowfalls, and yell, "Grab your boots....we gotta go catch snowflakes!!!!"

And apparently it hasn't worn off. Because they jumped out of the car to do this...

First, you need to check them out at little.

It starts with eyeing up the big flakes and trying to catch just the right one.

And when you have really long eyelashes, that are just wrong to have as a boy, the snow will stick to them. (As well as your overly long, hippy-ish hair, that makes it look like your mother can't afford a haircut).

And then you stand there, weaving and bobbing, making weird noises that make you sound like Chewbacca, because your tongue is stuck as far as it will go out.

Or you can opt to catch them on your hands, and eat them that way.

Or perhaps just stand there, tongue extended, waiting for one to just stick.

And then there is the chopping attack mode.

And lastly there is the "when a snowflake hits your eye and forces it closed, it causes your tongue to get all contorted". And luckily your mom makes a priceless snapshot!!!

Embrace winter everyone, we only have 4 more months to go!!!!!

Trying to catch up

2008-12-28T14:19:00.002-06:00

Before I start in with catching up to Christmas and such I figured I better back up because I've taken a couple hundred pictures in the last month. So I'm gonna back up to Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving this year was spent at my cousins house. They moved here from Colorado and wanted to host this year. The boys were very excited to see that in the front yard they found a zip line attached to some trees. And somehow my 70 year old mother took a bet to do it herself.

I love that about her!!!!

Hopped right on and went a flyin'. These are kind of priceless memories right here, what great facial expressions.

And then my sister hopped on, skirt and all. Pretty great to see, considering last year at this time she was bald from chemo and finishing radiation for breast cancer!

My 16 year old niece had to jump in the action as well.

And the good part about having a brother is he can drag you back up the hill, so that he can fling you back down the line, secretly hoping you might fall off. It's a brother thing!

Away in Coors Light Can

2008-12-17T20:01:00.004-06:00

Well I'm trying to catch up on my life, and seriously I could write a new blog entry with photos every single day, it's just that whole time thing that seems to be a challenge.

Last Friday, my good demo friends Brenda and Kristen, and I had our holiday Stamp Camp.
No it's nothing like band camp....

Part of our stamp camps are a demonstration section, where we show our customers some trick or tip about stamping. This go around we decided to show everyone the rage of using Coors Light can to sharpen your punches and in return you get a punched out blue piece of tin.

But here's the funny (at least to me) part:
We rent a church hall for our event ant they were in full Christmas mode.
And little did we realize that when Brenda started her demo, she was standing in front of the manger with a Coors Light Can.

"And the wise woman brought gold, frankencence, and Coors Light for the baby Jesus."

But see Brenda didn't know how ironicly funny the whole thing looked. She did an amazing demo that impressed everyone.

She did a great step by step demo.

I think the one and all was impressed with her ability to turn a beer can into a card.

Good Job B.!!!

Help!!!

2008-12-11T16:20:00.002-06:00

Okay I need some good Karma here folks. I've lost the cord that connects my camera to my laptop and you know what the means???

No NEW photos, no new blog entries, no nothing.

I've exhausted every possible option. I mean how do you lose something that you use all the time???????????????

So send some good luck my way!!!!

I'm having blogging deprivation!

This may be disturbing to younger viewers and the elderly

2008-11-25T10:24:00.006-06:00

It's hunting season in our neck of the woods.

A time for men and their sons to bond and commune with nature.

A time to kill a large animal with horns, and fill my freezer with meat I will never eat.

A time to explain yet again why there will never be a deer head mounted on the wall in my living room.

A time for my husband to grow out all his facial hair and look like the unabomber.

A time for clothing that only has camouflage or blaze orange in it.

A time for the male species to not shower for a week.

A time for me to be VERY glad he leaves to do this.

A time for me to send one of my camera's along and tell the men, "take some good pictures", and secretly hope they don't really come home with pictures of dead deer and gut piles.

A time for me to take the camera after they come home and load the pictures on my computer and find pictures like this:

And then I find something like this. Something that makes me cringe as the mother. Something that reconfirms that testosterone and dumb boy humor are not a good combination. Something that makes me feel like I am getting nowhere with these children.

Something that makes me think...."where the heck was your dad?????"

Something that confirms my sister in law is NOT on my side. And neither is my mother in law-cuz I hear her in the background too.

Something that makes me glad my brother in law knows nothing about my blog.

**I'm warning you, there is nothing pretty about this**
**If you have never been mooned, or you would find something like that offensive YOU SHOULD NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO**

I'm sorry, I'm really really sorry.

Seriously people I am trying to raise them better than this, but I cannot be blamed for their behavior when they are away from me.

And, yes...it cracked me up....but that's not the point!!!!

Friends...Part 2

2008-11-25T09:44:00.002-06:00

Do you know what friends don't do? When someone says they don't like your second choice for a blog background, well then it's just time to ignore them.

And Kathy...I'm not scared away that easily. I'm a labor and delivery nurse....I deal with irrational people in pain all of the time. My skin in a little thicker than that. And don't even get me started on dealing with doctors.....

I will say that I do value your honesty however, it's kind of refreshing. I may not always listen to you, but I do hear you.

Don't worry I'll have a Christmas theme for you to analyze soon!

Friends...

2008-11-15T11:16:00.003-06:00

Do you know what friends do for each other?

They listen...

Even if they have never met.

So today...I listened.

So Kathy, this is for you.
I listened to your request. I heard you "shout out" and be very honest that you didn't like my background and that is was so very hard to read my clever and touching stories about absolutely nothing.

See Kathy is the only one out there that ever validates me. Comments on all my posts. Makes me feel like someone out there is listening, reading, wasting her precious time. She is my sista, my peeps, my voice of reason...okay a bit much, but....

Kathy, I respect your opinion, your brutal honesty that my background sucked, so sista, I listened.

Will this one do???

Do you remember...

2008-11-11T10:26:00.005-06:00

when I started this blog because I was a stamper? Do you?
Have you been with me that long?

Sweet!

Because I've kind of forgotten. I got sidetracked with you know, like...real life.

And that whole blogging stampers world got pretty competitive. And I got a little overwhelmed.

But I've been tinkering here and there and thought I'd share with you what I made out of this:

Ta-da:

Yep, 24 Christmas cards out of a Simply Scrappin' Kit. Not a single bit of stamping involved on one of them.
I'm hosting a class next week so my customers can make a set too!

Sorry such a short post. Quick day!!!
Take care!

Unnaturally natural

2008-11-07T11:13:00.003-06:00

Well almost immediately after pitching my little fit (see previous post), I decided to try one more time--and it's like the computer Gods heard me. So let's all just pretend like I didn't act like one of my kids when they can't find something. Like I actually continued to act like an adult and not vent my frustrations out here in Bloggerville.

And while we are at it, let's pretend that there isn't snow outside this morning, and that I'm 3 inches taller and have Jennifer Garner's body from Alias, and that I have a live in chef and Pilate's instructor. I mean, if we are going to pretend, let's do it up good!

Wow, ticked off and delusional--a lethal combination!!!

Now on to our regularly scheduled post:

I've been spending a lot of time out at my friend Tammy's farm. Riding horses, feeding horses, attending to dogs, cats, and chickens while Tammy takes a much needed respite.

The farm provides lots of photographic opportunities. Some scenic, some sweet, some funny, and some just downright disturbing.

We are going to start with downright disturbing.

**PLEASE NOTE**
You are officially being warning about the following photographs, and the unnatural act you are about to witness.
I merely photographed what I had to witness.

See out on the farm, love knows no bounds. You can't stop certain feeling or urges. Nature, well sometimes it's just unnatural.

Yes, what you think is about to happen, is going to happen.

"Come here my pet. I cannot resist your beauty. I most have you....right here...right now. I don't care who sees us."

"Of course I love you. You are the only one for me."

"Later. I left a $20 by your water dish."

**I'm sorry you had you witness this, but I'm more sorry that I had to watch it happen in real life."**

Ticked off

2008-11-07T11:02:00.002-06:00

Okay, I'm officially ticked off!!!!!!!!!

I've been so very busy the last 2 weeks. And this morning was my morning to spend at the computer. Uploading to the blog, sending pictures people are waiting on, etc.

But I can't get anything uploaded to blogger!!!!!

GRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! Stomping feet, rolling on floor, utter frustration. And I can't figure out if it's my laptop or a blogger problem.

Okay, I keep trying...................

but right now......I'm just plain ol' ticked off!!!!!

My Aurora Morning

2008-11-03T20:00:00.005-06:00

Well, in the last few weeks I have been spending a lot of time on horseback. Regularly meeting up with my friends with horses and loading them into trailers and hauling them to state parks with horseback riding trails, and then enjoying the fall colors here in Minnesota for the day.

Last Tuesday was no different. Showed up to my friend Tammy's house about 7:45am to load horses. But that morning would prove to be slightly more eventful. See when we headed out to the pasture, this is what we found:

A brand new little filly about 2 hours old.

And here's the thing----it was a huge surprise!!! See Tammy didn't know that she was pregnant. Slightly alarming to a woman that raises and trains horses for a living. See, this little girls momma, well she's a pretty big horse and she hid her pregnancy very well. And poor thing, I've been running her up and down hills, trudged her through water, sliding down a muddy slope with her sliding down behind me, and she never complained.

And she never exhibited usual horse signs of an impeding deliver. No agitation, no dropped utters filling with milk, no restlessness. Nope just went out to pasture one night, and had a baby.

Oh my goodness, is that not one of the cutest things you have ever seen in your life?

Hello blogging friends I'd like to officially have you meet Kat's Aurora Morning (and her momma Cheyenne).
She's named after me and the Greek goddess of the dawn. Is she not one of the most beautiful creatures on earth?

Her momma is half Morgan and half Arabian. And her Daddy (at least the one we think is her Daddy) is a full blooded Arabian.

Are you stuck on the "think her Daddy" part? Yeah, see we shouldn't really be having foals right now. And 11 months ago, neither of the stallions got loose to spread their love seed. Which means Cheyenne backed herself up to the electric fence, and Daddy and her made beautiful love through the fence (that's what we are telling Aurora-that is the product of a beautiful night of love, not some lustful night through a fence).

Oh my goodness, I am in LOVE with this little girl!

I mean look at her adorable little pink nose, and the cute little whiskers on her chin.

You should feel her mane and her ears--heaven on earth!

And look at those eyelashes!

And seeing a new baby nurse is so very sweet. The little tongue sticking out and little slurping sounds.

And then after your belly gets full, you get very very sleepy.

Sweet dreams honey. You were the best surprise I've ever found.

Blowin' in the wind

2008-10-24T11:58:00.003-05:00

So it's another week that has blown by.

Just wanted to post a little something for my garden. I love my grasses this time of year!

We are off to visit Nick's family for the weekend, and I will return next week.

Have a safe and happy weekend all!

Happy Trails.....

2008-10-20T08:34:00.005-05:00

Anybody miss me?

Wow, it was a busy week last week. And it had a theme:

Horses, horses, and more horses.

I've been fortunate enough to have been going on some amazing trail rides with some really great ladies in the last couple of weeks. Getting to see fall in Minnesota on horseback has been AMAZING.
I thought I'd share with you some of the snapshots I've been able to grab.

They pale in comparison to the real thing, but it will give you a little taste of what I've been seeing.

Here's our group. I'm the second from the left, you can barely see me peeking around back there.
This was a gorgeous stop at the top of one of the trails in the middle of a pine forest. Look at all way the needles that have fallen blanket this part of the trail.

When you look up doing this part of the trail, this is what you will see. Amazing how pine needles can be so beautiful.

We are just past the peak of the season for fall color here. Truly magnificent array of yellows, oranges, and red.

This is a sight that just makes you take a deep breath and drink it in. It is quite a hike up to this point. If you are not fond of heights this is not the trail ride for you. Part of what makes Minnesota great this time of year is the harvesting of the fields because they add a whole extra dimension of color and texture.

If you look way over on the left side of this picture, see those little spots. Those are our trailers. Yeah, we are way the heck up there.

Time to take one last look because you know what? What goes up must come down. And when it has rained 2 days before this the trail gets rather muddy. Which means you get to dismount and walk, slide, sludge, your way down the trail with a 1200 pound animal walking, sliding, sludging her way down the GIANT hill.

I have more to share in the coming days. Happy Monday all.

2008-10-13T16:41:00.003-05:00

My boys have a new past time.

Writing their own comic books....and (without my knowledge)selling them to the neighbors....quite successfully might I add.

Little con artists got me to make a bunch of copies of it to sell to their "friends", and their "friends parents".

See, the 2 neighbor boys helped with some of the story line, so they were supposed to get copies. Little did I know, they decided to be little entrepreneurs and sell some of the copies door to door.

I'm not sure whether to be proud or totally embarrassed.

The main characters are a group of super hero's called "The Boxers Boys".

Gotta love superheros that save the world in their boxer shorts.

Anyway for your viewing pleasure, may I present:

"HAS THE WORLD GONE MAD?" (Ehhhhhhhh......Nooooooo.)

Yikes...the wedgenator. Makes my butt hurt just thinking about it.

Totally confused yet?
Good.....I never said any of it made any sense.

And Lord help us all,
this is the title of the next installment:

I'm currently taking orders for advanced autographed copies.

Good morning!

2008-10-10T09:26:00.004-05:00

"Hey...

Got any apples?"

"Seriously...

What's up with the silver thing in your hand?" "Holy crap, what's up with the flashing light?"

"No....I'm serious...

where are the goods lady?" "What? I have something hanging out of my mouth? I know, I know. I'm cool, you know, like the cowboys that hang a piece of grass out of their mouth? Yeah I'm going for that."
"Now back to the apples....where are they?"

"I'm getting so bored here,

I have narcalepsy you know? No seriously....sometimes I fall asleep standing up."

"Oh, it's a camera?

"Here, this is my good side. Everyone says so."

"Forget it...I give up...

I have a high metabolism, I need to eat every 30 seconds. I'll just eat some grass, since you're just standing there doing nothing with that stupid thing in your hands."

"What....

I have something hanging out of my mouth again????"

Welcome to mornings at my house. This is what I find in my backyard every morning.

Please ignore the half finished perennial bed with all the dying flowers. It's a work in progress. Just concentrate on the horse.

Actually, this is what I spend a lot of my day looking at:

Just a bunch of horse's....

A little piece of me

2008-10-08T09:10:00.004-05:00

When I was a little girl I had only one true love.

Horses.

Forget Barbie, Strawberry Shortcake, New Kids on the Block (okay so I was a teenager then, not a little girl...not the point), or anything else.

I was all about horses. Drawing horses, horse figurines, horse books, and riding horses. If it had to do with horses, I wanted to be a part of it.
I was going to grow up and marry a cowboy, and live in the country, riding every single day of my life, raising babies on horseback.

Well, then life happened, and I grew up and married a hunter/football star/baseball star/basketball star and we live in city limits. But the silver lining is that where I live, I'm little bit country ("I'm a little bit rock and roll"-sorry... you can't say that without following up with that), and I'm a little bit city. Our lot backs up to someone else's horse pasture. And I have the best of both worlds.

Tomorrow morning I'll show you what I get to look at out of the back of my house every day. Not today's point however.
The point is that since my boys were born I've done very little riding. And the children that were going to ride before they walked, have only ridden a handful of times.

This summer however we got the chance to go to a really amazing place. My dear friend Ardelle, who is a labor and delivery nurse with me, has started a non-for profit organization at her farm. At Turning Point Stables, her goal is double sided. She began rescuing horses that have been abused and neglected, and allowed some to come live out their last days on a beautiful farm being well cared for. Her hope to is bring children in need of "something" together with horses that need "something".
Whether it's an autistic child, or a troubled teenager, or city kid that has never been to a farm, Ardelle believes that through horsemanship, a lot of life lessons can be learned.

Well, I got the chance to take the boys (and myself) to her beautiful farm and teach them a thing or two about something I know.

Alec was a little nervous at first. I mean that horse looks HUGE when you are that size. (By the way, at the end of the day this was the horse I rode. So gorgeous!)

Ardelle is patient and kind and makes sure that they do all the work.

No free rides. If you want to ride, you need to learn to lead your horse back to the barn. Alec chose a horse named Daisy.
I encourage you to read this quick link about Daisy and her "turning point" at Ardelle's. A true testament of what can happen when a horse is given proper mental and physical nourishment.

Joe on the other hand was pretty fearless.

Sucked up every word of information Ardelle offered him. I got the chance to just step back and watch him learn from her. He was like a sponge that day. He chose a horse named Navarre.
If you were a child/half adult of the 80's you may remember a movie named Ladyhawke-which you would not have forgotten if you saw it.
So remember...Rutger Hauer's character's name was Navarre...

anyway..thus this horse's name. (I think I need to rent that movie again...)

And then came the moment we had all waited for:

Joe independently riding.

And then this one:

Alec on horseback.

And this may not be the best photographic photo,

but just look at that smile.

And here is the whole little point of this tale. This may have been the proudest day I've had as their mother. See I'm a pretty good boy mom. I throw a mean football and baseball. I'm not afraid to hold a frog, or touch a snake. And occasionally, if I've gulped the appropriate amount of pop I can crank out an impressive burp. But I've taught them very little about the things that they currently love. Nick has give them an endless amount of time and energy teaching them about the things he loves. It's because of him that Alec is a baseball-aholic, and that they know about gun safety, and that every night they want to play football in the front yard. See I can support all that, but I didn't teach them that.

But this day....this day I got to shine. To teach them some horsemanship. To teach them subtle things about a horse's character, and how to watch their ears and you'll know whether they are happy are sad, or really ticked off. And when they rode those horses, I was so freakin' proud. I felt like for the first time in their lives I had given them a piece of me, and having them love it, meant more to me than I can express.

The Evolution of Ozzie

2008-10-05T12:59:00.005-05:00

In addition to two boys, we happen to have 2 dogs. Both male. Both brought home by me, without hubby's knowledge or approval.

Doggie #1 (we'll meet him another day), was brought home before we were married. A bold move, that made my then fiance wonder about my ability to make snap inappropriate decisions.

Doggie #2 was brough home last April. I was kind of feeling like maybe I wanted to have another baby. I was feeling the need to nuture, to love, to mold. And somehow my need to nuture crossed pathes with fate...at a garage sale. So today I'm going to share with you how Ozzie became a part of our family.

So innocently enough on an April morning, I drive my kids to school, little turds farted around and missed the bus, so I had to drive them.
"Bye, love ya, see you after school." And on my way,down the street, back to my life of laundry and dusting. Cruising along just fine, past a garage sale, and there they are.
There in that little pen in the front yard. Small tiny black furballs, bouncing around, rolling on top of each other with a sign on the pen that says "Puppies for Sale".
Now mind you, I have no intention of getting another dog. Hubby was not happy 9 years ago when I brought the first one home, I learned my lesson. I'm just going to stop and take a look. I mean they are so stinkin' cute, I just gotta look at them.

Whip the car into park and quickly walk up, scoop one out of the cage and let it lick my face with the fabulous little puppy breath smell. I oogle and google over the thing. Find out they are Shih tzu's, all boys left, all the girls are gone. So I stay for like half an hour loving each and every one of them. "Okay, I must go home." "Bye, guys, your really cute, hope you find good homes".

So I head back home. A couple hours later, while manning my own garage sale, I say to my sister. "There was a sale this morning that had puppies, they were SOOOOOOOOOO cute (sounding like I'm about 7 when I say "so cute".)
"Well, lets go see them"
"Okay"
"Mom, we'll be back, we're going to go see the puppies."

Now when you come back a second time, the people selling the puppies start to work you over a little harder.
"Oh your back"
"I just brought my sister to see them"
"I see" (chuckle, chuckle)
Then lots of questions about where we live, what type of family we have, you know, working us over as possible buyers. Same thing again, half an hour of looking, and then your outta there.

Now here's where it starts to get ugly. You go pick up your kids at school and tell them there is a garage sale with puppies,
"What....can we go see them....PPPLLLLEEEAAASSSEEE." Then you try to act like no we aren't going to go see them, but inside your thinking "yes".

Okay, now when you show up for the third time with your kids, they pretty much hand you the puppy, his papers, and they ask for $350 (yikes!-for a dog?)

But see, this is the evil part. When you take the kids home and they beg their Dad for the dog, it doesn't look as pathetic as if you beg for the dog. Saying things like "well, get me the puppy and I'll stop whining over a baby" or "if I don't get to nurture something I might decide to buy a horse, or a pot belly pig, or adopt a child from Romania" don't seem totally appropriate.

Now insert the horrific look of "your not serious are you? It's taken me 9 years to like the other dog, don't push your luck lady. For the love of God, tell me you are not going to do this!".

Now insert me going from endearing and kind of cute, to me thinking "I don't really care, I think this will keep me sane".
"I'm getting me a puppy, I mean.....I'm getting the kids a puppy."

And so we all four went and look at the puppies, and the kids and I picked out which one would become my new psuedo child, the thing that I would nurture and try to make it seem like it filled the human void. And Nick stood there is disbelief, hoping it was all just some bad dream, hating EVERY second of the whole process, and basically looking at me like "don't even think for a second that I am going to do anything to take care of that thing".

Love, a lot of love.

And so, in all reality, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Having a new little something, that thought the world of me, needed me, went ( and still does) everywhere I go, gave me back a little tiny sense of being needed. That animal loves me, and the kids, and Nick (shhh, don't tell him, it still wants to act like he doesn't like him, but I've caught him teaching the little furball how to hug).

He's brought a lot of mindless joy (and frustration in the form of housebreaking) and I always say to everyone that he's my third child.
With that being said, I don't carry him around in a purse, dress him up in clothes, or take him for pictures with Santa. I haven't totally lost my mind.

And that my friends, is the the Evolution of Ozzie. A little black and brown Shih Tzu that helped keep my sanity. He might have only a face a mother could love, and he's not the smartest dog ever, but he's served a very important purpose in this house.

And don't tell anyone, but I think maybe, just maybe, Nick actually likes the little guy. What do you think?

The smell of boy

2008-10-01T14:28:00.003-05:00

Okay all of you with only girls, I have a little treat for you. Think of it as a scavenger hunt. A little project in what you are missing out on.

First, you will need to get a bag of Frito's. Set on your counter.

Next, go get out a pound of freshly ground hamburger. Now set it next to the Frito's.

Now, out to your garden and grab a handful of dirt. Set next to the other items.

Lastly, grab your husbands nasty smelling gym shoes and set them next to the other items.

Now scoot all of them items next to each other and cup your hand and waft those smells toward your nose.

You know, kind of like wine snobs swirl wine, and then sniff the bouquet. "Smokey, with a hint of cedar, and cherry."

Okay back to the wafting: "Corn chippy, with a hint of raw hamburger, intense fresh dirt smell, ending with the smell of old shoes."

That, my friends, is the smell of boy.

I'm serious. You don't know the pheromones that they give off until you live with them. It doesn't smell good, but the longer you live with them, the more you get used to it.

And somehow, I would imagine, that when they are grown men, I will actually miss that smell. But for now, I'll just continue to look at them and say, "You smell, go take a shower."

And they will continue to grin with the little smile that makes me think they are very proud of the smell that give off.

Okay, now go make dinner with that hamburger, it's been sitting on you counter for 10 minutes now.

Fall in Minnesota

2008-09-29T09:52:00.004-05:00

One of the best parts of Midwest living is the amazing change is season that we are able to have. And I LOVE the fall.
Nothing beats the amazing color change that you get, the smell of the leaves, the sound of the leaves crunching underneath your feet. And the great fall harvest that you get.
Apples would be the best part in my opinion. And if you've never had a Honey Crisp, your life is not complete. I'm serious.
If you are an apple eater, they are the best. Hard, crunchy, sweet, and so very satisfying.
Saturday was our annual trip to an apple orchard to do some picking, eating, and wandering through corn mazes.

Just look:

These my friends are Honey Crisps. Yummy, yummy, yummy!

Wandering through the orchard you get to sample one or two, if your a hungry 9 year old who needs to be fed every 2 hours.

I'm starting to cherish pictures like this, because my little boys aren't so little anymore and pictures like this are getting harder and harder to capture.

And mister "I'm getting to cool for stuff like this" even went and stood in the corn for a picture. (Look at the child's hair--anyone want to sneak into my house and shave his head while he sleeps?)

And if could have only heard the discussion that occurred leading up to this picture.
"Hey guys, go put your head through the ghosts."
"SERIOUSLY?"
"YES...SERIOUSLY"
"Mom, come on....do we have to?"
"Yes"
"But mom, it's stupid"
"Exactly!"
"You're so weird"
"Thank you"
Insert groaning...something I hear a lot.

(To be followed later with a discussion that went:
"Mom, your not going to do anything with that stupid ghost picture are you?"
"Like what?"
"Like print it off and show it to people, or put it on your blog or something?"
"Of course not"--my fingers were totally crossed, TOTALLY!)

And after enduring such things, at least they each got one of these at the end of the day!

YUMMY!!!!

Join the Journey-year 2

2008-09-27T10:39:00.002-05:00

Wow what a busy, busy week I have had. Sorry I've missed you all, I just had to put the blog on the back burner for a few days. But life is back to normal now, and I get you caught up on my little life.

For those of you that have read from the beginning, this will be a repeat of information, for those of you new to the blog, it's just one more installment in my life.

So, last June my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer at 41. My mother is a breast cancer survivor, her sister died of breast cancer in her late 40's, and my father's mother had breast cancer. So you might say that I have a slightly higher risk of getting the disease (gee, ya think?) So last September we walked in our first Join the Journey breast cancer walk, that is a grass roots walk here in our community. The walk is only 4 years old and every year it grows and grows.

So last Sunday it was our second year to walk. 10 miles, by the way. I have to tell you that it is an amazing sight. Those that are walking that are survivors wear a pink shirt, and everyone else supporting them wears gray. I cannot tell you the lump you get in your throat watching this sea of over a 1000 pink and gray shirts walk through our city.

We start the day with a kick off speech at one of the high school stadiums.

Here we are sitting on the cold wet bleachers waiting to get our walk going. A little tough to not get a little choked up listening to the ladies kick it off.

Here we are on about mile 6. Me, the ever dopey clown that has to take a flying leap as my dad photographes from across the street.

I love my mom and sister laughing at me making a complete ass out of myself while the teenage girls behind us completely ignore me.
(Can just insert that it is killing me to look at myself in the picture-I'm going to go eat a salad. Don't you hate yourself in pictures?)

And at the end of the 10 miles they feed you an amazing meal. Here is my sister enjoying these amazing brownies with a fabulous ganache on the top.

The significance of this picture is that last year she was in the middle of chemo when we walked and couldn't taste anything because of the chemotherapy. So not only did she make it the 10 miles last year, but she couldn't taste a darn thing.

Here she is last year:

Just compare those 2 pictures. What a difference a year makes. Amazing gal she is, pretty amazing.

And they have all of this great information for everyone to have, including really encouraging everyone to do self exams. And these two gals walk around the whole day. Man they just crack me up.

And all I can think when I look this picture is, "I'm really glad I wasn't in a testicular cancer walk."

Summer Love

2008-09-19T14:55:00.001-05:00

Shhhh....don't tell.

I covertly took these pictures of my oldest this summer. See, he really liked the little neighbor girl that was here to spend the summer with her dad. See, it all started out normal.
You know, they didn't want anything to do with each other. Yuck, I mean, who wants to play with a girl. They only like Barbies and wearing dresses and watching Hanna Montana right?

And then...well,

Turns out that home girl here, is well, a little bit of tomboy. Likes to skateboard, play guitar hero, and knows a thing or two about sports.

And so would be a 9 year olds version of summer romance. You know, adamantly denying to little brother and the other neighbor kids that you like her, yet spending more time with her than them, and finding out that some girls are "cool".

(Ahhh....duh....your mother is one of the cool ones....just ask your dad----insert eye rolling from all the males in my house)

But as with all good summer romances, they must come to an end. Saying goodbye is tough, especially when you are 9. I mean do you SAY "goodbye", or "see ya next summer", or do you hug-------no way! No this is what you do:

you stand in your front yard, making weird postures that involve crossing and uncrossing your arms and making a large spread leg male stance that shows your uncomfortable with the whole situation. Meanwhile your mother hides in the office and takes pictures through the screened window to document it all and post it to the world. See how cool your mother is?

And finally a quick "see ya", and you say "see you next summer" and then find out that actually, she will be back a Christmas for a couple of weeks and maybe you all can go snowboarding together. "Sweet!"
(what to the kids say these days that means "sweet" or "cool"---maybe I'm not so cool.)

So would end the first of the summer romances. You know the kind the mother finds sweet and innocent, because there was no kissing and hugging, and making grandbabies that I don't need at 43.
Whoa.........the reality of being a labor and delivery nurse does occasionally slap me in the face and remind me what a summer romance can lead to.

And those of you with teenage sons, you just keep your yaps shut, I know whats going to happen all too soon, and personally I like the state of denial I am living in--it works for me!

Seriously...how do they do this?

2008-09-17T15:56:00.002-05:00

In case you are just tuning in...I'm the mother of 2 boys. 2 VERY active, somewhat stinky boys, that are magnets for dirt. Not like the playing in mud puddles dirt.

Like outside sand and dirt.

There is some sort of molecular pull that brings the dirt to them.

Let me show what I mean.
Exhibit A: Son # 2's socks:

Now one might believe this child was outside for like 24 hours without shoes on, running across muddy fields. But no, this child was outside for a day playing, in shoes, not running through mud.

People...this is my life. Socks that have to immediately be taken off before entering my house. I have a bucket in my laundry room known as the "dirty sock bucket", (I came up with that clever name.) And every 3-4 days a cycle starts that involves soaking overnight in Oxyclean (the best product ever made!), and then HOT water and bleach in the washing machine.

Inventors of the world, I'm calling out to you!

Hello, do you hear me?

Someone, not me, needs to make disposable socks for boys. Something that holds up during the day and then disintegrate upon coming into my house in the evening.

Could you please work on that? I'll be a test marketer for you!

I'm off to clean some socks, aren't you jealous?

Scrapfest '08 Baby!

2008-09-15T09:28:00.002-05:00

Last Friday I was able to attend my first ever Scrapfest, and it was a totally bitchin' time.

Okay....wait....I'm laughing so hard I might pee a little.

First of all Scrapfest-you know like saying "Summerfest, or Countryfest, or Octoberfest"....but Scrapfest...come on, it just sounds funny.

All right, for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, which I'm sure there are many, Scrapfest is this insanely large event held at the Mall of America by Archivers that involves buying a badge for $12 and being able to do a bunch of make and takes, and you could also sign up for classes with different companies and famous scrapping people and make stuff.

So let me tell you right now, I had no idea how out of my league this event would be. Two of my girl friends and I headed up to Minneapolis on Thursday, ate, drank, had some fun, talked about everything under the sun, tucked ourselves in bed and got up on Friday morning to head to the Mall of America.

Okay, seriously, I'm not sure I can even describe the insanity that we would witness in the next 7 hours. 27 make and take stations set up on the main level on the Mall of America. So we hopped in the first line we saw, and proceeded to stand in line for the next 40 MINUTES! Okay, this event makes Disneyworld look like a piece of cake.

And, the people that attend it...well...there are some very serious scrapbookers out there. We are talking matching t-shirts, hauling there own scrap tote things that double as a seat to sit on in line, and all they talk about is scrapbooking for HOURS on end. And that's fine...that's their thing....but wowsa....I was out of my league let me tell you! They know every product, who made it, who runs the company, when the next line is coming out...you name it, they know it.

So, in 5 hours, we made 4 make and takes. Seriously, 5 freakin' hours, 4 make and takes. Finally we looked at each other and said screw this, and we went upstairs to the Mexican Restaurant, ate chips and salsa and drank some margaritas, and then we shopped.

So let me show you my rewards for standing in line.

First up, would be my favorite:

From a company called Bazzill. Now if you are a serious scrapbooker you will probably know all these names. But remember, I'm a Stampin' Up demonstrator that mostly makes cards...this is not in my little realm. Anyway, I have checked out their website...super cute ideas for you scrapbookers. (Betsy, I'm talking to you, so much inspiration there for you!)

Okay, the next one is this one. This is the first line that we stood in...our welcome to Scrapfest.

A company called Me and My Big Ideas (MAMBI-for those of you "in the know".) Very cute little page. Here's their website. (Betsy, check their gallery out too!)

Okay, here's the shortest line I had.

Only half an hour for this baby. From My Mind's Eye, a company I had actually heard of.

And lastly this one.

From Hero Arts. Thankfully another company I know, a little more in the stamping world.

And there you have it, 5 hours, four projects, and some good time with friends. Scrapfest '08...it was something to behold.

11 years ago....

2008-09-14T11:10:00.004-05:00

11 years ago, on September 13th 1997, these two very young looking whipper snappers would make a vow to each other.

In front of the Catholic Church, surrounded by friends and family, they tied the knot. And now, 11 years later, I'm sitting here remembering....

Look at my pretty dress....

First one that I tried on, though there would be countless others that day, it was on sale...and in one day, yes ONE day, I bought my wedding dress. My sister made my vail, and the little netting piece detached so that when everybody and their brother hugged me that day they wouldn't rip my head off. I haven't worn panty hose and a dress since....maybe once...but seriously....if you know me....this was a monumental day in my dress wearing life.

And here is my FAVORITE wedding picture of all time...

Look at my stinkin' cute little nieces. Do you not just want to eat them up? Look at their little purple dresses, and their hair, and their baskets....oh my gosh that it like syrup with sugar, and honey, and whip cream on top. Yeah, they are almost 15and 16 now. They aren't that cute any more.
I mean they are cute and all, but in a teenage diva sort of way.

There it is, our first kiss EVER....

We saved ourselves you know, for that moment.
Wait... just a minute...I need to stop rolling around laughing on the floor.
Truth is, when our priest found out we had lived together (NO, I didn't lie about that fact, I just maybe forgot to mention it to him), he threatened not to marry us. But all was well when we did face to face confession after rehearsal...yeah...that was fun. (Fellow Catholics, do you feel my pain?)

So here's to us....

With love from all of our friends that day. Most of whom are still good friends. Looks like we've made it so far.

Good luck you two...

Truth is...the next 11 years are going to be a lot of up and down. You are going to have some serious tragedy come your way, along with some amazing joys. Don't tell anyone, but your going to have 2 beautiful boys. It really is going to get tough sometimes, and you may really want to give up, but remember you guys started as really good friends and that is what will see you through.

Good luck...and ahhh, have fun getting out of that body suit thing that you wore under that dress to keep all your parts in place. After about 5 hours it started to become a part of your body!

Good times, good times.....

2008-09-11T10:05:00.002-05:00

So I was feeling a little guilty about all my gushing over Tim McGraw and my unhealthy attraction to him. So today's it's my hubby's turn.

See we have an anniversary coming up soon (watch for that post) and the reality is that I am beyond grateful to have this man in my life.

He's loved me through thick and thin (literally), good and bad, and is an amazing dad. I so wish that I had is patience. Seriously, patience of a saint this one.

Over the years he has never once called me a name, or engaged in a real fight with me. He's only said one really stupid thing to me in all these years and I love to remind him of that. When I was pregnant with my first son, about 8 months, he said to me "You know, your belly is so big now that it makes your butt look small"--and no sooner had the words cleared his mouth than he knew it had made a grave error in judgement. It's all a very good laugh now.

He has tolerated me bringing home 2 dogs he didn't want, and blessed me with 2 boys.

He and I are very different personalities.

Me: spunky, slightly loud, a little dramatic, can't get enough people interaction, and maybe even a little neurotic.

Him: quiet, reserved, and well, quiet and reserved. Oh, and very thoughtful, and sweet.

What I'm trying to say is, I kind of like the guy and I guess I keep him for a few more years.

Oh, and he's kind of easy on the eyes too!

I'm better now.

2008-09-09T11:35:00.002-05:00

Sorry to all of you that got a blank entry, I got a little click happy.

A huge thank you to all of you that left me a little comment and I enjoyed your choices. And I 100% agree with the Sam Elliot choice, one of the greatest voices out there. And if you don't know who he is, clearly you didn't watch any modern western movies or you have never see Mask or Roadhouse.

So today, for now you get a card. I used a layer of vellum over the top off white cardstock to get this card. The 2 flowers on the the vellum layer have the addtion of the outlined image. This is a new level 1 hostess set that was very easy to work with.

Sorry so quick today, a million things to get done.
It's mid week everybody!!!!!

Hello????

2008-09-08T10:23:00.003-05:00

Tap, tap, tap.....

is this thing on?

Okay, it's Monday, a little gray here, only 50 degrees, I might be a little PMS-al, and a little self conscious.

Okay, that might be the dramatic side of me (I'm the last of 4-it comes quite naturally sometimes), but here's the thing:

I know you guys are reading this. I watch my little numbers over there climb. And well, I just need to feel the love today. I haven't be getting many comments lately, and that's okay, I like lurkers-heck I am a lurker on blogs-but today, because it's Monday and yucky out, I need to feel the love.

So lets go with a topic:

Let's revisit Saturday's post:

Who, other than your husbands, boyfriends, wives, just makes your socks go up and down? I mean who do you consider eye candy, hot stuff, "totally mint" (80's girls-there's a past from the past), hunky, hubba hubba, yummy sort of material.

In case you missed it, here's my vote:

That's me on the right.

Ha, ho, ha, ho,

I need to snap out of it. Where's a friend when you need her to smack you in the face?

Set this circus down

2008-09-06T21:14:00.003-05:00

A week ago tonight this is what I was looking at:

Hmmmmm.....drink it in. It's nice right? Yes this would be the hunky and talented Tim McGraw. Okay, here is the thing. There is only one man other than my cute hubby that really does it for me. And here he is. Ahhhh.......

Oops, silly me, I accidently took a picture of his backside, however did that happen?

Okay here's the thing, I'm not one of those women that gets too "ga-ga" over famous people, but for some reason, Mr. McGraw is the exception. Let's look at some examples shall we:

So, I guess he's handsome. But he's got like 27 kids, I don't want any part of that!

Now this is a fine specimen. I can hardly wait to see him in Nights of Rodanthe. However I remember when Pretty Woman came out, my 70 something Grandmother said "he could leave his slippers under her bed anytime." I remember being horrified that we shared the same taste in men-I've never really recovered.

Yikes! Seriously, I just don't see it....I just don't. He looks like the dude that should be changing my oil at Jiffy Lube.

Now fellow country singers. Can't go wrong here, that whole cowboy thing is appealing.

So-so. Please just keep the hat on.

AHHHHH.....that's better. I'm pretty sure there was a moment when we locked eyes and we both apologized for being married to other people. You know, like star crossed lovers.

Then my friend slapped me, and said "SNAP OUT OF IT".

Finally did a little stampin'

2008-09-06T11:30:00.004-05:00

So way back when, I started this blog because I stamp.

I haven't done so much of that for a while. But alas, (who says "alas" other than british knights?) I have made a couple of cards this week.

I got the chance to get my hands on the new goofy reindeer set from SU! There are also some silly snowmen and elves in this set.

I used aqua painters to do the coloring, and added a little glue and red glitter to the one reindeers nose, and there you have it folks.

Enjoy your weekend, it's beautiful, sunny and 65 here-I'm heading outside!!!!

Sets: Holiday Line Up
Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Real Red, Whisper White
Accessories: oval punchs, Staz On black ink, red fine glitter, crystal effects

69 YEARS OF WEDDED BLISS (HA!)

2008-08-28T17:25:00.003-05:00

So first of all, I promise to get back to stamping soon, I promise! The kids go back to school in 5 days (Yippee!!!)and though I will be sad, I'm going to drown my sorrow in my stamping room, drinking in some of the new things I have to play with. Until then...let me tell you about what we got to do this last weekend.

We went to Northern Wisconsin to celebrate my husband's grandparents 69th wedding anniversary. That's right people...69 years...with the same guy...

and
this one
he's feisty, let me tell you!!!!!

He broke out the accordion for the occasion. It doesn't get much more Midwest all American than this folks. That accordion means the world to him. He can't read a single note of music, he's done it all by ear. And he's darn good too, especially if you like to polka.

See the younger of the two (the one of the right for those of you wondering), that's my oldest-he's named after the old guy on the left. He decided to enter the world 2 weeks early, and that just happened to be on Grandpa's 80th birthday. So we took the divine intervention hint and named the little squirt after him. Except he's really not such a little squirt anymore.
Moving on...Grandpa really wants his namesake to learn the accordion before he dies (he's 89)...and he decided that this day was the perfect day for him to learn.
It was really kind of sweet to watch. Grandpa, so very hard of hearing, that the folks in the next county could hear us yelling...I mean talking to him, trying to explain the accordion...and my boy patiently trying to do just what Grandpa asked. He really wanted to be jumping in the river with his cousins. But he sat there and listened, and tried to play. He's a good kid-90% of the time, and at least when it matters most.

Now, you really have no idea how funny this picture is. But it's darn funny, let's just leave it at that. Such good sports, while the younger folk make them hold dumb props.

And lastly, in all seriousness. You don't see this to often. 69 years, both alive and healthy, living in their own home, mentally intact, a lot of hearing loss, and some bad glaucoma, and a LOT of spunk. Personally I think she's a saint...he's a handful!!!!
Very proud to have married into this family...well not when I look at the picture before last...but I'm going to try to not think about that.

Because I have so much free time...

2008-08-27T15:38:00.002-05:00

I decided that I need another thing to eat up some time. You know, so that I can ignore the dirty laundry in the laundry room, and forget about the grocery shopping I have to do, oh and reviewing math problems with my kids before they go back to school ( you know, so it looks like we've actually tried to shape their minds a little over the summer.)

Okay, we haven't reviewed a single math problem, or read a book. No see, we've actually let the boys, just be boys over the summer, you know...playing...like when we were kids. Here's my point, they go to school 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 9months, and well...I think that's enough. So my boys have spent hours upon hours outside, skateboarding, scootering, playing baseball, swimming, and well...being boys. Call me crazy. Fresh air...it's a good thing for their mind and body.

Okay, back to my point....I've started to become intrigued with the idea of digital scrap booking. See I need another medium to express my creativity (just like I need a hole in the head). Well, I found this great place to suck all of the free time I have out of me. See, it's free and it lets me play around and see if this is really something I need to get in to. If you have tons of time on your hands, check it out...Scrapblog.com. And then be prepared to not have supper made, or any laundry done, or do math problems with your kids. Here's what I made today:

It was my first attempt at anything like this, so don't be too critical. Please note, that though I may not practice math problems with my kids, or make them read novels over the summer, I do make them wear pads and helmets, because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Yep, that's me, safety first!

Glorious creatures

2008-08-19T16:34:00.004-05:00

So this weekend was spent working on finishing the GIANT perennial bed that we started last fall. Finding time to work on it can prove to be a challenging thing during the summer as the weekends that are free, are few and far between. And something sad starts to happen in mid August when you live in Minnesota- you start saying things to each other like "we really need to make sure we get that done BEFORE THE SNOW STARTS TO FLY"

Ah, What?

Yeah, we start thinking about that awful white stuff that will take over are lives in a few months.

Okay, back to the project. It was labor intensive, sweaty, very hot, and oh so very satisfying at that end of the day.

An amazing thing happened though, while we were working. All kinds of glorious creatures started to show themselves to us. (Well, the reality, is we were working in their habitat, and we just got to observe them.)And I just had to photograph them.

First up was this cool guy:

I found him hiding in my bee balm. He was having a lovely little lunch munching on some weed that didn't belong in there. So I ripped the weed out along with him and decided that he was just too cool. One of those wonders of nature with his weird little spiky thing coming out of his fake eyeball on his butt. From what I can tell from the Internet, I think he's a sphinx moth caterpillar. Funky little guy!

Next we have her:

This a clear wing hummingbird moth. From a distance she looks like a hummingbird. She stayed around forever. I could bore you to death with all of the pictures I took of her. She did some serious eating at my million bells on my deck.

Then there is her:

Gotta love a beautiful swallowtail. She let me take a ton of photos too. She feasted on my butterfly bush for over 20 minutes. I've had a lot fun with her in my Photo shop program.

Makes me wonder what else I would find if I hung out in my gardens all day every day!

Raising Boys

2008-08-15T11:46:00.005-05:00

So a big part of my journey through this world is being the mother of 2 boys. They are such interesting creatures that I've decided to make them a regular part of my blog.

Let me give a little taste of what we are talking about here.

Yesterday was my New Catalog Open House. So...
Everything is ready, house is cleaned, everything is in place. I am able to go upstairs, do a last check of the hair and makeup and my first guest arrives. Warmly greeted and bring her into the living room to show her around. As I make my way past my coffee table something catches the corner of my eye.

Yep, somewhere in the time that I went upstairs, one of them decided it was the perfect time to clip their toenails and LEAVE TOENAIL CLIPPINGS and the clippers sitting out amongst all of my visually beautiful displays.

Serioiusly, how do you discretely try to clean those up with out her noticing and then try to mention that she should have some of my homemade goodies before going?

Yummy!!!!

I wish I would have had video camera of me pointing something out to her and quickly turning and sweeping them into my hand, dropping the clipper in my pocket and RUNNING to throw them away and wash my hands.

Classy, totally classy.

Come on you know you want one!!

2008-08-12T10:25:00.001-05:00

Wanna be a hit at your next picnic? Want your kids to jump up and down and beg for one more? Want adoration as though you slaved over a hot stove all afternoon? Oh, and want a really easy recipe. Well then........here you go.

Behold....THE KRISPY LOG ROLL!

This is a recipe first introduced to me by my friend Tracy-the queen of the yummy simple recipe. It's quick, easy, and doesn't require turning your oven on!

Here's what you will need:
5 1/2 cups Rice Krispies
1 bag Marshmallows (make sure to sample a few first)
1/4 c. Peanut Butter
4 tbsp. butter
1 1/3 c. chocolate chips
3/4 c. peanut butter or butterscotch chips
(the original recipe calls for butterscotch, but me....well...I'm not so crazy about them...so I use peanut butter.)

Begin by putting your marshmallows and butter in a microwave safe bowl and melt.

While they are melting, line a jelly roll pan with wax paper, and GENEROUSLY spray with Pam. If you do not spray it.......well....it's not gonna go so good for you!

Here's your melted goo.

Now add the peanut butter.

Mix until you have peanut butter goo.

Add your cups of rice krispies and mix together.

Now dump them out onto your pan.

Take another small piece of wax paper and spray it with Pam. You will use this to press the mix down into the pan.

Flatten all the way down.

Take both kinds of chips and put them in the microwave.

You will end up with this melted chocolatey-peanut buttery mess.

Now spread that all over the pressed krispies.

Now you will need to roll it up like a jelly roll. I start with one side and tuck it closely on top, but then use the wax paper to guide and roll.

Your rolled version should look like this. Now you will need to put it in the refridgerator for a hour.

Take it out and sliced it into pieces.

Here is the final product all laid out. Now sample one or two before you go to the picnic....you know...just to be safe!!!

Over the rainbow

2008-08-11T19:09:00.002-05:00

Last week was busy, but I just wanted to share with you one of the greatest little creations God makes for us every now and then. What is it about a rainbow that makes you stop and pause for just a second?

Couple more beach totes

2008-08-07T17:00:00.002-05:00

Just a minute to show you 3 more totes I made this morning!

Little Beach Tote Bag

2008-08-07T12:02:00.002-05:00

So I'm guessing that you have made one of these little babies by now. I mean after all they are all over Splitcoast and Bloggerville. But, on the off chance that you haven't click here to see the tutorial by Diana Gibbs on how to make one. I got to make this adorable version yesterday at a stamping gathering with my demo friends! (Thanks Brenda!)

When I was first making mine however, I became inspired to make a little something of my own. I wanted mine to look at little bit more like a beach tote. So here is a tutorial one making my version of this little bag.

You will need:
1-6"x 3 1/2" piece of cardstock for the base
1- 4"x 12" designer paper
1- 1"x 11" piece of cardstock (or you may opt for a 1" x 12" piece of designer)
sticky strip
various accessories to complete

Start with your piece of 6"x 3 1/2" cardstock.

Score at 1" around all four sides.

Snip into the 1" mark on all four corners and apply adhesive to the little tab and begin folding into a box.

When assembled your base should look like this.

Now apply sticky strip around the entire 12 inch side of your designer paper and along one edge of the 4" side. Now wrap the paper around the base.

Use your scallop punch to create a scallop edge along your 1" strip. In order to adhere the base this way you will need to cut your piece of paper into 2 4" strips and 2 1 1/2" strips. When I make it again I will use a 1"x 12" strip of designer so that it will wrap neatly around the base.

Now apply that scallop strip to the bottom.

This is the finished tote. I used the Priceless stamp set to add swirls to the round tab punches and centers of the flowers.

Send me a link if you make one, I'd love to see what other people come up with!

Recipe:
Paper: SU! designer Bella papers, Pink Pirouette, Red Riding Hood
Stamps: Priceless
Accessories: Pink brads, 5 petal punch, round tab punch, sticky strip

Unfrogettable Spinner Card-Video

2008-07-24T13:27:00.003-05:00

Okay so this was supposed to be a part of the other post, but I don't always understand Blogger and it kept processing and processing. So here it is in it's own little post. Keep in mind: I AM NOT STEVEN SPIELBERG!
This is what your little spinner frog should do:

An UNFROGETABLE spinner card tutorial!

2008-07-24T11:21:00.019-05:00

Okay, I'm feeling like I'm back in action. Just in case you've never made a spinner card before, I thought I'd share a step by step tutorial on making one. And trust me, it's going to be UNFROGETABLE (somebody please stop me!). I'm VERY sad that SU! is retiring Unfrogetable. It's one of my favorites. And the funny thing is, it's not my typical type of stamping. I usually am not drawn to the cartoony type of stamps but I have used this one a lot. I think it might be because I have 2 boys and the frogs were easy to work with. Anyway, this card's origin starts with my great upline Kristin, quite a while ago. But it's an oldie but a goodie. I started with a piece of paper that had been cut down to 5 1/4" x 4" to accommodate being back layered later on. Start by taking your window punch and pushing it all the way in and leaving about 3/4" on the edge. Punch once. Now you will move the window punch over and overlapping your previous punch. Punch again. Now you will move it over one more time, leaving approximately 3/4" on the other edge of the card. There is no exact measurement that looks right, whatever you think is fine. Here is what your completed gutter should look like. Now I stamped over the gutter with the flowers from this set. Then I added the dragonfly and the "Hoppy Birthday". Now I lightly sponged with Bashful Blue around those images to make it look like a nice blue sky. This is what it looks like completed and colored. Now I took a piece of Certainly Celery and got out my new Scallop Edge Punch (coming in the new catalog-RUN to your demo and get one!)and punch a scalloped edge along one side. (Sorry the photo isn't totally crisp) Next I used a sponge with Certainly Celery to add texture to that piece, make it look a little more grass like. Next is coloring and cutting out two of the jumping frogs. Turn your frogs over and adhere a stamping dimensional to the center of their body. (Again, sorry for the photo, it looked good on my little screen but then on the computer I can see the quality isn't so great, but you get the idea) Now you place a penny over that dimensional and place another dimensional on top of the penny. Now you sneak that penny right into the gutter-it fits just perfectly. Now add another penny over the top of that dimensional to look like this. Last step is to add your other frog over the top. Here is your completed card. I added a 5 1/2"x 4 1/4" piece of Bashful Blue as a back layer. Now tip your card side to side and your little froggy should spin.

Photocube

2008-07-22T20:37:00.007-05:00

So, as I mentioned before, I took 195 pictures on our vacation to Myrtle Beach 2 weeks ago. I already made my Shutterfly hard cover book of the vacation and got it today. YEAH! So that leaves me time to "play" with some of the pictures.

I have the best of intentions of scrapbooking, but I get a little overwhelmed to be honest. I'm better with smaller projects. So here's what will get to adorn my shelf in my craft room to remember the trip. It's a cute little wooden photocube.
My brother in law is a woodworker and made some cubes out of scrap wood for me. I started by covering them with some retired SU! paper that I cannot remember for the life of me that name of it. I think it was "weathered"-maybe. It was all these photographic pieces of like antique doors and plaques.

This is my oldest, Joe. Growing up to fast...but that's another story. I wrapped it with linen thread, and see those little shells, I picked them off the beach in S.C. and nature made a handy little hole in each one for me to put my thread through.

This is my second, Alec. His very first wave in Myrtle-how do I know-look the hair is dry. He's about to get pounded by a wave. It's hard to see in the photo, but if you look at the lower left of the picture there is a shell adhered with Crystal Effects to the corner of that photo. IRL it's really easy to see.

Here's Joe heading back to catch a wave. Have I ever said that I love rub on's. Well I'll make it official "I LOVE RUB ONS". The little saying is a part of the "A Perfect Day" rub on kit from SU! out of the summer mini. Made the perfect little addition on the side of his picture.

Here's Alec heading back out for a wave. Just some more linen thread wrapped around there to add a little something.

Here's a picture of the top of the cube. Again using the "A Perfect Day" rub ons, and more shells from sunny Myrtle Beach. I adhered them with Crystal Effects.

I had to show you the shells close up, because I LOVE that little pointy shell in the middle. Of all the shells we brought home, it was my favorite. A perfect little work of God's vast art. Loved it!

Yippee!!!! A completed stamping project!!!

My Mom

2008-07-18T17:27:00.002-05:00

I love my mom. She's 70, HIGH energy, and go, go, go.

Okay I admit it, she drives me crazy too, but well....she's my mother...that's just how it is.

But, she and I have been working on a little project. Over at Shutterfly, you can make your own picture books for $29.99. I'm sure you can probably do this a bunch of other places, like Kodak and Snapfish, but I'm a Shutterfly girl. Mostly because I can upload my digital pictures to there site and have them printed off, and go pick them up at my local Target after an hour!!! Anyway, my mom and I have been going through all her old photos to make a book about her family. All people I never knew. Her dad died when she was 16 and her mother when my oldest brother was 3. So it's been so fun to go through all of her old pictures and learn about her family and her childhood.

But there is one picture of my mother that I love. And that's hard because she has all these great photographs that are vintage 1950's. You know, great little dresses with heels and perfectly done hair.

But this is my favorite:

I just love this picture. I think she's 19 and in Hawaii with her sister. I don't know what it is. It's something about the youthfulness she's exuding, and that great big smile.

And well, she and I look at lot alike. At that's pretty much what I looked like at 19, except I was riding horses and working on a ranch instead of taking a trip to Hawaii.

Aloha Momma!

LIFE HAPPENS

2008-07-14T13:48:00.003-05:00

Okay, I'm done saying that I'm back. I'm still planning on being better about the blogging, but seriously, how do people do this every day? I was so good in the beginning...but life is really busy with the kids home for the summer and feeling like a taxi cab driver. And we just got back from a week in Myrtle Beach, and trying to get back into normal life and tell my brain that it isn't on vacation anymore, well....my brain likes vacation.

Vast nothingness..........and ocean waves...........ahhhhh...........

Oh wait...I have 17 loads of laundry, a garden that needs a little love, a weeks worth of mail to go through, 8 newspapers, Stampin' Up order to place, Stampin' Up website to read, good Lord-new stuff at Paper Trey, 221 vacation photos to upload and or print.........and then there is more poor little neglected stamp room and my blog.

Well, I'm going to try people, I'm really going to try. I'm putting the blog at the top of my list. Who cares if my kids don't have clean underwear....I'm all about the blogging..........well it sounds good anyway.

Here's the best I can do for today. We made this card at my last card class. The flower images are from Stampin' Up's Heartfelt thanks, and the words are from SU!'s Full of Life set. And well, I made it a month ago and I think I got the idea from somewhere, except now....my brain has been on vacation and I don't remember. So I'm sorry if you made a card like this on your blog and I copied it....I had every intention of crediteding someone........but I went to the ocean and lost all of that information.

GO TEAM!!!

2008-06-09T12:59:00.002-05:00

I don't know about you, but sometimes I struggle with making a good boy card. It's easy sometimes to make a "little" boy card, but with son's that are 8&9, I'm getting out of the pirate and froggie phase of life.

Thankfully SU! doesn't make stamps that have anything to do with burping and farting, which seems to be 2 of the things that bring the most enjoyment to boys that age.

Luckily, we are raising 2 sports freaks, so using the Sporting set seemed liked an okay option. So I was inspired by the card using this set in the catalog on pg. 79, but mine really ended up looking nothing like it. It's a really simple card that I ending up liking the layout for.

Happy Monday All!!!

Recipe
Paper: Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip, Brocade Blue, Very Vanilla
Ink: Garden Green, Chocolate Chip, Brocade Blue
Set: Sporting

Fresh Strawberry Pie

2008-06-06T15:19:00.004-05:00

So one of the things I'm going to do with the "new" blog is to share some of my favotrite recipes here and there. Though I love to cook, baking is really my thing.

Now, there is a good chance I posted this recipe last summer, or well I meant to, maybe I did...maybe I didn't. But here is the thing....it is the best darn pie ever. Super easy to make, and so very refreshing!!!!!

Sometimes, when I'm feeling totally crazy, I make it with raspberries and raspberry jello--only when I'm feelin' crazy. Which for me, means I've made it that way a lot!

So if you want your husband to adore you, your kids to thank you, your sister to envy you, and the neighbors to be in awe of your Martha Stewart-like abiities, then go get some strawberries and strawberry jello and whip one up tonight. You won't regret it.

Make in the tin pie crust:

1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 c. oil
2 tbsp. milk

In the pie plate mix dry ingredients. Measure 1/2 c. oil and add 2 tbsp. milk. Mix together. (there is probably some fancy name for this process, like emulsification, or something but I just call it "mixing" :) ) Pour over flour mixture in pie plate and mix together. Press around pie plate and form crust. Poke with a fork. Bake 350 for 20 minutes.

Fresh Strawberry Filling

1 c. sugar
1 c. water
2 tbsp. cornstarch
3 tbsp. strawberry jello
2 c. sliced fresh strawberries

Mix sugar and cornstarch in saucepan. Add water and boil until thick. Add jello. Stir well. Stir in strawberries and pour into pie crust. Chill until set and serve with whipped cream.

Fairytale Ending

2008-06-05T17:27:00.003-05:00

Oh my goodness! I'm back!!!! I really mean it. I have cards made, photographed and uploaded them to the computer. Now I just have to get here each day and share.
And the blog is gonna change a little. More personal stuff here and there. Maybe some of my favorite recipes. And whatever I feel the need to rant about, like Caitlyn the cashier I had a Walmart last week-that was an interesting experience-but that will be another day.

So here's my first card back. I got to borrow the Full of Life set (SU!) from my wonderful upline Kristin and well, I fell in love with it!!! So many great little saying. I even made some artwork for my living room with it, but I'll share that another day. So I was inspired by a card I saw on Splitcoast that well, now I can't find to give her credit. (Does that ever happen to you, where you just click here and then there, and then again, and pretty soon you have no idea where the heck you are?)Anyway, I also used the Boho Background (SU!), the flowers out of there and embossed them with white embossing powder onto vellum.
Ended up with a pretty wedding card!

Good to be back, I've missed you all, and shhhh......I see blog candy in the future next week!!!!!

Recipe:
Paper: Basic gray, black, whisper white, vellum
Ink: Black
Sets: Boho Background, Full of Life
Accessories: Basic Gray Taffeta Ribbon

Hey everybody!

2008-05-10T13:57:00.002-05:00

Hi,
Well it will be interesting to see if there is anyone still out there reading this thing, but thought I should give you an update.

No nothing is wrong. I just decided to take a month off. I walked away from my stamp room, blurfing, updating, picture taking, the whole shabang. I had become oddly consumed with trying to make the next great thing, and blurfing and looking at all the amazing things that everyone else made, and got a little consumed. So I put myself on a self imposed time out and took a break. And it's been kind of nice.

But I'll be coming back soon. And the blog will get a new look. And I think it might get a little more personal with some stamping still thrown in, we'll have to see.

I just wanted you to all know, if anyone is interested, that I'm fine.

Take care all!!!

Anne's baby present!

2008-04-03T16:49:00.002-05:00

Well, I did it girls. I got back in there, and well, let's just say "at least I stamped". It is not the best thing I've ever made, but it was a much needed project. My good friend Anne (ANNIE) just had her second baby and I bought a blanket and one of the egg boxes from Paper Trey specifically for her. So here is the box completed. Covered with Berry Bliss Paper from SU! and I used the little saying from the Just Hatched set from Paper Trey.
Here is the inside with the six pairs of cute little socks that I got for her.
And here is the adorable, fuzzy, plush blanket that I got from Kohls. I wanted everything to have that cute brown and pink look to it.
Did I mention she had a girl? Oh, you figured that out?
So there you have it. I got back in there and tackled it. Maybe my creative juices have been stirred again and I will come up with something amazing. Or maybe I will just keep stamping!

Has anyone seen my MOJO?

2008-04-01T09:18:00.002-05:00

I've seem to have lost my mojo. I know that it is buried somewhere in my stamping room, but I sure can't find it. With the kids home for spring break last week I got wrapped up in Mommyville again and haven't set foot in that room for a week.
So wish me luck, I'm goin' in today, and I'm hoping something amazing comes to light while I'm in there.

Hope you are all well. I'll post something soon!

Totally Personal

2008-03-22T11:04:00.002-05:00

Well, I have nothing to post today, no stamping has occured recently. Yesterday was the first full day of spring vacation for my kids and we took care of 2 of their friends that had no day care. I want to share with you what it is like to have four 7-9 year old boys in your house for an afternoon.

"Dude, like let's pretend were on American Idol"
"No, that's dumb, let's wrestle"
"No, dude, let's make it a singing competition and then you have to wrestle each other to win."
"Yeah!"
"Yeah"
"Yeah"

"Dude, we need wrestling names"
"Josh, your the Gas-a-nator"
"Alec, your the Cry-Baby"
"I wanna be the Killer Beast"
"I'm the BOOGIE MAN"

"Okay, okay, dude, this is how it's gonna go. You each have 2 minutes to come up with your song, and then we will announce you. AND...dude, before you go on stage you have to fart on command. Can you all fart on command?"
"YEAH!!!!"

For the next half an hour I would listen to horrible singing, an incredible array of farting noises, followed by wrestling matches to determine a winner.
BOYS ARE WEIRD!

I do not understand them, I am a girl.

Protect you daughters that are these ages, some day one of these four boys could be knocking on your door to take them out.

I'm sorry ahead of time. I'm trying, but testosterone is an incredible force.

I Got a RAK!!!

2008-03-21T16:09:00.002-05:00

For the only the second time in my year plus of blogging, I got a RAK. I'm so stinkin' excited. It couldn't have come on a better day, 6 inches of snow and yuck here. Totally brightened my day!!!It's from Amanda Sewell, so thank you, thank you, thank you. It's gorgeous!

A Little Birdie Told me...

2008-03-19T10:20:00.002-05:00

Well I wanted to make a cute get well card for a work friend that had foot surgery. So I decided it was time to break out these little birds. I wanted to make it fun and springy.They are kinda cute, like they are talkin' to each other.
I hardly have any time today for a post, so hope you have a good day!

Paper: Bashful Blue, DS celery, Rose Red
Ink: Blender pen with blue, celery, and rose
Accessories: Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, White Taffeta ribbon, slit punch
Set: A Little Birdie Told Me

Stars and Stripes

2008-03-17T12:26:00.002-05:00

Isn't it always a challenge to come with boy/masculine cards. I always struggle with that when those birthdays come around. Especially if they are over the age of 3! Well today's card is a clean simple alternative to that dilemma. Paper, punches and very little stamping.The DS paper is some of the Summer Picnic in the Occasion's catalog from SU! Makes a great masculine palette. The star are simply punched with the large star punch and the "it's your birthday" stamp is from the A LITTLE BIRDIE TOLD ME set from SU! I used my Janome Sew Mini to stitch down the card front and used dimensionals under the stars to make them pop up. Really easy card.

Happy Monday!

Paper: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, DS Summer Picnic
Set: A Little Birdie Told me
Accessories: Large Star punch

One more Paper Trey

2008-03-14T08:54:00.005-05:00

Okay, one more Paper Trey before they release more tomorrow! AHHHHH! I can't keep up with both all my SU! stuff (my first love) and the PT stuff. Anyway, with PT only having 2 colors of their own right now, all the cards look a little similar but I REALLY like this one.I used 3 different PT sets here. Everyday Blessings (the saying, Beautiful Blooms (leaves), and Butterfly Kisses (butterfly). I do not get Butterfly Kisses out enough, it is so cute.
If you don't know how to do the little sparkly wings here's a quick overview. I had stamped the lined version of the wings in Aqua Mist first and stamped it on vellum. Now take the flat large butterfly image and stamp it in Versamark and stamp over the top of the other image.
Now you will sprinkle Iridecent Ice over the top of that, shake off the excess, and heat set.
Your wings should then look like this. Just cut out and adhere just the center body piece. I stamped the lined version of the wings on the white paper as well. Then added Rhinestones for Hero Arts for the body.
Happy Friday!

Paper: PT Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, PT Everyday blessing paper
Ink: PT Aqua Mist and Spring Moss, Basic Black
Accessories: PT Spring Moss polka dot ribbon
Sets: PT Everyday Blessings, Butterfly Kisses, Beautiful Blooms

Celebrate Spring with Paper Trey

2008-03-13T10:22:00.002-05:00

I got to play yesterday afternoon with some of my new Paper Trey stuff. I had Joey home sick and my DH. Can I just quietly say there is nothing worse than a sick hubby-but I will not go on!!! Anyway, the house needed to stay quiet so that left me free from feeling like I should be acting like a housewife and allowed me to retreat to the germ free zone of my stamping room. I used the adorable Celebrate Spring stamp out of the JUST HATCHED set and the little flourish on either side is from EVERYDAY BLESSINGS.
This probably doesn't really help but I tried to get closer in so the you could see the little tiny self stick rhinestone from Hero Arts that I used. I love the dreamy Paper Trey colors.
I used the EVERYDAY BLESSINGS patterned paper here too, along with quite a few of the stamps out of the EVERYDAY BLESSINGS stamp set. The only non Paper Trey thing here is the scallop punch that I used. And isn't that satin Aqua Mist ribbon gorgeous?!?!?

Paper: PT Everyday Blessings, Spring Moss, Aqua Mist
Sets: PT Just Hatched and Everyday Blessings
Ink: PT Spring Moss and Aqua Mist
Accessories: PT Aqua Mist satin ribbon

Thinking Spring-scrap pieces

2008-03-13T09:33:00.003-05:00

While I was cleaning up my project desk yesterday I happened to throw a scrap of this Summer Picnic designer series paper, Bashful Blue, and Wild Wasabi all together and thought, "hey, I could do something with that." I had 15 minutes before I had to pick Alec up from religion class-and ta da!
It's it funny what you can do in time constraints. Not that it is the best card I've ever made but it's fun and springy. I used some of the rub on's that were free with Sale-a-bration. It would be a easy card class card.
Happy Day All!

Paper: Bashful Blue, Wild Wasabi textured, DS Summer Picnic
Ink: none
Sets: none
Accessoreies: SAB rub on's, large oval punch, 1" circle punch, white get pen, red striped ribbon from SU!

Late Weekend Challenge

2008-03-12T09:02:00.002-05:00

Well, I never can seem to finish anything in a timely fashion so I just got Beate's weekend challenge card finished yesterday.This was the sketch she put out there for us to use.
Here's my version of it. I had borrowed this Enjoy Every Moment set from my upline and decided to use it one more time before I get it back to her. (It has already been in my possesion longer than it was supposed to.) On the pink pieces of the Berry Bliss paper I added some little flowers with Close to Cocoa. You can't beat the Pretty in Pink and Close to Cocoa combination. Quick simple card.
It's going to 45-50 degrees here today!!!! That's a tropical heat wave after all the snow and exceptional cold this winter. I heard robins this morning-can't see them yet but I heard the talkin' this morning!
Paper: Close to Cocoa, Berry Bliss
Ink: Close to Cocoa
Set: Enjoy Every Moment

P.S. Like my new signature? Click here for a tutorial on how to get your own. Pretty simple to do!

Paper Trey Egg Box

2008-03-11T12:57:00.006-05:00

I had to play with one of the two new Paper Trey Egg Boxes that I bought last month. It's not quite a complete project but I will share the inside finished later.I used Paper Trey's Everyday Blessings patterned paper to cover the top of the box. The ribbon is also Paper Trey-isn't the polka dot so cute? I stamped all the way around the bottom edge with a stamp out of the Everyday Blessings stamp set.
I just wanted you to be able to see the top of the box as well. I love this soft green color!!!

Sorry quick post, another person home sick today in my house. Ahhh...the joy's of being a nurse...at home and work!

Live your Dream-Chalkboard Technique

2008-03-11T12:45:00.002-05:00

Okay, ever take a picture of a card like say...10-15 times? I swear to you this card is just not destined to be photographed well. Not that it is the most spectacular card ever, but it is actually pretty in person. I have taken a picture of this card in three different rooms, at different speeds, and NONE of them capture it at all, but oh well. I wanted to try Beate's CHALKBOARD TECHNIQUE from splitcoast. Okay, not very original, I used the same set, but it was my one and only attempt at it.
You can't see it, but the red has Boho Backrounds little flower pattern all over it. The set in in the new Occations mini and is called Live Your Dream. And yes that paper really is real red, the color just got all wonky. I used some self stick rhinestones from the dollar bin at JoAnn's on the corners. I tried.

Notice anything NEW???

2008-03-07T11:23:00.002-06:00

I GOT A BLOG BANNER, I GOT A BLOG BANNER (insert image of me doing a freaky little dance)!!!!!
My very sweet friend Sarah made this for me!!! I know, "SHUT UP"!!! Anyway she offered to do it for me and look how cute it is? If you don't know her is is AKA DESPERATE STAMPER and you have to visit her blog. She is a very talented stamper with a very defined style. And she makes the CUTEST scrapbook pages.

Now if I could just find a template I like to match it. I'm a little gun shy, last time I changed it I lost all my links and I don't want to play that game again. But I've killed about 2 hours looking for a template instead of stamping, so I told myself to "back away from the computer" and look again later.

So THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, Sarah!!!!!

Enjoy the Fruit

2008-03-05T11:26:00.003-06:00

Do you ever have those days where nothing goes as planned? That would be today. it was supposed to be my day waste time on the computer, update the blog, rearrange, blurf (blog surf), and NONE of it is happening. It mostly has to do with a 7 year old that is home sick, but what a wacky morning. Anyway, I wanted to get something up today, and I have to say with the new DSL (by the way if you are living in the dark ages of dial up, I cannot even begin to explain how it will change your life), it makes a quick post truly quick. So here's another outside of my box card. Did I seriously make a card with Green Galore, YoYo Yellow, and Only Orange. Impossible! AND I sewed on it!! More on that later. Have a great day.
Orange you glad I posted today---oh, I crack myself up!

Live Your Dream

2008-02-29T08:53:00.004-06:00

Do you ever try to stretch yourself creatively? I try to step out of what I think is my "box" from time to time, and todays post is a perfect example. This gorgeous Live Your Dream set in the SU! occations mini, customers can start buying from it tomorrow!!! Well, what to do with this set....hmmm...it's very elegant looking. Habit would say that you would color the flowers, stems, etc. Well, I went way out of my conventional thinking. Okay, I'm a little embrassed to admit what inspired this card. I am a bit of a QVC fan, and yesterday I was watching a swimsuit show and I saw this very cute swim dress that was all done in black and white and viola-inspiration.
So anyway, I really am not sure what to think of it. I think I like it, simple, elegant, clean. It's just so diffent to do black and white. I like the little pop of red. Anyway, I'm in a swap, so those of you in it, here it is guys, your Live Your Dream sample. Stamp Camp tomorrow, so it's a busy day of finishing everything for that!
Thanks girls!

Quick edit, I tried this the first time with no luck getting you to the right link, if you would like to see the swimsuit, click HERE.

Creative License Clear Envelope Book

2008-02-26T09:43:00.008-06:00

Hi friends! Well I am back, and today it will be light and fluffy. I clearly weirded everyone out with yesterday's post-slightly depressing and scarey apparently, not a single comment. So....back to stamping, the sun is shining, the temperature is going up in the ice bowl that I live in and spring is on the way!
When I saw the tutorial for a CLEAR ENVELOPE BRAG BOOK, I thought it was pure genious. I knew I had to make one.I decide to go back and get out the Creative License Simply Scrapbook Kit from SU! that I never got around to using. I think I have one stamped image in the whole little book.I printed the title on the computer and cut it out.
My favorite pictures of the boys always seem to come from our vacations. This is 2 years ago (time flies) in Cocoa Beach.
The boys were just so excited to be at the ocean and Nick had to get out there and "surf" a little too.
Everything I used came out of the Simply Scrappin' Kit, except I did use the scallop punch on the one page.
Nick always thinks this picture looks like he is giving the boys some sort of lecture, but maybe it's just that I know it was kind of loud with the waves crashing that he bent down to hear Joe talk, but I don't think it looks that way.
Some of the pictures just crack me up, they just look like drowned rats in some pictures.
I absolutely love the way the book turned out. I have to say that is was very easy to do and what a great way to use pieces out a Scrappin' Kit. This is my kind of scrapbooking!!!! Have a fabulous week!!!!

Prayer for a Stranger

2008-02-25T15:16:00.001-06:00

Well, I've tended to not get overly personal on my blog, but I have to say that I am having a oddly melonchaly day here. I seem to be greatly affected today by a tragic story that has unfolded here in Minnesota. I know that this story made nation news, but perhaps you may be unfamiliar with it. Last week 4 students were killed in a school bus crash in the small community of Cottonwood Minnesota. 2 of those killed were brothers, and for some unknown reason I am feeling such emense heartache for that family that I cannot even begin to explain it. I do not know this family, I do not know anyone that knows them, Cottonwood is no where close to my part of Minnesota, but I just ache for this family today. I cannot explain why am affected in this way by this particular story, but for some reason I am. The younger of the brothers, was 9 years old, the same age as my oldest and perhaps that has something to do with it. He also has a twin sister. I just cannot even imagine starting your day off as normal and watching your kids go off to school and you never see them again. I put my boys on the bus every day, and cannot imagine them not stepping back off at the end of the day. And to loose two of them....unimaginable! How do you possibly live out the rest of your life? It is days like this, stories like this, that test my faith. I have always considered a faithful person, not religious, but very faithful, and a absolutely believe in the power of prayer, and the idea that everything happens for a reason. But how do you see the reasoning in this...a great challenge that is greater than us and must be turned over to the Lord. I have lived through watching a my best friend cope with the unexpected loss of a 3 year old daughter, and perhaps I ache all the more for this family knowing the road that is ahead. To add to the tragedy, this family has previously lost a child. I clearly do not understand the "why" in this case. That family is burying those boys today. Somewhere in Minnesota they are saying goodbye to their boys, and my heart and prayers go out to them. I ache for people that I do not know and I ask that when you go to bed tonight (and in the coming nights) that you pray for this family. That they will find the strength to live without Jesse and Hunter. It is the only thing I know to do to help them and I ask that you do the same. I decided to make a card for this family and was able to find their address in a search. It is not my place to post it here, but I would share the address if you felt like you would like to do the same.Paper Trey's new Everyday Blessings set, which ended up being the PERFECT thing for this card. I love the sentiment on the front, "Someone remembers, someone cares, your name is whispered in someone's prayers". I colored the cross in with a blender pen and added a brad from the hodgepodge hardware kit. I feel a little odd explaining this card, as it wasn't really meant for the blog, but I was compelled to share where I am at today.
I do not mean to minimize the fact that there are 2 other families in the same position as the Javens, but I am struck by there story.Remembering the school bus crash victims. The following is a description of each of the 4 students that died last week:

February 21, 2008
The four Lakeview School students killed in Tuesday's school bus crash near Cottonwood, Minn., were Emilee Olson, brothers Hunter Javens and Jesse Javens, and Reed Stevens. Relatives and friends share memories of the children.

EMILEE OLSON, 9

Charles and Traci Olson of Cottonwood adopted Emilee in China when she was 10 months old. Relatives said first sight meant everything.

"She looked up at Traci from the floor, and their eyes met, and you knew that it was meant to be from that moment on," said Terri Hutchinson, Emilee's aunt and Traci's sister, who joined Traci in China.

Emilee was already crawling, strong and vibrant that day, her aunt said.

"She sang in choir, learned to play piano and picked up pieces real easily," Hutchinson said. "Her sister Bailee played, and she could pretty much play the (song) right away.

"She was energetic, fun, loving. Loved life. Very talented with a smile on her face all the time. She lit up a room. Such a beautiful young girl with so much left."

Emilee's mother is a physical education teacher at the school.

HUNTER JAVENS, 9

Hunter loved basketball, football, wrestling and baseball. He also liked video games, drawing and hanging out with his friends. Friends described him as a happy-go-lucky kid.

Hunter was a fourth grader at Lakeview School. He and brother Jesse were the sons of Marty and Rita Javens of Cottonwood.

Robert Javens, a great uncle to Hunter and Jesse, said the boys "were just typical kids."

"They weren't no angels and they weren't no devils. They were normal kids."

JESSE JAVENS, 13

Jesse was a big pro wrestling fan and could be the class clown at times. The seventh-grader liked hunting and being on the middle school football team.

"It hit everybody in the town really hard, but especially this family, with two of them gone," said Terry Lange, ex-brother-in-law of the boys' father, Marty Javens.

In addition, Lange said, Hunter has a twin sister, and there are four older siblings in the blended family.

"All you can do is just be with them," he said of the family members. "Everybody is still in shock."

REED STEVENS, 12

Reed was remembered as outgoing, with an interest in sports, leadership and a strong faith.

The seventh-grader was the son of Dan and Kandy Stevens of Marshall.

"Reed was a young man who loved God, his country and his family. And he also loved his football family. We know that he is with the Lord," his mother, a former teacher at the school, said in a statement read by Superintendent Sheldon Johnson.

Reed had helped organize a "gather at the pole" prayer event at Lakeview School, and was planning for a trip to Australia as a People to People student ambassador this summer.

"He had a lot of imagination," friend Quinn Fenger said. "He liked to draw a lot of fantasy stuff."

There's now a memorial fund in place at a bank in Cottonwood for the families of the four students.

Contributions can be sent to:

Lakeview School Memorial Fund

c/o United Southwest Bank

PO Box 288

Cottonwood, MN 56229-0288

---Information from the Marshall Independent

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

I am oddly mixed with deep contempt for the woman you killed these children. An illegal immigrant who is lying to police about her real identity. She has no drivers license and is now claiming the bus ran into her-THERE IS NO WAY! If you have seen the pictures of the damaged bus and how it was over turned there is one person at fault here. But I don't want to focus on her, I am sorry that she does not recognize the gravity of her actions, but I understand that someday she will have to face a great force and she will have the proper judgement day. Sorry for the long post, I write with a heavy heart today.
I promise to not make this a habit.
Kat

Please pray for all of these families.

I really am alive!

2008-02-19T11:34:00.004-06:00

It's true, I really am still alive. It's amazing how some weeks are just more condusive to investing time into stamping and posting and some weeks it just doesn't work. But I have great news-I have joined the millenium!!! To those of you that are computer savvy-check this out-I just got DSL. Do you have any idea what that means????? It means the cobwebs can stop growing on me and my computer when I post to the blog. You have NO IDEA how much time it would take me to post something, especially a tutorial. I can't even believe how much time this will save me. I can't believe we went this long without it. As I previously have mentioned, DH, not a techy guy at ALL. Can check his email (once a week) and that's about it. Somehow I let his low tech life influence mine and I was just a step above snail mail. I have no idea why I didn't do this sooner. Do you know that I have never been to YOU TUBE until this last week? My dial up couldn't buffer it in. Anyway, a whole new world has opened up for me!
I did want to get something posted though. I made this adorable 5 in 1 template box (a splitcoast tutorial) using Paper Trey's Beautiful Blooms and Mixed Messages sets. I have to give credit for the flower to a customer of my upline. She made a card using the 5 petal punch with the petals folded up. I have to get her name again and give here the proper credit. Doesn't it just make the cutest accent?
The center of the flower is a metal self stick dot from the dollar bin at JoANN Fabrics.
I made another box that I will try to post tomorrow.
Here's the Recipe:
Paper: Bravo Burgundy, Very Vanilla
Ink: Bravo Burgundy, Almost Artichoke, Apricot Appeal
Accessories: Apricot Ribbon, 5 petal punch, small flower from Boho Blossoms punch, metal dot from JoAnn Fabrics
Technique: 5 in 1 template box from Splitcoast tutorial

It's my Itty Bitty Basket Tutorial

2008-02-04T12:49:00.000-06:00

Well, I've been working on a lot of projects lately, trying to come up with some ideas for the next stamp camp that we will hold the first weekend in March. I was inspired months ago by Cambria's adorable little Halloween treat baskets and in playing with it, low and behold I came up with my own pattern for a slightly different twist on her basket. So let's get to it! You will need:
1 6x6 piece of cardstock or two sided designer paper
1 strip of 1/2"x 7" piece for the handle
4 1 1/2"x2" designer paper piece (omit these of you are using 2 sided paper)
something to score with (still need that Scor-pal)
Scallop edge decorative scissors
Good cutting scissors
Start by scoring all the way around each edge at 2". There are numerous ways to score, my one cutter happens to have a scoring blade in it that makes it quick and easy.

Now go all the way around each side again and score at 1/2". (This is where my brain works in reverse and my paper is at the 5 1/2" mark, so that I get the 1/2" score mark)
You will know need to look at the paper to see the pieces that you are going to cut off. I trace with the pen what you will cut off.
After cutting, your paper should look like this.
Now on those little edges that you have popping up, you will use your decorative scissors to cut a scalloped edge. Using your other scissors you will cut in the cuts as shown in the picture.
If you are using cardstock you will adhere your designer paper as shown in the picture. If you are using two sided paper you will not need to do this step.
Now you will add adhesive to those little scalloped edges and fold them down. After this step you will add adhesive to the corner pieces, fold the sides up and assemble the box.
Your little box should look this this all folded together.

To complete the box you will add your handle piece with brads and fill. (I used Cambria's idea for the scallop punch on the mint patties.) With Easter coming, think of all the fun little eggs and such you could put in there!!!!!

If you used designer paper, your box will look something like this. With the two sided, you get the automatic advantage of the matching paper with the opposing side folded down.

Here it is finished in basket version. So sorry for the washed out photo, that's what happens when you walk away from a project and come back and take a picture in different light, and then are too lazy to take another one and upload it when you see how crappy it looks. I knew you'd get the idea. Have fun making your own "Itty Bitty Basket", and leave me a comment with a link to yours for all of us to see!!!!!!

You Mean Everything to Me

2008-01-30T10:06:00.001-06:00

Here is another card from my card class last week. This was another must own set for me, the Always set. I think that it's odd that I'm drawn to it, first of all I tend to not like hearts. I don't know why, but I think when I look at heart stamps it makes me think of the "early" years of stamping and I conger up some ugly teddy bear and hearts in my head. Clearly a personal issue...moving on. I LOVED this set from the second I laid my eyes on it. I love the detailing of the images, I think it is so elegant.So for class we embossing the heart with white embossing powder along with the little flower images. The paper is from the Berry Bliss collection, another can't miss item.
Hope wherever you are it's better than here. We had blizzard like conditions yesterday, the kids got out early at noon yesterday, and with the windchill the temperature last night was -45. Mind you, the day before it was 45 degrees and raining. That's Minnesota for ya!
See you tomorrow!

2008-01-28T13:47:00.000-06:00

Okay quick post today, a card from my card class last Thursday. Ruby Red cardstock layered with Pixie Pink, Very Vanilla, and a strip of Ginger Blossom. Flowers are the 5 petal punch with a glue dot and the new Chunky Essentials Glitter smooshed in.The saying is from a new set called Smarty Pants that I just had to own. The bottom is from a set called Background Sampler, the I must have missed as a retired set because I just realized it's not in the new catalog.AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I'll have to investigate a little on that one. Happy Monday, it's a whole lot better than last Monday for me!

Tuesday How To (on Friday)-Make a mini Window Box

2008-01-25T09:08:00.000-06:00

Amazing how time just flies on some weeks doesn't it. I had the best of intentions for getting this out on Tuesday, and you'll be able to tell by the pictures taken in different places over a couple of days that this seemingly simple project took a while to evolve. It's hard to come up with a fresh idea when there is so much information and amazing ideas floating out there in Bloggerville. These are easy sweet little boxes that are great for little Valentine's treats or party favors, whatever. So here we go:You will need: something for scoring (still need that Scor-pal), a piece of 4x4 colored cardstock, a 3x3 piece of decorative paper for the lid, a 1 3/8" square punch, and a piece of acetate (transpancey, window sheet, whatever you call it.)
Step 1 is to score the edges of the designer paper at 1/2", on all 4 sides. My brain works in the opposite fashion sometimes and you will see my paper lined up at the 2 1/2" mark-this will give me a 1/2" score on a 3x3 piece of paper.
Step 2: Score your colored cardstock at 1 1/16" on all 4 sides. Your box ends up being 2x2 and I've found you need to score just beyond the 1" mark so that your lid will sit nicely on the base.
Now take the designer piece and punch the square right in the middle. A 3x3 piece of paper is perfect for this punch as it will punch perfectly center when the paper is pushed all the way into the punch.
Now on the lid you will snip along one edge of each corner as in the picture.
Now add your 2x2 piece of acetate to the inside of the lid. You may have to trim it down just a hair. If you don't have acetate you could add a piece of packing tape, with the sticky part facing to the top of the lid and then sprinkle with glitter or microbeads for a fun different effect. (I will try to make one today and add to the bottom of this post).
Now you will cut the base piece the same way you did the lid by looking at the picture.
I missed taking a picture of the folding together process. This is where I'm hopin you've made a little box before or you can visualize that you put adhesive on the sniped corners and fold all the pieces up and tuck the box together. This is what they should look like once assembled.
Here is the finished product with 5 Dove Valentine chocolates inside. You could finish off by wrapping ribbon around and a cute tag, but I wanted you to be able to see inside.
Have a great weekend all.

Ugly Monday

2008-01-21T12:08:00.000-06:00

Well, the kids are home today, it's snowing, it's 3 degrees outide, Lord knows what the windchill is and my BELOVED Packers lost in overtime last night, but I won't go there.
Like my new template? Good, cause changing it royally screwed up my blog. I lost my counter, my favorite blogs list, oh forget it....I lost nearly everything. I'm slowly piecing it all back together.
I won't make this a long ugly entry. But if you regularly visit me and/or know I linked your blog here would you leave me a comment and a link to your blog so that I can get everything updated?
Thank you. Onward and upward from here today!!!

Kat

Tuesday How to-Make a Shattered Glass card

2008-01-15T14:49:00.000-06:00

Well it's later in the Tuesday than I planned but I have this week's installment of Tuesday How To. This week is how to make a Shattered Glass card. One of the oldies but goodies as far as technique. And I have a feeling some of you may have never seen it before. Here is what you will need:
Glossy cardstock
Painter's Tape or masking tape (I prefer painters as it comes of easier)
Classic Ink Pads
Sponges
You begin by ripping off pieces of the tape so that both edges are rough. You don't want one side to be straight like in the picture as it will ruin the effect later.
Now start overlaying the pieces on your glossy cardstock in a random pattern.
Keep randomly placing until you are happy with the result. You want spaces of differing sizing all over you cardstock.
Now choose a color palette to work in. It works best if you have a couple different colors. I used Old Olive, Ruby Red, and Chocolate Chip. Now sponge all over your card stock until you are happy with the result.
now peel off your tape to reveal the pattern below. (Sorry, I was a dork and started cutting up my cardstock and forgot that I had to take a picture.That's why there are 2 pieces in the picture.)
Now you can stamp over the top with the desired image. I used the leaves out of the Embrace Life set. I stamped them with Staz On so I didn't have to worry about smudging as I needed to finish the card.
Here is my finished card. I continued with the random pattern by cutting my cardstock up so I would have a blocked pattern. I used the photo corner punch to pull out just a little of the Ruby Red. I covered a chipboard piece in Ruby Red and backlayered with a circle of Old Olive and then added a rhinestone brad. The thank you sentiment is from Much Appreciated. This is a 100% SU! card.

WSC30 Challenge from Beate

2008-01-14T10:32:00.000-06:00

Well Friday I did get a chance to do Beate's weekend challenge, but I worked the weekend and didn't have a chance to post. I struggled with the layout, I'm not going to lie. It's simple, but not my sort of thing, this is the best I came up with.This is my version using my new Target Dollar spot treasures. I just had to open them up. I even had to dig up a piece of Cool Caribean paper from last year to do one of the flowers. I have to say there is a lot going on on this card. One time I think it looks kind of cute and other times I think "YUCK". But good or bad, there it is.
Here is my SU! version of this card. The flower is cut out from a piece DS paper and then covered in versamark and embossed with Iridsecent Ice. I just couldn't make it work with the strips jetting out from the flower, I just compromised with leaves (2 petals from the 5 petal punch.) Neither of them are fabulous, but I told myself I was going to try to do some more of the challenges out there as they make you push yourself to do different things.
Thanks to the Florida gals that sent sunshine, it's sunny here today. (High of 8, with wind chill -10, BUT SUNNY). This is Minnesota, and I will take the sunshine whenever I can get it this time of year.

Dollar Spot Treasures

2008-01-11T09:37:00.000-06:00

If you don't live near a Target store I'm not sure if I'm happy for you, or feel terribly sorry for you. I call it my "happy place." Unfortunately, my happy place can be a very expensive place. I swear to you, I can wander aimlessly around that store for hours, looking, touching, smelling. And with the addition of the dollar spot in the last couple of years-DARN THEM. I can drop $20 in the dollar spot, no problem. Case in point, look what I found there this week. I've bought scrapbooking stuff there before, but this stuff was particularly eye catching. All the pretty Valentine paper, matching ribbon, brads, and glitter glue. And look at those adorable flower brads that match the other paper. And I didn't even take a picture of the 10 tin mailboxes I bought that were all the rage last year. I have my own idea for that in coming weeks. Plus I don't mind letting the boys do there own cards and projects with this stuff. (Isn't that awful that I hoard the "good stuff" from my children. Bad mommy, bad mommy.)
Here's my very quick card I made with my new supplies. The stamped heart is from a new level 3 hostess set called Time Well Spent. Oh...and...the little faux brads are metal self adhesive dots that I bought in the JoAnn Fabrics dollar section.
Have a happy Friday. Could you Florida girls send a little sunshine here, I haven't seen the sun for about a week now, and I'm feelin' a little "postal". (Thus explains my shopping spree's, looking for pretty things.)

Tuesday How To Returns-Paper Beads

2008-01-08T10:19:00.000-06:00

I don't even know how many months it has been since I've posted a How To, but here we go.
How to make paper beads!For supplies you will need a piece of designer paper (cardstock is to heavy, a ruler, a pencil, a bracelet (or wire and clasp if you are beader already), extra beads, and modge podge or similar adhesive. My bracelet is from Jo-Ann Fabrics, and my (CHEAP) beads are from Micheals. I am not a beader-a medium I have long resisted, so I bought cheap just to see how this would all turn out.
Your designer paper will need to be cut to 3" by 6". This will give you plenty of beads to finish your project.
Turn over to the side that you do NOT want to show. With pencil make lines at every one inch. Along one side, make tick marks and every 1/2 inch in between lines.
Now use your ruler to make triangles extending from the center 1/2" line to the opposing 1" mark.
You will now cut out those triangles so that they look like this.
On the side that will not show you will brush with modge podge, or I used a Martha Stewart adhesive that is that same sort of thing. I like it because it has it's own brush like a rubbber cement bottle.
Now at the far end you will start rolling it up like a cresent roll. The adhesive will squish out a bit and that ok, just use your finger to kind of smooth it all around the outside. This will make it stronger and finish it off better.
Your rolled "beads" should look like this. Leave them to dry (mine didn't take very long.)
Now you will string them on your bracelet alternating with the other beads to create a bracelet.
And here is your finished project. Could have potential for a little girls party, or something silly to make a downline meeting or something. Something fun and different.

2008-01-07T11:39:00.000-06:00

All right here are my other two swaps, these are using the new Embrace Life set. I really wanted to use just the leaf image from it somehow.I stamped the image in Chocolate Chip onto a piece paper from the Ginger Blossom paper. It doesn't really translate in the photo but the paper looks kind of suede like. Here it just looks like River Rock. Anyway, I colored in with Old Olive and then added a flower from the pretties kit. The taffeta ribbon finishes it off, and the embrace life is actually embossing with white powder. This was my favorite of my cards, I think it looks simple and elegant.
This set (well this image) screamed cherry blossoms to me. Up in here in Minnesota it is one of the truly spectacular parts of the spring time. When every thing else is just starting to go from cold yucky blah to alive and beautiful. Thats when the trees start to bloom and the air is filled with this slightly sweet smell....big sniff....ahhhhhh.
Well I wanted to create that on paper. The image was stamped in Staz On onto watercolor paper. I then colored using my watercolor crayons and aquapainters. The embrace life in this one is just stamped with white craft ink.
Wish me luck, I'm heading up to make tomorrow's tutorial, I think I have a big idea-gosh I hope it turns out!!!!!!

Spring Solitude Swaps

2008-01-06T13:42:00.000-06:00

I had to finish some swaps for my stamping group this week. We had to make 2 designs of 2 different sets, one hostess and one out of the catalog. As demo's we were allowed to preorder some sets and play early. So I'm going to share my hostess swaps with you today. I picked the Spring Solitude set which also comes with a matching wheel.So not anything much exciting about this card, just a little 3x3 Thank you card. I made the little branch in this set look like a little tree and added the little flower from Little Pieces. The polka dot paper is from the new Ginger Blooms set of designer paper.
This card is kind of fun. The floral image is stamped on a piece of acetate (transparency)then the circle pieces are mounted behind it and then layed on top of the white. I'm such a dork, I forgot this set comes with the wheel and I actually wheeled with the Petals wheel on the apricot. It too, is great match for this set so I guess I'd like to think I was showing versatility.
And last I just had to share with you a picture of my design team. These two go everywhere I go, including the stamping room, which also has our spare bed in it. They faithfully lay while I create. The importance of the picture is that they are laying together. The lighter dog is Quincy, who we got shortly after we were married and he will turn 10 in a week and a half. The other little Ewok is Ozzie, whom I bought last April. Well lets just say that Quincy wasn't exactly crazy about his new little brother, but as much as he would hate to have you believe it, the little guy is growing on him. I've been catching them sleeping next to each other more and more. So there you have it, those are my supervisors, pretty cute aren't they?

Embracing Life

2008-01-02T11:51:00.000-06:00

One of my goal is to get back to posting a Tuesday How To. I'll start again next week, but I thought I'd review one from last year. For the original tutorial click here This is just a quick shot to show you you will need a Versamark, black embossing powder, and watercolor crayons.
Here is the image before blending with the Versamarker. You really need to read the original post to get the whole idea here.
Here is the finished card. The middle flower is from the Pretties Kit and the flower is from the new Embrace Life set. Have a good day.
Paper: Purely Pomegranate, Black, Whisper White
Ink: Versamark, versamarker, watercolor crayons, white Craft ink
Accessories: Pomegranate ribbon

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T10:50:00.000-06:00

I plan on working on some new stamping projects today, and hopefully I will get something posted, but I just wanted to say Happy New Year to all. Thank you for the visits and the sweet comments you leave. Blogging has been a blessing, "meeting" new people and being constantly inspired by strangers. I am grateful to all!!!
Good luck in 2008!
Kat

Holiday Treat Caramel Bags

2007-12-31T11:48:00.000-06:00

I ordered these Paper Trey frosted bags when they first came out not having any idea what I was going to do with them. In the last couple of years, I've kind of become known for making homemade caramels at Christmas time. Well little did I know that these little bags would end up making the perfect caramel holder! I used white Staz On ink to stamp the snowflakes right on the bags and then the Holidays Treats set and the oval scallop punch made the perfect quick gift! I gave these little bags to teachers, religious education teachers, the bus driver, and a number of other people. Nicole Heady is genius!!!!!!

Bold Brights Snowflake gift set

2007-12-31T11:31:00.000-06:00

Well, I need to post my last couple pics of holiday things that I made before the new year starts. I found these super cute cups at Target and immediately knew they would be some sort of gift for my upline Kristin. For those of you that read this and know Kristin, these cups scream her name: she loves anything to do with the bold brights family, they sparkle (like her personality), and they are just plain "FUN!". I ended up filling them with homemade caramels.
But, the funnest part was making a card to match. The Snowburst set out of the holiday mini almost perfectly matched the snowflakes on the glasses. Never in a million years would I have used this many colors, let alone bold brights, to make a snowflake card, but it worked out great. I used the diamond dust technique to finish it off. Super sparkly in person!

With Gratitude

2007-12-21T16:48:00.000-06:00

Unbelievable that I haven't posted for 2 weeks. I've decided my life is way busier than I thought it was, and this time of year is just crazy!

Anyway here's an altered gratitude journal. I highly recommend a book named Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach. It's a daybook that teaches you the importance of having gratitude in you life. Some days it is a struggle, but it does change your outlook when you take time each day to find things to be grateful for.
That being said, I made this journal to jot down my daily gratitudes down in for the new year.First off is the journal I bought. It was $2.49 at Kmart. It's a Mead hardcover notebook that actually didn't look to bad on it's own. The hard surface makes it perfect for altering.
Next I cut down a piece of chocolate chip paper to the right size. I used Paper Trey's Spiral Boquet set and began by stamping with Ballet Blue craft ink.
Next I covered with white craft ink using the outlining image from this set, along with smaller coordinating stamp.
Here is journal finished, with that piece of paper attached, and a piece of Martha Stewarts decorative tape (ribbon) running down the seam of the paper. I also attached a long piece of brown ribbon to the binding using a piece from the Hodgepodge Hardware kit. Along the bottom I stung on some beads from the Pretties kit.
This is just the inside so you could get a better look at the ribbon and the beading to make the pretty page marker.

If I don't get to posting, a very Merry Christmas to all of you who stop to check and see what I am up to.

Kat

Fresh Baked Treats

2007-12-07T10:53:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday was our church's Christmas bizarre/raffle. They asked all the "ladies" of the parish to make treats and you could donate to the craft table as well. So I made two different kinds of Peppermint cookies and I found 20 (yes 20)un-used Christmas cards from last year to and packaged them in groups of 5 for the craft table. Paper Trey's Holiday Treats set was the perfect thing for this! And those window coffee bags-TOO perfect for something like this. I had some extra jingle bells floating around and tied them on with Stampin' Up ribbon.
These are just the extra's and both of these recipes are TO DIE for! Here they are:

Peppermint Melt-aways

1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 cup butter (I used margarine)
1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 c. cornstarch (yes...really...)

Glaze:
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp softened butter
1/4 tsp. peppermint extract
1-2 tbsp milk
food coloring to color frosting pink-red

crushed candy canes for the top (4-5 of them is probably enough)

Combine 1/2 cup powdered sugar, butter, and peppermint. Beat until creamy. Lower speed and and flour and cornstarch. Beat until well mixed. Cover and refrigerate until firm (30-60 minutes).

Heat oven to 350. Shape into 1" balls. Slightly flatten. Bake 12-15 minutes. Let stand one minute. Remove from cookie sheet, cool completely.

Combine glaze ingredients. (I made mine more like frosting, not putting in as much milk, the original recipe is more glaze like.) Sprinkle immediately with crushed candy canes.

For Peppermint Snowballs click here.

Enjoy all!

Wish me luck, I gutting, repainting, redecorating, reorganizing my stamping "studio" this weekend!

"BELIEVE" in Santa?

2007-12-03T11:08:00.000-06:00

Every year, my mom, sister and I get together and take a day to make Christmas cards. Last Monday was our day to create this year and I had to share with you my favorite card from this years creations. It uses the Santa from Paper Trey's Believe set. I used the Diamond Dust technique were the whole piece of paper the Santa is on is covered in Versamark and then sprinkled with Iridescent Ice and heat set. The Believe on the bottom was stamped in versamark and heat set with Iridescent Ice as well. He's really sparkly and pretty in person. I think the whole day I used Paper Trey sets-bad Stampin' Up demo, bad Stampin' Up demo!!
Have a good Monday all!!!

Stamp Camp projects

2007-11-30T17:46:00.000-06:00

In my previous post I talked about my great stamp camp gathering and I wanted to make sure I shared the projects with you from that great day, so here you go:

First up is a cute little Christmas organizer using the Stampin' Up wrapping paper. There are many different variations on this same kind of idea, but this is a organizer version of it.
Here it is unfolded, with all the fun little pockets on the inside. It's cute all finished, but with my spending habits I would need one that is twice as big.
Next is one of the paper ornaments that are floating all over the blogging world. The dashing papers do make a gorgeous ornament. It's made by cutting a 12x12 piece in half so it is 6x12. Then cut into one inche strips so that you have 12 1 inch pieces. Layer, and punch holes at both ends and string ribbon through, tieing knots to pull it tight.
Here is an adorable little snowman card, again using the wrapping paper out of the Holiday mini.
Here is a cute little treat cup using the wintergreen paper. Amazing how many kissed these little 3oz. cups can hold!
And last but not least is my favorite of all our projects. This a a great little gift card holder using the 5 in 1 card template as a guide. The flap is held together using the cute little mini library clips, LOVE THAT!
Here is the inside of the card with slit punches on either side to put the gift card in.
Hmmm...maybe I should make this into a tutorial....anyone interested?

Have a good weekend, stay safe if you are in my part of the country...6-8 inches of snow headed my way with ice and rain too. YUCK! And I work all weekend, I may just be sleeping at the hospital! One of you Florida girl needs to tell me about how great it is there so I have something to think of!

Altered index card box

2007-11-19T09:51:00.001-06:00

So, I've been in this kind of creative slump for over a month now, just no real mojo. Let me tell you, there is nothing like being with stamping friends to get ya going again. We had stamp camp this weekend, 4 other demo friends and I bring our customers together and have them make 5 projects, win door prizes, enjoy treats, and we provide demonstrations for them. SO GOOD TO BE WITH MY CREATIVE FRIENDS, and to share our customers. This is the 9th stamp camp we've held, and I feel like I know my other demo friends customers as well. It's kind of become family. So thanks to all my friends, demos' and customers alike, for helping me get excited about stamping again!!! Tomorrow I'll show you all our projects!
This is a little project I had made for my friend Kristin (and my upline) who returned to teaching this year after being away for awhile. I got these plastic index card boxes at Target when all the school supplies were on sale, for $.33. I simply recovered the outside with paper from the Primary Colors simply scrappin' kit. I used the 1/2" circle punch to make a hole for the snap on the front. I adhered it using sticky strip.
This is the inside. The double sided paper is so neat, then you get the inside texture as well. I used the round tab punch to recover the dividers and added some index cards for her. I figured she could use is for keeping track of something in her classroom.
These have enless possiblities: recipe box, hostess contact information, Christmas card addresses, etc.
I know they sell them at Walmart too in the office isle for cheap. And with a Simply Scrappin kit-easy as pie!
Happy Monday!

Card Challenge

2007-11-13T09:53:00.001-06:00

This card is from Beate's last card challenge. I used a set called Holiday Wishes from Inkadinkadoo, one of the one's I bought at Archivers. The ribbon I bought at Target's dollar spot. I'm not totally crazy about the card myself, but's it's okay.
Happy Tuesday all!
Recipe:
Paper: Old Olive, Eggplant Envy, Designer Brocade Background
Sets: Inkadinkadoo's Holiday Wishes
Accessories: Dollar Spot Ribbon

Non Traditional Christmas

2007-11-12T10:04:00.000-06:00

Boy do I miss all my blogging!!! Well I did get to stamp last Friday, but unfortunately I had to work all weekend and didn't get anything uploaded until today. I think I will have a project for you each day this week, YEAH!.
Today's card is kind of a fun non traditional Christmas card. I used the Snow Burst set from the Holiday mini catalog. The inspiration for the layout is from a card found on page 32 of the catalog using the Simple Snowman set-just MY version of it. This is a case where the paper piercing really makes this card!
Thanks for not forgetting about me.
Recipe:
Paper: Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Rose Red
Ink: Same as paper
Sets: Snow Burst, everyday flexible phrases
Accessories: Giga scallop punch, paper piercing tool, 1 1/4 circle punch, celery ribbon

Totally unrelated

2007-11-05T10:50:00.000-06:00

Hi ladies! I sure am having a hard time dedicating much time to the computer lately. I have no idea how some of you do it, a project every day and time to check every one elses out. I kept that pace up in the beginning but is getting harder and harder. Plus I feel like I've kind of hit this creative block!
I'm very excited to report that I will soon be redoing my craft room!!! Maybe that will help. I just bought a desk from Pier 1 imports and my sister and I made a quick trip up to IKEA last week to look for additional "stuff", this week I need to find a new paint color and curtains to cover my closet doors. Then I just need the time to do it all. Kind of wish I could just wiggle my nose and have it all be done.
When sis and I went up to IKEA, we had to make a quick run across the street to the Mall of America were there is an Archiver's store. We had 45 minutes to run around in there. Thought I'd show you my loot.And I actually stamped something this weekend. I made this card for my niece's 14th birthday. The "u rock", is embossed with black embossing powder and was pretty cool. Then just some stick on rhinestones. Simple, but teenagerish. She liked it. I made a bottle to go with it that had money for flowers sticking out of it, but all my pictures of that were awful, so you just get the card.
Happy creating all!
Kat

I DID IT!!!

2007-10-29T10:09:00.000-05:00

So today I want to share with you one of my proudest accomplishments to date. I ran my first ever 5k on Saturday morning. Here this is me running..... and this is me crossing the finish line...what you don't see the picture...really...that's because THERE ISN'T one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRRRRR!!!! Okay, complaining first. DH...well...lets just say...not a "techy" guy. He's more of the manly hunter, gatherer type. I'm sure there are more just like me out there, with the husband that doesn't have anything to do with any of the camera equipment, VCR's, DVD's, i pods, etc. It's fine most of the time, it just means that rarely am I in a picture, because I'm the one always taking the picture, and if I am chances are it's blurry or my head is missing. I just wanted to picture to document this personal milestone, so I gave one of the 3 digital cameras we have to my 8 year old (totally "techy by the way). I left the rechargable batteries charging with instructions to DH to grab them before they left and put them in the camera, then Joey would be able to take pictures and even run the movie mode. (Sad, that I counted on the son for this, anyway...) Well, of course, that didn't happen, but I had a back up plan. I had given DH the small little digital camera that just runs on an internal memory and charges with a USB cable, just in case. And he did take pictures-but then left the camera on in his JEEP while he went fishing in the afternoon and if the camera loses power it wipes out the pictures.
So, lets just imagine this:
Okay picture a 5' 10" woman, long brown hair, running her guts out to the finish...okay, that was the chick that won. Now let's picture me, about 15 minutes after that insane woman crossed the line... 5'5", huffin' and a puffin', pink baseball cap on, face beat red and sweaty, i POD in ears for motivation, convincing herself internally to not give up and get there. Okay that was me.
Truly, if you are runner and you are reading this, your thinking, what's the big deal? True, very true. But huge for me. I had always been athletic, but never a runner. I ran because it was part of my training for volleyball (yes, I was a POWERHOUSE at 5'5"-STOP LAUGHING!), and various other sports, but I never considered myself a runner. But, I like many other women, fell into the mommy phase of life and put on 25 pounds, and forgot about myself for a few years. Well, I'm back and trying to figure out how I fit into this world at just shy of 35 years of life. So I started running. I found this great place called the Running Room, that offered a LEARN TO RUN class, and 10 weeks later-a 5K completed. No, I didn't run the whole thing, but I finished. And truth be told, looking up at the last 20 yards and seeing DH and my two boys cheering for me was truly priceless, I did win in my book. And in DH's defense he left me flowers and a note saying how proud he was of me on my car seat after the race. Tears in my eyes thinking about it (totally not his style by the way-that was huge for him!) Thanks for sticking with this entry and reading the whole thing.
BOSTON MARATHON here I come!!! (((((laughing HYSTERICALLY)))))))

Folded place card

2007-10-24T08:48:00.000-05:00

I spent yesterday perfecting this project for you guys. If you could only see all the abandoned versions of this project. I originally got a card in a swap last year using this fold, and I always thought it would look so cute modified down to a place card for the holidays. Well I finally got around to doing it. So here we go!Start with a piece of paper that is 5 1/2"x 3".
On the long side you will score at 1 1/2" and 2 1/2", and 1 1/2" on the short side. In my picture a used a pen to highlight the scores. Now you need to make two diagonal scores in the one inch strip in the middle. (I don't know how to explain those in words, you need to look at the picture.)
Now loosen up all your scores by folding them. Fold your diagonal folds so make a mountain fold.
I hope I can explain this right, I'm a visual learner so I tried to make pictures to accommodate those of you like me. You will take those mountain folds and push the peak up toward the front of the paper.
This is just another view of the same thing. It is just the side view to help you see what you should be doing. After this you should fold the front squares back to form your place card.
This is the place card finished for a Thanksgiving theme.
Here I opened it up just a little bit so you could see the "Gratitude" stamp from Define you Life.
Here is just a top view so you can see how it will sit when it is opened. A neat little dimensional project. I embossed my leaf with clear embossing powder to give it a little dimension too. I hope you could follow the directions. It really is an easy project, you just have to do those folds once and say "oh I get it". Let me know if you make one!!!

"Making" up for lost time

2007-10-22T12:08:00.000-05:00

Hi ladies!!!! Well I finally found some time to stamp last Friday. Unfortunately we seem to be having a baby boom at work and the weekend was CRAZY!!! I went to work at 2am on Saturday morning and didn't get back home until 8:15pm. Luckily it settled down and I just had to do a regular shift on Sunday. Anyway, I have 5 cards to share with you, I'm trying to make up some lost posting time!!!First (and second) are cards using Beate's weekend challenge layout. I don't even remember the last time I actually sat down and did a challenge. I used Paper Trey Beautiful Blooms set that was released last month. Those sets from Paper Trey are so much fun to work with.
Second is another of the same layout from Beate, but I used Paper Trey's Believe set for this one. I don't know that the picture does my sparkly tree justice, but the tree was embossed with black powder, then I watercolored it with my watercolor crayons, and then added red glitter and heat set again. It's really pretty in person.
Here is the Santa from the Believe set. I went for a non traditional Santa here. His "outfit" is cut out of Wintergreen designer paper from Stampin' Up. I watercolored in Sage Shadow around him but the picture didn't pick that up to great.
This is my first My Favorite Things set that I have ever bought, and can I just say, "oh, great, ANOTHER place to spend my money." I think they captured the spirit of the breast cancer fight so beautifully with these images. I went away from the traditional pink with this one and went with Groovy Guava as a main color. I really like how it turned out!
At last but not least, this was supposed to look like snapshots of different women all in a row. I think I'm happy with how it turned out. This Think Pink set is really fun!
Take care, I think I'm headed back to my "studio".

Wanted!--Time to Stamp!

2007-10-17T11:35:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it???? I finally-after all this time, get to my blog, and I can't upload a picture. I haven't surfed this morning but I'm assuming this is everyone's problem as I got a box that said they are working on fixing it!
Well, yes I am okay, Nick and I were on vacation to Vegas-our first vacation without kids since our honeymoon. We celebrated our 10 year anniversary last month and this is part of our present to each other. We had a great time, and I came home with $450 in winnings-can you say "NEW STAMPS?" I'm going to have a couple of days to myself on Thursday and Friday and I plan to make some new stuff.
Clearly October has been a rough posting month for me, don't forget about me, I'll be back with vigor soon!!!

It's all personal

2007-10-04T10:57:00.000-05:00

Well girls, it's all personal stuff today, so if you don't like fluff, check back tomorrow. First of all thanks to Flossie who helped me change my background color, I'm still working on template thing.

Next, make sure you stop and see Corie and leave her a comment on going Pink for October, she will donate a dollar for every comment she receives (up to $100)to the Susan G. Komen foundation.

Here's some pictures from a few weeks ago when my sister and I drove BMW's to raise money for the Susan G. Komen foundation.
True, it was tough job, but somebody has to do it.
It was a gorgeous day, and you can't get better than this as a way to donate!
Next are my hummingbirds, which have been so much fun to have around this summer.
As they start to get ready to head south all they do is feed and fight. It was crazy in the back yard some days. This little female did take some breaks and rest on my deck.
They get VERY territorial and I happened to be lucky enough to catch this male dive bombing this female.
And last, but not least is my little Ozzie. If you've been following my blog, you know I got him in April at 9 weeks old. He is a Shih Tzu, and was in desperate need of a haircut. We started calling him cousin IT. Well, this is him before....
And this is him after. Doesn't that picture just crack you up??? It does me. Thankfully he doesn't have the underbite all the time. Took a little bit to adjust to the "new" dog again. My son got off the bus and said, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO OZZIE????"
Thanks for stopping. Wow, it's been some crazy weeks!

I'm Back!

2007-10-03T09:49:00.000-05:00

Hey girls, can you believe it's been 12 days since I last posted? I can't!!! The duties of wife, mother, labor and delivery nurse, took over I guess. Doesn't it suck when real life gets in the way of stamping? Well, I'm hoping to get to my stamping room today, but in the mean time, her are some of my favorite cards from my card class last week. I'm also trying to figure out how to download my own custom template so I can have a pink website for October. (You have NO IDEA how huge this will be if I can do it. I help small humans come out of vagina's---way on the opposite side of the technology spectum. I tried reading the one blogger help topic on doing, let's just say--- HUH???) Hope you are all well!!!

Spooky Sweets Candy Cup Tutorial

2007-09-21T12:42:00.000-05:00

Finally, a new tutorial!!!!! So this is another inspiration that I took out of convention this year. These little candy cups are so cute and fairly simple to make. The first one takes the longest just to establish the the template, after that it's quick easy production. (Let me just say before you start looking, I realized that I have a couple of fussy pictures and I TOTALLY apologize. They looked okay on my little screen, but then when I edited-not so great. You'll get the idea, as they are kind of non-essential ones, but just wanted to apologize.)Alright, start with your Dixie cup. I think mine are 5 oz ones, the medium sized bathroom ones. Mine were the kind of waxy ones, I would maybe recommend getting the more papery ones.
Roll the curled edge of the cup up to make it easier for the next step.
Cut that top edge off following the line of the picture. Pull the cup apart at the seam and remove the bottom.
Your cup should be looking like this.
Use that to make a template out of a scrap that you can retain and use again and again.
Trace onto your designer paper. I was able to trace 4 of them onto a piece of 12x12.
Now cut out one of them, it should look like this.
Now you will wrap your cup. I used adhesive and sticky strip on the two connecting edges to make sure it would stay on.
Now before you see it finished, I wanted you to see my ribbon. I took orange ribbon from the Halloween pack I bought at Micheals, the Martha stuff. Then I stamped "Treats" from Spooky Sweets from Paper Trey. Viola, I have my own designer ribbon-fun huh?
Last I stamped the Spooky Sweets, punched it out with an oval punch (wish I had the scalloped one for that size, but alas I can't own everything.), direct to paper added the orange ink. Now pay attention this is the fun part: Punch a hole with your 1/8 hole punch and make a little snip up to the hole. This will allow your tag to sit right on your cup.
Here we are-ALL DONE!!! See how that little tag sits on there? FUN FUN FUN! Filled with Hershey nuggets that have been altered using Paper Trey's Spooky Sweets set.

ENJOY ALL!!!!

Happy Halloween Tree

2007-09-19T09:35:00.001-05:00

Good morning all!

Well, first off I just have to say that the pictures I took of today's project do NOT do it enough justice as to how stinkin cute it really is! This is one of my Halloween projects, at the beginning of October I'll set up my Halloween decorations on the table in my foyer-and this will be my new addition.I bought the little tree at Hobby Lobby for $4.99. Then scallop punched orange and black. I used every image in the Batty for You set to make ornaments. I LOVE THAT set!!!!! Okay, and my newest find-stamping and scraping supplies from the queen herself-Martha-at Micheal's. (Can just say-SHUT UP!-great another place for me to spend $-between Stampin' Up, Paper Trey, and Martha, the money is flying out the window!) Whoa, back to my point, I bought the ribbon that is going around the tree (it says Happy Halloween) and the colored baker's ribbon (to hang the ornaments) from Martha's line. Honest to goodness, I spent an hour and 15 minutes in the first two isles at Micheal's looking at the Martha stuff. Came out with just the ribbon (for now), shows a lot of restraint!
I wish you could see it in real life, it is so CUTE! My 8 year old came home from school and saw it and said "Mom, that is just fabulous! How do you always just whip this stuff up while we are at school?" THAT's a boy saying that-So cute!!! I have to say, he is my biggest fan, always sayin how GREAT my stuff is. Which is really cute because my boys are ALL boy, football, baseball, mud, deer hunting, etc., so it's always sweet to me when he likes my "girly" stuff. Okay, enough kid blah, blah, blah-I really try hard to not do to much of that on this blog. Anyway, have a great day. I'm off to shampoo my living room carpet before the mailman brings my new Paper Trey stuff (I hope today)!

2007-09-17T10:34:00.000-05:00

Well it's an all breast cancer kind of day today. Can I just tell you that I fought will blogger over that previous post for about an HOUR! Honestly, I was about to throw my computer out the window. Here I'm trying to do this uplifting post and I'm yelling at blogger instead! Anyway, it's better now! My first project is a double slider card, my first one as a matter of fact! (click here for instructions) I bought the Beautiful Life set from SU shortly after my sister's diagnosis and just knew I would use it for some kind fo project like this! The flowers and the interior sentiment are from Paper Trey's Beautiful Blooms set. These two sets together are beautiful. I made this card for a couple of people who made significant donations to my walk.
This is the inside of the card when you slide it out. I love that saying on the front of the card.
Then last are these little jars of the breast cancer M & M's. I made them for "my girls" at work that contributed. The little jars were $.99 at Hobby Lobby. Way to cute for the price. Then I wrote out little thank you's to go with them. I totally forgot to take a picture of the cards before sealing the envelopes. They were very sweet, I used the Gratitude definition from the SU set Define your life-just use your imagination!!!Hee, hee!

Remember to do your exam's ladies!!!!!!!!

Happy Monday!!!

Join the Journey!!!

2007-09-17T08:38:00.000-05:00

Good morning all. Well yesterday was an beautiful day to walk 10 miles!!! Yep, yesterday was my cancer walk. What an inspiring day! Over 800 walkers and they raised $100,000. Truly amazing! This walk was started 3 years ago and it is so impressive because all the money raised goes to help local cancer patients. The money has helped them hire a massage therapist to do massages during chemo, to provide an excellent cancer book free to all new patients, and gift cards to local grocery stores and gas stations, and scarfs for new chemo patients. Cancer survivors were given a pink tee shirt and supporters given a white one. That's me in the middle with my mom and my sister. My sister walked ALL 10 miles with me-amazing! My mom went 8, with a little side trip of rowing in the river during one lap around the lake. My mom will be 70 next birthday-pretty impressive huh

This my mom and sister sitting in the bleachers at opening ceremonies.

So on to some of the fun stuff. The winner of the my sister's bag is Alex. Make sure you check her blog out here.

A huge thank you again to all that have supported, have sent cards, and most of all prayers, it all makes a difference!

Paper Trey Halloween Card

2007-09-15T10:05:00.000-05:00

I have to make this post really quick, a million things to do today. I just wanted to get a new something up for today. This is a little shadow box card that I made with Paper Trey's halloween set. I wish I had more time to chat, but I gotta run.

Cutter Kit Wavy Lines-Laura's Tutorial

2007-09-13T12:37:00.000-05:00

So what is the best part about blogging-NEW FRIENDS!!! It's so amazing the friendships you can strike up from different parts of the country, and the world for that matter. So, I just very recently have discovered a new friend you sent me the nicest email, and suddenly we are typing back and forth. Well, Laura originally emailed me about my previous entry, the Catalog Copy, and sent me a picture of her card that was inspired by the same page. Well I mentioned in my email reply about using the cutter kit to make those great wavy lines, and she said "what, there is a tool for that?" Got me thinking, hmmm..., maybe that would make a great tutorial. Sometimes I think people know about all those little tricks and tools, especially with all the bloggers out there. So here's my tutorial about it, refresher for some, maybe news to others, hope you enjoy! Any type of paper will do, you just need the Cutter Kit from Stampin Up. You will be using the one with blade that has a picture of a scissors on it.
You flip the blade out just free hand roll it along your paper to make a wavy line. (Use a cutting mat>)
To add visual interest, tape a piece of coordinating paper behind it and then follow the same pattern along the edge about a quarter of an inch away.
The other pieces you cut off can be used as accent pieces as well.
Here's the finished card using the In the Spotlight Hostess set, a scallop punch, and the new snowflake punch. (Those punches, along with the 5 petal punch, coordinate perfectly with this set-Stampin' Up in so smart!) The words are from Everyday Flexible Phrases-it says winter time if you can't read it.
Happy Stamping! Laura this one was for you!