Life...live, laugh, love

My sister is an awesome garage sale shopper she found these SU canvas frames at one a few years back. They have been stored in my tote waiting for the picture perfect fit and I found it on Saturday.

For the base I painted Denim Blue one coat and let dry to the touch next I stamped PTI's Polka Dot Basics with fresh snow ink. I let the dots dry for about 5 minutes (the fresh snow is a pigment ink and takes a long time to dry on paint) took a clean cloth and started to dab at the dots this changed them to a light denim color when the paint mixed with the ink. I let my background dry for a couple of hours to make sure it was totally dry because I wanted the fresh snow with SU baroque motifs to appear SNOW WHITE. When my canvas was dry I used the Cricut to cut my words from adhesive vinyl and applied to the frame. Printed out a BW pic of the girls mounted it and mission completion. Everyone loves it, good thing she found two of them DD and her friend have claimed it.

DD's BFF lost her Grandmother on Friday the funeral is this afternoon, I plan on making a frame for her with a pic of her Grandmother. Any ideas for words to place on it?

Product list...
SU canvas frame (retired)
Acrylic Paint Denim Blue Folk Art
PTI Polka Dot Basics and Fresh Snow ink
SU Baroque Motifs stamp set
BW photo
Cricut Expression
Cricut DS
Cricut .cut file life
Cricut Cursive 101 Cartridge

Happy Stamp Day!

Paparazzi Mama is Back!

I can say I truly have missed my digi camera and taking pics of the girls, I had to cure my withdraw symptoms and start snapping away this week. I think the first pic of little J rolling her eyes says it all. A couple of years ago DH gave me the title of Paparazzi Mama I am glad to reclaim my crown!













Happy Stamp Day, have a wonderful weekend!

Butterfly Birthday Bag

Happy Birthday today to my wonderful stamping friend Cheryl!


This bag won first place in the stamping bag/wrap category. I cut the bag out with the cricut using the .cut file I created. You can download that .cut file {Here} you will need George and Paper doll Dress-up along with Cricut DS.

Product list...
PTI, buttons, stampers select white card stock, ink and Polka Dot Basics
Card stock black 12 by 12 unknown
Tissue Paper
red liner tape
cricut expression
cricut Design Studio
Cricut .cut file
Cricut George
Cricut Paper Doll Dress Up

Happy Stamp Day!

Hey Chick

Everyday Button Bits from PTI is most fun to stamp with, I really like the bird with a google eye or the french knot...

I still have far to go on getting the right close up shot with my new camera when I have figured it out I will replace the pics that are lacking.

Product list...
All items PTI except
Head Pin
Cuttle Bug Embossing Folder
Cricut for Look Alike Nesties

Happy Stamp Day!

PTI August Blog Hop

I love the new DP PTI has come out with for fall you can find the free paper download
{Here} this is what I printed out onto Vintage Cream Card stock.

After printing out the sample paper I punched the squares, one of the squares I punched a leaf out of then mounted that square with pop dots to make a focal point.

All products PTI except for the scor pal to create the horizontal lines, marvy leaf punch as SU word window punch.

Thanks for stopping by enjoy the Hop and Happy Stamp Day!

Enjoy the Ride

Yes, I have a camera and I am still trying to figure everything out my pics and posts can only get better from here;)


This little Beauty scored a first place finish at the fair last week for the stamping stationary category, under comments they enjoyed the color combination and the organization. I used my PTI SS Reveal gift as a template however, I decided to leave off the handles and make it a bit more on the masculine side. You can find the template {here} For a more finished look of the clear boxes make sure you cut card stock to cover the inside of box otherwise when the cards and pad are removed your adhesive shows through the box. I also used a Velcro circle to adhere the flap to the back side of my tote.






Product list...
PTI Everyday Button Bits stamp set
PTI DP, card stock, ink, ribbon, buttons and clearly creative card box
Marvy scallop circle punch
cricut expression
cricut george cartridge
post it note pad
RSVP pen
SU punch, Lots of Thoughts and Borderline stamp sets
Red Liner tape
Velcro Circle
Scor Pal

It is the first day of school today D is a freshman and L is a seventh grader, my how time does fly.

Happy Stamp Day!

Fair Goodies

 

Okay, you have seen our dd's fair projects here are some of mine. I will be showing you more of the butterfly gift bag and my stationary set next week.

Total count for me
8 first place and 2 second place finishes the breakdown...

First place finishes:
Butterfly bag
Enjoy the Ride Stationary
Gate card
floral embossed card
Always card
Decoupage Pic frame (not shown) you can find pic in July blog hop post
Pumpkin Card (not shown)
OOPS, I am missing a card another trip back to Parker! I don't even remember what one it was, where is my brain?


Second place finishes:
Floral Pic Frame
Red White and Blue Card

Have a Happy Stamp Day!

D Crafts for the fair

There are two other posts below for the other Girls please scroll down to see all the projects. Click on the pic to enlarge scan.

Here first entry here was in the embossed stamping category, product list...

CB embossing folder
Chalks
SU SAB stamp set
SU scallop circle punch
Marvy scallop circle punch
PTI ribbon
bling



Her second card entry was for the Heat Embossing category, product list...

SU stamp sets
Silver embossing powder
Heat Gun
Versamark
SU Ribbon and card stock



Along with the cards shown D also entered her basketball ceramic project and won a second place ribbon.

L Crafts for the Fair

L and D have been making crafts for the fair almost every year since we have purchased our home. Another event they actually enjoy during fair week is picking up trash on wristband day they don't get paid in exchange they get a wristband and go back to ride the rides all afternoon. I think this is a wonderful program that teaches the girls the power of working hard and the rewards it brings.


L entered her crocheted purse and won second, a painted T using the Cricut and freezer paper stencil catching another second place and finally a bracelet entry gave her another first place ribbon. She spent her winnings on some homemade ice cream before we left and has saved the rest for more sweet treats later today.

Product list...
CB embossing folder
Silver card stock
PTI ink, paper, ribbon and Borders corners circle Stamp Set
SU SAB stamp Set from 2007-2008

Happy Stamp Day!

Little J Crafts for the Fair

Little J was so happy to enter her crafts at the fair and more excited to get the ribbons home she actually slept with them Thursday night and today after the school open house she has plans for the candy aisle with her prize money.

We had planned just to enter her in the Fancy Soap division the lady that checked her in split up her soaps and put one in the "other" category and gave her two chances at winning.

The soap you see in the center of the pic are made with melt and pour soap cubes. **Supervision is a must with the melted soap it is very HOT!** Make sure they stir slowly and the adult should actually pour into the mold. By the way her soaps are lavender scented LOL!

Product list...
Melt and pour soap cubes
Soap mold
Scent
Color
Microwave

My detailed directions can be found here.

Take the embedded soap link under labels for more clean fun.

I will be back to place scans for the next ribbon winners, Happy Stamp Day!

Summer is Here

Well if you can say Summer arrived in SD now is the time to say it. We have been busy enjoying the pool, DH's fire pit, gardening and in general just cleaning up the place. We have been to the zoo, fair and movies and have had fun as a family however the toll I have to pay with more activity is not fun. DH went to pick up some patches for me this AM when he takes D to the Dentist...(Lidoderm- they really help my hips do not do anything for my back). The girls and I entered many craft projects in the fair this year on Wednesday we plan on going back to see what type of ribbons they have won. Even little J was in on the action with handmade soaps she entered her little frogs and turtles. I have been working on projects for this event with the girls and some for myself the ones I have not scanned or taken pics of I will show when they come home.

For my card I broke out PTI's With Sympathy set, if you need a brilliant sympathy stamp set I totally recommend this one and SU's Praying for You.

 

Product list...
PTI With Sympathy
PTI card stock, ink, ribbon and button
Scallop oval punch
floss
pearls
pop dots

Happy Stamp Day!

A Nice Tweet...Treat for you

**Sorry for the scan with all of the dimension on the card the scan just does not do the card justice. IRL it is a BEAUTY;)


I finally got my hands on the New SU caddy and on page 164 I fell in LOVE with the birdhouse card. I have made a .cut file for the cricut as my Download TWEET I mean TREAT for you, download the file {here}. When you use this .cut file for a creation please link it back to my blog so we all can see your work.

Product list...
PTI card stock, DP, buttons and ink
PTI stamp sets Polka Dot Basics and Everyday Button Bits
Cricut Expression
Cricut Design Studio
Cricut George cartridge
Cricut .cut file (download link posted above)
pop dots
floss
orange colored pencil

Happy Stamp Day!

In Courage Me

To find out more please visit Incourage.me

I found this site through my beautiful stamping friend Cheryl, you can find her blog {here}.

Courage to me is trusting in God to get you through what has to be done it may be...

Joshua 1:9
Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

Riding a roller coaster with friends or it may be doing that somersault in PE. For me I place my Courage in God and know through Him I can do anything, and this is the message I strive to pass onto our family.

Next my Father taught me how to find this courage and build my faith in God, lately he keeps saying he was never there (when it comes to my childhood) well I have a different memory here we go...

Yep, it is me 1970 with my Dad are we not cute or what? LOL, look D I have the same skunk hair as little J had ROTFLOL!



Dad, you would put us to bed reading to us from our story Bible and bring us to church on Sunday Morning. You were there to tell the lady in front of us to sit forward because I had my hand on the back of the pew and she was squishing it, LOL! You were the one who would dive to Sioux Falls and pick us up from Grandma's on Sunday morning so we could make church.

Dad, you are the one who taught me how to be a great bowler and softball player. You were there to teach, drive and watch games.

Dad, you are the one who took us camping almost every weekend of every summer. You are the one who laughed hysterically at life events as we were falling asleep in the camper telling stories.

Dad, you came to see me take my vow of Faith when you had said you would not be going, did you see how happy I was when I spotted you up in the balcony?

Dad, you taught me the joys that working hard would bring to the Family. If it was planting a garden on hands and knees or carting wood for the winter, I am happy now that I had that opportunity.

Dad, you took me to the playground and pushed me on the swings. (Underdog day included, lol!)

Dad, you did not get mad at me for taking my first picture at Disneyland even though you told me not to touch the camera. When the developed photos came back I remember you laughing because you were in the know that I had fibbed about doing it.

Nope, not ME, I didn't take any pictures! The proof is in the developed photos, this is the first photo I ever took some turtles in a pond at Disney.


Dad, you were the one who brought home root beer barrels in your pocket every night and let us walk on your back and wrestle you. You would even let us watch Sesame Street at 6 even though we had watched it twice during the day and you wanted to see the news.

Dad, you drove all the way to Ft. Dodge IA to bring me home for Thanksgiving (even if it was for just one day) because I could not get my car running.

Dad you were there the two days in my life's journey when I really needed someone, you were there not judging just helping to get me along the path.

So do you know see that for me you were there...the things that you did when you had the time are what mean the most to me.

Love you Dad, thanks for teaching me Faith and showing me the Courage that comes along with believing.

Happy Stamp Day! I promise some stamping for you on Thursday;)

Beautiful Falls Park

Challenge this week is to use embossing and stamping on your page, find more about Stamp And Scrap Saturdays {Here}.



Remember my scanned page is stitched using my scrapbook program you will see this line running down the page.


For my embossing I used the CB folder Traffic Jam because it reminded me of the quartzite that makes up the falls. You can see the word Beautiful stamped directly onto my photo (I used Staz On white opaque ink).

As part of First Friday in Downtown Sioux Falls, SD the Pavilion had the science center open for free. I took our girls along with friends to the event, everyone had a wonderful time. When we were done we had a picnic at Falls Park, in the Picture you see little J feeding the ducks that were playing above the falls. One of the girls was able to get a duck to eat bread out of her hand, I was busy making sure none of them were hurt not an easy task as they were going in all different locations. At one point our oldest and her friend were smack dab out into the falls on slippery rocks (keep in mind they were thinking that nothing was wrong while I was about to have heart failure).

See more of the falls here you can also view a video on Sioux Falls Music is by Cory and the Fireflies.

Since my camera is still down I went back into my pic stash and brought out some falls pics from a youth trip in 2007.

Product list...
CB embossing folder Traffic Jam
PTI stamp set Beautiful Blooms, card stock and button enchanted evening
Staz On opaque white ink
MM chloe's closet DP
Piece of scallop chip board
SU brocade blue and white card stock

Happy Stamp Day!

All Creatures...

The wet summer has been a benefit to the Frog population in town they love to hide around the edges of our swimming pool and eat algae. Marion Pool was closed for a day or two just to figure out how to control the frog population in the kiddie pool. Last week we had 16 of the little buggers in our aquarium for a day (I make the girls put them out before bed). The afternoons are spent collecting and swimming with them. In this picture you see little J playing with "her froggies". Actually I believe our neighbor said they are toads has something to do with the length of the back legs?



Faith Sisters is having a HUGE sale on digi download quick pages and more you can find out more about them here...Faith Sisters

Product list...
**Quick page layout digi page ( I am not sure where this was downloaded from I need to figure out a better way of tagging my downloads with a link to the download page) If you know where this is from or it is yours please let me know so I can give credit.
Nova development software program


Happy Stamp Day!

Under Construction

I am working on a three column blog design so please be patient as I figure things out.

The Shack by William P. Young

I was so excited awhile back when my Step Mom Jan Senior Dancer said she has this book and was reading it when her DD was done it was my turn. Well this week became my turn, I had some spare time as the kids were swimming so I started, I actually said they had to stay in longer so I could read more, LOL! They were not happy with that so we all came in and I had to put the book down til the next day. Before everyone was up and scampering around I finished the book and let me tell you LIFE CHANGING are two words that quickly come to mind. Good thing because I would have hated to have them see me crying over a book I was reading that is totally how powerful reading (The Shack)is.

I have said that I totally don't agree with some of the writings in the book but keep in mind it is a work of fiction. Then with that I have to say what the book does for the soul of the reader out weighs some of its challenges to your way of thinking.

I am not a theologian in fact I don't read that much into anything. Most things for me are at FACE value. My Father said not to long ago to me that I was taking scripture to literally? Anyhow, I am still trying to work that one out in my mind I will let you know how that goes... Some critics link this book to Occult status my thinking is don't read between the lines keep it a work of fiction and the book truly will work miracles in your life and send out ripples on the pond. When you read into anything it becomes what you want it to be not what it is.

To purchase or to read some pages from this book visit www.theshackbook.com



God is Good, and God is Love!
Have a Happy Stamp Day and a Wonderful Weekend!

All things grow with love

I love the color combonation that I used for this card the combonation of PTI's newest colors are amazing then to put them with ripe avacado and spring moss, WOW! I am toying with bringing back my own color challenges, what do you think?





Product list...
PTI Everday Button Bits
PTI card stock, ink, ribbon and buttons
Cricut Expression
Cricut .cut file (look alike nesties)
Cricut Design Studio
Cricut George
Lil Bloomers
cb embossing folder

Happy Stamp Day!

Fit for a Princess

These T's are such fun to make, on Tuesday there were some neighbor kids over making some. We had butterflies and skulls all at the same time LOL!

Little J loves her T and the bling. I fixed her with this one I used Gem Tac and a bunch of it those puppies will not come off. Every shirt she has with bling she picks at and picks at 'til they are gone, not this one!

Product list...
Washed T
Iron/Board
Freezer Paper
Fabric Paint
Fabric Glue
Bling
Foam Brush
Cricut Expression
Cricut DS
Cricut Dreams Come True cartridge
Cricut Cursive 101 cartridge

Happy Stamp Day!

Challenged Friends

Scrap and Stamp Saturday Friend Challenge you can find more about it {here}

52 Weeks 52 sketches sketch challenge 31.






When I first saw the challenge on scrap and stamp Saturday I had a plan right away to use one of my fave photos of my good friend and I at her HS graduation party way back in 1988. (Yep, we are old fogies.) Well she says I am just because my birthday comes in June and hers in July. Next year we both hit the big 40, ACK!

We share many great memories and some we would rather forget for a friendship that has lasted since the second grade. She moved to Ohio a few years back and just recently came home to say goodbye to her Daddy, he passed away this past spring. Now we have one more thing in common the death of a parent, that falls in the class of some not so good memories.

One year back in middle school possibly even HS we did not talk to each other, some major fight that can't be recalled after so many years. Makes you wonder what could have been so bad that we did not speak for over a year...I will have to ask her if she remembers. My favorite bible passage about friends falls in Proverbs 17:17 When things go wrong as often do in any type of friendship God tells us to..."...love at all times".

Product list...
MM Chloe's Closet DP and pin
Basic Grey Chipboard
acrylic paint
PTI ribbon, jute and buttons
cricut expression
cricut .cut file scallop circles
cricut DS
Cricut George Cartridge

Happy Stamp Day!

Two for Tea

And my title for this card means it took me two hours to complete this simple layout all because the image needed coloring. Sure, I was tempted to leave the image black and white but NO I just had to start in on coloring. Anyhow, this card was torn completely apart on three occasions, the tea cup is no longer a cup it magically transformed into a vase LOL! This card started out being a card kit swap return the image, sentiment and heart brad were the only things that made it to the end.

My bitty dot papers are mounted on white card stock then onto PTI's sweet blush card stock, it is hard to see this in the scan. I did replace the teacup with bitty dot dp and removed the handle, pop dots were also used to raise the two bottom flowers.



Product list...
PTI card stock, buttons, ribbon, bitty dot dp
Image and sentiment from swap (vendor not known)

Happy Stamp Day!

Been There? Done That?

Take a trip to this blog Cuttlebug cupboard, you will be amazed. Now to find sometime so I can try out a few of these tricks. Don't have the CB will have to see if I can work something out for my Sizzix.

Have a great day!

http://ikkiscuttlebugcupboard.blogspot.com/2009/03/partial-cuttlebug-embossing-make.html