Bright Days

Isn't this a fun card? I made it for the color challange at SCS today. We were to use Brilliant Blue, Only Orange and Pure Pomegranite. It is bright and bold and tons of fun. The moose is called Fins and I think the card is actually quite lovely in real life. the sentiment is from Hanna Stamps, too.

Do you see that little shiny dot in the upper right hand corner? It is called a schment and is from a pack of schments. They are sold by Stamping Bella and are sure to take the paper crafting community by storm, I think. They are flat and glittery and come in several mix and match sizes as well as tons of colors. Of course, you have to but them all individually and not in a multi size and color value pack. I put bling on the sides of my schment as I only have one color so far. It is part of the many goodies I picked up while road trippin' with my friend Candice to the stamping store, Papertrix in Nashville.

I met my friend Rebecca for lunch today and have plans for tomorrow, too. I have to get in my last round of fun before summer starts and I am ready to pull my hair out from the pizza and fast food diet that is induced from being with kids all day everyday.

Misfit Monday

Hanna Stamps has several new releases coming out this week and one of them is Good Luck Riley. I made him a Colts Riley instead, in honor of the hometown team, the Indianapolis Colts. Truth be told, I have never really been a Colts fan, but I have a friend who is a huge Colts fan, so she will enjoy this card.

The football Riley has alread been released, but the Riley in the horseshoe will be available Friday at Hanna Stamps. Thursday night if you come to the Release Party on SCS. I used paper from Basic Grey and tried to make a pop out frame card, which is the SCS Challenge of the day.

Today is a staff development day at school. They have about 6 of these built into the school calendar. That means the kids are home with me today while I try to craft and I am babysitting three kids that belong to a teacher friend. I should really get bonus points for being able to craft with kids underfoot. Either that or I get my babysitting license revoked for neglect. Either way, I am okay.

Next fall school starts August 11th. Hello? If we had a few less staff development days and less built in holidays and snow days, we could shave a couple weeeks off the school calendar. Who says we don't do year round school here? I would actually love a real year round school calendar, then I would have more vacation time and less crappy four day weekends in the middle of winter. But enough about what I would do if I ruled the schools.

It's a Glorious Day!

I am so sorry for the prolonged absence. You know I try very hard to update daily or every other day at least. I wish I could tell you I have been off doing the most fun things, ever. When in truth, I have been at home, caring for the family and quietly crafting. My camera card can be read by the computer once again and I can show you what I have done.



First up today is from the Pizza Box challenege at SplitCoast a few weeks ago. Since I learned to make these little boxes with just a few folds, I cannot stop. I really love these and anything tiny that gets given at Christmas will be given in these and tied with a bow.



Today's challenge was to use Twinking H2O's to add shine to your creation, so I added H2O's to the dress.. I am so sorry you can't see all the shimmer through the computer. Just believe me when I tell you how gorgeous it really is. The paper is from Basic Grey and the moose is Ballet Sophie from Hanna Stamps. The proceeds from this stamp go to a foundation to support children with cancer. It's a stinkin' cute stamp and supports a great cause. What could be better?


For the Hanna Stamps weekly challenge I made an ATC card. I used the Ski Bunny set and "hung" the mittens on a brad next to the hot cocoa. The paper is from Prism and the felt snowflakes are from Hero Arts.


I have been home cleaning and nesting and making lots of Homemade Granola. I'll post a picture of that in a day or two along with the recipe. I hope you all had a great weekend, too. I'd love to know what everyone else is up to as well.

New Release and Movie Reviews

This card is made entirely with a new set coming out from Hanna Stamps tomorrow, called "Bridal." It's a fairly simple card, I used nestabilities and copics. Pretty simple but very pretty. Hanna Stamps will be hosting a Release Party on the Splitcoast Forum tomorrow night if you want to see all the new releases as soon as possible.

To fight boredom, which seems never ending on the behalf of Noah, we have seen some movies recently so I thought I would tell you about them.

First up was "Get Smart". It has Anne Hathaway, Steve Carrell and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. An all star cast for a summer movie, in my opinion. Yet I thought the movie stunk. It was bit long and not very funny. It had a bit too much bad language that I would have rather my oldest son not hear. He tends to notice bad behavior and work it into his everyday life. It also had a lot more violence than I expected. With the language and violence, you could at least hope it is well rounded by a bit of nudity. I mean, C'mon, is their a finer specimen of man than The Rock?! (NO!) And not once did he even do so much as to take his shrt off. I wanted my money back.

We also saw "Wall E". I suppose it is a great satirical look at human life and the obesity and wastefulness and over use of electronics that we possess today. But I nearly fell asleep and my oldest son did sleep through a lot of it. The kids said they liked both movies, while I was not impressed by either of them.

Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend

Baseball diamonds, of course! I made the saying for this card on my computer and punched it out with the handy dandy circle punches and scallop punch from Stampin Up. The card is made with Hanna Stamps' new set, Baseball. You know you love it.

Scott plays church softball all summer. I used to go cheer him on, but now I just send the kids. If I can get one of them out of the house that means no sibling fights for about three blissful hours. You know I love that!

Noah is in my crafting stuff at this moment and we are waiting for Seth to get ready so we can go see the movie "Get Smart." It should be full of stupid humor for my grade school age kids. Let me tell you, Noah in my craft stuff makes me hugely annoyed. He puts nothing away and is not nearly as careful as his little brother. I gotta go hover over him and make sure he doesn't destroy my favorite toys.

It's A New Hanna Day

If you made it to the release party for Hanna Stamps, you know how much fun it was. I was inspired by the party atmosphere to make the card seen above. I used Hanna from one of the dog sets ans put the leash around Mikey instead. Hanna is stading on the table from the Bookworm set and wearing the lampshade from that set as well. Those of you who know me know that I can whip out a card in about five minutes flat if I am inspired and all supplies are at hand.

I suppose that is why I get annoyed every month at Stamp Camp. We make four cards and it takes two hours. People, please! Get a move on!

I made this card as my entry in the Hanna Stamps Challenge for today. The idea was to make a card with circles. I used the accessories from the newly released Anthony set. Sadly, I have no one to actually give this card to for Father's Day. My hubby and dad and FIL all have casual type jobs they don't dress up for. None of us are the fancy type, I guess. The background paper is from Stampin Up as are the punches I used with my Hanna Stamps.

The kids and I are of to my friend Maria's today. Eight children are gathering (mine included) and they are making Garden Stones for Father's Day. All the supplies are in my van so I have to bust a move and not be late.

Happy Summer

This is going to be a drive-by blog post today. I have one kid sswimming at the pool with friends and one asleep on the couch. They are both about to be underfoot, I fear, and STARVING both for food and attention.

I have some pretty Hanna's today, don't I? I made so many things with this set, I don't know what to show off, so I am posting two cards today.
In the very top card I brayered blue for the background and stamped a library check out type card for the background, but I am not sure it shows up great on my post. The bottom card is made with paper from an Autumn Leaves adhesive pack. This set is called Bookworm and will be released tonight at the Release Party on Splitcoast Stampers. I do love a party, so join us there!

Happy Hanna Days

I made this card for a little Sneak Peek at a new Hanna Stamps set called Cafe. The set reminds me of a great sidewalk cafe somewhere. I don't know where, because none of them are anywhere around me. Maybe she is in Paris. There are patries in the set, so that is what it makes me think of anyway.

I used some of the accessory stamps to make a card for a girlfriend. I love the look of the table. Makes me want to go and sit down and enjoy myself. I forgot who made the striped paper, soory about that. The definition is from Stampin' Up. I saw it at Vicki Garrett's house and stamped off a few images from her set. This one was perfect for my card.

I hope you are all enjoying some nice June weather and planning to visit an outdoor cafe near you on this beautiful day.

Mother's Day

I survived the art sale and the garage sale but have just been busy, busy, busy. The art sale went very well and I still have all of my accompanying items in the back of my van. I came home from the ale and immediately started sorting and pricing for the garage sale.

Noah and Seth love shopping the garage sales because there are so many affordable finds for them. Seth bought me a teddy bear for Mother's Day. He loves stuffed animals, and I hate them, so I should not have been surprised that he was trying to share his love with me.

Noah bought ne 19 shades of fingernail polish. He was so proud that they were only a nickel each and he bought all the lady had for sale. The photo above is of some of them. See the yellow? I have never even seen such a shade!

I made this card at Vicki Garrett's house using her Stampotique stamps. I love the aliens. The paper is from a Basic Grey card sized pack. The art work is from a guy named Daniel Torrence, or Daniel Terrence, I can never remember which. I love his artwork, that's all that matters.

This card is for the Hanna Stamps Challenge #16. We were to use Creamy Caramel, Always Arichoke, and Real Red. I colored Riley with copics, made my own background, and added ribbon. The small flowered background is a small SU stamp and I colored the centers with the Sakura gel pen. I love this Riley. For the Splitcoast Stampers board I titled this "Riley Lights My Fire" because he does. I love him!

I hope your day went well. I fell asleep at 12:30 after church, snug in my nice warm bed while it rained hard outside. Seth woke me at 3:30 asking me to take him to the movie "Nim's Island." It was a cute movie, but I must have been tired to have slept hard for three hours in the middle of the day.

Happy Belated Earth Day!

And welcome to Office professionals Day, or something like that. I swear, I need someone to keep a calendar for me. All these holidays, all the cards I make, and I never have the correct card on the correct day. Dagnabit. Of course, if I had an assisstant or a clone, I would have her drive the carpool for me. That is the worst task of all.

Yesterday in carpool the neighbor girl (age 14) and her 12 year old brother were arguing about black holes. You cannot interupt and give the correct information as the neighbor girl will not believe you, and it will only serve to prolong the argument. The girl was saying that spaceships have been sucked into Black Holes and not returned. But, if you happen to come out on the other side of a black hole, you will enter a new dimension. You do not know how painful it was for my husband, the physics major not to let lose with a string of smart information.

After carpool we have to pull Noah aside and let him know that his friends are not correct and blah blah blah is the correct information on whatever the subject was. We are surrounded by idiots and the first rule is that you cannot argue with stupid people. Well, you can argue, but they will continue to argue and you will be there forever. It reminds me of the time a woman in Atlanta told me Wooly Mammoths were extinct and you could only see them in zoos now. I tried to explain the difference between extinct and endangered, but she clearly did not believe me. My lesson is now learned and I do not waste my breath on some people.

The card above is me today. "Did I forget anything?" I am trying to pack for a trip as I leave tomorrow morning and don't know which of my crafting items comes with me, and which stay home. I will post Monday when I return.

The card was made with a variety of my beloved Hanna Stamps. I used so many sets I am not sure I can name them all, Big Dogs, Spring Time, Rainy days. The background is from SU!, Lovely as a Tree. The bunny is hopping away as he does not want to make it into the dog's basket.

We are having lovely weather here and I fear I'll have to pack long pants and socks for Toronto. I hope it is still nice when I return.

Sweet Hanna

Wowza! Here I am, back on track with daily postings. Shame that I don't have a thing to say. Maybe I can find something fun to do and let you know about it. Unfortunately, today is going to be all about restocking groceries and cleaning the house, putting away the tree.

Hanna today is made with the new set, Celebration Hanna. The paper is K and Co. and Bazzill. There is some bling and ribbon, I used a corner rounder punch and some oblong hole punch from SU that I cannot rememeber the name of. Dang, I hate when that happens.

I have a severe lack of my favorite drink in my house, Diet Rite. Or as my kids call it, Diet Riot. It has no sodium and no caffeine and is possibly just flavored water with bad stuff added, like artificial sweeteners and artificial colorings. But, it's my drink of choice, and my choice could be a lot worse. I ran out some time before Christmas and being a miser, refused to pay a high grocery store price for it. I like the Wal Mart price so much better. And I like it in a bottles, not cans. Though cans will do in a pinch. They apparently do not sell Diet Rite in the parts of the south that I have recently been to as we found it neither at the groceries nor the gas stations. So, I am off on my search.....let's pray I return victorious.

Sexy Creature

Here is Hanna all decked out and wrapped up for Valentines Day with her bow on top. The bow is from the Hanna set "Perfect Package" and Hanna is from the just released today set "Celebrations." This is how I would like to look when my husband comes home, but the kids get in the way of my looking this good.

We survived going to the funeral and coming home again. Man, I really want to sleep in tonight. I can't tell you how good my own bed felt last night after several days of hotel and condo beds that were less than comfy. I ended up sleeping with a kid on the sofa bed. You know it's bad when you CHOOSE the sofa bed, since it sagged in all the right places for my body to fit into it.

I'll have more Hanna tomorrow to post!

Celebration Hanna

I really do love the new Hanna Stamps set, Celebraton Hanna. I have made so many cards with this set I can't believe this is the first I have been able to post one. The paper is DCWV, there is some bazzill paper, some bling, ribbon, and SU punches used. Please don't ask me to name all the punches, I am much too tired from traveling 14 hours home today. I am going to bed so we can rise before dawn and be on the road again, this time for Scott's grandmother's funeral.

Sneak Peek

Friday will be the release date for a new Hanna Stamps! set, "Rain, Rain, Come My Way." I will be posting little bits and pieces of the set this week, in order to show off a bit of a sneak peek of what the new set will offer.

I made this card as a SplitCoast challenge. The featured stamper this week is Frances Byrne, also known as StampOwl. She is also on the Hanna StampsDesign Team! You are supposed to take a card from her gallery and change it in at least two ways. I changed the image and the colors of the paper. I added a ribbon and the scalloped punch accent. My card is cute, but her cards are to die for! Check out her blog, there is a link on her name found under Hanna Stamps Design Team members.

Can you guess which accents are from the new Hanna set? If you guessed the umbrella and the boot you would be correct. The penguin is from Memory Box. I just thought he'd be cute popping out of the umbrella and I couldn't resist.

I had a lazy weekend. I made some snickerdoodles and took some to a doctor's appointment I had this morning. I have to say, I bake for all my doctors. They remember me when they see me, they are personable, their staffs know me, and I always get the best bags of free samples! I didn't need any samples today, but I got lots of personal attention and chatted with nearly everyone on staff. Try it, it's a win win situation and a great way to make friends.

Today I am watching a friends' child. She got in trouble at school and got suspended. The guidance counselor said they had to suspend her, even though it wasn't her fault. So, Grace is upstairs doing homework and I am thinking about lunch. I have a feeling taking her out for fast food would be an inapropriate reward. It's easy for me to be tough on my own kids, but not so easy to punish the child of a friend who has done nothing to annoy me.

Sunday with Hannah

We are trying something new today, making the images smaller on my blog to see how they look so that you have to click on them to make them bigger. We'll see if I like the look of this or not. I like big pictures myself, but am following Scott's suggestion today. Yesterday was out 17th wedding anniversary, and maybe we have been happily married for 17 years because we are willing to try each other's suggestions.

I think the top photo shows of Hanna with background of paper from Anna Griffin. I bought the paper a long while ago in a discount bin, so I am not sure it is Anna's paper. But if my memory serves me it is. The flowers are from Daisy D and the gingham is from some unknown place. I adore gingham, for unknown, reasons, and snatch it up whenever I see some that I like. I mixed and matched my hanna sets, using Hanna from the "Tis the Season" set and accessories from the "But I Need It" set. I love Hanna's shoe shopping skills.

The poem on the card below reads "Even though she was a grown woman she believed in elves and Santa Claus and flying reindeer and sacks with an endless capacity for toys. Furthermore she belived that believeing in these things was the chief reason that she had more fun in life than others. "

The stamp is from River City Rubber Works and Hanna is from "Tis the Season at Hanna Stamps! I LOVE this card. I may make a bunch of these as my holiday card this year. Of course, last time I made my own Christmas cards I was so tired of looking at them that I never sent them out. I just lost the joy that year. But that would never happen with my sweet Hannas. I love these so much my husband is lucky I don't sleep with them while I am trying to dream up new ways to use them. (The paper is from Heidi Grace and Bazzill, colored with copics. I used the SU! ticket corner punch. I find it addictive and want to use it on all my cards but have to restrain myself.)