My Real Monkey.....

Monkey boy that is! Thought I'd post a fast picture of my son! I don't put up enough pictures of my older two so, here's the beginning to the remedy for that!



See! He's now about 10 or 11 years older, his body is way more decorated but not much has changed! LOL! He still has a little monkey in him! LOL! If you're curious as to where that gorgeous location is, well he's now in the Navy and lives in Guam! Tough assignment but he was man enough to step up to the plate! LOL! Lucky rascal!

Until next time....

Monkey Mania

He he he! If my son knew I was posting this picture of him he'd probably kill me! I love it though! As I unpack box after box of "stuff", still an ongoing project here, I'm finding more and more things I "gotta do something with"! I saw I had that wooden painted Monkey from Michaels I knew I had the perfect embellishment for this layout and how it all started! I have a ton of pictures of my kids, before digital that is, which is a good thing until you try to decide "who gets the page put in their book"! That's a tough decision! Yeah I know, scan it in print out an extra blah, blah, blah! This was one picture from a trip to Milwaukee Zoo that we took with my in-laws one year a few years back. We rode on the train and did all the neat things there. When we stopped by the monkey area, well my own personal monkey had to imitate them! He's so cute! I also found the PERFECT monkey papers too at my LSS and, love when this happens, letters that match ON SALE!! So the adhesive was dry but that's okay since I usually add more of my own anyway! I used a couple of Making Memories brads to hold on the tag and voila! Done! I hope you like it too! Here it is;



Don't forget you can click on the picture to look closer up and if anyone really wants to know the name of the monkey and banana papers, just shoot me an email, or leave me a comment ;), and I'll be happy to go look! I'm being kind of lazy right now! It was a recent, within the last 2 weeks, purchase! I'm sure it's on the shelves, or online, of your favorite scrapbook store too!

Enjoy!

Until next time....

I Dunno 'bout This One....

Well, I dunno....if I found a mouse in my teacup I'd have to rethink drinking that tea! LOL! Then again, if it were THIS cute I might! Ha ha ha! Here's another "Pink Poison" or "The Greeting Farm" stamp that came with my other mouse stamp I used last week. I love the cuteness of this mouses face! I mean, how could you not?! I just did this one, no sketch and well, I'm not so sure "I'm" feeling it?! KWIM? Do you ever feel like that about your cards? Tell me what you think here...



I used SU solid papers and the DP is stuff that has followed me around for a while! Can you imagine that visual?! Paper following you around like the mice and the Pied Piper?! LOL! Anyway, used my Nestabilities too. The image is stamped with Staz-On and then I colored it with my Koh-I-Nor pencils and Gamsol. I discovered that if you go outside the lines a smidge that a white eraser will take it off! YEAH! However, if you get a brown spot on the gray part after your done coloring you call it a beauty mark and move on! LOL!
He he he I just wonder what my friend from England would do if she saw a mouse in her tea cup! LOL! I'd have to say "bye poor tea cup" I'm sure! LOL!

Hope you like it!

Until next time....

Chocolate Fun..

I was flipping through my card files I keep looking at the different cards and creations I have come up with over the years. I'm trying to see if I really have a "style" but all I can come up with is, well I don't! LOL! I sort of let my stamps, and other crafts too, speak to me or maybe the recipient and what they like helps decide! Anyway, I found this card I made using one of those puffy hearts from a long time ago! I let this heart decide the theme of the card! Actually I think this started the whole pink & brown love affair for me!

I used an old SU set,that I still like, SU papers, pretty much SU everything (minus the flower) since I was an SU demo then! LOL!



I think my photography, at least, has gotten better! LOL! This is called a pocket card and I got the directions from SplitCoast Stampers. If you haven't heard of them...well what are you waiting for! It's like a Mecca for stampers and scrappers!!

I hope you like my card!

Until next time....

What a Hoot!

In my blog surfing this past weekend, I saw the neatest challenge, Inspiration Challenge 167 ~ Artfull Bras Project! It was such a neat idea that I knew I had to do this one challenge! It was on SCS and I jumped right up and did it! Now, acknowledging that rarely happens since I have to dwell on things I had a bunch of fun just "going for it"! Okay so the challenge was to make a card based on a bra from this site, Artful Bras . I chose to do one for this bra - Thelma and Louise (A Pair of Perky Hooters) - Karen Kendo, and here it is!



So then I saw this bra on page 2 of that site, Monkey Business - Anita Bowen. Being the monkey lover I am, the fact I just love Stampendous' Changito stamps I had to do this card;



I played around with my Stamp ma jig to position the little guy to look like he was hanging off of the word Hello! I think this one will just have to go to my son in Guam! He's the real monkey lover! LOL!

I hope you liked my cards!

Until next time....

Sweet Card

The blogging world is full of amazing people! Why do I state this fact?! Well, a sweet lady named "Heather" sent us the cutest card for Grandma Fran! She sent her card all the way from Canada too! Isn't she just the sweetest?! That just made me feel so good! Take a look at her adorable card! I really like how she inked up the edges, I don't do that enough. You can't see it but she also did the inside with matching turquoise paper! I love it!



Did you know the butterfly symbolizes new life?! How perfect since Grandma Fran is now living her new life in heaven!

Here's another card I made to send my MIL. She's a spiritual lady who I knew this verse would be perfect for! I had made this card to go along with the color combo for the blog "Jazzy Inspirations" but never submitted it! That's okay though as it's real purpose lies elsewhere! I hope you like it!



Don't forget you can click on the pictures for a closer look!

Until next time....

Clean Up On Aisle 7....

Huh? Crazy scrapping girl say what?! LOL! Okay, so, you know you're obsessed with scrapbooking, and embellishments, when you can spend 10 minutes looking at the scrapbook paper and "stuff" at the grocery store! Yes, you read that right! I was able to find scrapbook stuff in THE GROCERY STORE! LOL! Good stuff too! LOL! So, I'm strolling along and I see "the stuff" and I stopped to drool, I mean look and I get the "bestest idea"! The recent event in my DH"s family with his Grandma passing away his Mom will probably need to right notes right?! Well... let me do what I do best and make her some! Okay maybe not best but, not too shabby!

In the beginning there was a sweet little 10 pack of scalloped edge cards....


Then 5 of these sweet little scalloped edge cards met up with a stamp set from SU called "Oh So Lovely", an alpha set from Papertrey Ink and a variety of ink colors!



Not to be outdone the last 5 scalloped edge cards met up with some paper scraps, the SU set "Riveting", alpha set from Papertrey Ink, and a variety of inks to match the paper scraps!



I wanted to do a holder but I can't come up with anything yet...yet (I'm open to ideas....)! LOL! I am pretty pleased with these cards and think they're the just right size for a fast note which, most days, would be all I have time to do! LOL! Whodathunk I would have found them in the grocery store too! LOL! Maybe grocery shopping isn't that bad after all! LOL!

A Love Thang.....!

Actually, it's a love my kids thang! LOL! I was playing around with some pictures I had printed out a while back of my 3 kids. I think this picture was taken in 2002 and is one of my all time favorites! I loved how my oldest has her hair, my youngest is so sweet looking and my son, well to me he's just plain handsome!



I used SU real red paper for the solid red, I have no clue where the other paper came from (read that as a confession of a scrapbook paper hoarder!) since I pick up paper anywhere and everywhere! LOL! I used heart brads from Making Memories, the chipboard letter came from Michael's, ribbon is all SU, the button...well I'm a button hoarder too (falls under my embellishment junkie habit! LOL!). The brown circles are something I picked up last night at Michael's. I found my way back to their clearance section and saw these sticker sheets for $1! Now who can resist that?! It's only a dollar right?! Well it's okay until you have about 20+ items, then as my DH says "no longer a good deal"! LOL! Here's the thing about them though, they're not scrapbooking stickers but made to go on some wooden bangles that you could make yourself! I thought - why not?! I don't always go by the "Acid Free" everything way of scrapbooking but go with whatever I want - a little bit! LOL! Ooh and I got the "I Do" sticker from Target on one of my red tag hunting escapades! It was actually a wedding sticker that I got thinking I could use it somehow, well I did! I had to cut it from the sticker since there was three of them on there but it works...so I think anyway!

Well I hope you like it!

Until next time

Bre's Cheer Pic

I hope you can humor me for a minute here...I was trying out my new Camera, using the zoom and just playing. I was doing this at Breanna's game this past week. I got this great shot of her from the second level of bleachers! She humored me here too, with a big smile!



I just love it when my kids smile to show me they're happy! I don't get to see that from my older 2 kids too often now that they're on their own!

Until next time!

More Hearts!!

Okay I have a question for you, when you buy stamps do you buy them for just one "event" or do you buy them because they're versatile and can be used for multiple "events"? I try to think I'm in the latter group but, am guilty of being sucked right in by the mere cuteness of a stamp! Sssshhh, don't tell but I even have stamps that I haven't used yet! I know "gasp"! I think that will be my goal next - use the unused stamps!
So, on to MORE hearts! I've noticed a lot of people are making different shaped cards so I decided to jump on the bandwagon (where did that term come from anyway?!) and I made one too! YEAH ME! I used my floral heart stamp from "The Rubber Cafe"



Here's what else I used: Pink Pirouette and Whisper White paper from SU, 2 largest sizes of Nestabilities, an ancient flower shaped punch, $1 glitter glue from Michael's, a silver button leftover from another project, sheer ribbon pulled from deep within the depths of my ribbon box, Timber Brown Staz-On ink and colored pencils for coloring!
So I think I might have a few more heart cards out there! I made so many that I can't remember if I posted them all or not! Sad huh?! With a teenager in the house who's only communication with some friends is chat on facebook, well time on here is hard to get! The distance between posts (thank goodness for pre-posting abilities!)and my memory is getting bad so I'll have to go back a few posts to see if I shared them all!!

Until next time....

Heart Strings...Again!

Don't you hate when you get some ideas stuck in your head and you can't think of anything else?! Yesterday I tried to focus on my bosses agenda, to do my work, but I actually watched the clock all day! Lucky for me we had some mattresses delivered yesterday so I did get off a little early! Oh, I'm sure you're wondering what had me so preoccupied right?! When I posted the "Heart Strings" card in peach, red and brown it dawned on me ....helloooo cute for a baby card! I could NOT wait to come home, be finished with those chores just so I could get upstairs to my craft room and get to "work"! LOL! So, without much further "ado"...here it is!



You know I put this card together and used mostly scraps, lately I seem to have a lot! I'm suspecting it was my NY resolution of keeping my new room clean but, anyway, if you really want to know just email me! I love messages so feel free anytime actually!

I have another picture to share with you too that I discovered on the camera! Breanna, my youngest, seems to have an excellent "eye" for unusual pictures that I would never think of yet, when I see them I think "how cool"! She took a picture of the footprints my DH left in the snow from putting out some bird seed! I love how the shadows from the trees play across the snow too!



Baby's got talent that's for sure! LOL!

Until next time....

Love Circles

Well I promised you a tutorial and, believe it or not, here it is! This is something I saw somewhere on line but can't remember where so, if it's yours please forgive me and give me your name so I can give you credit...until then, read on! I made a great scrapbook layout using a photo that I had printed out in Sepia. With my Valentine's colors including so much brown I've been doing that a lot lately! I used some more of the Cosmo Cricket "Chemistry" paper , "Strip Tease" from The Rubber Cafe. I went with a circle theme on this one too! Seems like I'm really into circles lately, big contrast to my DH who's into sharp corners! I think it's the military in him! You wouldn't have enjoyed the conversation where I tried so hard to talk him into curtains with circles on them....needless to say I have plain curtains! Anyway, you don't want to hear that story! LOL! So back to the scrapbook page, I even softened my corners with a corner rounder for this one! LOL! No sharp corners here!

I used the huffing/marker technique for the word "Love" in the white circle and used different size punches to make circles out of scraps from other projects too! I had some fun silver adhesive buttons to add some extra texture. I also felt like it still needed "something", something different so I added some fun punched circles using something you might not have thought of! Take a look at my second picture to see what I'm talking about!




I used a circle shaped plastic embroidery canvas "thingy"! I can't remember what they're called. I remember my Mom was AWESOME at creating all sorts of things from this plastic canvas. They're inexpensive and can be bought just about anywhere! I used my paper piercer and just did the circles randomly around the page. I think I got my "something different"! What do you think?!




The circles would be a fun element around another circle shaped element on a card or something wouldn't it?! I even saw star shapes, squares, etc. They come several to a package so you could even do a swap with your friends! Just have fun with it!

I hope you liked my little "tutorial" of sorts!

Until next time....

I {Heart} Hearts!

So when our Design Team stamps and goodies came this time I just fell in love! I love hearts anything really! I have a gazillion necklaces from Brighton whose focus is on hearts, I have heart rocks, pictures and like to think I have a big heart too! LOL! Anyway, I couldn't stop making cards and "stuff" with my goodies! Here are two more cards I'd like to share with you;

I LOVE these hearts on a string and, yep it's called "Heart Strings"! They're so "country" yet, couldn't you see them as a baby card...oooh next card for me, make them into a baby card! I used SU chocolate chip for the base, Staz-On Timber Brown ink, colored pencils and, of course, more of that Cosmo Cricket "Chemistry" paper. I also added some of the "dew drops" to the edge of one. I just LOVE this card! I also got the layout from a very neat blog "From Where I Stamp" I try hard to not copy a whole card but use it as a jumping off point. With this one, I had to copy the whole thing! I love it! I hope you have time to check her blog out too! She's very creative!



This one just came from "outta nowhere"! I have a ton of eyelets because I'm an embellishment junky and, unfortunately, a hoarder too! I realized in this move if there's one thing I need to do that is use my embellishments! I used some Making Memories brown eyelets and a thin brown ribbon to create a corset of sorts on here! I used a bigger brown ribbon for the bow. I used my SU scallop border punch for the decorative edges. Now here's where I got that neat heart from, I used this stamp , Party Hearts stamped out in Staz-On Timber Brown ink and cut out the center heart! I then paperpieced a tiny heart for the center from the same paper, love that Chemistry paper, I used for the corset and the letters. I colored the edges in with colored pencils. I was tickled at how cute it came out!



Well I hope you liked my cards! I'm off to get ready for work now!

Until next time....

I Love Purple!

I love dark rich purple, I love dark rich any color really! There's just something about that purple though....! I'm getting cards ready for different special events I have coming up so I created this love card, intentionally leaving it sentiment free so I can use it for anything that might come up! You never know right?! When I look at a card in the store I try to check out the reason I was drawn to that particular card and a lot of times it's because of the embossing. So, this time I embossed! I actually did two types of embossing, heat embossing with embossing powder and I also ran the ivory paper through my Cuttlebug using a texture embossing folder called "D'vine Swirls". I think it gives it a more elegant look suitable for a wedding or a special anniversary! The stamp is another from "The Rubber Cafe" that I can't stop coming up with ideas for! What do you think?



I also added pearl buttons and a sheer purple bow. On the envelope I used the marker technique to add only the word "Love" on the envelope. The stamp I used also came from The Rubber Cafe (hey, I'm on their DT and like their stamps! LOL!) It's called, appropriately "Love Words". It would make a great background or strip stamp if you ever needed one!

Don't forget The Rubber Cafe is having a great deal for those bargain hunters, like me, out there! Here's more info;

The Rubber Cafe
Save 15% (valid on orders of $50 or more) coupon code FEB09
Offer Expires: February 08 2009

Until next time....

Loss For Words

Well, in a previous post I asked for prayers for our Grandma Fran, meatball Grandma to Breanna, as she was pretty ill. I say "was" as she is no longer with us. Grandma Fran went to heaven to be with Grandpa Nick, the love of her life! I'm happy for her to be with him. To have known her made me a better person I think. She helped me understand a lot of things about the family I married into. She was just a wonderful person, so full of stories to share and just the most giving person.

If it's not asking too much, could you please add her to your prayer list again?

We love you Grandma Fran! You're forever in our hearts!

Sending All My Love

I'm "Sending All My Love" to someone special, or it looks like it with this card anyway! Isn't this the cutest stamp for Valentine's Day?! I like this one since it looks like it's just bursting with love! This is another stamp I got as part of my yummy Valentine's package from "The Rubber Cafe". I made two different cards using this one and I'm not sure which one I like better! Take a look and tell me what you think!


I got a little creative with this one. I wanted the focus to be on the stamp and words so I used my Scor Pal to create the lines at the bottom of the Kraft paper. Let me tell you, if you don't have one, get one now! I use my Scor Pal in almost every paper product I create! I haven't created a crooked card since getting one AND have used it for lots of decorative elements too!




I really like how this one turned out too! I used more of the Cosmo Cricket "Chemistry" paper in this one too! The plaid stripe is one of the strips off the sheet called "Strip Tease" and the other DP is from the sheet called "Winks"! How seductive are those names?! LOL! Not like I needed any help falling in love with these papers either! A little paper piercing and a small brown bow and voila! Cute card!



As you can see I didn't let the envelope for these cards off the hook, so to speak! I stamped them too! Don't forget the envelope when you're stamping! Presentation is everything and, if for nothing else...why not! It's just another blank slate begging for ink!

So if you're on the fence about any of these stamps, papers or even the Scor Pal check out Melissa's special offer, limited time only so hurry! If you're like me and are watching your dimes, or pennies, this is a great deal! Here's a little more on the offer Save 15% (valid on orders of $50 or more)coupon code FEB09 at WWW.TheRubberCafe.Com



Offer Expires: February 08 2009