Welcome - Part 2! :)

Welcome back! Please make sure you scroll back to the previous post if this is your first visit - craft room tour starts with Part 1 and thanks for looking! Here is a side view - some changes since these were taken and we added a small bookshelf for all the scrapbooks on a cart ~ that's my treadmill in the back with my beloved gmas hand-stitched quilt on it for when it gets chilly in here for me ........ she was 83 when she made that quilt for Tony and I, God bless her! She passes away 3 years on Halloween day and I am not sure she'll ever know what a gift that quilt is to us ......... (love you, grammy!) There is so much space in the open area behind the desk that I've been able to put up a buffet, folding table for extra space for crafting friends. Have yet to thave that "big reveal stampalooza" - friends come by and look but can someone please stop by and visit and stamp with me?!! :)

I plan to buy one of those wall hanging bars for the punches - some are in boxes but these are the ones that get the most use .....

Aren't these handy dandy! I can't tell you how much fun they are -- just a few stamps that you want to have hanging around to see and use ..... the rolling carts are filled with mostly UM but these guys keep me smiling - they are Happy Stamps :)

My lotsa stuff on here and changes by the day board :)

Sniff, sniff ...... from wonderful friend Lauriloo! (paperville) A memorial to Lady, which still to this day warms my heart. What a gentle, thoughtful and beautiful gift, to be treasured forever!

*hugs!* So that's a little tour - thanks for stopping by! :)

Blessings!

x0x0x0

Welcome to my craft room! :)

Come on in! My wonderful husband spent weeks and weeks and weeks tearing our former garage down to the base concrete and rebuilding an entire room for me to craft in *sniff, sniff! Love you honey!* There are a few photos, so this is Part 1 of the tour :)
This is the DARLING door hanger sent from the lovely Catherine (Paper addict!) Thank you, sweetie! It hangs on the door as a reminder of all the goodness inside the room and of the terrific friend that sent it my way!
I love love love the ocean - it's my favorite place

to be and spend many hours there with the kids - under the swaying palm trees, tropical breeze blowing by, warm sunshine ...... and making Sandcastles! :) That was the inspiration behind the

room's theme (decor?) Sadly, the shelves are not in yet and I have the small spacers shelves to do the trick until we figure out what is going to go up for all the scrapbooks and embellies ... the sandy colored tile is my sand and feels SO GOOD under my bare feeties each day, so comforting and easy to clean up, too :)

It's difficult to get a good picture from this room since he added a hideaway door (I can lock myself in and hide! LOL!!) but if I stand behind it to take a photo, all I get is one small part of the wall, tee hee!

I really love this comfy office chair, especially since it was FREE! How lucky for us -- BIL happen to be at the right place at the right time when a friend gave him his 300.00 office chair when his business moved ..... lucky, lucky me! Notice my small basket of SOTC swaps under the table? LOL!

My desk -- did you ever meet Scrappy? That's the darling Build-a-bear workshop bear my kids took me to buy for my birthday :) Yes, we actually stuffed it, made a wish, found some adorable scrapbooker clothes for it and we had the best day ever! I love how they thought of me and planned the whole event by themselves (but did tell me that I had to drive them to a certain mall, lol) but I wasn't sure what it was all about, but their giggles, their laughter and joy was unmatched :*)

I have my fabulous friend Mary (alatteinkinfun) to thank for sending us a link to organize more -- you'll see the ink shelf up there that was spot on what I was looking for.

Longish view - table, shelf, bulletin board full of things I'm working on and can't put away yet - the colorful, rolling bins (Cropper Hopper) are full of stamps that are non-SU! They are labeled per company. Handy dandy baby wipes containers are full of brads & what not ....... I am thinking green and realized what a wonderful container they are although not so elegant ;)

Mostly paper storage - ie, desk slots are full of DSP, as are the bins and the CH on the top shelf. Basket is full of ribbons, jars are full of ribbon, the very bottom shelf has containers full of ribbon ...... oh I just love it! The 6 photo storage boxes (colored) are full of pictures still waiting to be scrapped ......... just as sooooon as I finish those card swaps lol! What else - the green bin is gone as are the cricut, photo maker, cuttlebug and on a seperate shelf - I see they are hanging out with my Clip it UP in this picture - small bins are full of DCWC 12 x 12 paper packs, I have another , um, slight addiction in that area ;)

Side view .........

TFL! Check back for part 2!

Club Anya - I want to be like ......

I had so much fun creating this card for the Club Anya CASE card ........ I want to be like CAZ - amazingly talented card and gal to case this week!

I was so excited to ink up the new Hula Anya which is beyond adorable! Reminded me of our Maui Honeymoon, many years ago :) I see many cards in the future with her - she's super cute!

I paired this with a tropical print DP, tea & lime colored CS, cuttlebugged the circle and to stay in the layout frame I used CB frames and added some bling, and then matched it with these yummy tropical flowers, added some ribbon & stickles & pearlized brads. TFL!

Cheers!

Happy Friday! Just a quickie card that I made for a friend's "It's 5 O'Clock somewhere!" swap. For me, this would be the ultimate in relaxation and pleasure - to hang in a hammock with some CL lemonaid & a cool breeze - yay! The reality of that being the kids squealing & spraying each other with the hose and calling for "mooooooooooooom!", tee hee!

This will be a busy weekend, as we are paring down before our trip and really making room for what we have and don't need. So much of it has gone to church and charity already but there were a few things we wanted to try to put out in a tag sale. I'm nervous! We are not only expecting rain but it will be a lot of work to juggle at the same time but dh has the weekend off and is going to be a big help in this endeavor! Plus we are babysitting and dd10 has a sleepover and dd12 has a birthday party and did I mention this is finals weeks for the kids? Yikes!

Deets: SU Cardstock w/ some fun summery paper I found at the dollar spot at Target LAST SUMMER, lol ..... SU ribbon, MS lace punch, Riley w/ sentiment from Hanna Stamps, I believe? And stickles on the little drinkie ;) Have a terrific weekend!

Happy Travels!

"Leaving .. on a jet plane .." :) Remember that song!? Dont' you still just love to sing along to it! I have been a bit overwhelmed this past week knowing there is still so much to do before our trip and so many *small* details to remember, like connecting flights, car rentals, hotels - each one leading to the next destination! If one goes wrong, well .......... picture domino effect, lol. So far London is the only snag but for everywhere else, we are looking good ::: knock on wood & PTL! :::::

So .......... for the divine Sweet P at the SCS - aka, Miss Paola - is hosting a "what is your favorite past-time?" swap. I inked up my Flopsey MFTs and had a blast for another swap, then started to ink up another Flopsey for this one (reading) and thought "hmmm, I have a travel one in here somewhere!" And there it was - almost as if on cue with dh's Mother's Day surprise! One thing he and I loved to do so very much before the kids were born was travel - just get in the car and go or plan a fun trip. I traveled extensively as a young girl and my family was always jetting around somewhere (dad's AF Job) but taking side trips all the time "just to explore the world" and hence, the foundation for a love of travel was born. I realize how very, VERY blessed I am to have seen all that I have, and my "to do/to see" list still has a few places not checked off :)

This was attempt #2 at this card - not award winning, but at least this one fell into place!

Deets: PTI cardstock, DCWV mat stack, Doodlebug paper ric-rac, ink & lots coloring :)

Happy Travels!

Shopping Anya - shout out to Mary!

I wanna be like ........ Mary! This card I have been trying to upload since 10 am! Apparently we are in desperate need of freeing up some pc space - yikes! So it's finally uploaded, just under the wire, and I wanted to give a shout out to the wonderfully talented Mary http://alatteinkinfun.blogspot.com/ who is the winner of the card case on Club Anya - wtg, Mary! Her talent is endless and check out her blog if you want a sneak peek at some seriously fun creative talent!

So, I thought Miss Anya would be a good match with her shopping bags .......... for which I have no sentiments and had to get creative, rofl! I used *imagine* from TGF's Never Ever and can imagine those are shopping bags filled with stamps and dsp and inks, oh yeah! :)

Make sure you hop on over to play along!

Deets: PTI brown & blue papers, DSP: K & Co from around Valentine's Day (what can I say! I'm guilty of hoarding!) Scallop is DCWV mat stack & whisper white ........ Anya is printed on SU Whisper White & colored with prismas ...... unknown ribbon since it was de-spooled! Glitter brads, pearl brad, M's white ribbon with shopping bag adornment. Her ribbon is paper-pieced, though it's hard to tell :) TFL & may you have a blessed Memorial Day weekend!

BFFs!

Hi everyone! Way behind on posting here! First, let me say a great big thank you to all who commented on my dd - I was so touched (and teary!) reading the comments. I'm amazed at how fast she's growing into a young lady - it seems like just yesterday she was watching Barney and playing with her dollies!

Today's card is a belated birthday wish for my BFF, Jen! She lives in Georgia now and we see each other so infrequently ~ talk often but it's not the same :( Her birthday was on Mother's Day and well ..... I didn't get her card out in time! I had just gotten this new BFFabug from stampingbella and it's TDF! Used some of my Posie Mat Stack, ribbon & stickles and most importantly to tell her she's my bud for always!

~*~ I hope you dance ~*~

My baby is growing up! If you have heard the words this song, it rings so true how fast they grow and the things you hope for your child. I pray always that they stay safe and free from harm. This is my oldest daughter's first *real* school dance and we had to bend the normal rules of make up and hair and little heels! Sniff, sniff! She chose the dress herself - it's a beautiful strapless dress full of sparkles & shimmer & knew exactly what she wanted for her hair - spiral curls. She loved it so much she's now asking for a perm :) Sadly, she inherited my baby fine stick straight hair! So ....... here she is ......... all grown up!

She said all night people were telling her she looked like Taylor Swift, the singer ....... now I kinda see it!

Now dd wears glasses and does not like to pose, take pictures, shop, dress up or do any of those girly girly things so these pictures were quite a feat! (I took about 30, lol!) The photos don't do justice to the sparkles are sewn through-out (which is what drew her eye to it, I think!)

Thanks for looking! Won't be long before we are at PROM, eh? Yikes! :) (((( 's ))))

PMS blog-hop and a card :)

Hi everyone! I hope you had a chance to hop on over to the Papermakeup stamps blog hop! It was outrageous fun & I made it to the end - woohoo! What a nice treat for a Thursday night!

Here is a card I made with these deliciously fun stamps. Isn't she cute! It's me, sending dh on a midnight run for peanut M & M's, ha ha! I paired it with this equally busy and fun & bright paper and just had such fun with it.

Don't forget to head over to the SCS and visit the monster squad card swap and say hi if you haven't checked in! There will be a new game in the next week(s)! ** Monstah hugs to all! **



Deets! SU cardstock: Tangerine Tango, Yo-Yo Yellow, Real Red and teal/green cs unknown (scraplings!) DSP is We R Memory Keepers, PTI white cardstock - SU! Taken with Teal inkpad, handcut arrow but Cuttlebug ovals & circle - ricrac is Doodlebug :) TFL!

Happy Bday, Miss Olivia :)

When I remembered my dear friend Mary's little girl was having her birthday, I couldn't wait to ink up these Disney Princess stamps from EK Success! I bought them for scrapbooking and hence, they have sat! I was brought back in time when my girls were little and have been every princess imaginable (and some imaginary!) - each Halloween, each birthday, each special occasion out came the frilly costumes & tiaras & wands and sparkly shoes! I thought of Olivia from H'ween when she wore her adorable Cinderella outfit!

Deets are: Cardstock is SU, DSP is from Taylored Expression's Tiny Dancer collection - colored with prismas, added ribbon, flowers, glaze and a tiny pearl for Cinderella's earring. I hope her day is magical and memorable and filled with all the fun memories birthdays are made of! *muah!*

Crazy Busy Week!

Happy Sunday to all! We just got home from a birthday party for 18 four year olds - whew! I'm glad today is "rest" day after that hoopla :) Just a simple card f0r today that I made Friday afternoon .. and by simple, it's pretty simple! Although I didn't intend for it to be so plain, in hindsight I realize that sometimes I fret too much about making a card *too much* (I admit, they are my favorite - the more color, the busier, the better for me!) but my chemo patient isn't doing so well and having such a hard time right now. I just let the verse talk and paired it with some gorgeous SU dsp just to remind her she's never walking this walk alone. Bless her .....

I added a snapshot of Chrissy from her Principal's Honor Roll assembly - I'm so proud of her! This time of year, her big and little sister have gotten so lax and she's perservered - conquering everything thrown her way and managed to get straight A's all year. She's an amazing girl! (they all are, she just juggled it a little bit better and fought a little harder for those grades!)

My little King of Knowledge! This was from the awards crowning ceremony at ds's preschool - the teacher's find a special gift each child has and awards them that crowning joy. His was the gift of KNOWLEDGE and added he is amazinly bright and eager to learn. He's growing up, my lil baby! His was based on Proverbs 3:5-6 .. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not onto your own understanding: in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."

Another *cuppa*

Another tea card from the LizzieAnn set! My camera is really acting up and most photos are coming out off color or blurry ~ I've been taking them outside to get a better idea pic ;) This was a trial card in order to get a feel for a possible Mother's Day card for my mom ~ she's not the artsy-craftsy type and wouldn't be too chosey, lol but I wanted to give her one that is specially made. This DSP is beyond beautiful! It was sent to me by a wonderful friend in a birthday package last month *muah!* and it's positively lovely - thick and so full of detail. IRL is just POPS!

Layered with SU Pink Piro and so saffron to keep the vintagy, soft feel ..... Paper pieced the cups and added some PTI soft bliss pink ribbon. Inside reads: You make every day sweeter :)

TFL!

It's Hanna! And ... Hanna ......... :)

Hey there, Hanna! Sorry for the very blurry images! These lil gals were actually on their way in the mail and already sealed in their envies -- It's Hanna Brunette and Hanna Blonde! I paper-pieced their dresses and headbands and really tried to get the feel for how I thought she looked in my head (I did have this card planned out, but ...... lol) I kept the background around her clean and simple because the card looked busy enough & added a general sentiment since she's drinking coffee but it might not be used as a coffee card :)

I have to say after seeing them finished, while I normally prefer to color everyone brunette, I like her better as a blonde (maybe it's her dress, lol) I struggle with this part of my card making to be perfectly honest and try to shy away from "people" as much as possible ~ I am not confident enough in my card making or have the skills necessary to really pull them off - give me a coffee mug, cute animal or flower any day and I'm so happy! How nice it would be to have a cup of coffee or tea with you all one day! *hugs!*

My Cup of Tea :)

I finally was able to play with this beautiful Lizzie Ann Stamp that I won at Zee's blog: (http://stampnsparkle.blogspot.com/ ) blog awhile back. She is one of the sweetest gals I've met while blogging and just has this beautiful personality - not to mention generous! I was stunned to win her blog candy - (my only win, aside from Kadie at the SCS awhile back for a card sentiment!) and I chose this tea set thinking of my Mum ...... she was born & raised in a small town just outside of London, I thought she would enjoy cards with tea & sentiments! Please check out Zee's blog if you get the chance!

This one is for a friend that I needed to send a gift to ~ she loves purple and I feel in love with this paper when I found it at Joanns ..... it gave me a English countryside feel ;) And as we all know, dear friends are definitely our cups of tea!

Have a great weekend! Today is my 16th wedding anniversary so dh & I will be taking the kids on a day trip tomorrow ~ blessings!

Raise the WOOF! ;)

YAY! More Elzybells! Can you tell I have been busy playing with my shipment of stamps! I took advantage last month or so of their free int'l shipping and ordered a couple of stamps that I was drooling over and these little cuties were among them. They sat in a box for over a month as I longingly looked at them but had no space to play! :( Since I knew I had a doggie card swap coming up with Lisa at SCS, I inked up this little sweetie and just had a ball ~ cuttlebugging & coloring! I think this is my 2nd card using a similiar color scheme as well ~ following the natural colors from the DSP ...... hopefully it works! And lastly, I added a picture of darling Brandy who had a little fun with the Easter egg hunt :)

Purrrrrr-fect Friend ;)

It's release day at Elzybells! How I adore these stamps and wish I could own them all! I created this card for Scrappy's Elzy swap at the SCS and just love this image of this little kitty hiding in the grass, watching the ladybug stroll along.

Inside sentiment reads: "Friends are the purrrr-enials in the garden of life". So true!

I wish I could get my camera to take better pictures of shiny, shimmery DSP .... those flash "spots" are hard to figure out!

Deets to follow ..... it's after midnight here and I have to be up in 5 hours - ouch! :) TFL! Update: retook photo outside and it appears better - ahah! :)

** I still believe! **

Ohhh, I can't tell you how in love with TGF stamps I am! They are just simply superb - from the beautiful little faces they have to the quality of the way they stamp so crisp and clear each time. If I had money to spare, I know where mine would go! I now own 3 TGF stamps and can't wait to expand my collection! I was SO EXCITED to see the release of the NEVER EVER set ~ it's fun & whimsical! Peter Pan here is extra special in our household as dh & I have spent countless years at Walt Disney World in Orlando, even long before the kids ~ that's was always our first stop on any vacation! This set will make fantastic scrapbook pages - w/out a doubt. It's also special in that my little son was crazy about the Peter Pan ride and we would ride it again and again, watching his face light up as he "flew" through the night sky saying "We can fly, we can fly!" He was also Peter Pan for Halloween ;)

This card will double as Dh's birthday card ...... my hubby will turn another year older this Sunday! TFL!

Deets: I believe the colors are SU! Chocolate Chip & Old Olive cardstock,

DCWV mat stack dsp, PTI white for the image (TGF!!), colored with prisma markers & olive organdy SU ribbon :)

Starring ..... Karen!

As most of you know, I'm hosting my first swap over at the SCS for cute and cuddly monsters (and the like!) I did a contest challenge for a stamp a few days ago and asked the "contestants" to give me 11 nouns, sight unseen, and not having a clue what it was for. How brave they were! LOL! I actually created a funny "mad-lib" if you will and had dh chose the one he liked the best, and this one made him chuckle - I think it was the lumpy milk, but who knows, lol! They were all so outstanding that I could not choose (love Judy's Kissable Kelly and Lorie's Sparkly Edward personally! Oh la lah!!) so everyone is getting a prize for participating! Miss Karen wins a fancy new stamp ;)

SO, here you go ...... we have an author in da house!!!!!!

It was a dark and stormy night in Monsterland ….. monsters and aliens were lurking about. Karen signed up for a monster card swap thinking “oooh, such fun! I like lumpy milk!” She thought “I can use my hairy canary stamps! They’ll be perfect!” But she didn’t know that a goat in a boat and a jumping bean were lurking nearby! What to do? She had a card swap to finish! Lucky for her, her faithful Starvin Marvin came to her rescue and a rotten banana handed her a hot tamale to scare off that silly Forest Ranger! The monsters sulked and moped but slithered off so she sat down with cardstock, inks, stamps and some inky paws. She inked! She embossed! She stickled! She even used her dunkin donuts! And finally, she created ……. an ice bucket! Way to go, Karen!

Forest Card Swap

Good morning friends ~ Quick post in the blog ........ this is the card I made for my friend Jeanette's First Card Swap - named accordingly for her ...... the Forest! I wanted to jump in and support her and couldn't wait to ink up these new stamps that have been sitting FOREVER in a case, poor things! They are from H & M stamps and I bought them on their clearance sale way back when thinking I could use them for dd's Girl Scout pages ........ but, alas, we saw no bears on that outing - hee hee .......

I had so much fun with these! My dd said the bear looked like he was floating so I added last minute leaves as a soft bed ....... :) I also double colored the bear - first with prisma colored pencils and then with markers for a softer/furrier effect - it looks much better IRL. TFL!

Dontcha wish!!!

Hello friends in blogworld! I had a delicious 6 (SIX!!) hours of pure, uninterupted stamping yesterday! Although unfinished, having a new place to stamp has definitely got my crafting spirits up and as dh said "wow, looks like you got your creative juices back" :) (that was in reference not to anything I made actually looked good, just that I was caught singing with my radio, dancing around thinking no one was watching - we've all been there, right?! LOL!)
So, I guess I should explain this card, tee hee! My SILs little sister's birthday is coming up and she is the absolute life of the party ~ she's a totally fun girl, still in her mid-20's (suuuuh-weeet!) and single, free to party as she pleases and does that well, rofl ~ she can outdrink anyone I know, dances on tables just for fun and is the first one to dash up to sing Karoake in a room full of (sober!) people - I guess her motto is no guts, no glory! (not me, I'm the one hiding in the back of the room wishing I could have as much fun, rofl!) And she ADORES the Pussycat Dolls - I mean, big fan. So I had an ah-hah "I spy with my little eye ...... a Penny Black stamp!" and ta-da, it just all came about nicely, right down to this little piggie wear a lime green thong and has some belly button bling! (just like SIL, lol) She is going to go nuts because it's so "her" ..... and I had a blast making something I wouldn't dare normally send to anyone, lol!
Now that I think of it ........ if Sweet P over on SCS has another music swap, maybe we could do one of these heifers shaking her bon-bons, eh? LOLOL! (J/K!)
Hugs to all - thanks for stoppin' by! *muah!*

I forgot to mention the deets! But they are pretty much SOP for me -- Prismas, Tombo, bling, ribbon .... and paper pieced her little red bag but I can see here I missed a tiny spot - oops! Will have to go back and fix that ;)

Just Live ........

Hello dear friends! I'm cheating today on my blog and posting a page I found while redoing the new craft haven - my dh is just the bestest! {{{ hugs! }}} I promised my friend Linda I would find this, and weeks later, I have (see what good things happen when you open boxes! Tee hee!)

This page actually a L/O CASE of a page from a scrap mag .. omgosh, I cannot remember which one/issue! :( I will edit later if I find it! I was reflecting my birthday months before, dh's diagnosis and my father's passing and something in me just said Live for Today ~ stop worrying about the things you cannot control or change because the stress and worry will tear at your soul. I remember this day well - my son was doing something silly and it just made my heart smile :) (and no, I don't normally wear *that!* lipstick color, lol - we must have been on our way out *wink!*) So that is my motto for this week, month ....... (one day at a time, right?) Just Live ........... and let Him do the rest! <3

It's a Fairy Nice Day!!

I finally got to take my Lily's {Pink Cat Studio} stamps out to play - what a joy they are! This is my 1st (only PCS!) but I really love working with the these stamps and hopefully I will be back for more! I am still trying to get an idea of what card I want to make for my terrific friend Mary's "Get Ahead" card swap on the SCS ~ Thank you Cards are always so fun to make! I did see this card that inspired me with it's layout: it's the orange/pink flower card:http://treasureoilerdesignz.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-03-27T04%3A00%3A00-06%3A00&max-results=7, it's the pink/orange flower card (9th down on Dawn's blog)

so I gave it a shot with my version's here .... the Thank you is on the inside of card #1 and it's hard to see here the scallop lace didn't leave much room for stamping! :)

In the second one, I went with a darker haired fairy, which somehow reminded me of Mary's little dd, and like the overall feel of this one better ~ to be changed up, still in the playing around stage! :) The first photo is terrible and the glare is awful - it looks like the glitter is a spilled mess! I promise it looks normal IRL, lol! If you happen to peek, I'd love to here your thoughts on which version you like better?

Deets: Pink Cat Studio - Fairy Lily

DSP: SU! Raspberry Tart & CS - SU, Bazzill

Prismacolor markers, SU Kiwi Kiss ribbon, MS fine glitter, Adhesive

TFL!

Post-birthday :)

Ooooh the inevitable - I'm another year older! And this is what I feel and look like after all that yummy birthday cake! Tee hee! I can't thank you all enough for the wonderful cards and birthday prezzies and special wishes - I feel so blessed (and quite spoiled!) I can't wait to play with all the wonderful goodies that I was showered with this birthday -making the 40's so much nicer! You girls are the best! Thank you sooooooo much!! Hugs, hugs, hugs!!

Deets: House Mouse Jelly Beans stamp
& SU! Cardstock
& yummy DCWV paper stack paper~ Sweet Stack
Ribbon is from PTI.

Here's to another wonderful year ahead! *Cheers!*