Playing with Color 117~A day late

Hello!  Thanks for stopping by.  I am a day late with my Playing with Colors Challenge and I am sorry about that.  We did not have a/c for 3 days at our house and 2 of the days were so hot and humid that I could barely stand to be in the house let alone sit at my table and work.  If I would have pointed the fan at me I would have had papers flying everywhere.  Anyway...the a/c is back on now and I can be sitting at my craft table working.

I made this card for a couple challenges today.  First I play along with Chat and Jean for the Playing with Color challenge (so make sure you head over to their blogs and check out their fabulous cards).   For this weeks colors we were to use Lucky Limeaid, Calypso Coral, Basic Gray and White.  Well...imagine my horror (okay maybe not horror...maybe surprise) when I sat down to work on my card and I was completely out of Basic Gray.  Sad part is I don't even remember using it.  Oh, well.  So I tried to play along the best I could.  I just used Kraft instead of Basic Gray.  Just pretend the Kraft is Gray...hehehe.   The sketch is from this weeks challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches which you can find HERE.  I love working with their sketches and try to play along as often as I can.  

Hope you all have a great day!

Card Recipe:

Paper: Kraft, , Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeaid, In-Colors DSP

Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Be Happy Sentiments (Amy R Stamps)

Accessories: Decorative Label Punch, Ribbon, Calypso Coral Ink, Lucky Limeaid Ink

Golden Egg Award

How surprised was I when I hopped on the computer a few minutes ago to check out Google Reader.  I look every day because well...I am addicted to "stalking" blogs and seeing all the creativity every one shares.  Anyway...one of the very first ones I saw was over at 4 Crafty Chicks blog challenge.  I was one of 4 chosen for Gold Egg Award.  You can see my card HERE.  How Sweet was that?  Thanks so much for the award.  I really enjoy playing along with their challenges.  If you get a chance head over and check them out at their challenge BLOG.

Have a great day and hope you will stop by often and maybe become a follower.

Simply Simple 117~Thankful For You

Hi!  I got off the couch tonight to actually make a card.  With my head pounding I am just glad I got one completed.  This card was made using two different challenges.  

First this card is for a challenge that my upline Chat does every week which is Simply Simple.  The challenge speaks for itself.  So make sure to head over to Chat's blog and Jean's Blog who also participates. 

Then I used the challenge over at  Friday Mashup.  The challenge this week was to use four colors...Midnight Muse, So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise and Soft Suede or a thank you card....OR do both the colors and the thank you card.  I chose to do both.  I must say that had I not tried the color challenge over at Friday Mashup I doubt I would have ever combine these colors.  

I then decided to to head over to 4 Crafty Chicks blog and play along with their sketch this week.  I did turn the sketch on the side, but it was their sketch I started with to make my card.  

Thanks for stopping by and hopefully if I am feeling better this week I will get some more projects done and have something to share. 

Playing with Color 117

Hello all.  Hope you are all doing well.  I am still not feeling great.  I am not necessarily sick...just my back and arm still.  Then yesterday my head started hurting a bit..and today woke up with a pounding sinus headache...and I am still suffering tonight.  This is where I have been all day yesterday and today...

This picture is thanks to my little girl.  She felt the need to take my picture yesterday while I was snoozing on the couch...he only hour my head didn't hurt and feel like it was going to explode. I finally broke down tonight and took some meds.  I am really hoping I will be able to sleep tonight.  

Even though I didn't feel to well I did decide to sit down and make a card.  I used this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  This weeks sketch was #49.  I normally don't use a lot of circles on my cards and normally change it  up when I see a sketch has circles.  But...that being said, with this raging headache...I pretty much just decided to stick with the sketch and really not change anything up.  I did however make a square card when normally I make a regular 4 1/2 x 5 1/4 card.  I made this card 4 1/2 x 4 1/2.    I am also joining CHAT and Jean for the weekly challenge that they play called Playing with Color.  The colors for this week's  Playing with Color Challenge were Midnight Muse, Mustard, Crumb Cake and Neutral.

*I will come back later and add the Recipe.  But now...I am off to bed. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great rest of the night. 

First Snow

Here is another layout page I have to share with you.  This layout is of our first snow fall here in Virginia after we moved here from Florida.  It was the first time in 9 years that Carli had seen snow and the first time Madison has ever seen snow.  It wasn't a lot of show but they were excited. 

Their dad took them outside to build their first snowman then had a little snow ball fight with them.  

I based my layout with the sketch from Sketch N Scrap.  This week is week #15. This was my first time playing along with their challenge.  I did turn the sketch on the side and didn't use a big title.   

August Vacation

Hello everyone!  Hope you all had a great weekend.  We had a pretty good weekend.  Very relaxing.  The girls were pretty tired out.  They have gotten their first week of school out of the way and I think it wore them out.  They were in bet early and woke up late.  Well later than usual...8 or so.  Not really sleeping in but at lease the the weren't up at the butt-crack of dawn.  HEHEH. 

I haven't done any crafting in the last week because my back and arm have been bothering me.  Darn herniated disc and broken arm!  Don't get me wrong I am not complaining.  I am grateful I haven't had to have back surgery yet.  I am also grateful that I have my arm and have the use of it.  Granted...the use is limited, but a long time ago I was told I would lose it due to the cancer so even though years later I broke it and now have limited mobility I am grateful that I have it.  It does however get sore and over the past few months it has been bothering me more that usual.  It is just something I live with.  I sleep with a pillow under my arm, I lean it on the sofa or  a pillow when sitting and try to avoid using it when I don't have to.  So...it is all good. 

But all that being said...I do have a layout to share...

My layout today is of me with my daughters last summer.  It is our annual trip to my hometown, Coudersport, Pa.  Usually this is the only time of year I get myself in pictures.  I am usually the one behind the camera.  I will say though that I am trying to make an effort to get myself in more of the pictures.  Not for me...I would be fine not being in any.  But more for the kids...so as they get older we have picture of me with them. 

When making this layout I started with the sketch from this week over at ScrapFit.   As you can see I ended up changing the size of the pictures...but it is where I started.  

Thanks for stopping by.  have a great night! 

Happy Birthday

I have another card to share today.  I am hoping to get some scrapbooking done this week too but the last few days I have just been working on cards.

Anyway.  The card I made today used two challenges.  Sketch Saturday and Dynamic Duos.    Both challenges are new to me so this is the first time I have participated in either one.  You can find this weeks Sketch Saturday Challenge here.  This was week #221 and was a fun challenge to work with.  This weeks challenge at Dynamic Duos can be found here.

It really was a lot of fun playing along with both challenges.  My mojo was on hiatus or vacation today so having a couple challenges to work with helped my crafting process along a bit. Plus I just really really like playing along with challenges.  Either way...it works.

Now onto a more non-crafty note...the kids go back to school tomorrow.  I have really enjoyed my summer with them.   I have always worked outside the home...but since we moved to Virginia this past October my husband has made it possible for me to stay home with the kids. And thanks to my employer in FL, I am able to work for them part-time, remotely, from home.

It was really fun being home with them going on little outings, going to visit family and just hanging out.  But I think these last couple of weeks they have been getting restless and well now I am ready to get back the regular routine, though I will miss sleeping in.  The only think I want to complain about...is having to get up at 6:30 a.m to get Carli to school. Yes I know for most that is not early, that people are at work already and that most people consider that normal but not me.  Even when I worked full-time I didn't have to get up until 7:20 a.m.  And yes...I am one of those people that sleep in until the very last minute.   I am not a morning person.  Oh, well...I know we all have to do it.  Just thought I would share how much I just don't care for early early morning!  He he he he!

Hope everyone has a great week!
                                                                                                      

Means So Much...other craft

Hello all.  Hope you are all having a good weekend.  We had a good weekend.   All is good here.  Our last weekend before school starts.  We have school shopping done, lunch boxes ready to go and now they have one more night to stay up late.  I loved spending the summer with them, but Mama is now ready for school to start.

As you can see I do have a card to share today.  I decided to play along with the sketch over at Techno Stamper.  You can find this weeks sketch HERE.  It was this past Mondays' sketch, that I am just getting around to posting.  This is only the 2nd time of playing along with one of her sketches but I am hoping to play along more often.    I really do like her sketches it is just that I usually don't get my card done in time to post on her blog.  But yeah for me this time I did.  I am really trying to get better about that.  

I decided  to pull out my verve stamps for this card along with my The Stamps of Life stamp set.  My paper is both CTMH and Stampin Up.

Also today I decided to pull out my Counted Cross-stitch supplies. Yep, I like to do counted cross-stitching. It is my only other hobby other than scrabooking/cardmaking and reading.   It is been so long since I have done something with it so I decided today is the day.  It will probably take me forever to finish the picture I have started but it will be a nice change from card making and scrapbooking.  I will just work on it in between cards and when I just don't feel like sitting down at my craft table.  The one thing I do like about counted cross-stitch is I can do it while sitting on the couch with my feet up.  LOVE IT!   So...here is a sneak peak of what I have gotten done so far today...

...yep...I know it doesn't look like much.  But atleast I got it started.  Now I will just have to see how long it will take me to finish it.  Will take another picture in a few weeks to show the progress.

Birthday Wishes

Hope you all had a fabulous day!  We have had a good couple of days here. This is our last week of summer vacation.  Hard to believe school starts next Tuesday.  The summer definitely went by fast.  It was really fun not having to work and spending the summer with the girls.  We did lots of things. Each week we did 

something different...bowling, swimming, movies, twice we even took a week and headed up to Pennsylvania to see family.  Yesterday I took the kids to the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  We all enjoyed it.  It was a fun day out and bonus...movie theater pop corn.  Pretty sad that it was only 2 of 14 movies at the theater we could see.  Two movies.  Why?  Because 12 out of the 14 movies were rate R.  We don't go to the movies a lot so I guess I just didn't realize how many are out there that are not age appropriate for young kids. 

Okay now on to me time.  I decided that after a fun filled week of movies, playing pop out connect four, watching disney channel and all that fun stuff it was me time to sit down at my craft table and make some cards.  I realize the other day that I am out of birthday cards that I keep on hand.  I try to keep a few around for last minute and when I went to get one, yep you guessed it they were gone.  So today's card is a birthday card.  My card today is using this weeks sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches.  I found their sketch blog a few weeks ago and really like the sketches I have seen so I try to play along every so often.  I have played along a few times and well, realized that their new sketch came out today so I might as well play along.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week! 

Merry Christmas

Hi fellow crafters!  Hope you are all having a wonderful week.  I was happy I got to sit down and do a little crafting today.  I decided to play along with this weeks sketch over at Always playing with Paper.  I found this challenge a while ago and like to play along when I can...why?  Because I am one of those people that if I don't find some kind of challenge to play along with then my Christmas cards are rushed and I am stress or they don't get done at all.   If I play along with these challenges then I do get some of them done. 

For the ornaments I got out a stamp set that hadn't been inked it. It is the set from The Stamps of Life called holly4Christmas.  I decided not too  put bulky embellishments on it because most of my Christmas cards are mailed and well we all know what happens when we put bulky embellishments on our cards.

Thanks for stopping by~Have a good evening!

Host Parents

Thanks to everyone for the sweet comments on my new blog design. I do love it.  I am still working on it a bit but for the most part everything is up and running. 

Today I have a layout to share with you.  This is a picture of my parents and the exchange student that lived with us in 1995.  Pavlo was in my brother's class and my brother befriended him.  When Pavlo needed a place to stay they asked my parents to take him for a few week and he ended up staying through the rest of his stay here in the U.S.   I created this layout for Pavlo this past month because he came from the Ukraine with his wife and daughter to visit.  They were here for a week in July. It was so much fun seeing him and meeting his family.  Anyway, I made a scrapbook for him with photos from when he was here in 1995...and this was one of them.  

I used one of the sketches from Sketch#9 from Sketchabilities.  I also used some left over products from a CTMH packet that I had.  I am not sure of the names because they were in my scrap pile.  

Thanks for stopping by and hope you come back and visit. 

Welcome to my blog

Hello and welcome to my BRAND NEW blog.  I have been scrapbooking for a long time.  I was scrapbooking back when you just cut construction paper and hand wrote everything.  I started scrapbooking like we know it today in 2004 after my 2nd daughter was born and have not looked back. In 2006 I was introduced to stamping and was hooked.  I was a consultant for CTMH for quite a few years.  However over time my tastes have changed a bit.  Don't get me wrong CTMH has great products and I still use the ones that I have.  I just found that the new things coming out were not as much my taste as they have been in the past.

Just this week I decided to sign on as a Stampin Up! demonstrator.  I am hoping to have card clubs, workshops and meet new people.  This blog will be posts of my crafting and for tidbits about my family life.  I am not one that only blogs about one or the other.  Feel free to bypass my family posts if you are not interested or just skip those parts of the post.   I will use mostly SU, but will throw in some other companies products as I do have quite a stash built.

I will start posting card and/or layouts next week.  I have decided to spend this week hanging out with my girls since this is their last full week of summer vacation!

I hope you will stop by again and/or become a follower.  Thanks so much and have a great weekend.