Throwback Thursday Birthday

Welcome! I'm so glad you are here because I'm feeling a little proud today!  I've managed to use some goodies from my stash to make a card!! Yes, you heard correctly.  This card is made from left overs and bits & pieces!  The base is the only fairly new item on this baby!!

I am so bad at hanging onto things and then never using them, but since we moved a year ago, I have been trying to do better and use up those things or toss them(gasp!). Today's card used up 5 pieces from the 'throwback' pile!

The card base was part of a set from this year's Sale-a-bration, and it just so happens to coordinate with a stack of flowers I have from a very old SU kit.  The white frame was the leftover of a top note that I used quite some time ago in scrapbooking.  We won't discuss how many times I have passed over this piece before today...  After assembling all those goodies, all it took was a quick sentiment stamp and my throwback card is finished and I'm feeling all kinds of proud!

I hope I've encouraged you to use some of your throwback supplies! You know...when you use your supplies you have room to buy more!! Food for thought!  Have a wonderful day and thanks so much for stopping by today!

Yee! Haw! It's Your Birthday!

Hello! Or should I say "Howdy!"? Today I have a fun birthday card using one of my 'treasure hunt' stamps from a recent bargain hunting trip!  Although I passed up several wonderful stamps that day, I couldn't say no to this adorable little sheriff!

It was fun to color an image again too! I hadn't done that in a little while...  I also used some reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaly old paper from my stash. Anyone remember Play Date?? My kids were little when I bought this stuff...  I thought the numbers had a touch of western flair to them, so I decided to use it.  There is still some of this paper left and I really need to find a use for it or donate it because I don't have too many little kid pages to scrapbook anymore!

I am so glad you visited today and I hope you have a wonderful day! Happy crafting!

Card Recipe:  Paper-Play Date dsp, whisper white, kraft, Ink-memento tuxedo black, real red, old olive, early espresso, tempting turquoise, crumb cake, hello honey, blush blossom, Stamp-Remembering Your Birthday (sentiment) and SU sheriff stamp (not sure what set it was originally from...)

Cool Congratulations!

Hello! I am so happy you stopped in today because I have a fun little card to share with you!  I love making handmade cards, especially the ability to personalize it in a special way for the recipient.  Sure I could go buy a graduation card that looks like hundreds of others and has zero personal touches, but instead I chose to do homemade-complete with school colors, or in this case ice cream!  What? You don't immediately think of ice cream cones when you think of graduation cards?? Hmm...

Just teasing! This tasty little graduation card was made for a wonderful young lady who works with both DDs at our local ice cream shop.  She is pretty close to being another daughter and often tells my girls that she is my favorite child!  A store bought card would be an atrocity for this special girl!

I found the ice cream paper (American Crafts) at JoAnn's and paired it with a daffodil delight base.  I stamped the sentiment with melon mambo ink and colored some enamel dots with a pink sharpie to bling it up just a little.  A sweet card for a sweet young lady!  Although, this would also make a fun birthday or hello card for summer too!

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit! Have a super day and happy crafting!

Treasure Hunting and Graduation Cards

Hi!  I am so glad you stopped by to visit today!  I am attempting to catch up on blogging some things I have been creating the past few months, so if the timing of my cards seems a little off, this explains why!  Today I have two graduation cards to share with you.  There was a time when I didn't own the first graduation stamp and bought (gasp!) any cards I needed for that occasion.  It's amazing how that changes as your children get older (personally, I'm not aging, but WOW are they changing!).  I still don't own a lot of graduation stamps, but I do tend to make quite a few cards now.

The first card is incredibly basic and was super quick to whip up, which was fortunate since time snuck up on me and I was madly creating a few of these the day of the parties... The nice part of this simple design is it is so easy to personalize a card with school colors.  I ended up making this design in three different color combinations!

not sure why the black base color looks so wonky... trust me, it's basic black! 

The inside is a white mat with the phrase "the tassel was worth the hassle" in the same font as the front sentiment.  How cute is that?!

The second card design was a little more decorative and was used for a few female graduates.  I used a star embossing folder on the red base, stamped the image, mounted that on the star pattern paper, added a bit of ribbon, and mounted that to the base.  Not too difficult, but I think the embossing really dressed up the card. 

I have a little back story about the images I used on both of these cards.  I am big fan of thrift stores, flea markets, and antique/collectible stores.  I could waste an entire day just wandering through the aisles, digging through bins of goodies, and pretending I'm a modern day treasure hunter!  There have been several times that I have left empty handed (and a little sad) when I didn't find any diamonds in the rough, but there have also been just as many times that I've had to control myself to keep from buying a car full of treasures!  There may have been a few times that I had to go back and get DH's truck to bring home some furniture pieces...but we don't talk about that much! I think DH is trying to block those times from memory!  But I digress...

A few months ago, I went to one of our local collectible shops looking for a few dining room chairs (got 6 of those btw, and found out they belonged to my great uncle and aunt!) and while we were there, I had to take a spin around the store to see what hidden gems were awaiting discovery.  Imagine my surprise when I found a container full of Stampin' UP stamps! OOOOHHHH!! JACKPOT!!!  They were all in great condition and I eagerly dove in and looked them over. DD#1 swears I muttered "My precious!", but I don't recall that at all...  In what was most likely the greatest show of human restraint, I managed to only buy four stamps from the box- three of which were graduation themed.  I could totally defend the need to add those to my collection!  I also bought a super sweet little sheriff stamp that I couldn't leave there! I'll be sharing him before too long on a little guy's birthday card! 

 I'm wondering if anyone else gets this excited over finding things that others chose to eliminate from their lives.  I hope so, because I hate to think that I'm alone in this; not to mention I donated a ton of perfectly good items to charity thrift stores when we moved and I'd like to think someone else is really enjoying those things now!  Kind of a small version of karma for household and craft things!

If you are still reading, thanks so much for putting up with my musings and thanks so much for stopping by to visit! I hope you have a marvelous day, and happy crafting!

Happy Fathers Day, aka NOT Woman of the Year day!

Hello and for all of you in the US, Happy Fathers Day!  Today I will be sharing the two cards I made for this special day, one for my dad and one for DH (from the girls, of course).  If you were intrigued by the lovely title of my post, let me enlighten you (if not intrigued...well, you'll just have to scroll down, I guess!).  

I feel like I always struggle to make cards for guys.  Pretty flowers and cute kiddie papers are naturally more my thing and I can whip things up in a snap when I'm going that route.  Masculine is a completely different situation... like embellishing...  Most ribbons are quite feminine and then there's flowers, pearls, and rhinestones... Yeah... not very manly...  Don't get me wrong, I know there are men who would enjoy a beautiful card (and to be quite honest, my Dad would probably love the card anyway), but I always try to add a bit of a personal touch to my cards to fit the people receiving them.  Did I mention both my father and DH are meat and potatoes, truck driving, getting dirty, fixing/making kind of guys? So...no flowers, no pretty ribbon, and no bling!  Instead they always end up with a truck or tool type of card.  

While my card this year is still in the 'tool' genre, it's not covered with saws and hammers.  Instead I pulled out a wonderful background stamp and got to work.  I was moving right along, found some great twine in my stash that looked manly enough and was symbolically patting myself on the back and giving myself all kinds of praise when I went to put the sentiments on the cards.  You will notice that the card on the right is horizontal...yeah...they were both planned to be that way, but there was one little problem...can you spot it??

In my excitement of having such a great guy card design, I did not pay attention to the numbers on the rulers and they were stamped upside down...Might have been kind of witty to have a Man of the Year badge on a backwards card, but then again, maybe not so much... Woman of the Year, I am not!  So now there are two differently oriented cards of the same design!  All things considered, I think they turned out OK and I know both guys will feel loved no matter what their cards look like.

I will leave you today of a slightly aged photo of my first favorite guy-the one responsible for my snarky, sarcastic, quick wit and stubborn streak (just ask my mother, she'll tell you it's ALL him!).  I hope you have a wonderful day and if you still have your dad nearby, be sure to give him a big ol' hug!

Dad and I, just a few years ago! 

Card Recipe:  Paper-basic black, kraft, Stamps-Backgrounds Rule (SU), Sentiment stamp by Inkadinkado, Ink-Tuxedo Black (memento), Soft Suede, Accessories-twine from stash

Not Paper Crafty, But Still Handmade!

Hello! If you came here looking for a card, scrapbook page, or any other type of paper craft, I am sorry to say that today's post won't help you at all!  However, this post does explain in part why I haven't been creating and blogging as much!  

About a year and a half ago, we decided to change our dream of building a home in the country to finding a dream just a bit more affordable to our future plans.  Neither DH nor I want to be working full time when we're 70; we'd much rather be finding fun adventures and just enjoying life.  So we started searching for a different home.  After several tours and lots of drive bys, DH suggested a home that had been in foreclosure and vacant for over 4 years.  I'll be honest, I drug my feet, and looking at the interior photos online didn't improve my viewpoint.  Finally, he convinced me to just drive by, and maybe get out and look around.  We had no sooner stepped out of the car when we were approached by the next door neighbor.  He was a co-worker and good friend!  We got the 'low down' on the house that we knew we wouldn't get from the real estate agent.  Things like 'are there any psycho neighbors', 'are there lawn and landscape police', 'is this house going to fall down around us', you know, the important stuff!  After talking to him and later touring the home, we decided to make an offer which was accepted.  Then began three backbreaking, mind numbing, very long months of remodeling and repairing to the interior so we could move in.  After living here a year, we decided to tackle the exterior.

The before picture: grime on the siding, grass covered driveway, 

dying lawn, out of control shrubbery, front door in need of replacing

After: power washed siding, a large covered porch added, 

shrubs moved/removed and new landscaping added.  

We poured the front part of the driveway when we built the porch. 

 This fall/next spring the rest will be finished.  

After the wood cures, we will be staining all of the woodwork.

My Mother's Day gift this year was a beautiful and very comfortable porch swing.  It's the perfect place for my morning coffee and a wonderful spot to sit and watch the rain fall!

We've also had a few hospitalization trips involving my parents that diverted my time, but I'm so thankful to still have both of them around!  Time well spent even if it wasn't always fun or happy!  So now you know why I haven't been here as much and hopefully will forgive any future absences! 

I'm still trying to figure out my craft studio and keep rearranging furniture to find the perfect layout.  If  When I get that accomplished I'll share some photos.  Have a wonderful day and thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Mail and Scrapbooking

Hello! I am back with another post after a bit of a break!  I am quickly learning that even though I may have the best intentions of creating and posting, life is always going to do what it does and often that isn't going to leave much time for my creating...  I've also learned that I'm better off not getting frustrated and bent out of shape over this!

Today I am sharing some long overdue goodies!  The first is some wonderful happy mail that I received from a dear blogging and stamping friend, AnnMarie!  It's a sweet little thank you card and an adorable matching little photo book!! You should really go visit her blog; she makes some fabulous things there!!

My second photo is a scrapbook page I made at a Relay for Life crop in April.  Yes...that long ago!  I worked on scrapping the photos from DD#2s performance in Beauty and the Beast.  They did an amazing job and of course I took a ton of photos.  Most of the pages were so packed full of photos and had very little embellishing, so I will spare you the monotony of seeing them.  

It was a lot of fun to be with such a wonderful group of ladies and I hadn't had a day to create in um... forever!  It took a little coaxing for my muse to wake up and decide to help me, but between my sister and a few good friends, it finally kicked in and I managed to get most of the pictures onto pages!  Maybe I need to block out a day a month to work on pages-no interruptions. Wouldn't that be wonderful?!

I am so thankful that you stopped by today and I hope you have a fantastic day! Happy crafting!