Monogrammed Note Cards

Finally...here they are!

I arrived home from work about 7 p.m. all excited about working out and then getting my post up on my blog. Darn TV isn't working so I had to scrap the work out. :( I'll see if DH can get it working when he's done mowing the lawn.

Two very dear friends had b-day's recently - I might wish them happy birthday on their special day, but I NEVER deliver a gift on their b-day. Uh...I think we call it procrastination!?! :D Hope they love me anyway. Let's get to it as I have sooo many pictures to show you!

I gain so much inspiration from Emily Giovanni, she's an amazing stamper; very creative. Hence the idea for the note cards using the DIY JustRite Stamper. This uses the Damask stamping set; such adorable borders!

I made a total of 8 note cards; these yummy chocolate ones and then some burgundy/red ones.

I love both sets; such a variety in colors and images of the paper.

I used the same Damask JustRite stamper for both sets of note cards; packaged them up and we're set. They were super fun to make and really quick - I whipped all 8 out in one night (pretty good for me...sometimes my stamping takes hours - depends how many interruptions I get from our 3 little ones! LOL)

Next are more monogrammed note cards for another friend and a jumbo paper clip bookmark; first time I've made one of those!

Talk about totally different monogrammed cards eh? I made these vertical rather than horizontal and used the Curlz font with the fun borders from JustRite stampers. My favorite part about these note cards? See that beautiful floral paper on top of that scrumptious Sweet Blush card stock from Papertreyink? Well that paper is SELF-ADHESIVE - no joke; I about died when I figured that out!!! Just cut to the size you need; peel off the backing and voila it's ready to layer onto your card stock. How C@@L is that???

I tend to be a bit of a paper hoarder; kinda sorta...maybe! I bought this pad of paper ages ago - who knows where. I remember it saying self-adhesive, but hey, I said I hoard the stuff, not use it! I wanted these cards to be totally different so I was flipping through paper packs and really liked this paper with the Sweet Blush card stock. And let me tell you, that Sweet Blush card stock? It's like buh-tah; it cuts so nicely, scores so nicely - LOVE IT!!! Too bad I waited so long to buy some. Means I need to buy some more of their paper; lots of new colors to choose from!

I've had these jumbo clips for awhile too...hmmm...guess I hoard a lot huh?

I made the flowers using a Sizzix flower die; used a SU punch for some of the smaller flowers, a prima and a neon green brad. One side of the jumbo clip is the floral patterned paper, the other is Sweet Blush.
I used some Sweet Blush twill ribbon to tie them off. I really like the way they turned out; can't wait to make some more. You can see how to make them over at SCS; check it out!

OK, that's it for today; hope you've enjoyed all these new creations. And thanks for popping in! Hugs, ~M.

Monogrammed Note Cards Coming Tomorrow!

WOW...remember that little rash I mentioned? Well, that little rash looked not so little yesterday AND included some nice large swelling under my eyes. Then...it moved to the inside of my right arm; then to my stomach....hmmm...guess this isn't a heat rash. Ya think? It turned out to be contact dermatitis; it appears I got it from some pesticide we picked up Sunday evening. We didn't have a cart, so I carried it around against my shirt with my right arm wrapped around it...hmm...stomach, arm, face - yep; got a problem!

I'll give you a quick run down of how I spent the evening Tuesday. Picked up a short burst steroid and started it immediately - that night. Um...no sleep; went to bed at midnight, I wasn't tired but knew I would need to get some rest. I've been up today (Wednesday) since 4:30 a.m., it's now midnight on Thursday and I'm STILL awake!

I took the 2nd dose of the antibiotic this morning (Wednesday) - it can cause sleeplessness, so taking it in the morning is best. Right now? I'm just praying for some rest!

The rash is better today, the swelling under my eyes is less; my right arm and stomach are clear, so I'm definitely healing. To make Tuesday that much worse...I had a meeting with some executives - there I was, no makeup, bumps all over my face and swollen eyes. N-I-C-E...lookin' good. LOL If I didn't laugh; I'd cry.

Anyway, check back tomorrow; I'll have a huge post with some monogrammed note cards I did for some very dear friends.

Thanks for popping in; hugs, ~M.

Celebrate!

A dear friend recently graduated from college - WOO HOO! I admire anyone that at a "bit older*" age goes back to college to reach a goal. I wanted to make a special card incorporating her favorite color - yellow. I didn't have her favorite flower; BUT I did have my brand new KSS 3-Step Hibiscus stamps, so to work I went.

This young lady is a mother of 4 boys (that statement alone scares me to death - I only have one of the male species and oh my, he can be a handful - LOL); she's done many things in her career, but going back to school was truly pursuing something that is most near and dear to her heart.

The card is pretty basic as far as layout and papers, but those flowers just really make a card unique (well, I think it does). I used an oval nestability to cut the center portion out and layered a piece of vellum between the striped paper and main card image. I stamped the word "Celebrate" in Brilliance Graphite Black and embossed with fine black embossing powder. The edge of the oval is slightly embossed.

You know me, I struggle with that 'white space' so I used SU Itty Bitty Backgrounds and stamped the splashes of dots in yellow and green. Overall, I like the way it turned out; what do you think?

On ANOTHER personal note - not related to my dad - my DH and I spent most of yesterday (over 100 degrees) outside working on the yard; it had gotten totally out of control. We lost one of our evergreen trees, one of our flower beds was in a battle between flowers and weeds - and truly, the weeds were winning. We got a ton done; but man, was it hot out there!

Well, I awoke today to a beautiful heat rash all over my face. I *HOPE* it's a heat rash as the bumps have worsened today and below my eyes on my upper cheekbones, it's swollen. YIKES - just what I need, going to work with a nice rose colored bumpy complexion. Awww...that would be just my luck.

Meanwhile, I hope you had a great weekend and are off to a great start this week. Thanks for peeking in; hugs! ~M.

*meaning not 18-19 yrs. old




Card Recipe:
Cardstock: SU Mellow Moss, SU Patterned Paper (striped); SU Whisper White, Vellum
Oval cut with Nestability Die
Stamps: KSS 3-Step Hibiscus; SU Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black
Embellies: Black Embossing Powder

Butterfly Notecards

Note cards have been so popular this year - you know, no fold, they can write on the front and back and just slip it in the envelope. I've seen so many that I love that I decided to make some too. I had some scrap DP left over so I decided to work on using it up.

The butterfly is from Verve Visual's Thankful Blossoms set. I colored the butterfly with one copic color; but colored the inner portion repeatedly with the same color to darken it a bit. The butterfly was stamped with Brilliance Graphite Black - I LOVE that ink; I use it all the time when using my Copics. The butterfly is stamped on an embossed rectangle nestability; this rectangle is then layered onto the same size rectangle, but this one with scallops; love the way the scallops just peek out around the edges.

I colored the body of the butterfly and its antennae with a Copic Atyou glitter pen; I added the same butterfly to the envelopes. The strip of floral paper was the extra DP paper I had - I used all of it up...amazing for me!! :D

You know, I like to hoard that stuff rather than use it. LOL

Two of the note cards say "hello"; two say "happy thoughts".

Now for the fun of it...a picture of Snowball (one of our guinea pigs). Our middle daughter placed Snowball on her new really big pink ball. I think Snowball looks adorable!!

Thanks for stopping by; hope you're having a great week. Hugs, ~M.

Glam Girls and BLING!!

Greetings friends,

How was your weekend? We have returned from our mini-vacation; one of the best things about visiting Flint Oak is there is NO cell phone reception. WOO HOO!! Yes, it makes me a bit nervous with kids, but I knew they were all in capable, loving hands and could reach us by calling the resort if necessary.

I wanted to enter the card on the right in Taylor's challenge (TECC21 - scroll down, you'll see which one I'm referring to); but we had a softball game the night it was due and I couldn't get it entered in time. :(

There are 3 semi-circles on the right hand side; one zebra; one white and one black. I just love these Glam Girls from All That Scraps; each chick is such fun to work with! As you can see, I paper pieced both their pants - how do you like those funky stripes on the pants? LOL

I used the swiss dot embossing folder on both cards and the same colors throughout. One has a large diamond on her finger, the other a large ruby - they are so stylin'!

Both shirts were colored red, then I added the clear glitter with the Spica Glitter Pen, always fun!

I hope you like them and thanks for visiting! Have a great week!

If you're still with me, a brief update on my dad AND my mother-in-law. My dad begins treatments for the cancer on Wednesday; each Wednesday for 6 weeks. When he had the biopsy on July 3, they actually removed the tumor they had found in late June; so hopefully all the cancer is gone and this treatment will help prevent it from returning. We're very hopeful and God will get us through no matter what the journey is - I could never make it without Him!

My MIL underwent foot surgery Friday, July 18; she's a diabetic and has a wound on the bottom of one of her feet for 2 years now. The surgery didn't go quite as planned so she's confined to a wheelchair and cannot put weight on it for a minimum of two weeks. Thankfully our oldest is there to help out a bit.

So, prayers would be most appreciated!! Again, thanks for stopping by; I love hearing from each and every one of you. Hugs, ~M.

I'm "Featured" - WOO HOO!

Maybe you can see this...I have a card featured on the home page of a stamping group I belong to, Stampers Corner. LOVE that group.

You can check it out HERE! (I hope)

Hubby and I are away for the weekend - no kids; we're going to the Kansas State Sporting Clay Shoot; DH shoots and I work. :D We always have lots of fun; the place (Flint Oak) feels like its a resort...only several hundred people will be there with us this weekend. tee hee

Have a great weekend; thanks for popping in!

Hugs, ~M.

Happy Birthday from Chris!

Look at the gorgeous b-day card I received from Chris - she's one of my SBS10 Sistah's and she's the absolute BEST at sending out birthday cards. Me? Well, I stink at that, but I'm proud to call her sistah!!

See those cool squares; she stamped on acetate and then backed it with Kraft cardstock; it's just so cool! When I grow up, I want to do that! :D

The bottom blue flower looks all soft and velvety - then the flower on top which she stamped - that's so cool; I haven't done that either! Amazing what you learn from others! LOL

Thanks for making my day so special Chris; I LOVE the card!

Hugs,

~M.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I love my birthday; every single year I start telling everyone its my birthday about a month ahead of time. :D Amazing I still love my birthday that much huh?

My current job and my past job did a great job of helping me celebrate 'in style'! I really didn't say much about my b-day this year - mainly b/c of the things going on with my dad; I was more concerned with his biopsies and results than my birthday. But my fabulous co-workers didn't let the day pass unnoticed; in fact, they made a big a$$ out of me. (Not really, but see 1st picture)!!

The donkey has an electric fan that keeps him inflated; he comes with party hats, a blindfold and lots of tails to try to pin onto his rump. This was purchased for another girl last year but rolled out again for my big day. There were lots of streamers and decorations; SO MUCH FOOD ... AND a covert party that had me laughing so hard!

See my large princess balloon? Cute eh?

Last year they took my picture and then superimposed my face on this little 7-8 yr. old girl and the page said "Happy Birthday Kiddo"; it was really hysterical. This year they never got a picture of me so they gave me this little boy screaming Happy Birthday (had they changed the hair to red and given him some blonde/orange eyebrows, it would have looked a lot like our son). Now the other picture is a girl with her lips all smooshed up for a kiss and she's got her hands in her hair; it's funny. The note says Happy Birthday also, BUT they added a little handwritten note that says "to the girl with great hair". My hair gets as much attention as work some days. I really do have fun hair - it's long, I can wear it curly (from a perm); hot rolled and big, or perfectly straight; it's fun; but even of more interest is all the conversation it generates - holy moly!! Anyway, that's the story behind the chick picture; several people asked if that was me in the picture. NO ITS NOT!

Here's a picture with all the food and that's only half of it! We had fruit, fabulous cheese dip and chips, veggies, crackers, spinach dip, peanut butter and chocolate wafers, cheesecake and pasta salad. All very, very yummy.

There was an "appointment" scheduled at 3 p.m., I accepted the appointment "tentatively" as I was nervous. They pulled some pretty good pranks on me last year so I wasn't sure I wanted to go to a meeting labeled as "Secret"!! I tried to go to the restroom and hide at 3 p.m., but dadgumit, as I was coming out my co-worker was right there and said "wait for me". Yeah, let me be a teenager and hang out in the bathroom while you tinkle. ROFLOL!!! BUT I waited and away we went, I was really nervous. Turns out they had a little covert operation on the 1st floor. I walk in, its all dark, I'm told to walk around the corner and there are ALL these candles (pretend) flickering, lots of co-workers using those hand clappers and shouting happy birthday. And there on the counter was like 10 Ben & Jerry's ice cream containers - OH YEAH BABY, YUMMY!!! It was just the funniest thing; what a great ending to a really fun day!!

This last picture is one of our executives in martini glasses; he enjoyed posing, but really enjoyed sneaking over to partake of my birthday food. HA!

By the time you read this, my birthday will have passed - it was Saturday. Our youngest had a ball tournament that started Friday night and we were supposed to play at 9:40 a.m. this morning, but due to rain, it's been pushed back 4 times; we're now scheduled to play at 3:10 p.m. So I'm feeling a little trapped in the house waiting to find out when we'd play. That's okay; nice day to just hang out!

Thanks for stopping by; I hope you enjoyed my virtual b-day party; the real thing was lots of fun!! Take care, ~M.

New Rubbah in the House!!!

Check it out; I got a new stamp set - my first ever from Kitchen Sink Stamps. It's their 3-step Hibiscus set, I have seen so many fabulous cards made with their stamps so I finally splurged and got a set.

I cannot WAIT to get more of their stamps; I love how they work together. I have to admit "I" need more work with the stamps; I've struggled making the large hibiscus look good, but its a start.

THIS is the card I made:

All 3 flowers were made using 1 color of ink - Rose Romance; I stamped it 3rd, 2nd and 1st generation; I like how they turned out. This card uses the small and medium hibiscus. The leaves are 3-step also and are done in Mellow Moss. I also combined the card with SCS's sketch challenge #181.

The rick rack is actually white velvet - I ran it through the Rose Romance ink pad so it would match perfectly. The "Just Because" comes from the same KSS set; love the sayings in the set too.

I also used another new tool called the Threading Water Punch by Fiskars - it's a punch that does scallops AND holes all at once. Cool, eh? I also used the swiss dots embossing folder on the base card.

Let me know what you think and be sure to check out KSS stamp sets! Thanks for stopping by; hope you're having a great week! Hugs, ~M.

Recipe:
Cardstock: SU Rose Romance, SU Whisper White, SU Basic Black, SU Mellow Moss
Embellies: Swiss Dots embossing folder, brad, prima, threading water punch

Glam Girls go Retro...and a wee bit anxious!?!

Hi there friends; how's your week going so far? Today is hump day - YIPPEE! Not sure why I'm quite so excited, our weekend will be just as busy as our week. We have softball/baseball games the rest of the week and then a baseball tournament Friday, Saturday and Sunday - whew, that's exhausting for a chick like me. Cuz I have to celebrate my b-day Saturday and it's a big deal - a really big deal! I know, you're wondering why it's such a big deal at this age huh? Well, I'm just a big old kid at heart!

I must admit my mind has been preoccupied with other things, so I haven't gone on and on about my b-day as I normally would (sheesh, my friends and co-workers are REALLY thankful for that!). LOL

For now, here's some more Glam Girls gone retro! Just lots of pictures; I added the same corresponding sentiment inside the card ("glamorous" or "fabulous"); paper pieced their pants, both shirts and sunglasses have glitter, dew drops on one card, swiss dots embossing on the other - you know, same card, different embellies. :D

As some of you may know, my dad underwent a 2nd biopsy July 3rd; there's just something about things the doctor says and the feeling in the pit of your stomach, ya know? We're blessed the first biopsy came back fine; the 2nd one came back malignant. I really don't have much information beyond that; we know where the cancer is located - but that's it. Mom and dad have an appointment with the doctor Monday, July 14. This certainly wasn't on my birthday wish list - did NO ONE consult with me? HA HA

That's okay; God is good and his plan and hand are at work. I try not to share too much of my personal life on my blog - except for my occasional soap box and a few fun things with the babes, but this has left a small lump in my throat. Thanks for allowing me to share; I greatly appreciate you stopping in to say hello and letting me know you're out there and I'm not alone in this great big world!

Hugs, ~M.

Post #2 - Glam Girls!

Oh yeah, check out this Glam Girl; isn't she adorable? I've done a ton of cards with these images, but this is the first one I've had time to post. I participated in Heather's challenge and this card is the end result. Check out Heather's great challenge; it'll certainly get your creative juices going!

What do you think?

The base card is So Saffron layered with Gypsy DP; not my typical paper, but I like the way the card turned out. I used Copics to color the Glam Girl; paper pieced her purse; cut her out with a Nestability and layered it onto a scalloped Nestability. I sooo need more nestabilities, so many sizes, so little money. LOL

I love the "sparkle" since she's got those oh so sparkly sunglasses; man, don't you see people wearing things like this? Just today we were at the pool and OH MY GOSH; some things should stay UNDER clothes and some people need to look in the mirror. ROFLMBO!!!

OK, sorry about that little tangent! The sparkle is stamped on an oval Nestability and layered onto a scalloped Nestability.

Thanks for peeking in; I hope you've had a great weekend! Hugs, ~M.

Friendship Blooms

I've used another stamp set that's been in my crafting room for way too long without seeing ink! Shame on me!

But hey, I inked it up this morning and look what I made! Not just 1 card but 2!! Yeah! I still have some of this DCWV Nana's Kids paper so I'm trying to use it up rather than having scraps left here and there!

AND I wanted to enter Taylor's contest so this is my submission card. Taylor hosts a challenge each weekend which coincides with Cupcake Friday on her blog - but you don't have to use cupcakes. Well...no cupcakes on my card. LOL

Here's another view of the same card:

The recipe for both cards is below. Here is the 2nd card I made and a close of the flower with the jewel. One has a bright pink jewel, the other card has a light pink jewel - they fit the middle of the flower perfectly!

Thanks for stopping by; I hope you had a happy and safe 4th of July!

Card Recipe:
Cardstock: Pixie Pink, Green Galore, Whisper White
Accessories: jewels (misc.), ribbon from Michael's, primas and brads
Stamp Sets: SU Friendship Blooms, Stampendous Hey There Cupcake