REJOICE!

After today, I'm looking for reasons to Rejoice.
:D

It's been a long, hard day...just think, tomorrow I get to do it again! Gotta be better though!

I made this card a few weeks ago; I like all the elements in it; got that swirly thing going on! I made it for Sketch Challenge #236 over at Splitcoaststampers; Roxie always has such great sketches!

Here's a side view that gives you a little peek into the inside where I used a new (to me at least) Martha Stewart punch - I really, really like this punch; probably one of my all-time favorites, to date...gotta add that cuz it'll change next week you know!

We had an appointment tonight at 6 p.m., didn't get home till 8 p.m., but I found some creative time about 9:30 p.m. - always a great way to end my evening! Hope your week is off to a great start! Thanks for popping in; hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Verve Visual Philipians 4:4, Stampin' UP! Baroque Motifs
Ink: PTI Spring Rain, Versamagic Sea Breeze & Blue Aegean
Paper: Stampin' UP! Barely Banana & Very Vanilla, Basic Grey Gypsy DP
Accessories: Sponging, Cuttlebug Stylized Flowers embossing folder

An Oldie & Wedding Pix

I made this card MONTHS ago but never posted it...not sure why?? The butterfly is 3D; hard to see all the details in this picture, but it's so pretty, IMHO! The butterfly is stamped once on the white card stock; then stamped again on pink DP; then finally stamped on acetate, cut out and adhered with glue dots. You can bend each layer up just a bit so the wings are all separate - I just love that!

And here is the complete card; bright and colorful, don't you think?

Well, I have another slide show to share - this one is pretty focused on our son as he was the ring bearer in the wedding.

Doesn't something ALWAYS go 'wrong' at a wedding? I know we had a small snafu at our wedding, but nothing major. At this wedding (DH's niece), they played the wedding march BEFORE the attendants had walked down the aisle. All action stopped as everyone quickly realized it wasn't time for the wedding march! :D It all worked out fine though.

In one picture, you'll see the lady playing the keyboard and then the lady next to her playing the violin is the bride's grandmother - isn't that amazing?

There's a picture of 2 of my favorite men - love those boys!! Our middle child - Kaity-bug - makes instant friends and I have a few shots of her and her newest best bud.

Our son's bow tie just CRACKS ME UP; I was thinking a bow tie like you have with a tux, but nope, it was hand sewn and reminds me of a country & western bow tie with the long ends...you'll know exactly what I'm talking about when you see it! Trust me on this!!

Oh and I can't forget this part. The day of the wedding our son said the flower girl kept following him around, he came up and whispered in my ear "I think she loves me". I laughed and said that's okay, she only gets to love you for one day and then we're outta here! LOL

The morning of the wedding our youngest ones went horseback riding with DH's oldest brother. I do have ONE picture of our oldest - she's doing the "typical" teenage look - you'll recognize that too! Thanks for stopping by! Hugs, ~M.

WEDDING PICTURES (including rehearsal, day of wedding, and the day we left Montana):

A Baby Girl & More Vacation Pix

A sweet, sweet family recently had an addition to their family - a precious baby girl! I used Sketch Challenge 237 at Splitcoaststampers. I so love using their sketches - the layout is always the hard part for me...they make it easy!

All the DP is scraps I've had left over for quite some time - not sure who makes them, but I know I purchased them at Hobby Lobby. I so love the colors...of course, I'm a pink kinda girl! :D

I colored the baby carriage using Copics...I see now I should have blended a bit more - OOPS - but still like how it fades!

I used some buttons as the wheels, a bit of sparkle on the center of the flowers too. I cut out the 3 openings along the top and bottom of the carriage, adhered a white piece of card stock to the back of the carriage and then adhered the entire piece to the pink card stock. I like those white pieces popping through the carriage. (don't forget, you can click on any picture to see a larger version)

We're sending the card with lots of love and can't wait to meet their newest addition!!

Here are a few more pix from vacation - these are all from Yellowstone Park. We got within 30 yards of the grizzly bear cub - they estimated it to be about 2 years in age as it was no longer with its mother. It didn't even BLINK at all the people! Just continued turning over roots and eating. LOL

I also got very close to the buffalo - a bit closer than my husband liked as he hollered at me to not get any closer.

I LOVE the pictures of our little ones at Fishing Bridge - some of my favorite pix. The last few were taken while we were waiting for Old Faithful to erupt. She doesn't erupt as often as she used to. The entire time in Yellowstone, my DH kept saying "it's better to be 15 minutes early and not 5 minutes late"...anyone want to guess which one we were? Let's just say we had to wait until 10:20 p.m. to see it erupt and no, there are no lights!!! :(

The last two pix are our oldest daughter trying to look cool, she borrowed my sunglasses and didn't like her small smirk in the first picture, so she added the peace sign and asked me to take it again. Oh, it made me laugh...all that at 10 p.m. at night!

Thanks for popping in; hope you're having a great week! Hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Verve Visual Practically Perfect (inside); SU! Something to Celebrate (baby carriage)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Gina K Designs 80 lb. Pure Luxury White, Gina K Designs 120 lb. Pure Luxury White, PTI Hibiscus Burst
Accessories: Dimensionals, buttons, border punch (inside), Copics, SU! Ticket Punch

A Wedding Card & Some Pix

Hi there friends!! I had thought about pre-posting some articles for viewing while on vacation, but before we left on vacation, I did 2 pre-post articles and neither one posted - go figure! So I decided not to worry about it...but I'm back and have tons of things to share.

First we'll start with the wedding card I made for hubby's niece; this is what started our vacation - a wedding in beautiful Montana (after a quick trip through the Grand Tetons National Park, Yellowstone National Park & the capitol of Montana)!

Also a first for me...a CLEAR CARD. WOOT! WOOT! Tooting my horn since I've never made one before. LOL

I asked hubby a few times what their wedding colors were and never got an answer, so the night before we left I'm throwing this thing together. It's rather hard to hide all your adhesive in a clear card; ya know? Her colors were pink and green; so I hit it on the nail when I chose pink. I used Hibiscus Burst & Raspberry Fizz from Papertreyink. The white on the outside of the card is a rub-on from Stampin' Up; I think it looks really cool...IMHO.

The cake is also from Papertreyink (Piece of Cake) and is stamped 2nd generation in Hibiscus Burst, the flowers are stamped in Raspberry Fizz and then covered with glitter. The half back pearls were the "perfect pink" to match the card. I loved making the card; I hope they enjoyed the sweet little gift ($$$) inside the card!

Now on to some vacation pictures; I'll be posting these along with my creations for the next week or so (we took a LOT of pictures...what I find really funny? All 5 of us have cameras, no I won't subject you to ALL those pix, just the ones I took - LOL).

Grand Tetons National Park

Montana State Capitol - Helena

I'm glad you stopped by; I love when you visit and leave me some love!! Hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Papertreyink Piece of Cake, Papertreyink Wishing You, Papertreyink Heart Prints Sentiments
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Papertreyink Hibiscus Burst, Papertreyink Raspberry Fizz
Paper: Gina K Designs 80 lb. Pure Luxury White, Papertreyink Hibiscus Burst, Papertreyink Raspberry Fizz
Accessories: Dimensionals, Nestabilities, Glitter, Pearls, Stampin' Up Rub-Ons

I'm back...

from vacation that is! Over 3900 miles traveled - WOW!!! Long trip; but loads and loads of fun. Some of our highlights:

Yellowstone National Park
Glacier National Park
Custer State Park
Little Big Horn
Walleye fishing - 2 days

I'll be back with lots of pictures soon - until then, thanks for popping in! Hugs, ~M.

Benton Bombers

Our son's baseball team has developed their own blog, check it out if have a chance...and go ahead, become a follower, there should be some fun stuff on there!!

Benton Bombers

(http://bentonbombers.blogspot.com/)

Father

These were a couple of cards I made for Father's Day this year. I love the sentiment which comes from Verve Visual's "Dad's Day". Pretty simple straightforward stamping. I rounded the corners on one of the cards for a nice variety and the other has DP punched with fleur de lis' inside and out.

I love the textured DP by Stampin' Up; such great colors.

You can't tell from the pictures, but I colored the word "Father" on each card with a light gold glitter pen - adds a nice shimmer IRL.

Thanks for stopping by; this will most likely be my last post for a few weeks; we leave Wednesday for a mega-vacation!! Take care; hugs, ~M.




WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Verve Visual Dad's Day
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa
Paper: Gina K Designs 80 lb. Pure Luxury White, PTI Kraft, DP by SU!
Accessories: Dimensionals, Gold Glitter Pen, Button, Hemp, Fleur de lis border punch, PTI Dark Chocolate Twill, Nestabilities

Thank you...for the difference

Once again I stepped out and used colors outside my norm...and I liked it! :D

I love this sentiment, "Thank you...for the difference you've made in my life." - isn't that great? It's from Verve Visual's Because of You stamp set. I cannot find the name of the DP I used - it's from Stampin' Up; but I don't see it in any of my catalogs and I didn't find it online.

Isn't it amazing how the flowers on the white panel match the DP? I stamped them in SU! So Saffron and rock & rolled them into SU! Pumpkin Pie; I stamped them 2nd generation also, so the colors are pretty light. One of the flowers is stamped in 3rd generation. The flowers are from Papertreyink's Green Thumb set.

Rather than just setting the pearls on the main panel, I punched some small circles out of the DP and then put the pearls on top - kind of a nice and different look.

The layout was a sketch from SCS, #201; an old one that I had never done, but it's another great one that I'm sure I'll use again!

Thanks for stopping by; for my USA friends, I hope you have a fabulous 4th of July!! Hugs, ~M.

Skimpy Bikini!

So...you were brave and decided to venture over to check on that bikini did ya? LOL!!

I won these images - bikini top & bottom (actually all one stamp) and sun glasses a couple of years ago and have NEVER used them! Sad eh? I won them through a drawing on Amy Rysavy's blog (Prairie Paper & Ink); they are so very cute but I'd just never found a way to use them...until I saw this really cool board book made by Jody Morrow - yeah you know her - TEXASJODYLYNN of Confessions of a Ribbon Addict. Check out her board book, it's amazing! Turns out Jody sells these Circle Cut Out Mats which in turn led me to remember a card along these lines that Amy had done and voila, the idea was FINALLY born; yeah, it was painful!

This is a square little card, just 4.25" x 4.25", I love the DP used on the card; it's probably my all-time favorite paper - Bittersweet by Basic Grey.

The main card is white layered with pink DP, each image was stamped inside the circle in SU! Real Red and then colored with a clear atyou Spica glitter pen; not sure you can see the shimmer in the photos? It's very sparly IRL.

I then layered a striped piece of DP onto the pink DP but used dimensionals in mounting the striped DP - I think you can see the 3D effect in the first photo (& don't forget, you can click on any image to see it larger).

I thought the card was pretty cute so I ventured a little further on my wild side and used MFT's "Twisted Sentiments" set. Oh what fun! I added a layer of pink DP on the inside and stamped the sentiment in SU! Real Red.

Yep, that's the sentiment I chose "Slippery When Wet" - how fun is that? Come on, what hubby wouldn't love receiving this card?

It's summer time, go swimming, get that bikini on, have a great time and remember ***CAUTION:*** Slippery When Wet! LMBO

Thanks for popping in! Hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Inky Antics Tweens, MFT Twisted Sentiments, Amuse
Ink: SU! Real Red
Paper: Gina K Designs 120 lb. Pure Luxury White, Bittersweet by Basic Grey
Accessories: Dimensionals, atyou Spica Glitter Pen