My Other Pages

To make it easier to read about our trip to Ireland, I have made a page that is just for that. There is a tab above for Ireland Trip 2014 or click on the Home tab to read my other posts. I have also created a new page for My Weight Loss Journey if you are interested in that, click on the tab above.

Monday, December 31, 2012

Eureka! Stamps Challenge

Hello everyone!
Today is the kick off of the last
Eureka! Stamps Challenge for this design team. 
The good news is that I will be continuing
on for another 6 month term with Eureka! Stamps.
Wooooo Hooooo!
This weeks challenge theme is
"Something old,
something new,
something borrowed,
something blue"
For all the particulars and to join in the challenge, check out
When I thought of this theme,
 I immediately thought of a wedding card,
but then decided to do something a little different.
For my card I used
"Sm Lacy Butterfly" (#58902)
My something old is the image. 
This is one of the first stamps I got from Eureka! Stamps.
Something new is the embossing folder I used to emboss the white card stock. Sorry I don't have the name of the folder.
Something borrowed is the technique I used to emboss the white panel.
I made my own diffuser to leave the un-embossed
circle where the butterfly is mounted.
And something blue, well that is obvious,
the butterfly (colored with FlexMarkers) and the blue paper layer.
 
Here is a picture where I upped the contrast
so you could see the embossing
and the area that was left without the embossing. 
 It's still hard to see, but that area
where the butterfly is mounted is a circle
without the embossing.
Of course, upping the contrast changed the colors, 
the first picture shows the actual colors. 
Here is a link to show how to make and use a homemade diffuser.
I hope you have been inspired in some way and will stop over at the Eureka! Stamps Blog
and join in the challenge fun.
Thanks for stopping by today.
Come again soon.
 
Until next time, Happy Crafting!
 


Friday, December 28, 2012

Zipper Gift Card

Hello all!
I hope y'all had the most blessed Christmas ever!
Tonight we had a Christmas get together
with a couple of our closest friends.
We gave Dennis an Amazon Gift Card
and I made a special holder for it.
I used my "zipper" die and sealed the gift card inside.
To decorate the front of the gift I used
"Star Tree" (#17105) from
I embossed the image with gold embossing powder
on kraft card stock and layered it onto green card stock. 
The whole thing was layered onto 
 holly patterned card stock and the zipper
was "cut" below the image.
I fussy cut some of the holly and berries to adhere to the tab.
I adhered the entire thing onto a piece
of white card stock with the gift card between.
 
When he pulled the tab and opened the zipper
the gift card was revealed.
Then he could slide the card out the bottom.
I'm loving that zipper die.
The only problem I'm having is
that some of the people I sent
cards to that I used this die on,
didn't figure out that there was a zipper for them to open.
Guess maybe I need to find a stamp that says
"pull here" so people will know how to open it.
 
Thanks for stopping by today.
Leave a comment if you will and come again soon.
Have a wonderful New Years Eve and stay safe!
 
Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Banner Swap

I have a group of crafty friends that I know from the internet
and we decided to have a banner swap.
There were only 4 of us participating in this swap,
we each sent a couple themes that we would like for our banner.
Whoever got our name could decide on the theme to make.
I got my friend Marie.
One of the choices Marie had listed was something to
"Claim my sewing/crafting space"
That is what I decided to make.
I had a tough time coming up with what exactly to do.
Once I finally decided on a style, it all fell into place.
Here is what I made for Marie.
There are 6 individual "envelopes" and each one is decorated
and strung onto ribbon. 
 I made a set of  alpha cards so she can change the words to suit her mood.
For words that are shorter than 6 letters,
I stamped and colored cards to fill in the empty envelopes,
like this one below.
I made a little holder to keep all the alpha and stamped cards in.
 
These are some of the stamped cards.
I used images from QKR Stampede, Eureka! Stamps
These images were colored with FlexMarkers
The alpha cards were embossed with silver embossing powder.
 
I hope Marie will get a lot of inspiration from her banner.
Here is a picture of the gorgeous banner
my friend Sunni made for me in the swap.
I love, love, love it and I know I will enjoy it for years to come!
Thank you Sunni!!!!
 
Thanks for stopping by today, please leave a comment
and come back soon.
 
Until next time, Happy Crafting!



Sunday, December 23, 2012

Another Christmas Gift.

Hi all!
Merry Christmas!
The Christmas Celebrations have started for my family.
Tonight we had a wonderful time with some "family"
We got together with my "cousin" Nancy and her family.
I say "cousin" because these are some of my "fake" relatives.
Nancy's Mom (Aunt Lou) and my Mom went to school together.
Here is a picture of my Mom, cousin Nancy and Me.
I don't have any other pictures of the 3 of us together.
I now have a few and they all turned out great. 
Mom is 88 yrs old, doesn't she look great?!?!
Well enough of the family stuff for now.
Here is the gift I made for Nancy.
I made this little drawer box and filled it with some of the cards I've made.
She loved it.
I learned how to make the box from Beate who had a wonderful video showing how it is made.  I adjusted the size a little to make it a bit deeper, but otherwise I followed her instructions.
You'll want to check out her blog Fresh and Fun as she is quite talented.
The link above is directly to the instructions for the box, the second is to her blog.
For the top of the box I used
"Tub of Flowers" (#82001) from
I stamped the image with Memento ink and colored it with FlexMarkers
I then used a Perfect Medium Pen and applied it over the tub, then brushed on some copper Mica Powder
Mica Powder is available through Eureka! Stamps and QKR Stampede, sister companies to Biblical Impressions.
I love how the tub turned out looking coppery.
I used my scoring board to make the score lines around the image and inked them with Antique Linen Distress Ink.
Here you can see the view of the front of the drawer.
 And open with the cards inside.
I really enjoyed making this little box for the cards and I'm sure I'll be making more for gifts in the future.
The tutorial that Beate has is great and it is really pretty easy to make.
Thanks for stopping by today.
I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas season with your family and friends. I know I am!
Leave a comment if you will and come again soon.
 
Until next time, Happy Crafting!


Saturday, December 22, 2012

Christmas gifts

Christmas is very close now
 and I've been working like mad to get things finished.
I've made pretty good headway,
but still have some things left to finish.
One thing that I have done for a few years now,
is a gift I send my Aunt Marilyn in North Carolina.
One of my favorite people in the world
 is my Mom's best friend since she was very young. 
 Mom and Aunt Marilyn have been friends
for about 80 yrs and are like sisters.
A few years back, I came up with the idea
of sending her gift cards for a few different restaurants. 
She loves to go out for a little lunch, even by herself.
When you buy a cheeseburger and a senior coffee,
$10.00 at Burger King will last quite a while.
Each year I have come up with a different way to send them.
Today I'm showing you the gift card holder
 that I created for her this year.
The "Merry Christmas" (#8717) is from
 

On the inside of the card,
I created pockets to hold the different gift cards
that I sent her.
Then I decided that I needed something to put it into,
so I created a box for it.
For the top of the box I used
"Star Tree" (#17105)

I stamped with VersaMark ink and
embossed with gold embossing powder.
I used a Perfect Medium pen
 for the dash marks around the edge
 and again embossed with gold powder.
When I was trying to figure out what to give my Mom,
it occurred to me that she would love some gift cards too.
So that is what I'm giving her,
she loves to go out to eat and
what else do you give an 88 year old woman?
I think she is going to love it.
Here is the box and card I made for her.
I had a little bit of the gold ribbon left from
The May Arts challenge
that I recently participated in, so I used that on the front of the box.

For the card, I again, used "Star Tree"


Here is the inside of Mom's card.
And below is a picture showing how the box opens.
I really enjoyed creating these gifts for my Mom and Aunt.
I'm sure they are going to love them too.
Thanks for stopping by today,
 I hope you have been inspired in some way
and will come again soon.
I'd love to hear what you've been working on,
so leave a comment and let me know.
 
Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Zipper card

Hello all.
Today I have a little bit of a different kind of card to show you.
I used
"Ice Skating" (#7902) from
QKR Stampede to make this card
along with the Merry Christmas
which I don't know where it is from.
I colored the penguin with FlexMarkers,
The background is some blue from my stash which is
covered at the bottom with some vellum to create the ice for the penguin to skate on.
I got a new die, which is very cool.
Its a Jillian Vance Design made by Spellbinders.
See that little mountain and valley type line in front of the penguin?
I know it's hard to see in the picture, sorry!
That is a kind of zipper and when you pull the tab that the penguin is
adhered to, it opens and reveals what you have put underneath it.
I didn't want to open this one, the one below is a practice to see about placement under the zipper.
I love this zipper die
 and think I will be using it for all kinds of fun cards
in the future.
Thanks for stopping by today, leave a comment if you will.
Come again soon!
 
Until next time, Happy Crafting!
 

Monday, December 17, 2012

Eureka! Stamps Challenge

Hi! 
It's time for another challenge from Eureka! Stamps
This week the theme is "Christmas Spirit"
You can find all the particulars on the
For my card I used
"Star Tree" (#17105) 
I stamped the image with VersaMark ink
then brushed on some gold mica powder
which is also available through
I layered the image onto gold velum,
 then onto a white card base.
thanks you for stopping in today.
I hope you have been inspired and will join the challenge.
Leave a comment and come again soon.
 
Until next time, Happy Crafting!
 

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Santa with balloons

Hello everyone!
Today I have another one of the Christmas cards that I have made.
I'm getting close to done and that's a good thing, considering how close Christmas is getting and I should really get them sent out.
For today's card I used
"Santa Balloon Holder" (#ES5603)
"Christmas Balloon" (#ES16402)
and
"Oval Balloon" (#ES201)
These images are available through QKR Stampede
as well as sister company Eureka! Stamps
I used rubber stamps, but these are also available in digital format, which makes it easy to size them how you want.
I colored them with FlexMarkers then fussy cut them.
I used a bit of gold thread as the balloon strings.
Thanks for stopping by today.
I hope you have been inspired in some way
and that you are farther ahead on your Christmas cards than I am.
Come again soon!
 
Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Friday, December 14, 2012

QKR Stampede Challenge

It's time again for a QKR Stampede challenge.
This week our challenge is all about snow.
"Snowmen, Snow Angels, Snowballs, Snow Fun"
All the particulars are on the QKR Stampede Blog.
For my card I used 2 images from QKR Stampede
"Sledding" (#9602) and
"Skinny Snowman" (#13813)
The sky was colored with Distress Ink
The images were colored with FlexMarkers and fussy cut.
For the snow hill, I cut a piece of white card stock and covered it with a thin layer of Frosted Lace Stickles then adhered it with foam tape.
The little girl is also adhered with foam tape.
This give the card some dimension.
I hope you have been inspired in some way and 
that you will join the challenge.
Thanks for stopping by today.
Come again soon!
 
Until next time, Happy Crafting! 

Thursday, December 13, 2012

You light up my life

Christmas is so close and I'm still not done with my cards.
Almost, but not quite.
Here is another one that I made the other evening.
I used "Skunk and Lights" (#10901) and
"You Light" (#10903)
With these images all that needs coloring is the string of lights.
I used FlexMarkers.
Easy peasy.
Thanks for stopping by today.
If you haven't finished your cards yet and don't have the image you want, pop into the Eureka! Stamps Store and pick out something.
I used rubber stamps for my images, but they are also available in digital format. Digital makes it easy to resize and print as many as you need quickly.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Wrapping fun!

Last Saturday was our Christmas Crop at
We decided to have a "My Favorite Crafting Things" party.
Each person was to bring 3 gifts, all the same, spending $5.00 on each.
When it was your turn to hand out gifts, you'd pull 3 names from the "hat" and give the gifts to those people.
Once they opened the gifts you explained
why you chose the thing/s you did.
Each person went home with 3 different gifts.
We had such a great time at our corp.
There were lots of smiles and laughs.
 
One of the blogs that I follow faithfully is
I have been inspired by Rebecca.
She has tons of wonderful ideas for
Below are pictures of the people who took home the gifts that I took and the gifts I wrapped using the inspiration from Rebecca.
I hope you will pop on over and check out her fabulous idea and I hope you like what I did to "Pimp My Presents" 
 
 

 

 
Thanks for stopping today. 
Please leave a comment and let me know
which of the gifts you like the best.
Come again soon!
 
Until next time, Happy Crafting!




Monday, December 10, 2012

All That Glitters Challenge

One of the blogs that I follow faithfully is
They have some fabulous projects and a post every weekday.
Each month there is a challenge and this month I was chosen to participate in the challenge.
Our assigned theme was
(this link will take you directly to the post with all the entries)
We had to use 4 of the ribbons offered in our projects.
I chose to make a variety of gift card holders.
Here is what I did.
I know there are a lot of pictures, so I'm not going to write a lot,
but I will put links at the bottom for a couple tutorials that I wrote up as guest on another blog and I'll try to do a couple tutorials for the other ones at a later date, as they can be altered to work for other occasions.
I hope you'll pop over to the May Arts Blog and take a look at all the entries.














Here are the links for those tutorials:
Now that I have the link I realize that I didn't make one with this design, but here it is anyway.  LOL!
And here is the tutorial for the "twisted" card.
 
Thanks for stopping by today, leave a comment if you will.
Come again soon!
 
Until next time, Happy Crafting!