I need a vacation ....

I need a vacation from getting ready from vacation. I have a thousand little things to do and what am I doing?? Sitting watching some dumb show!! So, I thought I'd blog.

First, here are some pictures of the samples I prepared for my cousin's wedding. She asked me to do Thank You notes. I was so thrilled to be asked and I love her colors. I have to make 100 so although I really wanted to use Au Chocolate -- gosh, I wish I had stocked up on that paper! I love it but I would never have enough to do that many cards. So, I had to get a little creative and avoid printed paper. My cousin is not a fussy girl so I kept them pretty simple. I haven't heard back from her yet so I am not sure which one (if any) she likes. What do you think??

And I am getting so nervous (and super excited) about my puppy! I have no idea how to train a dog! According to the breeder, he is "paper trained" and out on the floor 24/7. That sounds good ... but is it? Who knows! So, I am looking on line to find some training classes that I can afford.

And I am also getting so nervous (and excited) about going to FL in a couple days. My kidlets can hardly stand the wait but I am afraid they are going to be disruptive on the plane! We went out and got fun stuff to do on the plane and I have been coaching them about staying in our seats and playing quietly. They are going to pack their own backpacks (with lots of supervision, of course) and Teagan is already listing off everything he owns and thinks that it is going in the backpack!

And I am feeling emotional about Teagan's last day of school tomorrow. And Kamryn starting school -- that's not until July but this is all a big reminder! Which then brings me back to the puppy ... I am getting a puppy because my baby just turned 3!!

UUUGGGGHHHH! Sorry this was not much about craftiness today. If you got to the end ... thanks for "listening"

A Whole Week Later ...

Okay, I know I disappeared for a while ... but I was busy with crafty stuff. And some family stuff ... here's whats up!

1.) I am getting ready to unveil a pretty exciting thing ... but I am going to leave you in suspense until I return from vacation. I am leaving on Friday with my kidlets to visit my Mom and Dad in FL. We are all so excited. I am flying and am a little nervous to do that with two kids by myself, but I have been saying lots of prayers!! Teagan is in his last week of school and I am a little in shock that his first year of preschool has already ended. Anyway, this endeavor has me crafting like mad. Here are a few samples:

2.) I signed up for an online scrapbooking sketch class that starts in June. Check this blog out (it's awesome if you scrapbook): http://www.valeriesalmon.typepad.com./ There is information about her Got Sketch Online class there. She has wonderful sketches that I believe come out weekly. I have not been scrapbooking much lately and want to get back to it. OOHHH, I am nervous! I have never posted any of my scrapbooking anywhere -- this is a first!! But, I thought this might be a great way to encourage myself to get on it! Look at me -- I am growing! So here is a sketch challenge that I worked on last night:

3.) And of course, Father's Day is coming up. I am hoping to get some cards in Nooks N Crannies so am starting to get a stash of those started. Here are two cute ones using my Fellas! 4.) And personal stuff ... we are getting a puppy! I know, I know ... I am crazy. Well, "we" have decided that we are not having any more children, and by "we" I mean Tim has "convinced" (kinda) me that this is the best idea. So, I am settling for a furbaby, instead! We will get him the week after we return from FL. He is a 12 week old (maybe closer to 14 weeks by the time we get him) shih-tzu. They have been calling him "Billy" but I am not so much a fan of people names for dogs so we will change it. I think I have it narrowed down to four: Stout, General Tzu, Bonsai, or Smidgen. What do you think?? Here is a picture of my cute little bundle:

5.) A very nice member of SCS also helped me format my blog a few weeks ago and I am sending her some goodies as a thank you. This is also kind of practice for giving away BLOG CANDY at some point in the near future. Here is what I made/purchased for her:

Plus I had my neices over the weekend which is lots of fun! So, that coupled with leaving for FL in a few days has kept me away from the computer. I am glad to be able to catch you up! I will try to post at least once more before I leave. And, I may be able to jump on my Mom's computer while I am there.

Thanks for looking (and reading)!

Tags, Tags and more Tags

Teagan's class is putting together a basket of "gift wrapping" supplies to auction off to raise money for a local charity. Here are some tags that I made to be included. Thanks for looking ... more crafting should be happening tonight, I hope :)

Thanks U's

Morning ~


As promised here are a few cards from our last Stamp Camp. We had a mystery hostess party and used only hostess sets for our cards. Here are the two I designed:






Congrats, Diane, on winning the mystery hostess drawing :) And don't forget about the chip board special! Call or email if you want more details.

And, I am also working on some thank you notes for a friend's son. Here are two of the samples they didn't choose. I will post the other a little later. Thanks for looking!







I found some cute chipboard coasters at the Target $1 spot that my mind has been spinning about ... so I am going to try to get crafty with those sometime in the next few days. Stay tuned!



Have a stampin' good day,

Happy Birthday and Inspiration Butterfly

Happy Sunday ~

Kamryn's birthday was yesterday -- I can't believe my baby is three years old!!! So I have not gotten a lot of crafting done this weekend. I do have some thank you cards to finish up and hopefully deliver tomorrow so tonight I plan to hang out in my craft area for a while. It is a beautiful day in STL today (and the Cards won!) but we have been inside all day -- I know "bad mother" but my throat is killing me! Not sure if its allergies or not but it seems to bother me more the day after I have been outside -- I really don't want to go to the doctor's office so hopefully staying in today will help clear it up.

Kammy at her birthday breakfast.

Kammy at the Butterfly House.

Kammy and Teagan on the carrousel.


Blowing out the candles on her butterfly cake.

The Butterfly House is a great source of inspiration, too! Here are a few pictures to get your creative juices flowing ....

Try a color combo of so saffron, rose red and glorious green OR

yo yo yellow, pink passion and gable green OR

try a color combo of chocolate chip and certainly celery OR Brilliant Blue, Basic Black and River Rock. Hmmmm .... could be interesting :)

More crafty pictures coming soon!

Teacher Gifts

Hi, I am volunteering at Teagan's school this morning so I have only a few minutes. I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day! Mine was very nice ... I got the BIG BITE :) Yea!! And some other very thoughtful and fun stuff, too! Definitely got a little spoiled this year. Anyway, it is yet another rainy day in STL so I will be crafting again this afternoon and evening, but I have been working on some teacher gifts so thought I'd post a picture really quick. I got this little wooden signs at my LSS which, sadly enough, is preparing to close for good in a few months!! Everything is 25% so I have started to stock up on some alterables. I am making three of these for Teagan's teachers.

Have a crafty day ... I will post again later, I hope!

Oh, I also learned that UN-DO is going away forever!! It contains a chemical that states (CA being the first) are unable to ship and accept. So, stock up now!!!!

And, lastly, Joann's has a 40% coupon on the www.printable-coupon.blogspot.com site (on left sidebar). Check it out ... its good for online purchases, too :)

Michaels Finds

Morning ~

Check out the coupon link (in my favorite sites to visit) for a 25% off your entire order at Michaels. I used one yesterday and stocked up on some inexpensive stuff to alter.

Check out this cute frame I worked on last night. I am trying to build up a stash of stuff to open a store on Etsy.com! I am excited about that prospect but am nervous at the same time. Do you ever know when your stuff is "good enough" to be sold?? And then pricing just totally stresses me out. I don't want to undercut myself but it feels weird to charge "a lot" and what is a lot?? Plus my very responsible, more business-minded husband is bombarding me with questions (probably a good thing but stressful nevertheless!) that I just can't quite answer yet. So, what do I do when I am feeling stressed and overwhelmed? I craft!

And I organize. So, in addition to the frame last night I also worked on some tins for my markers. I did not order my markers all in one purchase so never got the marker box -- which I think would stress me out even more cause they all have their own slot to go in ... I am organized but not *that* organized! So, they were all thrown into a shoebox sized bin, but then last winter I decided I needed to purchase a whole bunch of sharpie markers to make ornaments with so those got dumped in there, too. Well, that just made it almost impossible to find anything! So, these are containers from "creme wafer rolls" that you can get from Aldi's. A lot of my craft area is decorated using the Recollections DS paper. They are the perfect size and I put a chipboard letter on each so I know where to find the s=soft subtles, e=earth elements, etc. I have one for neutrals (n, of course!) and blender pens which I have accumulated a lot of lately. Someday I am going to make In Color markers!

And I also felt like I needed something to put scrap ribbon into ... so I found this little glass jar. I put some RubOns (SAB12008) on them and Viola! a pretty storage solution. I had this glass vase that I was going to use to make a snowman a couple winters ago and decided to dump the flowers I also found on sale at Michael's into that! And Viola! a second pretty storage solution! I am also thinking about making little candy jars for Teagan's teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week -- I'd just put some RubOns on a jar like this and fill it with candy. What do you think? I am struggling with the fact that school ends at the end of the month and I will get/make them something then, too. Am I giving too much??

Alright, off to check on the kids and craft some more :)

Happy May!

Hello Friends ~

Did you know that May is:

Get Caught Reading Month -- why not stamp someone a bookmark?

Gifts From the Garden Month -- stamp a tiny terracotta pot and give someone a seed packet card

National Hamburger Month -- host a BBQ and send out cute burger themed invites

National Military Appreciation Month -- send a soldier a thank you card

National Older Americans Month -- send a card or gift pack to your favorite Grandma or Grandpa or drop off a stack of "thinking of you" cards to a retirement community or senior center near you

National Smile Month -- getting mail always makes me smile!

Teen Self Esteem Month -- pack an altered paint can with teen related stuff to make your teen feel as special as s/he is!

National Family Month -- have a family picture taken and alter a frame to hang in your home or give as a gift!

You should also know:

May 6th is Teacher Day, No Diet Day and Nurses Day. And this is National Fairy Godmother Week. No, I didn't make any of these up. Check out http://www.brownielocks.com/ for all this fun information! Everyday you can find an excuse to stamp, alter or just be crafty!

Teagan's student teacher is leaving this week after having spent the majority of the semester in his classroom. So I made her this giant paperclip and a box of notecards to thank her. I used the Bali Breeze Designer Series Paper which is so colorful and fun! I also used the Very Punny SAB2007 set to make the cards. Check out my gallery on SCS for pictures of those.

And, my darling little princess, Kamryn is turning 3 on the 17th so here is a peek at her birthday invites. We are doing a butterfly theme with a trip to the Butterfly House :) This card has an interesting layout -- which is the result of a big OPPS on my part, but I ended up loving its uniqueness! The large pocket holds all the party information details. The two tags in the front smaller pocket are "tickets" to enter the Butterfly House and to ride the carousel at the park. My kids 3rd birthday parties tend to be small (??) and so it will just be our family and my sister's family. We will host a BBQ at our house afterwards. We are going to visit my parents in FL at the end of the month and might do a second party for her there with my other sisters' family, my brother's family!

Off to check on the kidlets ... they are very quiet right now and that's never a good sign!!

PS ... check out this site too ... http://www.printable-coupons.blogspot.com/ for a printable 40% coupon for Michael's good through May 10th. This site is listed on my "favorite sites to visit" section along with some other good ones: SU! color combo, the brownielocks site, and versalog (which is good if you need a poem or sentiment for a card) .

Mystery Hostess Party

Hi! No new pictures to post yet, but we have an upcoming Stamp Camp that I wanted to get the word out about. And I am going to point out a few new features I have figured out how to do on my blog ... so keep reading :)


Mark Your Calendar:


Mystery Hostess Pary, May 10th, 2008

Make this an early Mother's Day present to yourself by attending. We will have a hostess set extravaganza and use only those sets to make 4 beautiful cards. If you place an order, at this event totally $25 or more, you will be entered into a drawing to be the mystery hostess **. If chosen, you will be eligible for at least one level 1 hostess set and $15 in free merchandise. The event is $10 and we ask that you RSVP by Monday, May 5th, 2008.


** If you are unable to attend the event but want to be included in the Mystery Hostess drawing, you will eligible if you submit an order of $35.00 or more. We must have money and your order by the day of the Stamp Camp. Remember that we are now able to take credit card payments.


Okay, now on to BLOG FEATURES :) I figured out how to link myself to the SU! catalogs. So now you can see both the full Spring & Summer Collection 2008 Idea Book and the Occasions Mini 2008. YEA! Especially since we didn't get Occasions Mini out to you in a timely manner ... ahem ... at all!


And you may notice my hits counter ... I am getting excited about my number rising :) I may even offer some BLOG CANDY when I hit a milestone number. Keep an eye out!!


Happy Stampin'! For those of you in STL ... rainy days are the best for stamping!