I'm back . . . sorta

Hello, hello, hello! I can't believe it has been so many days since my last post! Let me tell you what I've been up to . . . gardening. Papercrafting is my first love, but coming in a close second is gardening. Specifically, I love container gardening. We are blessed with two huge beautiful decks, one covered, one for sun. I've been spending my days out doors planting, digging, watering, hoeing, sipping tea in the shade. By the time I come inside and clean up, I am so tired and sore I just collapse in a chair and sleep. Truly. My husband taught me to mow this week. I know, I know, sounds simple but we have a "zero-turn mower" so it is not just driving a riding lawnmower. You'll have to read my Yahoo blog if you want more details, I'm off to type that next. Anyway, it is a good thing that planting season is nearing an end or I might have a hard time getting any stamping done. I'm only inside today because it is rainy and cold here in Kansas.
My post today uses the retiring set Wanda's Wit and Wisdom (or something like that!). To color it I used the reinkers and blenders. I'm really trying to perfect my blending. Notice the different shades of brown in Wanda's hair and the shading on her t-shirt. The pink around her doesn't look so harsh IRL. Recently I purchased Gamsol and a few Prismacolored pencils. I hope to start playing with those soon. I also justs received my Bind-it-all in the mail this week. Remember last week when I told you about the tea room my mom owns? She has asked me to make some items for her retail area. I love the idea of that, but that means no SU! product since I can't sell it in a permanent retail setting. If you have ideas of companies whose products I could use, please, please, please leave me a comment!

faux ribbon

I, like the other millions of versatile stamp fans, adore PAPERTREYink's new line of stamps. I have each of their stinky hot new sets and LOVE, LOVE, Love them. Their success seems phenomenal and cards made with their stamps are gracing trendsetting blogs daily.
I made this card for my sister's 30th birthday. Lining up the stamps for the faux ribbon strip was super easy. I was amazed that I did it right in one try. I never do anything correctly the first time. The sentiment is also for the faux ribbon set. I saw the idea for the homemade flower petal on a blog . . . I can't remember which one. Simply punch 5 or so ovals, cut them in half, and position them around the center circles.
Supplies: apricot, celery, teal, whisper white inks and cardstocks. Paisley background stamp.

bundle of joy

Congratulations to my good friends Matt and Jill on the birth of their son Jackson! I am so delighted for them . . . and yes Jill, this card is making its way in the mail to you as I type. Just like my last post, I had this stamp set sitting in the sale pile, but all of a sudden I just HAD to use it. Now, I don't think I can part with it just yet. I think the reason I am enjoying this set so much is because I have really started to enjoy using my blenders. Before, they seemed so time consuming, but I have been forcing myself to practice, practice, practice. Notice the little oval for the feet to rest on. I would have never thought of doing that, but so many of the great ladies who inspire are doing this all the time; they are right, it does ground the image. If you haven't seen this before, to achieve this look punch an oval. Then sponge in the oval hole to get this crisp oval. Of course, if you have an oval stamp, use that!
I used blissful blue, barely banana, and whisper white inks and cardstock. The background stamps are flannel and aida cloth. Thanks for stopping by today.

wish big

My mother-in-law just had her 60th birthday over the weekend. I know, I know, I should have found a cake with many more candles, but this image fits so perfectly on the long, skinny cards in the spring mini. The main image stamp if from a retired hostess set. I actually had that set put aside to sell, but then I was inspired to use it on this occasion. I also used the baby image from the same set, I'll show you that soon.
I hope you had a great Mother's Day. I sure did! I napped, ate ice cream, picked out snowball bushes, saw Spiderman 3, and collapsed exhausted sometime after midnight. I also uploaded a picture of me with my boys so you could meet my family. My oldest is Jacob. He will be 7 in July. Next is Jonah, who is three. He takes after his daddy in looks AND disposition. Finally we have Jesse. He turned two last month, making him only 15 months younger than Jonah. Together, they are a force to be reckoned with. They amount of energy these boys have is tremendous. Now I know that lots of kids have energetic, but I only know of two other families whose children can outlast mine. Except for naps, videos, and bedtime, my boys go non-stop. We have 40 acres, a pond and 2 barns for them to explore and we spend much of our day outside, even in inclement weather. For instance today, we've been outside all morning hoeing up weeds, moving plants, watering plants
and playing on the fort. Fortunately it is time for a nap. Thanks for letting me share a bit about my non-stamping life! (Is there really such a thing?)

Shelves

Look at what I spent my afternoon yesterday working on. See those shelves? My brother-in-law Josh made them for me TWO Christmases ago. They've been sitting in my closet ever since then, waiting so patiently to be placed on a cozy wall somewhere. Several times I've pulled them out, carried them around the house, and then placed them back in the closet. I just couldn't hang them until I knew exactly where I wanted them. Then, yesterday, in a moment of creative genius, I could picture them on my craft room wall. You see, for a few months I have been focusing on reorganizing my craft area. I am a pretty organized gal, but I recently decided I also wanted it to look good too. Here's my first attempt. What do you think?
The words are from Making Memories. I found them at Target for about $3 I think.

to my mother

Every year I swear I am going to make Mother's Day cards, but something always sidetracks me. I think it is the huge amount of birthdays, graduations, weddings and then the biggest distractor . . . spring weather. When May comes, I start spending all my free time out doors playing ball, planting flowers, pushing children on the swings, etc. Card making comes to a complete halt. BUT, with all the rain we've had, I've been inside this week. I've been making cards this week. I have got so many neat cards to show you . . . but I am only going to post one a day so they will last a while because as soon as it dries out, I'm going back outside.
I made this card for my mother. I really don't see my mother much, even though she only lives an hour from me. She opened her own tea room which keeps her very busy. So this year, I wanted to be able to write a great deal to her. Thus, I designed a card with a lot of writing space. The card is a 5 1/2 square, scored 1/4" in so it has a book feel to it. I used stamps from the Doodle This and Doodle That sets, coloring them with my blender pens. The celery polka dot paper is from the Palette O Prints collection which available only this month. Colors I used: celery, apricot, regal rose. Again, the words to my mother are stamped using the Karen Foster snap stamps. Finally, I added stickles to various parts of the card for the wonderfully fun sparkle.

celebrate U

Today I squeezed a few minutes to create this spring card for my dearest friend's daughter Lauren. She's having her sweet sixteen this weekend and since they live 800 miles south of us, I am missing the big party. Like so many of you, I am grieving over all the stamps sets that are retiring (this stamp set IS NOT, though) and I decided to pull this one out to play with. I am so thankful it is staying. I am a big bang for your buck kinda gal, so I really like the variety of cards I can create with this set, About U. I embossed celebrate with white embossing powder; the U was created by inking first with regal rose craft ink then embossing with crystal clear EP. Likewise, the flower was embossed using apricot craft ink. And yes ladies, that's Caribbean cardstock. You'd better get that paper restocked while you can! Remember it retires at the end of June.