From Courtney's Closet Challenge #11

Here is my card for the challenge "From Courtney's Closet. If you would like to know more about it or play along you can visit her blog here . She dresses her darling baby daughter every Thursday in a cute outfit that we are to use as inspiration for our card! Now what better inspiration can you have then a sweet baby??

I struggled this week trying to think of a card, but I have this little House Mouse stamp that I have used before "in a pinch"! All paper and inks are Stampin'Up!'s. In fact, the pink is the great new "Pink Pirouette" in color" being released for sale on Aug 11th. I am really, really liking these new colors! The other SU paper is one I use lots of, "Chocolate Chip" (must be the name...mmmmm!), and the ever faithful Whisper White. I sewed a small piece of tulle for the tutu......................and of course since I am a Cuttlebug "freak", I used one of my embossing folders for the background.

New Items Shown At SU Convention Today!!

New SU catalog will be out Aug 11th.....and it is a beautiful catty! Lots of new stamps sets, punches, vanilla hodgepodge (yes vanilla), new Designer paper to die for! Better get a bank loan or remortgage your house, cuz you are going to want it all...LOL! Even the new sock moneky set has an accessories set....I wish I could of gone to convention, they received a bunch of goodies and had the opportunity to purchase all kinds of "special convention goodies"!!! Happy for them, sad for me! :>(

Hoping to put my new designer bags on tomorrow...it has been a busy week!

My Friend's Horse and Purrbag Kitty

I "borrrowed" these photos from my friend "Lana" that lives in Canada. These are "hot off the press" as she just sent them to me this morning! I had to share them, (hope you don't mind lana) and they are such nice photos of two beautful animals. The cat's name is Purrbag, the horse is Nugget, isn't he just beautiful, you can tell he gets lots of attention and is well cared for, look how pretty his mane and tail are!! Thanks Lana for sharing!

Freighter and Seagulls on Lake Huron

Quick post tonight for my hubby...he loves it when I put the "freighters" on. Took this on the weekend at our home on Lake Huron. Lots of seagulls showed up for the "photo shoot"! A nice storm appeared on the Lake on Friday night, I tried to get pictures of it over the lake but they didn't turn out as nice as I had hoped, maybe another time!

Happy Sunday More Day Lilies!

Here are some more of my Day Lilies. One thing I can say about them, that so far the Japanese Beetles haven't bothered them, but they sure made meals of my Hollyhocks and my roses are demolished, I just can't keep up with them!

I will have NEW cards on my blog on Monday, so check back!!!

Spooky Halloween Card

This card was made mostly with papers and not any stamps. I punched the "moon" from Designer glitter paper. I used some bat brads and crimped a witch tag on some ribbon, I actually kind of like this card.

Old Crow Card for Halloween

Another card I put together quite some time ago for Halloween. I just love this prim, old looking crow and gave him a hat. Now this would be a great funny birthday card for someone that had a sense of humor!

From Courtney's Closet Challenge #3 For Me!

This is the 10th week of the challenge "From Courtney's Closet", but only number 3 for me, though I am going to "squeeze" in another one soon from the July 2nd week, because I have the perfect idea for that one!!

Anyhow, the challenge is that Courtney's Mom dresses her sweet baby daughter in the cutest outfits and you have to design a card using the outfit as inspiration. If you want to check it out, you can find her blog here . You can also go to Split Coast Stampers and when you get to the Gallery, type in FCCC and see all the cards from all the weeks challenges, trust me, you will enjoy that!

Courtney is so cute I find myself while shopping looking at baby clothes a whole new way, like, "Gee, Courtney would look cute in that"!!! If you would like to see some of my grandbabies and other cute children go to http://www.loridianephotography.blogspot.com/.

Dream Card

A card I put together trying to use up some of my "stuff". I used the retired set "Natural Beauty" for the background, I have always loved this set!

The next few days I will posting some cards that I made in the past, as I will be away from my blog for a short time, due to my busy week. Next week I will have more "new" items to post, so check back.

Also remember the new cataloges for Stampin'Up! will be available to purchase from me after Aug 11th for $10 each, let me know if you want me to hold one for you. I hear they are full of all new Designer Papers, punches, stamps and other goodies that we all "just have to have"!!!

Diamonds Wedding Card

I have a wedding to attend next month, so for once I am ahead of the game! Though this card is very simple in design, I am really liking it! I used all SU paper with the exception of the paper I embossed the diamonds on, I purchased this shimmery white paper at our local scrapbook shop. The paper was embossed using, of course, the Cuttlebug diamond plate. I used stick on diamond gems. These I found in the wedding section of Walmart and they are Martha Stewart. What's so neat about these, are that you get 60 of them on a card, so I could be very generous! The stamp set is SU She's All That, I used the black Staz On ink for it.

Cucpcake Challenge #25

I like to challenge myself and do as many of the challenges I can to keep me inspired. This card is from Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #25. It is not the card I intended to do, but when I was getting my new SU IN Color papers out, staring me in the face was this cardstock I had stamped circles of all the new in colors on. I had taken the cs with me to try and match up some ribbons (because we all know I don't have any ribbon...yeah, right!), but since this layout had all those circles on it, I decided to use them up! I would like to make another with this layout,but a little more involved!

If you would like to participate in the challenges, the address is http://www.tayloredexpressions.blogspot.com/ , hope you like it!

More Day Lilies From My Garden

More of my Day Lilies from my garden, all different from the previous ones I posted. I didn't even realize I had so many different ones until I started taking the photos! I took 12 new ones yesterday, so will post a few now, a few later??

All Dressed Up Card~Paper Pieced

I love how this card turned out! All the paper and the rub on is from Stampin'Up! I have had this dress stamp for awhile and it is one of my "fav's" and I use it alot! Isn't it just great when you can use a stamp over and over again and never get tired of it, that is how this dress stamp is for me. It is from Stampendous. The papers I used for the card are all from the new Stampin' Up! "in colors"...the dress, purse, shoe and background colors are the new Designer Series Bella Rose...now if the name doesn't draw you the paper will!!! The only problem I had, is its double sided and I loved each side so much I hated using it as I didn't want to cover up the other side!! I paper pieced the shoe, dress and purse.

The brad on the purse is from Hodgepodge Hardware Styled Silver that was in the mini catty. This is such a beautiful HW, I look to see it in the new catty...I am HOPING it is! The other paper is Riding Hood Red...all these "newbies" can be ordered starting Aug 11th!!

I "popped" both the shoe and the purse, check out those "jewels " on the shoe...love those. I think (if she doesn't see it on my blog) I am going to give this card to my grandaughter for her 14th birthday next month...what do you think???

The Evil Sister Comes Out!!!

My sisters birthday was yesterday, and as she is "older" then me...I had to be bad, so for the sentiment of my card I put "vintage"...sorry....but I just had to do it!!! She had a good laugh out of it anyway!

I saw a card that had the most darling purses made with 4 SU punches, both the small and large oval punch, window punch, and round tab punch....now how cute is that? I am going to teach this at a workshop, fast, fun and so dang cute! I found the idea here so check it out! I changed mine to suit what I was doing. All products used with the exception of the brads and the "vintage" stamp are Stampin'Up!...I used the yummy new "in colors"Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss and the Designer Series Paper Bella Rose....now I will be ordering lots more of that paper, it is luscious!

Now I had seen on a few blogs before the colors were released that "they"are not in love with these new colors, but I gotta tell you, they are fantastic!!! I can't put them down!

Happy Sunday! Another Lily!

This is one of my favorite lilies. I bought this one sight unknown at the end of the season one year. What a pleasant surprise when it bloomed, it is one of my favorites because it has all those "girlie" ruffles. I have it in two places in my gardens...so pretty!

Break From Cards~Day lilies

Here are just a few of my Day lilies I have in my gardens...they are favorites of mine, just a break from the cards, being gardening is another of my "loves"!!

Tag Punch Star

This was a great technique from SCS that I used to make this Star. I am hoping to "teach" this at a workshop this fall. I have to say the center is not at all what I had planned, but after a mistake I had to improvise to "fix"!

To do this you use both the small and large Stampin' Up! tag punches. I think the centers would be great using the SU build a brads....(on my next order)!

All the paper I used is SU, designer paper Old Olive and Pumpkin Pie, cs is whisper white , old olive and pumpkin pie. I also used both SU oval punches for the sentiment!

Moose Masking Technique

One of the Stampin' Up! sets I had wanted since day one and never ordered was the "Moose You" set. For some reason that cute little moose just called to me. I don't own alot of stamps that I would consider "guy" stamps, but this set fits right in that catagorey for me!

I also used "Lovely As A Tree" and Dots are Hot for the moon. I did alot of masking with this one and double stamped the moon to give it more texture. The background is SU very vanilla cs that I used the SU Pastels (chalk) to give it the colors I wanted. I also used Close to Cocoa cs to "frame" it in. I still need to get better at masking, but overall I am pleased with how it turned out!

From Courtney's Closet Yellow Ducks

Here is my second card I did from the Inspiration challenge "From Courtney's Closet". The yellow ducky is probably one of my first rubber stamps I ever purchased years and years ago!This also is probably the first time I ever used it!

The papers are SU bordering Blue and Confetti. The flowers are cut with my Quickutz and I added a brad to the centers. I also used my Cuttlebug embossing "bubbles" folder, added a scrap of paper for the water and a piece of rickrack to finish it off! You can see the other cards for this challenge on SCS gallery by typing in FCCC. To see the blog that created the challenge you can get it here. It will be fun to see what next weeks inspiration will be.

Part of the Past

I am doing the inspiration challenge "From Courtney's Closet". Its so much fun and if you want to join along you can find the challenges here and have as much fun as me! There is a new posting this morning and you will have to check back later this evening to see mine, it is as they call "work in progress"!

But, after doing the first card (ladybugs), it reminded me of a photo of two of my granddaughters that I always loved. I had bought the girls these dresses for a photo I had taken. You will have to excuse the black spots on the photo, I haven't a clue of where they came from, it looks like ink...ugh! The girls are now 16 and almost 14, so you can see that even though this is "part of the past", its amazing that the styles are still "in style"!

Don't forget to check back....and see what I have made. If you go to Split Coast Stampers and type in FCCC, yoiu can see all the cards so far from the challenge!

Tess and Chloe

These are two of my "babies". They were born a year ago April in a wood barrel in the upstairs of our barn. There were six of the little "monsters" and I found homes for all but these two. I had them spayed and now they are very content "house cats" When we travel they both, along with the dog go with us......just one big happy family!!!!

SCS Spring Card

I saw this on the home page of SCS to make a "Spring" card. The card folds up very differently and when taken out of the envelope it "Springs Up"! Cute and fun to make. I used some retired SU DS paper, added a lace paper doily underneath the stamped image, SU Friendly Flowers)and added some pearls. I have a bridal shower to go to and also a wedding and thought this card might work for one of the two! The card is 5 1/2" square and takes a square envelope, I had hoped to get the envelope done too, but I am going to have to purchase some special envelopes for this card.

Lady Bug Lady Bug

I came across a cute blog http://stampinlibby.blogspot.com/ to do a challenge. She calls it "From Courtney's Closet". She dresses her darling baby, takes a photo, then has an inspiration challenge to make a card using Courtney's outfit as the inspiration. Not only is it a fun challenge, but you get to see a very darling little baby all dressed in her "finery"!

This is my card from the challenge as Courtney was dressed in the cutest little Lady Bug outfit. I stamped the row of ladybugs on a piece of twill tape and used a black glitter pen to color in the black dots.

Photo Wallet

After re-organizing my stamp room all day yesterday, when I got done I had to sit down and have some fun. I had printed directions for this photo wallet back in March of 2007! This was a fast and fun project. These would be great gifts to give "grandma" with the pictures already in them or to give to a friend just blank, letting her put her own in. The wallet holds 6 photos, on the back of the journaling page is a place for 3 more photos! I am going to make one of these to add to a scrapbook page, I think it would be a very nice addition!

All but the brad were Stampin'Up! products. Cardstocks were, Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Pumpkin Pie. Designer papers were Olive Press and Pumpkin Pie. The stamp set for the flower was One Of A Kind, I used Accents and Elements for the center flowers. The punch was Spiral.

What I like about the paper I used for the journaling are the lines that seemed just perfect. The inside could be decorated slightly more if you wish, just keep in mind it has to fold up and close.

Another Post Today~Merci~Grazie~Thanks

This card acutally started out to be just a practice piece for me to use my Koh-Noor woodless colour pencils I just bought. I picked these little elephants from SU's set "Just Celebrate" as they looked easy! I did Gina K's technique uisng odorless mineral spirits and a blending stump (both purchased from her). The SU cardstocks I used were Pretty In Pink, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery and Whisper White. I had a small piece of the diamond DS paper and the colors were perfect, so of course IHAD to use my Cuttlebug Diamond embossing folder. My first thought was to make it a baby card or a birthday card, but as I was getting my sentiments out I came across this $1 stamp I had purchased at Michael's some time ago, and thought it was perfect for this card! And, how about those little brads with the ribbon tabs, aren't they just the cutest?

Look What The Casino Bought Me!!!

Over the 4th weekend, my hubby and I went to our North home and the day after the 4th my neighbor asked me to go to the casino. Now I am NOT a big gambler, though it is fun, I am a very poor loser and as I am "throwing" my money away, I keep thinking of all the "stamping" things I could of bought, like when I lost $40, I thought, gee I could of bought a Scor-Pal with that!

I went with $100 and after losing $40 in the first 20 minutes, I had decided to go and get a coffee and quit and wait for my friend, in passing a $1 machine I put $20 in and soon had it to $77, I was about ready to quit (yeah right) and hit 3 green sevens and one was a doubler, so I won $500! Well, I cashed out and pocketed the earnings and by the time I left I was $519 ahead!

So, thanks to the casino, I decided to re-invest my earnings and look what I bought, (so far)! I ordered my Scor-Pal, and it was here in 3 days...I am LOVING it! I also got the Bind-It-All, and the Big Bite...and best yet, I got to use 40% off coupons on both of them! I purchased a set of cookie cutter die cuts from QuiKutz Revolution for the scalloped circles, these work just fine in my Cuttlebug by using the C plate! I also put in an order from Gina K for the Stamp for a Cause set, I picked the one for diabetes, as my 13 year old grandaughter has had JD since she was 18 months old! I hope to post some cards made with the Gina K stamps later this week. All I can say is "THANKS CASINO"!!!

I've Been Tagged

I've been tagged by Mary at http://www.primitiveseasons.blogspot.com/. I have to list 7 things about myself you probably don't know.

1. When I was 17, I got kissed by Bobby Vinton at our county fair, remember him Roses are Red, Voilets are Blue or Blue On Blue? Ahhhhhh the memories!

2. When I was 22 I got a job with the government and had to take a government driving test and was fingerprinted.

3. I am a firm believer of what goes around comes around as I have seen it happen again and again, if that doesn't keep you on the up and up nothing will!

4. I am a very honest person, if someone forgets to ring something up or gives me too much money, I always tell them.

5. My new favorite saying is "Think outside of the box."....I have had a lot of fun with that!

6.I am forever "waiting for my ship to come in"!

7. I am very close to my Mom, she is 81, I am scared to death of losing her! She is my best friend!

Buckle Card~Another Fresh Cuts and Cuttlebug Card!!

A Fun card called "The Buckle Card"......I saw the basic template for this card on another blog.

Okay, like I mentioned before, I am addicted to my Cuttlebug!

For the paper I choose all Stampin'Up, I love the combination of the Groovy Guava and Soft Sky. I also used some SU DS paper called Afternoon Tea on the inside of the card. I stamped a piece of Groovy guava with a stamp from the Fresh Cuts set, then I used my Cuttlebug die and embossing folders called Flower Petals. This is an awesome set, it comes with both the dies and the embossing folders. What I have found out with this set is that the SU stamp set Pick a Petal, will fit into the Cuttlebug embossing folders, making the combinations and possiblities of these two combined endless!

I also put the Sky Blue paper thru the Cuttlebug using the of course all time favorite of mine "Swiss Dots". The window punch was also used from SU to put the "buckle" thru. The brad is from a set Ijust bought from Basic Grey. They had them in several colors, but this particular package had all the brads in colors that matched Groovy Guava, Sky Blue and Wild Wasbi...now how "cool" is that?

Photos From Our North Home on the 4th

Since I am so behind, as usual, in posting some new cards, I thought I would share a beautiful sunrise on Friday morning the 4th of July on Lake Huron. The lake was like glass most of the weekend. I prefer it much more "noisy" as it really puts you to sleep at night. The other photos are of our back entrance, the side porch leading to the lake and our lakeside porch.If you click on any of the photos you can see them better, the sunrise photo will better show the lake by clicking on it, if you see any spiders or cobwebs on the porch, well, just pretend you didn't!

Blog award

I received this blog award from Mary of http://www.primitiveseasons.blogspot.com/. I feel honored, as her blog is sooooooooo much nicer then mine! Thanks so much Mary! Here are a few of my favorite blogs!

http://www.loridianephotography.blogspot.com/ http://recycledrita.blogspot.com/http://angelsworld94.blogspot.com/http://sherrie-cardcreme.blogspot.com/http://justgivemestamps.typepad.com/http://stampspaperscissors.typepad.com/stamps_paper_scissors/

BLOG AWARD RULES:
1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs you've nominated.

Graduation Card

This is a graduation card I made for our neighbor's daughter for her "grad" party on Saturday night. I used a retired set from Stampin'Up! as I don't own one single graduation rubber stamp (nor do I have plans to ever own any)! When I showed my husband the card he said "Why did you make a card, when you already have 100's made?" He just doesn't "get it"! I hope she likes her card!

My Grandson Dylan

This is a photo of my grandson Dylan. He is the sweetest boy, though he is older now, I just loved his grinning picture in his do-rag (not sure if that is how you spell it). He now wears glasses and reminds of the "Harry Potter" look...look out girls, in a few years he is going to be a heart breaker!

Remembering Nick

This was a photo I took of "Nick" our Golden Retreiver on a 4th holdiay. Nick (a girl) passed away about 2 1/2 years ago after suffering for about a year with a snake bite to the head. She never fully recovered. We miss her so much as she was a great companion and "friend". Nick was a "Proud American"!!!

Have A Safe 4th Holiday

My next few days of posts will have mostly to do with the the 4th Holiday. I will really have to "wing" it here as this is a busy weekend for us. But check back, as each day thru Sunday will have a new post!

Today I am showing a card I made for the 4th using a "House Mouse" stamp. I colored the image on my stamp using Stampin'Up! markers, then stamped it. Don't you just love that Little "guy"?