SOA Challenge Card and SheetLoad Reminder!

Thanks so much for the sweet comments that some of you left on yesterday's blog post. I am pleased to announce that my dear MIL was discharged from the hospital today and got to spend some time with my husband and his sister who came down from Georgia when she heard the news about her heart attack! Thank God for miracles!

Don't forget to check out the Stampin Out Alzheimer's (SOA) website and enjoy a full week of challenges and contests with lots of chances to win wonderful prizes. It only takes a small donation to be eligible to enter the site! 100% of the proceeds is going directly to the Alzheimer's Association!

To go along with my I Do Believe in Miracles blog post yesterday. I decided to make my first challenge card to fit that theme...and here it is...

The sketch was provided by the Little Paper Shop at the SOA site. The stamps come from the new Unity stamp set called Everyday Adorable that I recently ordered. The DP is from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie collection!

Switching Gears to SheetLoad!

The month of May is nearing its' end, but there is still time to participate in some of the contests at SheetLoad!

Visit the SheetLoad blog to see what contests you still have time to enter! Don't forget that there are prizes involved! You could be a lucky winner!! But you're never a loser because you will at least have a lot of great cards to use!

Here is the cover of May's e-Zine...

By using this month's sketch and following the measurements provided, you can end up with 18 cards altogether! Nine 4.25 x 4.25 square cards and nine scraplings!

I used the sketch and varied my cards by changing up the way I placed the DP and by changing the color of my card stock.

Here is the first sample I have to show you. I made three of these cards that are identical except that I changed the background paper on them. They make a cute coordinating set I think! Don't you just love those scraplings? They are 1.25 x 4.25 and are perfect for little tags or quick notes for that someone special!

The stamps you see used here are from Unity. The stack of birds and the sentiment below them are from the August '08 KOM and the "for you" sentiment on the scrapling is from the May '09 KOM. The DP is this bright and adorable paper from Junkitz called Flower-ful.

I'll share more of the cards I made using this sketch at a later time! Thanks for looking and be sure to make some SheetLoad cards using May's issue and enter them into the contests for this month!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with pretty papers and stamps!!

I Do Believe in Miracles

I know I have been missing from blogland for the last few days, but when I tell you what has happened over the past few days, I know you will understand!

I Do Believe in Miracles

Today's post title reflects what I feel today and reminds me that there is hope for tomorrow too! I know that miracles have happened in the past and I trust that they can happen in the future too!

Saturday morning we were woken by a phone call from Tom's dad telling us that his mother had suffered a heart attack in the early morning hours. She had to have stints placed emergently to unclog two of the completely blocked arteries that were feeding her heart.

I Do Believe in Miracles! And I am so thankful to say that she is doing OK!! They were able to unclog her arteries and improve the blood flow to her heart. You can't imagine our relief at finding her a mere 10 hours later sitting up in bed eating her lunch and acting much like the lady we truly love.

My beautiful MIL!

The doctors said that she was a very lucky lady. We believe a miracle occured that night and my Dear MIL's life was spared. I was able to see her on Saturday and Sunday and am happy to report that she has been transferred from the ICU to the cardiac step down unit with plans of being discharged sometime today. I Do Believe in Miracles!!

Today is Memorial Day and some of you may have already heard about a wonderful fundraising benefit that is going on today! I have decided to join in on the Stampin Out Alzheimers fundraising efforts of Jen Tapler and Susanna Boyd because I Do Believe in Miracles!

I believe that through continued efforts in research we will be able to come up with a cure for Alzheimers. Please go to the Stampin Out Alzheimer's website and participate in the activities of this week. There are many opportunities there to enter contests and challenges, but more importantly there is an opportunity to help another miracle to occur by donating money to the great cause of researching Alzheimer's.

My family is affected by the horrible disease of Alzheimer's and here is our story...

The people in the picture above are my husband Tom and his mom Geri (who just had the heart attack I mentioned above). This picture was taken back in November when they were dancing at our wedding reception. Tom's mom has Alzheimer's. She was diagnosed with it about two years ago. Despite taking medications to slow the progress, we see her deteriorating right before our eyes.

In my mind when I look at the picture of the two of them dancing, the song that comes to mind is "Unforgettable" by Natalie Cole.

Here are the lyrics to that song...

Unforgettable, that's what you are.

Unforgettable, though near or far.

Like a song of love that clings to me,

How the thought of you does things to me.

Never before has someone been more

Unforgettable, in every way.

And forever more, that's how you'll stay.

That's why, darling, it's incredible,

That someone so unforgettable

Thinks that I am unforgettable too.

I Do Believe in Miracles! I believe that a cure can be found for Alzheimers; I believe that Tom's mom will have the chance to enjoy the retired life that she worked so hard to achieve; I believe that she will be able to remember conversations that she had with us just moments earlier; I believe that the world of hers that has shrunk in size will be able to expand again one day to provide her with opportunities for socialization; I believe that she will be able to remember and enjoy the time she spends with her loving family; And I believe that we will be "unforgettable" to her someday! Because I Do Believe in Miracles!

I know that these Miracles can happen but I also realize that we can make them happen faster by donating to research efforts for Alzheimers. Here are some facts about Alzheimers taken directly from the Alzheimers Organization's national site:

• As many as 5.3 million people in the United States are living with Alzheimer’s.

• Alzheimer's and dementia triple healthcare costs for Americans age 65 and older.

• Every 70 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer’s.

• Alzheimer's is the seventh-leading cause of death.

Please donate to this wonderful cause. You can click on the Stampin Out Alzheimers Donate widget on the right hand side of my blog. By donating any amount you can be entered to participate in the activities going on at the Stampin Out Alzheimers Social Network all week long.

I hope that you will join me in donating and come over and participate in the fundraising fun!! Jen and Susanna sure know how to put the FUN in FUNDRAISING!!

I Do Believe in Miracles!

Have a Happy Memorial Day! I hope to spend mine in my scraproom making cards and organizing! Have a wonderful holiday and may your bucket overflow with the belief that Miracles can happen!

It's a Happy Hip Hop Thursday!

Even the continuous down pouring of rain today can't dampen my spirits! I have finally had a decent enough day at work on a Thursday to allow me enough time to play along with today's Hip Hop Festivities over at the Unity Blog!

If you want to be inspired by some great DT gals, just start over at the Unity Blog and hop your way around. Today's theme is Heroes! You won't be disappointed!

Today I have gotten two projects completed for the Hip Hop Challenges!

The first challenge is called Oh My Word!

We were supposed to make the sentiment on our project be the highlight.

This is a luggage tag! I found the faux leather tags in the Dollar Bin at Michael's. The Unity stamps I used were the "Happiness is a way of travel" quote from the August 08 KOM. It is the perfect sentiment to go along with a travel item!

I really like how it came out... I made two of them to go with the wonderful luggage that my best friend Tiffani gave me for my birthday last year. This is the luggage that I honeymooned with. Having these tags on my luggage is going to make it easy to spot it on the luggage carousel at the airport.

Here they are on my actual luggage pieces...

The second challenge is called Oh My Stars!!

The outside says Shine... then the inside says... Like the Star that You Are!

For this project we had to make something using Unity images and it had to have a star on it. The Distressed Star from the Jan 09 KOM is the only Unity star image I had. I paired it with the Shine sentiment from the April 09 KOM. I also added some little background stars that are from the Little Sprout set.

The sketch for this card is from SCS Sketch Challenge from yesterday (SC229). I hope that you can see the glimmer that it has. Here is a closeup of the stars that I embossed in glitter embossing powder.

Well that will do it for today! I hope to have another Unity post tomorrow to share with you for the Hip Hop Hangover!! Don't forget to go Hip Hopping with Unity today and also if you like the Unity stamps you have been seeing me use, you might want to take advantage of the 30% off sale they are having right now on the Unity website!

Have a great night and may your bucket overflow with dry clothes and umbrellas!!

It's Graduation Time!

As May nears June it seems that school's are letting out and kids everywhere are graduating! You may remember that earlier this month my daughter Leah graduated from the University of FL. Well, in early June my youngest daughter Tiffany will be graduating from High School.

I have had the task of completing Tiffany's graduation announcements hanging over my head for a while now and I am happy to say that with a lot of help from Tiffany, we finally got them finished! Her school colors are Maroon and White, and her mascot is a Sponger! I know that is a little unusual, but the little town we live in is considered the Sponge Diving capital of the US and has close ties to Greece!

Unity Stamps came to my rescue again and offered the perfect stamp collection to help personalize and feminize the otherwise masculine school colors and logo!

Here is a picture of Tiffany's Graduation announcement...

The front picture shows the flourish stamp from Unity's January KOM called Love Etc. that I stamped in Amuse Black and also in Ranger Aged Mahogany. The flecked cardstock is from SU and the black cardstock comes from Recollections and the Maroon cardstock is from The Paper Co.

Here is a picture that shows the inside and the outside together...

On the top half of the inside I used the "2009" stamp from Unity's January KOM. The verbiage was typed on the computer using a font called Biondi.

We are very proud of Tiffany! She has plans to become a police officer some day and has been very active with Crime Watch at her school. She has been hired by a local Police Department in the Americorps Department where she will work along with officers as a community resource. In the fall she will begin her studies in pursuit of a degree in Law Enforcement.

Here is a recent picture of Tiffany at her Senior Prom! She is pictured here with two of the local Police Officers that she has worked with at school and in our community. They were on patrol the night of the Prom to keep the kids in check!

I have one more Graduation Card to share with you for now!

Our best friends Chad and Tiffani have a son Trevor who is graduating from Pre-K tomorrow. I didn't want to forget his great accomplishment, so I decided to make him a special card. He has waited a long time to be able to ride the big yellow bus to school like his big brother Tyler!

The card I made uses the Clean and Simple challenge CAS15 from Monday at SCS which was to use Black and White and one of the Bold Brights! I chose to use Real Red as my bold bright since Trevor's school color is red!

Here is the card that I made for Trevor...

The Fine Print: CS: SU (Real Red), GP (White), Recollections (Black); Stamps: SU (Shooting Stars, 2000), Congratulations Graduate (Not stated); Ink: SU (Real Red), Amuse (Black).

Have a wonderful evening and may our bucket be overflowing with endings and beginnings as is fitting for this time of year!

Do You Like Lemonade?

I love lemonade! And I really love that my new stamping acquaintance and friend Sue was so sweet to nominate me for the Lemonade Stand Award! This blog award is given to a blog that the nominee feels shows great attitude and gratitude. It is truly an honor to have received it!

I can totally see why Sue was given this award! She is a very encouraging and talented person. She frequently leaves comments for me on my blog and I just hope she knows how much it means to me! Please visit her blog called "Sue's Sentiments" and be prepared to be inspired!



The rules of this award are as follows...

*comment on this blog

*cut and paste the award logo and use it on your own blog

*nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude

*link to your nominees within your blog post

*comment on their blogs to let them know they received the award

*link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation

While I frequent many blogs that truly inspire me every day, here are the five blogs that I have chosen to nominate for this award...

Sonia http://www.scraps4fun.com/

Ky http://bunnynest.blogspot.com/

Nikki http://smellslikehomemade.blogspot.com/


Bonnie Rose http://alifeunrehearsed2.blogspot.com/

Ann http://adayinthelifetoo.blogspot.com/

I appreciate these ladies, their spirits and all the inspiration they provide on their blogs. I hope you will take the time to visit them too!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with cool freshness like a tall glass of lemonade on a hot summer day!

Thanks and a Link to share!

I wanted to take a minute to say thank you to all of the wonderful people who visited my blog during the Unity Kit of the Month Blog Hop!! It was such fun going from blog to blog and getting inspired by all the talented Unity stampers out there. As if I need any encouragement to use my Unity stamps!! Then to top it off I got my May KOM in the mail today and I am really antsy to get some ink on those images. As you know I just love Unity stamps!!

I appreciate all the wonderful and encouraging comments that you all have left for me. It really is a treat to know that you like what you see and take the time to tell me so. I appreciate your kindness!!

Many of you were asking for the directions on how to make the Tri Shutter Card that I made for the blog hop this weekend. Well SCS beat me to it!!! Coincidentally, the Try a New Technique forum today is using the exact same example as I did for their inspiration for this week's challenge.

HERE is the link to the blog that I got my original inspiration from.

HERE is the link to this week's challenge on SCS.

HERE is the SCS Gallery with many more examples of this card for you to be inspired by.

I started a bunch of cards last night using this month's SheetLoad sketch, but I haven't gotten them ready to share yet. Any luck I will get them done and a couple other things at least started tonight! Lots of stuff on my To-Do List that needs doing!

Have a great night and I hope to post more cards tomorrow morning! I would love to see you try and create this card and add it to the SCS Gallery for all of us to share!

May your bucket overflow with lots of inspiration to make your own Tri Shutter card!

Unity Kit of the Month Blog Hop!!

If you are one of my followers, I interrupt your regularly scheduled blogging to provide you with an opportunity to be inspired!!

You have stumbled upon a weekend full of Blog Hopping provided by friends of Unity who are showing you creations made with various Unity Kits of the Month!!



If you came to me by way of the Blog Hop then congratulations you have made it to post # 99!!! You are almost done!!

Welcome to the Unity KOM Blog Hop!!

To start at the beginning... Click HERE!

The project that I made uses a total of eleven stamps all coming from various Kits of the Month! I designed a birthday card for my best friend Tiffani that is dimensional and can be left out on her desk as a reminder of our friendship. (I will provide more info about this card later!)

Here is the card I made her in the closed position...

Here it is opened up...

The Fine Print: DP: Cloud 9 Design (Cinnamon Stick); CS: GP; Stamps: See Key Below; Ribbon: Making Memories (Grosgrain), Joann's (Gold Organza), Michael's (Plaid); Computer generated Font: Kayleigh, Comic Sans; Flowers: Cloud 9 Designs, Petaloo, Prima, Doodlebug Designs; Rhinestones: Studio 18, Darice; Ink: Amuse (Black), Stampin Up: (Sage Shadow, Really Rust), Versamagic (Jumbo Java); Markers: Copics (E00, E04, E08, E37, G21, BG10, BG93, R59, YR20)

See the key below to know which Kits of the Month were used in the making of this card.

1. January KOM, 2. April KOM, 3. August KOM, 4. January KOM, 5. April KOM, 6. April KOM, 7. April KOM, 8. March KOM 9. April KOM, 10. August KOM, 11. August KOM

Happy Birthday Tiffani!! I Love you!!

Thanks for looking! Have fun on the Blog Hop! For your next stop please visit the talented

Morissa!

Making Your Stamps Work For You!

Happy Thursday Everyone!!

I am excited for a lot of reasons today!! First is because I am still off from work!! Woo Hoo!! Second is because it is Hip Hop Thursday over at the Unity Blog and I hope to be inspired by all the talent that gushes out of those DT members! And third is because I get to spend the day with my best friend in the whole wide world... my friend Tiffani!! Tomorrow is her birthday and since I am heading out of town for the weekend, we decided to celebrate her birthday today!

What better way to celebrate a person's birthday then to shop at IKEA, have lunch out, pick out the Nestabilities I am going to give to her for her birthday and spend some time doing some crafting??

It sounds like a perfect day to me! But any day I spend with Tiff is a great day!! The card I made for her is going to be posted on my blog starting tomorrow. It will be up for the whole weekend as part of Unity's Kit of the Month Blog Hop from May 15th through the 17th! Be sure to check it out! I will give you the links tomorrow so that you can participate!

I don't have a new card to share today, but I did want to share with you a little tip on how to make your stamps go farther for you.

Remember this card that I made earlier this week?

Well I knew that I needed a branch for my Owl (by Kim Hughes from Cornish Heritage Farms) to be perched on, but I didn't have a branch stamp that was big enough to work. So after mulling it around in my head, and looking through some of my stamp sets, I realized that the Tree stamp from Unity's Eco Chic stamp set actually could be altered to look like a branch!

Here is how I made my stamp work for me...

Gather your stamp, ink and paper.

Stamp your image.

It looks just like a tree facing upright doesn't it?

But see how by turning it on it's side it looks more like a branch?

Color just the portion of the stamped image that you need to use.

Cut out the image. Close the opening from the piece you cut off using a fine black pen.

Walah!! You have a branch instead of a tree!! You are ready to add your image to your project!

Keep this in mind with your stamps and I think you will see that there are more uses for our stamps than we think!!

Now head on over to Unity's Blog and start Hip Hopping!

It's Hip Hop Thursday at Unity!!

Have a wonderful day and may your bucket overflow with new ideas on how to make the most out of your stamps!

A Quick Card Post!

I survived my last day on call and am enjoying the first of five days that I have off from work. Since I do my full time job on call plus half of another person's call days each month, it is rare for me to get a stretch of time off like this. I soooo need it and am excited to have some uninterupted time in my stamp room to play and get caught up on some cards and projects I need to finish!

The card I am going to show you today was made on Monday between attending deliveries, but I couldn't get it posted until today. It is a challenge card from the SCS Clean and Simple Forum.

The challenge was to use the Rock and Roll technique on your card which is something that I hadn't ever tried before and I kind of liked it. The stamp I chose may have been a little too narrow to make it work the best, but I still like the varied coloration that the technique provided for the bamboo stamp that I used.

Here is the Clean and Simple card that I made...

The stamp is from Unity and is one of the silhouettes in the Gratitude = Joy stamp set. The sentiment is and oriental Happy Birthday stamp from Custer's Last Stamp. The DP is Basic Grey from one of their older lines called Perhaps (Fierbird). The colors of the paper matched really closely to the SU ink colors I used So Saffron and Creamy Caramel. The green ink was also SU, Certainly Celery and Old Olive. The band of Asian paper is a DP by Zsiage called Confucious Say What? (Dream Borders).

Here is a little better view of how the Rock and Roll Technique came out. See how the edges are darker? I think it offers a more realistic look . Colors in nature aren't solid, they have depth and dimension.

To stamp this image it took a lot of masking and overstamping, but all in all I like how it turned out. I think it could be either masculine or feminine because of the the touch of black and the simplicity of it!

Thanks for looking and I hope to be back more with some projects I get done today and tomorrow!

Have a wonderful day and may your bucket overflow with time to spend in your stamp room creating to heart's desire!

Thanks For Your Support!

The poll for the Grand Prize has been closed and the winner has been determined. Unfortunately I didn't win the Grand Prize but I did pull up to third place because of your votes!! I can't thank everyone enough for showing your support for me and tossing some votes my way!

Ashley truly deserved to win, and I am not upset about it! She made THIS incredible creation and won by a land slide!!

You guys really rock and truly mean a lot to me!! Thanks for helping me out!!

It is late here and I still have to go back in to work, so the card I made today will have to go up tomorrow! I am starting a five day stretch off tomorrow morning and hope to get lots of stamping done!! Yippee!! I can't wait for tomorrow morning at 7am!!

Good night and may your bucket overflow with sweet dreams!!

I Have a Favor to Ask!

I was so honored to learn that this card that I made was chosen by Unity as the winner of the One Layer Birthday Card contest that was held during their Anniversary celebration last week.

Well, by winning that contest, my card has been put into a Grand Prize contest against 4 other projects that were submitted and won in four different categories.

One lucky winner of the Grand Prize contest is going to win the

Unity Kit of the Month FREE for a whole year!

I would really love to win that!!! You all know how much I adore Unity stamps. I could use my extra savings to buy even more Unity stamps!!

I need your help to win though... according to the poll results, my card is currently in last place. I think it is because I have a disadvantage in that my card was only allowed to use one layer (contest rules) so when you compare my card to some of the others, it just doesn't shine quite as much.

So if you are a member at SplitCoastStampers and wouldn't mind casting a vote my way,

please click HERE to cast your vote.

To vote for me you need to choose the submission called

Unity's One Layer Birthday Card Challenge

The Poll closes at 6pm CST on Tuesday May 12th, so please vote ASAP!!

The other submissions are amazing, so if you would rather vote for them then that is OK too! I just appreciate you considering voting for me!

Thank You!!

Scroll down for my last post including four new masculine birthday cards!

Whoooo Wants to See Some Masculine Birthday Cards??

Bear with me while I am still trying to find my footing back on solid ground after stepping off of the Cloud Nine that I have been flying on since I found out about being accepted onto the SheetLoad DT!! I wish it were August right away! Thankfully though, we are allowed to participate in some of the upcoming challenges that they have going on, so be on the lookout for a lot more SheetLoad stuff in the future!!

I have added the links to all my fellow DT members on the right side of my blog. I would encourage you to visit them... you will find lots of inspiration and talent flowing freely on these ladies' blogs!!

And for a chance to win some blog candy, SheetLoad is offering a chance to win some "fan blog candy" just by becoming a Follower of their blog! Click here to get to their blog and then look for the "Follow" link to sign up!

On to today's cards...

With two masculine birthday cards needing to go out in the mail this week (and also thinking about how smart SheetLoad is to have designed sketches that help you make multiple cards at a time,) I decided to create four similar cards all at once. I will send two of these cards out this week and yet still have two more in my stash for any upcoming guy birthdays! I don't know about you, but the masculine ones are not the ones that come the easiest to me! I have always been a feminine girly girl and love the embellishments that female cards allow options for.

For today's cards, I visited the fabulous gallery of Debbie's Doodles who was the Featured Stamper on SCS yesterday! Here is the card that I chose to case!

And here are the cards that I made using her sketch!

This set uses paper from the Paper Salon 8x8 card pack. My favorite is the one on the left because I think that the contrasting papers work best together.

I have always loved this Owl from Cornish Heritage Farms, but this is the first time I have used it!

This set uses paper from My Mind's Eye, the "My Little Buddy" collection. I have some information to share with you in the future on how to help darker images on dark paper pop on your cards. I learned this the hard way today!! I will share this information with you soon!

Here are some closer views of today's cards...

They all have slight differences in coloration and embellishments, but follow the same sketch and theme!

The Fine Print: DP for the top two: Paper Salon, for the bottom two: MME, CS: SU; Stamps: Owl: Cornish Heritage Farms, Branch: Altered Tree from Unity (Eco Chic), Sentiment: Inky Antics; Ink: Amuse (Black), Versa Magic (Jumbo Java); Markers: Copics, Signo Uniball white opaque marker. Brads: Basic Grey; Asstd Ribbons: Joann's and Michael's; Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (Spots and Dots).

Have a great night from "Owl" of us at the Lander's household! (Couldn't resist continuing with the owl theme!)

May your bucket be overflowing with wonderful memories of the weekend to help you get through the new week!

A Tribute to Motherhood!

As if it being Mother's Day doesn't make today a special enough day, I was surprised and honored to learn this morning that I was chosen as one of the newest DT members for SheetLoad of Cards! (Insert squeal of pleasure here!) I am so happy and excited to have been selected against the fierce competition! I am blown away by the talent that I am going to be working with at SheetLoad for the next term beginning in August! I really appreciate Alicia for giving me this opportunity to share with you my creativity using SheetLoad's sketches! I will do my best to not disappoint!! (How exciting that I will soon be able to check off something else on My Bucket List!)

You can see this month's SheetLoad E-zine HERE and meet the other members chosen to be on the DT by visiting the SheetLoad Blog HERE!

For Mother's Day I wanted to take a moment to reflect on Motherhood! To me, being a mother is fulfilling one of the deepest and most desired aspirations I can ever remember having even from childhood. One of my memories as a young woman (selfish as it may sound) was to be a mother... I remember thinking that even if I had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, I still wanted to be a mother before I died.

I owe those wonderful feelings of motherhood to my own mother who has been such a wonderful inspiration on me and the lives of my family!

The beautiful woman you see pictured here with me is my mom, Sharon. Without a doubt I can honestly tell you that she is the most wonderful person in the world! She is kind and patient, loving and supportive, giving and understanding and a true example of a Christian woman. She walks a personal walk with the Lord that allows her to exude the spirit that only a woman of God can have. Goodness and kindness just oozes out of her being!!

Believe me when I say that though she sounds like a softy, she is far from that! She is also one of the strongest and most independent women that I know. She has had her fair share of hard knocks in life but instead of allowing those things to bring her down, she has let those things spring her into being a more determined person.

Her life has truly been an example to me on how to love others. On how to love unconditionally and on how to forgive... just like Jesus did! It is my prayer as a mother to give my children the same kind of love she gave me and to raise them in such a way that they too will see the importance of being good people in this world.

Mom, I love you so much and thank God for you! I appreciate all you have done for me! You are not only my mother but my dear friend! I love you! Happy Mother's Day!

This morning I had the pleasure of having Mother's Day breakfast with three of my four kids (we missed you Leah!! Love you!!), my husband, my mother, my sister and her boyfriend. Unfortunately my mom had to work today so we couldn't spoil her for the whole day, but it was nice to see her this morning.

Here is a picture of my mom and two generations after her...


From the top, left to right is Tiffany, Ricky and Michelle. Then on the bottom left to right is my sister Michelle (I named my daughter after her!), My mom and me.

Here is one of my favorite most recent pictures of my kids with me at my wedding in November. I think it expresses the joy and love we have for each other...

I can not say enough about how proud I am of my kids! My oldest daughter Michelle is now 24 and is a dispatcher with a local Police Department. My second daughter Leah is 22 and is the one who just graduated from the University of FL and is starting her Master's program, with the eventual goal of becoming a Veterinarian. Tiffany is my third daughter is 18 and will graduate from High School this June and begin pursuing her goal of becoming a Police Officer. And finally, my baby Ricky (sorry son!) is 15 and will be a sophomore in High School next year taking all honors or advanced placement classes! He has dreams of becoming a Marine Biologist in his future!

These kids have made mothering all that I had ever hoped it would be and then some! I love them so very much and am so blessed to have them! I love you kids very much!!

Of course I had to make a card for my mom for Mother's Day! I wanted it to be the most beautiful thing I had ever created to represent how I feel about her. I didn't quite achieve that, but I do love the sentiment that I took from a a card that my best friend Tiffani made for her mom. It was perfect for my mom too since she loves music and plays the autoharp and sings in a folk music band.

Here is the card based on a recent sketch from Card Patterns...

Not all of the detail can be appreciated in this photo, nor does the coloring look right on the screen, but it is in soft subtle colors with accents of gold to represent my mom's heart! I typed the music note from a dingbat font and blew it up really big and then traced it first onto chipboard and then onto shiny gold paper. The heart stamp that is embossed near the sentiment and the Butterfly both come from Unity. The DP is from the Rustic Gem Collection by Diane's Daughters.

Here is a close up...

The sentiment says: "My mom is a neverending song in my heart of comfort, happiness and being. I may sometimes forget the words but I always remember the tune." It is a quote from Graycie Harmon.

Have a very Happy Mother's Day and thanks for stopping by!

May your bucket overflow with the love of a good mother, or the wonderful memories of one! (We miss you Granny Wild!!)

Where'd My Mojo Go??

Sorry for not posting anything over the last couple of days, but I have been sick in bed for the most part! I caught the respiratory crud that is going around (and no it is NOT the Swine Flu! Ha Ha!) and it has left me with no energy and no creative mojo!

I keep coming to my scrap desk shuffling papers around but never coming up with anything worth creating. I think the best thing to do is to step away until it comes back. I have today off and hope to get some creative time in later... we will see how productive I can be!! I have lots to do so I hope it comes back really soon!

I'll be back with a post ASAP!!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with lots of mojo!!

I Won a Stamp Set!!

I am so excited and honored that the card (pictured to the right) that I submitted to SheetLoad for their "Show Us Your SheetLoad" contest in April recieved the most votes!!

This makes me the thrilled winner of a collection of stamps from The Greeting Farm! I am hoping that I will get the Miss Anya collection, but I would take any thing of theirs because all of their stamps are so dang cute!!

Thank you to Alicia and everyone over at SheetLoad who voted for my card! I really appreciate it and you made my day!!

Well, I survived my three day weekend (barely) and went back to work yesterday. I had a busy day at work, but did manage to get in enough time at my scrap table to complete a birthday card for our dear friend Sandi. The card went together very quickly because I CASED this card from Sunday's Featured Stamper, Sparkle, who seems to love Bella stamps as much as I do. She had over 180 cards with Bella images to choose from, plus all kinds of other categories too! If you are looking for inspiration, you should check out her gallery!

Here is the card that I made for Sandi...




The Fine Print: DP: BG Urban Prairie (Ladybug); CS: SU (Baja Breeze, Ruby Red), The Paper Co. (Black); Stamps: Image: Stamping Bella (Cakeabella), Sentiment: Whipper Snapper Designs; Ink: Amuse (Black), ColorBox (Teal); Markers: Copics, Millenium Zig writer; Flowers: Prima (Red ?)and American Crafts (Blue Felt); Brads: Basic Grey; Fiber: JoAnn's by the yard; Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (Swiss Dots).

I changed the colors and DP, but tried to leave the stamped image and the layout the same! Why fix something that ain't broke! Right?? I love this image for Sandi because she is an awesome cake decorator and was the lady who made our wedding cake that was so beautiful!

Here is the picture of the "beach-themed" cake Sandi made for us...

Isn't it beautiful??

It has felt great to get back to stamping after a three day furlough... I was going crazy and now I am behind on all my challenges!! I need to get working on some more of the Unity Celebration cards in hopes of having a chance at winning their grand prize of FREE Unity Kits of the Month for a year!!

Speaking of KOM... I hope my mailman will be delivering my May KOM today! I can't wait to get my hands on that!!

Have a great day and my your bucket overflow with pleasant surprises and good news!!

Celebrating Leah's Graduation!

I don't have much time at all to post anything, but I just had to log on and show you a picture of my daughter Leah who graduated from the University of FL yesterday with a BS in Animal Science. She has plans to pursue a degree in Veterinary medicine and will start her Master's Program this summer.

I am one proud momma!!

Here is a picture of the Graduation card I made her. It just so happens that SCS had a "Ways to Use it Challenge" to incorporate Black on our cards. You can see the challenge here.

The stamps are from Unity and the paper is from PaperTrey Ink. No time to give all the details, but if you have any questions... please leave it in the comments section!

Happy National Scrapbooking Day! We have a big celebration planned for Leah on the lake today, so I will check back in as soon as I can!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with new beginnings in your life!

Unity is Celebrating a Birthday...

...and so are two of my neices!

This is Cassidy my sister's youngest daughter. She is a real sweetheart who is always smiling or laughing. She is a social butterfly and has lots of friends. She is turning 14 on the 3rd.

And this is my brother's daughter Savannah (on the right) with my daughter Tiffany. She is turning 11 on the 5th of May. Another wonderful young lady who is sensitive and sweet as pie!!

The whole family is getting together this weekend to celebrate the birthdays and Leah's College Graduation jointly! It is going to be lot's of fun!

I made a card for Cassidy that fit a couple of challenges that I wanted to share with you! The first challenge is the sketch that comes from Card Patterns this week. Unity was kind enough to sponsor this week's challenge and is offering a stamp set called Tiny Trinity to the winner of the challenge.

Here is a picture of the sketch....

The second challenge this card incorporates is the challenge for day 4 of the Unity Celebration over at SCS. The challenge was to only use one layer of paper on your card. That is so hard for me to do. So I decided that I would have to use my embossing tools to make the card have some dimension. I didn't get my circles perfectly spaced and centered, but I thought the effect was cute anyway.

The Fine Print: CS: GP; Stamps: Unity (Cupcakes and Celebrate sentiment); Ink: Amuse; Markers: Copics; Ribbon: Basic Grey and American Crafts; Embossing Powder: Joann's, Rhinestones: Studio18; Glaze: InkEssential; Glitter: source unknown. Scor-Pal. Nestability.

Happy Birthday Unity... I love your stamps!

Happy Birthday Cass and Savannah I love you both!!

Please excuse me if I can't post for the next couple of days... we are off to Gainesville for Leah's graduation today and then on Saturday we are throwing a big celebration for her graduation and her cousins' birthdays. We have family coming in from out of town and are expecting a wonderful weekend!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with celebrations of all sorts!!