A Challenging Week! More Valentine Cards!

Hello Everyone and sorry for the delay in blogging! Sometimes life just gets in the way and there is nothing I can do about it! It has been very busy for me lately at work and on top of that I have been working hard to get my Valentine's done and ready for mailing. Here are some of the cards that I have already finished up! I utilized many of the awesome challenges that are posted throughout the week on lots of the sites and blogs I visit!

No offense to my daughter Tiffany, but this is her card this year! The sketch for this comes from Julee's MojoMonday Sketch challenge #72. If you haven't signed up for her blog yet, she gives out great sketches every Monday! I always forget to go back and sign up for the contests! I hate when I do that!

This is one of my attempts at a masculine card for my son. I used Nichole Heady's connect the dots sketch for this one. Unfortunately I didn't get my photo uploaded on her site fast enough to have a chance at winning all those yummy ribbons she is giving away. Somebody is going to be very lucky!

This was another attempt at masucline! The sketch is from SCS Sketch Challenge 215 I don't know about this card's masculinity though, it does have a bow and even some pink and polka dots! LOL!

This card is going to our grandkids! They are as sweet as cupcakes!! You can click here to see what inspired me to create this card. This was a SCS Inspiration Challenge IC166 from this past Saturday!

This is an Asian themed valentine. I Can't tell you who it is for! This card was created from SCS Challenge TLC205 last week using paper pleating.

Here is the inside of the Asian card!

This one goes to my daughter up in Gainesville! Get it? Go Gators!!! This card is based on the SCS Sketch Challenge SC214

This is to my oldest daughter! I really like how this recessed window turned out. I took the SCS technique challenge TLC206 last week and made this one!

So, that is part of what has been keeping me busy! I am having lots of fun getting these ready, but I am starting to want to change to a new color palate while making cards. The pinks and reds are getting old!! :-)

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with many Valentine's from your loved ones!!

Kelly :-)

BRRR!! I need to warm up! And Lori's blog challenge!

My coach for the triathlon training group I am in at the Y actually made us get in the pool and swim this morning. It was only one degree away from it being cold enough to keep us out of the pool. So the air temp was in the 50's with a pretty good wind chill, but the pool water was only 79 degrees! My teeth were just a chattering this morning and my feet are still cold!!

My plans for today are to have lunch with two of my good friends from work. Melissa, my fellow tri partner and I are taking Michelle out for her birthday which was last Friday! I am looking forward to some sushi!! That will warm me right up... just have to add enough wasabi!!

I also need to finish some more Valentine's Day cards today! It is getting a little late and I want to make sure I have a little something special for my kids, neices, and my grandkids! (Wow, I still can't believe that I am a grandma now!)

In the meantime I wanted to share with you some recent layouts I have completed. I had the pleasure of spending the whole day yesterday with Tiffani since both of our husbands were out of town. We had a scrapbooking slumber party and got some layouts going. It is so fun to have a best friend that shares in my passions with me! We have such fun together!

First (Legal) Drink

The Fine Print: DP: Sassafrass Lass; CS: Bazzill (Gray), Sam's Club (white); Scalloped Borders: BG; Purple Felt Flowers: Joann's dollar bin; Red Flower: Heidi Swapp; Purple Rhinestones: Target dollar spot; Computer Font: High Tower Text; Stamp: Martini Glass Michael's dollar bin, Circle Punch, Scalloped circle Nestability; Adhesive: Glue Glider; Copic Markers; and Letter Stickers: Fusion BG.

The Climber

The Fine Print: DP: BG; CS: Bazzill, Tree electronic die cutting file: Wishblading Well, Spring Bucket; Silk leaves: unknown, Title font: don't remember; Journaling font: Comic Sans; Chalk: Inkadinkadoo.

Best Friends

The Fine Print: CS: DCWV (white), The Paper Co. (royal blue), Paper Loft (dusty blue); DP: Heidi Grace Designs; Rubons: Maya Road; Paper Flowers: Brides collection from Michael's (dots added to the center with copic marker); Stamps: You Make My Heart Happy: SU Friendship Blooms, Friend Defined: SU Lexicons of Love, Friends: Inkadinkadoo; Chipboard Letters: Lil Davis Designs; Computer Font: Monotype Corsiva; Ink: Amuse Black; Adhesive: Glue Glider, and glue dots.

Hello Daddy?

The Fine Print: DP: BG, CS: Bazzill (orange), Sam's club (white); Border Punch: Fiskars; Computer Font: Wendy Medium; Stamp: Essential Sentiments from My Favorite Things; Flowers: Bazzill; Buttons: ?; Chipboard accents: Fancy Pants; Paint: Heidi Swapp (white); Glitter: Joann's; Spiral Sticker: Sticko; Ink: SU.

Here are some closeup's showing the detail of the chipboard pieces which I painted with white paint and then sprinkled with glitter before it dried. To the button above I added a sticker!

And, one last thing!

My friend Lori (you might remember her from the Wishblading Well's DT) (Edited to add the link to Lori's blog!)had a really cool challenge posted on her blog that was put out by her aunt. The challenge goes like this...

Open My Pictures, go the the sixth folder, then go to the sixth folder in that folder, and keep doing this until you reach an actual photo! And then post the photo on your blog and explain a bit about it!

Well, here was the only photo in the fifth (July) folder (didn't have six) of the sixth folder (2006) in My Pictures! Turns out that this photo was out of place and had to be reorganized. So I am glad that I found the photo through this challenge!! LOL!

This is a picture of two of my kids; Ricky and Tiffany. They are tubing in the lake behind Chad and Tiffani's house in Land O' Lakes, FL This picture was taken in July 2006. That is Tiff's house in the background and I think that is her in blue walking up to the house! :-)

Thanks for the fun challenge Lori!

Have a great day and may your bucket overflow with great ideas for your next scrapbook layout! :-)

Valentine Cards

Hello friends!


I have been having a lot of fun lately making time for more scrapbooking and card making. As you know I am trying to get out birthday cards for all my family and close friends all year long, but I am also trying to send out cute cards to some special people for the holidays.


Since Valentine's Day is quickly approaching, I have been working on those lately.


Here are two that I have completed so far.

The Fine Print: DP: K & Co.; CS: Bazzill; Acetate embellishments: K & Co.; Heart Buttons: Michael's; Scalloped Circles: Nestability; Doily: Royal Lace; Brads: Doodlebug, Felt Heart border: Martha Stewart (Michael's); Rub Ons: Not sure.

The Fine Print: DP: K & Co.; CS: Bazzill; Acetate embellishments: K & Co.; Flowers: Prima and not sure of one with rhinestones; Rhinestones: Joann's; Ribbon: American Crafts ?; Border Punch: Martha Stewart; Stmaps: Hugs and Kisses by Inkadinkadoo, Kisses and Hugs (XO used for background paper) by Printworks; Chalk: Inkadinkadoo; Ink: Versamark.

I will post more as I get them ready!

Have a great day and may your bucket always overflow with love!

Kelly :-)

Our Kitchen Got a Face Lift!! (I wish I could! LOL!)

Hello there!!

For the last couple of days our house has been in shambles! All of our kitchen belongings have been strewn across our formal living room and dining nook while our cabinets have been getting refaced. We got a deal recently from Home Depot that we couldn't pass up that offered delayed interest and no payments for a year! So we decided now was the time to get our kitchen cabinets refaced. We chose a pretty medium toned maple wood laminate that really does look like wood. I have been wanting this done forever, and I am so happy that we now have these new cabinets! It was a pain to have the kitchen torn apart for a few days, but it was worth it!





Here are some of the before pictures of our kitchen...

This first one is the way it looked before we bought it! Can you believe how awful that blue wall coloring was??? What were they thinking? Supposedly the husband was color blind and didn't realize how horrible his color selections were. The house was full of wierd colors. It took us a week of painting before we could even move in!





That is my daugther Michelle sitting on the kitchen counter!

These next pictures show the kitchen cabinets before they were refaced but after we had fixed them and the kitchen walls up when we moved in. Much improvement, but they still needed some help. The paint that I had painted over the light pink oak trim was starting to peel off in high contact areas and the cabinet doors were starting to have trouble closing in certain places.

Now here are the after pictures of the newly refaced cabinets!!!!









Scroll down while the drumrolls.....

So by late in the evening on Saturday we had everything put back away and we are still in shock everytime we enter the kitchen! I am so happy that we did this! It will definitely help the resale value whenever we decide to sell the house!

SCS Challenge with Alcohol! And a FREE cutting File!

Hi Everybody!!

When I saw Thursday's challenge on SCS, I knew that I wanted to participate. The challenge from Julia for the "Way To Use It" was to use alcohol in your project. It didn't matter if you used alcohol inks like Tim Holtz's ranger inks, or your alcohol pens like Copics, or if you used images that related to alcohol, like wine glasses etc. I even think it was OK if you just consumed alcohol while you were doing your project! LOL! You just had to use alcohol somehow!

Well with a couple of masculine birthday cards in need for early next week, and with one of the recipients turning 21, I figured a bday card with a big beer mug was in order.

Here is the card I created for the challenge...

The Fine Print: DP: Basic Grey; CS: Bazzill; Vellum: The Paper Co.; Hardware: MM; Ribbon: not sure; Beer Mug die cut out on KNK; Ink: Amuse black ink, Top Boss embossing ink; Embossing Powder: Stamp La Jolla Snowy embossing powder; Paint: Heidi Swapp white acrylic; Stamp: SU Lots of Thought.

Here are the details of the foam I made for the beer. I stamped my embossing inkpad directly onto this die cut piece and then ended up adding three layers of snowy embossing powder heating it after each addition. It made the piece get very dimensional! My embossing powder is pink and for some reason it did not become clear, so I ended up having to paint on white acrylic paint to the top of it! It thought it came out really nicely!

This is the inside of the card! I used another SU background stamp that I tried to make it look like bubbles were popping to go along with the Happy "Burp"day sentiment! It was fitting for beer I thought! I am usually all sentimental, so this was a bit different for me to go whimsical and comical!

I hope the recipients will like it!

Now I have a FREE file for you....

I made the cutting file and cut it out on my KNK and that is what is attached to the front of the card as the main image. The glass portion of the mug is cut from vellum so it has that frosty glass appearance. I even scored it on my Scorepal to make the edges of the glass appear like those faceted beer mugs that you often see in bars. For the foam, I used snow embossing powder in three layers. Then I painted it with white since my pink embossing ink didn't disappear after I used it. :-(

I want to share with you the cutting file for FREE that I made for this card. It is zipped into all formats, so you guys can use it no matter what type of cutter you have. Enjoy!

Click on the beer mug image to go to the download site.

Have a great day and may your bucket be overflowing with the things you love!

Kelly :-)

CD Case Calendars

Hi Everyone!

I never got a chance yesterday to blog, or for that matter even have much time to check email. It was a very busy day at work between my two hospitals. In total I attended seven deliveries in 24 hours. My body aches today! I hope it proves to be a better day today!

Before January gets away from us all together, I wanted to tell you about what one of my resolutions is this year! It's not a new one, it is one I try (but usually fail) to do each year! LOL!
In an effort to stay in better touch with my loved ones, I have put in place a system so that I can send out birthday and other occasional cards as the need arises. I decided to make a calendar that can be inserted into a CD case and displayed at my desk that will tell me all the important dates for the month. I have highlighted all the birthdays and holidays and also included photos of my family members who have their birthday or anniversary during that month.


Here are pictures of this year's calendars that I made. I had so much fun with my daughter Leah one weekend when she was home over the Christmas/ New Year holidays. She made a calendar for herself too. Hers was all Orange and Blue in Gator themes! It was adorable!

The Fine Print: DP: Scenic Route collection; CS: The Paper Co, and Bazzill; Brads: MM, Doodlebug; Flowers: Prima, MM and other unsure ones; Stamps: Hero Arts Months collection and Technique Tuesday Shadows, Rings and Little Things; Ink: SU; Nestabilities for frames and mats and Circle Punch.

On the back of each calendar page I have listed the days of the month where I have hand written in the birthdays or special occurrences for that month. I keep the list of special dates for the upcoming month out so that I can use it as a guide to help me prepare my cards for the next month so that they are ready to deliver on time.

I have to get cracking on a couple masculine cards this weekend! I have some to mail out next week already!!

If you are interested in making your own CD case calendar,

Here are step by step directions with pictures to show you how to turn a regular CD case into your calendar stand...

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/calendar-instructions.php

Paper Trey Ink also sells special cases that don't have the space where the insert usually goes. You might prefer to buy this type rather than use a standard CD case...

http://www.papertreyink.com/pack_cdcalendarcases.html

Here is a site where you can download calendar templates for free. Or if you would like some like mine, I can send you a PowerPoint Presentation that I have saved on my computer that you could use to print your own. Just email me or comment here if you would like that.

http://www.pbase.com/455rocket/cd_case_calendars

Here is an example of another person's sample from the Stamping Studio...

http://www.thestampingstudio.com/new/classes/class3.htm

Have a great day and may your bucket always be overflowing with things that bring you joy!

Kelly :-)

Our Wedding Day and my first Wedding Album Layout!

November 15th, 2008 was one of the happiest days of my life! I married the man I have waited a long time to find... the one I feel I was destined to spend the rest of my life with. Despite the fact that my dad couldn't make it to the ceremony or reception because his wife was very ill, and despite the fact that the weather was cold and windy, it was still a very beautiful ceremony!

We were married on Honeymoon Island in Dunedin, FL at sunset. Thankfully we had taken pictures for the wedding the week prior, when the weather was cooperating and the sunset was breathtaking and not obscured by clouds! You will see below a sampling of photos from both the photo shoot day and the actual ceremony below!

This shot was taken the week before the wedding.

What a beautiful sunset it was!

I should mention here that our good friends John and Brenda took these and most of our wedding photos for us. It was their gift to us for our wedding and we can't thank them enough. John is an accomplished photographer and his wife proved to be very talented at photography as well!

Another pre-wedding photo without the sunset behind us! We 'borrowed" the arch that was left there by a previous wedding! The torches were ours.

The actual wedding day getting ready to walk down the aisle!

See my dress just blowing in the breeze?

In attendance were our family (even Tom's kids from the other coast of FL and my aunt Cindy who surprised us all the way from MI), and many of our close friends. There were approximately 200 guests invited so it wasn't small, but still felt quaint and personal.

Standing at the altar during the ceremony.

Here is a shot of the decorations for the beach. Notice how windy it is!!

Along with the help of my daughter Leah, Tom and my friend Tiffani, I painstakingly made all the invitations and decorations for the beach. (See I told you I have been busy! LOL!)

We bought the arch from Michael's and wrapped it in organza and attached the wreath I made for it. We added two palms and two tiki torches that were decorated to match and also had tables for the sand ceremony and blessing stones (to be explained in a later posting.) Ricky and Tom's nephew Dustin raked the sand into a path for us and we added some conch shells to the base of the torches. It was very tropical!

As promised, I have a layout to share with you. I am very excited to make my wedding album! While in Vegas Tom took me to a LSS where I bought a zillion things to have for the honeymoon portion of our album. And then recently, Tiffani and I went to Whimsodoodle and bought tons of things for the album too!

Here are the colors that the album will have in it. I wanted to keep everything in the subtle colors that you would find on the beach, around the water and in the sunset. So the album will be using tans, peaches, oranges, blues and greens.

These colors are so yummy!!

Here is the first layout I made for our wedding album.

The large embellishment on the right side uses actual pieces from the arch decoration we used in the wedding.

Title: Decorating the Beach

Journaling:

"Driving to Honeymoon Island to prepare the beach for the wedding, the rain clouds were looming over us. As it rained briefly my stress level hit the roof. I realized that I had no control over the weather, but I could control the placement of the handmade decorations I had so lovingly prepared for our union. We were so thankful for Chad and Tiffani, Steve and Susan and Leah, Dustin and Ricky who braved what felt like hurricane force winds to drape organza, anchor the arch and torches and sweep a beautiful aisle. Despite Mother Nature, we created a beautiful tropical paradise for our wedding!

Fine Print: PP: Basic Gray; CS: Stampin Up (Sage Shadow and Barely Banana), Bazzill (Orange); Dried flowers and silk leaves from Michael's; Paper Flowers: Bazzill, Kaiser, and Prima; Brads: Creative Cafe; Ribbon: May Arts.

I'm Back! I have been a very bad blogger!!!

I can't believe that over six months has passed since I last posted a blog here! I told you from the very beginning that I have a problem with moderation! It seems whenever I get interested in something it consumes me to the point of not being able to keep up with everything else.

It (again) is one of my New Year's Resolutions! I will try and do better at being moderate in all things I do. Please hang in there with me as I keep working on this one!

There is so much to tell you about! A lot has changed since we last chatted! Let me give you the run down and then in future posts I will share some more details! But suffice it to say that it has been a whirlwind during the last quarter of 2008 and I am so thankful that 2009 is proving to be more relaxed and allowing me time to do some of the things I love like scrapbooking and card making!

If you have gotten here from The Wishblading Well site then thanks so much for visiting. You know that one of the things that happened is that Tiffani and I decided to close our online store selling cutting files and sell them at Paperthreads. This move in itself has allowed us a lot more free time to do all the things we love to do. See for yourself what I have found time to do!

Since my last post...

I trained for and finished my first Triathlon! I even placed third in my age group! :-)

I ran in my second triathlon!

I got married to Tom! My match.com made in Heaven!!


We honeymooned in Vegas baby!!

We got back right in time for Thanksgiving!

Then of course Christmas followed three short weeks later!

I don't know about you, but I have been exhausted!!

I hope you will find the time to keep up with me as I try to moderate my life and enjoy the things that keep spilling out of my bucket!!

Have a great day!!