Happy Birthday Judi

My dear friend and SU demo, Judi, has a birthday today! I worked on her present(s) this weekend, but I can't show everyone because she hasn't seen them yet. I told her I'm holding them hostage until I see the new SU catalog - I'm not really. I really excited to giver her her gifts, because I know she'll love them.

I'm Making a Trip to the Vet Today

Tarzan had a bath last night, poor guy. He is nice and sweet smelling and soft today. I'm off to the vet today to get some of the magical flea stuff. It's expensive, but it works so well. Just so everyone doesn't think we tortured the poor guy - he did get a little tuna when he was done.

Sunday is a Good Day for Creating

My online friend, Kimmie, issued another challenge this weekend. I did her long card challenge last week. And this week, she challenged us to create a card using pastels and black. I had the barely banana and creamy caramel out for a SCS color challenge, so I used those. The stamps I used are my first Studio G clear stamps that I found in the dollar bin at Micheal's this weekend. The flower is stamped in real red and the stem in sage shadow. The image is matted on black. The greeting is stamped in black and accented with a couple of black brads. You can't see in the photo, but I also stamped the flower in barely banana along the top of the card. The caramel strip is stamped with the SU crosshatch background. Kimmie is right - a little bit of black makes the whole card "pop".

I sent out some happy mail this week

I meant to post these cards earlier in the week. One of my sisters-in-law had some surgery this week, so my parents had two of their granddaughters for the week. I made the girls some cards so they would get some mail at Grandmas. The mail is so slow, I hope the cards got there before the girls left this weekend. The barely banana and lavender lace card was for Sydney and the pretty in pink and regal rose card was for Sarah. I used the SU set Wild About You.

The chicken card went to Mom and my recuperating SIL, Kirsten. I used the SU set Best of Cluck ( I love chickens) with a kraft base card and blush blossom, bashful blue, and certainly celery strips of card stock and a chocolate chip mat for the chicken image. The zig zag stitching is a stamp - I don't sew!

Relax and Enjoy Your Day

My online friend, Kimmie, posted a challenge to make a LONG card. I'd never made one that was long, so I decided to give it a try. I used a base of Barely Banana that is 8.5x8. I stamped the beach chair from shore thing after I colored it with markers to get the two tone, and matted it with Ballet Blue. The pattern paper is SU Sarah. I made a scallop border with a punch and some Certainly Celery paper. The greeting is from Riveting and says Enjoy Your Day. It is stamped in Ballet Blue on Barely Banana and punched out. And, as always, a little ribbon to finish it off. I mailed out a ton of cards yesterday, but didn't have a good place to send this one. The perfect occasion will come up soon I'm sure. I'll post the rest of the cards that got mailed out yesterday later in the week - I want to let the recipients get them before I post.

Wishing You Well

Miss Stanly County is in Raleigh this week for the Miss North Carolina Pageant. They have a couple of practice days and then several nights of competition. This is the first card I sent Sara. The card base is 4x4 Certainly celery with a Rose Red layer stamped with the Crosshatch background. The center of the flower is Wishing You Well from the Riveting stamp set. A little celery ribbon finishes it off. I thought it was a fresh, young card to send a young woman.

I made a bunch of cards this weekend, so I'll have lots to show you this week.

Happy Father's Day

For once I was on the ball and got my Father's Day cards made AND sent ahead of time. Tim still hasn't seen his, but I will post a photo anyway. I didn't get my Dad's gift sent. I made it several months ago - and forgot! It's been boxed up, and it got buried. It'll get shipped on Monday.

The card is made with an old SU stamp set called Espress Yourself, and the background stamp is Crosshatch. The coffee cups and beans are stamped in basic brown ink, and I colored the coffee cups with my markers. The card base is Old Olive and the layers are Certainly Celery and Elegant Eggplant. The design is from a SCS sketch challenge, and the colors I used are a SCS color challenge.

Tim was going to ride today, but we had a big storm over night - lightning thunder and hail. I laid in bed worrying about my new roof and my new car. But this morning, it looks like the tomato plants were the only things injured.

So happy Father's Day to my Dad, Dennis; my husband Tim who is a wonderful father to Dylan; and to my brothers Joe and Jim who are the best Dad's to Sarah and Sydney, and Hannah and Matthew.

It Was a Hot Weekend

It was in the low 90's all weekend, so I tried to stay cool inside. Tim went riding Sunday, so I had some time to make some cards - lots of birthdays this month. The hot weather made me think of orange and pink, so I used those two colors and a Bella image from my friend Kimmie for a couple cards. They look like summer to me - flowers and hot, bright colors.

I did venture out Sunday afternoon to attend the wardrobe showing of Miss Stanly County. She is a beautiful young lady. The Miss NC competition will be next week, so think good thoughts for Sara. Here she is in her interview suit (Jeff, her "paparazzi" took this photo).

It's Graduation Time

All the high schools are graduating today here in Stanly County. My friend Judi's youngest daughter, Sara, is graduating at 1:00 pm. I made this card for her. I used the Happy Harmony stamp set in her school colors - real red and bliss blue with whisper white. I used my real red and old olive markers for the flowers. The background was stamped in Versa Mark and I mixed clear embossing powder and dazzling diamonds and embossed - so the background is sparkly. I used my red marker to color the words from different phrase stamps. The words didn't come out perfectly since they are stamped over the embossing. I'm so happy with how it turned out.

Dylan has been out of school for over a week now. He is now a JUNIOR! And my two nieces, Sarah and Hannah will now be second graders. I guess since all the kids are out of school, it must be summer.