Mother's Day...this is the last group

Hi Friends! How are you doing? It has been a while hasn't it? May always seems to be such a busy month! Haley's last day of school is tomorrow. Yep...one more day and then she will officially be a sophomore! Sidney's last day of school was last Wednesday so she is now a 7th grader! Man I can't believe that my girls are growing up so fast!
Sidney is going to summer camp again this summer, this will be her last summer to go, she is really looking forward to going this last year. Both of the girls attended this camp for 4 years it is such a great way for a kid to spend the summer. It's a day camp and they do tons of fun activities with the kids and they get so much exercise that they are usually pretty wore out at the end of the day! Good stuff huh?
Haley is going to have a very busy summer this year. She has decided to volunteer for YESS camp, which is a camp for the mentally handicapped. She will be working for half a day at school helping with whatever the teacher needs assistance with and then the rest of the day they play games and other activities. On Fridays they have a field trip to a fun place...swimming, horseback riding, etc. Then she will have Color Guard Camp and practices every week and let's not forget about golf! I am tired thinking about it! *wink*

Here are the last few Mother's Day cards I made. The paper on this first card is from SU, I have actually had this paper for 2 years! Sick isn't it? But hey...I pulled it out and am using it that's good right? The stamp set is from Verve Visual. I used the stamp off technique so that the color was a little faded looking for the flowers. You can't really tell in the picture but I used clear embossing powder on the Happy Mother's Day phrase, then inked the edges up a little bit to soften it up.

This is the card that I made for my mom. The paper is Making Memories but don't try to find it because it is also several years old...LOL! For this one I used my markers to ink up the stamp so that I could make the stems one color and the flowers another color. The verse is from the same Verve Visual stamp set I have used on all the Mother's Day cards. The little butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch and to bling it up a bit I used some green stones in the middle. I picked up the crochet lace at Hobby Lobby...I was so excited because I wasn't even thinking about this card when I got it...LOVE IT!

This is a playful little card that I made for a gal at work to give her daughter. It was so simple but I loved the youthful look. The border punch is...you guessed it Martha Stewart. You would think that with all the snappy punches Martha has that she would have an awesome personality...CRAZY!



Well guess what I am doing now? You guessed it...I am trying to come up with Father's Day card designs. I have such a hard time with masculine cards. I need to work on our little granddaughter's scrapbook. She will be turning 1 next month and we are having a birthday party for her here with all of the family so I would like to get caught up so that they can look at how much she has changed! We shall see how far I get on that idea! There just aren't enough hours in the day are there?

Thanks for peekin' in on me! If I don't get something posted this weekend I hope you have a happy and safe memorial weekend where ever you are!

Grandma Cards

Hi friends! Holy cow! We had some very strange weather here this evening. They were predicting that tonight could be just right for super cell storms producing large hail and tornadoes. Around 4:30 today I decided the weather was looking pretty ominous so I decided to head home for the day. I pulled out of the parking garage where I work and got a few blocks away and the tornado sirens fired up. There was a tornado on the ground about 40 miles south west of town. It would be so easy to get crazy and panic and believe me my heart was pounding but I decided to say a few prayers and ask the Lord to get me home safely...that is exactly what he did! In fact my DH drove in at the same time as I did. My mom was here with the girls and they had everything ready downstairs...flashlight, doggie, dog food...just waiting for us! So we watched everything for a while and we got a lot of crazy rain but missed the hail (thank God!). Tornadoes were all around us and they kept popping up here and there but after about an hour the weather cleared up and the sun came out. Funny how fast things got crazy and then left just as fast. Unfortunately I don't think the people in Oklahoma are as fortunate tonight! God be with you all!

Here are a few of the cards I made for Grandma's for Mother's day. This first one was so simple! The buttons made me think of a Grandma! I cut a slit with my exacto knife and fed the ribbon through the card and tied in the front. I really like that idea...it would look great with wider ribbon too. The white card stock in the middle is punched out using one of my new border punches. I had seen it in all the magazines and have been looking for it everywhere but couldn't find it here locally, so I called up those fabulous gals at Scrapfunattic and asked if they could order it for me. Fiskars carries a version of this punch but I really don't care for the Fiskars border punches because I just don't think they are a quality product. This punch is actually from EK Success and I am sorry but I don't remember what it's called! However I also found out that EK makes Martha Stewart punches...figures...I love the quality of her punches too!

So as you can see...I used the punch here on this card too and then did a little "foe" stitching on the side.

These next cards are very similar and this first one reminds me of my sweet little grandma. I really like the colors they are so cheery and springy. The white side of the card was made with the swiss dot embossing folder and the cuddle bug.

Thanks for peeking in! I hope you are all safe this evening!

Mother's Day Cards & Birthdays...

Hi friends...how you doing? The weather here has been so beautiful for the last week! I love it! I have been doing very well getting my walking exercise in almost every day...hopefully just talking about it won't jinx me and I will keep it up! I would love to shed about 10 pounds...just wanna be a little happier me...know what I mean?

It has been so busy around here lately with the girls birthdays and school activities and ...do you remember that basement bathroom project I started several weeks ago? I decided to tile the bathroom floor? Yep, well I called my dad to come over and help me with cutting the tile around those tricky parts then we pulled the toilet up to tile nicely around that area and well nothing ever goes as planned in this old house...needless to say things broke and we had to get a few new pieces. Dad and I thought we could fix it but after fiddling with the toilet for the whole day we decided to call a plumber friend of the family and he worked us in and was able to come out tonight and put everything together! Yay! Now all I need to do is fix up the walls and we are good to go! I will take pictures when I finish.

Now onto some creative fun. Here are a few more Mother's Day cards that I put together this week. This is still the same stamp set I purchased from Verve Visual...it's called Because of You...such a beautiful set! Even though I bought it for Mother's Day cards I can see how versatile this set would be to use for other cards too. This first card was fairly simple the time consuming part was cutting all the little petals out for the flowers but they really make the card, don't cha think? I used the Giga and Mega Marvy large punches for the circle and scallop.



I think I am going to make this next card for my mom for Mother's Day. She saw it laying there on the floor and she said I love that! I am sure your mother really shouldn't pick out her mother's day card but what the heck! At least I will know that she likes it!



Here are a few pictures from Haley's birthday. I can't believe that she is 15! I blinked and she turned into a beautiful young woman. I remember when she used to play dress up and play with baby dolls!

Dad got her first pair of golf shoes...you think she was happy?  LOL!

Here are pictures from Sidney's birthday, she just turned 12! I can't believe she is almost a teenager! She cracks me up...she is so crafty like me. She made the invitations for her party to hand out at school.




We were so lucky because Whitney and Lena were here for Sidney's birthday!  Here is a picture of Angelina having a big cookie with frosting!  Momma wasn't too sure about all this mess!

Thanks for peekin' in my friends.  Hope you are having a great week so far!  Take care of you!

Maaaa....

Hi friends! How are you this evening? What a nice evening to just sit out and enjoy the peace and quiet! We have been so busy around here lately! With the school year wrapping up just around the corner there are plenty of school activities that have been keeping us busy and the girls birthdays are so close together so April and May are always busy with that and then there's mothers day! Speaking of mother's day...I have had a total of 55 orders for mother's day cards! I was so excited and surprised at the same time! Last Saturday I didn't have anything going on (if you can imagine that) and thought I would begin working on all the cards. I thought with the whole day I should be able to crank the cards out...I even had all my sketches ready to go. Would you believe that I had absolutely NO creative mojo what so ever? It was so weird. I was so mad! Then Sunday morning rolls around (we weren't going to church until that evening) so I got up and said my morning prayers and asked the Lord to please have mercy and help me! He answered my prayers because I finished 22 cards by late afternoon on Sunday! Here are a few cards that were part of that group.

I used a fabulous new stamp set that I got from Verve Visual...wonderful online store.


The "Happy Mother's Day" used on this card was also from Verve Visual but it is sold by itself.



All of the Mother's Day cards I made thus far have been done with paper I already had in my stash. Is that good...or sick that I have that much paper. After I stopped working at the scrapbook store I realized how much stuff I had that I hadn't even started to use and I decided that it was simply greedy to keep buying and not using it up. I always thought that I had to have the most current paper designs to keep up with the trends. While it is nice to get the new stuff coming out people that don't scrapbook or paper craft, that buy my cards, don't know if the paper is from this year or 4 years ago...and I haven't had any complaints on the cards yet!

Well thanks for peekin in friends! Hope you have a great weekend! ~Toni

Super Mom

Hi friends! Can you believe how fast the month of April is flying by? Mother's Day is just around the corner so I thought I would take the opportunity to tell my co-workers that I was selling cards for this wonderful day. I work with a lot of men so I took advantage that...most men are looking at the last minute for a card so I simply told them hey fellas, do you want to earn some brownie points with the wife? Let me make a beautiful Mother's Day card for you and you can tell her that you had it handmade for her." How special is that? Well let me tell you...there must be a lot of guys that need to earn brownie points because I have 45 orders for cards! Yes I am completely serious! Isn't that great! I am so excited and the best part is I got this great idea in plenty of time to make the cards and not stress out about it! In fact here is one of my cards. I have had this beautiful little Bella stamp for a few years and I have mainly used it for birthday cards but as I was sitting here one day thinking of card designs I remembers this little lady and thought it would make a great Mother's Day card. I am so proud of my coloring job. She was colored with Copic markers and I outlined her boots, outfit and cape with a white gel pen...doesn't that add a great little touch? I used a grey color for just a slight hint of color where she's standing. If you click on the image you can see the detail a bit better.



Thanks for peekin' in today! I love to hear from you! Hope you can get out and enjoy some of this beautiful weather!

He is Risen

Hi Everyone! Have you enjoyed this beautiful weather that we were blessed with this weekend? I sure have! Do you like the 80's tunes?  I switched the music up a bit for a while!  I love the 80's /90's music, it's what I grew up on in highschool! 
 Both of my girls were gone this weekend so I had some time to myself. I love having some free time every now and then but you know what? I love being a mom! I miss them so much when they are gone! My DH (dear husband) had to help out at the Shriner Circus on Saturday evening so I had the whole day and most of the evening alone. I decided to retile the basement bathroom floor. Are you laughing? You see I have this wild hair issue, and you never know when it's going to strike! Last year we had some plumbing issues in the wall in the basement bathroom and had to remove a whole wall to fix some leaky pipes. We had carpet in there but ended up having to tear it out and after finishing the sheetrock and redoing the ceiling decided to wait a while before doing anything else to it, after all it's the basement bathroom, normally it's just us that see it anyway. But none the less I was thinking I needed to tackle this job. So I went to Lowes and picked out the tile (the linoleum sticky back kind) and began laying that tile. This is a tough job, mainly because it is a killer on your knees, but I think all the up and down really gave my lower body a work out *bonus*. I asked my dad to come over and measure and cut tiles on the tricky ones and am happy to say we are almost done with the project! Yey me! Once I get it completely done I will have to share pictures with you.  I am going to do some fun texture painting on the walls with colored glaze!

On to some creative cards...this is the last of my Easter creations. These next two cards were made with one of my new stamp sets called Easter Elegance from Verve Visual. This was the first time that I had ordered from them. I really like their stamps! Their website has so many talented people too! One the first card I used the masking technique for the row of colored eggs at the top.



The cross stamp and sentiment used on this next card is from the same set. The cross is so pretty and I really liked it because I could see myself using it for other projects not just Easter...gotta love those cards that really give you a lotta bang for your buck huh?

This card has to be one of my favorites! All made from scraps from a project I did last year! It's so simple but so fun. You know sometimes I forget that the simple little cards can be the prettiest!

Well hope this little post finds you happy and well! Thanks for peekin' in my friend! Have a good week!

Card Supplies:
Stamps: Verve Visual - Easter Elegance
Ink: SU - chocolate chip, bordering blue, certainly celery, barely banana, rose red, orchid opulence
Tools: martha stewert's heart border punch
Other: ribbons, patterned paper 

Bunny Love

Hi everyone! How are you this evening? Did you have a Happy Easter? Wasn't the weather beautiful? The Lord sure did bless us this year with gorgeous weather! Speaking of weather we sure are having some strange weather here, when I got home from work we kept hearing this rolling thunder for about half an hour. It was freaky, I had never heard anything like it...then it started hailing!

Moving on...this is a fun little Easter card that I made using a new Easter set purchased from Ellen Hutson's online store called Hey Chickie (by Cornish Farms). I colored everything with colored pencils and copic markers. The patterned paper is actually left overs from another project...bonus...doesn't it give you such a good feeling when you can use up your scraps? Do you like the little scallop on the tan on the side? It is an new Martha Stuart boarder punch called Cornice, also purchased from Ellen Hutson. This was the first time that I had ordered from her and she is just simply wonderful! Her turn around time after ordering is excellent...check them out!


Well, thanks for peekin' in. I sure do love when you visit! Hope you have a great week and the weekend is here before you know it!