Fan's Cricket

Good Morning! It is almost Friday, yeah the weekend is almost here. Anyone have exciting plans? The Downtown Library is having a Scottish celebration on Saturday and I think we are going to try and go there for a couple of hours. According to the schedule it looks like there will several different events going on, so that should be fun and something a little different. Since we are trying to be healthier our eating out isn't happening very much so we have been looking for alternatives that allow us to go out and do something fun without blowing all our hard work during the week. Then on Sunday Kip is going to see Rush in concert and I may plan a girl's night with my SIL.

Now on to the card! The challenge this week on Mo's Challenge Blog is Buttons and Bows. I used the image Fan's Cricket for my card today and colored her with Copic markers. My bow looks a little dark here, I have a hard time photographing bows when I use black ribbon. The paper is from DCWV's Far East paper pack. I love that paper and think I bought at least two of all the sizes it came in, its definitely one of my all time favorite paper packs. The ribbon and the bows both came from Hobby Lobby, I think. I have had those buttons forever. I bought a huge bag of black buttons to make some projects with a long time before I started stamping. I found the bag when I was organizing my stuff last month. Oh the things we find when we clean!

Hopping Down the Bunny Trail

I am so excited that I am finally starting to see some signs of spring around here. Even though it has rained for the past few days, it has still been much nicer now that the mercury is moving up on the thermometer. One of my favorite things to do it sit on the porch in the mornings or evening with a good book and a cup of tea of coffee. It is time that I can do that again, and for that I am grateful. I have been pulling out spring papers and embellishments too. I love this little House Mouse stamp and wanted to make sure it gets plenty of use this year for Easter. It was colored with Copics, I used DCWV papers, a Fiskars grass punch and some ribbon from Hobby Lobby.

My husband and I were talking last night about musicians that we really like. He is going to see Rush in concert this weekend and he was saying that he couldn't really pick a favorite song of their because he likes them all. So we were talking about musicians that we like that we just love every song. Like ABBA, love them, and sometimes I will hear a song by them and that that one is my favorite, then the next song and that one becomes my favorite. Harry Chapin, Tom Yarbrough, Johnny Cash, John Denver and Dolly Parton are some of my faves that just have so many songs I love. House Mouse stamps are like that for me too, I think I have a favorite, but every time I see one that one is my favorite.

Have a great day!

Clean and Simple Card

Hello and welcome to my little corner of the blogging world. I have a Clean and Simple (CAS) card to show you today. In my quest to fill a box with cards that are easier to mail, I have been making more of these CAS cards. I have a friend with a birthday coming up pretty soon that loves quilts and quilting so this is the birthday card that I have made for her. I really like this set from Papertrey ink, it has lots of different types of quilt blocks in it. It is another one of those sets that I bought and had lots of ideas of how to use. Sadly, it hasn't seen ink in a while though. I have plans to make a couple of note cards sets with these stamps so hopefully you will be seeing them a little more often.

Stamped image and sentiment is from Papertrey ink, colored with Copics. The paper and ribbon come from my stash and I am not sure when or where I got them.

Have a great day!

Balloon Riley

Hello! The challenge this week on the Riley and Company blog is a sketch challenge. I decided to use one of my newest Riley stamps for this one. Of course I love Riley, but I also love his little balloon bouquet that he is hanging on to. For some reason, I just love images that have balloons. I think they just remind me of happiness. I remember being a little girl and every once in a while we would go somewhere and come away with a helium filled balloon and those were always happy places so I just always associate balloons and happiness and they always make me smile!

My card uses the sketch provided on the challenge blog, I used Balloons Riley, colored with Copic markers, DCWV papers, a Fiskars border punch and some star trim from Making Memories. The sentiment was cut out using Nestibilities and the sentiment is from CTMH's Solos S set.

March Oldies But Goodies Blog Hop

Welcome to our Designing DIVAS Blog Hop! Each month we have a blog hop using those supplies that haven't seen any love and attention in a while. You should have arrived here from Mary's blog, if you want to start at the beginning you can visit Melissa and then click through the hop. I love the idea of these blog hops. For me personally, this is a great challenge. It gives me a little more motivation to look for and use things that I haven't been using. This is one of those stamps. I love the House Mouse images and love ice cream so when I saw this one I needed it. I can't remember the last time I used it though. I think it was last summer when I was coloring with my niece Zoie, I'm pretty sure that was the last time it saw ink. I was visiting with my parents and had taken my Copics and a bunch of images that I thought Zoie would be interested in playing with and we spent the better part of an afternoon coloring. I don't know how happy my brother was after that because she wanted a set of Copics for her birthday!

Image is from House Mouse and colored with Copic markers, papers are DCWV, buttons are American Crafts, and I used some DMC floss in the buttons.

Thanks for visiting today. Your next stop is Angie!

Good Monday Morning!

Good morning! Finished up a great weekend, beautiful weather, lots of relaxing time, got to see a couple of movies, did a little window shopping, hung out with the hubs and even snuck in some crafting time. About perfect I would say! I love taking a book and a cup of tea outside and getting lost in a book, now that the weather is starting to be a little nicer. I am definitely in the mood to work with some spring colors too. I put away all my winter papers the other day and pulled out a bunch of pastels and anything else that reminded me of spring and this is one of the cards I made. Everything is colored with Copics, the dotted paper is DCWV and the ribbon and floral paper came from my stash and I don't remember where they came from.

It was a movie filled weekend for us. We went to the theater and saw The Lincoln Lawyer and then watched The Big Lewbowski, See What I Hear, and From Paris with Love on Netflix. More movies than I normally watch in a weekend for sure.

Have a great Monday!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Hello and Happy St. Patrick's Day! I hope you remembered to wear green today. I taught preschool for many, many years and would always remember to do that otherwise I would have gotten pinched a thousand times a day by a bunch of eager 4 year olds! Today I am even wearing my leprechaun socks. My card today features Good Luck Riley. The challenge on the Riley and Company blog is to make a card using St. Patrick's Day as your theme. Riley is colored with Copic markers, papers are from DCWV, flowers are from Michael's and the fiber is from The Paper Studio.

I have a funny story about St. Patrick's Day cards. Back several years ago, before I started making cards, I had befriended a couple of older people at my church. Sometimes I would pick them up for special events we would have, especially if they were at night and they wanted to attend. One gentleman in particular later developed some health problems and didn't get out as much. I have always enjoyed sending cards and as someone that spent extended periods of time recovering from multiple back surgeries, I knew how much a card can mean. I started sending him a card at least once a month. In March I sent him a St. Patrick's Day card and he thought that was the greatest thing ever. He loved all the cards I sent but he had never seen one for St. Patrick's Day before. As he got sicker and I would go visit him if other people were there he wold always mention that specific card. Making cards for St. Patrick's Day reminds me of him every year. It also reminds me to take the time to send cards because for someone that isn't able to get out very much, they really are something special. Mr. William passed away several years ago, but he taught me a lot and getting to know him really enriched my life. So today my challenge for you is to send a card to an older person or anyone else that you know could use a cheery hello.

Bunny card

Hello! I hope you had a great weekend. Mine was pretty good, lots of relaxing time and time in my craft room too. Losing that hour of sleep on Saturday night was a little rough though. It always takes me a couple of weeks to adjust when we change the time in either direction. On Saturday I taught a Copic class at my LSS and then Kip and I went to see his niece and nephew in their elementary school play and then we had a nice dinner out. My card today uses an image from Inky Antics. This is one of my all time favorite images to use for Easter. I love bunny images anyway and this one hugging those little chicks is just too cute. Everything is colored with Copics and I used papers from DCWV.

Copic Colors Used:

Bunny - E31, E33, E3f, E37, R20

Chicks - Y00, Y06, YR04, YR07

Pink and Green Angel

Hello! I am still working on building up my stash of standard A2 size card that can go through the mail a little easier without incurring additional postage charges. If I have to pay extra postage for each card then I end up sending out fewer cards. I still make lots of the others but most of those will either be mailed in a box with other goodies or hand delivered. This angel image is from Karen Lockhart stamps and is one that I actually colored a while back using Prismacolor pencils. I need to pull my pencils out more often, I enjoy coloring with them but more often than not I find myself reaching for my Copics when I sit down to color. Jenna and Samantha use the pencils far more often than I do now, especially Jenna. The papers are from Making Memories and then I used a Fiskars lace border punch.

I want to say a big thanks to everyone for the encouraging comments on my Fitness Journal. My SIL loved it. We have both started the 5K training program and that gives us both something to record our progress in. We have gotten most of the family on board with us too. I can't wait to see that changes in all of us. I do have another blog that you can get to from my sidebar that details my journey to a healthier life.

Journey to Fitness Journal

I have mentioned on here a couple of times about starting to make changes to be a healthier person. So far, I am doing pretty good on starting healthier habits. My SIL has been doing some of the same things in her house. We were talking the other day about what has been working for me, traded some recipes and some tips. Her kids are doing a program that will log the miles that they run at school that allows them to participate in the Music City Marathon, and they will actually run the last mile of the children's marathon on race day. Well one thing led to another and I told her I had a goal of competing in my first 5K race some time this year. I found a program online From Couch to 5K and we challenged each other to start this training program. Yikes, other people know my goals and that makes me more accountable! Plus a little good natured competition is a great incentive for both of us. Since her kids are already training at school, we decided to challenge the rest of the family too. Hopfully before the end of the year we can all compete together as a team.

I made myself a journal a while back to track my progress, my Riley Get Fit Journal. I decided to make a journal for my SIL to record her progress too. I started with this image from Mo Manning. I thought this was a fun image to encourage our weight loss goals. As I was going through some papers, I found that black and white number paper and decided it would go great on this journal. I have had these punch out letters since I first started scrapping and the colors matched perfectly. For some reason in the photo they don't stand out as much, but IRL they are a little easier to read. Thanks for stopping by!

Brown + ? Challenge

The current challenge on the Riley and Company blog is to use brown and another color. I love working with browns and I had bought some new paper at Michael's last week that I thought would work. Then while I was looking for paper for another project I found this brown and blue polka dot paper that I decided I would rather use. While I was going through my Riley stamps trying to decide which one to use I saw this and it made me think of spring. I love sitting outside with a cup of coffee and a good book. Outside a coffee shop is even better! This stamp always reminds me of doing that. In between thunderstorms over the past week or so we have had a couple of very nice almost spring like days, hopefully with more to come. Thanks for visiting me today!