Sweet Pea Card

Catchy post title, huh? I don't know why coming up with a title for my blog posts stumps me a lot of time. Today I just went with the obvious. This is an image from Sweet Pea Stamps so that's the name of this post! I think this is one of the earliest Sweet Pea images that I ever bought and I really like it a lot. I am stalking the mail man because I have new images from them that should be arriving in my mailbox very soon! Not only do I have images coming from Sweet Pea stamps, I also have some markers on the way from Oozak. I love happy mail!

I am going to give a little shout out to my Dad. Today is his last day of work, and he has been counting down the days. Since the beginning of the year, he has been giving a daily update on Facebook, reminding everyone how many more shifts he had left to work. After working today, he will go in tomorrow and fill out some final paperwork and then he is done. He is a man of a million hobbies (I am truly my father's daughter) so he is very much looking forward to all his free time. I know he has already ordered all the stuff he needs to start a second beehive and he is getting his seeds started for his garden. He is like me, or more accurately, I am like him, we are never bored. I could entertain myself for an infinite amount of time, I can always find something to do. Dad is the same way, between his garden, his flowers, the grandkids, his bees, his winemaking, reading, watching movies, photography, going out to eat with my mom, playing online games, and traveling when he can, I don't think he is going to miss working at all. So a big CONGRATS to my Dad!!

Going Around in Circles

Happy Friday!! I am so happy the weekend is finally here. For some reason this week felt like it had a few extra days in it. But now it is Friday, all of my normal errands that I normally do today are already done so I am going to enjoy the day playing in my crafting space. The challenge on the Riley and Company blog is Going Around in Circles which could be a circle shaped card or circles on the papers or embellishments.  I used Sunflower Riley for my card, paper from DCWV, ribbon from my stash that I think is American Crafts, and some brads that I have had for a long time and Riley was colored with Copic Markers.

Now I am going to get off the computer, start a loaf of bread and then you will be able to find me sitting at my craft table!

Another Rainy Day Card

I have another umbrella/rain card to show you. I absolutely love images that have umbrellas in them for some reason. Samantha and I were shopping somewhere one day and she found this stamp in a clearance bin. I think these Changito stamps from Stampendous are just adorable and Samantha also enjoys making cards with them. At least these guys are making a rainy day enjoyable!

Thanks for visiting today!

A Little Rain

Hello! Oops, didn't mean to desert my blog for a week. Sometimes life just gets in the way. Nothing major going on, just been very busy. I have gone to a cooking class to learn how to make Baby Cakes, taught two Copic classes, working on some card sets for a couple of upcoming birthdays, working on kitchen projects, reorganizing kitchen stuff, visiting a friend in the hospital, celebrated Valentine's Day and rewatchched a lot of episodes of Walking Dead. One of my childhood friends had moved to the area back last summer and his living situation fell through so he has been living with us since October. He finally found something affordable so I have been turning that room back into my guest bedroom and getting it redecorated too. I haven't even had enough time to sit at my craft table for very long, much less get something photographed! 

Recently I posted pictures of the things that I have been doing in my kitchen and I have still been working on that some. I decided I needed new drawer and cabinet pulls and that involved three trips to two different Hobby Lobbys to complete. I am also working on a couple of needlepoint projects to hang in there. I used to do a lot of things like that, but it has been forever since I have picked up needle and thread to sew on anything other than a button or on a card. I used some images that listed them as stamps. If I had read the directions, I would have noticed that they weren't simply iron-ons and that they were reusable. I would have also seen that the directions said to protect your ironing board before ironing it onto the cloth. Anyway, I am now the proud owner of a brand new ironing board pad! 

I did find time to make this little card using a Penny black image. I love this little bear, he reminds me of Paddington Bear and I love that little chick showing off his little flower. I used papers from The Paper Studio and colored the image with Copics. 

Thanks for visiting today!

Mini Book and Samantha's Cards

This post is mainly Samantha's cards that she has made over the past couple of weeks. Recently she has started carrying a mini composition book with her in her pocket. She uses it to draw in as well as a place to write songs and other things that she wants to jot down. She really liked the compotion book I made for myself so I decided to decorate a mini one for her. I know that she carries hers in either her pants pocket or a jacket pocket most of the time so I knew that if I put anything with any diminsion on it that it would probably get torn off so I left it pretty flat. I just used some Cosmo Cricket paper because yellow is her favorite color. She also loved the pattern on this too. I had that flower shape left over from something else and I just stamped her initial in the center. Very quick and simple, but she loved it.

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Samantha's Cards

In school this week they have been learning to write a proper letter. As a class project they are writing to soldiers that are away from home. They were told if they wanted to draw or color a picture that it would be great and sent along with their letter. Even though Smantha loves to draw and has a lot of art supplies at her house, she wanted to do something with this stamp. She has been watching me make cards to send to my friend in Afghanastan and she remembered this image from The Greeting Farm and that is what she wanted to use. The sentiment comes from a set from Clear Dollar Stamps.

She loves crafting at my house for a couple of reasons. One is the stamp selection. she knows she can always find a stamp that is perfect for what she has in mind. The other reason and probably the most important to her is that I have Copic markers which she loves almost as much as I do. Copics are her favorite way to color anything, sometimes she likes to use pencils, but she has learned how to blend and everything better with the Copics. Here is a card she made with a Sweet Pea Stamps image:

Riley is her favorite line of stamps and is almost always the first thing she looks for when she is making a card. So here is Riely enjoying a cup of hot chocolate and cupcake. She let me know that on her card that is not a coffee mug, that it must be hot chocolate or possible hot tea. She is not a fan of coffee.

All of Samantha's cards were colored with Copics and a Sakura glitter pen on the Sweet Pea image on the wings. She used papers from her stash and the ribbon from our shared stuff. She has colored everything herself and normally she picks out her own color combos. Sometimes she will go through cards that I have made and ask what colors I used, but everything else she does by herself. Not bad for a nine year old!

Thanks for looking!

Sending Some Love

Finally it is the middle of the week and that means the weekend is getting closer and closer! It has been quite a week too. Nothing major, just tons going on every day it seems. I do need to get to work on Valentines to mail to my nieces and nephews and this week's challenge on the Riley and Company blog is Riley in Love and was just what I needed to get me going. I stayed fairly simple with the embellishments and layers since they will need to go through the mail. Riley is colored with Copic markers, paper and heart shaped brad are from The Paper Studio and the ribbon is from my never-decreasing ribbon stash.

I am still trying to decide what to do for Kip for Valentine's Day. We don't have any real traditions or anything for that. I planned our wedding for the week before Christmas and everyone told me that I would regret it because of it getting lost in the Christmas rush. I don't regret it, but I didn't make it any easier on myself when it comes to buying gifts for Kip. His birthday, our anniversary, Christmas, and Valentines Day, basically all the gift giving holidays, all fall within about a 10 week period. And like most men, he is hard to buy for! I have got to get my thinking cap on. Anyone have any great traditions they would like to share?

Have a great day!

Kitchen Pictures

I redid my kitchen several months ago and had an idea to make some things to hang on the walls. Everything has been done except the things I wanted to make so I decided to take a little while this weekend to get most of them done. I am working on a couple of needlework things and when they are finished everything will be complete. I went with a red, yellow and white color theme in there and wanted it to be kind of retro too. Specifically the colors are red and white polka dots with yellow and white gingham. Kip was so afraid when I told him my color choices. I think he thought I was going to paint the walls with those colors. His fear was that it was going to look like a fast food restaurant. 

My mom made my curtains and we were able to find the perfect material and then I was able to find paper to match too. Everything turned out the way I wanted it to!

This is an image from Amber Ink. All the images were colored with Copics and use paper from The Paper Studio. I purchased some plain black frames to hang them in. 

This apron was in the Help for Katie set.

And this one is a Karen Lockhart apron.

I hung them above the piece that Kip made for me to hold my aprons. The apron in the middle is mine, the one of the right is Samantha's and the one of the left was made by my great-grandmother. 

I thought I would include this picture too, since it shows a little more of the kitchen. It also shows the curtains that my mom made for me. The bird plates came from Pier 1. I wanted to use that clock that I have had for a very long time but it was green. The casing that holds the clock is made out of plastic and I wanted it to match the kitchen. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a can of spray paint meant to paint model cars, popped the actual clock out and then spray painted it.