Grandpa's Birthday

My best friend requested a birthday card for a Grandpa. Perfect timing too because I had just come back from JoAnn's where I had gotten this card Stack for 40% off :) The new FALL cardstack that has all this beautiful paper in it. That's when I decided that it was ok that fall get here, even though we barely had a summer this year. The colors are too pretty to dislike it.
Anyway, I pulled out 3 of the coordinating papers and put them up on blue panels, mounted to a yellowy orange panel, mounted on a brown panel (all SU! colors, but Im too lazy to figure out which ones...I think its More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, and cant remember the B for Blue one...lol!) Some stitching, and a Sizzix Cupcake punch complete the card, along with some birthday sentiment stamps from SU!

Candy Corn Mice

My niece Hannah is about to experience her first Halloween (she'll be 6 months old the day after *sniff*sniff*) and I wanted to send her cute Halloween card. I searched thru many blogs, links from google searching, and finally the gallery at the Shack, before I found this cute House Mouse image. Perfect! Their mice are so adorable, and since my coloring skills are lacking, I thought this would be an easy fix!

As soon as I saw the image, I saw the background....cardstock layered in the same colors the candy corn is. A little ribbon, a lot of Stickles, some rhinestone brads and cute card appears! And, as you can see, I also had to buy both coordinating sentiment stamps. One to use on the front, one to use inside :)

And after coloring over the Prismacolors with the Stickles, I decided to color WITH the Stickles in the card below. Which totally made the image pop and had me wishing I had done the same on Hannah's card! Oh well. She'll never know ;)

Special, just like you

I drooled over all the new September stamps sets at Verve Visual alllll month long, and finally caved last week! And what should come, with perfect timing for my 4 nights off, but a lovely package of these cute birds (inspired by their first set, Anniversary Birds, which were such a hit!), pretty florals, fun sayings, and a cute little bunny! (which you'll see in a post later).

All was going well with this card until I added the bird. She's cute and all, but still missing some color or something. Not really digging the tail cut out like that. Looks more like she had a blowout while delivering her balloons...LOL!

But she's done, and stuck permanently, so I'll just go with it.

Papers from a Prima pack (I think!) that I bought at Michaels a few months ago.

Punched border is a Fiskars punch. The first one I scored. Just YESTERDAY I scored the Threading Water punch, so you'll see that coming up a lot too soon!

Stickles added to the balloons, the hat, and her tail.

Anniversary Wishes

I've been printing off a bunch of sketches lately to help get me back in the mood to make cards. This card sketch is the Taylored Expressions Cupcake #35. I love this layout and I think it'll be one sketch that is revisited many times!

Papers are from a stack, I cant remember which one right now though! Flower stamp and sentiment (on card front) are Verve Visual stamps. Ribbon is SU! Also used a MM rhinestone brad, Stickles, SU! ink and a water color pen.
Inside the card. I used a Stampin' Up set to stamp another sentiment on the dotted paper. And a smaller flower from the Verve set to decorate the corner.

The baby girl

Its been awhile since I shared a picture of Hannah. She's growing to be so big! Now out growing 9 month clothing, and she just turned 5 months old today!
I'm told she smiles A LOT, and giggles, and a lot of times cracks herself up. Just like her Auntie, I tell ya! ;)

And, apparently, likes to suck on her fingers.
Even more exciting, I get to see her in 2 weeks! :D

The big "65"

That's how old my dad turns today! WOW!
I can't believe that I have a parent that is classified as "elderly". Just seems so strange! (My mom is much younger than my dad)
And for being a Type II diabetic he's doing pretty good! Happy Birthday Dad! :)
I made this card using an old sketch challenge from Poetic Artistry. Julee has the best sketches! Always guaranteed to get my brain working again, even though lately it doesn't want anything to do with stamping/card making.
I may need to print all the sketches and get to work to get me back in the mood. Sounds fun! :)

Babies Galore

That's what it's been like at work this summer.

Not because I work in L&D, but because lots of my young, female co-workers

have given birth recently.

And in trying to catch up with them all, I spent about an hour in the baby section

at Burlington Coat Factory picking out sweet baby clothes for the new little ones.

And because I much prefer gifts in gift bags, I bought some plain ones at Target

(12 of them for $5.99!) and decorated them tonight.

Obviously the first and last one are for baby girls, and the lone baby boy in the middle :)

We just had another baby girl arrive last week, and the winter will bring at least 3 more kiddos!

Saving money towards school and vacations is becoming harder and harder! lol

Wedding Cards

One of my friends is getting married this Sunday. After months of helping her make invitations and get them ready to send, picking out the dress, the Bridal Shower, etc the day has finally come! She just so happens to be the sister of my best friend, so while making myself a card to give to her, I made one for my BFF to give her also. She picked the one above, so I'll be giving the Bride and Groom the one below.
I used scraps of the papers left over from making her invites :) And I bought the ribbon and stamps today at a stamp store. They didnt have much of a wedding selection.

Back in business, just in a stamping slump

It's been brought to my attention that I've been a little neglectful here :p

I think I have the computer issues worked out. Nothing that a brand new $80 version of Photoshop couldn't handle. I couldn't find my PSE 4.0 disc to repair the program on here, so in a fit of anger, I went to Circuit City and bought a new one...lol And let me tell you, PSE 6.0 looks very high tech! Haven't figured out if it does anything different yet, but I've only used it a couple of times to do the same old stuff.

I needed some cards this morning to send out in some packages today, so I quickly made these up. And as much as I'm pretty happy with the results, for some reason I just wasn't having fun making them. SAD!

This first card is made for my cutie pie little niece. I bought her a little toy and an outfit the other day and plan on getting it in the mail today. I was trying to match the colors to the outfit, but once it was finished I realized the card is in pinks and the outfit is more of a peachy color. I have no explaination for the color mix up....lol

Then this is the card for my Secret Sister reveal. The flower and tinsy tiny brads are from MY last SS package. I used my Coluzzle to cut a circle card and smaller circles inside. The ribbon this card also makes the leaves. Its green but because its up against the pink cardstock its showing pink in this picture. This is also going in the mail today (finally!) and I hope my SS likes it! :)

More computer problems

Im having more computer problems....apparently, according to Norton I have a worm, that Im not exactly sure how to get rid of :( I found by googling the instructions on how to do it, but they make NO sense to me and Im not about to screw up my computer further! The weird thing is that I have McAfee too (thru Comcast) and its not showing any problems whatsoever. I dont really know who to believe...lol Apparently I picked it up thru a game that I downloaded off Comcast's website. I've since deleted it, but its still showing up attached to that game *shrug*
It's preventing me from posting pictures though because its messing with windows ability to allow pop ups. It also has something against my Upromise toolbar :p
That, coupled with the fact that Im signed up to work the next 7 1/2 out of the next 9 days means that you probably wont see much action on this blog for a bit. I know, what's new right? lol

Who likes blog candy?

You do???

Well then head on over to a fellow Shackie's blog, Sunflowers and Dragonflies, and sign yourself up for some pretty neat goodies! Rub on's, stamps, and flowers....couldn't ask for anything more :)

(Photo courtesy of Beth, owner of Sunflowers and Dragonflies blog)

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Stop by tomorrow to see what I've been up to lately. Waiting for the Stickles to dry before photographing. Like Purple? Keep watching my blog this week to see some things done in purple. My very cool Secret Sis sent me a whole package of purple stuff! Once upon a time it was my favorite color, lately I haven't done much with it. I think she noticed ;)

26 years old. I can't believe it!

Today is my little brother's 26th birthday.

I can't believe it!

I don't even feel 26, so how can he be that old?!?!?
This photo was taken of him in May with his brand new baby girl.

I'm so incredibly proud of the man that he has become. When many guys his age would have walked away from the "unwed daddy" thing, my brother stepped up to the plate and took care of business. You can truly tell that he loves his little family, and that baby Hannah has him wrapped around her little finger. Watching him with her brought tears to my eyes. My brother has never been one to handle babies. If he got handed one, he had that ackward, stiff appearance and wasn't sure what to do. What a transformation to see him hold his daughter with confidence. He talks to her in a soft, sincere, loving voice.

I lost contact with him for several years. The lack of communication between my mother and I also distanced Vince and me. He's a momma's boy through and through, so when I made the decision to cut my mom out of my life (we reconnected in May, don't worry) I also lost my brother.

Little Miss Hannah has brought so much to the family already and she doesn't even know it.

I'm glad that my brother is back in my life. Even if it is hard to get ahold of him!

And because of that, I decided to start sending cards again.

This one was done with SEI papers, MM brads, and a $1 stamp from Michaels.

I stamped the image on vellum and then flipped it over and colored the opposite side with my Copics. Flipped it over again and colored in the candle with a clear Spica Glitter Pen.

Ticket punched the corners, then layered the vellum over top and used my paper piercer to pierce the edges.

Although fairly flat except for the brads, and (I thought) protected from the mail system by an extra sheet of paper in the envelope, my brother said it was mangled by the time it got there :( But he appreciated the thought....lol

Happy Birthday Vince! I hope you're able to do something special today :)

My baby niece starts daycare this week :(

Hannah was 6 days old when I met her and the conversation came up almost immediately....who was going to watch her when mommy went back to work? Last I knew they were going to put her in a chain daycare program (they have a friend that is manager there I guess).

I was really hoping that they'd decide that mommy needed to stay home until Hannah was older. Then I was wishing that I lived closer so she could come to Camp Auntie Kelly instead of daycare...lol But that's not likely to happen.

I just hope and pray that whoever handles this cute little thing is very good to her or they will find a very upset daddy and Auntie Kelly on their doorstep!!

Gosh I love that face!!

More goodies from my Secret Sister!

The last package I got from my Secret Sister had these cute little flower doodads in them. The second I saw them I thought "SHAKER CARD!" and promptly got to work.
She also sent me the cute little cupcake/birthday stamp set, and the ribbon. The stamps are one of the $1 sets, but I can't remember which brand right now. Paper is SEI bought in a stack at Michaels. Brads are MM. SU! ink, dog tag punch, and dimensionals used. Marvvy Giga square punch used to punch center. Cupcake colored with Copic markers. Paper edges distressed with a Heidi Swap edger.

Just Wanted to Say Hi

My Secret Sister (Round 2) sent me this book of K&Co tags. Admittedly, I am tag challenged! LOL! I don't know why, but placement and tags never work on my cards. But they are too pretty not to use, and well, I'm sure my SS didn't want me to just keep flipping thru them admiring them ;)

Paper is SU! Ribbon from eFavormart

House Mouse image was sent to me from a sweet Shackie. I don't remember who, but hopefully she sees this!

Colored with Copics. Brads are MM.

Cuttlebug embossing folder and Fiskars scallop scissors.

Little Duckie ATC

Another stamp set that I bought *just* so that I could join the ATC swap...he he

It's a duckie set by Darcies called Just Ducky. So many cute little ducks and sayings in that set. I couldn't pass it up!

Cardstock is SU! and Bazzill Bling. Ribbon is Offray and American Crafts (thank you SS!). The duck is colored with Copic Markers and I used Spica Glitter pens to add a little bling, as well as a white gel pen in the flower center. Brad is Making Memories. Rectangle Nestabilities used for orange mat.