Sweet Peek Cocoa

Good morning everyone! After an additional day off it is always hard to remember that it is Tuesday instead of Monday, huh? I hope you had a fabulous Memorial Day. We enjoyed hosting our friends for a wonderful BBQ to honor all of our service members.

Today is the last Sweet Peek before the new release at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps tomorrow. There will be a fun beach themed new release party tonight at the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Connection from 8pm to 10 pm (EST). I hope you can join us. Just click here to head over to the connection. If you aren't already a member sign up is super easy!

Alright, so...my card today peeks a new set to the store called Patriotic Cocoa. There are 2 images (including the one used on my card) and 11 sentiments that are perfect for any patriotic type of card you'd like to make from a 'thank you' to 'Happy 4th'. If you love all things patriotic, like me, than this will be the perfect set for you! I believe it will retail at just $11! My card also uses this week's Sweet Stop Sketch.

So there you have it! I hope you'll join us for the new release party tonight! Have a wonderful day!

Memorial Day 2011

Memorial Day comes each year with good and bad. The good...we get an extra day off work to shop, BBQ, spend time with friends and family. The bad...many military men and women won't get that opportunity today as they gave up their lives so that not only can we enjoy our freedom but to try and bring some sense of peace and saneness into another country/persons life.

Memorial Day 2011

Remember our brothers and sisters who fell
so we could have freedom, they all went through hell
our cookouts and sales are all very nice
but many in uniform paid a great price

defending our country takes more than big talk
you honored us all by taking the walk
our forefathers founded this country we love
and included God both within and above

Our children have fallen all over the earth
because we believed that in all men there’s worth
we’ve come to the aid of the downtrodden man
because independence and choice must and can

be for all people; a God given right
it’s said in our song that our flag was in sight
it stood through the day and the night as we fought
to keep ourselves free; we will never be bought

John Breska 05/2011
44th Scout Dog Platoon
Viet Nam 69-70

Fintastic!

I know what you guys are thinking...why am I posting on a Sunday, right? Well because today is one of the two Sweet Peeks I have for you with brand new Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps images that will be released June 1st!

Today I am giving you a little peek at the new set called Happy Ocean Friends. Both the fish and the sentiment is from the set. In total the set has 7 image stamps and 11 sentiment stamps and they all go together SO well! I've also used some patterned paper from Echo Park's Summer Days line...perfect, huh?

Alright...make sure that you head on over to the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps blog to see the rest of the Sweet Peeks! I'll have another peek at a new set on Tuesday May 31st as well so look forward to that too!

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Lily of the Valley In The Garden

Just a little stop in here this morning to show a little altered notebook that I made the other day.

When I was looking for a something else I came across this little notebook. I'm sure I bought it to alter as it is just a kraft colored notebook but it got put away and forgotten like so many things do. I received this Pure Innocence set by My Favorite Things in the mail the other day so I decided to use the main image and one of the sentiments on the notebook. I'm sure I've told you before that Lily of the Valley are my all time favorite flower. I adore the strong scent and fragile, pure white flower. It bring back great memories of my childhood! I'm going to use this cute little notebook for prayer requests received.

Anyway, I grabbed out a piece of DCWV paper covered the front of the notebook, paper pieced the girls dress then popped her up on the notebook. I added the Lily of the Valley sentiment just because I love the name so much. LOL!

The Lily of the Valley flower itself also very much so reminds me of a song (weird I know) call In The Garden. Below is a great rendition of the song by Brad Paisley. Enjoy the song and have a wonderful Saturday!

Reel 'em In

Yay! We are finally almost to Friday! This has been a super slow week. It isn't that I really have anything planned this weekend but I do get my Thirty One Gifts order tomorrow which will be fun!

Today I am sharing a card that I made for my brother's birthday. He happens to be a big fly fisherman so when I saw the pattern for this super cute card I knew I had to make one for him. The outside is pretty self explanatory. The cardstock is chocolate chip and kraft. I added a little "stitching" on the pockets and lots of chocolate chip sponged on the card to make it look worn. I also just used my finger nail to rough up the edges a bit too. The ties are from a local shop (and may I just add that they are quite ugly!) here in town. Inside I printed the reel from the Doodle Pantry set Reel 'em In on kraft paper leaving room to write my birthday sentiment.

This card went off in the mail yesterday. His birthday is Tuesday so I hope that it makes it to him in time with the holiday on Monday so we'll see!

Thursday's are my busy day with Care Net and then Kids in Christ this evening so I'm off to get started! Have a wonderful day and I'll "see" ya tomorrow!

Hi There

Happy Wednesday friends! I have been working on some things to show you but for today I have a sweet Cocoa image to share with you!

Today's card is made with a cute image from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps set called Springtime Cocoa. There is just something about Cocoa's cute ears that make me love him...even though he's a mouse! All the papers, buttons and the fun fabric letters are from this month's Key Ingredients kit and I used this week's CPS sketch for the layout.

Make sure that you head on over to Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps blog tomorrow for some Sweet Peeks of the new sets that will be released come June 1st. I will have peeks for you on the 29th and 31st and I'm so excited to show them to you!

Well, that is it from my craft room for today. I've got several other projects in the works that I hope to show you soon so...have a super day!

Armed Forces Day 2011

ARMED FORCES DAY
"UNITED IN STRENGTH"
MAY 21, 2011

President Harry S. Truman led the effort to establish a single holiday for citizens to come together and thank our military members for their patriotic service in support of our country.

On August 31, 1949, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson announced the creation of an Armed Forces Day to replace separate Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force Days. The single-day celebration stemmed from the unification of the Armed Forces under one department -- the Department of Defense.

See more information about Armed Forces Day HERE. If weather permits be sure to get your flag our and flying today!

SURPRISE!

Happy Friday! Here we are at the end of a busy week once again but today I have something fun to share with you...a special New Release from Doodle Pantry!

The owner of Doodle Pantry, Laurie, decided she would release this super cute set called Quirky Dog just for you all today! How much do you love this super cute bulldog (I think)? You just know that I had to use his red, white, and blue self to make a card with for Jon right? And the 'ruff day?' sentiment...who doesn't have ruff days in Afghanistan so I thought would work perfectly! AND, the entire set of line images, colored images, and digital patterned papers (can I just say that I'm growing to LOVE digi papers?!?) are only $3! Can you believe it? Only $3! I love that!

Today is the Stock the Pantry challenge over at the Doodle Pantry blog too so make sure you hop on over there to see what that is all about!

You know what? I love this set so much that I'm going to give away a set to one of my readers! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post about what our troops mean to you. If you do not comment on what the troops mean to you then you are not in the drawing! I do not allow anonymous comments anymore so if you need to comment anonymously just send me an e-mail instead and I'll put you in the drawing! You will have until Sunday night at 5 p.m. PST to comment. While there is only one entry per person I would appreciate it if you'd tell your friends about this drawing so send 'em right over!

So...go, comment on this post, tell your friends about it and then have a wonderful Friday!

A Card Re-Do

Good almost afternoon my friends! The very first thing that I must ask of you all is that you be praying for my Jon's unit in Afghanistan. Three soldiers were killed and one wounded on Monday. We have heard nothing so that is good as we would have been notified already. If you do not already pray for our soldiers please start immediately!

Today I'm showing you the card I got from my oldest son, Scott, for Mother's Day. I loved the card and what he wrote inside. Upon looking at it I started to put together a card in my mind so the other day I sat down and recreated the card.

I used the newly released Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps image called Tea Time. I paper pieced the tea pot and the tea cup with patterned papers (stella rose - mabel) to coordinate with the rest of the card. There was very little coloring, just the coffee so I used a Copic marker for that and then used a glaze pen on the coffee to make it look liquid-y. On the side I just dressed it up with more patterned paper. This layout is the Sweet Stop sketch for this week, too! I am also entering this in the Truly Scrumptious anything goes challenge. Oh, yay...I can add this to the D2D handmade paper flowers challenge too!

So...what do you think? A pretty fun re-do, huh?

Alright, I gotta run but enjoy the rest of your day everyone!

Mom's Battle

I don't normally listen to rap nor do I care for the swear words but other than that...I think you'll appreciate the heart of this song which is...a military mom's heart.

A Muse Monday

Good Monday morning friends! How was your weekend? Mine was pretty good but our weather was very rainy causing flooding in our town. Lots of people were affected so we shall see how it plays out this week.

Today's A Muse Monday card is a thank you card for a high school senior that volunteers in the children's ministry with me at church. Not only does he volunteer with me but he does lots of other volunteering at the church most recently helping get the phone/internet to my office and the nursery. He has done it all without complaint and I want to make sure he knows how much I truly appreciate it. The guitar image and sentiment are both from the Rockstar set on page 54 of the A Muse Studio Catalog. I used the patterned paper without thinking so it is not A Muse Studio paper and thinking about it I wish I would have used orange gingham paper as I think it would have been just as nice. Anyway, you can go shopping in my A Muse Studio store HERE. As always...let me know if you have any questions! Oh, and the layout is from Clean and Simple Stamping for this week, too!

Well, I can't think of much else to tell you right now so I'm going to be on my way. Today I will be putting finishing touches on the inside of a Sweet 'n Sassy stamps card to show you soon. I took the Mother's Day card that my oldest son gave me and used it as inspiration for my card. Lots of paper piecing took place on this card so I know you'll love it!

Alright...have a wonderful day everyone!

Tool Thank You

Happy Friday! Apparently the posting feature is back now (if you didn't know Blogger has been down for about 24 hours) so I'm going to post my card for the 'For the Guys" blog hop that Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps is hosting and hopefully Blogger will restore my card from yesterday as I truly love that card!

So, as I said above this weekend's blog hop is "For the Guys' so we are to make a card (or something else) for the guys in our lives. To help with that Korin has some fun images in the store HERE. I used a new digital image called Mr. Fix It. I'm not sure where that patterned paper is from I just had it in my stash and thought it would work well for a guy card.

You may remember that I moved into a new office at work a couple of weeks ago. I now have phone AND internet so I'm thrilled. Two men have really been instrumental in getting me the office and getting it all set to go so I thought I would make them thank you cards and maybe a gift of a coffee card or something like that.

All the deets for the customer blogging hop (you blog a card not just visit from blog to blog) is HERE. There is a free digi involved if you blog with us and someone will win a $25 gift certificate to SNSS as well! You have until May 15th to blog your card to qualify for the gift certificate so get creating!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! ***Looks like yesterday's post is back! Unfortunately it didn't save the comments...oh well! Make sure you scroll down to see though!***

Home of the Brave

What a fun way to start your day...with a smile! I hope it will last you all day through!

Today, I'm sharing a card that I had originally thought I was making for Jon but at the end I can't send it to him...it has glitter on it. In addition to that possibly being a bit embarrassing to him it could also compromise safety when it gets on him. Anyway, I was thinking of sending it to the rear detachment of his company. We shall see.

As you can tell this is a super patriotic card. I had a hard time deciding on the sentiment as the Cricut cartridge that I used (stand and salute) had several that would work. I finally decided on 'Home of the Brave'. Fitting for the military don't you think? The fireworks at the bottom are also from the same Cricut cartridge and then glittered up on the ends. I used this week's sketch by Carly for my layout and lots of WeRMemory Keepers for the papers, both patterned and cardstock.

I have to tell you guys about a great, FREE, Cricut resource. You will find it at Above Rubies Studio. It is called the Cricut Cutting Guide. It lists LOTS of cardstock/patterned paper manufacturers and what settings you should cut the paper on with your Cricut. I tried cutting that sentiment above SIX times before I just used the guide...the first cut at the suggested pressure, depth, and speed in the guide was perfect! If you own a Cricut and have problems cutting sometimes you should definitely check out that resource!

Well, that is it for me today! I hope your day is filled with lots of SMILES!

Floral Hat

Good morning everyone! It is Wednesday so we are halfway to Friday...woohoo! How is your week coming along?

Today I thought I'd show you one more Mother's Day card that I made. I thought I was done making cards but decided that one of the cards I was going to use just wouldn't do so I made a new one. That is one of the great things about crafting your own cards, huh?

Anyway, this card is made with Doodle Pantry's Floral Hats set. I just inserted the hat (pre-colored) into word and then the sentiment spaced them out about how I thought they would work for this layout and printed it out. SO easy! The papers are from last months Taylored Expressions key ingredient kit. I truly love those kits!

Anyway, just a short post today as I need to get out the door to Kyler's school for a little while this morning.

Have a super day everyone!

Cardstock Bow

Good morning friends! I am looking forward to what is supposed to be a partly sunny day and 71 degrees...woohoo! Maybe I can get out there and weed again...with the new gloves I got for mother's day, yay for me!

I'm excited to show you a bow I made. The other day I had a gift that I wanted a bow for and realized I didn't have any bows soooo...I went in search of instructions on how to make one. I found instructions on SCS. The instructions called for double sided patterned paper but that is what I wanted so I just used some American Crafts cardstock in a color that matched my wrapping paper (the polka dots make me smile!) and got to work. I gotta tell ya it took me about 15 minutes total to make this bow and I think it looks great!

Well, I think that is it from me today. I hope that you have a warm and sunny day where you are!

A Muse Monday

Happy sunny Monday afternoon to you all! Bet ya thought I wasn't going to post today, huh? Psych!

Being that today is A Muse Monday I thought I'd show you this super fun card that I made with the Foiled Again! set (page 58). One of the things about the A Muse Studio catalog is that it has a great selection of stamps for men/boys. At first I just stamped the moustache's but the black wasn't deep enough for what I was looking for so I used Onyx Flocking (page 93) on them and not only do they look the way I want they feel really neato too! I had to use the 'you da man!' sentiment as we say it often in our house, so it was perfect. You can find the Gingham paper in the catalog as well (page 89). I think this would be a great card for a birthday, anniversary, or even a great job type of card.

The layout is this week's CPS sketch but I can also enter this card in the following challenges too. Pollycraft Challenge, Cards for Men, and Sentimental Sundays.

So, I'll see ya tomorrow with a non-card post. Have a wonderful rest of your day!

Happy Mother's Day!

Grad Hats

Good morning! Let's get right into the new release from Doodle Pantry...shall we?

This month Doodle Pantry is releases NINE new sets, one SVG file, and one digital paper pack! I adore DP's new releases as they always have so much fun stuff!

I get to show you a card from the Grad Hats set. Now this set is made specifically for the hats to go onto some of the fun images that Laurie has in her store like the birds, worms, etc but I decided to use just a hat and make my son's graduation card.

If you know me at all you may be asking which of my kiddos is graduating, right? Well, my oldest is graduating from CWU with a double major in History and Political Science. I gotta tell ya I'm a pretty proud mama! Anyway, I texted my son and asked him the school colors just to confirm it...crimson and black. While the photo doesn't look Crimson I think it will actually be a pretty close match. A little bit of embossing, a few little pearls and tahdah...his graduation card. I used the Critter Sketch Challenge this week for my card.

Alright, since I'm fighting a pretty bad sore throat this morning I'm going to link you up to the store and have to be on my way. HERE is the new release page. Scroll down on THIS page to see what the entire DT has made with the new images. And finally go check out the incredible savings Laurie has HERE. Remember the Noah's Ark Favor Box I mentioned above? Well, it is 25% off! Only $3.74 for the SVG, PDF's, and digital papers...what a great deal!

Now, go forth and shop!

A Beautiful Day

Good morning friends! Is everyone's week going well? It has been sunny here the last couple of days so I have been in a great mood!

As I sat down to make a card for my Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps post day (I'm posting this card here and on the SNSS blog) I knew I needed one more Mother's Day card so that is what I set out to make. I started with the sketch from Carly's Sketch Challenge blog HERE, added the Lilac's for Cocoa image and came up with what, I think, is a lovely card. The patterned paper is retired SU! and I colored my image with Copic markers. It will be just perfect for the mom I'm sending this card too. My mom has been gone for 13 years now but I always send a card to Todd's mom, my former MIL, and this year to another special friend of ours.

I've gotta tell you that while I still miss my mom everyday I have been very blessed to have women in my life to guide me as a mom, friend, child of God, and wife. A big thanks to my Mom June. She has stood by me through thick and thin over the last 11+ years and I know that I can ALWAYS count on her!

How is your Mother's Day card/gift making coming?