For my true love

Good morning! No, I haven't fallen off the edge of the earth...I've just been really busy with VBS and then super tired after. I hope to have at least one more card for you this week.

You may know that my oldest son graduated from college this month but we didn't have his part until last night. It was a fun get together of about 20 people with all of Scott's favorite foods and lots of congrats!

Anyway, I'm here today to show you a Sweet Peek of a new set that is coming out tomorrow at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. This one is called Love Is Like A Tree. This is a fun stamp set to make cards for the one you love in your life. It includes ten sentiments! I've also used paper that you can find at SNSS store from Echo Park called A Walk in the Park. I've also used this week's Sweet Stop Sketch with this card. You still have plenty of time to play with this sketch so please join us!

Well, that is it for me today. I need to get finished up here at home so I can get to the church. Have a most wonderful day today!

OOPS! I just posted this early so if you are seeing this before 9 am PST...the links for the Sweet Peeks won't get ya to today's images. Sorry about that!

Growing old...

Good Monday morning everyone! This will be a quick post and then I'm off to VBS!

We went to a 50th birthday party for a friend of ours on Saturday and I just couldn't no make a card, right? Well, I didn't have an image that I loved so I went over to Bugaboo and found this funny Gus image. I used some Echo Park Splash paper for this card along with the Midnight Madness Sketch for this week. The Gus image came with a sentiment too so I printed it out on some orange cardstock, cut it with a nestie and placed it on the inside. Overall it is just a fun card!

Okay, I need to run and finish getting ready to go. Have a super day everyone!

Seeing Spots Sweet Peek

Good afternoon friends! I hope you've had a wonderful weekend. Are you doing anything fun today to finish it out? Tomorrow starts VBS at my church and this afternoon we are decorating the church and getting all set to greet the kids at 8:30 am tomorrow. While I'm looking forward to it I have knots in my stomach too. I really want to show kids how much Jesus loves them!

Anyway, onto today's Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Sweet Peek. Today I am showing you the card I made with the new set Seeing Spots. I really went out of my comfort zone using these stamps but I like the results so...yay! I used a star texture plate on the red background and then spritz'd it with some sparkle shimmer mist. I also distressed all the edges of the red and pulled some edges too. My layout is the sketch from Hand Stamps Sentiments for this week. PERFECT...wouldn't you agree?

I hope you enjoyed today's Sweet Peek! See the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps blog all week this week for peeks of the new sets!

If you stop back on Thursday I'll be giving you a peek of another new set! Tomorrow I have a super funny card for ya so see ya then!

Berry Sweet

Hello friends! Happy Friday! It is always nice to be at the end of a week isn't it?

Today, I have a fun summer card to share with you that showcases Berry Sweet Cocoa. Don't you just love the sweetness of Cocoa? I don't know where this patterned paper is from but it is just perfect for this image, huh? The layout is the Sweet Sunday Sketch for the week.

It is interesting...I'm noticing that I'm not using as many sentiments on my cards recently. I'm not sure why that is but it is interesting none the less. I think would make a great birthday or hello card!

Alright, I must run off to the next detail in my day. I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

Blast from the Past

Good morning friends! Did you know the week is almost over? Woohoo!

Today I'm participating in the Taylored Expressions Blast From The Past. It is fun to participate in these challenges so that you can use older, not recently loved TE stamps.

This time I used a TE stamp that I got last year around this time along with some beautiful patterned paper from Bo Bunny called the Liberty Collection. I just got it from TE this last week and I absolutely adore it...go figure, huh? Do you see the neat printing on the bottom of the blue starred paper? Yep, it says United States Of America and is pre-printed on this particular piece of paper. The eagle/flag paper is from the same paper pack. I used some lovely TE Tiny Twinkles stars (I think that Taylor may not carry this particular set anymore) in the sentiment as well as other places on the card. The particular stamp I used from Taylored Expressions is not available any longer but TE carries lots of very nice patriotic stamps (I NEED the 4th of July Wreath and die!) The base is kraft paper on which I used a little direct to paper technique with white ink. All the rest of the pieces of paper have been distressed with my finger nail. Wish you could see all the detail as it really makes an impressive card.

I am also entering this in the PaperPlay Challenge for this week, too. Well, there you have it for today! Stop back to see a super fun card!

Make sure you check out the rest of the Blast from the Past hop!

Patriotic Charlie

Good sunny morning to you all! We are headed up to 88 degrees this morning with lots of sunshine. Yay!

You all know I love anything patriotic so when Clear Dollar Stamps released Patriotic Charlie on the 15th (see all of the releases HERE) I was just tickled! This fun sets comes with two fun images of Charlie, several sentiments, and some patterned paper which I used for this card. I love that the blue and red aren't bright blue and red. I found them to be, in SU! colors, Not Quite Navy and Ruby Red. I used the CPS sketch for this week and then just added some twine and little stars for some added interest. I actually think I might use this as a birthday card...we shall see!

Now...why don't you head on over to the Clear Dollar Stamps Blog to check out all the new and fun stuff going on. There are new SVG's and a blog hop for you to check out! Have fun!

All The Cool Kids

Good morning! It looks like we are actually going to have a summer day for the first day of summer...86 degrees and sunny! Yay!

Okay, so to the title of the post. I have seen lots of my Doodle Pantry DT sisters making the sweetest cards with this Plush Panda set and I just had to be one of the cool kids (plus he is SO cute!) and make a card too. This didn't end up looking how I thought it would but I still like it. All the patterned paper on this card is from the Plush Panda set, which by the way the entire set is only $3.50!

The layout for this card is Carly's most recent sketch at Sketches by Carly. You have two more days to play in this particular sketch challenge if you want to!

Don't forget to play in our Stock the Pantry challenge this week. All you have to do is use one Doodle Pantry image on your card to qualify. Check out the specifics HERE and then get creating!

Well, I hope you have a wonderful first day of summer! See ya tomorrow!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day! Yeah, I don't think I have any male readers but it is out there just in case I do!

Today I thought I'd show you the card that Kyler and I put together for Todd. I saw this idea on Etsy and Kyler and I made it into our own. After finding the perfect Darth Vador clip art we imported it into Word. We then Googled Darth Vador quotes and Kyler picked out a quote and altered it to fit this card. The card says...

Dad, you can rule the t.v. I have foreseen this. It is your destiny. Join me, and together we can rule the t.v. as father and son.

Is that not hilarious!?! I love it! Kyler's present for Todd is a day of t.v. and food that Todd LOVES!

I leave you a final photo of Kyler with his card.

Have a great day all!

Tools

Happy Saturday morning everyone! I hope you day is sunnier than ours. We have clouds and rain today. Not fun, but necessary I guess.

Today I thought I'd show you the Father's Day cards that I made for our dads. Yes, there are three...I am blessed to have three men in my life that are super dads to me!

So, these are tool boxes...can ya tell? Todd thought they looked great so I went with them. The pattern for these tool boxes are are an SVG from Clear Dollar Stamps called Chest Card. The examples on the sight include a toy box, took box, and a pirate's chest. Once I figured out how to make the first one the cuts for the other two were SO easy! Oh, and the file also has PDF's for the chest so even if you don't have the ability to cut on an electronic machine you can still make these cards!

Don't forget to check out Clearly Inspired Challenge #30 over at the Clear Dollar Stamps blog. It is a sketch and you have two weeks to complete a card. There will be lots of prizes so go check it out!

Alright, I'm off to start my busy day! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

a happy hello!

Happy Friday Morning! I am so happy it is Friday but there is still so much to do in this weekend that I'm not really getting a break. That is okay though..means I'm alive, gainfully employed, and healthy...I'll take them all!

Today is my day to post on the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps blog and I'm sharing this super fun and clean Happy Ocean Friends over there. I thought you guys would like it to so...here it is!

The images are, of course, from Happy Ocean Friends and the paper is, once again, from Echo Park's Summer Days. The layout is from SCS's card sketch for this week right HERE that the fabulous Korin designed! I love the clean and simple style of the sketch and this card! I used just a little bling for the bubbles and the sentiment wraps it all together. I love that the sentiment could be used for anything from a hello card to a birthday card. So multi-purpose!

Alright, I hope you get a chance to play along with this fabulous sketch! Make sure you link it up on SCS for all to see!

Have a happy day everyone!

Lily of the Valley

Hello all! Welcome to Wednesday...afternoon. My goodness this day has been super busy!

And I am super late posting this card for you today and making a really exciting announcement! Last week I was asked to join the digi team for Clear Dollar Stamps. I was just shocked and so flattered! After some thought I decided that I wanted to take this wonderful opportunity so I said YES! Yay!

Today is a new digi release day at Clear Dollar Stamps so I'm showing off one of their newest digis Lily of the Valley. You guy all know how much I love Lily of the Valley so it was a natural for me to use that image. I made the rest of the card very simple to really focus on the image. It is interesting, 3 of the 4 cards that were made with this image have white, green, and black and the layouts are very similar too. Make sure you click above and check it out!

Thank you to Lori and Jerusha for your confidence in me! I will have links to the DT members blogs in my side bar soon. I hope all my blog readers will love the new creations to come made with Clear Dollar Stamps images!

Congrats and Happy Birthday!

Good morning all! I will get to the Happy Birthday in a second here first to show you the Grad Hat Card.

This is another SVG (and I have another to show you on Saturday) that I got from My Scrap Chick. If you have a Cricut (or other cutting machine) and SCAL or MTC you should either follow My Scrap Chick's blog or subscribe to her newsletter as each week you get a free SVG from her and this grad hat card was one of them. I think it was from about a month ago. In all honesty I own quite a few of her SVG's. I don't use as many as I own but I do love them all and find them to be a great value! I made three of these hats this year...one red with black (it is actually not that red, more crimson) and two black with red. It is interesting but I find using my Cricut really fun recently so I think you'll be seeing more made with at least some elements cut from my Cricut.

What about the birthday? Well, today is not only Flag Day, if you have a flag it should be flying today unless it is raining, it is the Army's 236th Birthday! From THIS website...

Two hundred and thirty-six years ago, the United States Army was established to defend our Nation. From the Revolutionary War to the current operations taking place around the world, our Soldiers remain Army Strong with a deep commitment to our core values and beliefs. This 236th birthday commemorates America’s Army – Soldiers, Families and Civilians – who are achieving a level of excellence that is truly Army Strong. Being Army Strong goes beyond physical endurance and mental preparedness. It encompasses an indomitable spirit, and high ethical and moral values. These are not only desirable traits in a person, but in a Nation that wishes to live up to the ideals and vision of its founders. We are “America’s Army: The Strength of the Nation."

Happy Birthday Army!

Star Favor Box

Good Monday morning everyone! Did you have a wonderful weekend? You all know I did! (And if you don't just scroll down to Saturday's post. :)

Today I want to show you a neat Star Favor Box & Card SVG file that Doodle Pantry released on the 5th this month. First, have I mentioned that I love SVG files? They are so fun and versatile and they help me think that I didn't waste my money on a Cricut! You do need to know, though, that you need either Sure Cuts A Lot or Make The Cut to use SVG files with your Cricut or other hardware. (And actually they don't sell the software to work with Cricut's any longer but I won't get into that.) Anyway, all you have to do is import the SVG file into your software, put your desired paper on the mat, and cut...it makes it easy to make things such as this cute star favor! While this one is pretty tiny (maybe a Hershey nugget size) you can scale the files to make them as big or small as you'd like! I'll be making some of these for Scott's graduation party in a couple of weeks. I'm also planning on making a big one for a table centerpiece. I'm not sure I'll actually fill it with anything but it will look great sitting on the table!

Do you want this template but don't have the hardware/software I talked about above? Well, the good news is that when you purchase this template it comes as a PDF as well so you can cut it out by hand! Yay!

Alright, I need to get a move on it this morning. My exercise DVD is calling my name! Have a wonderful day!

Keep swimming AND Graduation

Hello! Yes, I'm here a bit later than normal but I thought you'd all want to see a picture of the graduate so I waited to post until I had one ready for ya!

First, though I wanted to show you a card that I decided to make in a clean and simple style. That is kinda hard for me to do but sometimes it is just what is needed. I used the super cute fish and sentiment from the Happy Ocean Friends set by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps just adding a little color with my Copics and the paper (Summer Days by Echo Park...find it HERE). I felt it needed just a bit of bling so I added a twinkle at the beginning of the sentiment. I gotta tell ya...I love this card!

Now, onto graduation! It could not have been a nicer day outside today! Beautiful sunshine with a hint of wind (we don't have breezes here) to cool it down when the sun got to hot. The ceremony started promptly at 9:30 and was a good two hours long. This is the first college graduation I've ever attended and while I am SO proud of my son...it was boring after we got to see Scott walk to get his diploma holder. I'm so bad aren't I? Scott is one of the first members of his family (both my side and his dads) to graduate from college (I'm tearing up right now) so it was just such an amazing day! I cried when the ROTC presented the Colors and the National Anthem was sung, I cried when I realized that so many of my family members weren't there to see it, and I cried when I got to hug Scott. What a ball of tears, huh?

Alright, enough sentimental stuff for today. Thanks for visiting today! Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day!

Just Saying Hi

Good morning friends! I'm pleased to say that I'm starting to feel a little better which is evidenced by the fun, bright card I made yesterday.

Hello, my name is Lorie and I'm a stamp-a-holic! I have pretty much stopped purchasing stamps due to the fact that I'm on two wonderful digi/stamp design teams so I don't have much need to purchase stamps BUT when I saw this cute MFT stamp I knew I had to have it! The set is called I Need Some Face Time. My phone...yeah, without it we would be lost in our family as our entire schedule is in it. (that is actually kinda scary!) While I was making this card I knew exactly who I wanted to send it too and can't wait to get it in the mail!

I also used the MFT Feeling Sketchy sketch to make the card. It was just fun to make all the way around!

Well, today is Kyler's last day of school and is a 1/2 day...I can't believe it is that time already! Also, today is Scott's last test of his college career...well, unless he goes back for his masters. And he graduates TOMORROW! I can't believe that I will have a kiddo graduated from college, a kiddo in the Army, and a kiddo entering 8th grade...crazy!

Anyway, big day today so I must go. Have a super day!

Our freedom was not free...

Morning friends. While not a lot better today is a better day with my sinuses than yesterday was (I've only been up for a 1/2 hour though) so I thought I'd get this posted while I felt okay.

Some of you have heard me say that my boys are little pieces of my heart walking around outside my body. I imagine that to be true for most moms. (I said most...I know some relationships are difficult) When I heard of the deaths of some of the soldiers in the brigade that Jon belongs to I decided that I would make sympathy cards for each soldier's family. It has been more difficult than I thought and easy to put to the side and say 'I don't have enough time today'. Frankly, thinking about what those families are going through hurts me and is not a place I like to go BUT I want to follow through. There are now four families that I must send cards too. I used Doodle Pantry's Patriotic Eagle image along with a sentiment from the set that Laurie (owner of Doodle Pantry) so graciously re-worked for me so I could make a banner.

Inside I typed up my favorite sympathy sentiment (that sounds strange doesn't it?). In this case I think the sentiment on the front enhances the sentiment inside. (Noticed the typo just before I was to seal and send out a couple of the cards...why did no one tell me?)

I really wanted this card to be simple and clean for both the fact that I want the sentiment to be the thing that really stands out and for duplication purposes. The layout is from CPS this week. I've also entered this into the Paper Sundaes challenge which is to use a sentiment.

Alright, I'm off to go to Kyler's school for a little while. Have a wonderful day, hug the ones you love, and thank a soldier!

Doodle Pantry Berry Pie

Hello bloggy friends! Sorry for the delay in posting! My DH and I were gone this weekend when I realized I wanted to post this fun little card for ya and now I have a lovely (NOT!) sinus "thing" going on so it is hard to concentrate on too much.

The card I have to share with you today is using an image from one of the FREE sets you can receive from Doodle Pantry when you make a purchase of any amount! The set is called Berry Pie and has both blueberry and huckleberry colored pies as well as several digi papers (which I've used on my card) AND the black outlines so that you can make any type of pie you'd like. Pretty fun, huh?

I thought I'd share with you a picture of the view we had at lunch on Saturday. We went on a wine hike through our favorite winery and ended up on this gorgeous hilltop for lunch. Click on the photo to see a larger picture if you'd like.

Anyway, hop on over to Doodle Pantry to see all the new sets and also head on over to the Doodle Pantry BLOG to see the challenges that are going on right now!

Have a wonderful rest of your day!