Have a great day!

Good Friday morning everyone! What a whirlwind week it has been! I can't believe it is Friday already! We are onto Fair and Rodeo weekend...fun stuff! As fun as that is for me you aren't here for that are you? Being that there are five Friday's in August we get an extra Sketches by Carly week. Yay! Scroll on down...

So this week I have used one of Carly's (yep the one who draws the sketches) digital images.  This one is called Carly's Puppy and can be found HERE.  This was such a fun, upbeat card to make.

And a little peek at the inside for ya too.  I wanted to put that sun on the outside but darn if I could make it look right.  Instead, I used butterflies on the outside so I could play along with Flutter By Wednesday's.  The challenge was to decorate the inside of your card and to be sure to have something fluttery on the card too.  This one works in both ways...yay!  Did you know that I decorate the inside of almost all of my cards?  Yep!

And here is the sketch for the week.  I only went off sketch at the bottom where I put the sentiment but I think I followed it pretty well.  Our sponsor for this week is Kelly Little.  She has a wonderful envie full of crafting goodness for you!  (Trust me...you'll wanna play along with this one!)

So, there you have it!  Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow morning with cute teacher themed gift.  Till then...have a wonderful day!

You & Me

Good morning friends! I hope you had a wonderful Sunday! Was it a relaxing one or did you get lots done outside/inside? It was pretty relaxing for me which was super nice. I took they day off of all exercising which was probably a mistake and I'll feel it today but...oh, well!

When our was out in blogland I saw Patti's really pretty card HERE.  The sketch intrigued me so I decided to play with it too.  I don't have any Repeat Impressions stamps but the post said that I can play along without so I used some new to me stamps from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps called You & Me.  I'm a sucker for a stamp set that I can use to make a card for Todd with!  Anyway, didn't it turn out cute?

Here is a side view...I wanted you to be able to see the inside and that I popped up the two image panels.  I just think this is so fun and can't wait to give it to him at some point!

I'm hoping to find the time to make a fun teacher gift this afternoon but we shall see.  First, I must get on my bike and ride for awhile. 

Make today a fantastic day!

Lifesavers

Good morning!  Ummm...where did this week go?  I totally meant to post way more than I did this week but time just got away from me! 

You may remember this card from my post HERE.  Well, I wanted to have a little treat for the young lady who is going to get the card so I got the Lifesavers Box template from The Cutting Cafe and made it up!  The box is supposed to fit 4 rolls of Lifesavers but I couldn't find rolls of Lifesavers so I just bought them individually wrapped and put a whole bunch in the box.  That works too, right?

I'm going to be working on another project this weekend...this one for teachers so I hope you'll check!  I'm off for a bike ride.  I gotta make it quick today as I'm heading off to the church to help out with some stuff.

Have a great Saturday! 

Kind Words

I know...can you believe it?  I'm here a second day this week?  I made this card on Sunday so I thought I'd share it with you today.  This is a Verve set called "Kind Words."  It is one of those sets that I bought a long time ago yet hadn't used so I decided to pull it out. 

I adore the card and think this week's Sweet Stop sketch is perfect for it but I'm super unhappy that I ended up stamping the sentiment just a little crooked.  I thought I had it but clearly that isn't the case.  The words are still lovely and it doesn't change the intent though.  The paper is from MME and is called Blink of an Eye.  I'm also going to enter this into the Shopping Our Stash challenge which is to use a sketch...any sketch so my card definitely works for that challenge! Oh, and some BIG news over HERE.  Are you excited for me 'cuz I sure am!

You may or may not know but our area has been contending with a wild fire.  They are expecting to get it all contained today and start the mop-up work today as well.  Over 20,000 acres burned and over 70 structures burned.  We went to drive the route of the century bike ride yesterday and in one spot it is right next to where the fires were.  Very scary stuff!  I'll probably make a scrapbook page or two about it.  God sure has been working in amazing ways this last week!

Well, I'm off for another ride this morning so I should finish this up.  We are taking Costco in this after noon so if you hear something moaning it is probably my wallet...hahaha! 

Fall/Winter Designed2Delight Blog Hop

Good morning and thanks so much for blog hoppin' with D2D! Remember, all New Release Digital Stamps will be on SALE until August 23. Details HERE. Below will be links to the other design team members amazing cards. This month we are featuring fall/winter images and a couple of really cute new images!

This Fall Mailbox image is one of the new images that Faith has released this month.  I love the pumpkins and the bird with the heart is so cute.  I tried to make this a bit more masculine as it is a birthday card for a man.  I do love it though! 

I just had to share with you the pile of markers it took to make the Fall Mailbox card.  How many are there?  19!  Crazy, huh?

And when I saw sweet School Maisie Belle I knew I had to make a back to school card with her.  It looks like that cutie is all ready for back to school with her ruler, scissors, and paint brushes in her pockets! 

For more inspiring ideas from this new release, please visit the other designers' blogs:

9th Grade, really?

Good Saturday morning! I have something kinda fun to share with you this morning. For the last several years I've made a little something for Kyler on his first day of school.  (Um, excuse me but exactly how did we get to the point that Kyler is in high school already?  Wasn't he just going to kindergarten last year?)  I've done this for Scott and Jon, too but stopped when they got in high school, 'cuz really what do you do for high schoolers that isn't too "young".  Well, this year I challenged myself to come up with something and I did! 

I cut THIS pattern from The Cutting Cafe on my Cricut, put it together, and then decorated the front with colors I knew Kyler would like.  He's in 9th grade at EHS so I thought that would be good for the front.  Inside the little pocket is an academic planner and a pen that is made with recycled water bottles (pretty neat, huh?).  The folder was just so funny when Todd and I saw it at the store so we had to get it for him, too. 

I do have another little giftie for a friend that I will be making for the first day of school but first I need to finish up my cards for the Designed2Delight new release blog hop on Monday!  Make sure you stop back to see those creations, too!

Well, I'm off to eat a little breakfast and then to head out on a bike ride this morning...on my new bike....  Have a wonderful weekend!

Sketches by Carly

While you won't see this on the Sketches by Carly blog ('cuz I just finished the card this morning) this is my card for the sketch this week.  This week's sponsor is Sweet n Sassy Stamps and the winner will win 3 digi images of their choice so I know you'll want to play along!

And below is the sketch. You can put the flowers on your card or not...it is up to you.  Obviously flowers wouldn't go very well with my mouse and pumpkin image so I left the flowers off of mine.

I hope you'll come on over to Sketches by Carly and join this great sketch challenge!

What's in a metric?

Good morning!  Well, my attentions have been turned away from crafting the last couple of days...okay, really from blogging as I've been making a couple of things.  Anyway it is all because of my friend Lori.  She decides to ride in the Manastash Metric (metric means 1,000 km which means 62 miles) Bicycle Tour.  I think...that is something I might be able to do or maybe just the half so I go on a ride with her to find that I loved it.  That gets me into why I haven't been on here.  I have spent a lot of time researching biking, bikes, and the race.  I've decided to do the half Metric with my friend Nicole but we'll be training as if we are doing the full race so I may change my registration if I think I can do it!

So...above is the poster for the ride. It is three days before my 43rd birthday.  I think I might be a little crazy but that is okay!  I've also decided to make a Smash Book of the whole thing so I'm sure you'll see bits and pieces of that as we go along. (All about Smash Books HERE)

Above is a photo of the bike that Todd let me get.  A real race bike and it happens to be just like my friend, Lori's bike!  I asked her first so it wouldn't be weird.  She didn't mind...what a good sport!

And finally...I decided that this race would be about more than just me so I'm going to try and raise some support in the way of donations to World Vision.  I'm hoping to raise $500 which will purchase $6,000 worth of basic necessities for children in the US.  If you'd like to know more about that click HERE.  If you'd like to support me just let me know!

So there you have it!  Do you agree with my I'm crazy assessment?  I just know I'm excited about it!  Well, I'm off to get ready for a ride today!  Have a wonderful day! 

Walk In the Forst

Good morning friends! If any of you are wondering if my obsession over our summer hike will be over soon I can confidently say...yes! I finished the last two pages last night...yay! I'll take the time to show you the pages of the next couple of days and then we'll move onto other things, k?

There isn't much to narrate on these pages but you can read the little bit of journaling I have.  I thought more photos...less journaling this time.  I took a lot of photos so I wanted to get as many as I could scrapped but there is only so many pictures of the woods that you need to have....

Well, that is it for this wonderful Monday.  It is 7:15 a.m. here and 76 degrees.  It is going to be a hot one today for sure!  I hope you all enjoy whatever day you have planned!  See you tomorrow!

Celebrating you today...

It's Friday and a beautiful day outside so far. We are headed back up in the 90's for the weekend but I'll take it!  Today is my first Friday back with Sketches by Carly after taking a little break and we have a fun challenge for you today.  It is:

That's right...use any sketch you'd like from past Carly sketches.  The sketch I chose is #39 and you can see it below:

Our sponsor for the week is the Paper Shelter but I've had these images and dies sitting out on my desk for a little while just begging me to play with them...so I did!  All images and papers (except the white) are from PaperTrey Ink. 

Well, what do ya think?  I think it is super cute and I'm sure happy with the way the images worked with the dies.  This is a birthday card that I'll be sending off pretty soon...I hope the recipient likes it!

Alright, now make sure you hop on over to the other designers blogs (listed to the right) to check out what they made and which sketches they used.  They are all amazingly talented!

Have a fantastic Friday and weekend everyone!

As the water flows...

How are you this Wednesday morning?  It is a beautiful, sunshiny day here but windy again.  I guess I can deal with the wind to have the blue skies! 

I'm just here to show you the other favorite photo page from our hiking trip.  I have been encouraged to have this photo printed and enter it into the fair.  I keep forgetting to go get the booklet so I have the rules but I think I'll stop by the fair office and do that today.  I'm not sure if I have enough time at this point to get it printed (and I think I want it on wrap around canvas).  We shall see!

Well, I hope you are having a wonderful week!  I think I'll see you back here on Friday!