Birdie and Bells

Good morning all!  Yep, I'm still here preparing for Christmas.  Things are so hectic.  I'm also learning the new scrapbooking software so I've been playing in that but not really able to show you anything.  Soon though!

I was hired to make two more beverage holders so you are getting to see those today.  I used Jolly by Golly from Cosmo Cricket for these holders.  I have the chipboard pack that came with that paper so I used some of the pieces from that pack to finish off the front.  Aren't they fun?  I really like the bird in his hat.  And, I think the yellow looks so bright and cheery!  I'm entering this into the Creative Inspirations challenge this week which is, anything goes. 


Just a short post for ya today.  Tomorrow I'll show you the other beverage holder I made...this one for our neighbor.  Friday I have a Meljen's card to share and then on Saturday I'm going to share a scrapbooking page so I hope you'll stop back!


Thought of the day:  Accept what you can't change.  Change what you can't accept. 

Mmmm...

Good morning!  I hope you are having a wonderful week so far!  Thanks for coming back to visit.  I'm excited to show you my Meljen's Designs new release card tomorrow so hopefully you'll stop back then, too.

I must apologize for the bad photos.  Unfortunately we've had over a week of fog and I am having a horrible time getting decent photos.  Same thing today as yesterday on these beverage holders just different papers and embellishment.  I actually have an order for two more of these so be ready to see more!  LOL!


Well, my boy heads back to Afghanistan today.  I didn't get to spend nearly as much time with him as I would have liked and honestly feel a little cheated by it but I will work past it.  I can't imagine how he must feel going back.  He wants to be there for his friends but it is not a fun place to be.  Such conflicting feelings I'm sure. 


Anyway, have a wonderful day today.  See ya tomorrow!

More Beverages

Good morning!I hope you had a marvelous Monday and have fun plans for your Tuesday.  I actually did some creating yesterday so you'll have some fun stuff to see the next couple of days...yay!

I was excited to be hired to make a couple of more beverage holders.   The customer wanted four of them so I got right to work.  I have to tell you it only took me just over an hour to make all four.  Cutting the holder out with the Cricut sure makes them easy!

The paper I used on all four of these holders are from Imaginisce called Snowy Jo.  I like to use it for this type of thing because this paper pad has 66 chipboard shapes and the sticker toppers to go with making embellishing super easy.  The paper is also very varied.  You can see in this photo the cute snowman on one and the poinsettia on the other.  Two completely different looks  Love it!  I just added different types of ribbon to hold everything all in and they were all ready.

Tomorrow I'll show you the other two and then on Thursday is it new release time with Meljen's Designs for which I have a super 'hot' card for ya so make sure you come on back!

Thought of the day:  A good deed brightens a dark world. 

Birthday Wishes

Good Saturday morning friends!  This morning I'm really wishing my dog would know that it is Saturday and would let me sleep in a little.  5:45 am is just too early on a Saturday!

Today is The Sweet Stop sketch day though so I do have a fun card to show you.  This is another card that I made prior to leaving for our trip and I made it to give to my dad (I'm blessed to have three dads...how cool is that?) for his birthday.  The boys and I haven't been with him for his birthday in 10 years so it was really neat to get to be part of the celebration.

Anyway, this image is from Clear Dollar stamps and is part of their Birthday Fall Critters outlines set.  The paper is from Jillibean's Spotted Owl Soup pack and the rest is pretty self explanatory I think.  I do have to tell you that I really like this card.  I think it is fun, bright and super happy!

So...off you go to see the other design team members creations!

Cathy

Chris

Janice

Kim

Monika

Shannon

Shelby

Wendy

Thought of the day:  Just had to add the thought of the day with the little picture:

Mmmm...hot chocolate

Good morning!  So?  Is everyone ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow?  I think we are!  What are you all doing?  Staying home, going to someones house?  Since our Thanksgiving dinner isn't until 1pm I will have a fun little post tomorrow too.

Today I thought I'd show you the beverage holders I was hired to make, yep that is right, hired to make!  Yay!  After I posted this beverage holder I put it on our town's crafter's group on Facebook and actually got an order for two of them.  It is always hard to make something for someone else as you never know what their tastes are like (and I haven't heard from her as to whether or not she likes them) but I think these both turned out great!  The papers are just some that I have in my Christmas stash but one of the things that I like the most is the wreath and that is from SU!  I am also entering this into the Shopping Our Stash challenge this week which is Winter/Christmas.  Easy peasy! 

Thought for the day:  The more anger from your past you carry in your heart, the less capable you are of loving in the present. 

New Release Day!

Good morning friends!  I hope you had a great Monday!  Today is a new release day with Clear Dollar Stamps and there are a ton of very fun, new images for you to check on their website!

I'm going to show you two of them.  The first, to the right, is actually a digi set that was converted from a clear stamp set called For Unto You.  I adore the simplicity of these images and the little sheep are so cute.  The set comes with tons of sentiments so you can do just about anything with it!  If I had more of the sheet music paper I might actually consider this for my main Christmas card this year.  The Halo and star are both covered in Sundance Smooch and the sheep have a little glitter on them, too.

My second card is made with a set by Trudy called Hearts and Holly.  I love that this sets main theme is all about Jesus.  What a wonderful way to remind everyone that receives this card that Jesus is the reason for the season?  The papers are part of the Hearts and Holly set so it was fun and simple to put together.  What you can't see if that the white dotted blue back ground is all sparkly.  I took my Clear Star Gelly Roll pen (which I use a TON) and just dotted it all over the blue background.  It is a really nice subtle effect in real life.   

I hope you will head over to the CDS Blog to check out what everyone has made for the release!  I also want to let you know that this will be my last post with CDS.  I have enjoyed designing for them and just am making a couple of changes.  Thank you to Jerusha for asking me on the team and being a great digi team coordinator!

I had a couple of people (okay...just one) ask me how I make the little "haystacks" (bundles of twine) that I've been using on my card so tomorrow I will be showing a real short tutorial on it.  It will be short because it is so simple but it really has a fun effect on the card, I think.

Thought of the day:  Sometimes it is okay to take a step back and admit you are being ridiculous.  Raise your hand if you've been there, too!

All Year Round Blog Hop

Hello friends and welcome to your April stop on the All Year Round Blog Hop featuring the wonderful calendar set from Clear Dollar Stamps!  If you came here from Lisa's blog you are right on track.  If you are just stopping in here why don't you head on over to the Clear Dollar Stamps blog to start at the beginning?

When I first saw these calendar pages I knew I wanted to work on a 6x6 calendar using the cute images from CDS.  For April we have a cute bunny that I paired with some lovely paper from the Sweetly Smitten patterned paper pack from Sassafras.  When I do pages like this I just Google 6x6 scrapbook page layouts and choose one that fits my main image well.  The numbers at the bottom are made from kraft thickers that I just inked with a Bermuda Bay ink pad.  A little pink on the bunny with an outline in blue and tahdah!

Alright, I'm sure you want to continue on the blog hop so head on over to Jan's blog to see her cute calendar project!

Thought of the day:  I love that random memories that no matter where I am in my life they make me smile. 

Warmes Wishes

Welcome back!  I hope your day is going well so far!  If you are here to see my Sweet Stop sketch please scroll down or click HERE. 

You may or may not know it but I love SVG's.  I have Sure Cuts A Lot downloaded on my computer to use with my Cricut (SCAL is not available for purchase to use with a Cricut anymore).  I have lots & lots & lots of SVG's and I feel pretty comfortable using them.  Now Cricut cartridges not so much.  I can't figure them out for the life of me, right Tana?  LOL!  Anyway, Clear Dollar Stamps releases a couple of SVG's (that can also be hand cut from a PDF pattern) each month and I like to volunteer to make a sample for the release day so that is...today!

This SVG is called Beverage Holder but when you hop on over the the blog to see the post you will see that one of the other DT members made it into a cute Halloween treat box and a cupcake holder too so it is absolutely something you can use in a way other than the way I did but I love mine.   My local Safeway had the cups for $2.50 for 12 and the hot chocolate was on sale, too.  I got the Ghirardelli on sale so I'd say this entire project cost me less than $1.50 to make...perfect for teachers don't you think? 

Well, that is it for me this weekend here on my blog.  I have lots of putsy things to do so I'll be busy!
I hope you have a wonderful weekend! 

Thought of the day:  If more females would sit down and be ladies then more males would stand up and be gentlemen.  AMEN to that!

Lots 'o Pink

Good morning friends!  Have you all had a wonderful week?  It seems like I've been away from my blog forever but it has really only been two days.  Today is Friday....  Who has fun plans this weekend?

Onto my card for today.  Today is the beginning of a new challenge at Clear Dollar Stamps.  Today's challenge is to use lots of pink.  How do you think I did?  I do love me some pink so this was a fun challenge for me.   The image is called Big Bear Hug.  The paper is just some I've had in my stash and you'll see more of it very soon :).  It was so simple to just add a few faux stitches and some gel pen to make this card even more cute!

Well, I hope you'll join us in the challenge!  Make sure you stop back tomorrow as it is another double post day!  I'll have my Sweet Stop card to show you (that I love) as well as another Clear Dollar Stamps post that is going to show off one of the new SVG files. 

Thought of the day:  Every person's life is a fairy tale written by God's fingers.  Hans Christian Anderson (1805-1875)

October Monthly Blog Hop - CDS

Good morning and welcome to the October Monthly Blog Hop with Clear Dollar stamps!  You should have come here from Linda's blog...if not be sure to start at Lori's blog!

This month's theme is Happy Fall Y'all so I had to go with one of the new images from the super adorable set Autumn Critters.  I had fun putting one of the digital papers from the set together with an embossing folder to make this card.  I just received an order from Kraft Outlet so I had to use some of the kraft paper that I received as well as a hand dyed tag on my card.  I think both of them lend nicely to the fall feel of this card.  My layout is from Card Patterns this week. And I'm entering this into the Paper Sundaes challenge this week. 

I am excited to hop along with everyone to see what the rest of the CDS DT's have made!  Your next stop is Kathy's blog.


If you get lost you can come on back here and get on track through the links below...

Lori

Linda

Lorie (That's me!)

Kathy

Christi

Jan

Jerusha

Stacy 

Sarah

Patti

Lisa

Shell

Cassie

Barb

Thought of the day:  You don't have to attend every argument you're invited to.

Couldn't love you S'more!

Welcome!  I'm glad to have you back for my 2nd post for the day (see the Sweet Stop Sketch post below)!  I'm excited to be sharing a couple of the fabulous new release digi's that Clear Dollar Stamps has for you.  Settle in because I have four photos for you today!

Above you see the super sweet image and sentiment from the S'More Bears digital image set.  Don't you just adore this sweet image?  My cards feature the bears as husband/wife but you could do daddy/daughter  mother/son, or big sibling/little sibling too!  How versatile!

The photo above just shows the inside of my S'More Bears card.  I thought it would be fun to use some of the letters that match the Earth Love paper that I used on the outside of the card.  I think my hubby will like it!

In the photo above you see the first in a series of calendar pages that I will be showing you.  I thought I'd start with October since well...it is October and my birthday is in October.  I adore this fun Year Round Calendar set.  What a fun way to make gifts for your friends and family this Christmas!

And then, since the paper was so cute with the little witch and pumpkins I just used a craft knife and dimensional to pop up the hats on all four of them.  Just a fun little detail.  The 'boo' was cut on my Cricut.  

If you like my peaks at the new images you will love what the other girls have for you too so either click on their names in my side bar or head on over to the Clearly iStamp blog to see it all!

So, I'm going to leave you to your day after a Thought Of The Day: I believe in the sun when it isn't shining.  I believe in love when I'm alone.  I believe in God when he's silent.  How 'bout you?

Autumn Friends

I'm back! I know...can you believe it?! I'm still struggling with creating but I'm doing it anyway as I do have commitments ya know. 

With Halloween time coming up I thought I'd use the wonderful set from Clear Dollar Stamps called Autumn Friends.  Why do I love this set so much?  Well, in this case it is because it comes with some pre-colored, pre-background-ed (not I word I know) 3"x3" treat bag labels!  For my sample today I actually sized mine label to 2 3/4" x 2 3/4" and layered it on a piece of the patterned paper that comes in this set as well.  Now...this isn't just any sample this is the treat bag our cute little friend, Emily, will get when she comes knocking on our door this year (at least I hope she comes again this year...mom?  please?)!  To personalize it for Emily I just printed some letters from a digital letter kit I have, punched them out with my 1/2" punch, sponged the edges in her favorite color, purple, and then adhered them with a pop dot.  Super easy and super cute!

I hope this fun, quick project will give you inspiration for your favorite trick or treat-ers this year!

Thought of the day:  I love it when someone's laugh is funnier than the joke! 

Clear Dollar Stamps SVG Release Day

Good morning friends! Can you believe the week, as well as the month is almost over already? Where did it go?  I'm excited for tomorrow as my step-daughter Brianna is coming for a visit and we haven't seen her for over a year so it will be fun!  Please pray for her safety as she drives about 6 hours to get here.

So, today is SVG release day over at Clear Dollar Stamps and you know how much I love SVG so I had to sign up to make a preview of these super cute Windmill SVG and PDF!

Obviously the SVG is from Clear Dollar Stamps and when I saw it I thought it would be fun to make it into something that I could give to a teacher so I used the Boyfriend mini deck from Cosmo Cricket as it has perfect papers for this type of thing.  So, I cut the base and blades from an orange cardstock from American Crafts then resized the blades to cut them from the patterned paper.  I just measured and cut the box patterned paper myself.  Using a brad makes it so the blades rotate but I put it on there pretty tightly so it doesn't rotate freely.  There is lots of sponging going on with some not quite navy ink.  I then filled the back with pixie sticks for the teacher to give out.  I gave you a side shot as well so you could see how deep the box part is.

I hope that you like my Windmill but I think you should go check out what the others made with this SVG because those are just beautiful!  Click HERE to go to the Clear Dollar Stamps blog. 

Well, there you have it for today!  Have a wonderful day!

Thought of the day:  When you stamble...make it a part of the dance. 

Clear Dollar Stamps Digi Release Day!

Good morning friends!  Welcome to Thursday!  Yay, tomorrow is Friday and it is the first day of the week I don't acutally have something planned...love it!

Today, though, is a fun day here on the 'ole blogaroonie as it is a new release day for Clear Dollar Stamps Digital team.  Today I have two super sets to show you so here we go!

Above is a birthday wishes box that I made with the new digital set called Birthday Fall Critters.  I colored up the owl with my Copic markers, added some glitter to anything that was green on her and then built this box around the image.  I cut the box template with my Cricut and then just re-sized the template to make the sides and front, sides and back paper fit perfectly.  I only have two pieces of candy in there for show but it would really hold much more than that.  The sentiment is from the Birthday Critters set as well.  This entire set has such CUTE images and you can get it already colored if you'd like!

And the above card features papers and the image from the new set called Sentimental Quilt.  I know lots of quilters so I knew I had to play with this set immediately.  I adore this card and the antique-y feeling it has.  The papers are just so perfect!  The sketch I used with this card is from Sketches by Carly and I'm also entering this into the Ruby's Rainbow challenge which is something suitable for a girl.  I think this fits well!

Make sure you head on over to the Clear Dollar Stamps Blog to see what the entire design team has made for this release...the projects are awesome, I assure you!

Thought of the day:  If we all threw our problems into a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

Love in yellow...

Welcome to Wednesday everyone!  I hope your week has been wonderful so far!  I know we've just been getting ready for Kyler to go back to school tomorrow. I love and crave the routine of school but miss Kyler terribly while he is gone.

Today I just wanted to share with you a quick card I made for Todd.  If you have followed me for very long you know that I make his cards with as much yellow as I can as it is his favorite color.  Well, I think I should have colored my birds a different color as I do believe they look like chickens but...oh, well!  The image is from a set called Love Tweet Love from Clear Dollar Stamps...trust me, you are going to want to go and see this set...it is super cute!  And speaking of Clear Dollar Stamps next week is a new digi release and I have seen the goods, played with the goods, and have seen what others have made with the goods and I'm tellin' ya...you are going to LOVE this next release!  The paper is from Jillibean Soup--Dutch Mustard Soup and the layout is this week's sketch from The Sweetest Thing.  While you are waiting for the new release why don't you hop on over to their blog to check out all of the neat tutorial's and challenges they have?

Thought of the day:  Forgiveness is giving up hope that the past could have been any different.  Think on this awhile.  I think that once we accept it is what it was than we can forgive.  There is a lot to forgiveness but this is a great start!

thank you

Good morning all! I spent quite a bit of time over the last couple of days making 9 of the cards I'm showing you. I think it would have taken less time if I would have had more time to work in one sitting but it just didn't work out that way. Ah, well!

Today's card features an image from Clear Dollar Stamps called Aster. All I did was size the digital image to what I thought I would need and printed off a test image. Then I attached my white cardstock to the paper and ran it through again...9 times. Then it was just coloring the image, stamping the sentiment and then running the butterfly die through my Big Shot. Really, it was easy to do!

I was so proud of myself last night! I finished up these cards (which includes a piece of cardstock on which I stamped a scripture and adhered ab additional butterfly), signed them, addressed and stamped them all too! I also started 3 other cards and 2 door hangers. In all I had 15 items waiting to go into the mailbox this morning! I felt super productive!

Thought of the day: "Heaven is full of answers to prayers for which no one bothered to ask." Billy Graham What do you need to talk to your creator about today?

Clear Dollar Stamps August Blog Hop

Good morning all! I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. Ours has been very pleasant so far.



Welcome to the August Clear Dollar Stamps Blog Hop! You should have arrived from Sarah's blog. If you didn't head back to the CDS blog to start. This month we have a theme of "My Favorite Things." I, of course, wanted clarification of what that meant and was told I could make it whatever works with the theme. Oh, boy...I like clearly defined parameters...lol!



I went lots of different ways when thinking of what I'd do...Christmas, music, movie, and finally I just went with my favorite season...fall. My birthday is in the fall and my grandma and grandpa used to come up for it each year. We'd have a bonfire and just enjoy each others company. Good memories!



I have used the digi set called Autumn Joy on my card along with some paper and embellishments that I've had around forever. I have to tell you I really enjoyed coloring this tree. I used probably about 15 different Copic marker colors.



I hope you like my little card! Now, you need to head on over to Jan's blog by clicking HERE. Have a great time on the blog hop everyone!

Clear Dollar Stamps Digital Release Day!

Good morning friends and welcome to Clear Dollar Stamps August Digi Release! This month I have two super cute samples to show you with the new release images and they couldn't be more different!



Above is a card with Praying Eyes Mantis. Isn't he just hilarious with those eyes?! The "here's Looking at you" sentiment on the background piece comes with the digi set. I just opened Word and placed the sentiments on the document several times, printed it out and made my card. It is funny because the hardest part about this card was getting those "random" pieces of colored cardstock to look "random." I think I like random to be more structured!

This second card is made with the digi set Gladiolia. I was a little nervous to work with this set as it is not within my "normal" comfort zone but they needed someone and I said yes before I really thought about it...lol! The sentiment that you see behind the main image is actually an image in the set. It talks about the Gladiolia being the flower for August and such. I just cut my green cardstock the size I wanted and ran it through the printer. It worked like a charm! The Gladiolia's are colored with Copics. The ribbon is from my stash and there is a soft pink and vanilla ribbon. For the final little embellishment I used a butterfly stick pin in the center of the bow. If you want to see it better just click on the photo and that will make it bigger.



There you have it! My cards with Clear Dollar Stamps newest Digital Release. Make sure you hop on over to the CDS Blog to see what my DT sisters have done plus I believe there is a new challenge starting soon!



In John 1:5, Jesus said, "The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it." Remember that Jesus stands beside you right in the middle of your crisis, in the middle of your darkest day. He also stand in the middle of your tomorrow, fully aware of your future. From: It's No Secret by Rachel Olsen

shell-o

Good morning friends! Well, here we sit at Thursday, our week almost done. Have you accomplished all you've wanted or is it 'one of those weeks' for ya?



Today I have used the cute Turtle Greetings set from Clear Dollar Stamps on my card. I just adore this little turtle (remember THIS card?). There is something about his smile that makes the sun come out (that is a sun not a flower on the card) and those cute lady bugs getting a ride on his shell...super cute! The patterned paper is from MME's lime twist collection called Out of the Blue.



Make sure you check out the Clear Dollar Stamp blog HERE. They clear stamp team has had some great tutorials recently!



"I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches." Psalm 119:14. What does this mean? This means that we are just as happy following what God tells us about our lives as we are gather riches. So, whether you are having an up or down week as long as we are following God we can be happy!



I hope you make today exactly what you want it to be! See you all tomorrow!