I got to stamp too!

Michael and I have begun our Total Money Makeover. Dave Ramsey is our hero. If you are not familiar with Dave or his program, I highly encourage you to check out his website, radio show, and/or books. We have a completely new outlook on life thanks to the common sense he got us to listen to.

Anyway, we've been trying to pass our newly discovered good habits on to our kids, and one suggestion he makes is to put their money in a jar so that they can see it adding up as they save to buy something. So we've been meaning to get jars for them, and of course a plain old jar just would NOT do.
For DJ's this was the first time I had used my Scallop Square bigz die, my So Many Stars builder wheel, or the star stamp that coordinates with our Extra-Large Star Punch (although the stamp set is retired), so I got to play with some new toys.

For AJ's I had the Whisper White oval frame already cut out, so I added the Rich Razzleberry center. Then over on Splitcoaststampers, today's Technique Lover's Challenge was to make a flower embellishment (Paper Posies was the title). I viewed several tutorials before settling on this flower to make.

It is super simple. You take the Scallop Circle punch and punch out 8 scalloped circles. If you desire, sponge your edges [it is important to do this step NOW...ask me how I know]. Then you crumple each one up individually. If you use DSP, then your fine; however, if you're making your flower with cardstock, spritz it with water before crumpling so that it is easier to work with. Next you uncrumple your circles, and stack them all together. Use the paper piercer to punch a hole through all 8 layers and attach with a small brad. Then starting with the top flower, scrunch it together around the brad, continue scrunching each layer until they are all scrunched together in the center. Finally fluff the layers out to your desired shape. Voila! A gorgeous handmade paper flower. (If you still have questions, leave me a comment, and I'll find a video tutorial to link.)

I actually started my paper flower making today with a new daisy for AJ's headband. A red, white, and blue daisy simply would not go with her pink gingham top. I used two of each size flower for this one. More petals and a sturdier embellishment to work with.

I actually stamped a card for my grandmother's birthday too, but I'll save that for another day.

Sweet wishes!

Let the celebration continue...

So tonight we finished off our sparklers. After having so much fun with the "fireworks" setting on my camera last night, I decided to give it a try with our sparklers tonight. It worked!

Here's AJ making circles.

DJ doing squiggles.

Me making a star.

Michael doing his initials (super cool!).

And finally me, again, drawing a heart.

Sweet wishes!

It's Independence Day

...Let freedom ring; let the white dove sing. Let the whole world know that today is the day of reckoning. Let the weak be strong; let the right be wrong. Roll the stone away. Let the guilty pay; it's Independence Day. ~Martina Mcbride

Hope your 4th of July was a great one. Ours was. Here are my kids outside playing with sparklers.
Even my big kid.

All in their red, white and blue.

Okay, so all day I've wanted to post a holiday-appropriate project, and when we got changed out of our VBS t-shirts (we had our program during church this morning) and put a plain white headband in AJ's newly cut hair--which I cut myself!--I had to add this little flower made with the Daisies #2 bigz die and a corduroy brad. Now that was the perfect accessory for her adorable hair cut.

We finished off the night by going to see the fireworks after the Greeneville Astros' ball game. We didn't make it to the game this year, but we found the perfect place to catch the post game show.

Here's one I took with the "fireworks" setting on my camera. Go figure. Very different effect, but very cool.

When we got home we did our own "grand finale."

Sweet wishes!

I had a plan

I had blog entries lined up for about a week while we were away at camp. I took my computer along and had all my pictures conveniently organized in folders, so all I had to do was upload the pics, write a brief explanation, and post. But I was at camp, and we were at a new location, and the group I was with was responsible for planning worship each day, and we didn’t worship in the same place twice, and I had an allergic reaction to something and spent one whole day doped up on Benadryl, and we had over three times as many youth in our group as we did last year, which was awesome, and I just didn’t get around to posting.

Other than the allergic reaction, I had an aboslutely AMAZING week at AFFIRM, which is where we were June 18-25. We got back home Saturday, June 26, had a Christian rock concert on Sunday, June 27, at the church's community center, and had VBS this past Monday-yesterday. It's been crazy.

Anyway, when I was looking for a picture of AJ in her cast from last fall for my post a few weeks ago, ***NO, this is NOT a new picture!*** I came across this one, where you can sort of see where we used some of Stampin' Up!'s rub-ons to decorate the cast. She loved it. Hey, if you've got a broken arm, you might as well make the best of it. But please, AJ, NO MORE!!!!!

So there you have it. No stamping, but still SU! related.

Sweet wishes!

ps. The 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalog was released on Thursday. I recently received a bunch of new goodies, so when I have a moment to catch my breath...and stamp...I'll try to post some new stuff for you. I've also got to get an open house planned, so exciting things are coming soon. (I hope!)