A "bliss"ful birthday

March 16, was my grandmother's 80th birthday; my dad's mom, Mama Williams. Here is the card I sent her. The bow was sitting on my desk, and the stamp set was a Sale-A-Bration set that I had recently received. The idea just fell into place with those two pieces of inspiration.

Sweet wishes!

Some Tennessee Volunteers

Today Michael, the kids and I went over to the Camp Creek/Horse Creek area to help with some of the disaster relief efforts from the devastating storms that came through our area on April 27.
A sampling of what we passed along the way to the site where we were assigned, by FEMA, to help.
On the property. Fortunately, no one lived in this trailer, and no one in the immediate vicinity was killed. Five homes surrounding the property were completely destroyed, and not all of them were mobile homes.The kids and I picked up LOTS of trash. DJ helped haul tree limbs too.
Takin' a break.
Michael and another volunteer hauling a tub.
Three other ladies hauling another tub.
AJ & DJ were fascinated by the burning brush pile!
After three hours of hard work, we were ALL exhausted.
When we first arrived at the FEMA site, DJ asked, "Are we getting paid to do this?" To which I responded, "No, we're volunteers." He then clarified, "No, I mean are you and Daddy going to give us chore money?" I went into a further explanation of what it means to be a volunteer and how we were helping people and such. He seemed to understand.

Later, while we were working at the property AJ told Michael, "This is actually lots of fun...until you get hot. Then it isn't fun anymore."

All in all, we enjoyed ourselves and are glad we were able to help out in our neighboring community. We did go out for ice cream after we came home and got cleaned up. It was a great day!

Sweet wishes!

Playing catch-up: day 3

These projects are from the last of a series of classes I did as part of a Big Shot club. The featured dies were the Scallop Circle and the Scallop Circle #2 bigz dies. My friend Beth, who no longer blogs, made some of these ADORABLE boxes, so I stole the idea from her, though it was not originally her own either. For the lid, we also used the Flower, Dasies #2 bigz die. I promise I will come back later and give you a link to the instructions for making these adorable things!
Then here is this too-stinkin'-cute card we made too. I had seen these all over blogland and SCS. I can't tell you who the original thinker-uper was for the idea, but I'm pretty sure I got the most help from Patty Bennett's blog.

We did one other card, I think, but I haven't got a picture of it. I made this as a gift for my one customer who subscribed to the club that month. It's a note pad.

Sweet wishes!

ps. I think this is my last day of catch-up...I'll have to find some more projects to post!

Playing catch-up: day 2

I edited my post from yesterday to include the links to the cards I CASEd. I don't actually remember when we made this card. It might have been one I demonstrated or that we made at the new catalog open house in July 2009. But I can't find the original idea for it, and I looked through all my files on both my desktop and laptop computers. I even went so far as to look in the old Stampin' Success and Idea Book & Catalog...no luck. I know I copied someone's cute creation, so if this idea was yours, thank you, and I'm sorry I can't give you proper credit.

The next two projects are from a workshop I did using the A Rose is a Rose stamp set. I simplified this card for the first project.
The second project was this darling cello' bag topper.
There was a third project, but I didn't get a picture of it, and I don't even remember what it looked like. I'm sure it was another 6x6 page/3x6 card option. Oh well.

Sweet wishes!

Playing catch-up

I think these projects were from workshops I did in summer 2009. This first picture is of the hostess gifts I made. I wanted to feature the then new In Colors, lace boarder punch, and Circle Circus stamp set. The packaging was my own idea.
I think I CASEd the idea for these cards, but it's been so long, I have NO idea who I copied. Sorry. ETA: I found the original idea. It was from "stamptilucramp" over on SCS. I took her idea and made a set of 4 cards.

I will have to look back and get the links for all these projects because I know this next one was not original either. I can't remember the name of the technique, but you punch your shape, paper pierce around it, and layer the DSP behind the "window."
ETA: the name of the technique is reverse punch applique, and here is the card I CASEd.

This *might* have been my own idea. The workshop guests had the choice of making a 6x6 scrapbook page or a 3x6 card. ETA: Nope. I actually combined a few ideas I saw, but here is the one that is closest to my final product.

This fun little pouch uses the Razzle Dazzle stamp set. It's got M&Ms inside. Yum! I stamped and punched the oval sentiments ahead of time. Wasn't that nice of me? ;-) ETA: I could not find the original idea for this project. Could it be my own? Doubtful, but possible.

Sweet wishes!

What we've been up to lately

This year is St. James Lutheran Church's 200th anniversary. Michael and the bicentennial committee have been planning the celebration for the past 3 years. There are several events that have already taken place and more to come. On Palm Sunday weekend, the Berea College Concert Choir and Chamber Singers came to give a concert and lead music during worship. They were amazing and a very fun group of young men and women.
Here's AJ before her Pre-K class' Easter Egg hunt. They had to find eggs numbered 1-10 in numerical order, so it was a fun learning activity.

On Good Friday, Michael and the kids and I traveled up to Johnson City and delivered a few Easter goodies to the residents of the Ronald McDonald House.

My lovely family on Easter Sunday. The Lord is RISEN! Alleluia!!!!!

Here we are at the Knoxville Zoo with a penguin. Do you see him ? He's right between DJ's shoulder and AJ's head, next to the reflection of the park bench. ;-)
AJ LOVES to wear dresses. She asks all the time to wear a dress to school. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like any of the dresses she had would be okay to wear to school (No paint on our Sunday best, please!). So we finally found one at Walmart that I felt could work. There were actually two she liked, so I bought her one, and she used the money she got from family for Easter to buy the other one.
DJ participated in field day. The way they do it here in Greene County is that all the 1st-8th graders at all the county and city schools have try-outs at their individual school, and then each school sends one person to compete in each event at each level. DJ was chosen to represent our school in the 1st & 2nd grade boys standing broad jump.
He won first place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So proud!
Sweet wishes!

Fun Birthday wishes

This past Sunday was my little brother's birthday, and then yesterday was his wife's. I typically try to make them coordinating cards...at least using the same stamp set (click here to see their cards from two years ago). This year was no different. I used the Take A Spin stamp set that was in the Occasions Mini Catalog. I'm really hoping this set makes it into the 2011-2012 IB&C (which comes out in July).
I CASEd Brett's card from jrmccue's card here. And I think the original idea for Kelly's card came from a Stampin' Success issue, but I took my inspiration from Emily's card. I left Brett's spinner loose so that it could be spun, but the image on Kelly's card has various different holidays, and I wanted it to only be a birthday card, so in addition to stamping that part of the image in a different color, I also attached the spinner tighter so it would only point to birthday.

I used this same stamp set to make a card for the After School program coordinator at my school. I think this was an original idea. *gasp*

Sweet wishes!

The whole truth

When I mentioned the other day that I had taken a break from all things Stampin' Up! I wasn't lying. I hadn't done anything business related since October. However, I did stamp.

In the past month-and-a-half we had three showers at school. Two wedding and a baby. I stamped invitations for all three, and gave the bride/mommy-to-be a set of thank you cards as a gift. I am on the committee that coordinates the showers, so I tried to have the invitations and cards match the decor as much as possible. This is an OLD set called Terrific Tulips. Kalyn's colors are tangerine and lime, so I used Tangerine Tango and the retired Green Galore. We decorated with tangelos and limes in tall skinny vases.
Carling's colors are Monterrey blue and coral, and her bride's maids are carrying yellow flowers. "Monterrey blue" is NOT a Stampin' Up! color, so I had a really difficult time with this one! I ended up going with Pacific Point, (which the mother-of-the-bride said was almost a perfect match), Cameo Coral, and Daffodil Delight for the invitations. The only party plates and napkins that I could find that even came close were some Hawaiian luau things. So for the thank yous I went with Bermuda Bay, which matched the decor (and the cake I made) better.
The napkins I found for the baby shower had the profile of a pregnant lady from the neck to the bottom of her belly under a cute polka-dotted umbrella. So I decided to go with a polka-dot theme.
I used the same dot along with the baby rattle handle for the thank yous. The dot and handle are from the set Playful Pieces which is a current level 3 hostess set. Host a qualifying workshop before June 30 to earn this awesome set FREE!
Sweet wishes!

Confirmation gifts

Yesterday was a busy day in the life of St. James Lutheran Church. We recognized our 2011 graduates, celebrated the Affirmation of Baptism (Confirmation) for four of our youth, and had a play to commerate our 200th anniversary. There was also a Confirmation luncheon and reception after the play, so it was a very full day.

I had volunteered Michael and myself to take care of getting the gifts for the confirmands, and while Michael was calling me from the Christian book store up in Johnson City the other day, listing several ideas he saw as he walked through the isles, I told him to go out of the store, walk next door to the craft store and get me the supplies to make their gifts. I had purchased the frames previously, so all he had to buy were the wooden crosses.

I am thrilled with how they turned out.

I made a turquoise one as well, but didn't get a picture of it.

Then I had to package them accordingly, and yes, there were matching cards, but I didn't get a picture of them.

Sweet wishes!

May Hostess gifts and a few leftovers

Today, I'll share with you the two hand-made hostess gifts that my May Hostesses will receive. The first is a set of four cards. They were inspired by Bonnie Klass's card. I used Baja Breeze, Blushing Bride, Peach Parfait, and Pear Pizazz inks and CS along with Very Vanilla CS and envelopes. I pulled out my old Coluzzle cutting system to cut the ovals and used the Elegant Lines embossing folder. I may take another picture once I package them, because I made a cute butterfly accent for the bag topper.
Second is another Stampin' Success CASE. This vase is gorgeous and was fairly simple to create. However, once I was done, I thought, "Well, you can't put real flowers in here because if you get water on the outside on accident (which I inevitably would), it will ruin it." So I had to create some paper flowers. I used the 2-Step Bird extra large punch to make these too cute tulips.
Finally, here is a picture of the stamp sets I have left after the ladies came and browsed my retired stamp set inventory...and yes, they bought several! All of them are for sale, and I will be posting them on my blog and/or ebay soon, so keep an eye out for that.
If you are interested in earning the set of cards, beautiful vase, and your choice of one of these stamp sets, contact me to book a workshop to be held anytime in May.

Sweet wishes!

It's about time

...I got back to blogging. We'll see how long it lasts this time. ;-) I've taken a LONG break from all things SU! for a while now, but today I had a "Getting Back to Business" open house, so I thought I'd start by showing you the two projects we made.

Both cards were created using the Strength & Hope stamp set and digital kit. These two items are available in the Summer Mini Catalog (click on the picture of it in my side bar to download the catalog). The best part is that Stampin' Up! is donating $2 from the purchase of the Strength & Hope stamp set (wood mount or clear) and the Strength & Hope digital kit to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation®.

The first card is a simple design that I actually came up with myself. Yep, no CASEing involved. The Baja Breeze butterfly on the card and envelope are the only stamping done on this card. All the other elements--"hope" heart, polka-dotted circle, and DSP--were printed using the Strength & Hope digital kit. The kit costs $9.95 and includes a 4-piece stamp brush set, 12 DSP designs, and 10 embellishment pieces. {Truth be told, I set out to CASE Ilina's card on this blog post, but I couldn't get my printer to print the DSP she used correctly, so I went with plan B.}

The second card was totally CASEd from the May issue of Stampin' Success magazine. Stampin' Success is the publication SU! sends to its demonstrators each month. The only change I made was to use Pink Pirouette textured CS and some retired Pink Pirouette ribbon instead of Blushing Bride CS & ribbon, because I don't have the Blushing Bride stuff. I recently purchased the Basic Rhinestones and Basic Pearls Jewels. They are totally my new favorite embellishments, and at only $4.95 for 150 jewels, I don't even have a reason to horde them!
Sweet wishes!