Joyfully sharing some quick easy and fun projects!

Well, back to school and back to work! How weird is it to experience "Monday" on a Wednesday and realize IT'S ALMOST THE WEEKEND! Woo Hoo!

Well, my friends, here are some projects that I worked on over the holiday season and month of December! I couldn't share them before because it would have..shall we say, "Tipped my hand"?
They were all very simple projects, but they have some great pizzazz to them! Everyone who received one loved it, so I was pleased with how they turned out! Nevermind that I was up until midnight over several weeks...it was just TOO MUCH FUN!

First, I made up some of these tag and pin tins for my friends at school who work really hard to make my job easier! My kids at school need a lot of support, so I made these gifts the aides and assistants in the classes I teach in! I got these perfect 4 oz. tins with clear lids from Papertreyink.com. They are awesome and come in a package 3 for $4. A great deal! I then used a Gina K's punchy Words stamp set and inked the sentiments with real red and Night of Navy (LOVE that color!) and punched the circles and glued them to the red, green and navy blue scallops! I also added a few snowflakes from Stampin' Up's Snowflake set to the 'tag pile'. Then I used one of the snowflake tags, added a peel and stick pin backing (Yes, they call me 'Shortcut Queen') and voila! I put 30 tags in each tin, topped it with the pin and then covered the tins in SU's Cerise Designer Paper with a ribbon bow! I also glued one of the scalloped tags on top of the tin! Easy, quick and fun!

This next project was for the families in my family that have kids! From a tutorial on Nicole Heady's blog (of Papertrey ink) I put together these accordian albums in a tin! Even though I ADORE PTI's stamp sets...of which I own four...I didn't have the one she used in the tutorial...so I used Gina's K's Let it snow set and the sentiment from her Punchy Words set (I actually cut the sentiment in half and mounted it in two lines onto the acrylic block so it would fit better :) I didn't take a picture with it open, but if you click on the link above, you will see how it looked! How CUTE is that snowman!? I didn't add any pictures, as I am leaving the moms to do that! Quick and easy! Oh, forgot to mention that I added SU dazzling diamonds to the SU snowflakes on the cards! I used soft sky and...you guessed it! Night of Navy cardstock, as well as CHF's Ice Gold Prismatic cardstock I showed in my last post! Oh, hey, almost forgot to mention that I punched a hole in the top of the tin with my DH's rivet tool punch! I added a ribbon from SU's summer collection so I could hang it on the tree!

Finally, here are some candy bar wrappers I stamped up for my students! I am totally in LOVE with this stamp set of the month for December, Joyful Winter wishes from Cornish Heritage Farms! I even bought them as gift sets for two of my dearest friends!

I measured the paper and then used SU's cool Carribean, real red and night of navy ink to decorate the paper. Then I wrapped the Hershey bars and signed my name on the back and VOILA! Quick and easy! And fun! Of course the kids went 'gaga' over the candy and a gift from their favorite speech teacher!!!!

The only drawback of this project was the sad and mysterious disappearance of my snowman!! I think he may have gone the way of the burn barrel when I picked up all my scraps! EEK!! I had to QUICKLY order a new set before the end of the month! Phew! I love the set too much to give it up! You should check out the CHF site....you can pick up your stamp of the month set for a special price (one you won't believe!)....and don't forget to get some of that Ice Gold cardstock....trust me, you NEED some!

Well, this was a QUICK post! Glad you came to visit! Three posts in three days! There! One New Year's resolution down!!

Hey, why not leave a comment on your new's year's resolution?

Be blessed!

Kim

More to share!

Happy new year, everyone!! We had a great time welcoming in the new year with some good friends in our town's church, playing games and watching a movie...we saw Secondhand Lions...if you haven't seen that movie, I suggest you rent it...I loved it! Great family movie!

And here I am again...to share some of my card making mania! I know Christmas is over, and you have all finished your cards and such, but it's never too late to get inspired for next year! On Splitcoaststampers, they have a Christmas card challenge...you make just 10 Christmas cards a month , same or different, and by Christmas next year, you are all set for cards! What a great idea! No, I probably won't do it, but I could!! And so, I hope these cards inspire you!

Most of you know that my DH (that's darling hubby!) is a letter carrier. He receives nice thank yous from his customers on his route. He has been very blessed this year, as many of his "people" love and appreciate his smile in all kinds of weather and how he will go out of his way to bless them. Of course, he wants cards to thank them and of course he wants HANDMADE cards!

Awww, forced to stamp! Poor me! Tee hee! Today's post highlights all the cards I made up for him....I actually had to keep making more as he was REALLY blessed on his route! The warm winter wishes card above used CHF's Prizm Ice Gold cardstock....BEAUTIFUL, addictive stuff!!! Hard to see well in the picture, it is white with a gold undertone. I actually ordered it by mistake, but I LOVE it! I used SU's Warm Winter Wishes stamp set and Frost Blue Kaleidoscope ink pad. I also used Encore's Metallic Gold ink as well as SU's gold cord. I think it came out pretty...warm and cold at the same time!


Now this card is my favorite I think! I GOT A
CUTTLEBUG for Christmas!!! It's a cool "press" machine to emboss paper in just seconds!! It was number ONE on my Christmas wish list, and my hubby got it for me!

So, you will be seeing LOTS of use of it in my cards! The background of this card is embossed with the D'vine swirl folder and I used Gina K's Got snow? and Let it snow stamp sets. I colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol mineral spirits. I used SU's retired Liquid Applique for the snow falling....isn't it adorable? Notice the boy wearing my two favorite colors...Kermit green and Syracuse orange :)


This next card was also "cuttlebugged" with D'vine
Swirl (I only have two embossing folders so far!) And this card also uses Gina K stamp set, Punchy words. The holly paper is from a Walmart DP pack my girl gave me for Christmas :) and SU's Real red paper is the card base and strip. I used Perfectly Clear stamps for the bric-a-brac strip inked with SU's craft white ink; I added a bit of glitz with SU's Dazzling Diamond glitter while the ink was wet. Love that sparkly stuff! I punched the scallop and edged it with the white ink. Simple, yet kind of elegant, don't you think?




Finally, I made this card using some DP I bought from Current, Inc. a million years ago! I added some gold snowflakes from SU's Warm Winter greetings set as I used the Ice Gold paper for the tag and inked the Make merry stamp in the metallic gold ink (stamp from SU's tag set). The beautiful ribbon is from Hallmark and the cardbase is Real Red. A gold brad for the tag and I was done!

Do you know that I made more cards for his Thank Yous than I made for us to send out? That's what happens when you make 10 at a time....hmmm....maybe that Christmas challenge is something I should do!!

Well that's it for today! I have some projects to show you later in the week, so stay tuned! I wouldn't want to overwhelm you! (Who me??) Isn't this so FUN!? (By contrast I must now work on my lecture notes for the grad class I am teaching this Spring semester...love augmentative communication and all, but it's not as FUN as stamping!)

Hey, feel free to leave me a comment! Lots of you send an encourageing email, but it's nice to know you've been here! I check in when I can!

Blessings to you all, for today and for all of 2008!

Kim

PS The "spots" on the pictures are not on the cards...my camera has ghost spots that turn up here and there...gotta figure that one out! :)

Joyfully sharing a true Man Card

Wow! You are in for a real treat! This is a card made by my pastor for his wife for their anniversary! They celebrated earlier this fall, but I just found time to put it on the blog!

Long story short: I first introduced our pastor's wife, Deby to stamping and cardmaking when I agreed to host a women's craft group on cardmaking. Deby fell IN LOVE with cardmaking, at which she has proved to be a natural! She subsequently had such a great time that she has become an SU demonstrator (thank goodness! I need her resources constantly!)

So now Pastor Eric is surrounded by stamping supplies and stamping family members (their daughters stamp, too!) So while Deby was visiting her family in CA this fall, Pastor set out to make HER a card and this is the result! Wow, huh?
This was the inscription on the back of the card.....in case you can't read the bogus name of the website he wrote: Contact us at: coolstuffforguy.com/mancards

But my favorite part of the recipe is the color scheme he used. How do you like this?? Can you tell he is a hunter?? Deby shared this in church and we all roared with laughter!

Oh, how nice it is to have a man of God with a sense of humor leading our congregation!

How fun! Well, that's the time I have for now! I'll try to add some of my own creations tomorrow! Blessings to you all and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Kim

Merry Merry Joyful CHRISTmas!

Wow! Time really has flown this month and so many times I wanted to step out of the whirlwind to blog, but to be honest, all my time has been taken up with good things related to Christmas, so I just decided living a life worth blogging about was better than just talking about how I should be doing fun things to celebrate!

So, what's been going on? Well. there was the children's ministry party, the church leadership party, the work party, the Christmas concert, the stamping projects (and projects and projects) and just hanging out with my family for movies and dinners. My son Geoffrey is home from college and we got our Christmas tree today; I'm taking a little break to stop in here for a minute! So, forgive my hiatus, but I'll be back after Christmas to share some of the projects that have kept me up past midnight some nights! Okay, many nights! But isn't it fun????

I trust the Lord to keep you all happy and healthy during this season of Christmas magic and Love! From my house to yours:

Have a Blessed and Merry Christmas! Enjoy the celebration of when Christ came to earth as a babe to set the world FREE!

I love you all!!

"Let not our hearts be busy inns that have no room for Him."

(This quote is from a Heidi Satterberg stamp design...I CASEd it from Gina K's site-loved it! The graphics from J's Magic Galleries online)

My Joyful Girl and the blog!

My daughter thought I needed to show all my blog friends the snowman that she spent her snow day building! So here you go! Isn't she ADORABLE? Why my girl, of course! I like her snowman, too! Back to school tomorrow! sigh.

PS My list is half done and it's already dinner time!

Be blessed!

Kim

A Snowy Joy!! No school! No school!

Yippee!! A snow day! Praise the Lord! Here's a few shots outside my front door this morning. Keep in mind that yesterday we only had only a couple of inches in the morning on the ground....

Yes, those are three little lanterns that I have on my doorstep....and you can see the road a little on the left there where the guard rail is. I have to go out and shovel the walk sometime today...but no rush, right? As you can probably tell, it's still too early for me to go beyond the front door...cause I don't have too! LOL!! Maybe the sun will come out soon!

In this other picture are my Adirondack chairs that I have in the front yard. Now, I was going to put those in the garage last week....but I was holding onto that little bit of summer and fall I had left over! Now I'll have to wait for a thaw! Can you guess what that bump is in between the chairs? Go ahead, take a guess! I will put the answer will be at the end of this blog entry! Hey no fair scrolling now! I have more to share!

The snow is very pretty! Even on a gloomy day! This is all the nice part of winter...the driving is not so nice. Yesterday took me over an hour to get home from work (I work 25 minutes away) and coming home from teaching class last night was horrible...but after my hour + adventure, I asked my wonderful hubby to drive me to class and pick me up, which he did! What a trooper! The blowing snow made visibility a joke! But between my brave man and the Grace of God we got home safely! Praise Jesus!

Now, you wonder, what will I do with my day? Well, I don't want to spend it all on the computer, so after this entry, I'm starting with my list! Yes, even on a snow day, I have a list. Oh, come on, you do, too!! What's on it? Well, sunflower toast and coffee, first of all! :) Then a bunch of paperwork (ewww) that I need to do for my college students (probably take all of three hours!) then some school work I would have done anyhow (minus another hour!) then some cleaning (boo! but just a little!) and then CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS!!! We don't have a tree yet...heck we have 20 more days to get one! But I do want it to be a little christmasy around here, so I'll drag out all the stuff!!! (minus a bunch more hours!)

And finally, I want to post some creations over at CHF from their virtual stamping party last weekend. Quickly, I'll show you just two things I 'whipped up' on Saturday in the flurry of the 'party'. This one is a purse....gasp! Don't say that! It was one of the challenges! No I am not just giving an excuse to show off another purse! It was!! We were supposed to try to use a backgrounder stamp instead of designer paper. This one was CHF's scalloped lace BG with some curls and a sentiment from their Kim Hughes collection, Cute curls. I used faux stitching with a gel pen and some white brads and ribbon and voila! A cute little purse card. You like it! Admit it!

This next card was a quickly whipped up sketch challenge where you try to use your own ideas but follow a pattern. I was literally rushing, so the picture looks a little rushed...sorry! Also, there's a dark spot on both pictures that must be some shadow, but isn't really on the card. What do you think?

Busy weekend! I spent most of Saturday having a TREMENDOUS time hanging out with some of my best buds from my old job long ago! We get together every year (this was our 14th, we think) to catch up on each other's lives and have lunch and a Christmas ornament exchange. We luncheoned in an old inn on a hillside. We got just enough snow on Saturday to make it pretty. I forgot my camera or I'd share a few pix! This luncheon really kicks off the holiday season for me, so it is a lot of fun! Sunday, we took our daughter on a college visit to an art college 3 hours away. The drive was snowy and icy, but it was a good time together with my husband, daughter and I. Who knows what the next chapter will be in her story? How exciting to find out!

I also really appreciate hearing all the stories of our childrens' life adventures, both joyful and difficult. We are all really woven together as a tapestry and the colors of our lives are both bright and dark, dull and sparkling. What a wonderful plan of relationship God has! We need one another so much, that it a shame when some small thing (or even BIG thing) comes between friends and family! We all have our histories, of course, but one there is one quote I heard at a woman's conference a few years ago that has really gotten me through a lot just in the past few years....

"Forgiveness does not mean that the person was right, it just releases the bonds from within."

Wow. To me that is powerful. Really think on that one; I am here to testify that it will change some of the relationships you have in your lives. By letting go of those offenses from others, we are free to be connected to them again. Free to love and free to let God work in the relationship. After all, we know the forgiveness we received from God wasn't because we were right, right?

Well, hey, I have a long list to get to today! But I can do it on my own time, so I will enjoy every bit of it! You do the same, won't you? Listen, only 21 days until we can sing Happy Birthday to the one reason we have Christmas at all! Jesus! Be blessed this week!

Love ya!

Kim

PS The bump between the chairs? My pumpkin from early October! I guess it's frozen pumpkin now! Tee hee!!

So many things to Rejoice about!

Remember I told you about my friend Erin getting married? Well, here is Mrs. Erin and I after the wedding! It was a perfect prince and princess wedding and so nice to be included in her celebration! I think it has made me appreciate my own 24 years of marriage and how much my husband and I have come through to be so happy together! He really is my other half and I can't imagine doing this life without his wonderful-ness. He is truly my Esposo Favorito (one of my many nicknames for him! Our Mexican friends thought it was hilarious...Manuel said, "Esposo Favorito? How many husbands have you had???" Only one, thank you! I had a Stampin' Up party on Saturday, and he cooked the brunch for 13 of us! Then my friend, Gail, came over Sunday after church and we designed her Christmas cards together....and he cooked Duck with Mango sauce and Pumpkin soup! Oh my! It was incredible! Then today he took the day off to go with me to visit with my mom in the hospital! Love him!


I trust that all of your Thanksgiving holidays were great! Our church coordinates a "Thanksgiving to Go" event and we delivered about 270 meals on Thanksgiving day!!! Can you believe it! People volunteer every year and it was again a success! What a blessing to work together and make someone's day brighter! God is so good to give us these opportunities!


I want to say a special hi to my first and always best friend, Elizabeth. HI BETT! I think I showed you the card I sent her for her birthday on an earlier post (no not the Happpy 50 years one!!). Isn't it wonderful to have best friends? They are there with you through it all and still they love you! Love you, Liz! There. My first personal hello on the giant web! tee hee!

I know what you are thinking....well, where's all the STAMPING???

Hey, I HAVE been stamping, but also so busy it's been hard to post!!If you can stand one more purse, read on. If not, well....read on anyhow!!

I used the emboss resist technique on this card! The backgrounder stamp is one of my favorites from Cornish Heritage Farms, Paisley. I used SU's River Rock paper and embossed the image with clear embossing powder. Then I used a sponge dauber and colored it with SU's Real red ink. The color of the base stays River rock. Cool huh? I was inspired by my MIL Joyce's shirt she wore to my house....and it matched perfectly! I gave her the purse but snapped a shot before I gave it away!

What do you think? She thought I was crazy! But she loved the purse :)

I am working on a bunch of things for Christmas right now, so I'll be sure to post them soon...well, the ones I can without ruining any surprises!

I sure pray that you are being blessed by God's goodnesses this week! I am just so joyful, and I know it is God's grace. Snow is coming and still I rejoice....now THAT'S grace! :)

I want to share a link that my friend Barbara sent to me....be blessed by it as it is so true! And God's word is always a lamp onto our feet....don't you agree? :)

Beautiful Video.

Love ya!
Kim

PS Can you believe it's only 29 days until Christmas!?!

Supporting Autism Awareness with Joy!

Good day! Those of you that know me well know that I am an educator who has a special corner of my heart set aside for those children I serve that have autism. They are usually my favorite kids in the world! Yes, we all have "Children of our hearts" and God has put these children in mine! Every kid I know with autism loves to laugh...they have the most ADORABLE giggle! With this in mind, I want to send you over to a Mockumentary that makes fun of my other favorite thing....STAMPING! Well, scrapbooking and stamping! The reason I am mentioning it is that these two guys have made a DVD poking fun in a fun way of what all of us do when it comes to stamping and scrapbooking (and that's why it's so funny...it's all true!!!) They are making this DVD available for $9.99...with FREE Shipping and Handling!! But the coolest part is, they are giving $1. of every sale towards Autism awareness. What better way to support a cause than to have fun doing it! Click here to watch a trailer of the DVD and then jump right in and support a great cause, Autism Support Daily. You'll feel glad you did! What a great gift for your favorite scrapbooking friends!! Be blessed today!!

Kim

Joyfully, it's the weekend! And a holiday!

First, I want to say THANK YOU to all the VETERANS and MILITARY MEN and WOMEN and FAMILIES who have sacrificed their love, time and lives to make my family safe and free! My uncle Weldon served in the Army for over 20 years. I remember praying for him during the Vietnam war. I am so blessed to still have my uncle here, but so many did not return. Won't you pray for our military families today?

We remember those we have lost and those we support today! Bless you all!!!!

Hurrah! It's finally the weekend! Life has been so crazy busy and high drama, that I am ready for a day to do little chores (and there are always LOTS of little chores, aren't there??). But I am thankful that I can get to them....do you find it as hard as I do to let them slide as you tackle the big things ? They just nibble at my thoughts and I keep thinking....'just wait. I'm gonna get to you soon!' So today's the day!

Before I begin my little adventures, though, I thought I'd keep my promise and post those little purses I've been creating....remember the shower I was coordinating? Well, it was a hit! and so were the purses! Fun!! First here is a pic of Erin (the bride to be!) and I at the shower. They are getting married next Saturday! She's the adorable one, and I'm the tired one on the left.

And here are the purses....well some purses and one tool box gift card for the groom to be. SU Designer paper works wonderfully on this project....I love it! On most of them I included a gift card "pocket" and you'll see one with a ribbon. They are so EASY to whip up in a pinch.

I

I've also included one I made for my friend's birthday....a 'purse'-onal wish wouldn't you say so ;)

I think I will make Thank you cards for the other coworkers who helped me whip up that shower including Jane, who makes beautiful cakes!! Here is her creation below!! Yum!

Thanks for visiting my blog!! And thanks, too, to Keri for such a WONDERFUL purse tutorial! I love when I look at one of her tutorials and say, I CAN DO THAT! Check out her blog Pink Lemonade! And have a really JOYFUL weekend with your families and doing all those little things that need done.....now....where IS my toilet bowl brush??? Tee hee!!

Kim

PS forgive any spacing issues...some days they will not resolve!!!!

A Soggy, yet Eternal Joy

Well, it's a soggy night to be leaping, but praise God Joy is eternal and not dependent on our circumstances!

Tough evening. Our soccer girls played in POURING COLD rain tonight for the class title and lost after tieing the game, overtime, sudden death overtime, a shootout and finally a sudden death shootout with an ending 4 goals to 3. They played their hearts out for a third run to the state championships and just didn't make it! They remain the defending state champs from last year, but the opponent goes on to state play this time! Well, hope is eternal and I am confident that they will have a GREAT chance to go back next year! So we end the season with the this year's Division and Sectional titles for the class. Not a bad set of plaques :) The girls are sorely disappointed but nothing keeps them down for long!

On the down side, we had snow at work today. You know, I just can never feel ready for snow!!! And we hardly get any here compared to some of my stamping friends out west! Sigh. As if 100" a year isn't enough....pah!! More lake effect is predicted at work (higher elevation, that!) tomorrow. Thank goodness I live in the valley!




While I can, I'm taking time to post three things. One is a pic my hubby took on the river here in Letchworth Park. He's an avid canoeist and this trip was one of his trek and paddles a few weeks ago. Isn't it fabulous?! They call our park the "grand canyon" of the East. If you're ever in the neighborhood, let me know! We live less than a mile from the park and I'd love to show you 'round!



The other two things?? Shhhhh...don't tell her....but my friend Erin is getting married next weekend. We are having a shower for her at work on Thursday. Here are the card and a purse card I made for the gift cards we're giving her from the group! The purse card project is on my stamping buddy Keri Sereika's blog, Pink Lemonade. Try it out! Her tutorials are smashingly good!!

I used patterned paper from Current and my Autism Awareness set from Gina K Love you to Pieces. The embellishments are SU stitched ribbon in chocolate chip and the buttons are from my button box! Inside the sentiment "A perfect fit!" is stamped from the same set. I calligraphered their names. It opens in the center, obviously, so you can see I had to use an acrylic block to hold the card closed for the picture. It is flatter now :) I needed the card to be big so everyone who donated to the gift can fit their well wishes! I'm so excited for her!



They are a young, adorable couple and they are ready to take on the world together. Nothing's as good as a friend you can count on to be there forever...it's especially sweet when that person is your spouse!



Isn't this purse adorable? The paper is some I received from a Wish RAK and I'm not sure but it may be SU. The top flap is actually stamped with SU creamy caramel and chocolate chip ink and an SU basic backgrounder stamp. Matches well, doesn't it? Oh, and the ribbon is choco chip too! You can see on Keri's tutorial that you can glue a little pocket inside to hold a gift card if that's what you want. I'm going to make two more for the party...I'll show them to you when I can!

Hey! Enjoy the week the Lord has set before us! He will be with us in sunny or soggy weather. He promises! Be well and totally blessed!!!
Kim

Joy joy joy in a sparkly day!

Hi! What a sparkly day! First, today is my 24th Wedding anniversary! Praise God John has put up with me for this long!! LOL! Just kidding....us married people know it's a two way street! Yes, that's right....praise God for the grace to put up with him this long!! LOL!!

And! Kels' team WON the SECTIONAL TITLE girl's soccer game with God's grace!!!! So we continue on our run for a repeat showing at the state championships! It's still a long way away but we will concentrate on each game and see what's around the next corner!! If the worse happens, we will be done with varsity soccer games and practices til next year, so it's a win-win no matter what happens :)

So, I promised pictures! Here we GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO......


Last month was pastor appreciation month, so everyone at church signed up for a day of the month to honor the pastor (we have two). We signed up for the end of the month, baked cinnamon and banana bread and added a card of appreciation. I couldn't POSSIBLY use the same card TWICE, could I??? Ah, well, more stamping!! I do so love monochromatic cards, but I also had to try out my prismacolors I recently....ahem..."acquired". This one went to our senior pastor and the next one to our associate pastors. We so appreciate these men of God in our lives!

In case I never told you where to get these amazing stamps---run right now on over to Cornish Heritage Farms! They just recently released a new set of Thomas Kinkades! The lighthouse is on my Christmas list!


The scripture is CHF as well, and it is the Psalm that tells us to delight ourselves in the Lord and He will give us the desires of our heart. Pastor Eric, our senior pastor, once challenged us with this scripture...he thought that perhaps it isn't a promise that God will always give us what we want, but that God himself will put the desires for the things He wants for us into our hearts. I love this way of thinking of things. If we delight ourselves in God, He will reveal for us what He has placed in our very being. Cool, don't you think?

Oh! You want to see a few more cards? Okay! Here is another bella card. I made it for my son's girlfriend's birthday. Kalene is dear to our hearts and I can't wait to see her to give her presents! She is at college, so I'll have to wait until thanksgiving! Grrrr....waiting is not my favorite thing to do!!! (Yes I KNOW patience is a virtue....I just don't know WHY! LOL!!)



She is a blingy girl,so I HAD to add the sparkly butterflies! And she also wants one of those little dogs someday, so this card was perfect for her. I received this image as part of a swap at SCS; I don't have the stamp itself. I used sparkly gel pens for the dress and prismacolors for the doggie! Then I used SU's patterned paper and also the three flower punch and stamps for the just for you. Gina K's Make a wish! sentiment is stamped on twill and BLING! A card!

If you click on the pic, you can see finer details :)

You know, with all this fun, I'm beginning to think working is really putting a downer into my stamping time! (Just a random thought).

Alright, friends, I have time for one more shared card....but I DIDN'T MAKE THIS ONE!! Deb Ring is an amazing stamper I have "met" through the CHF stamper's forum. She and I have exchanged cards several times and her designs always bless me! This one is particularly cool...She used a stencil and then BLEACHED the card!! The lighter color you see is the color that the cardstock changed to after the bleach was applied. Isn't that BEAUTIFUL??? Then she edged the picture with glitter (sparkly!) and put some of that poofy ribbon on the side. I don't have her full 'recipe' for the card so forgive my adjectives! If you want me to get the details from her, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do :)

You all, it's been fun updating you tonight. I have to go to bed and get some sleep so I can help those speech needy kids tomorrow. Be blessed tonight! I'll let you know how our game turns out!!!

PS If you have left a message on my blog...thank you!!! What an encouragement. For those of you who have emailed me....thanks for that, too!!! You are God's gift to me! Arrivederci!

Kim

Joyfully GREEN!! (And Turf green at that!)

G'day! Sorry to say I don't have a lot of time for blogging what with Kelsey's team in the soccer sectionals again this year and games coming at a fast pace!!! We go to all the games so it is a whirlwind of tiresome but exciting times! Her team has clinched the division, but must win tomorrow night to win the sectional title! She was pictured in the paper this week heading a ball! whoo hoo!

So suffice it to say I will keep with a quick post to let you know I'm still alive and leaping :) And we are again in the green on the blog as well as the soccer turf! Yeah! Please continue to keep those struggling with breast cancer in your prayers, however! And be blessed by this gorgeous indian summer if you're from around here! Hey, I think I have a few cards to post that I made for pastor appreciation day but that'll have to wait for the weekend....almost there!

be well blessed!!!
Kim

A Gorgeous Day to be Joyful!!

Today is just a gorgeous fall day here in NY! Breezy and cool but with a snap of color! I LOVE fall!! I went to a Body Shop at Home party this afternoon with my daughter...now my feet feel OH SO PAMPERED!! I also got to 'hang' with my new friend Angie....we share a love of things crafty and she is a scrapbooking/stamping fan, too. She showed me her "pink room"....and I fell in love with it! I adore inspiration and her room was full of inspiring things...a bright window, feathers, jars of buttons and stuff and piles of ink...sigh. Just a wonderful space! I also shared my latest Bella card with her. Let me share it with you too!!!

Actually these are two cards using the same image and general layout. One I gave to my friend Ann with the card kit I gave her last week and one is for my friend Nikki....can you tell which friend prefers BLING?? (I am also sending her glittery earrings so the inside says: Every birthday girl deserves a little bling...I made that up! Tee hee!) One card used SU Palette o'Prints DP and the flowery DP is from Imagine That (Walmart). Both card's images are Loveybella and were received from one of my "bella sistahs". I used SU markers to color them both and then added glittery earrings and necklaces to them using my 'Gelly Roll STARDUST SILVER Pen' by Sakura. I LOVE that I can make her so adorable!

Speaking of adorable, my cat Ollie is meowing for attention right now and looks so picture perfect, I thought I'd snap a shot of her as well! Isn't she so fluffy and PRETTY!? Between she and my other cat, Grace, Ollie is my favorite :) She's also a big scaredy cat, so Grace tends to be the boss. Hey, I didn't teach her that!!! Yeah, I know what you're thinking!!

I also promised that I'd share a pic of my hubby in his canoe. Well here he is :) Isn't his solo canoe so PRETTY??
He is into his canoeing as much as I love my stamping, so while he's on the water, I'm at my table making cards and stamping images to swap. Makes for the perfect time to have time to ourselves. Then we can hang out for dinner or movies and have time together too!! Probably why we'll be celebrating 24 years of marriage next month! And if you thought stamping was an expensive hobby--for some of us anyhow ; ) -- try canoeing!


Well, friends, I must go!! I have some evaluations to write and some other school paperwork to finish! I trust the Lord is blessing you all today whereever you are! God is faithful to give us the desires of our hearts everyday we walk in His light! Have you talked to Him today? He loves you!!! And in ending this blog, I quote Em, Stampingbella herself---

MWAH!!!

Kim

PS As fun as this month has been, I'm looking forward to going green again...I can only take so much PINK!!! ;)

Joy in the new week!

Happy Sunday and happy new week! God has really been speaking to me this week and the message has been the same, "Be anxious for nothing!" It's not like I have a bunch of things to be anxious about, just the everyday little things...like my daughter's concussion in her soccer game, my hubby being away for a few days, my car's grinding noise (John says it's the brakes that need replacing) and stuff like that...really no big deals! But God wants me to be reminded again, for when life gives me lemons :) And God has been faithful in all things...He is sovereign!! Yeah! Imagine if I had to take care of everything in my own strength and power! Couldn't do it! I'd be a mess! But Jesus living in me makes me strong! And he can do the same for you! HE CAN!!

I don't have a card to share this day; my hubby took the camera on his canoeing gathering weekend...but maybe I can post one of him this week. I have been making cards with bella images I've received this week following the sketch of the card I made last week. They are all a little different, so I'll post the latest one soon. I also made a card kit for my friend Ann who will miss work due to surgery. She is a stamper, so I wanted to give her something to do. She is also a knitter, so I included knittabella and some sentiments in the kit...I can't wait to give it to her tomorrow!! Stamping really has blessed me as I bless others! How GOOD God is to give me such a happy, healthy addiction....yeah, I know, work on that addiction part. I will! Have a grand week, will ya??
K

Home today!

Another day off for me although there's no leaping! Kelsey got slammed to the ground in soccer last night and is home recovering from a mild concussion! Ouch!! So, I must keep busy with my blogging, right? Can't spend time worrying when God tells us to "be anxious for nothing"! She is just waking up now and feeling well enough to call her 'person of interest' to check in :)

While I'm here, I may as well add a card! This is for my friend Lizzie's birthday! She has been having a tough year and has a new job to cheer about....so a new card will perk her up, too!!

I wished for this embossed butterfly image from SU's Wonderful Wings set and my wish was granted from Wish RAK on SU Only orange cardstock. You can't really tell in the photo, but I used a bleaching technique on the wings of the butterfly. I also used Certainly Celery CS and designer paper from K and Company. The primas were wishes granted too!

I love stamping!

enJoying the Day!

Happy Columbus Day and Happy Thanksgiving to Canadian Friends! It's a beautiful weekend and I hope all of you are enjoying a day off and family time! We have a soccer game tonight with my daughter playing under the lights, which is always more exciting (plus the concessions usually have salt potatoes! YUM!).

Here's a card using CHF's Stamp of the Month for September. It's actually a birthday card for a friend, but it works for Thanksgiving, too....obviously!! :) I colored it like I used to in grade school....we always had a turkey with fall colored feathers! The background paper is actually for an adverstisement for our health insurance company! LOL! And behind the turkey, I used a piece of paper with the faux wood grain technique I learned on Splitcoast stampers. Cardstock is all SU Chocolate chip, twill tape and hodgepodge hardware is stampin' up as well. The leaf is actually from Walmart's Harvest holiday trim :) Isn't that turkey so CUTE?



It was world cardmaking day on Saturday, but I was at a craft show all day. I made up for it on Sunday evening though. I've been stamping some Stamping Bella stamps off for an image swap....Bellas are so fun and sassy and I love sharing them with online friends who love bellas, too! If you've never been to Em's Stamping bella site, check it out here! Below are some of my images I'm trading. Grumpabella is my favorite...although there are so many adorable ones!





I also made a card from an image that was sent to me. That's what I love about swapping images... you get to use a particular image even if you don't have the stamp itself!

This card is for my friend Betty's b'day. We are having a girl's only party on Thursday night. Betty has FIVE BOYS and she needs to be pampered! ;)




The image is Flowahbella and the designer paper is from SU's Palette o' Prints. I also received the Prima flowers from Wish RAK, a forum of Splitcoast stampers where you grant and receive image wishes! So fun! Of course, she has to be a redhead! (should I have added a little grey? Nah!)


Oh! I have to go! Soccer game!!

Enjoy the day!!

A great reason to LEAP!!! (a lot!)

It's been a really good week....a short school week for my students due to the holiday weekend, but so fun!! And we had a conference day today learning more about working with kids with autism in the public schools, and the speaker was great, so with that double reward, it went fast!! And the weather?? G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S!! The fall colors are out and it is sunny and beautiful!!! It's supposed to be a great weekend overall

And my reason to leap?? I am a winner!!! (Well, yes, God's love and being His child makes me a winner everyday....but I mean, I won a contest!) If you are a stamper and you haven't yet visited Cornish Heritage Farms store and blog yet, you gotta!! This week, Liz had a 'treasure hunt' introducing a new line of Kim Hughes stamps...we visited blog and blog of their new designers (14 stops in all), collected clues and signed up for drawings to win FREE STAMPS!!! And I won one!! Yippeee!!!! You see, CHF has the most awesome backgrounder stamps at such GREAT prices!...I get mine unmounted and using an acrylic block, make awesome impressions...they are so versatile!! Here are my presently owned BGers (stamper's lingo for backgrounders) from CHF:

I already have 14 (um, yeah, a LITTLE obsessive!!) , and the stack of them is only 41/2 inches high!! So EASY to store! (That's how high 4 of my wood mounted BG stamps stack!) And then you only need one acrylic block for all of these; you just reuse the block over and over! Wanna see a card I made with one?










This card uses stamping Up's Friendship's Journey, but the BGer is CHF...Victorian Flower BG. So pretty!! This card is being sent out for a swap I'm taking part in on CHF's forum. Swaps are cool in that you send out and are sent four cards and you get to experience techniques, cool stamps and cards to give away or be inspired by...AND you get mail! How COOL is THAT?? Oh and now you know all that.....


Wanna see the CHF BG stamp I won?? Here it is!! This makes 15!! Love it!


The owners of CHF, Richard and Liz have a farm, which is out west...click here to read their blog...and Richard tells me that this is an image of an actual cheesecloth from some cheese they made on the farm!! Being a person who loves to learn stuff like that, I am so pleased to have a story to tell when I send a card made with the image :)

I love winning stamping stuff....feeds my obsession!!


I am also happy for this weekend to attend the Letchworth State Park Craft show....I live minutes from the "Grand Canyon" of the East and every year my mother in law Joyce and I go and wander and eat....so fun! The weather being so good, it will be crowded, so we are going early. Hopefully, I can post some pix of the leaves changing...still early yet for peak, but still PRETTY!

So hey, what are you all up to this weekend?? Hope it's special! Feel free to comment on my blogs....I'm going to try to post more regularly and maybe sometime soon post some blog candy!! Wouldn't that be a blast?

Be well and blessed this week! God is faithful! Be sure to pray for our soldiers and our president and other government leaders this week! If we don't, who will???

Joyfully Going pink

Hey, even a redhead like me can appreciate the need to go pink once in awhile!! In support of women everywhere who have battled this dreaded disease and gone on to triumph in life or be healed in God's hands, I am keeping my blog pink all month!! Your job?? Learn more about breast cancer and how you can be involved in helping to eradicate the enemy!! and if you have a blog, check out this site and GO PINK!! http://pinkforoctober.org/

Yes, I'm still leaping for joy!

Welcome back to my blog (for me, too)!! Well, I've learned that blogs are funny things....I love to read them and I'm really glad I started mine, but then it greets me everyday with a blank page.....not unlike the day the Lord had made today! And then the obligations come in and then the choices are wide and open and things get juggled and the list grows and morphs and here we are...end of September!! These certainly have continued to be busy months! We have thankfully "recovered" from our Algonquin wilderness trip! (Let's just say we weren't the ONLY Leaches in the water!!) I promised a pic or two so here you go! You'll see one of the sites we stayed in and what early morning looks like on the water. See our ultra light tents??? You pack really really light when you carry everything everywhere everyday!! All the water you see....we paddled through and back!!
We got back from Canada and spent a week downloading our stuff, our knotted muscles, our brains, our pictures and our days!!












Now fast forward to September and along with getting back to school, this last month I've been planning for our church's yearly missions emphasis for the month of September...the last four Sundays! It's been a lot of planning and juggling speakers and fun and exciting mission focused stuff....but it is time consuming....today was the last day and it was just AWESOME!! We had speakers this month that minister in China, all of Latin America, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Japan, Kenya, South Africa, the middle East, Egypt, Turkey, Kazakhstan, even in Rochester, NY and every country in between! When we realize that God has given us the charge of spreading his word of love, peace and redemption for eternal life to the entire world, I get fired up!! :) (My husband will tell me this is the first sign of trouble! :0

But I loved the summer, finding time to stamp, usually late night when I'm just not tired enough for bed...I've recently joined the Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) forum on Splitcoaststampers.com and the WISH RAK as well....so I get to send lots of cards and grant image wishes to people I don't even know!! It's such a blessing to use my stamps to make others happy! If you are a stamper and have never been to SCS it can be overwhelming at first--it was to me....so I decided to take it one step at a time....and what a wonderful group of people! I have already received three welcome to SCS RAKs, one welcome to Wish RAK from my mentor, Dorothy and some Bella images, too. Being part of this reminds me that I have a big family of people I DO know who don't get enough cards from me, so I am going to start RAKing them and see what happens!! (Good things always do!)

Since school has started, though, even finding time to sit in one spot and breathe is hard to do! So stamping has taken to only the weekends....at least til soccer season quiets down! I did manage to stamp a few cards for a swap I am in on the Cornish Heritage Farms forum; I'll try to post a pic of one as soon as the recipients receive them! I did make a card for a sympathy card swap, but neglected to take a picture! Here are some cards I stamped this summer:



This was a b'day card for my friend Sandy....the stamps are Gina K's sea friends and the sentiment is Hero Arts. I used all in colors '08 from Stampin up and some Cuttlebugged paper my friend Kathy G let me emboss with her machine (I am SO getting one for Christmas!!)

My favorite part of the card was the little guy on the envelope....I drew in the cupcake (tee hee!)






This one I made for a "Cards for the troops" contest. I love this God bless America 9/11 commemorative stamp from Stampin up. The backgrounder is Cornish Heritage Farms (retired) and the 'hero' word is my own handwriting! SU Brilliant blue and Real Red are the inks and the sentiment is also Hero Arts.

Please please pray for our troops in all the world...we just had another young man from our church go out and we want the hand of God over all their lives!! We cannot thank them enough for their daily sacrifices!!

Well, I should go do my homework now! I am so hoping to check in more often and share my cards and musings! thanks so much for spending some time here! And thank God for another new and shiny day tomorrow to fill with new and exciting stuff! Blessings to you and your family!!

PS Forgive the space issues on the blog....I'm still a newbie with layout and what I see on preview is not what I set....ah well, at least it shows up :) Thanks to God for the blessings! :)