Hoppy Day! {because the snow isn't!}

This is yet another Thank-you card I made for my friend, Becky, who gave me the most adorable frog set of stamps :) That was so very nice of Becky, who bought the set just because she thought of me! :) I have loved frogs forever, with Kermit being my first :) I've tried to outgrow it, but people keep buying them for me and I have to admit.....I STILL LOVE THEM! And I even love the real thing....the "uglier" the world sees them, the more I think they are beautiful! I used a shimmer paper to stamp this little guy on...you can probably see it better if you click on the picture. I just thought I'd send a little bit of brightness your way, 'cause I've had quite a blizzard-y day, let me tell you!! Did I mention that the snow can stop now?! God bless us :) Have a wonderful weekend...and if you don't have a lot going on, would you stop in and visit my SBS29 sister's blogs...they are some amazing artists! Go see for yourself! The links are over here----> on the right column...Scroll down a bit!

Be blessed!

So sweet and so happy!!

My SBS9 sister, Lyzzy, gave me this award yesterday. Although I don't hear from many of my original SBS group sisters very often, I still love them like crazy!! And it was SO SO sweet of her to bless me! Click on the award to visit her blog. She's crazy creative! And like Lyzzy, I want to share some things I hold dear:
1. My faith
2. My Hubby and kids
3. All my family and friends (they are the same! They are YOU!)
4. My students
5. My Mission work
6. My crafting
7. My kitties
8. My health
9. Music
10. My gifts from God that inspire me to do whatever He asks!

I want to send this award onto some of my new blogging sisters, chosen randomly from my SBS29 sister list as every one of them is an inspiration to me...Here are the rules:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. List who gave the award to you and use a link to her blog (or hyperlink).
3. List 10 things that make you happy.
4. Pass the award on to other bloggers and visit their blog to let them know!

So, post this award on your blog and pass it on, ladies! :)
1. Joanne
2. Shelly
3. Julie
4. Kathy
5. Cheryl

Happy Weekend! And a prayer for our country!

This card is a thank you to my friend Kathy, who was so sweet and generous to stamp TONS of Magnolia Tilda images for her friends as a gift for Christmas this year! She followed up with even more images a week or so later, so I can be coloring copiously with my copics and having a blast! Her cards are always so full of texture and small details, so I did my best to honor her gift by coloring one of these sweet images to thank her! The glittery back ground is an old Stampin' up holly background stamped in Versamark and "blinged" with SU's Dazzling Diamonds. The CB embossing folder is Christmas Ribbons.

Also, I want to share this link that I received in an email. It only takes 5 minutes to watch, but it's a small bit of time for a big deal. I believe we are blogging for just such a time as this:

Praying for our Nation

Be blessed my friends! Thanks for all your comments! I am blessed by every one!
The tree comes down today! :)

So faux, so good ;)

A new technique in this project, another Thank-you card to a friend who gave me an unexpected surprise a few weeks ago at church. My friend Mary gifted me with a beautiful Kermit green leather bible cover (you don't think it CAME from Kermit do you?!? Tee hee!!) that she saw and thought of me! It was such a wonderful surprise gift, made even more special as it was a big cover, which it had to be because I have a bilingual Spanish-English bible and it's HUGE. I have been blessed to be a missionary to Mexico on many occasions and need to have both languages available for services and ministry. It's hard to find the perfect size cover and it even has handles to carry it easily...even better!

Once I thought about the TY, though, I knew I had to use the "faux leather" technique showcased over at Splitcoaststampers a few weeks ago. I just adapted it to a card, rather than a wallet. You'll need a cuttlebug, Versamark ink and clear embossing powder, along with the rest of the supplies, all of which I had on hand. It was so easy, I plan to make more of these cards, and maybe even teach the technique in a class. How fun! Check out the tutorial HERE and try it for yourself!

Have a blessed week!!

So many thanks!

This card was created as a Thank-you to all my DH's postal cutomers who blessed him with Christmas thank you gifts for his continued good service! Not too many people think to tip the mail man these days, but a faithful few do, and we are so blessed. Many give him coffee shop gift cards and homemade goodies. The first time I made cards for his work TY's he was hooked and now I made 20-30 cards just for his mail route. (He has 457 deliveries!) I wanted to use up some of my scraps from our Christmas cards, which is why I ended up with such a clean geometric design. I struggle to keep cards simple sometimes, but I just love how this turned out! (The green strips are from our cards....I made over 75!) As I noted in the previous post, this stamp and sentiment are from Cornish Heritage Farms, one of the best rubber stamp companies IN THE WORLD!!! If you've never seen their images, do check out their website! Beautiful!

I am spending the day chilling out, preparing for my grad class lecture tomorrow night and organizing the house post Christmas....all lofty goals, left until the last minute. I love holidays!

Please continue to pray for Haiti! Our missions team is still planning on leaving the first week in February. I am not going on this trip, as it is mid school year; I wish I was, though! Pray for our preparations and that our team will have what they need to help to the people as easily as possible! Bless you all!

Oh my! Mid January....what?!

Hard to believe, but it is almost mid-January! I mean, I know my tree is still up (it's so GREEN still, I can't bear to put it out to pasture yet!!) and I know it's still winter (snow can go now, you know!) and I know we've already had two snowdays from school, but I just can't believe it's gone by so fast! Can't this next week last for a few weeks?! {I have to start teaching college next week! I'm not ready!!!}

This card is a thank you to some friends of mine, but I didn't design it, Julie Stanton designed it at CHF! It was a Stamp of the Month set from Cornish Heritage Farms a few years ago and this is the card that was on the cover of the stamp set. Well, almost. I didn't have the same fabric background stamp so I used what I had. And I embossed the pine bough with clear embossing powder and old olive ink because I wanted it glossy. As she did, I used a white gel pen for the snow. I liked how it turned out!

In the next few posts, you will see a few more creations I made with this set, as I borrowed it from my generous friend Ann, and I thought I'd make good use of the images while I have a chance! :) Thank you Ann!

Have a blessed end of week!! I'll be blog hopping soon!!

PS PLEASE PRAY FOR HAITI AND ITS PEOPLE...we have missionary friends there....they are safe but it is a tremendous disaster and they need help! So many lost. Thank you!

Love it!

My first post of 2010 is about love :) And it's not because I am joining in the after Christmas rush to do all things Valentine's Day...I'm against rushing every holiday! Instead it's a CELEBRATION! of Love itself! We've just shared a day celebrating LOVE itself coming to earth as a baby sent by a loving Father who wanted to share love with his children. And as we begin this new year, I plan on sharing the LOVE I have for my family, my friends and my God with all of them! This is not a resolution either but rather a declaration that LOVE will be my focus and my goal for all I come in contact with! The love that Jesus gives to me...that's what I want to share with others! So in the vein of LOVE, here is my creation that I will be giving to my DH when he gets home...just to tell him I love him! My images are from Hand in Hand, Melanie Muenchinger's set by Gina K. I received this set from my DH for Christmas...and I'm entering this card into a Blog Hop Challenge by Melanie, too. Click here to enter into it! I've been wanting this beautiful set for SO LONG! And so I also thank him with this love note :) FYI....I'm the pale one...blame the red hair!! I also want to introduce you to my son and his girlfriend Kelly. They have just moved to Texas this week and I miss him already! Kelly is such a sweet nice girl and I thought a post about LOVE would be a nice place to show them off :) Isn't my boy handsome?! Looks like his dad, of course!! Well, friends! Have a wonderful Sunday! We've got snow here, but Life is Good! Yes?! Blessings!

Welcome SBS Sisters group 29!

Happy New Year!
Happy New Adventures!

Hi all! I'm so thrilled to begin another new year of life and with new years come new excitement! I have joined a new Stamping sisters group and this is my introduction post ;) Those of you who know my blog, including my precious SBS9 sisters, this is history for you, but hey! If you are patient enough to have followed my blog for so long, I know you are forgiving of my quirky ways!
So welcome to my new SBS29 Sisterhood group! I've now been blogging about 2 1/2 years and I still love it! Here is a revisit of what I call

The Kim Marie Tutorial ;)

I am a 46 year old wife, mom, speech pathologist, missionary stamper :) I have a million interests and obsessions (all healthy and clean, I promise!) and I love to laugh with my family and friends. I have two children who would argue whether they are still-indeed-children at 18 and 23 and two cats, Ollie and Grace. I don't cook much (my hubby is an AMAZING cook, but this is about me, tee hee!) but I DO love to chat and stamp! Card making is my real hobby...I've made a few small 6x6 albums without pictures, but I consider that making 20 card fronts and all is well. :) I've been married almost 26 years and plan on at least 40 more! We live in a rural part of NY near where my hubby and I grew up and, aside from the winter driving, love it! Our families are nearby, although my son just moved to TEXAS! I work in a public school and for a local university teaching just one class a semester. I am very involved in our church and have taken mission groups to Mexico and Mozambique, and look forward to whatever else God sets before us on our path! Given all that, we are very busy people. Stamping has allowed me to slow down a bit when the 'stuff' is overwhelming! That's me in a nutshell! For further info, follow my blog! I am going to make a great effort to post once a week....there, I said it!!! Now, to keep my promise... :) Oh, and, PS....I am NOT a KimBERLY....I am a Kim Marie....thus, my use of my middle name....so much better for me, as I am rarely "burly"! Tee hee :)

Off to make a Gina K card!