More pages

Just wanted to share some more pages in the wedding album ;)

Another page using PTI's First Fruits DP and some yummy swiss dotted ribbon! The brad's from OTC :)

I love this page set...I hope the hyperlink works...I used some DP I got at the dollar store a long time ago and then PTI's Quilted Sampler set to make the other page. Sentiments are also from this AMAZING set! If you are a quilter, you will need this set...Oh, I can't quilt for real. I know because I tried and tried and tried...but it is just is NOT my gifting! I love them very much, though, and always had a secret wish that someday someone would make a quilt just for me! But alas, there is a reason I don't have the gift...I think it's hereditary and absolutely no one in my family quilts either! At least now I can "quilt" on paper! Darlene, the bride's mom is a MASTER QUILTER and Kelly quilts herself!! So this page is for them ;)

This page was really easy and actually has no stamping. I did cuttlebug the vellum, layered it on more dollar store paper and added two dollar store stickers...Voila! See how easy this kind of project can be?!

Be blessed and stay warm in your corner of the world!

A Wedding attended :)

I forgot to mention that one of the things we've done since Thanksgiving! We attended the wedding of a daughter of our very good friends, the Hulls. Their daughter Kelly is like a family member, as our kids have grown up together and our DHs were scout leaders together! I wanted to post the pictures of the wedding album pages I put together for her shower gift...I guess you can call it a scrapbook, but really, it's just a series of 20 card fronts put into a post album....all she needs to do is add the pictures!! I've done about six of these so far for brides and new moms...they always love them :) I'll spread the pix out over several posts so you can tell me what you think! {Oh! the cover above was made with a card I did not make myself, but that I received in a Cornish Heritage Farms card swap I did a long time ago...sorry I don't know which wonderful woman made the card...I just used it for the cover! The designs on the cover are from Cornish Heritage Farms wonderful images!!}

Now, here is a fun image...the mice I received from an image swap with my SBS9 sisters and I believe they are Penny black :) Love PB! The little sentiment is from PTI's Little Lady set.

This was one of my favorites....using Stampin' Up's old designer cardstock, some SU Rub ons and some clips from SU's hodgepodge hardware, these pages went together lickety-split!

I totally fell in love with this next page...the first one in the wedding album! I used the DP from Papertreyink's gorgeous patterned paper series First Fruits; the Unity Sticker I received from one of SBS9 sisters and I finished it off with some of that delicious SU ribbon in Red Riding Hood with gold trim!! I thought the knot was a perfect "embellishment" for a page about being united!

The best part about making these albums is that I always make each one different, specific to whomever I am making the album for...in this case, Kelly and Charlie are all about farm and country (they had each guest table at the wedding named for a different tractor!) and Kelly's dad is a dairy farmer so she grew up on a farm! As I make the album I enjoy the time spent thinking of that person...it's so much more special to me that way! Hope you enjoyed the first peeks...more to come!

Be blessed today!!

Rainbows and Mondays

It's back to school Monday :) Now don't you feel better when the news is delivered with a sparkly rainbow? Tee hee!

Oh and check out my friends, the Curry's, new blog Curry's Creations!!! Congrats Wendy and Eric! Leave them a comment welcoming them to Blogland, won't you?

Have a blessed week!

Happy New Year to the Frog Faithfuls :)

It's a new year and a new day :) Praise God!

Time at the helm of my computer has been at a premium, but that's okay! We all know how life is...and it's both crazy and a blessing, so although I have missed sharing life and cards with you, I have been thinking of you quite often!

So what's been happening since our state soccer championship WAAAAAAY back in November?? Well,

10. We served over 200 meals again this Thanksgiving to Go at church! What a wonder to see a group of God's faithful servants working side by side to GIVE!

9. Our 2 girls have been busy with social calendar duties, snow boarding, parties, snow shoveling (see #8) and sleeping in on their vacation days 'til NOON!

8. We've had two blizzards resulting in several snow days from school (YAY!). Between storms we had a week of 50 degree weather melting all the snow in between. No worries...the second storm dropped 11'' in a day and its all still here!

7. My 1 son came home twice (both holidays) and stayed a few days so we got to see him...his hair has grown out for the first time in his life and I barely could recognize him, but he's still my adorable boy!

6. My DH was one of the three "wise guys" in our annual Christmas Eve service with his memorable line: "Look over yonder doth break the shine of a bright star!" Memorable because he had to practice it over and over for several weeks to get it right so we all learned the line!

5. Card making time was also at a premium--squeezed in over a period of weeks a few minutes at a time...I kept changing the design, as I never seemed happy with it....I ended up making 70+ cards between our own family cards, my SBS sister cards, John's "mailman thank you" cards and friend cards....and this year I made them by myself mostly....everyone else was really really busy :) LOL!!

4. We got our tree early!! December 21st! It's still up of course.....I'm thinking it can come down Martin Luther King Day....but then, I will be gone for a wedding....hmmmm....maybe Valentine's day!

3. I got a new laptop computer :) YAY! Now if I can get a wireless router, I can blog anywhere and not have to compete for the computer room! It's almost too good to imagine!

2. My mom finally got out of a hospital and is in a rehab program where she is doing well, getting up and about and looking fab! For my faithful prayer partners....thanks more than I can say!

And NUMBER ONE!!
My prayer life is increasing 10000-fold. With today's economy issues, raising teenagers, work stresses {you would NOT believe the paperwork burden on special education..especially in NY!}, family and friend illnesses, severe winter driving, and a tiring tiring schedule, I can only do any of this with God's help. The book of James has really been a godsend! I've been reading it over and over again!

How's this for encouragement-- James 1:1-6
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. and then James 1:12: Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

I've also read the book The Shack this month (thanks for the loan, Carolyn!). Oh my goodness friends...you have GOT to read this book! Get it out of your library if you don't want to buy it or borrow it as I did, but definitely read it! Don't worry if the description of the content seems disturbing at first...really, you must look into reading it! It'll only take a weekend...of course it took me three weeks reading a bit at a time....but I know this....YOU WILL BE BLESSED!

You are all in my heart and my prayers! Be well and blessed, dear friends!
Love ya!

Copics, anyone?

Having a heck of a time uploading pix from blogger tonight! I'll keep trying!
Oh, and if you want some copics, check out this great blog candy!!

We are state champions!

I'm off to church, but I wanted to let you know.....by the grace of God, WE ARE STATE CHAMPIONS!

Well co-champions actually. Our girls played (and we cheered) for 3 hours in pouring rain to end 4 overtimes with a 0-0 tie. Thank the Good Lord they have done away with the final "shoot out", so we were declared State Co Champions with Marathon school....which is to say we have two state champions! I told the girls that they are heroes for playing soccer for that long soaking wet! The pouring rains never let up...but they were troopers! We finally got home last night at 11 pm.

The County sheriffs escorted our girls' bus from the expressway exit with sirens and lights to the school (about 15 milies) and the surrounding towns' fire trucks joined the escort from the town line to the school (about 5 miles). It was so sparkly and bright! At the school, they had fireworks and of course all the parents and community members clapping like crazy! It was a three hour ride from the championship site to home and we all rushed to get to the school before the bus (safely in the fog and rain, of course!) It was a great weekend and a tiring night, but all is good!!!

Pictures later!!
O Happy Day!

It's the people who really make it special

The cruise was really nice...being waited on, sitting around on deck, food 24/7, sunny and warm temps, gorgeous landscape and of course all the WONDERFUL stamping opportunities...but if not for the people I met and hung out with? No chance of living one of life's greatest memories. Here's a final salute to those who made my vacation so very wonderful! And to new friends, some of which will be in my life from now on--I just know it! ;) Here's me and Mo one more time :)

Then our wonderful hostesses, Gina, Nichole and Emily and Nicky (did I mention my great love and respect for these independent wonderful women??)

Then there was our amazing and sweet as can be waitress, Imelda who did a different trick or two at dinner time to entertain us (her giggle at her own jokes is what made us laugh so hard!) and our host for our Mexican Cuisine class, Chef Luis who promised to "light our fire" when we asked...and along with him, the "partners" we shared our griddle with in the class, Russ and Doreen. It was such a fun time on that beach in Cozumel!!

And then there were our nightly dinner buddies, whom we were honored to call friends by the second evening. What fun it was to review the thrills and excitement of our daily adventures! I think that has been the biggest adjustment back to real life: not seeing these ladies every day! A big shout out to {back row} Pam, Barbara, {front}Cara and Carol!!And finally a grand salute to two of my new BFF's...{that means "Best Friends Forever"}, Jolene and Danielle. We met these wonderful souls in the hotel we stayed in Saturday before setting sail and we were blessed to connect with them every day of the trip. These new friends are more than special :) Love you girls!

Trying to stay in the Carribbean as long as possible...

Finally, some of the sights of my cruise....some are labeled, some not :) Here are the carvings and swan ice sculture that awaited our welcome luncheon. It's all food :) And the ice serpent on the last day at sea.

Port Canaveral from the ship (above) and as we sailed away (below). Also some pictures from the safety drill we had to do before leaving port.

And some deck pictures including the "exercise deck" (Deck 12) and my perfect view from the deck chair on deck 11.

And then there were the dining room (s). I say it that way, because it was actually a THREE LEVEL dining room. We were in "Top Hat and Tails" the middle level room, but above us was the "Sound of Music" with these beautiful scultures and mural on the stairs. So wonderful!

Here's the promenade where all the shops were and where we had to cross at times to get to the back of the ship from our room in the forward section!
And although we saw most of the Shows on board, I only took pictures of the ice show. The show's theme was Under the big top, so here are some of the Circus performers :)

And here are some of our projects made with the stamp sets especially designed for our cruise adventures. Bellas are in back, PTI is on the lower left and Gina K on the lower right.

More pictures to come, but as I said...I want the cruise to last as long as humanly possible; especially with snow falling outside :)

Happy week!

Some favorites and HERE WE GO AGAIN!

Hi all! I know you have patiently been waiting for my cruise pix....we due to technical difficulties at Wally World...the CD's I need to show you pix of my adventures is taking a few days longer...but no worries! I can show you my favorite projects we did! The 3 companies prepared almost 40 projects for us to do while we were cruising...I really don't think I can show them all, although I may throw in a few here and there now and then...but I wanted to show you some of my very favorites.

This first one was a "satchel" project we did with Gina K's stamps. We used a scor pal to score the two pieces of DP we glued together, scored then folded. The cards were simple layered notecards. We colored a bit of the flowers to coordinate with the paper and voila! I did not yet color the last two cards. The flap on the satchel closes with a button magnet that Gina K sells! It was fun to make and so pretty! :)

This set was designed by Nichole Heady of Papertreyink. She is all about the simple and elegant. We used her Floral Frenzy set and the wonderful Kraft cardstock she sells. It was definitely more complicated a project, but not hard. Just lots of steps, which she walked us through beautifully. We also used her Polka Dot Basics set. I don't have either of these stamp sets, but now they are on my Christmas wish list! The little purse holds the cards and the folder has a note pad in it. How adorable is this set!?

This little set was designed by stamping bella's Nicky and she is such a sweetheart! The box was already punched and scored and we just put it together and layered on the flower. Then we made these little adorable cards using Stamping bella stamps...they were all simple and fun to make. The cards go in their little cellophane envelopes and fit in the box. Adorable, yes?

The images from Gina K and Stamping Bella were all included in our goody bag! Oh and did I mention they also gave us a score pal?! Scor pal donated one to EVERY ONE ON THE STAMPING CRUISE! How wonderful it was to get my own!!

My girl is #14.
Now, for some really really exciting news!! We have been going to games and games and games of soccer...our girls' team won their division, their class and their regional game and now

My daughter's team is once again GOING TO THE STATE SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIPS!!! WOO HOO!!!

We have been there 3 of 4 years, going to the final game twice before and winning it all once, two years ago. What a joy to be able to experience this with our Danish daughter too, as she is playing on the team as well. God is so so GOOD!

It's gonna be quite a week!

Enjoy yours! Off to church!

Be blessed!

A winner! and Home again from an Incredible adventure!!

Hi all!

First, I want to congratulate Doris on being the closest guess to how many pieces of "stuff" was in my kit for my travel book....the answer was 122 (all those brads!) and her guess was the highest at 65! Email me with your address in Poland, Doris and you will be receiving a Gina K stamp set and acrylic block, both part of my goodie bag!

I will post the pictures of all my stuff, projects and fun when I get my pictures back from processing...

Yes, I said processing. Well, Kim Marie, why didn't you use your digital camera, you ask....well........that's a different post in itself.....

I do have a few cruise pictures to post, though, sent to me by my new friend Pam, who was one of my delightful dinner companions and stampers that I met during one of the best things I have ever done in my life! This is Maureen and I at dinner one night. Maureen is the friend I went with on the boat. She was not even close to being called a hobby stamper...she enjoys the fellowship of stamping, but was just content to watch other's enjoy the craft. Now, I have to say, she is quite sold on the whole thing!

And here are Maureen, me and Barbara, another dinner table friend....why we even ate breakfast together! This pic was snapped by Pam as well...she had come in from taking pix of the sunrise...we are sitting in the Windjammer restaurant...a 24/7 food fest! Isn't the sea scene just so lovely??

The best part of the cruise was meeting kindred spirits...here are the women we spent time with every evening.....sweet, wonderful woman of strength, creativity and fun! Here are Cara and Carol in the pink and black, and Pam and Barbara in the suit and dark top

Makes you think all we did was eat on this ship, huh? Ha! More info to follow...I promise!

Next post, I hope to share some pix with some new BFF's of mine....and some superstars :)

Love you all!

PS My girl's team is once again going to the state playoffs....omigosh...so exciting! Pray for us! No injuries!! :) Game is Tuesday night!