Hello Kitty :)

Just a quick and cheery hello :) This is a card for the Stamp TV Gina K Challenge using the Thumping technique....try it! Check it out at Stamp TV (see sidebar link).

Have a grand week!

Sweet!

I was on a bit of a cupcake frenzy around valentine's day and made some cards for my hubby and daughters to go with their big plate of heart cookies. This is a card I made but didn't end up giving away. I ADORE all cupcake images...they make me so happy! These cuties and sentiment are from Unity Stamp Company. The photo came out a bit dark when I uploaded it(who knows why?!). I used Papertrey's Sweet Blush and Plum Pudding Cardstock and ribbon, Memento Grape jelly ink, and Copic markers. All YUM!

Have a sweet, blessed Sunday!

Wow...this is BIG news for one of my fav people...

What exciting news going on over at Gina K's blog! A new adventure....a new way to experience all we love about Gina K designs....check out Gina's blog or use the blinkie on the right---> and see what all the fun is about!!

I am so proud to be a Gina K customer and stamping friend :)

Kim needs.....what?!

Oh if only life were so easy as to type "Kim needs" into Google and all my needs would be layed out right there in front of me! According to Google, these are the top 10 things "Kim needs"....

Kim needs:
1. to take off the gloves (well, I oughta....)
2. super effort (well, what else is new?!)
3. a refreshment (well, I do so love mint iced tea)
4. some help big time (well, come on over!)
5. to mind her own business (well enough, thank you!)
6. to talk (well, have a seat...)
7. to shut up and go home (WELL!!)
8. some hints (well, wasn't that last one clear enough?!)
9. our support (well, thank you, dear friends!)
10. counseling (well, I'm not surprised at this point, are you?!)

I am so glad to have that cleared up! It's all for fun, but you may want to see what Google thinks you need, too...you never know where it may lead....type "YOUR NAME" in a google search window and go for it!

Isn't life GRAND?!

The Greatest of these

Some of you may remember my Wizard of Oz inspired card, here, that I made for the Cinema Saturday Challenge a few weeks ago. This week's challenge is from the movie Emma, based on a book of the same name by Jane Austen, written in 1815. I read the book in a women's literature class in college, but had never seen any of the movies based on the book. After seeing the challenge on the blog this week, I went on my Netflix and watched this 1996 version with Gwyneth Paltrow and LOVED IT!

Emma is a natural matchmaker who works her charm to match up couples from her group of friends...never realizing how much trouble one can get into when "involving oneself" in others' affairs ;) It's a fun and clean (!) love story and one I think you would really enjoy!
Here is my inspired card from the movie:

The DP actually has a sheen to it which you are able to see if you enlarge the picture.
I chose this scripture because faith, hope and love were all in the movie! And dancing scenes were some of the most beautiful parts of the movie. For the challenge, the card also had to have dots in it somewhere. My dancers image is from Gina K's Heartfelt Hits 1, which I paperpieced with SEI's dotted, double-sided DP. The scripture is one of many from Cornish Heritage Farms Scripture Essentials I. I also used SU's mellow moss CS and Fiskar's Victorian corner rounder punch. No doubt this card will end up as a wedding or anniversary card somewhere down the line!
I was going for a card that was simple yet elegant....much like Emma, herself :)
Have an amazing week!

Well, hello there :)

I've had quite a quiet and selfish day, watching old movies, stamping a bit and even a little teeny bit of house cleaning. Nice to have a day like that once every 100 years or so! Here is a card I am posting that I made today for PTI's color challenge. We had to make a card that used the colors on one of PTI's designer projects for Nichole's new release...this is inspired from Dawn McVey's blog...she is a tremendous designer! I used PTI's Summer Sun and Berry Sorbet Ribbon, Ink and cardstock and PTI's Floral Frenzy Stamp set. I wanted something warm and summery and these are two of my favorite PTI colors. Check out Nichole's new release tonight...the party is in the PTI forum starting at 10 pm, but the new stuff isn't available until midnight....can you make it?! Check out Papertreyink.com!

Sunny blessings and have a warm and cozy Sunday!

Stamping is art :)

Card details: SU CS, Basic Grey Euphoria DP, Inkadinkadoo stmp, Stamping Bella EmBELLAshments donuts and dots colored with Copics

I forgot to share this! This card follows the CPS #100 sketch like the CAS card I posted last week or so, but with a little bit looser twist to the sketch layout. I love this quote! {Thanks, Rox for loaning me the stamp...I will give it back! LOL!}

I made this card to give to a teacher I work with who is really a kindred spirit...and she also happens to be my classroom neighbor and the elementary art teacher!! She has this great easel outside of her room and she often puts a famous work of art out so that we can enjoy great masterpieces as we walk up the hall. We have what I call a mutual fan club....she likes my quotes and I love her artwork. It's a good deal all around.

Who is a kindred spirit in your life?


PS We have pouring rain and almost 60 today...nice change, but the flooding is not good and tonight winds are coming (45-60 mph) and the temp will be dropping into the teens for tomorrow...brrrr.....winter is back!! Boo hoo! Back to the UK with you, I say!! ;)

EDITED TO ADD: We ended up having a snow day {no school! no school!} today! (Thursday)...actually...more of a super-windy, slushy rain day! LOL! As my friend and fellow educator, Ann said...it's a gift!! :) No excuses for me not to make a new card, right?! ;) ~K

Holding up

God is with us where we are, no matter where that is. Three friends of mine lost a parent last week and so I made them a card. I pray for strength for them as they go through these days, knowing that God will sustain them every painful and difficult time. Hold up your burdens and Jesus will carry them for you. He promised and His promises are true!

Card Details: All Prism Purple paper, Gina K's Whimsical Autumn Set (Pussywillow image) SU White craft ink, SU scripture sentiment

Blessings!

Thanks for being YOU! :)

This is a Thank you card for my bestest friend Sandy for the marvelous time we had together a few weeks ago! She is always so great at cooking delicious food, making sure everyone is happy and coming up with fun and new games to play when our families get together! Sandy's favorite color is RED, so I really juiced it up using alcohol inks (poppy and copper) and Gina K's cream sateen flowers colored with one of my red Copic markers. The images are SU's Thank you Kindly hostess set.

This card also works for our SBS9 triple challenge {Make a card using the multiple of 3's}
:) and I am entering it in Nichole's 2nd Anniversary PTI challenge for today as well!

Thank YOU blogging friends for all your comments and lovely thoughts. You are really good friends to me too! My favorite stamping friends as a matter of fact!

Are you F.R.O.G?

This little card was made for a friend of mine whose life has been quite a trial lately. Long ago and far away, I wish God had told Adam not to worry about that little bite of the apple and that we could have continued to hang all out in Eden for generations and forever, but if Adam was anything like the rest of us, he would have bitten more than we could chew eventually!

But praise our God, He thought of a different way to save us from ourselves. Jesus came and died for us and now we have new lives in Him that will get us back into paradise :) Some days in this world though, it's easy to say we're new creatures, but not so easy to do it with faith that all will come out for the best in the end. How do we live through times like these that try the soul?

Card Details: Basic Grey Euphoria DP; Dollar Clear Stamps {thanks Manna!}, Gina K Sateen flower colored with Copic Red, SU cardstock, SU's Glorious Green Ink

Well, the only answer is this: by fully relying on the One that we know will never leave nor forsake us, never let us down or leave us out--He gives us the key to living with JOY as we are His children and He gives us good gifts of grace and mercy, strength and faith....but to take His gifts, we must trust that His plans for us are the BEST that there could be and that maybe we just don't know everything there is to know about everything there is to know! I know one thing...I can't do this life alone--I need God! So yes, I'm Fully Relying On God!

Go FROG! You'll be hoppy you did! ;)
Have a blessed week!

A great day and a Challenge posted!

Hi all! Happy weekend!

I spent today doing some of my favorite things! I had breakfast with a friend and fellow stamping junkie, Ann. Then we went to the new Staples in our little town and checked out the crafty side of stationary stores...fun, too. Then we came home to my house and stamped and chatted and stamped some more! What a great day!

I have been making cards on and off this past week, but it seemed while each one was close to being done, no one was completely finished...so today, I finished them off and they are some of my favorites I've made so far! The only one I am posting today is a challenge card I made as part of Papertreyink's 2nd Anniversary....I have several baby showers coming this month, so here's one of the first baby cards to come. I used Nichole's Dot to Dot challenge sketch from her blog:

My card uses PTI's Bitty Baby Blessings stamp set...I paper pieced the elephant...the images in this set just cry out to be paper pieced! After stamping and cutting out Elly, I also Xyron-ed her and covered her in Dazzling Diamonds. Isn't she so cute!?

I also used Bitty Baby Blessings Patterned Paper from PTI as well as Nicole's Lemon Tart and Plum Pudding CS...the color is more of a subtle yellow IRL, but it came out a bit of a richer yellow in the picture. The 3 little baubles are EmBELLAshments from Stamping Bella. I did add the trim on the left hand side to follow the sketch: a strip of Lemon Tart cut with scallop scissors and pierced on each scallop.

I'm quite pleased with it! It also enters me in a chance to win wonderful things from PTI...check it out for yourself! Nichole has a new and fun thing happening every day, so check in often; her new stamps come out on the 15th!
Have a blessed Sunday!

CAS CPS GKD !! KWIM??

Hi everyone! Here's me blogging from home, sick with a sinus headache and a toothache and throwing out acronyms at the pace of a freight train! Actually, I'm posting my latest creation which I happen to adore...it came together so easily, it's almost scary {the process, not the card!}
To let you in on the letter thing....this card uses a stamp set from Clear Artistic Stamps (CAS) Girly Girls line called "Hearts and Lace". I used the Card Positioning Systems (CPS) sketch for this week, which is featured by Gina K Designs (GKD). Now do you know what I mean? (KWIM?)

I just love the poem on the front, written by Belinda I believe. In case you can't read it through the glitter, it says, Give me buttons and bows, Lavender and Lace, Then sprinkle some glitter all over the place!

After stamping and coloring the image with Copics, I ran the image through my Xyron and covered it in Dazzling Diamonds. The photo colors are off a bit, as it was hard to photograph it without all the glitter reflecting and covering up the image. In real life (ahem, IRL) it looks more gorgeous! The ribbon behind the image is from Belinda in a little grab bag I won over at the CAS forum. The DP is Basic Grey's Euphoria {anyone else using up all their BG DP? Love it!}

Oh, and my friend Jolene has tagged me! I need to post the 6th photo from the 6th folder in my Pictures folder and then explain it. Here it is:

This was one of the 6 x6 pages I made in the wedding scrapbook I made for my friend Kelly who got married this last fall :) Funny thing, it was one of the pics from the album which I did not share on my blog! There you go!

Now I pick 5 more to tag?? How about
Roxanne
Kathy
Wendy
Becky
Deby

Remember all, post your 6th pic from your 6th folder in your My pictures folder. KWIM?? LOL! Please pray for my cold/sinus/toothache if you would. Appreciated in advance!

Love ya!

Wizard of Oz Challenge!

This card is for the Cinema Saturday Challenge at Sankari's blog here. Melanie of Heart, Head , and Hands blog {link on the Tee on my Right-->} mentioned the challenge on her blog and I started thinking about trying it. Then, I couldn't fall asleep last night and suddenly POOF! This idea hit me! And I had to work and wait all day today to finally sit down and make the card look like what I imagined! And it does!!

Every week Sankari challenges us to make a card inspired by a particular movie...this week's flick is the Wizard of Oz. One of my favorite parts of the movie is when the group led by Dorothy to see the Great Oz comes across a big barrier...a gigantic door! It is their first encounter with the palace inhabitants and of course, they are challenged and changed drastically from that point on! You know, Dorothy had to discover the secret of getting back home...and my card opens to reveal...

Card Details: Clear Artistic Stamp's Shimmer paper, SU Night of Navy, Versamark, SU silver embossing powder, CB Textile folder, OTC brads and flowers.

...the simple idea that the secret is within yourself! One must wish and believe...and miracles will happen! Don't those flower brads remind you of the doors with a big knob in the middle? That's what I thought of! And I just couldn't bring myself to embellish these doors any more than just with the Textile CB embossing...so pretty! Part of the challenge was using something metallic on the card and mine fits in perfectly as both my doors and the flower "knobs" are metallic. Hey, I have a chance to win a Gina K set! And so do you! Check out the challenge and play along! It was REALLY fun!

{I should probably tell you that as much loved as this movie is by the ages, my little sister Kristy was so creeped out by this movie when we were kids, I think she had nightmares for a year! Of course now Horror is one of her favorite movie genres....go figure! LOL!}

Icicles, 25 years and a baby card!

Hello :) How are you all? Blessed I hope! This has been a week of blessings and God has been so good! Just to share a few of the reasons why I can smile even when times are tough :)

This was the view outside my bathroom window this week...Yeah, that's snow and ice. Ewww. But it is also one of the most beautiful views around this week...even more lovely from inside, LOL! We had record low temps, some dipping into two digit numbers BELOW ZERO! Whoa. Luckily we were in heat wave mode today....almost 25 degrees :)

This was the cake that my friends Heather, Joe and Melanie surprised us with when we went to their house for dinner this past weekend! Our anniversary kind of came and went with nothing special and we were so so blessed and surprised when they made it a celebration! Heather, Mel and my hubby John and I went to high school together! Yes, we still keep in touch after all these years...mostly because Heather calls me, so she gets all the credit! We have been picnicing with our kids for years and she is so sweet to have made the effort to celebrate for us! She gave us a beautiful silver frame and Mel gave us a gift card. So so nice! I will be making their Thank you cards soon, so stay tuned!! :) Below is a pic that was snapped of my DH and I that evening. Aren't we so cute?! We've been dating "together" for 29 years! Wow, huh?

And finally, this is a card I made for my friend Jim and his family to celebrate their new baby boy, Noah {born on Christmas!}. It is their fourth child and first boy! I used some DELICIOUS 85 lb. Sparkles and Shimmers paper from Clear Artistic Stamps to cuttlebug-emboss the card's image...isn't it great how it shimmers even in the photo!? My favorite CB cardstock to emboss is the metallic CS. It came in an assortment pack, so I have a nice variety of shades.

As it was Jim's first boy, I wanted to use a more masculine color scheme, so I also used SU's Chocolate chip and Creamy caramel cardstock and PTI's perfect match chocolate ribbon {hard to see on the bottom right}. And I just love the sentiment.

So all in all, God has been good this week, don't you think?! Be blessed in all you do this week and know that God is!

Have faith

Card details: Basic Grey paper, Memento Ink, Unity stamps and SU Riding Hood red and Mellow Moss CS

In this day and time of seemingly endless unrest and economic question marks, I feel like I need to remind myself daily that a small dose of faith and a belief that God is acting truly on our behalf to bless and protect no matter how we are seeing our circumstances, is all we need to make the mountains in our lives move!

Keep up your spirits and know that God sees. He really really does. Be blessed today, won't you?

Cute couple! Now a favor!

Hi all!
Hey, I need a favor! My friend and co-teacher, Tess, and her fiance met through a dating service and now they are trying to win their dream honeymoon by being voted Most Inspirational couple! They are getting married this summer, but if you're not opposed to it, would you consider voting for them? Click here to go directly to their page...they're in top 10 but we want them to be number one!! Awww...thanks!

So very lovely!

Melanie sent me some flowers ;) and had this link on her blog; I thought it was very cool and so so spring-y that I wanted to share it with you! For a wonderfull whiff of spring, read the next sentence for directions and then click here! {{When you get there, put your mouse over the screen and CLICK some whimsical flowers all over the place!}} We are getting snowy blizzards on blizzards and will be getting lots of FRIGID temps coming here in the next few days, so I can use all the spring I can get! Stay warm and cozy!

Lovely!

Well, it's been awhile since I've been so awarded and thanks to my friend, Deby aka The Sofa Lady, I have been blessed with this Lovely Blog award! How sweet of her to think of me :)

I would love to pass this one to 7 other bloggers I adore! I know that it is sometimes hard to think of seven others to pass it to, but if you can it would be so fun!

Sue at Slumber Cards always makes me smile with her creations
Manna at Out of the East who always blesses me, {especially the technique junkie in me}
Holly at Glitter, Stamps and Ink (oh, my!) always inspires and is so sweet!
Lori at Make a Difference who always always makes me smile, blesses me and inspires!!
Jolene at Stampin' for Sanity is new to blogging and doing an amazing job at it...OMGracious!
Louise at "Creations" who is trying out her newest blog and is sharing some fabulous stuff all the way from across the pond!
Erika at A mama who stamps who is ENDLESS in her creativity and love of the craft and who is a blessing as a mom and as an artist!

These ladies are amazing people and their blogs amazing stuff...go visit!

Happy blessed weekend, everybody!

Risking it all to blossom!

This is a card I made using one of my very first Unity Stamp Company Stamps! I first saw Unity Stamps products in real life at the Crafter's convention I went to last summer....I knew I would fall in love with every single one and so for awhile I avoided even looking on their site...I didn't need another line in my budget if you know what I mean?? {or does the fact that the word budge is in "budget" 'cause you gotta MOVE stuff over??? Hmmmm..... } Well, I just couldn't ignore that last banner ad I saw on SCS and I took the plunge....and I was right....I LOVE THEM ALL!!! The stamps come unmounted and were packaged so beautifully in chocolate brown mesh bags! How wonderful is THAT? The stamps are made from red rubber and this image inked up gorgeously! Isn't the font so pretty??

This stamp I actually purchased with my daughter in mind. She is a senior in high school and going to college next year. I would be less than honest if I didn't admit that I am usually teary eyed most days just thinking of her going into the big world without me! Well, to be entirely honest, I'm being left in the big world without her! So to be an encouragement instead of a mom who can't let go, I saw this sentiment and HAD to have it so I could make her a card. Sappy, huh? The floral paper is basic grey's Euphoria that I purchased from Gina K, the ink Momento's Grape jelly and the flower from my old silky flower collection that my gramma gave me many many many years ago! I used my copic markers to color the center to make it look like a pansy and to match the colors of the card (it was kind of yellow-y and I needed purple-y! LOL!) What think ye??

And we finally had a day with less snow...only a flurry now and again. How's the sky look where you are?
Blessings!

A pic and pixies

Just thought I'd share the last page of the wedding album....this was an image sent in a swap from one of my SBS9 sisters...colored with copics, I thought it the perfect way to end the book :)

And since we are now thigh-deep in snow (lots more today...arghhh!!) I thought I'd throw in a picture we took in Niagara falls way back when life was sunny, warm and green!! Here are Kalene, my son's long time girlfriend, our girls, Kelsey and Mejse (from Denmark) and the beautiful Niagara River about an hour from our house....ah, to be wearing tee shirts and shorts again! Sigh....

Although we are buried in snow and freezing up here in NY, God has been so good! We are all getting where we need to go and arriving home safely! I hope you are staying warm and cozy whereever you may be! Blessings and warm hugs!