Red, White and Blue Birthday

My mom's birthday is July 1st and she just loves all things red, white and blue. I always make her a patriotic type birthday card...she sits it out all summer long for decoration. I decided to use Karen Lockhart's Picnic stamp. I presented an idea to Karen for a stamp like this and she came up with a great little ensemble that captures the summer time perfectly! The pretty bouquet of flowers with the flag.....the juicy slice of watermelon.....the blueberry pie....and the checkered tablecloth.....all perfect pairings for summer time cards. I colored my image in with Copic Sketch markers. Then I cut and embossed my image out with a Spellbinders Label 1 Die Template. I added some Ranger Distress Ink around the edges to create a vintage look. A button and a ribbon snippet from my stash finish off the main image. Patterned paper source is unknown. I glittered the entire background of the main image to make it sparkle and shimmer.

To finish off the base card, I added a Lockhart *happy birthday* sentiment, two tied buttons and some eyelet ribbon from my stash. The script stamp is from Papertrey's Background Basics: Text Style. For the entire card, I inked the Kraft Edges with Ranger's Distress Ink...then I applied PTI Fresh Snow ink directly from the ink pad. So I have darker distressing then the lighter white to crisp up the edges. Colored Lockhart Itty Bitty Watermelons are scattered along the bottom of an envelope.

One more card to cross of my list, woohoo! And doesn't that envelope make you crave watermelon??? We planted all of our seeds last night and can't wait to see vines creeping all over the place.

And........it's the last day of school today. My girls were super excited and the buzz was all about if they'd get to go outside to play during class and how they were going to carry all the junk home from their lockers. Good times here!! I always get a little sad when I hear people say *ugh, my kids are going to be all summer*....like it's a bad thing. Just a little bit of advice: Embrace these times....you don't get do overs.......have fun with your kids, that's what you had them for......make a memory every day.....be thankful for your family......let things slide a little more.......don't be so serious. I'm hoping to heed my own advice this summer and enjoy every single day. Let the fun begin!!!!!!!

Life before coffee?

EDIT: Well Carmen's stuck in traffic! Snort!!!!! I've always wanted to say that....she's not really because there isn't much traffic around here but she is running a little late. Although come to think of it I have been stuck in traffic around here. Just the other night our gravel road was blocked by a big truck refilling a giant fertilizer truck. They made us late to graduation! And then a while back, I had to wait on my dad's cows to cross the road while they were moving them to a new pasture. Such is the country life!!

Soooo I thought I would take some to answer a few questions, here goes:

Yes, I will get the embroidery pattern name from my mom. They're brand new so I know they should be available.

Clothespins with ribbon.....I secure the ribbon with straight, stick pins (stuck in horizontally along the line of the clothespin so that you don't poke yourself)

My new/old tricycle.......I'm going to fancy it up for July 4th, thinking about making some pennants and tying them on the handle bars.

Go Adam!! I hope he wins American Idol tonight!!!!!!!! I'm 40 but I can still rock it, baybee!

The Snack Wagon......lots and lots of refills, I have to hide my favorite things or they get devoured in like one day.

My flour/sugar/coffee jars from WalMart......great idea for the laundry room, I have that planned but need to give my laundry room a makeover first.

When does school start for us?........We get out tomorrow and go back about August 15th or so.

Lunch.....it's in the works......do you like Mexican snackies? How about a refreshing little drink with a lime? (No, not margis....way too early for margaritas!)

Okay, I think I might hear Carmen so I'm outta here! Have a great day girls!

Thank you, thank you for birthday wishes. It was like getting 50-some birthday cards!! I had a great day just spending time with my family and hanging out. I'll have to be sure to show you the new dishes I got.

To continue the fun, my friend Carmen is coming over today to make some teacher gifts. It's kind of our last hoorah before our kids are out of school. When we get together, we've started to do some fun stuff. We usually have some kind of little *coffee bar* area set up so that we can rev up our mojo and we also do a little fun place setting for a quick lunch. Today I'll show you my coffee station.

I decided to make up a few cute cards with some FUN new stamps from JustRite Stampers. I used the Just A Little Caffeine Borders and Centers stamp set and this center sentiment is my fave. It reads *Is there really life before coffee?* Good question!! (The answer is NO!)
I cut my images out with Spellbinders Inverted Scalloped Circle Nestabilities Die Templates and then just inked the edges with PTI Fresh Snow Ink. I added a few sequins and some pretty ribbon to finish off my cards. Base card is made from Papertrey's Warm Happiness stamp set and Versamagic inks.

I added my cards to a little tray of coffee goodies which includes two coffee mugs, creamer, sugars and a cute cloth napkin. I love the tray because I can carry this to my craft room if we want. It's the good stuff like this that makes having a good friend so much FUN!

I stamped and cut a few extra circles and tied them to my coffee mugs with ribbon. Just a few little fancies to make the day more fun. And that's not all, you should see what's on the menu for our snacky lunch! I could be persuaded to share some new recipes......... :)

Feelin' 40!

Yep, I'm 40 today! I'd like to thank everyone for all the nice birthday cards and well wishes. It's so fun to get snail mail.....especially in the form of birthday cards! I've spent the day just piddling around the house, doing fun stuff here and there. I'm most thankful today for the wonderful 40 years I've had so far. My two girls and Eric are the best gifts I could have ever asked for.

And watching my girls grow up to be wonderful people. This is Josey hugging her friend Brittney last night after graduation. She's really going to miss her friend at school next year!

And these pretty tea towels that my mom gave me today. She's been working SO hard on them and she's doing a wonderfu job at her embroidery. I'm hoping she'll teach Jordan this summer.

And this cute little tricycle I picked up at the antique store. Mom and Dad saw it today while visiting and asked if we've added a two year old to our family. Nope, just the tricycle!

These are some new additions that I've wanted for a while. Clear, glass jars for my sugar, flour and coffee. From Walmart.

And the girls have been doing a count down to the last day of school. Only 3 days left, including today and then the fun begins! Jordan made a sign above it that reads *Only 3 more days til Mommy loses her mind!* LOL!

I've got the snack wagon filled up. I keep this full of little snacks for the girls and I. It gets emptied quite quickly once the girls are home full time during the summer. Wagon from Target a few years back.

Tonight we're skipping the dinner out so that we can watch American Idol. Go Adam!! I think I'll grab some sub sandwiches and we'll have a nice evening at home....my favorite place to be!

Thanks again everyone for your birthday wishes. Here's to 40 more years of the good stuff!!

Paper Pieced Apron

There's something about aprons that I just love. The homey feeling they give and the fun patterns are so cute. Karen Lockhart has created an adorable Vintage Apron. It's just like paper dolls for grown ups!!

To create my paper pieced apron, I stamped the apron image onto three pieces of October Afternoon patterned paper. I cut the pocket from one design, the trims from a second and the main apron piece from a third piece of patterned paper. I also used a grey Copic marker, I think a W2 or W3 to add some shading. Then I stamped the main image again onto white cardstock. I colored in a few trim pieces with a green Copic marker. Then I simply pieced the color portions onto the white apron with adhesive. So fun!! Jordan would love this cuz she's really into paper dolls right now. Here's my finished card. I used a base card of PTI Kraft with two pieces of Ocotober Afternoon. I stitched around the main image with my sewing machine and added a Lockhart birthday sentiment.

I needed a few embellishements so I punched some squares of scrap patterned paper and added some buttons on top.

For the inside of the card, I used the Lockhart *let's get cookin'* sentiment alnog with *it's your day* from Papertrey's Star Prints. I also stamped two Lockhart Itty Bitty Pie Slices and colored them with Copics to resemble Key Lime Pie....to match my snippet of patterned paper.

A perfect little card for my birthday stash. Do you have ideas for fun sentiments that would go with aprons? I have a fun idea that I'll have to save for another day but I'd love to hear what you think. Thanks for stopping by!

Track Coach Goodies

Nichole's Star Prints and Pine's All Star Team sets are a match made in heaven! The images and sentiments work perfectly together and I especially love them for all sports themed projects. These are some quick little gifts I put together for Josey's track coaches for the last day of their track meets. The coaches are always running around at the track meets with little time to rest or grab a bite to eat. So I thought a giant Snickers candy bar tied with some curly ribbon in our school colors would be perfect. May is such a busy month, I needed something quick and easy too!The small cards I made measured about 2" x 5". I stamped sentiments from Star Prints onto a pennant image from All Star Team and then cut out the pennant.

I used Smoky Shadow cardstock which is a slightly softer alternative to plain black cardstock, I love it! I also punched stamped some stars from Star Print on Soft Stone cardstock, punched them out and glittered them. The patterned paper is from the Black and White Basics paper collection and reminded me of the lines on the track. More small stars were stamped on the inside of the cards.

Each of the coaches came up to me at awards night to thank me for the card and candy bar. Josey's coach, Gina (who is my friend too) mentioned during her awards speech that she loved the little pats on the back and card and gifts she got. It feels good to know that people appreciate your little gifts.....as much as we appreciate the time they spend with our kids. It only takes a little bit of time but it means SO MUCH to people.

By the way.....Josey lettered in basketball and track this year as a 6th grader. She did really awesome in all of her sporting events and was so proud to get her letter this year. Now we're headed into softball season. Eric and I formed a brand new team this year so we've been working hard to gather up all the new equipment and uniforms. We're the Dirt Divas, Josey isn't quite happy about that *diva* part though. I designed us a logo and we got some awesome uniforms so I can't wait to see them at the first game. The girls are out of school on this coming Thursday, I can't wait!!

Patriotic Cards...One Sheet Wonder Style

Edit: As mentioned in my post, the red twine/string is from Martha Stewart, available at Michael's and I believe Ellen's store had this at one time too. And I get the old style clothespins at Dollar Tree. It's the only place I can find them. I usually purchase about 10 bags so I'll always have them on hand. Maybe I have too much ribbon.....pfft, nahhh.

Lisa Johnson's new Papertrey set called Let Freedom Ring will be a well loved set for me. Summer is my favorite time of year and with Josey's birthday on the 4th, my mom's on the 1st and our huge BBQ, it's aways a great time to celebrate...and make cards!

Today I have a fun set of cards that I made using the One Sheet Wonder style of stamping. The idea is to create a full sheet of patterned paper using various stamps and then cut it up for your projects. To start off, I grabbed one of my largest clear blocks and arranged all of the stamps that would fit from the Let Freedom Ring set onto my block. You're just looking to create a random pattern.Using a sheet of Linen Vellum Cardstock(the texture this gives my final projects is so awesome!), I stamped the set of images randomly with Pure Poppy ink, covering my entire sheet of Linen Vellum. Looks pretty cool but I'm not finished yet.

I wanted a red, white and blue theme so I took a star image and stamped it with SU! Night of Navy ink, filling in white spaces. Lookin' good now!

Then I reached for my well loved Borders and Corners Circles set and stamped the loopy circle over every star cluster circle I saw. LOVE this!!

And here's my final sheet of patterned paper. It really looks like something you'd buy in a store! Zoom in to get a better peek.

I was on a roll, so I decided to create some embellishments to add to my cards. I made double layered, punched starts using the Star Punch, Polka Dots Basics, Fresh Snow Ink, Vintage Buttons and Martha Stewart red twine. Notice that the bottom layer is a second punched star using the Night Sky Shimmer Cardstock. Oh, this looks fantastic on patriotic projects!

The scalloped strips have a tiny red, white and blue ribbon from my stash and were punched with a Fiskars scallop edge punch. The red and white patterned paper with circles is from Papertrey's Men of Life patterned paper pad. Remember to dig through your stash to find supplies that match your theme.

And here are my finished cards, I love them!! I cut small pieces of the patterned paper and assembled all of the elements randomly on my Kraft card base. The texture of the Linen Vellum along with the shiny metallic paper and the dimension of the buttons is really fun to look at. For a final finishing touch, I inked the edges of my cardstock with Fresh Snow Ink and then added some random polka dot stamping using Polka Dot Basics.
Here you can see the shimmery Night Sky cardstock, so pretty.

And here's my double layered stars with the Vintage Buttons, such a nice finishing touch.

I can't wait for the summer fun to begin!! Yesterday, I found the cutest little red, white and blue tricycle at an antique shop. It will for sure take front and center in my patriotic porch decorations this summer!! Enjoy the weekend, my friends!

Father's Day Cards

Father's Day will be here before we know it. I always like to keep a few extra cards in my stash for friends who need some cards. The Favorite Occasions Borders and Centers set from JustRite Stampers has a fun Father's Day trophy image and coordinating border sentiment.I love that this set has images that can be colored. I used my Copic Sketch markers to add colors that coordinate with my patterned paper that I had in my stash. Adding a little bit of grey shadowing around the image adds a little dimension to my focal piece. I cut out my circles with my Spellbinder's Nestabilities Circles and then adhered them to Spellbinder's Pinking Circles. This fun shape reminds me of little emblems or the round portion of ribbons...like the ones on the JustRite images.

I'm thinking these would make some great tags too. Some ideas would be to tie them onto a package of homemade cookies(raisin cookies for Dad), Dad's favorite candies(my dad likes Spanish peanuts and orange slices) or maybe onto some new sporting equipment(my dad prefers tractors). Or perhaps you could tie a tag onto a brand new, shiney, snake-removal hoe....perfect!!

What are YOU getting your favorite dads for Father's Day?

The Country Life: Snakes

I'm going to start informing ya'll about the country life. It's dangerous folks. If you've ever thought that you might want to move to the country to live a better quality of life, listen to the birds and grow corn.....well let me tell ya, I brush with death often.

Look what tried to kill me today:
It's true. I went outside for about 30 minutes to look at my flowers, listen to the birds(it ain't all pretty though folks), walk up to get the mail and to just enjoy the beautiful sun-shiney day. I come back down the drive to go back into the house. I had only one door unlocked which was by the garage door. Right where I need to go is THIS MONSTER!! Now I don't usually like to use foul language on my blog but I neeeeeed to say it like it is so you get the real deal. I literally about crapped my shorts right there on the spot, people.

This monster was all curled up with his slithery body just waiting for a good meal. You can't tell from the picture but he was about 6 feet long and 3 feet around and his fangs were so long they looked like stilts!! Seriously, I wouldn't mislead you. I screamed for what went on for 30 seconds or so and back pedalled so fast across the driveway, I looked like a fast blowing breeze.

Now what do I do? I'm being stalked by this spineless monster that wants to eat me for lunch and I cannot escape. He's blocking the only open entrance into my house. I think surely he will sliter away if I throw stuff at him. So after about twenty or a 1,000 rocks, he's not only NOT moving, he's hissing and striking at me. Niiiiiiice. Just so you know, I was about 95% sure that this wasn't a rattle snake because he didn't have the diamonds on his back, or the coloring or the rattles on his tail. But don't kid yourself people, he still wanted to kill me right then and there. I could almost swear I saw his jaws dislocate in anticipation.

So the rocks aren't working. So I'm thinking that maybe I could throw the mail at it one piece at a time and it would be on it's way. First up is the stupid birthday post card that my insurance guy sends me. His secretary signs it for him and like he really cares about my birthday anyway. So I flick it at the monster. I miss. Next up is the 100th piece of Netflix junk mail I've gotten this month. It's heavier so I'm thinking this will work. I miss but the snake gets even more hissier. I'm down to my last piece of mail......an honest to goodness, real life birthday card. I didn't want to sacrifice it but I had to. I miss. Dang. DOUBLE dang, what do I do now?

I look around the yard and find this big board that Eric has in his pickup bed. Yes! I can shield myself from the monster's deadly fangs and make my get away into the house. The entire time that I walk closer to the garage door, the snake is eyeing me and striking. Nice, I can see the headlines now. *Fat woman with ugly plaid shorts, ratty shirt, no make-up or bra and giant board.....killed by snake in her own drive way*.

Against all odds, I make a run for it. The snake strikes at me some more but I make it! I immediately snap a photo of it from the inside window and send it to Eric via cell phone. He calls me and says...*Why don't you just get the broom and shoo it away*. Um helllo? This thing would use the broom for a toothpick!!!!! I decide I needed a better photo so that I could have evidence of what about killed me. So I step out onto the deck and take a closer photo.

Just then my dad drives by in his farm buggy. I wave him down frantically and he comes down the drive. I tell him to be careful but to come look at this snake. He comes closer, hoe in hand. My dad says *Well, I think it'll be alright, it's not a rattler*. Just then the snake strikes at Dad. And then my dad chops his head off and says *We'll have none of that!* Ya right, you're scared of him too Dad!!!

I thank Dad and tell him that I'm so glad he was driving by. He said *Well I kinda had to, Eric called me.* OMG, my husband calls my dad to come rescue me!!! All is well now and I'm safe and sound inside!!

So see, I feel compelled to tell you about country life. It's not all about fresh veggies and hay rack rides.