Help!

This is the herb garden I inherited with the house. On the far left is basil. On the far right is sage. To the right of the sage are chives. My question is... what is between the chives and the basil (taller with 'flowers' on top). Are they scallions (green onions)?

Autumn Candles

Can you stand another Pinterest-inspired post? When I saw this idea, I knew I had everything I needed to recreate it myself (courtesy of a 50lb bag of popcorn and a 25lb bag of red-beans from Sams, and canning jars by the dozen from yardsales!). I am hosting my gardening group on Saturday, so the plan is to have these burning on the deck table to keep away the bugs. Best of all, when the season is over, I can put the lids on and keep them for next year.

Thankful Tree

I've recently discovered Pinterest. It's a dangerous time-eater. But oh, is it fun and inspiring! When my friend Anita back in IL pinned this idea, I knew I wanted to copy it. Trouble is, we don't have many big trees here so I didn't know what I'd do for branches. I decided to check the compost pile, where most of our clean-up from hurricane Irene ended up. Imagine my delight when I found the perfect branches from our Crepe Myrtle trees!

The girls and I punched some of my scrap paper, and we love the result. They couldn't wait to fill up the circles! After Thanksgiving, I'll use Christmas Themed papers and we can start all over. Then I'll do the same with floral/pink/yellow/blues for spring... and red, white, and blue for summer!

Incidentally, the card I made in my previous post? That was meant for the very same Anita. Unfortunately, she didn't receive it. I am thinking someone from the Post Office thought I was mailing her gift cards and decided to keep them for themselves. They weren't, they were just 'coupons' for Yankee Candle. But it ticks me off, anyway. I worked hard on that card, and I wanted Anita to have it. Boo.

A New Chapter

Since I last posted, we moved from Illinois to Virginia, which was a 2.5 month process. As I write, most of the boxes are empty, but there is stuff everywhere (we have no basement here!) My craft room is a complete mess (even MORE so than usual). The day that we got internet hooked up in the new house, I found out that The Angel Company was hanging up its wings. I was sad. I've been an Angel for almost 7 years!

Being a natural optimist, I decided to look on the bright side... there are so many great stamp companies out there that I am now no longer limited (yeah, I know I could use others, and I did, but I always tried to spend my stamping money with TAC). One of the designers for TAC, Mabelle R.O., has an etsy shop where you can purchase some of her other cute images. She just announced that she'll be selling rubber stamps, as well!

Yesterday, I got some fall-themed Yankee Candle coupons in the mail and knew I needed to send them to a friend back in IL. I knew that Mabelle's cute pumpkin stamp would be perfect, and in a matter of minutes I threw together this, my first card in many many weeks. It felt good to be creating again. The sentiment is the second verse of "Great is Thy Faithfulness" and I added it in with Word (one of the things I like about digital images.) I colored it with my Copics and added some ribbon from my ridiculously large stash.

As they say here in the south, "Happy Fall, Y'all!"

Surprise!

I am the guest designer today for TAC's "A Card a Day in the Month of May". (I thought it wasn't going to be posted til tomorrow, so I was surprised, too!!!!) For more info, go check it out HERE!

Packing for the summer!

The movers will be here Wednesday. All of our stuff is going into storage, as we will be spending the summer living in hotels (and visiting family) until we can find and close on our first house! I have been busy preparing projects to keep me busy for the next few months... trying to get everything pre-cut and pre-stamped so I don't have to take a ton of stuff with me. I'll be finishing up Christmas Cards, trying some new sketches, and coloring a ton of images with my Copics that I can make into cards once we get settled.

The new catalogue from The Angel Company should be out sometime the end of June, so I'm getting excited about that. Last September, when I went to see Beth Moore, I felt really convicted that I needed to be using my cards to encourage others. I found it very interesting that Mischelle Smith, the founder of TAC, has also spoken of moving the company in that direction. As such, I can't wait to see the new sets. The "Final Farewell" list is extensive and they are all on sale. You can see them HERE if you're in the market for some real bargains.

And, just to pique your curiosity, I'll have a surprise to post on Monday!

I made a card!

... for the first time in months! I've been crazy busy with all that an upcoming move entails. As excited as I am to get back to the east coast, this is going to be the hardest move so far. I'm leaving behind some wonderful friends who I will miss dearly. Several of them belong to my bookclub, so when I saw this set from My Favorite Things, I knew I had to have it! The paper was actually a steal from the new "Tuesday Morning" store that opened here... $1.99 for a pack of 25 and it's double-sided!

I do have a lot of projects to take with me to a 10-hour crafting day I'm going to tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have more to show you soon, including the monogrammed teacher gift sets that I'm making with the $1 Just Right set I found at the first yard sale of the season! :-)

Final Farewells

Here's a list of the retiring stamp sets. If you order ASAP, they are 45% off!!!

Canning

I haven't been doing a lot of stamping lately. I've been being creative in the kitchen and canning, instead. These mystery tools were in the canning pot I bought last year at a yardsale. Do you know what they are? I haven't a clue!

Pillowcase Dress

I've been wanting to try making one of these for a long time. I bought the pillowcase at the thrift store for 78 cents... and I'm ashamed to admit how long it took me to sew the bias tape and top hem. It's been SO long since I actually sewed anything at all I couldn't get my machine to work right :-( But, I'll try more. I have some really cute pillow cases that will make adorable dresses (or heck, even night gowns!)

Baby Thank Yous

A friend of mine is expecting a girl in December and registered at Target. As I was admiring the crib set she chose, it occurred to me that it looked a lot like scrapbook paper. You can see the set here and be sure to check out all 5 of the images! My mind started racing. So, with a little cutting and pasting with the images from the website, I made my own 'paper' which I then turned into these adorable thank you notes. I cut 1.25" squares, then glued them to a square backing. I stamped some faux stitches and then ran it through the Cuttlebug to 'quilt' it. (Click on the picture for a close-up). I made a dozen of them in front of the tv last night and will work on more tonight. The best part about these is that I used scraps of paper and ribbon that I had on hand, so I didn't need to buy a thing. I think she's going to love them, and I may just have to do this for EVERY baby gift from here on out!!!

Simple and Elegant

It's so hard to get a good picture of this card, so you'll have to trust me that it's absolutely darling in real life! I made a ton of these since they were so easy, and I used up a bunch of the gemstones that I've been hoarding. I totally stole the idea from this card.

Birthday Invites

How is it possible that Abby is going to be turning 7? Time has truly flown. I am NOT one of those parents who goes all out for parties. We have a simple little gathering with a few of her close friends... this year, there will be a maximum of 7 kids (including her and Jojo) and I'm calling it a 'crafting' party. I bought some ornament kits at a yard sale in the spring that we'll use, and she also wanted to make some cards (Can Do!), so it should be pretty easy.

I only needed to make 4 invitations (two of the guests are twins) which hardly seemed worthwhile. I came up with this design and made 8 of them, so now I have 4 extras that will be used as birthday cards in the future. I colored with Copics but didn't mess with shading because lets face it, the kids aren't going to notice. (That and I have trouble shading the dress in this image because it's such a large expanse!) Of course I had to add some Stickles and CB embossing!

Orange!

It's been awhile since I participated in a challenge over at Copic Creations, but this week the theme was orange and I wanted to get my creative mojo back so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

I posted a similar card awhile back, but I really wanted to bring more color to the image, and I knew orange would really make him pop. There's a new "Rolling By" set featuring the same adorable kids in the newly released Fall Supplement. I just can't get enough of them!

Fall Supplement is Online!

I'm so thrilled! You can view the publication HERE. I am in love with the realistic stamps and MUST have the Christmas Reindeer set!

Beth Moore!

I had the wonderful opportunity to go see Beth Moore live this past weekend with several MOPS Moms and it was such a great experience. She spoke on Proverbs 31:26, so I decided to make some cards to send out to the amazing women I attended with. As soon as I saw this card I knew I was on to something. I changed up the colors and made it my own, and I LOVE how it turned out. I did the wording on the computer using the Fling Font (which was used on the Living Proof Live brochure) and added some Crystal Effects on the butterfly. And of course I had to use my Cuttlebug to emboss the swirls.

Get 'em before they are gone!

Page Number/Item Number/Set Name/Sale Price

7 T3138 Spring Things $ 9.07
8 T2937 More All Season Stamps $12.57
9 T3214 Snowflake Backgrounder $ 6.27
9 T3213 Build-A-Bird $15.37
12 T2926 Autumn Swirls $15.37
12 T3192 Tree Owls $ 9.07
13 T2632 Pick of the Patch $ 9.07
13 T3106 Apple Girls $ 9.07
14 T3078 Nuts About You $12.57
16 T3178 Hedgehog Halloween $12.57
Pg Code Description Reduced
Price
17 T3107 Spooky Girls $ 9.07
17 T3179 Spooky Boys $ 9.07
18 T3081 Spookalicious $12.57
18 T3191 Fun Skulls $12.57
19 T3009 Glitter Goblins $15.37
24 T2976 Homespun Holiday $15.37
29 T3187 More Hotel Signs $15.37
30 T3190 Squirrely Girl $12.57
32 T886 Silhouette Nativity $15.37
33 T3045 Holiday Collages $15.37
35 T2518 Little Penguins $ 6.27
35 T2589 Christmas Minis $ 6.27
37 T3199 Peace on Earth $12.57
38 R3037 Holiday Cheer $16.77
39 T2707 In The Snow $15.37
41 T3202 The Coolest $15.37
42 T3200 All Things Christmas $12.57
44 T3195 Party Animals $ 9.07
44 T3194 Open Presents $ 9.07
45 T3215 I Heart You $15.37

So easy, even a 6 year old can do it!

Abby decided she wanted to make a card for her friend Bella, who has been in the hospital for several weeks. I showed her some of the card kits I'd made up for last months class, and she loved the flower. Everything was precut, but she chose her colors and glued everything down. She even wrote the inside all by herself. I guess her early training paid off! :-)

I decided to ink up another new set this afternoon. The top card was a simple one I threw together as a sample for my MIL to take home with her. The bottom one, which I love, was inspired by this card at SCS. The hardest part was getting the math right with the measurements, but now that that's done, I'm totally going to make a bunch of these!

Stamping with the MIL

So my mother-in-law has retired now and decided she wants to start stamping. I ordered a couple of basic stamp sets for her and the UPS man delivered them yesterday right after the in-laws arrived! We spent last night playing and these are the results. I can't decide which is my favorite, the stars or the blue flower. I am absolutely loving the Linear Sentiments set because it's so good for so many types of cards. Birthday, Baby, Get Well, Anniversary/Wedding, Get Well, Just Because... you name it! I also love the Sunflowers Set. I used colored pencils here, but I think next time I'll use Copics for better blending.