Bee and Bella

I took "A Little Bee" with me this morning when I took my truck to be serviced. I can't just "sit" there while they service my vehicle. I got all of the images stamped, colored and cut out and the B&T and cardstock cut while they were working on my truck. Finished them up when I got home and decided since tomorrow is March 1 and St Paddy's Day is right around the corner, I'd use Goodluckabella that Marjorie sent me as my Bella fix for the day.

Bella has green Stickles on the shamrocks and bronze Stickles on the ribbon on her bucket. I paper pieced her pants using the green diamond pattern B&T from Sweet Harmony. The cardstock is Kaleidescope from my stash. A piece of green felt ribbon from my stash completes across the bottom of the card.

The Little Bee card uses the green diamond B&T from Sweet Harmony which I random stamped using the smaller flower stamps from the Little Bee set and Amethyst textured cardstock that I tore to expose the white core. A piece of narrow ribbon from my stash is tied around it.

Awwww!

Lookie what Marjorie, Mommy Scraps, sent me! They actually came in yesterday's mail, which I completely brain-farted going out to get so I got it this morning when I went out to get the paper!@@ Gotta love those Alzheimer's moments. NOT!! I sent her some Bella images and some Oriental images last week for a RAK and she sent me these loverly ladies! And I don't own any of them. So I'm going to get my creative juices going now that I have new earl (oil!) in my truck and my errands are run. Off to play. See ya later with new creations!

Well, well, well...

Deep subject, huh? Well...get it...deep?! Oh nevermind!

Once again, it's been a while since I've posted some Convention swap cards. Worked on a couple today using my cute new Flower Child stamp set. I ordered it, along with the Feb campaign huge mega-pack of textured cardstock. It came yesterday, but I was busy with other things so today was my first chance to play with my new toys. I used Paper Garden paper pack for both cards.

The first one I used the Petal textured cardstock and sanded it to expose the white core. That's one of the cool things about CTMH cardstock is the white center. And with the textured cardstock, the least little bit of sanding brings that white core out. I shadow stamped the Laugh sentiment, though it doesn't show up well in the picture. I inked my stamp up, then stamped it on scrap and second generation stamped it onto my B&T then I inked up the stamp again and off-set it from the original stamp to give it a shadow effect. It looks really cool in person.

The second is pretty basic. Nothing really special or over the top. Just a couple of really cute cards.

I've joined another Yahoo group. We're a bunch of Bella loving, boozing(!), burger loving broads who needed a place where we could gush about all things Bella and not worry about getting our hands slapped. So hey to all my newfound sista's. Hopefully I can help to keep you entertained both on the Yahoo group and here on da blog!

So sad

I just learned that the Meterologist who has been in the Tampa Bay area the longest has passed away. Dick Fletcher was a man of integrity who could make us feel safe even in the face of a storm. Dick suffered a stroke on Monday the 18th and lost his battle earlier today. He left his mark on our area and will be missed for a long time to come. Rest in peace, Dick.

Tampa Bay's 10 News, Weather, Traffic, Sports - WTSP TV - tampabays10.com

Color Challenge #7

Jan had given me this picture of Joy back before Christmas. I kept looking at it, trying to decide how to scrap it. What colors to use. Confused and not knowing, I'd put it away. Dig it out, put it back. Hate it when nothing inspires me!

Marjorie solved that little problem this morning with her color challenge! This week's colors were Buttercup, Lilac Mist, Garden Green and Bamboo. Plus one additional color of our choosing. I chose Petal. I used Garden Green as the base color of cardstock, then used the Paper Garden paper pack. I cut out paper flowers using Colonial White, Buttercup and Petal, crumpled, sanded and Prisma Glittered them. Oh, and the Colonial White one, I used my Petal marker on to give it just a touch of color because it was too drab with just the Colonial White. I covered Dimensional Elements in cardstock. Used a Garden Green button with white waxy flax as the center of one and a spiral clip with a piece of white ribbon tied around it for the other. Found some 3-D butterflies and dragonflies in my stash and added them as well. Letters are white Thickers that I also had in my stash.

For the card, I had gotten Tinkerbella a couple of weeks ago and STILL not used her. Bad Sue!! So she got put to good use this morning as well. Doodle Alphabet was used for the corner flourishes and "wish" Tinkerbella has Diamond and Gold Stickles along with various colored pencils. I used my scallop scissors from 100 years ago to cut the Garden Green cardstock!

Tagged

Kim Random Thoughts tagged me in her blog. She may live to regret it!!

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 3 people and posts their names, then go to their blog and leave them a comment that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 Years Ago...I was still working...errr...slaving for Winn Dixie. I was the Receiving Manager and salad making girl. Because I could do my job as Receiver faster than 40 hours, the store manager decided I could make the salads, both green and melon, for the produce dept. And because I work so efficiently, I still got finished in less than 40 hours! And it bugged the holy crap outta him! I finally got smart a couple years later and after 24 1/2 years, hung it up. Best move I ever made!

Things on my to-do list...It's already started. I have laundry going. Washing the blankie John's used for the past two days, his clothes, and his towel and washcloth in HOT water. Kill those germies!! I also have to do our "regular" clothes and strip the bed. And just because I'm washing and drying them does not necessarily mean they will get folded! Folding and putting away laundry is the bane of my existance! I'm also going to make black bean and corn salad today. It's something that's very healthy that we both enjoy.

What would I do if I were suddenly made a billionaire...Whoop!! Call John and tell him he could come home. For good! Then I guess I'd pay off my debts.;-) Then I'd buy me a mountain in the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains of TN and build my dream home. Set the nephews and niece up so they won't ever have to worry about money. Set up a scholarship to Florida State University for a deserving young lady in memory of Aunt Eloise. Make some other donations to favorite charities. Invest the rest so we could live off the interest.

Three of my bad habits...Like I have any of those!!!!!!!!! ;-) Not folding laundry in a timely fashion. I told you! It's the bane of my existance. I have found as I've gotten older, my temper has become much shorter. Things that used to just roll off me, really pi$$ me off any more! Not taking better care of myself. Which I think we're all guilty of to a certain extent.

Three place I have lived...Sorry, you're only getting two! Cuz that's all I've ever lived in! Dunedin, Florida for the first 37 years of my life. Land O' Lakes, Florida for the last 13 years. Go ahead...do the math... I'll wait!

Five jobs I've had...I started working for mom & dad at my Grandparents citrus fruit stand when I was 9 or 10. I was the juice girl. I squeezed all the juice that we sold. I did that all the way thru high school. And because it was seasonal work, and the fruit stand was closed from about May til Oct, and I was in Distributive Education in High School, in order to get a grade during the time the stand was closed, I ran the school store selling pencils and paper to my classmates before and after school. I waitressed for a few years while I was going to Junior College, then when I dropped out of JC, I started working for Winn Dixie. And that lasted 24 1/2 years. Then I became a "cookie ho", working for Nabisco as a cookie merchandiser for a couple of years.

Five things people don't know about me...Seriously?! My life is an open book. Most people will tell you they know too much about me!! If there is something you don't think you know, ask! I'll tell ya!!

I'm tagging:
Jeanne
Kel
and that's it! Shaking things up! Marching to my own drummer!!

Under Quarantine

John came home from work yesterday with the sickies. And I was just reading in yesterday's paper that the Tampa area is seeing an upswing in flu cases. Grreat!!!! Course he couldn't get in to see the Dr, but he did call him in an Rx, so hopefully we can nip it in the bud. We decided descretion is the better part of valor and are not going to his folks tomorrow. No sense taking whatever John has to them. He had to go in to work today. There was nobody to run his route. They have one man out for 5 months with knee replacement and another is out on short term disability, so there was no staying home for him. Good thing he's got the next two days off. When I went to pick up his Rx last night, I got a gallon of Gatoraid and a gallon of cranberry juice for him, plus 4 boxes of Lipton chicken noodle soup, so I'm keeping him hydrated and souped up! He's in his favorite sweat pants and 3 XL t-shirt with the blankie over him, sitting in the LaZBoy catnapping in front of the TV. Rest and sleep, rest and sleep; that's what he needs. Keeping my fingers crossed he doesn't pass it on to me.

I resemble this

video. Somedays more than others!

YouTube - Middle Aged Woman

In laws album

You would think that an 8x8 album should be a breeze to put together, right? Well, it might be. For some people! I have said to Chris, Debbie and Liane in the past week that I think I've become more of a carder than a scrapper any more. Used to be, I'd get pics from my sister of the kids and slam, bam, they were in an album. I was posessed! I still have the pics on the computer of Kyle's Eagle Scout project from last Sept. I still have Christmas pics on the computer. Heck, I've got printed the pics of the kids first day of school! But they are not in an album. With cards, especially if I'm doing a bunch, like the ones for Convention, I come up with my idea, assembly line cut all my cardstock and papers then go to town attaching everything. Anymore, I'd rather do one hundred cards than a two page layout! But I think we will be seeing the in laws this coming Monday. We need to take mom to the Oriental grocery stores in Tampa and I need to get her doll cases fixed for her, so I really wanted to get their album done. I ended up not filling the album and was going to take the empty pages out, but changed my mind. Mom & dad save all of the cards I send to them, so now they will have someplace to store them. And they can look at them whenever they want! So I knuckled down today and got the album completed. And since I'm on a roll with albums, I might just get the kids first day of school pictures scrapped!

Edited to add: This is not the whole album! I just picked 5 random pages to post.

Today's funny

This show would never fly here in the U.S. People are too afraid of looking like a fool. The Japanese have no pretenses. They are what they are. And they don't mind laughing at themselves while others are laughing with them.

YouTube - funny Japanese game show - marshmallow eating

Color challenge #6

Marjorie's color challenge this week was to use Cranberry, Outdoor Denim, Olive and Indian Corn Blue plus one other color of our choosing.I thought this one was gonna kick me in the rear! I could not make this color challenge work with the stamp set I was trying to make it work with. I futzed with it off and on all day yesterday and could. not. make. it. work! So I slept on it and decided I needed to change my stamp set and my outlook. So this morning I pulled out Make It Count. One that I love but don't use enough. Of course, I had to get Cuttlebug in on it as well! I used my Distressed Stripes embossing folder on Outdoor Denim textured cardstock for the little tag holder. My extra color for this challenge was Honey. To me, it needed that one bit of sunshine to brighten up the card!

Two years ago today...

I smoked my last cigarette. I smoked for 30+ years and never thought I'd ever quit. I enjoyed smoking. And yes, I knew all of the adverse things it was doing to me, but I still enjoyed smoking. Then I got rear-ended in Nov 2005. And I had damaged disks at C-3 and C-4. The Neurosurgeon told me had the driver who hit me been going 5-10 MPH faster, I would have been in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. I had the same damaged disks as Christopher Reeve, mine just did not leave me a quadriplegic. It was decided that in order to stabilize the neck, surgery was going to be necessary.And my Neurosurgeon wouldn't touch me until I was smoke free for 6 weeks pre-op and 5 months post-op. He told me if I was smoke free, I would heal 80% faster and would come back to 95% from where I was before the accident. So I decided I'd humor him and quit for the 6 months. But at 6 months and one day, I was going back to smoking! I'd show him!!! Feb 19 was D-day! So I gave the rest of my carton of cigarettes away...I darn sure wasn't throwing them away! I paid good money for them! And I became a straw connoisseur of straws! I found I liked McDonald's straws best of all. I'd gnaw on those poor things all day, every day. But I never cheated. Not once. And I had the surgery and the headaches that I had been having every. single. day. since the accident were gone. Gone! And my neck felt better than it had in 6 months. I didn't creak any more when I'd turn my head. And every day got a little better with the cravings for a cig, and I began to rely less and less on the straws. And pretty soon it was approaching the day when I could smoke again! And I didn't want to. I'd come this far. My lungs felt better. Clearer. I felt like I had more energy. Why would I want to start smoking again?! So I didn't go back. And two years later, I'm still smoke free. And I've still not cheated once. And I still miss it. Every. day. Some days more than others. I miss my first one in the morning and my last one at night the most. But I liken myself to a recovering alcoholic. I will always be a smoker. And I can't have that first one. Because if I do, I'll smoke for the rest of my life.

And I have to give props to John too while I'm talking about quitting! He is now smoke free for four months! He has stepped down to the second stage of the Patch and I think has another week to go on it and will then go to the third stage. Each stage lessens the amout of nicotine goes into your body. I'm so proud of him!!!

The beauty of it all

Isn't it beautiful?! And aren't I sad to be so flipping excited over a dishwasher?! A dishwasher, people!!

The guy showed up and said he'd been trying to call. Phone never rang! He was trying to call the old house number. The one we got rid of over 6 months ago! And went exclusively with our cell phones. Nobody ever called on the house phone except solicitors which I never talked to anyway, so why pay for them to call and hang up when the "butler" answered?!

AnyWay!!

They guy asks if he can install it now? Umm, does a bear...you know...in the woods?! C'mon in here so's I can kiss you! YES you can install it now. Well, I have to take every. thing. out from under the kitchen sink. Yay! He had the old unit out in no time flat. Re-did some wiring. took the old unit out. Brought the new unit in. Hooked it up. Turned it on. It does not sound like a jet is landing and/or taking off in my kitchen any more. Man is that thing quiet! Sweet!!

So now I have this ginormous mess to go clean up in my kitchen. So I can get my chicken pot pie and sour cherry pie going for dinner. It will be a pleasure to load my new baby and turn her on for her first run tonight!

Why I don't think!

I don't think because I get in trouble when I do!

John finally made it home by 3:30 yesterday afternoon. He showered and we were off to Sears. What the repairman didn't tell me was that in order to get the $65 off, we had to spend more than $399 for a new dishwasher. Well I found a perfectly acceptable Whirlpool model that was $349, so why spend more so I can bring the price down to the $349 that I'm planning to spend anyway?! It has the silverware in the door option that I wanted. It has the two wash arms for the top and bottom racks and it has more space between the top and bottom rack so I can get the ginormous pot I use to make spagetti sauce in. So I figured it would be installed by Fri at the latest. This is where that whole thinking thing comes into play! It will not even arrive at the store until Friday! Then they have 48 hours to call me and arrange for a time to come and install it. So this means I will be washing dishes by hand until at least Monday, if not longer. @@ Have I mentioned lately how much I abhor washing dishes by hand?! I have always said that folding and putting away laundry is the bane of my existance.I have decided that's because for the last 13 years, I've had a dishwasher to take care of the close runner up to the bane of my existance! Washing dishes by hand!! I will give points to our salesman at Sears. He said since I'm the one doing the cooking that John should have to wash the dishes! I still say we should eat out until the new one arrives!

How much for a switch??!!

Sears repairman just left. Dishwasher is not fixed. It was going to cost over $200 for a switch. Not a whole new dishwasher. One, single solitary switch. So we opted for him to put it back together unrepaired and go buy a new one. We knew this one was on borrowed time and if one switch was going to be $200+, who's to say what would break next and then it probably wouldn't be fixable. No sense throwing good money after bad. He gave me a coupon for $65.00 off a new dishwasher with my receipt that we opted not to have ours repaired. Hey, at least it's something! So as soon as John gets home this afternoon, we'll go get a new one. And it will probably be Friday before they can deliver and install it. Which is better than waiting til Monday when John is off to install it! I've got a serious case of dishpan hands here! I had forgotten how much I hate washing dishes by hand!

Marjorie's color challenge

Marjorie's color challenge this week was to use Blush, Hollyhock, Vanilla Cream and Chocolate. I had gotten some Bella images in the mail yesterday from Liane, and I had also recieved my latest order of Bella's yesterday as well, so I decided to use one from Liane and one of my new ones for this challenge. Balloonabella is from Liane and Superbella is mine. Instead of using the obvious More To Adore paper pack, I dug into my stash and found a couple of peices of an old campaign B&T, Cocoa Cafe. Man I wish CTMH would put that paper pack in a catalog! I loved that set!!

For Balloonabella, I paper pieced her dress after I Cuttlebugged the cardstock with my new Swiss Dots embossing folder. I used the blending brush for her hair, ribbons and shoes. Stickles on her balloons and Prisma Glitter on the outside edge of the white cardstock. The flowers are various ones from my stash. Some are CTMH Summer Posies Just Blooms and others are unknown. All have been painted with CTMH Pearl paint. A piece of chocolate grosgrain ribbon and a buckle from the Chocolate Shades Mini Medley complete the card.

For Superbella, Her dress is paper pieced from the same Swiss Dots as Balloonabella. A chocolate "S" is stamped on her dress! I Cuttlebugged the chocolate cardstock with another new embossing folder, Distressed Stripes, then cut the scalloped circle with the Cuttlebug using Nestabilities. I poked the holes using my paper piercer. and attached pink bling randomly around the circle. The Hollyhock cardstock is cut using the Nestabilities then I used the small flower from Friendship Word Puzzle stamp set around the scallop, adding clear bling randomly.Sentiment is also from the Friendship Word Puzzle. The frayed ribbon at the bottom is from my stash and unknown.

Grrrrr!

Sears just called. The service tech is going home sick. They can reschedule me for THURSDAY! Ummm. NO! Not acceptable. While I am sympathetic to a sick person, I had the appointment. Your tech is cancelling, not me. Now you are asking me to wait three more days. No, you can find me something sooner. So she "goes to check the book." There is no way they can get to me tomorrow, so would Wed be alright. Well, I guess so. Not a whole lot of choice there! So they are supposed to be here between 8 and noon. I'm really gonna be ticked if the dishwasher can't be fixed. This means two more days of dishpan hands! I think I should make John take me out to eat, just so I don't have to wash dishes!

I hear the train a'comin.......

it's rollin' round the bend.

Mom, dad, John and I had such a great time on the train ride! If possible, I think mom might just have enjoyed it more than dad. She said the smell reminded her of the coal trains she rode when she was a child in Japan. She sat there on the bench and just smiled! Course dad, John and I were all up and down the train! It consisted of the steam engine which is over 100 years old and lovingly rebuilt and cared for by a local man. Two cars were old equipment hauling cars that have been modified to carry people. They took the center metal divider that ran the length of the cars out and put in a single long bench for the passengers to sit on. The also put an aluminum roof over the top of the car to help keep the rain and blazing FL sun off the passengers. Two cars were actual passenger cars that they pretty much left as is. They did have to replace some of the seat covers. And finally was the caboose. They would not let us in either the caboose or the engine. They do allow you to ride in the caboose, but charge extra for that.

After our train ride, we stopped for "linner" at Cracker Barrel. I figure that if brunch is breakfast/lunch combined, then linner is lunch/dinner combined! My own new made-up word! It was too late for lunch, but too early for dinner, so, linner!! Mom and dad both had a BLT and a cup of chicken and rice soup. John had chicken fried steak and I had country ham ( the salty one!) We were all stuffed to the gills when we finished!

Mom loved her miso soup and both of their eyes lit up when they saw the asparagus! I also picked a box full of white seedeless grapefruit off our tree and took to them. She was very excited about that since the fruit we get in the stores is pretty crappy. Sad since we live in FL and should have the best citrus there is, but most of our citrus gets shipped overseas and we get the crap from California. My Grandfather is rolling in his grave.

I get to sit home and wait for the Sears repairman to come today. He'll be here sometime between 8 and 5. Boy, that narrows it down!! I loaded the dishwasher Sat night and it would. not. start. Grrreat! John came in and looked at it and he couldn't figure what was wrong, so I unloaded it and did my dishes by hand. Which really sucks because I don't own a dish drainer. And I'm not drying them! They're just lucky I still remember how to wash them by hand!! So hopefully he can fix it and we won't have to go buy a new one. Have no idea how old this one is. We've been in the house 13 years the end of this month and it was here when we bought the house. So I figure we're on borrowed time with it. Just hope it lasts a little while longer! It still does a great job, so there's not been any need to go buy a new one.

Y B Normal?

I was talking to Liane yesterday, telling her I went for my nail and ped appt and she asked me if I had "normal" nails! Well, why would I have normal nails? That's boring! While not as colorful as my flamingo's and palm trees of this past summer, I think they are pretty Spring-like. And since we've had a lot of Spring-like weather all Winter long, why not?! And my toes are the same pink as the base of my fingernails.

Edited to add: You can click on the picture to get a better view of the butterflies!

A little giftie

Just a little something I threw together! Bought the Welcome sign at JoAnn's and knew I was gonna alter it. Eventually! Sat it in my scraproom, waiting for the right moment. It finally arrived. Chris and Mike recently moved from the "crack shack" they had been living in since they married into a beautiful house that they can actually call home. So I asked Chris what her primary colors were and she told me a grey-ish blue. Got some input from Debbie, Liane and Rhonda and voila! Done! Serendipity it is! Got it altered in no time flat and could. not. find. a. box. to fit it. Ended up having to take it it the UPS Store and have THEM box it up. It arrived safely to it's new home at 8:11 PM last night! Chris said the packing peanuts were a bit much! But the UPS guy was so nice. He was so afraid it was gonna get damaged and at one point I was almost afraid to leave it with him cuz he kept oohing and ahhing over it and how pretty it was, and how much work I put into it, and how good it would look in HIS house! But I had my receipt in case he didn't send it! So I entrusted it to him, and I guess he used a bit of overkill! But it's safely there and Chris loves it and she's gonna put it in HER scraproom once Mike gets it done for her.

I love making my friends smile unexpectedley!

John was home at 1:30 again today. So we headed out to the Oriental grocery store so I could get stuff to make Miso soup for mom. Since we will be seeing them on Sunday, I figured I'd make it tomorrow and take it to her. She loves my homemade Miso soup, so it's just one more nice thing I can do for her. We also got some beautiful fresh asparagus. I'll cook it and take she and dad some of it too. I steam it til it's just tender, then season with a little garlic powder, soy sauce and lemon juice. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Yes, I serve it cold! They both love it and mom says hers never tastes like mine. I tell her because she doesn't have MY finger to stick in it!! We got some Yaka Soba for us. It's Soba noodles with a seasoning packet. I buy skirt steak and slice it real thin and cook it very quickly in hot oil and remove. Then I chop up a variety of vegetables. Today I'll use Napa cabbage, snow peas, mushrooms and green onions. Sautee them in the hot oil til they are about 1/2 done, still more crisp than tender. Add the beef back in along with the soba noodles and seasoning packet. Cook until the vegetables are crisp/tender. Yummmm!!! So that's dinner for tonight. It's quick and good for us.

cards for mil

I decided since we're gonna see John's folks on Sunday, I'd put some of the stamps I bought from Lisa to good use. I used Silhouette B&T and I only cut one piece of 12 x 12! Everything else I used for the cards were scraps I had saved. Made me feel good to use them all up! I stayed very basic with these since they are for mom and the Japanese don't like flashy, showy things.

And another........

swap card for Convention. Used Life delights paper pack. Cuttlebug for the embossing on the chocolate cardstock. Thoughts of You stamp set for the flower and For Every Occasion for the sentiment. The center of the flower is pop-dotted.

John was home at 11:30 AM yesterday! What a difference a week makes. Last week there was a couple of days when he didn't get home til 7 PM or later. Super Bowl's over for sure! He came in the door and announced he was hungry for a BLT on sourdough bread from Cracker Barrel. So we went to Cracker Barrel for lunch! They have a new mall open close to Cracker Barrel, so we checked it out. Only a few stores were open. Most won't open til March. And they are adding a 30 screen movie theatre next door to the new mall. That area of the county is really booming with new housing and shopping centers.

We are taking John's folks for a steam train ride on Sunday down near Sarasota. They know we are going on an "adventure" but they don't know where or what we are doing. Mom had this brilliant idea that we all fly to Alaska this summer as a family and ride the train to Denali. Dad's health is not good enough for him to travel that far, so when I found out about this, I figured it would be a nice treat for them. We go, ride the train, stop somewhere on the way back home for a late lunch/early dinner and everybody sleeps in their own bed that night! Dad is such a little boy when it comes to trains.He was in his glory when we went to Japan 5 summers ago and we rode every train they had. From the Shinkasen bullet train to a little old circa 1950's steam train to the top of Mt Aso. For you FL folks, here's a link to the train rides. Welcome to the Florida Railroad Museum

John's Valentine

And no, I don't mean me! It's the Valentine I made for him! Again, the ever so fabulous T!m Holtz was my inspiration. You can check out the Feb technique on his blog. Tim Holtz - Scrapbooking & Rubber Stamping Ideas For Everybody

Weathered Backgrounds, Romantic Backgrounds, and Vintage Valentine stamp sets. Cocoa, Desert Sand, Bamboo, Cranberry and Barn Red CTMH inks. Brushed Corduroy and Fired Brick DistressInks. GrungeBoard that I used CracklePaint and DistressInk on. Hemp that I colored by dragging thru the Brushed Corduroy DistressInk was used to sew the wings onto the heart. I made it so he can hang it from the rear-view mirror in his truck.

Marjorie's Color Challenge

I'm hooked! Marjorie posts a color challenge on the CTMH bb's every week. We send her a copy of what we come up with. It is so interesting to see the different takes on the same colors. While everyone cannot access the CTMH bb's, everyone can see what Marjorie posts on her blog. Mommy Scraps

This weeks challenge was to use Taffy, Orange, Orchid Bouquet and Sweet Leaf. Plus use another color of our choice. Mine was Hydranga. I used Sweet Leaf, Colonial White and Orchid Bouquet cardstock and the Colonial White and Sweet Leaf was distressed using the Edge Distresser. Then the Sweet Leaf was inked with Sweet Leaf ink and the Colonial White was inked in Taffy. I used Simple Pleasures, Playful Petals, Butterfly Kiss and Placement Guide stamp sets. A Colonial White button and Waxy Flax that I dyed with Orchid Bouquet reinker for the flower center. The butterfly has Prisma Glitter on the wings and is pop-dotted for dimension.

This was a fun card to do! So much fun that I did a few extra's to have to send.

Giant Victory

What a wonderful game! What a wonderful final score! I am so happy that the 72 Dolphins remain the only unbeated team in NFL history.72 was the year I fell in love with football, watching those Dolphins every week.

Bill Belichick certainly showed his true colors when he stormed off the field before the game was officially over, shoving the referee in the process. I hope the NFL fines him for his actions.

What a class act Eli was. Not letting the Patriot defense rattle him during the final march down the field.

The better team won. Plain and simple!

mo Bella!

I had to do something to get out of the masculine card vibe I was in. What better to cure that than some Grumpabella?! I have a huge list of things written out that she can "say!"

This card was inspired by my new Nestabilities by Spellbinders that I got last week. I got the scalloped circles. I found them here More Than Ink I used my lime green ink dauber to edge the scalloped circle with.

I used Life Delights paper pack. Grumpabella has green glitter from Sparkle and Sprinkle and Stickles on her housecoat. The pink and clear bling is emBELLAshments from Stamping Bella

And her "Dull women have immaculate homes" certainly sums me up in a nutshell! Not dull and not an immaculate house!!

On a roll

It's almost like an assembly line here this morning! The ideas just keep coming! I decided I needed to do some "masculine" cards to swap. Cuz we do have men in our lives that we occasionally like to give a card to!

Both of these used "It's A Guy Thing" paper pack with CTMH Desert Sand, New England Ivy, Barn Red and Cocoa inks.

The first card I used Bazzill Chips and stamped the "Believe in Yourself" sentiment from Be Happy stamp set, then added 2 brads and coated the whole thing in Ranger Glossy Accents. The bottom piece is the Spots and Dots embossing folder for Cuttlebug that is sanded. The top piece is random stamped using Blooming Flourishes.The Genius At Work sentiment is from Legendary Moments stamp set.

I love the flowers on the Thoughts of You stamp set. I think they can be feminine or masculine, depending on the application. So that's what I used for the second card. (This card was inspired by one Liane posted on her blog last week! Liane's Blog) The Happy Birthday is from the From Me to You stamp set.

It's been a few days...

since I've bored...errr..entertained you with Convention swap cards. One of my CTMH sisters posted these cute Pocket Heart Cards on our bb's and I decided I'd give them a try. They really go together very easily. Here's two examples .

The first uses Silhouette papers and I used my new favorite, the Pearl Paint on the stamped flower from the Joy Forever stamp set.The sentiment is also from Joy Forever.

The second uses Life Delights paper pack and the sentiment is from "In My Heart" stamp set. I embossed the large flower from Friendship Blessings on velum and cut it out. The heart background was done with my Cuttlebug then sanded to distress.