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.