Sweet stuff

Okay, so what can more more delicious than a chocolate chip cupcake, the sweetness can warm your heart! Hearts and cupcakes aren't just for Valentine's day, or for a Birthday!!!!!

Have I said lately how much I love making cards? The instant, well almost instant satisfaction of creation. Voila!!! Some day to be completely original, nah, that's too much work.

Happy Birthday!

It is some one's birthday, somewhere, isn't it? Here is a purple card or is it eggplant... I got embossed images with the cuttlebug, I got ribbon, I got layers, I got dots, I got doodle images, and a wish for someone to have a very happy day!!!

All this on a little card, I'm happy, I can handle it, I'm in control!

But give me real life as a parent of an athlete, and boy do I screw up. All I thought I was doing was helping. The situation now is something completely out of my hands. My child is mad at me. We're upset at the place we pay hundreds of dollars to train our daughter to be a better player and it seems we get the run around, a few carefully placed remarks and comments to appease our outrage. How do we teach our children to do the right thing, when they now 'hate' the place they are supposed to love... when they feel this place makes them out to be a loser rather than a winner! Just a vent! No answers needed....

Wishing to Espresso my thanks!

When coloring in an image you may want to match the background paper (if that is important to you) It is a key ingredient when making a card. Unless you want a totally off color weirdo card!!! Nothing wrong with eclectic cards! I'm just sayin'. But when it turns out that you have the image, had already colored it in, put the image in stock, then one day you find some great background paper and in looking through your images you find something 'hey' that will work! It's a good day!!! I like the minty green and blue together. Sorry, I don't know who the coffee image is from.

Brrrr!!! At least the sun is shining today! Wasn't quite feeling up to par yesterday. Winter blues... no, more like Winter blahhhhhhhsssss!!! One good thing, we had something delish for dinner.... A chicken pasta salad. Sissy's first look was ugh.... "That's a summer dish" ..... so? She had to come back and apologize after her first bite that it indeed was quite tasty!!! She is so quick to judge and show negativity! (nut doesn't fall far from the tree , eh?) The salad had seedless grapes, celery, red onion, chicken, egg, pasta and roasted cashew nuts! On a bed of lettuce with Red Lobster Kopy Kat recipe Chesapeake Cheddar Biscuits. Yum-O!

Zindorf Cards

I created a few Zindorf cards last week from Michelle's tutorials. She is so good at explaining each step . I think all of the cards turn out amazing!!! I always feel they need some words on the front, but they are just great for a blank greeting card to write a special note inside.

Had to take Sissy in for an orthodontic appointment this am at 7:40, so after I dropped her back off at school, I decided to go back the way I came and buy all those fun household things like: parchment paper, sandwich bags, hangers and Downy Softner. It is really nice to shop Target at 8:40 am..... all the shelves are stocked, the associates are friendly to help you find what you are looking for and checking out is a snap!

Since we've decided to keep Tucky, I'm tired of finding our bathroom garbage can knocked over. It's like we have a scrounging paparazzi checking out our stuff... so I found a cute little stainless can with a lid that you step on to open. That should stop him!!!! What we do as pet owners. (But I was looking for a new can for the can anyhow!) Great way to justify the purchase!!!

Brief-ly

This is a happy and fun kind of card.... I Love You boxers. The upper part is supposed to be the elastic waist band. I might have to work on this a bit if I were to do any more of these cards. Of course it's a CASe. Used versa mark to do the background hearts.

We've had a lot of rain and warm weather here(40's) in the mid-west. There are large patches of grass showing all over. We were able to take down all the outside Christmas lights that were lost under the 12" of snow we got over the holidays. The weekend was filled with sports.... v-ball and hockey and of course NFL. Today I have to motivate myself and be the 'house' wife.... I think I'll clean mirrors and dog nose smooches on glass and then vacuum the dust bunnies. Tonight it's Chicago style Hot Dogs.... yum!

I'm Blank

It's Friday TGIF and I'm blank. I got nothing!!!! No funny story, no weird circumstances, nothing. Let's see what I can pull from around me.... no little birdies eating from the feeder, it looks overcast and about ready to storm something shortly, the dogs aren't even bothering me.

Well anyway.... this card is a CASE of my own card.... something I normally make into a Get well Card. (Wow, I just checked back and I NEVER(?) posted those cards, how unusual) I'm usually pretty good at showing OFF stuff!!! The thing I like about this design is using a white gel pen to color in the petals and this makes the card 'pop'. The layout is quite friendly and the bow is a nice touch. Thanks to those friends and fans who check into my blog and are so kind to leave me a comment, I really appreciate it.

Wow, I just re-read my post and it's quite boring! Sorry, I guess nothing to report... no news is good news, but no news is also not interesting!!! Anybody need ME for anything????

Patchwork Valentine

Got some inspiration from MK to make this patchork Top Note Valentine card. The squares are all 1-1/2" punches, then glued onto a light weight paper, cuttlebug embossed and then die cut with top note? Then you cut it down where the faux stitching is to fit inside another die cut. Lost my train of thought, Tucky wanted up in my lap and I kind of forgot where I am with that furry beast all cute and loving sitting here.

Almost too warm to drink my chai tea... it's reading 30 out. Better take the dogs before the sleet comes, we'll look pretty funny out on the sidewalks with 10 feet slipping around.

Although everything is in their tubs... the red and green Christmas tubs have not all been put away in the crawl space.... maybe I will tackle that today!

A warm drink trivia:

latte (from the Italian caffelatte, meaning "coffee [and] milk") is a type of coffee drink made with hot milk. Variants include replacing the coffee with another drink base such as chai, mate or matcha. The word is also sometimes spelled latté or lattè—the incorrect diacritical mark being added as a hypercorrection, as fit for many French words with a pronounced final e, but unnecessary in Italian words, where all vowels are always pronounced.

Have a magical day!

Cute little card with glimmer and hope to tell you I'm thinking of you!!! The colors seem to match better IRL.


Now just what does that mean? Have a magical day... I guess you could say that to David Blaine, or David Copperfield or Criss Angel.... I'm sure they would have a magical day (their magicians if you didn't know) but to the average mortal....magical thinking is causal reasoning that often includes such ideas as the ability of the mind to affect the physical world ... they say Disney World is a Magical place.... some thing that affects the physical.... with the mind, mmmm.

Scored at GW yesterday, found a box of 50 notecards (white, embossed with a square image, a few are missing) but all 50 A2 envelopes were there, all for $1.99, thought it was better than nothing. Got a call about the receptionist job, I'm not what they are looking for..... but I'm good with that... maybe next time.
he

oooo oooo oooo

I like you! It took me three tries, but I finally got this card created. The 'actual' stamped image must be tiny... try to fit three monkeys under 5" of space was a bit of a challenge. Next time I'm out I have to look for some brown or tan prisma colored pencils or water color pencils or maybe even a few Copic markers.... this one single stub of a brown pencil isn't cuttin' it when it comes to coloring things in. Lovely jungle print leaves courtesy of a cute animal paper stack!

Looks like there are some deer tracks in the back yard leading up to the birdfeeder, just outside the kitchen window. I wonder if we had a friend watching us last night and didn't even know he was out there? Kind of creepy and cool at the same time. Yay! The sun is shining this morning. Off to take the dogs for a walk, stop off at the post office and maybe I'll do a little thrift shopping today! Happy Hunting!

Color my world

Simple card. Easy to send through the mail without extra postage. Use scrap leftovers to get all the heart images. The big hearts are Cuttlebug die cut and the small heart is just an old, old, $1 punch. And the more colors the better the card, but now you can use this for more than just V-Day.

As I sit here drinking my chai tea, I'm pondering the day. The kids are off of school because MLK day. Where to find balance? What to clean, what to create and what to read. The last one is a fun one.... started one of my 'coffee' murder mysteries........like I've said, the little stuff is better exciting, than sweatin the small stuff!

Fluffy mug

I think you'd be very surprised to find this cute little guy in your coffee mug (Penny Black?) I thought this would be a perfect Card of the Month for someone who joined the club to receive a creative greeting!! each month. Her theme is coffee, this card is for Valentine's. .... the little dots and groupings of dots and circles, just add a sweet bit to the blank parts of the card. White gel pen, colored markers, fine tip black sharpie and stickles. That part I got at the Archiver's class I took...

Coffee fun quote:

From I Love Coffee by Susan Zimmer, Passion is the reason for everything we do, say, and feel. It's a state of mind and being . I believe, to get in touch with your passion, you have to somehow find the way back to your heart. Open your mind, and obey your heart's counsel.... wherever life's daily grind may lead you....

Some Mo' Joe

I get excited over little things. Little things bring me great joy!!! Due to wanting more balance coming into my life, I'm giddy about this. I enjoy the small stuff... although I sweat at times with this.

My friend Charlie's Mom, is the one who turned me on to iced coffee this past summer. I NEVER really ever drank percolated coffee in my 45 years. The hot-ness always made me too warm...can't drink anything hot when it's above 32 degrees out. I didn't like the flavor or taste.... but now with the coffee houses popping up all over the country and coffee being in vogue... I needed to at least try it again.

But I'm not doing this half way. The other day Charlie's Mom and I were talking about tea and coffee and coffee makers and hot water boilers and cups and caffeine.... and I was inspired Yesterday I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and bought some COPCO coffee house look a like cups, one for hot and one for cold. (Charlie's Mom enabled me!!!!) It's hard for me to say, but I DID NOT use a coupon. I was too excited when I found my treasures.

After that, I went to the library (I'm in between temp. jobs right now and I had just dropped Sissy off at school for one of her finals, the library in our town is a hopping place on a Wednesday at 9:30am). I found (just) ONE book to read. But then I thought..hmmm all this talk about coffee and tea... I want to find out more about it. Not how Starbucks started, but why these concoctions are so available, why do people meet over coffee, what else happens in a coffee house? One stupid talk show interviewed a husband whose wife was putting them into debt because she stopped at Starbucks twice a day because she 'deserved' an Iced Latte at $4.50 each. Go figure twice a day for a year (plus a few times she stopped and got a 3rd) $4.50 x 365=$3,285 ..... just for specialty coffee.
The resource service desk was too happy to help me find recipe books on hot drinks, and then I thought to ask about coffee fiction.... like a coffee book centered around those who meet at a drink establishment.... they were intrigued by my request and started searching and by the time I walked out of the library, 6 books later... I think I'm on to something. Author Sandra Balzo and her coffee series:
Uncommon grounds
Grounds for murder
Bean there done that
Brewed, crude and tattooed
From the grounds upI think there is more to come in regard to coffee, chai tea and this interesting concept of meeting over a cup o joe!! Look, I even create 'coffee' cards! Maybe I've had too much caffeine! :0)

Peggy

Regular Joe

Like the concept, not sure if I'm happy with the image... the original gal was much cuter, but this will do for a fun coffee card.

As I purge and clean the piles on my desk of: scrap paper, real REAL scrap paper... there is scrap paper that card makers keep because it is possible to use again as a boarder or accent piece, and then there are the teeny scraps that we cut the edges off because something is just a hair too big..... slivers of paper that need to be thrown away. Packaging and bags, ribbon scraps.... things need to be tossed.... and other things need to find a home and be put AWAY. The busy mind of a cluttered desk of a creative worker.

Gave Cooper a bath yesterday. Well actually a shower!!! He's all handsome and clean and he has a special Greenbay Packer bandanna on. Well on the Tucker front.... since he has been so cute and no aggressive behavior, we are keeping him...."I" decided, he brings an excitement to our house that otherwise we wouldn't have. Not that that is a good reason to have a pet, but other than Tucker, we're so 'normal'. He's getting professionally groomed today.... am I crazy or what? I'll take a picture of the boys later!

Catching Up!

I've made a lot of cards lately, (let me tell you how fun that has been!!!!) and just guess I'm slow in posting. So I will have to catch up with a slide show. Click on the bottom of the picture to see the title of each card. If you like something, as always.... cards are $2 plus shipping. You will be getting a unique one of kind card. Although I CASe (Copy And Share Everything) my cards are unique because if I don't have the stamp, I hand draw the images. I don't always have the exact same cardstock and my embellishments are different. When possible, I give credit to the originator.... and do not claim stamps or designs to be MINE. Although I feel I have an interesting talent to copy very well.

A lil bit of sunshine

Brrrr , the weather outside is frightful, but a bright and yellow card is delightful, for a Monday morning. Cute (Penny Black?) hedge hog. He is a fun guy to draw. Not sure if this should be a thank you, get well, or thinking of you friend card. It will just go into the blank category to be ready for any of those occasions. It SHINES!

Rough weekend of sports.... sad Packer loss. I'm a true Packer fan, watched every minute. I don't care if the defense didn't play that well, thus the highest scoring playoff game, but it was fun to watch. Bubba's hockey team lost on Saturday, but won last night.... it was his turn to sit out... so he didn't play.... oooops and I didn't go! And Sissy was playing in a 16's power league v-ball tourney this weekend (she's only 14.... but plays on the 15 and under team)..... they had a few tough losses throughout the event, and there is more drama.... but too much to get into here. In a way, I'm glad it's Monday and we can start this whole week, brand new, right?

Simple hearts

This card was very simple.

$1 stamp from M's.

A cuttlebug embossing folder and

a scallop punch.

Very pink.

Yay! I was able to give blood yesterday. My iron count was acceptable. They even gave me a $5 gift card to Mickey D's.... so I had lunch out. Had a big mac, which I haven't had in more than a year? It was just okay, not as tasty as I remember! But I must admit though.... I really had a great week. A lot of things were very balanced for me! Thanks for tuning in!

A sweetheart of a tree

Here's a little v-day card that I loved how it turned out. Makes a big difference too when you have really, really cute designer paper. (This is from Archivers, and one of the sheets we used in the card class) A little bit of foil and a little bit of glitter! Punched out hearts, also cut the small ones, cuttlebug embossed the background, love all the elements. The original card I CASed had about two more layers on it. Sometimes I think that makes the card way too heavy.

Well, 12" of snow later, here we are today. I shoveled and snow blew.... is that a word? snow blowed? Ugh! Bubba drove today to school for the first time.... of all days. He finally got his parking permit. I'm praying for him to be safe... this is a scary step for me!!! Another thing for me to worry about at 6:45am and 3pm. I'm going to be a good citizen today and try and give blood. And, It's Friday!!

Winter with a little heart

Snow day!!! Supposed to get 8-10 inches. Got the call from the school district at 5 am school was cancelled. Lots of plans today, ortho appointments, v-ball practice and a hockey game. ( I was going to treat myself to lunch and maybe check out my local GW) It will be interesting to see how the day plays out! As promised, the projects made at Archivers this weekend.

Wednesday's Hump Post

Well, I couldn't come up with a good title for today's post. Too many 'hey there' cupcake, or howdy cupcake. So here it is.... another cupcake card. Love the green and purple together, or is it eggplant and moss? Oh yeah! I took a class at Archivers on Sunday, I'm really happy that aren't just pushing scrapbooking. They figure they'll get just as much money, if not more from card makers.... it was a 4 card Valentine class..... look for a post coming soon!

Working on the rest of the agenda for the day. Putting away the dreaded last few Christmas things that weren't seen. Cleaning up the dishes from last nights homemade baked Mac & cheese, a little walk on the treadmill, don't know if the poor dogs will get me to bundle up in the 10 degree temp outside, and a load or two of laundry. Maybe I won't work on cards and start reading some tempting delicious books. Ah, the life of a domestic goddess!

Dolce & Gabbana

Coach, Vera Bradley..... nah, cuter and less pricey...... little punched out purses.... You Go Girl and have a great birthday! This card with the colors and brads just turned out 'too darn cute'. Of course it'sslightly cased.

Well, I thought I was having a great day yesterday. Everybody back to school and work, I cleaned, I washed, I walked, I grocery shopped, pretty good huh??

As I'm talking with DH who is in OHIO, we get a call interrupted (7pm).... it was Bubba..... very casually he says he's run out of gas (mind you a block away from home) So, I take him the half gallon left in the can.... still doesn't start. We go to the gas station a mile away and fill up the gas can, go back to car. Fill up, still wont start. To me it sounded as if the battery wasn't getting enough juice. We drive home to get jumper cables..... then I make him try again(before we even try cables... can't open his hood, he's in work out shorts, it's about 10 degrees)... it starts! We go to gas station. Meanwhile, I called hubby again, he had an intense day of budget meetings, he's finally eating dinner at 9pm, but tells me the waiter had just spilled a picture of ice water on him. Ooops! okay.... so I deal with Bubba, tell him not to let the gas get that low, yadda yadda.... 8:20pm Sissy comes in crying from practice.... 4 days before they play their first tournament she gets moved 'down' a team status.... she is fighting mad and wants to quit!

I really had a good day, so I thought!

When Pigs fly

Here's "cupig". Totally cute and totally cased! This was a bit of a drawing challenge for me. I believe his original image is a Penny Black design. I think the little stress I have, goes out through my finger tips when I'm coloring. I feel like a 5 year old with my markers, water color pencils and my Prismacolored pencils (that I have had since college.) Just sitting here coloring circles and blending and building color, shading and highlighting. I'm in another world!

I wanted to capture at least one image at Christmas time. This is my fire place mantel. I took the head on straight shot, but too plain and boring..... so although you don't get to see what I'm really taking a picture of, I do like the shot. An angle down the mantel, the lights, the beads the garland and the stocking holders that spell NOEL.

So, what challenges are we up for today, this week, this month, this year? Tucker is actually sitting on my lap as I type this. That little boy dog is so cute. We had a family talk and 3 out 4 people want to keep him. Was it a ploy on the rescue owners part to make us keep him over the holidays? He has shown no signs of aggression. The story continues....The house is void of holiday stuff, except for three things we missed to pack away for the next 11 months. The house is quiet, the dishwasher awaits and so does the new treadmill.... oh plus grocery shopping..... today I do not miss having a job! But brrrr, bundle up 10 degrees out!

Butterflies are free to fly

Don't they symbolize new life? Can we turn them into symbolizing a new year, fresh, beautiful, a clean slate to start over again.

This is a very awesome layout, love the brown and blue together. Now I'm seeing cards with almost 1" width ribbon. Much of mine is that quarter inch stuff....maybe by layering it, it will seem wider?? Love my Cuttlebug and all my embossing folders and die cuts, that my friend is a great tool!

I've heard two New Year's resolutions this year so far and both want to try and learn to be patient. Although I think you should be patient, I also think some people need to learn to tell their story a bit faster and a bit more efficient. Who wants to sit hearing some one drone on.... get to the point! Do you want my help or are you just venting? Of course I'm saying this jokingly!

patient
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: capable, willing to endure
Synonyms: accommodating, calm, composed, easy-going, enduring, even-tempered, forbearing, forgiving, gentle, imperturbable, indulgent etc...

Now to be patient with a smile on my face, with my eyes focused on the situation at hand and my body language relaxed, that will be a trick!