Mother's Day Card Set

This is what I made for my Mom for Mother's Day. I wanted to make my mom a nice set of cards and something to hold them. I bought the tutorial to make the little box on this blog. It was time consuming to make, but overall not that difficult. I used some old Basic Grey paper to make the box and the cards. Inside the box, there is transparency on each side to hold the cards in place. I dry embossed all the flowers for the cards using Lasting Impressions brass templates. I also made a few things to put in the outside pockets (gift card holder and post it note holder), but unfortunately ran out of time to take a picture with those things in it. I gave this to my mom when I went to visit last weekend so I didn't have to mail it and worry about the postal service ruining it!

Stamp Convention

During my trip home to Ohio last weekend, my brother's fiance and I went to a stamp show. We was so much fun. Unfortunately, this was the only make & take we got to do, and to do this one we had to wait in line for over 1/2 hour. It was totally worth it though. These pics are of Kevin from Stampscapes and Kristen, my brother's fiance creating a card. The scene is created by using several different stamps and layering lots of ink on the card. The card I made at the make & take is the last picture. Hope you're having a great week!

Blog Candy Winner!! Susan!

Thank you all for posting good things in my blog candy post! I enjoyed reading each and every one of them and they really brightened my day! My friend Christy is improving. She moved from the neurological intensive care unit to the step down unit yesterday. She is starting to respond to commands and improving as well as can be expected. I haven't been able to go see her because I've been so sick. This past weekend Greg got it, so I'm going to wait awhile longer before going to see her. I definitely don't want to pass it on to her or her family members.

Here is the winning post:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

12

Timestamp: 2009-04-28 10:06:03 UTC

Congratulations Susan! Please email me HDawson1@cox.net to give me your mailing address, and I'll get your package out to you later this week.

Blog Candy!!

In honor of my 200th post (which will probably happen next week, I'm pretty close), I'm giving away some blog candy. Sorry for the bad pic, but I don't have the energy to post a better pic right now! I'm giving away Heidi Swapp white florals, Hey Chicky stamp set by CC Designs, "dream' scrap metal word, Me & My Big Ideas bling word (Bride), Studio G clear stamp set, Etcetera chipboard embellishments (shoes & purses), A Muse clear stickers, Brenda Walton stickers (purses), Congratulations rub ons, Icicles bubble frames, and Bazzill blue corduroy brads. Open to everyone, I'll ship internationally if the winner isn't in the US. All you need to do is leave me a comment and tell me something good!

April has been a rough month for me. I need to vent about all of it for a minute. I've been battling bronchitis. Seems like I'm never going to stop coughing! On Sunday, I was walking down the stairs and Zubie got under my feet and tripped me. I really took a tumble and am still pretty sore & bruised! The Smart car that I ordered a year ago finally arrived in the US last week but I haven't sold the one I have now so I can't pick up my new one since I don't have the money to pay for it! A couple weeks ago, we had some friends move to the area. They are looking for a house and we invited them to live with us until they're able to find a house. The wife is from Brazil and doesn't speak much English. It has really been an adjustment sharing my kitchen with another person. They refuse to use the dishwasher and don't do a good job hand cleaning the dishes. And I'm beginning to think they don't have refrigerators in Brazil. Any leftovers they have just sit out, sometimes for over 24 hours, and then they still eat them!! Ewwww!

One of my friends had a brain aneursym last week and her condition is improving, but it's going to be a long road ahead. She's 28 years old and is 5 months pregnant. The initial prognosis is she is paralyzed on her right side and may lose some vision, but the baby is fine. It's been devestating to her family, as this just happened with no signs or symptoms beforehand. Please pray for a full recovery for her. Her name is Christy Hogan and the baby's name is Addison. Sure makes me feel like all my "issues" are insignificant.

So, please tell me something good that's happened to you, or just something good in general. I wanna hear it! I'll pick a winner using a random number generator on April 28th. Deadline to enter is April 28th at 6:00am Eastern Time.

Thanks!

Sorry I haven't posted much lately, I am getting over a bad bout with bronchitis. This always happens to me during allergy season. Seems I either end up with strep throat or bronchitis since I suffer so badly from allergies.

I always need thank you cards, but never seem to have any on hand. I wanted to make some that could be used for any type of thank you, and I think this works. I love this big flower template by Lasting Impressions, and the background paper is some of the new paper by Lasting Impressions too. I'm really enjoying their new line of papers.

I'm headed home to Ohio later this week for a stamp convention & to visit with my family. Hope I'll have some projects to post from that when I return. Hope you're having a great day!

Lisa's Challenge

Lisa recently posted a challenge/contest on her blog, to make a Spring or Easter card with at least one Stampin' Up product. This was definitely a challenge for me. I don't have any Stampin' Up Easter stamps or spring stamps. I had to work with the sets I own and try to figure out a way to make them look "Springy." I've had this sock monkey stamp set for awhile and this is the first time I used it. I printed the Happy Spring sentiment at the bottom of the card from my computer. I used sock monkey patterned paper (the reverse side) by daisyds. I colored the images with copic markers. The second picture is a little pocket that holds a flower seed packet that I made as a gift for Lisa for holding the contest and offering such a generous prize to the winner. In case you're wondering what type of flower a "Helor But" is it's actually Bachelor Buttons!

Hoppy Easter Door Hanger

The Yahoo Embossing group that I belong to holds challenges every month. One person chooses a template, and embosses an image and sends the image to all the participants. Then the participants have to create a card or altered item using the embossed image. I really love these challenges, it is so fun to see all the different ideas that everyone has, and how all the projects turn out so differently from one another. This month the challenge was hosted by Cin, and she chose to use this adorable bunny template. She embossed him on white paper, and I colored him with a stipple brush using Distress inks to highlight the embossing. Then I went over a few areas with a brown marker. I added the pink to his ears, cheeks and tummy using pink chalk. I used a few of my own templates to create the wagon and most of the eggs, and the Hoppy Easter sentiment. I knew I wanted to pair the wagon with the bunny, but it wasn't going to fit on a card, so I made it into a door hanger. Hope you're having a wonderful Easter!

Happy Easter!

I made a couple of these Easter baskets for my co-workers. I love little treat holders and these are perfect to hold jelly beans. I bought the basket die cuts from Taylor's store. I embellished them to look like wicker by following her tutorial here. The bunny stamp is by A Muse. Hope you have a wonderful Easter holiday!!

Lisa's Contest

Be sure to check out all the entries for Lisa's contest here. I have a card entered, but I'm not going to post it until after all the votes have been counted. Her contest was to create an Easter or Spring card using at least one Stampin' Up product. The winner will receive $25 in Stampin' Up products. Lisa has a fantastic blog with tons of gorgeous card ideas, so be sure to check it out! I'll have some more projects posted this weekend. I've been busy with little remodeling projects at home, getting ready for some guests to come visit. I am definitely looking forward to some crafting time this weekend!!

Flower Pot Card

I saw this card on another blog and loved it. I followed her tutorial (it's a great one), but thought the top of the flower pot with the scallop looked too big so I trimmed mine down a little bit. This was an easy quick card to make. I dry embossed the flowers and leaves. That part pulls out so you can write on the card. I used SU kraft cardstock for the flower pot. I inked the edges of the flower pot using distress inks to give it some dimension. Hope you're having a great day - thanks for stopping by & leaving comments! I appreciate it!

Guest Artist: Anna, Age 8

I'm featuring a guest artist today. Anna, the daughter of my friend & co-worker Julie. Anna is a really sweet girl and she really enjoys crafting. Whenever she makes projects at school, she always asks her mom to bring the projects into work to show them off to everyone! Her projects deserve to be shown off, just take a look at a few of the things she's made. The first is a picture of a magnet. She drew the picture in school and they put the image onto a magnet. I thought the picture was amazing, I don't know how she got all the lines straight on the wall behind the chair! The second picture is of a cloth that she made at school too. She stamped the leaf with white paint and then tie-dyed the cloth. It turned out so nice. And the third is a paper caterpillar that Anna made. I came into work one day last week and this was sitting on my computer keyboard on my desk. It immediately made me smile, definitely started my day off right. It's so cute. I think I see a scrapbooker/cardmaker in the making....