Well I am home now and all unpacked. Considering that my hubby and 16 year old son were on their own here for over a week, the place looked pretty darn good. And yes… it was sunny where I was visiting my two sons and their families. And yes it was cloudy (and rainy yesterday) here in Seattle. But I promised myself a long time ago that after living in Chicago for 6 years and going through some of the longest and coldest winters EVER that I would never complain about the clouds and the rain when we moved here. My doctor informed me a couple of weeks ago that I should be taking a Vitamin D supplement. And then she added, “Actually everyone who lives here should be taking a Vitamin D supplement.” I don’t know why I thought that was so funny! :/

Now before I disappear into my stamp room I want to be sure and tell you about some really really awesome blog candy!! You know all those great JustRite Monogram stamped cards that have been popping up all over? Well…. Leslie Miller is giving one away… TODAY on her blog Running With Scissors. Get over there quick!!

Any respectable grandma shows off pictures of her adorable grandchildren… right? Here are mine… my beautiful twin granddaughters at age 3. If you live in the Colorado Springs, Colorado area you may want to look up Kim Harms if you need a photographer. I love this picture of the girls.

Here are a couple of shadow boxes I did for the Fan Club at Splitcoaststampers when I was on the Dirty Dozen Design Team.

I titled it: “Grandma’s Garden”.

(Click on it to enlarge.)

Today I am on a plane to go see my sweet girls. One of them is having her tonsils out tomorrow. Since she will not be able to go to her daycare for a couple of weeks, grandma will be taking care of her so that her dad (my son) won’t miss any school and her mom won’t have to take vacation to care for her. The last time I saw them was at Christmas. I’m sure that they will have grown considerably since then.

I don’t expect to be making any new cards or projects to show you until I get back home, but I do have some cards that I have made over the past couple of years to share with you. Most of these have been uploaded in some gallery or another on Splitcoaststampers. A few have not. I got this idea from Sharon Johnson. She will sometimes post some of her older cards and I just love seeing them. So I hope you enjoy “Looking Back” with me.

Let’s start with this card. It could almost pass as a card inspired by the photo of the twins at the top of this post! What do you think?

This was made with some of the first designer paper I bought. I remember being so intimidated by dp. I was much more comfortable using my background stamps. Now I have notebooks full of dp and have to remind myself about that stack of backgrounders! How times change!

Stamps: Long-Stemmed, Sentiment (?)
Paper: Close to Cocoa, Brushed Gold, Very Vanilla, Blush Blossom, DP K&Co.
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal , Blush Blossom, Regal Rose
Accessories: Prima, Brad, GG Ribbon

I have heard this happens.. but it had never happened to me.. until the last few days. Maybe it is all the wedding themed cards I’ve been needing to make? Well after 3 days of sitting and staring at my stamping table, I decided I needed to do something. So here it is.

Gosh I’m really not happy with it but have no idea what to change. I love all the elements I used.. the sweet Wedding Party image from Flourishes, the wonderful sentiment from Crafty Secrets Clear Art Stamps that I bought at Eclectic Paperie. And I love these sparkly chipboard flower stickers. I again tried to personalize the card by using the colors from the invitation itself. And I even colored the bride and groom’s hair the color of the real bride and groom’s hair based on their picture inside the invitation.

Oh well, I’ve heard that when this happens, when the mojo takes a vacation, the best thing to do is take a break and then just stamp.. just stamp anything for fun.

I love Friday’s. I think it is my favorite day of the week. Maybe I can talk DH into going to see Ironman tonight. Seems like it’s been so long since I’ve been to a movie. I’m just getting over almost 2 months of being sick. Geesh. One thing after another until my immune system was so shot that I came down with shingles. I’m finally starting to feel human again… Yup I think it’s time for a movie. Maybe that will get my mojo to surface. Then afterwards I’ll head to my stamp room and stamp anything except a wedding card!

Hope everyone’s Friday is a creative and wonderful day!

Stamps: Wedding Party from Flourishes, Card Sentiments from Clear Art Stamps
Papers: Tempting Turquoise, Very Vanilla, DP from K & Company
Inks: Jet Black Stazon and SU! Markers: Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, Pretty in Pink
Accessories: Lace, Stickles, Flower Stickers from K & Company, Corner Punch

EDITED: No sooner had I posted this then I looked at the card and I SAW IT!! Woohoo!! There was no “pop”.

I grabbed the card and literally ran to my stamp room! lol Now those who don’t understand this sort of excitement are surely shaking their heads. But my guess is, if you have read this far, you TOTALLY understand. It took all of 5 minutes to grab my black card stock, my white craft ink and stamp a nice black tux for the groom. I cut it out and paper pieced it on. I added a black brad, some black elastic cording and also changed the corner treatment to black. Pop..pop…pop pop!!! Doing the happy dance.

Ask anyone who knows me well, and they will tell you that I have a very obsessive personality. (I like to say that I get very “focused”. It sounds nicer. *chuckle*) Well last night I couldn’t sleep.. I should have just gotten up and gone to my stamp room and made these cards. That way I could have at least gotten some sleep when they were finished. Instead I thought about them all night. I know in the stamping world I’m not alone in this behavior. We are an interesting breed!

I am obsessed with my JustRite Monogram Stamper found here over at Flourishes. On these cards I stamped the monogram border on white card stock and punched it out using a 2-1/8″ circle punch. I then stamped the medallion image from SU!’s “Carte Postale” on a separate piece of card stock. Then I stamped the letters on the medallion and punched out the center using a 1-1/4″ circle punch. I faux stitched around both circles. The monogrammed small circle is popped up on dimensionals. The designer papers are from BasicGrey.

Stamps: JustRite Monogram Stamper: Border “Library-Kitchenof-Deskof”, Letters from the Monogram DIY Kit, SU! “Carte Postale”
Papers: Basic Black, PTI White, Designer Paper from BasicGrey “Boxer”
Inks: Jet Black Stazon, Not Quite Navy, Ruby Red, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Black Gel Pen, White Gel Pen, Circle Punches, Corner Punch, Dotted Ribbon, Brads

What do you do when you find a March wedding invitation that you completely forgot about? Well how about make a card, tuck a gift card inside and hope that a little something 3 months into the marriage will come in handy! Will I be forgiven?

Judging by the invitation and the pink blouse the bride was wearing in her engagement picture, I decided she likes pink. I love to try and make wedding cards to match the invitation. Guess I figure the bride is more likely to like it that way. You can see part of this one behind the card in the picture. And since I am so late I decided not to put the typical wedding sentiment on the card. I chose instead to use my fabulous new JustRite Monogram Stamper that I got from Flourishes. Check them out here. The monogram on this card uses the Damask Borders and the Special Occasions Alphabet.

The mongram on this card uses the Small Letters and Medium and Large Numbers sets to customize a personal monogram for my son’s 17th birthday. How fun is this!!

A few weeks ago Leslie Miller had a picture of a deer in her garden. Today I was visited by some of our local residents. I don’t have any tender flowers for them, but they seemed to enjoy these sweet new leaves. They have gotten so use to people that I was able to get quite close to them. They never did seem frightened but instead finished their meal and then wandered off to the neighbors. I think they are so cute.

Card 1 - Wedding
Stamps: Monogram JustRite Stamper
Papers: PTI White, Regal Rose, DP Lasting Impressions
Inks: Preinked Monogram Stamper
Accessories: Nestabilities, Cuttlebug, Satin Roses, GG Ribbon, Scalloped Scissors

Card 2 - Birthday
Stamps: Monogram JustRite Stamper
Papers: DP SU! “East Coast Prep”, Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red
Inks: Preinked Monogram Stamper
Accessories: GG Ribbon, Nestabilities, Cuttlebug

Over the last few years my “green” habits have improved.. Not a lot. I still drive an SUV and use plastic grocery bags. But I have made a few changes. I recycle now. I wash all my tin cans, soda cans and plastic containers to prepare them for the recycle bin we have in our garage. I use paper towels much less often grabbing instead a cloth rag from the “rag” drawer to clean up spills or whatever. So in consideration of Earth Day, which was Tuesday this week, I decided it would be a good time to go to my ever growing scrap pile and ribbon drawer and NOT to the files of new uncut papers or rolls of uncut ribbon. I had NEVER done this before so that scrap pile was huge (two drawers full in fact!) I can never bring myself to throw things away so to ease my conscience I have for the last 2-1/2 years just tossed it into the drawers. It was time to see what I could do….

What a hodge podge this card is! Every imaginable shade of red on different pieces of scraps from Real Red to Ruby Red, Really Rust, Cameo Coral, Pretty in Pink and Cranberry Crisp. The only thing newly stamped is the sentiment. Everything else was already stamped. The french knotted ribbon was already done. Only the brads and the card base were not from scraps but are new.

Not from scraps on this card are the brads, stickles and card base. The sentiment was newly stamped on a small piece of scrap Whisper White card stock and punched out with my oval punch. This did create a small amount of waste.

Not from scraps on this card are the rhinestones. Everything else, including the ribbons and card base, is from the scrap or ribbon drawers. I added the paper piercing.

I just realized I didn’t put a sentiment on this card. Oops! Anyway only the card base is new. Everything else was in the scrap or ribbon drawers. I did trim the Bravo Burgundy background piece of card stock which created a couple slivers of waste.

New on this card is the bottom brad and card base. I also added all the faux stitching and the sentiment (which was stamped on a sliver of scrap Whisper White card stock.)

This is a small 4″ X 4″ card. Only the staple is new. The slit punched piece of Whisper White card stock was trimmed. The leftover piece was put back in the scrap pile.

Moral to the story: I need to do this WAY more often. Looking at my drawers now one would never know that anything had changed. They are still filled with possibility!

Yay! Finally got in some stamping time! The inspiration pieces on Splitcoaststampers today are some lovely Freshcut fabrics.

As soon as I saw the quilt I immediately thought of my new “Sweet Baby Jane” dp’s from Daisy D’s. So I used them to make my challenge card.

I love these delicate patterns. The background, the panel and the butterfly are 3 different ones. I used my scalloped oval Nestabilities for a nice large oval for that big flower stamp from SU!’s “Live Your Dream” set. The flowers, once stamped, were outlined with a marker. Also used my SU! corner punch and crop-a-dile to set an eyelet for the corner treatment. Some nice wide grosgrain ribbon, piercing and a sentiment and you have it. Oh yes and don’t forget the stickles to add a little pop to the center of the flowers.

Stamps: Live Your Dream
Papers: Certainly Celery, WW, Daisy D’s DP
Inks: Old Olive, Pixie Pink, Pink Passion
Accessories: Nestabilities, Corner Punch, Paper Piercer, Crop-a-Dile, GG Ribbon, Eyelet, Stickles, Dimensionals

Football has been a pretty big part of the Roberts family. Our 16 year old has been playing since he was 6. DH does all the coaching videos for the high school varsity and I was the Sophomore class rep last year and now the Junior class rep on the Football Board for next year. We had our big Football Kickoff event last night. A lot of planning and work went into it. What was really the pits is that I have been sick this week… like really down with the flu. I couldn’t go. But that is the beauty about having a great Board and so many wonderful volunteers. My friend, Carmen, who is another football mom and total stamper at heart, made the coolest and biggest “card” ever for the membership signup table! Check it out!!

Isn’t this beautiful.. flashing lights and all the details. DH called me from the event and tried to tell me about it. I wanted so much to see it. So he brought it home. Carmen, we have got to get together and do some stampin’, girl!! This is fabulous!

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And talk about fabulous… Kittie (yes, the Kittie aka Kittie747) sent me a card yesterday.

Oh my goodness. I plan to frame it. And I mean that seriously because it truly is a work of art. Thank you so so much Kittie. Not just for the card but for your sweet friendship and generous gift.

Again this week I haven’t had the mojo to create anything myself. This flu really knows how to do a girl in. (But I wouldn’t have wanted to post anything of mine next to a Kittie Kard anyway. *lol*)

Hope everyone has a wonderful and creative Friday.

When I was a little girl there was a huge mirror on our living room wall. My dad used to keep all his cuff links and tie tacks in a drawer to the side of it. Every morning he would stand in front of the mirror and put them on. Often he would let me help him feigning that he just couldn’t manage the cuff links that morning. He would even let me pick out the set for him to wear.

So this fun stamp from the Crafty Secrets Clear Art Stamps set called “Favorite Fellas” really caught my eye. I knew from the moment I saw the tie stamp that there were going to be some ties in need of some tie tacks. It’s been a long time since I’ve picked any out. Making this card was a wonderful walk down memory lane.

I stamped the ties on designer papers from Basic Grey and Cosmo Cricket, cut them out and mounted them on Very Vanilla card stock. They were then mounted on Chocolate Chip card stock and adhered to the 4-1/4 X 4-1/4 card with dimensionals. Oh and I thought these square rhinestone brads made perfect little tie tacks! I know dad would have liked them.

Stamps: Crafty Secrets Clear Art Stamps “Favorite Fellas”
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, DP Basic Grey “Archaic” (stripe and dotted ties), DP Cosmo Cricket “Strip Tease” (red tie)
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Rhinestone Brads, GG Ribbon

Over Spring Break our family usually vacations in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Since we only have one son left at home, a teenager, we like to make the trip a multi-family deal. (To be alone with mom and dad for a week would be cruel and unusual punishment for a 16 year old!) This year we had 5 families, including ours, from our town each with a teenage son. The boys all play football together on their high school team. We have such fun playing in the ocean, watching the street painters, eating a zillion bbq ribs at our favorite “all you can eat” restaurant. (And believe me, those boys can eat!!) But the highlight is the group’s trip to the ophanage Casa de Hogar. I just had to share a few pictures of our trip this year. The children rarely have a chance to be around and play with teenage boys and men. The women in charge have all said that they love this interaction. So we go and grow and are hopefully able to give the children a moment to just be kids.

I held this precious little girl for over half of a wonderful hour. She fell asleep in my arms at which time I had to surrender her to her sweet caretaker.

(Pictures taken on 4/4/08 by Anita Olmstead)

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Got into the stamp room today and played with some of my designer papers.

The floral design is actually part of the paper and not a stamped image. Didn’t want to cover it up so the card is a simple design, quick, easy and fun.

Stamps: Elegant Cheer
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Cameo Coral, K & Co. DP (Card is mounted on Very Vanilla.)
Ink: Timber Brown Stazon, Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip Marker
Accessories: Scalloped Circle Punch, Flower Punch, Corner Punch, Scalloped Scissors, GG Ribbon, Brads