I'm Baaaack!

Happy Monday, everyone! I have some fun news to share today! For those of you who read my blog regularly, you might remember that I was a guest designer for Unity Stamp Co. in April. Well.... after my guest time was up, they asked me if I would be interested in staying on as a 'regular'... so here I am! :) I am a HUGE Unity fan & can't seem to put their images down. I love the fact that they are always coming out with something new. My mojo just kicks into overdrive when I have fresh product to work with. The entire group is FANTASTIC to work with and I think I've found a really great place to call 'home'.

Now... onto other things. Not only is it Monday, but it's also June 1st, which means that Unity's new Kit of the Month (KOM) is in my hot little hands. Today's challenge comes from Jen Buck, who double-dog-dared us to make a monochromatic project. Honestly, I'm not sure if I've EVER done monochromatic... so it was a good challenge for me. I used this fun pear tree image from the KOM, along with a couple of sentiments from the set. (I love how the kit has the words, "perfect", "pear" AND "pair" all as separate images. You can mix and match and create all kinds of good things!)

If you're a KOM subscriber, make sure you make your way over to the SCS Unity Forum to find out more about how YOU can join in the challenge too! The winner will get to be July's Guest Designer!!!! Someone's going to win BIG... & maybe that someone is you! :) (but you only have until June 3rd... so you've got to act/stamp quickly!)

My images were colored with Copics, and then I applied some of Ranger's Matte Accents to parts of the pears to give it some fun dimension with just a hint of shine. The patterned paper is from the Early Bird Collection by Cosmo Cricket.

Wouldn't you love to see some more monochromatic inspiration from the crew? Click on the links below to see more:

1.) Christi Snow
2.) AJ Otto
3.) Kimber McGray
4.) Jeanne Streiff
5.) Brooke Lien
6.) Maren Benedict
7.) Linsey Rickett
8.) Jimmi Mayo
9.) Jennifer Buck

My Big Day with TGF!

Hey everyone! Just a quick note to say that I was featured today on The Greeting Farm's blog. I've had such a great time being a Guest Designer this month!!! Their images are PERFECT for Copic practice & "color therapy". :) Click on over to see my projects for the month & to read my Q&A if you'd like! :)

I Will Not Sass....

I found this paper a while ago and HAD to snatch it up. In a flash, I was right back in the 2nd grade. I will never forget that day. I was one of those shy kids who was soft spoken & always got straight A's --- until this fateful day. My teacher returned one of my worksheets and on the front was a huge "F" written in red marker. I was horrified! Right about then, I saw another boy go up to the teacher and I heard him tell her that he didn't realize that there was a back side to the worksheet. So... she just calmly gave him his paper back and told him to go ahead and finish it and she'd re-grade his paper. I saw my moment of opportunity and went up and asked her if it was ok if I finished my paper too (I didn't notice that there was a back side either... hence the big fat "F"). My teacher told me in an angry voice that I was not allowed to finish my paper late. I was so confused and said, "Well, didn't you just let 'so & so' finish his?". She told me not to sass her. Well... being about 8 years old, I didn't have the slightest idea what 'sass' meant & was even more confused, so I repeated myself. In one quick motion, my teacher raised her hand and slapped me as hard as she could across my face. I was in shock & SO embarrassed. I had inside recess for a week and my name was on the board for the duration (oh the horror!). My parents didn't find out until I was a joking about it as a teenager --- because when I was little, I didn't want anyone to find out. I have a feeling my teacher was lucky that I was scared half to death... or she probably would have gotten in some big time trouble. Good times, good times. SO.... now you see why I 'had' to get this paper. So... here is my card in memory of 2nd grade--- and now... you know the rest of the story. ;)

I used Annika from The Greeting Farm along with a Paper Whimsy notecard from Sassafras, ribbon from Making Memories & May Arts... and a little #2 pencil that I glued in place. This layout comes from CPS's sketch 117.

And... here is a locker magnet that I made for some of my coworkers for Nurse's Week using the Nurse Anya image. (hopefully I haven't already posted this? I can't remember.) :) The alpha is from PTI.

Thanks for listening to all of my gab! Have a good one! :)

Toaster Hinge Card

I just learned a new trick from this week's SCS Technique Challenge called 'the hinged card'. I was so excited after watching this video by Wendy Weixler because I knew JUST the thing to try it out on! I just got these CUTE chipboard shapes from Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird collection and thought it would be fun to have the toast 'popping' out of the toaster!

I adhered my toaster panel at the bottom instead of the top (as shown in the video) so that the toast popped out of the right end. :) The swirl from the bottom of the toaster was just doodled on.

I hid my brad in the front by covering it with a ribbon knot & added a standard card base to the back.

The sentiment is from Rubber Soul. :)

Isn't that just so much fun?!? I love it when my plans actually WORK! LOL! :)

And... here is the inside of my card using a little more Early Bird paper. See. I told you I'd be using this stuff like crazy. Get use to it. There will be more. ;)

Thanks for 'popping' by!!! :)

I Need Coffee!

Today is Jiffy Monday -- a day when my girls & I made something 'Just For Fun' -- with everyone using the same image & paper. It's always fun to see the 'mystery' supplies when they secretly arrive in the mailbox! You never know what kind of combo you're going to get! But... this time, I think they went to gether really well! Michele picked this haggard looking creature called 'Whimsy Owl' from Whimsy Stamps. This character cracks me up. It reminds me of what I looked like the first few weeks after giving birth to my boys. Basicly - the look of death. LOL!

And... Lori sent us some gorgeous paper from Pink Paislee's Captivated line ("Graceful" & "Beloved").

I paired everything with some blue Core'dinations cardstock & a sentiment by CHF. And... here's a close-up of that poor ole' owl. She's got bags so big under her eyes, you could store some loose change in there! Poor gal! Anyway... I know this card will be put to good use. A lot of my friends have small children too and could probably relate.

Make sure to check out what the other 'Jiffy Girls' came up with! It's always fun to see everyone's style coming through. And... starting this month, my sweet friend Kim Hughes will be joining the group! Yippeee!!!

Alli - Michele - Carole - Lori & Kim

I'm Back... and School is Almost Out!

Hey everyone! First of all, I wanted to say 'thank you' for all of your sweet anniversary wishes!!! We had such a nice time just being by ourselves... with NO kids! We very rarely get to go anywhere without the boys, so that in itself was a big treat.

My in-laws took the boys for the afternoon and we drove to Louisville. There's a huge outlet mall on the way, so we stopped there and did a little shopping. (I actually got to TRY ON some clothes before I bought them! Usually I just grab and go and wish for the best -- and then later return everything that looks hideous.) I haven't bought any new clothes for myself in almost a year... so it was time. ;) And then, we made our way to our destination and boarded a big steamboat that took us on a tour of the river for the evening. It was so relaxing... and they had dinner for us on the boat too. After that, we got some Starbucks to load us up on caffeine & made the drive back home.

We stopped for some gas in Indianapolis & thought we were going to die. (What a bum way to end a perfectly good day!) There were some shady looking characters on the other side of the pump who kept staring at us... and I could see what looked like a gun in one of the guy's front pocket. I was trying to translate what they were saying to each other & praying my husband would hurry up and get us out of there! The guy with the 'gun' slipped his hand in his pocket and finally my hubby just put the pump back and got in the car.

So... as we pulled back into our drive far in the country.... I was happy to be home. :)

And now... if you're bored to death with my personal blabbering... here are some projects I made using some images from The Greeting Farm. I LOVE this little gal (Annika) from the Wild Sprouts Collection! She's colored in Copics & paired up with some fun paper from Jenni Bowlin & Graphic 45. The apple paper lace is by KI Memories.


Emery, my 3 year old, had his last day of preschool & I made his teachers each a little desk organizer filled with chocolate & goodies. These are so easy to make! (The template can be found at Papertrey Ink.) I used some cute 'Teacher's Pet' papers from Imaginisce, Teacher Anya from The Greeting Farm, and the Fresh Alphabet set from PTI to spell out the teachers' names.

And... here is part of the stash that I tucked inside. I think every teacher deserves a healthy dose of chocolate to make it through the day!

I hope you stop back by in the morning! I have a new Jiffy Girls post all set up and ready to go! :)

Happy Anniversary to Me!

Well... I can hardly believe it, but today marks my 10th wedding anniversary! Man, does time fly by! So... in lieu of the big day, I thought I'd share some pictures from the archives. :)


Here we are... young as can be! I think this might have been taken late in '97 or early '98. I was around 20 years old. --- Still a baby, but I felt so grown up. Man! All I can think of is... I use to be really skinny! ;)

And... here is my little hot tamale on our wedding day. He was 23, I was 21. Craziness!


And... here's the blushing bride:


We drove away in our little red VW bug. I loved that little car! Actually, we met because of a VW. My husband and his friend restored antique Volkswagens and and I had wanted one ever since I was 14. They had a little white VW bug convertible for sale in their front yard and I spotted it one day on my commute to college. I stopped with a friend later that day to check it out... and out walks my future husband all covered in grease. He tells me now how freaked out he was when he saw us walking up their drive. He was wearing mustard colored sweats and hadn't showered in 3 days. They'd been pouring all of their time working on another project in the garage and didn't expect to have company. ;) Well... I guess I saw through the grease, because even though I didn't get the car.... I did get a ring on my finger. (No... not the same day!) ;)
My hubby's come up with some sort of secret get-away... so I'll see you all when I get back! :)