I figured it was about time to post some cards here, since that's what I do. I got to playing with my Cuttlebug and came up with these. They are loosely cased on some projects I found on Gina K's blog - Gina K Designs. You'll have to check it out. She makes the Autism stamp set that they are selling on Splitcoast and has some awesome ideas on her site: http://blog.ginakdesigns.com/




This first one is probably my favorite. I CB'd the designs with two different embossing folders, then I stamped the greeting in silver on vellum nad mounted it with those cute little diamond brads. Then I cut some random strips of Turquoise to go under the vellum. You can't see the greeting very well. I used the Happy Birthday from the Happy Everything set. Gina's version had a stamped focal point, a cute crab, I think, but I really wanted people to be able to see the great texture of the embossing. I think it looks cool.


This next one is fun because I made scallops from circles that had been embossed. I've seen scalloped circles before, but it never occurred to me that they could be patterned or embossed, so I thought I'd try it. I like the top, but I'm not terribly happy with the bottom. I used the Sparkling Summer set to do the beach ball, but I discovered that I didn't have the right sized circle punch to layer the circles, so instead I tried to layer several same-sized circles. I'm not terribly happy with it as it makes the Turquoise circles look like crescents instead of circles. Oh well, guess I need to go out and buy yet another punch. I do love punches!


This one is for my son Matt. I told him he couldn't cash any of the checks he'd received for graduation until he had sent them Thank You notes. He asked me to make him some thank you cards, but I said no way. After making 50 graduation announcements, he is on his own for Thank you cards - he can buy them or make them, either one. So, the two of us collaborated last night in my stamp room and here is the simple thank you card that we came up with. I really like it. It's simple, elegant, and in nice masculine looking colors. The little tag is even a CB die cut and he was having a great time playing with my machine. We'll make a stamper out of him yet.

Here are some samples of the cards I made for my May Card Club. This is a fun program I do for some of my customers. What I do is to choose a stamp set - in this case Best Bar Codes. Then I design four cards using the stamp set. I package up all the cardstock and fun embellishments, ribbons, etc. along with full instructions and color pictures of the projects, and of course the stamp set. This way my Card Club members get a new stamp set every month and a head start on projects and ideas to use with it. It only costs them $20 plus postage, so it's a nice gradual way to build up your stamp collection without making a major investment. I've been doing it for several months now and it seems to be a big hit. I like it because it challenges my creativity to come up with new projects every month.

You know the old saying - good things happen slow, bad things happen fast. Well, in the blink of an eye, our whole summer got rearranged. Blake was at a birthday party at the local skate park and he ran afoul of one of the big teenagers on a bike. Wham! Bam! and Blake come back crying.

At first he didn't seem like he was hurt all that badly, so we thought he might have just bruised it or sprained it, but no such luck. He must have landed just the wrong way because it is broken at the wrist. We're not sure if it's both bones or just the bigger one. We'll know more when we take him in to get casted on Tuesday. He has to be splinted until the swelling goes down. We're hoping for something called a "water cast" which is apparently some kind of a fancy plexiglass model, but from what I'm hearing, that just means he'll be able to take normal showers if we're careful about it.

The real bummer is that he likely won't be able to go swimming. We had a great program
set up for him for the summer, but it includes 3 days a week of swimming for several hours a day, plus trips to the skating rink, and other sports activities. Obviously, that won't work now, so we are digging around to try and find an alternative program for at least the first half of the summer. I've got a couple of leads and I hope I can find something that will be really fun for him and safe as well.

I know he wanted to be in my blog more, but this isn't the way I was hoping to do it. Look at that little face and his little Snoopy sling. It's just sad. And he was having such a good time too. He was just loving that skate park. He's our little daredevil and he just jumped right in there with his little scooter with no fear at all. Out of all our 3 boys, he's been the one most likely to get hurt like this.

We've actually been remarkably lucky with our boys. This is the first major injury we've had with them, so I can't cry too much about it. I did something remarkably similar when I was little. I broke my arm at almost the same week of the year and had to go through about half the summer with a heavy, nasty plaster cast on my arm. So I can really sympathize with my little guy.

Naturally my boys have been reading my blog and giving me their feedback. Blake feels that there are not nearly enough pictures of HIM in it and thinks I should do something about it. I think he has a very circular view of the universe (as in the world revolves around him - ha!) But just to humor him, here is a cute picture of him.

Tony got a new circular saw a couple of months ago and it came in this huge box, so of course, Blake made it into his playhouse!

 He did his homework in it, cut holes in it to watch TV, ate his snacks in it and even insisted on sleeping in it, so here he is with his pillow and blanket and "King" to keep him company. It was a little scrunchy, but he seemed to sleep just fine.

Wow, we had a boatload of great finale episodes this week!

DANCING WITH THE STARS

I haven't had a chance to watch the whole episode on my Tivo, but I caught the tail end of it to see the results. I was shocked that Laila didn't end up in the final two. I totally thought she might win, but I guess Joey had a bigger following. I was very pleased that Apolo won. I really think he was the best dancer in the group. They all worked so hard, but I thought he really put his heart and soul into it. I'm still wondering if he and Julianne had a bit of a "thing" going on. They were awfully cute together and it seemed like they were pretty cozy. Plus, she broke off her engagement during the show. I think it would be hard to work that closely for so many weeks with these people and not develop feelings for them. I guess time will tell.

AMERICAN IDOL

The American Idol finale is always a very strange mix of the fantastic mixed in with the bizarre. I'm always so surprised at the guest stars they pick. It's like they've cornered the market on washed up entertainers. I love Gladys Knight, Smokey Robinson, and Bette Midler, but they're hardly mainstream talent. It was kind of fun seeing some of the older Idols like Ruben, Kelly, and Taylor and some of the people who had been voted off earlier like Lakisha and Chris Sligh - even Sanjaya. We were definitely huge Blake fans, but I was delighted that Jordin won. I think she's amazing. Everyone keeps saying she is amazing for 17, but I think she would be just as amazing at 35. She's got great poise, talent, and personality.

GREY'S ANATOMY

Lots of changes, lots of surprises! Gosh I love this show. It's kind of sad that people are breaking up all over, but I guess that just clears the slate for a bunch of new drama next season. I wonder if they were using this as a way to write Isaiah Washington out of the show after all the controversy this year? I hope they don't write George out too. He's one of my favorites.

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES

Interesting show - looks like they've built up some good cliff-hangers for next season. I love Lynette's Mom. Anyone believe that Edie has really killed herself? I can't believe they would write a major character like that out of the series? I'm betting that the rope breaks or someone comes to rescue her at the last minute. Time will tell....

Well, I finally picked my project for the Shoebox Swap tomorrow morning. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! My friend Max came over last night to pick up our Little Tykes castle for her son JD. It figures that Max and I would stand around talking until way after 10:00 - we always do that! Then I had to help Matt with his essay for English, so by the time I actually made it to my stamp room to start working on my project it was past 11:00. I did come up with a card using the Spotted Squares technique. I thought it would look really nice, but I wasn't all that thrilled with it. Here's a picture of that project:

Welcome to my brand, spankin' new blog! I've been wanting to start up a blog for the longest time and I finally decided to take the plunge. I've been reading a few blogs and they look like SO much fun and it seems like something that is going to be right up my alley. Lord knows I LOVE to write and I've got a lot of fun things to share with you. I'm planning to do fun contests, jokes, tidbits from my life and, of course, lots of fun stamping stuff.

I guess the best way to start is to tell a bit about myself and my "crazy life". I have been married for 24 plus years to Tony, who is just as crazy as I am (good thing!). Together we have three handsome boys that are the center of our lives. Ryan is our oldest at 25. He's actually Tony's son from his first marriage, but I've had him since he was 2 years old, so as far as I'm concerned, he's mine just as much as my other boys. Next comes our middle son Matt, who is 18 and will be graduating from High School this month (we hope!). He's a great kid, plays guitar and he's a great graphic artist. Has a cute little girlfriend named Niki and they are just celebrating their 1st Anniversary this weekend (I know, everyone say awwwww!). Blake is our youngest - he is turning 9 next week, so we are planning a big sleepover party on Saturday for him and all his friends (yes, you can send us sympathy cards!)

We are also the lucky grandparents of 3 darling grandchildren. Anika just turned 7 yesterday (yes, I'm a naughty Nana! I forgot to send her present in time. I'll make it up to her!). Evan is 5, and our cute little Noah just turned 3. They live in Cailfornia with Ryan and his wife Tammy, so we don't get to see them as often as we would like.

Tony and I both work - A LOT! That's a big part of the Crazy Life part. He works as a welder for a company called AG Body and then he does a lot of handyman work on the side. He builds fences and decks and does lots of other stuff for people. I work full time - have been with the same company for more than 15 years - yay! I also run a home business for Stampin' Up! so that keeps me pretty busy. He's what I'm working on right now are 50 graduation invitations, a scrapbook page swap that is now overdue - yikes, designing some 50th wedding anniversary invitations, and coming up with 18 cards for a shoebox swap this weekend. Wow! That's enough to make your head spin!

Anyway, welcome to my Blog - hope you have a great time here!