Crafters in the Making

The girls came over after church and lunch Sunday afternoon. The very first thing Remi wanted to do was "stamp"! So we made our way to the craft room. Kennedy discovered my decorative scissors and was having a grand time cutting paper. Remi is fascinated with ink and stamping. She does an amazing job for her age, I think.

As I mentioned in a previous blog I pulled them in a wagon to a little park about 10 blks from my house.

I am amazed at how strong Remi is! I didn't think she could hold herself yet! She will be 4 in November.

They played in the tunnels

























 They went down the slide

Kaidence followed along!

It started getting too hot so we headed home. I asked the girls to pose for me one more time!

I just LOVE these girls!

Have a good one!

It's Official!

It's a boy! Vanessa and Keannon went Monday for a 4D sonogram and learned that she is carrying a boy!  She and especially Keannon are thrilled! I think my husband is pretty excited too! We all went out to dinner to celebrate Vanessa's birthday. She turned 27 on the 25th.

She splurged on dessert and since it was her birthday the waitress brought a candle to put in it and lit it. I led us in singing happy birthday. We all had some of this dessert. I couldn't believe how big it was!

 After dinner we posed for some pictures. I needed a current picture of the girls with Granddad. Kennedy is at that stage where she squints and gives a fake smile when you ask her to smile. Rather annoying but hopefully this stage won't last too long!

 All the girls. One of Vanessa's best friends with the pink on her jacket is also pregnant and due Dec 6th.

 Had to get a "family" photo.

Another "family" photo. Can't believe she is 27! It passed way too fast.

So now we know what Lil' Nugget is...a boy! His name will be Kashton Doyle and I can scrapbook something besides "pink"!

It was quite an exciting evening!


On another note... It's WOW Wednesday at  Cat's Creations blog. 
 
Here's my creation.

Still working on Kennedy's birthday from last year. This two page layout I created using 2 sketches from Sketch Inspiration. The left page I used last weeks' sketch #338. The right is the current sketch #339. Now remember there is blog candy being given away to a random participant or commenter so go on over to Cat's Creations blog not only will you be inspired but you just might win something!

Have a good one!

New Home

Not me but my horse.

I am very thankful that I am still able to keep him close (2 miles from my house) and the facility was built for horses so I don't have to worry about barbed wire!

 Looking toward the barn. There are 3 stalls with 3 runs.

 Looking from inside the stall.

This is the 3rd stall that we are using for hay and feed storage. Doyle found someone baling hay and he got it fresh out of the field. It smells so wonderful!

 Looking toward the stalls. Did you notice the fans? I never had a barn with fans! Don't know that we'll use them. They will need some work if we do though.

 We even have a place for our round pen. I will like having this when the girls get big enough to try to ride by themselves.

This view is looking from the road while Clyde is peacefully grazing. I am standing at the corner of the property where I drive to the barn. You can see the barn and my trailer in the left of this picture through the fence.

This view is looking from where the trailer is parked toward the road. I loved the setting sun and Clyde grazing contentedly.

I am very happy with this set up. I am only a little sad for Clyde that he has no pasture buddies...not even across the fence. Every time I go out he comes up...course some of that is because I've started feeding him again twice a day. Not much but enough to establish a routine and giving him a carrot! He loves carrots and so do I! I am thinking about getting another horse...not just because he's the only one but because he is an old horse and it would be nice if someone could ride with me which will be Kennedy at some point and probably her Dad will ride with me some. I'm not in a hurry but I am looking a little. I'll know it when the time is right.

Have a good one!

LOVE Themed Card

For the LOVE Themed card I made this.

Another very simple card but I loved (pun intended) how it turned out! It's hard to tell in this photo but I used a heart embossing folder on the white background. Colored a single heart with a red memento pen and covered with glossy accents. I heat embossed the sentiment and popped with a piece of chipboard.

I am entering this card in the Operation Write Home Stampers Best Giveaway.

HOLIDAY Cards and More

Here are some cards I made to donate to Operation Write Home. I was thrilled that some of these meet the criteria for the challenge over at Stars and Strips.  Stampers Best is giving away some stamps. The way to enter is to make a Holiday themed (Christmas or winter) or a LOVE themed card.

Here is my HOLIDAY Themed card (Christmas)

This is pretty simple. Using some left over papers from Authentique's Christmas collection I made this card. I added a ribbon and using an embossing pen circled the 25th of December.


I made some other cards as well.

You may recognize some of the same papers that I used on the card above. Yep, more left over scraps from Authentique! The stamp is from Unity that I colored using my memento ink pens.

These papers are from last years collection from Echo Park. I heat embossed the sentiment using gold embossing powder. The stamp (I believe) is from Stampin Up.

This one I popped the sentiment with chipboard.

These papers scraps are from Teresa Collins Christmas collection last year.

This card was made with scraps from Authentique's "Celebration" collection. I heat embossed the sentiment. The stamp is from Stampin Up.

I made a couple of cards for a hero to send home to their little boy. Loved this dinosaur paper by 3 Bugs. I stamped "I love you" on the green dinosaur and popped it with some foam tape.

Using the same collection I made this card and added the sentiment "and so are you" using my Just Rite alpha stamps. I popped the sentiment and the dinosaur with foam tape.

My daughter has a birthday on Tuesday. I made this card for her. We are celebrating tomorrow night. She is going for a 4D sonogram tomorrow...hoping we will learn the gender of the baby when we go to dinner!

Remi is visiting. Because she was sick last time she was supposed to come it has been a month since we've seen her! I made my heart swell when she said she had missed me! Both the girls wanted to come to my house today after church. Despite the warm day we went for a walk. Well, I walked and they rode in the wagon Grammer (my mom) got them. We walked to a little park about 10 blks from my house.

I tried to get a picture of me with both the girls but Kennedy was not cooperating.

That's it for tonight. Have a good one!

Thank You Cards and More

I needed to make a couple of "thank you" cards so that is what I'm sharing today.

This is a digital image from Mo Manning. I just love this image! This card didn't require much since the image was so large. I had thought about making it smaller but decided I like it this way. I don't remember where the sentiment stamp came from. It also had an image on the same stamp but I only used the wording. I used a 6x6 "cloud" background stamp from Impression Obsession. I didn't think to do this before I printed the image so I made a mask of the image so I could stamp over it. Using my Copic Markers I filled in the areas that the ink didn't cover. I also colored the image with my Copic Markers. For a little dimension, using my craft knife I cut the top of one fence post to "hang" the rope (twine) on.

This card is for a young woman who is young enough to be my daughter. She is the daughter of a very dear friend but while I was keeping my horses with hers we bonded through riding and caring for our beloved animals. She had given me a book last week that she intended to give me on Mother's Day. The book is called Amazing Grays/Amazing Grace by Lynn Baber. The book is about pursuing a relationship with God, horses and one another. Right up my alley. My mother had the same idea and had given me the same book 2 years ago for my birthday. I was still humbled and thrilled that she thought of me and bought me this book.

This card I made using Operation Write Home sketch #126

The image and sentiment is a free digital from Doodle Pantry. Although the sentiment does not come with this image. I used leftover papers from a scrapbook layout. The image I colored with my Copic markers, cut out and popped with foam tape. I used a scalloped circle punch for the paper behind the sentiment and popped it with foam tape.

This card is for a lady from my church. She had told me she had gotten me something for my birthday but just hadn't made connections with me. We finally went to lunch last week and she gave me my gift. It is a gift card to a Texas State Park! I was thrilled! I love to ride my horse and take the dogs out there to explore. Awesome gift! She is an avid bird watcher so I thought I would use this cute little happy bird to make my thank you card with.

If you want to get more inspiration and have a chance at winning some blog candy head over to Cat's Creations Blog for WOW Wednesday and if you have a blog, link up your creation. We want to see it!

Here's what else I've been doing!

Now that the days are more pleasant, I've been outside more and in my craft room less. I took Kennedy to see the ducks at the cemetery about a mile from my house. Here she is posing with Kaidence.

She's likes to feed the ducks. It cracks me up to watch her run them all back into the water. She thinks they are supposed to stay in there!

She is getting to be such a ham!

We went again on another day. Kennedy picked up a duck feather. She stuck it in the water and then proceeded to "write" with it. She told me she was "painting"! This girl has great potential!

Isn't this a peaceful place looking place?! I just love it!

It was a beautiful sunset that day. I almost missed it. I was coming home and Kennedy fell asleep. I couldn't take a pic until after I got her inside. Still some beautiful colors in this lifting cloud cover!

Have a good one!

Better Late Than Never

Hi Bloggers!

I was supposed to get this posted yesterday for Cat's Creations "WOW Wednesday" but alas....it didn't happen. Just got these pages finished tonight.  I'm going to link up anyway.

I've been entering in some card challenges for a few months now thanks to my good buddies Allison G and Sandy T.  One of those card challenge blogs that I enter from time to time is Seems A Little Sketchy. They offer a card sketch and then give you two weeks to create. They recently decided to start a monthly scrapbook sketch. Well, they got my attention. I want to help them with their venture so I created a layout with this sketch.

I am trying to finish my granddaughter's second birthday as in 3 months she will have another! I used this sketch for my inspiration.

The theme for her birthday was Mickey Mouse. All the guests were give Mickey ears to wear during the party instead of party hats. In this layout Daddy is wearing his "ears" while holding the birthday girl. I used the ears as my embellishment above the top photo. I wanted to add a little dimension to the page so I added a real button to Mickey's pants and fussy cut he and the star and popped with chipboard. I used a black embossing pen to make his tail more defined.

I take a lot of pictures so I am a "2 page layout" kind of girl. Here is my coordinating page.

I made Kennedy's birthday card. I also made her party invitations. Mommy and Daddy are wearing Mickey shirts and their ears on this page. Here are the two pages together.

In keeping up with my LSS's challenge of completing a layout each week that Sketch Inspiration posts on their site I created this layout (yes, its one page...after I told you I usually do two but I was really running out of time and I only had this one pic so I enlarged it for this layout).

This is me with my granddaughters. Taken last August in my office. This was the first picture of me with Remi. She started coming to Texas for her visits last July.

This is Sketch #337 from Sketch Inspiration. As long as you upload your project by midnight Saturday night you will be eligible for a prize.

And speaking of prizes...its not too late to be eligible for some candy at Cat's Blog. Leave a comment there and then go visit those who have linked up and comment there. Blog Candy will be given away to a random participant or commentor.

It's retreat weekend at Cat's Creations so I'm working at the store tomorrow with the "TomCat" so Cathy can be with the retreaters. It will be my turn to be a retreater in November!

Happy Blog hopping!

Cards, Kids and Celebration

I was reading my friend's blog (Sandy T). She had blogged about a card she had made for a challenge over at Clear It Out Challenge Blog. She is on their DT. The challenge is to make a sympathy card and use up dark papers you have in your stash.

Now sympathy cards are not those feel good, fun kind of cards to make but we all need them from time to time so I thought...I can do this and I did. Here's what I made to enter this card challenge.

I did not use a sketch but I did base this card off of a triple stamp technique I saw here during Operation Write Home's Virtual Card Making Party  Labor Day weekend. Even though the blog hop is over and the blog candy has already been awarded I would encourage you to go through and do the card challenges! It was great fun! Now back to my card here. I was pleased how it turned out. The image and sentiment are from Stampin Up.

My Aunt & Uncle on my Dad's side of the family celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Saturday Sept 8th out of state. I didn't learn about it until just a few days before and was unable to attend. My cousins asked for people to send cards for the celebration so I went to work to make something appropriate. This is what I came up with.

For the background I used "Brushed Gold cardstock and the "Framed Tulips" embossing folder all from Stampin Up. The stamped image is from Little Miss Muffet called "Le Baiser Vole`". I colored the image with my copic markers. Not sure why I chose purple except it made me think of my daughter's wedding earlier this year. Her colors where purple and black. I decided to go with pink on this dress. I matted the image with dark purple cardstock. I then took a piece of vellum and using a stamp set from Technique Tuesday stamped "Happy Anniversary" and embossed with gold embossing powder then attached to the gold cardstock with gold brads. Using some ribbon from my stash I made a double bow with my peg bow maker designed by Becca Feeken. You can find it here. I wasn't sure if it was going to come together but once I was finished I was happy with it. Hope the recipients are too!  This Aunt is my Dad's sister. She and her husband were missionaries for years in Africa and even after returning home have continued to work with missions. This Aunt sent me a "thank you" last Christmas after receiving my handmade card and told me she was going to frame it and hang on her wall! That made my day!

I made this card for Operation Write Home Midweek Throwdown Challenge 15  which was to make cards for kids and use scallops. I so enjoy making cards for kids. I like to visualize their faces when they receive a card from mom or dad. My LSS had some paper on sale that was really cute for boys that I decided to make this card out of.

This paper is Three Bugs in a rug "Dino Party". I fussy cut one of the dinosaurs and popped him with foam tape and stamped "I love you". Using the back of one of the papers I used a scalloped edge punch from Stampin Up. VERY simple but works.

I made one more card that isn't for any challenge just for my granddaughter Remington. We didn't get to see her last visit as she was sick. I wanted her to know we miss her so I made this simple little card and mailed it today with a small sticker/coloring book.

This image is from My Grafico from the set Woodland Animals. I colored the owl with my Copic Markers and added googly eyes. The sentiment is a Unity stamp. The DP is Bo Bunny Wild Child collection. I cut a slit in the paper to make it look like the owl was standing on the brown leafed branch. It's pretty simple but I believe my 3 yo granddaughter will like it!

In other news I took Kennedy to see her Granddad at the fire station. Every time we go he lets her get it in the trucks. He used to do the same thing when her Momma was a little girl.

I'm driving and Granddad is my partner!

She's so proud of herself!

Asking Granddad to get in another truck!

On Monday, I went with Vanessa to the doctor for a check up. The nurse asking all the routine questions.

We heard the heart beat. All seems well. She is 15wks. We hopefully will know the gender later this month.
 

I drive by this pasture quite often and kept telling myself I needed to stop and take a picture of the pretty yellow flowers. Well, I finally did.

Oh ya, I almost forgot. Doyle & I celebrated 25 yrs of marriage today! My, it doesn't seem like it should be that long! This photo was taken at our daughter's wedding April 13th. I actually like this picture of us. Doyle is still such a handsome man even if his hair is thin on top! Looking forward to another 25!

Have a good one!