And the winner of this week's Blog Candy is........

none other than aunt T....Teresa! Woo-hoo! Thank you, everybody, for taking part in the drawing. Teresa, please email me so I'll be able to mail your new stamp to you. You guys came up with wonderful captions! I love them all! Everything from Just bee-cause to You're the Bee's knees! Thank you, everybody! Don't forget to check out my monthly blog challenge (link to the right). Deadline to submit a link is tomorrow, April 20th.

Friendship

This pretty paisley stamp is one of the newest by Anna Griffin and All Night Media. Sentiment by Stampin Up. Corner punch by EK Success. I don't know if you can see it, but I added some glitter to the flowers. I believe it's called "Dazzling Diamonds" by Stampin Up. It's ultra fine glitter. (It's hard to capture it in a photograph). I made this card for my friend Carrie. Her last day at work was yesterday, and I couldn't be there to say goodbye (I've been sick over the last two days). I'm going to bug her at her other job when I get a chance, but for now, I want to let her know I was thinking of her, even though I couldn't be at work to say goodbye.

Blog Candy

Isn't this the cutest stamp? It's by Stampabilities and it's by the folks who draw the House Mouse stamps. All you have to do for a chance to win this stamp is to leave me a comment with a caption/sentiment on what this image says. Deadline to leave a comment is Saturday, 4/28/07 at 11:59 p.m.. I'll take everybody's name and draw a winner on Sunday. If you do win, be sure to email me so I can get your name and address and send your bunny stamp to you.

Butterfly card

Just a simple card, this time. Stamps are by Papertrey Ink. Papers by Bo Bunny Press. Thank you for stopping by!

I've been tagged!

Trish D'Antonio tagged me! You can read all about it on her blog Tah-Dah! Getting creative with paper, stamps and ink. I'm supposed to write down seven things that are weird about me. Hmmm.........that leaves so much open for interpretation. But, I'll give it a shot. Here goes:
1) I don't like peanut butter. How un-American of me, huh? The only time I'll eat peanut butter is if it's spread thinly, and if it's mixed in with something else like chocolate or honey.
2) Some would say that having a pierced nose is weird, so I'll include that in my list.
3) I have a hole on the side of my head (not my two ears, but a third hole). Apparently. when the skin around my skull was forming in the womb I developed a sort-of belly-button. It's not huge. Maybe the size of a pin-head, but it's just to the side of my left ear. Very strange, but it's there.
4) I drool when I'm in a fit of laughter. My husband will attest to that.
5) I like to burp in my husband's ear to annoy him (again, he'll attest to this).
6) I will put up the Christmas Tree on Thanskgiving evening and take it down the day after Christmas. No ifs, ands or buts. I'm "efficient" that way. LOL! I'll start playing Christmas music in November. I would put up the tree on November 15th, if allowed to, but there's this American Holiday known as Thanksgiving that kinda gets in the way. LOL!
7) I love a lot of Flilipino delicacies which would cause my husband to wear a clothespin on his nose to eat. I won't go into the explicit details of these delicacies, but I would liken it to Scottish folks loving haggis or Australians loving vegemite.

OK......now that you know seven weird things about me.....feel free to post something weird about yourself!

Image-swap cards for the Stamp Shack

These cards were created for a swap on the Stamp Shack. My partner and I exchanged stamped images, patterned paper and one embellishment. We had to create cards with the kits we were given. We were also allowed to add a few items, if we wished. My partner was Joanie (ccstampin). I thoroughly enjoyed this swap. It really made me think outside of the box.

My new bling-bling shoes

I couldn't resist. I found these at Kohl's. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm typically not the kind who wears high heels each day. As a matter of fact, I wear tennis shoes to work, just about every day. But, this evening, I am going out with my friend, Michelle, to an art exhbit and then to a late supper and drinks afterwards. This pair of sandals goes perfectly with my outfit. And, who could resist the faux gems?

It's been a busy week........

I love playing with the macro feature in my camera. This aspect or style of photography has always intrigued me. These are tulips from my front yard. I love being able to look inside the bloom and capturing it in a photograph.





Now.....onto a few cards I've made this week........

This is another slider card I'm sending in for Mary Rogers' slider card swap on the Stamp Shack. The stamps are part of the Dollar stamps sold at Michael's.


And, finally, this is a card using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and monkey die. I made this to cheer up a good friend who will be undergoing surgery this upcoming week.

My condolences

to everybody affected by the tragedy at Virignia Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg, VA. I lift you up in prayer. May you someday find peace and comfort in your hearts. For the Cho family, may they also find peace in light of what happened on April 16th.

"My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word." ~Psalm 119:28

Big Flowers peek-a-boo card

This is another card for Mary Roger's swap on the Stamp Shack. Sentiment stamp is by Stampin Up. I found this really cute 8 x8 pape and the ribbon at Michael's.

Casper says "Whatcha doin'?"

This is my 18 lb monster who is almost always starved for attention at 4:30 each morning, but blows you off for the rest of the day (when he's not hungry).

Peek-a-boo card

I made this card for Mary Roger's swap on the Stamp Shack. I used a swirl stamp by Purple Onion Designs. The flower die-cuts are new by Cuttlebug; and the butterfly die-cut is by Quikutz. Directions for how to make a card like this can be found on Mary's blog: Shack-a-lackin' (April 6th blog entry).
The first picture (below) shows the card when it's closed. The second picture shows when it's been pulled open. I'd like to make several different cards for Mary's swap. It's quite a fun card to make, once you have the hang of it.

One quilt down....two more to go!

This is a different picture than the one I had originally placed on my blog. I finished piecing and quilting this Queen-size quilt FIVE YEARS AGO! All that was left to do was to add the binding! Aren't I terrible? Well, it was finally finished today! Whew! It's a Thimbleberries design called "Thimbleberries Village." There are 12 separate "patterns" in this quilt. Looking at it now, I can't believe I had the courage to tackle such a huge quilt. I think I was inspired by another quilt I saw at the Quilt Shop, and just had to try it. I took a hand-quilting class last night at the Country Sampler Quilt Shop in Omaha; and the instructor said, "There are 'lookers' and there are 'users.'" Meaning some quilts are meant to be true heirloom quilts, to be passed down generation to generation, while other quilts are meant to be thrown on the bed, and you won't mind it so much if the cat tears up some of the stitches with his claws. I think it's a personal choice, but I do see her point. High-quality quilt fabrics are typically used in "heirloom quality" quilts. When I bought the fabric for this quilt, I had originally intended to use the finished quilt as a wall-hanging. But, alas, we don't have a house with 12-foot walls. LOL! I have learned of another way to display it on the wall, but I think I will just simply fold it nice and neatly, and hang it over the railing in our living room. This is definitely a "looker" quilt which I'll pass down to my son, and hopefully, it will get passed down to my grandchildren.

Easter Frock

Happy Easter! Just some simple stamping on this Easter Sunday. The dress stamp is designed by Dawn Hauser for Inkadinkado. Paper is by Scrapbook Walls, and cardstock is from Hobby Lobby and Archivers. Thanks for stopping by!

Getting back into quilting

I started quilting some ten years ago. I've made numerous quilts; and with all the hobbies I've ever had, I'll go back and forth between them all depending on my mood. I knit, sew, scrapbook, rubber stamp, garden, crochet......I do a TON of stuff. Recently, my son started learning how to quilt in school. This has rekindled my passion to get back into quilting and finish THREE quilts which I started five - seven years ago. Isn't that sad? Five to seven years ago!!!!!! This is one of the quilts. It is a lap-size quilt, and it is being completely hand-quilted (it was machine pieced). Every once in a while, I will stamp a card or work on another papercraft, but I really do need to devote time into finshing my three quilts. I looked at them again, just the other day, and I'm in love with them now as I was when I first started working on them. Now, you're probably asking why did I put them away and didn't look at them for so long? There are many reasons, the biggest one being moving with the Air Force. The quilts were packed up, shipped to our new destination, and I'd forgotten about them altogether. They were unpacked with the linens, but I really didn't pay attention to them at the time I was unpacking. Every so often, you'll see an update of my quilting progress. This is very exciting for me! I would like to exchange quilt blocks with friends, if I knew they quilted also. Eventually, I'd like to make a wall hanging with quilt blocks from different people. If you are interested in doing a quilt block "swap" with me, feel free to post below. I'd like to make nine blocks, if possible. This would be very manageable, I think. The finished blocks should be 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 (one-quarter inch seam allowance). So, when we're done attaching them in whatever fashion we would like, we would have 8 x 8 blocks.

Five-minute cards

I received my new sets of stamps from Papertrey today. This is from their new set (Green Thumb) released just three days ago. I wanted to make a few quick cards before starting dinner. All of the image stamps use two-step stamping.

Trifold Birthday Card

I have a coworker whose birthday is coming up, so I thought I'd create a card for her. The stamp is by Whipper Snapper and the paper is by Rob & Bob Studio. As you can probably tell, I used Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol Odorless Mineral Spirits to color in and around the cake.


I learned how to create this card by using a template on the Splitcoaststampers website.