Early Father's Day

I'm so happy about this!  My new daughter-in-law to be really scored some points by suggesting that we have an early Father's Day celebration since she and my son will be gone - on their honeymoon - for the next couple of weeks.  And she wanted his children to be able to do the Father's Day thing with him and with the grandparents - myself & my DH before they left.  Isn't that just the sweetest?  I was quite impressed! The kids are just 5, 8 & 10, so I think it's important for them. I'm glad his future new wife thinks so too. :)

They're getting married this Saturday, and as I posted before, I'm heavily involved in preparations so I had to squeeze in this 'quicky' card while I was trying to clean up my stamping area in preparation for our big family barbeque on Sunday! I made this one for my son - no time to make one for the hubster today! (I'll make him one for the real day!) The stamp is from the Digi Shack (Dad's Day Remote) and most of the paper is Stampin' Up, including Kraft. I really combined a variety of techniques on this one...paper piecing, sewing, a little watercolor, some prismacolor pencils for shading & gamsol to blend...oh... and, of course, some sponging around the edges of the deckled edge nestability. It actually went together really fast and I was totally pleased with the result!

I'm sure I won't be posting again with all the festivities going on the next few days. But I'll be back to post another card as soon as I can next week!!

Have a great weekend!

WOW! Can you believe it's already JUNE?!!

Can you believe it's already June?!! I know! I can't believe it either!  Here in Michigan, it's been feeling like summer for a couple of weeks. It's so nice to get up in the morning and know that the sun is inevitably going to be shining and you're pretty safe wearing shorts. :)  The grill has already been fired up a few times and we've had some mouthwateringly (is that a word?!!) good chicken cooked by my DH. It's been a bit of a challenge for him because we're both a little afraid of undercooking meat so the tendency has been to overcook. Not this time!! We marinated the chicken for a few hours and he pretty much cooked it as directed. Yum!

No new cards to post today. Between our 3-day subdivision garage sale and getting things ready for our youngest son's wedding, there unfortunately hasn't been any stamping time for me. (waaaa!!) Plus, I've been busy working on place cards, wedding program and a 'things to do' brochure for the out of towners coming to the wedding. I'll have to give you a glimpse of some of these next post!

Hope you had a wonderful long Memorial Day weekend!

Welcome, Neighbor!

Last week, I went to lunch with several of my neighbors - on a week day. Doesn't sound like a big deal, does it?  But it was for me! I retired recently and never was able to do this kind of thing before so this was a big occassion for me!  We had a great time - good company, good food and good conversation.  One of the things we talked about was that a new neighbor that had moved in. I told them how much it meant to me (13 years ago!) that one of the neighbors had a 'welcome to the neighborhood' party for us where we had a chance to meet everyone. We talked about how people used to take a fresh baked cake or pie to a new neighbor to welcome them.....in the old days....and that conversation led to the idea of putting together a welcome basket for these new neighbors! One of the ladies volunteered to bake a pie too....yummmm. We're still putting it together, but so far we have a basket lined with a new kitchen dishtowel, a copy of our association directory, a boat keyring (we live on a lake), a boxed sweet pepper grow-kit, a box of sidewalk chalk for the kids, a cute little potted plant (coleus) and this card.........

I used Mo's Digital stamp "Home Tweet Home" and colored it with my Prismacolor pencils, blended with gamsol.  I used my new big scallop nestie and I even crocheted the little flower myself!!  For the inside, I printed the "welcome to the neighborhood" on my computer then stamped a little flower stamp in the corner:

I thought it turned out pretty good....hope the new neighbors like it too!

Here's the finished basket.....

Have a great day! 

Candy for a great cause!!

Paula has inspired me once again! This time to help out a great cause.  Paula has a friend who belongs to Soldiers' Angels. One of their missions is to send cards to soldiers or family members. They like to send handmade cards whenever they can and the need is great. Mary is offering some terrific "Candy for a Cause". We only have until May 15th, so hurry on over there and check out Mary's blog - let's help her in her quest for 'embellishment free' cards and a chance to win some goodies!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the blogging mothers out there!  It's a beautiful, sunny day in my neck of the woods and I'm looking forward to my kids coming over later on to spend the afternoon with us and have dinner.  Maybe we'll play some games (board games, that is, my fav!) too!

I made the card below for my daughter.  It was colored with prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol.  I'm not totally thrilled with the flowers - I mean the way I colored them....in too much of a rush.  But all in all, I think it turned out kinda cute.
The paper is from Basic Grey, cardstock from Stampin' Up.  A little Stickles had to be added here and there (always gotta have the sparkle!).

Have a great day!  

Blossoms of Inspiration....

No new cards to post today - the weather has just been too beautiful! Yesterday was the last day of April....I can hardly believe that May is already here! All of the trees are blooming and looking so beautiful. I'm not certain what the temperature was yesterday, but it was more like a summer day than Spring. We still have a lot of sprucing up to do to our yard, but I couldn't resist taking a couple of pictures of these gorgeous flowers......

and my Dogwood tree is finally blooming!  I'm excited to see these coral beauties popping out!  Our last Dogwood tree was white and I just loved those blooms, but alas I couldn't find a white one so moved on to coral!  Still very pretty!

The past few days, our grandchildren have been with us.  They're 5, 8 and 10 years old. Two boys and a girl - the girl is the youngest. It's always so nice to spend time with them! They really bring so much joy to us and into our home. We're so lucky that they live near us and that we can be part of their lives. That said, we are totally worn out after spending a day and a half with three little ones!  By the time they leave, my husband and I are headed for the couch to spend some time just 'vegging out'! We wouldn't trade it for anything though - we love every minute we have with them!  

Hope you have a glorious first day of May!

I'm back!.......

I guess I wasn't as ready as I thought I was to start this blogging experience!  I was so busy working, playing, stamping and reading everyone else's blogs that I totally forgot about my own! 

I'm going to turn over a new leaf and try to post something every couple of days. I've learned so much from visiting other bloggers that I can hardly believe it. The internet and YouTube certainly has made it easy to learn new techniques and gain inspiration from all over the world.  I'm continually amazed at all the different people I 'meet' from so many different cities and countries - all of them stampers/artists and all so talented! 

Hard to believe this, but that grandaughter I talked about in my first post graduated from college and is living in another city all by herself!  I'm very proud of her. She loves life in her new city and her world is continually evolving.  My other grandaughter, who is five, is a sweetheart too - she's full of giggles, loves to color and do everything all by herself! I also have two grandsons who are ten and eight years old. They're as different as night and day!  I love all of my grandchildren so much and am so blessed that they all live close by....well, except for the oldest! 

I'm going to post a card that I did using a stamp from Whipper Snapper Designs - I think the stamp is called "Chloe".  I loved coloring her with my prismacolor pencils then blending with gamsol.  Isn't she the sweetest? 

(Sorry this photo isn't very bright...I'm working on learning how to do better at this!) I still have soooo much to learn!!  But it's fun learning and I love every minute. Thank you to all of my blogging friends who answered my questions about all kinds of things and who helped me along the way.