When you stop believing in Santa...

you get underwear! I found this stamp and it just made me laugh! I knew I had to make something with it, so I bought this printer's tray and dug out some old pics of my kids wearing the same Santa outfit and sitting on Santa's lap. Weren't they adorable?! And of course, I had to make some boxer shorts to put in one of the boxes! I think it turned out pretty cute!

Scrapping Up the Wall

I saw this idea in a magazine and thought it would be a neat way to display old family Christmas photos. I like it so much, I think I'll make new banners with generic paper and change out the pictures to leave up year round!

Have a Spooky Halloween!

I made this card using leftovers and scraps from the Basic Grey Eerie collection. I love this paper collection. I added some glitter ribbon I recently found at TJ Maxx. It's really pretty, but impossible to tie into a bow. I tried to add a little black stickles here and there, but it doesn't show up.

He's no Edward...

but he's pretty cute! I found this little guy in the dollar bin at JoAnn's. What can I say, I've got a thing for vampires!

The patterned paper is from Stampin' Up! and the Fangtastic stamp is from a CTMH set.

Whooooooo goes there?

I found this Halloween stamp set at Hobby Lobby for 40% off. The Halloween stamps didn't do much for me, but it had 2 cute little owls. I decided to make a Halloween themed card, but I'm looking forward to using the owls for lots of other projects!

If the Broom Fits....

This is a Halloween card I sent to my Mom in 2004. I just love this witch from an old Stampin' Up! set called Just For Fun. She reminds me of the witch on a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Does anyone remember her? She was trying to make Bugs into stew and everytime she ran off, hairpins were left floating in the air! 

On the inside of the card, I wrote "This witch wants to wish you a Happy Halloween!"

You're So "Vein"

This is a card we made a Christy Beck's Stampin' Up! stamp club. I got a little OCD when making the veins in my leaf. At first, I wanted them to go from the middle out so it would be more realistic, but it didn't look good. So then I tried to add more horizontal folds, but then I had too many. Sometimes I just overthink things, but it's still a pretty card! All the papers and stamps are from Stampin' Up!

Fall is Here!

I finally did some papercrafting!! It seems like forever since I've made anything with cardstock! I love the smell of adhesive in the morning!!

I had this stamp set from CTMH (Treetops) that I've been wanting to use. I found this paper from the Pyrus collection by Basic Grey that I thought went really well. I added the sentiment from a Studio G stamp and some cute Fall ribbon. Looks like Fall to me. I just wish it wasn't 80 degrees outside!

Flower Power

This is my latest craft project.  A teacher at school had one of these that she had bought from a vendor and  commented on how she wish she had more. I told her I thought I could make some. I've already taken her 1 batch and got orders for more!

I cut the flowers out of fabric using my big shot. I put some on bandanas for the older kids and stretchy headbands for the yonger ones. The flowers have a pin back on them so they can be swapped out or put on hats, etc.

Sweet Baby Girl

I made this for my neice who is expecting a baby girl in Nov. I started making her a scrapbook, but won't have it finished in time for her shower. I knew I would see my sister yesterday, and wanted to send something for the shower, so I quickly whipped this up in a couple of hours Friday night. I  googled her nursery bedding to get the color/theme of her nursery and used what I had on hand. I think it turned out pretty cute and it will match little Keely's nursery.

Mother's Day 2004

This is the Mother's Day card I made in 2004. The Happy Mother's Day sentiment was stamped in Versamark and you can barely see it. The bouquet is a Stampin' Up! stamp and I used pastels and a blender pen to color the image.

I made multiples of this card because we participated in card swaps. If there were 10 people participating, you would make 11 of your card so that you could give 1 to each of the others. Then you would come home with 11 different cards. It was a lot of fun. However, sometimes you get some cards where all you could think was "bless her heart!" I guess I shouldn't say that. I wonder if anyone ever thought that when they got my cards?

Valentine's 2004

This is from Valentine's Day 2004. The heart stamp is from Stampin' Up!

I remember making this after moving to Justin. I did a lot of stamping during that time. I found 2 great Stampin' Up! ladies in the area, Tammy and Kim, and made some great friends by going to their stamp camps. 

Christmas Joy 2003

This is my Christmas card from 2003. I remember this Christmas vividly. We moved on Dec. 27th that year. I felt like the Grinch because I was practically grabbing the kid's presents as soon as they opened them and throwing them in boxes! But I still took the time to hand stamp my Christmas cards?!

Look how little my kids were! WOW! Where has the time gone?

Birthday 2003

This is the birthday card for my Mom from 2003. I remember making this with my friend Christina during one of our stamp-a-thons! I embossed the daisy on vellum and stamped the square on the cardstock behind the vellum to highlight the stamped image. I'm sure we scralifted this from a SU catalog as well!

Mother's Day 2003

This is the card I made for my mom in 2003. I used the Long Stemmed set and background stamp from Stampin' Up! It's pretty, but looks similar to several others I gave her using the same set. Obviously, this was before I started collecting stamp sets!

Birthday 2002

I still haven't done any crafting lately. We should have everything completely moved out of my Mom's house in 2 weeks and, once I get back in the groove after going back to school, I'm hoping to start crafting again. In the mean time, I'm still posting cards I found at my Mom's.

This is the birthday card I made for her in 2002. It is one of my all time favorite cards! I scraplifted it from a Stampin' Up! catalog and I think I made one in every color! The sentiment, stamped with Versamark, has faded and is barely visable. The tulips are from the Watercolor Mini's stamp set from Stampin' Up! I loved that set, but haven't used it in years. I think someone needs to have a challenge to dust off some of our old stamps and used them!

Peace On Earth

This is the Christmas card I made after 9/11. The phrase "Peace on Earth" never seemed more appropriate.

I embossed the gold and used chalk to shade and color.

Not so Lasting Impressions!

Do you remember when the Lasting Impressions dry embossing templates were all the rage? I bought this stencil and dotted paper at the scrapbook convention in '01. I bought numerous other stencils as well as the modeling paste for another techinque you could use with them. I never tried that technique and only made a couple more cards using dry embossing!

I don't know why, but I still have all those metal stencils. Why would I do all that work when I can run it through the Big Shot with an embossing folder?!

Daisy Petal Card

This is a petal card I made for my Mom for Mother's Day '01. I didn't have a "Happy Mother's Day" stamp, so I used a versamark marker to write the sentiment on vellum, then embossed it.

My friend Christina and I used to make these petal cards all the time. She had the great idea to use them to "wrap" a small piece of jewelry for little girls' birthday gifts. We used to get together every couple of months and have Stamp-a-thons. We would stamp all day and half the night until we had our stash of cards replenished.

Announcing Garrison!!

This is the announcement I sent out when Garrison was born in '01! Who would've thought that 9 1/2 lb. bundle would turn out to be such a runt today!

 Notice all the deckle edge cutting and sponging. I think I made about 50 of these. Again, not something I would mass produce today! Geez, I wonder how I got anything done back in those days!!

Christmas 2000

This is the Christmas card I found at my Mom's from 2000. I remember making about 40 of these! Not only was the image and sentiment embossed, I tore the image and gold behind it in a heart shape. Then  I tore the sentiment. I can tell you that wouldn't happen today! Waaaaay too much work for mass production!

Sweet Baby Jack

I made this mini album for a sweet lady that just had her 1st Grandson. I had a baby paper pack from Making Memories that I bought on clearance a long time ago. It only had 2 patterned papers in it, so I found some other paper that coordinated with it at Cat's. I already had this mini album, but it was white and 6 1/4". Since I was trying to save paper, I had cut my paper in half , but then it didn't fit top to bottom. I inked the edges of the album with brown ink before adding the paper. I usually completely cover my pages, but I think it came out okay. A classic example of use what you have and "make it work!"

Mother's Day 2000

I made this card for my Mom for Mother's Day 2000. The basket is from the SU Button Bear set. I think I used a blender pen to color the image and make the square around it, using post-it notes as a mask, then coloring inside the square. Tearing and Mulberry paper were the trend at the time.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today would be my Mom's 77th birthday. This is the first birthday card I made for my Mom in 2000. At the time, vellum was all the rage. I stamped the image on vellum in white pigment ink, colored over the image on the back of the vellum with marker, then layered the vellum over the patterned paper, and of course everything had a bow like this added to it! I was so proud of this card when I gave it to her!

Easter 2000

This is the Easter card I made for my Mom in 2000. I used a roller stamp to make it, using colored pencils to color in some of the images. I purchased several roller stamps at the time because they were less expensive than buying a stamp set for a holiday that you may not get a lot of use out of. Having gone on to purchase at least 100 stamp sets, it didn't take me long to get over that way of thinking!

Mom's Drawer

We've been busy working on cleaning out my Mom's house. It is physically and emotionally exhausting. My mom was a bit of a packrat, so there is quite a lot to deal with. She has a buffet with a huge drawer and I decided to clean it out. I opened it up and it was crammed with practically every card she had ever been given and she had dated them. I found some from the late 80's!

She had all the birthday and Mother's day cards all of us had given her, as well as, graduation and wedding announcements, newspaper clippings, etc. She even had cards and drawings the grandkids had made her and their birthday invitations! Apparantly, my neice and nephew went through a phase where they were fascinated by the mail system. They would make Grandma a card then go to her house the next day and check her mail to see if she got it! She had saved all of those including one that was a wadded up piece of wrapping paper with a note written on the back!

Besides the cards from all of us, she had numerous cards from her friends through the years. It was so touching to read all the cards they sent thanking her for being a great friend, giving them a thoughtful gift, taking them to lunch, calling to check on them, or being there when they needed someone to talk to, etc.

I spent about 7 hrs. going through that drawer. I made a box for each of my siblings and as I found a card from them, I tossed it in their box so they could have them. Of course my husband thought I was nuts for spending so much time going through everything when there is so much to do, but it was the best 7 hrs. I've ever spent!

So since I have every card I've given her in the last 20 years, I also have every card I made for her since I started stamping in '99! I thought it would be fun to post a couple each week to see how my stamping abilitly evolved, as well as, the different trends through the years. Trust me, some of them are something only a mother would love! This card was made after going to my first Stampin' Up! party and buying the Button Bear set (that I still have, but never use!) Notice I didn't bother coloring the bear, but check out the roller background and fabulous deckle edge scissor detail!! 



Hot Fun in the Summer Sun!

I made this scrapbook page using sketch #327 from Sketch Inspiration.

The paper and embellishments are leftovers from an old Bo Bunny line. It will be great for pool pictures!

Hi!

This is a bright, cheery card I made using sketch #325 from Sketch Inspiration. I used old leftovers from Bo Bunny - my favorite!

Proud to be an American!

Happy 4th of July! I made this from sketch #326 from Sketch Inspiration. I took liberty (no pun intended!) with the sketch to make it work for my card.

Summer Brights

This is a layout I made at an event at Cat's Creations.
I think it will be great for summer photos!
We used sketch # 323 from Sketch Inspiration.

Grandma's House

I've been cleaning out my Mom's house and it's been very emotional. I found these pics that she took of her house before moving in. I wanted to scrapbook them so my kids would remember Grandma's house after it's sold and we won't be going there anymore.

I combined two sketches from Sketch Inspiration.

sketch #321

sketch #322

Got Readers?

I went out to eat with one of my BFF's last week. Neither of us had glasses with us and we couldn't read the menu! We laughed about how, at this age, we're slowly falling apart. Her birthday is today so I just had to make this card for her. I'm sure she'll get a big kick out of it!

The stamp is from the Off the Chart set from Stampin' Up! The paper is ScrapWorks paper I've had since 2004! How it survived previous paper purges, I'll never know. But I'm glad it did!

Happy Father's Day!

Just a little while ago, I realized that I didn't have a Father's Day card for my husband. I remembered this paper that I recently got as a freebie. Then I looked through my stamps and found a Mom/Dad set I bought awhile back at Big Lots for $2 and it had a "my hero" stamp! Twenty minutes later, I've got this card! Sometimes I even impress myself!!

I wish the sentiment would've been darker and, if I had more time, I would've embossed it. 

Remembering Mom

This is a layout I made with the pictures we took after my mom's funeral. It was a beautiful service and she would've loved it. We all gathered at her house afterward for dinner and fellowship. She always loved getting the entire family together for any occasion.

The paper is from Close to My Heart. I thought the butterfly theme worked perfectly for the occasion, especially since there were so many butterflies migrating at the time. They were everywhere!

Happy Birthday!

I only had 1 picture from my husband's birthday, but I wanted to scrap it. I used leftovers from a Teresa Collins birthday line and I think it turned out pretty cute!