Back to Blogging

After an unplanned break, I figured I'd update my blog.
Friends have encouraged me to keep it going.  They even suggested it could be a little therapeutic with struggles of a woman who is mother to both her kids, and aging parent.
I'll try to keep it more stamp related (happy) but appreciate the ability to vent.
I know this is just a stage, so bear with me!!

Mom's Birthday (posthumously)

Mom would've turned 71 yesterday. It's so hard to believe it's been 3 years since she passed. The new and growing challenges with my Dad, really makes me wish that Mom was here. She was much better at dealing with him than I am. (I guess that's what 40+ years of marriage does) Not enough ime to stamp much this past weekend. I will share my newest card soon (tomorrow). ;-)

April 2012 Cards

 These first 2 cards are made with stamps through a club.  Each week I get a new one.

Both are made using retired Stampin' Up! Designer Series Paper

 This image was drawn by a stamping friend I met through SCS, Nan.

I've had it for a long while, and decided to finally try it!!

(I was in a watercoloring mood, 

which you may notice since 4 of the 5 cards here are watercolored)

 I try to keep cards on hand.  It seems alot harder to make them "on demand"

One type I decided I needed a few more of, is cards for kids... viola... a rocket card

THANKS so much for stopping by.

Challenges (MARCH 2012)

 These funny ladies are a stamp I recently acquired.  

The layout is from a sketch on Splitcoaststampers.com

Keyword SC371

Colored with Copics.

This is a digital image i printed a long while back,

I created it for a SCS Sketch Challenge

 I made this card at our annual MINGLE stamping weekend

It was for a challenge to use a FAUX technique

(The photo is hard to see but the blue pieces are Faux Denim)

Stamping, just not blogging enough

I'm so embarrassed it's been almost a year since I updated my blog.
I have still been stamping - pretty often, considering work, family, et al.
I have just not been very good at posting them to my blog.

I really enjoy visiting other blogs, so I'm going to TRY to keep mine up better

Next weekend is our annual SCS Michigan Mingle weekend... a whole weekend of stamping, i'll have lots to share

This weekend I need to organize and pack.

Here are a few projects I've made lately

Operation Write Home

I was introduced to an orgainzation called Operation Write Home through my friends at SCS. OWH's mission is provide hand-made cards to soldiers to use to keep in touch with their loved ones at home. They do not have the luxury of running to Hallmark to send Mom a Birthday Card, or Dad a Father's Day card.

I am seriously trying to plan a Community cardmaking event, but am stuck at a place to hold it. While i am looking, I had the opportunity to do a Pal/Gal event at my MIL's church. Almost 50 pairs of Gals and their adult Pals. I prepped cards for them to assemble for OWH.

Here is a group shot of the cards they completed.

and then individual pics of the cards I designed.

Let's make it 4

HAPPY EASTER... or RESURRECTION SUNDAY!!!

I should've taken the day off from stamping, but had some time to putter this am. I was able to stamp between doing Easter baskets and breakfast with the kids, and the time we were going to my Aunt's house. I just HAD to post.. .make it 4 days in a row. It may be a first for me since I started my blog.

I have not yet photo'd and downloaded today's work, but here's an Easter card I made for my paternal Grandma. She'll be 93 in June, and recently moved into a nursing home.

Tic Tac Toe??

Can I make it 3 days in a row of updating my blog.

Since it is EASTER weekend, I am showing a few more cards I've stamped over the past weeks.

The 2 flower cards use one of my favorite sets, the flowers are colored with some distress stains. The stains are really shown used in different ways, and i'll show you that when i get to try them... but for now i just colored a pc of white cardstock with them, then cut & stamped them.

The catepillar card, I made for my niece's 4th birthday last weekend. all the letters are die cut, the feet are from SU!'s owl punch, the head and tail are circle punches trimmed. This card is CASED (that's a nice way to say copied in the stamp world) from another SCS user. Her name is Jenna Barber.

Catching up on recent creative time

Last weekend, a fellow stamper had a bunch of us over to stamp. I could only go for a short time (family commitments). I took some images and markers and used the short time with friends to color.

Here are a couple cards I made with images I colored that day:


I wish the girl with the flags didn't photograph so dark... it's really pretty! I may try to rephotograph it, but just in case...

New Stamps make for a FUN day.

There's a website I visit everyday, a borderline addiction. Well, I couldn't get online Tuesday night and most of the day Wednesday. It was torture. LOL!!! Luckily, I had ordered some new stamps, and they arrived yesterday. I was able to distract myself and put my creative mojo into action!


oops that thank you card won't flip horizontally like it should be...

Mingle Challenge Cards

The rest of the cards I made for the challenges at the SCS Michigan Mingle:

My Mingle Cards

So at "the Mingle" ( SCS stamping weekend) we were given challenges... to use certain tools, images, colors, embellishments, etc. I was fortunate to be one of the first 10 done... which earned me a prize :-)
Here are my challenge cards:
(the first 4... stay tuned for the rest)

Catching Up

Catching up posting some cards I've made recently. These are from several weeks ago. I was going to post the ones I mentioned in my last post, but I realized I had not photographed them yet. So I'll work on that, and until then, take a look:

A Return to Stamping!

Well bloggees, I have been busy... stamping whenever I can between work and family.

I was even able to spend a weekend with my stamping gals last weekend. The group is from Splitcoaststampers, and this the 3rd year I've attended an annual "Mingle".

I have lots of fun stuff to share about the weekend, it'll take several posts, but some highlights are:

* 50 women in Novi for the whole weekend, escaping all "mom" duties.
* Completing 10 stamp challenges (and I was even fortunate to be one of the first 10 done, which earned me a fun prize. I'll post pictures of my cards soon.
* Swapping 45 cards - to gain even more stamping ideas and inspiration... I'll post the swap cards I made, soon.
* Surprise guests... 2 guys popped into the conference room Saturday after dinner to see what we were doing (they had seen/heard us the night before too)... we introduced them to the world of stamping... and I was intorduced to the world of THE DEADLIEST CATCH... The 2 guys were Mike and Travis from the show "The Deadliest Catch". They were in town for the Boat Show. They were great sports about 40+ women asking them questions, takign their photos, etc.
* Was introduced to a program called OPERATION WRITE HOME. Our attendees were able to donate hundreds of cards to OWH. In fact... the rest of this post is going to talk about this group

OPERATION WRITE HOME sends HOMEMADE greeting cards to soldiers -
giving them somethign beautiful to write home on.
They collect ahead of holidays and occasions in order to have the "right" cards available to soldiers when they need them. For example, Graduation cards are due 4/15... Father's Day due 5/21. And of course, they collect Birthday, Love, Missing You, Thinking of You, Thank You's and Blank cards all year round.

My brother in law is currently stationed in Afghanistan, and my Mother In Law and her church actively support them with many of their physical needs. I'm excited to use my love and talent of creative cardmaking to do my part.

I'm working on setting up a COMMUNITY CARDMAKING EVENT
as soon as I am able to commit a PLACE to have this event, I'll let you know

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED in attending an event like this, I'd LOVE to have you come join the fun. Please drop me a line, or leave me a comment and as soon as I can get a place, I'll forward details.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE POSTS... where I'm excited to shar my challenge cards, swap cards, and other stamping I've been able to accomplish lately.

A week of stamping success

I love when i can chisel time to stamp (between kids, hubby, home, work, PTA, etc.)
I'd say I've had a pretty "successful" few days of stamping.

More vacation

Hit the maximum pics on my last post... here are just a couple more!

Not only Stamping

I know my intended purpose for this blog was to share stamping... but I just got back from vacation. One of the very few "real" vacations I've been on (alone with my DH, on an airplane, without kids, tropical)

We went to the Riveria Maya (aka Play de Carmen) butween Cozumel and Cancun

Here are some pics