You're just my type of holiday spirit

Dear friends,

I went in for blood work and I haven't heard from them which is good since they only call if there is a concern.  I am continuing to have stomach pain which unfortunately is radiating to my back... fortunately it's all manageable.  It's really a catch 22 right now.  Do I do chemo to get rid of the stomach pain and suffer from the chemo or skip the chemo and deal with the pain?  I opt to cope with the pain and skip the chemo as long as possible.  The chemo side effects are much worse and my Dr. did say it's really atypical for most to suffer as much as I do.  I guess if I'm going do something, I might as well go all out!!

Kevin and I have managed to ride the motorcycles the past several days which has been fun.  We've been riding to and back from my appointments and it's been fun.  I'm getting more and more comfortable with the bike.

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But, Kevin did push me to create some cards the other night... he's a good man.

(Stamps from Lawn Fawn)

(Stamps used from Justrite Stampers)

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

Until next time.

-Katie

Tidbits and Wedding Cards

Hi friends!

Wow... we made it to swimming lessons yesterday, but not without some angst!  So we get there and realize that Hunter and I did not communicate very well and we had no towels or goggles.  Then we get in there to pay and come to the realization that I had signed up for the 9:30am slot, but we were there at 11:00am - oops.  Luckily, they are very nice there and the boys went ahead and did their lesson, but I still had to race (and I mean race) back home for towels.  I didn't make it back on time, but was only a few minutes late, but when I got there the boys were all shivering.  Thankfully, there happened to be a friend there that was chatting with the boys.  When i first got there, I thought there was some strange lady probably asking the boys where their negligent mother was...

This next little anecdote is pretty funny and a reflection of our times.  I purchased some work books for the boys at the teacher store here in town and Nate was working on his but wanted me to "delete" a couple of letters he had written down.  I told him that it wasn't called "deleting", but "erasing".  Well, he continues to interchange the word "delete" for "erase"... quite funny!

And finally, my last little story happened when we were driving south over the weekend.  I don't know what the laws are elsewhere in the country, but here we have lots of casinos on Indian Reservations.  They are dotted quite extensively along the freeway and are quite conspicuous.  Anyway, there is one particular casino that runs quite a few commercials on tv, so as we are driving by one of them, Nate and Will pipe up, "is that Mukleshoot Casino?"  Kevin and I looked at each other and said, "nice, do you think they watch too much tv?"

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Now for the crafty stuff, here are the wedding cards that I've been working on.

(images from Papertrey ink)

(image Waltzingmouse Stamps and sentiment is Justrite Stamps)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Tuesday!

Until next time.

-Katie

Celebrate Today and Every Day

Dear friends,

Wow... I've got just a card post today.  I can't tell you how thrilled I am that I get a "free" day tomorrow!  I know that you are just excited for me as I am for me.

So, yes, I've been crafting a bit more and I created a card for the latest Justrite blog challenge, but I just realized that I used a Papertrey ink sentiment.  Either way, I love this card.  The challenge was to create a flower embellishment and I used some seam binding that I just received.  I colored it with some Tim Holtz distress ink and tried to crinkle it up a bit too.

Thanks for stopping by and have a happy day whatever you may be doing.

Until next time...

-Katie

Stitched Together with Love

Happy Thursday!  We've got school conference for Hunter today... woo hoo.  Today I've got another card to share with you that I created last week.  This card features an image from JustRite Stampers.  Such a cute image and of course Cosmo Cricket paper again... works perfectly together.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Merry Christmas

Hey all, hope everyone is having a great Sunday!  Here's the run down of what is literally happening right this second:

Me: Blogging
Hubby: working on organizing digital photos on the computers
Oldest: working on math problems (for fun)
One twin: playing with cars on the little table
Other twin: playing on the computer

So... here is my card.  I'm not sure if I really love birds or not or if I love birds because my MIL loves birds... especially cardinals :)

This card uses an image from JustRite Stampers and is combined with my favorite Close to my Heart holiday paper.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!  

PS... everyone is now doing something totally different by the time I was done with the post.

JustRite Friday Challenge 042

Happy Thursday... eeek.  Halloween is over, but its still scary how quickly the time is flying by.  I've got a card to share with you that I created for the JustRite Friday Challenges.  This one is a sketch and you know I love my sketches... when I can get to them mind you!

I decided to go with a baby theme.  Its sweet and I think I know who I might send this off to.  Funny thing is that I was going to color in those buttons and then I was going to add button brads and I even thought about adding some liquid glass (CTMH) or equivalent, but I totally forgot and when I was done, I decided that I liked having them white... it matched all the white in the design.  How's that for an excuse for a forgetful mind?

Card Recipe

Stamps: JustRite Stitched with Love and Brayton font

Cardstock/Papers: Papertrey ink, Stampin' Up!

Ink: Memento and Copic Markers

Accents/Tools: Papertrey ink ribbon, may arts ribbon, plain and lacy square nestabilities, sewing machine

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Happy Birthday!

Its my mother-in-law's birthday today and we are late with her gift, (hanging head in shame) but it will be there, I promise.  I already set aside her birthday card, but I thought I would make another one just for her.  So here you go... the sentiment is so true!

Stamps are JustRite Stampers  (Stitched with Love and Birthday Centers) and the paper is Cosmo Cricket.

Happy Birthday Ann!

Friends are a Gift

Finally a post!  Here is a card that I made for a JustRite Stamps challenge last week.  I used Close to my Heart papers and I think this stuff is so pretty.  I paired it with JustRite Nested Friendship Sentiments and the sentiment is so true and I did send it off to a very a good friend :)

Its a 4 1/4" square card and I then added some crochet ribbon that I got from Walmart and a crocheted flower that I made myself.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Monday!

JustRite Colors of Fall Challenge

Happy Monday... or is that an oxymoron?  No matter, I still wish everyone a "happy" day.  Today, I've got another JustRite card to share with you.  I have been wanting some stamps for a long time and had been looking at them for a long time and finally bit the bullet and purchased some.  I love the concept and the images and have been enjoying using them.

If you didn't know, they have challenges every single week which definitely gives that extra nudge to use those stamps!  Go visit their blog and get all the details.  Today's card is for this week's challenge called Colors of Fall which is being sponsored by Flower Soft.  I have some so I decided to use it!

I used the set called Autumn Blessings... I love this set!  I colored it with Tombow Markers and a waterbrush and again kept it pretty simple.  I added a Thanksgiving sentiment on the inside but left the front word free.

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

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Card Recipe:

Stamps: JustRite

Cardstock/papers: PTI, CTMH

Ink: black stazon, tombow markers

Accents/Tools: spellbinders square lacey nesties, oval nesties, basic grey pearls, flower soft

Winter Wishes

Good morning!  Today I've got a card to share with you that isn't a Halloween card, but it is a holiday card!  I was playing with some more JustRite Stamps and created this.  I used some paper that I've had in my stash and played off the colors from that which were some muted blues/grays/creams.

I embossed my image and sentiment with VersaMark ink and some glittery clear embossing powder.  This embossing powder is probably one of my favorites ever.  I then inked my cardstock to get the embossing to stand out a bit more.

Thanks for coming by and visiting and have a great day.

Card Recipe

Stamps: JustRite (from our house)

Cardstock/Papers: CTMH and Designer Paper

Ink: VersaMark, Tim Holtz

Accents/Tools: may arts ribbon, spellbinders lacy squares, embossing powder, heat gun, snowflake embossing folder

Give Thanks

Hey there... today I've got a card that I made for the JustRite Friday blog challenge.  The theme is aptly Give Thanks and of course I had the perfect JustRite stamp set for it.  I used THIS SET for my card.  The nested frames and sentiments are so pretty!  I also tried a new to me technique using shaving cream.  It was fun but stinky.

I used misters to create my colors for this background, Clear Dollar Stamps Cardstock and ink, and some gorgeous May Arts silk ribbon to finish it off.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Monday!

Card Recipe:

Stamps: JustRite Stampers

Cardstock: Night Eclipse, Ripe Olive, Red Velvet Cake, Cottonball White (CDS)

Ink: Ripe Olive, Red Velvet Cake (CDS), Memories Misters

Accents/Tools: May Arts Silk Ribbon, shaving cream, pop dots

Baby Girl and Baby Boy

Good morning! I forgot to add it to my blog yesterday (sorry Maria), but if you might have guessed, my blogging friend Maria is offering up some wonderful blog candy. Go check it out -->HERE<--. You've got until Sept. 11th to do so. Also, don't forget that you still have until Sunday to play along with the Ladies of Limelight Sketch and Product Challenge. See this POST for all the details. There's a great prize up for grabs from Mandy over at Limelight Papercrafts.

So back to the cards... I actually have 2 cards for you. I made these with my JustRite Monogram Stamp to match the boy/girl baby favors that I showed the other day. These would make great cards just for a singleton too.

I supplemented my JustRite monogram stamp with Papertrey ink's Faux Ribbon Set. It worked perfectly with the design around the monogram. I also used my new narrower Swiss Dots Embossing folder to do the top and bottom of my cards. For my scallops I used the Fiskars Threading Water Punch and my 2" scallop punch. To be honest, I hope the scallops never go out of style. I love the look!

That's it for me - don't know what we are doing today. Probably just visiting with my Dad for a bit. I won't even get into the stuff he brought over - I will, but later. Are you completely curious now???



Recipe:
Cardstock: CTMH Baby Pink and Heavenly Blue
Ink: CTMH
Stamps: JustRite Monogram Set, Papertrey ink
Other: Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Circle Punch, Scallop Punch,Ribbon

And then there were Two

Good morning. I thought I would share a project that I made yesterday for the JustRite Stampers contest again... Let me know if you get tired (lol) of them. Seriously, I need to get some additions here.

So this project was inspired by a teacher at my son's school who is expecting twins later this fall. She is going to have a boy and a girl. I love this little basket and candy covers that Cambria posted on her blog quite a while ago. It is such a cute idea and I borrowed if to make my little favor holders - one blue and one pink. I adjusted mine ever so slightly by an 1/8" because I used a 2" scallop punch for mine. I also decided to leave mine handleless.

School went well for the kiddo and I made it there on time to pick him up. I don't think I'll ever forget 1st grade when the teacher had to call me to come get Hunter on the very 1st day of school. I felt terrible - I was just going to close my eyes just for one second (remember, the boys were only 1ish at the time) - lol

Well, gotta jet. Hope you all have a great day! Keep posted for tomorrow! I've got a Craft Critique article coming up and Limelight is going to have another awesome challenge for you!!!



Recipe:
Cardstock: Heavenly Blue, Baby Pink (CTMH)
Ink: Heavenly Blue, Baby Pink (CTMH), Berry Sorbet (PTI)
Stamps: JustRite Stampers Monogram Set, Polka Dot Basics (PTI)
Other: Ribbon, 2" Scallop Punch, Mints, Fiskars Scallop Punch, Oval Nesties

JustRite Stampers Anniversary Card

I have to say that I am quite pleased that I have been able to make a few fun cards while I've been gone, but I very much miss ALL my things (lol). This card is for the JustRite Stampers contest again and I have to say that if any of you are on the fence about these - GET OFF!!! I have had so much fun with my set and feel like I've been able to do a huge variety of things with them. And remember, I'm working with minimal supplies here, but enjoying it.

Tomorrow is my 15 year wedding anniversary and guess what, I didn't have a card for him, but I do now. I know, its pink, but you know what, I made it and I like it. I did add black and did some very heavy distressing to "man" it up. He won't mind anyway...

Thanks for stopping by again and I'll see you tomorrow I hope.

Recipe:
Cardstock: CTMH, DP: CTMH Silouette, Stamps: JustRite Stampers, Other: CTMH Bling and Ribbon

Another JustRite Stamper Card - For contest

Hi all! Sorry to inundate you, but I needed a place to post my card and I thought I would just do another on the 'ole blogger. I'll keep it short. I used the basic 1 5/8" Circle JustRite Stamper kit, but had to jimmy it somewhat and I ended up using my acrylic block to stamp with. I can't wait to get my set that comes with the separate round block. Paper, ink, embellies are all are Close to my Heart. Thanks Mom, these are all her goodies. :)

I keep forgetting to mention too that these are for the JustRite Daily Contests. Go on over and play!! Click HERE to check it out.

JustRite Stampers Bag in a Box and Notecards

Hello. I'm quite pleased with my project considering my limited supplies. Once again, no nesties or circle punches so everything is cut by hand, thus all the distressed edges, which in itself is a pretty look, just something I don't do that often.

This is another one of those blog link projects. My very first inspiration came from browsing online last night and I saw these great monogram canvas bags online. I love the look of these bags and immediately thought of the Bag in a Box projects I've seen recently. I like this look because a) it has a square/rectangle base and b) because it has a look of a real bag on top. I had seen Andrea Walford's version a few days ago, but I didn't want mine that big so I made mine smaller. And of course credit is due to the originator, Diana Gibs.

I left mine open so it would look like a bag and added handles. My note cards measure 4 1/4" x 3 1/2". Again, I didn't have to worry about envelopes so I made the note cards to fit my bag.

And of course the whole point of this whole ensemble are the JustRite Stampers - I purchased mine HERE. For right now, I have the 1 5/8" Circle kit and I have to say I love it. I can't wait to add to my collection. I didn't' think the circle element would look as nice on the front of my bag so I paired just the letters with a Close to my Heart stamp set that will be available in a couple of months. Then I used the border and letters and kept everything very simple with my note cards.

The whole set is for Hunter's teacher and she can use these to put into teacher mailboxes or whatever.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!



Recipe:
Cardstock: Cocoa, Colonial White (CTMH)
DP: Silhouette
Stamps: CTMH, Justrite Stampers
Other: CTMH Ribbon

JustRite Stampers Pencil Box

Hurray! I finally got around to doing a project with my new JustRite Stampers. I'm sure you've all seen the craze out there for these. I just started off with the basic set that I saw on Lauren's blog and I ordered them from All That Scraps. Now that I've actually used it, I think I would really like the tiny letter set and all the additions of course :)

I have wanted to make a pencil box for a while now, but school came and went and now its almost here again. JustRite Stampers is also having a contest (just go check their blog) so I was excited to combine the two. So, I didn't want to make Hunter's pencil box all foofoo so I kept it pretty basic. Their school colors are black, red, and white.

Since I wanted to use the same font for the word "pencils", all I did was use a pair of tweezers to hold my small individual letters and stamped them on scrap paper. It was super easy and no worry since all I wanted to do was punch the letters out anyway.
Sorry about the second picture. The white sides of the box totally blended in with the background, but they are there :)

Let me know if a tutorial is in order. It was really very simple, but I won't be home to do one for a week or so.

Thanks for stopping and have a great day.



Recipe:
Cardstock: Black, Cranberry (CTMH), GP White
Stamps: JustRite Stampers 1 5/8" Monogram Set
Other: Nesties and Circle Punches