what not to do

I just thought I'd show you today what not to do. I fussed and fussed with this card the other day and had a terrible time making it into something that I loved. I changed the backgrounds, thought about different colors but nothing really made this into something I liked. Oh, well...lesson learned.

The wine tasting was fun last night. We went and had dinner at our favorite restaurant first then went and tasted a ton of different wines and some yummy appetizer/desserts. I must say that it seems to be that most people like red wines. Me? Not so much. But, I did taste a lovely blend from Benson Vineyards called Sangiovese. At $24.50 a bottle though it is a little more than I would usually spend. Cave B Winery is another that is consistently good and had a wonderful Riesling. Cave B isn't to far from where we live and we really hope to make it out to SageCliffe for dinner and maybe an overnight one night. Anyway, I'd say those are my two favorite wineries this year.

I hope you have a fantastic Saturday and gets lots accomplished!

bee's knees

I actually made two cards yesterday but I love how cute and simple this one is so I had to show you guys! This is a set from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps called Bee Happy. The first thing that drew me to this set was the sentiment on this card. I just love the innocence in that sentiment. The flower is cute and there are a couple of different bees and sentiments for thank yous, thinking of you, and such. A pretty versatile set! Anyway, The paper is all from PaperTrey Ink. Oh, and the ribbon too. I'm not sure if I used Adirondack or Palette ink but either way...you get the idea! There is glitter on the bee and the center of the flower. I wanted to use beads in the center of the flower but couldn't find them...darn it! Oh, and the layout is from a card that Charmaine made yesterday. I did do one thing to this card after I took the picture and that is that I rounded the two bottom corners with my corner rounded...so imagine it that way!

So...do you remember my wine journal? Tonight is the night I get to use it! The wine tasting is from 5 - 8 but we don't stay the whole time 'cuz we have to go get dinner you know! Todd asked if it could be a little dress up thing for us so I think I'm going to wear my Mother's Day outfit (minus the flowers) but we'll see.

Today is supposed to be a scorcher...95 degrees! Tomorrow...92 degrees! Yikes! I think the water slide might need to come out tomorrow!

I hope you have a super Friday! Would you all go out and do something nice for someone else today?

my contact card

Remember when I showed you THIS? Well, I got the idea of asking for contact cards from my friend Anne. I was pretty open about how my contact card was to be made and I gave everyone about 6 weeks to get them done (did you get your done?) but Anne was a bit more specific. And, her contact card is much smaller...it is ATC size. Yikes! I'm not very good at ATC size stuff but I really wanted to participate so I said yes. I've had to put this to the side for about a month (or was it procrastinate for a month?) but I pulled it out on Monday and gave myself a deadline of having it done and in the mail by Monday the 19th. Here it is...ready to go...probably tomorrow! Yay!

There was a line in Anne's instructions that says "this card is all about you for me." I thought okay, she needs to know all about me so the "I Am" side was born. I used PaperTrey Ink's designer paper and card stock along with the Boxes, Bags, and Tags set that has the little flowers in it. I printed the "I Am" on my computer. Some PTI Sweet Blush Twill ribbon completes that side.

On what I am calling the back side is my personal information. I again used PTI card stock and a little trim stamp from the Faux Ribbon set to complete the information area. Looking at it I just realized I should have done this side a little different but there is no going back now! Overall...I love this card. The colors, the "I Am" section and the simplicity is really all me. Now, finally, I can start making other cards without feeling this project calling me!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday and I'll see you again soon!

That's MY King!

Thought for the day as seen on Dawn's blog...

Live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning Satan shutters and says...oh, no...she's awake.

Enjoy this video! If you can't make the video play for some reason HERE is a link to YouTube.

miscellaneous

I don't have any artwork to show you today but I thought I'd show you some cute embellishments I've gotten recently. Ready for the enabling?

Aren't these great? Ever wish you had time to make those layered, stitched flower elements for your cards? Well, Sassafras has them all made for you! The store had about five different colors but I went with hot pink (go figure) and a great green. I can see those with some Bella cards! Then there are the neat words on the stick pins. I think they are for scrapbooking but I'm pretty sure I can make them work for card making too. The heritage pin I may have to save for grandpa's scrapbook. Those pins came from JoAnn Fabrics online. I had a free shipping code so ya have to order you know! I also got my grandpa's Navy scrapbook. It is white with a metal Navy emblem on the front. I think he will like it. And the last thing is some self sticky embellies that include butterfly, star, and heart shapes all in different sizes and shades of pink. Very cute and very fun!

And this...this is the Zoophabet clear set by Penny Black. Remember the card that I got HERE? Well, this is the set that it was made with. I'm not sure how often I'll actually use the set but I'm so thrilled that I have it because I think I can make some really cute cards with it! So, see? I get sucked into the enabling thing too!

Please be praying for my grandpa again. He was admitted to the hospital again on Sunday via the emergency room. From what I gather his incision is infected and has to be opened up and cleaned out. Honestly, though...I don't really know what is going on but please just pray! Also, if you don't already know Diane (ddnjoys2stamp) is in the hospital. Her niece is updating her blog HERE. She needs our prayers too!

So that is the extend of my enabling for you guys today! Please let me know when you find good deals that you can share! Have a Terrific Tuesday everyone!

beachabella

I decided to throw together another quick card with my 3 Little DReaMs kit and here is what I came up with. Shhh...don't tell but the yellow card stock should have been just a little more narrow. I will go back and put a sentiment on it when I'm ready to send it out so maybe I can split the sentiment on either side of the picture.

Well, I had a super Mother's Day yesterday. If you look at my side picture it has been updated with a photo from yesterday. Yep...I'm looking so old! Do you see the corsage? My boys got that for me! How sweet, huh? We also got one for grandma Nancy and she was so surprised. We had grandma Nancy and papa Al over for lunch. It was so nice to have them over for a little while. I would like to show you what I got for mother's day but that would be a bit difficult as it is what I would use to take a picture with. I got a new lens for my camera. Yep, that is right...a new lens. It is a Canon 28-135mm with image stabilization (something I so desperately need!) and it is awesome! It is also fairly heavy so it takes a little bit of getting used to but I think I'll manage. HERE is a picture of it. Exciting, huh? Was your day spectacular yesterday or even not so spectacular which is good, too? Tell me about it!

I say it every Monday but today is a busy day for me so I should get moving! Have a magnificent Monday!

happy mother's day

I would like you all to meet Stretch. He is my very first High Hopes stamp and I got him when I won the blog candy over at Inky Paws a while back. This is the card that I'm using for my kids swap card. The frog just wasn't doing it for me so yesterday I just decided to try another card and came up with this one. I'm a little disappointed in my picture because it just doesn't show all the work I did with my COPIC marker on this guy. There are about three layers of color and then I removed some of the color with my colorless blender pen. In real life it looks really nice! The list of supplies I used is HERE.

And, today is Mother's Day! The day when everyone says nice sweet things about mom but you know what? Sometimes being a mom is just down right hard. No has to be said...sometimes lots before the kids hear you, throw up needs to be cleaned up...most often in the middle of the night, curfews have to worried about until they get home, and all the while we are wondering what the heck we got ourselves into. I'll tell you what I got myself into...hours of rocking my infants loving them to sleep. Lots of smooches and hugs. Lots of funny jokes, talk about golf, and talk about politics. I wouldn't trade my late nights and early mornings with my kids for anything! With Gods help I'm bringing up my boys to be wonderful men of God, to be good husbands one day, to love their mom and dad, and to be an asset to society. What more can we do? So, I hope all you moms out their have a super...

Happy Mother's Day!!!