they arrived and a winner

Good Saturday morning! First I have to say...only 4 more days until Hawaii! Woohoo! And, believe it or not I only have things to accomplish in two categories....stamping and church. Two of the biggest categories but its all good right?

Anywho...the appliances arrived yesterday...yay! I have a picture of the fridge and stove for you but the dishwasher has not been put in yet...that is a project for tomorrow night (just imagine more white...lol). So the fridge is a Kenmore and I'm unhappy with it at this point. It has water only on the outside so we hook up the line...put water through it and then it drips and drips and drips. That is not cool. It didn't stop dripping until we turned the water supply off and ran all the water out. Guess I'll be calling Sears today, huh? I do love how big it is though. The shelves slide out and there is a ton of room inside. The range is a Maytag and is a double oven fridge. I'm so thrilled to have gotten this! We have tried for about a year to find one we really liked that was in our price range...so yay! We made our pizza in it last night and I realize we need to run it some more today to burn off some of the new appliance smell. I just feel so blessed to be able to have these appliances!

Okay, and I couldn't leave you without a card so I thought I'd show you this lovely card that my friend Stephanie made for me on the anniversary of Kyler's biological dad's death. I don't recall the name of the set that the girl is in but the grass is from Inspired by Nature which is new in the fall/winter SU! catalog. She cut the oval and placed the blue card stock as well as the image 'behind' the oval. It is SO lovely and I so appreciated receiving it that day. Thanks you Stephanie for remembering me on that day!

And, finally...the winner of the Halloween card giveaway as picked by Random.Jon is Dani! Yay, Dani! Thanks for playing along and I'll get that card out to you on Monday!

Thanks for reading through this long post! I have finished my Page Plans card for tomorrow and I think you guys will like it so please stop back tomorrow! Oh, and there is some great blog candy over at Lori's blog...go check it out!

Have a super Saturday!

friday brings us pia puddingtop

Happy Friday everyone! I hope that everyone has had just a super week this week! I know mine has gone by super fast which I'm SO happy about!

SOOOO???? Do you not think Pia Puddington is absolutely adorable? I absolutely think she is SO cute! My friend Debby gave me some images of Miss Puddingtop some time ago and I just had to use one! I paired her with some Debbie Mumm paper, SU! card stock, and some taffeta ribbon. Seriously cute! Oh, and I used this Saturday's sketch for you to try on i{heart}to stamp. You can see it HERE. I used my COPIC markers to color her and used some fun flock on the stocking cap and other fun white areas. For a little more contrast I used my Scor-Pal for a couple of vertical score lines down either side of the ribbon then held the ribbon with little swirly decorated ribbon holders. Oh, and the holly on her dress is all outlined with glitter pen.

So, I exercised today and that means I don't have to tomorrow...yay! What does that mean? That means lots of stamping for me tomorrow while I'm awaiting the delivery of my NEW appliances.! Yep, that is right we are stimulating the economy in our town and bought a new refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher this week. Can you believe it? I'm SO excited...my goodness...new appliances AND a trip to Hawaii...woohoo! I will take pictures when they are installed so you can see them! Does anyone else get as excited about appliances as I do? LOL!

Well, now that my pulse has come down a little after my excitement I guess I'll let you all get back to your day! I hope your Friday is SUPER! See you soon!

birthday thank yous

Yay! It is Thursday...that means we are under one week until our vacation. My goodness...I never thought it would get here and now I feel like I'm so far behind...go figure!

Anyway, I wanted to show you the thank you cards that I made. I must say...I love them. Do I say that a lot? Probably and that would be because I only post the stuff I really love. LOL!

These cards are made with items from three different companies. The card stock, thank you sentiment and ribbon are from PTI and the color is Dark Chocolate, the stamp is called Dream Tree and is from Unity Stamps, and finally the die is a 'Top Note' die that I cut with my Big Shot from Stampin' Up!. This is what I like about stamping....the ability to use several companies products to make something that, in my opinion, is really beautiful. I have to say that this card is not the card that I originally envisioned in my mind. I won't even go there with you but I will tell you that a simple mistake in the embossing powder that I picked up lead to the beautiful chocolate tree that you see here. You see...I was going to make that tree white...it probably would have looked just fine but I grabbed my clear embossing powder and after embossing the first tree I knew I had to leave it the way it was. I love mistakes that turn out that way!

Anyway, I hope this little card inspires you to make something very fun...with products from several company's products!

Have a super Thursday everyone and I'll see you tomorrow...woohoo it will be Friday!

belli challenge #39

Yay! It is Belli Challenge day! I've SOOOO been waiting to show you all this card! About the time I was working on my Belli Challenge for this week the House Mouse Challenge blog posedt their challenge (for last week...this week is anything but a card) sketch. I loved it and knew it would be great for this Belli challenge which is....can you guess? Yep! Pearls! How fun, huh? And, doesn't this sketch just totally lend itself to pearls?

Anyway...This card is made with a CaUTE House Mouse image (but I don't know the name...sorry), some patterned paper called Animal Crackers by ???, the Baby Cuttlebug embossing folder, Nesties and of course...PEARLS!!! Here is the kinda funny thing...I don't know anyone who is for sure having a baby girl. I just loved the colors and layout so I had to go with it! You all know how that is...right? It was a seriously fun card to make!

You all know how this works...make a card or anything really, with pearls...upload it to SCS or your blog and then link it back to Chris's blog for a chance to win a fun goodie! Below are the other Belli Challenge girls that are participating this week...

Courtney
Chris
Danita
Christi
Ceal
Shelly

I think I have everyone but feel free to go ahead and check the other players blogs (links in my sidebar for more inspiration!). Make sure you stop back tomorrow to see the birthday thank you cards that I made. They are so lovely...if I do say so myself!

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!

created by courtney challenge #10

Yay! It is another challenge day today! I don't think I've ever told you guys how much I love my challenges. They are really a lot of fun and best of all they keep me stamping which is the best thing of all! Anyway, onto today's challenge...

This weeks Created by Courtney challenge is all about pocket cards. As with most things crafting there is more than one way to make a pocket card. The directions for the card I made are HERE. It is called a crisscross card. The other type of pocket card is HERE.

I chose the crisscross card because I love that you have more room for stamping or a written sentiment inside than the other type but that is just what I personally like. This card is made with Bashful Blue, Tangerine Tango, and PTI White card stock. The patterned paper is from SU! in the Holiday mini and is called Frosty Days. It is such CaUTE paper! The large snowflake is also from the Holiday mini and comes in a package of 69 pieces and is appropriately called Little Felt Flurries. The stamp set is also from the Holiday Mini and Mr Twigster has previously been seen on my blog. What a cute snowman, huh? The Christmas lights are part of the Mr. Twigster set. I just colored them in with matching markers and then added some sparkle to them. A clip and some ribbon on the top completes the combo. Now...you couldn't mail this card as is because of the clip but you could take it off for mailing or give the card on the outside of your gift.

So...has my pocket card inspired you? Go...hurry...make one yourself! When you do make sure that you upload it to SCS with the keyword CBCC10 and then place that link on Courtney's blog for a chance to win a little goodie! I know you want to see what the rest of the girls do so go and check them out below...

Courtney
Sarah
Sparkle
Dani
Heidi

Aren't they wonderful!?

I hope you have a great time crafting today! Come on back tomorrow for my Belli Challenge card!

jesus is born

Well, stampers it is the beginning of a new week (well, I consider Sunday the first day but...we'll go with Monday for blogging purposes...I'm weird, I know!). I'm hoping this week goes as fast as last week! I'm so ready for vacation!

Anyway, here is the Sweet n Sassy Stamps card that I told you I'd post. This lovely stamp set is called Jesus is Born and is a new set illustrated by Chris Dickinson. I paired the image and scriptures with some older Basic Grey patterned paper to make this simple yet elegant Christmas card. I also appreciate that these would be simple to replicate when needing to make several to many of them. The colors are Bravo Burgundy, Always Artichoke, and Mellow Moss.

Tomorrow is Created by Courtney Challenge day. What will it be this week? Hmmm...guess you'll just have to wait and see, huh? Teehee!

Hope you all have a super day today and get lots and lots accomplished! Ooohhh and did you see? We are down into the single digits now...woohoo!

page plans week 27

It's Sunday...wooho0! What does that mean? That is right...a new page plans sketch that you can see HERE. Remember how I said yesterday that today's artwork would be nothing like yesterday's? Well, am I right or what? The page plans sketch this week was to be a Halloween theme. I'm not much of a Halloween girl and only have a couple of sets that are specifically Halloween but I think this cat is cute and I really like the patterned paper.

Anyway, this stamp set is a SU! set called Haunting Halloween and the patterned paper is by Creative Imaginations (that I bought just for this card!). I have used Tangerine Tango for my base color and added Lavender Lace for the bottom panel (which has stars and "movement" on the panel but you can't really see it). The little bit of white layer really make the entire card pop. I have used my black and yellow Spica glitter pens for some wonderful sparkle. A little bit of black grosgrain and taadaa...a Halloween card! Whatcha think? Cute?

So...I just finished my Belli Challenge card for Wednesday and if I can say so myself, it is CaUTE!!! My goodness...I love it! In case you haven't figured it out...Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday's are my challenge team days and the rest of the week...free stamping...woohoo! Tomorrow I'll have a SNSS card for ya that is simple yet meaningful. Come back to see it!

And, now...if you've read this far I've decided that you deserve some Glory from Lorie. Since I don't send Halloween cards I thought I would give this card away. That and the rest of the patterned paper (which is cut into smaller, much smaller, pieces). I hope that you like the card enough to just leave me a comment with what your family traditions are for Halloween. Some people trick or treat, some fall festival, and some just don't do anything and all of it is okay. Just let me know...I'd love to hear! You'll have until Tuesday night to leave a comment.

With that...I hope you have a SUPER Sunday!