Life is grand...

Good morning friends! It's I'm sure most of you are thrilled as I am. I'm not sure why I like Friday's so much but I do!

For today's card I used a super sweet SNSS image called Rhubarb's Cup o' Joe. Don't you just love it? The paper I used is from MME and is Stella and Rose's Gertie Papers. I adore this paper pad! I added some ribbon from my stash of ribbon, added some flower bling (can you see it on the coffee cup as well as under the sentiment?) and wahlah Rhubarb's lookin' pretty! I love that this particular image can be male or female...it is all in the coloring.

I also used the Deconstructed Sketch for this week which, I think, is a super fun one. I was in the SNSS store last night and spied some Bo Bunny papers that I think I might have to have!

Tomorrow morning we are going to the pancake breakfast/kids rodeo that starts the fair/rodeo season here where I live. I love seeing all the little kids in the parade! Have a wonderful Friday!

*Thought of the day: Why is it that our children can't read a Bible in school,
but they can in prison?* Don't get me wrong, I appreciate prison ministries but maybe some of those people wouldn't be in prison if they had read the Bible in school. Just sayin' and since it is my blog...I can!

Big News at Sweet n' Sassy!

Not only does Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps have a wonderful new release this month but it also has some wonderful, BIG news!

First off, SNSS is now offering dies for their stamps. The very first set of dies is made to go with the gorgeous fall set called Season of Change. Hmmm...did you notice who illustrated the Season of Change set? No, well that is excitement number two! The lovely and talented Dina Kowel is now illustrating sets for SNSS! I know...so exciting huh? As if those two things weren't exciting enough SNSS announced last Saturday that they are now a member company on Splitcoast Stampers! That is right...now you will get all your SNSS fix at SCS! How exciting huh?

I'm sure you are wondering what the image is to the right...right? Well, this cutie stamp set is the stamp set you will receive for FREE with a $50 purchase from now until Aug 31st How fun, huh?

Alright, I know you want to go check out all the fun stuff so...away you go...enjoy!

Sweet Peek Day Three

Good morning again all! This week is going by fast...it is already Wednesday.

I have another Sweet Peek from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps for ya today. This time it is the super cute Cocoa all ready for fall! Hence the name Fall time Cocoa. This image in the set lends itself particularly well to piecing with it's big ole pumpkin so that is what I did. I chose some retired SU! patterned papers and got to work. The Happy Fall Y'all is one of the cute fall sentiments in this set and is one of my personal favorite fall sentiments. Make sure you head on over to the SNSS blog today so you can head on over to the other sneak peeks today!

Have a wonderful everyone!

Sweet Peek Day Two

Good morning friends! Welcome to day #2 of Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps August Sweet Peeks! This is such an exciting month that I know you'll want to stay tuned for all of it!

Today we are giving a peek of the new stamp set called Many Thanks. I was thrilled when Korin sent me this set to preview with y'all as I just love sentiment stamps (it is almost embarrassing how many of them I have) and when I received them I was not disappointed. I recently got a new Nestibilities tag set so I decided to use that along with some gorgeous paper and ribbon to make my card.

I hope you will hop on over to the SNSS blog to check out the rest of today's sweet peeks as well as to join us all week long. I promise...by week's end you will not be disappointed! (Yes, there is something big coming!)

I leave you with..."Praise be to the Lord my rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. Psalm 144:1. Now lets go a little further than that in Psalms...2. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me. Can you see how this scripture would be a comfort to those in battle? Try looking up Psalm 91 sometime. You will find that God does protect His followers in battle. Very comforting to a mom whose son is in battle (both spiritual and physical) everyday!

Have a lovely day all!

Rhubarb's Good Book

Morning friends! Was your Monday all you hoped it would be? Did ya get everything done? Mine sure was busy but I'm happy with what I got done!

I have another cute Rhubarb the Teddy Bear card for ya today. Can you tell I really like Rhubarb? Anyway, this is the newly released (today!) Rhubarb from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps called Rhubarb's Good Book. I used this image and sentiment thinking this would be a great card to use for a birthday for which you are giving the recipient a gift card to their favorite book store (mine is either Amazon or Barnes & Noble just in case you wanted to know!). Wouldn't that just be adorable? The layout for this card is this week's sketch over at Card Patterns. It is very clean and simple (again) but with lots of potential.

Alright, we are off to Olallie Park today. I'm just SO excited about the rest of this week! Tomorrow it will be 10 years since I married the man that I truly believe God had waiting for me! Yes, I mean Todd! LOL! Stop back tomorrow to see the card I chose to give him for this big (to us) accomplishment!

Have a wonderful day!

Snowflakes Today!

Good morning friends! This is my second post today so I hope you'll go up and read the first one too.

Remember I told you that Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps is releasing a Rhubarb the Teddy Bear image everyday? Well...here is today's image. He is called Rhubarb's Snow Day! Isn't he just the most adorable little guy?

I used the sketch from Clean & Simple Stamping from a week or so ago for this card. I loved that it made the background paper easier to see as I think the paper adds to the chilliness of the card. This paper is from Jolly By Golly paper pack from Cosmo Cricket. I tried a new to me technique for coloring Rhubarb today and I just love the way he came out! This is my first winter/Christmas card of the year!

Okay, short post so I can get back to creating. I hope you have a fabulous Tuesday!

Rumbly in my tumbly...

Good morning my bloggy friends! Here we are at Wednesday already this week. Can you believe we are almost at the middle of July already? Sheesh...this month is flying right by too!

Today, is my day to post on the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps blog and this is the card that I made to show off. Isn't it fun?

The newest release at SNSS is called Rhubarb the Teddy Bear. I adore this new teddy bear...he is so cute. While he doesn't look like Pooh bear one of the first thing I thought when I saw it was that he has a rumby in his tumbly so I had to run with that theme!

The Bee Hive/Bee's are an SVG pattern set from Little Scrap's of Heaven. While it didn't cut out as a card I just made a card the size of the bee hive, taped the bee hive down, and then cut the card to the shape of the hive leaving a flat spot at the top.

Korin, the owner of SNSS, is releasing a Rhubarb a day for the next 5 days (at least)! Make sure you head on over to The Sweet 'n Sassy Connection to be one of the first to see the newly released bears!

Well, that is all I have for you today! Make to a wonderful day!

Rhubarb the Teddy Bear

Good Saturday morning friends! I hope you have wonderful weather so you can accomplish whatever you heart desires today!

Yesterday, at the bottom of my post I linked you to a photo of the image I was going to have on my card today...here I am to post that card and you came back to see it...yay!

Anyway, this sweet little bear's name is Rhubarb. Now I don't know if Rhubarb is a boy or girl but I think Rhubarb will be a boy for this post. So, Rhubarb is a brand new line over at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. Korin has drawn 10 Rhubarb images (and they are all just so precious) and has four in her store right now. You can see them all HERE. I made this card with Echo Park's Splash patterned paper and with Carly's sketch for the next two weeks. You can see at the left all the dimension and the gelly roll sparkle I put on the card. I'm not sure the umbrella actually "fits" the card but I thought why not? I cut the umbrella with my Cricut with which I have a love/hate relationship. I can cut SVG's just fine but when it comes to using the cartridges I stink! Can you guess which one the umbrella was? Anyway, since it has a Cricut cut element on the card I can also enter this into Challenge #41 at Cooking With Cricut.

Alright, so there you go! Have a wonderful day and I'll see ya back here Monday!

For my true love

Good morning! No, I haven't fallen off the edge of the earth...I've just been really busy with VBS and then super tired after. I hope to have at least one more card for you this week.

You may know that my oldest son graduated from college this month but we didn't have his part until last night. It was a fun get together of about 20 people with all of Scott's favorite foods and lots of congrats!

Anyway, I'm here today to show you a Sweet Peek of a new set that is coming out tomorrow at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. This one is called Love Is Like A Tree. This is a fun stamp set to make cards for the one you love in your life. It includes ten sentiments! I've also used paper that you can find at SNSS store from Echo Park called A Walk in the Park. I've also used this week's Sweet Stop Sketch with this card. You still have plenty of time to play with this sketch so please join us!

Well, that is it for me today. I need to get finished up here at home so I can get to the church. Have a most wonderful day today!

OOPS! I just posted this early so if you are seeing this before 9 am PST...the links for the Sweet Peeks won't get ya to today's images. Sorry about that!

Seeing Spots Sweet Peek

Good afternoon friends! I hope you've had a wonderful weekend. Are you doing anything fun today to finish it out? Tomorrow starts VBS at my church and this afternoon we are decorating the church and getting all set to greet the kids at 8:30 am tomorrow. While I'm looking forward to it I have knots in my stomach too. I really want to show kids how much Jesus loves them!

Anyway, onto today's Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Sweet Peek. Today I am showing you the card I made with the new set Seeing Spots. I really went out of my comfort zone using these stamps but I like the results so...yay! I used a star texture plate on the red background and then spritz'd it with some sparkle shimmer mist. I also distressed all the edges of the red and pulled some edges too. My layout is the sketch from Hand Stamps Sentiments for this week. PERFECT...wouldn't you agree?

I hope you enjoyed today's Sweet Peek! See the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps blog all week this week for peeks of the new sets!

If you stop back on Thursday I'll be giving you a peek of another new set! Tomorrow I have a super funny card for ya so see ya then!

Berry Sweet

Hello friends! Happy Friday! It is always nice to be at the end of a week isn't it?

Today, I have a fun summer card to share with you that showcases Berry Sweet Cocoa. Don't you just love the sweetness of Cocoa? I don't know where this patterned paper is from but it is just perfect for this image, huh? The layout is the Sweet Sunday Sketch for the week.

It is interesting...I'm noticing that I'm not using as many sentiments on my cards recently. I'm not sure why that is but it is interesting none the less. I think would make a great birthday or hello card!

Alright, I must run off to the next detail in my day. I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

a happy hello!

Happy Friday Morning! I am so happy it is Friday but there is still so much to do in this weekend that I'm not really getting a break. That is okay though..means I'm alive, gainfully employed, and healthy...I'll take them all!

Today is my day to post on the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps blog and I'm sharing this super fun and clean Happy Ocean Friends over there. I thought you guys would like it to so...here it is!

The images are, of course, from Happy Ocean Friends and the paper is, once again, from Echo Park's Summer Days. The layout is from SCS's card sketch for this week right HERE that the fabulous Korin designed! I love the clean and simple style of the sketch and this card! I used just a little bling for the bubbles and the sentiment wraps it all together. I love that the sentiment could be used for anything from a hello card to a birthday card. So multi-purpose!

Alright, I hope you get a chance to play along with this fabulous sketch! Make sure you link it up on SCS for all to see!

Have a happy day everyone!

Keep swimming AND Graduation

Hello! Yes, I'm here a bit later than normal but I thought you'd all want to see a picture of the graduate so I waited to post until I had one ready for ya!

First, though I wanted to show you a card that I decided to make in a clean and simple style. That is kinda hard for me to do but sometimes it is just what is needed. I used the super cute fish and sentiment from the Happy Ocean Friends set by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps just adding a little color with my Copics and the paper (Summer Days by Echo Park...find it HERE). I felt it needed just a bit of bling so I added a twinkle at the beginning of the sentiment. I gotta tell ya...I love this card!

Now, onto graduation! It could not have been a nicer day outside today! Beautiful sunshine with a hint of wind (we don't have breezes here) to cool it down when the sun got to hot. The ceremony started promptly at 9:30 and was a good two hours long. This is the first college graduation I've ever attended and while I am SO proud of my son...it was boring after we got to see Scott walk to get his diploma holder. I'm so bad aren't I? Scott is one of the first members of his family (both my side and his dads) to graduate from college (I'm tearing up right now) so it was just such an amazing day! I cried when the ROTC presented the Colors and the National Anthem was sung, I cried when I realized that so many of my family members weren't there to see it, and I cried when I got to hug Scott. What a ball of tears, huh?

Alright, enough sentimental stuff for today. Thanks for visiting today! Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day!

Sweet Peek Cocoa

Good morning everyone! After an additional day off it is always hard to remember that it is Tuesday instead of Monday, huh? I hope you had a fabulous Memorial Day. We enjoyed hosting our friends for a wonderful BBQ to honor all of our service members.

Today is the last Sweet Peek before the new release at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps tomorrow. There will be a fun beach themed new release party tonight at the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Connection from 8pm to 10 pm (EST). I hope you can join us. Just click here to head over to the connection. If you aren't already a member sign up is super easy!

Alright, so...my card today peeks a new set to the store called Patriotic Cocoa. There are 2 images (including the one used on my card) and 11 sentiments that are perfect for any patriotic type of card you'd like to make from a 'thank you' to 'Happy 4th'. If you love all things patriotic, like me, than this will be the perfect set for you! I believe it will retail at just $11! My card also uses this week's Sweet Stop Sketch.

So there you have it! I hope you'll join us for the new release party tonight! Have a wonderful day!

Fintastic!

I know what you guys are thinking...why am I posting on a Sunday, right? Well because today is one of the two Sweet Peeks I have for you with brand new Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps images that will be released June 1st!

Today I am giving you a little peek at the new set called Happy Ocean Friends. Both the fish and the sentiment is from the set. In total the set has 7 image stamps and 11 sentiment stamps and they all go together SO well! I've also used some patterned paper from Echo Park's Summer Days line...perfect, huh?

Alright...make sure that you head on over to the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps blog to see the rest of the Sweet Peeks! I'll have another peek at a new set on Tuesday May 31st as well so look forward to that too!

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Hi There

Happy Wednesday friends! I have been working on some things to show you but for today I have a sweet Cocoa image to share with you!

Today's card is made with a cute image from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps set called Springtime Cocoa. There is just something about Cocoa's cute ears that make me love him...even though he's a mouse! All the papers, buttons and the fun fabric letters are from this month's Key Ingredients kit and I used this week's CPS sketch for the layout.

Make sure that you head on over to Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps blog tomorrow for some Sweet Peeks of the new sets that will be released come June 1st. I will have peeks for you on the 29th and 31st and I'm so excited to show them to you!

Well, that is it from my craft room for today. I've got several other projects in the works that I hope to show you soon so...have a super day!

A Card Re-Do

Good almost afternoon my friends! The very first thing that I must ask of you all is that you be praying for my Jon's unit in Afghanistan. Three soldiers were killed and one wounded on Monday. We have heard nothing so that is good as we would have been notified already. If you do not already pray for our soldiers please start immediately!

Today I'm showing you the card I got from my oldest son, Scott, for Mother's Day. I loved the card and what he wrote inside. Upon looking at it I started to put together a card in my mind so the other day I sat down and recreated the card.

I used the newly released Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps image called Tea Time. I paper pieced the tea pot and the tea cup with patterned papers (stella rose - mabel) to coordinate with the rest of the card. There was very little coloring, just the coffee so I used a Copic marker for that and then used a glaze pen on the coffee to make it look liquid-y. On the side I just dressed it up with more patterned paper. This layout is the Sweet Stop sketch for this week, too! I am also entering this in the Truly Scrumptious anything goes challenge. Oh, yay...I can add this to the D2D handmade paper flowers challenge too!

So...what do you think? A pretty fun re-do, huh?

Alright, I gotta run but enjoy the rest of your day everyone!

Tool Thank You

Happy Friday! Apparently the posting feature is back now (if you didn't know Blogger has been down for about 24 hours) so I'm going to post my card for the 'For the Guys" blog hop that Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps is hosting and hopefully Blogger will restore my card from yesterday as I truly love that card!

So, as I said above this weekend's blog hop is "For the Guys' so we are to make a card (or something else) for the guys in our lives. To help with that Korin has some fun images in the store HERE. I used a new digital image called Mr. Fix It. I'm not sure where that patterned paper is from I just had it in my stash and thought it would work well for a guy card.

You may remember that I moved into a new office at work a couple of weeks ago. I now have phone AND internet so I'm thrilled. Two men have really been instrumental in getting me the office and getting it all set to go so I thought I would make them thank you cards and maybe a gift of a coffee card or something like that.

All the deets for the customer blogging hop (you blog a card not just visit from blog to blog) is HERE. There is a free digi involved if you blog with us and someone will win a $25 gift certificate to SNSS as well! You have until May 15th to blog your card to qualify for the gift certificate so get creating!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! ***Looks like yesterday's post is back! Unfortunately it didn't save the comments...oh well! Make sure you scroll down to see though!***

A Beautiful Day

Good morning friends! Is everyone's week going well? It has been sunny here the last couple of days so I have been in a great mood!

As I sat down to make a card for my Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps post day (I'm posting this card here and on the SNSS blog) I knew I needed one more Mother's Day card so that is what I set out to make. I started with the sketch from Carly's Sketch Challenge blog HERE, added the Lilac's for Cocoa image and came up with what, I think, is a lovely card. The patterned paper is retired SU! and I colored my image with Copic markers. It will be just perfect for the mom I'm sending this card too. My mom has been gone for 13 years now but I always send a card to Todd's mom, my former MIL, and this year to another special friend of ours.

I've gotta tell you that while I still miss my mom everyday I have been very blessed to have women in my life to guide me as a mom, friend, child of God, and wife. A big thanks to my Mom June. She has stood by me through thick and thin over the last 11+ years and I know that I can ALWAYS count on her!

How is your Mother's Day card/gift making coming?

God's way is perfect.

Good morning everyone! Thank you all for being patient with me during my little hiatus from crafting and blogging. I went on vacation April 14-23 and just couldn't get back into things. The owner's of the stores that I'm on DTs for have been very understanding, too, and I so appreciate that.

One announcement that I have to make is that during this time off I decided to step down from the McMahon 5 Designs team. I adore everything about the store, the owner and the DT but my time has been up for a little while and like one of the DT said I "need to clear my plate a little."

Alright...onto today's fun news. Today is Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps May release. If you've been following their blog this last week you know that they have been showing some wonderful sweet peeks of the sets released today. If not...go HERE to see all the great sets! There is a chance to win the entire release on the blog so hurry over!

My card today is made with a fusion of two sets...Let Go Let God for the sentiment and Picking Flowers Bethany. On the inside of the card is another one of the sentiments in the set that says "We must be willing to let go of the life we planned, so we may enjoy the life God has waiting for us." It is hard to let go of what we think the plan is but what God has waiting is so much better! I also used some of the Echo Park Walk in the Park paper that Korin has in the store HERE.

I hope you've enjoyed this little card and post today. Don't forget to check out what all of the design team has to show you!

Have a wonderful day!