Our House! (Still in progress)

Here is a slideshow of our house in the making pics. There is a video included. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

More Spring Break- Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch in San Antonio

Hello again,
Below is another slideshow of pics from our Spring Break trip. These photos are from the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch in San Antonio, TX.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Our Spring Break/ Anniversary Trip

We had the pleasure of taking a quick trip back in March to College Station, Salado and then San Antonio for our Anniversary. We met up with my brother, Aaron, and his girlfriend, Mandy, in San Antonio. We did the guys room & girls room thing. That was fun! No passing gas, no burping. It was wonderful! Take a look at the slideshow below. At the end there is a video of Charlie the Cardinal. He was hillarious. We actually see him everytime we go to the cabin!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Where Have I Been???

Hello all,

I have no excuses about not posting. I have created cards, but most of them were for showers at work or birthdays, etc. Work, working on my masters degree and our house being built has taken over any free time I have had. I have pictures to post of our semi-house. It is a house if it has a roof and windows, right??? We signed papers back on our anniversary actually, March 18th- right before we left to go out of town for our Spring Break/ last vacation sort of thing before the house payments begin.This is my hubby holding up our sign in front of our "out" house. Look at those beautiful trees behind our lot! This picture was taken right after we got back from our trip. We were surprised to see that the lot had been cleared in under a week- 6 days I think. When we had left it was full of trees still.

Yes, I was so excited to see the forms up the following weekend after that. Things have been moving so fast.Here is the foundation. I was so amazed to see all of the trenches and wires. I never thought before how deep and how much goes into a foundation.

So, while all of this was happening, my parents were on a cruise with other people from church in the Panama Canal. SO, I texted my dad and said, "We have cement!" He texted back, "What color did you pick out?" I guess you have to know my dad.
Another week later and I called to say, "We have wood!!"Today we have a roof, windows, doors, the sides of the house, hardiplank on the back of the house (which is painted by the way), and they were still working on the shingles while we were there. After I upload those pics I will post some. I am sure I will be posting more tonight and this weekend. I am working on stuff right now that is hush hush, but I will post the pics as soon as it is given to the person. That's all that I can share about it now:) Also, since next Saturday is the National Scrapbook Day- my sis and I are attending a full day of scrapbooking. We will be creating 9 2-page layouts. I am syched! I will share next weekend what we make:)

Card from the SU Party last night!

Okay guys, going out right now to get me a brayer. This card technique was too cool!! We put rubber bands onto the brayer and made pretty lines on the background. My SU lady just said not to leave the rubberbands on too long, or they can make everlasting impressions on the brayer. We used all SU inks and stamps. Not sure of all the names, sorry. Again, this was not my design, just thought I would share the cool technique with you all. And of course, I had to be a little different from everyone else and distress with the scissors on all edges lol.TFL.

Happy Anniversary to my parents!

Hello all! My parents celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary this past Wednesday. I saw on splitcoast how to use the pick-a-petal set to make a heart. So here is my first card using the pick-a-petal set. I used my real red ink and some various paper from Hobby Lobby. The stamp sets I used were pick-a-petal and happy everything. You can't really tell but I used the flower folder for my cuttlebug on the paper. I wish I had black cardstock, but all I had was brown. I also used my crop-a-dial to add eyelets in all corners. And it was finished off with gingham ribbon. Lastly, I distressed all edges and layers with my scissors and added real red ink to the edges. TFL.

Baby & Kid Card Swap

I uploaded photos of the beautiful cards I received from a card swap that was started by Miss Kimberly over at http://www.craftyme-kimberly.blogspot.com. Here is a slide show. Enjoy!

A Thank You card

Here is a card I made on Sunday using my new cuttlebug and my new crop-a-dile. I finally broke down and got one with my 40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby. I got it for $16 something. Cheapest I have found yet. Boy do I like it! It is sooooooo easy. The only thing I might recommend is to use your tweezers to place on the tiny eyelets. My fingers aren't huge, but that is a small area to place the eyelet in. Here is a pic:

Recipe:

Stamps: Designer Label

Paper: coral card stock, various paper- Hobby Lobby, light blue cardstock, white cardstock

Ink: Basic Grey

Accessories: Crop-a-dial, blue eyelets, d'vine swirls cuttlebug folder, slit punch, DCWV adhesive ribbon

Techniques: Dry embossing

The sentiment is up on rubber scraps. This card was fun to make. Gonna go play with my crop-a-dial and cuttlebug some more.

Uggh! Anyone else having issues with COMCAST internet??

Ever since Comcast took over Time Warner here in Houston, we have had nothing but trouble with our wireless internet. We never had issues like this before. The past two weeks, it seems like it is almost a daily issue where we have to shut down everything, unplug routers and modems wait ten minutes and replug and restart. This happens up to 5 or 6 times everynight almost. I call them and they merely say it is not their problem. Their server does not like wireless modems and resets or something. I am not sure the customer service people know exactly. The guy I have spoken to can't keep up with his end of the conversation, just tells me there is nothing they can do since the cable is working. And yes it is working, but I have no choice but to use wireless with my laptop. The cable port is broken and unless I want to hold it physically in a weird position and type onehanded I can't use it.

I still believe it is a issue with their server bumping wireless modems or resetting itself constantly. Ok, done venting. Smile, make cards, ok:)

SURPRISE!!!

Well lookie what I got fer my bday! I was really surprised by this. My wonderful husband got me some diamond circle of love earrings to match the necklace he got me a couple years ago. He is so sweet and thoughtful, and I am blessed to have him in my life. My sister got me a pampered chef trifle bowl that I had been eyeing for a year now. She sells pampered chef and mary kay now too.

My parents got me a cuttlebug. My Rhonda got me the pick-a-petal SU stamp set and another cool set, forgot the name, sorry. I have been eyeing that pick a petal set since the catalog came out. I was actually waiting to buy it this month at the SU party. Here are the pics:

My B-day was last week!

Hello all,

I turned 31 last week and my family and friends had a b-day party for me and I want to share the cards with you all. This one is from my brother:

Yes he got me a booger. Lovely, huh? He is 26, can you believe it?

This one is from my MeMaw: She makes a mean card on her computer:)

This one is from my mom: She used her suttlebug and everything:)

This one is from my sister:

She used the idea that I got from Mistylynn over at Lil Buck's Creations. I kept telling her that she could use the doodle set from SU to make a wedding dress. I know the picture is blurry, but I will try to retake and re-post. Cute, cute, cute!

This card is from my bestest friend, Rhonda: I love the sparkles she put on the cupcake! LOOKS YUMMY!

My Pay it Forward goodie box came in the mail!!!

Hello all,

I just wanted to share the box full of goodies that I received from Kathy, Kkrenn, over at scs. Check out her gallery. Thanks again Kathy! I can't wait to play. I might just have to stay up late tonight:) Here is a pic of the goods:

$2,500 Blog Giveaway

Hey guys! Not sure if this is for real, but hey its worth a try. It's open until August 20th.

Over at Ashwin’s blog, you will find one crazy blog owner!! You can win $2500!! To enter just copy this text and paste it in your blog!! But hurry, this competition will not last long! So get posting!

Blog Candy Alert

Hello all! I was searching blogs between my internet being up and down and found someone giving away blog candy. All you have to do is visit Kristina's blog and leave comment for a chance to win some awesome blog candy.

Another Baby Card Swap

Hello again! I decided to help Kim out and sign up for another slot in her card swap. That way I get 8 cards instead of 4- woohoo. Here is the other baby card I made:

The recipe:

Stamps: Curvy Verses, a baby stamp

Paper: various cardstock

Accessories: RicRac, decorative scissors, paper piercer, pencil eraser

Ink: ColorBox Light blue pigment, SU Almost lavendar

I cut out the spotted paper and cut the corners with a tag punch. I edged it with the blue pigment ink. I edged the card with the almost lavendar ink. I stamped "Welcome, baby!" in the upper left corner with the light blue and a silver pigment ink. It shows up much better in real life. I embossed the baby with clear embossing powder and I edged the scallop with the pigment ink as well. I used a moss green ricrac on the card. Lastly, I needed brads, but didn't have 16 of any color that would work, so I used the eraser of a pencil to dip in my ink pads and create spots on the corners of my card. I think it added that little something to finish off the cards. This card was fun to make and I like it better than the previous one. Thanks for looking.

Harry Potter nut. . .

Ok so after my sister and I got done with the classes we headed off across town to sign up for a colored bracelet. We got green, the fourth color. We then waited about an hour or so to be let into Walden's Books to purchase the new Harry Potter book. Here I am with my book (and NO I have not started reading it yet or finished it- so please don't tell me about it yet): And if you are wondering- my sister is the Harry Potter nut in the family- not me. I am behind on the books, not the movies though. I watched the midnight showing and saw all of the interesting people in costumes.

At the beach . . .

The third class on Friday night was led by Suzanne Fitzsimmons and she is a Stampin' Up demo- I don't have a link for her. We made a beach scrapbook spread. Again, I did not quite finish getting it all put together, so I took pictures of her samples. We sponged around cloud shapes to make the sky and sponged on the tips of the waves. We used the watercolor crayons and she has a recipe for mixing glycerin and water to use as a blender pen in the waterpens (you put water in them and squeeze as you use them- not sure exactly what they are called, but it blended much easier than just plain water. Might be a cheaper alternative than purchasing blender pens. She did mention that she bought a certain kind of glycerin otherwise it didn't mix well. As soon as I email her I will post the recipe if anyone is interested. Here are the pics:

The 4 S's of Distressing . . .

Ok, one of the other classes we took Friday night was a scrapbooking one on Distressing. It was led by Elizabeth Chu and she is a Close to My Heart consultant, I believe. I am not much on scrapbooking yet. Mainly because I don't have kids yet and don't have the time- or make it yet. I feel like a card is achievable for me. Anyway, back to what I learned. We learned the four S's- sandpaper, scissors, sponging and stippling. I think I learned more in this session than the others- it was a lot of fun and I know I can apply these techniques to my card making. We also used drywall tape- that was too cool. It was a spread with a Lighthouse type theme. We used the drywall tape under the lighthouse and at the bottom on one of the pages. It gives a nice texture and it can also be painted on gives a nice background. We sandpapered the navy paper and used the scissors to distress the red. Hard to see from the pics- sorry. And the coolest thing ever was that we got to use a cropodile-- how cool that was and yes it is as they say- like buddar!!! Ok, I wanna use my 50% off coupon from JoAnn's this week on that- if they have them. Ok here are the pics:

10 cards in 45 minutes- Lickety-Split

I want to share the cards we made at a card class on Friday night. I went to a class by Michele Vandiver with my mom and sister. We found some cute ways to use some of the new Stampin' Up sets. I am not used to making the cards in such a hurry, but I did my best. I took pictures of the samples so that I can finish my cards. Some of the pictures are not too good, sorry. Here they are:
I want that pick a petal set sooo bad!! You can't really tell, but we used the large oval punch on the Thanks card. We also used clear buttons on top of the center of the flower. Another set that I wanted when I first saw the new catalog was that Year after year set. I also need to get some gingham ribbon. That was so versatile! This class was fun and I learned a lot in a short amount of time.