Happy Birthday Grammy!

Hi friends,
On this day, 83 years ago, a very important person in my life was born--- My grammy. If I had to name one of the most influential people in my life, grammy would top the list. When I was a little girl, she would take me along wherever she went. When she took cake decorating classes at the local community center, I went too. When she took floral arranging classes, I was there. She taught me how to crochet potholders and make scarves & blankets for my Barbies. She bought me crayons and art supplies so I could explore the artist in me. I know that my love of papercrafting today stems from her. She's my biggest fan & my biggest supporter.
     I LOVED helping her make tamales, but I LOOOOOVED eating them more! She makes the BEST, YUMMIEST food!!! One of the most important lessons came from simply watching her live her life. My grammy is fearless. She's adventurous. Her thinking is "You'll never know until you try it."
So when people say where I get my adventurous, free-spirited nature, & sense of humor, I say I get it from her:

This is my grammy. So sweetly posing for a picture next to this tree until she decided  she'd rather do this...






wait for it...







wait for it...

SWING FROM THE TREE!!! OMGosh, she didn't even put her purse down!!! Yup, this is where I get it from :) This picture was taken about 4 months ago during one of her excursions. (Tee! Hee!)

Happy Birthday Grammy!!!!! I love you and... Thank You... for everything I am.

And Thank you, friends, for letting me share this with you.

Blogoversary Candy Winners!

Hi friends!

                                (no, I didn't take this pic either ;)
Hello Kitty's beautiful assistant has used random.org to chose the blogoversary blog candy winners and she's licked! ;)

And the blog candy goes to...

Blog Candy #1 My Favorite Things: Stampin' Up Collection

#35 Christina @ christinasscraps

Blog Candy #2 My Favorite Tools Collection

#2 Brenda @ sweetasagumdrop

Blog Candy #3 My Favorite Things: Cricut Collection

#24 Vicki @ BountifulBlessings

Congratulations! Ladies, please click the "Email Me" chalkboard & email me your deets so I can get your prizes out to you this week. You have until 9 p.m. PST Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) to claim your prizes. If I don't hear from you, I will choose a new winner.

Thank you everyone for participating & for everyone's kind comments :) THANK YOU!!!

Mom is a Limited Edition

Hi there friends!
Today I have another Mother's Day card for ya I created with the gorgeous Limited Edition Mother's Day Cricut Cartridge. This is such a beautiful cart. It's definitely not just for Mother's Day. For my card, I used this week's Monday Mojo Sketch:

I used the Round choice to make this pretty simple card:

I hope those birdies are keeping it PG under my card! ;) of course they are!

The Deets:
I used the beautiful papers from the Mimosa pack from SEI. I cut the sooooo pretty "Mom" at 1 1/4." One nice feature of this cart is that many of the images also have a coordinating shadow (not usually the case with Solution Carts.) For the flower I used one of the flower images, cut 4 at 3", cut a petal from each layer, curled the ends of each petal, & added Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist to it. It adds a beautiful sheen & shimmer to the paper. I also added it the the white CS base. I punched the leaves & added ribbon.

Here's a closer peek at the flower:

I hope you can see that pretty Glimmer Mist. If you're someone who screams at the sight of glitter, but want a kiss of shimmer- try TA Glimmer Mists. I debated doing more to the flower, but decided to keep it this way.

Remember that you can find The Mimosa Cardstock Pack, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, & Cricut goodies (on sale!) at YMH Store ---> Here.

Thanks so much for peeking today! Don't forget that the blogoversary blog candy ends Friday (tomorrow) so be sure you're in! Good Luck :)

You Rock!

Hello friends,
Today I have one of the easiest cards I think I've ever made!
Here it is:

Since the Patterned paper is already embellished I didn't have to do much. All I did was use Stretch Magic jewelry cord for the guitar strings (& yes, I did play with them :), stamp the sentiment, mat it, & add brads in the corners. So easy!

This is for my chemo card angel buddy. I'm sharing his cards because many people have a difficult time with masculine cards (including myself!) So hopefully one of his cards will give you ideas when needing to make boy/masculine cards.

I'm soooo busy this week with school stuff- we're doing State testing :(
Thanks so much for peeking!
Gotta Go!

The 411:

Stamps: Rockstar- Inkadinkado
Paper: The Rockstar Matstack- DCWV, Choc chip CS, Very Vanilla CS- SU!
Ink: Chestnut Roan- Colorbox, Choc chip- SU!
Accessories: Brads, Stretch Magic bead & jewelry cord

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop-April

Hi friends,
It's with great pleasure that I get to participate in this month's Blog Hop with PTI. The challenge this month is to use tissue paper. I took advantage of the opportunity to get started on my Mother's Day cards so today I have 3 cards to share. (I used the tissue that my stamps were wrapped in!) One of which was the Anniversary Set called Round & Round- SOOOO preeeety! Thanks Nichole, it's so beautifully designed. I LOVE IT!!!

Here's my first card:

The Deets:
For this card, I used a border punch to create the tissue layers along the bottom. I also used a flower punch to create the Pom Pom flowers Dawn shared a while back. I found that punching several layers of tissue worked best. I used Kraft CS for the base & a layer of Dotty Biscotti PP with a strip of Lemon Tart CS. The swirl spray of bling is ZVA Crystals. The sentiment comes from the Anniversary Set.

Card #2:

The Deets:
I used the very same papers as my first card. With this card, I added a bit of green Dotty Biscotti PP for the leaves & end accents along the Lemon Tart strip. This big, glorious flower is another Pom Pom flower. I used the Peony Nestability for that (2nd largest die). Don't ask how many layers that is- I didn't count! But it's like 15 :) Only one pass through my Hello Kitty Big Shot and it came out perfectly! :) Finished it off with a Lemon Tart Button. The sentiment comes from the Blooming Button set.
Here's a couple of peeks at the dimension:

Card #3:

The Deets:
For this card, I used some of the stamps from the Anniversary Set. I used 1/2 & 3/4 punches to make these bitty Pom Pom flowers. I heat embossed the images with clear embossing powder. I threaded strips of Dotty Biscotti (I love saying that- so fun!) PP through the button holes. Punched with the same border punch & added more blingies.
The sentiment (along the bottom right edge) comes from the Blooming Buttons set stamped in Fresh Snow ink.

Again I used the same papers. Actually, I only needed 1 sheet of yellow Dotty Biscotti PP, 1 sheet of Lemon Tart CS, & 2 sheets of Kraft CS to create all 3 cards :)

Mother's Day is a bittersweet time for me. It's a happy time since I'm a mom, but for myself... not so much. Don't want to be a "Debbie Downer" so I'll leave it at that.  But, I've been so fortunate to have been blessed with lots of "Mothers" along my journey who have guided me with love and support. That's why I've got lots of Mother's Day cards to make and I'm much happier to make many than none at all.

Thanks so much for peeking at my cards today & thanks in advance for your comments. I appreciate them very much! I'm off to join you in the hop.
Thanks for hopping by!

MOJO 135 Pretty Peony

Hi Friends,
 I have a card to share with ya for this week's Monday Mojo sketch challenge.
Here's the sketch:

Here's my card:
View #1:

View #2 (couldn't make up my mind again :(

I used the Peony Nestie to create the pretty flower. It is large & very dimensional. Too bad my camera or my sad photog skills don't capture the beauty of it IRL. :(  I used the Pom Pom Flower technique---> here. So easy!

Thanks so much for peeking today! So glad the weekend is just around the corner. Have a great one!

The 411

Paper: Wild Wasabi CS, Very Vanilla CS- SU!, Chloe's Closet PP- Making Memories
Stamps: Short & Sweet- SU!
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Creamy Brown- Colorbox
Tools: Double Crochet Lace border punch- EK Success, Peony Nestabilities- Spellbinders
Accessories: Ribbon, pearls, button, twine

Crib Notes

Hi ya friends,
A few friends of mine are just getting started on the baby race so I thought I'd help these new mommies out with a few crib notes.
Here's what I created with the help of my Cricut:

A crib box with notes

side view:

I embossed a piece of tissue paper so it would look like a baby blanket. For the crib bedding (Box) I used a sheet of SEI Bridgeport Cardstock.

Let's peek at the inside:

I've created 8 cards and included 8 envelopes that are tucked inside.
Here are the cards:

The bottom of each card is embossed with one of the Cuttlebug Embossing Borders from the Just My Type Collection. (click on a pic to see a closer peek.) I love those cute little buttons :) These adorable little critters are from the Create a Critter Cricut Cartridge. I LUUUUUUUV this cart!!! They are just adorable! And the best part is that they are super easy to assemble because there are no little pieces. Yaaay! I think this is the best cart in the new release. These are simple cards so I could easily mass-produce (because I'll be making 24.) I think new moms can always use a cute little Thank You card. Babies get lots of gifts :)

ETA: The cards are standard A2 size (4 1/4" x 5 1/2").The critters are cut at 3"

Here's the envelope:

Again you see I've used the CB Embossing border along the edge of the flap so that the card & envelope coordinate :)

 I used my Gypsy to find a crib since I did not see one in the New Arrival Cart. How does that cart NOT have a crib??? There are several deets to creating the crib so I'll create a video Tut this weekend. It's not hard, it's just that there are lots of details :)

Quickie Deets: 

To create the crib, you'll need:
3- 7" cribs (Everyday Paper Dolls Cart)
Base Box: 6 1/2" x 11" cardstock (score at 4 1/2" and 6 1/2" along long side)
Attach 2 sides of crib & cut 3rd crib for the sides.

Here's one last peek at it:

You can find all the products for this project at the YMH Store.
Thanks so much for peeking! I'm ready for the weekend. Are you?
Gotta Go!