Life is good ...

I find I am using more and more digital stamps. When I saw this one labeled flip flops, I had to have it ... I sent this card to a good friend and I hope she likes it :).

"Life is Good" stamp is by Hampton Art

Martha Stewart sand-dollar/starfish border punch

Gingham paper by Amuse

Some ATC's I'm working on while visiting in Cincinatti

I brought my goodies with me to Cincinnati and made these ATC's ...

ATC #1 - Christmas in July ATC's for Cindy H's swap

Snowman is a digital image is from Sweet & Sassy Stamps

Martha Stewart snowman/Christmas tree border punch

Martha Stewart glitter snow

#2 - Nativity ATC's for Chris' swap

Digital image by stitchybearstamps.com

Stampin Up scallop border punch

#3 - Pumpkins for my swap

Digital image - not sure from where

Stickles glitter on pumpkin

#4 - Reindeer ATC's for my swap

Stamps by MSE

Happy 18th Birthday Emily!

Where oh where has the past 18 years gone? It seems like just yesterday I was in labor, on my due date, no less but you were coming just like the dr predicted. Sure enough, you were born June 25th at 10:50 pm. Here are a few photos of you and your friends at PF Changs last night.

Its no surprise by now but we have decided to put our house up for sale in NC

We have lived here for almost 5 years and our house in FL STILL HAS NOT SOLD so we decided to put this one on the market and see what happens. We signed the papers Tuesday. The realtor came out Wed at 3:00 and we had someone driving down the driveway at 3:10 looking at the house. Another realtor called a couple of hours later and said she wants to show the house THIS MORNING so we are running out the door right now for a couple of hours. Wouldn't that be great if we got an offer right away!!?!??!??! Fingers are crossed!!

Another Christmas card

I usually like to make lots of different Christmas cards each year and I do make them year-round so I am all done by November. This year I think I have made 10 different ones but this one I came up with the other day and I think this one I am going to make a bunch of them since I love how it came out. The boy looking out the window is a digital image by Mo's. Mo's is my favorite digital stamp site. She is the best artist around as far as I am concerned. Whenever one uses one of Mo's images, she would like it if you email her first before you merge her digital image with any other stamped images. I emailed her and she said it was fine. So here what I did was I printed the digital image of the boy with the window twice. I cut out one of them to make a mask. I cut out the window in that mask so I can spray paint around the window without getting it onto the window. I used a 3/4" circle punch to cut out a tiny circle for the moon. I put that down next to the window and used that as a mask also. I used my Copic airbrushing kit and airbrushed the sky outside. I love how it came out. I then stamped my favorite Amuse Santa with sleigh out the window and the verse on the bottom is by Amuse also. So .... there you have it!!! I hope you like it too!!!

With blackberry picking, comes CHIGGARS for me!!

I only lasted twice outside picking blackberries in the woods. I went one night with Charlie and the next night with my friend Teresa. The next day I woke up with only 1 bite. Now I have about 25!!! I got some Prednisone from the dr so hopefully I will find some relief soon. I guess from now on, Charlie will have to pick them for me. He doesn't get chiggars like I do (sigh!)

Father's Day means blackberries are ready for picking ...

Each year our 1,000's of wild blackberries are ready to be picked around Father's Day. Charlie was mowing the grass on Friday and noticed a whole bunch were ripe so I picked a few buckets. I am trying to freeze them this year and see if I can have them year-round. I love blackberries but I don't think anyone else around here does. Which means I can't possibly eat all of these out there!!!

Happy Father's Day

I made Charlie these Father's Day cards. The image on the first card is by Stamping Bella and the image on the 2nd card I found here. Try the lighthouse image, its free :).

1st card -

Both images by Stamping Bella

2nd card -

Sentiment by: Amuse

Yellow Stickles glitter for the light coming out of lighthouse

Congratulations to Marie!

My friend Marie in Montana recently graduated from nursing school so I sent her this card.

I found this digital image on Etsy. Numbers are by Stampin Up.

Christmas cards in June?

All images are digital images. The first 2 images I found at DigiStamp Boutique. I found the last 2 Christmas digital images at McMahon Five Designs .

My snowman circle journal

A circle journal is a book passed among a group of friends, each adding to that journal. This circle journal is all snowmen and we will get it back in September (I think). Here are my 2 pages.

Graduation day is finally here!!!

Graduation was at 12:30. They had to be there at 11:00. We got there around 11:50 to get good seats. It was at the Cabarrus Arena so they had good seats all around. We got our seats and as soon as I sit down, I got all teary eyed. I thought "oh my gosh, I can't start crying yet". The kid behind me kept going on and on how he would be crying during the whole ceremony since its his little brother who was graduating. So then he started crying. He was about 20 yo if I had to guess. Then, the arena filled up (even though we had plenty of empty seats all around us) and the kids marched in. Again, I was ok. Not crying yet. The principal spoke, the senior class president spoke (in english and spanish) and a few other students spoke. Again, I was not crying. Before we knew it, the kids all walked up in alphabetical order so Emily being "T" was towards the end. She got her diploma. I took pics. Still not crying much. Just a little teary eyed from time to time but nothing like alot of MEN I saw who were crying. All of a sudden, all the crowd stood up and the kids all threw up their hats. I was so wanting to capture that moment. But did I get the "shot"? No!! The lady next to me jumped up to her feet and got in my way and I didn't get the picture I had wanted. LOL Charlie did get it on video so I hope to upload it to you tube if we can figure out how to do it later. All the kids walked off with their tassels on their left sides and then we all met them outside. It was 96 DEGREES outside!! Thank goodness for it being held indoors and with the A/C blasting. It was so hot outside!!! Here are a few pics I took...

Charlie did get this photo of the graduation hats being thrown into the air so I am happy now :).

I haven't done a pop-up card in awhile so I thought I would make one

I found this tutorial on you tube and she makes it look really, really easy and it was. I love this digital image by Mo's Digital Stamps. You can find the image here and its called "Stars".

On the inside it reads:

Twinkle Twinkle, Birthday Cake

Forget the years, for goodness sake

And think of all the people who

have brighter lives

Because of you.

Guess who is in the latest Just Cards Summer magazine

Yep, me!!!! I think I made the card on page 36 over 2 years ago. It took that long for that card to get published. I really need to submit more. I haven't done that in several months. More like 6 + months so I better get busy. Here's what the magazine looks like if you want to look for it. Lots of Shackies are in it with me!!(a total of 7 of us have our cards in there and some are in MULTIPLE times).

Last day of school and graduation cards

Today was the last day of school. Nicholas will start high school in the Fall (hard to believe!) and Emily will go off to college in the Fall (sigh!). I had a few graduation cards to make this year and I decided to stick with one easy design. I really like how they came out.

Explosion Box

I made this explosion box for our friends Linda, Steve, CJ and Mindy. Linda and I each joined a playgroup at the hospital right after our first kids were born. Emily was about 5 weeks old and CJ was 3 weeks old (I think). We've been friends ever since and I made this explosion box for CJ's graduation. Over the years I had many many photos of him and Emily together so I knew I wanted to put this together at the beginning of their senior year. I really love how it came out.

My summer circle journal

We started this circle journal 1/1/10 and it just now got back to me, all finished and looking great!! Tell me what you think ....