I've been tagged!

My mother tagged me so I guess that I need to share 7 things about myself and tag 7 others. This should be fun since I don't have a card to share! Here goes....

1. My cat's name is Melky. We adopted him from a shelter toward the end of baseball season and one of my favorite players is Melky Cabrera. My BIL suggested it and it stuck.

2. I'm a HUGE Yankees fan, hence the cat named after a Yankee. This isn't abnormal except that I do live in Red Sox Nation and my parents say they brought me up as a Red Sox fan. We went to a few games but I don't remember watching them at home or knowing who any players were!

3. My husband and I met working at a YMCA summercamp.

4. I still work at Hallmark (gasp!) which was my first job at the age of 16. They give me a few hours a week and I get a discount on Vera Bradley.

5. I love Vera Bradley! Probably from working at Hallmark!

6. I teach first grade at the same school I attended first grade. And I stepped in as my first grade teacher retired.

7. I love to crochet in addition to stamping. It just takes more time to finish a baby blanket than a card. I'm halfway done one so I'll share soon.

Okay I guess I'm supposed to tag 7 others so here's who I'm tagging:

1. Jennifer who says her cat looks like Melky.

2. Bev who left me a sweet message about my card so I want to know more about her.
Be sure to check out her BLOG CANDY too!!!

3. Susan who has 16 cats...YIKES! Her cards and scrapbook pages are still amazing though.

4. Fabric Mom who makes some cool fabric postcards.

5. Maria who makes fabulous cards and inspires me with her Mojo Monday card every week.

6. Shannon who makes amazing cards and amazes me by posting multiple times every day.

7. and last but not least Olena who keeps leaving me sweet messages about my cards.

Whoa that was a lot of work. I'm off to crotchet a baby blanket for a very special baby...boy or girl we won't find out til July when my SIL is due!

Snow day and more Mojo

Between school days and my night job I didn't even see the Mojo Monday sketch until late last night. I love it and was granted a snow day to play along!

I decided on the background colors and ribbon quickly and thought the rest would come along as easily. Boy was I wrong! More than an hour late I emerged with the finished product that I'm pleased with. And in the meantime I created many usable pieces that will become part of a card in the future! They just didn't work with this card.

On another note, I've been very lucky in the blog candy department and I will be sharing the love soon. I started blogging about two months ago (on a snow day!) and have been a fairly regular blogger this month so I want to celebrate! Until then check out Steph's blog candy over at Any Shade of Green. Thanks for stopping by!


Card stock: Whispher White, Night of Navy, Bashful Blue DSP, Barely Banana
Ink: Midnight Blue (Stazon), Apricot Appeal (SU!)
Stamps: Celebrate from SU! That's Nice, flower from SU! Friendship Blooms
Tools: Silver EP, Paisley embossing folder (Cuttlebug), paper piercer (SU!)
Other: Ribbon, petals from Making Memories

All God's Children

I bought the SU stamp set 'All God's Children' when I was teaching first grade at a Catholic school. I used one of the stamps to make welcome cards for kids last year, and another with a baby Jesus to make a few last minute Christmas cards this year. Other than that they were untouched! At the end of last year I left the school, for a variety of reasons, but mostly because my dream job opened up and miraculously I landed it! I now teach first grade at my elementary school, where I took over for my first grade teacher. Big shoes to fill, but I think I'm hanging in there!

Last year when I left my small, closeknit school community I promised my students that I would write if they wrote me. Partly because I would miss them, partly because I still remember when my 4th grade teacher sent me a post card, but I also love mail! Over the summer a few wrote, and I wrote back but it died off. However, I had twins, a boy and a girl, who were also leaving the school and they've been faithful writers. So once our Christmas cards came and went I knew I needed a special card to remind them I was thinking of them. I remember this being the point in the year when they were taking off as readers, and wondered what they were learning about now.

I hope they'll enjoy receiving them as much as I enjoyed creating them!

Jewelry Color Inspiration

I am loving finding inspiration for cards online. I needed a great birthday card for my aunt who is an AMAZING stamper and Stacey had a great color combo inspired by jewelry! I didn't have Pacific Point but found some random cardstock that seemed close.

I went crazy with the scallop punch and despite taking it apart a few times I'm pleased with the end result. Hopefully my aunt will be too!

Stamps: So Many Scallops, Live, Laugh, Love...?

Paper: whisper white, bashful blue, certainly celery, night of navy & pacific point wanna-be

Ink: certainly celery, bashful blue

Other: SU scallop punch

I guess I was inspired by this historic inauguration day and used the same stamp to make a card for whatever....just a great saying on the front that's blank inside.

Thanks for checking out my creations!

Happy Birthday Shannon!

Check out Shannon's Blog and wish her a happy birthday along with me! I only just found her blog this morning, but her cards are great and who doesn't want extra birthday wishes? My card was inspired by today's Mojo Monday sketch. I even finished it on MONDAY!





In making the card, I was having trouble working in the circle and wound up with a bonus card.




Both of my cards are Very Vanilla base with DSP from the Love you Much bundle. I also used Chocolate Chip, Real Red, and Regal Rose. Stamps were inked with Real Red ink on the first, and Green Galore on the second as well. I created such a mess in the basement tonight I can't even tell you the stamp sets I used!

Go check out all the other great Mojo Monday cards and stop by to wish Shannon a happy birthday!

Mojo and snow!

I found my mojo....mostly. I'm not in love with the card, but snow is falling this morning and the card is going to a good friend in NM that misses snow and skiing.

Tomorrow there's no school so I'm looking forward to actually getting to the Mojo Monday challenge on Monday! I better rest up and get ready to shovel now. :-) It's a weekly exercise these days.

OCC - Technique Challenge

Since the Mojo challenge wasn't working, I thought I'd try the technique challenge over at Our Creative Corner, to make a card using embossing resist. I enjoyed doing the resist on my first card, so I ended up doing another one!

On the pink card I used a glitter embossing powder so the resist doesn't show up quite as well. With the second card I used white embossing powder for the group of flowers. Except now I think they look like dead dandelions. Hmmmm.....make a wish!

Who's got my mojo?

I do not have any stamping mojo tonight. I was quite excited to get home and see a Stampin' Up box with some new paper and stamps. But it was not meant to be. After completing a card for my first challenge I wanted to participate in this week's Mojo Monday sketch. It went downhill with each stamp and snip, the mojo is missing tonight.
I think I need to clean before any more successful stamping can occur. I can't find anything!!!! Hope you have your mojo....

Show me the ring!

On New Year's Eve I got a call from a good friend--she had just gotten engaged! I love her fiance and am so happy...I just needed a special card to congratulate her. I had the saying "something, old, something new, something borrowed, something BLUE" going through my head when I saw this OCC Color Challenge.

I used Bashful Blue and Brocade Blue, along with Sahara Sand as my neutral. The forever comes from Wonderful Words II, and the happiness from Warm Words. There's always a saying for something! The ring is from Mini Mates which I embossed with silver, but it needed something extra. I picked up some rhinestone stickers at Michael's--I have some in my mess of a craft area but I want to send the card sooner, rather than later.

Thanks for stopping by...and don't forget to check out Joanie's blog candy. The link is at the top right, above my profile. It's time for American Idol, I'll be sucked in for another season!

Some cards to share!

Well with my husband at basketball practice (He coaches HS with his brother) I escaped to the basement and stamped up a storm. While I don't have a radio or tv down there I found that my with my ipod at full volume--not in my ears, set on the table so I could move around--I had some good tunes that kept me going. I'll invest in some small plug in speakers for them, but only once I get the mess cleaned up. I could've made more cards or made the same in a shorter time if I didn't keep losing things!

My great-aunt had recently asked me to pick up a selection of cards for her, since she doesn't get to the card store often. I thought homemade cards would be that much better so these are a couple I worked on this weekend and this evening.

The beginning of the saying is a letter M-a fun brad that gave the card a little extra something. I have no clue where the saying came from. I went through a Mod Podge phase in college and was planning on doing something with sayings/quotes/fortunes. I've got plenty to use on cards since they never got plastered on anything.

I'll save my other creations for later in the week--who knows when I'll get time to stamp again!

Caryl

Snowy day, Snowy cards

Well my mom was kind enough to pick up my camera and requested a card. She also got me the Sizzix Big Kick for Christmas and I love the embossing plates. These snowflakes were perfect to play with since I have another day off from school today. SNOW DAY! Don't be too jealous, I do have to make them up in June. I kept it simple to keep the focus on the embossed snowflakes.

I'm still working on my camera skills for taking pictures of cards, so hopefully in the future details will POP.

For now it may be gym time, or shoveling time. Either way the tree still needs to come down. It's always a sad day when I take my tree down (artificial of course), which is why it is still up. And it's a big job! I also need to write my thank yous from Christmas so these cards will be put to good use. If I find time to make some more cards later I'll be sure to share.

Lucky Me

Wow! My husband thought I won the lottery, I was bouncing around the house so excited last night. I won blog candy from Jeanette at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and I'm still just so excited. I don't win things often! Go check out her blog--I don't know how a SAHM finds time to make the intricate cards she does. Thanks Jeanette!

Tomorrow it is back to school for me. When I finish up getting work done for school (this teacher work hard even on weekends and vacations!) and housework I hope to head to the basement and begin creating. It was a New Year's resolution after all. Unfortunately I can't post a picture until later in the week--I left my camera at my brother's house New Year's day. My nephew was too cute with cream cheese making his hair stick up that I had to take a picture. And as I spend the rest of the morning running around with him the camera was a distant memory when it was time to pack up.

Hope you find time to create today too!

New year....new me?

Well when I started this crazy blog I thought I'd be inspired to share my creativity. Instead I'm overwhelmed by how wonderful everyone else's blogs are and I seem to spending more time looking for inspiration, than creating.

I'm bad at resolutions...I say I'll be a more regular gym go-er each December and never get there. This year I started that fad a month early and managed to get to the gym TEN TIMES! So now that 2009 is here, I got my craft area cleaned up earlier this week and I hope to spend at least once a week creating. Which also means at least once a week sharing something here! The only problem with my space is that it is in the basement and I love spending my free time with my hubby. I suppose as his basketball schedule gets busier I can manage to break away and make some cards.

Wish me luck! May your new year be filled with blessings, and good luck with your resolutions!