Returning Home

My son in law returned home safely from Iraq earlier this year- thank God. I really, really LOVE this photo of my daughter and her husband. If a photo is worth a thousand words, than this one is so much more. This was their first embrace when he got off the bus that brought the soldiers from the plane straight to the field where the families were waiting. I think they were happy to finally be reunited :). I know that our entire family waited anxiously for news that our soldiers had gotten safely home and that we each rejoiced when we got the text that said they landed safely. I wish we could have all been there for the happy reunion, but my daughter and her husband are based in another state. We are so fortunate though, that John's mom was there to snap this incredible photo. I love the flag in my daughter's hand as she welcomes her husband home :).

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!!! Blessings to you!

Barb

Supplies:
My Digital Studio: Night of Navy textured card stock, Real Red striped grosgrain ribbon, Full Heart punch add on, Whisper White text.

New MDS Downloads

I downloaded the FREE In Color updates this morning for My Digital Studio and decided to play with some new digital DSP and digital card stock while I was downloading the rest of the updates :). I used Very Vanilla and Cajun Craze. If you miss Really Rust since the color renovation, Cajun Craze is a great replacement. Even if you have left over Really Rust DSP, you can use it with Cajun Craze and it looks fabulous :). So this is what I came up while I was waiting for the downloads to finish up....

I wish I had had some time to get back to my stamping room this last week, but I had some things to catch up on. Maybe I'll get some time to get back there this weekend (keeping fingers crossed). I hope you all had a wonderful week and that your weekend is the best!

Blessings!

Barb

Supplies:

My Digital Studio

Owl Punch/MDS

I didn't get a chance to get into my stamping room yesterday :-(, but I did make a card in My Digital Studio :-). I don't actually own the owl punch YET, but I totally plan to get him cause' he is sooooo stinkin' cute!!! I do, however, own the digital owl punch for My Digital Studio, so I still get to play with him- hoot hoot hooray!! And here he is...............

I am so going to make this card for real when I get this adorable owl punch! Just so ya' know, the left wing is not part of the owl punch, but is actually the wing from the Two Step Bird punch- here on this card as a digital punch, but I own the 'real' punch :-D. I LOVE My Digital Studio for designing cards and scrapbook pages before I ever cut into my paper. It's so easy to change out papers, embellishments, stamps, punches (all digital of course) until you like what you see. MDS will also give you the measurements, so you can go create the card exactly as you designed it in MDS. How cool is that?!!! I hope you all have a WONDERFUL weekend!!!!!

Blessings!

Barb

Supplies:
My Digital Studio

I've used up a good part of my stash over the summer, so have to build it back up :). I made this card yesterday for my daughter's friend who had a birthday this week. Uh huh, you guessed it, she LOVES pink! To that end, I paired Pretty in Pink with Certainly Celery, Pink Pirouette, and Very Vanilla.

I had some of these embossed card fronts left over from the note cards that I made On Tuesday and didn't photograph (rolls eyes :D ) and I didn't want them to go to waste. I stamped the three flowers, die cut three butterflies, and added pretty pink gems for just a touch of sparkle. Quick and easy card!

I hope everyone is staying nice and cool. We've been on heat advisory in our neck of the woods for about two weeks now. Summer will be coming to an end before too much longer :(. I can hardly believe how quickly the summer has been going by! I love summer, it's one of my favorite seasons, although each season has its own list of stuff that I love and look forward to. I am wanting to linger on summer colors, but my mind is already thinking ahead to the earthy colors of autumn, the crackling sound of leaves underfoot, the crispness of the air at night as the hot days of summer come to a close. Sigh.....

Blessings to you all today!!!

Barb

Supplies:

Stamps: Polka Dot Punches- retired SAB set, Punched Posies- 118535 (Level 1 Hostess Set in Summer Mini 2010

Paper: Pretty in Pink-100459, Certainly Celery-105125, Very Vanilla-101650

Classic Stampin' Ink: Pretty in Pink-101301, Certainly Celery-105217

Dies: Beautiful Wings embosslit-118138

Other: Square Lattice Textured Impressions embossing folder- 119976

Recyclin' !!!!

It may take me a little while to get up and going like I was before summer started, but... here is a little scrapbook I made a couple of weekends ago. My Stampin' Up! order arrived with my customers' orders a couple of days before and I had the box sitting on the floor in my stamping room. Every time I went in there the flaps really stood out to me, lol! So I cut them off and used my Curly Label die to create my book covers :D.

I peeled off some of the outer layers of the card board after die cutting the covers and then stamped them with the En Francais background stamp in Crumb Cake ink. I added a little bit of sponging with Old Olive and Crumb Cake inks. There are ten pages (Crumb Cake) all together in my book, but I'll just post a few of them so you can get the general idea of the layout I used inside the book :).

I stamped various sentiments from several different stamp sets throughout the pages of the book.

The back cover was done the same as the front cover and then I punched the holes in the book covers and pages with my Bind-it-all (LOVE that thing!!!) and bound it together.

So that was my weekend project a couple of weeks ago. I did a set of note cards for a gift on Tuesday, but do you think I remembered to take photos before I gave them away? Nope, sure didn't! That is what comes from waiting till the last minute to get a project done :D. I'm hoping to spend some time in my stamping room today (keep your fingers crossed for me ;-) ) since the only thing we have planned today is going to a birthday party for one of the coaches later on this evening. Hope you all have a wonderful day and thanks so much for stopping by and leaving comments even though I haven't been here most of the summer. Big hugs to you all!!!!

Blessings!

Barb

Supplies:

Stamps: En Francais-109521, Fabulous Phrases-120501, Vintage Vogue- 118598, Flight of the Butterfly- 111564, Apple Blossoms- Hostess Level 2

Paper: Stampin' Up! Box, Crumb Cake card stock- 120953, Old Olive card stock- 100702

Classic Stampin' Ink: Crumb Cake- 121030, Old Olive- 102277, Perfect Plum- 101437, Early Espresso- 119670

Punches: Two Step Bird-117191

Other: gems, Bind-it-all machine

Ahhhhhh...

We are returning to the school schedule for skate practice and training this week. Instead of doing 6.5 hour days, we will be doing 3.5 hour days until school officially starts later this month. Then we will return to 2.5 hour days. Public skate sessions just for fun will remain the same, but I will finally have some time to play with paper and ink again :D. I did do a project one weekend and got one done while at the rink over this past weekend, so I should be able to get those posted this week! I tried to make some cards yesterday, but think I lost my mojo over the summer :(. Hopefully, it will come back quickly as I get back to my paper and ink!

Our Artistic Skate Team brought home 8 medals from Nationals this year. Whoo hoo! We are all so proud of them! They brought home two gold, four silver, and two bronze. They all worked so hard over the summer... you would not believe how hard they train! My daughter and I were only there for a couple of days, as was most of the team, but the coaches and the adult competitors stayed for the whole two weeks. We watched the remaining members of the team on the live stream at Skatersplace.com though. We cheered at home as loudly as we did at Nationals :). It was a fun two weeks! The competition season is over now until October when we go to the first Meet and then the full season starts up in January 2011 and will end in August at Nationals again. The Team does have more USA Roller Sports testing in September, but that is a very long one day event. Each member of the Team has to take USARS testing each year for whatever events they will be competing in for the next year. It's a pretty nerve racking day for them :).

Thanks to all of you who have left comments for me over the summer while I have been so busy with my daughter's skating schedule! I really appreciate your encouragement and support that paper and ink will always be there, but these hours spent with my daughter are so much more important. I know I will never regret taking the summer off to watch her grow in something that she loves so much and being there for every moment of it :D. Now hopefully, my creative side will kick in!

Blessings and hugs to all!

Barb