Hello all! Fun news today! My favorite online store now has it's own challenge blog! They are starting their challenges next Wednesday, April 1st. This will be really fun! Go visit and have a look:
http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.com/

Have a great day!

Mother's Day Cards for Cards For Heroes!

So, we've been busy making cards and doing other fun stuff. We finished our cards for the Mother's Day Card Challenge for www.cardsforheroes.org.

Accepting True's challenge to find a way to make cards for people in the service, I found a really neat group of folks that make cards for service people to send to their loved ones back home. So, you make a blank card of any kind (they'd even like your kids to help) and then you mail it to one one of the ladies and they mail it to units overseas for them to use for greeting cards to send home. Read all about it at www.cardsforheroes.org. Great idea! Thank you True!

My two-year-old's card:
My four-year-old's card:
My ten-year-old's card:
We'll be doing this again soon! It was really fun for all of us! Have fun and happy stampin!

Anniversary Card for Hubby! :-)

Hello Everyone! Tomorrow is our 20th wedding anniversary! So, here is the card I made for DH! I made this card as a result of looking at the Penny Black Saturday Challenge-- 1 flower, 2 ribbons and 3 brads. Neat idea! I also am still playing with the 6 inch square size. I got some chipboard flowers and Doodlebug glitter, which I played with to make the flower for the challenge. That was my first try with chipboard, and I thought it came out pretty nice. I know there is a lot more that can be done with chipboard, so I'm excited to try the other ways to use it. Anyway, I think I like the smaller size card better, but there is a lot more you can do with a square, so I'll keep trying! I hope everyone has a fun week! More soon!

St. Patrick's Day Cards!

Hello! I've been working on these St. Patrick's Day cards lately. I really like the color combinations, especially the addition of the pink. It has been fun working on them! Well, gotta go shuffle kids! Let me know what you think! Have a fun day!

Click on the photo to view enlarged version!

Win a handmade item from me!!

This is from Carol, who made such a nice comment on my cards, thanks! This sounds like fun! :-) So the first 5 people to comment on this post, will win something handmade from me! Just follow the directions below.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done sometime this year (I'll have it to you in a couple of weeks after I get mine).
4- You have no clue what it's going to be.
5-The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog! (then come here and post, I WILL check your blog *wink*) The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! So....who will be the first 5 people?????

Stampin' Up! Loads of Love Does It Again!

Hello and good morning! The SU Loads of Love set that I agonized over buying has come in

handy again! I used it for Valentine cards, and then I was thinking it would be fun to use for a card for a friend who just moved to a new house, and then I used it for a birthday card for my nephew too. I viewed a really helpful tutorial on coloring and shading from this neat gal named Kim. It's on Jacksonbelle Embellishments.

Here is the tutorial.

She was using colored pencils, mineral spirits and blender stumps, but I used my watercolor pencils and the blender pen, and I thought that worked fine also. I'm thinking that a similar process would work for markers--I'm saving up for a set of Copics, and so I'll have to figure out how to use them!

On another note. I've come to the realization that I couldn't possibly afford to own all the sentiment stamps available (I could try, though!!), so I thought I would work on my handwritting a bit. (My third grade teacher would be proud!) I suppose I could use the computer, but I'm trying to get away from the computer, since I make my living working on it. . . so, here's my inside sentiment that I lettered myself.

I was surprised to find that lettering wasn't really that hard--I just practiced on scratch paper for a bit and came up with my own font of sorts. I did study a bit of caligraphy out of a book when I was a teenager, so that kicked in, I think. Maybe I'll go check out a book on caligraphy--it might be fun to try again. The stamp set I used on the inside is SU Noteworthy. Anyway, I'm continuing to learn as much as I can and having fun in the process!

Well, off to get ready for a short weekend trip to a meet, so I'll have to stop! Thanks to everyone for visiting and commenting! See you in cyberspace! :-)

Check Out My Card on the Simon Says Stamp Blog!

Heidi at Simon Says Stamp put one of my cards on their blog! How fun is that?! I'm so tickled--please go check it out!

http://simonsaysstampblog.blogspot.com/

This set is so cute, and Simon Says Stamp is giving it away as Blog Candy! Let me know what you think of my card and try for a chance to win it. Thank you Heidi!! Hmmm, which set should I get next?!

Happy stamping! :-)