He still brings me flowers :0)

I have one of the best Hubbies there is... he is very supportive and doesn't freak out to bad when I get too involved in stamps.. instead of cleaning :0) -   He isn't one of those men that bring me flowers for every anniversary or event. In fact he really doesn't bring me flowers that often. I mean common we own a plant nursery... so cut flowers that will die... well Hubbies idea of romance is the tree that he planted for us a couple of weeks ago... something forever - and you know I am really the same... flowers are beautiful and I do love them, but hey lets plant a tree or a rose bush instead.... or a gift certificate to Micheal's is great too... LOL   But the other day he brought me flowers. He had been visiting one of our old farmer friends. Love this old man, he is so sweet - he has a field of these gorgeous Poppies. They are new this year he has never had them before, and he insisted that Hubby brought home some. And now we are going to collect some seeds from our friend and try and grow some of these ourselves! I have never seen poppies like this, don't even know what variety they are. But I think they are just amazingly gorgeous! I wish I could have captured the color better.. they are vibrant and stunning.

Should have taken the photo yesterday.. oops... the petals are dropping already. And this is why we plant the living, it makes me so sad to see them drop their petals.  And don't you love Hubbies fancy vase? Gotta use what you have in the back seat of the truck... LOL

Ok now a card - and this one was another one of those VERY different cards for me. I saw this stamp by Impression Obsessions Inc. at Simon Says Stamp and I just loved it. I love old watering cans, use to have a whole bunch of them years ago... anyway this stamp just called out to me, and I had to have it. I use to use stamps like this all the time, and haven't in a very long time. As soon as the package arrived I was wanting to color this one.

 But this is different one from what you normally see from me huh? Showed it to Hubby and he looked at it and quote said "Yea it's nice, not you, and there is no bling..." and handed it back to me. Hubby like the bling on my cards.. LOL   I colored the image with my Copics, then used pattern papers from K & Co. Punched the brown pattern paper with Martha Stewart Doily lace border punch, then sewed everything down - 6 pearls for embellishments... I also added something else very different with this card. I pulled out an old bottle of Papier Glass Finish in a Sepia color. You know how I know this is a very old bottle? The price tag is $1.99 LOL.   I very carefully layered the finish over the image and let it dry. Gave a really cool look, almost like the image has a piece of old glass over it. OH with those old glass bubbles :0)

Hope you like my vintage looking card. It was fun to step out of my normal again. You will probably be seeing more of me trying new things - I do this about once a year where I just have to pull out old products and try different looks...

Have a great Thursday - HUGS and

A Spoon Full of Sugar - One for the Boys!

This week A Spoon Full of Sugar has the challenge for make a card for the boys, guys... men in our lives. Now that is a hard challenge!! LOL Seriously.. men cards are tough! What no flowers, no frilly ribbons, no bling??? OH my!

Well here is my plain boring guy card...

I broke the no bling... both of my pattern papers have a sparkle to them. I just love these DCWV, and My Minds Eye papers, and you know ... I think they can look "manly" too!!  I sewed them down with a dark brown thread - My image is one of Stampavie's Gillian Roberts new images, this is Soccer Crazy. Note a boy in the image! and doing a sport..  I found a ribbon in my stash that says The Soccer Star - works well with the image, and then I cut out the sentiment - a Sizzix die from the card sentiments collection. I have had this collection of dies forever, why haven't I been using them? I don't know.. but will start again!

Now I know I would have normally added some flowers and other embellishments. But guys just normally don't have that do they? Oh well..  But I still think my card is ok, maybe cuz "I" still see that bling on the papers. LOL

Now pop over and see how all the Spoon DT came together with all of the different GUY cards. Love them! Then join us and make a card for a man in you life... hint hint... great prize this week... :0)

HUGS and-

A recipe for this weeks Stampavie Challenge!!

Stampavie DT Challenge! And today the challenge has a list of ingredients for a wonderful Recipe! I will admit when I sat down to make my card, I thought wow... that is an odd list of ingredients, I sure hope I can get them all in... but it really wasn't to hard at all. :0)

Now here are your ingredients for your recipe to a good card:
- 5 flowers
- 2 different ribbons
- At least one punch/shape/die cut
- Anything pink or blue

And here is what my recipe cooked up :0)

Now I may have stretched the ingredients a bit... I mean turquoise is a shade of blue Right? and my die is what I cut my image out ... love my new Spellbinders label die. Perfect to use the SU ribbon slit punch to run a ribbon through :0)

Ok, so let me back up a bit, a dark brown card stock for my base. Then the two pattern papers are from My Minds Eye and both have a pretty glitter to them. I sewed them down with a dark brown thread in a random stitch. My first ribbon is used as a band between the two patterns. My image is colored with Copics - This is Stampavie's Gillian Roberts Teddy and Me - adore this image!

I really tried hard to give the teddy bear some texture... how? I colored and shaded as normal. Then I took a paper towel and dabbed it with the blending solution on the bear. I like how it came out, and hope to try it more with different textures. It is then cut out with the labels die, and then I took one my BG10 Copic and shaded around the edge. Punched the SU ribbon slit and ran my second ribbon through.

I added the 5 flowers stacked in to the bottom corner attached with jewelry spacers and mini brads and decorated with Martha Stewart branch punch.

My sentiment is an epoxy sticker from Cloud 9, i think .. Love it, I stuck it to a white card stock and left a border around it, then colored the edge with the same Copic BG10.

Now lets see what the other DT cooked up at the challenge here and then please join us and cook up your own card!

Have a wonderful Monday! HUGS and-

Animal Crackers... a beautiful week!

Happy Saturday! Happy Animal Crackers Day!  and Happy Easter!  I hope the weather has been wonderful where you are. Here.. it has been just gorgeous this week. We were suppose to have rain yesterday, but the clouds rolled in and it looked like it would let loose, but a little bit of drizzle was all we saw. How about some fuzzy people photos?

See how pretty it is??? So bright sunny and GREEN!! Wow after last years drought the green is really a glorious sight. And the Donkeys are loving it. You can see my neighbors horses in the background enjoying it as well. Now.. in case you want to know which donkeys this is - left to right.. Frio, Darlene, Bella behind her Jolene, Pepita, Alonso behind him, Jazz and then Macie.  If you look close you can see that Darlene isn't eating... her ears are hanging to the side, she was taking a little nap :0)

Here is pen two... Vicki, Ellie Mae and then outside the pen Cocoa, one of the standards. Oh and you can see some bluebonnets popping up. The flowers are really gorgeous this year! I went to the post office Wednesday.. and look at this field of flowers across the street!

Now I love bluebonnets, they are really pretty... but this field is mainly what we call Indian Paintbrush ( remember we have a goat named that too ) I LOVE these flowers... They really pop on the side of the road! Love that coral red color! Remember this is on the way to the post office...  I snapped this photo going down the road about 40mph ... so it isn't the best photo :0)

How adorable is this? This time of the month.. when it is a full moon, nap time in the afternoons is a really important part of the day. About 3-4pm everyone is laying down for some much needed rest. Usually when you go out, they will pop up and come and see you. Little Mirta was just too tired to get up. OH my she is just beautiful! And so tiny! Cute!

The goats were down as well... but they were more about being lazy and enjoying the shade of their little house. Look at how cute Andy looks... little stinker! He has escaped twice this week! And he isn't a rocket scientist about knowing how to come back into the gate when you are getting him back. He tried to jump on the fencing, instead of walking through the open gate just 3 feet further down.. sigh shaking head here...  But he is a handsome guy, he is the darker red and black kid. His brother Andy has escaped once with him, but didn't like the freedom. And his sister Cathy shown in front here... she likes staying with mom.

It is so stressful trying to take photos of Libbie and Autie - Libbie loves to pose for photos, but since we have gotten Autie... posing turns more into a wrestling match and playing time. This is Round One...

Round Two... ding ding - - I love the look on their faces!

Autie yelped before round three... now he wasn't hurt, so no worries. He yelps when he thinks he might get hurt... LOL And Libbie always kisses and makes up - they really do love each other and play so well together.

But taking their photos has really stressed me. I want some cute photos- pretty photos - nice close ups to show you how good looking they are!!! Well think I am smarter than they are... I have to figure out how to snap a photo of them being calm and laying pretty!!!


And then it came to me... they wait by the back door for us when we are outside. And as soon as we enter the house... off they go like the hyper little children they are, 110mph non stop. So I decided to take my boots off, and tip toe up on the porch and "sneak up" on them and see just what they are doing when they are so quiet inside by themselves.  

Take a look at how cute they are!! Now it isn't a great photo... I snapped this through the back door window... but seriously this is the photo I have been wanting "in real life" Look at those stares at the back door.. I love it!  Funny thing.. just after I snapped this photo they heard me on the porch and jumped up, started barking and running in circles.

Well have to run this morning... a few errands this morning. Then this afternoon I think I am going to help our neighbor. She is going to take some puppies her adopted stray dog had 6  weeks ago and set up a puppy stand at our plant nursery and see if we can find some loving homes for them. They are a mixed mut breed, but oh my they are really adorable. If these two little lug nuts weren't already driving me crazy... I would fall for another puppy in a heart beat... then I hear the running down the hall - the barking - and trip over the rug they have turned upside down :0)

Have a wonderful weekend! And a glorious Easter Sunday.
HUGS and-

Just Magnolias - folded up!

Hi - and Happy Friday - Before I get to my Card...

I have to have a LOUD shout out to my Sister... Happy Birthday Mel!! :0) I won't tell how old you are getting... (mainly cuz I am the older sister!)

Today is Just Magnolia's day, and what a fun challenge today- The challenge is to make a card with more than one fold! Any type of card, whatever you like, just that it has more than that normal one fold you have with a card.


For me, I decided this was a chance to use my Big Shot Pro!!! WHOO HOO! and the one and only Pro die I purchased...  (remember they are pricey so I will have to VERY slowly add to this collection) My die is the 6x6 envelope maker - I love the scalloped folds to this envelope, not just the plain square normal envelope. Now as soon as I saw this I thought.. this would make a great card as well. So that is what I did, I made the envelope be the actual card!

Here is my card all folded up - I used a satin ribbon as a tie... you will see it inside the card further down - but I wanted to make the card look like a present and a get a bit excitement in opening it up.

Getting excited... he he he  It is opening up!

I inked the edges of the four scallops - just so they would show and pop a bit more.

And then when open! I love how it sort of looks like a flower. My center is where my message and image are. You can sign and put a personal message on the "wings" I suppose. I used a piece of green card stock as the back mat, I sewed around the edge with a straight stitch. Then with a piece of white card stock I cut a 5x5 square and used a Martha Stewart border and corner set... love the doily look of this with the image... it matches her dress don't you think? This piece was sewed as well.  I also used last years Martha Stewart Ducks border punch - the part that punched out - love those little duckies! OH and you can see how the ribbon that is used for the tie on the outside runs below all of the papers and then out of slits on the sides. For my image I used one of the new Easter Tildas - love this little chickie in the spotted egg.

She has been colored with my Copics, and high lighted with a white gel pen. Then sewed on both pink and green card stock. For the sentiment I used one of the Micheal's dollar stamps - that I got on clearance last year for I think 25 cents! And sewed it down -

It was really a fast card to put together, and I love that it is a bit different from my "norm". A present like card.

Now hop on over to Just Magnolia's Challenge and see how many folds you can count in all the wonderful DT cards! And then fold on up and join us for a great prize!

See you tomorrow for Animal Crackers!

HUGS and-

And the winner of my Blog Candy is.........

It is time... for the blog candy winner!! I have added a few more goodies to the bag... I wish I had time to show the photos... but March has just been nuts! ok.. you want me to stop gabbing and show the winner?

Ok... here it is...

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

297 

Timestamp: 2010-04-01 16:06:15 UTC

And that means... that this is the winner! -

ScrappinCntryGrl said...

"What a great package of goodies to win...and i became a follower...i luv your page title....hehe

Sunday, 21 March, 2010 "

So if you know ScrappinCntryGrl  - shout out to her!!! And then if you are ScrappingCntryGrl ... email me at michelleo@hughes.net  with your snail mail address so I can box this up and get it out to you!   I'll give through Sunday to hear from you... then I'll do the number generator again for a runner up winner - 

Thanks so much for joining in on my blog candy - I think I will start putting another group together and have one sooner this time and not wait 6 months this time....

HUGE HUGS TO EACH OF YOU!

A Sympathy Card - with Helz Cuppleditch Flower Planters

Sympathy cards are hard aren't they?  I love beautiful cards - but when I am making one for a friend, as a sympathy card it takes me forever. A dear friend lost her mother.. and I really wanted to make a special card for her. I spent three hours stressing over how to make this card.  I finally put it all together.

I used Stampavie's Flower Planters by Helz Cuppleditch - really a lovely image, and perfect for this card I felt.

Colored with my copics -

The base is an off white card stock, then I stacked up LOTS of layers of Classic K designer papers from K& Company. Each layer matted with another pattern, and sewed with straight and zig zag stitches. I found a satin ribbon that matched perfect so I ran it as a band across the middle.

I also did the inside, with two layers of pattern paper, sewed - and my sentiment is stamped in brown and sewed as well. And another band of ribbon.

A difficult time, and my heart is with her -


I will be back this afternoon with the winner of my blog candy - - -