New Things to Share.....

Sorry for the long absence, everyone. I know how frustrating it can be to take the time to check a blog for several days in a row without seeing anything new. I promise to try much harder to post more regularly....that's my new resolution (it's OK to make new resolutions in April, isn't it??)
SO many of you have left posts, and sent emails with such wonderful, caring, heartfelt messages, just checking in on me to see if everything is OK. I can't tell you how much all of the messages mean to me--and how special you have all made me feel!! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to every one of you!! (Big hugs!!)
I've gotten a few new things created, so you have something new to look at today. I just received some new SU stamps a week ago or so, and had to break them in a little bit! I really like all three of these sets, as they give such unique and different looks. I'll add the card information later, so if there's something you'd like to know more about with one of these cards, you'll be able to find what you need.


MANY, many (many!) of you have left posts here, contacted me on SCS, or personally emailed me regarding the Ribbon Blossom Tutorial. SInce there are so many questions about it, I'm going to add it in a separate post today. Hopefully that post will explain things a little better and answer some of your questions.

Thanks for stopping by today. Again, I want to tell all of you how very much your kind and thoughtful words mean to me. You are ALL very special!! :-)

Feeling better---hugs to all of you!!!

Whew!!! For many, many reasons, I am feeling SO much better today!! The posts that you have left have made me feel fantastic, and really, really special!! I can't thank you all enough, for the kind, wonderful, encouraging (and funny!) words that you've left for me here in your posts. Thanks, guys----from the bottom of my heart----I truly do treasure you all!! My blog readers ROCK!!! :-)
I was creating like a mad woman last night and this afternoon, so I have some new things to post sometime early this evening.
I'll be back in a bit! Hugs again!!!

Feeling Better, Woo-Hoo!!!! Plus, an MFT Release & Other Stuff......

I'm a little late in catching up on my posts for MFT's release party---sorry about that! I swear that I've had THE worst luck around release dates lately for the companies I design for. For the last several months, something has either happened with my family (grandfather& great aunt passing away, and all the details that that entails.....OR I end up getting sick.) I love release-parties, don't get me wrong.....they're a fun and exciting time to share the creations that you've 'secretly' been working on for a while and are anxious to share with everyone.....the cards just haven't been stacked in my favor for the last two or three release dates. But, I do try to do my best!
Well, this time, I ended up getting a wicked-nasty-awful sore throat (fever ---102 degrees!---aches, chills, NO energy, etc. etc. etc.....). (Boy, do I sound like a whiner, or what?!?!?) I swear, it felt like I was swallowing shards of glass----ouchy!! I'm just glad my family didn't catch the same bug----at least not yet, anyway. Luckily, I found some left-over antibiotics from a past prescription, so I started taking those, which helped immensely. (I'm an RN, and, YES, I know that you're not supposed to do that, but at 11PM, I'll do whatever I can to start feeling better.)

OK.....on to the good stuff!
These cards are made from two new sets, now available from My Favorite Things (http://www.mftstamps.com/). The adorable little gardening gal is a set called 'Can Ya' Dig It'. An adorable set with a ton of images that are SO much fun to color! The mini-set for this month is 'Mother's Day'. A must-have set for this time of year! These are two sets you'll find yourself reaching for over and over again!

I really need to say a HUGE 'thank-you' to all of you that left such wonderful, encouraging, sweet, heartfelt comments regarding my run-in with the. *ahem*, 'ladies'.........you turned my whole day around! I went from feeling rotten about myself to walking around with a big ol' grin on my face for several days. Even though I've never met any of you 'in-person'......you all mean so very much to me, and I thank you for being so wonderful!! BIG hugs to ALL of you!!!
I'll be back a bit later today with another peek from another new-release, plus something just for fun! Until then.....have a wonderful Sunday morning! Hugs to you!!!

A Slump is Over (Hopefully!)

First, I'd like to apologize for the long gap between posts! For those of you who do stop by on a regular basis---thank you!! I know it gets frustrating to stop by a blog to see if there's anything new to look at, only to see an old post sitting there. Hopefully the three cards I uploaded will make up for that a little bit. Thank you to my faithful readers---I really do appreciate you!
I hit a major slump---nothing creative came to mind, which was very frustrating! Something was 'off', and I couldn't quite grasp what it was. I thought about things quite a bit, and finally figured out exactly what was bothering me. (As a fair warning, I'm going to ramble a bit now...) :-)
One of the things that I HATE most---absolutely detest----are snobby people. Those people that think they are perfect---and no one else is even close, or ever will be, at least according to them. You know the type. (Unfortunately, I think we've all dealt with them at some time in our lives.)
Well, to make a long story short, several days ago, I had the *ahem* 'pleasure' of being snubbed by two of the snobbiest women I've EVER seen in my life. It just happened to be in front of a large group of people....in my youngest son's classroom....right after a play he and his class did for all of the parents. These two 'ladies' (and I use the term loosely) have the whole silver-spoon thing going on----came from a wealthy family (hubby too)---and so do all of their friends. If you're not wealthy, you're just not good enough---at least in their opinion. I'm not wealthy, and my family isn't either. I'm a middle-class, small-town, Iowa farm girl---always have been, always will be, and it makes me who I am. Personally, I have never judged people by the size of their bank balance...some of the most fabulous people I've known in my life didn't have two cents to their name. These 'ladies' do judge by wealth, and I've seen it happen more times than I can count. Unfortunately, I was on the receiving-end of their actions that day, and it was awful. I was so embarassed---then I felt really awful about myself, and then I got REALLY angry. I still am.
I'm not one of those people that can come up with a great verbal response on the spot. I can usually think of something great to say two or three days later, which doesn't do me much good. (I did have a 'gesture' in mind---but I couldn't do that in my son's classroom! :-) )
I still hate the fact that people that don't really matter to me that much can have such an effect over how I feel about myself. I always thought that I would get better about things like this as I got older, but I haven't. I think I'll always struggle with this in some way, and I'll always have to work on not letting other people's actions affect me so much.

OK.....that's probably enough rambling for today. If you've read all the way through this post---thank you, for letting me vent. I hope I didn't end up being too much of a 'downer'. I do want you to enjoy stopping by my blog.
Right now, I'm running late for church, so I'll have to come back later to add the card ingredients. Talk to you later!!

Hanna Stamps---New Releases & a Guy's Card!!!

This Riley is a new release from Hanna Stamps. I spent a lazy day yesterday, watching TV, relaxing and coloring lots and lots of images! We had a lot of snowfall last night, and school started late this morning due to bad road conditions, so you have no idea how much I envy this little guy, relaxing on the beach like he is!! To see more peeks of the newest Riley images, be sure to visit the Hanna Stamps member company forum on Splitcoaststampers!

Stamps: Riley by Hanna Stamps.
Paper: Basic Grey-Oh Baby Boy DP, Brocade Blue, Gable Green, Papertrey white.
Ink: Brocade Blue, Green Galore.
Accessories: Copic markers, ticket corner punch, brads, Designer label punch, oval punch, circlepunch, photo corner punch-SU, ribbon, sponge daubers, dimensionals.

My youngest son is a tractor fanatic, so he was thrilled to see that I was using this Riley image--in fact, I stamped some images for him, and we both colored for a while. Of course, according to my son, the tractor HAD to be green!! Lots of new, adorable Riley images are available--be sure to check out Hanna Stamps in the member companies forum on SCS. The DT is creating really adorable stuff with this lil' guy!

Stamps: Riley moose by Hanna Stamps.
Paper: Paper Loft-Simple Stripes DP, Brocade Blue, Old Olive, Real Red, So Saffron.
Ink: Real Red, Brocade Blue, So Saffron, Old Olive.
Accessories: Copic markers, ticket corner punch, Designer Label punch, oval punch, circle punches-SU, brads, ribbon, sponge daubers, dimensionals.

I thought this might make a cute invitation for a 'guy-night' of cards, munchies....and all that stuff. These images are from a new set by Hanna Stamps, called 'Mikey'. The detail in these images is amazing! (Mikey, himself, is pretty darn cute, too!)

Stamps: Mikey by Hanna Stamps.
Paper: Real Red, Basic Black, Papertrey white.
Ink: Real Red, Black, Versafine Onyx Black.
Accessories: Copic markers, Cuttlebug folder, ticket corner punch, brads, ribbon, sponge daubers, dimensionals.


Thanks for stopping by today.... I'm going to be back a little later this afternoon, with another entry. I've also got a few ideas to ramble about, that I'd like to share here with those of you that stop by.
Now.....off to scoop snow.........wait, shouldn't I stamp instead?!?!

New from Hanna Stamps!!!

This is a newly-released set, called 'My Best Friend' from Hanna Stamps. Other images in the scene come from two companion sets called 'Large Breed' and 'Small Breed'. It's SO nice to have some realistic-looking dog stamps that are still very cute! I had to add a little Yorkie into the scene as I have one....a little spitfire named Morgan. Be sure to stop by Hanna Stamps in the Member Companies forums on SCS for more details about these new sets. This is the first time I've made a tent-topper card. I believe the layout was created by Kirsten Dubosque ('ked' on Splitcoaststampers). I enjoyed using this layout and plan to use it often. I used rectangle and oval Nestabilities for the main image and sentiment panels. The stamp set has a teeny-tiny paw-print stamp that I think is adorable, so I trimmed several and added them to both panels. I added a ribbon blossom, and considered it done! Chocolate Chip is my favorite color CS to work with---it looks great with almost every color SU makes. This dotted DP from Paper Studio is a great match to Chocolate Chip, and it also comes with light blue dots. Now I just need to buy more!Thanks for looking---I hope you like this. Have a wonderful day, everyone! Enjoy the sunshine!
(**I'll be back a bit later today to post a few more creations made with the newest sets from Hanna Stamps.)

Stamps: My Best Friend by Hanna Stamps.
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, Paper Studio DP.
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa.
Accessories: Copic markers, ticket corner punch, brads, Nestabilities, ribbon, dimensionals, sponge daubers.

Pink & Pearls....MFT

This uses a new-release from My Favorite Things, called 'Punch a Bunch'. I've had these adhesive pearls for a while and keep forgetting to use them. They added a bit of softness to the card, and it was a nice change from using brads. I CASE'd a gorgeous creation by atomicbutterfly, called 'A Twist on Autumn', which can be seen here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ga...p;ppuser=78862. Kelly has an amazing gallery, and there's no doubt why she's 'Dirty'!! I also rarely use my Designer Label Punch, so I dusted it off and combined it with several other SU punches for the layer behind the sentiment. The rest of the card is pretty self-explanatory. Thanks for looking, and have a great day!!


Stamps: Punch a Bunch & Boho Blossoms by My Favorite Things.
Paper: Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Papertrey white CS, Fancy Pants Aged Florals- Lovebird & Honeybunch DP.
Ink: Certainly Celery, Regal Rose.
Accessories: Swiss dot CB folder, ticket corner punch, adhesive-back pearls, Marvy Giga scalloped oval punch, Designer Label Punch, circle punches & small oval punch-SU, Nestabilities, ribbon, dimensionals, sponge daubers.