Truckfull of Love

This is a fun little card I made using Stampin Up!s Loads of Love set. This is a great set as it can be used for love sentiments, Christmas--it has a tree for the back of the truck--or any other greeting need.It has many accessories to go with it such as a roller stamp with dogs chasing the truck, people to go inside the truck and other accessories that go with it.

I used Stampin Up! card stock for the base, as always. I like that because it is much thicker than store bought card stock and the end result is a sturdier and, I think, better quality card. I also used my copics to color in the truck. I used my floral punch and my circle punch. I really didn't think I'd get as much use of these punches as I have. I thought they'd get put by the wayside eventually, but they haven't yet.

I hope you like it! I recently made this for my etsy shop for Kelly, who also has her own shop here at KreatedbyKelly who bought it for the menfolk in her life. She liked that it was fun but still masculine enough to give away.

Days of Firsts

So many firsts in the last few days. My oldest had his first soccer practice on Saturday. He is so excited about playing soccer like his uncle and aunt do. Here he is with the coach getting tips, I presume.

He came home flushed from running and so eager to tell me about it. When I asked, he said he learned to not use his hand, but to use his feet. He said, "did you know that, Mommy?".

Today was his first day of school. He is starting preschool and will be going 3 days a week. I was nervous about him going--mostly about him having problems being away from me but he did just fine. The teachers sat him right down and gave him a project to do. He was writing straight lines and coloring in a page. He didn't even notice when his baby brother and I left. I think he will do just fine in school.

No More Blooms

Here in South Carolina we are in the middle of a drought. It's a shame, all of my roses are suffering as well as my vegetable garden. We water as little as possible, but they need much more than they are getting. So, since I am sad I'm not getting any blooms, I'll post some pictures I took earlier in the season when everything was still beautiful.

The first one is my first gardenia bloom of the season. I have about 6 bushes so the scent is everywhere. I cut them and put them in bowls all around the house. For those of you who may not know this, if you cut the gardenia just below the bloom then let them float in a bowl of water it will last longer. You will get lots of scent throughout the house.

The second is of my climbing rose. When we moved into the house a trellis was already built onto the backyard entrance. It is the perfect spot for a climber and since I love roses... Unfortunately, this climber isn't doing to well. It will have to be cut back drastically soon because of the damage it received this summer. Hopefully, next year will be better.

My First Award!

My good friend, Katie, also known as papermakeup, gave it to me. It is a blogging buddy award. Very sweet of her. She also blogs about cardmaking, scrapbooking and other paper projects. She's been doing paper crafts for a long time and has ALL the toys and knows all the good resources.

So, check out her blog, she has lots of good ideas on it!

Thanks Katie!

If you would like to pass the award on to some of your blogging buddies, here are the rules:

1. Only 5 people allowed.
2. 4 have to be dedicated followers of your blog
3. one has to be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. you must link back to whoever gave you the award.

Gift Bags

Wok had her 60th birthday recently and we gave her a nice ring with stones for every member of the family on it. I didn't want to just toss it into a regular gift bag and found this pattern. After some tweaking, this is what I came up with. I am really pleased with how it turned out. It is perfect for small jewelry boxes, candy, toys--pretty much anything. I'm now working on a bigger one for bigger gifts.


My husband calls this one the banana bag because the flowers look like banana slices!

1st Birthday

My little guy turned one on Saturday. I honestly don't know where the time has gone. It seems like just yesterday he was a colicky infant and I wasn't getting much sleep. Now, he is a happy, curious crawler. It's funny, you think the first 3 months will never pass. They seem to last forever. Then, you turn around and he's one.

We had a wonderful time. His Pops and Grammy came in for the celebration and, of course his Wok was here. He had his first bite of birthday cake and loved it. He kept smashing his little fists into it. By the time he was done making a mess, he needed a bath.

Sympathy Card

I think sympathy cards are the hardest to get right. You don't want glitz, glitter, ladybugs, butterflies and cutsey things. You want to convey your feelings in a sophisticated and simple way. It's hard to do. Even going to the grocery store to pick up a card, you get covered in glitter. And that is probably the hardest thing to do for a cardmaker. We like glitter, bright colors, ink, stamps, ribbons, die cuts--all of it. Most of us have drawers and shelves of stuff for cards.

My mom's friends's father died. It was expected, but loss is still loss. I made her a card to give him at her request. I wanted it to be simple, elegant and give her a place to put her own thoughts. This is what I came up with.