Sweet Strawberries

I've had this card waiting to be posted for awhile now and I just keep forgetting. This was my 1st attempt at a water pen and I've been using the pen ever since.

I used some October Afternoon paper and the Friendly Fruit stamp set from Skipping Stones Design. I added some of this fun ribbon and some pearls and called it good. The inside has the B side of the paper showing.

Deployment Survival Kit

My friend Ciera's husband deployed on Monday for 6 months.

(Aren't they just cute?!)

We all know how sucky deployments are regardless if your military or not. To cheer her up (and apparently make her cry) I made her this Deployment Survival Kit. I made the card out of The Greeting Farm military guy stamp and some camo paper from my scrap box. The can I made more patriotic with red, white and blue.

Here's the can with the stuff in it. I've posted the contents below and what each item was for.

Paperclip to help you hold it all together

Flashlight to remind you that there is light at the end of the tunnel

Stationary for all the letters you’ll be writing

Pens to sign your X’s and O’s
Envelopes to be sealed with a kiss

Hershey Kisses to remind you of your soldiers kisses

Marbles for when you’ve lost yours

Worry Stone to take your worries away

Life Savers to remind you that you are one

Laffy Taffy to remind you laugh
Mounds Bar to remind you of the “mounds” of love and support you have from family and friends

Kleenex to wipe away the tears

Sucker because deployments suck

I also added this cool poem I found here

The Silent Ranks

I never wore the uniform,
no medals on my chest
The band, it doesn't play for me,
I am not among the Best.
I do not march in cadence,
I do not rate salute.
I stand among the silent ranks,
our devotion absolute.

If you've not worn my shoes,
you do not know my story.
I live a life of sacrifice,
my reward a private glory.
I've wept many silent nights away,
I've kept the home fires burning.
I've worried and I've waited,
as world events were churning.

I've moved more times than you could fathom,
left more people than you known.
I've planted gardens round the world-
very few that I've seen grown.
I've grieved with new-made widows,
and had my share of scares-
when a ship or plane or man was down-
and all I had were prayers.

I am not asking for your sympathy.
(although appreciation would be nice)
I did it quite on purpose though-
I chose to sacrifice.
I'll tell you a secret now,
one you'd never guess.
About the glory that is mine,
it's just enough, no more, no less.

When you and I stand together
as our national anthem plays.
I'll fill with reminiscences
of how I spent those days.
I'll know the pain and joys again,
I'll know freedom isn't free
I'll know I've helped to pay the price

and that the anthem plays for me.

- Elizabeth Soutter Schwarzer
Wife of a United Stated Marine

Fussy and Fancy challenge #40

I adore this sketch from Fussy and Fancy this week! It was so much fun! Plus on top of the great sketch, I got to use a great image from out sponsor this week, Simply Betty Stamps. Without further adieu, the sketch:

And my card:

All my paper was scraps so I'm not sure where it came from. I used cute little rocker girl Jude from Simply Betty Stamps. I inked the edges so she looks like she's in the spotlight. Added some glitter to her hair and skull on the front of her shirt cuz it's just not finished without a little sparkle.

I used the Tim Holtz  ticket die to make my tickets and then stamped my senti on them. Used the Martha spiderweb boarder punch and added some ribbon and pop dots and called it done!

My Minds Eye #24

It's that time again for me to play along with the My Minds Eye Challenge. I so look forward to these. Seams its the only way I get any layouts done these days. This layout is near and dear to my heart. Here's a little back story, my Grandpa got to participate in the 11th Honor Flight for South Dakota. He is a WWII Veteran. I used this sketch and challenge (Use song lyrics) to start on the album I'll be making for him to remember his trip. Here's the sketch:

 I used both MME American Made paper and some Bo-Bunny cardstock. My pictures of Grandpa are in front of the WWII memorial and a photo of him in WWII.

 I used Black Letter Cricut font for my title which is the title of a Toby Keith song. I've printed some lyrics to use on my 2nd page. I shadowed the letters and popped an extra of the A and S on the title. Jazzed it up with some red and blue bling.

 I used my new Tim Holtz die for the flower. I added the hero punch out from the American Made paper pack to finish it off. I also used a boarder punch from the American Girl line.

 I added bling all over the plaid paper to give it a little jazz and added the "Freedom" tag from the paper pack.

 Here's a close up of my handsome and wonderful Grandpa! So proud of you!!

Here's the lyrics by Toby Keith that I'll be using on the 2nd page of the layout.

"I'm solid and I'm steady and I'm true down to the core,
And I will always do my duty, no matter what the price,
I've counted up the cost, I know the sacrifice,
Oh, and I don't want to die for you,
But if dying's asked of me,
I'll bear that cross with an honor,
'Cause freedom don't come free.
I'm an American Soldier, an American,
Beside my Brothers and my Sisters I will proudly take a stand.
When liberty's in jeopardy I'll always do what's right.
I'm out here on the front lines, sleep in peace tonight.
American Soldier,
I'm an American Soldier."

Fussy and Fancy challenge #38, card for a man/boy

Happy Friday Everyone!

Today's great challenge at Fussy and Fancy is to make a card for a man or boy. I had this fun little buckle in my stash of supplies so I came up with this fun little number for a Father's Day card.

I used some red cardstock from Bazzill and the Tools set of stamps from Skipping Stones Design. I inked the edges in black soot Distress Ink and stamped my Tough Guy stamp on there like a tool box logo.

I added the buckle on there with some brads.

 The inside has a senti from 2 different Skipping Stones Sets, the tool set (which by the way is unreleased) and Holy Carp.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope your weekend is fabulous!

May you feel God's Love

I love the look of rainbow colors together so I threw this card together using a set from Skipping stones Designs called Grunge for the background. 

I used Cancer Schmancer for the senti. Great senti set! I sprayed a little silver Glimmer Mist over the whole thing and added some ribbon and some colorful bling.

Fussy and Fancy challenge

Hey kids, it's Friday! WOOO! Fussy and Fancy has a fun challenge for you today. It's a recipe challenge. The recipe is:

3 papers

2 embellis

1 ribbon

So here's my card for the challenge:

My 3 papers are the pretty decorate paper by Harmonie from their Rococo collection and the purple matting and the cream that the senti is stamped on. My 2 embellis are (pick from 4) the bling, the cool ribbon rose, the glimmer mist I sprayed on the senti or the iridescent ice embossing powder that's over the senti, and my ribbon you can pick from the pale purple running through the whole card, or the purple ribbon on the flower.

 I just love how that irriadecent ice empossing powder from stamping up looks on sentis and stuff. Love the stuff!

 And here's a close up of the ribbon flower. I used some Glubers from Cosmo Cricket to make it. Those things are so fun! Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to stop over at Fussy and Fancy and play along.

My Minds Eye #23

Oh so many loves in this blog post...I love My Minds Eye challenges. This sketch was great!

 I love this new line of paper too, Lime Twist. Great fun summery boy line. Super fun! Here's my layout of another love, my friend Provatia's little guy Louis. He's 2 months old and super sweet. Isn't he adorable? Another good friend, and owner or Image Design Photography, Jess, who photography I love, came and took these pictures for me for Provatia's 1st Mother's Day. I had to scrap them!!

 I added some buttons and a MME die cut with a cut of a wrench on this bottom. Louis' daddy is way into tools and trucks and building things so I know it will get passed onto Louis.

 Finished off the layout with some widgets cut out of MME paper and Core'dinations.  I popped a few elements on my page as well. Thanks for stopping by!

Smore'?

Hello bloggers! Thanks for joining me another week for the Fussy and Fancy challenge. This week was to make a summer card and our sponsor Digi's with Attitude offered us some fun digis to work with. I used Camping Tween on my card today.

 I printed her on kraft paper and only colored a few bits of her but added stickles and some white epoxy to the fire and the mallow. My paper is byOctober Afternoon. It's their campfire line. Fitting don't cha think? I added some matching green ribbon and some "earthy" twine to finish off my card. My sentiment is from MFT Twisted Threesome set.

Thanks for stopping by, don't forget to check out the other fancy girls!

What happens...

*First I apologize for the bad pictures, I forgot to take some with my camera so they are cell phone pictures.*

In July I'm going with a group of girlfriends to Minnesota for a long weekend and one of my girlfriends and I are going to see the best group ever...New Kids on the Block!

After all these years they still look good huh ladies?

So in excitement for the concert I made her this fun card. I used the Girls Weekend stamp set from Creative Clear Stamps. I also used some of the fun tie dyed paper that I've made. I added some pink tool and a brad.

I popped up the sentiment with some pop dots and I marked out the "girls" and changed it to "NKOTB" to fit the situation. She loved the card and her husband is even more leery about letting her go with me. I'll never tell!  :)

Be Good...

2nd post for the day, Simply Betty is offering a freebie on her facebook page if you post a new SBS card so of course, I had to jump on that. I used this sketch from Sketch Saturday:

 I used some fun new Immortal Love paper from DCWV. Love it! I used cute little Rio from Simply Betty Stamps.

 I colored Rio with a water pen with pearl glimmer mist in it and some distress inks. I am loving this way of coloring. It's still new to me but it's so fun. Plus with the glimmer mist it adds a but of shimmer.

 I used scads of pop dots on this card. And yes, I used the word scads :)

 Here's a close up of the side of the card to see just how many layers of pop dots I used. I've never done a card like this before but I love the look. It's gonna need 2 stamps!

 The inside reads:

I said doctor, Mister MD

Good morning everyone. I have another fun birthday card to share with everyone in blogland today. I mae this as a request from a friend. I used some more paper from My Minds Eye as well as some craft cardstock.

I used the You Know Your Getting Old set from Skipping Stones Design. I always forget that I have this set and it makes me giggle everytime I use it. I also used the background notebook paper stamp from Cornish Farms stamps.

I added some rafia wrapped aroud the senti with a bow and some buttons. I also used the notebook paper punch (as I call it) from EK Success. I love my boarder punches!!

Thanks for stopping by and leaving lots of comment love!

Another candle?

Good morning everyone in blog land. I have a sassy little birthday card to share with you today. I used the sketch from Skipping Stones Designs:

Flipped it on it's side and added a lot of ink. I used Sassy Happy Birthday 2 from Creative Clear stamps for this card, I'm also entering this card into their current challenge of ribbon! That fun tan & brown stuff, that's my ribbon :)

I used paper from My Minds Eye and embossed it and inked it all up. I also used Green Birthday from Skipping Stones Design for the little paper pieced candle. I pop dotted the senti and inked some more and there we have it. Thanks for stopping by!

SISC 55 - Flower Power

It's that time again! Stamp Insanity has a great challenge. Flower Power! How super fun!

 I used a sent from the up and coming Easter Blessings set from SI as well as paper from DCWV from a few years ago. I found this amazing flower as a hair bow but had to alter that item and use the flower for this card.

 I also added some pink stickles around where the green glitter was already on the paper. I inked the senti with some Distress Ink as well.

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to check out what the other girls have done (in my sidebar)

Friends are like....

I made this card last week and forgot to post it. I used some cute cherry and skull paper from Creative Imaginations as well as some shimmer paper from a stack I had on hand.

 I added some black cardstock and some pink tool. I used Bras Volume 2 and 3 (unreleased) from Skipping Stones Design for this card.

 I used pop dots on to "lift" the bra and the square the bra is mounted on.

Finished the card with these fun brads and this great senti.

 

Thanks for stopping by and all your comment love!