Some days you're the dog...

and some days you're the hydrant. TAC used to carry a cute pug stamp with that saying on it. Dixie would tell you that today was a hydrant kind of day. First, she was subjected to water torture... a.k.a. a bath. (Just because she smelled all nice and "outdoorsy" and we silly humans didn't appreciate it!) Then, this afternoon she was brushed AND had her ears clean. (She really, really hates getting her ears cleaned and cringes as soon as she sees the bottle.) Here she is waiting (somewhat exasperatedly) for me to take her for a walk. It's just not been her day today!

As for me, I've been trying to do a bit of stamping lately. After a particularly stressful day at summer school, I made these for everyone in the office. I love the saying "Things are bad... Send chocolate". It was definitely a chocolate kind of week!

I bought the cute little diecut boxes from Donna over at http://www.ka-diecuts.com/. Donna has an awesome selection of diecuts and colors and she is a real sweet person to deal with. If you buy from her, tell her that I told you about her.Well, Dixie is now standingt next to me, breathing on my leg and giving me her most pathetic look. I think that's my hint to go.... Have a good week! (And it's a short one. Hooray!!!!)

Birthday celebrations

This Sunday marked the last of the birthday celebrations for Jessica. (Wow, I can't believe she's FOURTEEN!!) We had a beautiful day down at the lake for a belated Fathers' Day celebration as well as a birthday celebration for Jess and my father-in-law. I haven't had much stamping time lately, but I did manage to make Jessica a card for her birthday. I got this Bella from an image swap on the Bellaholics list. Isnt' she cute? Bellas are so much fun.

The mad, mad, month of May...

A brief rundown, in pictures.

May music: Jess sang at MU and had her spring band and choir concerts. Here she and some friends are saying goodbye to their beloved choir teacher, Dr. Hook.

Niece #1, Katie, graduates from MU; she'll attend medical school in KC next year.

Niece #2, Christi, graduated from high school; she'll attend MU next year.

I chaperoned Ali's field trip to a local bee farm:

Ali having fun at her school's annual Spring Fling fundraiser:

Ali's poetry "celebration" - she read/acted out a poem with her friends Cecilia and Erica

Jess marched in the annual Memorial Day parade:

Jess received an award for placing 8th in the state in her level on the National French exam. (Here she is with her teacher, Mme Russell.)

My 31st, the last day of the month... Ali had her final soccer game of the season. (They played really well and won the game.)

Whew! Lots of fun memories but it was a little crazy!!

A little birdie....

reminded me that I've been neglecting my blog. Wow, this has been an INCREDIBLY busy May!

This little guy is a Tufted Woodpecker. (It helps to have an wildlife biologist in the family - my BIL - who knows this stuff!) We've had your standard "Woody the Woodpecker" type woodpecker since last year. This guy just started showing up this spring. They certainly do make an odd couple. It's fun to see what birds our feeders attract. (The woodpeckers are fond of the suet feeder.)

Rather than trying to store all my scraps, I'm trying to use more of them in my projects. This first card is a birthday card for my niece. I'm happy to say that it's made entirely of scraps! (I love that floral paper! It's by Doodlebug Designs, which explains why I think it's so cute.)


Next is a graduation card for this same niece. She is graduating with her Bachelors' degree and going on to med school to become an osteopath. I used images from Stamping Bella to illustrate her journey from shiny new grad to D.O. (I see a lot of sleep deprivation in her future, that's why I used Grumpabella to represent that middle step!)

Lastly, this is a quickie anniversary card for my in-laws. (Their anniversary was last Monday!)

Secretaries Week Celebrations

I found these adorable little Marjolein Bastin/Hallmark photo holders at my local dollar store a while ago - what a great deal! I thought they would make a cute gift for the secretaries at my youngest daughter's school. (They are all such sweet ladies.) Time was short and I've been itching to try to use up more of my paper scraps, so I decided to embellish some brown paper bags. (I'm proud to say I didn't cut any new sheets of paper, and really did use only scraps.) I used Juliette paper and the Flower Collage Trio set, all by TAC. Both are a favorite of mine. The top of the bag is a piece of Brown cardstock, cut into 4 1/4 X 5 1/8 pieces, then folded in half lengthwise. (The Scor-Pal is perfect for this, as has a 2 1/8 mark for scoring.) I cut about an inch off of the top of my paper bags, but that was just personal preference. I used my Crop-A-Dile to punch the holes, since it let me punch through all of the layers at once. I colored the images with my Prismacolor watercolor pencils and a Dove blender pen. It was fast!

As for me, I got the royal treatment at work this week! Our principal actually served all of the secretaries lunch on Wednesday, with a little help from some of the other administrators. (Our principal is a really nice guy!) I support two departments and each departments gave me a card and gifts. Someone asked me if I preferred "Secretaries' Week" or "Administrative Professional/Assistant Week". I like the former better because it's shorter, but I don't care which you call me, as long as you respect me. All of the people I work with are really nice and really appreciate me. I'm very lucky!!

Stamp projects

It's been so long since I posted any stamped cards! I have been stamping, so I'll share some recent projects.

Here is a card I made for a Scor-Pal swap. This card is from the Scor-Pal site, although I don't remember where. I was happy with how it turned out (and I didn't think I would be), but it's too small for regular envelopes. I'll have to try that Scor-Pal tutorial for making your own envelopes.

Here it is open:

I am happy to say that I've finished my first Christmas present! I made a set of cards for my frient Karyn, using her favorite colors of peach/pink and green.

You can see close ups of some of them at my Splitcoast gallery.

I hope to start posting more regularly and sharing more cards with you again.