...Enjoying Life...

I'm Okay

2012-02-09T18:26:00.008-06:00

Hi there, everyone.

I wanted to pop in and let you know that I am still here. It's been a rough week or so of being quite sick. I was put on antibiotics for a sinus infection, ear infection and bronchitis. I suppose because of three infections, they placed me on a very high dose. My body was not able to tolerate it, and I could barely function, with nausea like I've never had before. I also became so weak, and had terrible headaches. On the third day of the antibiotics, I called the doctor and asked about it. The nurse I talked to, came to the conclusion that at my weight, I should not have been put on such a high dose. She lowered the dose from 3,000 mg/day to 1,000 mg/day, and I have been improving now with each day. What a relief!

I still find that I get really tired quite easily, so I'm trying not to do too much, too soon. I worked a half day today, but starting tomorrow, I'll be back at my regular work schedule. With Valentine's Day only 5 days away, the craziness begins tomorrow, when I start receiving tons of plants and floral bouquets. I do have 2 other gals helping me each day, which normally does not happen, so I am grateful for that.

I want to thank my sweet friend, Joy, for starting a "get well soon" discussion thread over on Flickr, and to all of you who have sent me messages of concern, hugs and well wishes - thank you so much! I'm planning on getting back to card making too - just as soon as I find time when I'm not working or sleeping.

Anyway, I have really missed being on-line, visiting blogs and commenting on Flickr! I kept saying to myself, "I just want my life back, and to feel like my normal, energetic self again!" I am hopefully on my way to doing just that!

Have a wonderful weekend, and thanks again! :)

Lily Pad Cards Color Challenge!

2012-02-03T05:00:00.006-06:00

Hey everyone!

I've got a card to share today for the new, "Kathy's Lily Pad Palette" challenge at Lily Pad Cards.

We're sponsored this month by Bugaboo Stamps!

Two of the three colors (pink and green) happen to be my favorites, so I couldn't wait to play! Just add a bit of red, and this is what ya get.

This pretty, Bugaboo, digital image reminds me of pansies, which I love! It comes with the sentiment too! I printed it off, then immediately added some clear embossing powder before the ink dried, and embossed it. I then colored the image with Copic markers. I added a few, small, red, heart gems, cut around the image, and adhered it to an embossed, white panel. To add a bit more red, I used Penny Black's, Mix and Match paper for the card base.

So, head on over to the Lily Pad Cards blog to read all the details, check out the fabulous cards from the other DT members, and join in the challenge! I would love to see what you create with this pretty color combo!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope everyone has a great weekend! :)

For Cath (Sans CHA) With Love, Blog Hop

2012-01-30T23:42:00.003-06:00

Hi there, and welcome to another stop on our fun, surprise blog hop for Cath Edvalson, of Moxie Fab World!

As you've probably already read, Cath was disappointed that she was not able to go to CHA this year, because of her injured shoulder. So, my good friend, Virginia invited me to participate and we're hoping we can all put a smile on Cath's face and make her feel better!

I made a special card for Cath, using a simple design, a pretty flower, the colors from her photo and the perfect sentiment for her, because Cath really is very special to so many of us!

So, Cath, I hope we are all helping to brighten your day and make you feel better about not being at CHA this year! We love ya! :)

There is a list of blog hop participants at Virginia's blog here.

Meeting Online Friends is. . . . .

2012-01-28T20:56:00.008-06:00

. . . . . .THE BEST!

I had such a fun day today! I met up with some online, blogging, Flickr friends at the Mall of America! We had lunch, and then did some shopping together at Archiver's.

It's always so nice to see Linda and Anne! Here we are - the three of us - in Archiver's, of course! :)

But the really exciting part of the day, was that we were all lucky enough to meet another online friend, Judy Jung! Here she is! (Please note the rack of Hero Arts goodies next to us.)

It was such a joy to meet her! She was exactly how I had envisioned in my head. So very kind and fun - we all laughed a lot today! She brought each one of us a lovely gift and card. She is up here in Minnesota, visiting her darling daughter, Kathy, and she came along with Judy too. What a sweet gal she is! It was as if we'd all known each other for a very long time. LOVE THAT!

Here's a photo of Judy and her sweet daughter.

We had lunch first. I think we could have talked and talked for hours!

Here's another one of all five of us.

And one more, leaving Archiver's with our bags of goodies! I'm happy to report, I was not the one who spent the most money this time! :)

Hope you enjoyed the photos of our fun day! We tried to convince Judy to come back in September for Scrapfest. Fingers and toes crossed! Would REALLY LOVE to see you again, Judy! The time went by too quickly today!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and thanks for stopping by! :)

Lily Pad Challenge - Patterned Paper!

2012-01-27T09:14:00.007-06:00

Hi there!

Over at Lily Pad Cards, there is a new challenge and we are to use patterned paper on our cards. It's sponsored by Simon Says Stamp, and you could win a $25.00 gift certificate!

I have always been one to struggle with using patterned paper on my cards, so I was a little nervous for this one. I decided to use just a bit of some cute, polka dotted paper from Jillybean Soup. Here's my card.

I added a small strip of the paper to the edges of my green panel, which was stamped with the Hero Arts True Friends background stamp. I die cut the branch twice; once with a dark green patterned paper left over from Christmas, and again with just white. I offset the two branches before adhering them together to create a shadow effect. A circle punch of the dotted paper was adhered to a die cut doily, then stamped with the sentiment before adding it to the card. See? Patterned paper is fun to use on cards, and I enjoyed the challenge!

So, head on over to Lily Pad Cards and play along. You can read all the details and see the amazing cards the other DT members created!

I'm going to the Mall of America on Saturday to have lunch with my two buddies, Anne and Linda, and we are also meeting Judy Jung!! She's here visiting her daughter and I can't wait to meet her!

Thanks for coming by and have a fabulous weekend! :)

We Have A Winner!!

2012-01-23T09:02:00.004-06:00

Good morning everyone!

I's an exciting day! The day I choose a winner of my giveaway! I went to random.org and figured out how to use the random generator to pick a winner. There were 143 comments. The generator chose comment number 99. I just wish I could figure out how to show it to you here on my post. I tried several times, different ways, but I can't get it to work! So, Hopefully you can trust me that it is correct!

Comment number 99 is Karen, who said this:

Karen said...: Wow Barb, 200 followers, goes to show how far your kindness reaches. Congrats on hosting such a great blog and for all the wonderful inspiration you give! And what a wonderful giveaway...so very generous. And I can't wait to hear your exciting news!!! Have a great week, Hugs my friend!

Big congrats to you, Karen! Woo, hoo! I'll be sending you a message to get your address.

Thanks to all of you for the sweet comments and for all my new followers! (up past 250 already!) So happy to have you!

I'm feeling better and have the day off from work today. It's snowing and miserable outside too, so I'm hoping to get some crafty time in.

Hope you all have a great week, and congrats again to Karen! :)

Trying to Get Well!

2012-01-21T14:41:00.003-06:00

Hi there,

I have a few things to share with you today. I have a card to show you, but first I want to let you know that you have one more day to enter my giveaway. Click here for that. I will be choosing a random winner on Monday morning, Jan. 23, so stop back then to see if you're the lucky one.

Next, I'd like to thank everyone so much for all the wonderful comments and messages I've received for my news on becoming a member of the Lily Pad Cards design team. It warms my heart to have all that amazing support! Thank you, thank you, thank you! :)

I also wanted to let you know that I have been sick the last few days. I've come down with another cold, and this time it's accompanied by a fever. Not feeling much like creating or visiting blogs. I don't even feel much like hanging out on Flickr, which I usually LOVE to do. Hopefully, I will be feeling better soon, and getting back into the swing of things.

So the card I have to share today is from the CAS online card class. I've lost track of days, but I think this one is for day 9. Our amazing teachers showed us how cool it is to use colored pencils on black cardstock.

I took out an old favorite stamp from Hero Arts called, Wallpaper Flowers, stamped it in white, and used Prisma colored pencils. I decided the colors didn't pop enough, so I added some white highlights. I also stamped it a few more times, colored the flowers and cut them out to place on the edge of the card.

Thanks for coming by today - I so appreciate it! Happy weekend to everyone!

I'm On a Design Team!

2012-01-20T04:00:00.004-06:00

I know, I know! Isn't that fun?! This is the news I've been waiting to share with you!

Deborah Nolan asked me awhile back if I was interested in being on the design team over in the pond! Yup! THAT pond! Of course I said, "YES!"I am now an official DT member for The Lily Pad Cards blog! YAY!!! I'm very excited about my first day, which is today! So, if you could please hop on over there and check it out, I'd love it!

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!!

There is some other exciting news they're announcing today too. There will be a new challenge every month called, Virginia's View. That's right! The Virginia that we all know and love is also a new member of the design team, and she will have her very own challenge every month! Woo, hoo! Isn't that the coolest thing?! Now you know why I'm so excited! Not only am I on a design team, I'm joined by my good friend, Virginia!

So here is the very first inspiration photo, for the very first Virginia's View challenge. It's sponsored by Penny Black.

Isn't it beautiful? I was inspired by the pretty shades of pinks and oranges, so I used them on my entire card.

The beautiful background stamp is from Penny Black and is called, Delicate Pattern. After white embossing it on Watercolor paper, I added the colors with Distress Stains. The sentiment is computer generated, and I added a couple of glittery hearts to finish off the card.

Please stop by the Lily Pad Cards blog and take a look at all the exciting news! There's a third new DT member whom many of you know too. Her name is Karin (PeppermintPatty on Flickr.) She has amazing talent, and I'm really looking forward to working with her and getting to know her better!

I want to thank Deborah and Vicky for inviting me to be on the team! Working with the two of them, and all the other members is a dream come true! Am I lucky or what?! I mean, there's not only Deborah and Vicky, there's Lin, Nancy, Latrice and Kathy too! I admire each one of these ladies so much!

So, what are ya waiting for? Hop on over to the pond and join in on all the fun! You can find out all about the challenge and see the gorgeous cards from the other DT members. You won't want to miss it!

Thanks for stopping by - have a great weekend! And don't forget, you still have time to enter my giveaway! Just click here to enter.

It's Giveaway Time!

2012-01-15T12:21:00.011-06:00

If you're looking for the Hero Arts hostess blog hop, please click here.

Hi there!

I reached 200 followers recently and thought it was about time to pay it forward. I am so thrilled to still be blogging and creating cards! I've said this many times, but it's because of YOU that I continue to enjoy and LOVE this wonderful hobby!

I've had some pretty amazing things happen since I started a couple of years ago. I became a Hero Arts hostess back in the summer of 2010, I've won a few of their challenges, I was featured on the Lily Pad Cards blog awhile back and was Moxie Fabber of the Week this past December! I've got something else coming at the end of this week to announce, and it's very exciting too! Even with all these wonderful accomplishments, it's the friends I've made that is the best part of creating and blogging! I feel very blessed, so let's get on with the details of the giveaway!

Here's a photo of the goodies that one lucky person will receive:

You can click on the photo for a larger view. There are two PC magazines, six stamps/stamp sets, stickers, ribbon, twine, raffia, flowers, a 6x6 paper pad, buttons, a couple of Tim Holtz goodies, pearls, gems, charms and two embossing folders. Everything is brand new. (I've been picking up a few things here and there for awhile now.)

All you need to do to enter the drawing is become a follower (if you're not already,) leave me a comment here on this post, and if you'd like, add the photo above to the sidebar of your blog. (That last step is not required, but I'd love it if you could spread the word.)

I'll pick a winner next, Monday, January 23rd.

I appreciate each one of you! Thank you so much for continuing to inspire me, and for all the times you stop and leave a comment! Hugs! :)

Giveaway is now closed.

Clean and Simple Cardmaking Class day 4

2012-01-13T18:48:00.007-06:00

If you're looking for my Hero Arts Hostess blog hop post, please click here.

I signed up (late) for the CAS online card class, and I'm so glad I did! Today's post is for day #4, which was all about using 1 stamp in 3 different ways.

I chose to use the Dotted Flowers, cling set from Hero Arts, and thought it would be fun to also use the same sentiment stamp for all three cards. It's from the new Hero Arts, XO clear set.

Here's my first card - very CAS using a couple of strips of ribbon and just stamping one of the flowers onto patterned paper.

For my second card, I used a smaller flower from the cling set, to create my own background. I also have cut apart the clear sentiment so it would fit where I wanted to stamp it on my card. It's OKAY! I put it perfectly back together, as you'll see on my last card.

On this third card, I stamped all three flowers from the set onto red cardstock. I wanted to create another background, but this time, using the sentiment. SEE?! It's all put back together, exactly how it was before I cut it apart. I just lined it up onto my acrylic block before stamping - so easy! :)

If you haven't tried cutting apart a clear sentiment, don't be scared! It gives you more options for your sentiments! You do need a small, sharp scissors, and you need to be careful with sentiments that have words very close together, but they really do cut apart beautifully!

One more IMPORTANT thing! I've finally gathered all the goodies to do my giveaway, celebrating 200 followers! I just need to put them all together and take a photo. So be on the lookout for that very soon! I also have something really exciting coming at the end of next week that I can't wait to share with you! :)

Thanks so much for coming by, and have a great weekend! :)

Hero Arts Hostess Blog Hop!

2012-01-09T08:05:00.002-06:00

Hello there, and welcome to my blog!

Today is the start of an exciting week of hopping with the Hero Arts hostesses! Each of us will be sharing projects using brand new 2012 Hero Arts stamps, and I am so thrilled to be a part of it all!

Hero Arts will be awarding prizes from randomly drawn comments! For a chance to win, simply comment on ANY of the stops along the hop, on ANY day, including each day’s starting post at the Hero Club Blog. The more comments you leave, the better your chance of winning!

If you're hopping in the correct order, you should have arrived here from the blog of the fabulously talented Donna Mikasa. Isn't she awesome?! If you come across a broken link, you'll find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Club Blog. Also, please report any broken links to Tami.

I was very eager to start playing with the new, 2012, Hero Arts stamps! There are so many wonderful ones to choose from this year! I wanted to start out with a simple card for those of you who may be new to stamping, or may have just recently discovered Hero Arts stamps. They're a wonderful company, and they make stamping easy and fun! If you'd like a link to any of the stamps I've used today, just click on their highlighted name(s).

Here's my first card, using the beautiful, new Frame with Scrolls woodblock stamp.

The script stamped in the background is called, Old Letter Writing. The sentiment is from a lovely, new clear set called, Speedy Recovery. It's a set with three pretty, little frames and four different sentiments. I added a layered flower with some twine bows - very simple.

Then I wanted to try something a bit different using the Frame with Scrolls, so I stamped it and cut around it.

I attached it to the background panel, which is stamped and white embossed with the fabulous, new True Friends Background stamp. I added the colors with Distress Stains, then spritzed the whole panel with a mix of Perfect Pearls and water. So shimmery! The sentiment is from another new set called, Say it All. There are lots of wonderful sentiments in this set!

For my next card, I wanted to use the colors for the Hero Arts January contest.

I first stamped the fun, new Dot Flower Pattern with StazOn Metallic Silver Ink. This background stamp is really cool because it's just a bit smaller than a usual background stamp, so it leaves a wonderful "frame" around the image. I then took one of the hearts from the adorable, new XO clear set, stamped it several times with different pink and red inks, cut them all out and adhered them to the background image with dimensional adhesives. The sentiment is from the XO set too - such fun!

Continuing with similar colors and the same stamps, I created this next card. (Hero Arts stamps are so versatile!)

I used the same Dot Flower Pattern for my background, but this time I white embossed it. I added some fun patterned paper, a pretty, pink ribbon, and another one of the hearts from the XO set. All the tiny x's and o's on the long strip also come in the set! Love it!

Moving away from Valentine's Day, I wanted to make sure to show you my favorite stamp from the 2012 collection so far. It's called, Large Flower Background, and it really is a beautiful stamp!

I used some Kraft colored card stock and white embossed this pretty stamp. Then I colored in the flowers and leaves with markers, added some twine, a pearl and the little tag, with a sentiment from a clear set called, Thinking of You.

Sorry for the long post, but once I started playing with the new stamps, I just couldn't stop! I know you'll love all of them as much as I do!

Thanks for stopping here along the way! Now it's time to hop over to Kelly Booth's blog, where you'll find wonderful creativity! You just have to see what she's sharing today! Have fun! :)

Hero Arts 90-Minute Scramble

2012-01-07T20:42:00.004-06:00

Hey there, everyone!

I had lots of fun today, playing along in the Hero Arts Flickr group's, 90-Minute Scramble! Karen was the host, and she did a wonderful job! She gave us the theme of stamping on patterned paper. This is something I don't do often enough, so that made it even more fun!

During the first half an hour, I had stamped the Hydrangea stamp onto two different pieces of patterned paper. I left one uncolored and colored the other. I ended up thinking both looked just awful, so I had to re-think the whole thing! Now I only had an hour. . . .

Here's what I finally ended up creating.

The Tea Flower was stamped and embossed on vellum, quickly colored and cut out. I stamped the True Friends background onto the glittery-dotted Doodlebug Design paper, using Tattered Rose distress ink. Then I just glued down the flower, stamped the sentiment and added that. Whew! You should have seen my desk at this point!

I realized I had a little time left and saw some cute Studio Calico paper on my desk, so I reached for a Hero Arts "Hi" and stamped it onto all the circles. Then added some string and a black pearl and that was it.

What started out to be a stamping disaster, ended up okay in the end. I always enjoy these scrambles!

Please stop back on Monday for a really fun and happy surprise, that you will ALL love! Thanks for your visit - it's always appreciated! :)

"Everything Happens at Once."

2012-01-05T21:12:00.004-06:00

Do you ever say that?

There are a few times every year when "everything happens at once" for me. This past week has been one of those times. For awhile there, I felt like I was going to drown, but I've now come up for air, things are settling down, and I'm catching up. . .whew!

I've got some really fun things coming up here on the blog! One of them is on Monday, so please stop back then! Also, toward the end of this month, I have some exciting news to share! Something that is so cool, that is so fun, and that I am so excited for! I can't wait to share it with all of you!

Okay, I do have a card to show you today too. I've been lacking in the mojo department since coming down with a cold and cough a couple of weeks ago, but I've started to feel better, and I think it's slowly coming back. I was playing the other day with the Hero Arts, Newspaper Flower, using this month's challenge colors. Wasn't sure how I was going to add it to a card. Then I remembered a fabulous 6x6, Echo Park paper pack called, Yours Truly, that my sweet friend, Ivy sent to me. It's not only perfect for Valentine's day, it has most of the colors in it for the Hero Arts challenge too! Thanks again, Ivy - love each page!

Here's my card. I added the two tiny, purple hearts so ALL the colors for the challenge were used.

And here's a close up so you can see all the dimension I gave to the flower. The pretty pearl brad was in my RAK from Joy - love it! :)

Before I let you go, I also want to apologize for not being around the last day or two to comment or visit your blogs. I am not only getting ready for the fun things coming up on my blog, my son also has a friend coming to stay with us this weekend. His mom is a wonderful friend of mine! She is also a card maker and I can't wait to see her! Still getting the house clean for them, doing a little at a time. I should be back in full swing, visiting your blogs, after the weekend. I am planning on taking some time out to join in the Hero Arts Flickr group, 90-minute scramble on Saturday, just so I can keep the juices flowing and add to the mojo. Hope lots of you will play along too! Sweet Karen will be hosting!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I'm off to clean a little more before getting a good night's sleep! Thanks so much for your visit! :)

A Look Back at 2011

2012-01-01T13:45:00.001-06:00

Hi there!

Many of my blogging friends have been sharing their favorite cards from 2011, so I thought I'd share mine too. It really is fun to go back and look at all the cards I created last year. I have them in order here, from early in the year, to more recently, but not necessarily one for each month. I just picked some of my faves, and ones that I really had fun creating. So here we go!

Do you remember all the excitement when the Fabulous Flourish stamp was released? I stamped it twice for a shadow effect on this card.

I loved coloring these flowers from Flourishes, and making it look like they were growing up out of the snow!

Here's one of my favorite stamps from Hero Arts. You all know how much I love flowers, and these are just a joy to color!

I wanted to do something really fun with this Hero Arts, tree stamp. I do love the way this card turned out! I remember it was the end of our long and cold winter, and I was aching for some flowering trees.

Another one made with the Hero Arts Floral Garden stamp. I used a neat technique that Jennifer McGuire had shared on the Hero blog.

I don't stamp on patterned paper very often, and this card reminds me to do it more in the new year!

I loved taking out an older Hero Arts image, stamping it twice for a long card, and of course, coloring all those little flowers!

I LOVE the Pine Cone Wreath! This one took lots of time, cutting out each pine cone, and adhering them, to create some dimension. Another fun one to color!

Stamping, inking, distressing, embossing . . .it's all on this card.

I don't make cutesy cards very often either, but it was fun combining some Hero Arts with Penny Black, for a happy card!

This one was cool because I took out some Tim Holtz Fragments to play with. Love the way the ornaments looked after inking, stamping and embossing!

This card was shown on the Lily Pad Cards blog for my guest design spot. I used patterned paper again here . . . .yay! :)

And the last one I'll share is my silvery embossed, Christmas tags.

It's been a year full of learning, creating and just having fun playing with stamps and ink. I'm really looking forward to more of the same this year, and hopefully finding the courage to submit a card or two for publication - we'll see.

I want to thank all of you for your continued support and friendship in 2011! So many of you inspire me on a daily basis, and I am very grateful for that! Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year, filled with creativity! :)

It's Not Easy. . . . .

2011-12-29T22:40:00.002-06:00

. . . .to color when you've got a cold. I've been feeling pretty rotten lately. Sore throat, head ache and swollen glands. Lots of sneezing too. I haven't been sick in years, so I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. I also broke my baby toe the other day. Been hobbling around here at home and at work. It felt a bit better today, so my limp isn't quite as bad.

I was able to create a couple of cards, in between the naps I've been taking. I'm still playing with the Large Flower Background from Hero Arts. It is such a pretty stamp! For this first card, I embossed it in white, colored with a mix of distress inks and water, added some Rock Candy Stickles for a glittery look, then ran it through my cuttlebug to cut out just a portion of it. The background is stamped with True Friends.

For my second card, I wanted to color just a couple of the flowers and cut them out. I decided to keep it very CAS. I attached the flowers to the side of the card base and added a few gems. The sentiment is from the same True Friends stamp. I just cut out the "friends forever" portion.

I have finally reached 200 followers, so as soon as I start to feel better, I'll be putting together some fun goodies to do my giveaway.

Thanks so much for stopping by and Happy New Year to you! :)

Merry Christmas and Giveaway Coming!

2011-12-25T10:21:00.006-06:00

Hi There!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas celebrations! I had a wonderful time at my sister's house with my whole family for Christmas Eve. For the first time ever, we not only exchanged nice gifts, but we also exchanged goofy, "white elephant" gifts. There was so much laughter going on, my stomach is sore this morning! Such fun! :)

Today is a quiet day with my hubby and two boys. We've opened our gifts and will soon be eating a yummy Christmas brunch that my hubby cooks every year. Then just putting the feet up and relaxing after a long, hard week at work.

I also wanted to let you all know that I only need one more follower to hit 200, then I'm planning a giveaway. I'll be picking up some fun goodies at Archiver's soon, with the gift card I received today! :) It's time I pay it forward, because you have all been a wonderful blessing in my life! Stay tuned - in the next week or two I'll have all the goodies gathered.

Off I go now, to wrap myself up in my totally soft, cream colored, fuzzy new blanket/throw that I received from my sis! Sooo cozy! Can you say nap time?

Merry Christmas wishes to each of you! :)