A very Merry Late Christmas

Well, my kids got home from their dad's yesterday, after many hours of airplanes, layovers, and waiting for luggage. They were very tired (I could tell by the grouchyness) but we had a few presents to open, including stockings, and I wanted us to have at least 1 nice meal together before they scattered in different directions on New Year's Eve and the days that follow as Emily prepares for Godspell.

Here's Emily opening her much awaited Blake Lewis (American Idol!) CD and new CD holder, since the CD holder that only held 50 cd's was waaaay too small!! PS... aren't her new glass adorable!

And, believe it or not, a very nice picture of Stephen being calm and normal... his main gift this year was a laptop case and laptop cooling fan, but he opened those before he went to Indiana, so yesterday, he only had this book to open. Not too exciting, but it's a phenominal Star Wars "Vault" book.. full of actual tickets, programs, pieces of film, and all kinds of memorabilia. If you're a Star Wars van, it's a must have!

I love this picture of the two of them together... again, it doesn't happen very often, and as the years go by, and we all get so busy, I treasure these all together moments more and more, especially if they're getting along! LOL I know before I blink too many more times, they'll be leaving for college, or moving away, or getting married, etc.

And speaking of getting married (no it's not ME!) my neice Lauren got engaged a few days before Christmas, and her fiance Steve made his debut at our family gatherings over the holidays. He survived all the family "grilling" that we have traditionally put all the men who have tried to make their way into our family. He did quite well. Congratulations Lauren (or LOLO, as she was called as a baby, because her sister Lindsey couldn't say "Lauren") and Steve! I see some stamped wedding stuff in my near future! Woo Hoo!

The Reason For the Season

Just wanted to share with you a few more of the Christmas cards I made this year. When I realized I needed about 10 more cards to send, I needed something very simple. I bought this little baby Jesus stamp a long time ago, (he is stamped on shimmer white with black staz on and colored with markers) and I don't think I've ever actually made anything with it. Shame on me. Isn't he cute? I rarely use Not Quite Navy, and wouldn't normally have thought of this color combo for a Christmas card, but this DP from DCWV glitter posies pad looked great with Not Quite Navy Paper, and a touch of Saffron. Of course, it includes the new round scalloped punch from Stampin Up, a MUST HAVE for everyone! The little Peace word stamp is from last year's holiday mini, and it is stamped on white shimmer also, and punched with the word window punch. A touch of white ribbon and wa-la!

My last group of cards this year was modeled after a card we made at Jami's club night, called a "Hot Card". The name doesn't really tell you exactly what to do... but it is such a great technique.

You stamp on plain white tissue paper, then crumple the paper up into a little ball, then smooth it out, and layer it on top of a piece of plastic wrap, then put that on top of plain white cardstock.

Cover the whole thing with parchment paper/ freezer paper, and then iron the whole thing. You'll probably end of up with plastic paper sticking out around the edges, but just trim the edges and make your card. I actually did a whole sheet of snowflakes and then made that into 4 cards. The Peace sentiment is from PaperTreyInk's "Snowflake Serenade" set... one of my all time favorite Christmas sets! Add some ribbon and a little sparkle from a glitter pen, and you have a simple, yet elegant card.

Today is my last day by myself before my kids come home tomorrow, and I had high hopes of stamping, and shopping, but I have a horrible headache, I think from an oncoming sinus infection or cold, so I think I'll go back to bed! Have a safe, healthy, yummy, and fun New Year, whatever your plans are!

What a Team!

The biggest part of my life, besides my kids, is the time I spend with these 3 ladies in my office and in my ministry at Lakewood Family Church in Long Beach, California. I love these ladies with all my heart, and I know God has placed each of them in my life for different reasons.

From left to right you see: Heidi, our "Creative Program Director" (she runs our Sunday morning KIDSTUF production for elementary kids... including drama, music, Bible, and all kinds of crazy fun)... then Michelle, our "Early Childhood Director" who works very hard at keeping everything safe, fun, and enriching for our Babies through Kindergarteners, plus juggles all the volunteers that staff that area of ministry, then ME, then Kelli, our Secretary, who does anything and everything we need her to do. Between the 4 of us we have 9 children which keeps us all hopping, and also gives us a huge passion for making sure the families of our church and our community know and love Jesus. This picture was taken on Sunday, Dec. 23 at our SNOW DAY at church... 5 tons of snow shredded and blown right on our playground, for kids and families to play in. It was a "BLAST".... get it?

Wishing You Joy

I hope you've been having a wonderful time, surrounded by family and friends the past few weeks as you have been celebrating this special time of year. My kids left on Christmas eve morning, after rushing to get lots of suitcases and presents packed, and even finding time for them to each open one gift. They are in Indiana with their dad, stepmom, and stepbrother and stepsister until the 30th but right before they left, we snapped this picture in front of our tiny tree... so tiny that you can't even see it in this picture!

Whenever they're gone, I have very mixed feelings. I enjoy the time to myself, because that doesn't happen very often, and it gives me a chance to do some "deep cleaning" in their bedrooms :) and go to the movies with friends, but I also get a little depressed when they're gone. It causes me to reflect on lonliness, and the events that lead to me becoming a single mom. All my sisters and my brother, plus all the spouses and lots of the neices and nephews got together this afternoon and evening at my sister's in Thousand Oaks, so it was really good to be together with my wonderful family, even though my kids weren't there.

We will celebrate a little more Christmas when they return on Sunday. In the meantime, I know I have so much to be thankful for, and one of those things is the opportunity to spend time with the Lord, worshiping Him, and having extra time this week to spend in His word. I'm praying that I will take advantage of those gifts from Him! "Thanks be to God for His indescribable Gift!"

Christmas by Candlelight

My daughter's madrigal group from Lakewood High School was privileged to sing this evening at Disneyland's Candlelight Procession and Ceremony. It was amazing. I have seen this show one other time about 7 years ago, but back then it was done "back" in the pavillion near "It's a Small World." Now it's done on the steps of the train station and everyone STANDS on main street to watch. There were 700 singers from various church and school choirs, all wearing robes carrying candles, singing the beautiful hymns we all know and love about our wonderful Savior's birth. Jane Seymour was the narrator, and read the Luke 2 Christmas passage so elloquently, surrounded by the singers, bell ringers, full orchestra and even 7 buglers, standing all the way on TOP of the train station. That was my favorite part! This was Emily's first chance to sing the Hallelujah Chorus, something I think EVERYONE should learn to do in their lifetime. She had a great time, but boy is she exhausted. It was fun to see her sing and such a wonderful magical place, along with my sister, my mom, my mom's friend, my son, and my nephew. We even had a few wonderful friends stop by to watch her sing too. What a great way to start off the month of December! I hope I can keep this Christmas message in my heart and mind throughout the coming month as life becomes a little frazzled in the days and weeks ahead.

Snowflake Joy

Here is that long awaited card from Snowflake Serenade, a beautiful set from PaperTreyInk. It's a fantastic set, and the 3 snowflakes are gorgeous. This card just uses the small and medium size snowflakes. I hope you can see how pretty they are. The background piece is Blue Bayou cardstock, and the snowflakes are stamped in versemark, then embossed with clear detail embossing powder. The White panel is Soft Sky ink snowflakes stamped on Stampin Up Whisper White, then matted on top of a soft sky panel which is pierced with the paper piercer matt pack. The sentiment "Wishing you Joy" is actually 2 different stamps but put together at the same time on my acrylic block. I don't have any blue bayou ink yet, so I used Buckaroo Blue, one of last year's "In Colors" and it looks just fine. For the finishing touches, I traced the JOY word with the sakura stardust pen, stamped another snowflake on soft sky and punched it out with the 1 3/8 circle, and highlighted that circle with more stardust pen, and some fine lace stickles, added some ribbon and silver cord, and then added a tag that says "Happy Holidays", which I traced with the sakura glaze pen. This card took DAYS, way longer than most cards I do, because I just couldn't quite get the layout that I was happy with. Thanks for looking! It's almost time for Grey's Anatomy, so it's time to snuggle up on the couch and turn off the phones! :) Yeah.... tomorrow's Friday, although I have such a busy weekend ahead, it really won't seem like Friday until my day off on MONDAY.

Hi Again Crayon Resist

It's been a while since I've done a crayon resist card, but Jami did one a few weeks ago and reminded me to get my little piece of broken white crayon out that I have in my stamping stash!

It's so easy, but so fun. It doesn't show up very much on this card, but it's very subtle. This is the large flower from the set "Mixed Bouquet" stamped in black classic ink on glossy white paper, then highlighted with the white crayon. Then I used a sponge dauber to "paint" the flower with short round strokes of ink: Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue and Wild Wasabi. I was trying to follow last week's color combination challenge, but ended up adding the bashful blue to pull out some of the blue color from the DP. The ribbon isn't actually TIED, but it's looped around in and out of 2 holes and pulled until the ends are even. A fun alternative to tying a bow. The small saying at the bottom corner is from "Simply Said." Thanks for stopping by today.

I just got my Snowflake Serenade stamps from PaperTreyInk in the mail Saturday, so I'm excited to get some cards done to share with you in the next day or two. Thanks for stopping by!

HOW MANY OF YOU SAW A GREAT MOVIE OVER THE THANKSGIVING WEEKEND? We saw "Enchanted" with 10 Scheevel girl cousins, nieces, aunts, grandma, etc. What a fun day! Then after dinner we wanted "Hairspray" so it was a good movie day! What movies have you seen and tell me whether or not you liked them....

Saying Thank You

A dear friend of mine is having back surgery next week, and she will be laid up for 6-8 weeks. She is always the person who comes to the aid of everyone she knows... taking food, taking people to the hospital, or just lending a listening ear when needed. It's going to be very hard for her to let other people HELP HER for a change. As I was trying to think of ways to help her, and thinking about all the many people who will want to bless her and help her as a thank you for all the ways she has helped others, I thought that perhaps she might need a bunch of thank you cards as she is recuperating. So I'm making her a set of 10-12 cards, and will put them in a clear banded box from PaperTreyInk. (http://www.papertreyink.com/w.papertreyink.com/ )

Here are a few of the cards. Several of them feature my favorite paper from a little mat stack I bought last year from "Die Cuts with a View." It's called Retro Prints, and it's a stack of 162 4.5 x 6.5 papers in awesome colors and prints, that not only coordinate with each other, but also with many Stampin Up colors. I love using this mat stack. This card also uses Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa and Tempting Turquoise Cardstock, my brand new scalloped circle punch from Stampin Up, and 2 adorable little turquoise and white brads from Queen & Co. The turquoise starburst is stamped in craft ink onto SHIMMER WHITE paper and then popped up on with a piece of foam tape. The strip of close to cocoa is crimped with a paper crimper, (something I hardly ever use anymore!) This was a very simple but fun card to make.

This next card was fun also. It uses a very old set I bought at a garage sale, called "Oh My Word." (It was a hostess set way back.) The flower pot says "Thank You" all over it, and it is stamped in Old Olive ink, then it is cut out using a marvy oval punch (the pink one). The scallop is punched from Old Olive Paper using the scalloped marvy giga punch. (the purple one.) For some extra fun, I punched a window into the chocolate layer and the DP layer, to stamp the words "From the Heart" (from the set "Simply Said" and colored with an Old Olive Marker) onto the bottom base layer of the card, which is "Soft Sky." I also used the stamp-a-ma-jig for this to get the right allighnment, stamped the words, and then put the papers on top. There is a slit punched in the side of the oval and a piece of wide brown gingham ribbon tied to the side for some extra fun.

And finally, here's one more for today... I had this image sent to me and I've been hanging onto it for a long time. It's from the set "Doodle This" from last year's Stampin Up Spring Mini. It is layered onto Saffron, then the DP Petals and Paisleys. This paper has great colors in it. To fit with the thank you set theme, I added a little circle that says "Thank You" (from the set "Fancy Flexible Phrases") and punched that with 2 different sizes of circle punches. You also might notice a little part of the big flower is cut around. This technique is called "Out of the Box" and it just adds a little extra interest to your image and in my case, it helped make the image FIT better. I need to try this technique more. It can be a lot of fun.

Well, I have SO much to be thankful for, and making these cards for my sweet friend Lori, really helped remind me of all the wonderful people God has placed in my life who minister to me, pray for me, come to my rescue when I need them. Hope you enjoy the rest of your Thanksgiving Weekend. Here's a question for you...

Did you go out shopping on Black Friday?

Are you DONE with your holiday shopping?

Have you STARTED your holiday shopping?

I'd love to hear from you.

Sweet Friendship

Last night I hosted a dinner party at my house for 3 wonderful, sweet, amazing girlfriends from HIGH SCHOOL. We just had our 30th class reunion a few weeks ago, and one of my best friends, Judy, couldn't attend because she lives so far away. Because she was in town for Thanksgiving, I decided to host a mini reunion in her honor. I had originally invited 10-12 people, but it ended up only being 4 of us... so we had lots of time to gossip (nice gossip... really!), laugh, while we tried to remember who dated whom, who broke who's heart, what we wore to the prom, why we did or didn't make the cheerleading squad, etc.

Here is a picture of the four of us last night... Becky, me, Linda, and Judy. I didn't meet these girls until jr. high, because I went to a different elementary school than they did, but I sure am glad God placed them in my life! Judy and I were flag twirlers together, I helped introduce her to her husband Jimmy Carter (no lie!) and also to Jesus. I was in her wedding 25 years ago (ouch!) and she is one of only 3 or 4 people that I remained close to when I moved to Atlanta for 12 years. Linda introduced me to my very first boyfriend... Danny S... he was her next door neighbor. Boy, did I fall fast and hard! Becky and I were also in cheerleading together and also worked very hard in CSF together... making teriyaki chicken skewers for scholarship funds until our fingers were frozen. I LOVE YOU GIRLS! God is so good to allow us to spend time with people who bless our lives, even though life has taken us on many different paths!

The Basket Challenge

As many of you know, Splitcoast (www.splitcoaststampers.com) has been giving us a daily challenge this past weeks to make various holiday/ Christmas decorations. I thought I would love each challenge because I love giving handmade gifts to my family and friends, and these challenges would give me some new creative ideas to try, plus the motivation to get them done before December gets here. Well, I haven't done as many as I thought I would, mostly because the challenges have involved materials that I didn't have on hand. That has been a little frustrating, so I'm hoping this coming week there will be some challenges that actually use things I have in my huge stockpile of craft supplies!

This basket was one of the challenges early this past week, and since it only involved cardstock, designer paper, eyelets and ribbon, I could actually get it done. Here are the instructions in case any of you missed them!

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/treat_box/

Let me warn you that I had a little trouble getting the corner fold correct. At first I folded the corners in the wrong direction and had to redo the folds, but luckily that was before the designer paper was added, so I don't think you can tell. This is going to be filled with candy and given to a co-worker for her birthday next week, so she can keep in on her desk throughout the holidays. Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

Tomorrow is our church's 60th birthday celebration, and all my children from church are singing in the morning service, plus my drama team is doing a hilarious skit, and then we're having birthday cake and bouncers after church, so it will be an exciting day! I better get to bed!

Godspell at Biola

My daughter and I spent the day today working hard on her upcoming production of Godspell at Biola Youth Theater. If you aren't familiar with Biola, it a Christian University in Southern California (where I graduated from) that was origianally called "Bible Institute of Los Angeles" (thus the acronym BIOLA) and was started in 1907. (Wow!) About 15 years ago, they began a program to teach theater and music to home school kids, which eventually turned into "Biola Youth Theater." It is an AMAZING program that allows kids to participate in community theater in a safe, well supervised, moral environment, and teaches them Christian principles while they learn to sing, dance, and act! This is my daughter's third production, and she was fortunate this time to earn a LEAD in Godspell, as Joanna... Joanna is the disciple that sings "Oh Bless the Lord My Soul." I am amazed at her dancing and singing abilities..... and so thrilled that she is meeting wonderful friends in the process. Of course, I secretly hope she'll want to attend Biola in a few years when she gets ready to choose a college, but she's determined to move farther away... like New York! Let's hope and pray she realizes that musical theater majors don't make any money, and that she'll also choose to pursue her passion and gift for MATH so she can EAT while she performs on Broadway! If you want to see Godspell on stage at Biola, I would strongly recommend it! The shows are Jan. 10 - 12, and also Jan. 17-19 and you can get tickets by calling (562) 906-4574, or www.youth.biola.edu/byt

Blessings for a New Home

This is a special card for my former mother-in-law to send her blessings for her new home. She lost her hustband, my father in law and my kids' sweet "poppa" on Aug. 13, and in the midst of her grief and trying to cope with all the changes in her life, she had to sell their home and move to a smaller place. They were married for 48 years and she hardly ever left his side. She didn't work outside the home, and they were involved in their kids lives, traveled together extensively, sang in church choirs together, and opened their home to hundreds of guests in various capacities. Even though I'm divorced from her son, we still try to keep in touch and get together as often as possible for the sake of my 2 kids. It was a privilege to be in their home and help minister to her and the other family members right up until the end of Poppa's life, and even on the day he passed away, as well as the memorial service, where hundreds gathered to pay tribute and celebrate a man's faithful walk through life.

This card is made using the "Long Notes" from StampinUp! It's the first time I've used the package I bought a long time ago. The color is saffron, and it also uses Not Quite Navy, Blue Bayou, and Vanilla Paper. The inks are: Not Quite Navy, and Saffron. The stamp sets used are Neighborhood Jumbo Wheel (isn't it adorable? It's actually even LONGER than I used here. I cut one of the houses off.) and also "Fancy Flexible Phrases." Then I used a 1" and 1 1/4 " circle punch, Spanish Moss Grossgrain Ribbon, Aquapainter and markers for coloring the houses, the Double Line Stitch Plaid wheel on the base of the card, and a scrap of DP from Stampin Up! Thanks for letting me share a little bit of our family's story. If you think of it from time to time, please pray for my mother in law as she makes the huge life changing adjustment to starting life over at age 70 without her sweetheart. Thanks!

Wednesday Morning Joy

Just a few quick cards participating in Splitcoast color challenge. The top folded card uses Big on Christmas and Christmas Chatter, and the oval punches down in the corner. When it's open there is a large place for a photograph or a long Christmas note! The colors used are Cool Carribbean, Chocolate Chip, and Celery, to reflect the colors in the designer paper. I think the little tab of celery dotted ribbon leads the recipient to open the card up and peek inside. The main image is colored with markers, and highlighted with a silver gel pen and the sakura stardust pen, and then softened with a little Soft Sky ink on a dauber around the edges so it wouldn't look so white. There are 2 bold brads.

The next card is for the Color Challenge on Splitcoast which comes out every Tuesday (or Monday night if we're lucky!) Since I still had this fun paper out on my desk, it was fun to discover that Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi and Ruby Red (all StampinUp!) matched beautifully. The snowman image is from Stampendous. The snowflakes are stamped in soft sky and white craft ink. The snowman is painted using the soft sky pad rubbed onto a CD and the aquapainter, the scarf done in Ruby Red and Garden Green (which is a good match for Wild Wasabi since WW doesn't come in a marker) and then some of the snowballs as well as the word JOY are covered with a glue pen and dazzling diamonds. A pretty quick card. It would be easy to mass produce if you need to make a lot of holiday cards.

Well, it's Wednesday which means a very long day with KID U at church tonight, plus Emily has a voice lesson in Garden Grove, so a lot of running back and forth as usual. I sure have mixed feelings about letting my kids get their licenses and drive. A lot less running around for me, but impossible to think about buying a car or paying for more insurance and gas!

A Pocket full of Christmas Wishes

Yesterday's challenge on "Splitcoast Stampers" (http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/) was to make a horizontal pocket card. They are incredibly easy to make. You just fold a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 piece of cardstock in half like you are making a regular card, then fold one "lip" down about 1 inch, or whatever you'd like, and decorate as desired. Then make a single layer card to go inside the pocket for your greeting or photo, etc. A fun way to use designer papers. Also a great way to enclose a gift card! This card uses two papers from "Paper Adventures" called "Enchanted Christmas Sweets" and "Enchanted Christmas Stripes." It has pretty sparkles all throughout it. The candy ribbon is from Michaels (a little bobbin spool) and I've had it for about 2 years waiting for the right time to use it. The tag on the front of the card is from StampinUp, Too Terrific Tags, and the Round circle at the top is from "Riveting." The sentiment on the inside of the card is from Stampendous and it's called "Wishes Come True." It's one of my favorite sentiments to use on the inside of my Christmas Cards. The cardstock used includes Real Red, Wild Wasabi and Yo Yo Yellow, all from StampinUp!

My dauther the Nerd!

I couldn't resist showing you this picture of my dauther Emily on Halloween! She and her best friend Melina, decided to dress up like Nerds, (which was great, cuz it was only a $5.00 costume!) She even won the contest at church at the Youth Group Costume Party! Emily is the one on the right.

Wishing You Joy!

I fell in love with this beautiful paper when I saw it, and knew I had to make some cards with it. It's called Alpine Snow Lace from KI Memories Holiday Collection. The snowflakes could coordinate with SU Burgundy or Cranberry Paper, or even Pomegranite a little bit. But the background of the paper made it more of a challenge. It's very shimmery, not exactly white, or vanilla, but kind of silver. The opposite side of the snowflake side is solid "shimmer" so you could use that to coordinate a layer on your card.

The stamp I used is from Stampendous, and I purchased it from eclecticPaperie, but I don't know if it's still availalbe. It's called "Joy Brackets" I outlined the swirls with my currently favorite toy, my sakura stardust pen. It's so great to get glitter exactly where you want it in such small detail!

And finally, because it was hard to find a coordinating color with the shimmery snowflakes and the burgundy, I fell back on black, as Jami likes to say. This allowed me to add a touch of black velvet ribbon, purchased from Fabric Barn in Long Beach, as well as a wilver swirl clip, some black brads. The card is a tent fold, and is edged with burgundy ink around all the vanilla paper edges with a sponge dauber. Easy and elegance... what could be better?

JOY is a favorite word of mine at this time of year, because so many things can try to rob our joy. For me, it's the financial stress of the holidays. I'm already nervous about it, and as my two teenager's lists get longer and longer, and more expensive, it can be easy for forget the true meaning of Christmas... the joy that came to earth in the form of the Christ child. This card is my wish for YOU and my reminder for myself to remember to focus on all the right things during the next 2 months. Wishing you Joy!

A Must Read

I am reading a wonderful book right now, and if you haven't heard of it, or haven't read any of Max Lucado's books, I think you will really enjoy this. It's called 3:16, and the whole book is based on the verse John 3:16. In his amazing poetic style, Lucado will take you through the heart of the gospel of Jesus, and bring fresh life to a verse that you may have memorized as a child. Today I found myself weeping as I read about the amazing LOVE that God has for the world He created, and how he pursues us even when we don't deserve His love. Here is a link to my favorite online Christian book place: Christianbook.com. They have everything I need at the best prices.

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/easy_find?Ntk=author&Ntt=lucado&action=Search&N=0&Ne=0&event=ESRCN&nav_search=1&cms=1&Go.x=9&Go.y=5

Got to spend extra time stamping yesterday and today because I was at home recuperating from my extra long hours in preparation for our Fall Festival at Church. The festival was a huge success (1475 people and aboug 150 volunteers), but MAN was I exhausted. Yesterday, I slept in til about 11:30 a.m. and then just stayed home and did nothing! Today I was a little more energetic and actually ran one errand and finished about 5 Christmas Cards, and a Sympathy card for one of my very best friends who lost his dad on Wednesday.

The Noel card is a very simple layout, using my very favorite new Christmas image from Stampin Up, called "Big On Christmas" The colors used are Celery, Real Red, and Old Olive. The sparkle on the letters are done with an embossing pen and irridescent ice embossing powder. The ornament is colored with markers, and highlighted with a silver gel pen. The background is done with the giant wheel called "Christmas Chatter." The ornament is also popped up on a dimentional. It's a fun and easy card and easy to mass produce. :)

This next card was another very easy card to make, and was CASED from a card we did at Jami's house a few months ago at club night. My friend Mike lost his dad on Wednesday, and so I wanted to use Yellow Roses to commemorate our sweet friendship. We've been friends for a long time, and he is the person I always call to vent and is always my "date" when a "Broadway Musical" comes to town. The roses are done with Marigold Morning, Saffron, and Mustard Ink, and then covered with a piece of vellum to soften the look. The sentiment is done with Mellow Moss craft ink, and embossed with clear detail embossing powder.

Tomorrow I have a baby shower to attend for my neice who is finally having a GIRL after having 2 boys. My sister in law was in charge of buying the gift, and I got to make the card, so I'll share that tomorrow! Have a great weekend. Hope you get to do something fun or exciting!

Back to Stamping! Wow, it's been a long time since I've had more than 10 minutes to stamp. Finally had some time this week to lock myself in my stamping room and have some fun. Here are 2 cards (actually, I made 8 of the penguin cards to add to my Christmas collection.

The Penguin stamp is from Stampendous, purchased from eclecticPaperie. Isn't he sweet? The paper is Lovely Lilac from Stampin Up, and the designer paper is from BoBunny Press. It's called Winter Gen Stripe and Winter Frost.

The next card was inspired by Candy Williams (cwilliams on Splitcoast Stampers). I love everything she does. It's classic & festive! This is a retired Stampin Up set called "Tags & More" but I just can't get rid of it. It has so many possibilities. The background paper on this card is "Cheeky Emery Dot" from Making Memories. This card is for a very wonderful lady at church who had unexpected surgery. She went in for diverticulitus and because it was not handled well, she ended up having to be in the hospital for 2 weeks!

Long time no post! Way too busy, and I guess I wasn't sure I had anything that important to say! Well, this evening I performed my first wedding! A very young couple from my church, Brian and Brittany, age 19 & 18, asked me to perform their wedding a few months ago, and although I was quite honored and excited, I knew it would be a lot of work since it was my first one. I was right. Hours and hours and hours of preparation, studying, writing, and re-writing, meeitng with Brittany to plan and do some counseling (Brian is a marine stationed in Hawaii, so he wasn't here for any of the planning or counseling).

I think it turned out beautifully. I think the short sermon, the ring ceremony, the vows, and the sand ceremony (mixing 3 different colors of sand, similar to the unity candle concept) all were heartfelt, and challenging.

To make the evening even more special, my daughter Emily sang "Lost in this Moment" in the wedding. She was fantastic. I was so proud of her. Her first wedding to sing in... my first wedding to perform. We had a fun evening together. She is a sweetheart and we really enjoy so many of the same things in life, that when we get to do them together, it is such a bonding experience.

I'll add some pictures tomorrow, but now it's time for bed!

This week, my precious son, Stephen turned 16. As many of you know, Stephen was adopted at birth by my ex and myself, after a long struggle with infertility and losing 2 babies. He was SOOOO wanted and SOOOO loved. It was inconceivable that I could love anything or anything as much as I loved him. We've had a rough couple of years lately, with court stuff, and him moving back and forth between his dad and I, but through it all, I can honestly say that he continues to be the most adorable, talented, brilliant young man I've ever met, and he continues to challenge me to become a better person as I put into practice all I know to be true about being a godly woman and a godly mom. Here's a picture of Stephen with his 2 best friends as they came over to celebrate his birthday... playing poker and going out toilet papering! Stephen is the one with no shirt!

Finally got some time to do some fun stamping this afternoon... after a much needed visit to the hair salon! No interruptions... no laundry to do, just me and my stamps! This card represents three challenges: Using a set from Stampin Up that is going to be retired at the end of June, making a Graduation card that doesn't use traditional graduation images, and a sketch challenge using this specific layout. Colors (Creamy Caramel, Cranbery Crisp, Chocolate Chip, and Pretty in Pink) were chosen based on the scrapbook paper, which is from Basic Grey. The stamp set is called "Nice & Easy Notes" and it's the oldest stamp set I own. The circle stamp is called "Riveting" and it's so fun to use. I need to go back and add some brads, but other than that, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I still need about 3 more graduation cards... this was a big year for college kids graduating that I've known since they were little kids. Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Wow, it's been way too long since I've had a chance to do some fun stamping. Yesterday was our children's choir musical at church, which I direct, so all my spare time has been involved in preparing for that. So today, (Yeah for Mondays!) after getting my smog check, getting my car registration paid for at AAA, getting my son a new pair of PE Shorts, returning 3 blockbuster videos, and a much needed NAP, it was finally time to get out the stamp pads...

What better way to get caught up on some challenges that to combine 3 challenges in one! This week's color challenge, last week's sketch challenge, and today's technique lover's challenge. Here's what I came up with. I LOVE this stamp set: Mixed Bouquet. I think it's cool that depending on how you combine the flowers, you end up with a totally different look. Back to work tomorrow... back to reality!

Well it's my favorite day of the week... Monday! Most of you are thinking, HUH? Let me explain... as a Children's Pastor, Sunday is the busiest and most stressful day of the week for me... Making sure all our Sunday School teachers are in place and doing an incredible job like they always do, leading worship or teaching or setting up our amazing KidStuf program for about 75 elementary age kids, and then running home to get lunch for my son Stephen, helping him with his homework, and then heading back to church for children's choir practice. We have a huge children's choir musical in 2 weeks, so things are a bit crazy right now. SOOOO, with that being said, I look forward to my DAY OFF on Mondays. I barely go out of the house, let alone do anything difficult. If I don't find time to stamp on Mondays, then I feel the day was not a success. This was today's project... a going away card for one of my very best friends. Luckily, she's not really GOING anywhere, but she's just stepping down from her job at church, so I won't see her in the office as much as I'd like. But we'll still be able to have lunch and hang out as much as possible. I received some amazing swap cards at SoCal Stampmania 4 a few weeks ago, and one of them was a pocket card from Amy Combs. Hers was made with the Stampin Up Spring Flowers Designer Paper. Mine is done with the new Stampin Up Au Chocolate Designer Paper. I used 3 different designs from the set (boy is it hard to make that first cut into a new package of DP!) It's also my first time using my new "Faux Ribbon" set from PaperTreyInk. Great set!

It was so much fun to take all my Stampmania goodies to work today to show my stamping buddies Michelle and Beth. They got to drool over all the cards I made and the swap cards I received and the door prize items I received. They were totally jealous, cuz they don't get to spend as much time stamping as I do... (I mean, they actually COOK and CLEAN for their families while I'm stamping!) My son Stephen went back to the doctor this morning to have his elbow looked at (he cracked it a few weeks ago... ONE GUESS what he was doing... yep, that's right...skateboarding! The elbow is slowly healing, but still 4 more weeks with no PE... Now he's fighting a cold and is asleep on the couch at 5:45 pm... AAAAAHHHHHGGGGG, he doesn't need any more excuses for not finishing his homework. These are the times I really HATE being a single mom, when there's no one there to tag team the whole parenting/ homework thing. Pray for me! In the meantime, here's another CRAB card I made last night. Since I was having so much fun making Mike's Birthday card, I had to keep on going.

RECOVERING FROM STAMPMANIA !!

Spent a fabulous day on Saturday STAMPING with about 100 other ladies at Southern California Stampmania. It was organized by my friend Jami Sibley, along with her 2 stamping buddies Joy and Emily. Even though it was at FBCOL (my church/work place) it was definitely a FUN day, not a work day. We each got to make 10 cards, planned by other ladies in attendance, plus we swapped cards that we brought with us ahead of time. There were door prizes, etc... so all in all, I came home with about 40 new cards and ideas. So much fun. I loved meeting stampers from all over the country who's work I have admired for many years. Jenn Balcer, Beth (ShowmeStamper), Lynn from St. Louis, and many more. You'd think I'd be so sick of stamping today, but I couldn't wait to get Stephen off to school this morning so I could play! Organized and cleaned up my mess and then started stamping away, using some of my new stuff. My friend Mike's birthday is this Thursday (51!!!) so that was my goal for today. The inside of the card says "I SHORE DO LOVE YOU!" he he he! (Card is inspired by Cambria Turnbow. Her card can be seen at http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/531244) You Rock Cambria!

Here is a great picture of our first Sunday in our "new" building. Nine months of hard work, renovation, painting, ordering stuff, waiting for stuff to come, etc. What a blast it is to be in this awesome space. Kids are inviting their friends, and kids who haven't been too excited about coming to church can't wait to get here. The comment we hear the most is from the Jr. Highers and High Schoolers.... "How come you didn't do this for US when we were kids!" Yes, even from my own two, Stephen and Emily. Believe me kids, we tried! But God's timing is perfect, and we look forward to seeing many kids and parents "Connect with our extraordinary God!"

Wow, what a month it's been! Finishing the Children's Ministry Center early March, having our first service in the Clubhouse on March 4; having our appreciation dinner for all the workers (there were over 100 workers altogether) on March 10, then getting ready for April 1st, the official Grand Opening day.

April 1 was insane for me... helping preach the morning message with Pastor John (a huge privilege but glad I don't have to do that every week!) my children's choir singing, planning the barbeque and afternoon celebration for after church, etc. Plus we had invited all the school kids to come to the grand opening, and promised them a free homework pass if they came, so we had over 100 people in KidStuf that day. They even ran out of chairs. The funniest thing that happened on April 1, was that Pastor John and I finished our message a little too early (20 minutes too early!) so we dismissed church, even though we knew KidStuf wasn't over yet. It never occured to me that all those people from "Big Church" would wander right into the KidStuf building and interupt the service! Yikes!

We survived and celebrated with much rejoicing! My favorite part of the day was seeing young and old, "lifers" and new families fellowshipping around the tables, laughing together while kids played in bouncers, etc.

A New Year.... Wow, where did that year go? What happened to all those goals, plans, and dreams I had hoped to achieve in 2006? Where did those extra pounds come from? For me, the struggle is all about BALANCE. I spend way too much time stamping, and not nearly enough time with God. My kids, who are teenagers, don't need my personal attention nearly as much (read that: Mom, leave me alone....)so I have a lot of freedom in the evenings to do my own thing. Do you think I would use that time to exercise or work out? No, I'd much rather STAMP or email friends on the computer, or work on a household project. That's where the balance comes in (or in the case of 2006, didn't come in.) I love new beginnings, so I'm excited to once again have the opportunity to begin a new year and set new goals. More time with the Lord, less time stamping (gasp!). More time exercising, less time thinking about it, and hopefully, many more life possibilities.