In Remembrance...

I had the rare opportunity today to visit Arlington as my hubby and I were driving up to Baltimore for a few days this week. I've always wanted to visit on Memorial Day. It was the perfect ending to this holiday weekend of remembrance and a truly wonderful time hopping in the OWH Memorial Day Bloghop.

I just want to say a big THANK YOU for everyone who visited my blog over the weekend. All of the sweet comments, the new followers, and the outpouring of support for our military all throughout the bloghop was just amazing! It was a really special weekend that I hated to see come to an end. I can't wait for next year's!

I'll be up here for a couple days dropping in at my favorite LSS and shamelessly shopping for more stash. I love tagging along on his business trips now that all of our LSS's in town have closed. I can't wait to get back though and play with some new stuff. You guys have totally motivated me to post more and start producing!

It's late here and this chickie needs to get some sleep and get ready for a big day of shopping ahead. Hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable weekend!

OWH Memorial Day Bloghop!!

Welcome to your next stop on the OWH Memorial Day Bloghop! You should be arriving from Megan's blog, but if you've just dropped in for a visit and feel like starting from the beginning and checking out some amazing talent for a great cause, be sure to start HERE at the Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps blog for the start of the hop!

Supplies used:October Afternoon papers,SU! stamp,ink,ribbon,brad and linen thread,DMC floss, EK Success border punch and label punch,Making Memories buttons,PTI stamp.

I used this week's MOJO140 sketch for my first card in today's hop. I'm SO lovin' the new October Afternoon Thrift Shop papers and they absolutely fit perfectly with the red,white, and blue Memorial Day theme so it was a win-win! I'm still on the vintage kick right now and I ran across this post from last summer on Nichole Heady's blog with excellent instructions on how to make your own crochet flowers. It's SUPER easy to make these! Trust me, I've never crocheted a day in my life before now. If you need a few crochet basics videos to get you started,I found these to be really good.


Supplies used:PTI stamps,felt,cloud and balloon dies,Copics,Pink Paislee papers,MS border punch,Spellbinders tag and label die,jute ribbon Joann's, Stampendous ep,Making Memories buttons.


For my second card, I couldn't wait to play with some new PTI goodies I got in the mail this week just in time for this hop! How 'bout those too-cute for-words clouds?? Those are their new cloud dies cut from their Vintage Cream felt. I'm loving all the hot air balloons and clouds showing up in the papercrafting world these days. I saw this stamp set and knew I had to have it. All throughout the year we see hot air balloons flying over our house. We've even had one land in the middle of our street for emergency refueling! Of course, I was out there with my camera! I have lots of uses for these stamps and the matching dies. Keeping with the red,white,and blue theme, I found these Pink Paislee Cupid papers in my stash and they reminded me of summer, picnic tables, and fun. I hope it brightens the day of a family member of one of our bravest!


Arlington National Cemetery

And speaking of family members of our heroes, this Memorial Day and each and every day, I'm thankful for our patriots who put their lives in harms way defending freedom and this great country of ours, for their families who wait so patiently back at home holding down the fort, and for those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for their country so that future generations will be free to follow their dreams. God bless our military!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend, but before you leave and hopefully continue on with this awesome bloghop, I have a little BLOG CANDY to give away!! I was having a tough time deciding exactly which of these cute little elements on these cards would be the most fun to receive in the mail SO...... I'm sending them all!!




I have 1 set of red, white, and blue crocheted flowers(one each)
I have 2 sets of the PTI die-cut clouds cut from PTI Vintage Cream felt(4 total,these are die-cuts--not the dies themselves)
I also have 2 sets of the PTI die-cut/stamped balloons (6 total, these are die-cuts--not the dies themselves and they are stamped in Memento ink suitable for Copics)
and what's a Martha Stewart border punch addict to do but give away the Martha Stewart 'Quilted' border punch I used along the bottom of my second card! (the actual punch itself except you'll be getting a new unopened punch because this addict NEVER gives away her Martha punches)

All you have to do to be entered to win this blog candy is leave a comment here on my bloghop post! There's a whole bunch of blogs to get through on the hop this weekend so relax, take your time, just be sure to comment here before 5pm on Friday June 4th,2010 to be entered in this giveaway!! I'll be drawing the winning name/date/time stamp from a hat and announcing the winner Saturday morning June 5th on my blog as well as contacting the winner via email. (Please, if you're leaving a comment outside of a Google account, leave your email addy with the dot com spelled out as I've done here so I can contact you) Sorry my international friends, but I'm limiting this contest to US shipping only.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today and taking part in this hop! I hope you have a safe and FABULOUS weekend and be sure to visit the next stop on the OWH Memorial Day bloghop, a military spouse herself, Erika's blog HERE featuring her cute and fun patriotic card!

Just a quick note...

I've been busy, busy, busy this week getting ready for the OWH Memorial Day bloghop this Saturday May 29th,2010!! Please come back and visit this weekend--I have a CUTE CUTE CUTE blog candy giveaway planned and you won't want to miss this AMAZING bloghop! There are over 135 talented paper-crafters participating in this hop--SO much inspiration and SO many many generous people giving their time and creative energies to such a great cause! Hope to see you back here on Saturday!!

(the hop will start HERE at the OWH Stars and Stamps blog, but you're welcome to start with mine and work your way back and forwards from here!)

Happy Mother's Day all you moms out there!

I'm typing up this post as I wait for my wonderful hubby to get back from Panera with my all-time favorite muffin EVER--the orange cranberry. I really hope they have it this morning. I needed one more Mother's Day card for my mom(the other one was for my mother-in-law who enjoys all things crafty/sewing, etc.) and these PTI stamps were just the thing. I just so happened to buy her a Wallflowers starter kit and a bunch of sweet pea refills(my favorite scent) from Bath and Body Works as a little Mother's Day gift this year. She's way too cheap to indulge in what she calls 'such an expensive air freshener' so I popped in the store the other day and guess what?? They were on surprise sale for $6!! I bought her enough refills to last until they go on sale again as it will probably be me that buys her more.

Anyways, on to the card... I pretty much CASE'd the uber-talented Dawn McVey's card here. I loved the way she used the Dotti Biscotti paper, Copics, and pop-dots to enhance the blossoms but I wanted to take that idea and put my own spin on it. I found out it's MUCH harder to do that than I thought. When you have a picture of an already perfect card in your head, it's difficult to alter it in any way. I gave it my best shot and I'm super excited with how it turned out. Hope my mom likes it. She's REALLY hard to please. Probably why I grew up such a perfectionist:)

If you're celebrating Mother's Day as a mom yourself, or with your own mom, or someone you consider just like a mom, I hope you have a wonderful day and cherish the relationships in your life!

Supplies used:PTI stamps and patterned paper,Copics,SU! Kraft cs,EK Success double crochet lace border punch and bracket journaling punch,Quickutz label,Tim Holtz Vintage Market alpha.

An attempt at vintage...

Well, I don't know if this could really be called 'vintage-style', but I had fun using all these fun new vintage-y products! Got some of that awesome new October Afternoon paper and I found this cute dressform stamp at Hobby Lobby last week. I ordered a REALLY cute stamp set from a new company called Lawn Fawn , but it hasn't arrived in my mailbox yet and I REALLY REALLY wanted to play with this new paper! (and I really really needed to get a mother's day card made and sent out in a hurry)

Never been much of a vintage kinda girl, but I'm totally and completely embracing this new trend this season! I'm working on a little mini-album of vintage goodness that I'll hopefully finish up next week and share here.

Hope everyone's enjoying gorgeous spring days and squeezing in some scrappy time too!

Supplies used:October Afternoon Thrift Shop,K&Co,SU! patterned paper,Quickutz Eliza,Tim Holtz Vintage Market,Stampabilities and Inkadinkado stamps,Spellbinders,EK Success real estate punch,Martha Stewart modern garland and eyelet lace punch,Tsukineko and SU! ink,La Mode button,Michaels ribbon,SU! kraft cs,Prima,KI sheer, Copics.