Some of my favorite things

This has been a pretty rough weekend, but I turned it around and threw myself into something I love, stamping, and thought about some of my favorite things - my family. All of these stamps take me back to a different time and brought back wonderful memories. I hope you enjoy them.

First there's trickortreatabella by Stamping Bella. Gosh, I love Halloween! My mom always made it fun by dressing us up and taking us trick or treating. I always tried to make it fun for my nephews and then for my daughters. And at one time or another, we were all dressed up as pumpkins! When I saw her, I just had to have her! If you look real close, you'll see the new cuttlebug folder in the background. Pumpkins everywhere!

Then there's Nurse Nellie from Stamping bella. My sister is a midwife and Tiffany was a CNA. While the thought of anything medical makes my stomach turn, while it's turning, I'm so glad I've got them to sooth and explain everything medical and technical to me. Nellie is the first image I've used my nestabilities on and had them come out right. And everything my own personal nurses tell me makes things come out right!

Then there's Edwin Fishing from Magnolia Stamps. My friend, Kristina, asked me where my Edwins were so I got off my duff and put him together. I think he came out pretty good. All of my nephews fish and Branden, my daughter's new fiance, has been lobstering and while he uses traps instead of a fishing pool and brings in lobster rather than fishes, I still am pretty proud of my first boy. Thanks, Kristina, for the nudge! I popped up his bobbin and the light blue velvet rick rack reminded me of waves.

These are all special cards to me and each recalled very special people to me. If you had the opportunity to know them, they'd all be special to you also. Enjoy!

Meeting with Friends

Time spent with friends is time well spent. Thursday evening, my friend Lynn and I crafted with our friend, Karen. I work with Karen's husband at the bowling alley and we used to laugh that taking care of people at the bowling alley came in second only to our stamping! Nelson, Karen's husband does great work and we would spend all night Friday talking stamping and exchanging images.

I'm loving Tilda and she just looks so cute in her little swimsuit. Reminds me of the girls running around in their swimsuits up at camp. You'd never find them sitting on the dock though. They'd be jumping right off into the water! Water babies I had! I brought my Tilda in Swimsuit because I've been dying to put her together. I found some paper, Sugared by Basic Grey, that just called to me to put together for her. The buttons are from a friend, Kim, the brads and stick pen flower are from Loreen at Wish Upon a Scrap and I colored her with my Bic markers and chalked the sky and water with my SU pastels.


Karen brought out all of her SU sets and I spent more time looking than I did stamping! And who can pass up getting first shot at using a brand new set from the SU? As you can see, not me! This is "Fresh Cut" and it's presented on one of the new die cut set of cards. I used Riding Hood Red, I believe paper and ink for it. The button in the middle is from my button jar my mom gave me and the ribbon is from Joann's. I glued the extra petals on and curled their edges. This set is beautiful and the cards are stunning. I've got to have them!

We had the best time and if you haven't ever stamped or crafted with a friend, I highly recommend it. We talked, laughed, oooh'd and augh'd over everyone elses tools and toys and shared with each other and had the best time. Like I said, time spend with friends is time well spent. I love well spent time!

Another Award!

And the next Award I received was so much fun!

What a great award!! It just makes me smile when I see this one. I was blessed again with receiving this one. This time Danni from Danni’s Dreams, Kristina at Krystinah and Kim from Crafts by Kim. Thank you so much! You guys so rock and I’m at your blogs all the time! The talent that you stampers have inspires me every day and that you think enough of my blog to recognize it humbles me.

Here are the rules for playing:
1. The winner can put the logo on their blog
2. Link the person you received your award from
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Put links of those blogs on yours
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated

These are some people that I draw my inspiration from:

Loreen at Loreen’s Scrap Place
M-J at Chookarooni’s
Deb at IttyBittyInkSpots
Ami at Diva For A Day
Debbie at Debby’s Stuff
Heather at Heather’s Coffee Break
Bere

I may not always leave comments, but I love looking and reading your blogs every day! Thanks for your friendship and the great inspiration I get from all of you.

Some Awards!

I am shamed that it's taken me this long to find the time to accept and thank some great friends and stampers who have given me awards in the past few weeks. I'm very humbled by your generosity and thoughtfulness. First is Danni!

I’m so blessed with friends that stop by and check out my blog to see what I’ve been up to. I received this award from Danni at Danni’s Dreams. I really love her work and her friendship so that she would include me in this award is very special to me (not that any aren't).
The rules of this award:
1. Only 5 people allowed.
2. 4 have to be dedicated followers of your blog
3. One has to be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to whoever gave you the award, quite simple really it is a way of saying thank you to those who take time out for wonderful comments to boost your day.

These people have supported me and given me inspiration every day, even if you don’t realize it. You mean so much to me and have enhanced my life. So this is who I’d love to pass this award to:

Kim- Creations by Kim
Deb- Itty Bitty Ink Spots
Ami- Diva For a Day
Denise - Poquita Lita’s Magnolia
Katharina - Katharina's Creative Place

I know other other people check into my blog but I can only give this out to five. For those of you not mentioned, look out for my next award!

All Wet

Ever have a stamp you can't get enough of? That's how I feel about this Tilda by Magnolia stamps. Every time I look at her, a different color combination comes to mind for me. While I was coloring her all I could think of was a soft, sweet little girl being too afraid to wade very much farther into the water than to just wade. All of my girls have been water babies and I can't imagine what I would have done if they all hadn't loved the water!

My great friend Deb over at Magnolia-licious yahoo group put out a sketch challenge and I had to take it. I had my Tilda already stamped and colored so when I thought of his challenge, I reached for her. I adjusted a couple of things from the sketch. Deb had a circle in the middle, but I used an oval. She showed two flowers in the bottom corner, but I used two plastic swirls because they reminded me of waves. You may wonder why I put hot pink flowers on a beach card, but here in Maine they have pink flowers that they call Sea Roses along the coast line so I wanted to honor them. They're stunning to look at and add just a splash of color. To see that bright pink mixed in with the beautiful sea blue and light beige sand is truly a sight to see.

She was colored with watercolor pencils and the sky and water was sponged with Dew Drops by Versachalk ink. The paper is by my Memory Makers Delany line. The brads are jeweled brads from Memory Makers and the blue swirls (waves to me!) are by Heidi Stamps and the flowers are by Dress It Up. The ribbon, like most of my supplies for this baby came from Loreen at Wish Upon a Scrap. I used my nestabilities on both of the ovals. The picture corners are from the SU punch.

Tilda just makes me smile!