It's a Happy Flowery Day

Hello Friends!
Today's blog entry has nothing to do with stamps or paper.   I'm one of those crazy people who have a BUNCH of different hobbies and I regularly bounce around amongst them.   Next to paper crafts, gardening is my favorite hobby eveeerrrrrrr, so come take a look in my yard and see what I do in when I'm not crafting or cleaning my house.  :o)

This is the view you'd see if you were sitting on my deck and looking through toward our little pond.   Notice my husband's gargoyl?   I hate that thing but I let him keep it because he lets me have real pets. 

Here's a clearer view of the pond.  

This is a view standing by the pool and looking back at the house.   I feel like I need a tree in there somewhere but hubby is saying no.   I'll work on him.

This is a view of the front of my house.  Notice no gargoyls.   

A closer view of the little bed by my front door.  Something is already chewing on my rose.  Grrrrr.

This is one of  a bunch of allium I planted around our river brich in the front yard.   I had to straddle a bush to get this shot, but you gotta do what you gotta do to document your hobbies, right?

And finally, some happy yellow flowers on my front porch.

I hope you enjoyed peeking into my yard this afternoon.   I don't know about you, but flowers just make me so darn happy.  :o)   The way I see it, flowers are a visible manifestation of God's love and creativity and beauty.   HE created these things.   He thought up what every one of them should look like, smell like and where they should grow, and I do believe He delights in their beauty every bit as much as we do.  

If you scroll down to the very bottom of my blog, I'll be posting weekly pictures of my garden until it starts to snow!

Here's wishing you happy yellow flowers today!   Hugs!
Sue :o)

Give a Hoot!

Hello Everyone!   I just wanted to share some cards I made with my new Give a Hoot Cricut cartridge!   The images are on this cartridge are just too stinkin' cute!   I knew right away that I wanted to use my DCWV green stack with these images - especially with the card above.   Love that little bird background paper!

I used the same papers on this card and the sentiment is from SU.   So I'm having fun - right?   I'm cutting, gluing and assembling little critters - and then I got to thinking that these little critters needed some dimension.   So I broke out the chalks and my markers and my white gel pen and did this....

I'm sure I'm not the first one to think of doing that, but whatever ---- better late than never, right?   All I did was add decorative chalk around the edges of the images (I seal it with good old fashioned cheap hairspray), and then I added some accents with my white gel pen.   It adds something, don't ya think?   Oh, and on this card I used K&Co. background papers. 

Well, that's all I have to share today.   I have a nice stack of critters on my desk that need to be attached to cards, so as soon as I do that I'll have more to share.   I hope you're all having a great day!   God bless!

Sue :o)

Bloom!

Hey there!  I wanted to share this cute little project I made a few weeks ago.   I bought this wood shadow box/barn at the dollar store several years ago and it's been sitting in my craft closet waiting patiently all this time.  :o)   Just goes to show that sometimes hoarding is a good thing.  Before decorating I gave it a light sanding and then lightly washed it with white acrylic paint.  I wanted it to look whitewashed so I left some areas of wood showing through the paint.

Then I went to town with lots and lots of paper flowers.   Some were cut on the Cricut, some were cut on the Cuttlebug, some were punched and some were quilled.   It's amzing how many flowers you can make with paper, huh?

After filling all the little boxes with flowers, I added embellishments like quilled circles, buttons, and rhinestone dragonflies --- oh and dew drops too. (Can't get enough of those dewdrops).

I had a lot of fun making this bloom box and honestly it wasn't hard at all.   The quilling took the longest to do but I love doing it so it wasn't like work.

I hope you're all having a great spring/summer so far!   I'm excited because my son only has a week and a half left of school and then SUMMER VACATION!   I can't wait to sleep in and enjoy a little more relaxed routine.  Thankfully he decided against taking summer school this year so we don't have to be out the door by 7:15.   Yeesh!

I'm hoping to post some more projects this week.   I've been having some technical difficulties with my computer - or as my husband puts it "operator error" but it seems to be working now.   :o)   Have a happy Monday!

Hugs!
Sue :o)

Mother's Day Cards

Hello Bloggy Friends!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and got lots of crafty time.   I got some and will actually have a really cute Cricut/quilling/punch art project to show you just as a soon as a I find my hot glue gun and can finish working on it.   I have nooooo idea where that pesky little glue gun went but I'm thinking it might be at church.   Hmmmmmm.   Anyway, I was in the midst of vacuuming when my vacuum cleaner died (WHAT LUCK HUH?) so I thought I'd share some more cards.

The above card combines two of my favorite things to do - stamping and cross-stitching.   I intended on paper piercing the corners when all of a sudden I spotted some embroidery floss and thought - well why not?   The stamp is Penny Black and I have absolutely no idea who made the paper because it was in my scrap stash.  Once paper ends up in the scrap stash it's origins are a complete mystery to me.   :o)

Here's another one that actually just sold this weekend.   The bird stamp is from The Greeting Farm, and I embossed it on patterned paper, cut it out and then attached it to the card on foam tape.   I do know who made these papers - K&Co., and the punched flowers have dew drop centers.  

I promise I'll be back with some more Cricut creations - just as soon as my rechargeable batteries recharge and I can take pictures again.   I better go see if the vacuum cleaner is really broken or if I just overheated it.   I do that sometimes.  :o)

Have a wonderful, happy, blessed day!
Hugs!
Sue :o)

Man I've Been a Bad Blogger Lately

Have you ever been really really busy and really really burned out and just BLAH?   Well that's where I've been for the last few weeks.   Luckily I think I'm coming out of it - thanks to the wonderful sunshine and warm-ish temperatures.   There's nothing like digging in the garden and getting stabbed on rose bushes to bring me out of my wintertime blues. :o)

And speaking of my garden check this out....

I know!   It really is spring when the grape hyacinths come up!   Yay!

In addition to getting muddy and injured in my yard, I've been quite busy in the craft room too.  I just put 17 new cards in my Etsy shop and I'll be posting some new Cricut creations this weekend.   Here's another Mother's Day card in the shop...

Ha!   That's not a mother's day card - it's a rhododendron!  I couldn't resist!   Seriously now - here's another card...

I hope you're all having a great week!   Thanks for visiting!
Hugs!
Sue :o)

Stamp Credits:  Pink Bear Card - Stampavie
Blue Butterfly Card - sentiment is by Stampin' Up!

Sunflowers!

Hi everyone!
Is it just me or are we ready for Spring yet?   I keep peeking around in my garden - looking for signs of life, and while things are definitely waking up - there isn't nearly enough green out there to suit me.    So the next best thing was to make my own flowers!   Granted, you have to wait until a little later in the season for sunflowers - but whatever - I wanted flowers so I made some.

Everything for this card was cut on my Cricut using the Walk In My Garden cartridge.   All these images are cute enough on their own, but of course I had to jazz them up a little.   After cutting everything out I used my chalks to add some depth to the leaves, the centers of the flowers and the edges of the watering can.   Then I used my stylus to add some texture to the flower petals, and I also popped up some of the flowers and leaves with foam tape.

And of course I had to finish the inside of the card with another sunflower.  (I can't stand it when the inside of a card is naked).   All the background papers are K&Co. and everything else is just scraps of card stock.

Thanks for stopping by!   I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Hugs!
Sue :o)

Easter Creations

Easter is just around the corner so I thought I should get busy on cards!   I tell you - I'm really behind this year.  I haven't even started on Mothers Day or Fathers Day or graduation cards yet.   I think I'm going to have to camp out in the craft room for a few days and get caught up!  The card above was made with DCWV paper and pink cards stock.   The tulip stamp is from DeNami and the scripture stamp is from Clear Dollar Stamps.  

I just love the bright colors on this card.   The paper is from K&Co.  and the stamp is Stampendous!   Can you believe I got that stamp for 50 cents at an estate sale?  Bargain!

Here's another card I did with my Cricut.   Isn't that bunny sweet?   I think I'm going to use this as my official Easter card to family and friends this year.   The Cricut cartridge I used was the Woodland Wonders cartridge.  The papers are all K&Co., and I used the Cuttlebug and Nestabilities dies to cut out the scalloped ovals.

Well, I'm off to the kitchen now to try out some new recipes I found in my blog travels this last week.   After that it's either house cleaning, laundry or ----- more stamping.   Guess which one I'd rather do.  :o)

Have a great weekend all!
Hugs!
Sue :o)