Weekend Fun!!

This past weekend Paisley had her first sleepover with some of her girlfriends for her birthday, so Prince and Zamarah came over to spend the night with us.  Prince LOVES handball - and I couldn't resist snapping these pictures of him.  I think he hates using the 'pink' ball -but it is the only one we have that has air in it :)

 

 

 

Then later Papa, Prince and Zamarah polished off two big bowls of popcorn.  I don't know which loves popcorn more Papa or Prince - but they really do LOVE it!

Also snapped this picture of Zamarah playing on the little school bus - this bus has gone through 6 grand-kids and looks well loved - but still works.  She looks all smiles here - but let me tell you this little one is full of spunk!!  She definately thinks she rules the roost!

Thanks for stopping by - till next time.  ~Maureen

Open Crop Event

So you know how you always have those stamping projects that you never find time to finish - or maybe you don't know - but I certainly do.  So Heidi and I decided to start holding open crop and stamp events.  You bring your own projects and consumables, and we'll make our stamp sets, Big Shot, dies, etc. available for use.  The first was a lot of fun - and we plan to hold one a month - some daytime, some evenings, some Heidi's house, some mine - so watch for these events, and come stamp with us.
Here are the ladies stamping away -

 And below are some of the projects they were working on -

 

So you can see - just bring whatever you want to work on. 
We also had a couple Junior Stampers join us too - love that they love to create!

Have a great day stamping!!! ~Maureen

Cards, Cards, Cards....

Just sharing the three cards we made for our Cards, Cards, Cards Stamp Camp earlier this month.  Everyone gets to make two each of three different designs of cards.  We focused on retiring sets and products and I think what we came up with was great.  This first card is made with the Ronald McDonald set "Turtle & Co."  - I love that each year SU creates a set to raise money for this wonderful charity and I'm sure to get the set each year - it's always a fun set.  Isn't that little turtle cute with his googly eyes :)  I also love the retiring DSP "Well Worn" great for those masculine cards - and with 7 brothers that always comes in handy for me. The final touch as adding a cute little bow attached to a paper clip. 

This second card was a bit more feminine and used the retiring "Beau Chateau" DSP along with the "Lace Ribbon Border" punch that is being discontinued.  I love the soft look of this card.

Finally we used the "Everyday Elegance" Simply Sent kits to make these two lovely cards.  Simply Sent kits are a wonderful way to create beautiful hand made cards in a minimal amount of time, as most of the work is already done for you. 

Our June Cards, Cards, Cards, is June 12 and we'll be doing a Sympathy, a Baby, and a Anniversary/Wedding type card.  Let me know if you'd like to join us.  Thanks for stopping by!  ~Maureen

Paisley's Party Craft

Yesterday I shared a bit about Paisley's party - and Jenee asked me to come up with a craft for the kids to make with a "rainbow" theme - so we made these cute little photo albums.  I had all the kits made up and everyone who wanted got to make one.  I typed up the words from "Somewhere over the rainbow..." that had to do with dreams - and they added it to the front.  We punched the clouds using the frosting part of the Stampin' Up! cupcake punch.  Here's my sample -

And here are a couple of the ones the girls made - they did a great job!

 

Also, here is the bag I decorated for Paisley's gift - hope she liked it!!

Thanks for stopping by. ~Maureen

Paisley's Special Day

Last week we celebrated my oldest grand-daughter's 9th birthday with a rainbow theme.  I just cannot believe she is 9.  I remember vividly how my life changed the first time I held her in my arms - and since her I was blessed five more times with grandbabies.  Thank you Lord!  So here's the special girl with her cousin Kamili!  Jenee decorated the house and the patio all in the rainbow theme - it looked so pretty.

We all got to eat some great munchies and visit; and finish with some yummy cupcakes!!  The weather was perfect!

Here she is blowing out her "9" candles!

A fun part of the party was face painting - you can see above that Paisley has a small rainbow and clouds on her cheek - and below Kamili wanted her face just like her older cousin.

But Makai shows off her spunkiness here with her Mardi Gras mask face paint.

Prince decided face-painting was a bit to "girlie" for him - but later on he was playing with his foam dart gun, and Mom put some cute camo face paint under his eyes - I thought I had a picture, but guess not :(

Zamarah was being her stubborn self and just would not let me get a good picture - so I had to snap this one while she was resting on the floor.

Finally Zavian - got his face painted with his favorite thing in the world - a basketball!!

We had a great time celebrating and visiting - stop by tomorrow to see the cute "rainbow" craft we made.  ~Maureen

Where or where has the time gone.....

I have been missing in action ~ so thought I'd take a minute just to share what 's going on -

It has been a CRAZY couple of weeks - I can't remember the last time I didn't post for two weeks - so this is weird.  First - time just goes by crazy fast!!  But in the past two weeks - I've had sick kids, sick grandkids and sick ME!! 

Also, it's been the last two weeks of school at the college - so that means a tremendous amount of paperwork for me to process in my office.  Normally I have a person to help me one day a week (she's been laid off as of July 1st) but she's been out with some serious health issues - so everything has fallen to me.  (But E - I am seriously praying for you!!)  We've had birthdays and Mother's Day to celebrate.  During the last two weeks - two friends have passed away; the husband of another friend passed away; and two others are very, very seriously ill with cancer.  Plus - there are been some significant stressful other events that have happened - that I'm not going to share much here - but needless to say all of this has taken it's toll on me.

But ----- those two weeks are over, and tomorrow is a new day.  One of my favorite sayings is  "Nobody can go back and start a new beginning - but anyone can start today and make a new ending." 

Thanks for stopping by!  ~Maureen

Tea Bag Holder

At our CSL Business Builders meeting this last weekend - we made a cute little tea bag holder.  Here is a close up of the front using the stack of tea cups from "Morning Cup"  I am not a tea lover - but I love the thought of tea - if that makes any sense.  I collect tea cups; and buy tons of tea for others to drink - but me? - give me a big cup of coffee - the boldest brew you have :)  That's one reason I love this stamp set -as it has images of both tea items and coffee items - best of both worlds.

To make the holder we cut and scored the card stock as shown below. 

Then flip the CS over left to right and cut the last square at a diagonal from upper left of square to lower right.

The remaining triangle of the square will be folded to the left and adhered to make a pocket - you can see in a later picture.

Cut a 3 1/2" square of another coordinating color and also cut that diagonally.

Here is the inside of the holder (obviously we did two different colored holders :)  You can see the triangle folded to the left.  We punched a fun border on the triangle and adhered it for contrast.  I've seen several samples of these on the internet.

Here's the final project - closed and tied.  The ladies in this group were challenged to use these to add to a packet of Business materials and give to two new potential customers during the coming month.  Just one of a few Business Builder challenges they have to complete before next meeting in August.  ~Maureen

My day with Miss Makai

Last week I had my Gramma day with my grand-daughter Makai - she is such a sweetie.  She wanted to have a day just like her sister had a month ago.  So we started out at the mall - it was a beautiful day!

Next we hit the Build-a-bear store where she got the cute little bear she's holding.  It took her probably 30-45 minutes to make up her mind what she wanted.  I guess there were too many choices :)

Then lunch at her favorite restaurant - McDonald's!  Seriously, I told her we could go to any restaurant she wanted - and this is what she picked.

Then we went back to my house where she decorated her journal and drew a picture and story of how we spent the day together.

Final stop was Baskin-Robbins for some yummy ice cream.  We picked up some for her sister and brother at home, as she didn't want them to miss out  - like I said - she's a sweetie!

We had such a nice time together - she is adorable, sweet and full of spunk - you just never know what she might say.  And her favorite thing is technology - she knows how to use my smart phone better than I do.  Can't wait till our next day together sweet girl!!

April Christmas Card Class

This past weekend we had our April Christmas card class and it was great!!  Everyone left with 10 more cards to add to their stash for the holidays!  Since the retired list is out - we focused on using almost all retiring products. I'm offering a special now through May 31 - buy any retiring stamp set on the retiring list and get a $1.00 credit toward merchandise in the new catalog - buy two of the sets, get a $2.00 credit, etc. No limit. Plus anyone spending at least $50 in retired merchandise will get a NEW catalog FREE as soon as they are available mid-May. You can see all the retiring stamps and merchandise HERE.

This first card is made with "Winter Post" one of my all time biggest sellers. This set has such a great 'vintagey' feel to it.  We made it in neutral gray tones, and added a bit of Sahara  Sand to the image for a bit of a sepia look.  I just want to be there skating with them.

111780  $26.95

Our other card was total opposite - using very traditional green and red - for this card we used the snowflake from the "Sweet Season" set.  This is a great set if you make homemade treats to give at the holidays - as it offers images and sayings that can be added on a tag for your gifts/gift boxes.  The verse is from "Christmas Greetings" - I love this "Merry Christmas" to me it's the perfect size and a great font.

115448 $10.95

116471 $18.95

 Plan to join us next month at our May 26 Christmas Card Class - email me for full details.