Happy Smiles

    Some days, all it takes is a SMILE  to make our day better. I am so blessed with this little grand daughter. She  has a supply of smiles  that is never ending... And looking  at her pictures  always  brings a smile to my face .
   Though these pictures are from EASTER, I did not want to  showcase  EASTER... This sweater and hat was made  by a dear friend of  my daughters, and  over the years I am proud to say she is my friend as well... My daughter found this dress  that was perfect  to go with her sweater and hat, how lucky was that : )     I thought this was a great  memory to  put into  her  album...

   I choose the bright colors  to  too add to the happiness of the pages.  These papers are from a bright pack  made by SU  several years ago . And a touch of bling , well you all  know that is always a  great embellishment... I also used an older retired set of stamps made by SU, called phrase starters...  And then journaled in my own handwriting too

    I hope  your day is full of smiles, and love...
And you remember to share  both of those...

    Til next time...  Thanks for stopping in ...

And now I will share my smiles  with all of you  : )
 

Sewing Time

     Well My mojo for card making is  running low, so I thought I wiuld try  to get a couple of summer~ light weight ~ blankets made for my  youngest grand daughter . And while I was at it I did my first attempt  at making a small" taggie blanket ".  It is about 12 x 12,  I am hoping  this is big enough for her to hold and be content with  when she is tired, and then not need a big  blanket. She has a habit  of liking to cover her head with her blankets ...
      Of course my sewing machine decided it did not want to play nicely today, so it took a lot of extra time and attention.  But my oldest grandson  was helping and we were able to get these done.  And I am happy to say  I even  took time to  put my sewing notions  in my new sewing basket that  one of my grand daughters  gave me at Christmas.  So it was a day with  progress being made  in marking things off of my "TO DO" list  YIPPEE

   Faith wears a lot of  bright colors  or purple , she just does not wear little girl  pastels... So I thought these  crinkle materials  would be perfect for her in the  hot weather .

Thanks for stopping by,  maybe this will jump start my card making  mojo again...I sure hope so .

Have a blessed day, and I hope to see you here again real soon...Bye now  

ZOOMING RIGHT ON BY !

   Wow am I ever late at showing you some of my thank you cards I used for my birthday gifts. Thank goodness I was not quite as late  in mailing them out !
  The first one is super basic and easy, but there is some humor too. As I was deciding on what I wanted to do for this card for my niece,  I pulled out  some pattern paper in navy ...  I did not realize it was the same paper my niece used on my birthday card , except in hot pink...
 I did heat emboss the thank you to try to add some life to this, and of course I used  one of my favorite dies and embossing folders from Sizzix...

       For the second one, I used a black gate fold card and used some taupe color too, Along with  the flower and tag from Michaels , I added some piercing to add to the texture.The flower really matched a bit better than it looks here , the pearl was to add a touch of elegance, because my sister - in - law  is just that kind of lady : ) 

    For # 3,  I used a card I had made a while back at one of my daughters classes. It was a fun card to make,  the stamps and paper  made it a happy card and  fun to give .The recipient of this card is always  having fun, hope she like her card : )

And the last card  is another card I made at  a class given by my daughter. It was  out of her normal realm. She loves bright, cutesy, and fun ...but these papers  sure made this card turn into some thing so pretty...
The colors and papers were by SU... I sure do miss my daughter  holding classes, her  joy of creating  was so contagious...

     I hope  to be back before July ZOOMS  by...Thanks for stopping by, I  hope you are enjoying your summer. I know life is busy, but I hope you all are  finding time to be creative...

Blessings today  and tomorrow too.            

FIREWORKS AND FAMILY

      After my last post  telling you about my family  and how we celebrate the fourth of July . I decided to  share some pics with you ...
I was having some issues with my camera  right about the time for the  fireworks to start, but I was happy that I was able to get a few captures that I liked...  It was an amazing display,  we could even feel the ground  rock...   There were many  super loud ones, we call those "boomers" ... and those were the ones  my husband always loved,.  So we told Faith  we were sorry  for those being so loud, but that was her GRANDPA  sending special  fireworks to us... and especially to her  ...

Here is  our  Sweet Baby Faith all dressed for the day 

 Isn't she  just so  precious....    : )   We all sure think so 

And  me with my grandchildren...they sure make life  wonderful...

    Thanks for stopping in. I will post some pics of my birthday   in a day or so... My girls always try to be sure  that the tradition my mom and dad started long ago, celebrating my birthday on the 4 th  lives on...And they still try so hard to be sure I still get a real birthday  too  ...
I am so blessed  to have  my daughters , and all the time they share with me....

The lost card

     Here is a picture of the other  Anniversary  card  that I made for  my oldest brother and his wife. My sister - in - law  took a picture and  emailed it to me...hope it works  : )

    I used  chocolate chip  with  a dp  from SU  that  had  Soft Sky in it... then used  more choc chip and sky  to finish it. I used  my trio  butterfly  die   from Dienamics...I  truly  LOVE that die ... and I used my  labels 18 from sizzix too   and some bling of course.

    Then I used the reverse side of  that same dp, which is a soft floral  and made a birthday card  for  a sister - in - law on my husbands side of the family... Here birthday is the  9 th...I used an old favorite layout  and  I added a white crocheted  flower behind the  blue butterfly , that  really brought out the white bottom layer of  the butterfly~  which was made by cutting a butterfly in half and placing behind the  sky colored layer ~
Sometimes pretty dp  is all you need to make  a card  that is just right for that special  person  : )

    Last but not least,  I made a masculine card for a friend  who  has his birthday on the 8th. We worked together  for 19 years  and he is a part of our family. We used to always share pizza at work to celebrate  our  birthdays...I hope we can  find a day to share some pizza  this year too : )     I used an older color from SU  called True Thyme and a dp that  coordinated  nicely. I added a flat  piece of ribbon  to keep it masculine, but add some texture , and a  design lable punch  for the sentiment,  Then  punched another label in  Thyme  and again I cut it in half and  placed it behind  my  white label.   No bling,   no fussing...
 just a  wish  for a great birthday !

    Thank you for stopping by... July is already  rolling...Busy Busy month for all of us... I hope  you are enjoying your summer  and  finding time to create as well...

     I am not sure  what exact cards I need to work on next...but I know  there will be some  cards  that I need to make, so please stop back by when you have the time ... 

Happy 4 th of July

Sonja

GOODBYE JUNE

    When the end of June approaches, I face  my oldest brothers  birthday...  He celebrates his day on June 28 th, just one week before I celebrate my birthday . 
     But then July brings  anniversaries  for both of my brothers. The oldest was married on July 3 rd  47 years ago ...WOW...
And the other was married on my birthday  July 5  37 years ago  : )
July 26  is mine and my husbands  anniversary, and it would have have  39 years  this  year...I miss him.
   So as you can see  the time  near the 4 th of July  has always  been a busy time in our family. My Mother always celebrated  my birthday on the 4 th...so I remember lots of family time and  lots of fun...My Daddy told me the fireworks  were just for me...and I being a daddy's girl  believed that...for many years... 
   I have  two wonderful sister in laws,  and  they are  as close as any real sisters could be...Actually they both have a given name of Mary...Though one will always Susie  to me : )
  I hope  they all like their cards this year...

     This is  Bill and Mary's card...I loved this paper and thought Marylou would too, my brother loves  red   well really  he prefers orange , he once wanted an orange suit ...can you believe  that !~  he he : )
I thought  the paper  outlined  with red then placed  on top of the pretty  paper again  was a  nice  effect  .
      I am having  difficulty in  adding Don and Sue's card...
 and I really liked  that one...   : (
My image of it seems to be distorted .  
 It is off in the mail already so I cannot scan it again  : ( 
  I hope I can  get  another picture of it   so I can share it later.

   So, as July is  fast approaching, I hope you are enjoying  your summer. Thanks for stopping in...See you all soon. July has more days  that  have a reason to be celebrated  around  here  : )

The Love of Pattern Paper

     In creating time  with friends and doing  some easy or some times not so easy challenges,  I totally enjoyed  making these cards.
The use of  not even a half of a 12 x 12 sheet of simply beautiful  pattern paper was the secret . From super simple  fast cards  to  a little  more  fun,  they were all extremely EASY,  yet  a couple I thought were pretty too ...
First  a  fast   Thinking of you   card using some scraps of that  Pattern paper .  I cut a small strip off of the  front of the card  and them added  a strip of paper inside   to balance the outside , I matted the sentiment that was stamped directly onto the pretty  paper... this is  3 3/4 x 7 1/2

Second , is another fast  card, I used  wide  sheer ribbon  over a wide strip of the  pattern paper,  then added a strip of sahara sand  cardstock,by SU, stamped the sentiment in  brown, paper pierced a bit and added  flowers  from  my  stash 

Third  is a bit more fun, using a home made  tulle flower  made by  a super creative friend  : )    and one  of my  awesome  butterflies with some bling... The pattern paper  is just so pretty  and really fun to work with, pretty enough that  just one or two  fun things is plenty ...I did mount this on a melon mambo card base, it is such a  fun  summer color to work with   : )

And fourth is my personal favorite.I again stamped right on the pretty paper that I mounted on Crumb Cake as my card base.  Then  I used markers and a blender pen to color and coordinate  my image  to  the paper. I matted the image on dark brown to set it up and off and used a piece of  neutral ribbon to dress it up  a bit. Last I rounded  a couple of corners  to  make a change of style.I really  love how this  card turned out ..It just shows that ...

















Sometimes  just a  half of a sheet of pretty  paper is  what it takes  to  jump start   my creativity ,  So  I hope this  sends you looking at your stash of paper  to see what  you can  create too...


    Thanks for stopping by,  And I hope  to see you here again real soon.
Until then, Smile, Craft, and enjoy your day .