I Love Fall

While in Utah last week, my sister and I took a drive on the “Alpine Loop” above the Provo, Utah area.  Anytime of year (except winter when it’s closed) it is a beautiful drive.  In the fall, the scenery and colors are beyond amazing!!!  At times, it has even brought tears to my eyes to such beauty.

 

 

Alice hates most pictures of herself but I think this one turned out well.  Although it would be to ruin a picture with the beautiful colors and mountins in it.

 

 

In most areas, we were to early for the leaves to have started changing.  But we found a few place to take photos. 

 

 

There were some beautiful pockets of color here and there!

 

 

 

 

We stopped for several photos in an area where, several years ago, there was a forest fire.

The oak brush comes to life before most of the other trees after a fire.  This area has mostly oak brus with some aspen and a few pines.  The aspen and pines are still quite small.

 

I always hate to see burn areas but you have to remember that it’s usually and act of nature and fires keep the forest healthy.  However, this are is close to the road so it was probably caused by faulty brakes or a cigarette being thrown out of a car window.

 

 

The contrast between the burnt trees and fall colors is striking!

 

 

I just wanted to share a little of the beauty of Utah with you.

Blessings,

Christine

Magical Fairies

This is my second post for today.

Scroll down to see another card.

I guess that statement is a little redundant because all fairies are magical, aren’t they? And Flutter By Wednesday is always magical!!!

The stamp is from Clear Art Stamps. I stamped them with Versa Mark ink and embossed them. I then cut it out and matted it with Nesties and tied some ribbon around it. A very simple card!!!

Danni is still celebrating her birthday month and she is giving candy again this week. We have a guest designer again this week so go check things out! The challenge this week is to use Danni's (and my) birthstone, sapphire in your creation. It can be a stone or the color.

If you would like to play along with the Flutter By Wednesday challenge, you can go check out all of the other lovely DT blogs by clicking on their links on the right sidebar and then going to Danni’s Dreams to link up your card.

I used the sketch from Sketch and Stash. My new stash is the stamp set. The One Stop Craft challenge is to use die cuts and the challenge at Our Creative Corner is monochromatic.

Blessings,

Christine

Fluffy Bunny’s Christmas

I didn’t get a chance to make my card for the Bee Crafty challenge that was posted on Saturday and really wanted to work with one of the cute, new images for Christmas.

Isn’t Fluffy Bunny cute all wrapped up for Christmas?  I think he got all tangled up in the Christmas tree.  I used watercolor pencils to color Fluffy and cut and matted him with Spellbinders.  DP is K & Co. and I used the Martha Stewart punch.  I used a gel pen to doodle stitching and dots all over the place and added a crocheted flower from Fancy Pants tied up with a vintage button.  I love this DP; I may need to go out and get another pack.

The challenge at Stamp Something is to use your favorite sketch.  I don’t remember where I found this sketch but it’s my go to sketch!!!  The Dare U 2 Digi challenge is to use die cuts or punches, Die Cut Dreams is ribbon, Polka Doodles is digi coloring and Spoonful of Sugar is Christmas.

That’s it!  I’ll be back later with my FBW card!

Blessings,

Christine

Winner – Winner – Chicken Dinner!!!

We have a winner, winner, winner!!! Random.org chose my friend,

Georgia Ehrmann.

Congratulations Georgia!!!

Since I had 57 entries there are two other winners of small gifts I haven’t chosen yet.

Nicola and Laurie are those winners. Congratulations ladies!!!

I received some great news after I got home. I won the Spread the Word giveaway at the new challenge blog, Saturday Spotlight with Hidden Potential.

Can you believe it? To celebrate I’m giving one more candy!!! Yay! The final winner is Jude.

Thanks everyone for making my birthday so much fun!!!!

To all the winners: Please email your snail mail address and I’ll be sending out the packages soon!!! You can go to my profile page where a email link is provided!!!

Blessings,

Christine

I’m Home!!!

After being away for eight days, it’s wonderful to be home!  This is going to be a quick post to let you know a few things about my trip and to tell you that you have only 12 more hours for a chance at winning my birthday candy.  If you haven’t entered yet, click here and leave a comment!

All in all, I had a great trip!  I spent Monday at the University of Utah hospital for my annual post heart transplant round of tests.  I was to go to the hospital again on Tuesday for the remainder of the testing but woke up with a real icky stomach virus!  Since I am on immunosuppressant medications, virus hit VERY hard.  I spent the day between bed and the bathroom.  We have rescheduled the remainder of the testing and I will be going back to Utah in a couple of weeks.

I woke up on Wednesday feeling quite a lot better.  My sister and my friend had made plans to take me to Wendover for my birthday.  Wendover is a town just over the Utah/Nevada border.  We gambled a little and ate a lot.  It was a wonderful surprise and a great birthday!  Thanks Alice and Sharon!!!

I got quite a bit of thrift store shopping in during this trip.  Well, not really that much shopping but it was my week to find things that really needed to come home with me.  I found some amazing thrifty finds that I will share with you on Monday.  I’m sooooo excited about one of them that I want to tell you right now but I’m waiting to take a picture!

That’s it for tonight.  I’ll be back tomorrow to announce the winner!!!

Blessings,

Christine

Quick Post

I was planning on getting a few cards done, especially my DT cards but no go this week. I just haven't been feeling that great. I'm getting laundry and packing done and some details taken care of before I leave tonight. I'll have my 2nd annual 2 day round of testing and doctors appointments at the Univ of Utah on Monday and Tuesday. The rest of the week is for fun, fun, fun!!!

I probably won't be on my computer until Friday night. I'll miss everybody soooo much. But, on Sunday the 27th, I'll get everything together and draw the name for my birthday giveaway! If you haven't enered, DO IT NOW!!!

Gotta go!

Christine

Thursday Thunks

It’s Thursday Thunks!  This week we will answer some crazy questions brought to you by Berleen, the number one thousand twenty seven and the color of leaves in the fall.

 

 

 

 

 

1. My daughter (aka Demon #1) informed me the other day that her hugs were worth a million dollars. Would you give up hugs - giving and receiving - for the rest of your life, for a million dollars?  No!

 

 

2.Have you ever been bitten by a member of the canine family? No – I’m on a roll with the nos.

 

 

3. What is your favorite color of jeans? No – Oh I mean blue!

4. What is something that has changed in public schools that you wish was the norm when you were in school?  I don’t have kids so I don’t really know what goes on in school.  One thing I know that’s different is they didn’t require kindergarten when I was a child!

5. What is your news source?  NBC

6. What sort of people do you think read your blog?  My crafty friends ;o)

 

7. If I told you that I had a headache, you would say..........???  I’m sorry I hope you feel better soon :o(

 

 

8. You go to a buffet style restaurant, what is the first food you put on your plate? Lettuce – gotta start with salad.

 

 

 

9. If you were stranded on a desert island.... no, we aren't asking that again. Lets put a twist into this. Would you volunteer to be dropped off on a desert island, to be picked up in a month? And you don't get to bring those 3 items, either.  No – back on that roll!

10. When the sun sets, what are you usually doing?  Watching TV and making cards.  My favorite thing!

That’s it for this Thursday!

Blessings,

Christine

Snowy Cupcakes

I realize that I’m on a cupcake kick today but there is a reason.  I really wanted to do the challenge last week at Stamps and Smiles but didn’t have time.  As I was adding my link for this weeks challenge, I saw that I could still play along with last weeks challenge.  Since I had this idea in my mind since first seeing the sketch, I knew the card I’d make.  They are also looking for a guest DT so that’s two chances for them to see my cards!

The photo does not do this card justice.  The stamps and sketch are Stamps and Smiles and I water colored them.  I “sugared” the marshmallow fluff tree and the cupcake house icing.  I cut out the snowflakes using the Cricut Joys of the Season cartridge and “sugared” them as well.  I added a big rhinestone to the top of the house and smaller ones along the top and bottom.  I stamped the sentiment with versa mark and embossed it.

I have to make some DT cards that are due while I’m gone. One’s almost done.  I hope to get at least one more project done before I leave for Utah.  I’ll be offline for most of the week!  I just don’t know what I’ll do!!!

Blessings,

Christine

Somewhere Over the Rainbow . . .

. . . you’ll find cupcakes! I know it doesn’t go with the tune but I couldn’t help it!!!

If their really were cupcakes over the rainbow I’d definitely be chasing some rainbows!!!

All of the stamps are from Stamps and Smiles, as well as the sketch and I water colored them. This was really a fun card to make and I think it’s fun to look at too!!!

All the cardstock is Bazzil – you gotta love the Bazzil Monochromatic packs. They make it so easy to choose the right shades! I layered and embossed the lightest shade with the Cuttlebug Swiss dots folder and added the medium shade, embossed with the swirls folder, to the bottom. I tied a ribbon around it and added some jewels!

The Paper Play challenge is to to use no DP.

Blessings,

Christine

P.S. Don’t forget to enter for a chance to win my giveaway! Check out the top of the screen for more info!

My Candy Update

Second post of the day! Please scroll down for the Flutterby Wednesday card!!!

I got all the things together that I’ve purchased so far for my candy giveaway.

So here is what I have so far!

Auntie Amy’s Floral Teapot Stamp
Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Christmas Miracles stamp
Pack of Playhouse Poesies crocheted flowers
K & Co. Hopscotch Mat Stack
Basic Grey butterflies clear stamps
Rhinestone butterfly
Packet of pink pearls

Plus the $25 gift certificate to Susana’s Custom Art & Card Design (SCACD).

I might find a few other things during my trip to Utah to add to the mix. As I said before, I will add a new prize to be drawn for every 25 entries. So go tell all your friends, the more people who enter the more people who will win!!!

So if you haven’t entered yet, go here to enter! I have disabled comments on this post so I don’t get mixed up!

Blessings,

Christine

Flutter By Paisley

It’s another Wednesday so that means it’s Flutter By Wednesday! The challenge at Flutter By Wednesday this week is to add some sparkle to your card. I think that’s pretty simple for just about anybody. Well, and lest I forget, you must also have a butterfly or fairy!

It’s a real special week this week at Flutter By Wednesday. As I have said on previous Wednesdays this month, Danni is celebrating her birthday and she has invited a guest star to join us each week! This week she has asked her kids, Annabelle and Matthew, do be our guest designers this week. I haven’t seen their creations yet but I’m sure they’ll be awesome!!! If that isn’t enough for you, she has candy again this week!

I kept things simple this week. I started with the dark green cardstock and added a piece of Cloud 9 Design DP. I added a ribbon and bow, a MS punched butterfly, some pins, jewels and a sentiment. Quick, but I think kind of elegant card!

If you would like to play along with the Flutter By Wednesday challenge, you can go check out all of the other lovely DT blogs by clicking on their links on the right sidebar and then going to Danni’s Dreams to link up your card.

The Stamp Something challenge is to use your favorite embellie (butterfly punch) and Tuesday Taggers is die cuts or punches.

Blessings,

Christine

Hemmingway’s Chirper

We are back after a short break with the Chirper challenge.

The photo didn’t turn out very well but you get the idea. Last fall I took a drive through the mountains to Sun Valley. Just out of Sun Valley is a monument to Ernest Hemmingway. The spot is beautiful and I love just sitting there deep in thought and listening to the stream. While I was there, a nice couple came buy and I offered to take their picture next to the monument and then they took mine. I don’t very often get into my own pictures!!!

The monument reads:

Best of all he loved the fall
The leaves yellow on the cottonwoods
Leaves floating on the trout streams
And above the hills the high blue windless sky
….Now he will be a part of them forever.
Ernest Hemmingway - Idaho - 1939

I used miscellaneous cardstock from my stash. The tree and leaves are cut from the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge. I tore and inked the paper for the ground. Inked the tree to make it look it a little wood grained and chalked the leaves. The title is cut from the Lyrical Letters cartridge and I doodled on them for an effect.

Please go check out my fellow DT’s beautiful creations on the Chirper Challenge blog.

Thanks for stopping by to see me.

Blessings,

Christine

Wonderful Weekend

What a wonderful weekend!!!  My mom, my sister, Alice and I went to Idaho Falls in Eastern Idaho to visit my brother, Russ.  We don’t get to see him very often so it was a real treat.

Russ has two grand-children who also live in Idaho Falls, Chase and Emma.  They are so much fun.  They were headed to a friends house to go swimming Saturday afternoon but stopped long enough to give us a hug and take a picture.

It’s not that we are all very short; Russ is very tall.  Five foot six!!!  Also, he isn’t carrying a man purse.  He had back surgery almost a year ago and has been fighting a staff infection ever since.  They figure it is a reaction to the titanium they put in his back.  After several surgeries, they have now removed all the titanium and it looks like the infection is over.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed.  The bag he carries is a vacuum pump to seal the incision and keep it clean and dry.

We visited for a while, went out to lunch and then played on the WII for awhile.  We bowled and played golf.  I have always said that I’m not getting a WII but, ya know, Christmas is right around the corner.  Maybe Santa will get one for me!

I really hate this photo of me; I look fat and unhappy.  I really was happy to see my brother.  He is one of the funniest people I know.  I think I was just sad to have to leave.

We then went to visit my aunt and uncle in southern Idaho.  They are still living on and running the family farm.  My uncle Dee had fallen and hurt his back so we decided to stop by for a visit.  Ruth made a delicious spaghetti dinner and the scrumptious brownies we had for desert were still warm.

It was a very short weekend.  We left home at 6:00 pm Friday and arrived at our hotel in Idaho Falls at 10:00 pm.  Got up the next morning and had breakfast and stopped at a thrift store.  Since the only Robert’s Craft store outside of Utah is in Idaho Falls, I had to stop.  I got some new Nesties and the new Kitchen cartridge for my Cricut.

We went to Russ’ and spent about 5 hours with him.  Then on to Uncle Dee’s and home about 11:00 pm.  A very quick trip (more driving than visiting) but we all had such a good time.  I’m going to make it a point to head over to Eastern Idaho more often.  Alice and I might go in October and take enough time to also see Yellowstone park.  That would be a lot of fun!

Thanks for stopping by to visit.  I’ll be making a couple of scrapbook pages tomorrow.  I know, it’s been a LONG time since I scrapbooked!!!

See ya’ later, alligator!!!

Blessings,

Christine

Fluffy Bunny Bookmark

The challenge today at Bee Crafty is to make a bookmark. I used the fluffy bunny read image for my bookmark. All materials used were from my scraps stash and I cut the corner embellishments with my Cuttlebug using a Sizzix die. I made a tutorial for my corner bookmark.

You will need some solid cardstock, your image and whatever you want to decorate the bookmark with.

First, cut a piece of cardstock 5” square and mark with a pencil at 2-1/2” on each side.

Score between two of the marks on adjacent sides.

Cut off the other two corners and …

fold at the scored lines.

Cut another piece of cardstock in a triangle with 3=1/2” sides, fold in the corners and adhere the triangle to close the flaps.

Here’s a photo of both sides of an unadorned corner bookmark.

Now it’s time to decorate as you would like! My personal preference is to only use flat embellishments on bookmarks. I read library books a lot and they are very quick to charge for damage to books.

But don’t make the mistake I usually do! I’m always forgetting to add the tail before I adhere the DP. Not this time though.

And …. drum roll please …. both sides of the completed bookmark.

I added a length of ribbon tied to a vintage button.

Here is another bookmark that I made for a Bee Crafty challenge.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial. I think Bee has a freebie on the Bee Crafty blog so you can have an image to use on your bookmark and enter the challenge!

Blessings,

Christine

Word of the Week -- Begin

One of my good blogger friends, Laurie of Indulge your Shelf, is starting a new blog thingy. She will be giving us a word each week and we are to write and/or illustrate what that words means to us.

This weeks word is:

BEGIN

Since my niece was just married, I’m posting photos from the beginning of my niece and her husbands new lives.

My sister walked Alicia and the honorary (he was way to young to carry the rings) ring bearer down the aisle.

Exchanging vows!

You may now kiss the bride!

**********************

Congratulations Alicia and Chris! Have a wonderful new BEGINNING!

If you would like to join in, go to Indulge Your Shelf and let her know that you are going to post!

Blessings,

Christine

I had to add one more photo. This is the whole gang; cousins, uncles, aunts, grandmas – young and old from my family – 4 generations.

Thursday Thunks

 

Welcome to the September 10th version of Thursday Thunks!

 

 

 

 

This week we will answer some crazy questions brought to you by Kimber, the number 999 and the color of a butterfly sitting on a red rose.

 

1. A 90 year old man's dying wish in South Carolina was to be buried in his car. Link If you were told tomorrow you have 3 weeks to live, would you have any dying wishes or something special done before you died?  I think I would go to my favorite place, which is any where in the mountains of Idaho and invite family and friends to come with me. 

2. Do you pay for more stuff using a credit/debit card or cold hard cash?  Credit/Debit card.

 

3. What's cuter- a baby lizard or a baby snake?  Neither is cute but I would have to choose lizard.

 

 

4. You go out to eat by yourself at a restaurant. While waiting for your food do you people watch & eavesdrop on others conversations, read a book, use a laptop or chat with people around you?  I do that quite often and I bring a book or newspaper.

5. If you see someone walking around with toilet paper stuck to their shoe, do you tell them or just laugh?  If I was still in the restroom, I would tell them.  Otherwise, do nothing!

 

6. You are talking to someone you just met but you can't understand them at all because of their accent. Do you tell them you can't understand them or just smile and nod?  Huh?

7. Mudfest! Park filled with pools of mud and an obstacle course of mud. Do you go and play in the mud?  It depends on what I’m wearing but it would be an awfully lot of fun!!! 

 

8. Have you ever had a headache so bad it effected your vision?  At least once a week!  Eck!

9. Would you fit in more with the circus, Hollywood, Broadway, or comedy circuit types?  Comedy circuit.  I’d have to be the straight man.

Blessings,

Christine

Flutter By Wednesday on 9/9/9!

There’s a word for having the day, month and year all the same number, but I don’t know it. I was working in the computer software industry during the supposed Y2K crisis. Of course we ran the tests for the change from 12/31/99 to 01/01/00. We also tested some other odd dates to make sure they still worked correctly and one of those was 09/09/09. A repeating, single-digit date that will not happen again until 01/01/2101. I don’t think I’ll be around to see that one!!!

Just a quiet observation. Now onto Flutter By Wednesday!!!

The challenge this week is to make a card using pink with a butterfly or fairy on it. I’ve got both! The image is a Pollycraft digi stamp and I water colored her. You can’t see it very well in the picture but she is trying to catch a robin red breast. I painted a little shimmers on her fairy wings. I cut out some butterflys with my Martha Stewart punch out of the same K&Co. papers I used on the card. I added a lot of pearls and tied a ribbon around the whole thing and wa-la, I’ve got a card!!!

I used the sketch from the One Stop Craft challenge and 2 Red Bananas is stripes and dots. This DP is pretty much made of dotted stripes!!! The Pollycraft challenge is animals (I hope they count birds and butterflies as animals), Creative Card Crew is to use fairies,

Don’t forget that Danni is celebrating her birthday this month and will have candy with every challenge for the month. I don’t know what she has up this week but it’s bound to be something good!!!

If you would like to play along with the Flutter By Wednesday challenge, you can go check out all of the other lovely DT blogs by clicking on their links on the right sidebar and then going to Danni’s Dreams to link up your card.

Blessings,

Christine

Flying Reindeer

I have another card I made for the Moxie Fab World Classy and Elegant Holiday Challenge. This is pretty scary putting myself out there in a contest sponsored by Paper Craft Magazine, but there’s no time like the present.

I used the Cricut Joys of the Season cartridge to cut out the reindeer and sentiment. I used a Cuttlebug die to cut out the stars. The three different colors of blue are Bazzil cardstock and the silver on the reindeer’s antlers and yoke, the stars and the sentiment are DCWV. I used a scrap of vellum from my stash.

That’s it for tonight. I have to have this posted and linked in 24 minutes. I don’t want to wait until the last minute you know!!!

Blessings,

Christine