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A Productive Day is Always a Good Day

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Some days I seem to get so much more done than others. Yesterday was a good day.

I paid bills. I balanced my checkbook.

We visited the garden. Sad to say the slugs are eating our beans and ate all the lettuce seedlings. 

Slugs&Beansw

The tomatoes, peppers, squash, and cucumbers are doing well.

ZuchinniBlossomw
Zucchini Blossom

FirstTomatow
First Tomato

I went to the dentist to have my temporary crown removed and the permanent one put on. The crown didn't fit as well as the dentist wanted, so it had to go back to the lab, so I have yet one more dental appointment next week.

I cleaned my desk.

I worked on the daily crossword.

I made 15 gift card holders. June 13th is Advisor Appreciation Sunday, and I am the chair of the Youth Ministry Committee. We are blessed with a dedicated Youth Ministry Director as well as advisors for the junior and senior highs in our church.

GiftCardHolders

All made from scraps in my scrap files.

I made a scrapbook layout.

CornHoleLO

Core'dinations (Jenni Bowlin) cardstock, sanded lightly; black cardstock from scraps; patterned paper: Bitty Box Basics (PTI); Jenni Bowlin Banner Stickers in red and black.

I took Matt to dinner at The Tap and Mallet since Tracy had a dinner-time meeting at church. We finished the crossword puzzle while we enjoyed our beers.

I ironed curtains and got them rehung. Ironed a few other pieces as well.

I read blogs and was surprised to find one of my Weekly Gratitude pages featured on the Weekly Gratitude blog. I had no idea they ever checked my blog.

I read some more of Making Toast, the library book which I just picked up two days ago. It is wonderful, but a real emotional roller coaster.

Maybe today will be just as good!

Team-up Thursday: Signs

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This week's prompt was Signs. I took my photo in Davis, CA in March at a UC Davis Facilities parking lot. Nancy's was taken in Hawaii during one of her vacations there. We don't ever talk about the photos ahead of time so it's funny how they go together this week:  Stop, Watch Out, Coconuts May Fall! Other folks in the group interpreted the prompt much less literally posting photos of the first signs of summer, for example.

Signs

CKC Cards

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I took two classes with Making Memories on using the Slice at the Creating Keepsakes Convention last month. We didn't finish any of the cards in the class. We just created the different components. I much prefer that so I can put my own spin on the cards when I get home. The cards below are from the Slice 101 class. I didn't learn a lot in this class, but I enjoyed it and won a new cartridge which was really nice. They also gave a cartridge away to everyone in the class, so I came home with two new ones. I learned a lot more in the Tips and Techniques class. That was a layout class, and I'm not sure I'll ever put the layout together, but will probably use pieces of it on layouts in the future. In that class we learned how to emboss, cut shadow and mirror designs, and how to trouble-shoot some potential problems. 

The first two cards used the Flutter line from Making Memories and the Vintage Findings Design Card.

Butterfly1 

Butterfly2 

Butterfly3D

These cute baby cards use Making Memories' Pitter Patter line which just came out & the Baby and Animal Cracker Design Cards.

BabyBoy 

BabyGirl

More Vacation Layouts

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I'm still working on layouts for our California trip in March. I want to get it finished this month. Here are two more:

PrincessLO
Patterned paper: Penny Lane & Bohemia (MME); cardstock: Worldwin Light Pink; Glitter paper (American Craft); stamp: crown (Inkadinkado); tags: Spellbinders Standard Tags; rickrack die (PTI); gems and ribbon from stash

Here's a two-pager I pieced together as best I could. This paper is definitely much busier than what I usually choose, but Disney seems to draw me to brighter and busier layouts.

DisneyIntro2pg
Patterned paper: Creative Imaginations; cardstock: Worldwin Medium Red & Summer Sunrise (PTI); 3-D embellishments: Creative Imagination

Papertrey Challenge #2 and 2S4Y Challenge

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Flagw

First of all, Happy Memorial Day Weekend! I am always grateful for the sacrifice of men and women in the military that has assured our freedom for over 200 years. I do not take the freedoms we have in our country for granted, but do not often take the time for express my gratitude.

I've been working on another Papertrey Ink challenge this weekend as well as the one for the Pixies. This one was posted on the forum, and it was too good to pass up. It was a challenge to ink up all the stamps you own, but have never used. I knew I had a few, but there were more than I thought. I've ended up with a new stash of cards, however, and relieved some guilt in the process. The first card is also a card for today's challenge at 2Sketches4You.

Here's the sketch:

Sketch56 

And here's my card:

BeautifulBlooms

I used my Beautiful Blooms 2 set for this card. The beautiful border is Basic Grey's new "ribbon doilies" tapes. We used some of this on a layout in a class I took at CKC a week ago. It's self-adhesive and comes in a package with three different designs. The cardstock is Summer Sunrise & the buttons are from my stash.

The next set I used was the Fillable Frames #1. I thought I'd  get a lot of use from this set, and I'm sure I'm correct now that I've inked it up for this card:

HappyHappyBD
Cardstock: Pure Poppy (PTI); patterned paper: Early Bird (Cosmo Cricket); ribbon: Pure Poppy (PTI); Ripe Avocado button (PTI); button twine (PTI)

"Fly Away" is the next set. Like "Fillable Frames" it was a very affordable $5 and I love the little banner and sentiments that go in it. I bought just one piece of this cute patterned paper at CKC with this card in mind.

FlyAway

Cardstock:  Lemon Tart & Pure Poppy (PTI), patterned paper "Let's Roll, Fly High" (Imaginisce)

Take Three Summer was the next set. I have lots of ideas for this set and this is a super simple, quick to make card. I'm not sure I'd use the Raspberry Fizz next time, I think the Hibiscus might look better.

Take3Summer
See above; ribbon & rickrack from stash.

One of the things I learned this weekend is that stamping backgrounds is not my forte. I love the color combination of Ripe Avocado, Spring Moss, and Raspberry Fizz. I've had this "Guide Lines Two" for awhile and probably haven't used it because I'm not comfortable with making backgrounds. I do have a list of other possibilities so perhaps it will see more use soon.

GuideLines
Cardstock: Spring Moss, Raspberry Fizz, Select White, & Ripe Avocado (PTI), rhinestones from stash; stamps: Guide Lines Two & Giga Guide Lines

And last, "Outline Alphabet." I bought this set more for sentiments and scrapbook pages, but have seen a similar design several places and thought I'd give it a trip. Lining up the letters for the block takes the longest; after that the card goes quickly.

Hi
Cardstock: Hawaiian Shores & Select White (PTI); patterned paper: Green Boutique (PTI), Copic markers

Sad to say, I still have two sets left to use:  Fillable Frames #4 and Baby Button Bits, but with gardening and enjoying the holiday weekend, I simply ran out of time!

Papertrey Pixies Challenge

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A month or so ago, I joined a group of 15 women on the Papertrey Ink forum. We have our own blog, and this month was our first challenge which was to stamp a background paper. I almost never stamp on a scrapbook layout although one of the women in this group does it regularly, and very well. I recently purchased "A Little Argyle" stamp set and thought it would be the perfect photo mat for this picture of Matt on his birthday, wearing his favorite argyle sweater. Nothing like putting it off until the very last day of May!

Matt@27
Patterned paper: Basics (Basic Grey); letter stickers: Basics (Basic Grey) & Times (Prima Marketing), stamps: A Little Argyle (PTI); photo mat: Gretel (Cosmo Cricket)

Happy Anniversary

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Today is Sarah and Adam's fourth anniversary. It seems so hard to believe that their wedding was really four years ago. It was a beautiful day in every way. Here's one of my favorite "out-takes." The best part is four years later, they're still having just as much fun with one another!

WeddingPhoto6x6w

And here's the card I sent them. I hope they've received it before they see it here. It's also the first card for a challenge on the Papertrey Ink forum to use stamp sets you own, but have never inked up. This uses the 2009 Anniversary Set which arrived over a month ago!

S&AAnniversarycard
Cardstock: Ripe Avocado (PTI); patterned paper: Quite Contrary (MME); stamps: Round and Round (PTI); mat stack 1 die (PTI), ribbon from stash, rhinestones (Kaisercraft)

CPS 168

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Like yesterday's blog hop, it's been awhile since I participated in the CPS Sketch challenge. This week's sketch reminded me that I had a couple packages of the American Craft Flairs that I hadn't used. I still have some scraps of AC "Dear Lizzy" papers as well so I decided to get busy tonight and get a card made for this week's sketch.

168
Here's my take on it:

CPS168
Everything is by American Crafts except the pink mat paper from my scraps file and the ribbon from my stash.

Papertrey Blog Hop

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Bloghoplogo

Tonight is the monthly Blog Hop sponsored by Papertrey Ink. I missed the last two so I was glad to be able to participate in this one. It also gave me an opportunity to get out some of my new die cuts and the beautiful felt that Papertrey has begun to sell.

Picture 3
And here's my take on the challenge:

FeltBlogHop

Cardstock: Ripe Avocado & Vintage Cream (PTI); patterned paper: DeLovely (Cosmo Cricket); stamps: Blooming Button Bits (PTI); dies: Beautiful Blooms 3 & Rickrack (PTI); felt: Raspberry Fizz & Vintage Cream; rhinestones: KaiserCraft; ink: Raspberry Fizz (PTI).

4 You

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I finally got the Copics I needed to finish this card from the class I took several weeks ago using Copic markers with Prisma colored pencils. This is my favorite of the three we made that day, and the only one we didn't have time to finish coloring.  I wish I knew a little boy to send it to!

Boy&Dog
Since I didn't choose the papers for this card, I can't credit the manufacturers for any of the card elements.

It’s Sunday

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It's Sunday, and it's been a very productive day. I've done a lot of crafting (5 cards) but have posted them at Scrap-Mart and won't post them here until they've shown up over there.

Tracy and I got all our vegetables in our community garden plot this morning. We have quite a few more tomatoes (16, five different kinds) than any other garden I saw, but that's the veggie I wanted most. I used to can tomato sauce so if we have an abundant crop, I'll be happy to drag out all the canning supplies from the basement. In addition to tomatoes, we planted three kinds of sweet pepper, cilantro, garlic chives, four kinds of basil, four types of lettuce, arugula, pole beans, zucchini, and cucumbers. We threw in a few marigolds for color.

Garden2w 

Planting a variety of basil was inspired by a book Sarah had (and I bought) called Grow Great Grub. The author said she only plants different varieties of basil and parsley. The basils provide enough variety in taste. We'll see what we think. 

We also have some cherry tomatoes and one basil plant growing at home, thanks for my Mother's Day gift from Matt.

TomatoPlanterw 

Hanging tomato planters are all the rage here. The cherry tomatoes grow downward. Here's a view of them from underneath.

HangingTomatoesw
I hope it works. We think we'll need to put some netting around the bottom once the tomatoes form to keep the critters from getting them.

Tonight we went up to the boat. We have a small 20' Cape Dory that hasn't been in the water for the last two summers. Tracy painted the bottom of it this week and it will go in the water (Lake Ontario) on Tuesday.

Boat1w

He wanted to get the registration on the boat tonight.

TracyBoatw
I was glad I decided to ride along because on the way home we noticed a couple of photographers alongside the road and knew the swans must be nearby.

Swans1w

Swans2w
The little ones are really cute, and it's not often you can get so near them. I wasn't sure my point and shoot would be good enough when I got out of the car, but it was just fine.

Weekly Gratitude X 2

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I seem to be doing these in sets recently. Here are the last two weeks:

Gratitude5.15 

 

Gratitude5.22

Scrap-Mart Challenge

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I added another layout to our vacation album this week in response to a challenge Jenn posted at Scrap-Mart. They're getting ready for a wedding in her family so the challenge was to use "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" in your layout.

MorroBay 

Something Old:  SEI alpha stickers, Something New: Pink Paislee Starlight patterned paper and stickers, Somthing Borrowed: photo collage from a digital template by Kitty Designs, and Something Blue: navy cardstock.

Wow & Wow Again

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It was a big mail day here. First the UPS man brought my prize from Making Memories. I've won a variety of wonderful prizes in giveaways on blogs but this is the biggest prize I've ever received.

MMPrizew 

I think they sent me the complete line of Pitter Patter (both pink and blue) and Panorama (including an album kit). I got paper, alphas, and embellishments for both lines. There were two packages of the new Vintage jewelry line, ten packages of Design Shop stickers (these are great & you'll be seeing them on cards and scrapbook pages), and five packages of beautiful metal embellishments. Now I need to find a place to put it all!

Then the mail woman delivered my package from Papertrey Ink. I only ordered a couple of stamps, but I did purchase some dies I'm anxious to use. It will be awhile, however. It's been a very busy week. I've been out every night and gone the better part of several days. I did get some work done today in the perennial bed and it is looking better.

PerennialBedw
We did our last cultivating at the Community Garden bed as well today and are ready to put our plants in as soon as we find time. Tomorrow I'm off with two friends to the Creating Keepsakes Convention in Buffalo. I'm taking three classes. One is a scrapbooking class with Basic Grey papers, and the other two are Making Memory Slice classes. I've started using my Slice more often but I know there is much more I could do with it.

After the convention we're going to our favorite stamp store to look around and pay our fees for a colored pencil class we'll be taking in July with Dave Brethauer (the owner of Memory Box stamps). After dinner at Pano's we'll finally head home. I'm really looking forward to a day of inspiration and good conversation with friends.

This morning Cathy Zielske debuted a new set of templates for a monthly scrapbooking project. I love the way she has it laid out and think this may be the answer for my Project 365 and Week in the Life photos. I love her clean and simple style.

Brenda Weaver has a great post about getting inspiration from a magazine cover. It's geared to card makers, but definitely worth a look.

And lastly, a photo of our beautiful azalea:

Azaleaw

Team-up Thursday: Hot & Cold

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The prompt was "hot & cold" this week. I wasn't quite sure how to capture both, so Nancy suggested we each take one word. Mine was hot and her's was cold. It took quite a few shots of the grill before I got the flame I wanted. It's quite the opposite of the goodies in her freezer!

Team-upHot&Cold