Last minute!!

Happy Sunday!
All week I have been down with a nondescript "bug".  Low grade fever, achy all over, and extremely tired.  I could not drag myself to the Scrap Cave not even a single day.  Today, I think I am getting better?  I still only feel like doing some work on the computer because I don't think I am ready to climb the stairs....oh, poor me :-(  lol....

So, I decided to do a digi layout for the Little Scraps of Heaven weekly challenge.  I am very new to digital and I was not sure if I could pick up one of my files to use on the layout, but I figured it out right away! Woo Hoo!!  Here is what I made...

I used the My Memories Suite software which I have found to be very easy to figure out and use! I love doing the paper piecings, but I have to admit that digital is quicker, and fun, too :-)  BUT, and this is a big 'but', I have not printed any of my creations yet.

Well, this is all I have ... I am tired.  One other thing,  why on earth did Blogger have to change all this???  I am muddling around now and don't like it at all!!  Couldn't they leave well enough alone?

LSHD sketch challenge....

Is everybody happy that it is Friday?! Yea!!! I have two of the grandkids over night tonight, so I will be very busy :-)

I did a card for the Little Scraps of Heaven sketch challenge :-) I did what I consider a Boy's birthday card and will probably give it to my grandson on his 7th birthday. OMG! He is my youngest grandchild and I can't believe he is this old!! My oldest one will be 18 in October :-0 Now that ages you! Okay, back to the card ... we were given this sketch to follow:

And this is my card:

To tell the truth, I was going to make an easel card, but I cut the pieces a little too big :-) I just love the "Goat Kids" file and I thought it would be fun to use the play on words ... outside and inside. I really had to get inventive to stamp my sentiments. I use the works 'just' and 'say' from an Inkadinkadoo stamp that said 'just saying hi'. And I used the same set on the inside for the decorative circle and 'happy birthday'. 'Goata, best and No Kidding' were using individual stamps in a set from the $1 bin at Michael's. Finally, I got "Your are the berry" from My Thoughts Exactly sets. WHEW! The adorable paper piecing was all made using scrap paper. The background is cardstock and a very boy paper from the "All About Boy" stack I got a while back...this was a great stack and not just for boy things :-) I added some olivy green ribbon from 3 Girl Jam, a couple of flowers from the stash, brads, inking and pinning. I won't say it was fast and easy, but I am happy with it! Hope you like it, too!!

I'm sure there are some "anything goes" or other challenges that I could enter, but I am running soooo far behind and I wanted to get it posted.

Kitty Hugs, Judy (the babies are 5 weeks old already and so adorable .. they think they are grown cats, but they are still very small and fragile. Spooky is a wonderful mom!)

Challenge card......

Wow! The days are flying by...how can it be more than half way through April?? Oh well...

I am doing something very new for me :-) I have made a card to enter into more than one challenge! I usually don't look to see if I can do it, but today I took the time and I was pleasantly surprised to see it can be done fairly easy! I guess I went with the challenge with a sketch to start, because I was looking at several and only the Love to Create Challenge Blog had a sketch to follow. It is a birthday card for a girlfriend, so it satisfied the requirements of using the sketch and for a friend.

Ugh ... not in the right order and my usual editing software was on the fritz tonight so I am not entirely happy with the quality of the pics. I did something else that I don't do very often any more. I used a Cricut cartridge, A Walk in my Garden, to cut out the pieces. When my old laptop died, I lost my Design Studio and now I seldom go to the carts. So, any hoo, I cut everything from Walk in my Garden except the grass from Zoobaloo. I used a Recollections card, some pattern paper that I picked up in a baby kit at Walmart a loooong time ago, inked edges and tied on a tag stamped with My Thoughts Exactly "Sprinkled with Birthday Wishes". On the inside, I stamped a flower and 'Happy B-day to you' from an Inkadinkado set I won a while back, then added 'girlfriend' from the Family and Friends set by My Pink Stamper.

I made a boo boo on this card that I could not correct easily :-( Anyone who can tell me what it is, will get a little treat from me! I will reward at least 2 ... if more than that guess correctly, I will have to draw the name. I just hope you don't see a lot more mistakes than the one bothering me!!! LOL! I will see if I get any guesses over a few days??

Here is the list of the other challenges I am entering:
Creative Inspirations Paint (inspired by Spring)
Made Esecially for You (use 3 flowers)
Die Cuttin' Divas (gardens)
Paper Playtime (birthday with a sentiment)

There may have been one more, but I don't have the list next to me :-) I must say it was kind of fun to make one card to satisfy several challenges :-) Until tomorrow....

Kitty Hugs, Judy

Woo Hoo, Check this out!!

I just came across a fantastic contest taking place at a newer blog called National Scrapbooking Day sponsored by Homeketeers. In celebration of NSD, they will be giving away $1,500 in prizes including a Tim Holtz Vagabond, along with other great things!

You need to head over to see them and spread the word!

Creative Kuts BAP .....

Let's hear it for Saturday!!

I missed out on the Creative Kuts Build a Project the last couple of weeks with my Hubby's fall and Easter :-) This week I remembered to request the kit which is a very cute Watering Can Card. The week before they did a watering can box, so this card 'matches' that ... if you wanted it to. I already made a Mother's Day card for my mom, but I still needed one for my SIL who has become my husband's 'mom'. I love how the card turned out:

I chose all coordinating purple papers that I probably got from one of those huge paper packs. I used 4 different ones. I added a few simple embellishments ... the white flower brads on the handle that I topped with a rhinestone and the roses that are on the inside after the card is open, were part of some "candy" that I won a while back. They are like a paper mache material. There is a small metallic butterfly placed with a purple brad to go along with the butterflies on the paper. I stamped it with a sentiment from a bargain bin stamp with white ink. The whole thing went together really quick :-) You can see all of the projects on the Creative Kuts Fanpage starting Sunday.

Have a great weekend!!!
Kitty Hugs, Judy

LSHD sketch challenge....

Friday the 13th!!

I have considered Friday the 13th to be one of my lucky days ever since my oldest was born on the 13th and his first birthday was on a Friday :-) So Happy Day to you all!!

I have been busy working on scrapbook borders that I exchange with my 'sb buddies' every month. I owe for January - April and I have only made 4 :-( I have a problem with getting too fancy and complicated and it takes me too long on each one. I also have my hands full with the two kittens. They will be 4 weeks old tomorrow and they are healthy little boogers. They love my attention :-) Momma Spooky is bored and she keeps me up a lot at night.... then I am tired all day!

Oh well, on with the challenge I decided to do! Little Scraps of Heaven Designs has a sketch challenge this week and I decided to enter. It is a layout following this sketch:

I decided to use their "Over the Hill" file to make a 2 page layout for my DIL's upcoming 40th birthday. I certainly do not consider 40 to be even close the the "hill", but it was the only b-day coming up :-)

I went with all the shades of black and grey, then the pop of color with the green vining leaves. The background papers that I used are very sparkly and I so do not remember the brand, but great papers!

Here is a close-up of the flowers. I used the LSHD file called "My Paper Garden Vol. 2" to make the flowers and added rhinestone bling to the centers. A bit of curl of the petals for dimension. Great flower and leaf patterns in this set :-)

So this morning, surprise! One of the older cats, probably KoKo, discovered the layout where I sat it and decided to "deflower" it :-0 I found the parts to one flower and one is MIA. Little Brat!!

Tomorrow I hope to post a card I made for another challenge. Have a wonderful day!!!

Kitty Hugs, Judy

Embossed card......

Hello Tuesday ... it must be Tuesday, I heard the garbage trucks!

On Saturday I followed along on the Embossing Blog Hop sponsored by Georgiana at Carson's Creations. I learned some new techniques from all the lovely ladies and she offered a challenge for us all:

" How About a Challenge?
We thought it would be fun to offer a challenge to allow you to add an embossing technique to your next project and share with others.

Create a new project (a card, layout, altered art, etc.) using either dry or heat embossing (or both) and post here. Let us know if you used a technique you learned from this hop and which one.

Another winner will be selected from all the entries and will be announced next Saturday."

I decided to make my Mom's Mother's Day card.

I used 3 embossings for the front. First was the Quik Kutz scallop circle on the white card stock. Then I did the same on the blue rose paper, fussy cut out the center and embossed it with Sizzix dotted swiss. I used a Sizzix flower in teacup folder to emboss on white. This I weathered with blue ink, highlighting the image. Layered it all up, added lace I weaved with some blue fiber and added the "laugh" charm. 3 blue flower crystals on the top and Mother stamped with a My Pink Stamper stamp.

On the inside, I used 3 different sets of stamps. "I love you bunches" is from the set 'Lovey Puns Food' by "My Thoughts Exactly". The bouquet is from a set by Inkadinkado, and Happy Mother's Day is an old stamp from the stash.

A close up of the lace (I just won this in some candy!), and the charm tied with the fiber. The base is a deep navy card from Recollections.

Enjoy your day ... I am in my Scrap Cave!!... yea!!

Kitty Hugs, Judy

Good Grief!

It is Friday!! But when you are "retired", it does not really matter what day it is :-)

I have figured it out ... I cannot live with any chaos!! When my husband starts looking for the 3rd thing that cannot be found, I lose it :-( Then he goes out and does a very foolish thing for a man of his age. Without a job to keep him busy, he has been going nuts with the yard work. This is wonderful except on Tuesday, he went 20 feet up a ladder to cut a tree branch. It was not a small limb, believe me. Instead of falling down as he expected, it swung back and hit him, knocking him off the ladder :-0 When he came in to tell me ... yes, he lived through it ... I thought he had been in a fight with the lawn mower. His shirt was actually ripped off. We spent almost 6 hours in the ER. They stitched the 3 inch gash in his hand and determined that he had no broken bones or internal injuries. Honestly, I am thankful that it did not hit him in the head. That was left for me to do ... knock some sense into him!! I would post some pics of his injuries, but it would ruin your dinner :-) He is in more pain than after his surgery last Nov., so that should help him not forget to be so dumb ever again!!

Well, taking care of him and the new born kittens has soooo taken up my crafty time. I have set up several scrapbook pages on my computer that I need to get cut and put together. I did get a birthday card made for my youngest son. It covered both his birthday and his solo flight that he made on ST. Patrick's Day. I used a black Recollection's card. Layered it with white cardstock, topped with paper and a digi that I got from TLC a while back. I hooked on a tag stamped with a Happy Birthday stamp from Making Memories. Added two buttons from my stash threaded with twine.

I inked all the edges, but left the digi black and white. I cut the oval with my trusty Creative Memories cutting system :-) On the inside, I stamped 'FLY HIGH' and 'Congrats' with stamps I think I got online probably at Scrapbuck. I had to keep it very simple because of the time thing, but he really liked it!!

The Purr Babies will be 2 weeks tomorrow and their eyes are open and blue. Too cute! They know me already and crawl out when I come to see them. That is fine with Spooky unless one of them cries, then she flies out to pick him up and carry him back to safety! It is pretty funny because they already weigh about 1/2 pound and she is only about 6!! The son that had the birthday is supposed to take both so I am not getting attached :-) RIIIGHT!!!

Kitty Hugs, Judy

What a week....

Hello All this fine Thursday!!

It seems that I am developing a habit of posting maybe once a week :-) Not what I want to do, but something always comes up. This week, I had some kind of virus that included an annoying headache that made me very grouchy. On Monday, I had to go to the beach to see my mom for her 80th birthday and I did not even enjoy that! You will notice that there is no card made for her. I knew she would not know that I made it and it would go in the trash, so I picked one up at Publix! I feel better now, but I have company coming in tomorrow for the weekend and that is going to eat up my spare time :-(

Today, I made another digi page with the MyMemoriesSuite software. We were to use any kit made by Lou Cee Creations. I used her Royal Wedding kit to create a page for my SIL's 50th Anniversary. I think this could be really pretty to frame for them :-) These challenges are a good way of practicing the digi pages before I try to put a book together. I am still learning, but this software is remarkably easy to use!

Kitten update! They are 5 days old and so fuzzy and cute! They seem to be gaining about an ounce a day, which is good. Spooky is a wonderful mom and taking great care of them :-)

Oh yes! I tried to put a grab button on my blog, but the picture to go with the "route" did not show up ... at least on my blog. The one on top is it, but that one is not connected. If someone has any ideas about what I need to do, please let me know!! Also, the box is covering part of the text field???

Kitty Hugs, Judy

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

Early this morning .. around 3am .. Spooky kept walking on us and 'talking'. This has not been all that unusual since she has been sleeping on our bed for the last couple of weeks, but she usually does not try to wake us up. At 3:35, she was lapping loudly and I turned on my light to see if her water had broken and it had. As a typical dad, David departed to the couch and I stayed with Spooky even though I knew it was not at all necessary, but I wanted to keep things calm with a lot of reassurance and petting. She stayed with me on the bed until a little after 5:00, then she went to her safe place under the bed. Thank goodness, she only went under the edge where I could reach her easily. It was totally dark and she never uttered a peep. I heard the first kitten cry at 5:34 and the second at 5:55. She did a fantastic job with her mommy duties and fell into an exhausted sleep. So I figured that was all .. just the two! At birth, they both looked gray, but as they dried, they both became lighter almost like a Siamese. They are good sized and look healthy. The second one latched on to eat immediately, but the first was not having an easy time of it so I helped with that. Spooky was completely calm with me handling the kittens and she has let all my oldest son's family close to see them without freaking out and running like usual. The other two cats stayed in our room all night which is not typical for them and did not leave until she was all done. I am not at all sure if they understand, but they really knew something was happening. Just one funny antidote and I'll get to the pictures: when she left the kittens to eat, I put them in a basket I had prepared. Then I put her in with them. She immediately picked one kitten up and took it back under the bed! I guess she told me! I gave her the other one and she settled back into her place of choice:-)

If I were keeping them, they would be Lucky and Charm. They are going to my younger son, so he gets to pick the names :-) They are the cutest St. Pat's present ever!!

Now I need to post my last project for challenges this week. I followed the sketch for a layout on Paper Piecings by Nikki's site. I used her "Adorable Lil Monsters" file. I only did a single page, but I will be adding another unless I have a "last" page to use it on. She has a lot of great files, digis, and other products that you should go check out! I met her when I won some files from her and now I try to be a regular visito

r! I used regular cardstock with the one strip of patterned. I punched/embossed the strips with one of my last Fiskars edge punches that I have not broken :-) I used the 'left over' strips on the edge of the pattern paper. Some twine and photo corners and that's it!

I am sorry blogger divided my words so crazy! Probably my fault ... being sooo tired! Hope you all have a really fun day and night celebrating your Irishness!! I know I am a whole lot English, a bit of Scottish, but Irish I don't know :-)

GREAT BIG KITTY HUGS! Judy

A couple of things....

What is today? Uh ...Thursday!

Well, where did this week go? I always have the best of intentions ....

I decided to do a few challenges, etc., this week. First, I have been doing the BAP - build a project- with Creative Kuts. This week we were given a cut out floral border, a grass border, and the title "Happy Easter". I did another 2 page scrap page ... never hurts to be ready for the upcoming pictures!

I used 3 CK files to go with the requires elements. I took the flower cutouts, inked and blinged them to add. All the papers are from my 'collection' - ha - I actually left this pretty simple.

Next, I needed to get a card ready to send to a card swap person, so I finally used my head and made a card I could use in the Little Scraps of Heaven template card challenge :-) This is what I mean about being unorganized ... I usually don't take the time to see if there are challenges to enter when I make a card for someone. So here is the card I made...

I used the LSHD Spring Fairies file ... lying fairy,mushroom, and spring title. The card swap is to make something 'Spring'. I glossed the title, used Stickles on flowers and wings, and used 'rhinestone' flowers on the fairy. Most of the paper I used were scraps - yea! This is an easel card so I pop dotted the mushroom on the inside to hold it. I used My Pink Stamper stamps from the Friends and Family pack. Then I added a couple of stickers :-) I can't say this was easy-peasy because it takes a while to paper piece and then I had to try a couple of times to get the easel right because of the size. The thing that took me the longest was figuring out what size the six back squares should be!! I never said math was my strong suite, especially something rather like geometry!!

Now to get the card in the mail and finish one more challenge project that I am doing. Still on kitten watch, but it has to be soon. Poor little Spooky, she is not huge, but it makes me happy to know she will never have to do this again! She has acclimated to being inside very well so that is a good thing :-) She never fusses to get out and likes to "visit" us in bed late at night - hides and sleeps all day. The other two are being good friends to her -- another good thing :-)

Kitty Hugs, Judy

BAP for Creative Kuts....

Happy Sunday all my Bloggie Pals,
Whew, it is the perfect "go back to bed" day here in Central Florida!! Totally overcast and raining. On top of losing an hour last night ... not fair! We are in a period of feast or famine with the rain. We went for way to long without any so I cannot complain about it now :-)


Okay, on with my post! I responded to the Creative Kuts VIP list. One thing that you are asked to do is enter their BAP (build a project) each week and post to their FaceBook page. Easy Peasy! I check out the fan page every Monday to see what the new Free BAP is and then, if I want to participate, I send an email to Gina@creativekuts.com to request that weeks BAP. Once you have finished, post it on the fan page. Also, when you create a project with any CK file, they would like it to be shared on the their Facebook fan page. It all sounds like fun to me!

This is my first BAP and it was to create a layout using the provided template and the free file . I am showing you what we had to work from and what I created:

This is the first page of the layout...

The second page....

And the free file that I needed to incorporate into the layout.

You only needed to do one page, but had the option to do both. Since I always do double page layouts, I chose to do both:

I used the Family Favorites file from the Creative Kuts store with the provided BAP sentiment instead of the one that came with the file, although, I did keep the creme eggs from the title :-) I had some of the old chick "peep peep" paper that I thought was sort of appropriate and all the rest of the papers are from my Easter stash. Before I started a blog, I pulled paper packs apart and sorted it, so I now do not know where most of my paper is from ... sorry :-( Just this last week, I picked up the ribbon from a Michael's Dollar Bin, the stick on clear 'buttons' are Heidi Grace, I pop-dotted up both chicks, but you cannot tell in the pic, and I added some purple Stickles to the title to brighten it up. Sorry the pic is not better, I waited for this morning and the sun never shone, so I ended up taking it with a flash anyway. It makes me happy to have at least one 2 page spread ready for my Easter pics!!

I am going to watch the Nascar Vegas race with my DH for a while and then maybe get to the Scrap Cave for a while :-) Have a great day, everyone!

Kitty Hugs, Judy
P.S. No kitten birth yet!

MyMemoriesISuite challenge.....

Hello this fine Thursday afternoon,
As I have said, I am very new to digital scrapbooking. I won a set of MyMemoriesSuite software and took one of their online courses to get a grasp of it. I learned a lot and now I am muddling my way through the making of layouts :-) This week I made a layout to enter into their challenge: use any *A Saxon Creation* kit on their website to participate. I chose to use her Vintage Rose kit which is free on the site right now.

I felt like this was perfect for some of last year's Easter pics of 3 of the grand kids. I am trying to figure out my "style" and how to get things layered the way I want them :-) I would really recommend the MMS software if you are interested in trying digital ... it is pretty easy to get the hang of it with some practice.
Kitty Hugs, Judy

There is a giveaway.....

Hi everyone!
We all love candy, don't we? Well, I know that I do ... both kinds!! Jane over at JanettaRose Designs is having a fun giveaway to help build up her wonderful blog and Facebook! I soooo appreciate how hard it is to get followers and I love to help any way I can! If you are not already a follower of hers, head on over and sign up! Here is what she is giving to the winna....

I am still on kitty watch :-) I brought the stray, Spooky, inside on Saturday because she was acting a bit funny and I thought maybe the kittens were about to be born. Nothing yet! She is doing surprisingly well under my bed :-) She will still let me brush her, is eating, and using the litter box. Pretty good for a feral.

Project with Grand daughter...

Hello Friday!
Some of you may have seen the explosion box card that I made for my DH for Valentine's Day. Well, my 10 year old grand daughter, Kendyl, thought it was just the Bee's Knees and wanted one for herself :-) So the next time she was over, she asked if we could make one together and I loved the idea. It made me all warm and fuzzy that she liked something that I made so much! First I had her look through my paper and pick out the colors she liked ... I knew there would be lime green included. She settled on the blacks and greens. We got everything cut out and I taught her how to ink all the edges. I must say that she caught on really fast and did a fantastic job!! The next part that I put her to work on was making the rose petals. Once again, she did great! She folded and glued each rose petal and curled the edges after I showed her once! I did put the the roses together because that is a bit tricky :-) We both glued and layered all the pieces, made the top, and the last thing that she did was pick out the stamps she wanted to use on the inside. Of course, there had to be some bing, too. Here is her finished box card. She loves it and I am so proud of her first effort on a BIG project!!

Sorry this is picture heavy and the quality is really poor, but the box was going home with her and I had to hurry in bad conditions :-) I just want to share her fine work!

I got a kick out of how she put "I (heart) me" inside the card for herself! Thanks so much for sharing in my Joy!

Now just one more pic I want to share :-) Kendyl was an outstanding gymnast at a very young age and burned out early much to our horror. She now is doing competitive cheerleading and I just want you to see what all the gymnastic training did for her.

Kitty Hugs, Judy