Pretty Bird Birthday

This past weekend we celebrated my mom's and a family friends birthday as they are a day apart. This was the card I gave to our friend. I used some Skipping Stones stamps again and fussy cut them all. I must say though I don't mind fussy cutting I sure have become dependant and a bit atticted to dies and that lovely rounded edge you get with them ;) The stitching on the card is not the best as it was hand done since my poor sewing machine died and I have not gotten another one yet. I definetly prefer a sewing machine to hand stitching! Maybe Christmas will bring me a new one.

If you are a regular reader I have mentioned that we are re-doing our kitchen and it's been a very slow process thus far, but is improving since we changed who we are working with. Happily we are working with a couple of local businesses now and they have been wonderful. We picked out our granite and are awaiting the cabinet pricing to come in before we finalize everything. It's very exciting but such a big investment that I feel a wee bit overwhelmed at times. I must say though I really look forward to countertops that aren't all chipped, stained and missing actual chunks and cabinets that aren't competely cracked and have in the past (before the house was ours) fallen off the wall. Looking forward to the trip to pick out our actual granite slabs and finalize everything. Thanks for stopping by!

Just a note...

Hello! Popping in with a card I made a bit ago using Skipping Stones stamps. We've had a very busy last week and part of that has been changing directions with our kitchen make over. We have completely switched to using a different company and I am feeling excited about it again! The projected time frame of it all being done is the end of October:)  That would be fabulous to have done before Thanksgiving. Hope you are enjoying the end of summer....I can't believe how fast this year is going by.

Just for you....SSD#138

I played along at Skipping Stones this week and they have a lovely inspiration photo up so I pulled my colors from that. I got the new to me Uplifting set and had so much fun paper piecing the hot air balloons, hills and sun. I love the sentiment as well, so comforting and true. In case you can't quite read it, it says," Next time a sunrise steals your breath or a meadow of flowers leaves you speechless, remain that way. Say nothing, and listen as heaven whispers, "Do you like it? I did it just for you."  Hope you have a wonderful day!

SSD#136 Inspiration Challenge

 A beautiful inspiration photo for us over at Skipping Stones Design this week. I realized I have very little paper with grey, but found this pretty patterned paper and thought it worked well with the inspiration.

I pulled out a couple of sets from Skipping Stones, Victorian Summer and Dandelion Kisses. I did a bit of masking on the spray of roses and added in a bit more grey with the stamped butterflies and sentiment. I hope you like it! In other life stuff, we got the ball rolling on the kitchen remodel we are doing. We picked out the cabinets and granite counter tops and will have people coming to measure hopefully this coming week! We are going with the Thomasville line and I had no idea the amount of options out there!! Really excited to be working with a designer and have been drooling over idea books. Will be taking pictures along the way...such a big blessing to be able to do this. Hope you've had a great weekend so far, thanks for stopping by:)

A Friend....SDD#134

Loved this sketch from Skipping Stones this week! I pulled out Heartsong and stamped the matted panel with the music background and stamped and trimmed out the butterfly twice. I also used my PTI Banner Builder dies and stamps and a Mat Stack die and and coordinating stamp. I really like using embrodiery thread instead of ribbon and it's so much cheaper than twine. Thanks for stopping by!

Refuge~ SSD #133

I played along over at Skipping Stones this week and really liked the sketch. I pulled out my Dandelion Dreams set and an encouraging scripture for this card. I used the rock and roll technique for the humming bird and did some selective inking for the flowers. The border is PTI's Fillagree border and I added some faux stitching as my Janome Sew Mini died. I hope to get a new machine in the near future but for now my paper piercer and white pen will be my stitching ;) Thanks for coming by!

SSD#131~ Thank You

A great sketch up at Skipping Stones Design and I wanted to use my new set, Victorian Summer. I stamped the large medallion in Veramark and heat embossed it in white and then trimmed it out to make a flower. I stamped the butterfly from the set onto my mat layer and added some rhinestones to finish it off. I used some Basic Grey paper for my background....really trying to use my pattern paper but it's slow going. I had cut this piece for another card and just didn't like it and ended up stamping my own background. I think I'll have pattern paper forever! :)  Hope you are having a great weekend. We attended a local Native American Pow wow today and it was a lot of fun. The costumes are gorgeous and the kids had so much fun joining in the dancing and I found a gorgeous necklace made of turquoise, beads and a pendant made of a carved piece of abalone shell to look like a rose. I love it! Thanks for coming by.

Happy Birthday

The sketch for this card was for last week's Skipping Stones, but I couldn't get it loaded up to the blog in time :(  Anyway, was a fun one and I used up some pattern paper as well as lots of stamping. I used Heart Song and Dandelion Kisses for this one. I love that butterfly, so pretty. I punched some flowers to create the flower center for it and I found that a bigger head on my stylus tool was the key to being able to get nicely shaped petals. The one I had was too small and I found one at Michaels on clearance for less than $2, so I grabbed it :)  Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

SSD#127- Happy Mother's Day

Another fabulous sketch over at the Skipping Stones blog. I used Heart Song 2 for my roses and cut some coaster board buttons to keep this card very flat and easy to mail as it is going to be sent off to my MIL. The papers are from a Basic Grey pack...I am really trying to use up my pattern paper, but I think it will literally take me years ;)  Thanks for dropping by!

SSD#125~Flowers, Clouds and Stars

Another great sketch this week over at Skipping Stones Designs. It was a bit of a challenge for me as the layered panel is not something I'd probably ever do on my own, but I like how it came out :) I got my Skipping Stones stamps and was so excited to use them! I chose to use the new Heart Song 2 and I love this set so much already. I stamped the rose image on my kraft paper first in white ink and then layered the pink on top. For the pretty bird image I did a bit of masking so I could give him some foliage to sit in. I just love the quote...it's so true! I hope you have had a good week. I am slowly feeling better, still have a cough but am hoping it clears up soon as it's my oldest birthday party this weekend and I need to be well! Thanks for coming to visit me:)

Baby Girl~ SSD124

Another fun sketch this week over at the Skipping Stones blog. I am still anxiously awaiting my new stamps so I didn't have them to play with yet, but pulled out this old Kim Hughes set and a background and sentiment from Wplus9. They had these little pearls I love so on sale at Michaels the other day so I stocked up, now I don't feel quite as stingy when I use them ;)  Thanks for dropping by!

Wrapped in Happiness...SSD123

I played along at the Skipping Stones Design weekly sketch challenge and pulled out my Crafty Secrets Wildflowers set. I heat embossed the white silhouettes and did a little ink resist to the background. Skipping Stones just had a release and I loved the set so much that I just ordered it today along with a couple other sets, so I hope that I can get inky with some of their stamps for the next sketch. Thanks for stopping by :)