My Sweet Mother-in-Law

Today was a very sad day for our family. We had to say goodbye to my husband's mother, Gloria Thomas, aka Nana to her grandchildren. She has been sick for a while with heart disease and respiratory disease, but rapidly declined within the past 6 weeks. She passed away Monday, 3/30 at 1:19 pm. We were all there with her when she took her final breath. Although we are all very sad, we know she is no longer suffering.

Here is a picture of her on her 81st birthday in September of 2008.



















Thank you to everyone who offered up a prayer for her to ease her pain and for our family. I really appreciate it.

Thanks for stopping by.
~Barbara

NMBS Challenge #37

Be Inspired.....
Today I hosted the challenge on the NMBS group blog. Inspiration is the theme, find something either around your home or from a store while shopping that you can use for inspiration to create a card.

My Sample:
















I found the tumblers at Target and immediately thought of the Good Morning Sunshine DSP. I made a card using the DSP as my background and took the colors from that to complete the card. Hope you like it.

Stamps: Trendy Trees
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Good Morning Sunshine DSP, Pink Passion, Very Vanilla
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Pink Passion, Kiwi Kiss
Access: Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon, Kiwi Kiss Corduroy Buttons, Dimensional Adhesive, Glue Dots

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!
~Barbara

Saturday Sale-A-Bration Stamping

Elegant Blooms
I had such a great time stamping on Saturday with my best friend Vicki. She wanted to play with the Botanical Blooms SAB set, and I just wanted to do some stamping. We always come up with great creations when we are together stamping. So we searched blogs and galleries and found some inspiration. We made four cards using this awesome set. Hope you like them.
The first card is our design, we were inspired by Lisa (Creative Cucina), her use of pearls and the sentiment. I used the NEW Matchbox Die with Labels to cut the layer for the stamped sentiment & image from Great Friend.















Stamps: Botanical Blooms, Great Friend
Paper: Regal Rose, Raspberry Tart DSP, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black, Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss
Access: Pearls, White Organza Ribbon, Dimensional Adhesive, Glue Dots, Sponge Dauber
Tools: Big Shot, Matchbox Die

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!
~Barbara

Baja Blooms

Botanical Blooms
This is another of my favorite color combos and the Parisian Breeze DSP. I was inspired to use Christine's (Christine Creations) idea for this card, only making a few changes to her original design.



















Stamps: Botanical Blooms
Paper: Parisian Breeze DSP, Baja Breeze, Kraft, Watercolor Paper
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, Baja Breeze & Kiwi Kiss re-inkers
Access: Aqua Painter, Dimensional Adhesive, Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon
Tools: Eyelet Border Punch, Large Oval, Paper Piercing Tool

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!
~Barbara

Dimensional Blooms

Botanical Blooms and Yummy combine to make this card so sweet. I got the idea from Trisha_Dawn on SCS. I used the Flourishes Texturz Plate on the Regal Rose and lightly sponged the entire surface to bring out the embossed images.















Stamps: Botanical Blooms, Yummy
Paper: Rose Red, Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black, Kiwi Kiss, Rose Red, Regal Rose
Access: Kiwi Kiss Stain Ribbon, Dimensional Adhesive, Sponge Dauber
Tools: Big Shot, Flourishes Texturz Plate

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!
~Barbara~

Watercolor Blooms

Botanical Blooms
This card was inspired by Creative Daze. I used different colors and changed the layout a little.



















Stamps: Botanical Blooms, Great Friend
Paper: Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss, Regal Rose, Raspberry Tart DSP, Watercolor Paper
Ink: Basic Black, Kiwi Kiss reinker, Rose Red Watercolor Crayon
Access: Aqua Painter, Black Brads, Rose Red Grosgrain Ribbon, Dimensional Adhesive
Tools: Big Shot, Matchbox Die, Mini Dot Texturz Plate, Paper Piercing Tool

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!
~Barbara

Thursday Stamping Fun

I had some time to stamp on Thursday with my best friend Vicki, who needed some stamping therapy after getting laid off from her job on Monday. My husband was out of town, so she came to stay from Wednesday thru Friday. She helped me put together the Big Shot Sampler Book (in my previous post) on Wednesday night and we finished it on Thursday morning. Then we got down to stamping.
Here is our first card. We used some new SU! goodies from the upcoming Occasions Mini Catalog that we were able to pre-order. One of the many perks of being a SU! demonstrator is being able to pre-order before the release date!!















Stamps: Great Friend
Paper: Pacific Point, Whisper White, Garden Green, Printed Window Sheets
Ink: Pacific Point
Access: Pacific Point Corduroy Buttons, White Tafetta Ribbon, Glue Dots
Tools: Large Oval and Scalloped Oval Punch, 1/8" Hole Punch

If would like to join my SU! team, contact me for more details!

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!
~~Barbara

CASE'ing the Catalog

Our second card from Thursday is a CASE from the new SU! catalog.
Vicki and I both loved this card. Without a stamp set to use for the tree, I cut the tree trunk and branches freehand from Chocolate Chip.



















Stamps: Always
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Whisper White
Ink: Old Olive, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip
Access: Silver Brad, Buttons Latte, Dimensional Adhesive
Tools: Big Shot, Texturz Plates Backgrounds 1, Circle Punches

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!
~~Barbara

Big Shot Sampler Book

I participated in a Big Shot Swap with robinsmail3 on SCS, send in 65 cuts and receive a sample cut from all of the dies that SU! sells. This was an awesome way to get a sample of each one. I decided to put all of them in a book to show my customers. Kristen Perry on SCS posted some sample pages and these were a major help in completing my book. I printed each page on Whisper White Cardstock and secured the negative and positve images of each die using SNAIL adheisve. I have them in order as they appear in the SU! catalog with the exception of the Manhattan Flower Textured Impressions and the Textured Plates which I wanted in the front.
Here is what I came up with. I hope you like it.

Cover of Book



















First page - Textured Impressions



















Two page spread from my book












Let me now what you think.

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!
~~Barbara

NMBS New Catty Swap - Part Two

As I promised yesterday, here are 2 more cards I designed for the NMBS group swap. I hope you like what I came up with. I am loving all the new sets.

MAN'S BEST FRIEND
This swap card is 4-1/4" square. I stamped the fire hydrant onto the Whisper White. I stamped the image again on a separate piece of Whisper White, cut it out and adhered it over top the stamped image with dimensional adhesive. I also used dimensional adhesive to adhere the ovals.

















Stamps: Man's Best Friend
Paper: Riding Hood Red, Basic Black, Riding Hood Red DSP Prints, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black, Riding Hood Red, Gable Green
Access: Riding Hood Red Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Apricot Appeal Brads, Dimensional Adhesive, Aqua Painter
Tools: Small & Large Oval Punch, Three For You Punch, Paper Snips, 1/16" Hole Punch


SIMPLE FRIENDSHIP
I love these colors together. It is hard to see in the picture, I used the NEW Flourish Texture Plate for the background on the Whisper White and Basic Gray. The butterfly was stamped on a separate piece of Whisper White and cut out, and flat mounted on the Whisper White layer. The Cameo Coral layer and the sentiment are adhered with dimensional adhesive.



















Stamps: Simple Friendship
Paper: Cameo Coral, Basic Gray, Almost Amethyst, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Gray, Cameo Coral
Access: Basic Gray Taffeta Ribbon, Silver Brads, Dimensional Adhesive
Tools: Big Shot, Flourish Texture Plate, Horizontal Slot Punch, Paper Snips, 1/16" Hole Punch

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!
~~Barbara

NMBS New Catty Swap - Part 1

The swaps are now postal coming back to me, so I think it is safe to post my cards that I designed for this swap.

FIFTH AVENUE FLORAL
I love these colors together. I stamped the large flower twice on Whisper White with Basic Black ink. Using the paper snips, cut out one full flower image and flat mount that onto the DSP layer. Cut out the second image, and cut away the outer petals. I used dimensional adhesive to adhere this over the first image.















Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Holidays & Wishes
Paper: Basic Black, Baja Breeze, Urban Oasis DSP, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black, Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze
Access: Black Brads, Baja Breeze Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Dimensional Adhesive
Tools: Paper Snips, Horizontal Punch, 1/16" Hole Punch

GARDEN GREETINGS
This is a fun new set and great color combination. I cut out each flower image and flat mounted it onto the Whisper White layer. I used the ribbon knots for the center of each flower.
To make the ribbon centers: take a 5" piece of ribbon, tie a knot in the center of the ribbon. Punch a hole in the center of your cut out flower and thread both ends through the hole, once the knot is in the center, fold back the ends to form leaves. I used glue dots to secure the flower to my card.















Stamps: Garden Greetings
Paper: Sage Shadow, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Pink Pirouette
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow
Access: Sage Shadow Grosgrain Ribbon
Tools: Paper Snips, Paper Piercing Tool & Mat Set, 1/8" Hole Punch

Check back tomorrow for the other cards I designed for this swap.
Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!
~~Barbara

Hats Off for NMBS Challenge

NMBS Challenge #34
This week's challenge on the NMBS blog HERE is to create an altered project with something that you recycled. I made this adorable St. Patrick's Day favor using an empty packaging tape roll. I found this idea from craftycaro on SCS. The cardboard circle that held the tape is used as the base for the hat. I filled a cello bag with Mint Hershey's Kisses to put in the middle.















Stamps: Think Happy Thoughts, Shamrock (SU! incentive stamp)
Paper: Green Galore, Basic Black, Brushed Gold, Glorious Green, Whisper White
Ink: Glorious Green
Access: Medium Cello Bag, Apple Green Grosgrain Ribbon
Tools: Scallop Square Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, 1-1/4" & 1-3/8" Circle Punches

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!
~~Barbara

March Plate Insert

Happy St. Patrick's Day...a little early. I wanted to add my plate to the area of the dining room that I have a few St. Patrick's Day decorations, including my specialty Longaberger baskets. So I needed to design an insert for St. Patrick's Day. Here is my design:















I didn't have a stamp set for St. Patrick's Day, so I used the heart from Polka Dot Punches and the Full Heart Punch to create a shamrock. I hand cut the stem and added it with dimensional adhesive. I also found a small shamrock stamp in my basket of SU! incentive stamps and made my own background paper. The sentiment is from a retired SU! set All Year Cheer III. I hope you like it.
Paper: Whisper White, Glorious Green, Green Galore
Ink: Glorious Green
Access: White Grosgrain Ribbon, Green Galore Buttons, Dimensional Adhesive
Tools: Full Heart Punch, Scallop Edge Punch, Ticket Corner Punch

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!
~~Barbara