Buzzing By...BBTB2 Challenge

Hello crafty friends here it is Monday once again. Sorry I haven't been posting much but one's gotta enjoy the summer weather because it will be gone before we know it and it will be winter once again and I will be stuck in the house. I hate being stuck in the house. lol Anyway as you know very Monday we have a brand new BBTB2 challenge and today our talented and sweet leader, Susan has issued us the challenge of using a bee on our project! So I kept my card pretty simple. I used Create-a-Critter for my sweet little bee, a Peach Keen face stamp, Cartoon Cloud Background stamp from MCT, Bee Happy stamps from MCT, Live, Love, Laugh & Be Happy stamps from MCT, and the Birds and Bee's Cardz TV stamps. I will be sending this card to my aunt who lives in SC, she always loves getting cards from me and I thought this one would a cute one for her. Ok it's your turn, lets see those Cricut bee's on your projects. Link up with us and please make sure you use your Cricut for your bee. As always, thank you so much for stopping by for a spell today. I love your sweet comments, they always make me smile! Crafty hugs, Brenda

Look Who's Here-BBTB2 Challenge

Hello my crafty friends, here we are at Monday again. This is going to be a fast post because we are doing the college freshman orientation thing with our son for the next two days. So glad we can depend on our other son to hold down the fort for us!! 

As you know today is a new challenge day over at BBTB2. Maureen has chosen our theme for us and it is owls. Who doesn't love these cute furry birds, especially the paper ones?! lol I did a layout for on of my granddaughters. Actually it is a second page to a layout I did a while back. I just need to find the picture I want to put on it. It is a simple layout and but I think it turned out pretty cute. I used the Close to My Heart Artbooking cartridge, MCT butterfly dies and SB's die for the oval mat that I will journal in with the baby's stats. Isn't this owl adorable?! There was another one but I didn't use it, I opted for some butterflies on this layout instead. I love how the overlay looks on my shimmer paper and love that frame for my picture. The picture will slip right into the slots and no I didn't glue my round mat down on the picture side, I left it open where I could slid my photo in. I think this will look fabulous with my "Hello World" layout. I hope you like it too. Thanks for stopping by today and I will see you soon!! Crafty hugs, Brenda

Dog Days of Summer-BBTB2 Challenge

Hello my crafty friends, I hope that you are off to a great start to your Monday. We had a full and very busy weekend, one that left me a little out of commission come Sunday. Not sure what is up with my back, but I sat with the heating pad on it most of Sunday. I felt it starting on Saturday but our granddaughter was here and she was busy thus keeping grandma busy too. lol I could feel it in my left kidney first and around my lower back. Sure enough, I was having problems moving when I got up on Sunday. Hoping today will be a better day so I can get some things done that wasn't done over the weekend. Cause I set aside those days for the granddaughter and boy did she have lots of fun! We ran errands on Friday, then came home and made supper. Watched the movie Frozen and had ice cream. Got in the hot tub and then showered and got her into bed. That lasted for about 30 seconds before she was back out and wanted grandma to lay with her so I did. She was out fast! Then at 3:30 am she woke up to find that grandma wasn't in bed with her any more and came into our bedroom taping me and saying "come on". So I went with her and finished out the night in bed with her. lol Saturday was busy, busy, busy. We made crumb cake first thing in the morning. Then Papaw made breakfast. After cleaning up from that we went outside. We blew bubbles, drew with chalk, got in the pool, got in the hot tub, went up to the farm a dozen or more times, went for 4 wheeler rides, rode in the combine to harvest the wheat, watch the guys bale and unload some straw and then came home to make supper. Oh and we made another crumb cake, one for her to take home and one for Papaw and UB (Uncle Bret). After snack of crumb cake, and that was holding her off as long as I could, she went home with her sister, mommy and daddy. Papaw and Grandma was two tired puppies but for different reasons. lol  But it was a good tired, now if only the back would hold up longer! I guess I will be discussing that with the doc on Tues.

I guess I'd better get onto the reason for this post!! It is Monday and you know that it is time BBTB2 challenge. I wasn't really up for a challenge since it was a busy weekend and I didn't get anything done during the week. But I did have a project that I did but had never been blogged about and some of it fit the challenge, so even though I didn't do this new, it has never been seen before. I started a little 6 x 6 album for one of our granddaughters. Which one, I wasn't sure, but think now it will go to our newest granddaughter. It's nothing fancy, just plain really, but I think it is kinda cute. I was doing all the "firsts"-first outing, first Halloween, first Christmas, etc..So on the Halloween page I used a dog from Paper Pups Cricut Cart and since our sweet design team Sharon gave us the challenge of using a dog on a project this worked!! Her challenge was "Dog Days of Summer", to use a dog on a project. Mine of course is a double page spread. Like I said nothing fancy, really just plain as there isn't much room on a 6 x 6 page. I also used Doodlecharms for the spiders. The BBTB2 DT has lots of inspiration for you so go have a look see and then link up your dog projects with us!  As always thanks for stopping by to visit for a spell and for listening to me ramble on! I tend to do that I know, but when it comes to the grands, I can't help it. I also wanted to tell you how much I appreciate all the support and awesome comments you all always leave me. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have even one follower, must less all the ones I have! So thank you for all your support!!! Crafty hugs, Brenda

Educate Yourself!

Hello friends, I was asked to share on my blog info on mesothelioma and the dangers of asbestos. I'm sure you all know how dangerous asbestos is but did you know that it causes mesothelioma? Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that effects the lining of the lungs and the abdomen. Asbestos is still found in schools, homes, office building, etc...to this day and it has to be removed professionally. If it isn't removed professionally and you breath the dust from it, you are in danger of contracting mesothelioma. So if you are unsure on whether you have asbestos in your home or anywhere else, you can check it out. Want to know more? Go here and read all about it and learn how to protect yourself and the ones you love. If you suspect a family member has mesothelioma, please get them help. Thanks for getting educated about this awful cancer, learn how to keep yourself and your family safe by educating yourself! 

Teen Birthday Card

Hello my crafty friends,  I hope this Saturday finds you doing well and enjoying your day however it is that you wish too. This is a scheduled post as we are enjoying our granddaughter and the granddaughter is enjoying farming with her Papaw! lol They are harvesting wheat today, so quiet exciting for her to ride in the combine and tractor. 

A friend emailed and asked all her friends and family to shower her son who is soon going to be a teenage with birthday wishes. So I was happy to send him a card. I used The Guys Stack from DCWV for my card base. Then I cut out a 3x4 journal card using a MCT die, then using a MCT star die, I cut the star out. I made it into a shaker card. I placed all sizes of MCT stars and his age on the front. I stamped my sentiment on the front and then moved to the inside. I kept it simple and sweet. Added two stars and stamped a birthday sentiment and now it is in the mail. My inside sentiment is from Cardz TV stamps. I hope he likes my card for him, I tried to keep it boyish. Thanks for stopping by for a spell again today. I hope you all are having a fabulous weekend!! Crafty hugs, Brenda

Would love to have your help - Thinking of you...

Hello my crafty friends, were has this week gone?! I swear it was just Monday and now here it is Friday already. Looking forward to this afternoon as our granddaughter is coming over to spend the night. We just love it when the grands come and stay! 

I have copied and pasted a post from Designing Keepsakes by a fellow blogger Donna H. I'm doing my part in passing this message on. If you feel like you would like to help out contact the email link below. If a card can bring joy and comfort to a sick person, then I feel like I have to send one.  Thank you everyone in advance!!

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Hello, dear blogging friends.

One of our blogging-paper-crafting-friends, Sue Drees, recently shared some sad news.

Her sister, Edith, fell on June 22, and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. On June 25, the tumor was successfully removed. However, the biopsy brought back devastating news - a fast growing Brain Cancer. Sue's sister is determined to fight this all the way. She began physical rehabilitation on July 4.

Sue and Edith both live in the North East (USA). Sue and her husband transport Edith's husband to the hospital each day and check up on changes and quality of care.

While Sue did not ask for help, others kept in touch with her and asked if Edith would enjoy receiving cards of encouragement and support.

Sue was so grateful that the on-line community might help in this way - it was something she had not considered.

Edith enjoys quilting and LOVES flowers! Edith's beloved fur baby is a little pug and they miss each other very much.

Will you please consider sending a note, tag, or card (or two or three?) offering encouragement? Edith valiantly fights other illnesses in addition to this new challenge. She is a very courageous soul.

Cards can be sent addressed to Edith c/o Sue Drees and she will take them daily to the hospital.

To obtain the mailing address, please write:

thinkingofyou@tampabay.rr.com

Thank you for making a difference in one person's life, by bringing in a little sunshine.

For my card, I used MCT stamps and dies. I did my water color stamping using Hero Arts Shadow inks, I embossed "thinking" with black embossing powder. I inked my die cut circle with "Mint Julep" shadow ink then place my butterfly from Renea Bouquets. Her butterflies are amazing, they are hand made and the details on them are amazing and so beautiful. She has other things in her store and trust me you will want to order a few times, if not all the time!! And her prices are so affordable-you will be completely amazed by her store and her prices. Then I stamped my little butterfly "trail".  Added a few sequins and this was done.

 A close up of  the butterfly-so gorgeous!

 The inside, used the water color stamp again.

I hope you like my little card, mostly I hope that Edith like my card and that it brings her some comfort and joy in this time. Thank you for stopping by today, I love when you visit me and leave me the sweet comments that you do! Have a wonderful weekend. Crafty hugs, Brenda

College Bound!-BBTB2 Travel Challenge

Hello my crafty friends, I hope this Monday finds you guys refreshed from the holiday weekend and ready for the work week ahead. I haven't done an update on hubby in a while, so thought I would up date you all. Doc put hubby on chemo pills, but that wasn't going to well. The chemo pills have a side effect of blisters on the hands and feet. Well after a week of taking them poor hubby came home for lunch one Thursday and he could barely walk. I felt so bad for him. Needless to say he was home the rest of the day! We called in and doc took him off the chemo pills. Then hubby went in for his one treatment and doc decided to cut back the chemo pills. So instead of take 4 twice a day, he was going to take 3 twice a day. Well, that didn't work either. So once again he was taken off the pills. This last time doc decided that since he could make it through a week of the pills that he would have hubby do 3 pills twice a day for a week and then have a week off. Then back on a week and off a week. So far so good. Doc is hopping that this keeps enough chemo in his body to keep hubby in remission. I hope too!!! Hubby says he feels great except for the side effects from the chemo. So I think that is a good sign.

Well our challenge this week at BBTB2 is travel! Pam our creative and so sweet design team sister gave us that challenge. At first I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but then it hit me. Ya'll know that my baby graduated high school and will be leaving for college in August. So I thought he has to travel to get to college and he will be basically moving out. So I did a layout of when he will be leaving. I will be taking pictures of him packing up his car to go. I will also be adding another page to this layout with pictures of his dorm apt. and maybe even his room mates. So exciting and yet so sad. lol Yes, it is going to be hard for me to let him go. After having children under my roof for the last 35 years-well it's going to be very different! I used the Artbooking cartridge for the calendar page cut, the "hello" badge and I cut 2 camera's from it too, but didn't use them yet. Not sure if I will use on on this page or not, but will definitely use them on the next page. My title is from the cartridge Printing 101 and my packed up car comes from Camping Critters. I used a SU punch for the photo corners on the notebook paper. That is where I will put a picture of his Jeep Liberty all packed up. I will be writing or die cutting his name to put on the "hello" badge as well. I used MCT square stitched die to cut out for my dates and the stitched caption dies for "what's happening" on the date squares. I also stamped using MCT stamps the month, the dates and the year. I used blue homemade enamel dots for my "push pins" to look like the calendar was hanging up on a bulletin board. My background paper is look a like framed cork board. I thought it was perfect to put the calender cut out on. There is a welcome weekend on the 16th and 17th of August for students and parents and then classes will start on the 18th. So when we go up with DS we will be leaving him there. I can tell you I will be crying the whole 2 1/2 hour drive home!!! lol Just the way I am. My oldest told me I was killing him with my crying when we had to leave him at AIT training at Ft. Jackson, SC and I cried for a few hours coming home from there. Don't mean to make them feel bad, but it is just a mother's thing. Or at least I think it is, please tell me you all did the same and that I'm not the only one who does this! 

Well make sure to check out what my design team sisters have for you in the way of travel inspiration and then get that Cricut of yours humming and link up with us. Thanks for stopping by and visiting me today. You know I always love when you stop by for a spell, your comments always put a spring in my step and a smile on my face! Crafty hugs, Brenda 

  

Birthday Wishes

Yep, I'm back. lol This is my last post. I wanted to link up a birthday card for Darnell. If you haven't been to her blog you are in for a treat! She is so funny and talented and such a good friend to everyone. She truly is a special lady and today is her birthday. Well wouldn't you know it, I mailed her card off but never took a picture of it. So I made a different card so I could link up with the birthday celebration that Ardyth is having over at her blog, MASKerade. She is another sweet and talented lady too! If you have time check these amazing ladies out!!  Happy Birthday Darnell, I sure hope it was a special day for such a special lady and friend! 

This was a very, very quick card. I used some stamps from MCT, they are water color looking stamps and I used the larger one. I inked it once with barn red distress ink and spritzed it with water before I stamped it. Then I did the same thing with faded denim distress ink. After that I die cut the work "happy" out the center of the red strip and cut it once again out of black. I inlaid the black "happy" in to the negative space adding back in the "loops" in the red. I stamped "birthday" with black Hero Art's shadow ink. I then die cut the stars out of the blue strip, distressed my paper edges and then layered it on to a white card base with pop dots. I added some home made enamel dots and called it done. I have to say that everyone is doing this inlaid die thing and it is so fun to do and I'm glad I gave it a try. I will be doing it again in the future! 

Thanks for stopping by so many times. I love when you guys stop by and sit with me a spell. Your comments surely make my day and give me a nice big smile. I hope you all are having a crafty day or else doing something you love to do. I am trying to enjoy the summer as it always goes by so quickly. I can't believe we are in July already. Wasn't it just May and I was complaining about how cool it was?!! lol Crafty hugs, Brenda

My Creative Time Challenge

Hello crafty friends, it's me again for a second post. I want to enter this card into My Creative Time challenge that Miss Emma has going on. So I needed this card to be in a post all it's own so I could do just that. 

Here is the sketch and inspiration photo colors that are to be used. 

I started off with a matching piece of kraft card stock to layer on top of my kraft card stock base. I took barn door red and faded denim distress inks and put them on my mat and spritzed with water. I then took a paint brush and picked up the color and splatted them down on my layer to look kind like the circles in the sketch. The white came from Unicorn white from Hero Arts shadow inks. I did the same thing with it as well. Then I added my black border under my white stripe of paper. Die cut the stars and layered them together with MCT star dies. I added some sequins with a little bling in them. Popped up my layer and called it done. 

I'm entering this over at My Creative's Challenge. Thanks for stopping by once again. I always appreciate your sweet comments, they truly make me smile from ear to ear. Crafty hugs, Brenda

4th of July cards

Hello my crafty friends, I'm sorry for not posting regularly here but it's been busy. Our son got married on Saturday. It was a nice wedding, but not without it's drama, which leaves me drained. The one saving grace was my grandchildren came in from NY and got to spend the night with Papaw and Grandmaw. We had such a great time with them, and then had the other 2 grands over to play with their cousins. I was in heaven although worn out! lol But it was a good kind of worn out, not like the drained fatigue that all the drama leaves me with. I might try and post some pics of the wedding here in a few days.

I did make some 4th of July cards to send out. Some will go out and some will be put in my stash. I used stamps or metal dies to make my cards. Oh and one digi I colored some time ago.  My Creative Time is having a challenge and it is to use the following sketch and inspiration photo for the colors. Easy enough. lol So I used an SU stencil and mixed some Faded Denim distress ink in some embossing paste-I didn't get it dark enough, but went with it anyway. I die cut some little stars and a layered flower. Stamped my sentiment and called this one done. All products except for the embossing paste came from My Creative Time.

This one follows the sketch loosely. I used a stamp set from Kaiser Crafts and it is supposed to be different pieces of tape in different designs. I used one design stamp and stamped it in blue, red and craft colored brown. I added some stars from MCT as well as some hexy die cuts and then sprinkled some sequins in with the sentiment. 

This one is a digi I colored a long time ago-I'm not sure who this digi is by but thought this little girl was to cute! I fussy cut her out, popped her up on a MCT die cut, embossed (SU embossing folder) frame . I die cut some stars again with a MCT die, the sentiment came with the digi. The stars on the card base was sponged with barn red/faded denim distress inks using the SU star stencil. Add some sequins and call this one done too. 

I hope you enjoyed these simple little cards. I haven't been in my craft room much at all lately, but knew that I wanted to send out a couple of cards for the 4th. So these simple cards were born and simple they are since I didn't have a lot of time to devote to them. Thanks for stopping by today and sittin' with me a spell. It was a hot one day and I hope you were comfortable in this heat. Thanks for your comments, they certainly make my day. Crafty hugs, Brenda