A Card and Mugs

Hello my crafty friends, I hope you all are doing well and staying cool. We had a few beautiful, low temps/humidity days, but that has come to an end and now we are back to hot and humid. I will take it for now, will enjoy the pool a bit longer before closing it up. 

I have a little simple Father's day card that I cut using my Cricut Joy. The design was already in the design studio so I just cut it out of papers I thought would look nice. Gave them out to the guys in my life that are father's. 

I also made mugs for the dad's with HTV vinyl. I also decided since I had made a mug for my son, that I'd better make on for my DIL as I didn't make one for her for Mother's day. Didn't occur to me to make them until Father's day. So made one for her as well. Once again, I just used a file that was in my design studio and using my easy press mini to iron it on. 

I want to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to stop in and visit with me. I hope you enjoyed stopping by! As always your comments are like rays of sunshine in my life and I appreciate that you take the time to leave one. I pray you are keeping safe and those in CA my prayers are with all involved with these fires and the people in the communities effected by these awful fires. My prayers are also with people in the way of their hurricanes, such ruff times right now besides having to deal with COVID too! So prayers going up to all.

Crafty Hugs,

Card Recipe:
Cricut Design Space

Cricut Easy Press Mini

Siser HTV (heat transfer vinyl)

A Few Cards-Lori Whitlock files (warning long post and pic heavy!)

Hello my crafty friends, I hope you all are doing well. I'm back from my trip, got back two weeks ago. Had to rest and recouped as I did get sick while I was gone. Nothing to serious, but the Lupus reared it's ugly head. More on the trip later though with some photo's. I did have a great time with my brother, sister-in-law and nephews. 

Now I see what everyone is complaining about with Blogger! Please bare with me while I figure all this out. It is very slow as I am. lol I have a few cards to share with you that I cut on my Cricut Joy. They were fun to cut and fold and I love how they turned out.  I have more designs that I haven't cut as of yet but will share when I do.  

This one I stamped the sentiment on using a drop shadow as well. 

        This one my Cricut Joy wrote the sentiment on for me.

                           This is one I stamped the sentiment on as well as the last card.  

A few photo's from my trip to the Outer Banks. We had a great time and wore our mask when we headed out or to the grocery store. Not much was open, we we did get to the lighthouse, although you couldn't climb it because of Covid. But the State Park person was there to answer questions and tell us about the lighthouse. It was moved a quarter of a mile to it's currant location, which I thought was interesting. I would imagine it was a s-l-o-w move being it's so tall! It is still in use today as well. We did hit a little craft festive that was outside. Wearing our masks of course. We were in and out pretty quickly too. 

So on our first day, we got to the Outer Banks around 11:30 am. We left at 4 am. All was good, got a sandwich since we didn't really eat anything but a granola bar, the boys ate all kinds of snack though. Just like boys. lol Then we decided to go to the beach afterwards because the house wouldn't be done until around 6 pm since they had to disinfect per Covid rules. Started through the dune and oh my gosh, the sand was HOT!!! So hot, that it burned blisters on my toes, now I did have flip flops on, but the sand got on the flip flops thus burning my toes. I had to keep stopping and shaking the sand off because it was so painful. Got out of the dunes and stopped to rest, was feeling sick as well as being really over heated. I asked my SIL if my nephew could wet a towel so I could put around my neck and of course he did. But before he got it to me, I lost my sandwich. How embarrassing! But a nice lady saw it and brought me over a sugar drink, reaching it out to my SIL who the handed to me. My brother came up after getting our area set up and helped me the rest of the way to my chair. Then the same lady sent waters over too. So sweet of her!!! Anyway, was good after that! Enjoyed the rest of the day on the beach. When we left the sand wasn't hot. So back to the house we went. My SIL sprayed all the highly touched areas down with disinfect as well. Then made the beds, she wanted to make mine too, but we compromised with me helping. Next day we went out and got water shoes so mine and my youngest nephew's toes didn't get blistered anymore! lol He was young and would run across the sand, I could barely wade through the thick sand in the heat at a snail's pace! Then later in the week, my Lupus reared it's ugly head and I got sick, same as I did a few years back when I passed out in the bathroom. I didn't pass out this time, but my SIL saw me change as I was sitting eating my breakfast. I went to lay down for a while when all heck broke loss. I was in the bathroom for a long time, sent them down to the beach to enjoy the day and I stayed behind. My SIL texted to see if I needed her or anything. I told her just to enjoy the day down at the beach!  Day after started out ok, but then didn't. So I stayed in again but my SIL had some Imodium and I took that, so then was good to go. Friday, I didn't go down to the beach either, it was just to hot and the heat was messing with my Lupus. I did go down in the evening a few times though and that was better. Bless my SIL, as one day we were walking back and she stopped to wait for me to get through the dune to the walk way. I told her she didn't have to wait for me and she said she was using me as an excuse cause the heat got to her too and she needed to stop and rest before going the rest of the way! I didn't feel quite as bad as I'm 10 years older than my brother and my SIL. lol So here are some pictures.

Under our canopy, thanks goodness for some shade, but it was still hot even with the ocean breezes!

Our house for the week

                                                       The beautiful lighthouse

                             My brother and me one evening down at the beach

My brother's family

All of us

Under the pier-My SIL took photo's of my nephew's under the pier

                              And lastly, a new photo of me after we came back home

If you stuck with me this long, thank you! I know it was a long post!!! I just want to say I appreciate you all and I love when you stop by and visit for a spell. I finally am catching up on my cleaning after being gone and got the mowing done as well. Bret and I just don't agree on what clean is. lol I know I haven't been around to everyone, I am working on it. I am slow, getting slower all the time. lol So bare with me and I will get there. Again, you bring much joy and sunshine into my life and I appreciate each one of you! 

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
Cricut Joy and Lori Whitlock files

Maymay Made It stamp sentiments

My Creative Time stamp sentiments

Close to My Heart stamp sentiments

Stampin' Up papers I won a while back

Butterflies

Hello my crafty friends, I can't believe it is the ending of another week! These weeks just zoom by me and I don't even know what day it is half the time. I hope you all are staying cool where you are. Not much pool time this week, it's been a busy one. My brother and sister-in-law invited me to go on vacation with them and my nephews to the Outer Banks. I couldn't say no could I?! Now, I know.....NC is a hot spot right now. But we are going to be staying in a private house on a private beach. No crowds or anything. Will be cooking our own food and the only time we won't is when my brother goes and gets seafood to make for us. We all will have our masks as well for if we do need to go out for anything. I will also quarantine 14 days as per my state requires when going to another state and coming back. So we leave at 4 am this Saturday. Dropping my suitcase off tomorrow at my brother's house as he wants to be packed up ahead of time. Bret will be holding down the fort and the dogs. He was invited too, but with three dogs, well...someone had to stay home with them. He will be going to his boss's cabin in early Aug. and maybe to the beach later in Aug. 

So wanted to try and get my Twofer cards made and since I needed to send a card out in the mail before I left, so decided to make it a butterfly card to fit the challenge. So here are my two butterfly cards. Simple and to the point. lol 

Let's take a closer look shall we? 

Using my Gina K stencil template to make a wreath, I used this Martha Steward butterfly stamp. It is a punch that stores a stamp too. So you can stamp and punch it out. I didn't use the punch, just the stamp. I've never used the stamps before...so does that make it a NBUS??? Then I took my Prisma colored pencils and colored each butterfly. The striped piece of paper is a snippet. Very simple card.

 This one was a little more involved for me. I didn't do such a great job, but that's ok as I think it still looks ok. I had three of those MS butterfly punch/stamps so used all three on this card. I stamped them down the side of the card (Pinterest inspired), but in a bit, then cut around them to show the inside of the card. Colored my butterflies in purple with my Prisma pencils. I went into my purple snippets and found this piece of paper, it was double sided, so I turned it over to the solid side for under the butterflies (inside of the card) and kept the "stripes" for the front of the card. Added a little thin black piece of cardstock along both piece of paper, can't it inside. Stamped my sentiment and colored it with the same pencils. To much purple???? It looks much better in person than in this photo for some reason. 

I thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit me. I know it's been hot and I appreciate your visits in spite of the heat. Your comments bring much joy and sunshine to y life and I so appreciate then and you! I will be commenting yet tomorrow and then I will be behind on my commenting since I will be gone for a week. I might try and do some commenting on my phone, but usually that frustrates me and I give up. lol Anyway, I will come back and probably have to re cope from being away....aka, let my swollen feet go down and I will most likely have to mow. Will see if Bret does it while I'm gone. I'm sure I will get many texts from him like I usually do with questions. lol Have a wonderful weekend my crafty friends and I will "see" you in a week! 

Challenges:

Twofer Challenge

Snippet Playground Challenge

NBUS Challenge, if my butterfly stamps are considered nbus

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:

Wreath Butterfly card:
Martha Steward butterfly stamp
My Creative Time for the circle and scalloped circles
Cardz TV Stamp set for the sentiment
Prisma Colored Pencils
snippet paper

Purple Butterfly card:
Martha Steward butterfly stamps
My Creative Time stamps for the sentiment
Prisma Colored Pencils
snippet paper

GPS Coordinates Sign

Hello Crafty friends, I hope all is well in your neck of the country! I've been keeping busy here...mostly spending a lot of time out by the pool on these really hot days. I hope you are able to keep cool if it is hot where you are.

I have two gifts that I made for a good friend that I want to share with you today. The first one is a GPS Coordinates sign. It is the coordinates of her home. I used my Cricut to cut my stencils and chalked it with black chalk paint on the wooden sign (gotten at the Target $ spot a long time ago), that I painted white and sanded to give a rustic old look. Then I sanded the stenciled black ink to make that look rustic and old too. Then I buffed a wax sealant on. I love how it turned out! The photo doesn't do it justice. Looks much better in person. Editing to add this link, I follow Creative on the Cheap and this is where I got this idea from for the sign. She is amazing at making things on the cheap!

My second gift is a towel that I put HTV on in spring/summery colors. Not much exciting about it. I used my Cricut once again to cut my HTV out and then used my Cricut Easy Press to press it on. I do wish I would have put a shadow under the "K", but I didn't. Live and learn. I still think it looks ok, but would have been better with the shadow. 

Close up of the design.

Had my granddaughter for 5 days, 4 nights. She wanted to live in the pool and cuddle the dogs. We did live in the pool and she did snuggle the dogs as well. She is ADD and boy the pool wore her out! After we would come in from the pool at 6:30 or 7 pm, she got her shower and was in bed out like a light. We had a great time for those 5 days. 

Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule and visit with me for a bit! I so appreciate you as I know you are all busy too. I wish you all could be here enjoying the pool too on these hots days. Your sweet comments do bring so much joy and sunshine to my life and if I haven't been around to see you, I should be by soon. Can you believe we are in July?!! Fall will be here before we know it, then the holidays! Let's hope 2021 brings better news on Covid 19! Stay safe everyone and wear your mask and social distance please. 

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
Cricut and Design Studio

Flower Cards

Hello crafty friends, I hope you all are doing well and enjoying summer. Can't believe we start losing a bit of daylight each day now. Wish it was later in the summer when that started. Oh well, it is what it is. Hope everyone is staying safe and wearing their masks and such as well.

I am sharing the cards I made for the Twofer Challenge back in May, but never got them posted. I believe the challenge was flowers since my cards have flowers. lol 

I made a little envelope with my envelope punch board, tucked some die cut flowers and filler in and that was that. I water colored the flowers and filler with SU watercolor crayons. Again, I'm not great with any kind of water color!

The paper on this card was cut with the Cricut Joy, placed down on a card base. I colored this little die cut with colored pencils, which I do much better with than watercolor. lol But it is pretty washed out and you really can't see the soft pink on the flowers. So two simple cards. 

So two cards that I did do, but never posted for the challenge. At least I have two more cards for the stash. I  will have some more cards to share again. Thanks for stopping by and visiting with me a spell. I am behind again in commenting, but in my defense the weekend was so beautiful and the first time we got in the pool this summer, so Bret, my SIL and nephew enjoyed it! I will be back to catch up here some time today. Come and enjoy the pool with me?!!! So appreciate you all!!!

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
Card 1
Mini Envelope punch board from WRMK
No brand dies from AliExpress-flowers
Martha Steward Branch Punch
SU Watercolor Crayonshg
My Favorite Things Stamps for "Missing You" (Essential Sentiments)

Card 2
Cricut Joy
My Creative Time Dies-watering can and bird
No brand dies from AliExpress-flowers in envelope
Word Stamps/dies from WRMK for "Happy"
Maymay Made It Stamps for "birthday to you my friend" (Big Time Sayings)

Twofer Challenge

Hello my crafty friends, I hope you are all doing well. Thanks for stopping by. 

I wanted to participate in this months Twofer Challenge, missed last months...got my cards ready but never got them posted last month. So trying to get there this month. This month is already getting away from me! Anyway, the challenge for this month is circles or bubbles. 

I went with circle dies. I tell you, I'm not good at these challenges, but they sure make you get creative....well sometimes! Here are my two cards using my circle dies. 

This one is CAS, it looks better in person than it does here. I like it though. 

This one I used the dies to make trees. Well....I tried. It didn't turn out to good. My problem was using a tree trunk/branches red rubber stamp. I am not good with red rubber stamps at all. I can't see where I'm stamping. Yes, I probably should have used my Misti, but I didn't. So my trees are wonky. lol Oh well that is the way it goes and it is what it is. 

As always I thank you for stopping by. I will be by to see you soon too. Just know you are very appreciated! It is a very nice day today, low temps, low dew points almost to a point that the air coming in the window is to concentrated making it feel cool. Hot, humid weather coming for the end of the week though, so I will enjoy not having to run air conditioners! 

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
My Creative Time for my circle dies, "hi" sentiment
Cardz TV for my "Just sitting here thinking of you
Deadbeat Designs for my tree trunk

Where Have I Been??? I'm Still Alive and Kicking

Hello my crafty friends, I know I haven't been around in such a long time. It's been crazy for sure with all the Covid stuff and having Bret working from home. Keeping 3 dogs quiet while he had meetings and phone calls wasn't easy. lol Plus it didn't give me much computer time as I kept taking them outside to keep the house a little quieter. And now they want out there non stop. So even visiting and commenting was non existence for me. But Bret is back at the office now....for how long, only time will tell. I wanted to get back to cleaning out and fixing up the guest room but until he cleans out his "office" stuff that isn't going to happen. Now we are working on getting the pool good so we can enjoy that on these hot days. And of course mowing every couple of days keeps me busy too. 

I did stay a little crafty and wanted to share with you what I was up to. I am hoping to start to get back to visiting/commenting with you all very soon. So don't lose to much faith in me yet. Hopefully the dogs and I will find our groove, especially on really hot days as I don't take them out for long then. 

I got a little vinyl happy and went around and applied vinyl to a lot of stuff. The microwave was first.

 The last coach gift for my Nephew to give out when he can. They loved it. 

 A vinyl sign for patriotic holidays

 A birthday gift I made using vinyl for Dwayne's cousin

 Since we were staying home anyway, I had to add vinyl to my little house I got in Waco, TX

 My portable charger got monogrammed on the front and back

 My bill fold got it too because I always opened it the wrong way, now I know what's the front

 My brother's birthday card

 My Nephew's graduation banner for the drive by graduation the school had

 Kahlua and Savannah had birthdays, Kahlua first in April and then Savannah in June. This is the doggie cake I made for each of them. Maverick will get one in Aug. They all loved it except Maverick didn't like the "icing" which was yogurt and peanut butter. He loves peanut butter but I guess not the yogurt. lol The girls loved the icing. 

 Kahlua chowing down on her cake

 Savannah on her birthday, didn't take a photo of her eating her cake

So that is what I've been up too. Sorry it took me so long to even up date everyone as to where I've been. Life is crazy anyway and Covid didn't help any. We go green this Friday and as much as I'm looking forward to it, it makes me nervous too. But I've been to the pool store and the grocery store for the first time since March. Oh and my nephew's graduation and on Memorial weekend, sat around a fire and had a s'more at Dwayne's cousins. It was nice to leave the house!!! Thanks for stopping by and seeing what I've been up too. I should be by to see you too over this week. As always I so appreciate each and every one of you and I thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to stop by my neck of the woods. Come take a dip with me in the pool when you get a chance!

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
vinyl signs:  Cricut and Design Studio
coach gift: stencil vinyl and acrylic and chalk paint to stencil with from Walmart
deer card: unbranded die from AliExpress, TH's Oxides inks
grad banner: Cricut and Design Studio