Favorites and facts

A couple of weeks ago my friend Shelly did this on her blog, it was meant to be a tag but seeing as how she had just done the random facts tag she decided to make it a fun post. I thought it looked like so much fun I wanted to do it too.

So here we go......

Favorite Vacation- When we went home right after my husband came home from Iraq (in between Iraq and Afghanistan deployments). We went to visit for 3 weeks and we got to see so many of our friends and family. Not everyone we would have liked to, but most everyone. While we were there we also went and stayed in the same room at the same bed & breakfast where we spent our honeymoon. It was a great vacation. We haven't been to any places like Disney or anything, but hopefully next year after we get out of the Army.

Favorite color(s)- If you know me at all, you know my favorite colors are Purple and Green. Our wedding colors were purple and green (with white thrown in), most of the rooms in my house are purple and green. Love the combo!

Favorite Treat- I would have to say anything with peanut butter and chocolate combined. I am allergic to most nuts, but I can have peanuts (cause they aren't actually a nut) and thank goodness, cause I love me some peanut butter and chocolate.

Favorite Fruit- Granny Smith Apples

Little Known fact about me- I love antiques, I actually have a lot, and would love to collect more. Oh, and I collect Antique colord glass pitchers, and vases. My favorite peice is a purple vase that my mom gave me for Mother's day a few years ago.

Traveling- I would love to go to Ireland. I don't know why, I have just always wanted to. What's funny is that my husband has always wanted to go to Ireland as well. We are thinking of saving up our money and going when my daughter gets out of high school as a graduation gift to her. We'll see.

Where I grew up- Most of my growing up was done in Maryland and Utah. I was born in Texas, lived for a little while in California, then it was on to Germany, then to Maryland until I was 13 when my parents divorced and we moved to Utah.

Where I live now- New Mexico, for the next hopefully less then a year and then my hubby will have completed his Army service and we can move back home to Utah.

Middle name- It starts with an M. That's all you're getting, sorry!

First Name- Sharon

Biggest Pet Peeve- There are so many to choose from. Right now it would have to be people who get angry at someone and then won't tell that person why they are angry, they just hold a grudge for forevah! But yet, they will tell me why they are angry.

Favorite Animal- Of course my dog! Although while I was growing up we had a miniture Lassie dog named Dusty who comes as a close second, but my favorite is of course my Sirius.

Past Love- I was watching my DVD's of Charmed (favorite TV show btw) the other day and I watched the series finale'. In it, there is a line that perfectly sums up my answer to this one. "While I had loved before, I had never really known love until I met" my hubby of course! I had boyfriends before I met my husband, and yes, some of them I even had a love for, but my first and only real love is my husband.

My greatest wish- Is that we can get our van paid off by the time we buy a house so that our only debt will be the house.

I've been tagged.... twice!

I was tagged a couple of weeks ago by my friend Shelly. I have known Shelly for years and years. Wow, that makes us sound old. We met while we were in Jr. High about 16+ years ago. Crazy how time flies.
Anyhow, Shelly's tag was to list 8 random facts about myself.
I was also tagged the other day by Robyn. Robyn and I met at church back in Kansas a couple of years ago. Robyn's tag was to list 6 random facts about myself.
I'm not sure if I can come up with 14 total random facts, so I am just going to combine the two. I'm not going to tag anyone back, just do this if you want to k!

1. I'm double jointed, in fact my pinky on my right hand can bend at the first knuckle without bending the rest of the finger. It's kind of gross.

2. I played the flute for a year and a half in elementary school. (In fact, that's how I learned about the pinky thing, I went to go play the last note at the end of the flute and my pinky wouldn't bend except at that first knuckle.

3. I have never read the Twilight books, and don't really plan to. I may see the movie someday but I'm not in any hurry.

4. Speaking of books made into movies, I didn't start reading the Harry Potter books until I saw the 1st movie. My SIL and Aunt took me to go see it on opening night and kept teasing me before the movie started about being a muggle. I loved the movie so much that I went home and told my hubby that we had to get the books. Both hubby and I have been hooked ever since. Thanks Andrea and Lisa!

5. I love to cook, but my husband loves to cook more, so he does most of the cooking in our house.

6. I haven't made a cake since my friends Chelsea had me do her daughter's 1st birthday cake and that was many months ago. I really need to make one again. Gotta keep the skills up.

7. I hate large crowds, I get panic attacks when I am around a lot of people that I don't know. To include traffic, when I am in heavy traffic I get panic attacks so bad that I hyperventilate.

8. I love looking at houses for sale online. Even though it is still at least 9 months before we move back home and buy a house but I love to look and see what's out there and dream about our future home.

O.k. so there are those two tags, combined. That was harder then I thought! Like I said I am not going to tag anyone else. Just do this if you want.

New Ink Pad Storage

I have been looking and looking for ink pad storage for my SU ink pads. I haven't been able to find what I wanted anywhere. I have found things that were close, but nothing that was exactly what I wanted. So my hubby and I sat down a couple of weeks ago and I told him what it was that I was wanting, he came up with a proto-type, that sort of worked but not quite, it needed to be tweaked, so we tweaked the design and came up with something else. He can only spend a couple of hours here and there so it took him a couple of weeks. Not to mention that it is a lot, LOT of repeatitive cutting. It's not finished yet, he is going to add drawers to the bottom that will fit my ink refills, but other then that it is perfect!

This beauty will hold 60 ink pads, and once finished will have room for 48 ink refills in the drawers (the drawers could be used for other things of course, but I want to use them for my ink refills). I am so happy with the finished product. I asked for it to be white because when we buy a house and get to put together my dream craft room, all the cabinetry in there will be white so I wanted it to fit right in. I am going to have him build marker storage for my SU markers and Copic markers as well, but those will wait. He is going to the drawers for this unit next (I will post pictures of the final product then), and then he will build a few other peices he has been wanting to do for other parts of the house. I was just so excited about my ink storage that I had to share.

What I have been working on

I have been mentioning that I have been working on a project for a couple of weeks now. Well, I still am, every chance I get pretty much, but I'm still not finished. I was going to wait till I was done to post a picture, but I figured I would go ahead and post anyway and show the progress so far. For any of you who have ever cross-stitched you know how time consuming and teadious it can be. Well, this is no exception but with it slowly taking shape, I am so excited and can't wait to finish it.


For a couple of years now I have been wanting to make cross-stitched Christmas stockings for my family. I have been looking and looking for patterns, I have found some that were so so, and some that were not so, well... so so. And some that were pretty, and some not so pretty. But none that really spoke to me as being just right for my loved ones. That was until I was at Hobby Lobby with my sweetie one day and I came across this book of patterns by Donna Kooler:

Seriously, it is worth every penny! All of the stockings are just stunning, and there are patterns that are perfect fits for us all. In fact, there are 3 that I like and I am having a hard time choosing which one I want. I decided to start on my daughter's stocking first. She loves cats! Always has, always will I'm sure. She is only 13 but has already decided that she is never going to get married or have kids. She is going to grow up, buy a house "on the corner" and will have tons of cats. And she will be the "old bitty cat lady" that all the kids in the neighborhood are afraid of. Bahahahaha! She told me this a few years ago and it still makes me laugh.

Anyhow, I saw this adorable pattern in the book for a stocking of cats. There is a stair case wrapped all in ribbons and garland, with cats sitting on the bannister, and step. There are even a few Christmas Presents sitting on the floor by the bannister and there are cats sitting on the boxes as well. It's too fun, and my daughter loves the pattern! So here you can see the right side of the stocking. (I'm about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way done with the stocking now) You can see a few steps, the bottom part of the bannister, some Christmas garland, a couple cats and a blanket on the floor. What do you think? This is of course with no backstitching yet, I will do all of the backstitching at the same time when I am completely done with everything else.

I definately won't have all three done by this Christmas, possibly will have this one done, but as for mine and my hubby's, those definately won't be done, but I will have them all done by next year which will be nice since hopefully by then we will be back in Utah, and hopefully will have just bought a new house!

A quick post

Just wanted to quickly share a card that I did late last night when I couldn't sleep. I have been sick lately so I slept till almost noon yesterday. So needless to say I couldn't sleep last night. What better to do when you can't sleep? I worked a little on a project I am doing (eventually I will get it done and will be able to show you all) and I also made this card to send to a friend for Thanksgiving. I used the Voila set again cause the last Thanksgiving card done with this set turned out so cute. I also wanted a chance to use my Copic markers again. I apologize for the bad picture. This card is so cute in person.

Supplies: Stamps- Voila, Voila To Go, Holidays & Wishes; Cardstock- Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, White; Ink- Black; Accessories- Copics, Gingham Ribbon.

Oh, and the project I have been working on is cross-stitched stockings. I have been wanting to make them for years and just this year found the perfect patterns for my loved ones. So right now I am working on my daughters stocking. She loves cats and this stocking has cats all over it. It's turning out nicely. It's very detailed though so it is taking me awhile. Hopefully I will be done in the next couple of weeks and can show you before I start my hubby's stocking. I won't have all three of ours done before this Christmas, but I will have them for next Christmas when we are all together in our own house back home.

A couple of challenges... card challenges that is!

I did a couple more the of the challenges on SCS this week. I did the WT challenge on Thursday where the item we were challenged to use was watercolor paper. Seriously, this is no challenge for me as I love to watercolor. (as if you couldn't tell right?) So for this one I decided to make a Thanksgiving card. Actually it started out with me turning around to look at my stamp sets, seeing the Voila set, realizing I hadn't used that one in ages and deciding to go with that. So I pulled out Voila, and Voila to Go. I saw that Voila to Go has a Turkey that you can put on the chef's tray from Voila. Hence, Thanksgiving card.

So for this card I watercolored the image using watercolor pencils and my aquapainter. Then I mounted it onto Black CS. I decided to machine zigzag sew around it cause I didn't want to hand sew it. I messed up on one side so I just cut that side off and mounted the peice on the edge of the card. But not until I sewed the card base. I used a flower just cause it needed something. And there you have it!

Supplies: Stamps- Voila, Voila To Go, Holidays and Wishes; Cardstock; Really Rust, More Mustard, Basic Black, Watercolor Paper; Ink- Staz-On Black; Accessories- Watercolor Pencils, Aquapainter, Sewing Machine, Black Thread, Flower, Brad

I also decided to try my hand at the LSC challenge for Friday. The Limits we were given on this challenge was that we couldn't use and rubber stamps. We had to use Acrylic. Well, I just received some fabulous orders of Acrylic stamps this week of course, so this one was easy for me. I decided to go with the Who's That E-Girl set from MFT. I also received my Copic Marker order yesterday so I used those as well. This was my first time using Copics by myself. My only other time was at Jody's house with her teaching me what to do, which it's been a while since then. I still have some learning to do, but it's not bad. I love to paper peice this particular stamp. This time I paper peiced the skirt. The paper I chose for the skirt was the gorgeous Porcelian Prints from SU. The colors just happen to be Blue and Green. In fact, Not Quite Navy and Certainly Celery which just happen to be two of the colors for the Color Challenge on Splitcoast that I did a card for earlier in the week. So this card happened to fit in that challenge too. I realized this halfway through. Although I did color the laptop red so I added a red flower behind the image (a trick I learned from Jody) just for pops of color. So it isn't completely within the color challenge, but close enough. I made this card with a particular friend in mind. I hope she likes it.

Supplies: Stamps- Who's That E-Girl (MFT); Cardstock- Certainly Celery, Not Quite Navy, Basic Gray, White; Ink- Momento Cocoa Ink; Accessories- Copic Markers, Flower, Brad

Who's That E Girl?

So yesterday I told you about my fabulous mail day in which I received my Hanna order, AND my MFT order! The only thing that would have made it better would be if I received my Copic order too. But that is on it's way. (The Copics are my early birthday present. *grin*)


Anywho, yesterday I posted my Hanna creations but couldn't post my MFT creations because I ran out of time. My hubby called about the upcoming ball so I had to find a dress. Well, as you all know I am in the process of losing weight and I didn't want to pay a lot for a dress that was going to be too big for me soon. After 3 hours of hunting online for a modest, plus size ball gown, that wouldn't break the bank, I was frustrated and wanted to give up. I was talking to my mom and she suggested that I try on the dress that my friend Jenn gave me for a ball a few years ago (Jenn lost a bunch of weight and the dress didn't fit her anymore). So I tried that on thinking it wouldn't fit because I have gained a little weight (read 20 lbs.)since then. Well, guess what? It fits! The zipper needs to be fixed (it's an invisible zipper and don't those always need to be fixed?) so I sent the dress off to my mom today to be fixed and she will send it back and then I will have that to wear to the ball. Hey, it's a new state, new unit, I can wear the same dress right?


Anyhow, sorry, got sidetracked there. So on to my MFT cards. Several weeks ago when I went to my friend Jody's house I got to stamp with some of her stuff. I was immediately hooked on MFT (My Favorite Things) stamps. Well, last week MFT released the cutest stamp set and when I showed my hubby he insisted that I had to get it. (O.k. so all the sets released are adorable, but this particular one is my favorite) The set is called Who's That E Girl? Adorable right? So who am I to argue with my hubby? I bought it immediately after it was released. Here is what I made with it:
The Yummy ribbon on this first card is from Jody. If you haven't done one of her ribbon shares yet you have to.

Supplies: Stamps- Who's The E Girl (MFT); Cardstock- Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, White, Ski Slope DP; Ink- Black; Accessories- Markers, Brads, Ribbon

This second card looked better in my head then it actually does as a card. I hate it when that happens.

Supplies: Stamps-Who's That E Girl (MFT); Cardstock- Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal, White, Bali Breeze DP; Ink- Black; Accessories- Crafter's Tool Kit, Ribbon

Seriously, this set is a must have for any stamper who frequents online.

Off to go create some more. *grin*

Fabulous Mail Day!

Today was a fabulous Mail day! I received my very first Hanna Stamps order, AND my very first My Favorite Things order. I am so excited! From Hanna I ordered the new B Is For Baby set. I have been looking everywhere for a cute baby set, but every set I have seen has only had a couple of images that I liked and I didn't want to buy the sets for 1 or 2 images. Well, when I saw this one I knew I had to have it because each and every one of the images is just that perfect. I also order my very first Riley stamp. My friend Amanda is on the design team for Hanna Stamps and she always does just adorable Riley cards. So I decided that it was time to get a Riley of my very own. I got the Carrying Tree Riley. Here are my very first Hanna cards:

This first card I did for today's Sketch challenge on SCS. I had a hard time with this sketch, but it didn't turn out too badly I guess.

Supplies: Stamps- B Is For Baby (Hanna Stamps); Cardstock- Brocade Blue, Certainly Celery, Certainly Celery DSP, White; Ink- Black; Accessories- Markers, Crafter's Tool Kit, Needle, Thread, Ribbon

Carrying Tree Riley is just too cute for words. I had a good time with this card. The sentiment on this card is from the Winter Cheer set from TAC.

Supplies: Stamps- Carrying Tree Riley (Hanna Stamps), Winter Cheer (TAC); Cardstock- Old Olive, Real Red, Very Vanilla, Dashing DP; Ink- Black; Colored Pencils, Ribbon, Brads

I will share my MFT creations (I love how they turned out!) with you tomorrow. For now, my hubby just called and said we have a military ball coming up in a few weeks so I have to find a dress. Till tomorrow!

Playin' with my new stuff

I have been sick off and on since returning from vacation and last night was the first that I actually felt o.k. I still have a stuffy nose and I have been coughing a lot, but other then that I'm good. So last night I decided to play with some of my new goodies. (I put in a large SU order just before leaving for SL so it was waiting for me when I got home.) So here is what I created with just some of what I got.

I got a couple of Christmas sets, and, well, it's that time of year. The time of year where we stampers start getting Christmas cards made. So I decided last night I would make some Christmas cards to see if I liked them enough to semi mass produce them. For those of you who don't know, I don't make just 1 type of card each year. I get bored making the same card 40+ times. So I normally make 4 or 5 designs with up to 10 of each design. Here is the products of last nights stamping:

This first one I did using Snow Swirled. I have had this idea in my head for several days now. I have to say it looked better in my head then it does in actual card form. *sigh*

Supplies: Stamps- Snow Swirled; Cardstock- Dashing DP, Garden Green, Real Red, White; Ink- Black, Stampin Write Markers (Garden Green & Real Red); Crafters Tool Kit, Sewing Machine, Red ribbon, brads

This one wasn't done using a Christmas Set. It was done using Window Dressing which is a level 3 hostess set in the current catty. When I started this card I had no clue what it would end up looking like. It's not half bad actually. I used a gray watercolor pencil and an aquapainter around the outside of each of the snowmen to give them a shaded effect.

Supplies: Stamps- Very Best, Window Dressing; Cardstock- Glorious Green, Real Red, White; Ink- Black; Accessories- Watercolor Pencils, Aquapainter, ribbon, scallop edge punch

Now this one, this one is my favorite. I used the Big On Christmas set which I have been wanting for a while now. I just love how it turned out. I don't know how well you can see it, but I used the Snowflakes embossing folder and my cuttlebug on the Real Red peice and I paper pierced around the focal image on the Bashful Blue peice. If I did mass produce 40+ cards of 1 design, this would be the one for this Christmas.
Supplies: Stamps- Big On Christmas; Cardstock- Bashful Blue, Real Red, White; Ink- Black, Accessories- Markers, Aquapainter, Crafters Tool Kit, Ribbon, Brads, Cuttlebug and EF.

I also looked through my birthday card box and realized that my nephew Jacen has a birthday coming up. I never made him a card because I didn't have a set that fit him in my opinion. Well, in my box of goodies that I ordered I got the SU set Crazy for Cupcakes. So I decided to make Jacen a cupcake birthday card. I brushed stickles on the icing just for fun.

Supplies: Stamps- Crazy For Cupcakes; Cardstock- Tempting Turqiouse, Pumpkin Pie, DP from Party Peices SS kit, White; Ink- Black; Access.- Crafter's Tool Kit, Needle, Thread, Stickles, Brush, Colored Pencils.

In making this birthday card for Jacen I ended up squeezing too much of the stickles out so rather then wasting it I decided to whip up some more Christmas Cards. This time I used Frosty, which I got just before the end of the last catalog season. I used some blank window cards that I was sent in a package a while ago. I ended up making several of these. You can't tell in the pic but frosty is completely covered in stickles as is the ground.

Supplies: Stamps- Frosty; Cardstock- premade blank Window cards; Ink- Black, Brilliant Blue; Accessories- stickles, brush, colored pencils

SCS Color Challenge #192

Today's Color challenge on SCS was to use Pacific Blue (or Not Quite Navy), Certainly Celery, and Basic Gray on a card. I don't have any of the In Colors so I used the Not Quite Navy. I wanted to use some of my new goodies for this one so here you go:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted): Stamps- Flight Of The Butterfly; Cardstock- Not Quite Navy, Basic Gray, Certainly Celery, White; Ink- Not Quite Navy, Certainly Celery; Accessories- Scallop Edge Punch, Celery Ribbon (from craft store)

Fall Roses

I made this card for a lady on SCS who recently lost her son.

I made it using the Sketch challenge and Ways To Use It Challenge this week on SCS.

I used the A Rose Is A Rose stamp set from SU. I wanted it to be subdued so I used fall colors from the Earth Elements color family.

Products:
Stamps: A Rose Is A Rose, Brighter Tomorrow
Paper: Close To Cocoa, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, White
Ink: More Mustard, Close To Cocoa, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Markers, Airart tool, ribbon, punch, brads

Blog Candy Winner!!

Sorry this is a day late. It has been taking me longer to recover from my vacation then I thought.
Anyhow, I went to random.org and I used the trusty random # generator to pick my winner for me. The lucky # is: comment # 10!
Renee said: "Beautiful cards!!My fave holiday is Halloween! I go crazy with everything Halloween-y. I make tons of cards, put lots of decorations up and just totally love handing out candy to the little trick or treaters! I think I love it more than my two young boys!"
Here are your random numbers:10 Timestamp: 2008-11-05 16:46:30 UTC

Congratulations Renee! You have until next Wednesday to email me your address so I can send you out your goodies! Email me at scrown8301 @ yahoo.com (without the spaces of course)