Photo Tag and I'm it!

My blogging buddy Libby has challenged me to a game of photo tag. the rules say go to the 6th folder and share the 6th photo. This is always fun for me as I work on multiple computers and they all have different stuff on them! On today's computer, this is my picture (baby Julian in his car seat):


I just have to let you see how this gorgeous little boy is growing up! Here is on his 3rd birthday at the Aquarium:

Julian and his twin sister Isabella were premature and only weighed 2 pounds at birth. They spent the first two months of their lives in the NICU in Denver. They have thrived and are now happy wonderful 3 year olds!

I have 5 of the most gorgeous grandchildren (and I'm only slightly prejudiced)! Maybe next week while I'm on forced rest, I'll put together a little slide show and show them off a bit!

So, I'm supposed to tag six more: Cat, Allison, Tracy, Megan, Juanita, Curt - play along if you want to and if you do come back and leave me a comment so I can go see what you came up with!

Thanks for visiting today!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

Happy first day of SPRING!

"Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush." ~Doug Larson

I am finalizing the cards for Sunday's stamp camp and I think this is the final version of the Mother's Day card:

What do you think? I also made a bunch of center panels with different colors and different sentiments to show everyone what else they could do with this layout. I'll put some pix up of those later today when I get them finished (hopefully).

Thanks everyone for all your kind and encouraging words. I think that everything will be just fine and I'll be up and about again in no time. Surgery is just outpatient and it will be nice to be pain free!

Thanks for visiting.

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

The results are in ....

Don't have any eye candy to share today, but I thought I'd let you know the results of the mri and my meeting with the surgeon. Sure enough .... I have a torn meniscus. Surgery is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon and I'll be a bit out of commission for a couple of days. Rumor has it that it's not a bad procedure and recovery should be fairly quick! Keep your fingers crossed!

Back later with something more pleasant!

Thanks!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

Monday Night Madness

Monday night is stamp night at my house. DH heads off to play bluegrass music and my stampin' buddies come over to stamp. This week we made shaker cards:

Diane's


Sabrina's


Mine

The gals also helped me make final decisions on the cards for this weekend's stamp camp and then they helped me cut all the paper! Who could ask for better stampin' buddies! These aren't going up till now because a certain slacker (namely me) didn't get her card finished until last night. And yes Diane, I cannot resist the lure of my dp stash and my image is centered (once again) in the middle of my card. I'll try to be a bit more innovative on our next project, I promise.

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

Easter Cards

We are also making two Easter cards at this weekend's stamp camp. Here they are:



Recipe:
Stamps: Mike's $1 bin
Paper: Lemon Tart (PTI), Apricot Appeal, White
Ink: Black, markers
Accessories: ribbon, brad



Recipe:
Stamps: Mike's $1 bin
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, dp from Joann's, white
Ink: black, markers
Accessories: brads, ticket corner punch

I have quite a few different images that the gals can use, but I really think these are fun.

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

Another Possible and a Bloom

Here's the Father's Day card possible for this weekend's stamp camp. I made another one using some Basic Grey dp and thought I'd just try making my own and see how it looked and I liked it a lot better!


Recipe:
Stamps: DRS - H363 & H369, All Year Cheer II
Paper: Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Whisper White
Ink: Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, black
Accessories: brads, ribbon, punches

Also, we have our first spring bloom on one of the hibiscus plants in the "plant room!" Isn't it gorgeous?


Another busy week this week. MRI this morning - keep your fingers crossed!

Thanks for visiting.

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

Challenges and Possibles

There's a great sketch challenge over on the Kaboodle Doodle blog this week. You should click on over and check it out. You could win a free didigital paper pack if you choose to play along! Here's my card:


I've also been working on some ideas for my stamp camp next weekend. I got some great inspiration from the oh so talented LeAnne (Wee Inklings)- see her card here. Yes, I know that I am a terrible procrastinator! Here's my first possible:


And last, but not least, here's a card I made for Sharon's Stamp Simply challenge this week. The challenge was to use white matting to brighten up your card. I pulled out another pcCrafter's image from the Easter Bunnies set for this card.


Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

Playing with Digital Images

As I mentioned yesterday, I made something for my friend and stamping mentor Roselyn who has a great bathroom full of chickens! When I saw these images from PcCrafter, I knew exactly what I wanted to use them for. This is a card folder with six note cards and envelopes. These images are from this set.

The cards

On the inside

The folder

I also really love to play along with Libby's weekly challenge From Courtney's Closet. Here is our little princess all done up in pink and I had these images and the pink paper sitting on my desk waiting for me this morning and I think it's perfect for this challenge today.

Outside

Inside

I am still working on a tutorial for the coaster clipboard (pen holder) project from last week and hopefully will have that up this weekend. I also hope to have the pdf files for the card folder and the double slider cards done this weekend too! Thanks for your patience with me on these - I know I'm really slow, but I want them to be comprehensive and easy to follow!

Thanks for visiting today. I'm off to see the orthopedic surgeon about my knees - keep your fingers (and toes) crossed for me that he has good news!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

Downline Meeting Swaps

As always, Roselyn was the perfect hostess. I cannot begin to tell you how wonderful this group of ladies is! I always come away from our meetings so inspired and so grateful that I am a part of this group. Here's a slide show of the wonderful swaps from today's meeting.

The ideas were flying and Kathy taught us all how to use vinyl in our big shot! I'm always up for learning about anything I can put through that bad boy!

I made the wonderful Roselyn a little gift that showcases some of the digital images I have been playing with lately and I'll show that to you all tomorrow. She has the most wonderful bathroom - completely decorated with chickens!

Thanks for visiting! See you tomorrow.

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

March Downline Meeting

Here are my projects for this month's downline meeting tomorrow morning. I had hoped to do something with the Manhattan Flower textured impressions die, but ... my order won't get here in time. So, here's the next best thing.

Front

Inside

Recipe:
Stamps: 5th Avenue Floral
Paper: Choc. Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White
Ink: Choc. Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango
Accessories: SU Backgrounds 1 texture plate, ribbon, lace edge punch

I am also doing a make and take for tomorrow's meeting and here it is. I wanted to use one of the SAB sets as they will be gone after the end of this month!

Front

Inside

Recipe:
Stamps: Polka Dot Punches
Paper: Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, SAB designer paper
Ink: Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Certainly Celery
Accessories: 5 petal punch, 1/2 circle punch, dotted swiss embossing folder

I am also working on lots of projects for my stamp camp, two workshops and my design team projects this month, so stay tuned!

Thanks for visiting.

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

Early start on Mother's Day Cards

I'm having a stamp camp this month and we're making Easter, Mother's Day and Father's Day cards. I am in love with the 5th Avenue Floral set and was just messing around and came up with this card.


I think it's simple and elegant. I used my Baja Breeze re-inker and a blender pen to color the petals of a flower that I stamped with black craft ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder. Once the flower was dry it just looked a little flat to me, so I painted the colored petals with Angel Wings Shimmerz and added some stickles and I think it came out nice and sparkly.

The sentiment is from PTI's Women of Life set. Cardstock is Baja Breeze and the designer paper is from Green Tea (sadly retired).

Thanks so much for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

Auction Projects

I am donating items to two different fund raising efforts. I really liked the thank you cards I made last week and decided to do those cards for these projects. I used Lauren Meader's template for a desktop box (you can find it here) and I expanded it using a 12x12 sheet so that I could make the sides high enough to hold 8 cards (with layers and ribbon) along with 8 envelopes. Worked like a charm! Lauren's templates are wonderful and if you haven't checked them out over on Papertrey's site, you really should.

Here are the cards:

Here is the inside of the card:

Here is one box:

Here are all the boxes together:

This was a really fun project. I just love the Trendy Trees set and the papers from the SAB catalog are just great. You get 4 sheets of each double sided pattern which is great for projects like this where I wanted to make 24 cards.

Thanks for visiting.

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

It's Adrienne's Blogoversary!

My bloggy buddy Adrienne is celebrating her blogoversary with a great giveaway. Check this out!


Click on the picture to go over and leave her some love and be sure to tell her that I sent you!

Thanks!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

I need some help!

I know, I need lots of help ... LOL. This is something specific though. I made these cute little 3x3 love note sets a while back and in my attempts to get cleaned up a bit I decided to make the boxes and finish the project. Well, imagine my distress when I went to the paper stash and could not find any more of this paper! Yikes! I like to make the boxes using the same papers that I use on the cards. I have searched all my favorite online haunts and cannot find this paper anywhere. Does anyone recognize it? If I knew what it was I think I would have better luck finding it - duh! Please if you do recognize it, leave me a quick comment so I can go in search.


Thanks so much! Maybe if you recognize it and let me know, you might get one of these little gems as a thank-you for your help.

Edited to add: Scallop stamp in the middle is from Gina K (Tag You're It) and the sentiments are from Hero Arts. I do my best to answer questions, but it is hard when you don't leave an email address in your comment - hint, hint.

~chris

EDITED TO ADD: I found another piece of this paper in my stash - Cloud9Design, Floral Daisy Stripe, Hanna's Story. Of course, I still can't find it anywhere online, but at least now I can finish my love note boxes! YAY!

A Proud member of The Lime Light
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Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

Inspired by Allison

I saw this card on Allison's blog (Stampin' When I Can) yesterday and had to dust off my Best Blossoms too! I don't know if you can see it, but I stamped the background using a VersaMark Dazzle stamp pad (Champagne) and it is very sparkly!


Recipe:
Stamps: Best Blossoms
Paper: Regal Rose, Always Artichoke, Whisper White, VersaMark Dazzle
Accessories: clear ep

Ink: Craft Black, Regal Rose, Always Artichoke,
Busy weekend trying to get some projects done - promise I'll share with you next week! Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

My first ATC!

This week's ways to use it challenge on SCS was to make an ATC (Artist Trading Card). I've seen these but never made one myself until this challenge. Quick and fun!

Recipe:
Stamps: Botanical Blooms, SU sentiment
Paper: So Saffron, Black, Very Vanilla
Ink: Black, markers
Accessories: Ribbon Originals - Dress Up

Lots to do to get ready for events this month. Downline meetings, stamp camp and two workshops! Love it!

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

What's Courtney up to this week?

Our adorable Ms. Courtney is sporting a very colorful outfit this week:


Here's what her outfit inspired me to make:


Recipe:
Stamps: unknown "Smile", SU "Hello", Hero Arts "Friendship"
Paper: Whisper White, Pixie Pink, Lovely Lilac, Gable Green, Real Red, Summer Sun
Ink: black
Acessories: brads, ribbon, punches

On a more serious note, Libby's mom is having some serious health issues and prayers and good thoughts sent her direction would be a very good thing. If you get a minute, just keep her in your hearts and prayers. Go on over and visit Libby and leave her some love and let her know you care.

Thanks so much for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

Couple more challenges

I love to combine sketch and color challenges - usually makes it twice as challenging! This card is for this week's Color Throwdown #32 and the Diva Coffee Break Designs sketch challenge #117. Here's what they look like:















And here is what my card looks like:


Recipe:
Stamps: Short & Sweet, Botanical Blooms
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Tea Party dp
Ink: Black, markers
Accessories: Regal Rose ribbon, punches

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

Couple of challenge cards

Well after my little break from challenges, I dove in and did three! Here's my card for Julee's Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge #76 this week:

Recipe:
Stamps: Tweet (PCS), unknown sentiment
Paper: Garden Green, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Scenic Route Lynden Dahlia Street dp
Ink: Black, markers
Accessories: ribbon, punches

And here's a card for this week's color challenge on SCS and also for Madelynn's sketch challenge #12 on Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesdays. You should also visit her mom's blog The Whimsical Butterfly - these ladies are FUN!

Recipe:
Stamps: Tweet (PCS), unknown sentiment
Paper: Pink Passion, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Basic Grey Eva dp
Ink: Black, Choc. Chip, markers
Accessories: oval nesties, ribbon, punches

Thanks for visiting!

~chris
A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

See what's blooming!

We moved all our plants in for the winter. This one was in our greenhouse window and it got pretty cold this winter so I moved it upstairs to sit on the table in what we are fondly calling our "plant room" (formerly dh's water color studio and now just a big mess)! It has a beautiful big west facing window and the plants have been loving it. This one started to bloom and I think these little blossoms are just gorgeous. I'm thinking I might have to dry a few and see what happens.


I needed a few thank you cards for my stash recently and put these together. I was inspired by these cards by Jennifer Buck.


Recipe:
Stamps: Trendy Trees
Paper: So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, SU sale-a-bration designer paper
Ink: Certainly Celery, Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Ribbon

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.
Guest Designer for Kaboodle Doodles

Simple and colorful!

I am trying to make some spring-y cards that are easy for even beginners to make. Here's one:


Recipe:
Paper: Whisper White, Real Red, Summer Sun
Stamps: Elegant Thank You, Petal Pizzaz
Ink: Real Red, Summer Sun, Garden Green, Tangerine Tango
Accessories: punches

When I got home from work last night, take a look at what was waiting for me in my mailbox:

Diane you are just the sweetest! You gotta love the sparkle on this card and it's PURPLE! Thank you so much!

Thanks for visiting. Fighting with my sinuses today but if I can get the upper hand I'll be back later with some more goodies.

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Door Prizes!

I made a couple of items for door prizes at a workshop on Saturday. The first is one of my card folders with some cards (very like the one I made for my February RAK partner). I absolutely love the Trendy Trees set - so fun, fun, fun!



I also made a couple of candy bags using the top note die and some punches. I have seen these blurfing around and exploring SCS and thought it would be fun to try. It was!

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

My first Kaboodle Doodle Project

I am a guest designer for the next three months at Kaboodle Doodle! Here is my first submission:


The theme fpr this week's challenge was Vintage and I used the Old collection of papers for the background for this card. My new favorite SU set Fifth Avenue Floral seemed the perfect choice for complimenting this great paper. I love the sentiment in this set!

Recipe:
Paper: Kaboodle Doodle Old, PTI Spring Moss, Whisper White
Stamps: SU Fifth Avenue Floral
Ink: Mellow Moss, Close to Cocoa
Accessories: SU edge punch and lg. oval punch, ribbons from PTI

Thanks so much for visiting today and be sure to stop by the Kaboodle Doodle blog and play along with our challenge this week!

~chris

Guest designer for Kaboodle Doodle and
Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Couple more projects from this weekend

I had an idea to make coaster sized clipboards to use with the door prize entry forms at workshops, parties and stamp camps (anytime you do a door prize) and this is what I came up with:

Front:

Back:

These were really fun to make. I found the clips in the $1 bin at Mike's and the mini ball point pens in the office supplies section at Target (10 for $1.50). Matched up some ribbon and designer paper and viola! If anyone is interest in instructions and a template for the pen holder that attaches to the back, just leave me comments and I'll put together a pdf and post it for you to grab. I used spray adhesive to attach the cardstock to the coasters and it worked like a charm!

And OH MY - you need to go and check THIS out. I'm a bit speechless! Scroll down to the section entitled "Best of the Blogosphere" and see whose blog is on her list! Yeehaw. I read Susanna's blog religiously because she always points me to such wonderful stuff - to actually be included on this list is way past incredible! Thanks so much Susanna!

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.