Erika's Cupboard

Can It Be??

2011-02-10T20:08:00.000-05:00

I know you will drop over dead by this picture!!

Yes I am truly mailing off my Christmas cards today!! LOL LOL I know my friends will get a kick out of these VERY tardy cards.

This card I used PTI Berry Sorbet paper and heat embossed it with white snowflakes. I used Martha Stewart Icecles paper punch and that gorgeous sparkly big die punched snowflake is by Daily Bread.

Can't really see this on the card because I have a really crappy camera, but this is the Die-Namics Doily die that I stamped in black "Happy Holidays". Love this die!! You'll be seeing more of it in my cards. Gonna buy that second one this weekend.

PTI will be releasing their doily dies on the 15th too....here's a pic.

Lucious huh? Can't wait to buy all of them.
OK American Idol just started so I gotta git! Have a wonderful evening!
Erika

Papertrey 4th Anniversary Giveaway!

2011-02-05T14:53:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note...go on over to Nicole Heady's Capture The Moment and check out their 4th Anniversary Giveaway and all the TOTALLY wonderful releases they are sneak peaking this month. I think it's gonna be exceptionally good!

Like this for instance!!

Finally! Christmas Cards Done

2011-02-05T14:45:00.000-05:00

Oh My goodness.Can you believe it? I got my Christmas cards done for my 4 high school friends? Oh yes, I surely did. I mean afterall, it's only February 2011! So here they are...

Pink my fav color and for my girly girls.I love heat embossing the music image and the ornies. You can't see in the pic but I Stickled the ornies too so they are nice and sparkly. Two smaller ornies are All That Glitters Stamp Set and the larger one is by Hero Arts I bought at Archivers.

Love netting...my new fav thing to use. Used a Martha Stewart punch for that sparkly white branching. So this is card one.

Card two I used kraft paper and clear embossing power for the music image in the back ground.The Peace Be Still snowflake and tree are PTI dies and feltonthefly pink felt which is yummy! Added some Swarovski crystals to the snowflakes after Stickling they to death too. LOL Love that Stickles!

I used my new Die-namics doily die for the vellum here..ahhh I love this die!!

And here's my third card. Again I heat embossed the snowflakes and music images in the background.PTI Banner Border die was used at the very bottom using white glittered paper.I must say that this is one of my fav dies that PTI has come out with. Of course I had to add even more bling with the rhinestones. LOL

Here is the last card. Hero Arts ornie stamp that I heat embossed with silver powder and stickles.

Used Martha Stewart punch for the icecyles and added a little yummy lace on top.

Well peeps and ladies, I gotta git the ole face painted to go get my nails done because they look like I've been scratching at a coffin trying to get out. Jeesh...that was an old image from waaaaay back when I was a kid and saw Vincent Prices' "Premature Burial". Scared the tar outta me but became a huge fan of his movies and that's probably why I'm such a lover of Twilight and all the other fantastic vamp books out there. Have ya checked out my new pic of Rob Pattison over there on the right. Ahhh be still my heart. What a cutie pie. It's gross because I'm old enough to be his darned mother!
On that depressing note, have a wonderfully happy weekend!
Erika

Happy Birthday Happy Monday Card

2011-01-17T17:58:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday friends! Beginning of a new week-what shall I do? I need a plan. I need motivation. I need a New Year's Resolution. It's so easy to do just nothing, isn't it? Well doggone it, I'm gonna git me sum of that their mottivashun this weak! (I hope you know that I can really spell!)
So....this week my goal...no not my goal..this week I AM going to get my Christmas cards done!! If I say "goal" that leaves an opening for me to NOT do something. There ya go...I've done it now, I have a plan!! I feel sooooo much better now. I will journal my progress this week with you all and you will see, I CAN DO IT! LOL OK calm down.
I don't know of anyone who has a birthday in January but I'm sure someone does so in honor of all you January birthday people, here's some cards for ya.

I love color!! I love tickets! I love wrinkled multicolored seam binding! I live that little wiry paperclip thingy!!

LOVE Websters Bloomers!! Love scallops!!

I love all my embossing folders!I love tiny little tags!I love satin roses! I love green mushrooms! I love that little turquoise stick pin!!

For you newbies to my blog, here's a pic of what I used to do...for over 10 years! I made and designed primitive dolls. Far cry from scrap cards, eh?
Have a wonderfully happy day everyone!
Remember, The Bachelor is on tonight. We really do need to give Mr. Walmack (sp?) another chance. I think he's changed. Do you?

Valentine Tags #1

2011-01-16T02:07:00.000-05:00

Hello chickies! Hope you are having a good weekend so far. I've been surfing pretty much all day..nooo the net, silly girls.It's so amazing to me how many talented women are out there in blogland. Totally amazing. I feel like a little fish in a huge ocean of talent. Sometimes I look at things and wonder to myself, how the heck did she come up with that technique or that idea? I've begun to set up files on some of my fav things I've seen and want to keep for future use to try for myself. So I feel good about that. I love organizing.
While I've been sick the last 3 weeks, I've also taken time to organize my pics into files. What a job! For example, Papertrey Ink just released their January stamp sets and dies today and during the countdown, I've saved the pictures that design team have taken showing off the new products. I've found that sometimes it takes me months to get to actually using the stamps and by that time I've forgotten about the inspiration cards/items that the design team came up with and then I gotta go back to their blogs and research all that and jeemany Christmas that takes time! I want to have inspirational pics of every stamp set I have and by golly, I've done it!! I feel sooooo good! So now when I want to use a stamp, I just go to that file with the name of that stamp and there in front of me will be some examples of how others have used the stamp. I pretty much already know what I'm going to do but it's always interesting to see what others do.

Here are some tags I made BEFORE I started really scrapping.Didn't even know about stamps yet-only punches. I made these up for my customers who bought primitive dolls from me as little gifts of appreciation.

Here's another set. I love brown with pink and turquoise! I remember making these because the doll I made for the tags was a bunny wearing a turquoise and brown dress.Gosh I'm so glad I don't have to stuff dolls anymore! LOL

And here's my table where I create...I cannot even walk by the table without cringing. Those are my Christmas cards that I haven't finished yet. I'm so embarrassed!

So let's change the subject of my messy table and take a peek at Deucy Boy who just hopped into the laundry basket minutes after Dave took the clothes out of the dryer. Thank God Dave doesn't have his tidy whities on top! LOLActually he wears printed briefs but don't tell him I told the world about it. LOL It will be our little secret.
So that's it for me tonight. Gonna go read my Kindle and have a banana!
Erika

Feel Better-Card to Myself

2011-01-12T16:21:00.001-05:00

LOL Yes I'm sending a card to myself because I need to start feeling better! UGH! Yep stilll sittin around in my purple pjs feeling less than good. Just so ya know, I do have another set of pjs that I wear because I always talk about my purple pjs and I don't want ya'll to think I wear them exclusively. LOL Although they are my favs.

Just so ya know too, I don't go around callin myself "Love". LOL LOL How weird would that be? So this card is made with one of my fav stamp sets from Papertrey Ink...Scattered Showers Addition and my take on a card that Dawn McVey had made last year. Love those little boots! Stamp set comes with that little tag too so that's nice. I love the Martha Stewart lace border punch at the bottom of the card. I've used that so many times it's starting not to punch as great as it did when I first bought it.

And here's what we've been doing pretty much for a month now. LOL Aren't they darned adorable or what?

Forgot to mention that I ordered this cool stamp set from Practicing Creativity. Up Up and Away and Key to My Heart along with some silk ribbon and this wonderful champagne net. Can't wait to use that!
It's been snowing a tad here in Columbus, Ohio and it's pretty outside.Gracie loves the snow and has been buggin us to go out like a millions times a day to play. Can't blame the lil pup because it's fun to watch her tuck tail and run, dig her nose in the snow and act silly. You can tell we are getting close to becoming empty nesters because we talk about our dog like she's our baby. LOL
Well you all take care, keep warm and enjoy this wonderful season. It's a good day anytime ya wake up!
Erika

A Couple Sweet Cards

2011-01-06T19:05:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone. I'm alive and kickin but still down on the sofa wearing my purple pjs and blowing my nose. Gosh this cold has held on for 3 weeks now and I'm pretty sick of it. Butttttt, I wanted to check in with you all and share a couple cards with you.

I made several "I am Grateful" cards in November thinking about Thanksgiving and thinking about the blessings in my life.The main focus of this card is the glittered chipboard bird which I painted, distressed and then loaded up with glitter. The pretty fushia tags on the right I bought from Michelle Wooderson's Etsy store.The crinkled seam binding is from MemrieMare.

I used my Stampin Up punches for the sentiment. Loveeee those two punches!

Next up is a card I made by accident really. I bought a new Martha Stewart Punch-the paisly design at the bottom and when I saw it in person I was just thrilled to pieces at how it looked.It's so elegant. Thought I would use a couple different stitches on my sewing machine on this card just for fun.

The Artisan Element is by Pink Paislee I bought at Ellen Hutson.Just added a couple pearls and I think it speaks for itself with all it's delightfulness. These elements are just beautiful in person. Had to add some glitter there in between the paisley punch out. LOL

Seam binding is from Prairie Bird Boutique on Etsy and I added some rose velvet ribbon with that along with a flower button from Stampin Up. The felt layered flower is from Papertrey Ink dies, Beautiful Blooms II set that I seem to use a lot. Their felt is so easy to cut through. Added a little white plastic flower on top and then strung a chandelier drop I bought from Emma's Paperie.
So that's it for me. Time to get back on the sofa and get some hot tea with lemon into my bod. We will chat with ya later. Remember Nicole Headley (Papertrey Ink) is doing her sneeeeeek peaks! I'm so excited!!
Erika

On the Sofa....

2010-12-30T15:22:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! Sorry I've been MIA but I've been down with a cold and pretty much just on the sofa in my pjs for the last 6 days. Ugh...don't ya hate feeling like crap? But one good thing, I got a lot of pleasure reading done. I'm a vamp fan ya know and I read 4 books on my Kindle (thanks again Dena!) that I lovveeeddd! Vegas Vampire Series by Erin McCarthy. This was the first time in a LONG time when I actually laughed out loud reading. This gal has got a great sense of humor and when you're feeling the depths of your pity party cause you feel like crap, laughing out loud feels pretty darned good. LOL
Dave is still doing well after that scary bout of amnesia!! His CAT Scan and MRI came out great but they still want to do the carotid artery and heart sonograms but hasn't been able to schedule those yet. He still can't remember everything but that's OK. He remembers my name so I'm good. LOL

So in honor of another darned gloomy day in Columbus, Ohio, I thought I would bring out some sunshine of my own. Ah..hold on....wait....can it be?.....OMG I spoke too soon, I am seeing the clouds parting and wait..what is that....it's the SUN!!! Holy Macaroni! The sun is shining!! For a minute there I thought Jesus was parting the sky and He was comin for me!!
Ok control myself Erika.
So this card was mades using PTI Raspberry Fizz,Aqua Mist and 4 squares of March Color Coutoure designed by Dawn McVey.I punched out a large green scallop circle and added clear rhinestones then a yellow circle on top of that and using my PTI Beautiful Blooms II #1 Die cut out the raspberry fizz flower. I LOVE the artisan element in the center by Melissa Frances. Seam binding is from thisgoodday on Etsy. Andddd, that yeller crochets flower I made with my very own hands.The tiny plastic blue flower is from Speckled Egg.
Hope this card cheers you up..it sure did me. Have a great day!
Erika

Very Merry Christmas 2010!

2010-12-25T03:45:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to wish you all dear readers a wonderfully happy Christmas! God's been good to me and my family with blessings of wonderful friends, lots of laughter and good health. Dave has two new knees and came through his surgeries so well in September and that alone is a great blessing in itself. Please keep my dearest in your prayers as I have spent the day in the ER with him with a possible stroke. He's in great spirits and has no paralysis but his short term memory suffers. He has no memory of working on Thursday or shopping or eating dinner...complete blank. He's scheduled for and MRI possibly tomorrow but more likely on Monday and they will be checking out his carotid arteries as well.
Will keep you posted as I learn more info.

Wish I was here-Palm Beach, Florida.

With my dearest friend.
Erika

Christmas Shopping is Done!

2010-12-24T02:13:00.000-05:00

Hello people! Happy to report Dave and I finished our shopping today but the bad news is, my friends and family are not going to receive their Christmas cards until AFTER Christmas. Yep, I just haven't been able to get to my cards for days..only bits and pieces but nothing complete. Gee, ya think they would mind if I just sent them card PARTS and let them put their own cards together...kinda like a Christmas Card Puzzle? Na, you're right, no one would appreciate that at all. (Other than myself)

Since I don't have a Christmas card to share with you, how about a Christmas dog! This was taken last January. I remember walking into the livingroom and finding this darned dog sleeping on her papa's chair. Does she look like she's worried about getting caught...NOT! LOL Love that pup.
Can't believe tomorrow night is Christmas Eve..wish I had some wonderful things to share with you all but I don 't. Our family tradition is to open one gift on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas morning. We will be going over to my parents retirement center for lunch in the dining room and then going back there for our traditional German homemade sausage and homemade bread. That's it! Ya need nothin more than that and then hours later, you will enjoy the whole sausage meal all over again while you burp it up! It takes days to get all that garlic and Hungarian paprika outta your pores and bowels but oh goodness, it's soooo delish. LOL
Hope you all have a blessed and happy Christmas. We will see ya soon.
Erika

Ahh Look What the Hubby Brought Home!

2010-12-20T13:57:00.000-05:00

Aren't they gorgeous? Dave usally surprises me every year with a plant and again this year he caught me off guard with another HUGE poinsettia. What I love about my husband is that he remembers my mom too. She will be pleasantly surprised too.
So I didn't work much this weekend on my Christmas cards..Lordy beee..I really gotta get motivated. I have 5 cards in the works but I need to make about 25 more and the ideas aren't coming to me yet. I think I have a brain freeze. So I thought I would share a couple cards I made for my "special" friends last year.

It's an Outlines Rubber Stamp stamps that I used. Isn't this card gorgeous. I used shimmery pink and mauve paper, and brown shimmery paper and silver shimmery paper and loads of gold embossing powder!! Had to use the Swarovski crystals from Michaels on this card..nothing but the best. The stamps used were the Evergreen Branch, Star Ornament, Star Add On #1, #2 and #3. If you buy them all you won't have to do so much cutting and cutting isn't one of my fav things to do. LOL I failed that in Kindergarten.

Here's the same card except I did it in red instead of the pink and used the red Swarovski crystals. My friend Dena and I got together last year and worked on some and she made one using shimmery copper paper and shimmery brown paper and I told her I had better get that one in the mail for MY Christmas card. I've not seen it yet and I hope she's reading this post in hopes of motivating her to finish it and send it to me this year. Come on Dena..YOU CAN DO IT!! LOL Talk about a creative mind...ah..she blows everyone outta the water with her creations.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll have something new to show you but I'm not promising anything. Gotta play cards with mom and pop this evening.
Hope ya'll have a really happy day!
Erika

Stickles Carrier

2010-12-18T15:48:00.000-05:00

Hellooo everyone! I didn't get to any cards last night so I thought I would share this cute little carrier I made for my Stickles.
The idea came from the leftovers I had from making Nicole's Papertrey Portfolio several month ago.

How cute is that? I made about 4 of those for my realtor friend, Denise and she was going to give them to her friends as Christmas gifts. Anyway, when ya make this portfolio you cut off the ends of the clear boxes PTI's stamps are shipped in. So then you have the end of the clear box left over and I thought to myself, surely I can do something with these and not throw them out. Thus, the Stickles carrier came into existence.I assembled it the same way except punched holes in the sides and tied them off with pink twine. I used PTI New Leaf card stock, pink gross grain ribbon for handles and the cute little PTI Fillable Frame #2 label on the front. So instead of having to put your Stickles in a plastic storage container, you can display them on your desk while you work. Cute huh? So thanks again Nicole Heady for your fabulous idea!
Gotta run...see ya'll tomorrow!
Erika

A Snowglobe Card and Frosted Cranberry Candle

2010-12-17T15:40:00.000-05:00

Hello friends. It's Friday and that means I'll be buggin the hubby to take me to Panera Bread for some of their yummy clam chowder! I think my fav is from Cheesecake Factory though but it's so blasted busy this time of year so I will settle for Panera.

This is my current fav 3 wick candle from Bath & Body..it's soo soo yummmy! I've been burning it a lot as you can see by the pic, there's not much left. Probably only one more evening of bliss. So what do ya do with the jar? Throw it away! Nay I say unto thee!! These make GREAT storage jars for your scrap crap..I mean stuff. You don't know what you're missing so it's my duty to tell you. Put the jar in the freezer overnight. Take out a nice sharp knife and poke at the remaining wax until it all comes out smooth as butter. Then put the jar in a bowl of hot water for several hours and again, smooth as butter peel off the sticker from the bottom of the jar. Then slowly peel off the label on the front. Put it in your dishwasher with all the rest of your grungy and gross dishes and give it a good washing.

These jars are nice and heavy and have a fabulous easy lid to lift off and then put your goodies inside the jar and guess what? Next time you need some twine or pink angel wings, they will smell sooo darned yummy. Yep. Dont wash that silver lid because there's smelly goodness inside and it just makes everything you put in that jar smell just like the candle. And what an inexpensive way to store your goodies. I cannot wait until I get my pink studio room done and be able to shelf all these beautiful jars. And....after Christmas...OMG all the candles go on sale like sooooooo cheap! That's when I stock up and buy about 10 jars. So that's my great tip of the year!

Here's a little ditty I made last night and it's not finished but I just couldn't wait to share it. Still need to put a sentiment on there but ain't that lil bear adorable?? Fred P. Bear (that's his official Memory Box name) was stamped on pink on pink dotted paper and I embossed him in white then pop dotted him in the center of the globe. The snowglobe (that's it's official name from Memory Box) was embossed in black glittery powder right on the paper doily. I added some wonderful glass glitter to make it look like it's snowing. Notice the card has been impressed with snowflakes? Love it love it! I think it's a Sizzix folder. Haven't used my Stickles for a while so I went over those snowflakes a bit with Stickles Stardust hat I bought at Archivers.And of course I had to use my Swarovski crystals in the centers of the snowflakes.Bought those at Michaels.

Here's a little picture I took of the furry children this summer as the sun came through the skylight above. They loved sunbathing together! This is a pretty normal picture of them with Deucy Boy laying in front of Gracie with his paws all over her and then biting her neck..I think Deucy is a vampire cat. I'm a bad influence with all the vamp books I've been reading in 2010. LOL
Well that's it for me. I'm outta my purple pj's and got the ole barn painted and now just gotta wait for the hubby to come home and take me away for food!
See ya'll tomorrow with more ramblings and perhaps another card.
Erika

And here are the cards- Emma Paperie

2010-12-16T14:41:00.000-05:00

Hey Kids! Remember this pic of freebies I received with my order from Emma's Papier? Well I was a busy little elf and here's what I came up with. Hope I made her proud! Is the owner of Emma's Paperier really named Emma-anyone out there in blogland know? Curious minds must know!

Here's the first card. I knew when I saw the paper that pink and green would be the main theme for me because everyone knows PINK is my fav. Decided to emboss a bunch on these cards(trees, NOEL) which is fun for me and of course use a bunch of glitter.I added my own pearls, rhinestones, green ribbon and the colored twine. I love this card.

Next up I basically used the same paper but shifted things around and added my own Jenni Bowlin buttons that I bought over a year ago from Scrapbook.com .I guess over this past year I unknowingly have shifted to buying my supplies from the smaller and more personal online stores.

Isn't this card sweet? I love the ledger paper that was probably one of my fav freebies in the pack.Trees are embossed and glittered and honestly, they are so much prettier in person. I'm asking Santa for a new camera but I think the economic stimulus bills aren't gonna help me and my cause! I added the white eyelet ribbon on the bottom and threaded the freebie ribbon through it.Rhinestones and star are from my own stock.

So for this card I used a Inkadinkado Nutcracker stamp I picked up at Michaels for 40% off.Stamped him on that purty pink paper and glittered his stand and his had and added pink rhinestones to the corners. The tag he's glued on was in my freebie package and I loveee it! All I added was the silk pink ribbon from The Little Pink Studio , pink chip button and star. Who says ya can't put the ribbon on sideways? I hear ya out there!! LOL

These kraft envelopes are pretty darned popular right now so I was thrilled seeing it in my package! The only thing I added of my own to this card is the rhinestones and the felt flower and twine. I love that HUGE green button by the way! Yum! 5 little sheets of paper turned out to be 5 fully embellished cards that I gave to my scrap friends at dinner on Tuesday night.

I still had some little scraps left over and I put them in my "scrap stash" to use for later projects.

Here's one last card that I made using the remaining free red gross grain ribbon and one last NOEL and TREE that was left over. I used StampinUp striped paper for the background, pink on pink dotted paper and a scrap of lacy green on green paper. The stamp was another 40% off Hampton Art stamp I picked up at Michaels and I embossed it pink, added pink rhinestones and it's done.
Hope you've enjoy this post and found it inspiring in some small way. You can click on the pics for close-ups if ya'll didn't know that.
I'll have more for you tomorrow....Memory Box Snowglobe Stamp!! Can't wait!
Have a blessed and happy day.
Erika

Goodies from Frost It Pink

2010-12-14T14:27:00.000-05:00

Sweets I received from Frost it Pink yesterday...will do another post with cards later this evening. How sweet is that paper(1) October Afternoon Very Merry, Basic Grey Nook and Pantry, and Jenni Bowlin Farmers Wife. Then we have the soft twill from Melissa Phillips, artisan elements from Melissa Frances and then the pecan paper leaves....cannnnnooootttt wait to make something with these elements.
Ta Ta for now peeps! Erika

Christmas Card, First Snow of 2010, Kitchen Sink

2010-12-13T14:10:00.000-05:00

Well hello there and happy snowday! I wanted to post a pic of the first snow on Saturday and completely forgot so here it is....looking out our bedroom window it's the first thing I see every morning. In the summer, I love sitting on my bed and watching the little chicadees tending to their babies and then about a month later watching the house wrens pull everything out and make their own nest...so funny. I guess we gals just gotta redecorate don't we?

Well I guess I'm telling on myself too because I didn't cut down all the vegetation this fall..eeeks. It's so much prettier this way though isn't it? LOL

Last year I had some gals come over and I taught a class and well really I just wanted to have friends over to spend time with. I'll share one of the cards with you today. Gonna save the granddaddy of the all for later. LOL
This is a Memory Box Pine Border stamp and I believe the impression folder is from Cuttlebug but don't quote me on that. I used shimmery navy cardstock which I loveeee for the holidays. Rubbed some white ink over the green paper to give it some depth and then added snow to the bottom of the trees. Of course what's a card without Stickles glitter on the trees and a Swarovski crystal to top it off. I bought the crystals at Michaels for 40%.

So for 10 years I was a primitive doll maker and sold hundreds of my handmade dolls on my own website, ebay and many online magazines. I've only kept one or two of my own creations but I love and enjoy other artists creations. Here's a litle yellow chair I have sitting by my front door entrance. These 3 dollies are some of my cherished favorites. Sweet, aren't they?

Well I'm all over the map today but what the heck..it's Monday and we are allowed to be a little 'overthemapish" on Mondays. I loved this stamp and plan on using it on my Christmas cards this year. I've never heard of Green Grass Stamps until I came upon a posting on Maile Belles blog. Thank you Maile! Check out her blog when ya get a minute..what a sweet creativity she's got.

And last, here's a pic of some plastic goodies I received from Speckled Egg on Saturday. Sweeet goodness.
Well I have to do some grocery shopping today so I gotta get outta my comfy warm house and out into the cold weather. Brrrrr.
Hope you all have a blessed happy day...I'll have more ramblings for ya tomorrow...or perhaps during the witching hour tonight.
Erika

Getting Postal!

2010-12-12T01:18:00.000-05:00

Not really but I had to have a catchy title didn't I? LOL Well I gotta say that I truly love this card. I say that my fav color is pink but for some reason I'm like a moth attracted to a light bulb when it comes to turquoise and teal. The teal patterned paper background is glittered which makes it all the more appealing to me.I'm still really bad at knowing my papers but I'll work on that as I make an effort to notice the brand names.

Aqua Mist from Papertrey Ink is the plain turquoise and of course I pretty much always machine stitch (zigzag) the paper to the card stock because ya know, I dont' care what kind of tape runner you use, eventually in a 100 years it will lift so I machine stitch to make sure that doesn't happen. Of course in a 100 years the thread will have rotted or something so perhaps it doesn't make that much difference after all?
Used wrinkled seam binding from thisgoodday on Etsy, the sweet Maya Road glittered teal flower is from Frost It Pink as well as the white resin goodie by Melissa Frances. I believe the pink flower is by Prima and I bought that at my local Archivers store.
Now the postal part of the card, welllll, I received those two little tags from suppliers and you know how I hate to throw stuff out so I used them on this card. Cool huh?
Well that's it for me tonight. I'm bushed.I actually got outta my purple pjs today and went shopping. Nothing exciting just some storage stuff which I love!!
So ya'll have a good morning since it's 1:16 am and we will see ya back here again soon.
Erika

I Love My Mailman!

2010-12-10T23:15:00.001-05:00

Happy Friday evening to ya! Well hubby arrived in Delaware safe and sound to visit his daughter and granddaughter so I'm home alone with the furry kids and watching TCM's old movies. Love them...Scrooge, A Christmas Carol 1938 which was a hoot. It's cold outside and I'm staying in all weekend in my ppj's (purple pajamas).
Yes I love my mailman even though I've never talked to the guy. He kinda ticks me off because he will walk right over my landscaping..grrrrr. So anyway, I received my order today from My Favorite Things..bunch of ribbon and twill. I especially love the striped twill .

I also made a card using those pretty flowers I received in the mail yesterday or was it the day before.

I had a little Papertrey Ink Beams & Boards stamp left over in my stash so I decided to use it on this card. Punched out a couple clouds using the PTI dies. Have I mentioned how much I love their dies? LOL I'm getting quite a collection now.

And here is the flower...so lovely with little pink feathers in it. Verry sweet. I made the star myself and used some FABO authentic German glass glitter from my dear friend Anne at gitteryourworld. Anything you buy from her is beautifully packaged and shipped soooo quickly. Anne and I became friends years ago-we were fellow primitive doll makers.I still have a couple of her dolls here at home.
Well dearies, that's it for me today. I'm missing the last of Scrooge so I'm gonna git. Make me a sweet French Vanilla pot of coffee and a piece of toast with REAL butter and Smuckers Apricot Preserves. Life don't get any better than this. LOL
Will chat with ya tomorrow with a new sweeeeet set of 4 cards that are delish.
Ta ta-Erika

I'm Sure I Died!

2010-12-08T17:11:00.000-05:00

...and went to heaven!! Oh Lordy! Today I received my order from Emma's Papier-superman speed fast shipping by the way. The items were wrapped in Christmas green tissue paper and assembled in such a pretty way. Be still my beating heart. Yes, it's still beating friends. Here's what I ordered.

Chandelier bits and chipboard!!!!

Flowers yummy enough to eat!

Just look at these colors-my heart is singing Alleluia!

Velvet leaves

Beautiful pastel lace!!

I cannot wait to get started using these gorgeous items. And that's not all!! I also got a green bag filled with gifts just for me....FREEBIES!! Check this out!

Can you believe this?? I almost cried with joy. What a kind kind thing for them to do for me. Gonna make something with the freebies first and post it right here and then send them a pic. I get so emotional when someone does something kind....it's probably my old age and sappiness talking but my eyes just seem to water more lately. Maybe it's the season, I dont' know but I do know my heart feels gratitude.
Must run...have to hit the mall tonight (double ugh!) because I need some long pants. People are staring at me in my sandles and capris when it's only 17 degrees out this week. I normall don't care what people think but I'm tired of the stares. LOL
See ya'll tomorrow-have a great evening. Survivors on tonight too...yippeee!
Erika

Updated My Etsy Shop

2010-12-08T00:21:00.000-05:00

Hate to post twice in one day but I just finished up putting several new card sets on Etsy and several new singles too. I think you will like what you see. Think about giving cards to your church friends, school teachers or next door neighbor. I think we Americans have gotten away from handwriting sweet sentiments to those we know and love. There's something about opening up your mailbox and seeing an envelop addressed to you and finding that someone has taken the time to write you a quick note to tell you they've been thinking about you, or you have been on their mind, or do ya wanna get together for coffee.
Let's get back to writing down our thoughts instead of letting Hallmark speak for you! I feel a "preach" comin on. LOL
Here's a set of cards I listed plus a couple singles.

Blessed Friends Card

2010-12-07T18:25:00.000-05:00

Hello there blessed friends...just like the card I'm sharing with you today. Dreary, cold, damp, overcast day here in Columbus, Ohio. Rats...where's the sunshine. Thank goodness I have my beloved purple pjs! I did manage to put on a bra today though..hee hee hee.
Had a lovely time with my dear friend Denise last night. 3 hours of chatting and eating and sharing lifes joys and woes. Doesn't get much better than that. And no, goofy me forgot to take the camera so I could take a pic of her. She's such a beautiful woman.

Here's a colorful and happy card. I love using wrinkled seam binding as I've mentioned before. This yellow is from Prairie Bird Boutique...I love spreading the love around. I have many gals on Etsy that I use for the binding so I'll take turns mentioning each of them.

The vintage pic is by Crafty Secrets -you can buy a sheet of yummy vintage scraps at Emma's Papier. Love that site! The doily behind the card is from Ellen Hutson..another place you will find you spend too much money! At the bottom I used yellow paper for the border which is PTI's Victorian Lace Border. Papertrey Ink dies are to DIE for..he he he. Really.

Thanks for looking today.....gotta git back to that there kitchen and finish cookin up the hubbies grub. See ya'll tomorrow with more cards!
Erika

Just Hangin Around Card-Is It Too Much?

2010-12-06T17:00:00.000-05:00

Yep, just hangin around today in my purple pj's. Yes, I do get out of them once in a while...I know you're asking yourself the question, "gosh does she ever get outta those purple pjs?" It's rare but I do. LOL Woke up with vertigo today and not the flu. Thank God for small favors! Seems the older I get the more vertigo I get. What's up with that?

I'm almost afraid to post this card today. I think it's got too much stuff on it. What do you think? Over done, yes or no. I vote yes but let's see what you say. Hellloooo, anyone out there? LOL I used kraft paper again and embossed it with one of my Cuttlebug folders. Love those folders if ya dont' have any, you really need to get a couple. They are fun. Then I used some music sheet paper with makes me happy and makes me sing! So I sing while I zig zag stitch the card and sew on those hundreds of Papertrey Ink Berry Sorbet buttons and die cut the felt using Bloom II dies again and sew on the sweet cream plastic little flower. Kinda like "Whistle While You Work" except you are singing.
Not gonna post another pic since I'm half-way embarrassed by this card but oh well, like I always say, I try to keep it real here which means showing ya'll my crappy stuff as well as my good stuff. LOL
Doin dinner with my dear friend Denise tonight at California Pizza Kitchen which is our usual hangout. It's the place we go where we feel no one else will bug us about how much we eat and WHAT we are eat. We totally enable each other.
It's sooo wonderful to have a friend that you can only see once every couple of months and you meet and just pick up the conversation where ya left off months ago. Just wonderful. I'll see if she will let me take a pic of her tonight. She a beautiful woman, inside and out.
OK let's go paint the barn and get dressed.

Here's a lil picture of Deucy Boy last night acting like he owns that spot. That's where I always sit...lil buggar! Is he the most precious lil boy you ever saw? I hate blankets and quilts on furniture but Gracie sleeps right there in the front on that yellow quilt and I don't like having to de-fur the sofa so yep, I'm like those old ladies with comforters on their furniture. Hey, at least I dont' have that clear pastic on it like my mom did. Remember that stuff. Good Lord, I remember in the summer sitting on that blue nylon sofa and slipping off with my sweaty body. LOL Those were the good ole days, weren't they. Soo funny.
OK Cathy Chatty is going now..until tomorrow, Have a good evening! Erika

Twill, Brown n Green around the Gills Day

2010-12-05T19:03:00.001-05:00

Well I hope I am not self-fulfilling what I am typing here but I am feelin GREEN today. Not sure if it's the flu (son been sick 2 days with it) or what but it ain't feelin so good. So, I'll make the posting shorter than usual today.

Here's a GREEN card for ya today. I'm not a fan of GREEN but once in a while ya just gotta do something other than PINK. I used several different patterned papers on this but I think it's mainly Jillibean. I added some brown ric rac I had left over from JoAnn Fabrics and glued some green paper on the chipboard star then embellished it with rhinestones. Love rhinestones. Wish my mom would have named me "Rhinestone". LOL

Not for sure where I got the plastic little cameo (sorry) but I love it. The GREEN flower is by Maya Road delight and the twill bow seemed to go nicely with the card too.

Just to show you what the inside of pretty much all my cards look like. Stamped with a little flourish stamp with a coordinating color. Cute huh?
OK peeps, feeling a lil wobbly here so I'm signing off for the day. Hope you're having a wonderful Sunday. Remember, Hallmark has some great family shows on every night that just warn the cockles of your heart. All sappy and stuff like that but I love sap.
See ya tomorrow-Erika aka Rhinestone

You Brighten My Day Card

2010-12-04T16:32:00.000-05:00

Hello peeps and happy Saturday to ya. It's colder than a witch's heart today but Dave and I are venturing out and going to church tonight anyway. Brrrrr...I love staying home on cold nights and ordering in pizza. Yum!
We had sooo much fun last night playing cards and dominos. I have never played dominos and now I have to go and buy us a set. We had food galore and Brenda, our hostess, makes the bestest French Vanilla coffee!! I had two caffinated cups. Yeeks but I was OK. LOL
So today I have a plain card to share with you but I love the colors.

Teal and purple...delish! I'm sorry I don't know the patterned paper or cardstock I used. I love machine stitching the cards..have I mentioned that lately? LOL Only like a bazillion times! I love the felt flowers too.

Used Papertrey Ink Beautiful Bloom II #1 dies and the buttery soft Ocean Tides felt along with Etsy's feltonthefly lavender felt which is also very yummy and buttery. Go check out her goodies when ya get a minute. The flower button is PTI's Plum Pudding....love their buttons!!

Of course I had squeeze in some bling on the little tag..duh...what's a card without the bling?
Well that's it for me today. Still in my fav purple pj's from Lane Bryant. Aren't they soo cute? And comfy....ahhhhh. Well maybe ya gotta get your magnifying glass out to see them...LOL

You all have a fabo day filled with lots of good food, fun and laughter....and yes it's that time of year....shopping. Baaa humbug!!
Blessings-Erika

Thinking of You Card and Grocery Shopping

2010-12-03T15:44:00.002-05:00

Howdy everyone! TGSID!!! You ask, what the heck is TGSID (pronounced "tigsid") It means, "Thank God Shopping Is Done!" Grocery shopping I mean. I was soo wiped out after leaving the store last night that I just left the groceries in the back of the car all night long. Kid you not. Well, I must confess I did bring in the things I wanted which was: honey cured ham slices, bananas, raspberries, bread, baby swiss cheese, Lays Potato Chips, and Pecan Sandies. Well, I had to eat didn't I?? What a yummy sandwich I made myself too. The boys were already in bed when I got home so I had the house basically to myself other than the furry children, so I made a ham with Miracle Whip and Zesty sweet pickles and swiss sandwich. Talk about making your mouth water..I love that sandwich.

Of course what's a sandwich without some fresh potato chips. Isn't there just something special about opening up a new bag and eating those larger unbroken pieces?? They just taste better than those broken up pieces on the bottom....it's TRUE! Well I'm getting carried away about food again so I better get back to the important stuff. LOL

I love this card if I do say so myself. It's got everything on it I love which is rhinestones, glitter, lace, ric rac, fun ribbon and that darned adorable little plastic chandelier thingy.

Here's a better view of the chandelier thingy.Love it! Got it from Speckled Egg. I decided to use kraft cardstock and then emboss it with a Cuttlebug Star embossing folder you can buy at Oh My Crafts. Seam binding ribbon is from abbieanddellie. And of course the loverly stars which by the way get darker with age (luv it!) are from MemrieMare. Have I mentioned how much I love those stars?

You can see here how they are aging. See those lil round flower thangs..I made those and even though I love em, what a pain to make! Sincerely, a pain. Just bein real here people. LOL If you love little embellies like I do, you really do need to go to Speckled Egg and check out her stuff on there. I bought that little blue flower there and she has other colors but they are just teeny tiny and adorable. The turquoise heart (be still my heart) is from Little Pink Studio. I'll get this card on Etsy sometime in the weeee hours of the morning.

I have several new card sets for sale on Etsy so go check em out when ya get a minute.

Well hubster and I are going to friend's house tonight to play cards and Scrabble so I gotta git outta my purple pj's and paint the face and fluff up the bedhead hair and make my delish homemade salsa. I'll share that recipe with you later this evening..it's really to DIE for.
Have a wunnerful evening everyone!
Erika

Home Sweet Home by PTI

2010-12-02T15:38:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone! Well Since I didn't get to the grocery store last night I gotta go today..ugh and double ugh! I truly and sincerely and utterly completely (Wizard of Oz) hate grocery shopping. Help me Jesus. Plus it's cold and dreary and just gloomy outside and I say this with complete whine in my voice. But, we must eat.
So without further whining let me show you a set of 4 cards I made this past summer using a Papertrey Ink stamp set, Boards and Beams. This card set will be for sale on Etsy this evening after I do that dreaded grocery shopping. Nothing says Christmas, like "Home Sweet Home", does it? Oh I cannot believe this..I just noticed that one of the sentiments in this stamp set reads,"There's No Place Like Home" and here I am quoting Wizard of Oz in my opening statement. How weird is that. Totally unplanned. Well I guess that's my omen that I needed to share these cards. LOL You all believe in omens and coincidences? Sorry, rabbit trailing here. LOL

Here's the set. Each house is stamped and cut out and then pasted on the cardstock. I was able to use some of my Copic pens on these which was fun to do. Haven't colored in a while. LOL

This is the yellow set. All the cards have 3 rhinestones in the upper left hand corner, crinkle seam binding ribbon, little paper flowers and....

..crocheted flowers made by my own little stubby fingers! Yeahhhh...hadn't crocheted in years so that was a treat for me.

The other fun part of making these cards was being able to use my Papertrey Ink Cloud 1 & 2 dies. I punched them out on the cardstock then added the coordinating color to the back of the card to make the clouds colored. I stamped the Home Sweet Home in the larger of the two clouds. I also distressed the cards with PTI's Tea Dye Chai Blend. Love these two inks!

There ya have it...4 cards. Hope ya like em. So I guess now that I'm done talking about the card I need to get off here and go grocery shopping. Hum..maybe I can think of something else to chat about...like Gracie Bell and Deucy Boy. My fav subjects. Have I shown you a pic of them lately..NO? Well here's one. Both of them sleeping on the loveseat. They truly love each other.

OK hubby just got home and now I really do have to go. DRAT! OK until next time....be blessed. Erika

I'm Grateful Card

2010-12-01T16:10:00.001-05:00

I don't know about you all, but sometimes I forget about how grateful I am for having good friends. I'm not thinking this because we just had Thanksgiving but because I had a very rare "bad" day on Sunday and I called my friend Mitzi (who I've been friends with since Kindergarden) and asked her to pray for me. She didn't ask questions just said "OK" and that was it. How wonderful to have someone like that to call upon in just a minute's time. I am blessed and grateful...this card I'm going to send her today. Tomorrow I will share another card I'm sending to my friend Dena who is also my dear friend and I used her shoulder this weekend too....well, I can't put the whole load on just one person now can I. I gotta spread the grief around! LOL

Like the picture says, it's Love Mail and I do love her dearly.I used Papertrey Ink Berry Sorbet cardstock for the base which is one of my fav colors they have. I printed off Dawn McVey's pretty Color Couture April paper, added vintage music paper on the right and ya gotta have a doily on this topped by Stampin Up Top Note die which I cut in half. The crinkled seam binding is from Michele's Etsy shop, thisgoodday. I believe the scrap art is Creative Secrets but don't quote me. Again I had to squeeze a bird in there because I know Mitzi loves birds so I cut out and pasted a beautiful vintage bird on the back of a plastic or acrylic block and tied if off with white twine. I'll send her along a little package of Sweet Annie I grew in the side yard this summer. I love the smell of Sweet Annie...makes me think of Victorian days.

Here's a close-up of the bird and the glittery stary is from MemrieMare...love her stars!!
Well that's it for me...gotta get some grub going tonight. I think I will make hand breaded chicken breasts with garlic smashed taters....yum!!! Have a great evening everyone!! BTW, I just got my Feedblitz thingy up today so if you want updates to my postings just sign up and you will receive them automatically. How kool are theze cumputer thingz?? LOL
Erika

A Pink Card-Happy Monday!

2010-11-29T14:59:00.001-05:00

Well did ya all survive the Thanksgiving shopping? Heard news reports that you all did very well this season with your consumer spending. LOL Dave and I did go out on Saturday evening and bought a couple things for each other so that was nice. I hate shopping anymore...must be my old age or something but I remember in my 20's and 30's I lovvvvvved it!! Now, I'm content to having just the essentials of life and not much more.
So on to my fav subject....cards. Made a couple over the weekend to share with you. Now I'm pretty new to sharing all the elements of these cards and the mfgrs and such so please bear with me. When I buy my scrap goodies, I unpackage everything and put it in my "stash" so I honestly don't know who makes what and I know, that's a little irritating to you because you might see something you love and want to purchase for yourselves. Sorrrrrry. I will work on that.
As you might have guessed already, PINK is my fav color of 2010. LOL Seems like my taste changes from time to time which is a good thing I guess. Here's my PINK card...

Along with bird elements, seems like I'm using a bunch of vintage music sheet too...LOL ahh well. Just received a little order in from Stampin Up and I made the "HI" embossed goodie there on the bottom. Cute huh? Love the way SU embosses and also cuts out the image. I do know where the little glass glittered star comes from...MemrieMare. Love her binding too, go check out her Etsy site when ya get a minute.

This card was kinda of a fluke. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I have a hard time throwing away scraps so I found this green background paper in my "don't like it very much" pile and challenged myself to use it. Green, well it's not my most fav color. So the only way to salvage that paper was to load it up with other goodness like this wonderfullllll vintage plastic love birds piece from Speckled Egg. Ahh be still my heart. I say that a lot don't I? I love shopping there and fill my little card with all kinds of yummy things. The little vintage pearl hangin from the ribbon is from there too. I love adding REAL crystals to my cards even though they are pricey...I love the look. And what's a card without adding Stampendous Glitter! I won't say it but you know what I'm thinking..... he he he.

Well that's it for me today. Still sitting around in my pj's so I had better get dressed and feel like I'm trying to do something.

Hope ya have a wonderful day everyone.....Erika

Bird & Nest Card & The Day After Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T14:43:00.006-05:00

Hope everyone had a fabo Thanksgiving! I shudder at the thought of leaving my house today! But...hubby and I decided we were going to the Mall and do some "people watching" after we get a bite to eat at California Pizza. I'll have to medicate myself first before leaving!! I hate crowds, I really do. Maybe I'll even enter a store...ewwww..how adventurous of me! LOL
Remember I told ya we were going to see Harry Potter...wellll, we were both disappointed in the movie. It was long and not all that great. The book, of course, was soooo much better. Sorry to report this but oh well......gotta go with the truth.

Let me share a little card I made the other night. I love scallops..don't you? So I went with that..scallops upon scallops. Of course ya got the bird theme going on again-so what else is new, right? LOL And the tag with a sticker bird nest with a glittery crown.Used lots of blingy rhinestones and of course the multi-colored seam binding from Patsy's Etsy Shop. I had to use my fav cream braided lace again from Frost It Pink!

That's it for me..a short post. Have a wonderful BLACK FRIDAY!! (scaarrrrry!)

Girly Fru Fru Cards & Thanksgiving Food

2010-11-24T15:00:00.009-05:00

Well it's amost that time...to stuff yourself silly with yummy food!! Ya know, I'm to the point where I just about love the leftovers MORE than the original meal. Yep, nothing pleases my tastebuds more than a cold turkey sandwich with Miracle Whip, lettuce and hot sweet sliced pickles. Ahhh be still my heart! Of course, ya gotta have the token leftover sweet potatoes on that plate with your sandwich and what the heck, let's throw in a scoop of my sweet noodle casserole too. Well while ya got that fridge door open, might as well just spoon a dash of bread dressing on that plate!!Ok so ya can't have the dressing without a tad of homemade gravy. Ok now we are out of control so we might as well go ahead and get out the dish of cranberry dressing..what the heck. You're a lost cause anyway!! LOL See how this gets totally out of control. LOL Oh I love it!! The only thing I don't love is all those hours of preparing and cooking and sweating off that makeup ya just put on and now ya got your freshly bathed body all sweaty!! Grrrrrrr!!

Well let's talk cards now..my fav subject. I made a couple little dittys last night during the vampire hours. In case you aren't sure of what those hours are, it's after your hubby and son go to bed and you're done watching all those fav recorded shows and pretty much everything on TV is prepaid commercials. The Vampire Hours...isn't that a great name for a book? LOL

This first card is pieced together with PTI's Friends Till the End paper. Love this paper!! It's so delish I wanna eat it...oops I'm still in Thanksgiving food mode. OK shifting gears here..OK I'm regrouped now. So the paper, I have a hard time throwing away perfectly good little scraps so I cut up all these little scraps into squared and sewed them on to cardstock diagonally. I love that look.

Then we have a card where I used PTI's Pretty Pastels. Just makes ya feel good inside to use this pretty paper. I've fallen in love with vintage scraps and with birds. Can ya tell? Seems like every card I got a doggone bird in it? LOL But I love birds so just bear with me for a while. I've discovered I like using those cute acrylic blocks too. Fun fun. Just paste a pretty pic under one of them, cut it out, add a little ribbon bow and there ya go. Can't forget to mention the yummy binding too from Patsy's Etsy. The little pearl buckle and pearl heart are from The Little Pink Studio..just discovered her website and I am sooo in love with her stuff!!! That gorgeous cream braided lace with rosebuds on the right is from Frost It Pink. If you've never visited this store...ahhh you are missing it. Well your hubby would not appreciate you visitng because I always end up spending more than I should. You know how much I love pink, well look at these adorable pink velvet angel wings? Gotta use them soon.

Well hubster and I are going to see Harry Potter tonight so I had better git a move on...talk to ya's tomorrow!

Erika

Monday Delights

2010-11-22T14:05:00.004-05:00

Hello dear friends! Been a long time again since posting but then, what else is new. Seems like every day life just passes me by and before you know it, it's been a month!!And again, where oh where did 2010 go? And now, I now I wake up and find out Thanksgiving is this week. Holy Moly!!! LOL LOL Ahh well, whatcha gonna do? So I've been a busy little bee scrappin some cards. Wanna see? Ok here we go. By the way, I promise I will get some cards on my Etsy site this week..I promise promise promise and I'll get that cool little Etsy thingy over here on my right hand side too. Hee hee hee.

So after surfing the net for the last 6 months and stalking sooooo many wonderful bloggers, I went out and bought myself a new inexpensive and lightweight sewing machine. Again, Holy Cow!! I cannot believe the moolah I am saving by sewing up my cards instead of using tape runners.Plus I think it just gives cards that extra special personal touch, don't you? I love the letter "J" on my sewing machine. It's that pretty scallop you see towards the bottom. Cool huh? And what's a card without my FAV crinkled seam binding..check out Patsy's Etsy to get some for yourself. Ribbon in the second card is from Patsy also...love the multicolored binding. Be still my heart!!

And here's another card I made. I know, I know, the cards should be all Christmasy but I cannot help my pastel addiction. Spring, come soon!!! I used Maya Road chip bird and covered it with some of Dawn McVey's April Color Couture. That cute little leaf is Ocean Tides using the PTI Leaf Die. Love love love PTI's dies. Added a little blingy here and there and ya got yourself a card.

Well friends, I have got to get outta my pj's and back into the real world. Have errands to run and a postal run and then go to one of my fav stores, Blicks Art Supply. Talk about heavenly browsing. Jeesh...love that store. Have to pick up my dear friend Dena K. who got me started on this scrapping path. Until next time .....have a good belly laugh today..it's good for ya!!

Erika

More Delightful Cards

2010-10-09T12:06:00.005-04:00

Happy Saturday everyone. Today is Ohio State Football so I'm gonna make this short. Just wanna share some more cards with ya. GO BUCKS!!

Hello There Lovelies!

2010-10-07T16:51:00.000-04:00

Long time no chat! Here it is October and the last post was in June. Jeesh!! It was a HOT summer! I stayed locked up in my air conditioned house and had a delightful time scrapping my greeting cards and reading. I've sold a BUNCH of my cards which thrills the cockles of my heart. Did I spell "cockles" correctly. Too lazy to do a spell check..ah well.
So this post finds me enjoying the cooooooool weather, thank you Jesus! Dave has had his double knee replacement surgery, 3 weeks ago this week and he's doing great. The little buggar shocked me today as I was running errands with my mom, by sitting in his truck in the driveway and informing me that he drove the truck all my himself!! I about had a heart attack! He says he can do it so, OK....we will see. I had better not get a call from the Sheriff's office and having to go claim a mutilated body on the interstate cause I won't go!@! LOL
I sent out an email recently about having some 2006 dolls on my Etsy shop(see sidebar link). These are original designed dolls I made for a company that was reproducing them to sell wholesale. So take a minute and check em out.
This weekend I will finally get to posting some of the cards I've made. will have some for sale on Etsy. I've had such a wonderful time scrapping these past 6 months or so and I've gotten so many inspirations from loads fabulous ladies out there. I could and have spent hours surfing the net and just admiring all the talent. I'll be sharing some of my fav blogs that I stalk (hee hee hee)in days to come.
For now, here's a couple more little diddies I made.

My Poor Hubby :0(

2010-03-10T00:12:00.001-05:00

The feller is sooo sick! He got in to see a dentist yesterday for a tooth ache and he has an infected molar and is in such horrid pain. Tonight when I came home from my Scrap Group, he said to me, "Honey, we have to do one of two things. Either take me to the hospital or just shoot me". Ahhh...his little face is swollen and he's been taking an anti-biotic and one each every 4 hours of Darvacet and Percocet together and he still isn't getting any pain relief. I know how that feels and it's not fun. The tooth has a crown on it and we are just going to have it extracted on Friday...after much begging. We don't have $2500 to save one tooth. Jeez Louize aren't dentists soo expensive anymore. Gosh. Gotta second mortgage your house to get any major dental work done these days.

As I mentioned, I had Stampin Up Scrap Group tonight...first group this year and we take turns hosting which means bringing in snacks and getting the rewards from gals ordering new stuff. It was really fun. There are 8 of us and we made 2 projects. One is a folded card that stands by itself which is really nice and then a little goodie container for M&M's made from a large tag die cut. So cute! Pic doesn't do it justice. Love the flower on that. We used an edge punch for it, colored the ends and scrunched it all up and then carefully adhered it to sticky red tape. I love it to pieces!! Gonna make more of those on my own creations.

It's midnight-thirty so I'm gonna sign off for the day. I almost forgot to post today! Drat, I missed American Idol tonight too plus...double drat, I missed Jason and Molly's wedding last night. Thought for sure I had that thing ready to record and when I finally sat down to watch my recorded shows, it wasn't there. I was sooo bummed. Anyone watch that? Tell me what ya thought about it. Doggone it anyway.

So that's it for me. I had a good belly laugh tonight at group so I'm good for the day. So, hope you all had some laughter today too before hittin the sheets. See ya tomorrow...blessings to you. Erika

Hubby BD today!

2010-03-07T15:25:00.001-05:00

The ole feller is 54 today! He spent the morning at a gun show in town and traded in one of his newer guns for a Glock27. I guess these are the guns the cops carry but he's soo excited and happy so I'm happy too..I guess. LOL It's a guy thing I'm sure. Hey, as long as he's happy, I'm happy. I kinda think it's like me coming home with a new scrap tool and I'm all chatty about it and wanna show him how it works and all and he just sits there trying to act interested (God love his little heart) so today I tried my best to act interested in return. It's all about the toys in our lives! LOL LOL Only my tools don't cost $525!!! Eeee gads.

He just took Gracie over to the doggy part to play with other pups so I once again have to make this a short post. Going over to my parents house tonight to play cards with them and me getting a butt chewing from my dad. Long story but I don't return phone calls as quickly as what he would like. Right. Like I sit around all day and do absolutely nothing like he does! Grrr..little ticked at him myself.

On to a cheerier note, want to share 3 cards I made at the last scrap class I took.I really need to invest in a better camera and Dave promised me one here right soon!

So that's it for me today. Hope you all have a happy and blessed day and remember to laugh a good one for me cause I think today is gonna be a litttttttle testy!! Why is it our parents still know how to push our buttons at almost 60 years old!!! Erika

12 Hours of Sleep!

2010-03-06T16:40:00.000-05:00

Now that's what I call a good night's rest!! I love to sleep..have I mentioned that? LOL Feeling great but verrrry hungry. This is gonna be the quickest and shortest post ever! CPD sleeping with daddy! Have a verrrry good day and laugh lots! See ya tomorrow. Erika

Blog Crawler Today

2010-03-05T17:27:00.000-05:00

Never have done one before but I did it. Jillibean Soup http://www.jillibeansoup.typepad.com/ was sponsoring this crawl and you have like 50 opportunities to win some free stuff. I love free stuff but I have only one like...once in my lifetime. drat. Anyway, had fun doing it and there's some great stuff to win. Go check it out if ya like scrap stuff.

Gonna make this short since it's Friday Night Date Night for the hubster and me. Gonna try to check out the Nazareth Deli again. No snow in the forecast so we should be good. LOL I'll report my findings to ya all tomorrow.

So here's the Cute Picture of the Day. I'm going to start referring to it as CPD because I'm getting too lazy to type those words in every single day!! LOL Ha fooled ya. aren't these butterflies cute though. Here's what I'm going to try to make for myself this next week. I want a simple way of keeping track of peoples birthdays and anniversaries or other special days. It's a little album with pockets to put the cards in that you made a head of time. Isn't this the sweetest thing? Yeah, so let's see how sweet mine turns out! I love Jilli Bean paper!! Makes me happy just lookin at it. Here's another card that I thought was adorable!! Simple yet very colorful and delightful. OK so I gotta run. Hope you like the picture. Will blog tomorrow but until then, let's try to get in a good belly laugh today..it's good for ya! Erika

What a Busy Day!

2010-03-05T00:32:00.000-05:00

Well it's 12:30 a.m. and I'm just now getting to my daily post.Couldn't sleep in today because I knew I had a bunch of stuff to do before our Bible Study people came over for our meeting so I am going on 6 hourse of sleep. I need 8 to feel good and 12 to feel FABULOUS!! LOL Not really but I do love sleeping. I made Poor Man's Casserole tonight for everyone which I really love. It's so darned simple and tastes good too. Here's the recipe and a pic(after we picked at it some!)

Brown 1 1/2 pound ground chuck with one diced up onion. Drain fat and add one can Tomato Sauce. While meat was cooking, peel and slice 1/2 inch thick, 4 nice size white potatoes.(Don't like the yellow ones or the red skin ones) Add potatoes to the meat mixture and then put the whole thing in a buttered (PAM WORKS) casserole dish with a lid. Bake at 350 for one hour.

That's it. This meat dish goes realllly fast in our house and like I said, it's very easy and inexpensive to make and it fills your tummy so you feel satisfied. I made this with Brocolli Salad and I was in heaven! Love that salad! And here's a pic of some cookies I picked up at the bakery along with Dave's Birthday cake...don't these look delish. I think they are filled with mincemeat?

Of course Gracie was pretty darned excited to see everyone tonight. What a pest but I tell ya, this pup is sooo great about being locked up in Dave's office while group is going on. She doesn't bark or whine, just patiently waits for us to be done. Now Ebby would have been a whine-in and barking and just making a nuisance of herself..God rest her little furry soul.

Speaking of furry little souls, here's the Cute Picture of the Day. Gracies favorite place to be..with her adoring daddy. I swear if something happened to me, Dave would be sad, but if something happened to this dog...I think Dave would die of a broken heart! Honest!! So now ya know where I stand!! LOL

Anyone have some fun plans for TGIF Friday?? I got nuttin. I plan on sleeeeeeping and not even sure if I'm gonna even put on make-up!! I think it's gonna be a PJ day, do some leisure reading and then get pizza for dinner and watch our 3 Friday night fav movies, Ghost Whisperer, Medium and Numbers. I love those 3 shows! Dave and I are big TV people. OK I admit it, we are lazy couch potatoes!!

Until tomorrow..oh I mean, later today..LOL laugh a little before going to bed! I had some great belly laughs tonight in our group..they are such great people with wonderful sense of humors! Sleep tight-Erika

That Darned Dog!!

2010-03-03T16:27:00.000-05:00

Grrr...my favorite rug chewed up by some cute pup who was bored!! See this is what I have to deal with on a weekly basis.This pup is gonna be the life of me yet. I'm so ticked! It's much worse in person in case ya think this isn't so awful.

Nice way to start the day huh? I cannot tell you how many times I've gotten up to find something like this.

Other than the rug, life is great. Had my nails done today which I soo needed. I think Brooke (my nail tech) took off a pound of flesh today with her nippers. My skin gets so dry it feels like I have sandpaper around my finger nails. Hate that feeling. So now everything is soft and smooth again. Happy to report I got all my scrap pages done for my girlfriends and am going to mail them off today. Yippee..they will be so surprised! Our next vacation is April 2011 and we are sooo ready already to hit the beach. LOL

Dave went out of town again today trying to drum up some work so I have the evening free. I cooked up a storm last night so I'm going to enjoy my leftovers. Don't ya just love leftovers? I think everything tastes better the second time around. Maybe because ya don't have to cook it again..LOL. By the way, that Pioneer Woman Lasagna was absolutely fabulous!! Ahh..be still my heart. That glass dish must have weighed 3 pounds by the time it was ready for the oven. Of course it totally messed up my oven and had to put it on auto clean afterwards. But so worth it!

Gotta run a couple errands so I'm gonna cut this short today....but not after I hesitantly upload the Cute Picture of the Day...Gracie sleeping on the sofa next to me with her pink tongue hanging out while she's making sucking noises..way cute but I'm still mad at her!! Grrr.. I'm gonna try really hard to take my own advice today and laugh really hard about something. Humph!! Until tomorrow,...... Erika

A Few of My Groupings

2010-03-02T14:21:00.000-05:00

Helloo...thought I would share a few of my favorite groupings I have here at home. I love old picture and nic nacs together. This first one is one of the last pictures that was taken of my parents before we came to America when I was 5 years old. Taken on a old dirt road..LOL LOL The other picture is of me and my sister-I'm the little one. I wish you could see how wrinkled our stockings are and how scuffed our shoes were..LOL so sweet. We lived in Government Barracks after the war. I've a couple old baby shoes with the grouping..no they aren't ours. I also have a raggedy on the left from one of my oldest online friends, Sharon of Mustard Seed Originals. No one does raggedies like Sharon.Here's a link to her Website.http://www.mustardseedoriginals.com/om/. I also have a needle punched pair of dollies I got from Primitive Bettys...here's her blog. http://primitivebettys.blogspot.com/. She does some wonderful work!!!

Wanted to sneak in a couple of my fav needle punch items too. I'm sorry I don't have the links to these but I bought them on Ebay. They are so delish in person!! The work is exquisite!!

And here's another couple of pictures of me and Dave's wedding pic and my mom and dad's wedding pic. Back in the day, most of the women had to "borrow" wedding dresses since pretty much everyone was poor after Hitler got done with his creepy war against the world. What a pscho!!

In front of each picture I have a set of vintage rhinestone earrings..LOL I love rhinestones! They just glam everything up. Of course I have a million of these little lights everywere in the house because I think they just make your home "cozy". And one of my favorite pieces of chipping wood is the piece these pictures are on. It's a wall mounted drawer thingy..LOL that makes things perfectly clear doesn't it??

So these are a couple of my sweet groupings I have in my house.I've really gotten away from anything dark. I love light and honestly I HAVE to have it because it does somehow affect my mood. Weird huh? But it's true. When the sun goes down, I go around and turn on every light and twinkle light and all 3 of my prim trees. It makes me feel good inside...happy, cozy, content, peaceful, snuggly and warm.

Well let's see if I can come up with a Cute Picture of the Day for ya. Gonna be Deucy Boy today. That sweet little boy cat of mine.I've noticed a pattern with him lately. I guess he's always had it but I just didn't "get it". About 5 pm every night he dissappears. I find him on our bed (unmade of course)

sound asleep. He sleeps until about 11 pm and then he comes out and the fun begins. Pestering Gracie to death while she's trying to sleep.Notice Deucy's pink belly. He has allergies and about every 6-8 weeks he has to get shots. He ends up licking licking licking his pink sweet belly until it gets sores. Poor lil feller. His right eye gets pink too and the corners of his mouth get little sores on them. This is one high maintence boy cat. LOL But soo worth it. Just look at that precious face!!

So I gotta git for today. Have plans to do

some cookin which you all know I hate to do. I had intended on doing that yesterday but then Dave came home early from his trip and just threw off my whole evening.I hate when he does that!! Until tomorrow then...oh by the way, I have some wood rubber stamps on ebay and some paper punches if anyone is interested. So as I was saying..until tomorrow...laugh a little!!

Erika

Web Closed-Anyone Want Ribbon?

2010-03-01T15:33:00.000-05:00

Yepper..just got done closing it other than keeping a link to this blog on there for 30 days. Notified my webmaster about billing and such and so it's a done deal....yipeeeee! So what shall we do to celebrate?? I'll come up with some giveaways in the next couple of days so be watching.

Still trying to clean up and thin out some of my stuff...ribbon. How in the world did I acquire so much? Is it another addiction or did this ribbon just multiply in the dark when I went off to bed? It's truly a phenomenon!!!RIBBON SOLD..THANK YA!

Ya'll ready for the Cute Picture of the Day? Humm...let me find one here. Oh here we go..haaa you thought it would be another picture of Gracie. Nope..pic of the dear hubster a couple 3-4 years ago on vacation at our fav spot. Isn't he just darned adorable?? He's out of town today and coming back tomorrow so the house is quiet and I'm going to surprise him with some homecooked food tomorrow. I hate cooking anymore but I love to try new recipes and I found one from Pioneer Woman. I love her website and her food! Wish I could go to her house everyday to get fed!!

It Takes a Basket and a Village!!

2010-02-27T15:45:00.000-05:00

Holy Cow!! Do you gals need all this make-up to look half way decent before leaving the house? Yep..it takes a Longaberger Basket and a Village to get me to lookin good!!

You have to have foundation and Bare Minerals for all 4 seasons, then blush for those seasons, then eye shadow base, then your eye shadow for the day, 3 different eyelines for you eye shadow color, then eyebrow pencil for those ever thinning brows (it's an age thing!) then shadow to fill in those thinning brows, then eyebrow sealer to keep those pesky remaining 4 eyebrow hairs in place, then the darkest black of mascara to make your eyes look alive. Oh and if you want your eyes to have that "twinkle" you gotta add a little white dot in the corners of each eye, and lipstick of course and to finish it off if you want a little sparkle, the glimmer powder.

Oh but before you even THINK about putting on the make-up, you have to cleanse your face, put on a Vitamin C cream, eye wrinkle refiner, eye moisturizer, then eye cream;next a sensitive skin moisturizer and then wrinkle cream for the face and last a regular moisturizer. By the time you're done, you're ready to go back to bed and give it all up!!

Honest to God it's so much work trying to keep your skin looking healthy and wrinkle free!! I've been using Merle Norman Cosmetics since I was 18 years old in 1969 and I'm still using it and many many many thousands of dollars later, I think my skin looks pretty good but not THAT much better than any other 59 year old woman. LOL LOL

So this is what I use after all the moisturizing and stuff. It's not too bad? I really envy you ladies who only have to wear mascara and a touch of lip gloss and out the door you go. Seems like the older ya get there a whole lot more you gotta try and cover!! Old age spots are the pits!!! That's why I use the Bare Minerals stuff. I covers like paint!! LOL LOL

Talk about covering your spots, gotta get ready for church but not before we put up the Cute Picture of the Day. I wish I had a good camera so you could see this better, but every night I told ya Gracie and Deuce, wellOK actually Deuce battles with Gracie. His latest thing is he climbs up on Gracies back and bites her neck and then starts kneading...LOL it's the funnies thing you ever saw. It's like he's got complete control of this 60 pound dog. LOL So if ya look reallllll close you can see Deucy standing on her back. So funny.

OK until tomorrow..have a really great evening everyone. Make sure ya laugh lots!

TGIF!

2010-02-26T15:59:00.000-05:00

Yep, so glad it's Friday!! Been a really busy week this week finishing up pattern orders and such. Every Sunday night, I look forward to Monday because I have GREAT plans for myself every day. And by Friday, it's like..."what happened to my plans"? Is your week like that too? I told ya in my last post that I've been trying to get some scrap pages done for my 3 girlfriends that I go on vacation with every other year. Well I've been trying to get those done since May of LAST year! I'm veryyyyy happy to say that I do have 2 pages done..that's 8 pages total-2 for each of us. Hubby told me he was going to have to go back out of town on Sunday to go bid on some jobs in Toledo so once again I am excited to be able to work on the scrap pages. How much you wanna bet me that I won't get a single one done?? Grrrrrr....

For those of you who follow or stalk me, LOL please do lift up a prayer for Dave that he gets some new jobs. This is the first time in 20 years that he's totally out of work!! It's scary and I could realllly freak out if I think about it, but ya know, God has always supplied all of our NEEDS and I'm sure He will continue to do so now. We just keep praying for favor when it comes time for the State of Ohio to award jobs. Thanks muches.. ..I do covet your prayers.

So on to the Cute Picture of the Day. This is Gracie (who else!) sleeping in her crate when she was just a young pup. She still loves sleeping on her back and it's soo darned cute. I love patting her little tummy. Doesn't she look like a floppy little stuffed animal? LOL Cute cute cute.

Don't have anything planned for the weekend which means it will just flit away like 'THAT!' (snap). I'll post a couple pictures tomorrow of my scrap pages and see what else I can bore ya with. Hubby taking me to a new deli for dinner tonight. It's been advertised on the radio by the Big Bass Brothers on 610 TVN by John Corby and the gang. Well Dave had lunch with a friend today at that place and he called me in his car to tell me he's taking me to dinner there because it was sooo good. Yippeee..I love trying new places. It's called Nazareth Deli. Maybe I'll take my camera with me and take a pic of my food..LOL

OK gotta run ....hope you all have a good evening....remember to laugh from the depths of your belly at least once a day..it's good for ya!! Erika

Laura's Beautiful Toes!

2010-02-25T15:21:00.000-05:00

Can you believe how beautiful my friend's toes are? This pic was taken last April in Sanibel Island when me and 3 of my childhood friends went on vacation together. Now ladies, I thought I had cute toes but Laura's really are model quality! Of course a nice tan helps too. LOL I was working on scrap pages for them last night and when I came across this pic, I just started laughing and remembering how jealous all 3 of us were of her! LOL . I wonder if we should have a Beautiful Toes Contest?! Wouldn't that be fun! Let me think on that a day and I'll post more tomorrow.

So ya ready for the Cute Picture of Day? Who shall it be today? OK let's do another picture of Gracie! She's the only one who will stand still long enough for me to snap a picture of. The son keeps hiding and Deucy Boy won't cooperate so Gracie is the only one left. You can't really tell from this picture but when I'm on the computer she sits up on her haunches (butt -for those of you who don't have dogs LOL)leaning against the desk drawer and paws at me to scratch her tummy. She will stare me down until I acknowledge her..LOL she's one patient pup!

And, I had another surprise in the mail box today from my dear friend Tonya of Back Porch Pickins. I ordered a kit kat from her when she had a doll for sale holding the cutest lil felted cat I've ever seen. Of course, loving my Deucy Boy as I do, I NEEDED a cat. So here it is and of course, you never EVER get anything from Tonya without a few lil surprises. And let me tell you friends, the way she wraps things up and adds all her lovely touches to things almost makes the wrappings better than the items themselves...well almost!

Everything is wrapped in pink and brown polka dotted tissue paper and cute matching bows and ah...I just love getting things from her!! I wish you could see the kitty in person...done just beautifully and the face is wayy darling too. Included was the cutest little card and Tonya sent me the cute little scrap book too, which I do intend on using by the way. I used to save things like this and never use them because they were too precious to do anything with, but now I'm using stuff!

Tonya..if you are stalking me today (LOL), thank you so verrrrry much!!

Well I gotta run..that cute pup just puked on the carpet here in the office 3 times in the last 5 minutes...grrrr. Talk about nasty lookin and nasty smellin...gross out! Until next time be happy and laugh often!

Erika

Oh Happy Day!

2010-02-24T15:58:00.000-05:00

Happy Wednesday! Yes...happy day. Hubby and pup came home early from their trip and I'm so tickled. Deucy Boy has been such a pest since Gracie has been gone. I woke up to the sound of Deucy Boy crying at my bedroom door, sounds of him nawing on the woodwork and ripping sounds of him pulling on the loops of the carpet! He's quite the persistent lil turd!! So now he's happy and back battling with his friend. OK so let's get the Cute Picture of the Day posted. This is where they do most of their battles...LOL

And...a couple more pics for ya. I was so anxious to get to the mailbox today because I knew I had some goodies coming. Yippeee...bought these adorable handmade clay potpourri pockets from Ginny Diezel. They have a hole in the back to hang. She's the sweetest girl!!! Darling!!YOu can find more of these on http://www.pfattmarketplace.com/. I'm not sure what I'm going to use them for yet but I love them to death!

And I also got a little package from Arbutus Hunter also on the same website. I saw these little felted eggs and had to have one! OMG they are soo darned adorable!! The picture just doesn't do it any justice at all. I put it in my little birdie nest which is in my mini lighted tree and it's just so blasted cute!! I really ge

t excited about little things like this. I just noticed that I use the word "little" quite frequently..LO

L LOL OH well....

Having a belated birthday dinner with two of my dear friends tonight. They are taking me to one of my fav restaurants-California Pizza!! Yipppeee!. I love their lettuce wraps, the ginger salmon, all their salads and their new white bean minestroni soup! (did I spell that correctly?)It is to live for!! I say "die for" waaaay too often so I'm going to start saying "to live for".

While Dave was away for 24 hours..LOL.. I used my time to reorganize all my scrapbooking papers. Went to another of my favorite stores, The Container Store, and bought some sweeeeeet white metal brocade magazine file. Ahh they are precious. Let's see if I can find ya a picture. Isn't it just beautiful. I bought 4 of these and then a rectangular box for my 12 x 12 paper. Cost me an arm and a half a leg, but it was worth it. Wonder how long it will take the hubster to notice them..hee hee hee. Don't ya just feel great when you get things in better organization and it looks good on top of it? I love that!!

Well I'm still in my pj's and it's 4 pm so I guess I had better get the old barn painted and do my hair and get dressed for my dinner. Until tomorrow....be happy and laugh a LOT! It's good for ya! Erika