My grandfather always had roses in his garden. Red ones, and they smelled good too! He also planted climbing roses that grew up around the front porch. (My dad is the handsome teenager on the right!)
When I was little, I would sit on the porch and pop off the thorns on the stems and he would get so mad! He always threatened to "pop" me, but he only did that once...He said he kept a switch on top of the refrigerator. When my sister and I would argue or get in trouble, he would point up there and say, "I'll pop you with that switch if you don't behave!" There wasn't really a switch up there, but we believed it! I don't remember what I did to get "spanked", but I remember the aftermath. It didn't hurt anything but my feelings and I remember throwing myself on the bed in the guestroom and carrying on for a LONG time. Poor Papaw...he kept saying he was sorry and patted my back trying to get me to quit crying. I must have been such a little brat because I milked that for awhile AND I told Memaw when she got home! He would playfully "pinch" us after that, then pat us and say, "You know Papaw loves you!" Good grief we were spoiled!
UPS just delivered my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers Wednesday and I couldn't wait to try them out. I watched a ton of tutorials on blending, tested them out on scratch paper and jumped right in with a no-line coloring technique. With a little more practice, this might become my new favorite medium!
I designed my sentiment in Photoshop Elements and printed on the Spectrum Noir card stock. I saved the .png file so that I can print and repeat as needed.
I was worried at first, but I didn't get any smudging when I colored over the lettering with the markers. I love how the Rose Bud ink matches the markers!
The American Beauties stamp is available in the JFF online store and it needs a good home. Not only is it beautiful, it can be any color you want!
Not really, but it feels like it sometimes! Two sons, a cousin, my husband and the dog. All male. I am the odd "man" out! I have to say that they are all pretty awesome housemates, though I am sure I get on their nerves with my constant nagging about mess. Hey, it's in my nature! I think it is a female trait to want things clean and organized. I can't help it! I used to kill myself cleaning when my kids were growing up. Saturday was my cleaning day, if there weren't ball games! I've gotten lazy in my old age, or is it that I realized that it wasn't the most important thing in the world to have a spotlessly clean house? Probably a little of both. It has taken 26 years for them to wear me down though!
You know you are doing something right when you can't wait to get home every day. This quote sums it all up for me.
I'm going to make this into a canvas because I love it so much! Don't you love the Just For Fun Rubber Stampscollaged row houses stamp?
[caption id="attachment_5087" align="alignnone" width="533"]Just For Fun Rubber StampsCollaged Row Houses stamp paired with Club Scrap® card stock. Yellow and CrystalStickles for sparkle. Velvet heart from my stash.[/caption]
I had the little velvet heart out on my craft table to add to another project, but it was perfect for this one!
I designed the sentiment in Photoshop Elements using the fonts Bigelow Rules, Jury Duty and Beyond the Mountains. The sentiment was designed to print on a 4.25 x 5.5 card panel, so that I can print and repeat as many times as I like!
Blog Candy Alert! Just For Fun Rubber Stamps (JFFRS) hosts a monthly challenge and the randomly chosen winner will receive a gift certificate to shop in their online store. Your project must include a rubber stamped image somewhere in the design. You DO NOT have to use a JFF stamp to be considered for the gift card, but if you DO use a JFF stamp you will receive a second entry into the drawing doubling your chance to win! Sounds like a sweet thing to me!
I know puns are cheesy, but they make me feel grate! (Ba-dum TSS!) My husband got a second date with a "punny" pick up line, and he asked for that second date because I laughed! Classic Chris humor...One Saturday morning we had an argument. He went outside to burn off steam doing yard work. The kids were being crazy, and I was hot, sweaty and angrily cleaning house. All of a sudden, he ran inside, slid across the dining room floor, grabbed me and said,"Oh my God are you OK?!" I gave him the WTH look and he chuckled and said," I thought you might have hurt yourself when you fell from heaven!" I started laughing hysterically, housework was forgotten and we had a hot date!
We don't usually go crazy for Valentine's Day, but I do like to make my Valentine a card!
This week's theme challenge is sponsored by Gerda Steiner Designs (GSD) and she is graciously providing a $15 gift certificate to a randomly chosen winner. She also hosts a monthly challenge on her blog with a chance to win 3 GSD Digital Stamps of your choice or alternatively a $15 coupon to the store! Win! Win!
Check out what the rest of the design team created here, then go make a card and enter the challenges!
I joined a photography challenge on January 1 called The Great 365 Project hosted on Diane Downs' photography website/blog and started posting my photos on Instagram . The January 18 daily prompt was "multiple" and I had just received my essential oils and bamboo diffuser from UPS! Don't you love this essential oil storage box ? I was really surprised to discover that my 30ml bottles fit in all of the slots. Lots of room for more oils!
I started pinning essential oil diffuser recipes on Pinterest and decided to make a little recipe book to keep with my supplies. I found this quick and easy, GLUE FREE, book tutorial on Club Scrap's blog. At 3x6 inches, it is the perfect size for what I wanted!
There are plenty of pages inside, 14 if you include the front and back inside covers, to house my collection of recipes! I created a .png file using the recommended fonts in the Club Scrap January 2017 Scrap Rap for my recipes so that they would be easy to print and trim out.
Eudie was my Grandma, Aunt Bert was her older sister. Aunt Bert only had one child, who she affectionately called "Son". Grandma, on the other hand, had 9 children and 27 grandchildren. Boy, Aunt Bert liked all the action at my Grandma's when she'd come visit! Only problem was that they would argue constantly AND talk at the same time! I think Aunt Bert secretly enjoyed the attention and making Grandma mad! I'm sure everybody in our family has a funny Aunt Bert story, she was a character. This is one of mine.
I liked taking road trips with my Grandma in her "little Honda" with the hatchback. This particular trip, I had to ride in the backseat because Aunt Bert was riding shotgun. I was about 11-12 and we were driving home from New Orleans. Grandma stopped at a little diner and we got some chicken dinner boxes to go. We got back on the road and Grandma asked Aunt Bert to hand her a French fry. It must have been a little hot because Grandma started coughing. And coughing...Aunt Bert kept asking what was wrong like Grandma couldn't hear. I got nervous because she was swerving all over the road and I (and my chicken dinner) was rolling all over the backseat! Finally, Aunt Bert grabbed Grandma's face, turned her head toward her and said, " Open your mouth and let me see!" Grandma screamed and slammed on the brakes (middle of the highway!) and yelled at Aunt Bert,"Are you OUT of your MIND?" Aunt Bert just shrugged and turned back to her chicken dinner that was tucked in her lap and said,"Well, I was just trying to help!" Grandma just stared at her and all you could hear was the click of my seatbelt as I quietly tried to put it on. Aunt Bert daintily picked at her chicken and said," See what you did? You scared everybody!" Grandma said nothing, jerked the card back onto the road and white knuckled the steering wheel the rest of the ride home. I was a little "ascared" of her because I'd never seen her that mad. Meanwhile, Aunt Bert chatted away like nothing happened. I was still holding a piece of chicken when we pulled into our driveway an hour later!
[caption id="attachment_4815" align="alignnone" width="3294"] JFF Rubber Stamps Chunky Toucans and Man in the Moon stamps. Club Scrap® Color Me Happy card stock, Comics digital kit speech bubble, and By the Seashore beach grass stamp. Diamond stickles for sparkle, white Signo Uniball gel pen for highlighting the necklace and polka dots on the bikini. Perfect Pearls mixed with water to watercolor the images. Vintage Photo Distress Ink to frame the edges of the card stock.[/caption]
The sponsor for this week's color challenge is Lawn Fawn and they are generously providing a prize of a stamp set and 6x6 pad to our randomly chosen winner. My card showcases the Lawn Fawn Clear Acrylic Stamp Set Say Cheesepaired with Club Scrap® card stock.
Louisiana carnival season has begun! January 6 is called Epiphany or Twelfth Night (since it's twelve days after Christmas) or Kings Day (hence the King Cake tie-in?). It marks the moment in the Bible that the three kings arrived in Bethlehem to behold the baby Jesus. Traditionally, Epiphany is considered the last day of the Christmas holidays. You can now say "Happy Mardi Gras!", wear purple, green and gold, buy and eat king cake and take down your Christmas decorations! I plan on doing it tomorrow...ugh!
I'm off to get motivated to take down Christmas and put out the Mardi Gras bling. Hmmmm, I might need a little king cake and coffee first!
There's still time to join the JFFRS "Anything Goes" January Challenge for a chance to win a gift certificate to the JFFRS online store! Detailshere! AND there's a 40% off sale through January 15...
JFF Rubber Stamps American Beauties stamp image. Colored with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers (Pinks
and Greens) 
on Spectrum Noir Ultra Smooth Premium Cardstock 
and backed with Club Scrap® cardstock from the Paradise collection. Crystal and Lime Stickles and for sparkle. Memento Ink in Rose Bud for the inked edges.[/caption]
Jury Duty, Beyond the Mountains and Bigelow Rules fonts.[/caption]
Just For Fun Rubber Stamps 
from UPS! Don't you love this 
? I was really surprised to discover that my 30ml bottles fit in all of the slots. Lots of room for more oils!
JFF Rubber Stamps 
