35 Years Ago Today.......

Joel and I got married. 

It has been a wonderful 35 years, and I'm looking 

forward to more wonderful years with him. 

I put together a small collection of some photos thought I'd share 

them on the blog. 

Of course I had to add the funny ones. This was taken in 1983 at Cedar Point. 

This one was taken with Cheryl and Tony at Fort Witten just outside

of Tazewell Virginia. 

Taken while he was stationed in Guam. 

 

Look how cute the kids are! 

Happy Halloween! 

2012

Thanks to all my friends who sent cards. This

one was made by Kathleen. 

Made by Kat. 

and made by Connie. 

While I was going through some photos I came across....

this poem written on an index card. I believe this is the first poem Joel wrote 

about me. I have several others that he has written over the years. 

I can't believe it has been 35 years. Seems like only yesterday we got married, 

but I guess time just travels quickly when you are having fun! 

Love you honey! 

Happily Wedded Bliss trails

Karen

Messy Again, and Cat Fort

Yes my desk looked like a wind storm hit it again! 

But that is the story of the stamping studio. Messy one day and.....

Cleaned up again. 

If I could just get the hang of cleaning as I go. Oh

well that is never going to happen. LOL

Cherokee was sleeping in her favorite spot the other day. 

John decided it would be a good idea to make her a kitty fort

with the couch pillows. She was happy and 

went back to sleep for few hours all tucked in. 

Its a little cooler today, and since I still have a few

bags of frozen tomatoes from last year's harvest I'm 

making a pot of chili. Then later I'll be messing up that 

desk again as I have to make a wedding card. Ah the 

cycle of stamping! 

Stamping trails

Karen

The Garden

Our lilac bush is in full bloom.

I had to get outside and snap a photo, then

clip some of them to bring in the house. 

They just smell so good! 

Hubby tilled the garden on Wednesday. 

He stared from the outside and worked his way to the center. 

Since there was rain in the forecast he wanted to get the

ground tilled while it was dry. 

Yesterday he put down some concrete pavers for

a walkway, and he also got some of his seedlings planted. 

Hope the weather holds out. Even though it is late April

we can still have a frost. 

Today is hubby's last day at work. Happy Retirement honey! Love ya! 

Stamping trails

Karen

Swirly and Scribbles Flag and Snowman

While I had out Swirly and Scribbles thinlits I decided to make a few more cards 

with it. 

This one of course is for 4th of July. 

I free hand cut the field of blue, and the stars are from the border punch. 

This is a snowman in a snow storm. I used

Gently Falling embossing folder, then layered

the circles over it to create the snowman. The arms

are from the tree builder punch. The scarf was free hand cut and

added using pop dots. 

Skip was able to get the entire garden tilled yesterday. 

I'll be back with photos of that tomorrow. 

Stamping trails

Karen

Beautiful You Reflection

Well I'm back with two more cards using the Beautiful You 

stamp set. 

I used the refection technique on this one. 

Love how the girl's shadow is in the rain puddle. 

Colored the umbrella with orange as I wanted

just a pop of color. 

And this card is just clean and simple. Colored with basic gray

ink, and layered on white. 

Going to be really warm here today. Going up to 80! WOW

I've been busy working on some gifts I need to get out in the mail. 

And since hubby and me are celebrating our 35 wedding anniversary

on Sunday I've been going down memory lane and looking through

some photos. Don't know where the time went! 

Stamping trails

Karen

Swirly and Scribbles Bunnies

I know Easter is over, but I made this chocolate 

bunny over the weekend and wanted to post it. 

Bunny body made with swirly and scribbles thinlit set. 

The little tail was made with three flower punches. 

The bunny ears I free hand cut. I had seen

 

something like this on Pinterest and was inspired

 

by the Easter card my friend Lisa sent me. 

 

 

Here is Lisa's card. Too cute! Thanks Lisa.

Hope you are enjoying your trip with the church group. 

I had to get up early and get blood work done. Since I had 

 

to fast I wanted to go in as soon as I could. Stopped at Starbucks

 

on the way home and got coffee. 

 

Planning on working on a few more projects that are just calling my name! 

 

Stamping trails

Karen 

Mailable Monday #190

When my friend Kat came to visit me last month

she brought me a little surprise....Beautiful You stamp set. 

Love it! Thanks Kat.

Over the weekend I made six cards with the set. 

Won't share them all today, but I am going to post two of them. 

I heat embossed the clouds with white embossing powder. 

The stamp I used isn't really a cloud. It is a bold stamp that

can be used on the ladies dresses. Anyway.....after the embossing was 

done I watered colored with Bermuda Bay ink and a aqua painter. 

Girl was stamped with Jet Black StazOn then water colored. I added

some Wink of Stella on the dress. 

This one was also heat embossed with white embossing powder. 

I used black cardstock so I could sponge some white ink 

on parts of it. This is called the chalk board technique. 

The completed panel was layered on white and Soft Sky cardstock. 

Had fun working with this set. 

This is Skip's last week of work. He will be officially retired at

11 pm this Friday. WOW. He says he is looking forward to 

being retired. I just hope he doesn't get bored without having a daily 

 

routine. I'm happy for him, and he has earned his retirement. 

So what's next? Getting the garden started!

 

 

Stamping trails

Karen 

Vellum Cardstock Overlay

I was inspired by my friend Marianne's blog post 

the other day. 

She used vellum as an overlay on her card. 

You can view the post here

The yellow cardstock was cut 4 x 8 1/4 and scored at

4 and 1/8. 

The vellum cardstock was cut and scored the normal A2 size. 

With this one I stamped the vellum with VersaMark ink and embossed 

with black embossing powder. What I like about the cardstock weight 

vellum is that it really stands up to heat embossing.

 The stamping on the yellow card was 

done in black ink. 

I used Tombo glue to adhere the vellum to the yellow card. 

Here is a side view of the card. You can see

that by cutting the base card a bit smaller the

vellum card fits over it really nicely.

For this card all the stamping was done on the green layer. 

So thanks for the inspiration Marianne! 

Stamping trails

Karen 

Blue and Yellow Megan Tag

This tag was created for a challenge with the Paper Doll

Trading group on Facebook. 

There were things we had to use for this challenge. 

Black flat beads which I used on the umbrella. 

Four flowers. I created them using different sized scallop

circle punches. I wanted the flowers to match the paper 

on the tag and clothes, so making them myself was the best thing to do. 

We were only allowed to use a two colors and a neutral on the tag. 

Blue and yellow seemed like a good choice. Since the flowers are 

blooming outside, and its been raining. I needed some sunshine! 

We also had to use ribbon. 

After layering the completed flowers on folded white doilies 

I added a white satin bow. Tried to get a close up so you

can see where I placed the bow. 

The greeting is from Dylusions. 

I added some rhinestones, because I thought the

tag needed some bling. 

I added a stand on the back so the tag can

be displayed.

This was a fun challenge. Now to get the crafting studio clean again

so I create more. 

Stamping trails

Karen

ThrowBack Thursday Card Tins

Well here is a blast from the past for Throwback Thursday.

 

Its a shabby chic card tin. 

 

 

This card tin was made by me well over 10 years ago. 

I made it while visiting my friends Connie, and Lisa. 

 

Remember when fibers were all the rage in crafting? I sure do.

 

I'll have to take a photo of my fiber drawer. Yes I kept them, as

 

I'm sure they will make a come back! 

 

LOL looking at the handle it looks like a giant wooly caterpillar. 

I do still use the tin to hold cards even though I never got around

to labeling the tabs. Maybe I'll go back tomorrow and break

out the dymo label maker and fix that. 

Now this black and white one was made for me by

Connie and Lisa. Just adore it! Its well over 10 year old also. 

There are some pink trims with the black and white ones on the handle. 

 

 

The girls did a better job than I did because they did put 

 

labels on the dividers. 

 

and....while cleaning off the bottom shelve I found these. 

The tins are in 3 different sizes. So I do have a large one so

I can make another one. May have to do that one day. 

 

Stamping trails

Karen 

Cards with April Paper Pumpkin kit

Got my April paper pumpkin kit from Stampin'Up

yesterday. It is a fun kit this month. 

Kit came with water color pencils, washi tape, glitter flowers, 

lots of paper, and envelopes needed to make some cool cards. 

 

 

I drove out to Tuesday Morning yesterday and

found this set from Tim Holtz. Love the bird. Only paid 4 bucks

for it. Gotta love that. 

Today its suppose to rain so I think I spend some more

time working on the garage sale stuff. Hoping to have it

sometime in June. 

Stamping trails

Karen

Mama's Day Cards

I was busy yesterday morning making some Mother's day cards. 

The two I made both features Mama's Day stamp set made by

Julie Nutting. 

This one is in pinks, and will be heading to my 

friend Kathleen. Pink is one of her favorite colors. 

The next one is done in blue. 

The library card that I stamped the doll

on came from a designer paper pack. I had

to fussy cut around the blue flower spray as it

was attached to the library card. While layer 

was ran through the Big Shot with an embossing folder. 

Since it was beautiful out yesterday I did some

weeding in the front flower bed. I'm trying to keep

a jump on the weeds. That is a never ending battle! 

I have friends traveling today. Wishing them all safe

journeys! 

Stamping trails

Karen

Mailable Monday #189

Hope everyone had a happy Easter. 

We had a nice quiet dinner. Very relaxing! 

I used Mia from the Julie Nutting collection to make

today's card. 

After I stamped the doll I cut out around her skirt, and legs. 

I added a layer of designer paper to the inside card. 

The skirt was also cut from designer paper then popped over the 

stamped image. I colored the shoes

with a gel pen then added wink of Stella over them. 

Stamping trails

Karen

Easter Cards using Darcie Dies

Happy Easter everyone! 

I made this card on Saturday. 

Found some new things at Pat Catan's to work with. 

Love the bunny and egg in this die set. Haven't

used the flower yet, but I'm sure I'll get to it. 

The basket is an embossing folder. 

 

Lets take a look at the card again. 

After I used the folder on Soft Suede cardstock

I went over the edges lightly with the same color ink. 

I then used a craft knife to cut around the inside handle of the basket. 

The layer under the basket is designer paper. 

The egg was cut with the die and pink cardstock. 

I also used the same ink to brush over the raised edges. 

The egg was slipped into the basket with pop dots. 

Bunny cut with matching designer paper. 

While shopping I also got a set of three crosses. Love the design. 

Hope you can see the embossing from the dies on the cardstock. 

Having ham, cheesy potatoes, rolls, and veggies for Easter dinner. 

 

Of course I had to make deviled eggs. I also made pineapple upside

 

down cake for dessert. Sarah and Jason couldn't join us for dinner today. 

 

They are spending the day with Jason's parents. John and Emily will

 

be here, and I think Skip will be going over to pick up grandma Kate. 

 

Wishing everyone a very Happy Easter. 

 

Stamping trails
Karen