Cards from Friends

I've been receiving some wonderful cards from friends and just wanted to share some with you.

You're to kind card made by Kat



Happy Birthday card is also made by Kat. I just love receiving RAKS in the mail. You just never know that the greeting will be, but you'll always have a great card to use when the occasions arises. Thanks Kat!



Cake Birthday card by Lisa. I think she used the layout that was in one of the mini catalogs. Glad you got the stuff to make this card Lisa. Too cute



Lisa also made this one. Stamp set used In Wilderness. This was a stamp that I had put in for one of our challenges. Great card! Thanks Lisa.

Stamping Trails
Karen

Stuff in Our Garden

Just wanted to share some stuff that is currently growing in our garden.
First picture is one of the pepper plants. It has little peppers growing on it.



One of the cucumber plants...it has flowers on it.



Sweet potatoes. We planted 4 of these plants, and this is the first time I've tried to grow them here so I'll let you know how they do. So far they are growing really well and look very healthy.



One of the many tomato plants, and I do mean many. I think Skip wants to corner the tomato crop this year. He has a total of 14 maters plants!!! I see lots of canning in my future.



This is a picture of a zinnia. We have two large pots of them on the deck. The flowers just started to open yesterday.



Last picture is a flower box that I just threw some wildflower seeds in. Not to fancy but pretty to look at.

Stamping Trails
Karen

Hope everyone had a great holiday. My day was strange. Remember the movie a Christmas Story (you'll shoot your eye out), and remember what they did for Christmas dinner? Well me and Skip went to a new Chinese Buffet that opened up here in Medina. Since he had went to his cousins for a cook out on Sunday he didn't want grilled food again. I was fine with it. Saved me from cooking. After dinner (which we ate early around 2) we went for a walk in the park. That was nice. A lot cooler walking in the woods.

My knee was really hurting me last night and today. Guess I was crawling around on the floor to much while cleaning sis-in-laws house. OUCH and it still hurts, so I'll be taking it easy today.

The card posted today is from my VC Rock roomie Clara. Love that embedded embossing. Thanks Clara!

Stamping Trails
Karen

Happy 4th of July!

Wishing all my readers a very happy and safe 4th of July!!


I wanted to make a flag card and really didn't know what stamp set I had that would work. Since I've been working with The Open Sea and it was still on my desk it got my brain working out of the box. Since I associate this set with deep blue seas I thought it would be perfect for a flag. The background stamp that comes with the set became the stripes, and the compass became the stars. For those stars I stamped them with Whisper White ink on Night of Navy, embossed them with clear embossing powder then sponged the edges with more white. The word stamp It's A Celebration! is from Afterthoughts it was a Hostess set from the 2010-2011 catalog.

Won't be doing a lot today. Worked like a dog yesterday cleaning for my sis-in-law. Today I'm taking it easy, and most I think I'll do is grill a hot dog, but I think I'll get hubby to do that!

Stamping Trails
Karen

Sponge Dauber Holder

So I was at Pat Catan's earlier this week, (you can stop laughing now Kat)and I came across a very useful container. It holds 40 sponge daubers, just right for the 40 SU colors. I still need to get 10 more daubers. I bought all they had. Not bad though. They come three to a pack. I made the grid myself from white cardstock, and a ruler. The little squares for each color were punched with 3/4 inch square punch.



And of course I had to decorate the top of the box. I'm really glad I purchased Flower Fest stamp set. Love using the burnishing technique with this set.

I'm thinking about selling these on my Etsy site. I'll let you know if I decide to sell them.

It was really hot and humid yesterday. Temp was 88 but it felt a lot hotter! Skip spent most of the day at his sister's house hauling and spreading mulch at her old house. She is getting ready to put it up on the market. I'll be spending much of today with her helping her clean the inside of the house.

Stamping Trails
Karen

More Flower Fest

My friend Marianne brought up a good point about the lacy edged envelopes that I posted the other day. The Post Office may tear the edging while running it through the machines. I made her this card to go with the envelope and put in the mail today. She's going to give me feedback and let me know how the envelope made it to her. I was going to write hand cancel on the envelop to avoid the machine but I'm wondering if it will make it through the machine. We will see. Thanks Marianne!

I spent part of the morning pulling weeds from the garden. That is a never ending job. Since the neighbor cut down all the trees in there backyard we are getting a lot more sunshine, which means I'm watering the garden more, but on the up side all that sunshine may just make some bigger maters!

Stamping Trails
Karen

Smacking my Head I Didn't Think of this Sooner!!!

How cool and handy is this! Took a round sponge cut it half then cut the two halves into thirds so I had a total of 6 wedges from the one sponge. Next I took my SU cardstock and punched one of each color using the Round Tab punch. After writing the color name on each tab I attached it to the wedges.



I've only got two of the color families finished. I'll get to the rest of them today. I'm storing them in this open container and will keep it on my desk. This is really going to cut down on my "inky" fingers as I use my stamping sponges a lot. It will also save me having 4 sponges with the same color on it. Can't tell you how many times I've done that. Reached for a new sponge when I couldn't find the one I used just a day ago (or 5 minutes ago for that matter).

Stamping Trails
Karen