My 2008 Books I've Read List

I realized that I still had my book list was still from 2008. So I'm going to list them here and create a new list for 2009. I love to read and have been disappointed to find that I am reading less. Perhaps I am on the computer too much. I know it's not from exercising more! That said, I need to push away from my desk and just read.

2008 Books I've Read

• The Bible (NLT)
• My Christmas Assortment (3)
• Sacred Echo by Margaret Feinberg
• Dawn's Light by Terri Blackstock
• True Light by Terri Blackstock
• Night Light by Terri Blackstock
• Last Light by Terri Blackstock
• My Grandfather's Son by Clarence Thomas
• The One Minute Entrepreneur by Ken Blanchard and Don Hutson
• Breaking the Discipleship Code by David Putman
• Mudhouse Sabbath - Lauren Winner
• Crazy Love by Francis Chan
• The Shack - William P. Young
• Courageous in Calling - a Catalyst collection of assorted authors
• Death in Berlin - M.M. Kaye
• Epicenter - Joel Rosenberg
• I became a Christian and all I got was this lousy t-shirt - Vince Antonucci
• Looking for God - Nancy Ortberg
• the organic God - Margaret Feinberg
• The Purpose Driven Life - Rick Warren (was the 2nd time I read this one)
• The Small Rain - Madeline L'Engle

Mojo Monday #80

Card sketch challenges are a wonderful inspiration when making a card. But even then I sometimes have a difficult time choosing colors or stamps. But today's Mojo Monday card was much easier for me because I had a specific kind of card to make. I needed a card for a new baby boy and I wanted to use the retired SU set "I'm Here." I couldn't believe I still had some papers from SU "Splash" designer paper collection. Now all I need to do is make a couple of scapbook pages for Ty and I should be able to use up ALL of that paper.)


Gotta go, Gary will be walking through the door any minute and I need at least look like I'm making dinner. :)
Paper: barely banana, certain celery, bashful blue, white, Splash dp
Ink: bashful blue, barely banana
Accessories, punches, certain celery grosgrain ribbon

Hoppy Birthday Card for SFYTT

Yesterday I took care of Ty while his mom and dad were painting and working at their new house. Ty's sleeper had a pocket on the front with frog eyes coming out of the top and frog legs sticking out the bottom...so cute! When I took the picture, I had already made the card, but got an ink smudge on the white card stock next to the frog image and was quickly stamping and coloring another frog. I put a couple of blankets on the floor and let Ty play. He figured out how to grab one of the hanging rattles and was having a great time. Such a cutie!



Anyway, his frog was the inspiration for the card I made for Jen's SFYTT challenge. All of the stamps are from the retired SU set called Unfrogettable. Everything was first stamped in Garden green and then colored with SU markers. The toadstool/mushroom is cutout and attached with a pop up dot. The patterned paper is on of the SAB papers (still available for 2 more days).
Check out the other samples posted on Jen's blog.
All supplies Stampin Up!
Paper: barely banana, SAB print, bashful blue, white
Ink: Garden Green, SU Markers - gable green, only orange, bashful blue, barely banana, garden green
Accessories: brads, Stampin Dimensionals

Cupcake Challenge #61

This is the card layout from yesterday's Cupcake Challenge. It also fits the Stamp Simply challenge found here. That challenge is called "Let's Forget the Rules." It requires the use of either stripes or dots and if desired another print or pattern. That was easy...I chose one of the patterned papers from Taylored Expressions Easter Key Ingredients Kit. It had stripes on one side and polka dots on the other.





The image and sentiment are both from TE Sweet Spring set. I used SU markers to color the cupcake and jelly beans and of course added a TE brad on top. Bree really likes this brad...it sparkles. The felt flowers and light pink brad are from SU. I remembered to stamp a cupcake on white paper for the inside of the card.
The black border is one that Julie made for me.She sells her absolutely fabulous textures and borders (for printshop) on dvd. The dvd also includes a video tutorial and extra photoshop brushes. This is how she describes her textures and borders dvd:
Each texture and border was handcrafted for the purpose of making art. By mixing the elements of texture and line you will discover techniques to bring fine art elements to your own imagery. The video tutorials introduce techniques to get you started, but I encourage you to experiment with your own digital manipulation techniques…there are so many possibilities! Here are the specifics of what is on the disk: 31 different textures (I know, why couldn’t I have made it an even 30), 11 borders, 8 bonus Photoshop brushes and 4 video tutorials to get you going. Fun Stuff!

Check out her blog...

Mojo Monday

I made a very quick card for today's mojo monday sketch challenge. The flower is a Hero Art stamp I have had for a couple of years. I colored it with SU markers. I stamped the green layer with the sanded background stamp and then used the scallop border punch on the bottom. The patterned paper is from an Old World Textured paper pack. I was trying to finish this in less than 10 minutes so I could go for a walk before dinner...and in doing that I took the picture before I realized I had not added a sentiment. On the sketch it is positioned above the green panel, right side. I'm not sure what I will use...birthday, thank you, thinking of you...any of those will work.
The best thing about today's card...10 minutes...it took longer to take the picture and post it here!

Cupcake Challenge #60

Both Bree and Ty spent the night Thursday...it was Ty's first overnight visit. We all did fine even though I kept waking up to check on him. I took time to check out Taylor's sketch early so I could think about what I wanted to make. I just needed to find a few minutes to hide out in my stamp room. So after they were gone (and after dinner at the Mexican restaurant), I pulled out TE Sweet Spring stamp set and got busy.
I inked the image in basic brown and colored it with SU markers. Then I put this aside and finished the card this morning.
Instead of the oval layer on the sketch, I used the basket for the "oval." The egg on the left is cut out from dp from TE Easter Key Ingredients. The black dots on the egg and the eyes were made with a black glaze gel pen. I cut out the basket, added a pastel green brad on the ribbon and then popped up the middle of the basket with foam dots. I used a SU real red marker to color the dot on the top of the cupcake. Then I put Crystal Effects on it to make it look like a brad. The scallop border looked plain and boring, so I added a bit of bling. This could be considered a simple card if the basket was not cut out. To me, simple does not mean this much cutting.
Hop on over to Taylor's blog to see more cards using this week's card layout.

Thanks A Bunch for SFYTT

This was supposed to be a quick card for today's SFYTT challenge, but it has taken forever (or so it seems). Part of the reason is trying to take a picture correctly. I really need to take some (lots) of lessons from Julie. I should start by looking at some of her blog posts and following the photo tips.
For this card I used SU pocket silhouettes stamp set and Parisian Breeze specialty paper (again). I know it seems like I've been using these quite a bit lately...that's because I have been using them quite a bit lately. I like them, they are both in the current catalog, and it makes sense to use what I have. Am I rambling? Ok..I'll quit!


Paper: Kraft, Baja Breeze, white
Ink: SU old olive, not quite nave markers, baja breeze re-inker
Accessories: Felt flower, flower and circle punches, blender pen, dotted swiss embossing folder