Just Ducky

Today is a Belli Challenge day, and this week's challenge is to use an old stamp. One that you've had for a long time, but maybe never used. Don't even tell me you don't have one, because I know you do! Bring it out! Ink it up! I bought this ducky stamp AGES ago. It's made by Embossing Arts, Co., titled "Just Ducky", and dated 1999 (See!?). This is the first time I've used it for a card. All of the DP you see was a gift from my friend Courtney. Thanks, Courtney! The solids are Certainly Celery, Blush Blossom, and Regal Rose. I used yellow brads in the center of the flowers, and added a little stardust stickles to make them sparkle. I just love the way this turned out, and am so excited that I finally got a dang bow to tie almost perfectly. I'm tellin' ya, it was a banner night in the old stamp room! lol!

Be sure to click over to the other Belli Girl blogs (linked in my sidebar) to see what stamps everyone else dusted off today! ;o) hee hee.

I have a few more things I want to share with you as well. One is a new blog that popped up on my reader this morning. One of my friends and fellow design team members has gotten together with a few other girls and created a new blog called The Daily Dare. If I'm understanding this correctly, they are going to be compiling all of the various stamping challenges out there so you can find everything in one place. What a cool idea! Be sure to bookmark the site and check back often!

I also got a little email from my friend Mandy over at Limelight Papercrafts telling me about a sale they are currently having... 15% off! The coupon code for that is BALLDROP. Click over and see if you need anything!

Also, be sure to check out my side bar for info on the Sweet n' Sassy Stamps blog hop. EVERY blog will have CANDY! Woot! There are some adorable new sets coming out, so don't miss your chance to win it before you can buy it!

Doubling Our Joy

I needed a generic card for a male friend, and this is what I came up with. I think that black and white DP is beautiful (Dorada Vista, from i {heart} papers), and it lends itself quite nicely to a mancard. The oval is Riding Hood Red, cut and embossed with the largest oval Nestability, and then pierced around the inside edge. The ribbon was a gift from my friend Courtney. The sentiment is from an old SU! set called Friendship Flowers. I don't normally do cards with just a sentiment and no image, but I liked the simplicity of this.

I also thought I'd mention this book that I recently finished reading:

I am a huge fan of Picoult's writings, and this book was no exception. The story centers around the kidnapping of a little girl, and as a mother I found the entire story riveting. Like all of her other books, I was instantly drawn in and barely able to put the book down. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys dramatic fiction. Most all of her stories involve a crime of some sort and the legal process that follows (this one included), but she writes in such a way that you really feel as if you're part of the story. It's wonderful. Click on my "Books" label to see some of the other books I've read, if you're interested. I read tons, but have only remembered to blog about a few, unfortunately. I'm trying to be better about that!

Enjoy the day,

Ho Ho Ho!

Here's our Santa picture from this year. Henry wouldn't even go near him. Jack wasn't really much more excited about the idea. LOL! Check out that facial expression!

Simply Heartfelt

I found out a few months ago that the husband of a girl I went to (grade/middle/high) school with was in a terrible accident at work (he worked construction). I don't even know all of the details, but it was something awful where he had fallen into a hole and was buried alive(!!!). Believe it or not, he lived (thank God!), but he suffered quite a bit of damage to his body, and I believe also some neurological damage as a result. Although we talked occasionally, I was never really close to this girl... but this situation has weighed on my mind this whole time, and I finally decided I was going to make a card and send it off to her to let her know I'm praying for them, and see if there is anything else I can do to help. It just amazes me how your life can change in the blink of an eye, and it certainly makes me grateful for all that I have with my dh and my boys.

The card is just a simple little card, made with Stampin' Up!'s Heartfelt Thanks set. This is one of my favorite sets of all time. I'll never part with it! I made a card similar to this at a stamp camp years ago (probably what made me buy it in the first place, come to think of it). The little bit of green cardstock you see on the front is stamped with SU's Canvas background stamp. The ribbon is a wide purple organdy and SU's copper cord (retired).

I also want to share two more Christmas cards I received since the day I put that collage together. This lovely card is from my friend Deb Felts. She and I serve together on the design team for both Sweet n' Sassy Stamps and i {heart} papers.

And this is an awesome z-fold card I got from one of the toddler moms I chat with (SCS: Tiny Bubbles). Isn't that just the sweetest sentiment/image? I love it.

Enjoy the day!

Pretty Pretty Princess

I thought I'd share some pictures of our pain cat, Princess. She has been such a stinker lately. Today I was doing something on the computer, and she jumped right up on the counter (I sit at the island in the kitchen) and started meowing at me. She soooo knows she shouldn't be on the counter! I grabbed my camera and tried to take a picture, but she came in close because she's nosey. The flash scared her. hee hee.



I mentioned on my craft blog the other day how I hang all of our Christmas cards around a door frame. I've done this as long as we've lived in this house, and we've had Princess this entire time. In all of our nine years here, she has never once shown any interest in a single card.... until now. She has fallen absolutely in love with this card we received from my toddler mom friend Kelly. I can't figure it out. I asked Kelly if they have any pets (no), or if they dusted their cards with catnip this year (nope)... I just can't figure it out. She will sit and give Kelly and family kisses all day if I let her...

She'll bat at them when they don't kiss back. ;o) *snort*

Anyhow, she has been cracking me up lately, so I just thought I'd share. :o) Here she is looking all innocent:

Yeah, right.

Christmas Day 2008

Here's a smilebox with some pics from Christmas day. We had a gift opening in the morning at our house where the boys, my mom, and grandma opened their presents from us (and Santa!). Then we had a second opening in the afternoon at my grandma's house, where we opened their gifts to us. It was a busy day, but always a good time!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Ahoy, Matey

Pardon my fingers there, but it's not easy to get a good shot of a z-fold card! I made this last week for a pirate-crazy girlfriend's birthday. I used my prismacolors and gamsol for the coloring, and kept it pretty simple (mainly because I knew it was going to be late already, so I just wanted to get it done and in the mail!). I kept the coloring to a minimum, and did some sponging around the edges. The red "x" is made from two pieces of ribbon, and held down with a brad. Here is a shot of it open:

I just wrote a short birthday message in the space above and below the treasure chest.

I'm working on some cards for the Sweet n' Sassy Stamps release party, which falls over New Year's this year. Check my sidebar for details, as there will be lots of BLOG CANDY involved!

I hope you enjoyed your Christmas, and all is well!

Christmas Cards from Friends

I wanted to take a moment to thank all of my wonderful stampin' friends who sent me a Christmas card this year! I love them all, and they all had a place of honor on the door frame. :o) When I was a kid, my mom would always hang our Christmas cards around a doorframe with scotch tape. I always thought it was so cool, and loved looking at all of the cards every time I walked by, remember friends and family as I went. Now she keeps her cards in a box (bah humbug!), but I have continued the tradition of the doorway card shrine! I took the pictures as they hung, and flash was involved, so the lighting and photos (and shadows, in one case) aren't the best, but you get the idea! The digi-scrap background sheet is from the Holiday Sampler (free download) set at Shabby Princess. Click the image to get a better view of everything.

The cards are from:

Row 1 (L-R)
Jacquie Pfeifer
Dani Marcus
SCS: Heather_M

Row 2 (L-R)
SCS: Hoosierstamper
Sara Philips
Meredith Socha

Row 3 (L-R)
Holly Young
Carolyn Mustopa
Korin Sutherland

Row 4 (L-R)

Kate Baldwin

Tracy Schultz

SCS: Kirstindel

SCS: Zekesmom10

I didn't make my Christmas cards this year, but I did make this:

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and thanks again!

Christmas Eve 2008

We have our big family gathering on Christmas Eve each year. When I was a kid, everyone would gather at my Great-Grandma's house after church. Since Grandma has passed, we've been rotating between four different houses each year. I volunteered to host this year so we'd be able to put Jack to bed at a decent time if he got cranky... which he did. He was horrible at 7:30, so I put him to bed, and then he was up at 8:30 and would NOT go back to sleep for anything. Apparently he wanted to spend time with the family too! I brough him downstairs to visit with everyone and he ended up staying awake until 10:30 before going down for the night.

Here are some photos from the evening....

It is so hard to get a picture of Henry without a cheeseball grin on his face lately. Here's a nice half-smile (hee hee):

Here we have (L-R) my mom's cousin Debbie (Jack's godmother), Jack, my grandma, and my mom:

Notice how all of the Kromm men have the same look on their face. It takes *years* to master that look of disinterest and mild annoyance. HA!! If my Uncle Sonny were here, he'd have the same look on his face (unfortunately he spent Christmas in the hospital this year due to some heart problems... please say a little prayer for him if you're the praying kind). On the left is my mom's cousin Bob, in the middle are his son (Matt) and step-daughter (Erin), and on the right is my Uncle Floyd (grandma's brother). I took this picture from the staircase, in case you're wondering why they're all looking up.

Remember that picture of Debbie up there? Well, here's her husband Tod (Jack's godfather) with Darrin, hanging out in the kitchen talking politics. :o)

Henry was so excited to open gifts! He kept running around saying, "Presents? Presents?" hee hee. He got a farmer Elmo set from Uncle Floyd and Aunt Rose (I just realized I didn't get a picture of her... dang it. I hate it when that happens), and a big "working" farm set farm set from Debbie and Tod. He loves him some barns and animals, so both gifts were perfect!

Here's a close up of me (why do I let these things happen?):

And Matt with his new football cards:

Henry opening the large farm set:

Debbie and Jack... note the look on Jack's face. lol! Think he was sleepy?


Farmer Henry:

After everyone left, Darrin and I got to play Santa. We hauled all of the gifts down stairs and finished wrapping, tagging, and bow-ing all of them, then stuck them under the tree so they were all ready for Henry, Jack, Grandma, and Grandma to open Christmas morning! There were A LOT of presents. Here is a picture... they're under the tree, behind the tree, spilling out around the tree. Presents, presents, PRESENTS!!!

I hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas! I'll be back with more pictures from Christmas day (gift opening at home and at grandma's) later this week!

Merry Christmas!

I received this image as part of a larger Christmas themed email from a non-stamping friend of mine. I was so surprised to see some of our little house mouse friends in it, I had to share! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, and I'll be back soon with more fun cards and yummy recipes! I have been cooking like CRAZY the last two days, and have tried to take pictures as I went along so I can share later. Stay tuned!

Merry Christmas!


P.S. I see there's a little watermark on the .gif that says "just jeanne". If anyone knows who made it, post a comment and I'll credit her here!

Elmo's World!

Here is the quick and cute birthday card that I made for my dh. :o) My original thought was that this would be the card from the kids, and then I'd make a separate one from me. But I ran out of time, so this ended up being from all of us.

I am loving this PTI Stampers Select white paper. It's so nice to have a nice sturdy white paper that is strong enough to be a card base. It also works sooo well with the Copic markers. I love it!

Here is a close up of the coloring on Elmo:

I colored the entire image in R02 Flesh, then I colored over most of it with R05 Salmon Red, just leaving a little of the R02 showing for highlights. When I was done with that, I went back and added some dark highlights with R08 Vermillion. I love the way it turned out!

Are y'all ready for Christmas yet? I am soooo not... which means I guess I should stop typing and get busy actually doing something, eh?

Enjoy the day!

Much Appreciated

Here is a card I made tonight for the i {heart} papers DT challenge. The challenge was to make a Christmas themed thank you card. I'm about a week late for the challenge (sorry, girls!) and I think I missed the mark slightly. This isn't really Christmas-y, so much as it is wintery. Close enough? I hope so!

I used the Carrying Tree Riley from Hanna Stamps, and the sentiment is from a small set of four thank you stamps that Stampin' Up! used to carry. What was it called? Many Thanks? Something like that. Anyhow, the DP is that See Spot paper from IHP that I've been using like crazy. I just love the colors in it. The ribbon was a gift from my friend Courtney (Thank you!).

How do you like my buttons? I hate leaving my buttons nekkid, but didn't have the patience to string three of them, so I put brads in the center instead. Just open your brads, and push them through two of the four holes, and flatten on the back like normal. You might need to snip the ends of your brads a little with your craft scissors so they don't stick out, but it works!

Enjoy the day!

Chocolatey Goodness

Here is the second of the two recipes I made for the baking exchange day I had with my girlfriends last Saturday. These are cake balls, introduced to me by Bakerella.

The recipe is super simple. Bake a cake - any variety you'd like. I chose dark chocolate. Make the cake according to the instructions on the box for a 9x13 cake. Allow the cake to cool, and then crumble the entire thing into a large bowl. Add a 12 oz container of frosting (I used a white cream cheese frosting), and mash it all together until you get a sort of doughy consistancy. It takes some muscle to mash a cake, let me tell you. Anyhow, then you form the dough into quarter(ish) sized balls. I used a spoon to get about the right amount of dough, and then rolled it into a ball in my hands. Place the balls on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper and refrigerate to chill them. I recommend throwing them right in the freezer. That seemed to work the best for me. Melt some chocolate (I used semi-sweet chips, but you can also use the Wiltons candy melts), and dip the balls in the chocolate to coat. Return to cookie sheet, and cool until the chocolate has set. I sprinkled some jimmies on mine while the chocolate was still wet, but you could leave them plain, too.

I used one cake mix, two bags of chocolate chips, and one container of frosting. This made about 90 balls for me (Bakerella's website says it will make 40-50, but I think she's underestimating!). I think they taste best cold, so I've left mine in the back hall pantry (unheated). Hopefully at least a few of them will make it to Christmas! ha! :)

If you decide to try them, post a comment and let me know!

Jack Frost

I just thought I'd share a quick pic of Jackie in his winter get up. I found this cute little quilted, fleece lined coat for him at the Gymboree outlet, and bought the little stocking cap there as well. They don't technically match, but I loved them both so much, I had to get them. You know how it goes, right?

Once he's in the carseat, he gets a heavy fleece blanket tucked in under his legs, and then it flips up over the top of them and folds down. It's the same thing we did with Henry... in fact, it's Henry's blanket. My cousin sent it when he was born, and it has his (Henry's) name embroidered in one corner. I have to be sure to tuck that in at the bottom when I use it. hee hee. I tried to get Jack one of his own, but they (Land's End) don't make them anymore. Oh well, the hand me downs and sharing had to start sooner or later!

For the most part, Jack is content in his car seat as long as we are moving and not traveling a great distance. If we sit still too long without the car running, he gets cranky. Reeeeeally cranky. I think he'll be happier when he can face the front, but we still have a little over three months before we can even think about that. Meanwhile, I keep lugging this beast around. It must weigh a good 10 lbs empty, so we're looking at close to 40 lbs here when he's in it (he weighed 26ish at his last appt). The seat has a weight limit of 30 lbs, and I plan to use it as long as possible... for better or worse. That's what physical therapy is for. LOL. :o)

Wrapping Paper

Today is another Belli Challenge day, and the challenge is WRAPPING PAPER. You can use wrapping paper on your card, or make your own wrapping paper, or..... You decide! Just make sure it has something to do with wrapping paper.

Remember that card I made yesterday? And how I said I had something to show you today that coordinated? WELL... Here it is....



I actually used the remainder of that 12x12 sheet to wrap a small gift in. Have you ever used DP as wrapping paper? It turns out so cute! And check out how fun the coordinating gift and card look together:

The gift (and card) is for one of my girlfriends. It's someone I don't normally exchange Christmas gifts with, but I saw something that I thought she'd like, so I bought it for her. I would tell you what it is, but she cruises through here sometimes so I don't want to blow the surprise! Anyhow, I hope she likes it!

You can see the links to all of the other Belli Challenge Girls in my sidebar (*finally* got everyone loaded! Woot!). Be sure to click over and take a look at what everyone made. I'm thinking this is going to be a fun challenge, in terms of creativity! If you play along, be sure to link your card back to Chrissy's blog. :o)

Also, before I go, remember those Holiday Pretzel Rings I made and posted a few days ago? I've gotten a few comments and emails stating that some of you are having a hard time finding the rings. Well! Check this out! My blogger friend Sue made the same thing with square pretzels (she calls them "waffle" pretzels, but at my store they are called "snaps" and are by Snyders) and plain M&M's!

AND, I changed my banner AGAIN. I went back to the old one this time, with new photos of the boys in it. I just wasn't feelin' any of those wintery/Christmas ones I made. Hmph.