Cody's birthday

Today my Little-Man turned 11 years old!

Cody is currently really into his farm toys, now actually playing with them and taking care of them. He prefers the 1/64th scale to play with. So he got new farm toys from us, as most of the boys' farm toys are pretty used and abused, and need to be retired to staying outside for the dirthill. He loves his tractors! He now has a whole farm set up on the pool table in the basement - with Daddy's permission because that was what he enjoyed doing as a kid.

Here is his card. This is a tractor stamp that I got at a local stamping store when it was still in business. I stamped the image in SU craft basic black ink and embossed it with SU clear embossing powder. I stamped the sentiment in SU real red ink. I used SU basic black, real red textured, brushed silver, and whisper white cardstock. I used SU wide real red and narrow basic black ribbon, as well as a silver ribbon that was purchased elsewhere and given to me as a gift.

We had his family party over the weekend. He chose to have a farm theme on his birthday cake this year. He liked what I came up with.

Quacker exchange

My Quacker friends had another secret gift exchange. I sent to Suzy.

I only took pics of things I made for Suzy, not the store-bought items.

her card

Friendship bookmark

Merry Christmas picture frame

Quacker ornament

a Christmas blessing

Suzy is from Texas, so I couldn't resist when I saw these tiny ornaments. I'm picturing a pillar candle standing in the middle with rope or twine tied around it.

Texas wreath

Suzy's sister Debby sent to me :)

She spoiled me with goodies!

Debby hand-painted this Chicken, and it will go perfectly in my kitchen!

A Weekend of Creating

I did a lot of creating this weekend,

with paper and ink, as well as with frosting.

Well, my big sister turned 40 today :D

I was nice on the cake for her surprise party though.

... and of course, the card had to match the cake

A Christmas gift for our dear friend

a couple small cards to go with gifts

Our friend Sue took a road trip to come visit us, and she brought some new toys, including

a new Sissix die and embossing set that I absolutely fell in love with! I spent most

of our crafting time playing and making stockings. LOL
Of course, Mom ordered this set for us to play with now. :D

Sympathy cards

These are never my favorite to make! Last week, there was a tragic car accident that killed 3 teenagers and injured two. One of the young men lost belonged to a family we know. He was the oldest of three children- having a younger brother and sister, and they just lost their father to cancer one year ago the same month. This family has been through so much! And now this horrific nightmare upon them tears at my heart! So I spent today creating some special cards for my friends.

This one is for my little buddy Kaylee. She and I have done a lot of talking over the last year, as we have both lost our daddies. Now she is facing the loss of her big brother on top of it. My heart just breaks for this girl, as well as the rest of her family. But she needed a special card just for her.

And this one is for her brother Lucas.

~R.I.P. Levi~

~You are forever loved and missed by many~

Ali's b-day creations

My Angel-Face turned 14 this year!!!

Here is what I came up with for Ali's card. She is really into the zebra stripes and hot pink. In fact her bedroom is done in it, her bedding set being black and white zebra stripes on one side, and hot pink leopard print on the other. So I decided to go with that.

Now I realize this isn't really what I create in my purple palace, but my cakes are another creative outlet of mine. And since it was the same theme, I wanted to share it here as well. Ali loved it, so I'm happy with it. I had fun with this one too.

Fun with clothespins

My sister gave me a bunch of these jumbo clothespins. I've always thought rub-ons would work well for decorating them. Yet, they have sat in my cabinet of alterables for quite some time. So I got a few out and played with them yesterday and today. Here is what I came up with.

I thought they turned out kind of fun :D

3 years in the making! LOL

I have heard of long-time projects, but THIS is RIDICULOUS! LOL

As you can see with my blog, I have done very little creating in a very long time. So, in trying to get back into the swing of things, we decided I needed to finish off these cards that I have had the supplies ready for. Three years ago, I started this red card for Christmas cards. With birthday party invitations for 4 birthday parties (each child had a "friend party" and a "family party") and life in general, they didn't get done.

So, I decided to do these snowy cards to send out after the new year with a family update letter. Right about then is when my elbow issues started, and I ended up treating and doing physical therapy for what seemed to be tennis elbow - I think "Stamping Elbow" would have been the correct diagnosis in my case. LOL

So these all got pushed aside, and basically forgotten about.

But I am very pleased to announce that after a mere THREE YEARS,

both sets of cards are complete. LOL!

creating today :)

I went downstairs and did a little bit of creating today. I did 2 scrapbook pages for my Daddy album. I want to do an entire album dedicated to pictures of Daddy and memories of him. I found these papers and stickers when we went to Archiver's Father's Day weekend knowing what pictures I would use for them.

I also finished up the last double page layout I started at that crop I went to a while back. They are from Cody's baseball last summer.

New Fabric

Woo-Hoo! I'm excited! We went to Hobby Lobby and found fabric for Mom to make curtains for my Purple Palace! :) It's in the basement, so I have one small high window. My cutting counter has two cabinet bases that are open. So we are going to use tension rods and hang curtains. I can't wait to see the end result!

Finally Finished Pages

My sister Tammy made this wonderful page, and I just loved it! She made one for me too :)

Daddy passed away this past April. He had an adoring love for eagles, making this page so perfect! She also included the two poems that we chose at the funeral home for the printed items used for services, Safely Home and To Those I Love and Those Who Love Me.

Here are some pages I started working on a few months ago at the last crop I went to with Tammy. I finally got around to finishing them up this weekend.

Cody's Four-Wheeler Accident

left page close-up

right page close-up

The kids were all dressed up for my cousing Abbey's wedding since they were helpers in the wedding. I couldn't resist taking some pics of my precious kiddos looking so beautiful!

It was great being back in my Purple Palace working again. I have been trying to get it reorganized now that I'm no longer a Stampin' Up demo. I'm working on getting all of my goodies together and ready to create with, and not having to have everything separated for business reasons. Everything gets to be organized for creating reasons now :)