Merry Christmas!!

I don't have anything to share card wise today, but I wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!

I have been so blessed this year in finding a new love of stamping and all the wonderful friends I've made through this craft! I hope you and your families have a blessed holiday and reflect on all of your blessings.

I will be spending the next few days with family, but hope to be back to regular blogging after the new year!

Remember... Wise Men Still Seek Him!

Love and Hugs!

Monica

Birthday Card For My Husband

Tonight I have a card to share with you that I made for my husband. Tomorrow is his birthday and I wanted to make him a hand made card. I have only been stamping since January 2008, so this is the first birthday card I have made for him.

I really had a hard time with this card. Why are masculine cards so hard to make?? UGH! I really wanted the stamped image to turn out differently. I tried brayering and decided I need more practice! So this is the finished product.

I used Stampin Up's Nature Silhouettes stamp set. The paper is Not Quite Navy, Bordering Blue and Always Artichoke. I used my Label Nesties set to cut out the image and the matting. I also used the Nesties Ribbon Label die cut for the sentiment. The lighter blue background was cuttlebugged with two different embossing templates.



This is the inside of the card:



I was sick all weekend with the flu/head cold that's going around. I am feeling better than I was, but not back to 100% yet. Thanks for stopping by! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

New Rubber from Rubber Romance!

Forgive me if this posts ends up sounding loopy! I have caught a dad-gum head cold from either my daughter or my parents. Who should I blame? LOL .. anyway, I've taken some cold medicine and will hitting the sack very soon.

I have two cards to share with you tonight: The first card I created with a new stamp I purchased from Susana at Susana's Custom Art and Card Design. This is from Rubber Romance and I just the love this stamp! My card is very simple, too simple in fact. I made this to give to a friend who I've been missing lately. But since the head cold kicked in full force today, I didn't have alot of MOJO to really embellish. Sometimes I think simple is good. I like how it turned out.

I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, and colored it with Copic Markers. The DP is Basic Grey and the matting around the image is SU Taken With Teal. I added a simple piece of organza ribbon.


The second card is one of the Christmas cards that I mass produced for my Christmas card list. I really LOVE this Santa stamp! I finally found one on Ebay and took the plunge to purchase it. I stamped it with Gold pigment ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder. The DP is from the My Minds Eye Christmas Glitter pack. LOVE this paper!!



















Hope everyone is doing well and making progress in their Holiday shopping. Don't even ask if I've started yet! My tree still isn't up.. but come heck or high water it will be this weekend.

Have a great evening! Thanks for coming by and for all your sweet comments you leave me!

College Football and New Cards...

What a weekend!! First and most important.. my Florida Gators beat Alabama in the SEC Championship and now The Gators are headed to Miami to play Oklahoma in the National Championship game! WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOOOOOO GATORS!!! I hope Tim Tebow wins the Heisman again this year. He soooo deserves it. What an awesome young man Tim is.. we are so proud of him.

I spent all day today with my three girlfriends, Lynn, Becky and Amanda, stamping away and trying to get my Christmas cards finished. We had so much fun today!

The two cards show are made with a new Tilda I just got from Diana Crick at Magnolia-Licious.
I think she is so cute. I colored her with Copic Markers and the Designer paper is from My Minds Eye Christmas Paper Pack. I also used my new Martha Stewart tree branch punch, Circle Nesties and ribbon from Michaels.

I have several more cards to share with you that I made today.

It's late and I need to get to bed! Thanks for stopping by!

I'm Still Here!!

First of all, I hope all my American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was very nice and plentiful! Boy, did I eat too much!

I have two cards to share with you tonight. The first one is a card that I made for the recipients of a swap I do monthly in the Magnolia-Licious Yahoo Group called "It's Raining Cards". I used Tilda with Lantern and used Deb's sketch challenge for the layout of my card. You can find the Bi-Weekly Challenges here.

I used DP from a Christmas pack from My Minds Eye which I found at Michaels! I LOVE the paper in this pack. I colored Tilda with Copic Markers and cut out the snow flakes with my Sizzlet die cuts. I added the glitter and used distress ink to ink around the edges of the image and the border. I used Nesties to cut out the ribbon tag and then looped the ivory organza ribbon through the tag.





The next card I created with Gina K stamps from the Magic of Christmas by Rupa Shevde. I love this image.. it's so elegant! I used DP again from the Christmas stack from My Minds Eye and you can barely see it but I used a border punch from Marth Stewart along the edge of the snowflake paper. I adhered the stamped image which was embossed with Gold ink and clear embossing powder to the card with foam dimensionals. Then I added the ribbon and boom... I was done.





I'm waiting on a box from the big brown truck which shall arrive tomorrow and as soon as my goodies arrive, I'll have more to show this week!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Don't Miss Out!!

Starting today and through December 1st you can take advantage of some wonderful bundle packages at 20% to 50% off!

Just go to my SU website and order online! Just think.. you won't have to fight lines, or crowds or even leave the comfort of your home!

Supplies are limited.. so don't wait!

Exciting Announcement and Other Random Stuff

I finally started my Stampin'Up Demonstrator Website. If you didn't already know, I am a Stampin Up Demo.. more hobbist than anything, but I do have a great group of girls that order from me and we get together quite often to stamp!

If you're looking to place an order or browse the catalog, please check out my website.

I still have some work to do on the website and will do that in the next couple of days.

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Deb and I started a new Challenge Blog for the Magnolia-Licious Yahoo Group Challenges. You can check out the latest challenges here.

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I have been working on some cards but don't have any finished to share yet. I hope to have some in the next night or two! Bear with me.. sorry for the lapse in posting.

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This award was so kindly given to me by my stampin' friends Suzanne and Emma Thank you both!!

Here's some info on the award:

This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY- nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement . Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers.
Deliver this award to 8 bloggers who may then pass it on. I've seen this award do the rounds yesterday, so if you've already received this then your extra special :)

So my award goes to some of the people that inspire me! I wish I could list them all here!

Deb - Itty Bitty Inkspots
Susan - Stamping Tink
Cheryl - Cottage Creations
Suzy - Papermonkey

Wake Me When It's Christmas....

Great Places to Shop Online

I've been placing a lot of orders online lately and have found some great stores! I'm going to be adding these links to my side bar, but I wanted to talk about a few of the places I've found in more detail.

As you all know, I am crazy about Magnolia stamps. Within the last few months we've been able to buy them here in the states through online webstores instead of buying direct from Sweden.

You can visit Magnolia-Licious owned by Diana Crick (Scor-Pal inventor)

or you can visit Roses on Paper owned by Summer.


If you are looking for other stamping, scrapping and papercrafting supplies give these stores at look:

Susana's Custom Art and Card Design - wide variety of stamps including Rubber Romance, Lockhart stamps, Hot Off The Press, I Brake For Stamps, Serendipity and Susana's own line of stamps called Susana Loves Stamps. Stamping accessories, stickles, paper, Spica Atyou Glitter Pens by Copic, adhesives, embellishments.. loaded with great products!

A Page At A Time - stamps, paper, adhesive, embellishments, Cricut cartridges and more.


All That Scraps

Ellen Hutsen

I Heart Papers


I just got my new Nesties that I ordered from Ellen Hutsen.com and can't wait to play with them this weekend! I finally purchased the new Nesties called Labels 1 and Labels 2.

Sorry I haven't had any cards to post this week. I promise to have something this weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge #41

This is the first time I've participated in Taylor's Sketch Challenge. I really had fun making this card. It's going to be mailed to a very special person. She reads my blog but I'm not naming her so hopefully she'll be pleasantly surprised when she gets it.

I picked up this House Mouse stamp months ago and forgot I had it!! It's a pretty old stamp...but it still inks up nicely! I have a lot to learn about coloring these images. I'm happy with how the card turned out.

Here's the sketch...



This is my card:



Supplies Used:

Image: House Mouse
Paper: Stampin Up Purely Pomegranate and Wild Wasabi; stamped on PTI Stampers Select.
Designer paper is Basic Grey Urban Prairie.
Ink: Ranger Archival, Stazon and Handsome Hunter
Accessories: Rectangle Nestabilites, Ribbon, Baubles, Copic Markers, Fiskars Threading Water Punch, corner rounder.

Tomorrow I will be spending the day with my family. My Aunt and Uncle are celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary! They are renewing their vows and then having a reception afterwards. I am looking forward to sharing this special day with them and my cousins and other family I don't get to see near enough. I hope you all have a great weekend!


Thanks for stopping by!!

Blog Candy Alert!! Suzanne's Giveaway...

My friend Suzanne has some awesome blog candy up for grabs on her website!

Make sure you check it out!! I'm dying to get my hands on that Basic Grey paper pad!! Can't find it anywhere!

Go enter.. and good luck!!

Frohliche Weihnachten!

If you aren't German or don't know what Frohliche Weihnachten means, it means Merry Christmas! My mother was born and raised in Germany and I have lots of family who live there. I made this card today and decided if I liked how it turned out I would make several more just like it to send to my family in Germany.

I used the new Janome Mini Sewing machine that I won from Lesa to stitch on the card. As you can see, I have lots to learn! LOL...

I colored Tilda with my copic markers. The DP is Basic Grey Two Scoops and my card base is Stampin' Up Always Artichoke. I matted the DP on Not Quite Navy and then matted the Tilda image on Wild Wasabi. The ribbon is from Michaels dollar spot!

I'm feeling a little better today, but still don't feel great. I'm going to take one more day off of work to take it easy and will go back on Thursday.

Thanks for stopping by today! Leave a comment if you can.. I'd love to know what you think of this card!

Don't Forget.....

To Vote today!!!

I'm not into posting my political views here on my blog... but I do encourage EVERYONE TO VOTE!!!

On another note, today I had a outpatient surgical procedure done so I haven't felt up to crafting today. I slept most of the day and am hoping tomorrow I will feel up to creating a few cards since I have the day off for recuperating.

I have been blurfing most of the evening and boy I've seen some beautiful creations tonight. There are lots of new releases coming out and one that I am really excited about is from My Favorite Things. Check out this sneak peek on Michelle's blog!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great Election Day!

Great New Site! Check it out!

Have you heard about Paper Craft Planet? Susanna Boyd from CardoftheWeek created a new community for paper crafters! Lots of great tutorials, templates, photos, forums and awesome paper crafters over there! Make sure you check it out and if you decide to join, send me a friend request!! I'm RiverviewStamper there!

Holiday Recipe Swap

I signed up to do a Holiday Recipe Swap on my Magnolia-Licious Yahoo Group. This is the card I created.. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I can't wait to receive what the other participants created.



The card base is SU Purely Pomegranate cardstock cut to 6 x 6. I used patterned paper from a Christmas Paper Stack from DCWV. I cut out the snowflakes on Soft Sky and then added glitter. The small candle stamp on the recipe is from the new release from Saltbox Studio. The ribbon was purchased at Michaels.

Thanks for looking!!

My Stamping Area

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! Can you believe it's November??? OMG.. where has the year gone?

About two years ago, I had an actual craft room. When my son turned 18, he decided to move out and try living on his own. I turned his bedroom into my scrapbooking room. Well that was short lived, because dear son decided to move back home! UGH! I had to move all my stuff out and right now my crafting supplies are located in several places in my house..

I have a large desk that I used when I worked from home. Now that I've returned to the Corporate work force, I turned my old office space into my stamping-crafting area.



As you can see the space is small, but it suits me fine for now. Don't think I'm not counting the days down till my son finally vacates again! LOL

Here's a few more shots of my desk...



This is the basket I found at Joann's that I store my Copic Markers, Prismacolor Pencils and my glitter gel pens in. I love it! I actually got two at the same time and the other I use to store my Nestabilities and my Cuttlebug Folders in.



The next couple photos show different shots of my desk and one shows my new Janome Mini sewing machine I recently won on Lesa's blog.







I have a couple of cards to share with you tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

More Holiday Cards

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I got a little crafting time in, colored more images for a few birthday cards I'm making and also putting the finishing touches on my Magnolia-Licious Recipe Swap.

The Janome Mini Sewing machine that I won from Lesa arrived on Friday and I did play with it a little over the weekend! I hope to be able to show something I've done with the sewing sometime this week. Thanks again Lesa!! I know I'm going to put this to good use!

The cards I am sharing tonight are a variety of different cards I made.



I'm not sure who makes the stamp above. I stamped it at my friend Lynn's house. I'll have to ask her if she remembers who makes this stamp. I just love these snowmen! I'm not sure I like the size card I used to make this. I bought these cards at JoAnns and they come with the circle already cut out. Colored with my copics and I used my snowflake cuttlebug embossing folder. Image was cut out with my Nesties.





Another A Muse card. Again colored with my copics. Simple and a little crooked too!



This card features A Muse stamps. I just love A Muse!! I colored the image with Copic Markers. Very simple card as you can see. Sometimes simple is so cute!




Thanks for stopping by!

My Hero in Iraq

Some of you who have followed my blog know that a very special person to me is serving in the United States Marines and is currently in Iraq. Kevin dated my daughter for almost 4 years and is so very special to our entire family. When my brother died, he flew all the way from California to honor my brother who served in the Army. Kevin and two other dear friends who are Marines conducted the Flag Folding Ceremony and presentation of the Flag to my parents and my niece.



I'm very lucky that I get to email quite frequently with Kevin. Today he sent me some pictures of him in Iraq. To say it made my day is putting it mildly! I hope you don't mind me sharing.. One of the pictures is so cool!

I'm going to be sending a box of cards to Kevin in the next couple of weeks. I'm working on some holiday cards to send him and his unit so they will have some cards to send home to their families and friends during the holidays. If you'd like to help and make a few cards.. I'd love it! Email me at riverviewstamper at gmail dot com and I will give you my address to send them too!








Thanks for serving our country Kevin and please know you are in my thoughts and prayers daily! I love you!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Twenty Years Ago Today....

I gave birth to my first child. I can't believe my little boy is now a man. Not a teenager anymore. Funny...he said that to me the other day. "Mom, I'm not going to be a teenager anymore." This is Eric. He's so special to me.

Happy Birthday!!

Here's the card I made him for his birthday. It's perfect because he loves to fish!
I colored Riley with copic markers and the DP is Basic Grey. I used baubles and some hemp twine for embellishments.



Thanks for stopping by!

I'm So Excited!!!

I just found out I won a WONDERFUL blog candy contest I entered!! Lesa was giving away a Jenome Mini Sewing Machine if you entered her 40th Birthday Blog Candy Challenge. I did and I won!! OMG.. I am so excited. I have been dying to try stitching on my cards!


I forgot to post this the other day. I also won the entire new holiday release from Saltbox Studios!
You can see all the stamps I won here

Thanks Lesa and Linda for the chance to win such awesome prizes!!

Fall is in the air...

This has nothing to do with my next card, but I wanted to share what an awesome weekend this past weekend was. I am an AVID sports fan. I LOVE Football and am a Die Hard Florida Gator and Tampa Bay Buccaneer Fan. I watch and go to football games more than I do baseball, but I've been avidly following the Tampa Bay Rays this year since they are doing so well.

This weekend, all of my teams just kicked some booty! The Gators rolled over the LSU Tigers who are the defending National Champs. The Rays are in the ALCS and we're hoping to make it to the World Series. The Buccaneers beat the Carolina Panthers yesterday in an whooping they hadn't received in our home town in several meetings. It was a great sports weekend! My dad, mom and I had so much fun cheering on our teams!

Anywhoo.. Go Gators, Rays and Bucs!!

Now on to my next Card..

I love Fall and wish that we had more of this beautiful season here in Florida. I colored Tilda with copic markers and sponged distress ink around the image after I cut it out with my Nesties. I mounted the image on pop-dots to give it some dimension and the DP is from Basic Grey.

Merry Chris-Moose! Florida Gator Style!

First of all, I'm sorry it's been 12 days since I last posted. Life has been busy lately and I've spent a great deal of time coloring images to complete lots of cards. Tonight was very productive. I finished 5 cards!

Before I share my cards tonight, I'm happy to report that my friend Lynn came through her surgery just fine and even better, the biopsy came back fine!! Praise God for his blessings! Thanks so much to everyone who kept her in your thoughts and prayers and emailed me and sent comments! Lynn and I really appreciate it! She's home recuperating now and doing lots of blog surfing! She's even coloring and making some cards! I promised her I'd help her set up her own blog as soon as she's up to it.

The first card I'm sharing tonight is one of the Christmas cards I'm sending out to my Friends and Family who are avid Gator Fans like me! I used the new Hanna Stamps, Riley and Snowman stamp. I colored Riley's hat and scarf in Orange and Blue - Gator colors!

I'm not sure what's up with my camera. I think I need to clean the sensor. I have a Nikon D50- DSLR and you can see a shadow on these pictures I took tonight that looks like a squiggly line. It is not on the card itself, so I need to get the sensor cleaned so it doesn't keep showing up on my photos.




Recipe:

Ink: Memento-Pitch Black and Clear Embossing Powder
Paper: Stamped on PTI Stampers Select; SU Pumpkin Pie to mat and DP is a paperpack of Christmas paper from ProvoCraft.
Ribbon: Michaels
Nesties
Coloring: Copic Markers: YR24,E57,B00,C3,E37,B29,YR09

Thanks for looking! As always.. I love to hear your comments!

Your Kidding Me!! It's not a Magnolia??

It's a Bella!! Latte Bella that is...




I made this card for my boss who is also a very very dear friend of mine. I have worked for her for over 12 years and love her to death.

I colored Bella with my Copics and used my Nesties.
Thanks for stopping by!!

My First Whiff of Joy Card

I purchased this stamp by Whif of Joy from All That Scraps a week or so ago, with a special purpose in mind. My dear friend Lynn, LOVES Angels and I saw this stamp and had to get it to make a card for her. Lynn is having surgery on Thursday. This will be her third major surgery in the past year and we are all praying it's her last! Lynn is one of those people that the moment you meet them you know they are special. I am so Blessed to call her my friend and have her in my life. She sits next to me at work and I'm going to miss her the next few weeks while she's recouperating. Lynn... I love you and am praying for you.

Here is the card I made for Lynn...













Here's a close up of the colored image. I really love how it turned out because it was my first time embossing the stamped image. Not only does it make the card look so much better, it makes the coloring so much easier and vibrant.



















I used SU Certainly Celery as my card base and the DP is Basic Grey Two Scoops. I used my nestabilites to cut out the image and the mat around the stamped image. I used Copic Markers to color the image and used some Stickles to add a little bling.

Thanks for looking and stopping by!

A Big Thank You and a New Card...

First of all, I want to thank everyone who emailed and left me all the wonderful comments regarding my post a few days ago pertaining to my brother. I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful friends!

On To The Card...



I made this card last week and haven't had time to share it on my blog yet. I really like how it turned out.

Tomorrow I'm going to my friend Shelley's house for a day of stamping! I've got lots of images colored and hope to get them made into cards. I need to get some Christmas Cards completed so hopefully I'll make some progress tomorrow.

I hope to have some new cards to show you tomorrow night. I know you all are probably tired of seeing Magnolias.

BLOG CANDY!! Hanglar & Stanglar Stamps!

Anki is celebrating 1000 hits to her blog. Check out the adorable stamps she's giving away! I love love Hanglar stamps and have been dying to get some, but they don't sell them in the US.

A Very Personal Post

Me and my brother... Christmas 2004




I'm not sure that I have ever shared this information on my blog, but I am compelled to post today because it is a very difficult day for me and my parents, niece and family.

One year ago today, my brother committed suicide. One year ago today was the worst day of my life. One year ago today, I lost my only sibling. One year ago today, I watch my parents lose a child and witnessed the heartwrenching pain they would endure.

This past year has been difficult. My brother left behind a beautiful 10 year old daughter. She misses her daddy.

Today, I will spend the day with my parents and try to get through the day as best we can. Please say a prayer for us.

I'll be back in a day or two with some cards to share.

A Baby Card For Triplets!

A dear friend of mine asked me to make a special Baby Card for a friend of hers who just gave birth to triplets. I really am happy with how it turned out and my friend and the new mother Loved it too!

The stamp is from an old Stampin Up retired set. I used copic markers to color the image and the DP is Nana's Nursery-Boy edition. I used SU cardstock and ink to sponge in the sky and grass.


Today is my 21st Wedding Anniversary! I can't believe I've been married that long! My hubby and I will go out for a nice dinner tomorrow night. He works nights so we couldn't go tonight. Here is a pretty recent picture of the two of us taken back in May.



Happy Anniversary Honey! I Love you!!

Another Monday....

WOW...is it just me or are the days flying by this year? I can't believe we are half way through September already! I hope everyone had a good weekend, and I hope that all my fellow stampers that were in Hurricane Ike's path are ok and got through it with minimal damage.

Have you seen the new widget that you can add to your blogs called "followers"? If you follow my blog you can add yourself to my followers list over on the right. I'd love to see how many followers I have.

You can also subscribe to my blog over on the right too. I love Google Reader and keep up with all my blurfing through google reader.

I haven't made any new cards in the past few days, but I did get to color some new Magnolias. I'm hoping to get the cards put together this week. Here's a card I made last week.




Today I went to see the new movie "The Women". Very cute movie! Amazingly, there wasn't one single solitary male in this movie. The story line was cute and I LOVE Meg Ryan!



Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

Just A Swing'in

Here's another card I created last week. I just love the swing and can't wait to play more with it. I also bought the Big Old Oak Tree and I'm going to try my hand at creating a scene with some of the accessorie stamps I have.

I colored Edwin with Copic Markers and sponged the sky background.

I made some new cards tonight and have to take pictures of them to share with you tomorrow.

Have a great day.. and thanks for visiting!

What's up Cupcake??

I made this card last week and due to a busy week and weekend I'm just getting around to posting it. I am absolutely in love with this Tilda! Isn't she the sweetest!

I colored her with my Copic Markers and sponged the blue background behind her. I added stickles for a little bling. I used my Oval Nestabilities and the designer paper is DCWV from a paper pack I bought at JoAnns.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I'll be back tomorrow to share another card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Allison's Blog Candy!

Make sure you visit Allison as she celebrates her 2 year Blogiversary!

Hope Your Not Tired Of..

Magnolias. I am totally in love with these little people! They are so much fun to color and create cards with.

If you'd like to order you can contact Diana Crick at magnolia.us@shaw.ca
She will send you an inventory list via email. Hopefully her site will be up and running soon! I can't wait.

Yesterday, my friends Lynn and Amanda came over and we spent all day coloring and making cards.

I'm going to share one card from each of us! Amanda and Lynn don't have blogs but I'm going to work on getting them to start one. :)



This is the card I made. I colored Tilda with my Copic markers and used Stampin Up ink pads to daub the sky and grass. I really like how this card turned out!



This Edwin card was colored and created by Amanda. She did a great job! I love how it turned out.




Lynn made this adorable Tilda card! I love the colors she chose.. she is just so cute!

On a side note, I'm praying for all of those in the path of Hurricane Gustav! We are getting alot of wind today from the outer bands of this massive storm.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to have some more cards to share with you tomorrow! Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend!