Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Challenge #29

My first card challenge! Yeah! Since I'm such a Christmas "nut", I've found the ULTIMATE group to start with called Christmas Stampin' All Year Long. It was so much fun digging through all the Christmas stamps and sets that I've collected over this past year.

This challenge is called "spotlighting" where you stamp your image on your main card and then stamp it again on a seperate piece of paper. You then cut and color your image for the area you want to "spotlight" and then adhere it back to your main card. It sounds alittle tricky but it truly is very easy. I decided to go with a Stampin Up set entitled "Home for Christmas". I LOVE any and all Christmas house scenes and it was so much fun to use my Copic Markers to color it in. I also used the red color Coredinations paper for my card and gave it a good sanding for a more distressed look. I then added some Stickles in crystal to make the side tree "pop" alittle and then used a small Fiskars punch to add something to the corners. I feel like I left something out, but nonetheless, it's a pretty good first attempt and it only took me about an hour (having to track down tools is crazy.....and I still need so many more!)

Okay, so if you know me, you know my husband ALWAYS has to be creative when I'm wanting to be creative and then he usually out-shines anything that I do. He got his Mother's creative talent, but I'M the one that has been taking Stamping classes, not him! Well, here is his card that he did and that took him WAY over an hour to finish and numerous choice words coming out of his mouth! (He also has more ink on him then was left on the pad...he..he..he)



Bob used our Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder and also used the Stampin Up set called Snow Globe. He also colored with MY Copic markers and used just regular colored cardstock from Michael's. A pretty good try for someone who rarely stamps.

So that's it for us tonight. Tune in tomorrow as I may try another challenge! Please leave any comments/suggestions as we would love to hear any ideas on how to improve these cards!

My First Card on my own......

Well, I came up with this Birthday card a few months back and......it's a good effort but I know I can do better. I wanted to log a picture of where I "began" and then where I end up.

Now do I know where I got all of my supplies for this??? Nooooo.....but I promise for future posts that I will have a list of all the nice details.

So, as I start to branch out and try my hand at challenges, be on the lookout for more and hopefully better cards!

Stamping and More

Come back often as I will start to upload the cards I have made and will also give you ideas and links to other projects.

Also, I will continue to post any good coupon deals that I come across as well as money-saving finds!

Thanks for stopping by!

Free Birthday Treats

I found this website by reading the Blog, Money Saving Mom (thanks!). This website has an extensive listing, by state too, of many freebies and discounts you can get for your birthday. This can be used for both adults and kids as well. Check it out at www.freebirthdaytreats.com and let me know if you found anything new! I sure did.

Here is our new family member with my sister in Jupiter, FL. His name is Mugsy and he is now 7 months old. He is a complete love and loves everyone. My dachshund Louie went to Florida with us over Christmas and spent his time hiding from Mugsy and growling at him. Maybe when Mugsy gets alittle older Louie will be more receptive to him. We had 3 dachshunds and 1 Greyhound with the 5 adults for Christmas plus 3 kids, 12, 10, and 8. What a full townhome! But we had fun!

Join me on Facebook

Go to my Facebook page, Deanne Carte-Groves and be my friend.

So, I feel clean already this year!!

I feel that I'm finally able to get stamping on my own and will be able to work at it daily. My main goal for 2009 is to do as many Christmas cards as I can. I would like to focus on Christmas for this year and "maybe" a few other little things during the year. (all stamping related!)

So I'm going to work in SplitCoast Stampers and with my Deb at SU, it should give us a good start.

I'm always looking for suggestions, help, and creative comments, even negative. How could you learn if you never heard anything negative. I'm all EARS!

Oh, by the way, I'm unemployed and really NEED A JOB in Columbia, SC. I worked for AT &T for the past 14 years and took a severence package in August. Now I HAVE to get back to work and I WANT to work. Any suggestions, referrals would be greatly appreciated.

Another Christmas Goes By......

Well, another year goes by. I can't believe 2008 is here. This is a big year for me, turning 40. I have alot of goals for this year and can only hope that by this time next year, things will be much simplier and much better than they are as of today.

As I start this new year, I want to reflect on the things that I am grateful for. First and foremost, they fact that I'm still here and alive and kicking. Even though it seems that every so many months a new "condition" occurs, I can only hope that be finally losing the weight I need to this year will slow down the "conditions". My current favorite is the carpel tunnel syndrome I've just been diagnosed with.

Secondly, the fact that I am in a very stable and loving relationship with my wonderful husband. 2008 will be our 10th year together and 7th year married. It's just the 2 of us and our dogs Niko and Louie. Life is good at home.

Third, my job is stable as well as my husband's. Our finances are not the best, but then again, not alot of folks are. We still have our roof over our heads and we live comfortably.

Next, the health of my family, namely my Mom. She also has finally found a "companion" to do things with and that has taken alot of worry off of my mind.

There are alot of negatives to mention, but this year, 2008, will be a positive year!

I'm looking forward to it......

Wow. It's been a long time since I posted. I finally decided to give this blog a good shot at upkeeping. My first new post has to do with our "new" dog, Louie.

We adopted Louie from the local animal shelter on June 17th. He was found wandering in town and after a nice family found him and placed an ad in the paper, no one claimed him. I guess they couldn't keep him because the day we went to look for a dachshund, there he was.

Louie is a true treasure. He is a standard short-haired red dachshund and he gets along beautifully with our greyhound, Niko. I believe Bob and I are truly in love. Now if we can just get him to stop pooing in the house when we are gone!

Louie also gets along with my sister's dachshund, Maci. Bob and I adopted her for them back in April and after having her with us for 6 weeks, when she left, I had to have another dachshund. Louie and Maci are true girlfriend/boyfriend. Check out Maci's picture in her new shirt!

I'm sure things will only get livelier the rest of this year with Louie discovering Halloween and Christmas. I can't wait!

Welcome to My Family

Well, I hope that my sister and her better half are truly experiencing the joys of internet exploring, now that they finally broke down and went and got a computer/laptop. They also invested in cable internet service, and I hope that their surfing days have only begun. I've been sending as much junk mail as I could to them........

I'm now hoping that I will soon be receiving pictures of my favorite little girls quite frequently, as the new digital camera purchase is not far off for them. I hope they don't overdo their "technology" exposure!

Tonight is Neigborhood Cooking Club night at my next door neighbors, the Greenwich's. So where am I? Well, Bob and I forgot and I cooked dinner...shame on us. Plus, it's the opening game of the 2005 Football season for the University of South Carolina with new coach, Steve Spurrier. Bob and I have become big USC fans, even when Lou Holtz was here. We don't go downtown to any of the games, and we don't get to tailgate, but we do throw a nice little party at our house for ourselves!!

Go Gamecocks!!!!!

My new recipe for pasta!

The best part of today was making my new pasta dish for dinner. Now I didn't create it, but I did cook it and it was WONDERFUL! It's called Sweet Sausage Marsala, and can be found on Allrecipes online. Now I didn't have any marsala handy, but I did use my open Pinot Noir and it was great! I served it over angel hair pasta and Bob just raved over it. My house smelled wonderful. Click below for a link to this wonderful recipe. Try it yourself, and let me know how it goes.

http://pork.allrecipes.com/az/75705.asp

I'm on a goal to try new recipes each week, and trying to find more dishes to add to my monthly dinners. I really like to cook, and baking is what I LOVE to do, but I need to cut out my baking in order to lose some weight. Bob and I both need to drop some pounds.

Tomorrow is pork night and our wonderful neighbors, Kevin, Christin, Wyatt, and Grace plus Buster are coming for dinner. I so enjoy having them over, and they are always game for a new dish!

Coupons & the search for a good toilet paper deal..

Well, I've decided to join a coupon club after being introduced by a neighbors daughter-in-law to the "coupon hobby". I've been clipping some coupons and using them at the local stores, but I've never saved more than $10 at a time. I'm hoping that I can find a really good deal on toilet paper for free or for mere pennies as this seems to be the one item my house goes through quite a bit. Bob states that I'm the problem with toilet paper, and he's probably right.

I've spent most of the day on the website and online looking for "freebies" and any free coupons. I'm just concerned that some retailers won't take an online coupon that's printed off. It could be a duplicate of a coupon and not the real thing. I guess I'll just have to try.

Well, I'm off to buy some more newspapers and to get my coupon stash bolstered by all the new ones that came out today.