New addition!

We have had several dogs over our families history and I swore I would never have another one. But recently, I have been really thinking it would be a good idea. My kids are all getting older, no more babies, and I am home alone alot. Just last week I had a couple days when I was really jumpy. Every little noise was making me nervous. I hate that feeling! I started thinking that having a dog around might ease my nerves a bit. My kids have been begging for a dog for years! It is pretty easy to say no to them, but when my dear hubby started hinting that a dog would be the perfect gift for his 40th birthday....I knew I was going to have to give in.

We found this sweet boxer mix at the SPCA here locally. We had picked out a shepherd the day before, but when we saw both dogs in action with Ben,....it was pretty clear she was the one for us. She is totally calm yet playful, house trained, quiet, and just loves all the kids! The first day she was home she was a bit nervouse I think because she would not lay down. The poor thing was shaking she was so tired! I finally sat on the floor and she laid beside me. She is getting more comfortable every day. We are still working on a name for her. Any suggestions??

I have set a goal to use up my scraps. Or at least....shrink them a bit. I made several cards this weekend using only scraps. Here is the first one and...well, okay! I cheated!Great start, right? I had just got a SU shipment with my new True Friend set and the Apple cider paper so...I did use a piece of the AC paper. I love the rich colors on there! The rest of the paper is from my scrap stash. The card base is Vanilla, I put a strip of craft under the edge of the AC paper and pierced along the edge of both papers. The focal is stamped onto vanilla using the M3 and mounted onto old olive cardstock. I used Really rust, old olive, and chocolate chip markers to color directly onto the stamp. The ribbon is (also from a new roll...shoot!) the new vanilla tafetta that I colored rust with my rust marker. I LOVE how it looks in person! This new ribbon is awesome!! I stamped "friend" from the same stamp set by just inking up that word with my chocolate chip marker.

Okay, so this next one really does use all scraps!

I used the same True Friend set on this one. This set has a great medallion stamp that I just love! I started the card with a base of Not Quite Navy and stamped that medallion with the same color ink. I went for that instead of Vmark becasue I wanted it a bit darker that Vmark would have made it. I put a strip of patterned paper...SU from days gone by....across the middle and wrapped a strip of white tafetta ribbon around that. I tied another smaller piece of ribbon on the strip I had put down. This is a good idea if you are not sure where you want your knot to be. You can slide it around when you do it this way. The focal point is stamped in NQN onto vanilly cardstock and mounted onto a scrap of NQN. I wanted it to stand out from the background a bit so I pushed the edges of the NQN into my Vanilla pad to give it a bit of an edge. I stuck the Focal point on with my dimensionals. I colored in the U with a bordering blue marker and then added crystal effects over it. Just to give it a bit more character. All in all, an easy card that is pretty darn cute I think!

I'm going to go now and finish the scrapbook page I'm making from scraps. Keep posted!!