Let's Help Celebrate!

A friend of mine shared this post on Facebook today and I really felt like I want to get behind this and help celebrate this WWII veteran's 100th birthday.  I had this card that I made a year ago for a challenge in my little Yahoo scrapbooking/card making group and I had never sent it out.  So today I added the "100" and a birthday greeting inside and I am sending it out this week.

Here is a picture of Mr. Kuntz and his neighbor Salena who is putting this effort together:

Here is the information if you want to be a part of this awesome way to thank a veteran.

My name is Salena Catron - Mr. Kuntz is My Best Friend and Neighbor...
This year June 15, 2015 Mr. Kuntz will be 100 years old. He doesn't know about this page... - Shhhh... It's a SECRET!!! -
** I would like to ask each person who reads this to do a tangible act of kindness to recognize a WWII veteran on his 100th Birthday. Seaman 1st Class James Ralph Kuntz of Kokomo, IN
James was born on 15 June, 1915. He served aboard the USS Swenning in 1945 in the Pacific Theater and then on an LSD Boat out of NAB Little Creek, VA after the war. He was a Radioman and could Morse Code 28 words per minute.
I’d like to ask anyone who is able to kindly send a birthday card to this gentleman to let him know we appreciate his service that contributed to the war effort that saved the world from tyranny. Please send cards to Salena Catron c/o James Ralph Kuntz - 3310 Orleans Dr., Kokomo, IN 46902.

My plan is to get as many Birthday wishes, or even cards I can for him. I really want him to have the VERY BEST Birthday ever!!!
I will be following up with more background about My BEST FRIEND!
Please feel free to share...

Passing on the Faith

I am very excited today to announce that I am the guest designer for the whole month of June over at Lasting Memories.  I consider it a real honor to be asked and have been working hard on the layouts to share with you this coming month.

For this first layout, the theme is Faith and the inspiration is this verse:

 I used a picture of my son, his dad and my grandsons on Easter Sunday a few years ago.  My son has been diligent in passing on his faith to his sons and they attend church together nearly every Sunday.  I am so proud of him as he raises those boys as a single dad and instilling in them the faith he grew up with.

I used this awesome sketch sketch from Page Maps:

Thanks for stopping by my blog today and I hope you will stop by next week to see my next reveal.  In the mean time, I hope you will play along with the challenge at Lasting Memories.  I hear there is an awesome prize so you know I linked up!  You can click HERE for details.

~~Sandi~~

Love & Cherish Each Other

I get to see my family in the Midwest once or twice if I am lucky each year.  I never remember until after I am back home in Florida to take family groupings of pictures.  The day before we left I asked Matt and Amy if I could take a family photo.  Of course they agreed....that is everyone but lil' Miss Izzy.  She was miserable with an ear infection and I did not want to push the issue.  So I took Amy, Matt and Abby's picture but I wanted to include Izzy on this layout so I added a picture of her from a couple of days earlier.

I used this very cool sketch from My Scraps and More Sketches:

There are still a few days to play along with the sketch challenge and there is an awesome prize up for grabs.  You can see all the details HERE

Thanks for dropping in....have a wonderful weekend.

~~Sandi~~

SPLASH

These pictures of my granddaughter Abby are nearly 4 years old and I am so glad I came upon them over the weekend because when I saw the May BoBunny sketch, I knew I would use these pictures with some older BoBunny collections.  I had been hoarding this background paper and some various bits and pieces for a special page.  They all came together perfectly tonight.  I used this sketch:

I turned the sketch a quarter of a turn to accomodate my horizontal pictures.  I just love all the layering in this sketch.  There is still time to enter the sketch challenge.  You can see all the details HERE.

I am also entering this page in Rochelle Spears Scrappy Friends' Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge

I went straight fown the right hand column using an arrow, something pink and lined paper.

Thanks for stopping by tonight....I will be back tomorrow night with that layout for Matt's scrapbook that I promised you last night.

~~Sandi~~

Matt's Best Friend

I have been wanting to document the relationship between my oldest son and his dog for quite awhile but could not find any pictures.  On our recent trip to see them, my son handed me several pictures that he came across recently.  And so I had what I needed to create this page.  All I needed was the right sketch and some time.  Well that all came together this weekend when I found the time and came upon this sketch from Sketches in Thyme:

I loved it and knew it was perfect to document this story for my son's scrapbook.

I am also entering this layout in Clique Kits May Anything Goes Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by....I will be back tomorrow to share another page I did this weekend for Matt's scrapbook.

~~Sandi~~

Life is Good

Dave and I were able to get away for a weekend in April to celebrate his 47th birthday.  We rented a vacation condo on a sleepy little key in the Gulf of Mexico called Cedar Key.  We had a wonderful and very relaxing two and a half days.  We snapped this selfie on the balcony facing the water shortly after we arrived.  the colors in the photo really matched the colors of the new Pink Paislee collection -- Citrus Bliss.  The only thing on this whole layout that is not from that collection is the yellow felt banner behind the photo.  I used another awesome Laura Whitaker sketch, this time from Stuck? Sketches!

Another reason I really love this photo is that for the last 6-8 months I have been consciously changing my eating and lifestyle to reflect a healthier approach to life.  To date I have lost 45 pounds and I feel great.  Dave has been going to the gym for nearly 2 years and looks incredible.  This picture reflects those changes.  It has been difficult at times to stay on track but we are both determined to enter our golden years in as good shape as is within our power to do so.  For that reason I am entering this page in Lasting Memories Anything Goes -- Determination Challenge.

I was inspired by this color challenge at Kelly's blog Creating With Paper and More

I think I used all these gorgeous colors so I am entering it in Kelly's challenge also.

We are getting ready to celebrate Memorial Day by donating blood and then taking a long walk at the beautiful Waterfront Park.

How are you celebrating this weekend?

~~Sandi~~

#BizzyIzzy

I am still working on catching up my granddaughter Izzy's scrapbook.  Her sister Abby loves having her picture taken and there was a time when Izzy was 2 that she absolutely HATED having her picture taken.  Therefore Abby's album has more pages than Izzy's.  But when we were out in Chicago in March that all changed....Izzy was more than willing to let me take her picture.  In fact in these pictures she took them  herself.

I used leftovers from several Scrapbook Circle kits for this page.  In fact the only thing that was not in a SC kit are the Thickers for the title and the couple of enamel dots.  I used the Scrapbook Circle May sketch by Diana Fisher:

Edited 7/6/15 to add: I am linking up this page to the new issue at Paper Issues -- Hey, Tech This Out! With Color Cast Designs

I am also entering this page in Clique Kits May Challenge....which has a fabulous prize from a new stamp company.  Details can be seen by going to this link:

https://cliquekits.wordpress.com/2015/05/02/clique-kits-may-challenge/

~~Sandi~~

Hello Friend

I live in Florida and I must confess to being totally helpless this time of year when all the nautical/beachy and summery collections come out.  I must get them.  Every one of them.  DCWV recently released a new stack called Seaside Yacht and when I spotted it recently at my Michael's it somehow fell in my cart.  LOL  I used it on this card for a friend of mine in Missouri.  

I am entering it in the current challenge at ShowCASe Your Style -- Make a Friendship card.

Thanks for stopping by....3 more work days for me and then I get a nice long 3-day weekend.  Woo-Hoo!!

~~Sandi~~

Using the Negative

Seize the Birthday has a really neat challenge going on.  The challenge is to use the negative, or the part left over when you die cut a shape or in my case a sentiment. This is a new technique to me and I not only love the way it looks to use the negative but it also allows me to get 2 projects out of die cutting once. I used this awesome sketch (which I just turned on it's side) from Viva La Verve:

I am also entering this card into the current Lawnscaping challenge to Use a New Technique.

Thanks so much for stopping by tonight.  

~~Sandi~~

A Birthday Card for my Baby Sister

My sister is 6 years younger than me so I think that qualifies her to be my baby sister.  She and her family recently moved to North Carolina from Indiana and I think she is enjoying the move.  Her birthday is coming up so I wanted to make her a card.  I used this awesome sketch from My Favorite Things:

I am also entering it in Simon Says Stamps Work It Wednesday challenge to use yellow

and also Seize The Birthday current challenge

Thanks for stopping by and hey....Monday is just about over.!

~~Sandi~~

Life in the Fast Lane

A month after Dave and I were married in 2003 the transfer from my company that we had been hoping for came through and we were heading out of the Midwest for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  Dave owned a sweet Dakota RT pickup with a Hemi. It was his prized possession and he only have 10 payments left on it.  But his monthly payment was rather large.  We were moving on a hope and a prayer after having spent our little savings on our Vegas wedding and Tybee Island, Georgia honeymoon.  Being that he was moving with no job, Dave made the heartbreaking decision to sell his RT before we moved. In retrospect he was right...we could never have made those 10 last payments.  But I felt terrible and I told him someday we would get him another RT with a Hemi.  Well on April 29th, we picked up Dave's Challenger RT Classic with a Hemi.  Let me tell you....this car is awesome.  Dave is happy.  I am happy.  I HAD to document this special day.

I used this sketch from Stuck? Sketches:

 All the papers are from Jillibean Soup.  The enamel dots and white Thickers for the title are from my stash.  I am entering this layout in Clique Kits May Challenge,  They give away a fabulous prize every month....you should check it out because their kits are pretty fabulous, too.

I love it when Karma comes to pay a visit. And Dave had some good Karma coming.  We will be enjoying this car for a LONG time.

Thanks for coming by.  Have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend.

~~Sandi~~

#itsclobberintime

My son, his dad and his 2 boys are BIG comic book fans so it was a no brainer that they would attend the Chicago version of Comic Con....C2E2 a couple of weekends ago.  I got this awesome picture of Cole, our 9 year old ball of positive energy and The Thing and I knew the memory was deserving of a page in Cole's scrapbook.  I used this great sketch from Paper Issues Sketchy Saturday:

I am also entering this page in Scrap Our Stash's EMBOSS challenge 

E- enamel dots

M-marker (I used a black marker for my journaling)

B-brad (top row of circles on the light wood grain paper)

O-the color orange

S-stars

S-stickers (for the title and sub-title)

Thanks for stopping by....it is almost Mother's Day weekend.  We are taking my MIL and FIL out to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse.  What are your plans?

~Sandi~

Paper Issues Card Sketch

I thought this card sketch would be awesome for a Mother's Day card for my daughter-in-law.  I love Sketchy Saturday at Paper Issues....their sketches always inspire me.  Here is the card I created with it:

I used papers and that awesome pinwheel from my Dear Lizzy drawer.  I had been hoarding that pinwheel for quite some time so this was the perfect project to break down and finally use it.  The sentiment in that awesome script is from Simon Says Stamp.

Speaking of Simon Says Stamp, I am also entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes challenge.

It's hump day!  Hope it is a good one for you.

~~Sandi~~

CAS(E) This Sketch #121

My brother-in-law Bob is a real pistol.  I know that he will get a kick out of this card even if it is going to be a day or so late.  But, hey, I recently had surgery so I am a little slow getting back into the groove.  I am feeling good and have been back to work already, however.

I used this sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

The stamp set is called WTF and is from CAS-ual Fridays.  It is always sure to get a laugh when I use it.  I am entering this card in CAS-ual Fridays 4th Birthday Challenge to create a clean and simple birthday themed card and use their signature colors of orange, turquoise, black and white.

I am also entering this in Simon Days Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes

and

the current linky party at Paper Issues....Chalk One Up to Your Own Style

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  I have a few more projects to share so I will be back shortly.

~~Sandi~~

Happy Mother's Day

I have an awesome mother-in-law and are very lucky that both she and Dave's dad are both in very good health and very active.  Next weekend we plan on spending a day with them and taking them to dinner. I wanted to make a card for her that is pretty and feminine....just like Diane is.  I used this beautiful sketch from My Favorite Things:

I just love the way the ribbon is shown being threaded through the tag so I made sure I did that on my card also.  I am entering this in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge also.

Tomorrow is National Scrapbooking Day and I have plans to scrap all day.  What are your plans???

~~Sandi~~