Pocketful of Sunshine

Celebrating many birthday's this month

I've shown you this template on how to make this easel card

They are so easy to make

I used the stamp set Pocketful of Sunshine

to create this sweet lil" card

The stamp set will carry over to the new yearly catalog getting ready to go live in just two days!

I cannot wait for you to see it!

Finishing up

Last weekend while I was at Camano Island 

we tried our hands at carving stamps.

Once we carved them we were given muslin

to stamp the images on and then stitch embroider

where ever you wanted color

We used a product called Moo Carve and carving tools

we started by drawing out our images then transferring them

onto the Moo carve, then carefully carving them out.

The above stamps were carved by Stephanie who taught our class

I used the majority of her stamps to stamp my muslin piece

I wasn't able to stay the entire weekend and wanted to be

sure to get the piece stamped so I could work on it later

Later has meant this weekend while we have been away in the mountains.  What a perfect time to stitch!

I went over all the stamped images with sharpie, not sure why,

I just felt like it needed to be darker for my liking

I chose some neutral colored embroidery threads to 

add.  Once I finish I plan on turning it into a pillow

I just did a few basic stitches that I learned when I was a little girl

French knot, satin stitch and a cross stitch

Super fun going back to remembering as a girl stitching in the living room watching TV with my Mom as we worked on embroidery pillow cases for gifts for family

How fun to try something you haven't done in a long time!!!

Hopefully I will stayed focused on finishing, hard for me to sit still and stitch, got to admit it!  owning it friends, owning it!

Franklin Falls

This is beautiful Franklin Falls just outside of Seattle off of I-90

We did this hike Mother's day weekend and with it being Memorial weekend and the kickoff for the summer upcoming season I thought I would share this hike in hopes you might try it

It's a very easy hike with maintained trails while walking along you have the full run off of water to the left of you all the way up to the falls. 

 With it being early in the year and the run off from  winter, the water was raging. 

This hike is 2.0 miles roundtrip, no lie, super easy

It's highest elevation is 2600ft with a gained 400 ft at the end.

The region is the Snoqualimie region just below the pass at the Denny Creek exit.

Even though temperatures were 85 that day, we still encountered plenty of left over winter snow and ice on the hike.

We also saw a lot of large old trees

You can see the raging water just behind us in this pic

There were so many areas where you could walk out onto the large river rock and feel like you were standing right in the river next to you

If you are looking for something adventuring to do this weekend I hope you will try Franklin Falls if you are local.

If your coming to visit, you must go too!

It will not disappoint.  There is plenty of parking at the trailhead and it really is a easy hike.  

Get out there and explore!

LIly of the Valley

Hi sweet friends!

Friday I held my monthly creative class

something that I truly love doing is garden sharing

If you don't know what that is, it is when you share starters of plants from your garden with others.

My beds are covered in the beautiful and dainty Lily of the Valley, this ground cover has a sweet scent and a look of romance.

I used peat pots that you can plant directly into the ground with the plant in them.

We planted the Lily of the Valley in the peat pots and added those cute little Lily of the Valley signs to them in the event anyone wanted to gift their's 

Do you share starters from your garden?

what are your favorite plants?

Manly Moments

This month's Paper Pumpkin Manly Moments arrived and couldn't be a more perfect kit for birthdays, Father's day, graduations, etc.

Here's just a little sampling of the five cards and how I put mine together.  I didn't change them too much this time.  

They are pretty awesome as is!

Have you signed up for Paper Pumpkin yet?

Head on over to the right of my blog and click on the Paper Pumpkin image for the details.

Wouldn't you love to get a kit monthly with everything you need to create a project or cards or home decor?

Come check it out!

Inside each card I stamped Father's Day to you.

It's coming right up, get prepared early!

Rose Boxes

Hello friends!

I shared with you last week the little masculine boxes with the mustache and bow tie.

Well, how about some pretty little rose boxes?

I made these up for an event I had coming up

Again, I filled them with the dark chocolate caramels.

The roses are made with a rose die for the Big Shot

The center of the roses are a white pom pom

Look at my "little" visitor I had the other day

There were three of them!  A mamma and two yearlings

This is one of the yearlings, and I tell you, it was big!

I've got to stop making such good meals, 

they love the leftovers and garbage!

Creative Class

Spoiler Alert for those of you attending tomorrow's 

creative class!

This is one of the projects we will be making

These are nice sized blocks that can hold all photos, special cards, flowers you name it. 

 I added all three to show you just how much you can add to them.

Now,  I cannot take creative credit for these babies, I happen to see them down in Waco at the Harp Design store and thought, wow!

we could make these! 

So I went ahead and cut a board at 8 x 11" and white washed it

I then just wrapped the twine around the wood and adhered it with a staple gun with just two staples.  Then decorate!

Mustache Box

Just in time for Father's day gifting

These cute little boxes filled with dark chocolate salted caramels

I used small 2 x 2" box and added the small mustache and 

bow tie to the front.  

Perfect to set around the table for Father's day or a birthday

grooms favors, graduation, the list goes on.....

we are all always in need of a masculine idea aren't we?

and of course they are filled with what I always show you, my fav dark chocolate sea salt caramels.  Which can be now found in the extra large container at Costco for 9.99~~  yaaaaassss pleeeeze!

Magnolia Silo Marathon

Good Morning!

So not to bore you too much with the Waco trip, here is my last post about it.  One of the highlights was being able to volunteer at the inaugural Silo District Marathon.  The race consisted of three runs.  The 5K, the Half Marathon and the Full Marathon.  We were lucky enough to get to run ( that means be in charge of!) the halfway mark on the course which would be the 13 mile mark.  For those unaware, the half marathon is 13.1 miles, the full is a 26.2 mile run.  Phew! right?!

And look at those smiles!  What would a run be without swag!!!!

We had to be there at o'dark hundred hours,

 so we got to see the beautiful sunshine

Here we are preparing all the gatorade, water and gel packs for the runners. 

Below, this is my where's the Texas heat look,  I was freeeeezing!

(love those gloves)  It finally did warm up to a balmy 88

Chip started off the race with some encouraging words 

Next up was Joanna with her cute little baby bump and the kids

Getting ready!

Each one of the kids were to run a leg of the race with Chip. They planned on 2.6 miles for each, but once they got started they all kept running longer than expected.  How sweet was that!

Wondering why Chip ran in his tool belt?

He had a friend that was suppose to come run the race but was unable to make it.  His friend still ran the race where he was on his own wearing all the firefighter gear.  Chip decided to honor his friend who was carrying that extra weight by adding his tool belt

We are done!

And we were so happy to be a part of the race 

and be able to cheer and encourage everyone

This was a Boston marathon qualifying race, so we able to see some really talented elite group of runners come through

Amazing what we can do when we put our minds to it

That is all from the Waco trip, now back to some creativity!

Enjoy the weekend friends!