Family

Pocketful of Sunshine Money card

Stampin Up Pocketful of Sunshine Money Holder designed by demo Beth McCullough. Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom #cute&simple4u

I needed a cute and easy money holder to take to a “Welcome Home” party for a family friend who spent the year in China.  His Mom said not to bring a gift, but I figured after spending a year studying and unable to work, he was probably short on cash.  Of course I thought of this 15 minutes before walking out the door to go to the party.  I grabbed my new Pocketful of Sunshine stamp set with the coordinating Pocket Framelits Dies.  I whipped up this simple card in no time.  Dapper Denim is the perfect color for jeans.

 Pocketful of Sunshine card made by Stampin Up. Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom #cute&simple4u

OK, so the Stampin Up Design Artist who made the beautiful card above spent more than 10 minutes, but she made it for a girl who would care more. 🙂  I bet Abby would love to receive one of these at college this fall!

 Pocketful of Sunshine gift made by Stampin Up. Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom #cute&simple4u

Here’s another darling box designed by Stampin Up!

 

Stampin Up Pocketful of Sunshine Money Holder designed by demo Beth McCullough. Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom #cute&simple4u

Did you notice I folded the money so “In God We Trust” was showing?  I bet Ben will notice too!

Please use the Host Code WGJENM3P  when you order to get your free gift from me.  You can also email me at Beth@StampingMom.com  The supplies I used are shown at the bottom of this post.

Do you love making hand made cards? Do you love getting fun mail from all over the country/world? Do you like “meeting” new friends who share your passion for stamping? These are some of the reasons I love stamping! Please email me beth@stampingmom.com or leave a comment at the top of this post and let me know if you’d like to participate in the “meet new friends” card swap? I’ll match you up with someone and you can send each other a card. You are only committing to making and sending one card.  Please don’t put your stamp on the back or write inside the card. Instead add a separate note telling about yourself. The person receiving the card can bless someone else with the card they received (assuming they can part with it.) while getting to know another stamper.  You can make your cards with whatever supplies you already own, it doesn’t need to be Stampin’ Up.  Let’s see how it goes and we can tweak the next round of card swaps. Please share this post if you have friends who might be interested in participating. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Please subscribe to my blog, follow me on Pinterest here or Facebook here.

Blessings,

Beth 🙂

I have a Keegan story for those of you who’ve gotten to know him.

Keegan is a good singer who has been told he has perfect pitch.  My kid’s go to a competitive high school and our highest audition choir is very selective.  Ryan, his brother five years older, made it on his first try as a sophomore.  Keegan’s tried out every year of high school and never made the top choir.  After he didn’t make it last year, he decided he wanted private voice lessons, he attended a summer Broadway camp (and got to sing “Hamilton”), he did solo contest (and got the highest rating).  He spent a lot of time preparing for the audition.  He got a very high score on the technical part of the try out.  Keegan was sure this year, his senior year and last chance, would be the year he would finally make the choir.

One of the last days of school I got an email announcing the kids who made the choir.  Once again, Keegan was not included.  I know a lot of things can go into this.  Maybe his voice doesn’t blend well, or there could be several other reasons why he didn’t make the choir.  Academics, singing and drama come easily to Keegan so he hasn’t faced a lot of rejection or disappointment.  Well, knowing how bad he wanted to make this choir, I was prepared for Keegan to come home devastated.   I was pretty sure he would quit choir and never sing again.

Keegan did indeed come home devastated.  I’ve never seen him so upset.  I asked him what he planned to do, if he would stay in his other choir or whether I should cancel his private lessons for next year?  He said absolutely not!  He was not going to quit choir, he was going to “show them” and become the best possible singer he could be.

On his own before he came home that day, he requested a meeting with the two choir directors so he could find out how he could’ve improved his audition.  They told him they believed he would make the top choir at Iowa State a year from now.  (Not sure how he can do that when he can’t make it in high school.)

Since then he has auditioned and joined Heartland Youth Choir and will get to travel to Ireland next summer with the choir.  He bought a ukulele and has taught himself how to play.  He’s singing and practicing everyday.  The Drake University professor who was his solo contest judge in April has offered him a scholarship to sing at Drake.  Not making the choir has lit a fire under Keegan that he’s never had before.  Could it be that it turns out to be a blessing that Keegan didn’t make the choir? (Romans 8:28) It hurt my Mommy heart to see him so sad, but I’m so very proud that he’s not a quitter and is more determined than ever.  He still wants to attend Iowa State a year from now and plans to be singing in their top choir!

Blessings,

Beth 🙂

 

Princess Baby Card

My sweet BSF friend has three little boys and recently had a darling baby girl!  When you have three boys and one girl, the girl becomes the princess among the princes.  I wanted to make a pink princess card to welcome the new baby.

Stampin Up Baby Girl card made with the Best Birthday Ever stamp set. Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom #cute&simple4u #GDP076

I used the Case The Designer challenge from Global Design Project to get the layout for my card.  You should check out their challenge.

Earn a FREE gift for every $50 you spend (excluding shipping & tax) during Sale-A-Bration, the biggest Stampin’ Up! promotion of the year!   Ends March 31.  I will also send you a make and take card kit with every order of at least $50 using Host code JCYXGZW4 .  Please email me at Beth@StampingMom.com to find out more.

Please subscribe to my blog, follow me on Pinterest here or Facebook here.

Are you wondering what I’ve been up to?  Steve and I were out of town on a business trip for three nights.  Last Saturday we celebrated my Dad’s 78th birthday.  I told him I’d make whatever he wanted and he chose pulled pork, homemade rolls, roasted sweet potatoes and pecan pie made with a lard crust.  My pulled pork takes about 48 hours to make, but it’s easy, as are the roasted sweet potatoes.  I used to make homemade rolls a couple times a week, but haven’t made them in so long (because we try not to eat a lot of bread anymore), I had to find the recipe to make them.  I was happy they turned out.

Every time I make a pie, my Dad says, “This is an awesome pie, but you should make it with lard instead of Crisco.”  Well, I figured since it was his birthday I should try it.  I must admit the lard pie crust was easier to work with and it was indeed the best pie I’ve ever made.  I will now make the pies with lard.  It’s a good thing we don’t have pie very often!

My parents took the rest of the pie home so they could celebrate his birthday again that night with some friends.

Last weekend, Abby competed in the IHSSA Individual Speech contest in Lit program and Public Address.  She received a “1” on both and will be competing again at the State contest.  Abby didn’t let me listen to either speech ahead of time.  Her Lit Program was called Speech Impediment.  Abby has a speech impediment that makes it very hard for her to say “r” and “l.”  She had speech therapy from age 3 through sixth grade. She has some words she still avoids because they are too difficult for her to say. Anyway, the Lit program is three different poems or essays.  She did a great job delivering her speech.  When she got to the last poem, I ended up crying, because the poem was telling of struggles so similar to what Abby experienced as a third grader.  When I went to the hall to congratulate her, I was embarrassed that I was crying and told her teacher that the last poem was exactly what happened to Abby.  Her teacher then told me Abby had written the poem and labeled it anonymous. God has blessed me with an awesome daughter who’s willing to go after whatever she feels called to do, no matter how hard it may be!

Blessings,

Beth 🙂

Abby’s 18th Birthday weekend

Stampin' Up Clean and Simple Birthday card made with the Wish Big Framelits, designed by demo Beth McCullough. Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom #cute&simple4u #GDP074

I’ve made several cards trying to come up with the best birthday card for Abby’s 18th birthday.  For this one I used the design sketch from Global Design Project. #GDP074

I’ll show you some others I made later this week.

Please subscribe to my blog, follow me on Pinterest here or Facebook here.

Happy Birthday Abby! Abby turned 18 on February 16 and we celebrated last weekend with a trip to Chicago.  We don’t usually make a big deal out of birthdays, but this was an exception.  We actually planned this weekend last June and kept it a secret for eight months.  We told Abby and Keegan that we would be going to Chicago a couple weeks ago, so they could put it on their calendars.  Friday we drove the six hours and went to dinner at Giordano’s for deep dish pizza. As you can see this is not exactly health food, but it’s a favorite of ours and we don’t get to Chicago very often.

On Saturday we went to Water Tower Place and did some shopping.  Abby got tea from David’s Tea, a fancy “to go” tea bottle,

and a Chicago Cubs World Championship Bear from Build A Bear.  The Bear actually plays the Go Cubs Go song!

Abby named the bear Zobrist after the Cubs Second baseman.  Yep, Abby is Superman’s daughter!

Saturday evening we went for a nice dinner at Lloyd’s and surprised Abby and Keegan with tickets to Hamilton.  Hamilton is the wildly popular Broadway musical and the tickets are extremely difficult to get.  Tickets were going for around $450 a piece in Chicago.  We are much too thrifty (cheap) to spend that kind of money.  Superman figured out that with a certain credit card you could get tickets last June for shows in Chicago in February for a reasonable price.  We purchased the tickets and told not a soul for many months.  We’ve only surprised our kids one other time in their lives and now I remember why we don’t do this.  Superman and I have a really hard time not saying anything when we are super excited about something.  Abby and Keegan did know Hamilton was showing in Chicago and mentioned it on Saturday.  We had them look up the $450 price on the tickets and they understood right away that they would not be going to the show.  Both kids were so excited when they found out that night at dinner that we really were going to the show.  The show was fabulous!  They sang the songs all the way home on Sunday.  Abby already had all the words memorized last summer.  Anyway I hope this weekend is a fond memory for both Abby and Keegan for a very long time.  I know Steve and I will always cherish this memory!

Blessings,

Beth  🙂

You can click on any of the products below to order, or see what I used to make the card.