Sympathy

Stampin’ Up! Balloon Celebration set makes Birthday cards and Sympathy cards!

Most days when I’m out and about and happen to look down at my hands, I see Bermuda Bay (my favorite color) or Melon Mambo all over my hands.  When it’s Real Red on my hands, I sometimes feel like I have to explain.  Well lately, the ink has been replaced by dirt under my fingernails.  Superman and I have been planting like crazy.  I have several small gardens for flowers, strawberries, raspberries, herbs, and vegetables.  One of our projects this week was to fill the planter he gave me for my birthday.

planter-1

Fill it we did…I know we put too much in it, but we wanted it to look pretty right away.  The big flower in the center is supposed to be a blue hydrangea.  I really hope that happens.  Anyway, I smile every time I look at it.  Thanks Superman for an awesome birthday surprise! I’ll take some pictures of the gardens soon.

StampinUp Thinking of You card made with the Balloon Celebration stamp set, designed by demo Beth McCullough.  Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

Unfortunately, one of Steve’s long time co workers passed away recently.  He immediately called me and asked for a card.  Does your husband do this?  I get card requests about every other week.  I’m so glad he appreciates my cards and wants to send them to people.  This card is so pretty in real life, but I couldn’t get a good picture of it.  Do you see the Wink of Stella gold splatters?  If you have a Stampin’ Up Occasions 2016 catalog, I cased the card on page 13.  Can you believe this stamp is in the Balloon Celebration set?

StampinUp Birthday card made with the Balloon Celebration stamp set, designed by demo Beth McCullough.  Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

Here’s another card I made with Balloon Celebration. What a versatile set to make these two very different cards.

We were at school tonight for Keegan’s vocal concert.  It was awesome!

Keegan tried out for the auditioned choir on Tuesday and received a call back.  He goes back for his final audition for this choir tomorrow.  Abby has three AP finals done this week and another one tomorrow.  She is holding up well and even had time to make her famous Flourless Brownie Cookies tonight.  The house smelled so good when we walked in after the concert.

Blessings,

Beth 🙂

 

 

 

The love of a dog

StampinUp Pet Sympathy card designed by demo Beth McCullough.  Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

It’s certainly more fun to send happy cards than sad ones, but this card was for a very sad reason.  I’ve told you before about my dear college friend, Sharon, who helped me with ebay a couple weeks ago.  Well, her very sweet 12 year old pup, Eddie, passed away recently.

sharon and pups

This is Sharon holding Eddie, with his tongue sticking out in front,and my two pups.  Don’t the three dogs look like they could all be siblings?

StampinUp Pet Sympathy card designed by demo Beth McCullough.  Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

Sharon loved Eddie so much and was so sad to lose him.  She really appreciated receiving a pup sympathy card from me.

 

StampinUp Pet Sympathy card designed by demo Beth McCullough.  Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

Soon after, one of Sharon’s good friends lost their pup. I made this card for Sharon to send to her.  I think I’ll make several of these to have on hand.

Hug your furry friends!

Sharon watched my pups during our ski trip.  They love her so much.  Sharon was good about texting me pictures of my very happy girls.

I would love it if you would subscribe to my blog.

Blessings,

Beth 🙂

Card Details below.  The oval punch is retired.

 

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Yeah! Happy Stamping News and the beginning of our family Spring Break trip!

new header hinge clearFirst for my happy stamping news…I was recently chosen to be on the design team for Use Your Stuff Chalenge blog.  Every crafter needs to be challenged to Use Your Stuff!  There’s a new challenge each Monday.  Please check it out and play along.  This is my first ever design team assignment and I couldn’t be happier.  I’ll be hosting my first challenge in April.

 

tcbadgessfs

I was chosen this week as a Top Cup at the Sunday Stamps challenge.  Thanks Sunday Stamps!  Here’s my card that was chosen.

StampinUp All Occasion card made with the Pictogram Punches stamp set. Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom

Two weeks ago I was also chosen as a Top Cup.  This was my very first recognition by a challenge blog.  My family laughs at me when I get  exciting stamping news and proceed to do the Happy Dance!  I know lots of craft bloggers win challenges and get chosen for design teams, but this is all new and exciting for me!  This card was my first Top Cup.

StampinUp love card designed by demo Beth McCullough. Please see more card and gift ideas at www.StampingMom.com #StampingMom Sunday Stamps Top Cup winner

We left for our Spring Break family vacation last Saturday after Abby finished her State Individual Speech contest.  Abby got a 2 on her Lit. program and a 1 on her Public Address.  She was not chosen to go to All State.  Abby spent ten years in speech therapy and we never thought she would ever make it to state in a speech contest.   This was a great experience for Abby and she can’t wait to do it again next year.  We are very proud of you Abby!

We’ve learned several things since leaving on vacation.  The first lesson we learned was we should have rented a bigger vehicle.  A Ford Flex is not big enough for the six of us and all our stuff.  Here’s Superman attaching duffel bags to the roof.

 

colorado trip

Somehow Keegan ended up in the far back.  Keegan is 6’3 and the second lesson we learned is, if you are 6’3 you probably won’t be comfortable in the back of a Ford Flex.

We drove from 1:30pm until midnight and when we woke up this was our view.

colorado trip-1

Can you tell where we are?  We woke up near the Denver airport.  Sean flew in from Seattle and we picked him up Sunday morning.

We took off for another six hour drive to Telluride, CO to go skiing.

colorado trip-2

Here’s Superman at the top of the mountain.  Steve is by far the best skier in our family.  I actually taught him how to ski, but that was 40 years ago when we were in junior high. He passed me by a long time ago.  It didn’t help that I took 20 years off while I was busy with all my kids.

 

colorado trip-6

This is Sean, our oldest son who lives and works in Seattle.  I taught him how to ski when he was three and four years old. Because he was so young, we skied all the greens and blues at Keystone with his skis in between mine and he was behind me holding on to my legs.  Good thing I don’t fall down often.  Sean then didn’t ski much except twice in junior high, twice in high school and twice in college.  Last year we came to Telluride and I was still the second best skier in the family.  Sean has been skiing in Seattle this winter and I have now officially lost my second place.  Sean and I skied together all day on Monday and he was shocked that he is now a better and faster skier than me.  I tried to tell him a 51 year old Mom is generally more cautious than a 25 year old man.  The next lesson I learned this week is I will soon be at the bottom of the family ski totem pole.

colorado trip-3

colorado trip-4

Telluride, CO is so beautiful!  There’s a ton of ski runs, the slopes are never crowded except for the chair lift near the Ski School.  We’ve been having a great week so far.

I love playing cards with my family.  Tonight Keegan ran the hand in hearts to win the game! Unfortunately none of us even saw it coming.

I love listening to my kids banter back and forth.  It makes my heart happy!

My last lesson so far is four kids ages 15-25 eat a lot of food!  I brought a big refrigerator bag, freezer bag, groceries, then stopped an hour from Telluride to get milk, eggs, etc. and we are going to run out of food before the end of the week.

I’ll be back with some stamping in a few days.

Hope you’re having a good week.

Blessings,

Beth 🙂