It's FRIDAY!

 

xoxo Karen Lee

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD

 

MERVIN RUSSELL MCQUEEN

February 4, 1928 - October 17, 1987

Happy Birthday Dad.  My dad was only 59 years old when he passed away and thats way, way too young to be taken from us.  I have missed him so much the past 23 years.  He was a great SON,  BROTHER, HUSBAND, FATHER, GRANDFATHER and would have been a fantastic GREAT GRANDFATHER.  I miss and love you dad.

a little memory to share...........Sunday mornings were my dads time in the kitchen when we were growing up. He would let my mom sleep in.  He would always get up early, brew a pot of coffee and smoke a few cigs while waiting for us kids to wake up.  When he couldn't stand it any longer and wanted us up,  we would be woken up to him running down the hallway yelling "FIRE" or he would put on his "GEORGE S. PATTON" album and we would hear 'ole GEORGE'S speech at a very high volume.  One of those two things would always get 3 of us kids out of bed.  That would be myself and my twin brothers Mike and Steve.  My sister Gail would put the covers over her head and go back to sleep.  So our routine would be to help dad cook our Sunday breakfast.  We would prepare huge amounts of food.  Dad would have us peeling potatoes, mixing up pancake batter, frying up bacon and sausage, making toast, etc.  While we were doing all of this we would keep asking......." what is Gail going to do"?  My dad would always say, "If she doesn't get up and help, she can't eat".  The 3 of us would always reply, "Dad you say that every Sunday and then you let her come sit at the table and eat with us".  He would tell us, "Well....not this time".  Mike, Steve and I would look at each other and say "finally".  We would be so convinced that this was the Sunday that she couldn't eat!!  Well.....guess what?  My sister Gail ate Sunday breakfast with us each and every Sunday.  I'm sitting here right now wishing that we could have just one more Sunday morning breakfast as a family.  

IN OUR HEARTS FOREVER

xoxo Karen

Mia - Sketchy Thursdays

 

I designed my "Mia" layout using the above sketch from Sketchy Thursdays.  I also made it for the February Color Challenge "Bonbon Delights" over at sb.com.  This month we were to use the colors Yellow and Pink.

xoxo Karen Lee

Happy Birthday Daddy

Last night we celebrated my son Michael's 33rd birthday.  Our family met for dinner at Vince's Italian restaurant for a nice meal.  Then we all went back to his house for cake and he was surprised by many of his friends that had gathered there before we arrived home.  He has the best friends ever!

I designed this layout using Creative Scrappers sketch #89.

xoxo Karen Lee

Lisa's First Digital Layout!!

My daughter Lisa is not a blogger and she just e-mailed me her first digital layout ever!!!  I think she did a fantastic job on it, so I thought I would share it here on my blog.  I know nothing about digital scrapbooking as I am a paper scrapper.  I love my paper.....LOL!!  Don't ya just love that owl!!!  I might have her print it out and I will use it on a paper layout.

Cute Paper Boxes

Today while I was blog surfing I came across these adorable paper boxes over on Helen's blog "SCRAP A LITTLE".  I just fell in love with them and had to try and one or two or three!!  They are prefect for Valentine's Day, Easter, Birthdays, baby and bridal showers, etc.  They are very easy to make too!!  Thats always a plus in my book.  For a tutorial........ go to "SCRAP A LITTLE".  Helen has made a very easy to follow tutorial on how to make them.  So here are the ones that I made this afternoon.  Thanks Helen!!

Day 327 at 365 Cards - Rhyme Time

Today our challenge was to make a card with a sentiment that rhymed.  I chose "Be Mine Valentine".  I have been blog hopping the past couple of days and made a visit to my all inspiring blog friend "Beatriz Jennings" and her blog iralamija.  She makes the most beautiful cards I've ever seen.  My inspiration for my card came from her today.  She always designs her cards with the cutest little details and they almost always sparkle with glitter.  So here is my inspired Valentine card for todays challenge.  Thanks Beatriz.

Day 326 at 365 Cards - Card Recipe

Today we had to use the following recipe in making our card.........

Here are the ingredients:

4.25x5.5 card
4x4 piece of patterned paper
2x2 piece of patterned paper
3 buttons
1 ribbon
sentiment

Its really hard to come up with a design when we are limited to just using the ingredients in the recipe.  But this is what I came up with......not my favorite card ever, but its okay!

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I've been on vacation this week and decided to organize my scraproom!  While I was sorting through all my bins I came across this red and black flower that I made a long time ago and never used.  So I thought it would be perfect on a Valentine card.

My Boo Bear

I made this layout using the above  sketch by Creative Scrappers, Kristine Davidson.  She is holding her first FaceBook event that ends tonight.  I also entered this in the January Scrap Your Pet Challenge over at sb.com.

 

Day 324 at 365 Cards - Musical Monday

Today we were to get our inspiration from these lyrics........

A dream is a wish your heart makes

When you're fast asleep

In dreams you lose your heartaches

Whatever you wish for, you keep

Have faith in your dreams and someday

Your rainbow will come smiling through

No matter how your heart is grieving

If you keep on believing

the dream that you wish will come true

and here's my card.............

 

The embossing looks way better in person!!  I couldn't get a good pic of my card tonight.

Sketch 47 - Card Patterns

This is my first time playing at Card Patterns.  We had to design a card using the sketch below.  I decided to make a Valentine themed card today.

 

  

I made this card using scraps and The Storybook Cricut cartridge.  I love that cartridge!  The sequin embellies are from Prima.  I bought them yesterday at a fabulous LSS called Green Tangerine.  I don't get to visit that store often, but when I'm up visiting my daughter we try to get over there.

Make A Wish

I made this layout for two different challenges over at sb.com.  Both challenges are celebrating the first birthday of  "IF IT'S GROOVY".  We were to use  punches in one of the challenges and the other was to use ribbon.  I combined the two challenges into one layout.  Hopefully I didn't break any rules!!!

M is for Mischief

I just finished up this layout for a challenge over at sb.com.  I made it for the January Border Punch Challenge.  All we had to do was use one border punch.  If we used two we get an extra vote.  I used two.  I took these photos the day after Christmas.  Lisa, Steve and the kids went to a movie and I stayed home to watch our little Dominick.  He ate a good lunch, which you can see all over his sweatshirt....LOL!  Anyway......while I was cleaning up, he decided to stand in the fridge.  Its the cutest thing you ever saw.  He just stands there, he doesn't touch a thing.  I grabbed my camera and took a few shoots and then I tied the doors closed with a dish cloth.  I don't really think its a good idea for him to do that.......but he sure looks cute while doing it!!!

Day 321 at 365 Cards

Day 321 over at 365 Cards is called ~In Stitches~.  We had to stitch our image this time.  I've been in a star mode lately as I have had to make lots of "boy" cards this month.  So once again I pulled out my trusty Cricut and cut out a few stars.  I traced them onto the background cardstock and then stitched using the outline.  It reminded me of the sewing cards I had when I was young.  Does anyone remember those.  I so loved mine!!!  This is my first time in awhile playing with the girls over at 365 Cards.  I've missed them and hopefully I will be able to play with them more often.  Thanks girls for coming up with all the challenges.  So here is my take on "In Stitches".

"16"

I'm going to Jake's 16th birthday party on Saturday. Jake is Steve's little brother. Steve is my son-in-law!! My job was to make the card and Steve and Lisa are buying the gas gift card to put in it. Happy Birthday Jake!

A little blog make-over!!

I had enough of the "Happy New Year" background........so tonight I thought I would make a change.  I found this Valentine themed background and it put a smile on my face!  I probably could change my blog background daily, but thats too much work, so I think I will stick with this one until after Valentine's Day!!  It just might put me in the mood to make some Valentine Day cards!

My 2010 Calendar

This is going to be a very long "pic" blog post!!  I finally finished my 2010 calendar that I started months and months ago.  Lisa was able to finish her's a couple of weekends ago while I watched Dominick.  She locked herself in my scraproom and didn't come out until she was finished.  I made this calendar with some of my favorite pics from 2009.

Birthday Cards

I guess you can see I've been playing around with my new toy!!  

My new toy!

I was browsing around Michael's on December 31st and I spotted this cute little embossing machine on a bottom shelf.......I almost missed it!!  I didn't have a coupon, but when I went to pay for it, I asked the clerk for a current coupon and he gave me 50% off!!  I got this little cutie for $19.99 and it came with all the folders.  I just took it out of the box tonight and I'm working on a birthday card.  Its really easy to use, I think I'm going to have fun with it.  Just what I need more stuff!!!

Blog give-a-way over at "Distress to Impress"!!

Rebecca has a few winter embellishments to give-a-way.  Its very simple, go to her blog and pick your favorite layout.  Thats it!!  Take a few minutes and check out her fabulous work!  You'll enjoy your visit.

Link to her blog here:  DISTRESS TO IMPRESS