The lazy days of Summer

We are smack dab in the middle of those lazy days of summer, truthfully though, is there really any "lazy" time for  those of us who stamp, scrap or paper craft?  This is actually the time that the organized crafters are working on their holiday gifts and cards (I am not in that category), which is anything but lazy in my book.


Speaking of lazy, we had a very relaxing and quiet 4th, barbecued and watched movies, saw some fireworks from our front lawn, thank you to our neighbors who went all out and treated us to a pretty impressive display of explosions : ).  I also took Friday off from work, combined with Monday that makes for a four day weekend, wooooohooo!  And even better?  Two four day work weeks.

Since we had four days off gardening was in order, but first a picture of the tree in the front of our house:

From 2010-07-05

The tree shades our front for most of the day,  and that means that most anything we plant has to like shade.  Usually we do impatients, but we wanted to try perennials this year, so we shall see how they do.  Here is another shot of the tree:

From 2010-07-05

Saw this bird in the tree too, have no idea what type of bird it is though:

From 2010-07-05

And before we forget...the winner of the blog candy is...........................Alex!  Alex, please email me at Jacquie at afterhoursstamper dot com so I can get your goodies off to you.

Now....onto some stamping stuff that I have been saving for you.  First off, another card for SCACD, here is a close up, to see the entire card travel over to the "Follow Your Heart" blog for my Tuesday post.

And here is another card I did over the weekend, using a Magnolia Stamp (Tilda):

From 2010-07-05

And a close up, I colored her in distress ink and then added lots and lots of diamond stickles, also made the DP using water color paper, distress ink and then a star stamp that I heat embossed with glitter ep:

From 2010-07-05

So, what link goodness do I have for you this week? Here we go:

CHA Summer 2010 Sneak Peeks:  This link will take you to some previews of products for the upcoming CHA Summer event, save the link and keep checking as new links are added to the page.  I checked all the stuff out and loved what I saw.  Some great new paper, stamps and other products are just around the corner!

New CHA Exhibitors:  WOW....check out this list of new companies exhibiting at CHA Summer 2010!  Here are some that I think are pretty cool:

• Heartfelt Creations:  Love the matching dies and stamps, especially this set called "Perfect Petals," here are the stamps, and here are the matching die cuts!  Check out their other sets as well (I have posted this link before, and just love their newer items!)
• Peachy Keen Stamps:  Adorable faces for your flowers, or any object that you would like to give a personality to.  Really cute things here.
• PSA Essentials:  Interesting idea on interchangeable stamping, I really liked their personalized stamps, and loved some of their other designs.  You can purchase the stamps online or locally, check their retailers page for more information. 

Distress Inkpad storage:  LOVE the idea of the Velcro on the bottom of the pad to store the inker pad!  You have to see what she did with this, great, great idea!

More craft storage ideas:  This is a Better Homes and Garden link, lots of fantastic, inexpensive ideas on storage!

List of Blog Candy:  Gotta love this, all sorts of links to blogs that are giving away things, bookmark it because you will want to visit often to enter to win some really cool stuff!
Last, but not least, another great Jennifer McGuire video, you are going to LOVE this card, and I am trying to think how to use her technique for Christmas cards:



That is it everyone, I am off to the yard to plant in the front, and then relaxing for the rest of the day, hope you have a wonderful week and thank you so much for visiting and sharing your love of crafting.