Time of your life....

So I heard this song the other day on the radio and it really struck a cord with me. Here is what it says to me:
1) Changes will come in life whether you want them or not
2) So you need to live in the moment and enjoy the season that the Lord has you right now
3) I know this song is not a Christian song, however it makes me think of this passage from Ecclesiastes 3

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
A Time for Everything
1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

So here's my advice (and the way that I want to live my life): Go out there today and live your life to the fullest. No one knows what might be right around the next corner...maybe good, maybe not so good... But make up your mind to learn the lessons that the Lord has for you through each experience!!


I'm off to live life now!! Have a blessed day!!

~Amy

What's new from SU!?

Check out the links I have posted on the right side of my blog to the new catalogs from SU!  It is an exciting time of year with all the new, fun stamping stuff available!

Also, I still have just 6 stamp sets left of the unmounted, retired sets that I advertised in the posts below.  Contact me if you are interested in purchasing any of the remaining sets.  (Sorry, sets with SOLD beside them are already gone.)

I hope that you are having a great summer!  We are keeping busy here at the Collins' household with camps, work, swimming with friends, a little crafting and even a little math!!  We are looking forward to a week at the beach (Fripp Island) coming up soon.  A little sun, a little sand....nothing is more relaxing or healing than that!!  I might even get to read a book all the way through!

Enjoy your summer fun!
~Amy

Fall has arrived

HAPPY FALL, EVERYONE!!! We have arrived at my favorite season. The nice cool, crispness in the air and the leaves turning many beautiful colors. It is just amazing!!

I've been playing with my blog a little today. How do you like the new background? And I finally updated with the new catalog, definitely decorative catalog and the holiday mini catalog. I hope that all the links work.... I just realized that I have not checked them yet.

If anyone would like to order anything in September, please let me know by this weekend (27th). I will be submitting the order on Monday, September 28th. For this order I am offering a SUPER special---20% off anything that you order!! (I need your help to keep me active as a demo.)

I hope to hear from you soon!
~Amy

I'm around, but not stamping too much...

Well, I am still here and played with my blog today (do you like the new background?), but I have not had much opportunity to stamp lately. I did make a scrapbook for my daughter's violin teacher---it had pictures of all of her students (64 pages)!! I think it turned out really well, but I didn't get any pics taken of it. :o(

I have been cleaning my stamping room today, so maybe I can get a spot clear and stamp again soon. I have high hopes of creating some new things. My daughter seems to be feeling better and doing better healthwise. that is a relief!! All of our activities are slowing down for summer. Now I'm dreaming of the swimming pool and stamping some cool new things.

Have a blessed day!!
~Amy

New addition to our family

I wanted to introduce you to Trigger, a sweet little gray tabby cat, who came to be part of our family on Dec 24th. He is a gift to our oldest daughter, Emily.

I hope that each of you had a wonderful Christmas as you celebrated to birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!! Now I have one week until I leave for India!!! Time to get packing...

Blessings to all of you,

~Amy

I'm still here....

I apologize for being incommunicato for awhile. Emily's health has been up and down and then the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with getting ready and travelling. In early January, I will be travelling to India again. So I thought that I would get a quick post in while I was thinking about it and had a minute. Here are some of the Christmas cards that I made for this year....I just haven't mailed any of them yet!!! :o)

I hope that you enjoy these cards. I may not be back to post more until towards the end of January. Hopefully, after my trip to India, I'll have some time for rubber stamping and scrapbooking again....

Blessings to you and yours during this Christmas season!!

~Amy

Quick note...

In case you are wondering where I have been....I've been at the hospital with my oldest daughter all of last week. She is home and better now, although we are still working on some issues. I have a few pictures to share when I get time. Needless to say that things around home haven't gotten done like they should have after being unexpectedly not home for a whole week basically...

I'll try to come back later and share with you. I hope that you are having some time to be creative---making cards, scrapbooking, making gifts, etc. :o)

~Amy

Fripp Island, South Carolina

Here are some beach pictures finally!! We had a great time, but I just got the pictures on my computer. I was too busy getting ready for my Stampin' Up! (r) Open House this week to think about these pictures. (I'll upload some pictures from that soon!)

The first picture is of my 3 girls, plus a friend that we took to the beach with us. My youngest daughter found that cute little starfish in a tide pool. She always finds the coolest things. A couple of years ago in around the same place, she found a live sea urchin!! And we often find sand dollars---sometimes alive, sometimes dead, but often whole.

And the last picture is just a beach shot. It was taken our last morning at the beach. It was a little overcast that day, however we were already packed and ready to head home, so we weren't playing in the ocean anyway.

If you are looking for a great, quiet family beach getaway, I would recommend Fripp Island, South Carolina (near Beaufort). It is small and peaceful, but if you are looking for lots of activities, then this is not the place for you!! ;0)

Have a great day!! I'll try to get back quicker next time. I just seem to need about 36 hours per day right now!

~Amy

Frames and geese

Today I want to show you some frames that were made by a friend. She made them for four of her five children---she thought that she could do the babies' frame later. Each of these frames are 5"x7". She bought frames for them after she left my house, so I don't have pictures of them. They sounded perfect though!

The last picture is the one I had promised of the baby goslings after they had hatched. (Click on the picture to see it larger.) There were four eggs that hatched and two that did not. Then three of the four babies disappeared, so now we only have one little gosling left.

I want to also let you know about the Stampin' Up!(r) July special. Buy any of the Hodgepodge Hardware at a 25% discount---only $20.96. Contact me to place your order any time.

Happy Stamping!

~Amy

Quick note

I apologize again for not updating in days, but I am still experiencing computer problems. The problem is all with my e-mail right now, but my computer is in the shop where they are trying to find all of my e-mail from the last few years (including anything that you have sent me in the last 3 weeks or so because that is all lost too....). Ugh!!

My husband and I are heading out of town for several days so I will not be updating during that time. Hopefully the problems will all be solved by the time I return because I have some projects that I would like to share with you.

I did want to tell you about the Stampin' Up! (r) special that is coming for June. You will be able to order a new stamp set called Fresh Cuts for $21.95 and you can then add on cute little Fresh Cuts notecards for only $5 (the regular cost will be $8.95, I believe). The little notecards are so cute!! They have a cut out flower on the front so you can put card stock behind to show through. I wanted to give you a link to a GALLERY OF CARDS made with this stamp set and some use the little notecards also. (Click on the capitalized, colored words above to see the gallery!)

Enjoy!! I'll be back in a few days. :o)
~Amy

Prize and a goose

I've been wanting to share with you a prize that I won from my up-up-upline in Stampin' Up! (r). She and one of her first level downlines are doing a fun contest for us, their downline, during this SU! year. They are having random prize drawings after each quarter, then for the Top 15 achievers (in receiving the cute little stars that you see in the picture for preset parameters) and 5 randomly drawn winners will be invited to a Gala event in July with more gifts, prizes, make and takes and other fun stuff!! I've been working hard to receive those cute little stars. I can get stars for things like a $400 show in a month, submitting cards to card contests each month, signing up any new downline members (would you like to join?), listening to great training audios from SU!, etc. It has been so much fun and so far I have gotten a prize each quarter!! First, I got a pack of Bashful Blue card stock, then I got the stamp set Ginormous Flowers (wow!), and this time I got Mini Glue Dots and Sponge Daubers! How fun is that!?!

The other pictures that I want to show you today are just fun. We have a pond in the back yard and every year, we have geese who come through and visit. Most years they also have eggs and then goslings, unless some predator like a snake gets them. The first picture you can see how calm and beautiful the mother goose looks. But my daughter was pretty close to get these pictures and so the goose stood up and began to hiss at her. That explains why the picture is a little blurry! But you can see those eggs under her. I can only count 5 in the picture, however I believe that she has 6 under there. Now we will wait for our little goslings. They are so much fun to watch!! I'll try to remember to take pictures of them for you, if I'm able.

Have a blessed Monday, everyone!!! I have been stamping and will try to show you some cards soon. My internet service is back, however all of my saved e-mail and new e-mail from the last week or so is totally missing!!! So if you've e-mailed me in the past week, I probably didn't get it. Please try again...

Spring flowers, cards and frames

Spring is on it's way!!! I love seeing all the beautiful flowers coming up all around the yard. Here is a picture of one of our many varieties of daffodils. Isn't it beautiful? I just wanted to share a flower with you on Easter. By the way, HAPPY EASTER!! I pray that you are celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ today.

That brings me to the card that I have to share today. It is an Easter card. I used the background stamp called French Flair. My colors are Perfect Plum and Sage Shadow. I used markers to color directly on the stamp, so that I could make the swirls sage and the birds plum. :o) Then I stamped the "Easter Wishes" stamp from the All Holidays set with plum on sage and punched it out with the Designer Label Punch. I made this same card as a birthday card by just changing the words that I used. It really turned out great and is very quick and easy!! This is a great background set which coordinates with the Carte Postale stamp set. Have you gotten these yet?

And last for today is this frame that I made yesterday. I found these great frames at Kroger for only $5!! It is a shadowbox frame that came with words on the glass and mat that said "family", "love" or "friends" in black. And I immediately thought how great these would be with Stampin' Up!'s (R) new RUB-ONS!!! What fun these are---and super easy to do. This frame took me only about 30 minutes to create. I used the Cherished Memories rub-ons for it. I placed the swirls directly on the glass, but I did the word "cherish" on the white mat inside, giving this frame more depth. I then used some of the flowers, pearls and rhinestone brads from the Pretties Kit. To color the flowers I used sponge daubers and different colors of ink. Just make sure that you kind of rub the ink on the flowers not just mash it straight down. Trust me---by mashing it you just get colored circles!!! :o) To attach the pearls, I used Mini Glue Dots. To put the flowers on the mat, I used Stampin' Dimensionals. I apologize that the picture quality is not the best on this shot. I really had trouble with trying to get a good picture without the glare of the flash.

Well, I am off to spend some time with my FAMILY now. Have a wonderful day!! Keep on stamping and I look forward to seeing you at one of my events soon. :o)

I'm still alive...

I apologize for seeming to drop off the face of the earth. I didn't get any pictures of my projects taken, then I went out of town for several days, then my husband had bilateral hernia surgery yesterday.....So I have been out of touch. Please accept my apologies. I will try to post some new projects in the next few days. By the way, my husband's surgery went really well (just in case you were wondering!).



I hope that YOU have had some time to stamp, unlike me. Take care and I'll post again soon!

Snow Day!!!

I just love to have snow days, don't you? Well, I do homeschool my children, so they had to do school anyway. :0) But they did get to take several breaks and go out to play in the snow. During those breaks, I got to play with my STAMPS!! I had so much fun. First, a couple of pictures of the snow today. There were a couple of times when the snow was pouring down. I got a great picture of it, but it does look a little like it could be blurry. That's just because of how big the flakes were and how fast they were coming down.









Now, would you like to see some cards? Here's #1---




This is another of the cards for my upcoming stamp camp on Jan. 24th. Have you signed up yet? Here's what I used for this birthday card (all Stampin' Up! items):


Stamp sets: Embrace Life and It's Your Birthday; Inks: Only Orange, Real Red, Lovely Lilac, Brilliant Blue, Glorious Green; Cardstock: Yo yo yellow, Lovely Lilac and Confetti White


#2---






This is the 5th and last card for the Jan. 24th stamp camp. I used (all Stampin' Up! items):


Stamp set: Close as a Memory; Ink: Basic Brown, plus markers in Always Artichoke, Not Quite Navy, and Bashful Blue; Cardstock: Sahara Sand, Close to Cocoa and Naturals Ivory; Also: 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, corner rounder, Stampin' Dimensionals and Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware.





I have lots more cards that I made today, but I really want to share this beautiful card made for me by my talented downline, Connie D. I was so excited to get this wonderful card in the mail. You may be seeing something like this coming up at one of my stamp camps soon! :0) Thanks, Connie! I just love how she made this look just like a piece of paper in a clipboard by using the Spiral Punch and the Round Tab Punch, plus those brads.





I am going to sign off for tonight and try to show you some more pictures tomorrow. Have a great day!

Merry Christmas, Everyone !!!!

Home again!

We arrived safely back in VA in the wee hours of Sunday morning. I've been recovering ever since. We had a great trip to TX. I have a few observations about TX (at least the area that we were in). It is a beautiful state. I didn't find it as flat as I expected (after all, I am used to living in the mountains!!). The most surprising thing to me was how NICE everyone was. The Houston area is huge, so I expected it to be impersonal like other large city areas that I have visited. But everyone was extremely friendly and helpful. The traffic was outrageously busy all the time, however people are willing to let you in when you've ended up in the wrong lane. I cannot think of one incident of unkindness while we were there. So here is a big Texas-sized THANK YOU to all of you Texans!!! We really enjoyed your state. Come on over and visit the mountains of VA sometime---we'd love to have you!

I took some pics on the flight home. It is always so cool to fly above the clouds. Here's a shot out of my airplane window...

Of course, when I got home, I wanted to spend some quality time with my stamps. I had gotten an order while I was gone (my preorder of stamp sets coming in the Spring/Summer catalog---you are going to LOVE this catalog!!!). But I had to attend to more pressing matters like going to the grocery store first. I had a couple of ladies come over last night for some stamping though. We had a great time. Here are the beautiful frames that we created---as a group really.

Remember that I am offering a special on Stampin' Up!'s retiring stamp sets. Go here to see my special and contact me by December 29th with your order!! Now, I'm off to assemble some of my new rubber stamps so I can start playing with them. Watch for pictures coming to my blog soon....

Leaving TX today

Well, it has been a fun trip, but today is the day that we begin our trip home. I say "begin" because the weather people are calling for ice today/tonight between the airport in Charlotte and home. I guess if the roads are icy, we will wait until tomorrow for the final leg of our journey.

One of the main things that I really enjoyed while in TX was seeing my oldest brother, Allen. Here is a picture of us together in the Hilton hotel in front of their beautiful Christmas tree.

Yesterday was our trip to Galveston. I was only disappointed with the fact that we didn't have more time to spend there. We went to the Moody Gardens which was awesome!!! There are 3 pyramids---one is an aquarium, one is a rainforest habitat, and the other a science center. Here's a picture of the outside of the aquarium. We saw so many beautiful things. I really love the macaws. My favorite are the hyacinth macaws (blue ones), but the picture of the scarlet macaws turned out really well.

I have so many more pictures, but I won't bore you all with them now. I have had a wonderful break from the "real" world over these last 10 days. I am looking forward to getting home though. I really need to finish my Christmas shopping and wrapping. Also need to do some baking---yum! And I'm ready to do some stamping, too. Only 10 more days until Jesus' birthday!!! Enjoy each moment and remember to take lots of pictures! I need to get back to scrapbooking this coming year. Want to come over and scrapbook with me?

Here's some stamping....

I realize that most of you are checking out my website to see some stamping, not just my trip to TX. So, I searched thru my pics and found a project that I had not shared with you yet. Here is my PHOTO WALLET.....

I used Stampin' Up!s 12"x12" textured cardstock in Basic Gray. I love the textured CS, have you tried it yet? Inside I used the Naturals White CS. My tabs (made with the Round Tab Punch) are done in Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, and Certainly Celery CS. Those are the colors of ink that I used, too. I also used the Spiral Punch for my inside white pages. I love, love, love that punch. So easy to use and such a cool effect. Want to see how it works? Just ask me and I'll show you! The main stamp set that I used is called BE HAPPY (found on pg 51 of the Fall/Winter catalog). I also used the WARM WORDS set for the little "adorable" word on the tag on the front. The middle of the flower on the front is one of SU!s circle rhinestone brads.

I don't have my dimensions with me here in TX, but I just played around until I found a size that worked. :0) The belly band is made of Night of Navy CS and then I stamped the flower and tag on naturals white CS and just cut them out. I used the brad to hold the belly band, flower and tag together. I did not have time to fill this little book with pictures yet, but maybe I can do that when I get home. I have lots of pictures from this trip. I plan to do one section for each of my 3 girls, then I will write their name on the tab for their section. I'll try to remember to take and post pictures again once I get that done.

Have a great day! We are headed out to Galveston in a few minutes. I'll probably take more pictures. Remember to take time during this busy season for some relaxation while stamping!!! Happy Stamping!

Remember the Alamo!

Here are a couple of pictures of the Alamo in San Antonio, TX. We went and watched the IMAX film about the Alamo before going to the actual site. Thanks for recommending that, Logan. It is the best way to do it if you historically challenged like I am!!! It was a beautiful area, right in the middle of the city.

The next day, we were off to the San Antonio Zoo. It was a really nice zoo. We enjoyed lots of unusual animals. Above are pictures of the Grizzly Bear who was really just a performer. He was actually posing for pictures! Then the other picture is of a fossa. Have you ever heard of one of those before? If you have watched the movie Madagascar then you have heard of one. That is the animal that was after the lemurs. The lemurs thought that the animals from NY (ie, the New York Giants!) could protect them from the fossa. These are very strange animals. The face is very cat like, but the body is odd and the tail is very, very long. We also saw a capybara (I think that I spelled that correctly). They are the largest member of the rodent family. I couldn't get a picture because my camera battery died, however just imagine a rat the size of a pig and you're picturing the capybara!!! Yuck! Thankfully, they live in South America so they won't be coming into my home looking for food. :0)

Well, that is my update for now. We are back in Houston now and will probably head out to Galveston tomorrow for the day. I hope you are all having a wonderful day and getting your Christmas gifts purchased and wrapped. Could anyone purchase and wrap mine for me while I am away?!? Blessings to you!

Our hotel

We are staying at the Hilton in downtown Houston. It is a really nice hotel. The girls are participating in a national chess tournament and this happens to be the hotel that is hosting the event. That's why we are here. :0) So here are some pictures of the lobby...... This is the chandelier in the main lobby. It is huge and really quite ugly in my opinion!!! My 9 year old thinks that it is beautiful though. All of those squiggly things are hand blown glass bulbs. Really a lot of work. And directly underneath it is this beauty.....

This scene is done all in CHOCOLATE!!!! Can you believe it? It is so beautiful. (Abby and I agree on this one!) I just love the Raggedy Ann and Andy so much. The penquins are quite cute, too.

Well, I need to run. We went to the Johnson Space Center yesterday. I'll add a couple of those pics soon. Hope you are having a wonderful December. Christmas is just around the corner!!