A few pictures from our recent trip with Dahlia to meet  up with relatives in St. Louis. It's her first visit and chance to meet cousin Layla!

My son Steve with Dahlia and Layla.  They LOVED to scream together.  I think they had a ball!

April Beccy's Place Challenge

Here's the card I made for the April Challenge at Beccy's Place .  She requested we use Chocolate colored papers, trim and embelishments. and I could not resist using these Chocolate covered Strawberries! Yummy!

Market Street Stamp Block Party

Here's a card I made today for the Market Street Stamps Block Party!  Cute little dress image - which was free!

This is the time of year my Mom always started hanging things on the line outside again, so I just went with the flow!

Scrapinit Discoveries

There is a another weekly contest over at  http://scrapinit.blogspot.com and Einat wants people to write a post about something they "discover" in the second half of life, and my comment is that I think everyone wishes they had the knowledge they've obtained lasting that long, but wish they were teenagers again!  I do! I've discovered that if I could do it again, Oh the things I'd change.  By the ton!  And probably not what most people would think.  I think I did the major things right, but my life could have used some tweeking!  Do you agree?  If so, join in!

Hubby has retired!

I have a non-crafty blog today.  My husband has retired from his job at the newspaper after 38 years!  He was offered a buy-out and it was too good to pass up. That industry is failing more and more every day and although he's not quite old enough for Social Security, it was time.  The stress in the past few years were starting to affect him a little, and even though he absolutely loved his job  -  He's really happy now!

So, we'll see how things go.  He's already trying to get me out of my craft room.  And sometimes that could be a good thing, but not always!  And he is already planning to get me to de-clutter the whole house, and especially my craft room - Mercy Me!  I'm resisting like crazy.  But then again, I could use the help!

Hang in there with us, and I'll be sure to let you know as things progress (or regress, I'm not sure which).

new punch I won

Here's a card I made today, using a new punch I just won.  It's fab.  I love it already. And so useful!  I won several others things, but you'll just have to wait and see for those!  This is a card for my little Dahlia's mama who has a birthday coming up real soon, and she loves elephants - so how fitting!

Here's a new card I made for a friend of my older brother - who sometimes has been like a brother to me. I think he'll like the humor - about me always being younger!  I really love this image by Mo - I've used it for so many different things!

Scrappy Chick has some goodies

The Scrappy Chick has some goodies up for grabs for some of her followers, and I'm one who hopes to win!  Some paper, stencils, gift certificate and some stamps - Goodies! for 4 winners.  Worth to trip to her blog to find out how to enter.

Here's my card for the new Challenge over at Digi Darla's.  This one is called, "Festive Flowers" and I found a cute little image for that.  My girlfriend Laura has several gardens, and although a lot of it is produce, she does have flowers too!  And my flower beds have all just been redone (by someone else I may add!) and ready for new plants.  I can hardly wait to get it set up with new stuff.

My sweet Dahlia

This picture was from a few weeks ago. She loves to rough-house around. My son Steven does that with her a lot I think! Here's she's trying to get my toes!

Sweet Dahlia Anne, she's getting so big. She's just 14 months old last week.

Hubby and I are surely enjoying all our visits with her. I've been taking a few videos, so that's one reason there haven't been many pictures of her recently.

Bursting with Buttons

Today's challenge card is using a Digi Darla's image that is so cute! And I hope a clever idea using buttons!

The image is called Dress Shop.

The challenge runs through April 7th so there is plenty of time to join in. Just remember to use a Digi Darla image and buttons!

kristin has a giveaway

Here's what she says:

I am giving away one $100.00 Gift Certificate to Scrapbook.com Superstore to one lucky winner!! Have something on your wish list that you are dieing to purchase? Want any of the new CHA items? Look no further!! You could be the winner of my HUGE $100.00 Give~A~Way!!

In order to be entered into the $100.00 Scrapbook.com Superstore Gift Certificate here is what you need to do!

1.) Become a follower of this blog Kristin Wilson Handmade!

2.) Post about my $100.00 Give~A~Way on your blog.

3.) Leave a comment on this post with a link to your blog post about my $100.00 Give~A~Way.

So, sounds good to me and I love the box she just made - go check it out!!

Artist point of view of "using" their art

Please click the title above and go read this!!

It's the best explanation of how to use images properly and the reasons why! No rant, just clearly written how things work.

Now for my 2 Cents Worth: She explains this so well, I hope more people understand this now. Some artists get rather testy and nasty about it (even if it's for a good reason - no one pays attention then). Then one just remembers the "rants" I think and not the point. This is the best description I've ever read that explains the artist point of view!

Cupcake card

Here's a card I made with the new cupcake image from Birdie Brown. This was on sale, and I just had to get it!!

I love cupcakes, and they are so cute to use for anyone's birthday card. Who doesn't love 'em?!

PLEASE GO VOTE FOR ME!..

I only have a few votes, please go vote for me now!

I entered into this contest months ago, and they've just now advised me that I'm one of the finalists, so please read the note below and go there and vote for me to win some storage things for my crafting space!

When you put this http://www.facebook.com/wayfair into your address bar and hit enter, then on the left column, click on: Worst Workspace Contest, and then -- at least on my screen -- the voting tab is way, way down and doesn't even show up on the initial screen - so just scroll down and then click vote. Another screen will come up and My entry is also way down at the bottom, (says Terri from Indiana) and you need to click on VOTE and then it will ask for your email address for verification (it stops people voting for themselves a lot!)

This ends March 16, so please go vote soon!! Thanks so much.

I could certainly use the prize!

Here's what they wrote:

Dear Worst Workspace Finalist,

Get excited! The voting part of the contest had started on our Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/wayfair

In order to vote you must click on the Worst Workspace Contest tab and like us. Then you will have to enter an email address to vote, and you will be sent an email to verify that address and then you will be allowed to vote once with that email address.

We’ll be running the voting until Friday March 16, 2012, and the person with the most votes at the end of the voting period is guaranteed a spot in the top 5.

Please share this with your friends and family and have fun.

Crafters Reference Candy -WOW!

I love this little Magnolia image, and so I decided to use it for an entry at http://craftersreference.blogspot.com/.

She has some fabulous candy, and I wanna win!!

Go check it out, it runs until March 13.

but don't bother signing up - cause I want to win it.

Think Spring @ Digi Darla's

Here's my card for the Think Spring challenge at Digi Darla's.

This time it is sponsored by Robyn's Fetish.

You get two whole weeks to create whatever you'd like, using a Digi Darla image and the theme of Think Spring! Come on, join in and have a little fun!

Anji's Antics Challenge again

I don't know if this is allowed for the challenge, but I was on a roll today, so I used several more of the images to make cards. My hubby came home from work needing an older gentleman's birthday card, and then a friend's mother just passed away and I needed a sympathy card and I've learned to make more than one of those at a time, and since the challenge ends tonight, I decided to enter these also. If not allowed, I'm sure someone will tell me!

But they are great images, and worked perfectly for me today!

Anji Antics Challenge

Here's a couple Easter cards I made using some of the images from Anji's Antics!

She has wonderful freebies all the time. If you haven't checked them out, you should!

my blog candy winner!!

*** Candy has been claimed and mailed! to the Phillipines!

Here is the candy that will be sent, along with a copy of my son's book - Naked Summer, to the winner of my blog candy........

and the winner is....

Luanne!! of the CraftersReferenceshop.blogspot.com

I will try to send an email, but the winner MUST also respond here on my blog in the comments AND send me their information (mailing address) to: terriavidreader at yahoo dot com.

If I don't hear from the winner with this info by Feb. 22, a new winner will be chosen.