Meet my granddaughter ...

... she's wonderfully "one of a kind" (and I wouldn't want it any other way)!



Morgan Darlene Franjko has certainly grown into a beautiful, well rounded, good hearted woman. She is 17 ... will be a senior in high school this year and it's truly hard to believe she's already graduating ... seems like only yesterday that I was at the hospital with her Mom awaiting her arrival and commenting on how big her feet are the first time I saw her ... LOL ... (sorry Mo)!




Mo (as we call her) is very involved in many activities. She, along with her Mom and a few other friends, is a volunteer at their local Hospice. She's VERY involved in the high school band, where she plays clarinet and will be this year (as last) the bands Field Commander (she's very proud of this position!). She was on the prom committee last year (not sure about this year). This summer she's been going to Kent State Salem Campus taking Sign language which will count as a 2nd language for her upcoming school year and has been LOVING it! She also works part time in the floral department of her local supermarket and has enjoyed learning more about floral design. This is really cool since I'm a certified floral designer, it gives us just one more thing in common that we can talk about!! Oh, and did I forget to mention ... she races a "junior dragster" on the weekends with her family. That is her in the WHITE dragster (her mom is in the back in the red top & blue jean shorts) ... it's certainly a FAMILY THING!! Dad races a '67 camero and brother Jon also races a junior dragster! Mom has to do all the "leg work" getting the kids/cars on the track and back for each race.




With Mo having a week off in between Sign Language class sessions & a couple of days off work, she & her brother took the opportunity to come and stay with us for a few days and it's been GRAND!!!


Yesterday we went to visit my friend Tammy Hershberger (Stamp Happy) at her store (Toyrifix) where both kids got something new to "play with". Mo bought an awesome K-nex Farris Wheel set to put together and Jon bought a X-zylo (flying gyroscope) which he's had great fun seeing how far he can throw it. Nearly landed on the roof a few times but luckily it just went over and came back down to earth! Shew!!



Morgan spent a couple of hours putting this farris wheel together but when it was done, it was really awesome! (What do you think Tammy???) It is battery operated and turns in two different directions ... really cool. Now's she's going to try and transport it back home without taking it apart so she can show her Mom & Dad.


Morgan has always been close to her grandfather! When she was little and came to stay with us, she would always climb down in behind her grandpa's knees while he laid on the couch watch TV and she would stay there with him for very long periods of time. Last evening after returning home from seeing the movie "Ice Age" she tried crawling back into her favorite spot to find that her long legs won't let her stay in that position for very long (ouch ... can you say cramping). But Mark thought it was sweet of her to try!!!


At the present time the kids are preparing to head back home. Morgan has to work this afternoon from 2:30 to 9:00 and it will take them a little over an hour to get home, so unfortunately this visit draws to a close. It's so nice now that Morgan is driving and come to visit when she has the free time ... even if Mom & Dad are too busy to come along.


We are truly blessed with such wonderful, fun-loving, respectful grandchildren ... I am SO PROUD to say I'm their Nanna!!! Hope you enjoyed meeting MO ... with this being her senior year and DH getting better with each passing day ... I hope to have many more exciting event photos to share with you over the upcoming year! Have a wonderful day my friends ... now I have to go give my "sweeties" a kiss good-bye!

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I nearly forgot to show you what Morgan brought for her Pappy & me. I told you that she works at a Florist inside a grocery store ... well here are the wonderful surprises she put together for us.

I told you she was a SWEETIE!!!

Meet my grandson Jonathan ...

.... and let me tell you, HE IS ALL BOY!!! Jonathan will be 12 in September and has the energy of 10 kids (either that or I'm just getting old, LOL). He's the most LOVING young boy I know! He enjoys hunting, fishing, playing baseball, racing his junior dragster, riding his bike, racing his hotwheels (see photo at the picnic table) and playing computer/PS2 games.





Jon was very excited to learn that I had received an M-16 soft pellet gun (plastic) for my birthday to help me keep the squirrels & chipmunks away from my bird feeders and plants. He had it all figured out before I even took the time to read the directions and since he brought his rapid fire hand (soft pellet) gun with him, he was enjoying doing some target practice with them.

In these two photos, I was down in my craftroom working on a few challenge cards and since Jon doesn't really like being "alone" he joined me and worked on doing some target practice in the basement with a large box and "MY" M-16 ... what fun!!!

Jonnie just LOVES his Pappy (can you tell) and was thrilled when he was allowed to hook his Playstation up to Pappy's BIG screen TV to play his new hunting game ... made it more real he said!! When Jon was little he always called his grandfather "Pap Pap" but at some point he must have decided that was too much to say so he changed it to "Pappy" and that's what they've called him ever since! Mark is such an easy going person that he was okay with that!!! Of course, they used to call me "Nanna" ... now (thanks to Jon) it's "Neener"! What's up with that???????






I love when the grandkids come to visit ... it's nice to have noise in the house other than the TV ! Jon is a true delight because of his soft heartedness and fun-loving nature. Although he does scare me at times when he started doing "tricks" on his bike over the curbs of the driveway ... guess I'm still a "nervous Nelly" when it comes to that sort of thing.



Hope you enjoyed meeting Jonathan ... he's a real sweetie and I love him dearly! I know it sounds weird, but I LOVE BEING A GRANDMA!!!

Color Throwdown #50

WOW ... I can't believe we are already on #50 for the Color Throwdown Challenge. It seems like just "yesterday" when my friend Tammy Hershberger (Stamp Happy) told me about this new challenge blog! Way to go ladies ... each & every challenge is more fun than the last!!!! Today, Broni Holcombe (Splashes of Watercolor), is our hostess and has come up with a great color combination! What do you think of these colors???

While going through some of my "HUGE" collection of designer paper, I thought this piece of Stampin' Up "Pink Flamingo" was a good starting point for my creation since it already had two of the three colors required. My sentiment panel was cut using Nestabilities "oval" & "scallop oval" dies and the sentiment is by Endless Creations. It looked like it needed just a little "something" so I used my Inkadinkado butterflies to add a little movement to my card. My sentiment panel was also popped with dimensional tape and my red grosgrain ribbon is by Offray.



Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my creations. I hope I have been able to share inspiration to someone out there in blogland!!!!!!

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #9

It's time for another MIDNIGHT MADNESS SKETCH CHALLENGE over on the "priscillastyles" blog. I have come to really look forward to doing this challenge because they are usually a little more "detailed" than I'm used to doing and that really does "challenge" me!!

This week I decided to pick one of my Basic Grey paper packs and "go from there". This is the "Ambrosia" pack and it's not one I usually reach for ... so that made it even more fun! My main image is by Inkadinkado, was stamped with Versafine Black and embossed using Detail Clear Embossing Powder. I've used Gelly Roll "Stardust" pens to color in the butterfly and SU watercolor pencils to color the flower. My side button embellishments are from a Bucket O'Buttons and I've used Michael's gold metallic elastic cording for the threading as well as for the antenna's on the butterfly (see close up view).

Well, I had fun creating today and I hope you did too! If you haven't taken the time to check out this challenge blog ... please jump on over there right now!! Not only are they fun sketches to do each week but the prizes and "money" they are giving away is nothing short of AMAZING!! Happy Day to All!!

A Vintage Thank-You ...

I found a new sketch challenge (yippee!!) over on the Carol's Sketch Fun blog and thought I'd give it a try. I got a little "off" on the sketch (I sketched it out myself on a piece of paper & didn't do a very good job obviously) but I still like the outcome.

This designer paper is by The Paper Studio and I just LOVE it! I think this pattern is what they call "toille". My other papers are Robin Hood Red, Basic Black and Whisper White.

My image is from a 4 image cube by B Line Designs and I've used SU watercolor pencils/blender pen for my coloring. My sentiment is by Stampendous and the metal dots are by Colorbok. I've used Nestabilities to diecut my main image and dimensional tape to pop it up.

This was a fun challenge and I'll be checking back in next week to see what Carol has to offer. Hope you enjoyed my creation! Happy Day!!

Crafty Secrets "Leftovers" Challenge

Sorry I've hit you with 3 postings today but it was a great
stamping morning and just had to share it with all of you!!!

Today's Crafty Secrets Challenge over on Splitcoast Stampers (SCS) today is hosted by Carla Mayfield (Stargirl on SCS) (Paper Pastorale Blog) and she has asked us to use our "leftovers". WELL, If you are anything like me, you have plenty of those laying around!!!

The leftovers I have used are as follows:

1. The "Notes" journaling box cut from the bottom of a Crafty Secrets booklet image.

2. The background Crafty Secrets Radiant designer paper (almost wasn't big enough ... shew!).

3. Other than the base card ... the cardstock used was in the "scrap heap". I actually cut the matting for my main image out from the center of the matting behind the floral panel.

4. The Around the Block floral frame tape are pieces I had cut for another project then changed my mind on embellys used.

Other items used on this creation are as follows:

Stamps: Crafty Secrets "Bird Notes"

Papers: Garden Green

Inks: Versafine black ink

Accessories: The Paper Studio silk flowers, SU paper flower, Target brad, SU watercolor pencils, Zot 3d glue dots

THANKS SO MUCH for putting up with my CRAZYNESS! I so love hearing from all of you! See you again soon. Happy Day!!!

Here's a fun technique ...

This week's CCEE Stamper's Challenge is a technique challege called Modern Grid. This is a new technique to me and I just LOVE IT!!! So easy and great results!




This challenge was hosted by Dawn Lusk and here is the way you do the technique in Dawn's words:

If you haven’t tried this technique before it is pretty easy to do, here's how:

1. Stamp your image or images randomly over your card
2. Now take a ruler and black marker and draw lines equally spaced vertically and horizontally. Make sure you stop your line when you get to the stamped image and then start again on the other side of the image.
3. Add dots or doodles to some of the squares. You can also color in some squares if you desire. You could also add smaller image stamps that suit the theme or words too. You can see what I mean about other images and words by one I did when I first learnt this technique here.


My main image is a $1 image by Sugarloaf that I found in the $1 bin at Pat Catan's. I stamped it using Versafine Black and embossed it using Detail Clear embossing powder before adding my "Modern Grid" lines with a Creative Memories fine tip black marker & metal ruler. I colored in the image using SU watercolor pencils & blender pen ... added the Rubber Stampede musical notes and Inkadinkado birthday sentiment.



I had this scrap piece of Cuttlebugged white background which I colored using blue & green chalk and cotton balls. The pretty in pink matting was a scrap piece as was the ivory cardstock I stamped my main image on. My ribbon is by May Arts and I used Bow Easy to make my bow.



Please give this technique a try ... I just know you'll be impressed with how easy it is to do and the dimension you'll achieve. Thanks for stopping by today! Hope the sun is shining in your corner of the world!!!

OCC Challenge

This week's Our Creative Corner Challenge was to use Red, White & Blue in your creation. I'm late getting around to doing this challenge ... and with July 4th already gone ... I decided to use my R,W & B in a summery creation.

I thought this image from the Stampin' Up "Summer by the Sea" set would work nicely and I finally got around to using my Michael Strong Mosaic Frame image (of which I cut out the center part).

On a piece of dry white cardstock I cotton balled my background using tones of blue chalk for the sky area and tones of green for the grassy area. I then stamped my image using Versafine Black and embossed it using Detail Clear embossing powder. Stampin' Up watercolor pencils & blender pen were used to do the coloring.

I stamped my frame image onto dry white cardstock using Not Quite Navy ink then embossed using PKGlitz "Squash Blossom" embossing glitter. I used my swivel craft knife to cut out the center part of the framing image. One of the nice things about this image is that you can use it all or cut away those pieces you don't want and reuse them on a different project.

My sentiment was stamped in versafine black ink onto a piece of dry white cardstock which I cut using my Rectangle Nestabilities. I used the next size up to cut the real red matting and I popped it up using dimensional tape. The main image was matted using basic black cardstock, added two little red brads by Making Memories and mounted it all onto a real red cardstock base.

As a last minute thought, I ran outside and took a photo of the "inside" of this card. After stamping my Inkadinkado birthday sentiment image, I used the same technique of using blue & green chalk with a cotton ball to give it color. I colored in the words with a red Spica glitter pen and the bottom was created using the Martha Stewart Arch Trellis border punch.

I hope you enjoyed my creation! Thanks for stopping by today!!

NE Ohio Shoebox Swap Announcement!

Good Monday Morning Everyone!!!

For those of you who live in the NE Ohio area, I just wanted to make you aware of a Shoebox Swap that will be going on Saturday, July 25th in Barberton, Ohio. A good friend of mine, Anita Kurtz, will be hosting this event and we're trying to let all of the surrounding area stampers aware!

This is a SHOUT OUT to Lana Edwards, Kris Turner, Carol
Smuts, Sandy Egbert, Kim Bradfield, Terri Snode, Julie, Crystal and any other NE
Ohio stampers I've met along the way and hope to meet at this event!!!

HERE IS THE LINK Anita has set up over on SCS and the first posting pretty much lays out the "groundrules" for a shoebox swap. They are a LOT of fun! You get to do different projects, meet new stampers from your area and munch on some goodies too!! If you have ANY questions you can either leave a post on the linked thread OR email me at www.akadafney@yahoo.com.

HURRY!! SIGN-UP DEADLINE IS JULY 19th

Please give it consideration and let Anita know of your intentions! It will be AWESOME FUN!! Tammy Hershberger (StamperTammy) and I will be there too and can't wait to see you all again!!

Cards to Share ...

With DH not feeling well today and all of our company headed back home, I took the time to do a little cleanup in my craftroom and make a few cards while I was at it!!




I've started doing a Crafty Secrets Challenge over on Papercraft Planet every Sunday and nearly forgot about doing one for this weekend ... Oooops! Since we are already into the month of July ... I figured why not do a "Christmas In July" challege. I just LOVE this Vintage Christmas set by Crafty Secrets and so that's what I chose to use for my challenge sample creation.


Card Recipe:
Stamps: Crafty Secrets
Papers: Whisper White, Crafty Secrets Radiant dp, Basic Grey dp
Inks: Versafine Black, Real Red
Accessories: Offray grosgrain ribbon, Nestabilities, sponge applicator, Mary Engelbreit Rose Corner punch, EK Success snowflake punch, gold & red Stickles, SU eyelet border punch.

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Here are a couple other creations I came up with while trying to reduce the size of the "scrap" pile on my worktable!!!



I've used a scrap piece of DCWV (I think) designer paper to stamp my images on to create this scene and the base card is of SU Pacific Point. The images I have used are primarily Stampscapes - (Lakeside Cabin, Rocky Peaks, Oak Branch & Scenic Sentiments #4). The "eagle" is by Art Impressions. After stamping the cabin image, I masked it off using "Eclipse Masking" then continued to overstamp with the mountains and tree branch. Once all stamped I embossed using detail clear embossing powder and colored using SU watercolor pencils & blender pen. I'm really happy with the outcome!

For this sympathy card I used a rose patterned scrap piece of DCWV designer paper for my background on my river rock card base. The sentiment is by Stampin' Up and is called "Thoughts & Prayers". After stamping the image using wild wasabi ink and the sentiment using Versafine black ink, I ran it through my Cuttlebug using the rectangular Nestabilities and before removing it from the die, sponged the edges using rose romance ink. The rose colored organza ribbon was also a scrap piece I had close by. I really like how the distressed edges of the background panel really sets off the main image.



I hope you have enjoyed my creations today as much as I enjoyed making them!! And how wonderful is it that I was able to use up MORE scraps than I CREATED!! LOL!! Happy Day Everyone ... hope to see you back here again tomorrow ... GOD WILLING!!!

More July 4th Fun

How lucky are we to be able to have friends & family visit over the July 4th weekend. Not only did we have the kids (daughter & grandchildren) as well as Toldeo friends (Mark & Nancy Beelman) here earlier in the week, but we also had a visit from DH's nephew Kevin & girlfriend Connie to celebrate & cookout on the 4th of July!! The last time Kevin & Connie came to visit, they helped us bring in the New Year. I sure hope they don't wait for another 6 months before coming to visit again!!




I introduced Connie to Stamping & Card Making on their last visit so of course we spent a little time together in my craftroom playing with paper & ink on this visit. She's a "natural" and I'm afraid I've created a Monster!! LOL!!




Since Kevin & Connie were here ... and we made TONS of food (steak kabobs, chicken kabobs, corn on the cob, potato salad, fruit salad, Bush's grillin' beans, mushrooms & zucchini to grill) ... I decided to invite the couple across the way (Travis & Christie) to join in on the festivities. They are around the same age as Kevin & Connie so I just knew they'd hit it off!! Besides ... they were home all alone and had to eat ... needless to say, we had plenty to go around.




After dinner the conversation got around to some of the latest movies and since both couples are HUGE movie goers (and the "old folks" are not), Travis ran back over to his house and brought back a whole bag full of Blue-Ray movies to pick from. The final decision (since K & C had seen most of them) turned out to be "Matrix". Talk about a NOISEY evening ... between the sarround sound system on our TV and all the fireworks going off around the neighborhood ... Yikes!!! But it sure was nice to share the evening with more friends & family!!




I'm afraid to say that I don't think we'll be having more visitors anytime soon. It was a little rough on Mark (as you can see) and today he's not feeling very well and has spent most of the day in bed. Hopefully he'll recouperate and be more "chipper" tomorrow.




I can only hope that you all enjoyed your Independence Day weekend as much as I did!! God Bless You All and thanks for stopping by!!

Friends & Family ...

HAPPY 4th of JULY EVERYONE!!!!

What a beautiful day it is here in NE Ohio and how blessed are we to have the freedom to enjoy it!!! My DH's nephew & girlfriend (Kevin & Connie) came last evening to share the 4th with us and it looks like the weather will cooperate and let us have a cookout. There is a young couple who live across the street whom I noticed are "home alone" this weekend, so I just popped over this morning and invited them over later for a bite to eat & to spend some time chit-chatting. They are nice kids and being in the same age group as Kevin & Connie, I thought they would have a lot in common ... so it's going to be a fun day! I already have the coffee brewing, crepe batter mixed up and the strawberries cut & thickening ... now if this crew would just wake up, we could get the day started!! LOL!!

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We recently had friends from our old neighborhood in Toledo come to visit along with our daughter & grandchildren. What a fun, relaxed time we had and granddaughter, Morgan snapped a few photos for me to share with you all.

We always enjoy visiting with our friends Mark & Nancy Beelman and the fact that they hadn't seen my daughter or grandchildren since we moved here to Akron (6 years ago), they really enjoyed seeing the kids again and seeing how much they've grown. Morgan enjoyed talking with Mr. Beelman out on the deck and helping him do the grilling (wasn't that sweet of him to be "grill master" for the day) while Carolyn, Nancy & (My) Mark chit-chatted in the kitchen.

Grandson, Jonathan has A LOT of energy so he was in & out doing various things to stay busy when he's visiting Nanna & Pappy. He has his own bike here so he took several trips throughout the development and then he found an OLD football in the garage and asked if someone would throw it with him. Everyoneelse was busy so even though I'm not very good at it, I spent a little time in the yard tossing the football back & forth with him. It was great fun but certainly proved just how OUT OF SHAPE I really am!!! LOL!!

Our neighbor Tony Zawarhi (same age as Morgan) stopped over to share the "info-mercial" he had made for a school project with us and it was so funny ... we all enjoyed it tremendously. It's amazing what these kids have to do for school project now a days ... technology has certainly advanced since my days in school!!! While he was here, he was telling us about how he had learned to "swing dance" at church camp a few weeks ago. I "conned" Morgan into dancing with him and here are the results. GREAT FUN!! Tony's a really good kid and we enjoyed his visit!!

Thanks for letting me share my visit with you! Hope you enjoy your weekend!

Catching Up on Challenges ...

I have had out of town company the past few days so I'm a little behind on my card making & posting! My Toledo, OH company has returned home and now we are awaiting the arrival of our Pittsburgh, PA company. WHAT FUN!!!! With DH's illness, it seems like it's been SO LONG since we've been able to entertain friends & family ... sure feels good to see Mark enjoying their company too!!! I will have some photos to share in a separate posting.

Anyways ... on to my cards.

For today's STAMP SIMPLY #94 - Stars & Stripes Challenge, I have used my recently purchased stamp set by Flourishes. This set is called Patriotism on Parade and with every set they sell, Flourishes is making a donation to the Wounded Warrior program. If for no other reason than that, I felt I needed to make this purchase.

Please be sure to pop on over to Sharon's blog and check out all the details on this challenge. Also, you'll want to be sure and jump on over to her Design Team ladies blogs to be inspired by their works-of-art!!


This creation was certainly done in Stamp Simply fashion! The only stamps used were those mentioned above and the other details on this card are as follows:
Papers: Real Red, DCWV designer paper
Inks: Versafine Black, Versamark
Accessories: Fiskars decal scissors, PKGlitz embossing glitter, dimensional tape, swivel craft knife.


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This first card was for yesterday's Color Throwdown Challenge hosted by my dear friend Tammy Hershberger (Stamp Happy) and what a great color combo she has given us to play with. Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip and Soft Sky ... probably three colors I would not have put together myself but I certainly like how this came together!! Here are the items used for this creation:



Stamps: Endless Creations (purchased at Tammy's Store - Toyrifix) & AMuse
Papers: Groovy Guava, Soft Sky, Chocoate Chip & SU Groovy Guava designer Paper
Inks: Chocolate Chip & Groovy Guava
Accessories: SU Eyelet border punch, Stampendous Dot Sparklers, dimensional tape, Michael's brown satin ribbon, sponge applicator


Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by & see what I've been up to! Hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend and much as I am!!

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #8

Today's Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge was a real DOOZIE this week! I had to really think about this one and I'm still not sure I like the outcome. The DT samples are amazing ... if you haven't checked out Priscillastyles blog yet ... you really should!!!!

There were no stamps or ink used on this creation. My image came from http://www.digitalcollagesheets.com/ and is from "The Lady's Closet" collage sheet. My background panel of designer paper is from K&Co. The other papers are scraps I had laying on my table. The ribbon is by Darice and is zig-zagged which I when over with Diamond Stickles. Here are other supplies used for this card:

Papers: K&Co. dp, Very Vanilla, Basic Black, Mellow Moss, Pink Passion, Green Galore, Basic Grey (scrap)

Accessories: Darice ribbon, Prima flowers, Making Memories brads, Stickles (diamond & pink), Nestabilities

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you are planning a fun filled July 4th weekend!! We have friends coming to visit tomorrow and I can't wait to see them again. Happy Stamping!

My Latest Adventure ...

Sorry folks, no card creations today (maybe later) but I would like to share with you what I've been up to the past few days and the reason for me being MIA.

I have been wanting to repaint my kitchen for awhile now ... but with DH health issues there just wasn't time and then once he came home I was afraid the paint fumes might give him some trouble. Well, it's been 2 months since his transplant and since we have friends from Toledo coming to visit tomorrow (yikes, that's cutting it close), I decided Sunday morning I would "get 'r done"!!

We've only lived in this house 5 1/2 years and I painted the kitchen YELLOW a few years back and thought it was time again for some freshening up. This time I decided to be brave and paint it my favorite color "PURPLE" ... actually the colors are FEBRUARY FROST (down the hall & wall facing into the livingroom) and WEEPING WISTERIA (a shade darker for the remainder of the kitchen).

I don't have any of my decorative pictures rehung yet but this will at least give you an idea of what it looks like. My husband says I caught him "in a weak moment" when he agreed to let me use PURPLE on the walls. I caught him in a really weak moment back in Toledo when I painted the front door "Barney" Purple, LOL!! The house was grey Victorian styled and actually when we had to sell it and move here to Akron, it was the FRONT DOOR that was the selling feature for the lady buyer!!!

SO ... what do you think??? It's not completely finished (decorative wise) but I really like it!! Guess I'd better get my work started if I'm going to be ready for my guest arrival tomorrow. I only have the rest of the house to get cleaned ... get groceries ... mow the lawn ... well, you get the picture!! Thanks for stopping by!! I hope to have a couple cards for you later too! After all, today is Crafty Secrets & Midnight Madness Challenge day!!! Enjoy your day!!!