Spring

These pics are not the best, but it shows my interim decor between Easter and 4th of July!  It is just nice and Springy with all the fruit.  Even my curtains are fruity!  On the second shelf of the hutch there are two little plates that were made by my sons when they were just little.  They are 15 and 19 right now.  I just cherish them!  They were gifts for Mother's Day.  The other little plates are from tea sets that the boys and my husband have given me over the years.  I used to collect tea sets and had MANY others.  I decided to just keep the ones gifted to me and got rid of the rest.  I need more room in my house and have simplified much over the past few years!  Still not there yet, but working on it!  I hope you all have a terrific week end!  Thanks for stopping by!

Mother Fredrickson?!

My husband's aunt retired recently and we wanted to give her a card.  My husband and his aunt are always joking around with one another and both have a great sense of humor.  I wanted to make a funny card but couldn't find any great pictures of an elderly lady....so I MADE one!  I took this coloring page of Mr. Fredrickson from the Disney movie "Up"...

and by using my wonderful Make-the-Cut software, I turned it into this!

Isn't this hilarious!  I used brown Core'dination paper on the hair and tried to sand it a bit to make it look a little old, but it didn't sand so well, but it is still OK.  I used hot pink Stickles on her glasses and shoes as Mother Fredrickson is hip!  The inside of the card finishes off the card perfectly!

My husband was very pleased and laughed out loud when he saw it, so I am sure his aunt will enjoy it also!  If you have any comments, I would love to hear them!  Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

So Stinkin' Cute!

Ok, so how cute is this!?  My husband designed this and had a stamp made for me so I could put it on the backs of cards, books and things that I make!  Isn't it so cute?  I have had a lot of people ask me WHERE I came up with the name Silly Bean.  My name is Shirley Jean and through most of my life, my brother (who passed away three years ago) used to call me Silly Bean whenever he spoke to me.  When I was little, and then through to a teenager, I didn't like it so much.  After I "matured" a bit more, I grew to love it.  That is how I came up with the name for my blog.  This little stamp means so much to me and I think he did a great job of designing it!  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Fun, Fun Birthday!

I am sorry there aren't any pictures for this post but our day was so fun I just wanted to share it!  My husband's birthday was last Saturday.  He wanted to do something different so we came up with this little idea.  There were 10 adults at our house that day.  We put $3 in each of 10 envelopes along with a slip of paper indicating whether it was for "Main Course", "Veggies/Rolls" or "Dessert".  Each of the adults drew out an envelope and whatever was in their envelope, that is the "team" they were on.  Each team was to then come up with what they wanted to make and could only use the money that was in the envelopes.  The main course came out to be $15, the veggies/rolls had $6, and dessert had $9.  Each team was to then be creative and come up with a recipe that they wanted to make.  When the recipe was decided on, each team had to go shopping for their ingredients.  We told them they could use spices and small incidentals that we had in the house.  It seemed that everyone finished shopping about the same time and we were ALL in the kitchen at the same time!  My kitchen is not small, but not huge either.  It got to be very cramped for a while in there!  Everyone helped with the recipes and it all seemed to be finished about the same time.  It just seemed to work out perfectly!  Then we all sat down and enjoyed my husband's birthday meal!

For dinner we had:  Main Course - Chicken Stroganoff

                               Veggies/Rolls - Three Cheese Broccoli and Parmesan Breadsticks

                               Dessert - Brownie Baked Alaska

It was all delicious and a great time had by everyone!  

Thanks for stopping by and if you have any great birthday celebration ideas to share, I would love to hear them because I am always looking for something new!  Have a wonderful day!

Masculine Birthday Cards

I have two males birthdays this week, my son and my husband.  You would think with having 5 boys and a girl, the male card ideas would just roll out of my brain.  Not!  It is hard for me to come up with something that isn't all feminine.  So here are my two attempts.  The first one was actually quite easy.  It looks like I cut the rectangles, but that is actually the paper!  Except the white Happy Birthday rectangle.  All I did was stamp the tree, stamp Happy birthday, ink the edges of the Happy Birthday rectangle, and attach that with pop dots so it stood out a bit more.  I stamped a sentiment on the inside and...That's it!  Not bad if you ask me!

This next one took me forever to try to come up with an idea!  I changed my mind so many times with what I would do, the colors of papers, etc.  I FINALLY just decided to use some burlap I had, some darker patterned papers, and just do some layering.  So I did the card base, burlap (I frayed the edges), dark cardstock which I embossed with the Swiss dot Sizzix embossing folder, more cardstock that looks like a dictionary page, darker cardstock that I used pinking shears on the edges of, and finally the Happy Birthday square.  I inked the edge of the card base so it didn't look quite so plain.  That's it.  Of course, when you make the card it all looks great.  However, after the pictures are taken, you can clearly see where some of your layers aren't quite even.  Oh well.  I guess it's a good thing they both go to family!   As always, your comments are more than appreciated if you would like to leave one!  Have a great day and thank you so much for stopping by.

I Love Spring!

Aren't these beautiful!?  I love daffodils!  Yellow is my favorite color and these bright, cheerful flowers always remind me of the beauty of spring.  My entire courtyard in front of my house is surrounded by these.  I get so excited when they bloom.  It always seems to uplift my spirits and I seem to have a bit more spring (no pun intended) in my step!  With these unseasonably warm temperatures here this spring, they are blooming earlier, but I don't mind.  I needed that extra pick-me-up this year!  Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

Fun Afternoon...

This afternoon I spent all my time making some cards.  It was fun to just do one after another.

This was my first one.  It was so pretty outside I just wanted to make something cheerful.  Very simple.  I just cut your basic rectangles and embossed a few and stamped "With Love" and voila!  Oh, then I added the pretty yellow pearls.  Very simple.  Very quick.  Very pretty.

My next card was just thrown together.  I had some scraps that I wanted to use and this is what I came up with.  Again, basic rectangles, some embossing and a "Thank You" stamp with a few pink pearls.  The flower stems I made with gold-edged green ribbon.  It turned out very nicely I think.  Another fast and easy one.

My last card took a bit longer.  I  used my trusty Black Cat Lynx to cut out my shapes which are actually Penny Duncan Shaplies files.  Thank you Penny!  I layered every other layer white and silver cardstock.  I then added the flower which was a file that I got from somebody on the MTC forum.  I am so sorry but I do not know whose file it is or I would surely give credit where credit is due!  If anyone knows, please let me know so I can add the owner's name of this file!  Anyway, I embossed a bit, taped a lot, and added a few little rhinestones at the four corners and a larger one in the center of the flower.  This is a wedding card for the daughter of some friends of ours.  I am very pleased with how it turned out.  I am sorry my photos are so dark.  I should have waited to take the photos in the daylight, but I won't have time tomorrow!

So, you see, I had a wonderful time this afternoon just whittling away the hours making pretty things.  I like those kinds of days!  Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful week!

Easter Bunny Cards

I had fun making these little cards for family.  I got the bunny file from a wonderful member of the Make-the-Cut forum who goes by "Berryone".  It is actually a bunny silhouette file and I just cut out the bunny with my sleek Shadow (Black Cat Lynx), saved the outside and put it on the card, and put the cut out of the bunny on the inside!  Waste not want not is what I always say!

I glued fabric to the backside of the bunny cutout.  I taped that to the outside of the card using my ATG tape runner.  I then outlined the bunny with Stickles and put little adhesive brads on the corners.  For the inside bunny, I inked the edges, glued it in and wrote my sentiment.  I think these will be great for the grandkids!  Here are a couple more I did.

I wanted to keep them simple.  The insides are meant to make it look like the bunnies are hopping...just in case you were wondering!:)  I am sorry the photos are so awful.  Some day (I hope) I may learn how to take good photos.   Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful week!