Fabulous Dinosaur

Laila decided to take a long nap today (after not sleeping that great last night of course) and I had a bit of time to go play along with the challenge at Fab Friday.   I love the sketch and am glad I had time to play.  I don't know what's up with my horrible picture taking lately, but I'll try to work on that.  I think I moved my light tent the wrong way and it is not working out.   

Still working on cards for the younger folks and still trying to use up some of my hoarded DSP.  I used some old Halloween paper, Pick Your Poison, and embossed it with the chevron folder.   I love embossed DSP for some reason.   Do you ever do that?   It looks pretty cool I think.  I kept it pretty simple since I didn't know how much time I'd have to finish it, but every dinosaur card needs a bit of distressing!  :)  

After seeing all the other moms going on and on about Sophie the Giraffe, I finally broke down and bought Laila one.  She must be quite tasty as she likes to gnaw on her.   She seems like a dog toy to me, but what do I know?   :)   

Merry Mini Christmas

I'm a bit over Christmas cards since I've been making them since July, but my club ladies and I are doing a swap and cookie exchange at our December meeting and I need to work on some ideas for that.  Since my Merry Minis stamps were still on my shelf uninked, I figured it was about time to change that.   I bought them after seeing this cute card in our monthly demonstrator magazine's July edition.   I don't normally CASE cards, but it was just so adorable that I wanted to try to make one.   I'm not sure it will be my swap, but it's a cute card I can send out to someone if not.  :)

Now on to something even more cute...

Here's the picture we picked from Laila's Santa picture proofs! I LOVE it so so much!   There were several poses that were great, but I just fell in love with this one.   I already made and ordered some Christmas cards today using it.  :)  

Paper Players in Orange

It has been way too long since I had time to play along with my buddies over at The Paper Players.  I loved Jaydee's sketch this week and thought I could make it work for a young girl type card.   I was in the mood for some Pumpkin Pie (not the dessert as I think that's gross) so I used that and white for my card.  It's rare to just use one color and a neutral, but it happens every now and then.  :)

I really like how this one turned out.  I love the mix of patterns, the bit of bling, and the ORANGE.  Finally a bit of my retired DSP got used too.  I am running out of room, so I am trying to make myself use up some of it and NOT allowing myself to buy any more until I clear out some.  

The Christmas tree was just too bright for her.  :)

FMS 63: Owl Birthday

Wednesday!  Time for a new Freshly Made Sketch and this time it is from me!   I made a card similar to this a few months ago and thought it would make a fun challenge.  There's so much you can do with how many layers you want, what shape you want, and you can use up scraps for the banners.  Winner winner chicken dinner, right?!   So here's my card:

I'm still working on some cards for the younger folks, so I went with some serious pink and an owl.   I love the layers and the fun circles.   It's a bit too much pink for me, but I think a little girl will like it.  :)   

I'm keeping this short as my Pinterest recipe dinner wasn't so good and I'm still hungry.   I'm going to have more cranberry salsa (which IS good) instead.  

It's crazy that she's five months old already.   Eli was only here with us for 5 1/2 months, so we are a bit stressed out and checking on her way too much lately.   We know she doesn't have SMA, but there's nothing rational about the worry that comes after losing a child.   If you haven't already, please take a minute to go over to Facebook and vote for the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation.  They are a wonderful SMA charity and hope to win the money to buy iPads for those affected by SMA.  That type of technology is so valuable as a means of communication and freedom.   http://VoteForGSF.com/

Favor and a card!

Before I get to the card and Laila, I have a HUGE favor to ask.   If you've been following my blog for a while you know that we lost our precious Eli almost four years ago to a disease called spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).   It is classified as a "rare" genetic disorder so most families aren't aware of it until the day that they are told their child will die from it.   Because the community of those affected by it is somewhat small, research  and support dollars to help find a cure are not always easy to come by.   Thanks to social media, we've managed to win some contests over the last few years and work together to help with that.  Right now one of our organizations, The Gwendolyn Strong Foundation, has a chance to win $1 million dollars through Chase American Giving Awards on Facebook. They will be using the money to help buy iPads for those affected by SMA.  This could allow them to finally have a means of communicating and open up a whole new world of interacting and learning!  If you have an account over there, PLEASE consider voting. It would mean so much to the families affected by this disease.  You can only vote once, so it's just a few minutes of your time.   Here's the link to make that happen: 

http://VoteForGSF.com/

Now back to our regularly scheduled program....

I missed the chance to play along with this fun sketch at Try Stampin' On Tuesday, but I pinned it for a later date and that just happened to be yesterday.  :)   I am trying to work on some teacher thank you cards and birthday cards for kids so I'm relying on my pinned sketches for inspiration.   My card isn't exactly the sketch, but it's close.  

Hopefully there's a sweet teacher out there who will one day love this card.  I thought the colors were so pretty together.  It's a combination from the Color Coach and I love it, but struggle sometimes to make it work.  It came together so easily on this one!  It really just depends on the stamps and type of card you are making with those color combos.  Sometimes it works out and sometimes not.   

Yesterday we had our picture with Santa day.   She's not looking too happy here, but I think the photographer captured some good shots.   I'll post the one we decide on once we get the proofs and pick one.  I didn't realize how bit that bow was until we got there.   I thought she needed one since the jammies were not super girly, but dang it's big!  

Sweet Apple Thank You

Isn't this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch AWESOME?!  I love it and will be using it a lot in the future!  I needed some teacher thank you cards and this worked perfectly for some really cute ones!   

See?  Cute!!!  I just love the apples in the Perfectly Preserved set.  I'm pretty sure that's the second thing that made me get that set; the jar was the first of course. :)   Real Red, Lucky Limeade, and Crumb Cake work great together.  I hope Old Olive isn't missing me too much.  I just love Lucky Limeade so much better!   I'm not sure what I'm going to do when that set of in-colors leaves.  They are the best ever!  What will life be like with no Pool Party, Island Indigo, or Lucky Limeade?   Oh, and Wisteria Wonder too!   (Sorry, Calypso Coral...not a fan.)   

We did a dress rehearsal for Monday's picture with Santa and it didn't go so well.   She kept trying to eat the top layer of tulle.   Both she and the chair are still pretty sparkly!   I'm thinking we'll be seeing Santa in Christmas pajamas instead. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.   We have so much to be thankful for this year, so our day was great.   Our food all turned out delicious and we spent some time with family before cleaning up and putting up the tree!  

Laila loved the tree.  I hope she enjoys the smaller one in her room just as much.  :)  Now I just need to get serious about shopping.  

Freshly Made Happy Drink

It feels like ages since my last post!  I got hit with another round of the stomach virus last Friday and it just wiped me out. I'm back though, and today is Freshly Made Sketches day.  Jen M. created this sketch for us to work with this week and I really like it.   It took me a bit to figure out how I wanted to do my layers, but it finally came together.   Jason and Laila were playing in my room while I stamped so I think that was part of that issue.  She's so cute that it's hard NOT to watch her.  :)

No Christmas here.  I need some fun birthday cards for my shop display so I'm trying to focus on those for this week.  I haven't used my Happy Hour set in ages!  What's wrong with me?!  I bought it in wood and I keep forgetting about it when I look through my stamps. :/  I combined it with a favorite color combination of mine, Tempting Turquoise and Real Red.  I also added in a bit of scoring and more white space than I'm comfortable with.  :)   

My girl isn't so little now.  I can't believe all the changes that happen almost overnight!   Saturday night I decided to try putting her to sleep without swaddling and wow!   She slept great and has every night since.   Not only that, but she's been going to sleep on her own!   I bought a butterfly that projects stars on the wall and plays music and we turn it on and she watches it (and sings along) until she falls asleep.  It's amazing!   She's starting to roll over on to her side while laying on her back, so I think she'll get all the way over soon.  Not sure how that will go since she hates being on her tummy!  She has rolled from tummy to back, but doesn't do it consistently just yet.   My mom isn't going to know what to think when she arrives in a month.  She hasn't seen her since she was a few weeks old.   It is going to be an amazing Christmas for sure.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who will be celebrating it this week. We are extra thankful this year for sure.  :)  

MDS Monday!

It has been a while since I got to sit down and work on a digital scrapbook page, but the new challenge blog MDS Monday motivated me to change that!   I will probably regret not going to bed sooner, but hey, you gotta have fun sometimes!   :)    Remind me of that tomorrow when there's a ton to do get ready for Thanksgiving and I'm exhausted. lol   Anyway, here's my page:  

I love playing with the vintage overlays and I just got the chevron download so I had to use that one too!   :) Now I'm off to bed so that I'm not grumpy when my girl wakes up later tonight.  

Remember that My Digital Studio and the MDS Upgrade are both 50% off this week!   Get it while it's such a great deal.   I promise you'll love it!

Thank You Leaves

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge:

1. Make a project with "Leaves".
2. Or Make a project saying "Thank You".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a "Thank You project with Leaves".

I'm the hostess this week at The Friday Mashup!  I'm sad to say that this is my last week as part of the team.  Life is just getting too busy and I can't keep up with everything I have on my plate.  I have so little stamping time these days and I need to devote it to my business as much as I can.   I've had such a wonderful time with this group of ladies and I'll definitely try to play along with some of the challenges if I get a chance.   

So on to the card, right?!   This is a NON-clean version of this week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  :) I loved it so much that I wanted to make another card but add in some sponging and distressing. 

I have had a few questions for my club cards from last month, so I wanted to do a similar card and answer a few questions.  The background is the new Core'dinations cardstock that has been embossed and sanded.  Easy!   The leaves use the oldest stamping technique that we've all been doing for years, rock n'roll!  I just LOVE French Foliage as it works so great with that technique!  

My little purple girl.   We needed a break from all the pink today! 

FMS61: Happy Birthday!

Freshly Made Sketches Day!   :)   Jen T. gave us this fun sketch to work with and as always, lots of possibilities.   I had a specific kind of card in mind because today just happens to be my super awesome friend Anne Marie's birthday!!!!!   Now if you know Anne Marie at all, you know that she LOVES and I do mean LOVES pink.  She is also a big fan of bling and glitter.   So...

Pink, glitter, bling.  All there.  Happy Birthday Anne Marie!!!!!!!

Laila even wore all pink in your honor.  :)

Just checking in...

Sorry guys!  I'm still here!  Just a busy weekend that ended up with a not so lovely stomach virus or food poisoning.  Not sure which, but either way it was NOT fun!   I am all better now, but that meant today was full of errands and then a rush to make my card for Freshly Made Sketches!  Yikes!   I finished, so I think I'm still on the team.  lol   Anyway, I finally took a better picture of our club card and wanted to post it.   It was quite a hit and I think almost everyone bought the super awesome Natural Composition DSP.  Do you have it yet?  If not, GET IT!  

Seriously, can you imagine how impressed your friends would be to get this in the mail and find out that you MADE it!   That's why I just love Stampin' Up! so much.  It's easy to put together beautiful creations like this.   I'll be sending this one out early to my sweet friend Marla to thank her for encouraging me to use it as a club card.  It's awesome to have fellow demonstrators to share ideas with.   (Thanks, iPhones!)

Stamps:  Ornament Keepsakes

Ink:  Midnight Muse, Versamark

Paper: Midnight Muse, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Natural Composition DSP

Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Ornament framelits, heat tool, Iridescent Ice embossing powder, Festive paper piecing pack, Basic Rhinestones, Midnight Muse stitched ribbon

Lately there has been a war of sorts between baby and cat.   They either want to lay on her blanket OR they want to play with her toys.   Bandit is particularly fond of this soft blanket, so if we forget and leave it spread out, we'll find him all stretched out on it.

Keep Calm and Mash It Up!

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge:

1. Make a project with "Dry Embossing".
2. Or Make a project using the colors " Daffodil Delight, Basic Grey & Basic Black".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a project with "Dry Embossing & The Color Combo".

Isn't this a great challenge from the Friday Mashup?   I think that picture is just gorgeous!   These are some of my absolute favorite colors together so I was happy when I finally found time to get a card made.  This week has been SO busy and I still have stamp club tomorrow night!   Thank heavens for coffee!  

Okay, so somewhere in the short distance between the laptop and my craft desk I forgot about the dry embossing part.  I pulled out some paper and I think I just got distracted by the polka dots.   I did get the colors though, so yay for something right.   I hadn't inked up this set yet, so I figured it was about time.   I wasn't sure about it at first, but I ended up getting when I had a little hostess money left over and wasn't sure what I wanted to use it for.   I think it's trendy enough that maybe it will help my card sales a bit.  *fingers crossed*

Stamps:  Carry On

Ink:  Basic Gray, Basic Black, Daffodil Delight

Paper: Basic Gray, Basic Black, Daffodil Delight, Perfect Polka Dots DSP, Whisper White

Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Bitty Banner Framelits, White Baker's Twine, Dazzling Diamonds 

I love how happy she is most of the time!  

Freshly Made Flower

Whew!  I hope everyone survived the election.  I know some of you in the swing states have to be super happy that it's over!   Now you can answer your phones again.  :)    It's Wednesday and that means it is time for a new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  Tui is our hostess and designer this week; isn't her sketch great?!   I was limited on time to put my card together this week and was so thankful for such a versatile sketch that was easy to work with.  

Today has been a weird day for Laila.  She's either been napping or crying.  Thankfully we got the replacement part for her swing yesterday so she was able to relax and take a LONG nap in it today.  I hope the aftermath of the shots goes away soon so that we can have our sweetie back.   After that we need to work on adjusting for this time change because mommy and daddy are getting tired.  

One of my friends gave me the idea to take a yearly Halloween picture with a pumpkin, so here it is!  :)  We had a lot of work to get her to actually look up!   Pumpkins are super interesting you know!

Stamp Club

It's time for stamp club again this week!  I went to extremes this time, a simple card (above) and a fancier card which I'll post below.  This simple card features Gently Falling, one of my favorite sets!  I used the layout and idea from Maile's card and Tami's technique to get this one to come together.   

I am excited to share a few techniques with my group and I hope they will enjoy learning them.  I seriously have the best group of ladies anyone could ask for.  They are always so excited to come and spend time together.  There's no bickering (yay) but lots of sharing, laughing, and eating!  It just doesn't get any better than that, right?   Here's our second card (sorry for the Instagram photo; I'm being lazy tonight): 

 Isn't it gorgeous?  I just love this paper and I LOVE Midnight Muse!  It's such an awesome color!  

Edited to add, the paper here is the Natural Composition paper.   I had a few emails about it but no way to contact the people asking.  If you have a question about any of my cards, please email me.  Just leaving a comment on my blog doesn't always allow me to email you back; it just depends on how you have your profile set up whether your email address is included or not.   I am not the best at answering, I'll go ahead and tell you that.  Laila is requiring more and more attention so my time is limited for stamping, blogging, and email.   I can only imagine how it will be once she's mobile!  Yikes!

Laila decided she must hold the book herself while we were reading.  Umm...yeah.  I guess she's having vision troubles and had to get it closer to read?   So silly.   I'm going to try to add a video below but I don't know if it will work or not.   It's pretty funny!  

Success!

Woo Hoo!   This is card #35 and the LAST one of the Hope You Can Cling To challenges.  I finished ALL of them!!!   I'm so proud of myself.  I struggle to accomplish my goals lately, so completing this one that's for sure a great cause makes me so happy!    This card is for Teresa's ta ta toe challenge.  My squares were pink, patterned paper, and buttons.   I used Donna's card for inspiration as I thought it was such a perfect cheerful card.  

Stamps:  Apple Blossoms (retired)

Ink:  Melon Mambo

Paper: Crumb Cake, Bashful Blue, Whisper White, retired Bashful Blue DSP

Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, non-SU cloud die, Lots of Tags sizzlits, Brights & Subtles buttons, Brights brads, White Baker's Twine

Laila had her 4 month check-up today and was 15lbs 4 oz and 25 1/2 inches long!   She's staying right on her growth curve and doing great.   She wasn't very happy about her shots, but she calmed down fast and came home and crashed.   I hope she doesn't get a fever like last time as it took forever to go away.   I just love her doctor; you can tell that she just loves babies.  She kept talking about how cute Laila was.  I think both her and the nurse said she should be the Gerber baby.  :)   She's our little Ultimate Grand Supreme for sure.  lol

Triple Hope

Whew!  Been trying so hard to finish up these challenges.  After these three, I have ONE more to go and I will have made them all!   I feel like that's a pretty awesome accomplishment and I'll be proud of myself if I make it.   This card is for Donna's challenge:  My challenge is called Cork, Canvas or Clay. The rules are easy - just make a card or project using Cork, Canvas or Clay (or anything similar like burlap).   I struggled this this one for a bit, but I used some leftovers on my desk and came up with this.  Hopefully someone will like it.  It was hard to come up with colors that worked with burlap.  :)

Stamps:  Watercolor Trio (retired), Best Yet (retired)

Ink:  Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, Crumb Cake

Paper:  Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla, First Edition DSP

Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Scallop Circles #2 die (retired), Woodgrain embossing folder, 3-inch circle die, burlap

This is a cute little tea holder that I made for Patty's challenge:  

• Make a treat holder of some kind, include a packaged treat to brighten someone's day
• Use Pink, Black, White, & Silver
• Glam it up

Stamps:  Like it a Latte (retired)
Ink:  Melon Mambo, Basic Black
Paper:  Basic Black, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Neutrals DSP stack, Silver Glimmer paper
Tools/Accessories:  Simply Scored, Small Heart punch, Basic Rhinestones, Black Gingham ribbon (retired)

Finally, this is for Lydia's challenge:  For this challenge use any outdoorsy inspiration.  I am not a big outdoors person, but I love fall.   I created some lovely leaves using my favorite colors from this season.  

Stamps:  Gently Falling, Something to Celebrate (retired), Woodgrain
Ink:  More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso
Paper: Early Espresso, More Mustard, Naturals White, Early Espresso Coredinations, Autumn Spice DSP (retired)
Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Woodgrain embossing folder, sanding block, color spritzer

She's not convinced that this toy is fun.  :)  As a side note, if anyone knows where the switch is to turn babies back to daylight savings time, I would love to know.  We were up a wee bit early today.   I think that change along with her four month shots tomorrow might make for a long week.   I have two events this week and haven't started prepping yet, so I am going to be one stressed out momma!