Happy Easter!

Just a quick post to wish everyone a wonderful Easter holiday. We've had a lovely day with family. :)

My laptop is currently sitting with a broken screen, so hopefully posting from my phone works! This is the first time I've ever tried it.

See you later this week with a new card I hope.

FMS: Sunshine

This week is my sketch week at Freshly Made Sketches!  I normally do pretty simple ones, but I got carried away this time it seems.  :)   After seeing the cards from the other design team members, I'm glad I did.   There are some awesome samples to inspire you, so be sure to go check them out! 

I used my cute new Sunshine stamp that I recently purchased.  I just love it!  I'll be saving it to make cute little notes for Laila's lunch in about 5 years.  lol   I tried to find a cheery color combination that used Daffodil Delight and found one with Tempting Turquoise and Melon Mambo.   I couldn't get the Melon Mambo to look right, so I ditched it and went with just two colors.  I think it turned out pretty cute though.  

As a note, this stamp is a single stamp, just like the Ears to You stamp, and will not be available after March 31st.   Get them before they are gone!  :)

Stamps:  Sunshine

Ink:  Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight

Paper:  Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Polka Dot Parade DSP, Brights Designer Series Paper Patterns stack

Accessories:  Whisper White Stitched Grosgrain ribbon

Tools:  big Shot, Scallop Square Duo die, Scallop Edge border punch

Display Stamper Tryout

When I saw that Stampin' Up! was looking for display stampers, I decided to go for it!   To try out, we were to make 3 card fronts, 2 3-D items, and a scrapbook page.   I hope you'll enjoying seeing all my work and will keep your fingers crossed for me!  :)

Don't you just love this?  I adore how it turned out and I've been dying to post it!   I had so much fun coloring the poppies and even got to do it an extra time on my butterfly.  A sponge dauber and an ink pad transformed my white paper doily into an Island Indigo one that looks perfect nestled on my embossed Pool Party panel.  Love, love, love!

Stamps:  Pleasant Poppies, Fabulous Florets
Ink:  Island Indigo, Pool Party, Jet Black Stazon
Paper:  Island Indigo, Pool Party, Whisper White card stock
Accessories:  Basic Pearls, Tea Lace Paper Doilies
Tools:  Big Shot, Lacy Brocade TIEF, Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die, Beautiful Wings Embosslit die, 3-inch circle die, Paper Snips

I changed up a little for this one and went vintage and distressed.   I like to break out of my "clean" comfort zone sometimes and do a bit of sponging and distressing.    I always find distressing to be good for "de"stressing.  ;)  I know, I'm a dork.  Anyway, I just love how cute this turned out.  Neutrals are fun to work with and can look amazing together.

Stamps:  Patterned Occasions (SAB)
Ink:  Soft Suede (marker and ink pad)
Paper:  Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla card stocks, Neutrals Designer Series Paper Patterns stack
Accessories:  Very Vanilla seam binding, Neutrals Designer Buttons, Early Espresso Baker's Twine
Tools:  Big Shot, Lots of Tags sizzlits, Extra Large Oval punch, Scallop Edge border punch, Stampin' Distress Tool, Stampin' Sponges, Color Spritzer Tool, Paper Snips

And now back to a more clean-and-simple card...   I love banners and pinwheels, so I combined them into this very fun birthday card.  The Color Coach helped me pick out a great masculine color combination and I let my tools do all the work! 

Stamps:  Itty Bitty Banners

Ink:  Midnight Muse

Paper:  Midnight Muse, Marina Mist, Gumball Green, Whisper White card stock, Print Poetry Designer Paper

Accessories:  Neutrals Glimmer Brads

Tools:  Big Shot, Bitty Banners Framelit dies, Pinwheel Sizzlit, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercing Tool

I loved working with those colors so much from that last card that I decided to use them for one of my 3-D items.   I thought about using my dies to make a cute box, but my Simply Scored was feeling a bit lonely so I decided to go a bit old-school and whip up a 2-4-6-8 box.  I stayed with the flag idea from the card and added a ton of them to my sticks.   I punched the day away making my Quint-essential flower with lots of layers and bling.  

Stamps:  Itty Bitty Banners
Ink:  Gumball Green, Midnight Muse, Marina Mist
Paper: Gumball Green, Marina Mist, Midnight Muse, Whisper White card stock, Perfect Polka Dots and Print Poetry designer papers
Accessories:  Basic Rhinestones, Dimensionals
Tools:  Big Shot, Bitty Banners framelit dies, Hearts a Flutter framelit dies, 2 3/8 and 1 3/4 scallop circle punches, 1, 3/4, 1/2 circle punches

(sorry for the big picture; it was the only way you could see it really well)

My second 3-D item is my other favorite.  It was a labor of love and I hope my little girl will enjoy it hanging in her room for a while.  It was hard to take pictures of it, but I tried.  :)    I love all the shimmer and sparkle and of course the colors.  Below is a close-up so you can see more of the details. 

Stamps:  Broadsheet Alphabet, Papillion Potpourri
Ink:  Basic Gray, Daffodil Delight, Versamark
Paper:  Basic Gray, Basic Black, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White card stock, Brights  and Neutrals Designer Serious Paper Patterns stacks
Accessories:  Basic Rhinestones, Iridescent Ice embossing powder, Basic Gray/Basic Black 1 1/4 Two-Tone Ribbon
Tools:  Big Shot, Perfect Pennants die, Beautiful Butterflies die, Beautiful Wings embosslit, Circles #2 die, 1 3/4 circle punch

And finally, my scrapbook page (which didn't seem to want to photograph well).  I wanted to share one of the most special days of my life so I picked this photo that my anesthesiologist took of our little family on Laila's birthday.   I hope you can see the pure joy on our faces as we were so happy to have our little girl here.  So was most definitely "Worth the Wait".  

Stamps:  Word Play, Sweet Essentials, Hearts a Flutter
Ink:  Island Indigo, Pool Party
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Pool Party, Island Indigo card stock, Neutrals and 2011-2013 In Colors Designer Series Paper Patterns stack
Accessories:  Artisan Embellishments Kit, Basic Pearls, Pool Party Baker's Twine, Tea Lace Paper Doilies
Tools:  Big Shot, Tasteful Trim die, Hearts a Flutter Framelit dies, Paper Snips

And because I always end my posts with a peek of my sweetie, here's one of her recent Easter pictures.

Thanks for looking over all my projects.   

FMS78: Purple Silhouettes

This might be a short post; I forgot about it and now that it's bed time here I am! Yikes.  Anyway, as you know Wednesdays always bring a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!   This one is from Jen M and has so many possibilities!   I even made a scrapbook page with it, but you'll have to wait to see that.  It's part of a super secret group of projects I've been working on for the past week.   I hope to post them this weekend or early next week, so stay tuned!  

This was not what I had in mind when I sat down to stamp, but it's what I ended up with.  You can't really go wrong with purple and green together and I combined those with two of my favorite stamp sets.  

Stamps:  Summer Silhouettes, Petite Pairs

Ink:  Lucky Limeade, Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant

Paper: Lucky Limeade, Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White, In Color DSP stack

Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Perfect Pennants die, 2 1/2 circle punch, Scallop Border punch, Lucky Limeade ribbon

Well, last Friday she finally mastered crawling!   She also started saying dada, drank out of my cup, and started working on standing up.  I guess it was just a day to do everything!   It's been so fun to watch her moving all around exploring.  Our cats are confused to say the least.  :)  

FMS77: Dreaming Birds

It's Freshly Made Sketches Day!   It also happens to be my ninth wedding anniversary. Jason should get some kind of award for putting up with me for that long!   Anyway, our new sketch is from the awesome Jen Timko.   I love the sketch, but I just could not decide on a stamp set this week. I kept looking and looking over my shelf and nothing was popping out at me.  I decided to make the rest of the card first and then focus on the stamped panel.  

I'm not sure where I was going with the cages and the birds.  I thought I'd use the colors from the Paper Players this week and this is what happened.   Maybe green owls will be all the rage soon.  ;)   I'm not sure if my little bird is dreaming of being in a cage or the other birds are dreaming of being out, but somebody is hopefully dreaming of something. 

Stamps:  Aviary, Fabulous Phrases

Ink: Early Espresso, Lucky Limeade, Regal Rose, Pool Party

Paper:  Early Espresso, Lucky Limeade, Regal Rose, Pool Party, In Color, Neutrals, and Brights stacks

Tool/Accessories:  Pool Party baker's twine, Neutrals buttons

We got a little sneak peek of Laila's Easter pictures and I thought I'd share.  This must have been taken during the five seconds she wasn't grabbing the props.  :)  

Bicycles for Club

Today I wanted to share the second card we made at stamp club on Friday night.   This month has not been a creative one for me, so I turned to my Pinterest boards for some inspiration.   I just loved this card by Julie Davison and was inspired to make one!  Now I wish I'd put an Early Espresso layer between the image panel and torn dsp.  Hmm....maybe I need to make another one?!  :)

Stamps:  Feeling Sentimental
Ink:  Soft Suede, Early Espresso
Paper: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, First Edition DSP, Neutrals DSP stack
Tools/Accessories:  Stamp-a-ma-jig, Color Spritzing Tool, Neutrals buttons, Early Espresso baker's twine

I heard Laila wake up from her nap the other day but then it got really quiet in her room.  I decided to go check on her and here's what I found.   She managed to pull her butterfly light down into the crib and turn it on.  Nothing is safe from this girl now!   She's finally starting to feel better, but her nose is still running.  I hate to see her sick.   It seems like every time we take her around other kids she ends up with something.  I know we can't keep her isolated forever, but man!  We went to visit her cousins last Sunday and a few days later she was sick.  I guess we'll just have to hope that she starts building up some immunity at some point.  

Smarty Pants Graduation Card

I thought I'd share one of the cards we made at hostess club last night.   We finished out this round with some cards using the soon-to-be-available (gasp!) Sale-a-bration sets.   I used the sketch at Hand Stamped Sentiments as my template for this one.  Sorry for the bad picture; I snapped it this morning while the card was still on the stamping table.  :)

I am just in love with this stamp set and the Sycamore Street DSP and ribbon.   I would love the buttons as well but they seemed to have grown legs and walked right out of my craft room!   Island Indigo is one of my absolute favorite colors and I'm trying not to think about it retiring soon.   :(   I think I'll have a pity party on June 1st for a few minutes before I get all excited about the new stuff coming up.   Anyway, I used a Happy Graduation sentiment inside because it looked like that would work.   

Stamps:  Patterned Occasions

Ink:  Island Indigo

Paper:  Island Indigo, Whisper White, Pool Party, Sycamore Street DSP

Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Stripes embossing folder, Perfect Pennants die, Dotted Scallop Ribbon punch,  Sycamore Street Ribbon

Laila is still dealing with a runny nose and is now coughing a little too.  I hope it will clear up soon.   She had her Easter pictures yesterday and oh man!   That was the first time we've had pictures made since she could sit up and really grab things.  I hope the photographer got a few good shots because most of the session she was grabbing the props or trying to crawl.  lol  It was funny and frustrating at the same time.  I'll be sure to share some of them when we get our CD.   

On Thursday I was sitting at my desk stamping while she rolled around behind me playing.  I looked back and she was sitting up!!!!  I totally missed it too!   She finally did it again yesterday so that I could see.   She's all over the floor (no official crawling, but moving around great) and now sitting up too!   They grow so fast don't they?!   I just cry when I think about it too much.  

Friday Mashup 100!

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge:

1. Make a project using "Your Favorite Challenge 1-99".

2. Tell us what you like about the Challenge You picked!

3. Link up for a Chance to win a "$25 Stampin' Up! Gift Certificate".

Rules for Giveaway: You must link up with an original project created for this challenge. Please provide a Link back to the Mashup in your Post. One entry per person in drawing for gift certificate.

The Friday Mashup is celebrating a huge milestone today.  100 challenges!  Isn't that exciting?   I was excited to get an email from Holly asking me to join them in celebrating.  After looking through all the previous challenges, I decided to do challenge #52 which was using kites and colorful twine.  I love baker's twine and I do miss using Send Me Soaring.  It's one of my favorite sets ever!

As I was making this I first used white was the background and it was just TOO white.  I tried to color in the sky but it looks pretty awful to say the least.   After a suggestion from my friend Marla, I tried Pool Party and coloring the clouds in and it worked perfectly!   I'm not sure the clouds should have went all the way down to the grass, but that's a whole other issue.  lol  I'm not sure what this card will be, but for now I'm thinking a very unusual graduation card.  :)

Stamps:  Send Me Soaring, Wishes Your Way

Ink:  White Craft, Island Indigo, Daffodil Delight, Lucky Limeade

Paper:  Island Indigo, Daffodil Delight, Lucky Limeade, Whisper White

Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Cloudy Days TIEF, Cat's Pamajas grass die, Itty Bitty Punch Pack, Lucky Limeade Baker's Twine, Basic Pearls, Sponge Dauber

I love my cute, silly girl.   The teething has been taking away her laughter and making her fussy, but Tylenol seems to bring her back to her happy self.  I am so ready for these teeth to be in!  

Simply Lovely

I wanted to teach masking at club this month but ended up changing my mind and will use this lovely creation for another event later.   I just love this stamp set!   I started out doing clear block stamping but decided I wanted a cleaner look and made a mask instead.  I think it looks much nicer/cleaner this way.

I've been getting so many emails lately asking about how to make certain cards and what supplies I used.  I don't always have time to answer back, so I'm going to try to find the time to list the supplies again on my blog.  It might not always happen, but I'll try.   I'm glad you guys enjoy my work so much.  :)

Stamps:  Lacy & Lovely
Ink: Baja Breeze, Rich Razzleberry, Island Indigo
Paper:  Rich Razzleberry, Baja Breeze, Whisper White
Tools/Accessories:  Basic Rhinestones, Large Rhinestones, Stampin' Sponges

Rough day yesterday.   Laila is teething, but I think she also picked up a cold.  Long day for all of us as she wouldn't nap and didn't sleep well the night before either.  This always seems to happen on my stamp club weeks and I end up so tired trying to stamp with my ladies.   Thankfully they are super understanding and roll with the punches.   We all enjoy eating as much as stamping, so it all works out.  Anyway, here's Laila in her ugly pajamas.  Twelve months pajamas are a bit strange and ugly.  These were on clearance as they should have been.  lol

Freshly Made Onesies

It's time for a new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches!   Linda S. created this one and I just love it.  My stampin' buddy LeAnne turned me on to the "three rule" a while back, so now I like using threes.  :)   We also have a fresh new design over on the blog AND two new very talented design team members, Amy and Narelle.  Be sure to go check it out!

I have a baby shower to attend this weekend so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and make a baby card this week.  I bought the Baby Tees wheel a while back thinking I'd cut it apart and mount it on the cling foam I had.  Well, I got scared about cutting it so I didn't do it and the wheel ended up in my shelf.  I wanted to use it for this card, so I rolled it and then cut out the images I wanted.   I still want to try to cut it up but now I can't find the cling foam.  Goodness!  I used Pool Party and Pretty in Pink for this one.  I know our friends are having a little girl, but her room will be in teal so I wanted to add in blue of some sort.  I think they work together pretty well.  Pardon my coloring; I am only good with crayons.  :)

Laila had a very grumpy day yesterday.  That's not normal for her, so we looked and her gums were pretty swollen on top.  It looks like one tooth is about to pop through and she could be getting a few more along with that one.   Poor baby.   We gave her a bit of medicine and she was back laughing after her nap.  I hate knowing she's hurting, so I'm not a big fan of teething.  Hopefully it goes fast!  

Nothing to Celebrate!

I thought I'd share another reject from my recent stamping for club session.    I love this set but it wasn't liking me last week!    I rarely use River Rock and maybe grabbing it first was the problem.   This was using a previous sketch from the Fab Friday stamping challenge.   I'm keeping it short today because I have a million and one things on my to-do list.  I wish I had a clone that could go do the grocery shopping! 

This stubborn girl is still working on crawling.   I'm beginning to think we are just going to skip it but we'll see.  She still manages to move around and get into stuff, so I'm guessing that is all that matters to her.  It's just bad when EVERYONE keeps asking if she's crawling.   I get that panicky feeling that she's behind or something.   

Ears to Pink Paper Bakery

I was recently asked to share a project over at Pink Paper Bakery and today is the day.   I have to admit, Easter is one of my absolute favorite holidays.  I LOVE making up baskets, coloring eggs, and having a big family dinner.  I don't usually send out cards, but this adorable single stamp, Ears to You, just might change that.  I can't stop using it!   It pairs so perfectly with the awesome Sycamore Street DSP from Sale-a-bration too.   

Isn't it cute?   I really love this layout and have used something similar in the past.  It is a great way to use up scraps from your scrap pile.  You can stick some DSP on there, embossed or die cut card stock, or even ribbon!   It all works.  Awesome, huh?   If you want directions or a supply list, be sure to check out the website over at Pink Paper Bakery!

...and speaking of Easter, Miss Laila will be getting some Easter pictures made on Friday.   This is her cute outfit that she'll be wearing.  I am not a frilly, lacy kind of girl, but I think it's adorable...and so does her daddy.  lol   Hopefully I'll have some cute pictures to share with you in a few weeks. 

Hello? I'm still here...

It's me.  I thought I'd check in since my posting hasn't been so great lately.  I'm in a bit of a stamping slump I'm afraid. I've made 6 cards over the past few days to try to finalize my ideas for stamp club and none of them really turned out very well.  I decided to try to do a bit more with my business and it seems like less stamping for fun equates to less creativity for me.   I am hoping to find a balance to that soon though.  It just takes work and planning. (and more stamping and less time on the laptop!)

I thought I'd share a card I made where I attempted to CASE my super-talented friend Jenn.   She blows me away with her creativity and she was the reason I ended up buying this set.   My card is no where near as good as hers, but I had to work with what I had.  Jason thinks it needs a different ribbon, but it is what it is.   I may try to work on the idea a bit more and do it for an event later on.

I used the Tea for Two DSP that I'd purchased last month and the combination of Calypso Coral, Island Indigo, and So Saffron.   Like I said, not horrible, but most definitely NOT as good as Jenn's.   I am never good at copying ideas, so I really prefer to make my own designs.  Sometimes we need that boost of help though and that's going to be me this month for sure.   

Time is going by too fast.  I still can't believe she's 8 months old now.   I had to get her 12 months clothes out and wash them today as her 9 months stuff suddenly quit fitting this week.   We keep discussing what we want to do for her birthday and are going to have to get serious about that soon so that I can make decorations.  It feels like we have so much time, but I know how fast time is passing and it will be here before we know it.   I'm just so, so excited about the idea of a birthday party.  We never got that with our Eli so we'll be so thankful to get that with Laila.   I'm hoping to incorporate some crabs into her party (hence the beach theme) so that her brother can be a part of it as well.   

Now that I've made myself cry, I'm off to play with my family.  Have a great Sunday and stay tuned as I have two guest designer cards to share with you this week!   One will be featured tomorrow, so check back in the morning.