Stampin' Up! Too Kind for FMS

The fabulous Jennifer Timko is our sketch creator at Freshly Made Sketches this week and has this fun one for you.   

I wasn't feeling so good  yesterday and didn't remember until about 3pm that I hadn't made my card.  Oops!   I had a class last night, so I had to hurry and hope that a card came together fairly quickly for me.  Well, Too Kind made sure that happened.  Have I mentioned how much I LOVE that set?!   I was trying a new color combination from the Color Coach (Old Olive, Pool Party, Crushed Curry), but the Crushed Curry didn't seem to make it.  

Stamps:  Too Kind
Ink:  Pool Party, Old Olive
Paper:  Pool Party, Old Olive, Whisper White, In Color DSP stack (retired)
Accessories:  Basic Pearls, Neutrals buttons (retired), Pool Party baker's twine (retired)

Laila had a pretty good day yesterday minus a couple of what Jason's calling timeouts.  ;)   She enjoyed a bit of reading in her chair so we could take some pictures of her in her cute outfit for grandma.

Stampin' Up! Gorgeous Grunge

I didn't get any more stamping done yesterday, so I thought I'd share another one of my Convention display board cards.   I think this one is my favorite out of all of them.   I am a big fan of Smoky Slate with Coastal Cabana!  The Calypso Coral really stands out against them too! 

Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge, Oh Hello

Ink:  Smoky Slate, Calypso Coral

Paper:  Smoky Slate, Coastal Cabana, Whisper White, In Color stack

Accessories:  I can't remember what those things are called!  We'll go with In Color Doodads. :)

I let Laila have a little rice cake that we got in the Citrus Lane box and she decided to shove the whole thing in her mouth.   Crazy girl.   She's in extreme temper tantrum mode lately, so I didn't dare take it away from her.  She managed to eat it okay, but from now on she will only get half of one if she gets them.  ;)

Double the Dirty!

Still doing a few of the Dare to Get Dirty challenges on Splitcoast.  They have some really fun ones so far!   I know I won't get to do them all, but it's fun to see how many I can get done.   I'm trying to use some of my retired stuff as I really have so much.  I keep thinking I want to order some new stuff but seriously?!  I could stamp for the rest of my life and only need cardstock and maybe some ink refills.   Hello addiction!

For this card I used a favorite set, Perfectly Preserved.  I still can't believe it retired!  It's like the cutest set ever!  :-(  

Stamps:  Perfectly Preserved, Banner Greetings
Ink:  More Mustard, Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso
Paper:  More Mustard, Lucky Limeade, Very Vanilla. Orchard Harvest DSP
Accessories:  More Mustard 1/4 grosgrain ribbon (retired)
Tools:  Big Shot, Cannery Framelits (retired)

Stamps:  Wild About You (retired), Sweet Essentials, Positively Chevron
Ink:  Pool Party, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Pool Party, Crushed Curry, Brights DSP stack, Whisper White, Pool Party Coredinations
Accessories:   Buttons (retired), White Baker's Twine
Tools:  Big Shot, Chevron EF, Sanding Block, 2 1/2 circle punch

Double the Flowers!

I managed to do a couple more of the Dare to Get Dirty challenges this morning!  Yay!  It's so nice to have Jason home.  :)   For this one, I decided to combine it with my "Scrap Card Sunday" idea.   The flower and the strips of black DSP are all from the scrap bins.  Yay, right?!

Paper:  Basic Black, Daffodil Delight, scraps
Accessories:  Basics Glimmer Brads
Tools:  Big Shot, Beautifully Baroque EF (retired), scallop circle punches, Boho Blossoms punch

One of my best demo friends lost a family member this weekend so I wanted to make up a card to send to her.  I bought this set to have on hand for these occasions and I think this was my first time using it.  I need to make up a set of cards to send to my mom to give out, so I might use this layout for those as well.   

Stamps:  Love & Sympathy, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink:  Melon Mambo, Old Olive

Paper:  PTI white, Melon Mambo, Gingham Garden DSP, scrap

Accessories:  Whisper White 3/8 taffeta ribbon, White Baker's Twine, Brights buttons 

Tools:  Big Shot, PTI tag sale #5 die, Bitty Banners framelits

I'm not sure where to laugh at this expression and attitude or fear for the years to come!

Stampin' Up! Positively Chevron

If you are a member of the Fan Club over on Splitcoaststampers, today started the super fun Dare to Get Dirty challenges!  I am not sure how many of them I'll get to do, but I managed the first one at least!  I used my new Positively Chevron stamps and the watercolor embossing resist technique.   Pretty fun, but a lot of work to clean my Aquapainter.  :)

Stamps:  Positively Chevron, Hello Lovely
Ink:  Versamark, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, Island Indigo, Rich Razzleberry
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Watercolor Paper
Accessories:  Brights Designer buttons, Island Indigo Baker's Twine, Basic Rhinestones, Clear Embossing Powder
Tools:  Heat Tool, Aquapainter

My girl is 13 months old today.  Nobody told me the "terrible" tantrums and attitude started this early.  Yikes!!  She does not like to hear no or to not be given what she wants and she's sure to let you know it!

Stampin' Up! Wildflower Meadow

When I found the email telling me I was chosen to be a display stamper, I was so excited!!!!   However (there's always a but, right?!), I crossed everything and hoped that I didn't end up with the Gingham Garden suite.  Well...you can see what happened, right?  I cried when I opened the box and saw it.   After a bit I got over and decided it would just be the biggest stamping challenge I would probably ever take on.  

This was the first card I made with it and I think I managed to tame it into something that resembled my style.  I used colors that I love and a fairly simple design.  It's a stamp that looks wonderful on watercolor paper, so be sure to try that out if you haven't already!

Stamps:  Wildflower Meadow, Petite Pairs
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Island Indigo markers
Paper:  Island Indigo, Pear Pizzazz, Watercolor paper, Gingham Garden DSP
Accessories:  Basic Pearls, Simply Pressed Clay
Tools:  Buttons and Blossoms Simply Pressed Clay Molds, circle punches, piercing tool and template

Laila...the supermodel.  :)

Stampin' Up! Oh Hello

I'm doing this post without my glasses, so forgive any typos, misspellings, or anything that doesn't make sense.  I took them off to get Laila to sleep and then forgot them in her room.   No way was I going back for them and taking a chance on waking her up!  lol   This card took three nap times to make, but I finally managed to finish it this morning.   It is for a couple challenges, the sketch at Create with Connie and Mary and the colors at Stampin' Royalty.   

   

Stamps:  Oh Hello

Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Crumb Cake

Paper: Crumb Cake, Bermuda Bay, Brights DSP stack

Accessories:  Brights Designer buttons, White Baker's Twine, Basic Pearls

Tools:  Big Shot, Fun Flowers die, Circle Framelits, Chevron embossing folder

Laila is OBSESSED with peek-a-boo.   She seems to always have her hands or a toy covering her face these days.  I had to run to the craft store the other day for some wood letters and she tried to play with everyone we crossed paths with.   It's hilarious...and exhausting.  Silly girl.   

Stampin' Up! Hello Lovely

I thought I'd share another Convention display sample with you today.   I love this card!  It's simple, but it uses one of my favorite combination of colors.  I think I'll recreate this one for my sweet Jason.  He's the most wonderful husband and he definitely makes me happy.  :)  

Stamps: Hello, Lovely

Ink:  Gumball Green, Marina Mist, Midnight Muse

Paper:  Midnight Muse, Gumball Green, Whisper White

Accessories:  Midnight Muse stitched ribbon

Jason mowed the lawn yesterday, so we let Laila play around in the grass a bit yesterday.   She wasn't quite sure what to do with it.  

FMS and Stampin' Up! My Paper Pumpkin

Jason worked overtime yesterday, so I had to hurry and get my card made for Freshly Made Sketches on Monday.  I got confused last week and started working on this awesome sketch by the oh so fabulous Amy back then.   I thought I'd have an easy time finishing it up this week, but I couldn't get my stamps to ink up right.  :-/  I ended up starting over and decided to play around with the My Paper Pumpkin supplies that a lovely demo sent me.  I used some of the tags and the stamps and then added in my own paper and embellishments.  It's such a fun card!  Now I'm missing Not Quite Navy and More Mustard!!!   The DSP is actually some old Christmas paper!  lol

Now the cool thing is that Stampin' Up! has a special offer for My Paper Pumpkin right now. You can get the first two months for only $10 each month!  Awesome, right?!   Go check it out here and enter PUMPKINDEAL as the promo code to get this special offer.  

Laila seems to have inherited my love of Vera Bradley purses.  :-)

Stampin' Up! Hello Lovely Laila

For those of you who were at Convention, did you happen to see Laila?  :)   She was there....twice!!!!  I used this cute Instagram picture for my Hello, Lovely page.  It just seemed to fit the stamps so well. I am SO not a scrapbooker even though I started out doing that and not cardmaking.  I struggled to get my three pages made!  To make it more scrapbookish I did go back and add a strip of journaling, but I forgot to retake a picture. My friend Mindy took some pictures of it at Convention, so here it is on the boards:

I'm waiting for her to wake up right now to get our day started.  I just had a bit of time to relax, have a coffee, and do this post.   Jason is working overtime today so it is just me and her.   She was a bit rough yesterday, not wanting to nap and then fussy because she was tired.  I hope it's better today.   12+ hours with no breaks wears me out!   I can already tell that the toddler years are going to be hard ones for me.  July is hard enough (my Eli's birthday is next Friday) mentally for me and adding in a cranky little girl doesn't help.   Maybe we'll get out today and look for some flowers to take out to the cemetery next week.  I'll let her grab the bunch that appeals to her even though she won't understand what we are doing yet.  <3 nbsp="" p="">

Stampin' Up! Gorgeous Grunge Gift Box

I haven't edited all my display stamper pictures yet, so you'll see a weird mix in no particular order. Chaotic, just like my life.  ;)   This is my 3-D item for the Gorgeous Grunge set. You know I had to use my Fun Flowers die for something, right?! I thought I'd play on the dirt/flower idea and used the stamps to make the dirt on my gift box.  I don't know if that even makes sense, but I guess it did at the time I was making it.  The box is just a scored sheet of cardstock, no die or anything fancy like that.   Leaves are hand-cut and scored, again nothing fancy.  (For a tutorial on how to make easy boxes like this, check out SCS.  I used it and just cut off the top.)

Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge

Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar

Paper:  Baked Brown Sugar, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, In Colors stack

Accessories:  Paper Doilies, In Color Boutique Details

Tools:  Simply Scored, Big Shot, Fun Flowers die

Nothing to see here, just reading.  

Stampin' Up! Evergreen

Bad picture alert.  Sorry!  I don't know what was going on with that tonight but I am way too tired to go fight with it.  I'm hoping Jason will have Laila down by the time I finish this post so that we can watch Big Brother and then go to bed.   (I'm a reality TV junkie!)   Anyway....   I have a Christmas card class coming up next week and I wanted to finish up the designs for it.   I had pinned this gorgeous card by Jen Sannes and wanted to try a different design with some of the same elements. I love the navy/silver/gray combo!  Now the stamps I used aren't in the catalog but they are still available.  There's a list of them that carried over for this holiday season from last year's catalog. You can find them online under the "Online Only" section under stamps.  

Stamps:  Evergreen, Greetings of the Season

Ink:  Night of Navy, Versamark

Paper:  Night of Navy, Brushed Silver, Basic Gray, Whisper White

Tools:  Heat Tool, Big Shot, Woodgrain EF, Scallop Edge border punch, embossing buddy

Accessories: Silver embossing powder

Here's another proof from Laila's birthday session.  She is just too cute! 

Scrap Card Sunday #3 Perfect Blend

Wow! I've actually stuck with this for 3 weeks.  lol  I'm not the best at doing that lately, so we'll see how long I can keep it going.  Plans never work out with a little one in the house!   For this card I decided to go with an old standby for scraps, but tried to put a different spin on it.  I wanted a grunge look, not the comfy quilt look that I normally like.   I grabbed my brown and green scrap bags and only let myself use the pieces I found in there for that part. I think I'd have liked it better if I had let myself cheat a little and used some different strips, but I like how it turned out for the most part.   I had a friend in mind to send it to, so that helped with the design idea and stamp choices.  :)   I also used some retired ribbon and a retired button to try to clear out those as well! 

Stamps:  Perfect Blend, Dictionary, Gorgeous Grunge

Ink:  Early Espresso, Crumb Cake

Paper:  Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, scraps

Accessories:  Early Espresso Taffeta ribbon, Regals Designer Buttons

Tools:  Big Shot, Top Note Die, Stylish Stripes embossing folder 

I think someone's new name is going to be She Who Throws Tantrums.  Oh boy was I unprepared for this stage!  If you tell her no or don't let her have something she wants you'd better cover your ears.   The toddler years are going to be tough ones for me I can see.   I have a list of wines to try out now thanks to my fellow moms on Facebook.  Ha! 

Stampin' Up Hello Lovely

I hope everyone who attended Convention had a great time!   Now that it is officially over, I wanted to start showing you some of the projects I made for the display boards.  The last few days I've been really doubting myself and thinking they weren't good enough, but hopefully someone will find them inspiring.  

This card is one of my favorites.  I love the fun colors and the bling!  

Stamps:  Hello Lovely

Ink:  Calypso Coral, Versamark

Paper: Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral, Crisp Cantaloupe, Whisper White, In Colors DSP stack

Accessories:  Epic Day Washi Tape, Basic Rhinestones

Tools:  Big Shot, Stripes embossing folder

Here's Laila in her playroom.  I think you can tell from the picture which "toys" are her favorite.  

Stampin' Up! Folded Christmas Tree

I've been working on some samples for my Christmas in July class and this was one I made up yesterday.   It uses a previous sketch from Freshly Made Sketches that I just love.  I've made fall versions, Valentine's Day versions, and now a Christmas version!  :)  Versatile sketch, huh?   If you can see the background, you'll notice a new embossing folder.  I love it!  It's from the holiday catalog and definitely one of my favorite things in there.

Stamps:  Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Old Olive
Paper:  Old Olive, Whisper White, Brights DSP stack, Perfect Polka Dots DSP
Tools:  Big Shot, 3 inch circle die, Stylish Stripes EF

Yesterday was a very rough day.  VERY ROUGH day.   She woke up at 12:30 on Thursday morning/night whatever it is and didn't want to go back to bed.  I think I might have fallen back asleep at 3:30 only to be back up at 5:30.   I was so exhausted yesterday!  She was in a mood too.  Crying and throwing fits over anything and everything.   She woke up from her second nap super grumpy but thankfully we had our monthly subscription box from Citrus Lane to open.  It seemed to have cheered her up!  

I was so excited that she got a turtle to play with as we've been learning and practicing that word for over a week now!  So, so fun.   

Stampin' Up! Perfect Blend for FMS

Time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.   This week's sketch from the fabulously talented Narelle.  That girl can layer, fussy cut, and make bows like nobody else!    Now I have to confess, I almost made NEXT week's card instead of one.  I just happened to realize it before I finished and posted it.  lol   Starting over on a day when the whole house is grumpy and the girl won't nap wasn't fun, but I managed to get a card made.   

Stamps:  Perfect Blend, Like It a Latte, TCP Thanks a Latte
Ink:  Early Espresso, Garden Green
Paper:  Early Espresso, Garden Green, Crumb Cake, Whisper White
Accessories:  Neutrals buttons (retired), Early Espresso Baker's Twine
Tools:  Big Shot, Chevron EF, Stripes EF

Laila really likes the cats.  They aren't quite as happy to see her as she is them though.  Bandit -+********************- (that's Laila helping me type my post) has been patient with her so far.  Here she is "petting" him last night.  You have to concentrate REALLY hard to pet cats you know!

Stampin' Up! Zoo Babies for Mojo Monday

My 600th post!!!!!!  Wow!!!!!  I thought the sketch at Mojo Monday looked fun today so I worked on a card using it.  I didn't end up following it exactly, but close enough I think.   I found the color combination on my Color Coach and I think ti's another keeper! 

Stamps:  Zoo Babies, Happy Day

Ink:  Bermuda Bay, Basic Black, Smoky Slate

Paper:  Basic Black, Bermuda Bay, Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Neutrals DSP stack (retired)

Accessories:  Basic Black Chevron ribbon (YUMMY!)

Here's another picture from Laila's swimming and bubble adventure last week.  The weather is a little cooler this week, so we might fill the pool back up tomorrow and let her play again.  

To all you guys going to Convention, let me know if you see any display samples that look like my work!  I can't wait to see pictures of the boards and see if my cards made it or not.  

Scrap Card Sunday Christmas

I didn't forget about my scrap card!  :)   Time almost got away from me today though and I was late getting it made.  This one is pretty simple and easy to recreate.  I just pulled out any strips of Real Red and Old Olive that I had in my bags and started cutting and trimming them to fit.   A pretty bow and a bit of bling and it was done!  

Stamps:  Holiday Happiness (retired)

Ink:  Real Red

Paper:  Real Red, Whisper White, scraps

Accessories:  Real Red satin ribbon (retired), Basic Rhinestones

She loves this book!  Every time she pulls it out she laughs and talks to the animals in it.  She spends more time with her books than any other toys, so I'm hoping for a bookworm like myself.  Jason says he wants her to be well-rounded and not a bookworm. We'll see who gets their wish I guess.  :)

Thanks a Latte

Friday night I could not go to sleep because the idea for this card kept running through my head.   Thankfully my new stamps got here yesterday and I was able to play and make it!   It uses the awesome sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch! again.  I have to admit, I really love this sketch.   I can see it working for so many ideas!  

Stamps:  PTI Heart-2-Heart #1, TCP Thanks a latte

Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar, Garden Green, Early Espresso

Paper:  White

Tools:  Coffee Cup, Aquapainter, Big Shot, PTI Heart-2-Heart die #1

Here's another picture from Laila's birthday shoot.   My sister-in-law actually brought this outfit and necklace as an afterthought and it worked out great! 

This past week was been a tough one!  Laila was teething and one of her molars finally broke through it looks like.  Friday I was in tears all day because I didn't feel good and she refused to nap.  We survived, but there were points that I didn't think we would.   Thankfully yesterday was better and now Jason's home for his four days off.   It was nice to get to sneak in my room and stamp.  :)

Stampin' Up! Oh Hello

Got in a fairly quick card today while Miss Laila was napping.  I had to go with clean-and-simple because I also needed a shower.  ;)   I loved the new sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch so I used it for my card.   It's definitely one I can see myself using a lot, so I'm pinning it for future cards.  

Stamps:  Oh Hello
Ink:  Smoky Slate, Island Indigo, Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz
Paper:  Island Indigo, Pool Party, Whisper White

Here's a cute picture from Laila's birthday shoot.  Even though she wasn't the best model that day, we still have some cute shots. :)