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I found a bit of time to stamp on and off today!  I've been feeling so stressed and anxious for days, so I needed some crafty time in the worst way.   I loved the challenges at Newton's Nook Inky Paws and the MFT Wednesday Stamp Club.   They went together so well, too!  

  

I flipped the sketch to make it work for the digital stamp I wanted to use.  I am having fun experimenting and practicing with my Copics.  I am never going to be an artist, but I do like to color.  

Laila had a fun birthday on Friday for the most part.  She had a meltdown at the Children's Museum that resulted in a rough afternoon for everyone, but we recovered by dinner and were able to enjoy a nice dinner out.  I'll share the funny ending to that on my next post.

Stampin' Up! Hedgehog Happiness

I had a little time to play around with my Copics again and I used this adorable hedgehog set.  I bought it after it retired because I just loved it so much.  Now that I have fun markers, it is seeing some new life!  :)   I want to enter it into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge since it is anything goes week!

Someone discovered the fun that awaits in the bathroom cabinets.  They are just perfect for peek-a-boo with mommy.  

FMS Birthday Flower

It's Wednesday and you know what that means!   Freshly Made Sketches!   Woo Hoo!   Jen B. is our hostess this week and she has a super fabulous sketch.  I have been loving our recent sketches so much and this one is no exception.   It's one to pin and use over and over for sure!

For my card, I printed a lovely digital image from Beccy's Place and colored it with my new Copics.  I haven't had much time to play around with them, so I'm trying to use them when I get a chance.  The challenge at MarkerPOP right now is to use yellow markers, so that's what I went with.  

I had an assistant as I was trying to take my picture.  :)  She did say my flower was pretty, so I didn't get too upset that she was helping me out.   

Measurements!

I've had several emails asking about the measurements for this card from last week's Freshly Made Sketches:

I don't keep my cards very long, so I didn't have it to go back and measure panels to help you guys out.  I ran in my room really quick tonight to try to recreate the blocks and here's what I came up with:

Now this is going to leave a pretty narrow space between the blocks, so if you want it a big larger, just cut your paper smaller.   You could do 3 5/8 x 4 7/8 or even down to 3 1/2 x 4 3/4.  I would still continue to cut it at 1 inch on each side (bottom, top, both sides).   You want to play around with it and see how much space you like, so I'd recommend starting with scrap paper and laying it out before you cut the good stuff. :) 

Once you've cut it at the 1 inch mark on all sides, you'll have this.   Then the fun of putting it on the mat begins!  lol   The mat will be 4 x 5 1/4, so lay out your blocks and try to get them spaced evenly before you glue any of them down.   

I hope that helps.  I'm not a measure/cut person, I just cut and recut as I go, so I'm not the best person to hand out measurements.  I tend to have a desk covered in little slivers of paper where I'm always trimming.  :)

Stampin' Up! Celebrate Baby

One of my favorite sets from the new catalog is Celebrate Baby.  I put it on my first order and finally inked it up tonight.  I used it with a favorite color combination, Coastal Cabana, Smoky Slate, and Calypso Coral.  I think this would be a great color for either gender.  I just hope my friend I made it for likes it.  :)

The stars were made with the new Stars decorative mask and a sponge dauber.   Easy, but a fun addition to the background.

She was very determined to get the big onion out of our veggie box this week.  lol

Stampin' Up! Kinda Eclectic

Just a quick card to share tonight.  I have my ladies coming over to stamp on Sunday and am so behind on our projects!    I knew I wanted to use my favorite new set, Kinda Eclectic, but I couldn't figure out what to do with it.  I looked at sketches on Pinterest and cards other people had made with it and it just wasn't speaking to me.  I finally got some colors out and just started stamping to see what happened.  I think it turned out kinda nice.  I love the colors together (Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Crushed Curry, and Early Espresso) and I love the sentiment so much.  

Laila wanted to go shopping today, so I pulled out this dress that she hadn't worn and let her get all girly.  :-)  She just loves to go riding in the car and then walking around the stores.  She did great today and didn't ask for or cry over any toys or pets.  She loves the birds at the pet store the best I think.   One week and she'll be two!  I've been doing a lot of cleaning this week and she's learning to help.   She has a long way to go, but I appreciate when she tries.  

Party On Animal

It's one of THOSE photo editing night, so pardon the picture.  The colors seem way off no matter how much I try to get them to look right, so I give up!    This is a pretty simple card that I made for the AEIHeartU challenge to make your own designer paper and the color challenge at Colour Me.

     

I am really try to get back to working on embracing the white space, so there's lot of it on this one. I'm not sure about it since it's not my usual style, but I'm working on expanding my horizons.  :)

Yesterday Laila grabbed her smoothie and a piece of toast and next thing I know, she's sitting and having breakfast with giant Elmo.  lol  She's so funny sometimes.  

FMS Hello Gorgeous

It looks like Blogger was up to some shenanigans last night and didn't publish my post.  Here it is now! 

It's Wednesday, which means a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!   Cindy has a super challenging, but fun sketch for us this week.  I enjoyed the bit of match and thinking I had to do to get my panels right for my card.   I kept the rest pretty simple as I made it while Laila was napping and I don't usually have a ton of time to finish cards.  I need to start making them on the weekend so that I don't feel so rushed!

While the sketch is a square card, I went with a regular A2 card.  I never seem to mail the square ones, so I am trying not to make them if possible.    Hopefully Cindy is okay with that.  :)   I think I was the only one who went rouge with a non-square card.  That's me though, the rebel.  Ha!  

I thought I'd share a non-Laila picture with you today.  My mom recently learned to quilt and she decided to make Laila a quilt as her first project.  Here's the result.  I think it looks amazing, especially for a quilting newbie!  I'm so proud of her.  It will be something that Laila can treasure for many years to come.  

Stampin' Up! Flower Patch

I told you yesterday that I had made a feminine version of the sketch from MFT and here it is!  It's actually one of the cards we are making at my event this weekend.  It uses the new Flower Patch stamp set and matching framelits.  I love purple and green together, so I went with those for my colors.

Laila got to go shopping after dinner last night.   She loves the outdoor section at Target so much.  She starts asking to see the umbrellas as soon as we get in the store.   She also likes to get down and try out the chairs. :)  

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!   :)   I'm not sure how many dads read my blog (my guess is ZERO), but I don't want to leave anyone out.  lol   I thought I'd share the card I made for Jason.   It uses the My Paper Pumpkin stamp again along with Gorgeous Grunge and And Many More.   Fun sets for sure!

I found out that my email feed was messed up for a bit, so sorry about that.  I am not so great at that part of things, so I guess I changed something that made it go all funky.   I hope it's fixed now, but if not let me know.

I used the Wednesday sketch from MFT for my card.  I think it still counts even though I used a circle.  I love circles lately for some reason.   I actually did the sketch twice, so come back tomorrow for a girly version!   

As I was taking a picture of my card, I got a little helper on the other side of the table who also needed their picture taken.  She's been something else this weekend.  Whew!  She wouldn't nap yesterday and was a holy terror by dinner.   She was sound asleep by 6:45 too.   I hope today brings a nap and a break for the parents.  I still can't believe she'll be 2 in just twelve more days.  Crazy!

My Paper Pumpkin for Dad

I was pretty short on time this week and behind (as always), so My Paper Pumpkin came in handy!   I really love how quickly the cards can be put together and mailed.   While I have a room full of supplies, I don't always have a day full of time to make a super fancy card.   I did change mine up just a bit from the example, but I saw a button on my desk and decided to add that.   Still easy peasy and quick!  I hope my dad likes it.  :)

One thing I've learned is that toddlers do NOT forget anything.   I told Laila we needed to vacuum up something in the corner of her room and she reminded me over and over until we did it.  I went in to get her from her nap and snapped this one as she was pointing and telling me to vacuum.   Silly girl.  

Stampin' Up! Flower Patch

I found a little stamping time today, so I decided to try out a couple of sets I got in my recent order from the new catalog.  Flower Patch is a fun set and it has matching framelits which make it so much easier to use.  No fussy cutting needed!  :)   The sentiment is from a great new set, And Many More.   It reminds me of Teeny Tiny Wishes which is one of my favorite sets of all time!

On Thursdays we get a box of veggies from a local farm and Laila loves to unpack the box.   She's learning what all the vegetables are, so I hope that will mean she's more likely to try them.   She asked Jason for a piece of lettuce tonight as he was eating salad, so yay for that.   She loves fruit, but we are still working to broaden her veggie choices.   Peas, corn, carrots, and mushrooms are her favorite right now.  

Freshly Made Birthday Wishes

It's Wednesday, which means a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!   My buddy Linda is our hostess this week and she has a funky fresh sketch that has so many possibilities.  Check out the design team's cards if you don't believe me!  :)   For my card I used some of my new Stampin' Up! goodies that I got last week.   The alphabet framelits, the stars mask, and the yummy Blackberry Bliss are all up there on my "get it" list if you don't have them!  I paired them with the Endless Birthday Wishes set which is currently not available, but should be again soon.  I guess it was super popular and I can totally understand it selling it out fast.  It's great!

See, isn't that fun?   So many ideas!  I need to pull out some of my paper scraps and do a card with it for this this. I think that would be awesome!  

After some research, Jason and I think Laila is in the 24 month sleep regression.  I always hate to hear sleep regression because that usually means the hours of sleep we are getting is affected as well.    She's been fighting sleep so bad lately and it's taking an hour or more to get her down.   She's also waking up an hour earlier than usual.  6:30 is too early for me, but that's when we are up lately.   *yawn*  I definitely need all the coffee I can get!   I think we are going for an early Starbucks tomorrow just to get out of the house.  Maybe I'll even sneak in a slice of pumpkin bread.  :)   Anyway, she is still my little bookworm and I love it.  I hope she always loves books as much as she does now.  It would be my wish to pass along my love of reading to her and it seems like it is happening so far.   I can't believe she'll be 2 in 17 more days.  Where has the time gone?!   I wanted to make up some birthday cards and mail her since she loves mail so much, so I guess I need to get on that! 

MFT Wednesday Sketch

I'm a big fan of the Wednesday sketch over at MFT.   They always have such fun ones!   I haven't been finding much time to stamp lately, but I did manage a little time on and off today.  I haven't felt that great the past week or so and then I had a Copics class all day yesterday.   The laundry is behind, the house... well, let's just say I have a lot of work to do that isn't stamping.  ;)   But I got a card made, right?!   

Isn't that a fun sketch?  I couldn't figure out what do with the little circle and button, but then I remembered the little wood pieces I had saved from Leadership.   I colored one with my Coastal Cabana ink pad and it was perfect!    The background is embossed with the new circles embossing folder from SU.  I can already tell that I'm going to love that one.   It goes great with this stamp set too!

Laila had to wear Jason's shirt the other day.  lol  She sure loves her daddy!   To me, she looks like she's ready to head to Hogwarts.

Stampin' Up! So Very Happy

If you came by my blog yesterday, you got a little sneak peek at the new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!  :)   I am the hostess this week and ended up making 2 cards because I wasn't sure if I liked the first one.  This one is actually my second one and the one I decided to use for the challenge.

I love banners and want to start using more tags, so this sketch has a bit of comfort and a lot of challenge for me.  I used a set from the new catalog, So Very Happy.  I don't have any new designer series paper, so I had to use some of the recently retired Retro Fresh paper.

She just had to play in the pool after Jason mowed this week, so here she is in her grass infested water.  It didn't seem to bother her, so whatever I guess.  Kids are pretty gross.  ;)

Happy Father's Day

Have you subscribed to My Paper Pumpkin yet?  I had signed up ages ago but never got around to assembling the cards so I canceled it.  With all the new improvements, I decided to jump back in and I'm so glad that I did.   This Father's Day stamp was in there this time and I love it.  As you can see, you can use the stamps for anything, not just the cards it comes with!  I'll actually assemble and post the kit cards later this week, but I wanted to share this one today.  I am going to enter it over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Stamp Challenge since it is Anything Goes week.

Stamps:   My Paper Pumpkin, Gorgeous Grunge
Ink:  Versafine Black
Paper:  Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Modern Medley DSP (retired)
Tools:  PTI Tag Sale #5 die, The Cat's Pajamas Mustaches Cutups
ribbon scraps, Neutrals Candy Dots

Jason called me in the playroom the other day to show me this.  It's always crazy what happens when the man of the house is in charge.  ;)  We are having a rough day, so send lots of calm mommy vibes my way.   It's almost 3 o'clock, so there's hope of surviving the day!