Lots of Hope

I have several HYCCT cards to share with you today.   This first one is for my friend Jen Timko's challenge. Her theme is "Hope Soars" inspired by this quote: “When everything seem to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it ….” ― Henry Ford Isn't that fabulous? She's a pilot, so no surprise that we are using airplanes. :)

Sabrina's challenge was to NOT use traditional adhesive.   Yikes!   I can't sew on cards, but I tried.   I did have to beat some serious dust off the machine that Mom got me several years back.   I'm hoping that maybe I can work on it and figure out how to do it so that it doesn't look so crazy.   I did try though!   I had to sew the button on by hand.   That I can handle!  

Julie's challenge was to smash ink or paint onto your paper.  I didn't have any acetate or glossy cardstock, so I put some Island Indigo reinker on my craft mat, added a bit of water, and smashed my paper into that.   Once it dried, I painted over it with some gesso to soften the colors.  I think it makes the perfect background for this cute little guy. I did a bit of paper piecing on his clothes to match up the colors as well.  

And finally, Natalie's challenge was soft and cozy.  You could use a soft material or images that conveyed that feeling.  I still had some of the fabric that matches my favorite Spice Cake paper, so I decided to use that.   

Whew!  That's enough for one day, huh?!

Someone is getting way too spoiled with their Grammy here.   I think Jason and I will be in for it once she leaves.  There might be a whole day of time-outs at this rate!   They are really enjoying their time together. 

Freshly Made Flower

It's Wednesday and time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.   I am the hostess thsis week and I hope you'll come over and play along!     We have been so busy for the past week that I was running in at the last minute to make my card.   It was a VERY quick one and super simple.   I wanted to combine it with Paula's Hope You Can Cling To challenge to not use any stamps.    So...no stamps!  :)

Be sure you go check out the rest of the design team cards and come play along with us.   See you in the gallery!

Laila did not want me to take her picture on Saturday when she wore her costume, but I managed to sneak in this one.  She is in a major NO stage at the moment and every single thing is no.   No, no, no, no, NO!  lol

My Hero

Checking in and sharing another Hope You Can Cling To card.   Bridget's challenge was to make something inspired by your hero.   If you follow my blog, you know my mom has become a major quilter and I am so proud of her.  My card was inspired by her love of sewing.   I used my Paper Smooches sewing set and colored it with my Copics.   My layout was inspired by an awesome card by Kay Miller that I found here.  

Mom gave Laila the quilt she made her and they had to spread it out and lay down.  :)  

Prickley Pear Monday Inspiration

It's Monday and time for some new inspiration from the Prickley Pear team.   We've had some super nice weather here in Texas, so I pulled out my Fall colors and this awesome tree.   I couldn't resist adding one of the beautiful owls that are the focus of the set.  

Stamps:  Mini Owls

We went to a little pumpkin patch at a local church this week.   Laila had a blast and we came home with four pumpkins.  lol   She looked so adorable in this cute dress that my mom made for her.   One of the new-to-her things that she loved was the seesaw!

Feathers for Fall

I have a fun class this weekend and I thought I'd share one of our designs.  We are going to be doing a one sheet wonder type of class where we make 4 cards from one sheet of 6 x 6 patterned paper.   I'm trying to do a variety of cards, but my first card is a clean and simple Fall one.   I am a bit addicted to this layout and find myself wanting to use it all the time!

We've been having a blast this week with Mom.    We went to our local arboretum on Wednesday and Laila had a blast.  She had so much fun swinging that she didn't want to leave.  :) 

Golden Butterflies

I made it back to my Freshly Made Sketches team this week.  Yay!   Jen M. has a great sketch this week and there's so much you can do with it.  I was going to try some embossing paste for the rectangle, but I didn't have a stencil that would work for what I had in mind.   I am not usually a gold person, but I wanted to play along with the challenge at The Paper Players this week.   I had all this shiny glitter paper that needed to be used for something!  lol   The music paper tie it in with Susie's HYCCT challenge.

   

I hope my card is simple enough?   It's clean for sure.  lol    I have to say a big thanks to my awesome ladies on the design team who talked me through this one.   It involved a lot of taking apart and trying different things.  It's still not really my style, but hopefully all the glitter is distracting enough to hide the craziness.

Some pictures really don't need writing.  

Won't You Be My Teddy Bear?

Yay for stamping!    I finally have the house ready for Mom's visit and had a little time (okay, an hour, but hey!) to spare.   I decided to work on a card for Hope You Can Cling To.   I was looking at Lee's challenge and thinking that I didn't have any teddy bear images.  I finally remembered that my Copic certification class had a little bear so I grabbed it and here is my card!  Yay! Remember you can find Master Challenge List here.
 

And my helper with the crazy hair.  lol  We are about to go get dressed AND comb our hair so we can go to the airport!   So excited!  

Monday Inspiration with Prickley Pear

It's Monday and time for some new inspiration from Prickley Pear.    I felt a bit off with my card last week, but this week I managed to stick with my style and I love my simple card.  It really shows off the gorgeous wheat image and that beautiful sentiment.   I added a bit of splatter with Heidi Swapp color shine and some simple enamel dots for embellishment.

Stamps:  EE0069 Thankful for You, FF0104 Wheat Stalks
Colors:  Whisper White, Crushed Curry, Blackberry Bliss

Be sure to check out the Prickley Pear blog for lots more inspiration.

Stripping Down

I forgot I had one more HYCCT card to share.  I made this one for Holly's challenge to "strip down" and use strips on our card.   I love this technique as it is a great way to use up scraps!  We did this one at my World Card Making Day class too and it was fun to see how different everyone's looked depending on the papers they picked out.   I added a big shabby bow for fun.

I recently signed up for a daily email of toddler activitiy suggestions.   One of them was a bowl of water with a bit of dish detergent added and a whisk.   It has been a hit this week!   I was able to get some work done in the kitchen while she "cooked bubbles" and it was great for both of us!   It has activities for lots of ages, so I totally recommend it.

Hope and Chicks

Wow!  I haven't posted since Monday?!   It has been that kind of week though.   I am so worn out.   My mom will be here on Tuesday and we have so much to do to get ready.   The guest room became the toy graveyard and it is taking forever to go through it all.   I am crossing my fingers (and toes) that Jason drives a large load of stuff to donate tomorrow.   Anyway...  So all this cleaning/sifting through old things means not a lot of stamping time.  I took the week off from Freshly Made Sketches and all I've made are these two cards in this post.  The first one was actually started last week, so I have only made one and glued another together.   Sad!!!!!!   I do have a cute image colored, but that's as far as I've made it.  This card was made for Diane's HYCCT challenge to use pink and purple along with two of something.   I used two colors and two strands of twine.  I found this die at the craft store last week and thought it was so perfect.  I am happy to add it to my HYCCT supply bucket.

This is my card for Fran's "chicks stick together" challenge.  The stamp is an Easter stamp, but it just seems fun and silly, so I think it can celebrate a lot of things.   :)

I've leave you with a bit of humor for the day.   Laila tends to copy the cats a lot and play with their toys.   Here was today's cat-like activity:

So, so silly.

PPRS Monday Inspiration

Well, it's Monday and my first time joining in with the Prickley Pear team!  Every Monday we post a little something to inspire you.  I have to admit that I was super nervous and made a few cards before I could decide on one to post.   I have some fun Halloween images to work with and this was the first one I pulled out to ink up.   Don't you just love that tree?!    So spooky, but so awesome!    The little spider is Henry and he's pretty cute I think.  :)

Stamps:  HH0022 Whomping Willow, BB0052 Henry, EE0065 Witching You

Be sure you head over to the Prickley Pear blog to check out all the other great cards.

For some reason Laila remembered that she had a tricycle months back.  She wasn't quite tall enough to ride it and it caused it a bit of upset, so it was put up.   After her asking about it for days, I finally decided to let her try it out.  Thankfully she figured it out this time after a bit of frustation.   She goes backward a bit better than forward, but at least she's working on it.  :)  Happy Monday!

Double the Pink

I feel like I haven't posted in ages.  It has been such a crappy week that I haven't really had much to post.   I did make a couple cards on Thursday when I went to stamp with some friends, so I'll share those with you today.   This is a card for Misti's HYCCT challenge to use something sugary with the always optional pink.  

This one is for Kathy's Laughter is the Best Medicine challenge to make a funny card.  ;)  

We are trying to plan out a reading corner in Laila's bedroom, so we did a bit of chair testing yesterday to see if she liked rocking or if she liked one with an ottoman.   I need to try a bean bag next before we decide.  Hopefully this week will be better and I can get some stamping done.   October is the start of my rough period missing Eli, so we'll see.   It's always difficult to get through the holidays.  Adding in the toddler in the middle of some major terrible twos and whew.   I bought ice cream AND chocolate at the store today.  

Stampin' Up! Wonderfall

It's Freshly Made Sketches Day! :)   Our sketch this week comes from one of the sweetest ladies, Amy.   She is super talented too, so be sure you check out her blog if you aren't already stalking following her. For my card I went back to Fall again because I seem to love it for our sketches lately.   I also love this paper and this stamp set.

Laila and I did a bit more decorating for Halloween in the house yesterday and in one of our bags I found this Halloween bucket that I had bought on clearance last year.  She LOVES it and carried it around all evening.  It was too cute.   She seems to be a big Hello Kitty fan these days! 

Sunshine and Flamingos

This was my first Hope You Can Cling To card for this year.  It is for Lori's challenge, Hope Shines Bright, and I love the sentiment.   The stamps are from Papertrey Ink and I love all the sentiments in this set.  Here's the link to all the challenges.

The first HYCCT challenge was to use a technique that seriously scares me, Paper Tole.  lol  Leave it to Lydia to do that, right?   I finally got a card made though.  I hope I did it correctly as I felt a bit clueless!  

Can you see the dimension?  It makes for a super fun look if you have the patience to try it.  :)   The flamingos are from Newton's Nook, the sun from SU Kinda Eclectic, and the sentiment from Mama Elephant Up & Away.   

We had a bit of a battle for control of the guacamole the other day.  A certain little toddler LOVES it and wanted to steal the bowl!  :) 

Winnie & Walter WCMD Challenge

Just sharing another project I made on Saturday.  This was a Winnie & Walter inspiration challenge and I used the colors for my card.  The colors are much closer in real life but look like bright pink and purple in my picture.  The weather is all weird today, so maybe that's why?   The balloons make it work for Rebecca's HYCCT challenge to use something that floats on your card.  Remember, you can see all the challenges here.  Even if you only have time to do a few, it is a fantastic feeling to make them up and mail them off to the hospital.  

I have several cards made up to post, so I'll probably share a couple of my HYCCT cards tomorrow.  Stay tuned!  

Stamps:   Winnie & Walter The Big, The Bold, and the Happy, Mama Elephant Up & Away

She was "shopping" the Sunday paper and seemed to get stuck on the new iPhone.  Poor dear.   She's going to be a bit disappointed that she'll have to pay for that in order to have one.   ;)   

Hello Friend

Just sharing another card I made for WCMD yesterday.   This one was for a Winnie & Walter challenge to use patterns.  I used polka dots on my tag and circles on my background.   I love how bright and cheery this turned out!  

Someone really likes ink pens.  Yikes!

Happy World Cardmaking Day!

I've been stamping away today and haven't had much time to take pictures and post!  I tried to fix this one up a bit from a picture I took on my phone.  I'll go back and do a better one tomorrow and replace it.   We made this at my event today.  I based it on a previous project of mine, but you probably won't know it. I went with a coffee mug to work with Dini's Hope You Can Cling To challenge.   You can find a list of those challenges here.   Funny how you start out with one idea and it totally morphs into something else.   I will be sharing this over on the Newton's Nook blog for their World Cardmaking Day challenge.  I did use a Newton's Nook stamp today, but I didn't get to finish it as I need to cut one thing from my Cameo.  Bummer!

Someone took the pumpkin muffin this morning and stuck her face all in it!  Crazy girl.

Stampin' Up! Papillon Potpourri

Here's the second Pinterest-inspired card we'll be making tomorrow.   I loved this card and was lucky enough to have the same embossing folder.  It was a bit dusty and I'm not sure I'd even used it before.   It makes for a very pretty background, so I need to remember that I have it more often.  :)  I used a couple Stampin' Up! sets, Papillon Potpourri and Petite Pairs.  I colored the butterflies with Blendabilities markers.

I had a nice mommy break yesterday.   Lunch alone and then my volunteer time with the kitties.  It was a little time away and just enough to recharge.  I keep getting horrible headaches this week, so I ended up with another one once I got home.  I think they are sinus/allergy related, but I'm not sure because they are getting close to migraine level.   We seem to be getting a lot of weather changes, so maybe they will go away after Fall truly settles in.  Laila had a sweet day yesterday with lots of hugs and kisses for us, so yay for that. :)   Oh, if you like to try new recipes, let me recommend this one that we had last night!  Baked Pumpkin French Toast was a Pinterest WIN!

Stampin' Up! Good Greetings

I'm having a few friends over on Saturday, so I've been designing a few cards for us to make.   As I was looking around Pinterest, I realized that I pin a lot, but never really look back at them.  I decided to do a "spin on pins" class this time and this is the first card.  It was inspired by a lovely card by the amazing Mary Fish.   I think this layout is a great way to use up packs of coordinating papers and some of the scraps I'm sure we all have.   I am going to work up a few other versions for Christmas and birthday I think!

When toddlers pick out their own clothes and accessories...  lol