Stampin' Up! Zoo Babies

I got an order for some baby and little kid birthday cards, so I've been working on those this week.  I made this one for baby shower gifts and I just love it.  The colors are fabulous together (Smokey Slate, Tangerine Tango, and Bermuda Bay) and I love the embossed alphabet with the little elephant.  :)

Do you have a favorite sketch or layout?  This one is a favorite of mine!  I find myself using it quite frequently.   It's just a fun layout and I do love banners.  :)

Birthday Balloons

I hope everyone survived Thanksgiving!   We had a small dinner with just the three of us and it was nice.  I miss having family to cook for, but we made it work.  :)   Laila has stopped taking naps and is going to bed earlier, so I have been getting in some stamping time in the evenings.  I was thinking it would be awful once she stopped napping, but we now have quiet time and she goes to bed earlier and easier, so it's been good!

This Mama Elephant set is one of my current favorites.  I love the little animals so much!

She is so in love with the tree this year!   She also has a small one in her room and loves it just as much.  :)  She's been rearranging the ornaments, so it might look a bit crazy by the time we make it to Christmas.  lol

FMS Warm Winter Wishes

Wednesday and time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!   Jen B, is our hostess this week and she has a sketch that was super fun to work with!    She makes the most amazing cards that always wow me, so no surprise that her sketch did the same.  :)    I recently got an order from Winnie & Walter that included an awesome birch tree background and a stencil that reminded me of falling snow.  I paired those with the cute little deer from Avery Elle and a lovely sentiment from MFT.    I think they all work together beautifully!  :)

I can't believe it's the day before Thanksgiving!   Where has the year gone?!   Tomorrow we'll eat our wonderful food and then enjoy some time decorating the house and putting up the tree.  I'm not a big fan of Christmas, but I'm trying to get in the spirit for Laila.   She keeps asking for a Christmas tree, so we'll put hers up in her bedroom Thursday as well.  I think she will be super excited about it this year!  

Someone cleaned their plate at dinner last night!  She didn't eat very well on Monday, but she made up for it yesterday.  :) 

Stampin' Up! Celebrate Baby

A bit of Stampin' Up! inspiration for you today.   I love the Celebrate Baby set so much.   The font on the baby stamp is just gorgeous!    I kept my card very simple to focus on that.   :)

We still needed a turkey breast for Thanksgiving, so Laila and I went to Target yesterday to pick one up.  We took a little stroll through the holiday section and she had a blast checking out all the decorations.  She seems to be super excited about Christmas this year, so it's fun.  I can't wait to put up the tree on Thursday!  

Monday Inspiration from Prickley Pear

It's Monday and time for some Prickley Pear inspiration!   I just love my card this week.   Isn't that stamp gorgeous?  I had so much fun coloring it!   I also hit my stash of textured blue Bazzil because I really wanted to use a variety of blues.   Textured cardstock is one thing I tend to hoard as I LOVE it so much.  I need to start using it way more; there's always more available if I use my 3,456,432 sheets!  lol

Be sure you go check out the blog for all the other wonderful inspiration this week.

Laila had Santa pictures yesterday and they didn't go so well this year. :(   If we get any picture, it will be a screaming toddler one.   Poor dear.  She seems very shy and scared of people again.  Santa said most two year olds react this way, so I guess we move on and hope for better next year.

Sketched Coffee

You know me and my coffee...  When I saw the sketch at Sketch Saturday and the Simon Says Stamp Flickr challenge, I just knew they'd be happy together.   :)    I used some of the rich designer papers that came with the coffee-themed SSS card kit a few months ago.   I love the orange with the espresso!

My week is flying by and I have so much to do!   I have cards to mail off, cards to make, a class to prep...  We are taking a break tonight and taking Laila to see the lights at the Houston Zoo.    It was a discounted members-only night and we thought we'd try it.   

The Little People are a huge hit these days and yesterday she decided that her Minnie Mouse figures should go to school as well.   lol

Freshly Made Christmas Trees

It's Wednesday and time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  Cindy H. is our hostess this week and she has a fun sketch.   I love the different ways it can be flipped and interpreted. :)   I pulled out my Simon Says Stamp card kit for Freshly Made Sketches again this week.  This time I used some of lovely papers from Lawn Fawn that were included with the kit.   I just love this tree image and it looks great in tradition or non-traditonal colors.  

See?  Isn't that a great sketch?   You can flip it all kinds of ways!  I kept it pretty close to the sketch this time.   I can't wait to see the gallery this week.  I know the design team knocked it out of the park!

That long nap she took yesterday really did some work on her hair!  lol 

MFT Birthday

Laila skipped her nap yesterday and went to bed early, so I had a little time to stamp before Jason got home from work last night.  I decided to play along with the MFT Wednesday Stamp Club sketch.   My card is super simple, but it does have some fun layers.

I used two MFT sets, the Bokeh Builder set and Birthday Greetings set.

Laila and I had a bit of stamping time yesterday when she didn't want to nap.  :)   We are hopefully going to Michael's shopping today to get more storage for my craft room reorganization.    It's so cold, so we are waiting on it to warm up.  

Post by Rita A. Wright.

Prickley Pear Monday Inspiration

It's Monday and time for some Prickley Pear inspiration!   I had this adorable little wreath image and was so happy to ink it up.   It is just the sweetest.  There's a larger version that is on my wishlist, so you might see it soon.  ;)    You know I love kraft and red, so I decided to go that route with it.   A bit of designer paper, pretty ribbon, and a few candy dots finish it off.  

I meant to take some other pictures in my normal spot, but I had already packed it up to mail off before I grabbed my camera. It's so much prettier in real life but looks a bit washed out in my light tent.

Stamps: CC0128 Bluebirds Wreath, Sm, CLR013C Scallop Circle & Oval 4 Floral

Be sure to go check out the other beautiful cards by the rest of the team!

Laila has been wearing Jason out wanting to jump, so we got her a trampoline!   Since it has turned cold (Hello, this is Texas!  What's up with that?!), she needed something to tire her out anyway.   She's been having fun and we love watching her jump.   She keeps wanting us to count as she jumps, so it's educational as well.  lol

Sewing for Mom

Hi!   It's been a while, but I managed to make something today.  This month seems busy and I'm stressed already, but sometimes we just have to take a break and create, right?    I made a couple other cards that I'll share with you later this week, but this one I can share today.   I combined the challenges at Curtain Call and Paper Smooches SPARKS to make this for my mom.  

   

I just love my Paper Smooches  set.  It is the most perfect set for making cards for Mom.   I stamped a bunch of the images and let Laila color them, so we are going to send both of them to her this week.  :)

Stamps: Paper Smooches Stamps, 4 by 6-Inch, Needle Little Love, Clear
Ink: Tsukineko Full-Size Memento Fade Resistant Inkpad, Tuxedo Black
Copics:  B21, B24

While Mom was here we tried to take Laila to get some pictures made.  It was a TOTAL disaster and I left in tears because I was so embarrassed by her screaming.  She's usually great with pictures, so I don't know what going on.   She's just so disagreeable about everything and screams SO MUCH lately, so I guess it shouldn't have been that surprising.   Anyway...  next Sunday we are trying pictures with Santa and I hope it goes better.   That's the one picture that I look forward to every year, so we are working hard to get her excited about seeing Santa.   Cross your fingers for us!  It's just at the photographer's house, so maybe it won't be as scary as the studio.

Freshly Made Sketches Trees

It's time for a new Freshly Made Sketches challenge!   Yay!    The talented Kim is our sketch designer this week and she has a fun one for sure.   I had such a blast with it and LOVE my card this week so much.

I'm totally addicted to tags, baker's twine, and buttons, so this one was a no-brainer for me.   I finally broke open my November Simon Says Stamp card kit and I really LOVE the stamps.  I paired them with some inks and card stock from My Favorite Things.   Love the light gray and the blue together. 

Come play along with us! 

Just a bit of Christmas shopping.   She's obsessed with a Hello Kitty radio that seems to be in every.single,Target.ad.   Ugh!   We listen to Pandora Toddler Radio on my iPhone, so she doesn't even had any CDs to require a boom box!  Crazy child.

She even left it open on this page! 

Prickley Pear Monday Inspiration

It's time for some Monday inspiration from the Prickley Pear team!   Lots of great cards to see over on the blog, so be sure to go check them out!  I went with a very clean-and-simple card to celebrate the harvest season (for squirrels).  :)   I love pairing a small image with a sketch like this one.  It gives them a chance to be the focus even though they aren't huge stamps.   I added a bit of texture with a woodgrain embossing folder and kept the embellishments simple with a button tied with twine.

Stamps used;  EE0167 Happy Harvest, EE0170 Nutty, Sm. 

I love the little moments like this.  We were waiting in line to get coffee (and pumpkin bread) and she was having fun playing with daddy.  Love these two.

Last Hope

Another huge round of cards for Hope You Can Cling To!  This will be my last post about them as I finally FINISHED!  Yay. I love being able to do all 35 cards, but it seemed extra challenging to finish them all this year.  I am happy that my mom and Jason both encouraged and supported me to make it happen.  Now on to the cards (and then on to cleaning the house! Yikes):

This one using the MFT Bokeh Builder set for Kelli's bokeh challenge.  Pretty easy choice of stamps for this one.  lol     I used one Tim Holtz Distress Ink pad for all the pink and just stamped off to get the different shades.  

Kathy's challenge was all about the book The Fault in Our Stars and asked for a romantic card to give to a significant other.   I think this image is so sweet and it was sitting on my shelf brand new and needing love.   Jason is sweet and cuts up apples for me all the time, so I thought it was pretty fitting for the love of my life.

Lydia's final challenge for this year was to make a card based on our favorite children's book.   I love books and always have, so it was hard to pick just one.  I do remember being super obsessed with a book called Spooky Tricks and decided to do a magic card.  I actually won a The Cat's Pajamas gift certificate one year from the HYCCT challenges and got this stamp with it.  :)   Perfect, right?!

This sweet little bunny from Mama Elephant just had to make another appearance on my cards.   Tabbatha's challenge was to use two different mediums on your creation.  I used distress inks, craft ink, and alcohol markers for mine.    The clouds are another HYCCT prize that I picked with a gift certificate from Your Next Stamp!   I love being able to use previous prizes on these cards.  

Here's an almost all Stampin' Up! card for you purists.  :)  Teresa's challenge was about cheering and we spelled out BOOBS. ha!   Blue, circle element, round embellishment, and black.    

Angie's card was about tilted layers.   I was almost asleep the other night and the idea for this one popped in my head.  I started telling Jason all about it and I think he was confused as to why I was thinking about stamping when I was supposed to be going to sleep.   Men are just so different from women!  I do my best thinking right before I fall asleep.  He got me this fun Texas stamp last year for a stocking stuffer and I thought it was time I inked it up.   I kept the card clean like the Texas flag.  

This is the last one.  I actually plan to go back and add some Crumb Cake seam binding to it because I'm not happy with the end result.  The challenge was Susie's to make our own background, no designer paper.   I love my background, but not the rest of the card.  Hopefully I can get it apart and fix it before I mail it off.   The SU World Map stamp is so fun with watercolor paper and distress inks! 

My little picture helper this morning.  She's telling me all about the Texas she found on this card.  lol 

Freshly Made Tissue Flower

It's Wednesday and time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!  Linda is our hostess this week with a fabulous design.  I combined the sketch with Debbi's HYCCT challenge to use tissue on our card.  I love making tissue flowers!   The only tissue I could find had silver sparkles on it, so I ran with the silver and added in some navy.   I'm not sure what you'd use it for, but I added a hand-written joy and am calling it a Christmas card.  Ha!

Remember when you play along you can change out the shapes to whatever works for you.  :)

They had a bit of fun playing with the sand toys.  Laila is more into knocking over the sand castles than building them.  lol 

So Much Hope

Beware!  I'm behind on posting cards so there's a lot of my Hope You Can Cling To cards in this post.  :)   Enjoy the inspiration.

First is my stair step card for Kim's challenge.  I used my sweet little snowman from My Favorite Things.   I love this stamp so much!   I added in a pink scarf to honor the theme of the challenges.

Gail's challenge was all about keeping connected.   I didn't have any telephone stamps, but I went with the "girl time" idea of a coffee date.  I know when I'm struggling a nice coffee date with a friend really helps me recharge.  

I made this tag a while back but never found a way to use it on a card.  When I saw Barbara's challenge to use embossing paste I thought I could do a pretty background and add my tag.   It still seems a little plain, so I might add a few butterflies on the white layer before I put it in the mail.

Patricia's challenge was all about spraying ink to get lots of dots and/spots.   I don't love this one and will probably try to do a different card.  I tried a million things to get it to look better, but it is what it is.   We all make a dud sometimes, right?  lol

Stacy's challenge was "show me the love" and involved making a card showing love without putting love on the front.   I used my sweet little hedgies from Lawn Fawn.  

Robin's challenge was to use one of several resist techniques.   I went with a crayon rubbed resist technique.   I put my paper on the raised side of an embossing folder and rubbed my crayon over it.  It reminded me of my favorite childhood toy, Fashion Plates.  Once I did that, I inked up my brayer with Crumb Cake and ran it over the paper to make the resist show up.    It seemed too plain, so I did sponge some Early Espresso around it as well.   Fun technique!

Jeanne's challenge was all about pink balloons.  I have a strange fear of balloons, so I tend to not buy a lot of balloon stamps.  I did have this cute little chick that I hadn't inked up yet, so I added her to the big sentiment from Winnie & Walter.  

Whew!   That's all for now.  I am trying SOOOO hard to get all 35 challenges done, so you might see another long post from me soon.   

My mom went home today.  :(   We are sure going to miss her.   It has been so wonderful to see how much love she has to give to our little girl.   I wish we didn't live so far apart.