A Special Butterfly

Some cards are just hard to make.  So hard.   July is a very difficult month for us as we anticipate the flood of emotions that come on our Eli's birthday on August 2nd.   It has been a struggle for weeks now.   On Saturday we heard the news that another family had lost their sweet girl to spinal muscular atrophy.    The Strong family has been an amazing inspiration to the SMA community and work tirelessly on helping other families and finding a cure.   Their beautiful Gwendolyn was seven and lived an inspiring life.   Many of us have spent years and years sharing in her life and struggles and just love the family.   Our community was heartbroken to hear of her passing.   I cried myself to sleep that night, but managed to channel some of that emotion into a card.   Butterflies are their thing, so I hope this is the right card to send.

Please keep the family in your thoughts and prayers.  

Entering in the MarkerPOP Anything Goes challenge.

Simon Says Sparkle

Sharing another card made with an image and watercolor panel that's been hanging out on my desk for a while.  I finally combined them and made this fun card.   I added a bit of bling with some sequins and silver embossing paste.  I would like to enter it in the Simon Wednesday Challenge as it is Sparkle and Shine this week.   :)  I think I only have one more image that needs a home on a card, so I hope to make that happen soon!



This is a bit of a different card for me, but I like it!  

Stamps:  MFT Super Girl
Paper:  Neenah Solar White, Canson Watercolor Paper, SU Riding Hood Red
Ink:  SU Real Red, Copics, Koi Watercolors
Dies:  Lil' Inker Stitched Rectangles, MFT Blueprints

Two Paper Divas Bee Happy

Today I am sharing a card using a new set I got from Two Paper Divas called Bee Happy.  It's so cute!!!  I loved coloring the hive and adding in my cute little bees.   I kept it simple to show off the hexagon embossing and my little bees hiding in that.  Buzz!   Now I have a cute little card I can send off to a friend this week!  Yay!

Someone isn't happy if a car leaves the house and she's not in it.   Yesterday I had to go grocery shopping and promised her a surprise if she'd stay home with daddy.   I have had a magnifying glass on my to-find list forever and the grocery store had one in the school supply section!  Perfect!   She has had a blast with it!   I love encouraging her to explore and learn.  

Crazy for Freshly Made Sketches

I've had this crazy bird colored and on my desk for a while now.  The past few days have been horrible (crying parents, crying Laila), so I took advantage of having an image already ready to make a quick card for Freshly Made Sketches this week.   Cindy H is our hostess with the mostest this week and she dared tilt something.  I'm just sure it was on purpose to drive me crazy.  lol   Just kidding, Cindy!  I love you!

I wanted my bird to be in party mode, so I quickly drew a hat and colored it with my Copics.  I hope it doesn't look too awful as I am totally NOT an artist.  Don't you just love the expression on his face?   He can't believe you are 29...AGAIN!    Ha!  

Stamps:  Tim Holtz Bird Crazy, Unity Happy 29th Birthday...Again

Ink:  Memento Black, Stampin' Up! Real Red, Copic Markers

Paper:  Neenah Solar White, Stampin' Up! Epic Day

Dies:  MFT Instaframe, Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders

Embellishments:  Misc Sequins, Studio Calico Wood Veneers Stars, Stampin' Up! Linen Thread

She got very excited yesterday about drawing caterpillars.  lol   She just kept drawing them over and over!   She cracks me up when she's not making me crazy!  

Simon Says Owl

Simon Says Stamp has a fun challenge going on right now.  It's for shaped cards!  I had this cute owl die in my stash that I hadn't used yet, so it seemed like the perfect time to pull it out.  It was pretty fun to put together and has already been claimed by Laila.  :)

She still loves carousels.   There was a big meltdown over it last week, but she had fun when she did ride it.   It makes me a bit motion sick, but seeing her smile and have fun is worth getting on with her.

Peppermints for TPD

Greetings.  Sorry it's been a while.  It's been a week of many changes and headaches and I haven't had a chance to get my blog posts written.   Today's card is from this month's release at Two Paper Divas and it's another Christmas in July.   I put the new and awesome Peppermints stamp in my Large Mason Jar and tied it up with a bow a button.   I had some candy designer paper in my stash and it seemed to work out perfectly.  The sentiment is from the new Holiday Sentiments set that you saw me use last week.  It is such a great set!

Laila had a big week that was both good and bad.   She's been doing great about using the potty and has earned some new Hot Wheels for her efforts.  She also got to have her crib made into a "big girl bed" and that is going well so far too.   The past three days have been super rough and left Jason and I both in tears, so I don't know what's going on with her.  I don't know if it's all the new changes or being three...  Just a difficult time for us all.  I'm dreading him going back to work tomorrow because if we have another day like today, I will probably go insane.  This too shall pass... 

Freshly Made Cupcake

Greetings!   It's Wednesday and time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.   Kim is our fabulous sketch designer this week and she made up a great one.   I think I almost followed the sketch this time too!  :)    I feel like I've been turning into the team member who looks like they used the wrong sketch, so I tried to shape up this week.  lol

I used a sweet little cupcake set from Mama Elephant for my card.  I don't usually do pinks, but I have some birthdays coming up that I need girly cards for so I went for it.   Plus I also had new pink Copics that I wanted to try out.  :)   

Totally cried when I saw this picture.  She looks so grown up!   She finally let us put her hair in a ponytail and she looks like a different kid. Sad face. 

Christmas in July with TPD

I hope your weekend is going great!  It's been a busy week here and I'm doing my last few things before I can head to bed.  This week is release week at Two Paper Divas and is Christmas in July!  We also had those big old lights on our house every year at Christmas, so I was happy to see those in my package this time.  It reminds me of so many childhood holiday memories.   I went with the traditional red and green because I wanted to use this really awesome chalkboard patterned paper with them.  The lights are from the Merry & Bright set and the greeting is from Holiday Sentiments.

Someone is still a bit Super Why obsessed.  lol   She has been a bit better the past few days, but earlier this week she had to wear the costume most of the day.    She's such a silly little thing.  :)

FMS 194 Mix It Up!

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!   I took a lot of liberties with this sketch, so I hope Linda doesn't kill me!   I was planning on making a new card that followed it better but I just ran out of time.   So, you get my kinda-the-sketch card.  :)    (Love you, Linda!)  I wanted to play along with the current challenge at Ellen Hutson and this was my result.   I love it!!   The sentiment is from Paper Smooches Spectrum and the flower/leaves are from the Essentials by Ellen collection that is exclusive to the Ellen Hutson shop.  

I did try to add some twine, but it was making my card not quite as pretty, so I took it back off.  I hope I don't get booted from the team!  lol  

Last week we decided to go on a short road trip and ended up stuck on the highway in a bunch of traffic.   We were near this outlet mall that I'd never been to, so we stopped there to walk around for a while.   Someone has turned into a natural shopping at the ripe old age of three.  lol  She had a blast!   

Scary Owls for TPD

Happy July 4th!    The fireworks are starting here, so I wanted to get up post up in case my girl woke back up.   She was up super early today, so I'm hoping she will sleep through them.  Fingers and toes crossed!    I decided to do a little Halloween card with the new Hooters stamp from Two Paper Divas.   I got a bit out of control on this one.   I did my watercolor/distress ink background, colored the owls with my Copics, added Glossy Accents to the owls' eyes and the BOO!, and then added a bunch of stitched rectangle die cut mats.   It's probably too much, but it was fun!  :) And it's PURPLE!

 Jason and I aren't fans of watermelon, so we don't really buy it.   Laila has a book from the library about a watermelon-eating alligator (or crocodile) and she asked for some this week.  We got her one and she ate all of this piece.  She hasn't seemed to want it since, so I'm thinking it's not her favorite either. :)

Happy Independence Day to my American peeps!

Sailing Away (I wish!)

Happy Wednesday! And Happy July!   We've made it to the middle of the week and the middle of the  year.  Woo Hoo!  I'm happy to say that as yesterday was a super crappy day for me and my girl.  We survived, but man!  Those threes might just be worse than the twos and we just got started!  Anyway...  I'm the hostess/designer/thingamajigger at Freshly Made Sketches this week and I hope you like the sketch I came up with.   I did a wee bit (okay, a lot) of stretching of the sketch for my card.  My card kit from Simon Says Stamp came and I just had to use it!   It is such a fun one and I love how my card turned out!   I can't wait to ink it up again soon!

You can see all the elements of the sketch in my card, right?  Yeah!   lol  I love what the rest of the team did, so be sure you hop over and see their amazing creations as well.  

I'm pretty sure that blowing out the candles is Laila's favorite part of her birthday parties.  :)    She was quite happy that she got the strawberry cake she asked for.  Jason and I aren't the best cake makers, but we worked together to make her a homemade one.