Freshly Made Kindness

Sorry I'm so late with my Freshly Made Sketches card this week.  It seems to be a habit lately.  With Laila not going to MDO now, I don't have my Tuesday free to finish it up.   I did try to get it on time, but I made some major duds and had to start over.  Then of course the power went out from storms we had early yesterday morning and then the Internet was out!   Once that all fixed itself, I figured out what I somehow deleted all my computer programs when I tried fixing my laptop after some of the power flickers.  Goodness!  But I managed to figure out a way to at least get it on here, so here it is!   Sorry Jen T, for being late for your awesome sketch!

I used another set that had never seen ink, Paper Smooches Botanicals 3.  It's a fun set of different leaves and flowers.  I am not the best at making backgrounds, but it was fun to try.  I thought I'd add a little gift card for coffee and send it off for a friend.  The sentiment is from an awesome Hero Arts set that is all about kindness.  You should totally add it to your collections to help send out those little random acts that brighten days.  

We went on an awesome field trip this week.  We visited the Houston Police Department's Mounted Patrol and fed the horses.  They will eat carrots right out of your hands!  It was such an amazing experience.  Laila loved it!   

Freshly Made Coffee

It's Freshly Made Sketches Day!   Amy created a fun sketch for us and I think you'll enjoy it.  There are so many ways you can interpret it.  The possibilities are just endless as you can see from the team examples!  I said this week I wanted to work with stamps that were new and uninked, so I grabbed this coffee set from Uniko and my card evolved from there.

Edited to add:  Several people have emailed me about the embossing folder I used.  You can find it here and probably a lot of other online stores.  I picked mine up at my local Hobby Lobby.

To be honest, I almost didn't post my card.  It didn't really turn out like I wanted and it photographed even worse.  I made it in the midst of the chaos of Laila and Sadie, so I was distracted and not really in my creative place. But, they can't all be good, right?  lol

We are expecting more rain today here in Texas, so keep the state in your thoughts today.  

Simply Stenciled

Here's my final stencil card for you.  It's a simple one, just using two distress ink colors and a stencil.  I added a few sequins and a bold sentiment and left it at that.  The stamps are from Altenew and the stencil a retired one from My Favorite Things.

Just thought I'd share my happy mail I got this week.  I am trying to add in a few of the coordinating dies for some of my stamp sets, so I got a couple of those, two new small stamps, and some LuLaRoe leggings and perfect tee.  If you haven't tried their clothes yet, wow!  So soft!  I am in love!

I'm off to clean and worry.  We are having some serious rain in our area today and pretty much everything is closed due to flooding.  Jason wasn't able to get out of the driveway this morning, but he did go in later. Thankfully he made it safely, but I'll be worried until he's back home tonight.  We've all been awake since 4:45, so it will be a long day.  Yawn.

Stenciled: The White Space

Another card using stencils!  This was the first example taught in the Online Card Classes Stenciled class and I tried to copy Debby's technique and card.   It's a lot of white space for me, but I like how it turned out. I am enjoying going back and doing some of the lessons from this class!  I think I'll look back at the other classes I've taken there as well, so stay tuned for weeks of masking and one layer cards too!

I surprised Laila with some bristle blocks this weekend.  She loves playing with them at school and I wanted to have them here for her.  We decided this week to pull her out of the MDO program she's been attending.  The teacher had a talk with me about teaching Laila to obey people other than her parents and during that discussion she told me that Laila's spirit needed to be broken.  I was upset to hear that.  I know Laila has problems, but she doesn't need to be broken.  :(  Out of nowhere at breakfast on Thursday Laila told me that there were too many kids and that the teachers didn't listen to her, so I think it's just been a bad fit.  They never have anything nice or positive to say about her, so I just can't keep taking her to that type of environment.  We are going to an appointment with the nurse at the local elementary school on Thursday and will follow through with an evaluation to see if she has any issues that are leading to these problems at school. I am also going to talk to her peditrician to see if we need to have any other evualuations or assessments.  Everyone I've talked to seems to think she's just gifted, but I don't know...  She does seem to have some social issues, but we are working on those as best we can.   This parenting thing sure isn't easy!

Freshly Made Roses

Well, I'm pretty late with my Freshly Made Sketches card, but I was inspired by the sketch and wanted to put one together.  I played around with my new Brusho watercolor crystals last week and had a bunch of backgrounds made up.  I used a new Stampers Anonymous stencil that was gifted to me by a sweet crafty friend I met on Instagram. The sentiment is from Altenew.  

Here's Narelle's awesome sketch:

I didn't quite get it right I see now, but I tried.  I have been so tired the past few days and it's a miracle I made anything.  Whew.   I do have two more cards using stencils that I'll post over the coming days and then I'm moving on to a new week.  I might try a week of inking stamps that are still in the package.  ;) 

We had a zoo day on Thursday and Laila got to do her most favorite thing, ride the carousel.  Three times.  lol 

Stenciled with Avery Elle

A new week!  Last week I enjoyed working with some of my Stampin' Up! stamps again.  This week I'm revisiting the Online Card Classes class called Stenciled.  If you haven't taken it, I would totally recommend it.  I have a few stencils that were still brand new, so I decided to get some ink of them this week.   This stencil is from My Favorite Things, but I think it has been retired.  They have plenty of really awesome ones that you can see here though.   I paired it with a die and coordinating stamp from Avery Elle.  I still love my stitched dies from Lil' Inker and have to use those!  This set is great because the largest die just puts the stitches on the card base; it doesn't cut anything.

Laila did her own bit of watercoloring this week.  :)

Stampin' Up! Best Thoughts

It'ms time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!  Karren is our amazing sketcher this week and has a fun one!  If you like using large images or a big panel of white space, it's going to be the perfect sketch for you!  I took advantage of it and used this big ol' flower from this Stampin' Up Best Thoughts set that has been sitting uninked (gasp!) on my shelf for way too long.  I used some watercolor paper and my Gansai Tambi watercolors.   I am not a watercolorer, but it was fun to play.

See?  Isn't that fun?  I love the little angle sliver on the edge.  It helps add a fun bit of interest beside the large panel.  Sneak in a little piece of that pretty paper you've been hoarding.  ;) 

Stampin' Up! Bloomin' Beautiful

Happy Tuesday folks!  I'm sharing a card I made with this week's Mojo Monday sketch with you today.   For this one, I pulled out what I think was my very first Stampin' Up! set I bought from my first demo.   It is called Bloomin' Beautiful and it has some lovely flower images.  I haven't distressed anything for a while, so I added some of that for a more rustic? feel.

I hope you are enjoying the week of Stampin' Up! cards I'm doing.  I have another one for you tomorrow for this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch, so stay tuned!

Stampin' Up! Aviary

I realized that my Stampin' Up! stamps were probably starting to feel neglected, so I decided to make the first week in April a week of using them!   My first card I grabbed the adorable retired set called Aviary.   I used my Color Coach for a color combo of Crushed Curry, Coastal Cabana, and Pumpkin Pie.  I thought it turned out cute!  Simple, but with some added embellishments that make it a little fun.  :)

We went to Baskin Robbins on Tuesday to have a scoop.  Laila had a blast and by the end of her cone, she had a complete chocolate goatee.  lol  It was making the people walking in laugh.  She had a pretty good week, but man did I struggle.  I guess I'm going to have to talk to my ob/gyn about the big H word.  My hormone levels cause me so much toil and trouble as they change throughout the month.  I'm taking antidepressants and have anxiety meds to help, but it's just not enough.  I know we aren't having more kids and I'm over 40 now, so there's no reason I need all those girly parts.   They are just causing trouble!   Today has been productive however!  Jason replaced the faucet that's been leaking, we've rearranged the living room, I worked on organizing Laila's playroom and our homeschool stuff, and we are about to start making the potato and corn chowder that's for dinner.  :)  And I made this card.  :)  

I hope you are having a good weekend!