Oh Christmas Trees

Happy Sunday.  I can't believe we are almost at the end of October.  It is going to be Thanksgiving and then Christmas before we know it.  I decided I have enough fall/gratitude cards to mail out, so I'm trying to focus a bit on Christmas.  I managed to do another of the Falliday Fest challenges and have one more in progress.  The deadline to upload them is noon tomorrow, so fingers crossed I can finish that last one.

This card was inspired by the challenge all about hard candy Christmas.  My Mamaw always had a jar of the striped hard candy during the holidays.  I remember picking a piece and hoping it was a fruity one and not another mint. lol  The red striped paper along with the added green of the trees reminds me of that candy and my childhood.  Did you eat that too?  I feel like I should look for some to introduce it to Laila.

The stamps and circle die are from Simon Says Stamp and the embossing folder is Stampin' Up!  The trees are Wild Wasabi and Garden Green.  I like using those two greens together.

I think we are going to try and carve up some jack-o-lanterns and then have dinner.  I hope this week is a good one for you!  I will hopefully be back soon with a card using Stampin' Up!'s Santa Stache.  That set cracks me up!  :)

Fall Colors

Hey!  How is everyone on this fine Friday?   I can't believe I haven't posted since Monday.  Well, I can, but that's breaking my recent streak of doing better.  lol  Jason worked overtime this week and I was solo parenting for most of it.  He was home yesterday and I totally took off for brunch with a friend.   I wanted to share a couple more challenge cards with you.  I have a lot of cards made up for Fall now, so I need to start sending those out soon.   This one uses my most favorite Stampin' Up! set, French Foliage along with a sentiment from Truly Grateful.  I stamped on the Kraft paper that was sold back in my demo days.  Do they still have that?  I love it!

And this card...  Lori challenged us to use wheat and I think this counts, right?  lol I pulled out the distress inks for this one.  The wheat is from Concord & 9th and the sentiment from wPlus9.

Laila started going to a cooperative play groun this week and it's from 4:30 to 5:30, so we have to stop for dinner on our way home.  She picked Panera this week.  She seems to enjoy the class so far, so I hope it will benefit her.  With this description, it seems to cover much of what she needs help on. The Cooperative Play group addresses social skills, communication, and emotional regulation skills.  They work on things such as taking turns, expressively identifying how they feel, flexibility with non-preferred activities, keeping their body in the group, thinking with their eyes, cooperative play and communicating with peers during play, along with other skills.  If I could list her issues, it would be most of those. Thank goodness we can at least work on them while we are waiting on an evaluation/diagnosis.

I'm off to clean up my desk.  It's a wreck as is my floor.  Creativity is messy!

Thank You Snorlax

Today I'm sharing the last two of the Falliday Fest cards.  I don't know if I'll have time to do any of the other challenges before the deadline or not, but we shall see how the week goes.  :)   This is for another card drive that is part of the challenges.  They will be going to men and women in the armed forces who have become sick or injured during their service.  The theme was patriotic thank you cards.  This design should be easy to produce quite a few of, so I might enlist Laila to help me make up some.  All the products except for the sentiment are Stampin' Up!   The sentiment is from Altenew and can be easily substituted for any thank you sentiment you might have.

This is the silly card that Laila and I made this week.  Our family has been taken over by a Pokemon Go obesssion!  We've been watching the old shows together as well.   I managed to find the cut files for a few of the Pokemon and we used my Silhouette Cameo to make this Snorlax.  He seemed like he'd be fun on the blue Christmas challenge.   lol  Laila has already claimed him and he's on her dresser.

We did some Halloween/Fall projects yesterday.  Laila painted this pumpkin and then we baked a pumpkin bundt cake. It was delicious too! Here's a link to the recipe in case you want to try it!  I'm off to do a few chores and shower.  We are heading to the library today for new books.  :)

Halloween & Santa

Sharing a couple more cards today.  I came in last night and colored a bit and was able to turn those images into cards for the Falliday Fest challenges.  This one is for a pink Christmas challenge.  A friend sent me this cute Stampin' Up! Naughty or Nice set and the Santa stamp is so cute!   Doesn't he look good in pink? :)

The next challenge I did was a good/bad witch card.  I picked the bad witch and used lots of greens and blacks.  Now I want to go watch The Wizard of Oz.  I miss waiting on it to come on that one time of year.  It's funny how much things have changed from my childhood sometimes.

I'm off to rest a bit.  Jason is working overtime today so I have four days of solo parenting this week.  I hope I make it.  My depression/anxiety is the worst it has even been right and it can be hard to make it through one day.  Four?  Well, send positive thoughts!

Owls and Puppies Oh MY!

Yappy Saturday!  Just checking in with a couple of cards.  I haven't stamped much this week, but I finally made myself come try and was able to make a few.  More Falliday challenges.  Today is the last day and I think there's a week to play catch up.  I won't finish them, but I do hope to do a few more.  This challenge was to make a pet thank you card.  It is for a card drive for the Tri-County Humane Society in Minnesota.  I'm glad they are doing some card drives for the challenges.  I'm trying to at least do those and maybe follow up with a few more of the theme before I mail them.

(Did you see I used some Baja Breeze for this one?  I totally hoard it, but I need to use it!)

I had to edit and add that I used the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!  I am taking a little time off, but I want to play along as I can. :)

Sorry for the bad picture.  I prefer taking them on our dining room table with natural lighting, but Laila seems to pile all her crap up on it and it's a half-day job to clear it off.

Next was a challenge to make an owl card.  I love this Winter Owl stamp from Lawn Fawn and thought it would be fun to use.  I wanted to make Jason a card.  All the things going on with Laila are putting a lot of stress on our marriage.  I don't know how that will all play out, but I hope we can figure out how to make it work.  I love him.  Marriage is hard though, especially with an extra challenging child.  I'm going to sneak out and put in the car so he'll find it going to work tomorrow.

Laila picked Pikachu as her Halloween costume for the year.  It was so hard to find one in her size, but I finally got this one.  It's kinda cute and is actually pajamas so she can wear it after Halloween too.  She seems to be in some crazy growth spurt with how she's eating, so we shall see how long it actually fits.  Of course this happens AFTER we buy her pants for winter and new shoes!

Falliday Fest Continues

Sharing two more cards from the Failliday Fest challenges on Splitcoast. Anyone else playing along?   I am having so much fun with them.  They are helping to pull me out of my slump.  With all that's been going in my personal life lately, I haven't even wanted to step into my room and create.  I'm so thankful for this motivation.  :)   This challenge was to make a birthday card with "wrinkles".   Laila has been in here playing with my crimper, so I used that.  I found this image printed out in my pile and colored it with my Copics.

And here's my Stampin' Up! card for you guys.  :)   I love Lovely as a Tree.  It's such a beautiful set and can be used for so many occasions.  The challenge for this was called Snowy Leaves.  I used the crayon resist technique and my distress inks to make my snowy tree.   I added a simple sentiment and left is.   There's a little Wink of Stella on the snow, but it's hard to get that in the picture.

A no-reply Blogger asked me where to find the template for the angel card.  It is on the Falliday Fest challenge, so you have to go to Splitcoast to get that.  The main thread for that particular challenge is here and the first entry has template at the bottom.  I get a lot of questions from people whose comments come in as no-reply and it makes it difficult to answer those.  If you want to check if that's you and possibly change it, here's a link on how to do that.  :) I always feel bad because I can't email back a quick answer and I usually forget to include it in my next post.  Baby brain apparently never goes away!  lol

I hope everyone has a great week!  I'm hoping for cooler temperatures to come back.  We got a little taste of it and then it got all hot and yucky again.  The weed pollen can go away with those high temperatures.  I've had a headache since Tuesday and nothing is helping.  I hate allergies!

Falliday Leaves and Halloween

Back with more cards for the Falliday challenges!  I'm like seven behind, so I don't know if I'll catch up before it ends or not.  I'm working on them, but it takes me a long time to make one.  This challenge was to use fall colors for your card.  I love this sheet of patterned paper from Stampin' Up! so I based my card around that.   The stamps/dies are from Concord & 9th.

The next challenge I worked on was for a joy fold card.  I am not that great at anything outside of a traditional fold, but this one is pretty easy to make.  Thank goodness for great tutorials.  lol  I went with a Halloween theme as I seem to have a lot of paper and stamps for that now.  Here's the inside:

That's all for now.  I have to clean my desk and my room up to be able to make anything else.  It is a wreck.  Laila has been in here with me this week and she's "helped" a lot in hiding the carpet.  lol   I'll be back when I can see my desk and floor again.  Have a great weekend!

Falliday for Christmas

Still working my way through the fun Falliday challenges over on Splitcoast.  I miss Hope You Can Cling To, but I'm glad they were able to make a new event with challenges.  This card is for Ann's challenge.  She gave us an angel template to work with and this was what I ended up with. Weird confession, but I don't like angels.  You hear that word too much when your child dies and I have an aversion to it now.  I decided to be inspired by the angels I do like, the Willow Tree ones.   I chose my colors based on those and I think it turned out nice.  I might use this card and find a new Willow Tree angel as a just because gift for my mom.  :)

Here's a simple wreath card for Holly's challenge.  She asked us to use holly leaves and berries.  I don't have anything that looks exactly like that, but I tried using this cute wreath set.  It's been neglected from back in my demo days, so it was nice to ink it up.

Just a question:  I know a lot of people began following me because of Stampin' Up! and I know I don't use those products as much lately.  I've fallen in love with Copics and distress inks and I don't find those as easy to use with SU.   Would you like me to go back to using some SU maybe once a week or so?  It would likely be retired products, so keep that in mind.

This morning we attended a program for 3-5 year olds that's a part of our local school system.  I talked to the director yesterday and she thinks it will be good for Laila to come as much as we can.  The assessment team for the district are sometimes on the same campus, so it might help if we can one day have them come observe her in a classroom setting.  She's awesome at one-on-one interactions with adults, so they don't see her social/behavorial issues that happen in the classroom setting.  She did okay today, but it took her a long time to warm up and come into the room. I'm glad Jason was there as backup.  They have events/classes every day, but it can be difficult to get a space in them.  There are way more kids who want to come than teachers to host.  Today they made a fire truck with food, made a fireman puppet, and did some singing/group time.

Freshly Made Mummy

Wednesday can only mean one thing...a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. I'm the hostess this week and I went for layers adn banners.   I am feeling like Halloween more this week so I used my cute Mummy from My Favorite Things.  I bought it last year but never got to use it.  I tried to make it more general and not just for Halloween and the set has some cute sentiments to help with that.

Isn't that fun?   Now Fall in Texas has the strangest tradition that puzzles most of us transplants.  Homecoming mums.  When you hear mums you think pretty flowers, right?  NO!  Not in Texas.  Here is Laila showing off one of the smaller ones that you can buy pre-made at Michaels.  There are aisles at all the craft stores with the thingamigs you need to make one.  I don't get it.  lol  

Falliday Leaves

Hey!  I missed you guys yesterday.  I had a card to post, but things got busy and I didn't have time to sit down and do it.  I'll share more on that later.  :)   First here is my card.  Dina's challenge was to use die cuts for masking.  I cut some leaves out of masking paper and masked off some watercolor paper.  I followed up with some Brusho crystals.  I finished it off with a bit of distress ink and a die cut sentiment.   Fun, huh?  the Stampin' Up! Dictionary stamp added some fun detail as well.  Be sure to go check out the Falliday challenges!

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! Dictionary (retired)
Ink:  Brusho Crystals, Vintage Photo distress ink
Paper:  Stampin' Up! More Mustard, Canson Watercolor paper
Other:  Lawn Fawn Stitched Leaves dies, Concord & 9th grateful die, bakers twine, masking paper

Now about yesterday...

As I sat down to eat dinner I looked outside and saw a little dog.  He was cute, a little black scruffy one.  I looked closer and I could tell that he was a stray.  His fur was matted and he was so dirty.  I set up our extra dog crate, got some food, and headed out to see if I could catch him.  I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I at least wanted to feed him.   I caught him and he was the sweetest thing.  Laila and I took him to a vet and they didn't find a microchip.  He had a collar but no tags. I could tell he had been out on his own for a while.  I contacted a local rescue and they were able to take him.  I was sad to leave him, but my life is too crazy for anything else.  Here he is:

Laila and I drove him over to the rescue's vet this morning.  Last I heard he was being groomed.  I can't wait to see some after pictures and see him in a loving home.

I appreciate everyone's words about Laila and sharing our struggles. I'll try to share as I can to let you know how we are.  I know Kelly mentioned that I don't share as many photos of Laila like I used to.  Part of the reason for that is because she doesn't make eye contact with the camera much anymore.  It's a struggle to have her be still long enough to snap one too.  If I do ask her to take one, I get this.  lol

Falliday Fest: Thankful Leaf

I'm feeling very thankful today.  My camera and purse arrived safe and sound on Wednesday so I was able to get better pictures for my newest cards.  On top of that, today starts a fun set of October challenges on Splitcoast Stampers called Falliday Fest.  I love crafting with fall supplies, so I'm excited to see all the challenges!  There's also tutorials for new projects as well.  Today's card is for Lydia's challenge to use some fall colors that you'd find in New York, her home state, and include some text.  I don't think if you can see it, but there's some text on the bottom left and the top right side.  Very subtle, but there!

Stamps:  Concord & 9th Lace Leaf
Ink: Distress Inks:  Shabby Shutters Spiced Marmalade, Scattered Straw, Barn Door, Gathered Twigs, Vintage Photo
Paper:  Stampin' Up! Early Espresso, Neenah Solar White
Other:  My Favorite Things Blueprints 20

I seem to have lost a lot of blog subscribers lately.  I'm going to guess it's from sharing too much about Laila and our current struggles.  I've decided to stop sharing and stick with just cards for now.  I apologize for annoying people.

Freshly Made Snowman

Whew!  Remembered to stop in and do my Freshly Made Sketches post!  On time!  Woo hoo!  Jen M. should give me a gold star or something!  Ha!  Her sketch is awesome, so I can't wait to see all the awesome entries for the challenge.  I hope one of them is yours!  Be sure to drop by the challenge blog and check out the awesome new design that Jen T worked up! I do apologize for the crappy picture.  I don't usually take them with my phone.  My camera is in transit back to me so fingers crossed it arrives tomorrow and is not damaged in transit.

I'm off to relax.  Or fight the dog off which is what my time seems to be when I'm not dealing with Laila.  Today was a horrible day and Laila and I were at odds for most of it.  I don't know how we are going to go back to having to be around one another for 3-4 days a week with no help from Jason.  She is a lot for one person to handle alone for that many days in a row.  My mental health stays on the verge of collapse anyway, so I just hope I can survive it until we figure something out.  Today I barely made it.  We did rally at the end and go for a little drive to hunt Pokemon.  That helped us at least end on a good note.  

Freshly Made Fall

Oops!  I just realized that I totally forgot to do my Freshly Made Sketches post!  Jen T created a fun sketch and I was able to sit down and make something.  I don't love the result, but I tried!   I love the idea of using a large banner, so I'll definitely try this one again!  The rest of the team did some amazing things, so be sure to go over and check those out.  You still have a little time to play along too.

Isn't that fun?!  I used my much-neglected banner punch board to make my banner.  That made it easy to get the size I wanted.  :)   The leaves and grateful are Concord & 9th dies. 

On Friday we took Laila to a little event to ride Thomas.  It was a four hour drive for a 25 minute train trip, so I don't think we'll be doing that again.  Such a long day!  She seemed very overwhelmed by it all too.   Thursday she was sick with a fever, so I'm hoping it was just that.  She did say she had fun, so I hope that was the case.  This past week was another bad one at school so she won't be going back anymore.  They asked that she not come on Thursday and after hearing the report of the behavior anaylst that observed her and the class, it just doesn't seem like a good fit.  She's already the "bad" kid and they aren't even trying to turn things around.  I figure we have years of this to look forward to because it seems to be the norm for her.  She just can't behave in a classroom. It's very hard to parent a kid like her and we are struggling.  Having no family nearby and no breaks from her make it even more difficult.  Send good thoughts our way as we'll need them.  I'm probably going to have to rehome our dog now because they don't get along and I can't walk the dog when she's home.  Just so much to deal with.  :o(  

On top of everything else, I left my DSLR at the restaurant near the Thomas event.  The manager found my purse and is supposed to be mailing it back to me, but we'll see.  That is crushing as I love my camera.  I don't know how I'll get pictures for my blog now, so it might be a while before you see me post again.