Thankful for You

Hi everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a nice dinner with just the three of us. I am trying to keep my stress level down this year for the holidays, so it was a simplified dinner and we took a few shortcuts like purchasing a smoked turkey. So much easier. Now we just need to do that for Christmas. :)  I made this card using the cute Happy Trails stamp set from Kindred Stamps. I love the browns and greens. I want to enter in two challenges, DL.ART Thankful Thursday and Crafter's Castle Monthly Challenge.

I am off to play a board game with my family. Laila doesn't have school tomorrow and then starts her new school on Tuesday. I'm nervous about it, especially since they haven't sent us any info. :/  She got her hair cut last week and it is so cute. Today she had to try on glasses because I think she feels left out that she's the only member of the family without them. She looks adorable of course. :)

Have a great week and thank you for taking time to look at my card. :) 

Rita

Rainbow Butterflies

Hi! Sorry it's been so long. Do rainbow butterflies make up for a long absence? lol I saw the challenge at As You Like It and it has two of my favorites as choices, rainbow or monochromatic. I chose rainbow because I need the hope right now, plus I love all things rainbow. Who doesn't love bright, fun colors? I used a butterfly set from Avery Elle and colored them twice so that I could layer them. Super fun.

This is Laila getting ready for school...or not. lol  She's been having a tough week. She is moving to a different school after Thanksgiving and I think she's having a hard time with the idea. She loves her teacher so much. She just can't keep it together in a normal classroom, so we are trying a small, behavior classroom before we give up on public school. We are at a loss on how to help her and it's been a very emotional time for us all.

Now I'm off to take down all the Halloween decorations and put up some leaves. lol Just a little behind.

MFT Witchy Spell

Monday. Ugh. I did get to glue down this card that I started yesterday, but that's about it. I had to pick Laila up a bit after 9 so that's pretty much been my day. She wasn't even there long enough to be considered present for the day. I think I give up. :/ I hope to get my Halloween cards addressed and mailed out tomorrow if I can work on them after she goes to bed tonight. I promised myself I'd actually mail them this year.  lol This uses the MFT Card Challenges sketch and their Witch Way is the Candy set.

Off to find something else for us to do. It's been a longggggg day. Fingers crossed for a better week to come. 

CAS Flowers

Hello and happy weekend. I hope you have some fun plans. I seem to have a cold, so my plans include napping, listening to some podcasts, and that's about it. lol I did a little coloring of this beautiful image this week, inspired by the amazing Shari Carroll. Sometimes CAS just works. I wanted to enter it in the Colour Crazy Craft Challenge as well as Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge.

Stamps: Simon Says Stamp Sketched Flowers
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Dies: Avery Elle Wonky Stitched Dies
Copics: BG11, BG13, BG15, BG18, YR02, YR04, YR07, Y11, Y13, Y15, W0
Other: White Gel Pen

Maybe I'll get lucky and this hot mess will come cuddle with me. Probably not. She only likes me in times like this, when I'm trying to CLEAN. lol So NOT helpful. 

Lawn Fawnatics Camping

I haven't played around with the cute set from Lawn Fawn very much, so I grabbed it this week. I used some fun hillside and mountain dies to make a little scene. The current Lawn Fawnatics challenge is all about bling, so all my stars have Wink of Stella and my tire centers are rhinestones. I can't ever seem to do photos where shiny things show up, but it's there!

Sorry I crapped out on you guys. It's been a rough parenting week and my depression and anxiety are through the roof.  I'm thinking it's just going to be like this for the next 12 years and I should get used to it. :/ Blah.

Do you Wanna Build a Snowman?

We've almost made it through half the week. lol It was a long day today, so I'm pooped. I forgot and only had one coffee. Then I broke my pour over coffee dripper and now I have no way to make coffee until Amazon brings me a new one. Hopefully no one is injured by my grumpy self tomorrow. Ha!!  I drive by Dunkin on my way home from dropping Laila off at school, so I figure I'll be visiting there tomorrow and Thursday. MUST HAVE THE COFFEE. 

I saw that we are supposed to have some cooler weather next week, so I made a snowman card. (Also, for you, Andrea. Thank you for sharing your snow picture with me.) Now it won't be cold enough for snow or anything, but 60s is great for here. It's been too hot lately.

Now I'm off to have a hot chocolate with a lot of marshmallows and read my book. :)

Pumpkin Spice?

I've been tired lately, so coffee has been on my mind a lot. lol I thought it might be fun to use this cute set today. I feel like it's one of the most difficult sets I have to color. The hair is just HARD to do. I need to spend like a week practicing or something because I can't get it. It doesn't look too bad on this one, so I was happy with it overall. I liked the colors of the clothing enough to overlook it anyway. ;)   I wanted to enter Pammie's Inky Pinkies and Crafting from the Heart challenges.

(Have you noticed I've pulled out the Spice Cake DSP? I still have some hoarded saved and thought it needed some love.)

One of my pretty visitors for today. :) It was a great day for butterflies in our area!

Halloween Hello

Happy Sunday. I didn't think I was going to get a card made and posted today, but I am REALLY trying to do it daily this month and didn't want to fail so far in. So, I grabbed my Halloween box of goodies and started working. I made a simple card using the sketch at MFT Card Challenges. I'd also like to enter Colour Crazy Challenge as well.

Have a most wonderful week! If not, have lots of coffee and wine. lol 

Zen Shark plus a Technique

I know it's Fall, but it's still SO HOT in Texas. We went to a "Fall Festival" today and it was like 91 degrees or something. We didn't get to stay long. I love the plant nursery where it was held. They are super nice and I love seeing the butterflies there. So yeah, no fall or Halloween card today; it's just too hot to even think about it. lol  Instead I'm sharing this card I made using a technique I saw on Splitcoast. It's called Coffee Filter Prints. I did make a background, but I ended up die cutting it to make my waves. I thought it would be cool that way.  I want to enter this one in the Crafty Friends Challenge and the QKR Stampede.

Laila and I visited it a while back and they were so sweet. They always give her food to feed the fish and they took us around to show us some cool caterpillars. I enjoy going there just for the nice staff as much as the plants and butterflies. :)

I hope you have a great Saturday. Jason works tomorrow and Laila is off from school until Wednesday, so I hope I can get some stamping in. It might be a bit more difficult, but I'll try.

Minecraft What?

Whew. Friday! Yay! Did you end the work week on a good note? I stayed up wayyyy too late finishing a book last night so I've been tired all day. I did make a batch of cookies to take to school for World Teachers's Day and made this card. That's about it. Oh, and weeding some in the garden. It actually DIDN'T rain today. We have a birthday party tomorrow (first non-family party for Laila) and the birthday boy likes Minecraft. I know zero about it, but I looked up some images and tried to copy one. My paper trimmer didn't cooperate as well as I liked with cutting 1/2 inch squares, but I think it will be okay. He's 7, so maybe he won't have super high expectations yet. lol

I'm going to enter my card in Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge and A Bit More Time to Craft Challenge.

Have a great weekend!

Inky Halloween Paws

I almost forgot to do my blog post today. I would have broken my streak on day four. lol I played around this morning with the new (to me) Distress Resist spray and my distress inks. I used the colors from the current Newton's Nook Inky Paws challenge as my inspiration. I love this Halloween silhouette set of theirs and definitely don't use it nearly enough. I tried to make some dimension in my card and I hope it worked.

Now I'm off to bed. It's been a long day and I have to get up early tomorrow and try to get Laila to garden club on time. 

Welcome Fall

Three days in a row!  Woot! I'm trying to work on crafting more, so I hope I can keep it going. :) This time of year starts the rough mental part for me, so crafty therapy is needed in spades. I grabbed my distressing tools and played around with this image I found in my need to do something with stash. Not my favorite card, but it was fun to make. That's the important thing. I wanted to enter it in three challenges: Double D Challenges, Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge, and Crafting by Designs.

I'll leave a couple butterfly pictures from my date last week at the butterfly center. It's humid in there, but it's my favorite place EVER. Butterflies everywhere!!

Happy Bear Mail

Well, we've almost survived Tuesday. Whew. It felt like a long day today for some reason. I hurt my foot and can't do much, so that's probably why. I did get my hair cut and colored. It's very festive. lol She put a lot of purple in it this time. :)  I'm trying to work on adding more just because or blank cards to my stash, so this is one for that. I saw a cute design in the new SU holiday catalog, so my card was inspired by that. I wanted to enter another new challenge, Pammie's Inky Pinkies and also 2 Crafty Critter Crazies.  (and if you haven't checked out Paper Playful or Challenges for Days, you should! Lots of challenges listed.) I love finding new ones to enter.

I was so excited today. My absolute favorite butterfly, the Common Buckeye, finally came by to visit. It was here about this same time last year as well, so it looks like that's the time to pass through. I LOVE them and I was almost late to my appointment because I was out chasing it trying to get a picture. lol I hope more come to visit this week if we can keep the rain away.

Witch Way is the Candy?

Happy October!!  I guess it's time for Halloween stamps and decorations, huh? I was excited to grab this set from MFT as it's one of my favorite images to color. It's just so fun!!  I used it along with the current sketch at MFT Card Challenges. I'd also like to enter A Gem of  Challenge's last challenge (sad) and Dragonfly Journeys, both with a Halloween theme.

My goal for October is to get more creative time in and to get more cards in the mail. I'll also try to actually blog the cards I make, but for some reason that seems to be a HUGE challenge lately. I have mailed out several that I totally forgot to even photograph. Bummer, right?? 

I haven't posted a lot about our butterfly garden, but it's still going. It's been raining so much that I don't get to go out that often. I'm going to have a lot of weeding to do once we do dry up a little. Yikes. 

Have a great week. I'm off to grab a second coffee and check out some challenges for today. (and do laundry of course). 

Precious Teacher

Hi all! Did you survive the week? Can you believe we are in the fall season now? Or pre-Christmas as it is already seeming like. lol We've had a long week here, so I am thankful that it's over. I did manage to make this card at least. I'm trying to start a box of teacher cards so that I always have some on hand. Laila's teacher is amazing, so I feel like I could send her one daily. :) I used the sketch at SugarPea Designs Mix It Up challenge and also wanted to join some new challenges I found, Creative Knockouts and Colour Crazy Craft Challenge.

I hope you have a fabulous weekend! 

Rita

Encouraging Hugs

Two days in a row?! lol I admit, I cheated and scheduled this one yesterday so that I actually got it posted. :) I loved the inspiration picture at Calling All Sistahs, so I used the new set that came in the September card kit to play along. Isn't that spray of flowers gorgeous??? I love it. The sentiments are all gorgeous as well. If you haven't played along with this challenge, it's a great one for making encouraging cards you can send to a friend who might need a pick me up. I also wanted to link up with the Dragonfly Dreams challenge.

I hope each of you has a wonderful week full of kindness and love. As we get closer to the rush of the holiday season, remember to take care of yourselves. I find the last three months of the year particularly challenging, so I'm already thinking of ways to simplify and keep my stress level down. 

Hugs.

Thankful Tree

Sunday. Everyone ready for some football today?? :) We are making chips and queso and Arnold Palmers (the non-alcoholic kind). I've been doing a little stamping and wanted to play along with the Cupcake Inspirations challenge. I love this challenge and try to play when I can. This time it was football related. :) I used espresso paper, but it seems to look black in my pictures. I also used the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. I was hoping to actually play along with the team, but I didn't get it finished in time.


I had a busy week. Laila's teacher needed help two days, I had my library volunteer shift another day, and then the school garden club had one of the leaders out so I filled in there as well. I think Thursday was the only day I wasn't at the school doing something. This week I'll be there Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It's nice to help out. Laila is still struggling, so that's been hard. It's very mentally exhausting and I've been crying a lot. Send good thoughts that things get better. I do think that she's better overall, but we still have a ways to go. A boy from her class brought her some snails this week, so they are now friends. lol

Fall Rabbit

Happy Sunday! I hope this finds everyone safe. The weather has been awful all over the place lately hasn't it? Goodness!!  I did take some time to stamp during our rainstorm yesterday. It wasn't even supposed to rain, but...  lol I used this cute, and free, digital stamp along with the sketch at Cheerful Sketches, the inspiration at TIME OUT Challenges, and the theme at Creative with Stamps.

   

I got in a distressing mood today and I kinda wish I had left it all clean. Can't undo that, right? lol Oh well. I can always remake it and leave the distressing stuff off. Do you ever do that? Think that might look good? ...and no! Why did I do that???

I won't have much time to craft this week. I have to volunteer at the school for the first three school days and then Jason will be home on Thursday. He is working an extra day on Friday, so I guess that will be my day to play. Or to catch up on chores. Dang laundry...it never ends!!

This past Friday I took the two neighborhood cats and got them spayed/neutered and their vaccinations. I still have the female with me to let her heal more and man! She's a sweetie pie. I'm still raising a few butterflies here and there as well. We didn't have a lot of Monarchs in the spring, but they are around more now.

And just in case anyone is wondering what Laila's into right now. lol

Guacamole Day?

Happy Wednesday. We've made it through half the week. Kinda. lol I hope yours is going better than mine. I did take time to play with this cute new set from Kindred Stamps. They have a Wacky Holiday of the Month club you can join and this is September's set. September 16th is Guacamole Day, so that's this month's wacky holiday. Funny, right? lol I can't wait to mail out some cards for it. I used the current sketch, flipped, from Sketch Saturday and played along with Simon Says Stamp Stamp It challenge for STAMPtember.

I'm off to shower and get ready for my first library volunteer shift. I am now regretting signing up since Laila's back to having issues at school, but I'll deal with my embarrassment and go I guess. She decided to hide her medicine last week instead of taking it, so I think that might be the issue. We talked about it and she took it today, so fingers crossed. It's one that can take weeks to work, so I'm sure we are starting over. This child!