Penny Black Kitty

We made it through Wednesday!!  Well, almost. lol Tonight I wanted to share the card I made for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge. It's monochromatic and I love doing those with grays. I grabbed my stamp and my warm gray Copic markers and went to work. After I finished my image panel, I made a background on watercolor paper using distress inks. I added some clouds at the bottom with a stencil and some white splatters at the top to be stars. I finished it off with some twine and a few star sequins. Oh, and the moon is shiny!  Wink of Stella just had to happen. :) 

Laila's hair is a huge part of the upset in our house some days, so I bribed her with some color to go and get it cut. lol The stylist layered it and thinned the back out some to try and help with the tangles. She likes it, so we'll see how this goes! Having to brush tangles for 30 minutes with a hyper, uncooperative kid is exhausting. 

Thankful Mistake

Hello! Tuesday... my least favorite day of the week. It seems like everyone is in a bad mood here on Tuesdays. Weird. Anyway, here's another card I tried with that same stencil from yesterday. It started as a bright happy card but it looked awful and I quickly turned it into a fall card. I made it for the challenge at Beyond the Blue. They are having folks use a stencil this week. 

I used my yellow distress inks and then went over it with some of browns through the stencil. It's an easy way to make fall cards I guess. lol I promise to put away that stencil for a bit. It seems like I just mess up my cards I attempt with it and end up with fall colors. 

Have a great Wednesday. 

Falling Mistake

 Monday....did you make it through okay? We had a decent day here. Laila's anxiety got her just a bit when we sat down to do the standardized test, but once she calmed down she sailed through the first 3 parts. Tomorrow is math though and even the simplest problem can get her anxiety going in full freak-out mode.  So send good thoughts our way tomorrow!

This card is one that I totally messed up and tried to save. I was trying to do gesso resist and well, my gesso didn't resist the ink. Oops. So I made it into a fall card. Kinda. lol I think it looks okay now, but it was NOT what I intended. lol 

I'm off to see Jason before he goes to bed. Hope Tuesday is kind to you.

Rita 

Repeat the Dahlia

 Happy Sunday!!  Whew. I feel so behind with life, but I did manage to get a card made for today. This card is actually yesterday's card and it's for the challenge at A Blog Named Hero. They wanted repetition, so decided to try out a new stamp set that I hadn't inked up yet. It's pretty fun to color. I stamped it four times on the background and then shaded it just a little with some gray Copics. I stamped again on a scrap and colored it and die cut it. Super fun! My sentiment could use a bit of work. I just learned this weekend that there's different embossing powders for different things. I ordered some super fine white to see if it helps my sentiments stay more crisp, so I can't wait for that. My current jar is just regular. 

We had a little outing today. Just Costco and then a plant nursery. I got a little lemon tree and we planted it in a pot. I can't wait to watch it grow. ...and hopefully make lemonade! 

I hope you have a great week. Laila and I are going to be doing a standardized test so that I can make sure she's on track with her schooling. I hope she does okay with it. I want her to have some experience with those type of tests as well. Fingers (and toes) crossed. 

Hungry for Cupcakes

Hi friends! I hope your weekend is going well. It's been such a long day here, but I did get my card made. We are 17 days into our card every day challenge and we all three have stayed on track! It's crazy. This card I made for the new challenge at TIME OUT Challenges. Their prompt is hungry and well, who doesn't love a cupcake? We have a house divided on icing here, as Jason hates buttercream icing and I love it. So we don't get a lot of cupcakes. He's more of a cheesecake person anyway, so that's what he gets on his birthday. 

Look at my gorgeous visitor from yesterday. She stayed around and visited my flowers for a bit and I loved watching her. I think I got a bunch of mosquito bites while standing there, but she was so worth it. These butterflies are pretty rare to see in my area, so it was such a treat. 

Shark!!!!

 Hi friends! We made it to Thursday. Sorry I didn't blog my card yesterday. I felt a bit under the weather and barely got it made. Since it is Shark Week, I wanted to use my shark stamps. I thought they paired well with the Summer Fun challenge at The Paper Funday since one of our favorite parts of summer is watching all the shark shows. :) I don't like hot weather, so inside watching shows is the best place for me to be. lol 

Now if I do venture outside, it's to watch the butterflies in my butterfly garden. Here's a beautiful Giant Swallowtail that visited us yesterday. So pretty!

Have a great Friday tomorrow!

Rita 

Darth Troll

Hello! Happy Tuesday. I hope your week is going great so far. We are having a pretty good week here. We are learning about the start and spread of Islam, plus doing some plant experiments. I love learning along with Laila. Anyway, for my card today I wanted to play along with the TIME OUT Challenge. I knew I had this Trolls/Star Wars set I hadn't inked yet, so I grabbed it since their theme is Movies. Now strangely enough, I hadn't seen Star Wars until a few years ago when we got them to watch over the winter holidays. Laila fell in love with Darth Vader and everything she asked for, wore, or loved was him. We had light saber fights ALL day. It was crazy. She's calmed down with it all now, but she did recently go back and watch the first one a couple of days in a row. 

Here she is at Halloween that year. :) Obsessed! She wanted to wear this all the time. lol 

I'm off to read a book I picked up from the library today. I've seen some people say they couldn't put it down, so I may be in for a long night. Yikes. 

Lifesaver

 Hi friends! I missed you yesterday. lol I was so exhausted by the time I got my card made that I didn't get a chance to blog it. I did stamp though. I'm doing this with a couple of friends and we have all made it 12 days in a row so far! Amazing. Today I played along with The Crafter's Cafe Chalelnge blog. It is anything goes. I hope they like my card. :) 

Now I am off to rest as it has been a super long day!!  Super long. We thought that Jack got out the door and we spent a lot of time looking and crying. He must have been napping hard under the guest bed or something because he ended up coming out looking sleepy. I was so scared I had lost him. That put us behind with school, but we made up time and got it all finished. 

Sketch Saturday 668

 Happy Saturday, friends. :) I found a fun sketch at Sketch Saturday to work on for today's card. I tried to use up a few things from my stash as well. I had the white background with the circle strip there that I thought would be fun, as well as the solid black circle. I found some black and white designer paper and the rest of it just came together. I need to save this sketch because I have some much paper that I can cut into circles to make more. SO MUCH PAPER. Yikes. lol

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. 

Rita

Cheery Miss You

Today I went back and did one of the lessons from last summer's Online Card Classes Spring Card Camp. This was a two-fer lesson, so you got two cards from one die cut. I thought the samples were so pretty back then, but I didn't have the right die to make them. I ended up getting the actual one used in the lesson recently, so I decided to recreate the samples with some different colors and a different stencil. I love how they turned out. So cheery! I used distress inks for the background in Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, and Worn Lipstick. Fun combo for sure! :)  I want to enter them in the Crafts Galore Encore Challenge. It's anything goes and the design team has great examples of how diverse that can be! 

Now... I have a book to finish and a bed calling my name. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. 

Rita 

Flowery Friend

 Hello!!!  10pm, but here I am with a card. My eyes say it's time for electronics to be off, so I finished just in time! This is a bit of an old school card for me. Colored card base, flowery designer paper, ribbon... but, why not? The paper and stamps were from an old Simon Says Stamp card kit and I used some Early Espresso seam binding from my Stampin' Up! days. I had an awful time with my sentiment. It kept smearing on me, so I finally heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. I don't know if something is wrong with my EE ink pad or if I'm just not used to SU ink pads now. But, I got it. :) 

I hope you are having a wonderful week! It's almost Friday! (like literally in two hours here) lol 

Rita 

Turtlely Late Birthday

 

Hi friends. Jumping in late with a card I made for this week's MFT Wednesday Sketch challenge. I had a long day, so I was very tempted to just skip. I decided not to give myself permission to do that, so here's my card. I love this cute little turtle so much. He's perfect for a belated birthday card. :)

Today I found out that I have ADHD. I started researching it after Laila was diagnosed and as I read, I saw myself as much as her. I finally decided to seek out help and got the official diagnosis today. Now I need to read up on how other people find ways to manage life with it. I am struggling so much and I know the struggle adds so much to my depression and anxiety. So, fingers crossed!

My Jack boy thinks I need to learn to craft with one arm so that I can hold him with the other. lol :)

Gelli Leaves Challenges

 July 6! My card a day continues. I don't know if you follow Paper Playful, but they are a great source of finding fun challenges to play along with. I love to scan the lists and look for ideas to get started. Today I actually took a class from Michael's and Gelli Arts about using gel plates with nature. I grabbed a few leaves from my garden and some acrylic paint and here's one of my results. I loved the background so much that I wanted to leave my card very simple. 

My challenges for today are two that are new to me that I found on Paper Playful! Both are anything goes this time.  Get Creative Challenge has a fun option for their challenge, to show water. I didn't this time, but I love the option to help narrow down a project. My second challenge is Gem of a Craft Challenge. I love the images and coloring of the design team. I don't have the capability to print the cute digi images right now, but I am going to order some printer ink so I can get some Polkadoodles images. My cheap off-brand ink just doesn't work for stamping. 

Off to read for a bit now that I did my daily card. I also need to come back and clean my desk. lol It's a WRECK. 

Rita 

Mixed Media Leaves

 Well, today I decided to try some mixed media. Yikes. It is wayyyyyyy out of my comfort zone. lol  I saw the blog challenge Creative Artiste Mixed Media and got inspired to try it. I used distress oxides, distress paint, fibers, dye ink, some die cuts and various stamps. I don't know what to think about it, but hey, I stamped and made a card today. :)

Do you like mixed media? It can be fun and messy to change things up and try it every now and then! It's been a long day, so I'm off to find my pajamas, quilt, and a book. See you tomorrow. 

Rita

Sweet Birthday Bees

 Happy 4th of July!!  I hope you didn't eat 76 hotdogs like that Joey guy. Yikes.  (I can't even watch that competition because the wet, soggy buns make me gag). Anyway.... lol I wanted to play along with a couple of challenges and this adorable image seemed to fit well. The As You Like It challenge asked for our favorite stitching and why. I'm going to out myself and say that I find needles and thread confusing and dangerous. My mom is a quilter, but I can't even figure out how to turn on a sewing machine. lol So... my favorite stitching for crafting is stitched dies, especially the wonky stitches. Safe for me to use and no on button to find. :) Cute Card Thursday was the other challenge I did because hello? How cute are these "bees"? 

Now I think a nap may be in order because we shall have fireworks going until midnight or later. *yawn* I need to rest up for hamburgers and apple pie that we have for dinner. 

MFT Super Girl Sketch

 Day 3! Today I played along with the MFT Wednesday Sketch challenge. I had colored this image last week but hadn't done anything with it yet. I love coloring her SO much. One of my favorites for sure. :) I needed a birthday card for a friend whose birthday is today, so I grabbed the belated sentiment. I am so bad at getting things out on time. I do have a list on my desk now, so let's hope that helps. 

I hope all my American friends have a wonderful weekend, especially those who have an extra day off on Monday. 

Bookish Boys

 Hello! Back for day 2! Today I played along with the Hero Arts Stay Crafty with Hero challenge. It's a masculine challenge, so I inked up the book background and colored it with dark, masculine colors. I love how it turned out!!  So fun to color too. 

Only 2 days in and I'll need to clean my room tomorrow before I stamp. :)  I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend.

Rita

Edgar Nevermore

Hi!!  Remember me? lol I took a bit of a break. I've been stamping a little here and there, but not very much if I'm being honest. My shoulder hurt for so long that I got out of the habit. Jason did get me a Vagabond for Mother's Day, so now I have an electric die cutter to help. I think it's starting to feel some better, but after doing some die cutting at the library yesterday, I could definitely feel it last night.  I did have an MRI and cortisone shots, so I'm way better than I was 7 months ago. Anyway, enough about my dumb shoulder. lol

I got some of the Stamping Bella Oddballs and I love their weirdness. I used the Edgar stamp to play along with the Crafty Gals Corner. Their current challenge is One for the Boys. I made this card for my fellow book nerd cousin. He turns 31 tomorrow. I hope he likes it and doesn't mind that it will be late. Oops. 

So this happened on Sunday. My baby girl is 9!!  She is Garfield obsessed, so we got her this cute cake. :) She loved it!!