Blueprint Poison

What?  Halloween???  I know!  I treated myself to a stamp set I found on sale last week and it is Halloween/Fall Tim Holtz blueprints.  I wanted to try some liquid masking using a technique I learned in the Mask-erade Online Card Classes class. I put a ton of time and effort into this card.  So many techniques and drying time!  It is still drying now because there's Crystal Effects on the bottle.  lol  It might be ready to mail by Halloween. ...maybe!

Stamps:  Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Halloween Blueprint 2, Stampin' Up! And Many More
Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black, Distress inks: Dusty Concord, Spiced Marmalade, Hickory Smoke, Black Soot, Tea Dye, Brushed Corduroy
Paper:  Canson 140lb watercolor paper, My Favorite Things Black Licorace, Recollections Midnight Magic Halloween
Dies:  Lil' Inker Stitched Rectangles

That's all from me.  We are getting ready to go on a little family drive.  Jason has to pick up something about an hour away and there's a Whole Foods near where he's going.  I love going there to look around, so Laila and I might be finding some new fruits/veggies to try later!  :)

Have a great weekend!
Rita

Stampin' Up! Indescribable Gift

Here's another card I made over the weekend.  I was in a stamping mood and cranked out quite a few!  I made this one for a friend and it's already in the mail.  :)   It was inspired by the catalog sample for this set.   It's such a pretty flower stamp and I recommend it if you haven't purchased it yet.  I love coloring it!

Stamps:  And Many More, Indescribable Gift, Endless Birthday Wishes
Paper:  Wisteria Wonder, Neenah Solar White 80lb, Typeset DSP
Ink:  Wisteria Wonder, Memento Black, Copics
Accessories:  scrap of lace

Stampin' Up! Apothecary Art

Today I thought I'd share one of the cards we made at my event last Sunday.  I wanted everyone to have cards for their parents for Mother's and Father's Day, so we made those along with a teacher appreciation card.  This is the card for the moms.   I also had a birthday option because several of my ladies have lost their moms already.  :(

We used the retiring Apothecary Art set and colored it with stamp pads and blender pens.  They really enjoyed that.  I'll be sending my sample off to my mom who is for sure the best mother ever.  :)

Laila got to plant her own little pot of flowers yesterday.  We had some flower seeds and got her some dirt and a pot.  I hope they will grow!   She likes to dig in it and keeps wanting to water them, so we'll see.  lol

Stampin' Up! Butterfly Basics

Hey strangers!    I swear I thought I'd be posting a ton while Mom was here.  I was thinking I'd be stamping away...but no!   Not at all.   We've been busy bees and then Mom got sick and had to go to the doctor.  Double ear infection, sinus infection, and crazy allergies.  I guess the Texas pollen was not very nice to her.  :(   She's feeling some better today, so I hope she's on the mend.  Anyway... one of my stamping friends has been working and volunteering to get her Master Gardener certification and just got a recognition last week.  I wanted to send a card to her because I know working a "real" job and doing that in her spare time is a lot of work.  I made a nature/vintage/shabby chic card and I hope she likes it.  It's not "me", but I think it's her which is what matters, right?!

Today's project was a butterfly garden!   I was so excited about making this and I can't wait to watch it grow.  Laila took Jason's gloves and went to help work on it for a while, but most of her fun was squirting us and herself with her new squirt guns.  lol 

Stampin' Up! Nuts About You

I thought I'd share one of the projects we made at my little gathering on Sunday.   Everyone wanted to make a card for Valentine's Day so this was what I came up with.   I hadn't inked up this cute little set yet, so it was time!  :)   Don't you just love those little squirrels?!

Look how big my baby is. :(   I can't stand it.  Today I gave her a little Pinterest-inspired project, a calm down bottle.   She seems to get upset a lot lately, so I made it to help her relax and calm down.  She's been trying to assert her independence which doesn't always work out so great when it is something that she can't have or do.  Man they grow up fast don't they?!

Paper Smooches for Mom

Greetings!   Did everyone survive the holidays?   We did and I am so glad that it is over.   I feel like I have been too busy to even look at my stamp room and that had to stop and fast!   I did manage to sneak in there earlier this week and put this card together for my mom.   I was so sad that she didn't come down this year and thought I'd make a little card to let her know how much we missed having her.  I guess I do have to share her with my brother sometimes, but man!   Anyway...  The Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge is anything goes this week so I used my cute sewing machine again as I love it and it's perfect for Mom.

I hope everyone had a great holiday.  I know Jason totally spoiled us and I have lots of new crafty goodies, Copic markers, and some storage for my markers.   I have been working all day trying to get my room organized and straightened up.   I need to make an IKEA run next week for more stuff and get more listed on eBay.   So much to do! 

Welcome Baby

Here's my last card with all the cute little Mama Elephant images that I recently colored.  I just love this one!   Someone have a baby so I can send it already! lol

I am so happy as I finally got some sleep last night!   The cats have been waking me up at 4:30 the past few nights and I was so tired.   They were nice and I didn't wake up until Laila was singing to me through the monitor this morning.  I feel so much better.   Whew!

We ventured out to Target yesterday and took our usual tour of the holiday department.  Laila just loves all the Christmas stuff so much.   She likes to hold all these critters.  We've went over being gentle with them and she is so careful.   She thought this one had a cat hair on it and you can see by her face how she felt about that.  Ha!

CASE Study Flower

I loved the challenge at CASE Study this week, so I decided to play along and combine it with one of the Dare to Get Dirty challenges on Splitcoast.   I've fussed with this one for a few days and finally gave up and called it done.  I'm still on the fence about it, but I do love the colors.  ;)  

Isn't that a gorgeous card?!   I had to pull out my retired paper to use for the card base because it reminded me so much of the background on the inspiration.  Do you still have some of that paper?  I love it!  I wish I had bought a second pack to hoard use.  

My assistant.   ;)    We have had the WORST day today.   It has been so long and so full of crying.   I am mentally exhausted and hope she is easy to get to bed tonight so I can have a break.   I finally finished reading Game of Thrones and am ready to start the second book.  I need some quality time with my Nook.  

*If you like the flower, it's a free digital stamp!  You can find it here.

Stampin' Up! The Open Sea and Flower Frenzy

Happy Sunday.   I thought I'd try to do a quick post before lunch to share a couple of the cards I made for the Dare to Get Dirty challenges yesterday.  This one was a fun one.  I stamped and heat embossed the Hardwood background and then painted over it with some white paint.  The flower is using the Flower Frenzy die which I just used for the first time!  I put it on my first order from the new catalog and somehow forgot about it.  (Or I was still protesting the retirement of Fun Flowers)   I used white tissue paper to cut two different sizes and then spritzed them with a mixture of alcohol and reinkers.   The sentiment is heat embossed on vellum and is from the And Many More set.  

Now the masculine card.  It features a bit of watercoloring of The Open Sea set.  I pulled out some retired designer paper because I have got to use up some of that stuff.   It's out of control!  lol   I can't really share the details of the challenges, but if you are a Fan Club member over on Splitcoast, be sure to check them out.   If you aren't, go join!  :)  

Always in on the picture action!  lol  She has her Hope Calendar pictures on Friday, so I hope she likes the camera then.   We got the most adorable dress for her to wear.   She's already had a meltdown wanting to wear it.  Shocking, I know!  lol

Stampin' Up! Kinda Eclectic

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!   The oh-so-amazing Amy is our hostess this week and she has a fabulous sketch.   She also happened to use the die I was going to, so be sure you go check out the design team blog to see her awesome card.  :)  

My card is a bit busy for using such a simple sketch.  I was just adding and adding and finally had to just STOP before it got any more out of control.   Kinda Eclectic seems to have that effect on me.   lol  I used a new color combination for me, Lost Lagoon, Pool Party, and Pear Pizzazz.    They are so lovely together!  

Swinging is SO fun! 

Stampin' Up! Zoo Babies

It's Wednesday, so time for a new Freshly Made Sketches challenge!  The queen of layers and fussy cutting, Narelle, is our hostess is week.   She has a fabulous sketch with banners.    I am a bit short on time lately, so I whipped up this card for both the sketch and my stamping event this weekend.  It's nice when you can do that, right?   I might change out the designer paper (DSP) for my event so that the sentiment shows up a bit better.  I love the new set called And Many More.  Do you have it yet?!

Isn't that a fun sketch?   I love it and might even do a second card for my event with it.  :)   Our theme is kids birthday cards and I think that fits perfectly with the banners.  

We took Laila to the park last week and as always, I had to take my camera along.   I was so happy when I looked at my pictures and saw this one.   She's in motion so much now that it's hard to snap a lot of really good shots.  When I do get one, it makes me super happy.  :)    Unfortunately, she's feeling worse now.  I think she might have a summer cold.  Saturday night was rough with coughing and everyone waking up all night.   Yesterday brought sneezing and a runny nose along with no nap.    We are going to be worn out if this is a long lasting thing.  Blah.  It's times like this when I wish my mom was close.    Not having anyone nearby to help gets rough doesn't it? 

Stampin' Up! Flower Patch

I told you yesterday that I had made a feminine version of the sketch from MFT and here it is!  It's actually one of the cards we are making at my event this weekend.  It uses the new Flower Patch stamp set and matching framelits.  I love purple and green together, so I went with those for my colors.

Laila got to go shopping after dinner last night.   She loves the outdoor section at Target so much.  She starts asking to see the umbrellas as soon as we get in the store.   She also likes to get down and try out the chairs. :)  

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!   :)   I'm not sure how many dads read my blog (my guess is ZERO), but I don't want to leave anyone out.  lol   I thought I'd share the card I made for Jason.   It uses the My Paper Pumpkin stamp again along with Gorgeous Grunge and And Many More.   Fun sets for sure!

I found out that my email feed was messed up for a bit, so sorry about that.  I am not so great at that part of things, so I guess I changed something that made it go all funky.   I hope it's fixed now, but if not let me know.

I used the Wednesday sketch from MFT for my card.  I think it still counts even though I used a circle.  I love circles lately for some reason.   I actually did the sketch twice, so come back tomorrow for a girly version!   

As I was taking a picture of my card, I got a little helper on the other side of the table who also needed their picture taken.  She's been something else this weekend.  Whew!  She wouldn't nap yesterday and was a holy terror by dinner.   She was sound asleep by 6:45 too.   I hope today brings a nap and a break for the parents.  I still can't believe she'll be 2 in just twelve more days.  Crazy!

Stampin' Up! Flower Patch

I found a little stamping time today, so I decided to try out a couple of sets I got in my recent order from the new catalog.  Flower Patch is a fun set and it has matching framelits which make it so much easier to use.  No fussy cutting needed!  :)   The sentiment is from a great new set, And Many More.   It reminds me of Teeny Tiny Wishes which is one of my favorite sets of all time!

On Thursdays we get a box of veggies from a local farm and Laila loves to unpack the box.   She's learning what all the vegetables are, so I hope that will mean she's more likely to try them.   She asked Jason for a piece of lettuce tonight as he was eating salad, so yay for that.   She loves fruit, but we are still working to broaden her veggie choices.   Peas, corn, carrots, and mushrooms are her favorite right now.