Coffee Mouse

Hello. Happy August. :) We are so close to the start of school! I know some places have started already, but Texas always seem to be later. Laila's first day will be the 20th. We did get to meet her new teacher and have coffee with her last week. I LOVE her. She has a completely different outlook than her kindergarten teacher and I think she'll be great for Laila. She got her gifted and talented certification this summer and is a second year teacher who is still excited about her job. So, fingers crossed!! 

On to the card. I found another set that I don't think I've ever inked up. Oops! I won it a long time ago and since it's coffee I had to put it in my stash. It's cute, right??  Perfect for the 2 Crafty Critter Crazies challenge too. :) I love the little mouse.

Her teacher knew she was into Star Wars, so she brought her a little Yoda and a Star Wars coloring book when we had coffee. :) So sweet, right???

Alley Way Breakfast Club

Happy Sunday! It looks like another hot day here in Texas, so I may get to stamp a bit. It's awful to go outside lately, so we just stay in where it's nice and cool. :)  I decided I need to downsize my craft room a bit, but it's hard to decide what to purge. To help myself, I am going to try and work my way through my stamps and see if I can actually create something I like with them. If not, bye! :) I am hoping to also put them in Evernote as I go through them, so I can easily search when I have a need for something specific. Now we'll see how this plan goes. I have struggled to organize lately.

On to the card... The first set in my clear stamp bin was Breakfast Club from Alley Way Stamps. I believe the company is no longer in business, but it's a coffee set, so it has to stay. I loved coloring and arranging the mugs. Set one is a keeper!  :)  I think the Copics I used match Island Indigo pretty well, so I need to make a note of that!

Now I'm off to have a second cup of coffee before I try to do anything creative. I attempted to stamp a sentiment earlier and messed up my project, so I need to wake up more and try it again. Have a wonderful day!

Rita

Inky Paws 64

Happy January 31st! Can you believe it? It seems like a long month, but at the same time, it seems like we just rung in the new year a day ago. I haven't felt much like creating, but I did make this simple card for the Newton's Nook Inky Paws challenge. The papers did most of the work for me. Always nice when you can use a mix of them for most of your project, right?

I just love Newton and this cute set of stamps. Coffee plus cats? Yes, please!  :)

Laila has had a great week so far at school. She's made all her points for the day each day and has been so proud of herself. I wasn't sure about the program after the first few days, but she's really flourishing now and I have hopes that what she's learning will help her when she transitions back to her regular classroom. Her teacher has been over several times to work with her. The counselor and vice principal have also been over. She missed the principal's visit on Friday because she was out sick. It's nice they are working to maintain the connection with her. 

I ended up at the doctor today after 5 days of a constant headache. Sinus infection. I'm crossing my fingers that the medicine she gave me works quickly. I've been in bed most of the week and I'm so behind on everything. I hate that!!  I'm off to drink more fluids and rest...again. lol I think that's all I've done for days.  

Enjoy the last day of the month!

Rita 

Thankful for You

Hello!  I can't believe it's almost the middle of November! It's going to be 2018 before we know it!  I hope you all are doing well.  I apologize for not posting for a while. To be honest, I've been struggling and stamping hasn't been something that I've wanted to do.  Or blog either I guess since I made this card back in October. Oops! I have been reading a lot and trying to keep myself together. This morning I got up early and have been cleaning and organizing my craft room. I'd love to start out the new year with it cleaner and more appealing to work in. Anyway, this card uses the Simon Says Stamp/The Greeting Farm collaboration from STAMPtember. I can't resist a coffee stamp even if it includes a girl with hair that is SO HARD TO COLOR! lol

Laila  had a great Halloween. She was so excited about it this year. We did get rained out, but she got plenty of candy before the heavier rain came. She loved her Monarch costume and I loved how happy she was about the whole holiday. :)

This week her school dismissed at noon on Wednesday, so we had more time together. She was so good and helped me with a lot of chores. I'm hoping to keep that up. :) She was excited to help. I guess laundry is fun if you only have to do it occasionally? 

Other than that, we are still working on things. Her days at school are up and down. Wednesday was an awful day, so I'm sure her teacher was glad it was a half day. Thursday she had an amazing day. Yesterday was a little rough in the morning, but great in the afternoon. I got to volunteer at the school three days this week which was nice. I love being able to help out. Today they are having a color run to raise money for the Rebuilding Warriors Foundation.  I'll have to go get everyone up and ready soon so that we aren't late!

I hope you have a great weekend.

Simon Says Pumpkin Spice

Monday.  It was a sad morning to wake up to, so I needed to come color to take my mind off things for a while. I had a rough time leaving Laila at school and had to have a distraction when I got home. I decided to play with this new set I got from Simon Say Stamp's STAMPtember release. I love fall and coffee, so I had to have it. It will be a challenging set for me as the hair is HARD, but it will be good practice. I entered it into their flickr challenge and in the Wednesday Anything Goes challenge as well.

I also got to release some happiness into the world in the form of butterflies today. The season is almost over, but we have a few left to send off into the world.

Lots of hugs today to you all.

Rainbow Tag the Remix

I thought I'd share another project I made during my stamping time with my friend Meg.  We worked on a rainbow coffee tag similar to the one I did for the last coffee blog hop.  We added a bit more to it this time and I was so happy with the results.  It really allows the coffee cup to shine!   

Tim Holtz's style of tags and fun came into my life at just the right time.  Life right now feels messy and crazy, so it's good to carry that over into my stamping.   Now I have a way to craft that doesn't have to be perfect or frustrating.  If I make a mistake I can make it work.  I know it's just ink, but it is also therapy and sometimes therapy is a big hot mess.  If I cry on my tags, it just adds more to it. If I rip it, more character.  There's no wrong way, no mistakes, just art. 

Supplies:

Stamps:  Stampers Anonymous Fresh Brewed Blueprints, Bo Bunny Stained Textures

Ink:  Ranger Distress Inks, Ranger Archival Jet Black

Other: Manila tag, seam binding, Tim Holtz Idea-ology Small Talk stickers

Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

I'm a bit behind on playing along with the Coffee Lovers for the Spring blog hop, but I'm sneaking in on the last day!   I had a little stamping time with a friend  yesterday and I took my new watercolors and some Copics over and made this card.  I am not really a pastel kind of gal, but they totally say Spring to me, so I used them.  :)   I added a little sequin flower embellishment to my cup because hey, what else says Spring like flowers?!

It's been quite a week.  We had some awful storms come through on Wednesday night and man!  They woke us up at 5am and made for a very long Thursday.  I think I could take the longest nap ever.  Today I need to clean a bit and go shopping for Easter dinner.  It's just the three of us, but we still like to make ham and all that goes with it.  It makes for a lot of leftovers, so less cooking for a few days.   I hope to color eggs with Laila today and start putting Easter baskets together.  I have no idea what I've bought at this point and I hope I can find all the stuff I hid around the house for them.  lol  If not, Christmas stocking stuffers they will be! Ha!

Holiday Coffee Lovers

It's time for another Coffee Lovers Blog Hop!   This one is the winter/holiday edition, so I had to try to make an ombre red cup for Newton!  :)   I am so addicted to the Starbucks holiday drinks.  The Holiday Spice Flat White is so good that I might cry when it is gone!   Seriously!    I went with a gray/red theme and I hope that's holiday enough. All my kitties are gray, so I had to make this one gray as well.

Coffee and Poppies

Well, we haven't floated away here in Texas...yet.   lol   It's been raining since yesterday evening and still going.  Thankfully it's been mostly light rain with a few heavy showers thrown in.  I haven't really stamped as much as I've wanted to because I've been sick, but I am still working on more cards for Hope You Can Cling To here and there.   I did this one yesterday while I had a break from coughing.  lol    I love this coffee set and thought it might be fun to use with the torn edge challenge.  

I made this very simple card today for the "masterpiece" challenge where you were to be inspired by a work of art.  Georgia O'Keeffe was one of the suggested artists and I saw a lot of poppies when I did a search for her, so I went with that.  I wanted to use my beautiful  new sentiment I got from Hero Arts and I think it gets to shine on this card.  :)

Fall Freshly Brewed Coffee

Still catching up on all the cards I want to make this week!  This card is one I finally got to make for the Fall Coffee Lover's Blog Hop!   I can't believe I'm only getting one done on the very last day.   I did just get this new coffee set though, so it was a bit of perfect timing.   It is also for today's Hope You Can Cling To challenge to make a collage card.  I don't know if I did a good job with that, but I tried.   :)   This is also my coloring for day 2 of Kathy at The Daily Marker's 30 day coloring challenge.

Stamps:  My Favorite Things LLD Perk Up, Stamper's Anonymous Fresh Brewed Blueprints, Bo Bunny Stained Textures

Ink:  Memento Black, Stampin' Up! Early Espresso, Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake, Copics

Paper:  Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake, Stampin' Up! Very Vanilla, Stampin' Up! Early Espresso

Tools/Embellishments:  Lil' Inker Stitched Rectangle Dies, Simon Says Stamp Stitched Circles, MFT Blueprints 20, Simon Says Stamp Medium Dot Line die, Stampin' Up! Doily, Stampin' Up! Neutral buttons, Stampin' Up! Linen Thread

Sparkly Coffee

When I saw the new challenge at Sparkle and Shine I knew I wanted to play along.  I don't get to do as many challenges as I used to, but I enjoy it when I can find time.   I haven't played along with this one yet, so I'm happy to finally get to do that.   :)   I love this coffee set from Create a Smile stamps and thought it would be a fun way to show off some green!  I'll probably add a little Starbucks gift card and send it off to a friend.

Today has been a good day.  Laila is still fighting a fever, but she's been playing and eating okay.   I hope she can sleep well tonight and kick whatever it is that's causing her to be sick.  We'll be giving her medicine all night again, so it will be another long night for us.   I'd rather do that than take a chance of another seizure though.   I was told they usually stop being at risk for febrile seizures around age five, so I'll be happy when we get there.   Here's her in her dance clothes on Monday.  So cute!  :)

Hello for Coffee

It's Wednesday, so time to share a Freshly Made Sketches card.   I had a rough week last week and missed out on playing, so I worked on my card early this week so that I was sure to play along.   I love my fellow members over there and they have to be nice to put up with me lately.  I'm such a mess and should totally be kicked to the curb.   Anyway.... Our sketch this week was designed by our amazing queen of layers, Narelle.

Isn't that fun?   I kinda flubbed it a little as I didn't look at it again before I made my card.  I think I'm close enough though, huh?   :)

I'm off to bed, so it's a short and sweet post tonight.   I just wanted to get it scheduled and not forget again.   Have a great rest of the week!

Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Today is Friday (Yay!) and lots of exciting things are going on.   We are going to Costco!  What?  That's not exciting?   Well, it is also the day season three of HOUSE OF CARDS is released!!!!!!!!!  No?  Still not exciting?   Well how about a Spring version of the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop?!  Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!     If there's anything I love more than Costco and Netflix, it's coffee and cards!    There's a ton of great sponsors and prizes, so go grab your coffee stamps and come play along!

Still struggling with my creativity, but I had an idea for a card right before I fell asleep last night.  I don't love how it turned out, so I'm totally making it again once I'm feeling more creative.   I hope I don't get yelled at by my fellow coffee lovers for spilling it!  Ha! 

Coffee with MFT

I am really enjoying my Black Friday order from My Favorite Things, especially this coffee die and stamp set!   :)   Isn't that cup just the cutest?  I love it!   I used those, plus a die from a Blueprints set and the new scallops die to play along with their sketch this week.

I'm off to enjoy my first cup of coffee and snuggle with this cute, silly girl.  

Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

I recently got some goodies from My Favorite Things and I just had to break them in.   Amy is hosting another Coffee Lovers blog hop, this time a holiday one, so I thought I'd go for a holiday coffee (aka red cup!).    I stuck with red and kraft since they are so awesome together.  :)

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! Endless Wishes

Ink:  Stampin' Up! Real Red

Paper:  Stampin' Up! Real Red, Crumb Cake, Pebbles Home for Christmas 

Dies/Accessories: Lil' Inker Stitched Rectangles, MFT Coffee Cup Die-namics, sequins

Chef in training?  :o)