Fab Cute Critters

Happy Sunday! It's a rainy one here, so we are inside trying to find things to occupy us. lol Laila just got a new bike, so she's bummed about not being able to ride it. She did get to some this morning at least. I colored a little this weekend and enjoyed this cute new to me set. I played along with a few challenges, the sketch at Fab Friday, Cute Card Thursday, and 2 Crafty Critter Crazies. Who doesn't love critter cards? :)

I think that's all from me. We are having chicken tacos and guacamole for dinner, so I need to go get the Instant Pot going! This recipe is delicious. :)

Stampin' Up! Dragonfly Dreams

Believe it or not, I got some crafty stuff done today!  I was so excited to make a card and do a little watercoloring.  I colored this dragonfly last night and wanted to use him for the current sketch at Fab Friday.  The pink background was done with distress inks and the dragonfly colored with Copics.   Dragonflies are so neat.  We have one that visits the garden every now and then.

It's been a weird day here. We were supposed to have rain all day, but not a drop as of 9pm tonight.  They kept moving back the start, so now it's more of a midnight storm.  I'm glad I went ahead and watered my garden.  Jason swears we live in a bubble that keeps our neighborhood dry, so we shall see if we get anything tonight. 

These guys have kept me busy this weekend.  They are almost ready to pupate, but are eating like teenage boys!  One of them managed to escape while I was feeding them on Friday and now we have a chrysalis hanging from Laila's playroom curtains.  I have to climb up and move it to an enclosure tomorrow.  Silly thing.  It's definitely been a busy process this spring.  We have a wide range of forms, from egg to almost ready to eclose.  It's never boring! 

We've also enjoyed watching these guys!  They haven't been by in a few days, so I switched out to homemade nectar today. I had used some I bought at Lowe's and they seem to have left after that.  Hopefully they come back as we love them.  

Fab Friday 105

Hey!  Did everyone survive that Super Bowl game?  :)  Sorry it's been a bit since I've posted.  Laila got sick, passed it on to Jason, and I've been trying to hide from their germs for a week.  I did stamp a bit last week, but I mailed them off before I took pictures.  I made an effort to send as many cards as I could last week.  I think I got around 20 out, so that's pretty good.   This card should be cute to send soon for Valentine's Day.  I used the new sketch at Fab Friday and this cute little bear from Stamping Bella.  The arrow and stamp are from the Sent with Love set that Stampin' Up! put out a few years back.  It's cute to decorate envelopes, but the elements can be used on cards too.

Now I'm headed to bed to read for a bit.  Part of the lack of stamping is due to reading.  It seems like I get on a kick of one or the other.  I have a huge list of books on my to-read list, so I need to try and fit it in more.  Have you read anything good lately?  My current book is Hillbilly Elegy and I'm speeding through it.  I grew up not far from the area in Kentucky that he discusses, so I understand his family and their struggles. 

This was my poor pumpkin last week.  She was just worn out.  One night we ended up just getting up at 2:30 because she couldn't stop coughing.  I am way too old for that, so we went to the doctor the next day to make sure it wasn't more than a cold.  He gave her some better medicine to help the cough at night, so it's been some better.  I think she managed to sleep until after 5 this morning before she woke us up and then went back to bed once she had water, a full humidifier, and more meds. 

Fab Friday 103

My friend Mindy hosts a fun challenge blog called Fab Friday.  I don't get to play along as much as I'd like, but they always have some great sketches and color combinations.  I saw they were back from break this week and decided to play along.  I pulled out this single stamp from Stampin' Up! called Vivid Vases and picked one of my favorite color combinations (who doesn't love gray and yellow?) and went to work.  I even managed to use Washi tape which is another supply I struggle to use.

It's 22 degrees in Texas this morning so I'm wrapping myself in my blanket and hiding out in my warm stamp room.  It is one of the warmest rooms in the house thank goodnesss.  

Fab Friday Unicorn

The past week has been icky, so I thought I'd try to stamp something tonight.  I love the new sketch over at Fab Friday and it looked like a fun starting point.  I got a couple of new stamps this week and this cute Winter Unicorn from Lawn Fawn was one of them.  It looked like it might work, so I colored him up and added some festive paper.  I don't know that I love it, but I'm proud of myself for trying. 

Stamps:  Lawn Fawn Winter Unicorn

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up! Real Red, Ranger Caribbean Coast

Paper:  Neenah Solar White, SU Real Red, patterned paper scrap

Dies:  My Favorite Things Stitched Mini Scalloped Circles, Lil' Inker Stitched Rectangles, MFT Blueprints 20

Copics:  R20, R32, R35, R37, R81, R83, R85, B000, B00, B02, BV23, T0

Last Friday was one of the saddest days of my life.  I had to say goodbye to my Bandit.  He was such a huge part of me and I miss him so much.  I love our other pets, but he was just something special.  You can see how silly he was.  He was always taking toys, shoes, whatever he could find to his box nest to snuggle with.   I know we had many days where we scrambled to find our missing shoes, not knowing where he might have put them.   He was just full of spunk and personality.  He hated everyone that didn't live in our house, but he loved us something fierce.  I don't think we'll ever find another like him.

Fab Sewing Machine

I loved the sketch at Fab Friday, so I decided to combine it with a Hope You Can Cling To challenge.  The challenge was supposed to be kids making a card that represented their mom, but Laila wouldn't cooperate so I made one that represented MY mom.  Sometimes you just gotta improvise.  ;)  I love this Paper Smooches set; the images are so perfect for my mom.

I'm off to take Miss Laila to the doctor to see about this lingering cough she can't seem to shake.  Have a great week and I'll be checking in frequently as I show you more of my HYCCT cards. 

Stampin' Up! Butterfly Basics

I haven't been feeling very inspired lately, so I decided to try looking through my Stampin' Up! catalog for inspiration.  I loved the card on page 10 of the Occasions catalog and worked on making my own version of it.   I used some of the retiring in colors to play along with Fab Friday.   The Butterfly Basics set and Buterfly dies are so gorgeous!   I wasn't sure I could really use the big butterfly, but I love how it turned out on this card.  :)

The challenge is to use as many of the colors as you wish.  I used Pistachio Pudding and Baked Brown Sugar for my card.   

We had quite the bad adventure yesterday.   We tried to go to a new park to feed some turtles and ended up being swarmed by mosquitoes before we even go to the pond.   We quickly made our way back to the car and went to the duck pond to feed the ducks.   Those guys weren't hungry, so it was a bit of a letdown too.   Laila did insist on throwing some food to EVERY SINGLE DUCK of course.  We can't have anyone go hungry.  lol  

Seeing these sweet little guys made the trip out all worth it.  So much cuteness!

Stampin' Up! Wonderfall

I got to stamp a bit more last night while Jason did bedtime.   I managed to even finish a card, which was nice.  :)   I played along with my buddies over at Fab Friday.  I love the sketch they have going right now!   I couldn't resist using Wonderfall again and grabbed some of my favorite paper to go with it.  Pool Party and Early Espresso are two of my favorite colors, so I love pairing them together for Fall projects.

We had the best little family outing this morning and I am tired!   We went to a subdivision that has some lakes and ducks and walked around for two hours.  It was so fun (and hot).   Laila loved it and we came home with some pine cones, duck feathers, and cool leaves to study.   

Stampin' Up! Endless Birthday Wishes

Hello!!!!!   I finally got to stamp today!   Well, I HAD to stamp today because I'm not ready for my event tomorrow, but still...  It's been a long week with a sick toddler and not enough sleep.   I haven't made anything since Sunday.   Almost a week!  Yikes.   I was feeling a bit out of sorts, so I sorta CASEd myself with some new colors and embellishments.   We'll be making this at my class tomorrow.   Thanks to my buddies at Fab Friday for hte wonderful bright colors! 

It's a pretty simple card, just lots of stuff going on.  I love the new decorative masks and thought it would be fun to add some stars to my card base.   And SEQUINS!  LOVE sequins, especially in the In Colors.   I also used my Blendabilities to color the button to match my card.  Good stuff there! 

I seem to have a helper every time I try to take pictures now.  She did ohhh and ahh over my card, so I can't be mad at her.  She's had an awful cough all week.   She seems fine otherwise, but it gets worse at night and has been affecting her (and our) sleep.   She finally slept 13 hours last night, so I'm hoping she's a not-so-terrible-two toddler today.   Yesterday was just way too much and Jason and I were both at our wit's end.  I don't think toddler is going to be our shining parenting age for sure! 

Stamp Review Crew Hello, Lovely Edition

Welcome to another hop of the Stamp Review Crew!   You probably came here from Paula's blog and have now hit the last stop on the hop, but no worries if you haven't went through them all.  You can start at the beginning with Heidi.  :)    This hop we are featuring Hello, Lovely.  Now I personally find this set difficult to use and tend to not use it that much.  I am thankful that Tanya had us pull it out because I see some new possibilities and have found even more with all the great ideas of my fellow hoppers!

I went to bed thinking about my project one night and woke up with the image of license plates in my head.  I tried to replicate a license plate wall on my background.  (We went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel recently and that's probably where this came from.)  I think it turned out pretty cool. I wasn't trying to stamp it perfectly, so don't look too closely.  ;)  It's supposed to be a bit shabby and imperfect. I used the colors from the Fab Friday challenge because they are so awesome together.  

For my second project, I made a little pizza box and some note cards for it.   It's a simple project, but a cute gift for a hostess.  

Here's the little box.  It makes me happy. :)    I love the colors in the Fresh Prints DSP stack, so I used those yet again.  Here are the cards that go in it:

Simple, but cute, right?!

Be sure to go through the hop and see all the other wonderful projects!   There's sure to be a fun mix of paper and digital projects from this great crew! 

                              

Halloween? Oh Yeah!

My last workshop order came in this week and I had ordered myself a little treat, the square framelits.  I love the Polaroid look that I've been seeing and wanted to try my hand at it!   I thought the sketch at Fab Friday was just perfect for that.   The colors at colourQ caught my eye right before I went in my room to work, so I ended up combining the two for my card.   I know I've seen a few comments about my mojo appearing to be intact, but if you'd been here to see the level of frustration and upset that comes with most of my cards lately, you'd get it.  This one wasn't like that, so maybe I've crossed a hurdle!  It came together easily and I ENJOYED making it.  Nice change for sure.  

     

Stamps:  Toxic Treats (R), Wicked Cool (R)

Ink:  Basic Black, Tangerine Tango, Gumball Green

Paper:  Basic Black, Gumball Green, Daffodil Delight, Brights DSP stack (R), Modern Medley DSP, Very Vanilla

Accessories:  Halloween Baker's Twine 

Tools:  Big Shot, Spider Web embossing folder (R), Little Leaves sizzlit, square framelits, Scallop Trim border punch

We were very sad to say goodbye to Mom today.  I'm sure you can tell she was just as sad to be leaving her grandbaby.   I hope to see her and my dad later this year.  Thank goodness we have Skype to keep us in contact until then.  

If you are looking for my Freshly Made Sketches post for today, scroll down or click here.

Zoo Babies for Fab Friday

More new stuff!  Zoo Babies is my favorite set from the new catalog and one I couldn't wait to get my hands on.   I paired it the the new Dictionary background and the Alphabet Press embossing folder.  Aren't they fabulous together?!  I used the cute sketch at Fab Friday to make this lovely little card.  

Stamps:  Zoo Babies, Dictionary

Ink:  Basic Gray, Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight

Paper: Basic Gray, Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight Coredinations, Whisper White

Tools:  Big Shot, Perfect Pennants die, Alphabet Press EF, 2 1/2 circle punch

Accessories:  Neutrals buttons (retired), White Baker's Twine

We bought Laila a tunnel the other day and it's been a hit...with the cats.  lol  She's crawled through it a few times, but they LOVE it.  

Fab Friday Flowers

I started a card sometime this week, maybe Friday, but I didn't get time to finish it until today.  I woke up around three this morning and couldn't go back to sleep, so...   It uses the sketch from this week's Fab Friday challenge and the color challenge at Splitcoast.  

The colors were some that will be retiring soon, River Rock, Baja Breeze, and Not Quite Navy.   I also used an embossing folder from the Holiday catalog that is still available, but will not be carried over.   And finally, there are some accents on the tag from French Foliage, another retiring product.  Thankfully Summer Silhouettes and Sweet Essentials will be staying around.  :)

Stamps:  French Foliage, Summer Silhouettes, Sweet Essentials

Ink:  River Rock, Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy

Paper:  Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze, River Rock, Very Vanilla, Neutrals DSP stack

Accessories:  Basic Pearls, Baja Breeze and Very Vanilla seam binding, linen thread

Tools:  Big Shot, Lacy Brocade embossing folder, Little Leaves sizzlit, Finishing Touches edgelits, 3/8 circle punch

10 months yesterday!  Time is just flying by!

Fabulous Stampin' on Friday!

  

I managed to fit in a little stamping time today and wanted to do a couple challenges that I had on my list.   I don't seem to find as much time to do them lately and I really do miss that.   I decided to try and combine the colors from Fab Friday with the sketch at Try Stampin' on Tuesday.   I should have snapped a picture of my desk after this attempt so you could see how many times I cut different paper for the base and layers.  I struggled to say the least!

I used the fun SAB set, Patterned Occasions, again for this one.   It's such a cute set and definitely one I'd recommend getting! I stamped it three times and kinda cut and pieced the colors I wanted together.   For some reason when I stamp a cupcake I want to put a flower on it, so I did...again.  :)   I think it ended up turning out kinda cute, but it was definitely a challenging card for me.   

Laila is up from her nap, so I'm going to cut this one short!  

I finally felt like I could handle seeing her in her Little Sister onesie today.