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. 

Pumpkin Spice Coffee

Good morning. It felt appropriate to do my post for the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop as I sip my first cup of the day. :) I'm having some maple pecan coffee first, but pumpkin spice is up next. I love this cute image from Simon Says Stamp and The Greeting Farm. Her hair can be a bit hard for me, but I keep trying. I used the colors from an Echo Park paper pack which coordinates perfectly.

I hope you had a end to October and a fabulous start to November. It seems crazy that it's already so late in the year. We've actually had some cold weather already here in Texas. Laila had to bundle up for Halloween. We usually sweat and get hot while we're out walking. lol She's been doing great at school too. We are on a big Harry Potter kick in our house, so of course her costume reflects that. :)

I'm off to finish my coffee and get ready to start our school day! Have a wonderful Tuesday.

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

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!

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!!

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

All Inside the Challenge

I got this set a few months ago and I just love it. The bear is so cute and I love that the die cuts his arms so he can hold stuff.  I saw the current challenge at Ellen Hutson and thought it would be fun to play along.  I know we are past the fall season, but I just went with the inspiration. :)

Isn't that a pretty inspiration board to work with? I thought it was. There's so many things you could do with the colors and textures. 

The school had a holiday craft market yesterday and one of the fundraisers for the PTO was pictures with Santa. I can't wait to see how hers turned out. After the event the school opened up the cafeteria/gym and showed The Polar Express. I got to help serve the hot chocolate for that.  She had a blast and was so well behaved. I was proud of her. :)

FMS309 Thankful Leaves

Time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. I had a difficult time with this one. I wasn't have a good day mentally yesterday and that really impacted my creativity. I did finally get something that wasn't totally awful, so I decided to go ahead and post it. I'm trying to get better about playing along again and they won't all always be masterpieces, right? lol  Linda is the sketch designer and I am absolutely in LOVE with what she did with the sketch. Be sure you jump over to the FMS page and check it and all the other DT cards out.

My card is also for Ceal's challenge over at the Splitcoast Falliday Fest challenges. She asked everyone to use an acrylic block on their background. I used the Stampin' Up! D block and distress inks for mine. I did mess up my original background, so I die cut the area and moved it to a new front. 

Laila had an awful day at school yesterday that included kicking her teacher. They did a reflection discussion at school over it and she did apologize. We talked about it more at home and decided to do something nice for the teacher. We decorated a bag and added snacks and then also made her a card. I was hoping our success on Monday would keep going, but it was the total opposite yesterday.  She did do good in specials at the end of the day, so that was a plus. That's been one of her biggest problem areas, so that was good to see. We'll keep working and seeing how things go.  We've always been told that it gets worse before it gets better, so... 

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.

Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

It's been a crazy busy past week, but I didn't want to miss out on the Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.  I have been in a bear mood lately, so I grabbed my Honey Bee Stamps Flakey set and colored this cute bear. The set also has a cute little coffee, so my bear wanted a pumpkin spice latte. :) The sentiment is from Unity and the leaf die cuts are from Lawn Fawn. That's a lot of white space, huh? lol

Everyone ready to welcome in Fall tomorrow?  It will probably be 90 degrees in Texas, but at least the coffee drinks change. 

School is going as I figured it would.  Two phone calls from the teacher so far, spending time with the principal...  She has made major improvements though, so I hope we can continue with the positive things.  It's just hard not to be frustrated already. Social skills playgroup might have to come back in play as it helped so much. She already got sick and missed a day, but she's on the mend with just a little cough left.

On day one of school she wouldn't color anything. One sheet she brought home had nothing colored, the second had a swipe of orange. This was towards the end of last week, so yay!

Now I gotta run and go pack her lunch and then wake her up! Have a great Thursday!

Dare to Get Dirty Day 2 cont.

More fall colors.  :)  I tried a new technique using tissue paper and distress inks.  It was fun and the result is pretty neat.  I need to try it again with some brighter colors.  I think yellows would be pretty, maybe some blues?  If you want to try it, cut out some tissue, spread some distress inks on a craft mat, spritz with water, lay the tissue over it and let it absorb the colors, and then carefully pick up the tissue and lay it on a paper towel to try.  It works beautifully with Stampin' Up! inks, so I might give those a go!

Finally a simple card.  I think bees and hexagons make a cute card.  Plus yellow and black are a favorite color combination of mine.  I got a new little bug and insect set to make notes for Laila, so I borrowed the cute little bees for this one.  

And finally a little Christmas card.  I figured I should get at least one Christmas in July card made before we start a new month.  Not much stamping here.  I just added a little of the Stampin' Up! Dictionary background stamp on the birch trees.  It adds a little interest, but doesn't take over the card.  I'm hoping my cardboard deer doesn't look like he's been flame broiled at Burger King.  lol 

That's it for today. I didn't manage to get any of the challenges for today done, so now I'm five behind.  Oh well.  I like to try to do them all, but life gets in the way sometimes.  This is one of the rough weeks of the year for me with Eli's birthday coming up on Wednesday, so I try to distract myself by creating.  I hope you're not getting tired of all the posts.  

Have a nice week.

Rita

PTI Make It Monday Color Blocking

Still enjoying Fall in my stamp room. :)  I saw the PTI Make It Monday challenge to do some color blocking and thought it might be fun to use this pretty mum set.  I probably should have used some different colors to make the middle layer of color stand out better, but I like how it turned out anyway.  I do want to try it again with one of the different techniques they shared.

August is my busiest birthday card month, so I need to get some made! My best friend from grad school is my next one, so I'm working on a cute science themed card for her right now. I hope it turns out okay.

Happy Friday!  Enjoy your weekend.
Rita

Papertrey Ink Mum's the Word
Inks: PTI Terracotta Tile, Canyon Clay, Cocoa Bean
Gansai Tambi Watercolors
Canson Watercolor Paper
Stampin' Up! Early Espresso cardstock

Simon Says Stamp Distress It 2

I don't know about where you are, but Texas has been miserable this week.  So hot and humid that nobody wants to go outside.  Today we added the run of thunderstorms. I went to hide away in my stamp room a bit and play with a couple new Distress Oxide inks I got and my new leaves background from Hero Arts.  I love the background, but the card didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped.  I guess I'll have to get messy and make another background and try again. :) Entering it into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  I guess I'm in a Distress It! mood.

I am ready for Fall! :)  I think I might switch over to making cards for Halloween and Thanksgiving for a while.  It's crazy that we don't really have any holidays before then.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Fall Colors

Hey!  How is everyone on this fine Friday?   I can't believe I haven't posted since Monday.  Well, I can, but that's breaking my recent streak of doing better.  lol  Jason worked overtime this week and I was solo parenting for most of it.  He was home yesterday and I totally took off for brunch with a friend.   I wanted to share a couple more challenge cards with you.  I have a lot of cards made up for Fall now, so I need to start sending those out soon.   This one uses my most favorite Stampin' Up! set, French Foliage along with a sentiment from Truly Grateful.  I stamped on the Kraft paper that was sold back in my demo days.  Do they still have that?  I love it!

And this card...  Lori challenged us to use wheat and I think this counts, right?  lol I pulled out the distress inks for this one.  The wheat is from Concord & 9th and the sentiment from wPlus9.

Laila started going to a cooperative play groun this week and it's from 4:30 to 5:30, so we have to stop for dinner on our way home.  She picked Panera this week.  She seems to enjoy the class so far, so I hope it will benefit her.  With this description, it seems to cover much of what she needs help on. The Cooperative Play group addresses social skills, communication, and emotional regulation skills.  They work on things such as taking turns, expressively identifying how they feel, flexibility with non-preferred activities, keeping their body in the group, thinking with their eyes, cooperative play and communicating with peers during play, along with other skills.  If I could list her issues, it would be most of those. Thank goodness we can at least work on them while we are waiting on an evaluation/diagnosis.

I'm off to clean up my desk.  It's a wreck as is my floor.  Creativity is messy!

Falliday Leaves and Halloween

Back with more cards for the Falliday challenges!  I'm like seven behind, so I don't know if I'll catch up before it ends or not.  I'm working on them, but it takes me a long time to make one.  This challenge was to use fall colors for your card.  I love this sheet of patterned paper from Stampin' Up! so I based my card around that.   The stamps/dies are from Concord & 9th.

The next challenge I worked on was for a joy fold card.  I am not that great at anything outside of a traditional fold, but this one is pretty easy to make.  Thank goodness for great tutorials.  lol  I went with a Halloween theme as I seem to have a lot of paper and stamps for that now.  Here's the inside:

That's all for now.  I have to clean my desk and my room up to be able to make anything else.  It is a wreck.  Laila has been in here with me this week and she's "helped" a lot in hiding the carpet.  lol   I'll be back when I can see my desk and floor again.  Have a great weekend!

Falliday Fest: Thankful Leaf

I'm feeling very thankful today.  My camera and purse arrived safe and sound on Wednesday so I was able to get better pictures for my newest cards.  On top of that, today starts a fun set of October challenges on Splitcoast Stampers called Falliday Fest.  I love crafting with fall supplies, so I'm excited to see all the challenges!  There's also tutorials for new projects as well.  Today's card is for Lydia's challenge to use some fall colors that you'd find in New York, her home state, and include some text.  I don't think if you can see it, but there's some text on the bottom left and the top right side.  Very subtle, but there!

Stamps:  Concord & 9th Lace Leaf
Ink: Distress Inks:  Shabby Shutters Spiced Marmalade, Scattered Straw, Barn Door, Gathered Twigs, Vintage Photo
Paper:  Stampin' Up! Early Espresso, Neenah Solar White
Other:  My Favorite Things Blueprints 20

I seem to have lost a lot of blog subscribers lately.  I'm going to guess it's from sharing too much about Laila and our current struggles.  I've decided to stop sharing and stick with just cards for now.  I apologize for annoying people.

Freshly Made Fall

Oops!  I just realized that I totally forgot to do my Freshly Made Sketches post!  Jen T created a fun sketch and I was able to sit down and make something.  I don't love the result, but I tried!   I love the idea of using a large banner, so I'll definitely try this one again!  The rest of the team did some amazing things, so be sure to go over and check those out.  You still have a little time to play along too.

Isn't that fun?!  I used my much-neglected banner punch board to make my banner.  That made it easy to get the size I wanted.  :)   The leaves and grateful are Concord & 9th dies. 

On Friday we took Laila to a little event to ride Thomas.  It was a four hour drive for a 25 minute train trip, so I don't think we'll be doing that again.  Such a long day!  She seemed very overwhelmed by it all too.   Thursday she was sick with a fever, so I'm hoping it was just that.  She did say she had fun, so I hope that was the case.  This past week was another bad one at school so she won't be going back anymore.  They asked that she not come on Thursday and after hearing the report of the behavior anaylst that observed her and the class, it just doesn't seem like a good fit.  She's already the "bad" kid and they aren't even trying to turn things around.  I figure we have years of this to look forward to because it seems to be the norm for her.  She just can't behave in a classroom. It's very hard to parent a kid like her and we are struggling.  Having no family nearby and no breaks from her make it even more difficult.  Send good thoughts our way as we'll need them.  I'm probably going to have to rehome our dog now because they don't get along and I can't walk the dog when she's home.  Just so much to deal with.  :o(  

On top of everything else, I left my DSLR at the restaurant near the Thomas event.  The manager found my purse and is supposed to be mailing it back to me, but we'll see.  That is crushing as I love my camera.  I don't know how I'll get pictures for my blog now, so it might be a while before you see me post again. 

Fall Coffee Lovers Hop

I haven't been stamping much lately due to no mojo/life is in the way, but I took a little time to try and make something for the Fall Coffee Lovers blog hop that's going on this week.  Fall and coffee are two of my favorite things, so it kinda had to happen.  lol  I used some dies from Avery Elle, My Favorite Things, and Lawn Fawn along with a sentiment from Wplus9.  And my distress inks of course!  :)

I'll be back another day to update on Laila and all that's been going on.  We've both been sick and more school issues, so I'm worn out!  I'm heading to relax and listen to a podcast before cleaning and dinner time starts.  

Have a great week! 

Rita

Tag of Gratitude

I've been in the mood for Fall things lately, so I decided to make some tags with my Tim Holtz goodies.  I just love distress inks!  I added a beautiful sentiment from Wplus9 to finish it off.  I think this will be great to put on a loaf of pumpkin bread or some other baked good to give to people around Thanksgiving.  :)

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! Sanded, Stampers Anonymous Halloween Blueprints, Wplus9 Grateful Greetings
Ink:  Ranger Jet Black Archival, Distress Inks (I didn't keep track, sorry!)
Paper: Manila tag, watercolor paper
Extras: Stampin' Up! Vanilla seam binding, Studio Calico wood veneer hearts

She really loves the postcards so much.  We are still getting a few a week and it's so fun to see her get excited.  I need to print a list of states so we can check them off as we get one from there.  :)