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. 

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

Be Awesome Today

Howdy friends. How are you? Are you handling this social distancing thing okay? I admit that it's been a struggle here. We don't go out a lot, but I guess I take for granted being able to run out to the store or a restaurant. Plus Laila just joined Girl Scouts this month and now all the activities have been canceled. She's so bummed about that. But, we're alive and we have food. And toilet paper. lol  I hope you are finding all you need and are staying healthy.

One good thing about being stuck inside on a rainy day today was time to clean my desk off and try to stamp. I FaceTimed with my friend Mindy and we had a nice time. I used the color combo from the week at Splitcoast and the sketch from MFT. 

 

I haven't stamped or even colored anything in months, so this was definitely a challenge. I tried though. I do want to make up some cards to give to the awesome folks who bring out my grocery order. I know they are working their butts off and not getting a lot of appreciation. I don't know what I'd do without them. I can't do crowds without panicking. They are truly lifesavers.

Big Hugs from Texas.

Freshly Made Leaf

I'm back! I have missed being part of a team for a while, so I asked my Freshly Made Sketches ladies if I could try to join back in. I am hoping to keep up this time now that Laila can be a bit more independent. We shall see how it goes. :)  This week's sketch is from the awesome Linda and I had fun playing around with it. I used some old Stampin' Up! supplies that you might recognize. I believe that the leaves set actually came from Linda, so it was perfect.

Have a wonderful Wednesday and be sure to check out the inspiration from the other stampers and come play along! 

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

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!

Coffee Lovers Blog Hop: Winter Edition

Leave it to the Winter Coffee Lover's Blog Hop to draw me out of my crafting avoidance.  It's been a month since I've really made anything, so this was a challenge.  I had to restamp and redo so many things.  I did finally get it fnished though.  It may not be the best card I've made, but I'm happy I made something.

I hope you all have been doing well.  We are hanging in there.  I finally went back to the doctor to get some of my medicine changed.  Yesterday started the new one, so I hope that will help.  Laila is continuing her cooperative play group.  It was a rough month with that last month.  We finally have her evaluation scheduled for next month.  Jason's working a ton as always.  My mom comes on Thursday of next week to spend the rest of the year with us, so we are all excited about that.  It can get lonely with just the three of us on holidays.  

My beautiful quilt my mom made us is now on the bed.  Laila loves it.  :)

DTGD 2016 Day 3

Back for more cards.  Laila went to school today so I spent the morning stamping!  It was nice and relaxing.  :)   You knew I'd have to pull out the coffee stuff soon and here it is.  :)  I tried Copic no-line coloring which is HARD peole.  H-A-R-D!   I used a set of 5 E40 somethings to get some different, yet cooridanting shades of brown. 

Last week I watched an awesome technique video from Kay Miller and I just had to try it out.  It was so fun! I even made two cards because I had so much fun with it.  I used regular Stampin' Up! inks for the ink, so no special inks required.  The stamps are Hero Arts that I got after the holidays on clearance at Michael's.  I'm glad I picked up those up now!  

And lastly, a bit more fun with distress inks!  So fun.  I loved the idea of a stormy day, so I added some grays to my rainy way.  I have a friend who has been having a tough time, so I made this one with her in mind.  The stamps are from WPlus9. 

And that's all for today.  I don't know how much I'll get done tomorrow.  It is Eli's birthday and I never know how I'll wake up and feel about it.   I can't believe he'd be 8 tomorrow.  

Freshly Made Kindness

Sorry I'm so late with my Freshly Made Sketches card this week.  It seems to be a habit lately.  With Laila not going to MDO now, I don't have my Tuesday free to finish it up.   I did try to get it on time, but I made some major duds and had to start over.  Then of course the power went out from storms we had early yesterday morning and then the Internet was out!   Once that all fixed itself, I figured out what I somehow deleted all my computer programs when I tried fixing my laptop after some of the power flickers.  Goodness!  But I managed to figure out a way to at least get it on here, so here it is!   Sorry Jen T, for being late for your awesome sketch!

I used another set that had never seen ink, Paper Smooches Botanicals 3.  It's a fun set of different leaves and flowers.  I am not the best at making backgrounds, but it was fun to try.  I thought I'd add a little gift card for coffee and send it off for a friend.  The sentiment is from an awesome Hero Arts set that is all about kindness.  You should totally add it to your collections to help send out those little random acts that brighten days.  

We went on an awesome field trip this week.  We visited the Houston Police Department's Mounted Patrol and fed the horses.  They will eat carrots right out of your hands!  It was such an amazing experience.  Laila loved it!   

Happy Mail

Greetings!   Pardon any typos.  I'm typing with a puppy "helper" and it's not easy.  lol   Today is our new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  It's a bit different, but I swear I wasn't drinking when I sent it in.  Ha!  For my card I made one using this cute new bear from Stamping Bella.   I needed a card to give our mailman with his cookies I got him so I thought a bear holding a letter might be cute for that.  He works hard delivering the Amazon Prime packages we get a lot, so why not be nice to him, right?  :)  He saves me any trips to the store for things by bringing them.

See?  Kinda crazy, but you can interpret it many ways so give it a shot!  :)  You can do it!  

I'm off to watch an episode of Private Practice before Jason gets home.  It's my new Hulu addiction.  I think I'm up to season three now.  

Four more...three to go!

I'm still working on my Hope You Can Cling To cards!  Down to the wire!  lol  I have until noon tomorrow to finish my last three, so I'm thinking that MAYBE I'll make it.   Here are my last four that I did.  I've been playing around with watercolors and watercolor paper and just having fun with it.  Have a great weekend!   

And oh, if you are interested in getting an occasional card in the mail, leave me your address here.  :) 

 Challenge:  Rainbow

 Challenge:  Orange

 Challenge:  Pink Thank You card

Challenge:  Roses

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.  :)