'Tis the Season 9: Ornament Keepsakes

Don't blink!  That is definitely a Christmas card you're seeing.  :)   Holly at 'Tis the Season asked me to be a guest designer for their 9th challenge.  They have a color challenge going on this week, so drop by and play if you get a chance!  

I used my Ornament Keepsakes set and some Iridescent Ice embossing powder to make a sparkly ornament.  This was one of those ever evolving cards because I kept messing up.  First I stamped the sentiment crooked so that got a new layer.  Then I moved the bow and tore the white so a ribbon hanger got added.  I decided I'd better leave it alone before anything else happened.  

I can't believe how long her hair is getting.  SO crazy!   It's been a very, very, VERY rough week here.  Tuesday night she wouldn't go to bed until almost 9.  Then she was back up from 1-4.  And then up for the day at 7:30.  Jason and I were so worn out yesterday.   We go for her 18th month checkup today, so I hope it's all good news.  Bandit will be getting a biopsy done on his spleen on Tuesday, so keep sending good thoughts our way.  I will have to take Laila with me when I drop him off and pick him up, so it should be interesting.  Oh to have family close by....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving...with a Christmas card?   Sorry...it's all I have to show.  lol   I wasn't going to even post this one as I am a bit embarrassed about it, but my FMS teammate Jen Timko told me it was cute.  I'm curious to hear what you think?   I almost sat out this week at Freshly Made Sketches because I didn't want to post this one.  Thankfully I had time to make another card that I did like better.   I keep looking at this one, but I don't like any better now than I did on Tuesday.

I have some news to share today to make up for that awful card.  I was asked to be part of the Stamp Review Crew!  It is going to be a fabulous blog hop that will give you lots of ideas as we are featuring one set each hop.  Our first hop is Monday, so be sure to tune in for that!

Jason has to work early in the morning, so we put up the tree yesterday instead of tonight.  I hate breaking our tradition, but I want him to be able to rest after cooking today.   Laila is very fascinated with the tree and likes to tell us what all the ornaments are.  

Stampin' Up! Ornament Keepsakes #2

Miss Laila is napping so after I grabbed a quick shower, I headed to my room to stamp.   :)  Yay!  I decided to tackle this week's Mojo Monday sketch.  It's a fun one for sure.  I used a lot of the supplies that were still on my desk from yesterday's card, so it's another strange Christmas color scheme.

I love my square framelits for these kind of cards.  They make it so much easier!  

Stamps:  Ornament Keepsakes, Pennant Parade

Ink:  Basic Black

Paper:  Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Modern Medley DSP

Accessories:  Basic Black 1/4 grosgrain ribbon (retired), Neutrals buttons (retired), linen thread

Tools:  Big Shot, Square Framelits, Ornament Framelits

I hear a little voice in the monitor, so I'm off to get my girl.  I hope you all have a great Monday and fabulous week.  :)

Stampin' Up! Ornament Keepsakes

Man.  It's been a rough week here. I don't think I slept much Thursday or Friday nights and was so worn out. I have been trying to sleep every time Laila naps so that means NO stamping.  :-/    Thankfully the diaper rash that's kept us up is almost all healed and I slept great last night and took a nap today!  That means I was able to stamp some today.  I decided to play along with CAS(E) this Sketch and Dynamic Duos.  

   
I wasn't sure about black and gray for a Christmas cared, but I figured I'd give it a shot.   I think it turned out so elegant!  I love it.  I had originally intended to use a tree image, so I embossed the black in the woodgrain folder.  I hope it doesn't look bad with the ornament.  I still liked it and left it.

Stamps: Ornament Keepsakes, Pennant Parade
Ink:  Basic Black, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Basic Black, Smoky Slate, Whisper White
Accessories:  Basic Black Chevron ribbon, Large Rhinestones
Tools:  Big Shot, Woodgrain EF, Ornament Framelits

We had French toast for dinner tonight and let Laila try a bit of maple syrup.  It makes an excellent hair product.  ;)

Stampin' Up! Ornament Keepsakes

I'm sure you weren't expecting me back so soon.  :)   Jason was wonderful about giving me a break the past few days to just go in my room and attempt to stamp.  I think we both know that stamping is my therapy and that avoiding it has not been good.   Thankfully October is here so I have a great reason to go stamp.  The Hope You Can Cling To challenges have started on Splitcoast!  Last year doing all the challenges and mailing my cards off brought so much joy to my life that I thought I'd do it again.  So, here's the first one!  

Lydia was the hostess and here's a link to her challenge.  It reads like this:

My challenge to you is to make a card with inner strength - meaning that a dimensional image on the inside of your card can be seen through an opening in the front of your card. 

Dimensional ideas include:

-Popping an image or element up on a dimensional
-Stamping an image on the inside of the card with heat embossing for dimension
-Adding a rhinestone or glitter to the inside image

I used the Ornament Keepsakes bundle I bought last year and have rarely used.  It seemed perfect for her challenge.  I kept the colors traditional and the rest of the card pretty simple.  What do you think?  

Here's the inside: 

Stamps:  Ornament Keepsakes, Petite Pairs

Ink:  Real Red, Old Olive

Paper:  Real Red, Old Olive, Whisper White

Accessories:  Real Red satin ribbon (retired), Ginormous and Basic Rhinestones

Tools:  Big Shot, Ornament framelits

One thing that really had me down this week as a trip to the cemetery.  I don't know what it is lately, maybe because we keep learning more and more what we missed out on with Eli, but I'm struggling to go out there.  It's an hour drive each way and the dread going and sadness coming back are rough.   We went on Monday though and here's what we found:

Instead of mowing and trimming, they are now mowing and then spraying Roundup around the headstones.  We didn't know that and honestly, we are not finding that acceptable at all.  The cemetery is a small one owned by the 100 year old church that sits next door, so I'm not sure how to go about getting this fixed.  The maintenance is done by volunteers from what I can gather from the lady I talked to.  I hope we can figure out something or else I'm going going to have to move my boy.  Jason went back out with his sister Monday evening and fought the rain and mosquitoes to try and fix things.

Much better.  He added rocks and then mulch to try and kill any weeds that would be sprayed.  I hope we can keep the harmful chemicals away so that Laila can actually get down.  I sure don't want her walking around in them, nor do I want my baby's burial place looking like that.  :-/    My heart is still hurting from seeing things like that.   Jason's parents are also buried there and theirs was even worse looking.  So, so sad.

Just checking in...

Sorry guys!  I'm still here!  Just a busy weekend that ended up with a not so lovely stomach virus or food poisoning.  Not sure which, but either way it was NOT fun!   I am all better now, but that meant today was full of errands and then a rush to make my card for Freshly Made Sketches!  Yikes!   I finished, so I think I'm still on the team.  lol   Anyway, I finally took a better picture of our club card and wanted to post it.   It was quite a hit and I think almost everyone bought the super awesome Natural Composition DSP.  Do you have it yet?  If not, GET IT!  

Seriously, can you imagine how impressed your friends would be to get this in the mail and find out that you MADE it!   That's why I just love Stampin' Up! so much.  It's easy to put together beautiful creations like this.   I'll be sending this one out early to my sweet friend Marla to thank her for encouraging me to use it as a club card.  It's awesome to have fellow demonstrators to share ideas with.   (Thanks, iPhones!)

Stamps:  Ornament Keepsakes

Ink:  Midnight Muse, Versamark

Paper: Midnight Muse, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Natural Composition DSP

Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Ornament framelits, heat tool, Iridescent Ice embossing powder, Festive paper piecing pack, Basic Rhinestones, Midnight Muse stitched ribbon

Lately there has been a war of sorts between baby and cat.   They either want to lay on her blanket OR they want to play with her toys.   Bandit is particularly fond of this soft blanket, so if we forget and leave it spread out, we'll find him all stretched out on it.

Stamp Club

It's time for stamp club again this week!  I went to extremes this time, a simple card (above) and a fancier card which I'll post below.  This simple card features Gently Falling, one of my favorite sets!  I used the layout and idea from Maile's card and Tami's technique to get this one to come together.   

I am excited to share a few techniques with my group and I hope they will enjoy learning them.  I seriously have the best group of ladies anyone could ask for.  They are always so excited to come and spend time together.  There's no bickering (yay) but lots of sharing, laughing, and eating!  It just doesn't get any better than that, right?   Here's our second card (sorry for the Instagram photo; I'm being lazy tonight): 

 Isn't it gorgeous?  I just love this paper and I LOVE Midnight Muse!  It's such an awesome color!  

Edited to add, the paper here is the Natural Composition paper.   I had a few emails about it but no way to contact the people asking.  If you have a question about any of my cards, please email me.  Just leaving a comment on my blog doesn't always allow me to email you back; it just depends on how you have your profile set up whether your email address is included or not.   I am not the best at answering, I'll go ahead and tell you that.  Laila is requiring more and more attention so my time is limited for stamping, blogging, and email.   I can only imagine how it will be once she's mobile!  Yikes!

Laila decided she must hold the book herself while we were reading.  Umm...yeah.  I guess she's having vision troubles and had to get it closer to read?   So silly.   I'm going to try to add a video below but I don't know if it will work or not.   It's pretty funny!  

Mashuped Up Ornament

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge:

1. Make a project with a "Christmas Ornament".
2. Or Make a project with some "Sparkle".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a "Christmas Project with some Sparkle".

Amanda has a fun challenge at the Friday Mashup this week.   With October over halfway gone, it's time to get serious about those Christmas cards and this challenge is perfect to get started.   I am embarrassed to say that I had not inked up my Ornament Keepsakes bundle, so I just had to pull it out for this challenge!   I combined it with Bev's HYCCT challenge and here's the description for it:  Make a card (or project) using lots of sparkle. You know how much glitter you usually use (a little spot here or there)? Double it! Triple it. Shimmer and shake it, baby! We want to see your sparkle! 

I really loved Erna's card last week for my sketch at Freshly Made Sketches, so I inspired to try the sketch and ornament for myself.  I don't know why, but I was in a one color mode the day I put this one together.   I do love Island Indigo, so it was an easy choice.  The sparkle isn't showing up in my picture, but the ornament is embossed in Iridescent Ice embossing powder and there's some homemade shimmer mist on the Very Vanilla background.  It's pretty sparkly in real life, trust me!  :)

LOL  This was the end of the pumpkin patch for the day!