Dare to Get Dirty Day Something or Other

I'm back!  This card here totally derailed my creativity.  I struggled forever to find a layout that worked and tore it apart several times.  I had to color the girl a couple times.  It almost made me give on the challenges, but I'm back in the game now.  :)  I love this sweet little image.  Perfect get well card for a tea lover.

I've been trying to play with my watercolors a bit more, so this one is pretty simple.  A watercolor wash and then the die cut and sentiment.  I decided to add some sequins because I have so many!

I woke up at 5am today and couldn't go back to sleep. I figured I'd come color a bit.  I ended up with this card.  I love these little critters and it's been ages since I'd used them.  I don't have a lot of birthday cards for kids, so this will be gladly added to my stash. 

And finally this guy.  I don't have a clue about steampunk, but I found this image and thought it would be the closest to my style that I'd find.  It was fun and HARD to color, but I did it!  Whew!

I'm off to shower and then head out to the doctor.  It's a rainy blah day, so maybe I'll get more cards made when I get back.  :) 

MFT Card Challenges 342

Laila is already talking about Halloween, so I thought I'd get ahead of the game and make her a card.  I hope to sneak it in her backpack or lunchbox. :) I used the new sketch at MFT Card Challenges and a cute MFT Pure Innocence girl.  I got brave and used my neglected Cameo for the web and bats.  The background is Distress Oxide inks in Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, and Wilted Violet.

For the past two weeks, Laila has been with a new counselor at her social skills group.  She has been awesome and so helpful with suggestions to try at home.  It seems to be working pretty good, so I'm happy for that.  It's still far from perfect, but we'll take any improvement.  They do a lot of practice like transitions, standing in line, sitting and going work at a table, sharing...all good things that will help her transition to school.  I can't believe it is only five weeks until she'll be a kindergartner. 

MFT Card Challenges 340

Titling this one The Card That Took All Day.  I swear every time I sat down to work on it someone needed help with something.  Anyway... this is my entry for the MFT Card Challenges sketch this week.  I was a bit stumped at first, but I finally got an idea and went with it.  I don't have a lot of outdoorsy friends, so I added the dogs. I have lots of dog loving friends.  :)  I like that you can easily mix little elements of the Pure Innocence sets.

I think I got close enough.  I couldn't figure out how to make it work any other way since I didn't have that circle shape.  It looked awful when I tried to just cut off the bottom.  

Now I'm off to clean my desk back up.  It is a tad bit messy.  

Purrfect Purple Cat

I'm still working on August birthday cards.  Today I focused on a sweet friend who loves cats. She's super girly, but I just can't do pink so I went with a good girl color, PURPLE!   I used the new sketch at MFT Card Challenges along with a cute MFT Pure Innocence stamp.  :)

Stamps: MFT Purrfect
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Ranger Dusty Concord distress ink
Paper:  (not sure of the purple, but it's retired Stampin' Up!), Neenah Solar White
Dies:  My Favorite Things Blueprints 27 and 22, Lil' Inker Stitched Rectangles
Copics:  E000, E00, E11, R20, E31, E33, E36, E37, V12, V15, V17, W0, W1, W3, W5, W7

So update on life chaos:  Bandit seems to be feeling better minus some weird breathing. I'm calling tomorrow to follow up on that since he will be finishing up his antibiotics.  We found out today that Laila was accepted at the montessori school we applied to and will start next week!  So yay!  Tomorrow we have another assessment with the public school system and go meet her teacher again at the montessori school.  Send good thoughts! :)

MFT Purrfect for HYCCT

Meow!   :)   I love this cute set from My Favorite Things and I thought it would be perfect for the two challenges I worked on yesterday.   MFT has a great sketch at their challenge blog this week so I started off my card with that in mind.   The second is another Hope You Can Cling To challenge which asks us to use an image of a hand or our actual hand to make a card.   I am not quite brave enough for fingerpainting on my card, so I picked a cute Pure Innocence set with a visible hand.  Who wouldn't love a cute kitten being held by a sweet girl?  :)  I'm also sharing with Simon Says Stamp's World Cardmaking Day post.

Stamps:  MFT Pure Innocence Puurfect (retired)

Paper:  Neenah Solar White, Stampin' Up! Smoky Slate

Ink:  Memento Black, Stampin' Up! Smokey Slate, Copics

Tools/Embellishments:  Lil' Inker Stitched Retangles and Squares, Paper Smooches Paw Print die

Speaking of cats...  Laila was brave and got her face painted today at the festival we went to!  She picked out a cat face and did a great job being patient and sitting for it.  We were very proud of her.  :)   She didn't want to wash it off at all tonight.   Poor dear.   

You're Purrrfect!

I tried to stamp a bit this weekend to work out of the funk I seem to be in and it did help.  I feel a lot better mentally and have some new cards to send out to friends.  Win, win!  I played along with the MFT Card Challenges sketch.  I hadn't used this cute Pure Innocence stamp and thought it was time to try coloring it.   I seem to have a lot of cat loving friends, so it's a great stamp to make cards for friends.  :)

I did do a *bit* of interpreting for the sketch so I hope that's okay.   :)  

I'm so happy she finally lets me take her picture again.  She's at such an adorable stage with her little curls and cute smile.