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. 

Watercolor Deer

Here's another watercolor card I managed to put together.  I'm so behind on birthday cards.  This is going to be a month late, but I hope my dad still likes it.  My mom's birthday is coming up, so I'm hoping to just bundle a gift card for a dinner date and both their cards in one package.  Maybe I can be better for Mother's and Father's Days.  :)   Pretty simple card, green watercolors, deer cut out from Cameo, and a sentiment from Stampin' Up!

On Monday, eight of our butterflies eclosed from their chrylasides.  It was so exciting to see that process and release them.  We had one late one come out yesterday and we released her as well.  Laila loved the whole process. Now we are waiting on six more to eclose next week and we have a lot of caterpillars eating us out of house and home.  :)

Stampin' Up! Branch Out

I didn't get to stamp yesterday, but I still have another card that I haven't shared with you yet.  This is another Dare to Get Dirty challenge card. I don't know if I'll get anymore made for the challenges, but I've had a lot of fun so far.  For this one I used two favorite stamps, Hardwood and Branch Out (Thanks, Pat!).   The window is from my Cameo.  That thing sure comes in handy!   Chocolate Chip and Island Indigo are a very lovely color combination aren't they?

Laila's Hope Calendar pictures were yesterday and we got a little preview of them already.  They turned out great!   Debi is just such a great photographer.   After the pictures wasn't good and we had a bit of a rough day, but we survived and are here to try another day!

Post by Debi Gomez, Life's Images Photography.

Robots and Blackberry Bliss

Still working away at the Dare to Get Dirty challenges!   I am enjoying them and finding myself very motivated to stamp.  That's a good thing!    This one was super fun to make.  It uses a lot of stuff!  Stampin' Up! paper in Pacific Point and Basic Black, Lawn Fawn stamps, and some cuts from my Silhouette Cameo.  

Also for the challenges.  I LOVE this one.  I admit that I am not a fan of gold, but I am loving how it looks with Blackberry Bliss.   I totally recommend that you try that combination and soon.  :)  

With this new email program I have, I get notifications of when people subscribe and unsubscribe to my blog.  It seems to more of the latter lately and I feel bad.  I hope you guys aren't getting tired of Laila or my projects.  I am guessing it is partly because I've decided to branch out a bit and use a wide range of products instead of only Stampin' Up!   I'm still a demo and will be for a while, but I am now buying and stamping with what I like.   If it's SU, that's great...if it's not, that's great too.   This is really just a hobby for me and I'm just having fun.   I hope you'll continue to find inspiration in my work and remember, you can always be inspired and make it your own with whatever products YOU love.  :) 

Merry Monday Cocoa

It's Monday, so I have one more card to share for Merry Monday before my month with them is over.  (Sad face)   It's been fun getting to play in some Christmas challenges when it's super hot outside.  :)   This week Debbie challenged us to use food on our cards.  I couldn't find anything on my stamp shelf that would work, so I went back to my Cameo again.   I hope hot cocoa counts as a food. Maybe if we pretend there's marshmallows in it?  I know I love it around the holidays!  

Jason made a face at my card, so I know it's not quite my usual work.  I had a rough morning running out of adhesive and dealing with a hurting shoulder.  I thought life would be easier to let my Cameo do all the work.  Easier yes, but the results...   Cards definitely need stamping to be liked in our house I guess. 

I hope you'll join us this week and whip up a yummy card! 

Here's Laila cooking some yummy lunch this week. 

Merry Monday Flourished Poinsettia

Merry Monday!!!!!   I know, I know.  Mondays are usually blah, but starting the week off with a festive Christmas card can be a good pick-me-up.   The Merry Monday Challenge is perfect for that.  Bonnie has a great challenge this week to use flowers on your holiday project.   It was a bit of a challenge for me in that I don't really have any stamps that would work.   Thankfully my Cameo came to the rescue and I managed to whip up a card.  (It's design #36525 at the Silhouette Online Store in case you need that info.)   I went super simple and let the flourishes of the flower and sentiment shine.

Gorgeous inspiration photo, right?!    I hope you'll be inspired to play along this week! 

We recently started buying produce from a local farm and I think Laila really likes it.  :)   

Wednesday Stamp Club

I can't believe I finally have something to post.  I have been so blah all weekend and haven't stamped much at all.  I had big plans going in about all these cards I wanted to make and then NOTHING.  I tried stamping yesterday and messed up some paper and quit.  Then today I just wasn't motivated to go back at all.  I decided to go back in and try one last time to get this card finished up and here's what I ended up with.  It wasn't what I had in mind when I went to make it, so I'm not sure about it.  I did use my much neglected Cameo at least.   :-)   This is for the awesome sketch at the MFT Wednesday Stamp Club.  

I'm so worn out from staying up to watch some of the March Madness games, so I'm hoping for an early bedtime tonight.   *yawn*  I'll try to catch The Walking Dead with Jason and then crash out.  

On Friday we got Laila a little table and chairs from IKEA.  She seems to like it so far, so yay!  

Before I sign off, I wanted to make sure everyone knew that Sale-a-Bration is almost over.  It ends tomorrow and so does our current quarter at Stampin' Up!   If anyone needs anything at all, please consider dropping by my online store.   I need another $50 in sales for the quarter and that's just enough to earn a free item for Sale-a-Bration!   Perfect! 

Freshly Made Flower

It's Wednesday and time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.   Amy is our hostess this week and she had a trendy sketch with some fun angled panels for us this week.   It's one that's totally out of my comfort zone, but I love how my card turned out.  :)   Black and Pool Party are such an awesome combo!  I added in some Sweet Sorbet paper (free during Sale-a-bration) and a lovely layered flower that I cut with my Cameo.  Easy, but I think the colors make it a pretty striking card!

I can't wait to see the gallery this week.  So many possibilities!  

We just bought Laila a water table to play with outside and it was warm enough on Saturday for her to play.  She LOVED it.  She played for about 2 hours nonstop!  Unfortunately it's been all bad weather since then, but we hope for that to go away so we can splish splash some more! 

Freshly Made Feathers

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!  Karren created this awesome one for us this week.  I think you can interpret it a few different ways and I'm hoping she doesn't mind what I did with it.  lol  Every time I see a project with feathers I think "Feathers?  Really?   I could never use feathers on a card."  Sounds like a challenge, huh?   When I saw the sketch I totally went right to the idea.  I had a file for my Cameo that I hadn't used yet and it totally worked for what I needed.   Yay!

Island Indigo and Pool Party is one of my most favorite color combinations of all time.  I love it.   I am such a blue girl when it comes to making cards.  My sentiment looked so, so wrong in the top corner (ask me how I know...made this card twice!) so I did move it to the bottom.   It just had to happen.

This is how I know she's mine.  Nosy.  lol  We've had a rough week again already.   I really struggle with her and it seems to be getting worse.  I think part of it is my mental state and part of is the insanity that is toddlers.  I am hoping my doctors have some ideas for the depression/anxiety that's going on.  Too bad I couldn't get appointments with either of them until April.   Not good, but what can you do?  

Watercolor Flower

Sharing my card for day two of the stencil class.  I'm having so much fun now that I've just relaxed and decided to play around and see what happens.  My projects won't be perfect or spectacular, but sometimes that's not the point, right?   This is a Silhouette Cameo heavy card.  I cut the letters and even the stencil I used with it.  Cool, huh?  

It's a gorgeous day here in Texas!   Laila had a blast playing in the backyard.  :)

Stampin' Up! Hardwood for FMS

 

I'm the hostess with definitely NOT the mostest this week at Freshly Made Sketches.  I was totally thinking sunflower and then I saw the inspiration photo at Fusion and went a different direction.  I think it would have been prettier in browns and yellows now that I look at it.  Hindsight, right?!  lol I do love the new Hardwood background.  It's one of the best stamps we've ever had I think. 

 

I am really looking forward to seeing the entries this week.  I just love cards with banners!

 

Stamps:  Hardwood

Ink:  Smoky Slate

Paper:  Basic Gray, Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Old Olive

Accessories:  Glimmer brads

Tools:  Silhouette Cameo, Big Shot, Decorative Dots TIEF (SAB)

 



 

She looks happy here, huh?  lol  I guess she really likes pasta!   We did have a great day on Monday, but yesterday not so much.   I don't know if it was me in a bad mood or her being more difficult than usual, but it was rough.  Tomorrow she has her 18 month checkup and Bandit goes for his test.  It is just one of those weeks.  You know those weeks where you really, really wished you liked wine.  Ha!

Love for Freshly Made Sketches

Time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!   One of our newest members, Cindy L. is showing off her first sketch this week.  Be sure to play along and leave her some love for this fun and challenging design!   For my card, I used My Digital Studio, my e-cutter, and regular supplies.

• Brights Designer Series Paper Stack
• Neutrals Candy Dots
• Red Glimmer Paper
• Basic Black 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Real Red 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Hearts Collection Framelits Dies
• e-cutter

I snapped a quick photo with my phone while we were at the cemetery yesterday and it turned out so amazing.   Laila knows Eli's name and ran up to his headstone saying his name.  It's sad, but I hope we do okay teaching her about him.   

FMS118: What Does He Say?

Time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!   We took a nice break off for the holiday, but we are back with this great sketch from Jen Mitchell.    I love it and I loved using my Christmas gift to make my card!   I am really liking my Cameo a lot!  

For my card I used a file I bought from the Silhouette website.   I got a gift card with my bundle, so I figured I should use it and get some fun things to cut out.   I think this card will be a huge hit with the younger crowd because of that annoying song that we hear way too much. I used some new projects from the Occasions catalog, the Just Sayin' stamp set and the Arrows embossing folder. 

Laila loves snowmen, so she was super excited when she saw this gift box.  :)   She was also excited about her pack pack that her aunt got her.  She's just like me now with her own Vera Bradley!  

I'm off to the Stampin' Up! Leadership conference later today, so I'll be back with lots of pictures and excitement this weekend!