Fab Cute Critters

Happy Sunday! It's a rainy one here, so we are inside trying to find things to occupy us. lol Laila just got a new bike, so she's bummed about not being able to ride it. She did get to some this morning at least. I colored a little this weekend and enjoyed this cute new to me set. I played along with a few challenges, the sketch at Fab Friday, Cute Card Thursday, and 2 Crafty Critter Crazies. Who doesn't love critter cards? :)

I think that's all from me. We are having chicken tacos and guacamole for dinner, so I need to go get the Instant Pot going! This recipe is delicious. :)

Stampin' Up! Indescribable Gift

Easter... :) It's my favorite holiday and I've decided to use my stamps and paper during March. Oh, and to actually mail out the cards! I have been awful at mailing anything this year, so I hope to change that. I used the gorgeous Indescribable Gift set from Stampin' Up! with my Copics. I love this set so much!!  I don't love my pink Copics, but I like to challenge myself to use them every now and then.

She cracks me up sometimes. :) She had two awesome days at school to end the week last week. We decided to add in something new, some mixed martial arts. They are very serious about respect, so I think it will be good for her. She seems to like it when she's not off to the side for not listening or being respectful. lol

FMS 314: Santa

Oops! I managed to make a card (an awful one, but oh well) for Freshly Made Sketches and forgot to post it! I love this old Naughty or Nice set from Stampin' Up!  The Santa is so cute. I need to go back and add the naughty or nice sentiment to it somewhere I think.  Narelle's sketch is awesome, so try to come play along after your Thanksgiving nap!

Have a wonderful day! F

Falliday French Foliage

Hey guys! Happy Monday! I've been stamping, but I haven't had time to do posts or upload. I moved my room around and had to set back up my light tent and computer. Jason helped me and I'm finally back up and running! This card is one for the Falliday Fest challenges on Splitcoast. We were asked to use a technique that starts with the same letter as our first name. I haven't done rock and roll in a while, so I decided to grab French Foliage and try it! I need to practice! lol

A pretty Gulf Fritillary from this weekend. I think my butterfly raising is about over. We have a few eggs in the garden, but I need a break. I have one Giant Swallowtail left to feed, but after that it's just waiting on the others to come out and then clean up all my equipment.  I need the break. It's been fun, but it is seriously a lot of work!

For those who asked about the moon background on my MFT Witch Way is the Candy card, it's just a background made on watercolor paper with Brusho crystals. I made it when I first got them and was trying to figure them out. I had put the results in my to-use bin and finally found a way to use them!

Stampin' Up! Dragonfly Dreams Inspiration

Splitcoast has weekly challenges, a different one every day.  I saw the Inspiration challenge on Saturday and thought I'd play along. I found this pillow and used it for my inspiration.  There's a lot of stamp sets going on here.  Stampin' Up! Best Thoughts, Dragonfly Dreams, and French Foliage, plus a Stampers Anonymous set called Papillon. It was fun to try to make and I think I need to remember to do that challenge every week if I can. :)

When we went shopping last week for school clothes Laila found one of her favorites, THE PIGEON!  She loves the Mo Willems books so much, so I had to get it for her. :) I can't believe how well she's reading. She read me a huge book of fairy tales yesterday.

And thank you guys who commented about keeping the blog going. I have a month or so before I have to pay Go Daddy again, so that gives me some time to see how things go once Laila starts school. My garden needs a lot of work after the summer heat, so that might keep me busy.  Plus I am determined to donate like half of our house.  The clutter is making my mental health issues much worse.  I can't wait to get stuff out of here and the rest organized.

And before I go, I thought I'd share a Gulf Fritillary butterfly.  We have so many caterpillars for this guy!  I only have a few in my enclosures because they make their chrysalises in places that make me have to move them and I'm afraid of hurting one.  We also have close to 20 Monarch caterpillars who are almost all in their chrysalis, plus about 5 Eastern Black Swallowtails who are still eating away. They are my favorite butterfly and I deal with the awful smell of dill on my hands to feed them. (I hate dill and all pickles!)  It's been a lot of work, but we love raising and releasing them.

I hope your Monday is going well.  Little Lady was on my shoulders kneading my arms to let me know she needed attention at 5:15 today.  I've had two coffees and am hanging in there.  Maybe I'll sleep well tonight after being up so early. :)

Stampin' Up! Swallowtail

Hey! I'm back. :) Believe it or not, I managed to finish all 35 of the Dare to Get Dirty challenges.  I didn't think I would as I ran out of steam on Sunday, but I jumped back in on Monday and Tuesday and finished.  It was work, but yay! Now I have to send out all the birthday cards that I missed while I was stamping. Oops!

I love this giant Swallowtail stamp.  I didn't buy it when it was current in the catalog, but I think a nice friend might have gifted it to me.  I can't remember who though. I swear I struggle with memory, sometimes to the point that I almost make a doctor's appointment for it.  Anyway...  I used just the regular distress inks and painted them on with my fingers.  I added water to the paper, pressed the ink pads on my craft mat, spritzed those, and then painted away.  My fingers were only red for four days or so after. Ha! I did dry it at that point and then lay it on the leftover inks to give it more of the water splattery look.  Now I'm making up words...

Wednesday evening Laila went out to play and I noticed she was awfully quiet and not running in and out like she usually does.  I walked out and found her like this, sitting in the middle of mud.  She was having a blast.  I let her play until time for pajamas and then shooed her into the shower to wash that off.  I'm sure my washing machine is now full of sand from washing those clothes.  I debated about just throwing them away because they were gross! Today we went swimming with a friend.  She had so much fun! Jason ended up signing her up for weekly swim classes, so fingers crossed she cooperates and has fun. We start next Friday.

I'm off to finish listing some stuff on eBay and cleaning my room.  I'm hoping to have a giveaway on my blog soon, so stay tuned!

Stampin' Up! Fall Leaf

I think I got stuck in Fall mode. lol I won a prize in the Coffee Lovers Hop from The Heart Desires and I got this awesome plaid stencil and Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide ink.  I played around with a fun water stamping technique I saw on Jennifer McGuire's blog and man is it fun!  I am so excited for cooler weather.  SO READY for it. I'm about to have to pull a lot of struggling plants from my garden because they hate this weather.  As do I.

Come back tomorrow for a new Freshly Made Sketches sketch AND another new to me technique that was also super awesome to do!

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Truly Grateful, SU Wonderfall
Ink: Distress Oxides Spiced Marmalade, Fossilized Amber, Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso Distress Ink, Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip
Stencil: Carta Bella Plaid #1

Stampin' Up! Branch Out

Playing along with the weekly color challenge over at Splitcoast. It was olive, suede, and gold, but I had to substitute because I don't have gold.  I feel like a one person anti-gold club.  lol I love silver, but I've never purchased gold paper that I can remember.  I don't know if I even have gold embossing powder.  It's probably gross by now if I do.

This card was a bit of a blast from the past for me. It's more the original style I started out as. And it's only Stampin' Up! products too.  I've been trying to declutter my room and figure out what I want to keep and what to donate/sell, so I thought I'd play around with some stuff before I decided on them. I'd never get rid of Branch Out EVER, but some inks and paper might have to go.  I have so much.  I may hang on to it for a while and see if I need it when I volunteer with the PTO this fall. Or maybe not. lol SO MUCH STUFF.

We haven't had any pictures of Laila done in ages because she just won't cooperate. Last month we went home to Kentucky to visit with family and I had my cousin try to do some.  She didn't cooperate of course, but he did manage to get a few good shots. Not posed studio ones, but ones that reflect her I feel.

Now I'm off to bed. It's been a long week and I'm pooped. Laila has play therapy at 8am, so we'll be getting up early.  Yawn

IC599: Stampin' Up! Butterfly Basics

I sat down to stamp today and yet again, felt lost on what to make.  I decided to go back to where I started, Splitcoast Stampers.  I haven't been over there for a while, but there are always great challenges.  Today's challenge is the Inspiration Challenge.  There's a link to a Pinterest board of gorgeous baskets to take inspiration from.  I chose this basket and wanted to use the Butterfly Basics stamp set.  I am in a mood to use butterflies and cats.  I actually NEED some cat stamps, so I'm on the lookout for some cute ones.  :) I have a lot of cat loving friends I like to make cards for but not that many choices to use.

The background is the Watercolor Wash background from Stampin' Up! I find it fun to play around with that one to see what looks you can get.  I inked it with Smoky Slate, stamped off, and then sprayed lightly with water before stamping on watercolor paper.  I liked the look. I used that same method on the fern stems.

I'm off to figure out dinner.  Jason finished up Laila's playset today, so he's tired.  I haven't felt the best, but I think I can handle cooking some hot dogs.  :)

Have a great weekend. zIC

Stampin' Up! Lacy & Lovely

One more playing around card.  I love this Lacy & Lovely set and I haven't inked it up in ages.  I found a pretty distress ink combination that I thought would be fun with it.  It didn't turn out that great, but it was more my design than the colors or stamps.  I just can't find my mojo.  :/  If you see it, send it home!

It's been a rough parenting day.  So much defiance.  Yesterday was amazing and awesome, but today has been something else.  We did have three Monarchs eclose and releasing them was at least one highlight for the day.  She starts play therapy on Thursday, so I'm hoping that will help.  I am so nervous about her starting kindergarten.  I just don't think it is going to go well.  She's already asking what happens if she doesn't listen to the teacher.  Sigh.  We are meeting with the principal on Friday to talk about her and her needs.  I hate to get in and sound negative about her, but I do want to be honest.  She is going to be a challenge.  She is also so smart and will be an amazing student if we can get her issues under control.  I hope they can see that.  She gets labeled "that kid" a lot already and I'm probably guilty of doing it myself on the exhausting days like today.  She's way more than that and I just want people to see that.  To see the amazing parts.  

Stampin' Up! Oh Hello

Thought I'd share a card I made this week.  I've been so exhausted, so my creativity stays in bed I think.  I decided to randomly pull a couple sets off my Stampin' Up! shelf to play with, so I did make a couple cards. Nothing exciting, but I tried.  I used the Color Coach for a color combo of Pear Pizzazz, Smoky Slate, and Pool Party.  The layer of gray is actually the Hardwood background stamp.  Hopefully a trip to the doctor will clear up what's going on with me.  I picked up some liquid iron supplements at the store today just in case I'm anemic again.  That's and vitamin D deficient was the culprit last time.

Jason has been working all weekend putting together one of those large outdoor wooden playsets for Laila.  It will be her birthday present from us and my family.  Today was day three and he's still not finished. He did get the swings and slides ready, so she can play for now.  He'll have to wait until he's off again to work on the roof of it. What a project.  She loves it though.

I'm off to do some laundry and maybe have a coffee.  There's a new podcast episode I wanted to listen to, so relaxing to that and a coffee sounds like the perfect way to end a weekend.

Have a great week!

Stampin' Up! Dragonfly Dreams

Believe it or not, I got some crafty stuff done today!  I was so excited to make a card and do a little watercoloring.  I colored this dragonfly last night and wanted to use him for the current sketch at Fab Friday.  The pink background was done with distress inks and the dragonfly colored with Copics.   Dragonflies are so neat.  We have one that visits the garden every now and then.

It's been a weird day here. We were supposed to have rain all day, but not a drop as of 9pm tonight.  They kept moving back the start, so now it's more of a midnight storm.  I'm glad I went ahead and watered my garden.  Jason swears we live in a bubble that keeps our neighborhood dry, so we shall see if we get anything tonight. 

These guys have kept me busy this weekend.  They are almost ready to pupate, but are eating like teenage boys!  One of them managed to escape while I was feeding them on Friday and now we have a chrysalis hanging from Laila's playroom curtains.  I have to climb up and move it to an enclosure tomorrow.  Silly thing.  It's definitely been a busy process this spring.  We have a wide range of forms, from egg to almost ready to eclose.  It's never boring! 

We've also enjoyed watching these guys!  They haven't been by in a few days, so I switched out to homemade nectar today. I had used some I bought at Lowe's and they seem to have left after that.  Hopefully they come back as we love them.  

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! Dragonfly Dreams

Me again!  I forgot about this card!  I made it for a sweet friend for her birthday and had put it under some heavy stuff to flatten it.  Her birthday is today, so oops!  She'll still like it I'm sure.  I used the new Distress Oxide inks for the background and then the Stampin' Up! Dragonfly Dreams bundle for the rest.  The dragonfly has Wink of Stella and Crystal Accents on it, so it's shiny!  I cut a set of wings in vellum to put behind it too.  I love how it turned out!

Is it Friday yet?  This week has been so long!  I joined Weight Watchers this week so I've been trying to be more active.  Today, not so much.  I did do a bit of gardening and walking around plant shopping, so there was that at least.

I added a few plants inside as well.  We haven't had plants in like 14 years because of the cats.  I researched some that are safe for cats, so now we have some!  I love it.

I'm off to read a bit before I crash.  Another long day ahead tomorrow!

Day 2: Stampin' Up! Indescribable Gift

Are you participating in the coloring challenge this month?  Don't know what I'm talking about?  Check it out here.  Today is day two, so you can still jump in!  I colored a cute cat yesterday, but I  haven't put it on a card yet.  Today I colored this beautiful image from Indescribable Gift by Stampin' Up!  This is such a fun image to color.  I couldn't figure out where to put my sentiment, so I decided to use a word die to add some interest.  I cut it out on my panel and again on fun foam and then stacked them.  It's fun to camouflage your sentiment sometimes.

Stamps:  Indescribable Gift
Dies:  My Favorite Things Friends die
Paper:  Stampin' Up! Early Espresso, Neenah Solar White, Authentique Classique Elegant
Copics: B0000, B00, B01, B02, E44, E47, E49, G21, G24, G28

Laila discovered that the shopping carts (we called them buggies back in Kentucky, but I guess in Texas they are carts) at Michael's were just the right size for her to push around. We walked all over the store that day.  :)  She cracks me up.



Happy Almost Friday.

Stampin' Up! Chocolate Bunny

Happy Friday!  It's beautiful weather here in Texas.  It's been a bit warm this week, but that's Texas for you. :)  For some reason, I keep thinking Easter is next month, so I made another Easter card yesterday.  I found my cute chocolate bunny stamp and felt like inking him up.  I wanted to try making up some card kits to sell on Ebay, so this may be the first one I try.  We'll see.  Sometimes selling and shipping is difficult with Miss Laila.  Don't you love the Perfect Plum and Wild Wasabi together?  I haven't been a big fan of the plum even though purple is my favorite color. Not sure why, but I do love Elegant Eggplant and Concord Crush.

Yesterday we ventured out to the Houston Museum of Natural Science.  It was so crowded with kids on field trips, so it was a little stressful.  We did find a sanctuary in the butterfly center though. It was nice and quite, not crowded, and there were butterflies everywhere!  They have to look you over before you leave to make sure you don't have any on you.  It was just amazing.  Laila loved it and so did I.  I didn't take my good camera, but I sure will next time!

Stampin' Up! Barnyard Babies

Barnyard Babies is an adorable set from Stampn' Up! that I just loved when I saw it.  Now once I got it, I was clueless!  After reading Animal Farm this week, I was inspired to pull it out and try to make something.  My little animals are way cuter than some of them in the book.  :)  This wasn't a challenge card or anything like that, just playing around. It's nice to do that sometimes.

Now I'm off to rest.  I volunteered early this morning and it was a lot of lifting and moving boxes, so I'm worn out.  I did sneak in a nap this afternoon, so I should get a few episodes of my current Netflix show in.  Have you guys watched American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson?  I'm a true crime junkie, so I was excited when it was one of the new shows they added in February.  I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I acutally have a master's degree in forensic science.  I've always been interested in it, but I do wish I had went the criminilogy route instead of the science one.  I don't handle the sight of blood very well and get light-headed when I see it. That's probably a good thing to know before you pick a career.  Oops!

Have a great weekend!

Freshly Made Sketches 275

Happy Discounted Chocolate Day!  :)   I managed to get myself together this week to play along with my amazing ladies at Freshly Made Sketches.  Our Queen of Layers, Narelle, is the hostess this week.  Her card is awesome and layered, so be sure you go check it out.  :)   The rest of the team made some pretty amazing cards too.  I'm a bit in awe of their creativity this week!

Do you have some of those stamp sets that you got because it was cute, but then it was hard to use?  And you almost never used it?  Yeah, that was this set from Stampin' Up! called Crazy Mixed-Up Love for me. I challenged myself to use it this week and I did it!  Yay!  I managed to find a stamp and embossing folder that helped shed some light on things.  lol

Laila was so excited about Valentine's Day.  It's probably my second least favorite holiday, with Christmas being first, but I tried to make it fun for her today.  Jason worked, so I took Laila to dinner as my valentine.  She loved her little gifts and flowers, so it was a nice day for us both.  Jason got me roses and a fancy coffee grinder.  I love how yummy the coffee smells when it's freshly ground.  I hope your day was nice as well. 

CAS(E) this Sketch 208

Can you believe it is almost Valentine's Day?  It's not a holiday that I particularly like, but I wanted to make a couple of cute cards to send to friends.  I loved the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch, so I thought my little animals would work with it.  My friend loves squirrels, so I need to find a couple more stamps so that she doesn't get sick of seeing this one.  :)  It's from The Greeting Farm, while the sentiment is a Stampin' Up! one.

Isn't that a fun sketch?  I always love to see the new ones from this challenge.  They always get my brain thinking.  

We had some nice not-too-hot weather yesterday, so we headed down to the beach.  Laila had a blast! She was covered in sand and ruined her shoes, but she sure had fun doing it.  Yesterday was one of the few family outings that I can remember where nobody got mad and there were no meltdowns.  It was so wonderful.  

Fab Friday 105

Hey!  Did everyone survive that Super Bowl game?  :)  Sorry it's been a bit since I've posted.  Laila got sick, passed it on to Jason, and I've been trying to hide from their germs for a week.  I did stamp a bit last week, but I mailed them off before I took pictures.  I made an effort to send as many cards as I could last week.  I think I got around 20 out, so that's pretty good.   This card should be cute to send soon for Valentine's Day.  I used the new sketch at Fab Friday and this cute little bear from Stamping Bella.  The arrow and stamp are from the Sent with Love set that Stampin' Up! put out a few years back.  It's cute to decorate envelopes, but the elements can be used on cards too.

Now I'm headed to bed to read for a bit.  Part of the lack of stamping is due to reading.  It seems like I get on a kick of one or the other.  I have a huge list of books on my to-read list, so I need to try and fit it in more.  Have you read anything good lately?  My current book is Hillbilly Elegy and I'm speeding through it.  I grew up not far from the area in Kentucky that he discusses, so I understand his family and their struggles. 

This was my poor pumpkin last week.  She was just worn out.  One night we ended up just getting up at 2:30 because she couldn't stop coughing.  I am way too old for that, so we went to the doctor the next day to make sure it wasn't more than a cold.  He gave her some better medicine to help the cough at night, so it's been some better.  I think she managed to sleep until after 5 this morning before she woke us up and then went back to bed once she had water, a full humidifier, and more meds.