Stampin' Up! Duo

I've been so bad about blogging lately.  It seems impossible while Laila is awake and then by the time she's in bed, I'm either stamping or reading.   I will try to be a bit better.  I have quite a few cards I haven't posted, so I do have stuff to show you!   Today I'm sharing two of the cards we made at my last club meeting.   I taught them how to make the watercolored backgrounds using stencils.  I just love Crumb Cake and red!

One of my ladies wanted to use the tag topper punches, so we made this card to practice that.   I think I sold several of the butterfly sets after people saw how pretty it was.  :)   It's a great set even without the framelits! 

Time to run!  It's the nightly pajama/toothbrush battle. lol   We are supposed to be getting some bad weather tonight and in the morning, so it might be a long night.   My goal is to get everyone, including myself, in bed early so we can get some rest.  If the thunder starts, I'll be in her room most of the night.  Poor dear is so scared.  :( I have my fingers crossed that it somehow misses us! 

Last Hope

Another huge round of cards for Hope You Can Cling To!  This will be my last post about them as I finally FINISHED!  Yay. I love being able to do all 35 cards, but it seemed extra challenging to finish them all this year.  I am happy that my mom and Jason both encouraged and supported me to make it happen.  Now on to the cards (and then on to cleaning the house! Yikes):

This one using the MFT Bokeh Builder set for Kelli's bokeh challenge.  Pretty easy choice of stamps for this one.  lol     I used one Tim Holtz Distress Ink pad for all the pink and just stamped off to get the different shades.  

Kathy's challenge was all about the book The Fault in Our Stars and asked for a romantic card to give to a significant other.   I think this image is so sweet and it was sitting on my shelf brand new and needing love.   Jason is sweet and cuts up apples for me all the time, so I thought it was pretty fitting for the love of my life.

Lydia's final challenge for this year was to make a card based on our favorite children's book.   I love books and always have, so it was hard to pick just one.  I do remember being super obsessed with a book called Spooky Tricks and decided to do a magic card.  I actually won a The Cat's Pajamas gift certificate one year from the HYCCT challenges and got this stamp with it.  :)   Perfect, right?!

This sweet little bunny from Mama Elephant just had to make another appearance on my cards.   Tabbatha's challenge was to use two different mediums on your creation.  I used distress inks, craft ink, and alcohol markers for mine.    The clouds are another HYCCT prize that I picked with a gift certificate from Your Next Stamp!   I love being able to use previous prizes on these cards.  

Here's an almost all Stampin' Up! card for you purists.  :)  Teresa's challenge was about cheering and we spelled out BOOBS. ha!   Blue, circle element, round embellishment, and black.    

Angie's card was about tilted layers.   I was almost asleep the other night and the idea for this one popped in my head.  I started telling Jason all about it and I think he was confused as to why I was thinking about stamping when I was supposed to be going to sleep.   Men are just so different from women!  I do my best thinking right before I fall asleep.  He got me this fun Texas stamp last year for a stocking stuffer and I thought it was time I inked it up.   I kept the card clean like the Texas flag.  

This is the last one.  I actually plan to go back and add some Crumb Cake seam binding to it because I'm not happy with the end result.  The challenge was Susie's to make our own background, no designer paper.   I love my background, but not the rest of the card.  Hopefully I can get it apart and fix it before I mail it off.   The SU World Map stamp is so fun with watercolor paper and distress inks! 

My little picture helper this morning.  She's telling me all about the Texas she found on this card.  lol 

Stampin' Up! Endless Birthday Wishes

Hello!!!!!   I finally got to stamp today!   Well, I HAD to stamp today because I'm not ready for my event tomorrow, but still...  It's been a long week with a sick toddler and not enough sleep.   I haven't made anything since Sunday.   Almost a week!  Yikes.   I was feeling a bit out of sorts, so I sorta CASEd myself with some new colors and embellishments.   We'll be making this at my class tomorrow.   Thanks to my buddies at Fab Friday for hte wonderful bright colors! 

It's a pretty simple card, just lots of stuff going on.  I love the new decorative masks and thought it would be fun to add some stars to my card base.   And SEQUINS!  LOVE sequins, especially in the In Colors.   I also used my Blendabilities to color the button to match my card.  Good stuff there! 

I seem to have a helper every time I try to take pictures now.  She did ohhh and ahh over my card, so I can't be mad at her.  She's had an awful cough all week.   She seems fine otherwise, but it gets worse at night and has been affecting her (and our) sleep.   She finally slept 13 hours last night, so I'm hoping she's a not-so-terrible-two toddler today.   Yesterday was just way too much and Jason and I were both at our wit's end.  I don't think toddler is going to be our shining parenting age for sure! 

Stampin' Up! Starburst Sayings

Welcome to the newest sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!   Amy, who is so crazy talented that it's almost unreal, is our hostess this week and has a super awesome sketch.   I had such a blast making my card.  Laila actually took a nap long enough for me to finish on Monday, so that was great!  I do think I'll go back and change the button thread to linen thread instead of baker's twine.

Isn't that fun?!  You don't have to use a circular element of course.  There are so many possibilities that aren't circles.  That's why I just love sketches and sketch challenges.  You can do just about anything!

It was a rainy day here yesterday, so Laila and I piled up on my bed with a bunch of books!  It was so nice to relax and read.  :)   

Stampin' Up! Starburst Sayings

I had a little time last night to play along with a couple challenges.  This card uses the awesome sketch from MFT along with the fun colors at colourQ this week.  It's a bit of a different card for me, but I love it!  It's good to work outside our comfort zone sometimes.  :)

   

I love Lucky Limeade, but I'm not sure I've used it since it retired.  Sad!  I was happy to put it out and to search for a sheet of Going Gray.   I started to use Smoky Slate, but I really love the darker color and especially the textured paper!

Laila is an expert at spotting airplanes!   :)   She can also spot the moon as soon as it peeks out.  It's been some beautiful, yet windy weather here this week.  We've been out playing quite a bit.

Stampin' Up! Starburst Sayings

Pacific Point?!  I know!  I haven't used it in FOREVER, but I won this ribbon at Leadership and figured I should use it.  It actually turned out kinda cool, so I think we'll make it at stamp club this weekend!  Isn't that Hardwood background amazing?!  I love it.  I think this is a good masculine card even with the ribbon. 

She loves playing outside.  I am NOT an outside person, so maybe she's not mine?  Ha!  My mom bought her a bag of these balls for Christmas and it's fun to fill her pool with them so she can play.  It works for when it's not warm enough for water.   :)   We had a much better day yesterday with only a bit of meltdowns and a lot of making a mess.  Toddlers could really be hired out for demolition crews.

Stampin' Up! Starburst Sayings

Tonight I took some time off and went to stamp just for fun.  Nothing I HAD to make, just fun.  I left the dishes and laundry and will worry about them tomorrow.  It's been a pretty tough week for me mentally and I just needed the break.  I used the sketch over at the Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge as my guide and some of the new in colors as my colors.  

Isn't that a great sketch?!  I really love it and plan to use it in the future.

This mom thing is really kicking my butt lately and I have been going to bed almost every night feeling like I've failed yet again.  I don't know if I'm going to make it as a stay-at-home mom to a toddler.  The poor house is a wreck, the toddler is crazy, the cats are well, cats, and this mom is exhausted.  I'm hoping that once Jason is back to working 40 hours and not 50+ it will better.  March can't get here soon enough!

Stampin' Up! Starburst Sayings

It's Wednesday and time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Cindy H. is our hostess and sketch designer this week.  I LOVE this sketch; it has a bazillion (that's an approximate number) possibilities!  I won the Starburst Sayings stamp set at Leadership and finally got the framelits in yesterday.   I just had to use them on my card.  I'm still on the Real Red and Coastal Cabana kick and probably will be for a while.  I have TWO packs of the Fresh Prints (of Bel-Air) DSP to use up!

See, fabulous sketch!!   It works great with different patterned papers and just about any type of shape! 

Yesterday we had to take Bandit for his test.  Hopefully we get the lab results soon so we can figure out what's going on with him.  Laila had to go with me to pick him up and had a TOTAL meltdown on the way home.  It continued in the house for a while.  She finally calmed down once we sat down to eat a bit.  Hangry girl!