Rainbow Unicorn

Hello friends. Just thought I'd drop in and share another card. One of my friends from high school sent me a little request for his daughters. They love unicorns, so I used this cute set from The Greeting Farm. I hope they like it. :) I try to keep stamping, but this past week hasn't been the best mentally for me and I haven't done as much. I thought I'd be okay with being home a lot, but I guess my short outings ALONE meant more than I knew. It's hard to find time to think and regroup when you don't get a second alone. But, I'm glad Jason's job is still going and we are all healthy. That's the two biggest worries and we are okay.

I hope you all are safe and healthy. I don't know how long this will go on, but we will make it.  I think. lol

Starry Potter?

Hey all! I was hoping to get more cards posted as I've been trying to stamp every day, but we've been running around and busy so I'm running out of time every day. I did want to take a minute and share one today. I saw the challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz and thought this image was perfect since Harry is wrapped in his scarf. I also wanted to enter at Pammie's Inky Pinkies.  I found a background in my box of unused things and it worked perfectly. This was a stamp set I got a while back and then my long hiatus began. I am trying to do every day this month and then just stamp regularly once I've gotten my creativity going again. Now I just need to mail them. lol

Now I'm off to make a card and then get Laila to bed. It's cold here, so I'm ready to snuggle up in my pajamas and read.

Take care.
Rita

Pumpkin Spice Coffee

Good morning. It felt appropriate to do my post for the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop as I sip my first cup of the day. :) I'm having some maple pecan coffee first, but pumpkin spice is up next. I love this cute image from Simon Says Stamp and The Greeting Farm. Her hair can be a bit hard for me, but I keep trying. I used the colors from an Echo Park paper pack which coordinates perfectly.

I hope you had a end to October and a fabulous start to November. It seems crazy that it's already so late in the year. We've actually had some cold weather already here in Texas. Laila had to bundle up for Halloween. We usually sweat and get hot while we're out walking. lol She's been doing great at school too. We are on a big Harry Potter kick in our house, so of course her costume reflects that. :)

I'm off to finish my coffee and get ready to start our school day! Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Pumpkin Spice?

I've been tired lately, so coffee has been on my mind a lot. lol I thought it might be fun to use this cute set today. I feel like it's one of the most difficult sets I have to color. The hair is just HARD to do. I need to spend like a week practicing or something because I can't get it. It doesn't look too bad on this one, so I was happy with it overall. I liked the colors of the clothing enough to overlook it anyway. ;)   I wanted to enter Pammie's Inky Pinkies and Crafting from the Heart challenges.

(Have you noticed I've pulled out the Spice Cake DSP? I still have some hoarded saved and thought it needed some love.)

One of my pretty visitors for today. :) It was a great day for butterflies in our area!

Thankful for You

Hello!  I can't believe it's almost the middle of November! It's going to be 2018 before we know it!  I hope you all are doing well.  I apologize for not posting for a while. To be honest, I've been struggling and stamping hasn't been something that I've wanted to do.  Or blog either I guess since I made this card back in October. Oops! I have been reading a lot and trying to keep myself together. This morning I got up early and have been cleaning and organizing my craft room. I'd love to start out the new year with it cleaner and more appealing to work in. Anyway, this card uses the Simon Says Stamp/The Greeting Farm collaboration from STAMPtember. I can't resist a coffee stamp even if it includes a girl with hair that is SO HARD TO COLOR! lol

Laila  had a great Halloween. She was so excited about it this year. We did get rained out, but she got plenty of candy before the heavier rain came. She loved her Monarch costume and I loved how happy she was about the whole holiday. :)

This week her school dismissed at noon on Wednesday, so we had more time together. She was so good and helped me with a lot of chores. I'm hoping to keep that up. :) She was excited to help. I guess laundry is fun if you only have to do it occasionally? 

Other than that, we are still working on things. Her days at school are up and down. Wednesday was an awful day, so I'm sure her teacher was glad it was a half day. Thursday she had an amazing day. Yesterday was a little rough in the morning, but great in the afternoon. I got to volunteer at the school three days this week which was nice. I love being able to help out. Today they are having a color run to raise money for the Rebuilding Warriors Foundation.  I'll have to go get everyone up and ready soon so that we aren't late!

I hope you have a great weekend.

Simon Says Pumpkin Spice

Monday.  It was a sad morning to wake up to, so I needed to come color to take my mind off things for a while. I had a rough time leaving Laila at school and had to have a distraction when I got home. I decided to play with this new set I got from Simon Say Stamp's STAMPtember release. I love fall and coffee, so I had to have it. It will be a challenging set for me as the hair is HARD, but it will be good practice. I entered it into their flickr challenge and in the Wednesday Anything Goes challenge as well.

I also got to release some happiness into the world in the form of butterflies today. The season is almost over, but we have a few left to send off into the world.

Lots of hugs today to you all.

Greeting Farm Magical Friends

Happy May! I can't believe I haven't posted at all this month.  It looks like this drought of creativity is going to last for a while.  I don't know what to do about it, so I'm just not pressuring myself and waiting see what happens.  We did have a birthday party on Saturday, so I made a card for that.  The birthday girl is a very girly girl who loves unicorns, so I hope she liked it.  :) 

We are still raising caterpillars and releasing butterflies.  We had two pretty ladies eclose today.  They were perfect and flew off to their next destination.  It always amazing to hold one and see the beauty of them in your hand.  I hate to think that they only live 6 weeks, but I hope we are helping to keep the population going.  A very small percentage of eggs (estimates are around 5%) survive outside to become butterflies, so we are giving them a better chance than they'd have out there.  Wasps are bad this year, so any caterpillars that aren't found and brought inside are killed by those.  :(  I know the circle of life and all that, but it still makes me sad.  

Anyway...  

Have a great week! 

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.  

Freshly Made Sketches 271

Wednesday!  We've made it to the halfway point of the week.  Yeah!  It also means a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  The sweetest lady, Cindy, is our hostess this week and I love her sketch.  It's always nice when an idea comes to you quickly when you peek at the sketch.  I knew immediately I wanted to use Washi tape and everything fell into place after that.  This cute unicorn is from a set from The Greeting Farm called Magical Friends.  It's adorable! They have an Anything Goes challenge for their Farm Fresh Challenge this month, so I want to enter this cutie in that.  :)

Don't you love that?  The simple sketches we've been having lately are so good for really getting creative.  I didn't go "outside the box" on this one, but I love my card.  :)

Be sure you stop by and check out the rest of the cards.  I hope you'll play along!  Now I'm off to make coffee.  We are having storms this morning and they woke me up early.  I've folded laundry, got a load gathered to wash, typed out this, and now, coffee!  :) Have a wonderful day!

Freshly Made Unicorn

Hello!  And Happy Wednesday!  It's Freshly Made Sketches Day!   I'm the hostess/sketch designer this week and I used my new found love of tags of course.  :)   I love the look of tags and I love using the smaller ones on cards.   I recently got the Tim Holtz tag dies, so I had use them for my card today.  I found this cute little unicorn in my stash already colored and ready to go, so I just built my card around that.  It is so helpful to have colored images laying around for weeks like this when you are short on time!

I hope you'll come play along!

The Greeting Farm Ponies

Laila has been into My Little Ponies a bit so I just had to get the cute Magical Friends set from The Greeting Farm.  I got lucky and they are having an animal challenge as their March Farm Fresh challenge, so I am totally entering!  Aren't they the cutest?!   I added in a little rainbow and clouds from Paper Smooches.  The background is lightly watercolored with some purple.  

I'm still working on feeling more human.  I got some new Vitamin D and iron to try and my doctor referred me to get an endoscopy to make sure I don't have any bleeding that could be causing anemia.  That sounds a bit scary.  :/   Laila and I have gotten off track with our homeschool stuff, but we are doing it as we can and I feel like it.  

She loved this scorpion spinner game.  lol   And below is her angry camel that she made this morning.

Feeling Blue?

It's Wednesday and time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  I'm the hostess this week and I have a pretty simple sketch.  I like the idea of simple ones that allow you to fill in with what inspires you.

I had a class over the weekend where we learned to make the watercolor backgrounds with a Stampin' Up!  Watercolor Wash background stamp and I loved how mine turned out.  I ended up using it for my card today so that I didn't lose it or spill something on it.  lol  I used Pool Party and Island Indigo, just tapped the pads on the stamp, and then sprayed it with water before I laid my paper on it.  I love the result.  Different amounts of ink and water give different results, so it's fun to play and see what you end up with!  I added some die cut flowers and leaves from my favorite Ellen Hutson dies that had been accented with Wink of Stella.  The sentiment is from a set from The Greeting Farm called Wood Friends. 

My little cowgirl.  We are starting a little homeschool curriculum and our first week is about cowboys/rodeos/deserts.   :)   

Freshly Made Squirrel

It's Wednesday and time for a new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.   Jen M. is our fabulous hostess this week and she has a sketch with one of my favorite things, a banner!  Woo Hoo!  I had several ideas for a card but ended up going with this squirrel card because I needed a card to send a friend who just loves squirrels.   I am not that happy with how it turned out, so I might put a few things apart or start it all over.  I don't know if it's the colors or what, but something feels off to me.  Maybe making it while Laila supervised made me nervous.  lol   I think it's actually because it is so dark and I've gotten used to mostly white space.   Going back to colored card stock is hard!

I hope you'll come play along and get your banner on with us!   Now I'm off to have a quick coffee, drop the cat off at the vet, and then go pick up a few groceries.  It's an early start to the day.  *yawn*