Remembering Eli

Today is one of the two days of the year that I dread seeing.  Three years ago we said goodbye to our beautiful little boy.  The anniversaries (today, his birthday) always bring the emotions flooding back just like it was yesterday.   I figure we'll be going through a lot of tissues today.   I am hoping I can at least go in his room and find some good memories that might bring a little smile as well.

Here's Eli with his crab toy.   In his short time with us, it was his favorite and the crab has become somewhat of a symbol of remembrance for us.  We've bought hundreds of them so that the infants in the children's hospital can have a little brightness in their stay.   This year we will be donating 108 of them once they arrive next week.     I hope the tradition is one that we can keep up for a while as it feels like we are doing something to keep his spirit alive.  

I wasn't planning on stamping today, but perhaps I should dust off Crab & Company and make up some cards to drop off at Ronald McDonald House.   If I do, I'll be sure to share them with you.

FM41: Thank You Flower

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge :

1. Make a "Thank You" themed Project.
2. Or Make a project "Using Designer/Patterned Paper".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a "Thank You project with Designer/Patterned Paper".

It's Friday, so time for a new challenge from The Friday Mashup!   This week's challenge was put forth by Lesley and it is a perfect one for this time of year.   If you are like me, you are a bit behind on those Thank You cards for Christmas and could use a kick in the butt to get them finished.  :)    

After battling a bit of food poisoning, I was a bit wiped out yesterday.  I decided to keep my card fairly simple; that's best anyway because I need to do quite a few of them.  I started with black and vanilla, but I plan on trying a range of colors today.  I'll be sure to post the successful attempts.  :)   I seriously love my Fun Flowers die.  I had been wanting to use it on the First Edition designer paper and I love the result.   I recently got the Boho Blossoms punch and I love how it finishes off the center of the flowers.   It doesn't show up well in the picture, but the whole card is shimmery as I sprayed it with my homemade shimmer mist.  

I hope you'll find the time to join us this week!  

Blue Valentine #2

As I was working on my card for Freshly Made Sketches, I couldn't help but think how it would look all dirtied up.  :)    I decided to make another one with some distressing and sponging.  I ended up not liking it nearly as much as the other one, but I think I might go back and add a few more hearts to the panel and see if that will help.   These cards were the first ones I had used my new Netting background on and I really liked it.   Do you have that one yet?  It add a fun bit of interest to your background which is nice.  

MJ Update

I just wanted to share that I got a note from MJ's caregiver today letting me know that MJ has received a number of hand-stamped cards.   They wanted to send lots of hugs to everyone for taking the time to send them.    Today made day one hundred for them this hospital stay.   Can you even imagine that?   I am ready to leave the hospital after an hour so I can't imagine one hundred days.   Please continue to keep them in your thoughts.

FMS 17: Blue Valentine

It is my week to host the challenge at Freshly Made Sketches and here is the sketch I came up with to challenge everyone.  I was excited because I saw a reason to pull out my new favorite thing, the Tasteful Trim die!   I am definitely happy that I picked it to use my awesome birthday discount on from Stampin' Up!   It is such a great die; who doesn't LOVE rick rack?!  

I decided to continue my efforts to get a lot of Valentine's Day cards made up.   I took the colors from the the Pals Paper Arts color challenge (Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla) and came up with this card.   I do have to go back and straighten up that crooked rick rack, but just pretend it is straight, okay?  :)    I wanted to leave off the ribbon and bling to make it a truly masculine card, but I felt that it really need SOMETHING and that ended up being rhinestones!  

I hope you'll come play along with us this week!    

Inspiration Stamping

I found some really cute baby bedding on clearance at Target today and I went ahead and picked it up.   They didn't have all the pieces, so I will have to go check out the other Target near me tomorrow to see if they might!   I love gray and yellow together and had been thinking about that combination for the room.   I hope I didn't jinx myself by buying something so early.   

Anyway, I wanted to stamp a bit more today so I decided to go make a card inspired by the bedding!   I think it turned out really cute too.   

Stamps:  Fox & Friends, Petite Pairs

Ink:  Basic Gray

Paper:  Basic Gray, Whisper White (textured), So Saffron

Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Designer Frames embossing folder, XL Oval punch, Basic Gray 3/8 taffeta ribbon (retired)

I'm not sure Jason is looking forward to all the painting, but at least it will just be one color this time!  I'm thinking gray walls and yellow curtains right now!  If anyone has any ideas for wall decor, please share!   I wanted to try and make a few things myself to put in there, but we'll see how that goes. I'm not very crafty with decor items.  I know I want to get a tree (vinyl wall art) to go on the wall behind the crib, but that's about all I've come up with so far.  

Before I go, isn't the matching mobile just adorable?  

Exciting News!

Well, I finally feel like it is about time to share a bit of news with all of my wonderful followers.    That picture up there is our little girl that we will hopefully be welcoming into our family in July.   My lack of blog posts and stamping for the past few months are totally her fault as she thinks we need lots of naps and rest (and strawberries and cake too!).  :)    Thankfully the nausea has finally let up a bit now that I hit the second trimester.   We still have a long road ahead, but for now we know she has a normal set of chromosomes and will not be affected with SMA.   I can't even tell you how much I cried the day our genetic counselor called with that news.  The holidays were spent waiting on test results and I was so glad that they came much quicker than we hoped.   I feel like we are over one big hurdle for now and am crossing my fingers that we can just be a normal pregnant couple for the rest of the journey.

Before I sign off, I want to thank those of you who took time to mail off cards to MJ.  I know they will be so appreciated; I can't even begin to imagine how trying it must be to spend months at a time in the hospital!  Also, I've received some really nice emails lately from a few of you and I will try to get some replies out soon.  I'm so behind with everything these days! 

I wish everyone a wonderful week.   

Stamp Club Valentine pt. 2

Did you miss me yesterday?  :o)   I took a bit of a day off from paper crafting and spent it with a good friend. We shopped for all the 'ingredients' for a diaper cake and managed to get the diaper part of it put together.   She was going to add the ribbon and little accessories later, so I don't have any pictures to share.  It was a fun adventure for sure!   We managed to mix in some football and snacks too!  

The project I'm sharing with you today is the second one we did at my stamp club on Friday night.   I wanted to do a cute little box to match the card we were making.  The Kraft Boxes were just perfect for that!   Everyone got to pick the pattern of designer paper they wanted and cut all their own layers.  We then used the new Apothecary Art stamps and matching Framelit dies to make a cute little label for the top.  Isn't it cute?  

Stamps:  Apothecary Art

Ink:  Real Red

Paper:  Real Red, Brights DSP stack, Whisper White

Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Labels framelits dies, Basic Rhinestones, Whisper White 3/8 taffeta ribbon, Kraft Boxes