Simple, Elegant Cake

I thought this was a fun sketch at clean&simple stamping this week.  I have really been enjoying the more simple challenges as they are way more challenging in a way.   For this one, I had the perfect stamp that had yet to see ink.   I won a gift certificate to a non-SU company last year in the Dare to Get Dirty challenges on Splitcoast and picked a cake stamp as one of my freebies!  Perfect, right?!  If you wanted to do this one with only Stampin' Up! products, the cake stamp from Love & Laughter would work great!  

I stuck with the sketch and just added a bit of embossing to up the elegance factor.   The sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes was perfect, as was the Fancy Fan embossing folder.  All elegant wedding cards need pearls too.  :)   

Sometimes it is difficult to stamp when someone is distracting me with their cuteness.  :)

Retro Butterfly

It's a rainy day here in Texas, so Laila and I spent some time in my stamp room today while Jason went off to work an extra shift.   I started a card for Retro Sketches yesterday but it never came together and I left it on my desk to work on today.   I finally changed out some things and made it presentable.   :)  

I am proud to say that I also addressed and put this one in the mail for my granny!   She loves my cards and I've been a bit behind in getting them out to her.  I haven't had time to go to the post office to mail a stack of cards to a few blogging friends and some family, but I found a lost stamp to at least send this one to her.  She hasn't been feeling that well and I thought she might need a pick-me-up!  

I know it's been a while since I last posted and that's because Laila started feeling worse.   We were up with her most of the night on Thursday and Friday.   She developed a cough that's still lingering on.   We went to the doctor on Friday and her lungs were clear, but she did have an ear infection in her right ear.   She doesn't have a fever and seems fine other than the occasional coughing while she's sleeping.  Hopefully that goes away soon.   I'm so thankful that we are all getting some rest as those nights last week were rough!   I was a total zombie on Saturday.   She had fun rolling around on her mat and quilt while I stamped this morning.  :)  Now it's about lunch time for us!  

Retro Pinwheels

Laila crashed early on me, so I had time to go stamp a bit more before Jason got home from work.  I wanted to finish my pinwheel card for the awesome sketch at Retro Sketches!   It's another clean-and-simple card with lots of white space!

I pulled out my Polka Dot Parade DSP for this one.  I love that paper and haven't used it nearly enough!  I paired it with some glimmer brads to add a bit of sparkle.  :)   The panel behind the pinwheels is embossed with the new Cloudy Day embossing folder.  I wasn't sure about that one at first, but now I sorta like it.  I'm a bit addicted to embossing folders!  

We have seriously purchased every kind of teething apparatus on the market and Laila still loves her hands the best.  This was my most expensive folly, Sophie the Giraffe.  She likes to throw it in the floor way more than chewing on it.   She's a bit more interested in looking at her spots lately at least.   ;)

CAS Pinwheel

A new sketch popped up at CAS(E) this sketch and I thought I'd stamp today while Laila was playing on her mat.  She is rolling like crazy, so I had get up and put her back in place a few times. :)  We finally got a card made though!  

I kept my card pretty simple with LOTS of white space, a bit of piercing, and a pop of color from the designer paper.  I'm slowly getting used to leaving open space on my cards, but it will always be a challenge!  

I really love the pinwheel die and have another card started with it already!  I hope I can find time to finish it today and post it tomorrow.  Stay tuned...

Poor quality picture (sorry), but I thought it was hilarious that she was so happy to be in a box.  I guess it's really true that there's no need to spend money on toys!   

Club Card Redo!

Don't you hate it when you go to cut your card stock and realize that you don't have enough for your project?  That's what happened with this card I designed for club.  Bummer, right?  I managed to change it up a bit and redo it in colors that I did have!  Now I know why people hoard paper; I wish I had the budget to do that myself!  I think it's still a fun card.  

Have you tried this chalkboard technique yet?  It is so easy and so fun!  My white craft ink has been a bit neglected, so this was perfect to give it some use.  My white embossing powder was happy to come out of the drawer as well!

Someone was happy when they woke up this morning!   She seems to be eating better today which is great. Her nose is still runny, so we'll see what the nurse says in the morning if it hasn't improved.

Pinterest Inspired

If you are on Pinterest and you are like me, you keep pinning away but rarely do anything with the ideas that you pin.  I've decided to quit that and try to be inspired by them.  First, I made this card, a Stampin' Up! version of this one.

Now I already have some ideas how this one could be better (current designer paper, oval framelits), so you might see it again one day.  :)   I just used some things I pulled out of my stash to see how it would look.   I still love last year's Sale-a-bration paper used here, but this year's might be even better!  Have you seen it yet?   It's great and you NEED it!   Maybe I need to redo this card with it?  ;)

Next, for dinner tonight we made a recipe I'd recently pinned.  Now strangely enough, I don't think I'd ever tried chicken teriyaki before.  Huh?  It's true.  I've never been a fan of rice or any type of Asian food until I was pregnant with Laila.  PF Chang's orange chicken was my obsession then and I guess the love of it stuck around even after Laila was here.  Jason is happy as he loves it has missed it in the years we've been together.  I still can't figure out what made me decided I had to have orange chicken one day.  I'm sure it was something on Pinterest though!   Anyway, the recipe was a bit salty but after talking to Jason, he doubled the sauce ingredients when he shouldn't have.  We'll make it again CORRECTLY and it should be better.   Now I can add Japanese food to my list of things I'll eat.  

Laila still has a runny nose and a bit of a cough, but her fever is gone.  She's been throwing up after her bottles every now and then, but she doesn't seem affected by that too much.  We just clean up and start over.  The congestion and coughing seem to cause it, so I guess we'll be dealing with it until she's over this.  I am hoping we can avoid the doctor, but if things don't clear up soon I'll call and check in with the nurse.   I hate taking her in because a few times we've caught something that was worse than what we went in for!

Chalkboard Birthday

I had a great day stamping with one of my club members (and sweet friend) today!   She was kind enough to have me over and it was just us, her two dogs, and her cat.   After a rough day on Saturday, being up so much last night, and just general "I need out of the house" crazies, it was such a treat!   I was inspired by a sample in the Spring Catalog and wanted to try to recreate it.   This chalkboard technique is pretty popular right now and I figured I'd give it a go.  I do LOVE how it turned out, so I think we'll be making this one at club.  

To answer a few questions, this is all SU product.  The black is just normal basic black card stock that has been sponged with white craft ink!  I stamped the sentiment in the white craft ink, embossed with white embossing powder, and then sponged the white ink to make the erased chalkboard ink.  Hope that helps! 

Laila is so sick. :(   She's so congested and can't seem to sleep very well laying down.  Jason ended up sleeping in the recliner with her for part of the night and after he came to bed at seven this morning I got up and fed her and then held her for a nap.   She was pretty fussy for Jason while I was gone today, but woke up happy after taking a long nap on him.   We just put her down for bed and hope the humidifier and elevated mattress will help. 

My cousin found this cute outfit at Carter's and sent it for Laila.  It's so adorable and has a crab on the back.  She even sent her that huge matching bow too.  lol   She's been helping me come up with ideas for Laila's first birthday party which is great because she's great at party planning and I am not!  I think we are going to try to do a beach themed party in Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, and Tempting Turquoise.   If you see any cool favors or decorations, let me know.  :)    I love the idea of adding in a few crab things to honor Eli since he never got a birthday party.  

Super Bowl Sunday!

Just getting in a quick post during the game!   We are a bit behind watching it because we had to get Laila to bed.   She's so sick today.  :(    I barely survived yesterday with her as she was so fussy and wouldn't nap at all. I love that Jason is home with us four days a week, but the three days he's gone can be rough sometimes.    I have so much respect for single moms now.  Anyway, this morning we got up and she is congested and her poor little nose has been running all day.   I feel so bad for her.   I'm pretty sure she's teething too!  Ugh.  

I did take a bit to work on some ideas for my stamp club that's on Friday and this card was one of my attempts.  I don't really like how it turned out, so I don't think we'll be making this one.   Back to the drawing board!   I always struggle to figure out what we are going to make!   If you'd like to try the technique on the  embossed layer, you can find it here.  I like how it turned out, but I just couldn't figure out what to do with it.  

No crawling yet, but she can roll and spin around to get exactly where she wants to go!