Stampin' Up! Crazy Mixed-up Love

Time for a new Freshly Made Sketch.   Our hostess this week is Jen Mitchell.  I'm a big fan of Jen's and she's inspired me so much.  I now try the occasional clean-and-simple card with lots of white space because of her.  :)  I didn't manage it this time, but I did keep it pretty simple.  

Stamps:  Crazy, Mixed-Up Love

Ink: Basic Gray, Real Red

Paper:  Real Red, Brights DSP stack, Whisper White

Accessories:  Whisper White Stitched Grosgrain ribbon, Neutrals and Brights buttons (retired), Baker's Twine

Laila really enjoys the Fisher Price games or Dr. Seuss books on our iPhones.  She does not enjoy when they end and she has to give them back.  

Stampin' Up! Wildflower Meadow

Here's another of my Wildflower Meadow samples that I made for the Convention display boards.  I thought it might be neat to use emboss resist with it and it turned out okay.  

Stamps: Wildflower Meadow
Ink:  Versamark, Island Indigo, Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Island Indigo, Whisper White
Accessories:  Daffodil Delight stitched grosgrain ribbon, Island Indigo Baker's Twine, Vintage Faceted button, White Embossing Powder
Tools: Heat Tool, Sponges

Not sure about those faces!  lol  We had a nice day out yesterday going to Archiver's, lunch, and then Costco.   Sunday night was rough, but she crashed yesterday morning for a bit and we were all able to go back to sleep. Once we were up we needed out of the house! Teething is rough on everyone for sure.

Stampin' Up! Love & Sympathy

I combined my scrap card with a Dare To Get Dirty challenge this week.  Everything on it minus the base and first layer came out of my scrap bags.  The base, layer, and ribbon were all left from yesterday's stamping, so I was happy to use those up too!  I don't really know how to do sympathy cards that well because I like fun cards, so hopefully this one is okay.  

Do you like the Crumb Cake layer? I inked up the Dictionary background here and there with Versamark and then stamped it.  I like the hint of words without stamping the entire layer.  It adds interest but doesn't overwhelm the card.  I also sponged pretty much all the layers with Whisper White craft ink to soften it a bit.

Stamps:  Love & Sympathy, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Dictionary
Paper:  Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Textured Whisper White (retired), scraps
Ink:  Versamark, Crumb Cake, Pool Party
Accessories:  Crumb Cake Seam Binding, Neutrals buttons (retired)
Tools:  Big Shot, Perfect Pennants die, 2 1/2 circle punch

Laila got to go play in her pool again today. Amazingly, she was able to crawl in and out of it all by herself.  I was a nervous wreck, but Jason stayed close just in case she slipped.   She had an okay day today.   Jason checked her mouth and he said he thinks she's getting four molars!   Three of them have broken through the gums already (some more than others) and the other one is just really swollen.  Poor baby.   She won't let us brush them at all right now because it's so painful.  :(

More Dirty Cards!

I managed to stamp a bit over the past few days, but not as much as I would have liked.  This is a card I made on Thursday and finished up yesterday.  All that I'm sharing are for the Dare to Get Dirty challenges.  The deadline for them is Monday, so I am not going to get many more finished.  I will try to use one with my Sunday scrap challenge tomorrow for sure though!   This one is kinda fun and uses some contraband that I recently fell in love with.  I make cards for a local shop and needed some easy teacher ideas I could whip up in a hurry!  This fits the bill!

Stamps:  PTI Wonderful Words: Teacher, Perfectly Preserved
Ink:  Real Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  PTI White, Real Red Core'dinations
Tools:  Big Shot, Sizzix Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic EF, Cannery Framelits, PTI Wonderful Words Teacher die

A simple one, but I think it's kinda cute.  I used Pool Party with Crumb Cake and I really like that combination!  

Stamps:  Perfect Blend

Ink:  Pool Party, Early Espresso

Paper: Crumb Cake, Pool Party, In Color DSP stack (retired), Whisper White

Accessories:  Crumb Cake seam binding, SAB buttons (retired), Pool Party Baker's Twine (retired)

Tools: Heidi Swapp stencil

I don't really like this one, but I thought I'd share it anyway.  It uses ribbon scraps and some old DSP.  I struggled a lot today with my stamping. My mind is just a bit cluttered with all that's going on this week.   I guess I stamped more for the therapy aspect than the "I'm going to wow people with this cards" one.   

Stamps:  Happy Day
Ink:  Old Olive
Paper:  Old Olive, Subtles DSP stack (retired), Whisper White
Accessories:  Brights buttons (retired) White Baker's Twine, Basic Rhinestones, ribbon scraps
Tools:  Big Shot, Heart framelits

After bath picture. :)  She's getting so big!  Today was a bit better than yesterday as she slept all night and then napped okay.  Jason looked and thinks she might have TWO molars coming in.  I'd be totally grumpy too!!!!   We gave her some Advil last night before bed and again tonight, so I hope that helps her sleep.   I think it might work better than the Tylenol that we tried earlier today.  I'm feeling even more clueless than normal lately with all her new independence and tantrums.  Kids really should come with a manual! 

Stampin' Up! Wildflower Meadow

Here's another one of the cards I made for the display boards.  I wasn't a big fan of using the entire Wildflower Meadow stamp, but in smaller doses I thought it was okay.  I used the coordinating embossing folder on some Core'dinations paper and thought it made for a fun look.

Stamps:  Wildflower Meadow
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party markers
Paper:  Early Espresso, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party Core'dinations, Whisper White
Accessories:  Early Espresso stitched grosgrain ribbon, Basic Pearls
Tools:  Big Shot, Wildflower Meadow EF, sanding block, Finishing Touches Edgelits

Yesterday was a rough day in more ways than one.  Laila has another molar coming in so we were up a lot (2:30 until almost 5) with her.   She was pretty fussy most of the day and had some epic meltdowns.  We did manage to go to the cemetery and release balloons and put out some cheery sunflowers.   After that we come home for a bit and then went to Build-a-Bear.  We let her pick out her own animal and she homed in on this cute bunny and wouldn't let go.  Now we have a cute bunny named Eli for her.

Stampin' Up! Tag It

I thought I'd share another sample I made for the Convention boards today.   We were given the Tag It set, but not the matching framelits so some serious creativity was required to use them.   For me anyway!  I kinda dreamed up the idea for this card and it turned out so cute!  I really had a blast making it.  

Stamps:  Tag It, Gorgeous Grunge

Ink:  Calypso Coral, Basic Gray, Baked Brown Sugar

Paper:  Pool Party, Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White, In Color DSP stack, Daffodil Delight (or So Saffron; I can't remember!)

Tools:  Circle, Pennant, and Cupcake punches

Today would have been my Eli's 5th birthday.  It's so hard to know what to do on his birthday as we can't buy a cake and have him blow out the candles as we sing.  We can't buy gifts for him to open. It's just a sucky day and I usually spend most of it crying over the unfairness of it all.  Laila and I picked out some pretty sunflowers, so we'll take them out to the cemetery and release 5 red balloons I guess.  I was thinking this year we'd get a little cupcake and start to tell Laila stories about him and share it with her.  It's never an easy day and I just hope for the patience and strength to make it through.  

More Dirty Cards

Still working on some Dare to Get Dirty challenges... I managed to do two of them yesterday.   I had to pull out this barely used retired set for one of them.   I haven't really used it much but it does come in handy for some of the challenges sometimes.   I used some new products though; the Crisp Cantaloupe DSP and ribbon.  YUMMY!

Stamps:  Carry On

Ink:  Calypso Coral, Basic Gray, Basic Black

Paper: Basic Gray, Calypso Coral, Whisper White, Crisp Cantaloupe, In Colors Stack

Accessories:  Basic Rhinestones, Crisp Cantaloupe ruffled trim

Tools:  Big Shot, Framed Tulips EF, Ticket Corner punch, Bitty Banners framelits

For this one I actually picked up a sheet of patterned paper at the craft store because I didn't have anything that met the challenge requirements.  Ummm....it totally made me appreciate how amazingly awesome Stampin' Up! paper is.  It was so thin and cheap and only printed on one side.  I'll take ours any day over that!  I had to cover it with gesso just to make it look presentable enough for a card!

Stamps: Happy Day
Ink: Basic Gray, Basic Black
Paper: PTI White, Basic Black, Recollections DSP, Whisper White
Accessories: gesso
Tools:  Color Spritzer

I'm going to take a break on some days this month and share my other sweet baby with you.   August is SMA Awareness Month and tomorrow is/would be my Eli's 5th birthday.  Because of SMA, he was only with us for a bit over 5 months, not 5 years like he should be.   If you haven't heard of SMA, please take time to read about it.   It's especially important for those who are thinking about starting families.

Stampin' Up! Too Kind for FMS

The fabulous Jennifer Timko is our sketch creator at Freshly Made Sketches this week and has this fun one for you.   

I wasn't feeling so good  yesterday and didn't remember until about 3pm that I hadn't made my card.  Oops!   I had a class last night, so I had to hurry and hope that a card came together fairly quickly for me.  Well, Too Kind made sure that happened.  Have I mentioned how much I LOVE that set?!   I was trying a new color combination from the Color Coach (Old Olive, Pool Party, Crushed Curry), but the Crushed Curry didn't seem to make it.  

Stamps:  Too Kind
Ink:  Pool Party, Old Olive
Paper:  Pool Party, Old Olive, Whisper White, In Color DSP stack (retired)
Accessories:  Basic Pearls, Neutrals buttons (retired), Pool Party baker's twine (retired)

Laila had a pretty good day yesterday minus a couple of what Jason's calling timeouts.  ;)   She enjoyed a bit of reading in her chair so we could take some pictures of her in her cute outfit for grandma.