Stampin' Up! Yippee-Skippee!

Happy World Card Making Day!  I have a class planned for later today and will get to spend time with some of my good friends stamping.  I hope Laila will cooperate.  Yikes!   This card is a simple one I made for Hope You Can Cling To.  It's for Jeanne's challenge:

My challenge to you is to make a card that will put a smile on someone's face. It can be a fun sentiment, a silly image or maybe some bright colors. What ever you think would make person happy when they opened up the envelope.

I hope this works for it.  It makes me happy.  :)   My FMS team member Amy had me wanting to use sequins on my card, so Laila and I went shopping for some on Friday.  We found a fun assorted pack and I thought these matched SU colors pretty well.  

Stamps:  Yippee-Skippee!

Ink:  Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay, Rich Razzleberry

Accessories:  Sequins

Thursday was a great mommy day for me.  I needed that as I've been feeling like a failure at pretty much everything lately.  Yesterday, not so much.  She woke up early from her nap and wouldn't go back to sleep.  This was the result.  :-/  Bed time was another issue as well.  It look two hours and two people to finally get her to sleep.   I'm pretty sure we are dealing with some serious teething.  I swear when she gets her last tooth I'm throwing the biggest party!   

Stampin' Up! Positively Chevron

This is my second card for Hope You Can Cling To and a card we'll be making at my World Card Making Day class on Saturday.   I am "teaching" what to do when you are stuck and have no ideas.  This card I CASEd from myself.  :)   That works when you need ideas for sure.  The challenge was from Lori:

My challenge to you is to create a card that shares courage and strength with either the color red or orange or a mixture of both.

I decided to do a sort of ombre effect with both colors.  (Every time I see that word, I think of the cologne episode of Friends with Joey and the Hombre cowboy.)  Anyway, the effect was easy just inking the stamp with different color markers.  

Stamps:  Hello Lovely, Positively Chevron

Ink:  Tangerine Tango, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red

Paper: Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White

Accessories:  Pumpkin Pie Button, White Baker's Twine

Tools:  Big Shot, Apothecary Accents framelits

Laila wouldn't take a nap at all on Tuesday, so she ended up falling asleep eating dinner.  She sleeps so well at night, but her naps are crazy.   Sometimes she'll take two naps, sometimes none.  They might last 30 minutes one day, three hours the next.  I just try to deal with whatever and be happy for the sleep at night.  

Stampin' Up! Ornament Keepsakes

I'm sure you weren't expecting me back so soon.  :)   Jason was wonderful about giving me a break the past few days to just go in my room and attempt to stamp.  I think we both know that stamping is my therapy and that avoiding it has not been good.   Thankfully October is here so I have a great reason to go stamp.  The Hope You Can Cling To challenges have started on Splitcoast!  Last year doing all the challenges and mailing my cards off brought so much joy to my life that I thought I'd do it again.  So, here's the first one!  

Lydia was the hostess and here's a link to her challenge.  It reads like this:

My challenge to you is to make a card with inner strength - meaning that a dimensional image on the inside of your card can be seen through an opening in the front of your card. 

Dimensional ideas include:

-Popping an image or element up on a dimensional
-Stamping an image on the inside of the card with heat embossing for dimension
-Adding a rhinestone or glitter to the inside image

I used the Ornament Keepsakes bundle I bought last year and have rarely used.  It seemed perfect for her challenge.  I kept the colors traditional and the rest of the card pretty simple.  What do you think?  

Here's the inside: 

Stamps:  Ornament Keepsakes, Petite Pairs

Ink:  Real Red, Old Olive

Paper:  Real Red, Old Olive, Whisper White

Accessories:  Real Red satin ribbon (retired), Ginormous and Basic Rhinestones

Tools:  Big Shot, Ornament framelits

One thing that really had me down this week as a trip to the cemetery.  I don't know what it is lately, maybe because we keep learning more and more what we missed out on with Eli, but I'm struggling to go out there.  It's an hour drive each way and the dread going and sadness coming back are rough.   We went on Monday though and here's what we found:

Instead of mowing and trimming, they are now mowing and then spraying Roundup around the headstones.  We didn't know that and honestly, we are not finding that acceptable at all.  The cemetery is a small one owned by the 100 year old church that sits next door, so I'm not sure how to go about getting this fixed.  The maintenance is done by volunteers from what I can gather from the lady I talked to.  I hope we can figure out something or else I'm going going to have to move my boy.  Jason went back out with his sister Monday evening and fought the rain and mosquitoes to try and fix things.

Much better.  He added rocks and then mulch to try and kill any weeds that would be sprayed.  I hope we can keep the harmful chemicals away so that Laila can actually get down.  I sure don't want her walking around in them, nor do I want my baby's burial place looking like that.  :-/    My heart is still hurting from seeing things like that.   Jason's parents are also buried there and theirs was even worse looking.  So, so sad.

FMS106: Merry Christmas

This was one of those cards that almost didn't happen.   I had a pretty rough month last month and then started this month off with yet another bad day.  I planned to take this week off from Freshly Made Sketches because I've just been too upset/depressed to stamp. My awesome teammates gave me a pep talk and I decided to go stamp (or try to) last night after dinner.  This is what I came up with.  It's by no means the best card ever, but I'm happy I made something.  It helped so much! Our sketch this week was by the talented and oh so sweet Amy. 

Isn't that a great sketch?   As you can tell from all the design team samples, the possibilities are endless!  :)

Laila got her very own page in the Hope Calendar this year!   :)   I just love it and I can't wait to get one.  If you'd like to support a wonderful charity, you can purchase a copy here.

This card brought to you by....

...CODEINE! Allisa, who I think is awesomesauce, created this fabulous sketch for us at Freshly Made Sketches this week.   I have been feeling like death since late last week, so I haven't stamped at all.  I wasn't sure I'd even try to participate this week.  After taking my cough syrup last night, the idea for this card came to me.  I figured I'd go give it a shot and see if it turned out.   

One of my favorite contraband (or non-SU) items is my set of star framelits.  I love how easy the framelits are to use.  I really need to get the magnetic platform soon to make them even easier!  The Night of Navy designer paper was from the Clearance Rack.  I needed more DSP so bad!  (Seriously, I am going to be on Hoarders soon!)

Stamps:  Sweet Essentials

Ink: Night of Navy

Paper: Night of Navy, Silver, Whisper White, Regals DSP stack (retired)

Tools:  Star framelits (Sizzix), Merry Minis punch pack

Accessories:  Basic Rhinestones

The owl obsession continues... She was actually sick for a few days last week and still has a bit of a cough at night.  I seem to have got the worst of it though and can't seem to feel any better, even after five days of it.  Jason has been taking good care of us both.  I hope I can manage okay when he goes back to work Thursday.   I barely made it through Saturday; thankfully we had some new toys in the closet that kept her occupied.   

FMS104 So Many Thanks

Linda S created a fabulous sketch for Freshly Made Sketches this week.   I totally didn't do it justice, but I'm pinning it to use again once my mojo is back.  This week is one of those that just makes me want to hide in bed with a book.  Toddlers make that impossible of course.  This too shall pass...  repeat, repeat, repeat!

Stamps: So Many Thanks (photopolymer)

Ink:  Tangerine Tango

Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Tangerine Tango, Very Vanilla, Sweater Weather DSP

Accessories: Tangerine Tango baker's twine, Tangerine Tango button (retired)

We finally managed to get Laila's Hope Calendar pictures made on Monday!  Yay! She woke up grumpy, but she did okay for the pictures.  Well, she didn't want to sit still but she wasn't crying at least. We got a sneak peek and now I can't wait to see our proofs!  

Stampin' Up! Lovely As a Tree CASE

We are trying to get Laila's pictures taken for the Hope Calendar again today (attempt #4), so we'll be on the go early.   I thought I'd share our other club project this morning before I jump in the shower.   It's a simple card using the masking tape technique.  A friend sent me a link to Laurie's awesome cards and I decided to CASE one because they are just so gorgeous!

Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Wild Wasabi, Early Espresso
Paper:  Early Espresso, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White
Tools: Masking Tape

She's so cute when she's happy.  :)

Stampin' Up! Halloween Happiness

No scrap card today.  :-/  Between football and stamp club coming up next week, I had to be focused on doing those projects.   I wanted to do a cute little Halloween card using the Halloween Happiness stamp from the Holiday Catalog.  I kept it pretty simple, but I think it's adorable.  

Stamps:  Halloween Happiness

Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip markers

Paper:  Basic Black, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Brights DSP stack, Polka Dot Parade DSP

Tools:  Big Shot, Chevron TIEF, Paper Snips

A certain little girl is obsessed with owls this week.  She learned to say it as we were reading a new Halloween book we found at Michael's and now she wakes up saying it....and says it all day.  My sweet stamping friend Anne Marie had sent Laila this owl way over a year ago, so I knew now was the perfect time to pull it out.  She LOVES it.  lol  She's back to normal now and feeling like herself again; throwing fits, fighting naps...all that fun toddler stuff.  lol