FMS107: Stampin' Up! Halloween

I went simple this week for my Freshly Made Sketches card.  I had a busy day yesterday and limited craft...that means a simple card must do.  :)   I had a totally different idea in mind when I sat down to stamp, but a last minute idea led to this.   Maybe it was seeing the signs that the pumpkin patch is almost ready to open?!  Our fun sketch this week was created by one of our amazing leaders, Jen T.  

Stamps:  Toxic Treats (retired)

Ink:  Basic Black

Paper:  Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive

Tools:  Big Shot, Spider Web EF (retired), XL Oval punch, Little Leaves sizzlit

Sometimes owls need CPR.  :)  

Stampin' Up! So Many Thanks

Another card for both Hope You Can Cling To and from my recent class.  I made it during my "not feeling inspired" phase and it is a total CASE of a card I found on Pinterest.   I LOVED it and wanted to make it using Stampin' Up! products.  I think it turned out alright, just not quite as good as the original.  Nothing ever is though, right?  :)  Here's Kathy's HYCCT challenge description:

It's so fun to design cards with our punches and die cuts to help us. Use either or both of them to design a card to encourage these patients and lift their spirits. That's it! Any sketch, any colors, just be sure to include a 'punch'. Let's hope we can truly 'punch out' breast cancer in our lifetime. In the meantime, the cards you make and send to them now provide so much support as they fight the fight. Thanks to all who can participate with us this month. 

Stamps:  So Many Thanks, Gorgeous Grunge, Positively Chevron

Ink:  Crumb Cake, Baked Brown Sugar, Soft Suede

Paper:  Crumb Cake, Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana, Brights DSP stack

Accessories:  In Color Boutique Details, Linen Thread

Tools:  Big Shot, Square framelits, Beautiful Wings embosslit, Beautiful Butterflies die

I found Laila an owl costume for Halloween, but when we tried on the hood and cape, she quickly jerked it off.  We'll see how long she wears it.  lol  Hopefully long enough to maybe get a picture!  :)

Stampin' Up! Gently Falling

Still stamping away.  I don't know that I'm making the best cards, but I'm making them from my heart for a good cause, so that's good enough.  For this one I combined the awesome sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch

and Misti's challenge:

Many Colors of Cancer

Many of us have a loved one or friend that has been affected by cancer. Choose one of the colors of cancer from THIS Site & use it on your project. Feel free to use more than one color combo on your project, if you have more than one person going through a cancer battle. In your description, let us know why you choose the color(s) you did.

I used the closest color to emerald green that I had to honor my loved one with liver cancer.   My uncle was recently diagnosed with it and is starting chemo tomorrow.   He's pretty old and set in his ways, so I'm hoping he'll cooperate with treatment and try to stay here with us a bit longer.  I will probably make another version tomorrow in navy to honor my mother-in-law who passed away from colon cancer. 

Stamps:  Gently Falling, Truly Grateful

Ink/Paper: Garden Green

Tools:  Big Shot, Woodgrain embossing folder

We went on a little wagon ride not too long ago.  She loved it, so now that the weather has cooled off a bit I hope we can walk a lot.  :)   

Pinkterest Ombre Cake

I thought I'd share another Hope You Can Cling To challenge card with you this morning.  It had been a while since I pulled my Tasteful Trim die out, but it seemed like the perfect challenge for it.   Bridget's challenge was called Pinkterest.   Here's her description:

It's time to check out some fabulous inspiration from Pinterest, all in gorgeous shades of HOPEFUL PINK ! All you have to do is choose one of the photo's below to inspire your card and then tell us which one it is in your description - and we would LOVE to hear the details of why and how it inspired you too!

Here's the photo I picked:

Isn't that fun?  I want to eat it! I love the ombre effect and just had to do it again.  :)   

Laila had a play date during my class yesterday.  One of my friends brought her daughter Emily up and they had a blast together.  She seems to be in a shy mode with adults, but sixth graders seem to be just fine.  It was nice to see them both having fun, but it does make me a little sad that she won't have a living sibling to play with. Emily is an only child, so maybe they can be honorary sisters.  Anyway, Emily was pushing her and her friends around in the pink mobile.  Too funny. 

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.