Simon Says HUGS!

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge was to make your own background.   They are showcasing Gelatos over on the blog, so I thought I'd pull out mine and try them again.  I still don't think I have the hang of it, but it was fun to play with them.   I paired the purple I used with the darker Concord Crush color.  It's retired, but still one of my favorite purples.  I popped up my diecut you on dimensionals to give it a little more depth.  

She came clopping through the house with Jason's shoes on the other night.  That girl loves her some shoes.  We struggle to find ours now because she's always put them on and walked off with them.  

Stampin' Up! Wondrous Wreath

I have my monthly stamping group next Sunday, so I started working on some samples for it today.   We are going to make up some fall projects, so I decided to use my new wreath set for Fall.   I went through a ton of colors and different combinations until I finally just decided to go simple with Cajun Craze and Early Espresso on a Crumb Cake background.   It's a simple card, but I think it's pretty for Fall.   I hope my ladies enjoy making it and learning how Stampin' Up! really improved the stamping and cutting of this set.  There's a notch on each of the 3 layers of the wreath and on the coordinating framelits so you know exactly where to place them.  It's SOOOOO nice and much less frustrating than some other sets I have.

We had some family art time yesterday.  :)    She's doing so much better with coloring and painting, so maybe that coordination is finally developing a bit.   She still uses both hands, so we have no idea when we'll know which she'll prefer.  Jason is a leftie, so she sees us using different ones.  

I'm headed back outside to enjoy the cooler weather before it warms back up tomorrow.   It's actually in the 70s!

Warm Winter Wishes

It's in the 70s here, so bring on the snowman stamps!  lol   I just got some new goodies from My Favorite Things, so I thought I'd paly along with their current sketch challenge.   I'm a bit in love with this snowman stamp already.   He's fun with Copics.

Isn't that a fun sketch?  I thought it worked great with my new stamps!   I need to make a card using a wreath, so I think I'll be using it again for that.  

Here's Laila's other picture we picked from her Hope Calendar shoot.   She looks ready to fly!   Now we are about to head out for a family breakfast at Panera and then grocery shopping.   Have a great Saturday!  

TE Sketch and a Selfie

I saw an awesome sketch on Pinterest and decided to go check it out.  I found it was actually an awesome challenge on the Taylored Expressions website.  I have several of their sets on my wishlist, so I was excited to play along.  

Part of the challenge was also taking a selfie with your card and mailing it to someone you love.  It just so happens that my college roommate has a birthday that I need to acknowledge.  She was like a sister to me for the time we lived in the same town and I still love her to pieces.   

Laila helped me this one as we both crafted on my desk.  She was coloring while I was stamping.   Well, kinda.  lol   I finished this card and took a break until she napped before I made the card I'll share with you tomorrow.  :)   

Bring on the Fall

Happy Thursday!   I hope your week has been a good one and you are ready for the weekend. We are supposed to get a "cold front" here in Texas tomorrow, so it might acutally NOT be 90 this weekend.   Woo Hoo!   I think rain is in the forecast with it, but oh well.  I'll take the cooler temperatures.   I went and stamped a little after dinner tonight and this was my card. I made it for the Fall challenge at The Paper Players.   I tried to use the sketch from Mojo Monday but I was dealing with Laila trying to take my chair and I missed part of the sketch.    I used the new Winnie & Walter set that I won last week and I love it.  The sentiments are just so beautiful.

Stamps:  Winner & Walter A Tree for All Seasons
Ink:  Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke
Paper: Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, Whisper White
Accessories:   SU Neutrals buttons, SU Regals Candy Dots, SU Crushed Curry Baker's Twine
Tools:  Big Shot, Tim Holtz embossing folder

I don't know how many of you read the Simon Says Stamp blog, but go check this out!  I was so excited today!

We got our Hope Calendar pictures this week and I love this one so, so much.   I can't wait to send off for prints so I can send it out to our family.   Today was an eventful day.  She's been crawling under the last gate we have up so we decided to go ahead and take it down.  Oh my!  She doesn't want to leave my craft room now and she insists that my chair is hers.  lol   I might be sitting in a folding chair stamping for a while.  ;-)   She also (out of nowhere) knows how to open doors.   I knew that would happen soon, but man!   We've been working to make sure any and all chemicals are put away in every room now because she can go anywhere really.   Crazy how fast they grow and learn new stuff.

FMS153: Flying Happy

Time for a new sketch at  Freshly Made Sketches. Jen B. came up with our great sketch this week and it is fabulous.   I love when there's a lot of room for interpretation.  :) I went with a lot of white space and a Mama Elephant stamp set for my card.  MarkerPOP has an Anything Goes challenge this week, so I want to enter this there as well.   :)

Stamps:  Mama Elephant Up and Away

Ink:  Memento Black, SU Basic Gray

Paper:  Neenah Solar White, WRMK Yellow Chevron 

Accessories/Embellishments:  Pretty Pink Posh Lemon Drop flat sequins, SU Neutral Candy Dots

Tools:  SU Cloudy Day embossing folder

Copics:  Y11, Y13, Y15, Y17, Y19, W0, W1, W3, W5, R02

I walked outside on Sunday and this was my first sight.   It looks like she and daddy were having way too much fun.  lol 

Curses!

Whew.  This card...I don't even know what to say about it.  I had quite a bit of time to stamp yesterday and I fought with this one card for the entire time and got back up this morning still not happy with it.  I figured I'd post it anyway because we all make some bad ones every now and then, right?  lol   I loved the Sweet Sunday Sketch this week and wanted to play along.  Too bad my mojo didn't.  Ha!  We'll blame it on the moon.  Yeah, totally the moon's fault.

I mentioned I'd been trying to mail out most of my cards.   Life gets in the way of course and they end up late a lot.   I thought this sentiment would be perfect for a belated birthday card.

My two loves.   Jason is enjoying his guitar and I'm so happy about that.  He needed a hobby or interest terribly bad and I'm glad he finally showed interest in something.  :o)  

Happy Bokeh

I've been wanting to try this cool technique I saw over on the wPlus9 blog for a while and finally took a bit of time to play yesterday.  It is so cool!!!!!  And easy too! Here's the link with the video of how to do it.  I used Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Wisteria Wonder, and Elegant Eggplant for my background and then Whisper White craft ink for the circles.   I made this to enter into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.

She had so much fun at the little playground over near the ducks the other day.  She was very brave and climbed and was sliding so much better than before.