Freshly Made Polar Bear

It's Wednesday, which means a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!   Jen B. is our awesome hostess this week.  She is not a fan of circles, so it was surprising to see one on her sketch.  :)  Of course it is really any shape, so you can do what speaks to you.  For me, it was a polar bear.  I love this guy.  I'm so ready for Fall and Winter!  Not that we have real ones here in Texas, but the cooler weather is nice.  :)

Stamps:  My Favorite Things Cool Day and Holiday Hugs

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black

Paper:  Neenah Solar White 80 and 110lb

Copics:  R20, R35, R37, R39, BG13, BG15, BG49, W0, W1

Other:  WRMK Embossing Folder, Lil' Inker Stitched Squares, Stampin' Up! snowflake sequins, Simon Says Stamp clear sequins

Have a great rest of the week!  Here's to remembering it's NOT Tuesday.  lol  

Tag of Gratitude

I've been in the mood for Fall things lately, so I decided to make some tags with my Tim Holtz goodies.  I just love distress inks!  I added a beautiful sentiment from Wplus9 to finish it off.  I think this will be great to put on a loaf of pumpkin bread or some other baked good to give to people around Thanksgiving.  :)

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! Sanded, Stampers Anonymous Halloween Blueprints, Wplus9 Grateful Greetings
Ink:  Ranger Jet Black Archival, Distress Inks (I didn't keep track, sorry!)
Paper: Manila tag, watercolor paper
Extras: Stampin' Up! Vanilla seam binding, Studio Calico wood veneer hearts

She really loves the postcards so much.  We are still getting a few a week and it's so fun to see her get excited.  I need to print a list of states so we can check them off as we get one from there.  :)

Fab Friday Unicorn

The past week has been icky, so I thought I'd try to stamp something tonight.  I love the new sketch over at Fab Friday and it looked like a fun starting point.  I got a couple of new stamps this week and this cute Winter Unicorn from Lawn Fawn was one of them.  It looked like it might work, so I colored him up and added some festive paper.  I don't know that I love it, but I'm proud of myself for trying. 

Stamps:  Lawn Fawn Winter Unicorn

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up! Real Red, Ranger Caribbean Coast

Paper:  Neenah Solar White, SU Real Red, patterned paper scrap

Dies:  My Favorite Things Stitched Mini Scalloped Circles, Lil' Inker Stitched Rectangles, MFT Blueprints 20

Copics:  R20, R32, R35, R37, R81, R83, R85, B000, B00, B02, BV23, T0

Last Friday was one of the saddest days of my life.  I had to say goodbye to my Bandit.  He was such a huge part of me and I miss him so much.  I love our other pets, but he was just something special.  You can see how silly he was.  He was always taking toys, shoes, whatever he could find to his box nest to snuggle with.   I know we had many days where we scrambled to find our missing shoes, not knowing where he might have put them.   He was just full of spunk and personality.  He hated everyone that didn't live in our house, but he loved us something fierce.  I don't think we'll ever find another like him.

Freshly Made Leaves

Wednesday means a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Karren is the designer this week and has a fun one!  I messed it up (as always), but I love my card anyway.   I just got some beautiful new dies from Concord & 9th and I had to use them!  Aren't they pretty?  Great way to use up some scrap pieces too.  :)

Stamps:  Wplus9 Grateful Greetings
Ink:  Stampin' Up! Early Espresso
Paper:  SU Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, and SU DSP scrap
Tools:  Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders, Concord & 9th Layering Leaf dies
Other: Linen Thread, SU Regals Candy Dots, SU burlap ribbon

Isn't that fun?  I love the "any shapes" option because the possibilities are endless!  I look forward to seeing you in the gallery!  Below is my first attempt with the sketch the same products.  I like the second on so much better!

Freshly Made Poinsettia

Hello! It's back to school week here, so I'm a little behind on making and posting.  I am so excited to be back playing with my friends at Freshly Made Sketches this week.  I took a small break to try and gather myself back together.  I started playing around with the sketch this week to see if I could do it and this is what I got.  I love the sketch and was feeling a bit festive too I guess.  :)  Cindy is the hostess and she always has the best projects.  Be sure to go check out hers and the rest of the teams'.

I still don't own anything oval, so circle it was.  :) 

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! Joyful Christmas, Stampin' Up! Contempo Christmas

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up! Cherry Cobbler

Paper:  Stampin' Up! Thick Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Neenah Solar White

Dies:  Lil' Inker Stitched Rectangles, My Favorite Things Stitched Mini Scallop Circles

Copics:  R35, R35, R39, YG11, YG13, YG17

Laila had her first day of school yesterday and it went great!  She didn't want to leave.  lol  Today she was so excited to go back and asked to leave early even!  Wow! Here's us waiting in the car line for the teachers to come out!  Today was our first time ever doing that and it was easy peasy!  I hope we have found the right fit for her.  Three days a week will do us all good!  :) 

Blueprint Poison

What?  Halloween???  I know!  I treated myself to a stamp set I found on sale last week and it is Halloween/Fall Tim Holtz blueprints.  I wanted to try some liquid masking using a technique I learned in the Mask-erade Online Card Classes class. I put a ton of time and effort into this card.  So many techniques and drying time!  It is still drying now because there's Crystal Effects on the bottle.  lol  It might be ready to mail by Halloween. ...maybe!

Stamps:  Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Halloween Blueprint 2, Stampin' Up! And Many More
Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black, Distress inks: Dusty Concord, Spiced Marmalade, Hickory Smoke, Black Soot, Tea Dye, Brushed Corduroy
Paper:  Canson 140lb watercolor paper, My Favorite Things Black Licorace, Recollections Midnight Magic Halloween
Dies:  Lil' Inker Stitched Rectangles

That's all from me.  We are getting ready to go on a little family drive.  Jason has to pick up something about an hour away and there's a Whole Foods near where he's going.  I love going there to look around, so Laila and I might be finding some new fruits/veggies to try later!  :)

Have a great weekend!
Rita

Purrfect Purple Cat

I'm still working on August birthday cards.  Today I focused on a sweet friend who loves cats. She's super girly, but I just can't do pink so I went with a good girl color, PURPLE!   I used the new sketch at MFT Card Challenges along with a cute MFT Pure Innocence stamp.  :)

Stamps: MFT Purrfect
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Ranger Dusty Concord distress ink
Paper:  (not sure of the purple, but it's retired Stampin' Up!), Neenah Solar White
Dies:  My Favorite Things Blueprints 27 and 22, Lil' Inker Stitched Rectangles
Copics:  E000, E00, E11, R20, E31, E33, E36, E37, V12, V15, V17, W0, W1, W3, W5, W7

So update on life chaos:  Bandit seems to be feeling better minus some weird breathing. I'm calling tomorrow to follow up on that since he will be finishing up his antibiotics.  We found out today that Laila was accepted at the montessori school we applied to and will start next week!  So yay!  Tomorrow we have another assessment with the public school system and go meet her teacher again at the montessori school.  Send good thoughts! :)

Maskerade of Animals

August is apparently the month for birthdays!  What happened 9 months ago?  lol   I have so many friends with birthdays this month so I'm trying to crank out some cards for them.  I saw that Online Card Classes was having a sale this week (ends today by the way!) on classes so I took a peek.  I saw the Maskerade class that I never really finished because I didn't have the supplies and thought hmm...  So this card is the results of the first lesson.  :)   I still might go sign up for a new class, but I have several that I can revisit and do again with supplies that I have now.  It will feel all new in a way!  If you've never tried a class, go look and give one a chance! I love every single one I've taken.

And this card has too many random sequins.  We won't talk about the smudges they are hiding.  Oops!

Stamps:  Avery Elle Furry Friends, Mama Elephant Carnival Toppers, Avery Elle Party Animal
Paper:  Neenah Solar white 80/110 lb
Ink:  Mememto Tuxedo Black
Dies: MFT Blueprints 20
Copics: E31, E33, E35, E42, E43, E44, W1, W3, W4, R20, BG01, BG02 BG05, V12, V15, V17
Other: Inkadinkado Masking Paper, Sequins

Happy Monday!  Enjoy your week!