Ellen Hutson Mix It Up Challenge

Is there a technique that is common that you tend to avoid?  For me it is heat embossing.  I end up with powder everywhere and my project looks like a hot mess.  I'm challenge myself to try it more this month and see if I get any better with practice.  I started with a fun challenge from the Ellen Hutson Classroom.  They are mixing it up with Avery Elle and I just happen to have gotten a new Avery Elle Butterflies set this week.  Perfect timing, huh?  It paired well with the Essentials by Ellen Bold Blooms set.  Do you see all that embossing??  I managed to not muck it up!  Clear powder might be my friend.  Black and white?  Not so much, but we'll see.  lol

Laila and I have been taking a walk after dinner this week.  It has been so nice and we've walked close to 2 miles each night.  We have been treated to some beautiful sunsets.  Look at those colors!  Gorgeous!

Tuesday Morning Sketch 384

I've just been creating up storm.  I don't know when it will stop, but I'll keep going.  Fingers crossed I can keep it up.  :)   Yesterday I worked on a card for the Tuesday Morning Sketch Challenge and had a rough time.  I scrapped my first effort and started over.  I'm so glad I did because I love this one.  I grabbed an older Stampin' Up! set called Papillon Potpourri and a Simon Says Stamp set, Hand Lettered Winter Wishes.  I went with an orange and black theme and hoped it didn't get too Halloweenish.  It's always rolling the dice when you use just those two colors.

I've been invaded by a cute little girl, so I have to exit the room before she knocks anything else off my desk.  Oops! 

Freshly Made Sketches 269

I managed to get a card made to play along with my amazing friends at Freshly Made Sketches.  I have totally failed as a DT member lately, but they've kept me around.  Linda had a simple sketch this week that was so fun to work with.  Simple ones really allow your creativity to flow!  I failed at getting Christmas cards out this year, so I decided to work on some winter cards to send out.  This cute set from Honey Bee Stamps was a little gift I gave myself for Christmas.  :)   It's adorable!!!   I love bears.  He was so fun to color too.

Be sure to check the FMS blog to see all the lovely creations from the team.  There's a nice variety that show how versatile the sketch truly is!  

Mojo Monday 478

I took a break from the online Copics class I'm working on to play around with some Brusho and the new sketch at Mojo Monday.  Doing challenges used to be a great way to get back into the groove of stamping and a way to improve my cards as well.  Today I wanted to do a card in the style of Julee Tillman, who is the owner of Verve Stamps.  She has a fun shabby chic style that is way outside my comfort zone, so it was fun to play around and get messy.  :)

I hope you had a fun time ringing in the new year.  I'm old now so I'm usually asleep before midnight, but do wake up when the fireworks go crazy.  Things are different with kids.  Laila is up at 7am every day.  It doesn't matter if she was awake half the night or not, she's up.  ..and so are we.  lol 

Happy New Year! 

Stampin' Up! Cheerful Critters

I pulled this adorable set off my Stampin' Up! shelf yesterday and had to ink it up.   It makes me happy just to look at those critters.  I used a fun color combo of Island Indigo/Gumball Green and I am loving those together.  I know the perfect person to send this one to and I can't wait for her to get it.  :) 

Mom leaves tomorrow so I don't know how much stamping I'll be doing again for a while.  I might start coming in at night and working on some projects after Laila is in bed.  Before we moved my desk this week it was right in front of my window.  I'm a weirdo who is scared of windows, so I didn't like stamping after dark.  Now I can hide away from it and color.  :) 

I hope everyone has a nice time ringing in the new year tomorrow! 

MFT Wild About You

I am loving my stamp room now that we've moved my desk...and dusted.  lol  I saw the sketch at MFT Card Challenge and this cute stamp and thought hmm...  I love the result.  Mom (with Jason's  help) got me a few new Copics for Christmas and these greens were one of the sets.  So bright and fun!

Stamps:  MFT Cheeta background, MFT Pure Innocence Wild For You
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark
Paper:  SU Crumb Cake, Neenah Solar White, misc green
Other:  MFT Stitched Traditional Tags dies, SU Neutrals buttons, misc baker's twine

Yesterday brought some beautiful weather to Texas.  It was like 80 degrees and amazing. Laila asked to go to one of the local parks, so we packed up some bottles of water and headed out.  It was so nice.  We were even able to go out to lunch after.  My mom leaves Saturday morning and someone is sure going to be sad.

SSS Magical Birthday

Can you believe 2016 is almost over?  It seems to have been a year with a lot of negative things, so I am hoping that 2017 brings better days.  Today I started the new year organization early and worked on my craft room..  Mom helped me turn my desk so that I have better lighting and I've been working on finding a place for everything.  I am always losing things, so I figure organized with labels is going to be my best bet.   We shall see how it goes!

This week I worked on a card using this adorable stamp set from Simon Says Stamp.  It was a free one as a birthday gift from them.  :)   Isn't that unicorn awesome?!  The SSS Wednesday challenge is to make your card sparkle, so I did.  I added Wink of Stella to my stars, the rainbow, and the unicorn horn.   A little silver glitter paper finished it off.  The stars are purple, but they showed up as black on every picture I took.

Mom got to experience some crafty time with Laila to make this gingerbread train.  I don't think they'll be making one again for a while.  lol  Laila was in rare form today as well.  Mom was even out of patience by bedtime.  She told me she now understands why I have so many breakdowns.  Glad to know it just isn't me, you know?

MFT Cool Day Birthday

I'm still trying to get back in the stamping groove.  I had colored this bear the other day and the current sketch at MFT Card Challenges looked like a great place to use him.  I love these colors together so much!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.  We had a lot of yummy food and were lucky to have my mom and Jason's family join us.  Laila had a blast and was so happy that Santa brought her the one thing she wanted more than anything, the Paw Patroller.  :)