Camp Create Monochromatic Magic

Day four of Camp Create was about making a monochromatic background.  I didn't have three inks to do a background like Laurie's, so I did distress inks.  I put it on heavy at the bottom and used a lighter hand as I went up. After I had the ink on, I spritzed the background stamp with water and stamped it.  it gives some nice interest to the background I think. The rest is pretty simple.  I cut out friend from the finished panel and then again from black and then white cardstock.  I layered them up, white in the space left by the first cut, then black, then the distressed ink one.  It was a super fun card to make.

Have a fantastic week!  

Camp Create Magnificent Masking

Hello!  I hope you've had a great weekend.  We haven't done much today and that's been nice.  :)  I've been in my stamp room again working on purging and organizing. I know it has to get worse before it gets better, but man.  It's a hot mess.  I did take some time last night to do a bit of stamping.  I did another of the MFT Camp Create challenges, this time masking. I struggle with masking, but I love the look.  I had trouble because I had to use regular sticky notes because my Post-It tape was hiding.  I think the end result is okay though.  I even decided to make a shaker card to use up some of the 4 billion sequins I "needed" at some point.

Sorry for the bad picture.  I'm trying to move my light tent and lights and I'm guessing the new place needs some tweaking.

Today we had one butterfly eclose, a male. Usually the males take off as soon as we get them out, but this guy stayed around for a while.  I think he liked getting his picture taken. :)  I'm sad because I have to take a break raising my guys.  Little Lady can't seem to shake her flea/worm issue, so I have to treat her for the third time.  The flea meds are toxic to caterpillars, so I have to avoid being near them for a while.  With school starting soon, it's probably a good time for a break anyway.  The current guys have devoured most of my plants anyway!

MFT Card Challenges Sketch 346

Happy Saturday!  How's your weekend going?  Things have been pretty good here.  My sister-in-law came over today and took Laila shopping for  her birthday.  Her step-daughter, who is about 6 months younger than Laila, was with her so they got to play some.  I made this card for Miss Laila.  I need to get a photo box to put the ones I make for her in so I can quickly grab them on school days. :) This card uses products from My Favorite Things and is for their Card Challenges sketch challenge.

So Laila LOVED her swimming lesson yesterday.  She didn't have any upsets, but was probably a bit too excited.  lol  Hopefully the newness wears off and she can focus better next week.  She did great on what they practiced and is ready to go back! We had to go shopping afterwards to see if we could find her a new bathing suit. She's grown so much this summer that hers are about too small.  Thankfully Kohl's had some in the clearance that would work. 

Camp Create Day 1

Happy Friday!  I feel like it's Saturday for some reason.  Do you ever do that?  It might be that I didn't get much sleep last night.  Little Lady was crazy and so was my brain.  I finally got up and have been creating a bit since way too early.  My Favorite Things has had their Camp Create this week and they have some great techniques (with videos).  For day one, we worked on Inlaid Die Cutting.  I didn't have any scenery dies like Barbara used, but I still wanted to play along.  I made a rainbow panel with distress inks and then cut it using the Snow Drifts Background.  I also cut a piece of white with the same die to use as a frame.  After I pieced in the colors, I cut out the friend and was very careful to keep all the little parts from the rainbow panel to put back in it.  Fun card and I hope it will brighten someone's day.

Yesterday I worked for hours cleaning and straightening my craft room.  I don't know that I got that far, but I'm trying to do a bit every day.  I need so much less stuff.  I think that's a common issue, yet I always want the new things I see.  I am thinking September will be a no buying anything except adhesive if needed month.  I'm going to a crafty retreat that month anyway, so there should be plenty of new techniques and fun to do with what I have. :) 

Off to get ready.  Laila has her first swim lesson at four.  Send good thoughts! I never know how it will go, but we have to try new things and hope for the best. She seems to love being in the water and I want her to be safe. 

This is me every morning around 6am.  She loves to come snuggle right on my face.  If I don't wake up to pet her she puts her paws on my face.  She's a nut.  She makes me laugh and she makes me happy with her snuggles. 

Mixing it Up with Avery and Ellen

Entering the Ellen Hutson Mix It Up challenge at the last minute.  I came in to organize my desk last night and ended up playing around and making the image panel.  I used the Essentials by Ellen Bold Blooms and Avery Elle Butterflies and Wonky Stitched dies.  It's a happy card I think.  I haven't been in the best mood this week, so it was helpful to create with cheerful colors.  :) Now fingers crossed I get randomly picked for the prize as they have a new gardener lady stamp set that I NEED so bad. Because I don't have enough stamps already, right?

Laila had her five year checkup today.  Now did that happen???  Her doctor was even surprised that she was that old already.  She had gotten a lot taller since her four year.  She had quite a spurt in a year.  She gets mistaken for an older kid all the time because she's so tall. That is part of the reason we decided not to hold her back another year. I hope we made the right decision.  We'll see in couple weeks I guess.  Meet the Teacher is in a week! Yikes! 

I'm off to figure out dinner (no clue!) and play animals with Laila.  She got some of those sponges in a capsule that you put in water and watch them grow today for being so good at the doctor.  Now we are going to make up a game with all the animals and food they turned into.  No idea about that either, but she wants to play, so...

Hope you are having a good week!

Stampin' Up! Dragonfly Dreams Inspiration

Splitcoast has weekly challenges, a different one every day.  I saw the Inspiration challenge on Saturday and thought I'd play along. I found this pillow and used it for my inspiration.  There's a lot of stamp sets going on here.  Stampin' Up! Best Thoughts, Dragonfly Dreams, and French Foliage, plus a Stampers Anonymous set called Papillon. It was fun to try to make and I think I need to remember to do that challenge every week if I can. :)

When we went shopping last week for school clothes Laila found one of her favorites, THE PIGEON!  She loves the Mo Willems books so much, so I had to get it for her. :) I can't believe how well she's reading. She read me a huge book of fairy tales yesterday.

And thank you guys who commented about keeping the blog going. I have a month or so before I have to pay Go Daddy again, so that gives me some time to see how things go once Laila starts school. My garden needs a lot of work after the summer heat, so that might keep me busy.  Plus I am determined to donate like half of our house.  The clutter is making my mental health issues much worse.  I can't wait to get stuff out of here and the rest organized.

And before I go, I thought I'd share a Gulf Fritillary butterfly.  We have so many caterpillars for this guy!  I only have a few in my enclosures because they make their chrysalises in places that make me have to move them and I'm afraid of hurting one.  We also have close to 20 Monarch caterpillars who are almost all in their chrysalis, plus about 5 Eastern Black Swallowtails who are still eating away. They are my favorite butterfly and I deal with the awful smell of dill on my hands to feed them. (I hate dill and all pickles!)  It's been a lot of work, but we love raising and releasing them.

I hope your Monday is going well.  Little Lady was on my shoulders kneading my arms to let me know she needed attention at 5:15 today.  I've had two coffees and am hanging in there.  Maybe I'll sleep well tonight after being up so early. :)

MFT Color Challenge 75

I loved the colors of the MFT Card Challenge 75, so I thought I'd try to make a card for my mom.  She's been so busy lately with my dad's illnesses and my brother's home buying and has been neglecting herself.  I keep telling her to slow down and take some time for herself as well.  She doesn't listen very well.  lol  If you've followed my blog, you know my mom loves quilting.  I have several quilt dies to make cards for her. This is the MFT Diagonal Quilt die and a set I picked up in their big sale, Let's Get Cozy.  They work so perfectly together! 

Before I end, I just wanted to say thank you for all who visit and leave comments.  I've fallen out of the blogging world since I've had Laila and haven't been that good at visiting and commenting on the blogs I used to follow.  I'm thinking that next month may be the end of blogging for me and I'll just go back to uploading cards to Splitcoast or on Flickr.  It seems silly and selfish to keep trying to do this when I don't have time to visit and participate with other bloggers.  

And finally, I'll share my photography helper.  :) 

Stampin' Up! Swallowtail

Hey! I'm back. :) Believe it or not, I managed to finish all 35 of the Dare to Get Dirty challenges.  I didn't think I would as I ran out of steam on Sunday, but I jumped back in on Monday and Tuesday and finished.  It was work, but yay! Now I have to send out all the birthday cards that I missed while I was stamping. Oops!

I love this giant Swallowtail stamp.  I didn't buy it when it was current in the catalog, but I think a nice friend might have gifted it to me.  I can't remember who though. I swear I struggle with memory, sometimes to the point that I almost make a doctor's appointment for it.  Anyway...  I used just the regular distress inks and painted them on with my fingers.  I added water to the paper, pressed the ink pads on my craft mat, spritzed those, and then painted away.  My fingers were only red for four days or so after. Ha! I did dry it at that point and then lay it on the leftover inks to give it more of the water splattery look.  Now I'm making up words...

Wednesday evening Laila went out to play and I noticed she was awfully quiet and not running in and out like she usually does.  I walked out and found her like this, sitting in the middle of mud.  She was having a blast.  I let her play until time for pajamas and then shooed her into the shower to wash that off.  I'm sure my washing machine is now full of sand from washing those clothes.  I debated about just throwing them away because they were gross! Today we went swimming with a friend.  She had so much fun! Jason ended up signing her up for weekly swim classes, so fingers crossed she cooperates and has fun. We start next Friday.

I'm off to finish listing some stuff on eBay and cleaning my room.  I'm hoping to have a giveaway on my blog soon, so stay tuned!