Freshly Made Sketches 303

I just realized that I forgot to do my blog post for Freshly Made Sketches. I worked on my card to take my mind off things Tuesday, but I guess I didn't get to the posting part.  Karren really challenged us with this sketch!  Who doesn't love a challenging challenge, right? :) You get to put on your creative thinking cap and that's what I did. I had pulled one of my card kits from Simon Says Stamp from my stash to attempt to use it up as much as possible this week, so I worked on a design using that and only that.  I think it turned out okay and I hope it's close enough to the sketch.

I know Texas is getting a lot of news coverage, but we are fine.  We were some of the lucky ones in our area who didn't flood.  All of my friends here are fine as well. School is still delayed and next Thursday is the best case first day.  Laila's principal's house flooded and was still full of water as of yesterday. I'm sure our school will be helping with that as much as we can. The school itself did not flood, so we are thankful for that. There is just so much devastation around the area that it is almost unreal right now. It will be a long time before anything is close to normal again. But, we are lucky. So lucky. If the worst thing facing you is waiting in lines for hours to enter a grocery store, that's not much you can complain about when people lost their lives and homes. Things did begin opening back up yesterday, but some will be months coming back. It is just truly heartbreaking. 

It has been amazing to see how the community, both individuals and businesses, have jumped in to help. We've gathered supplies to take to temporary shelters twice now and their needs were already met before we could get there. Restaurants are closing to focus on making food for first responders. Churches quickly opened up as shelters. People with boats and lifted trucks assisting strangers. I know on our local group a truck owner picked up a pregnant lady having contractions five minutes apart and got her to the hospital so she could give birth. Political and racial divides went out the window and it has been people helping people. We need more of that. 

I'm off to make coffee and turn on the news for a bit. Have a good week and keep sending good thoughts this way. 

Hugs. 

MFT Card Challenge 347

Howdy! I did a bit of stamping yesterday and today and wanted to share one of my projects. I loved the sketch at MFT Card Challenges this week. I didn't have the die to make the shape they used, so I made due with a boring old rectangle. You know how much I love this set, so I colored it in Laila's favorite colors, orange and green.  :) It probably makes it look a bit Halloweenish, but that's okay. Halloween is awesome and coming up soon, so I can always use it then.

Hurricane Harvey is still dropping a lot of rain on my area, so we are staying inside.  Roads are flooded and some businesses and houses are starting to as well.  We missed the direct hit and the wind, but the rain is going to do a lot of damage. :( School won't be starting tomorrow and is postponed until at least Wednesday now.  Send good thoughts to Texas in hopes that the rain moves out soon.

We did get out some yesterday during a lull and took a walk.  That hasn't happened today, so we are inside with a bit of cabin fever.  Laila wants to go splash in puddles again, but it's a bit more than puddles out there right now.  I'll share a picture of her from yesterday as well as a beautiful butterfly that came to visit.  We haven't seen any butterflies today, but the rain hasn't stopped our little hummingbird from visiting the feeder.

Off to eat lunch and maybe sneak in a nap.  I have lots of new books on my Kindle and of course there's always stamping...

Freshly Made Sketches 302

Jumping in and playing along with Freshly Made Sketches this week.  I saw the sketch and had an idea, so I tried to find time to see if that idea translated well to paper.  I am happy with how it turned out.  I had the watercolor background in my stash waiting to be used, so yay for one less thing being stored. :) I've been trying to use more vellum lately too as it's been sitting unused for a while too. I hope you like it!

Before I run off and get ready for playgroup, I thought I'd share pictures of Laila's school.  

 This is the library.  It is amazing. I wanted to just move in!

 I took this when we were walking in.  It's neat because all the grades have their own hallway.

 Her classroom.  They are still waiting on tables for the room.

She made herself at home.  She was pretty overwhelmed, but she did hug her teacher by the end of our visit.  I hope she's excited to go on Monday.  I'm a bit nervous about figuring out drop off and all that, but Jason took off all next week.  I'm happy to have backup! 

MFT Camp Create Delightful Die Cutting

I thought I'd sneak in my card for the last day of Camp Create so that I don't forget to upload it.  This one is for the Delightful Die Cutting.  I wasn't sure I could do this one, but I saw these glasses and thought they might work?  It was fun to make because I LOVE distress inks.  This was Mermaid Lagoon. Love that color!

That makes all five days for me, so yay!  There is a bonus day with an ombre theme, but I'm not sure I'll get to that one. My room is torn apart right now.  I am not even sure what to work on at this point, but I need to pick a starting point and get going again.  

Laila and I made this fancy pinhole camera to watch the eclipse yesterday.  I was skeptical, but it worked great.  One of my neighbors who had the glasses did walk over and let me borrow them for a minute to look.  So cool, huh? 

Off to clean a bit more and then shower and get ready for meet the teacher tonight.  I can't believe it's that time already.  I'm a nervous wreck.  I'm sure that's part of why I can't sleep.  I hope she does okay, but if not, I hope there's a plan to help her.  Getting kicked out of the last school type place we tried has made this so stressful.  We have one more social skills class tomorrow and play therapy on Thursday. I am sad about the social skills class as they do such much that I feel helps. 

MFT Camp Create Background Bonanza

Did you survive Monday and the eclipse?  I did, but man am I tired.  Laila and I made the viewer using a cereal box and I think she enjoyed it. :)  I wanted to share another card for the MFT Camp Create.  This one is for the Background Bonanza.  I love using stencils and this is a newer one in my stash.  I used three colors of distress inks, Candy Apple, Spiced Marmalade, and Mustard Seed.

We had three more butterflies to release today.  Laila loves them and she's always wanting to keep one.  This one stayed with her for a while today. 

I'm off to get some rest.  I have been so tired and fighting a headache all day, so early bedtime it is. I hope you have a terrific Tuesday. 

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.