FMS 308: Witch Way is the Candy

Hey! Checking in with a new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches today! I got to design the sketch for this week's challenge and I think it's a fun one. :)  I love making cards with the focus on a Polaroid-like piece. I bought a die last year that cut one, but it got mixed up in a friend's things and spent the past year hanging out in Minnesota. She recently visited again and now it's back in Texas. So... I thought I'd base my sketch around it.

I think I am now obsessed with this witch stamp set. I can't stop coloring her! Sandy Allnock has an awesome tutorial on the MFT blog, so I spent time this weekend coloring along with the video. This was my first attempt at following her.  The shadows are much better than I do, so it's been fun to learn about how to color more realistically. Not that green skin and purple hair are realistic, but you know what I mean... ;)

I hope you'll come play along with us this week! 

By the Numbers Halloween Style

Happy World Card Making Day!  I hope you found some time to get inky today.  I managed three cards and am debating another before bed.  MFT has some fun challenges, so I've been working on those.  This one is for the By the Numbers challenge. I hope you can see my numbers. I didn't really have number stamps or dies, so I used my Cameo to cut out numbers.  Kinda fun to play around with different ideas. :)

It's been a very low-key day here.  We needed one! I hope you are having a great weekend.  Enjoy your Sunday! Here's Little Lady having a stressful Saturday. 

MFT Card Challenges 353

Greetings! Can you believe it's October? Like really???  I have all these fun Halloween and fall stamps, but how many will I have time to use???  I fell in love with this cute Witch Way is the Candy set from My Favorite Things and had to get her this time around. It was so awesome of them to bring her back because so many people wanted one!  I used it for this week's sketch challenge at MFT Card Challenges.



It's been an interesting week since I last posted. Laila had early release on Wednesday, so I picked her up at noon. Yesterday was just a stressful day of messages and calls from school. Jason handled much of that thank goodness. I can't do the whole week of negative feedback. But, today seemed some better and we are now on track to get her some accommodations to try and make her days better. I don't know how many times the counselor told us she was a VERY strong-willed child. Like yeah, we know that. Oh boy do we know that!  I think she sat in the hallway for over two hours yesterday because she wouldn't apologize her to teacher for something. (and yeah, that's an issue we'll bring up in her 504 meeting as it's too long of a time out of class). I am connecting our behavior specialist that we worked with this year with the counselor in hopes that she can pass along some things that she found to help. So, keep us in your thoughts please. It's going to be an interesting  year. I'm already struggling myself because the constant negative feedback just destroys me.

We went to Target after early release on Wednesday and looked at Halloween stuff. She's already got her costume, but she loves all the skeletons and pumpkins. :)

She's going to be a Monarch butterfly. :) We have to find tights and she should be ready to go! I love that she picked that one. 

Pin-Sights All Dressed Up

I'm here! I stamped today, but got behind and didn't get to do my picture/post until tonight.  I got this cute new bear from Ellen Hutson yesterday and thought I'd use him for the current Pin-Sights challenge. It's he cute??  I love that the dies cut his hands so he can hold stuff.  Such a cool idea! I made this one for Laila, but I also have a cool accessories set for him that works for the holidays! I can't wait to play with that!

Now I have to run and work on some laundry. I'm so behind these days. I thought I'd have so much time to do things once school started, but it sure doesn't feel that way.  I am having some issues with my depression again, so that might be part of the issue. That's one reason why I wanted to make a card or project every day this month. That helps sometimes.  I need to get back to walking every day as well. Depression sucks because you know what helps, but finding the motivation to do it is a whole other issue. Just keep swimming though, right?

Simon Says Pumpkin Spice

Monday.  It was a sad morning to wake up to, so I needed to come color to take my mind off things for a while. I had a rough time leaving Laila at school and had to have a distraction when I got home. I decided to play with this new set I got from Simon Say Stamp's STAMPtember release. I love fall and coffee, so I had to have it. It will be a challenging set for me as the hair is HARD, but it will be good practice. I entered it into their flickr challenge and in the Wednesday Anything Goes challenge as well.

I also got to release some happiness into the world in the form of butterflies today. The season is almost over, but we have a few left to send off into the world.

Lots of hugs today to you all.

MFT Card Challenges 352

Happy October. It's still in the 90s here in Texas, but I'm going to pretend it is about 60 and I'm surrounded by pretty leaves. :) I did use some pretty fall paper on my card.  I used the current sketch at the MFT Card Challenges blog for the layout. I have some birthdays coming up and I don't seem to have that many birthday cards. I think I must have put some in a safe place and they are there being safe from me finding them!  That seems to happen every time I clean my room. You'd think I'd learn that cleaning is a bad idea, huh? lol

Not much going on this weekend for us. Laila and I are both sniffling and coughing, so we've been pretty lazy. I think I took a 3 hour nap yesterday.  I felt awful and I guess I needed the rest.  Those school germs paired with the pollen is too much I guess. 

We finally got in our school shirts and she was excited to wear one this week. They are both too big, but this one wasn't a dress like the other one. We had swimming twice this week and she moved up to the next level.  I love watching her at her lessons because she just loves it so much.  I found out that we can go to extra classes during the week for $10 a class if they have availability, so I'll be taking advantage of that. We've also been going to more library programs after school as well. Wednesday we went and they got to make cute bag pinatas. 

That's it for me today.  I'm hoping to make a card every day this month, so you might see more posts. I have lost the battery charger for my camera, so I'm stuck with iPhone pictures until I find that. It's also in a safe place I guess. lol 

Have a great week!

FMS307 with Neat & Tangled

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. One of our fearless leaders, Jen T, is our sketch designer this week. She must have known I was trying to figure out how to get more use out of my circle frame dies! :) I just got this cute new set from Neat & Tangled, so I thought my cute foxes would be perfect to add.

Neat & Tangled has their own challenge called Little Tangles and I wanted to enter my card there as well.  This month is to make a matching inside or envelope. That was super fun!

Isn't that cute?  I love decorating the inside of my cards as well, so I'm planning to do that before I mail it out. I just ran out of time yesterday.  Now I'm off to see what kind of crafty fun I can get into today!  

MFT Card Challenges 351

Happy Monday? Okay, maybe not? lol It's been okay here so far today.  I am still figuring out all this "free" time with Laila being in school. Today I had some real fun with dishes, scrubbing the bathrooms, and laundry. Woo Hoo!  I did decide to give myself a little break to create, so I made a card for the sketch from MFT Card Challenges blog.  Coloring is always fun and relaxing, especially when watching Netflix.

I love the distress oxide inks so much, so I used them for my background. I actually won a set at a retreat I went to this month. One of my friends whisked me away and we learned some new techniques and made a lot of new friends. It was awesome. It's always nice when your husband and friends work together to get you a break to refresh. 

Did I mention that Laila is taking swimming lessons? She LOVES it. It has been so wonderful to see her smile and have fun when she goes.  I think it will be something we keep doing for a while. She is doing great and hasn't had any upsets so far. She had a great day of school on Friday. I think her teacher is getting her a bit more and realizing how to head off meltdowns and defiance a bit better.  I know she has her hands full, but we keep in constant communication and try to keep things consistent between home and school.  We sent in the paperwork to have her tested for the gifted and talented program and also for small groups with the school counselor for anxiety/social issues.  I want her to be successful and I feel like this school will be help us get her there. 

I'm off for more coffee and maybe playing with the Gel Press we got at the retreat!