Some news...

Sorry for the second post today, but I wanted to share a bit of news with you!   I decided I needed a new challenge in my life, so I decided to apply for a design team position.  I got word last week that that I had been picked for the team and can finally annouce it today.  :)    Starting later this month, you'll see Monday posts from me using Prickley Pear stamps and dies.  I'm very honored to have the opportunity to stretch my creativity and work with some new products.  

FMS156: Sewing Love

Wednesday!   Woo hoo!  It's been a VERY VERY VERY long week here, so I'm happy to see mid-week.   That also means it is time for Freshly Made Skeches!  Narelle is our hostess this week and I can only hope I used enough layers to do her and her sketch justice.  :)   She is so amazing at layering and fussy cutting so be sure to jump over and see what she created.

Love this one don't you?!  I recently got this cute set from Paper Smooches to make cards for my mom.  She's so into sewing, so I thought she'd like the images.  I hope to find my stamps tomorrow and send this one out to her.  She's had a rough week and I know a little encouragement would help.  She's been under the weather and dealing with a death in the family (and company) on top of that.   

We've had a rough week, but she's still darn cute.  ;)  

Coffee Lovers Bloghop 2

The blog hop is going so well!   There are already 165 entries and 12 more hours to go!  I guess a lot of us papercrafts love our coffee and coffee stamps!  lol  I actually made two cards for the hop, so I thought I'd share my second one around the halfway point.

For this one, I used the new card kit from Simon Says Stamp!  I was so excited about it being coffee this month.  :)     It came with this adorable little cup die and I am already totally in love with how cute that is!  I used a Bo Bunny set for the splatters on the side.    

We now have a box big enough to ship a toddler.  Thanks, Amazon!   It was a battle of cats and toddler for the rights to the delivery yesterday, but Laila finally won out.  She's already asked me to get it back out and put the bag of balls we have in it.   Cheap entertainment for the evening.  Ha!

Coffee Lovers Bloghop!

Today is National Coffee Day!    It could be my new favorite day of the year!  lol   Chaitali is hosting a fun coffee-themed blog hop on her blog and I just had to join in!   If you have time, you can whip up a coffee card and go join in as well!   The linky is open until midnight and there are prizes to be won!

I used a new Lawn Fawn set for my card.  I love all the little cups and mugs that come with that set!  So, so cute.  They gave me a great opportunity to get some practice with my Copics.  I used the current sketch at The Paper Players for my layout. I also want to enter it in the MarkerPOP Anything Goes challenge.

    

As part of the hop, we were asked to answer a few questions, so here goes:

1.  When did you start drinking coffee?  For me, it was back in college.   I worked almost full-time and took a full classload, so I needed all the help I could get staying awake.  It really started to be an addiction when I got my first real job and had to wake up before 6am! 

2. What is your favorite brand?  I'm a huge Starbucks fan and love their Vanilla Macchiato, Pumpkin Spice Latte, Peppermint Mocha, and White Mocha.   For home coffee, I love Green Mountain brands in my Keurig. 

3.  What is the most amazing coffee that you had?  Remember when and where?  Strangely enough, at a friend's house!  Her husband is VERY into coffee and they have their own espresso machine.   He buys the beans at peak time and grinds them fresh for each cup.   I love going to visit, but even more so if they offer up a cup of that deliciousness!  

5. If I don't drink my needed coffee, I will....     Kill someone?  lol  Just kidding...kinda.   With a toddler in the house, I need it to wake up and keep up with her.  If I don't have it, I will be fighting a headache and fall over of exhaustion (probably before 9am).   

Speaking of the toddler, I love this shot from our zoo trip!   It's always fun to look through and find that one really awesome picture that you managed to snap.  :)

Oh, and before I forget, I made a new Facebook page for my cards.  I'd love for you to come by and say hi!

What's Brewing?

I got my new card kit from Simon Says Stamp, so I decided to use it for their Wednesday Challenge this week since it was anything goes.  :)   I love coffee stamps, so I was super excited to get this one!   I used our sketch at Freshly Made Sketches this week for it too!

We had a fabulous time at the zoo yesterday!   The weather was so nice and Laila was very well-behaved.   She rode the carousel five times and was actually okay when we left.  Normally that's the meltdown point for us, so we let her ride it a few more times than usual. That seems to take away the novelty of it and we could go enjoy the rest of the zoo.  

You're So Cool

It's Freshly Made Sketches day!   Karren is our hostess and sketch creator this time and she made us a tag sketch.  I was all excited about her sketch, but then fell short on time to make my card.  I actually made my card in my head and then ran into my room when Laila went down for a nap and started making the paper version.  Not too bad, huh?!   I needed a baby card, but when I saw the new Simon Says Stamp challenge on Flickr I decided to go with it instead.  I'll be stamping up a baby card tomorrow now since I do need one this week.  

Isn't that a fun sketch?  I know the gallery will be full of amazing cards this week! Here's the SSS Flickr challenge.  It was a Tic-Tac-Toe challenge and I went with die cut (tag), ribbon/twine, and polka dots.   :)  

It is finally feeling a bit more like Fall down here, so I am loving the cooler weather.  I've been feeling a little icky with allergies the past two days, but I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that my body adjusts to whatever is in the air soon.  It seems like a lot of my friends are having the same problem, so it must be a bad allergy season around the country.  Thankfully Laila has enjoyed snuggling and reading, so we've been doing a lot of that.  

She's all into the teapot lately, so we had some tea with our lunch on Monday.  lol  :)  

Curtain Call Robots?

I found a new challenge that I haven't had the pleasure of playing along with, so I decided to give it a shot.  If you haven't played along at Curtain Call, maybe you should go give it a shot as well!  My card was inspired by the colors of the inspiration picture.   It's definitely NOT a floral card, but I hope you can still see the inspiration.  I wasn't sure about posting, but I thought I'd give it a go.   There are so many amazing stampers on the design team, so it's a bit intimidating to actually link it up.  lol

I pulled the colors gray, yellow, orange, and green from the picture and used a brick embossing folder to mimic the texture of the wishing well.   

We tried a bit of watercoloring last week.  She seemed to have fun, so I'm hoping to pull them out again today or tomorrow.  :) 

OH Deer...

I thought I'd share one of my rejected cards for the week.  This was the first card I made for Freshly Made Sketches this week and I didn't like how it turned out at all.   Sometimes that happens and we start over...and sometimes we start over several more times.  lol  I loved my second attempt, so thankfully I didn't muck it up too many times.   I did sponge clouds behind my little fawn, but they don't really show up in the picture.  

You didn't show me this one, Mom!  :)   

It has been an extremely trying last few days.  The new thing is to scream.  It is getting old super fast, so we are trying our best to get her to stop.   She has been testing us so much lately.  I had three really good days with her, but it's not been so great since Jason's been home.  I'm crossing my fingers that tomorrow is better.  I have my stamping ladies over and it seems like both Laila and the cats are crazy on that day.   I usually end up a big stressed out mess.   The good thing is we already have plans to either go out or pick up dinner and all my supplies are prepped and ready.   I just need to clean up a bit and make a yummy snack.   I'm off to see what dessert or appetizer I want to try from Pinterest.  

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!  Hugs!