Mojo Monday

Good afternoon! I am home enjoying my first full day of Winter Break (and feeling relatively healthy for the first time in over a week)! The Christmas sugar cookies are out of the oven, sending an oh-so-delicious aroma throughout the house, and I sat down to some quality stamping time for the first time in a long time! Oh, how I've missed my stamps!

My card for today uses this week's Mojo Monday sketch. I love the tilted panels with the cirlce... For some crazy reason, I think they balance each other out really well. And since I've literally had no stamping time for the last few weeks, this is my first Christmas card of the season. So sad.

I pulled out some of my Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather dp from last year (I'm a dp hoarder, lol), along with my Holiday Button Bits stamp set. This may be my all-time favorite set. I just love the combo with buttons for Christmas. This little gingerbread man was begging to be stamped, and hit fit the circle oh-so-well. I colored him in a bit with my copics before adding the buttons with some brown baker's twine. I snuck a little homemade tab sentiment along the top and some red baker's twine in lieu of ribbon.

Have a wonderful rest of your Saturday. Next on my docket is going to be cuddling up with a book and a blanket. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Holiday Button Bits
Paper- Kraft, Pure Poppy, Vintage Cream, Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather dp
Ink- Close to Cocoa
Accessories- baker's twin (brown and red), buttons, tea dye stains, nestabilities, dimensionals, cb embossing folder, copic marker, corner rounder punch

Sketch For You To Try

Good afternoon! I am officially on Thanksgiving vacation! 9 glorious days off. I plan to fill those days to the utmost. It began this morning with being awoken, in bed, by one of my old college roomies and her 6-month-old daughter smiling at me. This was followed by cuddling on the bed with a bouncing, gummy smile!

Best. Morning. Ever.

I'm definitely squeezing in some card making, including some quality stamping time with some old co-workers tomorrow afternoon. Monday is Disneyland (and I am SO getting my Happy Birthday pin so that everyone has to say Happy Birthday to me!). Tuesday is my birthday (the roomie and I are totally having donuts for breakfast!) as well as the day my parents and I are flying up to Portland to celebrate Thanksgiving with my sister and her husband's family. Then it's back down here on Friday for some good relaxation, more stamping, and book-reading before school starts back up.

Yup. Be jealous.

I ran to the store to grab a few things for dinner tonight and a turkey to donate at church tomorrow. Man, those birds are heavy! Tonight's dinner? Chicken apple sausage with couscous. Yum!

My card today used this month's Sketch for You to Try. Lovin' all those straight lines again. I stamped the birdcage in black. The bird is stamped in yellow and then clear embossed for a little pop. I pulled out more new dp (Well, new to me! Just when I think I've caught up with dp a whole new line comes out! I can't keep up, lol!) and pulled my colors directly from it. The sentiment is actually from another set, Mat Stack 2 Collection.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Love Birds, Mat Stack 2 Collection
Paper- Sahara Sand, Basic Black, Lemon Tart, Authentique: Blissful dp
Ink- Basic Black, Versamark, Summer Sun
Accessories- ribbon, jewels, clear ep, black marker, dimensionals

Sweet Sunday Sketch #143

Good afternoon! It's an absolute knockout of a day here in So Cal. Highs in the upper 60s, sunny with big, puffy clouds here and there. Heavenly! And here I am, cooped up inside working on report cards. Something is seriously wrong with this picture...

I did manage to procrastinate a wee bit more on finishing up my report card comments to play along with today's Sweet Sunday Sketch. I love all of the squares! I knew exactly what papers I wanted to use, and went straight to my collection of verses from Verve. I found this poor little verse that had yet to see ink, and it called my name. I thought about putting a little butterfly in the corner, but I didn't have one small enough. Time for some MS punch shopping?!

I used my tea dye stains to create some shading around the square, leaving the nestie in place to leave a white frame. A slot punch allowed me to run the ribbon through the square and tie a bow, making it look a bit like a present. A beautiful present.

Thank you so much for stopping by! I really have to get back to finishing up these report card comments. Tomorrow it's back to work, but without students. It's just a work day. A day to do whatever needs to be done in our classrooms, with our grade levels, on the copy machine, etc. Truly, one of the best days of the year!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Ecc. 3:11
Paper- Kraft, Whisper White, My Mind's Eye Darling Dear dp
Ink- Kiwi Kiss
Accessories- ribbon, slot punch, nestabilities, pearls, tea dye stains, sewing machine, dimensionals

Baby Shower

Good afternoon. I'm back again with another card that was made about two weeks ago. My teammate at work (and the teacher I share a wall with a door) is having a baby in February. She's my age and we have become great friends over the last year, so I jumped all over the opportunity to make the cards for the shower the first grade team is throwing for her next month.

She mentioned her colors for the baby's room are brown and green, but said they had no theme for their little boy. Therefore, I went with a really basic, nice and general card with lots of green and brown. I pulled out my Scattered Showers set from PTI and got cranking. I had to make a little over 50 of these cards, so simplicity was the name of the game. I cut out (Yes, cut! Am I crazy?! I really need to get the die for this set...) all of the umbrella tops and popped them up. I added some chunky glitter to the bottom of the umbrella as well as to the scallops. I also clear embossed the sentiment. Some quick sewing machine action across the bottom, and done! Well, then multiply by 50 and then done! These have officially gone out to the staff and we're excited to celebrate this new addition to our staff family!

OK. Back to report cards (and maybe a little stamping in between). Have a wonderful afternoon! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Scattered Showers
Paper- Spring Moss, Dark Chocolate, Turning a New Leaf dp, Whisper White
Ink- Memento Rich Cocoa
Accessories- clear embossing powder, sewing machine, scallop edge punch, chunky glitter, dimensionals, tea dye stains

Mojo Monday

Good afternoon, everyone. I have no excuse for my long absence other than for some reason, getting back into the groove of work seemed just a little more tiring than usual. I've been stamping here and there, but often am just mentally exhausted when I get home and find myself just curling up on the couch with a good book. I guess the book-a-holic side of me was a little more prominent over the last few weeks. :)




But, alas, I am back with a card to share with you that was made, oh, over a month ago, lol. This card used a Mojo Monday sketch from also about a month back. I played around with some more of my stash of new (to me) dp. This just happens to be My Mind's Eye Honey Cake. Such fun oranges and reds and teals.

That's it from me. It's back to working on report cards and finishing up my book. Breaks to read are a must in between report cards. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Happy Birthday
Paper- Kraft, Whisper White, MME Honey Cake dp
Ink- Tangerine Tango
Accessories- twine, pearls, medium scallop die (PTI)

Deconstructed Sketch #16

Good afternoon! I'm attempting not to melt in my own house as the heat is absolutely ridiculous today. My poor little air conditioner is running it's heart out. We hit 100F before noon! Sheesh! Some friends are heading to Disneyland a little later today, but I graciously bowed out. Disneyland on the hottest day of the year? No thanks. I'll pass. That's the beauty of having an annual pass. I'll just wait until a cooler day. No guilt. :)

I have also officially survived the first two days of school. It's always a bit of a shock getting the brand new first graders and remembering that they really are kindergarten babies. Little guys. Young, scared, but ready to learn. It's such a journey to get them to the end of the year. My last memory is of my kids all reading confidently, writing, spelling correctly, etc. Fast forward to now, and we're starting all over, lol. Ah, but that journey is part of what makes teaching so much fun. :) But did I mention my feet are killing me?! Every year, the first week or two is really about retraining my feet to stand for hours on end. I never get to sit down with these little guys!

I decided to play around with this week's Deconstructed Sketch and some October Afternoon dp. A dear friend of mine has a birthday coming up and this will make a great card for her! The color scheme is a little brighter than my normal, but so much fun! Cheery, don't you think? I added some baker's twine under the sentiment, paper pieced the cupcake wrapper, and colored the frosting with my copics. I put a little glossy accents on top of the cherry for the finishing touch.

Well, it's back to hiding in the darkness and the air conditioning. I'm feeling a few more cards in my near future since it's too warm to do anything else. No cooking, no cleaning, no moving. The AC can barely keep up! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- MFT: It's a Cupcake Kind of Day, PTI: Mega Mixed Messages
Paper- Spring Moss, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, October Afternoon Seaside dp
Ink- Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories-baker's twine, dimensionals, nestabilities, tea dye stains, copic markers, glossy accents

Sweet Sunday Sketch #131

Good afternoon! I'm headed into my classroom shortly with the hope that the office is going to release the names of our students to us today. I really need to start in on all of the personalizing everything in my classroom. It's one of the joys of teaching early primary. Without a name on it, the item will grow legs, walk across the room, end up in someone else's desk, result in a crying kid that can't find that item and is convinced someone stole it.... Do you see where this is going? Kids are possessive! Plus, it keeps me sane to know who left what where.

This morning I took the opportunity to play along with this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch. This one took a bit of staring, mostly because I don't have any tall panel images (other than sentiments). I have long and wide images, square images, but no tall! So, when in doubt, flip the sketch. Tadah! I grabbed this little a la carte stamp from Taylored Expressions when I did my big paper order. With all of the people having babies lately, and all of the baby showers I have created cards for, attended, made invitations, etc, this card will definitely get used.

I pulled out yet another new paper pad, My Mind's Eye's Six by Six pad called Blink of an Eye. Love the soft colors in this paper pad! It screamed baby card at me this morning. I paper pieced the letters and colored the pacifier with my copics. Some really light blue pearls I picked up at CHA (almost two years ago!) finished off the corners. And, gasp! There is absolutely no ribbon or twine on this card! I couldn't figure out where to put it! I guess it will make a really good mailing card. No extra postage. :)

To my many friends and fellow teachers, have a wonderful first day of school today! I know a big bunch of you start today. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- TE: Welcome Baby
Paper- Kraft, Vintage Cream, MME Six by Six- Blink of an Eye
Ink- Memento Rich Cocoa
Accessories- pearls, copics, apron lace punch, tea dye stain

Viva la Verve!

Happy Sunday morning! I had the opportunity to sleep in a bit this morning. I'm attending a later service at church today with my roomie and then we're going to hit our favorite Mexican food restraunt for lunch. Yay! It's kind of a last-hurrah-for-the-summer kind of thing.

But this morning I have another Viva la Verve card to share with you. Remember how yesterday I said that was my new favorite dp? Well, I lied. This is my new favorite dp, lol! Goodness, those pinks, and roses, and browns, and creams. I think I've died and gone to heaven. There's even some black thrown into the dp mix (not on my card, though), for a more French, antique feel. We'll get to those papers another day, I'm sure. :)

The launching point for this card was actually that rose colored floral dp on the square panel. It quite possibly is my favorite paper in the entire paper pad. I just HAD to use it! I put the card together and felt it was missing something (the edges were rather plain), so I added a bunch of straight stitching around every panel. Then, to add just a bit more, some pearls in one corner to balance out the flower in the opposite corner. The flower was color with my copic markers, and a button and twine finished off the top.

Two challenges down and two more to go! Well, that is before another one is added on Friday. I'd better get busy, lol.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve- Anais Nin PJ, Feel the Sun
Paper- Scarlett Jewel, Vintage Cream, MME Lost & Found- Blush dp
Ink- Close to Cocoa, Memento Rich Cocoa
Accessories- twine, button, copics, pearls, sewing maching, dimensionals, scallop edge punch

Sweet Sunday Sketch #130

Good morning! I think I am literally about 1 minute too late in posting this card, lol. Oh well! I still had a lot of fun playing around with this last week's Sweet Sunday Sketch. Inspiration came from the plethora of new dp that arrived on my porch yesterday. I mean, really, why is there so much AMAZING dp out there right now?! It all calls my name. It's a sickness. But one I so willingly indulge. :)

I went with a rather muted color palette pulled straight from the new, amazing, perhaps a new favorite, My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Breeze dp. Browns and teals and greens and rusts, oh my! Since this was such a muted card, I went with the "Feel Better" sentiment. It'll make someone smile someday.

I'm enjoying my final weekend before school starts back up. It was gloriously cool this morning and I have been sitting and stamping with all of the windows and doors open. Heaven. Of course, because school starts on Thursday, it will be hotter than stink that day. The current forecast was just dropped, however, from 100F to 91F. I'll take what I can get! Gotta love those hot and sweaty kids!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Life, Mega Mixed Messages
Paper- Dark Chocolate, Vintage Cream, Teracotta Tile, MME Lost & Found Breeze dp
Ink- Chocolate Chip, Really Rust
Accessories- twine, jewels, copic marker, circle punches, nestabilities, tea dye stains, scallop edge punch, corner rounder punch, dimensionals

Viva la Verve!

Good morning!

Apparently, I'm in a shabby chique mood today as you will see with this card. I distressed the heck out of this card! Weird. I ripped up paper, distressed edges, stained, used lace, buttons, twine. Everything but the kitchen sink!

This card uses the second Viva la Verve sketch for this week as well as a beautiful Plain Jane from Verve. This is one of those stamps that has me singing while stamping. Remember that old worship song? It was always one of my favorites. The lace is from Stampin' Up, and was begging to be used. It's been sitting all lonely on my ribbon shelf for a few months.

Well, I guess I'm not so chatty today. That's all out of me today, lol. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Psalm 121:1-2
Paper- Kraft, Vintage Cream, Bitty Dot Basics dp, Distressed Dots dp
Ink- Close to Cocoa
Accessories- lace, nestabilities, twine, button, tea dye stains, pearls, dimensionals

Have a Wild Day!

I have officially made a card without a sketch. I think pigs are flying somewhere in the world at the moment. I was itching to play once more with these adorable circus stamps. Especially this little train image. I had my Out of the Blue dp (which has a train dp!!) out and I knew immediately what I wanted to do.

I pulled out my copics once more and went to town on this image. I added some glitter to the wheel centers and the stars for a tiny bit of sparkle. I wrapped some red baker's twine around the junction of the two polka dot papers and only afterwards realized it looks like a railroad crossing sign, lol!

Hope you are having a great week! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- TE: Life is a Circus
Paper- Basic Gray, Whisper White, MME Lime Twist- Out of the Blue
Ink- Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories- baker's twine, button, copic markers, glitter

Deconstructed Sketch #13

Good morning! I have a fun card to share with you today using some new stamps from TE. I love these little circus stamps, and envision making so many little boy and girl birthday cards with them! This is the first of many to come, I'm sure.

I stamped the clown in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored him with my copics. I am seriously in love with my copics right now. Something about coloring is incredibly therapeutic, lol! To make the juggling balls different colors, I sponged on different inks. The sentiment was stamped twice, cut out and popped up. It's really a pretty simple card.

The back to school shopping has officially begun. It's hard to believe that I'm heading back in just a few weeks. But something about the shopping make the excitement creep back in. I always look forward to the beginning of a new year. So full of potential. Plus, I don't have to move classrooms this year (first time in 3 years!), which is going to make the job of setting up so much simpler!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- TE: Life is a Circus
Paper- Not Quite Navy, Whisper White, MME Lime Twist Out of the Blue dp
Ink- Memento Tuxedo Black, Not Quite Navy, Pure Poppy, Spring Moss
Accessories- baker's twine, copic markers, nestabilities, dimensionals, circle punch, tea dye stains

Viva la Verve!

Good morning! I'm dropping in to post this card before I hit the road once more. Yup, I'm leaving this crazy heatwave behind and headed home to the mountains. I really couldn't be more excited! My plans for the next week include: going for a morning kayak ride (or two, or three...), reading on the front porch overlooking the roaring waterfall, enjoying the Mountain Music Festival, taking some pictures with the camera, avoiding the rabid mosquitoes, and spending some quality time with family and friends. Not a bad week in the making, eh? It's alright to be jealous. ;)

Before I go, here is my final Viva la Verve card for the month of July. I finished all four! Woohoo! I pulled out some recently neglected PTI dps, stuck with a monochromatic theme (apparently I was in a purple mood... hmmm..), and relied on my computer once more to create the heart. To do: Order star and heart die cuts. Goodness! When it rains it pours! I've never needed stars or hearts before, and now I've used them both in one week. It could be a sign. I drew, traced, and cut out a heart off of my computer. Then I stenciled it onto my patterned paper. Covered it liberally with glossy accents and sprinkled some glitter over it to make it really shiny. :)

The tag was also hand cut (really, this must be "use shapes Kristina doesn't have" week). I added some purple bling along the bottom which is cut a bit concave. I haven't used the 'ole ribbon/button/twine/bow combo for a while, so it's also making its grand reappearance.

This card also qualifies for this month's Diva Dare over on the Verve blog. This month's challenge was to give our dp and sentiments some love. No images, just words. Well, with my gorgeous Verve stamps, with THE most gorgeous fonts, that wasn't hard to do!

Well, that's it for me. It's going to be a little quiet here on the blog until next Tuesday-ish. I'll see you back here then!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Enjoy Today
Paper- PTI: Pretty Pastels, Polka Dot Basics; Echo Park: Little Girl dp
Ink- Plum Pudding
Accessories- ribbon, button, baker's twine, nestabilities, jewels, glossy accents, glitter, computer

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop!

Goodness it's been a long time since I've played along with Papertrey's blog hops. Probably over a year. It was high time to join back in. Especially with such a great inspiration piece this month.

I mean, really. Look at these colors! Gorgeous! So summery and light. I pulled out my Stella & Rose Mabel dp which has oodles of these colors in it. I based the card on kraft cardstock to mimic those wooden shades. I pulled out on of my favorite PTI sets, Blooming Button Bits, stamped it and cut it out, then added a few flowery buttons (with a little baker's twine). The sketch is this week's Deconstructed Sketch. It took me a little bit to figure this one out (that circle image was throwing me off!). Thank goodness for big buttons!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Blooming Button Bits, Mat Stack 1 Collection
Paper- Kraft, Vintage Cream, MME Stella & Rose Mabel dp
Ink- Spring Moss, Close to Cocoa
Accessories- baker's twine, buttons, scallop edge punch, apron lace punch, corner rounder punch, tea dye stain

Viva la Verve!

Good evening! I spent an unusual amount of time today putting together this card and felt it only fair (to myself and the time spent!) to post it right away. It's a little out of my normal style (read: LOTS of details, distressing, layers...), but I'm kind of smitten with the result. This card uses last week's Viva la Verve sketch, by the one and only Maureen! LOVE this sketch!

I started with some of the gorgeous Stella & Rose Hattie dp, pulled out a few coordinating papers, and went a little crazy with the stitching. Next, I liberally stained every conceivable edge with my tea dye stains. Twine was lovingly wrapped around two of the corners. And of course, I added a little bow for good measure. The flower from Great friends was stamped twice with some blues and popped up the layers to add some dimension. Lastly, a few different sized pearls decorated the center of the flower to add just a little bit more of the shabby elegance to the card.

I think this card is going to head out to my cousin and his wife. She was just diagnosed with thyroid cancer, but amidst the scariness of this all, God really has been bringing victory after victory! Surgery is scheduled for next month, and Lord-willing, she will be cancer free by October! If you have a spare minute, please keep them in your prayers and they go through these next few months. :)

That's it for me today. Now that I've finished this card, I'm itching to try my hand at another sketch, which hopefully won't take as long! Not to mention, I've been playing around with the HTML codes for the blog, trying to make it a little wider and the pictures just a little larger. And I am in no way, shape, or form a computer techie. Google is my friend. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: 1 Cor. 15:57, Great Friend
Paper- Kraft, Vintage Cream, MME's Stella & Rose Hattie dp
Ink- Night of Navy, Baja Breeze, So Saffron
Accessories- twine, pearls, tea dye stains, nestabilities, sewing machine, dimensionals

Mojo Monday

Good afternoon! It's been a busy last few days around here. But the good kind of busy, you know? The kind where I've been visiting good friends, going to Disneyland, church potlucks, visiting the grandma, supporting a friend who just lost her mom, baking, cleaning. The good kind of busy.


But I have card to share with you today. This card uses this week's Mojo Monday sketch. Can you believe this is number 200?! I remember participating in the hoopla for sketch number 100! Where does time go? I was a little stumped the first time I saw the sketch, and it definitely took some staring to get it figured out. I pulled used more Out of the Blue dp (it was still on top of the dp pile from the last card), a doily die to fancy up that bottom circle, and some stars. Oh, the stars. See, I don't have any star dies or punches. Why? I'm not really sure. We're going to need to remedy that really soon. So instead, I jumped onto my computer, drew a few, printed them, cut them out, and then used them as stencils. Sheesh! All that work for a few measly little stars. And I would do it again. :) I added some stardust stickles to the gray rim of the center star for some shine. I was clean out of red jewels, so I used a red copic to color some clear jewels. And tadah! Done!

Now I'm off to go check some more items off of the "to do" list (including baking some banana bread, yum!). Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Happy Birthday
Paper- Smokey Shadow, Whisper White, Simple Chartreuse, MME's Out of the Blue dp
Ink- Basic Gray
Accessories- ribbon, doily die, jewels, copic marker, dimensionals, stickles, nestabilities, apron lace punch, computer

Sweet Sunday Sketch #125

Good afternoon. It was a little bit of a late start for me this morning. Too much fun was had at Disneyland last night with the roomie. I don't think we got home until after midnight! That's way after my normal bedtime. :) But it was so worth it!


Today's sketch stays with yesterday's less is more theme. It's a bit more on the simple side. Perhaps another masculine card? The sketch is this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch. I pulled out more Out of the Blue dp, and my Everyday Button Bits set. The little bicycle was calling my name after watching the Tour de France this morning. I was guessing a breakaway would survive today, and sure enough, that's exactly what happened. In the end though, it was a lone bicycle crossing the finish line first, which is what I ended up with today on the card. Odd where inspiration can come from....

A group of us girls are off to go see the final Harry Potter tonight in theaters. I have such mixed emotions! I'm really excited to go see the movie, but am sad to see it all come to an end. It's bittersweet. So many of my friends dressed up in costumes and went to the midnight showings last night, but I just can't be awake and alert that late! I want to be awake to enjoy the movie! And you know we purchased our tickets three days ago, lol. We will take no chances of the movie selling out before we get there!

Well, enough out of me. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Everyday Button Bits
Paper- Not Quite Navy, Whisper White, Pure Poppy, MME's Lime Twist Out of the Blue dp
Ink- Pure Poppy, Basic Gray
Accessories- ribbon, scalloped edge punch, nestabilities, copics, buttons, baker's twine, tea dye stains