Itty Bitty Pieces of Me

Viva la Verve!

2012-02-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

Good morning! I have a Viva la Verve card to share with you this morning that uses some brand-spankin' new dp that arrived on my porch Saturday. I love the spring colors in this pack, especially the mix of the teals and pinks. In other words, prepare yourselves for a color rut. :)

I pulled out my New Mercies set and used it's namesake verse. And I think I sang the hymn the entire time I was making this card... I stamped the lyrics directly onto some pink polka dotted dp, and popped the whole circle up on some dimensionals. A little added ribbon across the middle tied all of the aqua together. I tried adding a little flower or butterfly with the circle, but it just seemed to throw off the balance of the card. So this one ended up being pretty sweet and simple. And quick!

It's book club night and we're discussing Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Kingsolver is usually a hit or miss author for me, so I was pleasantly surprised that I actually enjoyed this book. I am not eating completely green, off of my own land or local farmers, but I do cook a whole lot do to some rather tricky food allergies. Reading about her trial, tribulations, and successes of moving from urban Arizona to rural Tennessee was entertaining. Though the book could feel a little "preachy" at times, I found I could move past those moments and just enjoy the story (and this is a non-fiction account of her personal experience). I'm looking forward to finding out our next book (we read one book per month).

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: New Mercies
Paper- Ruby Red, Whisper White, My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline Howdy Doody dp
Ink- Chocolate Chip
Accessories- ribbon, nestabilities, dimensionals

Mojo Monday

2012-02-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

Good morning! I have an older Mojo Monday card to share with you. This is one I made in the chasos of the last week or so and just never got around to sharing. Today seemed like as good a day as any.

I pulled out more of my Cosmo Cricket Social Club dp (so in love with this paper pack!) and made a bit of a simple card. I found another opportunity to use my filigree border die (love this little thing, too!) as well as a few recently-neglected brads. I just could not get the bow to work on this card, so please ignore the weirdness of it. It would. not. cooperate.

I'm keeping this post short and sweet.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve
Paper- Soft Suede, Ocean Tides, Lemon Tart, Cosmo Cricket Social Club dp
Ink- Chocolate Chip
Accessories- ribbon, button, twine, brads, nestabilities, dimensionals, pearls, filigree border die

Papertrey Anniversary Challenge- Sketch #2

2012-02-11T07:30:00.000-08:00

Good morning. It's a Disneyland day here, and I'm heading out a little later this morning to partake of some Disney tension-relief. My roomie is playing there a little later today in Carnation Plaza, and I'm going to support her in the audience as well as have a little unwinding time with good friends and family both before and after.

But before I depart, I have this card to share with you. This was another card created last night for yesterday's challenges over on Nichole Heady's blog. I wasn't so sure about this sketch at first... Not a lot to work with. But I ended up loving the minimal work involved! It was a quick and easy card once the dp was picked out. Which, of course, once more is CC Social Club. I can't stop using this paper!

I used an ek success punch for the ridged top (really need to find my pinking shears...), some sewing machine action (first try at the wonky sewing!), and ended up adding a little asymmetrical action to the sentiment. Along with some time and a button because the sentiment felt lonely.

It's supposed to be an overcast, dreary, drizzly day. Love it! It's the perfect Disneyland weather: It keeps the crowds down. lol

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Signature Greetings
Paper- Ripe Avocado, Vintage Cream, Bitty Dot dp (simple chartreuse), Cosmo Cricket Social Club dp
Ink- Basic Black
Accessories- twine, button, sewing machine, ek success punch

Papertrey Anniversary Challenge- Sketch #1

2012-02-10T19:09:00.001-08:00

Good evening! I'm popping in with a card I whipped up for today's challenge over on Nichole Heady's blog. She gave us five sketches to play along with to help celebrate Papertrey's Anniversary (and there are prizes!), and after staring and staring at the sketches, finally decided to give this one a go. Mostly, the color purple was speaking to me tonight, and I felt the call of my rustic dots dp, which meant I needed a sketch that would accommodate both. :)

This was a pretty simple card to throw together. Not many layers, only a little bit of embellishing, some stitching, and voila! I used Bitty Baby Blessings and paper pieced the pram, as well as used a few copic markers to be the accent colors. The poor bottom half of my card felt like it was missing out on all of the love, so I added some stickles dots along the bottom of the chevron. The perfect little bit of bling for a baby girl card without drawing too much attention away from the main image. The picture doesn't do the sparkle justice. Oh, and please ignore the wonky stitching along the bottom. I totally spaced on which way my sewing machine feeds (my head is definitely NOT attached to my body these days....) and ended up creating a rather crazy line in the moment of panic when it started feeding the opposite direction that I was anticipating. Sheesh.

I am looking forward to be "all there" again. The last week and one half has been rough in that department. I feel like I have simply been going through the motions, lackluster. Sleep is still tough. I keep having momentary panic attacks when in the "in between phase," between sleep and awake. That's when I remember my grandma is gone... And it stops my heart. I'm panicked. Devastated. Inconsolable. Every time. I have to calm myself, pray, ask for peace so that I can sleep. And then it happens again.... *sigh*

Being awake is, somehow, easier. I find myself praying and talking to God all throughout the day. As a friend. A father. A comfort. Is there a way to pray in my sleep?

Ugh, sorry for the emotion outpouring. Typing it out somehow feels therapeutic. Cathartic. Have I ever mentioned to you that I process out loud? My poor mom and roomie bear the brunt of this little personality trait. Thanks for being the listening ear tonight.

May the rest of your Friday find you blessed and loved. Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Bitty Baby Blessings
Paper- Lavendar Moon, Vintage Cream, Plum Pudding, Rustic Dots dp
Ink- Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories- buttons, twine, copic markers, tea dye stains. stickles, sewing machine, nestabilities

Papertrey Anniversary Challenge- Color

2012-02-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

Good morning! I'm still furiously trying to keep up with the slough of challenges being posted over on Nichole Heady's blog to help celebrate Papertrey's Anniversary. Yesterday, the challenge was of the color variety. Ugh, how I struggle with these! I need a sketch! I need a source of inspiration! I stare at color and freak. out. To help myself along, I went ahead and printed the inspiration page and took it over to my stash of dp to see what would match ANY of them. Thankfully, I found one. One!

All of the papers on this card come from one paper pad. I found a sketch that I thought would accommodate such a variety of colors (aka- lots of panels!) and got down to business. And this particular business took me for-ev-er. Ugh. But it's done. I'm laying it to rest. The color combo scared me, I used it, and I'm moving on! lol

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Harvest Berries, Inside & Out: Birthdays
Paper- Smokey Shadow, Canyon Clay, Whisper White, My Mind's Eye 6x6 Darling Dear
Ink- Basic Gray
Accessories- baker's twine, buttons, dimensionals, Harvest Berries die

Taylor's Sketch Challenge #151

2012-02-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

Good morning! It's back to work with me this morning, and I can truthfully say for the first time in days that I am looking forward to going today. Knowing that all services for my grandma are complete is such a weight lifted off of the shoulders. I can think, process, remember her, and rejoice that she is home, rather than mourn. I know there are some rough day ahead still (cleaning out the house, etc.), but somehow I feel stronger and more ready to face those days.

My card to share with you this morning uses Taylor's Sketch Challenge from a little over a week ago. However, I got lucky and she is now making the sketch every two weeks or so instead of every week! So I'm not late! Woot!

I pulled out more of these little Garden Critters stamps and chose the snail this go around. I stamped him twice, cut out the aqua mist shell, and popped it up with some dimensionals. I used a black marker to make a little trail behind him. I added a little twine behind the circle and lots of my tea dye stain to mute the white paper a bit.

Thank you so very, very much for all of your prayers and encouraging words. They have meant so much to both myself and my family during this difficult time. We're all looking forward to a week or so of rest, recovery, and healing before the next big tasks begin. And thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies-
Stamps- TE: Garden Critters
Paper- Aqua Mist, Pure Poppy, Whisper White, October Afternoon Modern Homemaker dp
Ink- Pure Poppy, Aqua Mist, Basic Black
Accessories- baker's twine, tea dye duo, nestabilities, dimensionals, jewels, copic markers, black marker

Papertrey Anniversary Challenge- Day 2, con't

2012-02-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

Good morning. I have another card to share with you that I made for yesterday's challenge over on Nichole Heady's blog. In honor of Papertrey's 5th Anniversary, we had to create a card using one of the downloadable images and at least one other PTI product.

I chose to work with Heather Nichols's little birdie image. I added some red to the polka dots and flower with a copic marker to help it match the dp just a little bit more.

Please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers this morning as we are having the graveside burial service this morning. Appropriately, it is raining. Emotions will be running high once more, but I think we are all glad that this is the last service and we can go on remembering instead of mourning and crying.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- None!
Paper- Ocean Tides, Fine Linen, Pure Poppy, Cosmo Cricket Social Club dp
Ink- None!
Accessories- ribbon, button, twine, copic marker, jewel, PTI digital download

Papertrey Anniversary Challenge- Day 2

2012-02-06T13:13:00.000-08:00

Good afternoon! I am so excited to play along with a few of the challenges being held this week over on Nichole Heady's blog in honor of Papertrey Ink's 5th Anniversary! I was unable to play along yesterday, but wanted to join in with today's challenge.

Today, we had to choose one (or more) of the downloadable images and use it on our card along with at least one other Papertrey product. Easy peasy. Other than the little bit of bling on my card and one circle nestie, every single product I used is from Papertrey: cardstock, ink, die cuts, ribbon, twine, buttons...

I started by choosing my image and then pulling out a bunch of dp that pulled colors from the image. This is definitely a color combo a bit out of my comfort range, but I'm so glad I went for it! Quite frankly, Raspberry Fizz usually scares me... It's SO bright! But toned down around some Melon Berry and Pure Poppy, it looks so much nicer. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Supplies-
Stamps- Mat Stack 2 Collection
Paper- Kraft, Raspberry Fizz, Pure Poppy, Melon Berry, Dotti Biscotti dp, Pretty Pastels dp
Ink- Pure Poppy
Accessories- ribbon, twine, buttons, dimensionals, nestabilities, Mat Stack 2 die, jewels

Wishing You Comfort

2012-02-05T20:08:00.000-08:00

It has been a long weekend full of laughter, memories, and more tears than I can count. I have been surrouded by family, friends, and people I love. I am going to keep this post short and sweet, as I am utterly exhausted. I made this a few days ago, almost therapeudically. I have found more peace as the days go on, knowing that my grandma is home. But the hole in my heart of knowing that I won't hug her again on this earth still hurts.

I am looking forward to a good sleep tonight. And a good rest tomorrow before another service on Tuesday morning.

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI:Rosie Posie, Verve: New Mercies
Paper- Orange Zest, Lemon Tart, Whisper White, SU Greenhouse Gala dp
Ink- Pumpkin Pie, Pure Poppy, Summer Sun, Wild Wasabi, Old Olive, Close to Cocoa
Accessories- baker's twine, apron lace punch, Mat Stack 4 die, Mat Stack 4 Layerz die, dimensionals, stickles, pearls

My Grandma

2012-02-01T16:31:00.000-08:00

My grandma was one of THE most incredible people on this planet. My grandma loved her family only second to God. My grandma made the absolute best scrambled eggs I have ever eaten (and were always requested when I spent the night!). My grandma always kept a supply of peanut butter cookies in the freezer for us grandkids to devour. My grandma was an accomplished pianist. My grandma loved the Lord with all her heart, soul, and mind.

My grandma sent a birthday card to every single member of our family every year of our lives thus far. My grandma served at our church for over 50 years. My grandma led a Bible study every single Sunday morning. My grandma married a man of God, raised 4 children of God whom married other God-loving people, and all have raised God-loving grandchildren and great-grandchildren. My grandma could crack a joke with the best of them, even at 93. My grandma made 17x the sugar cookie dough recipe every Christmas for the grandkids to decorate. My grandma gave up her summers for many years to live in a motor home, simply to spend time with her grandkids in San Diego.

My grandma tolerated the insane messes my cousins and I would create in her hallways (with every pillow and blanket in the house) during family holidays. My grandma prayed for me every day. My grandma was married to my grandfather for over 50 years before his passing. My grandma was an incredible teacher and was a huge inspiration in my becoming a teacher. My grandma was a woman of her word. My grandma was wonderfully stubborn. My grandma had a musical laugh and a contagious smile. My grandma was dedicated to her passions and passionately dedicated. My grandma consoled a devastated me when my lost tooth fell down the drain, assuring me the tooth fairy would know and still come that night (and she was right!).

My grandma told wonderful stories about her life on a Wisconsin farm, marrying my grandpa in the middle of WW2, receiving and sending secret letters to him... My grandma always called me to see how my weeks were going. My grandma was on facebook! My grandma was my carpool buddy to every family get-together. My grandma had an incredible green thumb. My grandma was someone I have always looked up to. My grandma gave great hugs.

My grandma was one of my best friends. My grandma was a role model of the highest degree. My grandma was an ever-inspiring image of God's love.

My grandma was loved. Immensely.

My grandma went to be with our Heavenly Father yesterday. And I will miss her so much.

Sweet Sunday Sketch #151

2012-01-31T07:00:00.000-08:00

Oh, Sweet Sunday Sketch, how I've missed you! The moment I saw this sketch, I knew I wanted to pull out a new stamp set (to me, at least) that I grabbed in a sale back in December. Love sales. This little beehive and bee are from Taylored Expressions's Garden Party Critters. Such a cute little set!

I stamped the beehive and bee with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with my copic markers. I added some stickles to the entryway, the edge of the hive, and the bees wings for a little shimmer. The bee is popped up with a tiny dimensional. The cirle image scared me a little bit since I knew the image would go in the rectable and the sentiment in the banner. What the heck was supposed to go in that circle?! All I have to say is thank goodness for buttons! I stacked a yellow and turquoise button and tied them together with some baker's twine. Note to self: Go buy more gold jewels at Michaels. I'm out! It is a travesty, really. I made my own by coloring a few clear jewels with a copic marker. Always a good solution in a pinch, but I'm now using up all of my clear jewels!

I'm out of the classroom today doing benchmark reading with my kiddos. This midyear assessment may be my favorite. It's one of the moments when you truly step back and see just how much each and every one of the kids have grown as readers since the first week of school (aka- It's one of those days where I feel like a good teacher that has actually been teaching for the last few months. And better yet, they're actually learning!). It should be a relaxing day, which is always welcome. :)

Thank so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- TE: Garden Party Critters
Ink- Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper- Going Gray, Vintage Cream, October Afternoon Farmhouse dp
Accessories- baker's twine, buttons, dimensionals, stickles, copics, jewels

Fall to Layout

2012-01-30T07:05:00.000-08:00

Good morning! I have a special card that I've been waiting to post, and I suppose a month after the card was sent is plenty of time, lol. This card was made to celebrate my parents' 37th wedding anniversary back on December 20th! I may be slightly biased, but I have the most incredible parents on the face of this Earth.

I used an older Fall to Layout to help this sketch come to fruition, along with some new-ish dp. I love the blues and grays in the Authentique Journey collection! Such fun, rich colors. I changed up the circle with a PTI die and added some ribbon to fancy it up a bit. The heart was stamped in gray along with some versamark and embossed with some black embossing powder to really make it pop.

I'm a little short for words today, but thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Hearts of Fire, PTI: Round & Round, Mat Stack 2 Collection
Paper- Sahara Sand, Smokey Shadow, Rustic Vintage Cream, Authentique Collection: Journey
Ink- Basic Gray, Versamark
Accessories- ribbon, buttons, black ep, dimensionals, Mat Stack 2 die, Mat Stack 2 Layerz die, nestabilities

Mojo Monday on a Sunday

2012-01-29T16:41:00.000-08:00

Ah, Mojo Monday on a Sunday. How you always motivate me to play along at the last possible second... How I scramble to finish before the ever-looming deadline. But, oh, the motivation and mojo you bring! At first glance at this week's sketch, I have to admit that I turned and ran in the other direction. Didn't even save the sketch. But, as always, the mind kept coming back to it and scheming.... Until I was forced to play along! Forced! ;)

I have been itching to pull out a bunch of new goodies I purchased back before Christmas (I know, I know... I don't know how I waited this long to bust out the goodies...) and this was the moment. Behold, new dp and new stamps. I have been staring at PTI's Harvest Berries set for a few months and finally was able to squeeze it into the budget. Yay! I die cut the largest cluster, stamped the image, and then trimmed off the bottom two big leaves to help the image fit the space without overwhelming the card.

Some sewing machine stitching and a whole lot of tea dye stain finished off this fairly basic card. I left it sentiment-less so that it can be used for anything. Sometimes these really are the best cards.

On a completely random note, I have been cooking up a storm here on the homefront. Last night I made these soft and chewy pretzels. You need to go make them. Now. They are a-maz-ing! I really think they are going to become a weekly treat, maybe even a twice-a-week treat. Man, oh man, they're good!

All right. Enough from me. Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Harvest Berries
Ink- Kiwi Kiss
Paper- Simply Chartreuse, Vintage Cream, Bitty Box Basics dp, Cosmo Cricket Social Club dp
Accessories- sewing machine, tea dye stains, dimensionals, ribbon, Harvest Berries die

Mojo Monday

2011-12-17T15:47:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-19T14:10:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-13T15:52:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-12T12:44:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-11T11:30:00.000-08:00

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

2011-08-27T16:07:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-22T11:39:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-08-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-20T13:02:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-08-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-08-10T16:37:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-07-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-07-25T12:16:00.001-07:00

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!

2011-07-22T18:24:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-20T17:03:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

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

Sketch For You To Try

2011-07-14T09:09:00.000-07:00

Good morning! I'm just dropping in with my card to share with you today. This is another moldy oldie that I've been hanging on to, oh, since May. Yes, believe it or not, this card was actually made way back then, but then got slightly lost in the chaos of Open House, field trips, the end of the school year, and Italy. So, it's finally seeing the light of day.

This was a pretty quick and simple card. It uses some Lime Twist Out of the Blue dp, some buttons in lieu of a second circle, and some twine. Does this actually qualify as a masculine card? It quite possibly could be my first, lol!

The roomie and I are off to Disneyland again this evening. We're going to ride the new Little Mermaid ride (which is adorable!), catch the summer fireworks (good, but not as good as the regular fireworks), and watch Fantasmic (my favorite!). So excited!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Say It With Style
Paper- Kraft, Whisper White, MME's Lime Twist Out of the Blue dp
Ink- Really Rust
Accessories- twine, buttons, dimensionals, nestabilities

The Deconstructed Sketch

2011-07-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

Good morning! It's another gloriously cool morning and isn't supposed to warm up too much (can you say HELLO low 80s!). Therefore, I am hitting the road and going to Disneyland today. I've had the itch to go for a little while now and finally found some friends with passes that were available. Yay! I think the roomie and I may head down Disneyland way again on Thursday to catch the fireworks and Fantasmic. My favorites. :)

But for today, I have a new sketch challenge/card to share with you! I stumbled across The Deconstructed Sketch a few days ago and thought I would give it a try. With summer being around, and with oodles of free time during the day, I need more sketches to keep my mojo flowing! I have to admit that it was the half circle in the background that got this card off of the ground and running. I know. Who knew? Circles aren't so scary anymore. Well, most of the time. LOL

I've been wanting to try the little frame from To the Moon for a while now, and figured this was the perfect opportunity. I colored the elephant with my copics, added a little sentiment (Sorry again for the influx of baby cards!), and of course some ribbon. All of the dp on this card are from MME's Stella & Rose Hazel. I am so in love with these coordinating paper packs! They just make cards WORK! Know what I mean?!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: To the Moon
Paper- Whisper White, Smokey Shadow, MME Stella & Rose Hazel dp
Ink- Memento Tuxedo Black, Basic Gray
Accessories- ribbon, copics, nestabilities

Sketch For You To Try

2011-07-11T13:17:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon! I need to take a moment and be thankful for the blissfully cool weather we are having today. This is the first day where it has not been 90 degrees before ten in the morning in, well, I don't know how long. The house is cool. The windows are open. There is a delightful breeze blowing. I wish it would stay like this all summer long!

I sat down to play with Jen's Sketch for You to Try this morning, and pulled out some Stella and Rose Gertie dp to help the sketch along. I played with a few sentiments in the panel, but ended up with this beautiful sympathy sentiment from Verve's Forever in our Hearts. I hate making these kinds of cards at the moment when they are necessary, so it's good to be able to stash a few away for a rainy day.

The three little circle images in the corner truly had me stumped. I ended up with some buttons, but I'm not sure if they'll stay there for long, lol. I many photograph the picture and then take them off. Shh! Don't tell! Or, well, maybe not. They're kind of growing on my the more I look at the card.... Hmmm...

I am off to book club this evening. We read the book "Mudbound" this last month, and though I really enjoyed the book, it was also a frustrating, aggravating read. You see, the book takes place in the deep south during the height of segregation. I guess that fact that I became so angry with the blatant racism is a testament to how far we have all come since not so long ago! I am excited for our discussions tonight, and to find out what book is next! Did I mention that one of our gals just had a baby on Friday?! I can't wait to meet the little guy tonight!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Forever in Our Hearts
Paper- Kraft, Vintage Cream, MME Stella & Rose Gertie dp
Ink- Chocolate Chip
Accessories- ribbon, edge punch, buttons, twine, jewels

Viva la Verve!

2011-07-10T07:30:00.000-07:00

I am on the ball with my Viva la Verve sketches this month! This is going to be only the second or third month this entire year I've finished all of the sketches. It's been a busy year...

When I first saw the sketch, I had a mild panic attack about the number of different panels on it. That's a whole lot of coordinating dp! Fortunately, dp comes in lovely little packs nowadays with papers that already coordinate with themselves. Saved! I pulled out some of this darling Life of the Party dp from My Mind's Eye. I love the sweet girly colors! I stamped a flower from Verve's Many Blessings three times: Once for the stem, and twice for the flower itself. I then colored both with my copics and popped up the center flower on dimensionals. I have to admit that I love how this card turned out. Sweet and simple. The dp does most of the talking. :)

Today is jam-packed, but with all sorts of summer goodness. I'm off to church this morning, and then heading over to my grandma's house to share my pictures from Italy with her. Then I'm off to another friend's house for some swimming and BBQ! With this heat wave, I've been dying to get into someone's pool.

I hope your weekend has been and remains relaxing and enjoyable! Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Many Blessings, Thankful Accents
Paper- Sweet Blush, Dark Chocolate, Whisper White, MME's Lime Twist Life of the Party dp
Ink- Memento Rich Cocoa
Accessories- ribbon, apron lace punch, nestabilities, copics, dimensionals, jewels, spica glitter pen

Sweet Sunday Sketch #124

2011-07-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

I think I just missed the deadline for this sketch. Oops! This is last weekend's Sweet Sunday Sketch from over on Karen Giron's blog. I battled with this sketch for a few hours yesterday. I think ovals may be my new nemesis. Circles, I've mostly conquered with the help of nestabilities and some great stamps. But ovals? *sigh* I need some big stamps that involve coloring with copics to rest this little dilemma... At least, that's what I keep telling myself. ;)

The card features more of my new MME dp, a whole lot of green bling, and some cheery colors. This is definitely a bit out of my "color comfort zone." But it's fun! My white gel pen decided to die halfway through making the dots on the scalloped oval (great!), so some stickles came to my rescue. Everything was already glued and dimensionaled onto the card and I really didn't want to rip everything up to make a new scalloped nestie oval.

I had some amazing snuggle time with little Jaelynn last night. Oh how I love her! She's just getting cuter and cuter with each passing day. Not to mention bigger! I last saw her three weeks ago, and there was definitely a noticeable difference. If only they would stay tiny forever! There was definitely lots of drooling on my shoulder, cooing, and of course the dreaded 8 o'clock bewitching hour. I even survived the always pleasant spit up. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Beyond Basic Borders
Paper- Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, MME's Lime Twist Happy Go Lucky dp
Ink- Rich Razzleberry
Accessories- ribbon, jewels, stickles, dimensionals, nestabilities, corner rounder punch

Mojo Monday

2011-07-08T13:07:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon and Happy Friday!

Here's a moldy oldie for you. This is the Mojo Monday sketch from, oh, a month or two ago. Lol! I actually made this card a month of two ago (can't remember the details with all that has gone on in between), but love how it turned out. I found out recently that my other former college roommate is having a baby boy this October. We're already arranging the marriage between baby Smith and baby Jaelynn of roommate #1. Confused much?! It's definitely baby season around here.

Well, baby season meant another baby card (Hey, I was inspired!). I love this little sentiment from Verve's Over the Moon set and was itching to use it. Thanks to Alesha, I finally was able to use it! Some new dp also found it's way on this card. It's a pretty straight forward card.

Speaking of babies, I get to go see little Jaelynn this evening! She and her parents (ah, how the roommates get bumped down the ladder, lol) are down for a few days helping with a church camp. I have a few shirts they left at our house last visit and I informed them I was holding them ransom. My desired form of payment? Cuddle time with the little princess. Yay! I think it's a pretty fair trade. ;)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Over the Moon
Paper- Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, MME Lime Twist Fly a Kite
Ink- Tangerine Tango
Accessories- nestabilities, ribbon, button, twine, brown marker

Viva la Verve!

2011-07-07T15:02:00.001-07:00

Good afternoon, everyone! It's great to be home (though, trekking around the country of Italy is nothing to complain about) and enjoying sleeping in each morning. I finally sat down and whipped up a few cards to share with you. I also have a few that were made back in the madness of May and June that I'll use as fillers.

But first up, we have this week's Viva la Verve challenge from Verve's forum on Splitcoast Stampers. I loved this week sketch, circle and all, and immediately had an idea to put little sailboats in three of the squares and the sentiment in the third. It was perfect! Well, it was was perfect until I actually tried it... And, well, let's just say it didn't quite look like what I had pictured in my head. Ah, welcome back to stamping after a break... Time to jump start the rusty mojo.

As you can see, the sailboats were ditched and buttons took their place! I obviously still have babies on the brain! I just found out two more of my friends are pregnant. Sheesh! But I have to admit, I am so loving cuddling with all these adorable little pudgy bundles!

Some tiny pearls around the edges and little twine bow finished off this card. I know what you're thinking... No ribbon! I KNOW! First card back and I've already ditched the ribbon?! We could be off to a bumpy start, people. LOL

Guess twine will have to do for the time being. Twine with some long ribbon tails....

Thanks so much for stopping by! I'm off to retreat into the air-conditioned portion of our house (it's HOT outside!) and read for a while before Zumba tonight. Gonna get sweaty. Well, I've been sweaty most of the day, so I guess I'm just going to get sweatier! Got to burn off those yummolicious Italian cookies I feasted on while in Italy. I mean, just look at these things! Pinenuts and almond paste?! Um, YES! They were incredible. I've already stock piled the ingredients to try making my own. I've even bookmarked a few recipes to see which will get the closest to the original taste.

Ok. Enough rambling for one day. I think I'm slightly excited to be back. :)

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Bitty Baby Blessings
Paper- Not Quite Navy, Terracotta Tile, Whisper White, Fly a Kite dp
Ink- Not Quite Navy
Accessories- twine, buttons, nestabilities, pearls

I'm Back!

2011-07-03T12:36:00.000-07:00

The school year wound up, report cards are done, the room is hibernating for the summer, and I've already been to Italy and back!

My Mom and I ventured off to Italy for two weeks and just got back a few days ago. I've been working on a few cards and just need to snap some pictures of them and get them uploaded to the blog. But in the meantime, here are a few glimpses of Italy, as seen through my camera lens. :)

These were the Tivoli gardens at the Villa d'Este. Absolutely GORGEOUS! Did I mention that there were over 500 fountains at this villa?

A cruise down the Grand Canal in Venice. This is the Rialto Bridge built in the 1500s.

The little canals in Venice. We boarded our gondola here (with a singer, accordian, and wine!).

Looking up into the dome in St. Peter's Basilica.

The small hilltop town (and amazing well preserved Medeival towers) of San Gimignano.

Pompei (with Mount Vesuvius in the background).

I was hands-down the most excited to visit Pompei. It was everything I hoped and more. Here is one of the plaster casts (with the bones still inside) of a body found while exscavating.

Looking up into the Pantheon's dome in Rome.

The Roman Forum. This happens to be the Temple of Vesta with the Vestal Virigins home located right behind it.

Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence.

I fell in love with the tiny alleys and streets in Florence. So perfectly picturesque.

Duomo in Florence.

Colosseum. It was so magical to be standing in front of this building! We also went inside, but there were way too many pictures to sift through. And then to choose only one to share? Impossible!

On top of Monte Solaro on the Isle of Capri.

Talk about a trip of a lifetime! I was so blessed to have shared this memory with my Mom! And we're already planning next summer's trip. Yay!

I'll be back in the next day or two with some cards to share. Ah, summer vacation is good. :)

Fall to Layout

2011-05-07T15:49:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon! It's been a wonderful Saturday so far! I'm finally feeling more like my normal self after that awful bug last weekend. Though, I'm still working on food sounding remotely appetizing... We'll get there, I'm sure. I woke up this morning to a gloriously cool and overcast sky. Translation: The perfect day to plant my summer veggie garden! I usually plant during spring break, but that just never happened this year. And then the weekends were too hot to be outside in the direct sunlight. Today was the day!

After a quick run to the local nursery, I came home with the following:

2 roma tomatoes

1 better boy

2 sweet 100s

1 cherry tomato

1 early girl

1 jalapeno

1 bell pepper

3 burpless cucumbers

3 cucumber bushes (my experiment this year)

I cannot wait to reap the fruits of my labor! The summer holds promises of cool, crisp cucumbers (some to be pickled!), and fresh salsa from the garden. Yum!

Have you had enough of my garden, lol?! On to the card! I saved last Friday's Fall to Layout on my computer quite a few days ago, with the idea to fill those ascending images with buttons. Today that vision came to fruition! I went with a very clean and simple, very graphic card. This is definitely out of the norm for me, but I love how it turned out! A little Verve sentiment was snuck on there as well. :)

I hope your Saturday is turning out as sweet! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Thankful Accents
Paper- Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink- Basic Black
Accessories- buttons, black marker, ruler

Sweet Sunday Sketch #115

2011-05-03T19:10:00.000-07:00

Good evening! It's a cooker down here in So Cal today. We were in the low 90s for a big chunk of the day. I'm just waiting a little bit longer before I open up all the windows to let the cool evening air into the house. Sheesh! It's like summer already. And we all know just how much I love the heat. Ugh.

I had a little time to play with Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch this afternoon, and the color scheme was just slightly inspired by the weather outside. I used some Cosmo Cricket Modern Homemaker dp along with some PTI stamps on this bright card. I masked half of the flower stems so that I could stamp them the image 1 1/2 times in the rectangle. A few buttons to match the striped dp (check out that red rippled one! Isn't it amazing!), some light green jewels, and a little circle sentiment finished it off. And surprise, surprise... It's a thank you card! Lol!

Hope you are a tad cooler than I am at the moment! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Everyday Button Bits, Mega Mixed Messages
Paper- Pure Poppy, Whisper White, Cosmo Cricket Modern Homemaker dp
Ink- Garden Green, Pure Poppy
Accessories- twine, buttons, jewels, circle punches, dimensionals, sewing machine

Viva la Verve!

2011-05-02T09:56:00.000-07:00

Good morning. I'm sitting at home today, sick with some bug I'm sure a kid so graciously and kindly passed on to me. Hopefully, I'll be back at work tomorrow. With a field trip on Thursday and Open House only 3 weeks away, I can't afford to be out any more days!

I made this card on Saturday before the bug hit. If you are my mom, turn away now! Don't read! It's in the mail on it's way to you, then you're welcome to come back to the blog. :)

All right. Mom should be gone now. Lol

This card uses the first Viva la Verve challenge for the month of May. I love the elegant layout for this card. It reminds me of a sketch we had waaaay back in year one of VLV.... Back with there were still "twists." And oh how those twists made me nervous each week! Now we just get sketchy, and I had a blast with this one!

I pulled out some more MME Stella & Rose Hattie dp, and was immediately inspired by this mustard and turquoise combo. I'm usually not a big mustard fan (actually, this matched crushed curry really well), but it sure worked when balanced with some baja breeze. With all those pastel colors, I added the sentiment and the ribbon in Dark Chocolate to ground the card a bid. Some stickles gav the little flower in "Mother's" some shine, and a little blue jewel in the middle finished it off. Sweet, simple, and elegant. My kind of card. :)

Thanks for taking the time to stop by today!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Happy Mother's Day PJ
Paper- Baja Breeze, Rustic White, MME Stella & Rose Hattie dp
Ink- Chocolate Chip
Accessories- ribbon, nestabilities, tea dye stains, dimensionals, stickles, jewel

Sketch For You To Try

2011-04-30T16:31:00.000-07:00

I'm barely squeezing in my Sketch for You to Try card before the deadline... Tonight! I've had this sketch saved on my desktop for the entire month, determined to play along. After all, how often does a sketch come along with all squared corners?! I finally had the chance to play along this morning.

Thank goodness for a glorious day off from everything. I literally have no where to be, no one to see, nothing that has to be done, all day today! I can't remember the last time I had a true "day off."

I pulled out some of my MME Stella & Rose Hazel dp for this card, matching a few odd colors. The inspiration launching point was actually that green piece of dp, and the rest were in the mix, so I figured they would work. :)

I stamped a flower from Feel the Sun twice, colored it with copics, and popped up the middle of the flower. A little button on top finished it off as well as gave it a little more height. Since this smaller flower didn't have any leaves (and it needed them on this card), I die cut some leaves from my SU branch die. A few pink jewels down in the corner finished the element of "pink" three.

This card also meets the requirements for this month's Diva Dare over on the Verve blog! Yay! The dare is "April Showers Bring May Flowers. I used a few Verve stamps on this card, including one of my favorite flowers!

The roomie and I are off to go see "Water for Elephants" this evening, and I'm so excited! I read this book several years ago after my mom gave it to me. It truly has the BEST ending of any book I have read. It really was perfect. I'm hoping that the movie doesn't change that element. The book club went and saw it on Monday of this last week, but I wasn't able to make it. Thank goodness I made the roomie read the book a few weeks ago in preparation for the movie's release. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Stamps- Verve: Feel the Sun
Paper- Basic Gray, Vintage White, Simply Chartreuse, MME Stella & Rose Hazel dp
Ink- Basic Gray, Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories- button, twine, jewels, copics, dimensionals, Sizzix branch die

Mojo Monday

2011-04-29T19:18:00.000-07:00

Good evening! It's been a long day, but a good one. This morning was our all-school Spring Sing. It's basically a huge musical production sung and performed by the whole school. There were medlies, speaking parts, grade-level songs, hand motions.... But the kids were amazing! And it was definitely a packed house. Our stage is outdoors at school, and it was the perfect weather EVER for this show! Mid-60s in the morning. Sun shining. I wish it was like this everyday!

I was intrigued by this week's Mojo Monday sketch, as it had not only one, but two circles in it! Crazy! I decided to ignore the shivers that ran through me and conquer it. I had some Royal Velvet cardstock sitting on my desk and decided to run with it. I made a few little paper flowers using my MS flower punch (this is totally a Marisa-inspired card!), and pulled out some brads that had been gathering dusk in the back of my cabinet.

This evening, the roomie and I are going to sit and watch our DVR'd royal wedding ceremony! I'm not one of those people obsessed with the royal family, but I couldn't help but catch some of the royal wedding bug going around. It's so fun to have something fun and positive for the world to focus on. And I'm really looking forward to seeing her dress. I only got a quick peek at it this morning before work.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Stamps- Verve: Thankful Hearts
Paper- Royal Velvet, Ripe Avocado, Vintage Rustic Cream, Pacific Vineyard dp
Ink- Elegant Eggplant
Accessories- ribbon, pearls, nestabilities, MS flower punch, brads, scallop edge punch

Burping Rag

2011-04-24T19:02:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!!!

So, a while back I saw this little tutorial for sewing a burping rag. I knew I wanted to give a try one of these days. While up in Oregon over my spring break, my bf and I stopped into a quilting store that really has the BEST fabrics around. It was so hard to contain myself and just pick out a few to bring home with me.

I found the plain white cloth diapers at Target and sat down this evening to try my hand at whipping up a few of these for my old college roomie whom is due with her first baby in about three weeks. I was so pleased to discover that these were really easy to make! I made about 4 in just an hour or two. I only have two more to go, but they'll probably have to wait until next weekend to be completed.

Here is one of the completed burping rags in one of the material combos I picked up. Nice and summer-y and cheery. The other combo is a bit more subdued and probably more "Janice" than "Kristina," lol.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Viva la Verve!

2011-04-23T15:53:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon! So sorry for the long absence. Sometimes real life just takes a front seat, right? I've been staring at my stamps and paper for the last month, wishing I had a moment when I wasn't exhausted, running to somewhere else, or working on work (can you say, "Hello impending- Open House?!).

I was able to squeeze out a little stamping today before switching to my sewing machine for a little baby gift. It's about that time of year where I need a million thank you cards for all the parent helpers in my classroom, office staff, janitorial staff, teammates, etc. So, pretty much every card I make from here on out will be a thank you of some sort.

I used this Friday's Viva la Verve sketch to help this card along. I pulled out some more new dp (that has been sitting so neglected!) and got busy. I sewed along the edges of each paper ray, and added some glitter around the pink oval sentiment. It's a pretty simple card, allowing the dp to most of the talking. But it was a great "get my feet wet again" card. This is probably it for me as for cards until next weekend. My weekdays are CRAZY right now!

Thanks so much for sticking with me and stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Sweet Treats
Paper- Basic Gray, Sweet Blush, Whisper White, MME's Stella & Rose Hazel
Ink- Basic Gray
Accessories- twine, button, glitter, Verve dies, scallop edge punch, sewing machine, dimensionals

Sweet Sunday Sketch #110

2011-03-27T11:04:00.001-07:00

Good morning! I do believe that today is going to be the first day in over 10 days that it will not rain. It's still cloudy and cold, but no little moist drops are falling from the sky. And believe it or not, by Thursday, we're supposed to be back in the 80s! Skirt and sandal weather! Crazy! I guess my little allergy break is over. *sigh* The moment I got my sneak peak of Karen's new Sweet Sunday Sketch yesterday on facebook, the wheels in my head began spinning. Another college roomie of mine announced she is pregnant, and baby cards are a-spinning in my head! Oh how I love making them! They're always so soft, and cute. For this card, I pulled out some of MME's Fine and Dandy True Blue dp along with some Summer Sun cardstock. I stamped the sailboat from Bitty Baby Blessings six times, three on the white, and another three times of dp. I paper pieced the sails and colored the rest with my copics. I added some spica glitter pen to the flag and boat bottom for a subtle shimmer (this is a "boy" baby card, after all!). I added some baker's twine instead of ribbon to keep this card feeling light and airy, and not too heavy. I used my little copic trick again to turn some white pearls into aqua pearl to match the dp. LOVE my copics!

Today is a relaxing day. I'm taking a break from life. My car got rear-ended on Friday, which of course, threw my whole day into turmoil. I truly am fine; completely unscathed. I've been giggling in retrospect that I was simply "shaken, not stirred," lol. My car actually held up pretty well when hit. It was a low-speed accident, and I really do have so much to be thankful for in that respect. I wasn't on the freeway, etc. The other driver was unfortunately uninsured, but at least is an honest person, and immediately took blame. All I have to say, is thank goodness my insurance covers me in the event of an uninsured driver hitting me! My insurance is about to be worth every penny I've poured into them over the last 13 years! Then yesterday was all business. Taxes are now done, dishes are done, I cleaned the kitchen, read for a while, and even managed to bake a banana cake (with peanut butter frosting!!!). Today, I slept in, and it's church from home. Then I'm off to join some girlfriends for a stamp camp. Thus, the nice break from life. And I'm so looking forward to it!

Tomorrow it's back to the grind. Only five more days until Spring Break!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Bitty Baby Blessings
Paper- Summer Sun, Whisper White, MME Fine and Dandy True Blue dp
Ink- Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories- baker's twine, nestabilities, dimensionals, tea dye stains, copics, spica glitter pen, pearls

Sketch For You To Try

2011-03-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

Good morning! I finally had the opportunity to sit and play with this month's Sketch for You to Try this morning (along with baking a banana cake!). I used some more of MME's Stella and Rose Gertie dp on this card and pulled all of my colors from the paper. I colored the image with my copics, covered the cherries and strawberries with some diamond glaze, and used some diamond stickles to added some shimmer to other little bits of the picture.

Sorry to keep this post so brief, but there are a million things that I need to take care of today. It was a crazy week at work, when it was supposed to be an easy week. Every big event ended up being cancelled due to the lousy weather (field trip, jog-a-thon, and hour-long disaster drill). Needless to say, I was stressing over lesson plans where none existed; filling entire days and hours with plans at the last minute. Crazy! I'm so glad it is the weekend.

I promise to have more for you tomorrow- cards AND words, lol.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Stampendous: Tiers of Treats
Paper- Rose Red, Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze, MME Stella and Rose Gertie dp
Ink- Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories- ribbon, slot punch, copics, tea dye stains, dimensionals, diamand glaze, stickles, pearls, button, twine

Just Because...

2011-03-23T22:04:00.000-07:00

I have a love of all things Disney (Disneyland, movies, etc). I am a proud member of the Disney cartoon musical generation. And this guy does them justice! Watch it. I promise you'll love it. :)

(I noticed it's a little cut off on the right side, but if you click the "You Tube" button in the bottom right corner, it will open a new window where you can see the whole screen. Enjoy!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Sweet Sunday Sketch #109

2011-03-21T07:30:00.000-07:00

Good morning and happy second day of spring! It's back to the work grind for me this morning, in the rain. Fortunately, we have a staff development today, so the kids won't be trapped indoors all day with me. Those poor little guys always get so stir crazy when they are trapped inside of a classroom all day with no way to get all of their energy out. The rain is supposed to stop sometime later today, and tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful.

We're back to some wonderful 90 degree corners with Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch from yesterday. Thank goodness! I don't have quite the hate/hate relationship with circles anymore like I used to, but I still would only label it as a love/hate relationship, lol. Having nothing but corners was so nice. So many of my cards lately (which usually follow a sketch) have had a circle of some sort on them.

As soon as I saw that rectangle image panel, I knew I wanted to pull out my Miracle Blossoms. This oldie, but goodie never lets me down. I used some more new dp (Is it just me, or is there a plethora of new dp out there?!) on this card, mixing a few companies. After coloring the tulips blossoms with my copics, and highlighting with a little bit of white gel pen, I popped up each blossom on a dimensional.

That's all for today. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Miracle Blossoms
Paper- Kraft, Whisper White, Simply Chartreuse, Echo Park Little Girl & Walk in the Park dp
Ink- Memento Rich Cocoa
Accessories- ribbon, medium scallop die (PTI), pearls, sewing machine, copics, white gel pen, dimensionals

Viva la Verve!

2011-03-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

Good wet afternoon. I'm trying not to float away, blow away, or be struck by lightning. There hasn't been any lightning for about 20 minutes now, so I figured it might be safe to jump online and post this card to share with you all. But in the meantime, it is absolutely dumping rain and the wind is whipping it around like there's no tomorrow. It's one of those days where I'm glad that I have nowhere to be. I can just stay home, curled up under a blanket, and enjoy the sounds of the rain on the roof, the wind in the trees, and the thunder rattling the windows (aka, a perfect day!).

Uh oh, the thunder just started again, so we're going to make this quick. I played along with this week's Viva la Verve sketch (Which was sooo fun to play with! I'm definitely going to use this sketch again!), and pulled out some new dp while I was at it. The dp is Echo Park's Little Girl mixed in with some Pacific Vineyard from PTI. I stamped three balloons from Verve's Birthday Bash, two onto dp and one onto white cardstock to be colored with my copics. I popped them up with various layerings of dimensionals, added some twine for their ribbons, and a little gingham bow to tie them together. I masked the sentiment, also from Birthday Bash, to split it onto the two banners.

Ok. Enough for today. Gotta get this computer off! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Birthday Bash
Paper- Whisper White, Kraft, Echo Park Little Girl, Pacific Vineyard (PTI)
Ink- Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories- twine, apron lace punch, ribbon, corner rounder punch, dimensionals, copics, white gel pen

Mojo Monday

2011-03-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon! Winter is officially rearing it's head again here in So Cal, and the rain is a-comin'. It rained for a while last night, and much bigger storm is on its way in as we speak. We're expecting around 5 inches of rain tomorrow. FINE by me! I am so looking forward to getting a day or two of relief from my spring allergies. I love spring, but I dread it every year.

I absolutely love this week's Mojo Monday sketch and was anxious to sit and play this morning. Cruising through the blog world for inspiration highlighted one trend this week: Think Spring. Spring colors, flowers, light and airy cards.... They were everywhere! As much as I love spring, the flowers blooming, planting my veggie garden, I have to admit that I'm still enjoying winter. I dread the end of spring because it means the summer heat is just around the corner. Ugh. And since tomorrow is the first day of spring, I guess it was permissible to create a spring-y card. :)

Babies are still on the brain in my studio, lol. Another one of my college roomies just called a week ago to tell us that she and her husband are expecting their first baby in October! Yay!! It truly is the "baby" season in my life right now. So many of my friends are starting their families, and I couldn't be having a more wonderful time cuddling all their little bundles of joy!

I pulled out another new doily die, did some sponging, popped up the cute little giraffe, and added some flag sentiments to finish of the card. Nice and cheery. :) I think A&B in Pittsburgh will love this little burst of spring amidst all of their snow.

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

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: To the Moon
Paper- Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, MME's Stella and Rose Mabel dp
Ink- Memento Tuxedo Black, Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories- ribbon, jewels, nestabilities, PTI doily die, sewing machine, corner rounder punch, dimensionals, copics, sponge

Sweet Sunday Sketch #108

2011-03-13T16:06:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon. It's an absolutely gorgeous day here in So Cal... About 70 degrees, sunny, white puffy clouds, a slight breeze. Yup, be jealous. This week is supposed to be very spring-like, but winter is right on it's heels once more. A big multi-day rain storm is looming in the forecast for next week. Which, truly, is fine by me. I love spring, but man, oh, man my allergies have a field day this time of year. A little rain gives me a day or two of respite from the flu-like symptoms.

To play along with Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch for today, I pulled out some more new dp from the Stella and Rose Mabel line. I went with some yellows and aquas on this one. The aqua took a little tweaking in my editing program to get it to appear the correct color. Why don't aquas photograph true to color, I will never know.

I played with a few other new toys on this card, as well. I picked up this glittery ribbon (yup, it's glittered ribbon!) at Michael's back around Valentine's Day. They had it in a few colors at 50% off after the holiday, so I definitely snagged a few spools of this aqua, pink, and red. Lastly, there is a bit of baker's twine on this card. This has been something I've seen around a lot, and love the little extra "oomph" it gives a card over regular twine. This particular thread has some aqua woven into it, which was perfect for my card!

It's been a wonderful, relaxing weekend. Our sermon at church this morning was such a wonderful reminder of the power of prayer. The question? Why don't we pray more often when it is so powerful? Such a convicting question. But the best part of today was the potluck we had after church. I attend a satellite campus of our big church, which allows us to do some more "small church" gatherings, such as potlucks! The food was fabulous (yay, ham!), and there was tons of fruit to chow down on. Not to mention the desserts... Eek! It was wonderful just to sit and socialize and meet a few more people. We should do these more often. :)

We have another round of parent conferences at school this week. I'm trying to get psyched up for them. They're always a bit dreaded in advance, but once I'm into them, I'm completely fine. I really do enjoy the chance to sit and celebrate with parents over their students' accomplishments. Of course, there are always one or two hard ones thrown in there, which I always pray to come and go quickly, lol. I also have book club tomorrow evening, and I haven't even finished the book yet! Eek! I'm a huge book-a-holic, but I've just been out of a reading mood for the last week or two. And unfortunately, this funk fell on the back of this month's book club book, which I've heard from the other gals is fabulous. I may need to park myself on my couch and crank out some of the book today and after school tomorrow so that I can at least keep up with some of the conversation, lol.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a fabulous remainder of this gorgeous Sunday!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Happy Birthday PJ
Ink- Bermuda Bay
Paper- Whisper White, Bermuda Bay, MME Stella and Rose Mabel dp
Accessories- ribbon, button, baker's twine, jewels, white gel pen, nestabilities

Viva la Verve!

2011-03-12T20:13:00.000-08:00

Good evening! I've known for a day or two that the first sketch I needed to play with this weekend was the new Viva la Verve sketch. Why, you ask? Because it is Maureen's sketch debut!!! Julee even managed to dig up a great little shamrock image for the sketch layout.

Unfortunately, I don't have have any shamrock stamps, embellishments, and I don't even own a heart punch to create my own... Something that may need to be remedied in order to remain friends with Maureen. ;)

Instead, I chose to work with this Irish Blessing from the Verve set, Blessings. It makes the most beautiful wedding cards. Add in some new dp from MME's Stella and Rose Mabel, and this card came together relatively quickly. I had a little trouble with the ribbon placement and size due to the sentiment being so wide. I fudged it a little bit from the sketch.... Shh! Don't tell! Instead of a shamrock, I used another dainty paper flower with a button in the middle. I added some platinum stickles around the edge to give it just a little bit of shimmer. The scallops felt a little lonely once the card was said and done, so I snuck on a row of pearls at the last minute to jazz them up.

LOVED the sketch this week, Maureen! I can't wait to see what you have up your sleeves in the months to come!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Blessings
Paper- Really Rust, Vintage Cream, MME Stella and Rose Mabel dp
Ink- Tangerine Tango, Really Rust
Accessorie- ribbon, button, nestabilities, tea dye stains, pearls, stickles

Mojo Monday

2011-03-10T19:52:00.000-08:00

Good evening! I came home from work today itching to get into my studio and get crafty. I was rather intimidated by this week's Mojo Monday sketch.... So many different panels, and a diagonal one, to boot! Eek! But then, waiting on my porch for me, was the answer to my problems.... New dp! I ordered the new Stella and Rose lines from MME and have been anxiously awaiting their arrival.

I stuck with a teal and mustard color scheme straight from the dp itself. The sketch called for some kind of embellishment in that upper corner, so I decided to mimic the flowers on the dp and create a little paper flower. I added a button in the middle with some twine so I could sneak a bow onto the card. ;)

I stamped the sentiment from Beautiful Kindness in More Mustard and then rock-n-rolled it in some Not Quite Navy for a bit of shading. I love the dramatic effect it created with the two opposite colors! I also happened to go a bit crazy with my sewing machine on this card. Lots and lots and lots of stitching. I just happened to have this golden color thread from a curtain sewing project a few weeks ago and it matched this dp amazingly. Love it when little gifts like that happen!

I'm so looking forward to Friday and the weekend. It's going to be one of those rare weekends where I have absolutely nothing planned. Well, other than getting an oil change, and my windshield repaired, I have nothing planned. I might need to sneak taxes in there as well. Sheesh! Scratch the nothing planned. But at least I get to be home for large chunks of time.

TGIF (almost!) everyone. Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Beautiful Kindness (Verve)
Paper- Whisper White, More Mustard, Stella and Rose Hattie (MME)
Ink- More Mustard, Not Quite Navy
Accessories- twine, buttons, tea dye stains, nestabilities, tacky glue, sewing machine

Viva la Verve

2011-03-05T17:24:00.000-08:00

Ah, this is my celebratory, "I finished my report cards" card! Hooray! I really do think that report cards are up there as one of my least favorite things to do as a teacher. I know they are informative, and really necessary, they sure are a lot of work. It's a great feeling to have them done and out of the way once more. Only one more round to go, and that's at the end of the school year!

I used last week's Viva la Verve sketch for this card. Lots of new PTI goodies arrived on my porch this week, and they most definitely were begging to be used. In particular, my new Royal Velvet cardstock and coordinating Pacific Vineyard dp. Love that deep purple and green together! So regal!

I swapped up the big star/embellishment for some simple pearls, added some gorgeous ribbon, and finally inked up my Sweet Treats stamp set. I think this little frame could become a new favorite. I love those swirly vines in the background! I popped up the center oval, stained the edges with my tea dye stains, and added some glitter to mute the stain even more.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Sweet Treats
Paper- Royal Velvet, Vintage Cream, Pacific Vineyard dp (PTI)
Ink- Elegant Eggplant
Accessories- ribbon, pearls, dimensionals, glitter, tea dye stains, Classy Label Die, Embossed Oval Die (Verve)

PTI Color Challenge- 4

2011-02-18T17:50:00.000-08:00

I have one last card for the Papertrey Release color challenges. I submitted it long ago, but forgot to share it with you! This was Nichole's color combo, which was definitely a stretch for me, but that's why I chose to work with it. In a really sick way, I enjoy a color challenge that scares me, lol.

I kept things really clean and simple since these colors were so bold. I popped up the birdcage to allow the ribbon to run behind it, and to compete with the crazy dimension of the wrinkled ribbon (a new favorite ribbon treatment!). I added a strip of jewels to the bottom of the cage for some bling. The celebrate sentiment is from Mat Stack 2 Collection.

I'm off to Reno this weekend to go visit a dear friend, as well as attend an Elton John concert! So stinkin' excited! Elton John! It's President's Weekend here in the US, so we have a three-day weekend, and I'm taking full advantage of it, because there are no more breaks until Spring Break in April. Gotta squeeze my travelling in where I can.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Love Birds, Mat Stack 2 Collection (PTI)
Paper- Vintage Cream, Kraft, Melon Berry
Ink- Close to Cocoa, Melon Berry
Accessories- ribbon, jewels, scallop edge punch, dimensionals, tea dye stains

Babies and Birthdays

2011-02-14T16:46:00.000-08:00

I have no card to share with you today as I was playing hooky from the studio all weekend. Saturday, I made the rush hour drive down to Laguna Beach to help surprise my 90 year-old grandmother for her birthday. My grandfather organized the whole event, and miracle of miracles, she had no idea that we were all coming to celebrate with her! It was a wonderful evening full of food, family, and life-long memories.

As an added bonus, I finally got to hold me new little first cousin once removed, Nolan. Isn't he a cutie?!

I spent the night with my grandparents (which I haven't done in ages!) since we were having a little baby shower for my college roommate. My best friend Heather, as well as my roommate Amy were all coming down for the event. We met at this adorable little cafe built inside an old church. It was the perfect atmosphere for our celebration! We chowed down on some amazing food (french toast stuffed with raspberry preserves and ham! Oiy!), and enjoyed some quality roommate time.

It was a blast watching Janice open her gifts from the three of us girls. Would you believe that all three of us got her something with the words, "I love my aunt" on it? LOL. Some serious favorite aunt competition!

Oh, and I ventured into the land of creating diaper cakes. I was so pleasantly surprised to find them really simple to make! And what a great decorative punch they made on our breakfast table!

After the delightful breakfast baby shower, we bid adieu to Janice, picked up Heather's husband, and went to Disneyland for the day.

Yeah, crazy weekend. Crazy fun. And exhausting. And wonderful. I am so blessed to have the most incredible friends.

Thanks for stopping by!

PTI Color Challenge- 3

2011-02-10T07:15:00.000-08:00

It's me again. I'm back with yet another card for the PTI color challenge. This color combo comes straight from Melissa Phillips. Such a gorgeous combo... And it naturally made me think of leaves and flowers. I think that darn Hibiscus Burst is determined to grow on me with all of these color challenges. I do have to admit that I don't mind it so much on this card. Perhaps because it's the flower color, and it's nicely balanced out by some greens (which are complimentary colors).

Blooming Button Bits got dusted off for this card. A few buttons, pink jewels, a sneaky sentiment off of the side, ribbon color with my copics. Did I mention I don't like HB... I don't own any ribbon or buttons in this color... So where did the buttons come from? Sweet Blush and (don't tell) Raspberry Fizz. Sneaky, sneaky.

I'm benchmarking kids today, which I have to sickly admit I always enjoy. I have a sub, which allows me to sit and read one on one with each of my kiddos. This middle of the year benchmark is my favorite... Growth is SO visible. It's also relaxing to sit and read all day instead of teach, hehe.

Here's hoping your day has a few moments to relax. Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Blooming Button Bits, Mega Mixed Messages
Paper- Spring Moss, Ripe Avocado, Whisper White, Bitty Dots dp
Ink- Old Olive, Spring Moss
Accessories- ribbon, copics, jewels, buttons, medium scallop die (PTI)

PTI Color Challenge- 2

2011-02-09T22:07:00.000-08:00

Good evening! I'm back with my second card for the color challenge issued over on Nichole's blog to help celebrate Papertrey's anniversary. This combo was a little tricky, but I wanted to try it out. I'm not sure this is my most favorite card I have ever created, but I got tired of fiddling with it. I think it's the dp in the background... It may be just a tad too busy. Am I being overly critical?! lol

Well, and there's Hibiscus Burst on here, with most definitely is not my favorite color. I usually avoid it all all costs! It's just so... bright! It's the same reason I never like SU's Melon Mambo. (Wow, I'm a whiner tonight!).

I'm keeping this post short. It's off to dinner for me, and then back to stamping to try and get a few more cards in before the deadline in the wee hours of the morning.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Giga Guide Lines
Paper- Vintage Cream, Scarlet Jewel, Hibiscus Burst, Distressed Dots dp, Razzleberry Fizz dp
Ink- Crushed Curry
Accessories- ribbon, scallop edge punch, jewels, Mat Stack 1 die

Sweet Sunday Sketch #103

2011-02-08T21:51:00.000-08:00

Good evening (night!). I'm sneaking in tonight with a late post so that I can play along with Papertrey's release challenges. Nichole issued a color challenge to us all tonight and we only have one day to complete it! Eek! I'm hoping to have some more time tomorrow afternoon/evening to make a few more cards for the challenge, but I'm pretty proud of myself for finishing one tonight before bed. :)
This color combo was from Maile Belles. So soft and gorgeous, isn't it? It immediately made me think of a baby card (what doesn't these days?!), and that's what it ended up being. Four out of the five college roommates are getting together this weekend to have a baby shower for J (one of the four). I've been needing a card to go along with my gift and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to whip one up. Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch also worked wonderfully with this card. I'm so glad to have that big circle with a rectangle on top! Phew! lol

I stuck with some twine in lieu of ribbon, and stamped the horizontal panel with some Crushed Curry and Text Style. I love the subtle effect that the yellow created! The buttons are also Harvest Gold (isn't that swirly one amazing?!).

Thanks all from me! It's off to bed. Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Itty Bitty Blessings
Paper- Kraft, Fine Linen, Pretty Pastels dp, Distressed Dots
Ink- Plum Pudding, Crushed Curry
Accessories- twine, buttons, nestabilities, dimensionals

Viva la Verve!

2011-02-07T17:38:00.000-08:00

In case you missed it... THE PACKERS WON THE SUPERBOWL!!!!! Yay!

Ah, this week's Viva la Verve sketch spoke to me the moment I saw it. I know what colors, dp, and stamps I wanted to use. Love it when that happens! I stuck with a brown and aqua color scheme, some brown stitching, scrunched ribbon, and buttons.

I really wanted some aqua jewels to put next to the sentiment, but I seemed to only have the colors of the rainbow on hand. So, when in doubt, color a clear jewel with a copic marker! I love this little trick... It's a guaranteed winner every time I need to match a color.

I'm still recovering from the Superbowl yesterday. Wasn't that a great game?! Even if you weren't voting for a specific team, you have to admit that it was a great game... Tense until literally the last minute. My little buzz off of the Packers' win is still with me. :) I couldn't wait to go to school today and brag to my little Viking's fan that Green Bay won the Superbowl. He may be a six-year-old, but this is serious business! Lol

I leave you with a photo of myself, my cousin D, and my little cousin Micah (isn't he adorable?!) on Superbowl Sunday. I apologize for the blurriness... The picture is off of my phone.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Accent Notes
Paper- Dark Chocolate, Very Vanilla, October Afternoon dp
Ink- Chocolate Chip
Accessories- ribbon, buttons, tea dye stains, dimensionals, nestabilities, jewels, copic marker, sewing machine

Mojo Monday

2011-01-29T15:30:00.000-08:00

Good afternoon! It's an absolutely gorgeous day here in So Cal. Wish you were here! We're dancing right around 70 degrees for what could be the last time for a while. We're actually expecting a tiny bit of rain tomorrow and then will dwell in the 60s for a while (which I'm sure sounds GREAT to a whole lot of you, lol).

It was so nice out today that the roomie and I decided to have a little car washing party. My car was absolutely covered in tree pollen from the trees around my school and it was driving me crazy. Have I mentioned that I am quite allergic to tree pollen? It's been a lovely few weeks....

Other than running a few errands this morning, it's been a lazy day around the house, with lots of stamping time. And more stamping time equals more time to play with new dp! I pulled out my new October Afternoon Seaside dp to go with this week's Mojo Monday sketch. When I saw that little bow embellishment on the top of the circle I immediately knew I wanted to nix it, lol. I know, I know... I usually love bows! Something might seriously be wrong with me. But this was one of those moments when I had something else in mind, like a little balloon. :)

I stamped the balloons from Birthday Bash onto some dp and popped up the smaller of the two. Some fun ribbon treatment, a few light green jewels, and a lacy nestie and this card was coming together nicely! It might even pass for a masculine card.... And I can't remember the last time I made one of those!

I hope your Saturday is giving you a chance to relax a bit. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Birthday Bash
Paper- Spring Moss, Tangerine Tango, Very Vanilla, October Afternoon Seaside dp, Haiku dp
Ink- Night of Navy
Accessories- ribbon, nestabilities, dimensionals, jewels

Fall to Layout

2011-01-28T07:45:00.000-08:00

Good morning! It's a staff development today, so I'm kid-free, but still at work. I'm hoping the training sessions I get to attend are wonderful, inspirational, and full of tools I can take right back to my classroom on Monday! Those kinds of days are the BEST!

While I'm sitting and listening, here is a little card to share with you. I was so excited to play along with Maureen's Wild and Wacky Color Challenge from a few days ago. For once, the colors were a breeze to play with. I love the mix of mellow tones, and a little gray thrown in for good measure. I also used last week's Fall to Layout sketch for a little inspiration help with the layout. That big back panel and the multitude of colors gave me the chance to pull out my lately-neglected Giga Guide Lines stamp set. I didn't have any Smokey Shadow ribbon on hand, so I cheated and colored some seam binding ribbon with a copic marker. I stamped the Cranberry Crisp onto the Lavender Moon cardstock, added a whole lot of scarlet jewel and plum pudding colored rhinestones for a little pop of bling. And since this is a Maureen challenge, I had to throw a button in there as well for the "buttons and bling!" ;)

Thanks for another fun one and some GREAT colors, Maureen! And Happy Friday to everyone!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Giga Guide Lines
Paper- Plum Pudding, Lavender Moon, Smokey Shadow, Whisper White, Scarlet Jewel
Ink- Cranberry Crisp, Plum Pudding
Accessories- jewels, copics, button, seam binding ribbon, nestabilities, dimensionals, medium scallop die (PTI)

Another Baby Shower!

2011-01-27T19:05:00.000-08:00

Good evening! Yup, it's another baby-themed card for yet another baby shower. Thank goodness I only had to whip up five of these little beauties... That's what allowed for the coloring with my copics. I have to say, mass producing is not my most favorite thing. It's so much work! But I do love the look of all those cards line up... There's a beautiful symmetry to them. Five cards was definitely a much for handle-able amount.

These invitations are for my old college roomie. We're throwing her a mini shower over breakfast in a few weeks at a really cute cafe built into an old church. It's going to be just us roomies (four out of five of us) and J's parents. Nice, small, intimate, and special. J is having a little girl, but made sure to pick out some bedding that is not solely pink. She's a pink and green and brown kind of gal. :)

I studied her bedding choice and ended up creating this. The leaves, flowers, and bird are colored to mimic the bedding (called Love Birds). I love how it turned out! I must admit that this is a very obviously cased card from this card Dawn McVey created a little over a month ago. I needed a nice, long image panel to accommodate the branch, and her layout was perfect!

I stitched around the green panel with brown thread, popped up the heavily tea dye stained image panel, and snuck a little doily and some ribbon underneath. A few little pink jewels highlight the flowers and add some sparkle. I also wanted to keep this card relatively flat since it has to be mailed.

It's a staff development day for us tomorrow at work... I'm kid-free!! It felt great to get out a little early today as if it were Friday. If only I could sleep in tomorrow as well, lol. I guess beggars can't be choosers.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Taylored Expressions: Branching Out, Branching Out Coordinates, PTI: Round & Round
Paper- Sweet Blush, Vintage Cream, Pretty Pastels dp
Accessories- ribbon, button, doily, tea dye stains, copics, jewels, dimensionals, corner rounder punch, sewing machine

Viva la Verve!

2011-01-26T18:22:00.000-08:00

Phew! I have officially finished my first whole month of Viva la Verve in I can't remember how long. Last year was just crazy. I made a very loose, very unofficial resolution to try and do more Viva la Verve challenges this year. I love playing along each month and getting to know all the amazing ladies that participate on the splitcoast forum. :)

I so loved the sketch for this week and immediately knew I wanted to use this gorgeous frame from Accent Notes. I stamped it in Memento Rich Cocoa, colored it with a light green copic marker and added a few brown jewels. The sentiment circles are popped up from the frame for some dimension. Some seam binding ribbon and pins finished off the horizontal panel.... And I snuck some scallops under there, too. And if you didn't noticed, there is a ton of tea dye staining on this card. I may be addicted. Maybe.
Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Accent Notes, Circular Sayings
Paper- Whisper White, Dark Chocolate, Turning a New Leaf dp
Accessories- seam binding ribbon, pins, medium scallop die (PTI), Taylor's Tiny Twinkles, jewels, tea dye stains, dimensionals, circle punches

Sweet Sunday Sketch #101

2011-01-25T07:30:00.000-08:00

Good morning! It's a beautiful morning, despite being Monday, lol. It's a nice, short week at work thanks to a staff development day on Friday. I still have to work all five days, but Friday is kid-free! I hate to admit it, but I do enjoy the staff development days... The time to catch up with fellow teachers, soak in some good teaching practices, and of course the little treat of going out to eat for lunch isn't bad. ;)

My card today uses Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch from yesterday. I have a few ideas for this sketch and some future cards, but for the meantime it worked wonderfully for this little ditty. One of our neighbors hosted a street social on Friday evening, inviting a bunch of the neighbors from our street for a meet and greet at their house. My roommate and I went over planning to just stay for 30 minutes or so, and ended up spending almost 2 1/2 hours chatting! We have some wonderful neighbors and it was great to get to know so many more of them! The neighborhood now has elaborate plans to have a progressive dinner so we can see the insides of every house.

I received some new dp in the mail over the course of last week, which included this MME Fine & Dandy dp. LOVE the colors in this dp pad! They made this card so bright and cheery. I used some brown stitching around the bottom panel, added a frame of glitter around the oval, and a few jewels under the sentiment. I'm quite pleased with how this turned out. Pictures never do this gorgeous aqua color justice.

Thanks all for today. Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Love Birds, Mega Mixed Messages
Paper- Kraft, Whisper White, Orange Zest, Sage Shadow, MME Fine & Dandy dp
Ink- Chocolate Chip, Orange Zest
Accessories- ribbon, glitter, glue pen, sewimg machine, dimensionals, nestabilities, jewels

Viva la Verve!

2011-01-23T10:02:00.000-08:00

Good morning! I'm back with my Viva la Verve card for the third week of January. I've been stalling on this one for some reason. I usually don't trip to badly over a tilted panel, but this one gave me a little run for my money. I think it had to do with the larger size.

I opted for a large stamp from my Blessings set and ran with it. I added one of the beautiful scrolly images behind the sentiment, added some red stickles around the perimeter and called it a day. I'm not fussing over this one any more, lol!

This afternoon, I'm heading over to my cousin's house to cheer on the Packers in the NFC Championship Game!! Woohoo! We win this, we're off to the Superbowl! I am most definitely sporting my Packer's jersey to church this morning in preparation for the game. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by! Go, Pack, Go!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Blessings
Paper- Whisper White, Kraft, Pure Poppy, Cosmo Cricket dp
Ink- Creamy Caramel, Summer Sun
Accessories- ribbon, button, twine, stickles, scallop edge punch, tea dye stains

Sweet Sunday Sketch #100

2011-01-18T07:30:00.000-08:00

Good morning! It's back to work with me today, but that's alright. I'm actually kind of excited for today. My kids are going to be planting our classroom garden, and we're continuing our weather unit in science (and you know my little obsession with weather! LOL). Plus, a short week is always a great week.

It's time to celebrate sketch number 100 over at Karen Giron's blog. Sweet Sunday Sketch #100, that is. Incredible!! Of course, I had to play along. No excuses this week. I have had an absolute blast playing along since sketch #1, and am looking forward to 100 more!

I finally made it over to Michael's to pick up some doilies for my cards. I've seen these all over the place; definitely a hot trend right now. I had to join in on the fun! I stained the edges of every panel with my tea dye stains to tone down the bright colors. This little Love Birds set was calling my name once more (love the fact that there is a die for that birdcage!), and since Valentine's Day is coming up around the corner, it seemed appropriate for this card. Maybe I'll send it off to my sister. :)

Tonight the roomie and I are off to Taco Tuesday and Bible Study. We joined a new study last week and we're working our way through the book of Exodus. Love! One of my favorite parts of studying the Bible is learning the history and how that is not only relevant to the rest of scripture/history, but to our own lives. Seeing correlations between the words spoken in the OT and the NT always make me excited.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a lovely day!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Love Birds
Paper- Sweet Blush, Kraft, Regal Rose
Ink- Close to Cocoa, Regal Rose
Accessories- ribbon, apron lace punch, doily, dimensionals, jewels, tea dye stains

Mojo Monday

2011-01-17T15:37:00.000-08:00

What an absolutely glorious afternoon! I truly hope the weather is just as gorgeous wherever you are today. It truly feels like spring here (82 degrees!), the sun is out, and the sky is bright blue without a cloud in sight. I've got to enjoy it because the forecast is for winter to sneak back in later this week.

It's a holiday here in the US, and we're celebrating MLK Day.... Which also means I get a lovely day off of school. I have filled my day off with reading, stamping (of course), some cooking and soon to be baking, laundry, and a quick run to a Jewish deli to satisfy my lunch craving. :)

The card I have to share with you today is a double challenge. I loved this week's Mojo Monday sketch and knew immediately I wanted to use some of my new Verve goodies on it. Enter Emery the Elephant. Isn't he adorable?! I knew I had to have him the moment he made his sneaky peak debut. Which transitions nicely into the second challenge... Verve's Diva Dare for January (formerly the Project Parade). The challenge this month is to create a baby-themed card, project, etc. Well, with my new Verve stamps, this was easy! I combined Emery with a sentiment from To the Moon and some stars from Starstruck. The stars had swirly tails attached, but I just cut them off.

I stamped Emery twice, cutting out his head on the second one to pop up. I colored with him with some copics, and then stamped a tiny star from To the Moon to place on his tummy. I covered all three of the stars with Cinnamon stickles for some sparkle. I am so in love with how this card turned out! The roomie liked it so much, she's already claimed it for a cousin expecting a baby boy. Which means I'll have to stamp something on the inside as well (she always checks, silly girl!). Good thing there are some cute sentiments in this set, as well!

I hope your Monday is off to a great start! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: To the Moon, Starstruck
Paper- Baja Breeze, Dark Chocolate, Very Vanilla, October Afternoon Thrift Shop & Fly a Kite dp
Ink- Memento Tuxedo Black, Chocolate Chip
Accessories- ribbon, twine, button, stickles, dimensionals, nestabilities, copics, tea dye stains

Feeling Wacky

2011-01-16T20:14:00.000-08:00

Good evening! I was scouring through the blogosphere for some challenges to do (is it possible that I've caught up?! Gasp!), when I noticed that my friend Maureen had issued another Waccky color challenge on her blog.

Now, I have to admit that the colors threw me for a little loop. The fine linen, pinks, and purples I could handle. That little pop of dark green, eek! I fell back on my usual fall-back whenever greens are involved: leaves! And since I needed to get some color on here, buttons and jewels were in order.

I shot the picture with the green in the background, but now that I stare at it, perhaps I should re-shoot this picture with a lighter background. The card is so soft and that background feels hard...

Thanks for the inspiration today, Maureen!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Blooming Button Bits, Mat Stack 1 Collection
Paper- Melon Berry, Fine Linen, Distressed Dots dp
Ink- Handsome Hunter, Vintage Cream
Accessories- ribbon, copic marker, jewels, buttons

Sketch For You To Try

2011-01-14T18:31:00.000-08:00

Good evening! I am pleased to report that today went MUCH better than yesterday, lol. Today, we were lice-free, crying-kid free, and problem-free! Woohoo! And to make matters even better, we have a three-day weekend in honor of MLK Day. I am soooo looking forward to some good sleeps. :)

Here is baby card number two, as promised. It's a bit of a style departure for me, using a chipboard decoration, and bold graphics, but I really really like how it turned out! The sketch is courtesy of this month's Sketch For You to Try. I was going to add some Raspberry Fizz ribbon, but thought the twine spoke a little more subtly. A few pink jewels a la Maureen, and voila! One girly baby card! This one is heading right on out to its recipient tomorrow afternoon. One of my co-workers from my last school is having a baby this spring and we're showing her with some gifts tomorrow. :)

That's it from me this evening. A short and sweet post. Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Bitty Baby Blessings
Paper- Dark Chocolate, Raspberry Fizz, Very Vanilla, MME Ooh La La dp
Ink- Chocolate Chip, Raspberry Fizz
Accessories- twine, jewels, tea dye stains, dimensionals, MME chipboard

Sweet Sunday Sketch #99

2011-01-13T17:16:00.000-08:00

Good afternoon! It's amazingly warm here today for a January day (hello 82 degrees!) and I am proud to say that I wore a short-sleeved shirt to work. Incredible. Three days ago, I was wearing multiple layers trying to keep warm. Go figure.

Ah, today was quite the ride. It all began well. It was quiet, calm, and smooth. And then my classroom phone rang. My absent student had lice! Eek! Time to check the heads of the class. Fortunately we were all clear. Phew! But I still had phantom head itchiness for the rest of the day. I am most definitely taking a long, hot, hard-scrubbing shower tonight!

I came home from work today, however, determined to crank out a card or two in the studio. Here is the first finished product for the evening. I have babies on the brain again, lol. My cousin and her husband just had their baby boy on Tuesday (1-11-11!), which brought little boy cards into my head. And when I sat down to stamp, the cutest baby shower invitation was staring at me. One of my old co-workers is having a baby this spring and we're having a shower for her on Saturday. This inspired card #2 that I'm saving to share with you tomorrow.

I played around with my sewing machine a bit on this card, mixing stitch patterns, and creating some fancy sewn ribbon (love!). I didn't have pearls in the right colors, so I took some funky orange colored ones and used a copic marker on top to change the color. Oh, and the sketch is Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch. She's had some great ones lately! And can you believe this is number 99?! I feel like we just did #1! Time really, truly does fly.

That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Bitty Baby Blessings
Paper- Hawaiian Shores, Very Vanilla, Dark Chocolate, Orange Zest, Autumn Abundance dp
Ink- Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories- ribbon, pearls, copic marker, sewing machine, dimensionals, tea dye stains, nestabilities, medium scallop die (PTI)

Viva la Verve!

2011-01-10T07:30:00.000-08:00

Good morning! I have another Viva la Verve card to share with you today. I'm attempting to get all caught up before I fall hopelessly behind in the first month of challenges, lol! I absolutely love this week's sketch by Charmaine. The layers, the ribbon.... It's a recipe for a gorgeous card.

I was feeling the purples when I made this card, and that's exactly what happened.

I pulled out some purple dp and started to mix-n-match. I have a few little cousins with birthdays coming up, so this will probably go to one of them. I added lots of little purple jewels to the sentiment, added tons of tea dye staining, and a little stitching around the border.

I'm off to book club after work this evening. I'm so excited to discuss our book from this last month, Room. It was an intense, but strangely enjoyable read. As a person whom works with kids day in and day out, observing how the son in this story was raised through the extreme hardships, was fascinating! My mom recommended this book to me, and I couldn't help but recommend it for my book club. It is definitely going to be an interesting discussion.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Mat Stack 2 Collection, Verve: Birthday Bash
Paper- Lavender Moon, Plum Pudding, Whisper White, Pretty Pastels dp, Bitty Dots dp, Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather dp
Ink- Plum Pudding
Accessories- ribbon, tea dye stains, dimensionals, Mat Stack 2 Die, circle punches, Taylor's Tiny Twinkles, sewing machine, buttons

Happy Birthday, Mom!

2011-01-09T08:41:00.000-08:00

Good morning! It's a chilly but gorgeous morning here in So Cal. But what truly makes today special is that it is my amazing mom's birthday. Therefore, I am going to take the opportunity to brag on my mom a little bit today. :)

My mom has always been my biggest cheerleader. Whenever something wonderful is happening, she's there. When I'm wallowing, she's a comfy should to cry on. When I need to orally process every detail of my life, I know my mom is only a phone call away. She gives the most amazing, practical advice when my head is in a tizzy. My mom is beautiful, inside and out. She's one of the most organized people I have ever known (maybe that's where I get it from... hmmm...). She makes the absolute best chicken noodle soup with matzo balls, and while we're talking about food, let's throw latkes in there, too. :) She's a fellow bookaholic and has great book recommendations! I know she's always up for a run to Cantor's, or a trip to the ballet, or a Josh Groban concert. My mom has been an amazing example of God's love in my life, and I consider myself one of the most blessed people every single day to get to call her my mom.

So, Happy Birthday, Mom! This card's in the mail on it's way to you. ;)

Have a beautiful Sunday. Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Mat Stack 1 Collection
Paper- Fine Linen, Very Vanilla, Dark Chocolate, October Afternoon Thrift Shop dp
Ink- Chocolate Chip, Ocean Tides
Accessories- ribbon, jewels, copic marker, dimensionals, Mat Stack 1 Die (PTI)

Sweet Sunday Sketch #98

2011-01-05T18:36:00.000-08:00

Good evening! Long time no see! I'm just going to skip the excuses (life, holidays, illness) and jump straight into stamping talk. Oh, how I've missed my stamps, and my dp. My inks. Ribbon. Especially, ribbon. Jewels. Tea dye stains. Dimensionals. *sigh*

Lots of goodies showed up on my porch during the winter break and they have been begging me to play with them. Some fun new PTI stamps as well as some new dp made it onto this card. I couldn't choose just one to work with! They were all begging to be used! The dp is Echo Park's Wintertime line, and some new Dawn McVey stamps called my name in the last PTI release. I'm always stumped when it comes to tall vertical images, and I thought this little birdcage just might help solve that problem.

I used Karen's gorgeous Sweet Sunday Sketch for this week to aid this card on it's path to completion. I have to admit, that I really loved the circle image on this card. I know... Weird, right? I borrowed a sentiment from another new to me PTI set, Mat Stack 1 Collections.

As for me at this moment, I'm tired! We started back at work this week, and it really feels like the first or second week of school again. I come home exhausted, ready for bed. I am enjoying being back at work, though. I have to admit that I really do enjoy my little munchkins. I have such a great group this year! And I inherited a new kiddo on Monday whom seems to be the perfect finishing touch on our family. We're getting ready to dive into a weather unit in science, which is perfect considering the crazy weather we've been having down here so far (27 inches of rain in 6 days about two weeks ago!!!! Ice all over my windshield every morning for the last few days). I live in So Cal! This is really not normal. But I am LOVING it! Any weather makes me happy.

Ok. Enough out of me. Time for dinner, some brainless TV time, and then bed. :) Thanks for sticking with me through my little stamping vacation (both planned and unplanned).

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Love Birds, Mat Stack 1
Paper- Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Echo Park Wintertime dp
Ink- Going Gray, Pure Poppy
Accessories- ribbon, jewels, dimensionals, nestabilities, scallop edge punch

A Winter Wonderland

2011-01-01T21:30:00.000-08:00

Hello out there! Anyone still here?! Happy New Year!!!

I ended taking a little bit longer break from stamping than I ever planned. It's been a crazy, crazy last month around here. I've been sick, grandma's been in the hospital (she's home now, yay!), travelling, more travelling, wrapping up the classroom for break, parties..... Need I go on? Stamping was the thing that just got placed on the cutting room floor, unfortunately.

And I still have no stamping to share with you today. But I do have pictures! I've been up at my parents' house for the last week and one half, and of course I took my camera along for the ride. We had a mini college friends reunion for the last few days (also at my parents' house), and had a riotously wonderful time.

My hometown has been absolutely DUMPED on by snow. It's officially the snowiest December on record up there. So crazy! I've never seen so much snow up there at Christmastime. Mammoth Mountain currently has the most snow in the world. Does that help put it into perspective? lol It pretty much snowed everyday that I was home, and was freezing cold! The high temperature for half of my stay was only in the mid-teens. Brrr!

So, without further ado, a few of my favorite pictures from the last week.

We decided to try and photograph the sunset out at Mono Lake (the tufa are amazing). However, we missed the sunset, there was a snowstorm, it was 18 degrees, gray, gloomy, and very "doomsday" looking, and the wind was screaming at a good 30mph (can you say below zero wind chill... Brrr!). Oh, well. This picture pretty much does this photo shoot justice.

Looking the other direction at Mono Lake. I was using some of the tufa as a wind shield.

The very next day, it looked like this outside. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. We should have waited to go to Mono Lake, lol. This is the view from my parents' house, by the way. Bluebird day!

There is something truly magical about macro shots. I think they are my favorites. This little beauty is actually on my computer desktop right now. Something about the stark aspen trunk and the snow, with a little hint of the evergreen pine tree sneaking into the right side.... Love.

This may be my favorite shot of the trip. Who knew tree stumps could be so beautiful?! Even better.... This was shot in my front yard with me leaning on a snow burm seven feet tall, lol. Thank goodness for snowboots!

Last, but not least, I stole this picture (with permission, lol) from one of my friends. This was the whole group up at the cabin for New Year's. We even managed to coerse the parents into being in the photo. And it's snowing in this picture. You should be able to see the mountains behind us..... Instead, it's white. And did I mention cold? 17 degrees!

Thanks for putting up with another photo blog post! I love to share other little "pieces" of me every now and then. This also lets you know I'm still alive.... Just out playing. :)

Thanks for stopping by! Hopefully, I'll be back in a few days with a card to share.

Verve Project Parade

2010-11-26T18:18:00.001-08:00

Verve has issued another Project Parade Challenge: Triple Play. The idea is to create a trio of matching items. Since Christmas tags seem to be everywhere in the blogosphere right now, I figured it was high time I joined in on the fun. Mostly because it gave me an excuse to play with one of my new Verve dies! Oh, how I'm in love with this tag die! Nice and petite, cuts like a dream, and matching stamps to go with it!

I took some matching dp, colors, a Christmas theme, and ran with it. Here's my little tag trio. :)

The first tag uses an old Verve Christmas set, Ornamental Christmas. This lovely little set only gets used a few times a year, so it was practically begging to be used on these tags. I thought the snowflake one matched the dp pretty well. I stamped the ornament in Pure Puppy and then used some Frosted Lace stickles to outline the sentiment and circumference. It's so shiny and wonderful!

The second tag is very quick and simple. I used my scallop circle punch along with two other circle punches to create the main image and stamped a simple "To, From" in the center. Some red stickles added some sparkle on this one.

The last tag is my favorite! I just love how it turned out. I used some nesties behind the tag itself, stamped a gorgeous snowflake from Glad Tidings, and then popped it up with a button in the middle. And isn't the font on the Christmas Blessings sentiment gorgeous?! I just had to have this set for that one font (well, and the snowflakes, and the tag...).

And there ya have it. My tag trio! Head on over to the Verve website to play along as well! Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely evening!

Supplies-

Stamps- Verve: Ornamental Christmas, Glad Tidings, Sweet Scallop Tag

Paper- Pure Poppy, Whisper White, Spring Moss, Rustic Snowflakes dp

Ink- Pure Poppy, Basic Black

Accessories- twine, buttons, stickles, dimensionals, scallop circle punch, circle punches, nestabilities, sweet scallop tag die (Verve)

Mojo Monday

2010-11-25T07:30:00.000-08:00

Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving to all of my US friends! It's an absolutely gorgeous morning here in So Cal. A little bit on the chilly side, but the sun is out and the sky is blue. Gotta love it! The main theme for my day today is FOOD! Well, food and family. Lots of turkey coming my way today and I couldn't be more excited! Though, I'm pretty excited to have some gravy and mashed potatoes. In that order. :)

There are so many things I need to take the time to stop and be grateful for today. I am so incredibly thankful for my amazing family, my dear friends, a job that I love, and a great country to live in. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch for my card today. I really was trying to create a "thank you" card to share today, but for some reason, once I pulled these colors out "happy birthday" called my name. I can't win! I pulled out some old SU dp, a brown marker, and some stickles to finish off this card.

Thanks a bunch for stopping by today!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Happy Birthday PJ
Paper- Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Summer Sunrise, SU Good Morning Sunshine dp
Ink- Old Olive
Accessories- ribbon, jewels, nestabilities, dimensionals, tea dye stains, stickles, brown stampin' write marker

Mercy's Tuesday Sketch #101

2010-11-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

Good morning! It's been a few weeks since I've had the time to play along with Mercy's Tuesday Sketches, and oh, how I've missed them! This week's sketch is phenomenal and I just had to play along. The only problem was that long rectangle image. I just don't own many long, tall rectangle shaped stamps. So, when in doubt, pull out the trusty tree/branch image from Beyond Basic Borders. So simple, but I love it!

I use a blue theme on this card with yellow accents. Mostly Baja Breeze, Night of Navy, and some more October Afternoon dp. I added some golden jewels to the tips of the tree/branch to give it a little sparkle and keep the focus centered on the card. I went back and forth between blue buttons and yellow buttons... I just love buttons too much! It's too hard to choose colors! But, I ended up with yellow to try and stay with the element of three: jewels, paper, and buttons.

Today is prep day here at the house. Lots of baking! It's all warm and cozy in the kitchen with the oven cranking. :) I'm cranking out a few soy milk pumpkin pies today (I'm allergic to dairy... and this pie tastes exactly like the real deal! I've even served it without telling people it contained no milk and they never knew. hehe) to serve at Thanksgiving meals tomorrow.

This evening I am off to my parents' So Cal house to partake in some early turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy! Apparently, dad has complained that when we only do Thanksgiving with extended family there is no left-over turkey to eat on the days after. So, Mom has made a small turkey to remedy that situation. I couldn't say no to the early invitation! Turkey today, turkey tomorrow, and more on Saturday! Oh, how I love Thanksgiving! Good food, good company... It's a beautiful combination.

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Stay warm, wherever you are! Is it just me, or is it cold everywhere right now?!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Beyond Basic Borders
Paper- Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla, October Afternoon Thrift Shop dp
Ink- Not Quite Navy
Accessories- ribbon, Taylor's Tiny Twinkles, buttons, dimensionals, tea dye stains

Viva la Verve!

2010-11-23T15:42:00.000-08:00

Good afternoon! I have a Viva la Verve card to share with you on this chilly day. I'm still enjoying my week of vacation (sooo much!) and sat down to some quality stamp time today. Oh, how I've missed my stamps. Darn report cards and colds just had to take priority for a little bit there.

This card is a bit of a departure from my norm. When I looked at the inspiration pictures Julee posted, I pretty much discarded them all and headed straight to the website to find my own inspiration. But then, a weird thing happened.... The third inspiration picture began to keep popping back into my head. The mixture of the pinks and melons... The charcoal gray... I suppose it was just meant to be. I also pulled such much neglected brads. Remember when these were all the rage?! I have a whole colorful collection of them and so seldom use them anymore. So sad. But I felt like this card needed a little something, well, "more." Some shiny silver brads felt like the correct course of action. I also colored in th sentiment with my copics to make the word sun match the color theme. Such a fun trick!

My birthday was absolutely wonderful yesterday. Definitely one of the best in years! I consider myself immensely blessed to have been surrounded by friends and family for the day. My mom and I had a blast visiting California Adventure for the day. It was extremely crowded due to the holiday week, but it was still worth it! Dad was able to meet up with us in Downtown Disney for lunch which truly was the icing on the cake for the day. Oh, and my roomie surprised me with Michael Buble concert tickets!!! So stinkin' excited!!! Would it be all right if we just jumped straight to December 13th?! We ended the evening at my parents' house for some cake (angel food, of course) and roasted chestnuts (no open fire, but open flames on the stove, lol).

Today, it's an official "be at home and do whatever I want" day. Love! So far, I did a little catching up with the DVR on shows I've missed over the last week, read a bunch of my book club book (The Friday Night Knitting Club... quite good so far!), and made a few cards. It's looking like rain outside which just makes me happy. And the frosting on today's cake? It's Taco Tuesday! A local Mexican restraunt has dollar tacos every Tuesday. Who can pass THAT up?! Chips and salsa, here I come!

Phew! I guess I'm a bit chatty today, lol! I think I'll quit now before I get started up again. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Psalm 84:11 PJ
Paper-Smokey Shadow, Raspberry Fizz, Melon Berry, Whisper White, Bitty Dots dp, Bitty Box dp, In Bloom dp
Ink- Basic Gray
Accessories- ribbon, sewing machine, copics, brads, dimensionals, nestabilities, EK Success edge punch

Sweet Sunday Sketch #94

2010-11-22T07:00:00.000-08:00

Good morning! It's going to be a beautiful day today simply because it is my birthday. I am 28 today, and am so blessed to have another year to look forward to. God has been so good! And to celebrate, my mom and I are off to California Adventure (at the Disneyland Resort) to have a little fun. Mom has never been there before, so I get the joy of showing her around. We are most definitely getting pins to wear. When you get a birthday pin, Disney employees are required to say "Happy birthday" to you. So much fun!

I always love taking new people to the park! It's fun to watch the experience through their eyes. After California Adventure, the plan is to have a little bit of birthday cake. Yum! And did I mention that we have the whole week off of work for Thanksgiving?! Hello sleeping in every day! Such a happy camper right now!

I had a few minutes to stamp yesterday and managed to whip up a card to cover a few challenges. First up, Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch. I loved the giant circle in the middle (I know, weird) and immediatly knew I wanted to use my blooming button bits. Secondly, I used Maureen's Wild and Wacky Color Challenge from a few days ago. There were not one, but two greens in the challenge this week. The easiest way to deal with that? Leaves! Love that rock-n-roll technique to add a few shades of green to the leaves. I also used one shade of green dp and the other in a button. Sneak, sneaky. Thirdly, I used the CARDS blog challenge to create a thank you card this week. I am always going through thank you cards due to the nature of my job. With so many parent helpers, staff, and teammates I pretty much need an endless supply of them. I kept this one simple with a little floating "merci."

Thanks all from me today. Have a wonderful Monday!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Blooming Button Bits, Mega Mixed Messages
Paper- Dark Chocolate, Terracotta Tile, Whisper White, Bitty Dots dp (Simply Chartreuse), Bitty Box dp (Dark Chocolate)
Ink- Simply Chartreuse, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Accessories- buttons, twine, nestabilities, tea dye stains, seam binding ribbon, dimensionals

Fall to Layout

2010-11-14T12:37:00.001-08:00

Good evening! I'm resurfacing from the land of the lost to post a little card I whipped up this evening in a few minutes of free time. The last week or so has been so crazy! Holidays, report cards, this darn cold that I can't seem to shake.... Stamping time just got squeezed out by extra sleep, rereading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (I gotta be prepared, lol), and did I mention sleeping? I hate how colds zap all of the energy out of me.

Anyways, I had a lovely, but tiring (are you sensing a theme?!) day with my mom today. We went and got our hair cut together, and absolutely made sure to stop at Cantor's Deli for some yummy matza ball soup and latkes. Now I'm home, and after a quick nap, found myself with a tiny bit of energy to stamp.

This week's Fall to Layout sketch had me intrigued. I don't pull out my Top Note die nearly enough, so it was a welcome tool on this card. My color combo was inspired by a room makeover I watched on HGTV this evening. Ever seen the show Divine Design? I don't think that designer has ever created a room I have not liked. They're all gorgeous! Whenever I purchase my first home, I am most definitely putting in a bid for her to come redo one of my rooms. Anyways, she made over a basement last night with this color theme: cream, gray, spring moss, and steely blues. I immediately saw a card with this combo in my head. :) Oh, and the kraft came from the wood floors in the room.

I am officially out of energy again, so this post is going to be cut a wee bit shorter than normal. Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Glad Tidings
Paper- Kraft, Very Vanilla, Smokey Shadow, Spring Moss, Distressed Dots dp
Ink- Basic Gray
Accessories- seam binding ribbon, button, twine, glitter, double sided tape, top not die (SU), jewels

Sweet Sunday Sketch #91

2010-11-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

Good morning! I have a two-for-one card to share with you this morning. I've double up on Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch and Maureen's Wild Card Color Challenge from a few days ago.

I did manage to keep this card a bit more on the simple side, but I think I went a little crazy with the buttons, lol. I pulled out my trusty Everyday Button Bits stamp set and stamped the flower stems twice to fill the oval. I ended up taking a bunch of medium sized buttons off and putting tiny ones to help it feel not so overcrowded. It's just a lot of flowers! I also refrained from sewing on this card (harder than I thought it would be!)

Looking at it a second time, I wondering if I should have stamped the stems a little lower and moved the sentiment to the bottom right corner... Hmmm... Maybe it's time for a version #2 of this card. ;)

Well, that's it out of me for today. Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Everyday Button Bits
Paper- Dark Chocolate, Spring Moss, Whisper White, Bitty Box dp
Ink- Spring Moss, Chocolate Chip
Accessories- ribbon, buttons, dimensionals, nestabilities, sponge

CARDS Challenge

2010-11-02T07:15:00.001-07:00

Good morning! I have a two-for-one display to share with you today. I was cruising through my blog roll a few days ago when I came across the CARDS Magazine blog (which is combined now with their other publications, but still great!). There is a weekly card challenge issued, and this week's was too hard to resist!

The challenge? To use ruffles on our cards. So fun! Ruffled paper, ruffled ribbon, crepe paper... Ruffles! I immediately knew I wanted to play with some more faux book print ruffles. Not having any books that I want to destroy (I really need to get to the thrift store one of these days...), I opted to make my own book print using my PTI Text Style stamp set. I stamped the plain text in Chocolate Chip to keep it a little more mellow and did some heavy distressing along the edges. I curled them up, smothered them with tea dye stain, and even crinkled them a bit.

I played around with more Holiday Button Bits, creating a few button ornaments with a whole lot more tea dye staining around the edges. A few little jewels in the corner, a bow, and jolly sentiment and this card was done.

The only problem? Which dp do I like more? I created one card and then thought the other Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather dp would also look fabulous. Now I don't know which one I love more! They really have completely opposite feels to them. Any opinions?

Thanks so much for stopping by! To all my US friends, get out and vote today! I'm off to the polling place after work today. I'm all studied up on my propositions and candidates, and my sample ballot is marked so I don't forget what I chose. :)

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Holiday Button Bits, Text Style
Paper- Plum Pudding (PTI), Very Vanilla (SU), Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather dp
Ink- Chocolate Chip (SU)
Accessories- ribbon, buttons, tea dye stains (PTI), scallop edge punch, dimensionals (SU), jewels

Sketch For You To Try

2010-11-01T07:15:00.000-07:00

Good morning and happy post-Halloween! Can you believe that today is the first day of November? November may be my favorite month of the year! It's fall, for one. I love the crisper air with a warm sun. I love the vibrant colors that the leaves turn. I love Thanksgiving and turkey! And, well, it's my birthday month. :)

We had a nice handful of trick-or-treaters last night at our house. It was so fun to see them all dressed in their adorable costumes. I love watching their methodical picking-out of the candy. Truly, being the person answering the door is almost as good as being the trick-or-treater! And we have a bit of left-over candy, which is always all right with me! We put our carved pumpkins out on the porch along with our Mr. Potato Head pumpkins (the best idea ever!). My carved pumpkin unfortunately didn't make it to Halloween before getting to rotten and squishy. So sad!

It's back to the work grind for me today, being Monday. The month of November is absolutely going to fly by. We have so many holidays this month, I think we really only have about 13 days of school total. Crazy! And somehow I have to fit fall, Veteran's Day, and Thanksgiving into those 13 days. It's going to be hectic, but fun!

The card I have to share with you today is from Jen's Sketch for You to Try. I loved the various panels on it and vowed to try and play along this week. Plus, my Mitten Weather dp was still begging to be playing with. This little mini deck isn't going to last! I might need to order a few more to hold me over!

I mixed in some Distressed Dots dp with the Mitten Weather. I think the Fine Linen color looks lovely! I need to order some matching ribbon for future use. My scalloped circle nestie with some pearls finished it off. That's another thing I need to get one of these days: liquid pearls. There have been so many gorgeous cards made lately with liquid pearls that I'm really beginning to wonder why I don't own any already, lol. In the meantime, I'll keep using my half pearls.

I also delved into one of my new Verve stamps. This was actually from the last release at the beginning of the month, but I had not had a chance to ink it up as of yet. It fit perfectly in this little circle, thank goodness. And isn't that font gorgeous? Love.

So, that's all for today! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Psalm 46:1 PJ
Paper- Red Riding Hood, Very Vanilla, Aqua Mist, Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather dp, Distressed Dots dp (PTI)
Ink- Red Riding Hood
Accessories- ribbon, button, twine, tea dye stains, dimensionals, pearls, nestabilities

Mojo Monday on a Sunday

2010-10-31T07:15:00.000-07:00

Good morning and Happy Halloween! There are no parties in store for me today, which really is all right. I love being home to hand out candy to the trick or treaters. :) It's one of the little joys of being an adult on Halloween. One year ago today I was at Halloween and missed handing out candy (though, I think it was a pretty win-win situation overall).

I have a little thank you card to share with you today using last Monday's Mojo Monday sketch. I chose to work with the square sketch this time, as corners really are my comfort zone. I pulled out some of the purples and aqua colors and got down to business. I fixed my threading snafoo on my sewing machine so it worked flawlessly on this card. Ah, that little zigzag just makes me happy. The sentiment was feeling a little lonely, so I took a nod from Maureen and added a few little sparkles. :)

We had a lovely evening last night. My dad ended up coming over for dinner (he just can't say no to Swiss Steak, hehe). It's always good to visit and catch up. This morning, it's off to church, perhaps a stop at Grandma's to fix her Internet (when did I become the techie in the family?!), then home to more cards! Well, cards, studying my voter guide so I'm prepared for Tuesday, and working on school stuff for a while. But cards are definitely on the agenda.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Thankful Hearts
Paper- Kraft, Very Vanilla, Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather dp
Ink- Perfect Plum
Accessories- ribbon, nestabilities, tea dye stain, dimensionals, jewels, medium scallop die (PTI), sewing machine

Viva la Verve!

2010-10-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

Can you believe we're already into the first week of November for Viva la Verve?! This year has absolutely flown by. Tomorrow is Halloween, Veteran's Day is knocking on the door, Thanksgiving will be here before we know it, then we'll blink and it will be Christmas. Crazy!

Amber had a great sketch for us and some amazing inspiration. I immediately jumped all over the first inspiration picture. Something about all that red, cream, quilting, and apples just made me happy. I attempted to recreate my own quilted pattern on my card using various dps and background stamps. I'm relatively pleased with how it turned out.

And please try to ignore the wonky sewing around the edges. For some reason my sewing machine began to sew a bit strangely in the middle of my card. It took me just a minute too long to realize that it wasn't sewing the normal zigzag pattern before I fixed it. I'm pleased to report that it's all fixed and happy now that the card is done. Oh well!

It's a truly lazy Saturday here around the house. I most definitely fought to sleep in this morning (I hate that my body gets used to waking up at 6:30 and thinks it should do that on Saturdays as well). But I won the fight and woke up nice and refreshed. It rained pretty hard last night, but the sun was out and shining this morning! It's so crisp and clean outside. Love it! I've got some Swiss Steak cooking in the crock pot, potatoes sitting on the counter waiting for my roommate to come home and make mashed potatoes (She seriously make the best mashed potatoes). I have one card down and many more to go. I have the itch to create. Some new dp (Mitten Weather!) is also helping that crafty mojo along.

I'll leave you today with a few pictures from school yesterday. I wish I could post pictures of my kiddos! They were soooo cute! Just imagine 20 five and six year olds running around at school in full Halloween costume. Adorable!

The First Grade Teaching Team

Have a lovely Saturday!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Thanks so Much, PTI: Background Basics Retro, Text Style
Paper- Pure Poppy, Vintage Cream, Bitty Dots dp, Distressed Dots dp, In Bloom dp
Ink- Pure Poppy, Vintage Cream, Tea Dye Stain
Accessories- ribbon, button, twine, nestablities, jewels, dimensionals, tea dye stains, sewing machine

Sweet Sunday Sketch #90

2010-10-24T10:32:00.000-07:00

Good morning! The sun is out and shining for the first time in 8 days, and it looks to be building to a gorgeous day! Only the high 60s to low 70s today. It doesn't get more perfect than that!

I'm sitting at home this morning due to some crock pot food that didn't finish cooking overnight. One of my ministries at church is that I cook for families in need (sickness, emergencies, etc.). I new I needed to drop the food off after church while I was out their way this morning, so I put the meal in a crock pot to cook overnight. Not wanting to leave it on high for 12 hours, I set it on low and crossed my fingers. Well, apparently I should have crossed my arms, legs, and toes as well. Still not done. So, I've got it cranked up to high, sent my roomie off to church, and am hoping it finishes up sometime in the near future. Boo!

After I drop the food off, I'm off to an Open House to visit and welcome home (temporarily) a childhood friend of mine that now lives/serves in Kenya as a missionary. It's been about two years since I've seen her, therefore I am so looking forward to seeing her face. :)

Then tonight, it's pumpkin carving time!! A few girlfriends are coming over to our place for some carving fun. I have the pumpkin treats all baked and ready to go! The pumpkin pie was seriously calling my name all night long.... I need to eat it! Soon! lol

Enough rambling... On to the card! I used Karen's fantastic new sketch for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge. I love the big panel/sweet simplicity of the sketch. I knew immediately that I wanted to use my Blooming Button Bits. I was originally going to do a purple/green color theme, but for some reason the New Leaf cardstock jumped out at me when I went to grab the colors. So green and yellow it was. Very "spring-y" don't you think? Eh, spring, fall... Same thing, hehe.

Well, keep your fingers crossed for me! This food HAS to finish within the next hour so I can get where I'm going on time! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Sunday!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Blooming Button Bits
Paper- New Leaf, Whisper White, Bitty Box dp
Ink- Wild Wasabi, Barely Banana
Accessories- ribbon, buttons, ric rac die, sewing machine

Viva la Verve!

2010-10-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

I'm a week behind on my Viva la Verve sketches and this is the last week to submit our cards! Needless to say, prepare yourselves for an onslaught of VLV cards. :)

This particular card was created for the third week's challenge: to case Verve's own Jackie Pedro who's found herself getting a little Dirty! Congrats to you, Jackie! It is soooo well deserved! I selected an older card from about one year ago to CASE (copy and share everything). I changed the colors, the stamp, and eliminated one of the rectangular panels. I tried to stay true to the layout for the most part.

I stamped the flowers in Chocolate Chip and colored with my copics. I added a little white gel pen at the last minute to give the flowers a gleaming feeling. Love how that turned out! The flowers are popped up as well.

It's baking day here in the house. We're having some friends over to carve pumpkins tomorrow and promised them "pumpkin treats." Since I finally was able to secure some canned pumpkin (and even a few sugar pumpkins!), I'm going to town with the baking. So far: 2 loaves of pumpking bread, one pumpkin pie, and a bunch of experimental pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. They sure look and smell yummy! I just might "have" to taste test a few of them to make sure that they are absolutely, positively safe to eat. It's only kind of me. Self-sacrificing, really. ;)

Oh, and here's a picture of Jackie Pedro's gorgeous card that was my inspiration launching point. ----->

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Miracle Blossoms
Paper- Dark Chocolate, Very Vanilla, October Afternoon Thrift Shop dp
Ink- Chocolate Chip
Accessories- ribbon, copics, dimensionals, white gel pen, nestabilities, sewing machine

Mercy's Tuesday Sketch #96

2010-10-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

Good evening! I had a few free minutes this evening (with energy to spare) to make a little card. I decided to play along with Mercy's Tuesday sketch. Something about all those corners was making the muse in my happy. :)

Is it just me or is the blogging world inundated with Christmas cards lately? I can't even get through Halloween before Christmas starts staring me in the face (literally!). I even saw my first Christmas-themed commercial on TV on October 19th. That's right, people. A whole 2 months+ before Christmas. Really, what has this world come to?!

So, after all of this ranting, I figured I had better follow trend, lol! Well, that, and my Holiday Button Bits have been calling my name lately. Poor things just sit there all year long waiting for the holidays to come back around.

I just love the look of Simply Chartreuse and Scarlet Jewel together. So rich. So regal. So wonderful. And then you add buttons and twine and they're even more divine! I stamped the holly leaves twice, cut out and popped up the second set. Some wrapped twine and a little snuck on sentiment finished off the card. Easy peasy.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Holiday Button Bits
Paper- Kraft, Simply Chartreuse, Whisper White, Bitty Dot dp, In Bloom dp
Ink- Kiwi Kiss, Cranberry Crisp
Accessories- twine, buttons, dimensionals, tea dye stains

A Little Autumn Getaway

2010-10-20T19:11:00.000-07:00

The reason for the slightly longer silence on the blog was a quick trip up the mountains. :)

I had a random 3-day weekend thanks to a furlough day at work, decided to call my parents to check on the fall-color status back a home, discovered that it was peak colors, and hit the road! A good friend decided to travel with me (another camera geek.... who taught me a lot this last weekend) and snap some pictures.

We arrived home on Saturday afternoon to some rather dreary, impending doom looking skies. Rain was in the forecast for Sunday and Monday, but apparently the storm decided to move in early. Great. We pretty much ate lunch and then rushed out, trying to grab any fading light before the clouds covered it all. That ended up being the pattern for the weekend. Once it started raining, it really didn't stop. Just brief interludes where Rey and I would grab our raincoats and the camera, rushing out the door to see if we could grab some shots before the rain, inevitably, began to fall once more.

The colors were gorgeous. All golden, orange, and even a few reds mixed in. The lighting wasn't ideal, but I could have cared less. It was fall. Fall! Fall really isn't fall in So Cal. Our leaves down here don't even change and fall off until January. Lame. But going home, up to the mountains (7600ft elevation!) changed all of that. It was cool, rainy, and beautifully painted. In other words, it was perfect. God does good work. :)

Here are a few of my favorite pictures snapped by either myself of Rey. Enjoy!

Looking at Carson Peak on the left. I love how the leaves mimic the jaggedness of the peaks.

Staring upstream. The leaves were the richest along the water.

I couldn't resist a few macro shots. :)

Something about the trunks of all these aspen trees makes me happy.

And lastly, one shot by Rey. I love the moodiness (aka impending rain downpour) he captured in this image! We literally ran back to the car after this one!

That's all for the moment! I'm looking forward to the weekend and some stamping time! Thanks for stopping by and indulging in some autumn!

Viva la Verve!

2010-10-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

I have a little game for you today. It's called "spot how many new things Kristina played with on this one solitary card." Sounds fun, right?! It was like Christmas here at the house for the last few days with all the new goodies I have ordered arriving at the same time! I just had to sit down to create a card. I suppose it was a personal challenge to see just how many new things I could cram onto this card.

I used last Friday's Viva la Verve challenge to help this card along. Instead of being challenged by a room, we had a *twist* again. It sure felt like the old days, dreading which twist was coming each week. hehe

Amber challenged us with a sketch, as usual, but gave us a color challenge in exchange for an inspiration challenge. The colors? Brown, orange, turquoise, and white. Strange at first glance, but absolutely lovely in reality.

Ok. On to the new toys!

Seam Binding Ribbon- LOVE! I've been wanting some of this forever and some of it is finally mine! I ordered a few colors to allow me to use them on different styles of cards. I can't wait to dive into them a bit more!
Pins- I picked up some pins while in Joann's grabbing some thread (more on that to come). These turquoise ones just happened to go perfectly with this challenge!
Stamps- Ah, new Verve. Nothing inspires, stamps, or smells quite as wonderfully. And with lightning fast shipping, these babies arrived in no time and have been calling my name from where they sat on my desk for the last two days.
Sewing Machine- Yup! I have joined the sewing world! Oh, how I've been coveting a sewing machine for the longest time. To be able to stitch all kinds of fun borders and patterns. To give my cards that little extra "oomph" in decoration. One quick run on some scratch cardstock and I took the plunge on my actual card. I'm so excited to play around with it more and more!

I think that covers it all. Other than all the new stuff, there is lots of old stuff, too. Buttons, tea dye stain, dimensionals, nesties... I popped up the whole center turquoise square above the ribbon. I also stamped the pumpkin once onto the white and a second time onto dp. It's popped up for some dimension. :)

I'm so happy with how this turned out! It's like new goodies bring the best mojo of all! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Bountiful Harvest
Paper- Hawaiian Shores, Whisper White, Dark Chocolate, Autumn Abundance dp
Ink- Memento Rich Cocoa
Accessories- seam binding ribbon, pins, dimensionals, nestabilities, tea dye stain, copics, buttons, sewing machine

Babies!

2010-10-09T18:33:00.000-07:00

I know. You've heard me mention that everyone I know is pregnant lately. Well, we are down to one less preggo! My cousin and his wife had their baby on Tuesday night, and I was blessed with the opportunity to be there! It just worked out that I was able to rush over to their hospital right after work and celebrate with them when he arrived. Little Micah is perfect in every way, and I am so completely in love with him! My cousin Tim and I grew up more as brother and sister rather than cousins, so to share a piece of that indescribable moment with him was truly something I will never forget.

I went over to T & E's place today to spend a little more quality time with my new tiny cousin (is it first cousin once removed or second cousin?). He was sleeping, of course, but he was so adorable all snuggled up in my arms, having some kind of fun dream. Lots of twitching and random sudden flailing followed by deep sleep. Love him!

Here are a few pictures from the hospital on Tuesday night. Meet Micah when he was only 1 1/2 hours old.

And secondly, I have another baby card to share with you. Another cousin of mine is expecting her first baby early in the new year. My aunt wrote a few weeks back asking if I would make the shower invites for her. Yay! The request was for a lighter, more lime colored green, brown, and some polka dots. Well, that I can do! Brown, green, polka dots?! I'm in heaven making these cards! I pretty much have all of the parts ready to go and tonight and tomorrow will be the putting it all together part. All 32 of them.

Now you know why the blog has been on the quieter side. :) Lots going on, just in the mass production department rather than the individual showpiece department.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-

Stamps- PTI: Bitty Baby Blessings, Round & Round

Paper- Spring Moss, Dark Chocolate, Whisper White, Turning a New Leaf dp, Pretty Pastels dp

Ink- Memento Rich Cocoa

Accessories- twine, copics, dimensionals, nestabilities, apron lace punch, hole punch

Verve Release Challenge Card #5

2010-10-06T07:15:00.000-07:00

Ah, at last we've reached the fifth and final day of the Verve World Cardmaking Celebration Release! Well, at least the last day here on my blog. Things are just kicking off over on the Verve blog with the first sneaky peaks of the new stamps! Yay! I've made a little room in my Verve binder to house my anticipated new goodies. :)

For some reason, this fifth sketch was an absolute stumper. And not because of the tilted panels, but because of the number of panels. That's a whole heck a lot of dp, or papers, or colors, etc. I was having a hard time visualizing this one (which is usually my first step in card-making. I see a sketch and the papers speak to me.). I finally settled on a tried and true paper combo (with some more of the yummo kraft polka dotted dp for good measure). October Afternoon dp never lets me down. hehe

I kept things a bit more on the simple side, with a big panel of plain cream cardstock. I tried stamping a patter onto it, but it just began to feel too busy in my mind. The cream let the other colors do all of the talking.

And thank goodness for kraft ribbon! I tied it in yet another double bow (really beginning to like these! Single bows are beginning to look... wimpy). I also finally made my way over to etsy and purchased some seam binding ribbon in a few colors to really master this double bow technique. Now I just need some pins to stick into them... Any advice on where to find those?

I had a blast playing along once again, Julee! Thanks for a week of fun (that isn't over yet! Yay!). And thanks to everyone for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Forever in Our Hearts
Paper- Very Vanilla, Kraft, October Afternoon Fly a Kite dp, Bitty Dots dp
Ink- More Mustard
Accessories-ribbon, jewels, dimensionals

Verve Release Challenge Card #4

2010-10-05T07:15:00.000-07:00

Phew! Four down, one more to go! It's still challenge time over on the Verve blog to help celebrate World Card Making Day and Verve's new release. I'm so excited for the sneak peaks to start tomorrow! I always love me some new Verve. :)

This fourth card was a little difficult in its conception, but once I started working it went really quickly! I think I finished this in 20 minutes flat. That quite possibly could be a new record. The color combo was inspired by this card that Maureen posted a few days ago on her blog. Purple is one of my favorite colors, and then mixed with some More Mustard/Summer Sunrise it becomes all the more heavenly!

It's a fairly self-explanatory card. Lots of Pretty Pastels dp, some EK Success edge punching, a bow, and some sparklie jewels. Nothing fancy. Just nice, clean, crisp lines and beautiful colors. Oh, and I finally inked up another new Verve set: Framed Wishes. This was the free set at the last release, and if you didn't get it, shame on you! It's lovely! Though, I did switch out the sentiment that came with it for this little Plain Jane. Doesn't Julee (Verve owner/designer extraordinaire) create the most beautiful fonts?!

Have a wonderful Tuesday! See you back here tomorrow for the final card. Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Framed Wishes, Give Thanks PJ
Paper- Kraft, Plum Pudding, More Mustard, Whisper White, Pretty Pastels dp
Ink- Plum Pudding, More Mustard
Accessories- ribbon, jewels, dimensionals, EK Success edge punch

Verve Release Challenge Card #3

2010-10-04T07:15:00.000-07:00

Good morning. And Happy Monday! (I'm trying to be excited about waking up early... Is it working?!) Presenting Verve's World Card Making Release Challenge #3. What's the fun in presenting cards to you in order? That's predictable. Boring. Been done before.

Now, presenting them out of order keeps you guessing as to what will come next. Ah, the mystery. The surprise. The anticipation of what the next reveal will be. That's way more fun!

So, here is my card for the third challenge. I pulled out some favorite dp, Turning a New Leaf, and some lovely greens and browns for the cardstock. I had this little Plain Jane from the last release that had yet to see any inkage, so it was high time to use it. This little sentiment square felt like the perfect opportunity. I stamped it in Old Olive and did some heavy tea dye staining around the edges. Some ribbon, button, twine action finished it up. Though, now that I look at it, I think I should have used a brown ribbon.... But I'm out! Ack! Don't panic. Don't worry, I've ordered more and it will be here this week. :)

I have an SST meeting after school today, so it's going to be a later night that usually as far as getting home from work goes. But it's all for a good reason. We're going to get this wonderful kiddo some help. :)

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

Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Psalm 46:1 PJ
Paper- Spring Moss, Dark Chocolate, Whisper White, Turning a New Leaf dp
Ink- Old Olive
Accessories- ribbon, button, twine, dimensionals, tea dye stains

Verve Release Challenge Card #1

2010-10-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon! I'm back with Day 2 of my cards for Verve's Release and World Card Making Day Celebration. Two of my favorite things!

I've tackled three of the five so far and have plans to work on at least one more of them this afternoon. The second challenge card I'm sharing with you is actually the third card I made. I finished it after church this morning. So, here's the story. At church, there was a gal sitting across the isle from me with the most adorable dark blue, bright green, and white floral print shirt. It was very flowy, with the background being white and the blue and green flowers almost blurred/flowing across the shirt. Adorable. And what does my brain think? CARD!

Night of Navy, Simply Chartreuse, Whisper White... Colors made in heaven. Have I mentioned before how much I love blues and greens together? I whipped out my Great Friends set and stamped some alternating green/blue flowers to create my own background dp. After a mis-stamp on the sentiment panel, I flipped it over, stamped again, and added a glittery frame around the white. One of my favorite things to do. :) I felt that it needed a little something more, so I took a nod from Maureen and added a few little jewels to the corner. The ribbon is some older ribbon I picked up at Michael's in the dollar bin. It has been tied in a double bow. :)

That's it for now! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-

Stamps- Verve: Great Friend, Anais Nin

Paper- Whisper White, Night of Navy, Simply Chartreuse, Bitty Dots dp

Ink- Night of Navy, Kiwi Kiss

Accessories- ribbon, jewels, glitter, nestablities, dimensionals

Verve Release Challenge Card #2

2010-10-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon! It's that wonderful time of month when Verve is preparing to release some new stamps, as well as celebrating World Card Making Day (today!), and we all get 5 fun challenges to complete! Thank goodness this month's challenges include a weekend to work on them. I always get more card making done on the weekends, for obvious reasons.

I sat down with some cardstock and dp already on my desk and got right to work on the second challenge. Why can I never start with the first challenge? It's like I'm first challenge phobic, lol. I decided to try creating my own dp for the large square panel and pulled out Great Friend (so loving this set!!). I stamped the three branch images in Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, and Creamy Caramel. A simple bow, button, twine combo adorns the top of the oval. I actually stayed away from tea dye staining this one, as I really wanted the crisp white to stand out rather than fade away. And check out that Kraft polka dot dp! LOVE!

Well, that's it for today. Short and sweet. I'm off to bake some fall-themed sugar cookies with the roomie. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamp- Verve: Great Friend

Paper- Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, Whisper White, Bitty Dots dp

Ink- Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, Creamy Caramel

Accessories- ribbon, button, twine, jewels, nestablities, dimensionals

Taylor's Sketch Challenge #129

2010-09-30T18:26:00.000-07:00

Good evening! Ah, it's Thursday. And I always love Thursdays because it means that tomorrow is FRIDAY! Woohoo! I have a nice, relaxing weekend planned, full of absolutely nothing! No weddings, no baby showers, no birthdays, no special events... Just the chance to be home, stamping, reading, cooking (baking!). Heaven!

I'm back again with a card to share with you. And, yes, it's a baby card. I just can't get baby off of the brain! My aunt facebooked me a few days ago to ask if I would make the invitations for my cousin's baby shower this November. Of course I said yes! So excited! Then, in addition, my old college roomie is going to be staying with us for a few nights early next week... The same one that just told us she's pregnant! I can't wait to spoil that kid rotten. Both mom and dad are big Packers fans (as they should be), and I had promised eons ago that when they had a baby I would be the good aunt and supply the child with Packers gear. Heeee!

Needless to say, the Packers' Pro Shop loves me. :) I'm just hoping things begin to arrive before C & J are here next week so that I can give them an advanced spoiling!

So, this card will eventually go to them. Probably next week... Because my willpower to hold onto it (and the football goodies!) is close to nothing.

Following this week's sketch from Taylor's Sketch Challenge, I used some October Afternoon Thrift Shop dp on this card, along with lots of Spring Moss, and polka dots. Polka dotted edge punch, buttons, dp, elephant.... It's polka dot heaven! The whole time I was making that little paper pieced elephant, I kept singing, "Hephalumps and Woozles." You know, from Winnie the Pooh. The little elephant totally looks like a Hephalump! Perhaps I've been spending too much time at Disneyland, hehe (Winnie the Pooh ride, Fantasmic, etc).

I stamped the elephant twice, once onto the cream and again onto the dp. The sentiment is arched over the circle for a bit of dimension (plus, this most definitely is not being mailed!), so some taller poppage was all right.

Poppage. I think I just made that word up. ;)

The ribbon is folded all fancy since I couldn't figure out where to put a bow, but definitely felt the card needed a little bit of ribbon. I also added some white gel pen polka dots around the perimeter of my new nestie die (lovin' this thing!!!). A few tiny buttons in the corner, and voila! One cute card for C & J!

That's it out of me for tonight. Off to catch some Bones and Fringe! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Bitty Baby Blessings
Paper- Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, Very Vanilla, October Afternoon Thrift Shop dp
Ink- Memento Tuxedo Black, Ocean Tides

Accessories- ribbon, buttons, tea dye stains, white gel pen, EK Success edge punch, nestabilities