Mojo Monday

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!

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!

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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!

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