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

Sweet Sunday Sketch #110

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

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...

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!