Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #37

Good morning! I'm finally back with another card to share with you. I've officially survived my first week as a first grade teacher. I tell ya, they are soooo little compared to my second and third graders! It's almost like culture shock.

I think I'm a little homesick for my other school as well. It was such a sudden lay-off. No choice in the decision was mine. I would have stayed there forever if I could have. Now I have a new school, which is a HUGE blessing, but it's a little bit lonely. I don't know all the staff, let alone recognize half of them, the parents at the school don't even realize I'm a teacher there! They don't know me! At my other school I had four years of kids and parents that knew me. I was an established entity. Here, I'm an unknown. There was a school picnic last night, and quite frankly, it was a little lonely. I tried to find a few teachers I recognized and sit with them for a little while. I'm anxious for the year to progress and to get to know, more than just my recognition, the staff. I had such wonderful friends at my other school and I look forward to building those new friendships at this school. Patience. I just need to be patient.

All right, enough emoting out of me this morning. I'm very grateful for the three-day weekend. I can sure use the sleep! My commute to work right now is horrible! I have to get up before the sun to beat the worst of the traffic. I tried to sleep in this morning, but still woke up at the time my alarm was "supposed" to go off, and then again about an hour later. I threw in the towel and started stamping, lol.

I really wanted to play with Mercy's new Tuesday Sketch for this week. Those circles were slightly intimidating, but I really needed to conquer them! I dug through my Stampin' Up sets until I found my Tart & Tangy set and got down to business. I haven't used this set in forever, but I love it!

Apparently, I was really in the mood for layers... Gotta follow the mojo... Usually layers are not my thing, but this card needed 'em.

I popped up the main circles, added some polka dot ribbon, and called it a day. Well, a morning hour. More cards to make! My card to do list is a mile long today!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-

Stamps- SU: Tart & Tangy, PTI: Polka Dot Basics

Paper- Summer Sun, Basic Black, Whisper White

Ink- Basic Black, Summer Sun

Accessories- nestabilities, circle punch, ribbon

One Day Down...

179 to go! I officially survived my first day as a first grade teacher. I tell ya, these guys are so tiny compared to my second and third graders of the past! They were totally burned out by lunch time, and it really didn't help that we were stuck inside for all recesses due to the fires burning here in Southern California. My district is only about 3 miles from the biggest one, so the smoke is terrible right now. On top of that, our math books have not come in yet, and they estimate they won't arrive until sometime next week! AH! I'm going to have to get really creative during math time.

Needless to say, the first week of school is always a little chaotic. I bounced between 19 and 22 students throughout the day. Crazy! I think I'm settling back at 20, though, which is really nice.

I don't have a card for you today, and probably not tomorrow either. I'm pretty wiped out at the moment. More to come, especially as the weekend rolls through. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Sweet Sunday Sketch #33

Good morning! It's officially my last day of summer vacation, and what am I doing? Working in my classroom. lol

I usually never work the day before school, choosing to stay home or do something fun to say goodbye to my break. But this year, I really need this last day to keep prepping things for the first day of school. Tuesday morning, ready or not, here they come!

I tried to make several cards over the weekend just in case I am waaay too tired to stamp this week. The first week is always to exhausting because I'm out of practice. Out of practice standing for hours on end, talking for hours on end (especially the first week!), and being "on" for hours on end. Thankfully, it's only a four day week since we start on Tuesday, and then a three-day weekend due to Labor Day on Monday the 7th. Kind of a hard start for introducing routines, but hopefully, they'll (the kiddos) work with me.

I used Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch for my card today. Nice and sweet and simple. Love it! I clear embossed some more polka dots, added some ribbon, a bow, some buttons, and called it a day. I realized I need to order some in-color buttons! I had to scrounge through my other collection and find something as close as I could. I would have loved to have a razzleberry button on here, but I had nothing that matched. Grrr...

Other than that, it's pretty self-explanatory card. I think...

Thanks for stopping by!
Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Everyday Button Bits, Polka Dot Backgrounds
Paper- Soft Suede, Orchid Opulence, Rich Razzleberry
Ink- Soft Suede, Versamark
Accessories- ribbon, clear ep, buttons, nestabilities

Viva la Verve!

Wow. It feels like forever since I've done a Viva la Verve sketch. I think it's really only been two weeks, but still! Julee is playing substitute for Amber while she's on vacation. It's a great sketch this week, with a fun twist! The twist was to use little round things. I loved that this sketch allowed me to opportunity to play with my new EK Success punches!I picked these up at Michael's a few weeks ago and they had been sitting, neglected in my punch drawer, waiting for their shining moment. That moment finally came!

As for the color combo, I took inspiration from one of the new dp sets in the SU catalog. I don't have the dp, but I do have the colors! I felt like this card would be way too busy if I had used dp anyways. It's a great solid color sketch card.

I also pulled out my Wishing You set from PTI to use the tulip image. I thought it would fit this long, tall panel well, and it has "rounded" edges at the top! Perfect! My last little round things are the jewels that I clumped around the sentiment.

This card is going to be headed off to Pittsburgh within the next week to one of my old college roommates. She and her husband will be celebrating their second wedding anniversary on the 15th. Her wedding was so much fun! It was the first time in several years our whole college gang reassembled, and in Pittsburgh instead of Southern California, no less. We all stayed in the same hotel, and pretty much got no sleep the entire weekend. Good times, good times.

The picture does have a story behind it. There were five of us roommates. Heather (the head) was the first to move away after college. Therefore, we made her head and bring it with us to all major events where we are all getting together. Due to some really unfortunate timing, Heather wasn't able to be in the wedding and make it out to Pittsburgh. So... the head came instead. We had to get some photos with Heather in them! This picture is therefore all five of us roomies.

So Leesh, this one's for you! :) Love you my roomie!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-

Stamps- PTI: Wishing You...

Paper- Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Orchid Opulence

Ink- Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry

Accessories- EK Success edge punch, stickles, jewels, dimensionals, Old Olive ribbon

More Budding Blossoms

I warned you that I love this little flower image from Verve's latest release. After using it a few days ago, I couldn't wait to play with it some more!

For this card, I stamped the flower in garden green, then again in Pretty in Pink. I cut out the pink blossoms, popped them up, and covered them in some Stardust stickles for a little shimmer. The polka dots are from the new Bountiful Backgrounds set. Lovin' this one too! I clear embossed the polka dots for some dimension in the background. A big, pink button and some wrapped twine finished this quickie off. Love how this one turned out!

I have a few more random ideas for this little stamp, and hopefully time will allow me to try them out in the near future! Enjoy your weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-

Stamps- Verve: Budding Blossoms, Bountiful Backgrounds

Paper- Garden Green, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White

Ink- Garden Green, Pretty in Pink, Versamark

Accessories- stickles, twine, button, clear ep, dimensionals, nestabilities

Mojo Monday

Good morning! I actually had time to make a Mojo Monday card for the first time in three weeks. Sheesh time flies! I hereby admit that I like the circle in this sketch. Maybe it's because it's small, maybe because it's surrounded by a rectangle. I don't know what it is, but it works. :)

I pulled out some more of my beautiful Cosmo Cricket Everafter dp and got down to business. I knew I wanted to make this a more elegant card, and ended up making a sympathy card. Fortunately, I don't need these very often, but when I do I'm always glad to have one on hand. It's so hard to make them when they are needed.

For another shock today, there is no ribbon on this card. Nor are there buttons! I kept it oober simple with just jewels to adorn the card. With sympathy cards, you want your words to be the main focus, not all the business (in my opinion). Well, at least that's the direction this card took, and the story I'm stick to! lol

This morning is the big "all district" welcome back celebration. Basically, it's where everyone gets together and goes "yay for another fantastic year" at 8:00 in the morning. hehe I guess it is always fun to see everyone though. We also have our first staff meeting immediately following back at our own school sites. I'm usually not a giant fan of staff meetings, but this one I'm looking forward to. I'm excited to meet everyone on the staff and start learning the culture of the school, and what makes it tick. The afternoon will be ours to work away in our classrooms. Thank goodness! I'm really close to being done. Definitely down to the little details, but I can definitely use all the time allowed! Kids come on Tuesday!

Have a wonderful Friday and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-

Stamps- Verve: Forever in our Hearts, Leaf PJ

Paper- Whisper White, Apricot Appeal, Sage Shadow, Cosmo Cricket Everafter dp

Ink- Barely Banana, Going Gray

Accessories- nestabilities, jewels

With Love....

... From Me to You.

hehe. I can't help but singing the Beatles song whenever I use this sentiment. This was a quickie card that I whipped up a few days back while I had my Urban Garden dp out. I had this little scrap of Whisper White paper and decided it just needed to be a little square card. It's a 4x4 card. The ribbon took a little cajoling to get the green sides to show (I really don't like how they made the back side white), so forgive the slightly tattered looking bow today. Poor thing was pretty mangled with all of my twisting and pulling. I also popped up the entire panel with dimensionals.

I'm off in my classroom once again today setting things up and meeting with new teammates. The countdown is officially on to the first day of school. Less than one week! Ack! Here's to staying sane amidst the chaos! ;)

Thanks for stopping by!
Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Everyday Button Bits
Paper- Whisper White, Not Quite Navy, Urban Garden dp
Ink- Not Quite Navy
Accessories- ribbon, button, twine, corder rounder punch, dimensionals

Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #36

Good morning! I'm up bright and early again today to keep working on my classroom. Today is my last unobstructed work day. Though, our principal just told us he's going to give us all afternoon Friday and Monday to work instead of sit through endless staff meetings!!! Whoopee! I'm liking this guy already!

I had a little bit of daylight left over after setting up my room to create a card for Mercy's Tuesday sketch. I love the simplicity of her sketch this week and chose to honor it by not using too many layers... At task not that difficult for me. ;)

My new Verve set Budding Blossoms was calling my name, and I love, love, love this flower image from the set. I can't wait to play with it some more and try some fun things! For this one, I kept it simple, stamping it in Tangerine Tango, and adding some jewels for some sparkle.

Now for a little fun! hehe. I made two cards for this challenge, both very similar. I couldn't decide between the two for submittal, so I thought I'd just post both of them. Can you "spot the difference?" :)

These two cards are off to the lovely secretaries in my new school office. These amazing ladies have bent over backwards answering question after question for the all throughout the week. They're made phone calls, sent e-mails, run copies, unlocked my room for me (the past teacher lost the key! lol)... Talk about making me feel right at home! A little flower to go with the flower stamp should do it.

Thanks for stopping by today!






















Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Budding Blossoms, Circular Sayings
Paper- Aqua Mist, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, My Mind's Eye Bloom & Grow dp
Ink- Tangerine Tango
Accessories- ribbon, jewels, dimensionals, nestabilities

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop!

Good evening! Welcome to the Papertrey Ink blog hop! This is my first official Papertrey blog hop and I'm super excited!

August is the month that Papertrey celebrates all things autumn! What better way to get inspired for the upcoming season change than each other! The challenge this month was to create a project inspired by any aspect of fall. Things like textures, colors, autumn leaves, patterns, pumpkins, and more.

I decided to try something I don't do too often: creating my own dp. I don't really own any PTI fall stamps, but I do have some leaves! I grabbed the leaves out of In Bloom and stamped them in some varying shades of brown to create my dp. I also used some fall colors as my core colors. I broke up the sentiment and stamped a few leaves peeking onto the corners. A big, beautiful brown ribbon and some jewels finished off the card.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Enjoy the little taste of fall!
Supplies- Stamps- PTI: In Bloom
Paper- Very Vanilla, Dark Chocolate, Summer Sunrise
Ink- Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel
Accessories- ribbon, jewels, SU scallop edge punch

Monday, Monday

Since my stamping time is going to be a little limited this week, I decided to combine Dawn's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge with Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge.

I kept this one pretty sweet and simple. I don't have Melon Berry and Hibiscus Burst paper, so I pulled out my Groovy Guava and Berry Sorbet instead. Hope that works, Dawn! :) I whipped out my Everyday Button Bits, added a Spring Moss, Berry Sorbet, and Melon Berry button as my balloons.

I'm back in my classroom again today, probably slaving away on some tiny little detail. I think I finished up most of my shopping over the weekend, so that should help as far as time actually at the school site. I had forgotten how much work switching grades is! It's been four years since
I've done that.

This week will be a little bit slower since I don't have two Broadway shows scheduled! lol I'm actually going to get to go home after working. What a concept! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Everyday Button Bits
Paper- Groovy Guava, Very Vanilla, Berry Sorbet, Bitty Dots dp
Ink- Chocolate Chip
Accessories- Berry Sorbet ribbon, buttons, SU scallop edge punch, circle punches