Birthday

It has been way too long since I have posted.  Not because I haven't wanted to.  I have just been a crafty slump.  I don't what it was.  Things have been going well for us.  My son is better with school, still reluctant to go but he goes without a fight so I am not complaining. The only real "bad thing" that has happened here is that my husband was put on 12 hour shifts last weekend.  My oldest had Friday off of school and we had made plans to do some fun family activities Saturday evening.  Instead I got a text message late Friday afternoon from my husband, he was to work 12 hour shifts until further notice.  There went our weekend plans.  Thankfully that only lasted until late Sunday afternoon.  So, he missed church as well but we had a nice surprise when we got home.  I was so happy to see him but worried that it meant he was leaving on a deployment.  That is still up in the air but for now he is home and we are on a regular schedule again  : ) Now for the card...this was made for my niece's birthday which was last Thursday.  She is now 15 years old.  That is scary for me.  When she was born I was planning my high school graduation.  Yep, I am "that" old  ;)  My niece is beautiful, talented and very friendly.  She is just a sweetheart and I hate that we are no longer close to her to help her celebrate her birthday.  She will be graduating from high school herself in 2 years, another scary thing for me.  You better believe I will be there for that though.  As most 15 year olds are (I think anyway) she is very much into anime stuff.  She can draw anime like nobody's business.  She hopes to graduate, go to college and become a singer.  The smart girl that she is though she has a back-up plan, math teacher (I am so proud since that is what I want to do).  Who knows, we may end up doing our student teaching at the same time  :DAfter seeing some of her drawings though I told her that I think she could do very well if she pursued her art talents.  I wish I had, a well known art school scout came to my house to look at my work.  She wanted me attend their art school, I didn't do it :(  Oh well, live and learn.  All of that to show you my card.  It isn't my best but I am glad to have just finished a project.  Still working on my banner  :(

I am actually a bit distracted right now.  I am either suffering from a mild case of a head cold or allergies.  I took some meds and feel a bit better but still a little out of it.

What I can tell you is that I used PTI cardstock, PP is from a goodie bag I got from Wendy Sue from just me...and my little world.  The stamp is The Greeting Farm and was colored with copic markers.

This is the inside, of course..I used some more PP from the same pack that I got from Wendy Sue Anderson.  The flower is all made up from my stash of things and the sentiment is from Wplus9.

I still need a couple of things to finish my banner.  I hope to have that done with a few more things soon.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

 

Family Home Evening

This post isn't about something I made but something I bought, from a friend who made it  :)For those do not know, my family belongs to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  In other words, we are Mormon.  As a mormon family we attempt have what we call Family Home Evening (FHE).  It is set aside for Monday nights but if needed it can be rescheduled for a better, more suitable evening.  My family has been pretty off and on about holding FHE.  I try to do my best but sometimes it gets difficult just because of every other day to day tasks.  I have a friend, Angie, who makes items with vinyl.After many, many months trying to find something to help us get back on track I remembered Angie and wondered if she had made any boards to keep track of our FHE assignments.  Lucky for me she did with a few variations.  I talked to my husband and we decided on a certain board.  I emailed, got a quote and said, go for it.  So now we have our very own FHE board and I couldn't be mroe pleased with it.When I said I wanted to take pictures my middle monster of course had to pose with it.  Here it is for your viewing pleasure.  And if you decide you would like something made with vinyl here is her blog and a list of what she does. 

I do have something I am working on but I don't have all the supplies so I am waiting for the chance to go to the craft store.  I have sat down to make a scrapbook page or a card and I just can't get motivated to do anything.  I think it is because I need and want to get this other project done.  I hope to have something crafty of my own for you soon.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Embossing fun

Sorry for my lack of posts the last couple of days.  Wednesday was a bad day in our house but we made up for it yesterday.  I hope you all had a great St. Patrick's Day.  My husband is Italian so not someone you would expect to celebrate an Irish holiday but...I am a mut with some Scotch-Irish so I wanted to have some fun with this seemingly unimportant holiday.  Next year I hope to have a fun banner to hand on my door.  This year I got busy making a traditional St. Patrick's Day dinner, complete with french bread (I forgot to add the food coloring and make it green) and some green punch.  I found the recipes here.  Only my oldest son didn't love the punch but everyone loved the french bread.  I made corned beef and cabbage for teh first time too.  It smelled wonderful while it was cooking and it tasted great.  I was worried about it turning out alright, my husband comes from a family where everyone knows how to cook.  My mother-in-law is a great cook and is always trying new things.  I was worried that my corned beef wasn't going to compare to hers but my husband loved it all and couldn't get enough.  I believe we have started a new tradition in our family.  I can't wait for next year already  :) 

 Today I wanted to share with you the card I made with the same layout I used on the previous thank you cards.  This time insted of stamping the medallions in fresh snow ink I stamped them in versamark.  After stamping them all I used some kaliedescope embossing powder and embossed them.  It is like a little rainbow medallion in the center of every tag.  I love how it turned out.  The cardstock is smokey shadow and scarlet jewel.  So pretty. Today I hope to get a "Welcome" sign made for our front door.  I still have my flower heart I made last Valentine's day up.  I think it is time to move on.  I thought about making a sign with our last name but we already have a fun sign on our porch with our name on it that my parents made.  I may have shared it here but if not here it is. 

My Dad used his amazing talent and cut out all the elements and put it all together.  My mom used her talents and painted it to really look like a moose.  Now what you don't see is two adorable little birds they made.  One sat on the top of the moose's head and the other on the sign.  Unfortunately with the wind we got in California and during the move to South Dakota we seem to have misplaced both of the birds.

Happy Tuesday everyone.  I hope you had a great Monday.  After the morning I had a wonderful day.  It was a nice day yesterday so we spent some time outside, I got to chat with our neighbor.  It was so nice.  We are supposed to have a few more warm days so I look forward to more days outside before we get some more snow. Yesterday I mentioned a card I wanted to make because of a bag I saw one of the ladies from church carrying...I believe I mentioned a few days ago that I also won the March release from Wplus9.  I am so excited to say that I received my wonderful goodies in the mail yesterday.  Of course, as soon as I got the chance I had to play.  Then I came up with this idea to make some patterend paper with some of the stamps I got.  I incorporated about 3 or 4 Wplus9 stamps and only Wplus9 stamps.  The embellishments and the paper are not Wplus9 or course.  The paper is PTI, true black, blueberry sky and ripe avocado. 

I started out by using the new Wplus9 set (Brother and Sisters) and making the patterened paper on true black using fresh snow ink.  At first I didn't buy the fresh snow ink for a long time.  I honestly didn't see the point buying white ink.  Now I am glad I did.

The center "snowflake" was stamped from another Wplus9 stamp from Mendhi Medallions.  I love that set and it definitely hasn't seen enough love lately.

 

The tag was made using the new and first Wplus9 die.  I used my cuttlebug to cut the tag out using both blueberry sky and ripe avocado.  It cut so smoothly and cleanly, I love it.  When I use my cuttlebug though, I run the die or empression plate/embossing folder 4 times (forward, backword, forward and then backword one last time)...I do that with ALL my dies, PTI, nestabilities, etc.

 The border was stamped using fresh snow ink.  After finding just the right sentiment in Mendhi Medallions I realized there needed to be something more on the tag.  I found this cool stamp in the Damask Frames, it was stamped using versamark.  The ribbon, button, and bling are stuff from my stashes.  Lastly I threaded the button using black DMC floss.I just love these cards and I had so much fun creating them.  I can't wait to do some more stuff.  After stamping the center medallion in fresh snow I thought it would be fun to try it in versamark and then using embossing powder.  Also instead of black cardstock and white ink I want to use white cardstock and black ink.Like I said, I have a lot of thank you cards to make so might as well make things a bit easier on me by using the same layout/look with different stamps.That is about it for today, look forward to being back for more goodies to share.Thanks for stopping by!!!

Thank you

I am a bit later in posting than I had hoped.  It has been another Monday.  Another fight with my son to go to school.  If things don't calm down after this week a think a meeting with some of the adults at the school is in order.I have been going to the gym after taking him to school.  It has been great.  I am so kicking my butt and I am not even doing much.  Hopefully soon my body will get used to it and I can last longer than 10 minutes  :) 

 These cards I made using my new stamp set first stamp set from "My Cute Stamps".  I found it thanks to Geny Cassady.  She does an amazing job with her cards.  I have copied her layouts many times.  I have more thank you cards to make and one I am going to try out.  I got an idea for a layout, kinda seen it before, but after seeing a ladies bag at church yesterday I got an itching to make a different kind of card for me.  I will hopefully have it done in time to post tomorrow.Until then, I hope Monday treats you well.Thanks for stopping by!!! 

Verve revisited

Do you remember this post?I decided to try the layout again for my nephew.  I wanted to do something a little more age appropriate.  So I pulled out my dinosaur stamp from "Our Craft Lounge".  I used my copic markers to color up the dinosaur and ended up with this card. 

The card base is Papertrey Ink.  I also used some Wplus9 stamps to add some background to the kraft square.

The "happy birthday" is PTI and stamped on a vintage cream cardstock strip.

That is about it for this card.  I hope you had a great week and fun things planned for this weekend.  I am going to try and have fun this weekend but my husband has to work his 2nd Saturday in a row.  Thankfully he has Sunday off and I will have help at church.  Next week is full of 12 hour shifts but at least he will be home for dinners.  I am not sued to these hours anymore.  He hasn't had to work these kind of hours since the first year of our marriage and that was over 8 years ago.  Nothing like new places and new experiences.  I know we will all learn to adjust.

Like I said, I have new stamps on their way from Wplus9 and I also received my "My Cute Stamps" set in the mail and look forward to playing with them.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

 

Nieces

One of my four nieces celebrated her 2nd birthday last month.  Unfortunately, circumstances have made it impossible for me to even meet her yet.  Something I hope to correct sometime soon.I finally got this card made for her.  I know it is a little growin-up for a little girl but I just couldn't help myself.The card base is vintage cream and matted with som PP in my stash. 

I used spring moss cardstock for the banner and used fiskars border punch on the side.  The stitcher are rub-ons.  I used a verve stamps die for the tag (hawaiian shores) and used a wplus9 stamp to add some more dimension to the card.

The "M" is a sticky letter I received from a nice lady I go to church with now.  She also gave me the flower.  They are both Petaloos and are all white to be colored or designed anyhow you choose.  Lastly, I took some stickles and went around the end for bling.  I got the idea from another card I saw.  I wish now that I can remember where I saw it.  If it is yours, please let me know so I can add it here.

 

Verve layout

*edited to add information about the card

Welcome Monday and Friends!!!  I hope today is going well for you so far. I do have a project to show you but no time to post about it.  Here is where I got my idea for the layout:

And here is my version of this layout.  Enjoy and I will be back later with a few more words.  

WoooHooo!!!  I am back.  I had to get some serious house chores done.  I am still not 100% done but I need a break from folding almost 2 weeks of laundry  :D

So this card started out as a card for my nephew.  He turned 6 in the middle of February (yep, I am that far behind).  Since it has been so long since I have crafted I decided to look around at some layouts and go from there.  I just bought some new paper from Hobby Lobby.  I believe it is the store brand (The Paper Studio).  I just love the vintage look and what I used is only a small fraction of what is in the pack.

After the card was finished and I looked at it I just wasn't pleased.  Don't get me wrong I love the way this card turned out just not for a 6 year old boy.

The rest of the card is all PTI.  So fun and now it will be put in my stash until I need it for someone older  :D

Thanks for stopping by!!!



Storage

Hello Friday!!!  I know, I thought I was back for good but life gets in the way.  I haven't had much time or desire to craft.  My oldest is having some serious growing pains here.  If he isn't fighting to not go to school he is sick, first it was strep and yesterday we find out he has an ear infection.  I hope after this he is all better and life can settle into some kind of a routine.I did manage to get A card done (not a good start considering I need about 15-20 various cards made) and some storage for my new dies.Most of you may have seen it already or make some already but I am just now getting to it since my sister showed me hers right before we left California.  Here is what Dawn McVey came up with.
This is how mine turned out: 

As you can see even the Verve Stamps work with the dimension Dawn gave on her blog.  I will be getting the brand new Wplus9 die as well so hopefully they will work otherwise I will be making bigger cards for those.

I will also say, my sister cut out the label for me before we moved with her silhouette.  Something I hope to get someday.

Something I didn't mention yet.  If you love Wplus9 stamps and have facebook run over there now and become a friend of their page.  They give out coupon codes for only facebook fans and just the other day a giveaway for the entire March release.  Guess who won, yep, yours truly.  I will soon be the proud owner of 2 new Wplus9 stamps and the very first Wplus9 die.  I cannot wait to get my hands and them and create, create, and creat some more. Thanks for stopping by!!!I attempted to sew them like Dawn did but I can't seem to get a sewing machine to behave for me.  I just took my pink ATG gun I got at Michael's and taped the clear cardstock down.  So far so good, when I do get a sewing machine to behave I will sew them though.  I just think sewing will hold a lot better.