crafting this and that

Simple Valentine's Day Treats

2012-02-13T12:39:00.001-10:00

Hi! I wasn't feeling much like creating anything too complicated for my kids' classmates/teachers for Valentine's Day. We just bought some candy for the kids and cute heart shaped boxes of See's Candies for the teachers. I don't know, I was just feeling a bit lazy. But my older son wanted to pass out pencils so okay, I guess I could do something with these pencils I bought from Walmart. Pretty inexpensive, I think they were 99 cents for a 12 pack. So I remembered this post about making foam pencil toppers, see HERE. (You should check out the post, she even used cookie cutters to make imprints on the foam to cut out. She had lots of fun ideas). Pretty easy and fast and quick, and I had some leftover foam from my Angry Birds.

I used MFT's heart die to cut out hearts in different colored foam. The foam is pretty thin.

After cutting the hearts out, I just held them in half and cut 2 slits with my scissors that were just big enough for me to slide the pencil through. So simple!

My son wrote his name on the back of the hearts with a Sharpie. We made 20 this time though I know there are less kids than that because somehow he didn't have enough Angry Birds to pass out during Christmas. I had made an exact amount of Angry Birds for his class but I think he lost track when he started passing them out so a couple of his classmates didn't get one. Oh well. So this time I made sure to send a couple extra.

Happy Valentine's Day and thanks for reading!

Tanjoubi omedetou

2012-02-10T20:07:00.000-10:00

Hi! I've been really tempted these last few days to buy some new stamps especially some Saturated Canary or the cute Wryns from Tiddly Inks. Usually I'm not too into digis, but these are so cute! But I've been really good! Been trying to use the stamps I've neglected or haven't even inked up yet. But I hear new digis will be added to Saturated Canary's shop on Monday so we'll see how much longer this stamp diet will last. I don't even know how long I should do this. Maybe 'til I use at least every stamp I haven't used at least once?

I was in search of a sketch for my next card and so checked out the latest one at the deconstructed sketch (#38).

I finally used Ayako from Sister Stamps that I bought a while ago. She's cute! And I used my Hero Arts large canvas stripes stamp too on the kraft cardstock which I haven't used in a long while either.

Ayako's hair is combination of Copics and my black Prismacolor pencil. I paper pieced the panels of her umbrella using washi paper. Thought it gave the umbrella a nice look.

I added that round charm that I think I got as a freebie from SCACD when I last ordered from them. I thought it looked kind of Asian-y. I downloaded a free Hiragana font and printed out the sentiment which translates to Happy Birthday. I had to Google the sentiment since my Japanese is soooo rusty but I still remember some characters. I guess 6 years of high school/college Japanese helped a bit. I actually left out the last character so I hand wrote it in. It looks a bit different from the same character higher up. Don't you just hate it when you're done and realize you've made a mistake?? Ugh. Drives me crazy but everything was all glued/taped down when I noticed the error. The funny thing is that only my older son noticed which character was out of place so I guess it looks OK.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

with Love ❤

2012-02-06T23:09:00.000-10:00

Hi! I was checking out Shirl's blog one day and saw this cute card she made with a cute digi (Canary Love) by Saturated Canary (Krista Smith). I had seen the stamps around in blogland but I still have to stick to my no new stamps diet. But Shirl was kind enough to provide the link to the digi in her post and it was free HERE! So I thought I'd give it a try using the Deconstructed Sketch #37.

I have to say that it was kind of challenging to color all that hair and even to the tiniest ends. I must be a slow colorer cause it took me part of last night and most of the morning the next day to finish coloring her. But I like it!

Well, I know the digi is called Canary Love not Bluebird Love and I had the intention of coloring the bird yellow but somehow grabbed the wrong Copic and well, now I have a Bluebird. But at least he matches her eye color. I also added some glossy accents to the heart, rose, buttons and the red around her legs.

I even crocheted a little heart. See HERE if you want to make one too. It didn't take long, just about 5 minutes and I'm not that experienced in crocheting. I didn't know what kind of sentiment to add then noticed the name of the DP I was using. You know, on 12x12 sheets there is that little perforated part you can tear off and it has the paper line and info on it. That's what I used.

I'm also entering this in iCopic's Weekly Challenge #68--Hearts and

Ribbon Carousel's Challenge 39--Anything Goes. I realized too late that Saturated Canary also has their own challenges too! Must check that out one day.

Thanks so much for reading!

❤ You

2012-02-04T21:55:00.000-10:00

Hi! Life is as crazy as ever. I wanted to post this morning before we took our kids to a local carnival but didn't get a chance to. At least we still made it to the carnival. Same yummy food every year especially malasadas and Portuguese bean soup! The kids had fun on rides and playing games.

I made a little card for TGF's Monday Funday #18--Key to my heart. It was inspired by the word card tutorial over at SCS except I ended up not making it exactly like a word card.

I decided not to cut around the letters like in the tutorial and just made this into like an accordion style fold. I cut out a felt heart for the middle of the O using MFT's heart die.

This image is a combination of TGF's Megan and Birthday Ian. I wiped away the letters on the banner, paper pieced it and added felt hearts.

Still trying to use all the stamps I've been neglecting. So far I'm doing well with my no new stamps diet.

Now I'm wondering what I should do with all these cards I'm making. I know you can donate them and usually I give them to my cousin who gives them to her friends. I'm thinking about just having my hubby take them to his work place and donate them to his coworkers. What do you do with all your cards??

Thanks for reading!

December 2012

2012-02-02T21:33:00.000-10:00

Hi! I have finally finished the last month of my 2012 calendar/scrapbook page using the Pure Innocence year of flowers series! I just have the cover to make now but I think I will use another MFT sketch for that too.

So here's the sketch for this week at MFT and it really threw me a little. Really different looking.

I used Pure Innocence Holly Girl stamp and paper pieced her dress.

Close up. I love that little red bow! I bought it from a local store here.

The 2 pages side by side. I am so happy to be done with the pages. Just hopefully I'll actually fill it up with some small photos too!

I'll also be entering this in All That Scraps Wednesday Challenge--Anything Goes.

Thanks for reading!

Love ...

2012-02-01T11:13:00.000-10:00

Hi! Today's a new day. I realize that I am not only a stress eater but a stress cleaner! I finished off the chocolate covered almonds from Costco (I shared some too!) and managed to clean all our bedrooms, sheets, fans, carpets and did all the laundry too. But I had to stop vacuuming because our vacuum just shuts off by itself. It's been doing that everyday. I vacuum a room and then it shuts off by itself! Frustrating. We need a new one.

Well, I did manage to finish a card! TGF is now having sketch challenges over at SCS!

I chose to use TGF's Flutter Anya. I haven't used this stamp very much so thought I'd give her some attention. I've been trying to use stamps that I haven't even inked up yet before buying even more stamps. My hubby said this card looked very busy. I guess he is a clean and simple kind of card guy but sometimes I like to really embellish my cards.

I chose to color her in varying shades of red for iCopic's weekly challenge #67 -- red love. I added some glitter to her wings. I actually used some of my son's glitter glue and stickles. There's some glossy accents on the hearts on her wings. I added a love charm and a heart die cut from PTI's tiny tags. The butterflies are from Martha Stewart and the leaves are also from PTI.

I'll also be entering this into Flutter By Wednesday challenge #188.

Thanks for reading!

You're a Sweetie

2012-01-29T22:21:00.000-10:00

Hi. It has been a crazy, crazy, crazy week for all of us. No details to share but it's amazing how everything can change so quickly. I thought I'd finish this card that I had started to distract me but IT is always there, lingering in my mind.

I had actually colored TGF's Reeta for another challenge but didn't get a chance to finish the card until today so now I'll be entering it in TGF's Friday Spyday #17. This was my 3rd try at coloring her up. I just didn't like how her face and hair kept turning out. I think I prefer coloring on PTI's white cardstock instead of the X-press It paper. The only thing is that PTI cardstock is much thicker to cut out sometimes.

Just a closer shot. I finally got my latest PTI order. Geez, it only took like 2 weeks! I don't know why I bother but I really wanted that heart border die that I used on this card. Well, you can only see just a bit of the hearts.

My youngest wanted to craft with me tonight. He made a beautiful card. He asked me for thicker paper to make this card and the glittery flowers were my daughter's. I gave him some of the heart border scrap and he begged for rhinestones. I swear I will have to buy him his own supplies. He now thinks my stickles are better than his glitter glue and wants pretty flowers like Primas! He actually had a special aunty in mind to give this too so I told him I'd mail it to her on her birthday. I don't even know how he remembers but he mentioned her by name.

Well, life goes on, especially when you have kids. That's the great thing about having kids. I know tomorrow will be a busy day. Thanks for reading.

Let's Hang

2012-01-24T12:48:00.000-10:00

Hi! It's been a pretty productive day so far. Actually did some cleaning which I really don't like to do but I felt a little guilty ever since I read an article saying homemakers probably would get about $90,000 annually if they got paid. And that is the low end estimate. So I thought, geez, I don't think I do that much. I do spend a lot of time just vegging out too when the kids are at school. But today, I cleaned and swept and got all dusty. Yucks! Then afterwards, I got to finish my card. Yay!

So I'm playing along with TGF's Friday Spy-Day #16 and Anyone for Anya's Bling it On.

Yesterday, I got some new Copics from iCopic. It was my first time ordering from them and I'm so happy with how fast my order came. I ordered on Friday and it arrived on Monday! So last night I wanted to try out some of my new colors so I stamped TGF's Abbey and colored her bright and fun. I think I could still use some more Copics! Hehe.

I added some stickles to her hair, bow, belt buckle, and shoes. Then added rhinestones randomly around the card and on her bow.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading!

What do you see?

2012-01-22T21:29:00.000-10:00

Hi! I decided to make another little project for TGF's SCS Chit Chat Night. You can view the challenge details HERE. My inspiration is another children's book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle. It was one of my favorites to use for speech therapy. The kids loved it and it was so easy to take the same concepts and expand on it so parents could help their kids too. I remember I had a whole bunch of these animals printed out and laminated for the kids to play with. Now, my youngest really loves this book too. He likes the whole series of them.

So I decided to make a little board book. It's been a while since I made a little book like this. I tried to keep it relatively simple.

This is the cover. I used TGF's Oh Boy Ian since I knew my son would want it after I was done making it. The cover measures 3x3 inches. The title was made with rub on letters.

My brown bear is from TGF's Oh Baby set. I printed all the pages out. The images are all just stamped onto the page and colored with Copics.

I changed some of the animals but the colors are the same. This little piggy is from McSplendid Farm.

The duck is from Build a Onesie (girl) clear stamp set.

I like this blue horse the best! Also from McSplendid Farm.

Not loving the froggy's coloring too much. Some how my greens got a bit mixed up. He is from Down By the Pond.

The purple cat is from Ginger Bell stamp set.

The white hen is also from McSplendid Farm.

Do cows have horns? Is this a bull? Oh well. I'm calling it a cow and I was running out of ink in my grays so had to use my black pencil to kind of fill in the rest. S/he is also from McSplendid Farm.

The goldfish is from Down By the Pond.

My last page is of Teacher Anya.

I also rounded the corners of the book. I used tape to attach my pages instead of glue like I've done before. My kids loved it and of course my youngest claimed it as his. And I like how cute it turned out especially since it's small for a child to hold.

Thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday

2012-01-22T17:26:00.000-10:00

Hello. Here's another birthday card from me. Seems like I only make stuff at the last minute when I really need it somewhat urgently for an upcoming occasion. Then I have to browse for sketches and color challenges. So this week I'm using the colors from the Play Date Cafe Challenge #115. And the Deconstructed Sketch No. 35.

And here's my card... The 30's have gone by so fast, now everyone is starting to turn 40.

This is the boy stamp that Eva got me from Sister Stamps, so cute with the bowl cut. He was quite large, so I made the card a little larger at 5.5 by 6.5 inches. Now I realize I didn't check if I had an envelope to fit the card, oops. Most of the cardstock is Papertrey Ink, Bazzill for the gray numbers, the patterned paper from Wild Rose Studio, Milton and Co., maybe a little flowery for a boy (uh, middle aged man) card.

I actually tried to sew on my card this time. I even had some gray thread so I used that as well. At first I thought the tension was too tight, even on auto, but after I loosened it, the stitches got too loose (hence the bumpy looking stitches on some areas). Then the first stitched line that I thought was too tight, actually loosened up and ended up looking the best. Next I have to work on sewing straight.

OK, finally that's it for me, took me so long to type this up between taking a break for the Ladybug game and getting the kids ready for bed. Bye!

Knuffle Bunny

2012-01-21T19:00:00.000-10:00

Hi! The Greeting Farm had their Customer Challenge & Chit Chat Night "A Night at the Bookstore" and introduced a few challenges. I have to say chatting was too fast for me and I couldn't really keep up. It was still early here, and I had to pick up the kids from school and activities and make dinner and eat and so I guess the timing didn't really work out with our schedule. You can check out the challenge details on the SCS forum HERE. I made this card for Favorite Child's Book category. It is based on the Mo Willems book Knuffle Bunny. It's one of my kids' favorites and it's such a cute story. We actually love reading Mo Willems' books especially his Elephant and Piggie series. Those books are hilarious! This challenge also made me realize that I haven't read many books recently except kids' books. I used to love reading but just haven't given it much time lately. Anyway, here is my card.

If you've read the story, you know Knuffle Bunny gets left behind in the washer at a local laundromat. So that's what I made. A washing machine and a TGF version of Knuffle Bunny. I used one of the bunnies from TGF's Lucky Bunnies (rubber version).

So I stamped the bunny and wiped off his face and drew in features similar to Knuffle Bunny. I also added some clothes from TGF's Wardrobe set and flower soft for soap for this shaker card. The word bubble die cut is from MFT.

I think that is it. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Fairy Dust is a Must

2012-01-18T10:19:00.000-10:00

Hi, Hi, Hi! I'm a little excited to share this project. Sometimes when I get an idea and it seems so great in my head, I get all excited that I have to drop everything and push aside whatever I'm working on. Do you get like that too or is it just me? Anyway, after making that easel card HERE that was all flopping around and couldn't fold flat, I wanted to try again. I had linked to the original tutorial HERE. My project is a bit longer but I think it needs that extra length so that it stands nicely and still can fold flat.

This is how it looks folded flat. It's long at 7 inches.

I tied a ribbon onto the front to help keep it closed and keep the front panel from flapping out too much. I used TGF's clear stamp sets, Bantastic and Fairy Princess.

This is the bottom portion which helps the top to stand. I stamped one of the banners (the one with the heart) in light pink as the background and stamped the sentiments from Fairy Princess over it.

This is how it looks opened. It's kind of busy and there's a lot going on.

Front view.

Side view of the easel and steps. I made graduated steps so you could see the middle panel a bit more too. But it is all one long piece of cardstock. There is also some space to write a message when you flip the top over too.

I made the sun with one of the banners and a circle die too. I added some rounded banners on pink twine in the back. I wanted it to seem as if the fairies were putting together the banners in the background. I added a tiny pink bow that I bought from a store here. I wonder if someone sits there all day making these bows! They are so cute but I don't think I could ever make a bow that tiny.

Pink Fairy. I added stickles on her wings and dress. There's actually a lot of stickles everywhere on this project!

Blue Fairy is holding one of the banners. If you look closely you can see that she is mounted onto clear cardstock because I wanted her to look as if she was flying.

Orange Fairy. She is also holding a banner and mounted on clear cardstock. I borrowed some yellow glitter glue from my youngest. He loves his glitter glue when he crafts too. I had to buy him some after he kept asking to use my stickles!

I did a short little how to in case you wanted to try one too.

I used 2 pieces of cardstock both 5.5 x 12 inches.

Score one piece at 2.5 and 5 inches.

Then fold it like above. This is your base.

Score the second piece at 5, 7, 9 and 10.5 inches.

Fold it like the photo above. This is the top portion. You may want to lay it over your base and see where it naturally wants to rest and stand. I had about 2 inches of the base showing on the bottom and that's where I added my bottom sentiments. Then just decorate and assemble like a regular easel card. Hope it works out okay!

I used thin American Crafts cardstock too (in blue) and the pink cardstock is PTI. The grass die is from MFT and the butterflies from an MS punch.

I'll be entering this in TGF's Monday Fun-day #16 Let's Get Sentimental and Flutter By Wednesday #186 Open challenge.

Sorry, kind of wordy today. Thanks for reading!

❤

2012-01-16T00:01:00.000-10:00

Hi! I had some time to make a card for Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge and for Wee Memories final challenge.

Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge is to create a project inspired by the photo above.

Wee Memories is having their last challenge! So I had to play along too and it's a fun sketch.

My card uses the Paper Smooches frog from A Little Lovin. I reverse stamped the frog on the left, the girly one with the hot pink lips following the tutorial from HERE. The lips and the crown on the boy frog is also from A Little Lovin. The heart in the bubble is from Paper Smooches Smoocheroos.

My hubby was a little shocked to see the lips on the girly frog but thought it was funny after all. I added some glossy accents to her lips, the dots on the frogs' backs, the crown and the heart too. I also used PTI's woodgrain impression plate on the kraft cardstock.

Thanks for reading!

Birthday card

2012-01-15T10:01:00.000-10:00

So here's a birthday card I made for Farm Fresh Challenge Friday Spyday #15.

I used Fancy Anya, (thanks, Eva, I think you gave me this a long time ago...finally getting around to using it...). The patterned heart/flower paper is from Doodlebug that I got from a local scrapbook store. The rest is Paper Trey Ink. Die cut and stamped the tickets, again from Papertrey Ink. Embossed it with white embossing powder...it got a little messy. I had inked the edges of the white cardstock with spun sugar distress ink, but I guess it's hard to see in the photo. The heart is a My Favorite Things die with a Sizzlit #5.

Short post. Gotta go clean the house now. Bye!

It's a Love Story

2012-01-13T22:48:00.000-10:00

Hi! I made another card today inspired by a song. I had this idea in mind and thought it would be perfect for TGF's Retro-fresh Lucky in Love challenge too. The song I had in my head was Taylor Swift's Love Story. Here's a link in case you're interested. My kids liked this song a lot too when it first came out.

I also wanted to try to make an easel step card (I think that's what it's called). A tutorial is HERE. I tried to make mine a bit differently by using a continuous piece of cardstock for the steps but it didn't stand too nicely so I had to tape it down. Don't know if you know what I mean yet.

So my card doesn't close now. It'll just have to stand out like this.

I ended up taping the valleys down since they kept flopping around. I'll try again to figure this out.

I printed just part of the lyrics out. I got to use the pretty Spellbinders Fleur de Lis dies that I got from Cheryl (thanks!).

Then I used Prince Ian (digi).

And I went with Princess Anya #2. She barely makes the 6 month old requirement for the Retro-fresh challenge. It just seems like a little while ago that I bought her. I tried coloring her hair a little differently. I don't usually leave a lot of white space. I always have this urge to color all the white space but thought I'd leave it this time since her hair was so light colored. I added some stickles and glossy accents too. Oh, and a rose! I got these from Lorraine a while ago (thanks!) and I love them! They were white but I colored them red with my Copic.

I also got my first Memory Box die, the Cherish Border which is behind Ian and Anya. So detailed and delicate. Then I used Spellbinders Fancy Tags 3 for the last couple of song lyrics that I also printed out.

Alrighty, that is it. Thanks so much for reading and hope you all have a great weekend!

November 2012

2012-01-12T22:24:00.000-10:00

Hi! Isn't Blogger acting a bit weird lately? I can't open the comment section sometimes. Anyway, I haven't found a good routine lately for crafting since I've been sleeping so early these days. I can't seem to wake up early in the mornings unless I sleep early. But I finally did get to finish my November 2012 calendar/scrapbook page using MFT's current sketch.

I used Pure Innocence Chrysanthemum. I didn't really want to fussy cut her out but I colored a bit messy out of the lines and the only way to really fix it was to cut it out. Good thing I didn't chop off the flower or the skinny stem or something. Then I paper pieced her dress.

Close up photo.

The other page.

Just a short post. I am going to sleep!

Thanks for reading!

October 2012

2012-01-09T10:20:00.000-10:00

Hi! I'm feeling much better today though I still have a lingering cough. Thanks so much for all the well wishes. I never quite finished my 2012 scrapbook/calendar so thought I'd finish that up.

I used MFT's sketch 53. Sorry my photo looks a bit crooked. The stamp is Pure Innocence Calendula.

A close up of the image. I think this is a bit crooked too. Maybe I was standing crooked or something.

This is the opposite page. I didn't have a matching papers for the background but at least they are both polka dotted. Hehe. At least just 2 more months to go and then I can bind them all. I hope I actually find some photos to go in this book too.

I'll also be entering this into Lollipop Crafts Challenge #62 -- Anything New Goes (Calendula stamp is new) and All That Scraps Challenge Anything Goes.

Thanks for reading!

Happy New Year 2012!

2012-01-07T19:48:00.000-10:00

Hi! So I think I was a bit more sick than I thought I was because I couldn't gather up enough energy to craft this past week. I tried napping once the kids all went back to school but for some reason or other there were always appointments or interruptions that kept me from sleeping soundly. But today I think I'm feeling okay. At least okay enough to make a card. I'm playing along with TGF's Friday Spy Day #14 and Some Odd Girl's Bling It Up!

I wanted to make a New Year's card using TGF's Happy New Year Anya digi. I erased the 2011 and hand wrote 2012 on her sash. I actually colored her in twice because the first one I printed out seemed a bit large like she was going to trample over the buildings behind her. Hehe. So I shrunk her down a bit. The diecut behind her is MFT's Skyline Border die. I cut it twice and also pieced them together to line up how I wanted it. I thought it was perfect for this New Year's fireworks card.

I added lots of stickles to her sash and her head piece. I tried to make fireworks with stickles too and added some clear and black rhinestones.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Mini Tag Album

2012-01-01T21:52:00.000-10:00

Hi! I'm back (sort of) from being sick the past few days. My New Year's Eve was spent trying to sleep early though I had a fever and some chills. I feel better tonight to at least post my project for TGF's Retro-Fresh Tag ... You're it Challenge. Now that Christmas is over and the New Year has begun, I'm faced with the next big milestone in my daughter's life. She will be graduating from 5th grade and moving on to middle school this fall. Seems like a long time off but I know it will come too quick like all special events do. It makes me a bit sad and worried and I hope she transitions well into 6th grade and her new school. I'm always worried about her making new friends. I know she's got quite a brain on her but socially, I'm not too sure what's going on. I'll be happy if she meets 1-2 really good friends that she can rely on.

Oh, did I mention how bright she is? I truly do not know where she gets her brains from. It is definitely not from me nor my hubby though we would really like to think it is from one of us. She can read a book so fast and we're talking thick, a few hundred pages kinds of books and still retain the info. That's definitely not me. But I'm glad that she has found her talent early and that is what she enjoys.

Anyway, sorry so much blabbing and bragging about my daughter. Hehe. I'll introduce my tag album!

I cut some tags using PTI's tag sale die.

Then I knew Annika would be perfect because this is one of my very first TGF's stamps and I bought it because it reminded me of my daughter. See her books too?

Kindergarten. (sorry, I had to conceal her face).

First grade. (The grade sentiments are from PTI as well). You can see how her hairstyle changes through the years.

Second grade.

Third grade. I made some cork embellishments.

Fourth grade.

And her current 5th grade year. Yeah, she's got some wild hair going on here. Her used to be so fine and straight. I don't know what happened!

The last tag is for me to write a little note to her and give to her on graduation day! On the back of each tag, I hope to write down some memories from each of her grades. I asked her if she remembered anything special from each grade and she said no. Geez.

Being sick, I didn't get to make a special New Year's Day card though I had something in mind. Maybe I can still get to it. I'm really looking forward to this new year! Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!

Just a little late for Christmas...

2011-12-30T18:30:00.000-10:00

Hello there. Hope everyone had a nice Christmas or holiday. I'm here with a holiday card, a little late for Christmas, but oh well, I think it makes for a nice thank you card or something. I figure our Christmas tree is still up, I'm still in a holiday mood (unlike my husband who wanted to recycle the tree as soon as the last present was opened!). Anyhow, I played along with The Play Date Cafe Challenge #112.

And the Deconstructed Sketch #32.

And here's my red card...

I used Yuki from Sister Stamps (thanks Eva!). She's so cute, the hair on these images always reminds me of my daughter. Anyhow, I used Papertrey Ink cardstock, stamped a text background and clear embossed it. Then I was stuck for the longest time because I was looking for my Bow-Easy! I swear I had put it in my ribbon drawer in this rolling cart under my desk. So I thought my daughter had lost it because she likes to play with (and unravel!) all my ribbon spools. So I made my son look for it, and told him to pull out the rolling cart in case it fell behind onto the floor. And while he was conscientiously looking through all the drawers in the cart, I saw it sitting right there on top of the cart, oops!

After I stuck all the paper and ribbon down I thought everything looked a little too red, but oh well, too late, I stuck the ribbon down too well with double sided tape. I might have to try this again with a different colored bow or patterned paper or something.

Well, I guess I will wish everyone a Happy New Year already. I have to go check our sparkler stash now in case we need some more for tomorrow night. Bye!

Are you a Belieber?

2011-12-28T17:10:00.001-10:00

Hi! I wanted to play along with TGF's Monday Fun-day #13 Sing a Song. I decided to go with Baby by Justin Bieber. My kids loved that song and would watch it on You Tube all the time so for a while they were Beliebers. But there is a version of that song on You Tube that I like. If you're interested, click the video.

On to my card.

I used My Guy Ian for Justin (before he cut all his hair) and Miss Anya Hats Off for the girl in his Baby video. I used the Spellbinders heart circles (thanks, Cheryl!). The hearts are so cute!! I added some flowers too. Sometimes I forget to use all the flowers that I have. I added some stickles on them as well.

I decided to make a double z-fold card. The tutorial is HERE. I found more paper with musical notes and added the lyrics to Baby on it so yet another project with a musical theme.

Thanks for reading!

TGF Heart Journaling--week 23 (final)

2011-12-26T19:29:00.000-10:00

Hi!! It is actually the last week of TGF's Heart Journaling! Wow, I can't believe I lasted all 23 weeks and I have a nice journal to show for it too! This last week, we were to write a letter to ourselves about anything really. So I kind of just stuck with the music theme and picked a song that I really like cause it's uplifting and encouraging.

The song is Pink's Perfect. I like it for it's message and it's a catchy tune, isn't it? I had drawn concentric hearts on the background and colored them but they got kind of lost after I stuck the lyrics on. I stuck some tiny hearts on too.

I had to use TGF's Stella with her love letter in her hands. I just bought the stamp and I don't know why I waited so long to get her cause her hair is just so cute and sassy. I am trying to practice more with my Copic coloring and the journal was good for that.

We actually made it to the mall today and it was super packed. Good thing we just stayed for a little while. Then I did my favorite kind of shopping--shopping for crafts and stamps! Hehe. Hope you all enjoyed the holidays!

Thanks for reading!

Merry Christmas!!

2011-12-23T23:44:00.000-10:00

Hi! Just wanted to share the rest of the things I made for Christmas this year.

This isn't anything really new. It's kind of the same gift set I make every year for my kids' teachers. But it's simple and I don't have to think too hard about what to make. I made personalized notecards with envelopes and they are stamped with PTI's Teacher's Apple. There is also a notepad and a Hello Kitty calendar. The caddy is Lauren Meader's From the desk of template. The stamp is Pure Innocence You Make the Grade.

All wrapped up to go.

Another calendar. I had already wrapped it in cellophane before remembering to take a photo of it. The stamp is Pure Innocence Girl Doctor.

I added the little heart on her clipboard.

Made a couple of Angry Bird calendars too this year.

And finally, here's a photo from our trip to see the lights in our city to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Thanks for reading!

Birthday card #2

2011-12-21T18:26:00.000-10:00

Hello. I made another card for the TGF Farm Fresh Challenge Monday Fun-Day #12 which was to use kraft cardstock, buttons and twine. And I used the Deconstructed Sketch #31, although I turned it sideways and moved the center rectangle over.

Anyhow, here is the birthday card using Later Skater Ian. Maybe he's still too young for a 41 year old's birthday card, but oh well. (Maybe I should have added some gray to his hair). Used some Tim Holtz paper (I always seem to use this paper pad for boy cards but everything matches so well); Papertrey ink kraft, rustic cream, and enchanted evening cardstock, buttons and sentiment. The 41 is cut from some sizzix dies. Tried to make his skin tone a little darker with E13 for some shadows at his hairline, but still can't quite get the hang of blending without going too crazy and coloring out of the lines either.

Well, hopefully I can make 2 more Christmas cards before Christmas. Eva gave me some cute stamps that I have colored, but haven't stuck them onto cards yet. In case I don't have time to post anything else before Christmas, have a Merry Christmas!

TGF Heart Journaling--week 22

2011-12-20T22:02:00.001-10:00

Hi! It's week 22 of TGF's Heart Journaling. The theme this week is music and to create a page based on your favorite song/tune. Um, okay, I had just made one last week on music too so I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with this one. I started going through You Tube and listing all the songs I love and basically I was going to just make a giant list of my favorite songs. But then OMD's If You Leave from Pretty in Pink just popped into my head and that was my inspiration for my page. I love that song and the movie because I was such a crazy Andrew McCarthy fan. But you know the book that the movie is based on doesn't end the same as in the movie? Talk about disappointed when I read the book after watching the movie. Like what the heck?! Andie doesn't live happily ever after with Blane? Well, back to my page.

I used Miss Anya and My Guy Ian to represent Andie and Blane cause that's the way it should be. I found some music paper and wrote some of the lyrics to the song and added stickers for the title. It's a bit light. I sprayed some shimmer spritz to make the page all sparkle-ly.

A close up of the pair.

I had a journaling partner tonight. My youngest colored his Ian to "copy" me. Hehe. Then he cut and glued some papers and ribbon too. He was really happy his page got some shiny spritz too. Oh, and he even tried to distress his pages with my inkpad. He makes me laugh. I think he'll like that I posted his page on the computer.

On a side note, he really liked the little abc flashcards I made for him. Though I think I should include more clear pages so we don't have to keep changing the pages around. And should use alphabets without serifs. You should see how he tries to make those finishing lines on the letters too. It's too funny so I have to tell him to leave those out. But it's a nice size for his little hands. He asked me why he couldn't write on the cardstock itself. Almost had a heart attack. Um, cause Mommy worked really hard on those so please don't scribble on all the pictures. I'll see how long that lasts.

Thanks for reading!

TGF 3rd Annual Customer Blog Hop

2011-12-19T06:01:00.000-10:00

Hi! After finishing up these 2 projects for TGF's Blog Hop, I've come to realize that I am kind of addicted to stamps, especially TGF stamps. Hehe. Okay, I will not babble on too much since there are lots of other blogs to check out as well. I made something for both categories, Holiday and General.

First up is my Holiday card.

I recently acquired Hippie Anya! She inspired me to make a "peace" card for the holidays.

But then I had to add Fleur Anya for "love" ...

and 80s Anya for "joy." So great that these stamps could be turned into something Christmas-y.

My General project has been swimming in my mind ever since I made that counting book a while back with TGF stamps as well. I thought I could make an ABC book too. But I didn't make this into a book. More like flashcards, I suppose. My youngest has a hard time recognizing lower case letters so I thought this would be fun for him.

All stamps are TGF. I colored in just the part I wanted to emphasize. I know, I have a lot of stamps!

Some letters were hard. Like "n." I don't have Nurse Anya! So I used Amelia's necklace. V is for valentine, X for Xmas, and I turned the horse from McSplendid Farm into a zebra. Though my kids will say it's a horse with stripes. I'm also glad I had Sing for her ukulele, and Princess Anya is a queen.

I added all the cards onto a ring and also added a piece of clear cardstock to use with a dry erase marker.

I thought maybe my youngest could practice writing the letters too on the clear cardstock and then erase it. (The blue one was out of ink). The letters were cut out using PTI's alphabet dies.

That's it for me. Thanks so much for visiting!

Happy Birthday

2011-12-18T15:42:00.001-10:00

Hello, I'm squeezing my Farm Fresh Friday Spy Day #11 in here before Eva's TGF blog hop post tomorrow. This is actually a non-holiday card as we're going to be celebrating 3 birthdays over 4 days this year. I'm thinking I will buy a bunch of cupcakes so at least each birthday person will have their own individual cake to blow candles for but yet we won't all be stuck eating 3 cakes for weeks on end.

I used Birthday Anya 2 that I won from a previous challenge. I wanted to thank Marie and Jessica for their generosity in sending this to me as there was initially some confusion regarding the stamp I requested.

Anyhow, colored the skin with copics, the rest with colored pencils. Added stickles to the cupcake frosting. The patterned paper is from Echo Park, Victoria Gardens, used Papertrey ink green cardstocks and Bazzill gray cardstock. The flower is a Beautiful Blooms die.

Bye! Off to make another card, hopefully I can get the other 2 done in time!

An Angry Bird Christmas

2011-12-15T23:25:00.000-10:00

Hi! What do Angry Birds have to do with Christmas?? I have no idea but they are everywhere, aren't they? Just stick a Santa hat on them and they are perfect for the holiday season. My kids and lots of other kids seem to like them a lot so I decided to make tons of Angry Birds! I had first seen this post HERE on Jenny's blog about some Angry Birds she had made and she provides the link to the original source. I just had to find my own way of making them with the dies/punches that I have.

So here's a photo of 47 Angry Birds made from just thin cardstock. I chose thin cardstock so I could cut more than one sheet at a time and so it would move faster. I used Spellbinders circle nestabilities for the bodies. The beak is a cat/bat ear from PTI's Halloween sweet treats dies set. The feathers on the head is from My Favorite Things daisy die. The eyes are punches and the eyebrows are hand cut. Yes, that was the most painful part. Hand cutting all those eyebrows! But without them, they wouldn't be Angry Birds!

So my 2 older kids and I decided that bookmarks would be the best to give away since they are older now. And if I had just stuck these on a package with candy it would surely have been tossed away. My daughter gave her class instructions not to throw them away. Hahaha. She also helped me with stringing on the twine and sticking the labels on.

A little close up photo. The bookmark die is from PTI.

We tied on some candy canes with more twine and they were set to go.

I made Angry Birds for my youngest too. He's too young to read so I decided to make ornaments for them instead. And these are made from FUN FOAM!! These came out so fun! The green tag is PTI's Tag Sale #4 die. We tied on some ribbon and bells, and added candy canes in the bags too. My youngest kid's teacher dressed up as an Angry Bird for Halloween too!

So I am finally finished with the kids' stuff. But I still have teacher gifts for my younger son's teachers to wrap. Thank goodness I still have the weekend to finish up. But I hate waiting til the last minute.

I have to share this photo of the pictures/cards my youngest made for his teachers. He keeps requesting that I post his projects on my blog too. Future blogger, I suppose.

Oh and if you haven't checked it out yet, I have been "spied" on TGF! See HERE. It's my first time ever being spied. So if you've got time, play along please!

Thanks so much for reading and hope you're enjoying the holiday season!

TGF Heart Journaling--week 21

2011-12-13T21:55:00.000-10:00

Hi! This will be a quick post because I still have to make something for my kids' classmates! Between the 3 kids there are so many Christmas programs and parties to go to. I think it will be a late night tonight!

Anyway, the theme for this week's TGF Heart Journaling (I can't believe we're on 21!) is to create a page on something or someone you love. So I made this page for my hubby.

I took Stamping Anya's head and bottom and Birthday Ian's hands and banner to create this fun and cute image. I drew in the heart on her shirt too to match the love theme. The background hearts are also from TGF and the letters are PTI's alphabet dies. I wrote the lyrics to our song from our wedding. We both love this song. We both like "old" music or I should say music from a different generation.

I have to say I love this page. I love the colors and the hearts and the song lyrics and the cute image. I might try to recreate this for a card. But maybe I have to make her hands look less manly. What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

Hello Kitty calendars

2011-12-12T22:32:00.000-10:00

Hi! Anybody else scrambling to get Xmas gifts done? Geez, I feel so rushed this year. I think I procrastinated too much with blog hopping and Lego and not to mention some late nights fighting with my youngest. This is the last week of school before Xmas break! Where did the time go??

Anyway, I came across some cute Hello Kitty calendars on Jenny's (Sister Stamps) blog HERE. I love that they were simple to put together cause I wanted to give some calendars out to the teachers but didn't want to make it too complicated since I was short on time. And I had Sunghee's 2012 calendar template too which is pretty easy to use and so economical.

Yup, I pretty much stuck with the same design except my calendars are a bit taller. I used PTI's coaster board and wrapped it with some washi paper. I haven't used my Hello Kitty sizzlits in a while so at least I got some use of it. Then just added a small magnetic strip on the back. These are all for my kids' Nihongo teachers. Yes, they have 5 teachers for Nihongo.

I also made 4 more cards using Sister Stamps Shimo-san. The one I made earlier is HERE.

A little close up. The circle sentiments are all different and from Wild Rose Studio. I added a mini Bath and Body Works hand gel too into a goody bag and called it a day. I wanted to make a little memo pad too but there's just not enough time.

Thanks for reading!

Wonderland Checkers

2011-12-08T10:27:00.000-10:00

Hi, hi, hi! I'm kind of excited to share my project today. Hehe. I've been wanting to make something like this for a while now and finally completed it yesterday. I started the project but got kind of stuck and had to rethink some parts. Then got like an a-ha! moment yesterday which really pushed me through to finishing. But first let's mention the challenges that inspired this:

TGF's Farm Fresh Challenge Retro-Fresh Blue/berry Thank goodness this is a month long challenge cause I needed all that time since I got stuck in the process.

Wee Memories Challenge 78--Free for All

and Young Crafters Unite--use dies.

Here is my project.

I made a checkers board game using TGF's Wonderland digi set. Digital stamps are great for this kind of project. I thought the blue/berry colors would make a fun board game. The board itself measures 12 by 12 inches. I just cut the berry squares and glued them onto the blue cardstock.

I made a little pizza box (measures about 4 by 5.5 inches) to hold the checkers pieces. The letters were made with PTI's alphabet die set The digis are relatively small so I had to color carefully.

Inside of the box. There are 24 pieces, 12 blue and 12 berry. And yes, small rabbits to color as well. But with digis it was easy to shrink them down to the size I needed.

The pieces were made from the smallest Spellbinders lacey circles die. I had thought about what to make the pieces from and at first I had planned to cut out lots of chipboard and layer them. Yeah, sound crazy? I've done crazy kind of cutting before but this time I really just did not feel like cutting out a gazillion little pieces so that's where I got kind of stuck. So I pushed this project aside and thought I wouldn't get to finish it. But the other day after I had made my tree stamp out of thick fun foam, I thought, hey, I should use FUN FOAM! Yay, for FUN FOAM! Even though the fun foam is thick (6 mm) it is still really easy to cut through in the Big Shot. So I just had to cut 24 pieces out of fun foam. Doable, yes! And they are really light and still stackable if you want to king your pieces.

My game board was also glued on a piece of foam board that I had around the house. I just traced my cardstock and used a metal ruler and blade to cut through the board. It's light but sturdy. You could make this more durable with lamination and even magnetic! I thought about making the board and pieces magnetic--wouldn't that be fun? But in the end I went with simple and preserving my sanity.

Here are the pieces out on the board.

I even thought about making a chess set. Wouldn't that be neat too? Like a Twilight chess set using all the Twilight inspired digis from TGF. But who/what would all the pawns be? That would take some thinking.

Thanks so much for reading!

TGF Heart Journaling--week 20

2011-12-06T23:01:00.000-10:00

Hi! It's week 20 now of TGF's Heart Journaling. The assignment is to create a page based on a dream, goal or wish. I created a page based on my son's dream of a white Christmas. He has been telling me a lot lately that he wants to see snow and build a snowman so hopefully one year we will go on vacation to do just that. Though I don't know if I would really enjoy the freezing weather. We're too spoiled here with nice weather all year long.

I used PTI's tree die and cut some fun foam with it. I used the fun foam tree like a stamp and stamped a bunch of trees together. I really like how the trees turned out. I added some flower soft for the snow on the trees and added some stickles too. The rest are stickers from Echo Park's Everybody Loves Christmas set. I think this scene fits perfectly with what my son would like to see one day.

Wow, I can't believe I've been keeping up with this journal! It seems the days are going by super fast. I can't keep up with all the activities! It doesn't help too that I can't seem to stay awake past 11 anymore. I just need to sleep.

Thanks for reading!

a wonderful Christmas

2011-12-04T11:47:00.000-10:00

Hi! Our Lego Robotics team participated in the state championship yesterday and they did so well! Out of over 200 teams that participated in qualifiers, 56 teams were invited to the championships. Out of the 56 teams that participated, our team placed 4th for robot performance and won a 2nd place Lego trophy for innovative solution. I was so shocked! Ha! Not that I didn't have faith in our kids but the competition can be tough and we felt so lucky to have gotten so far. I was even more impressed when the principal congratulated the kids and told them that was the best a team from their school had ever done at a Lego robotics state tournament. Wow, what a proud moment! The long day (waking up at 5:30 in the morning with the final awards done at 4 pm) was totally worth it! Still feeling excited about it. But I will finally share my card. Hehe.

I made a card to be entered in the following challenges: Paper Sundaes--Sundae Bar (color red and used die cuts), Wee Memories--Free for All, and Young Crafters Unite Challenge #4--use dies.

After Cheryl had posted her card using Sister Stamps Shimo-san, I wanted to use mine too! I think I will make a bunch of these to give to the kids' Nihongo teachers. I used Spellbinders rectangle die and the lattice rectangle that Cheryl gave me a little while ago. Thanks! I took this picture under our tree. I actually wrapped some presents this morning!

The sentiment is from Wild Rose Studio. I added some stickles to the snow on the ground and around the snowman. Some liquid accents on his nose. I also used a my black Prismacolor pencil and Copics for their hair.

Thanks for reading!

TGF Heart Journaling--week 19

2011-11-29T22:24:00.000-10:00

Hi! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and did lots of shopping! I sometimes buy gifts throughout the year so I can't remember if I already bought someone something. I have to dig out all the gifts and start wrapping so I can check them off the list already. We bought our tree too and the kids decorated it and I have to say it looks pretty this year. We didn't even unwrap the tree to check it before we bought it. It looked pretty fat in the middle and so we were happy that when we brought it home, it looked pretty symmetrical and full.

Anyway, it is week 19 of TGF's Heart Journaling. The theme is Chaos. And I almost forgot to do the assignment! I would've kicked myself if I missed this week when it's close to the end. Well, I guess I have too much going on in my mind. At least I remembered to pick up all my kids today at the time I'm supposed to. Hehehe.

I went with the "organized" chaos idea that was mentioned in TGF's post. And it really reminded me of Christmas shopping in the mall. It is so crazy, don't you think? The other day I went to the post office and there was already a line of people waiting for it to open! I try to do all my shopping when the stores first open. It is so much easier with parking and less people too. I stamped some of the Miss Anyas and Ians in Xmas-y colors to create the crowd at the mall. Thank goodness for online shopping!!

Thanks for reading!

Joy

2011-11-28T11:19:00.001-10:00

Hello again. This is the last of my completed cards. I think I better get hopping, I just bought gift cards for my kids' teachers but I don't know if I can make enough holiday cards to go along with the gift cards. Anyhow, here's another Farm Fresh Challenge, Friday Spy Day card.

It was technically a tag in the sample, but I used it like a sketch, loosely. Instead of buttons, I used letters. I couldn't think of any other holiday phrase that might fit. Again, tried the Copics for the face, pencils for the rest. Same pink patterned paper I used before (We R Memory Keepers). Punched all the purple things with Doodlebug glitter paper. Same snowflake punch, it's the only snowflake I have so I'm probably going to be using it over and over again. And the dark purple cardstock is from Papertrey ink.
Bye!

Merry and Bright

2011-11-27T03:59:00.001-10:00

Hello again. I actually made a card for The Greeting Farm's Monday Fun Day #8. The weeks are flying by, I guess it's been a while since I participated in a Greeting Farm challenge. Anyhow, here's the sketch...

And here's my card...

I printed a background paper from Cosmo Cricket's Jolly Golly pack that I got from One Buck Wednesday on Jessica Sprague's site. That was an event in itself, because the colors look different depending on if you pick PSE to manage color or printer to manage color. I tried to match Vivi's clothes to the paper, it turned out a bit colorful. I think all the stripes were getting me confused. I colored her face again with copics. I think it's hard not to leave a dark rim when adding the darker color for shadowing. I think I just colored over everything with the lightest color and when it dried it didn't look too bad. Added some stickles to the fur trim and jingle bell. The sentiment is from PTI's Tag It, the snowflake is a Martha Stewart punch that I used on some Doodlebug glitter paper.

Bye!

Happy Holidays!

2011-11-26T05:21:00.001-10:00

Hello, hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We tried Eva's method of turkey in a bag, and it actually turned out pretty good. Although I think the turkey breast could use some butter or something...hopefully one day if my daughter outgrows her milk allergy I can try that. But finally I had some time to craft while Grandma kept the kids occupied.

Anyhow, here is my first holiday card finally, and the month of November is practically gone. This Sister Stamp is so cute! Thanks Eva for getting it for me (she's my Hawaii connection!) It took me forever to color since it was difficult to get uninterrupted craft time. Plus I was trying to figure out how to color with Copics. I actually took the plunge and bought 5 Copics, only in the skin tones and cheek color, although I don't think I colored cheeks in this one. I went to Michaels practically every day with a coupon to buy one Copic at a time. I think I'm pretty much going to stop there with the Copics, because I think they're hard to use! I had to color the faces twice, because I couldn't blend the colors nicely so I think I just used the one color in the end. The rest of it was colored with pencils.

Pretty simple after that, just cut the image out and mounted it on patterned paper. I thought the patterned paper was kind of busy so I didn't really add anything else except the banner with the sentiment, although it still looks kind of empty up there in that corner. Oh well, I had to move on, so many Xmas stamps, so little time!

And here's one of my proud mommy photos. Excuse the strange disguise, had too much fun in Photoshop Elements.

But my son and I have spent so many weekends going to chess tournaments for the last year or so. Not that he's Bobby Fischer or anything, but since he started with his school's chess club in kindergarten, he has done reasonably well at our local scholastic chess tournaments. So surprising since I don't like playing chess and am not very good at it, I feel kind of bad that I can't really play against him at home since he always beats me! Anyhow, this is him after spending all last weekend at one of the bigger chess tournaments. He was so happy to win a trophy (21st place). Lucky for him they gave out 30 trophies, usually it's 20, but this tournament had about twice as many kids as usual in his section. Anyhow, I was happy for him too since he had to play in the section with 1st through 3rd graders and after the first day, he was bawling his eyes out after losing the last game. He was even 60-something going into the 2nd day, I didn't know if he even had a chance at a trophy. I think as a parent, I was getting an ulcer for him. I used to laugh about those parents who had kids in sports and took things so seriously, but I now I know why! Even as a chess parent, I'm like checking the rankings after each game and trying to estimate where he and the school would end up for trophies. It doesn't help when most of the other parents are like that too! Anyhow, excuse my long rambling, I could go on forever about my kids! I will actually have more to post later too, I think I got quite of bit of cards done yesterday (well, actually 2 and a half which I thought was great for me).

Papertrey November Blog Hop Challenge

2011-11-25T05:01:00.001-10:00

Hi! It's been a while since I participated in one of PTI's blog hop challenges. But I had to play along this month. Not only did I place an order on release night but I also got my goodies in about a week! So I had some time to play around with my new stamps and dies. Hehe. Below is the inspiration photo.

I love the Christmas theme and the colors too so I went with that.

When I saw the newly released penguin stamp and die, I had to get them. So cute!! I thought this penguin would make a cute spinner card too. Similar to the froggy one I made HERE. I also used PTI's In the Meadow dies. I used the die itself and my hobby blade to cut along the curved edge to create the little cut out for the penguin to slide. I did that twice leaving a quarter inch space between them.

I layered the penguin with PTI's coasters.

I added a tiny bell to his hat.

He slides down. The jingle all the way sentiment is from Tiny Treats Xmas. Just traced the space with a pencil and curved the stamp to fit the curves of the opening.

He can spin all around.

I added lots of glitter.

I also got the new alphabet die! These are so cute! I layered the red jingle with PTI's coasters too. I colored the edges of the coasters with my red Copic so it wouldn't look white. I added some green bells so, you know, it would read jingle bells.

I was happy with this card but then I realized the hop wasn't until Friday. I don't know why but I thought it was on Thursday. Anyway, I thought since I had a whole extra day, why not make something else too?

So I made a tag. Well, I wanted it to look like a snow globe. I used PTI's Tag Sale #4 die and added the little piece (Spellbinders Reverse Wonky Rectangles) below it for the base. The front has clear cardstock.

There is flower soft in it to look like snow. So if you shake it, it looks like it's snowing on the penguins. It's similar to making a shaker card.

So a spinner card and a snow globe tag.

Also will be entering these into Simon Says Stamp Challenge--Tag You're It! and Young Crafters Unite Challenge #4--Use dies.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Can't wait to see if there are any good sales on crafty stuff. Thanks for reading!

TGF Heart Journaling--week 18

2011-11-21T11:49:00.000-10:00

Hi! Week 18 of TGF's Heart Journaling is to create a page based on your parents, life as a parent or tribute to all parents. I chose to journal about the difficulty we're having with our youngest child since not a day goes by that he does not tantrum at least once. And we're talking about full on crying/screaming/writhing on the floor/kicking defiance. I never would have thought I'd describe one of my kids as defiant especially since the older 2 are pretty well behaved. So most people I've talked to including his pediatrician just think this is a phase. And I hope that it ends soon. But in the back of my head, I worry that it isn't a phase. What if he acts this way forever? I mean, I've worked with children with special needs and in special education and I know there is Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Maybe I am jumping the gun but I can't help to think that this is part of his personality. He has always been the most needy of my 3, the most clingy, stubborn and I thought maybe it's because he is the youngest BUT what if it's not because of that? What if he will stay this way? So far in school, he has been following rules and adjusting nicely but what has changed is his dislike for actually going to school (whining I don't like school in the car until I drop him off) and his poor sleeping at night. He has gone from sharing a bedroom with his older brother to sleeping on a futon in our bedroom because he would get up constantly at night (at least 3 times) and wander to our room. It would be a back and forth game and I guess I gave up because I want to sleep.

Here is my page. But through it all I've learned to calm myself down and to really be patient. I admit early on I'd have a few yelling sessions with him but realized that doesn't solve anything. He and I are 2 of the most stubborn people I know.

Thanks for reading.

Best Grandma Ever

2011-11-20T09:53:00.000-10:00

Hi! I was able to make another card! This one was inspired by both TGF's Friday Spyday #7 and Moxie Fab World's Celebrating Relationships Challenge. This card celebrates Grandparents' Day or more specifically Grandma in our family.

I used Grandma and the sentiment from TGF's Grandparents set.

The banner is from PTI.

Hmmm, not much to add to this post. I'll keep it short and simple. Thanks for reading!

have a merry xmas

2011-11-18T22:56:00.000-10:00

Hi! I've been feeling kind of in a rut these days. Today I was so indecisive, I couldn't get anything crafty accomplished. I literally wasted my day and I was irritated at myself for doing that. So finally I just started doing something and thought to play along with TGF's Monday Funday #7 to use Twi-Color Combo (red, black, silver/white). I'd go watch the new Twilight movie too except I don't really know anyone that would watch it with me. Guess I'll just wait til the DVD.

I decided not to use Twilight inspired stamps and thought the color combo could be xmas-y as well. 'Kay, I threw a little green in there then thought shucks, I should've colored the leaves silver or something. I love this Holiday Anya! She is so stinkin' cute. I colored her hair with Copics and my black Prismacolor pencil. Added a whole bunch of bling and the circle sentiment is from Wild Rose Studio.

So basically, it took me the whole day just to make this card even though it's relatively simple. Ugh!

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

our friendship is forever

2011-11-17T10:53:00.000-10:00

Hi! Here's another card that I made for Moxie Fab World's Celebrating Relationships Challenge. This one is specifically for National Dog Day. I don't have a dog or any kind of pet. We used to have fish but they would slowly die one at a time. I can't remember which we had, orandas or lionhead goldfish. But they were very pretty and the first pair we ever had started to mate just a few days after we bought them! I was kind of shocked to see one chasing the other one super quick in the aquarium and then the tiny little eggs and a couple hatched but we just didn't really know how to take care of them. In any case, I think that will be the closest we come to a pet. Our kids want a bunny or some kind of guinea pig but I can't do it. And wouldn't a puppy be so cute? But no, too much work.

I know people love their dogs. My sister-in-law and her husband recently lost theirs and it was sad. Their dog would watch over our kids when they slept over their house. He would sleep by their bedroom door, very sweet and protective.

The dog in the card is from Paper Smooches' Chubby Chums and the sentiment is from Lawn Fawn. I got the sketch idea from Clean & Simple Stamping. There was a tag in the sketch that I turned into a dog house using one of PTI's Tag Sale dies.

But I think the doghouse looks a lot like a birdhouse too. Who can resist a pink dog?

Thanks for reading!

TGF Heart Journaling--week 17

2011-11-16T09:45:00.000-10:00

Hi! Week 17 of TGF's Heart Journaling. Theme this week is Soul Food and to create a page based on your favorite food. Okay, I hate exercising. So I'm trying to not eat too much junk food cause really I don't wanna have to exercise all the extra pounds off. I love food but I'm really more lazy unless I have a serious craving for something. So for this layout, I thought I'd create a page dedicated to some of my favorite guilty pleasures.

I don't even think Cheryl knows the kinds of food I sometimes crave. But pretty close to the top has to be KFC Original Recipe Chicken. I mean, I LOVE it! I don't eat it often but I'll have a craving for it now and then. I love that it's salty. I think I'm a salty and sweet kind of person. But after I eat it, I sometimes feel sick. Not like a guilty sick but physically nauseous sometimes cause it's pretty oily and greasy. So then I vow not to eat it again but then I do. Vicious cycle!

Also on this page is pork rinds. Hahaha. Who would've guessed? But I love them too and the sad thing is so do my kids so I have to hide the bag from them cause they'll ask for it if they see it. I know, I'm a hypocritical mom.

And my last 2 guilty pleasures are chocolate covered almonds and hohos. So maybe the chocolate almonds are not that bad for you in moderation but I love the one from Costco and yeah, there's a lot. That's another one I have to hide from the kids.

I actually printed these photos from online and wrote some journaling around it. Hmmm, I could go for some pork rinds now and good thing I have some in the house! Hehe.

Thanks for reading!

hey chickie

2011-11-15T10:15:00.000-10:00

Hi! I haven't been making many cards these days so I feel a little rusty. I have so many cute stamps that are just waiting to get inked up but I don't know quite what to make. Anyway, I thought I'd make a card for the Celebrating Relationships Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. I made this card for National Girlfriends Day. There is also Grandparents Day and National Dog Day so hopefully I'll get around to those as well. And the good thing is that there's lots of time to play cause the deadline's not until December 12. Thank goodness cause I know I can procrastinate.

I finally got to use these cuties from Paper Smooches' Chubby Chums. I paper pieced the chick and owl and their eyes so they could look at each other. Pretty simple and manageable for the amount of time I had.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading!

Birthday Blessings

2011-11-13T21:48:00.000-10:00

Hi! So I wanted to share something that I made for TGF's December guest challenge. Yes, even though I wasn't going to participate, I made a card like a couple days before the deadline. Even though I had some more Lego stuff to do, I just quickly put something together. I don't know, maybe I didn't learn my lesson the first time about these facebook voting challenges. Somehow these contests are just not that nice to me.

Here's my little card. Actually it's not that little since the number one is kind of tall and I increased the size of the digital stamp. I freehand drew and cut the one out. I thought this was a different and fun kind of shaped card. Sad to say, I only got 3 votes. :( I'll go wallow in self-pity now for a little bit before moving on.

Thanks for reading.

Lego favors

2011-11-12T21:05:00.000-10:00

Hi! So here are some of the things I made for the Lego robotics qualifiers held today. There were 20 teams at the qualifiers we were at but there were a few other locations as well. Our team's project was centered around milk, the over all theme was called Food Factor, trying to keep food from being contaminated or spoiled. There are a lot of aspects to this tournament. The kids need to think of a project, present the project in an imaginative way in front of judges, create a robot, present their robot design to the judges as well, demonstrate they can work well as a team and then finally program their robot to complete missions and to score the highest points as possible. It ends up being an all day event. If you're curious, you can you tube FLL or even food factor and see the neat robots kids design and run. So creative!!

Anyway, we wanted to make favors for the other teams. It is a good time and chance to say hello to the other teams and wish them luck as well.

Again, because our project was about milk, I decided to make milk cartons. We put pens in them. I just altered a simple milk carton template to accommodate the size of the pens. I bought the brick pattern online from a digital scrapbooking site which I can't quite remember at the time. I put a label with our school's robotic's team logo. I made 23 of these. They were pretty fast once I had the template worked out.

I also made this display board for our table. Sorry, I blurred the picture but you can see the general idea. I made digital layouts and had them printed at Costco. I slipped the pages into page protectors (I cut the side off with the holes). That way the layouts themselves wouldn't be taped. You can then also put them into new page protectors and have a little scrapbook. I've made boards like this for funerals as well. I know that's kind of gloomy but afterwards I put all the layouts into a scrapbook and give it to the family and they have a keepsake.

I also made a few other layouts to put into the team's binder. I'm not sure how many pages but it was a lot! A lot of photos to add. With all the other pages/research we had to document, we easily filled up a 2 inch binder.

I made some easy leis using lanyards and hung a simple tag and lego figures on the end. Sorry, didn't take a photo of these.

Are you curious to hear how our team did?? Well, we didn't win an award. There were 5 given out. But we did well enough to qualify and we're going to the state championships! The kids were looking all bummed cause we weren't called for any of the big awards and they had all given up. But we were called to go on and I couldn't believe it. Six teams from the qualifiers we were at made it to go on. I'm happy the kids are happy but I hope I can start crafting some time soon.

Thanks for reading!

A little late ...

2011-11-11T21:42:00.000-10:00

Hi! I'm so happy that I'm done with all the Lego favors, signs and display board. I made a ton of stuff and I'm excited to get back into stamping! Thought I'd better share what I made for my sons' classes for Halloween this year before it's too late.

I just made simple goody bags. I wanted to make the little treat bags from PTI but they are kind of small and can't really fit much so decided to go with the orange bags with the fun characters on top (from PTI). I made about 40. My older son actually has only 18 kids in his class which is just amazing since my daughter has about 27 or so.

Just a short post to share the Halloween goodies. Tomorrow is the day of our qualifiers. It's pretty much an all day event so hopefully I'll get to bed early tonight though I really want to stamp something.

Thanks for reading!

TGF Heart Journaling--week 16

2011-11-09T16:47:00.000-10:00

Hi! Gee, I can't believe the week has flown by already and here I am trying to post my entry for TGF's Heart Journaling almost at the last minute again. I thought about quitting but I'm already more than half way there so I got myself to hurry up and make the page I wanted to. This week is to use hearts so I thought that should be relatively easy. But I didn't really know what to do with the hearts. Then I remembered this tutorial by Jessica Witty (see HERE) where she made a heart garland from crepe paper using a heart die. So I thought I'd finally try that.

But instead of crepe paper, I used tissue paper with my heart dies from MFT. I also stamped some hearts from TGF. The quote is one of my favorites and I love jewelry that has these little inspirational quotes. I don't usually by them for myself though. I think they make great presents especially for graduation.

Alright, that is it. This Saturday is our Lego Robotics qualifiers. I still have last minute photos to develop and some other stuff to complete. But I'm sick again and so is my youngest. The cold my daughter had is finally making its way through our house.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

TGF Heart Journal--week 15

2011-11-02T21:31:00.000-10:00

Hi! Wow, it's week 15 of TGF's Heart Journaling! This is the closest I've come to missing the deadline. I don't know how the days go by so quickly but because school was done earlier and I got sick over the weekend and my daughter is sick too now, I didn't have much time to craft. Plus it was Halloween too! I actually had to think what I wanted to create while driving my kids around to school and other activities. Finally, I had a few minutes to sit down and finish the page. Good thing the theme for this week is to use a little or a lot of sticky. So I thought of using stickers and it was quick to stick them onto the page instead of using glue.

Sorry, photo may look kind of dark. Anyway, this is my tribute to Sanrio and Morning Glory's Blue Bear. I used my daughter's stash of cute stickers. The border is My Melody washi tape which I have in 2 other colors as well and cost a small fortune but it's so cute! My nihongo is a bit rusty so hopefully kawaii is spelled correctly in hiragana. I found these cute hiragana stamps and thought I could use those to spell arigatoo or something for my kids' Japanese language teachers. I did end up asking my daughter to double check my hiragana. She's been taking Japanese since kindergarten now and has learned all of the hiragana chart and working her way through katakana now.

Thanks for reading and hopefully I'll be able to post more regularly once Lego Robotics is done. Just another week or so left!

TGF Heart Journal--week 14

2011-10-25T09:45:00.000-10:00

Hi! Just a quick post for TGF's Heart Journal--week 14. This week's assignment is to create a page with only 2 main colors. I've noticed the tip hasn't changed the last 2-3 weeks. So maybe they are out of tips?? Anyway, I decided to try the black and white pencil coloring on kraft.

This is the last Pickle stamp (Wild Rose Studio) that I bought. He is probably my favorite though my kids liked the 2 penguins together the best. I tried my best with the Prismacolor pencils. I wasn't in a rush but knew I couldn't spend the whole day on it. So I had to keep the layout pretty simple cause there's so much to do. Just rubbed some gray/black charcoal for the background.

Plus my kids have early release the next few days due to conferences so that will really cramp my style.

Thanks so much for reading!

Halloween Treats

2011-10-22T23:38:00.000-10:00

Hi! Thought I'd take a little break from Lego and post some Halloween treats I made for some of my kids' teachers.

I used PTI's Favor it box 6 die and the coordinating Halloween Treats and Sweets stamp set and dies. I have to admit that this is the set that broke my PTI boycott. Hehe. I was doing so well not purchasing from them every month but when I saw this set I really wanted it. Sooo cute! Though the box is a bit small I think for stuffing with candy for the kids.

So for all of these, I used cardstock for the boxes and just used felt for the front to conserve (or hoard) my felt. Plus I think the card stock makes it a bit sturdier. Nichole had a project using all felt but after I cut an entire one out of felt, it didn't look like it could keep it's shape nicely. I stitched some of the features on the cat. And look more googly eyes!

Here's a spider and skeleton. A mini hand sanitizer from Bath and Body Works fit in the boxes nicely. The spider is holding 3 small packages of jelly beans. See, can't hold much candy. Well, from a kid's point of view, anyway.

I'll be entering this in Wee Memories Challenge -- Free for all

I miss stamping and coloring. :( Still 3 more weeks of Lego practice and prep to go. I will share the favors and whatnot when I'm done with them. I think they will turn out cute!

Thanks so much for reading and hope you're having a great weekend!

TGF Heart Journaling--week 13

2011-10-18T05:46:00.000-10:00

Hi! It's week 13 of TGF's Heart Journaling. The theme this week is to create a page based on a number. I knew which number I wanted to focus on since it was recently my daughter's birthday.

Yes, she was born on the 13th (and coincidentally it's the 13th week of this journaling). She was supposed to be born on the 12th but I guess she was pretty stubborn that she had to wait til the 13th. I went into labor about 10 pm on the 12th and she was born almost 24 hours later! Yeah, I was so out of it during this delivery. I remember telling the doctor I didn't really want her born on the 13th cause it seemed to unlucky. He actually asked me if I wanted to wait til the 14th! At that point, no. I didn't care if she was born on the 13th. Plus she has shown us that she is a smart and wonderful little girl, and that 13 is not unlucky at all.

We're just a few weeks away from the Lego robotics qualifiers. So I may not be able to craft as much on what I want to. I'll be making signs, favors for the other teams and leis for our kids these next few days. I hope to squeeze in some cards here and there though.

Thanks for reading!

September 2012

2011-10-17T11:49:00.000-10:00

Hi! I received my order from My Favorite Things recently so I got a chance to make my next page using their current sketch. This one is for September 2012.

Here's the sketch.

I decided to rotate the sketch to fit the image and my scrapbook/calendar better. The image is Pure Innocence Morning Glory. I kept the background really simple. You could call it laziness, hehe. But I like the way the image stands out. I taped some washi tape across the cardstock, pretty simple. I used my new Prismacolor pencils and tried to blend (burnish?) without using OMS. I will need more practice. I used my white pencil to help with the blending since I don't have a colorless blender yet. Then I drew in some grass for her to stand on.

The other page.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Many Thanks

2011-10-16T13:23:00.000-10:00

Hello. And I have another card! Because I let my husband do all the laundry and play with the kids this afternoon, hee hee! Plus fall break is ending and our relatives left this morning so it's been relatively quiet today.

Anyhow, it's been a long time since I did a TGF challenge, but I made one for Farm Fresh Friday Spy Day #2. And finally used some paper and stamps that I'd bought a while ago but never got around to making anything with.

I colored Thursday with my black and white pencils. Excuse the spot in the middle of her face, of all the places for the kraft paper to have a dark fleck, it was where I decided to stamp her face! I've tried this coloring once before, I didn't realize it was so long ago. Maybe I should have watched Deconstructing Jen's video again now that I look at her post and realize her image looks colored way differently. Used some patterned paper from Crate Paper, which probably looks a little too bright and spring-like together with Creeper Thursday, but I didn't want to color another image all over again. The paper flowers are from SEI with little gems added to the centers. And lastly a sentiment from PTI's Tag-Its. Bye!

best witches

2011-10-15T14:30:00.000-10:00

Hi! Wasn't it nice to see a post from Cheryl?? She needs more time to craft. Anyway, I was inspired by the sketch at Some Odd Girl and the recipe challenge #20 over at Paper Works Co to make a little something. It's my first time with the Paper Works Co challenge though I've visited the site often for their cute Rachelle A. Miller stamps. Thought I'd give this challenge a try after spotting it on Corinne's blog as well. The recipe calls for an image that "floats," ribbon and brads/eyelets.

Here's the SOG sketch.

Here's my card using SOG's Witchy Tia. I was so excited for so many different reasons to make this card. Kristy over at SOG celebrated her birthday with a sale so I picked up some digital images. I think it's still on until this weekend. But you might remember me saying I didn't like my printer because my images always smeared with my Copics even after a night of drying or heat setting. BUT I realized with my new addiction to colored pencils that I didn't really have to worry about this anymore since I don't use OMS either. AND the other great thing?? You can change the outline color of the stamp image! So I printed this out in a light peach tone instead of black for that no black lines look.

AND I'm also excited cause I just bought my first set of Prisma colored pencils today. I've been using a combination of Crayola/Hello Kitty/Rose Art pencils. I'll try the Prisma colored pencils tonight! I was so lucky to win a gift card to Ben Franklin from Joy's blog and it came just in time to use with my 40% off coupon. It really helped with the purchase.

Back to my card! The tag and sentiment is from PTI. I wrapped some black and orange ribbon around the card and attached a purple brad to the tag. And witches on broomsticks float, right? Hopefully, that qualifies. Hehe.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Birthday Kitty

2011-10-14T18:43:00.000-10:00

Hello. I finally made a card! I feel like I'm being relatively productive, but when I actually need a card, I don't have anything in my stash! I think I agonize too much over what to make and where to put things and it takes me forever to finish a card! I'm finally posting it now since it arrived in the mail to the intended recipient, whew, luckily it made it on time. I thought I would have more time over fall break, like not needing to wake up so early to get the kids ready for school, but I don't know where the time goes, maybe watching too much X-factor!

First I wanted to use my new Spellbinders heart circle. Which was part of my problem because I couldn't find any card sketches online last week that used a big circle! And then I didn't want to waste too much time web surfing when I had to get this into the mailbox. Then I wanted a birthday-ish image, so out of all the Wild Rose Studio clearance stamps that I had bought, this one seemed the most appropriate, except now I'm thinking I should have colored the cat gray or something to match the cardstock better. And ack, but I don't actually have a sentiment on the front, which feels a little weird to me, but I couldn't find a good place to put it. I actually wanted to use my Papertrey Ink Big Birthday Wishes but it was hard to squeeze those large sentiments, numbers, plus this large cat image onto the heart circle.

So I just put those on the inside. Which is why there is a pink circle on a pink card since I had already glued the numbers down to the circle. OK, that's about it for me. Eva, I'm looking forward to more of your crafty creations. I'm thinking at this rate, I better get started on some Xmas cards and forget Halloween already!

Sharing is Caring

2011-10-11T22:11:00.000-10:00

Hi! It's me again! So I do still have 2 loads of laundry to fold and a stack of library books that I need to record for my son's reading log but I did make another card today and almost completed it by the time I went to pick up the kids. Hehe. I wanted to make a thank you card because my 2 boys recently received this huge bag full of Pokemon cards from my daughter's classmate who no longer wanted them. My boys were so happy to say the least. There must have been well over a few hundred cards! It was so generous of him especially since we know it can be hard for kids to give things away even if they don't play with them any more.

So I found some inspiration over at TGF's Spy Day challenge.

I basically followed the layout and this is a different kind of card for me since it has so much going on in terms of patterned papers. But I like how fun it looks. I opted not to include the twine and bling just to keep it more kid friendly. My older son picked the image because he thinks this Oliver is cute.

I colored TGF's Oliver from Just for You with pencils. I showed it to my husband when he got home from work and he asked me why the boy has a huge bandage on his head! It's a hat! It doesn't look too bandage-y, does it? I think it's still cute, especially his little wink.

Okay, I should try to clear off my desk of the books and maybe fold one load of laundry now.

Thanks for reading!

TGF Heart Journaling--week 12

2011-10-11T11:37:00.000-10:00

Hi! TGF Heart Journaling time again! It's week 12, so finally at the half way mark. This time the theme is to make a watercolor effect. So I went with my kids' watercolors and my hubby's old watercolor pencils.

Yeah, it's Christmas again! This penguin is also from Wild Rose Studios and is called Pickle. He's cute! So I tried to make a tree with the watercolors and did the background as well. This is the reason why I don't draw and instead buy stamps. Hehe.

I used watercolor pencils for Pickle and I like the way that came out. Found the quote online after searching for a bit for something that would match my scene. I didn't really know quite what I was going for, just that I wanted to use this stamp.

Gee, the time goes by so quickly. I hope I can finish another card before picking up the kids. But stuff like chores and laundry get in the way.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

merry kiss-mas

2011-10-10T13:28:00.000-10:00

Hi! Wow, 8 kids plus our own 3 for lego robotics practice can get pretty wild. After hanging out with all the kids, you can really see how great each one is. But after about 4 hours of robotics, you really need a break! And boy, can the kids eat!

Anyway, I wanted to make a card after seeing the current sketch over at the Deconstructed Sketch no. 22.

The triangle in the middle reminded me of Christmas trees so I flipped it and made a Christmas card.

The trees are made from PTI's tree die. The little tag plus the sentiment is also from PTI and the snowflake is an MFT die. I embossed the cardstock with a snowflake folder from Sizzix and the red DP is embossed with another Sizzix folder.

I chose TGF's A Cheeky Xmas and colored her in with pencils. Can you tell I'm slightly addicted to pencils now? Though I thought her hat was kind of difficult to color. I outlined the fluffy parts with a light blue copic pen. There is a small pompom at the end of her hat and I added flower soft too.

Some seam binding ribbon and a pin which totally remind me of snowmen.

Also plan to enter this into All that Scraps Challenge--anything goes.

It's back to the school routine tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!

hugs

2011-10-08T23:00:00.000-10:00

Hi! Here's another card for Splitcoast Stampers Hope you can cling to challenges. This time I made a card for the pink critters challenge.

I went with a super simple layout, the same one as the card HERE. Again I used colored pencils and tried the no stamped lines technique. The elephants are from Paper Smooches' A Little Lovin and I think they are so adorable. The sentiment is also from Paper Smooches' (Sentiment Sampler). And I made a little pink ribbon with bling.

Thanks for reading!

Pink ribbon

2011-10-07T12:48:00.000-10:00

Hi! I saw that TGF was one of the sponsors for Splitcoast Stampers Hope you can cling to challenges. They have a whole bunch of challenges listed and will be adding more to benefit breast cancer patients at MD Anderson Cancer Center. You can read all the details on their forum. One of the challenges listed is hosted by Beate and is called Encircled with Love (make a circle card).

I knew I wanted to make a card with TGF's Fancy Anya because of the way her hands are apart enough to place a small ribbon between them. I used my lacey circle nestabilities and tried to just keep it simple and it's blank so the recipient can use it for whatever kind of card they wish to.

Still practicing my pencil coloring using just my kids' pencils. I also wanted to try the no lines look that I first saw on Carisa's blog. You can see it HERE. She did hers with Copics but I'm too chicken to try it with pens so thought I'd ease into it with pencils. Though I think I shouldn't have outlined her hair so much. Will try this again though. I didn't have a really light ink pad so I just used my usual Memento's rich cocoa and stamped it twice to get a lighter shade of brown. Then started coloring her in with pencils.

Okay, I really have to start cleaning the house now. I've procrastinated long enough.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

sweetest wishes

2011-10-06T22:56:00.000-10:00

Hi! I almost thought I wouldn't be able to make a card for TGF's first Monday Funday Challenge to use scallops. But I found some time tonight though I should've actually been cleaning the house and getting ready for my daughter's Lego robotics team to come over to our house for practice.

Anyway, here is my card. I stuck with something simple and sweet. This is TGF's Cuddle Anya. Isn't she super cute? Love her and her hat and bear. I used a scalloped square and actually went around and punched holes to give it that eyelet look. The background is stamped with Hero Arts canvas. The tree die cut and sentiment is from PTI.

I thought I'd practice my pencil coloring again. I used my kids' regular color pencils. Now I think I need to practice the hair.

Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!

Thanks for reading!

Thank you

2011-10-05T09:37:00.000-10:00

Hi! I made a simple card to share. It's a Thank you for my son's preschool teacher's aide. Her last day is this Friday so even though my son has only known her for a couple months, I thought we could at least make her a couple of thank you cards. Why do preschool teacher's aides have such a high turnover rate? It makes it so difficult for children.

My card was inspired by the Deconstructed Sketch #21, PTI's Make It Monday #35--custom washi tape, and Lawn Fawn's WCMD challenge--thank you cards.

I liked the sketch and I wanted to keep my card really simple just to show the custom washi tape. Cardstock and sentiment is from PTI. Paper doily is from Martha Stewart.

The widest width scor tape I have is half an inch so I taped 3 strips edge to edge on the tissue paper to make a wider one. I stamped Lawn Fawn's hearts from Teeny Tiny Backdrops. Then taped it onto a piece of clear cardstock (PTI) before cutting it with PTI's butterfly die. The clear cardstock makes it strong enough to keep its shape and is just a bit transparent. The longer strip is the half inch washi tape. This is such a neat way to make washi tape!

Also wanted to share the thank you card my son made for his teacher. He liked the card I had made with TGF's Birthday Ian so wanted to copy it. His says thank you instead of love you.

I'm off to take the kiddies out for lunch.

Thanks for reading!

TGF Heart Journaling--week 11

2011-10-04T09:56:00.000-10:00

Hi! Yes, I have another post! I know, it's kind of a lot but I have to post before the deadlines. It's week 11 for TGF's Heart Journaling. This week's theme is Bloom & Grow. I thought of doing flowers but then found this quote online by Robert Browning about growing old together and of course I thought TGF's Grandparents set would be perfect.

Aren't they so super cute? I want to be a sweet grandma like that. I also used TGF's My House set for the homes in the background.

I used my kids' colored pencils to color them in. I kind of like the pencil look and seems easier to shade than with Copics though I'll have to work on the skin tone.

While I was working on this, it reminded me of my embarrassing moment of the week. I was at my daughter's friend's house and I saw his parents' wedding picture. It was dated 1991 and for some strange reason that I still don't really know, I thought my husband and I were married in 1991 also. So of course I told the mom, oh we were married then too. So she said wow, 20 years too? Then I thought really, 20 years? Hmmm, how come we didn't celebrate that? So I go home and I ask my hubby, have we been married 20 years? He's all quiet and then is like we didn't know each other 20 years ago. Oh because 1991 is when I graduated from high school! Not got married! Okay, you can all try to calculate how old I am now. Of course I had to clarify this to the other mom and so embarrassing that my brain had temporarily stopped working.

Thanks for reading!

love you

2011-10-03T22:34:00.000-10:00

Hi! I made a card for TGF's WCMD/Splitcoast Stampers Announcement Challenge. We were to case any one of TGF's former or current DT members. So I checked out Joni Wilson's blog and found this super cute card. I really liked that it looked so fresh and clean and something that I normally don't do. And it was just a sweet, little card.

Here's my card. I used Birthday Ian. He is so cute! Then I stamped the word love from one of Lawn Fawn's sets and the brackets from MFT's Say What set.

A nice and simple card. I should make more cards like this.

Thanks for reading!

August 2012

2011-10-03T11:45:00.000-10:00

Hi! We had a short black out this morning and I didn't know what to do without my computer and internet, and I couldn't go blog surfing. I was sad but I did cut everything out for my kids' Halloween goody bags. Good thing my Big Shot isn't electric.

Anyway, I made another page to my 2012 calendar/scrapbook using MFT's sketch #39 and Pure Innocence Year of Flowers series Poppy.

Here's my page. Somehow I'm not loving this one too much. I love the image but somehow the colors remind me of fall too much and not too summery. And I think the proportions are a bit off. But I decided to just stick with it. It's still cute.

Here's a picture of both pages.

I'm gonna have to wait til I order the next couple months to continue. But I'm happy I've made it this far!

The kiddies are home for fall break. It's nice but messy and noisy. It may be a long week.

Thanks for reading!

Where are my googly eyes?!

2011-09-29T13:02:00.000-10:00

Hi! I've made another card for PTI's Make it Monday #34 Thick Chipboard accents. I like making cute stuff for kids so I really wanted to use one of PTI's Boy Basics mini stamp sets. After going back and forth between the trucks or the rocket or the frog, I finally settled on the frog. And I thought an interactive card would be fun for a kid and thought the chipboard idea would work well since the many layers really make the die cut pretty sturdy.

So here is PTI's Boy Basics Frog Hop. I thought a spinner card would be fun. You can find a tutorial HERE. I just made an arch instead of a straight path using my old Coluzzle.

I used PTI's coasters instead of boxes I had around the house. I layered 4 of the die cut frogs and then the Echo Park DP frog over that. So the layers kind of make it heavier so it doesn't spin much but it's easy for the child to manipulate and make the frog hop over to the other pad. Papers over the lily pad die cuts are also from Echo Park.

There he goes, concentrating on that fly. I couldn't find my googly eyes for the longest time. I really wanted the frog to have some googly eyes cause he looks so much better with them. So of course I had to go and buy more though I know I must still have some from before.

Made it safe to the other side.

I think it would be cute to make similar cards with the trucks and rockets too. There's so much you could do, make winding roads for the cars or have a race and it could be much larger than a card. And the same with the rocket too. This reminds me of my days making speech therapy materials for my kids. So many concepts you could work on!

I'll also be entering this into Wee Memories Challenge #69, Simon Says Stamp Challenge--Anything Goes, and Paper Sundaes Challenge #88--Anything Goes.

Thanks for reading!

It's been a while

2011-09-27T11:09:00.000-10:00

Hi! I haven't played in PTI's Make It Monday in a while. This week is Challenge #34 Thick Chipboard Accents. I thought this might be a fun challenge to participate in.

I used PTI's Bitty Halloween Treats and Sweets dies to make the thick tags I tied onto PTI's Favor it Box 6. I cut out 15 bitty baskets from some snack box I had in the kitchen and glued 5 together for each one. I cut 3 more using black card stock. I used glossy accents to stick the layers together. It works pretty well. Their little faces were stamped using the coordinating stamp set.

I stamped the names onto the boxes using PTI's Outlines Alphabet. Good thing they have relatively short names or names I could shorten.

I added some black stickles for some fun accents.

I tied them onto the larger boxes with some Halloween twine. Now I have to figure out what small treat I can fit into these cute boxes. I also thought I could add a magnet onto the back of each bitty one and stick them on the fridge after the kids open their treats. The extra layers really make them sturdy.

Thanks for reading!

Rainbow 10!

2011-09-26T12:54:00.000-10:00

Hi! I didn't feel like cleaning much today (I'm sure I'll be paying for it later). Instead I made a simple corner bookmark/card for my daughter who will be turning 10 soon. I can't believe she is in the double digits now--there's no turning back! Sigh, where does the time go?

So I thought I'd use the rainbow colors inspiration from TGF's Which Card Wednesday. And also will be submitting this into Paper Sundaes Challenge #88-- Anything Goes.

I used TGF's Birthday Anya 2 who is such a cutie. My daughter loves her. I colored her dress pretty simply in rainbow colors and tried to make rainbow colored sprinkles on her cupcake. Added some stickles too. The numbers are die cut from PTI's numbers set. The kraft cardstock is embossed with Cuttlebug's birthday folder.

I like making these bookmarks for my kids' birthdays. They are simple and fast and my kids can use them too. I usually write a little note on the backside.

Thanks for reading!

TGF Heart Journal--week 10

2011-09-25T22:06:00.000-10:00

Hi! It's week 10 of TGF's Heart Journal! Almost half way there! So this week's assignment was to use some sort of tearing. The tip was to make an interesting background kind of like a collage which I realize I didn't really do. Well, mostly cause we don't have any magazines! I cleaned the house and threw away all the old magazines. Usually we donate them to the library but they were really old like a year or so! I guess they were just hiding out in our house somewhere. Anyway, back to my page.

I wanted to use this penguin stamp so much! They are so cute! Wild Rose Studio has a new line of penguin stamps! He is called Pickle the Penguin. My daughter loves penguins so much so I had to get some. This one is called Christmas Cuddles. I tore up the edges of the snowflake DP and just used some printer paper for the bottom and added a lot of stickles for the glittery-ness.

Sorry if the glitter is kind of blinding! So hard to take a good picture with glitter reflecting everywhere. I just love this image! And I know I already said it before but they are so cute!

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Halloween Gift Card Holder

2011-09-24T22:33:00.000-10:00

Hi! I think I'm working backwards. After a bunch of Christmas projects, I thought I'd better get onto Halloween. And really what pushed me to start was TGF's Farm Fresh Friday Halloween challenge. I thought I'd also play along with Crazy 4 Challenges C4C106--Halloween projects and Simon Says Stamp--use dies or punches.

I thought I'd make a little haunted house for Halloween. I used TGF's Spooktacular set (rubber version). It's now available in digi form. I used Magnolia's Tilda lace die for the roof, Martha Stewart's scary fence punch, My Favorite Things grass die, and Spellbinders' rectangle dies for the windows and door (which got hidden by the witch). I distressed the edges with my scissors and sponged some white over the house.

Here's a little close up.

The house opens up from the roof end to reveal a treat! A gift card! It's held closed with some velcro. More trick or treaters from TGF's Spooktacular set. I embossed some spider webs using Tim Holtz's embossing folder and sponged them in white. The sentiments on the web are from the same TGF set. The letters for Boo! were die cut using my Sizzlit alphabet die. I'm not sure what it's called.

Here's a little close up of where the gift card goes. You can see the spider sticker too. I cut a small slit with one of the Spellbinders rectangle dies. This house was made using the whole length of an 8.5 by 11 inch piece of cardstock. The widest part of the roof measures 6 inches.

I thought this would be a cute way to give a gift card to one of my kids' teachers for Halloween. Adults need treats too, especially teachers!

Thanks for reading and hope you're having a great weekend!

July 2012

2011-09-22T11:22:00.000-10:00

Hi! Yes, I'm totally catching up on my 2012 calendar/scrapbook! I followed MFT's sketch 38 for the month of July.

This is Pure Innocence Waterlily. I think she's super cute! Colored her dress like a rainbow.

The pages together.

This is a super short post! Hope you're having a great day!

Thanks for reading!

TGF Heart Journal--week 9

2011-09-19T21:56:00.000-10:00

Hi! It's week 9! I almost thought I wouldn't do this one cause I was totally stumped. The assignment for this week's TGF journaling is Cut and Paste, to use a head from a magazine or something and draw in a body. So I think this page will either make you laugh or think that I'm crazy. My hubby thought my page was borderline disturbing. Really?

Maybe cause she has a chicken body? He thought the red was too blood like. He took it so literal. Geez. I thought it was funny. I drew the chicken body myself too! I like it! He did like the bawking. Well, we had a good laugh about it. The background is made up of different papers that I tore and pasted down. I even tore the chicken body and head out. I journaled inside the chicken's body.

Hopefully, my page doesn't give anyone nightmares.

Thanks for reading!

Keep Cozy

2011-09-18T22:06:00.000-10:00

Hi! I think I have Christmas on my brain. So when I saw the latest Farm Fresh Friday Challenge at TGF, I really wanted to use the snowmen from their Keep Cozy set. And also because the challenge is "white out" or a white theme, it reminded me of snow (snowmen), although it doesn't snow here. I was lucky enough too that my Keep Cozy set came in the mail on Saturday. Just in time! So I decided to make some tags using all the snowmen.

I used PTI's tag sale die and stamped the sentiments that come with the Keep Cozy set before embossing the tags with Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots folder. I colored their carrot noses, added some bling for buttons and some glossy accents on some parts of each snowman (earmuffs, top hat and mittens). I cut out the cute snowmen and popped them up with dimensionals. I added stickles on the raised dots of the tags. You can click the photo for a close up. I have to say that trying to photograph this was kind of tough. It's either too much glare or the colors get blown out or can't see all the accents. So finally, I think this was the best I could do.

Now I have to get going on my art journal assignment. I think my daughter has given up or actually doesn't have much time for it anymore in her schedule. She is busier than I am.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

On Your 81st Birthday

2011-09-17T18:25:00.000-10:00

Hello. I'm actually making a seasonal card, before the season is over, or technically even before it begins since it still feels like summer weather around here.

Anyhow, I was wanting to make a fall birthday card, and found this Hero Arts leaves stamp set that I won last winter from a blog giveaway. So I searched online to get some ideas of what people have done with this set, and I found this card by Nichol Magouirk. I thought she did some neat things with the background stamping, so here is my version, the simplified version. This was quite a bit of stamping for me though.

First off, this is a larger card than usual, I just folded the letter size cardstock (Summer Sunrise from PTI) in half. I used Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge distress ink for the leaves, and Scattered Straw for the text. The text is rather faint, which turned out to be a good thing since I stamped one half upside down! It's one of those really slanty old style handwriting fonts from a Studio 490 background stamp. I actually wasn't really paying attention until after I stamped it as I was more concerned with positioning the card over the stamp since I didn't have a huge acrylic block for it.

The brown piece was embossed with a woodgrain folder, then I added walnut stain distress ink to the raised areas trying to make them stand out more, but it didn't really make an obvious difference. I cut the numbers on my Craft Robo, using a thick chunky font, Nobility Casual. I thought my little machine wouldn't be able to handle Papertrey ink cardstock, but I just cut it twice (there is actually a double cut function which I didn't notice at first) and it turned out OK. Then I stamped the numbers with a background stamp from Studio 490, again, like I've seen Nichol Magouirk do with her die cuts.

The Big Birthday Wishes words were embossed with black embossing powder. That was a bit of a mistake as the ink was a little too dry, so the powder didn't stick too well to the actual stamped images but decided to stick everywhere else on the cardstock. Then finally I added the 2 little Tiny Tags in Terracotta Tile. It feels a bit empty on the right, but oh well, that's what happens when I don't use a sketch. Maybe I will slide the string and tags over to the right a little more.

Then I put another Spellbinders label on the inside with the birthday sentiment. I was actually going to use this size label initially for the cover, but since the card was so huge, I changed it to the largest label instead.

June 2012

2011-09-15T13:08:00.001-10:00

Hi! I am slowly catching up with my 2012 calendar/scrapbook. Just finished June so I'm half way there. It is super muggy here and I'm trying to get the fan to aim directly at my back while I write up this post. Here is the sketch from My Favorite Things.

I've used Pure Innocence Rose. She is the cutie for the month of June.

Here's the other page too.

Short little post today. Thanks for reading!

stir, sip & enjoy

2011-09-12T22:26:00.000-10:00

Hi! I was so inspired by TGF's current Farm Fresh Friday challenge--You're Hot and You're Cold to finally use Cafe Ian. And I have that song in my head every time I read the challenge post. I wasn't quite sure what to make until I saw an unopened box of hot chocolate on my shelf. I was afraid it was expired but hot chocolate lasts a long time--this box doesn't expire until 2012! Anyway, I thought I could make like a tea box dispenser thingy except larger to hold hot chocolate packets. But in the end, I made it a bit different.

It's almost like an upright tissue box cover but just smaller. It fits 10 packets of hot chocolate.

Here is the front with Cafe Ian. I love this paper and thought he matched nicely sipping hot chocolate on Xmas morning. The sentiment is from PTI's Tiny Treats Christmas.

A different view.

The top view. I used PTI's label die to cut through the top for easy access.

I think my project fits both the hot and cold theme. It's Christmas-y but also it's hot chocolate. Hehe. I'm glad too that I made another Xmas gift for one of my kids' teachers/classroom aides/extra-curricular coach/teachers. After making my list, I realize there are about 16 teacher gifts I have to make! I've made 3 things so far so 13 more to go. That's doable, right? Though I better get on to the Halloween goodies too.

Thanks for reading!

TGF Heart Journal--week 8

2011-09-11T14:17:00.000-10:00

Hi! It is week 8 (wow, 2 months now) of TGF's Heart Journaling and we're still keeping up. The concept is to use one word as the focal point.

So this is my layout inspired by the significance of today. I watercolored the background with blues and black. And painted the word remember. I added some journaling of what I remember from 10 years ago. Ten years ago, I was 36 weeks pregnant with my first baby. It was almost my last day of work before my one year leave of absence. One of the schools I worked at was on the Marine Corp Base and I was to be there that morning to meet my supervisor. Of course that meeting didn't happen because the school was closed and security tight. I didn't even try to get on base that day. The next day was my baby shower. A co-worker asked me what kind of world I was bringing my baby into. I really didn't know what to say.

Here is my daughter's layout. She was the one in my belly 10 year ago. Her layout is so bright as always and optimistic. She didn't know what word to focus on but finally chose love. It's so fitting too for this day, isn't it?

Thanks for reading.

May 2012

2011-09-09T12:33:00.000-10:00

Hi! Okay, so I am now really behind making my 2012 calendar using Pure Innocence Year of Flowers series from MFT. Really, I am going to get on it. I just wish it wasn't so hot here. So muggy now that I need to use a fan but that's not so great when there are paper scraps everywhere.

Here is the sketch from MFT. Week 36 already!

The left side follows the sketch using Pure Innocence Lily of the Valley stamp. I paper pieced her dress. I think these flowers are usually white but I made mine light yellow. The right page is my computer generated calendar with space above for a photo so that I can use this also as a scrapbook once the year is done. Trying to be practical too.

I already have the June and July stamps so hopefully I can catch up making these pages. I already precut the pages and punched the holes so I can start once I see the new sketch.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

TGF Heart Journal--week 7

2011-09-07T09:19:00.000-10:00

Hi! It's week 7 of TGF's Heart Journaling. I'm almost late with this one since I was doing my countdown calendar, and I didn't have much time over the weekend to work on my layout. My daughter did hers early but I just finished mine last night. The concept for this week is to use clouds and the tip to use materials we can find around our home.

My daughter's layout. She always makes bright colored layouts. She used the piggy from TGF's Fly Away set and the butterflies from PTI's Butterfly Dreams. She painted the background with watercolors and used metallic pencils for the images.

My layout. Kept it kind of simple this week. I sponged my blue ink pad over the page for the background. I used chipboard that I taped with washi tape and then die cut the clouds out using PTI's clouds dies. I cut some clouds from doilies too and lay them over the washi tape ones. I made a mistake on one of the clouds in my rush to finish. I stamped the hot air balloon from the same set my daughter used and colored with metallic pencils also. Not sure I love this one. Definitely need to set aside more time to complete the layouts.

Thanks for reading!

110 days til Xmas

2011-09-05T23:25:00.000-10:00

Hi! So I spent most of this long weekend working on one project to enter in TGF's Farm Fresh Friday--By the Numbers challenge. I wasn't sure what to make until I saw my calendar and was inspired to make a countdown calendar. My kids love counting down to Xmas.

It took me a while to make this because I had to figure out the dimensions and what not, and I had a couple different layouts in mind but finally went with the simplest one. This stamp is from TGF's Xmas Sweeties. The numbers are die cut with PTI's numbers die set and the sentiment was made with PTI's Simple Alphabet set.

My kids love counting down to other occasions too so I included New Year's Day,

Easter (digis are hard for me to color. They don't dry well even when I heat set them so there are some smudges here and there),

my son's birthday,

my daughter's birthday,

first day back to school,

and Halloween!

I used my Cinch to bind it all together and made an easel like backing so it can stand.

My kids love it so the long hours crafting was worth it. And I guess we have to decide what occasion to count down to.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

a quickie birthday card

2011-09-04T18:27:00.000-10:00

Hello. Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend. I don't usually make birthday cards for my son's friends since I'm usually so last minute I don't even have time before the parties. But today I actually had time, plus I needed one. I was going to choose a ready made one from the Basic Grey Oliver card kit but it seemed to be more for babies or other occasions. And I already used the birthday one from the card kit last week for another birthday boy.

I followed the sketch at Card Positioning Systems.

The dog with presents is from It's My Birthday from CC Designs Rubber Stamps. I think I got a little impatient with the coloring plus used too big of a blending stump. Oh well, I hope the birthday boy won't notice. I actually used an older Papertrey Ink set, the Borders and Corners Circles stamps. My son actually stamped the little stars in the corners. I used the same Tim Holtz paper pack that I've used on previous cards. Seems like I always use these colors for boy cards, I need to find some color challenges or something.

I also played around with some cutting files. I have the first generation Craft Robo which actually works with the latest Silhouette Studio software. The envelope is a template I bought from Kerri Bradford's online store. Note to self, the envelope is 4 3/8 by 6 1/8 inches without resizing. I actually cut the envelope too small the first time because I thought it wouldn't fit on my cutting mat. I didn't get too fancy with it, there were polka dots and icons you could cut out from the envelopes as well. Well, have a good rest of the weekend!

Gift card holder

2011-09-03T14:20:00.000-10:00

Hi! I made a little something for TGF's Which One Wednesday Sketch #10, Ribbon Carousel's Challenge 18 All Tied Up (use more than 1 spool item), and Some Odd Girl Challenge Paper Piecing.

When I saw the sketch, it reminded me of a Double Pocket Card. See HERE for a tutorial. But I didn't follow the tutorial. I made the bottom boxes in the sketch into pockets. One to hold a gift card and the other to hold a little card for a message.

I used TGF's Vivi. She is popped up a bit on the first pocket.

Vivi is paper pieced and I found my stash of bells after searching all my crafting bins. I tied one on to the end of her cap with some twine and added some flower soft too.

This is what the inserts look like. The smaller one will hold the gift card. I just used some removable tape and an old gift card I found for reference. The larger one has a label (from PTI) so my son can scribble his name on it. Both the inserts have some ribbon tied on with twine.

I made this one for my younger son's preschool teacher who is a man. It's the first time any of my kids have had a male teacher as their main teacher so I was kind of stumped on gifts. I didn't think a stack of cutesy note cards would appeal to a young guy so figure I better go the gift card route. I have to make one more for the aide in the classroom. She seems young too so I'm thinking gift card as well.

So I've started my Xmas crafts for teachers. Now I've got 3 kids in school, I'm starting early. Not to mention all their extracurricular activities.

Thanks for reading and have a great long weekend!

Grrr!

2011-08-31T10:38:00.000-10:00

Hi! Grrr!--is that what Frankenstein says? I'm not too sure. Anyway, I made a second card for Lily Pad Cards sketch challenge sponsored by The Greeting Farm. My first entry is HERE if you're interested. Remember the sketch?

When I first saw this sketch I totally saw a face. Those knobby things on the side look like ears to me. But I didn't really think drawing a huge face on a card would look that cute until I thought of Halloween. And that brings me to my card for today.

Hehehe. Is he not cute?! I mean for a monster, he's kind of cute. But I'm really proud of myself cause I made him with my dies and a couple of punches. No stamps except for that scar above his eye which is from the mouth of a skeleton face in PTI's Halloween Treats and Sweets set. His face uses Spellbinders reverse wonky rectangles, and I used my corner punch to round the bottom of his face. His hair (PTI felt) is made with a partial die cut using the reverse wonky rectangles. The bottom of his hair uses MFT's grass die but the reverse side cause otherwise you'd just get a strip of hair. Does that make sense? Various size circle dies/punch for his eyes and the bolt thingies on the sides of his face. His mouth is from PTI's rickrack die.

I had some leftover Bo Bunny Halloween papers from last year. And the sentiment is cut from one of the papers. I added some puffy soft spider stickers I've had for too many years now and finally found them a good home.

Thanks for reading!

TGF Farm Fashionista

2011-08-30T13:32:00.000-10:00

Hi! I decided at the last minute to make something for TGF's Farm Fashionista Challenge. I wasn't really planning to participate because I'm not really the fashionable person. I'd much rather buy $100 worth of stamps than designer clothes or shoes. And I pretty much wear the same style of clothing everyday!

Anyway, I made a little closet.

The closet is empty except for some paper clip hangers. I tried to make hangers out of thin jewelry wire but that was too malleable and wasn't looking so pretty. So I looked at some paper clips on my desk and turned them into hangers with my jewelry pliers. The closet rod is a skewer I cut to size and wrapped in washi tape. I didn't even glue the ends.

Here is Miss Anya standing in horror at her empty closet. What is a fashionista's worst nightmare? An empty closet. Hahaha. 'Kay, only I might find this humorous. The sentiment is half of the Say What? found in Roll Call set.

A little close up.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Just because

2011-08-28T21:43:00.000-10:00

Hi! I made a card to enter into a couple of challenges--Lily Pad Cards and the first challenge over at Young Crafters Unite ! It's the first time I'm entering their challenges.

So YCU's first challenge is to color a stamped image. I used my Copics to color in my image. It's a month long challenge so still lots of time to enter.

Lily Pad Cards has a sketch challenge sponsored by The Greeting Farm so I had to participate since I love TGF stamps.

My card features TGF's Blush Babette. I love her long, flowy hair. Though if I had hair like that I'd probably wanna chop it off. I haven't had long hair since I had my daughter and sometimes I miss it but I don't have the patience to grow it out. The sentiment comes with the stamp though the banner is from Lawn Fawn. I also used TGF's Blush Hello for the background on the lacey oval behind Babette. I love the paper from Authentique. I kind of splurged and got a whole bunch of papers from them--they are so pretty! The little swirly die cut is from My Favorite Things. I spritz that, the flowers and the black corners with some glitter, and added rhinestones. Babette also has some stickles on her dress. I like how this card came out and my hubby took such a nice photo of it.

It's back to school tomorrow for the kiddies and I'm wondering what I should do tomorrow. Finish my 4 loads of laundry, I guess.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

TGF Heart Journal--week 6

2011-08-27T19:41:00.000-10:00

Hi! Wow, it's time for week 6 of TGF's Heart Journal! This week is Text Me!--using lots of text and the tip is to cut up pages from old books or children's books. Now I can't bring myself to cut up books even if it may be an old one cause it's a book! So we used stamps for this assignment instead.

My daughter's fun and colorful page! She used Crayola paints and I love the color combo even though she didn't really know what she wanted to do. She actually did some finger painting too after she saw me do that on my layout. She waited for the paint to dry and then stamped some sentiments from Paper Smooches.

My layout. Truthfully, I never know what I'm doing when I start doing the assignment each week. I kind of just wing it, I suppose. I used watercolors and didn't want to use blue or green so started with red then some yellow and orange and added white too. I had the bubble wrap still on my table so added that too. Then used my much neglected PTI stamp sets for the rest. It looks kind of Asian inspired though that's not what I had set out to do. But it seems to work. Oh, and I stamped one of the text scripts on the right upside down but I guess it's not that noticeable.

We're having fun doing these assignments, and every week we look forward to finding out what our next assignment is.

Thanks for reading and hope you're having a great weekend!

Have a blast

2011-08-26T22:09:00.000-10:00

Hi! Made a card for TGF's Mystery Monday Challenge with Tracey P. I really liked her bright summer card and the circle so I went with that as my inspiration for my card.

I've been wanting to use TGF's Summer Fun stamp set for a while. I thought it was so cute when it was released. And I finally got Spellbinders lacey circles. I just can't keep up with all those Spellbinders but every one is so fun and neat and I want them all but realistically can't buy every one.

I feel overwhelmed with all my kids' school stuff. My desk is covered with school papers and homework to look over. Thank goodness tomorrow is Saturday. And I didn't realize how difficult it would become when all 3 of my kids start after school activities. I'm definitely the chauffeur.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Welcome baby

2011-08-24T18:37:00.001-10:00

Hi! Seems like I've been making lots of baby and wedding cards lately. I made this card for the Fabulous Felt Challenge in the Moxie Fab World (there's still time to play, challenge ends September 5th!) and for TGF's Farm Fresh Friday--Button it up!

I used some of the clothes from TGF's Wardrobe sets. I stamped them onto some PTI felt and cut them out. I added some tiny buttons (click to enlarge photo) onto the clothes. I also added some die cut buttons (from PTI) with twine and the sentiment is from Paper Smooches. I finally also bought a grass die from My Favorite Things. It's so much easier than cutting grass out with scissors. I layered 2 rows of grass.

Pretty simple but it actually took me some time to pick papers! I think sometimes I tend to over think things. I need to follow the KISS motto.

I still need to get into a routine now that all 3 kids are in school. But mostly I think I need to stop feeling guilty that I get to stay home. Maybe that is why I don't spend all my time crafting and doing something fun. Most of this week I've been cleaning and organizing our house and spending maybe an hour devoted to crafting before I head out to pick up all the kids. I guess moms feel guilty no matter what we choose to do though.

Thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday Milton

2011-08-23T17:40:00.000-10:00

And here's my 2nd card. I actually didn't follow any sketch this time since the image was so huge! I got this Milton stamp from the recent All That Scraps sale. Now I'm thinking I should have gotten more while they were on sale!

Anyhow, I mostly just spent all my time coloring. The image fit nicely within the largest lattice rectangle. I just had to trim the card base down to 5.25 inches and rounded all the corners. The sentiment is from a Borders and Corners set from Papertrey Ink, punched with a Marvy punch (yes, I actually bought the matching punch just so I could use it with these rectangle stamps so I guess I should make things more often!). The red ink is from Technique Tuesday that I got during a class that I took at a Creating Keepsakes convention a few years ago. It stamped pretty nicely. I'm still looking for a nice brand of ink that has a nice range of colors. I'm thinking at some point I may try the new Ranger Archival inks. That is, if I can ever devote myself to crafting. Seems like school is only getting busier! My older one seems to have so much homework, which I wouldn't mind if he could do it all himself, but I have to check his work and quiz him...while playing with, feeding and bathing the younger one. I think once both my kids are in school, I will only want to veg on the couch with the TV. :-) Hint, hint to Eva.

TGF Heart Journaling--week 5

2011-08-22T23:32:00.000-10:00

Hi! It's week 5 of TGF's Heart Journaling. I'm amazed that I'm still keeping up with this art journal. This week's theme is called Pieces of Me (layers and paper piecing). The tip is to make texture with bubble wrap, old fabric and scrunched up paper.

My daughter's layout. She used some of my old scraps to create her background and then paper pieced TGF's Princess #3 and the castle from Lizzie Anne stamps. It was her first time paper piecing and I think she did a great job.

This is my layout. Sorry for the junk-y picture. I took it at night but you get the idea. I used bubble wrap to create the circles in the background. I pleated some ribbon on the top and bottom, and added a ribbon flower in the corner.

And at first, I asked each of my kids to pick a stamp that they liked to represent themselves but then I remembered I had this Wild Things set. I thought my kids' personalities fit some of the animals pretty well so decided to go with those instead. I picked Fairy Eva for me.

I made this heart using different washi tapes. I taped them and then cut it with my Cheery Lynn heart die. Do you see the cute My Melody tapes?! Saw them and had to get them! I also got a whole bunch of tape from a Japanese store here when they were 50% off.

Seems like I haven't been crafting much except to keep up with my art journal. I'm still trying to get into a routine of doing things during the day when my kids are all in school.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Card Positioning Systems Sketch 232

2011-08-22T08:17:00.001-10:00

Hello...I'm back with some cards. Finally got a chance for some "me" time this past weekend. And I actually made some random card this time without really thinking of an occasion. I mostly wanted to use my new stamp, thanks Eva!

I thought the sketch this week at CPS kind of went with a zen, minimalist, Japanese style :-)

Anyhow, pretty basic, just Papertrey Ink cardstock and stamps. The stamp is Kiyomi from Sister Stamps, so cute! I forgot where Eva got it from, but sounds like they only sell it locally in Hawaii. Kiyomi is colored with pencils, (still debating about going the marker route, especially now that I see Promarkers all over the place and Copics at Hobby Lobby and Aaron Brothers). But at least pencils seem pretty forgiving, just blend away or layer another color over. I ended up cutting the antennae off the butterfly. Anyhow, I also wanted to use my Spellbinder Lattice rectangles, finally got that from Hobby Lobby after using my previous coupon on gel pens for my kid's school supplies. I stamped the backgrounds from the only 2 Asian stamp sets that I own, the stem is from a Stampin Up set and the flowers on the Rustic Cream cardstock are from a Hero Arts Asian girl set. I tried to find relatively matching distress ink, I think I used old paper and bundled sage.

TGF Heart Journaling week4

2011-08-16T13:19:00.000-10:00

Hi! It's week 4 of TGF's Heart Journaling. This week's theme is the girl in me and we had to draw! Pretty scary trying to draw so I tried to think of a way to not put so much details into drawing a girl. Hehe, maybe it's cheating? And the tip was to try using a medium we've never used before.

My daughter's layout. While I was out shopping for extra school supplies, I saw a Crayola painting set and thought we could try those. So my daughter used paints to make a rainbow and then she drew some girls (her friends?) on paper and cut them out. I think it looks happy and bright.

Okay, here's mine. I don't know who thought of the rainbow idea first but some how we ended up with similar backgrounds! Maybe cause there were so many different colored paints, it reminded both of us of rainbows. My 2 boys painted their own rainbows too! See, I told you I didn't want to draw detailed girls. I used black paint to draw me and my daughter. Then my kids told me it looked scary, like ghosts. Hahaha, but I didn't care much. But now that I have more time, I found these metallic pencils while out shopping! So I colored the black ghostly figures and outlined them with a Sharpie. The funny, or maybe it's more sad, thing is that you probably wouldn't be able to tell who did which layout if I hadn't pointed it out. Yeah, I paint/draw like a kid.

Well, tonight's the big wedding night. In the end, I still wish them well.

Thanks for reading!