Packing today

I'm getting everyone packed up today as we leave in the morning for our three week trip to Minnesota. I'd like to say that I'll blog while away, but I won't - I'm going to relax and do nothing (well, as much of nothing as you can do with four kids). I actually am planning to sew a lot. I will post a couple of older cards every once in awhile, but that's about it. Don't miss me too much : )

The card I'm posting today is one that a friend and I HAD to have as soon as we saw it - from My Favorite Things. Don't you love love love it?

Have a happy 4th of July and I'll return July 21st or thereabouts!

T Minus 2 days

I'm leaving for our summer trip back "home" to Minnesota in two days. Today and tomorrow I'll be cleaning and packing (today cleaning, tomorrow packing). I have my craft room pretty much cleaned up, and am almost done...but I thought I'd better blog (ok, so I'm resting : )

The card today was for the Bellarific Friday June 26th sketch. I bought this violet bitty bloom and had to ink her so here it is! I'm keeping it short and sweet as I don't want to lose my cleaning mojo just yet.

bffABUGG

One week from today my family and I will be in Minnesota (at my parents' house) for a three week "vacation." It is hard bringing my life into someone else's (even if it is my own parents), but I'm so looking forward to it. It's African heat here in Texas, and I'm just tired - just having another set of eyes and hands and sometimes more will be nice...and it's always nice to go "home."

Anyways, I'm organizing all my stuff so I can feel more productive. It's fun! I have made a few cards too this week! I thought I'd share today a card I used with the bffABUGG from Stamping Bella. I love the buggs! And if I'm not mistaken, I think there is a release from Stamping Bella today. Always dangerous : ) For this card, I used Amy Rysavy's sketch from this week (I'll try to load the sketch but I've been having issues with loading more than one picture!). Or you can go to http://prairiepaperandink.typepad.com/ to see for yourself.

Details
Stamp: bffABUGG (stamping bella)
Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black
Paper: Lemonade (basic grey), purely pomegranate, kiwi kiss, regal rose, whisper white
Accessories: Buttons, Copics, dimensionals, swiss dots cuttlebug embossing folder, nestabilities

YEAH!!!!

So first things first - thanks to anyone who voted for me the other day for the Ketto cards. I won!!! And will be receiving a new ketto image soon.

A second YEAH for making the cut to the final round for the Guest Designer call for Hanna Stamps - http://www.hannastamps.com/. If you visit regularly you'll know I use a lot of Hanna stamps - namely the adorable lovable Riley and Sophie moose. I'll be sent a not-yet-released image after July 5th, and get to make three projects to show off my creativity...the top six will be picked from that. I'm so excited. There are lots of talented ladies...I hope I have a style they like. I LOVE Hanna Stamps! and would love to be a guest designer for them. Wish me luck!

The card for today is from last week's TCPTues63 challenge. I had this "idea" for a card in my head ever since I received the new release a few weeks ago. It didn't come out exactly as I had pictured, but I love it nonetheless!

Details
Stamp: Happy Camper (The Cat's Pajamas)

Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black

Paper: Whisper White, Black, Real Red, DP Basic Grey June Bug

Accessories: Copics, Prima flowers with pearl brad, ribbon, dimensionals

Hanna Guest DT Call

I feel sort of like my husband in the fact that Hanna Stamps has a call out for guest spots for their design team and the deadline is tomorrow (he's an attorney and if it's due on June 20th, you get it on June 20th). That being said, I've been wanting to play with my Hanna stuff - and today I finally got my submissions completed!

Check out the Guest DT Call Forum over on Splitcoast - http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14415281&posted=1#post14415281. And to see all the awesome stamps from Hanna Stamps, go to www.hannastamps.com.

So today I'm potty training a 3 year old boy - the pressure is on and he is a stubborn little thing. I've learned now with him that he has to be pantless/underwearless/diaperless in order to use the potty. We have only the starts of accidents today, and he's catching on. Needless to say, I've spent many minutes cheering him on in the bathroom - and in between, trying to be creative with my stamping! I wanted to use both a Riley stamp (since I LOVE LOVE LOVE them), and a Hanna stamp!

Here's my Riley sample for the guest DT Call -

Details
Stamp: Riley Train
Paper: Bordering Blue, Real Red, Chocolate Chip, White (Papertrey), All About Boys DP (DCWV)
Ink: Brilliance Graphite
Accessories: Nestabilities Wavy Rectangles, Dew Drops (orange), Copics, Dimensionals

And my Hanna sample (of course, the picture doesn't do it justice!)

Details
Stamp: Cafe (Hanna Stamps)
Paper: Cosmo Cricket Farmers Market, Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red, White (Papertrey)
Ink: Brilliance Graphite
Accessories: Dimensionals, Oval Punches (SU), Ribbon, Copics

Wish me luck in my personal goal of working on a design team. Hanna stamps is one of my favs and I'm so excited to even have the possibility.

Vote for me, and MFT challenge completed

OK - so first things first - I participated in a Ketto swap on Splitcoast. The cards have been posted on our blog host's blog - http://www.enchantedstamper.blogspot.com/. Go there now, and vote for my card - because remember, a girl can never have too many Kettos! My card is in group 2 under kjlowrey...of course, to be fair, I should say to vote for your favorite card...but I say vote for kjlowrey in your ear!

I finally got something new made! It was just in the nick of time for the MFTMFC3 challenge! The challenge was to make a tri-fold / gate fold card. I made the gate fold card - sorry the picture isn't the best but it was late and I had to get it in before the deadline. And I have to get this in the mail to my dad this morning!

Details
Stamp: MFT Let's Hear It For The Boys
Paper: Mellow Moss, Chatterbox Tie Plaid and Dark Tie Circles
Accessories: Copics, Silver Bella Bling, dimensionals

A birthday oldie and my angels

Whew - where does the time go??? We took the kids to the Fort Worth Zoo on Friday - I can't remember what we did on Saturday and Sunday : )....and now it's already Tuesday and I realized I should blog.

This is a card I made for a challenge, but now I can't find the details (happening a lot lately, isn't it?!). Anyways, the set is from My Favorite Things... It's a fun image for all our gal friends out there!

Yesterday I took the kiddos to get their pictures taken - always a workout! But I thought I'd share the close ups of each of my monster angels!

Isaac (2 years)

Jacob (3 years)

Joseph (4 years)

Hannah (6 years)

A/C Fixed, Tree and Fence Down, Blood Everywhere...

WOW - it's been a crazy week. Wednesday night we had a good ole Texas storm - the sirens went off, I went to the hall with four kids and two dogs, and for a few minutes, I was pretty scared thinking this might be the time we're hit with a tornado. When it was all done, our only tree (and a big one) in our front yard was down...or at least half of it...and a fence post is broken so we have the leaning fence of Frisco. It was a heck of a night (and I missed half of SYTYCD)...

And then - Thursday night - Hannah is talking to her grandpa on the phone, her littlest brother throws a wooden train track, it hits her in the head...by the time I get up to get Isaac to put him in timeout, Hannah's white blonde hair is all red, and there's blood everywhere. It was rather traumatic, and I've never seen so much blood. Finally got the bleeding to stop, and her cleaned up, and the "gash" wasn't deep enough to warrant a trip to the ER (thank goodness!).

So what will 6:45 - 7:00 pm bring tonight?????? I'll let you know...

My card today is for the Bellarific Friday June 12th challenge. You can check out all the awesome entries at Bella's blog - www.stampingbella.com/blog/ I used a stamp from a recent release that I love, especially with all my monsters : ) The stamp is Monstah Bash...Lovin' it!!!!

Here's the card...

Details
Stamps: Monstah Bash (Stamping Bella), Sentiment (SU)

Paper: Animal cracker DCWV

Accessories: Ribbon (SU), dimensionals, copics

Here's the Scoop - No A/C in Texas is no fun!

Yep - our upstairs A/C went out Tuesday. Sure, we have the downstairs but all the kids bedrooms are upstairs, as well as my scrapbooking room! The repair man is to come "after 1pm" today - not quite sure what that means, how much it will all cost, and if we'll have AC by tonight. And yes, summer has hit in Texas.

The card today is for a My Favorite Things Challenge over on Splitcoast - MFTMFC2. The challenge was to use three designer papers, from 3 different lines. I thought this one would be easy with all the paper I have. Well - first of all, it's hard using three designer prints on any paper, and then trying to get three different lines, etc. etc. It was a fun but more than I thought challenging challenge - if that makes sense : )

Here's my card with the details to follow!

Details

Stamp: MFT Here's the Scoop

Paper: Soft Sky Designer Prints Paper (SU), Lemonade (Basic Grey), MFT Summer pack

Accessories: Copics, MFT Summer Pack Buttons, hemp twine

Flower Pots

I saw this Flower Pot Pull Out Card as a Splitcoast challenge awhile back and just wanted to try it out! I finally got around to it and just love love love it! I got the instructions/tutorial from http://sluman.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2009/01/25/flower-pot-pocket-card/. I just love how it's a fun twist from the ordinary card! LOVE IT! Here's two I made - the first being birthday Flopsy from MFT...and the second using one of my fave Kettos!

and the card pulled out...
and the Ketto card...

Thanks for looking! Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Springtini Monday

Or for Texas, summer is to hit hard this week so Summertini Monday! I got this stamp, Springtini, from Stamping Bella using my bella bucks I had won. I just love it! Now if only I could have a nice DIRTY martini!!!! Swim lessons start today and so will the everyday adventures of life with four kids on summer break!

For the Bellarific Friday June 5 challenge, this is the card I made. I just love the way it turned out - very summer-y! I've hit sort of a rut in my creativity, but this card just worked for me. Enjoy - details will follow!

Details

Stamp: Springtini and sentiment (stamping bella)

Paper: MFT Summer Paper Pack, Aqua Mist, Berry Sorbet (Papertrey ink)

Accessories: Button (MFT Summer Buttons), Hemp Twine (SU), dimensionals, copics

School's Out for Summer

Yesterday was Hannah's last day of school - a half day, and "field day." I volunteered to help out - everyone asked why I would help considering I'm pregnant. I had to remind them that it's easier than staying at home with three boys : ) In all seriousness, it was fun and I know Hannah enjoys having me there. The weather was beautiful. When we got home, the four kids and I spent the day at our neighborhood pool - tired them out!

The card for today is another oldie - using a color challenge from Splitcoast CC215 and a SFYTT. I've lost the details or I'm too lazy to find them right now...but enjoy the card!!!

Is it really only Wednesday?

Why does it feel like we should be closer to Friday? And doesn't that always seem to happen after a holiday week? Weird...it's been a long week already, and it's only Wednesday. I guess I'm anticipating the end of school !

Like I said, it's been that type of week. The card today is to give us all a little "spark" this mid-week. I am really into purple on cards lately. And I think this one is pretty! Once again, it's a Verve set (www.vervevisual.com), for a Verve challenge VSAPR3.

Details

Stamps: Beautiful You (Verve)

Paper: Latte Mattstack (DCWV)

Accessories: Ribbon, button, copics, dimensionals

Last Day of Dance

Today is the last day of dance for Hannah. Bless her heart, she has always been such a dancer - she loves to twirl, and dance and sing...more so than regular sports. Even on the soccer field, she looks like a ballerina going after the ball!

For her teacher, who we both love, I made a couple of homemade gifts. Todays card is the card she'll be getting tonight...I did the WT216 challenge over on Splitcoast, and just LOVE this stamp set! I wanted it to look like a charcoal painting of the ballerina, and then added just a touch of pink back into the picture. I REALLY like this card! Here it is...

Details

Stamp: En Pointe (Stampin UP)

Paper: Pink Pirouette, Basic Black, Whisper White
Accessories: Primas, jewels, Cuttlebug embossing folders, copics

Last week of school

This is the last week of school...I am a little worried about having all four kids home all day every day. But this weekend was hot here in Texas and I tried taking them all to the neighborhood pool by myself. It actually went quite well, and we've all gotten a lot of sun and the start to some nice summer tans! So maybe we'll just hang out at the pool most of the summer...

I'm going to try and get back on posting daily after last week's hit or miss. I haven't been doing nothing - I have been sewing more, and watching a few movies. I'm getting the card itch so I'm sure I'll go on a power creating kick soon. So in the meantime, I'll finish sharing the cards I've made these past couple weeks, and hopefully have some fun new stuff for you!

The card for today was for another Verve challenge. I can't find the write up on it but it was from April, if I remember correctly, and I think it was a sketch. Oops - just found it and it was for a color challenge - VSAPR4 to use soft blue, soft yellow, and soft brown. The sketch is an old MOJO Monday sketch - MOJO72. I used a couple of the cuttlebug embossing folders, along with scalloped circles, and scalloped edge punch. It is so pretty/delicate IRL.

Details
Stamps: Beautiful You, Petals & Stems (Verve Visual)
Paper: Sky Blue, Close to Cocoa, Barely Banana
Ink: Adirondack Espresso
Accessories: Cuttlebug embossing folders, Scalloped Circle, Straight Circle, Scalloped Edge Punch, Sky Blue Double Stitched Ribbon, Dimensionals