Did ya miss me?

Thought I was in the hospital having the baby, didn't ya? No, I'm still here, although I *am* having a lot of practice contractions the last few days, so maybe soon. But these things have their own sense of timing, so who knows.

These cards are from various shoebox swaps I've attended in the past few months--hope you enjoy them!

Design by Gina Thornton

I spent the morning with a friend and her 2 1/2 year old daughter walking around downtown, letting our children run around in the hot sun and get all tuckered out for afternoon naps (what a great gravy train that is!) and am ready for a bit of a rest myself! Let's hope all that walking did me some good...

Design by Ann-Marie Urban

Men in tights

I don't have anything new to share today, but I didn't want to leave you without eye candy, so here are some cards I made in the last several months at various shoebox swaps/stamp camps with the Philly Inker's group that I'm a part of.

Design by Dana Marston

It is weirdly cold today--I had to go to the post office this morning and, since my beloved Danskos have been a tight fit since before Pascha, had to wear flip flops. Boy did my toes freeze! I'm wearing pants a lot lately because of the chill (tights have bothered my skin a lot this pregnancy and I've been cold from the moment that stick turned pink), much to the chagrin of my hubby, who loves seeing me in skirts and dresses, but what are you going to do when your legs are freezing and you can't wear normal shoes??

Design by Heather Yates

I think men should have to try sporting a 9 month belly with maternity clothing (esp. maternity tights and a maternity skirt; I've yet to find one that really fits well) and see how well they like it. Actually, maternity pants are a pain too--I'm constantly hitching them up like some drug-store cowboy, but at least my legs are warm and my skin doesn't itch in them. I'm generally a skirts and dresses girl normally, so this usually isn't a problem, but sometimes, a pregnant girl has to do what a pregnant girl has to do!

Design by Claire Lawrence

I guess it is supposed to get up near 90 by Friday, so I'll break out the skirts again at the end of the week. I for one am hoping to be making a hospital trek by the end of the week so that I can miss out on the hot weather. (tee-hee!)

Design by Kristin Kortonick

That is the hardest part of the last few weeks of pregnancy, in my opinion: The Waiting Game. The aches and pains and (very frequent, painful) Braxton-Hicks contractions, the indigestion, and sluggishness are annoying, but manageable. It is waiting on the knifeblade of anticipation--is today the day? I've got my baking done, the laundry is caught up, my bag is packed, I got the right memory card for the new camera, the house is (mostly) clean and my husband is diligently grading his finals and has more or less cleared his decks. So I grow impatient to get this show on the road, much in the manner of all pregnant women in weeks 38-40 and beyond.

Design by Claire Lawrence

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming: The Waiting Game

I woke up this morning feeling MUCH better, so I think the stomach bug is behind me, thank the Lord. Spent the morning puttering around the house, doing laundry, making a Whole Foods run (boy was my stroller loaded down--I definitely exceeded the recommended weight limit for the basket underneath) and running after my son. He was so helpful on the way home! I ran out of room under the stroller and I had one big bag I was trying to carry on my shoulder (uphill, with a 25 pounds of stroller, plus 30 pounds of toddler and who knows how many pounds of groceries underneath) and I just couldn't do it, so I put the bag on the foot rest in front of him and asked him to hold tightly onto the handles on the way home. And he did!! He's such a helpful boy that way--he even helped me bring some of the groceries into the kitchen once we got home. Sometimes he is *too* helpful--he will want to carry things that are far too heavy, like gallons of milk and can't quite make it. But it is good training for the future, I say. The other nice thing today is that the rain finally broke and the sun is shining, so the whole day feels good. My son's godfather is coming over this afternoon for a chat and early dinner (he lives about a hour away now so we don't see him as much as we used to) and I think that will be fun for everyone.


I do have a card to share today--when I was putting together yesterday's card, I also stamped one of the trees from Lovely as a Tree, intending to go back to it later and watercolor it, which is what I did last night while my husband was busy with another Supreme Court brief. I'm quite pleased with how the watercoloring came out on this one, and thought it would make for a good masculine card (I'm starting to think about Father's Day, just a little!). I reused Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday sketch from last week for the layout and I'm quite happy with the results.

Supplies:
Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, More Mustard, whisper white cs, retired dsp
Lovely as a Tree, Sanded stamp sets
Jet Black Staz-On, Baja Breeze, Garden Green, Old Olive, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip inks
Aqua painter
Chocolate Chip satin ribbon
non-SU! ribbon slide
Chocolate chip epoxy brad
dimensionals

Sunshine Award!

Today I had a nice e-mail waiting in my inbox--Martie Shea over at From Our Hearts nominated me for a Sunshine Award! I've never gotten this type of blog award before and I'm quite flattered to receive it. So one of the rules of the award is to nominate 12 other blogs for the same award, so here goes:

1. Diana Gibbs: http://www.dianagibbs.typepad.com/

2. Mary Fish: http://www.stampinpretty.com/

3. Mike Funke: http://stampin-style.typepad.com/stampin-style/

4. Illina Crouse: http://ilinacrouse.blogspot.com/

5. Michelle Zindorf: http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/

6. Donna at Butternut Sage Designs: http://butternutsagedesigns.blogspot.com/

7. Kerin Sylvester: http://www.kerinstamps.com/stampin_with_kerin/

8. Carrie Gaskin: http://artisticavenger.wordpress.com/

9. Stacey Shafer: http://www.stampinwithstacey.blogspot.com/

10. LeAnne Puglise: http://weeinklings.blogspot.com/

11. Julie Davison: http://juliedavison.blogspot.com/

12. Jen Arkfeld: http://stampedsilly.blogspot.com/

Ladies and gentleman, here are the rules for the Sunshine Award:

1. Put the Sunshine Award on your blog and/or within your post.

2. Pass the award to 12 other bloggers.

3. Link the nominees within your post.

4. Let them know they received this award by leaving a comment on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received the award.

Sunshine is meant to be shared!!! Thanks to Martie for the nomination and I'm always excited to see what the rest of you gals come up with!

Spring showers bring May flowers, or something like that...

I've been messing with some kind of stomach bug since late Saturday afternoon, so I didn't really intend to make a card today, but it is raining outside and I felt like doing some more watercoloring to take my mind off things. I spent several hours up again last night, wandering the house, and so, after I returned from my weekly midwifery visit this morning, I spent the morning sleeping. Thank goodness for babysitters! Unfortunately, this is her last week with us and we've not yet been able to find a replacement, so I'm going to heave a big sigh of sorrow on Friday unless we can find someone before then.

But on to today's card. I liked Stacey's Curtain Call Color Challenge this week--so bright and fresh--and wanted to incorporate it. I combined the color challenge with the Stamping 411 sketch challenge for this week and actually, this card came together pretty quickly! One little watercoloring trick I just learned from Diana Gibbs is to outline your watercolored images with a light blue or light gray (like Sahara Sand) line to make a bit of shadowing. It really makes the image pop off the page and gives it a more finished, professional look. I used Baja Breeze to add just a bit of shadow on the underside of the vine. It should be very subtle and light. Do you like the dsp in the background? I made it using the same floral that I watercolored--I just stamped it tone-on-tone with Certainly Celery ink. Did I mention that I love this stamp set? :)


I got a new camera last week (Nikon Coolpix, reconditioned, so more than half price!) that I'm still getting used to, so I hope the photo quality is good. So far I like it. I've been using a very cheap-o digital camera for the last year or so, and using my big Nikon N-65 35 mm for family shots, but I'm having an increasingly difficult time finding places to get my film developed, and we are starting to have photo storage issues, so I thought it was time to make the switch to digital and get our photos made into books at the end of every calendar year instead. I loved my N-65--it takes fabulous photos--but I also find that I'm reluctant to travel with it because it is bulky and don't take as many photos as I might be inclined to otherwise. Some might say that is a good thing, but I am a photo person, and I want my kids to be able to look through the albums as adults and see some kind of record of their childhoods!!

Supplies:
Certainly Celery, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White cs
Elements of Style stamp set
Jet Black Staz-on, Melon Mambo, Certainly Celery, Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze inks
Aquapainter
Melon mambo grosgrain ribbon
paper snips
dimensionals

Watercoloring with Elements of Style

Hello friends and Happy Friday! "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, it's a beautiful day for a neighbor, would you be mine? Would you be mine?" That was my favorite show when I was a toddler; I have to say, it was the end of an era when Fred Rogers died 7 years ago. I confess I did shed a little tear when I got the news--I was living in Moscow at the time, so it seemed quite remote to me, but nonetheless, a significant passing somehow.

Random nostalgia for children's television programing aside, it is a beautiful day today and I've been a productive bunny! My son and I went out this morning with our Phil and Ted's stroller to get local milk and eggs from the neighborhood coffee shop that carries them. We came home without any fuss, at which time I decided it was time to deep clean the house from top to bottom. (Nesting, nesting, I know!) After I'd finished (and given myself the reward of a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting from said coffee shop), I remembered I was 9 months pregnant. Oops. I'm feeling a bit loose in the joints now and am moving slowly this afternoon, but I tell you, having a clean house is WORTH it when those nesting urges kick in. Sometimes crazy-clean Dutch genes trump third trimester somnolence. I might even bake cookies this afternoon, how about that?


I made today's card last weekend when I was just playing around with the Elements of Style set. I aspire to be a good watercolorer, but am still working on my technique, so I decided to have a go with the big toile image from that set (available May 1st in the summer mini!). I stamped the flowers in Staz-on on watercolor paper and then got out Rich Razzleberry, Always Artichoke and Baja Breeze inks and my aquapainter and set to work. I'm quite pleased with how it all came out; it gives me motivation to keep at the watercolors. I used a little Apricot appeal in the center of the flowers just for contrast.

Supplies:
Rich Razzleberry, Baja Breeze, Always Artichoke cs, Watercolor paper
Elements of Style stamp set
Rich Razzleberry, Baja Breeze, Always Artichoke, Apricot Appeal ink
Aquapainter
Always Artichoke grosgrain ribbon
dimensionals

Fox and Friends

Good morning! The sun is shining today and it is supposed to hit 70 this afternoon, which should be nice. I'm a little grumpy this morning after a late night and early morning (again!) but am hoping that a vitamin D infusion will help my mood. I am meeting another mom friend of mine this morning for a playdate, so that should be fun. I also need to get some light reading for my hospital stay, so I hoping to squeeze in a quick side trip to Barnes and Noble on our way there.

I actually have three cards to share today, all of which use Fox and Friends. I love this set! It is so cute and I love the scale of the images--not too small, not too big.


This first card is CASEd from Mary Jo Price-Williams; I loved the bright colors and the layout. It would make a great set of thank you cards or a shower invitation, don't you think?


The second card is CASEd from Sheryl Dickinson. I changed the way the ribbon was wrapped around the card and added More Mustard to the lion's mane and filled in his eyes and nose for additional interest. I had a scrap of the brown ribbon left from something else and it worked perfectly on this card! I'm rediscovering my Animal Stories dsp this past week--I had bought a pack last summer for a customer project and only used about half of it, and then it has been sitting in my dsp file, neglected, since then! I realized a few weeks ago that there is some great So Saffron and Olive Olive patterned dsp in the pack that is not animal-related, and so have started to remember to use that when I need it, but I'm also finding more uses for the animal prints in the pack as well. I love it when I can use up dsp!

I based this last card loosely on one that appeared in an edition of Stampin' Success, the magazine that we demonstrators receive from the home office every month. It is chock full of ideas, samples and other great information!

I changed the orientation of the card and the ribbon, plus a few other details. I only had a little scrap left for the bow, so I took one of the small chocolate chip epoxy brads and created a faux bow by wrapping the prongs around the middle of the scrap and then adhering with a dimensional. I really like the look of it and will probably try it again on another card. It was a great way to use up that last little bit of Rose Red stitched grosgrain I had lying around!


Well, I'd better get going if we are going to hit the bookstore before we meet our friends, so ta-ta for now!

A whale of a time

Today is a tired day. The baby kept me up until almost 3:00 a.m. with squirming, prodding my bladder and other internal organs, and generally making life miserable for me and sleeping impossible. I got up around 12:30 and just wandered around the house, hoping that would settle things, but it didn't help as much I would have liked. Slept fitfully from 3:00 until about 6:00 and then the baby was at it again, so I just got up for the day and took a shower. Of course, today would be the day that my toddler sleeps in until almost 8:00, so I'm a little disgruntled about that. I have a sitter for 2 hours today, so I'm going to go nap after I finish this post. At least I only have 2 1/2 weeks left, give or take a bit.

I saw this idea on Elizabeth Price's blog a while back--to use one of the Jumbo Designer Hardware as a life preserver--and thought it was so cute! I put the idea in the back of my mind for future use, since I happened to have one of those pieces of hardware that I was saving for a rainy day. Well last night, it started raining! (No, not really)


My husband had a cerc petition he was working on for the Supreme Court and was completely tied up all evening, so I pulled out my stamps and set to work on a card that would incorporate the life preserver idea somehow. I based the card loosely on an old weekend sketch from Gretchen Barron, and decided I wanted to experiment with Bermuda Bay and Certainly Celery together and the rest was a lot of tinkering. Three hours, 2 wasted eyelets, tons of cardstock scraps and tiny pieces of linen thread later, I had this card! I had to let it sit overnight and look at it again this morning before realizing that I actually really like how it came out. There were so many iterations, mistakes, and so forth that the final card looks very different from where I started, but I do like it. The flourish from Wings of Friendship makes for a perfect suggestion of underwater plantlife.

Supplies:
Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Bermuda Bay cs, Bermuda Bay dsp
Fox and Friends, Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Wings of Friendship, Vintage Labels stamp sets
Bermuda Bay marker, Versamark
Bermuda Bay grosgrain ribbon
Jumbo Designer Hardware (white)
3/4" circle punch, 1 3/4" circle punch, circles #2 die cut (for green circle template)
dimensionals
silver eyelet, Crop-a-Dile
paper snips
linen thread

On little boys and boo-boos

Like these cards? Want to support my business? Get a grab bag! click here for details--there are still a few left!

My son recently learned the word "boo-boo" and what it means (a good thing since he gets a lot of them, being a little boy!) and it is currently one of his favorite words (number #1 at the moment is Papou, but that is a story for another day...) Oddly, though, he HATES bandages. They disturb him more than the actual wound, so unless it is actively bleeding everywhere, we generally don't bother with them. Last weekend, he somehow scraped the edge of his left hand pretty good, requiring a bandage for a few hours, and then we've been letting it air-heal. So every day, multiple times per day, he holds up his hand and tells me or his papa all about his boo-boo and wants us to kiss it. This morning, he started kissing his boo-boos himself, which I thought was pretty cute. He still wanted me to kiss them as well (he has several little ones on both hands right now) but he was also kissing them and saying "boo-boo." He's a doodle!

I have two cards to share today. I made both using Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch for this week--it was such a great sketch, I couldn't resist! The first one is a Mother's Day card for my paternal grandmother and uses the Wings of Friendship stamp set, which I just received for free! Ask me how to earn this set--it is a good one.

The second card I made kind of on a whim, but I have to say, I *heart* this card! I had ordered a pack of Haiku dsp off the clearance rack (you can order a pack too--just click here to go to my online store) and I think it is going to be my go-to paper for while! I hadn't had a chance to ink up Dream Gardens yet, and I thought the sketch begged for this set to be used, plus the paper name; it all fit together so nicely! It's a little hard to see, but I sponged the edges of the main stamped panel with So Saffron to give it a softer look.
I generally try to find good homes for my cards, because otherwise, why do I do this? but I'm not sure I'll be able to give this one away.


Supplies:
Wings of Friendship Card~
Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White cs, Bella's Birds dsp (retired)
Wings of Friendship, Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set
Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink inks/markers
Chocolate chip cord button, linen thread
sponge

Haiku Card~
More Mustard, So Saffron, Very Vanilla, Old Olive (smooth & textured) cs, Haiku dsp (clearance rack)
Dream Gardens stamp set
Chocolate Chip, Dusty Durango, So Saffron ink
So Saffron Grosgrain ribbon (retired)
sponge
1 3/8" & 1 1/4" circle punches
dimensionals

Mother's Day Mojo Monday

The annual murder mystery dinner went off without a hitch last night--my husband made a good cowboy and everyone seemed to have a good time. I made a very uncowboy-like dinner of lasagna, salad and garlic bread with the chocolate layer cake I showed you a few days ago, but it is an easy meal that can feed a bunch of people, which was my goal since I also had to run around after my toddler while trying to get everything on the table. I bought these little appetizers from Trader Joe's (love that place) that were fantastic--puff pastry with feta cheese and carmelized onions. Mmm. Those are the kinds of things I'm happy to buy frozen and heat up to serve rather than making them myself.

Today's card uses the Mojo Monday sketch for this week as well as Stacey's Curtain Call color challenge. I must confess

I'm not a fan of Crushed Curry--I find it hard to work with and usually end up using So Saffron or Summer Sun instead, but a color challenge is a color challenge, and I thought perhaps the monochromatic greys might just work. And they did! I'm actually pretty pleased with this card. I have Mother's Day cards made for my mom and my mother-in-law, but not for the surviving grandmas on each side, so this card is going to one of them. I still have to make one more Mother's Day card and then I'm good to go. I had a little trouble photographing the card--the yellow of the curry just doesn't want to come out properly, but I will say it is a prettier card in person, or at least I think so!


I just got this set--Embrace Life--and had fun inking it up for this challenge. I love that little cherry blossom stamp in there. The lines of this set are nice and clean and depending on how you use it, the set can be used for riotous color explosion with markers or watercolors or for clean and simple line stamping. Plus it has a good variety of stamps. I love sets that are versatile like that.


Supplies:
Basic Gray, Going Gray, Whisper White, Crushed Curry cs, Crushed Curry dsp
Embrace Life, Teeny Tiny Wishes stamps
Crushed curry marker, basic gray ink
Crushed curry grosgrain ribbon
trio flower punch
gold brads, paper piercer
"hugs" die cut, circles #2 die cut

Viva La Verve!

Last night I made buttermilk biscuits from scratch--I think I made them once before as drop biscuits, but this was my first attempt doing it with a cutter and such. I think I overhandled the dough a smidge, but they were pretty tasty for all that! My husband came home from work sick yesterday, so he didn't want any supper, so I just made the biscuits for myself and topped them with pepperoni and some shredded cheese to make tiny pizzas--yum! I didn't get a photo until my son and I had eaten half of them, but this is what was left before I went to bed.


My husband headed to bed right after my son went to bed at 6:30, and so I had the evening free to stamp! I'm still making my way back through the first season of NYPD Blue (I loved that show!; it's the main reason I like David Caruso) and so I watched another episode while I did some old-fashioned watercoloring, but I'm saving that card for another day.

Today's card is heavily inspired by Mary Brown's, which uses the Viva La Verve sketch challenge for this week, as well as a living room photo for color inspiration. I wish my living room looked like these gorgeous photos! I will say I love this card. There is something about it that is calm and balanced and I like the little pops of pumpkin pie amidst the green.


Supplies:
Old Olive textured cs, Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla cs, Old Olive dsp
Elements of Style (Summer Mini), Hugs and Wishes (retired) stamp sets
Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive inks/markers
Modern Label punch, paper snips
5/8" very vanilla satin ribbon
dimensionals

The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah

I baked a two-layer cake yesterday for the annual dinner and a murder event that my husband holds for 7 lucky students every year about this time. He offers it as part of the charity auction that the law school holds in the spring and it is always popular. I think the first year we did it here it got the highest bid of all the items! This year's murder mystery has something to do with the Old West, so we had to run down a cowboy costume for my husband. The students are always so creative with their costumes, I'll be curious to see who shows up at the door on Sunday night!


But about that cake. It actually turned out very well--I don't always have good luck with layer cakes, but each layer came out of the pan nicely--BHG cookbook had a great tip for that; put greased wax paper in the bottom first--and the frosting turned out well. I let everything cool for a few hours, put seedless black raspberry jam in the middle and frosted the cake, popped it in the fridge so that the frosting would solidify a bit and cleaned up. I'm generally a crazy-clean Dutchy from way back and am good about wiping all counters, the stove top, backsplash, sink, etc. every time I use the kitchen, and I thought I'd done a good clean up job, but this morning we found quite a parade of teeny tiny ants in the area where I'd been frosting the cake. Oops. Out came the Pantry Powder--this is great stuff; just cloves and flour, but it keeps the ants away and is safe for food prep areas and inquisitive toddlers--and the cleanser. So now I have a nice sifting of brownish powder all along my backsplash and window sill, but at least the ants have dissipated a bit. 'Tis the season. It seems we spend every spring and summer trying to keep the ants outside where they belong.

Now that I've put you completely off your breakfast, how about a card? I CASEd this card from Jennifer Weide on Stampin' Connection (kind of like Facebook for Stampin' Up! demonstrators--join my stampin' team and you can get on it too!). I just changed the sentiment and omitted a few embellishments.

Supplies:
Old Olive, So Saffron, Whisper White cs, Animal Stories dsp
Old Olive, So saffron inks
Short and Sweet, Fox and Friends stamps
Flower brad (so saffron)
old olive satin ribbon

Custom retirement card: Summer Mini Sneak Preview!

It's a great morning--my son slept for more than 14 hours last night without a peep, woke up completely dry, ate a good breakfast (yippie, skippie!!) and has been in a cheerful mood all morning. Will wonders never cease? We went to Trader Joe's this morning for our weekly grocery run and he even did fine there. He is puttering around with his toys in the living room listening to Chicago's Greatest Hits--I used to have that album in LP format and kind of miss my big ol' record player at times. It fell victim to my move to Russia eight years ago and I couldn't justify replacing it when I moved back to the States. There was something viscerally satisfying about putting the needle down on the record and hearing the little scratchy pops as the table started turning. I miss 8 tracks too--we had a player in our station wagon growing up and I always think of them when I listen to Mac Davis or Gordon Lightfoot or Seals and Crofts. Ever listen to Honeysuckle Magic or Burnin' Thing? Classics. I can't find a embeddable version of either of those on the web, but here is his version of In the Ghetto (love it--this version is better than Elvis'):

I was very slow to adopt CDs and am being very pokey about giving them up for mp3s now. Yes, I know, I'm a peaceful Luddite.


My sister called me earlier this week to ask me to make her a customized retirement card for her husband's co-workers. I had just received my pre-order Elements of Style stamp set (available May 1st in the summer mini!) and knew exactly what I wanted to do. CASE Michelle Zindorf, of course! I'd been eying the set since samples starting showing up on the blogs in January after Leadership, when attendees received the set for free, but was sitting on the fence about it until I saw Michelle's card. Then I knew I definitely wanted the set! It is so versatile--you can use the big flower stamp as a toile background or as the center piece of your card or project, and the flourish stamp is a lovely accent. The hummingbird had to grow on me, as I'm not much of a "bird person", but I like him now too. And, I'm proud to say, after a long period on the outs, that my brayer and I are now officially on good terms. Possibly even BFF terms. :)

Supplies:
Old Olive smooth and textured, bashful blue, very vanilla cs
Elements of Style stamp set
Jet black staz-on, blush blossom marker, Old Olive, Not Quite Navy, Night of Navy, Bashful Blue inks, basic black, certainly celery, always artichoke markers
stamp-a-ma-jig
white gel pen
sponges, brayer
large oval punch, large circle die cut

Cute as a Bug

I got the inspiration for today's card from a splitcoast stamper (SmartStamper), but changed the colors because I didn't have enough Bashful Blue on hand when I made them. I used Brocade Blue and Kraft instead of Bashful Blue and Whisper White, so you can just mentally make the changes. I like the slightly more muted colors of this version, plus I think it tones down the glorious green layers in a nice way.

We had our monthly Philly Inker's meeting on Monday evening in New Jersey (my last one until the baby comes, sniff, sniff) and so I made use of a Big Shot that night to cut out the lattice dies and dry emboss the main Brocade blue panel with the delicate dots folder. Maybe someday I will be able to get a Big Shot! I love all the extra things you can add to a card with those babies. But luckily, I am in a great group of stampers and there is always someone who is willing to let me use a Big Shot for those occasions when I *really* need one. :)

I technically have all the baby thank you cards made that I had originally intended, but I just saw another one that I love that I think I might have to CASE. Besides, it is always a good idea to have a few extra on hand, right? Depending on how my day goes today (and it's not looking stellar so far...it's a two-year-old battle of wills kind of day), I may have that card to share tomorrow.

Supplies:
Kraft, Brocade Blue, Glorious Green, Whisper White cs
Love Bugs, Short and Sweet stamp sets
Brocade Blue, Glorious green inks/markers
Lattice die and Delicate Dots dry emboss folder
Kraft grosgrain ribbon (retired)
Small and large oval punches, 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" square punches

It's 4:00 a.m. and I'm feeling alone now...

My day started with a bang at 4:00 a.m. this morning when my son woke up screaming because his diaper had leaked copiously (due to fatherly user error at bedtime...) and everything (including him) was soaked. Of course, my husband sleeps through these things, so it was my 9 months pregnant self who got up to deal with the mess. And then I couldn't get back to sleep. Neither did my son, by the way. I went back to bed and laid there for a while, but just decided to get up and do some stuff since I was awake anyway. I had some cards to finish, so I went into my stamping room and got to work. I didn't dare do any of the punch work because of the noise, but card assembly and stamping is quiet enough. I went back to bed around 5:30, but I really didn't sleep again. Got up for the last time around 7:30 and worked on my cleaning chores for the day, plus getting laundry going for the sheets and soiled items. I figured as long as I was doing a small load with my son's stuff, might as well wash our sheets as well since I didn't get to it last week on laundry day. Needless to say, my son and I are both tired today!

But the good news is that a big box arrived yesterday from Stampin' Up! with all kinds of lovely goodies, so I quickly assembled all the new stamp sets late yesterday afternoon and did the stamping on the two Fox and Friends cards I had designed and assembled on Sunday evening.
I really like this set--I used the Decor Elements to decorate my son's new room, if you remember. That little lion is just so cute! I think I'm going to get a lot of good use out of this set--there are 7 different animal images and the scale of them is really nice.


Believe it or not, the base of this next card is Glorious Green! I can't say I use this color all that often, but I'm finding it useful lately for baby cards, of all things. I took the layout for the green card below from a card that Julie Davison made in February, but that was about it. I like the simplicity of these cards.

Supplies:
Lion card~
Apricot Appeal, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Pumpkin pie dsp
Fox and Friends, Thanks Kindly stamp sets
Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip inks/markers
Scallop edge punch, scallop circle punch, 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" circle punches

Owl card~
Glorious Green, Chocolate chip, Whisper White cs, Rose Red dsp
Fox and Friends, Thanks Kindly stamp sets
Chocolate Chip and So Saffron inks
sponge wedge
kiss die cut (Occ. mini)

Thanks and congrats with Animal Stories

Hello, 36 weeks! My sister- and brother-in-law came to visit us and have brunch on Saturday with their baby girl, and I had asked my SIL to take a few "belly" photos of me. She is a very good photographer and I wanted something decent for the baby book. My husband is extremely photographically challenged (both in front of and behind a camera) and the photos we snapped with my son are, well, shall we say, very candid. My sister-in-law took some wonderful shots and I'm so pleased with the results! Incidentally, the dress is the one I wore for the photo that my husband snapped of me when pregnant with my son, so I like the symmetry of it for the baby books. Here's one of my favorites:

Two cards to share today--another of my baby thank you cards, plus a baby card I made for a friend who just had her second. Her older son and my son are about 6 weeks apart in age and were playmates when they were babies; I'm excited that both our children are so close in age! She had a girl late last week named Cora, so I pulled out my Animal Stories stamp set last night to make a little card for her.

With the happy return of Pink Pirouette this summer, I could use some of my dwindling scrap supply on this card and not feel guilty about it!! I used an old Weekend Sketch Challenge from Gretchen Barron for the layout.

The second card is actually a note card--remember the thank you notes that I changed the base on? After I did that, I had 5 Barely Banana card bases and nothing to use them on (plus it is one of those colors that is retiring this summer, so I wanted to use it up!) so I made these sweet note cards with the Animal Stories giraffe. I was going to make them as full cards, but then decided that the giraffe needed a barely banana matting on it, and so cut them into note cards instead.


Supplies:
Elephant Card~
Basic Gray, Whisper White, Pink Pirouette cs, Candy Lane dsp (retired)
Animal Stories, Sweetness Unlimited stamps
Basic Gray ink
Basic Gray 5/8" satin ribbon
1 3/4" circle punch, modern label punch

Giraffe Card~
Barely Banana, Old Olive, Perfect Plum, Whisper White cs
Great Friend, Animal Stories, Happy Moments stamp sets
Old Olive, Perfect Plum, Pumpkin pie ink
Pumpkin pie grosgrain ribbon
small and large oval punches

When at first you don't succeed...

try, try again. Remember yesterday's baby thank you notes? I kept looking at the first one and thinking, it just doesn't look right. The colors seemed off balance, somehow. As I was going through the stamper blogs on my google reader this morning, it occurred to me that the problem was the barely banana base. It was throwing everything off! I realized suddenly that the rest of the card basically used the colors of the Noveau Chic dsp (adding in the Red Riding Hood, that is) and that Basic Gray would make for a much better card. So I took all the fronts off and reattached to a basic gray base. Much better! What do you think??


I think the gray complements the sage shadow much better and I'm much happier with the result now. And for those of you with especially sharp eyes who just noticed that the dsp is dotted instead of striped, I didn't change it, I just didn't have enough of either one to make 5 cards, so I made three with the dotted one (Rockabilly, retired) above and 2 with the striped one you saw yesterday (Washington Apple, retired). The good news is that with the return of Red Riding Hood in the new catalog July 1st, we can expect to see more great designer series paper featuring this great color!!

Just a reminder, there are still a few grab bags available, so be sure to snap one up before they're gone!

On a baby-related note, one of the little projects that I started on last night was to think about a labor playlist. I had a great natural birth with my toddler, and am hoping to do so again with this one (due one month from today!) and one of the things that can be useful is a variety of music. I had a bunch of playlists that I made with my son, but when push came to shove (literally!), I really couldn't stand to have any music on, and ended up listening to the selections postpartum instead. This time, I'm thinking early classical music, and a friend who recently gave birth introduced me to this gorgeous piece by Vivaldi. Yep, you know, the guy who wrote The Four Seasons. I'd never really explored any of his other work either, but this piece inspired me to download a two-disc album of similar works. Have a listen--it is well worth the time!

Baby Thank You Notes

Amongst the things that I'm trying to finish before the new baby arrives in less than a month (t-30 days tomorrow!) is putting together some thank you notes for the new baby. Not that I'm expecting gifts (we don't really need anything), but people always seem to send something when a new baby is born and it is nice to have some thank yous on hand for such occasions. I'm trying to get a supply of about 25 on hand, so I'm doing them in batches of 5, which seems manageable to me. Plus I wanted each batch of 5 to be a little different so the notes aren't so hard on my cardstock supplies. The rest of the cards will feature Fox and Friends, which is coming in my order on Monday (yippie!).

So here are the first two styles. I hope you'll forgive the lower quality of the photos--I was feeling lazy and didn't want to set up the photo tent. It is getting harder for me to do a lot a bending and photographing with the tent requires a bit. :)


The first one I just made up out of my head and the second one is CASEd almost directly from Julie Davison. Her original was a congrats card, and was 6x3, but I like standard sizes, so I resized it and changed the sentiment.


Supplies:
Rattle Card:
Barely Banana, Sage Shadow, Whisper White cs, Washington Apple dsp (retired)
Versamark, Jet Black Staz-On ink, Sage Shadow, Barely Banana, Ruby Red markers
Sanded, Thank You Kindly, Sock Monkey Accessories stamp sets
1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches
Apricot Appeal grosgrain ribbon

Sailboat and Star Card:
So Saffron, Real Red, Whisper White cs, Delicate dots dsp (retired SAB 2009 paper)
Real Red, So Saffron, Bashful Blue markers/ink pads
Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Nursery Necessities, Thank You Kindly stamp sets
Whisper White grosgrain ribbon
dimensionals
paper snips
1 3/4" circle punch