Embrace Life project

So now I can tell you what my project from the other day was for. My upline, Claire, lets me mooch tons of rides off her to our various Philly Inkers meetings and events. We have a car, but try not to drive it much and in any case, parking in our neighborhood is a major pain after 8 p.m. So the last time Claire and I were together for a car ride, she mentioned frequently running out of cards to send to people because she sends so many. So I thought, well, I'll make her a set of cards as a thank you for all those rides! I gave them to her last night before we headed out (with Boo in tow) for a (very fun) downline meeting in New Jersey at Kristin's house.

I made twelve of these one day last week during a lull in the screaming and nursing and I'm really happy with the way they came out. I did some marker-watercolor action on the big flowers and cut them all out. The project also conveniently used up almost all of my Cameo Coral card stock which will be retired as of tomorrow! If you love this stamp set as much as I do, better order it today because tomorrow it will be G-O-N-E, gone. You can order it by clicking HERE.




Supplies:
Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip, Whisper white cs, Afternoon tea dsp (retired, on the clearance rack)
Embrace Life stamp set
Cameo Coral marker, Chocolate Chip ink
paper snips, aquapainter, dimensionals

Living in the Oven

The heat broke a bit last night after a brief rain shower, but it is still hot and humid, so not great yet. It is supposed to be quite nice by the end of the week, however, which is great since my parents and sister are coming on Thursday to stay the long weekend. (Yippie!)


I have only a few minutes, so this will be brief. Today's card uses the Stamping 411 sketch for the week and I'm still not sure I like it. I had a hard time making the colors come together. I started with the dsp, which I like a lot, but had a hard time figuring out what to put with it. But anyway, here it is.


Supplies:
Wild Wasabi, Basic Gray, Whisper white cs, retired dsp (from clearance rack)
Elements of Style stamp set
Rose red, basic gray ink
basic gray satin ribbon
dimensionals, paper snips.

Eclipse!!

Both of my boys were up early this morning--Piglet had a nightmare around 5:30 and was up for the day after that, although we had him stay in his bed until 7:30 with a book and a sippie cup. Boo woke up around the same time to eat (after a whopping 7 hour stretch of sleep!) and by the time I got both of them settled, I was up. So I went downstairs to pump (more about that in a minute), put away dishes from last night and then decided as long as I was up and it wasn't yet 6:15 I should just get my rear in gear and go to the gym. So I did. And it was 85 degrees with 90+ % humidity at that hour. It's the humidity that will kill you. There is another heat advisory today (95), but hopefully the predicted storms will come this afternoon and cool things off a bit.

So why am I pumping at 6:00 a.m., when normal sleep-deprived moms go back to bed, you may ask? Because, my friends, I am going to see Eclipse on Friday afternoon with my sister (hey, Beffers!), who is largely responsible for my ongoing Twilight addiction. The tickets are bought, I got Boo to take a bottle yesterday, and so now I just have to store up enough milk to cover the matinee and the travel time to and from the theater. Between yesterday and today, I have 5 1/2 oz in the freezer, so I think one more pump will give me enough breathing room. Yippie!


My card today uses last week's Sweet Sunday sketch and I sent it to a member of our Philly Inkers group who just lost a close friend of many years. I was working on another project with the dsp and color combo and decided to use up the scraps to make this card. I'll show you the project a little later in the week.

Remember Me

I finally got around to watching that movie yesterday afternoon during a marathon nursing session. I'm still thinking about it today, so it's definitely a good movie in my book. While I still think Robert Pattinson is at his best as Edward Cullen, this movie definitely shows his strengths as an actor. I really go for broody, complicated characters and Rob Pattinson is great at pulling them off. It is the kind of movie you want to talk about with someone--if you've seen it, let's talk! I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it. :) I read that some critics thought the back story wasn't developed enough, but the more I've thought about the development of the story line and the characters, the more I think that the movie is perfectly pitched because it makes you work for it a little. Not everything is given to you on a platter--there are connections you have to make yourself in order to engage in the movie. As I said, still pondering it today.

In other news, I finally heard a Lady Gaga song for the first time--something about Alejandro, Roberto and Fernando. Obviously, I've heard of her, but I don't listen to pop radio enough to keep up with all that. Anyway, when I was on the treadmill at the gym yesterday, I put on VH1 for a good beat, and there she was in all her machine-gun bra glory. I have to say, at first I thought it was an old Madonna video/song! They sound very much alike, and Lady Gaga is definitely pushing boundaries in the same way that Madonna did when she first started out.


But enough about that. My card for today is a simple card that is entirely stamped--no embellishments or ribbon! Fancy that. I got the idea from Joanne over at Sleepy in Seattle, and modified it a little to use only Stampin' Up! supplies. I'm starting to want to focus more on cards that are simple like this and feature a lot of stamping on the main panel. (On the other hand, I do have all this dsp I need to make a dent in, which sort of precludes the former. Balance in everything...)


Supplies:
Regal Rose, Whisper white cs
Asian Artistry, Embrace Life, Elements of Style stamps
Chocolate chip ink/marker, old olive, regal rose, melon mambo, tempting turquoise markers

Birds nests

Vegetable, that is. Trader Joe's has these great frozen things called Vegetable Birds Nests, and they look like the kind you get at an Indian resturant, but are battered with tempura and you dip them in a soy sauce blend. So yummy. I have to be careful with the soy, but I can tolerate these once in a while. Why do I tell you this? Because yesterday I went to Trader Joe's (with both kids in tow!) and dear tragedy, they were out! This after they stopped selling my beloved potato latkes. Will I ever recover? But not to fear, the stocker told me they were only temporarily out of the nests, so I can get them next week, hopefully.


And since we're talking about birds, I thought I'd share my swap for the meeting on Tuesday. I CASEd this card from a splitcoast stamper, but can't remember who, so if it is yours, let me know so I can give credit! I changed a few things like the ribbon treatment and made it more monochrome, but the basic idea is still the same. I think it makes for a cute baby card! The other thing I changed was to use the wings from the bird punch to make the entire baby bird. On the original card, the person had hand-cut the beak and wings and I just didn't have the patience to do that 12 times! So I used a leaf from the branch for the wing and used two wings for the full sized bird to make the body. Much easier! And pretty stinkin' cute if I do say so myself.

First sunburn of the season

Washington's encampment

Just for the record, I am pale. I mean, like vampire pale. Give me yellow contacts and some glitter and I'd fit right in with the Cullens. I'm one of those people who burns and peels and then burns again but never really tans. I even burn through my clothes, I'm that pale. The second worst sunburn I ever had was through a t-shirt while wearing SPF 50 sunscreen while in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan a few years ago. The worst burn I ever got was in high school after a day at a water park--I actually got sunstroke and 2nd degree burns I was burned so bad. My muscles even hurt--I could hardly walk for a week!

Militia men in period costume

So you'd think that with my propensity toward burning, I'd be better about sunscreen, right? Wrong.Yesterday, we spent the day at Valley Forge with some other Orthodox homeschoolers (we are thinking about it, but not yet committed to homeschooling) and while we had a nice time, it was HOT and very sunny. I had put something on my face and had on a floppy wide brim hat, but forgot about my bare arms and legs.

Looking in at the officer's hut

The tour guide on the walking tour was just a little too enamoured of the sound of his own voice and we spent a fair bit of time at one stop just standing in the direct sun (on a 90 degree day with plenty of humidity). So I wasn't too surprised to find that my arms were burned when I got home and my knees were a bit pink (burned through the tea-length dress I was wearing). Neither my (Greek) husband nor my kids were even the least bit pink, of course. Piglet's getting a bit of a farmer tan, actually.

Remember I said I was running out of baby thank you cards? I made another set of 8 on Sunday and I'm quite pleased with how they came out. I had four 1"x12" strips of designer series paper left over from working on Boo's baby book, and couldn't bring myself to recycle them, but didn't want to store them either, so I thought I should design the card around them, so I did!

With Delicate Dots dsp

I went with a bright bold color scheme--I really like SU!'s new brights collection. It is so much easier to work with than the old one! The only problem is that my first try didn't turn out right and the dsp got messed up in the process, so I needed one extra 1" strip of So Saffron dsp.

I rummaged through my little file of scraps and found one from the retired Washington Apple collection from two years ago. Perfect! I wish I had a bit more of it--I would have done a few more with that pattern.

With Washington Apple dsp

Supplies:
Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo, Old Olive (textured) Whisper White, Washington Apple/Delicate Dots dsp (both retired)
Fox and Friends, Short and Sweet stamps
Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin pie inks
Modern Label Punch
Melon Mambo grosgrain ribbon
1 1/4" & 1 3/8" circle punches
dimensionals
2 step bird punch

Sunny Sunday

Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there, and my husband in particular. He and my toddler went to church this morning and got back early afternoon, so I had a bit of time to myself. (I'm not churched yet, so I stayed home with the baby and stamped in between nursing and trying to soothe his screaming). I'm happy to say I got a lot done this morning! My baby thank you card stash was starting to run low, so I made another set of 8, that I'll share with you tomorrow. Actually yesterday wasn't bad either on the craft front--I got caught up on Boo's baby scrapbook, so that feels good.

We just went out to dinner for Father's Day--my hubby had wanted to try a new sushi place in the neighborhood, but when we walked over there, we discovered they aren't open on Sundays, so we ended up at a local coffee house that serves a pretty full menu and uses local ingredients when possible. Since my husband's birthday is in less than two weeks, we'll go there for his birthday instead.

This morning, I CASEd a swap that a sideline of mine received last fall that I just loved. It was the card that convinced me to get the Two-Step Bird punch. When I first saw the punch, I said, "meh" and flipped the page. I'm not that into birds, quite frankly. I was drawn to the little branch that is included in the punch, and I started to see some cool tulip cards made out of the bird wings, but still, I said, pass for now. Then I saw this card in March at a stamp camp, and that pushed me over the edge! I've been having a ball with this punch--you'll be seeing a lot of birds in the next little while.

The original card was designed by Debby Kainu, of Middleton, New York. All I did was change the sentiments and used naturals vanilla cardstock as the base instead of Very Vanilla. I just love the little birds peeking at one another on either side of the circle window. I'll probably make this one again with different colors.


Supplies:
Naturals Ivory, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip, Real Red cs
Wings of Friendship, Of the Earth stamps
Real Red, Pretty in Pink ink (used for sponging)
2-Step Bird Punch
Dimensionals
sponge wedge
tombow glue
scallop edge punch
1 3/4" circle punch

Ever check a sleeping baby...

to see if he is still breathing? I did that constantly when my toddler was an infant, and while I don't do it as much with the new baby, when he fell asleep before supper time and slept for almost 5 hours without feeding, I had to wonder! He normally eats almost constantly from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., so I kept going to check on him to make sure he was okay. The upside was lots of stamping time for me!! Having a few hours to myself, with no baby attached to me and a sleeping toddler was quite a psychological boost, I must say.

I made my swaps for the Inker's meeting in New Jersey on the 29th and worked on an order from an etsy customer. I thought I might get a few more scrapbook pages done for the baby's book, but ran out of time. (Plus my Bree Tanner book came yesterday and I wanted to start it before I fell asleep! I'm not sure what I think of it yet)


I had great hopes for getting some stamping done today, but I had my 6 week post partum visit this morning which pretty much killed the morning, and we are going to a potluck birthday party for a friend this evening and I've got to make something to bring along for that, so no time. Oh well.

This is the card we made on Monday at the Inker's meeting in Philly. It uses the new Cherry Cobbler, which is an absolutely scrump-diddly-dumptious color! The photos don't even begin to do this deep winey-red justice. It is so color saturated--I love it! I think it may end up being my go-to red color. I also love the wheel that we used to give the Elements of Style image a bit of vintage--it is called Textured and it is a jumbo wheel in the current catalog that is carrying over to the next one. It's definitely on my wish list! I like the new skinny taffeta ribbon as well--I wasn't sure I would, not being a huge fan of skinny ribbon, but this ribbon is a nice heavy ribbon that has a good feel in the hand and looks nice on cards. You can layer it or have it by itself, as on this card. (Like ribbon? Stay tuned for ribbon, button/brad, and cardstock shares, coming in July!)


Okay, I'm off to make chickpea curry. I like this recipe (it is new) but the whole house (and me and my clothes) smell of curry when I make it--that part I'm not so crazy about.

Swaps, swaps

I have a clean house, I have a clean house, I have a clean house!!! (Did I mention I have a clean house??) I have someone who helps with the cleaning a couple times a month right now while I'm still getting my feet back under me with the baby and she came this morning. I feel so much better now! With the near-constant nursing the last little while, I've barely been able to keep the house picked up, much less dusted and mopped. I'm hoping I get more time between feedings by August so that I can put up salsa and jam. (My sister thinks that the phrase "to put up" something is hilarious, by the way. I guess it is a little old-fashioned. I'll be canning for those who don't know that particular turn of phrase.


Our monthly Philly Inker's meeting was Monday night, so I packed up the baby (ha!) and took him along for the ride. It was held in one of the far western suburbs of Philly, so our carpool had a bit of a drive, but it was a fun meeting, and so worth the time! We made a gorgeous card using the new Cherry Cobbler (love it!) and Elements of Style, which I'll show you tomorrow or the day after, but I wanted to share my swaps from the evening. Each meeting we all swap card fronts, which is a great source of ideas. I had seen a version of my swap on another forum (splitcoast or stampin' addicts, can't remember which) and really liked the clean and simple look, so I decided to make it as my swap. It had the bonus of being easy to put together, and given my fragmented stamping time these days, that was a plus!


I should add that I'm typing this post with a nursing baby; if only I could figure out how to stamp with a nursing baby! Then I'd be in business!! The card above is an actual card I sent to my brother-in-law who has been struggling with an awful cough for a while now. I wanted to change up the colors a little, and used Dusty Durango, which I like very well on this card. The blue version is a nice cool version and this one is warm and toasty.

Supplies:
Naturals white, brocade blue, dusty durango cs
Pocket silhouettes, sincere salutations stamps
chocolate chip, brocade blue, really rust inks
sponge
dusty durango grosgrain ribbon, whisper white taffeta ribbon

Batting 1000

I looked at my hit counter this evening and I'm up to 917 hits! I'm hoping to hit 1000 sometime this summer. A silly goal, I know, but it makes me feel good that someone reads my little musings on life and stamping. :)
I'm not getting as much done as I would like these days because the baby is in that phase where he wants to be held all the time, or at the very least, to nurse VERY frequently. So I'm not getting a ton of stamping done, to say nothing of housework, etc.
I took the kids downtown this afternoon to meet a friend and her two kids for our own little walking club--got to work off the post partum jelly belly somehow! It is pretty hot and very humid, so I'm quite draggy this evening. I want to go get a snack, but the thought of getting up out of my chair is a bit much to contemplate at the moment.

I am trying to work on my etsy store right now though, milk vampire aside. :) One thing I've been meaning to make and put in the store for a long time is stamped onesies. I bought the onesies last summer, but with the custom work I had lined up, and then the sickness and general yuck of pregnancy, I never got around to stamping them until yesterday. I'm pretty pleased with how they came out, actually! I'm especially fond of the choo choo train one. I think these would be great baby gifts! (Can you tell I have babies on the brain??)


Supplies:
100 % Pima cotton bodysuits
Sock Monkey, Choo-Choo Train stamps
White & Close to Cocoa Craft ink
Aqua Painter
Iron

Getting my mambo on

I actually started this post hours ago, after cleaning out Boo's fingernails (how does a baby who only sleeps, eats and poops get dirt under his nails??), but got interrupted by life and am just now getting back to it. Boo is now sacked out on the Boppy on my lap, so I'm typing in an awkward position, but at least no one is screaming. :)

I spent this morning working on the Stamping 411 sketch challenge and also plugging away at Boo's baby book, which I am doing as a scrapbook. I made Piglet's the same way. I scrapbook the first year, and then after that, the photos just go in an album because I prefer card making to diligent, sustained scrapping of life's small moments. But for events, big trips and baby's first year, I thoroughly enjoy making a special scrapbook. I will say I'm not a "traditional" scrapper because I don't use a lot of embellishments or matting with my photos, as I prefer the photos to be the main event on the page, rather than part of a composition. But it works for me and I think it looks nice. I might share a page or two later on when I'm a bit further in the process. One thing I do like about scrapbooking is that is forces you to pick the best photos and discard the rest. I'm all about weeding out.
So on to the card. As I said, I used the Stampin' 411 sketch challenge because I went to bed with this card in my head, and it came together extremely quickly this morning because I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I love that! I also discovered a neat trick with Melon Mambo. I don't know about you, but I find that the Melon Mambo ink always comes out a bit brighter than the paper and I am always trying to figure out how to fix that. When I was coloring the flowers for the background, I started out by coloring in regal rose, intending to use Melon Mambo as an accent on the flowers. I accidently colored one in all the way and realized that the two colors together produced a nice deep shade that was closer to the paper color. Happy accident! I had originally wanted to watercolor the big flower (and did one as a sample before setting it aside as too bright) and ended up with my double marker technique on the flowers. I did go back over the Melon Mambo with more M. Mambo to give shading and depth to the flowers.

My color combination comes from Stacey's 2010 Convention Curtain Call Color Challenge. I can't go to Convention this year, and am not planning to participate, but I loved the color combo so much I wanted to use it anyway! I debated about the sentiment placement--I originally had it in the lower right corner, as the sketch called for, but felt it looked too boring or something, so I moved it up into the cherry blossoms. I'm still not sure the composition of the card is balanced this way, but I'm leaving it because I don't want to mess up the panel underneath by moving it.

Supplies:
Crumb Cake, Whisper White cs, Melon Mambo dsp, retired Baja breeze dsp (from clearance rack)
Embrace Life Stamp set
Melon Mambo, Regal rose markers, Chocolate Chip ink
Choc. Chip satin ribbon
Choc. Chip button latte
glue dot
vintage brads (antique brass)
dimensionals
paper snips
scallop edge punch, modern label punch

Aussie baby

The wife of a very dear (Australian) friend of mine from college (probably my best friend from college days) just had a baby girl (their first!) this week. (Was that enough parathentical remarks in one sentence for you??) I wanted to send them a card and a little baby gift. I couldn't figure out where to start with the card, so I followed the suggestion of another stamper whose blog I read, Mike Funke, and pulled out my dsp. I decided I would use Sending Love Specialty (now retired) and use those colors for my pallette. Worked like a charm, and this card came together quickly once I paired it with Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday sketch for this week. Do you like my pink giraffe? I grunged up the dsp with chocolate chip ink on a sponge to tone it down a little and liked the card a lot better after I did that.


I will say,it is expensive to mail packages to Aussie land! The package weighed 8 oz and was $43 to send! I could have sent it cheaper express ($39, whooptie-doo), but didn't want to unbox and rebox the whole thing at the post office. Ridiculous. But they are worth it, so I just swallowed hard and said, okay, mr. post man. Still cheaper than a plane ticket to visit, I suppose, and since I don't think we'll make it down there any time soon, this is the next best thing to wish them all well!

Also, as a complete aside, I wanted to make a correction on my hydrangea punch card--the stamp set Oval All, which I mistakenly listed as retiring, is not. It's a great set and I'm glad it is sticking around a bit longer!

Supplies:
Very Vanilla cs, Bella Rose dsp (retired), Sending Love dsp (retired)
Animal stories stamp set
Pretty in Pink ink, chocolate chip ink
sponges
chocolate chip cord button
linen thread
glue dots
pretty in pink satin ribbon

Brayered Dream Gardens

This morning, I went to get my driver's license renewed (fun, fun) and the technician was so concerned about my signature he made me redo it three times! The first time I didn't put in my middle name, and since I had signed my middle name on the old one, it didn't "match" so he wanted it redone. Then the second b in my last name wasn't neat enough. And then he didn't like the way the whole thing looked. Finally on the fourth time, he was happy with it.

Unfortunately, it's not at all how I sign my name normally, but what are you going to do. Since I had to take Boo with me (in the ERGO carrier) my photo is a little, um, interesting, but those photos are never supposed to be flattering, right? Besides, how good is a 5 weeks postpartum mom with sleep deprivation and 15-20 extra pounds of baby weight going to look, really?
After I got home, I wanted to try and make a card using a sketch challenge (I know, I said I wasn't doing anything original for a while; this card is a hybrid). My toddler was going down for his nap and it seemed like Boo might sleep too, so I was really enthused to have the time to myself to stamp! Oh the folly. Piglet cried on and off for the entirety of his nap time, and Boo pretty much screamed his head off too, refusing to be comforted or to nurse. So I got the card made, but my nerves were shot by the end. I ended up redoing the main panel because my original incarnation was too big and the side panel got lost behind it.

Despite it all, though, I'm really happy with the way it came out! I think that strip on the side looks like a brocaded ribbon, and I'm pleased to report that my brayer and I are on *very* good terms. I used this week's Stamping 411 sketch and the inspiration for the card images came from splitcoast stamper leezels. I think this card is going to sit on my desk for a while so I can just look at it and feel happy!
Supplies:
Taken with Teal, Whisper White, Basic Black cs, retired more mustard dsp
Dream Gardens stamp set
Basic black ink, Taken with Teal, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard, Old Olive, So Saffron markers
Sponges, brayer
1 3/8" circle punch
vintage brads (black), paper piercer/mat pack
dimensionals

Hydrangea

I'm very excited to share today's card--I made it on Monday and had to wait until today to post it. For those of you who follow various stamping-related blogs, I'm sure you've started seeing cards featuring one of the new hostess sets available in the new catalog (available July 1st!). The set has a big hydrangea and a bunch of nice sentiments. Demonstrators get a lot of great perks, and being able to preorder some items a month in advance is one of them. The perk about this set is that Stampin' Up! gave it for free to demonstrators who purchased the new color kit, which included the new core colors of cardstock and ink pads. Unfortunately, my small budget for this quarter was already used up, so I had to pass on the kit and the free set for now.


In any case, with all these hydrangeas floating around the web, I decided to create my own! Sometime before Mother's Day, Connie Babbert posted a card with a lilac made from the trio flower punch. I thought it was a cool idea and saved the card for future reference. As I started thinking hydrangeas, I noticed that our neighbor has a bunch of them blooming in front of her house, and I took a closer look one day to get an idea about colors and shading and such, and realized that the shape of the flowers was similar to the trio flower punch too! And thus a great idea was synthesized. I used Elegant Eggplant and Brocade Blue for my colors with a glitter pen for accents.
Corrected 6/11/10: I should add that two of the elements on this card are on the last chance list, so if you love them, be sure to get them before they are gone! You can shop in my online store by clicking on the "Cherish" card on my left sidebar. The retiring elements are the trio flower punch and the Brocade Blue cardstock. Items are selling out very quickly and only stamps are guaranteed in stock until the end of the month, so don't wait too long!

Supplies:
Elegant Eggplant, Brocade Blue, Naturals White cardstock
Oval All stamp set
Elegant eggplant ink
Large oval, scallop oval, 2 step bird, and trio flower punches
glitter glue pen
tombow monoadhesive glue

Father's Day in the Lovely Trees

Ever have one of those nights where you just can't shut your brain off? That was last night for me. The baby fell asleep around 11:30, and I found myself absolutely wide awake. I shut off the light and lay in bed, but the longer I lay there, the more wired I got as I started to think about things to do, people I was supposed to e-mail, and a million other things that crowd one's brain when unable to sleep. So I got up and sent off a few e-mails at 12:45 a.m. I was tempted to stamp a card, but figured that would really get my brain wired, and plus I hoped to get some sleep before the 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. feeding. So I went back to bed, tossed and turned for a while and slept fitfully until 5:15 (!) when the baby started stirring. While I'm thrilled he slept that long without a feed (thank goodness for Pampers!), I wish I could have slept longer. And of course, after the feeding, I was wired again and couldn't settle back down to sleep as I usually do. So I got up and took a shower and actually tried to tame the frizz that is my hair at this time of year. Which is how I'm getting to this post before 8 a.m. today! I'll probably crash during my toddler's nap time, but that's okay, I guess. As long as I can keep going this morning, I'll be alright.

I had Father's Day cards to make for the men in my life, and thought Lovely As a Tree would be perfect for some easy cards. I made two that are pretty much the same--just different dsp, although it comes from the same collection (Manhattan, retired). I think twine adds a nice masculine touch to cards, and the vintage brads bespeak elegance. I experimented with sponging on these cards and am pretty pleased with the result. I think the key to it is that less is more. I tend to want to overdo it and have to rein myself in. (Put your hands in the air and walk away from the sponge. Slowly).


Supplies:
Soft Suede, Vanilla Naturals cs, Manhattan dsp (retired)
Soft Suede, Baja Breeze, Always Artichoke, Old Olive, More Mustard inks
Vintage brads
twine
dimensionals
sponges

China roses

After several absolutely miserable days of heat and humidity, the weather finally broke last night and has been lovely and cool since! Yay! (It also means that my munchy monkey isn't nursing *quite* as often since it isn't so dang hot! Another yay!)

Yesterday, I managed to make not one, not two, but THREE cards! Will wonders never cease? They are all CASEd from somewhere else (with modifications) but at least I made them! I've sort of given up the idea of making totally original cards for a while.

Today's card layout comes from one of the blogs I read, but I don't remember whose card it was--if it is yours, let me know so I can give credit! The original was done in shades of pink, but I wanted to do Stacey's Curtain Call Color Challenge for this week, and I like the idea of China roses, so I went with it.

I've never done a tone-on-tone card with neutrals before; I think I like it! Did I mention that I love this stamp set? It is in the current summer mini catalog and it is fab-O! I used the flourish to make my own dsp on the side, and the floral spray on the edge. I used my aquapainter with markers to watercolor the image. Actually, I colored all the roses with a bashful blue marker, and then dotted the shadows with Night of Navy and used the aquapainter to blend it all in using the egg tempera technique I described on this card.

Supplies:
Very Vanilla cs
Elements of Style stamp set
Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Night of Navy marker
Navy satin ribbon
Open scallop border punch
Aquapainter

Bird in a Cage

So at the end of a week of intensive potty training, we've decided that our toddler isn't quite ready yet. It was a week of messes, a few flukes of good timing on our part, and lots of frustration by all. So we'll back off for a few months and revisit it again later in the summer.

I made today's card a couple of weeks ago without knowing who I'd send it to or for what occasion; I then found out that our wonderful doula had her wedding anniversary last week, so I decided to send it along to her! She was a great help to us during the labor and delivery of Maximos. I made the chain on the birdcage by hand using the Soft Suede marker.



Supplies:
Crumb Cake (Kraft), Whisper White, Real Red cs, Bella Bleu dsp
Happy moments (SAB, retired), Short and Sweet stamps
Soft Suede, Real Red ink
Small and large oval punches
Ovals die
Real Red satin ribbon
button latte

"Wife-swappin'? Who Said Anything about wife swappin'?"

Thus sayeth the never-dull Nicholas Cage in Raising Arizona, a movie I've never actually seen, but heard that scene recited over and over again in high school by my guy friends who adored the flick.

I'd also like to point out that the release of Eclipse is t-29 days! I hope I can figure out a way to go without having to tote the baby with me. I saw a great bumper sticker on Diana Gibbs' blog today and had to grin--I totally want one for my car!!

When I was browsing Cafepress.com looking for the sticker (thanks, Di!), I found a bunch of funny Twilight-themed tshirts too--goodness, there is a lot of Twilight snark out there. I think these two are my faves:


My post today is about swaps, hence the title. I managed to make a swap for the downline meeting that I went to at the end of May; I had to take Boo because the meeting was in New Jersey and he is a munchy monkey during the evening hours, but it was really nice to get out and hang out with stamping friends! I took the layout from this card, which you may remember from April, and used Cottage Wall as my color palate, which worked well. I inked up my Dream Gardens stamp set (love it!) and the whole thing came together pretty quickly. Please forgive the less-than-stellar quality of the photo--I had to take the picture before I had my digital camera situation sorted out.


Supplies:
Orchid Opulence, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White cs, Cottage Wall dsp
Jet Black Staz-On, Rich Razzleberry marker
White 5/8" satin ribbon
Dream Gardens Stamp set
1 3/8" circle punch
dimensionals

Cheddar Bunnies on a Hot Air Balloon

Today we commenced potty training with my older son. As it is our first day of concerted effort (we've been half-heartedly putting him on the potty every now and again for months), there were the predictible accidents and so on, but we soldier on nonetheless. He did seem to think the "big boy" training pants were pretty neat, so maybe the novelty of it will help as well. He did ask for his diaper when we were trying to get him to put on the trainers, and seemed a little confused, but soon got into it. I ordered this nifty little timer called Itzbeen to help me keep track of the time so I remember to put him on the potty every half hour or so. Our sitter is helping us as well, which is great because she has a ton of experience with these things.

And now for something completely different...the larch. Oh wait, different card. Sorry. :)


Today's card is a riff on an idea I got from Mary-Jo Price-Williams. Remember the sweet treats cups from the last two mini catalogs? She had wanted one of the stamp sets that coordinated with them and featured a hot air balloon image, but didn't have the set, so she modified a different set (Nursery Necessities) she did have to make the hot air balloon. Brilliant! I filed her idea away for a rainy day (and it is sauna steamy here today with intermittent rain!) and decided today was the day. One of my nephews will turn 5 this month and I wanted to make him a cool card, and thought again of the hot air balloon idea.


I pulled out last week's ColourQ color challenge, because I thought it was the perfect color scheme for a boy's card, plus I happened to have a sheet of ballet blue to hand, and combined it with the Stamping 411 sketch for this week. I ended up modifying the sketch a bit, turning it on its side and moving the sentiment down, but I like the final result!


In a moment of inspiration, I decided to put a bunch of cheddar bunnies crackers in the cup, because I wanted something lightweight so the card wouldn't be top-heavy, and also because it was kind of matchy-matchy with my color scheme.

Here's hoping the birthday boy likes it! Since these cards have to be mailed in bubble mailers, I found a cool Toy Story 3 one at the post office and got it just for this card.

Supplies:

Ballet Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Naturals White cs
Nursery Necessities, Birthday Bliss, Sweet Sentiments stamp sets
Ballet Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Barely Banana inks/markers
copper eyelet, CAD
Pumpkin pie grosgrain, Certainly Celery twill, kraft taffeta ribbon
1 3/4" circle punch, hobby knife
sweet treats cup
Annie's Whole Wheat Cheddar Bunnies