Playin' around with crayons

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen! Greetings on this Bright Monday. The sun is shining, the day promises to be summer-like, and it is a great start to the Paschal season. We spent the latter half of Holy Week and Pascha (Easter) in Princeton as we usually do, to celebrate with our parish there. Our boys stayed up through the midnight service and through the early morning celebrations! (Well, the baby took a brief nap in the middle of the liturgy around 1 a.m., but he was up the rest of the time!) We got back to our hotel around 5:00 a.m. and I've never been so grateful for black out curtains in my life! We all slept about four hours, and then headed off to a friend's house for a Paschal brunch, and then home. All in all, a lovely weekend and a great Pascha celebration with our church family.

I had an unexpectedly eventful morning today. I had my routine monthly midwifery appointment at 9:30, and ended up waiting in the room for more than an hour before the midwife got there. I had woken up with another blistering headache (they've been plaguing me almost daily for the last month and Tylenol doesn't even take the edge off), and while I was sitting there, I could just feel myself feeling sicker and sicker. I couldn't get enough air in my lungs because my nose was so congested with hormones and such, and my head was pounding enough to make me dizzy and seeing spots. So I mentioned these things, along with the rather extreme fatigue I've been experiencing the last week or so, and, after she listened to the baby's heartbeat on the doppler (a strong 154 beats per minute!), she said, "Get thee to prenatal triage at the hospital!" Luckily the hospital is only a few blocks away on foot, but after waiting an hour at the office, and needing to run several errands this morning, going to the prenatal triage unit at the hospital at 11 a.m. was no on my agenda. But I went, they gave me some stronger meds for the headache, which helped quite a bit (still there, but much more a background noise than the main concert at this point). She didn't want to do anything about the short breathing, but at least an unexpected side effect of the medication was to ease some of the congestion in my face. So while the breathing isn't great, it is better. I was able to run my errands in double quick time on my way home, and got home by 2 p.m. My lovely long suffering babysitter was gracious to stay late, so everything worked out well.

Today's card is one I made in March while playing around with the crayon resist technique. It didn't quite turn out like what I had envisioned in my head, but I think I know what I will fix in the future if I make it again. What I should have done was put the white crayon in the middle areas and left the rims and edges dark, as if it was a rusty old truck. Oh well. That's what experiments are for, right? It is a rather nice masculine card. I'm saving it for Father's Day.


I also just had to share this photo from Spring Fling--it comes from my upline, Claire's, blog, but I think April Boyea, one of our fellow Philly Inkers, took the photo. I'm demonstrating how to make my cowboy lightening card.

(Yes, that is a cheap-o gas station French Vanilla cappuccino--I don't want to hear anything about it! :)

Baby Gift Sets in the shop!

I finally got my act together and edited all the photos from the baby gift sets I've been developing. I've listed a bunch of them in my etsy shop, so if you are looking for a great baby gift, check it out! Each set includes 10 baby thank you cards, coordinating customized onesie and coordinating welcome baby card. Sets are also available with three onesies.

Here is one of the sets that is available:


Stinkin' cute, eh? Click HERE to see other available sets. If you are looking for something specific, just let me know! I have a large catalog of images to work with.

Too tired to tango...

Ever have one of those days when it just seems like too much energy to put one foot in front of the other? The last few days have felt like that to me. My husband has been gone 4 of the last 5 days, and I'm starting to feel it. I don't want to change one more diaper, feed one more jar of baby food, clean up one more mess of toys on the floor, wash one more load of laundry, or carry a 20+ pound child up 3 flights of stairs anymore. le sigh. Boo is getting up at 4:30 most mornings right now and is awake and talking (loudly) in his crib from then, and is also waking up around 10:30-11:00 p.m. with night terrors, so I'm sort of getting it at both ends right now. To say I'm in a creative slump would be to insult creative slumps. I'm hopeful that once my husband's next Supreme Court case is over, and all the attendant chaos, that things will settle and I'll get my brain back. Or maybe not. All my brain cells seem to have done the pregnancy migration south to the placenta. But enough crabbing about all that.


I'm so excited to share these two cards with you today! I finally forced myself to get out my brayer and inks and get creating! I've had a file of photographs that I thought would make good brayer-type cards for a while, and even though I look at the file from time to time, it has just seemed so overwhelming to me to actually get out the ink and brayer and make something. But I was determined to create something original today. I had one spectacular fail that went straight into the recycling bin, but the other two I'm quite pleased with. I was so excited to show them, I had to photograph and post them right away--I'm sure some of you who read this blog will understand that impulse!

Lost a week there...

I looked at my little baby ticker yesterday and realized (to my surprise!) I was at 18 weeks already! Somehow I lost a week in there. I kept thinking I was going on 17 weeks. Such is life with two small (and very active) children. I'm carrying quite differently this time--I'm all belly, which I find strange and interesting. I do feel quite breathless the last week or so, and find I'm running out of room below the ribcage, so I guess the only place to go from here is OUT! Stretchmarks, schmetchmarks. :)

18 week old baby in utero

Today's card is the other swap I brought to Spring Fling. I wanted to have two designs in part because I dislike making the same card 25 times unless it is for a paying project, and in part because I wanted to showcase some of the new preview products! This card uses the new Paisley Prints dsp that was available in March to demonstrators and is available to customers this month as part of a special promotion called Spring is Blossoming. The label is from a set of four labels that is also part of the Spring is Blossoming promotion. Basically, the deal is this: if you purchase $20 worth of products from me, you can buy this stamp set and paper ahead of everyone else; if you purchase $350 worth of products (or host a party with that amount) you get the set and paper for free! Both the stamp set and dsp will be available in the new Idea Book and Catalog coming out in July. Can't wait for all that lovely scrumptiousness.


This paper is seriously gorgeous. I'm hoping to do a little project with it in May to really showcase all the different patterns. I will say that I futzed with the label on this card for a long time--should it be white, or crumb cake, should it be Night of Navy or Cherry Cobbler? Or More Mustard? Should it be one layer or two? Which label design should I use? And so on. I had the basic layout and design in my head, but that last little piece of the puzzle took a bit to come together. I like the clean look of the finished product though.

Supplies: Night of Navy, Crumb Cake, More Mustard, Pear Pizzazz, Cherry Cobbler cs, Paisley Prints dp Four Frames stamp set, Teeny Tiny Wishes Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy inks Designer label punch Night of navy satin ribbon Vintage wallpaper EF

Lightening Cowboy

Back on the couch the last few days. I've had a headache that just won't quit and Tylenol is just taking the edge off. So I haven't been terribly productive so far this week. It's probably to do with the spring weather--all those budding trees wreak havoc with my system. At least I'm getting my Spooks fix. :)

I made this card for my display board at Spring Fling. I saw a card on splitcoast that used crayon resist to make a lightening card, did a little searching around, saw this card, and I thought, that streak of lightening needs a cowboy in front of it! The card kind of grew from there.

Supplies:
White crayon
Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Rich Razzleberry, Elegant Eggplant, Basic Black inks
Out West stamp set
Pink Pirouette, Basic Black, Elegant Eggplant cardstock
sponges

More baby gifts

Good morning! It is supposed to be 75 degrees today, but it is still in the upper 50s at 10:30 a.m. and I'm a little doubtful about that particular prediction. The weather forecasters haven't really been on target much lately.


Today's post features the other baby gift set I made for my friend and upline Claire, who had her second baby boy on Monday! I brought her a meal on Friday, along with the gifts, and got to meet the baby. Ezra is such a cutie with his dark hair and eyes. I'm curious to see who he will look like as he gets older.


I made this set before the other one, so I only had a 3 month short sleeve onesie on hand, but I figured it would do for the early summer months. I started with the onesie and the project kind of grew from there. I printed the frog from MDS, then decided on the thank you card design, and finally, on the baby card design.


The thank you cards I kept very simple, to reflect Claire's style. I made 10 of these. The color is a little off in the photo, but the base is Old Olive and it was a nice rich contrast to that pop of Pumpkin Pie.

I printed an panel of dsp from the MDS set Hoppy Memories and then started futzing with the layout. You know how sometimes you have an idea in your head and it just doesn't quite come out that way in the final product? This card was like that. I still like the final result, though. The basic problem was that I made the frog too small for the layout I wanted, so I kept adding layers to the medallion to make it bigger, but then it didn't quite look right against the dp, so I added the scallop square, and so on. You get the idea. Still cute, and it matches everything!

I've decided I'm going to sell a few sets like this in my etsy store, so if you are looking for a unique baby gift, be sure to check out The Paper Chef at etsy.com I have a lot of different images to work with, so if you want something specific, just let me know! I'll post them in the shop sometime early next week. If you need something sooner, contact me through the shop or leave a comment on this post with a valid e-mail address and your people can talk to my people and we'll do lunch. ;)

Three posts in one week

I know, you are dying of heart failure! Truth is, I've been a busy bee this week, making baby gifts, getting caught up on the big scrapbook project for a client, and generally digging out. I do find myself getting tired pretty quickly because I think I'm still getting over this bug, but as long as I manage my time and energy appropriately, I'm okay.

Two of my friends had babies this week, one on Sunday and one on Monday, and I wanted to do something special for each of them. I generally make baby thank you cards as my baby gift, but I remembered an idea on Mary Jo Price's blog from a long time ago, and wanted to give it a whirl, now that I have MDS! She had taken some MDS images, printed them on transfer paper and made custom onesies that were so stinkin' cute! I had some onesies, some transfer paper and away I went! I think the onesies plus the thank you cards are going to become my go-to baby gift. They are unique, customizable and so cute! I still need to come up with cute packaging, but a basic gift bag will do for now, I think.

This set is for my friend who had a baby girl on Sunday. It is their first baby, and I'm so happy for them! I made the thank you cards first. I remembered a great scrapbook page make-n-take from our Spring Fling three weeks ago, and adapted the layout and colors to the card. Thanks, Melissa, for the great idea! I made about 10 of these, I think.

I wanted the whole set to coordinate, so I downloaded the Baby Steps stamp brush set for My Digital Studio, created a jpg with the mama elephant in Poppy Parade, Pear Pizzazz and Daffodil Delight, and printed them on the transfer paper. I ironed them onto 6 month long sleeve cotton onesies, because in my experience, most people get tons of 3 month size clothing and then have nothing in the bigger sizes. And long sleeve onesies are always a plus, in my book. They are great as undershirts, or as shirts by themselves with a sweater over top, or whatever. Babies need layers in cooler weather and long sleeve onesies are the perfect solution!


Finally, I wanted to make a welcome baby card to match everything else. I had in mind to use the Baby Steps stamp again, but those paper daisies were just calling to me, and I saw this week's Stampin' 411 sketch and couldn't resist. Besides, it is meant to coordinate, not match exactly, right? I'm not totally thrilled with this card, because I fiddled with it for so long (you know how that goes sometimes), but I think it is cute and goes well with the rest of it.


Supplies:
Whisper White, Poppy Parade, Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight cs, Pear Pizzazz, Pumpkin pie dp
Baby Steps stamp/digi
Poppy Parade ink
Paper daisies
Pumpkin pie cord buttons
Button sizzlit
dimensionals
pearls
daffodil delight satin ribbon