Saturday Sneak Peeks

The challenge at SCS is to make a card with reference to Inspiration found in a book cover. They supplies a link to a book site and I chose a book called Wonderful World that had a mix of dark colors on the cover and something that looked like an explosion in the cosmos. I thought I'd make a card with similar colors and a small explosion in the bottom left hand corner, courtesy of a nestability die cut.

I am using the new dinosaur set from Hanna Stamps that is available Monday night. This set will be so handy to have in my house. Tomorrow I will show you something with a different set, maybe a retro set that hanna is promoting this summer? We'll have to see what tomorrow brings. Hanna has a lot of new fun stuff coming, but unfortunately this is the only new release I have. I picked this set up when I saw Kristi a few months back and the new Riley Moose sets were not in her hands yet. Hanna Stamps also released a graduation set in both the Hanna line (images of people)and the Riley line (images of moose), so you should check her web site for samples of those. They are very handy this time of year!

Stuck on a Sketch

I used the sketch by 2sketches4you once more for today's card. It was hard to come up with an idea, I couldn't possibly be expected to come up with a fresh layout, too!

The SCS challenge today was to create a card with no coloring on it at all and only one piece of plain paper, but you could use as much designed paper as you want. Thank goodness for a Basic Grey paper pack, Archaic. The pack had lots of shades of colors that had very subtle coloring rather than bold designs. I paper pieced the items on my card and attached it to a scrap of cloud paper that I had. I also had some sand colored paper I made good use of as well. As always on Fridays, we are supposed to use limited embellishments so I have no ribbon or bling or anything extra on my card. It was hard to contain myself, I love nothing more than to add bling.

The card base is the only plain paper I used, you just can't see the designs in the other papers as it is so soft. It looks a great card for one of my sons to use as a birthday party card.

The stamps are a sneak peek from a new set that Hanna Stamps has coming out on Monday night at their Release Party. (Party starts at SCS at 9PM.) The set has a dinosaur theme and it will sure see a lot of use in my house, since I am the mother of dinosaur loving boys. Check back as I will have more sneak peeks all weekend long!

I Don't Like Buttons

I don't care to use buttons on my cards, no matter how cute other people think they may be. Papertrey Ink is bringing out a whole line of buttons in their impossibly pretty color scheme. Me? I will not buy buttons and I stand strong in my conviction that it just adds too much un- needed bulk on my cards and scrapbook pages. As for buttons on my pants and such? When my fat won't hold my pants up, I find that I need them. But I generally only need one and not a whole fly full. They do have their place in my life, and I like it when they respect their assignment and stay there.

The challenge at SCS today was to create a card with a button, or lots of buttons. I recently made a card with a sketch from 2sketches4you and it was the perfect card sketch for a button. I used all Starving Artistamp stamps again. The little girl is from a Halloween set, but I dressed her for a birthday party instead and I am sure she will be the first to the pinata when it gets whacked open.

Another pet peeve about buttons? People who put them on cards and don't have any string in them to even pretend that they are tied on! Don't get me started on naked buttons, or before you know it. I'll be leading a ban on naked buttons in craft items. Want to sign my petition?

I am trying to decide between a quick trip to the grocery and a nap. I can run to the grocery when my oldest is home from school, but he will prevent me from napping. Hmmmm What to do...

A Day with the Creatures

I made this for the color challenge at SCS today, I forget the exact shades, but it was a yellow, orange and light blue challenge. I tried to make the card and then had to run off to see the eye doctor before I could get it posted. I thought later today (after I could see again minus the dilation drops) that it looked a little dark so I changed the circle in the middle and sponged it with lighter colors as well as adding the little word "happy". I do like this second version much better. The creatures in both my creations today are from the Doodle Factory line by Starving Artistamps.

This is an updated version of the street scene I posted last week. Really it is just framed, but it's a nice finishing touch and really helps the piece feel complete.

Can I tell you how hard it is to recover from dilation drops? It was a bright sunshiny day and it just made me want to find the darkest eye shades possible. I had on sunglasses, but I still found myself squinting when I was outside. Yikes. I really just don't like the drops and their effects on my eyes. I suppose no one thinks it is fun.

The kids want to go swimming and I am declaring tonight leftover night because there is so much in the fridge we can eat that there is no need for me to cook. Plus, I couldn't see to cook for much of the day so I just didn't get it done today. I doubt anyone in my house cares anyway.

Memorial Day

Thankfully Scott fixed my camera for me, it was really just a lens jam. That said, I till did not use it for today's post, so you'll just have to imagine all the fun we are having. The neighborhood pool is open so we have been going back and forth all weekend and the boys are having a lot of fun playing with their friends at the pool. By mid August we won't be able to drag them there!

We went to the Old Navy one dollar sale on flip flops and came home with five pairs for the boys. Then Noah wanted to look for fake croc like shoes so we went around town to find those. Turns out it is not as easy as it sounds. Plus, he did not want dark colored shoes as he believed it would make his feet hot this summer. We did find two pairs for him at $4.99 each so that was a huge score. I was looking forward to colorful footwear for him, but he picked out grey and blue shoes. He is happy and that is what matters.

Today the kids are at the movies. I took some excedrin to help wake up and enjoyed an ice cream sandwich in peace. I am trying to enjoy the noise the kids bring me, but I will miss my quiet time as summer is almost here and that means kids in and out of my house all day.

Repitition

The challenge of the day was to use the same stamp more than once on your card. I chose to use a new image (to me) from Stamping Bella. The Bella line has lots of cute girls in it, and I chose Charlotte. I stamped her, then used a reverse image block to.... well...make a reversed image. The block is from Hanna Stamps and I love finding ways to use it. It is so much fun! The paper is from a Basic Grey paper pack.

I also finished up this project. The houses in the back are stamped a few times and then I used pop dots to place my little creatures on. The size is close to something like 5x11and I am not finished yet. I have a few finishing touches to add and a frame to put it in. I dropped my little camera on the way to take the photos today so I had to use Seth's camera and I couldn't get the colors to look right. They are much darker and not as washed out in person. The lay out is from Vicki Garrett, who made a version of this with the neighborhood wheel stamp from Stampin Up. My stamps are from Starving Artistamps' Doodle Factory line. I have the creatures in both the large and small sizes so I plan to add them into lots of my upcoming stamping projects.

The weather is warm and I spent the day dropping off left over garage sale stuff at resale shops for a little spending money. I know I am cheap, I hate to donate what I can sell. In the long run it just means more craft supplies for me!

Bright Days

Isn't this a fun card? I made it for the color challange at SCS today. We were to use Brilliant Blue, Only Orange and Pure Pomegranite. It is bright and bold and tons of fun. The moose is called Fins and I think the card is actually quite lovely in real life. the sentiment is from Hanna Stamps, too.

Do you see that little shiny dot in the upper right hand corner? It is called a schment and is from a pack of schments. They are sold by Stamping Bella and are sure to take the paper crafting community by storm, I think. They are flat and glittery and come in several mix and match sizes as well as tons of colors. Of course, you have to but them all individually and not in a multi size and color value pack. I put bling on the sides of my schment as I only have one color so far. It is part of the many goodies I picked up while road trippin' with my friend Candice to the stamping store, Papertrix in Nashville.

I met my friend Rebecca for lunch today and have plans for tomorrow, too. I have to get in my last round of fun before summer starts and I am ready to pull my hair out from the pizza and fast food diet that is induced from being with kids all day everyday.

Saturday Update

I thought I should say hello, even though I don't have any photos to post. I have been busy this week getting ready for our neighborhood garage sale. Surprisingly, I did not have a lot to sell. Thankfully my friend Jenny had tons. My neighbors sold off their bionicles in a private sale to my kids, so money went back and forth through the neighborhood and we all had a good time.

Scott and the boys scored some suite tickets and will be off to the track tomorrrow while I am out of town for the day. I was tempted to cancel my plans at the last minute and go to the track as well. I hate to pass up the offer to hang out in the suites with friends, but I am going to a stamping store with a friend tomorrow, so it is a very tough decision to make. I decided to go stick with my original plan to go out of town since it was on the calendar first.

Meanwhile, the boys will be eating fried chicken and biscuits with apple butter while I am coloring and stamping. I don't care to go to the track much, but since we live nenar Indy, the 500 is the place to be in the month of May. Have I mentioned how much better sporting events are when suites are involved? I swear I could watch bull fighting if I had tix to a suite.

Monday I will be with my friend Maria painting. She is out of school (she works at a university in the Dentistry dept.) and I will be with her to start my week. I can't think of a better way to relax and hang out than being crafty with my friends. Plus, I always love to see what her talented hands have made. I have been painting for years, because she has been trying to teach me, but my painting is very simple compared to her elaborate projects. She is my inspiration!

Living on the Edge

First up is this little cutie from Papertrey Ink, the Quilter's Sampler set. I rotated the sketch to make it work for me. I don't know where the quote came from, it's a random stamp I picked up somewhere a long time ago. I purposefully did not add a ribbon to this card. I tend to think all cards need a touch of texture, which is easily found in ribbon, but I decided not to add ribbon today. Living on the edge, I am! The paper is from PTI (Dark Chocolate) and an SU Variety pack.

And who can resist these little Doodle Factory monsters from Starving Artistamps? I love these creatures. I ordered the whole set for myself for Mother's Day. At less than 25 bucks I get about 8 or 10 creatures in both the large and small sizes. Score! I used paper from Basic Grey.

Not much is going on. After a couple of beautiful days we now have another dark and gloomy day. I am headed to my friend Jenny's house to pick up items to sell in our neighborhood garage sale this weekend. I have very little to sell, so I am glad I get Jenny's loot, too. She is moving, so she should have a lot to donate to my cause. Now I need to find friends and neighbors with tables I can borrow so I have somewhere to place all the loot.

Mother's Day

This is a card for the Inspiration Challenge on SCS. The challenge was to find inspiration in the fabrics used by a cushion company. I cannot remember the name of the company, it had a French name that roughly translated to something like "My sweet cushion". I used Hanna Stamps' wedding set in the colors my niece used in her wedding two weeks ago. Someone made a comment on SCS that they are unusual wedding colors. Hey folks, I don't make this stuff up! The wedding was beautiful, the ladies wore yellow and the men wore black. It was a gorgeous spring wedding.

I used a cuttlebug folder to emboss the background and just added some ribbon, and colored the image with copics. Simple and pretty, the best combination.

For Mother's Day we went to my brother's church to see his daughter get baptized by immersion. It's one of those big white people mega churches in a small town. Well, not really a mega church by mega church standards, but very large for their small town. What surprised me was that as we wondered lost through the church looking for the Baptism area, not one person spoke to us. No one greeted us, no one even said hello in passing. No on pointed us in the right direction. There is nothing I like less than a non friendly church. Well, I like even less the fact that there are only men on the staff in ministry positions, but that is a rant for another day. You folks come here for goodness and light and crafting ideas, don't you? And now I have just offended many of you with my liberal ideas.

So, afterwards we lunched with family and hung out at my brother's, then came home to nap and had friends over for dinner. They say Mother's Day is the busiest day in the restaurant industry and I successsfully avoided having to compete with the crowds. I also ordered myself some stamps from Starving Artistamps for my present. I love it when I get just what I want!

Thursday Update

Not much is happening this week. I spent yesterday with my friend Jenny and her two daughters. We were going to spend the day crafting, but we always underestimate the amount of time little kids suck out of you. I got some cards made and helped her a bit.

The top card is for today's challenge to use Kraft paper. Having recently stocked up on some kraft paper from Papertrey Ink, I was in good shape. I used Hanna Stamps' new set Pool Party and paper pieced the swimmers onto the blue paper. Isn't the little swimming dog adorable?

Yesterday the challenge was a sketch challenge and I flipped the sketch to a horizontal lay out. I popped Riley Moose up on pop dots so he really stands out in real life. The scene in the back is the Neighborhood stamp wheel from SU.

I am meeting my mom for lunch today. She recently started crafting and has a Cricut. (It's an expensive electronic die cut machine.) She loves to tell me how much she loves it, and how I need one, too. I don't know where she thinks a few hundred dollars for an optional crafting device would come from, plus all the money that would be spent on cartridges. If she brings it up at lunch again, I may just bite her head off. She truly forgets what it was like to raise kids on a budget.

Wedding Favors

Good thing I am in a wedding mood, I loved my niece's wedding last week and have tons of ideas about how to get the part started with wedding stamps. I need to move on, but I just can't, I am having too much fun. I made some little wedding favors to highlight Riley and Sophie, aren't they the cutest?

I am really looking forward to the release part tonight, too. I love the contests and seeing what evryone has made. This is really my favorite time of the month. I hope to see everyone tonight online around 9PM for the party at SCS.

Today is a beautiful day and I want to go get the oil changed in my car, and get it washed and get some groceries so we can grill out tonight. I really have to learn how to start the grill so we can eat at a decent hour. The kids don't care, they could play all night and not stop for dinner. But me? I need dinner. And I like it at 6PM. Too many years of living on a schedule, I think. My biological clock is set and cannot be denied.

Wedding Wishes

Hanna Stamps is having a "Retro Summer" and highlighting some previously released sets. The two for this month have a wedding theme, a wedding Hanna Stamps set and the wedding Moose stamp. Lucky for me, Scott's niece got married last weekend so I had plenty of ideas on what to make with the wedding sets.

I made Mary and her new husband luggage tags for their honeymoon trip. You can put whatever personal info you want on the back (or really the inside) of the tag, so your info isn't hanging out there for the world to see.

I love Sundays. It is a beautiful sunny day and I managed to squeeze in a nap.

Don't forget to join us for the Release Party at SCS Monday night at 9PM. The full sets will shown during the party if you are one of the people who just can't wait to see what's goin' on. (Like Me!) I Love a good party. especially one I can attend in my jammies.

Retro Summer

Hanna Stamps is having a retro summer, where stamps from the past are highlighted. For May one of those stamps is the wedding of Riley and Sophie. I made this card for the inspiration challnge on SCS. We were to pick a dress in the Fabiana prom dress line for inspiration and the one I chose was number 6425 and was hot pink. I used Raspberry Fizz paper from Papertrey Ink, which looked like a perfect match.

Today it is suposed to be a little cooler than I expected but my day will be full of yard work, like shoveling mulch and watching my husband mow our shaggy yard. We have had rain for the past four days so we have to tackle the yard while we can.

Sneak Peeks

Today is the start of sneak peek releases of the newest Hanna Stamps sets. I am showing you pool tags I made for my kids and a neighbor. We go to our neighborhood pool a lot in the summer and the big question among the kids is always "Does this belong to you?" We all have a pretty open policy about bringing things to the pool, if you bring it, you share it. The pool tags will be helpful when the kids want to borrow something, they'll know who to ask for permission before they make off with an item.

I am in love with this set, called Pool Party. It has adorable children it and even a little dog in a floatie. Too cute! I did some stitching around the tags, but it is hard to see. It might be better if you don't see it, then you'll know why sewing is no longer my hobby. Hanna has two new guest designers this month but I'll come back and update their info already. I lost the scrap of paper I wrote the info down on. I know, shame on me. It happens enough you'd think I'd stop writing on scraps, but no such luck.

Hanna Stamps' release party will be on SCS at 9PM and the new sets will be available that night at the party. Look around the other DT member blogs for sneak peeks on the To The Beach set. If you are a beach person, rather than a pool person, you will love it. Well, I love it, too, but I don't have it to show you sneak peeks of!