Challenge of the Week

The challenge on the Hanna Stamps forum this week is to make a card in the spirit of Yankee Doodle Dandy, and add swirls, doodles, flourishes, etc.... I doodled and swirled to my hearts content, but did not make any part of this card red, white, or blue, like most of the other challenge participants did. I am either unique or daft, I can't decide which. I used lots of ink colors, Close to Cocoa, Wild Wasabi, and Black. The paper is Bazzill and a DCWV paper pack.

It is a lazy Fourth here. I slept too long and woke up with a headache. I took excedrin but it hasn't quite kicked in. Hope you fellow Americans have a good holiday weekend and thet the rest of you don't work too hard.

Looking For Work

I made this fake flyer to show how great the upcoming Hanna Stamps set, Lazy Days, is. The set features a lady lounging in a hammock. But it also has accessory stamps in the set, and I used the lawnmower to highlight my sons' need for summer income. (Don't worry, the info posted on this page is made up.) I love that the lawnmower is an earth friendly push mower. I can't recall who made the paper, as it has been in my stash a very long time.

Splitcoast is having a Hanna Stamps release Party tonight, starting at 9 PM if you want to stop by and chat. The new sets will probably be shown off and released around 11:30 PM.

For those of you who are local, I took the kids to a place called the Bounce Zone today. We needed to do something to burn energy on this rainy day. They jumped indoors on bouncy things and in bounce houses. The cost os $6.50 for 1.5 hours. They loved it! While they jumped and knocked themselves out I sat and read quietly at a table. Sweet.

New Release and Movie Reviews

This card is made entirely with a new set coming out from Hanna Stamps tomorrow, called "Bridal." It's a fairly simple card, I used nestabilities and copics. Pretty simple but very pretty. Hanna Stamps will be hosting a Release Party on the Splitcoast Forum tomorrow night if you want to see all the new releases as soon as possible.

To fight boredom, which seems never ending on the behalf of Noah, we have seen some movies recently so I thought I would tell you about them.

First up was "Get Smart". It has Anne Hathaway, Steve Carrell and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. An all star cast for a summer movie, in my opinion. Yet I thought the movie stunk. It was bit long and not very funny. It had a bit too much bad language that I would have rather my oldest son not hear. He tends to notice bad behavior and work it into his everyday life. It also had a lot more violence than I expected. With the language and violence, you could at least hope it is well rounded by a bit of nudity. I mean, C'mon, is their a finer specimen of man than The Rock?! (NO!) And not once did he even do so much as to take his shrt off. I wanted my money back.

We also saw "Wall E". I suppose it is a great satirical look at human life and the obesity and wastefulness and over use of electronics that we possess today. But I nearly fell asleep and my oldest son did sleep through a lot of it. The kids said they liked both movies, while I was not impressed by either of them.

Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend

Baseball diamonds, of course! I made the saying for this card on my computer and punched it out with the handy dandy circle punches and scallop punch from Stampin Up. The card is made with Hanna Stamps' new set, Baseball. You know you love it.

Scott plays church softball all summer. I used to go cheer him on, but now I just send the kids. If I can get one of them out of the house that means no sibling fights for about three blissful hours. You know I love that!

Noah is in my crafting stuff at this moment and we are waiting for Seth to get ready so we can go see the movie "Get Smart." It should be full of stupid humor for my grade school age kids. Let me tell you, Noah in my craft stuff makes me hugely annoyed. He puts nothing away and is not nearly as careful as his little brother. I gotta go hover over him and make sure he doesn't destroy my favorite toys.

Back to our regularly scheduled program

This is a middle opening card made for Hanna Stamps Release Week. Can you believe it is that time again? Hanna Stamps has several sets becoming available after the release party Thursday night on the SplitCoast Stampers Hanna forum. Today's sneak peek is from the set coming up called "Patio". I stamped the background with stamps from the set, but now wish I had added the little gnome to the card in a more prominent way. Hindsight is 20/20, eh? I love this set and I love the gnome. I will be posting sneak peeks all week, so check in.

We had an odd weekend around my neighborhood with neighbor kids all being mad at each other for various alleged reasons. One kid decides he doesn't like so and so and then so and so gets mad at another kid, and they all seperated from each other and aren't playing right now.

I realize things won't be perfect 100% of the time and the kids have to learn not to always say what is on their mind, like "so and so said this" or "so and so doesn't like you". I sent Noah to a neighbor's house to apologize and the mom answered the door and before he could get a word out she yelled at/scolded him and he came home crying and angry. I wanted to go punch her in the face. But, I took the high road and am trying to ignore it and entertain the kids so that they are occupied and not lonely without playmates. It is deathly quiet on the street today.

On a happy note, we stocked up on books at the library and I had Taco Bell for lunch. Mmmmmm Gooood!

I Have Never...

been so thankful for a little bit of rain in my life. Seth came home from day camp yesterday and before the boys could think about the neighborhood pool, it began to rain. I laid down on the couch and slept about half an hour. I needed it. I slept well last night, too. I love when I can nap and it doesn't affect my sleep at night. Heavenly!

Today's Hanna card is made with hanna and Anthony and a dog from the Small Dogs set. The challenge on the Hanna forum at Splitcoast today is to use masking on your card/item. I dare say that masking is what i was born to do. I love it, and tend to do it quite a bit, so today was not as challenging a day as it could have been.

I am still cleaning the basement storage room and may get around to sorting toys if the kids play outside. My idea of sorting actually has a lot to do with throwing away and boxing up. I can do it with the kids outside easily. if they see anything get sorted, it leads to tears over toys they otherwise had no idea they even owned!

I Need A Nap

My Stamp Camp SU demo had a camp last night for mothers and kids. Seth and I went and we created three cards each. Above is a photo of one of the cards we made. Seth made one just like it, but I can't show it to you. He signed it right away and set it aside to give to one of his Day Camp leaders.

Our local county has a camp program through the summer and this is Seth's week to go. Noah goes in a couple more weeks. Everyday is a different theme, and although my kids have been going for years, they never get tired of it and eagerly wait for their camp time every year.

Once Seth comes home I usually take the boys to the pool, then have dinner, and feel some relief from being the Program Director/Taxi Driver when Scott comes home. Scott andI stayed up past midnight last night watching episodes of LOST season 1. It is great to see all the early mystery and storylines, but it's not as intriging as it was the first time around. But we are going to watch all the episodes until we are completely caught up. Why? Because I want to, that's why. But I am tired from the late night and want to nap when Seth comes home today. We'll see if I get lucky or not.