Bali Breeze Thanks

I seem to have a thing for Bold Brights lately! With Spring Break this week, my husband has been home (he's a teacher), so I had a bit of time to play! Here's my attempt at some patchwork! I used my 1 3/8" Square punch to punch out some Bali Breeze paper. Then I layered it on the Purely Pomegranate cardstock strip and stamped with All in a Row in Basic Black to create the faux stitching look.

The flower is from Embrace Life, coloured in with my Stampin' Write markers. For the leaves, I punched out some Old Olive with the 5-Petal Flower punch and arranged them underneath.

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: All in a Row, Embrace Life, Artfully Asian
Ink: Basic Black, Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, Old Olive
Paper: Bali Breeze, Tempting Turquoise, Purely Pomegranate, Old Olive, Whisper White
Accessories: 5-Petal Flower Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals

Fun With My Cuttlebug!

Wow! It's sure difficult to find time to blog, let alone get any stamping done! Three days ago, we moved our "baby" out of his crib and into a big boy bed! He was a little nervous, but now he likes it. He keeps saying, "Big boy!" whenever he sees the bed!

Well, needless to say, we've had to start camping out outside his room to make sure he stays in the bed when it's nap time or bed time. We did that with our oldest for a few weeks until he learned that it wasn't free time to roam around the house! Noah seems to be learning pretty quickly. He only tried to get out the first night. Now he pretty much stays in bed looking at books until he's tired. Anyway, that eats up a lot of free time! I've decided that blogging once or twice a week is a more reasonable goal than every day!

So, I did get some time to play last night while my husband stood guard! :) My in-laws gave me a Cuttlebug for my birthday!!! I was so excited, and last night was my first chance to play with it. I went simple, and made this thank you card. The Tart & Tangy set just screams Bold Brights, so I pulled them out again for this one.

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Tart & Tangy, Artfully Asian
Ink: Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Glorious Green, Pumpkin Pie
Paper: Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie, Glorious Green, Whisper White
Accessories: Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (Swirly?), Stampin' Dimensionals, 1 3/8" Square Punch

Patience and Poop!

Sorry, I don't have any cards to show today. Yesterday was a crazy day! Yesterday morning when I went to get Noah up, his diaper had overflowed up the back and there was poop all over his crib. What a way to start the day! He ended up getting a bath, and I had to wash all the bedding - sheet, pillowcase, bed cover, crib pads, etc. Fun, fun. Never mind that I had to be at church for Ladies' Group that morning besides feeding the boys breakfast and getting myself ready!

Well, I didn't think anything else of it until after nap time yesterday afternoon. When I went in to get Noah up from his nap, he had somehow managed to get all of his clothes and diaper off, and guess what? Oh yes, there was poop all over the place again, even on the walls! Well, Noah looked at me and said, "Bath!" Who'd have thought that a 22-month-old could be so clever? He loves baths, and he had discovered a way to get one!

Suffice it to say that it was more of a hosing off than a bath that time, and I was a lot less patient than I had been in the morning! Again I had the joy of washing all of his bedding again, along with the wall.

Oh, the joys of motherhood! I should have taken pictures to scrapbook, but I wasn't feeling very "capture-the-moment-y" at that point! LOL! (This photo is from last week, not yesterday! It's hard to stay angry with that face!)

Criss Cross Recipe Cards

Wow! What a crazy couple of weeks! Sale-A-Bration has kept me very busy!! I'm a little sad that today's the last day, but also a bit relieved that I can slow down a bit. No workshops booked this week! Maybe I'll have time to play!

At my last Stamp Club, we made Criss Cross cards, and we were talking about how great these would be for recipes when you make a meal or bake for someone. Well, my friend, Sherri, had ordered the In the Kitchen of set, and we realized it would fit perfectly on the inserts! So, of course, I ordered it too and set to work. I decided these would be perfect thank you cards for my Epicure Selections hostesses!

I used the Summer Picnic paper (what else?) with Real Red, Bashful Blue and Old Olive. I found a short recipe in my Epicure cook book (this really is a small stamp - not a lot of room for a big recipe, but I suppose you could use the back of the card too). And isn't it cool that you can write the recipe in with Stampin' Write markers and have the writing match the paper? :) (Yes, I'm a little bit obsessive-compulsive! LOL!)

Happy Spring!

I wanted to use some of my new goodies, so I was playing around with the layout and colours. I don't usually use Bold Brights, but I just needed them to make this a happy card! I started with a Rose Red blossom die cut from the Occasions mini. I put a white flower rub-on on that. Then I stamped the sentiment from Friendship Blooms in Rose Red onto Yoyo Yellow. The flourishes and little flowers are from Priceless, again in Rose Red and Tempting Turquoise. The base is Tempting Turquoise, and I put a strip of rub-ons across the bottom of that. Fun, fun!

PIF Blog Candy Winners

The first three people to comment on my PIF Blog Candy post saying they wanted to participate are:

• Tracy
• Alex
• Stephanie

Thanks for playing, Ladies! I'll have some fun going shopping this weekend and get some goodies in the mail to you next week. Please make sure you email me your mailing address!

PIF Blog Candy

BLOG CANDY ALERT!!!

I signed up for Lee's Pay It Forward Blog Candy a few weeks ago, but I was absolutely stunned when I received the package from her this week. You would not believe all the goodies she sent! I had to take two pictures because I couldn't fit it all into one! She sent tons of paper of all different sizes, mulberry paper, flower brads, eyelets, ribbon, flowers, Color Box ink, micro beads, clear stamps, embellishments. All I can say is, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lee!"

Now it's my turn to Pay it Forward! So, if you would like to participate, leave a comment here. I will send some equally amazing blog candy to the first three people who comment here, who in turn, will "pay it forward" to three more people. I think this is such a fun way to see what other people are using for their paper crafting and get some new ideas and goodies!

BTW, make sure you check out Lee's blog. She's a new friend I've made here in Blogland, and I'm so thankful to have "met" her. What a wonderful, talented lady she is. Her creations are amazing.

Some Birthday RAKs!

I seem to be in a creative slump lately, so I don't have much to show of my own work, but I have some amazing cards that were made for me by various friends and family for my birthday, so I'll show those instead! Enjoy!

I smiled when I opened the mail and saw this beautiful card from Amy! I had seen it on her blog, where she said she made it for a friend's birthday. I left her a comment saying it was wonderful and her friend would love it, little knowing that I was the friend she was sending it too! I am so thrilled that she made this for me - I love the pretty colours and beautiful design. Thank you so much, Amy!

My sister-in-law, Wendy made this next card for me. Isn't it fantastic? I love the fold and the embossing and the paper! It's so pretty! She even included an antique button as an embellishment. What a great idea! Thank you, Wendy!

My mother-in-law, Margo made this Groovy Guava card for me using all her new SU! goodies! There's the sticky letter with green micro-beads, the Pretties flower and pearl over scalloped circles and some double-stitched Guava ribbon, all on textured cardstock! That lady has everything! I love this card!!

My friend, Sherri, made this ice cream cone card for me. She's new to stamping - just joined one of my Stamp Clubs this year, and she's loving it! We all laugh about bringing her over to the "dark side" of paper crafting! I was so touched that she made me a hand made birthday card. She even used the double inking technique (two colours on one stamp!). Thank you so much, Sherri!

This final card was made by one of my new friends, and a lady who joined my downline last spring, Laina. I love seeing her excitement about Stampin' Up! She really keeps me motivated and excited about trying new things. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the purple butterfly is raised on dimensionals for a 3-D effect - very pretty! Thank you, Laina!

Thank you all for your birthday wishes and for sharing in my birthday blog candy a few weeks ago. Have a great day!

Giraffe Baby

This is a baby card I made for a family at our church who just had a baby boy (Dakota). There was a shower for her last week, and I had to whip this card up quickly!

I used Soft Sky and Blue Bayou (I'm going to be so sad when these In Colors are gone), and I coloured the giraffe with blender pens. The sentiment is from Holidays and Wishes.

Just a quick note today! Have a great weekend everyone!

Fun, Fun!

Wow! What a busy week! No time for playing at all! I've recently become an Epicure Selections Consultant, so I've had a couple of parties to do this weekend. I had originally signed up so I could get my spices at a discount because I buy so much of the stuff! But then one workshop turned into two, and it just continues from there. Of course, that's what I had intended when I joined Stampin' Up! as well, but as you can see, I quickly become obsessed and go way overboard!!! I had lots of fun at the Epicure parties though. There are always so many nice ladies and so much fun to be had.

Anyhow, it was a nice mail week. Diane sent me this adorable moose card and some goodies for my birthday! Thank you so much Diane! I just love them!


My blog candy from Candace also arrived this week! YAY! There's tons of paper and ribbon and a stamp and gel pen as well. Thank you so much, Candace. These will be great for scrapbooking my boys!

Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #37

I had a little bit of time this weekend, so I decided to make a card for Beate's Sketch Challenge. This was one of those cards that turned out completely different than I had imagined it!

I had started with a white card base, but I decided that it needed more colour, so I changed it to Ruby Red and spritzed it with my Color Spritzer and Ruby Red Stampin' Write marker.

I layered on some Spring Silhouettes designer series paper, matted on Soft Sky cardstock. I stamped all around with my All in a Row set to create the faux stitching (a tip I learned from Beate!). The flower and sentiment are from Bloomin' Beautiful (love this set!) from the new Occasions mini catalogue, stamped in Ruby Red and Old Olive. The sentiment is stamped on some Naturals White. I stamped the flourish from Priceless on that in Soft Sky.

I broke into my Pretties kit again (that's twice in the past two months!) and pulled out the little flower as an accent. I had originally planned to use some ruby buttons, but they didn't look right. I dyed the flower with my Stampin' Write markers and added the half pearl with a mini glue dot.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Thanks for reading.