Baby Boom

I've got another baby card for today.  This one is just for fun... I don't know very many people having babies any time soon :-)

This week's challenge for Our Creative Corner is to make a baby card, including kraft paper, trim and at least one button.  I thought it worked rather nicely with the sketch for today's Mojo Monday.  I know I've said it already, but I'm so excited to have more time to play along with all of my favorite challenges now that school's out!

Thanks for stopping by! I love reading your comments :-)

Sing it, Alice!

SchooOoooOOool's out. For. Summer!


Haha.  I don't think today really counts as the first day off since it's Saturday and we wouldn't have school anyway, but I've been doing the happy dance since we put the last preschooler into their car yesterday afternoon :-) It's gonna be a great summer, I can already tell.  My brother got into St. Louis late last night (or this morning, rather) and he'll be here at least until Monday.  Dad bought a new barbecue grill.  It's red :-)

AND (drum roll please...)  I actually got a card done!  The Shabby Tea Room has a challenge this week to create a baby-themed card. This one is for a friend of mine who's having a little girl sometime around the end of June.  I know that they're decorating the nursery with pink, brown and green, so I used that color scheme on the card.

I pieced the patterned paper together for the turtles shell from 1" scraps, then added some faux stitching.  The letters are from the "Car Decal" Cricut cartridge.  I like it.  Whaddya think?

Thanks for stopping by!

In the Home Stretch

I can't believe we're already down to the last two days of the school year! It's been an interesting nine months, that's for sure. Haha. My little kiddles are moving on up to kindergarten next year, so I'll definitely miss them... I think. Juuuust kidding ;-)  But seriously...

With summer in sight, I'm looking forward to lots of fun stuff (y'know, like blogging regularly again). Some traveling, girls nights by the pool, that kind of thing.  Which brings me to the card that I want to show you today.  This is for today's challenge at 365 Cards, Day 87.  The "prompt word" for today is COOL. And what better way to stay cool than in a pool??

I had a lot of fun coloring this image. I enjoy using watercolors because you don't really have to be quite as "perfect" with it. This might be one of my favorite cards that I've made in a while.  I absolutely love this image from Sparkle Creations.  If you'd like to play along, make sure you link up your cards to 365 Cards by Monday night!

Nature Stuff

I keep sitting down to write this post and I just end up with an insane case of writer's block!  This past week was a little crazy.  We had tornadoes ripping through St. Louis like nobody's business.  You see this kind of stuff on the news, but it's a really weird feeling when it's quite literally in your backyard.  Our church (which is where we were when the storms came through) and our house missed the worst of the destruction by a matter of blocks in both cases.  It's amazing that there were no fatalities.  And the only minor injuries where at the airport.  My brother was supposed to fly in that night from San Diego, but ended up having to turn around in Phoenix.  I'm just thankful that his flight wasn't a few hours earlier! Maybe it sounds a little cliché, but it really does make you realize that your stuff isn't going with you and it's having your family and loved ones safe that truly matters the most.

And speaking of nature... Lol...

I have a card for you today.  This one is for yesterday's challenge at 365 Cards, Day 59-Feeling "Kraft"y.

The challenge is to create a nature-themed card with kraft paper.  The image I used for the branch and the background pattern is from our sponsor this week, Shannon's Sentiments.  There are some really great images, so be sure to check it out.

If you wanna get in on the fun, come on over to the 365 Cards blog! You have until Monday night to get your project uploaded :-)

Ladybug, Ladybug

Hi there, blogger friends!  Happy Saturday to you all.  I'm singing at a conference here at church today, and I'm trying to do something useful with my time until the next session.  I haven't had a chance to blog anything these past couple of weeks, so I thought I'd do that :-)

Let's flashback to Thursday.  It was Day 31 at 365 Cards.  The challenge was to use a piece of poetry on your project.  It was a little hard to start with the image and find a poem to match, rather than starting with the poem then finding an image to compliment.  So with a quick search for poems about ladybugs, and then sifting through a bazillion preschool songs, I found this poem that I thought would be perfect for a card:

"I'm sending luck and wishes

All wrapped up in a hug

Good things should come your way

With this tiny ladybug."

~Author Unknown 

The image I used is from our sponsor this week, Digi Doodle Shop.  They have some super cute things, so make sure to check out their site!  Also, it's not too late to play along with this challenge (or any of the challenges this week)-- You've got until Monday night to post the links to your cards :-)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I've got just enough Irish in me to get some red highlights in my hair in the summertime and to justify making a semi-big deal out of wearing green today :-)
"Leprechauns" have been visiting our preschool class every day this week, leaving green footprints everywhere.  We have a class of 18 little ones who specialize in theatrics.  One day they'll be famous, but for now they just like to drive us nuts :-)  They're totally into it.  "Mattie," "Paddy," "Looie" and "Messy" leave us notes (and a mess) when they visit, and the kids can't wait to write one back with some advice on how to clean up their messes. Lol.  The irony kills me.

Anyway, today at 365 Cards, there's and ad-inspired challenge.  Here's the ad:

And here's my ad-inspired creation:

The color of my pictures has been coming out a little funky, but you can still see the elements from the ad that I used on my card.  One of the things that really stuck out to me, for some reason, was the legs of the chair and ottoman in the photo.  I tried to mimic that on my card using puffy fabric paint.

Here's the rest of the Irish Blessing on the inside of the card:

I'd love to see you join in the challenge!  Click here to go right to it :-)

Again with the late blogging. Gah! lol

Let's just cut to the chase here.  What I have to show you today is actually Thursday's card for 365 Cards.  The challenge is to pick something that is currently trending and use it on your card.  Now, I don't necessarily focus on what's trendy (at least not on purpose), but if I spend a little time thinking about it I do notice certain things.  It seems like I've been seeing a lot of lace everywhere lately, so that's what I decided to use on my project:

I kinda like how this turned out.  There's a lot of "stuff" there on the card, but it's not overwhelming. Well, it's past my bedtime PLUS I'm losing an hour of sleep with Daylight Savings starting tomorrow. Uggggh. Lol.  Well, good night all! And don't forget, you still have until Monday night to link up your cards for this challenge-- it's not too late!

Oh, I'm such a terrible blogger!! You know those badges that everyone likes to tag other bloggers with?  Someone should come up with a "Hey, where the heck did you go?" badge.  Actually, that might not be a bad idea.  It might be encouraging, for those people who wonder if anyone is really reading their blog, to get a comment saying "Your blog hasn't shown up in my feed for a while, and I've missed it!"

But I'm just rambling now.

The card I have to show you today is for Day 3 at 365 Cards. And yes! We just started a new year of cards, so now would be the perfect time to jump in and join us!  Today's challenge is to use fabric as a tool to apply ink or paint to your card any way you'd like.

I found a piece of material that had a pretty nice texture and applied white paint directly to the fabric.  Then I flipped it over and pressed it onto the paper.  I did use a brayer to make sure it got pressed down all the way.  It was also a little less messy that way ;-)  It ended up with a pretty cool distressed look.

Now remember, you can use the fabric any way you want, so you could scrunch it, roll it, twist it-- whatever!  You've got until Monday to link up :-)

Unconventional Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day! Or Single's Awareness Day... whichever one you're celebrating today. Haha ;-)

I'm quite literally on my way out the door to work this morning, but I wanted to share this card with you first.  I've been itching to make something with the "From My Kitchen" cartridge and this is what I came up with:

Kinda fun, no?

Happy Monday to ya! :-)

Fabulous

Hey there, friends!  It's been a while.  I'm sorry. :-)

It's Day 347 at 365 Cards!  The challenge for today is to "divide your card into three parts so that none of embellishments or the sentiment overlaps from one section to another."

Here's how I did it:

The sentiment is from this week's sponsor, Digis With Attitude.  The silhouette is from the Forever Young Cricut cartridge.  It's definitely one of my favorites.  I haven't used eyelets in a while, but I finally have a Crop-a-dile tool.  I should have gotten myself one of those a loooong time ago. Lol.  It's SO much easier than that ridiculous hammer!

I'd love to see your take on the challenge, so link it up right HERE!