Well, it's not like I wasn't thinkin' about it...

*sigh*  Epic blogging fail.  I thought about it.  I really did.  But it's hard to say what would really be worse:  Sleep-deprived posting or no posting at all. Haha.

The school year is actually off to a great start.  I can't really complain at all.  The kiddos are super cute, and relatively mellow compared to last year's group.  But I think my whole body is still revolting against having to wake up early every day!

I realize this is a little after the fact, but I thought I would show you my card for Thursday's color scheme challenge over at 365 Cards.

If you still want to play along, it's not too late!  You have until 11:59pm to link up your posts.

 

Here are the last few cards that I never got around to posting, for any of you who don't frequent the 365 Cards blog. (Although, you should. :-)  I believe if you click on the photo, you'll be able to see it full-size.

Well, all of my plans for this weekend have completely changed. Sometimes that's not such a bad thing.  I was supposed to be going on another retreat with my church's student ministry, but I've had this scratchy throat thing creeping up on me all week.  Then yesterday, when I woke up, I had almost no voice at all. Then, by the time I was greeting the kids at school, I was starting to sound a bit like Macy Gray.  By the afternoon, my Macy impression was dead-on. Lol.  It was a rough day at school, so I was just completely worn out and feeling not-so-wonderful.  I decided that if I went on the retreat, I was just going to be miserable and not much fun anyway.  And having no voice when you're in charge of a bunch of 8th grade girls is no bueno!

So instead, I got to see the family for a few minutes before going to work for a couple of hours.  I made it home early enough for a game of Apples to Apples with my cousin, aunt and momma.  It was quite fun :-)  Then I went to bed and totally crashed.  I woke up with Macy syndrome again :-( But at least I can just chill.


Okay, enough whining...  The real reason that I'm posting is to show you my card for Thursday's challenge-- we're already past the 200th day at 365 Cards!!  How crazy is that?  The challenge is to use 4 different stamps on your card, making sure that at least 2 of them are images.  Here's what I came up with:

Four stamps sounded like a lot to me at first, but once I started working on it, that really didn't seem  like too big of a deal.  The hardest part for me was to find stamps that actually looked good together. I ended up using the bird (which is from our sponsor this week, DRS Designs), the flower, the Italian background stamp, and the little, tiny "miss you."  I have a lot of stamps, but I also have a feeling that my stash looks like a handful compared to the selection that I know some of you out there have. I mean, mine fit in one box. Haha.  But thankfully these worked out pretty well :-)

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you'll hop on over and join us at 365 Cards!

Take Two

Hey everybody :-)

I am SO tired! I'm still trying to work on the aftercare room at school.  We're so close to being done, but the open house is tonight! Yikes.  I'm ready for school to start.  I need to get back on a schedule.

Anywho, it's time to show you my card for today's challenge at 365 Cards!  Here's the deal: Take a card that either you didn't finish or weren't totally happy with and redo it.  Turn "blegh" into "beautiful!"

So about this time last year, I made this card:

I didn't really love it when I made it and it's been sitting in my "salvage" shoebox ever since.  For the challenge I pulled off the sentiment, the flower and the whole dark pink layer. (I had to fight with it a little bit, but I was finally able to get it off :-)  So that left me with just the pink base.  Then I decided to recreate the glittery edges, but this time on a white layer.  That worked a LOT better for me.  With a new ribbon and this super cute bird stamp from Robyn's Fetish, it looks like a whole new project!

Okay, I gotta wrap this up before I fall asleep on my laptop... again. Lol.  I can't wait to see what you all come up with for this challenge!

"I Wanna Sing You A Song"

I've mentioned a couple of times that I work at a school.  One other gal and I keep about 20 three to five year olds for a few hours everyday for aftercare.  I love it.  They're some of the most clever, intelligent and hillarious little characters you'll ever meet.  Yesterday, we were down to the last few kids (mostly girls) and 4-yr-old Tara says to me "I wanna sing you a song." So they started having a sing-off.  I heard new renditions of songs by Lady Gaga, Hannah Montana and "Tayla Switch".  I'm always amazed by how much of the lyrics they actually know, and amused by what they say when they can't quite remember.  There was a memorable verse from a "Tayla Switch" (Taylor Swift) song about "Dooby the guy" and something about gnomes.  Haha.  I just sat there and smiled and tried not to laugh. :-)

On that note, here's another reminder to check out the Scrap It With A Song challenge blog.  This week the song is "Once Upon a Dream." (And don't worry-- they post the lyrics so you don't have to ask your preschooler!)  I'd love to see what you would do with it. Here's the card I made...

I'm still trying to catch up with all of you guys at 365 Cards-- The only problem is that every time I get one done, there's a new challenge up! lol.  I gotta pick up the pace here...

Day 55-On Pins and Needles
Pins as an embellishment, needles used for stitching.

I used fabric for the bottom of the card and then tried to mimic the flowers with some punches.  For the "pin" requirement, I used straight pins with some beads glued on the end.  I didn't use a sentiment because I wasn't totally sure what I wanted to do with it.  It might just make a cute, generic note card though.

Day 56-Super Sketchy Sunday (I flipped it) and Digi Kitty-"Whooooo's the Sweetest????"

I paper-pieced the image with Bazzill swiss dots paper.  I like the soft, girlie colors-- and how cute is that owl? :-)  I also just wanted to mention that of all things, that sentiment is the only thing that looks wrong in this picture.  Why is that??!?  In real life it's brown and it matches. Just so ya know. Haha.

Weird Weekend

This has been a really weird couple of days.  Not a bad weird, just---- different. Haha. My sis and I sang at a funeral on Friday.  What was supposed to be two or three songs turned into an hour and fifteen minutes of me literally making up accompaniments to songs I didn't know.  That was interesting.  Next time I agree to do that, I'll definitely be asking some more specific questions.  The super long funeral made me almost completely miss work, but it wasn't a huge deal.  And speaking of work, we got out early at the preschool which is really rare.  I got called into work at church again, but then got sent home early because half the kids didn't show up.  SO yeah. It was just weird.

Saturday was less weird.  My cousin's first communion was in the morning, then my sister and I spent the rest of the day at our church singing.  Afterward we checked out a new brewery with some friends.  That was a good time. Sang again this morning and then came home to chill AND of course, make cards :-)

I've got three for you tonight...

Finally finished the rest of the "White Space" challenges @ 365 Cards!  I think these two might've been the most challenging (or they just happened to come on the days I was most tired!).  Here is Day 47.  I don't know if I love this one.  But the little sis liked it (and she's probably my harshest critic) so I'll post it ;-)

And here's Day 48.  Took me a while to come up with this one.  I'm probably stretching the boundaries of this one just a tad with the shape of the decorated space, but it seems like there's been this mini-competition all week long to see who can stretch the rules and/or freak Pam out the most ;-) You guys are funny... and you make mine look like it's not a big deal. Hee hee.

For today's Super Sketchy Sunday challenge, I kind of had to force myself out of "white-space" mode!!  I know Pam mention something about olives, but I kept seeing half of a hard-boiled egg. Haha. But I thought that might be a dumb card, so I squinted my eyes and tilted my head and wondered what kind of animal you could make that has a big round body and a little round head...

SHEEP! Hahahaha... I hope you like it. (Haley, I thought of you when I made this! lol)  Thanks for looking and I hope you've all had a pleasant, restful weekend :-)

More Cards, Less Blah-Blah-Blah

Okay, friends.  I've only got about 15 minutes to make this post, but if I don't do it now I'll ended up posting an entire week's worth of challenges on Saturday, and that would be ridiculous (not that it isn't already). I'm gonna have to skimp on the commentary for this one, but enjoy the pictures, okay?




Sunday, Day 42-Super Sketchy Sunday

The rest of this week's challenges are "White Space" challenges and they are whoopin' my butt!  The challenge is to keep your all of your embellishments and whatnot inside the designated space and everything else is left "blank".


Monday, Day 43
I'm sad to say we've been needing a few of these lately.  But I think it turned out pretty and hopefully it will be a blessing to someone going through a rough time. :-)

Tuesday, Day 44
This one is also for this week's Tuesday Trigger: Lovely as a Rose challenge @ Moxie Fab World.  I got my inspiration from the colors in the photos, but also from Samantha's project with the paper flowers.

Wednesday, Day 45
When I saw this challenge, it just reminded me of butterfly wings.  I did turn the sketch sideways for this one.  And I probably cheated just a leeeetle bit with the stamp and the black matting. Hehe. Nobody's perfect :-)

Thursday, Day 46
I love this paper! I found it on clearance too, which makes it 10% prettier. Haha.  I also used it on the Sunday sketch.

YAY! All done-- and a few minutes to spare! Lol.  Thanks for coming by to look at my cards :-)

Blah!

Okay friends, I am feeling UBER ick today, so forgive me for this half-hearted post! Thankfully I finished this card earlier in the afternoon, before said ickiness. Today at 365 Cards is a "Lovely Landscape" challenge to create and outdoor-themed card using patterned paper. I like how this turned out, but I think I'm wishing I had done something else with that "happy birthday" sentiment... I think it gets a little lost in the busyness of the patterned paper. Oh well. I still like it!

Thanks for stopping by! Leave a comment and let me know you were here :-)

*Cue Trumpet Fanfare*

Dear friends, I have not one but THREE cards to show you today. Yippee! Now, granted I didn't create all of them today. That would've been impressive.

My first card is for Kazan's Sketch 47 at 2 Sketches 4 You. It's been a long time since I've played over there, but they always have great sketches!

This card was kind of a pain in the butt. I couldn't find any patterned paper in my stash that matched the blues I had picked out for the rest of the card. So, I ended up rubbing a crayon over a piece of white Bazzill swiss dots paper. (Which, actually, now that I've heard myself say it, doesn't sound like that much trouble... but it took me a long time to figure it out. Haha.) The bird is made from a paisley die cut on the "Stretch Your Imagination" Cricut cartridge.

Next up is for the Day 3 Challenge at 365 Cards. At first when I saw the challenge, I was like, "OoOooh, no." But it turns out it's not nearly as complicated as it looks. In fact, I pretty much love how it turned out.

I googled "string art" and this boat was the first thing that came up under images. The pattern is free and you can find it HERE. I didn't follow it exactly, but it helped A LOT. The string is stitched right into the paper because I didn't really have anything else to anchor it with. Even small brads would've been way too big. My mom is using this one as a sympathy card for a friend.

I have a feeling that I'm going to be over-using the kraft paper until I run out. Good thing I only bought 10 sheets of it! Lol. This last card is just for fun.

The other night my mom said, "Here, I saved this for you" and handed me the chopped-off end of a bunch of celery. The initial "HUH?" reaction was quickly replaced by "Oh, cool!" when she pointed out that the chopped end looked like a rose! I used acrylic paint to "stamp" the rose, then hand-painted the leaves. Pretty neat, huh?

As always, thanks for looking!

Getting Back Into the Groove

Oh my goodness... I have GOT to get back into this! I somehow managed to completely desert my craft table for two months straight, it seems. I've made a couple of things, but I'll just skip to the most recent stuff.

My grandma celebrated her 80th birthday in January. Below are the wine-themed place cards I made for the dinner table.

Her birthday card:

I'm excited about the baby and wedding cards that I'll be making over the next couple of months or so! Here's the first baby card that I made tonight.

It's not too complicated, but it took me FOR-EV-ER to figure out how I wanted to start! It could be that I just have so many new toys, I'm not sure what to play with first. Haha. I'm really enjoying the Cricut machine for sure!

Let's Face It

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm laying on my bed with my little sister, editing pictures and writing blog posts... What better time to do that than 2 a.m.?

My big project tonight was making place cards for dinner at Grandma's house tomorrow. She asked me to make a couple extras of the ones I made last time, but I forgot what they look like and I forgot to look at them when I was over there this afternoon. SO... the only logical thing to do was to make all new ones :-D

Once I got all of those finished, I had enough energy and creative juice to put together a card for today's (well, technically yesterdays... but I haven't been to sleep yet, so it's still "today") challenge at 365 Cards. I've been waiting for a reason to use this sentiment stamp...

What a great encouragement as we set out to indulge in an abundance of tasty goodness! Just laugh it off, people! Laugh it off. And speaking of tasty treats...

I was making a cheese ball this afternoon (which turned out just lovely, by the way) and I was playing around and made this little dude:


For size reference, those are just sliced almonds. He's not very big, but I thought it was funny and I was proud of myself. Lol. And finally, I would like you to meet "Georgiano" and "Chuck." 18.95 lbs and 18.65 lbs, respectively.


It's probably a little morbid to name your Thanksgiving dinner, but we did it anyway. They're already in the oven! My favorite part of thanksgiving is waking up in the morning and smelling that AMAZING aroma of turkey and spices and herbs. YUMMMMMM!! It's gonna be so awesome.

If I Had a Green Thumb... It's Red Now

I'm playing catch up today :-) I don't have a whole lot to ramble about today except to say that I'm so glad it's a two-day week!

This first card is for 365 Cards' Sunday sketch challenge:


And here is my card for today's challenge which was to "Try a Technique" and use thumbprint art!


Thanks so much for looking!

Oh, the Wackiness!

Yes, this is the second post for today, but I thought I needed to break it up a little bit.

Today on 365 Cards' blog was a "wacky color" challenge-- Blue, Pink and Orange. I had fun with this one. I'm finding out that I am NOT a fan of orange, but it's there :-) Haha.

I also combined this with Card Patterns' Sketch #17, which you can see HERE.


*EDIT* A couple of you asked about the bird ;-) I made him from an oval punch (for the body), two heart punches for the wings, and a small hole punch for the eyes. The feathers on his head are the negatives from a lacey corner punch and his beak is cut from a scrap! He was fun to make.

A Good Day

Hey! I actually had some time to do more than one card today! And guess what... I actually like all of them. Ha. Somehow I got on a chipboard kick, so you'll see a lot of that today :-) The chipboard letters are from the Target dollar bins-- oh how i <3 dollar bins :-D

This first one is for 365 Cards' challenge to use a number. I reused a color combo from the other day that I just love! The idea is that this would be used for a 2 year birthday... but really, you could use this for any occasion.


The second is for the latest Card Patterns sketch. I used the sketch as the inspiration, but I ended up make some adjustments, so it didn't turn out looking as much like the sketch as I had originally planned... but you do what you gotta do. :-) I'm kinda proud of the heart. I cut it out by hand and then covered it with diamond glaze. I wish red was easier to photograph! It's actually a much darker, deeper red.


This one is for this week's UseIt! challenge which required using a flower (I used a couple of chipboard flowers that I've had for a while), fibers (green ribbon for the leaves), and something metal (I painted a metal frame for the sentiment). The last thing was to use a tool that you haven't used in a while. I didn't really have a tool that I hadn't used... unless you count the paintbrush, because I really never paint anything for a card!

I believe I can flyyyyyyy,,,,

Come on! Sing with me! "I believe I can touch the skyyyyy..."

Anyway... lol.

Guess what! I had time to go back and do the bonus sketch on the 2S4Y blog!

I love the blues on this card. It's a very calming, make-you-sleepy design :-)

Thanks for looking!

Come on Spring, you can do it!

It's so close I can taste it!! I can't wait for spring! The weather has been absolutely GORGEOUS this weekend. As Pooh might say, "It's a rather blustery day today." Leaving church this morning, we were practically blown to the car.

Anyway, the other day I found another card challenge blog. Card Patterns had a sketch challenge that I wanted to try. I pretty much knew right off the bat that I wanted to do something with trees, and the rest just kind of worked itself out! Hope you like what I came up with...

Materials: paper (bazzill basics); rubber stamp (inkadinkadoo)

Tools: sm. circle punch; sm. star punch; circle punch (creative memories); lg. oval punch (paper shapers); sm. heart punch; decorative trimmer (creative memories)

Bluebirds

Today I thought I'd share one of the projects I worked on yesterday. I figured out a new way to make a bird out of circle punches! I think it turned out SO cute :-)

For this bird I used a 1/2" circle punch, with a point from the 1/2" star for the beak. I just used a black pen for the eyes and legs. Here's how I did it:


I haven't decided yet what to work on today. I'll post again tomorrow, hopefully!

Coming Soon to Etsy...

I haven't listed anything new on Etsy in a while. I've been trying to build up some sort of stock. One thing I need to do is come up with a better listing schedule so that my shop doesn't get buried at the bottom of the search results... I need to streamline-- is that the word I want? Anyway, here are a couple of the things I've been working on that I'd like to get listed eventually:


Just in time for Spring/Easter. I figure if my shop name is "Angel Bunny" I ought to have something with bunnies, right?



Hehe. I like these. A while back I made a set of greeting cards with a larger version of these birds in a bright blue and I loved them :-) Just trying another variation-- these are small note cards.