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.

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 :-)

HA!! I did it! (Part Two)

Part Two of the super-long catch-up post!  If you got here from a direct link, but you wanna see what else I've been working on this week, you could CLICK HERE if you want ;-)

Day 99, So Charm-ing
Create a charm out of paper.
I stamped the butterfly in this fabulously obnoxious orange ink, punched it out with a circle punch, then added diamond glaze for some dimension and shine.  I love the colors on this one!!

Day 100, All Lined Up
Everything from embellishments to the sentiment lined up in rows. At least three items in each row.
I've got a row of three trees, then the dots and sentiment make a second line.

Day 101, Inchie x 10
Use at least ten "inchies" on your card.
This one was hard to do at first, but then once the idea finally clicked, it came together pretty quickly.

Thanks again for stopping by!  Hope you have an excellent day :-)

So Many Ideas, So Little Time

Once again I'm up into the wee hours of the morning trying to translate a bazillion ideas into actual paper cards. :-)  I have so many things going on right now, it's just crazy! We've had weddings, first communions, birthdays, etc. every single weekend for the past month at least. Then I'm trying to finish a brochure for a homeschool conference going on this summer.  It has to be done, like, yesterday.  But it's almost like I can't call it a day unless I make something with paper and glue, so here I sit.

Here's one of my cards in an attempt to catch up on the challenges at 365 Cards. (I don't know that that's ever gonna happen at this point, but I'll go for it. Haha.)  We're going back to the challenge I skipped over, Day 53-Front, Back and Everything In Between.  The challenge was to decorate the front, back and inside of the card.

Front

Inside

Back 

I wanted to make a clear card in a way that would still be a cute picture when it was closed.  The hard part about clear cards is thinking about what it's gonna look like on the other side.  I think this turned out pretty good.  Thanks for looking!!

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 :-)

Can't Wait!

YAY!! Thanksgiving is only days away! This year my brother will be home for the holiday weekend-- last year he was still away at Marine Corps boot camp. Then there's the craziness of Black Friday shopping! My sister and I are usually amongst the other nut-cases standing in line in front of Target at 5 in the morning :-) Not sure what the plan is for this year. Hehe.

Anyway, here's my card for today's challenge at 365 Cards. The challenge was to color a stamped image using anything but markers. I'm usually more of a colored pencil girl, but this time I used watercolor paints to color the leaf and acorn. It was a bit difficult because I stamped the image on some homemade paper which turns out to be VERY absorbent. After a few tries, I was happy with how it turned out:



Thanks for looking! I love reading your comments :-)

Keep It To Yourself

The challenge for today at 365 Cards was to design a "congratulatory card that uses decorations on the outside of the card to help convey the message on the inside of the card."

So here's mine:



I think it's pretty obvious that I'll be congratulating someone on their new tractor...

Ha. Just kidding. Sarcastic am I.

Also, just for grins, here's a Christmas card I made a couple days ago... Turns out pastels don't photograph very well ;-) But thanks for looking!

More Blog Challenges... :-)

Today I'm mixing it up again :-) The latest challenge on Caardvarks is to create a tree-themed card. Combined with 365 Cards and OCC's challenge to incorporate a recycled element, this is what I came up with:

The trunk of the tree is created from a piece of cardboard packaging-- it has such a cool texture! The "leafy" part is from an old Niemann Marcus catalog cover. I love the design and texture of it. I found the button in my stash of odds and ends.

My other project for the day was to make a second retirement card. (You can check out the first one here.) I wanted to keep it kind of simple and elegant, but still make it interesting and colorful. I LOVE the colors and patterns of this paper.