not quite sure...

Well, this is what I came up with for this week's color and sketch challenges over at Splitcoast. The color challenge was sage shadow, chocolate chip, and very vanilla. I do really love those colors and I like the sketch, but something about this card just does not seem right to me. I got a whole bunch of new stuff this week and used some of it on this card. I love the Boho Backgrounds set and used three of the images here. Maybe I used too many? Again, I'm not quite sure what's wrong. I also used my new stamp-a-ma-jig for the "Happy Father's Day" sentiment. The OCD in me loves the stamp-a-ma-jig! I can see lots of fun in the future with this new toy of mine. But, back to the card: I think I was trying for something manly since the colors seemed manly to me, but maybe the use of the flowery background wasn't right. I couldn't help myself, I love that stamp! Or is it too much vanilla? Whatever it is, it's driving me crazy. Part of me is waaaay too stubborn to try it again. The card is decent, right? Of course, I made the card in like 20 minutes with all my new stuff all over the place while Savi and Jaya were grabbing supplies off of my desk, trying to "help" me... Any thoughts out there?

Today, the girls and I had a picnic lunch at the turtle pond on campus. It was great fun! We've been to the pond several times before, but this was the first time that we ate lunch there (Happy Meals - I know - I'm a bad mom!) and it was the first time I actually remembered to bring the camera! Some shots:

I have all sorts of plans for my weekend (unusual!): Neesha and I (along with some of her friends) are going to see the SATC movie tomorrow; I want to do some scrapbooking (see above turtle pond pictures!); plus, there are weekend challenges at Kristina Werner's blog and Beate's blog that I want to play along with; plus, I need to rewatch LOST! Can I just say for one minute how much I completely loved the season finale?!? So satisifying and intriguing all at the same time. Can't wait to see where the LOST rollercoaster takes us next...


Hope you all have a great weekend! (And I hope that I actually get all my stuff accomplished!)

manly card

OK, so a few things to report today...

First off, Sach requested that I make a card for his friend's birthday. This is what I came up with. I'm not too good at making things "manly," but I tried really hard on this one. The patterned paper is from the Magnolia pack from My Mind's Eye. The orange rhinestones (which I admit are girly, but come on!) are from Hobby Lobby. I used soft sky for the base of the card and the strip is pumpkin pie. The brown is left over from Neesha and Jeff's wedding invitations and is from Paper Source. The "HB" is from the It's Your Birthday set and is stamped in soft sky ink. I will be so sad once soft sky retires... But so anyways, I made the card and gave it to Sach to give to his buddy and he decided not to because I didn't write the message for him. See, I usually do the card writing around here and that's fine because cards and gifts are usually from all of us, but I wasn't about to write a message to his friend from him. That did not make sense to me. So this card is waiting for some man to have a birthday...

Next, last night, Lydia introduced me to Wine Styles. We went there for her customer appreciation event and it was so nice to sit, sip on some delicious wine, and get crafty! They have a great wine sampling deal - you get to try six types of wine for $6. I am so going back! And it's like two minutes from my house. I ended up bringing home the most hilarious bottle of wine. It's called "Mommy's Time Out." How funny is that? And it's good wine.

Lastly, the LOST finale is tonight. I am so excited that I could burst....

I'm off to research a little for tonight's episode and make cards for the color and sketch challenges on Splitcoast before Jaya wakes up from her nap. Savi is actually resting too. The sanity gods are smiling on me right now.

baby boys

Here are two quick cards I've made recently for friends and family who've had baby boys. Seems like most people I know are having boys these days (perhaps that's because WE have girls over here...). The only reason these cards were quick was because of this awesome Baby Boy paper by Making Memories. I normally am not so efficient when making cards. The paper matches nicely with SU colors bashful blue, sage shadow, certainly celery, old olive, chocolate chip, and very vanilla. I didn't use chocolate chip in either of these cards, although I know I have in the past, but (shudder!) didn't take a picture of that card. The stamped images are from Nursery Necessities and Lovely Labels, respectively. The second card kind of follows Beate's weekend sketch challenge (WSC49) from last weekend. I am really digging the sketch challenges. Can't wait until tomorrow's sketch challenge is posted over at Splitcoast!

It's back to reality over here after a nice long weekend. I took naps (along with Savi and Jaya!!) and saw the new Indiana Jones movie. That's all sorts of excitement for me! Alas, today's naptime was spent mopping, dusting, and vacuuming. Tomorrow I'm doing toilets. I tell ya, I'd much rather have a nap and get to watch a movie, but the girls really like putting their hands all over the toilets and I can't seem to convince them otherwise.

Oh, and I've scheduled my first monthly stamp class for June 7th. If you live in the Austin area and are interested in joining in on all the fun, please get in touch with me. My email address is over to the right or leave me a comment. Heck, leave me a comment anyways!

more challenges

I made this card for this week's color and sketch challenges over at Splitcoast. The colors are soft sky, blue bayou, and certainly celery. I fell in love with that color combo right away! Something about it is so calming. I also really like the sketch. What I like the most is that I would have never come up with a sketch like that on my own - I love the result. I used images from Embrace Life, One of a Kind, and Baroque Motifs. I colored the leafy image in with the certainly celery marker and punched out the flowers with the boho blossoms punch. The stick-on rhinestones are by PaperStudio. I made the scallops using punched out .75" circles. At first I was having trouble keeping them lined up, but then I realized that I could use my trusty grid paper. DUH. Perhaps the greatest challenge I faced while making this card was finding more than three consecutive minutes to actually work on it! I pieced a little together here and there over the last TWO days. That's insanity. But that's life when you have two kids who are being fickle about taking naps...

Hope everyone has a great long weekend planned. Thanks for stopping by!

my own color inspiration

Although there are several color challenges out there, like the ones found at Splitcoast and Kristina Werner's blog, I got this Crate and Barrel Best Buys catalog in the mail on Saturday and couldn't resist the colors on the cover. I translated these colors into the Stampin' Up! colors: garden green, real red, certainly celery, and tempting turquoise. I was making a birthday card/gift card holder for my brother-in-law, Jeff, anyways so I decided to challenge myself. Here's what I came up with:

I used more tempting turquoise than I would have liked according to my inspiration piece, but for some reason, the certainly celery didn't look quite right where ever I tried putting it. But I think that patterned paper (again from my Magnolia (My Mind's Eye) collection) works well to tie it all together. What do you think? The images are from the Enjoy Every Moment set.

Again, I made my own gift card holder. This time, I started with a 4.25"x11" sheet and scored it at 2" and 6.75". I used sticky strip to hold the pocket down and used the slit punch to make the flaps. The size of the card when closed is 4.25" x 4.75" so it will still fit in a standard size card envelope if you so desire.

Thanks for looking! Oh, and happy birthday, Jeff!!

fun with fruit

I tell you, that Tart and Tangy set is just too sassy! Neesha and I had lots of fun making fruit-themed projects. She made this cute card and this delicious peach and blueberry pie. Man, it was good! So good, in fact, that Savi (my super-picky eater) even tried a bite! Like I said, fun with fruit...

These are what I came up with. First, can I just say how much fun I had coloring in the images with the markers?!? I literally was giddy. The 3"x3" card is on the textured purely pomegranate paper with a soft sky scallop circle. I paired my fruit with the "sweet" sentiment from the retired So Very set. I like the "sweet" sentiment with the fruit so much that I'm permanently storing that stamp in the Tart and Tangy box. The next card is the thank you card that I made for my friends who came to my open house (so check your mail, girls!). The base is old olive with so saffron and rose red strips. I colored with the old olive, rose red, and pumpkin pie markers. And again, I borrowed a layout from Stampin' Success.

Apologies for this second picture. I didn't get a chance to take the picture until after I gave the girls their bath this evening and so I lost all the good light. We had a pretty tough day here. Neither Savi nor Jaya took a nap today. It was a l-o-n-g afternoon to say the least! I did get a chance to put my feet up after the girls fell asleep and indulged in some Dancing with the Stars. What a finale! I am proud to admit that all my votes went to Kristi Yamaguchi. She (and Mark) rocked the house!

Thanks for visiting! Hey Jerry, did you get the paper?? :)

Open House

Here are some pictures from the open house today! I had so much fun and I hope everyone had a great time as well. See, stamping is not as hard as you think... ;) ....and it can be so gratifying to see what you created! Huge hugs and thank yous to Lydia, my unbelievable upline, and my sister, Neesha for supporting and encouraging me today...

Getting everything ready was oddly relaxing for me. Probably because it reminded me of teaching. So, this was our "classroom":

The first project used the hostess prints pack paper, ginormous flowers set, absolutely fabulous set, and dazzling diamonds glitter. Actually, I still have a piece of glitter stuck to my nose and every time I look down at the keyboard to type, I see a little bling. Back to business: colors used were bashful blue, real red, and wild wasabi. I got the idea for the layout from one of Stampin' Up's fabulous publications.
Next, we did a 3x3 gift card. Now, I'm going to admit some bias here: I love, love, love this stamp from the embrace life set. I would use it on every single card if I could...I think it's that versatile. Look, this could be a birthday card, a wedding card, an engagement card, (in these colors, especially) a baby girl card (or change the pretty in pink to bashful blue and you've got a baby boy card), a thank you card, a get well card, a good luck card....catch my drift? :) OK, sorry to go on and on like that, I just feel THAT strongly about this stamp! The image is stamped on the background and on the main image in chocolate chip and colored in with pretty in pink. The little strip behind is chocolate chip and the base of the card is close to cocoa. This card just makes me happy.
And lastly, we made a gift card holder. Perhaps I should have taken a picture of the inside so you'd believe me that this is a gift card holder. DUH. Anyways, I'm kinda stubborn: instead of following one of the great tutorials for making a gift card holder, I decided to design my own. I made this holder from a 3"x8.5" piece of paper, scored at 1.5" and 5.25", used the slit punch to make the flaps, used sticky strip to stick the pocket down, and embellished with the one of a kind set/boho blossoms punch. The belt is just a .5"x8.5" scrap that I wraped around and held in place with a brad from hodgepodge hardware. Colors used: regal rose, old olive, and pumpkin pie.
Thanks for stopping by! Let me know what you think about these projects...

Quickie

A quick little post today along with a quick little card. I'm getting everything ready for my open house tomorrow....I'll have an update with all sorts of pictures tomorrow! Stay tuned. This card was quick, but I still like it. It's hard to tell in the picture, but I stamped the sentiment "Thanks for all you do" from Absolutely Fabulous on the top panel of the patterned paper. The ribbon is from Making Memories (from the Olivia boho chic trims pack). And that's all one scrap of patterned paper from My Mind's Eye (from the Magnolia pack). I tell you, I love that paper! I've had it for almost a year now and still love every piece of it!

My first sketch challenge!

So, lately I've been feeling like I use the same few sketches over and over on my cards. I was getting a little bored. Enter Splitcoaststampers! Each Wednesday (for those of you who don't know), they host a sketch challenge. I've been lurking around on SCS for some time, but today, I finally played along with the challenge and it was so much fun! I actually haven't posted my card on SCS yet because I haven't met the number of comments needed before posting a picture. I'll have to work on that after I iron out all the details for my upcoming open house....

Some notes about this card: the patterned paper is from the Magnolia pack by My Mind's Eye. I found it matches SU's old olive and taken with teal pretty nicely. The ribbon is by Making Memories, Lauren. I used the Fun and Fast Notes set, but changed up the sentiment for this image. Actually, I mounted my set so that the images and sentiments are separate so I can mix and match at my own will. Call me a rebel! Anyways, I'm just getting into coloring my images....I used the watercolor pencils and blender pens on this. I decided that it's definitely something I want to continue. Thanks for looking!

rub-ons and flowers and bling...

...OH MY! I had so much fun making this card! I borrowed a layout that Lydia demoed at hostess club, but changed up the colors and used my new boho blossoms punch to add a layer to the felt flowers (which I L-O-V-E love!). Hope you like it! Also hope nobody out there had a case of the Mondays today...

mother, mom, mommy, mama...

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there! I hope your day was as special as mine. I had all sorts of good things going on today: cuddle time with Savi and Jaya, brunch with good friends (including actually getting to eat my meal in peace because the place we went to had a playground!), time to work on some cards, and some guilty-pleasure TV tonight (I can't help it; I watch and love Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters!)...

But since it's Mother's Day, I'd like to share how I'm doubly blessed when it comes to mothers. Not only is my own mom wonderful, loving, caring, and thoughtful, I have a mother-in-law who is more of the same. She's just the greatest! So, with that I'll share the cards I made for my moms. The quilted card is for my mom, who is recently interested in quilting. I saw the idea on my new friend (and convention roomie!), Jenn's blog and followed the tutorial from here. The next card is the one for my mom-in-law. Both cards have pockets on the inside for their gift cards. All of the patterned paper is from Autumn Leaves. Thanks for stopping by!

Countdown to Convention!

I was up before the crack of dawn this morning so I could register for SU's conference. I'm glad to report that I have my registration. So pumped about getting to go!! Now, I just have to work on getting a hotel room (to be continued tomorrow) and finding a decent airfare. Let me digress for a moment about the flight situation: Austin does not offer a direct flight to Salt Lake City. I'm all about direct flights. But, I got over that (seeing as how I'm flying sans screaming children) and was just looking at what was out there....ummm, I understand the concept of a flight that takes stops, but get this: there's a flight from Austin to New York City to Salt Lake??? Hello? Anyone? Bueller? What's up with that? I was (and still am!) totally annoyed.

Let me move on and share a card that I made a while back for my "little" sister's birthday. She turned the big 2-5 in January. I sadly did not get to make anything new today between trips to HEB, WalMart, and Target...I had all sorts of errands to run. Plus, when I got home, all I really wanted to do was knock out, but I had some surprise revising work waiting for me on the project that I turned in last week. No rest for me! Hope you enjoy this card. I liked how it turned out...

I suppose I should go ahead and state the obvious here: I'm not a gifted photographer. Please forgive me for my lack of photography skills and bear with me. I'm trying to work on it...

Promises, promises...

Forgive my lameness in posting. I have been rather busy lately with some work and the girls. But I am making a promise to post more consistently. Really, I just need to find a new routine.

Some news: I am officially a Stampin' Up Demonstrator! I have an open house coming up on May 17th. Exciting!

Here are two birthday cards I made recently. As you can see, I was feeling monochromatic. And lately, I've been all about patterned paper. These beauties are from Target, of all places! It's K and Company. The pink card was inspired by a layout from Dawn's blog.