Color Challenge #16

And also what I was doing in the meanwhile when I spaced my own weekly color challenge, lol. Cait's emergency room visit wasn't the only thing that had me forgetting the color challenge this week for Monday. There is also a super fun color challenge going on the Hanna forums on SCS for the new Hanna release that I thought I'd play along in. And I also had my own little 'in the back of my mind' challenges to use up some of the scraps that have been laying out for the past couple weeks and doing something with a pretty flower image that Linda sent me, but that I couldn't figure out what to do with. But first let me put up officially the color challenge which was inspired by the card in the previous post that I had made Monday night ^_~. Only three colors this week, feel free to add another color if you like and please don't forget to email a link to your card so I can post it here :D And have fun!


Hollyhock
Blush
Garden Green

Laurel's Sassy Ipodabella Card
Sparkle's Yummilicious Watermelon Card
Sue's Sweet Mother's Day Card
Jenn's Lovely Thinking of You Card

My Sample :



I added in some bamboo as well. Papers and stickease from BFF paper pack and also a sheet of retired Cozy B&T. Lots of embellies just here and there, I think everything on here is CTMH. I love these close ups of Caitie and her messy face and journaled about how she always manages to look cute whether she's dirty or clean, her hair done up or still crazy.



And here's my card for the Hanna challenge. I was pretty obsessed with doing this one, not only because you can possibly win a free set, but mostly because I hadn't played with my Hannas in a long while. This Hanna is my favorite! I really like how this card came out too, it's the first time I haven't pieced her outfit with this stamp set. CTMH CS used, the colors are Blush, Holiday Red, Ocean, and Breeze. The challenge was to use three colors (I forget the SU names), and Blush and Holiday Red (or Cranberry, it looked pretty close in the pics) fit pretty perfect but the blue seemed right inbetween breeze and ocean so I just put them both. Spot on Backgrounds used for the background red on blush and Friendship Wordpuzzle for the flower center. The blue flower is by doodlebug, the pink by prima and the ribbon by CTMH. Hanna colored with CTMH markers and highlighted with the white gel pen.



Here's the card I made with the image Linda sent me while she was my SS. I thought it was so pretty but really hadn't a clue what to do with it for the longest time. So I decided to just start by coloring it. Colors were Spring Iris, Lilac Mist, Amethyst, Kiwi, and Key Lime. Then the rest just seemed to fall together. It made a pretty large card, 6x6, but also gave me a chance to use the Spring Beauty Mother's Day sentiment which is pretty long itself. Everything but the image is CTMH.



And this one was to use the scraps that have been sitting in my cubby slot that I use to hold my stamp scrubber and foam pad. They kept getting in the way so I finally decided to just use them up. I'm not quite feeling it with this card, probably because it was made after my mojo was already used up on the others, but at least the scraps got used and it's fairly cute ^_~. Besides, I can always use more thank you cards. So these three cards were what I was up to before I got Sparkle's email and went 'oops!'. Not an hour later I also got one from Jena warning me of the search party on the CTMH forums for the color challenge, lol. And here I thought my color challenges weren't really a big deal!

Oh where oh where has my mind gone?

My theory is that my kids stole it and are holding it ransom for cookies. So I totally spaced the color challenge this week and I would have not even thought to do it except that Sparkle had emailed me about it, lol. I'm going to be a little cheater this week and make the color challenge inspired by the card I made last night. I'll be making another sample as well since I can't post this one on the CTMH boards. Only three colors this week and they are :

Hollyhock

Garden Green

Blush

My sample:

There is a story to this card that has to do with yesterday morning. It's starts out as a usual enough day: I get Caitie ready for school, I get dressed, we all eat breakfast, and then we're off. Well the first mistake of the day was this - I let Caitie wear flip flops to school. She's worn them before and yesterday was mid-80s so I was letting her wear them again. We get to school, Caitie practically skips to the class door and starts to open it. Here's Mommy mistake #2 - I try to help her. The result - her toe gets smacked by the door. Smacked so bad that it actually cuts her toe and then there's crying and I'm looking at her foot to make sure she's alright and for a small moment it looks fine.... and then there's blood.

She's bleeding all over her shoe and standing there crying while the teacher comes out to see what happened. I, as calmly as I can be seeing my little girl's toe smashed and bloody, tell the teacher that she's obviously not going to be in class today (while silently narrating in my head 'thanks to me!'). She just smiles and says it's okay, that it happens. And then I'm carrying Caitie back the way we came while thinking the teacher must think I'm some horrid mother.

We're back in the car and I'm trying to tell Caitie it'll be alright. We make a quick stop at home for some motrin and to see if she'll let me put some guaze on it - motrin yes, guaze no. And then I'm driving her to the hospital telling myself it's alright, to just breath. I'm taking deep breaths in an effort to calm myself down because despite Caitlyn having much worse injuries before and that voice in my head telling me she's actually all right, my pulse is going 250 mph and I feel like I'm panicking. Me telling Caitie it'll be alright felt more like it was for my benefit than hers.

Deep breaths, "It's alright Caits. We're almost to the doctor," deep breaths. "I want a bandaid!" Deep breath, "We need a special bandaid from the doctor sweetie, we're almost there," deep breath. "I need a bandaid!" "I know sweetie, I know." The same conversation continued on the entire 20 minutes to the hospital because Caitlyn is extremely obsessive about things which is nice in situations like this since I don't have to think up any new answers. Not that I could even if I wanted to at that point.

We go to the emergency room because I'm not waiting 4 hours as a walk in patient at the clinic before anyone even looks at her foot. I think if there's anything you never get used to, it's rushing your kids to the emergency room. Even when you know things are alright, just the fact that it's serious enough to go there sends my blood racing. I carry Caitie in, and upon seeing her foot has stopped bleeding I actually calm down quite a bit. Her toe looks ghastly, but at least the bleeding has stopped. The nurse takes a peek and starts the paper work. She thinks it needs stitches.

Skip to about 30 minutes later after another nurse and the doctor say it's going to need stitches. They give her the numbing shot (the worst part), then clean off her toe and get ready to stitch. Well guess what.... no stitches needed. She did tear off a good bit of skin and break half her toenail off... or I did that I suppose you could say :( . But she's fine, even more so now since her toe was numb. Another deep breath. We got through the morning, which needless to say lasted almost her entire school day by the time we got home and that was topped off with ice cream to soothe Caitie's trauma as well as my guilt. No hard feelings from my little girl, now was my chance for the big deep sigh of relief.

I guess you could say I had reason to forget the color challenge after that, lol. Caitlyn played outside the better part of the day acting like she had never been hurt at all. I still made her wear socks and tennis shoes despite her argument of 'I'm fine!' every two seconds because I'm paranoid of her hurting her toe even more. And probably the worst part now (in her mind) is that I won't take her to the waterpark until she's healed up (she lives for the waterpark, lol). And it's supposed to get up to 90 today. Live and learn, right? I recommend deep breathing through the learning part ^_~.

Anyway, later that night to help soothe my nerves I made the card. I just got the couple of MFT stamps that I ordered in the mail and this one went perfectly for the mood of the day. Not that I was serene in any way, but the thought was there. Outer calm, inner turmoil; that was me yesterday.

I *heart* Images

I love receiving images! I'm sure everyone can agree that it's such a treat to get fun stamped images from your stampin' friends ^_~. The bunny was from Linda and the Riley from Sparkle. Both of these images I had colored earlier this week and just hadn't made cards to them yet.

This was the one I did first though I think I colored the Riley first during the week. Anyway, I put together this card first, already knowing that I wanted to use the More to Adore paper. The bunny was colored in with markers, though I think next time I'll try pencils on her for a softer look. The sentiment on the little tab says "Ahhh....". She looks so relaxed in her bubbly pink tub!

I LOVED coloring in this Riley. My favorite was the mushrooms, which have little brown and white specks on them ^_~. He was just plain fun to color, period. The card itself is pretty simple. The trees and sentiment are from Explore the Outdoors, colors are Moonstruck, Goldrush, and Garden Green. I used Olive and Chocolate to stamp out the trees. You probably can't tell in the pic, but in real life you can still see the scribbles just barely and their indentions from when Caitie decided to add her own touch after I finished coloring. Luckily for me, it was done in pencil! I hope everyone's having a fantastic weekend!

Approach with Caution

Or chocolate!

This is me right now, I've been startin' to get grumpy. Sometimes it's just no fun being a girl :P Done for the Bella #25 sketch and color challenges. Used CTMH CS and Spot on Backgrounds, Primas, and Cranberry accessories. Sentiment printed from my computer. I have my stash of Espresso Chocolate and Mint Cookie chocolates so I should be alright ^_~ I thought it would be cute to make a card to give a fella fair warning!

A Sophie Summer

Colors : Ocean, Breeze, Citrus Leaf

Stamps : Friendship Blessings (background flowers), Totally Chic (sentiment), Sophie

Accents : Primas, Doodlebug flower, rhinestone flowers, rickrack

Colors : Orchid Bouquet, Taffy, Orange

Stamps : Cottage Floral (background stamping), Spot on Backgrounds (on orange CS), Doodle Alpha (sentiment)

Accents : Primas, Petaloo flower, rickrack, dotted organdy, garden green accents

So I was feeling in a very summery mood and wanted to play with either the Riley images I had or stamp out some Sophies. I decided to play with Sophie's colors to see what I liked. I colored in her antlers and skin on 4 images but out of them these were the two that I actually liked. Colored with CTMH markers and used my white gel pen for highlights. My gel pen has gotten more use these past few days than the entire time I had it before, lol.

We had gone to the library and waterpark again today. The girls got to wear their new swimsuits and I got to snap only a few pics before the battery in my camera completely died. Silly me for forgetting to check it before we left. I got a couple here and there of Audrey, but only one of Caitie then the batteries kicked the bucket. Here's them playing at the new waterpark they finished last fall.

I had to put this one in too just because I love baby behinds ^_~

Bella Bella

Catching up on some of the bella challenges :D


Lattebella for the BCC24 challenge - Colors are Ocean, Baby Pink, and Watermelon. I was worried when I was coloring her that she wouldn't come out right since the colors looked really really dark while I was coloring, but she dried just fine :D I highlighted her with the white gel pen and this time tried shadowing around with the marker. Stamps used were Spot on Backgrounds and Cottage Floral. The sentiment was printed from my computer using CAC Pinafore.

Ipodabella done for the BCC23 - Clover Meadow, Heavenly Blue, Star Spangled Blue; and the BSC24 Sketch challenge. I did a Sophie than a Riley with this sketch and finally did a bella for the challenge, lol. Prisma glitter on her jacket, purse, and ipod. Both of my images for these cards were RAKs from Sparkle ^_~. And if you didn't already know, she hosts the Bella color challenges on SCS in the bella forum. Come check it out and play!

Another Riley and Bella

I think I'm in love with a moose! Riley is so much fun to play with and I've already stamped my Sophie out a couple times to play with later as well!


Using some retired CTMH B&T. Colors are Clover Meadow, Sunflower, and Black. Riley colored in with CTMH markers and then highlighted with a white gel pen. Accents are a silver hinge and then the square brads. Pretty simple, the best part was coloring in Mr. Moose ^_~



And here's one of my catching up bella cards. Done for both the Bella Color Challenge #22 and Bella sketch challenge #23. Friendship Blessings stamp set used and Gardenbella. Frosty gold big eyelets with some simple dotted pink organdy for embellies. So that's what I finished up with tonight. Well, I also finished coloring in another Riley (the one roasting marshmallows) but I don't have time to make another card before bed time ^_~.

Fishing Riley

Yay!! The first masculine card I've made that I really truly like! Uses one of those super cute Riley images Sparkle sent me. This is going to be for my BIL for Father's Day. Now the problem is this.... I need to make a card that is at least as awesome if not more so for my hubby because really, you can't give your hubby's brother a card better than you give him; but I can't find any fun images for him! Paul is a total gamer guy. He's not into sports, can't cook let alone grill (lol), not really outdoorsy, he's a classic geek ^_~ My geek! Anyway, he's either at a desk working, on a computer, or playing the 360. He helps out lots with the girls so something like that might work except that I already know I'm going to have them make a card for him. And I want something special from me since I haven't done something really nice for Father's day in a while and I'm just completely at a loss at what to do now for his card! Him and his dad are really hard to make cards for because they are not regular guy guys. Leave a comment with a suggestion ^_~ I'd love to hear any ideas or if you've seen a cute gamer guy/office guy stamp around let me know!! Now for the card stats : CTMH papers and embellies, Riley colored with CTMH markers and highlighted with my white gel pen. Colors are indian corn blue, outdoor denim, barn red, and cranberry.

Aloha!

Isn't she just so cute! Sparkle sent me this adorable Sophie stamp earlier this week, and I just received another lovely package in the mail from her. Thank you so much dearie! I finally got my Sophie mounted on some EZmount so I could play. I used a bella sketch for the card that fit perfectly with the scraps I used to make this card. I still need to catch up on some bella color challenges and sketch challenges so I might be playing in those later on ^_~. Scraps were from some Minds Eye dot paper and the back of the dot paper which is that yellow/orange and a scrap of the spring MM papers that I had, the green plaid. Pink Carnation CS used to mat the Sophie. I was tempted to try and make her pink but regular brown won out, lol. Primas and CTMH brads used for embellishement along with some of the grosgrain Linda has sent me as a secret sister and some fibers I've had forever.

Audrey thinking the goodies in the box are for her ^_~. Thank you so much, Sparkle!! (Can you tell I can't say it enough)

Color Challenge #15

This week's color challenge is inspired by the tag on my new shorts. I loved the colors and the theme was just perfect (beach/summer) since this past week we have been going to the water park to play. I finally got the girls' swimsuits this year so now they won't have to play in their shorts and tees! It's early for me since they don't open the pool for another month. To play create a new project using at least 3 of the 4 colors. Please leave me a link to your creation so I can post the link here as well ^_~.

Barn Red
Bamboo
Crystal Blue
White Daisy

Sparkle's Lovely Mother's Day Card
Marcia's Distressed Flower Card
Jaime's Sweet Snail Mail Card
Sue's Fun Balloonbella Card
Jena's Mom Layout
Mary's Road Trip Layout

My example :



Stamps used were Spot on Backgrounds and Paradise. Lots of distressing on this card - sanding, scoring, ink distressing, tearing, and edge distressing. The glasses were stamped in barn red and colored in using my blending pen and ink pads. Have fun playing!

A Blue Moose for Poppa

This is the card we ended up making for my FIL, known lovingly as Poppa in our house. I let Caitie color in one of the Riley images Sparkle sent me. She had already taken the liberty of coloring many of my bella images for me a couple weeks back without my prior consent so I knew she'd make cute work of it, lol. I hope to turn most of those into cards too. I know my mom and Paul's mom LOVE receiving pictures that Caitie and Audrey color so I thought Poppa should have his own special card with his granddaughter's touch ^_~. Paul told me to do most of it in blue since that's his dad's favorite color. Caitie had so much fun coloring in the "reindeer" that this might become a tradition for family cards. She still has a hard time believing in moose or regular deer, lol. They are all reindeer to her!

Hey Hot Stuff

A fun card I did tonight ^_~. I finally got to use some of that super fun glitter paper that Linda sent me and my bella daisy oven stamp that I got a while ago and just haven't had a chance to ink up yet. Rhinestones and glitter used on this card, I haven't done that in a while! It was so fun to bling up an appliance, lol. Sentiment was printed on bubblegum CTMH CS with the CAC Pinafore font (free online font if I remember correctly). Coloring this little oven was actually a bit tougher than I anticipated since I didn't want to go plain gray with it :P

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. We're probably going to the waterpark again if weather permits. There's a kite festival tomorrow as well but they are expecting 15 - 20 thousand people and I'm just not sure I want to take the girls there since they will want to run around. I'm kind of paranoid that way. It'll mostly be kids and parents since the kiddos get a free kite if they complete all their reading (for gradeschoolers). Then we have my FIL's birthday get together to go to later that evening. I still have no idea what to do for a card with him. I'm thinking I might use one of the Rileys Sparkle sent or the monkeys that Linda sent. I really don't have any masculine stamps at all, lol. I need to broaden my horizons a bit on that ^_~

You make my day

I think I'm a pretty simple gal. I don't need a lot to be content. A cup of tea, a good book, some time to create, cuddling with my kiddos, being in my hubby's arms, these are the highlights on my average day. I consider myself a happy person; a pessimist, but usually pretty happy, lol. And it completely makes my day when something nice and unexpected happens. Three days this week I've been blessed with surprises.

Monday night I received some blog candy that I had won on Diana's blog, one of my SBS4 sisters. It was a treat to get this card a little stamp set in the mail since I had totally forgotten about winning anything on her blog. I had started organizing my scrap stuff for the gazillionith time. If I'm not playing with my scrap stuff, I'm organizing it, and it was wonderful to take a break from that to open this envelope and receive some fun snail mail.

Wednesday I was in for a definite surprise. Sparkle, who has this knack for always cheering me up, sent me this adorable bella card which I love. It smells delicious, scented with coffee! I'm more of a tea girl when it comes to actual drinks, but I LOVE the smell of coffee. I go down the aisle at the grocery store just to breathe in that wonderfully enticing aroma. Coffee flavored chocolates are also a fav. She also sent me some cute Riley images which are PERFECT for my BIL, who I have the hardest time making cards for. But he loves moose, is an avid camper/hunter/outdoors man, so these are just perfect! I really need to check out the Hanna site again since I haven't been there in ages to see all the cute new stuff and make another wish list, lol. I know they have a ton of stuff I want just from seeing all the adorable creations Sparkle makes with them. She also sent me some lattebella images! She's been on my list of to gets since she came out. Her and yogabella, and well a lot of others, lol. Wednesdays are my long days because they are Paul's long days and I'm home all...... day....... long....... alone with the kids....... without a car. It was particularly tough this week since Caitlyn is out of school for teacher's training, so she was going crazy not having school all week. I was so surprised to see an envelope from Sparkle in the mail that evening and after reading the note she left me in the card it turned my bad day into a good one. In fact, I felt so much better that I made this layout despite all my stuff not being finished organized (trust me this just does not happen, ask my hubby, lol). I used life delights and Pammie's #4 OOYB challenge for the inspiration. The title was reminiscent of how I felt after reading Sparkle's card.




And then yesterday I got this sweet thank you card in the mail from Alison, one of my SBS4 sisters that I sent a birthday card to earlier this month. The paper is so fun and I've never seen one of these little sparkle things she has in the middle of her flower before. It looks like a sticker, but it has a thin metal rim around the edge.

I know I usually post things sooner and post more often, but I haven't been on my computer the past couple days. It's actually been rather nice. Last year April it was common for me to only get online once a week. Of course I didn't have my blog back then, or visit any forums, or even surf. It's easy to get drawn into using a computer every day, and it's very refreshing to have it off for a couple days. It might become habit with this nice weather. We've gone to the water park twice this week already and it's only April. I've read another novel... I didn't like it through almost the entire thing, but the ending made up for it all, lol. I've already started another and have Twilight to read after that. It's been so nice to get back into reading again. I sit on the swing outside with my cup of chai tea and read my book while the girls play. The weather has been up and down but good for the most part so we spend a lot of time out doors now. Evenings have been exhausting since I spend most of that time cleaning up instead of trying to fit it in during the day, so creating has not only taken the backburner to my organizing, but ordinary chores as well. Hopefully that will change soon as I get back into the swing of things. I've finished cleaning out most everything now and ended up with three big bags of stuff to be donated. We'll probably drop them off tomorrow and then I'll feel normal again. Or at least as normal as I can be, lol.

Color Challenge #14

This weeks color challenge was inspired by a card I saw on SCS using that cute birdie Verve Visual stamp set that I've been trying hard not to get, lol. The card actually used a little bit different colors and another bright/lighter blue, but the palette is close. To play create a new project using at least 3 of the colors and please send me a link to your creation so I can link your post here on my blog ^_~.

Ocean
Hollyhock
Topiary
Vineyard Berry

Sparkle's Cute Monkey Card
Jenn's Fun Hippo Card
Sue's Pretty Flower Card
Jena's Adorable Bed Head Layout

My sample :



Uses Nursery Bash and Spot on Backgrounds stamps (just for the dotted elephant). I paper pieced all the elephants mostly because I wanted them to come out pretty solid and bright, but I don't have the markers and my colored pencils didn't quite match the way I wanted. I darkened their ears and toes with pencils then outlined them in gray for a little depth. I used my white gel pen to highlight the ballon which was also pieced from CS. Pink background is embossed with the Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots folder and rickrack is from the Creative Basics packet.

And I've been fine and around the past half week in case anyone was wondering. Thursday and Friday I was making these cute Bella swap cards.



I had to make 21 of these. I was putting them off and putting them off, lol. I signed up to do this CTMH/Bella swap in January and they are due at the end of this month. It's a good thing I procrastinated though, since I got to use up some of these cute Creative Basics papers that come out in May in the summer CTMH catty. It comes with 8 double sided papers each of 2 designs and 8 yards of rick rack. I don't really have a lot of use for 8 of the same paper so it was perfect to use for these swap cards. Now I just have a few sheets of each design ^_~. I only used a scrap of Olive CS and 1 sheet + a scrap of Buttercup CS and the rest was all creative basics papers (one side is patterned the other side is plain). I wanted them to be cute but simple enough for me to not go crazy having to make them. Coloring was what took the longest. Coloring one bella is fine and I have fun with that. Coloring 21 is another story, lol.

And the past few days I've been on an organization kick. Usually I get the urge to purge every 3-5 weeks but I haven't since January and now I'm going crazy going through every room one by one and purging, reorganizing, and deep cleaning, lol. Yesterday is was our bathroom, the day before the girl's bathroom. Today I'm thinking I'll finish cleaning out my computer armoire which I started the other day and did the bulk of. Once I get into what my hubby likes to call my 'nesting' mood (No, I'm not pregnant!! Thank goodness, lol!), there's really nothing else on my mind but that so you won't see much if anything on my blog until I've satisfied my purging/organizing urge. ^_~

Layouts for the day :D

So I got 2 two-page layouts done today, yay! This is the first one, done for Jena's #6 Inspiration Challenge.

Colors : Hydrangea, Key Lime, Holiday Red, Orchard Bouquet, White & Black

Stamps : Hodge Podge Alpha, Building Blocks Alpha, Serendipity, Spot On Backgrounds, Sweet Love

Accents : Flower Chipboard Negatives, Bigger Brads

This is a pretty simple layout. I took inspiration from the colors in the invitation Jena had as the inspiration piece, and the squares that she used in her example paper that she stamped. A little bit of doodling on there as well ^_~

And my first layout using the new Boomdiada papers... or paper, lol.

I used just the one sheet. I wanted to keep with the orange theme to match the girls' shirts. There was the red monochromatic paper, but it just didn't seem to fit right. I used Cottage floral, Serendipity, Friendship Wordpuzzle, Building Blocks alpha, and Modge Podge alpha stamp sets. Lots of fun embellies mostly from the garden green and autumn terracota accessories packs. Buttons aren't ours, I still need to get the CTMH winter ones. This is one of my favorite layouts. I LOVE these flowers and the dimension is so fun. I also used my Reflections for these two pages and let me tell you the longest part of making these pages was just trying to figure out which layouts to use. I used the Mainframe - quarter circle and Quartet - Offset. There must be some special trick that I don't know on how to use this book because I was having a really hard time and I know it shouldn't have been that difficult for me, lol. The results were worth all the trouble though ^_~.

Fun Stuff and Another Color Challenge Example

It's overcast and looking to rain outside (the news says it's going to rain), a bit cold, Caitlyn wasn't behaving at school (still isn't behaving right now, lol), and Audrey has learned how to do the infamous 'Banshee Shriek' that Caitlyn did at 2, which is literally deafening and something I hoped she would never learn; but for some reason I'm still in a really good mood! It couldn't have anything to do with what I got in the mail yesterday, could it? ^_~ I got a wonderful package from Linda, who was my SBS4 Secret Sister. Thank you Linda! And then later on that afternoon I also got my CTMH order with some of the new catty stuff and my Reflections book! I didn't get to create yesterday since we were crazy busy, but since it's a bit cold and cloudy outside today I think the girls and I are going to just stay in, have some hot cocoa, color, and I'm going to play! Here's what I've made already this morning :

Colors from this week's color challenge (#13) and uses my new Cottage Floral and Spot On Backgrounds stamp sets. I also used Friendship Wordpuzzle and Serendipity stamps. Inspiration for this card came from the layout on the front of the new CTMH catty. I'm planning on nearly copying that page sometime. But first I need to stop procrastinating and upload all my 400 or so photos that I've taken since Christmas and get them printed, lol. This uses all CS, I just stamped ^_~. I love these colors together!

Here's the superfun package Linda sent me. I'm adoring that cute House Mouse stamp and the images are so fun! The paper is too cute AND it has glitter on it :D. The card she made is really awesome, I wish I could have gotten it on camera but every pic I took it didn't show up. The background is stamped with some sort of irridescent ink! So when you turn it, the color changes slightly from green to blue, very cool! I also love flowers so it was perfect that the focal point was a sweet layered flower ^_~. She also sent some itty bitty buttons, pretty dress it up buttons, and some cute paper flowers. Thanks Linda!!

Color Challenge #13

This week's challenge was inspired by some of the Minds Eye papers I got last month. Here's one of the layouts I had done last month using that paper. To play create a new project using at least 3 of the 4 colors. Please don't forget to send me a link to your artwork so I can see it and link it to this post as well ^_~.

Goldrush
Sunkiss Yellow
Sweet Leaf
Autumn Terracota

Sue's Adorable Jungle Card
Jenn's Sweet Cottage Floral Card
Sparkle's Super Cute Gator Card

My sample

Uses the Mixing Elements Cherish layout. I haven't used my Cherish in forever and I remembered that it had more layouts for lots of pics. This layout has 10 pictures and I had a really hard time trying to decide what to do with them. They are interesting pictures but not my favorite, lol. I kept it simple since there are so many photos. A quick but fun layout. Certain pictures are numbered and their captions make up the journaling on the right side of the right page.

Conference Productivity

Wow, I got a lot done today. Probably due to Conference (we're LDS) since I didn't have to get the girls ready and dressed, and then try desperately to keep them entertained while at church, lol. Today we just listened to the session via the audio stream online, yesterday we watched the first session. I missed some of it here and there but that's to be expected with the kids. For the most part I got to listen and scrap during both sessions today. It was really relaxing and I got quite a bit done and it helped that the girls were behaving well while it was on. I really enjoyed the talks, I've always loved President Monson so it was a joy to see him sustained as the Prophet, and as always, I loved the music. In fact the choir sang one of my all time favorite songs, He Sent His Son. It made me cry. So here are the two layouts I worked on while listening to conference, the third two page layout was done after both sessions were over.

This one uses CTMH papers and a Pagemaps (book) layout. I used some of those cute sparkle stickers from Linda, who was my SBS4 secret sister; CTMH ribbon and a scrap of some really, really old ribbon I had, lol; Rusty Pickle chipboard letters covered in the pattern paper, CTMH flowers, buttons, and brads; a sheet of floral vellum (you can't see it in the picture, it's the inside of the stitched square); and lavendar embroidery floss. This was the first layout I did. I was feeling like doing a baby page and these photos were already out. I had originally planned to use some more of the spring making memories papers, which is why the photos were still out, but opted to use the sugar and spice scraps I had instead.

Welcome to Holland

by Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says,

"Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy." But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

I thought I'd open with the story that's in the layout. With Caitlyn her learning disabilities weren't something we found out as soon as she was born. Instead of hours later, it was a couple years before we noticed that she was different. It was difficult to accept and still is. I worry for her even though she's very functional. She's bright and funny, but has trouble comprehending things... sometimes simple things too. And even with Audrey being right on track where Caitlyn wasn't, and already catching up to her as far as speech and cognitive ablilties go, I love my Caitie just as much just the way she is. Audrey is Italy... Caitlyn is Holland... they are each beautiful in their own ways, and I'm blessed to have them both.

The layout used a modge podge of products: Mind's Eye paper and Transparency; Making Memories Papers, stickers, felt flowers, and die cuts; CTMH CS, stamps, brads, buttons, and flowers; and Primas. I also used another page maps book layout. The large body of text is actually where another picture is supposed to go in the design. A fun layout for me to do with all the cheery, bright colors, and one that let me express some feelings I have a hard time talking about and don't usually scrap about. The story I had found on Liane's blog, a link from Sue's blog.

This layout was the one I did after Conference was over :

I brought out my Imagine, which I hadn't used in a while and these papers that I had been sort of hoarding (just the flower one actually). Lots of journaling on how Audrey was trying to figure out how I turned the flashlight on and off for her and how she loved the flash on the camera. Uses all CTMH papers and CS, some CTMH embellies and then some Primas and rhinestones. The flower rhinestones I also got from Linda ^_~. Playful Caps, Homestead Alpha and Typewriter stamp sets used, the papers are from the Cutie Pie and Sweet Harmony packs.

Wild as the Wind

So are you all sick of me using these Making Memories spring papers yet? lol I still have a couple more sheets. But I'm done with these outside pics so I'll be moving on to other papers now.... probably, hehehe.



Caitly is my little wild girl. She's definitely a whirlwind of delight and trouble! I was just looking to get the rest of these scrapped, there's eight photos, and found this pagemaps layout that worked quite well for the photos I had. This one is from the book. The pink dot paper is glittered on the dots. It's super cute though you can't see it in the picture. I used those fakey dew drops again and I know it looks like I used a ton (well I did, lol) but I still have hardly made much of a dent in that package! I used liquid glass to kind of draw a swirl on the page then just pressed the little drops into it to make the wind flourish thing. CTMH CS and paper flowers used as well as the Classic Alpha and The Works Alpha stamp sets. Chipboard from rusty pickle, covered with Lilac Mist CS. This was definitely a fun layout to put together!

Deb asked if you can use the cuttlekid dies in the cuttlebug. In case you didn't see my response the answer is yes! You can use dies from all the other different companies in your cuttlebug just by changing out which mats you put through the machine. The cuttlekids dies use the A, B, and C mats. In fact, the only dies I have so far are the cuttlekids ones. I'm pretty picky and use my cuttlebug mostly for embossing. And Mel wanted to know where I find the time to do all this. And the answer is I create.... after my kids go to bed! ^_~ They hit the sack early at 7:30 and then after that my hubby and I usually watch a flick or just talk while he plays video games and I scrap ^_~ Plus I'm usually up til late, like nearly midnight.

Cuttlekids Flowers

So I've fallen in love with this cuttlekids die set I got yesterday, and the funny thing is I've seen it plenty of times before and never gave a second glance. The girls and I were at Robert's. I was trying to find some things on my list: adhesive, chipboard, duct tape (which they apparently don't carry), when the girls stopped at the cuttlekids display. And they loved it! Caitie started pointing to all the different dies and naming them off "Turtle!", "Lion!", "Flowers!", "Look ABCs!" and Audrey was following Caitie's lead and repeating the names of each die with equal enthusiam, and if Caitlyn paused she would point to the cuttlekids die cut machine and yell "BUG!!!" to which Caitlyn would look around in alarm to find this said bug, before resuming her fun naming game with the dies. Anyway, I've made two more layouts using these adorable flowers.

Uses the same new papers I got yesterday from Making Memories and Bug in a Rug for both of the layouts. Lilac mist and white CTMH CS used again as well. This time I used black to accent instead of cocoa on both of these pages. It's just embroidery floss, I would have preferred waxy flax but I don't happen to have any in black. Doodling done on both with the .02 legacy pen. Flowers and leaves from that cute cuttlekids set I'm loving.