Rock-a-Bye Baby

Hello! I hope you had a nice weekend! Other than going to a baby shower and church I was pretty much a slug this weekend. It felt good to do nothing.

I needed a card to go with my shower gift, so here is a baby card I made.

The color scheme matched the gift bag I had. The stamps are from Stampin' Up. The waves were cut with a circle punch and I sponged on some "white caps" on the top of the outer layer.

Well, my slug-fest has come to an end. I have to be getting ready for work!

Have a lovely day, thanks for stopping!

Rock Star

Happy Monday!! One more week before our family vacation! The stress is mounting at work as I try to get through all my piles before Friday. I really don't want to leave stuff for my co-workers. Come on Friday!!

How is your summer so far? I can not believe how fast it is going by. Son #2 returned from church camp safely. We seem to be playing a game called "Where in the world are my children?". This is the only week from now until the end of August that both boys will be home. I knew this would happen as they got older but it is still a bit hard to swallow. My babies are growing up.

Let's move on to a more cheery subject shall we? Like stamping and a stair step card.

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If you are on the Stampavie Newsletter list then this may look familiar. The Newsletter just came out yesterday and it is chock full of wonderful samples from the DT. Even stamping on a cake!

I used a Gillian Roberts image called "I'm a Rock Star", pairing it with some Memory Box papers. I kept it pretty clean, only adding a bit of twine and a wooden button.

I am off to tackle those piles on my desk.

Have a splendid day and thanks so much for visiting!

You Rock!

If any of you readers are single parents I have so much admiration for you! These two week trips that Greg takes for school are a challenge for me. Running the boys to and fro, working and generally just trying to stay afloat is exhausting. To add to it all is our 10 month old black lab who is becoming more DISobedient with each passing day. Greg is clearly the alpha in our house and in his absence she is doing her best to take his place. Grrrr!!

I am working on some assignments, things I can't share yet. This was one of my rejects, it wasn't quite what I had in mind.

I had tried a number of ideas that were so much better in theory. I am sure none of you have ever experienced that. Anyway, the image is from the Gillian Roberts collection at Stampavie called I'm a Rock Star. He is colored with Copics, his jeans have a bit of clear blender pen over the coloring to make them look faded. I put a thin layer of Glossy Accents over the body of the guitar so it would be shiny. That bit I liked. Now that HUGE sentiment, not so much. I like the words, it is the size that is too much. They can't all be winners.

Counting down til Friday night when my better half returns home. I think I can, I think I can, lol.

Not Old...Just Vintage

After taking the Jennifer McGuire class on Saturday, we took some time to shop at Buffalo Stamps. Sharon had freshly unpacked some new MFT goodies and I quickly snatched up the Just My Type stamp and die set. Aren't you just loving all these dies to match stamps these days?! I {heart} them muchly! This particular set has this wonderfully sized old typewriter and a bunch of fun sentiments.

No coloring to do either. But I did a bunch of distressing with Vintage Photo Distress ink. The paper I used is from a new 6x6 pack of kraft designs by Memory Box called Valise. I think this may be the first time I have seen them come out with kraft designs and they are lovely. The finished card is 5 1/4" square.

The sentiment makes me giggle and some day I will probably have just the right person to give it to.

Later,

Mr. Fix-It

Are you signed up for the Stampavie Newsletter? Stuart and Heidi put it out every 2 months and it has the latest information and samples from the DT.

I created two samples for the May edition that went out last week. I used the Laurence Collection image called Mr. Fix-It for this card.

He is perfect for Father's Day or for the handy man in your life. Embellishments are always tough on guy cards. I used some adhesive cork from QuicKutz, a gear embossing folder and some ribbon with measure markings. Distressing usually works on guy cards too.

This card became a birthday card for the stamp store owners husband. He often helps around the store and does a lot of handy man things. Sharon surprised him with a cake at the end of the morning Jennifer McGuire class on Saturday. This card seemed appropriate.

Thanks for stopping by!

Teenager

My baby is a teenager today!! I can hardly believe it. I'm trying hard not to think about, as if by not acknowledging it, it won't be true.

But it is true, so today we celebrate. He gets his favorite foods, this morning it is corned beef hash (or as he used to say when he was little, 'corn geef cash"), eggs and toast. Then for dinner, probably every teenagers favorite food--pizza. His cake of choice--cookies and cream. Oh yeah, and root beer soda.

Here is the card I made. It is a Mo Manning image available at Stampavie.

His favorite color is orange. No frills. No fuss. This image really looked like him until he decided to cut his hair short 3 days ago.

Gotta go cry in my cereal ('cause momma don't eat hash!) now. Have a good day!

Coke Bottle Glasses

I didn't mean to give this cute fella thick lenses but that is what he got when the Glossy Accents got a little unruly. They do make me giggle though.

Meet Oxford, one of the latest Mo Manning images released by Stampavie.

Adorable right? He is paired with some Cosmo Cricket Boyfriend DP, the sentiment is from SU. I think I need a different sentiment, I couldn't find anything I liked so I fell back to the safe BD wishes. It will be easily changed when and if I find the "right" stamp. Oxford was colored with Copics followed by a bit of Prismacolor pencils.

Oxford looks an awful lot like a friend of our youngest. Not sure he is studious though, lol. But the hair is most definitely right on.

S.S. Baby Boy

Happy Monday and Happy Valentine's Day! The deep freeze has warmed just a tad and we are now basking is 30 degrees! Compared to the single digit temps of last week it does almost feel warm. ALMOST.

I had a chance to play along with Jen's February sketch challenge. Here is the link to the deets, the sketch is good for the whole month.

I needed a baby card for a co-worker. She is having a boy and isn't into many of the traditional boy themes. Since we live near Lake Ontario I thought a nautical theme might be different and appropriate.

What do you think? I turned the circle element of the sketch into a life ring using 2 Spellbinder circle dies. I wrapped some white twine around it in 4 places. The papers are all from a pad of October Afternoon paper. The stamp is from a set from Impression Obsession. NO clue if they even carry it anymore, I have had it for quite some time now. Image was colored with Copic markers. I tried desperately to make some hardware fit someplace and just couldn't do it. Sigh...I can be so embellishment challenged!

I made the card 5 1/4" square to leave lots of room on the inside for folks to write their well wishes. I hope she likes it!

I messed around with my blog last night. It is such a challenge to my brain, lol. It isn't 100% to my liking but enough that I can live with it.

Thanks for stopping by! I didn't have time for a Menu Monday recipe, maybe next week.

Dude

Happy Tuesday!

I have another Stampavie sample to show you today. It is a Mo Manning image called "Simon". I knew he would be a hit with my youngest.

I went for a bit of a grunge look. The image was water colored with Distress and SU inks, the paper is by Prima. When I showed the card to hubby he commented how the design on the blue paper looked like a skate company logo. Yeah.... I meant to do that ;).

Teen boy images/cards can be tough. Stampavie released 2 Mo images that are perfect for the teens in your life.

Gotta get ready for work. Have a great day!

For the One I {{LOVE}}

Happy MLK jr Day! The boys and I have the day off and I hope to get lots of stamping in.

Let's get the blog candy business out of the way first, then I have a card. The winner (chosen by random.org) of the birthday goodies is.....

Tracy said...

Happy Birthday from one Tracy to another!! I hope you have a great birthday!! Some lucky person is gonna be lucky to win all these goodies. Have a great one.... Tracy

5:25 PM

Well, Tracy, the lucky one is YOU today!! How funny that we have the same name, lol. Congrats! Please email me your address and I will get the goodies out to you.

As I shared before, hubby is out of town for 2 weeks working on his doctorate. He only goes twice a year so it is important stuff. Poor guy is passing, or trying to pass, a 7mm kidney stone. He spent Friday night in the ER. It is sort of an hour by hour kinda deal. Prayers are certainly welcome!

I made this card for him last night...

I'll send him the link to the blog so it will be an e-card of sorts. Waving hi, honey, and sending smooches your way!!

The image is by Whipper Snapper, cute isn't it? The sentiment can easily be left off to use the mower for other masculine kinds of cards. There are black brads in the wheel centers for a bit of whimsy.

Thanks for stopping by! I will be back tomorrow.

Feed the Bears

Hooray for Humpday!!

Jen over at i{heart}2stamp has made some changes to her sketch challenges, dropping them from weekly to monthly. Much more manageable for her I am sure. And for me too! I love her sketches but found it difficult to play along each week. It's a new year and I am going to try my best to play each month. You should join too, Jen has an awesome prize lined up for those who play in all 12 months. Check out all the deets here.

Here is the sketch for January...

And here is my card...

I had my 14 year old son in mind with this outdoorsy card so embellies were kept to an absolute minimum. Well, maybe even non-existent! I used some papers from October Afternoon's Campfire paper pack along with the TCP set called "Happy Camper". It is also a bit of play on words since our nickname for our youngest is "bear". When the boys were little, Josh couldn't say Kaleb so instead called him Kiki and that developed into Kiki-bear but at 12 he really doesn't appreciate Kiki anymore, lol.

Not sure if anyone really wants to know, but I am going to try to list my ingredients when I can.

stamps: TCP-Happy Camper

paper: SU kraft, chocolate chip, old olive, pacific point

DP-October Afternoon Campfire 8x8 pad

ink-Memento Rich Cocoa, Copic Markers

other: black glaze pen, tracing wheel, circle punches, dimensionals, MFT grass border die.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hot Dawg!

My youngest is into skateboarding so when I showed him this stamp by Motivet called Morris on a Skateboard, he said it was a must have.

I am glad to have more stamp options for those challenging boy cards. I found this blue "gear" paper in a Basic Grey pad I have, it seemed a good fit for the image. The banner across the top is part of a Tim Holtz Sizzix die, I folded it for added dimension.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Fishing "Trip"

Saturday was my FIL's birthday. I used a Motivet stamp called Man Fishing to create this card for him.

The image was stamped onto watercolor paper and colored with Distress inks. A good watercolor paper is so important to the final outcome. Watercoloring allows so much more movement of color than Copic markers. I like that we have so many options at our disposal. Some days Copics are the order of the day, other days inks, embossing or something else. I used a mini clothes pin to attach my sentiment and added a bit of twine. Nothing frilly!

Keepin' it short today. Tomorrow I have a few things to share for the grand opening of Shady Tree Studios. Hope you can stop by!

Zoom, Zoom

That's what we'll be doing tomorrow, zooming back home from vacation. It is always sad to see our time at the lake come to an end.

My boys are now 12 and 14, long past the tricycle days but I couldn't resist this adorable Mo Manning image from Stamping Bella.

This little fella looks like he is off on a grand adventure. He probably has a juice bag and crackers in that back pack, along with some toys. Once the crackers are gone he will probably pedal his way back home. As much as I know I do not want to go back to the days of diapers, I do miss my boys being toddlers. They were so cute! Now they are growing into fine young men capable of doing so many things on their own. Lucky for me they haven't outgrown hugging their mama!

I hope to be back soon with some real time posts. Have a wonderful weekend!

Lookie Here...

it's Friday! I feel like I missed a whole day. Wednesday afternoon I found out I had to organize a lunch for 75 people at church following a funeral the next day. That meant planning, shopping and making a huge pasta salad on Wednesday and then setting up, serving and cleaning up yesterday. Needless to say anything I thought I was doing with that time was quickly shelved. But I was glad to help serve a family of our church during such a difficult time.

Last night I took my Copic markers upstairs, put in Pride and Prejudice and colored a bunch of images I had stamped and printed from digi files. I have seen P&P so many times I was content to just listen and look up during the good parts. My favorite is the 5 hour A&E version but last night I opted for the shorter movie version. Then this morning before work I used one of the images to make a card. I find I create so much better in the morning, not sure if it is because I am more alert or because I know I only have a certain amount of time and I want to get it done.

This image is a digi file I bought from Mo Manning's Digital Pencil Too site, it's called Out There. Isn't it a fun image? The sailor outfit makes me happy! I paired the image up with some paper by Prima and some navy card stock I embossed with a Cuttlebug star folder. I cut out 2 of the stars to use for embellishments. All the papers and twill have been distressed a bit with ink.

Since this card was made without a recipient in mind, I have left off a sentiment for now. When the time comes to use it I will add one. Or maybe I will just hoard this card along with most of the ones I make, lol.

My boys come home today! I can't wait to hear all about the fun they had at camp.

Have a great weekend.

Sketch & News

Last night hubby was studying down in the basement and I was trying to create. I managed to color a bit but the heat got to me and I had to walk away. This morning I was up bright and early so I decided to go finish what I had started. I used the latest Stampavie challenge, this time a sketch. When ever I do a sketch challenge I am reminded how much I enjoy following a sketch, it makes things go so much faster!

This card uses way more layers than I am used to but I liked the opportunity to use so many pieces of pattern paper and card stock. My younger son will totally love this card.

I should have made him blonde to be a perfect fit for Kaleb. He'll appreciate it anyway.

I had just enough time to take a photo, edit it and upload it to post later. I am glad I waited because now I can also share some exciting news! Stampavie announced the names of their 5 new designers and I am one of them!!!!!!!!! I am so excited! Jumping up and down kind of excited!

I have slacked off enough, it is time to get back to work! Thanks for stopping by.

Vroom Vroom

Happy Monday! Many of you might still be enjoying the day off today. Some hot weather has settled in so I am glad we are at the lake where the breeze helps to keep things a few degrees cooler.

Later today will be the first card making session at camp. This is another one of the cards we will be making. Masculine cards are tough for people so had to slip at least one design in there for the men in our lives.

This 1938 Suburban stamp is so cool! I love the classic look and what could be easier than simply stamping it in black? I paired it with the uber cool License Plate backgrounder from CHF. The celebrate sentiment could be for a birthday, congrats to a new driver or for someone embarking on a new adventure.

I hope the stampers like what I have planned for them!

Thanks for stopping by!

I Want to Ride...

my bicycle! Actually, I want to participate in another challenge, this time it's the Moxie Fab challenge to use a bicycle in your project. It also happens to use another CHF ATC set, called Bicycle Life. I love all the vintage goodness in this set!!!!

My Tim Holtz Bingo folder finally got used, isn't it fun? I embossed it onto some white core paper so I could draw out the pattern with a bit of sanding and inking with Distress inks. Since the card looked a bit masculine, I went with black twine to finish it off.

On a complete aside...last weekend I went exploring Flea Markets in Buffalo and came across a stack of old Bingo cards. They were the old cardboard ones, with 2 boards per card. I snatched a whole stack thinking they would be cheap but when I asked about the price, they wanted .50 each for them. Yes, .50 is cheap but not when you have a stack of 20-30 in your hand! Don't ask me what I planned on doing with that many. I promptly put them down. Thing is...I really wanted some of them. I am not a good bargainer though so I walked away. An hour later I was finished walking the rest of the market and was still empty handed. Those bingo cards were nagging me so I went back and asked the owner of the Bingo cards if he'd take a buck for 4. He agreed and now I am the proud owner of 8 cards. I know! What a big spender I am, a whopping $2.00, ROTFL!! No earthly idea what I will do with them but I am so happy to have them, lol. Now I want to go to more flea markets to see what other useless items I can find for cheap.

Blessings!

Celebrate the Dads!

Happy Father's Day! I hope you are having a good day. The weather is glorious today in Upstate NY and hubby has returned from his 2 weeks away. Normally we are all about grilling steak on FD but some key components of the family are missing. Our 2 boys are en route back from Connecticut with the grandparents and aren't expected in until late. They have spent the past few days at a Wood Turners Symposium. Our oldest attended the symposium 2 years ago and won a mini lathe set up. He turns some incredible pens and gifts. I have told him I would gladly offer some of his items for sale to my readers but friends and family buy it up before we get a chance. Now our youngest had a chance to go learn how to turn and guess what? He won a lathe too!! Can you believe that?! The wood chips are going to be flyin' in the basement this summer. I love that they have the opportunity to learn skills like this.

Anyway, I will take hubby out for steak. He deserves to be celebrated! He is an incredible man of God and a wonderful father. I am so fortunate! I made a card that the boys will give him along with a special gift they bought him.

This image is a digital one from Mo Manning. Perfect for Father's Day. I colored him with Copics and Prismacolor pencils. The paper is some old Cosmo Cricket and a scrap from a DCWV pack. I think he'll like it!

By the end of the day the family will finally all be back together again. I can't wait!

Tomorrow is week #3 for the CHF Summer Fling and I am again participating in the blog hop. Hope to see you then!

Blog Hop Week 2-Thomas Kinkade

Happy Monday! Welcome to the 2nd blog hop in the Cornish Heritage Farm's Summer Fling!

This week we are featuring the Thomas Kinkade line. There are so many beautiful scenes to chose from. If you have never ordered one before then you should know they come beautifully etched in red rubber, mounted on a wood block and have a color image on the block for reference. These stamps are amazing to stamp with! I decided to work with the The Old Fishin' Hole image. I colored with Prismacolor pencils this time, using Gamsol for the blending. The Fishnet backgrounder matched up well for the theme of the card. The sentiment is from the Kim Hughes Pet-Tootie set.

Here what you need to know about the hop this week...

-All Thomas Kinkade stamps are on sale this week---25% off! (ends Thursday at midnight)

-make sure to leave comments by Thursday (6/17/2010) at midnight EST to have a chance at the CHF gift certificates! The more blogs you comment on, the better your chances!

-Upload a card using a CHF backgrounder in this weeks special gallery (by Thursday at midnight) and you could win free stamps!

-Check the Be Creative Blog on Friday to see if you won!

-if you get lost along the way, go back to the beginning (Be Creative Blog) for the full list of hoppers.

Kristine is your next stop along the hop, I am sure she has something colorful for you to enjoy! Click here to get on your way!