Thinking of You

TGIF! I hope you have all had a great week. Today I am sharing a tutorial on the technique I used to create this card over at the DeNami Design blog. Check it out!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Poppy sketch, Make Some Noise

Today I thought I would share a card with you that plays along with the Poppy Paper February sketch that Laura Davis hosts. You may notice that this is not a typical CAS card for me. Trying to use up some patterned paper I have laying around. Lisa over at My Paper Tales made a comment on my post about my daughter, Leah, getting her ears pierced. Um, I didn't have a card to give her for her big accomplishment, so I cranked one out for her.

 

Here is Laura's fabulous sketch:

 

 

And here is the card I made to celebrate my little girl. I used Exclamations and Woot Woot from CAS-ual Fridays stamps and some patterned paper from Lawn Fawn and AMuse Studio.

 

 

That's all for me today. Thanks for stopping by!



DeNami Design Product Spotlight, Irish Chickies

Today is product spotlight over at DeNami Design. The design team is showcasing Irish Chickies by having a DeNami blog hop. You should've arrived at my blog from Lisa Petrella's blog. If you visit each design team members blog and leave a comment along the way, you will be eligible to win this stamp! You can also add this fabulous stamp to your shopping cart and save 10%, one week only.

 

For my card, I started off by using my Diagonal Stripes embossing folder on green cardstock. Next, I added a layer of white cardstock that was embossed with my Woodgrain embossing folder. It's a bit hard to see in the photo, but I love the layered look of these two folders. I stamped Irish Chickies and colored it in with copics and stamped Good Luck for my sentiment. I added a twine bow to finish it off.

 



 

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to leave a comment on each blog to be eligible to win!

Wendy is your next stop!

DeNami blog

Lisa Petrella

Deb <------that's me

Wendy Elliot

Emily Keaton

Lisa Elton

Patti Goldman

Dana Seymour

Tammy Hobbs

Only We Would Know

Happy Tuesday! If you visit my blog regularly, you probably expect to see some crafty creations. Well, today I wanted to pop in to share some exciting news. I have mentioned earlier this year that my husband has joined ELEVATORS, a rock band and has been playing in some gigs. At their last performance, The All of US  Reggie Williams  EP release, they really rocked it out. An audience member, Adriel Garcia liked it so much, that he invited them to his production studio to record one of their songs. My husband made a little video with some of the clips from their recording session.

They were also invited to play in the Florida Music Festival in April. My hubby is so excited and I couldn't be happier for him and the band.

Enjoy the video and music!




The song can be downloaded for free or you can name your price if you wish at http://www.elevatorsrock.bandcamp.com/

She did it!!!

The title of this post says it all...SHE DID IT!!! Leah had her ears pierced on Saturday. Honestly, when we walked out of the store, I got tearful because I am realizing how much my little girl is growing up.

Here is her before shot on our porch at home before we left for the mall.

 

We opted to have it done at the Piercing Pagoda, since that is where a friend of mine had her little girl's ears pierced. My in-laws were able to join us and I am so glad that they could be there for their granddaughter.

 

I love this shot of Leah as she is picking out her earrings. She really wanted the princess crown pair, but they do not recommend it since hair and clothes can sometimes get caught in the tips of the crown. We let her decide completely. So she choose her birthstone stud earrings.

 

The gal explained everything completely to Leah. Then, after signing the papers, we went over to the chair. She offered Leah to have someone hold her hand. Instead, Leah said that she would hold the stuffed puppy dog. Really?! She was so brave. I was a bit disappointed that there was only one employee on site, but she worked very quickly. As a matter of fact, both ears were done is less than 7 seconds.

 

She cleaned her ears.

Marked her ears.

 

Left ear. Done.
 

 

You can tell that she was thinking about her left ear hurting.
 

 

Right ear done.

 

 

 

She cleaned them again and told her to take some deep breaths as if she was blowing out birthday candles.

 

 

When the gal went to pick up her close-up mirror, Leah took a few peeks with the surround mirrors.

 

 

 

 

She was soooooo happy to see her pretty ears. And it was all done without a single tear. Later she told me that she wanted to cry, but didn't. I asked her if it hurt and she said yes. Being a pediatric nurse, I asked her to rate her pain. Zero means no pain and 10 is the worst. I explained what some of the interim numbers might mean. Before I could ask her for her number, she blurted out "10". She held it together so well. She hasn't complained at all about her ears. She is so proud of them. And we are so proud of her!!!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

11 months and Happy 6 1/2 Birthday Leah!

Hi friends! I hope you are all doing well. Today I might normally be sharing a post for CAS-ual Fridays, but since my DT term has come to an end, I thought I would share a layout that I completed a couple of days ago. I am closing in on finishing up Joshua's baby album. This page completes the two page layout for month 11.  When I originally designed it, it was going to play along with pages for Papertrey but that didn't pan out. I used a sketch from Got Sketches that you can find here. All of the elements are from the Becky Higgins Sweet baby kit except the stamped stars and kraft cardstock. The exposure of these photos were taken at sunset, so a huge thank you to my sister for saving the quality of these pictures.

 

I also wanted to wish my precious girl a Happy 6 1/2 Birthday! As tradition has it, we will be celebrating with cupcakes tonight. And this year we decided that we would take her to have her ears pierced. She didn't want them pierced for the longest time. I think it is pretty sweet that she waited this long because I was the same age when I had mine pierced.

 

 

Well, that is all for now. Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

DeNami Design, Inspired by Stacy

 Hello friends! I hope you are having a great week so far. Today is the first ever DeNami Inspired by post. For more details and a chance to be selected, you can visit this page.

 

 

Today, the team and I are sharing our creations based off of this gorgeous card created by Stacy from Sweethearts and Sweet Tarts. You can visit her original post here.

  

To create my card, I chose to ink up Small Pansy in a random pattern and colored them in with my copics. Stacy's white panels were matted with purple cardstock, so I added a simple strip on the top of mine. I framed my sentiment with Double Circle. Since I trimmed off a portion of my stamped pansy panel, I decided to use what was leftover for what else, but a CAS version.

 

 

 

Make sure you stop by the blog to see what the rest of the design team has created! Thanks for visiting today!

 

Valentine's Day photos

Hi friends!  Popping in to share some pictures I took of Leah and Joshua for the Valentine's Day holiday.  Some of these will go into the Valentines Day album we make each year. I took these on 2 separate days since it was pretty cold and the sun was setting already on the first day.

For those of you with small children, you can understand how hard it is to capture what you want. Most of the time it is the back of their heads. Really?  So sometimes you settle with good enough. I am happy with the results, don't get me wrong. There were just a few that I wish I could've captured.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Valentine Treats

***This is my second post for the day. To see my CAS-ual Fridays post, please scroll down***

 

 

Today, Leah and Josh brought in Valentine treats for their classmates. Leah wanted to make all of them, but there were 32, so she just stuck to her class. I helped her by trimming cardstock, embossing, punching hearts and applying ATG. She did ALL of the stamping and assembly except stapling the names. We were quite the team.

 

For this project, she used Decorative Love, Hearts Stamp set, Heartfelt Greetings, and Mini Heart for the stamping. I used Diagonal Stripe and Chevron for the embossing. I thought I would let you know that she did not use a stamp positioner when stamping Decorative Love. She inked it up, placed it on its side and then rolled it onto the heart. A few of them had some extra smudges, but not many. I am so proud of her hard work.

 

I also tried to take some annual Valentine's Day photos yesterday. It wasn't a complete failure, but I do hope to try again today after I pick the kids up from school. I hope to share those with you this weekend. Every year I take photos of the kids for Valentine's Day because it falls very closely to both of their half birthdays. Just a way to document their lives because I also make a mini Valentine's Day album.

CAS-ual Fridays, So Long

Hi friends! I hope you all had an awesome week. Wether you are single, married or dating, I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

 

Today I am sharing a card with you for this week's CAS-ual Friday's challenge. This is my last post as a Girl Friday with these talented group of ladies.  If you ask me, I am trying really hard not to think about it...I started on this design team 2 years ago in April. I honestly can't believe how the time has flown by. It has been amazing! I have watched the challenge blog grow like crazy and Michele's dream of illustrating and owning her own stamp company come true. If you all know Michele, this will not be a good bye post, but more like a farewell...until next time.

The challenge is to create a card that is long (2x4, 4x6 etc) with a farewell, so long, miss ya, etc. theme. 



Our fabulous sponsor for this challenge is CAS-ual Fridays Stamps.

My card measures 5 1/2x3 inches. I decided to use a  piece of scrap paper left over from my kiddos birthday party this past summer. Yes, I love this digital paper and had to savor the scraps from the party. I knew they would come in handy *wink*.  I cut a piece of white cardstock nearly the same size and ran it through my Diagonal Stripe embossing folder. I diecut the sentiment panel and stamped Small Stitched Circle in various colors and added my sentiment. I added a twine bow and then attached it with foam adhesive.



Well, that is all for me today. This challenge will run for one week only, so you better get your craft on! You have until noon on Thursday to link up and play along. I sure hope you do. I can't wait to see what you create!

DeNami Design Product Spotlight, Solid Rose Accents

Hello friends! I hope you have been having a wonderful week so far. Today is product spotlight over at the DeNami Design blog. The design team and I are showcasing Solid Rose Accents. You can add this fabulous stamp set to your shopping cart and save 10%, one week only.

 

The CAS gal in me has come out in this card.

 

 

I inked up Flower Box Window, colored it with copics and trimmed it out. I stamped my sentiment from Assorted Greetings directly onto the box. Then I inked up Solid Rose Accents in various colors, trimmed them out and added them to the window box. I used my Woodgrain embossing folder on a layer of cardstock and then adhered my window with foam adhesive. I made a similar card using the Flower Box Window using felt flowers and this time I wanted to use Solid Rose Accents.

Thanks for stopping by!

Thinking of You

 Hello friends. Today I am sharing a card over at the DeNami blog. Head on over to check it out in detail. Thanks for stopping by!

 



DeNami Design Polka Dot blog hop

 Welcome to the final two stops along the DeNami Polka Dot blog hop. I hope you have been inspired along the way. You should've arrived here from Stacey's blog. I am sure she rocked this blog hop out of the park. If you did not arrive from her blog, head back to the DeNami blog for a full list of participants.

The next polka dot project along the hop is from my daughter, Leah. Does this design look vaguely familiar?

 

Leah loved the card she made for the previous blog hop using washi tape as her border. When I told her that I had red/white polka dots, she was sold on creating that border again. She wanted to use my polka dot heart and Polka Dot Elephant stamp. Here is what she said about the design of her card:

 

 "The elephant is chasing the sentiment and heart because it fell in love with it."

 

I just love watching her create. She is always telling me a story as she places the stamps on her card. She also said that she doesn't mind that her washi tape is not perfectly straight. I love that she has such a carefee attitude. The busier I get with life, the more I adopt this motto myself. Otherwise, I would go insane.

So the final stop along the hop is ME!
 

  

While creating my card, I was inspired by this card made by Monika Davis. DeNami teamed up with Curtain Call with their last challenge, and I really loved the artsy look to her card. So I created my own "CAS" version. I used the same heart border, washi tape, splatters and doily. I inked up the polka dot heart from petite fours Hearts stamp set. (I told you that you would be seeing it again on the blog.) I adore this polka dot heart. I inked up Love You Forever and trimmed it out in banner fashion.

 Don't forget about the THREE gift certificates that will be given away! One gift certificate will go to a random participant and TWO gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop! You have until February 10, 2014 11:59pm PST to comment and be eligible.

Have a great rest of the week!

Pages with Papertrey sketch#18

Hello friends! I hope you had an awesome week. Mine was pretty productive on the homefront. Since I got off of work early today and I can't pick up the kids just yet, I thought I would pop in to share a layout that I finished yesterday. It plays along with Pages with Papertrey sketch#18. I did rotate the sketch and where there was a bit of blank space, I added another photo to fit my needs.

 

 

All of the elements are from the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit except the kraft and cream cardstock and twine. I diecut the title and added some machine stitching on the orange paper. I realize that although this is my son's baby album, I did add pink because of Leah's dress. When he is just in a diaper in the photos, I can do that, right? I also used Tag Sale#5 for my journaling. 

 

As soon as I pick up Leah from school, we will be busy making Valentine treats for her class and her brother's class. We've got lots to make, so I better get going. Thanks for stopping by!

 

Pages with Papertrey, Sketch #14

Happy Hump Day! I hope you have had a good week so far. I have been working on organizing some things around the house (that seems to never end, right?), some DT work and finishing up Joshua's baby album. Today I have a layout to share with you for Pages with Papertrey, Sketch #14.

 

 

This sketch is pretty simple. Thanks Leigh! You make scrapbooking less stressful.

 

 

All of the supplies are from the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit except the die cut title. I used some coasterboard to add more depth. The cream colored rectangle around my journaling is an acetate from the kit. I realize that this layout appears really crooked, but I struggled with getting the photo straight and cropping it.

 

That's all for me today. Have a great rest of the week!