And Naturally, She's Gorgeous

Avery Mae. Now, I might be biased, but this baby is mighty cute. The first time I saw her, I fell in love...again. Miss Avery looks quite like her big sister Lily. Big brother Drew isn't all that interested in her, after all, this little usurper took over "baby of the family" spot from him. Grant takes this all in stride; this is the third time for him to be big brother. I won't go overboard with photos, but thought you might like to see some, since this baby is nearly all I've posted about lately.

Check out those chubby cheeks (on Avery, not me!!lol) I believe that Drew, with Daddy's help took this photo. It's a little blurry, but you can see her face. She's definitely a keeper. Cries like a mouse squeek. 

Grandma took these three to dinner at the diner and it's become our tradition to stop here afterwards and take photos. Had a ball with the little ones. Precious babes. They make me laugh. They are constant reminders of what matters. Miracles every one of them. As all children should be!

When I went over to see this little family, I brought a present for the baby, and naturally, I had to whip up a card. Had one sitting here on my desk, but when I looked at it to tuck inside the present, it wasn't what I wanted anymore. So I had to make a new one. I used some new stamps from Newton's Nook. First of all, they're really cute/fun stamps, and then, the quality is utterly amazing! Initial inking was perfect. Clean, crisp images. I highly recommend these stamps. Seriously. And they have a challenge blog too. It's called Newton's Nook Designs Inky Paws Challenge so be sure to check it out. Sweet sketch, and I just couldn't resist playing there with the card I made.

See what I mean about NN stamps?!!! It's a Bazzill white base and scalloped square. Scraps of pink and gingham. I stamped the images with SU black and fussy cut them, including the itsy bitsy teeny weenie heart. Used my Cameo to cut the hearts and scalloped square. Five and Dime store sequins. Katie really liked it, which makes me happy! We've got company from Phoenix, and I owe emails and comments to everyone, and will try to get to that this afternoon later when things are quiet around here for a while. In the meantime, since it's a beautiful Friday, go forth and do a happy dance.

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!

Avery May/Mae (mom & dad still have to choose the spelling) was born today at 1:01 pm. She's a big girl, and close in weight to what big brother Drew weighed, but they haven't gotten that far yet...Drew weighed in at 10lbs 2oz. Mother and daughter are doing fine. Daddy's beaming. And this grandma is happy dancing like crazy!!! Will post photo if they ok it, and will add the other details soon. Just thought you'd all like to know.

What a wonderful blessing today!

No baby yet....

Still waiting for #19 grandchild to be born. If my ddil doesn't deliver today, the doctors will start her tomorrow, which is not a bad thing. Tomorrow my sweet granddaughter Jessica turns 20 and to have her cousin be born on her birthday is very exciting. She's quite willing to share her birthday with a new baby. The other grandparents will be there on Tuesday, and I will drive over to Madison on Wednesday, and it will be my turn to watch the big brothers and sister! I will take the three little ones; Grant, Lily, and Drew, plus the two college girl granddaughters, Jessica and Melissa out to the Hubbard Avenue Diner for dinner. If mommy and daddy aren't home from the hospital at dinnertime, then we'll all trek over to the hospital for a quick visit and the girls can see their newest cousin. What a wonderful world we live in. Sharing love and lives. I will post as soon as I hear anything and hopefully, I'll have some good photos to share as well.

I made a card yesterday. It's for my darling friend Mary. You'd love her. She's one of the sweetest people on earth, I swear! She was to take me out for dinner this past Saturday, but a YKW made an appearance, and that was the end of that. Instead, she dropped off a dozen peach colored roses and promises to attempt dinner once more soon! It's my fondest prayer for you all to have a friend like Mary. I made her a special Thank You card. And while I was at it, I thought I play along over at the Little Tangles Challenge. Take a look at their latest color palette:

How pretty is this?!! With all of the rich fall tones out there, this one was a refreshing change of pace.

My card looks like this:

It's really pretty irl.  The base and white panel are from Bazzill, and the pink, yellow, and gray are scraps. And you know, I keep digging in my scrap box of card stock, but it never seems to go down! Wonder what happens when the lights go out in here.... I used, of course, Neat & Tangled stamps, Memento London Fog ink, and some sequins bought at my local 5 & dime store. Inside is blank so I can write some really special thoughts for Mary. And now, it's time for me to get cleaned up, and wait for my friend Karen to pop over with a cup of coffee.We'll have a little coffee klatch, after which she'll go back to work, and I will play a bit more, and enjoy life. I know it's Monday, but do find something to do a happy dance about...well worth it!

Party On.

Although my birthday was this past Monday, our daughter is have a homemade pizza/cheesecake party for me, and for her daughter who will be home from college for the weekend, tonight. Jessica's birthday is this coming Tuesday. She's a sophomore, and her sister Melissa is a freshman at UW.  It will be a quick party, as the girls are going to their alma mater's football game with their youngest sister. These three girls have an older brother, Christopher, but he will be working tonight. Then it will be home and the last of the boys of summer...baseball season is coming to an end.

I actually did make a card today. Playing along with the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. For this challenge, they are asking us to use products which can be found at the SSS store. No problemo! In fact, I've got a few things that qualify: First a designer paper from a Studio Calico 6x6 paper pad, as well as an SC little wood veneer bicycle, and a Mama Elephant stamp from their Up and Away set. This came together fairly easily.

And this is my card:

I just like it. It's 'uplifting'. Sorry. My bad.... Once again for the deets: MME balloon bunch, colored with Copics and Sharpies and inked in StazOn. An SC bicycle and cloud paper. Bazzill white cardstock for the main panel and base. The little flag is the border from the SC paper and I used Newton's Nook sentiment with SU black ink. That's it...at least I'm pretty sure it is....So go now and do an extravagant happy dance because it's Friday. Party on.

Still waiting...

No new grandchild yet. Nope, this little one has decided that he/she likes it just fine in mommy's tummy. And according to my son, this baby is not so little. I'll go with a solid 9lbs when he/she decides to make his/her grand appearance. I'm on baby watch, and will go help watch the three others at home, which ought to be a hoot. It's rather funny...when I head over to Madison to greet this new baby, I'll make sure I text two of my other granddaughters who are in college and take them out to dinner along with the other three. And these two in college aren't even the oldest of the all the various grandchildren. What a wild age range! It's fun to watch them all grow.

I have had a couple of early morning YKWs, but more than that, Mr. Mojo called in sick for a few days... I'm hoping he's back for awhile.

Next week is one of those college granddaughter's birthday. I made a set of note cards for her, so that she can send out cards/notes to whom ever she wants to. I've even put stamps on the envelopes so she won't have to deal with that. I'm not posting the set but I'm certain she'll like them. After I finished the set, I worked on her birthday card. For three days. Nothing. Zip. Nada. Zilch. And the day before her party, I found myself still struggling. I did manage to come up with something. I sure hope it's worthy.

Playing along with City Crafter Challenge Blog. They've got an absolutely gorgeous color palette, and I'm madly in love with it. I also thought I might submit this to CAS(E) this Sketch. My focal point is a little larger than the one on the sketch.... So check out the color palette and sketch:

And after numerous trips over to the recycle bin, an extra cup of coffee to combat the medications side effects, this is what I made:

I think it's bright and fresh enough that Jess will like it. I like the texture. All the aqua paper came out of my scrap box, as did the smaller white piece. The base is Bazzill. N&T silver sequins. Not sure who made the washi tape, MME enamel dots, MFT sentiment stamp, flag die, and speech bubble die, striped dp is from Authentique's Renew 6x6 pad, and Studio G ink for the sentiment, and on the teeny-tiny bit of drywall tape. It's now time for you all to find something that makes you happy dance. 

Have you seen...

No, wait. I think that most of us crafters have, at one time or another, used the kitchen/dining room table as our main craft area, and stuffed our supplies in whatever containers and drawers and closets were available. Or dug out a corner of the basement which is dark and cold. We patiently wait for our children to give up their play rooms, or after they finish college and are permanently out of the house (boohoo), to set up a former bedroom as our craft space. I got lucky 12+ years ago when we bought our current home. One of the former bedrooms had been converted into an office/pass through space. You have to walk right through the middle of my craft room to get to the family room. It's a little awkward, but really, it's a large enough space to put all my stuff in...it works. I can create here. I'm blessed. 

BUT!!!!,  have you seen this latest post from Ardyth????!!!!! Her craft room is a dream. Seriously. I'm almost motivated to haul everything out of here, run to Home Depot, get new paint, order some nice cabinetry and countertops, have my electrician friend Dennis come and put in amazing lighting....well, you get the idea. And it ain't happening. At least not yet. But Ardyth's space...*sigh*....a perfect example for me. Light and bright and organized. If you're still reading this post, stop now and head over to her blog, MASKerade. Oh, and don't forget to come back! teehee

And speaking of Ardyth...I've got a card for this week's Muse Challenge. Totally fell in love with the inspiration card made by Therese Calvird. You will too!

I love the emotions this card evokes. It is dreamy. And my take:

I'll let you decide what this means to you and not interject my own thoughts here...

I used some lovely light blue cardstock of unknown origin. The cloud and frame are Bazzill scraps from my giant scrap box. A little wood veneer jet from Studio Calico, a teeny bit of random beige twine, Memento ink, and the sentiment is from Casual Fridays with the "I" masked off. I cut the frame with my Cameo, and the cloud was embossed with an LC folder, and cut with a MB cloud die. Hope your Saturday is delightful, with boatloads of happy dances.

Beautiful Day!

Oh yeah...it's a beautiful day! Perfect weather, cleanish house, and met up with Jen! We went to My Paper Playground, the most fun little scrapbook store around! Hi Sharon! Then we stopped at Qdoba's for lunch, yummy, and then one quick stop at Office Max for some Scotch Expressions Tape, the removable kind. I highly recommend it for use with dies, positioning papers, etc... because it comes off cleaner than Washi does. Never had it rip paper, or pull the top layers off.

I'm not one for some of the trends going on out there. And that includes the chalkboard look. But I thought I should give it a try and see if I could just get over my darn self. It wasn't as bad as I thought...guess it's only my bad attitude that had stopped me from trying this technique earlier. Little Tangles has this challenge going on:

For my chalkboard paper, I used a section of 'wrapping' paper. Our large family photograph from last year was wrapped in this, and I knew I just had to save it. 

I wanted the whole thing to be bright. So I went with a yellow mat, and some AC brightly striped dp (thanks for having this Sharon!) I'm going to send this off to one of the granddaughters in college in Madison. Random scraps of black (under the stripes), and yellow. Studio G ink, and that bit of recycled paper. Neat and Tangled stamps. Went together quickly and I like its happy look. Get to dancing everyone! It's the weekend!

A couple of updates

Yesterday, and thus far today, I am YKW free!!! I'm so happy I could just dance...(sorry). I am seriously happy about that. Running out of rescue meds until next week, so it's really important that they go away for a while. That's the first thing. And as you may be aware, my sil, Marilyn has been battling stage 4 cancer. It's in her abdomen, wrapped around her omentum and involved her colon and a bit of her duodenum. It has also metastasized  to one of her kidneys and to her liver. Sounds bad, doesn't it? She's had two bowel resections, without a colostomy (thank goodness) done at the same time, and some serious chemo. The doctors are surprised...and while she's not completely cancer free, everything has ground to a halt. Her prognosis has been upgraded, and she's no longer considered imminently terminal!!! She describes her condition as like that of a diabetic patient. Her condition will need to be monitored for the rest of her life, but there is no longer the threat of a truncated life span!!!! I am so thankful. Very happy for her. Thanks for all your prayers and kind wishes. I know, with absolute certainty, that they have helped.

It finally felt right to make her a "get well" card, as opposed to a "thinking of you" card. So I did. And it fits nicely into two challenges. The first is Wednesday Stamp Club Sketch Challenge at My Favorite Things. I've used all MFT stamps, including a new one (freebie!!!woohoo). The second challenge is Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge, where we are to use either wet and/or dry embossing.

Debby Hughes created something special for this, and I'm not going to post it here because you should pop over to SSS and see her card, and all the other wonderful lovlies for your own self! I will show you mine, however...

Again, I apologize for the poor lighting. It seems that no matter what I did, it didn't come out like I wanted...crap! Anyhoo...The cute little nurse, and the polka dots are both MFT stamps. I stamped an apron on a dp scrap, fussy cut it, and slipped it under her clipboard. I colored the rest of her with Copics (how'd I do Kylie?!). I made my own red cross badge my own darn self with my Cameo (big step for a beginner!), and cut the bandaid out too. I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder on the red (in tribute to Arielle!), and added three MME enamel dots in the corner. I think that's all...And so, with that, happy dances everyone.

Making up for lost time

Going to get right to this. Have to. Am seriously anxious about another YKW slamming into my brain later...

Saw the incredible sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch, wanted to play, but for multiple reasons, didn't get to it until just this minute.  Check out the sketch:

Turned this on its side. Used my brand-spankin' new MFT set and came up with this (wish I could claim the doodles...)

I adore this stamp. Doodles that I couldn't make to save my life, (unlike Anita...) and all I had to do was color them! Bazzill white base, Copics, Sharpies, and Promarkers to color in the sentiment which was stamped with StazOn. And a half circle made from one of my gazillion scraps.

If you're interested in seeing my first post of the day, click here. And happy dances everyone!

Gonna try to get this in...

Yesterday, after I finished my workout, coffee, and a few chores, I felt "fuzzy". Not sick. Just weird, and best described as "fuzzy". Tried to craft, but that was too much effort. Tried to em friends...again...too much effort. Then a bit later in the day....I got slammed with a kill-me-now migraine. I won't go on about it, rather, it's an explanation of why this card from Sunday afternoon's craftings didn't get posted. Monday was my day up at Marquette, and I had hoped to post this yesterday, but couldn't. So up it goes today!

You know I love to play over at Paulina's 10 Minute Craft Dash. I love the adrenaline rush I get from doing this, and tend to laugh and whoop like an idiot while crafting like a crazy woman! They don't always turn out well. This one did. At least in my mind! Lol. Now, a week or so ago, I hopped along at MFT's blog hop, was randomly chosen and won a $75 gc!! You really need to check out their goodies, and I have to say they have some of the best dies out there. Naturally, I used my gc for a few of those, plus some stamp sets. For my card at the TMCD, I just had to use one of those dies.

Aren't these just beautiful colors? *sigh*

And here's my mad scramble:

So darn fast! This took all of 8:15 to make. Seriously. Here's how it came together. After gathering supplies, which is perfectly within the rules I:

1.  Cut a 2" section off the blue, put the larger section on my Silhouette mat and pulled up my frame image.

2.  I hit cut and then took the 2" section over to my big shot and cut out the "celebrate"

3. Cut out the yellow & brown "celebrate"s next, and glued them all together... this took the longest, the glueing part, that is...

4. Unloaded my mat, and pulled the frame off 

5.  Inked up and stamped my Avery Elle image onto my white base corner

6. Glued the sentiment to the frame, and adhered the whole thing to my card base

7.  Threaded some twine through a yellow button, added some small "boogers" to the bottom and popped it right onto the center of the stamped image.

8.  Hand up!, Done!!! In 8:15  

Whew!!! Not so hard if you have that picture in your head, but excited nonetheless! The white is Bazzill, the other papers were out of my scrap box - the blue was a pretty large scrap. Random twine scrap and button, and Colorbox ink. Tada. Happy dances everyone!

Monday running

No...not as in marathon training. Although I actually do walk at least a mile everyday, and try to get three in, it's the other kind of running I'm talking about. Errands. DH stopped driving over a year ago, and I've become, in addition to all the other wifely jobs, chauffeur as well. I don't mind, and I'm seriously not complaining. Today we're headed (after the usual morning errands) to Marquette University where one of his friends is giving a guest lecture. Nancy Unger is an historian specializing in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, just like DH. They've met once before...at least I think so...and today I get to meet her. She's pretty funny and we have a fun little banter going concerning baseball; she's a Giants fan, I'm a Cubs fan, and I'm trying to teach her about hope and baseball. If you're not sure what I mean, it's that every year, Cub fans think "this is the year". We've done so for over one hundred years...the last time the Cubs won the World Series! After a short visit, we'll attend her lecture. So....not too much time for me in blogland today.

And just in case you're wondering when the heck the Gilded Age and Progressive Eras were, they run consecutively from about 1873 to 1920ish. Think Robber Barons, 'muckracking', and Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. I promise to stop now with the history lesson...

Now, onto the really important things! (Just don't tell DH that I think crafting is more important than the GA&PE!!)  Earlier this year, I watched as a new stamp company was launched, along with a great DT and blog. Reverse Confetti has a wonderful line of stamps, and while I haven't made any purchases yet, you can bet they are on my wish list, and I plan to rectify that situation soon. Very versatile stamps, and I urge you all to stop over and check them out. They also have a challenge....(imagine that?!!) and until the end of the year, you can play along without utilizing their brand of stamps. Thought I'd give it a try. This is the link to their challenge post. And this link will take you to their blog in general.

As I said earlier, I don't own any of their stamps as of yet, but I did want to play along. That being said, I opted not to use any stamps on the outside of this card. 

And you know me...if I can use a scrap or two, I do. Those are scraps of aqua, brown, polka dot, stripes, and chevrons. I cut the tag with my Cameo and added a silver eyelet sticker, then added a scrap of yellow ribbon. There are MME enamel dots, and the phrase, Rock star circle and multi-colored stickers are from Sn@p Studio by Simple Stories. And that's it. Happy dances everyone.

Sultry Saturday

It's hot. It's humid. And nearly time for me to put the AC on. Or better yet, a nice tall glass of lemonade with maybe just a smidge of gin in it! If I hadn't had five nights in a row of migraines, I'd seriously consider having one! It's my favorite summertime drink. If you've tried it with vodka, give it a shot with the gin...nice flavor.

Now ya know...Jackie Rockwell's got a Pantone Color Challenge over at her blog. Ten fun colors to play with, and if you haven't checked them out, or played along, I highly recommend it. I've done a few of them, and so far, all my cards have been on the more serious looking side. Went for fun today. I'm going with her Lemon Zest. Yellow is fun and happy so that's the direction I took it.

  

You might remember that I'm trying to catch up on cards for kids to add to my dd/ddil's Christmas stash, and I'm hoping this qualifies...

All scraps from my two big boxes, except for the card base which is Bazzill. PS tree stamp, fussy cut, LF bird, speech bubble and sentiment, fussy cut as well. N&T squeekquins (or would they be tweetquins?!). Even that strip on the bottom is a paper scrap, not washi, though it does kind of look like it, doesn't it! And with that, I'm going to go climb in the freezer and chill out! hahaha. sorry. Happy dances everyone.

Two cards, two challenges

Got my craft on this morning. Instead of doing any housework, I played. Is that wrong??!! Guess I'll get to the cleaning as soon as I finish this post...sigh....or....I could make another card!! We'll see what happens... The first card you'll see was quick. I mean really quick! When you play along with the 10 Minute Craft Dash, you absolutely have to be quick. And this morning, I was, woohoo! Using the colors provided, I made my card in 8:37. Here is the *sigh* color palette:

While these colors could work with almost any theme, I saw baby boy.

By now you know that for the TMCD, one should gather the necessary supplies, and be ready when you set your timer.That's what I did, paper, punch, stamps, inks, and so on... On my white Bazzill base, I cropped and attached a scrap of brown, scaled the light blue down 1/4", cut that and attached it to the brown, used a scrap of white, trimmed the bottom section off, used the scallop punch on both pieces and attached them to the blue, stamped the moon & star on the larger one, stamped another star, fussy cut it, put a pop dot on the first star and attached it to the stamped one, stamped the sentiment and whew!, done!! Simple and sweet.

For my next card, I am playing along with CASology. Had a tough go with this one...the cue card for this week is "Apple". And until this morning, I was totally stuck with this one.  

Then, whammo!!, Ping!!, I got an idea. And believe it or not, I have another one floating around in my brain. We'll see how that one pans out. In the meantime, here's the card I came up with.

I know, I know...no sentiment. It's on the inside and says "feel better soon". Apropos for an apple card, me thinks. CAS. Very "S". I cut out the apple with my Cameo, and trimmed the apple to 3/4 its size. Used my mini heart punch, trimmed the hearts into seeds and added glossy accents. That's all. Now, since it's the weekend, go out and happy dance your little booties off!!!!

Fussy cutting

I love fussy cutting. Weird, I know, but I sincerely do love fussy cutting. Sometimes, even if I have a die, I'll fussy cut instead. It's just so relaxing for me. Maybe it's the feeling of those small orange-handled scissors in my hand, or the challenge of making difficult cuts. Whatever it is, I enjoy it. Am I the only one who likes to do this? I'm pretty sure that there are crafters out there who find fussy cutting as enjoyable as I do.

I did a bit of fussy cutting today. Just a few easy, little bits as you'll see shortly. Made a card for the Runway Inspired Challenge. Just had to. Saw the inspiration photo and fell in love with everything about it. See for yourself:

Oh yeah. And be sure to check out the whole design team's creations; there is some serious awesomeness going on there! This one's mine:

Super quick and easy peasy lemon squeezy! White Bazzill card base, random scraps of gray, gold,  and black. AE chevron stamps, which I fussy cut (*sa-wink*), and WPlus9 sentiment. A few scattered MME enamel dots, and then my most recent favorite oddball unusual item...drywall tape. Love that grid! And that's all for right now. Happy dances to everyone.

Labor Day

Hope you all are enjoying your holiday. We're having a quiet one...It's Harley Davidson's 110th Anniversary in Milwaukee this weekend, and enthusiasts from all over have descended into SE Wisconsin. In my world, it's a good time to be off the road. So home we stay and me in my craft room.

Playing along again at the Pinspired Challenge. Very interesting photo to base a card on...colorful, which is exactly where I took my inspiration. Not sure why I didn't go with flowers, but when I pulled out supplies, this is what worked for me.

Loved all those bright colors on that minty green background. 

Now for some reason, this looks aqua...I swear to you that irl, it's MINT green, much like the background of the inspiration photo. And no matter how much I fiddle with it, the minty color doesn't come out. Dag Nabbit!!!! Nonetheless, it's a CAS card with lots of happy colors. I cut the letters with my Cameo first in the lovely gray, and then in all kinds of colors for the middles. And every single piece is out of my cardstock scrap box! Woohoo! The base is white Bazzill. Easy peasy. Since it's so early, who knows...I just might make another card! Happy dances everyone. : )