Babies....

It's been a good summer for babies this year in our family. First, my niece Amy (my younger sister's daughter),  had Logan Michael, then little Emma Marie (older sister's granddaughter), came along, and there's a baby coming in September too. My son and his wife are expecting baby #4...and this one's a surprise. Babies. How cool are they?!!

Also expecting this summer was Melissa over at CASology, who after three little cutie pie boys, had a sweet little baby girl yesterday. Nothing makes me smile more than new babies. Head on over to CASology for the baby's deets, and to check out what the DT has done; then you can link up a card too and offer her blessings and congratulations. So, if you read this Melissa, God bless your family and congratulations of the birth of a healthy daughter.

And I thought I'd make a card. I'm not quite sure how it turned out. I've been on a migraine run for a few days now, and the meds I take make me a little loopy, so if this card isn't what it should be, let me know...heaven knows I've tried.

Bad lighting and no matter what I tried in Picasa, it still looks bad. Seriously better irl.  Bazzill white base, scraps of pink and green. SU flowers and leaves. The letters have been stamped with AE Texture Tiles: Be Cool, then cut with the Silhouette Cameo. Some Studio G ink. Rounded corners and scalloped edges. Happy dances everyone

Once again, I'm a great auntie!

Emma Marie was born 25 July at 1:21 am, and she weighed 8.8 pounds and is 20.75" long. Both mother and daughter are fine, and daddy is beaming! She's a tall baby, which comes as no surprise since both my nephew and his lovely wife are tall. She got the cutest little chubby cheeks... I'll post a photo in a later post if they say it's alright. Very happy for them. My sister Sue is the new grandma. Not proud or anything....lol.

I've got company coming for dinner - well, family. It was also dd Cathy's birthday on the 25th and we're having a little gathering here. Fancy-schmancy burgers, Cathy fries, fruit, and homemade mint chocolate chip cheesecake. Well, I'm going to get to this now...

Jackie over at Rockwell Designs has this cool challenge going on, and I knew I wanted to play. I haven't had the chance much, and the one card I did make I sent to Ardyth, and wanted to wait until she got it before I posted. Sweet Jackie is offering a free blog header to the winner. How cool would that be??!! I love her designs and her colors, and well, just about everything about her.

I love that green. It's just a happy, sweet color, and with that gray...perfect!

This is my card:

White Bazzill card base, MFT die, SU sentiment, Memento ink, Spellbinders dies, and scraps of gray and green. Gotta run. Happy dances everyone! : )

Sometimes...

Sometimes you've got it going on like gangbusters, and other times...not so much. Get the cuts straight, make perfect gold dots, just have to get the stamp done without smearing...Way too many in the recycle bin today. Guess I should have quit and restarted the whole darn thing tomorrow. This one did work. Mostly.

Playing along over at CASology and also at Moxie Fab World: The Birthday Card Challenge. 

My card looks like this:

Rather simple actually. White Bazzill card base, and scraps of aqua and gold paper. PTI stamp with Stampabilities gold ink. I made my own bling by punching out gold circles and adding drops of Glossy Accents. The hardest part about that was waiting for the little buggers to dry. And my niece-in-law is in labor! I'm getting a new great-niece today! Woohoo! Happy dances everyone.

Quick Post

Have a million things to today, so will keep this short. Made a card and am submitting this to Retro Sketches #73. Very cool sketch and really wanted to play.

For a change I made a square card, something I rarely do. Bazzill white card base, I cut the star panel out of a scrap with the Cameo, popped brightly colored scraps behind it, and added a legless brad with a few strips of raffia, and the sentiment is from MFT colored with an FC pen. That's it. (sorry about the reflection in the brad....) Happy dances everyone.

The new toy works!!

It's official. The Cricut Expressions machine has found a new home up at church, and my new toy, the Silhouette Cameo is sitting right next to me, even as I type. She's so pretty. And darn it all....I'm figuring it out pretty well. At least as far as I've needed it. She's a good girl, and even sings to me!! Who knew??!!

I've got one card for two challenges today. What started out with circles and a tag has morphed into something completely different. I know I'm not alone when what I create turns out (at least in my mind) blecchhh, and then it has a short rest on the desk. After it's little nap, a bit o' cussing (the kind Fred Flintstone used only, no 'real' words), and a completely different direction, I reworked it. And then did it all over again. And again. But my kitchen inspired me...the newish glass tile backsplash. You'll see where I'm going with this in a sec. First I'm playing over at CAS - Colours and Sketches. They've got a Fallish color palette going on over there, and I really need some cool here. Check out the colors:

I didn't have anything quite like Summer Starfruit, but I think I came pretty close with my color choice. And over at Little Tangles, they've got a fun challenge that I knew, without a doubt, that I wanted to partake in (isn't that just a fun word...partake...kind of cracks me up...). 

At Little Tangles, we are supposed to use some kind of wood or natural materials when making our card. See what you think. I've got wood veneer, browns, and leaves. I've used the colors for the first challenge too. Even though it took a few tries, I'm liking how it turned out.

It's a thank you card. I don't remember who made the dp, I've had it for several years, and is reversible as you can tell. The base and small cream colored squares are SU, and some unknown brown card stock scraps. Studio Calico made the little lady, Neat & Tangled stamps, and some of my favorite unusual fun stuff -- drywall tape. That cracks me up....Happy dances everyone!

I also want to send out a thank you to Nina over at Waffle Flower Paper Crafts. I was a very lucky girl, and my comment was drawn at random to win the AE Texture Tiles: Be Cool set. Anyone out there hear me scream this morning?!!

Staying indoors today...

Yep, too hot to work outdoors, so I'm staying in my craft room and playing all day. And do a bit of reorganizing in preparation for the new Cameo. I'm supposed to go walking a little past 5:00, but it may just be a bit too warm for me. Could be circuits in the basement rather than outdoors.

Have to say thank you to the DT over at Color Throwdown. This card was chosen as one of the winners in celebration of their Five Year Anniversary. I am honored and terribly humbled by this. Thank you so much, and congrats to CT again.

I've never played over at A Blog Named Hero before today. After seeing posts by Stef and Ardyth, I thought I'd look into it a bit more. I wasn't sure if I could play along because I only have a couple of HA sets...or so I thought! Going through the drawers and bins, I found that I owned more sets than I remembered, always a woohoo! The gist of this specific challenge, is to choose one of the Hero Arts Artists, and either garner inspiration from one of their cards, or their overall style. I checked them all out. Dang. This would not be an easy choice to make. Then I got a wild idea!  Pick one at random, and see if she is on Pinterest, and, if she is, you can look through the whole gallery in one swell foop. I only needed that one random pick. I instantly fell in love with the cards made by Shari Carroll. So then I had to ask myself what was it about Shari's cards that drew me in. There are a number of factors about her work that appealed to me: her color choices, circles, vertical and horizontal lines, simplicity, bits of bling, the way she puts the elements of her cards together in such a way that your eye knows right where to go, and most importantly; the cards evoked a good feeling. So a quick thanks to Shari for the inspiration.

This is my card:

I hope I have captured the essence of my inspiration. Bazzill white cardstock, scraps of dp and cardstock. The polka dot circle is made with washi and was punched out. Random button, N&T sequins, Colorbox inks, HA stamps, and Kaiser craft brown pearls. The two tan circles have been stamped and punched. That's all I have for now. Thanks for stopping. Happy dances everyone.

There's a new challenge in town...

Have you visited the new Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge yet? Well, if you haven't you really must. The Design Team should be renamed the "Dream Team"! So not kidding on that one. Pop on over there, and see what I mean. I'll wait. (insert Jeopardy theme here) Reads like a 'who's who' doesn't it?! I was very excited when I saw this was coming. So. And am playing along with their first. This is their inspiration photo:

Right away I was drawn to the yellow and bright blue. I don't have much in the line of nautical stamps or stickers, so I winged it. Turned out alright (at least in my own mind). 

You'll notice first off that there's no sentiment on the outside. Got too busy for my taste, so the whole thing's on the inside. It reads "Hope You're Feeling Ship-Shape Soon". Might be another one for Marilyn (haven't had any news about her this week..). Now to the deets. Bazzill white, blue, & yellow card stock. Baler's twine, pulled apart to this strand, PTI Square Prints stamps, a fussy cut clip art anchor, and some sea-quins which came as a bonus from my Neat & Tangled order (thanks for that!) I fussy cut the polaroid frame too. Gotta get a die like that sometime... And that's it. Happy dances everyone.

eta:  I almost forgot...okay...I did forget, but not entirely... to add that I wanted to thank the DT over at the Little Tangles challenge blog for choosing my card as a Lovely Little Tangle. Am looking forward to the next challenge there.

How did I get so far behind?

I have no idea how things have gotten so far out of control...I spent the last couple of hours commenting on those whose blogs I love to visit, and I still have the cards on the different challenges to comment on, AND then a few emails to do. I'm just wondering if the rose bed can wait for its weeding and spraying one more day, or if I should try to 'do it all'... Well, only time will tell today.

I've got a card for the Fusion Card Challenge. A while back, I got this cute stamp set from My Cute Stamps, and I find I still get a chuckle out of these little critters. Some stamps you just know you'll love forever. That's this set...among many. In the past, I've tried to do the fusion of both challenges, but today, I am only doing the "Lesley" side of the Fusion. (Sorry to the whole left side of the DT...), but I had fun with it and hope you'll find a little giggle at this stack of critters. This is the inspiration:

Both sides are pretty darn cool. 

This is my take:

Can you guess which animal is my favorite? Hint: I'm from 'Wiscownsin'...hahahaha (sorry). Bazzill white card base, red and black scraps, We R Memory Keepers green gingham, the Twinery twine, Su black ink, various Copics, and the sentiment is from TAWS Adorabowl and has been masked so that just the HI shows. And that's it! Have a good rest of your Sunday. Happy dances everyone.