Remembering School Rhymes

If you're old enough, you probably remember chanting rhymes on the playground at school, or around your neighborhood. Surely you kept rhythm while jumping rope with friends, "Bluebells, cockle shells, easy ivy, over..." Or, "Not last night but the night before, 24 robbers came knocking at my door..." I was reminded of one today (though not a jump rope rhyme) while making a card, and thought I'd see if you did too.

So-and-So and So-and-So

Sitting in a tree

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

First comes love

Then comes marriage

Then comes a baby in a baby carriage.

You know, and I know that you know that I know, you teased a friend or a sister with this rhyme, didn't you?!! Personally guilty as charged! So let's talk about kissing, shall we?

Not 'kissing,' but stamp kissing. It's an optional twist over at Time Out Challenge. Fooled you didn't I? Well...maybe not. I've used this technique before, and was thinking about using it again last week, but put it off for some reason. Funny how things work out, isn't it?! So I made a card with kissing. I used the sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches, and kept it clean and simple for Addicted to Stamps and More. One card, three challenges! 

Mine looks like this:

The leaf sprig and the flower stamps and dies are from MFT, and the sentiment is from Avery Elle. I found a scrap of a soft light green sitting on my desk, and how do you like that?, it matched!!! So I used it for the top border. I used an older AE set to kiss the solidly stamped sprig and bloom. The lighter inks are Fresh Ink, and the darker coral color is from LF. For the leaves, I just used the same ink as the base color, and stamped the stripes. Gave it a nice matchy-matchy look. Some enamel dots finish it off. And that's it for me. DH is getting hungry and I haven't even started dinner, lol! As always...

Here's Hoping!

Here's hoping that there won't be too many more YKWs (migraines) in the near future. According to my neuro nurse, the weather has wreaked havoc on many of us, so I'm praying the low pressure centers go around us for a while. That's where I've kinda been. My crafting and commenting went by the wayside for a bit, but I'm really hoping that things have calmed down, and I can get back to normal.

Thanks for all your kind words about my little darling grandkids. It was a blast having them here, and I wish we all lived closer together!


I have a card for a few challenges. I saw a new-to-me challenge courtesy of Carol, and decided I might try to play there. It's called, Cards In Envy. Go check it out! And while I'm at it, the anything goes theme at SSS Wednesday Challenge seemed like a good idea, too! It went together really quickly, and I like how it turned out very much. The inspiration is from the current Muse Challenge; a Kay Miller card:

I didn't have that pretty cityscape, but used something linear from my stash. I was also inspired by the bouquet and the sequins.

The leaves and flowers are from Altenew, and the sentiment and stripes are from Avery Elle. I used various inks, including ME and Fresh Ink. The sequins were gifted to my by Ardyth. And that's all it took. EZPZ lemon squeezy!! Have a good evening, and 

Cards and Kids

Just let me know if you're tired of hearing about my grandchildren. I promise to try not to bore you with too many stories or photos, but not today. I've got some pix to share from Easter weekend, and a couple of cards too. Hmmm...what shall we look at first? Cards or kids? Let's do kids. That way, for those of you who want to skip those, you can scroll down to the photos of the cards.

Up first are three from Saturday night. It was funny. The four little girls went upstairs to make towns with a jar of flowers and used all the hot wheels/matchbox cars to 'travel' from one town to the next. The boys decided to make cards with grammy. First up is the youngest of the boys, Drew. My ginger-haired darling child.

It's a little blurry, but so were grandma's eyes by this time. Don't you just love that tongue hanging out? He's a wonderful child.

Next up is Drew's brother, Grant. He has green eyes just like his grandma.

Love this boy, too. He's ten and really got into card making. I think we could have gone on for hours, except parents made us stop for bedtime... Go figure!

The last of the boys, is Carter. I couldn't get him to look up for his photo. "Grammy, I need to get this done." He's one of the sweetest boys in the world.

See that notebook on the table? Well, Mr. Carter made a card sketch, without any prompting from me mind you, so he'd know exactly what to do. Turned out just like he wanted. Adorable!

Sunday morning we had an Easter egg hunt. I didn't have enough baskets for them all, so I decorated some white paper bags with their names and such, and after their parents hid all the eggs, it was pure (and delightful) chaos! 

They are arranged in chronological order; Avie, 3; Kaylin, 5; Drew, 7; Samantha, 7; Lily, 9; Carter, 10; and Grant, 10. 

And last, I promise, is one blurry one of me with them all.

Who knew that I could fall so madly and deeply in love with so many little ones? I am so very blessed! Sure hope that at some point we can get all twenty together! Yikes!

Now. Cards. Will keep the rest of this short, not list ingredients, but if you want any info, do email me, and I'll be happy to answer any questions.

My first card goes to The Heart Desires challenge. Another amazing mood board, and I think you can tell what I was drawn to:

Any my card (finally!)

My second card is heading off to both Fusion (I just used the sketch here) and to CAS(E) This Sketch:

Mine looks like this:

And as promised, I'll stop now. Have a great weekend and 

Post Easter Catching Up

My Easter weekend was beyond wonderful. Far, far above and beyond wonderful. Two of my sons were here beginning Thursday, and our in-town daughter and family came for brunch on Saturday as well. Ten grandchildren in the house. Oh I could go on and on, telling you story after story, but I won't keep you that long. Okay... you know me... maybe just one story... Little Avie, at three, is precocious. And funny, especially when she's trying to be serious. We were talking with the neighbors, Stacey and Michael, on Saturday before supper. All the kids were running around in their yard. Avie runs up and just starts chatting up Stacey. Stacey asked Avie how old she was... "Welllll..." she says, "I'm 23 when I stand on my tippy toes, and 10 when I stand on my feet." I about lost it laughing at this child. So who wants to come to the next gathering?!

I do have a card. Only one for today, as I need to finish vacuuming up the beach that somehow managed to find its way into my whole house. (I don't mind really....) Loll and the DT over at the CAS Watercolor Challenge have a color combination that I've been in love with forever. I made my card a week or so before company came, knowing the deadline would allow me to post this after the holiday weekend.

I tried to keep this as CAS as I could.

I watercolored the Altenew peony images with my Zigs. The sentiment is from Avery Elle. The creamy panel has some grayish stylized printing on it. I used a green base. And that's all. I'm going to run. But I will leave you with one more photo. It's of the hallway by the backdoor.

There are more shoes under that little bench, and still more in the kitchen. We had a few people over that day! I'll show you a photo of those little ones next time I post (unless I get a bad case of doo-doo brains). As always,

Tick, tick, tick...

So time is just tick, tick, ticking by so quickly these days! One week until Maundy Thursday, which happens to be the same day that the first of our company arrives. The upstairs bedrooms are clean and only one bed will need sheets washed before then. I'm slowly going through the house so all I have to do towards the end, is clean the bathroom and dust and vacuum a bit. More company comes on Good Friday, and we're celebrating Easter on Saturday to allow for those who need to travel on Sunday after church. There will be at least 8 little ones in the house!!! I can hardly wait!!!!!! Wish you could be here too.

I've got one card today, but as it happens, it will play in two challenges. Anita Bowden over at Muse provided the inspiration, and since it has stars, it can also visit Time Out.

I tested out some new vellum tape on this and so far, I like it! Yay!! I think you can see which elements I've chosen to play with: the embossing, the small rectangle, the colors, and the vellum strip.

All of the papers are from my scrap files. The wonky cake stamp is from Jane's Doodles, and the stars are from Altenew. The SSS hb was stamped in black and embossed in clear so as not to smear it. My coloring was done with Copics. One MFT die. Have a wonderful day. And as always...

(ETA:  At the suggestion of both Shelly and Judy, I will add this to CASology as well, where the cue card this week is "icing." Thanks, ladies!!)

No April Fool's Joke Here!!

I'll just jump in and out quickly...or as quickly as I can. You're probably tired of hearing about my family, but I wanted to toot my granddaughter Melissa's horn today. She's published. In a real magazine. We got a copy of the magazine in the mail yesterday, and it's also online! You can see her article at Curb!! So very proud of her...Brilliant child. She graduates from UW-Madison next month. I wish you could all meet her; she's a lovely, caring, smart person. Just love her!! (Love all my grandchildren, but this is "her" post...) Naturally I made a card.

CASology's cue card is 'text.' How perfect for a card for a published journalist!!! Found a fun paper and the proper sentiment.

 

My card looks like this:

She'll appreciate the colors; it's not too girly. Hope you can see the little keyboard emojis; thought this paper from Pebbles was appropriate for her card, and not too busy overall. Cut the SSS 'congrats' out of a blue scrap and inlaid it in a white panel. And that's all for me. See you again soon, and...

I'm Pregnant

April Fool's!!! When my kids were little, I used to pull that "joke" every year. And every year they fell for it. Once they got a little older, one of the boys said to me, "mom, can't you come up with anything even slightly believable??" Smarty pants kids! Wonder if I should text them today with that same old, tired AF joke.... I can just hear the snorts now.... Well, I am in the mood for a little tomfoolery today. And thanks to the effervescent, ever-funny, ever sweet Darnell, I can call tom, and we can gather our foolery and boo-boo cards, and laugh and laugh and laugh. Her super fun/funny hop starts today, and I most definitely wanted to play along! So should you! You know you've got that card (or two, or several) that you've been planning on taking apart to remake in your stash...why not share it, and we'll all feel a little better knowing that we all make some boo-boo cards. I'm just pulling my most recent boo-boo, which I didn't even finish. It's, well, UGH. As in UGH-ly. Butt ugly. But it made me laugh because it's so bad. Wait till you see...

Now. Miss Darling Darnell is up as GD over at Tag You're It. And I soooo badly wanted to play. And my goofy brain said, "yeah!!, let's use our NBUS stars stamp!!" Brain held me hostage, and at gunpoint, (I swear it was a pink glock 9mil) brain forced me to make this...

Woof. Retch. Blech. Smeared stars. Horribly bad uneven blending. And my red turned into hotish pink. And then there were my choices of critter... Brain refused to entertain any other kind of critter. It was bunny or death. Sorry brain. I choose death (or pregnancy, whichever comes first...) Are you gagging yet? Ewwwwwwww!!!!! I kept the critters; it's not their fault, after all. But skanky tag made it only as far as the recycle bin. Shiver! Brain is pouting, but I think I can bribe it with a little more coffee and get it making something else. 

I've got one more card, and while there are no boo-boos in it, (except in the photography) it does contain an NBUS stamp. I will pop this into the Ellen Hutson March Pin-Sights Challenge, as well. It's green.

I chose my greens based on that parasol, as well as the color of the trees in the background. It's for a confirmation.

I did try to correct the color...it really IS green, not yellowish. I did some light blending with GREEN ink on my card base, and then added the NBUS C9 Stamp. The cross has a goldish cast, but retains a light brown color too. Looks better irl. I wanted the message of 'faith' to be the focal point, so kept it very CAS. And that's all for today. As always...