End of School Year

Is fast approaching! Tomorrow is the last day of school for my 5 year old and next Wednesday is the last day for my 15 year old. Wow, did this year go by fast or what? Am I just imagining it? It is 90 something for the 6th day in a row now, will continue for several more days. We just broke the record for most days above 90 in May but until last week it was rather cold some days! Like someone turned on a light switch! So the kids are getting out of school, it's hot and we got to find something to do. I can only handle the pool for so long. Boredom is already making my 5 year old destructive! Eeeek! So here I am trying to make a card or scrapbook trying to kill time until swim team practice :) This is what I have for today, I only made the baby one today though. The yellow one is Cuttlebug embossed vellum. Thought that looked cool. The baby one is the sketch challenge and the flower is the color challenge.

Scrapbook Pages

I was able to do a few layouts over the weekend, I did 5 but I only completed the journaling on 3. I am also kind of slacking on the embellishments, seems to just take too darn long and I have so many pictures to do! I might go back and add some things but I kind of like the minimal look. These three were fun, the Spring Morning one was done with my new Cuttlebug alpha - "you're not the boss of me" that I paid less than $20 new! The one with the grass, my son had to measure that every day and it sometimes grew 3 inches a day! The tag was fun to do, the flower is clear embossed then sponged the ink over it. The page next to it says Spongebob Squarepants three times across like you sing the song, I chalked the stripes on it after I printed the words. I also tried some stamping on the New Room page, used chocolate chip on bashful blue, used Autumn Leaves clear swirl stamp, so much easier with clear to line up quickly! JP in his old car-seat enjoying daddy's ride. He calls it "my ride". So there you have it! Some scrapbooking AND stamping :)

Butterflies

As you can tell from my banner we like butterflies at our house! Pre-school has been studying the life cycle of the butterfly, my 5 year old can tell you all about it! As he tells us and everyone else every day... anyway he loves to talk about the chrysalis and if you think about it once again (we all learned it in school as kids) it really is amazing going from an ugly caterpillar to a shriveled up brown casing to a beautiful flying creature! My husband (yes?!) got in on it and ordered a butterfly kit and here is a picture of the newly hatched butterflies. All 5 of them hatched! We were very fortunate. Two hatched the first day and the other three the second day of hatching time (yesterday). They're called Painted Lady Butterfly and have pretty colors on their wings. So now to convince my little one to let them free! Have a nice weekend and a family and or fun filled Memorial Day, remember for a moment all those who have served. I think of my Dad :) (he served in WWII).

I Want to Go to the Beach!

So here is my card for it, it is for this weeks sketch challenge. I don't go to the beach to lay in the hot sun, I go to walk along the water, swim, build sandcastles, watch birds and the waves, smell the sea and listen to the sounds. When I was a teenager I went to the beach to get a tan. Southern California has very cold water in the Summer, a lot of breeze off the ocean and no humidity so you can lie there for hours and not break a sweat. And if you did you had to talk yourself into getting into the water! Here in the South the water is 86-92 degrees in the summer (yes), it is very humid, there is little breeze and it is 95 degrees outside so you break a sweat the second you step out of the air conditioning! So lying on the beach for me is not an option. Besides the risk of skin cancer. I rent one of those huge umbrellas and chairs and have at it! Respite from the heat and damaging rays. Where there is a will there is a way and I will get to the beach at least once every Summer! Despite a hubby who hates it. I have the kids as excuses, "Oh the kids wants to go so bad- they love it". :)

As far as the card goes I used crayon resist on the wings and the shadows of the seagulls, embossed them with black e.p. and then sponged the color over it. I used some stickles (glitter glue) in the sand area too. The shells on the background card stock are stamped with Versamark and then I used perfect pearls to make them shimmer. I also used a nice shell charm that was part of a bookmark I got at the beach last year, it had broken off and was sitting in my drawer waiting for a new use. So there you have it, yet another time I dream about the beach!

Happy

Not sure what else to call this! The flowers seemed happy so that is the sentiment I put on the card. I put a clear button on the slider tag and someone pointed out to me it looks like a watch, cool idea for later. I ended up playing this stupid game on the Internet and wasted my card making time today! Will have to do CC and SC tomorrow. The game is to test your ability to plan ahead so I knew right off it was going to be a challenge! Plan ahead? Me? I am so much better than I used to be but it is a hard one to master. So in this game you have to join squares by changing their sizes and you have to do them in the right order to complete it (which you have to figure out what that is). 18 levels, thank God - if there were more I might still be playing! And I am not a big game player, really. No talent or patience in that department. This one was easy enough for me. So are you wondering what it is? Here is the snipped URL Plan On It. Have fun! Let me know if you like it.

I'm Back!

and you didn't even know I was gone. Actually I wasn't. I mean I wasn't gone from my home just from the Internet! I got sick last week, ended up I had a double ear infection and the Doctor kindly gave me antibiotics (you have to beg here for them as they feel people are over exposed to antibiotics and the germs are resistant...). So after three miserable days I started feeling better and then I just did what I had to with the kids and house until today. Now I can play again and do my things too! So in celebration I made a cute Bella card. So here she is, Feelin' Groovy! Because I feel groovy again, ha!

Having fun with these colors

Just making cards with these colors, love this combo! The first one is using some embossing powder I bought a long while ago, can't seem to get it to look good until now. It is called holographic and it looks white or clear in the bottle but as you heat it turns red and green and blue and purple and yellow. More like a rainbow than a hologram. It looks very different when the light hits it so the picture has the same card with flash and without flash. I think also you need to use it on a medium to dark colored card stock. Then the next is for the featured stamper challenge (where you case one of their cards). The last one is to allow an area of free space on the card and not put anything in it including embossing or printed card stock. I used some pretty flowers I picked up recently at Artist Oasis. They are by Petaloo, lot's of cool things by this company! Nice that the colors match this combo :)

Non-Card Creations

I am very fortunate to have many great local scrapbook/stamping stores in my area. One of them is my favorite because they are more "artsy" and creative and the owner(s) are really great. I took a class not too long after it opened making a CD clock. We used alcohol inks and Diamond Glaze with a few beads and charms mixed in. I made 3 and gave 2 away as gifts, they were all different and fun but this one I kept. I still love it! Then last weekend she had a 'girl's night out'. It was so fun! There were several make and takes with great local artist's, fruit, cheese, etc. and it was packed! Wall-to-wall with people, the best attended I have even been to! I am happy for them, I hope they stay in business a long time. I say that because three of the local stores went out of business in this last year, one of which was also an artsy creative place too that I loved. Actually Raindrops on Roses rubber stamp company if you recognize it. Sherril is so talented, I hope she gets to do something again someday.

Anyway the second picture are the things I made at Artist Oasis for the girls night out. The teal colored tag booklet has a magnetic closure and the bookmark below it goes inside. So cool! We used Twinkling H20's on the flowers. The triangle things are supposed to be earrings but I didn't punch the hole for it before I got too far into it. I might use them as photo corners on a scrapbook page. They are covered with Diamond Glaze too. Then there is an altoid-like tin that we used alcohol ink yet again and then used scrapbooking paper (Basic Grey Blush) on the inside and just sprinkled odds and ends in it. The orange thing is actually some cool stuff called Stampbord, it has is hard thick almost wood-like material with a white tile-like surface that we painted on Twinkling H20's then stamped over it, then you can scratch the surface and the white will show through. I didn't get much of an effect with what I did but others stamped eyes and such and it looked neat. Then we used a couple layers of UTEE on top. It is ATC sized. OK so that's some different stuff! I don't always do cards :)

Sketch Challenge and Another CC

Today's sketch challenge came out and I decided to do another card for Shane's Wish. I love the color challenge this week so used those colors again and used the sketch. Am I getting boring with my cards?! On a bright note, my oldest actually completed and turned in his homework on time today for honors English! The teacher actually told his CA advisor and she gave him a standing ovation. YEAH! Teenagers (sigh)

That's all for today :)

Pretty colors!

This is the color challenge for today on SCS, teal, carribean and marigold. LOVE THEM! Awesome combo, don't you know I will be using this more! I had this card made in less than an hour, A record other than VSN for me! It just came together right away. I usually have to come up with a stamp set, then a layout, then how to use the colors... not this time. The challenge is actually for Shane's wish. He is a 7 year old boy who is very ill with Leukemia and wants to break the record of 350 million birthday cards. He only has 21 days until his birthday so let's send him some! Here is the web-site: Shane's Wish I checked Snopes and this is true.

Mother's Day Cards and more

The first card is the Mother's Day card I made for my mother-in-law, she is a sweet lady. (A CASE of Cindy H on SCS) Remember the 2nd card? (also a CASE) The sentiment was finally added, I decided to make it a Mother's Day card (hope Mom doesn't look!) I put a close-up of the circle part, I made it on the computer in the style of the SU circle stamps and then printed it out on colored card stock. The last one is the Survivor card for my last player, who sadly, was voted out. (A CASE from SCS too!) Mookie was my last one! I actually was going to send the pink card on the last post with the flower dress but I couldn't part with it yet.

It was cool again today (60's). This is so weird, last May we were in the upper 80's for the whole month, I remember because I said it was going to be a long hot Summer and it was! This year may become hot but so far not as long. That is good really, it's just that I like it warm (not humid!) I signed my little one up for the swim team, he is very excited! They don't do much at 5 really but it's the idea of swimming every day and practicing. It's something he loves so go with it I say! My older one just turned 15 and couldn't even give me a birthday list. Nor does he like anything. Ugh! Teenagers! He doesn't even want to drive a car, what's up with that? I bought a car when I was 15 in preparation! Sometimes I just wonder. Things are so different now then when I was a kid. Hmmm didn't my Mom say that to me? I can't imagine what it will be like for my grandkids someday!

Cards Done This Week

I've got a nice variety here! The red and green cards are from the inspiration challenge. It is a cake stand that is too cute for words! Here is a picture of it: Cake Stand. The Doodle This flower birthday one is a challenge CASE of Cindy H.'s card on SCS. I made it with different colors and stamps. The last one of the pink dress is for the color challenge called Think Pink. So there we go! I still need to do the sketch challenge, it is an easy one so not sure why I haven't done it yet!

Today I finished the memorial scrapbook of Paco and Nina. I will get the rest of it scanned and up here in the next few days. I am fairly pleased with how it turned out and if I hadn't gone to that class at Archivers I would never had enough direction or inspiration to make it! So it was worth the $35! Last night I went to my local stamping and art store - Artist Oasis and had a blast! It was a Girl's Night Out and we had several make and takes that are cute. Oh! I should take pictures of those and put them up here too. That will be coming soon. Let me know which card you like the most! Thanks for looking :)

More Scrapbook Pages of the Dog Album

Here are more pages! They are in the sleeves of the scrapbook, doesn't make for a good image! This is not the book I did at Archiver's, it is one I have had lying around for a long time but is the same size. I was able to copy the basic layout of a lot of the pages from the other scrapbook to make this one, I had left over embellishments and some I had gathered over time for this purpose. So it isn't quite as matchy-matchy as the other one! I will actually take pictures of that one too eventually and post it. It is nicer.

One thing about doing this dog album, I am still very sad about losing both those dogs. It has been 1 year since Paco is gone and 2 years that Nina has been gone and I still miss them terribly. They were such a part of our lives for so long, 17 years for Paco and 15 for Nina. We got Paco right after we got married! We had both of them 3 years before our oldest son was born. So they were almost children in a way. Chloe and Sampson are great dogs too, and in time I am sure they will be as much a part of my 'being' as they were. I kind of grew up with them! All the way from my 20's to my 40's. So needless to say a few tears come to my eyes but I know for years to come we all will enjoy this scrapbook of them and cherish the time we had. I will do the scrapbook for Chloe and Sampson as soon as I am done with Paco and Nina's.

Thanks for reading, I hope I didn't bore you to death with my dogs! Most people can relate though :)

Almost Wednesday already!

So here it is Tuesday night and I haven't done one card this week! Amazing! I did work on Monday's challenge but it isn't to my liking. It came out way too light so you can hardly see the flowers for the batik technique. So I didn't make a card out of it. I did however do 8 pages for my dog scrapbook! I have 4 more to go and all 20 pages will be done. I need to start taking pictures of it and upload them. Ok just writing this and I decided to take at least one picture to put here on my blog :) More to follow! I am hoping tomorrow will be less hectic so I can make a card or two. Until then, have a good day!