My Very First Tilda!

I am subscribed to a blog called "Pretty Pressings" and she is a design team member for Magnolia stamps. She is extremely talented! Tilda is the name of this little girl and she has several images. There are also boys and other little girls, all adorable. I made my latest Wish on SCS WishRAK to be any "Tilda" and I got one today from "sb581", thank you! I couldn't wait to color her and make a card. I wanted to use my pencils but they are the Stampin' Up! set and there is no skin color plus they are limited in colors. It was tricky trying not to make her skin look yellow or pink! The rest I could deal with. Anyway I had this paper from a SCS gal who sent it along with another Wish I had received and I thought it worked well with this little Miss. Sorry the image is blurry, I didn't have time to re-take and re-upload it.

Sympathy Card

I find it hard to make a nice Sympathy card. I want it to be tasteful, excellent quality and to say the right thing. So needless to say I didn't have any. I was stamping out a set for a SCS WishRAK request and decided to make a card while I had it out. This one just came to me, not sure how LOL! I love it! It seems to embody the dignity a Sympathy card needs. I used SU designer paper, Nestabilities for the round part in blush and mellow moss and happen to have the moss ribbon. Now it is ready and I hope I don't have to use it (as in someone's loss, not to keep it!).

Square card

I don't often do square cards, however this sketch challenge looked nice to me. So here is my version of it. It's too bad the post office charges extra for square envelopes, I will put this in a regular one to mail so I don't have to pay more! I had fun putting a ton of glitter on this flower, used Stickles which I love and much easier than getting glitter all over the house. Hard to tell but all those specks are glitter pieces! This flower stamp is so much fun to color with the markers, it comes out great no matter what color combo you use.

I am eagerly awaiting my Stampin' Up! order. I ordered the new scallop edge punch and the Bella Rose paper, plus the new In-Colors. They are back-logged and orders are taking longer due to the new catalog coming out so I have to be patient. Not easy! I want to play with the new stuff! It's hard when all the demos get their stuff early and post it on Splitcoast, but I don't want to be a demo so I shall wait. Been there, done that with Creative Memories and it just isn't worth it for me. Hope you like my card!

Did a scrapbook layout

click on image to enlarge
Finally, actually I did this a few weeks ago. I am going over to my friend's house tomorrow to get some scrapbooking done, I can't seem to get motivated to do it anymore. I think it is the instant gratification of making a card. It is quicker and easier. Actually if you just enlarge your card layout to the scrapbook page size it would work but I always have too many pictures and really need to put several on a page. Then it gets complicated! This is last year's 4th of July get-together. It is all about the food. We had BBQ ribs and then tons of fixin's - yummy! We did fireworks out in the street, one of those big packages from the store, nothing complicated. We didn't do that this year at our new house, which in a way was good because we had a huge thunder and lightening storm right about dark.

I wanted to incorporate stamping into my layout so I used a star stamp to do most of it. The words are all clear stickers I adhered on top. Kind of cool. Anyway I think it conveys the day very well :)

Sunset Card

I cased a card that had a sunset similar to this and then went from there. This is actually three different stamps in the scene. The trees and rocks are one stamp which I stamped twice side by side, the water is a stamp I had to stamp several times to make the lake and then the grass in front is another stamp I used repeatedly. They are from Stampscapes, you can make lots of different kinds of scenes with them. Then I put it on a card and decided I wanted to make it a shadow box card but the scene was so big I had to improvise with the frame part. I first cut an oval with my Creative Memories set then did three scores on each side so it would stand up on the base of the card. Also since I did this backwards (meaning I didn't start with the shadow box to begin with) I have an open top and bottom to the frame but I think it looks just fine and doesn't ruin the effect. It is my hubby's birthday card :)

August HM Card

Here is my August House Mouse card for the swap I am in. This is a Cuttlebug card, that's for sure! The red layer is embossed with the paisley folder, the black layer is the Nestabilities in the c-bug, the hanging tag is a c-bug die. All favorites :) I had the hardest time coloring the apple! Not the colors but staying in the lines LOL. Failing Kindergarten 101. I kept accidentally going into the smile area for some reason. Anyway I made the little mouse gray, everyone seems to paint them brownish/tan but I had a mouse when I was a kid as a pet and it was gray and his name was max. Just like Maxwell of House Mouse! However Muzzy and Monica are the gray ones in House Mouse, not Maxwell. Oh well. Maxwell, Mudpie and Amanda are tan. I can tell the way she draws them she intends them to be a specific mouse but it is hard to tell sometimes. I think this stamp is Maxwell so now he is gray :) I guess if I owned the stamp I would know from the picture on it! That gives me creative license to choose my color when I don't know, huh? I will actually buy the November stamp for this swap. More than you wanted to know about these mice, huh? :)

New Kittens

Nothing is cuter than a little kitten! Other than a little puppy of course ;) We got two kittens from the animal shelter this week so I thought I would post some pictures of the kittens. The gray tabby is somewhere around 5-6 weeks old and the black kitty is 10 weeks old. As you can see I posted more of the baby kitty because I think he is adorable! My oldest son would disagree, he loves black cats and has always wanted one. So here they are :)

Surfin' USA

Oh my goodness did my son have a blast! He got to surf with a REAL surfer! He loves everything about surfing and this program is wonderful. It is called Surfer's Healing http://www.surfershealing.org/ and it is totally free to the children. If you want to donate to a good cause this program is non-profit and the kids get a tremendous boost in their whole behavior and outlook. It really brings them out. Here is a link to the pictures of the day we went http://www.local-sessions.com/Surfers_Healing_8-16-07/. The surfers flew from Hawaii and Southern California to surf with the kids. Anyway he rode out with his surfer on a long board and then the surfer caught the wave and pulled him up to stand. He was enthralled! Then he asked if he could stand up by himself and he went out several more times and stood up himself! The surfer stayed on the surfboard and stood up with him but let him stand up and balance all by himself. I wish it wasn't a 2 1/2 hour drive to the beach, I would buy him a board and take him all Summer. I grew up on the beach and this is the farthest away I have ever lived from the ocean. Even when I lived in CT. I lived on the shore. I will try to get down there at least once a month in the Summer now since I managed to survive driving there and back in one day! I called my friend from Cal. when my eyes started closing during the drive :) She chatted away with me and it got me there safely. I just never have been able to stay awake driving or whenever I sit down and sit still for that matter! I am sorry the pictures are so small and you can't really see him, my camera is not capable of taking any closer images. They were out a ways in the water. They gave the kids a medal on a lei and my son thinks he has an olympic medal now (I did try to explain it isn't but oh well). I am so happy for him!

This certainly looks better in person. It is called the stained glass technique. It is the Monday challenge this week on SCS. Basically you stamp on acetate and then from the underside you paint on colored (with reinkers) crystal effects (in my case Diamond Glaze) and mount it on a cut out window with white card stock beneath. Make sense? It was my idea from that other card to cut out along the seashells :) You are supposed to stamp a sentiment on the white part to show through the clear part but I didn't like it. Kind of ruined the picture to me. So there you have it! Hope your not getting sick of the beach themed cards :)

Flower Cake Anyone?

OK so I HAD to get the Nestabilities rectangle set. I wasn't going to do it, really. But something in me snapped and I did it, ordered it (at 40% off) and well, love it of course. Those products I use as much as the embossing folders with my Cuttlebug. It makes it all worth it. So now I can make these perfect scalloped layers mixed with the regular straight edges and it looks so perfect! Here is my first try with them. Nine layers of card paper! I love this cake stamp, it is of course from Stampin Up. I put the cake layer up on pop-dots which in person really makes the card. I used the Cuttlebug slider die too, my favorite one of course. So this is a card of favorites :)

Light house card

Inspired by our recent trip, I have been wanting to use my light house and shell stamps. I saw this beautiful card on Splitcoast and just had to case it. The top of the card is cut out as a frame and placed on with pop-dots to raise it up. The bottom layer is stamped and colored and then "framed". It was not easy but I really love it! It is a mix of three stamp sets and fortunately I had all three. I am ready to go back to the beach, it was so nice this year.

I am excited to be able to go back to the beach this year though! I am taking my little one next week for an one day camp called "Surfer's Healing". It is a non-profit organization that travels the country's coasts in the Summer to teach Autistic children to learn to surf. It is a very special program and even though my son is PDD-NOS he is on the spectrum so he gets to go! I am so grateful because he loves the swim team and loves the ocean so much, this is a rare opportunity and I know he will love it. It will test me though, it is 2 1/2 hour drive there and then back and I have to do it all in one day since he is in school (year round). It is worth it. I am sure I will blog about it as I expect it to be amazing :)

A Scrapbook

The last night my friend was here we decided to make a whole scrapbook real quick! I hand made an 8 x 8 book with my Bind-It-All. She picked out the paper and did all the adhering and I cut the papers. Between us we got it done. Well almost done, actually it has 20 pages of layouts all ready for her to go home and order pictures and put them in place. I can't wait to see how it turns out but the colors and layouts looked great! The picture is of the cover, I didn't take any inside. It was a lot of fun as we sat there and organized all the coordinating papers and just flying through it so I could go to bed before midnight (I need my beauty sleep LOL!). Love the Bind-It-All.
Oh I need to add she did the stamping too :)!!!

More pictures of the Outer Banks

I thought I would post a few more pictures from our trip, it really was fun and going with my best friend and her daughter made it :) We were sure our hubby's would not have enjoyed the shopping and other things we did! So we are fortunate to be able to take vacations like this with the kids. Other than my two boys constant squabbling I would say it went very well. Even when I got cranky LOL! After about 10 hours of the boys arguing and what-not of the younger one I get cranky. Hmmm I wonder why? Even my friend was sympathetic with what I have to deal with. (In case you wonder I am trying to avoid medicating him - his developmental pediatrician is watching his progress). OK so all that being said we did a LOT of fun things! We went to 5 lighthouses and their respective museums, 2 aquariums, other museums (including Wright Bros. Memorial and the Pirate Blackbeard's), about 20 or so penny squishers for souvenirs, 2 car ferry's and 2 power boat sized people ferry's, 3 ferry only islands, 1 - 4 wheel drive wild horse tour trip on the beach, 3 different locations for wild horses (Corolla, Ocracoke and Shackelford) and a day of shell finding. Heaven!

I think we have talked about the ferry from Harker's Island to Cape Lookout and Shackleford Island the most. It was run buy a guy and his family that are native to Harker's and called "Local Yokel". It was better than an amusement park ride! You got on this power boat made for passengers (certified ferry with the coast guard) and he puts the throttle on full and 15 minutes later you are on the island! It was a blast, you go across the sound so virtually no waves, the wind from going fast keeps you perfectly cool in the 95 degree heat and humidity and the scenery is awesome! He even slowed down so we could take pictures of the horses playing in the water off the island. We liked it so much we went back the next day and went shelling.

My little one was obsessed with the lighthouses. He got a post card magnet of them and had to be sure he went to all of them! He sits with the card and draws them now. I never thought he would be so thrilled with them! He LOVES climbing them but alas only two are open to the public to climb. He virtually ran up Hatteras lighthouse (My oldest son did and paid for it for days LOL) which it 752 stairs. I however did not run up that lighthouse and stopped every three landings thank you very much. We tried to go the day before but they closed it due to excessive heat so we went first thing in the morning, got to the top and they closed it due to lightening in the area. So i got to the top, looked out the door and took a picture to prove it LOL! Everyone else had made it up ahead of me and got better pictures before they kicked us off. Bit of advice, don't go in the middle of Summer. At least no hurricanes!

Ocracoke Island was worth the ferry ride. It was a charming village and every restaurant we went to was good food but what we liked most of all is the miles and miles of beach without another person or vehicle. It was so beautiful! Wonderful waves, lots of clean sand and the dunes and grasses just made it. It restores your soul to see not every place on the coast is overcrowded and full of "Waves" stores.

What more can I say? Oh! When we got back we took a half day trip to Old Salem and saw the Moravian town. How cool! I liked it better than Williamsburg. I think it is so out of the way it doesn't get the traffic it deserves. We enjoyed the beautiful buildings, the people dressed in character and their stories they told of each shop and trade we went into. We bought the Moravian cookies of course! Yum. We also went to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. It was presented very well, very informative but oh dear, you only saw the tiny bits of the scrolls. I guess we expected to see larger pieces, pieced together. At least we saw the writing and the material of the scroll not that we could read it of course but it was translated above. I actually felt an awe in the room of the scrolls. We were in the presence of the Word of God written down thousands of years ago.

Here are the pictures!