Drama... The Award Winning Variety

So yesterday The Boy got his Kindergarten shots. OMG. There is not a font
big enough to convey his screaming. I always thought The Girl was my
drama queen. I remember her K shots vividly. She had been watching
Dora sees the Dr or some such crap...so she was saying...shots are
healthy shots are good, I love shots. Anyway after they stuck her
the first time she screamed like someone was tearing off her arms.
It was extremely embarrassing. I always thought that would be the
worst. Nope.... today The Boy topped her easily. I had to physically
restrain him, which was not easy. He screamed and screamed and
screamed some more. Sometimes it was just the screeching, someones
killing me scream and the rest of the time he was screaming (and I
mean loud enough to be heard in the next state) OH GOD!!!!! IT
HURTS!!!!! OH GOD!!!! YOU ARE KILLING ME!!!!!! YOU ARE KILLING
ME!!!!!! OH GOD, SAVE ME GOD!!!! It would have been hysterical if
it had been anyone elses kid. Not only that but where was all the God stuff
coming from?I am so so so glad its over with. He
did not stop the screeching until we had been out of the office, in
the car and driving for like 5 minutes. I felt like giving him an
academy award for his performance!

Owl In the Moonlight

I love this card! Is that wrong to say about my own creation? Anyhow once again I am using lots of PTI... this is their wise owl stamp set, out on a limb stamp set, ribbon, some ink, and cardstock. The white ink is by versamark. I also used lots of crystal stickles.

Quilt Inspired...complete with faux sewing

I got the idea for this card after reading this post by Michelle Wooderson and seeing the very pretty quilt card she made. I had a lot of left over gypsy paper from Basic Grey so I decided to chop it all up and make something pretty. I dont sew on paper... I barely sew on material (think Halloween costumes and the occaisonal button) so I decided to use my MSE faux stitches stamps. I bought them over a year ago, I am ashamed to say today was the first day they saw ink! I also used the new spellbinders ribbon labels (picked those up at overstock.com), papertrey ink mixed messages, basic grey chipboard, PTI ribbon, and chocolate ink. I think those buttons are doodlebug but I have had them forever and a day so I really dont know.

An Award

I got an award. (BTW I had gotten a few others, and then never picked them up and played... so if I did that to you I am sorry! My only defense is that sometimes my life gets out of control. Anyway if any of you I give awards too dont want them or forget about them its A-OK. I totally understand!!) I got this award from Eileen. You can find her here. She has a great blog, its full of scrappy goodness! I am suppose to play along and name 7 other people to receive the award. So here is who I pick:

Katie at MyPaperHaven. Katie rocks, she is uber talented and she updates her blog almost daily.

Claire at Waltzingmouse makes. Claire is awesome, she has the coolest papercrafts. And she is a fellow PTI addict.

Beverly at Precious Scraps. Bev is so nice! She is also an amazing paper crafter!

Mrs. K- She is completely hilarious and a really good writer.

TKW- Another super funny fabulous writer.

Lynn at Stamperosity. Lynn is so nice and super talented too. I love her cards.

Melony at Pulleytimes8. She has six kids and is still sane. I admire that!!

Supposedly there are some strings attached to this award. Something like pick 7 people to give the award too and post them and link them on your blog. Post your award in your sidebar...etc. If you dont do it you get 7 years bad luck.... oh wait no not that, that was from the chainletter I got yesterday. LOL!

Hope you are having a fantastic weekend... I will be back tomorrow with a new card or a picture of my kids... yes my life is that exciting... dont hate! :)

It's Blog Hop Time!

Its blog hop time! Go here for all the details! This month's challenge was to work vellum. Lucky for me I got my PTI order in time to use some of their beautiful new vellum. I am using the Linen Vellum on these cards.



My idea for this card was to stamp two scenes that would compliment each other when they are both viewed through the vellum. This vellum (Papertrey Ink Linen cardstock vellum) was a little thick for this technique. You can see through it but just barely and no way could I get a picture of it, trust me I tried! However I really do like this card and this vellum. Its very pretty and it takes ink wonderfully. Here I am using birds of a feather stamps in combination with Out on a Limb stamps.

You can really see the weight of the vellum here! It makes a wonderful card base. I just love the look of this card and of course its using my new favorite set, Wise Owl.

Owl Card

This is from the Casual Midweek Challenge (CMW) over at Papertrey Ink. You can find it in the forum there if you want to play. I used mostly PTI products, spring moss cardstock, sweet blush twill, spring moss, chocolate, and sweet blush inks. I colored the owls (wise owl stampset) with tombow markers.

Non-Stamping Card

Rare that I make a card without stamping these days. I picked up these metal letters at Marshall's of all places. They are by WeR Memory Keepers. Cardstock is PTI, Ribbon is too. Ran the cardstock through my cuttlebug.

Hummingbird Part 2

Another hummingbird card, different color scheme this time. Stamps are PTI, cardstock and ribbon to. Some PTI ink and some dewdrop chalk ink.

TOTALLY UNRELATED: Remember a few blog posts back when I was talking about exercise and my little conversation with Self? Well Self and I had another conversation today.

ME: omg!!! my whole body feels like it went through a blender.
SELF: I told you not to stay for the toning portion of the spin class.
ME: omg I cant move, not. at. all.
SELF: yeah thats what happens when you do insane numbers of push ups after a grueling spin class. I told you to get up and leave.
ME: i think today might be a good day to skip the gym
SELF: for once you are thinking clearly.

Hummingbird

First I want to say thanks so much for all the happy birthday wishes for my kiddo!
I have a new card for you... all PTI except for some ink.. I have chalk ink going on in addition to some PTI palette ink. I also used a bit of stickles, because really whats a card without stickles? Stamps are from Out on a Limb and Birds of a Feather

As a side note... I read this yesterday... I found it hilarious, lots of cursing...which I find funny but just a warning for those of you who dont. If you dont have the time for the click its about killing ants and being an assassin vs. a serial killer. Well this evening I was a serial killer.... I must have taken out 1000 of those little suckers. Man, I hate ants.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

My baby turned 5 today! I can't believe it....just yesterday he was brand new.

Honorable Mention!!!

I got an honorable mention on Nicole's blog! I am on cloud 9!! I will be walking on air all day!! The folder that I made came from a template I got from Samantha (who is an amazing paper crafter and also a super sweet person. I asked her is she cared if I entered using her template, and she said no because she is just sweet like that.) You can find the template here on her blog. She even has a tutorial and her directions are so easy even I can follow them. I also have a similar project here on my blog where I used the sunflower/daisy stamp from Garden of Life. So anyway this just makes my day, my month, my year! If I had video on here you would be watching me jumping up and down screaming with my kid looking at me like I am crazy, plus you would be scarred for life because me + early morning = not a pretty site! Have a great day!

Black and White

I love the simplicity of this card. It uses the fabulous guidelines set from PTI. Stamping that pattern is so much easier than it looks! The ribbon is from Michaels, black cardstock is from MM, dew drops from Robins nest. I love those dew drops. Awesome stuff.

In totally unrelated news... I managed another spin class last night. Self, once again, thought we were going to die. But all was well... my legs hurt today but other than that I am good. Have another date at the gym at 3pm today. I so wish I could love exercising. I want to be one of those people who just loves it. I am not, pretty sure I never will be.

Crafty Things are on Hold

So I got some crafty things made but I never got around to taking pictures today. I had a lot of good intentions for the day, but as usual my good intentions did not all become reality.
I started my morning with a trip to the gym. Sad to say but I did not go to the gym the whole time I was working on the science institute...roughly seven days. Now one would think seven days wouldn't be that big of deal given that I have been working out regularly now for nearly 20 months. One would be very wrong! I decided to do a little spin class today because I felt I would work harder than working on my own upstairs on the elliptical. So I walk in and I see its the beginner level class, spin 1. Normally I take spin 3, sometimes spin 4. I do this 3x a week. So here I am, "oh level 1", I think, "how easy." I get on the bike. I go 5 minutes. I think I might die. I try that self talk, "Self you do this all the time. Self this is not hard, this is a fraction of what your regular class is. Self there is a 65 year old woman riding next to you and she is kicking your fat ass!" Self wasn't very happy. In fact, Self was demanding we leave, like 10 minutes ago. So to make a boring story shorter I did indeed finish 35 minutes of the class, I was soaked in sweat, I managed to stumble out and stretch. Then I decided because I was such a wimp in spin I would make up for it by lifting weights. UGH! It felt so much heavier than usual! I did manage to crank out some bench presses (yeah I can only press the bar, thank you very much), lat pulls, curls, and tricep push downs. Not a very spectacular effort. The weight will never come off if I keep this up! So tomorrow I begin anew, and it will be with a 45 minute class at level 2 or 3, it will be a new reason for Mondays to suck.

Finally!

Its been a long and awesome week teaching science to a bunch of K-2 teachers. I am completely exhausted, but here we are at Saturday, our final day of the institute. Mostly it has been a fabulous experience. This is by far the largest professional development program I have been in as an instructor and I have really enjoyed myself. Of course there are always one or two that have to spoil a good time. We have the participants fill out an evaluation at the end of each day. We read those and in our debrief meeting we use them to guide and help plan the next day. Most of the evals are nicely worded with helpful suggestions etc. But then there always has to be one or two who are rude and uncalled for, and truth be told completely unprofessional. You know teachers (me included) always complain about not being treated like a professional but then sometimes the way some teachers act its easy to see why they arent, kwim? In any case I am glad to be at the end because I feel like I need to sleep for a week! Hopefully I will be back with some crafty things tomorrow.

More Guidelines

So sorry there hasnt been anything new for so long. I am teaching at a science workshop all week. Its been great fun but the days have been long and havent allowed for much else... I haven't been able to craft a thing all week. We end on Saturday, so I should be back then. In the meantime I made this card a few weeks ago using PTI's new guide lines set. Its such a fabulous set and very forgiving. I would totally recommend it. The cardstock, ribbon, and ink is all by PTI as well.

Happy 4th of July!!

A special shout out to my dad who is celebrating his 58th birthday today! Happy Birthday Daddy! When I was little my dad used to tell me and my brother that all those fireworks were just for him. Of course we believed him... I mean he was our dad why wouldnt people want to shoot off fireworks for him every year?! So one time when I was 4 or 5 he asked me, "Why do they only have fireworks on my birthday and not yours?" I thought it over and then stated very matter of fact: " Oh Dad! You know why... my birthday is in the day and yours is at night!" Hehehe I was clever even back then. Happy 4th!

Wise Owls

This is a notecard holder and notecard set that I made for my daughter's teacher as an end of school gift. Her class is always known as the Wise Owls. So cute! She has tons of owl stuff that has been given to her over the years. I usually give the teacher a cookie bouquet as an end of the year gift but this week I just didnt have the time. So I came up with this. My daughter says she really really liked it. Note: The colors are really off in the first photo. The note card photo is a much better reflection on the actual colors.



Ingredients: Sassafrass Lass paper, hero arts owl stamp, PTI ribbon in berry sorbet. Berry sorbet ink, MM expresso ink. Lettering is my handwriting, American crafts pen.