Bright fun cards

Wednesday night was my monthly card club and the first orders with the new catalog. It’s a fun group of ladies who enjoy stamping and chatting. They made two cards.

The first uses the Animal Stories and Woodgrain background sets. I love this giraffe, I think this card would be a great birthday or new baby card

The second uses the damask stamp from the Friends 24-7 stamp set. The sentiment was embossed using the new Rich Razzelberry classic ink pad using a new trick I learned. To emboss with regular stamp ink, 1st stamp on a versamark pad, then stamp on your ink pad, add embossing powder, and heat to emboss. I was pretty excited to see how well this worked as it now gives me many more options for embossing! I was inspired by this card by Jill Hilliard to use the damask stamp.

I also showed a couple of other card options.

Bright Flowers

Owl Get Well. This is the stamp set I thought of when I first saw the woodgrain background. So fun and funky, it’s a new favorite!

Specs: (All supplies SU)

Giraffe Card
-Animal Stories, Teeny Tiny Wishes, and Woodgrain stamps
-whisper white, crushed curry, soft suede card stock
-soft suede ink
-accessories: crushed curry polka dot ribbon, word window and modern label punch, paper piercer, embroidery thread

Damask Card
-Friends 24-7, Oval All stamp sets
-whisper white, rich razzleberry, basic gray card stock
-rich razzleberry and versamark ink
-accessories: rich razzleberry polkadot ribbon, clear embossing powder scalloped oval and large oval punches

Bright Flowers Card
-Woodgrain and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp sets
-basic gray, rich razzleberry, bermuda bay, melon mambo, crushed curry card stock, and old olive card stock
-basic gray ink
-accessories: basic gray taffeta ribbon, scallop edge, modern label and word window punches, flower blossom sizzlet

Owl Get Well Card
-Forest Friends, Teeny Tiny Wishes, and Woodgrain stamp sets
-soft suede, whisper white, dusty durango card stock
-soft suede and dusty durango ink
-dusty durango polka dot ribbon, word window and modern label punch, paper piercer, embroidery thread

current project: operation potty training

I’ve done some hard things in my life and will probably do more. But I have to say that potty training has to rank right up there as the top 3 hardest things ever! And I try not to play the “twin card” (how everything is harder with multiples) but potty training has to be one of those things! Last October it looked like my little girl was ready so we geared up and stayed home for a week, ventured out on short trips the second week, and pretty much had it down by week 3. Of course I drove around with a potty seat and diaper in the back of the rig so I could pull over any where! My little boy on the other hand wasn’t really into it so I figured I’d get one done and then work on him. Now, it’s 9 months later and I’m beating my head against the wall! So this week I needed diapers and decided not to buy any. I’m all stocked up on the essentials, skittles, lots of undies and pull ups, and a big jug of cleaning solution for my Bissel! Then I decided I needed to make a potty chart and came up with this on the fly. My 1st big obstacle: he refused to sit on the potty -big or little. So I had to carry him to the potty and sit him on the potty while praying I wasn’t inflecting any emotional damage on him! I came up with the idea to make a reward chart that gave him something for just sitting on the potty. So here’s my chart.

It’s not the prettiest, my illustrations of a potty seat and undies aren’t too bad but I ran out of ideas for the poo and pee drawings! Next I found a got a star stamp and blue ink pad from my stash to keep nearby. He gets to put the stars in the boxes for the whole day going across. If he does the whole chart in a day he gets something special which I haven’t figured out yet
This is starting to slowly work and he likes to stamp his hands, arms, face too. I figure if it gets him excited to sit on the potty and go, he can cover his entire little body!
Currently has peed twice, stayed dry since being in undies after lunch and I no longer have to carry him and put him on the potty.

The one thing I’m noticing is that he’s really digging the one on one time with mommy or daddy. We just sit in the bathroom and talk, sing silly potty songs, tell stories, and tell the pee pee to get in the potty. Unfortunately it’s way to easy to not slow down and take this time with him or to let his much more vocal sister take all the attention. So something I’m working on.

Here’s to potty training luck and crafty goodness!

Stay-cation part I: enjoying home (and re-claiming my patio)

For this long weekend we had originally planned to go camping but then my hubby suggested staying home and enjoying home. It made sense to me, we have a nice home with a great yard and a neighborhood pool we can use all we want, I was all over that! One thing I was inspired to do after reading one of my new favorite blogs, Whatever, was re-claim my back patio. BK (before kids) I kept it cleaned, lots of pots of plants, always ready to have the neighbors over for an impromptu dinner. Now, we rarely have anyone over, there are very few pots of plants, and it’s always covered in kid stuff. One problem is that I never say no when someone offers to unload their old toys and stuff. So this weekend I did some yard work and cleaned up the back patio setting it up so the kids have their toy area and we can still use the table and eat outside once again.
So here’s the final result. I didn’t think to take a before photo because I just went on a rampage cleaning and couldn’t stop.

So far we’ve ate out here 4 times, which was one of my goals. You’ll notice the weiner dog in the photo. That’s Minnie who we’ve had for 13 years and is always in a picture in some part or another!
We also enjoyed bubbles on the patio.

We swam at the big pool but we did enjoy our little pool as well!

Stay-cation part II: cherry picking

My sweet, smart hubby found a web site for pick your own fruit places here in Idaho. If you’ve never done this you can go here and search by your state to find places to pick your own fruits and veggies. The directions and information for each place we looked at were great. I’d never picked cherries, and it was hard to tell who was more excited, me or the kids!
The trees were loaded with cherries in big clusters. And the taste! I loved the taste of these right off the tree. So warm and sweet, you swear this is what summer tastes like.

I put the hubby in charge of the camera and told him I wanted lots of good pics, because this was going to be scrap booked and probably made into a mini book as well! He did well, got some cute pics of us girls picking cherries. I really loved this one here.

Jack got into the spirit of picking right away (he’s been practicing on our green tomatoes )

Miss Clara loved the cherries and ate about as many as she picked.

Of course Jack got bored with picking cherries and found a stick to bang on things and draw in the dirt. Nothing like sticks and dirt to keep a little boy happy.

We picked two types of cherries, mostly the dark red Bing cherries and some of these others that I forgot the name of.

All in all this was a great trip, we didn’t want to stop picking and ended up with 20lbs of cherries! So now I’m on the hunt for what to do with all these cherries. Have any great ideas you’d like to share?

Animal Stories Color Sampler

I made a sampler with the new In Colors to give to the ladies in my card club when they picked up their new Stampin Up! catalog.

In color Sampler

Specs:
-card stock and ink: soft suede, dusty durango, crushed curry, melon mambo, rich razzleberry, and bermuda bay
-stamp set: Animal Stories
-accessories: crushed curry polka dot ribbon, scallop and circle punch, book ring

I also finished my 2nd card for my swap, here are two versions. I ended up going with the hello card for my final swap.

Friend to Friend

Specs:
-card stock and ink: soft suede, dusty durango, crushed curry, melon mambo, rich razzleberry,
-stamp sets: Animal Stories, Teeny Tiny Wishes
-accessories: Big Shot, harlequin texture plate, crushed curry polka dot ribbon, staple

Hello

Specs:
-card stock and ink: soft suede, dusty durango, crushed curry, melon mambo, rich razzleberry, bermuda bay, whisper white craft ink
-stamp sets: Animal Stories, Teeny Tiny Wishes
-accessories: Big Shot, harlequin texture plate, brad, word window and modern label punch

Autumn Wishes and Sympathy

I’m participating in a small swap using the sneak peak sets and the new SU in colors.
My first card could work as a masculine birthday card or sympathy.

Specs: (all supplies Stampin Up!)
-card stock: crushed curry, very vanilla, soft suede
-ink crushed curry, soft suede
-stamps: Autumn Wishes, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Sanded Background
-accessories: word window and new modern label punch, brads

Here’s the 1st version of the same card it was okay but it wasn’t really ringing my bell.

Things I’m in love with right now: the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set. It has 28 greetings, they fit in the word window or modern label punch perfectly! Love that I can have nearly any type of sentiment in one stamp set! I’m also loving the new in colors especially Soft Suede, it may be my new go to brown color!

So there’s one card done now, I have to come up with one more……….

how to stay organized

I hate to brag, but I admit there are some things that I do better than most. No, it’s not organizing. It’s procrastinating, I am a world champ! My craft table has looked like someone dumped a garbage can all over it for longer than I’m going to admit (maybe over a couple weeks). I just look at the piles upon piles and can’t work up to uncover my desk. So yesterday while the kiddies were playing I started. But then I got sidetracked by an empty paint can and a file holder.
So I grabbed the Mod Podge and paper. And made this.

Yes, I did it right on top of the pile of other stuff.

I told my hubby the other night I needed a couple of more shelves. And he asked “do you need more shelves or less stuff?” My answer was both. But he’s right I do need less stuff because when I want to sit and make a quick card or scrap page I can’t because of my mess. So I made a list of what I do on the desk and what I use all the time.

There’s another reason why I really need to get this under control: a job. I am interviewing for a few high school science teaching positions for this fall. I have mixed feelings about going back to teaching which I may get into later. But I know that going back to teaching after being home with the twins for 3.5 years is going to be a transition and crafty time will be pretty limited.
Now I am sorting, making hard choices about what to keep and what to donate/toss, and what to put away that I may come back to.
My steps:
1) make a list of what I most often do at my desk and the tools I always use.
2) take everything off the desk and shelf, put in boxes.
3) wipe down everything with a baby wipe-really gets all the paper bits and dust!
4) start putting back the things on the list
5) figure out what to do with rest

I am only on step 3, I will post my other steps later!

Creating Small Bits of Art

In between paper crafting, chasing kids I’ve been trying to get back to painting and work my way through a pile of 4×5 canvases that I bought for a deal. I admit I may not be the best or even medium artiste but these have made me happy and I’m being brave sharing this online. Yay for me!

First up: Daily Bread

Starting point was vintage hymnal sheet music. I was hoping to find “How Great Thou Art”, my favorite hymn of all time but didn’t have it in my stash of stuff.
This piece is a story of the crashing waves of the ocean and how it seems you can really feel God’s power and wonder at work. Unfortunately this doesn’t happen near enough.
Specs:
Modeling Paste applied with a palette knife over the sheet music, then acrylic paint applied after drying in layers, wiped and applied a few times. One cool trick I tried was spraying my stampin mist on the semi dry paint layers and wiping off. Gave a cool effect to the colors. Honestly there was a lot of brushing and wiping and layering for such a small piece! To finish it off I applied matte medium on the entire piece, used a pointy stick to add a bit of detail on the wet medium and let dry.

Second: Be Happy

Starting point was a dictionary page, applied layers of watered paint (yellow ochre, sage green, sap green, burnt umber) wiping some off here and there. The flowers are inspired by zinnias with their big, round, pouffy, happy, blooms. Found in my scrap box the vellum piece with the quote from Tolstoy. Then because the piece seemed old-fashion looking I added a strip of white card stock punched with the SU eyelet punch.

Third: A Tree

Starting point was also from sketches I’d done of large Elm trees at the park downtown. I love big old trees that remind me of the cottonwood trees my great-grandfather planted on the family farm where I grew up. As a girl my grandma showed me pictures of how the home place looked with the little trees planted. And I would marvel at these big massive trees where a swing was hung from. I’ve been playing with a few ideas of a family tree canvas but different from a traditional family tree. The background paper is from my scrap box, an paper from 7 Gypsies (at least 4 years old), tree painted, layered with words cut from another scrap of paper.

I have a couple of more to share but I feel that they need a bit more something.

Have a great day!

Tuesday Morning-rolling with things

With my little girl still in bed, daddy gone to work, my little guy and I had some quiet time together. When I came downstairs after getting dressed I couldn’t find my little guy. So I looked in the back yard and this is what I found:

My little guy with all of his metal toys on the glass patio table. I had a second to think, no! But then he was so happy and just driving and loading them that I just rolled with it.
There’s a story with all these old toys. Our last trip to Montana, my father in law was packing his shop to move and he got all of his old trucks down. He gave Jack a few of these really old toys. The old ones were his as a little boy and my husband played with these all the time as a little guy. My father in law can be a real softie and told me the stories of each of the trucks. Some of the newer ones he found at the old dump when his kids were little. They didn’t have any money, young couple, 1960’s, two little kids, so he was always on the look out for things he could fix for the kids. I wrote some of the stories down, I’m thinking I’ve got a couple scrapbook pages waiting to be made. Maybe a mini-book dedicated to these old toys?

Now, some of these toys are probably collectors items. But my father in law wanted his son to play with them and his grandson to play with them. Who cares about collecting stuff just to collect?
(I really need to remind myself to not collect just for the sake of collecting.)

finding little worlds on a monday morning

This post on Shutter Sisters inspired me to grab my camera and find something special in my backyard at this moment. When I first looked at my backyard I thought there was nothing special just a lot of kid toys, grass in serious need of mowing, beds in need of weeding, and bushes needing a trim. Then I looked down and found tiny mushrooms (since we’ve had more rain than we normally get) and thought of little worlds. And as I crouched in the wet grass I remembered when I was a little girl and I thought mushrooms were a magical place where teeny tiny fairies lived and how I liked to play in the old lilac bushes in our yard where it was a special little world just my own. Funny how something so simple can spark a sweet memory.

Just a reminder that there is always something special to find.