Second post today...

I must be having some sort of record...ha! I decided to play along with Mojo Monday today...nothing like the last minute! Here's their sketch....


When I first saw this stamp set in the new CTMH catalog I immediately wanted to use it for a Christmas card and to decorate the house with sparkling lights. Next time I want to try lining all the house in the set up and putting lights on all of them. I need to get some glitter glue before I try that though.

Details: all CTMH unless noted

Paper: holiday red cs, colonial white cs, chocolate textured cs

Ink: sweet leaf, chocolate, black, autumn terra cotta, olive, sunny yellow (marker)

Stamps: Neighborhood

Other: Liquid glass, red sparkly ep (HL), green ribbon (stash) pearls, sanding block, sponge dauber, terrifically tacky tape (ProvoCraft), foam squares

New Road!!

Preparations are being made for our house to be built! Yesterday we had the road top delivered. Here's the before...

The load of coal ash being dumped. It's the leftover by-product of when they make electricty. Who knew we were going green!?!

My dad skillfully smoothing out the road...

Ta-Dah!!!!

It wasn't all work as evidenced here by my brother!

I was out there most of the day and now I'm paying for it with a sunburn! {Dumb me} We are so happy to have one more thing done at the land!!

Christmas Card Workshop 09

I decided this year to try my hand at creating a Christmas card workshop on my own and not use one from another consultant. I loved the workshop that I used last year, but this year I wanted to make some modifications and I thought I needed to just sit down and figure it out myself.

For starters, I had a request to do a larger card that would hold a 4x6 photo. Hobby Lobby sells a set of 40 card blanks with envelopes that measures 6 1/2 by 5 inches. So I started sketching and figuring and pulled out the graph paper to see how I could get some different designs made.

I ended up with ten cards of four designs. The designs are simple but I think that kind of matches the Jingle paper. For the workshop pack I want to include the following: Level II Jingle paper pack, 40 card blanks with envies, Deminsional Elements Flurries, a yard of cranberry grosgrain ribbon, a tube of Create-a-Shade paint, and foam squares. I will supply the stamps, ink, re-inker and glue dots. I will ask everyone to bring scissors and adhesive. I am hoping (though I haven't finished putting it through the calculator) that I can offer this workshop for around $35. That would be less than a dollar a card!

Here's the four designs:

This one uses white embossing powder. The paper has several different "swoops" of pattern, so each card will be unique in this set.

I mixed re-inker and create a shade paint on the D.E. snowflake here.

This uses the stars off of the D.E. set covered in glue pen and prisma glitter.

The ornaments here are cut from a sheet of patterned paper.

In the end everyone will leave with forty handmade cards (with envies), most of a tube of pearlescent paint, and almost HALF of a pack of Level II paper! What do you think?

I made a cutting guide on graph paper if any one is interested in photos of that I'll do them in another post--let me know. Also did you know that the cranberry ribbon matches the tulip ink and pattened paper fine?

Thanks for stopping by!

Autumn Happy Birthday

I was looking through my stamps and found a set that I've never used. I wanted to use the little fall leaves in the set. I stamped them in Versamark and then rubbed different colored chalk over it. I love the way that turned out. The sentiment? I'm not so in love with but oh well...

Tomorrow I'll be eleven weeks...getting so close to the end of the first trimester!!

Details: all CTMH unless noted

Paper: colonial white cs, barn red cs, desert sand cs

Ink: sunflower, versamark, desert sand

Stamps: Happy Birthday, November Word Puzzle

Other: chalk and cotton balls, antique copper bitty brads

Snowflake Sticker Card

You know a few days ago when I said I had completed all the cards I needed. Well, here's a shocker...I miscounted. So now, I think, I am all caught up. But as I said before, I'll still be making a few for just-in-cases.

Today's Sparkle's challenge was to use something you were given on the card. Well I had to really think about it, but then I remembered that so much of my white ribbon came from my mom. She occasionally does flowers for weddings and she always has leftover ribbon. That's where this ribbon came from. Just don't ask me who's wedding because that I don't remember...

It seems like I either don't post for days, or post three times in one day lately. Directly related to levels of exhaustion and nausea. Ha! Yesterday was a really good day so I got several cards made. And let's face it. It's not like my cards are that involved right now.

I need to get working on my Christmas card workshop!! Hopefully my order comes in this week!

Details:

Stickers and ribbon from stash--easy peasy!

Glitter glitter everywhere!

I was making a card for The Pink Elephant challenge and in the process upended an entire container of Prisma glitter. I wear it for days when it's not airborne...can you imagine now??

The challenge was to use something with dots, a punch, and a tag. Little d thought this looked like a Christmas present. Thankfully, that's the look I was going for!

Thanks for stopping by!

Details: CTMH unless noted

Paper: white daisy cs, twilight cs

Ink: twilight

Stamps: Christmas Melodies

Other: ribbon (HL) silver DMC floss, glue pen, Prisma glitter, foam squares

Pumpkin Egg Card

What did I just say??! Pumpkin eggs??

Today on the bulletin boards I saw a link to this blog where she made the CUTEST little pumpkins from an Easter egg stamp. It was SO inspired I had to try it immediately!!

I used a grapevine leaf image from Bon Appetit and just covered the area where the grapes are supposed to be with the pumpkin. If I would have had google eyes I totally would have added them!!

Love, love, love this idea and I am not even a fan of Halloween!

Details: all CTMH

Paper: colonial white cs, gold rush cs, creme brulee cs

Ink: ponderosa pine, black, goldrush

Stamps: Homestead Alphas, Bon Appetit, Easter Eggs

Other: sponge daubers

Pic-nic at the land...

Today was such a nice day. D wanted to take my dad's tractor out to the land and leave the trailer out there so I decided since I was feeling less than pukey we could all go and take a pic-nic lunch with us. Needless to say it was a big hit with the kiddos. So we loaded up and set off.

While D worked on stuff, the girls and I explored and generally acted silly.

Where's Little m?

There she is!

Where's Little d?

There she is!

We took a break to eat our PB&J sandwiches, played a little more while D shredded the house pad and then came back home. Tired and happy. The best place to be!

Here's the square of dirt where the house will go. Isn't it pretty??

I even made some cards this afternoon...I'll post those later.

We're in debt up to our eyeballs...

Yep. We signed the construction loan paperwork today. I'm very excited...and nervous. Now we just have to get the new bids, pick all the fixtures, decide again on the cabinets, get some more paperwork to the bank, blah blah blah....

I won't bore you with the details. I will keep you updated with pictures and stuff once we get starting, hopefully by mid-November.

As of yesterday I am ten weeks!! WOO-HOO! Thank you God! I'll be honest, I didn't know if this was possible, but I really am starting to feel some hope...along with all the nausea. (gosh that word is a pain in the butt to type)

I am contemplating giving up Close to My Heart. Not really giving up. They keep you as a consultant even if you don't meet your minimums, unless you resign. BUT, I am thinking that after December, I may not do any more workshops. I take so much time planning and organizing them and then, even though I have anywhere from 10-15 people, I have maybe one or two orders. I have to add to the order just to make it reach the total for hostess rewards ($150). And now my best customer has moved to Houston. The good news is, she wants to sign up to be a consultant herself!!

I just can't justify spending so much money on a hobby right now. As I told my husband I have enough supplies right now to last me for years! And those oil-rubbed bronze fixtures for the house aren't going buy themselves! We'll see how I feel at the end of the year.

Little m has slept all night in her bed for the last two nights. Hopefully that's a trend?

I found it interesting that Rio won the Olympic battle and it's the murder capital of the world. I also found it interesting that Chicago is the murder capital of the US and it was in mix as well.

I think when my blogaversary comes up in November I'm going to have some blog candy. I have tons of stuff to clean out of the scrapstuff! Any ideas on how to do one? A contest? Leave a comment? Love to hear your thought on how you'd like to win so I can start formulating a plan.

Have a good weekend y'all! (How much do you love these disjointed random posts-HA!)

Raspberry Suite #17

Oh how I love this color challenge. Dawn has such a knack for picking colors. And I must say those papers in the picture were so yummy! I really want to make a Christmas card using these colors, but for now I decided on using my favorite K&Company papers...

I just paged through my stamps and when I saw the praying hands I knew it would be perfect for this card. One of my all time favorite CTMH sets!

Thanks for stopping by!

Details: All CTMH unless noted

Paper: desert sand cs, colonial white cs, patterns (K&Co)

Ink: desert sand

Stamps: Faith

Other: colonial white ribbon, coluzzle, edge distresser

Almost done with Christmas cards!

These two cards complete the number I need for the ones on my list. I always like to make a few extra for just in case though.

Please forgive the awful pictures. I was trying to hurry and also trying to get the light to show the sparkle. Not easy for me.

I really owe it to Sparkle for making a weekly challenge to make a Christmas card every week! It motivated me to get busy and get them done! Thanks Sparkle!! Looking forward to doing the same next year. {Heck I may even keep going this year to get a headstart for next year...}

Details: all CTMH unless noted

(Rockin')

Paper: white daisy cs, bubblegum cs, citrus leaf cs

Ink: citrus leaf

Stamps: Christmas Melodies

Other: prisma glitter, bonding memories glue pen, foam squares, dot ribbon (HL), coluzzle

(Deck the Halls)

Paper: card base, white daisy cs

Ink: versamark, new england ivy, cranberry

Stamps: Holiday Trinkets, Holiday Joy, Christmas Melodies

Other: silver ep (HL) silver pen (HL) red button from stash, glue dot, glue pen

A scare

I wasn't going to write about this, but I need to document things for this pregnancy. I know most of you who read my blog came here from scrapbooking sources, but this blog really started out as a personal (for world wide web reading-of course) blog.

As I mentioned several times before, I had a miscarriage between my two daughters. It happened two months after my breast biopsy. I've always been a worrier, and after that, I was even more nervous during my pregnancy with Little m. The worst was when I told myself "if I make it past the day I started spotting last time, it will be okay." Don't you know when I was pregnant with her, I spotted on the exact same day (during the fifth week) as when I started spotting with the miscarriage. Fortunately, it happened just once and Little m was born healthy and perfect!

So here we are again. The endless worry. I made it past eight weeks. I heard the heartbeat on ultrasound. I was feeling quite confident things were going to go smoothly. Then I had a dream last week. A dream where I was having a miscarriage. (I also had a similar dream two days before my actual miscarriage a few years ago.) I tried to blow it off. "You've just been worrying too much." I told myself. "It doesn't mean anything."

Then Wednesday night, while D was bathing the girls, I started bleeding. Some of you can well imagine exactly how that feels. "I can't do this again....this just can't happen again...I can't lose another baby."

The bleeding stopped. It wasn't alot. But it was more than what I would call just spotting. Of course I called the doctor's office the next day. My doc was out as was his nurse, so another nurse called me back. 'Cramps?' no. 'Any more bleeding?' no. 'Okay then, this is quite common during the first and last trimester. Dr.S will look over this and call back this afternoon.'

So I told her I was concerned since I've had a miscarriage before. And she said...

"Oh so then you know what to do."

Yes lady. Curl up in the fetal position on my bed and pray to God this baby is one I get to hold in my arms. Yes, I know what to do.

So. No more bleeding. Lots of nausea and sore breasts. And exhaustion. And lots of praying.

Three more for Christmas!

ETA: Yeah...this first one is totally not a Christmas card...duh...

Well it seems when I sit down to make a card I like to get a few done at a time. Today I worked on the Our Creative Corner challenge of monochromatic cards. I did the first two for that.

All shades of red...(I love antique copper bitty brads!)




Shades of orange...




And this last one was going to be shades of green, but I really wanted a pop of red...so I decided to use this for Sparkle's weekly Christmas card challenge.



Thanks for stopping by!

Details: all CTMH unless noted
(Laughter)
Paper: colonial white cs, patterns from K and Co.
Ink: cranberry and desert sand
Stamps: Laughter
Other: sponge dauber, antique copper bitty brads

(Bethlehem)
Paper: creme brulee cs, aspen level II
Ink: gold rush, creme brulee
Stamps: Bethlehem, Gloria
Other: sponge dauber

(Holly Jolly)
Paper: pattern (daisyD) green cs from stash
Ink: versamark
Stamps: Christmas Melodies
Other: red velvet ribbon (HL), clear detail ep, cranberry brads, foam squares

Cards!

Here's a little craftiness for a change.

I made this because I was inspired by the red with pink polka dot paper to do a Christmas card. Does it look too much like a Coke label?

I never make Halloween cards because it's my least favorite holiday. {Well right up there with Valentine's.} But I stretched out of the box for The Pink Elephant sketch this week.

This last card is Christmas again. I love the vintage K&Company paper!!

Details: all CTMH unless noted

(Merry Christmas)
Paper: white scrap and K&Co
Ink: cranberry, blush
Stamps: Holiday Trinkets
Other: white ribbon (HL) pink rhinestones (HL) foam squares

(Boo)
Paper: black, purple, and green pattern all from stash
Other: WeRMemoryKeepers sticker, orange brads (stash) ticket punch (SU!)

(Joy)
Paper: bamboo, colonial white, pattern (K&Co)
Ink: bamboo, cranberry
Stamps: Holiday Joy
Other: cream ribbon (HL) sponge dauber, foam squares

Mojo Sketch 105 (and HOUSE NEWS!)

I know you won't believe this. In fact right now you are probably checking to see what blog you are actually on, but I did it. I made a card. The first one in weeks. I loved this week's Mojo sketch. (I also love the Unscripted Sketch and The Pink Elephant sketch, but I have to pace myself...)

And I am still needing to do lots of Christmas cards. I know the square brads are a little crooked but are you at least proud I made a card?

Oh and GUESS WHAT?!? We got the approval from the bank!! We are signing papers next Friday for our construction loan!! We're building the house people!!!! FINALLY! Merry Christmas to us!

Details: all CTMH unless noted

Paper: brown, red and white from stash

Ink: White Daisy

Stamps: Sweet Treats

Other: white ric rac, green ribbon (HL), red brads (stash) circle punch (Paper Studio)