Teacher Appreciation

So apparently next week is Teacher Appreciation Week. Things have changed since I was in school, but this seems to be a big deal. So of course I got to work and made some teacher appreciation gifts, which were actually pretty fun and not hard at all. The hardest part was finding all the different components, but even that wasn't too bad since I left work a little early today:-) I totally copied this project from a video I saw on Dawn Griffith's blog (she's amazing). I think that these are going to make awesome Christmas presents for work so I'm glad I tried them now. They are easy to make in bulk (I made 10 of them in less than an hour tonight) and I think they will actually be useful - can't beat that combo!
Not sure if I'll be able to post anything tomorrow - my 7 year old niece is coming over to spend the night so I may be kind of busy with three little ones! Hope you have a great weekend and I'll check back soon!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Cheep talk
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, retired DSP
Ink: So Saffron, Bashful Blue
Other Stuff: Post-it pads, Terrifically Tacky Tape, 4 x 6 picture frame (dollar store), RSVP pens, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches, scallop circle punch, stamp-a-ma-jig

It's a process . . .

Working on this blog, even for the short time I've been doing it, has been teaching me things. Things about myself. Things that I think I knew but tried to ignore. Things such as a)I don't get enough sleep if I'm disorganized b)I like to start projects but not finish them and c)I'm kind of a mess when I get creative. None of these are great things that you would like to publicize about yourself but they sure are coming through loud and clear to me as I try to put a picture up on this blog every day. I guess I should take this as a good learning process to help me better myself. At least that's what I tell myself.
Today's card is one of my 'old standbys' that I can use for a lot of different occasions. I saw something like it somewhere on Splitcoast but I have modified it, I'm sure. It's just neat and clean and sends whatever message I want to send at that moment. Kind of like how I'd like to be.

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Trendy Trees
Cardstock:Old Olive, Whisper White, Pacific Point
Ink: Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze, Pacific point, Chocolate chip
Other Stuff: Word window and Modern label punches, bow easy, ribbon, cuttlebug swiss dots folder, stamp-a-ma-jig

Sweet 16

Today is my stepdaughter's 16th birthday!! I met her when she was 8, so I have now known her half her life - wow! She is having a party this weekend that is an 'Alice in Wonderland' theme. She's having a tea party and she's put a lot of time and effort and thought into this shindig and I think it's going to be fabulous. My contribution was to help her make the invitations (go with what you're good at, right?) I'll have to post a picture of one of them if I can ever coax one out of my mother, who took THREE!!(HINT HINT). The three of us (mom, me, stepdaughter) spent a fun evening designing, creating, and assembling 20 rather involved invitations. For her actual birthday card I decided to go digital. I found a set of vintage Alice in Wonderland digi-stamps that I bought and then printed and colored for her card. I was soooo excited that she got it today and she even noticed that the Mock Turtle's tears are 3-D (thanks to just a pinch of diamond glaze!) Happy Sweet 16, Sweetie!
On a different note, I'm hoping to get some feedback, if you're so inclined. Do you like the format of my blog, with the one card at the top and a little blurb underneath? Or would you prefer more? I'm dabbling with posting a tutorial once a week on one of my more involved cards, but I don't want to do it if people just aren't that interested. Any comments you may have would be greatly appreciated!!

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Digi Alice in Wonderland, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Cardstock:Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Latte (DCWV)
Ink: From printer
Other Stuff: Markers, nesties, pearls

Happy Mommom Day

Ever just have kind of a bummer day? I had one of those at work today. Sometimes the world of fertility just doesn't work for everyone and sometimes I have to tell people news that isn't good. Most of the time it's just part of the job but every once in a while I have to deal with a situation that just makes me feel sad and utterly useless. That's what happened to me today. I think it affected my creativity tonight (or at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it). I didn't manage to come up with anything that I loved or even liked tonight, so luckily I have some Mother's Day cards that I made this weekend so I can share that with you today.
I think that this card is for my Mommom. She is coming to visit for a month starting Wednesday. That should put me in a better mood! Growing up, all my friends and our neighbors and my sister's friends called my grandmother what I called my grandmother - Mommom (sounds like Mum-mum). She's happiest surrounded by people, and she always seems to have enough love and comfort for everyone. She's getting older and slowing down a bit nowadays, but she still bakes the best pound cake I've ever tasted and she's patiently shown me how to bake, sew and cook for as long as I can remember.
Yeah, I think that seeing her will help lift this bit of a dark cloud over my head. Everyone should be so lucky to have a Mommom like mine.


Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Sentiment (Hobby Lobby??), Vintage Vogue
Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Versamark
Other Stuff: Prima flowers, glue dots, nesties, Ranger embossing powder

Mother's Day

Hi everyone! I'm starting to think about Mother's Day - it's coming up fast. I'm a very lucky gal in that I have a great mom, 2 grandmoms and a mother-in-law, so I have a lot to do for Mother's Day. This is the first of 3 or 4 cards I'm going to post on the subject - not sure if I'll post all of them as my mom is one of my most loyal followers of this very new blog. Today's card is probably for my Grandmom Saner. Grandma Saner is the oldest of my 'mothers' and she's still independent and doing her thing (which mostly involves bus trips to Atlantic City to play the slots) at 87(ish?). I really love this topiary and for some reason it reminds me of her - I have no idea why. (Maybe because it's kind of old-looking but still very beautiful??) This is one of the first stamps I ever bought - it's probably 15 years old - and I think I've used it once before. So I dug it out and colored it up and I think I like it - the picture doesn't do it justice. I used 3 different color greens in the topiary but it's hard to tell in this picture. I may have to jazz the card up a bit before I send it out - I'm still mulling it over.

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Topiary from Anita's Stamps, Vintage Vogue
Cardstock: Garden Green, DSP, Whisper White
Ink: Stazon Black, Garden Green
Other Stuff: Prismacolor pencils and OMS, Top Note die, 1/4" grosgrain ribbon

I'm back!!

Hi Everyone! Hope you had a great weekend! It was sunny but windy here in the Big D. The fam and I had a great weekend except that my poor mums is sick. She was away for a good portion of last week and came home sick, sick, sick. So I'm sending her some love with this post as well. Hope you're feeling better today Mamacita! (I'm not Spanish or Hispanic but I call my mom "Mamacita" a lot - maybe it's the Texas influence?!?!)
I had a great weekend getting a lot of stuff done while still having some fun. We took the kids to TWO free carnivals this weekend (one at our preschool and one at my daughter's gym), had my sister and her boyfriend over for dinner (missed you mom!), and spent some Toys'R'Us giftcards getting the kids some summer toys. AND my house is (still!) clean, the laundry is done, and my scrap/stamp area is somewhat picked up. I also was able to get a few projects done this weekend that I'll be able to share with you throughout the week. It's always nice to have a few things ready to go so I don't have to try and create, photograph, and blog everything each night.
Today's card is one of those things that has been sitting on my desk waiting to be finished. A few months ago my mom and I went to a stamp convention and I got this cute set of 'Purse' stamps that I immediately came home and colored with my prismas. And then I sat them on my shelf in front of me. So today I decided to finish it and allow one of these colored pictures to finally grow up into a card. I love the little rhinestones on the ribbon tag. I have a little wheel of these teeny tiny rhinestones in different colors that I stick on everything. I know I got them at the Great American Scrapbook convention a couple years ago, but there's nothing to identify them on the wheel, so that's all I know. I'll have to take a picture of it one of these days and see if anyone can identify the source for me.

Card Supplies: (All supplies from Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Darcie's Stamps
Cardstock: Rich Razzleberry, BasicGrey Lemonade
Ink: Stazon black
Other Stuff: Prismas, OMS, retired SU ribbon, nesties

Another quick note

Hi all! Sorry but this is going to be another quick post today. Last night was a late night for me since I went to the Mavs playoff game. My friend Michelle and I had an awesome time even though the Mavs lost :-(
Today's card was one of those things that just comes together as you're sitting there, when nothing else is quite working. I had colored this image months ago, and I pulled out some patterned paper for another project I was working on and I found this Origins paper pack by BasicGrey and thought of these little sunflowers. Today's Ways to Use it Challenge (WT267) on Splitcoast was to use different patterned paper, so there you go. The sketch actually came from the Go To Sketches magazine that PaperCrafts magazine just published.
I think I may take part of the weekend off from blogging, just so I can get my scrapbook/stamp area cleaned up and get rejuvinated (sp?). Between being sick with a cough last week and staying up late to post this blog, I'm getting a little worn out and I think it's showing in the projects I'm attempting these past few days. So bear with me and I'll be back soon!

Stamps: A flower for all seasons
Cardstock: Close to Cocoa
Paper: Origins (BasicGrey)
Accessories: Prismacolor pencils and OMS, Martha Stewart Border Punch, Nesties