golden week

Well, Golden Week has officially started here. Tomio usually gets an extra long holiday for Golden Week, but not this year...boohoo :( The weather has cleared up though and it looks like we'll be able to have some fun outdoors :) Tomio asked what I would like to do for the break...I said eat ice cream and scrapbook :) Seriously, what else could a girl need? heehee :)

This is a card I made last week. Keeping with my goal of using the stamps I hadn't used enough lately.

The flower stamps are from Verve. They are very "cut out friendly" flowers. heehee:) Fun to layer too. Two kinds of polka dot paper and some stitching. I really like these colors together. The little bit of pink adds a nice little punch I think. 

Thanks for stopping by! I'm off to put Miss Emma down for her nap and hopefully get some fun cards made :) I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!!!

supplies: cardstock: white-papertrey ink, kraft-paper reflections; pattern paper-light blue-papertrey ink, brown-bo bunny; stamps- flowers- verve, sentiment-papertrey ink; label die: spellbinders labels 8; embossing folder: quickutz; ribbon-papertrey ink

how sweet it is...

I saw this sketch challenge at the Paper Crafts blog, and I thought it would be fun to try one. I don't know why, but as soon as I sat down to make something with this sketch, I immediately thought of using these stamps.

When I first got them, I only imagine using them mostly on recipe cards. But I actually have used them on cards and layouts. I really like how it turned out. I paper pieced the apron, pockets and hearts and all. I used embroidery floss for the apron strings :)  I used Basic Grey Nook and Pantry paper, it seemed so perfrect :) The stitching is kind of by machine, kind of by hand lol. I mad the holes with my sewing machine, but then I stitched it by hand.

Thanks so much for stopping by!! I hope your week is going well. Tomio is off tomorrow, which is fun :) I have a dentist appointment though... at least it will be nice to get it done with, right? lol.

supplies: cardstock: bazill basics, pattern paper: polka dot-bo bunny, all other-basic grey; stamps- images-hero arts, sentiment-papertrey ink;ink:tsukineko; other-stitching.

spring cleaning...

Wow, so sorry for the long silence. Nothing too major going on. Just working on lots of housework, spring cleaning, going through all the kids' clothes. I sorted all their clothes, weeding out the ones that are too small or stained or have holes, and I got out their spring/summer clothes and packed away their winter ones. Goodness, when you have to do 4 kids' worth it takes a LONG time lol. And in the spirit of my wonderfully neat bathroom closet, that I have mentioned before, I decided that all their closets should be that neat. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I have folded so many clothes lol. But I can also say that I have gotten alot better at folding VERY neatly. And if you had seen my drawers growing up, you'd know that is a very big deal.  Apparently, it comes naturally for some people, like my sweet hubby... *grin* But not me.I figured out I really can learn though. I think even my kids were impressed with how neat Mama is. I heard Leah tell Rhys, when he was frurtrated that he couldn't fold his clothes  like he wanted, "Mama couldn't do it that well before either. She's just been practicing lots." At least they know that Mama works hard to do better, right?! I've been working so hard on all that, I haven't been able to do anything crafty at all. But I'm finally getting close to finishing, so I think I will get to do something tonight. yay :)  I feel so proud of myself to have done well at something I never had much luck with before :)

Anyway, here is a simple little card I made last week.

I was really just wanting to play with some of my stamps that were less used. There are so many cute stamps that I just need to experiment with a little bit. So before my newest order of stamps arrives, heehee :), I decided to try using as many of those that I could. Think this one turned out pretty cute. And I was glad I worked out some fun ways to used the grass stamp. All of these are from Papertrey's Honey Bee set. Such a fun set now that I have played with it alot more :) And of course I had to use some more Double dot paper. (I'm going to need to get some of that soon!!)

Thanks so much for stopping by!!! I hope your week is starting off well :)

is spring here?

The weather was SO perfect yesterday!! Nice and warm, lovely warm spring winds. I got tons of laundry done...just wonderful. But today...aghh!! Back to really cold again and rainy ALL day. I was so hoping it was finally going to be really be spring-y for good now...sigh. I think I'll have to at least turn it into a baking day :)

For today's card, I want to try using some more bright colors. I really like the Hibiscus Burst pink, but sometimes I find it hard to use. I am the only one who has trouble making brighter colors look nice? I see others make beautful cards with lots of bright colors, but I usually work alot better with subdued colors. Anyway, this it what I made. I think the cupcake is so cute. It is from WhipperSnapper. I have a few of their cupcakes that are just adorable :) I stamped this one directly on the card front and then paper pieced the the cupcake on top. I stamped the aqua mist panal with CHF music background. The brown strip is my favorite...Bo Bunny's double dot paper. I cannot get enough of it heehee. I want to use it on everything (and I almost do...).

I think I like it lol. I'm not really satisfied with how I did the sentiment, but I just couldn't decid what it was that I really wanted. Unfortunately that happens fairly often lol.

Thanks for stopping by!! I hope your enjoying some lovely spring weather! I intend to bake some delicious oatmeal cookies :) And with me and kids in the house, we'll be lucky if they last the afternoon lol.

supplies: cardstock: pink, aqua-papertrey ink, brown-bo bunny; stamps: cupcake-whippersnapper, music-chf, sentiment-pinkcat studios; ribbon-pti; other- copic markers and scallop punch

pretty butterfly :)

Happy Monday :) I had a great relaxing weekend *smile*. No one got sick, which is SO nice. And the weather was nice and warm (although it actually SNOWED Friday night!! I could not believe it) And since Tomio had golf and motorcycle races to got to, I just stayed home....and made cards :) For at least half the time this weekend. And I tried to use some of my stamp sets that I really liked, but haven't been able to get them to work for me. So I just played around for awhile with them. It was so fun :)

I love LOVE how this card turned out. That doesn't always happen. But this one, I just love. The leaf image is from PTI's  Turning a New Leaf. Such a pretty image. The butterfly is from Hero Arts. One of my favorites right now. I colored it with my copics. I stamped the bottom half of the the Sweet Blush base with PTI's text style backgrounds in Versamark. The sentiment is from Everyday Button Bits. I colored the pearls with my copics to match again too. I'm loving doing that lately. Fun being able to make them match just right. Oh, and I stamped the butterfly on the white panel first too. There is no way I could cut out those tiny feet lol.

Thanks so much for stopping by!! I hope your week is starting out well.

supplies: cardstock: papertrey ink; stamps: butterly-hero arts, all others-papertrey ink; ink-tsukineko; other-pearls and copic markers

Moxie Fab~sketch~

I was glad when I noticed that this challenge was still going on! Definitely not a sketch I would normally try, but really fun :) I'd been wanting to use tghis tree image and do some paper piecing for awhile, so this was the perfect time to try it :

I used stamps from several different sets on this. The tree is from Verve. I just love it :) The speech bubble is from Pink Paislee. The bird is from Hero Arts. And the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I don't usually mix sets so much, but it was fun finding the different images to go with the picture in my head :) I used the negative frame from a nesties label 8 to make the ground and a tiny heart punch for the flowers. I paper pierced the stems. Very differentfrom what I usually make, but I had lots of fun.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you are having a fabulous week!

supplies: cardstock- white-papertrey ink, kraft-bazzill, brown-bo bunny, pink-papertrey ink;pattern paper: green& yellow-fancy pants, blue polka dot-papertrey ink;stamps: tree-verve, speech bubble-pink paislee, sentiment-papertrey ink, bird-hero arts

cleaning and hot air balloons

Another start of a new week :) As I've mentioned before, in general Mondays are good for me. I got lots of cleaning done. Several things that I don't always like to do--extra good toilet scrubbing, cleaned up my kitchen and de-cluttered several areas. Yay me!heehee :)

Here is another spring-y card(I did give you fair warning!).

I'm actually unsure how I feel about this card. It didn't turn out how I was imagining, but I was never really able to get it there either. I really like the hot air balloons, though, and I will be using them again soon for sure. The polka dot stamp is from Cornish Heritage Farms. Everything else is from Papertrey Ink. Oh, except for the pearl. That was from my stash. It was originally white and I colored it with my copics to match.

Thanks for stopping by! All my kiddos are in bed, so I'm hoping to get in some fun crafting time. (And I did already get my cleaning done for the day!)

springy butterfly :)

A nice week full of lovely spring weather. My favorite *smile*.

Here's a fun spring-y card I made. I think I'll be in this mode for awhile! heehee :)

I *love* everything polka dots lately :) So much that I mixed 2 different polka dot patterns together hee:)

I used my copics to color this Hero Arts butterfly. Isn't it so pretty? I stamped it on the polka dot paper before I adhered the colored one on top. The sentiment is from the Hero Arts "What's Cookin'?" set.

Thanks much for stopping by! I hope you have a warm, sunshiney weekend!!

 supplies: cardstock: white- papertrey ink, brown bo bunny; pattern paper: papertreyink; stamps: hero arts; ribbon: papertrey ink; other: copics, gems

bee happy

I'm lovin' this spring weather. *happy sigh*. I can't wait to start taking the kids to the park in the afternoons again. Emma's getting so mobile now that she might have some fun too :) I'm glad that there is a great park within walking distance from our house now.
I made a kind of springy this time too :) I got some Melon Berry cardstock for the first time in my last Papertrey order and I wanted to try it out. I paired it with 2 of my faves--aqua mist ribbon and rustic cream cardstock. yum:)

I  wanted to use my cute Honey Bee set that I hadn't used in awhile. I had forgotten how cute it was lol :) I also used the Turning a New Leaf set--still one of my all time faves. I have been trying to tie bows with the twill lately. I haven't gotten as good as  I like, but definitely better than I used to be lol. The lines at the bottom are a background stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms.

Thanks so much for stopping by!! Everyone is FINALLY get back to normal here after the strep and stomach bugs last week--yay! Leah's golf classes finished too, so its back to normal school too. Sometimes normal is great :) Hope you had a great Easter weekend!!

seriously?...& softball

Ok. I don't mean to complain or anything....but,I think I might be the only person to have ever gotten strep throat 3 times in 5 weeks. I didn't even know that was possible. My throat was hurting when I woke up yesterday and tried to ignore it. But by late morning... I knew. So we made another trip to the dr and got a whole 'nother batch of antibiotics. I warned Rhys that if I DID have strep again, I might just cry...but I did manage not to lol. The meds have kicked in now, so my fever is down and my throat isn't killing me. I've been trying to take it easy today, though I don't think my little guys are capable of actually being calm, so they are doing the best they can :)

ANYWAY, since I've been resting, I've been looking at all my scrapbook magazines :) Unfortunately, it just makes me want to create more things lol. But, I'm trying to be really good and actually rest, so here is something that I made couple weeks ago and finally got some pictures of it.

Just some fun the kids had when we all went to watch Daddy play softball with the church "team" :). For the ball, I just cut a circle with my Quickutz and inked the edges. Then I freehand added some stitching.

Thanks for stopping by! I'm off to rest. I really hope you're having a healthier week than me lol.

family :)

It's April Fool's Day today :) I never was a big fan though....practical jokes just seem so mean...is it just me?
Not a big deal since they don't really celebrate it here anyway :) I'm glad spring is finally here though! Just the warm weather puts me in a better mood :)
Leah has been having a ball at her golf lessons. I think only about 16 kids got in, so she was lucky to get a spot. Five days of lessons from pros at an exclusive golf club that,according to Tomio is AMAZING :)  On the last day they get to play a full round.(all of this for only about $20!!!) She's been getting up early and going to bed early(!) I never thought I would see that happen :) No pictures though :( I hope to at least get some of her in her cute golf-sweats and hat.

The boys miss Leah when she's gone all dasy, but they have been having fun together. Lots of super hero shows and saving the day etc. heehee :) And I think Rhys is liking being the oldest kid. He's been having a little bit of a hard time with his new studies lately. But I've been trying to look at it as a chance for me to learn some more patience and find ways to help him really enjoy his studies... I'm trying :) And these past few days really seem to be going better. I was really surprised the difference it made to look at ME as the one who could change their attitude instead of him....

Since I don't really have good pics of the big kids, I thought I would at least share a picture of Miss Emma, wearing one of my favorite outfits :)  When I was choosing which photo to share,I realized that I haven't taken nearly enough photos this month. I will definitely be taking more photos this month!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a great start to April :) I'll have more crafty fun to share next time :)