happy anniversary~

to me and my hubby :) Today, (well here in Japan), Aug. 31st is our wedding anniversary :) 11 years today. I raelly can't believe how quickly time has gone by. Tomio always tries to take off for our anniversary. But this year he has a presentation/evaluation at work TODAY, so he couldn't. He is coming home early though, and we will be going out to dinner--fun!  He also got reservations at a beachside hotel for 2 nights this weekend. I think that totally makes up for not getting to take off the whole day, don't you? :)

Here is the card I made him:

Considering for some reason I really choke and make my not-so-great cards for him , I love how this one came out. I stamped the sentiment on transparency like I did in my previous sympathy card.  There are a couple of reasons I did it this way instead of directly on the card. One is for added interest. The other is that I finished the rest of the card first and I didn't want to risk messing it all up. The pattern paper is from K& Co.

Thanks so much for stopping by!! :)Hope your week is starting off fun :)

cousins and sympathy

We had the cousins over to play today. They only live about 15 minutes from us, but we don't seem to get together nearly enough for their liking. The first thing the kids say as soon as they've left is "when are they coming again?" :) But having 8 kids running wild together for the whole day can be very....well wild :) Me, my sister Eryn and my mom all try to get some scrapping done together while they are here. I never seem to make much progress, but its alot of fun :) SO, I don't have something I made today to share :) But I'm pretty sure that I haven't shared this card before ( so sorry if I have!!)

This is a very simple sympathy card I made. Its simple, but honestly it took me awhile to get it how I liked it. The first thing I did was stamp the sweet pea outline image on the grey cardstock. I love the subtle elegance of it. I knew I wanted to use some green and some white text on clear, but getting those where I liked them is what took along time. I stamped the text with white Stazon on a clear transparency. Since it is thin, I could just fold it over the edges to adere it. Other stiffer acrylics just don't fold smoothly enough. All the stamps and cardstock on this are from Papertrey Ink. I wasn't sure I would love the Sweet Pea image after I ordered it, but I have LOVED it. Great for outlines like this but really fun to color as well.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I think we are off to visit the inlaws this weekend...Hope you are getting crafty :)

sometimes you feel like a...

cupcake :) No new cards to share today, but I did make something else just as yummy. heehee :) Sometimes you just need a cupcake, don't you think? We didn't do anything fancy, just yellow cupcakes with chocolate icing, and sprinkles :) I absolutely LOVE this chocolate icing though!! Super easy and super yummy. My all time favorite. Even Tomio and the kids agree.

Yes, everyone enjoyed them immensely :)

Here is Miss Emma trying to pretend she didn't have any cupcakes :)

And Levi getting ready to dive in to his second one :)

They are all gone now. But I'm pretty sure we'll be making something sweet again tomorrow :)

(I hope to have some cards to show tomorrow, but Tomio has informed me that for the rest of the week he needs my scrapping desk at night for his work.  Since night is when I usually get some scrappy time, we'll have to see if I actually get any done :))

Thanks for stopping by!! Hope your week is starting off nice and sweet :)

playing some more...

I'm glad that Tomio's work started back on a Wednesday this week. I don't think any of us were ready for a full week of school yet :) But to be honest it really wasn't bad at all for a first week back.

I have one more card to show you that I made when I was playing with my new goodies. And let me just say, I am LOVING my new distress inks and blender tool. Way too fun and addictive :)

I used LOTS of new-to-me products on this card :) I made the fun polka dot paper with my NEW PTI polka dot basics 2 set.(SO glad finally got this set!!!) Also used distress ink. I made the little strip of patten paper too. Isn't the car stamp fun?! Love the coordinating die. Makes it so much easier. I curved the sentiment to match the shape of the die and kind of frame the car. I liked these butterflies because I kind of wanted a more whimsical looking butterfly than the ones I normally use. See, you really DO need at least 6 different kinds of butterflies :)

Well, thanks so much for stopping by! I'm hoping to get some more playing time this weekend~yay :) Leah will have her second official golf lesson too. She's excited about it. Hope you have an awesome weekend!!

just playing :)

 I love just playing with my scrapping and stamping stuff :) I don't really do it that often though. But I just got a whole bunch of new fun "toys" heehee and I couldn't wait to play. I got several new PTI stamp sets and some more distress inks. Oh, and I also got an ink blender to use with those distress inks. So I did play some this week--and this is what I made:

I stamped the flowers in versamark and embossed them with clear embossing powder. Then I applied Milled Lavendar distress ink all over it to make them "pop" out. The text background I made with my distress inks too. I'm already loving my new applicator :) The butterfly is from the same Flutter By Friend set. I colored it with my copics and used twine for antenna :) I applied the lavendar ink to the base too. I had lots of fun and it actually came together really quickly.

Well, since Tomio went back to work today, summer break is officially over. The kids all started their school too. I'm never really ready for the breaks to end, but this time, I was REALLY not ready lol. Miss Emma already misses Daddy too. Instead of saying "bye byes" for where Daddy, is she keeps looking  around and starting to point, like she expects him to be there. And she was SO happy when he got back from work! SO cute :)

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have some time to "play" today :)

i know...

I know, its been a week since I last posted. Tomio's "Big Holiday" (as the kids call it) started. When Tomio's off from work, the kids are off from school. We didn't travel anywhere far this time, but we've been having fun just taking it as easy as possible :) We rented the Back to the Future movies and watched them with the kids heehee :) It was really fun to see them again with the kids. I loved them when I was little. Even Levi had fun, he started pretending his toy cars were time machines :)  So its been good to have some down time with the family. I do kind of wish I had more time to scrap, though. But I've pretty much gotten nothing new done in the last week. I do have a card I made a few weeks ago that I didn't share yet.

I used the Its a Celebration set from Papertrey. This was actually one of the first sets I ever got from Papertrey. I heat embossed the cupcakes with clear embossing powder and diecut them in little circles. The fun pink pattern paper is the "B" side of a Fancy Pants paper. It added just the right amount of interest without being too busy.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you're having a relaxing summer. I'm off to check on littleMiss Emma :)

more pink and green

When I was making the card for the Embellish challenge, I actually ended up making 2 cards. Usually when I don't like the first version of a card, I just take it apart and use some part of it. But this time, I didn't not like the first one, just wasn't sure it was what I was going for. So I kept and just made another one, which is the one I shared before. I thought I might as well go ahead and show the first one too :) Here it is:

I figured I might as well go ahead enter it into the challenge too, right? :) I didn't use stamped birds for this, but some Quickutz birds I had. They have a totally different feel from my brown bird on my other card. I used 3 different pattern papers on this card, which is SO rare for me. I often don't even use any at all.

Anyway, thanks so much for stopping by!! Hope you are having a COOL weekend :)

embellish magazine~challenge~yay!

It seems like it has been forever since I participated in any challenges. I'm so glad I just sat down and MADE time to participate in Embellish Magazine's current challenge. The challenge was to use green, pink, brown, and birds. I think I've mentioned befoe that I can have a hard time using green. butI like what I ended up with this time.

For some reason the pink doesn't look as bright in the photo, but it PTI Hibiscus burst, so it's very PINK irl :) The background script stamp from CHF is stamped in versamark.. The bird and vine are PTI. I stamped the vine in versamark once and then embossed it with white embossing powder. Then I stamped it in versamark again, offsetting it. I stamped the bird in versamark too and then cut him out. I was kind of surprised at myself for only using brown for the bird when that is the color I am most comfortable with and use all the time. I had lots of fun and I hope this is the start of me getting back into doing some more challenges :)

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you have a super day!!

What's cooking?

I've always had a hard time deciding what to cook for dinner. I can spend all day just thinking about it, only to end up making the same things again. I've tried a few things over the years to make it easier...sometimes it helps, sometimes not. But last year I made something fun that actually did seem to help.

Sorry for the awful picture :( I just couldn't seem to get a a good one without a glare...

This is a menu board I made. Really its just a photo frame with the menu I made inside. I have regular white board marker that I use to write what I plan to make for dinner each night of the week. It helps with grocery shopping if I have everything already decided. And the kids love to look at it and see what we are going to have that week. I also have a Christmas version of the menu sheet too. I might make a few more just for some variety too :) Now I'll be honest, there are still times I don't manage to plan my meals out. Those weeks I just write it down as I decide :) But it has helped :) And I figure anyway I can work scrappy stuff into other places of my life is good :)

Hope your week is off to a great start :) Tomio has had to go in to work early these past couple of days, so I've been starting my days early....:) Thanks for stopping by!!