enjoying the cool...

I have really been enjoying the cooler weather the last week or so. Seriously,  I don't think I can remember a year where there have been this many cool days in July since I've lived in Japan (and I've been here about 20 years!) Not that I really go out in the heat all that much anyway lol. But since we don't have central air, it's nice not to have to get all sweaty just going to the potty heehee :) And I'm also pretty thrilled with my little Miss Emma lately. Remember, this is the girl that had to go to the corner screaming rather than eat her cookie at the  table. So yesterday she got a "preacher cookie" and promptly walked to the sofa and sat down. So like always, I said "Eat at the table Emma." She looked at me.... and I finished saying "don't want to make a mess on the sofa, right? So we eat at the table." And she did :) She said "I eat at table". I'm not sure if I'm conveying the significance of this, but trust me, it's huge :)

And now for a card.


I've been thinking of making a card with kraft and black for awhile, and I finally did :) I lov bee how they go together, so I will definitely be doing it again. This cute little butterfly is from Hero Arts. Since I cut it out and the antennae were gone, I used some twine instead.

Thanks for popping in today!! Hope you have a great weekend!!

some elegance...

I don't usually make very "elegant" cards. Or very elegant anything for that matter lol, it's just not "me". But for some reason that's how this card turned out. And when I showed it to Leah ( I usually show her most things I make since she will appropriately ooh and aah and say things like "oh, you heat embossed that flower?" or "oh, that's the new stamp you got, isn't it?")  the first thing she said was "It's pretty! So...elegant."

I'm thinking it must be the color choices? I must admit I pretty much almost never use silver. I think this might be the only sheet of silver cardstock I have. But I had fun. I really like how it turned out stamping the black script and the doing the clear embossing over it. The script background , by the way, is exactly what I had been wanting. I had been searching for a pretty whole background script stamp for a long time, and knew this one was perfect when I found it :) The link is to the store where I got it too, the have excellent overseas shipping :) All the other stamps are from PTI :)

I was happy to use ribbon on this card. I was beginning to be afraid I wasn't the ribbon type anymore(!) I think it was just a phase :)

Oh, in case you were wondering, Miss Emma is doing just great without her bottle~yay :) She now just asks for her "elephant", which is what she calls her sippy cup :) You know, because it has a picture of an elephant on it. It's fun to hear her say "Mama, can we have more elephant, please?" :) (she never asks for things just herself, it's always "we")

Thanks for stopping by!! I have laundry to hang out and school to teach. I hope you have some fun planned too :)

no card...

So I don't have a card for today. Still working on family (read: discipline) things lately. Even though all my older kids were weaned from their bottles much sooner, has still been taking hers for comfort. I'd been meaning to wean her from it anyway, so today when she seemed to have lost it (again!) and I really couldn't find, I just told her she had to make do with her sippy cup. She managed just fine of course. I even was able to put her to bed without her bottle, which is a pretty big feat, especially if you know Miss Emma and her...um, stubbornness. It did take her longer to actully go to sleep, but I'm hoping it will improve her overall sleep though :) Hey, maybe if I'm lucky she'll start sleeping in a little, maybe even make to 6 sometimes. yeah, better not get my hopes up lol :) Anyway, that and school just has been taking a up a lot of time, so not enough crafty time left it seems. I'll have to be sure to adjust that for sure. Too many days without making cards isn't good for the soul :)

But, as I'm sure you are well aware, every good blog post must have pictures, right? So how about some of
my little Miss Emma?

I  {heart} her happy smile :) And her wild hair :) It's always extra fuzzy and cute after her naps lol. I so hope her curls stay! All the rest of us have straight her--she gets the curls from her Papa.

Anyway, that's all for me today. I *did* manage to clean up my desk, so hopefully I'll get some creating done too. Hope you had a great weekend :)

one last blue :)

So I have one more card I made while I was on my "blue kick" lol. I really like how this one turned out too. I find that if I just sit at my desk and just try to make a card, I often get stuck not knowing where to start. I think that's why some of my favorite cards that I have made I have actually made from extras just  left sitting  on my desk. So in this case, I went with the blues I had been using and kept them as a jumping off point. It definitely seems to help my mojo :)

I absolutely *LOVE* these flowers. I almost didn't get them and I almost thought I regretted getting the matching dies since they are pretty straightforward to cut out. But no.  So glad I have the dies too. I like the even trim and they are  so quick and easy that I don't think twice about using them like I might if had to cut them out by hand. And I love that they look great colored in or not. Oh and the really cute sentiment is from Unity. I actually stamped it on a clear transparency again and layered it under the die cut hole.

Thanks for stopping by! Since it's my "weekend" I'm planning on stamping and scrapping as much as possible .

some more blue.

How about another blue card? I actually like this one even better than the last one. It's pretty simple too,

Isn't that impression just gorgeous? I just love it!! I really wanted it to take center stage, so I kept everything else simple. Since I really almost never like how white ink stamps, I used Stazon ink on a clear transparency that I cut in a small strip and wrapped around. Then  I added the butterfly punches and gems. I liked how the kraft base sort of grounded everything :) I'm SO glad I finally got some PTI impression plates!! I absolutely LOVE them. I was afraid they would be hard to use or not show up enough....but nope---just perfect. They *are* a little pricey, but totally worth it in my book :)

Thanks for stopping by today!! Hope your week started off GREAT :) Mine's pretty good--we are implementing some new discipline....ummmm, tactics and standards in our house, and so far we are doing good I think. So yay!! Hopefully things will continue on this way.

unexpected...

Well, I had planned to post a little sooner. But Miss Emma wasn't feeling well and I had to take her in to the doctor today. Turns out she has an ear infection :( Got her some antibiotics though, and going back to the doctor tomorrow. I know kids supposedly get them all the time, but out of all 4 of mine, this is the first time. It's so pitiful too. Hoping she gets better really quickly :(

ANYWAY, haven't gotten any stamping done that I had planned, but  I do have a card I made last week that I haven't shared yet.

Just a really quick CAS card that I made. I had fun. I really this sentiment from Unity. The fonts are so fun :)

Sorry such a short and sweet post. Hopefully things will settle down here really soon. Thanks for stopping by!!

too big :(

Oh my word!! Why do kids have to grow up so quickly?! I canNOT believe how big all of them have gotten. Especially Leah. When we first moved into this house just before Miss Emma was born, Leah still seemed like a "little kid". But now, goodness, she comes up to my forehead!! She's way taller than I was at 10. She's always had pretty long hair (which is another opposite of me, I always had short hair when I was a kid). We didn't even trim it after she was 5. But she has A LOT of hair--really thick and really heavy. So she's been keeping it at around the middle of her back. Yesterday, though, she went in to where I get my hair cut, and got it cut quite a bit. She took in her magazine with the style she liked and told them what she wanted :) It's SO cute now! I love it and she loves it. But, it definitely makes her look even older :( sigh...

This is what my pretty, big girl looks like now :) Oh, and this amazing girl just tied her Daddy at golf too. She actually got an 85. Pretty stinkin' amazing for a 10 year old. And, yes, I am very proud of my girl :)

Ok, I'm done bragging, at least for today :) Tomorrow I'll be sure to share some more crafty things :)
Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are staying cool!

simple.

I decided to go "clean and simple" for this week's Waltzingmouse sketch. I didn't struggle with this one as much as last week's. But I did start another one before I thought, no definitely go with CAS card. Oh, here is the sketch:

 I did turn the sketch and moved the sentiment. I always feel like I am "cheating" if I don't follow exactly lol. But it's ok to *base* it one the sketch, right?!

I really liked how the red and white baker's twine looks on the white card. I've had it for awhile, but I've just now started really seeing how fun it is :)

I love this little bee! Isn't he so cute? I stamped the sentiment in two steps so it would fit on the tag.

Well, thanks so much for stopping by!! Hope your week is going well!!

What's going on?

 So my sassy little Miss Emma is, well, the same as always :) Some days are more trying than others... But I tell ya, that sweet face she makes in the morning, when she's only half awake, looks up and sees I AM there, and says "mama" all contented-ly, totally makes it all worth while :) She says the funniest things too. Her sentences are getting more "proper" lately, too. She used to come up to me and say "Doing?" for "what are you doing?" But not anymore. She walked in to the room  I was in and said "What's going on, Mama?" heehee :) Love that little girl :)

I have a simple, one-layer card today.

I stamped the typewrite directly on the card and then one more time on white cardstock and fussy cut the paper. At first glance it doesn't look like much "fussy cutting", but the bottom part was little tricky lol. Love the look of kraft and red together. Here is what I stamped on the inside:

I really like how it turned out. The cute typewriter is from Stamping Bella. The "I love you" is from PTI's Love Birds.

Thanks for popping in today! I hope you had a happy 4th of July :)

I'm all mixed up.

I'm having trouble remembering what day it is. Since the government is anticipating not having enough electricity this summer, Honda where Tomio works has decided to do its part. Instead of Tomio getting Saturday and Sunday off each week like normal, for the next 2 months he gets Thursday and Friday off. Apparently several other companies in the auto industry are doing this too, hoping to offset the peaks of when people normally use electricity. It's good a thing, I'm sure, but goodness, I just can't tell what day it is anymore lol. I'm all mixed up. I'm sure I'll probably just start to get used to it when they switch it back to normal :) At least since the kids are homeschooled, I can switch their days off to coincide with Daddy's :)

I made this card awhile ago, but I just now realized that I hadn't shared it yet. A little bit out of my comfort zone, but I think it turned out ok lol.

I usually can't seem to pull off this many layers for some reason, but I like this one :)  I really, really love the PTI spiral notebook die combined with Unity's vintage ledger stamp!! Especially in fine linen cardstock and antique linen distress ink, like I used here. And of course you can't go wrong with some butterflies and baker's twine :)

Thanks so much stopping by today!! I hope you enjoyed your weekend. We didn't really have "weekend" lol,  ours will come again on Thursday I guess? Seriously, this is going to take some getting used to!!
Good night--I'm off to veg a little while my munchkins are finally quiet sound asleep :)