Heat Embossing.

Wow--it's already April?!? At least for us here in Japan :) Leah is off at a golf tournament today. So glad the weather is SO nice for her. The boys are planning some kind of super hero games for today, and I am, yes, hoping to get some crafty time in :) But I will try to get my housework done first. Really.

Really CAS card with some heat embossing today.

One of my favorite Wplus9 sets. I also really like the rustic cream cardstock for the base. It goes so well with the kraft. To be honest, the reason I choose the cream base as opposed to white is because my "white" embossing powder is really more of an off-white. But it seems to go really well with the cream cardstock :) I'm also pretty sure I'm going to put in an order for some actual white embossing powder, and hopefully some clear "detail" powder.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!! I hope you have a wonderful day :)

my new favorite.

I have a new favorite stamp set. And, big surprise :), it's a butterfly set. I know, shocking, right? heehee :) I  got Maile Belles new set called Beautiful Butterflies. I had so much fun just stamping and stamping with it.

This is one of the cards I made with it. I was really just playing around, and I liked how it looked and turned it into a card :)  I really like the big sentiment too.

Not colors I use all that often, but I think I will start more. I'm loving how cheerful they are.

Short and sweet again today :) Still getting up really early with Tomio for work, and it seems to be taking its toll. Hoping to get to bed at least a little bit early tonight.

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Going back.

to my go-to color combo :) Today's card I made with one of my favorite color combos-kraft, chocolate brown, and just a pop of white :)

I have bigger stocks of all three of these colors of cardstock than any of my other colors lol. The pretty stamps are from Wplus9. I almost didn't get this set, but I'm so glad I did. Really easy to use.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Leah starts her spring break golf camp today, and I've got a bunch of things I'm supposed to get done...I hope you have a wonderful day!!!!

Papertrey Blog Hop

I haven't participated in a Papertrey Blog Hop, well, a long time. I almost gave up this time too, but I got my card made just in time. yay :) Here is the inspiration picture:

Love the colors! And the polka dots and stripes. And the ribbons. But I seem to have trouble working from whole photos for inspiration...I think I kind of get caught up in trying to work in all the different elements... I was hung up the ribbon and the fact that I didn't have any big, aqua ribbon. Anyway, here is what I came up with:

I think I like it lol. I used to of my new-to-me sets (that I just *love* btw)

I thought it might be really hard to line up the little circles, but it really wasn't. For the yellow and grey inks I  used Jenni Bowlin inks, everything is Papertrey.

Thanks SO much for stopping by today!! I can't wait to look through all the lovely cards in today's hop!

allergies.

Not my allergies.
My Rhys-ter's. We had him checked to see why his nose was so stuffy all the time.
After a couple of different doctors with different opinions, we got a definitive test result.
Yes, apparently he is allergic to mites and house dust.
Now with a...umm... shall we say *extremely* neat husband :), I have learned to keep my house quite neat and dusted. (well as much as is even possible for a Japanese house). But, I went through the house and cleaned up even more, especially Rhys' room and bed. Hopefully that combined with his new allergy meds, will help a lot. I'm very glad we found a good allergy doctor, and that there are some things we can to help. I am also very thankful that I got all those tests done and got his meds, and I didn't have to pay a cent, er, yen :)

okay... on to today's card.

This is another one of those cards that I made with things I had  left over from other cards, and ended up liking the results. I really love these flowers from Papertrey. Probably my favorite of all of theirs I have. Well, top 3 for sure :`)

I used some of my favorite background stamps too-- the text and the envelope pattern.

Okay, I have a diaper to change, and some kids to put to bed :)
Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you are having a great weekend!!

after a boy party...

how about a boy card? :) I don't usually make many masculine cards. Even for my hubby, I just make love-y cards. But, I have a couple of boy-ish stamp sets, and I have couple of rambunctious boys around here too :)

Anyway this is what I came up with.

I think the rocket is so cute! But I will be honest and say is this actually the first time I have used it on a card. I have used it on some layouts and boys' backpack tags. A little busier for me, but I think it works. There isn't a die for the fire, so I just trimmed it out by hand. I popped up the rocket with some pop dots to finish it off.

Thanks for stopping by today! Tomio has hit a "busy patch" at work and has to leave at 6 again for awhile. This of course means he has to get up (read: be woken up by me) about 5 and eat breakfast at 5:30. Anything before 6 is just a *little bit* hard for me, so I need to get to bed early to make up for it. So, hopefully off to bed for me.:)

Fun party :)

I can't believe my little boy is 9 (ok technically he won't actually be 9 till Sunday, but you get the idea) I keep telling them I won't let them grow up, but somehow they won't listen to me...sigh. At least they can have fun celebrating it though, right?

We always make a big deal of birthdays at our house. There's a party

Which is lots of fun. with cousins, and games and well, fun of course :)

 a Ninja-head pinata, is a must :)
(disclaimer: this year Rhys celebrated his birthday together with his best bud, cousin Hunter. The party was held at cousin Hunter's house, with all decorations provided by his mother, Aunt Coo'gug)

With a homemade cake by me, that is decorated (read: drawn and turned into a work of art) by Daddy.

He chose a cheesecake this year. I can't say I wasn't happy when he chose a no-bake frozen one over the Japanese souffle-type(cough-temperamental-cough) cheese cake. And with no coaxing from me :) I turned out really yummy too, so I'm sure we'll be making it again. Oh, and if you couldn't tell from the cake, the theme was Ninjago legos :)

So glad they had lots of fun :)  But it's not over yet. His "real birthday" is the 25th, and there will be more fun that day too :) Daddy always takes off from work on their real birthdays and we celebrate again as a family.

Alight, sorry no card today. But probably more than enough pictures anyway :) Hope to post one tomorrow though.

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

a little blue

Light blue is (and has been for years) one of my very favorite colors :) But, for some reason, I seem to have a harder time crafting with it. Not sure if I don't know to use it as much, or it's just that I forget to pull it out lol. Anyway, today I have a card using light blue.

I really liked this cake from Wplus9. I used some swirlies from another Wplus9 set to make the stand. I like how it made it look a little more elegant. I also like the little pops of black. I've been using these black rhinestones a lot lately.

I impressed it with Papertrey's linen/canvas impression plate, after I finished stamping it.

Thanks for stopping by today!! Rhys's 9th birthday party is on Saturday, so I have some presents to wrap and cakes to make :)

a quick share.

It's pretty late, and I probably *should* be getting ready for bed....but, Tomio is up late with work anyway. I figured I might as well do a quick post :)

Another card with Wplus9 stamps. See, I told you they were fun :) I really like adding a little texture with impression plates on cards like this where the stamping is basically one layer.

Still pretty simple.
Thanks for popping in today! I hope your week is starting off well. Mine has been good so far :)

sorry...

for the lack of posts this week :( no real reason other than I kind of thought  I posted more. I never have tried scheduling my posts ahead of time, but I wonder if it would help me be more organized?! (as anyone who knows me can attest, that is definitely *not* my forte)

Anyway :) I have a Wplus9 card for today. I really do love all their sets that I have.

I used Mehndi Medallion for this one. Pretty simple. I used Papertrey's Smoky shadow for the base. I'm really liking using gray lately. I've yet to find a medium gray that I like though, one to match the ink I used on this card.

Well, that's it for me today. I have 3 little peeps to put to bed. (Leah is out at golf with her Daddy). Thanks so much for stopping by!! Hope you had a great weekend :)

just a simple

love card :)

I went through a phase where I barely used ribbon at all. But I find I'm back to using it again :) Just depends on my mood I guess lol.

Still keeping with the CAS style that I like best though. The stamps are from Verve. One of my very favorite Love sets for sure.

Thanks for stopping by today! Have some school to finish, and a few messes to clean up, and some nice  weather to enjoy. It has been *so* warm here the last couple of days :) I {heart} spring :)

well, it's March.

I really, really can't believe it is March already! Seriously, I have no idea where February went...

Just a quick card post tonight. Lots of bright colors. These flowers are from Verve. Not sure if you can see it well, but I impressed the whole front panel. I love the little bit of texture it adds.

Like I said, just a quick one today :) Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you are enjoying your weekend.