embellish magazine~challenge~

Another GREAT challenge at Embellish Magazine this time. As soon as I saw the colors, Iknew I had to participate :). I *love* these colors. And I love to stitch on my cards. What's not to love about kraft, aqua and light pink?! I did end up thinking more than I expected about what I wanted to do though.

Here is what I made. I love to do machine stitching on my cards, but I thought I would try out some hand stitching instead this time. I have so many colors of embroidery floss it's not hard to find the color I want :) I didn't want the butterflies to be too plain, so I stamped them with a small damask image in aqua mist ink. I liked it a little better than just the versamark. It's a little less subtle. The circle actually has text stamped on it in light sand color--not very noticeable, but it adds just a little more interest, especially in person. I had lots of fun making this card.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope your week is going well!!

supplies: cardstock-papertrey ink; stamps-polkadots-cornish heritage farms, damask& sentiment-papertrey ink; ribbon-papertrey ink; butterfly punch-martha stewart crafts; circle diecut- quickutz;ink-aqua-papertrey ink; brown-tsukineko

Birthday Wishes.

Miss Emma is 10.5 months. She's starting to get her first 2 teeth. She's getting the bottom front two. I think it is SO cute :) It just seems so typical-baby-ish that I love it lol. I hope I can get some pictures that capture just how cute it is heehee :)

I have a card to share :) I'm so glad :) I LOVE just being able to create something I like, and then to be able take pictures of it and share it...happy stuff for me :)

It's just a simple card. I used my new Spellbinders label 8 dies. I have been wanting them for ages, but they were never in stock. Finally I got them! And I think I am going to love them just as much as I thought I would :) I couldn't get it to show in the photo much, but the front of the card is a little shorter than the back to show off the scallop border more. The sentiment is from Papertrey's Mega Mixed Messages. I'm already glad I got that set. Oh, and glad I went with the "Mega" ones. Just the perfect size.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!!

supplies: cardstock: kraft-paper reflections, white-papertrey ink; ribbon, buttons, stamps: papertrey ink; ink-tsukineko

Papertrey Blog Hop~yay!!

Yay! Yay! Yay! I'm SO excited to participate in my 2nd Papertrey blog hop :) It was one of my goals, and I was afraid I wouldn't meet it. And I loved the theme this month--buttons! I use buttons on at least half, if not more of the cards I make, so it wasn't too hard lol. And, I JUST got my Baby Button Bits set, so I really wanted to use that.

I love all the cute images in the set, but, I had to go with the cupcake :) It is SO cute!! I almost never paper piece, for no more reason than the fact that I just haven't much and it kind of intimadates me lol.  But this cupcake just looked SO perfect for it that I had to. I LOVE how it turned out! And it actually wasn't too hard or scary after all heehee :)

I used craft for the bottom and lemon tart with pink polka dots for the the top. The leaves are aqua mist. The yellow panel is the same as the top of the cupcake. I also stamped text background over the polka dots in versamark just for a little more interest.  The sentiment is from Mega Mixed Messages. So many fun sentiments in there. I tied on the little tag with some twine and also threaded some through the button.

Thanks SO MUCH for stopping!! I'm so glad I got to join in this month *SMILE*  I hope you had a great week. We had such a full week with Rhys's camp and his 7th birthday party which involved a movie and bowling :)

Supplies: cardstock: white, yellow, aqua, kraft-pti; brown-bo bunny; stamps, buttons, ribbon, twine-pti

finally some challenges!!

I'm SO glad I got to participate in some challenges this week! I really missed being able to the past few weeks. I'm hoping that this is the start of me getting back into participating regularly :) AND, my card I made this time is for 2 challenges! I have thought about doing that before, but I've just not ever managed it lol. until now. But it is very simple :) This card is for Lucy's challenge, to keep it simple. And for Lisa's challenge-- to use polka dots, moss green and a button.

This is one of my favorite color combinations--purple with light green :) I used my polka dot background stamp in fresh snow ink on the spring moss base. I colored in the teddy bear with my copics. He's so cute! I thought he worked for other cards besides baby ones, especially when paired with some different sentiments. I chose on from Damask Designs.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I'm just so glad I got to join in this time :) Yay :)

supplies: cardstock- papertrey ink; bear& sentiment stamps-papertrey ink, polka dots-cornish heritage farms; button- papertrey ink; ink-tsukineko; other- copics

yay! a card!

My little Rhys-ter  isn't so little anymore. He is 7 this week. And *sob* he is at his first camp. He is spending 2 nights away from home at a soccer camp. He was super excited and I know he is having fun. But it just doesn't seem right for him not to be here with all of us *sniff*. Levi really misses him. He keeps saying he wants to play with Rhys and is counting the sleeps until we get to go pick him up. He even drew pictures of Rhys playing soccer to give him when he comes home heehee :)

I FINALLY got to make some cards and actually got some pictures of them. yay.

I love this Turning a New Leaf set from Papertrey. Really works for so many different types of cards. I hadn't used it for awhile though, and kind of had fun "re-discovering" how much I like it :) You'll see it on several cards pretty soon heehee. I really like these colors together--of course, just about anything goes with kraft :) It's hard to tell in the photo, but I stamped the butterflies with my music sheet background stamp from CHF. The sentiment is from Damask Designs.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope your having a great week. I can't wait to go get Rhys tomorrow. Thursday is his actual birthday, which means Tomio will take the day off and we will have a day full of cake and presents and family fun :)

supplies: cardstock-papertrey ink; ink-tsukineko;stamps-sentiment&leaves-papertrey ink, music-chf; punch-martha stewart crafts

whew. Another busy week. The kids start their new year of school in the spring instead of the fall here in Japan. And even though we homeschool, we follow that schedule more.So this past week we started in with the new school year.Levi has is own "school" that he started too. He was SO excited about it lol. I had sort of gotten into the rhythm of teaching the older two, but now with new books, a higher level and then Levi's added in, it sure can be...well, it takes alot of time. I've been busier than I'm used to. And I don't handle that too well...*grin*But it came off to a pretty smooth start considering. I will be glad when we work out our new rhythm though. I think we are slowly.

Rhys also had his birthday party this weekend. I usually prepare for the parties slowly over a couple weeks. But with my having strep for a weeks then the new school year, I had to get it done all this week. I did though and fun was had by all :) It was Goku themed (again-this phase of his has lasted for years!). I will post some pictures hopefully in the next couple days. I don't really do any editing, though I might like to get in to that with Photoshop etc, but I don't have it. So these are all straight of the camera. I just need to get them out of the camera lol.

I can't believe I've been sharing layouts the past few times instead of cards. That never happens! I do have some cards too, but I'm going with the layout again :)These are some of Miss Emma's 5 month pictures. I did some more machine stitching--at the bottom and for the butterfly trail. I usually do that kind by hand, but I thought it would be fun to try it this way for a change. It was a little tedious turning the layout to get the loop, but I think it turned out cute :) The butterfly is one of my favorite Quickutz butterflies. I made the ribbon flower at the bottom. I pretty much just gathered and then stitched together lol. I like it though and might try it again.

I like how you can layer this butterfly. So quick and easy but it still gives you nice detail :) The cute heart paper is BoBunny :)

Thanks so much for stopping by! I am still working on balancing all my new schedule with some me crafty time.... I hope to get to post alot more this week. How do you do it? How do balance the "must do"s with the much needed fun time to keep you sane? I would love to hear how you all manage it. I'm still trying! I hope your weekend is going great. It's already Monday here for me so I'm getting started on my week :)

I cannot believe that it is already the middle of the week! When did that happen? We have been having more perfect weather here lately. So nice and warm :) I {HEART} spring weather :) Tomio says he hates it though-- is it warm or is it cool? or is it cold? what's up with the warm wind?---apparently that's what he thinks.(I really just think its because he has developed some allergies lately...)ANYWAY, I still love it :) Puts me in a cheerful mood*smile*.

I finally got some pictures of some more recent layouts I made. I just finished this one this week.

Miss Emma when she was just tiny :) She actually DID enjoy the bath, though she was a little nervous at first. I used some really pretty Basic Grey paper. I think it was last year's Valentines collection. I never have that many Valentine's pictures, but the papers are great for girly layouts :) I stamped some polka dots on bigger circle at the top, and I embossed the smaller on with one of my 2x2 Quickutz embossing dies. Then I inked it up. I always like to scatter some bling on my girl layouts :) You can never have too much--really:)

Thanks for stopping by! Levi's strep stopped bothering him as soon as he got some medicine, so he's just fine now. I sure hope were done with it  for good. Hope you're having a great week!!