Summer?

Yep, bring on summer! Or at least spring! (I know, I know, I wanted autumn...but I'm done with winter now! I've had enough thanks...)

After the family all being sick (at least one of us every day for ten days now!) I took some time to stamp. So there. LOL!

This card more or less follows a sketch from Lauren. After I find the one closest to my drawing, I'll see how old it is... haha! (I have a scratch paper half full of sketches I'm *going* to get around to playing with and the name of the person or blog who posted it. Its a little confusing at this point...)

Supplies: Stamps: Unknown Sarah Kay Image, Canvas (retired) Ink: Black, Creamy Caramel Paper: Creamy Caramel, Barely Banana & white card stocks Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Blender Pens, Mat Pack, EE Buttons (retired), Retired grosgrain ribbons Oh wow! Bonus! Its this weeks' sketch! Haha! Just barely a week late! Go me! Well anyway, enjoy my summery card. Maybe it'll hold off the storms......haha! Don't I wish?

My boy!

He is growing up! He's had a birthday this week, and I think that's always a little crazy when your oldest gets older... (altho...are we ever going to out-grow Thomas-themed birthdays? LOL!) This is his first store-bought birthday cake(s), and I think he was a little excited!

So here are his cute birthday invitations. The balloons come from the same sneak peek set as that cupcake I last used. I drew the strings from the balloons and even came up with the corny poem. He was so funny finding the rhymes when we were delivering the invites! Anyway, I used a piece of Tempting Turquoise for the base. The balloons were stamped and cut out of various shades of Bold Brights colors and the invitation part was typed up and printed off and glued to the back! Simple enough...!

Here is his birthday card and you can see more of the new stamp set! Yes, its called Sock Monkey! It comes with all the stamps I used on this card, plus five others! I think its so cute! And since I haven't whined enough about cutting lately, I thought I'd try my hand at paper-piecing!!! Yes folks, I'm nuts! I used the brand new Pacific Point card stock for the card base here, as well as for the balloon and pieces of the hat. The monkey was pieced using Creamy Caramel card stock, stamped with the Canvas stamp in Close to Cocoa ink! Then I colored the rest of him using the Bordering Blue watercolor crayon and Blender Pens. I pieced the cupcake with More Mustard for the liner and Chocolate Chip for the frosting. I added glitter with my 2-Way glue pen to the top of the hat and the flame of the candle. The balloons have Silver Cord strings and are tied together, they're also popped up on Dimensionals and I have a little 'shine' with the White Gel Pen.

I think this is the most work I've ever put into a card, and its for a little boy! Goodness!

Now a story about him growing up...! Monday morning, Sienna was asleep in our bed and Hunter came to wake all three of us up. He told us he'd made something and we all needed to come see. How many times does he make a new train track design or lego village? So it took us a few minutes, but we went down to see. I even took the camera to save myself a trip back up. And THIS is what we saw!!! He made each of us BREAKFAST! No, he's never been "allowed" to pour cereal or milk, (not because I don't let him, but because I just do it...) but he did it! He'd chosen what he thought was each of our favorites and it was ready to go! He even put sugar on the corn flakes and wheaties! We were very impressed (even tho it meant eating very soggy cereal)! He was soooo proud of himself he had that beaming grin on til well after we were done eating. Guess he's growing up!

Challenges!

Two posts in one day! That's because kwerner's color challenge #15 is due in 25 minutes! Since I'm participating on time, I should post it on time, right? She challenged us to use Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Really Rust, Certainly Celery and Whisper White. I got them all in there!

I also used the OCC sketch from Saturday for the layout! So, I have my Close to Cocoa card stock base, and I stamped the Canvas background on it with Chocolate Chip ink. Next is the layer of Really Rust card stock and I stamped the flowers from Pretty Amazing in Rust ink on that. Then a super thin layer of Certainly Celery card stock beneath the white, which is stamped with the vines and Celery ink. I cut out the two Rust butterflies (...because I didn't get enough cutting in last night?) and tied on some Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon! And I'm posting just in time!

Punch Class Sneak Peek!

Here are two of the cards we'll be making at my Get Punchy class. If you want to attend the one in Honeyville, please let me know by Thursday!!! This apple core card I made in January and I love it! It's simple to make and looks incredible. I got the idea from the demo side of the Stampin' Up! website. And yes, my version is slightly different!

Here's a little shot of this next cool card! And here's the full card! I haven't added a greeting, but I have a great one in mind.... This idea came from Josee Smuck's blog. I thought it was such a cute idea! I have other ideas planned too! I think we'll make a total of eight! My second class isn't til April 22 so I'll keep posting sneak peeks and add details when we're done. Its gonna be tons of fun!

Apples!

Again, I LOVE this set! Its from the new Occasions Mini and I keep using it! This first card is so simple and turned out really great. I used Ruby Red for the base and stamped the Canvas background with Close to Cocoa ink. Then a layer of Cocoa cardstock and then stamped the image using Ruby Red ink on Very Vanilla cardstock. Then two little brads from my Hodgepodge Hardware and its good! I keep talking about being ready for spring but I'm using a lot of autumn colors right now...! This second card is a step up with the same image and the same colors too. Close to Cocoa for the base, a strip of More Mustard, a layer of Ruby Red and the focal point is on Vanilla again. I used the brads to "hang" the picture, and I colored this one with my Watercolor Wonder Crayons and Blender pens. The ink was still too wet when I started coloring, but I started with the gloves and that ended up ok because now they look a little extra worn. Fantastic! Well, the kids and I have resolved to have a great day today, no more time-outs, no yelling, no being mean to anyone, everyone is going to be happy, be good, and have fun! (hey, its a start!) So we're off to play outside til naptime and enjoy the fleeting sunshine...because SPRING is coming!!!!