Vacation mojo

Finally, vacation has arrived!!! Of course I was in my classroom, but not early and all by myself so that counts as vacation to me. And I finally got to play along with the Mojo Monday sketch for the first time in a few weeks.

I didn't know what direction to head in and then though of Libby. Thursday she posted another From Courtney's Closet challenge so I figured I'd go with that--despite the lack of a picture with me that moment or any details written down. And I don't think I had seen the picture since Saturday morning! I really thought her dress had purple in it, not rust. Oh well. Either way, I love my card and can picture Courtney having a tea pary with a friend. Rather than sticking with the Mojo sketch's scalloped square, I pulled out a needle and some embroidery thread and stitched around my main panel--it was easier than setting the sewing machine up!

Thanks for stopping by....I've got lots more stamping in my summer vacation future.

Smiles,

Paper: Certainly Celery, Brocade Blue, So Saffron, Very Vanilla, Perfect Plum

Ink: Perfect Plum, Brocade Blue, Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Pale Plum

Stamps: Organic Grace (SU), unknown SU, Mary Engelbright

Other: ribbon, glue dots, DMC ecru embroidery floss,

Help the animal shelters!

Click HERE to give FREE food to animal shelters!!!

We got our cat Melky from the animal shelter almost 3 years ago and he has become the king around here. I wanted a kitten (as did many others that day) but the shelter had none. I must have watched 4 or 5 families find out there were no kittens and just turn and leave. But we stayed and walked around looking at all those kitties in cages and fell in love with the Melkman! Each cage listed info about the cat, including how long they'd been there. Some had been there for more than 6 months! Please help these animals get some FREE food by clicking HERE. It only took me ten seconds and you can do it once a day. Have a fabulous Sunday and I hope it's not raining where you are. At least we had sun in NH yesterday.....

Smiles,

Sweet, it's Unscripted!

FINALLY it is Saturday! This week kicked my butt, and if I make it through Monday I'll be on summer vacation! Even more exciting I have a new Unscripted Sketches card to share today.

As the school year comes to an end I've got plenty of sweet colleagues to thank for helping me stay sane through my first year at a new school. I'm looking forward to new beginnings and knowing what's going on half the time!

I'm loving bees lately so I pulled out an old stamp I inherited from my mom and discovered it had never been inked up before. I stamped it twice, on very vanilla and so saffron and then snipped the hive out and popped on a glue dot. What do you think?

We can't wait to see what you come up with for this week's sketch, so head on over to Unscripted Sketches and be sure to check out the rest of the DT's amazing creations. Happy Saturday!

Smiles,

Paper: Barely Banana, So Saffron, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Apricot Appeal DSP

Ink: Black

Stamps(SU!): Mini Mates (sentiment), Country Greetings

Other: pop up glue dots

How delightful

This last full week of school has been kicking by butt and I've had no creative energy at all! I'm feeling like a bad blogger so I thought I would share the cards I made two years ago when my nephew was coming into the world.

Not knowing the sex of the baby my brother and SIL decorated the nursery with Classic Pooh. Besides Target, there's not many place you can go to get Classic Pooh but I was determined. Thanks to Ebay I got a couple Pooh stamps sets (not the easiest to work with and get clean images) and was given creative license to make it happen. And what's Pooh without some bumble bees? Looking back I can see not only did I love Certainly Celery but I also loved the look of torn edges!

This was the baby shower invite:

(Sometimes a cheering surprise just happens along)

I stuck with a similar design for the thank you's, just flipped the orientation:

(Time for a little something...)

And finally the announcement of his arrival...all 10 lbs, 5 oz of him!

All the Pooh images were colored with blender pens, and I stuck with Chocolate Chip, Barely Banana, Very Vanilla, Certainly Celery, and Bashful Blue. If you want specific details just ask!

Right now in my spare time (3 days of school and I'll have more!) I'm working on his little brother's announcements. We stuck with the Pooh theme since that's still the nursery and it makes me happy to get more milage out of the stamp sets! I'll be sure to share the announcements once I get them finished. Thanks for stopping by, let me know what you think.

Smiles,

Awarded!

I was pleasantly surprised earlier this week when I was reading Meredith's blog and saw she gave me an award:

How sweet! Based on Mere's math and my need for sleep at the moment I'll pass this on to a few of my new favorite bloggers:

Keri Lee, Aymee and Sarah the newest Unscripted Sketches design team members.

Patti who is just too much fun and lets me give wacky names to her creations.

Linda, a fellow first grade teacher who love kids and papercrafting as much as I do!

and LeAnne who has some amazing work and I love to chat with!

I'm off to comment on their blogs and hit the hay.

Goodnight!

you make me smile

It's Saturday, the sun is trying to shine and I'm feeling well rested. What more could you ask for? How about a sketch from Unscripted Sketches? Here's my take on this week's fab sketch:

The words surrounding the picture were my starting point...a rub-on I found lying around. Once I put it on a Regal Rose scrap it seemed like the type was more green than vanilla. It was like a snowball just continually building with each step.

I hope our Unscripted Sketch inspires you to create something....can't wait to see what it is! And be sure to check out all the DT's inspiration----> just click on their names on my sidebar. Hope the sun is shining where you are (and that it stays shining here!).

Smiles,

Paper: Pale Plum, Barely Banana, Very Vanilla, Green Galore, Regal Rose
Ink: Perfect Plum, Green Galore, So Saffron
Stamps (SU): Simple Somthings (flowers), Love You Much
Other: Making Memories button brads, ribbon, rub-on (main image, unknown co), SU Markers, Word Window punch

Lots of Dots

I just had way too much fun stamping today! And I managed to create a card that fits many challenges....all by accident, how fun. I started out with Stacey's Jewelry Color Inspiration which is my favorite color challenge, and these bright colors are cheering me up on an extremely blah day in New England. Since the jewelry Stacey chose seemed dotty to me I went ahead to use my new Martha Stewart border punch which is also for this week's Our Creative Corner challenge (ya 50% coupons at Michael's!). I went a bit crazy with the dots. Stamps, border, paper piercer...

I didn't have anything Summer Sun but then I found this ribbon that also had some Tangerinish stitching on it. I just LOVE ribbon with stitching. My favorite part of the card however, is how I dressed up the border. I put 1/2 inch circles of Brillian blue behind the punched out circles and put a pearl in the center of each. How will I ever use this punch any other way?!?

When I took my picture (inside thanks to the rain) I also decided to play around with the white balance on my camera. Lisa Spangler has an awesome tutorial HERE. This was my card picture taken before I adjusted the white balance.....

No more white blah pictures! And in reading LeAnne's blog I discovered that this card also fits the Rubberneck Wacky Wednesday challenge to use an oval.

I'm officially exhausted now! Tomorrow is Friday though....WOOHOO!

Smiles,

Paper: Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Brilliant Blue, Tangerine Tango

Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Stazon

Stamps (SU!): Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Thank You Kindly

Other: Martha Stewart border punch, Michael's pearls and ribbon, paper piercer, oval punches, corner rounder, glue dots

Busy Buzzy Bees

Just like the bees I've been busy today...weeded a bit, mowed the lawn, weeded some more, watered the tomato plants, weeded some more. See a theme? But I was not alone, as the bees were getting my raspberries ready for another season. I could only get one to pose at a time though. Hopefully I'll have even more raspberries this year than last . Enough for 4 pies??? A girl can dream.....

Unfortunately no cards or creations.....it's definitely in the plans for tomorrow though! Enjoy your evening, I'm off to watch some baseball. Yes Mom, I will be watching the YANKEES!!!!

Smiles,

I want to be a part of it.....

NEW YORK, NEW YORK!!!!

I've had that song stuck in my head ever since I said I'd share photos from my trip to NY. That and they play it at the end of every Yankees game I watch! The mojo is not flowing tonight, so no cards to share, just some cool shots. This is my favorite shot of the new stadium from the top of a parking garage. There were a couple mini games going on as we headed back to our card and I think a full flag football game while we were at the baseball game. We did park here just took a quick side trip up to check it out

My husband doesn't usually pose for photos, but what better reason than our first game at the new stadium? It's an open concept so we were just behind some seats 15-20 feet away from the concessions. No more missing the action while getting a snack!

After the game we drove into the city and had dinner just outside of Times Square. I haven't been in a couple years, and it's always changing! A couple lanes of Broadway (or 7th?) were blocked off to traffic and filled with lawn chairs. Apparently so people can stop and sit. And they were all full!

This is an awesome piece of artwork in the middle of the road as well, plus you can see more lawn chairs back there. I love anything that says HOPE because that's become a slogan for the National MS Society.

One of the coolest parts was at the end of Times Square (think McDonalds and Doubletree) there were these funky bleachers you could climb to the top and take a seat anywhere. They were lit up and from the top there was a great view of the heart of the city. No one came up with us, so selfportrait it is!

Hope you enjoyed my mini tour of NYC....really mini.

Smiles,

Color Throwdown

Before I left for the Cape this weekend I made a card using these colors for the Color Throwdown challenge. It's been rainy and blah here lately---the nicest days we had were when I was away with family which was a great time. However, I did not have cards with me to take pictures of so this one doesn't look as great as IRL. I left it blank so I can add a sentiment when I need a card and don't have the right one.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope to be able to create a bit more this week!

Smiles,

Pink and Brown

I just came across this card I had made for Stampin' Out Alzheimers. If I recall correctly it was for a Gina K sketch challenge and a Taylored Expressions 2 by 2 challenge--2 colors, and 2 embellisments. The colors pink and brown were chosen and I used ribbon and pink halfback pearls as my embellishments.

I should be on my way home from the Cape soon. Besides insanity as the school year winds down, I've got calm in the weeks to come with a few weekends with nothing to do but craft in my future.

Smiles,

Paper: Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Candy Lane DSP

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Stamps(SU): Button Bear, Sweet Serendipity

Other: pink ribbon, pop dots, 1" circle punch, pink pearls

Sketch It Saturday

We call it Unscripted Sketches for a reason, and this week I took the sketch and turned it on it's head. It's a whole lot of fun though....

I also used my Crop-a-Dile for the first time--love those jumbo eyelets (Thanks Susan!). There are going to be many more of those, and snaps and random holes all around in my future....

Be sure to check out the amazing samples the DT has put together for you this week at Unscripted Sketches. I can't wait to see what this week's sketch inspires you to to!

Smiles,

Paper: Barely Banana, Tempting Turquoise, Apricot Appeal, unknown purple

Ink: Apricot Appeal, Tempting Turquoise, Perfect Plum

Stamps: Delicate Dots (SU), A True Friend (SNS)

Other: Blackbird brad, 1 1/4" circle punch, purple jumbo eyelets, Making Memories staples

Many generations

Here's another card for my Aunt Greta's upcoming birthday. I used the Diva Coffee Break sketch from this week. No, I will not be sending all 106 of her cards, but I raided my stash and made many extra to take to my family reunion this weekend on Cape Cod. That way others can write her cards! It's my father's side of the family and we go every other year. My great-great aunt is the last of her generation and all those attending the reunion are decendents of her brothers and sisters. It's pretty cool! My mom shared some photos from last years reunion HERE, many pictures of the beautiful cottages HERE and a bit of the background HERE.

I'm truly blessed to have such a great extended family that I get to see somewhat regularly. I can even explain to you who my second cousin, once removed is! It took until I was 16 or so to get it, but it's like putting a puzzle together and gets easier every time. I think it's awesome that I'm good friends with my fourth cousin and couldn't fall sleep last night because I'm excited to see him (he lives down south)! Hopefully the sun comes out, but either way I'll be with family. Hope your weekend is fun filled too! Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for another Unscripted Sketch.

Smiles,

Purple!

I happened upon Crafty Creations this week and they posed a challenge to use purple. I don't think I use purple much so I ran with the idea! I ended up with two cards.

The card on the left uses Almost Amethyst cardstock and Lavendar Lace ink for the Celebrate sentiment. The card on the right is on a Pale Plum base with Lavendar Lace ink again. I love the purple sparkly ribbon however! Both of these cards will be going to my Aunt Greta in the days leading up to her 106th birthday which you can read about HERE.

Smiles,

Jewelry Color Inspiration

After quite the day at school (children who wouldn't listen, whiney children, a crying child at dismissal, sand all over the floor, stolen Pokemon cards--Pokemon cards period!--and a screaming, crying child that I dragged to the bus with the asst. principal) I needed to make a card! So I sat down with Stacey's colors for this week's Jewelry Color Inspiration and Our Creative Corner sketch for this week.

There wasn't much stamping on this card. I drew the stems for the flowers, which were stickers! Feeling much better now, though I'm jealous of all you on summer vacation already! 13 days to go....but who's counting?

Smiles,

Paper: Garden Green DSP, Whisper White, Certainly Celery, pink (as close to pretty in pink as I could)

Ink: Certainly Celery

Stamps: Refuge and Strength (SU)

Other: Sandylion stickers, pink ribbon (unknown)

Yay, a card!!!

I got right to work on this week's Mojo Monday sketch and was able to make a card. It seems like forever since that's happened!

When I went to make this card all I knew was that I wanted to use my fun two-toned crocheted flower. I found a couple of sites with directions to crochet your own embellisments (here and somewhere else that I can't currently locate!) and I made these using DMC embroidery floss, which I have tons of. It makes the flowers much smaller than yarn as I tried before on this card, and the colors are bold and have endless possibilities. I see many of these in my future! They only took me about five minutes each and I'm sure I'll get the pattern down, and variations to make a few different types.

Thanks for all the sweet comments while I was away, it brightens my day as I struggle through a rainy day with kids who think today is the last day, not FOURTEEN school days from now. Oy, it's going to be a long month. I'll try to post some NYC pics tomorrow, just have to do a bit of organizing first.

Smiles,


Paper: Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Candy Lane DSP
Ink: Tempting Turquoise
Stamps: A True Friend (SNS)
Other: Blackbird brad, crocheted flowers (handmade, DMC floss)

June bugs

Back from NY and soooooooooooo tired! I spent most of my time after school today working in my raspberry patch and making a second one. I love pie! And I've been trying to catch up on some blogs, so no time for cards today.

June is always a busy month in school, but oddly there are a few bugs going around school. Hopefully I catch none of them, because there's too much to do to be home sick. I did however find some cool blog candy that Marie is offering HERE, that may interest you.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll find time for a card, and I can upload a few photos from the new Yankee Stadium. All I know is the jumbotron in center field is a better picture than my tv.....and I was behind home plate in the upper deck, clear across the field and it was still better than sitting 8 feet away from mine on the couch!

Smiles,

Fun Stuff

Happy Saturday morning! Time for another Unscripted Sketch, which is sure to be a fun Sketch it Saturday since our DT is complete and AMAZING this week!. Here's my card inspired by this week's sketch:

I LOVE puzzles, they truly are fun stuff!!! My parents haven't had a puzzle out in their 'great room' lately so now that summer is on the way perhaps I can dig one out for them and stop by to complete it.

I used my Sizzix puzzle piece dies to create my pieces. I found a fun picture from a back issue of Real Simple and (being the frugal person that I am) I glued it to an expired JJill coupon that was in the magazine to give it some heft. The best part is I still have three other puzzle pieces floating around my "someday" basket to be used on a project elsewhere.

Be sure to check out Unscripted Sketches and all the other DT's inspiration. Can't wait to see what you make....when I get back from NY. Off to see the Yankees this weekend!!!

Smiles,

It's Friday!!!

One last card before I head to school and then off to NY. I love Stacey's jewelry color inspiration and managed to find something teal to work on this one.

I paired it up with this week's Sweet n' Sassy sketch (love the size) and here's my card:

My camera died (well the batteries) after I took this picture so I couldn't get a better one. How will I take pictures of the new Yankee Stadium??? Perhaps DH will be running an errand before we leave today.....

Smiles,