Another Birthday is coming....

My *baby* turns six this month. I thought I'd better get going on her birthday plans & invitations. She's playing with a friend this afternoon, so I thought I'd work on one & see if she likes it. I knew I had to incorporate her favorite color (orange!) and tried to add some pink in there too ;-) A card isn't a card unless there's some ribbon & punches used {LOL}. So we'll see what the verdict is when she gets home. I thought I'd get her to help me run the paper through the cuttlebug, she'll love that!!
The weekend has arrived :-) YEAH! I'm have four of my nieces & nephews over for a slumber party this weekend -- so there will be seven children here. Yikes, what have I gotten myself into! :) They'll have fun. Still need to run out and get the junk & movies for them. Then Saturday is ball & Sunday is MOTHER'S DAY! So I'm hoping to RELAX! I think to start the weekend off, we'll take the kids to the ocean for some fish & chip for dinner.... sounds like a perfect weekend kick-off. Can't beat this weather either.... lovely.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is this weekend -- don't you just ((LOVE)) Mother's Day?! :) Of course my card will be late -- just couldn't find stamping time until this morning. I had a different idea in mind, but didn't have all the supplies I needed so I will have to lock that up in the idea bin (aka my brain!) and use it another time. I know this set is retired (as was my last post - sheesh), but I LOVE the sketches sets. They are so soft & warm and this was the first one out & still one of my most loved! I know many demo's sell off their *retired* sets, but I usually can't. I have some I can part with, but many of them will be used over & over again. When I have the time, I love to watercolor. Our wonder crayons are awesome for this. Add an aqua painter to the mix & you're good to go! No little jars of water to potentially spill, which is why I almost always grab that nifty aqua painter!! Love it. Also found a little chipboard 'm' that I pressed into Old Olive craft ink & covered with clear embossing powder. It's got a little bit of everything here ( perhaps a bit too busy?!?!) but that's the life of a mom! BUSY. There's buttons to sew on here & there, ribbon & laces to tie, coloring together (or scrubbing it off the wall {LOL}).... lots of memories! To all the mom's out there -- have a HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY -- celebrating .... YOU! :)

Here's the *pink* version :)

A new toy - a cuttlebug!

OK... so I've been doing a lot of juggling (not the paid, balls in the air type), but juggling just the same. I had my day fully booked today and my oldest started getting sick this morning :( Poor thing. Isn't it amazing how CRAMMED a day can be, and then the next moment you are completely free to stay home with your sick baby. I love that. I love how the world can be such a crazy place and I can be scrambling within it, but when our little ones get sick it all comes to a hault so we can be there. So my day is less busy as she sleeps this morning. While she's resting I thought I'd share my other birthday card I finally finished. I pulled out my new toy - CUTTLEBUG! First off, adorable name, secondly -- so cool! I had to call my girls in and show them and see them OOOH & AHHH... even hubby thought it was pretty cool. I got it about six weeks ago (I know, I know -- crazy), and finally got it out to play with. Here's a birthday card & I'm almost done the feminine version which I'll post here today as well. Still have mother's day cards to do as well so maybe I'll get at that tonight. The sun is shining & it was amazing yesterday -- almost felt like summer!! Marvelous.
For the card, I used Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip & Brocade Blue cardstock (and ink). I love how SU coordinates everything and I could reach over and grab a couple artichoke brads -- greens are so hard to match! Love that SU makes it easy. Some sponging on the edges; of course a few punches (circles & ticket punch on the corner), stampin' dimensionals to pop up the circle riveting image....

Where's all the stamping?!

I'm sure missing vacation time! :) I think my last GOOD stamping session was on the boat! It has been truly crazy here with ball four times a week, school field trips (I honestly don't remember having THIS many when I was a kid), swimming lessons, family dinners - missed those this week, and of course all the other things we as mom's juggle & do. Needless to say, I started a masculine birthday card and the it's still sitting on my table with ONE stamped image on it! {LOL}. I have cleaned (ok, started to clean) my stampin' area, so that's a big step. I can't seem to create in chaos. So my goal this week is to get something done. I have no choice really with a couple birthdays in the next while, a baby to be born (yeah, Auntie again!!), Mother's Day (REALLY gotta get on that one -- thought I'd try those envelope cards -- I'll post!)...... so I thought I'd poke my head in here & say HELLO! and bask in the memory of Fort Lauderdale..... oh those warm breezes are calling my name! :)

Punch Idea

We were able to get close & personal with a new punch box set that will be coming out in the new July catalog. It's adorable :) When it was being demonstrated, it was said again & again to balance the size of a card with the size of a stamp set. Makes sense doesn't it. How many times have a grabbed a wee little stamp wondering HOW to get it to work on a full card front sized card?! DUH. There were a lot of small cards (even a tiny one!) demonstrated. This little frog card wasn't made by me and I should have written down the creator with my photos, but I didn't - sorry! Very clever though. She took the set of 3 flower punch-out, covered it partially with the ribbon and voila! they become little frogs! TOO CUTE. Honestly I wonder who thinks of these things -- CLEVER LADIES! Proves to me that I need more stampin' time! LOL.

Punch Happy

I *snuck* some stampin' time over the last couple of days. You know how it goes... 5 minutes here (punch a few things) -- 10 minutes there (ink & stamp QUICK) --- forget the dishes and grab another 15 minutes (woohoo!). Of course now my house LOOKS like I snuck some stamping time! YIKES. Kids are here playing with sand from the Bahamas! LOL --- i see they have dumped it all out in a container (I almost filled a 1L bottle!) and have a spoon and they are having a grand 'ol time! :) As long as there's enough to incorporate into my next set of cruise pages!

OK, back to my stolen stampin' moments. Some of my favorite spring colors are apricot appeal, pretty in pink & certainly celery. My little girl's fav color is ORANGE, and when I was making her invites last year it was all orange & pink and I fell in love with that nifty little combo. So I played with my circle punches & made some flowers, stamped some -- added some buttons and a couple brads. I tried a new little tip from the cruise -- take the white stazon and coat your brads to make them white! :) I found it was a bit "sticky" so I used the heat gun & that seemed to "dry" them enough to handle.

Also used the new punch from the mini (love that one) and decided to use it to hold a ribbon and then make the parenthesis with it as well :)

Now I need to make a few masculine ones.... stay tuned ;-)