Lauren's Technique Challenge.....Embossing Vellum

Here's my little sneak peak!

This seemed to be a tough challenge for just about everyone as there were a lot of questions e-mailed about on this challenge. I will say that I've never done this technique before, but I do like the possibilities that you can do with this. I wanted to use my new set from PTI, Star Prints. I went with a patriotic theme, but am going to use this card for one of the graduation parties that we are invited to. The colors I used are SU's Night of Navy, Real Red, and PTI's white and vellum cardstock. The first thing I did was cut out a piece of vellum card stock and I stamped the stars with versamark. I then added dazzling diamonds before it dried to add a little bling. Next I flipped the paper over and traed the outlines of the stars with my stylus to give it an embossed outline. I finished my paper by added some red and blue tiny stars. The frame for the vellum was a rectangle cut 1/4" larger on each side and then I start with a square punch and cut the remainder out with my paper cutter to create a handmade frame. I punched out little stars and added to the centers of my glittered stars with some stamping dimensionals.

On the home front, I'm typing this on Tuesday morning as things seem to be getting complicated around here. Yesterday was good in the morning, but the afternoon and evening weren't so great. We're still working on getting pain medication at a level that will control my son's pain and something to relieve his stomach ache. It's probably going to be a long week so I thought I would get this ready to go. Hope you enjoy my creations and be sure to check out what everyone else has this week to:

Lauren

Dana G

Kristin

Pam

Tamara Harder

Tracey Cuccia

Maria

Mackenzie

Best Day (in a long time!)

My son is feeling so much better today! This is the best day we have had with him in a very long time. Ava, Ethan, and I are playing legos....I had to take a quick break! He is smiling and just acting like his old self. He's been 3 days now off of the medicine that makes him feel so yucky....I imagine we'll start back up on it today, but we'll just take things one day at a time. Here's a picture of me and the kiddos last night. I had to talk Ethan into smiling for this pic, but not today. He's eating too! Miracles really do happen!

Splash of Color Challenge

It's time for Lauren's Color Challenge! Above is a sneak peak of everyone's projects for this week. This was a fun set of colors to combine. The colors I chose were all from PTI, Rasberry Fizz, Summer Sunshine, Berry Sorbet, Aqua Mist, and Spring Moss. The first thing I wanted to use was a strawberry from one of my favorite PTI sets: Green Thumb. This is one of the most versatile sets. Below is our list of colors to incorporate in our card for this week.

Here is what I came up with. This card looks so summery to me. I even got out my needle and thread and sewed a little button on it.

On the home front.....life has been so stressful. Ethan still doesn't feel good and today marks 4 weeks of this. It's more than frustrating to him and to us. The doctor wants us to try cutting back on his meds and see if that helps a bit....I sure hope it does because we miss seeing our bubbly Ethan. We did take him to the new movie Night at the Museum 2 this afternoon and he seemed to like it, but after it was over he really felt bad. We just keep plugging along.....one day at a time. We're looking forward to a relaxing weekend here at home. We do have to make a trip to the hospital tomorrow for Ethan to get some platelets, but hopefully that will be all of the hospital fun for one weekend. Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to stop by and see the other gals creations!

Dana G
Dawn Easton
Jennifer
Kendra
Kristen
Lisa
MacKenzie
Odette
Pam
Tamara Harder
Tracey Cuccia

Pink Butterflies with Bling!

I cased my original card so I could make it work for stamp club tonight. This butterfly is from the Great Friend set from SU's mini catalog. The colors are Pink Pirouette, Kraft, and white. I used Pink Pirouette desinger series paper for the background and I got out my cuttlebug to cut out the background pieces and then I embossed them as well. Three Little Words is a text set from SU that is very cute.

I'm always posting as I try to get my kids down for a nap. Hopefully they will get some rest today. Ethan has had a rough day of not feeling well. This medicine is just for the birds. I wish we didn't have to give it to him, but it seems to be helping out his cancer. My brother-in-law and his girlfriend are coming shortly to watch my kiddos for a bit while I got and get a very needed hair cut. I'm getting it chopped! It has gotten pretty long and all I seem to do is put it in a pony tail. Hopefully this will give me a little pick me up!

The rest of the week is pretty busy so I don't know if you'll see me back here until Sat morning with Lauren's challenge.....until then, Happy Stampin!

Butterflies with Bling!

I just got through making this card with my new butterfly nestabilities....I love them. I made this for our pstor and his wife for their 25th anniversary. I really love this color combination. I needed a little stamping to get me back on track...it's been a long weekend here at our house with our son. He hasn't felt good now in over 3 weeks and it is wearing on all of us. I feel really bad for him because I'm sure he wants nothing more than to feel like his old self too.

Back to my card.....I used a couple of my new PTI sets, Life and Damask Designs. I also used my other new nestability for the background...I can't remember the name and I'm trying to get the kiddos down for a nap. The background paper is from PTI too. Hope you enjoy. I'll be back this week with more as time allows. We've been heading to the hospital every 3rd day to get platelets for our son, so we haven't had a lot of down time lately. I need to take a calgon bath....think it would help?

Lauren's Saturday Template Challenge

Here's a little sneak peek at what the team has in store for this week!

It's time again for Lauren's challenge of the week. This week the challenge was to use one of her templates that are for sale at PTI and create something with the color purple or use butterflies. At first I thought we were supposed to do both, but I got that figured out and I went with the color purple. It's been an interesting week so trying to get this accomplished was a bit of a task, but I did it! Here is what I came up with. I added a couple decks of cards and a notepad to keep score. I had intentions of putting some card game instructions, but that part just didn't happen. I took apart the card box and used that to cut a template to stamp. I really like how this part turned out! Hope you enjoy my creation. Be sure to stop by the gals on the team and see what they came up with.

A look inside my template:

Decorated notebook and deck of playing cards:

Details:

Stamps: Remember (PTI)

Cardstock: Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant, White (SU)

Ribbon: Plum Pudding Satin (PTI)

Template: All Wrapped Up (PTI)

THE TEAM:

·Lauren Meader

Dawn Easton

MacKenzie Bruckler

Maria Levine

Tamara Harder

Kendra

Alicia

Dana

Lisa

Odette

Jennifer

Tracey

Kristin

Pam

Good News for a Change!

We finally got some good news.....it's been months since we left the oncologists with good news. Ethan's cancer has not spread and looks less intense on his latest scans yesterday. We'll be continuing on the drug he is currently taking. This was a very pleasant surprise to us as we had prepped ourselves for the worst. He doesn't feel well and now we know it is the drug that is making him feel crummy, but we are going to work on balancing out the side effects and making him feel good again. Makes for a great start to the weekend, despite the fact that is hasn't stopped raining since early morning!

Stop back by tomorrow morning for my template for Lauren's challenge!

Baby Gift

Here is the inspiration piece to my baby gift! Isn't this pattern adorable! I entered this for PTI's Guest Star Stamper this month.

My post is going to be short and sweet as we ended up in the hospital unexpectedly tonight so my son could get platelets. He wants the computer so he can play his Thomas game, so I'm getting kicked off. A real quick funny story about this gift is that there is only one bop (pacifier). The package had two in it, but my daughter thougth that we should keep one so we could have it for our new baby! So that is what happened! I'll probably be away for a few days since we'll be in the hospital for appointments, but I'll hopefully be back on Sat with another template to share with you.

New Little Baby!

A friend our mine had a baby shower on Sat and is having a little boy in June. Her story is very special as she fought and won her battle against childhood leukemia when she was just a teenager. She is now 30 and doing great. This is the card that I made to go with her baby gift.....I'll show that later this week. I used one of Lauren's templates to make her something for the baby's room. I really like how it turned out. The card and present match the baby's bedding. I've got to run today, so I'll be back tomorrow to show you the gift I made to go with this.

Happy Mother's Day!

It's about 8:00 on Mother's Day, but that still leaves a few hours in the day! I wanted to share my card that I made for my Mom and Grandma. I noticed one of the squares are crooked, but I'm sure they didn't look that closely. We had a really nice day. We went to church in the morning and got home to make a late lunch for my family. It was really fun and the kids had a really good time. Ethan had a really good day .... yesterday was a completely different story, but I think we might be getting closer to having his steroids at the right dose, so that is good. This afternoon/early evening has been bit of struggle, but definitely better than yesterday.

My card uses a new set for me, Remember from PTI. I have wanted this set for a long time so I just ordered it a couple weeks ago. The flowers in this are so pretty! The colors I used are Hibiscus Burst and Rasberry Fizz from PTI. I really like this color combo. I have a couple other cards ready to share with you for this week. I'm very glad I'm getting back into stamping more.....it is definitely a way to get away from the "real world" and I really enjoy it! Thanks for all of you that stop by and especially thanks for leaving a note, I read and appreciate each and everyone of them!

Time to Inspire Challenge

I'm back and I have a card to share for Lauren's My Time to Inspire Challenge. Here is the image that we were given to work with. Isn't this dress adorable? I love the color combination with the lavendar, spring moss and white. I chose to make some background paper and to add a little flower embellishment to tie the 2 together. This is my first time stamping in a long time, so this card took me a couple of tries. Here is a little preview of what the entire team came up with. Be sure to take a look at their sites to see all of their creations too! Lauren will have a sample to share Saturday night, so be sure to take another peak later Satuready night.

Dana G
Dawn Easton
Jennifer
Kristen
Lisa
MacKenzie
Maria
Odette
Pam
Tracey Cuccia
Tamara Harder

My card uses PTI's anniversary set "Everyday Classics". I love this set and am so glad that I earned it this year. My colors are Spring Moss and White from PTI and Almost Amethyst from SU. The ribbon and patterned paper are from PTI. I thought this card might be cute with stitching around the edges too. I just ran out of time this week.

It's been a rather hectic week with medical stuff at our house. We ended up at the hospital on Wed for platelets and blood for Ethan. We didn't get there until 3:00 and didn't leave until 9:30. So, we didn't pull into our drive until 12:30. It made for a long day, but they arranged a doctor's visit while we were there too so we didn't have to go back on Friday. That was nice. Ethan's really been fighting nausea, so we are trying to get that under control. Today's battle was diarhea....it's always something. He seems to have had a good day though as far as his leg pain goes. Ethan even went to school and that is the first time he has wanted to do that all week! We just take things one day at a time!

It's good for me to get back into the stamping mode. This is a hobby that definitely keeps my mind off of things. I made a baby shower gift from Lauren's From the Desk of template. I love how it turned out and I can't wait to show you. I'm submitting it for PTI's Guest Star Stamper contest this month. I haven't entered this in several months and I used to never miss a month. Hopefully you will start to see more of my "stuff", time allowing at our house. I have to make some Mother's Day cards tomorrow, so I'll share those with you at the beginning of the week. Thanks so much for stopping by. It's good to be back!

Back to Stampin! (and other news)

Hope you noticed my new picture at the top of the page. That was taken today out by our tulips. The kids planted these last fall and are so proud that they grew! We were outside getting ready to play ball, but I made the kids sit for a "photo shoot" first! All is going fairly well here. Ethan has been having pain in his legs and his back, but he keeps trucking along and we keep trying whatever there is to make things better. I think that the longer this goes on, the harder it gets....seems odd, but you just wish you could do so much more. We're enjoying life though and are really loving the wonderful spring weather that has hit our area.

On a stamping note, I'm going to get back into Lauren's Saturday challenges, so you'll be seeing a creation from me at least once a week...I can't promise more, but I'll try. I needed a little "pick me up" so I decided to get motivated and try this again. She has mixed things up a bit and I think you will like it.

On a "family note", we have some big news to share. I'm pregnant and we will be expecting our third little bundle of joy on Nov 28th. We are very excited and the kids are too. Ethan says it is a boy and Ava says it is a girl. Either way we are just wanting a happy and healthy little one. As if life isn't crazy enough!

On Monday, my husband saved a baby kitty from a tree in our yard. I guess the Mama either moved it there or decided that a tree would be a nice place to have her

kitten! Here are some pics of the kiddos with the newest animal on our "farm"......see you back here on Saturday!