JUGS Banner Challenge #18

Dana is hosting this week and I love what she has come up with......making a banner (as always, I did something different and didn't do a pennant banner!). I kinda cheated, not really, but I made my banner about 3 months ago right before Kale was born. I wanted something to hang up in his room at the hospital so this is what I came up with. I used my Pazzles (the cutter that I very much dislike!) and cut out the letters. The shapes I copied off of the bedding from Kale and Ethan's room and then cut everything out of felt. I used the sewing machine to stitch around the edges and then handstitched the rest. I finally (just because of this challenge) got it hung up in Kale's room. My plan is to make a personalized frame above this. I have it designed, just haven't had the time to make it yet!

Here is another banner that I made for Ethan's 4th birthday last year. I have it hanging up in Kale's room too. It used to hang above Ethan's bed and I switched things around a bit when we got ready for Kale to be born. The story behind this is SOOO cute. We had this hanging up at our friend's house where we had his party because it was hot out and they have a pool. He told our friend Brick, "Look Brick it says Happy Birthday Ethan"! Isn't that adorable. He was so serious and really thought the sign said that!

Here's Ethan sporting his new black hat! He didn't like this at first and wore his Wal-Mart $5 red hat for the longest time, then Uncle Aaron wore his and Ethan hardly took his off since that day! Isn't he just adorable!! Miss you E!

JUGS Template Challenge #17 and a My Time Made Easy Sneak Peak!

It's Saturday already! Wow this week went by quickly. I got to do a lot of crafting so that is always fun. Lots to share today. The challenge this week for JUGS was to use a template and I used a new template, Happy Mail, coming out from Lauren Meader's new store, My Time Made Easy. This little mailbox is ADORABLE!!! I couldn't stop with just one. I made the little pink one for Ava Girl and the Cowboy Pig is for Kale. The paper is all new too from My Time Made Easy Digi paper. They have some wonderful new gingham coming out and the flower paper is just too cute! I wanted to make Ava's a little more vintage and Kale's was just supposed to be cutesy. Can you see the cute little chick? That is Ava's nickname, Chicky. She doesn't really like to be called it anymore, but it has just kind of stuck!

I added some stitching to my digi paper and a red scalloped edge to both sides of my mailbox. I LOVE this paper that Kristin has created for Lauren!!! Here's my little Cowboy Pig a little closer!

The stamp images are from a new set coming out from My Time Made Easy February Release called Critters with Heart.....this set is just TOO CUTE!!! You will have to get it to use not only for Valentines, but for all year! I HATE mice....the real ones, but you have to admit that this little guy is just way too cute! This was the first image that I played with and I just love it....look at those tiny little whiskers!

Lauren is sponsoring us this week - that means she is giving away some
BLOG CANDY (A $25 gift certificate to MTME store) to one of our
participants. Lauren has a FREE TEMPLATE that you can use to participate in the contest. Hop over to the JUGS blog for all the details!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope all of you have a great weekend!

Pink Cat Studio "ROBOT" Release!

You are not going to want to miss out on these images! These are just TOO CUTE!! I chose to use the little girl robot, but I cut her hands off and added the Happy Birthday sentiment. I paperpieced her dress and made her all girly! Don't these just make you smile! I made this for my sister-in-law's 11th birthday this weekend. I should have made it purple because that is her favorite color, but pink was calling me! I've been a busy bee this week getting stuff made....and even getting it finished early. Be sure to check out my frame from my post yesterday. Tomorrow is All About Ava Thursday! I told her we could do whatever she wanted to and the first thing on her list is to make cookies. We'll see what the day brings. Hopefully Kale will cooperate so we can have a fun day! Have a good Thursday! Be sure to check out Melissa's blog and the PCS Digi Store and all the gals on the design team!

Scrapbooking Fun!

FINALLY a gift completed! I've been saying I was going to make this gift for quite some time now. Our friends had their first baby in June, right after Ethan passed away and I'm just now getting to his gift. I knew what I wanted to make, but finding the time and energy since Ethan's passing and having a new baby has been slim to none. Of course I'm not and never will be over Ethan, but dealing with the loss of sleep from our new baby seems managable now. I asked my friend for some favorite photos of her little guy and I don't know if you remember the shower gift I made for them a while back, but this is what I based my design after. It matches the bedding in the room. I'm going to add both of these frames to my Etsy shop and will note that I will take orders for these particular items. This is going to be my "shop" until the website is up and running. My Etsy link is on my side bar.

Here is a picture of the bedding for Isaac's room.

The Shower Gift:

and FINALLY the Baby Gift! (These type items can be orderd as a specialty item too) I just refer to them as my Baby Frames, but I make them for all ages. I even have one up in Ava's room too.

The kiddos are down for naps and I'm trying to work on some crafty items while they are asleep. The weather is so yucky out we have been in all day. They even closed school due to the ice. I'll be back tomorrow with a little card to share with the new Pink Cat Studio Digi Images.

Baby Kale is 2 months old

I had to share......isn't Kale just too cute!!!

JUGS Color Challenge #16

I LOVE this color combo! Kristin knows her colors!!! I inked up my favorite new stamp set, All A Flutter from My Time Made Easy, designed by Lauren Meader! I just love it. I added some decorative edges to my paper with my new scallop edge punch from SU and then embossed my paper with my cuttlebug. The brackets are stamped with a Sale-A-Bration set from SU and punched with the matching punch. I added a little bling on the butterflies wings too.

Hope all of you that are stopping by can play along. Be sure to link up your creations to the JUGS site. All the other gals links are on my left side bar.

I'm off to bed......we have my brother-in-laws wedding in the morning so it is going to be a busy, but fun day!

New Digis from Pink Cat Studio

I'll be back to add details a bit later......life got very busy getting ready for several family events so I'll beback later today......but be sure to stop by Melissa's blog.

Color Throwdown with Butterflies

My friend Kristin is the newest member for the Color Throwdown Challenge Team. I decided I would play along this week and see what I could create with her color challenge. The colors are:

I wanted to ink up my new stamps from My Time Made Easy.....aren't these butterflies just wonderful! I just love how the butterflies look like they are flying right off of the card. I used some of My Time Easy's digital patterned paper too.......it's great. I didn't leave my house to get paper at the store, just clicked print and walla! I just open up the digi image with Windows Picture Viewer, a program that comes with your PC, click print, choose borderless 8 1/2 x 11 and you should have a full sheet of patterned paper.

I added a few dew drops that I thought made the card pop too. I love the definition paper.....it added just the right background for my butterflies! This card is for my Mom's birthday that is coming up on the 25th. It is also her 40th wedding anniversary as well!

Hope all of you are having a great weekend. It is still very cold here, but the word is that it might warm up today....isn't that crazy when we think warm is 25 degrees......sure beats the -8 temp when I got home last night!

Pink Cat Studio is Introducing Paper Piecing Projects....and a $50 Give Away!

Be sure to check this GIVE AWAY out! Melissa with Pink Cat Studio is introducing something new and exciting!

Today Pink Cat Studio is expanding yet again! Last September it was Digi Stamps and today it’s Paper Piecing Projects. These fun projects are great for card making, scrapbooking and any kind of 3D crafting. The project files are formatted for those who like to cut and paper piece by hand and for those who have an electronic cutter.
Check out these fun new projects here:

http://www.pinkcatstudio.com/Digital/PaperPiecing/NewPaperPiecingProjects.htm

Melissa is also having a fun contest and the winner will receive a $50 gift certificate to the PCS rubber or digi store! To enter the contest you will download a free Paper Piecing Project and then make a fun craft with it, anything you like. So not only will you get to try a Paper Piecing Project for free, you could also win some PCS goodies.
Visit the PCS blog today to find out about how to enter the contest and get your free Paper Piecing Project.

JUGS Technique Challenge #15

It's already Saturday.....believe me, this week didn't go by very quickly! It has been so frigid here and then snow, so I literally didn't leave the house for days! I had cabin fever until yesterday! It's time for another challenge from JUGS! This week Mona is the hostess and the challenge is to use stitching on your project. I love to use stitching, but I admit that I'm a little lazy at times to get my sewing machine out, but while I had it out I made a couple projects with it.

Here is a card using a new set from PTI, Tiny Treats Valentine, that I got for Christmas. I LOVE getting stamping stuff at Christmas time, even more than clothes! Having new toys to play with is always fun. Don't you just love this little airplane...I do. I stitched around the edges on kraft cardstock. The patterned paper is just something I had in my stash....the back didn't even say where it was from. The ribbon and paper are all from PTI.

Hope all of you have a wonderful weekend! Be sure to stop by the JUGS blog and link up your creations using stitching. Look at my sidebar for all the links to the other gals sites!

A little DIGI fun!

I've been playing around with my Stampin' Up software, My Digital Studio today. I LOVE IT!!! I'm sure there are other programs out there that are similar, but this seems so easy to me and I know the colors and backgrounds and all the embellishments. It was so fun to create my new banner. I think I could really get into this digital scrapbooking! Creations For You is the title of my new card making business! I don't have my website up and running yet....but my husband keeps promising me he is going to help. It will be up and running soon! I'm going to be creating cards for any occasion that you would like and taking orders from people by them sending me their perpetual calendar and then I can make cards for them and send them monthly. I'll also have some specialty cards, invitations and such by order. We'll see how it all goes from there!

Both kiddos are down for a nap, laundry is almost finished (a little can wait for later right?), house is clean....must mean it is time to do some crafts! I got a little time away from my house today too....got a haircut and some groceries.....very exciting day! Thanks to my brother and sister-in-law for coming to watch my kids, I got to leave my house. I was starting to feel like I was being held captive!

I'm off to go be creative!

Pink Cat Studio 2010 Digi and Rubber Release!

Today is the day for Pink Cat Studio to release 5 new images! The three that will be in rubber & digi format are the Pixies make a cupcake, Lily Valentine Ballerina, and Lily Valentine Fairy. Lily & Billy Laying in hearts and Valentine Kitty are in digi format only. I chose to make a card with Lily and Billy laying in the hearts. It reminded me so much fo Ethan and Ava playing in the leaves during the fall. I added a little bling with some glitter on Lily's dress. This image is too cute and would be great to use on Valentine's for your kiddos at school.

We all have new things that we want to start or try in 2010, so if you haven't had a chance to try out a digi image yet, be sure to give it a whirl in 2010. They are fun to play with and the best part about them I think is that they are very easy to mass produce and you can size them any way you want. You don't need a fancy program either. I just use word and insert a picture, resize, print and I'm finished!

Be sure to link me to your samples....I'd love to see what you create!

Take a peak at Melissa's blog and look at my side bar <------ to see the links to the gals on the design team too! Don't forget about the Name the Pixies contest too! Stop back by on Sunday, Jan 10th. Melissa has some paper piecing releases that you won't want to miss!

Butterflies and Cheese! (2nd post today)

I've been working on a gift for Lauren Meader as a Congrats on her new business, My Time Made Easy. I finally finished it this morning. We live just down the road from Spirit Knob Winery and they have wonderful wines. If you have read my blog very often we go on walks there all of the time and ride our horses there too. I decided to send a little local gift from the winery. So I'm packing up some cheese and crackers to go with a bottle of wine from our favorite winery! I used her templates In A Pinch and All A Flutter to create this little gift for her. Be sure to check out her site....that is one creative gal!

The patterned paper is from SU. I have a bunch of patterned paper so I thought I would use that since I know she loves purple. Lauren also has digital paper though to print out so be sure to check it out too. One little thing that I did to the top of the gift is add some velcro so you can keep the pretty template, but open and close it to get your gift out!

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to stop back in tomorrow. We have some new digis to show from Pink Cat Studio and a sample too!

2010 Pink Cat Studio Release Sneak Peak

It's a new year and time for some NEW Pink Cat Studio Images. Melissa has outdone herself once again. Above is a little peak from my creation that I'll show you tomorrow. So be sure to stop back by tomorrow. Head over to Melissa's blog and follow the links to all the other design team members to see what they have to share with you as well. Melissa has a little contest for you too. Name the Pixies!

Pink Cat Studio is introducing some new Pixie characters this Thursday and we are having a contest to celebrate!
The Pixies have picked out their own pixie names and you have to guess which names they picked. Visit the Pink Cat Studio blog to read the contest details and enter the contest.

JUGS Sketch Challenge #14

It's Saturday once again. Happy New Year to everyone! I'm getting used to my husband being off work and letting me sleep in. I think Monday is going to be rough :-) This week was a sketch challenge for JUGS and I finally sat down yesterday evening and got my card made. I guess I'm really into baby cards lately! (wonder why?) I have another card to share, but will wait for another day. I used this buggy from PTI's set Bitty Baby Blessings. My soon to be sister-in-law's sister is expecting so I helped her make some baby shower invites the other day. Isn't the back ground paper just wonderful. TOMORROW.....be sure to head over to MY TIME MADE EASY. My good friend LAUREN will have her GRAND OPENING! I'm so excited for her. You can purchase this paper from her. It's called That Hit the Spot. It is available now and it is digital. My good friend KRISTIN is creating all of these wonderful papers for Lauren. I'm very excited to see everything tomorrow. What's nice is if you are working on a project and you want some paper and don't want to make a trip to the store, just print out some digital paper.....so easy! The sentiment on my card is a new set from Stampin Up! They are now making rubber stamps that are clear mounted. This is the first set I purchased from them and I'm very happy with it. Can you see my pearl embellishements. It's hard to see them in the picture, but they really add to the card and I used SU's new border punch too. I love it!

I better get back to my "Mommy job". It's almost time for Baby Kale to eat! I have some great pictures to share of my husband, daughter and our burro. Dave, my husband, made a contraption for our burro so he could hook him up to a sled and pull Ava around the yard. Believe me, it was a site to see!

I'll be back soon.....I'm hoping to get a new site up soon. I said I was working on something and I am, just taking a little longer than I had hoped. I'm going to finally start making cards for other people.....invites, baby announcements, personalized frames......I can't wait to get started. So if you know anyone that wants something like this, just let me know.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Be sure to hop over to the JUGS site to see all the other creations too!
Our guest designer this month is: Gabby Be sure to stop by and check out all of her creations!

Kristin, Tracey, Lisa, Mona, Maria, Pam, Dana,