Quick Little Picture Frame

I finally stamped! I haven't been in the mood to do much of any stamping all week. Tomorrow we head to St. Louis so Ethan can have an MRI of his right knee. I'm probably the most worried that I have been since we were waiting on bone marrow results back in December. No fun at all! I've just been trying to keep busy this week with the kids. Today we went to play minature golf and Ethan had a good time. He had his cousin along with him so that was fun, but Ava would have rather of been at home! She was in a sour mood until we left!!!




Here is a picture of what I made for PTI's Guest Star Stamper for August. I finally got it to upload....I've been trying all day and couldn't get it to work, but it just did!!! I used one of their clear boxes and made it into a picture frame. I love how it turned out and it couldn't have been any easier or cheaper! I made basically a card front using my new favorite picture of the kids. I used two sets from PTI, "BELIEVE" and "Out on a Limb". The polka dot paper is new from last month. I borrowed my Mom's paper. I haven't gotten my "I want it all package" yet because the Wise Owl set is still on back order. Oh well.....that will give me something new to play with in a few weeks! I wrapped the clear box with wide brown satin ribbon to keep it shut! It's so light too and could be used on a refrigerator if you wanted to add a magnet! The cardstock is SU's new Riding Hood Red, and Kraft from PTI. I used Chocolate Chip and Riding Hood Red Ink from SU!



Funny story about my new Riding Hood Red ink. I was using it last week and I also was using my chocolate chip and noticed that my chocolate chip was getting a little dry. I went to reink it and after I was half way over the ink pad I realized that I had put it on my new Riding Hood Red pad....what do you do??? Guess I know what I'll be ordering this month! That will teach me to stamp at 5:00 a.m. again!

If you read my blog, "BELIEVE" is my sort of "Theme" if you will over the past year. I'm going to use this on my desk when I start back to work next month.....yep, that's right! I'm going to be heading back part time and work on Mondays and Tuesdays for the same engineering firm that I used to work for. I'll have to see if I can blow the dust off of my "Stamps", different kind than I get to have "FUN" with. My Dad always likes to rub it in that my "PE" stamps make a lot more money than my "rubber stamps!" One year for Christmas he even stamped his very own wrapping paper with his "PE" (Professional Engineer) stamp, just to be funny! It was too cute.....my Mom said that he actually wrapped all of my presents that year! Guess Dad is right.....I'm still not making money off of my rubber stamps, but I sure do have "fun" with them and that is all that counts!

As always, I had to post a couple pictures of my kids. These are of Ethan this week. He loves his new bike and was posing on our walk to the winery! The next picture he is standing in front of his new fence for his Make-A-Wish Horse. He's very excited about getting his horse, Sonador!


Now I'm off to bed.......6:00 am departure is going to get here quickly!!!

Thanks for taking a look. I'm hoping that I get good news about my son tomorrow so I can relax a little and start stamping a little more!

Sketch time with "Lauren Meader"

Here is Lauren's Saturday Sketch!

It's Saturday! I'm writing this before I even get the good news from our son's scans.....so I'm being optimistic that all is clear! I couldn't sleep Friday morning so I got up around 5:00 and worked on my card for the sketch......time was hard to find this week as we traveled to and from the hospital everyday since Wednesday. I really liked the sketch this week! I thought about using buttons, then about just circles and when I sat down to make the card, I decided on stars....why not! I flipped the sketch over and here is what I ended up with. Ethan just had his Cowboy Birthday Party and I need to make thank yous!

We just got him new bedding too for his room. He wants a cowboy room now. He has the cutest train bedroom, but he has been asking for quite some time now for a cowboy room with matching curtains and bedding.....no kidding, he is only 4, but he really did ask for matching curtains and bedding! It's adorable. He picked it out from Target.....so now my Grandma will have more curtains to make! She has made all of the curtains in my house.....expect Ava's room and my Mom made those! This time we are going to use extra bed sheets.

We are off to the Ozarks for the weekend with friends. This will be nice because we haven't been anywhere, just the 2 of us in well over a year......probably longer than that! We'll proabaly worry about the kids the entire time, but that's okay! This will be the first time we have left Ethan overnight since he got sick last year! He is perfectly fine now so we have no problem leaving him. Ava is used to staying at Grandma and Papa's so she probably won't think anything of it! Hope we have a good time and hope all of you have a great weekend. If you try out Lauren's sketch, let me know on a post and I'll take a look! Here's the other gals on Lauren's and their websites......so take a look at what everyone has created this week!

Lauren Meader http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/

Tamara Harder http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com/
Maria Levine http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque http://www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com/
Kristy Vernon http://www.kvernon.blogspot.com/
Kim Gasper http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com/

MacKenzie Bruckler http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

"It's early Saturday morning now as I update my post". Our news from scans today wasn't what we had hoped for. They saw a "Spot" on the bone scan on Ethan's right knee and an "area" on the MIBG scan on his right knee. They are working on setting up an MRI for early next week and we'll take things from there. Please keep our son in your prayers. This could be Neuroblastoma, infection, or trauma and we are praying that it is just trauma. Time will tell.

BELIEVE!

I'm sitting in the hospital cafeteria typing this! My son, Ethan, is back getting scans and we are waiting....patiently! It was harder this time around because he doesn't have a broviac so they had to use some gas today before they will give him an iv and tomorrow he'll have to get the iv prior to getting sedated. These days are no fun.....worry, worry and more worry! I just try to keep myself busy, so I decided to take a picture of one of my favorite cards. This is our Christmas card from last year! Ethan was in the middle of his chemo treatments and we weren't getting good news and they were switching chemo drugs again. We wouldn't find out if it cleared his bone marrow until Dec 28, 2007. It was a glorious day when I got the phone call that his bone marrow was clear. We needed this so we could get Ethan's stem cells collected for a transplant that he had this past February! Ethan is doing great! The scans he is having are routine and will check to make sure no cancer has returned. We BELIEVE and pray with all our might that it will never return. Thought this might be appropriate to show our Christmas card from last year! He truly was the "MIRACLE OF THE SEASON!"

This morning I got the kids to sit on the steps for a quick picture. They are both being so silly, but they look so cute!

I'll be back on Saturday with Lauren's sketch cards. This week has just been a little much to get too much of anything accomplished, but I plan to stamp tonight when we get home.

See you back on Saturday!

Lauren Meader's Saturday Sketch Challenge!

Oh I can't tell you how excited I am about sharing these two cards with you. Lauren Meader has a Saturday Sketch and she now has a "team" of gals that are getting to play along with her sketch on Saturdays! I really love this sketch, especially after I started playing with it. This first card is so much prettier in person....you can see the sparkle from the added rhinestones.....click on the image so you can see that part close up. The main image is from "Out on a Limb" by PTI. I just love this set! The sentiment is from Small Sayings by SU. I used two of my favorite colors from SU, Pink Pirouette and Chocolate Chip. The flowers were punched with Martha Stewart's Hydrangea punch and the ribbon is Chocolate Chip Grosgrain from SU. There are tiny rhinestones added to the centers of the flowers for some "Bling!"


You'll have to check out the following blogs too as all of us have used the same sketch.

Tamara Harder
Maria Levine
Dawn Easton
Kirsten Dubosque
Kristy Vernon
Kim Gasper
MacKenzie Bruckler


I adore this set "Bitty Baby Blessings" by PTI and have made a card very similar to this in color style, but thought it would look cute with this layout too! The little sail boat is paper pieced using the 6x6 Hostess package from SU! This card has a ton of layers. The colors I have used are Aqua Mist from PTI and Real Red from SU! The star punches are the 2 sizes that SU carries and the Oval Punch is from SU as well. The ribbon is Aqua Mist Satin Polka Dot from PTI. I used my Swiss Dots folder for my Cuttlebug for the background on the Aqua Mist too. Hope you give this sketch a try this week. If you do, feel free to link your image here and please share your creations with Lauren too so she can see all of the great ideas!




Here is the sketch that Lauren designed this week!

A little story about my evening last night too!!! My Dear Sweet Husband scored some free tickets to the local theater to see "Urinetown". Oh my goodness....this play is very interesting to say the least. It is about exactly what the title says. The performers were amazing, but the plot was a little on the weird side! To top it off, me being the "germaphobe" I am, I was sitting next to this elderly lady that was hacking up a storm! She wouldn't quit coughing and she started taking some medicine that smelled like oral Vix. I always....always have Germ-x to wash my hands with and I was searching through my purse and I couldn't find it! So at intermission I was heading straight to the bathroom to wash my hands.....but my husband pointed out that when the lady stood up next to me, her pants were half way down and her butt crack was right before my very eyes. My mouth nearly dropped to the floor.....we couldn't stop laughing! Luckily for us, the lady didn't return to her seat after intermission! It made for an interesting "date night!"

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Out on a Limb!

I finally ordered "Out on a Limb" from Papertrey Ink. I absolutely love it and you will be able to tell as I've been making quite a few cards with it this week! The first card I have to share is for a Dirty Dozen Splitcoast Challenge. These are colors

I don't usually use together (Black, Vanilla, and Old Olive). I think they look pretty together though! I used my cuttlebug to emboss the vanilla cardstock underneath.




This card I was going for Tone on Tone. I love pink as most of you know. I've been adding some "Bling" with rhinestones lately too. I used Out on a Limb from PTI and I used the new set from SU Heard from the Heart! The new catalog will be here soon......I can't wait! I'll be back with some more samples to share tomorrow!

"Mommy, Is it my Birthday today?"

The famous question that is being asked everyday now! "Mommy, Is it my birthday today?" "No Ethan, but it is coming up in one week." "Mommy, is that the day after tomorrow?" "No Ethan, not that day!" This comes up several times a day now! Ethan will be 4 years old next Tuesday, August 5th! He is such a neat little boy! He has a very cool personality and is very intrigued by everything. He's been cooped up for most of the last year getting chemo treatments, a transplant, radiation, you name it, this kid has been through a lot! So we don't take any day for granted. Ethan wants a Cowboy Birthday Party, so that is what he will be having! We don't have any horses yet, but that is only a month away too! YEE HAW!

Here is Ethan's Birthday Invite! He was coloring right along side me when I made these and he ran all of the red cardstock through the cuttlebug for me! He loves to help and really loves to do crafts. I'm getting a lot of use out of this Cowboy Kid set (retired from SU). A friend let me borrow it and I think I'm definitely getting my use out of it. This was my first attempt using copic markers too. I mixed it up a little. I used Close to Cocoa from SU for the boots and chaps and the red is from Copic and the Blue shirt is a watercolor pencil. I tried a little of everything. I'm still not sold on Copic Markers, but I'm still trying. I'm actually still a huge fan of colored pencils and watercolor crayons.

This weekend we went to the fair and had a great time. The kids watched the horses, road rides, had lemonade shake-ups, ate hotdogs, saw bull riding, more horse shows and were completely exhausted after the day was over! It was just great to see them having so much fun. I was worn out, but that goes along with it. He keeps asking when we'll be going back out and I think we'll go again tomorrow night. They have horse shows going all day long and there is a roping contest that he would love to see. We'll turn into real cowboys yet!!!

Hopefully I'll get more cards for the Dirty Dozen Challenges this week. I had to focus on Birthday invites and entertaining the kiddos so I just ran out of time last week, but it's a new week with hopefully new ideas!

Stamp Set: Cowboy Kid (Retired SU)

Paper: Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Not Quite Navy, Whisper White (SU)

Star Punch (SU)

Star Brads

Twine (SU)

Copic Markers, SU Markers, Watercolor Pencils, Blender Pen

HOWDY Cowboy!

This has been a fun week of making cards. This was my attempt at a masculine card for the card challenge. Those of you that know me no that masculine cards are not usually my strong point. I used my cuttlebug....of course and a friend of mine let me borrow her Cowboy Kid set (a retired SU set) so I could make Ethan's Birthday invites. They are finished as well so I'll share those with you this weekend. This cowboy is so cute!!!

Here is a picture of my "REAL COWBOY"......he is definitely the cutest by far!!! Doesn't he look so sharp in his hat and jeans! I'm trying to get his 4 year pictures taken and I like this one the best so far!

Don't ask me how I ever got this shot of Ava.....I have a quick camera! I just love this picture!

Here are both of my kiddos!

Brotherly Sisterly LOVE!