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!