Bright Baby Congrats

It’s been a few days since I’ve been able to stamp anything. Last week I had company on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon and had an eye dr. appointment on Friday. I can’t stamp when my eyes are dilated and I got to leave with a prescription for glasses – I must be getting old! Then on Saturday we had an Easter Egg hunt in the YMCA pool for the kids and then we assembled our raised garden bed and unassembled our trampoline to make room for the garden beds. The weekend weather was way too nice to stay inside. But it’s cold again and it was time to be creative.

I combined Fall to Layout 135 with the CAS Inspiration challenge on SCS today. I was fun to create a bright baby card. I normally go for pastels and traditional colors so this pushed me out of my comfort zone.  I combined Nursery Necessities and the Nursery Numbers wheel from Stampin’ Up! with the It’s Official stamp set from Papertrey Ink for the sentiment.

I hope you are having a fabulous Monday!

Jenn

Stamps: Nursery Necessities, Nursery Numbers wheel (Stampin’ Up!), It’s Official (Papertrey Ink)

Paper: Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White

Ink: Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie

Accessories: sewing machine, dimensionals, large star punch, Creative Memories Curvy Cutter, half pearl

 

Adoption Is – SFYTT

Thank goodness this week is over. Have 3 dogs and a house guest have not made for a lot of stamping time.  At least I had Jen’s Sketch for You to Try to get me into my stamp room.

Recently Roger’s brother and Sister-in-Law adopted a baby from China.  We sent a care package, but I’ve been wanting to use this stamp set to send an adoption baby card.  I used the retired By Ones & By Twos from Stampin’ Up!.  I stamped the onsie image on Shimmer White card stock and watercolored it with Pretty in Pink and Rose Red ink.  I cut it out with the Circle Scissors and sponged the edges to make it stand out a bit more.  I’m not sure I’m happy with the sponging, but it is what it is.  I added a retired Barely Banana brad to the center of the flower.  The felt embellishment combines Felt Fusion flowers and the Sweet Pea stitched flowers.

Here is the sketch that Jen provided for us this week.  She also welcomes a new Guest Designer for the month of August.  This month it’s Tori Wild!

Please take a moment to check out the rest of the Sketch for You to Try Sisters. I hope you have a chance to play along with us as well.

Jen del Muro and the Designer of the Month
Amber Hight
Amy Rohl
Amy Sheffer
Leigh O’Brien
Megan Lock
Susan Liles
Kelly Lunceford
Sonja Chirstoph
Jodi Collins
Carole Burrage

We have no soccer games this weekend! My parents are coming to pick up my sister and their dog who have been living with us for over the past week. We have no major plans for the 3 day weekend and I hope to get some stamping time in.  I’ll be back on Monday with a new project and on Tuesday the Stampin’ Up! Only challenges begin.

Simple Baby Girl

I have a quick Clean and Simple card today using Fall to Layout 106.  I used a Crumb Cake card stock base and stamped the retired Numbers wheel across in Crumb Cake ink.  The Sweet Pea designer series paper is 4 1/4 X 1 3/4″ and has both right corners rounded.  I then used my sewing machine to add the curvy stitch lines.  I have to have my mom look at the machine because I think my tension is messed up.  The stars are from Nursery Necessities and are stamped off in So Saffron ink and punched out with the Large and Small star punches. They are on dimensionals and have a half pearl in the center of each.  The sentiment is stamped in Rose Red ink.

This sweet girl is Cookie.  She is going to be a guest in our home for the next few weeks.  She is another foster dog that we took in last night.  She definitely knows we saved her just in time.  Doesn’t she look a lot like Bandit?  Thank goodness for the tail so that I can tell them apart when they are running past me in a blur in the yard.  Cookie is looking for her forever home!

Well I have 3 dogs in my house today so I’m super busy.  I’ll be back tomorrow with a Sketch for You to Try sample.

Stamps: Nursery Necessities, Numbers wheel

Paper: Crumb Cake, Sweet Pea dsp

Ink: So Saffron, Crumb Cake, Rose Red

Accessories: sewing machine, large and small star punches, half pearls, dimensionals, corner rounder

A Review of Past Projects and and Evan Update

Thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers for Evan.  All of his tests are normal, so we don’t know what caused his stomach pains this past week.  I get worried when they start talking about testing liver and kidney function.  I get to thinking about “what if” they aren’t normal.  I know I shouldn’t do that, but it’s easy when you have no idea what’s going on inside of your child.  The low grade fever seems to be gone and Evan and I are just relaxing today.  He woke up in the middle of the night thirsty and I never got back to a restful sleep after he woke me up.  I promise to get back to stamping this afternoon and I’ll have a new project to share with you tomorrow.  Until then here are a few baby gifts you may have missed.

Welcome Little One, the girl version

While I was on a roll with baby cards I thought I should make a girl version to go along with my boy card. For this card I used Taylor’s sketch.  I stuck with the same Sweet Pea Designer Series paper so I kept my other colors the same as well.  I started with with a Kraft card stock base, surprising right?  I think by now you all know how much I love this color.  I added Chocolate Chip and Sweet Pea dsp in Pretty in Pink and then added my strips of So Saffron.  The lower strip was punched with the Scallop Trim punch.  I love this punch and have been using it a lot lately.  To make my main image I layered Whisper White and Chocolate Chip.  I stamped my Nursery Necessities images in Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip and Rose Red (which was stamped off before being stamped onto Pretty in Pink card stock).  I also used the small and large star punches. 

Today is a crazy day.  I’ve already taken Evan to preschool, read to his class, taken Evan to the Dr. and fed us both lunch.  Now we are headed out to get him some decongestant, to the library and then onto speech.  Hopefully after that I will get a chance to stamp and create something.  This weekend I finally finished the Rag Quilt purse I had made just for me.  It’s been sitting on my table all cut out and ready to sew but I just haven’t had the time to do it. 

I hope you are having a fantastic Monday!  The sun keeps peeking out and it’s 47 degrees out.  That’s the warmest it’s been in a long time, but we got a lot of rain yesterday so it’s also very soggy out.

Welcome Little One – SFYTT

A little over a week ago I got an e-mail from Jen about her Sketch for You to Try. Last March I was one of her Designer of the Month and I figured that she was going to ask if I wanted to play along again this March. I was completely floored when she asked if I’d like to join the team and play along with them all of the time. I of course said Yes, since I love sketches and I love Jen’s style. There’s good news for you too because now that I’ve joined on I’ll be posting once again on Saturdays so you’ll have more projects to see from me during the week. Along with me Megan Lock and Amber Hight have also joined the Sketch For You To Try team and this month the Designer of the Month is Angie Tieman. We’d love to have you play along and try the sketch out. Plus for just playing along you have the opportunity to be a future Designer of the Month. Here is the sketch for today.

I think I’ve mentioned that I’m completely out of cards. I think I have 4 or 5 Birthday cards in my stash, but that’s it. I have a baby card I’ve been meaning to send out but haven’t had a chance to make it yet.   This sketch fit my needs perfectly.  I started with a Kraft card stock base and layered Sweet Pea Designer Series paper and Chocolate Chip card stock.  I then added a strip of So Saffron that I used the Scallop Trim punch on as well as added paper piercing and the sentiment.  Before attaching the layer to the card I tied on a piece of Old Olive satin ribbon.  I then attached it with dimensionals.  The main image layer was made by cutting out a 2 1/2″ circle  of Chocolate Chip card stock with my Circle Scissors and then a 2 3/8″ circle out of Whisper White.  I inked my image with markers and stamped it onto the layer.  I then used the 1″ circle punch and scraps of Bashful Blue card stock to create waves.  The edges are sponged with Bashful Blue ink and the front wave is set on dimensionals to pop it up a bit more.  I finished the card off with a So Saffron small star set with a silver brad.

If you need more inspiration check out the rest of the Sketch for You to Try team:
Jen del Muro
Amber Hight
Amy Rohl
Amy Sheffer
Leigh O’Brien
Megan Lock
Susan Liles
Kelly Lunceford
and the Designer of the Month, Angie Tieman

Evan gave us quite a scare last night which ended up in me taking him to the ER.  We were playing in the yard and he was being such a boy and I found him putting a straw into his mouth to pretend to blow up a ball.  Well we don’t know where this straw came from or what was on it, or who used it last.  I made him go in the house and rinse his mouth well.  After dinner he started complaining of extreme stomach pain and felt like he needed to vomit.  He was in such pain he was doubled over crying and was more pale white than he normally is.  He then started shallow breathing and shivering.  While he did this his eyes glazed over and were all glassy looking and he just looked out of it.  About an hour after we got to the ER he started acting like his normal self so they let him go.  We had a nice long talk of not picking anything up and putting it in your mouth, especially if it was trash that blew into our yard on garbage day.  Why a boy would pick something like this up and put it in his mouth is beyond me.  I was also worried because he and Colin have been very into tackling each other lately and they’ve taken some hard falls.  They said his belly felt fine and since the stomach pains went away he should be good.  I hope it’s our last visit to the ER in a long long time. 

Today we are going to visit with my Mom.  She is feeling well after her hip replacement on Tuesday and isn’t in pain anymore.  Thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers for her.  We appreciate it.

On Monday stop back and see a Baby Girl card that I stamped to add to my stash.

Butterfly Baby

I went into this weekend planning to do nothing and maybe catch up on a little stamping along the way. Instead it seems like we were on the go non-stop. We took the boys to our local children’s museum because 18 degree weather isn’t the best for stir crazy kids to get out a ton of energy. After we spent the whole Saturday doing little odds and ends I figured on Sunday I’d get a break. We went to a pancake breakfast to support the youth group at our church, went to church and bought a new shower head at Lowes. On the way home my Mom asked if I’d make her a diaper cake for a baby shower this coming Sunday. So I had my day set and spent it rolling diapers and decorating the cake. The couple doesn’t know if it’s a boy or girl, so I hope this is gender neutral enough.

To make the cake I used size 1 diapers, rolled them and lined them up around baby powder with a bottle stacked on top of it.  I then decorated it with Sweet Pea designer series paper and So Saffron and Old Olive card stock that was punched with the eyelet border punch.  I then added the Serif Essentials letters that were cut out of long board chipboard after having more of the Sweet Pea dsp attached to it.  I love that alphabet and the Big Shot makes such easy work out of it.   I put small and large Summer Sun corduroy brads in between the letters.  Then I still had a few butterflies sitting on my desk from last week in Taken with Teal and liked how they looked on the middle layer.  I then added more butterflies from the Beautiful Wings embosslit in Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red and So Saffron.  It’s topped off with an adorable and extremely soft and cuddly teddy bear.

So this is my 2nd attempt at a diaper cake and I really like how it turned out.  I’d love to hear what you think.  They are so easy to make and it took me only a few hours to roll, assemble and decorate it.

Today is a big day for Evan.  He starts a bombardment round of speech.  He is still having issues with the “s” sound.  He omits it at points and adds an extra “es” to the end of lots of words.  He’s going to go every day for four weeks for 15 minutes.  If he improves then we’ll continue to work on him at home.  If not he may qualify for more speech.  We’ve had him evaluated before and he’s always been advanced for his age, but he’s starting to not get past the cute factor of how he speaks.  The good news is that it’s normally re-mediated quickly when kids are so young.  He’s a homebody so getting him to go out of the house everyday is going to be another story.

I hope you have a fantastic day!  I have a new video tutorial coming up for you this Wednesday.

Rock-a-bye Baby Boy

I don’t know about you, but where we live in Illinois the weather the last two days has been so cold and dreary and full of freezing rain that I don’t want to do anything but curl up with a warm afghan and watch mindless shows on TV.  After I finished a million things yesterday that’s what I did.  I’m sorry I didn’t get to post, but when it’s so cold and dreary I have no creative energy what so ever.  Today it’s warming up a bit and by Sunday we are supposed to see a high of 47!  I can’t wait!

Since I was such a slacker yesterday I combined two challenges and stamped this card with a new to me stamp set.  I’ve wanted Nursery Necessities forever and finally got it!  I combined the Color Challenge on SCS which was Bashful Blue, Soft Suede and Ruby Red and added in a splash of Crushed Curry.  The sketch is the Mojo Monday sketch for this week.  The tag opens up and says Welcome Little One and has the elephant and bird stamped on the inside.  However, it’s so hard to get it photographed nicely so you’ll have to imagine what it looks like. 

This is a big weekend so I probably won’t get to post.  Colin has his Pinewood Derby race tomorrow and he’s super excited about it.  We drop off the car tonight and then the races are tomorrow.  He’s loving being a Cub Scout.  Plus he’s all excited because he lost a tooth last night and his top two teeth are loose too.  The tooth fairy is going to be here a lot in the next week or so.  We’ll see how long it takes him to work his top two teeth out.  I didn’t even know they were loose until we went to the dentist on Tuesday.

I hope you have a fabulous weekend.  I have plans to work ahead and get a few posts ready for next week so that I’m not scrambling at the last minute like I have been lately.

Finished Diaper Cake

This week I was going to take Evan and drive the baby shower present to my parents house. The upcoming weather changed that and I ended up driving it there yesterday. I was going to wait for a sunny moment to photograph it, but instead in my rush I had to use my light box. As you can see the diaper cake is as tall as the inside of my light box, so it wasn’t as easy to photograph that way as I’d have liked. But you will get the idea of the finished project despite the photograph.

After my diapers were rolled and the cake was assembled I used a piece of ribbon to determine the length of card stock I would need for each layer. The bottom was approximately 40 inches around. I simply held the ribbon around the layer and then measured the length. I used sticky strip to hold 2″ X 11″ pieces of card stock together and then layered them with 1 1/2″ X 12″ pieces of designer series paper. The baby is a boy, so I thought the Tall Tales dsp was the perfect match.

After each layer was wrapped I added the Serif Essentials alphabet letters that I cut to say Baby. They too are covered in Tall Tales dsp and then I sponged Chocolate Chip ink on the edges and used my White gel pen to add dots. I attached the letters with dimensionals and added a few corduroy buttons in Pumpkin Pie and Baja Breeze (retired). They are tied with Linen Thread and added with Pop Up Glue dots.

This week is to bring us snow. We got a dusting that covered the sidewalks, driveways and streets, but not the grass yet. I guess the big storm of a possible 6″ will be Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. The good thing is that the temperature is bearable to be outside. Colin and Evan were very excited to see the first snowfall of the year. I’ll be back tomorrow with a new project to share.

An Unfinished Project

I have another baby shower coming up in a little over a week. In the past I’ve made tins with gifts inside where the tin can then be used as a keepsake. Well I’ve run out of tins and I wanted to try something new.  This time I decided I was going to make a diaper cake.  I was hoping to be done with it and I’d be able to show you the finished project today, but it takes a lot longer to roll all of the diapers than I had originally thought.  I didn’t want you all to think I was slacking again, so I decided to share my unfinished project.  Here are all of the diapers rolled and stacked into cake form with an adorable reindeer perched on top.  If all else goes as planned I’ll be able to share the finished decorated cake with you tomorrow.