Show Choir Weekend

Happy Tuesday my friends!  I'm popping into share a card I made several months ago but it never made it to the blog!  For the background stamp, I used a floral Hero Arts background stamp that the super sweet Anita sent to me as a thank you.  I put several distress inks on a craft mat and sprayed them with water before inking up the stamp.  I love the blend of colors.  Added a few buttons and vintage ribbon from my Nana to finish it off.

And...I am so happy that I'm doing digital Project Life.  Two months in and I have eight pages created.  I'm really considering switching over to this for the boys' albums.  Now that I have very, very basic PhotoShop skills it is going quickly.  So...here are pictures from our show choir road trip1

I had to pull this one out even though it is in the layouts below.  We were just about to leave to go to the hotel and I asked my mum to get with Ryan for a picture...do you love how she's giving the star a kiss?  Gave us all a good laugh!

The competition started at 8:30 in the morning and we got there around 1:30. Ryan's group was performing at 3:30.  Here we all are enjoying the show (on the right hand side).  It's really like going to a rock concert as great music is played in between the shows too...and the groups will get up and dance and sing to whatever they are playing.

Ryan's group came in 2nd for their division during the day and placed 5th overall (out of 15 or 16 groups).  The groups at this competition were the best I've ever seen, so I was super pleased that they made it to the night show.  They performed again at night and came in 5th again.  So pleased for them.  We really didn't see Ryan much at all during the day as after they perform they go to video review and before they perform they warm up for a good hour ahead of time.  I wasn't leaving though until I snapped a few pictures.  

After they performed at night, we went pack to our hotel and yes...we enjoyed our bottle of wine! 

You're My Type of Friend

Hello and happy hump day?  Do other countries refer to Wednesday as hump day?  Middle of the week?  Over the hump?  Let me know my international friends!  I have a very CAS card coming at you for this week's Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger.  I went literal with my interpretation of the inspiration photo...no surprise there!  And...all Hero Arts yumminess so I'm entering this card in the HA Clean & Simple challenge too! 

And a quick funny story...last night we were watching the Olympics and balance beam came on.  Marcel starts yelling at the tv, "Hey, what is she doing on that stick?!  What is SHE DOING on that stick?"  I was cracking up...I guess we don't watch gymnastics very often!  Have to say I'm amazed by what the girls can "do on that stick." :)

Easter Wishes

If you have a moment, please read my special request from last night.  Thank you in advance.

The lovely ladies over at the new challenge blog, A Blog Named Hero, have issued us a challenge to use our favorite Hero Arts stamps.  This is not a challenge at all!  I love my Hero stamps.  The beautiful bloom is one of the first stamps I purchased and it definitely has gotten a lot of use over the years. This card was sent from my mum to my nana.

I hope you have a wonderful Easter full of blessings.  We'll be spending the weekend surrounded by lots of family.

I'll be back tomorrow with my Just Us Girls card and a special surprise!  

Thank You {and lots more Christmas photos}

I'm continuing to work on my thank you notes!  So...I'm popping in today with cards for the current CAS-ual Friday's challenge.  I shamelessly cased Laurie's gorgeous card layout here.  Don't you just love the touch of patterned paper.  I just adore her designs.  I think I'll be using this layout again very soon!

Since I have several thank yous to send, I went ahead and made a set of cards for the Hero Arts Challenge too.  It's not the best photo of the set, but you can get the feel for the set :)

With my Hero stamps out, I decided to make another card too. I needed a thinking of you card for a friend who lost their dad on Christmas day.  Certainly am lifting their family up in prayers.

I also have more Christmas pictures to share!  These are from the day after brunch.  We host brunch for both sides of our family.  Very laid back day with lots of play time for the kids.  Living in a house full of boys means that there is quite often Nerf guns purchased for Christmas.  At some point in the day, there always seems to be a Nerf gun fight.  Pat was trying to teach Jay how to shoot the gun.  You can see Pat laughing his head off because Jay kept trying to shot himself in the face. The three boys:  Collin, Marcel & William were shooting at Pat off our balcony!

 Below are snapshots from the day...enjoying a yummy brunch.  Marcel and William jamming on their paper guitar and good old family time together.

The highlight of Collin's day was getting out his Easy Bake Oven.  He cooked for about an hour with Aunt Cindy, Olivia, Madeleine and Elizabeth.  We all enjoyed cookies and soft pretzels out of the Easy Bake Oven.  My little chef was in his glory!

And that's it for today!  Thanks for hanging in there (if you made it this far!).  I hope you have a great Thursday!

Praying for You

Unfortunately, sympathy cards have been leaving my house a bit too frequently lately.  I thought I'd share three different sympathy cards.  All very CAS designs. The first one is for this week's Tuesday Trigger.  I love the neutral tones on the stripes, so I tried to highlight them in this design.

The second one is using some of my newer Hero Arts Stamps.  I love the soft neutral tones the patterned paper.  Sense a theme here?

Finally, my last very CAS card using PTI Turning a New Leaf and Verve Stamps.

And here's my gentle reminder about sympathy or get well cards...even if you don't know what to say...send the card and just say...I'm thinking of you.  I guarantee the recipient will really appreciate it.

Amazing!

Hello there! Have you heard about Hero Arts Publications Incentive?  It is AMAZING!  When I emailed Hero Arts with recent publications that used their stamps, I received $150 worth of free Hero goodies...yes $150!  So...ten new stamps sets arrived at my door!  I've been getting very inky using my new Hero Arts stamps.  This card features the Oxford Stamps and coordinating Basic Grey Oxford papers.  I am entering this over at the Hero Arts Challenge using the sketch shown on the left below.  I'm really enjoying trying to layer my stamps a bit!  That's all for today...be on the look out for more Hero Arts cards :)

A Trio of Hero Arts!

Happy Friday. I'm typing this up on Thursday night and listening to my two little ones argue.  Marcel has his first loose tooth.  Collin is desperately trying to get him to pull it out "so that you can get money."  Marcel is having nothing to do with it. As soon as Collin feels a loose tooth, he wiggles and wiggles and wiggles and then pulls it out.  Collin clearly has a high pain tolerance as he has pulled out some pretty bloody teeth.  Nasty...but Marcel's not buying it at all.  No matter how much Collin tries.  I wish I had a tape recorder to replay the conversation when they're a bit older!

Now...onto my cards for today...I thought I'd pop in and share a trio of Hero Arts cards.  These are all being entered in their current challenge.  My card last week featured HA stamps, but it has been way to long since I pulled out my HA stamps and got several sets inky.  The first one above features Basic Grey background papers and the HA trees embossed with white embossing ink on Sahara Sand paper. I let my embossing gun go for a bit too long, but still love the monochromatic feel of the card.

This second one is using one of the the HA sketches.  I love this MME paper.  Such wonderful colors.  Super quick and easy card.  Unfortunately, this has already gone in the mail to a co-worker whose father passed away from a long battle with cancer last week.

And finally, my third card... love this background stamp (click on it to see it closer) from HA...a very CAS Christmas card!  Three cards that didn't take super long. Which one do you like best/least?

My Sweet Jonathon

Before I get to my card, I have to share about my sweet Jonathon.  Pat and I received the following email from his teacher Friday morning.  Doesn't that just make your heart sing.  I am so thankful for compassionate teachers and my sweet Jonathon.

Hello!



I just wanted to let you both know that Jonathon had an awesome first quarter of 5th grade! He is so sweet and polite to everyone! He always participates and always gives 110%. Even though he has papers everywhere (!), he always has his homework completed and ready to turn in! I'm sure you already know what a great kid he is at home but I just wanted you to know how great he is at school as well!


Have a great weekend!


Megan

Yesterday, Jonathon had a rough day.  He fell on his bike.  He knocked out two baby teeth and one of his front teeth.  Thankfully, we are friends with our dentist and he was home so we were able to go see him immediately and he put his front tooth back in since it came out with the entire root.  Pretty amazing, but my sweet boy had a very cut up face and his lips are so swollen from the fall he took.  I'm so thankful that our dentist was able to salvage his tooth. 

Now onto my card.  I love the soft colors in the Play Date Cafe 2nd Anniversary Challenge.  If you look closely you can see the HA envelope pattern background.  Nice simple birthday card with a few gems added to a little extra texture.

Hero Arts...Yummy!

It's been way too long since I pulled out my Hero Arts stamps.  I must say that I love this wreath stamp.  Every time I ink it up I think I need to ink it up more often!  This top card's layout is inspired by Aimes gorgeous card here. This card is about to hit the production line for my Christmas cards.  I like not having too many steps when I'm going to make them in mass!  Also...not sure how well you can see this but the top panel is embossed with my PTI linen impression plate. 

The second card is inspired by the current Hero Arts Color Challenge for September.  I went very subtle on the first two colors - using Ranger Antique Linen on the background and then again on the edges of the white panel. 

Looking at these both makes me think I need to go shopping for more Hero Arts stamps :)  Happy Tuesday!

Happy Birthday Pat!

Today is my hubby's 44th birthday.  He is constantly giving me a hard time as I'm always saying that he is older than he actually is.  I just remind him that no matter what his age he is always older than me!  Collin and I made a cake for him last night.  It's complete with a whole jar of sprinkles and some very gross tasting green icing that says, "Happy Birthday Daddy!" I think my card making skills are much better than my cake decorating skills!  We'll go out for a nice dinner this weekend to celebrate (tonight is busy with religious ed and baseball practice!)  He is such a wonderful husband and my very best friend.  I love him so much.
I made this card for him (along with others that I shared a couple months ago).  This one follows along with the current sketch challenge at Hero Arts using some new Basic Grey papers that match a few of the Hero stamp sets.

Ingredients:  Basic Grey DSP: PTI Twine; Stamps:  Hero Arts; Ink:  Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip

Jay Gee's Nook Challenge #6

Hello, I adore Judith's Challenges over on her blog.  The colors in the current challenge are beautiful.  When I first looked at the photos, I thought I'd use the scallop inspiration, but I went much simpler and used some of the colors, stamps and twine I had used for this card.  I kept the card design very clean.  Yesterday and today, I have a top panel, but I didn't layer it with a different color card stock.  I like just slightly inking the edges on the top panel to make it stand out a bit.

Hope you enjoy this...I'll also be posting this for the current Hero Arts Challenge. 

Ingredients:  Twine:  The Twinery; Ink:  Ranger Distress Ink Pumice Stone and SU Baja Breeze; Stamps:  Hero Arts

A few of you asked yesterday how I tied my double bow.  I use the Dawn McVey's video to tie a single bow.  The key is to anchor the first bow with a glue dot.  Once I've got the first bow at the right size, I tie the second bow the same way.  I don't cut the ribbon and start over.  I used one big piece of ribbon.  I start my first loop in a corner that doesn't already have a loop.  I then tie put the other loop in the opposite corner. 

On a side note, I think tying a double bow is more about the ribbon.  I am not effective tying double bows with grosgrain ribbon, but the Stampin' Up ribbon I used yesterday is perfect for a double bow.  Hope this makes sense...as I'm reading it, I can visualize it, but that may just be because I am the one that made the bow :)!!!

For You

Time for a double challenge today...I made this monochromatic card using lots of Hero Arts yumminess...two of my favorite sets - the banner set and the French script...love them both.  To make the card I stamped the script on the vanilla paper and then used the distress ink around the edges.  I stamped the banners, cut them out and adhered them with dimensionals.  I tied knots in the twine and adhered with glue dots. The For You sentiment is with stickers from the My Minds Eye Stella and Rose collection.  You've seen a lot of that paper on my blog posts lately!  I thought it would be fun to enter this for both the Wee Memories Challenge (Free Your Creativity) and the Hero Arts Birthday Challenge.

Ingredients:  Paper Company White Cardstock; Stampin' Up Very Vanilla and Basic Gray Cardstock; Hero Banner and French Script Stamps; My Mind's Eye Stella & Rose Stickers; Ranger Distress Ink Pumice Stone; Twine from The Twinery

Now...I thought I'd share some pictures from our bowling outing on Saturday.  First things first...I was the winner (I never win in bowling!)!  My score was 157...I even achieved a "turkey".  In bowling terms, a "turkey" is three strikes in a row.  Now that I've filled your mind with bowling trivia there are no pictures of me bowling.  Pat took some pictures of me, but they were a close up of my rear end...no need to share that with anyone!!!

Here are some much better pictures...first up is Marcel...anytime he would knock down some pins would turn around and show us on his fingers how many.

Next up is Ally (don't you love her curls?) who had this patented move everytime she made a good shot!

This picture absolutely cracks me up.  If you look closely you can see our niece, Erin, pointing her finger at her dad...and her dad,  Mike, saying, "I'm not saying a word."  Erin is very competitive and she was not happy that she didn't have bumpers.  Bowling without bumpers is hard...and she didn't like  that she wasn't doing as well as some of the siblings and cousins.  She had taken her dads advice on how to bowl and when she didn't do well quickly turned around and told him not to say another word.  We were laughing our heads off..true Erin style!  That competitive drive serves her very well...she is an amazing gymnast! 

Here she is a little happier with her dad!

Nana and PopPop treated us to the bowling outing...PopPop was checking out the scoreboard.

PopPop with lots of concentration...

And to finish off...Marcel and Laura relaxing while waiting for their turn...

Hero Arts Happiness

I've had this same title to a post previously, but it true.  I love Hero Arts stamps.   My new favorite is Large Fabric Flower.  I've used in on two cards below.

For the first one, I inked up the stamp with Crumb Cake ink and stamped on a scrap piece of paper.  Then I added the Soft Pool ink from HA and stamped the image on the bottom two thirds of the card...added a bow and sentiment.  Soft, soothing thinking of you card.

For my second card, I stamped the Large Fabric Stamp and then added my Hero French Script on top of it.  Both stamps use SU Crumb Cake ink.  To finish off the card I stamped the sentiment on Studio Calico paper and add a few gems and twines.  All HA except the twine.

Hero Arts Color Challenge

Good morning...super quick post and I'm staying with yesterday's theme of a thank you card with all Hero Arts stamps..inspired by this month's Hero Arts color challenge!  Have I mentioned that I love this HA Script stamp?  I am tempted to use it on just about every card I make! 

Ingredients:  Hero Arts Stamps; Stampin' Up Red Riding Hood Paper/Ink, Old Olive Ink and  Lots of Tags 3 Die; Ranger Distress Ink Pumice Stone; Bazzill Basics Paper; PTI Kraft Paper

Hero Arts Happiness

Ahh...happiness...great friends, new Hero Arts stamps and a Jennifer McGuire class. Doesn't get much better than that!  Sunday was my annual card club friend outing....to lunch and then crafty shopping and a class!

Here's Karen and Chrissy getting inking with our first card for Jennifer's class:

And Denise showing off one of our other cards with a beautiful Tim Holtz Sizzix edge.

And all of us with THE Jennifer McGuire :)  She teaches fantastic classes...lots of Hero, inking and Tim Holtz inspiration!

And here is one of my last Christmas cards that I made with some of the Christmas Hero Arts Stamps.  The sketch was inspired by the Inkspirations sketch challenge here.  I am too late to post to the challenge, but wanted to give them credit for the fun sketch.

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Hero Arts, PTI Fillable Frames; Paper:  Stampin' Up Pear Pizzazz and Baja Breeze Paper/Ink; Kaiser Craft Gems; PTI Banner Die; Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses Paper

PS I'm also doing a happy dance for publication calls...I found out last week I have three cards in the May Cards magazine and one card in the PaperCrafts Card Creations.  I'm thrilled!

Clean & Simple

It's hump day...half way through the week.  I'm off to Kansas City for work today...but have lots more Christmas inspiration to share with you over the next few days.  This first card is for the current PaperCrafts sketch challenge over on flickr.  I love this wreath.  So versatile for any time of the year.

Ingredients: Paper Company Red Cardstock; Stampin' Up Old Olive and Very Vanilla Cardstock; Ranger Distress Ink; Kaiser Kraft Gems; Hero Arts Stamps

This next card is for the Clean & Simple challenge this week.  Quick and easy...I'm loving Pink Pirouette and Cherry Cobbler together...color happiness. 

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up Cherry Cobbler and Pink Pirouette Paper/Ink; Just Rite Stamps