Birthday Blessings

Back again with another one layer card!  This time for the Inkspiration Challenge.  It's been way too long since I played along with their challenges.  The colors this week are perfect for a spring time card.  This one has been put in the mail to my sister-in-law, Gail, to wish her a very happy birthday!  And yet again...I'm putting my Verve Stamps to use.  The background on the bottom layer is from Practicing Creativity.

Keeping it short today blogging friends.  Time to go get my little guys tucked in bed for the night!

A Great Coach

I've been reflecting a bit on Jonathon's black belt testing and great coaches.  Mr. Patten is Jonathon's karate coach.  There are so many qualities that I admire about him and I think they are qualities of coaches/friends/mentors for children and adults.  Here are my favorite traits that I think make a great coach and that are qualities Mr. Patten definitely possesses:

• The success of the person or team they are coaching is more important than their own personal success.
• The coach pushes the person/team to work hard, but at the same time doesn't take themselves to seriously.  They work hard and have fun!
• The coach shares some of themselves.  It's real...they share their experiences, not just the goals/instruction.
• They notice the little things that make a difference in taking the person or team they are coaching to the next level.

Sometimes we have coaches or mentors in our lives that are very visible...other times they quietly encourage us when we need it.  In my children's life and in my own life, I am thankful for coaches both personally and professionally.  Take time to thank a coach that has been important in your life! (and remember your coach may not technically be a coach...they could be a co-worker, boss or friend too)! 

Today, I'll be sending this card to Mr. Patten to thank him yet again for the important role he has played in Jonathon's life.

My sketch layout for this was inspired by this week's Inkspiration Challenge.  Also...I embossed the white panel following the Make It Monday challenge.  You can't see it very well...but the top image is embossed with a vine similar to the stamp!

Ingredients:  PTI DSP, Beyond Background Basics Stamps; SU Real Red Paper, Old Olive Paper/Ribbon/Ink and Whisper White Paper;

I also wanted to share this card for this week's Stampin' 411 Challenge...using several distress inks.  I had fun with this one...but everything looks a bit crooked in this picture!

Ingredients:  Stamps:  SU and Hero Arts; Inks:  Ranger Distress Inks; Cardstock:  SU Whisper White, Real Red and Bazzill Yellow

Embracing Forty! (a giveaway)

Two weeks from today, I'll be turning the big 4-0!  In honor of the big day, I thought I'd have a little giveaway to celebrate.  Before I get to the giveaway, I wanted to share this card.  I just bought my first set of Verve Stamps and absolutely love this sentiment.  I thought it captures embracing life...and my big 40!  Thanks to Keesh for the fabulous sketch inspiration.

Now...onto the giveaway!  Prizma Goodies, Spellbinders Nestabilities, lots of 6 x 6 papers and a container with some ribbon.  I'll probably add a few more suprises too.  This will stay open until my birthday on November 7th.  I'll announce the winner sometime on the 7th.  Leave me a comment and let me know if there are things you'd like to see more or less of on my blog.  I love receiving your comments and feedback. 

Ingredients:  Basic Grey Olivia DSP; Verve Beautiful You Stamps; SU Melon Mambo and Pear Pizzazz Ink; PTI Embellishments Stamps

Random Conversations on a Monday Night...

Collin:  "Mommy, my tooth really hurts....I think it is bleeding."  This is from the child who as soon as his tooth is the tiniest bit loose, wiggles and wiggles and wiggles it until it comes out.  During which time, we find paper towels around the house covered in blood.  It is really pretty disgusting, but funny at the same time.  I started to take a picture of one and decided it would be too gross. :)  According to Pat's mom and dad, Pat did the exact same thing when he was little.

Marcel:  "Collin, I'm not playing with you until you say you're sorry."  Collin:  "I'm really sorry Marcel...will you please play walky-talkies with me?"  Marcel:  "No Collin.  You were messing up my Lego ships."  Collin:  "Please Marcel...I'm really sorry."  It should be noted that Marcel has the magic of the youngest child.  He is just about the only person that can get Collin to apologize!  Collin and Marcel are best buddies...and Collin really does not like it when Marcel is frustrated with him!

These little conversations make me smile....little tid bids from around our house. 

Here's a cute little card for my thank you card stash...using Keesh's Inspiration Challenge colors:  Riding Hood Red; Kiwi Kiss; Very Vanilla and Not Quite Navy.

Hope your week is off to a fabulous start!

Tired...

Dragging this week...tired with a capital T....so I'm going to quickly share some cards I made over the weekend!

First up, Practicing Creativity has some yummy new stamps in their collection and they are hosting a sketch challenge.  Once again, I needed to add some masculine cards to my stash and have been itching to use this Peace Paper.  Goes perfectly with the Practicing Creativity For the Love of Dots set.

Next up is a card using my current favorite Hero Arts stamp.  Loving the versatility of this wreath and playing along with Keesh's Inkspiration Challenge...

Happy Thursday...looking forward to some rest at the end of the day!

My Sweet Jonathon...and Hello!

Hello!  Jonathon is my sweet, sensitive little one. I thought I'd share a few conversations from this week:

After he lost a tooth at school. "Mom, I know the tooth fairy is you, but it's still really nice to get money. Would you leave me money if I leave it under my pillow? And mom, did you know how nice Mr. Dave (the school janitor) is? He gave me 50 cents for my lost tooth. Isn't that so nice?"

When he needed to bring in something special to school, he brought in a bear that my friend Candice cross stitched with his birth announcement information. Even at almost ten years old, he is fascinated by the bear. He loves numbers, so he is always asking how much his brothers weighed, how tall they were, etc. He can recite all of his "vital stats"! He told me he wanted to bring it into school not only to show the special bear, but also because when he gets nervous at night, the bear makes him feel safe in his room.

Then the best conversation. "Mom, you know what Ryan said when Grandad died, well he was right. Jillian's mom had a baby that came out too early, but you know what? A few weeks later her aunt had a baby. God took the first baby to make a new baby." He had big tears in those brown eyes when he brought this up to me. A little back story to this conversation is that when my dad died, the first thing Ryan said to me was, "Mom, it's okay, God takes good people to heaven so that he can make new people." That is something I've talked to the boys about many times. Our God has a plan that is sometimes hard to understand, but I think it is important for our children to have faith. I loved that Jonathon repeated this back to me in a way he understands.

Hope your week is off to a good start.  Love the colors on this card...bright and cheery paper from Pebbles.  Thanks to Keesh and the Inkspirations gang for a fun sketch! 

Ingredients:  SU So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie, Pebbles May Bouqet Collection; Pebbles Chip Board: SU Brads; May Arts Ribbon

Quackers...

...Marcel...Quackers...Little Man...Cel-e

All the nick names this little man has adopted in the four plus years since he has been born.  But now...he is very clear. "MY NAME IS MARCEL."

We call him "Quack-quack...time to put on your shoes."  "YOU PLEASE NOT CALL ME THAT...MY NAME IS MARCEL."  Quackers was the nick name he got when he first started talking and everything sounded like gibberish...with an audible "quack, quack" here and there.

Coming home from work.  "Marcel, how was your day?"  "I'm angry."  "Why?"  "Ryan's 'nother brothers keep calling me, 'Cel-E"....MY NAME IS MARCEL."  Ryan's "'nother brothers" are his friends.  Remember...everyone in our house is a brother!

Okay sweet little man...we know you're Marcel...and as you approach your fifth birthday...we'll keep working on calling you Marcel!

Now...onto a fun Christmas card for my stash!  Loved Keesh's Sketch for this week...time to start pulling out the Christmas paper and start building up more cards! 

Ingredients:  Graphic 45 Paper; SU Cherry Cobler, Very Vanilla Paper, SU Crumb Cake and Cherry Cobler Ink; PTI Damask Designs Twine and Buttons;

Let's Celebrate...

...the count down is on until Collin's birthday...and the invitations have made it into the mail! 

"Twelve days!" was the announcement when I got home from work tonight...one excited little boy who wants a digital camera for his birthday.  "Not one like you got me before, but a REAL one."  We'll see!  

I'm not much of a paper piercer, but I had fun cutting out these little guys for the invitation.

I also have another masculine thank you...this time playing along with the colors in Keesh's Inspiration Challenge!  Lots of yummy Hero Art stamps on this one!

Inkspirations Challenge

Earlier this week was my big brother's birthday...so I decided to play along with Keesh's sketch inspiration to make a card for him.  Nice and easy as I pulled out some of my favorite Little Yellow Bicycle papers and embellishments along with my PTI Signature Greetings set...I've been getting a lot of use out of this set lately.

Thanks Keesh for the inspiration!

Happy Birthday

Keesh's challenge for us this week was to combine Very Vanilla, Regal Rose, So Saffron and Chocolate Chip...yummy, yummy colors.  I pulled out this stamp set that has been very neglected and had a little fun coloring in the cake.  I think stamp and embossed on the scalloped edge to pull out the flowers on the birthday cake.  Hope you like the card!

Best Wishes

Happy Thursday!  We've been all about Little League All Star Baseball this week.  Ryan's team had games on Monday (loss) and last night (win)!  So...we live to play another game tonight!  I'll be sure to recap the All Star week in pictures in a few days!

On a bit of a monochromatic kick!  Thanks Keesh for the Inkspiration Challenge...I liked using my PTI Rose Stamps to stamp on the Ruby Red paper (one of my favorite SU colors!)

Good morning!  It's Tuesday...time to get back to work and back to baseball!  Ryan has a few practices this week and then has his Little League All Star Tournament this weekend.  The boys get to play under the lights!  I'm looking forward to a short work week...and vacation is just 2.5 weeks away!

This card is for Keesh's color challenge.  For the grass stamp, I stamped off to have the lighter grass colors.  Have to admit I'm not a huge fan of Rich Razzleberry! 

Ingredients:  Hero Arts Stamps; SU Old Olive Ink; PTI Kraft Paper; Bazzill Basics White Linen; SU Butterfly Sizzlit; Kaiser Kraft Pearls; PTI Mega Mixed Messages

Happy Happy Day! Inkspiration Challenge - Guest Designer

Happy Happy Friday...not only is it Friday, but I am also a guest designer for Keesh's Inkspiration Challenge!  I'm thrilled!  Here is my card inspired by Keesh's sketch.  I'm a little bit addicted to bows right now...I think if you looked at my last several blog posts they all have bows.  For a little extra dimension, I popped up the bright summery flowers.

Hope you like the card...and come along and play with the sketch on Cindy's blog!  We'd love to see your take on the inspiration sketch.  Check out the other designers cards too!

• Cindy
• Sarah-Jane
• Renee
• Keesh
• Kirsty
• Chantelle
• Teneale
• Lee (June Guest Designer)

And a side view...showing the extra dimension behind the flowers.

Ingredients:  PTI Beautiful Blossoms II and Fillable Frames #5 Stamps; SU Real Red, Summer Sun Paper/Ink; Lilly Bee Designs DSP; SU Whisper White Ribbon

Home Sweet Home

Hello...it's been a little bit of a rough start to the week...we had some things stolen from our back yard shed on Sunday night.  Not fun, but really is it that exciting to steal a saw (Pat is covering part of our patio) and a trimmer for the yard?  I don't think so...but am still a little frustrated.  In the grand scheme of things, it's okay...Pat deserves a few new toys.  His back pain is gone after three surgeries and I'm just thrilled that he can work in the yard, build a few new things and feel good doing it.  So...home sweet home!  We're all healthy and having to replace a few tools won't hurt us (not that the thief needs to come back anytime soon...)

Thanks to Keesh for a fun color challenge.  I wasn't sure which stamps to use to put the colors together but was happy to pull out my blender pens to color in the little big houses.  And I'm very excited that I won the Inkspiration Challenge for last week and get to be a guest designer on Friday...very cool!

Ingredients:  SU Pumpkin Pie Paper/Ink; Chocoloate Chip Paper/Ink/Ribbon; Whisper White Paper; Always Artichoke Ink; Jillibean Soup Egg Drop Soup Egg Yolk Paper; PTI Daily Designs and Daily Design Sentiments

Hello

Hello!  Happy Sunday!  Another fun card using some of my new stamps from WPlus9.

I hope you're having a great weekend.  We had a very lazy Saturday as it was very rainy for most of the day.  I broke down later in the day and got Ryan his first cell phone!  This was preceded by many, many discussions on how to keep the cell phone....for example, no taking pictures and sending them...no saying mean things...leave the phone on the kitchen counter at night when he goes to bed...we reserve the right at anytime to take the phone and check the texts...fun stuff!  He was worried about it and he asked what happens if a friend starts a text that isn't very nice.  Fortunately or unfortunately, he's seen that we have a low tolerance for saying mean things when texting/chatting on-line.  The general rule:  if you wouldn't say it to someone's face...don't say it in texts/chats.  We'll see how it goes!  But, he has one big smile pasted on his face...the summer running around made us do this a little earlier than planned.

Back to the card...loved Keesh's Inspiration Challenge...hope you like it too!

Ingredients:  Cosmo Cricket Early Bird DSP; SU Ruby Red Paper/Ink, Very Vanilla Paper/Ribbon; WPlus9 Funky Foliage Stamps; Making Memories Flowers; PTI Vintage Buttons and Twine

PS Sandy...I know you'll love this...my red girl!

Teacher/Christmas Tags

Yes. I know...kind of strange to have Christmas tags in June and teacher inspired tags when school just ended, but the colors in Keesh's Inspiration Challenge said Christmas to me and I still had school things on my craft table this weekend.  So...there you have it, a couple of cute Christmas/Teacher inspired tags!

Ingredients:  Cricut Accent Essentials Tags; PTI Twine; SU Apple DSP, Basic Grey Paper; Whisper White Paper/Ribbon; PTI Vintage Buttons; PTI Mega Mixed Messages and Daily Design Sentiments Stamps; Basic Grey White Paper Pack; Making Memories FaLaLaLa Paper

Finishing Up....

...I've finished up the birthday cards for my neighbor's mom.  So, I'll have a few more birthday cards to share over the next few days

The first is following Keesh's Inkspiration Challenge sketch...I love the paper on this card...visualizing lots of fun teacher cards with the notebook paper! 

Ingredients: Basic Grey White Paper Pack and Eskimo Kisses Paper Pack; PTI Damask Designs; SU Pretty in Pink and Basic Black Ink and Sand Paper; Making Memories Buttons

This card doesn't follow any particular challenge...but I love the simplicity.  I went to Jennifer McGuire's class a few weeks ago...and she has me addicted to the Hero Arts floral stamps and adding pearls/gems to my cards! 

Ingredients:  Ranger Broken China Distress Ink; Hero Arts Stamps; PTI Anniversary Set and DSP; Kaiser Kraft Pearls; SU Sand Paper

With Sympathy

Pat took Ryan and a few friends to the Reds' baseball game for his birthday last night so after I put the little boys in bed for the night, I had some time in the craft room to myself.

Unfortunately, I needed to make a few more sympathy cards that will be sent out today.

The first one I followed the Clean & Simple challenge. I say this every week, but I really look forward to these challenges.  Lots of inspiration!

The second one is for Keesh's Inkspiration Challenge.  I love these challenges too...but boy and am I not sure about the colors these week!  The card turned out okay, but it is not one of my favorites!  My favorite part of the card is the Jenni Bowlin pearl embellishment! For the flower, I stamped PTI Fancy Flourish on Whisper White cardstock and then used my PTI dies to cut them out.

Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday...we're hitting the baseball fields and then I'm off to see my niece and her boyfriend all dressed up for prom!

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up Of the Earth Stamps; PRI Beyond Basic Borders Stamps, Daily Design Sentiments and Fancy Flourishes; SU Old Olive, Real Red, Apricot Appeal, Sage Shadow; SU Whisper White, Basic Gray, Apricot Appeal, Old Olive, Real Red Paper; SU Old Olive Ribbon; Jenni Bowlin' Pearl Embellishments

This and That...

A little bit of this...and a little bit of that today!

First...I am so thrilled!  I won the Embellish Magazine Embossing Challenge for this card!  Thanks to Embellish Magazine and Practicing Creativity!

Next up...a couple of cards to share.  The first is for the current Just Us Girls Challenge. The challenge was to make a pocket card.  I haven't made a pocket card in a really long time.  It was very fun!  I also decided to try out some digital stamps from Kathy Martin's Digital Doodles.  This is my first time using digital stamps...I could easily get addicted to those too!  I printed them on a variety of card stock colors and cut them out and popped them up for the banner on this card!  Very pleased with how this turned out.

My next card is for this week's Inkspirations Challenge...my Little Yellow Bicycle items fit perfectly with the sketch.  I'll be giving this card to my oldest Ryan who turns 13 on Friday!  Teenage years are coming to my house!

Ingredients: 
First Card:  Digital Doodles Party Banner, Stampin' Up Vintage Labels Stamps, PTI Polka Dot Basics; Stampin' Up YoYo Yellow, Pixie Pink and Tempting Turqoise Card Stock and Ink; PTI Buttons; Black String
Second Card:  SU Whisper White Paper; Little Yellow Bicycle Paper and Embellishments; PTI Daily Design Sentiments

Happy Sunday!

I ran my first half marathon today...so excited a)  that I did it and b)  that it's done!  I ran for Ryan's classmate, Jake, who is battling neuroblastoma.  He is an amazing young man and an inspiration to us all!  I can't wait to show you the pictures from the pre-race pasta dinner and the actual race!

Now...on to a fun little layout inspired by Keesh's inspiration challenge.  Isn't my niece, Olivia, beautiful on her First Holy Communion?  Also, check out Jonathon trying to make sure that he's taller than Olivia!

Ingredients:  My Mind's Eye Scrapbooking Pack, SU Regal Rose Paper