Casual Friday Challenge #4

I missed last week's CAS-ual Friday's challenge of using bling, so I was really looking forward to what the girls had to throw at us this week.  Boy, was I excited to see the theme.  I need a graduation card for a friend's daughter, and now, I have the motivation to make one!  You can get all the details and submit your own project here.

Here's my card, and I tried to keep it as CAS as possible.

The stickers and the cap are from my stash.  Everything else is from Papertrey Ink. 

Here's the inside:

What's funny, is that I could have sworn I had a graduation cap stamp.  I just knew I did.  I searched high and low, left and right, up and down for the stamp and couldn't find it.  Then it dawned on me...it's in Missouri...sitting in a brown box...on its way to my house.  Ugh, I'm getting old.  

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place...crazy as it may be!

May Papertrey Pages Challenge

This month Beth challenged the forum members to use something released from PTI during March or April.  So many wonderful stamps and dies were released in those two months, that I imagine it would have been difficult to decide had I not already had some pictures on my table to scrap.  But, of course, here I am waiting until the last of the month to work on the layout.  That's probably why I don't like my layouts too much lately - I'm in a hurry to finish them.

I'm still working on finishing my son's Pre-Kindergarten scrapbook. Do all children get obsessed about certain things during their childhood?  My son is-was-and-always-will-be obsessed with dinosaurs.  It has been a fascination of his for years.  During his Pre-Kindergarten year, he became obsessed with space and planets and learned more about them than my 6th graders know.  He still loves to study and learn about them.  At the time these photos were taken, he was truly obsessed.

Here's my layout:

To follow Beth's challenge to use recently released products, I used the Out of this World die and stamp and the Simple Circles set from the "Boy Basics" line that PTI came out with in April.  The circles were punched out and then stamped to resemble planets.  Isn't my son's spelling wonderful?

Here's a closeup: 

I purchased that glittered black cardstock just for this layout so it would twinkle a little in the light and look like outer space. 

That's all from me today!  I need to get some other pictures printed so I'm ready for the next challenge and hopefully will get busy before the end of the month.

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Heartfelt Sympathy

If I can make it through this post without crying, it'll be a minor miracle.  So before we get to all of the mushy stuff, I'll let you know the challenges this card is for.  

Jenny has a great challenge this week at wee Memories.  She wants us to go and find some inspiration at Pinterest or Etsy and use it to create a card.  The only challenge there is to pick only ONE thing that is inspiring.  Beautiful photos are everywhere.  Here's the photo I picked for inspiration:

You can check out Jenny's challenge if you click here 

 

This is my second card for this week's challenge for Make It Monday.  The focus is on sympathy cards with a bit of color to them.  You can see the video, challenge and all the submissions for this week by clicking here.

As I was making this card, I was remembering all of the beautiful sympathy cards my PTI Forum friends sent me two months ago, when my husband suddenly died.  The outpouring of prayers, care, and thoughtfulness from people who only know me as a blogging friend was quite amazing.  Each day I would walk to our mailbox and there would be one, two, or more cards from my friends.  The cards were beautiful, colorful, and I could tell that each person put so much love for me into their cards.  It was quite amazing, and seeing the beautiful creations brightened my day for just a moment.  Not only were cards sent to me, but several forum friends with kids of their own shared sympathy cards made for my 5-year old son by their children.  Again, I want to thank my forum friends for their kindness and prayers.  You may think that someone who is grieving may not need a bright, cheerful looking card, but please think again.  It makes all the difference.  Believe me; I know.

Here's a picture of their beautiful creations:

I still look at them from time to time and read what you all wrote.  Thank you, thank you.  From the bottom of my heart - thank you!

Here's my newest creation for these two challenges:

and the  inside:

Die-cuts make life easier, don't you think?  I loved the colors in the picture of the dress I found on Pinterest.  Gray with orange and cream was a bit odd, but now that I've seen it together, I think it is a beautiful color combo.

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place and enduring a bit of mushiness!

 

Papertrey May Blog Hop Challenge

Spring has sprung - and as a Middle School teacher - no one knows that better than I do.  Nichole's challenge is not about the angst of the tween in Spring, however, it's all about flowers.  You can see the details and all the submissions if you click here.  Here's what she had to say:

May is the month when many flowers finally go into full bloom after a long winter's sleep.  For the blog hop this month we want to see your favorite take on flowers.  You can stamp backgrounds, create custom floral embellishments, showcase unique flower center additions (buttons, rhinestones, beads, etc...), flowers die-cut from different materials (like fabric, felt, vellum, etc...) or anything else you can dream up!  We are looking forward to seeing all of your amazing creations!

I'm not so sure my contribution will be "amazing," but I tried.  This is the last week of school., so the only amazing thing about me right now is the fact that I made it to the last week of school  To be even more accurate, after today, there are only 1.5 days left.  Yes, the .5 really is important.  So, "amazing" may not be possible at the moment, but here's what I came up with.  

Ahhh, Melissa Bickford, how I love you!  Thanks for designing some of my favorite sets and dies.  I can't wait for more.  My package with new stuff, including Floral Fusion 3 and 4, and Fruit Fusion, is on its way.  I will be very happy come Friday - the last day of school - and the day I should receive my PTI package.

I'm not sure which I am most excited about!

Enjoy the hop and thanks for visiting My Happy Place - which should be even happier after Friday!

MIM-Sympathy

This week's Make It Monday challenge is brought to us by Dawn, who encourages us not to always use neutral colors when creating a sympathy card.  Beautiful colors can be healing and meaningful.  You can see Dawn's beautiful card, wonderful video and inspiring cards submitted already by clicking here.  Having been on the receiving end of many PTI forum member's beautiful sympathy cards, I know the submissions this week will be amazing. 

Here's mine:

I wanted to keep the background simple, so I stamped it several times with one of my favorite branches from Turning a New Leaf.  The quote is special to me as it is on my parents' headstone.  My mother was an artist and mostly painted flowers, birds and butterflies.  Her love of butterflies (and tulips!) was passed on to me.  When my father suggested this quote after my mother passed, my sisters and I thought it was perfect.  I think it goes along perfectly with PTI's Butterfly Dreams set.  I ran the butterfly through my Xyron and sprinkled some prisma glitter on it for sparkle.  The body was created using black rhinestones. 

Here's the inside:

Honestly, I hope I don't need this anytime soon.   We've had a rough year at my school with many of us losing fathers, sisters, mothers, and husbands.  We need a break.  So, I'll file this one away to use much, much later.

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Hoppy Day!

Today's card is a very special card.  It's my son's birthday card.  He turns 6 tomorrow - Wednesday, May 18th.  He was born on a Wednesday at 5:55 p.m. after I was in labor for 20 hours.  I had an epidural at 5:55 a.m.  (or thereabouts).  

I went into labor on Tuesday night about 10:00, the day before I was going to be induced, so we were getting ready for the family to descend on us arrive. I was dusting the furniture upstairs when I stood up and my water broke.  I thought I had peed my pants, and was mad I had one more thing to deal with before bedtime.  After I realized that I hadn't, I was relieved, and called to my husband to get the phone and call the doctor.  My husband was as cool as a cucumber throughout the entire experience.  That was his Method of Operation.  He hardly ever got frazzled at anything.  He was an engineer, logical thinker, analytical.  

We arrived at the hospital, checked in and got settled.  I tried to go as long as I could with natural labor, but I knew from the beginning that I'd get an epidural.  After being up 7 hours in labor, we were both exhausted, and there wasn't an end in sight.  The doctor did the epidural in the dark.  That's how good he was.  We got some sleep and began calling friends and family later that morning.  They were all coming anyway, they just had to speed things up a bit.  I was upset that I hadn't gotten the pedicure I had planned to get.

I ended up having to have a C-section early in the evening.  The boy just wasn't going to go down any further than he already was, and my doctor was getting nervous about time.  My water had been broken too long and she wanted to go and get him.  He wasn't in distress or anything; he just needed another way out.

I will spare you the details of the surgery.  I'll just say that there were a couple of things that I wished someone had told me before I went in.  Now, anytime someone I know is pregnant, I tell them what I wish I had known, just in case they end up having a C-section.  

The first thing that my doctor said when she saw my son was, "Oh, Lee Anne, he has strawberry-blond hair!"  I said, "I know!!"  Even though I hadn't seen him yet.  I had dreamed two or three times that my little boy was a blondy.  Mother's know.  (It turns out that the cord was wrapped around the neck two times, which is why he didn't get any further.  Thank God I had a C-section!)

My grandmother used to say that when she was pregnant with my dad, she used to tell everyone, "I just want a son that looks just like his Daddy."  So, I continued that tradition and said it to everyone all the time.  My husband was handsome, so this would be a winning situation.  

The first thing my husband said to me after seeing our son was, "You got your wish.  He looks just like me."  Oh, I was thrilled.  And he did.  My husband's hospital picture and my son's hospital picture are almost identical.  It is frightening. 

Fast forward six years.  Here we are.  For those of you who have been around for the last few months, you can imagine that tomorrow is not going to be as happy as it should for me, but I will try to make the best of it.  It starts with a card in the morning, a present in the bathroom, one at the kitchen table, one in his carseat and so forth.  He'll be happy with the presents, but he's a pretty smart dude.  He knows something is missing.  He'll say something, no doubt.  But tomorrow is about being happy, not sad, right?

So, here's my son's card:

Inside:

If you've made it this far in the post, you probably don't want to know all the steps to make the card.  Suffice it to say that dies, impression plates, and punches were all involved in the process.  None were hurt in the making of this card, however.

I'm submitting this card to two challenges:  This week's challenge at Off the Wall Craftiness (again!) and this week's challenge at CAS-ual Friday(again!).  You should join in on the fun at both challenges!  I'm thankful for these challenges because they provided me with ideas and a starting place for this special card. 

Here's their inspiration:

 

Thanks so much for visiting My Happy Place!

Peas, Love, Happiness

This card is for two challenges - both of which are near and dear to my heart.  I've loved Off the Wall Craftiness since I found it.  Kim's color combos are amazing, and some put me out of my comfort zone.  Love that.   Here is her inspiration again for this week's challenge, in case you forgot it since yesterday:

By the way, as I was tucking in my son tonight, I realized why I like this combo so much.  It's the one that he has on his bedspread.  Funny!

The other challenge that I love is the new one, CAS-ual Friday.  I love being able to be comfortable completing a CAS card.  I usually only have about 20 minutes to work in the evening since I do so while my son is bathing.  It's always a good thing when he wants to splash around a little bit longer.  Here's this week's challenge at CAS-ual Friday:

 

Buttons and twine...I can get into that!  

Here's my card:

I used some of my new stamps from Paper Smooches - Vegtastic - for this card.  The peas and sentiment came from them.  I paperpieced the peas from the Bitty Dot Basics in Simply Chartreuse (Papertrey Ink) and then cut the peas out from a solid piece and popped them up to give them some dimension.  The circle stamp is from Wilson Designs - Everything's Owlright - I heat embossed it to give it a little shine.  

After securing down all of the paper, I threaded all the buttons with Rustic White twine.  

By then, bath time was over, and I had to be done.  So this is what I accomplished.  I should rename my blog, "What I accomplish during bathtime!"

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

 

OTWC #53

This week's color combo at Off the Wall Craftiness is one of my favorites! Here is Kim's inspiration she found for us:

Kraft - with anything - you can't really go wrong.  Add in the green and blue and it is perfect for summer.  Beautiful green grass - beautiful blue skies.

Here's my card using Kim's set Everything's Owlright.

I have 3 friends at school with birthdays this week.  This will go to one of them!

I used Aqua Mist and Simply Chartreuse from Papertrey Ink for the color combo.  The grass is a piece of patterned paper from Jillibean Soup.  I paperpieced Kim's cute owl using Kraft paper and for the belly, I stamped and cut it from Aqua Mist again.  The little tag and leaves are from PTI, and the flowers were part of a Mother's Day gift from my blogging friend, Renee! Thanks, Renee! (You should go and visit her blog.  I've been on the receiving end of some of her creations.  Not only is she amazingly talented, but she can write a story that will have you laughing out loud.)  Go...go now!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

You're Too Kind

This is the second time I'm posting this project, because the first post was deleted by Blogger.  Funny - it happened on today, Friday the 13th.  Coincidence?

Here's my second submission to the CAS-ual Friday challenge using Dark Chocolate, Vintage Cream, Kraft and JilliBean Canvas Flowers:

Here's a close-up of the flowers that you have to go buy right now!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place...again.  And seeing the same project...again.  Did anyone else's get messed up?

Make It Monday 14

This week's Make It Monday was brought to us by Erin Lincoln.  It involves "selective inking," not be confused with "selective hearing" that my almost-six-year-old suffers from.  (It's a dreadful disease!) Erin encourages us to stop the masking and use selective inking when you need a stamp to stamp in different colors.

Lisa Johnson's Life set is made for this technique!  I've used it several times with this technique.  Here's my latest - again using colors from Play Date Cafe this week, but I think I've reached my limit in submissions for them this week:

I stamped the leaves in Ripe Avocado and then the blooms were stamped in Orange Zest with a little Pure Poppy rolled on the edges.  After I got the color down, I stamped the blooms again in Versamark and embossed them with my new Holographic embossing powder.

Then I scored the frame to highlight the images.

The sentiment is also done with the selective inking technique Erin is highlighting this week.  The orange part of the sentiment is one long strip, but I wanted it on two lines, so I only inked it up a little at a time. 

Another fun week at PTI.  This challenge along with the big release week has me losing some sleep!  What's on your Wish List?  I haven't taken the plunge with Year Of Flowers yet, so the mini-set looks very appealing.  I also love the Fruit Fusion, all the Floral Fusion, Think Big and Tag Its sets!  I thought I would take it easy this month, but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Here are a couple of other cards I've made with Life and selective inking.

 

 

No One Like You

Once again, I'm hooked on the color combination from Play Date Cafe this week.  It's a great combo, and one I never really would have put together.  Here's their inspiration photo:

I wanted to use some Paper Smooches stamps that I haven't had a chance to ink up yet.  I chose the pepper for this card:

I stamped the pepper on Pure Poppy and Orange Zest cardstock.  After stamping the large Gingham strip, I added the piece of Pure Poppy rik-rak.  I wanted it to look kind of like a happy picnic.  The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set and is stamped on one of the Double Ended Banner dies. 

Here's a close-up of the orange pepper - popped up a bit for emphasis:

We have several teachers & staff leaving our campus this year due to budget cuts and life-changing events, so I'm trying to get some cards made to send them off with smiles. This one goes in that stack. I better get busy; we only have 12.5 days left in this school year - but who's counting?

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Casual Friday #1

There's a new challenge blog!  Did you hear?  I'm thrilled about the theme of the blog too - it's all about CAS (clean and simple) and it's called "CAS-ual Fridays!"  It doesn't hurt that two of my PTI forum friends are on the design team, either.  I've admired their work and styles for a long time!  (Waving at Laurie and Dana!!)

This week is the first challenge from the blog and it's all about adding text to your project:

GREAT challenge and a great way to kick off this blog.  You can see the details and all the entries for this week here.  I loved the typewriter in the image, and wanted to use my stamp from Hero Arts that I HAD to have back in December.  It does not get enough love, that is for sure.

Here's my card:

Is it still CAS if I cut out the image and put buttons on the typewriter?  I hope so.  I curled the paper coming out of the typewriter a little so it would pop off the base a little.  I love Kraft with red and black.  I don't use it enough either.

I'm excited about this new blog and can't wait for the next challenge!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!