Country Shelf Review at All That Scraps

Hello all! Well even though I haven't been posting much, I cranked out 12, count em' TWELVE cards in the past two days for upcoming releases (some new stuff coming from Whipper Snapper Designs that will have you grabbing for your wallets!)

Well today's review at All That Scraps is for Otis and Milo, as well as Diane's set, Country Shelf. I had made an Otis and Milo card for sneak peeks, but hadn't gotten to Diane's set yet, so feeling "country inspired"... I worked on this today at nap time and was really happy with how it turned out! I love the stockings and made this as a swinging card using my nestabilities and then made the "swing" with a Stampin' Up small star punch and a brad. *See smaller picture for how it slides open.
In addition to whipping out all of the cards that you'll see soon, I also have finally jumped into another new crafting adventure with sewing on fabric for the first time!! I'll share some pictures later this weekend, but I made a tote bag, 3 little crayon pouches made with felt, and 2 flannel blankets for my kids (Abby Cadabby and Sponge Bob (OF COURSE!) :) I'm feeling quite country crafty right now and was pretty darn proud of myself for putting together something that didn't look half bad!

Before I go, I just wanted to thank everyone for the well wishes for Kaiden and my Grandma. Kaiden is doing great and his eyes look a LOT better than the surgery in July. Hopefully 2nd time is the charm! My grandma doesn't LOOK great, but is feeling okay now. She did end up breaking her nose in THREE places, had stitches put inside her mouth, and her face looks like a truck hit it... but she's toughing it out and went back to her apartment yesterday.

Well I need to go get ready for a dinner out with the family--- (hopefully I can stay awake, I went to the midnight showing of New Moon and pretty much YAWNED my way through half of the day! I'm too old to stay up that late (unless I'm on a stamping high!) :)

Still here...

Hi Everyone! Sorry for the short absence, Kaiden (my four year old) had his second eye surgery this morning and my grandmother was here over the weekend, so I didn't have a ton of time for blog stuff.

Today has been a pretty rough day in more ways than one! Kaiden is asleep on the couch and recovering, so hopefully all went well this time and we don't need to go through a three-peat. This past July, he had his first surgery for Strabismus correction and the surgery over-corrected his eyes, so today was round two. He didn't come out of the anesthesia very well and has been refusing to open his eyes... poor guy. He was pretty upbeat to go this morning thanks to us picking up a toy he REALLY wanted. Oscar the Grouch was his buddy when he went into the O.R., so he was dancing around and being a goofball for about the first hour while we waited... hour 2 of waiting he was bored and it was showing!! It ended up being about 6 hours in the hospital, so I was glad to get home!
Unfortunately, after we got home, my Dad brought my daughter inside and my grandma fell coming up our steps. She most likely broke her nose, has a really beat up lip, and also scraped the lenses in her glasses. I felt so horrible that she fell and just felt helpless... Kaiden is little and I know he'll be up running around in circles in no-time, but when your 84 year old grandma gets hurt, you know it will take some long healing time. She's had knee replacement surgery either two or three times, so her poor knees just can't handle stairs all of the time... usually going up she's fine and then she just needs some help going down, but today (of ALL days), they just gave out. Ugh... sometimes you just wish there could be Do-over's on a day!

I'll be back with some stamping soon, and on a positive note, I saw on a note from Taylor today (at Taylored Expressions) that my TES challenge was in the Top Crop! I NEEDED that good news today!!

Thanks for the check-in notes!! Back to regularly scheduled programming soon-- tonight we need some serious cuddle time!

Swiss Pixie Nora and Amy R Review

Hi there!! I've got a sick little girl (temp of 101.5 tonight) :(, so I don't have a lot of time to post, but wanted to get a card in for the review today at All That Scraps. We're reviewing the new winter Swiss Pixie cuties and Amy R Christmas Words.

I used the Nora Swiss Pixie, which I framed with some Rose Red paper. I punched the outer frame with the Martha Stewart Snowflake corner punch and I also used one of the new Cuttlebug folders for the snowflake border on the right side (it's the one called Winter Borders). Snowflakes EVERYWHERE on this card.
This is kind of a weird combo of colors, but I was inspired by some imaginesce paper that I had, so it's Baja Breeze, Tangerine Tango, and Rose Red with a little hint of lime stickles on the wings, gloves, and hair barrettes.

TGIF-- I had a battle with a penguin yard decoration this afternoon (stupid thing had been taken back to the store once and then I went to put together the new one today, it had a bunch of parts missing and I scratched my hand on it. It took about 2 hours for something that should have taken 20 minutes! Ugh! All I have to say is that my yard BETTER win something in the town decorating contest this year!! I have bloody knuckles and sore knees from hanging lights and putting together animated penguins! :)

Hoping Gabby feels better tomorrow so that we can all enjoy our weekend! I'm sure I'll have some other stuff to post this weekend and I also have a bunch of stuff that I'm going to be selling after I cleaned out some of my stamps. I need to make room for some new stuff! :)

Off to check on my baby and then watch that new Kathryn Heigl movie with my hubby-- he just got back from a work trip. Thanks for dropping by!

Stamps: Nora Swiss Pixie, Amy R Christmas words from www.allthatscraps.com
Paper: Baja Breeze, Imaginesce, Rose Red, PTI White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Baja Breeze, Tangerine Tango and Rose Red
Accessories: Spellbinders Create-a-Flake One, Labels Four Nestabilities, Tags Trio, Cuttlebug Winter Borders, Spellbinders Snowflake Impressions, Snowflake brad, sewing machine, sponge daubers

Cookie Break - Special ATS Digi Release

Hi! In between putting together shelves and reorganizing my storage closet in my craft room, I colored one of the new DIGI images available today at All That Scraps. I thought this Santa was just adorable, although I sized him a little bigger than I actually wanted. That's the nice thing with Digi's.... you can choose your size, so I just went with it and made him the absolute focal point on my card. This image is called "COOKIE BREAK" and I used a greeting from Amy R's Christmas Greetings set.
I finished my lights in the dark tonight--- climbing on your roof when it's pitch black outside probably isn't the smartest idea, but with it getting dark so early, my husband doesn't make it home in time to get here in the daylight. I MISS the sun at night!! Especially with the weather being so nice right now... the kids have been loving all of the outdoor time (and they sleep GREAT with all of the running around- BONUS!!) :)

Have a great day and I'll be back soon!

Stamps: Digi image from ATS
Paper/Supplies: Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla, Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly mini deck, Basic Grey and Making Memories brads/leaves, Petals a Plenty embossing folder from Stampin' Up!, Curved Rectangle Nestabilities

TES Challenge and ATS Review - Sweet November

Hello! What a GORGEOUS, but exhausting, weekend!! It was in the 70's, which pretty much NEVER happens in Iowa during November. It was just WAY too nice to be inside, so I didn't get much stamping time in. Today we spent the whole afternoon putting lights and decorations outside for Christmas. My knees may be just a little bit worse for wear from climbing on the roof, but the house is going to look like a Gingerbread cottage. We picked up some new multi-colored LED lights to outline our roof--- in all, it will take about 420 C7 lights to outline the peaks and line across the front (we ran out twice and had to go pick up a few extra boxes), so I plan to finish tomorrow. The last time we outlined the house, we blew the circuits as soon as they were plugged in, so I was just glad to see that they lit up when we plugged them in and didn't immediately pop off. With the LED lights, I guess you can hook up a ridiculous number of sets without problems.

After the kids headed to bed, I worked on my review card from Friday using Taylor's sketch challenge for this weekend. I haven't played along in Taylor's challenge for a long time, and the sketch was just what I needed to get motivated.

I used Buttercup Reed from Sweet November by Amy Young (available at All That Scraps) and I paired her with paper from a Cosmo Cricket mini-deck. The pendant I used is Contemporary hearts (which is also what I used for the embellishment with the button.) I added Fruit Punch stickles in Buttercup's hair and on her shoes, so there's lots of fun sparkle on the card. (Click for a close up view.)
BTW- There is a special DIGI Release at All That Scraps today, so make sure you check it out!! Some SUPER cute elves, holiday images, and Sugarplum Pilgrims, so check them out and download your own to play with! I'm going to work on a card tomorrow during nap time, so I'll be back with something fun! :)

Have a great Monday and I hope your weekend was as relaxing and wonderful as mine!! BTW-- Gabby is still doing GREAT without her binky. We've had to remind her that she threw them out a few times, but she just says "Okay" and goes on with her day! I still can't believe it was that easy!

Bye-Bye Binky...

Sorry, no stamping today, but it was a BIG night in the Wild house. We've been procrastinating the day that we took away the "binkies" (pacifiers) for our 2 year old, Gabby. She has been VERY attached to them and being our "baby" it was probably more a matter of me not wanting to move on from her "babyhood". After her 2 year old check up yesterday, our doctor highly encouraged we "pull the plug" and prevent any further pushing of her palette from the pacifier.

Sooo... we had our Nanny 911 intervention with her tonight and we bagged up all of her binkies in a little shiny white knapsack and talked to her about being a big girl. We told her that it was time that we give them to the "Paci-Fairy" so that they could be given to other baby girls who needed them and then because she was SO brave, the fairy would leave her a special present. We were first going to have her leave them on our deck, however she looked out there and our yorkie had apparently decided to use the deck as a potty, so she was grossed out and there was NO WAY she was leaving the bag out there... lol... she's such a girl. We adjusted and went to the front door and she said "Bye Binkies" and tossed the bag onto the front porch. We shut the lights off and I had her come help me make cookies. She gave a few side-glances to the door and slowly came with me.

In the meantime, we quickly swapped out the binky bag with a BIG surprise of a Sesame Street Sleepy Timy Abby Cadabby. (We LOVE, I mean LOVE Abby Cadabby in our house.) If we can ever find a toy or clothes with her on it, we snap it up, but they are REALLY hard to find!! I knew when I saw this doll at the store, it was going to be for a big occassion. So we rang the door bell and then the whole family came running to the door. We asked Gabby to go look and see whether the fairy had been there and she SQUEALED "ABBBBBBBYYYYYYYYY" when she saw her surprise. (Totally worth every penny!) :)

I asked her where the bag went and she just shrugged and said "Bye-Bye" and then happily went on her way with her new doll in tote. She went to bed binky-free for the first time... Halleluieu!

ATS Wednesday Challenge - Older set

Hello! I had a few hours repreive today and my husband stayed home with 7 kids while I ran my 2 year old to the doctor for a check up and immunizations. Geesh--- after being home for a few months, that couple of hours seemed like a mini-holiday! :) Gabby was a big trooper, and after the first two shots, she just looked at me and said "Ow Mom-- Dat HURT" and then on the third, the tears finally came (that one burned)... then she said "MOMMY-- D'ey hurt me!" --- she didn't even flinch when they poked her finger for blood work... she's much less of a drama queen than her brothers were! :) I'm sure her time will come!

So the challenge today at the Wednesday Challenge blog at ATS is to use an older stamp set. You know you have them... those loved, but dusty stamps at the pack of the pile on your desk that desperately need to see the light of day. Get those out and start creating. Don't forget to link on the blog and you could win a C.C. Designs Stamp Set OR 4 Singles of your choice (like some of the adorable new Swiss Pixies or November Stamps cool fairies! Play along... we'd love to see what you do!

My card used a set from last Christmas called NORTH POLE. I loved the elves and reindeer in this set, everything Christine draws sucks me right in... and this particular set, wasn't even cut up yet!! GASP!! I know!! This was right before I joined the design team at ATS and apparently it was pushed to the side after new stamps came in the mail! Well now it happily has some ink on it and I loved how it turned out with the pink/green/red color combo. (Yes, more of those darn create-a-flakes--- It's an ADDICTION I tell you!!)

Oh and before I go--- I am in process of updating my Etsy store, so if there are any cards you see on my blog that you would like to purchase, just let me know and I'll get them added. I finally read the tutorial on adding Etsy Mini to my blog, so now you will see mini-pictures of a sampling of what I have on there!

Thanks for all of your support and have a wonderful Wednesday!! Now, go create and play along in the ATS challenge!!

Stamps: C.C. Designs North Pole
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Pretty in Pink, Green Galore
Paper: Pretty in Pink, PTI White, and Martha Stewart Holiday pack
Supplies: Copics (lots), Label NINE Spellbinders dies, Create a Flake One, Buttons, Crochet Thread, Fancy Tags Spellbinders dies, Swiss Dots CB Folder, Sponge Daubers

Feelin' Tangled?

Hello! I have one more card that I made with yesterday's release at All That Scraps. All of this months fabulous releases are available NOW!! YAY! :)

This card uses the Amy R's "Christmas Greetings" set which I had used previously, as well as a set from artist, Diem, called "Christmas Time". I have loved the sets with this cute puppy and kitty, so I was happy to see them enjoying some Christmas cheer. The puppy tangled in lights was my absolute favorite. (Although the person tangled in lights is typically me and not my dogs!)

I used one of the new Holiday Cuttlebug folders (Candy Cane Stripe) on the Lime paper and more fun Create-a-Flake snowflakes.

I'm off to watch the rest of Biggest Loser and maybe catch up on some laundry. Any volunteers to come help!!?!? :) It's a never ending mountain right now!!

Have a great night!

Post 3 today! (Scroll down to see more)! CDS Sneak Peeks Final Day!

Today was the last day of sneak peeks for Clear Dollar Stamps and I had two sets showing today. The first one is the Stamp of the Month-- this set is FREE with a $50 order from Clear Dollar Stamps and it has an adorable mouse (as opposed to the disgusting ones that I had in my house last month!)

I did some paper peicing with the quilt and rug using Eskimo Kisses Basic Grey paper, and used Flower Creations 3 to make the balloon bubble of cheese. I thought my mouse needed to be a girl, so I added a double tied bow with pink crochet thread for her "hair".
Another set previewing today is a great set for the holidays... "GIFT LABELS" and I guarantee that this set will get TONS of use from me this winter. It makes the fastest gift tags for wrapping and they fit perfectly in Avery 5160 printer labels.

A great benefit to clear stamps is that you can perfectly line up the border before you stamp since it's easy to see where it's going to go.

The kitty stamp was my favorite in the set (if you click on the picture you can see a close up of the various colored little kitties!)

These and all of the other CDS stamps will be available for purchase starting tomorrow!! Let the buying begin! :)