Prairie Paper & Ink

Forever Friends

Man it's amazing how much extra time a person has when they're one kid short!!

Veronica got to go on her first camping trip this weekend with Brownies (a junior-version of Girl Guides) and left yesterday and we won't see her 'till tomorrow! ACK!! I miss her like crazy but know she's having a blast - she could wait for me to drive away after dropping her off so the fun could start (insert small sigh here). I can't wait for her to be back tomorrow.

SO it's just been me and Josie while Tim is at work. And Josie hasn't been feeling the greatest today:

 LOL she fell asleep at the table when eating her cereal.

Notice "meow" (her stuffed cat that's been her "blankie" ever since I can remember - it's missing an eye and has been patched up more than once but of course she loves it) is her pillow and even in sleep she won't let go of the Tinkerbell flashlight Tim got her (since he got one for V for her trip he had to get Josie one too).

Of course right after I took a picture I moved her to a more comfortable spot to nap rather than at the dining room table.

SO with her napping I was able to get some stuff done - here's one thing I finished:

 

ACK!! Isn't this image ADORABLE??

I HAD to get a couple of stamps from The Greeting Farm after their last release - this  stamp being one of them. Obviously after telling y'all about Josie's "meow" you can see why I chose this one *grin*.

I used my latest Friday Sketch for this card and altered it a teeny bit to fit the image.

Since the main image was so large I moved the patterned paper panels out and up a bit and left off the sentiment completely.

All the patterned paper and the May Arts ribbon is from My Little Ribbon Shop - I just adore this new Ducks in a Row line from October Afternoon.

I cut out the image with one of my circle nestabilities then colored it all in with a bunch of Copics.

The coloring took the longest obviously then the rest of the card came together in minutes since I had the patterned paper and layout all picked out!

I finished off the inside by lining it with more patterned paper.

I then stamped one of the sentiments from my Friends Sentiments set onto a scrap of cardstock, die cut it with a nesties tag die and adhered it to the inside of the card and that was it!

 

STAMPS: Reeta stamp from The Greeting Farm, AmyR Stamps Friend Sentiments.

CS: CC Designs Copic Quality White, SU! Old Olive, October Afternoon Ducks in a Row Patterned Paper.

INK: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic Markers.

ACCESSORIES: Nestabilities Circles and Label Trio Dies, Ribbon, Primas, Mini Brads.

Belated Happy Easter

Thank you everyone for your condolences on the passing of Tim's grandpa, and for your comments and suggestions on my decision to no longer do the sketch roundups (I'll still be doing the Friday Sketch!'s so no worries there).

I did look into a couple of options that were suggested to me for the roundups but so far nothing works any better/faster than what I was doing before. However if I find something that works easier for me I will definitely start posting the roundups again!

I haven't stamped since sometime last week (whenever I madethis card) as we've been running around all weekend and have had family here over the weekend as well. I'm hoping I can make something today to share later!

We had all of Tim's immediate family here at the house yesterday afternoon and took pictures (it was high time for us to update the family photo - the last one I have of all 4 of us was taken over 2 1/2 years ago!) - and here's the one of my family :o)

 

I took over 200 pics yesterday and well over a dozen of this one and this was the best out of all. Josie was tired and grouchy (you can't tell from this pic tho - we bribed her with candy to get her to smile LOL) and Veronica was keyed up and hyper so trying to get them both to smile at the same time was an effort!

This is a Happy belated Easter from my family to all of you! I appreciate all of you for coming here to check out my posts and all your sweet comments and encouragement. There have been more times than I can count of y'all brighteneing my day with your comments and support and for that I thank you!

(((HUGS)))

I'll be back in a bit with something stampy to share!

Friends

I quickly want to say thank you to all your sweet comments lately! I really appreciate them - they definitely brighten my day!

This has been a crazy week - with yesterday being just awful. I worked all day (at mom's coffee shop and doing nails at home), screwed up my client's schedule (thankfully I was able to fix it), and all kinds of other things.

We got a call from Tim's dad yesterday telling us that his grandpa (his dad's dad) passed away Tuesday evening. It was unexpected and surprising as it was rather sudden - so we have a funeral to go to on Saturday. It will be nice to see family that we haven't seen in a while - on Easter weekend no less. It's just sad that the funeral is the reason we're all getting together. Tim's grandpa was a wonderful man (seriously SUCH a cheerful man - always positive!) and will be greatly missed!

On other news my house is a disaster - for a week now I've been pulling out EVERYTHING trying to find our birth certificates so that Tim and I can get passports (we're planning on going on a trip in July) and I never did find them. I don't carry them in my wallet and always had them in a "safe" place. Well after moving more than once I lost track of them (considering we've only needed them to get our marriage license and then now for the passports!) - so I had to get all the paperwork to apply for new ones.

I still haven't cleaned up everything I went through, and the garage is a disaster as we went through everything in there with no luck. I know the originals will turn up like the week before we leave. Ugh.

Oh and I've been working out for an hour a day (just started off with walking/speed walking and plan on doing other things to mix it up) so I HURT. I have 3 1/2 months to lose weight before our trip!!

Anywho sorry for rambling - like I said it's been a crazy week!

I was able to finish this card this morning - I'll edit this post later today with the supply list - I don't have time right now for all my regular card deets as I have a nail client showing up right away:

 

I finally got a chance to use my Miss Anya set.

Sentiment is from my Friends Sentiments set.

Ribbon is May Arts from My Little Ribbon Shop.

Patterned paper is Bella BLVD Swing into Spring Line.

Spica pens used to glitter.

2 Quick Cards

Well I never did any stamping today like I hoped - instead I spent the day de-cluttering and putting things away.

I also played dentist and pulled Veronica's loose tooth! No joke. Her two front top teeth have been loose for some time now and the one was just barely hanging on and really bothering her and making it difficult for her to eat - so I asked her if she wanted me to pull it and she said yes (this isn't something new - I ended up pulling one of her loose bottom teeth for the same reason last year. With that one tho I didn't tell her before hand - I just used a cloth and a quick pull and it was out).

This one came out quick and she said it only hurt "a teeny bit" - she's all proud of herself now that she has another tooth to put under her pillow for the tooth fairy (which she knows is us and means money!). And I'm proud of her b/c she wanted me to pull it and just sat calmly and let me do it! So now she can get back to eating normally - at least till the other tooth decides it's time to come out.

Then we spent time playing outside - it got to about 7 above (Celsius) which is SO nice right now (and I don't even wanna hear how warm/hot it is for some of y'all - we've still got a ton of snow on the ground - so anything above zero is fabulous LOL!!).

ANYWHO - I have 2 super-quick and super-easy cards to share - I whipped them up yesterday to demo for a group of ladies and since that's all the stamping I've done lately they'll have to do!

 

Quick and simple using all Stampin' Up! supplies and their Flight of the Butterfly and Inspired by Nature sets.

 

Another quickie using the Fifth Avenue Floral and SAB Congrats set along with the Top Note die and SAB ribbon.

K I gotta run and finish supper and I'll be back later to post the winner of the Stamping Bella gift certificate along with the roundup and a new Friday Sketch!

What a Cake....

 

Isn't it awful??????????? (this is the local DQ's idea of freehanding a "princess" cake at the last minute - I dumped on the heart shaped confetti to kind of disguise the ugliness)

*Note to self - don't leave things to the last minute and don't assume that other people are going to do things that you yourself should take care of!*

Nevertheless Veronica's 6th birthday party yesterday went well - the cake was still good, she got spoiled with presents (more Barbies! her and Josie have been playing all morning with them), and enjoyed herself. Her birthday is actually on Wednesday so I'll be serving cupcakes with supper and we can have a little family celebration then :o)

I've wanted to take a cake decorating class for a long time now - after this thing me thinks it's time to start making all the birthday cakes myself! LOL

Tagged

Normally I don't play along when I get "tagged" - mostly b/c I don't have the time - BUT I had a few minutes today and played along when I got the comment from Tammy tagging me.

The rules were:

1. Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures.
2. Go to the 6th Folder, then pick the 6th picture in that folder.
3. Post that picture on your blog and the story that goes along with the picture.
4. Tag 6 other people that you know or don’t know to do the same thing and leave a comment
on their blog or an e-mail letting them know you chose them.

Well on my computer my 6th folder just happens to be the "family" folder (where I keep all my family related pictures sorted by month - I have over 2 years worth that need to get printed - aurgh!).

The 6th picture in the folder NOT in one of it's own was this:

LOL I actually shared this picture on here last year:

Some Birthday Pics

The girls look so little in those pictures!! I can't believe over a year has passed already.

**funny tidbit - Josie STILL has this purple dress and wears it almost every day. She'll wear it to bed even - heck I'll put her in her jammies and when I get her up in the morning she's wearing the dress. She gets up in the middle of the night to put it back on!

The dress is practically ripped to shreds and has who knows how many holes in it. But she still loves it and wears it faithfully. I don't know what I will do when it no longer fits or falls apart to the point where she can't wear it!

Anywho I thought some of you might enjoy that. I'm not going to tag anyone but if you would like to play along feel free to do so and consider yourself "tagged" by me! :o)

Shameless Promotion for a Friend

Have any of you been keeping up with the JustRite Stampers Blog and the big contest that's been going on? Well the finals were announced yesterday and my bud Julie (y'all MUST be reading her blog - Paper Pleasing Ideas) is a finalist!!! I am SO proud of her - her project rocks and I am really hoping she'll win b/c she deserves it! (and she's gonna KILL me when she sees this post - she wouldn't ask me and would prolly say not to - but I'm doing it anyway (sticks tongue out at Julie))

You can check out all the finalists and vote for your favorite HERE.

You know I really need to pull out my set of the JustRite stamps and make something with them. I've had the starter kit for a while now and just haven't had the time. Plus I feel totally intimidated as I've seen all these FABULOUS projects (like this one - I so need to make one like this for myself, and this one - LOVE it!) and haven't yet come up with anything out of the norm.........................will hafta think on this one for a bit.

Anywho make sure y'all head over to the JustRite blog and don't forget to vote!!

Back Issues, First Day of Scool, and Lattebella Cards

I had so many things I wanted to get done this week, and several things I wanted to post but I've been having back issues again and sitting at the computer (or just at my desk trying to stamp) gives me awful headaches. I really need to start going back to the chiropractor on a regular basis and a deep tissue massage is sounding like pure heaven right now!

ALSO yesterday was a big day here for us:

Veronica had her first day of kindergarten yesterday!!

I thought I'd cry like a baby over it all but I didn't shed a tear. She was SO excited to start and I was so excited for her. I'm a *little* sad b/c she's growing up too fast (for me) but at the same time I'm glad she's going - kindergarten is pretty much just FUN. :o)

...............................................................................................................................

I had meant to share these cards some time ago then forgot I had them saved in my files!

I made up several cards using Lattebella, the Lined Paper Backgrounder from CHF, and sentiments and oval stamps from A Muse.

I used Copic markers to color her in, then used my Ranger White Gel pen to make the "polka-dotted seat", then cut out the main image with my Spellbinders Rectangle Nestabilities dies, matting them with a scalloped rectangle.

The patterned paper is from Flair Designs - the Coffee Talk sheet from the What's Cookin' Collection, the ribbon is from Papertrey, brads are Bazzill.

I used a Copic marker with the airbrush on the card on the left, then the can ran out of air (I've been using it for some time and forgot to order an extra one!) so I sponged ink onto the other ones - what a difference! Needless to say I WAY prefer the airbrushed look - it's much softer and subtle.

I also scented all the cards with Cappuccino Card Scents, then packaged them all up and gave them to my mom to use (owning a coffee shop makes her the perfect recipient for cards like this *grin*).

Edited to add: I just found out Stamping Bella is offering a free shipping special till the 9th of Sept - check out the info HERE.

Thank You

I really appreciate all the kind and concerned comments and e-mails (I read every one). I don't think I'll be able to reply to all the e-mails but they ARE very appreciated!

And for those of you that said it was probably a good thing that she passed quickly - I do have to agree. It would have been awful for it to have drawn out for longer and her having to suffer and be in any more pain.

I do honestly believe she is in a much better place - I know I personally will be able to move on and get through all this - it's her husband and children, my grandma (who's 89) and of course my mom that I am most concerned about right now. I haven't seen any of them yet (only talked to my mom on the phone a couple of times) so I have no idea how they are all doing.

This is all I have time for to post - I am leaving right away for the city to get some things done and then to attend the family viewing and service tonight. Tomorrow is the funeral.

Again HUGE ((((HUGS)))) to everyone - from the comments I read there are so many (TOO many) that have gone through this and worse and my heart goes out to you all!!

Difficult

I just wanted to post a quick FYI that I won't be posting on here for a day or two. My aunt passed away last night (11 pm Christmas Day) and I need to take a little break to get things together.

Aunty Rosanne (my mom's younger (and only) sister) was diagnosed with ovarian cancer about a month ago. 2 weeks after her diagnoses it had spread throughout her body and into her brain - and we all knew it was only a matter of time as there were no treatments that would help.

I wasn't expecting the call and was really hoping she'd be able to hold on longer - she's only 46 and this all happened so fast that our family is having a rough time with everything.

Normally I don't post a lot of really personal info on my blog - but right now it just feels wrong to me to NOT post this and not remember her in some small way.

My thoughts and prayers are with not only my own family but everyone out there who has had to deal with this terrible disease and what it does to everyone around them.

I Can't Believe

that I forgot to upload this!!

This is the birthday card Veronica made for Josie - she drew everything herself and had me write out "Happy Birthday Josie, Love Veronica" and then traced over it.

There was "empty space" between the words (or so Veronica said) so she filled it with a "picture of Josie in her dress" ----- LOL!!

Thank you everyone for all the sweet comments and birthday wishes - Josie got a kick out of seeing her picture on the computer. She doesn't quite "get" what the comments are but **I** really appreciated them! My blog IS mainly a stamping blog but being a mom I HAVE to gush about my kids every once in a while *wink*!!

Some Birthday Pics

Well I was right - Josie had a blast at the party and BOTH girls went totally nuts over the gifts!! It was a lot of fun and I took loads of pictures so here's just a few:

Blowing out the candle.

Sharing the smarties off her cake (I guess smarties in the US are a totally different thing then what they are here in Canada - for us Smarties are just like M&M's except they're a little larger/flatter and the chocolate inside them is way sweeter (I prefer M&M's tho! *wink*))

Opening her gifts (I wish I had had a video camera during this part - the girls were going NUTS over the gifts and being so silly).

Feeding her new baby (the look on her face here is hilarious!).

Dancing in her new dress from the Princess dress-up chest (I KNEW that was going to be a hit!)

The girls LOVE these dresses (I heard Veronica tell Tim that she's wearing this one to curch next Sunday - ROLFOL!!) and they're wearing them right now too.

I would have killed for stuff like this when I was little - and I got the whole set-up at Costco for like $35 and it included 3 dresses and accessories and a chest to store them all in (have I mentioned how much I LOVE Costco??).

Growing Up....

It's the 1st of December - which means my baby is 2 years old today!!

We're having her little party tomorrow since Tim has to work today (which is a good thing anyway b/c it gives me more time to clean the house and wrap the gifts!!)

I took these pics of her this morning to share with everyone on here (and YES I DO think she's the cutest little girl in the WHOLE WORLD!!! And I can get away with saying that b/c I'm her mom *wink*)

Of course no housecoat ensemble is complete without purple Barbie winter boots (at least they're still pretty clean - she will NOT take them off and I'm tired of fighting over it....) - on the wrong feet too LOL.

JOSIE!!!

Belated Happy Halloween!!

As usual I'm behind on the ball!! I didn't get anything done yesterday like I had planned and am now playing catch up today! First off here are four (yup I said four!) Halloween cards that I finished this morning (I had started them a couple of days ago and didn't get them done in time. I couldn't just scrap them just b/c Halloween has passed - my OCD wouldn't let me - so I finished them up this morning and I'll share them on here now and they'll go in my card box to use next year!)

I'm just going to list the supplies used for each card - some of them will be highlighted and you can click on the links to see exactly what I used to make them. I kept them all pretty simple and yes I used my Spellbinders Nestabilities Scalloped Rectangle dies on all four of them (I love how it's a quick and simple way to add a little extra WOW to a card).

Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see a pic of my own Halloween munchkins!!

All 4 cards use stamps from CC Designs Halloween Set. All cards also use KI Memories Haunted Papers which are 10% off right now from All That Scraps.

BOO CARD SUPPLIES:

STAMPS: CC Designs Halloween Set.

CS: Papertrey White, Black, KI Memories Haunted Collection (this particular paper is shimmery in real life).

INK: Brilliance Graphite Black, Whisper White Craft (Stampin' Up!), Copic Marker).

ACCESSORIES: May Arts Ribbon, Brads, Spellbinders Nestabilities Rectangle Die, Dimensionals.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN CARD SUPPLIES:

STAMPS: CC Designs Halloween Set.

CS: Papertrey White, Black, KI Memories Haunted Collection.

INK: Brilliance Graphite Black, Copic Markers.

ACCESSORIES: Spellbinders Nestabilities Rectangle Die, Orange Prima Esprites, Making Memories Halloween Shimmer Brads, Ribbon, Dimensionals.

PUMPKIN WISHES CARD SUPPLIES:

STAMPS: CC Designs Halloween Set.

CS: Papertrey White, Black, KI Memories Haunted Collection.

INK: Brilliance Graphite Black, Copic Markers.

ACCESSORIES: Spellbinders Nestabilities Rectangle Die, Black Prima Esprites, Ribbon, Making Memories Halloween Brads, Dimensionals.

WITCHTACULAR CARD SUPPLIES:

STAMPS: CC Designs Halloween Set.

CS: Papertrey White, Black, KI Memories Haunted Collection.

INK: Brilliance Graphite Black, Copic Markers

ACCESSORIES: Spellbinders Nestabilities Rectangle Die, Ribbon, Prima Flowers, Making Memories Halloween Brads, Dimensionals.

I got the girls dressed up yesterday afternoon for the fun of it. Both costumes I got at Costco (Veronica's fairy costume I got last year so this is her second (and last) time wearing it since it still fit). Josie's bunny costume is sized for 12-18 months and she's almost 2 and it fit perfect! LOL

It was a fight to get their costumes off of them to go to bed last night, and I gave in and let them wear them today (and it will prolly be tomorrow and the next day and the day after too) - they may as well have fun with them and get the $$'s worth out of them. 'Sides they look so darn cute how could I resist??

Destiny....

I must admit that when I first got this Boho Blossom set from My Favorite Things a few weeks ago I was completely lost in terms of WHAT to do with it!

It is a great set and the images have some fantastic detail - but it was such a break from all the other MFT sets that it took me a while to "think outside of the box" and make something I liked with it!

FYI you can get this set from MFT, AllThatScraps, or eclecticPaperie.

I ended up making this card and I have to say I LOVE how it turned out!! I also have to say I had the hardest time getting a good picture of it - the card base is vellum CS and trying to capture the softness of that and not lose all the other detail wasn't easy - so this was the best I could get!

Like I said the card base is vellum CS - and this is the first time I ever made a whole card of vellum! I got the card stock weight vellum through Stampin' Up! - it's a decent weight for something like this - although I HAVE come across heavier-weight vellum - but I can't remember where!

I stamped the flower from the Boho Blossom set twice onto vellum using Brilliance Cosmic Copper Ink - then used my heat tool to set the ink (a person doesn't HAVE to heat set it - but I'm impatient and rarely (OK never) wait for things to dry!) I cut out both of the flowers and then used a Making Memories brad (they were given to me so I have no idea what they're called or anything) to attach them. The brad is pewter but that finish didn't go well with the rest of the card - so I used a brown Copic marker and just colored it all over - it ended up giving it an aged copper-look - VERY cool!

I used sticky strip to attach the Bashful Blue CS to the vellum card, then pierced around it before adhering copper CS on the inside of the card - which hid all the adhesive as well as softened the look as I didn't want the whole card to scream copper!!

Here's a picture of the card laying flat. I attached a piece of Bashful Blue CS to the inside of the card using Vellum adhesive (I think I got it at Michaels?? I don't use it that often b/c really it isn't as invisible as they say - I can still see it through vellum tho with thicker weights it's harder to tell).

I wasn't planning on putting ANY CS on the inside of the card - I thought it looked better without - but Tim was really nervous about writing directly on the vellum and didn't want to wreck the card (I'll get to that part of the story in a minute...) so I added the CS.

<----That's how the inside of the card looks - you can click on it (along with any other pictures on here) to get a pop-up window with a larger view.

The ribbon is Bashful Blue Taffeta and Copper Cord (retired) from SU!. I just cut a slit in the fold of the card with a craft knife to slip the ribbon through.

So anyway - I made this card as a wedding card for Tim to use. He's a salesman at the local GM dealership here in town and a couple of months ago sold a vehicle to a guy our age. That customer ended up referring other family members to Tim for vehicle sales and I guess they've gotten to know each other a little bit and it turns out the customer is getting married right away! So unbeknown to me Tim went and ordered them a gift to give to them - and I have to say I wish I could keep it!! 

Some of you know of my fondness for Willow Tree figurines - I have a couple of them and Tim ended up getting me the nativity set for Christmas (and his parents got me another part of the set for Christmas too) . And this one I LOVE! Isn't this a great gift?? I just think it was the sweetest thing for him to do and I really stressed out about making a really nice card to match so I hope they like it!