I'm here!

Wow. What a week it's been. Just a quick post to let everyone know that I'm still here. I traveled to San Diego last week to pick up my older boys, spent some time with my family, went to a retirement party at my husband's school and got to go the Paper Tales. It was great meeting Michelle and the store is so cute. It was hard to decide what to get as I could have easily bought out the store. If you are ever in the Southern California you just have to stop by. We traveled home on Sunday and found out that night that I left my computer cord. So I had a computer but no power plus my husbands computer has decided to stop working. My cord finally came, the boys are gone again (boo hoo) and Patrick and I are having to share my computer. Thus me having no time to surf and share. I'm going to try harder to make late night work for me since he gets it days for work. Wish me luck.

More Party Paper

So to continue our topic from yesterday, I thought I would share with you any easy way to make your personal wrapping paper. By using a solid stamp and colored ink you can have your paper done in less than half the time. After I picked my focal stamp I then used the bubbles and fish to fill in and added the red for some pop. Over all the paper took less than 10 minutes and really was a hit. On the card I stamped the bubbles with Versamark and layered the sub on red to give it some dimension. I'll have one more set of paper on Friday and hopefully some cards before that.

For this project: Tempting Turquoise , Real Red, Whisper White card stock, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, YoYo Yellow, Brilliant Blue Ink, Versamark, By Sea and Eat Cake stamp sets all from Stampin' Up!

Until then,

Party Paper

I just love to make wrapping paper. I started doing this about a year ago and was not happy with my results. Now that I have some Copic markers I decided a couple of months ago to try again. Those turned out just how I wanted. So now I always make my own paper. It's really not as difficult as it sounds. Today I'm showcasing a more in depth paper which involves outlined images which I then color with the appropriate colors. For me this is great. My husband thinks I'm crazy but I love to color. Sometimes when I'm frustrated or just having a bad day and need to relax I pull out one of the boys coloring books and go at it. Give it a try sometime and tell me what you think. The main image on the card is a piece of the left over wrapping. It's a great way to tie the two together.

For this project: Kraft, Not Quite Navy, Pumpkin Pie paper, Crab & Company, Canvas, Basic Black Ink, Versamark, distressing tool & hemp twine all from Stampin' Up!, Copic markers.

Tomorrow I'll show you an easier way to stamp your paper.

Until then,

Last day of school

It's hard to believe that the school year is over already. My older two had their last day yesterday and my youngest has his today. He has really come along way this year. We have been blessed this last year with fabulous teachers (all of them). I don't know how we got so lucky. Now I just have to try and wait patiently till the end of the month to see who will be teaching them next year. Well at least for the younger two. My oldest son's teacher is moving to third grade next year and he gets to move with her. YEA!!!! She has got to be one of the best teachers I have ever known. My son progress this past year was just amazing. I can't wait to see what they accomplish together next.

I thought I would share a card I made a couple of months ago for Jennie's swap. Gotta love polka dots. I'm off now to make some more wrapping paper. I'll be back tomorrow to show it off.

for this card: all paper, ink, stamps and ribbon by Stampin' Up!

Till next time,

Season at an end

Well, the season is over for our Tigers. They put up a fight but were just a step behind on their fielding. The kids had a great time anyway. I think we as parents took it harder. We had a grumpy umpire making bad calls and our opponents were rude. Personally, when you are dealing with 6, 7, 8 year olds you should be building up both teams players with praise (which we do) and not calling them an "easy out" (which their coach kept yelling to their team when my son was up). They also took two of our players down by purposely running into them while fielding. Ok, Ok, I'm done venting now. I do have to say this was the best team we have ever played with and are hoping to get to stay together though the seasons. All the kids got along great and the parents all did too. We had the opportunity to play with some old friends and make new ones too.

School is out tomorrow. I can't believe the year has gone by so quickly. It seems like just yesterday Kindergarten was starting again and now they'll be in first and third. WOW. My older two will be traveling this summer and leave tomorrow for their first two week stint. Wish me luck with the adjustment to just one kid and his adjustment to not having playmates. Hopefully I'll have a chance to post more with the extra free time.

Lastly, I'll share a card I made last week using the Coffee Break stamp set from A Muse.

for this card: notecard and stamps from A Muse; paper, ribbon and ink from Stampin' Up!; marvy punch, spica glitter pen, scallop scissors.

Until next time,

Ooooo, Pie, Yummy!

So this last week was so crazy. Not only was it the last full week of school, but Cub Scout bridging, and the start of Little League playoffs. Luckily homework this week for the second graders was not too difficult and actually a lot of fun. They had to make their own pie. Thy had to do all the measuring, mixing, baking, the whole shebang. My oldest picked Chocolate Pie, which is actually surprising because he doesn't really ever eat chocolate. I was very proud of him. He even made homemade whipped cream to pipe on the top and finish off the pie with chunks of chocolate bar. It was the hit of the class. Well, if one does something in my house it usually means the others want to as well. My six year old's pie turned out just as creative as he is. When it came time for him to pipe his whipped cream no mere swirl would be acceptable. He had a picture in his head and used his bag like a marker. Can you see the boy, the sun, some clouds and grass? And when he said he needed pieces of chocolate for the eyes I thought he meant little pieces. Oh no, He went with whole pieces of the bar sticking straight out of the head. I loved it. Not too bad .

We are also very excited in our house that our Tigers are 1-1 in our Little League playoffs so far. We lost the first one but won our second game after two extra innings. It was so stressful on all the parents. We were jumping up and down. Next game is tonight. Keep your fingers crossed.