All SMILES

Hi everyone!!! I am so glad it is almost Friday!!! This week has been odd, not sure how to take it, lol! I hope we will have a restful and fun weekend ... hopefully my DH will not have to work. :/

The first card is created using the sketch provided at Eat Sleep Stamp today. The kids were 'happily' doing their schoolwork when I slipped away to write down my Thursday challenges hoping to have time to create. When I logged on to this particular blog, I was so shocked to see My name and My card as her featured for last weeks sketch! That hot flushed blushing feeling came over me (so funny!) and I just smiled. My day was officially made! I chose to use my Queen for a Day image for this weeks card. She is a digi image and can be found in my shop, Fresh Brewed Designs. I also created this card using the challenge provided at a new challenge blog called I Love Digis. My wonderful friends Dee and Callie are members there and I am so happy for them! The other challenges I am entering this card to are Crafty Creations: Stitching, Digital Tuesday: Girly, Papertake Weekly: Gingham or checks (ribbon and paper) and The Pink Elephant: Ribbon.

The next little card is featuring another of my little digi images, Rainy Day Butterfly. The challenges for this card include:
Spoon Full of Suger: Springtime
Digital Tuesday: Girly
Belli Challenge: Butterflies or Dragonflies
Crafty Creations: Stitching
Get Sketchy sketch
Our Creative Corner: Something old but new from stash (3 year old paper never cut... :/)

Peek!!!!

Hi everyone. Have you ever had one of those days when you just want to crawl back in bed.. and stay there? lol. For no other reason to be lazy (I guess). The kiddos are still a little sick. They have not gotten up yet, so we will know for sure shortly.

Paper piecing, prismacolor markers, copic ciao skin tones,
bazil CS, DP scrap, paper piercing and doodled stitching with white gel pen

Today I want to share with you a card I made using a soon to be released Hannah Belle. This is Hannah Belle Tea Party. I created these images in the likeness of my own daughter when she was around 3 years old. She had the cutest cheeks and ... Oh if I don't stop I never will!!! :) Hannah's favorite color is purple, one of mine too. The funny thing is, I find it VERY hard for me to work with when making cards. I stayed with an entire monochromatic scheme and I am really happy with how it turned out. If you like the Hannah Belles you have seen so far, be sure to come back on January 20th for the full image release, a blog hop and prizes!!! :)

Hannah and I made this yummy banana bread Tuesday and I had to share it with you! It was so moist and yummy!!! Hard to find an egg and milk free recipe that works!!! Well, I had to alter this one to fit our needs, so it was all in all a toss up. I was so happy when it came out. Hannah was a little disgusted mixing the mashed banana concoction therefore a little reluctant to try it after it was baked, but she did and she liked it.. enough to try it once :) lol. I have been munching on it the past few days. Warm it up, slather it with butter and add a hot cop of coffee .. YUMM!!! I think I hear breakfast calling!!! See you all later.
This card is for the following challenges:
Papertake weekly: Sketch
Crazy 4 Challenges : Birthday
Stamp, Scrap, and Doodle: Celebrations

Oh, And Fresh Brewed Designs is the sponsor this week for Sweet Sketch Wednesday! Go check out their fun challenge!!!

For the next 2 weeks, Fresh Brewed Designs will be sponsoring the wonderful ICS challenge blog! Mark your calendars :) I hope to see some of my FBD girls participate and maybe use some of their images. :)

Here is a simple little freebie I thought would be fun for kids or anyone to use. Hope you have fun creating this week.

New Beginnings

This card is all about new beginnings. I created this image yesterday and could not wait to find a way to use it. When I saw the Mojo Monday Sketch and a challenge over at Papertake Weekly (new beginnings) the card just fell together.

I said in my previous post that I do not 'do' New Year resolutions, however, not just for this year, but from here on out I am going to do more for my Savior. ((see, I said Do more and not try to do more:)!!!)) When I think of a new beginning, I think of what 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new."

I was saved at a very young age, I was brought up in church and have seen many miracles. I know how amazing, loving and caring our God is. At the same time, even still, I do not do enough to show him how much I love him and how much he means to me. I want to become a better mother, wife, teacher, friend and person. I want a closer walk with Christ and to be made new daily by reading more, having a stronger prayer life, having a special, intimate relationship with Him. It is easy to skip over all these things with life getting so busy. I have many things I do daily with homeschooling, cooking, cleaning, dance and so on that I find I end up not having time by the end of the day and I say I will do better the next. the same thing happens the next day. It takes me making an effort, so that is what I have planned to do.

This Birds Nest image will be available soon to Fresh Brewed Designs. I also have my upcoming Hannah Belle release that you will NOT want to miss out on! Remember, you can win free images by adding my blinkie to your blog. Drop me an email if you want it and I will send you the html code!

I am off for the night. Coffee and cookies while I watch my husband do wii fit. I am mean I guess ... but that can't be helped :)!!! I will hide the cookies. At least he got hamburger steaks WITH homemade gravy!!! :o) He just opted for no taters :) lol! Have a wonderful night.

See you in the morning, I will be sharing a sassy little Busy Beauties card with you :).

I {heart} digis!!!

This week I was able to work with 2 adorable digital images from 2 wonderful companies. The sponsor for ICS this week is DigiStamp Botique. CUTE!!!!!!! Let me tell you! I fell in love. It was so hard to choose which I wanted to showcase on my ICS card this week. This one reminded me of the love and happiness of Christmas. Isn't it just darling. It is called Alex and Felicity Xmas Kiss. I really fell in love with Dawn's sketch this week and had the most fun creating this card. I used a glue pen and drew around edges, the decorative border and the frame of the image then added sparkly glitter. the papers are all RAKed to my by my friend Carol. I colored these sweeties with my primacolor markers and my skin copics. The snowflake embellishment was cut from my cricut: accent essentials.

This second card is for Papertake weekly. This is my last card for them as a guest designer. I feel so blessed to have been able to create for them and be a part of their wonderful challenge blog. I met some beautiful new friends along the way too :). Thank you, Dawny, for giving me this opportunity. This weeks challenge is a sketch. I loved the layout and really wanted to stick with a simple card this week. The sponsor is another wonderful company, Lily Boo's Botique. I had a mix up and thought it was, DigiSparkle and I apologize. I know the design team created some darling cards with her images. I have used them in the past and really love her style. Her girls are beautiful and the image the DT used for their cards is just so sweet! Speaking about digis in general, I find them so versatile and so fun! Forgive me for the mix up and be sure to hop over to Papertake Weekly and see all of the darling creations the ladies have made over there:).

I do hope you are all having a wonderful week so far. Mine had been unusually good :). Mondays do not tend to be that way around here... ever.

Please do not forget to mark your calendars for my blog hop and image release this Friday for Fresh Brewed Designs. I can't wait!!! :) It will be a fun and simple hop so be sure to try to be a part of that with us. I think you will enjoy it.

S.S.S.

What does S.S.S. stand for you might ask? They all have to do with the cards I am sharing with you today. The Sketch (for Inspirational Card Sketches), Spots and Stripes (for Papertake Weekly).
I will share with you my Sketch first. Dawn has yet again knocked my socks off with this gorgeous sketch! I LOVED working with it. I chose to use my newly released snow buddy image called Kiss ME!!! for this card. I think they are just too sweet. His cheeks are chalked with a bright pink, but the light outside washed it out and you can no longer see him blushing :(. Oh well, at least you can imagine it, right? I ran my burgundy paper through my cuddle bug using the swiss dots folder. My image is colored with prismacolor markers, a blue copic and glossy accents on the boots. I used a Martha Stewart leaf punch to create the wreath.

My second card is for Papertake Weekly. I am so honored to be a guest designer there and to have met some wonderful new friends! Thank you for having me Dawny. It has been wonderful!!! The challenge this week is to use stripes and spots. I have been wanting to play with my Corny Family image again so this challenge was perfect! I used my prismacolor markers to color them. I cut the sweet little ghost out and popped him with a foam dot. I also covered him in ice stickles to really make him shine. The Moms hair screamed to be covered in fun flock. It looks much better in person. The little spiders were cut using my cricut. I thought it would be fun to give them all mismatched (or mickmacked as my kids say) eyeballs. The sent is from a set by Martha Stewart.

I am also submitting this candy corn to the Cute Card Thursday : which is Candy Corn Challenge (or a sweet treat :) )

I really enjoyed making these cards this week. I hope they make you smile. Be sure to check out both challenges and all of the AMAZING design team creations.

It's a Beautiful day of Sketches

I have 2 cards to share with you again this week. My ICS card and my guest Designer PapertakeWeekly card. I chose to use 2 of my beautiful friend Carolyn's images from Busy Beauties. I LOVE them!!!: ) These girls are just toooo cute and are so fun to color. I loved watching them take their personalities and come to life.

First is my ICS card. Dawn's sketch is just wonderful. It just screamed Strawberry Lolita:)!!! i had to tweak it a little bit to fit my image. I used paper from paperazzi as well as a cardboard sticker embellie. I colored her with my prismacolor markers and skin copics. (I went to see the BEAUTIFUL cards our DT made at ICS and just realized that I forgot to use my Doodle Palace image. We have a WONDERFUL sponsor this week so be sure to participate for your chance to win and also check out their shop. They have some TOOO CUTE images that you need to add to your collection. :) I will do my best to create another card this week and add it to Mr. Linky with one of their wonderful images this week.

My second card is another beautiful sketch by Dawny P. I love this one too! I chose to use Back to School Teen Beauty for this card. I think she is just darling!!! I wanted to make her skirt navy blue and then was stumped on what shirt color I wanted. I chose yellow to add a pop of color ... then I realized these were also my old High School colors! lol!!! Go Chiefs! lol!!! I REALLY did not do that intentionally. I really do not have man fond memories of HS. :) but I still love her and am happy with the colors. I think they look pretty on her. :) Also, be sure to check the DT cards out :) Sharon used EEeek! my Candy Corn bat from Fresh Brewed! I am on cloud 9 I tell ya! That was so cool to see. Surreal .. or something. Thanks Sharon :)!!!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my parents anniversary. Their 33rd I do believe, am I bad that I do not know? I LOVE and cherish them so much. They have set a wonderful example for so many to follow as a parent, person and as a couple. I had to make them something special. I tried to look through my images but nothing stood out to me. I decided to draw an image for them and dedicate it to them when I do add it to my shop. It is ready to go ... just waiting for our next release. I am very interested to see what you think of it. The idea behind the image is how things, wonderful things bloom from love. When God is in a relationship, first in your lives .... God will bloom it into something amazing.

Happy Anniversary Mama and Daddy! I love you so much!!!

This card is being submitted to two challenges.

Paper Take Weekly: fake it :) lol ((did not think about that one and relationships... lol!!! Carol would totally laugh!!!)) My 'fake' is the lace punch and the paper piercing dots.

Stamp something Friday: Favorite color or paper. These are some of my favorite colors. It was hard because i have SO many favorites!!! This paper jumped out at me for this card. i thought it was beautiful and was in a SS package from my dear friend Carol (the very same mentioned above). The colors are some of my favorites ~ rich chocolate brown and raspberry. Yumm!

I do hope you like my card. Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful weekend.

God Bless!!!

Oh Happy Day!

I FINALLY found time to participate in a few of my favorite challenges last night! WOOOO!!!! The first is for the pink elephant challenge: a sketch. They have an amazing sponsor this week too! The Little Paper Shop!! :) YAY!!! I think they have the cutest stuff and between these 2 blogs .. a few of the best designers ever. :o)

My second card was made using a digi from the Little Paper Shop. Isn't this owl just TOOO CUTE? I love the branch. This card is for the sketch challenge this week on Papertake Weekly. It is a WONDERFUL one. I loved the simple layout and how clean my card looks. I tend to busy them up ;).

Thanks for visiting me today.

Summer Vacation

OK, so everyone is getting back to school and Summer Vacations are all coming to an end. Such a sad sad day :(. However, i will be happy when our city calms down a little and we can hit WalMart on a Sunday without having to stand in line for an hour :) sigh. Now to wait for the constant "why aren't you in school, are you sick?" every time we go out. lol. These cards were made on Friday? but I have not had time to post them. We had a super busy weekend I have just been too tired at night to post. I was excited to have time this morning only to realize 2 of the challenges i created this for ended today, HA! oh well. I am using these cards for the Papertake Weekly 100th post challenge: May 200- Animal antics. I used last weeks sketch provided on The Little Paper Shop for the first card as well as the color challenge on our creative corner. I used last weeks sketch for 2 red bananas for the second card. I am also submitting these cards to the Cute Card Thursday challenge : Lazy Dayz. Hope you like them both. Can't wait to see you tomorrow with our new ICS sketch!

hi!

this card was made using hte sketch over at Papertake weekly. It was such a fun and open sketch, I really enjoyed working with it. I kept mine fairly simple but added a lot of doodle lines and stitching to make up for it. I love these owls! They are just too cute in my book. They are all from a clear set by paper studio my friend Cassandra sent me for my birthday. :) I colored them with my prismacolor markers and added some stickles to the biggest owls wings. Hannah gave me the thumbs up on the colors so I feel safe with it, lol. :o)

u ,, . from Ethan :)

Relax!!! it's the weekend!

This card was created using the sketch provided at Papertake Weekly. I loved the sketch and have had this image ready for weeks. I did not use any patterned paper (gasp) other than the paper pieced tub. I am keeping this short, the kids are hungry and I am just waiting for their food to cool ~ so I am running out of time :). Have a wonderful weekend!

Reach For The Stars

I started making this card for the Hanna challenge on SCS last night. i was so tired by the time I got to the end I was going to sleep adding the stitching, so I decided to wait put it all together this morning. I actually had 3 images out and ready for this one. The first got messed up :) , so this is the one I ended up using. I am happy it turned out that way because I had a wonderful time making this card. I hand stitched the edge and added the seed beads along the way. She was colored with my bic markers, skin copics and a prismacolor marker in cool grey. I think my papers are by MME but I am not 100% sure of that. The burgundy paper was sprayed with pearlex to give it an extra shine.

I am also using this card for the challenge at Papertake weekly which is my favorite things. My favorite things included in this card are:

1) teaching (while homeschooling may be tiring and stressful and seem pointless some days, there are days that you can see them learning and light up .. and those are the days that make it worth it).

2) Hanna Stamps of course!

3)shimmer. I love shimmer on my cards.

You're a Catch

I made this challenge for the pink elephant (sketch) as well as the papertake weekly challenge (digi images). I actually found this on a site link on SCS for digi stamps. It was actually a kids coloring page that I shrunk down and printed. It was just so funny I HAD to use her. I used the words from my Sushi set (stampendous?) for the sentiment. It is SOO hot here today. I hope you are all staying cool and have been enjoying your day. My hubby is off the next few days and it is nice to hear him playing with the kids. I love to hear them laugh (rather than fight :). Still waiting for all the bellas to be released .. waiting and waiting :).

Hugs!!! Hope my card makes you smile. :)

Peek~a~Boo

This card was a lot of fun to make. I was worried about the sketch, but loved it and wanted to try it out. I am very happy with my card. I used the Sandylion stamps on this one as well, paper piecing andfaux stitching. The papers are by Heidi Grace. I am also entering this card to their Guest DT call.

3 in 1

OK, I rarely do this. Quite honestly i did not intend to use this for 3 challenges, it just 'happened'. I have had little time this week for crafting. I have had a good time with my hubby and kids so that is ok. Maybe I will be able to catch up this weekend since I will be stuck in the house for Bike Weekend. It comes every May and my husband gets a lot of overtime... but we are always SO HAPPY to greet the month of June. May is always SO BUSY. I am rambling ... listening to the kids in the background, the dishwasher running, the dryer squeaking (need to fix that, hahaha!) and Little Bill on the TV. My coffee is beside me and I am just calm and not able to think enough to write an interesting post. :) Sorry.

I am submitting this card to the papertake weekly sketch, to the spoon full of sugar challenge, as well as the pink elephant challenge this week. I paper pieced the sweet baby carriage (by Anita's) with my scrap papers in my big office depot box FULL of scraps, and Bazzil cardstock. I had been making barbie clothes for my daughter yesterday and saved a scrap from the old curtain to use for the baby blanket.

I wanted to share with you with a pic of my sweet boy praising God this past Sunday. he does this sometimes, but he held his arm up through the entire praise and worship service. My arm started hurting watching him. He held it high and sang. It was so sweet and I was so proud to see him praising God.

And I will leave you with this. I know all of you have prayed and been there for my daughter in so many ways. Thank you for your love, support, and well wishes. I have to tell you a little about what God has done for her. She continued to get the same infection over and over. I was a wreck and realized i had not fully given her, this to God. I was spoken to through a sermon 2 Sundays ago. God told me i had been given a promise, but I felt in my heart that it would never come. I felt unworthy and that he would not to this for me, for my daughter. I had been holding onto a 'dead' promise. He spoke of how sometimes you feel like when you pray it feels like your words are hitting the ceiling and coming right back to you. All lies Satan was using to manipulate and deceive me. At the end the pastor asked what you do with a dead promise. he said you can either hold on to it, bury it, or take it back to the promise giver. I carried my daughter and laid her at the foot of the cross. I gave her back to God and we prayed and praised together. My mom told me to leave it there and not to take it back home with me. I did just that for the first time. I came home feeling good. no weight, no anxiety. I had moments throughout the next days, but I told Satan to get behind me and continued to move forward. Since that day she has done nothing but get better and better. She is happy, her skin is clearing up, the infection is gone. God healed my baby and I just wanted to take this moment to thank him and share this with you. God is so good!