Little Things

Friday, I celebrated and shared a whole lotta blog love. And when I listed seven tidbits o' me for the Kreativ Blogger award, number seven said, "Little things often make me smile even brighter than the big things." That is oh so true! And since I spent much of last night, through the night, up with my precious baby girl (okay, so she's not a baby anymore, but close enough!) as she coughed and sniffed, and sniffed, and sniffed some more while whimpering for a tissue, I thought today was a perfect day to celebrate some of those little things!

* My kidlets and I crouching low to watch an ant colony move themselves and all of their eggs across the walkway to a flood free zone (aka away from the sprinklers)........made me smile!

* A calendar on the desk filled with family photos........makes me smile!

* Beep, beep goes the microwave, reminding me that my reheated coffee is waiting for me......makes me smile!

* Glistening droplets, left behind from a morning sprinkler shower on the grass, basking in rays from the sun that finally decided to greet us........makes me smile!

* A lazy Sunday spent online with a great friend..........made me smile!

* My daughter asking if we can please go to Trader Joe's "next morrow" (aka tomorrow).......makes me smile!

* Downloading pics off of my camera, just minutes ago........made me smile!

* Listening to my daughter sip her "tea" from her pink Disney Princess tea cup......makes me smile!!

* Listening to beautiful bird chit chat outside and deeply soaking in the fact that the blue jays have not arrived for the day yet.............makes me smile!

* Knowing that my Princess will want more than her usual share of cuddles today......makes me smile!!

* Looking down at the Monopoly board game that still needs to be put away and quickly hearing the laughter that fills the room when our son plays with his Dad.........makes me smile!

* Clothes fresh out of the warm dryer to put on this morning after being chilled from being awake most of the night.........made me smile!

* And just as much as all the happy little noises that fill this house and my life, quiet too.....makes me smile! :>

Another bit that makes me smile is hearing from all of you! But, that is no little thing as I'm always grateful for you taking the time to stop and say hello! What little things make you smile?

Blog Love to Celebrate & Share!

Ack! The 18th? Seriously, the 18th? That's how long I've been away? Too, too long, for sure!! Hubby was gone for that week, came home, went back to work the next day, and school started up on the 20th. It has been a busy couple of weeks here for us and I've been pretty much exhausted (the 5:40 am alarm is not doing anything to help that, either!! lol). And unfortunately, I've been absent here and most places online while we settled back into early mornings, school hours with just my daughter and I, nightly homework with my son, and just the general Zip! Zam! Zoom! pace of school days. There was so much to do last week that my list had run off the end of my paper. And one of those items, written in Bold letters is to get back on here!! I've got a whole lotta blog love to celebrate and share! Not to mention, I have so missed visiting you and seeing what you are up to!

Now, I must say what a lucky and fortunate gal I am to have "met" so many wonderful people online!! And Kelley at My Front Porch has been so much fun to "meet"! She's creative, full of inspiration, and has kidlet tales to share. She kindly passed on a blog award to me (back on that 18th day of August.......yes, blushing cheeks, shaking head, and apologies for not posting earlier to THANK YOU, Kelley!!!), the Karma Award.

The Karma Award: "These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly written text into the body of their award."

Tracey at My Fenceposts2
Julie at My Little Scrap Shop
Cheryl at What I Do Instead of Laundry
Penny at Penny Duncan Creations

And then, on that very same day, I visited Julie at My Little Scrap Shop and found another blog award! There was some serious smiling going on here. :> Through my love of Papertrey Ink, I found Julie and am always so delighted when she stops by for a visit here or I get the pleasure of visiting her at her blog. I always feel like I'm on the phone with a girlfriend when I read what Julie is up to and she never fails to inspire me with her creations. Thank you, Julie!!

Two deets of this award are to tell you five things I like to do and pass this award on to five other people. So, here we go!

1) I LOVE spending time with my family! Last night, as I was leaving to go to Back to School Night, our kidlets were on an adventure on a research vessel in Antarctica, tracking penguins....I kid you not! I had such a chuckle over that one. Thank you, National Geographic Kids magazine (which is where I think the inspiration for their latest adventure came from)! And tonight, we are all planning on playing Monopoly together. I've forgotten what a Friday night out is like, but I'm happy there will be some family fun to cherish!

2) I like to read at night and a good book has been known to keep me awake and reading into the wee hours of the morn'. So, if you see me with toothpicks holding my eyes open, its a good bet that I'm into a fantastic adventure, often in a land I've never been, other than in my mind where those splendid little letters and words have taken me.

3) Of course, I love to get a mighty bit colorful....with ink, with paint, with markers.....on my fingers, my hands, and I've even had it on my nose before! And guess what?! I seem to be passing that on to my son. We always know when markers have been part of his day at school because not only will his hands look like a kaliedoscope, but the evidence is always plainly written on his face...........literally!!

4) Girlfriend getaways to Disneyland are most definitely a favorite of mine! And at the Happiest Place on Earth, you're never too old to have a little kid-like fun!! Girlfriend getaways are good for the soul, for sure!

5) And last, but certainly not least, is blogging and visiting all of YOU!!! I just love seeing what you are up to, or being inspired by your latest creations, or tapping my toes in a Happy Dance for an achievement, or getting a good chuckle from some of the fantastic wit and humor I read or just getting to know a new online friend, who makes me smile! I cherish each and every comment that I get here, love your emails, and grateful for this online world that makes geographical distances irrelevant!

And here are some great blogs to go check out and spend some of your time with:

Adventures from the Monkey Hut
Ethel at The Paperquilter
Stacy at Stacy's Memory Triggers
Anita at Castles Crowns and Cottages

And would you believe it? A few days later, I visited another online friend, Siri at Ein hund, mykje handarbeid - One dog, loads of crafts and found that she had so kindly awarded me the Kreativ Blogger award! One lucky gal am I!!! Siri has been so much fun to "meet"! She uses materials in unique ways, crafts her projects down to the last detail, and is always willing to try something new! Thank you, Siri!

Here are this award's deets:

1. Thank the person who nominated me for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on my blog.
3. Link the person who nominated me for this award.
4. Name seven things about me that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate seven Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the seven blogs that I nominate.
7. Leave comments on all seven blogs letting them know I nominated them.

Hmmmm......seven things that you might find interesting about me...........

1) My addictions, er, um, creative obsessions, goodness! I mean hobbies started with learning about stamping in 1994 and scrapbooking in 2000.

2) Well, actually, those dates aren't entirely true....... My love of the "cut and paste" grew out of crafting at school and in Girl Scouts as a kidlet. I started Girl Scouts in the 2nd grade in Brownies (back then there were no Daisies and 1st graders couldn't be a Brownie) and continued all the way through a year of being an adult co-leader of my old Senior troop (not sure I actually did anything 'adult' like that year....but, I sure did enjoy Scouting for one more year after graduating!).

3) Welllllllllllll.......actually, there is more truth to my love of crafting.... I remember my parents having their own crafty hobbies as a kidlet. I remember some drawing, both of them doing stained glass, and Mom creating with silk flowers. And now I'm enjoying passing on that fantastic love of crafting to my own kidlets.

4) Ever since having kidlets, I can tear up over the silliest things! Its like that preggo hormone just never left me. Its ridiculous and drives me batty!!

5) When I was a kidlet, I could not stand mustard! And I would tell anyone who would listen that if you eat mustard, you will get "Mustardania", a horrible, no good, fatal disease and that is simply why I could not eat it, not even one tiny little itty bitty teensy weensy drop. Oh yea. Now, I {heart} mustard. :>

6) One more kidlet tidbit o' me......I played the piano, violin, and flute and sang in choir. And while I do not play or sing (outside of my car or to my kidlets) anymore, I am so thankful that music was such a large part of my life while I was growing up.

7) Little things often make me smile even brighter than the big things.

And here are some fabulously Kreativ Bloggers who I want to share this award with:

Dana at Paper Daydream
Elise at Mamcow Creations
Courtney at One Day at a Time
Cristina at Welcome to my Blog!
Deb at sPaRkLiNg sCrApBoOkS
Traci at {TG}
Tami at Dapple Designs

Fun, inspiration, talent, and tales await you on all of these blogs! I think I've linked seventeen different blogs. So, hopefully, you have a cup o' your favorite in hand and some time to do a little blurfing. Have a marvelous trip!! I'm off to do a little blog traveling of my own and for the first time in a week now, I can hear the whispers in my ear telling me of the fun ride. :>

Holey Hybrid, Batman!

First, for those that were asking, yup, yup, I did get wet at the party. I struck a deal with my son though.....he could squirt me as much as he wanted on my back if he would keep it out of my face. :> And yes, he and I both had a fantastic time at his friend's birthday party!! :>

Just a little something simple to offer up today. What is unusual, at least for me, is that this little simple something is hybrid! Actually, the fact that it is hybrid IS what makes it so simple. I was poking around my friend Dana's blog, Paper Daydream, at the end of last week and clicked on over to The DigiChick blog, where she is a member of their Hybrid Chick Creative Team, and found their Friday Freebie.....and you can't beat free, now can you? Well, actually, yes you can.....it is Cute AND free! So, I had to take advantage of it and give this hybrid thing a try.

Now, I do have some other digi stamps already from a couple of different places, but this week, I have been a little short on time and definitely short on creative energy. Hubby left really early Thursday morning for a Guys' weekend at his friend's cabin and six days later, he is returning later today! Yay!! You see, Hubby is a homebody and consequently, its quite unusual for him to be gone. May I take my hat off to those of you who have spouses who do a lot of traveling or have a spouse in the military who is deployed! One of my closest friend's husband is in the army and is quite often gone throughout the year and she amazes me! :>

Okay.....on to my super simple hybrid card! I opened the images in Microsoft Word to size them, printed them out on Georgia Pacific cardstock (per Dana's recommendation as my old printer was quite moody with the heavier stuff), detail cut a bunch of images out (I still have a few more cut out and waiting for a card, so don't be surprised if you see more from the freebie set!), and then they sat on my desk for a couple of days! I told you I was short on creative energy the last few days. ;-) When I picked them up late this morning, I found some old Stampin' Up! dp, adhered the images and the Purely Pomegranate ribbon to it and then mounted the whole thing on a 4 1/4" x 4" Purely Pomegranate card base......and the whole super simple hybrid card is complete...and in record time! I am a slow crafter, so I will definitely keep this in mind when I need a card fast!

School starts up again for my son on Thursday and we get to meet his teacher tomorrow. While I am So not looking forward to having to set an alarm at 5:40am again, I think we all are looking forward to the school routine and coming adventures. Not to mention, autumn is my favorite time of year! Crunchy leaves (albeit, they take longer to turn colors, fall, and get crunchified in California), a kidlet's birthday, Halloween, Early Thanksgiving at my Aunt's, actual Thanksgiving at home, Christmas tree selection and decoration, Christmas, and the cozy days afterwards. I love the Fall! What are you looking forward to in the coming months?

Supplies:
Cardstock: Purely Pomeganate - Stampin' Up!; white - Georgia Pacific
Patterned (DP) Paper: Stampin' Up!
Images: Danielle Engebretson for the Digi Chick
Ribbon: Purely Pomegranate - Stampin' Up!

Sarita Celebrates!

Sarita is celebrating her Blogoversary in just a few days and she is offering up some fantastic candy that really speaks to her style. And speaking of her style, it is elegant, creative, and absolutely fabulous! I do urge you to head on over and check out her blog, Little Princess Cards!

Who says a card has to Open?!

Not me!! I've been thinking about it and a Postcard is simply a card that is posted through the mail without an envelope and does not open. So, I do not think it is definitively necessary for a card that does travel by envelope to have to open. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Quite some time ago, I colored in this Knitabella from Stamping Bella with Prismacolor markers and colored pencils. Do not ask me about the colors I chose because not only can I not remember, but I'm not even sure why I would have chosen these particular colors. I do, however, suspect that I colored her in for a color challenge for which the deadline passed and never finished her up. Well, I just could not have a colored in image haunting me anymore!

Initially, I thought I would detail cut her out, but then went this route. I used my handy dandy Coluzzle (I have the EK Success circle cutter and a Cricut, but I must say, I do love just how fast and easy it is to pull out my trusty Coluzzle.....why, oh why, did Provo Craft discontinue it?!) and cut her into a circle and then matted her with some Raspberry Fizz. Here is where I say, that if I had some of those beautiful Nesties, I would most definitely have used them. But, I don't, so I went with what I do have. And here is where I tell you that this card does Not open!! I matted the Fizz circle onto the next size up circle in Lemon Tart and cut one more Fizz circle in the same size as the first one and adhered that to the back of the Lemon Tart to write on. A flat, non-opening card!

Would you like to know my reasoning? Hmmmm? Ooo, well since we'd be diving further into this brain o' mine....maybe not. Oh what the hey, I promise we won't go deep at all! So, when I cut her into a circle, I realized she just didn't look right on a rectangular card, or a square one for that matter. I thought about putting her on a circle Open-able (okay, so its not a word, but it came out of my head and typed its way on my keyboard....so I'm stickin' to it!) card, but that just wasn't sitting right with me and that's when I started thinking about what it means to be a flat, non-opening Postcard. Both my Mom and my Hubby quite often let out rather large pointed sighs at my 'ability' (let's just call it that, shall we? thank you!) to argue semantics and after having this argument in my head....with myself, guess what?! I won!

Add a little hand stitched "hi" and voila! A flat, non-opening, circle card to pop into the mail to......none other than my knitting Mom! Since Knitabella was already colored (again, why in those colors, I cannot say!) and there is not much to this (other than a linguistic argument with myself), she took no time at all!

My Monkeyman has a birthday party to go to late this afternoon with lots of kids and water balloons, one that he is so excited to attend that he woke me up an hour and a half early this morning. A wee bit excited?! Now, how much do you want to bet that all of us adults will end up wet too?? I hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday and that you find a little time to play. :>

Tap your toes.....its HAPPY DANCE time!!!

At the very end of July, I was alerted to a blogging friend's Bead Up jewelry being given away on Today's Give Away and of course, lickety split, clicked my way on over there to enter!! And what do you know? But, my very first time entering for one of this fun site's give aways, has me winning!! I chose the beautiful earrings and when they arrived today, I did a HAPPY DANCE!!!

I have had the opportunity to start to get to know this fantastic designer a bit through both of our blogging experiences as well as exchanging emails. On Christyn's blog, you will see her jewelry designs (including some gorgeous custom pieces for several brides and their wedding parties), what inspires her, weekly I love you, Wednesdays posts, and now her newest weekly addition of Fashionably Friday. If you are here as a paper crafter, artist, creator of any medium, or friend, I am sure you will be entertained and inspired when you visit Christyn! Tell her I say "Hi!"

But, wait! There's more!! I seemed to have been wearing my lucky hat because Christyn's earrings were not the only piece of super duper Happy Mail to arrive today!! Anne Gaal, of Gaal Creative, is a paper crafter and photographer, and occasionally has give aways of her lovely photographs. And let me tell you, I was so surprised when I learned that I had won! It is an award winning photograph of a shell with the edge of a wave breaking over it. I absolutely love it!! Please go say 'hello' to Anne too!!

And you can just guess how lively my HAPPY DANCE was when I tell you that I received both of these pieces of art on the SAME day!! Today!!! Happy, happy, happy, Happy, happy, happy....HAPPY!!!!

I hope your day has brought you something to do a Happy Dance for! On a normal day, I take pleasure in the small things and hope there are enough at the end of the day to tap my feet to. But, after my wee daughter decided to draw on the bathroom mirror with her toothbrush (ewwwww!) (and yes, she's getting a new one to brush with tonight!!!) and get into a few other "interesting" situations (aka test Mama's patience meter mode) today, I cannot tell you just how PERFECT the timing is for Christyn & Anne's generous give aways to arrive on my doorstep and giving me a terrific reason to Dance! (Just don't watch.......I'm not overly coordinated, you know!) Have a great one! :>:>:>

{Sweet} Thanks!

Very sweet thanks were in order for a sweet friend, for which this card was made (and I just found out that it has arrived in her mailbox....so its safe to post! :>). Now, if you haven't noticed I'm not a huge patterned paper gal. Don't get me wrong, I love it, I buy it, I hoard it, but I have trouble using it. And a card or scrapbook layout that is made entirely of patterned paper is pretty much unheard of for me! Until now!! :> I knew I wanted to use my cupcake stamp and an 8x8 patterned paper stack that I bought on sale awhile back and have never used...not one piece. Being that I was working out of my comfort zone, I needed some more Backup and this time I turned to CPS sketch 127 .

Stamping the cupcake on the front of the striped & glittered Die Cuts With A View paper and then stamping the cupcake again on the back of the polka paper, I began making my sweet cupcake. I cut both pieces out, painted the polka frosting with white pearlescent paint (watered down makes it more translucent to not obscure the paper below) for some great shimmer (unfortunately, the camera didn't pick it up...but, its there, I promise!). Actually, I painted two, as the first one I stamped with an inked up stamp and the dark ink began to show through from the paint and water. So, I stamped it a second time with just the residue left after stamping off several times.

Since I was following a sketch, you would think that it would take no time at all to cut some paper and adhere it, but I fussed with several different patterns and cardstock and to my great surprise, it was the cardstock that just was not working at all. Once I removed the cardstock (after trying half a dozen different colors!), it then came together for me.....with all patterned papers and a giant surprised grin. Some foam tape to pop the layers up, a little bit of ruffled ribbon, a {sweet} rub on and I had a thank you to send off to this sweet friend!

Supplies:
Stamps: Inkspirations (closed)
Cardstock: Stampers Select White (card base) - PTI
Patterned Paper: Nana's Nursery - Die Cuts With A View
Ribbon: Fairy Tale - Stampin' Up!
Rub Ons: K & Company, K-ology, Thinking of You
Paint: Pearlescent Paints - Yasutomo

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #13 & CPS 126

Having just about run out of Berry Sorbet, I was scrambling thinking how I could still participate in Dawn's latest Color Challenge. Then I thought to pull out my pad of Papertrey Ink's Bitty Dots. It is the only PTI patterned paper that I own and I'm oh so glad I do!

I was attempting to complete CPS's sketch 126 in time as well, but I hopped on here just moments too late. Oh well, it provided a great road map for me to create my card with and the absolute perfect excuse to pull out some of my PTI buttons (not that I need an excuse for that, right?!).

With the colors and the layout already decided for me, the whole card came together quite quickly. I think what I loved most was just how happy these colors are. I can't help but smile when I look at them!

Since this was the first time I have stamped and played with this little birdie, I was figuring out how she ticks. When I cut her out, I left the part of the body where the wing would go intact, but the white of the cardstock was glaring, so I simply inked up a sponge and lightly sponged in some red ink. I adhered her cute little polka dot wing with 1/16" foam dots to the body and again used foam dots to adhere the body to the card. I punched the circles with 1 1/8" and 1 3/8" circle punches, layered them, and adhered the tied off buttons with Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive. I drew in the birdies legs and feet to complete her.

A fun, happy little card was born from a little inspiration from Dawn McVey and CPS. I'm looking forward to see how one or the other, or both, inspired everyone else who played along! A great big thank you to all who stop by here and of course, I just love hearing from you! Your comments tickle me as pink as this birdie's wing!!! Have a fantastic weekend!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Stampers Select White, Pure Poppy - PTI

Patterned Paper: Bitty Dot - PTI

Stamps: Everyday Classics - PTI

Ink: Real Red, Regal Rose - Stampin' Up!

Other: Embroidery Floss - Making Memories; Rub Ons - Stampin' Up!; Pen - Zig; Vintage Buttons - Papertrey Ink