YMH Purple kinda day

So my mojo has been struggling this week since my mind has been focused on the state test my students will be taking for my class next week and a little shopping spree I'll get to do soon. I started looking at some challenges to help me and came across several on flowers and purple. Well, that is just up my ally as I've been wanting to play with some of my Prima Hydranga flowers and of course my TA Glimmer Mists. I sprayed one of the flowers with some Purple Pansy and used the over spray to paint one of the little Prima white flowers. I painted two other Hydranga flowers with Chandelier Glitter Glam and even coated the littlest flower with it for extra glitz. I then used two Prima leaves to help anchor the flower as well as to help it stand out from the background. These flowers and the mist can all be found at YMH. The lighter purple in the background was embossed with a brick folder from the Tim Holtz line and the image is from Verve. What a great pick-me-up or just because card for a friend.

Challenges used:

Crafty Catz - friendship

Off the Wall - color inspiration

Paper Cutz - flowers

Stamp Something - flowers

PTI Blog Hop

Nothing like the last minute carfting. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to join in PTI's February blog hop, but I was able to craft last night after all. I wanted to create a card for my amazing DH as he the rock in our family, but I also wanted to remind him to lean on our Heavenly Rock as I know he's dealing with a lot of stress right now. The idea of using the tree comes from my favorite flower that just happens to be on my favorite tree, the Dogwood. The flower itself means durability which for means means strength.

The image is from Lovely as a Tree (SU!) and stamped in memento black on PTI's kraft c/s that has been cut and embossed from an oval from Spellbinders. I then tried my hand at watercoloring (something I love the look of buy haven't really mastered myself as it scares me) using Distress Ink pads. In real life the colors are not as bright as the picture make them seem. Since PTI's hop is all about scallops this time, I added a scallop border in black. The color black and kraft color scheme came from Paper Trunk's Krafty collection that I've had for about a year. I loved the little strip they had where the scallop was combined with some manly stripes. The sentiment is from PTI's Flutterby Friends and the kraft base was embossed with PTI's linen embossing plate. I love how the plate gives it just a hint of rustic texture. To finish off the card I added to large eyelets to the left side of the card.

Challenges used:

Paptertry Inkers - inspired by your favorite flower without useing flowers

All that Scraps - sketch

CCEE - distress (not much but I did distress a stip of c/s and sponged the edge of the image)

Creative Inspirations - stripes

YMH Butterfly Tin

Another quick post as I am getting ready for my son's 5th birthday party. He's been sick all week, but Thursday he began the road of recovery and Friday was a great day so the party is ON. He is so excited about it too.

Have ya'll seen these amazing butterflies from Prima? I've seen them but was ever really sure what you can do with them and then it hit me: alter something with them. I've had some of these little tins around for several years and thought it would be the perfect thing to showcase these amazing butterflies from Prima that you can get at YMH. The paper is just some that I had laying around. I just wrapped it around the tin taping it down with scortape. I love how the butterfly takes up the rest of the space so that this can be a quick little gift for someone. I'm now thinking about what I would like to put on the inside. I've got some ideas, but before I share them I have to first see if I can get it together. Who knows, maybe it'll be another post...

PTI Many Way to say Love

PTI is starting a new challenge called Make It Monday. For their kick-off, Erin showed how to create a card called Go-To Sentiment where you use many sentiments to create a collage type of card. I really liked how Nicole popped one of the sentiments outs by stamping it in a brighter color. I really like the simple-ness of the card and think it'll work well for my hubby.

Challenges used:

CPS - sketch

ColourQ -

The Shabby Tea Room -

The Pink Elephant - Be My Valentine

Crafty Cardmakers - Hearts

Calling all Superheroes

My oldest is turning 5 on Tuesday and he wanted a superhero party. I found this super cute superhero from Mo's Digital Pencil and the invite just went from there. I kept the colors rather generic for a superhero (red and blue) and gave this little fellow brown hair to match my DS. The great thing about digital images it that I can make the part I want to use as big as I need it. The sketch is from Clean & Simple's latest and I printed out the sentiment on the computer. The blue under the image was embossed with PTI's canvas plate and then sponged with Distress Ink's Faded Jeans to give it some contrast from the c/s base. I also popped it up using some dots. My DS was so excited to see these when they were done. I also used Scrappily Ever After's Tuesday challenge to use two of something (in this case two colors).

2011 ORGANIZATIONAL BOOT CAMP Week 5 After

So the littlest one was starting to sleep well again for something like two weeks. And then tonight...since he has gone to bed at 7:30 he has been up at least 5 times in 80 min. At first I thought it was his oldest brother getting ready for bed (he starts getting ready between 7:30 and 7:45). Nope, not it. Then I then I thought it was the neighborhood dogs barkings outside. Not it either. Maybe it's because he caught DH in the hallway going from big brother's room to the stairs. Finally I thought it was because he was use to sleeping with the lamp on but we had turned it off last night (and he slept the whole night) and again tonight. Really thought I was on to something because he after I turned it back on and sat with him for a few minutes he didn't cry when I left. He was quite for almost 30 minutes in fact. Then, just as I started to type this post, I hear his door and his cry. He'll cry for a minute maybe, get quite for a few minutes, and then try it again. I really wish I knew why and I pray that once he goes to sleep he'll stay that way until at least 6:30 tomorrow morning. I also pray that we won't have a repeat performance of last month with a three weeks sleeping nightmare. Any ideas, thoughts, suggestions would be great. Ok, it's morning now and he woke up around midnight, 4:30, 5:30, and 6...why oh why?

Now for what ya'll really want to see. My stamps in my craft space. After a week of going through them and trying to get them all together this is what I have come up with. As I am writing this up I already have another idea on how to improve this.

I have managed to get all stamps and clear blocks on this dresser top space by my desk. Even my cuttlebug has a spot here. I don't mind the CD cases for my stamps that I have, but I am hoping to find something different for my stamps that don't come that way. Currently I am intertaining the idea of binders. I just ordered an 5.5 x 8.5 binder for my stamp sets that come ready for a binder that size. For my Verve, Inkadinkado, and WMS stamps I am thinking about putting them on a sheet acetate and keeping them in a bigger binder. Right now they are in the basket you can see. I also want to find a better way to store my Unity stamps that I have (you can see that pile in front of the basket).


These are the only wood moutned stamps I own. I've been toying with unmounting these like I did all of my others (these were bought after the fact), but I just haven't done it yet.

OLW 2011

I know we're in the start of February, but I only just got my January page finished for my One Little Word class I'm in over at Big Picture Classes. I've been enjoying reading about Ali Edwards and her use of One Little Words (OLW) in her life. In fact, I applied it to my life two years ago with "grow" and tried last year but honestly forgot about my word. This year I've been needing something different and really like the concept of OLW so I am trying again. January has been a struggle for me in trying to find some "balance", but I feel it. This was the page we were to create for January. I used some of my leftover Live with Prima kit I got from YMH. One of the great things about these kits is the amount of extra goodies you have after finishing the project.

The patterned paper is a mix of Prima's Heartstrings, Love Letter, and miss pretty. Even the butterflies were punched from scraps of those papers and then highlighted with some distress ink.

One the middle card in the top row I covered the patterned paper with the packaging that some of the flowers came on in the LWP kit and the stamped frame on the second row is from Prima's Fontology. I do feel that my word need to be a little heavier though.

The bottom row was created using the corner Heartstrings as I really liked how the paper looked there and by having the lines reach all the way to the other card gave it some balance I thought. I am really like how simple the layout is too. If you haven't checked out LWP kits over at YMH you must. In fact, Kristina just put up the latest LWP kit that was taught last night.