Things at work haven't slowed down, so I am having to spend an entire Saturday away from my family so that I can grade stacks of papers, write lesson plans, and complete several on-line work related activities. I'm not really happy about it, but it needs to get done now because I'm at the end of a grading period. Things just seem really off this year and I am not sure why. I've started praying a lot to God about if I really am doing what He wants me to do: teach. One of my problems is knowing how my Heavenly Father speaks to me, so I am also second guessing about whether or not what I am hearing is really from Him. DH and I being in debt isn't helping the problem either, nor is the fact that my oldest is in Pre-K, and I can't be room mom or go on field trips with his class or help out at his school. I am suppose to help teach a 2nd grade Sunday School class, but with everything hitting me I just don't think I have it in me to help out this Sunday so of course I feel guilty about that. To top it all off, I can feel myself starting to slip into my depression so I am trying to fight that at the same time. Blah! Nothing like a little chocolate to make you feel better right, lol.
Ok, enough about me and my issues. I know ya'll are really here to see my goods for the PTI blog hop and my YMH post. I decided to put together a cute little gift set (at least I think that's what you can call it). The challenge for the hop is to show off some skills that I am inspired by from other stampers. There are so many to choose from for me, but the latest inspiration I got was from PTI's own Lisa of Poppy Paperie. Her latest card with the Flutterby Friend's stamp set was just too cute. I loved how she combined the two greenary images and the placement of those littel butterflies. I decided to create a card with them but put my own twist of it. The other inspiration I get is from all of the wonderful copic colorers out there. I'm just a beginner, but I love to play with them and I have seen several recently where the images are stamped on colored cardstock and then colored. What a great twist for coloring and the results are really neat.
I don't have any of the trees from PTI, but I do have a really cute one from YMH that I thought would go perfect with this little outdoor theme I've created. To give it a little rustic look I used the cracked glass technique after I sponged the edges. It turned out perfect! I also decided to add some brown half pearls from YMH to the butterflies bodies to give them a little something extra. The lace and designer paper also came from YMH.
The butterfly is popped up on thicker foam while the tree image is on the thinner foam to fit over the lace.
I just loved the background I created on the card and the effect of the cracked glass with the image that I decided to create a little corner bookmark that I've been seeing lately. I used the same stamps from Flutterby Friend and the same cute little tree image so that it could be paired with the card. I added some faux stitching around the bookmark and used a border punch (not sure from who). This is my first time in making one of these, and I discovered that they were fairly use to make. I so see more of these in my future for my book loving friends.
These projects also fit several challenges:
Crafty Catz - stiching (on the bookmark)
Stamp Something - fall colors
Charisma Cards - anything goes
Creative Inspirations - 2 or more stamped images
Flutterby Challenges - all winged things
CARDvarks - CAS card
Copic Creations - shading on or around images (I did my shading on the images)
Unscripted Challenges - sketch (for the card)
Ok, enough about me and my issues. I know ya'll are really here to see my goods for the PTI blog hop and my YMH post. I decided to put together a cute little gift set (at least I think that's what you can call it). The challenge for the hop is to show off some skills that I am inspired by from other stampers. There are so many to choose from for me, but the latest inspiration I got was from PTI's own Lisa of Poppy Paperie. Her latest card with the Flutterby Friend's stamp set was just too cute. I loved how she combined the two greenary images and the placement of those littel butterflies. I decided to create a card with them but put my own twist of it. The other inspiration I get is from all of the wonderful copic colorers out there. I'm just a beginner, but I love to play with them and I have seen several recently where the images are stamped on colored cardstock and then colored. What a great twist for coloring and the results are really neat.
I don't have any of the trees from PTI, but I do have a really cute one from YMH that I thought would go perfect with this little outdoor theme I've created. To give it a little rustic look I used the cracked glass technique after I sponged the edges. It turned out perfect! I also decided to add some brown half pearls from YMH to the butterflies bodies to give them a little something extra. The lace and designer paper also came from YMH.
These projects also fit several challenges:
Crafty Catz - stiching (on the bookmark)
Stamp Something - fall colors
Charisma Cards - anything goes
Creative Inspirations - 2 or more stamped images
Flutterby Challenges - all winged things
CARDvarks - CAS card
Copic Creations - shading on or around images (I did my shading on the images)
Unscripted Challenges - sketch (for the card)