Don't Be Blue Color Challange

Well, you can be "blue", just don't be sad.

For this month's Fourth Friday (shhh... don't mention its the fifth Friday).... how about a color challenge?

Our challenge to you is to create a project that includes includes these three colors. You can add other colors if you wish - but include at lease a smidgen of each of these 3.

How lovely are those colors? This yarn photo makes my pregnant self want to whip up a blanket. I did whip up a card though!

I used this adorable Wild West Anya stamp and colored her in the colors for the challange. I also used the delightful Anytime Sentiments set. (Which is sold out and I hope it comes back in stock.)
This brings up a point for me. I love all stamps, wood, rubber, clear, whatever. But I've found I really prefer my sentiments to be clear. I have fab sentiments on wood but I rarely use them because it's just so EASY to do them with clear. So there is a tip for you, get a few really fantastic clear sentiment sets.

Also I've been decorating the insides of my cards. Just simply but enough to let a body know that I was thinking of them on the inside too. :)

Ok are you wanting to play along? You totally should because there is a prize! (Actually my first real contact with Paper Garden Projects was doing their challanges, and now I'm on the Design Team. So there you go! I even won a prize once!) In honor of Mother's Day next weekend there is this adorable mother type stamp:

It is the sweetest thing I've ever seen. I would totally color them to look like me and Brian and that baby would be the new baby. Yuppers.

You have till midnight (EST) of Friday May 7 to add a comment to the main post on The Paper Garden Projects Blog with link your project. We will draw one random winner for the prize.

The rules are:

It must be a newly created project for this challenge - but feel free to combine this challenge with any other ones out there.

We'd love to see all the art you care to share, but each person will only be entered in the drawing once.

The winner will be drawn randomly and announced the following Saturday.

Best of luck you guys! Oh I wanted to add, if you are new to color challanges, just get as close to the colors as you can. Don't stress if you don't have THIS SHADE of brown or whatever, just use the colors as inspiration.

A sunny mix

Today I have three more Go To Sketches cards to share. I actually made the ones I'm showing you guys a few weeks ago. In real life I've been stuck on the star shaped card for over a week. I have issues with shaped cards. I have been sick too so it's been days without me being in the craft room.

On to today's share: I wanted to show off this sunny yellow butterfly paper so I kept it pretty simple. I've been making a lot of cards with lots of chipbard and stuff so this does look a little flat to me, but I think it still works.

Next is a card I made out of some scraps. I thought on the sheet that these rub ons looked yellow so I was going to use them on the gray/yellow card I shared a few days ago. But they turned out bright green, so I set it aside. Then when I got to this card it was easy goes to peasy to whip it up. I put a rub on from the same page on the black brad to make it extra special.

I love this "hello" card. It's very me. The papers are all from the Garden Variety collection by Cosmo Cricket. The layout is fairly simple, just a really nice easy card. I did add stitching on the strip pieces.

Well that's what I have for today. I hope you enjoyed.

Happy Birthday To me

Not really.

Well sorta. See I have this thing that it's my Birthday from the first present or card I get to the last I get. So today I got my first Birthday present!

And it was a big one too.

My Dad and Sue got me an i thingie. You know... crap.. hold on. An IPod Nano. The skinny cute ones. It's pink. They also got me a stack of the ithingie cards I need to put music on it. I'm hoping I can put the music I already have on it too right? Anyone? You know songs I bought on Amazon last week? I will want those.

So I'm downloading the itunes thing I have to have. It's taking forever. I'm impatient.

Did I mention it's pink? I already ran out and got it an armband and sport headphones, BOTH PINK. GLEEE! I like pink. I like red too and that would have been hot, but I love pink. Actually the green looks fun. But I'd never have found green accessories. :)

I did go to the gym. I was totally stupid. Feel free to call me and yell at me tomorrow. I worked for like 45 minutes and felt GREAT. I knew I should stop. I didn't. I did a few more weights and hopped back on the bike. About five minutes into biking the world just closed down on me. BAM black. I felt it coming so I had put down my book and put my head down. I heard in the blackness, "Are you ok?" "mam?" "I think she's pregnant" "Are you ok" So I forced myself to look up and say, "I'm good, sorry just tired" Then went to kids area and got my kids. Walked next door got a propel and a piece of candy and consumed both. Felt ok and came home. Stupid Stupid Erin. I know I tend to faint and black out. Why didn't I stop when I felt good? :(

But I have a pink Nano! :)

It's a Joy to Be You

More Go To Sketches cards today! Today's two cards were two of my favorite sketches in the whole book. :)
This miss you card uses the Joy Ride line from Cosmo Cricket. I didn't have any of the chipboard accents yet so the little "miss you" doggie is cut from the cover of the booklet of papers. Then I stamped the "miss you" with stazon. Easy goes to peasy. I love working with cordinated lines like this, doesn't get a bit easier.

Then we have this one using materials from a Scarlet Lime kit. I love this red, black, bright turquoise color combo. I stamped the "hello" on the tag, the whole "be the best that you can be" piece is a premade chipboard element.

In Other News:

The headache from yesterday is gone. I want to go to the gym, but I'm worried it will reexhaust me. I will probably give it a go this afternoon though.

Butterfly in the sky

Do you remember Reading Rainbow? "Butterfly in the sky, I can fly way up high, take a look, it's in a book, a reading rainbow" For some reason I sang this the other day and my kids really latched on. They sing it all the time.

I have a butterfly card today. It is a sketch from the Go To Sketches book. The supplies are from a Scarlet Lime kit. I thought this was going to be a really hard sketch but it was fun, and again, forced me to sue a variety of print papers which has been hard for me. The "thank you" sentiment is by Papertrey.

Next is a Happy Birthday card.

I actually had the white on clear stamped piece laying around and noticed it fit nicely in the top note die punched piece I also had laying around. So I didn't have to make either of those! How fun. Just added the greeting and the yellow flower. Easy goes to peasy. The Hapy Birthday is Papertrey, the scroll stamp is Cornish Heritage Farms.

In Other News:

Still very sick. Sorry I overshared the other day. Kinda yucky isn't it? I'm 12 weeks now, so offically second trimester, it should stop soon. I feel kinda lazy and depressed. I just don't feel well enough to do all the things I feel like I should be doing. I'm trying not to let it bother me. I did get a Priesthood Blessing yesterday. That was good comfort.

A Friendly Garden Walk

Welcome to the Paper Garden Projects Friendly Garden Walk

Take a stroll through the blogs of all the Paper Gardeners and enjoy some friendly inspiration. We're introducing some new gardening buddies so be sure to say "hi" to our new design team members.

While you visit, subscribe to each Gardener's blog and take note of each designer's name and their Friendly Word in their blog post. Once you finish your garden tour, send an E-mail to custserv@papergardenprojects.com with the list of designers and their Friendly Word.

Everyone who sends the correct list of designers and words will be entered in a random drawing to win a prize. You need to send an e-mail to the address above; please don't leave your list as a comment. You have until midnight (EST) on Tuesday, April 27 to send your list.

And the prize? How about a couple new little buddies (the OA Buddies cling set from The Greeting Farm)?

I'll now show you my project!

I decided to make a scrapbook page celebrating my best friend Roniece. She is one of those extra special people that comes into your life and it's not long before you know she's a keeper. A lot of people call Roniece a friend, I feel really special that we are best friends. :)

I started stamping flowers from the Petals from Scratch clear set with white ink. I love kraft cardstock so I used that as my base. To add color I just outlined the insides of the lines (so inlined?) with copic marker. Next I took my favorite picture of me and Roniece and matted it on some fun pink cardstock that really ties in my pink bow. I wear this silly bow pretty often. Enough that it's somewhat of an "Erin thing."

And that's about it. Finish coloring, add a title and a super easy fun scrapbook page. I've showed a few people and they have all said, "That's cool print paper" and I got to say, "I made it!" So that's super fun! This inline coloring on white stamping on kraft is new to me. I'm loving it. I think I'll make a card with it soon. Thanks so much for joining me on my first blog hop. I feel truly honored to be a part of this amazing team. I highly recomend checking out the other blogs in the hop. I've seen some sneek peeks and they are stunning.

Oh my secret friend word if you are playing along is "mate". So Cheers Mate! :)

Here is the list of the blogs to check out:
•Cathy
•Amber

•Tangii

•Tricia

•Linda
•Erin *You are here*
•Andrea
•Alyssa

Maybe later

You guys I do have cards.

But last night was horrible. I'm still VERY sick with this baby. Last night was the worst yet. I didn't get any sleep, just threw up all night. I'm happy to share all kinds of horrible details if you'd like. Just email me for the whole story. I will share that my prenatal vitamin had dissolved and tastes HORRIBLE later. Like I cried for almost an hour over the horribleness. Brian almost cried just to see me this sick.

So. I might post later? I might not. I'm going to try to rest.

Otherwise things are great. I'm participating in a fun blog hop tomorrow morning. (so I'll have to post or the hoppers will say, "what's this about throwing up? I came to see cards!") I actually did a scrapbook page for the hop! With the famed Roniece, so you will all get to see her!

Hi there, love

It's another great morning. I had weird dreams last night, someone broke my leg while I was in labor, and I got a puppy. (in the dream I got a puppy, not in real life) The puppy was really cute. Very fluffy and black and white.

I am sharing more Go To Sketch cards today. This one is stinking adorable. Basicly the sketch allowed for tons of print paper used in a grid type pattern. I cut the accents out of the print paper for the card. The "HI there" is by Papertrey.

This card might be my favorite card I've made for the self challange. I do have ISSUE with the way this is presented in the book though. The sample I followed is by Nina Brackett, she's devistatingly talented. Her sample rocked and inspired me. There are 5 steps it says to Nina's card. Only one of the steps is like, cut windows from paper. Um... It took real geometry based math and tons of time to get these window things to look right. This card took me almost an hour. I honestly don't remember the last time I spent that long on a card. I'm totally down with hour long cards being in magazines but to make it out like they are simple 5 step cards? Sheesh. (This rant is all in good fun, I LOVE me some Papercrafts magazine) The paper here is Love Me Do, the most darling paper collection EVER. And I got to use a ton of it for this card so that makes me happy.

I went ahead and did a fancy inside for this card too. And now we all have Beatles songs stuck in our heads.

In Other News:

I did let S stay home yesterday. I took him in and had him do the morning stuff then took him back home. Made him go back to bed. Then I got really sick. I didn't even eat. Not fair. Still loosing weight. Blah on that. Blizzards are on sale this week, maybe I should get a few and bulk up. (kidding)

I have S home today too though. I had planned to take today off. Or have him take it off, whatever. I slept in, which was great (cept for the broken leg dream). I think I'll hit the gym then take these kids to the new Oceans movie. I hope it's good. I don't go to tons of movies but I'm trying to take the kids to more. How to Train Your Dragon was great. Then maybe the park, not sure if "the baby in the tummy" will get angry and make me sick again, usually I'm good till like noon, then it's a huge mess.

More Go To Sketches

It just occured to me: I am doing this Go To Sketches challange to celebrate this awesome book-a-zine. But I hope that Papercrafts doesn't mind me doing it. I'm showing a card from each sketch. You could theoretically just remake the sketches from my cards? I mean I've made changes on them so I guess not. And you'd miss out on all the AWESOME samples in the book. I'm open though, if anyone thinks it's unethical what I'm doing here let me know.

Until then, here are two more sketches. If you are following along I've skipped one. I did NOT skip any, I apparently didn't take a photo of the card I did for that sketch. I'll get right on that.
This Sending You card was for a sketch that was hard for me. But I felt the shape of the medalion stamp echoed the shape of a paper layer on the card, so I used this instead. It's fun to do that with the sketches, make adjustments as you please. The medalion is Stampin' Up! The words are Papertrey.
This "hello" card uses the new SEI Claire line, it's lovely. A ton of faux stitching. This card is an odd size too. Love that. The "hello" is Papertrey, one of those little $5 sets, I've been using it a ton too.

In Other News:

I'm still loosing weight. Which is odd as I'm entering my 2nd trimester now. My Dr wasn't thrilled. I don't know what to say. She really thinks it's not the gym it's that I'm not eating enough. I'm EATING fine, it's that I'm not keeping what I eat down. I can't do anything about that. :( But the baby looks totally fine, growing great, moving a lot, bloodwork is great, so she didn't go on about the weight other than to say she expects to see some gain before my next appointment. (I've lost sense then, so that's going to be even more of a challange.) It's WEIRD as an overwight girl to have this particular problem. WEIRD I tells you. I've lost a good bit, I can see it, my clothes feel different. Usually this would be cause for a celebration. I WANT to enjoy it. But it scares me of course. It's just very weird. At least I AM nice and plump so there is plenty of fat stores my body can tap into I guess?

The gym is going ok. I've had to cut back a bit just because I'm so stinking tired. I still go but no more 2 hour workouts, more like 50 minutes. But it's still good. I'm happy.

Stephen has been having nightmares. They are actually kind of funny when he tells them, but I know something can be really scary in your dreams but not sound scary when you tell it. Poor kid. He's SUPER tired today because he was up all night with them. I'm deciding right now if he should just go back to bed or go to preschool. He votes bed of course.

Kristina's one layer challange

So for Make A Card Monday this week Kristina Werner did a one layer card, then challanged us all to do one. I'm always up for a challange, so I made two. :) This first simple card uses a ton of different companies. The background woodgrain is by Hero Arts, the butterfly is Cornish Heritage Farms and the "thanks thank you very much" is by Heidi swap. The paper is Papertrey Ink and the inks are Vivid. There is a pen used too. :) Oh and the We Are Memory Keepers Corner Chomper.

This next one used just one stamp set. I had this idea to use the Noah Alphabet by Studio Calico as a background. I'm not thrilled with how it turned out but it's ok. Then I wanted to use a different "thanks" stamp but it didn't fit! Figures. So I used the Noah Alpha to do "hello" and that looks ok to me.

I'm loving the backgrounds on this cardstock (rustic cream) stamped in this straw ink.

I also wanted to show you what I got from the Liberty of London for Target line. I wanted to limit myself to ONE item that I would love. This is it:

It holds all my little mini pads of print paper. I love it because they had been in a few places and now they are together. I use them most of the time for my print papers so this works great for me. And it perfectly fits where I hoped it would fit. And plenty of room to flip through them. Love it!

Clean & Simple's Fall To Layout 86

I am always inspired by the Clean & Simple blog. Yesterday when I saw the Fall To Layout 86 I knew I would be playing along. Actually my cute Stephen even said, "We are going to have to print this out to make some cards from the sketch." And here is my take on the sketch:

This sketch is too fun for using scraps of papers that you may have around. Actually it has me thinking when I'm cleaning up a project I might whip up a card from this sketch with the scraps. I can't wait to see all the other bloggers' takes on this sketch!

Supplies:

All cardstock is Prism Cardstock

Stamp Set is Anytime Sentiments

Print paper is Basic Grey's Green at Heart

I told you I've been working hard.

I have made a TON of cards using Go To Sketches book-a-zine. I'm loving my challange to work through the book. This isn't even all of it. I will be showing you all the cards over the next few weeks. I'm a little head over heels for the new Cosmo Cricket lines, I won't lie to ya. You are seeing a good bit of them here.

Did I tell you my new attitude about papers and embelishments? Every project DESERVES YOUR BEST STUFF. If you are taking the time to make it, then it deserves a few of the jeweled brads you splurged on and have been saving. Those chipboard elements you want to dole out slowly one per project for the next year? Nah! Use a few on one project, it's ok. Your most special paper? USE IT. It's been GREAT for me. Very liberating. And honestly I still have plenty of stuff to use. I'm not missing the stuff at all. And I feel so much better about the money I've spent on it knowing that I'm using it.

Next step: Actually mail cards.

In other news: My other local scrapbook store is closing! I didn't go to this one very much because the one that closed a few months ago was literally less than a mile from here. But with both closed it feels all wrong. And the one that's closing now is HUGE and all the crops I ever peeked in on were packed. :( I actually used to work at this one that's closing. It's a different owner now. Apparently owning a HUGE scrapbook store is expensive. So I have mixed feelings about it. I only went like twice a year and spent about $20 each time. So, although I'm bummed that a local business is closing, I clearly didn't truly value it. It won't change much for me. I do feel bad for friends of mine who loved to crop there, but I've never really loved cropping out of my house. I mean I have, but more to socialize. Roniece brought up that there is really no where to crop now. And it will kind of end the random touching base that I have with local girls. I mean I have my Roniece and Kelly that have become good friends through cropping, I will keep in touch with them and have them here to crop. (I have way more stuff then either of them and they don't have shabby collections either, it's a bit embarrasing) But I can name probably 20 other women that I liked seeing once in a while. Roniece is devistated because she's FAR more social than I am and would make the rounds just to check up on everyone.

I'm still working out. My gym has Kids Klub now but with limited hours. But it means I can work out during the DAY instead of from 9-11. That was killing my sleep. So today my gym didn't have kids klub hours so I was told to try the other location. The bigger, fancy location. The scary huge location. :( I did go. I didn't like it as much at all as my cute little friendly gym. I did get a smoothie so that was fun. Even the kids were like, "It was fun, but even though it's smaller our Kids Klub is more fun" some nonsense about kids not sharing cars or some such garbage. The big gym has way better kids klub hours, tomorrow me and Ethan are going to go in the morning. I'm hopeing it's slower in the AM. Maybe it was so mobbed because it was like 5. OH and totally different machines! I mean different brands, worked differently. It was like I was brand new again! My bike had a cool TV just for me. I watched What Not To Wear. That was fun. I was just overwhelmed. I'm sure everyone is just as friendly as at my other gym but weird. It IS cool though that I can go to either. The big one has classes, Kelly loves them, but I'm scared of classes. Also Kelly is my "skinny friend" and I don't know if I can work out with my skinny friend.

My first Paper Garden Project

I'm SO excited to be on the Paper Garden Projects design team. Actually we call the team members "Gardners" how cute is that? And perfect to be a new Gardner in spring right!

One of the first things I got to work with was a set of clear stamps by Penny Black. I knew as soon as I saw them that my first project would be this card. I stamped the vases with versamark ink and embossed with clear powder on some Basic Grey paper. I then cut the vases out. Glued them on the paper, drew in some shadow with a gray marker and stamped one flower for one vase. Added a greeting and done. Actually I'd love a trio of cool vases in cool prints. Looks like something you'd find in the new Liberty of London for Target line doesn't it? (I'm going later to get me a Liberty of London for Target organizing box, maybe two.)

Stamps: Salutations Clear Stamp Set
Paper: Basic Grey Green At Heart
Pink Cardstock: Prism Cardstock
White Cardstock: Neeha Classic White

A comment on Cardstocks:

• I've done my next project already too. I want to talk NOW though about one of the materials I used in it. The kraft cardstock. I have shared with you guys that I love the Papertrey kraft. I used to use the Stampin' Up and it was a little muddy for me and just a bit drab. Well the kraft at Paper Garden Projects is WONDERFUL. I ordered some just so I could review it for you. It's REALLY nice. Very paper bag-ish looking, lots of flecks and stuff, but totally smooth. And a GREAT weight.
• Oh and I know the Neeha Classic White is tremendously popular, but I had never used it until this project and I concur, it's NICE white cardstock.
• I had also never used the Prism cardstocks. They are nice. YUMMY colors, rich saturation and they seem to cover every color you could want. They ARE thinner than say, PTI or even a smidge thinner than Stampin' Up. I usually use colored cardstock as a layer though. On this card today I made the base out of the white and cut the Prism to fit the whole front of the card. The Prism also has texture. I generally am freaked out by textured cardstocks because I like to stamp and what if the pretty texture messes up my stamping, but guess what? The Prism texture is on only one side. It actually FEELS like high quality letterpress. You know the highest quality letterpress you don't feel it from the reverse side. Delicious. Actually I think this cardstock is asking for some faux letterpressing.

The next two sketches

I've actually now done TONS of the sketches in the Go To Sketches book. Here are the next two in the order.
This one was hard for me. I'm just not that into odd shaped cards. But the sketch was very clear and the examples were pretty cute so it came together nicely. This line of papers and chipboards is JoyRide by College Press. It's weird because I'm also working a lot lately with Joy Ride by Cosmo Cricket, and that is a totally different look of papers. Here is the little inside tag. That stamp is by Cornish Heritage Farms.

This next sketch was really neat, sort of random looking. I decided to keep it a one layer card, just for fun.

Easy goes to peasy and pretty cute. The flowers are stamped in pink ink then colored with watercolor pencils and a dove blender pen. The flower stamps are by Papertrey Ink, the greeting is Stampin' Up!

More sktechy cards

First here is a silly picture my son insisted on taking of me. With my cards. Ok today I'm going to share two of the Go To Sketches inspired card. This personal challange has been beyond fun! I'm going to keep it up.

The papers on the B*DAY card are by College Press's Joyride collection. It's a Christmas line but I love it so much that I am trying to use it on non-Christmas stuff too. This was one of the hardest sketches in the book for me. And on my card all those shades of red (which did all come from the collection) freak me out. But I think it's still a worthy card.

The next one is one of my favorite sketches EVER. I loved the sample card by Latisha Yoast (We are still in the Teri Anderson section of sketches.) so well that I made my card very similar. I even used the same stamp! Latisha used some YUMMY purple Prima flowers, I didn't have any quite that fancy, so I pulled out my collection of punched 3D flowers I had made. OH and her card is 2.5"x5.25". Mine is 3"x5.25" because I knew my flowers were so huge. I LOVE this adorable size. That's one thing I've noticed in the book-a-zine, LOTS of cards that are different sizes! So I'm trying to take that to heart as well.

The cardstocks are Papertrey's white, kraft and black and Stampin' Up!'s retired Cool Caribbean. Stampin Up! scallop circle punch and Papertrey's Mixed Messages greeting. LOVELY!

So everyone is talking about the Stampin' Up! color rework. I have to say I'm crazy excited. Odd about the no purples and no primary/secondary yellow, blue, orange, green. But I'm ok with it. The thing that gets me is they brought back some old In Colors, but not Cool Caribbean! BEST COLOR EVER. I am almost out too. I have the Papertrey Aqua Mist and SU Soft Sky, but neither is REALLY as great. :( Oh well, should have bought more.

In Other News:

Tomorrow is the big Birthday Party for Stephen. Brian vetoed my cheap out and not get pizza bagels idea, so it's back to being discusting expensive. I mean it's really ok. I've just never planned a big birthday party, so the total cost kinda snuck up on me. I'm telling myself it's about the same as two Papertrey orders, so that's not really SO bad. Or one good Stampin' Up! order. Actually that did make me feel better!

I'm excited because I was able to find enough junk to make it a Bakugon Theme. If you don't know what Bakugon are, good for you. I feel like my LIFE is Bakugon themem right now. I found plates, napkins, treat bags, cups, table topper thingie, stickers for in the goodie bag and I bought a plate to the balloon store when I ordered and got maroon, gold and yellow balloons to match the theme. (black would have worked better than yellow, but that is the kid's favorite color and they have "5" all over them, so I went with it).

The cake is not Bakugon. With me having been sick I let him get any cake he wanted: From Costco. He picked a rainbow one. *sigh* On chocolate, with chocolate inside. BLAH. But he's happy. We pick it up today.

I probably won't post tomorrow, sounds like a busy day. So you get two cards today. :)

Blessing to me

This is for the second Go To Sketch in my book-a-zine. I neglected to mention last time that the first 11 sketches are all by the wonderfully talented Teri Anderson. This card is actually directly inspired by her sample card on page 12. She cut these lantern chipboard stickers to fit them into the design and I liked the look of them cut so much I did it here with my spools of thread. These materials are all from the Garden Girl line at Cosmo Cricket. I got all my new Cosmo Cricket at Stop and Scrap and they have great customer service. I love this line. It's begging to be machine stitched and I love that.

So there is a pocket on the front of the card and the little flower thing pulls you out a tag. it would be delux cute to have a gift card on the tag, there is room in case I find one I want to use. Wouldn't a fabric store one be too much!

And here is the inside of the card. I'm trying to make my card insides look fantastic too.

So last night I got a move on and I have now done the first ten sketches in the book. All just yesterday! And I am loveing what I'm making. Of course I have always loved a good sketch. And yall do know that my favorite stamper Kim Hughes has a whole chapter in this book? Swoon!

Really quick update

You guys I'm loving this Go To Sketches challange and book-a-zine. I've done eight cards now! And yes that means I did the scary circle tag inside a tirangle pouch card. And guess what? I love it! Actually I'm loving all these cards I'm doing with the sketches! Maybe Papercrafts will hear about this and be so impressed they publish them all. *haha*

other news update:
I've been keeping food down for a few days. I'm sure you are so relieved. :)

Sew Sweet

So I'm doing a challange. Actually Roniece is doing it too. We both recently got the fabulous Go To Sketches book-a-zines. So we are going to each do at least one card with each and every sketch in the book. To keep it even more rediculous I'm going to do mine IN ORDER. I did the first 4 today and will share one. The 5th sketch is a stumper for me. I figure I have 4 days to get to it though right? haha.

Ok today's card uses the Cosmo Cricket Material Girl line. I love, I mean LOVE this line. I'm seriously considering ordering two more sets of the chipboard thingies for it. But be proud of me, I love it so, but I'm not hordeing them at all. I used a ton of chipboard on this card. Adorable right? I have to tell you I'm in love with getting whole cordinating lines and using them together. Maybe not the most creative but it always works and it is so fun.

Look at this side view to see all the layers of chipboard. You could pick any of like 5 dresses for your girl to wear! I can't stand the cuteness!

And Here is the cute inside. Another chipboard in here. I'm trying really hard to make my insides look nice like the outsides.

In Other News:

Today I got all the crap for the goodie bags for S's party. We need to talk. How much food do I need? I said I would serve lunch. So of course more than cake and icecream. I am doing sandwiches, fruit salad, cake, icecream, milk and water. Is that sufficient? I mean my kids would not eat more than that at home. I could get some chips or pretzles too. Originally I was going to do all this stuff like pizza bagels and chicken strips and stuff. But the party is getting expensive. And I'm not trying to spend so much on a kid's party ya know? I know some folks love to do that but not Erin. So is that ok? I was going to a giant tray of sandwiches cut into quarters. A few kinds of meat so they can pick what they like. Oh and the milk and water thing is Stephen's choice. That's all he drinks and he wants his guests to "be healthy". So if you are coming (And if you live in Jacksonville you are invited just email me for details) then that's what you will be drinking. Feel free to smuggle in a soda. ;)

I'm REALLY excited about the Paper Garden Projects team. My first package of stuff is set to ship on Friday. I already know what's in it, so that's EXCITING. I have assignments due right away. Oh that will totally inturrupt the working through the sketch book plan. Unless I can work it into the sketch book of course.

Great News Everyone!

I have such exciting news. A few weeks ago I was following along on the Paper Garden Projects blog and saw that they were having a Design Team Call. I've been a fan of the blog for some time. I sorta online-know Cathy, the owner and she's just too sweet and nice. So I went ahead and gave it a go! I made a few projects for her to consider and I was chosen!

I'm really excited because the Paper Garden Projects store has such fun stuff. Some of my favorite stamp lines are in the store, Eat Cake Graphics and Greeting Farm, Penny Black and other great ones! It is going to be SO fun to get to work with such fresh and exciting stamp lines!

My favorite thing though is that I will get to be a part of a blog that has been such an inspiration for me. And you guys really DO need to go check out the blog, lots of fun contests and prizes and challanges. I actually won one of the contests last month! (before I was a DT member of course!) I got a set of three Dressy Anya stamps just for playing along with a sketch challange! Too fun!

Stephen is turning 5

I can hardly believe it but my Baby Stephen is turning 5 on Sunday. We have a nice Birthday Party planned for Saturday. I also made him this card: The paper is from the Nerdy Bird collection and the sentiment is by Papertrey. It's really a simple little card, but looks so fun and is bright, which I find my kids love. I know he loves this paper because when it came in the shipment he went on and on about how cute it is.

Girly You Rock

Does this have an Indian Inspired feel? I was going for that. With the colors you know. I have loved samples I've seen with this stamp. (the SU medalion) I'm going to rock this stamp. Not sure how yet, but I'm going to. I have to. Freaking $17.95 for one stamp. haha. The sentiments from Papertrey set is one of the best sets I've purchased. Delightful.

Retro girly

How cute is this girl stamp? I actually WON her on the Paper Garden Projects blog a few weeks ago. If you guys are interested in winning some free stuffs you have to add that blog to your list. They have really frequent contests and the prizes are stamps, paper kits, papers and so on. Delicious stuff. If you don't want to bother with a contest you can buy the girl at this link.

I paper pieced her clothing with papers from Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl line. She is colored with copics. I noticed when I was coloring her that I've really been on this thing lately where I've not been doing much coloring. I have not fallen out of love with coloring, I'm not sure what is up. But it was definately fun to color this girl.

In Other News:
It is Spring Break for Stephen! I'm so happy I don't know what to do with myself. I'm one of those weird moms who hates it when her kid is away at school. I count the minutes till it's time to pick him up. Having him all day for the next 10 days is going to be dreamy for me. Also my Stephen turns FIVE next Sunday (not this Sunday, but the 11th). Can you believe that?? And that means that many of you have been my online friends for more than 5 years because I was pregnant with him when I met most of you! I think over five years makes you officially a "longtime friend". :) I love you guys.

New goodies and a new card

I have recently ordered a few things. One was a huge pile of clearance Scarlet Lime stuff: It is a TON of stuff yall. I'm a little overwhelmed by it all. GREAT prices, it was all either grab bags for $10 or past kits for $20. Just there is a TON of it.

And then, lest you think I'm abandoning "cute" I ordered a ton of stuff back in January that was "preorder" stuff that came this week:

Some of this is new CHA release stuff, some of it is stuff that I've wanted for a while and threw into the order for fun. I LOVE all these papers, diecuts, chipboard stickers etc. It took me almost an hour to look through all of this.

Unfortunately I've not used any of it. I'm crazy sick with this pregnancy. I've lost 13lbs in two weeks. And not in any way I'd like to loose 13lbs. (although if I ever again report a double digit weight loss we will celebrate!) I can't eat ANYTHING. I mean half a slice of toast will make me sick. I'm sneaking litterally small bites of food. Half a small pickle, few bites of my kid's popcorn. And the thing is I'm REALLY hungry. I WANT to eat, but my desire not to be painfully sick is stronger. Turns out I'm very pain adverse. At least stomache throw up pain. I can keep fluids down totally fine, so my Dr says it's ok. And should pass soon. My point here is that I've been a bit low on energy and inspiration.

But yesterday I'd had enough with not using stuff. I mean I haven't even properly used my March Scarlet Lime kit! For shame! So I made this card:

Which I really love. :) The "thank you" greeting is by Papertrey and the ribbon I'm not sure who makes it, brown cardstock is Stampin' UP, the rest (print papers and a rub on) are from the March Scarlet Lime kit. Isn't that seahorse super pretty? It was in a print paper and I cut the paper just so it would show like this.

In other news: I closed down my Etsy shop. I had quickly sold one card, that was fun. Then nothing. So I took it all down and the cards will go back in the box of general cards that I pull from for using.

My roof is almost done! It looks AWESOME. I think I've talked enough about it right? The shingles have color variation, reds, grays and blacks. Love it! They are just finishing the ridges and doing the shed today. And clean up. I love my roof company, if you need a roof in my area call Plemmons Roofing. Seriously email me and I'll get you their phone number and everything. LOVE them. Course they did have to take down our dish, so no TV last night. It goes back up today though, so all is well. They were nice about that and saved taking it down for the last moment. So my boys could watch cartoons. haha.

Brian comes home today! And stays home for a few months too! Hugely happier when Brian is in town. All the obvious reasons. I think I'm going to try to get us a sitter Saturday and go see that Alice in Wonderland movie. We need a date. And I'll be all cheap because usually I need movie snacks but I don't eat so no movie snacks. :)