July Papertrey Blog Hop

Its that time again. I love the 25th of the month! Its PTI blog hop time!

This month's challenge was to come up with a card inspired by this picture:

Isn't this photo really inspiring? The colors, the butterflies, the white bench, the throw with the medallion. Just beautiful! I was also really inspired by Betsy's card here, and thought the impressed doily fit the feel of the photo and my project.

Its really hard to see the impressed doily, so here is a closer look. I sponged some white ink so the sentiment would stand out a bit more. It shows up better in real life. Also, it would help if I could take a decent picture!

There are a lot of GORGEOUS projects at Nichole's blog to check out. Thanks for stopping by to see mine!

Stamp-A-Faire Challenges

By the name of my blog title, you probably get the idea that I don't have a lot of time to do the hobby that I really enjoy (scrapping). I wasn't able to even start any of the Stamp-A-Faire Challenges until my 3 little angels (ahem) were in bed at 8:00 CST. And, as you moms out there know, just because you put a kid to bed doesn't mean that they stay there. Anyways, long story short, I had 2 hours to work on the challenges, which were really fun, by the way. To help with the time issue, I combined a couple challenges into one card. I was able to get 2 cards done, but I was only able to link one. Just ran out of time. Darn.

Okay, enough excuses. Here are my cards.

The first one is for Challenge 9 (use a stamp in a new and interesting way), Challenge 8 (create a card that is cut back around an inch and creates a lip to add a design element) and Challenge 5 (create a faux border with a solid shape).

The light bulb is the largest balloon from Up, Up and Away flipped upside down (stamped with the smooth side rather than the design side). The month that I discovered Papertrey Ink was the same month Up, Up and Away was released. When I first saw the dies, I thought of a light bulb right away. This was my chance to finally make the light bulb I pictured all those months ago.

Now on to the card that I didn't get to link. I created this card to go with Challenge 1, 4, and 6.

I'm going to use this for my son's friend's birthday party on August 12, so even though I didn't have quite enough time to link the card, it will still go to good use.

Here's to hoping Stamp-A-Faire is an annual thing! Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks, Coach!

I'm back for a third day in a row with a card for my oldest's T ball coach. He participates in T ball through the local YMCA. The coaches are all volunteers and really deserve our thanks. I'm not entirely sure what I will be including with the card yet. I made a frame and included a team photo for DJ's soccer coach. I hope to do something different this time.

Isn't that pattern paper fun? I got it in a large sports theme paper pack with a 40% off coupon at good ol' Michaels.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Sky's the Limit

A friend of mine is having a really hard year. I mean really hard. I wanted to send her a card to let her know that things may be hard right now, but the future is bright.

I love the way cards look with a lot of white space. Here is my attempt at the technique.

I was really inspired how Nichole Heady folded her card off center and put the sentiment on the "inside" of the card here. I recreated it vertically to give my balloons a little more height.

Its another hot one here in Wisconsin. We are off to my oldest's T ball game. We better take lots of water!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hip Hop Hooray!

Its been a while since I've posted. Life is just plain busy right now. But, last Friday I had a chance to get together with a couple of friends and do some scrapping. It was so nice to get out and have a little girl talk and create! Here is one of the 3 cards that I made.

Two of my three boys will be in school this fall, the oldest in kindergarten, and my middle will start preschool. That means lots of birthday party invitations. I decided I had better start stocking up on boy birthday cards. I was inspired by Nichole Heady's felt frog here and wanted to make one, too. But, with the light blue paper rather than the dark green that Nichole used, I think it came out looking a little babyish. So, I added a big bow on the top and will tuck it a way for a little nephew of mine whose having a first birthday in about 6 months! (At least I will be prepared!!)

It is really hot and humid here today. I think I will take my kiddos to the splash pad when they get up from their nap in a half hour! They will be thrilled!

Thanks for stopping by! Stay cool!

Color Inspiration

Well, there is nothing like waiting until the absolute last minute! It is nearly midnight MDT time (almost 1:00 my time!) and I finally am getting my card done and up on the blog for the Color Inspiration #6 challenge over at papercraftsconnection.com. I absolutely LOVE this color combination, but my mojo escaped me until this afternoon, and then I didn't have time to work on my vision until after fireworks tonight. But, here it is:

I was also inspired by Nichole Heady's challenge (that I am a day late for) highlighting the polaroid 2 step masking technique. You can watch a great video showing the technique here.

Thanks for stopping by!

4th of July Treats

Oh my goodness, life has been B-U-S-Y! I recently left my part time job to be a full time at-home mom again. My husband, who has been unemployed for a year and a half, was offered a job that requires travel and on-call time. Plus he is still taking classes for EMT and paramedic, volunteering for 2 different local fire departments, and trying to maintain a growing business. That makes me sorta a single mom right now. My hopes and prayers is that all this hard work now will lead to a future where we can worry a little less about money and have a wonderful family life.

So, my oldest will be starting kindergarten in the fall. Our school district offers a summer class called "Kindergarten Jumpstart" that helps the kiddos transition to big kid school. They are having a 4th of July party today, and I wanted to give the kids in DJ's class a little treat.

I made fun little Uncle Sam pins for each of the kids. You can find a tutorial here. But, I have to warn you that the tutorial said to use markers for the hat, but using marker on fun foam did not work for me. The marker rubbed right off. So, I paper pieced the hat and clear embossed them to give a little shine.

Here is one that I packaged up in a clear cello bag. I threw in a couple of dum-dums (DJ's favorite). I used Papertrey's Banner Borders die for the bottom of the topper.

And here are the lot of them all together. (I just love how they look grouped up like that!)

Have a GREAT 4th of July weekend and thanks for stopping by!