Beautiful Blue Bloom (OTWC #54)

This is my second post for today.  If you are looking for the CAS-ual Fridays post, please scroll down.

Happy Friday!  It has been one crazy week around here.  A giant storm system moved through here this week with the threat of severe weather.  Needless to say, I felt like a sardine packed into our tiny closet as we waited for the storm to pass.  Nothing much really happened, but with all of the devastation that has been going on, we didn't want to risk it.  All of these natural disasters sure has a person thinking about some of the prophesy in the Bible.  It seems more pertinent than ever to share the love of Jesus!  So, just in case you didn't know already, Jesus sure does love you and he's got your back no matter who you are or what you've done.  Feel free to ask me more about it, I'd love to share my story with you.

It has been two weeks already since the last Off The Wall Craftiness challenge.  Here are this week's colors and inspiration:

After becoming madly obsessed with Pinterest, I came across an amazing tutorial for a felt flower corsage pin.  I just had to give it a try.  So, today's card isn't just a card.  It is more of the packaging for a fantastic pin that can be removed from the front and worn.  A gift of sorts.  Check it out:

This was my first attempt and I'm pretty sure that if I tried it again, it would look much better, but I still think this is amazing.  What do you think?  Would you actually wear this?  This week's sponsor is Kelly's Creative Design.  Try to use Wilson Designs stamps on your projects and you will have double the chances to win this week's prize.  Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Con-GRAD-ulations! (CAS-ual Fridays #4)

OH. MY. WORD.  You people are amazing with all of your clean and simple awesomeness.  I had a crazy hard time deciding who's projects were worthy of my Top 10 this week.  I mean, how could I eliminate any of them, they were all so wonderful.  Way to go bloggers - you knocked my socks off.  I am blown away by the amount of you playing along as well.  Keep it up friends, keep it up.  So, without further ado, how's about a new challenge?  I'm sure it's no secret that May and June are graduation months and I'm also sure that many of you are sharing in the tears of joy at having a child or relative of your own who is graduating.  What an exciting achievement!  That means you will be needing to pony up for some cash and an outstanding grad card, right?  Enter this week's CAS-ual Friday challenge - make a graduation card of any kind.  I decided to take a little bit different approach and use my absolute all time favorite quote on mine (thanks to Unity for having it in stamp form).

I think that seems like a quote worthy of a graduation card, don't you?  This week's sponsor is Market Street Stamps.  Be sure to pop on over to CAS-ual Fridays to see what's up for grabs and to get a glimpse of what the rest of the design team has put together.

A Sad Farewell (PDCC #83)

Hi friends, today is a bittersweet post for The Play Date Cafe.  We are saying good-bye to our dear co-leader Sarah Anderson.  She has been an amazing leader and inspiring in so many ways.  I had never heard of "moodling" before her.  Her creativity is so unique and she truly brings a new perspective to what being crafty is all about.  Check out this amazing project she created for one of our color splashes (which is her absolute favorite challenge).

You know me, I love all that white space and can you believe she crocheted that heart out of twine?  Amazing stuff!  To honor her departure this week, we are playing a color splash challenge.  This week's sponsor is Skipping Stones Design and they were so sweet to send us each a set (mine is Grunge).  We have all created cards to say good-bye.

Also, to make this super fun and exciting, The Play Date Cafe is offering up an extra prize to those who leave comments along the way for a blog hop.  So, leave some love on each of the Design Team's blogs listed below.  Thanks for everything you've done Sarah - you will truly be missed!

Andrea Ewen

Libby Hickson
Colleen Dietrich 
Jaclyn Miller (that's me!) 
Michele Gross
Jinny Newlin 
Savannah O' Gwynn
Tracey Kuzniak
Fiona Shultz 
Ruby Mcguire
Julie Murray

Ka-Pow! (CAS-ual Fridays #3)

You guys have been leaving such nice comments for me this past week.  I humbly thank you.  It really brightens a girl's day!  I have really been enjoying the gallery at CAS-ual Fridays.  It is uber inspiring and there were some really amazing "out of the box" uses for buttons and twine.  Great job everybody!  Are you ready for a new challenge?  This week it is "BRING THE BLING".

Yay, love bling!  This week's sponsor is Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker.  Have you noticed that animal prints are everywhere now?  Look out for this upcoming trend.  So, you might need your sunglasses for my card this week.  It ended up being a bit, ahem, bright.  Hence my title - Ka-Pow - this one will Ka-Pow your face off.  Are you ready?  Here you go:

Again, lovin' on my Hero Arts stamp set.  Don't you love zebra print in pink?  I was giddy when I saw the pattern after pulling up my stamp.  So fun and girly.  Now it's your turn.  Let's see your fun approaches to bling.  Thanks for stopping by today and be sure to visit the CAS-ual Fridays blog to see this week's prize and to be inspired by the rest of the team.

Wire Experimenting (PDCC #82)

Well, dag gum people, I'm starting to wonder if the sun actually exists!!!  This has been some really crazy weather we've been having -baseball season is almost over and we've only had one game that wasn't rainy and cold.  It's no wonder that my blood work came back reporting that I was low on vitamin D (the sunshine vitamin).  I think anyone that lives around here will be low on vitamin D this year.  Anyway, can somebody please confirm for me that the sun really does exist?

Good thing I have these fun color challenges to keep me busy on all of these rainy days.  Say hello to this week's Play Date Cafe offering:

These were a bit challenging for me this week, but they are very pretty.  Once I found a few papers that worked with these colors, things seemed to come together.

At first, I just had the butterfly on there, but the left side of the card seemed so bare.  So, I used some copper wire to trim it out.  Wire is difficult to get to stick to my paper - if anyone has any tips on what to use, I'd love to hear them.  To make the butterfly body, I just wrapped a piece of wire around my paper piercer.  I really love how this turned out.  So, you think you can work with these colors?  I know you can do it, give it a try!  I think you will like the results.  By the way, there are some very exciting changes coming to The Play Date Cafe to be announced soon, so stay tuned.  Be sure to head on over there to catch who this week's sponsor is, to view the DT's work and to visit our guest designer's blog.  Thanks for stopping by!

I Told You So.

Some of you who follow me on FB may know that we've been doing a porch remodel to our home.  Well, I don't know how much of a remodel it is since hubs has vetoed the actual rebuilding of it until next year (he says until we have the money, but these days, there really isn't money to be found no matter when it is).  The bottom line was that the old porch was attached to the house and water was collecting and sitting at that connection.  We were afraid if we waited too much longer, the water would start getting into the walls.  So, demo began - I kinda threw myself into it before thinking much about it because, let's all admit it, breaking stuff and tearing it apart is just plain fun and therapeutic!  Once we got the whole thing down, there was then the issue of where to put all of that debris.  Ahem.  Nowhere.  What to do, what to do?  Well, we did what every logical person does in this situation, we just left it and hoped it would magically disappear overnight.  Well, it didn't. (imagine that) So, we worked around it for a few days and I had to listen to hubs harp at me and the kids - something about making sure we wear tennis shoes in the backyard so we don't get a nail in our foot.  Wouldn't you know that smart old me was brilliantly tooling around the backyard with flip flops on, putting up the new torches I bought for the porch, when I took a very painful step back...2 seconds later I was nursing one of the worst injuries I've ever had.  I'm pretty sure that nail (and yes, it was rusty, but I've had my tetanus) went about 1/4' into the skin between my big toe and the ball of my foot.  OUCH!  It didn't hurt much at first, just bled everywhere.  But, a couple of hours later and I could barely walk.  Of course, the first thing I thought about when I did it was, man, hubs is SURE gonna rub this ONE into my face. :)  The old adage "I told you so" was definitely justified in this case.  I'm happy to report that I'm now back to walking status, but I will most definitely be wearing shoes around debris in the future.

Here are a few pictures of us tearing down our porch:

And we want to do a pergola down the road, so hubs (whose got a degree in Architecture) put together this visualization for me.  He's so resourceful and this really helped me to see what it might look like.  Notice all of the debris lying around:

I'm saving up any money I make on cards to buy me one of those really nice conversational seating sets.  I can't believe how much those darn things cost!  Anyway, hope you enjoyed my little story today.  Have a great day!

Give Me A Chair! (OTWC #53)

This is my second post for today.  Please be sure to SCROLL DOWN to see this week's new CAS-ual Fridays challenge.

..........................................................................

One word. Friday. Yay.

Time for Off The Wall Craftiness.  Observe these colors and inspiration.

These colors stumped me a bit...but I like that.  That's what a challenge is for, right?  Here's my unstumped result:

I hadn't inked up this set from Hero Arts yet, so I gave it a go using that fun swirly paper from the new Stella & Rose collection by MME.  I like swirls.  Alright, your turn.  Give it a try and you could win this week's prize from "Through The Craftroom Door" magazine.  Now, go get inky! (and stop over at OTWC to see the inspiration from the DT).  Have a great weekend! (now that blogger is up, right?)

Human Error Stinks! (CAS-ual Fridays #2)

Picture this.  You spend FOREVER on a project that you are so excited about, you want to make sure it is just perfect.  It takes you at least four tries to get it just right.  Then, once you are finished, you set it in front of you in your work space, you know, to keep looking at it.  Then, you come back to your desk the next day to work on another project who's deadline has passed.  In your hurried frenzy, paper is flying and ink pads are everywhere.  When the dust clears, you see your perfect project knocked over onto one of those ink pads.  It had a good long time to sit there and soak up all that ink.  Yeah, it's ruined and now resembles an ad for Nike.  Has that ever happened to you?  Sure it has, right? Right?  Alright, so obviously that's what happened to this week's DT project for CAS-ual Fridays.  I had to take it all apart and redo it AGAIN!  But, in the end, this is what came out:

You guys totally rocked last week's challenge (thank you to all of you for making our first week so successful)!  So, let's see what you can do with this one.  Your goal is to use Buttons AND Twine.

I got the idea for that heart from pinterest. :)  I hand drew the heart onto cardstock, cut it out and then wrapped it with twine.  I think next time I will use something a little stiffer, it was kinda flimsy.  Now, go on over to CAS-ual Fridays and check out all the inspiration there.  Be sure to get a glimpse of what this week's sponsor, Denami Design is offering.  I just love their buttons!  Thanks for stopping by today - have a great weekend.

A Week To Myself (PDCC #81)

Hi friends.  I officially miss my 4-yr old.  Why, you may ask?  Because at the beginning of this week, she drove off with my sister for the next five days to hang out with her cousins and aunts and uncles.  It wasn't planned - a spur of the moment kinda thing.  It's good for her, right?  It has certainly been strange around here without her.  Dare I say I actually miss her bunches....yeah, I sure do.  She puts joy into my days.  Don't get me wrong, I am thoroughly enjoying the time to myself, although it is amazing how much one can procrastinate doing all of the things you really need to do when you actually have alone time.  I mean really waste time (pinterest has helped me with my wasting, have you discovered it yet?)  Anyway, she'll be back on Friday night and I can't wait to give her big hugs and kisses.  In the meantime, I'll continue with my procrastinating hard work.

Some of that hard work included whipping up my project for this week's Play Date Cafe using these colors:

Fun and Funky!

I used some stamps that this week's sponsor, Stampotique was gracious enough to shoot our way.  I will admit that somehow my purple ended up being a bit more red, but I could've sworn it was more purple.  Oh well, have a looksie:

I thought my bees would look cool with a bit of splatter.  The obvious choice would be to use spray mist, but because I'm cheap, I didn't have any.  Soooo, instead I opted for a paint brush, a cup of water, and my ink pad.  I just dipped the brush in water, swirled on the ink and then tapped the brush over my paper to splatter it.  You can see I got a little over zealous as evidenced by my giant water splotch.  The wings on the bees are colored with a water pen and watercolor pencils...and to add my grey, I topped it off with a bit of silver.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Be sure to check out the inspiration from our design team and visit this week's guest designer, R. Maria Sabina.

Spa Day With My Daughter

It's Sunday and that means it's a day where we celebrate Moms!  I previously mentioned that I just love making memories with my kids and I had that perfect opportunity on Friday with my 7-yr old daughter.  In first grade, they have what they call a "spa day" for moms.  Moms come to school and their kids "service" them in salon fashion for free.  It's a really neat thing and Haley really looked forward to our time together as she kept reminding me every day up to it that spa day is only this many days away.  Here's a a glimpse into our morning.

When I first arrived, they had all of the moms gather in the common area for the kids to sing songs to them.  We were serenaded with "you are my sunshine", "skiddamarkinky dinky dink", "you make me smile" and other cute little love songs.

See that pretty girl all decked out in pink and ruffles and high topped boot shoes in the first row, yep, that's my girl!  Haley then came and found me and led me back to her classroom where I got to sit at her desk.  The class then read us a poem collaboratively.

We then laid out all of the salon items at her desk and she proceeded to paint my nails, do my hair and put on my make-up.

All prettied up with my personal stylist!

Before leaving we shared pizza together, colored a picture and she gave me a paper that was titled "How Well Do I Know My Special Person".  I just have to share with you a few of her answers.  Question #4 says, The outfit I like her to wear is: sparkling dress.  When I asked her which one that was, and after she described it, I discovered she was talking about my wedding dress.  Funny, since I've only tried that on with her one time.  I got a big kick out of her answers to Question #7 - My special person's favorite foods are: apple pie (which I don't even like and she messed up with her dad's tastes), don poblose (don't you love that spelling) and shrimp.  How she gathered those, I don't know.  I loved her response to she really looked funny on the day she: woke up in the morning and her hair was crazy.  Lastly, I personally loved the fact that one of her three adjectives she used to describe me was tan!  Ha!

I had a great time spending the morning with my sweet little girl!  I hope you are able to make some special memories with your little ones this Mother's Day too!  Have a very happy Mother's Day!

CAS-ual Fridays is Here!!!

It's here, it's here, it's here!!!  The first CAS-ual Fridays challenge has finally arrived.  I know you've all been eagerly anticipating this first challenge and have been waiting patiently to try on your clean and simple hats.  Let's do it!  Here's your first challenge:

TEXT!  Over the past few months, text has really taken center stage on many people's projects.  Come on, you know you love it.  This can be expressed in many ways - by using an old book page, stamping letters, using text stickers,  or even text paper.  Be creative!  I'd love to see what unique ways you can come up with to use text.  Of course, you want to see my take, right?

After seeing the typewriter graphic, I instantly thought typewriter text for my card.  I used the new Hero Arts set "Type" to stamp that thank you sentiment over and over.  The heart is a typewriter key from that set as well.  The rest of the stuff is paper - loving the new My Mind's Eye line Stella & Rose.

For this first challenge, CropStop.com has been gracious enough to provide a prize for the winner.  Now, it's your turn.  Head on over to CAS-ual Fridays to be inspired by what the rest of the design team has created and then get to work on this challenge!  I can't wait to see what you guys come up with.  Ready, Set, Go!

Lovin' on Mom (PDCC #80)

Mother's Day is just around the corner now, isn't it?  Have you thought about what special thing you can do for your mom this year?  This will be my 8th year as a mom.  I'm thinkin' that my kids are starting to get old enough to show some appreciation, right?  Obviously, I'm kidding.  Just sharing in the joyous (and not so joyous) moments of raising them is a great reward.  For instance, I loved seeing the overly enthusiastic celebrating my son did yesterday as he made a 3-pointer playing "horse" against me in basketball.  I love those moments where my youngest daughter will come into the room, come over to me, hug me and tell me she loves me for no apparent reason whatsoever.  I had nothing but pure satisfaction and happiness when my 7-yr old daughter told me she wanted to be baptized to show how much she loves Jesus.  Just a few moments in time that I cherish.  Yes, being a mother can make me a bit frazzled at times, but there is no greater honor that God could've given me than to "raise my children in the way they should go".  I often think of how blessed I am to have been allowed to give birth to and raise three beautiful children.  That is a true gift from God.

That said, it wouldn't make sense for me to NOT make a card for my mom this Mother's Day (especially since she's been my biggest fan).  Since I'm a simple kinda girl, and she's a simple kinda mom, I made a simple kinda card using this week's colors from The Play Date Cafe.

That fun sentiment is from this week's sponsor Paper Smooches.  Paper Smooches was a stamp company launched by Paper Crafts Magazine alumnus Kim Hughes.  We are super excited to welcome her as our guest designer this week as well.  She will be offering up a prize for this week's winner.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Go on over to The Play Date Cafe to see lots of other inspiration from our uber talented design team!  Then, give these colors a go.  Have a great day!

Wilson Designs May Release Reveal!

Can I get a Woot-Woot?
Welcome to the release of the newest stamp sets (that's right, two sets) from Wilson Designs.
 Let's Rock retailing for $12.99.

...and Scoot Away With Me, also retailing for $12.99.

Do you have a case of the thigh sweats for these stamps or what?  They mega rock!  For my first project today, I repurposed a box that my kids got in their Easter baskets.  I'm one of those people who tries to stray away from all the Easter bunny hoo-haw to try and focus on the real reason for Easter, so I was jubilant when I found these at Wal-mart, complete with a verse on the front:

I took that little box and covered it with some bright and fun paper, trimmed it out with that awesome record stamp to create this fun little box that you can fill with any kind of candy.

Did you notice that some of the sentiments fit onto that record? Plus, I used a brad in the center of my record, so the record actually spins (kinda pointless, I know, but fun).  The band just slides off.

For my "Scoot Away With Me" project, I broke out my colored pencils...someday I'll learn how to use Copics, but I really have a hard time dropping the cash on those things.  I wish they were a wee bit cheaper.  Anyway, say hello to scooter girl, complete with her scarf blowing in the wind:

I stamped the word Awesome off the edge of the front so that when you open the card, it says Awesome! on the inside?  I added a bit of bling to her tires and belt.  I really like the curvy sentiments in this set and as you saw from yesterday, there are some great background building elements to this set too.

Now jump to it and click that mousy on over to the Wilson Designs store and get your own set.  Don't forget to comment on all of the Design Team blogs for your chance to win your very own Let's Rock and Scoot Away With Me stamp sets!!

Amy

Kim

Tenia

Tammy

Wilson Designs May Release (x2): Day 1

I gotta tell ya folks, those victims of the tornadoes have been weighing on my mind heavily this week.  I mean, can you imagine huddling in the center of your house hearing what's going on, and then, IF you are lucky enough to survive, coming out of your huddle only to see the utter destruction surrounding you?  Watch this video and you will see 8 min. of people's homes stripped away to nothing but twisted metal and broken wood, and did you see the train?  It just amazes me what a tornado can do.  We actually have friends whose parents lost most of their house (they are the only house standing on the circle at 1:42).  Our friend has told us that the amount of looting going on is just despicable (and he's borrowed his gun to his in-laws to patrol the neighborhood).  Can you believe people taking advantage of someone else's worst day ever?  Please find it in your heart to sympathize and if you can, contribute to one of the many donation stations or causes out there to help support.  You can start HERE, they are working directly with the government in AL and are giving supplies DIRECTLY to the survivors.  Sorry for dumping this on you, but I just feel it is so important for us to show our love to those in need.

Now onto the exciting part.  Today is Day 1 of the newest Wilson Designs release and you get to see some projects showcasing this month's releases (yeah, that's plural)!

First up, a mix-up card.  This card was made by combining one of the new sets and "Everything's Owlright".

Oh yeah, guitars and music notes.  It doesn't get much better than that for this band nerd.  Loving the guitars in this set.  Yep, guitars and here's a card using the other one:

 

A nice CAS card for ya.  To give a bit of interest, I added some red rhinestones to the music notes.  This set is definitely working well for masculine cards.

Alright, onto new release #2!  Again, this first card is a mix-up using the Everything's Owlright set.

Here's a trick for this card.  To create that flower border, I used a large block and put ALL of my flowers onto one block in a pattern I liked.  Then, when I stamped, I just turned the block to make it look more random.  Then I went back and filled in the gaps with small flowers.  

For the second card using the second set, I kept the front pretty simple.  The reason for that is that when you open it up, there is actually a pocket for money or a gift card.  Just make your base of your card a little longer so that when you fold it over, you can fold over the extra, glue the ends and make a pocket.  Super simple!

That's all for today, but there's more to come tomorrow.  Make sure to leave a comment on each of the Design Team blogs for a chance to win.  Also, head on over to the website to see all of the fabulous sets already released. Thanks for visiting today!

Amy

Kim

Tenia

Tammy

Wilson Designs May Release: Sneak Peek

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy is today a fun day!  I have double the fun for you as we not only have one Wilson Designs release this month, but TWO - count them TWO!  I bet you had no idea how awesome today would be for you, did you?  No better way to start your Monday, right?  So, let's start things off by giving you a sneak peek of each of the sets and see if you have any idea what they might be.

 

Alright, hit me with your thoughts!  Leave a comment below for your chance to win this month's releases and visit the other DT's blogs and leave comments as well. You will want to return tomorrow to see the fun projects I have in store for you using these sets!

Amy

Kim

Tenia

Tammy