A Creep of Tortoises

Did you know that a group of tortoises is called a creep? I learned this recently when our dork sister Vikki Jo's nephew was in the hospital as one very sick little boy. He had a type of pneumonia that is not common. What does this have to do with tortoises? Vikki has always referred to him as creep. I thought she was just calling him a brat. Well, the first time she said it he jumped out & grabbed her ponytail & she did call him a creep! But, he then told her that a creep is a slow moving group of tortoises. I checked it on Wikipedia (where everything is always right---LOL!) & it's true! I didn't get a get well card made for him, but I started to make a b-day card for him way back in early Feb. I didn't finish it til this weekend. His b-day was on 2/22. Now, think about it. A creep of tortoises that have to travel all the way from Texas to Minnesota, in the winter no less. Those tortoises are sure to hibernate before they get there. Texas tortoises aren't used to snow, don'tcha know (see how I used that Minnesota phrase?). So, it is logical that this creep would just now be heading to Minnesota. I will help them out with a trip in an envelope. They might even be flying tortoises!

This is for 2 challenges: an I {heart} to stamp challenge and the Clearly Inspired Challenge. The IHTS is an ongoing month long challenge with a different sketch added each week. The CIC challenge is "Hip to be Square."

Details:
Stamps: CDS--I think it's called Just Shellin' but I can't remember; it was a stamp of the month;CDS Baked for you Tags (the cupcake that is really a muffin)
Inks: Memento Brown (because I temporarily misplaced black)
Markers: copics
Other stuff: cardstock is all from Hobby Lobby, dp is from last year's DCWV Spring Stack; turtle charm is from Bunny Zoe's crafts

Thanks for creeping by today!

MMSC, MMTPT81--Mimo's late to the party

This card is for this week's Midnight Madness challenge & last week's Teapot Tuesday Challenge.

Here's the story:

• Cindy (mothermark) was throwing a party in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Well, dowin har in Texas, y'all, we lack to do thins a li'l slower than them thar Looziannes. (translation: down here in Texas you all, we like to do things a little slower than those Louisianans?) Besides, Mimo is a sweet little boy. He isn't up to all the wild partying that goes on.
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• Mimo loves his sweet Mommy and when he saw the colors and glitter of Mardi Gras he thought, "My mommy would love a pretty purple flower." He put on his green jeans. His mommy had told him of a show on TV when she was his age with a man named Mr. Green Jeans. He thinks she made it up to make him like green jeans, but plays along. He picked the prettiest purple flower he could find and he sprinkled it with glitter for his dear mommy. His yellow clogs and sweet blond hair add the touch of gold. I think she will love this flower. What mommy doesn't love flowers from their little angels?
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• While many who celebrate Mardi Gras give up something for the season of Lent like candy or TV, Mimo has decided to give up something that will please his mommy. He is not going to pick on his sister Mimosa (you saw her on the Valentine cards) all the way til Easter. Who knows? Maybe he will find out that getting along with his sister makes life so much happier and will stick with it even after Easter! Now THAT would make his mommy just beam!

Don't touch that dial! The picture below shows the true colors of the flower as they were a bit overglittery in the top picture.

I used Mimo from Bunny Zoe's Crafts, copics, PTI buttons, circle embellishments from my friend Karen, glitter, 2-way glue, ribbon, crop-o-dile & a bunch of paper from my stash!

Thanks for stopping by!

PS, last week Cindy named me the "Git 'er done girl" so I HAD to make a card. She's good at making you do that, I think! LOL! I love Cindy! I've got one taking root in my head for this week, before next week starts!

Stampin' Sisters in Christ

This week at Stampin' Sisters in Christ, the challenge was to create a card somehow showing the passage of time. The Scripture used is from Esther, who boldly took a stand for her God and her people when she confronted her husband, the king, more than once. The king could have had her killed for coming into his presence, but he loved her. She was frightened, but her cousin Mordecai believed that God had put her there for a purpose.

The verse for this challenge is:
Esther 4:14 “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"

How many times do we go through situations wondering WHY? Why is God allowing this? Why am I in this place? Then there are the whats & the whens: What is going to happen to me? What if I die? When will this end? When will I know the reason? Sometimes we never know, but thanks to Scripture, we know that Esther was appointed by God to be Queen "for such a time as this."

When my girls were little, Bethany loved for me to read the story of Esther to her from the Beginner's Bible. I nearly had that version memorized at that time in my life. It seemed I would be reading that to her forever! Now she is 13 and it's been a long time since we read those little stories at bedtime. This card made me think of my girls, and anyone who is seeing the passage of time with their kids. Maybe your are in the preschool stage and you wonder WHEN will these kids be potty trained? One of mine I thought would NEVER be done. You might have kids in soccer, piano, and church activities plus homework and wonder WHEN will they be old enough to drive themselves to these things? Perhaps you are like some of my friends with kids in college and this card makes so much sense to you. The image is from Mo's Digital Pencil. It's called, "They grow so fast," so I borrowed that title to use as a sentiment on my card.

This was supposed to also be for the Mo's digital pencil challenge, but as usual, I was too late getting it done. You can find Mo's free images HERE and her store with lots more is HERE. The challenge was to make a CAS (clean and simple) card on plain cardstock and add a ribbon. A ribbon just wouldn't do for Jack and that beanstalk. It needed a piece of hemp to look like the rope holding up his britches. I wonder if Jack's mom pondered why she was a single mom with so little to eat. I wonder if she asked, "WHEN will Jack take his chores responsibly?" I also wondered how many different punishments went through her head when she learned he sold the cow for Magic Beans. Then, when the stalk grew and Jack returned with riches, I wonder if she thought, "Ah, we were here for such a time as this."

Okay, probably not since he's not real! LOL! But if I had been Jack's mom, I'm thinking he would NOT have had free time outside to climb a beanstalk to the sky! LOL!

Thanks for stopping by. Remember to love on your kids today, or someone else's kids if you don't have your own (I often say to my friends without kids, when my kids are acting up, "Dogs are nice. Very nice."). They grow so fast.

Annie's Bakery

Natalie made the cutest card for her friend Annie. They both love to quill. Today was Annie's birthday, so one of her gifts from us was a teardrop punch, something we just found at Hobby Lobby that these 2 girls have been trying to find for over a year. Natalie decided to quill a card. Annie wants to be a chef or baker when she grows up. This is a kid I can really appreciate! LOL! Natalie saw this design in a quilling book & decided to make it for her friend.

I made the "cupboards" with "shelves." You'll notice the little quilled items are all just adorable & the shelves are, um, a bit crooked! LOL! Blame that part on me! If you want to see them bigger just click on the pictures.

Thanks for popping into Annie's Bakery today!

Celebrate!

This is a "double dip" challenge card. No, not a new challenge called Double Dip (but wouldn't that be cute?), but a 2 challenge card. It's the colors for the Just us Girls challenge (ivory, chocolate, raspberry & coral) and the sketch for this challenge at I Heart to Stamp.

For this card, I used a free digital image from Mo's Digital Pencil. This is Charlotte & Bronte. I love how she named the girl & dog after an author! The words are computer generated. I colored this with Copics, Sharpies & Prismacolors. Her skin was colored with a "Brick Beige" that was as close to ivory as I could get for skin! LOL! If it were a picture of me, I'd have to bleach it to get my shade of glow in the dark white.

EDITED TO ADD THIS:The little girl is BELLA. Somehow, in my head, I thought she should be Charlotte! LOL! She's still a cutie patooty!

Hope you enjoy seeing this card. Thanks for stopping by!

Just Ducky!

Close up of layers

This card is for the Clearly Delightful Challenge #2 HERE on Laurie Wilson's blog. It's also a rather loose interpretation of the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge this week HERE. It's been a crazy week, which started in the hospital with my younger dd (a trip to the ER became an overnight stay). This duck was stamped & colored last week, but just now had time to create a card with it. We have a birthday party for a 2 year old tomorrow after a Girl Scout event. I was wondering who we could give this to (knowing more little girls than little boys) when we got the invite!

Details:
Stamps: Patchpal Ducky from Clear Dollar Stamps, $ birthday stamp
Ink: Memento
Paper: Non-su white, yellow, blue (I think you can figure that part out! LOL!)
other stuff: copics, sharpie, nestibilities, computer generated words

Thanks for waddling by my pond today!

Quilly Qute!

Natalie (age 11) started quilling paper (twirling strips to make paper objects) a couple of years ago. She's learned to do it really well and really fast. At Michael's one day we saw some really simple quilled items with a name brand on them (it rhymes with Lartha Looart). I told Natalie the ones she makes were better than those and an idea was hatched! We've just listed 2 sets of quilled embellishments on my Etsy site. Feel free to hop on over and take a gander at www.chefmama.etsy.com

I have 2 more sets of pictures to crop and edit before listing. Here are the 4 sets she's selling to give you an idea. If you have an idea you'd like her to try, she's open to making just about anything.

Beautiful Butterflies

Adorable Animals
Fishy Friends
The Food Pyramid (LOL!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Mimosas & Mimo

If you can stand one more post with Mimosa, I wanted to share this. My dd's are not crazy about this little girl. What is wrong with them? LOL! Despite their opinion, I adore her and decided to color her after my girls. I have a blondie & a red/strawberry blonde child.

I had to color little Mimo. Isn't he adorable holding that tulip? Do you think it's for his mom? Or his teacher? Or does he have a puppy love crush on someone? He'll need to go on a card, but I thought you'd like to know I have colored something other than Mimosa! LOL!

CPS & C4C

I feel like a detective with these initials for challenges! This is my card for both the Card Positioning System Challenge 153 HERE and the Crazy 4 Challenges no. 23 HERE
CPS challenge this week is:

C4C23 is to make a Valentine's Day card.

See the quilled paper hearts? My daughter Natalie makes these. We're going to be listing some sets on my etsy store soon, so look for more details soon!

Details:
Stamp: Mimosa from Bunny Zoe Crafts (yes, AGAIN!)
ink: memento black
paper: DP is K&CO. from my friend Kathy, red & pink textured paper
other stuff: copics, ribbon, quilled hearts

Just Us Girls & Stamp with Fun

I'm back with Mimosa. You'll be seeing her more than once this week! I have to share the story for this card before the details. A few weeks ago my friend Kathryn posted something on Facebook that just melted my heart. Those of us with more than one child know that there is often one child who struggles more than the others with the rules. You know the one. He or she is the child that caused you to read "The Strong-willed Child" book only to say, "Great, he just described my child. Now what?" Kathryn's middle child is her button pusher. Yet, she comes up with some priceless moments that just surprise her mommy. This is what Kathryn said on FB (name omitted to protect the innocent):

"My child was looking at me weird and I said, "What?" She answered, "I just want to look at your beautiful heart. What a kid!"

Isn't that sweet? And Kathryn does have a beautiful heart.

Now the details. This is for the Just Us Girls Challenge 19 (my first time for this one) HERE. Here is the sketch:

This also is for the Stamp with Fun challenge number 45 found here. The theme is hearts. I've been having fun seeing how much Deutsch I remember from college!

Stamp: Mimosa from Bunny Zoe Crafts
Ink: Memento black
Paper: red, pink, white, DP is K & Co. from my sweet friend Kathy (Katbirdmom)
extras: copics, sharpies, CM cutting system, punches, raindrop hearts from Gina K., ribbon from Michael's

Midnight Madness & Teapot Tuesday

This card is for the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge this week, number 40. Here is the sketch:
I used that wonderful 3-d/pyramid technique again from Sherry Cheever. I love these vintage prints and this look! I found a vintage font for the Happy Birthday and used my computer to create that. The buttons are from Papertreyink. No stamps!

I thought this card fit the Teapot Tuesday challenge at Cindy's "glob" HERE. She is traveling with the bovines this month, it appears. After leaving Alicia and company, now she has discovered a bull named Bodacious who must win the heart of his loved one in Paris. (pronounced PairEE of course). We must help him decorate a lovely resort. I'm bringing a bouquet of pansies to help set the scene. You may remember another famous bull by the name of Ferdinand. Rumor has it that the Great Bodacious is a direct descendant of Ferdinand. Do you remember the famous Spanish bull? He did not enjoy bull fighting. No, he preferred to sit and smell the flowers. He was a pacifist in the midst of all that warfare with the bulls and bullfighters. He thought it was a bunch of bullcorn. Ferdinand's descendants live among the bulls today and Bodacious inherited the flower loving gene. I believe that if enough flowers fill the resort, our Bodacious will not only win the prize for best decorated area, but he will also be content to sit with his beloved and smell the flowers all day.

Merci for stopping by and Au Revoir!

The cow did WHAT?

Last Tuesday on the Teapot Tuesday Challenge, Cindy (aka Mothermark) told about her favorite cow, Alicia. Her cow was a contestant in the California Cow contest. However, OUR cow of choice, Kirsten, won the contest. The teapot Cindy chose had a cow jumping over the moon, so Cindy used that to tell us about Alicia and Alicia's brother. You simply MUST read the story HERE, but be sure to scroll down to read my reply to her.

As usual, I STARTED to create a card (if Cindy only knew how many times I planned a card for Tuesday's challenge then didn't get it done), but didn't get to it. I DID ask my daughter Bethany to draw a cow jumping over the moon for me. She typically draws cartoonish, or, um, interesting looking people, but not animals as often. Now, I couldn't draw a stick figure of a horse, so I have no room to talk! When she brought this to me, she said she wasn't really sure what I wanted. I suppose I should show you the black & white version before I "colored" it on Photoshop:

My first thought was that this cow was not jumping but she was touching a very large chocolate chip cookie! I think Kirsten might be a little timid, so jumping just seemed like a bit much. That, or all the cold arctic air she's been living in has caused brain damage. She seems to think the moon is more like a big cookie. Or perhaps she really IS related to me and knows a good thing when she sees it: Jumping is BAD, CHOCOLATE is GOOD! Whatever the cause, I feel certain that she will need to give up her position as California's newest cow star to the runner up, Alicia. Now, THAT would be something to put Cindy over the moon!

What you see on here is not a card (yet), but an amateur Photoshop user trying to make a cow stepping on a chocolate chip cookie look like a cow jumping over the moon. I say I leave the art to my daughter & move on to this week's challenge! LOL!

Go Team Go!

A new tote is on my Loribelle Bags site! Click here: GO TEAM GO!

MMSC, SSCC & CIC take 2

Earlier this week I posted a card for the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge and the Clearly Inspired Challenge. I had colored this image for the CIC but then realized it was a Clear Dollar Stamps challenge & this wasn't a Clear Dollar Stamps image! OOPS! So here is take 2.

The MMSC 39 challenge this week used this sketch:
The CIC6 challenge was to use red, black & white with pink optional. The Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge 24 was to use an image of a child.

This is one of the stamps I won from the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge a couple of weeks ago. It is from Bunny Zoe's Crafts HERE. Niki, the owner, is so gracious. If you didn't see my blog post about her stamps, you can find it Here. It's in England but her shipping is very reasonable and FAST! Isn't the little girl darling? She is Mimosa and there is a line of stamps with her and her friend (or maybe brother) Mimo.

Here are the deets:
Stamp: Mimosa from Bunny Zoe's Crafts
Paper: textured red, white, black, BG bittersweet dp
Extras: Copics, stick on jewels, raindrop hearts from Gina K. Designs, fancy cut scissors (I can't remember which style these were), Martha Stewart Daisy Edge punch

Thanks for strolling by!

A Stinkin' Birthday Card

Quick post about this card. This is for the CDS challenge CIC6 HERE and the Midnight Madness Challenge MMSC 38 HERE. I will add details later, but wanted to get this posted before the MMSC challenge ends! LOL!

Later is now! The Clearly Inspired Challenge was to use Red, Black & White. I actually colored another image with those colors then remembered, "Oh, yeah, it's a Clear Dollar Stamp challenge," but I'd used a different stamp! DORK! I'll post it with another sketch challenge this week.

Details:
Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps Cute Critters (this was one of my first CDS sets & I still love it!)
Paper: Black, red, white
Ink: Memento Black
Other stuff: CB folder, Nesties scalloped circles, copics & sharpies, PTI buttons

Thanks for droppin' by. Pardon the smell. That just Skunky! tee-hee!