Natalie's House Mouse Challenge card

My 11 year old was excited to hear that there is a challenge using House Mouse stamps! This one is for THIS challenge. It is to use the letter B. This card has a Bunny, a Bow, a Brad, Blooms, a Button, Bites of cake, and some Black. Plus, the friend who's getting this has a name that starts with a B!

I couldn't find an age limit, so hope she's old enough to play. She said, "I'm going to keep playing until I win a new House Mouse stamp!" She's pretty funny! She'd be happy with HM, Happy Hoppers or Grizzlies.

Oh, the fuzzy green thing in the background is not part of the card. It's a pipe cleaner. In case you wondered. LOL!

Thanks for stopping by!

Emery's Rag Quilt

Quilt Front

Quilt Back

My girls and I have been planning this gift for our great-niece/cousin for some time. When my girls were little I'd bought several pink & purple prints for making quilts. I never did and now they care nothing about the sweet little girl prints. My faves were the paper doll "Kewpie" looking prints, if you can tell those on here (if you click on the picture it will enlarge). We took those, added some other prints, then bought some flannel in pink & purple, plus a print with ballerinas in pink & purple. Katie, my "niece-in-love," who is Em's mom, is a dancer. She is actually a dance teacher now, but until she graduated from college she was a performing dancer. She played Clara in the Nutcracker as a young child at least one year & I think other years she & her sister were dancers in the play. Thus, the ballerina print.

I'd never made a real quilt. The closest I've come is the quilting of fabric for the purses I've made. Natalie has wanted a quilt for some time, and she especially wanted a rag quilt. We have her fabric all cut and just waiting for me to sew it. I told her doing this gave me a practice run at making one!

This was a family project. Natalie embroidered the dog and lamb. Bethany painted the ballet slippers and the big E. I did the quilting and sewing. This is all machine quilted. I would never get it done by hand. And Phil paid for all the supplies! : )

I've had a couple of ladies ask if I'd make some rag quilts to sell. After making this, I am sure I could do that. With Natalie's I will probably not do such fancy stitches, and will not put a border on it. I will see if I make more which style is preferred.

Hope you enjoy seeing our new venture!

Natalie did the embroidery work on this. I love how the variegated thread looks with this stitch!

I think we found Mary's little lost lamb!

E for Emery!

Ballet slippers of course!

If you click this picture will enlarge and you might be able to see where I free-motion quilted Emery's name. I'm still learning!

Happy 14th Birthday Bethany!

Our firstborn turned 14 today. I'm too tired from preparing our house for company to even soak in that my child is 4 years from being a legal adult. If you are a "messy" by nature you will understand why it takes 2 weeks to clean for 4 people to come over. You will also understand how crazy it was for me to make her a card at 1 a.m.!

This is for these challenges:
My Time to Craft: Checked image
Stamp Something: Flowers

Stamps: FREE digi stamp from Clear Dollar Stamps (check them out in my sidebar)
Paper: textured red from Hobby Lobby, checked design was a free download (need to track back to the source for you), white, green & yellow cardstock
Markers: Copics
Other stuff: Flowers--I think the silky looking ones were in a package I won on Midnight Madness; the paper ones I made; stick on pearls, ribbon from Michael's.
Ink: antique paper Distress Ink
Punches: Spring Flowers (matches Looks Like Spring stamp set), Flowers from EK success (I think)

My inspiration for this card came from last week's The Shabby Tea Room. I was a bit too late to enter that challenge.
Thank you for dropping in!

Happy 1st Birthday Emery!

I'll add details tomorrow, but this card fit The Pixie Cottage Challenge this week. Also for Digital Tuesday Challenge and Crazy 4 Challenges number 47.

It's a birthday card for my great niece, Emery, who turned one last week.

Back to add info:
Stamps: Mo's digital pencil (I changed the child to a girl);inside sentiment: create with TLC

I colored with copics. Used paper tole and cut swimsuit out of some dp from Fred She Said.

Thanks for stopping by

Let them use Cake!

Becky & Chris waiting for Baby Karis!

Trust me, this isn't the kind of cake you want someone to eat! This is my first ever Diaper Cake. My dd thought I went a bit overboard with it. Hey, it's my niece's first ever baby. And my niece is an "over the top" kind of gal, so it fit! I made the top 2 layers with size 1 diapers. If I'd been smart, I would have just made the bottom layer out of size 1's also. But I wanted to put in all the diapers we'd bought (this was a gift from my folks & us), so I HAD to put in all the size 2's. So, baby stuff just kind of threw up all over this diaper cake. A fitting analogy, I think. ha, ha!

At the very top was a Winnie the Pooh blanket. When my Natalie was born, my mom bought a thermal blanket for her with Winnie the Pooh on it. Bethany thought it should be hers, so Mom let B. have that one & bought N. another one. When we had a new baby in the family last year, Bethany said, "She has to have a Pooh Blanket." I told everyone at the shower it was a tradition for Smith Babies to have a Pooh Blanket. There was a strange silence until I re-worded this & said, "A WINNIE the Pooh blanket." I guess they thought I meant a "poo" blanket & I don't want to think what that might be! LOL!

Thinking this might be something else I could sell as special orders. Hmmmm. It was SUCH fun making it. I made little hairclips for Baby Karis as well.

I pretty much just added that last line for my new friend Great Aunt Erma, who is really Chris' Aunt Jane! She decided I was Martha Stewart & she's Erma Bombeck! I did tell her my house would never pass the Martha test. Who am I kidding, my house doesn't meet anyone's standards! As the saying goes, "I'm creative. You can't expect me to be neat, too."

Thanks for stopping by.

Clearly Delightful Blog Challenge

This month's Clearly Delightful Blog Challenge is "Pearls, Bling, and Button things." I have several Doodle Pantry images, but most are these cute ants & I had no idea how to incorporate these elements into a picture of worms or ants. Then I colored this hamburger & thought, "Hmmmm, those sesame seeds look like pearls." Okay, they don't REALLY but in this case, they did! I dug around in the buttons & found some pickled color buttons & burger colored buttons. Then as I was assembling it I found the little bling things. AND decided to give the tomatoes some seeds.

Hope you enjoy this. I did. Notice the bite missing? Hey, it was gluten free! LOL!

Stamp: Doodle Pantry Cheeseburger ants
Markers: Copics
Paper: white, kraft, olive, red, yellow-orange, green, dp from Hobby Lobby
Other Stuff: pearls, blingies, buttons, nestabilities scalloped circles, circle punch

Simon Says Stamp HUGE giveaway!

Check out this Christmas in July Giveaway at Simon Says Stamp!

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge

One of my FAVORITE challenges to do is Midnight Madness because I've "met" Priscilla and some of the others online and even "been to parties" online with them! LOL! I was so excited to get to make a MMSC card this week (okay, this month, this summer, this year! LOL!). The stamp is a bit hard to see, so I will link a location to the set in my details. It says, "God is Love." This paper is from that wonderful stack my dear friend Kathy gave me. I guess I should refer to her as Chemo Kathy (or Kemo Kathy?) since I've mentioned her before. Not sure if I ever mentioned that when she gave it to me she said, "I wasn't sure if I should get this one because you don't make a lot of purple cards." I told her, "That's because I didn't have any purple DP!" Was that perfect, or what? ALL of these flowers are from a prize package I won on MMSC! See, it is FUN to play in challenges because you not only get to stretch your imagination with cardmaking, but you can win cool stuff! The brads may have been from my sweet friend Jen Balcer (you cannot outgive that woman---she's so amazing). I think the stick on gems might have been a gift, too. I just realized the INK was even given to me from my friend Kelly! Wow, am I ever blessed! Hope you enjoyed this card & my ramblings.

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge:
Stamps: CDS Peace for the Journey
Ink: Brilliance multi-colored ink pad, Distress Ink Antique Paper
Tools: CB die for corner trim, Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels (4 I think)
Other stuff: Prima flowers, brads, gems from K & Co.
Paper: shimmer paper from JoAnn, textured lavendar from Hobby Lobby, white, DP is K& Co. (or if you like K & Ko. from Kemo Kathy)

Thanks for stopping by!

A swarm of Butterflies

My dear dork sister Vikki Jo will not like this, but I made a swarm of butterflies! She actually says on cards they are nice, but not in real life, so we tease her about this. I made these cards using the Sketch challenge for CPS this week. Once I made one, I decided to just use the images I had colored & use the same layout on all. This paper was a find at Target Dollar spot! I had to get 2 packs (big spender that I am) because it's so cute! Very thin papers when you pay $1 for a pack, but if you glue JUST RIGHT The first time they work okay. Hope you like these!

CPS (Card Positioning System) 174: Sketch


Stamp: Hope Is from Gina K Designs
Ink: Memento Black, Distress (various colors)
Paper: Dollar Spot at Target, textured cardstock from Hobby Lobby, white
Tools: Nesties scalloped rectangles, flowers, brads, ribbon (on one)
Markers: Copics

GASP! I made another card!

Yes, it's true. I actually completed another card! I even have a few more done but will upload those later. Another multi-challenge card.

CDAC: Inspiration challenge-Birthday Whimsy using this photo (I stretched the birthday part a bit, but the color and style look like this cake!)
Teapot Tuesday: SPOTS! It's Cindy (Mothermark's) 101st Teapot Tuesday! Congrats Cindy!
Clearly Inspired Challenges (Clear Dollar Stamps): Gratitude (this is a digi stamp from CDS--a freebie, so go grab it!)
Stamp with Fun: Sketch challenge
Dare U 2 Digi Stamp: Great Outdoors (flowers & sky are outdoors!)
Pile it On: Your favorite things (I love the colors in this card and I love coloring! I love flowers, too. Okay, there isn't much I DON'T love about making cards).

Thank you for stopping by today!

Boy, Howdy! I made a card!

You stampers will understand when I say it feels SO GOOD to make a card! Life has been so busy that getting out my stamping stuff has just been too much work to handle. Since my "stamping" room has turned into mainly my sewing room, I'm still hauling things from room to room to assemble cards. Last night I decided to take the images I'd colored and make some cards! If you have never been to Texas in March or early April, you've missed our gorgeous bluebonnets & Indian Paintbrushes. They look like this. The photo is not ours, but from THIS website, if you'd like to visit it. I mean the website, not the flowers. You can come see ME in March if you want to see the flowers for real!



This one is for several challenges so here it goes:
Stamp Something: Colors of your flag
Mojo Monday: Sketch Challenge
Stampin Sisters in Christ: Use Red (verse this week is 2 Chronicles 7:14)
The Shabby Tea Room: Use embossing (I dry emobssed the stars on the red cardstock)
Crazy 4 Challenges: Use 2 or more ribbons (I used 3 ribbons plus some hemp cord---it's supposed to sort of look like lassos)

I used Clear Dollar Stamps set: Texas
Inks: Memento Black, Distress Faded Jeans
Ribbons are all from Michaels
Paper is red, white, blue (not SU)
DP---from my stash
Colored with copics & white gel pen
Stars are punched with CM star punch and the eyelet is from Clear Dollar Stamps. It says Howdy on it! No, we don't normally greet each other with Howdy in Texas. I CAN greet you that way if you want me to.

Thanks for stopping by y'all! Yes, I do say y'all a lot.

Testing 1, 2, 3

Hello? Is this thing on? It feels like it's been ages since I posted to my craft blog. It has been a few weeks. I have made ZERO cards. ZERO. I did, however, sit and distress edges on images I'd cut and apply them to backings while at chemo with my dear friend Kathy. She did great in chemo, but has had some tummy upset as a result. Things seem to be settling down and she told me she still has her hair (I haven't seen her since last Saturday).

What have I been doing? Sleeping. A lot. Seems I still have fluid in my ears after being on antibiotics since June 9th. I have a call in to get a referral to my ENT. Have to jump through the hoops to see the right doctor. A slight fever along with it has really left me feeling tired. I had big plans to work on lots of homeschooling, but I'm just so tired lately. My older daughter, the one with mild autism, asked me yesterday, "Mom, are you going to nap on my birthday?" Her b-day is July 25th. I told her I didn't know & asked why. "Because I'm getting really tired of you taking naps all the time." Poor thing. I suppose I should tell her we could be doing math instead.

I managed to finish a top I made myself (making clothes for myself at this size isn't nearly as much fun as when I had a waistline). Then realized that even after raising the neckline about 3 inches, it was still too low! My goodness, that would have been at my belly button if I hadn't changed it I suppose! I THINK I've worked out that kink. I love it as I made it with a batik I'd fallen in love with. My younger dd didn't think she'd like that as a top but once I made it she decided it really worked well. I also made some shorts & they are a tad too snug. Again, getting used to sewing using a pattern that is my old size plus 10 or more is challenging! The GOOD thing is that at my age, I think I can make loose tops now & not get asked if I'm pregnant. Plus I'm rounded out all over. About 7 years ago I was congratulated by the librarian for my pregnancy. I wasn't pregnant. I think maybe being large all over beats being medium sized with a bulging belly.

As far as bags, I have 3 that have been SO close to being finished for months now but have not finished them. Soon, I hope! Then, my dork sisters on SCS were talking about rag bags/purses. The funny thing was I had just cut out pieces to make my first ever rag quilt. I asked them what they meant by rag purse & sure enough it was like a rag quilt. So, I went to town cutting out squares for a rag bag! Of course that's what you are supposed to do when you have about 10 other projects going on, 2 friends about to start chemo that you want to help, 2 children in need of homeschooling, and ongoing ear infections! Isn't that right? WHAT? You AREN'T supposed to start a new project right then? Well, NOW you tell me! LOL! Hmmmm, you know, if they'd let me take my sewing machine into the infusion room....okay, maybe not. Projects will wait. Schooling can wait a bit longer. Friends going through chemo cannot wait.

Honestly, when people have asked what our summer plans were, I had been telling them it was my time to help my friend Kathy get to Houston for her doctor appointments and chemo treatments, and I believe that is what God wants me to do this summer (at least every 3rd week). Now another friend has been diagnosed with cancer, had surgery and is about to start chemo (here in town) and I am planning on being with her in the chemo room. I told her I HAVE to go with her as she's my 3rd chemo patient (I went with my MIL & FIL when he had chemo treatments a couple of times). I've also shared with friends that I don't feel like I'm helping much. Kathy & I discussed that in a way, these little jaunts to Houston are breaks for us from our world of 24/7 teaching/parenting. While we have CHOSEN to homeschool, we do need periodic breaks. I just wish she would have found a different way to get us trips to Houston! Kathy, let's go for something like plastic surgery or tummy tucks as our medical need next time, okay?

So, I've not made any cards, not completely finished any sewing projects (I still need to do some trimming on the top I finished sewing), and not even finished crocheting a pot scrubber, which is the easiest thing in the world to crochet. I have however driven a Lexus (it may be '90, but it runs like a dream!) to Houston, found where Clear Lake City is (and met a mechanic there), discovered the world's best fudge at Buc-ee's in Gonzalez, eaten at several really neat restaurants, especially breakfast, with our dear friend Lovely Mary, met & stayed with Mary's wonderful family (and taken design notes from her kitchen), learned how to get around parts of Houston (and been in parts I shouldn't have without a GPS), found the Michael's by Mary's house (sadly I did this the first trip; I'm a sick woman--ha, ha!), and discovered that I no longer have an adverse reaction to Augmentin. In fact, it appears I have little reaction to Augmentin at all. For my next adventure, I hope to see my ENT next week. After a little trip out of town to my MIL's for the 4th of July weekend. Apparently staying home is highly overrated.

Maybe I'll model my new clothes for you soon. If they fit. And don't hang to my belly button. THe neckline that is. I hope the shorts fit around my belly. With that bit of TMI, I will say good bye!