Penny Black Challenge #63

Evening everyone! The kids are all back in school as of today, which means the rat race begins again since I am "mom's taxi!" I missed them so much today - but they have to go ;)

I had an absolute blast making this Penny Black piggy card for challenge #63 - stitching. I cannot sew for a hill of beans! I did this pink border by hand (it's pretty bright IRL and is next to the green ribbon) and really need to consider a machine again since it's quite a neat little trend. I used the "bikini" stamp from the PB line ........ which always makes me smile :) I added a small 3-d dot under her nose to stand it out, some bling to her purse. Aint she purty? ::: tee hee:::

TFL!































Deets: Penny Black stamp "Bikini"
SU! Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Whisper White Image)
DSP: Basic Grey Lemonade
SU! Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon, dew drops, MAMBI bling, Pink thread
Tools: Tombo, EKS 3-D dots, Paper shapers L and S flower punch

Fly Away ~ August Sisterhood Card

Hi dear friends! I belong to a group of stampers called the Sisterhood of the Traveling Cards. This month's hostess, Gael, chose "Moving parts" as her theme - very intimidating for me, the novice card maker! My original card design was twine and a spinning piece, but yesterday was a very rough day for us and I know my little niece was going through a very difficult time. At 3 am, yes that is 3 AM!!!, an idea for a card just rolled into my head just like that. I had just gotten my order from TGF that afternoon and had no intention to open the bag but I am glad I did - at 2:30 am, lol - because looking at that stamp set and my darling niece, a card was born. I chose a "slider" card and this image becuase it was fun & whimsical & it reminded me of how sweet she is. Now to get crankin' on 5 more if Miss Gael approves - I promise it moves!
This one is for you, sweet Amanda ...... **Besos y abrazos**

Up up and away .....

Or down .......

Or around!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Deets: PTI Berry Blush & White cardstock (image) SU Yo Yo Yellow, Berry Sweet DSP from K & Co (8 x 8 mat stack)

Stamps: TGF

Colored with Prismacolor markers, Doodlebug button, Tombo, Nesties: Label 1 and small circle

SU punch

FFF: Simply Sewed Reeta :)

Yay! It feels so good to be crafting again! After a LONG hiatus, I wasn't sure I'd find my way back again ;) I have been busy this week hopping along with TGF's week of challenges and used that as my inspiration to move it, move it, move it (think *Madagascar!*) Tee hee!

For this FFF Challenge, I reallllly had to take my time because I cannot sew to save my life! I even donated my sewing machine to the church after it sat here for years - now I secretly wish I had one again, but I know that "by hand" is the way to go for now with hemming jobs, buttons and now ...... cards! :) I absolutely fell in love with this DCWV Garden Whimsey paper - a huge 12 x 12 stack and I've already used 1/3 of it ;) I was blessed to receive this stamped image from sensei Sandra (B-Gin-R) for birthday? WW goal? and just love her! I plan to own (Reeta!) soon! I colored her with my prismacolor markers, stiched around the top frame and the image frame - scalloped the top and bottom border, added the crochet florets and brought out the cardigan by adding some Kaiser pearls to match. I popped up the butterflies and Reeta for added effect, but the camera doesn't show it so well. I'm so happy with how this turned out - a real labor of love, but it brought me so much joy to find my way back to my craft room and enjoy the process!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings!

Back to school with TGF!

Hi! It's back to school challenge time at Club Anya - make sure to stop by and try this week's challenges!

I'm one of those moms that loves having the kids home for the summer! Not because we get to sleep in late and run around doing the fun things we do, but I miss them dearly when they are away at school all day. And it helps that I have 3 daughters that share my love of crafting - this was a fun project to make a couple of school related items, especially when there are 4 kids to buy back to school things for ... cha-ching! :)

I made dd14 a notebook using some yummilicious DCWV school paper & SU Taken w/ Teal and jazzed it up with some ribbons. She adored it! And since I adore her, I used TGF's stamp with the "you are loved" so she will have this with her in her back pack for school :)

Dd10 is getting this lil mason jar for her coloring pens to sit on her desk ...... I added some of the same 12 x 12 DCWV paper, ribbon, Rockstar Anya as a blonde little school girl, rofl!, and added the sentiments from TGF stamps and flowers (forgive me, the name escapes me!) This was barrels of fun and dd12 has already requested a notebook for her as well :) TFL!

TGF - Farm Fresh Challenge w/ Mary :)

Oh boy, this took every ounce I had in me to complete this card ..... and the sad part is ..... it doesn't look it!! It took hours and hours and changing it around, re-cutting, second guessing the papers, etc .... I have been so out of it and under the weather and just blah - no mojo, no creativity but I was hoping to create my first FFF to honor the wonderful sketch Mary picked out. I also had a birthday card to make for a super duper terrific friend this week so it was just the inspiration I needed to get up and have a go, tee hee!

TFL and have a blessed week!

Deets: SU! Crushed Curry &Tangerine Tango,

DSP: K & Company,

The Greeting Farm's Never Ever,

prismacolor markers, scallop punch, ATG, ribbon

London ...... part 4

Please scroll to previous 3 posts to begin our London tour! :)

When in Rome ............ hee hee! One of the things I was really looking forward to was to eat at a real British pub - they had so many wonderful places to eat, but this was so fun! We found London to be wonderful and the people so friendly. While they were accepting of children, I wouldn't exactly say they embraced them ..... London changed the no children in the pub period law to up til 5 pm, lucky for us! We had a bountiful bouquet of fish & chips & shepard's pie, etc .......... oh la lah yummo!

While touring close to the River Thames, I took a picture of my Victoria on the "Victoria Embankment" - cute, eh? I was reading the street map, turned to see her tracing the letters of her name (and, ahem, the Queen's, lol!) and was so happy to have my camera for this impromptu photo!

I simply cannot offer any explanation for this ............ ROFL!! This was a neat war museum we visited - complete with real WW 2 remake .... (sights, sounds, smells - a complete transportation back in time - riveting, indeed)

How the "other half" shop ......... rofl! Harrods - my oh my! I secretly hoped to visit here before we left and dh just knew ..... my parents and I visited London when I was 6 and we bought some small dolls which I still have today. They are one of my grandest treasures! I hoped to find them here, since we had visited several other toy stores in London to no avail ...... while we loved going floor to floor, the kids picking something special in the toy department, we didn't find anything similiar so I am blessed to still have mine!

Kaitlyn trying to decide between 2 bears at Harrods :)

London ... Part 3!

Hi! Please see Previous 2 posts to begin our picture tour of London!

This was the bird's eye vew of the city of London/bridge from the top of St. Paul's ... very crowded, holding my children on that tiny (OLDDDD) balcony and praying to get back down to the beautiful cathedral, lol. I felt the same way on the top of the Eifel Tower a few years ago and have come to realize that I don't like heights :( But it was pretty magnificent, all things being said!

From Westminster Abbey - I loved this place. I felt such a strong pull and spiritual connection here - I stood in the middle of the Abbey, hearing the organ play (still working!) and I just felt MOVED to the core of my being. No pictures allowed, sadly ....... but in the courtyard we took as many as we could!

The famous Tower of London! Fortunately for me, my dh is like walking encyclopedia and a history buff, so he was like my own private guided tour as he explained time periods and scandals and Kings & Queens & nobility & everything in between like beheadings, ewww!

Tower Bridge - often confused with London Bridge - really neat old bridge leading to the Tower of London where the queens jewels were ..... WOAH!! Some serious bling in that place!

We had just left London Dungeon which my dd12 begged us to take her - it's a spooky old place, off the beaten path that is very "tourist-y" but turned out to be 1. spookier 2. a mini theme parkish type place and 3. a lot of history! IF you get a chance to google London Dungeon, it's a riot! My favorite was walking down those dark streets that the real Jack the Ripper supposedly "did the deeds" and was completely spoked - dd in her glory, loving every minute of it - ooof!

So, back to the palace ...... it was full of corridors and rooms and much of this building has been renovated ..... a lot of London wasn't in it's original form and there was quite a bit of restoration done through the years (esp after the war) but it was fantastic indeed.

London ... Part 2

See previous post to start the "tour!" There are 4 parts to the London pictures :)

Visiting Stonehenge was one of the highlights of Europe for me! I have always wanted to go here and it was so much of what I thought it would be. The kids read of it at school, and to say "I was there, I visited" is a magical thing. Due to unexpected construction and a 55 minute delay sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, our time here was shorten from 2 hours to 45 minutes, but it was worth it! It must have been absolutely amazing in it's original form - the experience seeing it now, as is was just wow. Such a positive flow of energy and emotion! We took many, many pictures - rocks in all shapes and sizes, lol. I stuck up a conversation with one of the site watchers and he gave me a guided tour of so many things NOT in the brochure (like the ancient graphiti - showed me where and got a most cool picture, lol)






























This is the amazing St. Paul's Cathedral - I fell so in love with it's magnificence and meaning. I loved visiting Westminster Abbey and St. Magaret's Church, but this one was amazing on so many levels! We were exhausted after touring the city all morning and day long, and this stop was the last for the day (note to self: do not leave the building with 1,200 stairs to the tippy top for the last!!)






























Tee hee! He has a future in police work :)

Europe ... Visiting London (Part 1!)

Sooo many pictures! This is part 1 of 4 for London -- I'm having a hard time loading them to the house pc and hopefully the laptop will do the trick :)

London was absolutely fascinating! It's a city I hope to return to one day and am blessed to have seen it (albeit treking with 4 kids wasn't the easy - thank you for the invention of the tube, tee hee!) They did GREAT though, much better than I would have anticipated and we chose to see much of the cities we visited on foot - little one in his stroller - and hoofed it everywhere to get . better views, close and personal visits, tours, etc! One of the things dh & I love the most is visiting a new city for the first time, getting a street map, sitting at a sidewalk cafe with coke (him) and coffee (me!) and mapping out the way, marking sites and must-sees.

Our first day out in this continually busy city we chose a 3 hour double decker bus tour - ha ha, looking every much the proverbial tourists! I spotted Starbucks 3 minutes out the gate ::: grin ::: It really is a city that doens't stop - at 7 am and 1 am, it was the same -- people hustling about everywhere, radiating a fun energy as we toured pretty much everything this city had to offer!






















City streets .... Big Ben in the background :) On the plane, my son kept saying he wanted to hug Big Ben .....he thought he'd be able to stretch his little arms around it (maybe he's seen Peter Pan too many times, lol!)

View standing on London Bridge, looking back at Big Ben & The Houses of Parliament -- Westminster Abbey (pics in the next bunch) is peeking in with a few spires and turrets.

Big Ben again, with the London Eye ;)

I took this picture from a nearby bridge of London Bridge open because a British man walking by told me I should, ha ha! He said it wasn't very often that you get to see London Bridge open for use - it's easy to cross over it (we did, on bus, and foot many times) but not via River ... pretty cool :)

Peachy Keen Card Challenge!

Oh boy, I actually made a card! :) I was so inspired by my wonderful and talented friend, Lorie, to play along with my first Peachy Keen Card Challenge and this is what I was able to come up with. I sadly do not own any PK stamps (yet!!) but was wowed and thrilled to visit the blog and was dazzled by all the lovely things to see there!

Since the challenge was to use 1. a pumpkin 2. purple somewhere on the card and 3. a zig-zag, I did my best to play along using the only pumpkin stamp I could find and am thrilled that I had this one. I grew up with a brother 1.5 years older than me that I just recently had the blessing of seeing recently -- he lives so very far away now and it's been a long 4 years since we've seen each other. When we were smaller, these were the exact moments I remember when we were growing up - him pulling me along in a little red wagon. I tried my best to color it and hoped my colorless blender would make the sky look more "water colored" but I'm not so sure the technique worked ..... I have lots to learn, lol! But I sure had so much fun with this card! I am hoping this will inspire me to work on the coordinating scrappages before THIS Halloween, tee hee!

I paired the purple with some K & Co Halloween paper, textured dsp for "grass", added some purple ric-rac and the wee pumpkin is placed with 3-d for added effect. This card just made me smile all over when it was done - the memories live strong, and that's what crafting and creating is all about! TFS and blessings!

Deets: SU! Black Cardstock, Tangerine Tango & misc purple scrap cs .........

K & Co Halloween paper

White Georgia-Pacific for stamped image,

Archival Black ink,

Prismacolor pens, blending pen

Scallop punch

Ribbons: unk

3-D dots, Tombo

Thank you, Dj!

Hello wonderful blog friends! I'm back from a whirlwind, wonderful and blessed trip with my family! I am way out of the crafting loop and can't wait to get back to stamping and scrapbooking :) But I HAD to stop in today to say a great big thank you to my secret sister, dj! The talented Kadie set up this round of SS exchange and I was blessed to receive a wonderful box stuffed full of goodies! But what made it the most special were the hand-written, personalized notes attached to the items and how she hand picked things just for me :) I had teary eyes and warm fuzzies all over!! She is absolutely super creative - look at the beautiful terra cotta flower pot! The sweetest! (and the chocolate inside - oh yummo!!) She made a beautiful notecard holder with matching pen in the cutest dsp - love, love, love it! And I have wanted stampavie stamps for forever and she sent me TWO!! You are so generous, my friend!! And the new in -colors!! GAH!!!!!!!!!!!!! The sweet Miss Lorie sent me a catty before I left so I got to drool all over Europe at all the things I wanted to order! First on my list were the new in colors, and I got home to open a box with them in it! OH LA LAH!!!!!! And the special stamp - oh, you are just the best :*) I wiped a tear, but had a smile on my face! I am so grateful for your friendship and that we were able to meet!! Big hugs to you and thank you soo sooo soo much!!! *muah!*

Thanks for stopping by!