more CMK kit projects and other stuff

I know, two posts in one day... shocking! Sometimes I can't get but one post a week. hahaha! I just had to put these cards up tonight. I am out of my card rut, at least for now. These were all created with the gorgeous July CMK kit. The only things I added were the MM alphas and the DMC floss. I tried not to stitch on everything, but that was tough.
I created the flower on the "I Love You" card by using a length of the beautiful hand-crotched strip that was created just for this kit, and rolled it into a flower shape, glued it and then placed a brad for the center. It was quite simple. The fabulous flower that coordinates with the strip was used on the Mail project as seen in the previous post. I also used the top part of the packaging from the Chatterbox embellies for the black and white striped element. As soon as I saw it, I knew I was going to incorporate it somehow. The kit will be available for sale tomorrow for non-members. You really need to check out what the other fabulous DT girls created.... they just wow me!
The CMK Last Scrapper Standing announcement was today and CMK has 3 new amazing Designers! Congrats to each of them!!! All of the girls blew me away with their entries and I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it was to narrow it down. That being said, on Friday I stepped down as a DT member to open up a spot for one of these amazing ladies. I have been blessed to have been on the DT for 2 years and really wanted to share this with someone. I am happy to have been able to give someone the gift of a wonderful DT experience, and I know they will have a wonderful time of it. Honestly, it's the only reason I stepped down. There is no underlying drama or hard feelings or anything like that. The DT girls are like sisters to me and I have come to know them and love them like family. CMK is my home on the net and always will be. I am not going anywhere. I have enjoyed each and every minute on this team! I have to admit though, when I saw the official DT list and my name wasn't on it I had a moment. It was harder than I thought it would be, but I am happy with my decision. NO regrets. I am sure there will be some moments of sadness, but as with anything else, it passes. Life is really short and it feels amazing to be able to do something so good!!! It's so easy to get wrapped up in the negative and forget about the little things that can bring one such great joy. It's a wonderful feeling and my heart is so light and happy because of it!
Lisa has generously allowed me to stay on through July so I can get the chance to get to know the new team members a bit better and I am thankful for this!

I am going to be stalking the mail lady tomorrow... I hope my July goodies from My Acrylic Album arrive. Now that I think about it, they probably won't be here until Wednesday. I am so excited about the album I am receiving and already have an idea spinning. We are also getting some fun Penguin Pants stamps to sample as well. :) They are sold on the MAA website which is currently getting a makeover and will be up soon. It's looking good and I am eager to see the finished site!

July CMK kit projects and other stuff

It's another Monday and the end of June. Once again I marvel at how quickly days and weeks and months just seem to fly by. I was always told that time will go by quickly as one ages, but I want it to slow down just a tad.
Today is going to be another hot one; probably hitting 100' again. We are due for a bit of a cool down for the rest of the week and maybe even get a nice Thunderstorm tonight and possibly later in the week. We haven't had many this Spring/early Summer and I actually miss them. When we first moved here 4 years ago I had never experienced anything like it. The winds, the rain, just the intensity. We were all freaked out and holed up in our basement, but quickly learned to enjoy them. We sit out on our front steps or back porch now and watch nature in all her glory. Amazing stuff, but I sure am glad not to live in the midwest where there are severe storms. No thank you. I just don't know how they do it year after year, I'd have a head full of grey hair!

I haven't mentioned kittens in a few days. heehee. They will be 5 weeks old tomorrow. Ashlyn and I discovered that there are 3 girls and 2 boys. Ashlyn seems to think Molly cares about this fact, but I doubt it. Some are eating and using the litterbox, some may be doing both, but since they are all black and pretty much look identical I can't nail it down. Sadly we are starting to look for homes for them. Meghan has a co-worker coming over today and she might end up taking one home, but I really want to make sure the one she selects can eat on it's own first... but then again, if they get hungry enough they will. I am a bit worried about Molly and how she is going to react, but we can't keep them. I wonder if she'll miss them.

Onto scrappy stuff. :) Here are 3 projects I created with the gorgeous July CMK kit. Have I mentioned that it's my favorite kit so far? The KARA letters are plain, but Kara wants them this way. These papers have a metallic thing going on which looks very cool, even plain and boring. ;) I've still got some more things to create, and hope to wrap it up today.

I auditioned out for the Chatterbox team, although I am not holding my breath. There was something like 437 applicants and I have no doubt that there is some amazing talent! I still have that teeny tiny little speck of a chance though, and I am eagerly awaiting the announcement of the ladies who will get a second audition. It would be so very cool to see my name, but I don't expect to. It would also be cool to see my scrappy friends names as well. Good luck girls! I am sure you are as anxious as I! Whatever the outcome you all rock!

I hope your Monday is off to a good start! :)

oh boy it's hot!

Happy Sunday! It's a scorcher here, it's currently 101' in our backyard. It's been a perfect day to sit inside and scrap a bit. I cleaned off my scrappy table and then tackled one of many projects on my "to do" list.
There is a PINK card challenge sponsored by Pink Persimmon on the Caardvarks challenge blog. I really want to win those fabulous stamps that I have been yearning for since Pink Persimmon opened it's doors earlier this month. Please wish me luck!
It's difficult to see in the photo, but the handle is made with black rectangular shaped rhinestones to resemble beads. I have to give my fabulous dd Skye a shout out for coming up with the phrase I used. I was coming up empty (I am in a sentiment rut) and she had the perfect idea. Love you lots sweetie! :)

I hope your Sunday has been a beautiful one!

a card

Nothing much to post today other than a card. This is for Di Hickman June sketch #4. I went a little overboard, but I like the colors! :)

I worked on some July CMK kit projects today, it was nice to spend a good chunk of time just creating. I'll be able to share these soon.

Take care!

Gardening and scrappiness

It's been almost a week since my last upload. Time sure flies by. I haven't been scrapping all that much, instead I have spent a great deal of time working out in the yard. It's amazing how little one can get done spending hours and hours in the yard, and how sore one can get. lol! I do see a noticeable difference though and I know that some things make a more dramatic impact than others. I pretty much did nothing last summer, so I am having to play catch up from 2 years ago. It's a long process, but it's coming along slowly. Very slowly. I did clear a small garden area in our weed patch (about 6'x6') and planted some Zucchini, cucumbers, 2 types of beans and 2 types of peas. I doubled what we got last year because they were oh-so good and were gone way to quickly. :) I still have more to plant and I need to find the motivation to spend another day just clearing weeds.
Speaking of weeds, this tool is my new best friend!!! It has helped me so much and I can't imagine how I have dug through all the weeds in our weed patch for the past few years without it! I have been eyeing it for over a year and as inexpensive as it is, I just never got around to buying one until last month. We needed a new edger and this guy happened to make its way into my cart. :)

I created this layout for a color challenge over on Addicted Scrappers. The challenge was to use orange and purple as the main colors and use any other colors sparingly. This was tough, but once I figured out that these Chatterbox papers would be perfect it all came together... slowly. I worked on this baby for 5 days; 5 minutes here, 10 there, I just didn't get a nice chunk of creative time until yesterday afternoon.

The card is for SketchThis #55. Once again the girls wowed me with their renditions of this fun sketch! I am not thrilled with my card, and I think I am in a card making rut. I haven't been happy with several of the recent cards I have created. I think I am overthinking and not just rolling with it. I just seem to be lacking little details that make a great impact. I am really going to try to do some different things and see what happens. I know we all go through this time and time again and I am sure it will pass. We are our own worst critics. ;)

The kittens are a month old now and are getting around well. We moved them into a new area where they have plenty of room to roam. The are jumping on each other and playing and just getting used to being mobile and having the ability to run. They are so darn cute!!! Their individual personalities are starting to emerge, too which is also fun to watch. I am trying really hard not to get attached so it won't be so hard to send them off to new homes in about 2 weeks. *sigh*

I need to get back to working on my projects with the July kit from CMK. This kit is gorgeous and I think it's my most favorite CMK kit ever! I am afraid I won't do it justice, but I am sure going to try. You can see a peek on the CMK blog here.

Have a wonderful day!

a project for My Acrylic Album

I have to admit, when I first received my package from MAA for June I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. You see, I was sent a baseball album, in the shape of a baseball diamond. We don't do baseball here. I am not even a fan of baseball. So, I had to think about how I was going to put this album to a creative use. (*album is not on website yet) It didn't take too long for me to realize that this would make a good house shape and an idea popped into my head and I ran with it. I have to say that I am more than pleased with the end result and it's going to sit on our mantle. I also knew that I had to pull out the Pink Paislee for this. :)

Here she is, 'Home is where the heart is' in all her glory! There is a front of the house and a back. It was so fun to make. Thanks for taking a peek!

a card and some more kitten pics

*grin* I told you you'd be tired of kitten pics. I managed to get these a few minutes ago. I got a few OK shots, but these little buggers were all over the place. It didn't help that Charlie, our 10 month old Great Dane wanted to help clean them. He's so curious and spends a long time just staring at them with his ears up and head cocked to one side. He is extremely gentle with them, but he's just not aware of how big he is and he could so easily crush one of them with a single step. When he licks them they go flying with the force of his tongue. It is quite cute and Molly doesn't seem to mind a bit, in fact as soon as she sees Charlie enter the room she gets up (most of the time in mid feeding and the kittens fall onto the blanket with stunned looks on their faces) to go get some Charlie love.

Anywho... today was a much better day for the girls! Skye and Ashlyn played well together all day without one single spat. That's a miracle and a record for sure! *giggle* They played school and had a cooking class where they made several batches of Peanut Butter cookies and they are scrumptious! They also played Science lab and made some silly putty and something else that I don't even know what it is. They also read a lot. They are eager to earn their prize from the library's Summer reading program. I sure hope there are more days like this, even though I don't expect them to get along every day.

As for me, I scrapped much of the day away. I am working on a project for My Acrylic Album and I am really liking how it's coming along! You know when you have an idea and you don't know if it will work out, but it does, and even better than you could ever have hoped? That's how this is working out. *yay* I am hoping to finish it tomorrow, and I hope that my mojo is still with me.

I also spent a bit of time weeding. Some areas of our front yard is just a mess (at least in my eyes) and at least now it only looks half bad. Don't even get me started on the back yard. Aye! Now that's something I am not sure I even want to tackle this year. I will clean out a space for a small garden, but that's about it.

Last but not least is the card I created for Sketch This 54. I had fun with this sketch and pulled out some really old scraps to create this card. I know I sound like a broken record, but the girls on this team just rock!!! Be sure to check their gorgeous layouts and cards out, you will be inspired!

a long Monday

Happy Monday! It's been a doozy of a day and not quite how I imagined Summer break to begin. Ashlyn woke up cranky and her and Skye were at each others' throats all. day. long. I thought I was going to pull my hair out! Ashlyn had her final meltdown at about 2PM and she started packing her stuff to "go live out on the street!". It was so cute to see what she values most... her Littlest Pet Shop animals were the first to get packed and then she filled the rest of her bag with books. By this time she had calmed down enough for me to convince her to that she just needed to take a nap and that she would feel better once she did, so she went upstairs and slept right on the living room floor. She did wake up in a much better mood and now instead of fighting, Skye and Ashlyn are making home made play dough. I don't even mind the huge mess they've made, at least it's peaceful around here. *yahoo*

We had a great time this weekend, but as always time just passes to quickly. It's always great to see my brothers and their families and the kids had a blast together playing in the woods. I was happy to be home again though.

The first thing the girls did when we got home was to run downstairs to see the kittens... and they changed so much in the 2.5 days we were gone! They were up and walking everywhere and even playing with each other. Have I mentioned how cute they are?! They weren't able to even stand on all fours Friday morning and then to come home to see them trying to run was just crazy! It's really hard not to get attached to them, but we've only got a few weeks left with them. The photo is one I took last week, I hope to get some more soon, but it's a huge challenge. lol

Have a wonderful week!

a card and school's out!

I want to start out and take this a moment to send out my deepest thoughts and prayers to all those who have been affected by the horrible and tragic storms that just keep pounding the country. My heart just aches to see the images and hear about the unfortunate deaths. So much tragedy that I cannot even imagine. :(

Today is the girls' last day of school! I am now the proud parent of a Senior... which is beyond crazy in my mind! Meghan will be a Junior, Skye in 7th grade and my baby is going to enter 3rd grade. *sniff* They are just growing up way too fast for my liking.

This has been a hectic week. Ashlyn missed school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. She missed all the "fun" days which is what the kids look forward to all year. She was just wiped out.

We had some very cool weather and SNOW, yes SNOW on Tuesday morning. I would never have imagined that I would see snow in June! One of the local news channels dubbed it "Junuary". hahaha!
We had a heavy Thunderstorm roll through Wednesday night. Shook our whole house and covered the streets with rain and hail.
And then yesterday we hit the mid 70's. We've gone from one extreme to the next in just a few days.

I have been busy with stuff for Grad Night 2009. I am really getting excited about this! At first it seemed overwhelming, but we've got an awesome group of parents working on this and the Class of 2009 is going to have a rocking party next year!

The kittens all have their eyes open One of them needed some help from me. He/she is just like her mommy and has an eye infection. When my dh brought Molly home at 3 weeks old she was sick and also had problems with her eyes. I used some cotton balls with warm water to gently pry them open and put some cream that we used for her eyes into it's eyes and it seems to have helped. Poor little baby. :(
They are also getting around pretty well now! They are trying to walk on all fours and they are so cute to watch! Their little legs are so wobbly, but they are quick none the less. Sometimes poor Molly just looks frustrated when all 5 of them are going different directions.

I wish I had more photos to share, but the computer is not reading the camera. Grrr... It's always something.

This card is for the Di Hickman June #2 sketch.

I am off in a few hours to a weekend visit with my parents and my brothers and their families. Have a great weekend everyone!

Monday Muse at CMK

It's my week for the Monday Muse over at Create My Keepsake and it was my challenge this week. The challenge is to alter a household item. I have several of these jars and it was the perfect thing to use for this. Who doesn't need a little jar of sweets?

I am so excited that I was one of the two winners over at the Fancy Pants Blog challenge! I was really hoping I would win and am so honored to have been chosen. Gretchen's card is awesome, she has such an awesome style! Thanks to all of you out there who rooted for me and commented on my cards! :)

You have got to check out the cute stamps from a new company that just launched! Pink Persimmon (Isn't that a fun name?!) just opened shop yesterday and I cannot wait to get my hands one some of these darling sets! I even need the berry baskets! Soon... darn bills. *giggle*

I hope your week is starting off well! Things didn't happen to work out how I would have liked with Ashlyn being home sick, and the weather being so icky, but I had two really nice emails late this morning that just made my day! It's amazing how sweet words from a stranger can turn everything around! Life sure is funny sometimes.

it's a dreary Saturday

Blah! It's cold and rainy outside and I am so ready for Spring, heck I'd take Summer at this point! It's only 50' outside today and I had to turn the heat on because it's cold. This is June, not March or April. I am wondering if we are ever going to see the sun and some nice weather again. Part of the reason we moved away from the West side of the state was to get away from all this gloom. *sigh* I know that there are many of you out there who would trade in a heartbeat as you are in a major heat wave, and you can have it! *giggle*

Anyway, here's a pic of the kittens I took two days ago. I just love to watch them pile up and sleep; they are constantly making sucking motions with their cute little mouths and squirming and meowing. Molly seems to like the fact that they sleep for long periods of time because she enjoys the opportunity to be away from them. I do feel bad for her sometimes because I sure wouldn't want to be stuck on a room with 5 kittens nursing on me for hours at a time. Angel and Charlie (our dogs) are extremely curious and take every chance they get to sneak into the laundry room and sniff the kittens. Angel decided yesterday that she was going to lick them all and Molly didn't mind a bit. She just walked over to them and licked them clean. The other cats could care less about the kittens, but they sense something and aren't nice to Molly. They will walk up to her and smack her and run. Not sure what's up with that, but I find it sad.

I am sure I am boring you with kitten talk, so here is a layout I created with the June CMK kit. I decided to just go for it and play with patterns and colors. Not sure if I like it, but I pretty much used up the rest of the kit on this one.

I hope you are having a great weekend! :)

Ashlyn's been pubbed!

We have been anxiously awaiting the release of the Paper Crafts Paper Crafting With Kids special issue, and lo and behold it showed up on our doorstep yesterday afternoon! *clapping* This is extra special for me because the *U Rock* supply box that Ashlyn and I created together on the night before school is in this issue, and her name is in print, which is even more exciting! She took the magazine in to school today for show and tell and her classmates were going on and on about how she was all famous now. 2nd graders are so darn cute! She does feel pretty special though. ;) She's even more delighted to have her supply box back that she's missed since we had to mail it back in December. (please note that the supply box is slightly different in the magazine. I had to make a few last minute modifications prior to publishing.)

Here is my card for Sketch This #53 (for my friend). These Sasafrass Lass papers are so bright and cheerful and make me happy! Once again it didn't make it onto the blog due to some email issues I had. *sigh*

And my card for Di Hickman's June sketch #1. I used some scraps from the June kit at CMK and some ribbon that I have had forever. Sorry it's so dark, it's been icky here the past several days.

The girls have a little over a week of school left. It's so hard to believe this school year passed so quickly!

CMK June kit projects

The June Create My Keepsake "Illuminations" kit is awesome! Although the colors and overall theme imply a "4th of July" theme, most of the projects created by the design team do not incorporate this theme at all. It's really a fun and versatile kit to work with! I have been wanting to scrap the photos of Ashlyn (what the heck?) and this kit was perfect! The yellow adds a fun punch of color! I have one more layout that I am working on and then I will only have slivers of this kit left.

The kittens are a week old already. Their little eyes are starting to open up and they are growing daily. Pretty soon they'll be all over the place!

I wasn't a winner in the Scenic Route Die Cut challenge, but the winning layouts are amazing! I think I am going to try again this month. The challenge is to use the 'Grafton' line and I have been wanting to dig into this.

I'll be back tomorrow with a few cards!