FWF #6 - Happy Valentine's Day!

Hi, Friends with Flair folks! Happy Valentine's Day! Hope you all get some good lovin' - or at least some chocolate and/or flowers! :) Whatever floats your boat...

The girls celebrated Valentine's Day last Friday night at their school's annual "Father/Daughter Dance". We moms got about 2 hours of alone time. I can't even remember what I did anymore - but I think I made dinner. Exciting, right?

Mika had a long weekend - one soccer game and six softball games. I loved it!!! Mika finally got her chance to pitch at the travel ball level - unfortunately, it did not go well. I don't think the ump gave her a single strike - which made her tense up (something she never did at rec level) - but worst of all, she was too hittable (not fast enough, not enough movement on the ball). Coach pulled her out before the end of the inning (we did NOT blame him) and some discussion, we decided that the girls would quit pitching lessons. Mika just doesn't have what it takes to be a starting travel ball pitcher and hey - that's okay! Yes, Marika has one season left of pitching for rec ball but she complains SO MUCH about practicing, that I just want to yank all of my hair out. We decided it was better use of our time and money to move Mika to weekly batting lessons and gamble that Marika would practice pitching for the sake of her team. We'll see! Mika's coach was totally fine with our decision, but did warn he might still call on her to pitch in a pinch - but at least he knows she won't be practicing anymore. Whew! It is a huge relief to have one less thing to worry about.

This week, I'm going to blame my lack of crafting time on the new pooch. Bo had his big appointment at the Humane Society last Friday and got neutered, received a bunch of shots, and was microchipped. The vet tech also could only venture "Husky Mix". What the heck is the other half??? Any ideas? We've been taking it easy this week (until next Friday), since he's on "light exercise" restriction. He had to wear the "cone of shame" for a few days but can you believe... he actually CAUGHT a gopher the day after his surgery while WEARING the cone??? I was impressed! BTW they estimated his age at 5.5 months (and he weighed 39 lbs already).

This week, I chose to use Deconstructed Sketch #138, rotating it 90-degrees counterclockwise. I used Unity Stamp's Handmade Valentines.

 

The front...

 

  The inside...

For the kids' teachers, I used the Lifestyle Crafts' takeout box die. I love these little boxes! I filled them with little Rolos and dressed them up with some ribbon and twine. All stamps used were from Unity's Handmade Valentines.

And finally... I made some tags for the girls' Valentine buckets. Target had these adorable little owl pails - did you see them in the dollar bins? The sentiment is from Handmade Valentines but I also used Unity Stamp's My Panda Balloon - isn't it an adorable image? It's only $1 this week - go check out the sale here! Shipping is only $2.95 for orders over $25.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Thanks for visiting and please stay warm/dry! :)

Coloring (outside my box!)

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope everyone had a wonderful day & gave/got some love. :) The girls came home with an armload of valentines and of course, plenty of sugar!

 

I've been having more fun with my Unity stamps and trying to experiment with coloring. Also this past week, my fellow CC'ers enlightened me all about digital stamps - so, this week, I actually broke out my Spectrum Noir markers (and continue to buy them at the LSS and Ebay) and finally colored something with them. Actually, I "colored" my Unity stamps in three different ways and was relatively pleased with their various effects.

 

Here's Sketch #6 for Seize the Birthday. It's time for a masculine card, which I coupled with Challenge #49 for CropChocolate (using a wood-grain "something").

 

Patterned papers (EP Note to Self, MME Miss Caroline "All Dolled Up"), cardstock (EP Note to Self), pewter brads (MM), ink (TH walnut stain distress ink), car stamp (digital - http://stamping.craftgossip.com/freebie-vintage-car-digital-stamp/2011/05/26/), birthday sentiment (Unity Stamp Co.), label diecuts (Spellbinders), adhesive (Snake Tape), markers (Spectrum Noir) 

 

This was my first ever attempt at using the Spectrum Noir markers - maybe it's because I used simple cardstock, but I was surprised at how much the markers "ran". I had to use a much lighter touch than I had expected. I really didn't like the black, which felt rather runny & fat! But, I'm sure practice will make perfect... :)

 

Here's my version of the same sketch, but for the feminine version - I had actually made this card in time, but forgot to take a picture before I used it, so I had to make another one. :) You'll note that I used Marvy-Uchida brush markers for this one - I found a pack in my stash (I must have purchased this years ago) and thought I'd try it directly on the stamp - I liked how it looked!

 

 

Patterned papers (Carta Bella Paris Girl), markers (Marvy-Uchida brush markers), adhesive (Snake Tape), cupcake stamp (Unity Stamp Co. - Sweet Celebration) and digital birthday sentiment stamp (http://rubberstamping.about.com/od/greetingscards/ig/Birthday-Sentiments/Birthday-Scallop-Edge-2.htm)

I liked this sketch so much, I decided to use it to make DaddyDude's Valentine card, too. I had totally lucked out on Ebay and scored three brand-new "Stamp of the Week" stamps for $4 each (including shipping). I loved the coffee cup (which can be used on other cards with different sentiments) and the sentiment... well... I'll be only using that one for my hubby. :)

 

Patterned papers (Making Memories Cosmopolitan), cardstock (EP Season's Greetings), stamps (Unity Stamp Co. Stamp of the Week), pewter brads (MM), adhesive (Snake Tape), ink (Memories Inc.), label diecut (Sizzix), ink (Memories, Inc.)

 

 

For this card, I chose to paper piece the hearts for added dimension. Looking at it now, I wish I had colored the coffee cup in brown but... they usually are white, aren't they?





CC Design Team Valentine's Day Tag Exchange

The Cropchocolate.com Design Team organized a Valentine's Day tag swap (as we did for Christmas) and once again, this was a lot fun! Here's the beautiful tag (below) I received from my fellow DT member, Karen N.! Isn't it gorgeous? I love it!!! Thanks, Karen!!!

 

And (below) here's the tag I sent off to DT member Corrie. I'm having such fun using my Unity Stamps and Tim Holtz dies/inks!!! I'm especially enjoying submitting my work to Friends with Flair - and, of course, getting more Unity stamps... oh, dear... how does anybody know when to stop?

CC-items: Fancy Pants silver glitter paper, patterned paper (Teresa Collins), Carta Bella kraft paper, EP paper, Bazzill cardstock, MM trim (brown ruche & red glitter), FP trim, Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder, TH distress ink (festive berries, walnut stain, aged mahogany, tea stain), AC white Zing! embossing powder, MM bling gems, Stickles (Icicles), adhesive (Scrappin' Supplies); non-CC-items: TH heart & flourish dies, Unity stamps (It's All About Love), black ink (Memory), butterfly & charms (unknown)

 

Last but not least - a big thank you to all of my new FWF friends last week, who kindly commented with advice on coloring markers. I went and stared at a lot of Copic markers this past week and finally decided that a beginning step was to buy a couple of sets of Spectrum Noir markers. This will help me get my feet wet and decide which next direction to go, without breaking the bank! Wish me luck! :)

Lately...

I hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day! Things have been busy here, but here I am at last!

Patterned papers all by Echo Park (Springtime collection), twine (MME Lime Twist), and bling (MM white bling)

The latest Cropchocolate challenge was to use simple shapes to make a more complicated one. I chose to make a kudusama ball, something I've wanted to do for a very long time. I found a good tutorial here and here and modified it to suit my needs. I used sixty 2"x2" pieces (two 12x12 sheets) for this project.

Patterned paper (Making Memories - Cosmopolitan 6x6 paper pack), brads (MM), Quickutz heart die, rub-ons (Fancy Pants), ink (Tim Holtz)

The CC challenge last week was to create a Valentine's Day card, using non-traditional colors. I chose to use the Cosmopolitan paper pack (6x6 by Making Memories). I am rather fond of the light blue with brown color combination.

I was really crammed for time, but managed to squeeze out a couple of cute gifts for the girls' teachers. I found these printable mailboxes from the Facebook page of Print Candee. 

And what would Valentine's Day be, without a Father/Daughter dance? I went to help this year (usually my friend Michelle comes to hang out with me, but this year, she was in Japan) - it was crazy busy! I basically stood behind the snack table all evening, handing out chips. The girls enjoyed getting dressed up and luckily, DaddyDude was able to get off work in time to be their date. Aren't those the cutest cupcakes? 

In other news... the girls made us dinner one night - chicken fingers and chicken corn chowder. Dinner was pretty tasty and the house didn't burn down - it was a good day!

And in case anybody is looking for a good stocking-stuffer for next year...  I picked up some crystal growing trees at Lakeshore Learning Store. This isn't exactly what I got (that one was much fancier), but it's pretty close. The picture on the left starts at time zero and pictures were taken at one hour intervals. They are very fragile when they're done - the crystals can easily be knocked off... it's like snow (without melting). The girls really enjoyed watching the tree grow, though.

February Crop Chocolate Challenge

As some of you know, I am one of the Chocolatiers for Cropchocolate.com. They've made some changes in their program such that now there are monthly challenges (instead of a free-for-all project on a quarterly basis). The February challenge was "Valentine's Day" - featuring Crop Chocolate product, of course! I tied this in with Sketch Inspiration's Sketch #203.


I chose to use my two packs of Love Struck patterned paper by Making Memories. You don't need to use ALL of both - but I ended up using two of the same sheets (each pack came with 5 different sheet and retailed for $1.10 or so).

I selected 3 different patterned sheets and cut them into 2.5" x 11" strips, laying each one down vertically (at this point, you'll notice that I rotated the sketch). For the paper with rings, I simply trimmed around one set of rings and cut within the circles so that they remained interlinked.

Next, I selected and trimmed three photos (all the same height - 4"), making sure to line up the two on the right.

I added about 10" of Queen & Co's diecut felt flourishes, along with my title, "I Do" (Quickutz License Plate alphabet - sold at Crop Chocolate for $10 - a real steal!). I also cut out one heart from another Love Struck patterned paper, matted it on white paper, and adhered it with foam pop dots for added dimension.

Last but not least, I added some computer-printed journaling. Voila! Nothing like a wedding layout completed 11 years + after the fact. =)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

The girls were super excited about today, even though they should have enjoyed maximum hub-bub at their class parties. We had a small packet of presents to give the girls and we girls got some things for Daddy Dude (nothing says "I Love you" on Valentine's Day like NERF - can you tell he had a deprived childhood? Poor thing...!)

Daddy Dude had these beautiful flowers delivered yesterday, but Mika was very concerned that I didn't get any presents today. That was very sweet of her... =)

A big first! Mika went to her first dance on Friday night - and look, there's her date! A fine fellow, we're all fond of him. Yup, that's Daddy Dude (no worries, folks!). The PTA had a fundraising "Father Daughter" dance and the two of them skedaddled off. Mika had a great time - when she came home, she shot through the door and proclaimed, "THAT WAS THE BEST TIME EVER!!!"

On an amusing note, Mika got to be the photographer for awhile... here is Daddy Dude engaged in a group Macarena lesson... =)

On a crafty note, I got the Silhouette starter rhinestone kit for my birthday and finally got around to using it. These are some shirts I made for the girls... what's nice about making the templates is that you can use them over and over again. =)

And here is MY shirt! Daddy Dude likes it a lot - on me, that is. I offered to make him one, but he respectfully declined... =)