Heading off to school

German Phrase of the Day: Schule ist ganz spass! - School is very fun! I hope this is a phrase Julia will repeat many times once she gets started at elementary school when we move back.

And speaking of school, here is Sophia with her little brother Cooper heading off to school together. Aren't they just TOOO cute? And did you know, you can now get Gift Certificates in the Paper Pretties Boutique? Now you can let your friends choose which Sophia (or other stamps) they love best!

I stamped Cooper first, then masked him with my eclipse masking tape before stamping Sophia on top so she would appear in the back. After stamping them with my brilliance black ink pad, I let the ink dry and then started coloring them with my prismacolor pencils. I used the colors from Kristina Werner's color inspiration challenge this week, and I really like them. Unfortunately, the Not Quite Navy looks VERY navy in the photo...but the colors from the pencils turned out looking great!

The CS colors used are Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Old Olive (prints dsp), Not Quite Navy, and stamper's select white. I stamped the circular greeting from Circle of Friendship twice, once with Old Olive, once with Not Quite Navy, then punched the center out to pop it up on a pop dot. There are actually 5 layers to that greeting...can you believe it? So not me! I rounded the one corner of my Sophia/Cooper layer to balance out the large circular element. These 2 actually remind me of a wonderful book Julia has called Simon and Adele, a story about a girl and her little brother walking home from school in Paris where he leaves, loses, and forgets things all over the city on their way home. It's a wonderful book, especially if you'll be taking a child to Paris because it covers so much of the city.

Supplies: (all supplies from SU! unless noted)
Stamps: Look out World and Back to School Sophia by Paper Pretties
CS: Stamper's Select White, Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Old Olive prints dsp, Not Quite Navy
Ink: Brilliance black, Old Olive , Not Quite Navy
Acc: circle punches, scalloped punch, corner rounder punch, prismacolor pencils, OMS, blending stumps

TFL!

Soaking up the Sun

German Phrase of the Day: Das wetter ist komish gewesen. = The weather has been strange. Yesterday morning we had that large thunderhead which made it as dark at 11am as it usually is at 10:30PM, then this morning at 5:30 we heard thunder in the next town over, and next thing I know it sounds like someone is pelting large rocks at our window! We had hail the size of golf balls, and when your room is in the eaves of a house with a slate roof, it gets REALLY loud when those things hit and roll down the roof. However, we got off lucky. I have a friend in the next village over who had a skylight broken, and another window crack! Crazy!!!

Today's card was created earlier this week using this week's sketch on the My Favorite Things SCS forum. Cindy creates these awesome sketches every week, and I was so glad to get to play along again! I picked the colors using my SU! color wheel, and went for it. The main image is stamped on stamper's select white cs and colored in with SU! markers. The tropical drink (which looks good...perhaps I can get that virgin?) is punched with my 1" and layered on 1 1/4" punches and popped up with a pop dot. I rounded the end of my sentiment strip with my word window punch. It was a fun quick card!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone...gotta go upstairs and stamp! :-)

Supplies: (all supplies from SU! unless noted)
Stamps: Soak up the Sun from MFT
CS: Apricot Appeal, Tempting Turquiose, Taken with Teal, Certainly Celery, Stamper's Select White
Ink: Brilliance black, Tempting Turquiose, SU! markers
Acc: circle punches, apricot ribbon, word window punch

TFL!

Sweets for the Sweet

German Phrase of the Day: Alles klar? = Everything is ok? I think this is a repeat, and sorry about that, but it's a good phrase to know. Sometimes people will just ask Klar? in a shortened way too. And yes, everything is ok with my and the baby. I had a few concerned about my comment yesterday about the hospital stay, so I thought I should clarify. My daughter was born at only 26.5 weeks gestation, and while they aren't 100% sure, they assumed it was because of an "incompetent cervix" - lovely phrase isn't it? Because of that, the doctors here want to perform a small surgery place a drawstring around the cervix to help keep it closed until I reach term in the hopes that it will prevent my having another pre-term delivery. So...I will get to enjoy the wonderful hospitality of the German hospital system again. The good news? There's an Italian place across the street from this hospital, and we already know they have good pizza, so I won't starve again! :-)

Ok, now on to today's project. The third challenge Charmaine gave us all at last Thursday's PJ party was to create some kind of box. So, I created this...a modified 2-5-7-10 box. I stamped the Kraft paper with the cookie stamp before assembling, and punched out the scalloped oval - covering it with acetate. Then I put the box together and added the tag. For the tag I just curved the greeting from Sweets for the Sweet. It was actually a very quick project, and lots of fun to create. Now to actually fill it and deliver it to someone.

Supplies: (all supplies from SU! unless noted)
Stamps: Sweets for the Sweet from Paper Pretties
CS: Kraft
Ink: Close to Cocoa
Acc: aquapainter, scalloped oval punch, red gingham ribbon, metal edged tag, silver cord, 1/8" circle punch

TFL!

Pretty Wednesday Bookmark

German Phrase of the Day: Tun Sie mögen lesen? = Do you like to read? I do...and Julia has been making me LOTS of bookmarks lately, so it was fun to make a bookmark myself for a change.

Charmaine challenged us all to make a Bookmark a few weeks ago, so when I went upstairs this morning before heading to my doctor's appointment (long story...but looks like I'm in for another 2 day stint at a German hospital.) I decided I could make the bookmark for my mom (yes, I'll have to make a second so one can go to mom, and the other can get mailed to Christie...my Prettie Mama!

Since it's for my mom, I thought this Lexie stamp would be perfect. I used some gorgeous paper that Christie sent me a month or 2 ago. The printed paper is from Webster's Pages and the solid is some Bazzill textured cardstock. I made the photo corners with my paper trimmer since I still don't have a working photo corner punch, and Lexie was stamped with Brilliance Graphite Black ink onto watercolor paper, and then colored with an aquapainter and watercolor wonder crayons.

To make the scalloped bit on the top, I just inserted the cardstock into my Marvy Scalloped Oval punch. Worked like a charm! Then, I used my slot punch to make the hole for my ribbon. The good thing is, my mom loved it! I promise to get yours in the mail soon Christie!! :-)

Supplies: (all supplies from SU! unless noted)
Stamps: Made with Love from Paper Pretties
CS: watercolor paper, Bazzill Textured cs, Webster's Pages patterned paper
Ink: Brilliance graphite black
Acc: aquapainter, scalloped oval punch, slot punch, double stitched blue bayou ribbon, WWC

TFL!

Ride em Cowgirl!

German Phrase of the Day: Ich habe ein termin morgan nach mittag. = I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon. I guess technically it's at noon, but that's ok. Close enough. I did have an appointment with my regular OB here today, and the baby looked great. My parents got to come along and see him/her swimming around. S/he was wide awake today and quite active. So far, so good. :-)

While I was working on my prettie party projects, I also pulled out one of my Paper Pretties card kits that I hadn't had a chance to do anything with yet and made one up. I really love this Ride em Cowgirl set from MFT, and had fun playing with the supplies Christie had sent in the kit. I didn't look at the sample, just put it together how I thought it would fit. I colored the main image with my SU! markers, which worked pretty well. I might have to send this to my sister-in-law who lives in Texas and went to UT. I think she'll like the longhorn!!

Ok...gonna try to get some rest tonight before my appointment tomorrow. Have a wonderful day everyone!

TFL!

Buttons galore!

German Phrase of the Day: Ich bin Schwanger! = I am pregnant. I'm getting pretty good at saying this now, and the general reaction is "Nein!" meaning No. It's a little funny how universal that reaction has been. :-)

Here's another project I created for the Paper Pretties PJ party the other night (well, I made it 2 days later, but at least I got it made, right?!) This challenge was to use buttons, and I managed to use a few buttons here, huh? I used 26 buttons here. Trying to use up supplies so I don't have to move them! :-)

I used the new Paper Pretties set Sweets for the Sweet to stamp the main image, and the rolling pin background. I stamped it with Basic Brown, the colored it in with creamy caramel with some Ruby Red for under the lattice top so it could be a yummy mixed berry pie - my favorite! And doesn't that ribbon work perfectly? It's from an old set of SU! Ribbon Originals that I have lying around.

Have a wonderful day everyone...I'll be back with more tomorrow!

Supplies: (all supplies from SU! unless noted)
Stamps: Sweets for the Sweet from Paper Pretties
CS: stamper's select white, kraft, ruby red
Ink: ruby red, creamy caramel, basic brown
Acc: ribbon originals, earth element buttons, aquapainter

TFL!

PJ Party Color challenge

German Phrase of the Day: Moechten sie pommes mit das? = Would you like fries with that? No, I'm not going to get a job at McDonalds, but see...I could even do it in Deutsch! ;-)

So, did you all go stamp in your jammies with the Prettie Girls? Was it fun? What am I saying, of course it was fun!! I was bummed to miss out, but had a wonderful relaxing time with my hubby near the beach. Even got to spend an hour laying on the beach soaking up some sun. One of my favorite activities!!

This morning I got right to work on the PJ Party challenges Charmaine came up with...they were all so great! Today's card was the color challenge, and I decided to use Beate's sketch challenge as well. I so love little Cooper, and couldn't resist using him again. But this time, I used the greeting from Back to School Sophia (which you can't buy until June, but can get sooner if you join the Paper Pretties Stamp of the Month Club!)

I stamped Cooper on Stamper's Select White then cut the circle with my coluzzle. I colored him in with prismacolor pencils again and used OMS/blending stumps to blend it out. The colors for the color challenge were Chocolate Chip, light blue (I used Soft Sky) and Celery. I just love these colors...thanks Charlie for a great combo!

Supplies: (all supplies from SU! unless noted)
Stamps: Look out World and Back to School Sophia from Paper Pretties
CS: stamper's select white, certainly celery, soft sky, chocolate chip
Ink: brilliance graphite black
Acc: prismacolor pencils, OMS, blending stumps, HPH, coluzzle

TFL!

One more Sneakie Peakie

Tonights the big night (I suppose you could say all around since dh and I will be on our own in The Netherlands, where ANYthing goes! ;-) ) so I have one more Prettie Peak for you all. I just LOVE this set...and the sentiment is SOOO perfect for me, and many others I know. I'm constantly having those days. Like for instance, you would think by this point I'd have the whole packing thing down to a science, but for our England trip I forgot so many things. Even I was amazed!!

For today's card I used some adorable new paper, ribbon and accents from my wonderful friend and fellow Prettie Girl, Julie. She sent me a wonderful package of things for my birthday (see photo below for full contents and the gorgeous card she sent!), and I couldn't wait to dig in to this wonderful stash. I colored my little chickie and egg with prismacolors (no, I haven't put them away yet!) and am slowly getting the hang of coloring larger areas with them. I think I'm still more comfortable with watercolors, but these works so great on the stamper's select white, whereas watercolor does not work as well.

And in all my excitement to impart my big announcement yesterday, I forgot to tell everyone what my challenge is! I challenge the prettie girls (and all of you!) to make a baby card. But here's the hitch - you have to use a Paper Prettie stamp set. Any one of them. Have fun with this, I can't wait to see what everyone creates!!

Ok, have a wonderful weekend everyone...we'll be back Saturday night, so I'll for sure have something for you on Sunday. Perhaps I'll get all my challenge cards done for tonights PJ party finished to share. Don't forget to go check out all of the new sets tonight at 8pm EST in the Paper Pretties Forum. You're gonna love them all!!

TFL!

Prettie Wednesday, Prettie Peak, and Prettie Party!

Wow, that's a lot of Prettie!! Sorry I've been missing my German Phrase of the Day...I'll get back to it next week when life is normal again. Today was hubby's birthday, so I spent the morning making his favorite meal (murtabak...YUM!) and a cake. This this afternoon, I went upstairs to rest since Julia was playing with a friend, and fell asleep - for a whole hour! What bliss. Then, had to frost the cake, do our little "birthday party" with cake and presents, then finally got into my stamp room to play.

2 weeks ago, Julie challenged us all to "Be Inspired" and link to a favorite website that inspires us, then post a card inspired by that site. One of my favorite stamping blogs (and I have MANY) is Kristina Werner's. I love her MACM videos (so does Julia...so much so that now when she stamps what she calls her make a card monday cards, she even gives the explanation as she's stamping!) and I love her clean crisp style. That girl has a LOT of style!!!

And, I used Cooper...Paper Pretties newest character. Perhaps he's Sophia's little brother? Cooper will be available tomorrow night at the Prettie Party where the Prettie Girls will be stamping in their PJ's (I won't be, I'll be enjoying some R&R with my dh, ALONE!) The party starts at 8pm EST in the Prettie Forum, you won't want to miss out as Charmaine has some wonderful challenges all cooked up for us. I'm hoping to bring some stamping stuff with us so while my husband is reading or writing, perhaps I can stamp! :-)

Ok...back to my card. I stamped Cooper (from Look out World) and his sentiment with Brilliance Black ink onto Stamper's Select white, then made a mask with my handy-dandy Eclipse masking paper. I have gone on and on about how amazing this stuff is, right?? Did I mention that if you order any Paper Prettie stamps during the release party, you'll get a coupon for 25% off your next order??? What an awesome deal!!! Yet another reason not to miss out!!

Oh yeah...the card! I masked Cooper and stamped the oval from Sassy Circles under him in Going Gray to give him some grounding, then I colored him with my prismacolor pencils and blended them out with my OMS and blending stumps. For the papers, I used the SU! Simply Scrappin' kit Primary Colors. Kristina often has 2 different patterns of paper together like this, and I really like that look. The card base is Bashful Blue, and I used some Real Red wide grosgrain to finish it off. I think he's pretty darn cute, what do you think??

Oh yeah..and I promised an announcement, didn't I? Well...Julia is expecting a little brother or sister in another 6 months. Yup, I'm preggers!! Will make the whole moving halfway around the world in the next 10 weeks a little more interesting...but we're really excited here, and keeping our fingers crossed that all goes well. Considering our reproductive history (a 26 week premie, and then 2 miscarriages - 1 at 13 weeks) we're a little nervous, but every week that goes by is a good thing! I'm almost 12 weeks right now, and already starting to show. Thankfully, I left a suitcase full of maternity clothes at my sisters' house when we moved here, "just in case." They were able to bring the clothes to my when the arrived 2 weeks ago, just in time. :-)

Have a great day/night everyone, and don't forget the Prettie Party tomorrow night!!

TFL!

Prettie Wednesdays Past

Sorry...I'm VERY far behind right now, but am working hard to get caught up! So today I have 2 Prettie Wednesday cards for you that are from previous week's challenges. The first card was a challenge from Danielle to make a masculine card. Since my dh's birthday is tomorrow, I thought this little puppy dog would be perfect (since he's a real dog man!) I therefore made 2, so I can send one along to Jillian and have one to give to dh. Although, with my dh, I could have just made the one, given it to him with writing on a sticky note, then sent it along to Jillian since he never knows what to do with the cards I give him anyway. ;-)

I stamped puddles here (that's what I call him anyway!) from Rainy Day Friends with my Brilliance black ink pad, then colored him with Prismacolor pencils and OMS/blending stumps. Then, I stamped the puddle and rain with tempting turquoise. The papers are from this cute pet papers stack I picked up back in February - of course I can no longer remember who makes them...anyone out there know?

For the layout, I used a sketch created by someone in my SU! downline, Irina. I posted a card earlier that I had made at a class at her house when I was in California back in April, and she's got some blog candy right now with this sketch...so go check it out!!

My second card is for Christie's challenge to use acetate. I was having stamper's block with this one...so I stamped this wonderful MFT stamp from my April Paper Pretties kit with white stazon on acetate first (just inking the outside) then I stamped the full thing with black on stamper's select white cardstock to color in (with primsa's again since they were out!) I adhered my acetate to the white layer with some stickles I used to glam up the flowers a bit. Works great!

I also used some stickles in my ribbon slide...I just love that look! Once I got the coloring done, this came together pretty quickly. This one is going to Charmaine, guess it's a little late for Mother's Day this year, altho mom can consider it her mom's day card since it's the first I've had a chance to make this year!! I know...pitiful!

Ok...be sure to come back tomorrow because I'll have tomorrow's Prettie Wednesday card, as well as a Prettie Peek, and a big announcement of my own. You won't want to miss it!

TFL!

Watering Can gray

I got one made today! Man...I am SOOO far behind right now, I feel like I'll never catch up. But...I did get one card made today...WOOHOO! One of these days I'll actually feel rested and stamp up a storm...but until then sorry...this is all I've got!

I used one of the newer Paper Pretties sets Simply Special. I think I'm coloring challenged with this...because I'm not used to coloring with gray. Today, I used my markers to color onto watercolor paper, then used my aquapainter to blend it...a poor girl's Copics. I didn't go Jody style and use alcohol in my aquapainter...but think that would be fun to try. I'm slowly getting better with this watering can, but will work until I've beaten it. I think next I really need to use my prismacolors, but I had watercolor paper available so that's what I used.

You can't see the greeting so well as it's hidden by the grass (it's almost 9:30 so no light left in the house...just outside!) but it reads "You make even the simple things special" I really like that as an all purpose greeting. So appropriate for so many occasions, or no occasion at all!

Sorry...no deets tonight. Need to go to bed so I'll be ready for the taxi tomorrow morning. Have a great week everyone, and I'll be back next week hopefully with more cards to share! I'll be in Birmingham, Bath and the Dorset coast over the next 6 days...but wishing I was in my stamp room! :-)

TFL!

Off to school she goes!

German Phrase of the Day: Ich habe zu viele Ferien! = I have too many vacations! My daughter actually said this to one of our German friends the other night. I know how she feels. I actually miss my own home! I'm here for just a couple days before we fly to Birmingham, England on Tuesday to join my husband who is already there for a trade show. We'll also visit Bath, Stonehenge and the coast before coming home on Sunday. Then...our travel slows down a bit, thankfully!!

I've been so exhausted I haven't even been able to stamp. Yesterday, I took my parents and sisters to the train station to send them on their way to Brussels and the start of a 9 day riverboat tour of Belgium and The Netherlands. Less than an hour later I took my husband to the airport...and then I had my daughter and house to myself. She wasn't too happy about losing all of her playmates, but we'll survive! Today I finally made it up to my stamp room for the first time in over 2 weeks! WOW!! I don't know how long it's been since I've had that long of a break from stamping...a year at least! It was nice to get back to it.

And...I have all this wonderful new acrylic that's been dying to get dirty just waiting...so I pulled out my newest Sophia. Isn't she the cutest one yet? Julia asked me to color her in to look like her, so here she is with her pink backpack (which we just bought for Julia) and matching lunchbox heading off to school for the first day. I can't believe my baby will be doing just that in a few more months!!

I stamped Sophia on stamper's select white with Brilliance black ink, then colored her in with prismacolors and OMS/blending stumps. It was fun to do that again...but I gotta figure out why my ink was bleeding into my colors a little...any tips? Next, I mounted her on some lovely Bazzill paper Christie sent me, then put together my card with some more textured cardstock for the base, and this lovely blue/green paper is also from the Pretty Boutique! I decided for my first card in 2 weeks I'd start simple!

So, do you know what's so special about Off to School Sophia? She's the first set in our new Stamp of the Month club! You should go check out the details of this awesome new club, and always get your new Sohpia FIRST, since club members will get PRE-RELEASE stamps (this Sophia is NOT YET AVAILABLE in the boutique - sorry!!) How cool is that?? Almost as good as being on the design team! ;-)

I hope all you moms out there have a wonderful day today. My husband realized yesterday about an hour before leaving for the airport what today is, so I said we could postpone celebrating until we're in England together. I'll try to get a few more things made tomorrow to share while I'm gone, but then should have some good stamping time once I'm back! (I hope!!)

Supplies: (all supplies from Paper Pretties unless noted)
Stamps: Off to School Sophia from Paper Pretties
CS: Bazzill textured papers, printed paper
Ink: brilliance graphite black
Acc: prismacolor pencils, OMS, blending stumps, ticket corner punch from SU!, organdy ribbon

TFL!

Hola! I'm home from Spain.

Hi everyone! I'm home from Spain, altho over half my family arrived less then 12 hours after I did, so life has not calmed down yet! We had a wonderful time in Spain, and my husband has decided he wants to move to Barcelona next. I said maybe after living back in the states for a few years we can try out Spain. ;-)

I haven't made it up to my craft room yet, but will tonight because Ihave a Prettie Girl card to get made for Wednesday!! Running late as always! Tomorrow morning my mom, sisters and I are taking the train to Paris for a "girls' gettaway" and I'll be back again late Thursday night. Then I"ll actually be home for 4 days before leaving again! Hopefully I can get some stamping done in that time (Julia willing of course!)

Thanks for your patience everyone. I hope you have a great day!!

TFL!

BRAK from Marlene

German Phrase of the Day: Ich mag zum Strand gehen. = I love going to the beach. And by now, I should have been to 1 or 2 here in Spain. Maybe I'll even get a little tan. :-)

Today I'm sharing with you a beautiful birthday card my good PSF Marlene sent to me. I know Marlene through an online group called Stamping Diva's, and she's a real sweetheart! She used a carousel note for the card, but attached a folded circular card underneath so it's still a full card. Cool, huh??

Thanks so much for thinking of me Marlene!!

And, thanks to you for stopping by. Hope you have a great day!

TFL!