Jenna's Birthday Card

My little girl will be turning six this Friday!  I can't believe the years have gone so quickly.

Today I stamped a birthday card to give to her using one of my new Stampin' Up! sets.  This set is called Sock Monkey and will be available in the new catalog which is coming out on August 11.  I was able to preorder a couple of sets from the new catalog but I am anxious to see what else is new.  I'm sure I'll be getting some new stamps in a few weeks!

I stamped the monkey image and the cupcake image onto Whisper White cardstock and then colored with the Koh-i-noor pencils that I ordered from Gina K. Designs.  I used odorless mineral spirits and blending stumps to blend the colors together and give the monkey a shaded look.  I love how this makes it have more dimension.  I also colored the cupcake and the cut it out and added it with a dimensional onto the monkey's arm to look like he was holding the cupcake.  Then I layered onto Rose Red (which I also used for the card base) as well as a retired Designer Series Paper.  I used this because I really wanted to pull in the pink and make it look like a "girly" card.  The sentiment is from the Inque Boutique set called Birthday.  All of the stamping was done with a Stampin' Up! Basic Black ink pad.

Check back tomorrow for another card using one of the new stamp sets as well as some new colors that Stampin' Up! has released for the coming year.  And best of all this card will feature a new scalloped border punch.  If you've ever stamped with me before you know how much I love my punches and this one is wonderful!  

See you tomorrow!

Lil' Laura Ingalls

I finally got around to finishing my final layout from the Jessica Sprague's "Now We're Rocking with Photoshop" class.  (Which is a good thing since the next class called Digi: In Deep is starting today)  This layout is done as a single layout that will make two 12x12 pages.  It will have a cool look when it is printed that way with a continuing pattern on both pages.

These pictures were taken last fall when Jenna had character day at her school.  She was supposed to dress as a favorite character from a book.  Well, Jenna is a huge Little House on the Prairie fan and so she wanted to be Laura Ingalls.  Naturally, she wanted to be a character that was not something that you could just easily buy a costume for!!  So I pulled out my sewing machine, dusted it off, and made this outfit for her.  I thought it turned out pretty cute!  When we braided her hair for the final touch she looked adorable.  She even had a little tin bucket to carry her lunch in for the day.

Surgery Update

Well, I have been a little silent the last few weeks after having surgery.  I must say this surgery has required more recovery than I expected.  The pain has not been bad at all (thanks to a couple of weeks of great pain medicine!!) but the lack of energy has been the biggest thing for me.  I have barely had the energy or motivation to get anything done.  The last couple of days I have been up and around some but it has been slow going at best.  The dr. even gave me permission to drive again last Monday and I haven't even wanted to go anywhere- for those of you that know me well, you know that is a little out of character for me!!  I am hoping that I get back on my feet soon and back to normal!

Stamped Thank-You

I hope that everyone had a great July 4th weekend!  Ours was pretty busy but we had lots of fun.  

Today I actually had a few minutes to stamp a card.  A friend of mine was willing to watch the kids for me today while I was at a drs. appointment.  When I returned home my box of new stamping supplies from Gina K. Designs was waiting in the mailbox.  This new stamp that she recently released was in the box and I thought it would make a great thank-you card to send to my friend.  

Also inside the box was my new Koh-i-noor pencils and I tried them on this card also.  I loved the results!  I will be working on this technique a lot in the future.

Supplies:

Little Guy at Play stamp from Gina K. Designs, background paper from My Mind's Eye, Spellbinders rectangle nestabilities, Stampin' Up! Old Olive paper, Stampin' Up! Basic Black ink, Koh-i-noor pencils with odorless mineral spirits and blending stumps, Stampin Up! Old Olive Polytwill Ribbon, sentiment from Stampin' Up! Much Appreciated set

Wildlife Ranch again

The fourth and final wildlife ranch page!

Wildlife Ranch Page 2.  Ok, I know, I have really been posting alot of digital scrapbook pages the last couple of days.  I love the new Photoshop Elements 6 that I received for Mother's Day and I am having a blast learning some new techniques.  The supplies for this were all from the Jessica Sprague Now We're Rocking with Photoshop class supplies.

I will be posting some stamped items in the coming days.

These are two of my favorite pictures from the wildlife ranch.  These pictures capture the boy's personalities really well (except for the fact that Micah is inside the car instead of running wildly throughout the ranch!)

This layout is the second week's classes from the Jessica Sprague class that I am taking.  When we went on vacation last week we visited the Wildlife Ranch in San Antonio.  The kids had a blast seeing all of the animals and trying to feed them from the car.  They would get a little nervous when an animal would actually come and stick it's nose in the car!  The ostriches were the most aggressive- we kept the windows closed whenever they were around!

The funniest part of the visit was that Caleb (who is an aspiring Rock Star) decided that he really needed to play his guitar the entire trip through the ranch.  I am sure that we are the first people who have serenaded the animals in such a fashion!  He did finally decide to come and take a closer look at the animals just as we came to the ostriches.  Suddenly an ostrich was pecking on the window because he could see the food.  We were all laughing and hoping that the ostrich couldn't actually break the window when Caleb suddenly jumped up and said "Oh, I have to sing a song about this".  Thus ended our brief bit of silence on the drive!  

The funniest things about Caleb's songs that he "writes" are that apparently they all have to include the phrase "oh yeah, today" multiple times.  Maybe we should teach him some new words!

Digital Scrapbooking Class

This was my first project for a digital scrapbooking class that I am taking.  The website is great and I can't say enough about how wonderful the tutorials are from Jessica Sprague.  Visit jessicasprague.com to learn more about her classes.

This is a picture of me with my youngest son Micah the day that we brought him home from the hospital.  I think this is my favorite picture that we have of him when he was first born.  It is unusual for me to be in pictures with the kids because I am usually the one taking all of the pictures!

Supplies:  All supplies were downloads from Jessica Sprague's Now We're Rocking with Photoshop class materials.