MMSC 29

For this week's Midnight Sketch Challenge (click HERE) I decided to make a baby card. My co-worker just came back to work after being off for three weeks for the birth of his son. I am the social secretary for the department so I routed an email about giving him a gift (we are going to give him a gift certificate) and getting together. Another challenge I had and I am sure many of you are facing is how to get this sketch done with Thanksgiving tomorrow. I am hosting Thanksgiving. I have my SIL and kids coming to stay the night Thursday to Friday and then we are heading to DH's family (a mere 5 hour drive) Friday afternoon and not returning until Sunday afternoon. I figured tonight was my only night to get a card made. I am happy to report that I finished cleaning the house and Mom and I got all of the food prep done today. I am at the moment stress free and it feels good! So anyway, back to the card. I bought this stamp before I was really into stamping when my first son was born. My idea of stamping then was to stamp on a white piece of paper and color in the image with colored pencils. I think I have come a little ways from them! I haven't used this stamp much over the years because it really is huge and takes up so much room. To give you some perspective, the card is a 5 x5 and the bear takes up most of the room!

Due to the bears size I down played the 4 elements on either side of the main image mainly because there wasn't much room with to play. The "baby" stamp is one that I used for my 3rd son's birth announcement. It is a single stamp and I cut out each of the blocks. I used the buttons to balance the "baby" side of the card. The ribbon on the bottom left is hiding a poor job of tearing paper out of a mat stack. That meant I needed another ribbon to balance off the other side.

That's about it! Thanks for looking and always, leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you.

Stamps: Big bear, "baby"

Paper: DP, white, bashful blue and ?? shoot I can't think of the other one

Coloring: Copics

accessories: cuttlebug folder and dies, buttons, ribbon

MMSC 28--a double challenge!!

The sketch challenge for this week at Midnight Madness is the layout seen here AND we had to make it a christmas card. I LOVE this snowman. I bought him a few years ago and he still makes me giggle. I borrowed the corner punch from Barley, a co-worker, and decided to play around with it here on this card. I also used her snowflake cuttlebug folder for some texture. Barley and I freely share our stamping supplies with each other because we recognize how it doubles how many tools/stamps we have. I like my little ribbon idea in the upper right hand corner and how I placed all of the pearls. I thought that was creative. I didn't put a dangle on the lower left corner as that corner was already extremely busy. Besides, I couldn't find anything in my stash that would work.

Thanks for looking and please leave a comment. Otherwise, I feel like I am talking to myself.

Stamps: Snowman, Tree from SU flaky friends

paper: white, green, blue, sparkly paper from Liquidator store from a couple of years ago

Ink: memento

coloring: copics in green, blue, orange, pink, yellow, brown.

accessories: pearls, decorative corner punch,snowflake and christmas tree brads, ribbon.

A Fresh New Look

Here's our new painted walls and new carpet. I have to say I am disappointed that the wall color doesn't look as good here as it does in real life. The carpet too looks more mustardy here than IRL. DH didn't get the carpet finished. It still needs to be stretched and the baseboards need to be added. We put the couch and TV back in the room for the night so we could hang out for the evening. You can see the wood stove in the far back right and the spot on the couch nearest the stove is my seat. You can see my Mac computer there. That's where I do most of my computer work. My eldest child got wacked in the head by the middle child opening the front door in his face that is why he lying on the couch with ice on his face. Littlest child is on the floor watching "The Jungle Book" (Karen breaks out into song)

"Hup two three four

Dress it up two three four Hup two three four 

Dress it up two three four

Oh, we march from here to there And it doesn't matter where You can hear us push Through the deepest bush With a military air! With a military air!  We're a cracker jack brigade On a pachyderm parade But we'd rather stroll to a water hole For a furlough in the shade! For a furlough in the shade!"

Did I get the song in your head??  Tehehe!

My Anniversary

If you are looking for the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge, please scroll down.

Today, November 13, is my 10th wedding anniversary. Don't we look cute there?

Here is my card for my DH. I love make masculine cards as I find them a real challenge. I started off using the sketch challenge from this week from SCS. It morphed into this card! I don't know about the feminine ribbon on it, but I like the key hanging down (you know, you hold the key to my heart...cheesy, I know!)

thanks for looking!

MMSC27 a tribute to our military personal past and present

Here is my submission for Midnight Madness Sketch challenge #27. Go HERE to see the challenge.

Today is Veteran's day. At work we had a special event with live music provided by our music therapy department, memorabilia provided by staff who are veterans, and a few activities. One activity was coloring some patriotic images. I saw this character and immediately knew he was my image for this sketch challenge. This was a full sized coloring page that I shrunk down to 25%.

I didn't know what to do with the flourished that we supposed to be on the corners. I don't have a cricut or any way to die cut something like that. Besides, I don't think flourishes go very well with this gentleman! I tried the metal embellishment you see in the lower right corner on both corners, but it didn't look right. I finally cut out these three words from another page I picked up at work. I liked the way it fits with the rest of the card. Like the flourishes the flower in the lower left of the sketch just didn't fit on a veteran's card. I made the little ribbon instead.

A huge thank you to all of our troops past and present. I will also thank Berly (pronounced Barley) my friend and stampin' buddy from work, Monica, pharmacy tech and Lynn, Resident Care Supervisor both also from work for serving our country. I am sure there are more veteran's at work but these are the women I know.

MMSC26

This is my submission for Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge 26

I was asked by one of the foster grandmas at work to create a retirement card for the Foster Grandparent/Volunteer Services Coordinator. I am tight with the foster grandparents. They "hang out" right outside of my office and the room down the hall. Mary Claire, the coordinator, often comes down to check on the grandparents. I have gotten to know both Mary Claire and the grandparents over the 10 years I have worked at the center and I just adore them! Grandma Virginia asked me to create a card for Mary Claire's retirement party. She gave me designer's choice as she said she likes all of my cards (I thought that was really sweet!). I knew I would use this sketch challenge, but I didn't have a stamp set in mind or a theme.

School ended early today so I rounded up the kids and we went to Michael's. I looked through the 12 x 12 paper and saw this paper there. The card was starting to form in my mind now. Since I saw the butterflies on the paper I knew the Clear Dollar Stamps set Beautiful Butterflies would work perfectly for it. I also bought the charm and the rub-ons, but wasn't quite sure how they would fit on the card.

I started with a 6 x 6 card so that there would be more room on the inside for people to sign their names. I have to say, a-hem! Midnight Madness people that I am not fond of the cone shaped elements you put in the sketch (and a few sketches ago). I have a hard time making that shape! It took me forever to figure out how that was going to work, but I got it.

I eventually downsized the card to 5 x 5 because there was too much empty space on the card with the 6 x 6 size.

The butterfly is colored with copic markers. I put the rub-ons on the ribbon (I thought that was quite clever!). I then cut the glitter part of out the glitter paper to make the bottom two strips and adhered the butterfly charm on top. Unfortunately, the glitter paper in the three panel cone elements can't be seen. The inside of the card has another rub-on butterfly and the sentiment, "congratulations".

The final thing I did was make a matching envelope using The Enveloper. It took me awhile to figure out what size to cut the paper and what score line to use as this sized envelope is not included in the directions. For my own information, because I am sure I will forget, I used a 8.5 square piece of paper and I scored each side at "E".

Stamps: Beautiful Butterflies by Clear Dollar Stamps

Ink: Memento tuxedo black

coloring medium: copic markers: red, orange, yellow

paper: designer paper from Michael's , solid paper from Michael's

accessories: rub ons, charm, cuttlebug folder

Thanks for looking!

Alpaca Blend socks

**IF you are looking for my midnight madness sketch submission, please scroll down**

Back in August I met a dork sister in Janesville, Wisconsin at a yarn shop (see side bar for link to yarn shop). I bought this luscious yarn but had to wait to work it up. I had too many projects ahead of it. My project list had dwindled some and I couldn't stand not using this yarn. I have a sock, from another skein, that still needs to be made, yet somehow I am on the foot of this one! This yarn is called Misti Alpaca and it is an alpaca, merino, nylon and silk blend. Here I am modeling it while it is still on the needles. I took the picture myself and that was a bit tricky!

You can see the unused skein in a nylon next to it. That keeps the skein together as the ball becomes smaller and loses it's ability to hold its shape.

Here's the sock off my foot.