Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

My parents are celebrating their 44th wedding anniversary this week. Congrats Mom and Dad!

I had bought this couple from Art Impressions because they just look like they are going to make great cards. I thought of the quote that my friend Lois (Minister's wife) has on her siggy on SCS. The quote and the stamp just go hand in hand. In case you can't read it, it says,

"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, latte in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, "woo hoo! what a ride!"

I loosely based this the layout on Midnight Madness's sketch challenge #39 for this upcoming Tuesday. The images I have used the past two weeks are rather large and leave little room for all of the small embellishments/layout sections the challenges call for. I might just make another card that follows the sketch a bit more. We will see how it goes this week. Besides my parents' anniversary, my Mom, my hubby and my middle child all have a birthday on the same day this week (and coincidently the day before my parents' anniversary). I have to make cupcakes to send to school and get ready for a birthday party for 5-6 year olds. YIKES!

On a side note, I received my grade for week 2 from my university class. For the first two weeks combined I have a 151 points out of a possible 155. Way to go me! The class ends tomorrow. Whew!

Stamps: Jump in by Art Impressions

Paper: White, brilliant blue and designer paper found at Jo-Anns

markers: copics...too many to list

embellishments: button, pearls, brads, vellum paper, ribbon, cuttlebug and nesties

MMSC #38 and Art Impressions monthly contest

Yoo-Hoo! I am back! Whew! did you miss me?? My 3 credit, 3 week class is almost over (finished on Monday and today is Saturday). I have all my homework handed in. I will check in on the class over the weekend in case something happens that I need to know about. Anyway, I stamped last night. Boy, did that feel soooo good!

You may not know that I won 3rd place last month at Art Impressions monthly contest. I won a $20.00 gift certificate, which I promptly used. I didn't get a chance to play around with my stamps because of the university class. I did one night color in one image (see below) just to give me some sanity.

I love AI stamps, especially their humorous oldies ones. That's the line from which I got Eunice and Hollis. I did buy some more of those wacky characters.

Well the stamp contest this month is international cuisine. YIKES! I don't have anything of theirs that is even cuisine-ly related. I had a bit of time to myself yesterday after work and before picking up kiddos so I went to JoAnn fabrics and Archivers and found some embellishments. Here is my submission, please note the inside of the card. These stamps are front and back stamps and I just love them!

I used this week's Midnight Madness sketch challenge. Due to the rather large window in the middle it was difficult to put the embellishments around the edge of the circle so I hung the utensils on the shutters instead. The "bon appetit" took up the whole bottom half of the card so I was unable to put the final triangle and embellishment on the bottom corner as the sketch challenge indicates.

And here's the inside of the card.

Bump-it

I admit I am a sucker for hair do-dads. I just bought the bump-it yesterday (As seen on TV!) and I have had the butterfly comb thing for a few weeks now. I thought I would take a picture to show you how sophisticated I look!

I wasn't smiling too great here so here's the second picture. Oh, that's our bird, Zena. She hands out with in the mornings when I get ready for work.

MMSC #35

My stampin' mojo left me. This is my submission for Midnight Madness. It is not an impressive card. I found an image I had already colored a couple of months ago. I took apart my failed card from last week and reused the big circle dp. I do like the orange flower and gigantic button and the stickles on her hat. I just didn't have it in me today to make a WOW card.

I think my mind is preoccupied with the upcoming on-line course I am starting on Tuesday. It is a 3 week, 3 credit course requiring at least 15 hours each week. I am nervous about working full time, taking care of a family and taking this class. So, something has to give. I will be taking a break from Midnight Madness for these three weeks. When you don't see me you know why! I am sure I will be more than ready to return to the sketches when the class is over.

Hollis on the prowl

Art Impressions had a contest for the month of December to make a new years card using their stamps. I pulled out an old sketch I did with this here gentleman, Hollis. This card may look familiar as it is almost identical to one I have made before. I moved some elements around and didn't stamp with any other company's stamps. Unfortunately, I can't get this one to load to their website. I did however, get the one below to upload. I modified that one slightly to accommodate the challenge.

Thanks for looking!

MMSC #34

Doesn't she just crack you up? Whenever I get out my Eunice stamps I just chuckle. The sketch from Midnight Madness this week had a poofy element to the left of the main image. I thought about asking Zena, our cockatiel for a few feathers. My husband thought she might object to me taking a few feathers. Well, since I can't pluck a few and she isn't molting right now I had to find another embellishment to use. I knew I wanted to use Eunice and the color pink. I came across this scrap of ribbon. I looked at it and thought, "why not?" I folded it and it looked like it would come out just right and it did! The tricky part was gluing it down.

Stamps: Ballerina Eunice by Art Impressions

paper: pretty in pink, dp of some sort

ink: copics (RV13, 14 and ?)

embellishments: ribbon, pearls, cuttlebug folders

MMSC #33

This is my submission for this weeks Midnight Madness Challenge. The sketch was hard for me this week. This was my third attempt at making a card.

Well, I have a story. This image is a cute little image. My stampin' friend, BevStamps from SCS sent me a card a year or two ago with this image. I love that card and look at it frequently. I had mentioned to her recently how much I like the little pilgrim girl and what the name of the stamp/stamp set was and if she would stamp some images for me. About a week or so later I got a package from Bev so I assumed it was the stamped images. To my surprise she sent me the stamp set!!! She said she wasn't going to use it again and that this set is no longer available. Boy, this made my day! I told her I like to find ways to use seasonal stamps throughout the year. I have yet to find a way to make this into a birthday card, but I will.

Now for my second story. On the 23rd my parents and my family went on an overnight vacation to Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. A short hop, skip and a jump from where we live. Hubby and I took the kids there for the first time in October right before halloween. It is an indoor waterpark and the kids had a blast. Hubby mentioned after our stay that we should do this again for Christmas. I wanted my parents to come as I need the help watching the three boys (hubby doesn't like rides). I had asked my parents and they readily agreed. Now my boys didn't know of the vacation until my parents showed up at our house. They didn't even know grandma and papa were coming to the house. They screamed when they found out we were going to the waterpark. We had such a blast! It was low key, low stress and my parents just went with the flow. I was so grateful for their help, their eagerness and flexibility. I wanted to make this card to show my appreciation. Hubby said "I think we started a tradition!" I sure hope so!

stamps: Indian Summer by Rubber Stamp Tapestry, Thanksgiving stamp set by Storage Units, Ink & more

paper: white, garden green, more mustard, really rust

markers: real rust, more mustard, yellow, red, brown

Ink: Bamboo, green tea, split pea, evergreen, paprika, bark

accessories: brads, window, ribbon, cuttlebug folders