A creative breath of fresh air...

Some of you may not know that my mom had an unexplained reaction to knee surgery in August and went into a coma. Thankfully, she came out of it in a few days, but since then we have been dealing with a brain trauma. Basically she is like an Althsizmers patient, although she is improving daily and the Dr. sees reason to hope for an almost full recovery. It will just take time. Because of all this going on, we have been back and forth to the hospital/rehab facility for the last month and a half. It has taken its toll emotionally, physically and creatively for me. I had to take a break. But I am back. Finally. Mom is being cared for at home now and we had to take a break from the 2 1/2 hour each way visits for a few weeks. She will be okay and I don't feel like I need to focus solely on that anymore.

Yesterday I started the Unity Stamp challenges (running for the next two weeks), but my friend Jen put up a challenge on her blog, so I thought I would take a break and play with her for a while. http://myscrapcloset.blogspot.com/2010/09/butterfly-contest.html I have some digi images of Alice in Wonderland that I have never gotten around to using, so I wanted to give those a go. When I think of butterflies, I think of the bread and butterflies from the Disney version, so it seemed a perfect match to me. I went a little crazy with the cutting out of most of the elements...and then the bling, but I love how it came out. I wanted all of the elements to blend together so not one thing would just stand out. What do you think?

Friday I was able to finally do a layout. I have been unispired in that area lately, but remembered some pictures of my daughter when she went through a mustache phase. I paired the pics with my favorite particularly girly piece of paper as an interesting contrast. I love it and am ready to jump back into things again.

I'll be back later with some more cards and maybe a layout. It is a lazy, don't feel well sort of day today, so I am just taking it easy.

It's a cardapolooza!

Happy World Card Making Day!! If you forgot about it, it is still early. If you had no idea there was a World Card Making Day, well, I will forgive you this once, but will be checking on you next year. I have been busy, busy making Halloween cards for my local nieces and nephews and one very special friend. (Pam, I bet you thought I was going to slip up and post your card here...I guess I am smarter than you think.) It is nice to get out all of ONE type of supply and just get to work. Really narrows down the searching for that perfect "whatever" when I already have all of my Halloween supplies out.

Apparently Blogger is playing a Holloween trick on me by flipping my first card on it's side. Sorry about that, but it won't let me change it.

And now, onto the fun! Unity ( http://theunitystampco.blogspot.com/) has a great competition going on for the next two weeks in honor of World Cardmaking Day! Now, I only own one Unity stamp (not because I am not coveting many of them, but my scrapbook budget has been scarce lately), so I am not eligable to win, but I will be playing along to see how many challenges I can finish. So hop along with me for the next two weeks (or less, if I am snappy) and see how many YOU can finish. Even if you have to use other stamps, it will be fun and I would LOVE to see what you make!

Here is my very first card for the day based on the challenge here: http://thewillowgarden.blogspot.com/ based on paper piecing. I used a Hero Arts background stamp, made my own cloud background paper and the stamps from TPC's Woodland Whimsy Set.

Card #1:

Here is my second card. Check out the site http://lesleylangdoncreative.blogspot.com/ for the challenge on using shaker boxes. Warning: I STINK at shaker boxes. Really. The shaker part never works out the way I want it to. I glanced in my punch drawer as I was getting a card base for this and spied my I-Top punches. I always thought they looked like a sun, so that got me started on my card. I put glitter inside, but it seems to be sticking a bit. Oh, well. My sun looks shimmery, right? LOL The stamps are from Dear Lizzy and Dryer by American Crafts.

Card #2:

My third card is super easy. I love this Basic Grey paper, so I wanted the rest of the card to be simple. The colors reminded me of Christmas, so that is what I went with. :) Here is the link to the challenge: http://thestampingshopper.blogspot.com/ By the way, if you haven't gotten any of the Tiny Type letters by Cosmo Cricket, then you are missing out. I only have 2 packs, but they are very inexpensive and you get a lot of letter. Love them! Now I need all of the colors!

Card #3

Where are Stacey and Clinton when you need them?

I did an amazing thing today. I was encouraging when Collin showed me his school outfit. LOL Seems like a little thing, but I am a control freak. Seriously. I wish my kids would let me dress them. They have NEVER been like that, though. Ever since they could walk, they have had very decided opinions. Like today. Collin's official first day of school. I imagined his first day pictures in a nice button down shirt with jeans. Collin imagined it looking like he had been on safari. Poor kid. He has fallen prey to the need to be accepted if not popular. He desparately wanted to look cool today. And what Mommy would have picked would not have fallen into that category. LOL So I smiled. Told him he looked awesome. And snapped away. Not even a hint that I had a different outfit in mind. Aren't you proud of me?

Now Isabel. She is very firm on how she wants to look. Good. Bad. Not matching. I had to step in, though. She picked a cute black skirt (with a flower on it) and an orange Dora t-shirt. She said her theme was flowers. I suggested that a dress skirt might look better with a fancier top. Dora was more for play. She wrinkled up her little nose (like she does when she gets mad) and insisted she needed a shirt with flowers on it. She wanted to wear a flower head band, too. Come on, mom! So I found a shirt with flowers that looked a bit nicer. And she got many compliments. Score one for mom. LOL

Identity Crisis

I am having a Clark Kent/Super Man kind of day. Since I have become a mom, my identiy has been wrapped up in my kids. Every thing I do...every hour of the day...every day of the year has revolved around them. Alone time is precious and rare. I am a proud stay at home mom who rarely gets time away from my kids. I am okay with that. Until today.

Today was Isabel's first day of Kindergarten. Wow. I mean, just WOW! Can she really be this big? I have to admit, I wavered between tears and excitement when I left the school. I had to call my little sis and take a walk. LOL I have been waiting for this day. Both kids in school now. A few hours to myself. What a luxery! But all I felt was lonely. She is a fun little thing. She irritates me, argues with me, doesn't listen and is such a joy to be around. She makes life interesting. And I missed her. I'm sure I will get over that, though. It is only for 1/2 day. Hmmm...now I can't wait for full day! LOL
Now, I do not have preference over my kids. The reason Collin does not have any photos is because he was at the Children's Hospital in Indy with Daddy. He had an appointment for...you guessed it...the first day of school. What a bummer! Hopefully Dr. Susan will be able to figure out what is wrong. In the meantime, his first day is tomorrow and I will have some pictures then. Since I was missing my girl time...I took Isabel to Igloo for some frozen custard BEFORE lunch. You heard me. I'm a bad mommy. Bad to the bone. But fun! She was excited to do something special becuase...ahem...brother was going to the Children's Museum after his appointment. Without her. Mean Daddy. Mean brother. Yum...ice cream! She is easily distracted. LOL

The most exciting thing about today? Her first ever...very real...not given by mommy....homework. Yep. She was thrilled. She felt oh so important. She had a paper to fill out about herself so they can make a class book. Pretty big deal, huh?

So here she is. Not my baby any more. A "big girl" now. Am I ready for this?

Good enough is good enough...

Since it is SO hot outside (and my allergies are going crazy), I am having a creative day today. Well, it has been more like a creative five minutes here and a creative five minutes there, but it is working for me anyway. My brain has been stuck lately...too much to think about and too much going on, so it was nice to get a few things done.

I did one layout the last few days. It is only a one page layout, but it has been sitting on my desk taunting me. Telling me that it is not quite what I want it to be. Well, you know what, layout? I'm done with you. Good enough will have to be good enough this time. So there! LOL I love thise pictures of my girl and her first time doing a slip and slide. She was so excited. I forgot how much they can hurt, though.

I was feeling inspired to try and make my own patterened paper again. I haven't done that in YEARS ( I never like the way it comes out), but thought I would give it a go again. I stamped the background for this card and then distressed the paper with some Tim Holtz ink. Not too terrible.

I was excited today about 2 of my projects. Just felt inspired on these topics, I guess. First I made a birthday card for my little sister. She is turning 8 this week. :) I had loved (and missed) the Copic Challenge for making a bookmark, so I made her a card with a bookmark. (Sorry about the sideways pics; Blogger is acting up. However, if you hold your head JUUUUST so...you will not notice. LOL)

My (hopefully not) last project today was some notecards for the give bags I am making for the kids teachers. I found some for Collin's teacher, but they only had one pack, so I made some for Isabel's teacher. I like mine better. LOL

Later Gaters! I'm hoping to have a little more fun before I need to make dinner. Be on the look out for a challenge with a prize coming very soon. :)

An Ode to Jennifer....and a Copics Challenge

My friend Jen and I met in a very strange way...through a garage sale. LOL My DH went to her sale and brought me home one of her CTMH catalogs. The rest was history. We started at downline/upline and ended up great friends. I can always count on her to understand EXACTLY what I am talking about...and to be excited about the same silly things that get me happy. We don't live near each other any more and don't talk as much as we should/could/want to, but I don't think it matters how much time passes. We are friends no matter what.

We both would like to get back to scrapbooking more, so she challenged me to do a Copic Marker Challenge. The theme of the challenge is birds. Gee. It is not like I am obessed with Owls or anything. Picking WHICH stamp was the hardest part of this challenge.

I used one of my favorite color combos of Copics right now: B02, YG03 and E37 for the owls. Love them!

While I am sharing, I also just made this card the other day...inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Copics used for this one: YG03, B02, Y21, B24, E00, and RV11. Doesn't that Hero Arts set remind you of a modern Alice? So cute!

If you want to play along with the Copics Challenge (Yes, I mean YOU, Pam) then go here and see what you can make. http://copiccreations.wordpress.com/

Bugs in my brain

Do you know how distracting it can be to get things done if a fly is buzzing around you? It is probably one of the most distracting things in the world. Hard to think...hard to get anything finished. I guess the same could be said of mosquitos if you are camping and trying to sleep. Not the end of the world, but irritating nonetheless. Apparently, my kids are being bugs today. LOL They keep buzzing around me, interrupting what was supposed to be my mommy time. I will not give in, though. Usually a few times of interrupting my scrapping and I give up and put things away for another day. Today, however, I will prevail. I am taking care of business with the kiddos (no guilt here...I have been entertaining them non-stop for several weeks now) and getting my scrapping done, too. Slowly. Oh, so slowly. LOL

Here is the ONE thing I have managed to put together today. I have some pretty aweful (composition wise) pictures of Collin's first time roller skating (bad lighting and I did not have the camera...LOL). I found a sketch I liked in Creating Keepsakes May/June 2010 and built on that. It is clean, simple and I like it. Hopefully I can get some more done today to add to this post. :)