FWF: THIS much

Happy Friday!

 

I realized this week that Mother's day is rapidly approaching. Yikes!

 

My parents have been ummm.... Helping.... my grandma sort through piles and piles of paper and they said that she had kept a lot of the cards we have sent her over the years. It's time to restock Grandma's stash!

Recieved this lovely stamp in the mail this week. In record time, I might add. Brought out the markers and the newest episode of Glee and had myself a fine old time.

Posting this on the run- work calls. Have a super holiday full of inspiration for all those moms out there!
 

FWF: a Miracle...

For the last week, I've been trying to arrange a surprise baby shower for my daughter's third grade teacher. The other parents have been great about helping me find phone numbers and bring party stuff, but if all 18 8- and 9-year olds keep quiet about this until this afternoon, it will be a miracle.

I thought that since I made a baby card for a Friday, I might as well link it up to Unity's Friends with Flair!

 

The kit is Moonbeams and Heartstrings. It's one of the first I ever bought and still one of my favorites. This was pretty easy to throw together. I should keep that in mind since there don't seem to be enough hours in the day!

 

It's the start of Spring Break for us... Happy weekend and week off!

 

FWF: Hoarders

My card for this week is one that didn't get picked up in the last submission call:

 

PTI Cardstock, ink

Unity Stamp Co Stamps

Cosmo Cricket dp?

Copics

Twinery twine

 

To make everything as tall as I wanted, I colored 8 giraffes and layered them behind the dp, and I just noticed that I didn't get all of the legs lined up with the rest of their bodies. A little more abstract than my intention (Picasso?). Oh, the details.

 

I think I need to take a break from trying to be all clever for submission calls. The magazines seem to want the latest products, which gets to be a HUGE investment after a while. So instead, I'm working on clearing out the hoard. Jen at The Sparkle Within posted a 6x6 pad tutorial to use up paper with very little waste, so that's been my goal lately. Thanks Jen! The deacons at church work with Meals on Wheels to provide all occasion cards, stamps, and pens to the meal recipients, so that's what I've been doing. Still haven't made a dent, though. Chauffeuring the kids has taken away from my crafting time, darnit!

 

Have a great weekend!

 

FWF: Finally!

My littlest, my baby, my little guy REALLY starts kindergarten today. Our school eeeeaaaaasses in the kinders because a full day is a lot for those guys. We started off with an hour orientation, then a half hour of one-one baseline testing, which takes two days because of the class size. So finally, on the fourth day of school, they get to start. Kind of. He has two half days before they start with the full school day. He's more than ready to go- I'm stocking up on my personal supply of kleenex.

 

My third grader started the other day, which left a lot less refereeing for me to do. So I got out m'new Phyllis Harris stamps and my Copics and had a BALL coloring the afternoon away. For the first time in about a month. I've missed Friends with Flair!

 

I actually bought this set for the Abraham Lincoln quote: Whatever you are, be a good one. But this little girl reminds me of my own.

 

I'm off to enjoy my few hours of full choice on the TV and junk food for lunch if I feel like it. Have a great weekend!

 

FWF: Birthdays, Part II

I've been working on a mini album/massive birthday card for my grandma. But I don't do big, which is where the mini-album part comes in. I'm trying to find every Happy Birthday stamp I own to make enough page thingies to fill this li'l album. Which is quite a few, at this point.

I can't quite figure out where to put the sentiment on this one:

Had to include this lady. She looks a lot like my grandma did back in the day!

Happy Friday and weekend to you all. Praise the Lord, it finally rained!

FWF: On the Fence

Happy Friday!

I have gotten hooked on Glee. Enough so that I bought the second season to watch on my computer while I play with my crafty stuff. I made this while watching the season finale:

That was my last scrap of cloud paper, and I'm sad about that because I haven't seen any for a while and I can't justify buying anything for a while. Sniff.

MME cloud paper

October Afternoon dp

Copics

Unity Stamp Co stamps

MFT dies (yay for sales, right?)

Palette, Ranger inks

Off to see if Season 3 is available!

FWF: A Rant

Hellooooo out there!

I missed last week's FWF because we were in Kansas City, where I discovered an Archiver's (we don't have one anywhere in this wonderful state of mine). The only thing I can't seem to find ANYWHERE is a hex punch. I've seen lots of cool ideas that use hexagons, but only dies and not many of those. I think I have a lot more waste using a multiple die, so with my extra cuts, I made two Father's Day cards:

And, making up for lost crafting time, I had to make a card for our house-sitter to get her payment to her:

AND THEN... I saw a cool pillow on Pinterest that had a grey chevron backtround with a yellow flower popped up on top. Love the color combination:

Have a good one- I have lots of books waiting to be read!

FWF: The Fast and the Furious

Yay for summer!

I threw this anniversary card for my parents together while trying to get ready to leave for my own anniversary. My parents have been together for 43 years now. Holy Cow. Today I read a blog post on how to stay together for 15 years and even  that in today's society is a lot. I hope that in the next 33 years I will appreciate and laugh at my husband's jokes just as much as my mom still laughs at my dad's awful puns.

Since summer's here, I have lots of time to read now that I'm not chauffeuring as much as I used to. I read a tutorial the other day where the stamper inked the negative areas of her embossing folder and then embossed a piece of cardstock, so I tried it. I love how it turned out! Very cool effect. And easypeasy. Yay for that.

PTI cardstock

MME dp

Unity sentiment

Cuttlebug embossing folder

SU ink

KC gems

white embossing powder

FWF: Kiss

This is a tough post for me. I had been working on this for a while because the coloring takes me a LONG time. I don't have all the colors I wish I had and my local store keeps the limited selection they have under lock and key, so I always end up ordering them. The actual coloring and figuring out shadows takes a while because it doesn't come naturally.

I think dog fur is challenging to color, plus my dogs are kind of nappy and I was trying to make the image somewhat realistic. That dog above looks way more groomed than my dogs ever have- they hate being brushed. I set this aside for the night so I could think about it. This morning we woke up to find that our youngest dog had passed on. He was as neurotic as they come, but he loved the daylights out of us. I'm sure he was God's example to us of how to truly love.

Goodbye, Jack. We love you.

FWF: Onward & Upward

End of school year craziness...

I still haven't finished my birthday and thank yous because of school functions. My son and I went on my daughter's 2nd grade field trip yesterday and taught a bunch of them how to play Zookeeper. It was lots of fun, but I'm really sore today. I thought I was in better shape than that!

Also adding to the craziness was the email project acceptance for Paper Crafts. It was my first, and I'm still expecting that email that says they've changed their minds. Well, I say first, but I'm sure this was just a fluke and it seems arrogant to imply that there will be more. As excited as I am, arrogant people drive me nuts so I try not to be as much as possible. 

ANYWAY...

This is a birthday card for my niece. I got a box of goodies from Bella Boulevard's  warehouse box sale a couple of weeks ago and had to play with it ASAP.

This is yet another teacher thank you. It seems appropriate for the preschool teachers since they are the ones who got my kiddos off to such a great start.I actually used two itty bitties on this one, but one is a hot air balloon backwards so that I could get the right shape for the balloons since I can't draw. I stamped the balloons with pencil erasers on two levels to give it some dimension. I wonder if dimensional glaze on selected balloons would add just a bit more, or just settle over the entire thing?

3 Thank Yous to go....

 Have a good one!

FWF: Branching Out

I love Pinterest.

There's such great inspiration there, although, I didn't mean to copy this one so exactly. Oops.

I did get to pull out my Bella Doilies- one of my all time favorite sets and also to try a color combo that I haven't before. I'm not exactly loving the cardstock- it's too thin. Who knows where I can get this cream color in a heavier weight?

Paper Studio cardstock, pearls

Core'dinations yellow card

Unity Stamp Co stamps

Memento London Fog ink

FWF: Here fishy, fishy, fishy!

This is the only way I seem to be able to catch any kind of sea-life. It's a good thing I don't have to depend on my fishing skills!

My favorite part about this are the bubbles. I put Glossy Accents on them so they would pop out a little.

PTI cardstock, scallop die

Basic Grey dp

Unity Stamp Co Clever Handmade stamps

RRR Seam Binding

Stampin' Up Re-inkers

Memento, Stampin' up inks

Making Memories rub-on

Copics

So, I tried to give away some blog candy last week and only had one bite. Which now that I think about it, is a thousand percent better than my fishing average last summer. Anyway, if you'd like a surprise in the mail, send me an email (sarahandalan at msn dot com). I have a few packages all ready to go! Have a great weekend!

FWF: Li'l Miss Smarty

I recieved my KOM the other day. Thank goodness, because something wierd is going on with my mail. There's been a couple of things that should have been here by now that aren't. Grrr. It's not like I can the the Post Office to actually do anything about it, either.

ANYWAY...

Since the Unity Challenge this month is to use pink and green and there is a cute smarty stamp in this month's kit, I decided to make a smarty card for my daughter, who doesn't always believe in herself as much as she should.

PTI: cardstock, paper, dies, green ink

American crafts ribbon

Unity Stamp Co.

Memento London Fog ink

TGIF, everyone!

Stinkin' Friend...

One of my best friends is moving back to her hometown to be nearer to her ailing parents. I'm going to miss her so much that I'm getting choked up just typing this.  Yup, I'm a cryer. I'm probably going to have to mail this card to her because of that:

This is doing double duty this week as my entry for Chick Challenge 25 and FWF 4/6.

PTI Cardstock, tea dye ink

October Afternoon dp

Memento ink

Ribbon Boutique

Cricut Elegant Edges

{ippity} Flowers + Friends= Priceless

Paper Studio pearls

A FWF squeaker!

Where did the week go?

This is actually my second attempt at this post. I somehow lost everything from my first go at it.

My crazy brother-in-law is sky-diving for his 30th birthday next week. I'm squeaking this into the FWF linky list at the last minute because I'm not sure where the rest of my time went this week!

The stick figure is the reason I stamp :)

PTI cardstock

MME dep

Memento ink

Copic markers

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!

Friends with Flair and wierd colors!

I made two cards  for Friends with Flair this week with colors I almost NEVER use: orange and wierd khaki green. I had those colors in my paper stash, thought, and might as well use them, right?

This paper came from a Basic Grey century pack. I probably never would have chosen it on its own, but it is kind of pretty. The lace I think is from Mark's Finest Papers, and the stamps are from one of those fabulous Unity sales. The ink is Ranger distress.I got the idea from Kary Lim a few Fridays ago. Thanks, Kary!

The itty bitty was from that Happy Hour sale last week. I did the backdoor "buy all of them" route, those impulse buys are going to be the death of me, I think. The paper is Echo Park and inks are  Memento and Copics. The ribbon loops were a sample that came from Really Reasonable Ribbon and I colored the Paper Studio gems at the top with Copics. You can't really see it, be I also used Glossy accents on the orange so it's nice and shiny.

It's date night in Mailloux-land. YAY! Have a great weekend!

Instantaneous Postal Delivery

I wish.

Last month's PTI reveal included dies for making slider and spinner cards, which I really, really wanted. Plus, there were a couple of Unity itty bitties that would be really cute as movement cards. The itty bitties were delivered a couple of weeks ahead of the dies because apparently thousands of other people ordered the dies, too. I'm not exactly patient when it comes to mail deliveries- they're kind of like Christmas every time I get one. I'm pretty sure the only way I would be happy about mail delivery is if they delivered instantaneously. Although, that might kill the anticipation, huh?

Anyway....

I found this tutorial on SCS on how to make a spinner without a stinkin' die. I didn't have all of the tools they suggested, so I made do:

The big sheep is mounted on buttons, so she can do somersaults if you want her to. My grandma's 90th birthday is this summer, and since she and my grandpa owned a sheep ranch for a long time, I think this will make an excellent birthday card.

PTI cardstock: Dark Chocolate, Fine Linen, Rustic Cream; twine, ink

Buttons from stash

Sizzix embossing folder

Watercolor pencils

One heck of a lot of foam dots

Happy Friday!

Spring Break with no Spring in sight

Holy Cow, this week went fast!

Happy Friends with Flair, everyone! It's Spring Break here, which is the earliest spring break of anyone I know. The last couple of years we have driven to California and had tons of fun, but by the time we got back I needed a vacation from my vacation.

This year we stayed home and it was so nice not to drive anywhere. My little guy's school is on the opposite side of town, so every day he has school I lose an hour of crafting time. Grrr.

This week's card is inspired by the colors my sister chose for her nursery.

I've been recovering a rocker that's been in our family forever for her with those fabrics. I finished and I'm glad I'm done, because fabric moves around too much. Paper is much easier to work with!

This is a color combination I could never have dreamed up, but I like it and I saw a card on the Really Reasonable Ribbon blog that I wanted to try:

This has to be one of the lightest cards I've ever made!

Georgia Pacific Cardstock

dp from Cosmo Cricket, Core'dinations, and Echo Park

Cuttlebug embossing folder

PTI dies

SU ink

Ribbon Boutique

Paper Studio vellum

Unity Stamp Co sentiment

I'm getting old.... and FWF!

I discovered exactly how old I'm getting the other night.

I co-teach a 1st/2nd grade Bible Study at church and one of our kids was making horrible squeaky sounds on the table with his hands. I asked him to stop because it sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard to me, and then I had to explain what that was. Then of course, the whole class started.

My 2nd grader's classroom doesn't even have a chalkboard. They have a small whiteboard that they hardly use because they mostly use the Promethean board.

PTI cardstock, ribbon, white ink

MME pp

Versamark ink, Zing white embossing powder

Souffle gel pens

Martha Stewart edge punch

Ranger white pen (for the Thank You)

Unity Stamp Co. stamps

This is a magazine rejection. After my conversation with my little first grader the other night, I'm thinking a big part of that might be because NO ONE seems to use chalkboards anymore. But I like the chalky look of this, darn it!

Hobbling off to count my gray hairs....

Familiarity

This is Toby.

This is Jack.

These are two of the most neurotic dogs ever to grace this earth, but they love the daylights out of absolutely everyone. I could learn a few lessons from that.

Everytime Unity comes out with another Phyllis Harris release, I have to get it because of these silly dogs.

My dogs both spent their first three years of life like this one. It's amazing that they made it past puppyhood, considering some of the things they ate.

I'm using this for the monthly Unity Challenge to use hearts without using red/pink as well as today's Friends with Flair. I'm really grateful for the time to make anything crafty because it lets my brain process for a while.

PTI Cardstock, embossing powder, and ink

My Mind's Eye dp

Martha Stewart edge punch

Unity Stamp Co stamps

Versamark ink

Paper Studio brad

a variety of colored pencils

And this is my little guy who was a teeny bit jealous that the dogs got their pictures taken. Like how his pants are on backwards? I'm pickin' my battles!

Have a great weekend!