Whirlpool of Imagination

I'm still layering

Little did I realize how many layers I chose for the baby shower invitations! As I'm very particular about what adhesives I use with what, its taking me some extra time. I'm hoping to have something new for you tomorrow. (At least the ideas are in the head, it's just a matter of letting them out).

Baby on the Way

No, not me!!!!! This card is for baby shower invitations of a woman who has twin girls on the way.

The stamp is from Michael's and is colored with prismacolor markers. Then some layering with cardstock, ribbon and a cuttlebug embossing folder.

We're having lots of drama here. Meg had a playdate today and decided to be really mean to her little brother. This has been developing lately and she's been warned about treating her brother badly. Tonight I had to get tough with her. These next few days should be fun as she realizes that we're laying down the law.

I'm off to relax. I was at the gym twice today. Once for my lifting and cardio and then later for yoga. My body is officially spent!

Prettied Up Gift Giving

This weekend we were invited over for lunch and basketball watching at friend's houses. I was asked to bring cookies. After seeing the wonderful cookie totes by Erin, I felt like I needed to do more than just bring them on a plate. Erin had a great idea but I have no brown bags. I went through all the bags I have hemming and hawing.

This bag was a bit bigger than I wanted so I cut the top off to make it about 7 inches. This time around I punched holes and added eyelets to thread my ribbon through. Next time I think I'll just adhere the ribbon to the bag and tape some cardstock inside over it to 1)hold the ribbon and 2)cover up the brown inside of the bag.

I used a Papertrey flower for the background and a sentiment from DreamInk (not sure if their in business anymore - its an old wood mounted stamp I've had forever).

I'm trying to get back to my early morning schedule so I'm getting tired. I'm off to relax a bit before bed - night!

Double Hearts

No stamping in sight for today's creation. Today I have some iris folding instead. I originally balked at this pattern because of the space between the hearts. I really felt at a loss on how to tackle it without making a complete mess. It turned out easier to do than I had imagined, but isn't it funny how a lot of things in life are like that. I kept saying I couldn't do it, I almost talked myself out of trying it.

I used floral tape a/k/a polysatin ribbon for the heart. Add some peel off stickers and a corner punch and it's done. I think I'll make a few more of these - I like them for wedding or anniversary cards.

The weather here is lousy and I'm back on my organization kick. Mo and Conor are making me a little shelf so I can make better use of the space I have. One of these days I'll have it looking good and will finally take some pictures!

Have you met Tweet?

Recently, I got this plate from Pink Cat Studio. I had a few thank you notes I needed to make (and now the kids and I need to write them!) so I went with thank you as the sentiment. I think Tweet is adorable so I mounted and inked him up.

Let me introduce you to the cutest little bird, Tweet. He's colored with prismacolor pencils and baby oil along with a sakura gel pen and a some stickles.

I've been organizing my ribbon and found this great brown and blue spool so that dictated the colors of the card.

And did you see the awesome swiss dots cuttlebug background. I am loving this folder - will be using it lots!

Today I've been trying to tackle an iris folding pattern but my brain is just not working. Hopefully I can get it figured out. Have a great day!

Building A Pyramid

Thanks so much for the kind words on my last pyramid card. They are super easy to do so here's the quickest tutorial on the face of the earth....

Here is what a sample pyramid sheet looks like. I'm not very computer savvy so I don't know how to make these sheets yet. The fabulous people over at the Circle of Crafters Card Making message board generously offer up these sheets. I definitely would like to learn how to do these myself though - a project for a rainy day I guess. This great sheet was created by Tracy Churchill.

You print off your sheet and then cut it up. I use my paper cutter except for the really tiny one. You then build a pyramid by layering the pictures on top of each other exactly where the picture lines up. I've seen these done with mounting tape in between each one if you want a large pyramid. So far I've only printed the pictures off on my cardstock and layered them with my double sided tape.

Once you make your pyramid, use it like any image block and design your card.

And here's my finished sample. The couple had that slight blue layer on the bottom layer so I tried to match that up with my blue cardstock. I have to say, I'm really liking this one. I find these colors very soothing together. The sentiment stamp is from Spunky Stamps.

It's vacation week so that means I'll either got a lot of crafting done or none at all!

Let's Go Racing!!

Thanks to the wonderful Vanna, my blog was very nicely rated me....

Thanks so much Vanna! I am supposed to give this rating to two others. This is tough but I'm going to give a shout out to.....

KH's blog : If you want to see the most awesome blending with prismacolor pencils, this is the blog for you. And lately KH has been using copic's as well in such an awesome way. I am a horrible pencil colorer so I go here for eye candy and inspiration.

Lauren's blog: I enjoy all the great gift ideas Lauren comes up with. It's so fun going to her blog and see what new thing she has cooked up. And really, she ran a marathon, how fantastic is that!

I spent the day watching the Daytona 500 and not stamping. And while its a bummer that he lost it in the last lap, yeah for Tony in his third place finish!!

Springtime Anyone?

I am itching for spring to come. This winter has been a constant of damp, cold and rain and I am ready for some flowers and sunshine! To get me in the spring mood, I made a pyramid card with tulips today.

As soon as I saw this sheet, I wanted to do this one up. The colors of the flowers lent itself to a red and brown color combo, just like yesterday. I am really into the brown lately so you may see more of it in the days to come!

The brown layer is punched with a Fiskars border punch and stamped with a background from Cornish Heritage Farms (one of the newer ones - love it so you will be seeing more of that too in the future). I then built the pyramid and added a few more brown and red layers.

And there you go. Hopefully spring is indeed coming soon.

Thank You Hearts

Yesterday at Meg's school we had a fun set of programs the kids all participated in for Valentine's Day. As room mother, the activities go so much smoother when there are lots of volunteers and our class is the best for volunteering for these activities. I made up some thank you cards because I'm a firm believer in thanking those that help you out.

I always try to match the thank you's to the theme of the activities so today, we have hearts. I knew I wanted to use this cuttlebug background and I found that cute ribbon so I decided to emboss 2/3 of the background and add my ribbon at the break line.

Then I broke out corner scissors I have probably owned for 10 years and edged the corners of my top two sentiment layers. I originally thought about putting that over the ribbon but I didn't like the final result so I tried putting them over two plain layers. I LOVE this layered look. I added some stickles to tie in the red and pop dotted the sentiment layer. I really like this and might try the whole effect but with a nice wedding image, maybe a silhouette in the block where the sentiment currently is.

How about some sweet potatoes?

Happy Valentine's Day! I finally finished all the Valentine's cards that I needed to get done - such a relief. I forgot to take pictures before I sent it all in so today I have a recipe for you instead. I'm big on trying to find good side dishes. Last month, it was rice, today I have spicy sweet potatoes for you. This is a family recipe. Whenever I have people over for dinners, I usually make this.

Spicy Sweet Potatoes

3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes

2-3 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp Splenda (the original recipe used brown sugar but we adapted it, tastes the same with the Splenda)

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (sometimes I just shake away depending on how spicy I feel like making it)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss the sweet potatoes with the oil. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until potatoes are covered. Transfer to a greased baking pan and bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes until potatoes are tender. It's a good idea to stir once in a while.

Enjoy!