Friday, April 24, 2009

Wow! What a week!

Where to begin? I've had these photos scanned in for several days, but haven't had any time to sit down and post them. A lot has happened in our neck of the woods within the last 5 days. My mother-in-law ended up in the hospital on Monday night. It took them 2 days before they were able to diagnose her problem as a bacterial infection in her gut. She came home last night and has a little while before she'll be back up to par. My father-in-law had pollups removed on Wednesday. We've been taking care of him. We actually have to be babysitters with him, because he doesn't think he has to STOP! We went and saw grandma in the hospital on Tuesday night. I'm sure the next little while we'll be helping her.


On top of this, soccer started this week. I am so glad that it doesn't last for more than a month up here. It gives the kids a chance to have fun and learn the game, but we don't get burned out. Games are played on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I had scouts on Wednesday, too. It went well. It makes such a difference having just 5 boys instead of 11! We just split our Wolf and Bear dens. How grateful I am for that. We have been making the preparations for a "Dinosaur Adventure" party for our siblings. This will fulfill several different scout requirements as well as a Faith In God requirement. I will definitely have to post images of the various games and projects we've done for that (next week).


For my birthday, my brother-in-law gave me 2 tickets to "Wicked." We went last night. It was INCREDIBLE!! I think it is my favorite production of all. I've seen "Phantom of the Opera", "A Christmas Carol", "Thoroughly Modern Millie", "Chicago", and several others. It was awesome. I loved the story line. Nothing like I expected. To top it all off, as KC and I were exiting the side door, to our utter surprise and delight, directly in front of us was Pres. Monson, his wife, and guards. That was really cool!


I also got my bathroom cleaned, the HUGE mountain of laundry folded (I hate folding laundry), taught 3 piano lessons and went to my OB/GYN appointment. With such a crazy week, you'd think I didn't have any time to create. I actually found some time on Sunday to do the scrapbook page of my second son and the BABY card. Then on Monday I made the two sympathy cards- one for my mother-in-law and the other for my former visiting teaching partner who was just diagnosed with bone cancer. Since then I haven't had a moment to think about anything creative. I can also feel the week. I am exhausted. So, today, I'm going to get together with one of my best friends and do something relaxing and creative. Haven't decided what to do yet.


Here's my scrapbook page:








Materials used:

Green, blue, yellow and white cardstock (not textured, just basic)
Lime green rick rack
Rub Ons: Making Memories
Stamps: Plenty of Paisley, The Paper Studio


I really had fun putting this together. I loved how vibrant the colors are in the photo and took my inspiration from them as well as the whimsical pattern on the bouncer.



Here are my cards:








The top one is the one I created for my old visiting teaching partner. It was supposed to be the same format as the baby card, but I was having difficulties with my printer. It didn't want to grab the paper properly, so the text kept printing in the wrong spot. I decided that I didn't want to waste more paper, so I adapted my design to fit. On the inside of the card I typed, "May the Lord be with you during this difficult time". Then I cut a window out of the front so the text showed.



Materials used:
Sage green and white cardstock
Small scalloped scissors- provo craft
Large scalloped stencil
Pop-up foam squares
Sheer white ribbon
fabric flowers and leaves from my kitchen table centerpiece- Dollar Tree years ago
Hot glue gun
White embossing ink-Inxpressions
Gold embossing powder-Ranger
6"x 1" clear stamp block with a rubber band wrapped around
Heat gun



I made a frame out of the white cardstock, put the scalloped edge on it, then I simply swiped the edges in my embossing ink, poured embossing powder on and heat set it. The gold line on the right edge I created using the 6"x1" block with a rubber band wrapped around it. This idea came to me one day this week as a solution to making striped backgrounds. I used the block just like a stamp, placed it on my inkpad, then embossed like I did the frame. I'm pretty pleased with my idea. It worked REALLY well!



The second green card I altered slightly, well because I wanted to.

Materials used:

Sage green, light pink and white cardstock
White ribbon
4 rhinestones (3 circle, 1 flower)
Same 6"x1" block and rubber band
Same ink and powder and gun
flower stamp- my own creation out of foam
Soft Rose Ink pad- Memories
Hollyhock Ink pad- Close to My Heart
Olive green Ink pad- Close to My Heart
spray bottle with water
background stamp- Hero Arts (clear stamp but no set identification on package)
Glue Dots
pop-up foam squares (for frame)



Alot of this card is pretty self explanatory, so I won't mention all of the techniques I used. However, I will tell about my stamping techniques. I used the same edge technique on this card as the previous one. I also used it on the edge of my frame (no scallops here). For my flower I inked my stamp in the soft rose, sprayed it with water, then using a slightly moist paper towel dipped the edge (of paper towel) into the hollyhock and patted this onto my stamp. Then I stamped onto white cardstock. I repeated this twice (2 separate flowers). It created a fun watercolor look. Then I cut out each flower, adjusted them to give depth and adhered using glue dots. The finishing touch was the rhinestone. I made my stamp using a thin piece of fun foam. I drew my flower onto a piece of printer paper, cut out, traced onto the foam, cut it out, glued this onto the foam again (to give depth and cushion), cut out, then hot glued to wood block (since this one I now use tacky glue to adhere the stamp to the block and instead of using wood, I take a plastic cookie container-the kind you get in the bakery, and adhere my stamp to it. It takes up less space, and when I'm ready to use it, I can mount it onto one of my clear blocks using glue dots or double sided tape. That way I can see the placement easily.


I almost forgot about my favorite card! I created this baby card before the other two. The idea for this came to me during church. That's horrible, I know, but inspiration can hit us at the oddest times.

Materials used:
White, baby blue and light lavender cardstock
Silent Setter-Provo Craft (small hole punch)
8" pastel yellow ribbon (1/8" wide)
Yellow, white, cape cod and a purple acrylic paint (from my tole paints)
Paper towel
Old toothbrush (splatter)
Stamps-Cute as a button set by Studio G (Dollar stamps from Michaels or Joann's)
1" block
Lovely Lilac Ink pad and Tempting Turquoise Ink pad-Stampin Up
Watercolor pencils

I am only going to explain how I made this background. If you have any questions about the other elements, just ask me. Anyway, first I folded my white cardstock to form my card (4 1/4x 5 1/2). This helped to ensure that I only painted the front of the card and not the backside. Who wants to do more work than needed? Then I poured a small amount of yellow (a mustard yellow) and white paints onto a glass plate in separate spots. I twisted and scrunched up the end of a paper towel, dipped it into both colors and sponged randomly onto card. I also turned the towel as I was sponging in some areas to help the colors blend a little more. Then I poured a tiny bit of the blue and purple paints onto my plate. I dipped my old toothbrush into one and then rubbed my thumb across the brush to make it splatter onto my paper. When I had the desired amount, I rinsed my brush in water, dried it off and repeated using the other color. I love the look of this card. The paints gave it a rich feeling without a lot of detail. The texture is also very cool- rough.

Hope you have a great day!

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