Home at Last!!

This morning marked the big day.  Last night, I had everything laid out that my children could possibly need for this morning to eliminate any last-minute stressers.  Their outfits were neatly laid out, the baby's diaper bag was packed, the coats were ready, the table was set, all my accompaniments were in my music folder, etc......and then my son spiked a fever of 103 during the middle of the night.  I don't know what it is about being a parent but anytime anything important comes up that you "just can't miss", that's when someone becomes ill.  I have almost come to expect it at holidays.  While most people are filled with thoughts of what dish to bring or whose home they will be traveling to, I am trying to imagine which child will be sick and with what.  After phoning my mom with the news, my parents graciously offered to come to my home this morning to watch the children instead of having me transport them over there. 
I had forgotten just how noisy these competition days were.  It was very chaotic - people scrambling to find the correct room, music flying out of someone else's hands, someone frantically running to track down the missing ensemble member for their instrumental group because they were due to perform within the next few minutes.......it makes me thankful, once again, to be done with highschool.  All in all, the day went well and I was able to make it back to my sick little boy by 3:30 p.m.  He is still not feeling well, but at least he has his Mommy home at last!

What a week!

Good morning, bloggers!!   What a crazy week this has been!  I had hoped to have a few new cards posted by today but I have found myself having absolutely 0 minutes of free time since last weekend.  One of my piano students phoned me last Friday night in a panic.  Every year, the state instrumental competitions are the last weekend of January.  Most of my students take a second instrument as they are encouraged to be in band class at their schools.  Up until my baby was born 1 1/2 years ago, I had my name on the list of available accompanists in the area but when our little girl was born, I removed my name because I wanted to take a break for a couple years.  Now, you would think that since this is an annual competition, the highschoolers would be well aware that they need to hire an accompanist early on for their solo but such is not the case.  No - they prefer to wait until the last possible second.  Lol  Long story short - my student called me as she and several friends did not have an accompanist and they had 7 days until their competition.  She dropped off the music on Saturday - except for one girl who couldn't find two pages of her accompaniment part. :(  I have since been working on scheduling practices and hurriedly learning several pieces of music for this Saturday.  I have to admit, I am not looking forward to sitting all day at a highschool filled with hundreds of people even though it pays well.  I did, however, purchase two new carts as I felt I had earned at least that much and I hope to share some new cards this next week.  Have a great day!!

Yummy Teacup Card

I love this teacup cut from "Yummy"!  I just received my "Sweet Somethings" stamp set from Scrappy Mom Stamps and was looking through the sentiments for inspiration and knew exactly what image I was going to use for this sentiment.  The card recipe is as follows:
5 1/2 " card base in SU Mauve Mist cardstock
5 1/4" square - SU Bliss Blue cardstock
5" flooded square with floral pattern from "Yummy"
Teacup (cut 2 times) cut in layers at 3.7"
Oval shape was a layer from the cake on "Yummy" cut at 3 1/2" using Bliss Blue cardstock, then run through my cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots folder
Scrappy Mom Stamps - "Sweet Somethings"
SU decorative scissors to cut decorative border around sentiment and shadowed layer
Pearl accents

Yummy Card #2

Good evening!  After tackling Kate's Kitchen, I decided my next series of cards would be from the "Yummy" Imagine cartridge.  This cart has the most delicious-looking cakes and desserts - almost makes me wish I liked to eat that sort of thing.  I have to admit, I have never had a sweet-tooth.  My guilty pleasure has always been bagels and not the sweet kind either - pretty boring, isn't it?  Now on to the card................
I found a way to save a bit of paper while layering.  I like lots of layers of patterned paper but hate to waste the ink on a large piece when all you see of it is the sides.  I have been using 3" x 5 1/2" rectangles from WW and then cutting them in half and placing one on either side of the main patterned piece - glued from the back. I then mount the whole thing on to my cardstock of choice and it looks no different than if I had cut out two larger rectangles and layered them onto one another.  The card recipe is as follows:
4' x 5 1/2" card base
4" x 5 1/2" rectangle flooded with yummy pattern
3 x 5 1/2" rectangle from WW flooded with yummy pattern, then cut in half to form two 1 1/2 " x 5 1/2" strips
1 1/2" x 4 1/4" rectangle flooded with yummy pattern then placed horizontally on card
Two cakes were cut in layers at 3 1/2" and then pop-dotted for extra dimension
Glossy accents for cherry and red frosting strip
Martha Stewart white glitter for top of cake
Pearl accents
Gross-grain ribbon from SU - can't remember specific color
Scrappy Mom Stamps "Sweet Somethings" - sentiment

Yummy Birthday Card

This is my first card made with the "Yummy" Imagine cartridge.  All papers were cut from the Yummy pattern papers and the stamps were Scrappy Mom's "Sweet Somethings" set. 

The card recipe:
5 3/4"  brown card base - I bought this at HL and have no idea what the "color name" is :)
5 1/4 " square card base flooded with happy birthday patterned paper
3 1/2 " square flooded with the light pink patterned paper from "yummy"
3 1/2 " scallop (Imagine stock image) flooded with blue patterned paper

3 1/2" I cut the birthday cake using layers and then stickled around all the icing.
Light green "skittles"
Sweet Somethings stamp set - I stamped the sentiment on white cardstock, trimmed it to size and inked it using Tim Holtz's distress ink
Pop dots - everything was again pop-dotted but very hard to pick up with my camera

Stretch Your Imagination Easter Card

I actually made this card a while ago but never posted it on my blog.  I used Stretch Your Imagination for the basket and George for the oval shape to make the eggs.  The basket was very time-consuming and impossible to see but I actually cut the basket out of white cardstock and then cut it out a second time using swirly vellum - it is really much prettier in person.  Then I wove the ribbon around the handle to give it more eye-appeal and pop-dotted the basket on top of another basket which I cut out in pink cardstock.  The eggs are all pop-dotted using various thicknesses but again, it is hard to get the entire effect with just a camera. 

A Child's Year Teapot Card

I was in need of a simple "thinking of you" card.  I used the rectangle from George and welded the teapot from ACY and then hand cut some of the layers you see to create the teapot.  The stamp was from Stampin' Up.

Kate's Kitchen #4

Here is my fourth card from Kate's Kitchen........time to take a break and pick another cart already!!  The background paper and all images were cut from this cart as well as the two smaller strips of matching "blue cardstock."  Again, I just love this feature of having the perfect match at your fingertips at all times.  I first went through my stash of SU cardstock but all the blues were just slightly off so I resorted to printing two strips of my own.  I inked around the edges with Tim Holtz's distress ink in "tea dye" -  a necessity for me - and then pop-dotted all the images.  Again, it is so hard to tell from these pics but every layer was pop-dotted and in person, the card is really much more dimensional then it appears here.

Snow Angel

I love this cartridge!! The images and papers are just so cute!  The only problem is....with the limited time I actually have to create anything, by the time I am able to come up with a few cards I approve of, it will be spring and this cart will no longer be of any use to me.  Snow Angel was used for all papers and shapes except the rectangular scalloped shape which came from Winter Woodland and was flood-filled with a Snow Angel pattern. 

Just Because Cards and Kate's Kitchen

This card was made using Kate's Kitchen  for the patterned paper and Just Because Cards for the sentiment, oval, and coffee pot.  I absolutely love that you can use the Imagine to print out coordinating color cardstock to match any of the background papers included on the cartridges.  I cannot tell you how many times I have sat down to make a card and realized that I had no solid-colored cardstock to match the background paper I had chosen for a particular card.  This is going to make my card-making so much easier!  I flood-filled the images from Just Because cards with the coordinating colors from Kate's Kitchen to get that perfect match I was talking about and then ran the blue portion of the coffee pot through my cuttlebug to add texture.

Kate's Kitchen #3

This is one of the smiling images I was talking about in my previous post.  I find it a bit unnerving to have a tea pot smiling at me but oh well.....I guess it is a little cute!  I do really like the vivid colors that were included in this cartridge - it makes the cards so cheerful.  I used Kate's Kitchen for all the paper and patterns and then ran the yellow cardstock underneath the tea pot through my cuttlebug and added some "skittles" for embellishments.  There is also a lot of pop-dotting done on the images but my camera did not seem to pick that up in the photo. 

Kate's Kitchen #2

I was a little worried when I first opened up this cart and saw all the smiling coffee pots and other kitchen gadgets with faces.  I thought the patterned paper was really cute but didn't know if I would like the images.  Last night I sat down and printed out three 12 x 12 pages of various images and paper samples and decided to just see if I could come up with something.  I had a lot of fun and I have to admit.....I actually really like this cart now!

Kate's Kitchen

My husband bought me an Imagine for Christmas and I was so excited but I hadn't had time to make anything with it yet.  Last night after I tucked my children in bed, I decided it was time to finally put it to good use!