Sites of the week

Went to a late night crop and didn’t get my post ready to go. The rest of the post will be up later, but for now here’s the sketch…

Ok, sorry about that! Susan and I decided to go to a crop kinda last minute and I had a choice to stress about this post or not to stress about it. The choice was easy, in my opinion. I know that I used to post 6 days a week at the same time every day. Not only do I not have time for that, I had to think about how important that was. Turns out, it’s not. I decided to make this more fun and less serious/have to. I’m ok with that

Blah, blah, blah, let’s get onto the sketch. It was already posted, but here it is {again/still}…

I tried something a little different on mine. Both the base and the rectangular panels are cream and I defined the edges by sewing around them. The main image panel is watercolor paper which is also a cream color. I used all these neutrals because I wanted the image {Unity} that is watercolored with Tombow markers to POP…

Detail shot…

Here’s a TEXAS SIZED THANKS to Angie for playing with us this month! She’s created another card that is sure to WOW you…

How about some more great samples from some great SFYTT Sisters?…
Susan Liles
Amy Rohl
Amy Sheffer
Leigh O’Brien
Kelly Lunceford
Megan Lock
Jenn Diercks
Amber Hight

COME PLAY WITH US!!
All participants are also considered for future Designer of the Month positions. Just upload your creation to the Slide guestbook on this post and when you upload to online galleries, just use the keyword “SFYTT”. Have fun and THANKS for playing!!

I made this card over a month ago for Tony’s birthday, but I keep forgetting to post it. This is one of my favorite images that Stamping Bella {fairly} recently released, King of the Wild Things.

Detail shot…

Are you in the DFW area? There are lots of new classes at Scrapper’s Boutique. Check out the blog for more info.

Keeping this short and sweet today. Gotta run.

There IS stamping in this post, but I have a lot to gab about first…

THANK YOU for commenting on my Impress card on Facebook. I WON! Yay me, 30 new ink pads are on their way to my house. **Happy Dance** THANK YOU and IMPRESS!!

As for new things, I’m going to start with Ellie. It is my fault that I have become a short order cook for her. She has become pretty stubborn about not wanting to try new foods. She says that she doesn’t like something before she even knows what it is. Tony and I knew we had to change that, so we have come up with an incentive system {bribery, if you will}. Let me backtrack a little. Ellie is kept accountable on a chart. At the end of each day she has a chance to get an “E” or an “X” on 3 categories. The “E” means she did well, the “X”…not so much. The 3 categories are Polite/Follow Directions, Did Well At Meals and Put Toys Away. These will change as she gets older, but for a 3 year old, they seem appropriate. At the end of the week if she has a perfect chart, we do the “Perfect Chart Dance” with her {don’t ask, it’s just silly fun and she loves it}. If she has less than 3 X’s, the chart has a monetary value of $2-3, so that she can buy her own things. When she turns her charts in, we “send them to Santa” so he knows how she is doing throughout the year. Fast forward to today…now when she tries something new, she gets a bonus “E” and when she accumulates 10 bonus “E”s then she gets a prize. So far she has earned a Cars Movie matchbox car. Last night we **really** wanted her to try her mashed potatoes. Knowing that this was an uphill battle from the beginning, we kept trying to sweeten the pot until I was offering a Princess Tiana dress up dress for 5 bites of mashed potatoes. This was huge and she knew it. She thought about it long and hard {10 seconds is a long time for a 3 year old} and finally said {with rolling eyes}, “I don’t want a Princess Tiana dress.” Who knew the power of mashed potatoes!!

The mashed potatoes were part of a new dinner last night. Yes, I have made mashed potatoes before. They were just the side dish to Pioneer Woman Pot Roast. It was YUM-O…for the most part. Has anyone else made this? I loved how the carrots and the stock/juice came out, but the meat didn’t seem to soak up very much of that flavor. I’d love to hear any tips and/or tricks because I would love to make this again.

More new stuff I tried out just yesterday…
Skechers Shape Ups…wow, my legs are TIRED!!

…and watercoloring with Tombow markers. These markers have been collecting dust in a drawer behind my desk. I have seen a few people use them and I decided to go for it on a cute little TCP image for today’s TCP Tuesday. This week sweet Joanne is your Hipster Hostess with the Mostess and she is bringing you this color challenge…

Here’s a shot of my card using the set Hearts and Flowers with these colors…

Detail of my coloring. I gotta say that I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

I stamped the image on watercolor paper with Brilliance Graphite Black and then clear embossed it {thanks for the tip, Jody!!} Since these are water based markers and do not blend like Copics, I colored both light and dark and then used a wet paintbrush to blend and move the colors. I’m definitely gonna be playing with these some more…fun!! As for the flower, it’s yet another cut from the Slice Wedding design card. Love that thing!

Ok, I’ve rambled on quite a bit, so I’m signing off until next time {hopefully before Saturday}.

Happy Spring Everyone! Saturday officially marked the first day of spring {it snowed here!} and all of the Verve Divas are preparing some great spring-y {sure, it’s a word!} projects for this month’s PROJECT PARADE for you to see. This month’s theme is FUN WITH FLOWERS! Such a fun and easy theme that everyone can play along!!

I decided to create a project using die cut flowers {from my Slice Wedding Design Card} stamped with Polka Dots from the Verve Bountiful Backgrounds as the main part of my project.

The sentiment is from the new Verve set, Let It Shine, and is framed with a scalloped circle covered in glazed glitter. The flower panel could have easily been mounted on a card or even added to a scrapbook page, but I thought that it would be fun to create a gift-able project with it. I tried out both real and paper flower pots before I just stuck it in a bad of candy. I think this particular one looks best this way, but it would certainly be fun to create bouquets.

Some more detail shots…

It would be a lot of fun to make this for a gift or other special occasions, too. Just a few ideas that come to mind…
* Teacher Appreciation {it just came to mind that you could use an apple instead of a flower!}
* Wedding Favors
* Table Numbers at Receptions
* Baby Shower Favors {think pink or blue flowers!}
* Congratulations or…
…Just Because for friends, family or neighbors

Be sure to check out the Verve blog and each day of the Parade for chances to win.

Happy 1st day of spring! Yesterday was 70, today it may snow. Yes, seriously! No, I am not amused! We have enjoyed the last few days outdoors and with the windows open. Oh well, it’s typical North Texas…if you don’t like the weather, just wait 10 minutes is how the saying goes.

I’ve been busy with baby, working on projects for publication and creating for upcoming classes at Scrapper’s Boutique. I’ve hardly had time to play with all the happy mail that has hit my doorstep…upcoming TCP releases, Pure Innocence stamps from MFT {thank you USPS for taking 2 weeks to get that envelope across 3 states…ugh!}, Gorjuss Girls from Sugar Nellie {doing a class with one as part of the project}, new Nestabilities and some new PTI. I am hoping for just a **little** time to play with all that crafty goodness…and SOON! Am I babbling yet? One more thing…

Did you see my last post asking to comment on my card in the Impress Rubber Stamps album on Facebook? Well, I am attempting to win a serious amount of ink. She with the most comments wins, so if you can and want to comment on my card, please help me out You can become a fan of Impress Rubber Stamps {a way cool stamp co. from Washington} HERE and HERE is my Going Green card that uses what was my Starbucks trash in an interesting way.

Ok, ok, enough of the “this has nothing to do with the sketch” stuff. Here is the sketch for this week…

***Mine is coming. I have it done, but not photo’d yet. I MUST have natural light and that’s not happening as I type this at 10:40pm***

Ok, here’s mine using my new PTI dies and a Verve sentiment…

Detail of the embellishment panel…

Designer of the Month, Angie Tieman, knocked my socks off with this awesome card…

As the title of this post suggest, this post and sketch is dedicated to my dear friend and SFYTT sister, Susan Liles {and her hubby, Eric}. Eric has been diagnosed with lymphoma and started his chemo treatments this past week. Needless to say, the road ahead is rough. As encouragement for both Susan and Eric I am asking that you send them a card using this sketch {or any card for that matter!}. You can send them to:

Eric and Susan Liles
7920 Sunrise Dr.
Watauga, Tx 76148

Be sure to check out more inspiring samples from the rest of the SFYTT gang…
Amy Rohl
Amy Sheffer
Leigh O’Brien
Kelly Lunceford
Megan Lock
Jenn Diercks
Amber Hight

Wanna play along with us and want to be considered to be a future Designer of the Month? I’d love to see what you come up with! Be sure to upload your picture to the Slide Guestbook below. You can type in your blog address in the comments section of the upload. When uploading to other online galleries, please use the keyword SFYTT. Thanks and have a great weekend!