Sites of the week

I can’t believe that Ellie is TWO already!! I swear it was yesterday when I called Tony home from work at just after 8 (yes, he just got there) to tell him that it was time. That was actually the 7th. At 2:39 am on July 8th Elena “Ellie” made her debut. If you are doing the math, add a few more hours for when my water broke the night before calling Tony home. That’s 29 hours total!!!…after my doctor told me not to hold my breath on her being born anytime soon. Today I can officially call her my terrible 2 year old…in the most loving way possible, of course. We have a little party planned for her on Saturday and I will certainly have pictures to share. For now, here is her {over the top, more may not be more here, it’s for a 2 year old} card…

Stamps: Faux Ribbon {Papertrey Ink}
Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black {Tsukineko}
Paper: DP {American Crafts}; Plum Pudding {Papertrey Ink}; Pretty In Pink {SU!}
Other: Cuttlebug Dies, “2″ Chipboard {SU!}; Rose Quartz Glitter {Martha Stewart}; Crystal Flowers {Heidi Swapp}; Plum Pudding Twill {Papertrey Ink}

Don’t forget, today is TCP Tuesday!

I haven’t gotten my card done for the challenge {insert plea for more hours in day here}, but be sure to see all the deets on Leigh’s blog.

OMG! Last night I saw that I passed 500K hits! HOLY COW!!! Since I am already in the process of offering up a blog tart, I will just make it a little sweeter. If you didn’t see, I am putting everyone that participates in this week’s Sketch For You To Try into a drawing for some goodies. Be sure to link your creation to the Sketch For You To Try post HERE. Thank you all so much for making my day!!

Ellie’s friend Addison came over yesterday and I snapped off a couple of shots. Notice that they are playing on her “Ellie Park.” She has overcome her fear of the slide and is constantly wanting to go out there now. So, YAY!!! and UGH!…it’s 95 degrees+ here during the day!

BIG HUG!!!….

This one CRACKS ME UP! Addison took the chalk that Ellie had. I told Ellie that she’s gonna need to do a little more than that if she wants it back. LOL!

SQUINTING IN THE SUN…

Hey Buckaroo, it’s TCP Tuesday!! Today challenge Hipster Hostess With The Mostess is the uber talented, Leigh O’Brien. She has issued you a sketch challenge, and please note that she is flexible with her design. You can see all the deets HERE on her blog.

Here’s my card…

This card uses the TCP stamp set, Havin’ A Pow Wow, as well as SEI Dill Blossom DP. The images are colored in with Copics and the cowboy is mounted on dimensional glue dots. As for finishing touches, I used brads and linen thread. Hope you all have fun with this sketch!

About TCP Tues…

1. Each a week one of the The Cat’s Pajamas DT members will host a challenge.
2. The challenges will vary {stamp, color, theme, sketch, etc.}
3. You will have until {this} Saturday night to complete the challenge.
4. Link your project on this week’s hostess’ challenge announcement. This week you will link your project HERE.
5. TCP stamps are not required, but of course, highly encouraged. {Unless it is a challenge calling for a specific stamp}
6. There will be one winner each month. They will be deemed that month’s Swankiest Stamper and get $25 in Cat’s Cash {money to spend on the TCP site!}.
7. When uploading to SCS, please use the keyword TCPTUES11 for this challenge.
8. Alma will post the entries from the week the following Monday on her blog.
9. The newly crowned Swanky Stamper will be announced on the First of the Month and have his/her winning entry posted on The Cat’s Pajamas website where he/she will reign for the entire month.

Hello everyone!! I hope all my US pals had a wonderful long weekend. We had friends over yesterday and cooked hot dogs and chicken on the grill. I made fruit salad and fresh guacamole YUM-O! I am taking just one more day off. I am really on a roll with stuff for next week’s MFT release {I am giddy about this, I tell ya!}, so I want to keep working on it. I’ll be back tomorrow with some stampin’ stuff to show you. Until then, you can check out Toni’s blog for all the info on TCP Tuesday. Have a great day!

Here’s some pics of Ellie that I got this weekend! She is just the cutest, although I might be a **little** biased!

I’ll DEFINITELY be getting a frame for these two…

She got her “big girl sheets” this weekend and this is her testing them out with a fake stretch and yawn {while she was cracking up}…

TGIF All! I hope everyone has a great weekend planned. Tonight I am teaching a class at my LSS. This is the first class that I am teaching there and I am super excited. We are going to be working with Copics and MFT Stamps. It should be a blast!
For today’s ABC Friday projects, I am showing off a project that I did using Clear Scraps coasters. You can see their site HERE. Alma {TCP’s owner} sent these to us {DT members} to play with. They are so much FUN {Thanks, Alma!!}! We first saw them at CHA and everyone oooooh’d and aaaaaaw’d at how cool they were. They are definitely in the top 3 neatest things that I saw there. I could swear I put them in a blog post since I had about 800 {maybe exaggerating there} pics of them, but I am now thinking I did not do a post with them because so many others did. Hmmm??
Anywhooooooooo….
Here is the project that I made using the trio of Clear Scraps coasters. Each of the coasters is 4×4. After I backed them with DP {Cosmo Cricket Little Girls Biography Collection} and did all my other altering, I attached them together using green satin ribbon. The top pic is the trio all together hanging on my door and the others are the detail shots.

This pic of Ellie was taken in my parents backyard in Phoenix last November…

Heidi Swapp bling bling and Prima flowers for this square…

My little Ellie talking to “Auntie” on her play phone. She always says that she is talking to Auntie when she is on the phone. {{Hi Auntie!!}}

Hope you all had a great weekend! I came down with what we commonly refer to as “the crud” around here on Saturday night…ugh! Fortunately before that, I got in a little stamping time and we went to Chuckee Cheese with some friends {in lieu of the duck pond bc it was a little chilly}.
First, I have to say that I am **so mad** {ha!} at Emily for continually adding new stuff to the Stamping Bella site. There is always new stuff to ogle at, wish for and eventually purchase. This image is named Springtini…cute, huh!?! I already had the fun sentiment from Inky Antics and I just think that they pair well together…don’t, you!?! In addition to those 2 companies, I also used the Paisley background from SU! and the Geometric Flowers II backgrounder from Cornish Heritage Farms.

I used a real fun color “concoction” for this card…Cameo Coral, Pumpkin Pie and Wild Wasabi. The main image is stamped on watercolor paper and colored in with Copic markers. For my finishing touches, I paired a small punched flower with some Bella Baubles, and I topped off the photo corners with silver brads. I also used my small scallop scissors on the white cardstock to the left of the Pumpkin Pie cardstock to emulate the scallops on the main image panel. I have a feeling this stamp is going to be well loved!! I think that it would make darling bridal shower or girl’s night invites.
As I mentioned above, we went to Chuckee Cheese on Saturday. Ellie and her friend, Addison, had a BLAST! They were so darn cute together. They held hands almost the entire time…sometimes both hands at once. My cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing so much. Here are a few of the shots that we got of their extreme cuteness!!…