Yeah, Baby!

Update: Baby has gone to sleep two nights in a row now with almost NO crying! Wahoo! And last night, he slept all night, with no waking or crying. Wahoo!

Here is a Unity card I made a few days ago and just sent off to someone special. I watercolored the images, and added some bling to the ribbon know. What fun! I will have to get some more of that giant gingham ribbon--I love how it looks!

I just started a new round of secret sisters on Splitcoast, and I got an email from my "Big Sis" today. Listen to this great quote she gave me: "Those proud of keeping an orderly desk will never know the thrill of finding something they thought they had irretrievably lost." What an awesome way to think of my mess! That and a messy desk is a sign of genius! Well I am definitely a genius and find things ALL the time when I thought I'd lost them! :-)

Hope you are enjoying your Labor Day weekend. Take care, and--

100th Post!

I can't believe this is my 100th post! Just a few months ago, I decided to give this blogging thing a try, and here we are a few months later! I'm even closing in on 10,000 hits, which is amazing to me.

Quickly, on the baby front: the last two nights, he's only cried for about 5 minutes, so we thought things were improving. But right now I'm listening to him sob, as I have been for over an hour now! I stamped a bit, in another room where I can't hear him, but he's still at it. It is so heartbreaking, and of course now we are wondering--when will it start working?

I broke out my new Stampin' Up! sets again today. This first card uses Inspired by Nature, which is such a beautiful new set. It is so perfect, it doesn't really need much embellishment. I just added a touch of ribbon. The great thing about silhouette stamping, is that you can pretty much stamp in any color, and it will look great! This second card is using Party Hearty, which is a delightful new birthday set. I stamped the row of party hats in Tangerine Tango, then again on a scrap of white in Riding Hood Red. Then I cut out two of the red hats and glued them on top of the orange ones, so I had a row of alternating colors. SO simple! Sometimes the simplest cards stand out so much! I stuck with those two colors, and made this third card. It is just okay.

I really hope the baby stops crying soon. I should go to bed early tonight, but I took a nap with him earlier, so I'm feeling pretty good. I don't know when I'll stamp again, but please check back, because I will soon! Meanwhile . . .

Grouchy and Green

Good morning! Sorry I didn't post yesterday, but it was a rough night/day. The baby was up at 11:30pm on Wednesday night, cried for an hour, we got him back to sleep, he slept for about 10 minutes, then cried for an hour, and repeated that pattern all night. I got no sleep at all. Finally, after he had breakfast, we napped together in my bed from 7:15 until 9:15. Other than another short nap later, he didn't have much sleep, and was therefore as grouchy, whiny, clingy and yucky as I've ever seen him. Come to think of it, I was pretty grouchy, whiny, clingy and yucky! So I got nothing done yesterday, no stamping, no posting, no dishes, nothing! Other than holding the baby and trying to keep him happy.

With no new stamping, I had to go back a few days and see if there was anything I hadn't posted for you. I think this one is new to you. If not, let me know. I'm trying an even smaller picture today, but I do believe if you click on it you will see it bigger. This was thrown together for a challenge with a few Unity gals who were anxiously awaiting the start of Hip Hop Thursday last week. Or maybe it was during Hip Hop itself, when there was a lull. I forget. Regardless, the technique challenge that day at SCS was to use tearing. I really, REALLY don't like tearing. I don't feel like I'm very good at it, and stuff always ends up looking, well, TORN! Messy, torn, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I forced myself to do this for the challenge, and I ended up liking it pretty well. The Kraft CS kind of looks like a paper bag, which works well with this Eco Chic kit, which is adorable, and a fabulous deal! I threaded hemp twine three times through the jumbo eyelets, and tied it inside the card. It makes it kind of bulky, but I like the look.

With the baby in a slightly better mood today, perhaps I'll get to finish the dishes (I raced through some of them before dh left for work) and stamp something. If so, I'll be back later. If not, perhaps tomorrow! Until then . . .

Challenge Crazy!

I've gone crazy today. I couldn't stop! I did a card that combined Kristina Werner's color challenge #20 and this week's SCS sketch challenge. And then, I made the exact same card with different stamps! Here is the first one:


I have made my pics a little smaller than usual, but I think if you click on them, you will see them bigger. The colors are so gorgeous (I love pink and green, in case you hadn't noticed!) I used my favorite quote stamp from Unity, called Create Yourself. I started by inking the whole stamp in Pink Pirouette, the lightest color. Then I colored over the parts I wanted different with Celery, Regal Rose and Chocolate Chip markers. I actually only colored the bottom half of the word "creating" with Rose, so it is two-toned. I love how this card turned out.

I love my Unity stamps. But, since I am a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I thought, maybe I can re-create this look with my SU! stamps, so that those of you with other stamps can see how easy it is to CASE someone's card even if you don't have the same stamps! So here is the second card:


The only thing different about this card are the stamps I used. I stamped the silhouette daisies from Upsy Daisy sideways on the Pink Panel for a background. I inked the main image the same way I described for the first card. In both cards, the filigree brad (isn't it AWESOME!??) is attached around the ribbon, gathering the ribbon in.

Finally, here is your daily dose of baby. (and dh, who is pretty cute too!)


If you are here looking for the Unity Wednesday challenge card, please keep reading--it is in my next post!

Have a great day, and--

Unity Pre-Hip-Hop Challenge

Good morning, friends!

Tomorrow is Hip-Hop Thursday at the Unity forum on SCS. Come on over and play with us! Some die-hard Unity addicts (me included) decided it would be fun to start a challenge for Wednesdays, leading up to Hip-Hop! Today's challenge is to pick a card made by a Unity Design Team member and use it to inspire YOUR card. It was hard to choose, because I love pretty much ALL the work the DT members do. I finally chose this card by Heather.


I love how she stamped part of the tree off the page. I think it adds great visual interest. So often, we end up centering our images. That looks good too, but some times it is fun to switch things up! I kept her general layout, but used the Christmas set that I won during Unity's first Hip Hop Thursday, a couple of weeks ago. I used a different clip, added ribbon, and moved the bottom embellishment to the other side. Without the side embossing, I needed some balance on that side. I added Crystal Effects to the ornaments, along with some Dazzling Diamonds, for some glitz!!


The little "rain dots" in the lower corner are homemade--who can afford raindots in all the colors you might ever need? I sure can't. Luckily, I can make them in any color I want! And so can you. Just punch out some circles in whatever size and color you want. Attach them to a glue dot and store them on a small sheet of wax paper. Spread some Crystal Effects or Diamond Glaze over the whole circle, and allow to dry. I added Dazzling Diamonds too. When they are dry, you can pick them off the wax paper and stick them on your card. Wa-la! (is that supposed to be Voila?? I don't use it often enough to know...) I didn't have any Christmas sentiments from Unity, so I borrowed a sentiment from one of my SU! sets. It works.

If you'd like to participate in this challenge, go to the Unity forum on SCS and find the thread with the details. I have a list on the right of some other gals that may be participating in this challenge. Happy blurfing! And, of course--

More is More?

Sorry about that last post. I am just in a rough spot. I wish someone had told me months ago that dh and I should not be rocking our baby to sleep, or he would always need to be rocked to sleep. I wish I could go back and just start laying him down in bed awake. Now, the second we lay him down, he starts crying, and it is just so sad and heartbreaking. I don't want to have to lay down with him when he's two, just so he'll nap. I know that works for some people. But I want him to be able to fall asleep on his own. We've done this CIO (cry it out thing) for several days now, and I just don't know that it is doing anything except making him so upset that he clings to me during the day, doesn't want to be put down, and starts crying and flailing his hands when he thinks we are putting him in bed. That can't be good for him, can it? So I have to make a decision... do we keep trying this for a bit longer (how long??) and hope that we start seeing progress? Or quit and go back to rocking him. At least when we were rocking him, he was a happy, independent, confident little guy during the day. I miss that. I don't know who this whiny, insecure, needy, wailing child is, and I don't like it! I've talked to so many different people and read so many different things in books and online... I know there are two very vehemently different views on CIO. Some say it is horrible and cruel, and others swear by it because it has worked so well for them. I just don't know where I stand! Somewhere in the middle, I guess, because I feel cruel, but I really WANT it to work.

Ok, enough of that. Here are a couple of cards I did last week, but haven't shared with you yet. They were for an SCS Dirty Dozen/Fan Club challenge. Two cards... step the second one up by adding MORE to it, or something like that. Here's my first card. I cut it with my nesties, by lining up the fold of the card under the edge of the die before I ran it through my cuttlebug. Fun, huh?


Then, for the MORE is MORE card, I added a layer of Pale Plum, made the white layer scalloped, sponged the edges of the white, added glitter to the whole flower, and added some little pearls. I'm not even sure which version I like best!


For more details, find these cards in my gallery on SCS. I don't feel like typing out all the details today. Sorry!

Letting my baby cry SUCKS!

That's all I have to say right now.

Jess

Pirates, Pirates Everywhere!

My four year old nephew has been obsessed with pirates for a couple of years now. It is one of the coolest obsessions one could have, I think. He takes it pretty far, though... he won't wear any shirts unless they are pirate-related, and he likes to wear them to bed too. He has every imaginable pirate toy there is, and yet he keeps getting new ones (so they must make more than every imaginable toy!) This is the second year he's had a pirate party for his birthday, and I helped make the cake this year. Isn't this the coolest cake ever?


I found the recipe online HERE, and it tells you exactly how to get it to look this AWESOME! He loved it, of course. It tasted great, too, but pretty much anything with frosting tastes good to me! :-) Well, maybe not broccoli or brussels sprouts or any vegetables of any kind, for that matter. I also made a pirate card, which he tossed aside, but his mom loved. I used a couple of cute little single Lizzie Anne stamps that I got several months ago just for this purpose.



Finally, a few weeks ago, my mom, a retired teacher, gave all her paper puppet making supplies to my nephews, and we made a bunch of pirate puppets to have for the kids to play with at the party. It was an evening party, and they wouldn't have time to have the kids make the puppets at the party, so about three of us adults made them ahead of time. We used gold cord for earrings, and each one had a different nose, mouth and facial hair. Aren't they cute?


Today has not been a great day. The baby had an off night last night, because we were out late at the Pirate Party! He cried for an hour and a half, and then was up at 5:30. During the day today, he only took one nap, and it was from 9am until 9:45am. DH is upstairs with him right now, even though it is only 6:15, because he is SO exhausted. He is so over tired, that he will probably cry forever tonight too. It is AWFUL!!!!!

A New Week!

Good morning! Happy Monday. I hope you had a fabulous weekend! We did. Guess what? I can see my dining room table! It has been hidden for some time under my growing pile of stamping mess. I was having trouble being creative when I couldn't find the things I needed.

Two pics to share today. The first is the baby having his first sandbox experience at our friends' BBQ on Saturday. He looks so big, like a little boy!


The second is another fun fold card-- with the smaller front panel and background paper inside. Since the paper is so busy, I added another panel of Kiwi Kiss inside the card to write on.


Finally, in the last week, I received this FUN award from two of my virtual stamping friends, Jessy and Judy.

Here are the rules for accepting this wonderful blog award:

1. The winner can put the logo on their blog.

2. Link the person you received your award from (see the link above)

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs

4. Put links of those blogs on yours

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.

So this is who I am awarding this "I {heart} Your Blog" to:

1. Michelle--I love Michelle's stamping style! Everything she makes is so cool and pretty!
2. Angie--I visit Angie's blog often, because her projects blow me away!
3. Laura--Another almost daily visit, because her projects are so bright and cheerful!
4. Heather--The stuff she does with Unity stamps is so awesome! Love her work!
5. Jennifer--One of the sweetest gals ever, and her projects always inspire me.
6. Linsey--Linsey does such amazing, creative work.
7. Michele--Michele's clean and simple SU! cards are so fantastic, you'll want to CASE them all!

It was difficult to choose, because I have so many blogs I love to visit. These gals are all so amazing, I bet they've already gotten this award many times! Visit their blogs and you will see just how talented and creative they are. Not to mention, very sweet, in the online "conversations" I've had with most of them, or comments they have either responded to or left on my blog. Thanks for inspiring me, ladies!

Thanks again, Judy and Jess for my award!

I'll probable be back later to share more. Meanwhile,


CARD RECIPE
Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes
Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Red Riding Hood Red, Bella Rose
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Red Riding Hood Red
Accessories: corner rounder punch

Kick off Your Shoes and Dance!

Good evening, friends! I hope you had a lovely Saturday! We did. Well, other than trying and failing miserably at getting the baby to take naps. We spent the evening at some friends' house for a BBQ, and got a flat tire on the way home, so we didn't end up getting him to bed until about an hour and half later than we've been doing, but he did go right to sleep. (because he was SOOOOO tired from not napping.) In spite of all that, it has been a great day!

I created this card using one of Julee's sketches, this time from the Meet the Verve Divas Challenge on SCS. I love this set of quotes from Verve... each one was chosen by a Verve Design Team member, and there is a story behind why it was chosen. I had never heard this quote by Oprah, but I love it! If you can't read it in the pictures, it says "Every day brings a chance for you to draw in a breath, kick off your shoes and dance." I love, love, love it, and I think it is my new motto!


And, of course, you need your daily dose of baby. (Well, I know at least one person reading this does--here you go, sweet Auntie!) He has this new habit of rubbing his hands in any food that doesn't make it in his mouth, and then rubbing his face, eyes, and hair. Did you know that sweet potatoes make great hair gel? Look at his stylin' mohawk! :-) I have some more cute pics that we snapped at the BBQ tonight, but I'll save them for tomorrow.


Well, that's all for me tonight! I hope you have a great day tomorrow, and . . .


CARD RECIPE
Stamps: Beautiful You, by Verve
Cardstock: Basic Black, Pixie Pink, Whisper White, unknown black and pink floral
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Nesties, dimensionals, pink bling

Makeover Day!

Happy Saturday! Do you like my new Blog? I decided I needed a makeover. Veronica at vkdesignco did it all for me. Isn't she fabulous!?? She was such a pleasure to work with . . . so friendly and helpful, and she made everything just the way I wanted!

I will be back later with some new cards to show you!

Three Posts in One Day? I Must Be CRAZY!!

No, I just wanted to do Kristina Werner's Color Challenge! I haven't done it in awhile. The challenge was to use Basic Black, Basic Gray, Whisper White, and one other color of my choice.
So I chose my new favorite color, Pink Pirouette. Here is my card:


Sorry the lighting and colors are not great. Since it is almost 10pm, I had to snap the picture inside, which means no natural light to make my pic look good. Oh well. Next time!

Here is my other excuse for posting a third time . . . I realized I hadn't posted my daily cute baby dose for you! Enjoy! This was during our playtime today. He was goofing around with this crate, so I set him in it, and he kind of liked it! On the sleep front, he stopped crying after about 5 minutes tonight, but fell asleep sitting up, and over the next 20 minutes, his head bobbing woke him up and he cried/fussed again for about half an hour. I finally had to go move him onto his side, since he didn't seem to be able to do it himself somehow. We're hoping for another all night sleep . . . I hope I didn't just jinx us by saying that!


Continued Happy Stamping! (is there any other kind?)

Stampin' Up! Finally!

Here's post two, as promised. Short and sweet. I tried three of my new SU! sets last night: Crazy for Cupcakes, Four Square and Pocket Silhouettes. Here are the cards:


The cupcake card showcases several of SU!'s amazing new products: Pink Pirouette and Riding Hood Red In Colors, the WIDE (1"!!!!) Pink Pirouette ribbon, the Filigree brad, and the scalloped edge punch. I used ink from the lids of the ink pads to color in the cupcakes, then added dazzling diamonds glitter to the frosting! Yummy!


This second card is just about the easiest card I've ever made. I got this set specifically because I thought it would make great cards for MEN! I rarely make masculine cards, but paired with this Prestwick Designer paper, also new this year, this card came together in about one minute! Including the eyelet, because the cropodile sets eyelets so quickly!

The last card uses two more of the in colors: Baja Breeze and Pacific Point, both gorgeous in person! I used Pocket Silhouettes, which will be in a VERY close second to the cupcake set as my favorite new set. It is so soft and sweet, this set. I wish I could take credit for this cool card layout, but I saw it on Tuesday on a very talented gal's blog. Laura, one of Unity's cool Design Team members, did this to a couple of cards. I just sliced about an inch off of the top and side of the front of the card, then covered the inside with a piece of Urban Garden Designer Paper, which is to DIE for!!

That's all for today! Thanks for the prayers for my aunt. I got a phone call from Mom saying she made it through surgery okay, and is settling in to her room. I can't believe they send someone home from the hospital the DAY AFTER major surgery. If you are so inclined, please continue praying for her speedy recovery and her emotional health! I LOVE you Auntie, and so does Isaac.

More Happy Stamping, friends!

I Got Some More!

Sleep, that is...

Another good morning, peeps! The baby slept for almost 11 hours straight! Yes, I did say ELEVEN! He cried for about 45 minutes when I put him down, which was half what he did the night before. Then he slept until 6am, without waking up. No bottle, for the second night in a row! Wow! I think we are getting there! I, of course, woke up a couple of times, wondering if he was okay, since I hadn't heard him, but I think after a few more nights, I'll be okay too! :-)

I stamped yesterday. And guess what? I actually used Stampin' Up! stamps! I made a little "fun money" by selling some of my retired stamps, so I put in an order from the new catalog, which came yesterday. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get outside to get good pictures of what I made yet. So check back later today! Today just might be a TWO POST day! :-) It is Friday, after all.

So until then, you'll just have to enjoy a little more Unity. Why not? I Do! :-)


I don't think I posted this one yet. I will go check. If I did, I'll come back and change it out with another one. I used this week's color challenge from Splitcoast: Ruby Red, Close to Cocoa and Blush Blossom. I rarely use Blush Blossom, but I like this combo! The stamps, once again, are from Unity's August kit of the month, Remember Happiness. I love that trailer!

If any of you are the praying sort... please say a prayer for my Aunt today. She is having surgery today. Thankfully, my mom is with her. When you read this, Aunt Chris-- I LOVE YOU and hope everything went okay.

I must go shower, since baby and I are off to visit Daddy at his school for lunch. He has a final work day today before starting with his kindergarten students on Monday. He misses us, so we are taking lunch to him!

Happy stamping, Stampers!

Yay, Sleep!

I got some last night! (sleep, that is. :-) Read the title of the post, silly!) We put baby to bed without rocking him last night. He cried for an hour and a half, but then slept until 2. He has been waking up twice each night wanting a bottle. At 2, we let him cry for a while to see if he would get himself back to sleep. He didn't, and at 3, I went in and gave him his pacifier, and held him, with no rocking or singing or talking, OR bottle. He went back down to sleep in a few minutes, and slept until 6:00am. It was SO difficult to listen to him cry, but I know it will get easier, and eventually he will be going to sleep on his own and sleeping all night! I am just so thrilled that I wasn't up at 4:30 with a baby who won't go back to sleep! 6am felt like sleeping in to me!

On the stamping front--Today is Hip Hop Thursday over at Unity stamps. Check out the SCS forum HERE. If you missed it last week, we had tons of fun and Angela and Chris gave away lots of free stamps. It is basically a day long party! You can also see a newly released, very cool single stamp, and some other good deals here.

Some of us were getting anxious for Hip Hop Thursday last night, so Brooke, one of Unity's awesome design team members, offered up a challenge to keep us busy: stamp something with green. I didn't do the challenge until this morning, but here it is:


Once again, I used Unity's August kit of the month--there are so many great images! Can you tell that the butterflies are 3D? I cut them out and attached them just by the body with glue, and curled the wings out with my fingers. Then I drew their deely-boppers (what are those things really called? Oh yeah, antennae) in with markers. Hope you like!

Happy Stamping, and HIP HOP!

My Masterpiece

Good morning! Yes, it is. A good one, that is. Baby just took a long (1 hr, 15min) nap, and I got to stamp 2 cards! For those of you keeping tabs on me, YES, I did clean the kitchen yesterday before I stamped. Today I will be doing a little more baby proofing, now that my stamping is done. Both cards were done from sketch challenges on SCS. I find that having a sketch to work from is easier for me when I'm in a time crunch... I don't spend so much time trying to figure out where to put all the different elements... but because I pick the stamps, papers, and embellishments, I still feel like it is "my" card.


This first one has me going back to pink and brown, always a favorite for me. I used August's kit of the month from Unity. LOVE this kit!

This one I used colors I don't use often, but they were on my table already cut to the right size, basically, so I just went with it. It turned out okay. I don't love it, but I like it.

This last picture is my masterpiece. THE BABY! Not the highchair tray artwork. I can't take credit for that! :-)

Have a great day, and happy stamping!

Candy and More Candy

Today is Monday, right? I sure hope so, because it has felt like a Monday ALL DAY LONG, starting at 5am. Baby is getting his top teeth, and doesn't sleep well while teething. (who would?) Baby not sleeping well = Mommy not sleeping well. I should probably be in bed now, but I'm going to squeeze out a bit of alone time before bed. I must have some balance, right?

I actually stamped two things today, both in a rush, because I wasn't sure how long his naps would last. I also did it instead of cleaning the kitchen, which means I will HAVE to clean tomorrow before I do any stamping at all! Bad girl!

This first project was the technique challenge over at SCS today. It was super easy, and look how cute it turned out! There are directions to print out and everything... go try it!


The next picture is a card I made with Unity's August Kit of the Month, Remember Happiness. This is such a cute kit! I love the images--they are all so sweet. I actually used a scrap of the acetate from my first project, ran it through the Cuttlebug with Swiss Dots, and think it is a pretty cool background! I put Crystal Effects on the jars, too, to make them look like glass. This was such a fun card to make!


This last picture is what the baby does for exercise over and over and over. Of course, one of us is always right behind him. You can see dh's shirt on the top left--he ducked behind the wall quickly while I took the picture. You would think repeated stair climbing would tire him out enough that he would sleep all night, wouldn't you? You would, but you'd be wrong. :-(


Well, that's all for me tonight, peeps! Go have your little marshmallow-y selves a nice evening, "k"?? Happy Stamping!

A REAL Post for Today!

Hi there!

Here is another card. I love pink and green together. The scalloped mat behind the tree is actually lots of individual circles placed to look like a scalloped oval. I won't be doing that again, because I now have oval nesties! Wahoo! This are stamps from Unity's July kit of the month. Love it!


I don't have any pictures of the baby walking yet, but this one is pretty cute, huh? He popped another tooth last night (yes, I'm STILL tired) --on top this time. He's a doll. We did his nine month pictures yesterday, and he was such a little cutie!


Happy Stamping, friends!

Jessica