I'm back...

Yes, I'm back!  Aren't you glad?  Well, maybe you aren't.  Maybe you weren't even aware I was gone.  Oh well!


I have been feeling much more creative recently, and was inspired by a card I saw on Nichole Heady's blog; more specifically this card.


I needed a birthday card for a niece, so I thought I'd try using what I have to make a similar card, since those particular stamps were only just released.  I really liked the color scheme, so I stuck with something very similar.

Supplies:
Stamps: Close To My Heart (flower petal from Follow Your Heart B1338) and Papertrey Ink (Happy Birthday from Think Big Favorites #12)
Paper: Papertrey Ink (White and Hawaiian Shores)
Ribbon: Papertrey Ink (Winter Wisteria satin ribbon), Tim Holtz Ideology (music tissue tape)
Bling: Close to my Heart
Ink: Copics to color bling, tim holtz distress ink pads (faded jeans, shaded lilac, peacock feathers), Adirondack alcohol ink (purple twilight) to ink tissue tape

And another Happy Birthday...

A more masculine card this time...

Ink is from papertrey ink (kraft).  Cardstock, paper, tapestry rubon and bling are all from close to my heart.

Thanks for visiting!
Cindy

Happy Birthday...

My husband keeps reminding me that I need to make more birthday cards.  I was completely out the last time he raided my card stash for birthdays.  So I'll be making a few of those for the upcoming days. 


It gave me the perfect opportunity to try out some stamps that just arrived from a new stamp company, Uniko Studio.  Never heard of them?  Doesn't surprise me, they are VERY new, have 2 stamp sets available right now, and just released a digital designer paper pack.  Check out their store here, and their blog here.


They are located in the UK, but I had quick shipping and the best service so far.


Today's card uses the flower stamp that is repeated in three different sizes, and in some of the clock faces of the Time stamp set.  (BTW, this little flower coordinates with the filigree border die from papertrey so beautifully.  I cannot wait to pair those up on a card or layout!)

The stamps are from Time (Uniko Studio).  Inks are from papertrey ink (hawaiian shores, simply chartreuse, aqua mist, and spring moss) and memento (tuxedo black).  The ribbon and cardstock are hawaiian shores from papertrey.  The white daisy cardstock and bling brad are from close to my heart. 


I love these stamps and can't wait to use more of them!  I also can't wait to see what else Uniko Studio puts out in the months ahead!!


Thanks for visiting,
Cindy

Random Card

I have to admit, this card was just a random desire on my part to use my Waltzingmouse Stamps Free Spirit set. 




The green ink is clover meadow from Close to My Heart. The cardstock, remaining ink, and "you're" stamp are from Papertrey Ink. The background, skater dude, and "awesome" stamp are from Waltzingmouse Stamps. After inking the background stamp with summer sunrise, orange zest, pure poppy, and clover meadow inks, I spritzed the ink with water to get the colors to run a bit.


I'm rather happy with the way it turned out.  I think I need to a pink/purple color scheme for a female version.  That could be interesting.

 Thanks for visiting!
Cindy

Make a wish

Today's card was a birthday card for a friend recently.  It also features the ghost masking technique from a recent Make It Monday.







Everything from this card is from Papertrey Ink.


Thanks for visiting!
Cindy

Back!

Well I'm back!  We'll see how long I manage this time around.  Today I have a couple of cards using a dimensional banner which was featured in a recent Make It Monday.


The paper is from Dreamin' paper pack, the colonial white cardstock for the banner, and the background stamps (Intrinsic Backgrounds D1335) are from Close to My Heart. The summer sunrise cardstock, ink (enchanted evening and summer sunrise), and sentiment stamps are from Papertrey Ink.  The bling is orange from KaiserCrafts.


Hope you are having a wonderful month and I should be back again tomorrow!


Thanks for visiting,
Cindy

Make It Monday #15 Part II

Okay I couldn't resist. I'm having so much fun with the spray mists! And later this week I might even have a scrapbook page or two using them as well. :)
For this card I did something a little different. Instead of spraying the background I sprayed the stamped image keeping the olive green (Close To My Heart) toward the bottom with the leaves and the sweet blush (Papertrey Ink) and plum pudding (Papertrey Ink) up toward the top by the flowers. I stamped the larkspur from Year of Flowers: Larkspur (Papertrey Ink) on watercolor paper with archival black ink (Close To My Heart). Heat set the ink, then sprayed the mists. I took a waterpen and added a little plum pudding to the flowers to darken them up a little. Then I mounted the panel on plum pudding cardstock, inked the edges with fresh snow ink and mounted it on the card front. I also rounded all the corners. That's it. I kept trying to add something more to the card and decided the main panel was visually interesting enough.

It's really hard to get a good picture of the sheen on this card, so the colors in this photo are really funky, but the sparkles are there to show you how the main panel just shines.

Thanks for visiting!

Make It Monday #15

Papertrey Ink has released a new Make It Monday video and it's make your own spray mist. I love doing this!

I chose to get a head start on my Christmas cards this year. The base is Enchanted Evening cardstock spritzed with a mist of water, alcohol, enchanted evening reinker and CTMH pearl create-a-shade paint to give it that shimmery backing. I also used shimmer silver cardstock and ribbon from Papertrey Ink. I stamped the snowflake (from Papertrey's snowflake serenade stamps set) and happy holidays (from holiday button bits stamp set) with versamark ink, added silver embossing powder and heat embossed. Easy peasy.

Here's a closer look to see the shimmery background:

Thanks for visiting!

Make It Monday at Papertrey

I thought I would jump back in by doing this week's Make It Monday over at Papertrey Ink. It was so much fun playing with the embossing plates and dies.

So here is my card:



The cardstock is Sweet Blush and White (Papertrey Ink), Grey Wool (Close to my Heart). The ink is Grey Wool and Hollyhock (Close to my heart). And the ribbon is hollyhock (Close to My Heart). Stamps are from Mat Stack #3 (Papertrey Ink) and Bon Appetit (Close to My Heart). The embossing folder is from Cuttlebug and the frame is the Mat Stack 3 die from Papertrey Ink. I also used a shimmer mist made from Close to My Heart's pearl create a shade paint and a mixture of rubbing alcohol and water on the sweet blush cardstock. Doesn't show well in the photo but gives a very nice shimmer to the cardstock.

Thanks for visiting!

Papertrey Pals

The new Papertrey Pals challenges have begun. Check it out over on the blog.

And I'll be back with more, hopefully tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting!

There will be more to come...

I first have to reclaim my laptop from my 7 year old and 5 year old. They recently discovered the world of Webkinz and have laid claim to my laptop for one or two hours a day since. Not only that, they are actively getting me addicted to the arcade games on Webkinz, after all they get the benefit of the webkinz cash. Insert eye roll here. I have several layouts finished this weekend, that I will be posting over the next few days.

In the meantime, I read something that struck me. Many of you know that I homeschool my children. In one homeschool newsletter I was reading this morning I read the following:

"Expectation: A standard of performance expected of someone. When I read this definition, several things struck me. First, that a standard of performance has been set and accepted. For many years, educational standards were just observations of what children commonly learned at different ages or grades. Tests assessed whether a child had learned what most other children the same age had learned. Meeting commonly held standards meant that you generally knew what others your age knew. Since standards didn't seek to accelerate progress, most students did, in fact, match up with their age mates eventually.

Somewhere along the line, those expectations changed from being descriptive (telling what children learned) to prescriptive (telling what children should learn). As you know as a parent, observing what your child knows versus what she should know is an entirely different feeling. One is informational, and the other is stressful. The stress comes because you have to change your child to fit the standards."

Emphasis added. What do you think? As a first time mom, we watch our children avidly for those first skills: grabbing a small object, rolling over, lifting up on their arms, etc. And often we take our babies to the pediatricians at the first sign of their NOT accomplishing a milestone "on time", only to have the pediatrician tell us, "Go home. Relax, all kids do not do things at the same pace or in the same way." So we relax. We reassure ourselves that they will accomplish those things, they may just take a little longer.

Is this applicable to education? Have our standards progressed from being descriptive to prescriptive as the author states? Are we pushing our children too much, too fast?

I have a healthy respect for old schoolhouses, those one room schoolhouses. Everyone at different levels learning together. The one thing I have taken from my reading about those schoolhouses is the focus on basics: reading, writing, and arithmetic. In my opinion, we cannot progress in our learning if we do not have those basics mastered. Yes, mastered.

So in our school day, math, phonics, and reading get priority. Those are our first three subjects of the day. Sometimes those are the only schoolwork we get accomplished. And in my opinion that is okay. I don't need for my 7 year old to understand ancient history, or astronomy, or speak Spanish, or play the piano like Mozart. I need her to be able to read, write, and do math. Everything else is just icing on the cake. I don't need to compare my teaching to the public school's curriculum, because, in my opinion, they try to do too much in too little detail. All the civics, social sciences, teaching tolerance, and exposure to different cultures. Sounds great. But it's detracting from the basics. I can do the civics, social sciences, tolerance, and expanding their horizons in our daily lives out and about town. And certainly as they get older they will be studying more subjects in more detail.

But right now? If they can read me an age appropriate book, I'm stoked. There is nothing better in the world. And to see my daughter's face when she realized she got every problem correct on her math test. Opinions?

Thanks for visiting as always!

4th Birthday

Have I mentioned I'm terrible when it comes to the big event layouts? Yeah.

So I'm just now doing my son's 4th birthday layout. He turned 5 almost 3 months ago. And no, I haven't done the 5th birthday layout yet.




Anyway, I used Close to My Heart's flip flap pockets to add more pictures to the layout (both the pic of my son and the pic of the birthday cake have more pictures underneath them). Pretty much everything except the felt, the scooby doo, and the "4" are from Close to My Heart. The felt (stars and border) is from Fancy Pants, the scooby doo was from an extra invitation (that I made into a card for his presents), and the 4 is using a die cut from Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for visiting!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Took a nice long weekend with the family. Mostly hung out and cleaned house, but that was nice too, in its own way. LOL.

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! I hope you are enjoying this find Monday. I have the valentines I made for my family to share today.

This first one is completely cased from Janelle's blog. She received the highlight from Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday Challenge and I knew I had to do this for my husband's valentine.
I used my cricut (the heart from Lacy Labels) to make my heart mask. The sentiments are from Papertrey Ink stamps (Borders & Corners: Hearts and Heart Prints) and one from Little Yellow Bicycle ([all you need is love] stamp from their Love Letters line). Inks (black and cranberry) and the love medallion are from Close to My Heart. The ribbon is also from Little Yellow Bicycle's Love Letters line. What do you think? I love it, and can't wait to try it with some other themes, particularly Christmas.

These are the valentines for the kids. Totally inspired by Nichole Heady's blog here.

The cards are actually luggage tags again cut with my cricut (fabulous finds cartridge). I then covered the front in strips of ribbon and cut with scissors.


Thanks for visiting!

37th Birthday

This is a birthday card I made recently for a friend's birthday. I was a bit apprehensive about making a cupcake birthday card for an adult, but I think she liked it. The cupcake and numbers dies are from Papertrey Ink, as well as the stamp set (Big Birthday Wishes), the paper (Wings) and ink are from Close to My Heart. I placed the numbers through my xyron sticker maker upside down and then covered them with prisma glitter.

Thanks for visiting!

A Love of Reading...

Here is the most recent layout I've done of my kids. My daughter has started reading chapter books to herself, and I was excited to get this photo of her reading to her little brother. The book is one of the Frannie K. Stein books. My kids love those books!




These pages are from the Lucky Workshop on the Go kit. I rotated the pages 90 degrees and altered them a bit to fit my photos. The round reading stamps are from Papertrey Ink (All Booked Up), the alphabet stamp is Old World Alphabet from Close to My Heart.

Thanks for visiting!

Jumping right in again...

No talking about that long absence. Really. I'm not going to apologize or anything. These things happen. Homeschooling has taken a lot more of my free time than I had even imagined. But now, I think things are settled in. I'm happy with the way our curriculum is going. Daily school is going smoother. So I hope to return to blogging more frequently.

Hope.

So here are a few cards I made using the Wings Workshop on the Go from Close to My Heart. I did alter them a bit, added some glitter etc.



I'm really rather excited about the spray pens that Close to My Heart are now carrying. :)

Thanks for visiting!

End of Kinder

This is another layout I did during my scrapbooking weekend in June. This is the end of the year program for my daughter's kindergarten. She and some of her closest friends were particularly sad because she knew we would be homeschooling in the future.




I've been posting some really simple layouts to show that not every page in my scrapbooks is a "work of art." LOL. Sometimes you just need to get the pictures on pages and into your albums.

I have been doing a little bit of scrapbooking recently, so I should have some new layouts to show soon.

Thanks for visiting!

Smile

This is another layout from my scrapbooking weekend in June. These were pictures left over from the Grandma's visit, but there just wasn't enough room for them. It's rare I can catch his smile so many times in one day. Usually he spends his time making funny faces or rolling his eyes at me. Yes, literally rolling his eyes. He is only four. :)



Supplies are all Close to my Heart. Clover Meadow CS, ink, Tinkerin' pp and title stickers. I inked the base page, the strips of pp and the photos with clover meadow ink.

Thanks for visiting!

A Visit with Grandma

My mother-in-law visited us for a short weekend in May. We did all the typical grandma visit stuff that weekend. This is another layout I finished at my scrapbooking weekend in June.





Supplies:
Paper: Close to my Heart
Letters and heart flourish cut with cricut

Thanks for visiting!

Pallenge #13

I am the host for this week's challenge on the Papertrey Pals blog. Check it out.

Please feel free to join in the fun!

Cindy