Tulipe Big Shot Die

These two cards are made with the Tulipe die from the Big Shot. I used the negative side, instead of all the little pieces that come out in this one. It is a pretty die, so I made the cards square, The Baja Breeze base is 5 x 51/4. You don't have to do much to make them look good. Just pick out some designer paper and maybe some Rhinestones or pearls from the Pretties kit and you are done. Quick yet elegant.


















Recipe:

Paper: Whisper White, DSP Holiday Treasures or Ski Slope
Accessories: Big Shot, Tulpie die, Rhinestones or Pearls from Pretties

Pumpkin Patch

I took the kids to Joan's Pumpkin Patch last week with my Mom's group. We do this Pumpkin Patch every year. It is a great place to go with the kids and let them run wild for an hour or two. They have tons of pumpkins, great for taking photos. They also have this great tree for climbing, and pictures too!

Calyn has just started sitting up, she is pretty wobbly but if you prop her up against something, she can sit up for a few minutes before toppling to one side or the other. This photo among the pumpkins is one of my favorites.







This is a picture of her in her stroller. She is looking all very serious in this shot. Not sure what she was thinking. She was just hanging out watching all the kids run around.










This is a picture of Hayden in the tree. This is a huge branch that extends parallel to the ground at about three feet above the ground. Like I said, this is a great tree to play on and while the kids are playing and climbing, you can snap some great pictures without them even knowing. I took 150 pictures on this trip and we were there for about 1 1/2 hours.

Pink Suede Paper Snowflake

I participated in a Big Shot materials swap. My chosen material was suede paper. The snowflake on this card is this material. It is very soft to the touch and feels like velvet. Very pretty to work with. I was able to cut two pieces at once with my Big Shot and think that I could have gone one more. I can't wait to see all the other cool materials once I get the swap stuff in. Hoping for some good ideas. Enjoy!

Recipe:

Stamps: Curvy Verses
C/S: Chocolate Chip, WW, DSP Holiday Treasures
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red
Accessories: Big Shot, Snowflake & Top Note Dies, Circle & Curly Label punches, Taffeta Chocolate Chip ribbon, Dimensionals

Sleepy Girl

What a sleepy girl. Is she trying to catch flies? Love the mouth, it is your typical baby mouth, all full and cute! This was taken on Saturday night at our friends annual Halloween party. Calyn usually goes to bed around 8:00 and this picture was snapped around 9:00. She had a great time, she was baby Princess Lela from Star Wars. I was adult Princess Lela, Hayden was a Clone Trooper and Greg was the Emperor Palentine. Pictures of that evening will be posted soon!

Stamp A Rama & Faux Dry Embossing

This is another card I made using my new favorite technique, Faux Dry Embossing. I made this card for a shoe box swap I was doing with some of the demonstrators in my group. We had to design a card that could be demonstrate in 10 minutes at a workshop/class.

I decided to use a set that I have not had out in a long time, Baroque Motifs. I love the delicate look to this stamp and felt that the lines & swirls would look great with this technique.

I have given instructions for this techinque in a previous post but will list it here again :

Technique: Faux Dry Embossing

1. Take your stamp and stamp on cardstock using White Craft pad.
2. Use Heat tool to set the ink or wait 10 minutes for it to completely dry.
3. Use the Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up your image (having already stamped the image on the ma-jig), you will be using the same color on the image sheet as the cardstock you will be stamping on.
4. Once you have the stamp-a-ma-jig lined up, you will want to off set it just a bit. This will give you the embossed look.
5. Remove your image sheet and stamp over the craft with your main color (same as cardstock. i.e., Pacific Point ink on Pacific Point c/s).

There you have it. Faux Dry Embossing.

Recipe for this card:

Stamp: Baroque Motifs
C/S: Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, WW
Ink: White Craft, Pacific Point
Accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Kiwi Kiss ribbon, Designer label & oval punch, Big Shot & Top note die, dimensionals.

Surrounded by Pumpkins

Every year we go to Joan's Pumpkin Patch in Livermore. This year we joined my Mom's club there. It is about a 30 minute drive but well worth it. They have tons of Pumpkins, a petting zoo with goats that you can feed, all kinds of areas for the kids to run and play, a corn maze, hay rides and the best tree for climbing and pictures.

I will be posting more pictures from this day, but this was one of my favorites. The kids are surrounded by pumpkins. I just love how vibranit the color of the pumpkins and how many there are, it looks like they go on forvever!
Calyn is just starting to sit up on her own, but here she gets a little help from big brother Hayden. It was hard to get him to sit still for this picture and this is the only one where he is looking at the camera, just too much fun stuff going on around for picture time!

Snowflake Card

This is a card that I cased from one of my uplines, Patty Bennett. See her blog at Patty's Stamping spot.

I changed up the colors and snowflake center and greeting. I used the snowflake die & Top Note die. I also used several punches. Thought it turned out pretty nice, I just love all the dies and the new Big Shot, it adds a completely new element to card making. I have just ordered the scribble swirls and big Tulipe die. Can't wait to play with those. Enjoy.




Recipe:

Stamps: Curvy Label
C/S: Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, WW
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: Bit Shot, Snowflake & Top Note die. Scallop punch, circle punches, Designer label punch, Snowflake punch, rhinestone from Pretties kit, Kiwi Kiss ribbon, Dimensionals

A Wish for Peace

This is a card that I did for my Stamper's Club that met this last Friday. This card uses heat & stick & glitter for the focal. I stamped the main image in Craft Ink Old Olive and then sprinkled Heat & Stick powder over it. I then heated the image with the Heat Gun to set the image. I then immediately sprinkled with Iridescent Ice Glitter and hit it with the Heat gun again to set that.

I added a bit of color to the focal, by taking my blender pen to Ruby Red Classic Ink and coloring in the church.

Hope you like it.

Recipe:

Stamp: A wish for Peace
C/S: Ruby Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, DSP Old Olive, Whisper White
Ink: Craft Old Olive, Basic Brown, Ruby Red
Accessories: Heat & Stick Powder, Iridescent Ice Glitter, Blender pen, Ribbon Originals Alpine, dimensionals

Calyn is 4 months old

Calyn is 4 months old. I can't believe that she is growing so fast. It is such a joy to have a baby in the house again. Yes, I am sleep deprived and yes, she cries and throws tantrums sometimes, but I would not have it any other way. I can not even imagine life without her, now that she is here.

These pictures were taken when she was having a little tummy time. I had actually just put her down for a moment. She immediately rolled over and then pulled her head up and was looking around. She sat so still for the pictures. Little hand over the other and smiling away. I got right down on the floor to get these, better to get at their level when taking photos of the kids.




















What is she doing now? Here are her stats and accomplishments at 4 months:

Weight: 15lbs, 3oz

Height: 24"

Rolling over (started on 09/08)
Squeals
Chattters up a storm
Can hold head up when on tummy
Likes tummy time
Smiles at everyone
Has just found she has feet and loves to eat them!
Loves to be held
Loves the Baby Bjorn
Thinks her big brother is funny
Wearing 3-6 month clothing
Hair is growing in, seems to have a slight reddish tint.
Going to bed between 8-9, waking around 1AM & 4AM
Thinks that 6AM is a good time to wake up.....NOT!
Noticing the dog
Starting to eat Rice cereal (10/13)

Inspired by Nature - Take 2

This is the same technique as I used in my previous post. This was a card that I played around with to come up with my swap card, see previous post. In this card, I used Vanilla Craft pad instead of the white craft pad, but I do not like the effect as much in this card. There is not enough contrast. I do like the design of the card, so I'd thought that I would show it.

Inspired by Nature

This is a card that I made for a demonstrator swap at my Upline's meeting.

I used a technique called "Faux Dry Embossing". What you do is stamp the image using a white craft pad. Then, using Stampin' Up!'s Stampin Ma-jig, you stamp the color of your cardstock (i.e. Kiwi Kiss Stamp pad on the Kiwi Kiss cardstock). You just center it slighty off from the main image. This gives you a embossed effect. Pretty cool, huh? Cool enough to win me 2nd place in the card contest. Sweet beans!



Recipe:

Stamps : Inspired by Nature, Best Yet
C/S: Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, WW,
Inks: Craft White, Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: DSP Urban Garden, Scallop Edge punch, Circle punches, Kiwi Kiss Ribbon, Stampin Majig, white gel pen, dimensionals

Hayden's September birthday party

Hayden does not turn 5 until December 28th. He really wanted to have a jumpy & swim party this year and there is no way that can happen in December. So, we decided to celebrate his birthday in September.

This picture is just after we sang Happy Birthday. See that cake? I had no idea when I ordered it, that the frosting would be blue, can you say MESSY? I made the kids eat outside but still was rubbing the blue mess off my table days later!

We had a huge firetruck jumpy, which I neglected to get pictures of. He invited all his friends and all the boys in his class at school. They had such a great time and so did the adults. We BBQ'd chicken and made pulled pork sandwiches. The kids played in the jumpy for several hours and then into the pool they went. It turned out to be a very nice day, not too hot, which was a good thing considering how the kids get SO worked up.





Hayden is showing us his sticky blue fingers & chin. It took about 8 wipes to get the blue off his face & fingers!










Hayden's gang of boys. These are all the boys from Hayden's school. Cameron, in the soccer shirt, Arman in the red shirt, Alex in the brown and Harry in the green in the front of the picture. He is holding court, as usual!











Lastly, here is Hayden opening his presents. He got so many, but it is nice that he is getting some now and then it won't be so overwhelming at Christmas & his real birthday.

Hangin' in my crib

This picture was taken on the 25th of September. Calyn was hanging out in her crib and decided to roll over. She was totally checkin out her sheets, she is very into patterns and stripes right now. I couldn't resist the cute little smile on her face!

Just Jawing and the Big Shot

Here is another sample card using the new Stampin' Up! Just Jawing set. I also used the negative cut out from the Top Note Bigz die. I just love how it frames the card. This set is too fun. I have also seen the skull done with a pirate hat on, which is TOO cute. Will have to try that!

Recipe:

Stamps: Just Jawing
C/S: Basic black, Whisper White, DSP Ghostly Greetings
Ink: Stazon Black
Accessories: Bit Shot, Top Note Bigz die (Negative piece), Chunky glitter, Pumpkin Pie Striped ribbon, Rinestones from the Pretties kit.

Hayden feeds Calyn

This was the cutest. Every night we give Calyn a bottle around 7:00PM. This really seems to fill her tummy and gets her to sleep through the night.
She is sleeping from around 8:00pm to 4:00am, which, I think is pretty good! More sleep for Mom. She has another feeding at 4:00AM and then goes back down for another 3-4 hours. She has been waking up at 6:00 and then starts "talking" away. She is really finding her voice. I wonder where she gets that from, hmm!

Anyway, Hayden really wanted to feed her last night and it is so cute that he is into his little sister so much. He is such a big helper, always running and finding binkies, burp clothes, whatever! Such a good boy! Hopefully he continues to be interested in her and being Mom's littler helper!

Just Jawing

This is such a Super cute set, Stampin Up!'s Just Jawing. This was a quick card using the new Designer Series Paper Ghostly Greetings and the Chunky Glitter. I thought that adding the glitter on his tooth kinda gave him a pirate look. See the recipe below. Enjoy!

Recipe:

Stamps: Weathered background stamp, Just Jawing
C/S: Basic Grey, Basic Black, Whisper White, DSP Ghostly Greetings
Inks: Stazon Black
Accessories: Big Shot, Top Note Bigz Die, Chunky glitter, Dimensionals, Ticket punch, paper snips