"Spring" Technique Tuesday Blog Hop

Hello there! Happy Monday! This is a Spring-themed Technique Tuesday hop! My fellow Stamping Techs and I are sharing Spring-inspired projects made with Technique Tuesday stamps.

I know I'm an overuser of butterflies, but they are so spring-y, aren't they? I used the stamp from Wingin' It to create the three butterflies, and filled a few spots in with alcohol markers. The small background dots stamp are from Passion For Polka, and the word "celebrate" from Ali Edwards' Kids Are Cool set. "Celebrate" is stamped on some Narrow White Twill. I really love that I can personalized my own ribbon. I used it a few times before (here and here).

Stamps: Technique Tuesday Wingin' It, Passion For Polka, Kids Are Cool / Inks: Hero Arts Shadow Ink Mid-Tone Green Hills and Bubble Gum + Stampin Up Green Galore / Ribbon: Technique Tuesday Narrow White Twill / Rhinestones: Doodlebug / Markers: Pantone ProMarkers + Triart / Cardstock: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White

And of course, this wouldn't be a blog hop without a prize! Technique Tuesday will pick one person from all the comments received during the hop to win the Fly stamp set. Leave me a comment here and visit the other Techs' blogs to leave more comments!

The winner will be announced on the Technique Tuesday blog on May 3^rd.

Now off you go to check out the other Techs' fabulous creations! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Tobi 

Ashley

Charlene

Sharyn

Teri

Tanis

Daniela

Kris

Laura

Jaclyn

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Lawn Fawn: Inspiration Week, part II

Hello again! Here's my second installment of this month's Lawn Fawn inspiration week. This time, it's the Stay Tuned stamps that are being featured. You can take a peek at the whole set here.

Here's my card. I had so much fun making this! Something about stamping and cutting, paper piecing, and coloring that bring out the kid in me. Happy inducing!

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Stay Tuned, Blissful Botanicals, and Love 'n' Breakfast / Ink: Tsukineko Versafine, StazOn, and Memento / Patterned Paper: Lawn Fawn / Cardstock: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White + DCWV Silky Smooth / Punch: Jenni Bowlin

I also used the breakfast tray from Love n' Breakfast, and a little flower from Blissful Botanicals. This was my first time masking (I masked the plate off the tray)! So fun! (Sorry for geeking out. I'm such a neophyte...)

Don't forget to drop by Lawn Fawn's blog to check out the other designer's fabulous projects, and comment to win. Some good giveaways happening over there! Thanks for stopping by.

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Lawn Fawn: Inspiration Week

Hello! Happy Monday! It's Inspiration Week at Lawn Fawn which means lots of projects and prizes. Today is the intro to Claire's ABC. This set of alpha is perfect for cards and layouts, and it's the same font as the Bright Side stickers!

I wanted to keep this layout really simple to focus on the flower. I love hydrangeas! I had a few bushes in front of my house in Philly, and was so happy to find one in this house. White cardstock is the perfect background for a photo this colorful. I stamped the words, cut them out, and popped them up for emphasis.

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Claire's ABC and Flutter By / Ink: Clearsnap Colorbox in Berry and Fresh Green + Jenni Bowlin in Lemon Drops + Clearsnap Top Boss Embossing Pad / Embossing Powder: American Crafts Zing Opaque White / Mists: October Afternoon Sprinklers in Strawberry Creme + Studio Calico Mister Huey's in Bonny Blue and Sunshine / thread: DMC / cardstock: Bazzill

I also wanted to play with mist as watercolor. I know this is nothing new, and everyone in the interwebs has done it. Except for me! I actually have a nice collection of mists, but I don't use them because of the lack of control. I don't like that I can't control precisely where the color will land. With a water brush, I can add color exactly where I want. Love! You'll definitely see me doing more of this.

One last thing: Lawn Fawn's alpha stamps are super easy to line up. Every letter stamp base is precisely the same height and there isn't much extra polymer on the sides. So, as long as you have them lined up next to each other, touching, the baselines will be aligned, and each word will stamp perfectly. So awesome!

Thanks for coming by today. Don't forget to stop by Lawn Fawn and enter to win some stamps! Have a great day.

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One of those crappy weeks

Phew. We had a bad week. I'm so glad this week is over. I'm ready to spend some time with the family!

We started on Monday with the death of one of our two gerbils, Houdini. She and her sister Coppefield have been in our family for two years. Sweet, little things. They belonged to my middlest, but truly, they belonged to us all. Poor Coppefield has been sad and sleeping the entire week. We all pretty much feel the same.

She was so adorable!

To compound our sadness, we woke up on Wednesday to find the last guppy gone. Just disappeared. It wasn't on the floor, or in the filter. So strange! It was the only fish in the tank, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't eaten. We tried to convince our youngest that it went on a trip to visit its mom, but I don't think he's buying it. He's been tearing up every so often the entire week. Sigh.

Bad photo. But alas, the only photo of the two guppies. The yellow one is Jamie who died a few days after we got him. The orange one is Bobby, who disappeared on Wednesday.

So now, we are down to two pets. And they better not croak on us anytime soon!

Off to a, hopefully, much better weekend! Hope you have a good one too.

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Weekend In Photos: The Vulcan Edition

If you've watched Star Trek (movie #10 by J.J. Abrams), you will recognize these rocks as Vulcan, Spock's home planet. If you are a fan of the original series, you'll remember this as where Captain Kirk and Gorn were beamed to fight til death. No, I'm not a trekkie. I married one!

This is actually Vasquez Rock in Agua Dolce, about 45 minutes outside of Los Angeles. Otherworldly and beautiful. We were in the vicinity, and decided to take the kids there. The boys are huge Star Trek fans, so it was a happy moment for them. Alas, I was wearing the wrong shoes for this little hike. Plus, did I mention it's gotten warm around these parts, and rattlesnakes like warm weather? Uh, yeah. Next time, we'll have to come prepared with sunscreen and hiking boots (maybe some water and wider lens too!)

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Lawn Fawn + Operation Write Home

Happy Saturday! If you don't know what Operation Write Home is, you can find out more here. Simply put: you create cards that are sent to our troops, who write in them, and send them back to their families. There's more to it, so please go by their website, read about them, donate your cards!

I created this one using the Lawn Fawn stamp sets Gnome Sweet Gnome and Sophie's Sentiments. Actually, the only word I used from the sentiments set was "you." Pretty dang handy that set.

I wanted to create a card that is kid-friendly, and the "bee" pun is perfect. Plus, who can resist those bees?

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Gnome Sweet Gnome + Sophie's Sentiments / Ink: Hero Arts Shadow Ink in Soft Yellow + Tsukineko Memento in Tuxedo Black / Embossing powder: American Crafts Zing in Opaque White / Markers: Triart + Letraset ProMarkers / Carstock: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White + DCWV Silky Smooth / Adhesive: Tombow + 3L

One popped-up bee.

You can barely see it, but there are swirly lines in the background.

That super bright red paper is from a small pad that DCWV sent me. It's called Silky Smooth, and it's exactly that. Slightly shiny, and almost texture free on one side (pretty hard to stamp on). Slightly texture-y on the other (perfect for stamping). The stack I got has neon colors, which are just so hot right now (say it like Mugatu!) Love smooth cardstock! Thank you DCWV!

One other super cool discovery? Milwaukee embossing gun! Who knew! Well, Jennifer McGuire knew. That's who! It heats super fast therefore melts embossing powder super fast. Thank you Jen and Hero Arts! It's exactly what I was looking for. I love it! 

And don't forget to go by Lawn Fawn to see what the other designers created. Plus, there's a pretty awesome giveaway if you enter a humorous card AND another giveaway if you post a comment. Go now!

Have a great weekend! Thanks for dropping by.

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Weekend In Photos: Central Coast California

A bit late, since it's Wednesday already. But I was lazing around yesterday with the kids. It's their Spring Break, so we are just taking it easy.

This past weekend, we drove up the coast of California to Cambria, stopping at a few cities along the way. The kids didn't bring their nintendos. So we had a chance to talk and take in the views as we drove up. Once there, we hiked, played games, watched movies, slept, ate. The kids had fun, we had fun, it was heaven!

Solvang / Cambria / Cambria / Cambria / Cambria / San Simeon / Cayucos

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Happy Friday!

Driving up the coast of California, looking for more of this:

Have a great weekend!

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Jillibean Soup: Projects

March was my last month on the Jillibean Soup team. I've had a great year with them. It's such a great group of people! Jill, Kimber, Jen, and Laina are all so sweet and caring! I can't wait to see them again at the next CHA.

I thought I'd share my Jillibean projects from the past few months.

I will miss working with their products on a regular basis. Actually, so much so that I've already ordered some from an online store!

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Weekends in Photos: So Random!

I didn't take a lot photos this weekend. That's because I spent most of it in bed. Pretty much all day Saturday. Reading, napping, reading, napping. It does the body and soul good! So on Sunday, I forced myself out of bed, and we took the kids to grab some dim sum in the San Gabriel Valley. For you non-SoCal folks, it's an area in LA with amazing Asian restaurants. Did I say amazing? Yeah. I don't eat Chinese or Vietnamese food outside of that area. Really.

I had to bribe the kids with boba to get them to not do Calvin faces for this shot.

Later on, the little and I headed out to take some practice shots. I've been trying forever to take good panning photos, and it's a real hit or miss. A good friend of mine, who's race car photographer, was kind enough to explain it to me. It sounded simple enough... But it's not. So I did more googling, and found this article. The author suggests to practice by swinging a kid and turning with the kid. Well, my smallest kid is NOT small, so swinging him was out. But I did get him to hold my free hand, and we spun together, resulting in this photo, which I love! I love how his hair is taking flight, how happy he looks, how the background is swirling around him. Love this frozen moment of happiness. I need more practice.

We also have a new family member: Billy, the pacman frog. He's not the cutest critter around, but I'm beginning to warm up to him. I tried to pet him today. He tried to bite my finger. I guess we are not friends yet.

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