I Mailed a Herd of Elephants

Earlier last week and they are reaching their destinations, so it is safe to post this card now. These are the birth announcements I made - 40 of them! Why did I design a card with paper pieced elephants and such large embellies when I had to mail them and pay extra postage? I'll never know, but I really like them! The elephant stamp is A Muse and the sentiment is Hero Arts. The dp is Delicate Dots from the last SU! Sale-a-Bration. I love the colors and put it all on a Certainly Celery base. Coloring is done with Bic Mark It! markers. And I used almost the whole jar of Prima flowers :) You don't know how many flowers I have in my stash, so it feels good to use them!
Carter is one month old already and I can tell he has grown leaps and bounds. He is almost out of all the Newborn size clothes, and is into Size 1 diapers. He no longer has chicken legs and has added a second chin. He is starting to be awake and alert a lot more and is sleeping for a few hours at a stretch at night. Though he is still nursing almost every 2-3 hours, he obviously needs it to keep this pace of growth. His next dr. appt is next Friday, so we'll get the official stats then :) Meanwhile, DS1 is in first grade and loves school. Tonight is open house, so I get to meet his teacher and see how he spends his days. I can't wait!
Hope you all had a nice last day of summer! Thanks for looking :)

Baby Baby

In August, DH's cousin's wife had their fourth child, a sweet little boy. The funny thing is that their oldest and our oldest are 3 weeks apart in age, and now our youngest are 2 weeks apart in age. Never mind thtat they have two in between! They live in the midwest and we are hoping to get all these cousins together next summer! Luckily, I was able to complete this card and mail their baby gift before going through all the baby drama of our own.

The image was a RAK and I just think he is adorable. The B stamp is paper pieced and the image is colored with Koh-i-noor pencils and blended. The dp is also from a RAK and I've been waiting for a little boy to be born to use it. There have been lots of girl babies, but few boys.

My little boy is just over 2 weeks old now, and is happily sleeping for the moment. He is a voracious eater and wants to feed about every 2 hours, even at night. He also seems to have a fussy period every evening. I wouldn't call him colicky, just hard to settle and hungry from late afternoon till around 10 or so. So although I'm tired, we are settling into a schedule, I think. Of course, now he'll change it up and throw us a curveball!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by today!

To My Enablers

I made these cards for my girlfriends, with whom I went on a shopping spree in July. It was a long awaited girls' weekend that we spent shopping, eating and chatting. Those weekends are so few and far between that we all relished it. With 8 kids between the 3 couples, you can imagine it's hard to get away! Never mind that we live in 3 different states :)

The bulk of our shopping took place at the outlets. Of course, I had to get something at Coach (two things actually). The sales were amazing and my favorite item was about half off. Therefore, so was the guilt at getting it! From the bag, I cut the strips of Coach paper and used the Bella stamp along with the Hanna Stamps sentiment to complete the card.

Our newest addition is 16 days old today. So far he has been sleeping, nursing, dirtying diapers and starting that routine all over again. It's so strange to have a newborn in the house again, we are all taking time to adjust. DS #1 started first grade last week, so it will be nice to settle into a routine this coming week. We hope! My mom has been here since Wednesday but goes home today and I will miss those extra hands. She has done all of my laundry for the past days and I feel spoiled... Thanks, MOM!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend and is enjoying the same beautiful weather we are enjoying here. Thanks for looking!

My Latest Creation...

...came a little early at 37 weeks. Carter Joseph arrived via c-section at 6lbs, 9oz. He's so much smaller than his brother!


It's been a rough week - he was born on August 21st and we were home two nights when he ended up being re-admitted to the hospital for jaundice. We spent 5 days there, with him under the bili lights waiting for his bilirubin levels to drop. Finally yesterday he was cleared to come home and we are all exhausted! Apparently, he doesn't like to sleep alone at night and DH and I took turns last night holding him while he slept. I understand that I'm not setting a good precedent here, but I think it's going to take us a few days to develop some sort of normal routine. Maybe his room was too dark after the hospital? Too quiet? Any tips out there? I feel like a first time mom all over again!!

Hopefully I can find some time to stamp again soon. I have a pile of birth announcements that have to be completed and a box from SU! that I haven't even opened yet. Horrors!

One More Christmas Card for the Stash

On a recent trip to Michael's, they had this Chatterbox paper (Holiday Sprinkles) on clearance. I love the color combination and picked up a few sheets. One side is polka dots, the other side is a pattern with holly leaves and berries and swirls.

The sketch is from Mary Jo at Techno Stamper. I love this layout and it was perfect for highlighting both sides of the paper. The sentiment is from an old SU! Set, Greetings 4U.

Hopefully later today I will have more time to do more challenges. DS has been crafting with me and now we're getting ready for lunch. DH will start working on finishing my basement laundry room and we'll see what the afternoon brings. I think a trip in the pool is in order - it's hot outside!! I hope you are all having a great weekend. Thanks for looking!

Using My New Elzybells!

This week's Use It Challenge is to use a new technique, a virgin stamp, and new papers. I was the lucky winner recently of some Elzybells stamps from Charlene at Willow and Paisley and decided it was time to ink her up. She is so adorable, I LOVE this set! Go check out Charlene's blog, too - her cards and projects are gorgeous :)

For the elements of the challenge, I used the Pierced Spotlight technique from the Feb/March 2009 Technique Junkie Newsletter. I got the heart shape from a die cut in my stash. I colored the spotlighted part with Prismacolor pencils and blended them with OMS. The papers I used are from a Target dollar spot pack of dp from around Valentine's Day. The virgin stamp was the Elzybells image and sentiment. For the ribbon treatment, I cut a length of silver satin and crimped it with the pink brads from my stash. It's a tiny bit crooked, but I like the detail of it. The scalloped rectangle layer was cut with Nesties in the Cuttlebug.

Well, DS is off on his first solo play date and I have to get him soon. I hope he was well behaved. The little girl whose house he is at loves to play with cars and even has a few race tracks, so I'm sure it will be a success! Too bad it's raining and they won't be able to go outside. His recreation camp ended today and the next two weeks we'll have full days to occupy before school starts. Yikes! First grade, here he comes...

I hope you are all enjoying the summer and aren't too hot or too rainy in your area! Thanks for looking!

I'm Not MIA...

...but I can't believe I haven't posted in over a week! We are in baby-preparation mode around here and most of my time has been taken up by laundry. I think it was easier with the first one and everything was brand new. Things still needed to be washed, but there were no stains to soak out! Things are under control, though, and a day or two each week for the next few should take care of the rest.



I did have a bit of time to craft yesterday morning while DS was at camp (sadly next week is the last week!). I made this card for our family friend who just had her baby girl. I am also going to send her this frame which I actually already had decorated - I just added the baby's name in polka dot chipboard letters. The small Bella images are from their Christmas special and are the perfect size! I popped up the belly in the center image and did some paper piecing for the outfits. The dp is SU! and the border was punched with the Fiskars Upper Crest border punch. Sentiment is A Muse, ribbon is American Crafts, ovals were cut with Nestabilities in the Cuttlebug. The base card is Pink Pirouette.

The papers on the frame (from Ikea) are from the DCWV Spring Stack. I swear, that is the neverending paper pad - I don't think I'll ever use it up! Chipboard letters are from Target.

Well, I have a few hours of quiet this afternoon since DH took DS for a long errand. I am beginning working on decorations for the nursery, but might give in and take a nap. Hopefully I'll be able to sneak in more craft time this weekend. I got my work area cleaned up this morning as I was poking around, so it's ready to go!

I hope you all have a good weekend! I'll at least be back to post some great happy mail I have received in the last couple of weeks. And I think there's a blogoversary to be celebrated here in the next couple of days. So look out for some candy :)

Thanks for looking!