Random Kid Pics

It's Wednesday! Woohoo! Almost done with another week! Can you tell I'm excited? By the end of this week we're hoping to have a motorcycle for David (no more sharing one vehicle!:D), we will be one week closer to getting our household goods (Yea, comfy mattress!), it's payday at the end of the week, and we should have our tax return too! So, lets get this week over with already, yeah? LOL! As promised, here are a bunch of random pictures of the kids. I promise to get pictures of the house posted, but right now the house is still ugly with all the borrowed furniture the AF gave us, and there is nothing on the walls... in other words, not photograph worthy. Here's a pic of the three monstros, uh, I mean kids, eating afterschool snack. See how Angel's sitting in a chair like a big girl? She thought that was the coolest thing!
Here's Angel in her new highchair:

She loves it, thank goodness. Here are Ashton and Angel eating Girl Scout cookies. Angel is trying to steal Ashton's cookies:

Here she is trying again; Ashton made sure she didn't get any:

Here's Ashton hanging out across the street with some neighbor kids: (yes, they are all girls!)

The ice cream truck comes by our neighborhood now. They sell Gelato. Angel LOVES the chocolate gelato!

Oh Yeah, that's yummy stuff!

Andrew, Ashton and Angel: (yes, there is a stuffed animal on Ashton's head)

Here is Andrew in his room. He wouldn't take his eyes off the video game, but at least he smiled:

And last but not least, Ashton and Angel playing together at the foot of the stairs:

That's it for today folks! Stop by tomorrow to see my Rockstars!

Until next post, be blessed!

A couple flower cards

Happy Tuesday! Today's post is going to be short since the boys will be home from school any minute. Today I have two flower cards to show you, tomorrow I have some random pics of the kiddos, and Thursday I have some RockStar's waiting to make their appearance! Here's the first flower card: I made this flower a little bit ago and wanted to use it on a card. Well, it's a bit too big to use as an embellishment, so I made it the center of attention instead. Next up, I participated in Club Anya's 2nd sketch challenge:

I thought Princess Anya would look gorgeous as a Flower Queen, so that's what I did with her. I used the roses from GKD's A Year of Flowers stamp set, colored them with my copics, and postioned them so that Flower Queen Anya was standing among them. The flower bling on her wand and crown are buttons from Wal-mart. I better get out the door to meet the boys' bus. Come back tomorrow for some silly pics of the kids!

Until next post, be blessed!

My Big Project!

Hey there! How are you all on this fine Monday? Have you adjusted to the Daylight Savings Time change yet? I was wondering how all that worked here in Italy and I found out that we don't change our clocks until the last Sunday of March. I guess that makes sense since we are on a different part of the planet... Anyway, remember the big project I was working on but I had to wait on a couple orders to come in to finish it? Well, BOTH orders came in on Friday, and I finished my project! First off, let me show you the card that inspired my card: My Mom sent this Valentine's Day card to Angel and I thought, "Hey, I can make something like that!" Here is the front on my card:

I used Imaginesce papers and cut out the tree, carriage, castle, and "Royalty" word then stuck them back over the images with pop dots to make them dimensional. At first I was going to put another panel over the patterened paper with a stamped image on it, but I loved the paper just as it was and didn't want to hide any of it. I stamped "once upon a time..." from my new Stampin' Up! stamp set along the bottom of the card front in Ballet Blue ink so it wouldn't stand out too much. The outside of the card came out very pretty, but I didn't want it to be too impressive because the inside is supposed to be the main focus of the card! Here it is:

What do you think? I love how it turned out, and I have plans for a lot more pop-out scene cards! TGF is coming out with some designer papers that coordinate with their stamps, and they are perfect for pop-out scenes like this! I used a lot more Imaginesce papers inside the card, along with some blue patterned paper I had in my scrap bin for the sky. I think it's Daisy Dee's paper but I'm not sure. The Castle, Carriage, Tree and Frog are all Imaginesce stamps that I stamped on white cardstock, colored and cut out to put into the scene. Oh, wait, the frog was actually stamped onto some green polka dot paper (K&Co paper) and colored with a green copic marker, then layered onto white cardstock for weight. Here's a closer pic of the inside, left:

The Unicorn is a digital image from TGF that I printed out and colored then cut it out and stuck it on the card with dimensionals. I wanted the Unicorn to look like it was closer than the castle. Here is a close pic of the inside, right:

It's hard to see in the pics, but I also stamped "Fairy Tales do come true" from the Stampin' Up! stamp set in the center of the inside of the card, in green ink. I wanted it to be a subtle sentiment, since this card is really just for decoration for my Angel Baby's room. Princess Anya is the other stamp I was waiting on to finish this card. Here is a close-up of her (since she is the star of the card!):

I paper pieced her dress with the Imaginesce papers, but the rest is colored with my copics. I stamped her twice and colored the crown and star on the wand and glued just those two items to the main image so they would have more depth to them. I really love this image and I already have another one waiting to be added to a card. I forsee using Princess Anya A LOT in the future! And just for the fun of it, here's a picture of my little princess after a yummy dinner:

See the noodle on her forehead? The silly girl!
Well, I hope you enjoyed my post today. Until next post, be blessed!

A couple pics and a trip to the ER

Hello again! I've got quite the chatter bug lately with all these posts, don't I? Some of you know that I applied to be on the design team for The Greeting Farm. I didn't make it, this time, but I'm going to try again in a couple months. I love that company and their images, and I have so much fun using their products. You may have already seen some of these, but here are the projects I submitted in my application for the Design Team.
Heaven Sent Unicorn frame: Birthday Wishes Dorothy Anya:

For You Anya and Ian:

Brotherly Love:

Note: the rest of this post is not stamping related, so if you don't want to read it, just skip down and leave me a comment, k? ;)

Well, living in a different country has its ups and downs. I love experiencing the different culture and seeing all the historical aspects to the country, but there are some things about living here that I just wish were more "American". Sunday night, the whole family decided we needed to go shopping on base at the Base Exchange. Our shopping trip was cut short because we had to take our Angel baby to the ER. While we were shopping at the BX, Angel was standing in the basket of the cart and flipped right out of it! She reached for something on a shelf, and did a complete flip out of the cart, onto the floor, and landed flat on her back. (let me get sidetracked here and say that I was RIGHT there. I was standing with my hands on the cart handle and Angel is just barely tall enough to have the top of her belly touch the top of the cart basket. Needless to say, she will never stand in the cart again. OK, back to the story.) She didn't land on her head, but her head did bump a little when she landed. Because the fall was more than Angel's height, the nurse advice line advised us to take her to the ER for a checkup just in case. She acted a little out of it for about 10 minutes, but she was crying and in shock. Then, 15 minutes afterward, she was fine, playing and laughing with the boys. She didn't pass out, or throw up, or get dizzy or have problems focusing her eyes, so I knew she didn't have a concussion. But we took her anyway. It was a scary place! The hospital in Pordenone that we use for emergencies and anything our base clinic can not do is so freaking old! I went into the ER area (straight out of a horror movie! There were disoriented people milling about, burnt out light bulbs, tons of people in huge wheelchairs just sitting around, and no one spoke English!) and they sent me to the pediatrics floor because that is where they see kids for emergencies (unless the kid is bleeding to death or has a gash across their face or has a limb hanging off, then they see them right away at the ER). So, I found my way to the correct building (after almost walking into an Intensive Care Unit-oops!), went in, took a tiny, rickety, old elevator to the 5th floor (the floor shook indepentantly from the walls, I was afraid we weren't going to make it all the way up!), and found the Pediatric area. There was no sign in desk, so I wandered up and down the hall about three times trying to figure out where to check in. I finally had to snag a nurse running through the hall and tell her what happened. She didn't speak very good English and told me to wait right where I was. She said "Wait." I said in the waiting room? She said "QUA!" as she pointed to the spot on the floor where I was standing. I figured that meant to wait right where I was. So, I waited in the middle of the dimly lit, old, funky colored hallway until they led me into a room to fill out paperwork. I did that, they tried to put it into the computer (about SIX times) then gave up and wrote out a manual admittance paper. During that time an interpretor was sent to help me out. That was a bit of a relief, but she was in a bit of a "mood" and really just stood around the whole time. THEN, we finally went into a exam room (pepto pink painted walls, with chipping chunks of paint). Of course, then it was time for a shift change for the ONE doctor that was working there. Well I finally saw a doctor (who happened to be fluent in English, even though they had sent me an interpretor to help out-figures) and after a quick 5 minute look-over, they told me Angel was fine (DUH!). Just told me to watch her for the next 24 hours to make sure she doesn't show any signs of a concussion. Well, that was quite the experience. At least we've been through it and know what to expect for next time because with my 3kids, I know there will be a next time.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog post for today. I hope to hear from you all, and any scary/wierd ER experiences you've all had.

Until next post, be blessed!

House of Mental Love Bears

What the heck does that title mean? LOL! Well, House of Mental is a company that makes some awesome digital images (among other things) and The Greeting Farm sells these exclusive digital images. One of the images is of a Love Bear. I love this Love Bear! I call him "Dr. Love Bear" because of his hat and needle. I decided to make a couple little projects with him. First, I had this Planner that I won from a blog candy: It's cute but not "me" so I decided to do what I love to do and alter it with some ink and paper. This is what came about:

I have to say, I love it! I think this is one of my favorite projects. I used papers from Basic Grey's Archaic collection because I thought it looked kinda like squirmy germs under a microscope. I backed the DP with chocolate chip card stock from Stampin' Up! The title of the appointment book and the year are handwritten by me on more mustard paper and backed with more CC card stock. The main image was colored with, yes, my copics and backed with some basic grey paper. I didn't have the correct punch for the binding holes, so I just used the old cover to mark the spots on the CC card stock and used a little hole punch to make the holes. They aren't perfect, but they work perfectly! Here's a close up of my Dr. Love Bear:

Isn't he cute? Well, I couldn't resist him, so I made a card out of him as well. This time I decided that I would use "traditional" bear colors on him. I used the basic grey papers again, and kept everything pretty simple and "straight". I say "straight" because DH and I had an intensive conversation about how he thinks some cards look unproffesional because they aren't lined up correctly. I think they look "handmade" he thinks they look "kindergartener-ish". So, on this card, I made sure the mats on the card are all exactly lined up, with 1/8" or 1/16" around each side of the panels. The ribbon is pretty darn perfectly lined up too, but since it is felt, it was difficult to keep it lined up. The brads were carefully measured and the holes for them were pre-poked using a piercing template.

All in all, I took extra time and made sure things were lined up just right. Yes, the card met with my DH's approval! LOL! If you're a "Lilavois" or if you know the "Lilavois", then you know how they can be with their criticisms! LOL! It was all in good fun. Here's a closeup of my coloring on Dr. Love Bear:

NO, I did NOT use my copics! LOL! I used my Koh-n-oor pencils and OMS (odorless mineral spirits) with my blending stumps. I felt like playing with my unloved pencils and I had a lot of fun with them. I am quite inexperienced with them. They are just like watercolor pencils, only different, and woodless. It's hard to explain, but they are great. I watched a tutorial on using OMS with blending stumps, so I'm going to give it another go. What do you all think of the different coloring medium?

Until next post, be blessed!

Another Anya and my Pixie

Hey there! I have another Anya to show you today. Are you all sick of them yet? I'm not, that's why I keep using them! I don't think I'll ever get tired of Anya, or the other stamps from The Greeting Farm, but I'll give you a break from the Anya's on my next post. So here she is, Alice Anya: I made this cute little card for Jen DelMuro's Sketch for You To Try. I haven't participated in this sketch in a long long time so it was fun. I colored Anya with my copics (of course) but this time I used 3 idfferent colors of brown in her hair just to try something different. I'm still not sure about the flower in her hair... what do you all think? All the papers are Stampin' Up!
Now, remember I mentioned sewing on my cards and wanting a little machine I saw at Wal-Mart before we moved? Well, I got it and here it is!

This is my little Pixie Sewing machine by Singer. My mom picked it up for me and mailed it to me, isn't she the best? She's been sending us all kinds of stuff; toys I couldn't pack, clothes I left, my workout mat, and more... but I digress. I've played with my Pixie a little bit, practiced threading it and tested out all the different stitches. I still have a lot of practice to do, but it's going to be fun! And just so you know how little this really is, here's a size comparison:

My pixie is next to a little 7.25 inches tall pad of paper (ignore the list on the paper, it's just a list of bands I want on my MP3 player). So this little machine really is tiny, but it's perfect for my little stamping room and my cards. Mom also bought me a sewing basket and loaded it with essential sewing goodies, so I'm good to go! There's some really neat two-toned threads that will look so great on some cards. As soon as I get confident enough, I'll be sewing on my cards and sharing them here with you. How many of you have sewing experience? Any tips? Do you sew on your cards as well as fabric? I'm nervous about ending the stitch on a card. How will I close the stitch? Will I always have threads coming off the ends of the card stock?

In addition to sewing on my cards, I want to make a little purse for Angel, and maybe a couple little blankets too. I saw some Basic Grey and Cosmo Cricket fabrics that are beautiful! Now I just need to find an online store that sells them. They look just like the designer papers; talk about combining my paper hobby with my new sewing adventure!

Well, that's my post for today. I promise the next post won't have an Anya on it (but I'm not promising that it won't be an image from the same company;).

Until next post, be blessed!

OH! P.S. If you've noticed a lot of little spelling or punctuation errors on my last few posts, I can't get the spell check to work. Sorry! I try to reread my posts and edit, but I probably still miss some things.

Alice Anya Cards

Hey there everyone. Sorry it's been a week since I last posted. Here I was giving you post after post, and then nothing for a week! Sorry about that. I've been hard at work on a big project/card and I'm almost done. I'm just waiting on a couple ordersto come in so I can put the right sentiment and "star of the show" onto the card, then I can share with you all. Hopefully the orders come in soon (one of them was ordered almost FOUR weeks ago!). Until then, here is the very first card I made with an Anya stamp (digi stamp actually): This is Alice Anya (as in Alice in Wonderland). I used Copic markers to color her and Imaginesce papers for the card. The flowers are from Gina K. Designs. Here's another Alice Anya card, only this Anya is brunnette:

I used paper from Nana's Nursery (DCWV I think), twine from Wal-mart, and buttons that I stole from my Mom's HUGE button collection (she said I could, so it wasn't really stealing;). The little tag is from Gina K. Designs and I used a permanent marker to write "hi" onto it. I colored Anya with my copics again and gave her a ground to stand on with a grey copic.

And here is a closeup of my coloring: I've had some people ask me about the digital images so I'll go ahead and talk about them today. Digital images aree really easy and fun to use. Several online stamp companies are selling them now. I purchased these images online from The Greeting Farm and as soon as I was done checking out, I received a link to download the images (instant gratification-YEA!). I saved the images into my pictures folder, and whenever I want to use one I just print it out! What's really cool is that you can change the size of the image, flip it to face the opposite direction, or print several at once if you want to. I usually print several of the same image onto plain white cardstock. Now, when you are printing out these images, you need to think about how you are going to color them. I use Copics the most (obviously) and the ink I have in my printer right now SMEARS with my copics (copics are alcohol-based inks, not water based). Since my printer only takes one kind of ink, I tried changing the paper. Instead of using my favorite card stock from Gina K. Designs, I recently used some Stampin' Up! card stock. I discovered that this card stock helps my image to not smear as much because the paper is not as smooth and when printing, the ink penetrates the paper more. When I lived with Mom in Hawaii, I was able to buy tons of Georgia Pacific white card stock at Wal-mart, and my images hardly smeared at all when I printed onto that card stock. But sadly, I am out of GP card stock, and there are no Wal-Marts around... Also, I've been told that if you have a laser printer the ink doesn't smear. I don't know for sure because I have an HP Officejet H470 which is an inkjet printer (I think). When I use my colored pencils instead of my copics, or my Stampin' Up! markers (which are water based) the images don't smear. Also, when I color, I NEVER go over the black lines. Some people will go over the lines when they are coloring; like coloring over the image's mouth, but I don't. That's just how I have always colored, and I think it makes a difference on the smearing matter. OK, well I think that's a lot more jibber jabber than some of you anticipated, so I'll sign off now. If you have any more questions that I didn't answer, just ask! I'll do the best I can to answer.

Until next post (which should be soon, not in a week!) be blessed!