Help! My blog's not worth anything!

Oh boy! I read Gina's post today (http://blog.ginakdesigns.com/2008/01/29/this-make-me-giggle.aspx) and wanted to find out how much my blog is worth. Check out the left panel of my page... Well! I guess when your blog is not even a month old and no one ever views it, it's not worth a lick! Oh well, maybe, eventually, someday, my blog will get a few more hits and start earning it's space in cyber-world!

A bad night doesn't mean a bad morning...

Ever have a bad night and you know the next morning is going to be bad too? And then the rest of your day will probably suck because your morning was bad? I hope not. Well, I had a bad night. I didn't want to have a bad day today so I decided to set a goal and achieve it. Then I would feel accomplished and my day wouldn't be so bad. Well, it worked and then some! I decided I was going to complete 3 cards today. I did, plus a bonus card! All the cards were for challenges (of course;) and this first one was for CPS45. I really like the way it turned out. I didn't think I was going to like the outcome when I initially saw the sketch, but I think it's my favorite from the day.
Next I did a card for Kristi's Big Birthday Bash at Splitcoaststampers. It was the color challenge and I had to use Kristi's favorite color combo which is Gray, Pink, and Teal. I would have never put these colors together but, as you can probably tell, I think the colors look great. I especially like how the teal makes the pink and red colors pop! I also used Beate's Weekend Sketch challenge for the layout of the card. It worked out pretty well, if I do say so myself.
Next I did the second challenge from Kristi's birthday which was a sketch from Beth. Since I loved the pink and teal so much, I decided to pull out my dragonfly again and make him the focus of the card. I thought it looked neat having the inside of his wings teal.
Then, when I was at CPS's blog, they had this weeks new sketch up! WooHoo! I saw the sketch and immediately thought of doing a beach scene with it. Since I just pulled out some hawaiian themed scrapbook kits (that have never even been opened) I knew I had some dimensional stickers that would look interesting on this card.
So, even though I had a not-so-great night last night, today was not a bad day. I completed my goal of making 3 cards, plus one, and I am going to bed tonight with a sense of accomplishment.
On another note, it's good knowing that God is taking care of your family, isn't it? The last couple of days I have gotten emails from various members of my family full of praise reports. At first I thought, "Ok God, now it's my turn. Where's my blessing?" Well, I immediately got a check in my heart! I was sitting there, feeding one of my 3 beautiful blessings, and I was complaining! How dare I complain about a lack of blessings when, just 4 months ago, my baby girl was born healthy! Considering the complications my pregnancy had, her prematurity, and the fact that she's a very healthy, very thriving, perfect little girl, I had absolutely NOTHING to be complaining about. God knows what he's doing, and he knows when to give us what we need. So, goodnight and don't forget your blessings! I know I won't.
For recipes of the cards above, please check out my SCS Gallery here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=148552
and no, I'm not lazy. It's just a ploy to get you to check out a really cool website! And when you get there, leave comments on my cards, k?

Design Team Dreams and my Mom

I have a lot of goals for this year. One of them is to get one of my cards or scrapbook pages published. If I don't get it published in an actual magazine, that's ok. But ONLY if I get on a Design Team instead! Card Positioning Systems is having a call for new DT members and I have applied! It's the first time I've done something like this, and I still consider myself a rookie in the world of stamping/scrapping/card making, so we'll see how this goes. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy doing the sketch challenges. Speaking of...

This card was made with their sketch. It is sketch #48 and I love how it turned out. While I was making this card, I had a certain friend in mind. I think that when I do that, I sort of get their personality reflected into the card. Also, the colors are tranquil and I like how looking at this card makes me feel. (Cheesy... I know I know!) Oh! and on one of the blogs that I frequent (I can't remember which one, I blog-hop too much) there was a challenge to make scallops without using a scallop punch. So I finally tried making scallops with my corner rounder and it worked! I will definitely be doing this more often now that I know how.

This next card I did with another CPS sketch #37 as well as for the Limited Supplies challenge over at splitcoaststampers. I used my favorite Simply Scrappin' kit from Stampin Up!

And finally...

This last card was done for CPS42. I had someone in mind during the making of this card also. The difference is that this card doesn't reflect the person's personality, rather it reflects my feelings for the person. Wierd how that works, huh?

On a non cardmaking note, My Mom got some well deserved and long overdue recognition yesterday! She's been out of the Army for about 5 years, and since her retirement has been working for the Army in one capacity or another. She does a lot of work for a lot of different people, meeting their needs in many different ways. Some events would never happen if it were not for all my Mom's hard work. So yesterday, during a recognition luncheon, someone finally singled her out and said Thank You! I got to go and watch and my Mom was practically giddy! Here is a picture of SSG. Meyer's giving my Mom her plaque. He recognized all the hard work she's done for him and the rest of the people she works for and had a plaque made up especially for her. She had no idea! She is the person who places the orders for, and picks up the plaques. Well, he did this all one his own so she didn't know it was coming. Good Job Mom! You deserved it!

Edited to add: I completely forgot to put the recipes for the cards! Ugh, I guess that's what happens when you've got a baby crying for food... So, since she's whining for food again as I type this, check out my gallery at Splitcoaststampers for the recipes here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=148552 Thanks!

I Love Wednesday challenges & MACM!

I always find that one of the hardest parts of making cards or scrapbook pages was figuring out the layout I would use. Well, Wednesday Sketch Challenges over at splitcoaststampers (SCS) solves that problem for me! I did the Wednesday challenge again this week with some new stamps I just got in the mail. The stamp set is called Love you to pieces! and it is one of Gina K.'s "stamps for a cause." In this case the cause is Autism. For every purchased stamp set, $8 goes to helping find a cure for Autism. So, of course, I bought it! I linked Gina K.'s blog on here, so check it out! And then cruise on over to her store to see her designs...

Besides Wednesday Challenges, I also Love Mondays! Every Monday I hop on over to Kristina Werner's Design Blog (it's linked too, check it out) for her Make A Card Monday tutorial. Her blog is the first one I stumbled upon and I got hooked! On mondays she posts a video of how to make that week's card. It's great to watch it come together, and then try it out myself. Here are two of the cards I have CASEd (Copy And Share with Everyone) from her:

This first one is from her Jan. 7th tutorial. I rotated the card and obviously changed up the colors, but it's pretty much the same idea. The second one is from the Jan. 14th tutorial.

I'm having so much fun "discovering" the world of paper crafts!

Recipes for cards:

"Love you to pieces!"

Stamps: Gina K. Designs Love you to pieces!

Paper: SU! Whisper White; Wal-mart's discount pile in red; Fiskar's Black

Ink: SU! Real Red and Basic Black

Purple Hearts:

Stamps: SU! Loads of Love

Paper: Wal-mart's discount pile in purple, SU! Whisper White, Designer Paper from Wal-mart too (don't know the brand)

Ink: Staz-On Violet, SU! purple watercolor pencils

Ribbon: American Crafts

"Smile Giggle Laugh":

Stamps: The Angel Company (I don't know the names of the stamps since they don't have labels on them and it's been SSOOOO long since I bought them)

Paper: I have some SU! chipboard stickers and paper in there, Um... the beige colored paper is from who-knows-where, and the polka-dot paper is Brenda Walton...

Ink: SU! pixie pink and Staz-On violet (i think) and SU! watercolor pencils

Ribbon: American Crafts

Good Night everyone!

Word for the Year...

I've noticed that a lot of people have chosen a word for the year. The word is something to strive for, or work on throughout 2008. At first I thought I wouldn't be able to pick just one word to work on, and besides I have enough on my plate to worry about working on a "word!" So I put it out of my mind... that is until this morning. I stumbled upon a blog (ok, more like hopped upon since I tend to blog-hop for inspirational ideas) that has a really great journal page done up with her word "content" -as in contentment, not the contents of something. You can see her page at her blog here: http://kellysartjournaling.blogspot.com/ And yes, she asked to be linked so people will go to her blog, but I think this word thing is a good idea. So go check out her page. I am going to work on a word this year. It is going to be "patience". This is something the Lord is forever testing me on! Sometimes I get a handle on it, only to have life throw me a curveball and CRASH! It all flies out the window! So, I'll work on a scrapbook page and post it when it's done... if it gets done. It might end up being a work in progress. Thank you Kelly for the inspiration!!!
Enjoy your Tuesday everyone.

Diva Designer Challenge!

I made 2 entries for this weekend's Scrapbook Diva Designer Challenge over at Splitcoaststampers. The first one I made was for Gina K.'s challenge which was to use her sketch and two patterned papers. I've been dying to scrap this adorable picture of Andrew and Angel. The base of the page is a piece of River Rock colored SU! cardstock with a Brenda Walton Designer Paper by K&company. I used SU! Best Friend's alphabet for the title on SU! Groovy Guava DP and I also used the groovy guava as a base for the river rock paper with the journaling on it. If you can't read the words, it says "It was LOVE at first sight... The day Angel was born, Andrew couldn't take his eyes off of her and it's been that way ever since..."

For Gina's other challenge, she wanted us to a colorized picture (I chose black and white) and to match our page to that picture. Also we were to use stamps on the page. Since Cammie's challenge was to use a stamped image as an embellishment on our page, I guess I kinda did both challenges in one! So, for this one I used Fiskars cardstock in black and white textured cardstock from a pile I bought at Wal-Mart. The background stamp I used is one from The Angel Company. I don't know it's name but it's a quote from Audrey Hepburn which is pretty appropriate since MommaJ in the pic is wearing a tshirt of her (and I didn't even plan it that way!). The first stamp is SU!'s Travel Sketchbook that I just got and it's now my new favorite set, and the sentiment is from the Friends & Family stamp set by All Night Media. I really like the way the second page turned out, and actually it's going to be sent to MommaJ as a little gift. (and now that suprise is spoiled...)

I had a lot of fun doing my first Diva Designer Challenge and I wish I could have done the rest of the challenges too! Well, it's getting late over here on Hawaii Time so I better post a link from the challenge to my blog so they all this work isn't in vain.

Cased cards

Sometimes I find that I just can't get the creative juices flowing (actually, that happens a lot!) So I usually head over to SCS to find inspiration. Here are a few cards that I CASEd from SCS:

For the first two I wanted to use my Delight in Life set from SU! The black and white one I cased from BaileyKat. Everything is pretty much the same, except I did a different background on the white card and didn't add any ribbon. If I knew how to link to her card, I would. But you can just head over to the member galleries on SCS and look her up. She's got some nice stuff on there. I used SU! whisper white cardstock and Fiskars Black cardstock as well as SU! Basic Black ink.

This next one was cased from SCS member Stampinthyme. She did this one for a sketch challenge and I think it's great (obviously since I cased it!). Again you can check out the original on her member gallery. I used some pink cardstock from my stash and SU! whisper white. The inks are SU! Pixie Pink and there is versamark on the lighter pink. The white heart brads are Making Memories (I think!). Sorry about the blurry picture, not too skilled with my mom's digital camera. I have to use hers since mine mysteriously disapeared. It may be found someday but in the meantime I have to use this one. It's a decent camera, just kinda old and I don't use it well I guess. The one I REALLY REALLY want is a Nikon D40. It would be perfect for me since I'm not a proffessional at all but aspiring to get better with my photography. But I digress...

So the last cased card for now is one I found on SCS (of course) by Geojlc. She has some great cards using the SU! Ahoy, Matey! set and I had to copy this one to send out to some young people I know for their birthdays.

I used some cardstock from my stash and close to cocoa for the stamps. There is also some creamy caramel for the distressed edges and I used my watercolor pencils to color it all in. The first one is shown open and the second one is closed. Besides the stamp sets, they are the same. The stamp set for the girl pirate is "Pirates" from The Angel Company. I

had to change

them up a little since

one is going to a boy and the other to a girl. I hope as time goes by and I stamp more and more, I can find my own style and I'll need to use other people's ideas less. In the meantime, I hope I do justice to the cards I copy!