More MFT Monday :)

Here are my samples for the other MFT set coming out on Wednesday. This set is aptly called "Happy Mother's Day" :) Patterned paper is by Chatterbox on the left-hand card, and on the other one I used Autumn Leaves paper.

Don't forget - stop by tomorrow for some news of a new weekly challenge from The Cat's Pajamas! I hope some of you will be able to play along :)

Can You Dig It?

These cards are made with one of the two new sets being released by My Favorite Things this Wednesday :) This set is called "Can You Dig It?". What a great Spring theme!

Cheeky Monkeys!

Check out these little guys from Queen Kat Designs :) The set is called "What's Happenin'?". Nattie is into everything monkey-ish right now so this is one of her favorite cards. The die-cut card and mat are from Creative Cuts & More - it made the color-blocking process soooo much easier!

Be sure to stop by here on Tuesday...those of you who enjoy a challenge will be happy!!

Flying by to say hello :)

How sweet is this little guy? He's one of the new images from Hanna Stamps. I've made a bunch of these to keep on hand for kids' birthdays, and I'm thinking I can personalize the card by writing the child's name on the banner :) The patterned paper is by We R Memory Keepers, and I colored the image with my Copics.

Have a great Saturday! We're expecting snow here tomorrow....at the end of March?!

Friday already?!

The week has flown by - and I bet the kids feel the same too! It's back to school for them on Monday :)

We went to Denver Zoo yesterday and had a great time - despite the temps only reaching the low 40's! BRRRR! The leopards were very active, growling at each other, and Jamie and Nattie both loved watching the squirrel monkeys leaping around from branch to branch. A stop at Starbucks was definitely in order on the way home to warm us up: Earl Grey tea for me, hot chocolate for Nattie, and milk for Jamie :) A fun day out!

Today's card is made using a simple flower stamp (can't quite remember who made it, but I'll check it out). I found this really pretty patterned paper by Chatterbox and thought it made a great match. The regular and scalloped squares were cut out using Nestabilities dies. Shimmer brads by Making Memories (these are one of my favorites recently!).

Have a great weekend, everyone!!

ETA: the stamp is by Memory Box (thanks Karrie and Cat!) :)

Kitty Cards!

I just love these images that were recently released by Hero Arts. How can the sweet faces make you do anything but smile? :) Have a great Wednesday!

(Patterned paper by Chatterbox; flowers by Prima)

One-Layer Card Challenge!

This week Heidi challenged the Queen Kat Designs DT to come up with a one-layer card! This was sooo much harder than I imagined!!

Be sure and check out the other DT Members' blogs and see what they created: Heidi, Tanis, Lindsay, Penny, and Nancy.

Sugar Nellie

I'm working on a challenge for Queen Kat Designs today (that I'll post later), but I wanted to also let you know that I just found an adorable line of stamps from the UK! They're called Sugar Nellie :)

Egg Hunting in the Snow

I hope everyone had a great weekend :) Here are some photos of Nattie and Jamie hunting for their eggs in our front yard. We got a few inches of fresh snow on Saturday night, so they did their hunting in snow boots, jammies and snow jackets :)

Paisley Hello :)

Friday at last! And next week is Spring Break for my kids, so they were very excited as they headed out the door this morning :) My hubby gets back today after being in Argentina this week - needless to say, it's been a loooong week! Tonight we're going to have family movie night and watch 'Enchanted'. The kids and I saw it when it was out at the movies, but Iain didn't.

Today's card is made with stamps from Queen Kat Designs. The set is called 'Fancy Paisley'. I had originally planned to color the pattern, but when I saw the black and white, I really liked the effect of that, so left it as it was!

I'll be back on Monday :) Wishing everyone a super weekend, whatever you're doing!

Balance...

So, yesterday was the dog photo - I'd better balance it out with a kitty photo today! These are extremely rare photos of our oldest cat, Sally. She's the only antisocial one out of the 4 cats we have, so a photo op doesn't come around too often with her. She'll be 8 next month!

Most of the snow we got at the start of the week has melted, but we still have a couple of feet of the white stuff accumulated in the parts of our yard that are in the shade all day! It's beautiful today - bright and sunny :)

This afternoon I'm finally getting back into my routine of helping out in Nattie's classroom. Between my surgery and all the sickness we've had this winter, it's been a couple of months since I last got to help out. It'll be great to see all the kids again. Enjoy the rest of your Thursday! Back tomorrow with a card :)

Big dog - but still very much a puppy :)

Check out Tasha! She's about 15 months old now - and still growing, it seems! Many people have told me that because of the lab/retriever in her, she could be a puppy for a few years yet...

She seems to love living here. She's great with the kids, hasn't had an "accident" since her second day living with us, and is tons of fun. She and Aspen (one of the kittens) are very good friends. Now, if only she wouldn't bark at every person/car that passes the end of our driveway... :)

A New Sheriff In Town! :)

Here's the final card to finish up the set of 4 we'll be making in the class next month :) All stamps by The Cat's Pajamas. And check out Alma's blog for the latest news from TCP - she's also asking for suggestions about goodies she should carry in her online store!

Almost a snow day...

but not quite! We got over a foot of snow last night and it was still snowing this morning, so the kids and I were thinking they might get a snow day. No such luck - even though the bus was almost an hour late, school still went ahead :) It looks so pretty outside!

Here's the third card for the class using The Cat's Pajamas stamps. Nice and simple.

I've been busy today with a school paper, cleaning, and some DT assignments. The kiddos are home from school now so it's time for the homework/dinner/bath/bedtime routine....

Tired, but happy :)

Jamie had a blast at his party. There were about 10 kids there all together; first was pizza and cupcakes, followed by presents. He especially loved the Hot Wheels toys he received, including a track set and a bunch of new cars! Then the kiddos all went to play for a couple of hours on all the different activities - Foam Factory, Laser Tag, Mini Golf, and Bouncy Castle :) By the end of the afternoon the kids were all very tired - but happy!!

Today's card is the second sample for the TCP cards class at Artistic License :) The patterned paper is from Piggy Tales - such fun, bright colors!

TCP Card Class!

I've been asked to teach my very first class at a new store here in Conifer called Artistic License. The owner took one look at the stamps from The Cat's Pajamas and loved them (and who doesn't?), so that's what we'll be working with in the class next month. This is one of the sample cards :) I think Shootin' Poochie is one of my favorites from the last release!

What are your weekend plans? We have a busy one ahead: Jamie's birthday party on Saturday, and then on Sunday we're going to see "Finding Nemo on Ice" in Denver. Should be fun! I hope you have a great weekend, whatever you're doing :)

Happy Mail!

Look what I got from my buddy and fellow TCP DT member Karrie!! Wow! It was like Christmas in here yesterday when the package arrived. Look at the gorgeous canvas with the flower on it - handmade! I had given Karrie some stamps I wasn't using any more and this is her thank you - along with a set of Copic markers too! Thank you, Karrie - you ROCK! I am so glad we met :)

Papertrey creations

I was in an ATC swap on Splitcoast Stampers and signed up for a Papertrey group. I finished the ATCs yesterday and had a leftover image that I made into this card :) I love it! The inks are from one of the ColorBox Queues (Brights), ribbon is a scrap from my stash and the little charm is one I picked up at Hobby Lobby last week.

Have a great Thursday! I plan on spending the day stamping from the minute the kids get on the school bus until they walk back through the door. Lots of projects to do! Samples for the next release from The Cat's Pajamas, to name just one! And if you haven't seen it yet, check out the March Project of the Month by the super-talented Tracy Falco. It's an Easter Goodie Bag - so cute!

Happy Birthday, Dude!

Yep, Jamie is 6 today! We actually let him open his gifts last night, and he loved everything :) The only things he had asked for were a robe and a wallet, so he was thrilled to open those. Other gifts were Transformers, a couple of Playmobil sets, some new I Spy books, a set of Mr. Bean DVDs, and SpongeBob Legos. For a while after we put him to bed we heard him transforming his Transformers :) This photo is one of my favorites of him - holding hands with the rest of the kids on the poster at Legoland in December!

Jamie really is a great kid - easy-going, a great sense of humor, gets on well with all his classmates, and works hard at school.

We're going to keep him home from school for one more day. The antibiotics seem to be kicking in, so hopefully tomorrow will be the day for him to get back into the school routine. And his party is on Saturday, so he definitely needs to be recovered for that! He's looking forward to seeing all his buddies :)

Happy Birthday, Dude!! Have fun!

Tagged!

I got tagged by several of my blogging friends, including Benita and Heather. These random facts ones are always fun. Here goes:

The rules: Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Here are my 7 random/weird facts:

1. Underneath my hair color, I'm about 75% gray! So unfair at 36 years old - gotta love DNA!
2. Iain has two little glasses that he uses in his espresso machine, and for some reason I love the sound those two glasses make when they clank together. Not any other glasses or cups, just those ones.
3. I can be pretty clumsy at times.
4. I'm a magazine-aholic: People, Oprah, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, CK, Simple Scrapbooks, Paper Crafts...the list goes on...
5. My dad got my name (Toni) from - a Playboy magazine! Lovely.
6. I'm a dedicated tea drinker. Have tried coffee many times and just can't stand it!
7. I collected stamps when I was younger - postage stamps! I still like to go to the USPS website and browse all the different stamp designs, sometimes ordering a different set to make my envelopes look more exciting :)

Time to tag some friends! Here you go Sue, Karrie, Linda, Tanis, and Melissa. Enjoy!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

Nope - it's a scrapbook page! Wow - I can't remember the last time I made a scrapbook layout. How sad is that? Anyway, one of the Queen Kat Designs DT members challenged us to use stamps on a scrapbook page, and this is my result. I used a set called "Funky Flowers", stamped them in various shades of brown, cut them out and punched some holes to add more dimension to the flowers. I then touched them up a little with my Signo white gel pen (one of my favorite tools!). The journaling block is also a stamp - it's called Dot Journaling Block. I'm not sure if you can see it from the photo, but the "vine" that the flowers are attached to is made from braided ribbon :)

Took the kiddos to the pediatrician today - turns out that Jamie has strep throat! Glad I made the decision to get them checked out. Nattie just has a cold; she tested negative for strep and is excited to (hopefully) go back to school tomorrow. Jamie has to wait until at least Wednesday so that his antibiotics can kick in. Fingers crossed for a super-speedy recovery! Especially since it's his birthday on Wednesday!!!

Hello Joe!

Happy Monday, everyone! Meet Joe :) This little guy is the main image in a new set coming in April from Queen Kat Designs. The card on the right is the first one I made using the image; patterned paper is by Cosmo Cricket, and I paper pieced Joe to match the rest of the card.

For the card on the left, I used QKD DT member Penny's challenge to use the colors red, black, grey, white and tan in a card :) I love this color scheme! Thank you, Penny! And be sure to stop by Tanis' and Heidi's blogs to see what they came up with :)

I hope you all had a great weekend. The kiddos here are still pretty sick, so we'll be heading down to the pediatrician's later today. And the Chris Rock show last night - was AWESOME!! Just as funny as we expected! He took on all the current topics with no fear and had the audience laughing from start to finish. The time just flew by!! What fun :)

Fluffles ATCs

Here are a couple of ATCs I made for an upcoming swap over on Splitcoast Stampers. For this one, we used Fluffles the Cat stamps from Stampendous :) I colored the images using my Copics.

What are your weekend plans? I have some shopping to do tomorrow - it's my hubby's birthday on Sunday and I had planned to do the shopping today, but I have both kiddos home with a stomach bug. So, shopping tomorrow and then on Sunday we have Iain's birthday and we're going to see Chris Rock live in Denver. I'll be back on Monday with a full report :) Have a fantastic weekend, whatever you're doing!

Embellishment Info!

Several of you asked about the metal embellishment on the "Bloomin' Wonderful" card down below. I racked my brains and remembered that I got it in one of the monthly kits from ScrapMuse - they are called Border Strips and are made by Nunn Designs. I even found an online retailer here in case anyone wants to order some :)

Cute kitty alert!

Here are some photos I took of Nattie with the cats (Aspen, Bailey and Pickle) last weekend :)

Have a bloomin' wonderful day!

Another card today made with the "Punch A Bunch" set available tonight from MFT. This is one of my favorites this week; the cardstock is Bazzill Bling, and the flower centers have Stickles in them, so it's a nice shimmery card!

As the card says, "I hope your day is bloomin' wonderful!" :)

And now for something a little more simple...

Yesterday's card was rather intricate, to say the least! So today, here's one that's a lot simpler. This one is made with the other new release coming tomorrow from My Favorite Things. The set is called Punch A Bunch, and the clever thing about the set is that it has been designed to work with the Marvy punches! In addition, the phrases can be curved to suit the size of oval that you are punching, so they are easy to customize :) The flowers are also part of the set. For this card I stamped a few extra flowers, popped them with foam dots and added some bling :)

I had a CT scan done yesterday to see if there's any kind of blockage up in my sinuses that could be causing the oxygen problems...so with the information from that, the full sleep study and the nighttime oxygen measurements from my home study, we should have a pretty good idea of what's going on when all the results come in. That's what I'm hoping, anyway.

Nattie has a tough couple of weeks ahead at school with state testing - I always feel bad for the kiddos at this time of year. They seem so young to be tested so hard! She does pretty well with the schedule, though, usually until the last couple of days when most of the kids are wiped out. The teachers don't give out homework during these weeks, though, so she's able to relax when she gets home.

MFT New Release Monday!

Yep, it's that time of the month again! My Favorite Things is having their new release party over at Splitcoast Stampers this Wednesday! You can find all the details right here :)

This accordian card is made with this month's mini set, called "Happy Trails". I stamped, colored, and cut out the image twice so that I could use it on the cover and the inside of the card. For the desert scene I used sandpaper layers and cut out stamped cacti from the set. The sun is made from embroidery floss that I simply circled round and round on the glue! This card is definitely more intricate than I'm used to, but I had fun working on it! Oh - and check out the little belly band that holds it all closed!

If you're interested in winning all the new March releases from My Favorite Things, there's a trivia contest here where you can enter to win! Good luck - and enjoy!

Snowy Sunday Photos :)

Well, there's over a foot of snow here in Conifer so far; it started snowing here in the middle of the night and hasn't stopped since!! Iain's out there now with the snowblower (and Jamie chasing it!), but he'll probably have to go out again before the evening is over :)

The weather has been really bizarre over the last few days - yesterday we were up in the 50s here - today we're in the 20s!!

Snowy Sunday!

Good morning! Well, it started snowing here last night and so far we've got about 5" of the white stuff outside. Iain and the kiddos were going to go snow tubing today, but the roads don't look too good so they postponed it till next Saturday. It's a day for wearing jammies, watching movies, playing games and hanging out. Sounds good to me!

Today's card is made with a stamp from an A Muse acrylic set. I stitched around the edges and added some grosgrain ribbons for fun :) The patterned paper is from the Goldilocks line by Piggy Tales.

Enjoy your Sunday!

10% off at QKD for the month of March!

Vicki over at Queen Kat Designs has told us DT Members that we can pass on a 10% discount to all of you out there in blogland (and your friends!) this month. There's a blinkie over on the right with the discount code for you to use. Happy shopping!!