Welcome to the world!

My daughter had her first baby recently!

Little Spencer...he is just perfect, and sweet, and beautiful, and I can just go on and on. Mom, Dad, and baby are all home and doing great.

I wanted to make him a special little name frame that matched his bedroom so I dug into my stash and found some Hooligans Paper from way back in the day. It was so old that I had to re-glue some of the cute little felt monsters back together. blushing...this is just a lesson to you all USE YOUR STASH.

I love the way it turned out! My daughter and son in law kept changing their minds (read daughter) on what the room was going to be. First it was going to be nautical, then outer space, he suggested monsters inc early on but she didn't want to do that.

So round and round she went pinning this and that. I of course knew I wanted to do a name frame all along so every time she would get a new plan I would go digging...LOL when she told me they went with monsters I just got giddy. I had the perfect paper for a monsters inc frame...except....a while back I went to a crop where you can sell stuff and for some insane reason I decided to sell these little felt monsters. GASP what was I thinking? The best part though is my friend Natalie actually bought them and she is also a scrapbooker (errr hoarder) and so I texted her and told her the wonderful baby news and asked her is she still had those stickers. She said yes!!! Wahoooo!!!!

So I got to make my name frame and I love how it turned out. I decided to go with a 12 x 12 because the background paper is from a level 1 kit and already had that cute blue on there and so I just measured out each of the squares.

Then I popped a few of them up. I also decided I would add his details to some of the other squares. It just all came together really quick.

I made a cute card using the Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge. Here is the inside. I kept it pretty simple. They loved the gift and I had to hand deliver it...ya know so I can get some more sweet baby time. Oh how I just love newborns.

Artiste - Day 31

Hello everyone I hope you have really enjoyed the Artiste in August blog hop! I am so proud of myself for making it...some days it was a little hard but CTMH makes everything so easy! Thank you for stopping by to visit each day.

If you came from Kathy's blog you are on the right track...if you just arrived here that is ok too.

Please jump on over to Jen's blog.

Thank you so much for joining me each and every day for this fun inspiring challenging Artiste in August blog hop. It really was such a joy to make these projects this month.

Artiste - Day 25 & A Favorite...Markers!

Hi everyone!!! Are you so excited to be here? I am so happy to see you. Today I have a dual hop going on. The Artiste hop where you probably came from Kathy's blog and something new I will be doing each month...My Favorite {CTMH} Things team blog hop!

Our Playing with Paper team which is run by our fearless leader Jayma Malme will be sharing artwork each month featuring some of our favorite products from CTMH. If you have come here from Norhalma Verzosa's blog, then you are on the right path.

So, what am I featuring from Artiste today and what is my favorite thing (how can I just pick one)? Well...you probably know the answer to that - markers! You know how I love to color!!!

I decided to make a card today it feels like it has been forever and ever so here you go.

 Have you seen this set with the space ships? I cannot help myself I just love it! LOVE it...I do not even have boys but I talked myself into it saying maybe my little one will get invited to boy parties haha! Really I just think it is stinking adorable and I had to have it.

The coolest part of this stamp set is that it coordinates with the Artiste cartridge and can have all of the shape of the stamp can be cut [the rocket, a spaceman, a planet, and a space ship] just to name a few.

Something magical happened with this card. It is totally my design no sketch or anything. I was working a deadline and talking on the phone...while charging the phone. So I was multi-tasking in a major way so I had to stand at my kitchen counter plugged into the wall when I made this and so I had not sketches near by so I just reached deep and this is what came out. I hope you like it.

One thing I love to do with my coloring is blend it. I am pretty familiar with Copic markers and have really been having a great time playing with our new alcohol markers. Another fun trick is to add some layers it makes te coloring just pop right off the page even more.

Now please hop on over to Rachel Rustics blog and see what her favorite thing is.

If you are following the Artiste hop this month then you probably will remember to head on over to Jen's blog and check out her project.

Supplies: 
CTMH unless otherwise noted
Cardstock - White Daisy, Black
Pattern Paper - Clementine
Ink - Black
Stamps - Outta this world
Marker - Olive, Indian Corn Blue, Ruby, Autumn Terracotta
Embelishments - Opaques Licorice Gems

You can find all of those supplies on my web site here

Wonderful Friend - June Stamp of the Month

Hi welcome to the June Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! Can you believe it is June already??? I cannot figure out how the year is going by so fast. This month we are all about the men in our lives. The Stamp of the Month is a set of 9 called Wonderful Friend. If you came here from Tammy Lea Pinchard's blog then you are on the right track

Recomended blocks are 2" x 2", 3" x 3", 2" x 3 1/2", and 2" x 6 1/2"

Tonight I am featuring a quick card from the Wishes book and Passages paper. I was really happy with how it turned out as I find cards for men so hard to make.  What I ended up doing is just making my paper pop layering everything on Cocoa cardstock. I stamped the "My Hereo - My Friend" in Barn Red three times. I cut out one image around the big circle and popped it up. I then cut out another image around the middle design and popped that up too.  I added one of my favorite touches...Liquid Glass in the center. It mimics the Marks. I tied some Cocoa ribbon around the Marks. 

Here is another view where you can see the close up of the Marks as well as the layers on the stamped image. 

Now please continue on to Debra Van Patten's blog to see some more great project using Wonderful Friend

Where the boys are...

Boys...so cute but I guess I am not destin to have one.

When I was pregnant with my first all of my friends that were also pregnant all had boys and I had the only girl. With my second everyone else was having girls too. With my third well all my friends had stopped having babies a long time ago...haha!

I knew for sure that Danielle was a girl I just knew it and I was right. With Savannah everything was different and I thought for sure she was a boy. Even though everyone says; oh pregnancies are all different I of course did not beleive them and knew she was a boy. When she was born and the doctor said its a girl I was like really are you sure. Haha! She was just so active in there I just thought...well anyway I was wrong she was a girl and a very beautiful one at that. With Maizie the pregnacy was again very different from the others, but I found out so I knew all along. Anyway back to stamping right?

I sometimes sell my cards at work and so the story goes...I got a text and my co-worker who has only boys and doesn't make cards. She knits and does cross-stitch. Anyway I am really getting off subject today, she texted me and asked if I had any thank you cards. I actually didnt' so I aksed her what kind she was looking for and she said some for a little boy I was like "Ohhhh....really!" I thought how fun I never ever get to make boy stuff!!!

So I started making boy stuff and it was so much fun. I knew right away what paper I was going to use! I have had Stardust for a while but have never had the chance to use it. I was very thrilled because I knew she would love them as he had a Star Wars theme birthday party. Obviously the card and stamp set doesn't look like Star Wars stuff but it has a fun space theme! It was so fun to use Reach for the Stars, a set I just had to have even though I wasn't sure I would be able to use it right away since again I don't have boys. I am so glad I splurged and got it.

I went through the Wishes book and though oh perfect this will be a fun layout. I did have to modify it as it was for a 5" x 7" card and I just wanted the 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card. I thought it turned out pretty cute and fun too!

I had 10 of them to make and I got to do my favorite thing...coloring! I used markers since I don't have these ink pad left. I just put a little dollop onto a platic bag and picked up the color with a blender pen giving it a watercolor feel. I also made sure to stamp the envelopes.

When I brought them in for my co-worker she loved them! When she took them home to her litle guy...yep he loved them too!