3 ornaments

Well, we've made it to another Wednesday so you know what that means. It's time for a new challenge at Penny's challenges. This week, Penny's got a great sketch for you to try. As I was looking at the sketch, I immediately thought of the circles as being ornaments.  And thus, my super CAS card was born.  I love the way the kraft cardstock looks with the vineyard berry cardstock.  Yummy. 

***Supplies***
Stamps: CTMH Say it in Style
Other: PTI Buttons

Go check out the other designers at Penny's challenges and then why don't you come play with us?  We'd love to have you.

I hope you are having a great week.  I do miss you all very much and in 2 weeks, I'll be back.  Have a great day and a fabulous rest of the week.  I'll see you back here on Saturday with my Unscripted Sketches card.

Wedding Bells for Unscripted Sketches

Well, another Saturday is upon us, which means Unscripted Sketches time. Yahoo!

I was working on some wedding invitations awhile back for my friend and while I had the supplies out, I thought I'd make her wedding card with the same materials that her invitations will be made of. Her colors are silver and hunter green. I'll have more on the invitations to come but I will tell you that she'd like 150 of them. YIKES. I better get my exam passed because I am going to need all the free time I can get to make these invitations. LOL.

Anyway, I got out some of my foil paper from CTMH and embossed it with a small cuttlebug embossing folder. Some ribbon underneath the focal point was added with a couple of matching brads in the corner. I wish you could see the texture of the silver swirly paper. It's embossed foil and it looks so pretty IRL.

***Supplies***
Patterned Paper: ??? from Hobby Lobby
Other: Cuttlebug, silver ribbon, CTMH foil sheets and brads

Why don't you head on over to Unscripted Sketches now and give this week's sketch a whirl? Thanks for the visit and know that I miss visiting everyone. 2 1/2 more weeks of torture. LOL. Have a blessed Saturday.

Winter with ribbon and sparkle

I've got a real simple winter card for you today for Penny's challenges. Penny challenged us to make something with a winter theme and then dress it up with ribbon and sparkle.

If you look real close, you can see the prisma glitter covering the sides on the mat of my snowman. I also added 3 little gems for his buttons. Also, in case you're extra observant, you might have noticed that I've used the same stamp set for the past 3 challenges. I rediscovered this fun set and just had to give it lots of love. The images are all perfect for a 1 1/4 inch punch.

***Supplies***
Stamps: CTMH Month Blocks
Other: Cuttlebug, CTMH ribbon and buttons, Prisma glitter

Well, I hope you're enjoying your Wednesday. Thanks for the visit.

Happy 10th Birthday Reynna

Well, it was 10 years ago today that my sweet daughter Reynna was born. I can't believe she's in double digit years already. We were contemplating not having a friend party this year when she then informed me that we had to because she would be double digits. A very important milestone, I suppose.

So, 10 years ago, I was having mild contractions throughout the day but nothing crazy at all. At around 9:00 that night, things started to progress a bit. The pain was a bit more intense but still nothing too crazy. Well, around 10:30, I decided that maybe it was time to go to the hospital.

Boy, I'm glad I didn't wait another minute. By the time I got there, my labor was in full swing and I was too far along and in too much pain to even fill out the paperwork beforehand. Reynna was born around 11:45 that night. She came quickly (so quickly that there was no time for any epidural or other drugs) but things went great.

I was so happy to have my sweet daughter in my arms. If you've been following my blog, then you know how happy I was that this baby was mine, all mine. It's not as if having Reynna could replace Arianne but it definitely helped.

So we are going to Red Robin as a family tonight to celebrate. A couple of months ago, she entered a contest at Red Robin designing a burger. Well, her burger was chosen as the winner for our local store. With this came a $40 gift card, a nice certificate with her name on it and the name of her burger (the Western Dippin' Burger) and the chance to move forward in the competition. She's one of 430 kids who will move onto the next round, where the contestants will be narrowed to 50. The next cut is 10 with the final winner receiving a grand prize of a family trip to Walt Disney World.

Anyway, supposedly Reynna's name is on some wall at our local restaurant and her burger is being offered. We have this on a friend's authority. Needless to say, I'll definitely be bringing my camera tonight to dinner. I'm hoping that I can get a picture of her next to her name. Pretty cool, huh? She is on cloud 9 about this whole thing.

Happy birthday baby! I love you very much and hope that your 10th birthday is fabulous.

An Unscripted Sketch

It's Saturday which means it's Unscripted Sketches time. I had a lot of fun with the sketch.

***Supplies***
Patterned Paper: PTI In Bloom
Stamps: Stampin Bella, CTMH Happy Birthday
Other: CTMH markers, Cuttlebug
Make sure and head over to Unscripted now for your chance to work with this week's sketch. You'll also want to check out all the fabulous art from the designers over there.

Do you all have any fun plans for Halloween? We'll probably be going to a church activity and then we have a party with friends tonight. I hope everyone has a safe day.

Some have asked how my studying is going. It's going okay. I've gotten a lot more done this past week than in prior weeks. 3 1/2 more weeks. I think I can, I think I can.

Penny's sketch #4

Can you believe another Wednesday is upon us already? I love Wednesdays because I get to show you my art for Penny's challenges. Have you played with us yet over there? I'd love to see what you come up with using this fabulous sketch. I had a lot of fun making this card and decided to pull out some really old but still fabulous papers from CTMH. I just {heart} anything pink and a pink/black combo is one of my favorites.

***Supplies***
Patterned Paper: CTMH Stylin
Stamps: CTMH Month Blocks
Other: Cuttlebug, CTMH twill ribbon

Thanks for the visit and remember to play with us this week at Penny's challenges. And be sure and give the other DT members some love. Their interpretations of this sketch are fabulous.

A trip to the Pumpkin Farm

I first have to apologize for being absent in the blogging world the last few days. My next test, which could possibly be my last one, is in just a month and I've decided to give up blogging and paper crafting for the next month. I might come visit a few blogs here and there but won't be leaving any comments.

I do have scheduled posts for my design teams so if you want to come visit on Wednesday's and Saturday's, I'd love to have you.

Anyway, I hope you'll bear with me through this hiatus. I've just really got to focus hard on this test and pray that I pass and that I won't have to study anymore. It's been 2 1/2 years since I've started this journey and I have to tell you that I'm more than ready for it to be over with.

Okay, onto my post for today. We went to a local pumpkin farm last week and I wanted to get these pictures posted before Halloween. We had lots of fun but unfortunately, I couldn't get Christopher to smile at all. I'm not sure why he was being such a crabby patty but such is the life of a mother of a small boy, I suppose.

Well, if you've made it this far, I thank you. I hope you have a great day and I'll be thinking of you all in my absence. One more month, one more month, one more month. That's my mantra.

Unscripted Sketch #28

Yeah for Saturday which means two things of course. A much needed day off of work and a new Unscripted sketch. Yeah for both! I decided that I needed to add more thank you cards to my stash, as I really only have about 5. Yikes. How did that happen? Back to my card. It's simple for sure but now I've got another card for my stash.

***Supplies***
Patterned Paper: Unknown
Stamps: PTI Everyday Button Bits, CTMH Thank You
Other: CTMH ribbon and waxy flax, PTI buttons, Nesties

Thanks for you visit and be sure and go give some love to the other designers. And if you get a chance to play, I'd love to see your interpretation of the sketch. Have a great Saturday.

Halloween time with Penny's challenges

It's Wednesday so you know what that means, right? Yep, it's time for another challenge at Penny's challenges. This week, the challenge is to make something Halloween. Pile it On and One Stop Craft Challenge also want to see something Halloween this week. The challenge at Whimsy Stamps is to use embossing. Lastly, Crafty Calendar wants to see something autumn related.

***Supplies***
Patterned Paper: CTMH Enchanted
Stamps: CTMH Month Blocks
Other: Marvy scallop punch, Cuttlebug, CTMH brads, prisma glitter

If you look real close, you might be able to see the glitter on my pumpkins. And I super love the look of the swirl embossing folder with this card. It just seems to go with the pumpkins. Who knows though? Maybe I'm imagining that it looks good? Anyway, my plan, and I use the term plan loosely, LOL, is to make up a couple more of these cards and send them to my nieces and nephews for Halloween. Hopefully my "plan" works out like I want it to.

I was also asked by Jeanne about the card I posted on Monday with all the challenges. Her question was, do I make the card and then hunt down any applicable challenges or do I already know the challenges I want to incorporate into my card. My answer is both. For Monday's card, I only had the sketch and color challenge in mind when I made the card. After the card was made, I was blurfing and came across all the other challenges. How fun is that?

Make sure and pop over at Penny's challenges to see what the other fabulous DT ladies have created for you. And then we'd love to have you join us this week.

Joy to the World

I've got another Christmas card for you today. The card uses last week's sketch from Paper Play challenges and it's also my second submission for their current challenge, which is to use your favorite embellishment, which of course is buttons for me. This card also qualifies for the color challenge at JUGS, the challenge at Stamp Something for bling, the challenge at Saturday Spotlight with Hidden Potential wants to see a scene, ruffles for Moxie Fab World, bling for If the Shoe Fits, Alma of Dancing in Pajamas is the hostess for this week's TCP challenge which is to use buttons, and Die Cut Dreams has a theme of winter wonderland. Wow, that was a lot of challenges. But hey, if the card fits? LOL.

***Supplies***
Patterned paper: Unknown
Stamps: CTMH Snow Friends and Christmas Scripts
Other: Nesties, PTI buttons and ribbon, Prisma glitter

If you look close, you can just make out the bling on hill that the darling snowman is sitting on. I went over the area with my glue pen and then sprinkled the glitter on. I also had a fabulous time making the ruffled ribbon, which I've seen a lot of in blogland as of lately. I'll definitely be doing that again.

Devin and the kids have today off from school. I think they're calling it a fall holiday. I really do think I got into the wrong profession as I definitely could use a fall holiday but instead, I'll be going back to work. Well, I hope your Monday is fabulous.

Merry Christmas

I haven't been able to play in Sparkle's weekly Christmas card challenge for the past couple of weeks and it's made me sad so I made time yesterday to make a card for this week's challenge. It also qualifies for the challenge at PaperPlay this week which is to use your favorite embellishment.

I am totally loving my card and it is probably in my favorite top 5 of about the 45 Christmas cards I've made this year. Again, my simplistic nature has shown through but it's the colors and the gorgeous paper that I'm in love with.

***Supplies***
Patterned paper: Unknown
Stamps: CTMH So Sweet Seasons
Other: Tag punch, PTI buttons, CTMH ribbon and waxy flax

I'd also like to thank everyone who commented on Friday's post about Arianne's birthday. Your thoughts mean a lot to me and I truly appreciate the love and support I felt.

Well, I hope you have a fabulous Sunday. Mine will be filled with church, football, and studying. Until next time, take good care.

Unscripted week #27 -- Cupcake time

It's Saturday which means Unscripted Sketches time. Woo Hoo for the weekend. This birthday embossing folders is one of the first ones I got with my Cuttlebug and I decided that it had been too long since I used it. I'm really happy with the way it looks on the cream cardstock.

***Supplies***
Patterned paper: CTMH Life Delights
Stamps: PTI
Other: Cuttlebug, nesties, CTMH brads

I hope you'll come play with us this week at Unscripted. Thanks for your visit and have a great day.

Happy 15th Birthday Arianne

October 16th is a very special day, as it was that day that I went into pre-term labor at 34 weeks and gave birth to my sweet baby girl Arianne Raquel. I blogged about her 14th birthday here. I can’t believe that 15 years have passed since that eventful day. I was just a mere 20 year old with the weight of the world on my shoulders. Sad circumstances led to my unplanned pregnancy and I agonized for months on what to do. I finally decided that my sweet baby would have a better home with two parents. I did get to spend two glorious weeks with my little girl before I had to say goodbye. I visited her each day in the NICU and would spend hours there just holding her, watching her, and wondering if I was making the right decision. Two weeks later, I said goodbye to my baby and placed her in the arms of her new parents, who were chosen by me just a couple of weeks earlier.

The road has been long and full of much heartache, which will never fully go away. I also rejoice in the life that I was able to bring into this world and the blessing that she was to parents who so desperately wanted a baby. With that, I wish my sweet Arianne a very happy 15th birthday. It’s hard for me to even think of her as a teenager as this is one of the last pictures I have. Aahhh, the world of adoption was so much different in 1994 than it is now.

I hope one day that I will be able to be reunited with my precious girl and that she knows how much I love her and that my heart has never stopped aching for her. I love you Arianne.

Autumn

The challenge this week at Penny's challenges is to make something autumn related with a tree. I decided on a simple 4x4 card that I'll probably send to one of my friends just because this season. My card also fits the bill for this week's challenge at The Pink Elephant, which is to do something fall related. The Whimsy Stamps challenge for the week is to get punchy by either using punches or die cutting tools. Caardvarks wants to see something with ribbon. The challenge at Secret Crafter is to use autumn colors. Creative Belli wants to see something fall related with a leaf.
***Supplies***
Patterned Paper: CTMH
Stamps: CTMH Four Seasons
Other: Nesties, CTMH ribbon, button, and waxy flax

Make sure to stop by Penny's Challenges and give this week's challenge a whirl. There's also some gorgeous art over there from my fellow DT members that you don't want to miss. I hope you all have a great Wednesday. And thank you for the visit and comments. They really brighten my day.

Happy birthday

I went to make a Christmas card the other day and was looking through my Christmas paper and came across this piece in the BG Wassail line. I studied it and thought about it and in the end, decided that I wasn't brilliant enough to make a Christmas card with this paper. I do think it's gorgeous, though, and a super simple card was born.


***Supplies***
Patterned Paper: Basic Grey Wassail
Stamps: CTMH Happy Birthday
Other: CTMH waxy flax, Nesties, PTI buttons

Thanks for your visit. I hope you are all happy and well. And if you are lucky to have this Columbus Day off, do something fun for me.

The highlights

Several people asked me to post so here are the new highlights in my hair. What do you think? Nothing too drastic, as I do work in a professional office, but still some noticeable change.


And here's my whole head. Harder to see the actual highlights so that's why I posted the pic above. On a sidebar, this is me most days. I've pretty much given up wearing makeup for the most part. I've decided that I don't apply it well enough and that it's just one more thing to do in the morning. Anyways, I digress.

Well, there you have me, in all my UN-glory. I am really pleased with my hair but hate having my picture taken. Have a great Sunday. It's off to church for me and the fam now.

Unscripted Bella style

It's Unscripted Sketches time! Yeah. There's a great sketch for you to try this week. Remember that you can really have fun with it and create whatever you would like. Make sure and go give some love to the other designers. You're in for quite a treat today.

***Supplies***
Patterned paper: CTMH More to Adore
Stamps: Stampin Bella, CTMH Say it in Style
Other: Fiskars border punch, CTMH buttons, waxy flax, and markers

Have a great Saturday. I'll be getting my hair cut and highlighted today. It's been over a year since I've put any highlights in my hair so I'm looking forward to a somewhat different look. Oh, and did I mention that it snowed yesterday and last night? Snow on October 9th? Seems pretty early for me, even for crazy Colorado.

Presenting Irelynd

I've decided that I need to get more caught up on my scrapbooking so hopefully, you'll be seeing more of my pages. I blogged about these pictures here and have been itching to get them scrapped.

The empty journaling box on the right side is waiting for a good white pen. Does anyone have any suggestions? The one I have is kind of old and the ink doesn't flow nicely at all.





***Supplies***
Patterned paper: CTMH Cocoa Cafe
Other: Nesties, Cricut, Making Memories flower ribbon and rub-ons, Fiskars border punch, American Crafts Fabric Thickers

Thanks for your visit. I hope you have a fantastic Thursday. We're getting closer to the weekend.

Finding inspiration

This week, Penny's challenges wants you to make something inspired from this picture. My card is also for this week's challenge at Cupcake Craft Challenges which is "thanks a bunch". In keeping with my true form, I have a real simple card for you today. Also, I haven't had as much play time as I'd like in my craft room. :(

***Supplies***
Patterned paper: Unknown
Stamps: CTMH Thank You
Other: Nesties, CTMH buttons

You'll want to be sure and check out the other design team member's creations. And then why don't you come and play with us. I'd love to see how this photo inspires you. Happy Wednesday!

World Card Making Day with an Unscripted Blog Hop

ETA: Candy giveaway is closed. Random.org picked Jenny. Jenny, please contact me within 48 hours at alannamoses@aol.com or I will draw another winner.

It's October 3rd which is World Card Making Day! The designers at Unscripted Sketches have a special blog hop. You're not going to want to miss this. Some designers are even giving out special candy for the day, including me! If you came from the Unscripted Sketches site, than you are in the right place, as I'm kicking off the hop.

I decided to make a group of 4 thank you cards, all using the same color scheme and and my favorite stamp set. :)

***Supplies***
Patterned paper: CTMH Elegant Bouquet
Stamps: PTI Everyday Button Bits, CTMH Thank You
Other: Nesties, PTI buttons, CTMH buttons and white waxy flax

Now hop on over to April's blog to see what she has in store for you. In addition, one random commenter today will receive a surprise stamping blog candy package from me. I'll pick a winner and post that tomorrow so be sure to check back. Have fun with the hop and don't forget to make a card yourself today.

Here's a list of all designers participating in case you get lost along the way.

Alanna
April
Aymee
BR-T
Caryl
Dawn
Hollie
Irit
Jenny
Jeryn
Kelly
Keri Lee
Liz
Marcy
Sarah Kaye
Steph
Susan

Eat Cake

Don't you just want to eat this yummy cupcake? My card uses this week's sketch over at Crazy 4 Challenges. Pile it On wants something with cupcakes or other pastries. The challenge over at ABC is E is for embossing. I also found three new challenge sites to me. Artful Inkables challenge this week is to use something that sparkles. Creative Card Crew wants to see sparkle as well. Crafty Angels wants embossing.

***Supplies***
Patterned paper: CTMH Life Delights
Stamps: PTI Cupcake Collection
Other: Nesties, Cuttlebug, prisma glitter

Another Friday has arrived. Yeah! Thanks for stopping by. Devin and I will be going to Dave and Busters tonight for a party. Without kids. Promises to be a fun night.

World Card Making Day

If you're looking for my CTMH blog hop post, click here.

In honor of World Card Making Day, the Unscripted Sketches designers have decided to put together our first ever blog hop! It’s going to be so much fun, and some of them are even going to offer some blog candy! Don’t forget to mark the date of October 3rd on your calendars. Everything starts at the US blog and will go from there. I hope you’ll head over there Saturday morning and join us!

See you Saturday!!

CTMH monthly blog hop featuring Holiday Warmth

Welcome to the monthly CTMH Stamp of the Month blog hop. This month, we have more than 60 consultants showing off this fabulous Christmas set, Holiday Warmth. If you've come from Terrie's blog, you are on the right track.

I thought about doing many things with the big tree in this set but in the end, settled for adding an assortment of brads in two sizes for the ornaments. The Merry Christmas sentiment in the corner didn't photograph well for some reason. It's much clearer IRL. My card size is 5.5 x 5.5 inches.

***Supplies***
Patterned paper: CTMH Jingle Creative Basics
Stamps: CTMH October SOTM--Holiday Warmth and So Sweet Seasons
Other: Nesties, CTMH white grosgrain ribbon, CTMH sorbet and twilight brads, buttons from my stash, prisma glitter

Now hop on over to Antoinette's blog to see the eye candy over there. Remember that this set is only available for the month of October so act now. Contact me or your local CTMH consultant to see how you can earn this set for free.

Go check out Melody's blog candy

Melody over at Melody's Scrap Chat is giving away a very nice blog candy package. Lots of goodies here. Go check it out.

Penny's challenges -- Sketch #3

Penny's got another great sketch this week for you to try. My card is also for this week's Cute Card Thursday challenge, which is to use yellow and black. It also fits the bill for Papertake Weekly whose challenge is black and white + 1.

I decided to pull out my neglected thank you cuttlebug embossing folder. I really like the folders like this with all the different words but don't find myself reaching for them very often.




***Supplies***
Other: Cuttlebug, CTMH buttons and waxy flax

Be sure and head over to Penny's challenges to check out what the other design team members have for you. You can also find all the links to their blogs on my sidebar.

Hawaiian Day

I mentioned how last week was Homecoming week at the kids' and Devin's school. Each day, there was a different theme for dressing for the day. One day was Hawaiian day. I just snapped a few photos of the kids before school. We had gotten Christohper a lei but he told me in a disgusted voice that he could only wear it if he saw other boys wearing them. Well, he must have decided that it was okay because Devin said he saw him with it on. Boy, it sure starts early, huh?

Oh, and don't you love how the shots I got of Christopher, he's being silly? I guess I shouldn't be surprised at all. That's my boy and my Reynna, well, she's just happy to pose for the camera.

Thanks for the visit. Have a fabulous Tuesday!

Hot air Balloons

Today's card makes use of my favorite stamp set again. This time with the hot air balloons. The challenge at Whimsy Stamps is to use buttons.

***Supplies***
Patterned paper: PTI Friends til the End
Stamps; PTI Everyday Button Bits, CTMH Say it in Style
Other: Nesties, PTI ribbon and buttons, Cuttlebug

Well, it's back to another Monday. Is it me or do Monday's seem to come around more often than Friday's?

Live United--helping out at a Habitat house

I'm finally posting a couple of pics of Reynna and me after we came home from helping out at the Habitat house renovation a couple of weeks ago. As you can see, we were very dirty. She and I ripped out old carpet and then joined in on the popcorn ceiling removal team. What a mess that was. We had to soak the ceiling with water, let it sit for a few minutes, and then used putty knives to scrape off the ceiling. It was literally raining wet, gooey, popcorn ceiling on us.

These were both things that I've never done before and I came home and told Devin that when we replace our carpet with hardwood floors, which is what I want to do sometime in the future, that I was all set on how to remove the carpet. Granted, it wasn't very hard. The razor blade did most of the work but still.


Oh, and the white thing around my neck is the face mask that we all wore. There was so much crap in the air that we needed to protect our noses and mouths from breathing it all in. Reynna had already taken hers off.

Unscripted week #25 -- Christmas Pajamas

I decided to make a layout with this week's Unscripted Sketches sketch. This will be the right side of my layout, as I always make 2 page spreads. I still need to work on the left side, which will include my journaling.

***Supplies***
Patterned paper: CTMH Jingle
Other: Making Memories rub-ons, Marvy snowflake punch, PTI buttons

Thanks for the visit and be sure to check out the other DT members art. I can't wait to see what you do with this sketch.

Thanks for being my friend

I used this week's sketch from Crazy 4 Challenges for my card today. I'm totally loving this card except I'm not sure about all the white space above my sentiment. I thought about adding something, like maybe a stamped flourish or something but was afraid that I might make things worse so I decided to leave it as is. What do you think?

***Supplies***
Patterned Paper: PTI Friends til the End
Stamps: CTMH Thank you
Other: Cuttlebug, Nesties, EK Success flower punch, Fiskars border punch, CTMH adhesive pearls

Well, we made it to Friday. Any big plans for the weekend? None here. Devin's got homecoming festivities to attend to so I probably won't be seeing much of him. Who knows what I'll do once I'm out of work today. In any event, I hope your Friday is fantastic.