Hooray! I’m finally “with” the season! Yes, I did know that Christmas had past – but I hadn’t had the time or energy to redesign the ol’ blog until this weekend. Though the coding didn’t go as smoothly as I’d hoped, the end result makes me happy!    I used CU items from Kim Broedelet Designs, Brushes from Obsidian Dawn, and Flowers/Swirls from Jodiann’s March Color Challenge freebie – you can find the kit here (and if you download – be sure to leave her some love)!

I know I said there’d be a coupon – here’s the scoop – Entire Stock of Scrapbooking On Sale + Free Shipping, No Minimum Two Days Only at Joann.com but the sale ends on Tuesday, so if you’re interested, don’t wait too long!  Your coupon code for the FREE shipping is ACD89.

We have a busy day today – Mondays are our usual grocery shopping and errand days, but starting this week, we’re adding “advanced” toddler swimming to our schedule.  We’re still in gymnastics on Thursdays, but I figured since Nadya remembered swimming enough to ask me for lessons everyday for three weeks (I’m not kidding), then I’d look into the options.  Fortunately for her, the gym we use offers an “advanced” swimming class for little ones in which I am still in the water with her – which is REALLY important to me – but offers increased swimming skills since she had already mastered those taught in the beginner level and was getting a bit bored or adventurous, depending on how you look at it (attempting to run to the “big” pool instead of doing jumps into the small one where Mommy was – rather nerve-wracking for Mommy!

Before I head out, a couple of news worthy items:

Jodiann has new goods – check ‘em out!And Kristine is having a guest DT call:     

Alright – I’m outta here! Have a great start to your week!

Yesterday was digi-day for Sweet n Sassy Stamps at SNR – which means a new challenge (SNSDD10 – Easter) and a new prize for playing along (using Sweet n Sassy images isn’t required).  I tried valiantly to finish my card last night for the early bird prize too – but between gymnastics, the park, and dinner it just didn’t happen!  Fortunately we have until next Wednesday to complete the challenge and still earn a free sentiment set. Thanks Korin! That being said, here’s my card – I think I’ll give it away as well; I already have someone special in mind.I LOVE that cross image – it’s a new release from Sweet n Sassy Stamps – you can find it here.  Though sentiments are included in the set, I opted to created my own in Photoshop – I wanted to tie the usual Happy Easter that’s often accompanied with a bunny or eggs with a deeper reason for celebrating.  I printed the stamp and sentiment on Neenah classic crest white cs – my first time using this paper.  I must say it allowed more bleeding than I expected, but I like the bright white finish. While giving the ink a few minutes to dry, I found an awesome sketch challenge at The Sweet Stop that I decided to follow. For my Designer Paper, I returned to Photoshop and printed one of the awesome papers in Designs By Kristine’s  newest kit – Cheerful (on-sale for a short time). I loved the texture and the color scheme reminded me of dawn about to break – so it tied in perfectly with my image.  My image is colored with copic markers and spica pens.  I used shimmer chalks to shade the background – using a light blue except near the center of the cross where I used yellow and a circle mask to give the subtle illusion of dawn breaking – again tying in with the image and the DP I had selected. Since I didn’t have any fixative spray and I didn’t want the chalk smearing or wiping off, I used some aerosol hairspray – the Aquanet inexpensive type works best, but since I don’t use that on my hair, I used my Pantene since that’s what I had on hand.  It worked well and my card is now lightly scented! I trimmed the image and matted it with Ballet Blue scrap cs.  I edged the DP and Barely Banana card base with a MS punch – our Wal-Mart clearanced several punch around the page sets before Christmas. I added a teeny bit more texture to the DP using my Big Shot and an SU texture plate.  The sentiment was cut out using my Circle Nestabilities and tucked in behind the edge of my image panel.  The ribbon is from my stash.  I added the tiny pearls (Michaels) to the ribbon as a finishing touch. To “round out” my card and anchor my image, I added white and purple flowers from Prima – I love these self-adhesive flowers and wish I could find more of them! There you have it – probably more detail than you wanted, but detail nonetheless.  I really enjoyed creating this card – the image just “spoke” to me and everything came together from there!  I’d love to know what you think too!

It’s time for me to close and begin the much less fun and creative but oh so necessary task of laundry and house tidying!  With a toddler around, it seems like a never-ending task – but she’s beyond worth it!  What? You’d like a little peak from our activities yesterday?  Alright – just a peak (then run to Jodiann’s blog this weekend – she used Kim’s newest kit Merry Around and a photo of my little one to create a STUNNING scrapbook layout):

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Have a fabulous Friday and weekend!

It’s Thursday already – where has my week gone?!?!? Though all of my days seem to fly by – this week has been one of lesser productivity and activities – the nasty respiratory bug that’s been making the rounds stopped for a visit at our house! My DH had it last week and he very generously shared it with me starting Sunday – I think I’m over the worst of it, but still have a bit of a nagging cough.  Plus, my sweet little one was under the weather over the weekend – requiring lots of Mommy-time and laundry! Fortunately she only had a 12-hour bug – I’m crediting the buffet at Peter Piper Pizza for it.

On to more pleasant topics – you’re probably here to see my latest creation for Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff and I’ll not be one to disappoint! I was browsing through a back issue of PaperCrafts magazine and noting all of the “simple” card designs and thought I would try one of my own.  I wanted to work with Lindsay’s Birds & Branches stamp set – it’s such a versatile set and perfect for the “simple” theme I had set for myself:

I selected the mailbox stamp for my card.  I printed the image in medium brown (#594029) on Naturals Ivory CS.  After trimming away the excess, I sanded the edges and ran them over my Walnut Stain Distress Ink pad to add definition.  Then I stippled the same ink over the image surface.  I rummaged in my stash and found some ivory lace hem facing and adhered it to the edge of my image panel.  Since I didn’t want to drag out my sewing machine, I pulled out my A Stitch in Time stamps (retired) from Clear Dollar Stamps – you can find similar ones here – and added the zigzag across the edge to tie my panel and lace together (also in Walnut Stain).  For my card base, I selected a patterned and textured card from DCWV Indian Summer Fall Box of Cards and shaped it with the largest Nestabilities: Labels 8 die. After attaching my panel and lace to the card base, I added Orange Bauble Drops (I love these – you can get lots of fabulous colors at a great price from my friend Suzanne’s store Crafting-Connection) and colored the flowers lightly with my Pumpkin Pie marker.  Whew – 1 “simple” card that I’m really proud of – I used colors that were outside my norm and didn’t allow myself to over “think” or embellish.  I’d love to know what you think too!

If you didn’t arrive here from Lindsay’s blog be sure to stop there! She’ll have a freebie for you and the links to the rest of the DT projects.  Also, today is the last day of the MyGrafico St. Patrick’s Day sale – 30% off until midnight – a perfect time to grab any of Lindsay’s stamps at a great price and receive your downloads instantly!

That’s all for me! Today is the last day of gymnastics for this term – we get a 1 week break next week while the public schools are on spring break, and then we’ll start up again the following week.  My little one keeps asking for swimming lessons too – so I may check into those again this afternoon.  Speaking of my little one – she is choosing to express her creative side more and more lately – here’s a peak at what I call “The Body as Canvas”: Thankfully she used her water-based Crayola markers and nothing more permanent!  She was quite proud of herself – her Daddy and I tried very hard not to laugh as we didn’t want to encourage her.  Obviously I couldn’t resist reaching for my camera though!