Rainshowers & a Few Baby Book Pages

We’ve hit MONSOON season here in Utah.  The weatherman has said we’d have “monsoonal moisture” the last couple of days and today… well, yesterday we had gale force winds and a doozy of a rainstorm and this afternoon we’ve had even more incredible gale force winds and one heck of a hail and rainstorm.  This wasn’t just a downpour… it was an angry rain… it came down and pelted the flowers and plants in my garden and caused a great river to flood our gutters.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  There’s almost nothing I like better (weatherwise) than a GOOD angry rainstorm with loads of lightning and thunder.  Today’s storm only lasted a short while, but it was amazing… and I’m hoping those black clouds up north make their way down south… :)

So since I had a few minutes today I thought I’d share a couple of photos of the pages from the big baby book I was working on for the last while.  The book was shipped and Nikki finally received it and told me she loved it and that it was the coolest baby book she’s ever seen. (*BLUSH*)  I’m relieved.. I’ve never made a baby book before and was totally freaked out about it.

She wanted a monkey themed book and sent me a few papers to work in.  I think the hardest part was dreaming up the layouts.  I looked around for baby pages that I thought I could copy, but nothing was working so I started drawing sketches on papers.

Here’s a snapshot of one of my piles of sketches:

The baby book pages are not very complicated, just lots of thought put into details and LOTS of machine stitching and little monkeys with googly eyes.  I think the machine stitching and monkeys took the majority of my time.  I was learning to use my Cricut Expressions machine at the same time I was trying to put this book together.  Talk about frustrating. LOL!  I finally figured out the Real Dial Size button should not be on when cutting layers. LOL!  For some reason I thought I had the Paper Saver Button selected. HAHA!  For what it’s worth.. if you have children or not, the New Arrival cartridge is worth EVERY STINKIN COPPER PENNY you spend on it whether it’s on Ebay (where I picked it up) or some other store.  I have used the heck out of this cartridge (just having fun with it and not necessarily all in this book)!

NOTE: The creamy yellow papers are meant to be “place markers” for photographs.  They are lightly tacked in with a bit of adhesive and are meant to be gently plucked off and used to cut the exact size photo that goes in that space.  I figured it was the easiest way to help a non scrapbooker cut their photos to fit exactly.

ANyway, enough rambling… I’ve got to go locate my pickle recipe and canning supplies so we can get ready for bottling some dill pickles tonight after dinner and a wedding reception. FUN!

Here’s  snapshot of the stack of finished pages.  I think there were 30 total pages including one that she bought on Ebay as her monkey inspiration page.

Here’s a sneak peek of the first page (I posted this on facebook a while back):

Here’s the very first page (I’ll share the rest in no particular order).  I love the stork delivering a monkey.  The original artwork on the cartridge literature had him delivering a “baby”, but I thought the monkey would be more fun :)  The stitched ribbon is turning into one of my specialties.  I just love the bunched up, stitched ribbon. It’s fun and easy to do!

Here’s a page for baby and her bff, a beagle named Brandy. :) Every baby who has a pet in their home just HAS to have some photos with it! I loved this “bff” paper (don’t remember who makes it, though, lol!) and loved the stripes with it.

And a couple of detail shots:

               

 

Here’s another fun and cheery page for “baby’s mealtime” of choice.  How many of us have photos of us as wee ones with our face planted squarely in a dish of “pasketti” after completely crashing out? Tee hee!   I LOVED these monkeys… they are seriously fun and cute and I couldn’t resist doing googly eyes on all of them and hair on a couple of them.  The hairs are Maya Road fibers.  The rub ons are .. I can’t remember, but really fun. LOL!

And a couple of detail shots: 

                            

I’ve gotta finish editing the rest of the pics and will do it as I have time here and there.  Thanks for checking in with me today!

~Inky Smiles!

Busyness of Our Lives

I ran across this quote today.  I've been really thinking about "the important things" and what I focus my energy on and have been trying to redirect some of that limited energy on some very important things.

“We become so caught up in the busyness of our lives. Were we to step back, however, and take a good look at what we’re doing, we may find that we have immersed ourselves in the ‘thick of thin things.’ In other words, too often we spend most of our time taking care of the things which do not really matter much at all in the grand scheme of things, neglecting those more important causes.”

~Thomas S. Monson, “What Have I Done for Someone Today?” Ensign, Nov. 2009, 85

I have, however, focused some energy on a couple of fun projects in the last couple of weeks.  I will be photographing them in the next couple of days so I can share them with you!

Inky Smiles! 

Quietly Checking In...

Hey friends! I promise I have not totally dropped off the face of the planet... just been a little busy, both in life and craftiness.

What I've been up to:

1) Getting the house ready today for out of town guests.  I haven't seen my friend, Elisabeth, since before I was married... at least 11 years.  I also have not met her 4 children yet!  So stoked!  The house went to pot over the last month with everything going on so I've been tackling "forgotten" messes. LOL!

2)  Went to visit my family in Iowa for nearly 2 weeks for Dad's 60th bday celebration.  It was loads of fun and I took way too many photos.  

3) Came home from Iowa with a nasty case of Bronchitis, which I am STILL recovering from.  I have an inhaler for the wheezing and have been slowly trying to shake this horrid cough.  It seems to be worse at night when I lay down and try to get some rest. ERgh.

4)  Sadie had surgery to replace her CCL (which is like a human ACL) two days after we got back from Iowa.  We're not sure how she tore it, but according to the dr it was a doozy of a tear.  We think she just tore it from running and playing too hard.  I spent two weeks doing physical therapy with her and trying to keep a normally active doggy "contained/resting/still".   She still has quite a while that she has to stay calm for... argh..  Did I mention that this particular task is like trying to nail jello to a door??  I'm sure many of you who have experienced toddlers can empathize.

She is doing very well now.. we're waiting for the hair on her back left quarter to grow back.. Poor dog looks like mom started to give her a hair cut and then gave up. LOL!  Thankfully the 4" scar on her knee proves that's not the case.  Really, I'm a good furrmommy.. just taking care of my poochlet.  She had her 2 week check up last week and the vet says she's ahead of schedule on recovery... but full recovery isn't expected until at least another few months.  For now she's outside only on a leash and we can take her for short 10 min walks, which will increase to 20 -30 min walks over the next few weeks. YAY!  The poor girlie is dieing to go back out and play with her human and furr friends.  She's also doing well on her diet.. about 7 lbs lost so far which is half way to her goal. YAY!  (Now if I can keep up with her it would be GREAT!)

4)  In between everything I've been trying to work on a 12x12 baby scrapbook for my cousin.  It's monkey themed and traditional paper.  The traditional paper part has been a challenge for me because I'm in love with super fast, zero mess digi scrapping. LOL!  The book now has 24 pages and just a few more to add in so I can take photos of it and mail it this Friday.  I will be posting photos once Nikki receives it.  I don't want to spoil the surprise for her.

5)  Brent and I celebrated our 11th anniversary in July.  It was somewhat low key because I was so sick and actually totally SPACED it.  I blame the medicine and painkillers. I felt so bad.  Brent gave me the HUGEST bouquet of flowers that we took apart and put in 3 separate vases.  It was a TON of flowers.  They were so beautiful.   We went to dinner at PF Changs and enjoyed a nice, quiet evening together.   I love Brent and am so thankful that Heavenly Father gave him to me.  He's the best friend and husband a woman could ask for.

So that's it in a nutshell.  I better get back to working on the last odds n ends.

~Inky Smiles!

 Erin

Skipping Stones Design Farewell Blog Hop & Sketch Tuesday

Hey friends!  A while back Heather from Skipping Stones Design gave the DT members the option to stay or leave when our term was up this summer.  After mulling it over for several months and then having some things come up in my life I have decided that it is time for me to bid a fond farewell to the Skipping Stones Design Team.  I have thoroughly enjoyed being on the team and have had a blast sharing new stamps with all of you, too.  I have met some really neat and creative people on the DT and will miss them.  Thank goodness for Facebook, right?  So this will be my last official post as a Skipping Stones Design Team member.
Today we celebrate the release of two new stamp sets, ""Friendly Fruit" and "Timeless Textures" which I posted on yesterday’s blog post for a sneak preview.

If you just happened upon my blog today, you’ll want to go back to the beginning at Skipping Stones Design. You should have arrived from Kim Kesti’s blog.

Combined with the blog hop today, it's also Skipping Stones Sketch Tuesday which means the Design Team is showcasing another great sketch creation from Kim Kesti. We'd love for you to play along with the sketch. Just remember to use the keywords SSD035 if you are uploading to any online galleries or link your card at the Skipping Stones Blog. We'll be looking soon for Guest Designers and a DT call soon will be going out so you never know....

Here is today’s sketch from Kim Kesti:



Here is the card I made using SSD’s new set “Friendly Fruit”:




(Please excuse the bad photo.  I had a hard time again this evening trying to photograph this card.)
I had this fun idea to cut out a window with a Nestabilities Square die and emboss the frame around it.  It’s a little difficult to see in the first photo so here’s an up close snapshot:

 
The strawberry and some of the fruits on the patterned paper and the dots on the bottom patterned paper are blinged up with a glitter pen as is the Sweet in the sentiment. It truly sparkles in real life. I used some Kaisercraft rhinestones to adorn the corners of the frame and CTMH organdy ribbon to tie an accent on the main focal point.  The sentiment and strawberry (which was stamped using paper masks) are stamped using CTMH inks.  Papers are Basic Grey’s Nook & Pantry. (Yum, Yum!)



Thanks for stopping by and checking out today’s Skipping Stones Design sketch.  I hope you have a fabulous trip on this blog hop!

~ Inky Smiles

PS.  Your next stop is the fabulatastic Peggy Russell who never ceases to amaze me with her beautiful cards and stitching.

Skipping Stones Design http://www.skippingstonesdesign.com/
Kim Kesti http://www.kimberlykesti.typepad.com/
Erin Grotegut http://www.inkysmiles.blogspot.com/
Peggy Russell http://www.beautifulgreetings.blogspot.com/
Kandi Phillips http://www.kraftykandikrafts.blogspot.com/
Dina Kowal http://mamadinis.blogspot.com/
Michelle Giraud http://www.twisted-chick.blogspot.com/
Jennifer Ingle http://www.justjingle.blogspot.com/
Heidi Van Laar  http://www.vanlaardesigns.blogspot.com/
Amanda Sewell http://www.inkspirations.blogspot.com/
Chelsea Van Wyk http://www.scraptasticvoyage.blogspot.com
Angela Thomas http://www.sparkleandbling.blogspot.com

Don’t forget to stop and share the love for the other DT girls’ creations!

Blog Candy Winner (FINALLY) & A PMS Sale from Skipping Stones Design

Ahhh!!!  I'm back!  It's been crazy.. I will post more details on Wed.  I do realize that I missed drawing the winner of the Skipping Stones Set "Chic Martini" from this olllllllllld post.  I truly apologize. It really has been hectic around here.

So I used the random number generator to choose a winner out of the 19 comments and Random.org chose commenter #5 which is

Lilian Child

So, Miss Lilian, if you would kindly shoot me an email with your information I will send this in the mail to you!

**********************************************************************************

Here's a sneak peek at tomorrow's Skipping Stones Design releases:

Friendly Fruit

Timeless Textures

PMS SALE!!

The P.M.S. sale is back at Skipping Stones Design!!

P.M.S. - in this case - suffering from the NEED to Purchase More Stamps!
P.M.S. sale - the more you buy the more you save!!!!

Here is how it works:
Buy 1 stamp set save 5%, Coupon code: PMS1
Buy 2 stamp sets & save 10%, Coupon code: PMS2
Buy 3 stamp sets & save 20% (total savings $8.70) Coupon code: PMS3
Buy 4 stamp sets & save 25% Coupon Code: PMS4
for a total savings of $14.49 ~that's like getting one FREE
Buy 5 stamp sets & save 30%, Coupon Code: PMS5
for a total savings of $22.10 ~that is like getting 1 FREE and another one half off!!!

What to do: Put the stamps into your shopping cart as normal. When you are checking out there will be a box where you can type in a coupon/discount code. This is where you type the letters PMS and the number of stamp sets you purchase. For example if you are buying three stamp sets type in PMS3 into the box.

*This sale will last until Monday August 2nd at midnight

 More Great NEWS!!!!

You can PRE ORDER these stamps starting NOW, and they will ship on TUESDAY!!! Plus, they count toward the PMS Sale!!  So hop on over to Skipping Stones Design to take advantage of this awesome sale!

Scrap My Scraps Challenge III Reveal: Nichole Walker

{This is a scheduled post while I am away from the computer enjoying time with my family – parents, sibs, nieces and nephews. Enjoy!}
Sadly, my friends, today’s our last Scrap My Scraps reveal.   Hope you’ve enjoyed this round of Scrap My Scraps as much as I have!  A big huge round of applause and thank you to all of our players! :)

Here’s a reminder of the “guidelines”/deets:
Scrap My Scraps Round 3 Details:
You will receive an envelope with several images and sentiments stamped onto white cardstock and a list of printed guidelines.  You may use ANY papers and embellishments from any company, but you must use the images in the envelope.   Everyone will receive exactly the same images and sentiments.

Your mission is to create a piece of artwork using ALL of these guidelines:
1)  Use at least TWO of the images (MUST use the large image included)
2)  Use at least ONE sentiment.
3)  Incorporate stitching of some sort.
4)  Incorporate additional decorative fibers (non paper).
5)  Use 1-2 pieces of METAL.
6)  Make it POP.. use some dimensional adhesives (pop dots, tabs, foam tape, etc).
7)  Have FUUUUN!!!!

Today’s Scrap My Scraps reveal is brought to us from my friend, Nichole Walker.    Nichole has made two darling cards for this challenge.  I love the whimsical stitching around the focal pieces and her use of additional fibers on these cards.

              

Thanks to everyone for playing with us for this round of Scrap My Scraps!  It’s been a blast seeing all the wonderful artwork come in and I’m dreaming up ideas for the next round of Scrap My Scraps!
~Inky Smiles!

Wine/Bubbly Beverage Charms Gift

{This is a scheduled post while I am enjoying time away from the computer with my family – parents, siblings, nieces and nephews. I will be back with Skipping Stones Sketch Tuesdays in a couple of weeks.}
Ok so you just got invited to a big summer party… and you think maybe you should bring a hostess gift, but what do you bring?  A treat? A bubbly beverage? Flowers? A plant? A card? Hrmmm..  How about a treat, a “card” and some BLING?
I have always liked the idea of wine charms… they’re such lovely bling.. and how can you go wrong adding sparkle to something already sparkly?  Brent and I don’t drink alcohol, but we do enjoy a nice sparkly glass of something bubbly like Martinelli’s Sparkling cider so for today’s purposes, this little giftie will be modeled on a non-alcoholic sparkly beverage.  Feel free to attach yours to your favorite sparkly beverage.
For this giftie I used the Skipping Stones Design stamp set Margarita Birthday.  Again, being a non drinker I wanted to find a fun way to use this delightful stamp set.  {I do love celebrating good times with good friends AND a good virgin strawberry daquiri or margarita!}
Here’s a full view of the gift set: 

You can choose to give glasses or not.. I’m just showing for demo purposes.  The charms fit neatly in the hanging “box” on the bottle which is made as you would make a door hanger or similar “hanging box”.


These wine charms are made by attaching various 2 mm glass seed beads and 8 mm fiber optic beads from Rings N Things {I picked these out at the warehouse with my sweet friend Stacey Flores when I visited her in WA last February… so much fun!!} to some hoop earring bases that I picked up at Michael’s. I folded the ends of the ear wires over to make  a “hook” to close on itself.
                        
For the packaging I cut out and layered up circles of cardstock with my Nesties and Cuttlebug, added a scalloped edge to the box with a FIskars border punch and popped up some sentiments.  The daquiri glass is colored in with a mix of colored pencils, odorless mineral spirits, and a grey Copic marker.  I added a touch of bling to the glass with a Sakura clear glitter pen and sugared up the glass edge with some glass beads attached with Liquid Glass.  I love all the sparkle on this project!

The white circle and glass are one piece of cardstock.  I traced the Nestie circle around the stamped image, cut a rough circle around the nestie circle , cut out the glass up to the circle line and then placed the Nestie circle die on the image, popped the cut pieces of the image out of the die’s cutting area and ran it through the cuttlebug.  *Whew*  Did that make sense to you?  LOL! Perhaps I will to do a tutorial. Hrmm.
Anyway… Hope you enjoyed this little giftie project!
~Inky Smiles!!

Scrap My Scraps Challenge III Reveal: Jenn Embry

{This is a scheduled post while I am away from the computer enjoying time with my family – parents, sibs, nieces and nephews. Enjoy!}
We’re back again for our 5th reveal!
Here’s a reminder of the “guidelines”/deets:
Scrap My Scraps Round 3 Details:
You will receive an envelope with several images and sentiments stamped onto white cardstock and a list of printed guidelines.  You may use ANY papers and embellishments from any company, but you must use the images in the envelope.   Everyone will receive exactly the same images and sentiments.

Your mission is to create a piece of artwork using ALL of these guidelines:
1)  Use at least TWO of the images (MUST use the large image included)
2)  Use at least ONE sentiment.
3)  Incorporate stitching of some sort.
4)  Incorporate additional decorative fibers (non paper).
5)  Use 1-2 pieces of METAL.
6)  Make it POP.. use some dimensional adhesives (pop dots, tabs, foam tape, etc).
7)  Have FUUUUN!!!!

Today’s Scrap My Scraps reveal is Jenn Embry from Mission Ink Possible. I love the stitching and “ticket punched” corners on the main image.  Jenn even carried over an additional image and sentiment to the inside of the card.  She also used one of my favorite CTMH paper packs. LOVE IT!
From Jenn:
Card Details:
Images colored using Prismacolor pencils and gamsol technique. The sunglasses & bobber, and stuff hanging out of the fish's mouth are accented with liquid glass.  I tried using white glitter on his teeth to make them sparkly white...but I'm not really pleased with how that turned out. My daughter says he looks like he's wearing braces. LOL!  Stitching done with DMC embroidery floss.     Paper pack is CTMH Rustic Trail, along with Cocoa CS and Dutch Blue Textured CS for the card base. Card is 6x6.     I used Cocoa & Olive inks.  Inside sentiment is punched out using an SU punch.




I will be back with one more reveal in the next couple of days!
~Inky Smiles!

Scrap My Scraps Challenge III Reveal: Barb @ Barb’s Boys

{This is a scheduled post while I am away from the computer enjoying time with my family – parents, sibs, nieces and nephews. Enjoy!}
Back again with reveal #4 today!

Here’s a reminder of the “guidelines”/deets:
Scrap My Scraps Round 3 Details:
You will receive an envelope with several images and sentiments stamped onto white cardstock and a list of printed guidelines.  You may use ANY papers and embellishments from any company, but you must use the images in the envelope.   Everyone will receive exactly the same images and sentiments.

Your mission is to create a piece of artwork using ALL of these guidelines:
1)  Use at least TWO of the images (MUST use the large image included)
2)  Use at least ONE sentiment.
3)  Incorporate stitching of some sort.
4)  Incorporate additional decorative fibers (non paper).
5)  Use 1-2 pieces of METAL.
6)  Make it POP.. use some dimensional adhesives (pop dots, tabs, foam tape, etc).
7)  Have FUUUUN!!!!
Today’s SMS Reveal comes from Barb from Barb’s Boys.   I love all the little details and colors on Barb’s card, especially her “bait” on the right side of the card and the sentiment is mounted on cardboard. LOVE IT!

Be back soon with a couple more reveals!
~Inky Smiles!

Scrap My Scraps Challenge III Reveal: Kathy Smullen

{This is a scheduled post while I am away from the computer enjoying time with my family – parents, sibs, nieces and nephews. Enjoy!}
I’m back again today with our 3rd SMS Reveal.

Here’s a reminder of the “guidelines”/deets:
Scrap My Scraps Round 3 Details:
You will receive an envelope with several images and sentiments stamped onto white cardstock and a list of printed guidelines.  You may use ANY papers and embellishments from any company, but you must use the images in the envelope.   Everyone will receive exactly the same images and sentiments.

Your mission is to create a piece of artwork using ALL of these guidelines:
1)  Use at least TWO of the images (MUST use the large image included)
2)  Use at least ONE sentiment.
3)  Incorporate stitching of some sort.
4)  Incorporate additional decorative fibers (non paper).
5)  Use 1-2 pieces of METAL.
6)  Make it POP.. use some dimensional adhesives (pop dots, tabs, foam tape, etc).
7)  Have FUUUUN!!!!

Today’s reveal comes from Kathy Smullen who hails from waaaaaay down under in Australia.  Kathy’s scraps traveled the farthest in this round!  Kathy has 3 projects to share with us today.  You’re gonna love these.  Project #1 was submitted for the SMS Challenge and the other two are bonus fun projects that she made using the leftover pieces.   I really love Kathy’s cards, especially the easel fold red one.  Make sure you check out the amazing details on the boat and water!
Click on the photo(s) for a larger view.

From Kathy:
Red Square “Fishing You Happy Birthday”     This card also had some input from my youngest son- he suggested the boat be tin- I just elaborated on it and a friend gave a couple of ideas as well- which I had thought about and used because we thought they sounded ok-( like the esky or car fridge or cooler or chilli bin floating in the water and tied with a rope)   
Pictures and front Sentiments  from Erin Grotegut
Card stock and papers from stash- card is red generic cardstock from an office supply store.
Dies – Spellinders Petite Ovals ; Spellbinders  Petite Ovals Scalloped-I think they were # 5 for the oval and #6 for the Scalloped
Embossing was done using the Fiskars texture plate- Scales
Images were coloured with Lyra Watercolour Crayons; Foil for the boat is actually the recycled seal of a Milo drinking powder tin which was cut and embossed and then had Stazon ink rubbed over it; Ribbon- “A Touch of Class”; Buttons-Beutron;  KindyGlitz-Crystalina Colour- to add sparkle; Bic Kids Pearl Shimmer Glue to add a bit of shimmer to his glasses and the worm; Embroidery floss-DMC- Metallic Blue, Multicoloured and Pastel Yellow; Fishing Swivel- Halco size 12; Extra Stamps used-Happy Birthday-Stamp-It and fish –unknown; Template for sentiments- HOTP Labels; Helmar Craft Glue- for the buttons.

                           

From Kathy:
Reel  Glad You’re My Dad     (This was sort of a cheat card to use the sentiments because I just printed out the digi picture and added the sentiments)
Cream cardstock base card; Sentiments- Erin; the image is a picture from “Scrabooking Factory Deluxe”computer Program ; Punches- Fiskars Tag squeeze punch  2” and 1 ½  “ Foam dimensional tape and double sided tape; Blue paper insert from my stash.

From Kathy:
Holy Carp
Images and Sentiments- Erin
Green Cardstock Base- I’ve had for a long time and have forgotten where it came from sorry, Silver cardstock from stash; Image was coloured Lumin Arte paints-yellow, blue, green and red- not sure of exact colour names to give a sort of glimmer to the fish- unfortunately you can’t really see it from the pictures, Pearls – Kaisercraft Basics-given to me by a lovely lady in America(thanks Erin); gems-from the local discount store and coloured with just rite black ink reinker. Punch- Fiskars border punch –Rope, Paper DCWV, Ribbon-also from the local discount store- not sure of brand


Stay tuned for more!
~Inky Smiles