Chocolate Purses

So they’re not *really* made from chocolate, but they’re full of little chocolate bars 🙂

I made them for the principal and guidance counselor at the elementary school.

Even if my boy has an unexpectedly good transition/year, it doesn’t hurt to be kind and thankful for all the things the people in my son’s life do for him and other children 🙂

I used double sided paper for these and used my Silhouette to cut them out. They’re small, so they were pretty quick and easy to put together 🙂

Links to the files I used:

Flower, Hobo Style Bag (left), Adele’s Purse (right) (this purse includes a flower, but I used a different one)

An Oops and a Sympathy Card

To be clear, the sympathy card has nothing to do with the “oops” in the title.

We found out about the passing of a woman we used to attend church with. They moved, but people were able to find a current address for them.

This card is for her husband and the rest of the family, but mostly for him. They’d been married for quite some time and I can’t imagine the hole her passing has left in his life.

The oops came in when I tried to use the sketch pen in my Cameo to write on the already colored image. Apparently, going over an inked area is not what the pens are made to do – luckily, there are other really great things they do really well. It’s just this specific situation I had trouble with. In case you find yourself in a similar situation, it’s not you. It’s not the pen. It’s the ink already on the paper. Probably. That’s my assumption. It’s the second time I’ve run across this specific set up 😉

The sketch pen got enough on the paper that I was able to use a zig pen and fill in the rest. Even though it didn’t work the way I initially imagined, I think I would still do it the same way because I couldn’t do this by hand without the help of my Cameo.

Oh, and to do this, I used my pixscan mat – yay pixscan!

The background paper is also from Silhouette. I used the print and cut feature for this. It’s so much easier than going through all the actual paper to find something that would work. Don’t get me wrong. There’s still a huge place for real paper 😉

Thanks for stopping by

xoxo

Stamp, Background pattern, Words

Because School Started

I am now super duper busy ferrying children all over the place.

The three driving kids share a car and we have to plan out the week ahead of time and post the calendar next to the car key. It looks like a map for lost treasure with all the arrows and notes on it.

Then there’s the three school kids. They’re mostly easy to take care of.

Then there’s the one at home…he needs some ferrying around sometime, too.

And the point of all those words is – I DON’T GET TO SIT AT MY DESK ANYMORE, well, until later at night. And not being able to create is driving me a little nutty.

So now, I’m looking at hand lettering. It’s something I can do while the baby plays during the day when its just him and me at home. I can also work on it while I’m in the car rider line waiting for my guy to get out of school. I decided to buy the hard bound, spiral book I found and I’m so glad! Now I don’t have to drag a lap desk around with me 🙂

This is what I’ve been working on 🙂 She has you trace the letters then try them on your own. A few more drills similar to this, and then on to joining the letters to make words 🙂

(Shhh. I cheated and already read that part. But practicing is good)

Thanks for stopping by

xoxo

Babies Are Great Excuses to Make Awesome Things!

Like this bag! I used the same papers I used for their baby shower gifts (you can see that, here and here).

The bag was pretty easy to make (there’s a video tutorial on the site) and seems super sturdy.

I added a little extra to the sides by embossing them because I could 😉 Inside was a Royals jumper for the baby and candy for the parents and big sis 🙂

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

Preemptive Thank You

If you’ve read the last few entries on my blog, you know I’m pretty nervous (an understatement) about my 5yo starting kindergarten – it’s not the normal nervous.

With his history, we understand why change is hard, but that doesn’t make the process easier. So, I made a small batch of 3×3 cards pop-up cards. I plan to send one each Friday to tell his teacher thank you.

I still have to think of something cute to send the principal and the guidance counsellor – also, a preemptive thank you and just a regular thank you for all the help they’ve already given me.

Here’s the collection of cards to use for his teacher. It’s a little thank you for a big job 🙂

I went a little pop-up cray-cray. I upgraded to the Silhouette’s 4.1 (and some other numbers, but I think those two are the important ones right now). It has a new feature that allows easier design of pop-up cards. I’m a little obsessed with it 😉 I also think, it would have been easier to start on bigger cards instead of these little ones, but it all worked out 🙂

Thanks for stopping by! And don’t forget to say thank you to the people in your life 🙂

Tea cups, swan, tags

 

Lots of Work, But Not A Lot Accomplished

I dusted off my jewelry making stuff this week. I’ve tried to make numerous and handy things.

I have failed every single time, but it has been quite sometime since I’ve played with the sparkly pretties.

Then, I spent about three days on a coloring project. It’s turning out okay. I will probably like it when I’m done, but I can’t finish it. Not until I place an order for ink to refill some of my markers.

But today, today I actually finished something! Nothing great, but after this week of creative road blocks, it feels good to complete something.

I found the image on deviant art last year and printed it off. I found the printed version today in a little stash of things to color later. I’m grateful to artists who are generous enough to let people like me color their line art. I linked to their work down below so you can check out more work like this 🙂

I used patterns from the Silhouette store to create the mats for the picture, printed them, then cut them out. I chose this one because I really wanted to work on hair today. And, because unicorn… It’s very faint, but it’s there 🙂

 

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

Image, red pattern, yellow pattern (both for card front)

I Made a Pineapple

School started Wednesday. It’s a weird mish-mash of schedules now, and I’m not sure how I’m going to make this school year work, but I’m sure it will 🙂

School break down:

3 graduated. Of those 3, 2 are enrolled in college classes. All 3 working and sharing a car.

3 in school. They’re spread out over 3 different schools. 2 of the 3 have extra-curricular activities.

1 still at home.

The one I’m most worried about is the little guy who started kindergarten this week. He’s had a rough beginning and that still plays out in cycles in our home. Right now, we’re in one of our good cycles. But change is SO HARD on this kiddo, I’m waiting for us to start spiraling downward again. Maybe he’ll surprise me, like everyone suggests while I’m gearing up for another round of power struggle battles.

In preparation for these rough times on the horizon, I made a paper pineapple box for his teacher. I put a few goodies in it. He has the same teacher two of my other kids had and I’m so grateful 🙂 But I want to show her my gratitude ahead of time while things are good 🙂

Here’s some pictures of the box.

We got him started in school and that first week went well. Next up is the solar eclipse and we’re in the path of totality, so the schools are teaching around it. My next success will be my boy getting through this amazing event with out burning his retina’s. I think this it totally doable 😉

Stamp and Die set, Pineapple

 

I Had Plans But….

I had a stamp set picked out to use.

I had a card sketched out on paper.

My card kind of resembles my sketch.

Here’s the sketch I did. I don’t know if you can really tell what it is, but that’s okay, since I didn’t really follow it 😉

Here’s the stamp set I planned to use…but I don’t think I used any of that, either.

From the sketch, I think I kept the background and the coral…

Here’s how the card turned out. I’m not disappointed at all.

The background is sponged on using multiple colors of multiple shades of browns and blues.

The white line around the card was done using a Silhouette sketch pen and a pixscan mat.

The mermaid was stamped and colored with copics and pencils.

I wanted to use my pixscan mat again to cut her out – but after the first cut, I could see the cut was off. I stopped the machine and rescued the image and ended up cutting her out by hand.

I kept trying to work in the sea horses I’d colored and cut out from the stamp set, but it just didn’t work. I dug through my things and found the bliss stamp and I’m jazzed how well it all came together considering it barely resembles the idea I started out with.

Thanks for stopping by!
Xoxo

Bliss stamp in a set from Serendipity, but I’ve had it forever and I can’t find the specific set. There is a stamp there that looks like it, but I have no idea how the size compares.

Mermaid is from a place called Coronado Islands stamps, but I don’t believe they exist any longer.

The coral is from the octopus set I used a while back 🙂

This Crazy Foster Care Thing Update

I've blogged a bit about my family and how it's put together. I've shared the books I've made for my foster son's bio mom. I've asked for prayers at crucial times in our case.

Yesterday, 70 days after the state suggested the case goal be changed to adoption (with us), we finally got the news.

The judge CHANGED THE CASE GOAL TO ADOPTION.

So, if you've prayed for us, thank you so much. We're not done, we're on a different path that may still take some time to finish. But we're on it and that's the important thing.

You might think I'm jumping up and down in excitement. I'm not. That sounds odd, doesn't it.

I'm relieved. I'm grateful. I'm conflicted.

This was the right call. But somewhere today, there's a mom, a mom who truly loves her son, who is learning that she will probably not get him back.

A mom who's heart is probably breaking. I can not celebrate my good fortune, not when I understand the magnitude of her loss. And I think that was a lesson I needed to learn. My heart aches for her.

The next goal is for the state to file the appropriate petitions in a timely/quick fashion. So, if you're a praying person, we'd be grateful for more prayers on our family's behalf.

And while you're praying, please remember his bio mom. I'm sure she can use some prayers, too.

Because Summer

My kids go back to school soon, but that doesn’t mean summer is over. I’m trying to hold on to that a little bit longer, so I worked on this.

It’s a digital stamped I used in Craft Artist 2. I transferred the whole image and just the stamp image into my Silhouette workspace. I did a print & cut with both pieces.

With print & cut projects that I plan to color (like this one) I actually print, color, then cut – because I don’t have to be exact and stay in the lines. I’ll be cutting off the mistakes.

Sadly, this method backfired on me this time. I went too far out of those lines and didn’t realize it until I had the image cut out. I went back in with my craft knife and gave the beach girl a closer trim.

Before the trim 😉

Thanks for stopping by!
Xoxo

Digi Stamp