Thursday, November 13, 2008

The rest of the November SOTM swaps!








Here are the rest of the swap items from my CTMH team's SOTM swap this time around. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Beautiful work everyone!!!

The first few November SOTM swaps!





Our CTMH team made some super cute swap items this month. Here are a few that I received. Addie made the 9x9 layout (top), Nikki made the 6x6 card (middle), and Staci made the standard size card (bottom). Aren't their creations just wonderful?!!

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Two more October SOTM swaps!



Here are two more beautiful swap cards I received recently! Staci created the standard size card (top) and Katrina made the 5x7 card (bottom). BEAUTIFUL work ladies!! I can't wait to get these back to all the participants so you can see how beautiful they are in person. Tomorrow is the first of October already, so my goal for today is to return all of the swap items I can to everyone who got them in to me on time! There are still two swaps missing, but I think we may still be getting those in very soon also. THANK YOU to everyone who got their items to me on time - you're gonna love these!!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The first few October Stamp of the Month swaps!






I can't believe how quickly this month is flying by and that the next round of my consultant team Stamp of the Month swap is due again already! This time we are using Annotations (the October SOTM) with the "Notebook" papers and colors (Bamboo, Desert Sand, Hollyhock, Crystal Blue, and Black). I am getting some beautiful swaps in already - yaaay!! These are the first few items I have received in the order I have received them. Don't forget you can click on them to see the close-up details!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Humble Artists Swap Card (using my first "Color Me Challenged" color combo!)


I just mailed my swap cards last week for the "Humble Artists" swap group (due Sept 10th) that I participate in. The guidelines for this swap this time around were:

-We will create a 6x6 card.
-Please use at least a little bit of any one of the 5 new My Reflections paper packs in the new Idea Book!
-You must use something you can see through (clear buttons, vellum, transparency, organdy ribbon, liquid glass, etc...).
-You must use some element on the card that is round or curved (you know how popular circles and scallops still are).
-Please use any kind of dimensional element.
-Finally, include at least three different stamped images on your card (the images can be from the same stamp set or different sets).

For this card I also used colors from the first color challenge posted on the NEW "color me challenged" blog!! (http://colormechallenged.blogspot.com/). Colors are Vanilla Cream, Vineyard Berry, Juniper, Sorbet, and Desert Sand. If anyone wants to play along and create a card using any of the guidelines listed above I would welcome you to do so and share the link to it here in the comments section if you can!! One thing I really love about my humble artists swap is seeing how different everyone's cards turn out considering we're all using the same exact guidelines! Once I figure out how to post links to some of the other swap participants artwork on their blogs, I will do that here too, but for now I am still learning and haven't figured that out just yet. I'm just happy to finally be posting and using my blog - lol!!

More September SOTM swaps!






Here are the rest of the Stamp of the Month swaps I have received. I included the artists names on them when I scanned them and they are shown in the order I received them. The standard size criss-cross card is by Tiffany Johnson, the 9x9 layout is by Addie Ebersohl, the 6x6 layout is by Starr Nelson, and the 3.5x8" business size card is by me! I am so thrilled with all the beautiful artwork I got from our swap group this month - THANK YOU ladies for your excellent work!! I hope you enjoy these too! I can't wait to get the next round of swap items featuring the October SOTM (Annotations) that I am expecting to start seeing from our group very soon! Don't forget that you can click on each of these scans to see these items up close!

Monday, August 25, 2008

The first few September SOTM swaps are in!




I know I haven't kept up with posting here at all like I had intended, but I'm ready to start over again and try to do better at keeping this blog up to date (AGAIN!) lol!

So here's the latest, I'm hosting and participating in an artwork swap with a few of my local CTMH consultant team members and friends. There are 8 of us participating and each month we will create 8 similar items each using the upcoming Stamp of the Month and a new coordinating My Reflections paper pack to swap with each other. So for September we are using the Magic Moments papers and colors with the "Treasure Life" stamp set. The swaps are due this week, and these are the first three swaps that were dropped off to me today! I am so thrilled with the beauty and creativity of each one and couldn't wait to share them with you all here!! The beautiful details are much better looking in person and up close, as scanning them sometimes distorts the colors and true dimensions of them a bit. GREAT JOB on these ladies!!!

I've posted these in the order I received them - 5x7 card by Katrina Sikora, 6x6 card by Nikki Kington, and a Standard size card by Staci Neal - these scans just don't do justice to the beauty of all of these cards. Staci used pearlescent paint tinted with hollyhock reinker to paint her flower and the edge of the paper around her stamped flowers. In real life they appear brighter pink and are nice and shimmery! I look forward to seeing the rest of the swaps that will be arriving later this week and will be sure to share them here as I receive them also!

Friday, June 20, 2008

Finally, some art!!


So I originally started this blog with the intention of sharing a lot of my CTMH artwork here, but as you can clearly see I've only posted about family related things three times since November! I guess it's obvious that with 5 kids, I'm quite a busy and sometimes overwhelmed mom, but I really will start posting more cards and other creations here in the near future. So I have a CTMH gathering I'm preparing for tonight and I've come up with two cards to make with my hostess and her guests.

The first card (top) is a 4x4 criss cross card (I just love the pull-out tag feature)! I used D1284 With Love (June Stamp of the Month) to stamp the fireworks (it's a flower stamped upside down), as well as D1289 July Word Puzzle, and D1270 March Word Puzzle (for the "happy" sentiment). Colors are Cranberry, Indian Corn Blue, and Outdoor Denim on Colonial White cardstock. I also used the striped paper from the Blue Ribbon paper pack.

The second card uses D1284 With Love (June Stamp of the Month) and D1280 Spot on Backgrounds stamps. Colors are Barn Red, Blush, Hollyhock, and Olive. Techniques I used here include masking (to make the stems look like they are coming out of the vase) and kissing with the dots background on the flowers.

I still have a lot to do to finish packing and prepping for my class tonight, so I'd better go continue preparing for now. I will be back to share more of my creations soon though!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Happy "half-way to a Birthday" Juan Steven!





Baby Juan Steven is exactly 6 months old today and half-way to his first birthday! So, of course I had to take a few photos of him on this special milestone day to scrapbook and to update my blog FINALLY! Juan has the most adorable giggle - so loud and cute - he really is a charmer. He loves to lay on the floor and roll around from his back to his tummy and then back to his back. I think he has just figured out that he can get somewhere by doing this - yikes! He sits up pretty well now, but still gets tired and falls over after about ten minutes of balancing himself without help. He is close to crawling too, so I know it won't be long now before I will be chasing him all over the house, lol! I just love those cute little chubby legs, cheeks, and arms.