A Few More Before The Year Ends

The other day, my husband & I were on the verge of strangling our son.  He was driving us nuts.  So we took him to a drop off daycare center to let him play.  While he was there, hubby worked on his computer.  I made some cards.  This card was originally going to be done with a different patterned paper.  After cutting all the paper to the correct sizes, I kept staring at it thinking, "nah I don't like this."  Went rummaging through my paper stash and came up with something I did like.

Had quite the excitement yesterday!  My son was upstairs using the bathroom.  Hubby and I were sitting in the family room.  We heard water running and it was really loud.  At first, we thought our son was washing his hands and had the water on full force.  When asked what was going on, he informed us that the toilet was overflowing.  By the time we made it up there, the bathroom was flooded, water was rushing down the hall and about to go down the stairs.  Grabbed every towel I could find and started throwing them on the floor.  Hubby got the toilet to stop running.  Then he got the shop vac to clean up the water.  What a mess!  We were afraid all that water had ruined our hardwood floors.  So far, so good!  We went on with our day.  Late last night, I went downstairs to clean out the litter boxes.  OH SNAP!  There was water down there too!  Water had poured into the vent that's located on the floor next to toilet.  All that water just sitting, rusted a hole in the air duct.  Couldn't clean up then because our son was asleep.....and you DO NOT wake him up!

Carpet had already saturated the water, so nothing to clean up.  Put a fan on it to dry.  So while the carpet is drying and disgusting towels are being washed....I needed a little time to 'unwind."  I actually had a very good helper with this card.  My son cut the paper with my guillotine cutter.  I set the paper on there to the size I needed and he carefully pulled the handle down.  Then he helped by tracing the ovals for me using a stencil and then I cut them out.  He was very proud to help Mommy.

Finally Mommy Gets To Play

Whew!  I managed to survive Christmas!  Thank goodness.  While my son was busy playing with all of his new toys and my husband enjoying time off from work, I needed some crafting therapy!  I finally got a large paper trimmer since my other one got messed up.  And Santa (aka my husband) was nice enough to get some card making supplies on my wish list.  Let the fun begin!

The first card I made is using OWH's 100th sketch!  The diamond plate paper was made with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

I know OWH shippers are not in need of birthday cards.  But I'm sure they can always use birthday cards for kids.  The scalloped circle around the birthday sentiment was done by my new Christmas present.  It's the Sizzix Framelits.  Ran it through my Cuttlebug twice and couldn't figure out why it wasn't cutting.  Oops, was using the wrong side!  Finally got it working.  I got 4 different sets of the Framelits.  I think I have found my new favorite "toy"!!  The pattern paper with confetti does have glitter in the confetti.  Didn't realize that when I bought it.  I have done the scratch test, cut test, taste test (just seeing if you were paying attention with the last one) and no glitter anywhere!

It's A Girl

A good friend of mine had a baby girl.  I wanted to make a card for her.  But I was stumped on what to make.  I can make cards all day long for "strangers" but when it comes to making personal cards for family & friends, I have the worst time.  I finally came up with an idea, made the card & mailed it.  Then I realized, DOH, I forgot to get a picture of it!  Thanks to my wonderful friend Liisa, she took a picture for me!

Falling In Love With Digital

Thank goodness for digital cardmaking!  You can print your own paper, embellishments, etc.  I made this missing you card with all digital elements.  It all came from Shabby Princess - Spontaneous Delight.  I added the antique brads, navy paper for layers, Miss You wording & ribbon.

Seeing Christmas Through The Eyes Of A Child

I have always loved Christmas.  Something about seeing all the decorations and having family close by.  When I got older, I always helped my mom get the house ready.  One year, she was busy working and didn't have the "spirit."  She said there would be no decorations.  I was SO mad.  While she was at work, I got everything out of the attic & put it up myself.

As we get older, most of us lose that love.  We get so wrapped up in our own lives.  The spirit of Christmas becomes consumed by how many presents we have to buy and the amount of money we must spend.  I found myself doing that exact same thing.  Especially, after I moved away from my family.  I felt like there was no reason to celebrate.  But then our son came along.....and how things change.

Children love the spirit and the magic of Christmas.  They love the decorations, the season of giving and mystery of that jolly man we call Santa.  Christmas comes alive again when you experience through your child.  My husband and I made a tradition of every Christmas Eve, we would get a glass of eggnog, ride around looking at lights while listening to carols.  Now when we ride around with our son, watching his eyes light up and that smile on his face makes it all worth it.

This year, just about every morning, I catch my son sitting in front of the Christmas tree, just staring.  And as the presents begin to grow under the tree, so does his excitement.  He wants the lights on all day long.  Thanks to my son, I found that love and joy for the holiday again.

One Last Love

I decided before I packed up my box of cards to mail, I would make one more set of love cards.  The sketch came from CPS Sketches by Tami Mayberry.  I altered the sketch just a tiny bit.

The patterned paper, heart and Valentine envelope all came from Shabby Princess.  There are some great digi sets of paper and embellishments.  The bonus.....they are FREE!  This particular set is found under Seasonal Sampler (Amore).

Sentiment Challenge

Through OWH, Our Daily Bread Designs has a challenge for the month of December.  You must make a card with a sentiment as the main part of your card.  If there are 50 people that enter the challenge, ODBD will sponsor two boxes to be shipped to our heros.  WOO HOO! 

Masculine

I can make girly cards like no tomorrow.  But why do I have such a problem with manly cards?  So one day I sat down and goggled masculine cards.  I found some inspiration on a few different Stampin' Up demonstrators pages.  I CASE'd this card but changed the sentiment (it was a birthday card).  The inspiration card had the bubble strips going up and down.  That is what I meant to do!  But I didn't cut the paper right.  Shhhh no one has to know!  But having them go side to side makes it more my card!

Thank You Mojo

Somehow.....somewhere my mojo packed it's bags and got out of town.  I was really needing to make cards (for my sanity).  But nothing.  So I did something scary......I cleaned my desk.  Under all the scraps of paper & stamps that were buried, I found it!  There on my desk was this wonderful paper that just screamed for me to make a card with it.  And one must always listen to your paper when it screams!  LOL  Thank you mojo for returning!

As a tribute......I have made a few cards of Thanks.

The first one is made with Heidi Grace Designs.  Normally, I don't care for paisley anything.  But for some reason I found myself buying it.  Glad I did!  Can't remember who makes the thank you stamp as I am in the middle of organizing my stamps.

This second card was just a quick put together.  It makes a good masculine card, which is always needed.

A Little Intro Into My Life

My husband and I worked so hard to have children.  We looked into fertility treatment.  But we didn't feel that it was worth pumping me up with hormones and our chances were slim to none.  So we decided on adoption.  Two long years later, our dreams came true.

But the poor kid has been through a lot in his 4+ years of life.  He has been to numerous doctor's appointments, including with a neurologist.  We found out he had mild Cerebral Palsy.  So we started him with physical therapy.  Then we discovered he had severe speech apraxia, so he started speech therapy.  Now we have learned he has some sensory processing disorder issues & ADHD.  Things have been horrible lately.  He has gotten mean, he's impulsive with what he says & does and doesn't pay attention to a darn thing.  My husband & I both feel so alone in dealing with this.  And of course, no one sees the boy we live with every day.  Yesterday, while at his occupational therapy session, his therapist got a glimpse of that side.  Hopefully with OT & dealing with a behavioral pediatrician, we can get things a little back to "normal."