Back to School and Other Things

Hey there!  Well, Sam went to school on August 18th.  He started Kindergarten this year.  Last year he was in preschool in the same building, so that wasn't anything new.  This year, however, he is in school ALL DAY!  A big change for him, and for me as well.  It's been a bit bumpy.  He gets weepy in the morning before we head to school, and sometimes he does cry, which breaks my heart.  He also doesn't want to eat lunch at times.  Part of that is because he's a picky eater, another part of it I think is nerves.  I want to be sure that he gets something to eat so this weekend we're going shopping to find a lunch box and some containers that we can put his food in.  I'll look through the menu and have him bring a lunch on the days that I know for sure he won't eat what they're offering.

It's hard to see him go through all of this, but hopefully soon he'll realize that this isn't such a bad thing and start to enjoy himself.  As for me, I've been able to exercise and do things that I've been wanting to do for quite some time.  Let me show you what I've done this past week:

This card I made for my husband's nephew, who just recently had a birthday.  The stamps I used came from DeNami Design.  I love their stamps because they are so whimsical.  They're also fun to work with and color.  The stamps I used for the front was their Rocketship and Outer Space Set stamps, which includes the sentiment shown.  I colored everything in with Tombow Markers, and used a Sakura glitter pen to fill in the stars.  I cut out the sentiment and it's borders with my Spellbinders dies.

Here is the inside of the card.  Look at that little Space Chickie, isn't that the cutest?  DeNami Designs has a whole bunch of little chickie stamps, and I want every one of them!  The sentiment comes from their Everyday Greetings stamp set.  I used Tombow markers to color the chickie and Spellbinders of course for the layering of him.  For the sentiment I cut all of that by eyeballing it on my paper cutter.  Not too shabby, if I say so myself!

My hairdresser and friend also had a birthday earlier in August and I made a card for her as well.  I used another DeNami Set called Party Time.  Here it is:

The DeNami website has lots of card ideas, and this card was inspired by their card called 'Pastel Dots Espresso Happy Birthday'.  I hope I did DeNami proud with my version.

I did another DeNami inspired birthday card for a friend of my mom's.  I just finished it  yesterday so my mom could give it to her on behalf of Sam and I:

This one uses, along with the Party Time stamp set, the Birthday Cake stamp.  Very festive, don't you think?

I have one more birthday card to show you.  This one is again for my mom's friend.  This card I made for my mom to give to her:

I got the layout idea from the Spring 2011 volume of Paper Creations magazine.  The layout featured a Pure Innocence stamp from My Favorite Things (MFT).  I wanted to try that layout, and I thought that this stamp would work well with it.  This stamp is also from MFT, and it's from their 'Who's That Girl?' collection.  This one is called Sunflower WTG.  For the flowers I used a Die-Namics die, also from MFT, called Upsy Daisy.  I used Copic Markers for her skin, and paper pieced her dress.  To be honest, I can't remember what papers I used for her dress and the rest of the layout, and I'm not writing this near my craft table so I can't jump up and document that.  I'll have to post that some other time.

Whew!  That was one busy blog post.  With Sam in school I'm planning on creating and posting more often.  Until then...

Do your best!
Kim

Happy August!

Whew!  It's been quite awhile since I last posted.  Done a lot during that time, and I managed to make a couple more cards.

My sister's birthday was July 29th.  I wanted to make her a card, and I really like the design I saw quite a few months ago in Paper Creations magazine.  I made a card using that design for a friend of mine back in May, and I used it again for my sister.  I did change the color scheme.

I used the Pure Innoncence ~ Birthday Princess stamp from My Favorite Things, and their Jumbo Ric-Rac Die-Namic.  I paper-pieced her dress and crown, and colored the rest in with Copic markers and Prismacolor pencils.

The next card I made because I had just got the new stamp and couldn't wait to try it out:

This is 'Make a Splash' from the Pure Innocence collection from My Favorite Things.  I also used their Sunshine and File Tab Die-Namic.  I colored her with Copics, added some glitter to the flower in her hair using a Sakura Stardust Glitter pen, and added little gems to her sandals.  I paper-pieced her swimsuit using paper from Echo Park's Splash collection.  Some of the background papers came from that collection as well.


In my last entry I showed you what I did for my niece's pretend restaurant called 'Nataliya's Cafe'.  It was a hit with my nieces and everybody that participated.  The girls were so excited when I showed them their shirts, and they were so cute taking people's orders.  I also had them put out a 'tip jar', and they got around $52!  Definitely something we'll have to do in the future. 

Do your best!
Kim