Cards For Operation Write Home

A friend of mine asked me to help her with an Operation Write Home party she is hosting Wednesday night. She wanted me to come up with a few sample cards for the ladies in attendance. All are brand new to stamping, so she wanted them to be fairly simple. I also got to play with her Hero's Pride set.

If you don't know anything about Operation Write Home, be sure to check out their website here. They collect cards for our troops overseas to send home to their loved ones. They also include thank you cards to the service members in the box. What a great organization! I hope to be very involved with them from here on out.

Hooligans Cards and H2h Sketch Challenge

I put together a few cards using Hooligans papers, Party Animal stamps and the sketch from Heart 2 Heart Challenges. I was having a little trouble with my new markers. I'm sure it's user error, but the ink kept pooling on me. Someday I'm going to have to jump on the Copic bandwagon. On the first card, I also used Hooligans assortment stickers.

Go Big Blue, Fight, Fight, BSU

ESPN Game Day was live in Boise this morning. We woke up at 4:00 am and headed to the stadium. We were not about to miss this day in BSU history.

Standing in line at 5:30.

Once we got inside, we started out on the field.

Austin on the corner of the blue turf.

Then we moved up to the stands for a better view.

Brendan was not a happy camper. Getting up early is not his thing. Then, as we were coming into the stadium, he tripped and fell and was almost trampled. Once we got inside, he was freezing. Here he is cuddled up with Grandma.

Brendan couldn't stay awake any more. Poor kid was so tired.

Gotta love Lou!

Coach Pete

Austin in the potato head hat.

And Mike in the Potato hat :)

Gumby goes to Game Day

A few weeks ago, I picked up Gumby at Powell's Sweet Shoppe as a joke. My cousin, Cher, used to have quite a love for Gumby. I got him to send her fun pics of him at various places. My boys caught on to the idea, so we bring Gumby wherever we go now. Soon I'll have to make him his own scrapbook :)

We had a great time, and I am so glad we decided to go! Wish we were going to the game tonight. By the time I got home from work the day tickets went on sale, they were sold out. I think next year we'll definitely get season tickets.

Go Broncos! Kick some Beaver tail!!

Rock Star Day

Every year our school has a dinner auction to raise money. A month before the auction, we have a dress up day for all the kids (and teachers). This year the theme was School of Rock. I had tons of fun putting together all the costumes. My favorite part.

I love dress up days, in case you couldn't tell. My mom says the pics don't do my costume justice. I also had on a bright pink skirt, black leggings, bright socks and pink and black Converse. I'll have to see if the secretary got a full length shot.

Loved the ABCD iron-on I found. Brendan wanted to wear a Mohawk, so Mike spent a lot of time blow drying and combing.

Side view

Austin's hair wouldn't cooperate with a Mohawk, but funky just the same. He was mad about having to wear ripped jeans, though. Silly kid. He got over it once he saw the whole look.

One of my favorite pics of Austin, but I can't believe how old he looks!

Both boys rock star style! They had a photographer come to the school, and if she ends up selling the pics of my boys, I know I'm going to be very broke!

A Sentiment Challenge and a Creative Journey

The challenge on the Heart 2 Heart Challenge blog this week was to use sentiment stamps. My first two attempts didn't turn out how I thought, but I'll get to that in a moment. This card is a simple one. I used a variety of thank you stamps to create a background. One of the things I love about CTMH stamps is that I can put multiple stamps on one block to create a background stamp. Besides thank you stamps, I used Shining Star stamps and Ocean ink/cardstock. This color is on the retired list, so I'm trying to use it up.

My other attempt started with this flower:

I've seen lots of flowers lately with the border punches and decided to give it a try. I stamped it with the type stamp from Noted Backgrounds. I loved the flower, but it was too big for this card:

I substituted a smaller stamped flower, but then it looked bare. I added a little Cocoa ribbon, and it's a little better.

I still hadn't used my other flower, so back to the drawing board. I created a similar 6 x 6 cards, but I still feel like something is missing or the flower is too overwhelming or the color is off. I don't know. I got frustrated and gave up. Maybe I'll have better inspiration after it has sat for a couple days.

The sentiment is from Follow Your Dreams. The paper is from the Unforgettable paper pack.

Life has been pretty busy. I had a conference for school the last two days, so I don't feel like I've had much of a weekend. We did get to watch Boise State put a whoopin' on Wyoming, so that was good. I will be posting my pictures from our Rock Star day tomorrow, so be sure to come back :)

H2H Challenge--Fall Colors

This color combination screamed fall to me. The color challenge was New England Ivy, Autumn Terracotta, and Honey. When I was looking for paper, I came across a sheet I had random stamped ages ago. I was excited that it matched perfectly. It does have a little Barn Red, too. I stamped a few more leaves, a saying, and viola--this card :)

Stamps: Because of You and Autumn Splendor.

This card makes me excited for fall and all the fun that accompanies it: Halloween, pumpkins, scarecrows, the corn maze, Thanksgiving, and of course, the changing leaves. Bring it on!

School is plugging along. I'm loving my classes this year. The two 7th grade classes are only 19 kids each, so that is a nice change. We had Back to School Night last Thursday. This week is dress up day for our upcoming school auction. The theme this year is "School of Rock." I've been busy today putting the finishing touches on the costumes, and I'll be posting pics later this week of the boys and I in all our rock star glory. Can't wait!