Five for Friday

1. First of all, I wanted to let you know that I passed my test on Saturday 

and am now a third degree black belt in taekwondo!

I thought my test went really well and that I performed everything they asked

me to do to the best of my ability and that I answered the questions they asked me well.

Jonah and Sage didn't test (they got their second degree poom belts last May and will have

to wait two more years to test again.)

I was hoping to board break, but they didn't ask me to do that.

I was also hoping they'd ask me how many knuckle pushups I could do, because 

I wanted to answer: "My age."

And when they would ask what that was, I was going to answer: "26."

And then, I was going to say: "Oh, wait, that's my Wii Fit age. I guess my real age is 43." ;)

I thought it would have been funny, but they didn't ask.

(But, on the bright side, I didn't have to do the knuckle pushups at the test either,

so I guess it was okay.)

2. Jonah had his piano recital on Sunday afternoon.

He played two solo pieces and we got to play our Mission Impossible duet together again.

He's had a great year.

He started with a new teacher in the fall, but it's been a great fit.

She's super encouraging and very talented.

Jonah and I are in awe of her!

And, he said he'd continue with piano lessons in the fall -- yay!

3. Sage had her voice recital on Monday evening, which went very well.

She sang two pieces by herself and one with her friend, Faith.

We are so sad that her teacher won't be offering lessons in the fall,

but we were able to get on with another teacher in our town,

so hopefully she will be a great fit for Sage, too.

4. And Jonah had a busy week this week...

First of all, he played the part of one of the three little pigs in Shrek Jr. 

(his junior high musical) on Tuesday, Wednesday and last night 

(which was the performance we attended. It was excellent!)

So much makeup! But he looked adorable!

He sang with the choir and acted on stage.

He even danced -- it was so fun to watch!

His expressions were priceless and he was always engaged.

And, the Grade 8s at his school also had a Medieval Feast today,

where they dress up in costume and host the parents for lunch.

We rented his costume -- doesn't he look amazing?

 He was chosen to represent his class at the head table,

as well as be the Lord of the Feast, where he emceed everything. 

I think it's so fun that their school does this each year!

5. Lastly, I have two cards that I wanted to share that I made using Reverse Confetti 

products for this week's Paper Players PP295 Challenge:  

When I saw the graphic, I immediately thought of making a card using 

the sweet giraffes from Lift Me Up.

I also needed to make some baby cards to sell, so I decided to rifle

through my patterned paper stash and these are what I came up with...

I used the front and back of an older sheet of My Mind's Eye 

patterned paper for both of my cards.

I stamped the giraffe from Lift Me Up onto its coordinating Lift Me Up Confetti Cuts

and coloured him in using Zig Markers, some water and a paintbrush.

I stamped the sentiment from Bear Hugs onto a piece of cardstock

that I diecut using a Stitched Flag Trio Confetti Cuts and trimmed down.

A trio of buttons and twine finishes it off.

And I made my second card the same way, 

except that I opted to not include the banner.

And I tied on only two buttons instead of three.

 

 

Thanks for looking!

CAS(E) This Sketch #173

Today, I have a card to share that I made for

 CAS(E) This Sketch #173 designed by N@ Ali :



I'm not sure why, but when I saw this sketch, the first thing I thought of was a sailboat,

so that's what I went with to create my card.

I impressed my background using my PTI Blue Skies Cover Plate.

I masked off the clouds and applied some aqua mist ink along the top of my panel

using my blending tool.

I diecut a piece of aqua mist cardstock using my PTI Hearts Border Die,

and then used the negative for my water.

I blended some aqua mist ink along the bottom of the cardstock

and heat embossed my sentiment (from PTI's Guiding Light).

I stamped the sailboat (also from PTI's Guiding Light) onto the coordinating diecut

and stamped my seagulls in tropical teal.

Visit CAS(E) this Sketch to see the rest of the DT's takes on the sketch 

and to play along, if you'd like.

You have until Thursday, May 26th to link up your card.

Thanks for looking!

Inspired By All the Little Things #15 -- Take Two

Today, I have another card to share for 

Inspired By All the Little Things #15:

 

 

I had so many pieces left over from my first card,

that I couldn't resist making another card using the leftovers.

 

 

This time, I started with the leftover piece of soft stone cardstock that I had diecut

using the Neat and Tangled Hexastar cover plate. 

I used added coloured (stormy seas, orange zest and Bazzill yellow bling) 

and white triangles to the spots that were missing. 

 

I diecut my PTI Shaped Sayings: Birthday die from black cardstock,

but fussy cut off the circular parts of the diecut before adhering it to my card.

 

Remember, there's still time to play along with Inspired By All the Little Things #15.

You have until Thursday, May 19th to link up your card.

Thanks for looking!

The Card Concept #55 {You Are My Sunshine}

I'm really enjoying playing along with Anna Kossakovskaya's CASometry Challenge 2. Make 5.

She is challenging us to make five cards using the same stamp set.

This is such a great idea -- especially for someone like me who always tends to want to grab

my newest stamps to play with.

When, I saw the The Card Concept Challenge #55 {You Are My Sunshine}:

I had all sorts of ideas, but then remembered Anna's Challenge,

and decided to use my PTI Spring Woods stamp set to make my Clean & Layered card.

I started by using my PTI Scene IT: Skyscapes sunburst die as a stencil and blended ink

onto my background panel.

I diecut the Spring Woods branch and bird and stamped them in Altenew Dark Chocolate,

PTI harvest gold, bright buttercup, summer sunrise, limeade ice and simply chartreuse.

I used my MISTI and added ink to my stamps a second time, using the rock 'n roll technique.

I adhered these to my card, using dimensional adhesive for the bird.

I stamped my sentiment using Reverse Confetti's Lovey Words Coordinates 

("you are my") in dark chocolate.

I used the same rock 'n roll technique on my "Sunshine", which is from 

Studio Calico's Sending You Sunshine stamp set.

Thanks for looking!

Butterfly Reflections Ink May Mood Board

Today, I have a card to share that I made for Sage's voice teacher.

Sage started taking voice lessons with Mrs. Thorleifson in the fall

and has just loved them and her.

She was quite upset to learn that Mrs. Thorleifson accepted a full time

teaching position for the fall and was, regretfully, not going to teach voice anymore.

We got her a little gift to thank her for the past year and I made a card

to go with it.

I was inspired by the Butterfly Reflections Ink May Mood Board:

I loved how bright and cheery the board/colour combo is

and wanted to reflect that in the card I made for Mrs. Thorleifson.

I started by diecutting some Wplus9 Freehand Florals dies and stamping them

with their coordinating stamps in PTI summer sunrise, orange zest, terracotta tile,

hibiscus burst, raspberry fizz and limeade ice and Wplus9 Sweet Gelato and Ocean Drive.

I took a piece of sheet music patterned paper from my scraps and blended orange

zest ink onto it for my border.

I asked Sage what kind of sentiment she wanted: thank you or you are awesome.

She chose the latter, so I stamped the sentiment from Simon Says Stamp Big Scripty Sentiments.

I'm also linking this up to this week's Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Flowers.

Thanks for looking!

Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge -- Birdhouse

It's time for a new Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge!

The LEAD of the Birdhouse Challenge will be invited as a 

Guest Designer in a future challenge!
Please visit the Curtain Call Challenge Blog for all the challenge info and deadline.

As soon as I saw this sweet inspiration photo, I knew I wanted to use

the birdhouse image from The Tweet Life to make my card.

I selected six different pieces of patterned paper from my stash and used these

to paper piece my little houses.

I stamped the sentiment (also from The Tweet Life) onto my card front.

I can't even tell you how delighted I was to realize that the little birds from Lift Me Up

fit perfectly in these birdhouses!

I did a little masking on cardstock to stamp the holes for the birdhouses

along with the birds, which I fussy cut out by hand.

I coloured in the birds using my Zig Markers.

 

Make sure you visit each of the designers' blogs for more inspiration!

 Marcie Sharp (guest designer)
Keeway Tsao    (guest designer)

Amy Kolling

Betty Wright

Kim Singdahlsen
Laurie Willison
Leigh Penner
Lisa Henke
Lori Tecler
Lynn Mangan
Marisa Ritzen
Maureen Plut
Melody Rupple
Monika Davis
Sheri Gilson
Silke Ledlow
Stacey Schafer
Tara Godfrey

Follow us!
Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge Facebook Page
Curtain Call Pinterest Boards

Stop by the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge: Birdhouse

for the challenge details and to play along with us!

Thanks for looking!

Inspired By All The Little Things #15

Today, I have a card to share for 

Inspired By All the Little Things #15:

 

 

Isn't that wall fabulous?

I was totally inspired by it to make my card and decided to use my new

Neat and Tangled Hexastar Cover Plate.

 

 

I diecut the Hexastar cover plate from white cardstock and then popped

out all of the triangles.

Then, I diecut it again from four pieces of cardstock (soft stone, stormy seas, orange zest

and Bazzill yellow bling) and added the pieces to my front panel.

 

I diecut my SSS Sending word from black cardstock.

I stamped the "birthday wishes" (from PTI's KIS: Belated Birthday)

in versamark and heat embossed it in white on a strip of black cardstock.

Visit Inspired By All the Little Things to see the rest of the DT's takes

on the inspiration photo and to play along, if you'd like.

You have until Thursday, May 19th to link up your card.

Thanks for looking!

Five for Friday

1. I've been in the mood to organize lately.

I signed up for the Inkwell Press 4 Week Challenge,

which has been encouraging me to organize my personal spaces.

And from there, I'm tackling other areas as well --

my linen closet, the junk drawer in my kitchen, my basement bookcases, etc.

It feels great to declutter, purge and reorganize my things!

If you'd like to see what I've done so far, I've been posting my progress on Instagram.

2. My purging has also carried over to my stamping supplies.

I've added to my "for sale" list here, if you're interested in checking it out.

I have stamps and dies from Papertrey Ink, Wplus9, Altenew, Sweet 'n Sassy, Winnie & Walter, etc.

3. We've been pretty busy lately... or at least my kids have been!

Jonah's Junior High Jazz Choir hosted a coffee house and we got to hear

all of the songs they've learned this year.

Jonah sang a solo in Man in the Mirror -- that's him in the front row -- he did such a great job!

Austin has a fun role in his high school play: 

Trixie the Teen Detective and the Mystery of Gravestead Manor.

He played Professor Harlow Biedermeier, an archeologist.

Sage won two awards at the Morden Festival of the Arts: one for vocal and a second for 

sacred vocal, where she sang His Eye is on the Sparrow.

She was asked to perform at the Festival Highlights program, where she sang Chase the Wind, from Brave.

Jonah and I were also asked to play at Festival.

We played "Mission Impossible" on the piano and added a fun "fight scene" where Sage

 came on stage and "attacked" Jonah while he was playing (he had four measures of rests while I played on my own.)

He fought her off and then returned to our duet, with perfect timing, of course. 

It was very fun!

4. I do have something exciting coming up tomorrow.....

I'm testing for my 3rd degree black belt in taekwondo.

I feel I'm ready, but I'm nervous, too!

Wish me luck!

5. I have a card for this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Ink Blending Through Diecut Masks.

I created my mask using the large flower die from Bloomers.

I used it twice with Altenew Lavender Fields ink and PTI Aqua Mist.

I created a second and third mask using a Wplus9 leaves dies

and added Spring Moss ink to my card.

I stamped the centres in versamark and heat embossed them in gold.

Then, I diecut three Bloomers flowers from vellum and heat embossed the centres as well.

I rubbed the edges of the largest one in versamark and heat embossed the edges in gold.

I stamped the sentiment (from Songbirds) in aqua mist.

I'm also linking this up to this week's Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Flowers.

Thanks for looking!

CAS(E) This Sketch #172

Today, I have a card to share that I made for

 CAS(E) This Sketch #172 designed by me :

I decided to use it to make a fun baby card using my PTI Wee Folk mini kit.

This was so fun to stamp!
I used stamps from the Wee Folk set and then matted my card on a piece of patterned paper

that came in the kit.

I diecut the brown bunny from the pre-printed images that came with the kit

and adhered it to my card with dimensional adhesive.

Visit CAS(E) this Sketch to see the rest of the DT's takes on the sketch 

and to play along, if you'd like.

You have until Thursday, May 19th to link up your card.

Thanks for looking!

Reverse Confetti Sketch for You to Try #36

Today, I have a card to share for this month's
Sketch for You to Try at Reverse Confetti:


Have you ever made a card that turned out very differently than
what you had in mind when you started?
This was one of those cards for me!



I started by diecutting my Butterfly Dreams Confetti Cuts and stamped
it with the coordinating Butterfly Dreams stamp in Persian Blue.
I diecut the banners from some Basic Grey patterned paper using the largest flag
from Stitched Flag Trio Confetti Cuts.

To finish it off, I splattered some ink mixed with water on my card front

and added a couple of buttons with twine.

   

Want to play along with the May SFYTT? 

Click here for details.

Thanks for looking!