Natural Medicine Talk

Hi everyone. I haven't posted in a while but wanted to share a great community I came across called Nat Med Talk. You can check out their health forum, it is a great place to find alternative/natural treatments. You will find many posts on mens and womens health. This is a friendly forum where everyone is allowed to express their opinions and ideas. Throughout their forums you will find information on allergies, cancer, chronic fatigue, heart health, diabetes and just about anything else you might be looking for information on. My favorite area of the site is the Nutrition forum. You will find a lot of great information on foods and supplements you can take to improve your health. Did you know that pumpkin seeds can halp with arthritis? Neither did I until I joined Nat Med Talk. If you are like me and looking for some natural alternatives to improve your health give this place a try. You will really enjoy it...and the best part is is is FREE!

SFYTT Penny Black Easter card

It has been a busy week and we are only halfway through it! I was hoping to have a new card to share sooner but we just had so much going on. This is the first year my husband has been self employed so we are having to get help from an accountant to get our taxes done. We have spent the week going through, organizing, and adding up receipts as well as getting all of our other tax documents together. The good news is we are pretty much done and now just need to take it to the accountant so he can file for us woohoo! It has definately been a learning process for us as we are figuring out what things we can deduct for business expenses etc and learning what receipts to save.

So anyway on to my card. I decided to enter the SFYTT over on Jen Del Muro's blog, she always has great sketches that help me to get inspired.

Here is the sketch



and here is what I came up with



I used a Penny Black stamp called Sweet Hearts. I think it is just adorbale and great for spring. The image was colored with my copics and layered several times to make it pop. I also added lots of sparkle with my copic spica clear glitter pen (love this pen)...hopefully you can see the sparkle in the picture. In person it really shines! I also heat embossed the image with black embossing powder. This is my firs card using the heat embossing and it took a lot of trial and error! You definitely need to use something to take the static away from the paper or you will have stray embossing all over your image. I did not have any dryer sheets but found that dusting the paper I was embossing with baby powder worked great (and makes it smell nice).



I also finished the inside which reads Easter Blessings and then made a matching envelope to go along with it.







I am now working on a custom card for one of my ebay clients so will share that with you by the end of the week. I am saving up to order some nesties as they have been on my wish list for a while now so hopefully I can order soon. I also plan to order some Whiff of Joy stamps as I just adore them and can not wait to create with them! I found this great site 7 kids college fund and they have nesties and Whiff of Joy stamps (plus so much more) with free shipping over $75, so I am waiting until I can spend $75 and then plan to order from them. They have great prices also!

The baby is napping so now is my time to go create! Hope everyone is enjoying their week. We are having some nice 70 degree weather today...but it is windy as usual in west Texas!

Checking into Blog land!

Well it has been a while since my last post so wanted to let you all know I am still here! I am 34 weeks preggo and tired and ready for Miss Madeline to make her debut. I do not have a new card to share yet as I have not been sleeping well so have not felt like creating much.

My Hubby is in sales and I make Thank You cards every week for his new clients. I just finished making 20 Thank You cards to send to some of his clients and that was quite the chore. I use 2 flowers on each card and had been HAND cutting each flower up until today (my poor fingers would hurt terribly by the time I was done). Today I stopped by hobby lobby and got me a nice big flower punch! Woohoo! You will not believe how quickly I got those cards done using the punch instead of hand cutting. I also picked up some embossing powder, buttons, and seed beeds as well as a little paper and a cute little embellie organizer. I can never leave HL with just one thing!

I have been practicing my heat embossing and I am now really addicted to it so my next card will incorporate that! I plan to start a new card tomorrow with some of the new paper I picked up so I should have that posted here hopefully by Sunday!

Since I have not been sleeping I have been doing a ton of reading. I am now reading the Gemma Doyle trilogy which is a young adult series but I really like it. I have been reading a lot of YA lately. I recently finished the 1st book of the trilogy called A Great and Terrible Beauty and am now reading the 2nd book titled Rebel Angels. They are pretty fast paced and keep you interested with lots of mystery...I would definitely recommend to anyone (well any female anyway...not sure a guy would really get into it). I think the covers are pretty also. I have ordered the 3rd book from Amazon (titled The Sweet Far Thing) so hopefully it will be here before I finish the 2nd.





On a good note I have still been monitoring my glucose and so far my numbers are great. I can even eat pizza which is loaded with carbs and my glucose readings stay low so I am happy about that. I still try to stick to the GD diet the dietitian gave me most of the time but since my readings have all been good I do cheat sometimes! I have another ultrasound on the 31st to check and make sure the baby isn't getting too big. She was on the small side at my last u/s a few weeks ago (24th percentile) so I am not too worried.

Another thing that has been taking up my time is FlyLady. Does anyone else FLY? If you have no idea what I am talking about I highly recommend checking out the website. It is basically a program you can follow to help keep your house clean. I can not believe how clean my house is now and I have only been doing it for 2 weeks! It also actually makes cleaning kinda fun (so weird I know). I must be in nesting mode right now as I am consumed with wanting the house to be clean and FlyLady has really helped me in that area! I know with a new baby coming I need all the help I can get so if I can build some good routines now it will definitely pay off later.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend and hopefully I will have something new to share soon! I am off to read for a bit and try my best to get some sleep.

Easter card for SCS and copic colour challenge

Well I have finally finished another card. This one I did for the SCS sketch challenge #219. (I really love this sketch) and the copics colour challenge #4

The colors for the challenge were Y08 V06 and BG13

I did not have any of those colors so I used Y02 (in place of Y08) for the heart patch on the bunny and B00 (in place of BG13) for the outline around the bunny



I used the most adorable little bunny stamp from Penny Black called Patchwork Bunny. The image is colored in with my copics and I got a new Copic Atyou Spica glitter pen in the mail and I just love it! I got the clear one since it can be used for so many different things (I think I am going to have to invest in the entire set now). I used the glitter pen to color in the bunny's patches and bow and used a little in the swirl on the DP behind the bunny. I also layered the bunny several times to make it pop!







I also finished the inside of the card. The top part is actually a pocket that can be used to put photos (I added some pics of my kiddos so you can see how the pocket works) or any other little mementos (would be great for drawings the kids made etc). The bottom part has plenty of room for a handwritten note.





Hope everyone is having a great weekend. My oldest is super excited that it is Spring break and no school for a week! It is snowing here in Texas! Our weather is just crazy!

I finally finished my Mojo Monday

Well here we are late Saturday night early/Sunday morning and I finally got my Mojo Monday card finished. It has been a long and busy week for us filled with sick kids and car repairs...ugh! To top it all off we have to spring forward tonight...blah! DH and my oldest son are going to church in the morning and I plan to stay home with my youngest since he is still sick. We got new bunkbeds to go in my oldest DS's room since he and his brother will eventually be sharing (when the new baby outgrows the bassinet and moves to the nursery where my youngest is now), so we have to finish getting those all put together tomorrow. I made a quick trip to the grocery store earlier but we will need to go again tomorrow to get everything we need to be set for the week. I did manage to stop by the book store also. I just finished reading The Host by Stephanie Meyer (which I loved BTW) and needed something else to read. I decided on the Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray, they are young adult novels but sound pretty good and I have been reading a lot of YA's lately that I like.

So now back to card making! Here is what I came up with for this weeks Mojo Monday 76











The stamp is Penny Black Surprise (so so cute). I stamped the image several times and colored with my copics, then cut and layered for a 3D effect. The beak and the comb (I believe that is what you call the red thing on the head) have several layers of Diamond Glaze to make them shiny. I used lots of layers of cardstock, and patterned paper, and my sewing machine to add some stitching. I also finished the inside of the card and left plenty of room for a handwritten note. My cuttlebug was used to add some nice embossing detail on the inside and outside of the card. The only thing I changed with the sketch is I rotated the front square so it is more of a diamond as that seemed to suit my card better.

Now even though it is almost 1:30 am (well I guess 2:30 since we are springing forward) I am off to relax in the bath and start my new book. I need it after my long week! Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Had to share!

I had an ultrasound early this week and got some new pics of my little girl so thought I would share. I will be 32 weeks on Saturday so I am getting close...and so ready!

Isn't she just so cute! I had them confirm again that she is a GIRL since after having two boys I still have a hard time believing that I am having a girl.






Since the Dr's say I have GD...even though my sugars have been fine and baby is on the small side so far (24th percentile) they are watching the baby's growth closely so I get to have another u/s in 4 weeks woohoo! Then after that it won't be long until I am holding her!

I have had a very busy week and not much time to create. I did make a cute little gift box (envelobox) for my hedgehog card though and then added a few more details to the card itself. The envelobox took A LOT of trial and error as my cards are big (6X6) and I could not find a template for that so I ended up making my own but it took many attempts! I am please with the results. Oh and a helpful hint if you do not have a scoring tool (which I do not) a butter knife works well. I plan to make more of these as a lot of my cards are too thick for envelopes.

Here is a pic of the box and card





I am starting something for Mojo Monday tonight as I think the new sketch looks fun and then hopefully might be able to squeeze in the copic colour challenge also this week (this week they did a sketch instead of specific colors so I can't combine it with Mojo Monday)

So look for more to come in the next few days! I need to get the baby in bed and get busy crafting!

Whimsy Design Team call!

Well the Whimsy DT is looking for a new full time designer to focus on their Whimsy Animals Collection team. Let me tell you when I saw their stamps I knew I had to try because they are so cute and different! Click here to check out the adorable stamps they have available.

Take a look at the DT call here if you are interested, it actually ends today (3/1/09) so you will have to hurry up to get in on time!

Here is what I came up with as the card had to have an animal image and what better way to make use of my new Penny Black Hedgehog. I just love this image and it made for such an adorable card.

I started with Basic Grey paper since I LOVE their paper and worked the coloring of my image around that (which is why I made the ladybug pink instead of red). I stamped the image several times, colored with my copics and then layerd for a 3D effect. I also used my SU! pastel chalks to add some shading to the daisy. Crystal effects was used on the ladybug to make her shine.

I came across the cutest accordian paper flower and had to learn to make one myself. I found a tutorial here if you want to try it. I used a much smaller piece of paper than used in the tutorial so get a smaller flower but they are so easy and pretty! I added several skittles/dew drops to the center of the flower to dress it up a little.

I hope you like it, I think this is one of my favorites I have created so far!

Look Look, they found my package! Penny Black!

Ok so if you read my post yesterday you know that I have been going back and forth with the post office trying to find a package of Penny Black stamps that I ordered from a fellow SCSer. I had pretty much given up as the package showed delivered 2/17 and I figured it was delivered to the wrong address and I was out of luck. Well the postwoman who has been helping me called this morning and said the package turned up in the lobby. She had no idea how it got there or where it had been! So anyway they redelivered the package today and everything was still there. I am so happy to start playing with these stamps! It is nice to have a happy ending.

So here is a picture of my new goodies. I can't wait to add more to my collection! Now I just need to figure out which to use first =)



Hope everyone is having a wonderful Thursday. My oldest has been running a fever and missed the last two days of school. I am hoping he feels better tomorrow so he can go (so far he has been fever free since this morning so keeping my fingers crossed)...and at least it is Friday!

Copics Colour challenge and Mojo Monday!

So I have a new card for you today that combined two challenges. First was the Copics Colour Challenge The challenge was to use the colors
B02-Robin's Egg Blue
R05 - Salmon Red
YG23 - New Leaf
The only one I had was B02 so I used the R27 for the red and then combined Y02 and
G14 to get a YG color.

I then used the Mojo Monday sketch for this week for my layout.



I really like the way this card turned out and the way the red pops. The image is from SU! Frogs and Flies. I stamped and colored the little frog several times and then layered to make him 3D. I coated the jar of flies several times in Diamond Glaze to get a glass like effect. Stickles were added to the water to make it sparkle. I used my cuttlebug to emboss some of the cardstock and then used my sewing machine to add some stitching. The inside is also finished and has a lot of room for a handwritten note.











On a side note I was sad that I never received my Penny Black stamps in the mail. They were apparently delivered but not to my address. I am going back and forth with the post office now to try and track them down but I am worried it is a lost cause. I really think they may have been delivered to some neighbors who are not as honest as we all hope our neighbors are and they decided to keep them. I am hoping the postman might remember the package though and where he left it (we get our neighbors mail all of the time so I think our postman isn't always paying attention). I was so looking forward to playing with these stamps and still holding out hope that they may show up at my door! I do plan to go stamp shopping next week so I will have some new stuff to share! I do LOVE getting new stamps!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Lots of sparkle! SFYTT

I decided to try the SFYTT from i{heart}2stamp

Here is the sketch



I did the layout of the card before I even decided what my main image was going to be. I decided to go with a pretty flower stamp from the SU! Two-Step Stampin Love Without End set. I stamped the flower 4 times and then cut each one out. Then coated each flower in Doodlebug sugar coating glitter. The center of the flowers are these cute little dew drop accents (or skittles as some call them) I found on sale at Michaels about a year ago. They came in lots of fun colors so I stocked up and use them for lots of differnt projects! So enough about the skittles =) I used ribbon for the stems of the flowers and tied them together behind the sentiment that reads FRIEND. The inside has also been finished but left with plenty of room for a handwritten note. The ovals were embossed with my cuttlebug. For the finishing touch I of course stitched around the edges of the mats with my sewing machine.

Hope you enjoy and decide to try the sketch, it was a lot of fun!

Happy Thursday and Happy Birthday!

I have a new Birthday card to share with you all today. I received some Diamond Glaze in the mail and thought this would be a fun card to play with it on. I really love the shiny glass like effect Diamond Glaze gives.

This card features a My favorite Things stamp from the You Take the Cake set. I stamped the image several times and then layered for a 3D effect. The dress was paper pieced from coordinating designer paper. All the images were colored with copics and the background of the main image was chalked with SU! pastel chalks. I added Diamond Glaze to the cake, balloons, and stack of presents. The stack of presents is also from the You Take the Cake set and the balloons are from MFT Icing on the Cake. I also added lots of stitching and used my cuttlebug and swiss dots folder to emboss some of the designer paper.

I followed a sketch from Stampavie and changed it up a little. I just love all the details of this sketch, a little more complicated than most but lots of fun and makes for a beautiful card!









I am expecting some Penny Black stamps any day now and can not wait to play with them. You should see some cards popping up on my blog soon using my new goodies!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Copics Colour Challenge #1

I decided to join in on the copics colour challenge since I am still pretty new to copics and I feel it well help me to experiment more and sounds like a lot of fun. You can find the challenge by clicking here which will take you to the copics color challenge website. There will be a new challenge every Wednesday and they just recently posted they are creating a DT so that might be fun also. Anyway check out the site if you would like to join in the fun!

The first challenge was to use 1 or all of the following colors (or the closest thing you have to it)
B28 - Royal Blue
V06 - Lavender
YR07 - Cadmium Orange

I am still working on expanding my copics collection so I used B05 and YR68 for this challenge as that was the closest I had to those colors (plus I added some others for blending/shading).

I decided to use MFT Serenity Now since it is one of my faves! I really like how these colors came together to make a bright cheerful card. I stamped the image twice in black ink, colored with my copics and then cut out the girl's outfit and layered it on top with dimensionals for a 3D effect. I paper pieced the mat she is sitting on and then chalked the background with my SU! pastel chalks and blender pen. The sentiment is also from MFT Serenity Now which I stamped on the inside of the card and left plenty of room for a handwritten note. I added some stitching with my sewing machine and made a matching envelope to go with the card.











Hope you enjoy!