Happy Halloween!

I hope you are all having a better day than I am today. The only good thing about today is that it is an absolutely beautiful day (weather), and that my kids get to go trick or treating. It has been a rough day!

But on a happy note - I wanted to quickly share two of the Halloween cards that I made. I did actually make Halloween cards, but they were few and for those closest to my heart, as my time was limited after I so brilliantly decided to be "that" mom who makes the Halloween costumes instead of buying them. I must say though, I am very proud of my work :-) LOL! Plus, an added bonus is that my son is sooooooo Super excited about the whole thing and loves his costume. Can't wait to see them in them!

The cards were both made from stamps I found in the cheapy bins at A.C.Moore and Michael's respectively. I colored them both with Prismacolor pencils and OMS. And of course both of them had to have some Stickles for sparkle.

The paper on the spider card is actually from a stack my mother bought for me about seven years ago. I seriously don't know why I still have it, but it was a good thing I did cause I don't really have much in the way of Halloween colors, except black of course.

The "faux" stitching is from Technique Tuesday's Hanging By A Thread set with Brilliance Black Ink. The sentiment is from a letter set I found in Target's $ bin with their Halloween punched and gems. That was stamped in Versamagic Dew Drops Pumpkin Spice and cut with an SU! Word Window Punch.

Now for the Ghost card: the orange polka dots is from DCWV, the ric-rac is May Arts, the spider web paper is actually hand drawn by me with a white Signo Gel Pen since my supply for this holiday is so limited.

The sentiment is letter stamps from the MSE set Perky (I think?). The spiders are actually very glittery IRL, they are those Halloween double sided stickers from Martha Stewart at Michael's. I got them last week when they started their 50% off sale on some of her stuff. I got some great stuff with that sale - but I won't go into that here :-)

Well, I better get going, gotta get ready for the big reveal! Have a safe and haunting night! BWAHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Thanks for stopping by!

Caardvarks Micro Challenge Part Deux

Okay, while I was using eyelets I was inspired to create just one more card. I finally broke out my crop-a-dile this past week and I am still getting the hang of it. Does everyone's eyelets get all torn up on the back? I like my old fashioned Making Memories set because the eyelets look cleaner and seem to sit better on the back. But of course we all know how loud that is. Maybe I am not using it right??? I have the thing set for 1/8", at least I think I do. Any suggestions?

Well, anyway, while my kids enjoyed their Friday night movie and hubby was relaxing on the couch, I decided to give the eyelets another try. I needed another Birthday card, so I used the Papertrey Butterfly Kisses set to create this one. The paper is Basic Grey Blush and the white is PT Stamper's Select.

I used Versamagic Dew Drops in Pixie Dust and Sahara Sand. The scallop piece is created with Wave decorative scissors. I pierced some butterfly trails and the scallops at the bottom, distressed the edges a bit, and finally tied on a bit of twine for a little something. The scalloped piece is up on dimensionals to create an overhang. Of course the eyelets are Making Memories.

There you have yet another entry to the Caardvarks Micro Eyelet Challenge. Now gotta get it on there on time; I have 15 minutes - UGH!

Have a fab weekend!

Boho Birthday!

I absolutely had to have the new Boho Blossom set from My Favorite Things when it came out. As a matter of fact, this is my very first MFT stamp set ever! I love the femininity of this set. But, once I got it, I truly did not know what to do with it. I truly did struggle with this card, and revisited many times throughout the day. In the end, I like how it turned out, but boy do I feel drained!

I knew I wanted to use my new set, with Kraft paper and Versamagic Dew drops Aegean Blue ink (I love this color but have such a hard time with it because I have almost nothing to match it). That was where the creativity ended. I had nothing! I put it with a million things (well, it felt like it anyway) and ended up using Basic Black from SU! to make the image stand out.

I thought about putting a big brad in the center, but I really like the center of this flower. Plus, I wanted to submit this to the Caardvarks contest to use eyelets, so a brad would have been too much. The eyelets are Antique Copper from Making Memories.

Then I saw my Stardust Stickles in the drawer and had an epiphany. I don't use them near as much as I should. So I added some stickles for some glitz and some Organza ribbon from Joanns, and WALLAH! Sounds like it shouldn't have taken all that long, but trust me it did! Here is another pic so you can see the glimmer of the stickles...

There has been so much going on here, that I truly have no creative juices flowing through my veins. Hence the reason I have not posted a thing in over a week. We are in the beginning stages of building our very first brand spanking new house, so we have been quite busy finalizing plans and meeting with the builder, etc. I can not wait! My son just wants to move so he can have bunk beds, I have another agenda *wink* (can you say stamp room???)

I have other things done, and posts I could do, but just haven't felt like doing it. I have a list of projects that I want to accomplish, but haven't touched one. However, I am making my kids costumes for Halloween, and promise to post them here after the big reveal. I am very excited about those and hope they turn out as good in real life as they look in my head. Not much does these days!

Well, I hope my blog gets more interesting with more posts and more projects. With two little ones, I don't make the time to update it as I should. It is kind of like the family website I started when my daughter was first born, it hasn't been updated in over a year :-( GASP!

Have a fabulous Friday! Thanks for visiting.

On a Roll...

Ok, so it wasn't the very next day, but twice in one week, that's a roll for me! I actually did try to post yesterday, but had trouble with Blogger and didn't have the time to devote to figuring out what the problem was, so I just moved on to something else. I wanted to share my first single layer card ever, which I am very proud of, particularly because I had an idea and went with it in minimal time. I dare say that I am getting better at quick cards, but I wouldn't want to jinx myself :-)

So, here is my very first single layer card...

This was the thank you card I made for my birthday gifts, mostly money, but I am certainly not complaining! The idea actually came from the ribbon, which I got at the dollar bin at Michael's. I wish I bought more, because after making all the cards, I actually finished a roll of ribbon, I don't think that has happened since I made the programs for my wedding! LOL! I have sooooooo much ribbon, that is truly my scrap addiction, well that and paper.

Anyway, I loved that the ribbon had so many colors and that it was shiny. So to go along with that I used shiny inks - Versamagic Dew Drops Cosmic Copper and Pearlescent Sky Blue, and then Spanish Olive and Sage for the stem. First I stamped the flower from Fancy Pants Pollen Dust in the Copper and then just the tips of the flowers were inked with the Sky Blue. The stem is from an acrylic Autumn Leaves set call Build A Flower and I made it sort of curvy on the block before stamping it and then did the same with the dotted line from the same set.

The sentiment is from SU! Noteworthy set. I stamped that with Versamark and then embossed it with Copper EP. Wallah, super easy and understated!

As for my birthday - I was able to go on a craft shopping spree, on the Internet of course, with my birthday moolah - I bought stuff from All That Scraps, Linnecards, Joanns, and Scrapbookpal. So I had a very fruitful week spending and getting the things I can't find in our local stores. Now if I could just find the time to use them...hmmmmm...

Well, I hope you enjoyed my latest posts. I have some more to show tomorrow believe it or not :-) Have a wonderful day and evening, and hope to see you then!

I'm still here...

I am sooooooo sorry that I have been remiss in posting anything. I really don't know where the month of September went, and now here we are into week two of October and I still feel like I can't catch up. After deciding not to put my son into preschool this year, I guess I have been feeling like I need to do more things with him, showing him the world. So that's where most of my time has been, devoted to my kids. We are doing preschool things at home and exploring nature a bit. We have been to the beach, went hiking, we shot ears of corn out of a corn cannon, we visited the local gardens, went to a petting zoo, and today we took a hayride and picked some pumkins. By the time we get home, I don't even think about blogging. So, I am sorry to anyone checking back to see if I have done anything new.


I am still creating, just not posting. But, I do hope to change that. I have quite a few things I have been doing actually. I made some scrap pages and sent one to Cara (aka mom2tysonnashlee on SCS) so she could send them to her cousin, a soldier in the Army. She wanted to have a page sent from each state to compile a book of the United States. Check it out...
I like how it turned out, and she seemed happy with it too. I really do appreciate what those soldiers and their families have done and are doing for all of us, and this was truly the least I could do. My husband is a former Marine (Thank God!) so I know what they endure, and can not thank them enough!


I also made some thank you cards for my daughter's second birthday. I was so excited that my new Papertrey Ink set Beautiful Blooms had arrived just in time to make them. Now, so unlike me, I actually stayed up on the night of the 14th of September to see the new holiday releases from PTI. I don't know why I did, I was surfing and looking for inspiration and then it hit me, it was their new release party. So I decided to buy myself an early birthday present, I so deserved it! So of course I had to buy more than just one set to get free shipping, so I also bought Holiday Wishes, which I know will definitely get used on our Christmas cards (maybe not this year as I haven't decided whether or not to undertake that task, but definitely next!).


So where was I, back to the thank you cards. I wanted simple of course, as I had to make quite a few. And this is what I came up with...

The picture really does not do it justice, I had such a hard time getting something good because I took them the night before I mailed them, so the lighting wasn't great. The colors were inspired by the ribbon, which I got at Michael's a few weeks ago when they had their big ribbon extravaganza. Of course the base is PTI Stamper's Select, and I used all Dew Drops inks: Sea Breeze, Pearlescent Purple, Purple Hydrangea and Spanish Olive. The flower stamp is of course from PTI Beautiful Blooms, cut out with my Cuttlebug and Flower Die Cut, and then mounted with a dimensional. The stem is from Rhonna Farrer Elegant Flourishes set by Autumn Leaves, I love that set and can't wait to do more with that in my scrap pages. The sentiment is again PTI, Paper Tray. Simple and sweet, and I need something that went fast. Of course, then I had to write novels inside them to thank everyone for their generous gifts, but that's my style. I am big on thank you cards; people like to be acknowledged, and what better way to do that than to send a thank you.

Well, my daughter is talking up a storm in her bed so I must save the rest for later. Perhaps tomorrow there will be another post? Oh surely you jest :-) See you then, and have a fabulous evening!

Today Was My Birthday!

Well, there you have it - today was indeed my birthday :-) But somehow, it just isn't as much fun as when I was a kid. It seemed like every other day in many ways; I still had to feed the kids breakfast, still had to make lunch, still had to do laundry, still had to clean, still had to change diapers, and yes, I still had to shower! I even had to make my own birthday cake, but that's a story I refuse to go into right now :-)

But I also got to sleep in an hour later, get two hours of kid free shopping :-), buy new jewelry from my favorite sterling silver boutique, buy new stamps and ink from Michaels, get cards in the mail, get phone calls from friends and family, dance with my kids to music I like, eat birthday cake (YUM!), eat at Outback (yet again YUM!), and eat the birthday sundae at Outback (yet again YUM!).

So I guess all in all, even if it isn't as much fun as when we were kids, it's all in how you look at it!

Happy Birthday to me and to anyone else who is blessed to be born on this day!

P.S. I am 25 again for anyone who is wondering - that was such a good year *wink* I think I'll stick with it!

Itzy Bitzy, Cutey Patootey?

I love, love, love these little bugz from C.C. Designs! They are so adorable! I was going to give this one to my husband, just for being such a great guy! But after I added the flowers, it really doesn't fit his personality anymore :-) I think I might add another little flower to the other bugz head and send it to my cousin Tricia, who I have written about previously. She has had a really rough week, and I think she could use a little pick me up.

Anyway, I just got these Luv Bugz from Christine at ATS this week, and I couldn't wait to do something with them. I had purchased the Junkitz Salsa Pad a few weeks ago, and I thought that would work great with these little bugz; it's such fun paper!

The base and the red are from Bazzill, not sure which colors exactly, I bought them at the CKC convention in preformed packs.

The base is 4 1/2 x 4 1/2. The White is Papertrey Ink's Stamper's Select, of course! I stamped the Itzy Bitzy Luv Bugz with Brilliance Graphite Black ink. I cut that out with a Marvy Giga Scalloped Punch and then highlighted the edges with a light blue gelly roll pen. The bugz are colored with Prismacolor Pencils and OMS. I added Xmas Red Stickles to her flower, and then put a little blue gem in the middle for some dimension and sparkle. I layered that on the Bazzill red and added blue dots again with the gelly roll pen to mimic the circles in the paper.

I glued that on to the Salsa paper and then added my primas and brads before gluing that layer on top of the base to hide all my work. The brads are all Making Memories. I think it turned out so cute! I was very pleased with this one, and amazingly, this one didn't take me all that long. (I can stare at my desk forever trying to figure out what to do; my husband says that's because I have too much stuff - GASP - Blasphemy!)


Hope you enjoy your day today! Thanks for visiting!

Let's Pay It Forward!

I found this on Angel Wild's blog Angelosity, and I think this a fabulous idea! So, I wanted to send it forward to anyone who would like to do the same. This is a great way to make some new friends and to send something to make someone's day (I know how much I love to get fun mail!). Plus, did you ever see the movie "Pay It Forward"? If not, I highly recommend it - one of the best movies EVAH! This is a small way to maybe make a small difference in someone's life - we all love new goodies, right? :-) So, I will send some goodies in the mail (ribbon, chipboard, this-n-thats) out to the first person who comments here. But, please remember you have to put the icon on your blog and send some goodies out to someone else. Thanks for visiting!

P.S. send me your home address via my email at kaceycant@yahoo.com

Funny Thing About Life...Well Maybe Not So Funny...

OK, in the midst of a not so funny (ha-ha!) world, I have managed over time to find some humor in it all. Most recently in this... I took my daughter for her checkup a little while back and the doctor asked if she was talking. I said "Uh-huh!" Doctor: "Is she putting two words together?" ME: "UH-huh!" Doctor: "Is she putting three words together?", ME: "Uh-huh!". Doctor: "She is talking in full sentences?" as if in disbelief (she doesn't speak in front of him, only cries, HYSTERICALLY!), and I again I reply "Uh-huh!" He looked surprised, but in a non-believer way. So, she goes for her two year checkup, he comes out into the waiting room to get a parent who has brought their older child in, and sees my daughter talking away to another child, older than her, having a full fledged conversation, hand motions and all. We go back to see him, and he apologizes for not believing me when I said she could talk. I just smiled. I had a feeling he didn't, but who really cares, right. I know she can talk, and many times a day wish she would stop (LOL!), so who really cares. This brings me to the funny (not funny as in ha-ha!, but funny as in huh?) things I am finding...

Why do we place so much importance on what other people think or feel about us? Today I got an "email" from someone asking why it is that she can't seem to make and keep friends, or make relationships in general work when they are the things she wants the most in life. Yes, an email! Rather personal question for a mass email (at least 10 people on this list). I wanted to reach out to her, even though I myself have mixed feelings about her. My first instinct was to address it honestly, but given this person's history, I called my husband and asked him for guidance :-) (I often stick my foot in my mouth). He said, "tell her to talk to me", he is a lot more tactful at times like these. My counseling side screams out for honesty! Sometimes in real life I have to surpress that side of me :-) or it gets me in trouble.

Here's my problem these days, I don't care about insignificant things like this anymore. I can't! I want to, but I can't! This is why: that cousin that I wrote about last month, she had her first shot at Chemo, and they learned she was allergic to Taxol, the drug used in this particular type of treatment. They pumped her up with steroids a week later and tried again. She did ok for the first few days, and then developed a high fever, only to find out that she now has a Staph infection, MRSA, probably the worst Staph as it is immune to almost every antibiotic. They can not continue with the chemo until she gets rid of this infection, if she gets rid of it! I talked to my aunt, who is obviously distressed, and she begins to cry as she describes her daughter asking her "Why is this happening to me?" Her reply, "I don't know." Who does?

Then we learn that the niece of a very dear friend of ours was in a car accident this past weekend, and her friend who was in the passenger side was killed on contact. His niece is alive, and considering the accident, she is very lucky to be, but imagine the guilt that child (only 17) will carry around for the rest of her life. No amount of counseling will erase that.

So you see, I am having a hard time being concerned about "everything else" these days. I don't mean to sound callous and certainly don't mean to offend (see I even feel the need to apologize for what I write). But, these "life altering events" or "teachable moments" as I like to refer to them are putting things into perspective for me. Focus on what's important in life, and please STOP WORRYING WHAT EVERYONE ELSE THINKS ABOUT YOU; it gives them way too much POWER! Live your life for you and ENJOY it!

Nuff said!