FTL 94 for the end of school!

Hooray!  The end of school is Friday!  This year, going back to work part time at my son's school has been interesting to say the least.  I have that same end-of-the-year-itis that the kids get!  Having taught (in my previous life before kids!) I love to give little gifts to teachers that went above and beyond for my children during the school year.  I'd love to do more, but the budget is low...so this year, I really wanted to get something useful, but thrifty. I settled on a set of 12 multi-colored dry erase markers.  Being in the building as a sub, I bet 1/2 of the rooms I go into the dry erase markers are dried up and worn out when I try to use them during a lesson.  Well, now there will be new ones for next year!  I wrapped them in kraft paper and attached a note that says "thank you for leaving a positive 'mark' on our child".  Simple, under $4 and useful.  I'm also including a card that uses the Clean and Simple challenge this week.  The samples people have entered are great!  I'll need to go back and case!!

CAS...the only way to stamp!

Well, recently...the only way I get to stamp!  Just playing along with Simplicity's OLW challenge for stamping a background onto your one layer card.  I had this idea in my head as soon as I saw Susan's challenge, selfishly because I had just ordered a new stamp set (ippity's fishy philosophy) and wanted to use that fish!  There are two takes on this one...the first is a little dark...and actually a lot of work for a one layer card!  The second I like better!  

The other is for the CAS-tastic Challenge this week which is to use buttons on your CAS design.  One thing I've learned through a few challenges...I'm NOT a button girl.  I'm thinking of listing quite a few sets of stamps for sale -- just housekeeping -- and I'm thinking all buttons need to go, too!  I love seeing them on other's creations, which explains why they are in my crafty stash...but I never seem to get them to work just the way I see them in my head!  (well, its' either the buttons, or my head -- so I'll stick with the buttons!)  (the small dots are raindrops!  oops...it's sprinkling!)

Baseball championships are this week and school will be over on Friday...maybe THEN I can reclaim some stamping time?  (a girl can dream, right?!!)  Here's the thank you notes I made for the Coaches of my sons' teams.  Not even time to stamp them, either!  I just printed out the sentiment in a cute baseball font...and made the "seams" on the baseballs red with a marker.  Of course, there's always time to BLING...so I added stickles to them - hard to see on this cloudy day.  (I know...very manly!)  I'm sure the MEN that coached won't care...but I DO...and that's all that matters!

CAS again!

Hi!  Yes, the school year is winding down (which actually means more work for those of us that work at school!) and baseball season is in playoffs...which I'm late for as I type!  Luckily, my son Sam is not one to want to be late so my husband already has him up there at the field.  Long enough for me to put together a CAS card for the CAStastic challenge.  Since I only had 10 minutes...you know it had to be quick!  The challenge was to make a card all about the sentiment.  We had been making jokes about coffee at work this morning...and I thought of this idea. I didn't have a stamp for either the image or the sentiment...so I used clip art!  I used an Amuse set for the steam, though - so there is some stamping!

Baseball update:  for those who are sports parents...my husband just called to tell me my son was pitching.  He was kind enough to give me the play by play over the phone so I join in the excitement!  4 up, 3 down, inning over.  Yay!  This is out of the ordinary for my son, he's usually the catcher. Darn, reminds me...need to make thank you cards for baseball coaches!!  One thing at a time.

I also wanted to play along with Susan's OLW challenge.  This time was to try "repeating" an image.  I loved so many of the samples!  What a fun idea.  I had this image in my head for a while and I think it worked very nicely as a CAS one layer card.  The image is from CTMH (thanks, Anne!) and is embossed on the cardfront. 

It was from an image I had seen on Nichole Heady's blog (PTI).  I loved their idea to sponge white around a dandilion head.  I had to try.  I thought it looked soothing, so used it for two sympathy cards I had to have this week. (Also CTMH)

Thank goodness for CAS - now off to finish the dishes and head up to baseball! 

CAS challenges

I love CAS cards.  Funny thing is, sometimes they are harder to come up with than layered, embellished cards.  There are many great CAS card artists...and I thought I'd play along with two of them this weekend.  I have long been a subscriber to Simplicity and was excited when Susan decided to challenge us.  This is the first one I've had a chance to try.  The challenge was to overlap an image and a sentiment.  And did I mention it has to be a ONE layer card?  Not only are Susan's ideas wonderful, but there is a lot of great inspiration in the submissions.  Check it out!

Newer to me is the CAS-tastic challenge blog.  Their challenge this week is using a "touch" of green.  So I tried to use just a touch!  This one didn't have to be one layer, but I tried to keep it simple and uncluttered.  I wanted "waves" for the border punch...but I'm not able to find that darn Martha Stewart punch around here anywhere.  Perhaps it's discontinued?  Oh well...I will continue my quest!  (Imagine waves when you look at the scallops!)  That's a SU bordering blue - which I'm sad to see retiring! - sea on that card...I've had the darndest time getting it to show up blue-r than gray-er in photos.

OK...enough posts for this weekend.  I just don't know when I'll have another chance...and I don't want to let it go for a month again.  It's the end of the school year and baseball season is still in full swing.  (no pun intended!)  If I can carve out some rubbah time, I'll be back to share with you soon!

Sketch Saturday - on Sunday

I found a new challenge to try today after visiting a few blogs out there for inspiration.  (love that...all of the great inspiration out there...thanks fellow stampers!!)  I tried the Sketch Saturday layout today.  I saw all of the embellishments at the bottom of the focal point image and (don't ask why...because I don't know!) I immediately thought butterflies.  I don't have an oval big enough to fit the sentiment I used, so rounded corners had to do!  I also tried to use The Pink Elephant's challenge color this week- orange.  And all of that chocolate chip brown (with a splash of color) is for the Just Scraps challenge this week. 

This card will go to Patti over at The Queens Ink in Savage. It's a Unity stamp I bought at her BEAUTIFUL shop a while ago. She hosted a great stamping "yard sale" last week.  It was soooooo fun to go there and be amongst "my kind."  (If you're reading this, they were most likely YOUR kind, too!)  It was a chance to talk rubber, techniques, sell a few older stamps and pick up a few "new to me" stamps.  What a great idea and a great day.  Thanks, Patti!

If you are local to the Baltimore area...another area scrapbook store, PhotoScraps, is hosting a scrapbook "yard sale" event next weekend.  I'd love to be there, too, but I can't.  I will be attending my friend's daughter's bat mitzvah.  She's so excited.  I made all of the invites, thank yous and placecards, etc.  for her as a gift from our family.  She is very active on her swim team, and her "mitzvah project" was to do a swim-a-thon to raise money for breast cancer research, as her mother (my friend) is a breast cancer survivor.  Nice young lady!  Here's the invite we decided on...had to be "watery"! 

Christmas in...May?

Oh, yes!  It's that time again to join in with the ladies at Christmas Cards All Year 'Round.  This month's challenge was to use flowers ("April showers bring May flowers"), ribbons and buttons.  Ribbon - got that under control.  But the buttons and flowers...I'll tell you, it's hard to incorporate a flower on a Christmas card!  (obviously why it's taken me the whole month to figure out a design!)  I actually thought I wouldn't participate...but today it finally hit me - thank goodness!  Wouldn't want to miss out on the fun!

Funny to be thinking Christmas thoughts on Memorial Day weekend...but I finally got time to stamp.  I'll take THAT whenever I can get it!  Thanks for stopping by! 

CPS sketch...just under the wire!

No thunderstorms, neighbors over for a casual get together...great start to the holiday weekend!  But I almost forgot to post one of the challenges I was able to work on this week.  I tried the sketch at Card Positioning Systems.  There were already so many great submissions!  I've been trying hard to finish some cards for the Christmas Cards All Year 'Round...so I had some winter stamps out.  Funny thing is...I got this one done...but not the actual Christmas ones!  Oh well...maybe tomorrow!  (Helps to stay cool in 90 degree weather when you're working with snowy stamps!)