The quote says "People tend to forget that play is serious." And the journaling talks about how happy Jessica was to get a Trouble game for Easter. We had picked up a Dollar Tree version, but it was small and kept falling apart. She wanted to PLAY not pose for pictures. When I snapped that lower right photo, Jessica was saying...."take pictures, LATER, Mom." LOL
credits: Barn Red textured cardstock, Olive cs, New England Ivy ink, pewter brads (CTMH), All About Borders stamp (Inkadinkado), "thinking of you" Frames and Messages (Hero Arts), antique circle brad, silk flowers (Spare Parts-Hobby Lobby), Cuttlebug embossing folder, concave punch, brown ribbon, pop dots
Thanks as always for visiting!
credits: Grey Wool cardstock and ink(CTMH), blue textured cardstock (DCWV-Spring pack), patterned paper Spring Matstack (DCWV), Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder, swirl stamp (Heidi Grace), friends stamp-Share Laughter (Hero Arts), Pearls (Crystal stickers), grosgrain ribbon (CTMH), oval coluzzle, My Legacy Marker (CTMH)
credits: Dutch Blue, Black Cardstock, inks (CTMH), Baby Blue Paisley (Paper Studio, Hobby Lobby), oval Coluzzle, Swiss Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug), flower stamp (unknown), Friends sentiment-Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink), white ribbon (Hobby Lobby), rhinestones (JoAnn's), rectangle scallop (Nestabilities)Then after this fun day of stamping/playing, we had a birthday party to go to. It was at a local game place called Boondocks. The girls had pizza, cupcakes and then got 20 tokens a piece, plus a wristband allowing them to play in the climbing structure. Let's just say they played long and they played hard! And had a great time doing it.
I made more cards than this today, but am pretty tired myself so will close this hugely long post and thank you for reading IF you got this far! :o)
This is another card I saw on the same blog. I really like how she uses the Papertrey Ink sets in a unique way. Again you'll have to scroll a bit to see her card. She's like me and posts more than one project at a time. :o) I think you'll enjoy the view on the way to the card.
Credits first card:
green textured cardstock(Die Cuts With a View-DCWV), Hollyhock cardstock (CTMH), flower punch (EK Success), pink acrylic disc (Michaels), Happy Birthday (Women of Life set, Papertrey Ink)
Credits second card:
Baby Pink cardstock (CTMH), Chocolate ink, Garden Green Ink (CTMH), Women of Life stamp set (Papertrey Ink), Share Laughter stamp (for flower centers-punched out) (Hero Arts).
Credits: Bubblegum and Dutch Blue cardstock (CTMH), Dutch Blue ink (CTMH), Paisley printed paper (Doodlebug), paper flower (CTMH), button (unknown), DMC floss, It's Your Day stamp (Michaels $1 stamp).
My version is pretty much a case of hers, but I did a couple of things to "make it my own." Mainly, before I ran my embossing folder through my Cuttlebug, I inked one side with Garden Green ink. Doesn't that look cool? I read about doing this on a blog somewhere, but can't quite remember where-could have been Kathi's! LOL I also chose to use a different sentiment in a different location.
The girls wanted to go into the planetarium, but it was only 11 or so and the next show was at 2pm. I knew they wouldn't make it to the next showing and I didn't want to leave and come back. So we wandered and checked out a bunch of exhibits. We did the Space Odyssey, but the few pictures I took were WAY too blurry to share. Amy and Jess were fascinated though. I love these scenes they have set up of the animals in their habitats. We even went into the exhibit with the mummies!
Would you believe when I looked out the window this morning I saw snowflakes falling??? Not enough to cover the ground, but to go from the gorgeousness (is that a word?) of yesterday to the dreariness of cloudy and cool today, with scattered snow/rain is a bit of a let down. The girls and I are just hanging out at home and have swim lessons later this afternoon. We were supposed to play with Amy's good friend, but apparently her family got a great deal on tickets and left today to visit family out of state!
The picture doesn't even do it justice. There's lots of sparkly on it, which isn't getting picked up. 
The girls and I headed to the Denver Zoo this morning. We are on Spring Break this week, and so far it looks like the weather is going to be great! Yea! Well, apparently Denver, Jefferson County and Adams County school districts are ALL on Break this week and with the lovely weather...everyone has the same idea for something fun to do...go to the zoo! LOL It was crowded! There was a huge line just for getting or renewing a membership (which we had to stand in) then we juggled with all the other people to see the animals. One good thing...the girls are old enough that we didn't need a stroller and I toyed with the idea of renting a wagon, but didn't. Good thing. It was much easier navigating without one this time!
Credits:
One of the books Amy likes looking at is a kids' craft book. Most of the time she enjoys the pictures, but yesterday I think she was looking for something to do. She found a recipe for these nests and excitedly asked me if we could make them for the Easter Bunny. I thought it sounded like fun, but I had to get some of the ingredients. And here is the result of this little project. Interesting looking nests and happy kids...who could ask for more? :o) It was well worth the quick trip to the store.
Credits: Delight Freebie kit from KsharonKDesigns blog Artistic Musings
Hopefully sometime today I'll be able to work on a layout or something crafty to share...we'll see!
Have a wonderful day!
I also scored some lines which you may not be able to see above the focal images and below them. "Enjoy the moment" is from a PTI set, Mixed Messages. I found some Outdoor Denim grosgrain ribbon in my stash. 
This first card is pretty much a CASE of this card created by Penny Hajiantoni
It's a 3 1/2 by 8 sized card. Nothing too out of the ordinary here. Just fiddled and futzed with it, until I was satisfied with how it looked.
The papers are SEI Winnie's Walls that I've had in my stash for quite some time. This time I punched the circles 1 1/4 inches, which makes for a more manageable dahlia. I added the gold cord with some Scotch paper glue (love that stuff because it starts drying fairly quickly). The button is from that bag o' vintage buttons I picked up at Michaels recently. Thank you stamp is from PTI's Women of Life set. Oh and I cut the larger (3 inches if I remember right) scallop circle using my Cricut and the Mini Monograms cartridge.
Why don't I especially like this card? Well, for one thing, the Dahlia is too big. When I first learned of this fold, all I found were sketchy directions on how to do the fold...didn't really see anything on the size of the circle to use. So, right off the bat, my circles were too big. Makes the flower too big! I used CTMH's Silhouette Creative Basics paper, because I never did buy the Silhouette Reflections pack. But I didn't like the Colonial white next to the stripes. So, I made some black paper fit on that part. (sort of a pain, but I like the black much better-it was after I did all this work that I realized the dahlia folds were too big. Too much work to just scrap it, so I made do). I thought I had the same heart stamps that Jen used, only to find out that I don't. So I used hearts from the Soulmates stamp set. The scripted one with the flourishes looks "blurry" to me, but it's how the stamp was created (not a favorite look of mine). So that was another strike against this card. 
We started a new session of swim class yesterday and hit the first glitch in the system at the rec center since we started classes last July. Amy moved up a level, which made me happy for more reasons than just being proud of her. The class she was in was only offered at 4 or 5pm and that's getting kind of late in the day. The next level class was being offered at 3:30, which was perfect. So, last Thursday, when I found out she moved up, I gleefully went to sign her up. Only to find out the head of the swim dept. CANCELLED the 3:30 class because he had no registrants! Um...hello! I JUST found out she qualified for the class! He apologized but it was a done deal. So, the only other class available was....yep....the 5pm class! But knowing how much Amy adores these lessons, I sucked it up and signed them up for this time slot. So, yesterday we are there waiting for class to start. When they hadn't called the Level 4 group, I asked where were they meeting. The guy told me, um...don't kill the messenger but the Level 4 class is cancelled! WHAT?? I knew for a fact that they had more than 2 registrants. In fact there was a wait list for this class (could it be because the guy cancelled the other class prematurely????). So I go to the front desk to find out what was going on. The gal there gave me the roster with a full class list! Of course the guy I needed to talk to was NO where to be found. By the time I went back to the pool, I discovered the instructors pulled together the kids and one of the gals very nicely taught the class. There was a full class there and happily for Amy, one of her friends from her 1st grade class is in this group. Another friend from her class is also taking lessons in this time slot...so Amy is one happy camper! She gets to swim and see some friends. I was told this instructor will be teaching this swim class for this session and through word of mouth on the bench for parents, I hear she is a REALLY good instructor. So all's well, but it was a bit dicey there for a few minutes. :o) I still don't like being there at 5pm...we usually eat dinner at 5:30...and let me tell you the girls practically inhaled their dinner last night-which was Wendy's because Steve got home late as well. Hopefully the next session we'll be able to go a little earlier. Time will tell though.
I knew I had a flower stamp similar to the one she used. I found it in the Friendship Flowers set by CTMH. I stamped it in Baby Pink, on Baby Pink cardstock, then stamped the image on white and offset it just a bit before cutting it out. I added it with pop dots. The pink polka dotted paper is a piece I had sitting on my table. (I used PTI's Polka Dot Basics to stamp it). The stem is stamped in Sweet Leaf. I added some glitter glue on the center and finished it off with some grosgrain ribbon.
With that, I think I am done posting for the evening. I have a few more cards (a lot of them were quick and simple allowing me to feel a lot more productive) that I might share tomorrow.
Here's the inside of the card. Somehow I got a hankering to complete the insides of some of these cards! I used a couple of paisley dies for the Cuttlebug. I've had the dies for a long time and this is the first time I've used them. I punched them in the three colors and then just built up the paisleys by playing around. I added a little bling. The sentiment is from the same set as the flower.
The inspiration for this card came from a blog and I completely forgot to note the name. I'll go back and look for it and edit when I find it. *I spent 10 minutes looking and cannot find it! If this looks familiar to you, please comment so that I may give proper credit for the inspiration* Anyway, I used PTI's Polka Dot Basics set. I really like how the card that inkspired me was stamped with the outline circle then the solid center was added. The colors are Chocolate, Hollyhock, and Garden Green. Ribbon is from my stash and the sentiment is from Mixed Messages by PTI. I also stamped the envelope flap with the circles. Looks cute if I do say so myself. :o)
Jessica and I did our Friday morning ritual of going to Joann's and the Dollar Tree yesterday. I haven't found anything worth purchasing there for a while, but as we wandered the scrapbook aisle, I saw that they have a new display of clear stamps! More than I've seen there before and names they haven't carried before. The gal working in the area said they are carrying less wood mounted sets and added more of the clear, since they are more popular now. Being that Jess was anxious to get to the Dollar Tree, I didn't have long to look, but I did pick up one set from Inkadinkado called Patterned Bugs. The ladybug in this card is from that set. It's one image, but I masked off part of it to get the body red and the head black. Then I embossed it with clear embossing powder and added some red Stickles for bling. I also added 3 black rhinestones and put some Stickles on those. The ribbon is from Michaels and the dots from Polka Dot Basics, sentiment from Mixed Messages both from Papertrey Ink.
I have one more card I want to share tonight, so that will be the next post.
This next card was inkspired by Kathi's Cupcake Card. Since I don't own the numbers embossing folder *yet* I decided to use the Happy Birthday embossing folder. Colors are Orange, Olive, Desert Sand and Breeze (all CTMH colors). Added some bling on the "sprinkles" with some glitter glue. The colors for this card were inspired by the ribbon I picked up at Michaels recently.
I have more to share, but the kiddos want me to snuggle for a while. We just got back from a birthday party at a roller skating rink. I even skated and I haven't roller skated since, I don't know...high school???!!! I didn't fall down once, but wobbled a bit. Then I found my groove and worked up a bit of a sweat. The girls had fun and so did Steve.
More soon!
