FTH September Progressive

Well, in 5 short hours it will be October.  and while I made it through the month without Starbucks, I did NOT complete all my required tasks for September.  I missed the end of the Gerda Steiner challenge.  The worst part is that I made the card!  I chose to feed the family instead of finishing up the blog post.

In better news, I DID make the cut-off for the From the Heart Progressive Challenge.  Here she is: Pumpkin Patch Girl.   Remember, if you play along each month, you will get the next image emailed to you for free!

I suppose there is a lesson to be learned from this ... drink more lattes so you are better organized.

Oh, I'm using the sketch over on the Tuesday Morning Sketches blog.  It was a cute one too.

SSW2-Lacy Sunshine

Welcome back.  It's Wednesday and that means it's time for another challenge over at Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2.  This week we have the return of Heather from Lacy Sunshine.  I'm using her image: Scientist Johnny for my card.

Our sketch comes from October of 2012.  As you can see, I rotated the sketch to fit my image and moved the "flower" a bit.

It's always fun to see what the gang did with it last time.  When I went to check it out, I saw that I had written the post and there was a picture of our gangly "teen-age" doggy.  I wanted to give you a picture of how she looks now ... all grown up.

Here is Miss Holiday, getting some loving from her boy before he has to leave for school.

This week, our winning card will get THREE free digi images from the Lacy Sunshine shop.  Here's a bit more about Heather:
 
Heather Valentin is a creative , award winning, modern-day fantasy and whimsical artist who has displayed a dynamic and vibrant energy while painting professionally for over 18 years. 

I hope you have time to join in the fun.

SSW2-69: Sami Stamps

This weekend, we met some friends to see the new movie: Scorch Trials.  The oldest son was SUPER grumpy at the end of the movie: "I hate cliff-hangers" he said grumpily (sorry, spoiler alert if you didn't read the books and know that there IS a third book)  "Well, we DO have the book if you want to find out the end."  The look he gave me was pretty dirty.  Apparently I sounded too much like a teacher.  I just grinned and told him that you can take a teacher out of the classroom but not the teacher out of the parent!  It really didn't do much to improve his mood!

In other news, it's Wednesday and that means another challenge over at Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2.  This week we are sponsored by Samantha Siemers Ratlif from the Sami Stamps Shop.  She is offering a great prize of a $12 gift certificate to her shop. Pretty cool stuff.

Here's a bit more about Samantha

Hello! I’m so happy to be here as a Sponsor for Sweet Sketch Wednesday! Sami Stamps provides a variety of high quality Digital Stamps in both JPEG and PNG formats. I hope you enjoy crafting with Sami Stamps as much as I enjoy illustrating them!

Click on a link to Visit our...

BLOG ,  BLOG SHOP , CURRENT CHALLENGE  and our ETSY SHOP

We really do hope that you play this week.

DP: Catch the Bug

In the last four days, we have seen the Dentist, the Oral Surgeon and the Orthodontist.  I'm pretty sure that the my kids and the fellows over at our Dental Care Insurance company will agree with me ... enough with all the teeth appointments!  Yikes!!  The good news, the youngest doesn't need braces ... yet.  ((sigh))  I'm giving this card to our Orthodontist: Dr. Z. because he IS pretty awesome.

I wanted to share another card with you from Doodle Pantry.  Laurie has some awfully cute images over there.  I love that her images come both as line art as well as pre-colored.  Some days you just need to crank out a card, lickity-split.

This is Finny Fish and he is available under the TOTALLY free tab on the Doodle Pantry site.  You can't get much better than free.  But there are lots of other great fish images that are absolutely worth a look too.  Run, don't walk over to her site!

I'm using the sketch from the Stella Says Sketch site.  My card is pretty busy with all the loops and the extra sentiment so I did chose to leave off the ribbon.

Jeannie's challenge this week, over on the Dragonfly Journeys blog, is to use orange: bam, done!

SSW2-DigiStamp Boutique

Diet update: I've lost 3 pounds this month so far, but Starbucks has upped the ante: they've brought out the Pumpkin Spice Latte.  Not cool Starbucks, not cool.  I am nearly half-way through my "No Starbucks" month and I am thanking my lucky stars to have chosen a 30 day month!  The hubby asked if I planned to continue my shun of the milky goodness until my 5K in October.  As much as I wanted to scream "He(ck) No" to him, I am wondering if he has a point.  ((Sigh))

In other news, it's Wednesday and that means that Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2 has a new sketch challenge.  Our sponsor is the fabulous Sally-Ann from DigiStamp Boutique.  This week I'm using her Umbrella Lulu set.  I fell in love with this cute image.

Sally-Ann is offering our winner a  £10 voucher to her store. How fabulous!!  Free stuff is always good.

I hope that you will join in the fun.

Other challenges that I'll be joining in are:

Incy Wincy Designs: Digi Stamps only
Crafty Sentiments Designs: Anything Goes
and of course, The DigiStamp Boutique monthly challenge

Doodle Pantry: Oh Deer!

I had about a half an hour between when my friend "fixed" my crochet errors and when I needed to make the end of school pick-up run.  Sooo I walked into the Michael's store to pick up ONE thing ... I ended up walking out with many dollars of Halloween crafts and decorations.  Note to self, not a good place to spend waste extra time!

I always need Get Well cards this time of year so I decided to join in the fun over on the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge.  I altered the sketch a tad to fit my style.  I like all the red on my card. Bright and pretty just like Get Well cards need to be.

Over on the Dragonfly Journeys blog the challenge is to use buttons.  I've got one!

My poor sick reindeer is from Doodle Pantry.  The set is called Get Well Critters.  Too cute.

SWS2-67: Pattie G Creations

It's Wednesday and Sweet Sketch Wednesday has another sketch challenge for you.  Our sponsor this week is Pattie's Creations. 

I used her "Sweet Nectar."  I did remove the flowers from the image so I could add my own flowers in for the required embellishments.  Honestly I liked the hummingbird by himself (again, the versatility of digi images is apparent!)

Pattie is giving 2 free images to this week's winner.  And here is everything you EVER wanted to know about Pattie and her shop:

I am an Internet Technology Professional and an Artist. I always dreamed of being an artist, but I found out quickly that I needed another field to support my family so I pursued a Degree in Information Technology. I love to use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Fireworks to enhance my work. I know have a large selection of images to fit everyone’s needs.

DP : Back to School

As much as I love a good long weekend, I gotta say that I am discombobulated the remainder of the week without a "real" Monday.  It's Tuesday but it FEELS like a Monday!  I've got one kiddo in school and the other out with a teacher workday ... that means that very little will get accomplished today.

I wanted to share this card.  I'm participating in three challenges this week. Jeannie over on Dragonfly Journeys wants to know what September means to me.  For me, September is all about school, pumpkin spice lattes and getting used to our new schedule and homework.  The youngest came home with 8 missing assignment notices already. (whimper)  I think we can all agree that HE is not used to the new homework schedule!!

I'm also using the sketch over on Sweet Sunday Sketches.

Eureka Stamps challenge 157 wants us to show something that is back to school.

Have a great left-over week friends!

Other challenges I'm entering:
Wags N' Whiskers Stamps: Back to School

SSW2-66 Bugaboo

Day two of my self-imposed Starbucks hiatus (insert a pathetic whimper here).  My diet efforts needed a boost so I decided to see if the removal of the 200 calories I spend on my daily latte will help.  Sadly I think it will but I REALLY miss those tasty milky calories.  Sigh.

In other news, it's Wednesday so that means it's time for another sketch challenge over at Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2.  We have the fabulous Jodie from Bugaboo as our sponsor this week so that means we have SEVEN images to give away to our winner!

As always, the team really worked hard on their cards.  Why don't you swing by the blog and leave a bit of love for them.  We really DO hope you will be inspired to join in the fun.

Doodle Pantry/Sketch Saturday

It's time for our monthly Ants in my Pantry Digital Challenge over on the Doodle PantryBlog. It's an anything goes challenge this month, provided you use a digital image. I decided to use the Doodle Pantry set St. BernardBuddy (the color image of course, I love the time saving aspect these bad boys provide!) and make a birthday card. I have 12 (yes, I DID say twelve!!) September birthday cards to send out.

Laurie has some FABULOUS dog images in her shop and they all have fantastic sentiments. I'm using the sketch over at Sketch Saturday.  This week, you have the option to choose your favorite sketch.  I'm using sketch #227 from December of 2011. I'm not sure that you can tell but I embossed my 9 squares with little hearts to provide some extra puppy love.

I sure hope you can join in the fun of the Ants in my Pantry Digital Challenge over on the Doodle Pantry Blog.