Jesus.

Hello, hello, hello! How's it going?

It's time for another Milk Coffee Challenge, and these next two weeks, it's all about embossing (wet or dry).

Being a mommy of two and a full time registered nurse, I tend to go for the quick projects. I chose dry embossing, of course! I found this 'vintage' Love Elsie paper circa 2006 0r 07. I highlighted it with some metallic rub-ons.

I decided to use this religious image of Jesus (he was a free digi at MC a while back) because it is so close to Easter. I hardly talk about it here, but being Catholic is a big part of my life.

Just added some simple flower stickers and voila! I think it's a wonderful Easter card. Thank you, Lord, for all of my blessings!



I hope you all have a great day and visit the rest of the DT's projects! Remember that you've got two weeks to play along!

Love,

Nurses Rock.

Hello, everybody!!

Today, I'm doing something quite different and actually posting about a creation I made all for fun and not for an assignment or "Design Team" - related!

I simply wanted to document what it's been like at work lately. How busy it has been and how Nursing isn't just about passing out meds and cleaning poop. It's about teaching families how to manage chronic diseases at home, how to help them cope with new diagnoses, how to chart everything you are doing for your patients. It's auditing your colleague's practice to make sure policies are followed. It's about ensuring that the flow of a patient's daily plan run smoothly from the Respiratory Therapist's treatment to the MRI procedure later that evening. It's balancing great relationships with your patient's support system and also taking time out for yourself. There are politics involved with Nursing... how to please the upper management breathing down your neck about the budget and preventing overtime while still maintaining family-centered care. It's developing trust with not only those you care for, but those you have to report unexpected symptoms to (aka the doctors). It's taking the time to listen and participate in rounds to really understand the patient and the medical treatment. Nursing is fulfilling, busy, intimidating, inspiring, mind-boggling all rolled into one.

In a twelve hour day, I sometimes don't even feel the sun on my skin. I leave before it pushes into the horizon and come home when it has set hours before. When my babes were babies, there were times I did not even see them awake. But I am lucky for full time in my career (at least in this part of California) entails just three days a week. Long hours, but they're combined into less than half the week.

Because I've always been sentimental, I wanted to include a typical day in my life as a nurse in the here and now of February 2014. This pie chart on the Project Life card from Studio Calico was fitting. It's not quite a perfect depiction, but it's close enough. Visualize that chart as a whole circle though as I do provide a lot more patient care than that little pink corner :). The nurse image and sentiment are both from Saturated Canary. I just love how cute and quirky she and her outfit are (NOT, I repeat NOT what I wear at work!!!). She is colored with Copic Markers and is accompanied by cute, kawaii medical stickers.



Anyway, thanks for visiting! I'm quite enjoying combining my love of scrapbooking with my stamp coloring! That's why I make so many crafts! It's such a stress relief, especially after my work week :).

Play that funky music, playboy....

Why, hello there!!! And long time, no see!

WHEW! This week just flew by for me! Got lots of projects underway...just can't share them yet.

But I did manage to make a card that I can show today!



Isn't she such a gorgeous image? I mean, look at that hair!! Music Girl Digital Stamp is from Time For Tea Designs, and she's got such a cool, funky vibe, right??

I paired her up with equally sassy papers/ embellies from Love, Elsie -- man, these kits are now vintage... circa 2007, I think!! I just loved all of them that I hoarded. It feels good to use up old stuff, and I really adore the results!



I hope you can visit my good friend, Jo Davies' shop! She's got new cutie kitty stamps! I'm so bummed that my printer is acting up. I'm not able to print any new digis right now....boo! But you can see more kitty inspiration on Jo's blog!

See you later, peeps!!

Announcement for C.C. Designs!

***If you are looking for my TGF GDT post on the Berry Sweet Digi Print and Cut kits, please click HERE or just scroll below to the previous post.****



Hi all,

I've got some great news to announce!! I've made it to be one of the new Design Team members at C.C. Designs!! C.C. Designs was also known as All That Scraps but the store and blog name reflect the stamp brand now. Anyway, I am super STOKED when I got Christine's acceptance email a few weeks ago! I love C.C. Designs stamps, and I also admire how her store carries different brands as well!



For my project today, I wanted to use the Sweet November Love Bug Fun Digi Images by Amy Young. I think they'd be perfect for some Valentine's Day themed Project Life cards!



Those lady bugs are so cute, and they are the perfect embellishments for PL journal cards. I had vowed to combine my love for scrapbooking and stamping so I'm thinking I'm on my way, right?! :)

For the cards, I used a lot of supplies from Studio Calico's Sugar Rush kit. But the sentiments (the cut-out hearts) and stamps are from C.C. Designs. Btw, they were so much fun to color!!








Can't wait to use them in my V-Day lay-outs! <3 Toot-a-loo!

The Last of my Berry Sweet Cut & Print projects.

Good Monday morning, everyone!! And if you live in the U.S., Happy President's Day!

I hope all of you also had a great Valentine's Day. My hubby and I had a relaxing and simple last couple of days dining at one of those fancy restaurants with a set Love Day menu, seeing a couple of movies at the theater, and snuggling on the couch (the kids were at my in-laws...nice! But I ended up missing them a ton). Usually, weekends are hectic with the chores and parties as I work every other weekend. But yesterday, I crafted all day and he was pretty laid back too.

Because of the Holiday and because of my long days at work, we are both off today as well. Time for more family fun!

But Mondays also mean a new project as one of The Greeting Farm's Guest DTs for their Berry Sweet line.

This week's theme is Anything Goes, so I did another Project Life-ish spread. I've always wanted to try one of those coin collector's sheets so I got some from Amazon. I used up random pics from last year that I didn't end up scrapping.



Because the pockets were only 2x2, I left them pretty much undecorated so I finished this page pretty fast. The Berry Sweet Daily Life kit is perfect for this because you could dress them up or leave them simple, they'd still look adorable with your pics!

My next project is a card, of course :). I used Amelia from Little Dreamer (OA). Also added some Amy Tangerine and Kate Spade washi tape.



Thanks for visiting! Make sure you head on over to the TGF blog and the rest of the GDTs - Claudie and Jerodelle.

See you soon!!

Renate's Birthday Blog Hop.

Hello, and welcome to my last post for Yumi and Fumi Handmade. It's "Yumi's" birthday, and we planned on surprising her with a birthday blog hop. Of course, this was before the closing of the store, but we decided to go ahead with it... as sort of a farewell with a BANG!! If you hadn't noticed already, we are posting every hour pretty much today!

Try to guess our message for our dear Renate! We tried to all incorporate all of her favorite colors of rose, pink, teal, and yellow. I figured this beautiful paper from Allison Kreft's line was perfect! And that ribbon at the bottom fitted well too! As Ren is from So Cal!

The "P" is from Basic Grey, kinda vintage as it was from circa 2006-ish...



I hope she loves this! I'll miss you, Yumi and Fumi Handmade! Wishing you lots of cake and presents, Renate!

Luv,

Girly at Milk Coffee.

Good evening, everyone! Or if you are where Milk Coffee is based, good morning!! This week's challenge is Girly! I think this would be easy with Milk Coffee stamps - they are super cutesy. Even if you're not into that, they also have these super gorgeous and classic beauties.

I used A Flamenco Dancer, and she happens to be one of my most favorite MC stamped images! I think she is so beautiful and her dress is just PERFECT!!

Man, what I would give to have a dress and moves like those! I love images that tell a story, don't you? I can just imagine her being in the center of the dance floor, making all look at her!

I tried to make the fabric of her dress more satin/ silk - like and shimmery, but I didn't quite get there. I remember coloring her up last October, in a hotel in San Diego on vacation. It took a while but it was worth it! I paired her up with Print Shop papers by Shanna Noel (I just love her carefree and artistic style!). The script sentiment is from Heidi Swapp (I think). I adore the gold flower by Maggie Holmes' Flea Market line.



And for the girly theme, I figured you can't get any girlier than this hottt, Latin Dance performer in the beautiful ruffly dress! Add on a doily in one corner, a ruffle trim at the bottom, and a handwritten sentiment and voila!

Please visit the MC blog for more challenge details and DT inspiration. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Blinging It Up at TGF.

TGIM!! What, you've never heard of that? Thank Goodness It's Monday?!! Haha! Well, you must not work during some weekends like I do. :)

Today, we are Blinging It Up at The Greeting Farm today! That is, use some bling along with the Berry Sweet Daily Life and Cut & Print kits.

Now when I was looking through my pics, I thought the detailed ones of this past Christmas were perfect for this challenge. There is already lots of gold and glitter and shiny bright things, including my pretty cousins, all dressed up!



Along with some epoxy stickers, there were some rhinestone embellies from Glitz Designs used.



Little Star blings were added too.



And a gold letterpressed card from Studio Calico made the scene!



And what better embellishments than my decked out sons and nieces! :)



I love taking pictures of decorations and details. I'm so glad I was able to scrap them, PL-style. I decided to take the simpler route and actually used less of the kits and more pics. But as you can see, the results were anything but basic! These kits are really versatile!

Don't forget to check out what Claudette and Jerodelle, my fellow Guest DT members did with the challenge! Hope you can join us!

Happy 1st Birthday to T4TD!!!

Good evening, blog peeps!

Sorry that I've been MIA lately. Our household got sick but luckily, we are on the mend (I hope). Tonight (or day depending on where you are), I wanted to post a card for Time for Tea Designs. It's Jo's first year anniversary, and I am so happy for her and her company!!

In the beginning of 2013, Jo had asked if there were anybody interested in being in her DT for her new digital stamps. I've seen a preview of them on her Instagram account ( @time4teadesignpix ), and have thought they were pretty. And I fell in love with them right away. Her designs are whimsical and pretty, the kind of woman anybody can relate to. I see her as beautiful yet she doesn't know how gorgeous she is. And she is a touch quirky, enough to have a hilarious sense of humor. Does that make sense?? LOL!!

And Jo, what a designer! Not only does she have a lot of talent, she is super easy and fun to work with. She also has some rubber stamps up at Whimsy Stamps, make sure you check them out. Her success is well deserved!

As for my anni card, I decided to use an unexpected digi -- Work-out Girl. You'd think I'd choose someone who's more dressed up, but I figure the other DT members would probably do that. :) Instead, I wanted to show a bit of "a day in the life." I am so very into Project Life lately, that I wanted to make a card about an ordinary day. Since I've already created a project on fitness featuring a T4TD digi recently (see here), I wanted to depict Work-Out Girl as running errands instead. I mean, really, how many of us live in jeans or yoga pants on a day-to-day basis after work (**raises hand here. Drops it for that crop top though, teee heee!!!**).

Doesn't she look like she's down for some weekend fun? A few phone calls here, some music blasting there, and running around in the city? Right??! The embellishments I used for this card (except for the CardStock, Patterned Paper, and washi tape) are all from Paper Issues' Swag Bags.



Happy 1st Anniversary, Time for Tea Designs!! Love ya, and here's to many more!!

Berry Sweet for Boys.

Good Monday morning to ya, folks!!

It's time to show you another fun project featuring TGF's new journey in the documentation world - Berry Sweet Daily Life, with its coordinating Berry Sweet Print & Cuts.

I challenged myself and the other Guest DT members to do a "masculine" project using this kit. Being a mom of two boys, I felt it was important that this kit also works for families like ours!



This is actually Week One of my Project Life. I depicted New Year's Eve and my son's recent testing using the Berry Sweet Daily Life. Even if it has hearts and butterflies, I was still able to incorporate some embellishments to my cards from the kit.



I stamped a couple of sentiments from the Oliver and Amelia set - Little Dreamers as well. Love how you could pretty much interchange different TGF products and they'd still coordinate with each other!

Next up is an anything goes challenge on a card. For my long time followers, you guys know that I pretty much make cards most of the time. So, again, I wanted to show the versatility of these print & cuts kits. And I also took it a step further and made this masculine as well! One, to challenge myself. And two, I needed more 'boy' cards in my stash :).



For the main image, I used Ian from Picture Perfect. This one goes out to my Godson!

Here's a closer look!



Well, I hope you get to visit The Greeting Farm's blog for the post. There's also a challenge on their for this new line so I hope you get to join! And please visit Claudette and Jerodelle, the other GDTs, for their take on this week's projects!!

Kisses,