YAY meee!!! HAHA

Well, I think that's a record... and not in a good way!!! LOL My poor neglected blog. I hadn't posted anything in over 4 months, but when I received a message on Facebook the other day, it was totally the kick in the butt I needed. I'll get to that in a minute. I have been so preoccupied with my daughter for these past few months (you can read more about that on the last SEVERAL posts that I just put up) that I really hadn't even THOUGHT about my blog. I have also kind of shifted gears and been posting videos on YouTube. There's more interaction with people and I'm more of a "talker" than a writer anyhow. I'm enjoying that a lot!!! In case you want to check me out there, my channel is 77ButterflyLuv. Hope to hear from you! :) Also, if you have a channel, please let me know where to find you! So about that message I received... It was from the blog coordinator of Fancy Pants Designs telling me that one of the Pocket Chicks wanted to use one of MYYY cards for her inspiration and they needed my consent for it to be featured on their blog. How freakin' exciting is that?!?! I won't lie, I was bouncing up and down on the couch. LOL I have only ever submitted one card ever for publication which {obviously} didn't get picked up and while I realize this is not the same thing, it is super exciting to me. Sometimes you want a little reassurance that your "work" is good and I tend to be very critical of my stuff so it was really nice to hear that someone on their DT "LOVES" my card that I posted on their FB wall several months ago. I hadn't thought anything of it since so to get this message was a total SHOCK! And, BONUS that they're sending me some free goodies. Whoot! Looking forward to see what this designer (not sure who it is) comes up with tomorrow! I haven't been crafting TOO much, but I did make a couple of cards the other day and wanted to share. I'm super happy with how they both came out. For the 1st one, I used DCWV's Snapshot Stack. I also used a couple of the Studio Calico wood veneer pieces.

They're the perfect pair, aren't they? :) (inside)

For this card, I used a piece of chevron paper and some tiny little polaroid die cuts that I made using a Quickutz die I recently bought. I used more of the Studio Calico wood veneer people, making these singles meet and become a couple! hehe I used word and letter stickers to write "You & Me... let's see what developes." I just thought that was the cutest saying and YES, I thought of it myself. I'm so clever sometimes. :P

I just kept it simple and used some washi tape on the inside.

I will try to be better about keeping my blog updated. Thanks for visiting!

She IS my Sunshine!!!

With all my daughter's health issues over the past few months, I have had my fair share of emotions. It was SO hard to see her hurting and being unable to help her. It was heartbreaking to hold her down while they put in her IV's and it was even worse to have to hold her while they sedated her and feel her little body go limp. I'm sorry to be so graphic, but my poor baby girl has really been through a lot for being only 21 months old. When you're in that situation, as much as you TRY not to, you start thinking the worst. I cannot imagine my life without my daughter, she's my dream come true... and my absolute SUNSHINE!!! I had whipped this left page together in no time, but really wanted to do a second page with the lyrics to the song I often sung to her in the hospital. I used the Dear Lizzy Neopolitan collection for most of this layout with a few other embellishments. The stamp set I used is the Stepping Stone alphabet from Studio Calico and of course my precious Thickers!!! I am so pleased with how it turned out. Sorry about the poor pictures. I need to figure out a better way to shoot 12x12 layouts. Any tips are appreciated!!!

...and Through the Woods

I had picked up some stamp sets online from My Cute Stamps and ended up using the set Picnic with Little Red for this card. I used the Hero Arts tree background stamp and cut out the individual trees to place over the cloud background and ground that I hand cut. I paper pieced Little Red using red velvet paper for her jacket and hood. I also used that paper for the napkin inside the basket and then colored every other square with a white pen to make it checkered. I used Copics to color her face and applied a little make-up on her. I'm still new at Copics, but I'm getting better! This card was really fun to make, I was giddy when it was all done. I just think it turned out ADORABLE!!!

Scrap weekend at my place!

Back in March, I had a scrap weekend at my house. My mom was nice enough to take my little ones and I ended up with 6 girls (including myself) for the weekend. I didn't get a whole lot done, but I had FUN and that's all that ever really matters to me. I wish we could do this more often!!! I bought 6 5-6 foot tables so everyone would have their own space and then everyone pitched in towards that cost and food. $40 for the weekend I thought was a SWEET deal, don't you? :) These were the girls one night.

I used some Glitz papers on this card, some beautiful flowers from I Am Roses that I received in a RAK and an older metal embellishment from American Crafts.

I can't believe I actually SCRAPPED something!!! I've been doing cards over scrapbooking for a long time now and I really missed it. I used Echo Park papers for this layout with some matching stickers. Super easy, but CUTE! These were my kids last Spring/Summer. I'm WAY behind... even further than that. By years! LOL

I used MFT's - PI and the Pinwheel for this card. I paper pieced her clothes and made the pinwheel 3 dimensional by cutting a 3/4 inch square and folding the pieces inward. I used a little gem for the center. Easy enough! :)

And, MFT's - Blowing Bubbles for this one! I paper pieced her clothes (as usual! HA) and used glossy accents on the bubbles to make them look more bubble-ish. LOL I put some washi tape on a piece of paper then die cut the clouds.

Valentine's Day is NOT in May! LOL

Yes, I'm well aware that Valentine's Day falls in February and I did in fact make these somewhere around then. ;) Things have been a little hectic here as my daughter got an infection back in January and has been battling it, in and out of the hospital, since. If you see my last post prior to this one, you'll see that she had gotten a fever and I knew something was wrong, but I had no idea it would end up being the drama that it became. She ended up having surgery, stayed nearly 3 weeks in total at the hospital and came home with a PICC line. She's doing much better now and seems to on her way to a full recovery. Fingers crossed!!! Let's show some LOVE for my baby girl. <3 I used some of the Crate Paper Paper Heart collection on this card and MFT's Pure Innocence - Love You with all my Heart stamp set.

I know these aren't traditional Valentine colors, but I have been LOVING yellow for a while now and I loved how this card came out. I used the Penny Black Love Song stamp, some GORGEOUS flowers from I Am Roses and Prima and of course some twine from The Twinery!!!

Happy 80th Birthday, Nana!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!!! Hope you all had a fun, safe night and rang in the New Year with the people you love. It was a pretty quiet night here, but it usually is for us. My hubby worked, but was home around 7 and my parents came over and brought Chinese food which has pretty much been our New Years tradition for as long as I can remember. The kids stayed up late, we played some games and hung out. Then we watched the ball drop, listened to LMFAO (LOVE that darn song and wish I could do the shuffle! LOL) and went to bed. My poor baby girl had a rough night sleep and therefore, so did the rest of us. I was up with her from about 2-5am when she finally decided to fall back to sleep in bed with us. :/

Today we actually went to my grandmother's 80th birthday celebration. My aunts (and my dad) rented a room and had a big party for her. All of my aunts, uncles and cousins were there. Even though we just had our family Christmas party, it was nice to get together again. Avery was not quite right all day, I think she must be cutting a tooth and that must be what kept her up all night. Even when we got home, she cried for an hour, didn't want to eat (totally not like her) or anything. I feel so bad because there's nothing I can do for her. I gave her some Motrin because she's groaning like she's in some type of pain, gave her a bottle which thankfully she took because I don't want her dehydrated and put her up to bed early. I'm hoping she sleeps better tonight. Fingers crossed for us please!!!

I just wanted to share the couple of birthday cards I made for my grandmother. My dad asked me to make her one for him with bees on it since her name is Honey. Luckily I had this cute bee stamp!!! I used paper from the Basic Grey Urban Prairie collection and hand cut the honeycomb(esque! LOL) shape. The bees are popped up off the card and I added some Stickles to their wings. I adhered some buttons to the edge, tied some twine through one of them and added my favorite rose trim to the bottom.



Nana also likes tea/tea pots. I used some of the same papers for this card and a bunch of Prima flowers. I love the doily one especially. It's very Nana-ish!!! HAHA The stacked tea cup stamp is from a Flourishes set I got quite a while back. I stamped it several times on the different colored papers and paper pieced them back together on the patterned paper. Kind of reverse paper piecing I guess. :P Lastly, I had some tea pot brads so I used one as the center to one of the flowers and it was the perfect finishing touch.



Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and the very best for 2012!!! {{{Hugs}}}

In the Meadow - WMC80

Well, I had a long, tiring day home with the kids. I swear, some days they just run me ragged and I feel so beat down. I know that may sound horrible, but it's the truth. I love my kids OF COURSE, but I'm feeling very overwhelmed lately and I'm not sure how to get out of this funk. Ever been there? Any advice? I really miss stamping (not that I stamped anything on the card I made!!! LOL) and crafting in general. When I went upstairs earlier, I had my 3 and a 1/2 year old sitting on a chair next to me, but he was more like standing and looking over my shoulder/bumping me in the elbow. While he was being cute and complementary "Ohhh, that looks good", "Yeah, I like that!", etc., it was still highly annoying. Also, my 17 month old daughter was standing on a chair next to him, pulling everything out of my craft tote. Then she crawled under my table and proceeded to whine and try climbing up my legs until I picked her up. Needless to say, I couldn't get much done!!!

There are 3 challenges going on right now that I want to participate in. The first one is for my friend Jenny over at Wee Memories (Challenge #80) and since this one had to be submitted by tomorrow, I had to get to this one first. See, I have priorities. :P This week "anything goes" and this is what I came up with. I have had this Cosmo Cricket paper for a while and love the non-traditional colors. The card itself is 5x7 which I've actually never made before. I used the teal with the snowflakes for the top portion of my card for the sky and the pink swirly one for the bottom representing the meadow. I adhered a tall chipboard snowman from the same line and then used letter stickers to write "In the meadow we can build a snowman". I ended up pulling off the "o" in meadow and replacing it with a snowflake charm and added some twine to string it up... or down... not quite sure what you'd call it. HAHA Lastly, I added some "stitching" with a couple of Gelly Roll pens and a ruler. In my opinion, this totally ruined my card. When I moved the ruler, the ink smudged. I am such a perfectionist that this really bothers me!!! I know, I know. I'm being hard on myself. Maybe it's just my mood, but I am trying to get out if it. I promise!!! :)