Sparkly Sweet Stop

Well happy Saturday to ya! We are expecting rain which is kind of a bummer since I was hoping to get to some yardwork. Maybe it will be scattered rain so I can get a little bit in.

It is time for another Sweet Stop Challenge! Sweet Stop Challenge #53 to be precise! This was a fun sketch to use...can definitely see using it again. I will begin by saying I may have gone a little sparkly crazy on this one...oh wait, is it even possible to go sparkly crazy? I think not! Although I will say that you can get too much glitter on furniture....seriously that stuff just goes everywhere when you use it! I stamped the large flower from the Women of Life set by Papertrey Ink in Versamark and then used Heat n' Stick powder to get the glitter to stay. I have had this stuff for years, but never used it...pretty cool...the glitter does not come off once you set it. The I stamped the flower center in Pumpkin Pie and popped it up a little on the flower. The stem was stamped in Gable Green. The color combo was taken from the Verve Beach Party Release Color Challenge of Aqua, Orange, and Green. I made the small flowers opposite of the large one (pumpkin pie flower with glitter center). The ribbon is some cool sparkly ribbon I got around Halloween time in the $1 section of JoAnns (although I think they were $2.50).

Now go check out the creations by the other Sugar Babies: Audrey, Candace, Dana, Julie, Kathy, Kelly, Nancy, Renata, and the Sugar Mama, Korin. Better yet, make a card with the sketch and link it up to the Sweet Stop blog. Enjoy getting inky and thanks for checking out my kind of engineering.

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Women of Life (Papertrey Ink); Paper - Rainbow Sherbert DSP, Gable Green, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White (SU!); Ink - Gable Green, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise; Accessories - Turquoise Glitter (Martha Stewart), Heat n Stick powder (SU!), Scallop Edge Punch, 1-1/4" Circle Punch, 1-3/8" Circle Punch, Sparkly Orange Ribbon (JoAnns), scissors, dimensionals

The Sweet Less Traveled Road

Welcome to Sweet Stop Saturday! Hope that all of you are having a great weekend! This week's challenge, Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge #52, has a spin and a prize up fro grabs...so pay attention! The spin is to use buttons and bows on your card. Sounds easy enough, right?!

My lovely sister-in-law will be graduating law school (I think technically she has already graduated, but just hasn't walked yet) in May and she also became a US citizen...so I figured she is overdue for a congrats type card. I love this quote from the Verve Stamps Beautiful You set, especially for those that have just achieved something big (law school qualifies!) and /or made a big decision (in her instance becoming a US citizen...she is from Poland). I colored the sentiment with Dusty Durango, Taken with Teal, and Old Olive markers, then stamped it. I used some flowers from the Eastern Blooms stamp set. The paper is from the retired Bali Breeze collection...still love those papers!

So my buttons are obviously my little flower shaped buttons by SU!, but my bow was a little harder to come by. I liked the look of my ribbon "stripe" behind my flowers, but I felt like any bow on that would take away from my flowers...so I tied my button on the stamped flowers with some hemp twine and made my bow there...that counts right? I just couldn't get a bow any place else, so it will have to do!

Now go check out the creations by the rest of the Sugar Babies: Audrey, Candace, Dana, Julie, Kathy, Kelli, Nancy, Renata, and the Sugar Mama, Korin. Then create a card with the sketch (don't forget the spin!) and link it up to the Sweet Stop Blog to get in the running for a prize!!! Hope you all have fun getting inky and thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Beautiful You (Verve Stamps), Eastern Blooms (SU!); Paper - Bali Breeze DSP (retired SU!), Taken with Teal, Dusty Durango Textured, Whisper White (SU!); Ink - Dusty Durango marker, Taken with Teal marker, Old Olive marker, Button Latte buttons (SU!), hemp twine, scallop border punch (SU!), white taffeta ribbon (SU!), dimensionals, glue dots, scissors

Welcome Home

Just taking a quick break from the summer-like sunshine outside here! My daughter was so not happy with me when I told her it was nap time. I kept trying to explain to her that we can play outside after her nap too...not sure she agreed with me! Finally sung her to sleep with Baa, Baa, Black Sheep (about 50 times...ok I might be exaggerating a tad, but it was a lot!).

I am very excited for the weekend. My brother whom was stationed in Qatar for a year is home and he and his wife are coming up for a visit! Yeah! Plan is to have some no kid time and some kid time, the best of both worlds! Anyway, this card is for him (he is actually on Facebook now, so Gregg if you are seeing this, forgot you ever saw it...got it!). I have been wanting to participate in the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenges for awhile now, so I was glad that I finally did one. This is Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge #108 (see it below). I of course had to welcome him home in Red, White, and Blue...well more Burgundy, Navy, and Vanilla but whatever! I stamped the flag from a Studio G dollar section in Graphite Black and then in Night of Navy. The Night of Navy one I colored in with some Burgundy Marker and cut it out.

I used some patterned paper from JoAnns (no idea who the manufacturer is though) to make up all of the different boxes. Then I paper pierced all around the outer edge. I also hit another challenge, There She Goes Challenge #50, to incorporate pleats into your card. Since it is for my brother, I didn't want to use ribbon, so pleated some ribbon, crumpled it, distressed the edges, and then re-pleated it to put on the card front. I really like how it turned out!

Well there you have it. Hope the weather by you is as nice as it is here...now I need to go outside and do some yardwork! Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Studio G; Paper - Bravo Burgundy, Night of Navy, Very Vanilla, Patterned paper from JoAnns; Ink - Night of Navy, Bravo Burgundy Marker, Brilliance Graphite Black; Accessories - scissors, paper piercer, Mat Pack, dimensionals

An Elephant and a Baby

Happy Saturday all! I think we are suppose to have warmer weather this weekend...I sure hope so cuz this little cold spell sucked! But it did bring a lot of rain and so everything is very green and I finally have Daffodils and Tulips starting to bloom. My kids and I actually even started some seeds inside for some vegetables and flowers. Not really expecting much, but thought it might be fun for us to "care" for our garden. I am not known for a green thumb though, so I am just hoping we get a couple crops out of this to show the kids.

This weeks sketch, Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge #51, was a fun one and one that I can see falling back on in the future. I needed another baby boy card for some very late congrats and found this adorable digi image at Sweet n' Sassy Stamps called Bella and Baby. Can you get much sweeter than elephants and babies...I think not! I printed him three times (2 times on patterned paper and once on white) and cut out the different sections of the image. The elephants body, then head and trunk (with the baby in the trunk), and then just the baby. I "tried" to add some shading to the elephant with a blender pen and ink pads (feel like I am getting closer and closer to wanting to buy some Copics) and just colored the baby and the elephant's toes straight with markers. All of this was popped up with dimensionals which you can see better in the detail shot.

For my angled element, I stamped a Baby Script stamp (old from Inkadinkadoo) in Ballet Blue on Ballet Blue cardstock. That panel and my elephant image were matted onto Green Galore cardstock. The Special Delivery sentiment (from the Practically Perfect set of Verve Stamps) was stamped in Ballet Blue, punch out, matted, and then hung on the Green Galore grosgrain ribbon. The last touch was the striped green brads by K & Company.

Now go check out the creations by the other sugar babies: Audrey, Candace, Dana, Julie, Kathy, Kelli, Nancy, Renata, and the Sugar Mama, Korin. Better yet, make your own card with the sketch and link it up to the Sweet Stop Blog! Have fun getting inky and thanks for checking out my kind of engineering.

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Bella and Baby Digi (Sweet n' Sassy Stamps), Practically Perfect (Verve Stamps), Baby Script (Inkadinkadoo); Paper - Green Galore, Whisper White, Ballet Blue (SU!), Rainbow Sherbert Patterned Paper (SU!); Ink - Green Galore, Ballet Blue, Ballet Blue Marker, Blush Blossom Marker; Accessories - Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder (Provo Crafts), Green Galore grosgrain ribbon (SU!), 1" and 1-1/4" Circle Punches (SU!), Striped Green Brads (K & Company), dimensionals, scissors

Sketchy Tulips

What happened to spring? All of the sudden we are back in the 40's! I want my 60's and 70's to come back. Right. Now! Alright now that I have yelled at Mother Nature and I shiver from the cold, let me get to today's post.

I don't play in the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenges every week like I want to, but I made the extra effort and went for it this week. The Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge #133 was a bit of a challenge for me. I like most of what I came up with, but I will be honest and say I feel like it is missing something. But since I am not one to go back to cards, this is where it stays.

A friend of mine gave me a very old retired SU! stamp set, Early Spring, and with the cold weather I was drawn to the images to make me feel better. I chose the image of the tulips, stamped it in Brilliance Graphite Black, and cut it out with Oval Nestabilities. I stamped it a couple more times and colored just the tulips with a blender pen and ink pads. Then came the tedious part of cutting out the flowers! But I did it and I love how the apricot tulips leave the oval area and the single red tulip completely stands out. The apricot tulips were glued directly to the oval, but the red tulip was popped up on dimensionals.

My panels used Apricot Appeal patterned paper from the Hostess Pack last year along with a strip of black and some very worn and crumpled Real Red. I crumpled my Real Red strips a whole lot and then peeled the strip apart (the paper starts to separate when you crumple it a lot) to get a fuzzy sort of texture to the paper. The same was done to get the horizontal strip of Real Red. Then I added my black satin ribbon...but I wanted to try and do a pleated ribbon. Which I did, but unfortunately the main oval kind of covered a lot of it up so I am not sure it was necessary. Cool though, so I will have to try doing it again sometime! Then I added my rhinestone flourishes. I went to Archiver's that night and found some Jewel Templates by Bazzill...very cool. Templates made so you can make your own flourishes (they have other shapes too) in any color you want...and you could use it for brads, eyelets, pearls, etc. So I used that along with some Bazzill Blackbird jewels to make them. This flourish used the smaller jewels and I felt it was a little spaced out, so I added white dots in between to try and tie my white elements in a little bit better.

That is it...sorry I feel like I was chatty today...maybe because there are not any kids around to tell me to stop...love my free days! See you tomorrow for Sweet Stop Saturday and thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Early Spring (SU!); Paper - Basic White (Papertrey Ink), Apricot Appeal, Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White, Apricot Appeal Patterned Paper (SU!); Ink - Brilliance Graphite Black, Real Red, Apricot Appeal (SU!); Accessories - Oval Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Blender Pen (SU!), Corner Rounder (SU!), Signo White Gel Pen, Black Satin Ribbon (Offray), Blackbird Self-Adhesive Jewels (Bazzill Basics Paper), Flowers and Flourishes Jewel Template (Bazzill Basics Paper), dimensionals

Ninja Warrior Birthday

UPDATE: I have made the files I used available for download (for a small fee) using the following link. It contains the jpeg files for the invitation and the Word document for making the t-shirts.  Hope this makes it easier to get the files as I am terrible with responding to email requests.  Please email me with any questions or concerns.  Thanks!

Buy now

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I think it is ok (and not too arrogant) to admit that I am pretty proud of the events that I have organized for my family. I take great joy in planning and executing parties for my kids. I think the ultimate compliment can come from a 5 year old, when they say they had a great time and the party was so much fun! I think I may have outdone myself with my son's latest birthday party. One of his favorite things right now is Ninja Warrior (and Wipeout). Ever hear of it...or are we the only ones that know of this show? Both shows are competition shows that involve obstacle courses...Ninja Warrior has some pretty incredible obstacles (especially in the final stages), but I think my son loves the first stage where they show tons of people wiping out. He even creates his own "courses" out of blocks and has his "Little People" run the course...full commentary and everything. Most of the time I am just required to watch, but sometimes I have to act as one of the commentators. So with fascination in mind, I plan a Birthday Ninja Warrior Party.

First came the invitation...obviously no stamps around to use to make an invitation with this theme. So I tried my hand at some Photoshop work. Basically I stumbled around until I got what I wanted. I "borrowed" the Ninja Warrior logo (don't send the copyright police after me please!) and copied the little Ninja dude and the red slash and placed them on a black circle. Then I found a font that was close to the Ninja Warrior font...not exact, but pretty close. Then I made some red explosion marks...really not sure what to call those. Then I took the tone of the opening of the Ninja Warrior show and changed it to give the information inside the invitation. I was really quite please with how this turned out.

Since I made this fabulous logo, I decided that I need to use it to the fullest extent. I changed it to read "Future Ninja Warrior" and printed it on T-shirt transfers. I got cheap undershirt t-shirts and ironed them on for each kid (see group photo below). I gave a "Japanese-sounding" ending to each of their names and printed out name tags for each kid and presented them with their new name for the party (they thought that was pretty funny!). I also printed out their names on some other name tags (with the logo of course) and put them on their goodie bags filled with a little bit of candy, so little ninja dudes from Oriental Trading, and some ninja related tattoos also from Oriental Trading. Then of course I used the logo for the basis of my cake...check it out! I am very proud of this cake...turned out better than I thought it would!

For activities during the party, I started them painting some wood boards...they had no idea why yet, but painted happily. Then as they tried, we had them run an obstacle course in our house. Yeah I am sure the other parents hate me, because we basically had them climbing all of the furniture as they were part of the obstacles! We had them run in one at a time first and then it was a free-for-all. They went around and around. Too funny. Then we brought them back to the "craft table" and the created ball mazes with the boards. The boards had nails hammered into them (thank you to my wonderful husband) and they strung rubber bands around the nails to create a maze for some bouncy balls. This was an idea I found in the Family Fun magazine.

A group shot (getting 12 kids to look all in one direction just doesn't happen...and for some reason my son was the worst one about not looking!), pizza, cake, and presents finished off the party!

The free-for-all of the obstacle course!

The kids making their ball mazes

Attempting a group shot of 12 four and five year olds...good luck!

Can't believe he is 5 already!

Well I hope that you enjoyed seeing the pics from his party! It really was a blast even if it was what I would call controlled chaos! Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

Teenager Sweet Stop

Well I hope that this post finds everyone in a wonderful Easter weekend. The weather had been beautiful here, we put up my son's new trampoline (his birthday present), and we have enjoyed having Daddy around. But through all of that I try to remember the true reason for the weekend...that Christ sacrificed himself to us from our sins...pretty much makes me want to cry every time I really think about that and all that He endured. We haven't been to a Good Friday service since we had kids...just feel the service is so somber that I don't want them being a distraction from what people need to get from the service. Anyway, I miss those services (someday we will go back when the kids are a little older and can sit still) because they force me to acknowledge the sacrifice and remind me to thank God for all He had done. In place of a Good Friday service, I read about this awesome little thing you can do with kids the night before Easter: Resurrection Rolls (the directions are down at the bottom of the post...no pictures, but it doesn't sound hard!). Puts that Sacrifice in a way that helps kids understand it too. I plan on trying this for the first time this weekend...wanna join me?

Well now on to the Sweet Stop Challenge #50! Ok so we all know that male cards are tough, right?! Well how about teenager male cards?! Holy cow...talk about tough! So these are my attempts at making some birthday cards for my teenage nephews (18 and 14). For my first card, I used some paper from the Rock Star Mat Stack by DCWV and then stamped my striped stars (from Verve's Seeing Stars set) in Basic Black on Going Gray cardstock. I cut out all of the stars and assembled them on a circle of scrap cardstock. Then I stamped the greeting, cut it out and embossed it with Circle Nestabilities, and then sponged the Going Gray ink over top. The greeting was just popped up over my circle of stars. Since once again this is a male card, I felt I couldn't use ribbon, so I placed my circle of stars over a strip of white cardstock with a Star brad and some distressed and curled strips of paper. I added a strip of paper on the inside (just adhered on the sides) to hold the gift card...cuz' you know I cannot buy an 18 year old a present!

Then since I was in need of another teenager male card, I decided to use the sketch to make one more...so lookie here, two cards with one sketch! This time I flipped the sketch though because the patterned paper I wanted to use was a more horizontal design. So the pattern paper (High School Mat Stack by DCWV) looked like a notepad paper with scribbles and spilled ink on it...so I decided it needed to look like it really came from a 14 year old. That means it couldn't be neat and tidy...no, it had to be crumpled and worn. So I crumpled it, distressed the edges, and even tore it a little before I glued it down. Then I used a coordinating piece of patterned paper from the stack to cut out the dark brown circle for my greeting (mainly because I did not have a brown that matched it!). It too was crumpled, distressed and torn before being mounted on a Kraft circle. The greeting was cut out of Bashful Blue cardstock with the Cuttlebug Birthday Wishes die. I couldn't resist adding a little sparkle to the star with a Clear Star Gelly Roll pen. Last touch was some hemp twine which I realized could be separated at the ends to give this awesome curly fuzzy stuff.

So there you have it...my versions of a teenager male card...kinda glad that is over with for awhile...really want to get back to some girly things now! Anyway, make sure to check out the creations by the other Sugar Babies: Audrey, Candace, Julie, Nancy, Renata, Korin, and the 3 NEW Sugar Babies, Dana, Kathy, and Kelli!!! Please make sure to stop by their blogs and leave them some love! Better yet, make a card with the sketch and link it up to the Sweet Stop Blog! Have a blessed Easter weekend and thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details - Rockstar Card

Stamps - Seeing Stars (Verve Stamps), Starlight Starbright (Verve Stamps); Paper - Rock Star Mat Stack (DCWV), Basic White (Papertrey Ink), WHisper White, Going Gray; Ink - Basic Black, Going Gray; Accessories - Star Brads (SU!), Silver Brads (SU!), Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Ticket Corner Punch (SU!), dimensionals, scissors

The Engineering Details - Happy BDay Card

Stamps - None; Paper - High School Mat Stack (DCWV), Bashful Blue, Kraft (SU!); Ink - None; Accessories - Cuttlebug Birthday Wishes Die (Provo), Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Clear Star Gelly Roll Pen (Sakura), hemp twine, dimensionals