Pleasantly Poppin Poppies

Hello Friends! Long time no blog .. I know! I am trying very hard to get back to my old creative self. It is harder than I thought it would be, but I have made a few cards in the last couple weeks, this one is the first I felt to be "blog-worthy".

A couple months back, my husband suggested I sell some of my old craft stuff and get some new to get the mojo going, and I took him up on his advice, sold tons of stuff.. and although I did set aside most the money for kid birthdays and Christmas gifts, I did spend a little bit on some new craft supplies.

I had taken a long hiatus from Stampin Up, and looking back, I am not sure exactly why... anyway, a friend recently sent me the new catalog, and, as expected, I did a little shopping. This card is a result. 'New' 2012-2014 in colors, clear mount stamp, it was a joy to create this morning.

Details:

all items Stampin Up unless otherwise stated:

Stamps: Pleasant Poppy (background stamp),
Paper Smooches Chit Chat (sentiment)

Paper: Gumball Green, Primrose Petals, Watercolor Paper

Ink: Momento Rich Cocoa, Gumball Green,

Primrose Petals, Summer Starfruit

Tools/Accessories: Watercolor pen, ribbon slide,

Whisper white ribbon, Circle interlock embossing folder

 

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! I really appreciate your visit, and hope to be able to post much much more in the near future! I hope to get back to my super crafting days!  Have a blessed day! 

It's a big day around here! Sweet Sketch Wednesday 193

 

Hello Friends! Today is a big day at our house. First, our daughter gets to attend her first friend Birthday Party. She is super excited! And I am so excited for her to have been invited. (there is a long back story there, I will spare you the details) The second reason today is a big day is that my Dear Husband is returning from a 9 month tour to Afghanistan TONIGHT!! Yes, Tonight! We are all super excited! I have missed his handsome face.

Anyway ...

Since my card making has slowed to the pace of molasses, my card stash has diminished, and I needed to make a card for today's party. I took my inspiration from my favorite challenge blog, Sweet Sketch Wednesday and ran with it. This one is sketch #193, which was super fun to work on! I found the hardest part, for me was to get that triangle right! I dont have a triangle die so I had to wing it...

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog! Your comments really do make my day and bring a smile to my face.

I thought I would share my daughter's cute little message to her friend that she wrote inside the card. She is 5, in Pre-K and is doing pretty great with her writing! I helped her with the spelling... 

Card Details:

Stamps: TE Delightful Day

Paper: Echo Park Hello Summer

TE June 2012 KI Kit coodinating papers

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, CDS Spring Leaf, CDS Fresh Papaya

SU Baja Breeze, SU Pumpkin Pie

Tools: Scallop circle & Circle dies

Accessories: TE coordinating ribbons & brads

Copics

I made a card!!! Sweet Sketch Wednesday #190

Hello Friends! I am so happy you have visited my blog today, it has been close to two months since I have posted anything, and goodness, a good 5 months since I have made a card! I did make a couple cards last weekend but I didnt post them. I am (hoping to) ease my way back into crafting, participating in challenges and blogging. My best friend, and inspiration is Cassie Trask is the busiest person I know with homeschooling her kids, keeping up with their extra activities, she is still able to make her way to the craft cave and do what she does best, papercraft. If she can do it, I should be able to as well, right?? At least that is my hope! After all, my three kids are in school...

How I got my modivation up to make a card is kind of silly, but none-the-less it worked. I pre-addressed and stamped an envelope for a person who I really wanted to send a card to. Now who wants to waste a perfectly good envelope with postage? Not this girl, so a week after affixing the postage to the envelope, I made the card, and will slip it in todays mail.

This card was made for my favorite go-to challenge blog, Sweet Sketch Wednesday. Today I followed sketch #190 by the talented Sally Dube.
It may have taken me two hours and a bunch of unnecessary cuts of paper, but I throughly enjoyed making this card. Thank you  to all the Sweet Sketch ladies for the additional inspiration I needed today!

Details:

Stamps: MFT PI Happy Mail

Paper: TE March 2012 KI Kit, Echo Park This&That Graceful dp

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black

Copics

Tools/Accessories: Moroccan Screen embossing folder

This&That decorative brads

Techniques: Copic Airbrush, Paper piecing

 

Again, I thank you for visiting my blog! I hope to have more for you soon!



Here's why I its been a long time since I have blogged ...

 

My family has grown yet again!! No, this isnt the first time I have blogged about an adoption day in my family, and yet, I do believe it will be the last, at least, for a very long time. As you can see, our family has gained one sweet little girl who now goes by the name Anna Marie. We finalized her adoption on November 6th in front of the same judge we finalized our son, Isaiah's (middle) adoption back in April. If you look closely, you will see my husband via Skype. That is how he was able to participate in this day's adoption hearing.

 

I do very much miss paper crafting and coloring with my lovely and neglected copic markers. But ,as you can see, my time priorities have changed drastically over the last year. I have explained to my neglected stamps, markers, inks, papers and embelishments that with my husband in Afghanistan and with us having three children, that I am just not able to spend as much time as I would like with them, and they seem to understand. Thankfully, they do not expire, and are happy to wait for me to have time for them again hopefully soon.

 

 

I would like to encourage anyone who has ever felt a tug at their hearts to explore adoption to contact their local department of family protective services / CPS office and find out about attending the next information meeting on becoming a foster to adopt family. There are thousands of thousands of children who, because of no fault of their own , find themselves without a forever family. Although it is true that most these kids all have problems and have experienced more trauma in their young lives than most adults, they are not broken, they really just need a place to call home. A place to feel safe and secure and settled. They are good kids who sometimes wear their trauma around like a cloak. These kids just need someone to love them and toss that cloak away, replacing it with a warm hug that will always be there.

 

If this idea touches you at all, please just go check out an information meeting. I promise, they do not hand you a kid after the information meeting. haha ..

 

 

That is it for now, I will get off my soap box and get back to the work at hand .. housework..

Maybe I will make a card.. just maybe..

 



Sweet Sketch Wednesday #166

Hello Friends! Welcome to Thursday, the gateway to the weekend ... my weekend promises to be exciting .. a trip to the commissary and trying out a new church. And hopefully, I will get to do some more crafting!

Today I am happy to share this card that I made for this week's Sweet Sketch Wednesday challenge. I absolutely LOVE the sweet sketch wednesday blog and all the ladies on their DT. If you havent checked them out, you definately need to!

I was inspired by this MME Dilly Dally DP and this stamp set, Well Read WTG from My Favorite Things. I would love a couch with this print in my home! Of course, my husband would rather a couch of this awesomeness be in a study or, well, anywhere not in the living room.. haha.. And relaxing with a good book (on my kindle) is exactly what I want to be doing this weekend.

Thank you so much for stopping by and thank you again for your lovely comments, they really do make my day!

Supplies:
Stamps: Well Read WTG - my favorite things stamps
Paper: MME Dilly Dally, TE coordinating cardstock
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Tools/Accessories: TE coordinating ribbon, Rolled daily die (mft), TE coordinating brad, Copics
Technique: Paper Piecing, sentiment inside :o)

CAS-ual Fridays # 62

Hello Friends! In my new commitment to get back to crafting, I took some time today to make a CAS card for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge. This week, the challenge is to use black for our card base. CAS cards are so hard for me! I worry I am adding too much, wonder if I should add one more thing... But, this is the end result of this battle.. I wished I had smaller black pearls, but, these will have to do. This set is from Paper Smooches, called Squeaky Clean... I LOVE this set! And I always wanted a red washer, but I ended up choosing boring old white when I got my new washer & drier. At least I can stamp a red washer! HA!

Thanks for stopping by! I so appreciate your support and encouragment as I get back to crafting and as my kiddos get back to school! They all three start school next monday. WOW .. summer went quick!

Sweet Sketch Wednesday # 163

Hello Friends! Happy Weekend! So this is my third card and third blog post on my crafting "come-back trail" and it feels pretty good! I, as all of you do, love papercrafting. I really missed it so much during those long months of absence. I am back looking for fun challenges to participate in trying to get my followers / commenters up.

Today, I made this card for one of my all-time favorite challenge blogs, Sweet Sketch Wednesday's sketch #163. The ladies over there are always so sweet in their comments and how they share a little about their part of the world. Also, the design team is always so inspirational!

I chose to ink up this adorable stamp set from Taylored Expressions, called Sky's The Limit, which just happens to come with a coordinating Taylored Die set.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog! I hope you like what you see, and I hope you stop by again soon! I (hope) plan to have more to share very soon!

I have yet to figure out the new way everyone is sharing their supply list .. Inlinkz .. I need my BFF, Cassie to show me what to do! So, I will list my supplies the old fashioned way .. (sheeish I feel old)

Stamps: TE Sky's the Limit

Paper: TE March KI Kit, Echo Park This & That Graceful dp

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black

Tools/Accessories: TE Sky's the Limit dies, Echo Park This & That brads

Paper Smooches sparks COOL SHADES Challenge

Whaa...? Two posts in one day after a three month absence? YES! I cannot believe it either! I made time for crafting and made the best of it! For this card, I utilized a stamp kit, simply called Travel Kit that I bought back in April, needless to say, this is the first action this stamp kit has seen, but definately not the last! It is so stinkin' cute, as are all of Paper Smooches stamps. I simply cannot resist PS stamps!
Anyway, onto my card. This is for The Paper Smooches Sparks COOL SHADES color challenge. I used My Mind's Eye Dilly Dally dp and coordinating cardstock. The printed twill tape is one of the awesome accent pieces included with the PS Travel Kit.
Thank you so much for stopping by! I would love to hear what you think of my card, and comeback to the crafting blogging world! Lets hope I can keep it up!

Stamps: PS Get Outta Town

Paper: MME Dilly Dally dp, kraft, coordinating cs

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black

Tools/Accessories: Dimensionals, PS twill tape, copics

Technique: Paper Piecing

SQUEE!!!

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #163

Hello Everyone! I am super THRILLED to get to share this card with you all today! Not because it is a great creation, or because my coloring is fantastic or because of my take on the sketch. I am thrilled to share this with you because I have not made a card or crafted in THREE MONTHS! It has been so long since I have used my copic markers that I definately need to study up on my technique. (not that it was great to start with!) It has been so long since I have posted on my sadly neglected blog, that all the updates to Blogger suprised me!

There has been alot of changes here at Casa Bryant, from going to a family of 3 to a family of 5 in a short 7 months to my husband deploying on his sixth combat tour back at the end of May, leaving me with said three children to manage on my own. This is my quick excuse of why my crafting and my blog have been neglected. BUT! My hope is, in making this card for my friend's daughter's birthday, my crafting mojo will return and I will find time, or make time to get back to my passion, paper crafting.

Onto the card... (dont look at it too closely hehe) I made this card for the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge,#163. I turned the sketch on its side to accomodate my image, which is called "Sweet Party" from Taylored Expressions. All my ingredients are exclusively from Taylored Expressions June Key Ingredients kit.

Thank you so very much for stopping by my blog today! I hope to be posting regularly again now that I am getting used to things in our 'new normal'. School starts in a short two weeks so ... please stop by again soon! I would love to hear your comments!

I have been absent from my blog for way too long!

Hello sweet friends! I have just a couple minutes to post about my long long absense from my blog. Things here at Casa Bryant have been hectic and crazy. Most of you know we became foster/adopt parents October 2011. Since then, We were blessed to have Isaiah (second on right) join our family. We finalized his adoption on April 24th. This is a picture of the 4 of us with the judge in court. Just before Isaiah's adoption day, we were asked by CPS to take a 4 year old little girl and we, of course, said yes. She has recently became 'legally free' and CPS would like us to adopt her as well. We are praying about that decision as she is a busy little girl with a 'few' issues to work out, not to mention she can be a handful. But, she is adorable and has a loving heart.

To top all this off, my husband left on his 6th combat tour this morning. I am trying to not be overwhelmed with the idea of parenting three kids on my own, and I hope to get back to my crafting and blogging, where I hope to find some peace in this house that can become crazy busy in the blink of an eye.

So, that is the quick update from me, I hope to be back soon with new cards and new challenges and some family updates as well.

Right now, I am behind schedule ... I need to leave in 11 minutes and I have no make up on and my hair is WET! EEK!