Last Day of Kindergarten, Sweet Threads Card Set and Smores on a Stick!

 Hello!  Well today is the DAY!  It's my daughter's last day of kindergarten!  Can you hear the excitement/unbelief in voice?  Oh boy!  It's a whole bunch of feelings.  Pure joy and excitement that summer is finally here and we will have so much time together.  And dread that in September my baby will be in full time every day school!  I am really trying not to think of that and only focus on how much fun we have ahead of us.  You all remember her first day of kindergarten post and how I cried until seriously 2 in the afternoon!

With the end of school comes teacher gifts!  This year I decided to do card sets.  I like making card sets, I could buy a gift but I really do feel that since I am crafty and have ALL the stuff to make the card sets I REALLY should!  Now the fact that I left these sets to the LAST possible minute did not make my life easier. (In my defense I had to leave it till than because I was studying and being a good student!)  And the fact that I went away on the girls weekend the WHOLE weekend also did not (will share more about this another post...)  And add to that a playdate yesterday (my friend is moving away and it was my goodbye!) and a shift at work last night!  Needless to say I feel that my card sets COULD have been a lot better this year.  But it's too late to cry over so I won't.  I will share one today and the rest other days.  The one I am sharing today is my favorite.  Also the one I spent the most time on, it's for the principal!

 I started by stamping the damask stamp from the Sweet Threads stamp set by Hero Arts in antique linen ink onto the white cardstock.  Than I stamped with versmark the flower image and embossed with the embossing powders.  I did various sentiments.  I also added a scalloped strip.  I entering this set into this weeks CASFriday's challenge of getting edgy!  I stamped the damask stamp in versamark onto the chocolate cardstock to add some interest. 

This is how I packaged it up, I got some of the acetate boxes by PTI:

Last week when I was in the store that starts with W I saw that they now in Canada have giant marshmallows!!!  I may have screamed out in joy!  I hadn't been planning on making Ariel's class treats at the end of the school year but I sure did now!  I invented Smores on a stick!!! Today Ariel's class had a picnic lunch with any parents that wanted to come so I made them for than!  The kids LOVED them!  As did the parents.

 Doesn't it look yummy?  It really is!  It's a giant marshmallow on a stick. I cut up a bunch of graham crackers.  Melt some chocolate (I used chocolate wafers)   I dipped the stick into the melted chocolate and than pushed it into the marshmallow, I was scared it would fall out otherwise.  Than I dipped the marshmallow into the chocolate and than holding it over the plate with graham crackers I sprinkled the graham crackers over the the marshmallow.  I made sure that the top was fully covered and than I placed them upside down onto a wax paper, just like it is on the plate.  It really tastes like smores!  But it's soo much easier to make for a picnic or any fun outside.  Perfect for this upcoming holiday weekend!

I took a photo of Ariel and her teacher on her last day.  What a blessing her teacher has been.  I truly love her and am so happy she was Ariel's teacher!  :>

What a long post!  If you make the smores on a stick let me know!  :>

Grad Cards!

Hello!  Happy Thursday!  I thought I would pop in with some grad cards!  First up let me say that I do not enjoy making grad cards.  I find it for me the hardest card to make! I make cards for my church bookstore and grad cards are a must!  Today I have two to share:

I do like this one.  I thought that this paper would work as it has navy in it (and that's my church's school color) and went with this color scheme for it.  Stamped the graph background in white.  I love the tassel, I think it really adds to the card and they are fun to make!

Here is my second, it's similar to the card I made for Chad for Father's Day!

 Used some :awn Fawn on this one! Making cute grad cards is my favorite.  :>

Poor Carter he has a skin infection!  He has a very bad big rash on his hip and it looked like it was spreading so we took him to the pediatrician.  And sure enough he has a skin infection!  No clue as to how or why but when it started it looked like excema.  He's on antibiotics and a cream so it should help.  I noticed that his big rash did look a bit better today so I have hope.  It's only his second time on antibiotics and this time he is taking it A LOT better.  Very thankful for that!

What do you have planned to do today?  I plan to do some baking and stamping!  I am going on a girls weekend this weekend and have been asked to bring some baking!  So I sure have a lot of baking to do!  And I really need to get more of my teacher card sets done.  I had thought to make sets for several teachers but with time passing I don't think I can.  I couldn't focus on it until I was done my test this past Monday.  Now I am thinking of making the turtle tarts since I've never made it for anyone at her school.  Wrap them up and a tag.  That should be good for the librarian, gym teacher and music teacher?  And give her teacher and teacher's helper and the principal a card set.  I've also bought supplies to make all the kids in her class a treat so it's going to be busy over here!  

I am off to make some peanut butter cookies!

Happy Father's Day a Day Late!

Hello!  I hope that you have had a great start to the week!  I am here with a Father's Day post!  A day late!  Yesterday was a busy day and I wrote a test for my course today so I spent most of the day studying!  I wanted to share with you my card that I made for my hubby for Father's Day!

I really love this card.  It's a mix of 3 different stamp companies.  I used the Polaroid stamp by Lawn Fawn and added a wallet sized photo of my two from Easter.  I think using this photo of my two on Chad's Father's Day card works so well!  I stamped the sentiments from PTI, used a piece of pp from the Lime Twist collection some twine by the Twinery.  I stamped the background with Hero Arts Graph background.  Chad loved this card!!!

I've been blessed to have been raised by one amazing dad.  I always knew he loved me and that I was cherished. He worked hard to give me a good life.  I know that I can still count on my dad.  And I love seeing how he is as a Djeda (Croatian for grandpa, grandma is Baka) to my kids.  He loves them.  He often just stops by for a quick visit because he missed them!

I am also blessed to be married to a man who is an amazing dad to our kids.  From when Ariel was a baby I could see he was as enamored with her as me, and later with Carter.  I love how we both still race to watch our children sleep!  Raising kids with your partner really is such a joy and such a wonderful life!  I love that Chad is one of those dad's that I can be gone and life still goes on like normal, he knows what to do! 

Hope you have a great week!  :>  I will be getting busy with some card sets now that I am done studying I can focus on that!  Ariel only has 4 days left of school! 

Party Time! And Dance Recital Pictures!

Hello!  Happy Saturday!  It's a great one this weekend as we celebrate our dad's!  I am here with a new Wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge! This week our sponsor is Eat Cake Graphics!  I love there description on there site:  "an online rubber stamp and quilt pattern company where whimsy abounds & laughter always prevails."  

We have such a fun challenge this week, It's Party Time!  So create some birthday cards, invitations, gifts etc!  Can't wait to see what you make!  This challenge came at a great time for me as I've ran out of girl birthday cards!  My daughter had 4 birthday parties in one week!  And she has two next week, so this is for one of them:

I used the Pure Innocence - Something Special Just for You stamps by My Favorite Things and did a bit of paper piecing with one of my new paper packs Lime Twist by My Mind's eye (love this pad!)  Some fun buttons, and twine by the Twinery!

Last night was Ariel's dance recital! I can't tell you how excited we were!  Ariel took two dance classes this year Ballet/Tap/Jazz and Too Cool Hip Hop!  So she had two dances!  I am going to warn you I have a lot of photos to share.  I can't help it!  Here are a bunch of photos of her in her hip hop costume:

Yes I know what your thinking that Anita has gone pageant on Ariel's face!  Haha I so enjoyed making her up, you should put makeup on them due to the lights otherwise there features will be washed out!  I can see why some mom's love pageants, I so enjoyed making her all up!  They wanted the girls hair up in ponytails with curls and my neighbor whose daughter is in Ariel's class said we should do them on the side so you can see it from the front, what a great idea!  Here is a close up of the hair:

I actually volunteered backstage with all the kids!  It was interesting!  Being asked over and over and over when are we going to dance?  But I am glad I did because I got to watch from backstage and get a good look and some really good photos.  The recital was at the concert hall so getting good photos in my seat would have been really hard!  I couldn't use my flash but you can see some really good ones:

  After Ariel danced this dance she changed and went to the other class (all in one room) that I was actually in charge of.  Loved being backstage got some great photos of all the kids:

So neat!  I was so happy I volunteered at this point as I was able to get a video so close up! 

If you would like to see a short video of this dance you can see it on my flickr account here.

And here is Ariel at the end, I had put some mascara on her as I don't have any eyeliner, she cried at the end since she was so tired so you can see that it's a bit black under her eye:

Afterward we stopped and got some dessert and came home, Chad's mom came to watch too and Chad's dad stayed with Carter.  He was asleep on the couch when we got home but Carter was still awake and playing!

I hope you enjoyed the photos!  It was so fun!  And I hope you will join us for this challenge!  For the summer the challenges run for 2 weeks so this one goes until Friday July 1st 11:59 pm PST!!!  Make sure to stop on by the Wee Memories Blog for more info and to check out the always amazing design teams creations!

Two Father's Day Cards!

Hello!  It's an absolute beautiful day over here and I am taking a break in the air conditioning!  Thought I would pop in with two more Father's Day Cards!  These ones I made with some masculine PTI sets that my good generous stamping friend loaned me and some HA background stamps!  

OUT FOR PUBLICATION!

This second card is very me and like something I've done before.  Sometimes it's easier when your making masculine cards to do something you've done before but a bit different.  It's a good starting point!  I stamped the fish from the masculine motif's set by PTI covered it in glossy accents and once dry stamped over it with HA's envelope background with antique linen distress ink.   I used one of my new background stamps by HA Word Pop's on the background.  (Love this stamp have BIG plans for it!)  Added some buttons and voila!  Don't you love the sentiment?

I have a two funny stories to share.  Last week while at the farm on Ariel's field trip we spent the day with a group of kids and mom volunteer's, and Ariel's teacher was in our group too.  At almost the end of the day one of the mom's said to another mom "Oh you know with delivering babies and all"  I look at her and say "Oh your an obstetrician?"  To which she replied yes, I asked her her name and it turns out she delivered Carter!  How funny is that?  Had she not told me her name I may never have figured it out!   She wasn't my obstetrician but worked with mine and she was on duty that day!  I even had an appointment with her before the birth!  Once I knew her name and all that I recognized her!  All the other mom's and Ariel's teacher thought it was hilarious.  In my defense Carter was a fast birth.  I arrived at the hospital around 1:20 in the afternoon they checked me and before I knew it were screaming emergency and wheeling me to a room!  I had only gone since I was tired of being home and was dreading the car ride!  On the drive over Chad was on the phone telling family not to rush he didn't think the baby would be here for another few hours.  After not even 15 minutes Carter arrived at 1:45!  Don't be all jealous I had a hard time with Ariel's birth were talking my water broke on Tuesday and she didn't come till Thursday (28 hours of being induced!)  Oh and that obstetrician is etched in my memory I could probably draw you a picture of her!  It's kind funny that her son is in Ariel's class!  Because the obstetrician who delivered Ariel son was in her music class for 2 years!

And my other funny story is that on Monday we walked the park.  While at the park at about the time we would want to go home I saw a car drive by that looked like ours.  Chad was out showing houses so it could really be him.  I could see two car seats in it, it was the same car same color and the driver looked like Chad.  So I waved.  The car slowed down and turned around and came to the park.  I was happy it's about a 20 minute walk home!  But I realized it wasn't Chad!  How embarrassing so I kinda waved an apology and walked away. The driver opens his window and calls out "I thought you were my wife!  She was wearing a green shirt when I left the house!" (I was wearing a green shirt too!) I than told him I thought he was my husband!  LOL He said that they have two boys and live a bit from the park and he could see me with a boy so he really thought it was his wife!  I told him we have the same car and I could see two car seats in the same spots!  Too funny!  And I will not be waving at any cars that I think are mine again!

Hope your having a great week!  Looking forward to a girls night tonight!  Going out for dinner with some of the volunteers from stay and play!

Sweet Threads Congrats!

Hello!  It's a beauitful day over here and even though I had some fun stamping this am!  The other day I was cleaning and was a bit frustrated and my hubby told me to stop cleaning and it was time to get happy and go do something that I want to do.  He asked me "What do you want to do?"  And I looked at him and said "I want to stamp" and he looked surprised and told me to go and do it and I did.  And I was a lot happier.  I think he got it.  I am pretty sure he used to get it but must have forgotten or something.  Since than after he sees me creating he asks me about it.  :>  Let's hope that also means he understands my need to buy new things!  LOL Well I've gotten A LOT of new things lately that I haven't touched so really I shouldn't be buying new things!  Today's card uses some new stamps and papers!

I made this card for two challenges.  One is the current challenge at the Hero Arts Blog is Congratulations.  And I am also entering this card into the Paper Crafts Magazine challenge of Gallery Idol.  I am happy that it's open to us international gals this time!  It's rather terrifying to put oneself out there like this but I guess really what do I have to lose?  It's better to try than sit on the sidelines right?

I started this card by stamping the damask image from the Hero Arts Sweet Threads Thank You in a pattern with antique linen Tim Holtz ink all over the white cardstock.  I than stamped the flower with versamark ink and embossed it with ruby and citrus recollections embossing powders.  What I did so that the ruby powder wouldn't get onto the stem is that I put a plastic knife in between the flower and the stem when I poured the ruby powder. Than I stamped the leaves after embossing the flower.  I stamped the congrats sentiment with versmark also and embossed with chestnut zing powder.  Added some paper from the Sweet Threads paper pad and some twine by the Twinery.

Last time I was at Micheal's I noticed that the recollections line has colored embossing powder!  I am sure you can imagine how excited I was with my love for embossing!  Although I think the colors emboss darker than the bottle I took a picture of them to show you.  I thought that the ruby color was a hot pink but Chad thinks it's more of a red.  I wanted hot pink!

Today was such a nice day Carter and I enjoyed spending it outside.  Ariel had school, at the start of June she had 9 days of school and now she is done to 4!  Yay!  Since Ariel has been home she has been playing with the little girl who lives across the street.  They can be found where they always can be found:

Chad and I decided to get the kids a swingset this year.  We were in the process of saving for it when one of his clients of a home he sold were moving out of province and the new owners did not want the swingset!  So we got a swingset!  LOL  We wanted a nice wood one or a bigger one but really how could we not be happy with this one? (BTW Chad is sad about the grass going under the swings but I told him grass is cheap and happy children are more worth it!)  I tuned the water/sand table into just a water table and here is Carter having a lot of fun and getting oh so wet (at least it isn't sandy and wet!)

And what's a better treat than a Popsicle?  Oh I know a homemade healthy one!  I blended some banana's, strawberries, threw a few raspberries in there, yogurt and a bit of juice.  The kids LOVE them!  And I love that they are healthy and probably cheaper than store bought ones!  Last  night after coming home all hot from the park they asked for ice cream but were thrilled to get these instead!

Well I've been cooking dinner as I've written this post and it's done now!  Hope are having great weather too where you are!

Butterfly Kisses

Hello Happy Monday!  I hope your week is having a great start!  We had a fabulous weekend!  The weather was so nice on Saturday was so nice that we invited some friends over and we all sat in the backyard enjoying the sun!  The kids played in the sprinkler and pool and we enjoyed suntanning! 

So a while back I won a prize on the Craft's Meow Blog.  I was so excited and I loved the Butterfly Kisses stamp set that I also bought that!  The lovely Nina Brackett designs stamps for the Craft's Meow and I just love her!  Not only is she a talented designer but she is also missionary in Croatia where both my parents are from!  (I was born here, and yes I can speak Croatian it was my first language!  I only learned English when I was 4!)  I thought it would be fun to share with you what I won (also in the picture is the butterfly kisses stamp set)  I can't tell you how exciting it was to get the big box full of stuff!  And actually my neighbors got it!  Last week just before I was putting the kids to bed on a night Chad was out working the neighbor came to the door with it!  I was beyond excited!  And thankful for honest neighbors!

A bunch of goodies from My Mind's eye Turquoise collection!  Love it!  Thank you so much to Lisa from The Craft's Meow!  I had an idea and sat down took a break from Father's Day cards and created this:

This card has been removed for publication.  :>

Yesterday was my hubby's Chad's birthday!  :>  On Friday we celebrated with his family and I got a photo of all of us that I do every year since we have had kids! (Is it ever hard to get both kids to look at the same time!)

Yesterday I made a yummy dinner for him and we made him some double chocolate cookies:

My inlaws took the kids for the evening and we went and had a date and saw a movie, we went to the cheap theater since between us we've seen all the movies in the other theater!  We saw:

 And we really liked it!  A good story and a movie we both suggest!:>

I don't have a birthday card that I made for my hubby to share with you as I used one in my stash.  I actually  have quite a few masculine birthday cards!  :>  But I do want to send out a shout out to my hubby!  Wishing you a very happy birthday my love.  I hope that this new year is an even better one for you!  I know that with an NHL hockey team coming back to our city you are more than thrilled!  (Oh and he and his friends were really lucky last Saturday when they managed to get 2 season tickets to share in the 2 minutes that it sold out!  There are 8 thousand people on the waiting list!)  I am so blessed to be able to share my life with you.  I love that you are an amazing dad in love with his children and love raising them.  I love that you are a dad who can be a dad with me gone and without instructions from me!  I love that you are so easy to live with, really the perfect spouse for me!  I love that you also see the importance of me staying at home with our children!  Wishing you an amazing year!  :>

To a Dad who can Fix Anything! And Fun at the Farm!

Hello!  Happy Thursday!  Hope you've had a great day!  We sure did!  Today Ariel's class visited the Farm!  I went along for the fun!  Love being able to go on school field trips!  So fun to get to know some other moms and see Ariel's class dynamics!  And be there with Ariel at the farm!  I am sure you can imagine how exhausted I was when I got home!  I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of my cards was featured in the Social Club on the Hero Arts blog today, you can see it here.   Way to make a great day even better!

By the way I wanted to say thank you for all the wonderful encouraging comments on potty training Carter!  It's going pretty good!  I am trying to be really relaxed about it since I know it takes time.  Not worth getting frustrated about! :>

Today I have another Father's Day card to share.  This is from an Hero Arts set that I got 2 years ago already.  It remains my favorite Father's Day set!  I love the sentiment!  I wanted to stamp the tools in  repeat design in the background but dreaded coloring it in!  Than I remembered this month's challenge on the Hero Arts blog is watercoloring so I gave it a go!  I stamped them all with staz on and than inked my acrylic block with various distress inks and spritzed water and than colored them in with a tiny paint brush!  I did it during the day when my kids were around so it's not perfect but I like it!

And your not surprised to see that I added a washer that I stamped with the envelope background, like I showed in a video I did for Hero Arts in April are you?  I wonder if my dad would remember that I gave him a different card with these stamps 2 years ago?  He may he has it on display still!  He must really like it!  It suits my dad perfectly!  He can fix anything, and I ask him often to!

So you know I took my camera with me today and got some cute photos!  I decided to leave Carter at home.  Chad was able to stay and work from home and I wasn't sure what this farm would be like.  I imagined him being in with the animals and causing a rukus.  Yesterday we went to a birthday party and he somehow figured out how to get drenched from head to toe, I was nervous what he would get into at a farm!  Plus it was Ariel's field trip when Carter goes to school he will get just me so she should be able to too.  Here are some favorites:

Can you see the tear on Ariel's cheek?  She did not want to ride in the wagon!  It was a small tractor pulling a bunch of these little carts!  But thankfully she got over it because it was so fun!  They went on a long ride and stopped and saw some chickens!( I couldn't go on not enough room for the adults!)

Ariel and me at lunch time.  Lunch was interesting.  They had a fire pit where us parents cooked the hotdogs over the open flames!  We also had bannock which is a native American bread, they wrapped it over sticks which they cooked over the flames too!  I missed a photo since I was cooking stuff!  Here is Ariel and some of her friends sitting on random wood eating:

After they went in a teeppe:

After lunch we saw more animals, but first a fun maze where we saw a birds nest in a fence!  Excuse the blurry photo:

Ariel loves chicks.  She asked me all day when she was going to see the chicks!  She couldn't wait!  I had to ask for her to hold the chick since they weren't really letting all the kids hold them!  Tonight as I put her to bed she asked me to print this picture of her holding the chick!  So cute!

All the preschool and kindergarten classes just before we left!  What a fabulous day!