Proud Moments

I know I haven't been posting a lot lately and I am hoping that will change soon.  Below is one of the happy things that has been taking up a lot of my time.  Those of you who follow my blog know that my daughter started taking voice lessons last year and this year, she joined two bands.  Below is one of the bands she sings for.  Their name is SKAAM Artists which is actually the first initials of each of their names.

They have performed in public a couple of times and there is another performance coming up this weekend.  The reason it takes up so much of my time, is that I have to take her to lessons and band practice and since she is only 10, I still hang around and that can sometimes be several hours.

Anyway, this is a video my DH put together of this past weekend's performance.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

A Little Holiday Music

Here's a little something to get you in the holiday spirit.  Last night, my daughter performed solo for the first time at the school where she is taking voice lessons.  She's only been at this for about two months so we are very proud of her.  Enjoy!

Kara's Corner

School ended last week for my daughter and it's wonderful to have her home.  She likes to craft and make cards from scraps leftover from previous projects and sometimes she will hang out in the studio with me while I work/play.  The other day I was getting ready for my class and she came in and made a couple of cards.  This one is a thank you for her Nana who is paying for a new riding helmet. 

For this one she used ink to distress the edges.  I think this may be her new favorite technique.

For this one she used a scrap of embossed paper and some shear ribbon on a long rectangular card (her own measurements).  She did all the stamping on each of the cards herself and designed the layouts.

If you want to see some of her other creations, you can click on the link at the top of the page that says "Kara's Corner" and if you feel so inclined, please leave her a little love.  She will be thrilled.

Horsing Around

Here is my daughter's entry in the challenge over at Sarah's blog for Amy's sketch. Kara used gel pens to hand draw the horse and the sentiment as well as her horseshoe embellishments. She used a punch for the flower and added detail with...what else but gel pens. Kara LOVES her gel pens!!!

Thanks for taking the time to look.

Happy Halloween - Kara Style

Here's a Halloween card my daughter made using leftover scraps. Somehow I purchased duplicate gold and silver gel pens which I gave to her. This sent her on a crafting spree. She came up with this spooky fireplace using a Martha Stewart punch. Pretty creative don't you think!

Butterfly Garden

Sometimes while I am working on a new template design or otherwise occupied in the craftroom, my daughter will come in and design creations using leftover scraps and her own crafting "tools" and supplies. This was such a card and she kindly asked me to post it.

The other day we had used the Cuttlebug to cut out butterflies so she used the leftover negative space as stencils. Using glitter gel pens, she traced and colored the butterflies onto scrap paper, cut them out and used them as embellishments. For the center image, she simply traced and colored the butterflies. She's very creative!

Mother/Daughter Flower Soft Cards

I suppose you could say there has been a Flower Soft (hereafter affectionately referred to as FS) theme happening here this week and I have found out that I am not the only one gaga over this awesome product. Based on the emails I've gotten and bulletin board posts I have seen, this stuff is flying off the shelves.

Yesterday, my daughter and I perfected our FS stem making technique and each made a flower pot card. When I tell you this product is easy to work with, I am not kidding you. We made a "forrest" of stems which is fine because they can be stored and used for later projects. Once they dry, simply put them in a ziploc bag or container. I have already made my Christmas stems and now I am just waiting for my new CTMH stamp sets to arrive so I can play.


The flower pots for the cards are from the Flower Child stamp set and were stamped in Cocoa ink, colored in pencil and cut out.




CTMH Products
Cardstock – White Daisy, Baby Pink, Petal
Ink – Baby Pink, Cocoa
Stamp Set – Flower Child

OtherFlower Soft – heather mix, sweet pea mix
Nestabilities Dies
Impressabilities folder
Stickles
Purple organza ribbon
Chalk inks
Colored pencils

Sponging technique

She's Irresisitible

A big "Thank You" to everyone who participated in this week's poll where you were asked to look at two card fronts and decide which one was done by a "professional" crafter. You can see both card fronts in this post HERE. The results are in:

21% chose Card A (Mommy)

50% chose Card B (Daughter)

28% said they were both awesome

which means that in this instance, the majority chose my daughter's card. YEAH! As you can imagine, she is just thrilled. She hasn't decided what she is going to do with her card front yet but I have made mine into a simple birthday card ready for giving.

Simply Hard to Resist

Card A

Card B

Yesterday my daughter and I got out her white crayon and tried a technique I have been wanting to try for awhile now - crayon resist. We each made a card front and then she wanted to know which one I liked best. I thought for a first time effort, they both turned out pretty good but we wanted to see if you can tell which one of us did which card front (any guesses on who came up with this idea). If you wouldn't mind taking our little poll on the sidebar we would really appreciate it. The poll closes Thursday at midnight and on Friday I will post who created each card front.

CTMH Products
Stamp Set - Delight in Everything

OtherMustard Stazon, Teal Blue Stazon, Black Stazon, white glossy cardstock, adhesive crystals, white Crayola crayon