The Mango Boys and Me

Thinking of You Today & Always

2012-01-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

Good morning and happy Friday to everyone! I'm popping in with a super CAS card for you today. It's been ages since I've played along with Susan's One Layer Wednesday. Her challenge for us this week is to use white and gray with a pop of color. My pop of color is a deep purple although it looks black on my screen as I type this.

I'm off today. The morning will be errands: oil change and dentist and then the fun begins. A pedicure with my mum. A lunch date with Marcel after school and then off on our girl's weekend with several other moms to watch our children compete in their first official show choir competition! I can't wait!

Hope you have some fun weekend plans...even if it is just relaxing around the house...sometimes those are the best ones!

Birthday Wishes

2012-01-26T05:00:00.000-05:00

Today is my Friday! And I'm very happy about it! I've been tired this week. I think the ups and downs of the weather have made me tired. However, I have noticed that the days are starting to get longer and this makes me really happy. Spring is on the way my friends. We'll likely have some snow before it really arrives, but I can still look forward to it.

Today, I have a quick card to share for this week's Colour Q Challenge. I love the color palette. I had a lot of ideas, but stuck with the first stamp set that popped into my head. Hope you have a fabulous day.

PaperTrey Ink Blog Hop

2012-01-25T05:00:00.000-05:00

Good morning everyone! Happy Wednesday. I almost completely missed this month's PaperTrey Ink Blog Hop. I saw the reminder come up yesterday in Google Reader and decided to make a quick card last night. My birthday stash is running low so you'll be seeing a few more birthday cards here and there.

This month's blog hop encourages us to be inspired by a card we made in 2011. I used the layout from this card that I made in early November. Rather than having the sentiment go straight across I like to try and make it go vertical. Love the small font. And of course, I went with one of my all time favorite PTI sets, Damask Designs. It is stamped in the yummy Hero Arts Chalk Ink.

Hope you all got a chance to play along with the blog hop too!

Show Choir Preview Night

2012-01-24T05:00:00.001-05:00

Good morning! I thought I'd pop in to show a few pictures from Ryan's show choir debut last night. He called all of his aunts and uncles and cousins to see if they could come out to see the preview night. I love that he wants them all there. He had both nanas, three cousins, an aunt/uncle and of course, our gang. It was so, so much fun!

Their ballad, Temporary Home, by Carrie Underwood. Sounds amazing. Ryan is sitting in the middle on the right hand side.

He's feeling it here!

And post show...Ryan with his cousin Elizabeth! Love that the two of them are so close. And ps...don't tell but she and Nana were picking out the cute boys/good dancers in the high school show choir :)

Of course, I couldn't leave you without a card. It has been too long since I've played along with the color challenges over at the Play Date Cafe. I had dinner with the amazingly talented Jinny last week and she didn't spill the beans on what the color palette was, but said would like it and she was right! My card today is very similar to this one here, but I really liked that layout and I needed a more masculine thank you card for one of my co-workers. So there you have it! Hope you like it!

Where There is Love...

2012-01-23T05:00:00.001-05:00

Happy Monday! Life is getting busier again around our house. Collin's First Communion is coming up on February 12th, Ryan's show choir competitions start this week and his Confirmation classes have started up too. Obviously that creates a bit more running around for all of us, but I love it. Tonight, the show choir has a preview night where we get to see their competition routine for the first time. I can't wait! This weekend, I'll be heading out of town with a few of the other moms to catch their first competition in West Virginia. I'm looking forward to seeing how their many hours of practices pays off!

My card today is inspired by the CASE Study Challenge card below. I looked at this for a while thinking I would go with the flowers as my inspiration, but instead went more with the layout. Also pulled out my new Verve Text Notes set for the card.

Hope your week gets off to a great start! I'd love to hear what your family is up to this time of year.

Just Us Girls Color Challenge

2012-01-21T00:01:00.000-05:00

It's Just Us Girls time! Vicki has a color combo perfect for making a sweet valentine! I was lucky enough to win stamps from WPlus9's release last month. Just in time to make a card for this week's challenge. I had fun masking to make the row of envelopes. If you look closely, you can see I embossed the white panel with PTI's linen impression plate. This will be a perfect valentine for one of my boys!

Hope you get a chance to play along this week. Please stop by and check out the gorgeous creations from the other design team members!

Kylie (this month's guest designer)

You're My Lucky Charm

2012-01-20T05:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday everyone! I'm looking forward to the weekend. Pat and I are going to see Billy Elliot tomorrow night with Ryan and Jonathon. I'm really looking forward to a night out nestled in between running the boys to a variety of activities.

But enough about the weekend plans. I received my Verve order yesterday and decided to use my new stamps to continue to play along with the techniques from the class. Our most recent class was about using our stamps in different ways. One of the cards had a great background stamped panel similar to the green panel below. I kept this one ultra simple.

The next one showcases uses the stamps in a different way with the coordinating dies. Hope you like them both! I'm obviously still using the plain white cards too. Good thing you can't see the backs of them as I'm having problems with inky fingers!

Back to Class

2012-01-19T05:00:00.000-05:00

Hi there, I'm happy to report I made it home from my trip without any trouble. On the way there, my seat on the plane was in the very back next to the toilet. Not so pleasant! Thankfully on the way home I was in the middle of the plane.

I had a few minutes last night so I wanted to try to catch up from Monday and Tuesday's classes. Monday's class was on simple embellishments and Tuesday's was on using plain white cards. I think these cards qualify for both days. The first one below I'm also going to enter in the Moxie Fab Embossing/Debossing Challenge and the Passion for PaperTrey Valentine Challenge. I tried to create the visual of someone etching "love you" into a tree. The inspiration for the gem on the little clothespin comes from Karen. She's done this on cards in the past and I love the extra touch.

The little heart on the first one and the snowflakes below are from Els. I'm loving the goodies you sent me Els! I misted a bit on the background and added just a touch of patterned paper before stamping the sentiment and adding the embellishments.

I hope you like them both! I'm hoping to catch up on Wednesday and Thursday's classes tonight.

Happily Ever After...

2012-01-18T05:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Wednesday! The work week is almost half over and I'll be heading home from my work trip at the end of the day. Here's hoping for no delays on my way home!

I''m popping in to share a card for the current challenge over at Jay Gee's Nook. Looking at this card, I really wish that I had used zig zag instead of straight stitching, but we have to remember to share the cards we like but may not love. This falls into that category. I think the inspiration photo below has so many glorious ideas! I went with the photo in bottom middle row as my primary inspiration, but there are truly a ton of jumping off points for this card!
Hope you get a chance to give it a try and that your week is going well!

Happy Birthday

2012-01-17T05:00:00.000-05:00

Hello there, this weekend's errands involved an errand to Archiver's to spend some of the gift card I received from Pat for Christmas. While I was there, I picked up these fun Bazzill cards. I love the scallop edge that is already cut. To add a bit of color, I put a piece of green cardstock on the inside of the card. It would be so easy to add strips of patterned paper too.

I decided to play along with two challenges for the card: PaperSmooches Sparks Challenge and the CAS-ual Friday's Challenge. From the Sparks inspiration photo, you can see I picked up the red and white polka dots as well as a pop of orange and green from the sweet little animal on the bed. All of the stamps are from PaperSmooches.

You Mean So Much To Me

2012-01-16T05:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday! I'll be taking a break for a few days from my cards for the Clean & Simple Class as I'll be out of town for a few days for work. In the mean time, I made a card for this week's CASE Study challenge. I have not used very much of my PTI Damask Paper and since I had an extra die cut butterfly from this card, I thought I'd go ahead and use the yellow damask paper, add a sentiment banner and the card was complete. Hope your week gets off to a great start!

Don't you love the inspiration card below from CASE Study? Gorgeous colors!

Love You Forever

2012-01-15T05:00:00.000-05:00

Seven years ago today, my dad passed away. Not a day goes by that I don't miss him but I think of him with a smile in my heart. The last few days, I've been thinking about the things he taught us. And even more, the lessons he taught us that we didn't even realize until he was gone. Most importantly, he taught us to not stop loving. To lean on one another. He taught us to be strong and faithful. This lesson of strength was one we may not have realized he taught us but was quickly demonstrated by my oldest brother, Neal. Neal said my dad's eulogy. His eulogy captured who our dad was. He captured his love of my mum, my brothers and me, his dear friends, co-workers...and his love of life. His honesty, integrity and his resounding laugh. I was so proud of Neal and I know my dad was too. His strength and love for my dad showed through his amazing eulogy.

Today, this card could be sent to my dad. He knows I love him forever, but it will go to my mum. Not only for my love for her, but my dad's and our entire family.

The techniques on this card were inspired by Friday's class and Julie's extra video on Sunday. I didn't have the right color ink so I used Julie's technique of first inking the stamp with Versamark and then applying the regular color. Before inking it to the white panel, I sprayed Perfect Pearls and then heat embossed it. {the sentiment was stamped first.}

Just Us Girls Technique Challenge

2012-01-14T00:01:00.000-05:00

Good morning, today is my turn to host us over on Just Us Girls challenge. It's the week of the month where we try a new technique. I looked through the fabulous tutorials over on Split Coast Stampers and thought we'd give collage stamping a try. Click here for the link to the tutorial. I kept my collage a bit simpler than the tutorial. This card will be going to a co-worker celebrating their five year anniversary this week. The stamps are from several different sets; some PaperTrey Ink and others Hero Arts. I love when I can mix and match my stamps and stretch them a bit further. To soften up the image a bit I inked the edges up a bit. What do you think? What type of collage would you like to try? I'd love to see your take on this technique.

Please stop by and check out the gorgeous creations from the other design team members!

Kylie (this month's guest designer)

One Stamp Three Ways

2012-01-13T05:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday everyone! I am absolutely loving the Clean & Simple Card Making class. Yesterday's class was about using a single stamp multiple ways. It definitely helps stretch your stamps. I purchased the PTI Tree Toppers set last month and I think I've only inked it up once. So...I decided to use the circles from one of the tree tops. This first card shows using the stamp in a very traditional way as the tree leaves. I pulled out the linen impression plate again and inked up the edges for a little more depth. In real life the tree colors are a bit darker than the photo shows.

I then used the same stamp as a background. I paired it up with two other PTI sets. I think this card will go to my niece, Madeleine, who turns 19 (how did that happen?!) tomorrow.

Finally, I used the stamp again as a background but tried to create stripes. The sentiment is from Verve.

Like I said earlier, I am really enjoying this class! Look for more samples to come! And...I'd love to hear which one you like best and why :)!

Happy Friday!

Just because.

2012-01-12T05:00:00.000-05:00

Hi there...I'm back again to show two more cards from the class. The one below is from day 3 and it ranks as my favorite of the four I've made for class so far. Jennifer McGuire showed us a technique to use our dies to create tone on tone dimension on a card. She used very intricate dies, but this butterfly is the most intricate die I have with the exception of a snowflake! I normally stay away from the really detailed dies because I'm not patient enough to pick out all the little pieces! If you look closely you'll see the dimension and that the butterfly layers are white underneath. To add a bit more texture to the card I embossed the top panel with the PTI Linen Impression Plate. I think stamped a Verve sentiment. I could see making a card set with this layout.

And my second card is for Day 2. Making a one layer card. This also could easily be a card set and is very similar to what I made for teacher gifts!

Hope you like them both!

Clean & Simple Class

2012-01-11T20:59:00.001-05:00

Hi there! W'ere half way through the week and I hope it is going well. I'm taking the Clean & Simple Card Making Class with such talented instructors so I thought I pop in and show you my cards for the first day of class. This first day was sketch inspiration. Three sketches were provided and I decided to make cards for two of them. Ultra CAS with Verve stamps for the flowers and Hero Arts for the sentiment. The color inspiration came from the ColourQ Challenge this week.

The second one you can see I rearranged a bit. I masked off the edges and used spray mist to create the sky. It bled a touch on the left, but I'm still pleased with the result.

What do you think? This is only the second time I've taken an on-line crafting class. I'm really enjoying it! And...I'll be back tomorrow with cards for days 2 and 3.

PS Please excuse the photography...I'm fighting with my camera :)

Life is a Blessing

2012-01-11T05:00:00.000-05:00

Monday was a bit stressful. Nothing terrible going on, just stressful. One of those days when I needed to remind myself that everything always gets done. Everything always works out. And throughout the day I was reminded that there are so many blessings in life. Here are just a few of my blessings from Monday:

A text from my 14 year old, "Thanks Mom. I love you." There is nothing like hearing your child say I love you first.
Collin all dressed up and ready to go for his school concert and his sweet face on stage blushing like crazy. He's my shy little guy and oh so adorable.
Having my mum living ten minutes away and first to be there for all of the boy's events. They are always so proud to show her around and have her there to share their special days.
An email from my cousin, Sandie, when I mentioned I was stressed, "breathe deeply and focus on your breathe going in and out-focus on your belly rises and falling." This definitely helps.

And now to you...I'd love to hear how you are blessed?

I also wouldn't want to leave you without a couple of cards today. Using the Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler set. First up, a mini card for this week's Wee Memories Challenge:

And second...a fun chip board card for this week's CAS-ual Friday's Challenge.

Project Life

2012-01-10T05:00:00.000-05:00

Hi there. A few of you have asked about Project Life and how I use it. I keep it simple and I mean really simple! Most of the time, I use the journaling cards, pop in my pictures and I'm finished. When I have occasions where I have lots of pictures, I'll add a very CAS 12x12 layout. Normally on kraft paper with an embellishment or two.

Here are some samples:

A Halloween page. The top are the photos, middle is the journaling and the bottom are some Silhouette embellishments from my local scrapbooking store.

Now...some summer photos. On the left hand side is the boys with some of their friends having a lemonade sale. On the right is a CAS 12x12 layout from our visit to my aunt and uncle's home on our way to the beach.

Next are layouts from this summer during Moe's visit and Stamp-a-Faire.

This layout on the left makes me laugh. Sara and Christine will have a good laugh about the pictures from the hotel lobby when we mooched a few beers off some guys who were there for a bachelor party.

I just have a few more photos to add and I'll be done with my 2011 Project Life. If you're considering it, I'd highly recommend it. It has been much easier to keep up our family album using Project Life.

PS I apologize for the poor photos...I definitely am not a pro photographer!

Runway Inspired Thank You {and a winner}

2012-01-09T05:00:00.000-05:00

Hi there, before the craft room renovation started last week, I had a few minutes to play along with the Runway Inspired Challenge. I kept it very simple. Inspired by the circles on the runway, I embossed the bottom of the paper, added a sentiment and gave a nod to all the stripes by using lots of twine.

Now..keeping it short today, but I do have a winner from my giveaway from last week. Random number chose number eighteen and that is Noelle! I've gotten to know Noelle from her gorgeous layouts and cards over at ColourQ. We have a lot in common too being mom's to all boys. She has a Collin too like me. So happy for you Noelle! I'll email you for your address.

Just Us Girls Sketch Challenge

2012-01-07T00:01:00.000-05:00

I hope 2012 is off to a great start for you! It's Saturday and it's time for our weekly Just Us Girls challenge, Pam has a fabulous sketch challenge for us. I'm trying to work on not interpreting sketches so literally, so I took a bit of liberty with the sketch and cut out the flowers from the October Afternoon's 5 & Dime collection. And for the background oval, I embossed the PTI Mendhi Medallion and inked it a little bit with distress ink. Obviously, I'm trying not to think about the snow we've had this week by creating a spring card! What do you think? I'd love to see what you create with the sketch.

Please stop by and check out the gorgeous creations from the other design team members!

Kylie (this month's guest designer)