the.amanda.sewell

Warning: If you have a weak stomach, maybe you should not look at this picture (turn back now, turn back now . . . . ): Such a tragic waste. *CRIES* I am still in shock. M came upstairs to my office this morning and discovered the situation as you see. E had been "playing" and did about $25 worth of damage. I am saddened. I decided her punishment would be that we would not go to the movie that we were planning to go to today. Such a terrible waste. If you ever wondered if embossing powder feels like sand and gets everywhere -- I assure you it does. Clean up sucked. I will take this moment to tell you about the one thing that was my lifesaver. I had one of those lint sticky paper thingamagigs and it worked perfectly to pick up lots of the powder after I had swept away the large part, so my desk is mostly better. So keep that in mind if this ever happens to you. I am just thankful that E did not open the staz on pad that was close by or any of my other tools tha

Sunshine is abundant in Arizona, but today it really felt like summer. It was 85 degrees and bright and sunny and just great weather. The kids and I went to a splash park with some moms and children from church. It was totally fun! I am so glad I went. They just love water! I love watching my children interact with other children. Today they were mostly good, but they like to get their own way and sometimes will gang up on another child so it is two against one, in order for them to get what they want. They were tired and cold after about an hour and were ready to leave, so we packed up the van, went grocery shopping and then went home. It was a long morning/early afternoon and we were all pretty tired. I just wanted to add that tonight for dinner, in lieu of a recipe because we just barely got a new grill, we decided to have BBQ turkey burgers -- they were great! I love it when M does most of the cooking because before we got the grill, that was like never, and now .

I made this card for the sketch challenge on SCS. I was going to title it, "How to convince your husband you need more ribbon even though you already have a ton" -- but that name was just a little too long. Truly though, if you did show this to your hubby, he would totally understand why you keep "running out" and why you need more! I got this idea to use lots of ribbon from Karen V. (gamblemom ) -- she did this on a card not so long ago. It makes the card kind of busy, but I think it is fun. The ladybugs (or ladybirds - for Alli), are watercolored using the red ink pad and my aquapainter, and then glazed over with crystal effects. Sentiment was stamped on the punched ovals and adhered using pop dots. I totally love all the ribbon on this card. I have been hoarding it lately and it was really fun to just let loose and go crazy with the ribbons.

It's FRIDAY! Hooray! And even a long weekend for those of us living in America! YAY! We plan to spend the weekend working on our patio in the back yard because we *still* have not finished it yet and it has been months . . . in fact, the bricks have been residing in my driveway for months. It is so hard to get things done with two little kids underfoot. Basically, it takes one of us to be the babysitter and the other one to do the work. Unfortunately because M is just a tad stronger than I am, he gets to be the worker bee . . . but I will bring him water. I am so excited to have it all done and get a new grill and table to put out there so we can enjoy the summer -- awww, love that summer heat in Arizona. So I was looking for not only something that would match with the colors of the color challenge (certainly celery, old olive and vintage violet/elegant eggplant), but a stamp set that I had not used often and I came across this set from Sellabration - SU's "Very P

Okay, so I lied! SUE ME! I just could not resist stamping just one more card. (Plus, my DH is playing computer games so I had time!) This one I used the oval punch (small size) to create a flower. I have had this one in my head for awhile too and it was nice to get it out. Maybe I can actually start thinking about other card designs now. The flower in the background is from an SU set, but it was in my pile (all the stamps I pulled from sets and have not put away yet -- thus I have no idea where it goes). The sentiment is from Amuse. The colors were chosen randomly by glancing into my scrap bag and picking colors that went together. It is really bright and cheery and I like it. Oh, and you can barely see, but in the background there are some flowers that I stamped with my glue pad (that I got at Hobby Lobby today) and then I adhered white glitter on them. They add some really subtle sparkle to the card. Oh, and I doodled on the petals of the flower just because I felt like

Okay, this is my last one for today, I promise. I bought this stamp the other night at The Creative Quest -- it is by Great Impressions. I just fell in love with it -- it is like "the perfect cupcake." Just so cute! I could not resist! I watercolored (because I am addicted to watercoloring lately) using my twinkling H2o's and water color pencils. I added stickles (diamond) to the cupcake paper and the candle. I used crystal effects on the actual icing and the flame (glitter free) -- and before I did that -- I colored in some of the sprinkles with white gelly roll pen. I colored it to match this awesome ribbon I picked up at Hobby Lobby. The colors are a combination that I totally would not have chosen otherwise -- brilliant blue, orchid opulence, and a green galore-ish color. The sentiment stamp is by Amuse. Oh, and I learned today while I was reading blogs that the white colored around the poke hole is called a "faux eyelet" -- so I added faux eyelets

This idea came to me when I was looking at my Amuse sentiments (because that is mostly what I have from Amuse -- I am a big collector of sentiment stamps). I wanted to include punches in some way and I thought of making a window looking out across the street. The houses are from SU "Right at Home" set. The background (Creamy caramel) was stamped in creamy caramel ink with SU's "Canvas." The creamy caramel layer is attached with pop dots to the chocolate chip layer, which has a big hole cut in it. Then the white layer with the house is attached to the other side of the chocolate chip layer flush. The houses were colored using my twinkling H2O's and also some watercolor pencils for accents here and there. I outlined the windows and doors on the houses with a chocolate chip marker. After all of the watercoloring was done, I added some crystal effects on the windows to make them look like glass, and some diamond stickles on the heart and the flowers to

Okay, I know this has been done a bajillion times before and I know that I am not the original creator, however, I also do not know who to credit for the original idea. Basically, I got this adorable amuse stamp with using it with this kind of punch pumpkin in mind, and then this challenge just gave me the push to make the stinking card already, so I did. I used I piece of cuttlebugged card stock that I had generously sent to me in the mail -- it was embossed with the swirls template. I hand stitched the corners of the card stock with some embroidery floss I had on hand and a needle. I stamped the stem from SU's "Carved and Candlelit" to create the pumpkin stem and the rest is done with oval punches. So not entirely original, but it is mine nonetheless. Oh and can I just whine that I am SO sad that Grey's Anatomy will not be all new tonight because the season is over? How in the heck am I gonna make it through until the fall *sigh* Guess I am going to have to s

I just had to post a little thank you to Jody for her sweet package that she sent to me this month. I almost died when I saw what was in it. The mini book is just darling and I love it so much (You can see it in the Dirty Dozen gallery for this month on Splitcoaststampers if you are a Member) -- the glittery flower is to die for. Oh, and I absolutely LOVED the way that she did the closure on it using twill tape and copper twine -- it looked amazing and I am just so excited that I am now the proud owner. Oh and get this -- she sent me a whole box of PRIMAS! (Lisa's drooling I bet). How generous and awesome is my friend! WOW! Thank you Jody!!! I hope you have a wonderful time on your trip to Disneyland and I just wanted you to know that I so don't deserve such awesome friends like you!!! You rock!

So every so often, my favorite local stamp shop, THE CREATIVE QUEST (link on sidebar) has a 10 card extravaganza night where you come and stamp as many as 10 cards -- the supplies are all out for you and the card stock is precut etc. Each card is only $1 and you can make multiples of them if there are still supplies for that one. Last time I went I made two cards, but this time, I liked 5 of them, so I got to work because I only had about an hour to shop and complete the five cards. I managed to get them all done in time. A miracle! This little cars card was originally just the green piece, the blue card and the white card with card colored in with markers. I decided that I would make it my own, so I took it home to do the coloring with my watercolor pencils. Then I added stickles (diamond) for the headlights as had been done at the store. Then I also added stickles (black diamond) for the tires. Two of the four cars are cut out and popped up using pop-dots and I added some doo

This recipe is from my church cookbook that was put together last year. This sounded yummy to me. Credit for this recipe in the book goes to Annie Wilkins -- thank you for sharing. Cranberry Chicken 6 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breasts 3/4 cup french or Catalina dressing 1 can whole berry cranberries with sauce 2 tbsp dried onion 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce Directions: Mix ingredients and pour over frozen chicken. Bake covered at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Then uncover and bake another 30-45 minutes.

I absolutely LOVE crayon resist. It is just so easy and the results are always pleasing. I had a blast playing with it again yesterday. Let me know what you think of my cards. I love to hear your comments. This first card was made using SU's Springtime Stems. I also used a quarter sheet of card stock that was cuttlebugged. The colors are only orange, pixie pink and yo yo yellow. The sentiment is by Amuse Artstamps and for those of you who do not understand French at all (even though it is the most basic phrase out there and I am pretty sure most of you do know what it means) -- it means Thank you! The ribbon is actually more true to the pixie pink color in real life (aka, it matches, and does not clash like it does in the picture. I adhered the orange gingham to the sheer part on the yellow ribbon (in the center) which made it "work" better with the way I tied it. I sponged in circles just over the flowers that were resisted. I like this better sometimes than bl

Hooray, I love it when my mailbox over flow-eth . . . I have been so spoiled by fellow bloggers and friends! It is just so fun to get mail. I really need to start sending out more Random Acts of Kindness (RAK's). I think that will be on my to do list for the week. I will plan to send out one a day. It sure does brighten my day to receive them. This first card is a pretty Papertrey butterfly one. I am such a sucker for butterflies and it is just too cute. The background is cuttlebugged, I think, using a swirl background. Thank you so much for this RAK Heather S in Hyde Park, UT -- it was really sweet of you to think of me. Like what you see? Check out Heather's blog . It is just too cute and I just love all her work! Oh and her kids are too freaking adorable!!! The second RAK I got in the mail was one from Lori T in Gaithersburg, MD -- she sent me a gorgeous polished stone/alcohol ink looking card using the Papertrey butterflies set. It was SO super hard to get a go

I am loving all the AMUSE challenges. It felt so good to be home this morning when I woke up. You never appreciate your own bed until you try to sleep in a hotel one. My sheets for sure have higher thread count and feel so much nicer on my cheeks *grins* Anyway, I decided that I felt like stamping a bit and decided that the challenge sketch on AMUSE would get me back into the swing of it. I changed it up a little bit, instead of using a rectangle, I used a scalloped square. I think it works on the square card really well. Both of the stamps on the card are by AMUSE artstamps. I just loved this little lemonade stand and just had to have it! I used frosted lace stickles on the lemonade pitcher. It is hard to see in this picture, but it adds just the perfect amount of "bling" in real life.

We wanted our beach day to be really relaxed, so we woke up late, picked up lunch on the way to the beach, and then drove down the coast until we found we felt like stopping. We ended up stopping at Huntington Beach. M said that his family used to take him there to play as a kid. It was really empty on the beach. We think it was because it was kind of chilly. (We got there at 12:30-ish) It did warm up as the day wore on. I made sure to sunscreen up the kids super well before they left, and we sunscreened M a lot too. I did not sunscreen myself, I planned to do it later in the day, but totally neglected to, and I got a little tiny bit burned on the top of my head, the tip of my nose and on my chest. Not a bad burn though, it is not stinging or hot and aloe is clearing it right up. Basically, it will probably fade into a tan soon! The children enjoyed going in towards the water and then running away when the waves crashed on their feet. We all worked as a family on building a

Disneyland was a lot of fun. E was just so excited to go and both the children were excited over the simplest of things (like the tram from the parking garage to Downtown Disney District - YAY!) We bought our tickets and were pleasantly surprised to find that since J is only 2 1/2 - he was free! YAY! He turns 3 in July, so we just barely caught that deal. We took so many pictures. The first thing we went on was the Carousel, and the Dumbo Flying Elephants and Casey Jr. train. When I was little and went to Disneyland, the things I remember most were the Dumbo flying elephants and It's a Small World, so I wanted to ensure we would get on both of those nice and early!!! We took poor E on some scary rides that I did not realize were so scary -- like for example, Snow White and Pinnochio -- wow, those were both pretty scary stuff. E just put her hands over her eyes and tried to hide down as much as she could on those ones. She was also terrified on Pirates of the Carribean, and

We're HERE! The weather here in California is just lovely. I remember as a child thinking it was HOT here, but after living awhile in AZ, it is just beautiful!!! Goodbye 100's, hellow 78 degrees and breezy!!! We arrived in Fullerton, CA nice and early in the evening due to M's awesome directing. Seriously, I always get lost when I get on the 215, but this time we managed to reach the 91W! Anyway, we got to our hotel and found out that Medieval Times was really close to us -- so we decided on a whim to go. I had never been before but always wanted to and M went last when he was 10. We had a lot of fun. We were cheering for the red knight. We bought the kids red ribbons to wave and they just loved that. The kids just loved it and sadly our knight did not win the tournament, but hey, maybe next time. We got back to the hotel at about 9:30-ish and the kids were just so wound up. We ended up getting them to sleep or close to it about a half hour later. They were just

I got my new stamps from Jody in the mail yesterday! YAY! All the stamps I got are Amuse and I *may* have gone to Hobby Lobby and picked up a stamp yesterday too. SO, instead of packing like a good little Manda, I decided to stamp *shocking* This first card is my version of SC123 -- using squares . This is also the new Penny Black stamp I acquired yesterday. I thought he was a cute snowman and happened to have a 40% off coupon burning a hole in my pocket, so I got him. I know Christmas is a long time away still, but hey, it is fun to stamp him anyway. This was also my first time using liquid applique. I just love how it makes him puffy and snowy and I love the snowflakes. Sentiment is from Stampin' Up! "It's Snow Time" set. Oh, and I watercolored the snowman in using my watercolor pencils which have not seen the light of day since I got my watercolor wonder crayons. This second card is one that came together while I was venting on the phone to my friend.

I got this cute RAK from MamaKim, who I got to meet at So Cal Stamp Mania. She was such a sweetie and it was so sweet of her to send this cute Bella card to me. Thanks for the beautiful RAK. The barely banana background is stamped tone on tone with paisleys and then half of it is cuttlebugged using the bubbles template. Bella is colored in using SU markers and is on glossy paper, so she looks AWESOME! I am sure going to miss the french script background -- it looks wonderful with this chef Bella. Thank you again for being such a sweetie Kim and sending this RAK love my way *grins* I will treasure it!!!

Today has been a great day. I started it off weirdly, I woke up to my son shrieking, but as the day went on, it has gotten better and better. I made the most delicious French toast for breakfast. It was really simple to make and I will totally make it again -- it was a treat (I listed the recipe in Friday's post). M was supposed to make it for me, but I figured since I was up I might as well go for it. Also, M looked after the kids while I made it, so that was nice. After breakfast, M and I took the kids to the park for about 20 minutes. We have to go for really small amounts of time because my daughter has reddish hair and the redheaded skin to go along with it and is super sensitive to the sun. I took some really fun pictures and it made me feel so happy to be a mom of two wonderful little munchkins. They may be a lot of work, but when they smile at me, my heart just melts! I mean, how could anyone not love their precious little grins! What a blessing they are. Aft