the.amanda.sewell

Sorry I have been MIA again. I am just trying to keep up with normal life and sleeping extra with being pregnant and trying not to barf. But I am pleased to announce that I made it to 11 weeks as of today . . . so hopefully morning sickness will be departing soon and I can get back to stamping lots and lots. It is Week 49 on the Bloggers Challenge Yahoo group and todays challenge, I felt like, was a really easy one -- it was ANIMALS. I decided to make a Riley card (after all, he is a moose). I would have had my cards uploaded earlier today, but I wanted to do some sewing on them and I was helping DH sew last night, and when I let him go on his own, the machine jammed and my needle broke and it was the only one I had. Anyway, so I went into town today to get a new one and then I completed the cards I was working on today. And besides, it is technically still Friday here, so it is all good right??? This card was so simple. I wanted to make a Fathers Day card since I had not made an

Happy Saturday! Thanks for stopping by! Are you having a good day so far? Are you taking lots of time to relax, stamp and drink lots of water? Or maybe that is just me, being preggo and in the desert, but water seems to be always going into me! *giggles* My hubby and I are off to shop for appliances for our old house so we can rent it out. We gave up on trying to sell it for awhile since the market is just SO bad here. Hopefully, we can rent it and when things pick up we will sell. I think I am starting to actually believe that more is more ( thanks Jami ) when it comes to stitching on the cards I make. Sometimes, I do some stitching and then just HAVE to add some more because it just works. This card though, I went a little crazy. I think it works, and I love the fun playful color scheme! DON'T FORGET : Desperate Housewives - Season Finale tomorrow night!!! *giddy* Stamps : Tubing Riley (Hanna Stamps), Family Phrases (SU!) Paper : Basic Grey - Two Scoops, Not Quite

I am quite sure that the bloggers challenge gang are about to kick my butt out of their group, I have missed so many weeks in a row and totally just because I space it and end up stamping other stuff. The challenges are awesome . This weeks challenge was the layout on page 21 of the Occasions Mini Catalog (SU!) -- the dog card. I had fun making a Riley card that is very much not SU! looking, even though the layout is stolen from there. I only made one modification and that was to add the sentiment tag -- I preferred to put it on the side rather than squish it in my image space. Hope you like it! There is stickles on the pink part of the birthday cake. I got a little carried away with the dots, but hey, it was fun! LOL Stamps: Riley Birthday Cake (Hanna Stamps), SU Family Phrases Paper : Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, Basic Grey Sultry Ink : Versafine Onyx Black, Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi Accessories: White Inkssentials Gel Pen, Wild Wasabi Striped Ribbon, Aquapainte

So I joined Hanna Stamps Design Team, after the Riley and Sophie stamps had been released, and so I asked some team members if they would send some images for me to play with. Well, Kristi, being the super awesome sweetie she is, sent me my own set of the stamps to play with, as well as some new release ones coming soon . . . (CHA is not that far away - save your pennies cause you are going to WANT the new ones - consider this fair warning). Anyway, since I had not touched ink all week (being sick with the pregnancy and then finding out my uncle in Canada passed away, keeping up with household chores and my kids are having some issues). I really needed to stamp. I have been trying to stamp at night, but every night by the time I get to about 9 pm I am SO tired and basically pass out in bed as soon as the kids are asleep. I did wake up around 6 am this morning though, and I made it stamping time -- here is my first ever Riley card! I used SC 176 for the layout and the color scheme c

I was cleaning up my office all this morning and then I came in and found my cutest little boy taking a nap, apparently he fell asleep watching cartoons. It is moments like this that I will treasure forever . . . they just look so sweet when they are asleep. Look at his pretty long lashes! *sigh* ENJOY!

Okay, can you believe I actually missed Greys Anatomy last night! SHEESH! That is just awful! I was putting the kids to bed and by the time I looked at the clock and had finished, the clock said 8:56 pm. *sigh* I did catch up this morning and since I have not posted about Greys for awhile, I just thought I would say how much I LOVED this episode. I seriously still want Mer and Der together and this episode gave me hope. I just loved the way they ended it and I cannot wait to see next week, which is an improvement over the other two most recent episodes that left me feeling like it was just okay. Anyway, someone call me and remind me to get those kids into bed early on Thursday nights . . . please *grins* McDreamy does not like to wait!!! I didn't want to post this card till I was sure the recipient had it in her hot little hands . . . but I know she does now. I made this one for Jen Marie to say thank you for the awesome Cupcake book she sent. She is such a good bloggin

I am in love with the sketch today! Thank you Lynn for creating such a fun sketch for us all to play with! WOW! I watercolored the diva's dress and gifts using my aquapainter and the lids on my ink pads. I covered a chipboard circle with some paper by Making Memories and cut it in half. I like the depth that using the chipboard gave the card. I wanted to do something a little different in the corners, so I put ribbons and it worked perfectly to put it across the extra pink space at the bottom of the image. I originally had saved that space to put a sentiment, but I think the way it ended up looks even better! What do you think? A Manda card would not be complete without some stitching, so I stitched basic zig zags around the outside edge and over the ribbon to hold it all together. I truly love this sketch and if I get some more time today, I will try to stamp another card with it!! Stamps : Rubber Romance, SU All Holidays Paper : Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, Prism Vibrant

Do you ever have days when you just feel like being a bum all day and know you can get away with staying in your PJ's all day long and then just do that? Well, that is today. I did do some housework, I vacuumed and cleaned the entire downstairs of my house . . . but I am still in my PJ's and it is 3:15 pm now . . . so that is pretty bad right? Well, at any rate . . . I stamped this image by Rubber Romance and I say if she can wear her jammies all day, so can I *grins* -- I won these awesome Rubber Romance Mini girls (ATC size) at SOCAL StampMania -- they were in a prize packet donated by Daisy at Eclectic Paperie . They are just so cute! Thanks again Daisy! The colors did not photograph quite right, but since I am in my jammies and too lazy to go outside (plus it is windy, I think it might storm,) to get them to be right, I will just tell you that the color challenge colors today are Lovely Lilac, Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery. Kind of bright and fun! Very girly! A

I decided to play with these sets because I got them in the mail with the new releases and they looked like fun. The colors did not turn out exactly true to how they are in the actual card -- but the color inkspiration came from Scraptitude (link on right) -- I paired chocolate chip, with kraft, bravo burgundy and sage shadow, totally not colors I would normally think to put together myself, but they work surprisingly well with one another. I had fun with my fingertip control exacto knife by Fiscars, cutting out around Hanna and the puppy dog face to make them exploding out of the box. I added some glaze pen to her sash and on her shoes to make them more interesting and dimensional looking. Stamps: My Best Friend (Hanna Stamps), Small Breeds Dog (Hanna Stamps) Paper : Bravo Burgundy, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow, Doggy Paper (Unknown-No label on back) Ink : Memories Black Dye ink, bravo burgundy, sage shadow, wild wasabi (grass) Accessories : Fiscars Fingertip