the.amanda.sewell

Hanna Stamps is having a sale -- well, kind of sort of. You see, there is a coupon code floating around offering 10% off your total order. Wouldn't you like to get your hands on that code? Well you can . . . it is "SUPPORT" -- just enter that in while placing your order and VOILA!!!! Kristi wants to thank all of the awesome people who love Hanna Stamps as much as she and the design team do, and have supported us this year. Coupon is good until Jan 31st, 2009. Go check out all the cool stuff for sale on the Hanna site, there is so much more than just awesome fun stamps! Treat yourself, you deserve it . . . and besides, you can just tell your hubby everything was on sale or that you were doing your part to stimulate the economy *wink wink*

It has been so long since I have touched ink! I had such a good time this evening stamping for this challenge. Jeanne got all busy and just got the challenge posted now (hey, better late than never right) and I jumped right on it. Her challenge was to use a Riley image and an accessory image from one of the Hanna sets. I used garden Riley and the flowers from Hippy Chick Hanna. Layout was Jen's SFYTT (sketch for you to try) . The blue background layers were created by coloring white paper with a copic marker to get a perfect match. Stamps : Garden Riley, Hippy Chick Hanna (Hanna Stamps), Bonjour (Stampabilities) Paper : Chocolate Chip (SU!), Close to Cocoa (SU!), Whisper White (SU!), Solar Crest White (Neenah), Granny's Kitchen - Kitchen Stripes (S.E.I.) Ink : Onyx Black Versafine Accessories : Clear Embossing Powder (SU!), Nestabilities Scalloped Circles, Handheld 1/8th inch circle punch (Fiskars), Sewing Machine, brown thread, ciao markers (Copic), brown dott

We had a fun and relaxing Christmas Day here at the Sewell home. Hope you all did too and that Santa was good to you and you remembered the true meaning of Christmas at least once throughout your day. Here are some photos (I know my mom is dying for more pictures so pardon the picture-palooza): E modeling her new Christmas Princess PJ's J opening a present E opening a present E looking at a couple of her new CD's and J opening the last gift in his stocking J dressing up like Indiana Jones (using his Woody hat) and when he opened WALL-E E thanking J for the present he got her and J with a HUGE smile E and J playing with some toys they got in their stockings Me and Santa baby open up a new baby swing Baby E testing out said swing My cute kids, BIL Joseph & M Santa Baby 1 Santa Baby 2

I can't believe I have slacked so much on posting. I guess that is what happens when you are busy trying to keep up with life. Fortunately, as of this morning my blood pressure was 117/75 and that was with me being due to take a pill, so that is a good sign. I think it has mostly regulated itself back to normal. YAY! This weekend, I spent some time with the kids baking cookies -- well, it is more like, I bake the cookies, and the kids and M taste test them for me. Heheh! I think we are going to make some sugar cookies and gingerbread next. We made some Martha Stewart Chocolate Thumbprints, and some oatmeal scotchies and oatmeal, cranberry, and white chocolate cookies *(I love Betty Crocker cookies mixes that you can just add stuff to)*. My computer decided it wanted to have blue screen of death again -- but since it had happened before, I did not panic and did the steps to repair it that I did last time and VOILA! I am back as of this morning!!! Since I know lots of peopl

I saw this at the local scrapbook store and decided I needed to make one. The one there was on a tree wrapped around and around. I purchased lots of the boshers I would require, but as I worked on it, I figured out I would need TONS more to make it long enough for a tree. When I went back to the store, they did not have the ones I needed, so I will have to order some online. At any rate, I may continue on it next year. The boshers are made by Bazzill Basics (they are a combination of buttons and washers - hence the name). I just tied them together using fun Christmas ribbons and easy peasy made a garland. Hope you like it! I hung it over some pictures on my wall for this year. Here is a close up on a piece of it so you can see the ribbon detail.

Okay, so it is not MY two front teeth, but speaking of teeth, my sweet little girl E lost her first tooth today. It was one of her front ones at the bottom. It had been loose for about a week and when she was brushing her teeth, it just popped out. She was so excited because she knew it was coming. Her new tooth is already there starting to come up. We forgot to put the old one under her pillow tonight -- she fell asleep already, so tomorrow we will and see if the tooth fairy comes -- which reminds me . . . what is the going rate for teeth? HELP!

My new little bundle of boy arrived Dec 4th at 8:25 pm! QUICK STATS: Weight: 6 lbs, 6 oz. Length: 19.5 inches Delivered by: Dr. Partridge I know, I know, you want all the details (or not), but you get them anyway because this is a journal of MY life . . . and I want to document my less than wonderful experience so I remember the details. I went to my Dr.'s appt. on December 3rd, and my blood pressure had increased dramatically, I had been having some signs and symptoms of pregnancy induced hypertension (pre-eclampsia), so I was instructed to go to the hospital. I went in, (called Mon the way and he met me to take the kids) and I was thinking it would just be some monitoring and then I would be able to go home, but my blood pressure was so high, I was taken back quickly, into a gown before I knew it and had to call M to tell him that he needed to take our kids home to a friends house because we most likely were not going home without a baby. By the time M got back to me, they h

Have you been naughty or nice this year? Hanna *may* have been a naughty girl -- posing in her first ever calendar! lol! Hanna has become a pin-up girl. *shock* Don't worry, it's tasteful!!! I absolutely LOVE this set from Hanna Stamps! I know, I know, I always say that huh? But seriously? What is not to like??? I came up with this Christmas card idea, using Hanna dressed up in santa wear, after hearing that "Santa Baby" song on my cable one too many times. It *may* be my sons favorite Christmas song right now -- he's 4, but every time it comes on he sings along with it -- too funny!!! I think we have heard every possible artist rendition of that song. *giggles* Here is a close up of the detail on the brads (I colored each of the raised letters using a red copic marker) and you can see the black spica pen on her shoes shimmering a little bit better! The white word "baby" came from some actual baby rub ons that are meant for a baby book, but

A fun memory that I have from when I was a kid, was the Christmas that we spent at Disney World -- just me, mom and my little sister. It was so fun! The weather was PERFECT! I remember decorating cookies in the resort lobby, going to see this awesome show with all the characters, Pez dispensers on our pillows on Christmas day when we came back to our room, awesome fireworks at Epcot and I am not sure if this even happened there, but I think it did -- I remember my mom crying over these round/star shaped santa and mrs. claus tree decorations because she loved them -- I think that was in Epcot Center where they had the around the world at Christmas stuff. Maybe my mom can chime in and remind me where this was for sure. Weird thing to remember, I know. However, when ever I see a round/star shaped santa now, I think of my mom. (Seriously, not even sure - this could have been anywhere). Well, while I was at xpedx a while ago, I saw this stamp by Stampendous and I had to get it! He was just

Happy December 2nd! Only 13 more days till my due date, not that I am counting!! I will be posting my Christmas Countdown project a little later today as I neglected to pick up the picture I needed to and need to go get that still. So be sure to check back in later! For this first card today, I rotated B eate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #67 (WSC67) . It started out looking very close to the challenge layout still, but in the end, I added the circles of "shut up" and "no way" and the popcorn and so it strayed quite a bit. Oh well, it happens. I really like the end product though and that is what matters! What do you think? Can I still count it for Beate's sketch??? Stamps : Slumber Party (Hanna Stamps), Just What I Meant to Say (Hanna Stamps) Paper : Me & My Big Ideas - Dandelion (DP-07), Certainly Celery (SU), Pumpkin Pie (SU!), Basic Black (SU!), Solar Crest White (Neenah) Ink : Onyx Black Versafine Accessories : Ribbon FX sheer black polk

I am so excited for the sets being released this month! They are being released this THURSDAY night. I really hope you can make it to the release party on SCS in the Hanna Forum from 9-11 pm (EST). They always do giveaways, and challenges, and in general there is lots of insane and fun chatter!!! I tried to make this card a little funkier and out of my normal color palette that I tend to use. I absolutely adore how this card came out! These images are just SO fun to color!! Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think. Your opinion matters to me and helps me to become a better designer!!! I stitched the outside edge of the card in gold thread. Each corner is adorned with a gold brad. The little lamp at the bottom is colored with a gold copic marker and then I used diamond stickles to make it shimmer like it does. Stamps : I Dream of Hanna (Hanna Stamps) Paper : Orchid Opulence (SU!), Almost Amethyst (SU!), Solar Crest White (Neenah), NRN Designs (Madagascar Pai