the.amanda.sewell

So, we made it to the wedding in the nick of time. M thought the wedding ceremony was at 5:30, well, we got there just after 4:30 and we were feeling great because we had an hour to get us and two kids ready, well, as it turns out, the wedding was at 5:00pm. SO, we hurried as fast as we could to get dressed. Then we went over to the wedding. Very small wedding. Very small gathering. Fun. Best moments were watching E and her cousin dance by the pond, watching M swing dance with his mom and dancing with M. He is too cute. J fell off a bench on the gazebo and did a face plant. He got his hands out in front of him though, which caught him a bit, but he still had a big boo boo on his head when we left. We stayed overnight at M's sisters house and after a brief golf session, drove back home Saturday morning. That is a lot of driving in two days! The best part of the wedding and trip was that two days before, E just decided she was going to go on the potty all the time, and she ha...

The IMAX film calls it "treasure of the Gods" and I could totally see why this time while we were driving though. It was just gorgeous. Some of the leaves had started to turn on the trees and WOW! I took some pictures. Thought you might enjoy seeing them.

Seriously! Who waits till the day before to start packing, and preparing to go on a trip (*raises hand*) How dumb am I? I planned an oil change for 2 pm today. Before that, I have to shop for a wedding gift, shop for something to wear for me and J. E has a dress, thank goodness. Pack M and the rest of the family up and have us all ready because M wants us to leave early (read: 4am) tomorrow morning. UGH! Oh, and I have to have all this done before Grey's Anatomy tonight or I would just have to DIE if I missed it!!! I wanted to upload pictures of the tins that I made to send my two lucky subscribers, but it will have to wait till tomorrow. I do, however, promise to photograph them at some point today and at least save them to my laptop *smiles*. Yet another thing to add to my to do list . . . oh, and I will upload the wedding card I make today too . . . See ya tomorrow . . . *swoosh*

When I bought all the alcohol inks, I also picked up a bottle of "Butterscotch" color wash by Adirondak as well. I am still up in the air on how much I like the wash, but, I did play with it. For this card I used glossy cardstock and spritzed the color wash on. Then I used my heat tool to spread it out more and create the color patterns you see. I then embossed the pumpkin in black on top. The background cardstock is summer sun, stamped with pumpkin pie ink using the linen background stamp. Then I stamped "Thank you very much" in basic black. I was trying to create a distressed look with my stamping, so I stamped it kind of crooked and also (although you cannot see it well here) stamped off on a piece of paper before stamping on the cardstock for shadows. I then sponged the edges and some surfaces. The ribbon was also sponged with pumpkin pie so that the white stitching appears more orange. I added some copper cord on the bow at the top and some black brads...

Today at Walmart we found these most adorable jammies. They just happened to have them in both E and J's size, so I got them. Naturally the kiddies wanted to wear them to bed. They looked so darn cute, even M commented on them. Anyway, I just had to take a bunch of pictures and here is my favorite one:

As I said before, Karen and I spent some time playing with alcohol inks. I made lots of papers but did not make any cards with them, until last night. I decided to play. It turned out to be fairly productive -- two cards in one evening is not bad for me. The first card was actually not the adirondack alcohol inks, but did use the applicator and felts. Karen made this background. It is done with rubbing alcohol on the felt and then adding drops of vintage violet reinker. It turned out just as bold as the alcohol inks this way. I decided to play with chipboard and my Halloween paper since it matched perfectly, and I covered a buckle with it and added gem stones. Then I stamped the cats in versamark and embossed them in black. I decided the card needed something more, so I stamped the swirl from Fresh Fillers everywhere in versamark and embossed it. I then went a little crazy with the white gel pen. I think it looks good though. I colored the cats eyes in first for a shocking...

WOW! I am so excited that there was such a great response to my request for all of you lurkers out there to subscribe. It did not take long at all to get to 13 and 27. YAY!!! I don't feel so alone on my blog anymore now that I know there are some of you out there reading it *grins* So, who are the winners???? Well, lucky number 13 was KAREN and lucky number 27 was VICKI -- Winners, thank you for sending me an email (link right above the little subscribe area on the sidebar) to let me know where to send your prizes to!!! Thanks to all who subscribed. Also, just a heads up, send your friends on over and get them subscribed because I am going to have one awesome prize for subscriber #100 -- it is awhile away, but hey, I can dream that I will get there one day right??? I am off to bed for the night! Happy stamping and sweet dreams *smiles*

Karen (momof2stampers) came to visit this weekend. She was going to visit another friend in AZ, and since I was here too, she came to stay Saturday. We had so much fun! We spent all day Saturday doing damage (Karen more than me) in some scrap/stamp stores in the valley. We hit another one on Sunday afternoon (I know, I know -- bad little Amanda shopping on Sunday). Anyway, it was just so fun! We stamped. Karen showed me how to make this really cool Christmas ball, and I showed her how to make one too. We had such a great time chattering about life and the different aspects of it that we are dealing with. Karen is such a good advice giver and listener. It was fun!!! DISCLAIMER: I don't normally look this bad. I had on no make up and I just threw my hair in a pony tail after I got out of the shower -- just so you don't think I am totally a slacker). Oh, and Karen brought the most glorious Canadian foods. She brought me dill pickle chips, smarties, mint aero bars, wi...

So this month for Jody in our swaps, I decided to do all things Halloween. With the exception of one project, they are all Halloween related. Some of the awesome ideas came from my upline Marsha. I had so much fun making all this stuff. The first item is just a simple box. I used paper cut to 10x10 and I scored at 2.5 inches on each side. I used SU designer series paper. The bottom was the same, only just trimmed down slightly. I filled it with Mike and Ikes (an entire Halloween goodies bag full of them) and then tied it with a big black ribbon around it. I added other ribbons and a "Happy Boo to You" tag which was just a basic tag made using the SU tag corner punch, and sponging on the edges. I also added a black circle at the top of the tag to give it a finished look. This second project was a pop up surprise card -- and I used pictures from our trip to El Paso to visit with Jody from July. I thought it would be a good memory to keep. You can do this type of card...

MINUTES until Karen2 from Splitcoast arrives (okay, actually over 60, but I am still excited)! I am excited to play with her, shop with her, stamp with her. SUBSCRIBERS - ALSO, just a few more subscribers and I can announce the winners . . . so if you have not subscribed . . . DO IT! It's the cool thing to do and everyone else is doing it and all that . . . COMMENTS - Also, thank you to those of you who have left comments. I am such a comment junkie! I need them. I feed off them . . . so if you like something I did, tell me, or if you want to see something . . . tell me! HOURS - until Jody will have her package from me and I can post all the cool things I created for you to see. Are you excited? Probably not, but I sure am!!!

My grandma will be buried today. I am not there, but I did make a card to send to my grandpa the other day. I felt I needed to explain why I was not attending the funeral. I felt like I needed to thank him for all he did for my grandma, and I felt like I wanted to send my condolences. I got the layout for this card from SCS, a most gorgeous card by Marge Sexton . The images were an I-RAK that I got a long time ago and had not put to good use so far. The roses are colored with cranberry crisp ink, lumiere, and then topped with crystal effects and a little dazzling diamonds, for a super glittery look. The background is stamped with French Script in cranberry and then the thyme cardstock is stamped with true thyme ink using the canvas background stamp. I used square brads on the hardware for a different look, and also used them on the corners as an accent. I hope my grandpa knows how much I will forever love and cherish the time I had with my grandma. Oh, and for those of you who ...

Okay, I admit it! I am obsessed. I seriously just love the rose in SU Mixed Bouquet. I hardly use the other stamps in the set. It just looks awesome no matter what you do with it. You can color it in any colors. It is just such a "me" stamp. I cannot believe how much I use it. Some other stamps sets are starting to complain because they are feeling neglected *wink* This morning I tackled the color challenge, and also the bonus on the sketch challengeand the ways to use it challenge from last Thursday, and this afternoon I will work on the actual sketch challenge. For the color challenge I did not have any sahara sand, so I used some "khaki" cardstock that I had from Michael's which I thought looked similar (although perhaps a bit more green than the sahara sand). I stamped the rose and leaves in versamark and then chalked them using cotton swabs. It has been a long time since I have taken out those stampin pastels, but I really like how it looked when ...

Yesterday was an awesome mail day! I got my swaps from Jody (texasjodylynn). Let me explain, each month, Jody and I swap three things -- cards, 3D objects (usually), and sometimes goodies we find that we think the other person might like. We have done this for about 6 months I think. Well yesterday I got the most amazing Jody package. Here are a few pictures of the stuff inside. The chocolate box was made with designer paper and said "You make life sweet" on top and inside there were some yummy dove chocolates. Seriously, dark chocolate is the BEST! Next I found this most gorgeous purse with some treasures inside it. Some gems and some princess brads, and a harry potter bookmark. The purse itself is amazing. I asked Jody how she did it and she said with chalk and craft inks and lots of embossing powder. It just shines. It is just so amazing. She put in so many brads and she said she even had to use a drill on it. Amazing! I avoid scary tools like drills wher...

For the record, I am only on disc 5 -- I have two more discs of season 2 to watch before Thursday night . . . so that should be pretty crazy. I also want to get some stamping in there and we have the Orkin man coming to spray today -- not sure how much supervision he needs . . . anyway . . . Okay, someone posted links to the Fray video - How to Save a Life on YouTube, and there are a bunch of other promos on there. It is seriously making me so stoked to see this season. I am going crazy with anticipation, so I thought I would share: How to Save a Life - The Fray An Anatomy Lesson Season 3 Promo on ABC I stamped some really cool stuff yesterday that I will upload later this week after the person getting it has it in their hot little hands -- so for today, I will try to do, upload and post the color challenge and then make sure you check back later for the cool stuff. Oh, some really really good news . . . . yesterday E told me she needed to go potty, so we put her on the potty and sh...

So yesterday was an extremely stressful day for me. I tried to find a flight to my grandma's funeral, but they are all so crazy expensive, and it would have required a lot of sacrifice from my family to be able to go. M agreed that because I am so far away, I would be the one that would have to make the most sacrifice to be there and that would include M taking days off work, my kids being without their mommy for 3 days, no vacation this year because M will have used up all the vacation days before then. M said he would support me in whatever I decided. I felt like I really needed to be there for my family, but also that I really do already have closure because I visited my grandma in the summer and we shared some special moments. I went back and forth and it was so emotionally trying, because I know my mom really would rather me be there -- but in the end I decided that I should not go. I even went so far as to book the ticket and then I had to cancel it. My grandma knew ho...

This is the last card I had to come up with for this event. I really hope the girls like it. I was inkspired by my upline Marsha. She sent me our monthly meeting on DVD (how cool is that by the way) and she did a pocket card on it, and I thought, perfect, I am going to do one of those for super Saturday!!! You measure the cardstock 11 x 4 1/4 -- you then score the cardstock at 5 1/4 and 10.5 and a bit (as Marsha would say) *wink* Then you fold and use terrifically tacky tape, or SU sticky strip (same stuff) and put it together. This card is done in cranberry crisp and pretty in pink ink. I stamped the pretty in pink cardstock with the same tone for the flowers. The flowers came from SU "All Through the Year." Then I stamped Happy Birthday over in cranberry crisp trying to avoid as much trapped space as possible. If I found a space I had some trapped area-- I simply stamped another pink flower. Simple right? I punched the pink with the larger SU circle punch, and the...

My grandma passed away this morning. I did not know about it. I was at a Creating Keepsakes Convention during the day and my mom called me at like 5:00 pm with the sad news. I will be going out of town for a funeral later this week. I loved her very much and she will be missed. Here is her obituary: REDD, Winnifred - Peacefully at Bethseda Naval Hospital, Maryland on Saturday, September 16th, 2006 in her 86th year. Beloved daughter of the late Alice and Thomas Burt. Predeceased by her husbands Leo Gauer, George Scott and David Dixon. Survived by her loving husband Don Redd. Dear mother of Larry Gauer (Warren), Gene Gauer (Polly), Rick Gauer (Sheila) and Lori Woodrow. Grandmother of Chris (Dave), Rob (Sharon), Steve (Kim), Amanda (Michael), Valerie, Michael, Sarah, Jesse and Thomas. Great Grandmother of Brianna, Aiden, Emma and Jonah. Friends may call at OSHAWA FUNERAL SERVICE , “Thornton Chapel” 847 King St. West (905-721-1234) for visitation on Wednesday, September 20th...

I was asked to demonstrate how to make cards at the next Super Saturday for my church, which is being held Oct. 21st. I am supposed to come up with one Christmas card, one thank you, and maybe one birthday card. So far I have only come up with two. The first one is a simple card using punches. I used SU's "All Through the Year" and SU's "Tiny Talk" sets. The background snowflakes are bashful blue, stamped tone on tone. A white gel pen was used on the centers of the snowflakes in the background to add some spunk. Some were done straight lines and some were done with dots. The snowflakes in the squares are done using a spectrum pad. I then took a glitter gems glittery pen, and traced over them for a little bit of extra sparkle. Then the squares were layered on bashful blue and then on to the brilliant blue. The word window punch outs were folded in half and adhered, and a brilliant blue brad completes the look. Let it Snow was stamped in brillian...

I know it is not a big deal to some people, but yesterday my blog had 115 unique visitors (over 100) for the first time ever! I was so excited. I just wanted to come and thank all of you who stop by today and tell you to keep on hanging out here! I totally appreciate your comments and support *smiles*

I used the color challenge colors to do the sketch challenge. I love love love this sketch!!! The background is stamped with SU's cheesecloth in almost amythest (tone on tone). Next I stamped the black flowers on a diagonal, across the cheesecloth. The rest is pretty self explanatory. The biggest flowers are bashful blue, the second biggest are almost amythest and the small ones are clearly black and real red. I tied on red grosgrain, and then some black plaid ribbon that I had never used before, and black hemp (which is hard to see, but in between the two ribbons). Oh, and the brads on the ribbon are just a little effort to keep the ribbon more straight looking. When I tie onto the ribbon, often it does not line up right anymore, and I know it is an anal rententive, perfectionist thing, but it bugs me. The faux stitching was done with a piercing tool and a black gel pen. The sentiment is by Stampers Anonymous. I got it on my El Paso trip and had not had a chance to use it...

So last night, I decided that even though I had a really rough day, I would have a friend over to stamp. She came and we decided to do the color challenge . I had a lot of fun. We also made a Halloween Post it Note Holder, matching pen and matching candy bag topper. This card was inkspired by a layout by Jen Stevenson. The first thing I did was stamp the image and work on coloring it with the color challenge colors. I colored the umbrella yellow because I thought it would be perfect (even though it was an extra color). I think I always like to add an extra color in there, not sure why. Then I added the crystal effect to her raincoat, boots and a little on the puddle, so it would have some time to dry. Then I worked on the panel in bashful blue. I added the dots on the bottom and stamped the original sentiment on the blue. It turned out crooked a bit, and being the perfectionist that I am, I had to fix it, so I stamped it on white, layered on almost amythest, layered red, an...

My mom just called and told me that my grandma in Virginia is dying. She has cancer and she went through chemo therapy and such, and we kind of knew it was coming, but it still hurts so bad to hear. I am so sad. I love her so much. I just wanted to keep my readers (all two of you) updated and let you know what was up with me and why I may not be actively posting so much . . .

Okay, I cannot tell you how excited I am. Today is the day that season 2 of Grey's Anatomy comes out on DVD and not only that, but the season 2 soundtrack comes out. Poor hubby's wallet will not be happy today, but I sure am!! Oh, and just for your viewing pleasure I thought I would include a few pictures of McDreamy -- mmmmmm! I love this show! Only one more week to the season premiere on Sept. 21st -- DON'T MISS IT on it's new night - THURSDAY!!!!! I am a little sad that Izzie may (or may not) have left the show. She was probably the only girl who was really cool on it . . . but we shall see. Counting down the hours till the premiere . . .

So I revisited Rhonna's exercises last night, since I did not complete them all when they were listed. The card I made was from the challenge on the 24th, which was to take ideas/inspiration from your inspiration book and use them on a project. This idea came from the side of an asian-looking pot. The flower image stamp I used on this is from SU Heartfelt Thanks - watercolored from the lid of the ink pad with going grey, the sentiment is by rubber stampede. Also in going grey there is some circles from SU Sweet Spot and dots from SU Itty Bitty Backgrounds, and the rest of the stuff on the background layer is doodling, yup, doodling. It was so fun to play. I felt so free. I never just hand draw on my cards. I am really satisfied with how this turned out. All of the doodling was done using a black gel pen. I had to wait in between doodles so as to not smear or smudge the other ones. Black brads were added as an afterthought in the center of the tight swirls and I love how they tur...

After my busy day of running around yesterday, today is painting day. We are painting EJ's room a pale canary yellow. She wanted a princess room, but I refused to do pink, so it was purple or yellow and she chose yellow. We bought all the princess bedding, and now all we need to get are come curtains and sheets and a new big girl bed. No more toddler bed -- WOOHOO! I am so excited to actually get this done and not get suckered into stamping *wink wink* So far I just have the walls painted a pale yellow (not as bright as in the picture) and the princess border up . . . now I need to replace all the outlet covers and such and then clean up and put her bed in the room and pictures on the wall and stuff. I am excited about the color though -- it turned out to be just perfect!!!

It has been awhile since I have done a sketch challenge. This one appealed to me. I saw a card, last night as I was browsing, that I just loved the background paper on and loved the colors. It just inkspired me. It was by mlseward . The colors I used were cranberry crisp, pumpkin pie, apricot appeal, and old olive. The neutral paper is confetti cream (which you cannot really see in the picture, but is really obvious in the actual card). With the sketch challenge, I tried to recreate the background paper on mlseward's card using itty bitty backgrounds (SU). I really like how this turned out. I was also lucky to have lots of ribbon on hand that happened to match this color scheme. I made it an invitation because I swore to myself that today I was going to work on projects for my Halloween stamp camp, and invitations almost count since I might make invites for it. *smiles* Good justification eh? I used the cheesecloth because it is new for me. The brads (thanks Jody) wer...

DH and I were talking and we decided that we are both going to run. Every other night we alternate and one of us will run. I get Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and M gets Monday, Wednesday, Friday with Sunday off for both of us. There are no restrictions on how long. It does not matter if you walk instead of run. They key point is that every other night we are out there doing something active. I am really excited. I need to lose weight so bad. I am carrying around baby weight still and it is not healthy and shopping for clothes is not fun anymore. SO, I will keep you updated on how progress with that goes . . .

I did color challenge 78. I think it turned out ugly, but as I have recently read, even some of the most awesome artists *ahem JulieHRR* turn out crud they don't like and have to redo things, so I decided to post my card anyway, and maybe you all will have some constructive criticism, or maybe you will like it and tell me I am insane. Either way, I decided that posting it would be wise. The colors were cranberry crisp, old olive and vintage violet. First I stamped the flower from SU "All Through the Year" in cranberry crisp on whisper white. I decided it needed something more, so I stamped the SU "Cheesecloth" background over it. Then I decided it was still too boring, so I sponged old olive ink on reinforcement circles and then added them as a center to each of the flowers. By the time I got that done, I decided that it was too colored looking and needed some white to POP! So, I pierced holes in the center of each one and added a white brad. Then I added the vi...