Playing . . .

I had some more fun playing with my Penny Black stamps that I got. I absolutely adored this little cow with balloons and I thought it just had so many uses (birthday, thank you, congratulations, get well soon) that I just had to have her.

This image was so easy to color. I just added a little pink to her nose, ears and udder, and then colored the balloons using my ink pad and an aquapainter until I got the color I wanted for them. I tried to match the paper as well as I could. I just loved this background paper!

I tried a bunch of different ribbons to work on this card. I wanted some black gingham, but AMAZINGLY, I was out of it, so I was going to go with black rick rack until I came across this ribbon that I got from Jody and thought it would be perfect. Thanks Jody! I used my scallop edged scissors on the edge of the green to make it look all pretty and then I was trying to decide where to put the sentiment. I tried a little tag on the side, but it hung all wonky doodles because of the ribbon and looked weird. So, I decided to just go for it and stamp directly on the patterned paper. It was risky because I could have so easily messed it up (and I kind of did since it is not perfectly straight -- but it'll do). I am so in love with these cows . . . almost as much as I love the Bellas!!!

The second card I made was a quickie. I had these awesome Penny Black (are you surprised?) sentiments that I wanted to try with a floral background, so I stamped some florals from SU "Mixed Bouquet" in some old color challenge colors (see, it pays to be a slacker cause then you always have options), and then just adhered the sentiment to matching card stock and put it all together. I added the strip of black with white polka dot ribbon on just cause I am addicted to it and I thought it worked and added something to the card.

Oh and guess what else we did yesterday . . . M and I went to look at the house we are interested in buying and we set up an appointment to sign a contract next Saturday and we picked out our exterior color scheme. I am so EXCITED! We figured out that our back yard from the edge of the pre-poured patio to the back wall is about 60 feet and our lot side to side is about 60 ft, so my backyard will be 60x60. AWESOME! We currently have a small landing strip backyard (super tiny and not very useful) so I am so excited to have space to plant a garden, put a big playground hut in, and have grill space and socializing space. YAY! Here is a link to our floor plan for those of you who are interested in it: MANDA'S HOUSE. Oh and the other thing is we will be moving out of the "city" and more into a small town -- I am excited about this as we will still be close enough to the city to get everything we need (READ: the latest and most exciting stamping stuff) -- but at the same time, far enough out that we avoid city life and attitudes. They said 5-6 months from when we sign our contract, so M and I are furiously working on getting the current house prepared to sell, which is a lot of work since we have two little ones under foot. I just wanted to let you all know so that if you notice I am MIA, then you can guess that is where I am.