Bags, Mice and Packages!

Happy Wednesday!

It has been a super busy day for me today! I actually cleaned! Vacuumed, dusted, scrubbed the floors, did a load of laundry! Boy does it feel good to get some of the housework done. Izzy loves to help me! I think she mainly likes to play with the paper towels, but if I limit her to one per room, then I don't have a trail of them through the house!!

Well, today, Izzy was able to get out and play a little bit outside!!! I am so glad. Tomorrow it is going to be a little bit chillier so I don't know if we will be able to. We also need to go pick up a birthday gift for my neighbors' son, tomorrow. His birthday is on Sat. He is so sweet! I asked him the other day what kind of lego sets he was interested in. (He is addicted to legos and is always building something with them.) Well he gave me a long list of the different types he likes and even explained how to get to the online catalog on Lego.com. But then he says, they have really cheep ones that are only 3.99 and those would be nice to have. Isn't he cute! How many 10 almost 11 year olds would be so thoughtful. The only problem with him is that he isn't too enthusiastic about waiting 20 years to get married so that Izzy will be of age. I don't know what he is thinking! Lol!

So, today I was able to get a lot of stamping done. I have found that if I color on the floor with Izzy she is less inclined to ask me to read a different book every 5 minutes. I guess she figures that I am super handy and not as interesting. I don't know! We will see if this strategy works tomorrow! Anywhoo, I was out searching the web for my usual Wed. challenges when I came across the SUInk blog. I started off with this week's Whatchadoin' Wednesday Challenge over at SUInk and More, which was to create a holiday bag. I am pretty sure they meant a Christmas Bag, but I decided to create a Thanksgiving bag. We are going over to my cousin's house for dinner, so it would be nice to bring a little thank you!

I just love the fall colors on this. This bag is not one I created but a candy bag I picked up at Michaels a couple of months ago. They are pretty inexpensive. Any ways, I started this project off by stamping the pilgrim girl and sentiment from Bountiful Harvest and the little Native American dog from Giving Thanks, both by SUInk and More. I colored them in using my copics and stampin' write markers. I then adhered a piece of brown card stock and a piece of DP to the front of the treat bag, cutting out a hole with my nestabilities. Next I cut out a green oval, a DP oval and a brown oval with my nesties. I put my sentiment into a metal tag holder and braded it(is that a word?) to the ovals. I ran a piece of decorative ribbon around the bag and adhered the oval tags. I finished off the bag by adding a decorative bow and filling it up with some candy pumpkins. I think it is so cute! I just know Cindy will love it!!!

My second card for today is a card I created for this week's What's Up Wednesday Challenge over at MFT. The challenge was to use a white gel pen on your card. Well, since I just recently received Farm Friends in the mail and hadn't had a chance to ink it up, I knew what stamp set I was using. I just love the little mouse and couldn't wait to use him.

I decided that I wanted a Christmas card and no I don't feel guilty about it, so I had to create my own background. I started off by stamping the mouse image twice and stamping the holly leaf from Hare for the Holidays several times to create a background. I then colored them in, added some faux stitching with my gel pen and cut out the mouse, the frame and background and popped them off each other to make a little diorama. I then alternated layers of blue card stock, green card stock, dark rose card stock and Christmas DP to create the layout. I added faux stitching with my gel pen and a pink marker. I then threaded through a small blue ribbon, adhered a metal swirl and added three blue stickers. I printed off the sentiment on my computer and attached it with some metal hardware. I am so proud of myself that I was able to come up with the layout all by myself! Yeah me!!!

My final card for today is a very special card. Cassie, my friend and fellow sister over at Pink Papery Studios, issued a very personal and important challenge this week. Her challenge was to create a card using gray and red, the colors of the American Diabetes Association. The gray represents the daily drudgery of diabetes and the red signifies the daily blood testing that is required. I think this is an excellent idea and also hits home with me. While I was pregnant with Izzy I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. This was quite a shock to me since I had no history of diabetes in my family and did not have any of the typical precursors for this disorder. I was required to test my blood three times a day and was put on a restrictive diet. Fortunately, I was not required to take insulin but was able to control it with diet and exercise. My experience ended when I gave birth, but I know individuals that are diagnosed with either Type I or Type II Diabetes are not so fortunate. Theirs lasts a lifetime. If you would like more information about either the challenge or Cassie's personal story, please head over to her blog.

I decided to create a card that used the challenge colors but also had a happy message. I used All Wrapped Up form Pink Papery Studios and printed it off on my computer. I colored in the picture with my copics and stampin' write markers. I then followed today's sketch challenge over at SCS for the layout, layering gray and red card stock, as well as Christmas DP. I added two small pictures from the original image to the corners and added some metal swirl clips and pearl stickers to the opposite corners. I threaded through some red ribbon, tied a bow and popped of the main image in the center. I think this makes a really beautiful Christmas card.

Well, I am out of here for tonight! I am baking a cake and need to go pull it out of the oven. Have a wonderful evening and thanks as always for stopping by!!!