Excitement is in the Air!

So I had a few of the neighborhood kids over the house this week. Tyler and David sure have a great group of friends to play with, but with two of those boys come older sisters who have to keep an eye on them.

All four of these kids are great. The two boys play with my two boys, one of the sisters stays on my Internet for hours if she's allowed to and the other girl - the oldest - has a love of genealogy and enjoys being crafty. This week I tried a few of my techniques on her and I was very impressed with Miss Beth's craft-itude! She's promised to allow me to practice on her again! Anyway, here is my version of the cards that we worked on together.

The first was a variation on the card in the last post. I turned it on its side and added the dingy but everything else - ink and card stock colors and stamp set remained the same though we went ahead and left off the ribbon this time. We used Prisma Colored Pencils with some odorless mineral spirits - called the gamasol technique. Other techniques include: two step stamping, and masking.

Our second card we used Blue Bayou, Apricot Appeal and River Rock card stock, Blue Bayou ink, and the Au Natural stamp set. This is a stamp set that I bought at the end of the last Stampin' Up! year and have just now gotten around to using. I used the flower, she used the butterfly. This card started out as a spot light card, but I decided that I wanted the entire panel colored in instead. I also used holographic highlights glitter with the two way glue pen to get the glitter exactly where I wanted it. Lastly we died the new Stampin' Up! taffeta ribbon. The color is gorgeous on this ribbon!! What a treat!

Our last card was taken from a card I made at Gwen's house not too long ago. She and I sat down and copied a card from a book - I don't know which book, and if she reads this blog before I put up a new post I'm sure she'll let me know the name of the book! Anyway she was working with a Halloween theme for her card, and I chose an "In Color" theme for mine - in other words there's no rhyme or reason to it! I used Big Pieces and Little Pieces stamp sets, Purely Pomegranate, Blue Bayou, Groovy Guava, Soft Sky, River Rock and Wild Wasabi card stocks and inks. I still don't like the Wild Wasabi color but I hope that the more I use it the more I will grow to like it - no good so far! Oh, and in addition to all the products listed above we used every size circle punch Stampin' Up! offers!

So now that you've seen all my recent cards here's another one - that I didn't make! I received this as a RAK from AJ Otto (willosmama) from Splitcoast Stampers! I was thrilled to receive such a sweet card, I love the colors and her use of the patterned paper with this stamp set! How awesome!! Thank you so much AJ, I hope you enjoy the card that I've sent you in return. (Should look familiar when it arrives as it's one of the ones listed above!!)

The last thing I wanted to say before I sign off for the night is to let you know that I may be MIA for the next week or so. Many of you may know that my wonderful husband Tim has been serving our country on his third deployment to Iraq and has been gone since June of 2006. Our long wait for his return is nearly ended however as he is expected home sometime before Monday!

I'm sure you can understand our excitement and anxiety as our reunion draws closer. I hope you will pray for our family during this time of transition - especially for the children who now have to readjust yet again. I will post after a while about our reunion and all the wonderful things that are in store for us!

Here's the last picture I shot of Tim before he left home in June. You can tell by the look on his face he was tired of the camera at this point, but I couldn't resist one last shot! I'm lucky he loves me!