Cards, Cards, Cards!

So dude.  I'm sorry I've been so sporadic in my blogging.  I have been so. stinking. busy.  And my blogging time used to be in the morning.  Gage had his own room downstairs, and he loved to sleep in until 10 or so.  The older kids would be at school, and Micah was usually happy playing by himself in the morning.  (It's the afternoons and evenings when he is, to use a term my bestie Pooh uses in reference to her three-year-old, "a complete punk.  Not just a punk.  A complete punk."  Maybe he's more tired at that time?  Probably.) 

When my grandpa died, we inherited his queen box springs and mattress, which are in really fantastic shape.  So we thought, "Welp, it's time to give Dylan his own room with the queen bed, and it's time to have Micah and Gage share a bunk bed."  So we made that transition - Dylan is in HOG HEAVEN with that bed, by the way - and now Micah, The Early Riser, happily and loudly wakes his little brother at 7:30 on the dot every morning.  So then Gage is grumpy from waking up earlier than he wants to, resulting in him being up in my grill all morning until his nap.  Won't leave me alone.  Won't give me a moment to rest.  I am his jungle gym.  His food provider.  His helper.  His playmate.  His protector (from Micah).  His everything.  And he thinks it's hilarious to pound on my keyboard while I'm trying to type.

So Blogging Time has been all skewed.  And I can't concentrate on blogging at night when Ben is here, because he listens to things on TV SO LOUDLY.  (When I work on my Sunday School lessons, I literally have to put ear plugs in my ears to drown out the noise of my children's sycophantic screaming and my husband's loud TV habit.)  Plus I feel weird blogging with Ben around.  He always looks over my shoulder and makes me feel all blushy and weird.  And I'm so busy during the day with my crazy kiddos. I just need to figure out when to carve some time out for myself to do this.  Because I love to journal.

Part of the so. stinking. busy. thing has been a Mother's Day gift I was working on for my mom:

When Gramps died, my sister, Beads, and I made a scrapbook of pictures from his life to give to Mom (and to display at our little family luncheon after the graveside service).  We spent an entire day scanning old pictures, and then two more entire days assembling the scrapbook.  And it's not that pretty.  We just slapped those pictures on there.  Time was of the essence. 

My mom loves the scrapbook of Grandpa and was saying how much she wanted a scrapbook of pictures of Grandma, so two of my sisters and I decided to do that for her for Mother's Day.  Well, three of us financed it, and I got to do it. :)  Which is fine.  I love scrapbooking.  But, long story short, I worked on that sucker every night for three weeks or so and still didn't have it finished in time for Mother's Day.  Sigh.  So it's still a work in progress.  I want to get it done sometime this millenium, so I haven't even added any embellishments.  Just paper and cutting and arranging and gluing.

Also - EEEEEE! - I got a Silhouette for my birthday, and I've been spending tons of time getting to know it and understand it and use it.  For those who don't know, a Silhouette looks like a printer, but it's an intricate cutter. It can cut anything.  So you either draw shapes or buy shapes digitally from the online store, and you can adjust them and cut them.  You can cut ANY SHAPE YOU COULD EVER THINK OF.  Amazing. My good friend Megs has one and I've been coveting it for a couple of years. 

So now, no more drawing things freehand and cutting them out, one by one, with scissors.  If I want to make a paper frame, no more punching a hole in the middle of my shape with the end of my scissors and cutting the inside of the square to make a frame.  My cards will look so much more professional and amazing.  My Silhouette makes me really, REALLY happy.

Sooooo, with my new Silhouette, I designed some Mother's Day cards and some Graduation Cards.  Are you ready for the cuteness????

I downloaded the owl shapes and the saying from the Silhouette online store, and my Silhouette came with 50 shapes already, one of which is that bookplate shape at the bottom.  And the gorgeous background paper was a birthday gift from my friend Kathleen.

And here's the graduation card I designed for my two sisters who got their Master's and Doctorate degrees, respectively:

I downloaded the manila envelope and tag shapes from the Silhouette online store as well.  No more freehanding an envelope shape and cutting it out with scissors.  No more measuring and cutting my own tags and going, "That tag doesn't look symmetrical..."  That background paper is also from Kathleen.

So. much. fun.

And no, I don't have any extras in my etsy shop yet.  Sorry 'bout tha'.  I just have to finish this scrapbook before I can move forward with more cards.  I have tons and tons that I need to make and lots of cute paper to make them with.

One more feast for the eyes before I go.  In my cardmaking group, our leader (a Stampin' Up Consultant) taught us a new technique which we used to make this gorgeous card:

I know, right? I die every time I look at this card.  I gave this one to my mom for Mother's Day.  It's just wayyyy too gorgeous to keep to myself.  I want to try this technique with more cards. 

Kay, I have to go to seven trillion dishes... sigh...