Juggling Too Much?

Recently I've been busy, crafty-wise, with design assignments. But once the kids were back in school again after their long weekend, I was finally able to turn my attention to a project I've had simmering on the back burner for a while now. Here's my result:

Does this feel like you, too? Well, except for the stylish pencil skirt and those high-heeled shoes, this card pretty much sums up my life these days. Juggling a million details that keep my family running smoothly without any major train wrecks.

This card was inspired by the Use 10 Embellishments Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, in honor of the release of the new Paper Crafts special issue, 75 Creative Card Challenges.

Yes, indeedy, you guessed it--the idea here is to use 10 different embellishments all on the same card in an innovative way. That last part had me stymied for a while. I mean any old fool (this one included!) can slap a bunch of googaws on a card and call it a day. But I wanted mine to mean something, to really tell a story, and not just look like some useless afterthoughts (which is what usually happens if I try to add more than one or two embellies)! Ten? I had my work cut out for me!

My very wise hubby is a big fan of consigning the solution of vexing problems to the subconscious. Can't see how to tackle something right away? Familiarize yourself with the problem and just walk away from it, sleep on it, do something completely different for a while. And that ol' subconscious just plugs away on it, chews it over, and pretty soon smacks you up side the head--completely out of the blue--with just the insight, answer, approach, or solution method that you need. That's just how it happened for me:  in the middle of brushing my teeth while thinking about something completely different.

I selected my embellishments very carefully, picking them for the kinds of tasks that we modern women must juggle.  I had to increase my card size to a mega 5" x 7" to get them to all fit comfortably! Anyway, starting with that ribbon rose on the bottom left, and then going clockwise, we have :

1. The red ribbon rose symbolizes time spent bringing happiness, thoughtfulness, and our thankfulness to others in the form of gifts, cards, phone calls, emails, and favors.
2. The paperclip symbolizes time spent at work.
3. The baseball brad symbolizes time spent managing (and chauffeuring!) kid activities.
4. The wooden clock face symbolizes time spent managing and planning the family calendar.
5. The sparkly apple cabochon symbolizes time spent on planning, shopping, and preparing tasks that keep the family well-nourished.
6. The mini wooden clothespin symbolizes time spent on housekeeping chores.
7. The shiny star brad symbolizes time spent overseeing and helping with the kids' schoolwork.
8. The Asian coin symbolizes time spent on all the myriad financial management tasks.
9. The wooden Bingo number symbolizes time spent on family fun activities and "me" time.
10. The shiny little key symbolizes time spent on home and auto maintenance.

Whew! I'm tired now just thinking of it all! But this little exercise has also been a great reminder of all the many blessings we enjoy. Life may be busy, but it's also quite good!

So, if you feel like you are juggling too much, too, I do believe I know how you feel. And hopefully knowing that will lift you up and make the juggling just a tiny bit easier to manage. :)

Thank you so much for joining me for a little slice of bliss today! It's always a joy to have you drop by!
Emily

StampinB Halloween Challenge

Happy Thursday! It's time for a new challenge from the Stampin' B's Design Team. This week Faith is our hostess, and she is challenging us to make a Halloween card. I had so much fun with Mr. Smiles earlier in the week that I just had to press him into service again:

That SPOOK bingo card is another digital element from the Haunted Collection by Carina Gardner that I first used earlier this week. Mr. Smiles once again was colored with colored pencils and odorless mineral spirits. And that bejeweled spider web? An adhesive embellishment I picked up in a clearance rack at Target last year after Halloween. (Unfortunately, there was no way to try out how it would look against that bingo card without it sticking. I'm afraid that it blends into the background way too much. It would have looked better if I'd adhered the web to some vellum and cut out around that before adding it to my card. Ah, well. Hindsight really is 20/20.)

I'm playing along with these challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp Challenge : ANYTHING GOES
• Paper Sundaes Challenge: ANYTHING GOES

Thanks so much for dropping by today. If you'd like to try your hand at this week's Stampin' B's Challenge, post your project on your blog or SCS gallery, and link it up to the Inlinkz tool on the Stampin' B's blog. We'd love to see what you create!! :)

See you soon!
Emily

PS The sweet Paulina of Pretty Pink Posh is offering an awesome giveaway: a Big Shot Machine and two sets of Spellbinder dies. If you are interested, you should definitely check it out HERE.

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Mr. Smiles by Jane's Doodles
Paper: The Haunted Collection digital papers and elements by Carina Gardner, white CS, purple and lime green CS from The Paper Company
Ink: Palette noir black
Accessories: Lilac baker's twine from The Twinery, colored pencils, odorless mineral spirits, paper blending stumps, foam tape, scissors, EK BOO border punch, lime green buttons from Doodlebug, Colorbok adhesive gem spider web
Techniques: digital papers, Gamsol Magic

Rainbow Gift Bag

So, yesterday was another snow day for my kids. That's our third snow day in three weeks, which, in my experience, is a lot for New England. We aren't wusses here! My kids haven't had a full five-day week of school YET in 2011. We have had 68 inches of snow fall here in our town since Christmas, and a measuring stick stuck in the middle of our yard (away from drifts and snow banks from shoveling, so this is where it hasn't been unnaturally stacked up in any way) now shows that we have 32"+ of snow still lying on the ground. The snow bank along our driveway from shoveling and snow blowing has reached so high in places that yesterday my husband couldn't get the thrown snow from the snow blower to clear the top of the pile. Had to chuck it up to the top of the pile by hand with a shovel. And it's still just January, folks. Wow. My family in Ohio have been keeping me busy with phone calls to check up on our latest snow action. Seems everyone loves a good "war" story!

My husband and I are so very thankful that the kids are old enough now to contribute positively to the snow removal efforts. They really like helping out and it really is actually helpful! My job is to man the fort inside while my snow removal crew is working outside--helping everyone into and out of the snow gear (which is considerable, bulky, and hard to deal with, especially when the ski gloves need to go on under the coat to keep the snow from going right up the sleeves), fetching tissues and Chapstick for my runny-nosed and wind-blown workers, re-tucking snowpants, re-adjusting hats and scarves, fetching necessary snow tools and/or toys, taking photos if warranted, mopping up the melted snow when it's time to come in, drying all the wet snow gear, and finally having a snack and hot cocoa ready (the ultimate snow removal reward!) when my crew comes inside. In between all of those chores yesterday, I was able to squeeze in a couple of paper projects. Both were inspired by the Splitcoast Ways to Use It Challenge hosted by Kim Hughes. Yesterday's WT challenge was "Rainbow Bright," ways to use rainbows in your projects. Here's my first project:
I altered a plain white gift bag with lots of Unity/{ippity} goodness to coordinate with the Birthday Bingo card I made last month. Both went to my neighbor just this morning. Her birthday was last Saturday, but I had to wait on her birthday gift to arrive. I thought I'd ordered it in plenty of time, but I guess we in the Northeast aren't the only ones who are being affected by nasty weather. I have a feeling that might have something to do with the delay.

I also played along with these challenges while making this gift bag:

• Unity Hip Hop Sketch #42: (HHSC42)
• Unity's Friends with Flair #61
• Delightful Challenges: Have a Heart (put hearts on your project)
• Crafty Creations: Heat It Up (use warm colors on your project)

Thanks for stopping by to take a look!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Unity Total Cuteness, Unity Lovely Bits & Baubles, {ippity} Just Wanted to Say
Paper: SU, The Paper Company, MFP, birthday Bingo card from Target
Ink: Palette l'amore red, Palette sunflower
Accessories: EK 2.75" circle punch, SU large tag punch, birthday Bingo card from Target, Prismacolor pencils, brads, baker's twine, paper gift bag

Happy Bird in Neutrals

I have been so inspired by the recent Moxie Fab World Color Inspiration for Card Makers challenges! This happy bird card is the result of my latest try at this series of six Moxie Fab World challenges. I created it for the Neutrals Challenge, which featured these pretty colors: I interpreted them as vanilla, kraft, and baja breeze.

I was also inspired by the beautiful jewelry sold in the Modern Bird Etsy shop, featured in this week's EtsyInspired Challenge #122. This sweet silver bird necklace reminded me of the bird stamp I used, a $1-bin rubber stamp that I picked up at Michael's last spring.
The City Crafter Challenge for week #40 is handmade flowers. Several months ago I read a wonderful tutorial on turning Prima basic five-petal paper flowers into much more impressive tea roses. I dug up that tutorial and within minutes was making my very own paper roses to use on this card. Aren't they sweet?
Other challenges I incorporated into this card:

• PaperWorks Co. Sunday Sketch #65
• Paper Sundaes Challenge #52: Use your favorite challenge from the last year! I chose to play along with #20 Use kraft and blue
• Crafty Creations #102: It's a Bird Thing, include a bird and some polka dots
• Simon Says Stamp: Bingo! Include any three items that are in a straight line on the challenge Bingo card: I chose the diagonal: punches, flowers, and gems (which I used to outline my happy bird's tail feathers)

I really enjoyed punching up the Moxie Fab neutrals for this card. It was fun combining the casual (the distressed-look kraft DP and the hemp twine) with some fancy touches (intricate border punches, rhinestone-studded tail feathers, finely detailed roses). Thanks for joining me for my little slice of bliss today!!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Craft Smart (distributed by Michael's)
Paper: SU baja breeze CS, The Paper Company vanilla CS, MFP cream CS, MFP chip board CS, BasicGrey Basic Kraft DP
Ink: SU baja breeze
Accessories: CM corner rounder punch, MS modern garland corner and edge punches, scissors, basic Prima flowers, foam tape, hemp twine, TE Tiny Twinkles
Techniques: handmade flowers, paper piecing

Stampin' B's Celebration Card Challenge

A very happy Thursday to you! It's time for another challenge from the Stampin' B's DT. This week Vicki Dutcher is our hostess, and she is challenging us to make a celebration card. I chose to make a birthday celebration card.
This is a big card, measuring 5" x 7". Have you noticed that Bingo cards are all the rage these days? From Stampin' Up! to Tim Holtz, there are lots of trendy Bingo-themed papercrafting items to be had. So when I saw packages of birthday Bingo games on clearance at Target last month for $0.75, I snapped up two packages. Each has 24 adorable Bingo cards, sheets of punch-out Bingo markers, and a spinner (another hot papercrafting item! Look for that in use elsewhere sometime soon.). I was so excited to try out my Bingo bargain for this celebration card challenge!

Other challenges:

• Card Positioning Systems: CPS 2010 Year in Review. I used CPS sketch 194:
• Simon Says Stamp: Time to Celebrate

I hope you've been inspired to play along with the Stampin' B's!! If you do make a card, post it on your blog or SCS gallery, and link it up to the Inlinkz tool on the Stampin' B's blog. We'd love to see what you create!! :)

Thanks for checking out my little slice of bliss for today!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Unity Sentiments O'Simple, Unity Lovely Bits and Baubles
Paper: The Paper Company CS, birthday Bingo card from Target
Ink: Palette l'amore red and reflection blue
Accessories: Tiny Twinkles, Bingo markers, dimensionals, red/white baker's twine