My monthly card swap

Hello! I have fallen a little short this week on my posting. We have had a little bit of a crazy busy week and I have been just a wee bit stressed! We have family visiting for the week and Devon goes to Rockband camp and Miranda works everyday. They both have to be at a different place at the same time...Dan has a new job and he can't help with carpool. Making me a little stressed!!! Thank goodness it is Thursday and we are almost done with this week.

I wanted to share my monthly card swap card with you today. I had so much fun with this month's theme and really took a lot of time doing different techniques.

I used Stampin up cameo coral, tempting turquoise, creamy caramel, and white cardstock for the card. I tore the creamy caramel edges, then ran it through my cuttlebug to emboss and inked the edges. The waves were done on white cardstock and sprayed with turquoise glimmer mist then stamped with the wave pattern and hand cut. The white cardstock was dry embossed with the swirls folder to give the effect of waves. I stamped the surf boards and hand cut them. Then used my cricut cart Accent Essentials to cut the sun and chalked it with tones of yellow and red to make it pop, then stamped it with the sentiment. Think this was one of my most favorite cards, lots and lots of techniques to keep me busy making 10 of them!!!

Friday is pool day!

Since summer began I have been going to my friends pool every Friday. We have now decided that Friday is pool day all summer long!!! Thanks Julia for putting up with us every week! It is truly the highlight of our week! Here are some photos from last weeks pool day. The kids have so much fun playing with Julia's little one and now we have started to say that Miranda has a new boyfriend because Zachary loves her so much! He knows a cute girl when he sees one! Just look at the photos below and you can see how much fun we are having!

I have really been emjoying the lazy days of summer, but I feel like they are not lazy but busy, busy, busy! Although it is a very happy busy!

Last month's Card Swap card!

I usually try really hard to get my card for my monthly card swap group up around the time of the gathering. But with the addition of the new puppies that just didn't happen! So finally I had a few minutes to sit down and share this card. The theme was 3's. So I chose 3 colors, 3 panels, and 3 layers (besides the base of the card). I bought this stamp months ago at a stamp show and almost forgot I had it. The fish just screamed bright fun colors, all of which are from stampin up. Can't remember the colors, but they are from the bold bright collection...think they are only orange, tempting turquoise, and yo yo yellow. I used a technique with the stamps to stamp them on a craft mat then use an aqua painter to paint them on the fish. Great way to match your paint to your paper too! I once painted right from the ink pad and that messed the pad up...learned my lesson the hard way!

I did use my cricut to cut the oval scallop and oval and stamped with the title phrase. Pop dotted it for some dimension and that was it! I have to say this card took me forever to put together and when it was all said and done I was so over painting and glittering! So the card for this month's theme was much simpler!

3 posts in a row, that is Incredible!

Shocking as it may be, I have found the time to actually have had 3 posts go up on the blog in a row! I have been saving all my things that are crafty and fun to share! Now is the time, I have been saying over the last couple of years that I promise I am going to get better at this blogging thing. Well I have learned that you just have to jump right in and start posting, even if you think your life is boring someone else might find it interesting! So here I am trying my best to start posting on a more regular basis...now that might not mean everyday but let's try for a couple of times a week! Summer is in full swing at the Goswick house! We are enjoying pool days, craft days, and lazy days! It has been fun and we are only into week 2! We are not going away on vacation this year so we are planning to do a few things around town. Devon has already gone to the local water park, White Water with some friends! Thanks Jay! Next week Devon starts rock band camp, that should be totally fun rocking out all week! The music center where Devon takes lessons gave us a week of camp free. It was so exciting for us since we can only afford to send him to 1 camp over the summer and he had already chosen Acting camp. I think since his rockband class got cancelled through the school year they music center felt bad that he did not get to perform or record his "CD" so they offered the summer camp! We are so thankful for their generosity!

Below are the next set of layouts that I have been working on...been keeping my scrap stuff out on the kitchen table and working on a page here and there. Makes my family a little crazy because half the table is a mess, but it makes me very productive! I have been participating in a few monthly sketch challenges over at scrapbook.com It really helps me get motivated to scrap. I need all the motivation I can get, I have so many ideas floating around in my mind and by the time I get around to scrapping the event I forget what I had originally wanted to do. I am sure that happens to all of us! Still it feels like I am the only one that feels this way!!!

Maybe I will be back tomorrow to show you a few more things! For now I am off to a pool day with friends!

I told you I would be back!

As promised I am back on this lovely Monday morning with another post! The dogs are up, they have been fed, walked, and our now happily playing. It's kind of their morning routine. I try to squeeze in a little computer time while they are playing...sometimes that proves to be trouble as they are getting into everything they can find! I do find that gating off areas of the house that I do not want them in has really helped, but unfortunately my house has that open floor plan so that it is hard to find gates (cardboard boxes) large enough to cover the openings. I have gotten very resourceful in my options! Just look at the photos below...funny the things you will do to keep those animals out of trouble!
Here the girls are just chillin, right before they were looking for trouble!

The cat sits on top of the table just watching the action. Secretly she wants to be right in the middle of it...but then reality hits and she realizes there are 2 of them and only 1 of her! She's outnumbered!!!

My creative barriers! These are old cardboard and chipboard pieces that we use to paint on, also good for doggy gates too!

The best of intentions

Oh I had the best of intentions to blog every day, but the demands of new puppies threw that idea right out the window! Can't say I don't love having the new dogs in my life, they are a pure joy! Did I mention a lot of work too!!! 2 is twice as nice, but twice the work! We do have a good routine going now and they really are settling into our family nicely. The cat may even secretly like them! Haha!

If you can believe this I have managed to be crafty this month. Not as much as I would like but still got a few pages done for the scrapbook. Really need to get myself organized and finish the photos from 2009 so that I can get onto 2010...only 2 years behind in my scrapping. Actually still have photos of the kids from years ago to scrap, but just don't know where to start!

Anyway I now participate in a challenge over at scrapbook.com every month. It is a sketch challenge and really gets me motivated to scrap. Which is what I need monthly, a little motivation and time!

This challenge that I do has 4 weeks of sketches and the challenge runs mid month to mid month. Once they are all in we start voting on our favorites, then there is a tally and more voting to find a monthly winner. I think the winner gets sent some kind of RAK but since I have never won I have no idea. I don't do it for that reason, I do it to get some ideas and really to be honest to get some pages done!

I promise I will be back tomorrow with another post, I have a few more pages I created and want to share, even a card or 2!