Trending Tuesday #31 ...on wednesday :-)

Best Laid Plans ...

We left for Ames, Iowa on Tuesday morning.

We had three teams from our town headed to the Odyssey of the Mind World Competition.

We called the teams, the Bigs (high school), the Middle (Jr High), and the Littles (Intermediate School)

On Wednesday morning, my camera isn't working.

Kyle at Target helped me find a new SD card for my camera so I wouldn't miss any more of our adventure.

This is Meg. 

She represented our team in the Opening Ceremonies

She is a super cool kid 

These are the three girls that represented our teams from our town

Opening Ceremonies

My son, Samuel, and his friend Jake on the Jumbo-tron

The Bigs entertain the crowd with the Macarena before their performance

The Bigs were awesome.

I had the pleasure of getting to know some of these kids and I have to say I am proud to know them!

Mackenzie, Emily, Samantha and Ashton are great kids!

As we waited for our spontaneous problem, Rachel became a diplomat!

She bonded with the team from China.

They bonded over that universal language of song...

Baby, Baby, Ohhhhhhhh

That's right folks

Justin Bieber

They were adorable, and exchanged email addys.

Rachel's mom, Michelle, found a ukulele and got her groove on during a pin trading session.

Here is the Middles (our team) performing. That is my boy, Samuel and Rachel

Everyone but Jake on the scene

The whole team.

They gave the best performance I have seen all year.

I am sooooo proud of them!

At lunch we spied this guy looking a bit like Lenny Kravitz

Since we had the Kravitz family with us we thought we NEEDED a picture with him.

The campus was beautiful. We were on our way to watch the Littles perform so we stopped for a quick picture..

Samuel, Samantha, Rachel, and Meg

This was a group of kids from Poland that were singing and cheering each team that performed.

It was funny to hear them chant. "Texas" and "L V"

Our group of kids and parents waiting for the Littles to go on

This was taken just before they started to perform.

Their performance was soooo good...

I forgot to take more pictures.

So the title of this post is called, best laid plans.

I had worked so hard before I left to ensure I would have a blog post for each day that I was gone.

And I did.

What I didn't anticipate is the complete exhaustion I would feel when I got home

Oh and the fact that the plumber was coming

and the crazy stuff going on at school

and the need for cupcakes at my daughters school

and awards day..

So, I didn't plan far enough ahead to keep posting cards.

Hopefully tomorrow or the next day (last day of school) I will get back into my groove.

Hope you enjoyed a little bit of our adventure.

Edited to add...

I got an email asking how the teams performed overall:

the Littles: 11th place 

the Middles: 31st place

Bigs: 32nd place

Not bad considering there were 800 teams

15 countries

and 40 states represented!

Scrapbooking Sunday...

This kid is such a character! 

He always makes me laugh.

He did really well at the spelling bee.

I am proud of him

Step It Up! Saturday #69

You may recognize this card.

I did use step #2 card as my flat card Friday card last week.

I found myself wanting to do more to the flat card so I decided that it would make a good card for step it up!

I created two more cards ... a step #1 and a step #3

It was actually a fun thing to do!

You should try it yourself sometime.

:-)

insert video here

Step #1 CARD:

Supplies:

• Perfect Plum CS, Basic Black CS, Very Vanilla CS, Patterns DSP Stack Subtles
• Field Flowers Stamp Set
• Perfect Plum Ink Pad, Pear Pizzazz Marker, Concord Crush Ink Pad
• Dimensionals

Step #2 CARD: 

Supplies:

• Perfect Plum CS, Basic Black CS, Very Vanilla CS, Patterns DSP Stack Subtles, First Edition DSP
• Field Flowers Stamp Set
• Perfect Plum Ink Pad, Pear Pizzazz Marker, Concord Crush Ink Pad
• Eyelet Border Punch

 Step #3 CARD:

Supplies:

• Perfect Plum CS, Basic Black CS, Very Vanilla CS, Patterns DSP Stack Subtles, First Edition DSP
• Field Flowers Stamp Set
• Perfect Plum Ink Pad, Pear Pizzazz Marker, Concord Crush Ink Pad, Sahara Sand Ink Pad, Crumb Cake Ink Pad, Soft Suede Ink Pad, Distressing Tool
• Mat Pack, Paper Piercing Tool, Basic Pearls, Stamping Sponges, Dimensionals, Perfect Plum Taffeta Ribbon

Flat Card Friday

I know this is a very simple card, but I love it!

This stamped image gets me every time!

I think it is so beautiful.

I do love flowers and butterflies.

Supplies:

• Early Espresso CS, Peach Parfait CS, Very Vanilla CS
• Elements of Style Stamp Set, Blessings from Heaven Stamp Set
• Peach Parfait Marker, Pear Pizzazz Marker, Early Espresso Ink Pad and Marker

Thursday....

I was playing with an old color challenge that called for So Saffron, Old Olive, and Not Quite Navy.

Not my favorite card.

But I do like to keep it real with you all so there it is! :-)

Supplies:

• Crumb Cake CS, Old Olive CS, Patterns DSP Stack Brights, Simply Scrappin Kit
• Carry On Stamp Set (hostess 2012-2013 catalog)
• Old Olive Ink Pad, Not Quite Navy Ink Pad
• Circle Punch, Square Punch

Wednesday ...Catalog Inspiration

Isn't she so cute?

Both last week's catalog inspiration and this week's come from the same page in the new catalog.

I knew that these would be the first two cards I re-create.

I love the SU catalog for this very reason. 

Inspiration.

And a never ending quick gift list when needed ...LOL

Supplies:

• Crumb Cake CS, Raspberry Ripple CS, Pumpkin Pie CS, Island Indigo CS, Watercolor Paper
• Little Friends Stamp Set
• Island Indigo Marker, Pumpkin Pie Marker, Raspberry Ripple Marker, Daffodil Delight Marker, Soft Suede Marker, Lucky Limeade Marker
• Aquapainter, Labels Collection Framelits, Brads in Brights and Regals*

*I used the Tempting Turquoise brad for Island Indigo, and Cherry Cobbler brad for Raspberry Ripple.

Trending Tuesday #30

Supplies:

• Lucky Limeade CS, Whisper White CS, Cheerful Treat DSP (hostess), Beyond the Garden DSP
• Bring on the Cake Stamp Set
• StazOn Jet Black Ink Pad
• Build a Blossom Punch, Blossom Punch, Brights Button, Lucky Limeade Baker's Twine, Basic Rhinestones, Glue Dots, Paper Snips

Mojo Monday #242

This was made with my 2 favorite paper packs, Love Letters, and Newsprint.

I loved the papers last year.

Not near as much this year.

I think the difference was that all the prints in a pack worked well together and I could always tell from which pack they came.

This year there are mixes of papers that simply cannot be put together.

I prefer the "garanimal" paper packs. LOL!

Happy Monday to you all and thanks for stopping by!

ColourQ Challenge #137

Supplies:

• Whisper White CS, Basic Gray CS
• Just Believe Stamp Set
• Wisteria Wonder Ink Pad, Lucky Limeade Ink Pad, Tempting Turquoise Ink Pad, Basic Gray Ink Pad
• Wisteria Wonder Ruffled Ribbon, Dimensionals

Step It UP! Saturday #68

I sat down last weekend and attempted to do 3 weeks worth of blog postings in one day.

My mojo got pretty weak.

So, I turned to Teneale Williams again. 

I made my version of her card - her cards are always step 3 cards - and thought

I could work backwards and create a step it up project.

Doing these cards, I really get lost in the process and love that I have something to follow and just make it. Love it.

As you can imagine, step #3 takes a bit of time, but the results are well worth the effort and let's face it the creating is so much fun!

Anyway here are my other step cards for Teneale's fabulous card:

Step #1 CARD:

Supplies:

• Concord Crush CS, Crumb Cake CS, Very Vanilla CS, Patterns DSP Stack In-Colors 2010-2012
• Elements of Style Stamp Set, Bliss Stamp Set (retired)
• Concord Crush Marker, Old Olive Marker, Crumb Cake Ink Pad
• Old Olive Satin Ribbon, Big Shot, Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die, Basic Pearls

 Step #2 CARD:

Supplies:

• Concord Crush CS, Crumb Cake CS, Very Vanilla CS, Patterns DSP Stack In-Colors 2010-2012, First Edition DSP
• Elements of Style Stamp Set, Bliss Stamp Set (retired)
• Concord Crush Marker, Old Olive Marker, Crumb Cake Ink Pad, Perfect Plum Marker
• Old Olive Satin Ribbon, Big Shot, Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die, Basic Pearls, Aquapainter

Step #3 CARD: 

Supplies:

• Concord Crush CS, Crumb Cake CS, Very Vanilla CS, Patterns DSP Stack In-Colors 2010-2012, First Edition DSP
• Elements of Style Stamp Set, Bliss Stamp Set (retired), Artistic Etchings Stamp Set, French Foliage Stamp Set
• Concord Crush Marker and Ink Pad, Old Olive Marker, Crumb Cake Ink Pad, Perfect Plum Marker, Sahara Sand Ink Pad
• Old Olive Satin Ribbon, Big Shot, Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die, Basic Pearls, Aquapainter, Stamping Sponges, Paper Snips