Holiday/Seasonal flowers!

Check out what I posted in the Etsy Shop this evening

SketchMania #13

Alright Ladies and Gents - You have ONE more day to enter the previous four sketches for RachelMay's Handmade Goodie Set!!

This next sketch will go onto October and all the entries will be considered for that prize!!

I will announce the sponsor of this month in next week's post.

We are having TWO sketches today.. so feel free to participate in one or the other or BOTH!


And the examples this week(I'll be adding mine later this week):

Purnima:


RachelMay:


Sarah Michelle:

Submit, as always, below in the Mr. Linky - you have until the 31st for this one! Please link directly to your blog entry (CropChocolate, facebook, flikr, photobucket are ok too!) and make sure your name is the title of the piece, we'll need to be able to notify our winner!

A Thank you and a Mojo Monday!

(Are you looking for SketchMania??? Click Here!!!)

I did two cards.. one late last night and one early this morning:

It's been a while since I participated in MojoMonday so I figured I'd give it a go this week! here's my interpretation of their sketch:



Materials: Crate paper patterned stock, random piece of patterned paper, distress ink and embossing powder, chatterbox stamp, raffia, kraft card base.

THEN! I got to make a thank you card... NO sketch.. just my imagination - and this thank you card is really special because this lovely lady from my town crocheted the most gorgeous blanket and booties for our Gabe to be! I really felt like I needed to show her how much we appreciated the time she took.. and I think this worked out:



Materials: Cosmo Cricket paper, K n Company paper, Art Blanche Chipboard letter, tulle, kraft card base, Martha Stewart half pearl, distress ink, and studio g stamps.

Baby Movement - 8x8

It seems like lately all I was doing was sketch sketch sketch.. and where at least the ones for SketchMania are designed by me, I still felt like it was kind of constricting.

A couple days ago I saw a layout on a gal's blog using small squares and tons of embellishments - so I thought I'd try it out.. and this is what I came up with.


The shining star of this piece (besides Gabe of course) is the xoxo scrabble tile.. the tile is just a tile.. but hand stamped with metal stamps and inked to make it stick out. I'm thinking of adding these to my etsy site.

♥♥

Good Morning!!

I put up tons of Vintage Pastel colored flowers this morning and yesterday ♥

SketchMania #12 - 9.22.10

Hello!! Hope everyone's week is going fantastic! - I'd like to take this time to thank the creative team; AJ, Purnima, Rachel, and Sarah - they've all been doing such fantastic work and each week their pieces are inspiring and creative. (plus they've saved me when I don't have anything to show you :P)

Sketch and Inspiration for you all you crafty fiends:

AJ:


Purnima:


RachelMay:


Sarah Michelle:

Submit, as always, below in the Mr. Linky - you have until the 30th for this one! Please link directly to your blog entry (CropChocolate, facebook, flikr, photobucket are ok too!) and make sure your name is the title of the piece, we'll need to be able to notify our winner!

WOOHOOO Etsy Success!!

I've been lacking on the blog posting and general crafting because I've been concentrated on making handmade flowers to fill my Etsy shop with...

and the day before yesterday I got a special order.. I was so excited.. but then today... SOMEONE BOUGHT STRAIGHT FROM MY LOTS..

WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Be sure to check out what I've been working on!

I am proud.

SketchMania #11

Hello!

I want to thank all of our continuing players so far! and remind you to spread the word to all your crafty friends =)

Don't forget our fantastic sponsor RachelMayDesigns.Etsy.com - she's got tons of handmade paper goodies for you to try out!

I also want to say that there will be FOUR sketches for September - I do realize there's one more Wednesday but we'll just chalk it up to be an October sketch =) Have fun with this one:

And the examples:

AJ:


DeeDee:


RachelMay:


Sarah Michelle:


Submit, as always, below in the Mr. Linky - you have until the 30th for this one! Please link directly to your blog entry (CropChocolate, facebook, flikr, photobucket are ok too!) and make sure your name is the title of the piece, we'll need to be able to notify our winner!

Etsy Stuffs

I haven't been posting much.. or doing much crafting in general - because I've been focusing on making flowers for my etsy shop.

Citrus:

Halloween:

Pretty In Pink:

Here's to makin' monies with some of our favorite things in life!

SketchMania #10 - 9.8.10

Here is this week's sketch and the examples:

DeeDee(with an 8x8):


Purnima(with a card):


RachelMay(with a card):


Sarah Michelle(with a card):





Submit, as always, below in the Mr. Linky - you have until the 30th for this one! Please link directly to your blog entry (CropChocolate, facebook, flikr, photobucket are ok too!) and make sure your name is the title of the piece, we'll need to be able to notify our winner!

Homemade ABC Book

to Welcome dear baby Gabe into the family I'd like to be in the process of making an ABC book for him.. a bit personalized but with all the classics; colors, numbers, animals, shapes, fruits, veggies, snacks, vehicles, everyday objects... etc etc.


So to keep motivated on it I want to post something about the process at least once a week.... here is how my list stands so far:
A - apple, arrow, acorn, ant, airplane, astronaut, alligator, art, anchor, arm
B - banana, bicycle, bell, blue, black, brown, bug, balloon, broccoli, bat, book, butterfly
C - carrot, can, caterpillar, circle, cloud, cow, crayon, crab, crown
D - dog, dirt, dolphin, dinosaur, daddy, duck, drum
E - elephant, eyes, ears, elf, egg, eight, earth
F - fish, foot, firetruck, four, flag, flower, finger, five
G - green, grapes, giraffe, grass, goat, ghost, grashopper
H - hands, hat, hippo, house, horse, heptagon, hert
I - ice cream, ink, icicle, iguana, igloo
J - jelly, jack in the box, jar, jellyfish, jack-o-lantern, jump rope, juggle
K - kite, koala, kangaroo, knot, knee, key, kiss
L - love, leg, lemon, left, leaf, lime, llama, ladybug, lollipop
M - monkey, mommy, mouse, mouth, muffin, moon, milk
N - nose, nail, nurse, nine, nest
O - orange (fruit), orange (color), octagon, octopus, ocean, one, owl
P - purple, park, pillow, penguin, pentagon, pail, pink, pajamas, pants, pig
Q - queen, quilt, quail, quarter, quill, question mark
R - red, rainbow, rectangle, rhino, rose, rocks, ribbon, rocket, rain, right, rabbit
S - sky, squirrel, square, sheep, snake, shoe, school, shell, six, seven, star, snail, shirt, socks, sun
T - turtle, tree, truck, teeth, triangle, train, toes, two, three, ten
U - umbrella, universe, unicycle, up, unicorn
V - violet, volcano, vase, vulture, vine
W - whale, worm, wagon, white, wolf, web, watermelon, wheel, wishbone, whistle
X - x-ray, xylophone, foX, oX
Y - yellow, yo-yo, yarn
Z - zebra, zipper, zig-zag, zucchini, zero, zoo

It's A Boy!!

I would like to introduce you to Mr. Gabriel Dean Catron... our dear baby boy to be, currently 20 weeks along!!

Gabe's face, left arm and right leg... you can see his nostrils on his cute little button nose, his upper lip and bottom lip, and his right cheek. such a sweet little baby!(he's totally sucking his thumb too)


Here is a close up of his fingers and little feet:


Here is his heart and heartbeat.. 154 beats per minute:


And this proves we're having a boy!

The Dr. says everything is going swimmingly - all his measurements are dead on average and we'll be doing another ultrasound in a few weeks to double check his heart when it's a little bigger and easier to see.

Can't wait to welcome Gabe into the world ♥♥♥