Up Up and Away

Have you been fighting this awful winter sickness in your house?  I was hit hard with it last week but am feeling much better now.  I am so behind in doing things that need to get done but still found time to sit at my craft table and create a few things.

©2018 CoolMomCreations

I made this lovely guy using a House Mouse stamp, Copics and Stampin' Up DSP  and an oldie but goodie stamp.  I love this Wish Big stamp and find I go back to it over and over for birthday cards. 

Have a lovely Monday and stay well!
Traci

Monochromatic White

CoolMomCreations 2018

 I love monochromatic white cards.  They are so elegant and pretty.

CoolMomCreatons 2018

I made this one for a white with glitter swap.  The card stock is Stampin' Up Whisper White.

CoolMomCreations 2018

The die is an eBay die before I decided not to buy knock-offs but it is really pretty, the flowers are from IAmRoses.com and the gold is Wink of Stella.

Thanks for dropping by,

Traci

Music to My Ears

This week we started visiting colleges for the baby of the family.  It is so strange to think in just a short time we will be empty nesters.  There are parts of me that cannot wait but there are others that cannot believe how fast time has flown.  My children are all musicians, I imagine a very quiet home with no piano practices. 

CoolMomCreations 2018

I bought this grand piano stamp years ago to make a thank you card for our piano teacher who has become like a grandparent to my children.  I am not sure what company made it but it is certainly one of my favorite stamps.  This card is embossed in gold on Stampin Up Basic Black and black on Stampin' Up Very Vanilla.  

Have a grand day!

Traci

Heart Attack, Anxiety Attack

A little over a week ago, I had a pretty big health scare.  I was having chest pains and difficulty breathing.  I did what normal (or not) people do and went to Dr. Google with my symptoms.  Of course, the first thing was go to the ER.  I decided that Dr. Google had to be wrong and asked for a second opinion.  OK, I just reentered the list of symptoms hoping for a different result which didn't happen.  Even then I waited because my daughter had a doctor's appointment that I didn't want her to miss.  Yes, I took my child to the doctor then went to the ER.  The doctor at the ER was not at all surprised by this information, he said he hears this kind of thing from moms ALL. THE. TIME.  But he also admitted me because by father died before he was 50 years old of a massive heart attack.  Long story short, my heart is fine and my lungs are fine.  I am either dealing with anxiety (which makes since because I have a chronically ill child), something viral or well he wasn't sure and said I should schedule a follow up with my regular doctor.

 That being said, I took three things away from my stay at the Hospital Inn:

1. I need to eat better.  Eating better makes you feel better.

2. I need to rest when I can.  This is parenting 101 when you have a baby but as our kids get older we run ourselves ragged running them around and forget to rest.

3. Exercise is your friend.  There are too many good things to list about exercising but it helps release endorphins that are good for you.  That alone is a good reason to get back into a routine of exercising.

All these things in mind, I decided to make a dinner that included vegetables.  I hate vegetables but I am getting to the age, actually I am passed the age, where veggies should be in my meals regularly.  I went to Pinterest and found this recipe for Balsamic Chicken and Veggies.  I am not one to follow the recipe so I tweaked it for my own taste.  I cooked the chicken following the directions with the sauce.  Instead of asparagus, I had spinach in the fridge.  I took the chicken out of the pan and added the spinach just to wilt it a bit and I added roasted tomatoes to that.  The result was amazing.  

Have a healthy and happy week,

Traci

Support Our Troops

I love the U.S. Military.  As the child of a veteran, I was raised to understand the importance of what each branch of the service does for our country.  The love of the service skipped a generation with us but I currently have a son in-law finishing A School in the U.S. Coast Guard, two nephews in Naval boot camp and a son getting his ducks in a row to become a Coastie sometime this spring.  We are very proud of each of these young men.  The road they are traveling is not easy with two of them leaving behind newly minted wives to go to training. 

I was very excited to find Unity in America by Unity Stamps.  I love it so much because it has all the branches of service plus several others that round out an awesome kit.  If you haven't visited Unity Stamps, I highly recommend them.  The stamps are amazing, some of the best I've used but  they also have the most amazing sales and customer service. 

Thanks for dropping by,

Traci

Challenge entry for Hiding in My Craft Room color challenge.

Seaside Thinking of You

©2018 CoolMomCreations

I love being challenged  to move outside of my box when I am creating.  When I signed up to do a nautical card swap, I decided I wanted to do something that was a challenge.  So, as I searched Pinterest for an idea, I found a version of this card that used the Stampin' Up! High Tide and Beautiful You sets.  I had both of these sets sitting on my shelf unused because I had no idea where to begin with them.  

High Tide is a layering set, I was not completely successful with the layers but that will be remedied next time because I remembered I have a We R Memory Keepers Precision Press in my arsenal of crafting goodies.  Yes, I have so much stuff that I forgot I had one which I am just a bit embarrassed to admit.  All is well, I have pulled it out not to be forgotten again. 

The Beautiful You set is just amazing and well...beautiful.  I decided a bit of paper piecing was in order for the lady.  She's pieced using discontinued DSP.

IHOP Happy Birthday

Today I am not sharing a card that I created.  Instead I am sharing a card that my youngest daughter created for a friend's birthday, it is a CAS card. She told me that she was going to go to IHOP with some friends to celebrate R's birthday, I thought she meant that some band kids were just going to have breakfast and give the birthday girl her gifts.  But I was wrong.  R's mom is brilliant, she realized the high schoolers like to go to IHOP to have brunch since none are awake during breakfast hours. So, she planned her daughter's birthday at IHOP.  No noisy teenagers at the house, no worrying about what they can eat or like to eat and best of all NO CLEANING.  She gave them each a $10 gift card then covered the rest if they went over $10 and called ahead to have enough tables ready.   The teens loved it. IHOP Birthday Party = Mom Win!

©CoolMomCreations 2018

CoolChick is the reason I started crafting years ago.  She loved creating cards when we went to visit my sister in-law.  As she got older her aunt decided that she needed to have her supplies to create at home not just once a year when we visited.  So, she sent home enough goodies to set up a small craft area.  That craft area has now taken over our office and is mine not my daughter's.  The days my daughter creates along side me are some of my favorite. 

The card is made using all Stampin' Up products because I am a recovering SU addict.

Have a lovely Tuesday.

Traci

Wishing You A Happy New Year

©CoolMomCreations 2017

I have been seeing these really cool eclipse cards on Pinterest so I decided to give it a try.  I love this card but for whatever reason it doesn't have the definition that I see on other cards that are posted.  I used Stampin' Up pop dots to raise the numbers and even tried to offset them a little.  But you still cannot see the silver as well as I've seen them done.  That being said, I love this card and will try the technique again soon.

I am in my happy place for the next few days to celebrate the New Year on the mountain, with cold weather and in a nice small town atmosphere.  I hope 2018 brings you joy and many crafty days.

Traci