Custom Family Stickers

Recently, through no fault of our own, we were forced to go car shopping. Given my hon's mechanical insight, he chose the best deal for the family and I was stuck yet again with a boring silver vehicle. As he purchased car mats and hood deflectors and other such nonsense, I decided it was time that I personalized the vehicle to my satisfaction.

I had seen around town other vehicles with cute little stick people families on their windows. It took me a couple hours of searching the web to finally stumble across exactly what I was looking for at Belvedere Designs over at http://www.mybelvedere.com/ With their custom family stickers you choose the head, body, and size of each person - and the order you want them in. They even offer a variety of usual and unusual pet options including a lizard which was perfect for our son who adores his Bearded Dragon.

Their wonderful staff willingly helped to modify a male head to satisfy both me and my hubby. No added charge either! Shipping to Canada was a flat $5. I almost chose a wall quote by Ghandi that I adore to add to the order, but I held off for now. I'm sure I'll be back!

Here are a couple photos of the decals on our Saturn Vue.

The only problem I had was choosing just one head and one body for each of us! While my son is currently big on soccer and karate, given the longevity of the stickers, my friend suggested the bike as a nice long-term interest for my son. Although at two and a half my daughter doesn't dance, the dancer body suited her personality perfectly. When posed the question "what should we do?", her common response is "i have idea - spinning" and she twirls around until she is dizzy. My son felt Daddy should be holding coffee (the term "extra large double double" is often heard during both my son's and daughter's role play) and I selected a camera for myself - professed photoaholic (not saying I'm good at it - just that I like to take LOTS!).

So, if you are looking for wall quotes or cute little stick figures for your vehicle - check Belvedere Designs out!

A Creative Weekend!

Somehow between homework, work-work, and house-cleaning, I managed to make three cards this weekend! Of course I did the Bella sketch challenge late again, which is good considering I wasn't too impressed with my creative ability on this one:

I think the image is perfect for the sketch challenge but I wasn't happy with my paper colour choices.

Ah well, I didn't give up there.

I've had Reflective coloured for a while, but I wanted her mounted before I tried my hand at Flower Soft. I think I'll be checking out the product tutorial before I try that again.

For the last card I'm posting, I chose to copy a card done by one of my favorite card makers on Splitcoaststampers - Double Dutch. She is amazing. Although my card doesn't do the original card justice, I was pleased with the results:



I think this card is destined for my son's kindergarden teacher, along with something sentimental about how as I reflect on this past year and my hopes for what Brennan will reflect on in terms of her teaching....blah...blah...blah. Words are definately where Hallmark has me beat!

Thanks for looking. One benefit of this blog - I've done more cards since this started than in months prior! Have a terrific day!

A Monstah of a Birthday Card!

I figured I'd try my hand at a sketch challenge on the Stamping Bella blog. Of course the challenge is already closed but hey, the sketch got my creative imagination going so here is what I came up with for an upcoming six-year old boy's birthday...












Thank you Blankiefinder for sharing your stamp with me - the birthday boy is going to love it!

And so it begins...

A new chapter in my life that I figured would never open - blogging. While I enjoy looking at other people's blogs - especially those involving card or scrapbook ideas - I can't image who would look at mine. Now thanks to Paper Makeup Stamps and their new summer release, I find myself anxious to get on-line and show off the creations I've been making for Post Pals over in the UK - a wonderful organization being highlighted by Dustin Pike's blog candy give away. Wanting to participate in the chance to win more of Dustin's amazing dinosaurs from PMS, I randomly selected a 10 year old boy for my card. The result was:




While I enjoy making cards, truth being told, I really don't have much occasion to use them. A huge thanks to Dustin, whose blog candy not only gave me reason to create, but also purpose. After finishing the card, I was drawn back to the Post Pal website and started to look through the children listed and paused when I saw a child with Cystic Fibrosis. With renewed determination, I began to search through the listings for children my son's age with CF. Brennan was four months old when he caught his first bout of Bronchiolittis and received his first round of antibiotics. After that, he was on antibiotics every six weeks like clock-work. When he was a year of age I was at wit's end and requested a referral to a new pediatritian hoping to get the sickness under control. The appointment was stressful. The doctor examined Brennan, sent him for x-rays on site, and told me that my son was "seriously ill". Then he mentioned CF testing. I left the office in a daze because I really had no idea what CF was. Of course this was a Friday afternoon and the first thing I did when I got home was google CF. And then my world fell apart. How could my boy be sentinced to this life?! After all I went through to get him into this world, only to have him taken away?! My friends and family got me through the next two weeks as I waiting for the appointment and then the results. When the results came back negative, I knew that I had within myself the strength to deal with anything else. Turns out I would need that strength when he was labelled anaphylaxic to eggs and allergic to a multitude of other things and asthmatic. But it wasn't CF so I could deal with it.
Dustin's focus on Post Pals brought these emotions flooding back and I was determined to send a card to one of these children with CF. I ended up choosing two. A girl named Caitlin who loves purple will be receiving this one:


And Joe, a boy who just turned six, will be receiving this card:







Joe's picture reminded me so much of my son that my family will continue to send cards his way. His interests match those of my son, perhaps there is a Pen Pal in my son's future...