Bright Spot to my yesterday!

well last night i got a total of 5 hrs of sleep so forgive me if parts of this don't make much sense... I think I got more sleep when my daughters were babies.  Lol!

Anyway,  I have yet more cards for you all.  Yesterday was very emotional for me (you know the type of day where you wake up from a blissful dream only to find that everything is wrong... the kids got in your purse & ate all your gum, tore apart your wallet and crinkled your business cards, Played tea party with water in the living room and spilled it everywhere and on everything, the contents of the toy box are strewn around the house to the point where it looks like you have a carpet of toys & blankies.  They smeared mayo into their blankets in their room etc. etc. not to mention you haven't done the things that are most important in a few days just cause you had no energy... probably from a recent sinus infection... and are feeling like your family deserves a better version of you.  Then you take your meds and realize that you're okay and they love you anyway Just as much as you love them anyway.) My daughter recently started yelling at everyone about everything.  it's really made me pause and assess how I project my voice & if she's seeing it as yelling... I'm working on it.  I cleaned the front room and kitchen after eating something and asking my kids to stop yelling, fighting &/or suffocating each other under blankets. (i'm befuddled by that last one too).  Then I decided to go for a walk to our mailbox (which is a couple blocks away) and I had to hold it in when I saw these beautiful Crafts Meow stamps!  Honestly it brightened my day so much.  I didn't get a lot of studying in (and I have till Dec. 12th to have passed everything) but I needed this boost.

Today everything looks so much brighter (even on 5 hrs sleep).  Now lets get past my problems and get to what you really want to see... My cards!  & the challenges they're going to be entered into...

I'm going to start with my biggest card first.  I realized I don't have very many Birthday Cards left so a lot of these will be birthday cards...

1) I used an animal set from Silhouette America, a happy birthday stamp that my M-I-L gave me when she was cleaning out her craft room this summer, some scraps in my over flowing stash of scrap paper & a black Ink Dot.  The challenge over at CASology is ZOO! yeay I love animals and this just helped me use my cute little cutting file that i've been wanting to use.  Zebras are amazing animals & with certain breeds their stripes are as unique as a finger print (or so says my nearest Zoo).  I really like how the black ink on the stamp really brought out the design of this beautiful paper.  I'm entering this cutie into the CASology Zoo challenge found here: http://casology.blogspot.com/2012/10/week-13-zoo.html

2) I made a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card base out of this reddish-pink card stock.  this picture doesn't show all the detail of the card stock but it's textured.  The image is from Sassy Studio Designs: http://www.sassystudiodesigns.blogspot.com/ .  I used pink paper from an 8x8 SLAB i had (I don't know what it's called other than that).  The banner and sentiment is from The Crafts Meow good times stamp set.  The ribbon and rhinestones are from studio G (purchased at Porters).  And the buttons are from my S-I-L, Valerie.  & the white dots around my circle are from a ZIG white chalk pen.  I added a wobble that I made myself and used close to my heart wildberry ink.  This is from Mojo Monday Sketch #261.  I decided to use this sentiment because when I was young I watched a movie representation of  Gilda Radner's life (wife of Gene Wilder) who died from cancer and as I was balling my eyes out I remember a scene where she laughs about life and plays with her dog & it just struck me that a depressing attitude about something out of your control isn't going to change the outcome or make anything better.  So Laugh till it hurts.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilda_Radner]

I'm entering this beauty in:
Link Up For Pink: http://www.linkupforpink.com/ 
Mojo Monday #261: http://mojomonday.blogspot.com/2012/10/mojo-monday-261-contest.html
Action Wobble~whatever wobbles: http://www.action-wobbles.com/
Go Fish Challenges #26: http://gofishchallenges.blogspot.com/
Craft your passion~Save the Hooters:http://craftyourpassionchallenges.blogspot.com/
& Sarah Hamer's Link Up Tuesday: http://www.pinkcricut.com/2012/10/link-tuesday-22/

3)  My Daughter, Gwenna, helped me out a lot with this card!  I used a 4 1/4"x5 1/2" card base.  The kitten, sentiment, orange chevrons and banner are from The Crafts Meow stamps I received in the mail yesterday.  I used my Tombo markers to color in this cutie and my daughter wanted some pink on the cat so I added some to the ears and cheeks. The sketch is also from the craft's meow: 
The purple and spots paper is printable paper from Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbon: http://prettypaperprettyribbons.blogspot.com/ .  And the black and white pattern paper is from my 8x8 SLAB.  This one is being entered into:

The Craft's Meow: http://thecraftsmeowshop.blogspot.com/
My Crafting Channel: http://www.mycraftingchannel.com/2012/10/mcc-challenge-1-ghoul-times.html
A Homespun Affair Color Challenge:http://ahomespunaffair.blogspot.com/ 
& Made Especially For You: http://especiallymade.blogspot.com/p/weekly-challenge_4653.html

4)For this gender neutral birthday card I used a 4"x4 1/2" card base.,black ink dot, the image and sentiment are from doodle pantry, the banner is from the Crafts Meow good times stamp set & the paper is from my  8x8 SLAB.  this was simple to make after coloring the treasure with colored pencils and inking around it with my ink dot.  This is going into the Doodle Pantry challenge: DPDC28  http://doodlepantryblog.blogspot.com/

wax seal

5) For this I used a 4"x4" card base in white.  added my paper from my 8x8 SLAB & used the flower punch from Stampin' Up!.  Red sealing wax & the monogram from my wedding invitations.  Stampin Up! markers to color in the stamp from the Crafts Meow Lovely Ovals.  hope that was clear enough.  the flower is made with cardstock from a mini stack I have from Stampin' Up!  And follows the sketch from Stuck on you Sketches: 

      I'm entering this one in the SOUS 1st card challenge for Oct. 2012: http://stuckonusketches.blogspot.com/

Thanks for joining me! Happy Crafting everyone!