Lots Of Catchin' Up!!

WOW!!! I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've blogged! This past month has been so crazy in the Binion household that I feel like I haven't had time to breathe! This is gonna be a long one, so hang in there!!!

For those of you that are still with me, THANK YOU! I really appreciate you taking the time to visit my page and share your ideas with me!

Most of April has been dedicated to my 2 youngest girls and their softball. They were on separate teams this year and unfortunately the coaches didn't get together to plan practices on the same day or at the same park, so we were runnin' crazy!! But the girls did great, and other than play-offs and possibly a championship game, WE'RE DONE!!

My 10 year old played 1st base for the Blue Diamonds and my 8 year old played 3rd and left for Sugar 'N Spikes....

... While sitting at the field during practices, I took advantage of the down-time and made some baby beenies for a local hospital's newborn nursery.....

 .... We celebrated Easter at my mom's and since my girls are among the few that still like painting eggs, I got to be in charge... so guess what??? I picked a decorating pack that included bead and sequin embellishments, stickers, and glitter!!!

(and my 19 year old daughter, 17 year old niece, and 13 year old son joined in without any kicking or screaming!!)

.... and of course my month wouldn't be complete without atleast a few papercrafts!!!

I went to a Friday Nite Crop and made this beautiful bookmark from a kit put together by a Close To My Heart demonstrator....

... and unfortunately my Stampin' Up Technique has come to an end for now, but we had an AWESOME last class! We made this cute little Easter basket....

 .... a Thank You card.....

 ... and this AMAZING easel card!!! Rather than sitting upright and forward like my previous easel card, this one sits at an angle!!

WHEW!!! That's it for tonite!!
Thanks again for sticking with me!!!

Melonheadz and Sliekje

Today's cards are from 2 very talented ladies that have greatly inspired my last few posts....

Nikki at Melonheadz is such a great artist and has quickly become a wonderful virtual friend of mine! I've posted on her before so you may recognize her name, but this time I asked her to draw a special pic for me. My oldest daughter enlisted in the Army Reserve so I asked Nikki to draw a soldier girl holding a flag. By the next morning, this adorable girl was in my IN Box!!

I used Stampin' Up markers to color my little soldier, and SU Blender Pens to create the camouflage. I don't have a distressing tool, but I've found that a sponge rubbed on an ink pad works just as well! The tag and sentiment are also from SU, and the patterned paper is from an old Paper Pizazz pack I had in my closet...

Unfortunately my daughter will be coming home early due to some minor medical issues, so I will be sending this card to another virtual friend's daughter instead!

My 2nd card is a Sliekje drawing. My 10 year old daughter wanted to help make cards and loves to draw, so I asked her to color some of my digi's....

Obviously purple is her favorite color, so I mounted her beautiful art onto different shades of purple cardstock and outlined it with ribbon. The tag was cut and written freehand...

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