Im Back and Catching Up

I've been gone for a week visiting the grands and babysitting a few days. It was Carl's fifth birthday (how is that possible??) last Saturday and he had a Pokemon-themed party. Since my other daughter's family couldn't get away, I had promised Drew that he could come to Carl's birthday. So on Friday I flew into Albuquerque on an early flight and Drew and his dad met me at the curb at the airport. Then Drew and I caught a flight to Dallas and my husband met us and we drove to Austin. Whew, what a long day!

Drew's first trip without parental!

The boys always have such a good time together and Drew didn't have time to miss his parents all week! On Monday Kelly and Josh went to Seattle for three days to attend a concert so we babysat all three boys. We took them to The Thinkery (children's interactive museum) in Austin and The Jumpy Place in Kyle. They all had a blast!

Happy 5th Birthday Carl

The Thinkery

Meeting Aunt Kim for lunch

Just hanging out - drawing

Storytime and bedtime

On Thursday I flew back to Albuquerque with Drew and then home that night. I must say, I'm exhausted - those boys keep you going! But I do miss them when I'm not there!

Anyway, back to my normal reality...

I received a finished "divided postcard" from the swap I mentioned in the last post. Three other artists worked on it and I love how it came together!

I also received the last postcard that I needed to create on. The other two artists used cats as their themes so I decided to stick with that. My section is the far right. With all the stamps I own, I couldn't believe I didn't have one cat stamp that wasn't a Halloween one. So I found this cute "mer-cat" online and printed it out. The recipient of this postcard loves mermaids, so I thought that was appropriate. I colored the cat with colored pencils and a metallic pen and used Distress Oxide Broken China ink on the background and a few word stickers. 

On another note, I also received a RAK from a friend in Missouri who didn't participate in the saving cream background card swap but made one and sent it to me anyway! I love the stark contrast of the colorful background with the black layer and the black die cut (which is actually glossy but doesn't show in the photo). She also added some rounded corner offcuts to add some texture - I never would have thought of that!