Con-Fusion....

So HI!!!... OMG (Oh my Golly...) I am so darn behind on my blog!  I have been in a slump, a blog block if you will.  It seemed to hit once we, my family, moved to Hawaii.  I know... poor me lol.  We have been trying to get as much as Hawaii has to offer as we possibly can before our next move and let me tell you it's so HARD.  There are so many things to do here, but it can also be extremely expensive.  So we've been scouring the island doing as much as we can as cheaply as we can on a military budget.  So far we have hit up the Waimea Valley Falls:

I will not bore you all with all the pictures, but these are few of my favs.  We also did the hike to Manoa Falls... Talk about getting dirty, but so worth it!
Of course we hit up the beaches as often as we can.

Yet there is so much more to do! 
I have also been uber busy getting my youngest ready to start kindergarten this year!!  This Momma will be in tears.  He is doing phenomenal with learning his letters, numbers and sight words.  Yes, I've gotten him started on his sight words at 4 years old.  My oldest who is 8 struggled and I as a first time parent was at total loss as to why but didn't stress as to why he seemed so far behind because I knew that every child is different.  He was diagnosed with ADHD and Autism once we arrived here in Hawaii almost two years ago.  My big guy is so smart but struggled verbalizing his answers which in turn made it hard for me to understand how to help him and I.  So after getting him all the necessary paper work, enrolling him into EFMP (Exceptional Family Member Program) which works with military families with special needs to address their unique needs throughout the assignment process and after families have settled into their new installation. We finally have been going to appointments and social groups to grow and learn together.. What an amazing journey this has been so far.  I tell you, life is just so much happier in the home now that we know how to communicate with my big guy.  My big guy had an outstanding Kindergarten teacher while we were stationed at Bragg that gave us the stepping stones to testing and learning what was going on with our guy.  Then we moved here to Hawaii where his 1st Grade teacher, well, wasn't as great.  She wanted us to just medicate, medicate, MEDICATE!... That is not what we wanted and it really broke my heart as he was just pushed aside.  Thankfully he had a great Speech and Aide that really helped him out.  Then last year, PRAISE GOD, I tell you... if any of my readers are military or non and move to Hawaii (Oahu) and get Makalapa Elementary... BEG... no PLEAD to get Mrs. Ishida for your 2nd Grader!  Yes, totally name dropping.  She is oh gosh... trying not to tear up.... she is the kindest totally from the heart type of teacher.  My guy went from WBP (Well below proficiency) to at level!  He now reads books, although not his favorite thing to do, to even writing (would much prefer to read than write hahaha).
So needless to say my blogging has been neglected, but for good reason ;0)

My blogging wasn't the only thing being neglected, my poor craft room has been sadly been on the side burner as well.  I have managed to fill a few orders or card making requests and submit to a few magazine submissions of which y'all will find my cards published... yay!

I really want to get back to my roots of what got me started on my Card making love... Challenges!  Oh yes YouTube was the start of my papercrafting addiction... I mean... hobby... Then blogs to of which I discovered CHALLENGES!!  KAndrew was my first start and then I just started branching out trying different ones and I have won a few.  I can't tell you the amazing feeling it is to win a Challenge or to have cards published.  It is one thing to have your family and friends to tell you, "Oh you make amazing cards, I love your work!", because it's almost like they may feel obligated to not hurt your feelings... does that make sense?!... I've got some super kind friends, I also have the best that tell me... "Ah.... Annette... NO, that dress DOES make you look FAT!" I love them for their honesty so that I'm not later found on one of those FB posts making fun of a picture of someone with some crazy caption underneath it.

So with that being said I started browsing YouTube and the Internet for some challenges and that's where I found Fusion Card Challenge.  HOW FREAKING FUN!!!  This one is Super Duper Neat-O as the lovely ladies give you three different options to enter the challenge and you can enter as many times as you would like as long as you follow their very well detailed rules... regulations.... or let me just use their wording... Considerations ;0)

This Challenge the ladies put these sketches forward:

You can either submit a card using Jackie' Challenge or using Lesley's Challenge OR....

FUSION, the combination of the two!

I totally gunned for the fusion and this is what I came up with.



This Fusion (haha I keep wanting to type "fushion") Challenge I got to use up a LOT of my old stuff.  I am an Stampin' Up demonstrator and I love all the new goodies that I tend to forget about the old.  I used for the background to make the glitter flowers Stampin' Up Sticky Cuts Sweet which are pretty much die cuts from double sided adhesive sheets.  Lots of different glitter, not of which are all Stampin' up, in fact all but the banner are Studio G brand glitter. The banner on the other hand is SU Dazzling Diamonds.  For the smaller flowers I used SU Boho punch and ran them through my Xyron sticker maker then covered with glitter using the center covers of the Sweets to mask the center then removed to cover with gold glitter (I must make a video).  I then die cut a piece of window or acetate paper using my Big Shot and Sizzix Frame Back, Ornate #3 then trimmed off what I didn't want to create the shape I got.  I then traced the window sheet onto a scrap piece of cardstock and cut out.  Spritzed the cardstock with various ink sprays... Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (Fully Purple), Sprinklers (Pink Balloon) and Mister Huey's (Pretty Pink).  Like I said, using up some items collecting dust.  For the banner I fussy cut it, ran through my Xyron once again and covered with Dazzling Diamonds. Cut in half and adhered to back of the spritzed cardstock.  Next I adhered the pretty spritzed cardstock to the base over my glitter flowers.  I stamped the sentiment using Hero Arts "Everyday Sayings" and StazOn Jet Black onto the window sheet.
Finally, I adhered my little flowers using dimensional for the smallest one, then placing dimensional foam adhesive behind the flowers to hide and adhere the window sheet to the cardstock.

This card was a LOT of fun, very messy, but so worth it!..... Hmmm I mentioned I should do a video... Ah shucks... since I mentioned it... I'll do it but I think I want to change one thing...


To be continued....