My Beautiful Sister

I actually made this card before I made the Thank you cards previously posted, but since my sister is one of the handful of people that regularly check this blog, I couldn't post it until she received it. Happy Birthday Sis! I wish we could be there to celebrate with you!




The front of the card: Prima flowers; I just can't say enough how much I love these tin flowers. The black and white pp is Classic Black, Chick flick by Luxe Designs. I can't recall who did the pink and black pp, but I really, really like it. I used Rusty Pickle rub-on for the Happy Birthday sentiment. Making Memories eyelet, and then finished it off with some complimenting pink bubble dots I had on hand.



The inside of the card: I used Kaiser Craft sentiments for the inside of the card. Where these rub-ons take more effort to get on the card, once they're there, they feel like they're part of the paper. They're completely smooth.

The envelope: I want to say the pp is from My Mind's Eye, but to be honest with you, I'm not completely sure. It came from a block stack of pp I purchased quite a while ago. The stickers for Rachel's name are from Mrs. Grossman's.

Prompt, I Am Not

I've been meaning to get these out for a bit now. They're some well-deserved and overdue thank yous. Time seems to slip so easily once school starts and the hustle of shuffling kids comes back into play.

I love how, when I'm making cards, each one transforms just slightly and I learn something new with each one. Simple things such as what attaches where and in what order to give the best presentation.





The materials for these cards were all in stash, so I'm only going to mention the ones I'm certain of.

Rub Ons: LOVE Rusty Pickle rub-ons. Kaiser Craft rub-ons, not so much. Both of the sentiments seen here are Rusty Pickle. I used a Kaiser Craft sentiment on the inside of one of the cards. They were just not as good of a quality, in my opinion. The Rusty Pickle ones were easier to keep in position and apply. I didn't have to guess if it was burnished on well enough, it was obvious. With the Kaiser ones, I got to burnish good and hard and long before they adhered to the card, and it wasn't obvious when they had released from their original sheet. Both brands look great once you get them on.

Prima Flowers: All the flowers here are Prima. I just ADORE the pixie tin flower brads(also Prima) used for the centers.

Brads and Eyelets: All the other brads and eyelets are from Making Memories.

Papers and Cardstock: EK Success and Basil cardstock. I'm not sure who made the other papers I used. I LOVE the fiber papers though.

Where Are All the Boys?

Another baby card. Baby girls are sooo cute, but with everyone I know that is expecting having a girl, I can't help but wonder where the boys are.








I made a template using Cricut Design Studio when I made the green baby card below. I used the same template on this card. I created the 3 windows on the right using the Mini Monograms cartridge. I just love the cute little baby embelies I had in my stash, which I nestled the windows of the cut outs. The paper is Marcella by Kay, which was also in my stash. Basil cardstock. The circles are cut using my Creative Memories circle cutter, and the sentiment is a cuttlebug embossing folder on white card cut with my cricut for the cute design around the edge.

A Couple More Baby Cards

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I used a bit of my stash, and played with my new Cuttlebug embossing folders on these two baby cards.

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Christmas in July!

I had a great 2 week vacation with my family. While I was there, my lovely Aunt informed me that she had a box of extra scrapbook supplies she wanted to give me. When she brought it over, I was shocked! This is all EXTRA?! And you're giving it to me!? And it's not even Christmas!? There was plenty to go around, and my mom and sister each took out a small stash of their own.



Of course while I was there I had to fit in time to pick up some things I've been wanting, that I can't easily get at home. The Cricut cartridges happened to be on sale while I was there. $40 each. Woohoo!



Time to get busy creating again! I can't wait!

And Soon I Will Be on Vacation

I really thought things would slow down a little for me once summer vacation got here. Wrong! It's been great so far, but plenty busy. I get to head out for vacatoin in 2 days. I'm looking forward to seeing all our family and friends. I think I may need some retail therapy to combat the change in temperature between here and there.




This is a simple layout I did of my daughter's class photos. Quite simple with a few embelishments, vellum, some tearing and a little snipping around objects on the patterned paper. If you know my DD at all, you know how fitting these papers are for her personality. Of course anything involving amimals or bugs, or flowers would pretty much capture her loves.

...And Tomorrow Summer Vacation Begins

The last 2 thank you cards for my kids' fantastic teachers. I think it takes a special kind of person to teach children and honestly love it. And when they do, it really shows! I'm grateful to the teachers who taught my kids this year. They are all really wonderful ladies. I hope they enjoy these cards and the little gift that goes along with them.

Two Down, Two to Go

We're in the midst of the end-of-year bussiness at my house. It is fun, but it's also chaotic. At any given time I have at least 2 places to be, it seems. And next week it's officially summer break. WooHoo! I wonder if I can catch a nap...

You Can Never Have Too Many

I'm going to be whipping up some more thank you cards to keep on-hand. It seems there's always a chance to use them. This is one I made using some scraps I had, for the end-of-the-year card for one of my kids' teachers.

Babies, Babies, Everywhere!

There are so many new babies coming into the world to people I have the privilege of knowing! You know what that means? More cards! Lots and lots of baby cards. I made these with a special someone in mind who I believe likes simple. So here they are, simple baby cards.

Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a great Mother's day, whether you are a mom, or just spent it thinking of your mom and the other wonderful ladies in your life. We've had a full house for the last couple weeks with nearly all of my siblings(only one of my sisters was missing) and their families, and my mom in town for a visit. It made for a great mother's day for me!









I altered a box for my Mom for her gift this year. The great thing about this box is that the flower on the lower left was made by my daughter in school a few years back. It was originally a pin. So it's actually got a touch of both her and me in it's creation. My mom tells me she's going to keep the photos she's working on in it. I also made her and my MIL both cards for the occasion. My mom's is the "You" card, and my MIL's is the "Mom" card.

We took a nice walk with the kids and saw a few wild flowers, and more than a few slugs. The last photos I leave you with today, show a glimpse of Seattle wildflowers in the spring time. Even on the sunny days, there are reminders of rain.

Nana's Birthday

My MIL's birthday is coming up in a few days. To my kids, she is Nana. I thought I'd share the card I made for her last year, as well as the one I finished up for her this year. The blue and brown card was her 07' card. The pink is the new one for this year. She's a really special person, and we miss her terribly. Have a great birthday! We love you!

Spring is in the air

When my daughter was littler, she had this cute little headband with a big blue mesh flower. It had floating silver balls that rolled through the transparent pettals. The flower has long since fallen off. I've been holding onto it for the longest time. I decided it needed to dress up this bag. This cute pp that's been in my stash reminds me of spring so much, and went perfectly with the big blue mesh flower. I'm going to tuck some turtles into it and give it to a friend. Who can resist chocolate and caramel! Now if I can just wish spring here, we'd be all set!

Birthday Wishes

It was my friend Holly’s birthday yesterday! Since “Happy” and”Holly” both start with H, I thought the occasion would make a perfect window/monogram card. The flower on the inside was a left over from a craft project my daughter did. I am so glad she let me use it!

Recipe:
Green cardstock
Pink pp; Daisy Bucket Designs
Yellow pp
Fiskars embossing system
Cricut machine and Alphalicious cart
Chipboard
Brads; JoAnn
Bubble stickers; Cloud 9 Design
Rub Ons; EK Success
Copper ink pad; Dew Drop
Button
Ribbon
White marker
Pink marker

Happy Birthday, Mom

My mom finally received her birthday present and card, so I can post it here now. I have a few porjects in the works. If I can actually focus enough to finish one of them, I'll have more to show you soon!

Yay! I’m using more stash!

These cards will find homes with my son’s teachers. They’d make good any occasion cards, but this time they’ll be valentines. I used Daisy Bucket Designs patterned paper, Making Memories glitter letters and prima flowers on both cards. The squares on the smile card were from Cock-a-doodle Designs and have been in my stash for years (literally). I attached the rick-rack to the squares and hand-stitched floss around the edges. The peridot flower centers are from Dress It Up. For the Enjoy card I added faux stitching to opposing corners to balance it a bit, and made white dots in a circle around the center. Added matching glitter dots from the same stickers the sentiment came in to the upper left. The prima flower is nesting on top of heart-shaped cardstock arranged to look like petals. The center gem is Me and My Big Ideas. I really like the feel of the smile card. There are so many different textures. It’s just fun to touch.
TFL

Chinese New Year

These are some invitations I did for my son's Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet. The theme this year is Chinese New year. They had to be simple so I could do a lot of them quickly. It's customary for red envelopes with money in them to be given to bring good luck, so I tucked some fake money into these "envelopes". The "Fu" symbol is printed out and then cut and mounted with my circle cutter. Gold paint around the edges of the front, and also used to distress the insert. I found the back picture on another pack's website and stuck it to the back. Tied the symbol and the pull-out insert with rafia.

An Elephant Never Forgets

This is a tri-fold card I made for my daughter's teacher for Valentine's day. My daughter is a big animal lover, and her teacher is well aware of this, so the elephant theme is perfect for her. The kids had a lot of fun making the elephants (one of which is the center of this card). They're cut with hearts for the ears, and a heart for the head with a "J" welded to it using my cricut. The papers are all from stash. The card is kept closed using magnetic snaps from Basic Grey. These things are great! The heart brads are Making Memories, and the ribbon is Martha Stewart. It was fun to do a card with my kids. They like how it turned out, and I hope my daughter's teacher does as well.

Goals

Wow! My crafty space is in some desperate need of tidying up! I'm finally feeling well enough to start taking down our Christmas things. I have a lot of handmade ornaments, and some of them were in need of repair, so they all made their way up to my desk, and now I can't make any cards or layouts until I get that taken care of. So I've mad a goal to get this tidied up this weekend. These are my goals for the coming week:

• Tidy up my desk!
• Valentines cards for teachers from my kids
• "Reflections" jar - fold the tasks, and alter the jar. (I may need a larger jar)
• Alter "Reflections" book
• Trains LO of ds#2

That should keep my plenty busy. I made a new year's resolution to do an on-going project that was all about me. Something my posterity can look back at and learn more of who I am. A journal if you will, but I intend to keep it in a scrapbook form with tons of journaling. That will be my reflections book. I found a cool message board at http://123-scrap.com. On this board, one of the projects is a Book of Me, which I figure will be a HUGE help to me for my reflections book. I'm sure there are going to be days that I'm not compelled toward a certain subject. On those days, I'll go to my jar, and pick a topic they've used for the Book of Me. I hope to do 2-3 pages in my reflections book a month all year long. I've printed the topics out on pp and cut them into strips (1 topic on each strip). I need to get them all folded up and into my jar, which I need to alter. From the looks of my cuts, I should add replacing my trimmer blade to that goal list...

"Foiled" Challenge - Shine Like the Star U R !

I decided to try my hand at the challenge over at http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/ this week. The theme is "Foiled" and the challenge was to use some plain old aluminum foil from your kitchen on your card. This is what I came up with, and let me just say, it was indeed a challenge. Foil is hard to work with- It's so thin! I also had trouble getting it to photograph well.

The paper background is Karen Foster Design, and I used my Cricut to cut out the stars, tag and words. My Cricut didn't want to cut the foil (even after mounting it onto cardsotck) without tearing it, so I added the foil afterward and hand trimmed it. The eyelets are Making Memories, and the ribbon is bulk from my local craft store. I just love this ribbon. It's got an opalescent look to it, and it's not very wide. I like the delicate touch it adds. I added dimension with some dots used under the main star.

Thanks for the challenge!

1 Reason not to scrap at 2am

This is a page I've been wanting to do of my dh. I got it all finished in the wee hours this morning, and was looking forward to putting it in my book when I noticed I dated the letter with the wrong year. I should know by now never to date anything with a year until at least June, since that's how long it takes me to get used to the change. Anyway, now I need to go in and fix it.

The paper is K&Company. I used lots of Cricut cuts on this one: Opposites attract, Mini Monograms, Jasmine, Teardrop, and All Mixed Up. I used DS to help me with this (LOVE IT!).

I hand made the notebook look letter using my Cropadile and then ripping the holes outward. Antiqued the edges with "caramel". The ribbon is Making Memories.

TFL

My Stars

I finally finished my dd's star, and my set is now complete. (Unless I decide to add one for me and my dh hehe). I love these stars. They come in all different sizes. These are about 6". The technique is the same as listed below on the larger star post. Pictures printed at 3x5 are just the right size for these. The papers I used on all are from a color block mat stack from DCWV.

TFL

Simple Thank You

I'm recovering well from my surgery. I had a handful of really wonderful friends bring over meals, send flower, and other acts of kindness to assist me with various things while I was down, which of course warrants some "Thank You" cards. These are nothing complicated, since I made them rather quickly while I was still not able to do much but lay down. I also wanted to get them out quickly. I found this cute little card in my Provo Craft Style book, and scraplifted it for my cards, with very minor changes.

The flowers were cut with my Cricut and Accent Essentials. The snaps for the center are some I've had kicking around for some time. I believe they are Making Memories, but I could be wrong. "Thank you" was cut from All Mixed Up. The ribbon is Making Memories.

Grandma's Angels

This is a project I did for my mom for Christmas. It's a large rusty star purchased from my local Ben Franklin Craft. It's about 24". The papers used are My Mind's Eye. I was able to include photos of all of her grandchildren. The star is made by making a template of where your pictures and papers will be. If you are using printed pictures from your computer, you will have to protect the images with a sealant so the colors won't run. I used "Preserve It". Everything is adhered to the star using Mod Podge, and then a final finishing layer is washed over the papers, pictures and embellishments. I added rub on lettering and some stickers to the finished star, which I didn't get the chance to take a pic of before mailing it off to her. (It was risking being late as it was, and my camera was out of batteries). My mom really likes how this turned out, and plans to keep it up year round. TFL

Surgery

So, I was having a pretty annoying stomach ache that just wouldn't go away on Sunday. By Monday morning, I had decided it wasn't a "normal" ache and that I needed to have it looked at. So my hubby and I got the kids ready for school, dropped them off, and proceeded to the emergency room for me to be checked out. 1 set of X-rays and 1 ultrasound later, I was informed that I had a substantial sized stone trying to escape my gall bladder, which had lodged itself against my stomach. Apparently the ER doc, ultrasound tech, and surgical doc were all a bit surprised that I hadn't experienced any pain before this. End result: Surgery to remove the gallbladder, 2 days in a hospital, a liquid diet, and so far 5 days recovering. I'm still sluggish, and don't move around as well as I'd like, but I am feeling much better. I've been able to mix solid foods in with my liquids of choice. My good friends (and surrogate sisters, since my real ones are so far away) Holly and Joann sent me these lovely flowers today.


I've been working an altered box for my oldest son that would normally have taken me one night. Because of my current state, I've been working on it here and there for a few minutes at a time. I've almost finished the lid. I hope to have it finished and posted here soon. In the mean time, I have a previous project that I did for my mom for Christmas that I'll post shortly.

Christina's Card

This is a card I made for my friend who is moving out of state. The finished card is about 5x8”.

The Letters were all cut using my Cricut, and the Jasmine cartridge. The large C is the charm function cut at 4.5”. For this charm I made chip board using a piece of cardboard that came with some scrapbook sheet protectors that I had, with a colored paper mounted to it. “My friend” was cut at 1 ½ ”. The tag was cut at 2” and 1 ¾” from the Plantin SchoolBook cartridge. The paper is all “Magnolia” from My Mind’s Eye. The ribbon was bulk ribbon from Ben Franklin Craft that I had left over from a card I made my mother-in-law for her birthday. The brad is Making Memories. I believe the flower charm is also, although I’m not sure. I used Walnut Ink from Tsukinek for the antiquing around the edges.

The sentiment on the inside of the card was printed on my printer. I cut out some of the shapes from one of the coordinating papers used on the front of the card, and spiced up the inside a bit. I also made an envelope for the card with this same paper.

Beginnings

Well, this is my first shot at an actual "blog" so we'll see how well it turns out. My thoughts are that this will be a good place to share the various things I create, as well as keep track of them myself, since most tend to be gifts for other people.