Jennifer's Creative Corner

I've Moved!!!

2011-06-10T14:43:00.000-04:00

I've decided to "retire" this blog and move! I will keep this one up, but I will now be posting my creations at my new blog - JMDesigns.

I REALLY want to get back to doing what I love, and I'm trying to schedule in some "work" time in my week to allow this. I'm not as busy this summer as I've been for the past year, so I'm going to do my best to get this going again!

So...be sure to join me in my new space!

Resurfacing!

2010-06-14T01:49:00.000-04:00

Wow - I can't believe it's been OVER A YEAR since I posted anything here!
I suppose that's mostly because I haven't worked on a lot of stuff, so there hasn't been much to post. Seems my creative bug took a major backseat. It rears it's little head every now and then, but doesn't seem to stay around for long.

I REALLY want to be crafting more. And I really want to be blogging more. I'm going to try...we'll see how it goes.

My dear sweet cousin got married in May and she asked if I could make some stationary sets for her bridesmaids. So I did...and I had fun making them. I did sets of monogrammed cards, beaded pens and magnets. This was my first try at the magnets. They didn't turn out perfect, but I liked them enough that I'll try them again and see if I can do even better.

Here is one of the sets I made:

Her wedding colors were ivory and peridot green, with pink as an accent. I could not figure out a way to work the pink in that made me happy, so I just didn't include it.

I created the monograms in Word and printed them out. I really like the way they turned out.
they each got a set of 8 cards and a matching beaded pen.

I had these great little acrylic boxes they fit perfectly in. Here's a view from the side:

And of course, I couldn't give these to her without having created a set for the bride as well! I had run out of the green paper, so I went more neutral with hers and used brown.

And then I made the magnets using the glass pebbles. Each girl received 4 magnets - 2 with their first initial, and 2 with patterned paper.

I used small round tins to put the magnets in, decorated with the same paper. But I forgot to take a picture of them.

Soo...now that I've posted, I will do my best not to let another year go by before I post something else! LOL!

Birthday Wishes

2009-04-10T09:55:00.000-04:00

Often times when I make a card and I like how it turned out, I'll go ahead and make another one (or more!) using the same supplies and just changing it a little bit.
That's what I did with these cards. I actually made three, but the third one came out really fuzzy, and I've already given it away, so I can't take another picture.

I love this Big Blossom stamp from Stampin Up! and the versatility it has. On these cards, I stamped it on the back of my patterned paper and then cut it out. I really like the round gem in the middle better than the heart shaped one, but it was the last one I had in the right color. So I used the heart for the other one.

Simply Sweet

2009-04-09T10:48:00.000-04:00

I got this stamp from My Favorite Things. I absolutely loved it. But I wasn't sure what direction to go with it. So, I poked around on SCS and found a really cute card and loved everything about it.
So, I basically did the same thing with my card. I don't think mine turned out quite as cute as the one I copied (which can be seen HERE), but I still like it.

And here is mine:

Dino-riffic!

2009-04-08T10:03:00.000-04:00

Here's a card I made using a cute little dinosaur stamp I got from Oriental Trading.
It's just a simple card - that's been my thing lately - keeping it simple!

I stamped the image first on white cardstock, then again on the patterned paper. I cut the body of the dino out of the paper and adhered it to the cardstock image. Then I just colored in the spikes.
The word stamp is Studio G (I think!)

Simple...but cute...at least I think so!

Celebrate 50

2009-04-07T08:08:00.000-04:00

I just love the classic black and white for cards, and use it an awful lot. I needed a 50th birthday card, so I went to myself for inspiration! LOL! I liked the 40th birthday card I did here so much that I just basically recreated it with just a couple of changes so it wouldn't be exactly the same.

Very, very simple, but I like it!

Sorry about the fuzzy picture. I had to take this with my phone when my camera wasn't working, so it's not the best.

It's a Dog's Life

2009-04-06T07:41:00.000-04:00

My friends who live next door have two beautiful American Bulldogs. These are the sweetest dogs, and they are spoiled just a little bit rotten!

When Mufasa (their "first born") turned one, they did what any parents of a one year old would do - had a birthday party!

And I had the honors of making the cake. I had seen a few pictures of cute cakes online and used them as inspiration to come up with Mufasa's cake.

And I couldn't go to a birthday party without a gift! So I made some doggy treats and then altered this marshmallow creme jar to put them in.

(Sorry the pictures aren't very clear.)

Here is Mufasa with his eye on the cake:

Of course, he didn't get to have any of it. But he and Maya both enjoyed the dog treats!

And here's the whole family:

Denise, Maya, Mufasa, Jorge & Marlon
Aren't they cute?

Let's Try This Again!

2009-04-05T12:37:00.005-04:00

Oh My Word!

Has it REALLY been almost a year since I posted something here? I don't know what happened with me! It's been slow - I haven't made tons of stuff, but I still can't believe I haven't posted in so long!

So...I decided to give my blog a little mini-makeover and a fresh start. I found this cute header at The Cutest Blog on the Block and altered it to add my blog name. I don't dislike butterflies, but it probably wouldn't have been my first choice, however, I liked the colors and everything else about it, so it works!

I won't make any promises that I'll be good about blogging regularly. I can't even seem to blog regularly on my main blog anymore! I think one of my problems is I discovered Facebook a while back, and I tend to spend a LOT of time on there!

But I'm at least going to TRY to get back to blogging more!

I'll start by posting a card I made for my daughter for her 4th birthday. One of her favorite shows is "Yo Gabba Gabba" and her favorite character is Foofa. So she wanted a Foofa cake for her birthday.

Since I was planning to do that, I had to make a Foofa card as well! I found an image online and used it as a pattern to make the card as well as the image on the cake.

Here's the card:

And of course, the cake! Ruthi wanted a cookie cake, so this is what I did:

And you know, I didn't notice until just now, as I posted this, that I forgot to add the eyelashes on the cake! I was in such a hurry that day, finishing the cake just before the party. I can't believe I didn't even notice it! I don't think it looked that odd until I looked at the card and cake pictures at the same time! Oh well...Ruthi certainly didn't care!

Do You Like a Challenge? How About a Prize?

2008-05-28T18:31:00.004-04:00

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted here in over a week! I was on a roll, but then got a bit busy and time flew by!

I'm not posting a card or project right now, I want to tell you about something else. I want to give you a little information first, but then I'll be telling you about a challenge with a PRIZE!

I am a member of a great little scrapbooking (and stamping, and cardmaking and other paper crafts) message board. I've been chatting with some of these ladies for years now. It's a much smaller board than most of the "well known" ones out there, but that's exactly why I like it. I have to say, that the big boards intimidate me. And while I like to browse them for inspiration, I never have felt comfortable chatting in the forums.

And I know there are others like me out there who would love a board to get some inspiration and to talk about scrapbooking, stamping and other things, but aren't crazy about the bigger boards. If you are one of those like me, then Paper Petal Memories may be right up your alley!

I have truly made friends on this board and have even had the opportunity to meet 4 of them in person! And yet another, I talk to on the phone every chance I get. These ladies are great. If you're looking for some fellow scrapbookers to chat with, then come check out the board! However, we talk about much more than scrapbooking!

Now for the challenge.....

Things have been a little slower on the board lately so we are trying to come up with some challenges to get the scrapping flowing again! Our wonderful site hostess, Kelly has put out a great challenge that includes a prize. I love this challenge, and am just a little partial to it since a while back when we did this before, I actually won! Go me! LOL!

Here is the challenge:

This challenge is for designer/patterned paper challenge, although you can create your own OSW (one sheet wonder). PLEASE READ ALL OF THE DIRECTIONS. I wouldn't want anyone to be disqualified from being a finalist for not following the guidelines.

You must use only one sheet of designer paper - you must use it all to create anywhere from 4-12 projects. At least 2 items must be non-card projects and at least 2 items must be cards (any size). Think you are up for it, I do!

You must use the following in your projects:
Stamp sets - any
Designer paper - 1 sheet - use it all
Cardstock - any
Ink - any
Embellishments - any

Important uploading guidelines: You must photograph the group together. These group photos will be the ones that are judged. You must list your items used, especially your patterned paper. Please forward your entry to me via email at paperpetalmemories(at)gmail(dot)com. This is going to be exciting to see what all of you can create with one sheet of paper!.

Judging:

You will have until Monday, June 24th at 8:00 PM CST to email your entry. I am giving you a month to put your minds to work for some fabulous creations! At around 12:00AM CST, I will post a new thread with a poll of all the finalists. You will vote on the grand prize winner! I will leave the polls open for 3 days.

Are you ready to know what the prize will be?? Are you?? Well, since the site has been dragging a bit recently, I decided to toss a good prize out there to see if that would get your creative juices flowing. I am going to send out a $25 gift card to either Hobby Lobby or Michael's your choice!

So does this sound like a fun challenge? Anyone can play along...so feel free to pass this information on or share on your blog. Who couldn't use an extra $25 to spend on this wonderful ~~habit~~ hobby we have?

Be sure to check out our other challenges as well. We have a layout sketch challenge and a card challenge (almost) every week. Be sure to check out the gallery as well!

Mother's Day Cards

2008-05-19T11:39:00.003-04:00

My neighbor ordered two Mother's Day cards from me. She didn't give me any specifications, just as long as they were Mother's Day-ish!

So I made four cards and let her pick which two she wanted. I saved the other two for my Mom and MIL.

These are the two my neighbor chose:

After making the pink one, I liked the way it turned out, so I decided to recreate it in the blue. I was happy with the way they came out.
My neighbor liked them, and more importantly, so did the Mom's who received them!

A Couple of Layouts

2008-05-18T15:24:00.006-04:00

I still have more auction things to post, but I thought I'd break away and post a couple of recent layouts.

Both of these were inspired by sketches at PageMaps.com. I love the sketches there!

This was the first sketch I used (this one is from May sketches):

And here is my layout - "Sweet & Sour"

Sorry about the shadow - I guess I was between the light and the layout!

Here's a close up of the journaling:

Here is the second sketch (From February sketches)

I flipped the sketch for my layout. I also added a pull-out tag behind the picture for the journaling.

The plain cardstock behind the title looks almost white, but it is actually grey.
I didn't take a pic of the journaling. But it basically explains the title. I call my hubby, "My Love". When I was trying to come up with a title for this page, it was he who suggested, "My {little} Love" since CJ is a "mini-Chip". And he is my little love, so it's perfect. Though, he's not so little anymore - he's only 1/2 inch shorter than me!!! This picture was actually taken in December 2005.

For this one, I used some chipboard letters from Cloud 9. I inked the tops with black. They were originally a beige color. I only inked the tops though, I left the edges the natural color. You can't really tell in the pic, but it makes them have even more of a dimensional look. For the brackets, I actually used a chipboard piece as the stencil, traced it and colored it in. I stamped the word 'little' on red cardstock. I can't remember the name of the stamp set, but each letter is a different font. The 'e' is a negative image, but is a little hard to see in the photo. You can click it to make it larger if you want to see it better. The heart if by Heidi Swapp, I believe. And the little circle with the date on it is a chipboard circle. I covered it with the red cardstock and punched a hole with my Crop-a-dile.

More Auction Pieces

2008-05-14T10:37:00.000-04:00

I will eventually get through all these...I promise! Not too many more to go. (Hey...at least it's giving me something to post!)

There was a camping themed basket. Not a very easy one to come up with a paper crafting idea for. I was browsing Split Coast Stampers and got inspired.

First, I came across this. It is Jiffy Pop popcorn. I thought that would be cute. Then I saw somewhere on there something about S'mores Trail Mix. So I googled it to see what was in it. I found out it was Honey Graham's cereal, chocolate chips and marshmallows. But I thought I remembered someone using Teddy Graham's instead of the cereal, so that's what I did.

So this is what I came up with:

Just like the school paper in my last post, I've had this paper forever too. Probably from the same pack! I just covered the popcorn with it and made a tag using a scallop punch.

The trail mix is in an old peanut butter jar I had been saving. (I have lots of jars saved and stashed everywhere!) It was big enough that it held enough of the trail mix for a whole family to share.

I just used some of the paper to make a band and finished it off with a scalloped label. I decided the red lid worked just fine, so I just wrapped a green ribbon around it.
For a little more fun on the top, I did this:

And as a side note - that trail mix? Oh my word, is it so yummy! But I'll NEVER tell how much of it I ate!

Oh, and I used the mini chocolate chips instead of the regular ones. I think they were perfect.

Also, there was a "kitty" basket. And by kitty, I mean there was to be a real live kitten in that basket to be auctioned! I thought the kitty would need some treats, so I made this:

That's a Starbucks Frappuccino bottle. I made the label on my computer and attached it to the black card stock band. A paw print on the top and some cute paw print ribbon. Pretty cute, I think!

Oh - and if you live close to me and happen to be reading this....AND you happen to drink Frappuccino's - could you do me a huge favor and save me your bottles? I'll even come get them from you! And you don't even have to wash them out. Just toss them (gently) in a box or bag and I'll wash them myself! Thanks to anyone who's willing to help!
I have lots of projects I need these for, and if I drink that many of them, I'll never get the weight off that I'm trying to!

Back to School

2008-05-13T10:19:00.000-04:00

I did this for the 'School Supply' basket, again, for the silent auction.

I have had this paper forever - it's from an old Slab stack of paper from Michael's, I think. Anyway, it was perfect for this project.

I used Mod Podge to adhere it to the clipboard. I used my Fiskars shape cutter to make the lettering in red. I adhered it to a piece of yellow, and then just cut around it. I then used the Mod Podge to adhere it and the red strip in the middle to the clipboard. I used red line tape to adhere the ribbon in the middle.

Then I attached some cork board and a stack of post it notes. I picked up the push pins at the Dollar Tree. They had a different color design on them. I removed it and added red cardstock. Then I coated it with Aleene's Paper Glaze to make the resemble the original glassy look they had.

I used the same paper to cover the notebook and to make the beaded pen. I attached the pen with some red ribbon and then tied a couple of red and yellow ribbons to the top of the clipboard.
And you can't really see it, but if you look super close, you might notice a binder clip in the top right corner, that is covered with the same paper as well.

Garden Inspired

2008-05-12T10:00:00.001-04:00

This was another contribution to the silent auction baskets. There was a garden themed basket. I couldn't come up with much, but this is what I did.

I picked up this little notebook at the Dollar Tree. I took it apart and covered it then reassembled it.

Then I made a set of 3x3 note cards. Very simple, but I think they came out pretty cute.

I picked up a set of garden gloves (that happened to match the pinkish cards perfectly) at the Dollar Tree as well, I placed them in a small flower pot with a ribbon tied around it. I tied the cards with some ribbon and placed them in the center of the gloves. I didn't think to get a picture of it all ready to go. Too bad, because I think it looked quite cute all packaged together!

Inspirational Set

2008-05-09T09:00:00.000-04:00

Our Homeschool group purchased a house a few years ago for holding co-op classes. They are now busting at the seams and raising funds to build a new facility. This weekend, they are holding a dinner theater and a silent auction.

For the auction, they have quite a few themed baskets. I decided to contribute by making some things for a few of the baskets.

I made this set for the Inspirational basket. I wanted to incorporate a verse and image on all the pieces. I chose the verse Philippians 4:13: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I found the image in MSWord and typed the verse right over the top of it.

First is a set of 5 note cards:

And a candle:

I picked up this little wood frame at Michaels. I painted the edges and back the same color as the main color in the paper. Then mod podged the paper on. Then I printed the image/verse on cardstock and slipped it in.

A quick and easy bookmark:

And a set of coasters:

And here is almost everything together. I forgot to put the coasters in before I took the picture.

Thank You Set

2008-05-08T09:00:00.000-04:00

I made this set of cards for my shop. I really love the color combo, it is one of my favorites. (I think I love pink and brown even more though.)

The main image stamps in the first two are Rhona Farrer stamps. For the third card, I used a chipboard piece from TLC as a template. I traced the image and colored it in. The sentiments are all from the $1 Studio G stamp sets. The ribbon is from Michaels.

Personally, the middle card is my favorite of the three.

Monogrammed Note Cards

2008-05-07T09:22:00.000-04:00

I made sets of monogrammed note cards for Christmas gifts for family and friends.

One of my friends used hers and needed some more, so she ordered a set of 12. I decided to use the same layout, but this time, I used summery colors. I didn't have enough of the paper to make all 12 the same, so I made 4 each of 3 designs.

The stamps are from Oriental Trading.

Simple, but fun. And she loved them, which is really what matters!

Welcome Baby Cards

2008-05-06T09:03:00.000-04:00

Today I have two more cards that sold out of my Etsy shop. I definitely need to get busy making more baby/pregnancy cards!

I love how this one turned out - so pink, girly and sweet.
I Cuttlebugged the background, then matted it. The sentiment is a Studio G stamp, and I split the words up to make it fit the way I wanted. The bow is a pre-made one I had in my stash, and I just attached it to the ribbon.

I'm also pleased with the way this one came out. I used green for a gender-neutral card. "Welcome" is from the same stamp I used in the first card. I made the little bow, and was pretty happy with the way it came out.

I Really Am Back!

2008-05-05T09:00:00.000-04:00

It's been WAY too long since I've posted regularly here. But I really am back. I'm back into the groove of making things. I've been quite busy and have lots of things to share, and I plan to stay busy making lots more!

A big reason I've been busy is I've finally gotten up the nerve to open an Etsy shop. I really hope I can do well with it. I need to get even busier making more things to put in there, as the pickings are quite slim at the moment. I've been busy with so many other things too, including catering a wedding reception last weekend. Now that that's behind me, I can focus on my business.

I've even gotten a couple of orders from friends, so I'm hoping word of mouth is going to work well for me!

Anyway, the cards I'm sharing are two that sold from my Etsy shop. I'll be back with much more in the coming days!!

I really love these two cards, and apparently I need to make some more like them since they were snatched up pretty quickly!

The stamp is one from the $1 bin at Michael's. I had been trying to get my hands on one for a very long time, but my store never had any. I wanted one so badly, I couldn't stand it. Then one day I just happened to check EBay at the right time and there was one on there about to expire. I got it just in time! Made my day that day!

In the first card, I paper pieced her dress, hat, purse and shoes. (Cutting out the tiny bit for the shoes was not the easiest thing in the world - my fingers are much too big for such tiny work!) The dress is the same patterned paper that is on the card, and the hat, shoes and purse use the same pink cardstock that the image is matted in.
The congratulations stamp is by Stampendous.

On this card, I colored in the image with colored pencils. The congrats stamp on this one is also from the $1 bin. The ribbon that is tied to the polka dot ribbon appears green in the photo, but it is actually brown.

That's all for now - I'll be back tomorrow with two more cards.

Have a fantastic week!

First Birthday

2008-04-01T00:45:00.007-04:00

Yes, I realize it's been well over a month since I've posted here. This poor blog has been very neglected. But honestly, I just haven't done much in the way of creating lately. I've just been quite busy around here and haven't made much time for crafting. Hopefully now that I seem to be getting back to my routines, I'll have more time and will be able to give this blog a bit more attention.

For today, this isn't paper crafting, but it's the latest thing I've accomplished. My friend's little girl turned one last week and had her first birthday party on Sunday. She asked me to do the cake, and I gladly did.

First, here is the invitation she sent out:

She wanted the cake to reflect the invitation. This is what I came up with:

This was only my second time ever working with fondant. And the first time was years ago on a plain round cake. I HATE the taste of fondant. However, I found a recipe online for marshmallow fondant and decided to give it a try. It was so yummy, so I used it. I really like how this turned out. And everyone seemed to like the way the fondant tasted too!

I also made a small cake for the birthday girl. I didn't want to use fondant on it, because it would hinder her from digging in. I wish though that I had had the forethought to mix up some green icing and I would have iced the small cake in green instead of purple. Then it would have looked opposite of the large cake, and that would have been cute! Though, I don't think Hannah cared one bit, as she dug right in.

Here's the little one next to the big one:

And here is the birthday girl. Do you think she likes her cake?

Rain

2008-02-19T23:32:00.003-05:00

Yes, we got some MUCH needed rain over the weekend, but that's not what I'm talking about.

It would be the title of the layout I'm about to show you. When I participated in the Superbowl Challenge at Paper Petal Memories on Superbowl weekend, the few layouts I managed to get done fell under some of the challenges we were given.

We had one challenge in which we were paired with someone else. My partner looked through my gallery and found some things to challenge me on, to push me outside of my box a little. She decided my recent layouts had been on the neutral side and challenged me to use LOTS of color. And lots of flowers.

So that's what I did.

I pulled out the colors from Ruthi's dress. It was a VERY colorful dress, so it was easy to use lots of color here!

I used my Cricut to cut the flowers.
The quote says,
"Let me play in the sunshine, let me sing for joy. Let me grow in the light, let me splash in the rain, and remember the days of childhood forever."
I painted the chipboard (Rain). It started out a pale pink color which didn't match, so I changed it to yellow. That was another of the challenges as well - to use paint somewhere on a layout.

Valentine's Day

2008-02-17T21:25:00.004-05:00

Wow - I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've posted here! I was fighting sinus junk for a while and just didn't feel much like blogging, and then I got really busy.

Oh well. I promised myself I wasn't going to feel guilty if I didn't post daily (or even weekly!) I'm going to post when I can, and hopefully at least some of you will keep coming back!

Here are a couple of quick and easy things I did for Valentine's.

I made this adorable little "flower" pot. I saw the idea here. I thought it was so adorable, I had to try it. Mine isn't quite as cute, as I didn't have the same punches or the embellishments, but I still like the way it turned out. I used Tootsie Pops and adhered them to the flowers with a glue dot.

And I made these quick little Valentine's for Ruthi to give to her friends. I opted for goldfish to curb the candy monster just a little!

Christmas Hug

2008-01-23T18:41:00.000-05:00

I know I've been sporadic with my blogging. I have aspirations to be a daily blogger, but that's probably never going to happen. I'm ok with that. I hope you are too!

Anyway, here's another layout I did. This one is super simple. The challenge (at PPM) was to use a large photo, covering at least 2/3 of your layout.

This is one of my favorite pictures I took at Christmas. I printed it in 8x10 - that took up plenty of space for the challenge.

And I just wanted to keep the rest simple so the picture would be the focus. Yes, that is our little tree in the background. We opted to just put up a small one again this year for several reasons. But I'm looking forward to having a real tree again next Christmas. I miss the smell!

It's hard to tell, but the punched flowers at the bottom were punched from the same patterned paper. Simple, but I like it

Baby Love

2008-01-19T11:28:00.000-05:00

OK Christy - I'm back! You crack me up!!

And for the rest of you - so you won't be in the dark, Christy wrote:

Okay, it is officially now OVER a week since you blogged on here. Get busy girl!
You sick?
Your kiddos sick?
Too involved in all the politics on TV?
Wondering if John will be released from Stefano's hold? (I don't watch, but saw the commercial)
Worried about the writers strike?

No, I'm not sick, but I have had a sick kiddo. Definitely not too involved in the politics. A little behind on Day's so not too worried about John at the moment. And although I'm annoyed at the writer's strike, that's not what has kept me away either. Nope, I've been at my parent's house, and though I intended to blog from there, it just didn't happen. If you really want the details, you can read them here.

I think I have finally shared all my Christmas stuff and I honestly haven't done much this year yet. I'm hoping to change that soon though. I have gotten a couple layouts done, however. I'm trying to keep up with the challenges at Paper Petal Memories - the message board I'm a part of. It is a much smaller board - nothing like Split Coast Stampers. But I think that's why I love it. We are kind of a close-knit group of gals and have formed some wonderful friendships. I even got to meet up with 3 of the girls a couple summer's ago for a weekend of scrapping. Well, we didn't actually accomplish that much scrapping. But we did lots of shopping, eating, laughing and having a good time. And one of the other ladies on the board, I have formed a wonderful friendship with. We talk on the phone pretty regularly, and even though we haven't met "face to face" she has become a great friend. It's amazing that you can form friendships like this. Anyway, we have some challenges going on over there, and I'm trying keep up and do them this year in an effort to get more scrapbook pages done.

The layout I'm posting today was a sketch challenge. The sketch came from Page Maps. I LOVE the sketches from there!

So the sketch was my starting point. Then I chose the pictures. Then I chose the colors and went from there. And I used my brand new toy I got for Christmas to make the title. My parents got me the Cricut Expression - what an awesome surprise! And I'm having fun figuring out how to work it!

Anyway, here's the layout:

It's funny, I actually had a completely different picture in my head of the outcome of this layout. But it changed as I went. But I'm happy with the end result.

I'll be back to share the other 2, plus hopefully more that I'll be getting done.

I Hope My Computer Doesn't Explode

2008-01-11T20:29:00.000-05:00

It just might because of what I'm about to post.

Let me explain.....My husband is a DIE HARD Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets fan. He's also a fan of any team who plays AGAINST the Georgia Bulldogs.

I'm talking serious stuff.

However, we do have friends and even some family who are fans of the Dawg. We love them in spite of it.

What's this got to do with anything?

Well, as I posted earlier, I made monogram cards for friends and family. For our family, I make these for the couples and single adults. For years, I've done one gift for this group and a different gift for the "younger" crowd who might not appreciate such a "grown up" gift.

Chip's (my hubby)cousin Nathan is a UGA graduate. Up until last Christmas, I still grouped him with the "younger" crowd. His younger sister had already moved into the "adult" crowd because she got married.

Last Christmas he made the comment, "When do I get to graduate to the adult gifts?" I felt stupid! It's not that I didn't consider him and adult, but that he's well, a guy and all, and I didn't figure he'd appreciate the gift I had made for the "adult" crowd!

So this Christmas, he "graduated". However, I still felt the cards I made were a little on the "frilly" side for him. So I made him a special set.

All that to show you this:

I knew my husband would eventually find out I had tainted our house with this image. I didn't know how he'd take it. He caught a glimpse of these on my screen recently and wanted to know what they were doing there and who they were for. He was very forgiving...considering! But he did make the comment that my computer was now probably going to explode. I hope not!

Oh, and I'm pretty happy with the way these came out. I found the image online and printed it on cardstock and then used a circle punch to punch them out. I had planned to use my multi-letter stamp for the words. But I didn't like how far spaced apart it was, and I was having trouble stamping evenly. If I had not already assembled the cards, I would have run them through my printer and printed it directly on the cards. But it was too late for that, so I just printed it on the red cardstock, cut it out and adhered. Not exactly the way I had it pictured in my head, but it works.

Have a Funshine Day!

2008-01-10T19:41:00.000-05:00

My daughter LOVES the Care Bears. She watches the "Big Wish" movie ALL the time. Her absolute favorite is Funshine Bear.

So for her birthday, it was only fitting to make her a Funshine Bear card. So I found an image of Funshine online. I printed it out on cardstock and him out.

I stamped the party hat, cut it out and placed it on Funshine's head. Then I stamped the balloons, cut them out and put them in place. I attatched some floss from the balloons to the hand. I cut the 3 with my Fiskars Shape Cutter and added a little pen stitching.

I think it turned out pretty cute. It's not very girly, but Funshine bear is a boy, and yellow, so I couldn't really "girl it up" too much. I chose a blue background to make it feel like the sky was in the background. She loved it, and that's all that REALLY matters!

And no birthday is complete without the cake! We had been talking about having a "Tea Party Birthday" and a "Tea Party Cake" for WEEKS. About a week before her birthday, she totally changed her mind and insisted she wanted a Care Bear Birthday. So she did.

I planned to do a more elaborate cake... a sheet cake with clouds and a big rainbow in the background and Funshine bear frolicking around. Well, I kind of ran out of time, seeing how I would have had to make some of the parts at least a couple days in advance. So I took the easy way out (for me.) I went and bought the character pan and just did it that way. I stayed up most of the night before her party baking and decorating it. But she LOVED it.

And here's the Birthday Girl!

My Favorite Gift

2008-01-07T11:22:00.001-05:00

OK, so now I will post the gift I had the most fun making this year. It is actually a set of things. I forgot to take a picture of them all together, so I will have to post each picture seperately.

My Mom is in the process of redoing her kitchen with the Italian Chef theme. I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

I got these ideas from all the wonderfully talented ladies at SplitCoast Stampers.

First up: Recipe Tin

I love how this turned out. I was trying to match the colors in her kitchen. When she opened it, that was one of the first things she said was that the colors matched! I included dividers inside and a bunch of my favorite recipes. I still have more to add to her collection, but I ran out of time before Christmas!

Next: Coasters

I'm really happy with the way these came out too. I used the unglazed tumbled tiles. Then I colored them in with sharpies. I tested these, and they didn't leave a water ring, but if I spilled something like coke or coffee on them, they stained. So I sprayed them with a sealer to prevent that. I used thin sheets of cork, cut to size on the bottom of them.

Refrigerator magnet/post it note holder & beaded pen.

I used one of the acrylic frames and turned it around so the "foot" was in the front. Then I adhered magnets to the back (front!) I did this so it would hang on the refrigerator and have a little shelf for the pen. It is pictured hanging on my fridge.

Dry Erase Tile:

I used one of the ceramic tiles for this. What makes it so easy, is if you mess up, you can wipe it right off and try again. After stamping the image, I heat set it with my heat tool. Then I colored in with sharpies and heat set again. I read on SCS that to keep this image "in place" that they covered it with Crystal Effects. I didn't have any but I had some Liquid Embossing by All Night Media, and from what I can tell, it does the same thing. So I used it, and it worked perfectly.

And Next: Menu Board

I picked up this little chalkboard at Michaels. I painted the edges to match everything else. Then I stamped right on it. The image was a little too faint for my liking, so I outlined it with a silver sharpie. It made the image not be quite as crisp, but it still works. Then I attached a piece of ribbon tied to a stick of chalk. (Hey Mom, I forgot to give you the box of chalk! I'll bring it next week!)

And lastly. A Birthday Card
Her birthday was a week before Christmas. I have to admit, I pretty much copied this card exactly from a SCS'r. You can see her original card here. I just loved it so much and knew it was the perfect card.

And there are actually a couple more things that were supposed to go with this set, but time just got the best of me, and I ran out of it! So once she has the other things, I'll post them here too.

This was absolutely the gift I enjoyed making the most. I couldn't wait for her to get it. And she loved it. At least, I'm pretty sure she did. After all, she is my Mom, and she'd NEVER tell me if she didn't like something. But I can read her pretty well, and she really did seem to love it!

And hey Mom - I LOVE YOU!!!

Monogrammed Cards

2008-01-05T21:18:00.000-05:00

More Christmas Gifts...

I made sets of 5 monogrammed cards for some gifts. I kept them simple since I was doing a lot of them.

I used various black/white/grey patterned papers for the strip in the middle, varying them so that each set had 5 different patterns. Then I used my scallop punch for the black cardstock. I stamped the design and letter in the middle of the white cardstock and assembled. The stamps are from Oriental Trading.

I made 36 set of these. Yep - 180 cards. I did them in an assembly line fashion, so it wasn't that difficult. Here's one big batch - I still had more after these.

Coming up next - the gift I had the most fun making!

For Baby

2008-01-04T00:22:00.000-05:00

More Christmas gifts...these for 2 brand new babies in the family. Two of my cousins had babies - one right before Thanksgiving and the other right before Christmas. The brand new one was just a few days old when we all got together Christmas Eve. Such sweetness!

Anyway, since I couldn't go to the showers, I gave them their gifts at Christmas. Here are the things I made:

The first is for my darling cousin Lindsey, who actually lived with us for a year when she was 12 (and now she's a mommy!!!)(and I remember when she was born....I'm getting old!) Anyway, I found out she was doing baby Landon's room in a cute jungle animal theme. So I made this frame for his room with the cute little lion I got from Michael's.

And when I saw this adorable fleece, I couldn't resist getting it to make another now-sew blanket.

And my cousin Davie (Lindsey's brother) and his girlfriend Alison had a baby girl. Unfortunately, I didn't know her name when I was making her gift, so I just made a first Christmas frame.

And then these cute little onesies. The pictures aren't as clear a I wish, but you get the idea.

So Very Loved

Sweet

I used Stampin Up's So Very and Big Flower sets and stamped these with fabric paint. I think they turned out pretty cute.
I also gave her a couple of sweet baby outfits, but I didn't do anything to them, so no pics, lol!

More coming soon!

Here We Go...

2008-01-02T22:56:00.000-05:00

OK, I'm falling crawling out from under the pile I was getting burried under! And now I can get some of the projects posted of things I made for Christmas. I'll try to get them all on here over the next few days.

For starters, here is a set I made for my MIL.

On the left is a magnet photo frame I altered to a post it note holder, complete with a pic of the kids. In the middle is a photo book I altered (and filled with pics of the kids) and a beaded pen. And lastly is an altered journal and a bookmark.

Here is what the journal looked like before:

And here's a closeup of the after.

I'm kind of wishing I had cut the scalloped circle out of white so it would have stood out a little more. But it stands out a little more in person than it does in the photo.

Lots more to come, but at least I have a start on it now!

More Hershey Tins

2007-12-23T21:51:00.000-05:00

I really love how quick and easy these are - not to mention yummy!
I made a few more, but I didn't take pictures of them all - since they basically look the same.

I really liked the candy cane tin and wish I had picked up more of these. I didn't really have any stamps small enough to use. So I found a candy cane graphic and printed it on the labels. I like the way they came out.

Then I had a very special one to make. I have a dear sweet cousin who ADORES Elvis. I mean, he's been singing Elvis songs for as long as I can remember. (He and I are the same age.) So I made a special Elvis tin for him, using some photos I found online.
I was telling my Mom about this and she informed me that he was diabetic, so I needed a new plan. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any sugar-free candy in the right shape to hold the labels nicely. So I just did the best I could and wrapped the chocolates I found with the labels. It may not look quite as nice as the nuggets, but I'm sure he will like it.

I've been so busy making things that I haven't had much time for blogging. But once Christmas is over, I'll be sharing more of the things I made.

I hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Cards

2007-12-20T19:23:00.000-05:00

This year I sent out a photo Christmas card to family and friends. But for hubby's buddies at the station I needed some "regular cards". So I made six of these:

I kept them very simple, as I needed to do them quickly. The image and sentiment are both $1 stamps from Michael's. And I finally got a scallop punch which I obviously used here. (I can't wait to get these in the other sizes!)

I also needed a couple more cards to go with some gifts, and so came these:

That's more $1 stamps - love those things! And I kept them quick and simple too. Gotta love simple!

A Couple of Holders

2007-12-19T22:38:00.000-05:00

Here's a couple of holder-type things I made. The first is a chap stick/lip balm holder. I saw these on SCS and thought they were so cute. And the ladies there are so wonderful at posting directions and template for so many different projects. I am very thankful for that!

I made these for a couple of the teenage girls in the family in which I needed just a little gift. I may be making a few more of these.

This shows the inside and the outside.

And then I found the M&M Christmas Story on SCS as well. I really liked it and since I had a couple bags of Christmas M&M's I decided to do something with them. I needed a little treat to send with CJ for his Friday Science class. I used small bags to put the M&M's in, so making a topper with this poem was a bit too big.
So I printed it out, scored it in a couple places and make a little tent to hold the M&M's. I had seen things like this done all over the place and it was easy enough to adapt to be the right size.

These two go along with the chap sticks above. I made more for CJ's class, but they were in green. I didn't think to take a picture of them, but other than the color, they were exactly like these.

I'm trying to take pictures of everything I'm making as I go along. I'm just slow getting them posted because I've been so busy! And some of them I won't be able to post until after Christmas anyway.

I'll be so glad when I'm all done! But I'm having fun!

My First Nugget Tin!

2007-12-15T12:24:00.000-05:00

I've been seeing these for a while now and have been wanting to make one. I saw a cute one on Wanda's blog where she used a gift card tin from Michaels. I had been looking in all the wrong places for one. Then she posted a message and told where to find them. Right up at the registers! They had been right in my face the whole time!

She used an adorable snowman tin, I really wanted one like that, so I searched every register. But to no avail. So I picked up this one and a candy cane one. The picture of the candy cane one is still on my camera. I will post it later.

Using these tins couldn't be easier, because you really don't need to do anything to them! And with using labels to go on the Hershey's Nuggets is so easy - and fun!

So here's my first one.

Then I just made a band using cardstock, to go around it and hold it together. It slides right off.

I see many more of these in my future, as they can be used for any occasion! And these Christmas tins? I plan to check Michaels right after Christmas and hope to find them marked down so I can stock up for next year!

A Couple Quick Gifts

2007-12-14T21:54:00.000-05:00

I was trying to come up with a gift for my Granddad. He doesn't need anything, doesn't really use most of the stuff he gets, and is just generally a tougher one to get something for.

So this is what I came up with - simple, funtional, and with the pic of two of his great-grandkids, it's cute too!

I used a 5x7 acrylic frame. And I found the calendar at Split Coast Stampers. I think he will really like this.

My husband really liked it and had a great idea. He suggested I make one for his Dad to go in his truck. He drives a big lumber truck all day, and he keeps a calendar up on his dash. So hubby suggested I just add a velcro strip to the bottom, so he could put this there. What a smart man I married!

I made this one in the 4x6 size so it would sit on his dash better. I know without a doubt he's going to like this!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

2007-12-12T10:03:00.001-05:00

Wow - it's been a LONG time since I posted anything! Well, I've been quite busy preparing for the holidays and haven't had a lot of time for blogging.

I've been making quite a few things, but most of them I can't show yet, as they are Christmas gifts. So I'll be sharing those later.

I joined a calendar swap at Paper Petal Memories. Each of 12 ladies picks a month and creates a 6x6 calendar page for that month. I chose May.

Honestly, I was feeling very uninspired and I'm not totally pleased with my outcome. I just wish I had done something a little more. Because there are some AMAZING pages some of the other ladies created, and I feel bad that mine aren't of the same caliber. I really waited until the last minute to get them done, as I was hoping to be hit with a big dose of inspiration. But that never happened. So I had to do the first thing that came to me, and to me, they just lack something.

And there are 12 of these. They only vary slightly due to where the paper was cut, so the buttons and gems fall in slightly different places. And I used Crystal Stickles to outline the large flowers.

Maybe not terribly inspired, but they are done. Hopefully I'll have something better to contribute next year!

Sweet Birthday Wishes

2007-11-20T15:16:00.000-05:00

I really like pink - can you tell? LOL! I hope the young recipient of this card likes pink too.

This it the first time I've used the lollipop stamp from the Very Punny set. I added stickles to make it shine. And I put them on pretty thick, to get a slightly raised look. However, when it dried, it warped the paper and the matting, pulling it from the card a little. Guess next time, I should let that dry before I mat and attach it. Oh well, live and learn!

Other than that, I think it's kind of cute!

Simple Birthdays

2007-11-14T23:15:00.000-05:00

I'm still tying to get my creative juices flowing full force, but I'm majorly stuck in simple mode. I guess that's better than not doing anything at all!

And when it comes to teenage boys, I imagine simple is really best. No ribbons or flowers or anything like that. That's what these two cards are for.

Two brothers with birthdays a day apart. Cousins in our family. I think keeping these cards super simple is the right choice for them.

So that's what I did.

(I also realized after taking the photos that some of my corners were lifted slightly - I'm fixing that, but not taking the pictures again.)

I used misc. papers (from my scrap stash! trying to use some of that up!) and Studio G stamps.

Thanks, Coach

2007-11-13T13:47:00.000-05:00

CJ played for Upward Basketball at our church again this year. Tonight is the awards ceremony. (We play our season early so the school can have the gym during actual basketball season.)

I've been trying to come up with something to make as a thank you gift. I made this today. (Did I mention the ceremony is tonight? Nothing like waiting until the last minute!)

I was having trouble because I wanted something fitting for a male coach. And then today, when I was looking at the team picture I realized I needed to make it for the coach and his wife! I have NO IDEA why I had not even considered that before - duh!

Anyway, I still didn't want any thing froo-froo, so this is what I came up with.

I scanned the team photo and reduced it to fit on the post-it-note holder. (Yes, they were a VERY small team - we didn't have many middle-schoolers playing this year.)

For the pen, I was going to just do the one where you slide the paper down into the barrel of the pen - I but I didn't have any of the right pens on hand. And since the gift was now for both of them, I decided the beaded pen would work just fine.

I have a bunch of these little tins left over from Christmas last year and haven't done anything with them. This one will be filled with candy - probably Hersey's Miniatures - which I will be picking up on the way to the ceremony tonight!

And the card - super quick and easy. I really didn't want white lettering, but had limited options since I couldn't find any lighter coordinating cardstock that would match. I guess it turned out ok though.

Anyway, I hope they like it!

Princess Ruthi

2007-11-12T14:57:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to decorate my daughter's room on a limited budget. I want it to be cute but without spending a ton of money.

She has a princess theme in her room and I've been trying to come up with some cute things to do in there.

I picked up these cute wood letters as WalMart a while back. They were less than $2 each.

I painted the edges pink and then picked 5 different patterned papers to add to the fronts.

I adhered the papers with mod podge. When the top layer was still wet, I sprinkled on some glitter for a little extra sparkle.

I tied on some ribbons and added a few embellishments. I decided to keep them pretty simple.

I added the ribbon for hanging. I put them on her wall using pushpins and added the bows and the princess piece to the tops of the pins.

I think it turned out pretty cute, and really dresses up her wall.

Here's another view - you can see the sparkle of the glitter a little better in this one.

The only thing I'm not completely happy with is the way the ribbon hangs on the 'I'. It's a more narrow letter, so I don't really know what else to do with it!

By the way - Ruthi LOVES it!!

Quick Birthday

2007-11-10T14:07:00.000-05:00

I have no idea why I've been so uninspired lately. I'm constantly looking so many beautiful cards and creations online, so you'd think I'd be very inspired. But it seems to be working against me. When I sit down to do something, the creativity just isn't flowing. I hope I come out of this soon!

But, even uninspired, I have cards I need to send. And I already messed and missed a couple birthdays! So I'm trying to get back on track and at the very least, make and send the cards I need to.

That's why this card came about. I realized I needed a super quick card so it could get in the mail immediately, and this is what I came up with. Definitely nothing fancy, but I didn't want it too fancy anyway, since it was for an uncle.

Monday I will be posting something else I made for Ruthi. See you then!

A Little Something Different

2007-11-03T22:49:00.001-04:00

OK, so up till now, most of the things I have created have been paper-related for the most part.

But I decided to try something new.

I wanted to make a blanket for my daughter.

I don't sew.

Well, not much anyway. I will occasionally sew a button or stitch something up that has come unstitched. But I don't really enjoy it.

Once upon a time I could use a sewing machine and do a pretty good job. I made a really pretty skirt and a petticoat to go under it. That was ages ago. But I did learn how to use a machine.

A couple years ago, I purchased (for almost nothing) an almost new sewing machine from a friend of mine who was having a yard sale.

It has been sitting in the closet since then.

I did get it out a couple months ago and tried to use it to do some sewing on some cards and layouts. But I couldn't get the darn thing to work right.

And the other day my neighbor (who sews a lot) looked at it and fiddled with it, and thought it was working ok. But alas, it's not.

So how does one make a blanket without sewing? Well, I'm sure you've seen these, but when I found this tutorial on Barb's blog, I just knew I had to try it!

I goofed up just a bit. I decided I wanted mine rectangle instead of square like Barb's. So I figured out my measurements. I did great on the length, but with the width, well...I figured out who wide I wanted it but forgot to include the measurement for the fringe. So I cut it to narrow.

That's why I wanted my machine to work. I was just going to stitch the long sides and have fringe only on the ends. But I couldn't get it to work properly.

So I just made the fringe on the sides a little shorter than on the ends.

It is more narrow than I really wanted, but in the end it all worked out fine. It fits Ruthi and her bed perfectly. So I'm happy.

When I saw this Pink Georgia Tech Fleece, I could NOT pass it up. Ruthi always cheers for the Jackets when her daddy is watching football. (Even if they are not playing) And she makes a really cute cheerleader!

Here's the blanket:

And if you will notice, there is a little pillow there too. I used a little princess pillow that Ruthi has had since birth, but was falling apart. I just cut the fleece to the right size and put the old pillow in between and tied around the sides. I didn't have a piece of the GT fleece leftover that was large enough to fit and be centered, so I used the solid pink (which is also on the back side of the blanket). Then I hand stitched that GT square on. (See, I am at least capable of sewing!) It didn't go on perfectly straight, but I will not let my OCD get he best of me!

Oh, and since I goofed an my strips were shorter on the sides, I couldn't loop them - I had to the pieces together into knots. But I'm happy with it.

And here's a picture of my little darling with her new blanket.

I'm pretty sure she likes it. She says, "Mommy, it's so pretty and sosht." (soft) Makes me smile!

New Diggs

2007-11-03T20:41:00.000-04:00

So....watcha think about the new look? I was so bored with the old look and it has been long overdue a change. I've been thinking about it for a while but wasn't sure what I wanted to do. My fabulous new header was created by Trista at Pumkin Patch Creations.

I still may tweak a few things here or there, but for the most part I like it! I love pink and brown, so this will work until I'm lovin' another combination!

And I'll be back with a couple projects I've been working on. I haven't been as creative lately as I'd like to be, but I'm getting back into the swing of things. I know I've been saying that for a while, but hopefully this time it will stick!

Rock a bye Baby

2007-10-16T18:51:00.000-04:00

While I was blog-hopping this morning, I came across a cute sketch and thought I'd give it a try, since I'm so far behind in my scrapbooking these days!

I saw the sketch on this blog along with her too-cute layout. The sketch actually comes from here, by Q-diggity at Scrapbook.com.

This is a picture I've wanted to scrap for a while, knowing the poem I wanted to use with it. Since this sketch was perfect for using one photo, I decided to use this one. I'm not 100% happy with the way my lettering for my title came out, but it'll do. I made this in an 8x8 size.

The poem reads:
Cleaning and scrubbing
can wait 'til tomorrow
For babies grow up
we've learned to our sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs
Dust go to sleep
I'm rocking my baby
and babies don't keep.

I used miscellaneous papers, the flower is Creative Elements (Wal-Mart) and the font for the poem is "A Little Pot" (Downloaded from internet.) My title was done by cutting letters from an old stencil I have.

It's Fall Y'all!

2007-10-12T22:56:00.000-04:00

Finally! The weather yesterday and today has been fabulous! Quite nippy in the mornings, and nice and cool all day. I've had our windows open and enjoying the fresh air. It's actually been cool enough that the first part of these two days, I've been wearing a sweatshirt! I love it! It's really making me want to go camping!

Anyway, it's gotten me in the mood to make something with the fall theme. And now that I've "gotten my hands dirty" again, hopefully some creativity will come back to me!

First up, I made these candy corn jars just for fun. I'll end up giving them to someone, just not sure who yet. Super simple, and self explanatory I think. The stamp was from the $1 bin at Michaels, and I just inked part of it. The papers and ribbon were some I've had around for a while, but most likely came from M's as well.

And with some of the same paper, I made these cards. This is the first time I've done 3x3 cards, and I really like this size! They will perfectly accompany the jars above. Again - the stamps I used were in the $1 bin!

That's all for now. I hope to have some time this weekend to work on some more things - if I'm not outside all weekend enjoying the cooler weather!!

Struggling....

2007-10-10T12:45:00.000-04:00

...to get my creative, um...'mojo' back! I'm not sure why. I didn't have any creativeness in me while I was sick, but was sure it would come rushing back once I was feeling better.

But is has not.

I posted a card last week - and it was a super quick and easy one. This was another super quick and easy one - nothing to get excited over for sure. But I don't have anything else to post at the moment.

I was really hoping that yesterday I would get something done. I wanted to, but it just never happened. So hopefully I'll come up with something today. I'm really behind on cards, and I need to get it in gear! Plus I really need to start working on Christmas gifts! Not to mention, my business has pretty much been put on hold. I was really making progress before I got sick - but those 4 weeks really took a lot out of me. Now, I really WANT to get back on track, but the want in my head hasn't transferred to my hands yet.

I don't like this struggling feeling, and hopefully it will pass quickly!

Anyway, here's the other super-quick card, and hopefully I'll have something better soon!

I think I'm back!

2007-09-28T20:39:00.000-04:00

First of all, thanks to all of you who sent well wishes/prayers, either here or my other blog. It really means a lot!

I am feeling much better. I had my MRI done yesterday, and will have the results next week. I really don't expect them to find anything, though it would really be nice to know what caused all this miserable pain in my head!

I had 2-3 really good days, and it felt so good to feel a little normal again! Yesterday, my head started hurting again, and still hurts today. But my shoulders/upper back are hurting too, so I'll go and get an adjustment in the morning, and hopefully that will take care of this headache.

Anyway, I really needed to send out a couple cards this week, so I had to make some quick ones.

We have a cousin who had an anniversary, so I made a really quick card for that. I had received this cute little Mr. & Mrs. Chick stamp by Stampendous from Michele in some blog candy I won from her. I really wanted a reason to use it and thought it would work just fine on an anniversary card.

It's such a cute image. I colored in the hat, flower and beaks with sharpies. I added crystal stickles to the veil for some shimmer. And the shimmer in the ribbon worked well with it. Nothing fancy, but I thought it came out pretty cute.

Well, I need to get the little one in bed, and take care of a few things around here before I turn in. So I'll be back to post another one sometime this weekend.

Have a wonderful weekend!

I'm Still Here!

2007-09-24T10:53:00.001-04:00

I can't believe I haven't been able to post in almost a month! But I've been sick for that long, and it hasn't been fun. If you want to know what's been going on with me, you can read here and here. I haven't made anything all month because I just haven't felt well. But I'm stating to feel better, and hopefully be back to creating in no time!

I feel like between not creating stuff and not blogging, that a big part of my life is missing - and I want it back! And my energy - I need it back! This has not been a fun month! It HAS to get better soon!

Hoping I'll be back to "normal" soon!!!!!!

A Quick Card

2007-08-28T23:16:00.000-04:00

I received a Pocket full of Posies Matstack by DCWV a while back in some blog candy I won. I have flipped through it over and over again, admiring the papers. But for some reason, I was having a difficult time putting them together to use.

I needed a quick birthday card and was determined to use some of that paper! And I succeeded...at using it anyway. I think I like how this turned out. Maybe not my favorite card, but I'm ok with it. I hope the recipient likes it!

I had the metal flower and the jeweled brad in my stash - not sure who makes them. I swiped the ribbon off of a gift I received. Stamp is Studio G.

A Simple Birthday

2007-08-27T22:36:00.000-04:00

This is a pretty simple birthday card. It's not quite as long as the ones I usually make like this that fit in a business envelope. The envelope this went in was a little shorter, so I made it the same length.

I used my scallop scissors for the strip in the middle - it's not perfect - I obviously need some more practice with those, or a better tool! Then I used my Signo gel pen to add the dots. The papers are Rob & Bob. The stamps are Studio G. Not sure about the ribbon - it was a piece in my stash.

I have GOT to get some more circle punches! I only have one - that's the one I used to cut out the inner circle. I then mounted that on the darker cardstock and had to hand trim around it. It's definitely not perfect, and it aggravates me! So I really need to add circle punches to the top of my list to make this quicker, easier and to get a perfect circle!!

Best Fishes

2007-08-24T11:22:00.000-04:00

I'm slowly gaining some time to work on stuff again. The website is very close - it would be done, but I really needed to take a break from it to catch up on some other things around here! I'm hoping it will be ready by this time next week. Still working out some details!

I needed a card to send to one of the young cousins in the family and decided to use the fish from SU!'s Very Punny set. I really like this little guy - he looks like a happy fish.

I used my Cuttlebug for the background and added stickles to some of the circles for a little sparkle. It's hard to tell, but I also added them to the fish bubbles. Simple card, I hope Jackson likes it!

I have a couple more cards I need to make today, so I'll be posting them in the next day or two. And hopefully I'll be back to creating on a more regular basis soon!!

I Really Will Be Back Soon!

2007-08-11T14:05:00.000-04:00

I know I haven't posted here much lately - but I have a good reason. I am diligently working on my website for my business. It is taking a LOT of time, because I'm very slow at this sort of thing. I'm no expert web designer or anywhere close, so it is slow going. I am making progress and it will be ready to launch soon. However, I've not had much time to create anything with paper. But I'll be back to that shortly and posting.
I did get one 8x8 LO done last week for a sketch challenge at Paper Petal Memories. Seeing how for now, I'm hosting the challenges, I figured I'd better produce a LO too! It is very simple, but one more done!!!

This little pink bear was my daughter's favorite - until we lost it. So just a quick little LO remembering the delight that bear brought her!

Misc. papers, Creative Elements flower, Spare Parts letters and Misc. letter beads.
The sketch I used was from April '07 by Becky Fleck

Birthday Soup

2007-08-04T19:18:00.001-04:00

There were a few stamp sets I've been wanting from SU! but that are now retired. I've been able to pick a couple up from ebay - which is making me very happy. I'm desperately hoping to win the auction for "Right at Home" today.

Anyway, I got Alphabet soup a week or so ago, and this is my first card using it.

I used the Birthday embossing folder for the background. It's kind of hard to tell, but the darker cardstock is brown. The ribbon came from Wal*Mart. Simple card, but I like the way it came out.

My First Origami Shirt

2007-08-01T13:58:00.000-04:00

For some reason, I tend to struggle with making masculine cards. My FIL's birthday is Sunday, and of course, need to make him a card. I sat down and started thinking about it. Then I remembered the flood of cards at SCS that I had seen around Father's Day of the origami shirt cards. I went to look at a few for inspiration and find the instructions. Success! And I think this turned out pretty cute. (Cute and masculine go together, right?)

I used some older pattern paper I had on hand - I think it's by Provo Craft. I started to use brads as the buttons, but decided to see if I had any real buttons small enough to work first. I really would have liked to have 4 buttons so I could have put one right under the collar, but I only had 3 to work with. Oh well, I suppose 3 are fine. The stamp is from one of the clear Studio G $1 stamp sets.

Anyway, I think he'll like it.

In Everything Give Thanks

2007-07-31T22:40:00.000-04:00

I really like how this card came out. I love pink and brown combo! I was inspired by a card on SCS, but I don't remember which one - I'll link to it if I can find it!

I cuttlebugged the background and sponged on Colorbok Chalk Ink. This was the first time I tried sponging, and I love the soft effect it gives.
I used the Happy Harmony set from SU! Ribbon from Michaels, and Prima flowers.

Monogram Note Cards

2007-07-30T22:49:00.000-04:00

I made a set of monogrammed note cards for a giveaway on my main blog. This was the sample. The winner will be receiving 5 cards just like these with her monogram. They went out to her in the mail today. I hope she's happy with them!

I will talk more about this later, but sets like this will soon be available for sale!!

The big 4-0

2007-07-27T20:58:00.000-04:00

I made this card for my friend who is turning 40. For some reason, I was having a hard time coming up with a design. I tried quite a few things before anything would "click" for me. I think I'm fairly pleased with the way this came out.

I obviously used my Cuttlebug for the background. (I think most of my cards are going to be using this - at least for a while!) I ran my ink pad over the top of it. I stamped the "40", but didn't use my Staz On and it smeared, even though I heat set it. If you look closely, you can tell. So after I took the photo, I took that off and redid it. This time I added clear ep to to the numbers and embossed it. Much better! But I didn't take another photo. The ribbon is by Li'l Davis Designs. I used one of the MM magnet stamps for 'celebrate' and then used my tag punch. I'm not completely happy with the way the white ribbon is tied into the other, but I'm leaving it. Tying ribbons and bows is just not my thing!

Anniversary Card

2007-07-27T00:46:00.000-04:00

OK, I'm back from what was probably our last mini-vacation for this year. We left on Sunday and got home late Wednesday. I was too tired yesterday to work on much, so I didn't get anything posted here. Now time to get back to regular posting again!

I needed a card for my Parents' 36th anniversary, so I sat down to work on it. I was COMPLETELY UNINSPIRED! Nothing I had in my head was working.

First I came up with this one:

Can we say "Not Happy"? Because that's how I feel about this one. I really wanted to use my new Rhonna Farrer stamps that I won from Heidi. But I'm just not liking the way this came out. I embossed them with silver ep to match the silver wording on the ribbon. Then I added a couple eyelets. I don't hate it, I'm just not thrilled with it.

So, I tried again. This time in a totally different direction, except for the B&W. And this is what I came up with:

I am much happier with this one. I used SU! Happy Harmony set and my Cuttlebug. (Have I mentioned how much I'm lovin' this thing?) I used clear ep on the image and the sentiment, and added a piece of satin ribbon.

Funny thing - my kids were sitting at the table when I was working on these. I asked CJ (13) which one he liked better, and he said, "The one on the right" (which was the second card). Then I asked Ruthi (2.5). She looked at them and said, "The yite one." (yite = white) Then later on I asked hubby which one he liked better, and he agreed - the white one! So obviously, it wasn't just me who wasn't feelin' the first one. I just thought it was interesting that my family agreed!

So obviously, the white one is they one they received!

Just playing around...

2007-07-20T14:42:00.001-04:00

With some of the scraps left over from the invitations for my neighbor's birthday party. These are nothing special - the first one is just like the originals, I just added a different image.

The second one I changed the LO a little, added a different ribbon and larger circle for the image. I was playing with some of the clear Michaels $1 stamps, and a couple of the flowers didn't stamp clearly - I need to work on getting these things more even if I'm going to use them.

Anyway, like I said - nothing special, just playing around. Now I need to get a couple cards done that need to get in the mail soon!

Cuttlebug Baby

2007-07-19T00:06:00.000-04:00

I've been playing around with my Cuttlebug a little bit. I've only recently starting purchasing the "cool" toys, so I still have limited tools to work with. I have a few stamp sets and some stamps I've picked up here and there - mostly the Michaels $1 ones. I have a very long list of sets I want to add to my collection, but for now, I'm working with what I have. Also, there are several of the punches I really want - like the scalloped circles and squares. I've been hunting a Giga scallop circle for some time now, with no luck. So again, I'm working with what I do have until I can build up my arsenal! ;o)

So, I made a couple of baby cards with using the swirl embossing folder, a little baby feet stamp by Stamp craft, and some misc. ribbon. They are extremely simple, but I think they turned out cute.

Belated Father's Day Card

2007-07-16T23:46:00.000-04:00

I didn't post this around Father's Day because my Dad was out of the country and we didn't get to celebrate until July 4. And yes, I realize that is was almost 2 weeks ago that I gave it to him and I'm just now getting around to posting it! Hey - I'm trying to get back on track!

All TLC products except the brads. (I think they are MM)

I think I have my mojo back! I've been in a creative mood, so the plan is to have something new posted at LEAST 4 days a week. More if I can manage it!!!

It's like Christmas in July!!!

2007-07-14T15:30:00.000-04:00

I've been having so much fun the past few days! I've gotten so many new "toys" it's truly like Christmas!

First, I received an awesome box from Michele. I won her blog candy!!! This came on Wednesday - right after I came home from vacation, and I had so much fun digging through it all. It had lots of great things! I only sign up for blog candy that I really want, and now I've been totally blessed winning two different ones! Awesome! Thanks Michelle!

And then there was my shopping spree. My Dad gave me a very generous birthday check, and I had SO MUCH FUN spending it!! It is always tempting to spend my money on the kids and other things, but this time, I spent EVERY PENNY on stuff for ME! And I don't even feel guilty!

I got the two top things that were on my "list". A Crop-A-Dile and a Cuttlebug!!!!! I've been drooling over the Cuttlebug ever since I first heard about it!

Here are a couple of pictures of all my goodies:

Um, can you tell I like buttons? LOL! Those were 50 cents a package, so I got quite a few!

I also got a Crop-A-Dile, but didn't take a pic of it. (I got a pink one, of course!)

I also won two auctions for SU! stamp sets. Happy Harmony came in the mail a couple days ago, and Alphabet Soup will be here Monday or Tuesday.

PLUS I won a little challenge at Paper Petal Memories, and have a prize on the way as well - can't wait to see what it is!

So yes, I'm having LOTS of fun with all my new goodies. Now hopefully, I'll have lots of time to play!

Looks Like Spring

2007-07-14T14:45:00.000-04:00

Back in January, I ordered my very first Stampin Up! stamps, and I couldn't wait to ink them up. But I actually haven't used them as much as I thought I would have by now. Shame on me!

I pulled out the Looks Like Spring set and put it to use. I had used the big flower and one of the background stamps, but the others were feeling neglected.

So I put them to use on this birthday card I made for Kelly - my cousin-in-law!

It's hard to tell in the picture, but I stamped the large flower in brown and then in pink and cut them both out. The brown layer is behind the pink layer. Then I stamped the smaller one in brown and added it to the top with a brad.

For the three small flowers, I used the LLS punch and punched them first in solid pink cardstock, and then punched the stamped flowers and layered them with brads as well. I LOVE that punch - I wish they made one for the larger flower!

This was the first time I used two background stamps together, and I actually found it a little challenging to get them lined up just right, but I'm pleased with the final outcome.

The sentiment is from the Sincere Salutations set and the ribbon is from Michaels' $1 bin.

Back in the Saddle!

2007-07-12T22:07:00.000-04:00

OK - I'm back from our little vacation. We were gone for 8 days, so obviously I haven't had much of a chance to work on anything! But I'm back now, and getting back into the swing of things, and it's time to get really busy creating. I have so many things I want and need to work on!

So, I'm officially back in the saddle, and I plan to be updating more regularly again!

Today I worked on invitations for my neighbor's daughter's birthday party. She is turning 13 and having a pretty large party. She had gone to a specialty type store to pick out some invitations and was a bit shocked at what they were going to cost.
So my neighbor called me and asked what it would take to make them. I told her to send Allison over and we could look at some stuff, she could decide what she wanted, and I'd be glad to help her make them.

So that's what we did. She made a choice on a style of invite yesterday. This morning I took her shopping to pick out papers and ribbon. I think she had a lot of fun picking the stuff out.

Then we came back to my house to get busy. I cut the paper for her, and showed her what to do, and she did the paper and ribbon for most of the invites herself before she had to go to another friend's party. So I finished them up for her. They are simple, but cute. And she was extremely happy with them.

What was really cool was to see how proud of them she was. Most 13 yr. old girls can't say they had a part of creating their own invites. She was talking on the phone to one of her friends and she was telling her that she was working on the invitations, and how cute they were. Yeah - she was quite proud. She even told me these were way cuter than the really expensive ones at the store!

So, here they are - she couldn't decide which paper she liked better for the top, so she decided to do half with the pink and half with the orange, and switch up the ribbon. The party stamp is from one of the $1 Studio G sets from Michaels. Then I just used a pink Zig writer to make the dots around the edge.

They turned out cute, don'tcha think? We made 30 of these in about 3 hours - not too bad!

Happy Independence Day!

2007-07-04T08:48:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July celebration.

We are headed to my parents' house to celebrate, and we will be having a late celebration of Father's Day and my birthday as well. It's going to be a good time!

We will be out of town for the next 8 days, so I won't be able to post anything while we are gone. I'll be back the end of next week with something new to post.

For now, in honor of the holiday, I thought I'd post a card. I actually made this one last year, but you haven't seen it, so it's new to you! :o)

Pretty simple card - torn cardstock; I printed the sentiment on vellum and attached with buttons by Dress it Up. I don't remember exactly where it came from, but it was something I had downloaded from a website.

Well, I'm outta here - "see" you all soon!

Favorite Summer Activity

2007-06-30T17:48:00.000-04:00

I started an All About Me (AAM) book a while back. At first, I couldn't imagine why I would do this - it seemed a little vain to me. But "everyone else was doing it" and it peaked my interest. So I started trying to figure out what the big deal was.

I came to the conclusion that it wasn't vain at all. When I'm gone, my kids and grand kids and generations beyond will have my scrapbooks to look at. They will be able to tell I loved my family and I had so much fun creating pages about them.

But what will those books tell them about me - the one behind the creating?

Not Much.

And that's what I decided, at least for me, is what and AAM book is for.

At Paper Petal Memories, we have a special thread that is for these albums. Linda, (the moderator) provides prompts for pages to complete in our AAM albums. There are some that don't totally appeal to me, just not things I find that I want included in my book. But that is the beauty - it is mine, and I can decide what to include.

Well, the latest prompt was, "What is your favorite summer activity?" I liked this one and decided to work on it.

My AAM album is 8.5x11 - the first time I've worked with this size, and I've been quite happy I've chosen this size. If felt my typically 12x12 was just too large for this and the smaller 8x8 that I like to do sometimes, I felt wasn't quite large enough.

Anyway, here's the LO I came up with. And thought most of my AAM LO's are only 1 page, I turned this one into 2.

All products are Top Line Creations, except for the brads (Making Memories) and the vellum that includes my journaling.

(It looks a little dark in the photo, but it really isn't that dark.)

Baby Mine

2007-06-29T12:52:00.000-04:00

I SCRAPBOOKED!!!!! I actually made myself sit down and play for a bit! I'm sooooo happy!

I got 2 2-page layouts done. But I thought I'd spread it out just a little, so I'm only sharing one today. I'll be back tomorrow with the other one.

These pictures are from January 2005. I've been wanting to scrap them for quite sometime, but wasn't sure what direction to go with. I finally decided to quit thinking about it so much and just do it. So here's the result.

I have no idea why each side photographed completely differently, but I just didn't feel like going back and doing it again.

I used my color wheel to help decide the colors. I knew I wanted a black background, and I knew I wanted the red. But I needed a third color, and the pale purple in her outfit just wasn't cutting it. A dark purple came up, which I had not even considered, and I really liked it. I don't know why it appears blue on my screen though - trust me, it is dark purple.

I wanted to keep it pretty simple, with minimal embellishing since I really wanted the focus to be the photos.

I printed the journaling using Blackladder font. I used a quote for the first part, that I found on the internet some time back. I don't remember where I found it. It reads:
As I gaze upon my daughter's face, I think to myself...Never have I seen an angel fly so low.
My beautiful baby girl...words will never be able to express how much I love you!

I used miscellaneous cardstock, MM brads and Heidi Swapp chipboard hearts. The title is from one of the DCWV vellum quote stack books.

Father's Day Card

2007-06-26T22:50:00.000-04:00

I can't believe I *STILL* haven't really had any creating time! I am making it a priority to get something done this week!

My Cousin-in-law came over on Saturday to get some help with a scrapbook she's putting together. We had a blast and I had so much fun helping her! I felt my creative juices beginning to flow again, so now I'm REALLY itching to create!

Now I'm just trying to decide whether to stay up late and work on something or go to bed and get up early to get started. Decisions....decisions!!!

I did have time to make a Father's Day card for my FIL. And if you knew him, you'd know why this card was perfect for him. Nothing fancy, but very suited to him.

I found the image online and created a paper piecing from it, and added a little detail with a Zig pen. I mounted it on a lighter cardstock and trimmed it, so it wouldn't blend into the background so much. I printed the sentiment, tore and inked it. Then just added a couple brads. The background paper is by Provo Craft and the cardstock is misc. pieces from my scrap drawer. Once I found the image I wanted to use, this went together very quickly.

My Dad was in China on Father's Day, and we haven't been able to get together to celebrate yet. We will do that next week, so I won't be able to post his until after that.

I promise I will be posting again this week...stay tuned!

Graduation Card

2007-06-15T19:35:00.001-04:00

OK, I have been in a very dry spell the past couple weeks, and my fingers are aching to get messy! I NEED to create something, and SOON! There are just so many other things that have needed to be done, that it's taking all my creative mojo!

So, I'm sharing a card I made a couple weeks ago for a cousin who was graduating.

This card isn't fancy or anything - it was for a boy, so I couldn't get cutesy or froo-froo. What made me smile about this card was the colors.

I received the graduation invitation and decided to use the school colors as my inspiration. I was tickled pink when I discovered I had the same exact purple colored paper that was on the invitation!

The second color was gold, and I had just enough of that in my scrap pile to work. I did have to run out and buy some gold embossing powder - I knew I wanted the image embossed in gold!

I only had one graduation stamp to work with, and I even looked for one when I went to get the ep, but couldn't find one. So I worked with what I had.

I found matching purple and gold embroidery thread and thought that worked just right. Then I added a gold brad with a little bit of the thread for the tassel. I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.

And when Steven turned the card over, he was surprise to see my stamp on the back. He said he was expecting to see a Hallmark symbol. I'll take that as a compliment!

It doesn't look like I will have much time this weekend to do any creating either, but hopefully next week - we'll see!

Cousins

2007-06-09T15:37:00.000-04:00

I did a LO today! I haven't had a chance to create anything all week, even though I hoped to. It was just one of "those" weeks, and I had other things going on and honestly just wasn't in the mood to create. But that all changed today.

I was in a 5-supply kit swap at PPM in which we each sent to another 'player' the following:

1 sheet solid cardstock
2 sheets double sided pp
1 lettering ( either rub-ons, stickers, etc)
1 type of embellishment ( a yard of ribbon, buttons,stickers,etc)
The challenge, when we received our kit, was to create a LO using ONLY those supplies.
This was a bit of a challenge for me. It was very tempting to just add something else from my stash....but I played by the rules.

This is what I received:

I Loved these papers! I believe they are by Wild Asparagus. (I know the letters are.)

I wasn't feeling quite as creative as I had hoped, so the first thing I did was find a sketch that I'd like to work with for inspiration. I chose one from here. It is the last sketch - the one that has an example LO following it.

Then I started looking through pictures to decide what to use. I chose pictures from last weekend of my kids with their cousin. I planned to print them in black and white because I figured I'd never find pictures to compliment the colors in the papers. But I forgot to switch them before printing, and to my surprise, the colors in the photos actually went well with the papers!
So, this is what I came up with:

And I have to say, I was quite happy with it until I wrote the info in on the bottom. My white Signo pen didn't seem to like the textured paper, and I'm really wishing I had just used a black pen. It just doesn't look right to me, but oh well...not much I can do about it now! And it just shows that I'm human and make mistakes!

There are a lot of buttons, but that's the only embellishment I could use, so I used them! I really wanted to cheat and add a flower until I remembered recently seeing others making flowers out of paper, so I used the patterned papers to do just that. (Since the paper was double sided, I actually had 4 patterns to work with, but only used 3.) Oh, and this picture doesn't do justice to the colors in these papers - they are so pretty in person!

This was a little 'out of the box' for me, but I had a lot of fun! And at least I got something done this week!

More Sympathy

2007-06-01T21:19:00.000-04:00

Just quick post - so very busy right now! I'm hoping to have lots of time next week to be creative. We'll see! I have so many things I need to work on! Here are 3 more quick and super-simple sympathy cards I made. All using the Close as a Memory set from Stampin' Up. I won't be around this weekend, but hopefully I'll be back in full swing next week. See ya then!

I Won!!!

2007-06-01T20:45:00.000-04:00

I WON BLOG CANDY!! Woo Hoo!! I meant to post this earlier, but I just keep forgetting. But I won this AWESOME blog candy from Heidi at Sweet Somethings. If you haven't checked out her blog, be sure to do so, she is very talented! And look at the wonderfully sweet goodies I won!

I snagged the picture from her blog, since she had already taken a great one, and I already opened my stuff before I remembered to take one! (Hope you don't mind Heidi!) Be on the lookout for these goodies in upcoming projects!

Sympathy Cards

2007-05-30T11:15:00.000-04:00

I can't believe I haven't posted anything in over a week! I've been pretty busy, and just haven't taken the time this past week to post here. Sorry!

Today is our son's 13th Birthday, and our 15th Anniversary, and we are trying to decide what we really want to do today. So I thought I'd jump on here and post a couple cards before we go so no one thinks I've fallen off the planet!

I made these sympathy cards for the charity event I mentioned earlier. They are pretty simple and basic. I used the Close as a Memory stamp set from Stampin' Up. I think the rest is pretty self explanatory.

Bella Cards

2007-05-21T23:10:00.000-04:00

Recently we had an image challenge at Paper Petal Memories. The hostess picks a stamp set and stamps the images and mails them to all the players. The players create a card (or whatever else they wish) using the images. We then email the finished product(s) to the hostess and she posts them all under her name in the gallery so no one knows whose is who's. Then everyone has a chance to vote on their favorite. This round was using some of the Bella images.

I had never had a chance to play with any of these before, but now they are definitely on my list of stamps I want! They are so much fun to work with. I created three cards. I am only posting 2 of them here, because I'm not at all happy with the way the 3rd one came out.

This is the first one I made. I am quite happy with the way it turned out. I really love the pink and black. I colored the image with SU! watercolor pencils. I used black SU! Stazon ink to make the brads black, as I didn't have any black ones on hand. The sentiment is from one of the $1 Studio G sets from Michael's.

And this is the second one.
First, I have to say that I was HEAVILY inspired by this card by Julie Buhler at Paper Pleasing Ideas. I am beyond pleased with how this turned out. AND even more pleased that this was the WINNING CARD!!! That's right - I won!! What does the winner get? All the other entries from the other participants. It's really just a fun little contest. Chip asked, so do you win money? And I had to disappoint him and tell him no, but I win the HONOR of knowing people liked something I made! Yeah - he was just as proud as I was - HA!
He's waiting for the day that I start making some money doing what I love. Cuz it sure does cost a lot!

Oh - again, I used a Studio G stamp, and that circle is raised up on foam tape. The blue ribbon came off a gift I received recently. It was the perfect color blue! And I colored the images with the watercolor pencils.

Wedding Gifts

2007-05-21T00:29:00.000-04:00

I was so upset, I wasn't able to make it to Amber (Chip's cousin)and Matt's wedding. I imagine it was absolutely beautiful, and I wanted to be there so much! But my back has been out for over a week now, and even though the chiropractic adjustments are helping, I'm still in a good bit of pain. Since Chip had to work, I would have had to make the drive myself, and it was over an hour away. I just didn't feel I could do it and then have Ruthi hanging off me and keep a smile on my face. I just wouldn't have been able to enjoy myself and would have probably been in even more pain on the way home. I hate that I had to miss it, but I did have to do what was best for me. (Wow - that sounded kinda selfish - but you know what I mean!)

Anyway, I made their wedding gift, and didn't want to wait till who knows when to give it to them, so the cousin who lives down the road from me took it for me. (Thank you Cathy!!)

With limited funds for a gift, I decided to make something. Sure, I could have spent the little bit that it cost me to buy the frame and supplies (which wasn't much, because I had most of it on hand) and bought something from their registry, but it would have been such a small 'something', that it actually made me feel cheap! Of course there was Chip's argument that people register for things they want/need and probably look forward to getting those things. I know this is true (I loved getting things from my wedding and baby registries), but I also know how much I cherish the things that were hand made or personalized, and things that were unexpected. So, I am hoping that they will like and appreciate what I made. So here it is:

I made a name frame that they can put at their front door (or anywhere they like for that matter.)

I had checked out their registry, and from what I could tell, they had a lot of neutral colored things picked out. That is why I decided to go with the browns/neutrals. It doesn't show up well in the photo, but the little heart above the name has "The" written in it.
I didn't have any stamps large enough to stamp the letters, so I printed the letters onto cardstock from MSWord and cut them out with a craft knife to make a template, in which I chalked in the color. The little square underneath says "est. 2007" using rub-on letters from TLC. The metal charms I had on hand, and everything else came from Michael's.
I wish I had taken the photo without the glass so there wouldn't be a glare, but I didn't, so oh well! This is the first name frame I've made, and I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. I plan to make one for myself now! I really do hope they like it.

**(Edited to add: You can click to see the picture larger. When I did this, I noticed that the little rhinestones in the heart appear to be colored. They are not - that is just the way the light is reflecting off them. And goodness, you can see my hands and my computer screen in the glass - LOL!)

I also made a set of 10 monogrammed note cards. I was going to make them Thank You cards, but decided against that so they can be used for other reasons as well. I used the same papers/colors as I did for the wedding card, pulling from the colors of their wedding. I know that she was going to have lavender, and I'm not sure if this is the shade, but since it doesn't have to match the wedding, I figured it didn't matter that much.

The 'N' and the little flourish in the corner are embossed with silver Super Fine Detail embossing powder by Ranger. (I love this stuff!) And though I didn't take a picture, I dressed the envelopes up just a little by stamping the same flourish on the front in the bottom left corner, and stamped an "N" on the back flap. I made a band from the black cardstock and layered a thinner band in the purple on top of that, and wrapped it around the set. Then I tied it with the same ribbon. And of course, I didn't get a picture of that either! But I hope they like these as well.

I think I've already set my all-time high for making cards this month, as I've already made over 40, and I still need to make a few more! Phew! Maybe in June I'll get to sleep again! (Yes, late at night is when I work best and get most of this stuff done - with no interruptions!)

Mother's Day Cards

2007-05-19T17:36:00.001-04:00

This is the card I ended making for my Mom for Mother's day. I was inspired by many I've seen using the flower for the "O".

I wouldn't typically pick greens for this kind of card, but I started with this flower, and that's just how it turned out. I stamped the background with one of the stamps from the Looks Like Spring set by Stampin Up, using a clear embossing pad, and then embossed it with transparent powder. I used my Fiskars shape cutter for the m's and matted them with white. The ribbon came from Michael's.
I decided to do a long card, because with the size of the flower, it was too crowded to do a smaller one. My Mom really liked it. And, both Mom's really liked their gifts!

I also made for each of them a set of cards and a tote to hold them. I used the "one sheet wonder" (OSW) method, where I used a sheet of patterned paper cut up in different sizes/shapes and used it in different ways on the cards. I kept them all pretty simple.

For the first set I found instructions with measurements for a OSW and used it as a guide. You can see the original here, and the instructions and measurements for the tote and the cards here.

I was also inspired by another SCS'er for this set, but I can't find the link. I thought I had saved it, but apparently I didn't. If I can find it, I will come back and add it.

This second set actually ended up with 10 cards in it, but somehow, one of them didn't make it into the picture. (You can click the pictures to view larger.)

Magnet Frames and Tissue Boxes

2007-05-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

I can finally post the things I made for Mother's Day since both of our Mom's will be receiving them today. (And I don't think my Mom will look here before I see her!) I didn't get to go see my Mom on Mother's Day because I was in too much pain with my back. And Chip had to work, so we knew we wouldn't get to see his either, so we are seeing them both today...finally!

First up, I made these little magnet frames. They are little wooden frames I picked up at Michaels. I painted the edges and then adhered patterned paper. I added a little ribbon and a flower to the one for my MIL, and just some ribbon to my Mom's - I didn't think it needed anything else with that pattern. My mom's kitchen is in an Italian theme, so I thought that paper would be perfect. And I printed the picture in black and white so it wouldn't clash with the paper. I added some magnet tape to the backs of these so they can go on the refrigerator. I actually like these so much that I plan to make one for myself.

I picked up wooden tissue box holders at Michaels too. I covered two sides with patterned paper, and two sides with a solid color. I then attached a picture of the kids on one of the solid sides. I painted the tops to match. Then I sealed the whole thing with a spray sealer. I think these turned out pretty cute and will probably end up making one of these for myself too!

I also made each of them a set of cards, but I will post them later.

More Cards for May

2007-05-07T14:07:00.000-04:00

I finished up some more cards for the busy month of May. With the completion of these, I only have one more that I HAVE to get done, and I guess I really should make one for my son who turns 13 this month, and one for our anniversary. I also did three more in addition to these, but I can't post them yet, as they are for a contest at Paper Petal Memories that will be posted tomorrow. Once it is over, I'll post them here. And one of the gals at PPM is a nurse in a Pediatric Trauma Center and a bunch of us are making cards to send to her that they will be able to give to the parent's who have lost children, and for families who spend an extended amount of time with them do to the severity of their child's injuries. And even some for the kids who are there for a long time. I'd really like to try to get as many as I can done for that. So, I hopefully I'll actually end up with quite a few more cards made this month. Now, for the ones I've done:

I didn't have the stamp I really wanted to do this wedding card with, and though I'm trying to see if I can borrow it from someone, I went ahead and made this just in case. The wedding colors are black, white and lavender, so I wanted to use those colors for the card. The words are silver embossed. I think everything else is pretty straightforward on this card.

I made this anniversary card for my hubby's cousin. They are the parents of the cousin I made the wedding card for. The paper is from the Flavia collection by Colorbok. For some reason, I've been finding these papers a bit difficult to work with, maybe because they aren't the colors/style I typically work with. But I was determined to do something with them, and I think I'm quite happy with the way this turned out. I sanded the edges of the paper, and of the square accent paper. The stamps are the Studio G acrylic $1 stamps from Michael's. Ribbons are from Michael's and I believe the metal plaque is by Making Memories.

This is a very simple card, but I really like the way it turned out. I used a sketch from our sketch challenges at Paper Petal Memories. (And I still need to post my card there!!) This was a quick one to make. Again, used the Studio G stamp for the sentiment.

I think this one turned out so cute! This is for one of my little cousins who is having a birthday. I got the idea here, and she even had a link for printing out the maze. Mine is a little different, but the idea was definitely hers! This used more of the Studio G stamps, and the frog is from Stampin Up's Very Punny set. I really like the monochromatic look here.

And last for today is one more birthday card. I actually didn't do this one from scratch. I already had the card made, but it was all on the blue, and I wasn't happy with it because it was a little flimsy. So I cut off the front and trimmed it and adhered it to a white (sturdier) base. And I added the brads because I felt it just needed a little something else.

A Few Cards

2007-05-03T19:49:00.000-04:00

May is a big card month. Lots of birthdays, Mother's Day, and this year a wedding as well. On top of all that, it's our anniversary. So May has lots going on. I have 3 of the many cards I need for this month made. But I have quite a few to go, so I'll be busy!

The first is for my Grandad's birthday. I used a sketch that was posted at Paper Petal Memories this week. I used the Studio G clear stamps from Michael's. After coloring them in, I used Sparkle Glaze to add some dimension and sparkle. The images are raised with foam tape.

This one is for my Mother-in-law's birthday. For this one I used a sketch from Split Coast Stampers. I browse their gallery frequently, and get lots of ideas, but this is the first time I've even looked at their sketches, and I really liked this one. The image stamp is from the Dollar Tree (Miss Elizabeth's) and I added some little jewels to the centers of the flowers. The Birthday stamp is from Stampin Up.

And this last one is a Mother's Day card for my Mother-in-law. I won't be posting My Mom's until after Mother's Day, because she might read this! I used the Looks Like Spring set from Stampin Up for the background and the flower. The smaller stamp is a Studio G, and I printed the words from my computer.

Now to get busy making more cards!

Paper Bag Album

2007-05-01T12:28:00.000-04:00

I made this cute little album out of lunch bags. I really like the way it turned out. I need to find a couple more pictures to go on the inserts, and I plan to journal on at least one of them too. I used a variety of products on it.

This is the front cover.

Pages 1 & 2

Pages 3 & 4 - the team picture and his individual shot. He ended up being the only boy on the team, and all the girls are taller than him! The upper grades didn't have that many kids playing, so the teams are small.

Pages 5 & 6 - I know this picture is the same as the previous page, but this was one of the trading cards, and I wanted to include it. I wanted to be able to see the front and the back, so I cut the stats from the back of one to include it.

Pages 7 & 8 - just some action shots.

Pages 9 & 10 - these pictures were taken on awards night. Unfortunately, the kids walked across the stage so quickly, I could not get a good shot. So here he is with his coach. And then the trophy he got.

The back cover.

A couple of the inserts. These slide into the places where the bag is open (the 'tops' of the bags). I plan to journal on at least one of the backs.

And this is the other insert. I really need to look for one more picture for this page!

CJ's been sitting here looking the actual book while I am posting, and he seems to like it a lot. He keeps saying, "Cool!" This is why I do this! It makes me so proud when my family looks at what I make and they actually like and appreciate it!!!

My Sweet Valentines

2007-05-01T07:32:00.000-04:00

Yes, I realize it's Officially May, and Valentine's Day was in February, but I think the fact that I have already scrapped these pictures is a big accomplishment. Especially considering I have hundreds from before February that are patiently waiting to be scrapped.
I had a little time on Saturday and decided I needed to play. So these are the pictures I worked with. I made a 2 of these 8x8 layouts for the kids' books. (They are exactly the same, so I'm just showing one) My favorite picture is the enlarged one, and the smaller pictures are all the "outtakes" of my little photo shoot.

I then created a 2-page 12x12 layout for my book. On this page, I stamped the title with my foam stamps from Paper Studio. It's a little uneven (I never can line these things up right), but I don't mind. I created the saying in the heart using parts of various stamps and my handwriting.

And here is the companion page. I kept these layouts pretty simple, as I wanted the focus to be on the pictures.

Frames

2007-04-25T11:18:00.000-04:00

I just love making these frames. I've shown the one I made for Baby Hannah. Thought I'd share a couple more. The first one is one I made for Ruthi. It hangs in the hall, just outside her room.

This is one I made for another friend of mine for her baby boy.

I wish I had taken another picture of this one. The colors seem off - the flash washed it out a bit, and I think the blue paper behind it is throwing it off a bit too.

These are wooden frames purchased at Michael's. I painted the edges with acrylic paints, and adhered the paper to the front with spray adhesive. I sanded the paper around the edges to remove the excess. The letters are also from Michael's. I painted them and then used the a pencil eraser to paint the dots. The little wooden accents came from Michael's as well, and I hand painted them. The train was a bit of a challenge for me, because I'm not an artistic painter. I snapped a picture with my cell phone of the example in the store, and used it as a guide.
I stamped the letters in the name with foam stamps and the same acrylic paints. Added some ribbon, and the little jewels for Ruthi's, and done!
These are so much fun, and very inexpensive to make, as the frames are only $1, I think the letters were $1, and the little wooden flower and train are each 25 cents. They can be hung, but also come with a little dowel that goes in the back so they can sit on a shelf or dresser.

I originally saw the idea for these online somewhere, but can't for the life of me remember where!

Tag Books

2007-04-24T18:00:00.000-04:00

Last summer I had the opportunity to meet some of the wonderful ladies from Paper Petal Memories at a little weekend retreat. We each brought a project for everyone to do. Karen had these adorable tag books and we could choose a boy or girl theme. She had everything cut out and ready for us - what an awesome project! I chose the girl one and completed it while we were there. As soon as I got home, I added the pictures. Since there were a few extras, she was kind enough to let me have a boy kit too. So almost a year later, I finally pulled it out and completed it too. I chose to use pictures of CJ from when he was younger to kind of go along with the one I made for Ruthi.

This is the front of the one for Ruthi.

And this the back.

Front of CJ's.

And the back!

Silly

2007-04-22T00:09:00.000-04:00

I used a sketch for this layout. At Paper Petal Memories, we have weekly sketch challenges. I'd like to say I do them all, but I don't. But I do them when I can. When I saw this one, I knew exactly which picture I wanted to use and what title I wanted as well. I took this picture of the kids during a "Christmas photo shoot" as I was trying to get pictures for Christmas cards and gifts for the grandparents. I love how they are both making the same silly face. I don't often do a 12x12 layout with only one picture, but I thought this one was a keeper and deserved its own page.

This is the sketch used for the layout. It originally came from ScrapRoom Blueprints.

The papers are by Provo Craft, flowers by Heidi Swapp, button by Favorite Findings. The ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon. The chipboard letters are from TLC and Cloud 9, and are covered with patterned paper.

Birthday Wishes

2007-04-22T00:01:00.000-04:00

Hopefully by Monday I'll get pictures taken and uploaded of my latest projects. Until then, I thought I'd share a couple more things I've done recently.
This is a birthday card I made. I tried the 'kissing' technique, but I need more practice with it. You can kind of see the pattern in the flower, but I need to work on it to get it to show up more. This was the first time I tried it, and though it's ok, I will keep practicing. It might help if I had some more patterned stamps, I don't really think I have the *perfect* one to make the technique work.
The stamps are from Stampin Up. The ribbon is from Michael's, and the little jewel in the center is from the craft dept. at Wal-Mart.

Easter Bunny

2007-04-19T21:04:00.000-04:00

Thought I'd share this cute LO I did of Ruthi on her first Easter. I did it a while back, and it is really simple, but I just think it is so cute. The cute paper-pieced bunny was made by Pam - an online friend of mine. I literally put this together in just a few minutes since the bunny was already made. I added letter sticker letters and some fibers to the little tag, and voila! Easy peasy!

The Wedding Cake

2007-04-19T20:07:00.000-04:00

I'm finally getting around to posting the picture of the wedding cake I made for my friend Penny. She got married the day before Easter. I wasn't feeling well, with all the allergy crud, but I pulled it off and was pretty happy with it. The florist made the floral arrangement for the top - I don't do flowers! All I had to do was set them on top.

Baby Cards

2007-04-14T17:18:00.000-04:00

OK, so I think I'm FINALLY recovered from exhaustion and not feeling well, and beginning to feel somewhat normal again. (Long couple of weeks for me!) I'm actually trying to work on some things again. But until I've created something new, I'll post some more stuff I've already done.

Here are a couple baby cards I made. I made these for a swap at Paper Petal Memories. Funny thing was, I TOTALLY forgot I had joined this particular swap - STILL don't know how I did that! I received a message from the hostess asking if I had mailed mine (they were due the next day) and I was so embarrassed! So that night I got busy - I had to make 5 of each one. I was very glad I had not joined any other groups! I got them done and in the mail the next day - priority of course, and they ended up only being a couple days late. *Phew!* For having to decide on a card and then create it - multiple times - at a very quick pace - I was very pleased with the way they came out. I just went for the same design in both pink and blue to save time.
The footprint stamps are Inkadinkado, and I stamped them with acrylic paint. The 'sweet baby' stamp is from the $1 bin and Michael's. The little square that is stamped on is raised. The ribbons probably came from Michael's, that is a Prima flower, with a brad, and the little onsie brad on the blue card is from Eyelet Outlet.

Lingerie Shower Goodies

2007-04-02T08:00:00.000-04:00

I posted the invitations I made for my girlfriend's lingerie shower earlier this month, and finally had the shower this weekend. Now that it's over, I can post the things I made for her.
I made a 'honeymoon' paint can filled with goodies for them to take with them. I included 3 frappucino bottles - one with homemade bath salts, one with bath gel and the third with peanut M&M's (her favorite), and two candles, all with the same papers/ribbons I used on the can. I also included some other non-altered things in the can.
I loved the rose patterned paper - not sure who makes it. The solid paper is from The Paper Company and is actually Metallic Jewel Bronze and is much prettier in person. It looks quite bland in the picture. All the ribbons are from Michael's.

I also made this candle for them. I found a great tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers and couldn't believe how easy this was! I messed up the first time, but quickly learned how to get it just right so I started on a new candle. I really love the way it turned out. I cut out a place in the top to insert a tealight so they can actually use the candle, and just replace the tealight. That idea came from Splitcoast as well.

I made these cute little favors for the guest. It is a bag of homemade bath salts. I made the topper using MSWord and just stapled them to the bags.

And this is the cake. It was very yummy if I do say so myself. It was chocolate with cream cheese and raspberry filling. The idea for decorating it came from Family Circle magazine - Sept. 1998 issue. I had this put aside knowing one day I wanted to make it. The chocolate wraps were a bit of a pain to make, and didn't turn out completely perfect, but it worked. I don't think I'll ever do it again due to the fits it gave me! But everyone liked it, and it did taste good!

Fire Girl

2007-03-29T21:00:00.000-04:00

I just love this picture - is she a doll or what? (Not that I'm biased or anything!) I had taken CJ and Ruthi to have their pictures made (She was 6 months old here) and when I saw that little fire truck, I just knew I had to have her picture made with it just for her Daddy! This is an 8x8 lo, and I kept it simple because the photo really is the focus. I know you can't read the journaling on the bottom, but it basically says what I said here, and that the picture was a nice surprise for Chip.
The red is the background of the LO. Because I took a picture instead of scanning it, I couldn't get the black background cropped out evenly.

Expecting the Extraordinary

2007-03-28T15:48:00.000-04:00

This is another layout I did a while back. It is one of my favorite pregnancy layouts. I love these pictures and was trying to express our love through the page. I was having a hard time coming up with a title and asked for Chip's help. He came up with the title. He did a good job, didn't he? The tag behind the picture contains hidden journaling.

She's HOW Big?

2007-03-24T14:05:00.000-04:00

First off, I got the idea for this layout (the design and title)from one I saw online somewhere. Unfortunately, this was done before I knew better about writing down my source to give credit. So, if this looks familiar, and you know where the idea came from, please let me know so I can give proper credit.
I still can't believe I was able to give birth to an almost 10 pound baby, especially after CJ was under 3 pounds! We knew Ruthi was going to be a big girl, but really expected her to be 9 pounds - TOPS! So when I saw the idea for this, I knew it was perfect for this picture.
This is an 8x8 layout.
All the papers are by Provo Craft
The letters are from a company that no longer exists.
The rubons at the top are by Deja Views
Not sure where the flower and brad came from.
The font I used for my journaling is Chinacat

Precious Baby Girl

2007-03-23T17:53:00.000-04:00

Since I haven't had a lot of time lately to create, and what I am working on at the moment I can't post yet, I thought for the next few posts I'd share some of my past stuff.
This is a layout I did of my sweet little girl a while back. Can you tell I love pink? That wasn't always the case. I really didn't start having an affinity for pink until I knew I was having a little girl! Now I just LOVE pink!! And I think it's obvious in this layout.
This is a 12x12 layout, and I think it was the first time I used a large picture on a scrapbook page.
The quote is from DCWV and says:
A Daughter Is...
...a star glimmering
in the sky
a wonder, a sweetness
a perception, a
delight...
everything beautiful
A daughter is
love

The rubons are from Deja Views
Chipboard from Topline Creations (TLC), which I inked
The little page pebble is from EK Success
The eyelets are by Boxer Scrapbook Productions
The little flowers are by Offray (@ WalMart)
And the ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon

A Winter Card

2007-03-22T20:03:00.000-04:00

I joined a month-of-the-year card swap at Paper Petal Memories. This meant there were 12 people in the swap, each picking one month of the year to center their card around. Each person makes 12 cards (one for each person in the swap) and after swapping them out, we end up with 12 different cards. My month was January. For some reason I was having a very difficult time getting inspired and really struggled with what to do. This is what I came up with, though I'm not sure how happy I am with it.

The only thing I knew for sure I wanted to do is use purples instead of the traditional blues for a winter card.
I decided to do square cards, which was my first time doing so. One thing I learned - if you are doing heat embossing, do so BEFORE you attach it to the background paper. I had the lighter patterned paper already attached to the background paper when I stamped my sentiment and embossed it. That resulted in a little bit of warping to the paper and it doesn't quite lie flat anymore.
Plus, this particular card (the one I kept for myself) got a little damaged and doesn't look quite as nice as it should!
The stamps I used were from the $1 bin at Michael's. The papers are by Provo Craft and the ribbon is from Michael's. I added a tiny jewel to the center of the snowflake and though you can't really see it, I added a bit of sparkle glaze to the circles at the tips of the snowflake. It is then raised from the rest of the card with foam tape.

Easter Peeps

2007-03-21T13:03:00.000-04:00

OK, I've GOT to get better about posting more regularly on this blog. I've gotten a handle on my main one, but this one is still getting neglected. Thanks to all of you who have made such nice comments, it really does a girl good!
I'm actually going to busy working on some things for my friend who is getting married in less than 3 weeks, so I'll be busy until after then, but I'll try to get some more stuff on here. After the wedding, maybe I can get back to creating more regularly too!

This project is one I saw on Splitcoast Stampers and just fell in love with and had to try it. I seriously wanted to do these and try to sell them, but I really cut it too close to Easter. Next year I'll have to start much earlier (as soon as they start putting Easter candy out!) along with another idea I saw and try to sell them then.

The hardest part to this was getting those bunnies in there right! It didn't help that I had the wrong type of jar - I needed one with a wider neck. But I figured it out anyway. After searching information about the recipe I decided to follow some of the advice I read, but it didn't work as I had hoped. Some were saying that when you bake them that they come out too crumbly and adding a little more butter did the trick. So I went ahead and added the extra butter. What I ended up was a gooey (though very yummy) mess. They were far too gooey to cut into bars. So I'm including the recipe here with the original amount of butter. I plan to try them again soon and see if it makes a big difference.

In the jar: 1 sleeve of graham crackers, crushed
8 peeps
1/3 C. brown sugar (pressed into the center of the peeps)
1 1/2 cup Easter M&M's

Peep Bars
Empty contents of the jar into a bowl Snip the bunnies into bits with kitchen shears or cut up with a knife. Return the bunny bits to the mixture and mix well. Add 1/2 cup softened butter and 1 tsp. vanilla and mix well. Pat into a greased 8x8 baking dish. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Cool and cut into bars.
Option: leave the bunnies whole; combine remaining ingredients and place the bunnies on top. Bake as directed.

I also found this recipe:

Peep Ice Cream Topping
Same as above, but omit the vanilla.
Pat into a greased 9x13 baking dish. Bake at 350 just until peeps melt. Cool. Break up with a knife. Sprinkle over vanilla ice cream.

Recipe Cards

2007-03-12T00:08:00.000-04:00

I am hosting a Recipe Swap at Paper Petal Memories. I had participated in one quite a while back, and decided I wanted to add to my book so I started up another one. I had 6 categories with 4-6 spots in each group in which I made my recipes to swap with the other participants. I have now decided I am going to add all my favorite recipes to my book in the same manner. (And this will be making only one of each recipe instead of multiples!) I just love having my recipes look so nice! Anyway, here are the recipes I did for this swap.

For the Appetizer category, I did Hot 'n Cheesy Crab Dip

Soup/Salad category - Bacon and Baked Potato Soup (YUM!)

Main Dish Category - Savory Chicken Pizza (So easy and yummy!)

Veggies/Side Dishes - Italian Bacon & Tomato Risotto (Not a true risotto - it uses rice, but very good!)

Dessert Category - Chocolate Candy Cane Cake (This is AWESOME and was a big hit at Christmas)

Beverage Category - Peachy Iced Tea Sangria

All the recipes are 5.5 x 8.5. I store them in a three-ring binder in page protectors. I can fit four in each protector. I'll probably have to add a second binder before too much longer. I made dividers for each category on full pages. I plan to add tabs to those as well to make it easier to flip to each group.

I usually just pop the page out that contains a recipe I'm using, so it stays safe from spills and splatters in the page protector. On most of the cards the entire recipe is on one side, so I don't have to remove them from the sleeve to use the recipe. I love my recipe binder full of colorful recipes!

Invitations for a Lingerie Shower

2007-03-07T15:46:00.000-05:00

One of my very dearest friends is getting married, and I'm throwing her a lingerie shower (at her request). I saw this little card on Splitcoast Stampers and knew it would be absolutely perfect for the invitations. THIS IS NOT MY DESIGN! You can see the original here, and as you can see I CASEd it almost 100% because I loved everything about it! I used a different heart stamp, because I didn't have a smaller one, and my ribbon has polka dots. But everything else is pretty much the same.
The 'sweet' stamp is from the set 'So Very' by Stampin Up! The little heart is from a set by All Night Media, and the other stamps are $1 Stamps from Michael's (I used them on the inside.) The ribbon came from Hobby Lobby. I'm pretty sure the patterned paper is by Provo Craft. These were so much fun to make, and I hope everyone likes them!

Baby Shower Gift

2007-02-23T15:17:00.000-05:00

I've been busy this past week working on this gift for my friend, Fonda. She is having baby number 5, Hannah, in March. This is a baby who was meant to be here, a true gift from God, as Fonda had a tubal ligation after Emma was born. The doctor freaked out a little, but not Fonda, as she realized this was a miracle. Her tube had actually formed new growth, and we know that was an act of God. And we imagine He must have big plans for this little girl! Fonda is a very special friend. She was in the delivery room when Ruthi was born. She and my other dear friend, Penny were awesome support in bringing Ruthi into this world. Chip and I are very thankful for both of them, and blessed that they and their families are in our lives.
Now, onto the gift. I actually created a scrapbook for Emma's first year, and I loved it, but it was very time consuming. I wanted something just as special, but that wouldn't take quite as long, since it's hard to squeeze in enough time for an entire book. None of these ideas are original, I was inspired from things I had seen online. I may not be great at coming up with the ideas, but I am at re-creating them! This first picture is the grouping of things for baby Hannah.

This is a close up of the paint can I altered. I mod podged the paper on, then attached the ribbons and flowers. To get the H, I printed it from MSWord and used it as a pattern.

The poem on the lid reads:
Memory Can
Baby books are great ideas,
But sometimes you're just too busy.
Living with a little one
can put you in a tizzy.
Milestones pass too fast at times
To find the proper page;
So jot a note of each event,
with date and baby's age.
Like "Took 3 steps on May 1st"
or "Teething on the 5th of December."
Then drop it in this memory can
to help you to remember!

This picture show the things that are included in the memory can. I included little tags for "baby's firsts".

The items are: 1. An altered mini composition book - I stamped the image that is on the front it says 'Crib Notes'. 2. A beaded pen using the same floral paper that is used on the other items. 3. Altered photo album (Mommy & Daddy's brag book) 4. A tooth brush (Hannah's first teeth) 5. Rubber ducky and washcloth (Hannah's first bath) 6. Shoes (Hannah's first steps) 7. An altered Altoid gum tin to hold a lock of hair (Hannah's first haircut) 8. Bib and baby spoon (Hannah's first solid foods).

This frame is just a wooden frame from Michael's, I painted the edges and covered the front with paper. I also bought the letter H and the wood flower from Michael's and then hand painted them Then tied just a little ribbon on the H and added the cute button to the flower.

I also included a set of 24 thank you cards. I actually made these before I bought the paper to make the other things, which is why they don't match. I decided to make them pretty general (no baby theme) so that she could use them later if she doesn't need them all. The button in the center of the flower is actually the same color as the darker pink paper, and looks much better in person. It just didn't photograph well. I noticed that the corner of this one is bent - I need to fix that!

And this final picture is a few things I made for mom - she deserves a little treat too! The two bottles are Starbucks Frappuccino bottles (clean of course!) that I decorated. One is filled with homemade bath salts, and the other is filled with M&M's disguised as "Mom's Vitamins". I decorated the little votive holders and added some votive candles. And the final treat is a large Hershey bar - she's going to need her energy!

The "Vitamin" directions read:
Take as needed.
Blue for headaches, Green for relaxing,
Red for energy, Orange for backaches.
Save yellow & brown for Dad
so he will change diapers.
If all else fails,
Take whole bottle with hot bath.

You've Got Mail

2007-02-23T15:13:00.000-05:00

I found this cute litte mailbox at Michael's and decided it would be cute to decorate. I had seen some of these done and was wanting to try it, but had not found any mailboxes...until now. It was quite simple, just cutting the paper to fit and adhering it. I stamped the words, punched it out and then double-matted the circle, added some dots, tied on some ribbons, and voila!

Valentine Cards

2007-02-10T23:20:00.000-05:00

Well, since Valentine's Day is only 4 days away, I thought I'd share the Valentine cards I made. I am a member of a Scrapbook message board, and we have challenges we participate in to help us get things done. I am very competitive when it comes to these and get as much done as possible. This is the second year we've had a 'Superbowl Challenge'. We are divided into two teams and we scrapbook for points. I was scrapbooking almost nonstop for 4 days. I slept very little (about 4 hours a night) and stopped only when absolutely necessary. I got the most done very late at night when the kids were asleep. I wasn't going to bed until 4 or 5 am! One of the things to make to add up points was Valentine's cards. So I made 16 of them! I usually only send cards out to our parents and grandparents, but this year a few others will receive them too! I made them all in the same design so that I could put them together in an assembly line fashion. It only took me about an hour to make 16 cards. Anyway, this is how they turned out:

These are a super simple design. The stamps are $1 stamps from Michael's. I stamped the background with the heart. Then I tore the patterned paper (Provo Craft) and adhered it. I stamped the sentiment on white cardstock and punched with my square punch. Added a little pen stitching, and adhered with pop dots to lift it off the card. So easy, but I think they turned out kinda cute!

During the Superbowl Challenge, I also got 24 12 x 12 layouts completed. In the spirit of Valentine's, I thought I'd share a Valentine one I created. I'm trying very hard to get caught up on older pictures, though I don't think I'll ever truly be caught up. These pictures were taking in 2005 on Ruthi's first Valentine's Day.