Happy Birthday to You, Elise!

Easter was a religious holiday, a bunny hopping egg finding day, and a friend's birthday! I met Elise through the wonderful world of scrapbook retreats and she became my 'friendly Stampin' Up! gal' as well. She is a sweet woman who is incredibly artistically talented. I am inspired everytime I get to watch her work! And now that she has her own blog, I do not have to wait for the next retreat to see what crafty & artsy goodness she is up to! Lately, she has been playing with Tim Holtz's fun fragments and giving me all kinds of ideas. By the way.....that workshop that Tim is talking about on his blog?? That's where Elise is right now...today!!! How Awesome is that?!! I am So looking forward to seeing what she's learning from Tim, the man, today!!



Rummaging through my stamp collection with Elise's birthday card in mind, I wanted to pull stamps that she may have not seen before. She is a stamp-addict, like most of us in this stampy blogosphere, so she's seen a lot. Then I came accross Marilyn, by Stampsmith, and thought she would be perfect! Since this card was going in the mail, I didn't want it to be too lumpy and bumpy, so I kept my design fairly flat. Something that I really liked was that the ribbon points on the card fold flat in the envelope, but pops up a bit when taken out. On the inside of the card is a piece of PTI's vintage cream cardstock with a strip of Bitty Dot paper to coordinate with the front of the card. I'm horrible about remembering to decorate the insides of the cards, so I was really glad that I did this time! :>

Here's a little mailing TIP: If you have brads, bling, or bumps that do not make your envelope thicker than the 1/4" max, put clear packing tape on the back of the envelope so that the post office machines do not get caught on your embellishment and you do not have to put additional postage on it for hand proccessing! Someone from the Stamp Shack sent me a birthday card this way and I thought it was ingenious! I even went to the post office to ask about it and they said, yup, it will keep your postage down to a single first class stamp as long as you do not exceed the size or weight limits. Too cool! (oh yea.....Elise, apologies for the lint and whatnot that was on the first piece of tape I put down....I didn't realize the packing tape had been sitting out so long!! :>)


Supplies:
Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate, Plum Pudding - PTI
Patterned Paper: Bitty Dot Basics - PTI
Stamps: Marilyn - Stampsmith
Ink: Close to Cocoa - SU
Ribbon: Sweet Blush Satin - PTI
Embellishments: Flowers - Prima; Light Pink Flower Rhinestones - KaiserCraft

Spreading the Love!

Wow! I had quite a nice surprise when I found the award that Cheryl left for me. :> I found Cheryl on the PTI forums and she has been so nice, funny, and inspiring!! I am extremely flattered that she thought of me when tagging people for this award! :>




Here are the rules for passing this award on: you must post the award on your blog, name the person who awarded you, then pass the award to 6 other bloggers and leave a message on their blog that they've received the award.

Dana
Elise
Tracey
Sarah
Sarita
Siri

Eggs! Eggs! Eggs!!

Dyed eggs, plastic eggs, and of course, some Easter egg shaped cards for my kidlets!



You would never believe where I got the inspiration for these cards! A piece of cardboard, the packaging from a potty training Disney Princess toilet insert (you know, the kind so that little tushes don't fall in :>), was just about to make its way to the recycling bin when I turned my head to the side and saw it....the perfect egg shape to make a card with!

I cannot freehand cut shapes out, but by tracing the inside 'egg' onto cardstock, I was able to make egg shaped cards! A little Tip....if hand cutting layers is troublesome for you, put a little bit of removable adhesive in between the layers (I used a Hermafix Dotto that just rubs off) and then cut them out.

These both are very simple cards, but I had fun putting them together and enjoyed the smiles on the kids' faces when they got to see them completed on Sunday morning. And because they know Mama's supplies so well, the cards were from Mom and Dad and not the big Bunny! :>

For my son's I cut circles with my Coluzzle from PTI's Bitty Dot paper. At first I layered the circle evenly, but later moved them off center. Looking at it now, I realize it kind of looks like a bunch of eggs.....while it works with the theme, it definitely was not my intention! He loves bunnies, so it was an easy pick to grab this oldie but goody out of the stamp stash. (The block, rubber, and foam all look like PSX, but it isn't marked.) I punched holes on the side and laced it up to put the front and back together.

For my daughter's, I tied each set of holes individually for a series of lilac bows. The rest of her card is simple as well....more Bitty Dot papers, flowers, Dew Drops, and some Pearl Ex interference, violet, for sparkle.


Supplies:
Cardstock: Blue & Pink eggs - Pacon (inexpensive Costco pack from a few years ago); Vintage Cream - PTI
Patterned Papers: Bitty Dot - PTI
Stamps: Bunny - Unknown (maybe PSX??)
Ink: Close to Cocoa - SU
Ribbon: Blue - Offray; Light Orchid - SU
Flowers: Prima
Bling: Orchid Dew Drops - Robin's Nest; Violet Interference Pearl Ex - Jacquard for SU; Pink Spica pen - Copic

You can Always spot a Mom when....

.....she's wearing a Dora bandaid on her leg and a Batman bandaid on her finger! I was stamping away tonight and looked down and realized that I'm a kiddie character billboard!!

I am working on a few projects right now, one of them being the kids' Easter cards. Unfortunately, I did not follow the advice I quietly gave myself (several times over) about only working on them at night. Since my daughter now has my former houseguest (aka..nasty cold), she was busy watching a 'kid show' right in front of me and so I thought I'd cut and glue a couple of items down while her attention was elsewhere. Well, I should have known better!! She always wants to know what I'm doing the second she hers my SU cutter slicing! Boom!! She's right there and I'm warning her to back up a little and protect her cute little nose! Once I had finished slicing up my papers, she went back to answering Super Why's question on her show. I thought if I was quiet, I could glue those pieces down. Well, um......ooops! is about all I can say when she turns around and gasps, "An Easter egg???!!!" Actually, 'ooops' isn't quite what came out...more like, "Don't look!!! You're not supposed to see it!!" What happened to my Mama wit?! Where on Earth did it go? You know, those witty comments that Mamas make when their kids ask questions.......I had none...zero, zip, nada.....simply, "Don't look!" I typically do not like to have caffiene first thing in the morning. I prefer to wait until I've had a few glasses of water. I may just have to change that though if my Mama wit doesn't come back soon! :>

An Unwanted 'Houseguest' vs. Craft Time

Unfortunately, I've gotten hit at the very end of this cold and flu season with the third bug in a row. Hopefully though, the third times the charm and when this bug vacates, I can stay healthy for awhile!! Fortunately, this not so welcome houseguest of a virus is starting to pack its bags in preparation for what I'm hoping is a timely departure and I was able to craft a simple little card!

I somewhat recently bought myself a Scor-Pal for my birthday, but have not used it for anything other than scoring cards to fold. While I bought it to make pretty boxes, my "houseguest" just was not going to give in and say, "Adios!" or "Au revoir!" quite yet, so I settled for trying something new (to me) and using it to make some decorative scoring marks. The effect is subtle, but I like it. For me though, the best part about this card, is simply having the energy to make it! YAY!!!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Plum Pudding, Raspberry Fizz, Stampers Select White - PTI
Ink: Raspberry Fizz - PTI
Stamps: Life - PTI
Bling: Bling it On - Lisa Bearnson
Other: Spica Glitter Pens (pink & purple) - Copic (inside of card)