It's a Birthday Blog Hop!

It's a birthday bloghop for an uber special blogger, my in real life friend, Elise of Mamacow Creations!

She rocks the creative span, ranging from oodles of papercrafts (card making to scrapbooking to home dec to food art...you should see what she does come pumpkin time!) and on down the line, to gorgeous fine art paintings (the first one here is  my current fav).  Elise is known to tickle a funny bone, get silly in the wee hours, write and sing an ode to the creative man, Tim Holtz, and make so many of us smile with her sweet heart.

Thanks to the gals at the Just Us Girls challenge site, I'm thrilled to be able to wish her a Happy Birthday!!!

And the birthday gal needs a birthday card, right?!

Elise had been begging for spring not too long ago and when I walked by a few of my Dew Drop ink pads, they whispered to me.  (No, really, they did!)

Well, their shape awoke some slumbering inky card making mojo and so I had to run with it!  I started with the orchid and then filled in with the purple.

A birthday needs sparkle, so after adding a piece of chunky purple bling for the flower's center, spica glitter pens went to work, laying on oodles of sparkle onto the vine ribbon used for the flower's stem. (It doesn't show fabulously in the photo, but it really does sparkle!)

Happy Happy Birthday, Elise!!

I'm grateful for your friendship and
hope your day is wonderful, launching an awesome new year! :>

I hope you'll hop along, visit the partiers, and most of all, stop by Elise's Mamacow Creations blog and leave her some birthday love (even if you're not a papercrafter, we know how fantastic the community of bloggers can be and would love if you stopped by to wish her Happy Birthday! :>)!!!

Supplies:Cardstock: Papertrey Ink
Ink: Tsukineko Brilliance Dew Drops
Ribbon: May Arts
Bling: rhinestone - stash;  Spica Glitter Pens - Copic
Other:  FabriTac, foam tape, ScorPal

PTI Card + Amy Tsuruta = Flashback!

Amy, Tsuruta Designs, posted a Flashback Friday challenge and asked us to join her in posting our first cards posted on our blogs.  Yikes!  So, I'm being a Brave Girl and digging mine up from February 6, 2009, when I began blogging. 

Isn't that scary photography?!  Actually, I took a cue from Amy and lightened the pics up as they were even dreadfully darker than they are here! 

Thankfully, not only has blogging been a fantastic adventure, I've learned so much along the way....from fellow bloggers, friends, and all of my favorite search engines.  Many thank yous to all sources of information & learning (and old & new friendship & connections!)!!  Hopefully, it has led to picture taking that doesn't require me to be a Brave Girl. :>

{Sew} Cosmo Cricket

 

Today, I have another card I made during last week's Girl's Night Out!

 

Using Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl cardstock stickers as well a border from Echo Park's Sweet Summertime element stickers (pink polka scalloped border) on a kraft card base made for some really simple elements.  So, for a little fun, I pulled out my embroidery thread again.

This time I simply wound the golden embroidery thread into looped petals, sticking the ends of the loop to the back of the cardstock sticker as I went.  I used two layers of foam stick tape to pop up each thread of spool up for some dimension.

Do you want to know what these embellished thread spool pieces remind me of??  Old bare wooden spools who have long ago unwound their last stitch of thread.  My Mom has quite a few of those and she let both of my kidlets use them as building blocks when they were toddlers.  The kids loved them!  Not only can you build with them, but you can roll them, stand a crayon up in the middle of some of them, like a proudly waving flag heralding their wee hands' accomplishments in manipulating those old wooden spools.

Isn't is amazing how a wonderful, but simple little cardstock sticker can send you down memory lane??!!  What are your memory triggers?

Summer's Lazy Days

Hmmmm....I'm still waiting for summer's lazy days here, but with this 4th of July three day weekend, I'm going to start living them, whether they are actually here for me or not!

Can I just say how much I've missed the blogosphere?!?!!  I've missed creating, posting, reading your comments, and definitely have missed visiting so many of You!!  Thankfully, after a Girl's Night Out with some fantastically creative and fun women (thank you Claire, Elise, & Dana!!), I am getting into the summer's groove and looking forward to more!

What's more Lazy Day appropriate than an easy peasy card, courtesy of a couple of  Echo Park's Sweet Summertime Element Stickers and two different green embroidery threads?! 

That layered embroidery thread makes me want to wriggle my toes in some great green grass.  Maybe I'll water our happy little veggie garden, herb gardens, or graphed apple tree.  Or hook the hose up to the sprinkler the kidlets have been running through this week.  Or opt to simply enjoy some lovely grassy green shades of paint!

It's Independence Day weekend here.  We'll be lighting the barbeque, watching the high school's fireworks from our backyard, enjoying family time, and Hubby has even made sure to book a tee time for some golf the day after.  What are your plans this weekend??

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Random Tidbit of the Day:  When I was spell checking this post, I thought I was going to go bonkers, quite literally, when Blogger kept insisting that my 'barbeQue' is really spelled 'barbeCue'.  I thought Blogger must be completely off its rocker and rolling around on the floor.  But, then I came to my senses, began singing Blogger's praises (I wouldn't want it and the famous Murphy to get mad at me and my li'l ol' blog now, right?!?!!), and immediately proceeded to my nearest search engine, entering "barbeque + spelling".  OH MY WORD!!  I never knew there was SO incredibly much information about the variations on the spelling of barbeque, barbecue, BBQ, etc.!!!  Ya learn something new everyday!  What little random tidbit has enlightened you for a moment or two recently?

We interupt the regularly scheduled program.....for {Teacher Gifts}!

We made it!! YAAAAYYYY!!!! My boy's last day of school was yesterday and it was SO nice to not only complete the school year, but also to turn OFF my 5:40 AM alarm clock!!!! I cannot express how happy that makes me! :>

Yes, I know I promised to return with {Part Two}of the doll house with pictures of its completion and I'm sorry I haven't gotten that up yet. I was trapped in the kaleidoscope of the zany & zippy, Crazyland that is the last week of school! So, please pardon the interruption to the regularly scheduled program as I have some teachers, aides, and principal gifts to share! :>

We had two teachers, two aides, and one principal that we brought end of the year thanks and goodies too.  While these were the people who we wrote, created and packaged bits for, we do know that it takes many more people to make a successful school year for our children and we are grateful to all that contributed!!

Initially, we were thinking Gerber Daisies, as I had the tag's wording in mind.  But, when I went looking, I found these fabulous and fun plants!  They are Celosias and the flower is spiky, feathery, vibrant, and look like little colorful Christmas trees, up close.  They could not be more perfect!  You can read more about Celosias here and here.  I have uploaded two close-up shots of the flowers themselves on Flickr here and here.

I had fun playing around with my fonts when coming up with these simple, but very appropriate tags for each plant.  I made them in MS Word, matted them on brightly colored cardstock, used different colored eyelets, and layered on another bright color with a spiral paper clip.  (Click on the pics to enlarge them and make them easier to read!)

The Celosias were four inch plants in the standard green plastic pot....perfect for planting, not so great for gift giving.  So, wee girl and I made a quick trip to Jo-Ann's and bought some dark green burlap.  We cut it into squares and Princess helped hold the burlap folded up around the pot, while I tied on some twine from the hardware store that I had.  Tie on the tag and they are a sweet little gift!

Teachers definitely put in so much time and effort and these two teachers, in particular, we all appreciate so much.  We wanted to give them a little something extra to show that.  So, I wrapped up four cards (1, 2, 3, 4) and envelopes and tied them up in wide pink grosgrain ribbon for simple, yet sweet gift giving. 

As we were giving out our end of the year gifts, a teacher surprised me with an extremely thoughtful gift.  She took pictures of our son through his school day, with his friends, classmates, different aides & teachers, in the classroom, at lunch, and recess.  She said that she knew that I scrapbook and wanted to give me pictures to scrap.  How thoughtful is that?!?!?!!

We have worked with this teacher closely for the last two years and I do not have words to express how wonderful she has been.  I am sure that when any of us look back, twenty years from now, we will remember her very well and still be grateful for her.

This small set (1, 2, 3, 4) of cards were wrapped up in a beautiful bright green wide sheer ribbon and tied off in a bow.  These were going to his classroom teacher who is full of smiles, enthusiasm, and a passion for teaching!  Our boy says that she was funny, great at teaching math, super nice, and that he enjoyed listening to her read stories to the class.  We so enjoyed her being our son's teacher this year and she will be missed!

One aide in particular, had a special connection with our son.  He enjoyed her so much, thought she was funny, and absolutely idolized her thirteen year old son....so much so, that her son was kind enough to come spend time after and before school a couple times a week with my boy this spring to talk about Star Wars, guitars, and Lego's.  How cool is that?! 

Princess and this aide shared something in common......they both enjoy their accessories!  In the last weeks of school, Princess often noticed my boy's very stylish aide wearing statement rings.  So, when we were thinking about end of the year gifts, Princess was the one to come up with the idea of giving this aide a statement ring.......and so we did!  I don't think the picture does it justice.  Its really fun and funky!

They have worked together for the last two years and in that time they talked, laughed, learned and taught, ran together (she runs half marathons....good thing 'cause my kidlet is fast and doesn't stop moving!! :>), played, and shared stories every day at school.  We will miss her next year!

Sending a BIG shout out to ALL the teachers out there (including the ones in my family!).......THANK YOU!

Thanks for visiting, I love it when you do! Hope you are having a fantastic weekend!!

Happy Birthday {card} Baby Girl!

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What?! What's that??!! She made a card??!! Really??!!

REALLY!

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Our baby girl is another year older.....sigh.  I do not recall giving her permission for her next birthday to come so fast!  Really, I don't!  Though, watching her grow, learn, and thrive is such a treasure.  And I am truly blessed every day I see the world through her eyes and am amazed at her sweet perspective......thank you, Baby Girl!

A few months back, I tied off some pink ribbon with pink embroidery thread sewn through turquoise buttons and made another handful of the same bows, with the colors reversed.  I think I intended them for a challenge or two.........that I never got around to completing.  But, they have been staring at me....a lot!  And I remembered my sweet girl asking me to use them......a lot!  So, of course, they had to come out an play on a sweet & simple card for her birthday. :>

The card is uber simple.  Twill buttoned bows are adhered with a little Fabri-Tac, the bottom bubbled up with a border punch, and a sweet little bit of polka paper is adhered to the bottom of the inside of the card. 

Our Baby Girl (she might not be a baby anymore, but she'll always be my baby!) has picked out oodles of The Little Mermaid's Ariel to celebrate with this weekend and I'm looking forward to baking her cake (gluten, casein, & soy free, of course), singing to her, and watching her smile from ear to ear!

Supplies:
Paper:  Hawaiian Shores - Papertrey Ink;  Nana's Nursery - Die Cuts With A View
Ribbon:  Hibiscus Burst Twill - Papertrey Ink

Buttons:  Stash
Embroidery Thread:  Making Memories
Punch:  Martha Stewart

Guess who {hearts} blogging friends?!

I do!!! I {heart} all of the fantastic people I have met through blogging! You put a smile on my face, thank you!

Today, I opened my mailbox to Happy Mail and when I saw the return address from Deb Famularo of sPaRkLiNg sCrApBoOkS, I looked for the fastest way into the envelope!

Deb was the winner of my Blog Anniversary giveaway and had a $25 gift certificate to Papertrey Ink to play with...............which she kindly, and CREATIVELY put to use! Deb is an incredibly talented scrapbooker & altered artist and if you haven't visited her before, I highly recommend a visit to see her talents in action! You may want to spend some extra time scrolling down and checking out some older posts, especially all of her Alice in Wonderland creations.....she must have a fabulous muse whispering in her ear. :>

Now, Deb, in her words, "bleeds red & gold" aka she's a die hard San Francisco 49ers fan. Me? I love me some Hawks, Seattle Seahawks, that is!! And we're division rivals...... Oh yea, did I mention Hubby is also cheering on the 49ers everytime they play??!! And I get ribbing from another one of their fans, thanks to my best friend with season tickets.

SO!! For Deb to bandage herself up so as to ensure none of that red & gold leaks out for a moment and craft me a Seahawks card with her fantastic creative flair............well, there has been some serious smiling going on here today!!!

This fabby card is sitting on my mantle reflecting some serious sparkle from the helmet, sparkle on the wings, those precious sequins on the lace, and the blue glitter. Even my son was mighty impressed and ran up for a closer look....did I mention the kidlets love football season?? That my wee daughter has been asking me when is football going to be on?? Every week since the Superbowl??!! :>

Thank you Deb!! Looking forward to sharing next season with you! Definitely grab yourself some creative inspiration and hop on over to visit Deb, say 'Hello' & maybe even throw in a "Go Seahawks!" from me! :>

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Random tidbit for the day: I get a random little chuckle everytime I spellcheck an email and 'blogspot' comes up as a misspelling. Google owns gmail AND Blogger, so isn't it only logical that they write 'blogspot' into their spell checker?! Just thought I'd share some of the random places my mind goes........:>

Butterfly {Dreams}

I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly........oh no....wait...that's Sound of Music...not quite where I was headed here. But, with spring in the air, I have butterflies on the brain. And since there is oh so often a song singing its notes in my head, its not a huge leap....right?

Okay, okay, so I imagine you came here for something other than the inner workings of my brain, yes?! So, I'll spare you the adventure that would require a five point harnass and show you.....a card!

I've had this fantastic butterfly lady stamp in my collection for over fifteen years now and I love her! She's a butterfly who just seems to be made of {dreams}. I stamped & embossed her with fabby pink foil embossing powder, also from my old stash.


Then! I decided to try one of my friend Elise's (Mamacow Creations) coloring techniques.....using Stampin' Up!'s watercolor wonder crayons with an Aqua Painter (taking the aqua painter brush tip to the tip of the crayon and then laying it on the paper) to add some pinks & purples to my fabby butterfly lady. (Okay, I definitely need some practice here, but I had fun trying this for the first time.) After cutting her out, I wanted to pop her up, but not so extreme like with foam, so I cut out three itty bitty strips of white cardstock, adhered them together, and then to the back of her body. See, she has lift! (Those Sound of Music lyrics are floating through my brain again!! :>)

Add some printed vellum with a fun K& Company rubon sentiment, bracketed with some Cosmo Cricket chipboard pieces (that were painted pink and decked out in Tim Holtz's Distress Stickles) and The Butterfly Lady has a safe place to land. (If you are noticing a difference in the colors, the first two shots were in the sun and the last one was shot in the shade.....and then my camera battery said it was tired and wanted a charge.)

The weather here has been like easy summer days this week.......we've been running in the 80's. And with tomorrow being the first official day of spring, it will be nice to have the sun out this weekend.

Does it look like spring where you live? Do you have any spring like activities planned this weekend? We're hoping to get some work done in the backyard, plant the parsley, sage, and chives that came home with my daughter and I this week, and clear out some room for the tomatoes that my kidlets are dying to plant! Happy Friday! :>

Supplies:
Cardstock: Hibiscus Burst - Papertrey Ink
Paper: Vellum - Dollar Tree (I've had it in my stash for over five years now...lol!)
Stamp: Butterfly Lady - Hippo Heart

Ink: Versamark
Watercolor Wonder Crayons: Stampin' Up!
Rub On: K & Company
Chipboard: brackets - Cosmo Cricket
Other: embossing powder - from stash....and it has mysteriously disappeared, if it just as magically reappears, I'll update the info.; Paint - Delta & Making Memories; Worn Lipstick - Distress Stickles by Tim Holtz for Ranger; Bling - Stash (off brand from Walmart)

Lisa's Poppy Seed Challenge & Fabric Fun for EBTKS

Wow! As busy as this week is, I'm so happy to have crafted a bit of time for some paper, ink, stamps, bling, and fabric!

I had fabric in mind to play along with the Everything but the Kitchen Sink challenge. Actually, I thought I was going to use some of the fabric that I bought recently, but instead found myself digging through my old stash and even using a wee piece of the pink gingham that was in my daughter's nursery!







And I was so excited to see Lisa Johnson diving in and starting her own challenge, that I knew I wanted to include her three Poppy Seeds in my card!







I made my fabric circles essentially the same way I created them HERE (for a scalloped paper flower) and HERE (with an Easter egg dye paper towel)......only with fabric. Once they were layered, I pinched the fabric in the middle, threw in a couple of stitches, and then sewed a button on top with embroidery floss. I really love how it came out and will have to make one again!

This little sweet sentiment is from my stash from about fifteen years ago and its one of my favorites. Isn't that exactly what a card is meant to do, no matter what the occasion is??!

A couple of last details to share......I stamped that little flower stamp all over the lemon tart card base in Versamark for a subtle pattern (you can click on the photo to enlarge it) and then stamped it again, in teal, on either side of the sentiment. A couple pink crystals and my happy little card is complete.

I'm off to enjoy some of today's happy moments......my daughter is going to her second dance class with her Grammie and I'll be heading back to my son's school to watch him perform Tiki Tiki Tembo, which they have been working on this trimester in Drama class. He tells me he's the Old Man in it and has to walk very slowly. :> Should be fun!

What's making you smile today?



(I'll be back with a supply list this evening!)

I'm back and here's my supply list:

Supplies:
Cardstock: Lemon Tart - Papertrey Ink
Stamps: Flower - Stampin' Up!; Sentiment - Love You To Bits
Ink: Versamark; Taken with Teal - Stampin' Up!
Fabric: Stash
Button: Stash (I think its Autumn Leaves)
Thread: Coats & Clark
Embroidery Floss: Bazzill
Bling: Lisa Bearnson

Detailed Fun with Just Us Girls & EBTKS

Come & Color, I did....but not with markers, pens, or pencils. But, I did have so much FUN with these colors for the Just Us Girls 21st challenge! I mean there were little giggles, lots of smiles, and oodles of delight as I played!

And all that delight is most definitely in the details! But, before I tell you about those details, let me share where the rest of the card came from.........the current sketch challenge from Everything But The Kitchen Sink! I have wanted to play along with the EBTKS crew from the beginning...thank goodness I finally did! :>

Okay, okay, back to some of those details! I cut some lovely K & Company printed paper into four squares, used some temporary adhesive to adhere them all butted up against each other (as in one big square) and then using coral and raspberry ink, I inked up some fun stripes. If I haven't said it before, I'll say it now (or again) that I feel just like a kid when I get all inky....instant happy pill!


Next, I spread out those four squares, adhered them to a piece of raspberry cardstock, pierced around the edges, using the Tim Holtz Clear Design Ruler (I LOVE this tool!), and hand stitched with vanilla embroidery thread. Matting the whole thing onto a chocolate card base, I turned to the rest of those fun details.

That fab scalloped square chipboard frame took a quick bath in some ivory paint and then went for a good soak in some of Tim Holtz's Distress Rock Candy crackle paint. I stamped that wonderful sentiment (that oh so fits my love of the little things in life!) in brown StazOn onto vanilla cardstock, cut it out with a circle Coluzzle (still do not understand why it was discontinued!) and it too went for a soak in Rock Candy. And when they started cracking like mad, can you see why giggles were escaping me?! When they were all dry (the cardstock curled, but I simply bent it back and smoothed it out), I rubbed some coral ink onto it and rubbed off the excess.....its a very subtle effect, but it does add to it. I also did the same dry rubbed ink on the sweet vanilla wood button.

The last bit of details rest in the fibers. I layered the stitched raspberry ribbon on top of chocolate ribbon...I just like the subtle extra bit of chocolate in the middle of the card. Now the stitching on that raspberry ribbon is white and that just didn't work. So, I took a Q-Tip, dabbed it in some Distress ink and ran it over the stitches. Again, very subtle, but it took the edge off of the white stitching and made it applicable to the color challenge, which calls for vanilla, not white! I tied the whole bow together with some brown embroidery floss and that sweet vanilla wood button!

Big Thank Yous to both the JUGS & EBTKS teams for creating their fabulous & fun challenge sites! So glad I crafted some time to play!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic week! I'm off to celebrate some of the cherrished details in my own life.....in fact, one is smiling at me right now, while nibbling on her carrot! :>

And don't forget my Blog Birthday Giveaway is still going on!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Dark Chocolate & Vintage Cream - Papertrey Ink; Purely Pomegranate - Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper: K & Company

Ink: Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip, Purely Pomegranate - Stampin' Up!; Vintage Cream - Papertrey Ink; Timber Brown - StazOn by Tsukineko; Old Paper Distress Ink - Tim Holtz for Ranger
Stamps: Life Bundle - Kolette Hall
Chipboard: Scalloped square frame - Stampin' Up!; circles/Chips (2 circles under the sentiment) - Bazzill
Paint: Ivory - Delta; Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint - Tim Holtz for Ranger
Ribbon & Fibers: Purely Pomegranate Saddle Stitched, Chocolate Chip grosgrain - Stampin' Up!; Chocolate embroidery thread - Making Memories; Vanilla embroidery floss - DMC
Button: sweet flower wooden button - La*di*dah for Ki Memories

INSPIRED: artist Charles Clary

Edited to add: The artist that I took inspiration from, Charles Clary, left a comment here with his BLOG....please do check it I out, I know I will! :>

Have you seen the February issue of WIRED magazine? The bit I am specifically asking those of you who love papercrafting, art, beauty, and the truly inspired is the article on paper artist, Charles Clary. There are a series of pictures of his work there. He hand cuts his paper and layers them perfectly for free form, amoeba-like shapes. My jaw just dropped when Hubby pointed the article out to me. After looking for more of his inspirational work online, I found his resume at The Rymer Gallery and a collection of photos of even more of his amazing art!

Charles Clary definitely inspired me! I used Kazan's Sketch 46 from 2 Sketches 4 You, flipped it vertically and started playing. And oh how much fun I had playing!

I started by stamping the nested outline heart stamp from Papertrey Ink's Heart Prints.....it looked like the layered papers from Charles Clary's pieces to me.....only in a single stamp! I liked how airy his pieces feel, so I stamped on transparency with Staz On and colored the images in with Bic Mark Its. I played with those, Sharpies, and the handful of Prismacolor markers I have and they all will work well.

I used some Glossy Accents under the center hearts to adhere the transparency to the card base. Using the coordinating heart punch, I punched out three, adhered them together, and glued the hand cut out heart on top, and then freehand cut (that was a challenge for me!) two more layers for a bigger heart. I punched out several more hearts, adhered them together and used them to lift up the nested heart center piece (foam tape or pop dots would work the same, but since the transparency is reflective, I didn't want it white....yes, you could just color it, but I had the heart punch handy). Wanting the largest heart to stand out a bit more, before I glued the whole smackaroo onto the card, I ran a black marker around the edge. Not sure that I like that, but it does help to define it more.

Pink Elephant's challenge this week is to use ribbon.......that should make room for lots of us to play!

Are you inspired by Charles Clary's art?? I would love to know what you think. And if you are so inspired to create something yourself, leave me a link so that I can come see!! :>

Don't forget about my Blog Anniversary Giveaway and to comment! You can read about it HERE and find out how you can get in on it!


Supplies:
Cardstock: Marigold Morning - Stampin' Up!
Ink: Black - Staz On
Stamps: Heart Prints - Papertrey Ink
Punch: Heart by EK Success (purchased at PTI), Corner Rounder - Marvy UCHIDA
Markers: Bic Mark It
Ribbon: Stash (bought it awhile back....think I got it in Michael's dollar bin)
Transparency: Office Depot

Who can {Resist} some Valentine love?!

Nichole Heady has issued another challenge this Day 5 of Papertrey Ink's anniversary festivities and I got on it. We've been asked to create using the emboss resist technique (Nichole has a video on her challenge post with a demo of this technique).

When I first started stamping over fifteen years ago, I used to emboss anything I could get my hands on. I worked in a rubber stamping store and always came home covered in ink, glitter, and embossing powder (I never said my creative process was neat!). And like many things that are played with over and over, embossing was put on the back burner for awhile and only fairly recently have I started playing with it again. This is one time I'm glad I can be a pack rat as I saved all my old embossing powders and have only bought one set of colored embossing powder in over a decade (I had a ton of stuff from when I started stamping.....just had to love a 50% employee discount, right?!).

For the background, I dug deep into that stash of stamps from the nineties and pulled out an old All Night Media sweetheart set......conversation heart stamps...too cute! It always feels so good to pull from supplies I've had stashed away. There are nine stamps in this set and I chose four to randomly stamp. This set has come in handy over the years as my son has used them a couple of times, back in his preschool days, for handmade Valentine's. I especially remember him using the heart that says, "COOL" quite often!

So, this is another flat card, but its not for the easy mailing, reasonable postage pile. I left the ribbon and bling off of it and stuck to the brown and red color scheme to keep it more masculine......because its for my Hubby! I've tucked it away and this time around, I am going to remember to not dump my camera's pics onto the family computer!! lol

Are your Valentine's made? I haven't decided if we're going handmade or the pre-printed uber cool character ones this year for my son's classmates yet. I suspect, like last year, that it will be the latter! Hope your week has been a good one and that you have a fun and peaceful weekend ahead of you!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Kraft & Pure Poppy - Papertrey Ink
Stamps: Sweetheart conversation hearts - All Night Media; love - Vap! Scraps (it was a dollar stamp from JoAnns, I think)
Ink: Creamy Caramel & Real Red - Stampin' Up!; Versamark
Other: clear embossing powder - stash

Happy Birthday PTI {Card Two}

Holey Camole Macarole! Leave it to PTI's Nichole to help me along with a FIRST! Two posts in one night....that is a first for me! :> So, there's one more card below for this same challenge. And again, I had the same plan of attack........attack??!!.....more like fun loving, child-like playtime!

Like the previous post, I colored this fun and whimsical image from Becky Oehlers with simple Sharpies and my lovely and favorite Spica glitter pens. Like I said, it felt like that free loving and fun of a child's arts & crafts time and for that, after coloring, I found myself smiling.

And again, another flat card to add to the easy mailing, uber reasonable postage stash! :>

Supplies:
Cardstock: Pure Poppy - Papertrey Ink; White - Georgia Pacific
Image: Becky Oehlers for Papertrey Ink
Pens: Sharpies; Spica glitter pens - Copic

Happy Birthday {Papertrey Ink}!

Papertrey Ink is celebrating their third birthday and we get the presents!! How cool is that?! Nichole Heady introduced the designers for PTI for 2010 and each of them designed an image for us to download.....Free! And it gets even better......you can link up a card (or seven!) with the birthday images the designers have given us and be entered for a drawing for a hot giveaway of seven PTI stamp sets! Its like a papercrafters stamping heaven with inspiration and oodles of goodies every day...definitely worth checking out (IF you are not already addicted, like so many of us are and ran there when the festivities started yesterday!).

I used the image from Beth Silaika of Freckled and Fun for a quick CAS birthday card. A little color from my trusty Sharpies, lots of sparkle from my favorite Spica glitter pens (the entire WISH is glitterfied....you may have to click on the photo to see the sparkle), and whole lotta Raspberry Fizz love make up this card. My favorite part about this card is that it is flat! Its nice to have some cards that easily go in the mail without tag board to pad it, packing tape to keep any bling from punching through, OR any increase in postage! I love my ribbon, bows, and multi dimensional bling, but I also really love having options. :>

Supplies:
Image: Beth Silaika for Papertrey Ink
Cardstock: Raspberry Fizz & Plum Pudding - Papertrey Ink; White - Georgia Pacific
DP: Bitty Dot Basics - Papertrey Ink
Pens: Sharpies; Spica glitter pens - Copic

Oh Christmas Tree

December sure is zipping on by, isn't it? So fast, that I think it has done a December disappearing act! My jaw hit the floor (THUD) this morning when I realized that it is the 20th already!!! I've been sick for a week, along with Hubby and our Princess. Our Monkeyman is the only one to have escaped this ....... tap, tap, tap ..... knock, knock, knock .... ... Pound, Pound, Pound ...... that would be me, being a wee bit superstitious and um, knocking on wood! I'm hoping we're all healthy for Christmas at the end of this week. The end of this week ????!!!!! AAAAAHHHHHH !!!!!!!!! (Yes, that would be me running .... screaming .... waving my hands in the air!!) AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe a little card talk will calm me down!! As soon as I saw Making Handmade Cards button eKits, I knew I wanted to use them to make a Christmas tree card with them! Tie in a little embroidery thread and a PTI bow and I was a happy gal!

Now, I'm usually a traditionalist when it comes to Christmas colors and I have a hard time deviating from the traditional red & green. I can add in some blues and metallics, But pink?! Well, my oh my, I took that leap across the canyon from the traditionally colored Christmas forest to the one colored a la Candyland...... and I liked it! A little fun with a Funky Christmas and button eKits, some ribbon corners, and more embroidery floss and a pink Chrismtas card sat in front of me .... it even makes me smile.:>

If you are curious about eKits, Sign up for the Making Handmade Cards free newsletter and get a free eKit to play with!

Back to life, back to reality (OH! that is sooo going to be stuck in my head all day now !).........

My inlaws arrive on Wednesday and my 'To-Do' lists are just a wee bit long. Those lists encompass all of this week's to-dos as well as most of last week's as well. Last week was my Monkeyman's last week of school this year and I was delighted to hear him sing "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Deck the Halls" in his Winter Concert. I got inky with some of Tim's tags and some SU Christmas tags for his teachers. But, mostly, in between taking care of my family, I curled up with a book, a blanket, hot tea, and read with the lights of our beautiful Christmas tree aglow, reminding me of my favorite time of year.

I hope you are enjoying this season! What holiday memories are you creating this year? If you don't celebrate at this time, what December delights are making you smile?

No Nesties? No problem!

Are you full into the swing of the Christmas season? We're getting there! And the weather seems to be cooperating with the idea of winter approaching. When I was a kidlet, I had the great fortune to enjoy a beautiful white Christmas as I lived in three different states with snow (on both coasts). Seeing a sunny California day when I am dreaming of a winter wonderland, sleigh bells ringing, and chestnuts roasting on an open fire......whoops.....apparently, as usual, songs are singing away in my head. But, I digress (I'm good at that!), we have been awaking to cold mornings and lots of fog, sealing us in for cozy days.

I'll bet you're wondering why I don't need Nesties, huh?! Okay, okay, I'll move along now!! :> I know my head is swirling with Christmas time fun, but I hope you'll indulge me with a little flower fun....yes??

Truth be told, I would LOVE some Nesties, but since I have none, I had to pull out some creativity and figure out another way to create my paper flower! I wanted a large scalloped handmade flower for my card, so using Microsoft Word, I drew a series of nested circles (which I then dragged apart, so that I would be able to cut them out individually). You could also cut out circles with a circle cutter, Coluzzle, Cricut, or any die cutter you have (probably those desired Nesties!). Using a touch of temporary adhesive, I adhered those circles to the back of my paper (in this case, printable paper from the Flower Train eKit from Making Handmade Cards) and pulled out an oldie, but a goodie..................scalloped decorative scissors!!

I never use decorative scissors anymore, but my kidlets do enjoy them very much, so they are still in the house and I am mighty excited to have found a great use for them! If you cut with the same point of the scissors (say either the point of the indent of the scallop or the top round of the scallop) hitting the same point in the paper (the edge of your temporarily adhered circle), your scalloped circles will come out even. See? A Nestie like nested flower with No Nesties! :>

My scallops were small and getting lost in the patterned paper, so to make them more pronounced, I added some much loved Stickles (oh, Stickles, how I love you so!) and set them out to dry. While waiting for my Stickled scallop circles to dry, I needed to distract myself......er, um, finish the rest of my card (yes, something shiny and sparkly and WET is very hard for me not to touch!). I printed another sheet from the Flower Train e-Kit for the background paper and adhered three ribbons in three different widths. Do you remember that cream ribbon that I custom colored with my Bic Mark-It that I posted about? Well, that top narrow blue ribbon is that very ribbon that started out cream!

Wanting to keep my scalloped flower three dimensional, I only placed adhesive in the center of the scalloped circles, including to the ribbon, so that all of the edges would pop up a bit. I used a bit more of my custom colored ribbon to tie off a hot pink button, placed the whole piece onto a hot pink card base and voila, a card for any occasion!

Who likes freebies?? Making-Handmade-Cards has a free Flower Doodle eKit if you sign up for their free newsletter! :>

I hope all of you had a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving if you celebrated it! We had a cozy one with just Hubby and our kidlets. Two of my three closest friends (we miss you, Jilly!!) came up, one on Friday and the other on Thursday and it was absolutely wonderful to just hang out with them and spend time together. The rockin' Auntie who found the gluten & casein free chocolate advent calendar for my kidlets (to accomodate our son's diet restrictions) gave it to them and was able to see their reactions in person and my other girlfriend, who also rocks it out as an absolutely fabulous Auntie, french braided our Princess' hair....oh so sweet! Oh yea, did I mention that I did some serious tromping when we all played MarioKart on the wii??!! Oh yes, I did!! :>:>

Hope your week has been fab and that your weekend is to be even better! :>

Supplies:
Cardstock: Melon Mambo - Stampin' Up!; white (for printing the eKit papers on) - Georgia Pacific

Pattern Paper: Flower Train eKit - Making-Handmade-Cards
Ribbon: cream - Offray, Hibiscus Burst twill & Raspberry Fizz grosgrain - Papertrey Ink
Other: Mark-It - Bic; button - stash; Fruit Punch - Stickles; scalloped scissors

Sparkle and Shine!!

Uh-oh........it has begun. What? What's begun? The Christmas music! The Christmas music that pops in my head throughout the whole year has started to escape from me. I found myself singing "Winter Wonderland" this morning. While I was lucky enough to experience the wonders of a white Christmas as a kidlet, snow doesn't visit these parts very often.....at all (as in decades between light dustings!). So, I enjoy the white wonders of Christmas through happy, snow filled, winter Christmas music!

So, how about a little sparkle reminiscent of Christmas? Okay, okay, so its a birthday card, but the red glitter sure does sparkle and make me want to get Christmas crafty!

In April, I made a card with the intention of giving it to Hubby for our anniversary (but, that is a whole other story.....). I really loved the simple elegance of that card and so I gave it another go and just changed up a couple of things. I kept it to two colors, like the first card, but changed the black to red. And instead of using bling/gems, I went with an all over sparkle, using a technique called burnished velvet (using glitter) that I used here for the first time and learned about from Dana at Paper Daydream, who saw a fantastic tutorial for this from Spike at Cuttlebug Challenge Blogspot.

Yup, yup, it definitely has an all over sparkle! Not the greatest shot, but I really wanted to show you just how much the burnished glitter really does sparkle and shine!!

Do you have any Christmas songs singing in your head? Or are you just trying to get ready for Thanksgiving, if you are in the States? Would you believe that I have yet to start thinking about what we need for Thanksgiving dinner? Well, except for figuring out how to make a GF/CF pumpkin pie, which I am putting recipes together for, but have yet had the chance to try out....yikes!

Hope you're heading into a fantastic and relaxing weekend! I have some trips out to Mom's, lots of cleaning as we have friends coming the day after Thanksgiving, and apparently, working on that GF/CF pumpkin pie recipe! :>

Supplies:
Cardstock: Stampers Select White, Pure Poppy - Papertrey Ink
Stamps: Damask Designs
Ink: Real Red - Stampin' Up!
Glitter: Garnet (fine) - Martha Stewart
Other: Quickie Glue Pen - Sakura

Have a Hauntingly Happy Halloween!!

With mere minutes before Halloween begins (although, if you check your friends emails, Facebook status updates, or are there yourself, you'd think tonight was Halloween for the sheer number of Halloween parties occuring!), I thought I would share a Halloween card of my own.

Now, since I have a mighty innocent Halloween on my agenda, here's my confession for the holiday.....this card is not from this season. I made it way, way, way back in 2007. But, I did get inspired by the rockin' blogger and creator, Taylor Vanbruggen at Taylored Expressions!! Thanks, Taylor!!

After digging around her blog a bit, I found the original post (scroll down to the second post) that I was inspired by. You know something strikes a cord in you when you remember it over two years later! :> And I knew I had the perfect stamps to CASE her creation with. I used my ooo-llll-dddd All Night Media stamps from back in my early stamping days of the mid-'90's and my Vintage Label stamp from Purple Onion Designs that I love as much today as I did when I bought it then!!

So, you are probably wondering, why two pics of the same thing, same angle, etc.??? Right??? Back in 2007, you know, waaaaayyyy back when, I wasn't worried about taking pics for blogging or anything other than remembering what I made. And since my son and I were arguing, debating, conversing, contemplating, and disagreeing on which pic to use, I put both up. He thought it was a "Before" & "After" shot, simply because the windows 'lighting' (colored in with Prismacolor colored pencils) was so much...more in the second pic. As he put it, "See!! The lights are on in this one and they aren't in that one. Its a "Before and After" shot!!" I haven't made him watch too much HGTV, I swear!!!

Hope tomorrow is Spooktacular for anyone celebrating Halloween and if you are not, well, then I hope your day is simply fabulous!!!!! If you are getting your spooky groove on, what ghosts and goblins, or fairy princesses are gracing your door?

Home is where the heart is....

Hello there! Long time no see, huh?! I have been running around like that proverbial chicken.....still! There was lots of company last month, a kidlet birthday that actually stretched three weeks into this month, a four day scrapbook retreat which takes a couple of days to pack for, two or three times that to unpack (I write this as we are still tripping over my dozen plus bags in our entry way), and a couple of weeks to recover from the uber late nights! We also had the usuals, school, homework, art projects, games, playdates, and the typical daily stuff. And one of my best friends unexpectedly lost her father.

I've been in shock since receiving the news and can only imagine her and her mother's grief. They were an extremely tight family and loved each other so much. We said good-bye to this wonderful man on Friday night. My friend asked us to hug our loved ones and enjoy them for whatever time we do have with them. She also asked and hoped that whatever we learned from her father, we take out into the rest of our worlds. He was an optimist, a problem solver, warm, loving, and opened his home and heart so willingly. And his whole family makes me smile!

Hmmmmm..........I suppose I've surprised myself as this is not where I was going to go with this post. But, because I think so much of this man and his wife and daughter, my friend, I am going to leave this in here.

And just so you do not think I have completely abandoned creative pursuits, including card making, I'll share a card with you as well. There are four of us best friends and I made this card for another gal in this group, my best friend that I met over twenty years ago.

My apologies for the shadows. I did not realize they were so strong when I took the pic and I have already given her the card and cannot retake the pic. I stamped images from PTI's Boards & Beams. The small topiary trees, I colored with Prismacolor colored pencils and then cut out with a craft knife. I stamped the house twice and cut the windows out on one of the images with a craft knife as well. I then layered the cut house on top of the uncut house with foam tape for depth. I wanted you to be able to look inside the windows. And as I have discovered many times now, I seem to like the graphic look of stamped images uncolored.

Here you can see those layers a bit better. I layered all of the pieces on a Kraft base, stamped the first half of the sentiment on the bottom, and added a Sweet Blush satin bow. On the inside, I stamped and punched out a heart from PTI's Heart Prints and stamped the othe half of the sentiment from Boards & Beams.

I chose to share this card today because the sentiment rings so true. My friend's parents built their last two homes and chose every detail, but it was the people inside that made them homes that they relished being in.

My own home definitely needs updates, new carpet, a redone kitchen, and some pruning in our yards. But, it is my family that lives inside these walls with me that warms my heart, makes me smile, share hugs with, laughter, and even tears that make my life what it is. And today, I am choosing to smile as football is on the tube, my daughter playing in imagination land under the dining table, my son yelling out at the top of his lungs for every touchdown, Hubby enjoying his first real down time day in over two weeks, and me, in the middle of all of them and finally checking back in with all of you! :> What are you smiling about today?

Supplies:
Cardstock: Stampers Select White, Kraft - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Onyx, Sepia - Versafine
Stamps: Heart Prints, Boards & Beams - Papertrey Ink
Ribbon: Sweet Blush Satin - Papertrey Ink
Punch: Small heart - EK Success (from PTI)
Other: Craft knife & Prismacolor Colored Pencils