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

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

Thank You Teachers!!

School finished up the '08-'09 year on Friday. We were crazy fortunate that our son had the most Fabulous teacher this last year. Not only is she an outstanding teacher, but she was also the perfect fit for our boy! He grew and thrived in her classroom and we will certainly miss seeing her daily next school year!


Confession time! Like many of us, I am addicted to dollar departments. Every time I enter Target or Michael's, the gravitational pull toward the Dollar Spot or that lovely dollar aisle seems to be unbreakable. My daughter will ask, "Mama, where you driving?" (aka where am I pushing her in the shopping cart to?!).......um...to-the-land-of-cute-craftable-good-deals...can't stop now!!! And even worse, those fabulous one dollar craftables go into the ever growing collection at home and just wait and wait and wait and wait.....and wait to be used!!

But, this time, when I bought this adorable mini watering can, I knew exactly what I would be using it for.......a perfect little pencil holder for our perfect teacher! I wrapped a piece of Pure Poppy stitched grosgrain ribbon around the neck, adhering the whole piece with my ATG. I then made a bow, threaded two buttons with SU's hemp twine, and tied the whole thing together, knotting it in front of the top button. I adhered the bow embellishment to the Pure Poppy ribbon at the neck of the watering can with Fabri-Tac. This is a fabulous adhesive, especially for bulky tied ribbons and is a perfect item to coupon at Michael's!

When it came time to adhere the mini chalkboard, I used a new glue...well, new to me, that is...Zip Dry Paper Glue. Laying down a line of the glue onto the watering can, using the button as a centering line, I placed the chalkboard on top of the glue. It wiggled quite a bit, so I just held it tight for about five minutes and then it held and didn't budge! The most difficult part of this little project was writing with chalk on the mini chalkboard. Thankfully, I was able to erase and start over....many, many times! I finally realized that my handwriting did not need to be perfect, but rather, it was most important that it was legible and that I got all of the letters into that space!

When I made Mom's Mother's Day gift, I did not realize that I would become hooked on Lauren Meader's Timeless Templates. Yes, I should have known better!! Again diving into my tubs of delightful craftables, I came up with two little pails that I got at Target Dollar spot, two for $1. I checked out all of Lauren's templates and their measurements and discovered that the one that would fit more than one of the pails is one of the templates that I already have...yay! After trying to print "From the Desk of" and arguing with my printer that was not taking the cardstock (it took it the last time, so I think it has multiple personalities!), I printed the templates out on regular printer paper and just layered it on top of the cardstock to cut and score. And do you know what?! I like making the template better that way!! I didn't think I would, but I do and have the added bonus that the score lines are not printed on my project, distracting the eye!


What was even more delightful than these cute little craftables was that this became a major use my stash project! The patterned paper came out of an old Die Cuts With A View Fall stack and was inked with some Distress Ink. I made a ribbon flower by twisting and folding one piece of ribbon at each petal (kind of like how a cause ribbon is folded - pink for Breast Cancer, red for Aids or Heart Disease, etc.) and adhering each layer of ribbon with Fabri-Tac. The layered buttons were tied off with more hemp twine and then instead of tying them on to the flower, which would have changed its shape, I used more Fabri-Tac to adhere the buttons to the top of the flower.

I filled the mini pails with colorful paper clips & binder clips that were in my office supplies. And into the mini watering can went our perfect teacher's favorite brand of pencils, Ticonderoga. It took forty-eight pencils, I think. I wanted a little extra something that she could use at home as I suspected she would keep the other items in the classroom, so I included seed packets for zucchini, french leeks, and carrots for her garden. I thought they still tied in with the gift because of the cute watering can!


Lastly, I would really like to thank all the wonderful teachers that teach our children, guide them through their learning adventures, and help them thrive! I would like to thank all the parents who get involved in their kidlets' education. And I also want to thank everyone who supports the schools in their communities, whether or not you have kidlets attending. Without such strong community support in our town, my son and his classmates would not have experienced music class, art class, square dancing, spirit days, movie nights, star gazing night, and all the other wonderfully enriching activities that are paid for and put on by the PTO. Our community support is also what provides lots of our technical equipment, field trips, and other educational materials that would not be possible for our little school to have. So, thank you again to all who support their community schools and help provide the education and enrichment that is necessary for all of our kidlets to thrive and hopefully return that generosity for the next generation!!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Pure Poppy - PTI
Ink: Weathered Wood - Distress Ink by Ranger
Patterned Paper: Fall Stack - DCWV
Ribbon: Pure Poppy Stitched 5/8" Grosgrain - PTI; Natural Hemp Twine - SU!
Buttons: Stash....if I had to guess, I would guess either SEI and/or Autumn Leaves
Other: Mini Chalkboard - Darice

A Cup of Dye....Delightful Temptation!

Saturday before Easter Sunday, we dyed our 42 eggs, started cleaning up, told the kidlets for the umpteenth time to look with their eyes, not with their hands while the eggs dry, and hubby was about to take the mugs of dye back into the kitchen to dump them out before they too were dyed.

Wait!! No!! I see it!!! I quickly grab a paper towel, folded it into a small square and dipped the corners into four different dyes, unfolded it and let it dry! Isn't gorgeous?! All those bright colors! I just loved it! (The striped shadows on it are from the lattice strips above the table...whoops! didn't think about that when I took the pic! :>) I had no idea what I was going to do with it, but I knew I would use it.

Gotta give hubby some credit.....his first question when he looked at it was, "Isn't that going to be bad to scrapbook since it has vinegar in it?" Holey Camole Macarole!!! He listens about this paper crafting obsession of mine!!! I told him that I planned to use it on a card, but wow!, I was definitely impressed!

A handmade flower was calling out to me and then I knew how I wanted to use some of my colorful paper towel! Again, as I mentioned in the egg card post, I cannot free hand cut out shapes. So, I drew some nested circles in MS Word, printed it out, cut them out and used them as templates to trace on different parts of the towel. I then cut out those circles, aligned them, used Taylor's Sticky Tape to adhere the layers together (I had to adhere each individual layer of the two layer paper towel as it started to separate with all the handling it was getting), and made my stem.

The stem and leaves are one piece of grosgrain ribbon simply folded back on itself and again, adhered with that fabulous Sticky Tape! Its like red line tape, but my absolutely favorite part of it is that when you peel off the backing to it (what would be the red film on red line tape), you can just put the backing down on the table!! I know this may sound silly, but that red film on the red line tape has Such static cling!! I can never get it off my fingers!! Sometimes I seriously think its gonna drive me straight to the looney bin!!! :> So, this Sticky Tape is my new best friend. I've had it for quite a long time now and never used it....but no more!

I love how bright, cheerful, and dimensional the flower is and yet, it will still lay flat in an envelope and can easily be mailed. I intend to do this again, but since the Easter supplies are put away, dye re-inkers will do the job!

Supplies:Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Raspberry Fizz, New Leaf - PTI
Ribbon: Stash
Other: Paper Towel & Easter egg dye