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

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

Stop the presses.......

........I stamped a card! Waaahooooooo! I know its been a bit and I'm so sorry for that. Life has just been a wee bit busy and the first thing a lack of energy seems to zap, is my creativity. Grrr... Now, even though, I still feel as if I am a cat chasing her tail some days, I decided to craft some time for myself to ink up a stamp that I've had sitting out for awhile now. I absolutely love the detailed images of Mostly Animals stamps and this sunflower is from my stash from back in my early stamping days......about fifteen years ago.

Did you know that you can emboss with your Distress Inks?? Remembering hearing (okay, so I didn't hear it...I read it!) on the 2Peas stamping board (a couple of years ago) that you can emboss with Distress Inks, I thought it was about time I finally try it out for myself! Even though they are dye inks, they do stay wet long enough to pour on embossing powder and heat. Sooooooo....add another dozen ink colors for me to emboss with....yay! (There are way more than a dozen colors....but that's about the number that I own.) Does this add to your collection of colors to emboss with? Or are you an uber cool stamping encyclopedia and already have this knowledge incorporated into all those fun files in your brain?

Even though I had much more elaborate plans for this beautiful stamp, once I stamped and embossed her, I found that I liked the detailed line image so much that I chose to leave it as is. Wanting a bit of color on the card, I punched a trio of butterflies to flit up the card from some Stampin' Up! DSP left overs I had on my table, inked the edges with the same Distress Ink, folded them up, glued them on, and added a touch of bling for some sparkle. Actually, while the pic doesn't show it, there already is a bit of sparkle embossed into the image. Do you remember that orange glitter I had covering my old stash of embossing powder, glitter, and flocks? Well, there was a touch of it left on the rubber of my sunflower stamp that I absolutely could not get off.......until I stamped it on my card and then it was embossed in for a permanent home. Now, I'm really glad its there as for some reason, it just works!


Here's one more trip down memory lane..............back in May, I shared with you some wonderful Strawberry Charm of and from my sweet boy. Well, here is strawberry number four....kind of. That plant has flowered and fruited many times now. But, the noisy blue jays that visit us in our backyard every afternoon this year have been eating them all summer long!! My sweet boy got so excited every time he saw a "pretty white flower" because he knew that a strawberry that he planted, watered, and nurtured would follow that he could eat. We kept encouraging him to keep taking care of it and more would come. Well, either the blue jays found something more interesting to eat or the tomato cage with the reflective strips tied on is working or my sweet boy's timing has improved because he has been able to reap the benefits of his care taking as he harvests and eats the last four ripened strawberries from his charming strawberry plant. Now he wants to grow tomatoes, eggplants, lettuce, zucchinis, and a whole host of other fruits and vegetables!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bashful Blue - Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper: Stampin' Up!
Stamp: Sunflower - Mostly Animals
Ink: Tea Dye - Distress Ink
Punch: Butterflies - Martha Stewart
Other: clear embossing powder - Stash; Hemp Twine - Stampin' Up!; Bling - Me & My Big Ideas

Another Teacher Thank You

We had another teacher to thank, Ms.Vicky, who was just simply wonderful to work with this year! She is kind, thoughtful, and really had our son's best interest at heart. I do not think I could say enough nice things about her. Just like with Ms. Connors, we really lucked out!

For Ms. Vicky, I decided to make her Lauren's Captured Card Case and fill it with.....cards! This was the first time I used this template and I was delighted to find that it is Beyond Easy!! I made this in the wee hours of the morning, one night before school was out and even with lacking sleep, it was still super easy. I filled it with this, this, this, and this card. Initially, I was going to make a cute matching set, but as a lot of you know how fast the last couple weeks of school can fly by, I ran out of time. I didn't want to short change this fabulous teacher though and still wanted to give her handmade cards, so I just pulled from some that I already made.

K&Company's Brenda Walton Mira Specialty Paper Pad has the most fabulous papers I think I've seen in a paper pad! I had sworn off paper pads/stacks/slabs since I so often forget to use them and while they can bring the price of patterned paper Way down, if I'm not using them, then its not only a waste of money, but of storage space as well. However, this pad has tickled me so much that I'm running out of the first one I bought several months ago and actually went out and bought a second one recently!! The patterned paper with the bird came from a piece in that pack. I cut it down and then to add just a little bit of interest, I used the burnished glitter technique from Spike, which I learned from my friend Dana at Paperdaydream (you should see the Gorgeous butterfly with dry embossing she put on her blog yesterday!). I burnished glitter on the birdy's eye and her branch, both with Martha Stewart glitter.


I hope everyone is having a fantastic day so far! The sun has amazingly decided to come out and play today.......it didn't shine through the overcast sky until after 5pm yesterday. Would you believe that?! On June 1st?! It was a surprise, but the kidlets and I had a really fun day yesterday and as I listen to them play with a tub full of cars and airplanes, making every sound effect possible, I'm hoping for another great one! Just wanted to wish you one as well and thank all who craft some time to for a little blog surfing, a little creativity, and a little play! I know I will! :>

Supplies:
Cardstock: Kraft, Dark Chocolate, New Leaf - PTI
Patterned Paper: Brena Walton Mira Specialty Paper Pad - K&Co.
Glitter: Aquamarine Crystal, Brownstone - Martha Stewart
Template: Captured Card Case - PTI

A Graphic Surprise

Last night, I sat down to work on Dawn McVey's current color challenge. I broke a new Martha Stewart butterfly punch out of it's packaging and went to test punch it on a subscription card that had fallen out of one of the kidlet's "My Big Backyard" magazines. When the butterflies popped out of the punch and landed on my table, I stared at them. When I realized they were holding my attention far longer than a test punch should, I knew that awesome butterfly had to make it onto a card!

I just loved how graphic it was! I punched two more from the same card (that would have ended up in the recycling bin), folded them, and glued their centers down onto black cs, allowing their wings to be raised up off the card.

The sentiment is from that juicy Damask Designs set by Dawn McVey for PTI. It arrived on my doorstep at the end of last week. I just love the font used! I'm looking forward to getting the rest of the set inky.....very soon!! :> Now back to that color challenge I was thinking about!

Supplies:
Stamps: Damask Designs - PTI
Cardstock: True Black, Pure Poppy, Stampers Select White - PTI
Ink: Craft White - SU!
Ribbon: Pure Poppy Satin - PTI
Punch: Classic Butterfly - Martha Stewart
Other: subscription card from kidlet's magazine

Hoppin' Out of Time

Well, I meant to post this much earlier in order to participate in PaperTreyInk's blog hop. But, as the day would have it, I wasn't able to 'hop' onto my computer until it was substantially too late. Though I still wanted to play, so I did! Who really needs an excuse to craft some time for paper, stamps, and ink?!

This month's blog hop challenge was to get geared up for spring and pull out spring colors, flowers, holidays, or themes. I do not initially gravitate towards pastels, so the challenge was a great springboard, so to speak, for me. I was able to use some SU! Soft Subtles that I often neglect. Over the weekend, I was at a scrapbook retreat and a friend was kind enough to give me the cutest hand stamped birthday card....so so SO cute! Besides all the awesome PTI that was used on the card (Guide Lines, Love Songs, Raspberry Fizz), she also used the Martha Stewart dot scallop border punch. Well, I fell in love with it over the weekend thanks to watching this talented artist (and another awesome scrapper at the event!) and just had to make a run to go get one for myself.....and use it on this card. Now, you may ask, who is this talented friend? Well, you might recognize her, she is this month's PaperTreyInk Guest Star Stamper featuring a fantastic stationary set, Dana! She inspires me often, even on this simple card. While scrapping with her, she inked up some alphas with multiple inks and it looked so soft and pretty. So, I played with that today. I inked up PTI's Trajan Alpha with four Brilliance ink dew drops and love how it came out (if you click on the picture, you can really see the ink sparkle!). I hope you get a chance to check out Dana's blog and let her inspire you as well!!


Supplies:
Cardstock: SU! - Barely Banana, Lavender Lace, Almost Amethyst; Bazzil - pink; stash - blue
Stamps: PaperTrey Ink - Trajan Alpha
Ink: Tsukineko Brilliance - Pearlescent Orchid, Pearlescent Purple, Pearlescent Lavender, Pearlescent Sky Blue
Ribbon: Taylored Expressions - Lemonade Twill
Embellisments: Martha Stewart - dot scallop border punch; Kaiserscrapbook - Mixed Flowers Rhinestones