birthday cards a plenty

During the year I had discovered that I did not have a deep enough stash of birthday cards to get me through the year. Or even a last minute party! What is up with that? So this summer I plopped some DVD's of my favorite shows that I had gotten behind on into the computer and went a crafting. I worked on coloring with pencils and all kinds of different stamp companies. Found some fun techniques to try and just had a really good creative time. Oh yeah... and caught up on some of my shows!

The first three cards are stamped using The Alley Way Stamps set Cake Day. They have some really cute stamps. Papers are all from my stash. Most of them from DCWV paper stacks and are at least two years old (and some older than that!) Added some Stickles and used the Lawn Fawn Stitched hillside borders dies as well as Simon Says Stamps Stitched Rectangles dies.

A little bit of fussy cutting, heat embossing and 3D tape and this one is done.

Lots more fussy cutting but so worth it in the end. Gold thread to tie the balloons together.

The little bear is from Simon Says Stamp Circle Friends set. The frame he is sitting in is from Lawn Fawn Flirty Frames. The sentiment and the tags are from Paper Smooches.

This next one is made from the same set of stamps as the bear above and includes the bee hive stamp. I have been having fun making shaker cards lately. Glad to see this trend return and with such creative ways of making them!

Of course creating shaker cards sometimes results in the shaker ingredients not staying where they are placed. This is especially true if you somehow manage to spill the contents while trying to remove the backing tape from the foam tape. augh!! Such a mess and nightmare. I will also mention that in this pile of stuff all over my desk included some glitter and we all know what happens once glitter is on the loose-- there is no stopping it. I am still finding it on current projects!!

Made this cute little penny glide/ roller card. The images are from Paper Smooches Party Posse stamp set. Love this little hamster dude. He looked pretty cute in his ball and even cuter once he was spinning around across the card!!

Don't fear, there are more cards coming. I am currently spending a few days actually cleaning and organizing and getting ready for back to school. Even though the kids are in denial that it is going to happen next Monday, I am ready. I miss hanging with the kids and watching them learn. Gonna be a good year. Hoping to keep a better work/ life balance this school year. Which means more time for crafting and blogging.... and oh yeah... the whole family time thing.

party for a thirteen year old

Yup. Somehow I have managed to raise myself a female human being to the ripe old age of thirteen!! Amazing!

We are having a sleepover this Friday to celebrate this achievement. I dug out some new stamps and went to work.

The top and bottom purple swirl is from a Studio G $1 stamp set in my stash, and the party information is a stamp I picked up at Michaels by Delta/ Rubber Stampede. Perfection!

I used my new Paper Smooches Spectrum stamps and dies for the unicorn and cloud as well as the small hearts I stamped. The shadow under the unicorn is from the Paper Smooches Shadows stamp set. I didn't have any gray ink so I stamped off the image once and then stamped it on the front of the card. The party! sentiment is from a Studio G $1 stamp set from my stash.

Kira colored in each unicorn in different colors using her colored pencils. Sorry for the blurry images I have no idea what happened! They all looked so crisp when I was taking the pictures!!

I added two different clear glitters from my Stickles collection. I have thought about getting a Wink of Stella glitter pen but with my LARGE Stickles collection I have a hard time justifying that purchase at this time. I placed some Stickles on one of my acrylic blocks and used a paint brush to apply the Stickles. Tried to keep the glitter from being too thick and lumpy that way.

The cute smile face comes in the Spectrum stamp set and I love how it looks on the cloud!! I popped the cloud up with some foam tape. I used some purple spray ink from Recollections- purple shimmer on the background which came out so cool!!

All of these invitations were handed out and we are going to a FULL house of teenagers this Friday. Hoping Kira's room can handle that much estrogen for the night. Gonna be a great night.

happy belated st. patrick's day!

I hope you had an amazing green day on March 17th!! I did!! The week before I was able to help the kindergarten kiddos create a sparkly shamrock. The one below is what I created as a sample. Love the glitter!! Everything in kindergarten is better with glitter.

I was able to pin Kira down long enough to paint her nails for the occasion. She complained the entire time but she looked great on Monday!!

A blurry picture of my nails. I have been having some major issues with my nails splitting and breaking so this is as long as they have been in weeks. As the week went on, I lost three of them to me just being a plain klutz! 

We were trying to find a craft to do with the kindergarten class that wasn't too simple they were bored but also used skills they will need all through life and have meaning in their education. We had beads but could not find a craft to make them work so off to Pinterest we went. Heading to Pinterest sounds pretty easy doesn't it?? Not if you are inside of the classroom!! I had to go into the hallway to get the WiFi service. It was worth it though. I found an amazing idea for a leprechaun popsicle stick puppet!! 

I went home and got the templates and brought them in the next day to pick up paper and find out what we wanted the kids to do. There are a ton of pieces that had to be traced and cut and then put together. We had to keep in mind attention spans and time restraints! I ended up cutting out the small pieces of the buckle and belt on the hat, the face (circle punch) and the hands. The rest of the little guy I traced onto the green paper and the red beard for them to cut.

Here he is!! I attached him to the stick before I attached his legs therefore the large stick between his legs. oops.

The kids did so great!! Look at a couple of them after the completion and put into their leprechaun traps. They had fun!! Not sure if we'll do it again or not next year.

I am trying my hand at coloring with Gamsol and colored pencils. These images are part of my practicing. I enjoy coloring this way and will continue to hone my skill. I am a bit too cheap to invest in Copics. I picked up this kit from Simon Says Stamp and I am happy I did!! 

I used the duck to create a birthday card which I was trying so hard to get into the mail, that I forgot to take a picture of it. duh.

But I did remember to take pictures of the other cards I created!!

I created the background myself using a Studio G $1 stamp and some inks that I have. Inside I added a strip of washi tape at the top along with the sentiment and the stamped border. The shamrock is popped up to add some dimension.

The frog on the front of the card is on an action wobbler. I have had these for a bit of time. They were a generous gift from my amazing Alien friend and I was FINALLY able to use them. Here is the frog in action!!

I totally forgot to get a picture of me in my shamrock tee and shamrock headband. There is always next year!! Hope you wore your green and didn't get pinched!!

ice cream flavored cows

Here are my ice cream flavored inspired cow cards. I really need to make up another couple sets of these. I love them!! Anywho, the stamp is from Paper Smooches my very most favorite stamp company at the moment (and probably for awhile) Their images are so clear and fun to color and plain old silly at times. The stamps themselves work like a dream right out of the package. LOVE THEM!! This stamp comes from the set Chubby Chums.(in case you were wondering)

Here are chocolate, blueberry, mint chocolate chip (I think he is my favorite) and bubble gum. Along with a side view of each.

Here are the last four in the set. Strawberry, creamsicle, Neapolitan, and spumoni. I had to add pistachio to the cow print since there needed to be nine cows for it to work out correctly.  

Now if it wasn't so darn cold, I would think that some ice cream would be in order. But being as it is not above 20 degrees F at the moment, I'm thinking some hot chocolate would be a better bet!!

who loves lizards??

My mom!! Well not really but it is a family joke which will not die. The kids seem to be keeping it alive more than hubby or I but when I saw these adorable lizard stamps, I knew who had to have some cards created with them!!

I will let the little guys do the talking for me. 

All of these cute guys are now happily residing with my mom in her Christmas present. I created her a card organizer complete with monthly dividers so she can keep track of birthdays and such. Hoping to post those pictures tomorrow for your viewing pleasure. Anywho, these little guys were so much fun to make and very colorful. I think I could learn to like lizards if they were as adorable as these!!

christmas tag swap

In a scrapping group, we decided to have a Christmas tag swap. This is what I came up with for the group. 

I stamped the snowman using a Hero Arts stamp set (CL629- there is no name on this set) I then stamped the scarf on a piece of printed paper and cut it out. I also stamped the carrot nose on some scrap orange paper to cut out. The holly leaves were also cut out by hand. Colored the top hat as well as the snowmen. I am so happy with how they came out. But not sure I could cut out a ton of these. 

I stamped some snowflakes with white and versa ink on the kraft paper tags as well as the sentiment from the Hero Arts set and a To/ From wooden stamp I picked up at Michaels years ago. I popped the snowman up on the tag after adding a strip of washi tape to the bottom. I finished the tag with some natural twine to hang the tag on the gift.

Here is a side view of the snowman.

Thanks for stopping by!!