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.

you say it's your birthday

I have been severely lacking in the making of birthday cards. I don't know why, but I have. Then comes a request to see my birthday cards and I have none to show. I mean... major eeek!!

I grabbed a package of prefolds with envies and went to work. I would like to say I whipped out the following twenty-five cards in a few days but it took more like weeks to get them all done. I did manage to get about twelve done to show and sell. The rest I finally completed last night. Next time don't try to create so many cards all at once!

New stamp set in action here (new as in sitting around forever and finally managed to drag it into the light of day) I stamped the honeycomb on the yellow hexagons with versamark ink to give the tone on tone look. The bee and the sentiment are both heat embossed with detail embossing powder. I added some glossy accents to the bees wings. The sentiment is raised with some foam squares.

Used one of my Spellbinder dies for the label to house the sentiment. Paper from a DCWV summer pack and a few blings for good measure.

Heat embossed sentiment. Fiskars border punch. Celebrate ribbon and foam squares.

Embossing folder (swiss dots) Spellbinders scallop circles, Studio G $1 stamps from Michaels, paper from DCWV and bling.

Pretty simple one here. I let the pattern paper be my sentiment.

Used a fiskars border punch to create this notebook look. White twine, bling and DCWV paper stack.

Stamp from a set I have had forever and have no clue who the manufacturer is. I didn't keep the backing paper.

Used silver detail embossing powder on this one.

This sketch/ layout was on the Operation Write Home FB page. I left off one of the elements as I didn't need a sentiment spot with this pattern paper. But I loved the look of the black matting on the next two cards.

Off to get the next group photographed for your viewing pleasure.

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.

disney 2008 and the fun continues

 Well look at that... more Disney fun and adventure to be had!!

The top layout was taken as we were exploring the resort. We found the giant Lady and Kira was looking for Tramp and couldn't find him.... until we turned a corner and there he was!! She was so tiny next to those huge statues!!

Yup she is there with Tramp.... you have to look real close at the base!!

Love how she is looking up at Lady! So sweet. I cut the Lady and the Tramp out of a piece of pattern paper I had and then pop dotted it. I used some of the paper at the top (the pink) I used the green to pull Kira out of the pictures!!

Our first experience with the Magical Express.... and we loved it. No driving for this family! Alex stole daddy's hat and was hiding while we waited for the bus to arrive. And then my oh so cute family on our way to the resort watching the video entertainment. The word magical is a rub on that I placed on black paper and then fussy cut out. Took a bit but I really like how it came out.

Remember Newmarket Peeps---

VOTE YES ON MARCH 11TH

happy 3rd anniversary paper smooches

If you have seen lately, I have been having a massive love affair with Paper Smooches stamps. I had one set that I bought eons ago at my LSS and was so sad that I couldn't find them anywhere else. 

And then I found them online!! oh what a happy happy day  for me!! But not my wallet. Since then I have slowly started collecting them. It is really really hard to collect them slowly as they are constantly releasing new images that I feel I MUST own..... NOW!!

While their stamps are dreamy and wonderful, they have dies that coordinate with their stamps!! I kid you not! And those dies are equally amazing to own. To be honest, I have one set and I adore using them and cannot wait to own more (but I have to wait since that money tree in the backyard is not producing at the moment)

Anywho.... join in on the anniversary celebration going on this month with Paper Smooches. You will not be sorry. Trust me!!

Paper Smooches blog

Paper Smooches store

Paper Smooches videos

valentines a plenty

Why yes it is that time of year again. Okay maybe I am a bit early but now I can play with my Disney pictures and don't have to freak out over what to give the kids for Valentine's Day! Sad thing is I was looking for goodies to give the kids before Target even got any Valentine's Day stuff in!! They still had their storage stuff in the holiday section! Guess I was a little excited for this years fun.

We'll start with the kindergartners.... and if one of them is yours- don't let them see this post!! I want it to be a surprise!! 

I punched out circles in white and red cardstock. Stamped the heart on the white and a to/ from on the red and put them together.

Punched the holes with a heart punch. Was severely disappointed that the heart was upside down when I punched it!! I mean really??? Dumb punch. But I released and went with it anyways. 

I was going to do bouncy balls but I found bubbles instead!! Yahoo! Bubbles! I was very excited and snapped them up pretty quick. Thank you Target! Here they are all completed and ready to be handed out!

Then I had to make valentines for Alex's class. Pencils are always a good go to present in the classrooms because of the no candy rule in most classrooms nowadays. I used my Sybill (Silhouette machine) and cut out the three different heart patterns. That saved a ton of time!! Adhered them to some white cardstock that I cut and scored. Added the recipient's name on the front and stamped the sentiment on the inside. 

Attached the pencils with a bit of washi tape that I had in a red chevron pattern and had Alex sign his name.

And that is it! Valentines for three classes all bagged up and ready to go! Feeling pretty good about myself right about now!! Doesn't happen often so I am going to enjoy it.

snowman thank you's

Playing around on Pinterest to find projects for Alex to do had me coming across some fun thumb print stamping ideas. One of which was 'stamping' a snowman. Alex then decided he didn't want to "Build a Snowman" (have you seen Disney's Frozen?? We love Olaf around here). I didn't let that stop me!! Then I was thinking I had some foam circle stamps that would probably work for snowmen and what do you know... they did!!

Here are the six guys waiting for me to finish them up. I stamped the two circles with white paint and let them dry. Used one end of my dry embossing tool to create their eyes and smiles and an eraser on a pencil for the buttons in black paint. I grabbed some scrap orange cardstock and cut the carrots. Nothing precise about them, just eyeballed them to fit on their faces.

Here are the cards completed. I should mention I created the snowmen on a smaller piece of Kraft cardstock and then attached that to the card front. Worked out much better for me since I don't like the look of ribbons and such poking on the inside of the cards I create. One of my pet peeves.

Close up/ side view. The one banner on the card in front was the first one and didn't work out exactly as I had wanted it but you can see I improved the placing of the banner on the others. I punched holes on the sides of the snowmen's neck to give me a place to string the bakers twine through for their scarves. I also added 'stick' arms by using a heavier jute I had laying around.

I used Versamark ink to stamp the snowflakes which are from Paper Smooches (thanks mom) If I make these cards again, I may do the stamping first along with some embossing. I have a lovely sparkle powder that I think would rock the front of these cards.

The banner was heat embossed and hand cut. Used a bit of foam tape to give the banner dimension and curled up the edges.

Two of these sweet guys were sent out by the kiddos and four are still living here. If you want them, drop me a line!!

get well card

My nephew in Virginia managed to break his leg by being a twelve year old boy who was not well supervised and had a cabinet crash down on him. Broke the two bones in his lower leg. He did need surgery but did not need pins or rods (at least of this writing)

I have been there and know the pain all too well. He has been in quite a bit of pain since the accident so I sent out this get well card in the hopes it could lift his spirits for a bit.

Poor thing.

teacher christmas gifts 2013

I have the pleasure of helping out in one of the kindergarten rooms with an amazing teacher and her equally amazing helper/ partner in crime/ friend/ paraprofessional extraordinaire. I help out twice a week so I can hang with both the AM and the PM classes. Cutest littles ever!!

But once again I digress.....

I made each of these ladies a set of eight cards for a Christmas gift. So much fun as I love making cards!! I also love using a new tool. I picked up the Fiskars hexagon punch on the black Friday weekend for a steal at Joanns. I also purchased a corner punch from Fiskars to replace the one I misplaced in my office and got both punches for under $10. Seriously happy day for me!!

So using my new hexagon tool I went to work on some cards.

And there you have a fun little something to give to two ladies who let me come into their classroom and paint the children!!