Embellished Simplicity

Failure

2012-01-08T17:10:00.002-05:00

Love this. Leslie Knope said this on Parks & Recreation--I found the whole quote on the internet and made this little thing to pin to Pinterest since I couldn't find it on there already. Not to say it definitely isn't on there. :)

Friendship Bracelets

2011-07-13T16:09:00.003-04:00

Gracie came in yesterday with her Rapunzel Polly Pocket and wanted me to show her how to braid--I went through it a few times and then she came in several times yesterday and today and showed me the beautiful braids she had put in Rapunzel's hair. I told her about friendship bracelets and told her she could make a few with some colored floss that I have in my craft closet, so we picked out some colors and she went to town. She did the braids on them all on her own and I just tied them on her and cut off the ends, then she made one more and interspersed random knots and straight places and got a plastic "reader" charm out of her toys that she got in school last year. :) I think they look so cute and bring back memories for me, as I loved making these when I was a kid. One of these days I will look up instructions for the knotted kind with more than three strands and show her how to make those. :)

Blush Baby Quilt

2011-06-18T15:28:00.002-04:00

I made this little baby quilt after my friend Shannon had her second baby, a girl. :) I finished it a few weeks ago, but just gave it to her this morning, so it's safe to post on my blog now. I took a Blush charm pack from Basic Grey by Moda and separated out the browns and reds and then purchased yardage for the borders and binding. I quilted it minimally because I was running into puckering issues, but washing it concealed all manner of sins. :) Thanks for looking and any comments!

Thank You Collage

2011-04-16T20:40:00.004-04:00

This was the other card I made at the scrapbooking day a few weeks ago. I had all of these little elements in my scrap baggie; I just had to put it all together. :) The rhinestone was even stuck onto the flower and the leaf punch was already stamped with the texture stamp. I even had the card base ready from another idea that didn't work out, with the blue punched strip already adhered! :) The only thing I did was stamp the sentiment in black ink and stamped the "thank you" circle stamp in blue ink on blue cardstock and punched it out. Everything else I just trimmed to size as needed and stuck it all together. That scrap baggie sure does come in handy! :) Thanks so much for looking and for any comments.

Baby Girl Card in Five Minutes Flat

2011-04-12T13:44:00.004-04:00

I made this card a couple of weeks ago at a scrapbooking day at a local church. I designed this card around the purple flowers, because I have had them for years and they kept falling off of the plastic sheet that they came on and driving me crazy. :) I had the green dotted scrap in my scrap baggie and I distressed the edges with my scissors, used a ruler and a thin black marker to draw the border, and adhered the stickers. I used a stamp for the sentiment and then went back over it with the same black pen so that it would match. I hand drew the heart. :) I included it in the bag with the quilt for my friends (you can sort of see the quilt behind it.) Thanks for looking and for any comments!

Pink & Brown Baby Quilt

2011-04-10T12:21:00.004-04:00

I started this quilt months ago, but just finished it yesterday morning because I got to meet the new little baby yesterday. :) Nothing like waiting until the last minute! I think it turned out pretty cute...the fabrics are adorable. The binding isn't perfect, as usual, but didn't give me too many fits. I just quilted 1/4" in either side of the seams and it came together pretty quickly once I got going. I had time to wash and dry it and the finished size after shrinkage was 30X39, so not too bad for a car seat or play mat quilt. There is low-loft Warm & Natural batting and it's a good weight for spring and summer. Thanks for looking and for any comments! :)

Cute Conversation

2011-03-26T19:15:00.001-04:00

This made me giggle the other night:

Grace: Ava, let's play Barbies!

Ava: Okay, that might be fun!

Grace: Yeah, it IS going to be fun!

They are such cuties and crack me up. :)

Finally Sharing Pictures

2011-03-08T22:56:00.004-05:00

I haven't shared anything in soooo long--I took some pictures of my favorite jewelry today and liked how this one turned out, so I decided to post it. They are real butterfly wings, either encased in resin (the blue one and the black and white one) or glass.

The blue one, bright green one, and multicolored ones are actually reversible. The blue one actually has a totally different species of butterfly on the other side; a red, black, and white "88" butterfly. The green one has a more muted hunter green/black color and the multicolored one has basically the same colors on the other side.

The butterflies are raised in conservation gardens, allowed to live their natural lifespans, and then the wings are used to make jewelry. I think they are so unique and GORGEOUS! I am lucky enough to own these four pieces (and they are even more vibrant and beautiful in person--they are not color treated or enhanced in any way--that's just how they look), but I am totally coveting more. I swear, I think I could only buy this type of jewelry for the rest of my life and be satisfied. :)

Anyway, enough about my butterfly wing necklaces---here are some pictures of my sweet, sweet girlies, who are getting SO big! The lighting isn't great on these two of Gracie, because the sun wasn't really up yet and I had to use the flash. We were showing off her new outfit and I thought she looked quite cute with her pigtails. :)

Here's Ava with her messy hair, in PJs, but with those devastatingly gorgeous eyes and bright smile. :) You can see the mess behind her, though I can't tell what it is. I think it's a doll baby and some heart-shaped paper confetti that I punched out for her.

Enough for now, it's getting late, but I just wanted to share. :)

Baby Blanket

2011-01-01T12:08:00.004-05:00

My friends had a baby boy on Monday and I made this pieced blanket yesterday since I was going to see them at a New Year's party last night. I took a charm pack and sewed together three giant nine patch blocks and then cut them in half top to bottom and side to side, which left me with 12 smaller blocks (this is called a disappearing nine patch). I then sewed all of them together in a strip, bordered it with blue swirly fabric, and backed it with a cozy baby blue flannel, which I sewed first right sides together until it was almost closed, then turned it "inside out" (which really made the right side of the flannel show and the right side of the blanket top show) and then stitched a 1/4" border all around the edges to close it up and finish it off. That way I got to avoid binding it, which is (for me) the worst part of doing a quilt. Best of both worlds! :)

Baby Quilt

2010-11-22T12:19:00.003-05:00

I made this baby quilt for my friends who are having their first baby--I gave it to the mom-to-be at her shower yesterday, so now it's safe to post on my blog. They didn't find out the gender, so I made it gender-neutral. I think it turned out pretty cute! :)

My Beautiful Halloween Butterflies

2010-11-01T07:46:00.000-04:00

Ava's Napper Quilt

2010-09-20T16:03:00.004-04:00

Because I apparently like to have a TON of unfinished quilts lying around my house, I started and finished this quilt top on Saturday. Ava will use it for her "napper" when she goes to daycare after preschool one day a week. :) I adore the fabrics, which I purchased from a great website--Hawthorne Threads. If you click on the bottom picture, it will enlarge and you can see a closer view of the fabrics. :)

Getting there on Ava's Room!

2010-08-30T14:01:00.002-04:00

Over the weekend, I bound, washed, and hung up the mini quilt that I made for Ava's room a couple of weeks ago...I LOVE it! :) Her room is so bright and cheerful...almost finished now...when I am finally done, I will post all of the pictures.

Mini Quilt Decoration

2010-08-16T10:46:00.004-04:00

Okay, so yesterday I attached the 3" wide white borders to the edges of Ava's big quilt and then I started procrastinating, looking at the Flickr picture group "Fresh Modern Quilts." I did a search for "mini quilts" and THIS and THIS came up, so I decided to procrastinate further on the big quilt and whip up a mini to decorate Ava's room. :)

The little quilt on the clothesline came from scraps that I cut off of the edges of the big one in order to square it up...I just sewed four of those little scraps together into long rows, pressed it, and cut it to size. I cut the dress, heart, birds, and sun rays freehand and used my Sizzix for the sun's circle. The sun, heart, dress, and tiny quilt were all attached to the aqua dotted material BEFORE quilting...when the mini quilt is washed, the edges will curl and fray up a bit, as in THIS example. This technique is called "Raw Edge Applique."

I used Michael Miller's Ta Dot Aqua for the backgound, Jenean Morrison's California Dreamin' for the mini quilt and heart, Kona White for the birds, Legacy Fresh Fusion "Spring Plaid" for the dress, and Keepsake Calico "Gold QBQ11" fabric for the sun.

The quilting includes a straight stitch about a 1/2" in along all of the outer edges, the clothesline, and the birds (I decided I needed some quilting up in that right-hand corner, so I added the birds last--I think it adds a cute touch), so the back is kind of a mess, but you aren't going to see that anyway! LOL! :) Now, all I have to do is bind it and then I am finished!

Anyway, thanks so much for looking and for any comments..I am pretty pleased with it and am so grateful for the very talented people who created my inspiration pieces. :)

Halloween Album

2010-08-13T21:38:00.004-04:00

I started this Halloween mini album (8x8) last time I went to the Scrapbooking B&B (last year) and finished the last two pages this past time I went. :) I have decided to just pick one picture of my kids on Halloween and make a costume-themed scrapbook page and just stick it in this album, rather than creating a Halloween LO each year in their regular scrapbooks. :) I like this method and it's working for me. If you click on the pictures, they will enlarge to show some of the detail. The last two are my favorites. I have decided that I am going to pick the best picture of the kid from now on rather than trying to get a full-length shot like I did for the first couple pages in the album--makes for much better scrapbook pages! LOL! :) Thanks for looking and for any comments!

Scrapbooking Retreat

2010-08-10T10:12:00.003-04:00

I went on a scrapbooking retreat at a B&B with some good friends a couple of weekends ago and I got a LOT done by my standards! :) This one was my fastest-completed page...took me about 10 minutes. The other ones required at least two hours of pondering. LOL! I used my trusty Dymo Label Buddy for the title (I think I used this on almost every project I completed this weekend--definitely a must-have tool!) and the quote was a rub-on from DCWV that I got a couple of years ago in a big stack of rub-on quotes. I only looked through like three pages of the book, found it, and made the decision to just go with it! I love the colors of this LO and the pictures make me smile. The center of the page includes some adhesive tape from Basic Grey and a couple of Making Memories rhinestones. I believe the blue patterned paper is by Doodlebug--I got it from my friend. :) Thanks for looking and for any comments!

Long-overdue pictures! :)

2010-07-26T14:56:00.001-04:00

Quick shot of Gracie today...you can kind of see her "princess" hearing aids! :)

The "birthday girl" from a couple of weeks ago...she's SIX!!! She is laughing in this picture, probably because I told her not to laugh. That always gets her! LOL! :)

Ava at Gracie's birthday dinner. :)

Quilt Top Mostly Complete

2010-07-26T14:44:00.002-04:00

I just need to add white and/or aqua borders to round it out to twin-sized. :) Yay! We primed Ava's room today--it's going to be a light aqua color and I can't wait to see everything finished. I will post pictures, of course. :)

Bathroom Update

2010-07-24T15:30:00.002-04:00

Just realized I never posted the "after" of our bathroom remodel. We gutted the entire thing down to the studs and changed the orientation so we had a bit more room. I am THRILLED with the way it turned out. :)

Pillowcase Dress and Quilt in Progress

2010-07-02T10:59:00.003-04:00

I made this dress a couple of weeks ago for Gracie. I bought enough fabric to make one for Ava and my niece as well and had delusions of making all three of them in a few hours. Haha. :) I DO think that the other two will not take me as long as the first one (ahem, two hours!) LOL! Of course, I also had to whip up the hair clip really quickly to go with it. :)

This is what I am working on today. I have to sew those strips that are lying on the table together (two more of each fabric) and then that set of blocks will be done once I press them and cut them. The third set of fabrics (nine strips of each) will come next and then I will be DONE with the blocks for Ava's "big girl bed" quilt. :)

Banner posting day!

2010-06-14T16:25:00.003-04:00

So, last month we had a couple of visitors. We had some mourning doves build a nest up on one of the support posts for our deck's roof. Two eggs were laid, two babies hatched. As a funny "aside" story, Sean built this roof over our deck (attached to the house) a couple of years ago and we put shingles on top that match our regular roof. As you can see in the top picture (if you click on it to enlarge it), the nails are just poking through the plywood. We intend to put some beadboard or something up there at some point, but in the meantime we have always teased my mother-in-law about the nails because every time she sees them she cautions us to be careful with the kids and the nails (i.e. not to throw them up in the air under the roof and hit their heads on the nails.)

So, anyway, these babies hatched and about a week after that they left the nest. Over the weekend, we were pretty busy, but we intended to remove the nest because, though the birds are cute, they make quite the mess on the deck. I had researched mourning doves on the internet after the babies hatched and learned that they can have up to six sets of babies in a mating period. I told Sean to double check before removing the nest that no more eggs were laid, so he got a chair to peer in the nest--you guessed it, he forgot about the nails and got a minor puncture wound right at his hairline! He didn't get much sympathy from me (I was too busy laughing), OR from his mother, who got her "I told you so" moment. LOL! :D

These pictures aren't specific to anything, I just thought they were cute. :)

Up, Up and Away Clip

2010-06-14T15:40:00.003-04:00

My friend Vickie asked me a while back to make her some hair clips for her daughter's crazy, beautiful hair. It was right around the time of the last PTI blog hop and I had just gotten PaperTreyInk's Up, Up and Away stamp set and coordinating dies and was itching to use them. The theme was Fabulous Felt and I decided to use shrink plastic to make a "charm" for the first hair clip, so first I sanded the shrink plastic, then used the balloon die to cut it out and stamped the balloon with black ink onto the plastic. I used Copics to color in the segments and then heated the charm with my heat gun until it was shrunken down to size. Three coordinating circles of felt (cut with my Sizzix with the SU! circle die) glued onto the alligator clip was the perfect simple accompaniment. I think it turned out really cute! I didn't end up submitting it for the hop because I haven't yet (operative word: YET) purchased any of PTIs wool felt and didn't know if it had to be their felt or not for the hop, so here it is, just on my regular blog at a random time. LOL! :)

Thanks for looking and for any comments!

Rejected Submission

2010-04-14T21:45:00.002-04:00

Can't get into CARDS magazine to save my life. Made this for their "sewing" call for their September issue and the calls went out yesterday. Oh well. I used some new Making Memories Flutter patterned paper and used some scraps of Bazzill and SU! to round it out. I used a 1 1/4" square punch to punch out the bigger squares and then cut some of the squares in half for the alternating rows. Used my sewing machine for the "quilting." Thanks for looking and any comments. :)

I Have Crafting ADD

2010-03-31T10:38:00.005-04:00

I think it might be this way with a lot of crafty people, but I can't just focus on one craft project at a time. I currently have two sewing projects going on right now and three more waiting for me. I discovered the wonders of Charm Packs (basically pre-cut fabric squares from an entire designer line of fabric) and have purchased five charm packs since then. I have started the sewing on only two of the projects so far. This one pictured is going to be a throw quilt for Gracie. I also have the top sewn for a quilted bed runner for my mother-in-law in yellows and blues. I have another charm pack waiting for a throw quilt for Ava as well as 16 fat quarters that I need to cut for a twin-sized quilt for Ava's big girl room in really fun, bright colors. I even made a mock-up in Photoshop on how I am going to place the squares for her twin quilt.

Why can't I just finish one project before moving on to the next one? I have always been this way and I just can't explain it. Oh well, as long as they get finished eventually! :) Back to this throw quilt for Gracie, all I have to do is join the nine rows together and add some off-white borders and the quilt top is finished. I think I am going to practice free-motion quilting on this little throw. I LOVE the look of free-motion quilting (stippling, in particular) and I haven't attempted it yet, but it will be quite an accomplishment if I can pull it off. I have been watching a ton of tutorials on YouTube (WONDERFUL resource--I have learned 95% of my quilting skills from YouTube!) and it doesn't look as complicated as I always thought it was.

Anyway, better wrap this up. Thanks so much for looking and, as always, thank you for any comments! :)

Clean Heart Punch Card

2010-03-22T15:03:00.003-04:00

I went to a 12-hour crop on Saturday and created this card out of the scraps that were lying on my table after finishing a scrapbook LO. I first punched the small heart out of a small square of embossed crocodile patterned paper and then centered a circle punch around the negative space left by the heart punch. The other two punches are pretty self-explanatory. :) The greeting is by Hero Arts and all of the cardstock is SU! except for the green and blue pieces. I popped the whole white panel up for a little bit of visual interest. Thanks so much for looking and for any comments! :)

According to Ava....

2010-03-15T09:45:00.004-04:00

Yesterday she said to me, "You best my fwend." Awwww! Warms a mother's heart. :) Here she is from a couple of months ago after breakfast with her messy, slept-on hair. Love that little girl so much. She has been a total Mommy's girl lately, which is different. Will have to find a cute picture of Gracie soon to post--one that doesn't involve black gel pen!! LOL! :)

Enjoy Shower Card

2010-03-14T19:46:00.003-04:00

I had to whip up a card last night for Sean's cousin's bridal shower and used some odds and ends that were lying on my scrap table, as usual. :) Cardstock SU! (whisper white, so saffron, kiwi kiss, and pink pirouette). I used two paper flowers from Making Memories and a SU! button tied with crochet thread to embellish it. Dimensionals give it a bit of interest as well as the pinked edge on the green piece. Thanks so much for looking and for any comments! :)

Fabric Baby Card

2010-03-12T13:00:00.002-05:00

I made a bigger version of this simple card a few weeks ago to match the quilt that I made for my friend's baby. I used my little Xyron sticker maker to adhere the fabric to the chipboard squares and then cut the excess fabric off with my scissors. The flower was two layers of chipboard, fabric adhered on top, and then cut out with my Sizzix. A glittery American Crafts brad keeps the flower on the square securely and adds just that little something. The sentiment is from Nursery Necessities and I used Rose Red ink. Thanks so much for looking and for any comments! :)

Manly Thanks Trio

2010-02-28T16:45:00.002-05:00

I had to make three thank you cards for Sean's uncle and two cousins, who helped a lot with the kitchen and bathroom projects. :)

Most supplies SU! The stamp set is a retired set from 2006 called Play on Words and I love it--wish it was still around.

The cards are all simple and the main image is obviously the same on all three, yet all three are pretty different due to the embellishments I chose for each card. I colored the main stamp on all three with an Old Olive Marker and a Ruby Red Marker for the "Many Thanks" portion down at the bottom. The card bases on the two blue cards are Taken With Teal and the green one is Certainly Celery. I stamped the "4 You" stamp in Ruby Red ink, punched it out, and popped it up on a dimensional. I used the Ticket Corner punch and a little strip of basic black to "underline" the Many Thanks to finish that card off. The Celery card is enhanced with a metal-rimmed tag (I took the paper out of the tag) and then applied an Apricot Appeal star that I had stamped in Versamark with the Canvas BG stamp (also retired) and clear embossed. Corner rounding the top edges added a bit of visual interest. The final card is simply finished with a strip of Kraft and a pinked strip of Kiwi Kiss. I rounded the top edges with the corner rounder.

5-Year-Old and a Gel Pen....

2010-02-24T15:42:00.006-05:00

Okay, so let me set the scene here. After lunch, shortly before I was going to put Ava down for her nap, I gave the kids some paper and crayons and went to lie down with a book on my bed (not even 20 feet away from the kids--door open) for about 15 minutes. I heard the sound on the TV turn off and asked Grace what she was doing. She said she wanted to pause it and draw Foofa from Yo Gabba Gabba because Foofa was on the screen. What I didn't know at this point was that she got a black gel pen out of my pen cup on my desk to draw Foofa. She actually did draw a pretty good rendition of Foofa.

Here's Exhibit A:

Apparently Foofa was going to a luau. I can only assume at this point.

After that, I guess she decided she was lacking some excitement in her life. Ava in the meantime had stripped off her shirt and threw it on the floor. It's a regular occurrence in my house--I can barely keep the girl clothed. Hopefully it's just a phase. :)

TV volume resumed at this point and the girls started cracking up. I called for Gracie to leave Ava alone and at that point the girls got (now I realize) suspiciously quiet. Not sure who instigated the little endeavor I am about to divulge, but I can only guess. Here's what I discovered when I walked into the living room not five minutes later.

Exhibit B:

Let me just go ahead at this point and reveal exhibits C, D, and E.

Anybody want a couple of (usually) cute kids? Since I caught it so early, a lot of the ink wiped off with just a wet rag, but you can still see the remnants of it on Ava especially. Now I am wondering if this was all a secret plot to play in the bathtub. Gracie said she wanted them to have makeup on. NOT a good look, kid, NOT a good look. ;)

Another Quilt

2010-02-16T22:27:00.003-05:00

Little brown-eyed assistant not included in gift. LOL! ;)

My friends had their baby (the ones who I made the little fox under the tree frame for) last week and she now is in the NICU for a diaphragmatic hernia--due to have surgery to repair the defect this week. I went to Hobby Lobby over the weekend and got the fabric to make this quilt. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. This one is also full of mistakes (especially on the binding), but the seams for the blocks lined up way better for this one than my doll quilt experiment from two weekends ago. :) I really love the fabrics (all from the same line except for the binding, which came from Wal-Mart).

Please pray and/or send out positive thoughts for baby Eva this week and through the next couple of months that her hernia is fixed easily and that she has no troubles with feeding and reflux.

As usual, thanks so much for looking and for any comments! :)

Crafty Things

2010-02-08T10:49:00.003-05:00

As I said, DH was out of town this weekend and I got a bunch of crafty things done. :) The three pictures above are a Kindle clutch that I made for my Grammy. She got a Kindle for Christmas and I found a tutorial on YouTube that was pretty easy to follow. I had all of my scraps out anyway from my doll quilt project that I started on Saturday night (see below for finished picture). :)

This is the reason I had my sewing machine out in the first place. Gracie got this doll bed from Santa at Christmas and I have been seeing a bunch of quilts on Two Peas lately. I used scraps from the Rag Quilt that I made for my niece for Christmas two years ago along with one other fabric that I only had five little squares of. The squares started out at 4 3/8" by 4 3/8" and I used a 1/4" seam. The finished product is chock-full of errors, but Gracie likes it. I machine bound the quilt because I wasn't about to spend hours upon hours hand binding a quilt with really uneven seams. Oh well. I think it looks pretty cute overall. I whipped up the pillow cover this morning before I put my machine away. It's also full of errors, but Gracie will be excited (she hasn't seen it because she is in school). :)

Thanks so much for looking and for any comments! :)

Our Weekend

2010-02-08T10:43:00.002-05:00

Sean was out of town this weekend and it ended up snowing about 3-4 inches on Saturday morning. Gracie was DYING to play in the snow, so during Ava's nap time I bundled her up and she went out for about 30 minutes or so. She had a blast. It was actually the first time she has really played in the snow, like rolling around and stuff. When she was younger she just didn't have the balance to be able to walk in it without falling down and we didn't have snow boots or anything. My MIL actually bought the snowsuit when Gracie was a baby (it's a size 18 month and it's HUGE)! I was just about to put it in the Goodwill bin when I realized that it's SO long that it would probably fit Gracie now. We have about four layers underneath the snowsuit and coat as well along with two hats, a scarf (really a receiving blanket that Gracie plays with her dolls with), gloves, and woolen tights. Like I said, she had a blast and will definitely be doing it again before the snow melts. :)

A Note of Thanks

2010-01-25T12:13:00.003-05:00

I had to make a thank you card last night for a sweet Pea who sent Gracie three Leapster games that her kids weren't using anymore. :) I was inspired by THIS PENDANT and translated it to the little embossed butterfly with the wood grain stamp. The pop of green is unexpected and helps bring it all together. All supplies SU! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave some! :)

Nursery Frame

2010-01-09T18:50:00.003-05:00

I made this little frame this morning right before I left for the shower today. We got their gift from Babies R' Us last night and part of their present was this set of wall decals. I was browsing their registry this morning and saw that they had also registered for (and received) this tree decal. I had purchased a couple of sets of three white frames from the Target Dollar Spot last month or so and had a little brainstorm for this nursery decoration.

I took a piece of Whisper White cardstock and swirled Bashful Blue ink all over the sheet with a stampin' sponge. I free-handed the tree trunk out of Close to Cocoa and then ran my bone folder all over it in all directions in between my fingers so I could peel the top layer off for more texture (faux suede technique). My SU! Little Leaves Sizzlets die came in handy for the branch and then I covered each leaf with a SU! cardstock color that matched the leaves on the tree decal (Marigold Morning, So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery). I fringed a little strip of Old Olive and roughed it up a bit for the grass, then the crowning glory was the ADORABLE little fox stamp from Fox & Friends (new SU! Occasions Mini set). I stamped him in Really Rust onto Whisper White, colored in his ears and feet with Sahara Sand, and used my Basic Black journaler to detail the nose. I cut him out, which I really hate to do because I am lazy, but it was so worth it for this project. :) I used dimensionals under his head and body in order for the tail to clear the grass without making him look funky.

The mom-to-be really liked it. She also said she's going to frame the baby card from my previous post for the nursery! What a compliment! :) Thanks so much for looking and for any comments!

Polka Dot Bright Baby Card

2010-01-07T10:24:00.002-05:00

I made this quick, cute card last night for my friend Vickie's baby shower, who is having a baby girl next month. Vickie HATES pink and I usually try to match my baby shower cards to the room theme; hence the Polka Dots. :) I like the popped up "baby" and the stitching...it takes a simple card and adds just that little something extra. The colors are awesome as well. All supplies SU! except for the sewing machine/thread. Cardstock colors are as follows: Marigold Morning (retired), Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, Certainly Celery, Ruby Red, So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise, and Old Olive. Whisper White and Kraft comprise the base. Ink on the baby tag is Ruby Red and Ballet Blue. After I took this picture, I adjusted a few polka dots that are a little "off." :) The word "baby" and the tiny flower are from Tiny Tags, the new SU! set in the Occasions Mini. Love this little set and I love the clear mount (which I got). Thanks so much for looking and for any comments.

My Kid's Weird....

2009-12-29T21:15:00.002-05:00

Her new favorite hiding spot...UNDER the tree, UNDER the tree skirt. :)

Clean and Simple Challenge--Disney Inspired

2009-12-29T00:00:00.002-05:00

My entry for the Disney-inspired CAS47 challenge on SCS. I pulled my color scheme and theme from the new movie The Princess and the Frog. :) I used my retired Unfrogettable set and paired it with my new Tiny Tags set for the crown and greeting. Colors used are Garden Green, Certainly Celery, More Mustard, and Very Vanilla. As stated, I used my Tiny Tags set for the 2010 SU! Occasions Mini (starting 1/5) and my scallop border punch that will be available as a Sale-A-Bration selection in 2010 as well! :) Thanks so much for looking and for any comments.

Butterfly Card Gift--part 2 (Kristin, don't look)

2009-12-22T22:29:00.004-05:00

Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, More Mustard
Supplies: Cuttlebug embossing folder, SU! Sizzix Beautiful Butterfly Embosslit, green rick-rack
Stamp: SU!

Part 1--gift set (Kristin, don't look if you check out my blog!)

2009-12-21T14:56:00.003-05:00

Every year I raid my humongous baggy of small scraps and make a bunch of cards to give to people for little Christmas presents. I am going to be giving my sister-in-law a set of five cards as well as an altered pocket calendar in addition to her "real" Christmas present from us--all of her projects feature a butterfly theme because I just got the new SU! Sizzix Embosslits die from the Occasions Mini that starts in January and I am having a blast playing with it.

All of the cards are pretty clean and simple since that's my primary style and how my brain works--I LOVE the look of more ornate cards, but I really have a hard time creating in that style. Anyway, this card was created using SU! Cardstock (More Mustard, Soft Sky, Basic Gray, Old Olive, and Whisper White). The above-mentioned embosslits die was used for the butterfly and I used the Modern Label punch for the sentiments. The sentiments came from a Hero Arts greeting set and I drew in the three ellipses (...) at the end of "Just saying hello." I used a fine-tip black Zig marker for the butterfly body and antennae and my tiny, tiny staples (in an X formation at the ends of the labels) are vintage.

Thanks so much for looking and for any comments! :)

2009-12-10T09:09:00.001-05:00

This is one of the main reasons I bought this set by American Girl at Michaels (manufactured by EK Success). This little deer stamp is ADORABLE! :) The sentiment is Hero Arts and the cardstock is all SU! The base is So Saffron, the blue is a retired InColor, the pink is Pink Pirouette, and the mat around the Whisper White circle is Really Rust I believe. I rounded the corners with the SU! Corner Rounder and used my QK Revolution to cut the blue border. The ink is by VersaColor and I embossed it with clear embossing powder. Thanks so much for looking and for any comments! :)

NEW Tiny Tags (SU! Occasions Mini)

2009-12-09T10:13:00.003-05:00

I preordered this set from the SU! Occasions Mini and I LOVE it. I have always been a fan of diminutive stamps for some reason and I really love how this has the coordinating punch that fits the images perfectly. I also used my new Beautiful Butterfly Embosslit from SU! (also in the Occasions Mini). Kraft, Rose Red, Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, and Kiwi Kiss are the colors I used for the card. A More Mustard brad sets off the other colors. Thanks so much for looking and for any comments! :) (edited 12/21--changed photo out)

Monster Friends

2009-12-08T15:59:00.001-05:00

I got this REALLY cute acrylic set at Michaels by American Girl that EK Success made for them. This is just a simple, clean card that I whipped up using scraps from my scrap baggie. The main image is popped up using dimensionals and the sentiment is by Technique Tuesday. I embossed the monsters with clear embossing ink and the ink I used is pigment ink by Versacolor. I thought it turned out pretty cute. I will have another card tomorrow using an adorable deer stamp from this same set. Thanks so much for looking and for any comments! :)

One of a Kind

2009-12-07T13:40:00.002-05:00

This is such a terrible picture, but you get the idea. All of the elements of this card were in my scrap baggie (except for the card base). I used two tiny staples to attach the Doodlebug flower to the punched circle. A small square of Kraft with the corners rounded was embossed with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder and the vanilla Modern Label punch was adorned with the Hero Arts sentiment. The base is Pink Pirouette. Thanks so much for looking and for any comments! :)

Zee--From Nick Jr! :)

2009-12-04T15:47:00.005-05:00

Gracie and Ava love Nick Jr. (formerly Noggin) and I thought Zee would be pretty easy to paper piece. :) I made this little decoration to hang from a shelf with pegs on it that is in Gracie's room. I hand-cut the beak and legs, but everything else is punched. The body and wings are SU! punches as well as the flower and embellished corners (scallop circle, scallop oval, small oval, 1/2" circle, 1/4" circle, ticket corner, and Trio Flower). The stem and leaf is a Marvy Punch (I cut off some extra leaves in order to mimic Zee's flower), the blue rhinestone is by Darice. I used Ballet Blue, Pink Pirouette (retired), Pixie Pink, Basic Black, Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss, and So Saffron cardstock. The rick-rack is a mini spool I bought from Michaels a long time ago. I thought it turned out pretty cute! :)

Baby Album First Page

2009-11-06T10:00:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the long lapse in my crafting projects. I actually have a LOT of things to share, but my transcription work has been so busy lately that I haven't had time to take the photos, edit them, and think of text to post with them. This is the first page for a 12x12 baby album that my friends and I have been commissioned to do. The grandmother said that the parents-to-be love fishing and sports, so this was my way to incorporate the fishing aspect. The title for the page is going to be "He Caught Our Hearts" and it's going to be in white letters down at the bottom of the page. Delaina (one of the other Scrapjunkeez--the name of our craft show business) is going to cut the title for me on her Cricut to save a BUNCH of time. :) Sorry for the bad photo. The strip under the photo mat says NAME; DOB/TIME; WEIGHT/LENGTH. Thanks so much for looking!

2009-10-30T17:30:00.000-04:00

Ava as Tinker Bell. :) I have some of the most gorgeous girls on the planet! :)

Raggedy Gracie

2009-10-30T16:03:00.003-04:00

Gracie's Halloween costume photo shoot from today. :) What a cutie she is.

Finished Kitchen Pictures

2009-09-28T14:37:00.002-04:00

These are AWFUL pictures, but here's the finished kitchen. The only thing I have left to do is make a matching valance like the one I have hanging over the sink for the little side door by the table. We are VERY happy with it and the pain in dealing with our house being torn up for two months was really worth it. We love the finished product. :)

PG Card For Bachelorette Party!

2009-09-27T19:56:00.003-04:00

I have seen these all over SCS for probably a year or more and never really thought I would have any occasion to make one; however, last night's bachelorette party for my SIL (soon!) was the perfect opportunity. :) I kept it pretty simple since everything I do is simple, but I have seen some REALLY cute ones with lace, etc. added as well. This is just SU! Shimmer White cardstock embossed with my trusty Cuttlebug Swiss Dot embossing folder. I used Blush Blossom cardstock for the base. I punched an Elegant Eggplant flower out with the Boho Blossom punch, spritzed it with water, crumpled it, and rubbed it on the EE inkpad. A clear rhinestone finished it off. The attendees all loved it. :)

In LOVE with my new décor piece :)

2009-09-27T19:47:00.003-04:00

We got it at Bed, Bath & Beyond while we were there looking for my BIL and soon-to-be SIL's registry items for their shower. If I had commissioned it for my kitchen, it could not be more perfect. I LOVE IT! :) I don't remember if I ever posted pictures of our finished kitchen on here. I will search and link it if so.

Welcome to the Wedded Bliss Club

2009-09-26T10:00:00.002-04:00

Another shower card for my soon-to-be SIL. :) I actually totally forgot about making a card until about 20 minutes before I left and therefore had a lot of problems with the sentiment and had to do special things to fix a boo-boo. LOL! I originally had the sentiment stamped directly under the heart on the white piece, but it ended up slightly crooked and that drives me CRAZY, so I stamped the sentiment on the yellow strip, which smeared, then I tried stamping on the other side of the yellow strip and it was crooked again! I stamped the sentiment a fourth time, cut out the strip, and trimmed the ends as such. I actually think the yellow strip makes the card, so it was a happy accident. :) The only thing I am not too happy about is the fact that the yellow strip cuts off the very bottom point of the heart. Anyway, enough babbling about that--all supplies SU! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear them (unless they are bad)! :)

Still Making Hair Clips

2009-09-24T09:45:00.004-04:00

I made this little hair clip to match Ava's shirt/shorts combination from Gymboree last weekend right before my soon-to-be SIL's wedding shower. I really actually need to take it apart and sew the button more in the center and then sew the whole thing onto an alligator clip, as I just have it sewn onto a metal snap barrette right at the moment. I thought it turned out really cute and the light green REALLY matches her shorts, which you of course cannot see in this picture because Ava never stands still. She was empty-handed when we came outside, but she collected the sippy cup, rubber bracelet, and orange in about 15 seconds. LOL! :) If anyone is interested in commissioning a felt hair clip, contact me and we can discuss details.

Quick Birthday Card

2009-09-23T10:54:00.005-04:00

I had to make a card on Monday for my friend's baby girl Lilly, who just celebrated her first birthday. :) Everything's pretty self-explanatory, but if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Everything's by SU! except the tiny rhinestone on the flower by the bear's ear and the glitter gel pen I used on the flower and her shoes--Sakura Stardust, I believe. Thanks for looking and for any comments! :)

Shower Card

2009-09-13T12:57:00.003-04:00

I made this card today for my soon-to-be Sister-in-Law, whose shower is this afternoon. It looks WAY better in person. :) I embossed the Shimmer White card base with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, stamped the shimmer white "cake" pieces with my now-retired Paisley BG stamp, embossed with Iridescent Ice, and sponged Elegant Eggplant onto the pieces. I cut 1/8" strips of Elegant Eggplant cardstock and adhered them to the bottoms of each cake tier. Hero Arts pearls, the three heart punch from SU! and retired SU! white organza ribbon finished off the card. Thanks so much for looking and for any comments. :)

CAS Baby Boy Card

2009-09-12T08:59:00.004-04:00

Just a quick share this morning, a baby boy card for my cousin, who is expecting her first baby next month. I CASED the basic design from THIS cute card from "susan." on SCS. I used VersaMark and embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder for the star on So Saffron cardstock. You couldn't really see the alphabet, so I sponged Pumpkin Pie ink all over the star and then punched it out with the SU! Large Star punch and I think the Pumpkin Pie added just the right amount of contrast to make it stand out without dominating the card. I used my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder on the white pieces, the scallop edge and 1 3/8" circle punch from SU! and finished it out with one of the new Sherbet buttons (which I LOVE)! I stamped the now retired Canvas BG stamp in Celery ink and the sentiment from Nursery Necessities with VersaMark, then embossed with an "ultra detail" white embossing powder since the lines on the font are so tiny. I really like this card and thanks for the inspiration Susan!

My Baby is Two!

2009-09-07T11:19:00.002-04:00

It is really hard to get good pictures of Ava lately since she only stands still for approximately one second at a time. These were the best of the bunch. Her shirt and hair clips are from Gymboree. I bought the clips a couple of years ago for Gracie and that's one of the things I love about them...they use the same colors all the time so a lot of their hair accessories match from line to line. I haven't uploaded the party pictures yet, so I am sure I will post a few more after I do. I can't believe I have a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old! :) They are at really fun ages though since they can play together and really interact with each other.

Party Pictures

2009-09-07T11:06:00.003-04:00

We have a party for Labor Day every year on Saturday night of the weekend, which just happens to coincide with our town's fair. Sean and I took some pictures of the girls right before the guests got there and we got some cute ones. Saturday was also Ava's second birthday, though we didn't celebrate her birthday until last night because of the Fair Party. Does that make us horrible parents? I have some pictures of Ava in her birthday gear that I will post in a minute...she looked ADORABLE!

Sean took this one when I was inside, finishing up with the party preparations. I really almost gasped when I saw the love on Gracie's face. This was the picture he snapped just a second later:

Okay then. I guess Ava wasn't in a loving mood, huh? :) I will leave you with this one. Can you tell they are holding hands? Warms a mother's heart. Awwwwwww........

Better Beary Soon

2009-08-29T11:06:00.002-04:00

I made this little card for the Cards for Kate drive that Jennifer McGuire is organizing for a little girl in Arizona who was just diagnosed a couple of months ago with brain cancer. It was the first time I inked up the Stampin' Up! Build-A-Bear sets in the Holiday Mini catalog (the bear set is called Beary Best Friends and the sentiment set is called Beary Nice Wishes). I think they are just adorable! I used my SAMJ to line the sentiment up in a square formation and then stamped the bear in the center and colored her in. A simple mat, brad, embossed heart, and button with linen thread finished off the look simply.

Supplies: (all SU!) Beary Best Friends, Beary Nice Wishes, and Canvas BG (retired) stamps; Ballet Blue, Old Olive, Rose Red, and Whisper White cardstock; Chocolate Chip, Ballet Blue, Bashful Blue, Close to Cocoa, Rose Red, and Versamark ink; Cutter Kit, Playground Button, More Mustard Brad, Heart to Heart punch, 3/16" Corner Rounder punch, Crystal Clear Embossing Powder, Linen Thread.

One Little Baby

2009-08-27T15:23:00.002-04:00

I made this quick, cute card today for our friends, who just had their second baby girl. :) It went together pretty quickly because I had the flowers made already and the leaves were already punched. The white card base was even cut to size and folded. I just cut a length of the dotted Swiss Bazzill, adhered everything on the card, and stamped the SU! Curvy Verses sentiment in Basic Gray SU! ink. The SU! Sizzix flowers have some added texture from tone-on-tone ink in Pink Pirhouette and Pretty in Pink that I dabbed on with the sponge daubers. The yellow center is Barely Banana stamped with a texture stamp that has been long retired from SU! (The Art of Life). The green rick-rack is a spool that I got from Michaels a long time ago. Thanks so much for looking and for any comments! :)

Look What I Made!

2009-08-24T17:43:00.003-04:00

For Gracie's room--a mobile! :) I started on it last night and didn't have an embroidery hoop, which is what I was originally intending to use for the round apparatus to hang the fishing line from for the embellishments to dangle. I was walking around in the basement and came across this tiara and figured that would be PERFECT and it WAS! :) I used a bunch of different things for this mobile: Quickutz Revolution Monarch butterfly die for the butterflies (cut out of pink SU! patterned paper that is retired and Certainly Celery cardstock that I inked with some Technique Tuesday pigment ink for a brighter color), Sizzix die from SU! for the flowers (Pretty in Pink and Pink Pirhouette with Barely Banana centers stamped in So Saffron), Sizzix die for the hearts that I stamped with the big heart from the SU! Always set (cut out of Kiwi Kiss and inked in the same color), Prima tiny flowers and Darice rhinestones, and the SU! Small star punch (used Barely Banana for the cardstock). I love the way it turned out and Gracie does too, so that's all that matters. :)

Bundle of Joy

2009-08-23T16:03:00.003-04:00

I had some leftovers from my stamp camp and decided to whip up a baby boy card in the event that I might need it someday. :) I embossed the Kraft cardstock with my Cuttlebug embossing folder that I have had forever and never used because I didn't have a Cuttlebug. I watched a video on YouTube of someone using the embossing folders in their regular Sizzix machine (with converter) that I have had forever, so I was pretty excited to finally be able to use this. The blue dotted cardstock is Bazzill Swiss Dot and was in my scrap baggie. I used the retired Punches Three set for the "bundle" image and the wide oval punch to punch it out. The green ink I believe is a VersaColor pigment ink. The light blue base is Bashful Blue by SU! and I used dimensionals (also by SU!) to pop up the focal point. The dark brown inking on the Kraft piece and the tiny border on the Bazzill is SU! Chocolate Chip. Thanks so much for looking and for any comments! :)

Okay, one more....

2009-08-22T11:05:00.000-04:00

This was the best attempt at the kids together...Gracie's fake smile. :)

TONS of pictures

2009-08-22T10:55:00.002-04:00

There was good light in my bedroom yesterday and I had Gracie come in my room to try to snap some pictures. I had her lying on my bed and as soon as I snapped the shot above and the picture showed up in the window, the baby shot of Gracie at almost 6 months old immediately came to mind (please don't mind my early scrapbooking attempts--it was a little mini book I made and this was one of the BEST pages. LOL!) Does anyone else get chills by the similarity in the pictures, or is it just me? They were taken in the same spot, albeit now with better lighting and a better camera. I think I am going to make an updated mini book of all of the new Gracie pictures and store the two albums together. This is why I love to scrapbook! :)

2009-08-22T10:53:00.002-04:00

The attempts at adding Ava were not so hot. Can't you just hear the loud CHEESE! that Ava is screetching? LOL!

Pretty girlie.

Yep, I am going to have fun making a new mini album with these pictures.

A funny one---I am pretty sure this look was accompanied with an exasperated, "Moooom!"

I am going to go kiss her cheeks now. :)

I will post a card later...I made one last night and I have to make another one today.

More Options

2009-08-19T07:53:00.003-04:00

We also made this card at the Stamp Camp and I had the entire Teeny Tiny Wishes set out so that people could choose their own greeting. It's a pretty simple card, but striking I think. The colors really make it pop. :) We used Gable Green for the base, Tempting Turquoise for the bottom mat and the ink for the sentiment, Apricot Appeal ink for the flowers and ribbon (we used Pumpkin Pie marker to illustrate the details in the flowers), and Green Galore for the scallop oval piece that the sentiment is matted on. I had them tear the edges of both the turquoise piece and the white piece for some extra detail. The final project we made was this card: http://embellishedsimplicity.blogspot.com/2009/07/shoebox-swap-card.html

Again, thanks so much for looking and for any comments! :)

Another Stamp Camp Project

2009-08-17T15:13:00.004-04:00

The Bashful Blue base doesn't open, it's just a piece of 5.5 x 4.25 cardstock that I adhered a 4 x 5.25 piece of white cardstock to after I stamped the images and attached the navy piece on with a silver brad (that way the brad back doesn't show and the back of the card is just a nice, smooth blue piece. I used two stamp sets: Razzle Dazzle (flowers, stripes) and Thoughts and Prayers (sentiment). The large flower image was stamped in the fifth generation and then the greeting was stamped over it with full-strength ink. I spritzed water on the yellow flower (cut with my Flower Layers #3 Sizzix die), crumpled it up, then unfolded it and rubbed it on the So Saffron ink pad to bring out the texture. It makes it look a little leather-like, I think. The darker blue is Not Quite Navy and the yellow flower is So Saffron. The pink ink is Pink Passion.

Thanks so much for looking and for any comments. :)

Whoo is One? Stamp Camp Options....

2009-08-16T13:31:00.003-04:00

I had a request from one of my regular stamp camp attendees to start offering more scrapbooking options at my camps. To accommodate those who don't scrapbook, I designed a 6x6 scrapbook page that could be turned into a 3x6 card using the same supplies and the participants could do either project that best suited their needs. You could also make the 3x6 card a birthday card for a little kid by using the circle/number treatment that I used on the scrapbook page, but I used the Thinking of You stamp in my card example to illustrate how versatile stamps can be. :) All supplies SU! I used the Thoughts and Prayers set for the branch that the owl is sitting on and for the flower pattern on the Old Olive strip. That also showed the verstatility of stamps, because the Thoughts and Prayers stamp set is actually a sympathy set.

The owl was made with the wide oval punch, out of which I cut a tiny piece for the head using my 1 1/4" circle punch. One of the participants pointed out that if you had more of the resulting punched out shapes, they could look like leaves and I had a lightbulb moment and realized it could have been used as owl wings as well. If I did this project again, I would cut another one out just to use the pieces to make wings on the owl and that would make it even more adorable. :) I used the Boho Blossoms punch for the owl's feet. The design on the owl's belly was made with the new set Circle Circus and I used a retired alphabet for the red WHOO/IS/? The "Thinking of you" is also in the Thoughts and Prayers set. Bashful Blue/Old Olive/Kraft, and Chocolate Chip are the colors used for cardstock and Real Red is the red ink. Any questions, feel free to ask. Thanks so much for looking! I will post the remaining projects as the week progresses.

Ava's Pigtails

2009-08-16T13:29:00.003-04:00

Her bangs are finally long enough to put her hair in pigtails and not have the rest of her hair look like a disaster! So cute. I took these really quick on our porch (which totally needs to be pressure washed, I am noticing in these pictures) before my Stamp Camp started yesterday afternoon. What cute girls I have. :)

Finally a card

2009-08-10T16:35:00.004-04:00

I made this a while back at a meeting that my Stampin' Up! upline held. Everything came out of my scrap baggie. The base is Bazzill cardstock, the flower is I believe My Mind's Eye, the green CS is SU! Kiwi Kiss, and the rainbow is patterned paper that I cut out during that class that I took back in CKU (which I couldn't get to work on my layout, so it went in my scrap baggie). I have had the button for forever and I just cut a thin piece of blue cardstock to "thread" the button with and then adhered it with mini glue dots. The stamp is SU!, though I don't know the set name since it was my upline's. Thanks for looking and for any comments! :)

PS..I should have a bunch more projects to post next week...I am having a stamp camp on Saturday! :)

Gracie's in School!

2009-08-10T16:30:00.002-04:00

First day of kindergarten! How do I have a kindergartner?! She loved it, although she said that she already knew how to do everything she "learned" today (making a bee, cutting). LOL!

Gracie's Five!

2009-07-15T19:01:00.003-04:00

Here's my little sweetie last night before her (family) birthday party. :) We haven't gotten into friend parties yet, but I am sure it won't be too long! I got that cute top at Gymboree online during their Big Red Balloon sale and she had the skirt already. Don't you just want to kiss her little cheeks, or is that just me?!? :)

Razzle Dazzle Happy Birthday

2009-07-14T10:21:00.003-04:00

I had a bunch of scraps lying on my desk the other day and threw this little card together. All supplies SU! The patterned paper is unfortunately retired. I used the big flower image in the new Razzle Dazzle set and colored it with my InColor Markers (as well as Old Olive). I like these new colors better than I thought I would! :)

Gymnastics Fun

2009-07-14T10:05:00.002-04:00

Gracie has been taking gymnastics once a week for a couple of months. She LOVES it and it has really helped to improve her coordination. She is jumping backwards on a long trampoline in this picture. :) Of course, I had to take a shot of Ava as well since I had my camera there and everything. They have a great setup there. The little kids can play with a bunch of toys that they have there while the big siblings do the gymnastics. Fun stuff. :)

Shoebox Swap Card

2009-07-09T10:56:00.002-04:00

I have a shoebox swap tomorrow night that my Stampin' Up! upline's upline is hosting and this is the card I created. I like the way it turned out. Circle Circus is a cute new stamp set in the catalog and I LOVE the new InColors! :) I used Dusty Durango, Bermuda Bay, Kraft, Old Olive, and Vanilla cardstock and Crushed Curry/Durango/Suede/Bermuda ink. The scallop circle punch and the scallop edge punch came in handy to give my card that little extra something. I used dimensionals for the "flower" and also to mount the main panel onto the vanilla card base. Linen thread "tied" it all together! Ha! (sorry for the extremely bad pun). Thank so much for looking! :)

Fancy Gracie

2009-07-05T22:30:00.002-04:00

I have had this picture printed out for about six months and couldn't get anything to work. I sat down for about an hour on Friday afternoon and it magically came together. I had previously cut out Fancy Nancy from the dust jacket from one of Gracie's books (VERY time consuming, but very worth it!) the day that I had printed the picture out, but that's all I had. I am pleased as punch with the way it turned out! :) Thanks for looking (and thanks for any comments....it's been forever since I got a comment!)

Fourth Cuties!

2009-07-05T12:45:00.002-04:00

Some cute pictures from yesterday...of course we couldn't get a good picture of both of them together. One or the other of them was either looking away from the camera or was making a goofy look. I got a bunch of ADORABLE Gymboree clothes on a great sale a couple of weeks ago and had to try a little photo shoot. :)

Get Well Wishes

2009-07-04T15:45:00.003-04:00

A cute little card (in my opinion) that I made for my MIL, who just had hip replacement surgery. The patterned paper is I believe Bo Bunny and My Mind's Eye and the butterfly is the coveted Monarch Butterfly by Quickutz that my wonderful Aunt Terry just brought up to me from Florida! :) The blue piece behind the plaid patterned paper is Bazzill, as is the top layer of the butterfly. The stamp is the new little sentiment set by Stampin' Up! called Teeny Tiny Wishes. I LOVE this card! :) Feels good to have my stampin' mojo back!

New Post Today...

2009-07-04T10:33:00.001-04:00

I actually got to create a scrapbook page last night! We got a new computer, though, and I don't know how to get my pictures onto the new computer. I have to have Sean work on that so I can get a picture up today. I did a page AND a card, so I have two days' worth of posting! WooHoo! :)

Wesley Name Frame

2009-06-11T23:06:00.004-04:00

I made this years ago, but just found it in my pictures and thought I would share it on my blog. It's also in my SCS gallery, so you might have seen it before. I just punched a bunch of different colors of squares with my 3/4" square punch in colors that matched his room, printed off a clip art palm tree, punched three "coconuts," stamped the monkey (a retired SU! stamp--it's significant because his room was decorated with monkeys and they call him monkey as a nickname), cut it out, and hung it on my chipboard "W" that I colored with Old Olive Craft Ink. I stamped the rest of the letters with OO craft ink, embossed with clear embossing powder, and added the whole thing to a $3.00 frame I got from Wal-Mart. It's originally a two-up frame, but I cut out the divider between the two small 4x6 mats to make one long mat. Pretty simple! I love name frames and I love the colors in this one! :) Thanks for looking!

Yet another...

2009-06-10T00:09:00.001-04:00

Another barrette from Saturday. The flowers and buttons are from a Making Memories embellishment jar I got a while back. I stitched them all together with embroidery floss. I have one of these that I kept for Ava as well and it looks SO cute in her hair. :)

Another Hair Clip

2009-06-08T16:33:00.002-04:00

Well, the "craft show" we went to was not actually a craft show at all...it was a flea market. Not exactly the kind of venue to sell a lot of crafty things. We sold two scrapbooks and two cards, total. I made two of the scrapbooks and one of the cards, though, so that was a bit of an ego boost! :) Here's another one of the clips that we had for sale, that obviously didn't sell. I think we will do better when we are actually at an appropriate venue for our goods. Let me know what you think of the clips...I am proud of them! :)

Finally something crafty!

2009-06-05T17:40:00.002-04:00

Sorry about the long lag, guys. Life just got in the way of my creative mojo. I finished this little hair clip up tonight because me and my two partners in crafting, Vickie and Delaina, are going to be doing a craft show tomorrow. I made this from some felt and leftover fabric from my niece's quilt that I made at Christmas time. I think it turned out pretty cute. The button is a really old one from SEI. The card that it's matted on is a piece of Kiwi Kiss that I stamped with the swirl from Priceless with Kiwi Kiss ink and then trimmed the edge with the scallop edge border punch by SU! I love the way these look on the cards. Thanks for looking! :)

Preschool Graduation

2009-05-26T12:22:00.003-04:00

My Gracie graduated from preschool last Friday! So cute...loved the gowns. She had a cap, too, but it wouldn't stay on her head for anything. They sang a bunch of songs, one of which was accompanied by sign language, and then had a reception afterwards with cookies. We only stayed for a minute after the graduation because Ava had a cookie and then went ballistic because she wanted milk. Sigh. Oh well, it was fun and cute during the actual graduation. :)

Cute Ava Picture

2009-05-26T12:10:00.003-04:00

Just a quick picture share...I am hoping to get something crafty up on here in the next few days. :) This was Ava at First Watch a couple of weeks ago. I snapped it really quickly on Sean's Blackberry, so it's a bit blurry, but I love that aqua color on her and the lighting was really good. Cutie pie.

FAST (for me) Layout

2009-05-10T20:06:00.003-04:00

I am pretty pleased with this one. The Patterned paper is by Imaginisce (striped and word) and Bo Bunny (black), the cardstock is Bazzill, and the die cuts are off of a punch out sheet from My Mind's Eye (scalloped border, flower, leaves, and tag). The journaling stamp is Autumn Leaves, chipboard is I think Heidi Swapp, and the ink is Colorbox Chalk Ink in Charcoal. The picture is by me! :) I cut the lower case letter "l" in half to make the "pause" sign, which I thought was clever. I am modest, huh? LOL! Happy Mother's Day everyone! Thanks for looking and any comments are welcome.

Flower Pot Card

2009-05-09T10:50:00.004-04:00

Sorry for the extreme length of time in between posts on here. It seems like it's either feast or famine with my content around here. It's just been a busy, crazy week. Anyway, here's the ubiquitous flower pot card that's all over SCS. HERE is a great tutorial for you. I got my color scheme from THIS card by "jreks" on SCS. She used Regal Rose for the two darker flowers, though, and I used Rose Red (she used Rose Red for her flower centers). As I said, the dark flowers are Rose Red, all flower centers are Barely Banana stamped with So Saffron ink, the darker pink is Pretty in Pink, and the lighter pink is Pink Pirhouette. The orangy flower is Apricot Appeal. That's what drew me to jreks card in the first place. :) I sponged all of the flower centers with sponge daubers with their respective ink colors before I adhered the flower center behind the bloom. The leaves are a Marvy punch that I have had for years and the color is Kiwi Kiss. I used a small strip of Bella Rose paper for the band across the top of the flower pot. I used a (now retired) "mother" stamp from Everyday Flexible Phrases. The texture stamp is also retired. Color of the pot is Creamy Caramel. Finally, the flower is a Sizzix die from SU!

Thanks for looking! I have to make seven of these cards (mother, MIL, sister, and four for Gracie's teachers as a thank you). All of the flowers are already cut out with my Sizzix, just have to work on the rest. Thanks so much for looking...comments greatly appreciated! :)

Major Progress on the Kitchen Front...

2009-04-22T10:18:00.003-04:00

The counter top came today! Woohoo!!! :) There are only a few things left to do (install crown on top of cabinets and the trim on the bottom of the cabinets, install toe kick at the very bottom of the cabinets, touch up a few paint areas, and put stuff away!) We started the demo on 02/18/2009, which obviously means it took a couple of days more than two months. :) I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I can't stop looking at the counters and cabinets.

Poor Kyleigh

2009-04-17T15:09:00.003-04:00

This is my niece, Kyleigh. It really pains me to mess up the best part of this LO, her little smiling face, but I don't put pictures of kids on the internet when they aren't mine. :) Cardstock is Bazzill, patterned paper is Basic Grey, letter stickers I believe are K&Company, I think the button is Autumn Leaves, felt flowers and scallop border punch are SU! and the brads are Lasting Impressions for Paper. Thanks for looking!

This picture doesn't do it justice....

2009-04-15T23:48:00.003-04:00

This is my favorite one, though the picture is not the greatest. It's actually not completely finished, as I have to add journaling in the bare blue spot, probably on strips of printed cardstock off the computer or printed on transparency. The main reason I like it so much is because all of the products I used are from different manufacturers. The cardstock is Bazzill, buttons SU!, letter stickers (Ava) by Martha Stewart, the chipboard is Making Memories, patterned paper is Basic Grey, and the rub-on is a really old K&Company one from my stash. I "threaded" the buttons with thin strips of the black cardstock that I used for the mat. The "18 months" strip is a Dymo label that I punched out on my labelmaker. Thanks so much for looking...all comments welcome, unless they are bad! LOL! :)

Mom's Day Out

2009-04-15T08:54:00.002-04:00

I didn't design this one, but I am including it anyway because I had to adapt it to my format and I also changed the title that was provided. This was one of the Photos First (by Simple Scrapbooks) class layouts at CKC. The originals were supposed to be 12x12, but I shrunk down my pictures to scale for 8.5 x 11 and obviously cut my cardstock and patterned paper that way as well. They provided that white title and journaling block with a pre-printed title that said "Side by Side," but that didn't work for my photos, so I used my friend's Cricut to cut out a circle out of my Swiss Dot Bazzill, cut the title (also with the Cricut--not sure on the alphabet...George maybe?), and glued it all over the top of the pre-printed title. Again, there was no apostrophe on this Cricut cartridge, so I used the inside of the letter "a" as my apostrophe. After I took the photo of this layout, I wrote the date of the photos on the bottom line of the journaling block. :) Thanks for looking!

From One Holiday to Another...

2009-04-14T10:57:00.004-04:00

Okay, the sun came out for about 30 seconds today, so I ran outside and snapped some photos of the layouts that I did over the past couple of weeks. This one started out VERY different...at CKC I took a class by Simple Scrapbooks called "Photos First" and we had to have 9 photos for each layout. The class was based on 12x12 scrapping, which would have been useless for me since my kid's albums are 8.5x11. I had to adapt all three layouts (two double-page spreads and one single) to make them work for my needs and spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out the reduced dimensions of the photos I needed for my pages (they named specific dimensions of photos that people needed for the 12x12 layouts.)

I ran out of time when it came time to this layout's dimensions and hurriedly printed out six photos all the same size and two longer photos. When we got to the class, it turned out that even the 12x12 people had the wrong sizes printed for their photos because there was a misprint on the sizing on the website. I couldn't get the original layout to work with my photo and paper sizes, so I just packed it up during the class and did my own thing at the crop that I went to the following week. This one is very much more my style, but I like how the colors are outside of my comfort zone and not something that I would have picked starting out. Basically the only thing I got from the class on this layout was the black background with the checkered scalloped edge...the rest I did myself. I bought some My Mind's Eye orange dotted paper while I was down there, which ended up coordinating perfectly with the slightly orange edge on the checkered scallop. The blue was actually an ancient piece of patterned paper that I got from one of the girls at the crop (circa 2000 or 2001?) The felt stickers are Making Memories and the "Kiss Me" brad was in my goody bag from the CKC crop. Serendipity, I tell ya! I thought the flower above the "i" in Irish sort of resembled a four-leafed clover. They didn't actually have an apostrophe on the letter sticker sheet, so I cut the tip off of a bracket sticker. Anyway, sorry for being so long-winded this time. Thanks for looking! :)

Easter Beauties

2009-04-13T10:23:00.004-04:00

Pretty Gracie. :)

She's stylish. That's Chinese for beautiful! (for what I am referencing, check my previous post on Easter). Too funny.

This is what Ava does when she is "smelling" something, in this instance the candle that's down to the bottom right of the photo. She basically makes that face and blows air out of her nose. LOL! :)

Pretty Ava. :)

Pretty girlies together. :)

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T09:36:00.003-04:00

Gracie was standing in front of the mirror on the back of our bedroom door this morning, admiring her Easter dress. I put on my shirt and she moved out of the way and said, "Here, you can see how you look." I said, "How do you think I look?" She said "I think you look stylish!" I laughed and told Sean about it and then she added..."That's how you say beautiful in Chinese!"

She has been watching a lot of Ni Hao, Kai-lan on Noggin lately, can you tell? LOL! :)

Dainty Congratulations

2009-04-10T09:49:00.003-04:00

As I said yesterday, this one is my favorite. I think I like it because all of the textures make it visually interesting, yet it is still very simple. :) The background is Kiwi Kiss, the DSP is Bella Rose, the flower button is from the Button Bouquet, I believe the pink piece is textured Pink Pirouette, and the yellow piece is Bazzill. The stamp is from Hugs & Wishes (or Holidays & Wishes--always get those two confused). Thanks for looking! :)

My least favorite one....

2009-04-09T10:16:00.002-04:00

It's okay, though. The tag was in my scrap baggie. I stamped the word "Hi" from a stamp set that I got in that Technique Tuesday Class at CKC. The heart was in my scrap baggie. The green dot Bella Rose DSP was left over from all of those other cards I have featured. LOL! :) The brad and brown mat simply finished the card out. Background is Kraft. Thanks so much for looking! I will post my favorite card tomorrow...then I have several scrapbook layouts to post.

Tag Present

2009-04-08T10:23:00.002-04:00

Most of this also came out of my scrap baggie. The blue piece was a leftover from the Technique Tuesday class we took at CKC. The orange dot piece was a scrap from a layout I did on Saturday. The layered tag was already adhered together in my baggie and I just stamped the present (in Apricot Appeal) and added the ribbon (American Crafts, I believe). The star was already punched and the button was already threaded. This card came together rather quickly with all of that already finished! :) Thanks for looking!

Thanks So Much

2009-04-07T13:42:00.002-04:00

I took my baggie of usable card scraps to the crop on Saturday and got four cards done. This is one of them. I have seriously had this stamped image for YEARS in that baggie, all cut out and everything. It's even embossed on the frame part. I don't even know the manufacturer of the frame stamp it's been so long ago and I think I sold it. The "Thanks so Much" stamp is Stampin' Up!, as is the flower button from the Button Latte assortment. I tied it on with linen thread. The background is Certainly Celery and I think the brown is DCWV. :) Thanks for looking!

It's unanimous...

2009-04-06T14:39:00.003-04:00

With a unanimous vote of three whole people (at least I hope they are whole people), I have decided to do one project a day. :) If you don't like green, you can stop looking now, because I realized today that every single project has green on it. I like green, what can I say? :)

This one was also pretty simple (as all of my cards are). Baja Breeze is the base (In Color 2008-9), Bella Rose DSP for the petals, stem, brown background, and dotted green piece, the three heart punch comprises the flowers, and I used the "Thank You Kindly" set for the sentiment. A brown flower button from the Button Latte assortment is tied on with linen thread. All supplies SU! :) Thanks for looking!

Okay, so I am taking a poll.....

2009-04-05T08:26:00.002-04:00

I went to crops two weekends in a row and actually got a lot of scrapbooking and cardmaking finished (different for me!) Would you all prefer that I post one project a day or so to spread it out for something interesting to read more often, or would you prefer that I post everything at once and maybe not have a post for a week or longer? You can vote on the poll, over to the top right of my blog. Thanks! :)