Swaps.....Finally!

Thanks for sticking with me this week it's been crazy!  I have to admit I had Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday's posts done last week!  I knew this week would be crazy but I thought I'd be able to pull it together enough to get a post done for Thursday, boy was I wrong!  So what have I been up to, since clearly I haven't been stamping???  Well as Co Director of my church's gallery I've spent the week there (literally the entire week, all day!) hanging and going through almost 200 pieces of art to show in our gallery.  But it's up now---whew!  Thank goodness we only do this every 3 months :)  But even with my busy gallery life I did manage to make it to our demo meeting on Tuesday night.  It was a shoebox swap, meaning everyone brought the supplies to make the cards and we spent the night stamping and chatting.  So here are the cards from the swap, I'll warn you, they're pretty awesome!!!!  You can see the card that I did for the swap here. 

 

Enjoy!!! 

 This is Karen's swap.  Isn't it a great masculine card?!?  I know I struggle to find masculine cards all the time, this one is perfect!!!

 

This Carmelita's card. She used the chalkboard technique, isn't it cool!!?  I love it!!   

This is Kay's card.  Another good masculine card! 

This is Michelle's card.  Looking at this in the picture I noticed I forgot to trim my Baja Breeze circle,  it's supposed to be straight on the edge of the card-oops!!  I'll make sure I do that before I mail it!  But isn't it a great card!!!?!

This was Kathy's, even though my bike is stamped crooked-that's my fault-I still love it, the sponging is so cool!

This is Vickie's card.  This card is so sweet and cute!  This is a fun set, I might have to get......

This is Angela's card.  I love that we had to color the cake.  I just love watercoloring, why don't I do it more often......????

This is Cassie's card.  Isn't it so pretty and elegant??  I love the DSP and flowers and colors, well everything!

Finally this is Stephanie's card.  Isn't it fun!  So many fun colors and textures together!!!

 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Still Here....

We had a great swap on Tuesday night, I haven't had a chance to get the pictures taken of the cards but check back, they'll be up tomorrow. I've been away from home for 2 days, so as you can guess my stamping time has been.....well non-existant.  Check back tomorrow for the awesome swaps we did on Tuesday night.

Wish Big!

What a blast we had last night at our shoebox swap.  I'll be wrapping up Pintrest Week 2 tomorrow so that I can use Friday to share all the wonderful swaps I got from our meeting.  Like I said yesterday, we did a shoebox swap instead of our regular meeting.  We start with a potluck dinner then stamp the night away!  Seriously does anything sound more fun????  Our theme was Birthday Cards.  I found this card on Pintrest and loved the look of it.  It's a fun, bright card!  I love the DSP, it's from the Sunshine and Sprinkles pack.  The little Melon Mambo flower and silver button just bring the whole card together.  Hate to keep it quick but lots to do today :)

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!

Quick and Fun

Pintrest week continues!  Today's card is QUICK and CUTE!!!  Inspired by this card, also super cute :)  I'm such a fan of cards that can put together in almost no time.  We all have those times that we need a card....NOW!!!  I love to have these quick cards in my stash :)  This card uses the adorable mini curly label punch, this is a Sale a Bration item that you can earn for free!!!  What's better than free!!!!?!  But you only have a short time left to get this punch and set free!!  Sale a Bration is almost over!  Order before March 22, to get your free items!!!

On another note, tonight is our demonstrator meeting. We're doing a shoebox swap, this means it's a night of just stamping, chatting and all around fun!!!  I've chosen not to show my card today, you'll see that tomorrow :)  Don't worry, it's Pintrest inspired to fit into our Pintrest 2 week!! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Watercolored Wagon

I'm not entirely sure how, probably because last week was crazy busy, this week is worse, but I think today is likely to be the beginning of Pintrest week 2.  Which is great, there are so many amazing ideas out there and why not have another Pintrest week, I enjoyed the first one :) and with the busy lives we lead it's ok to copy :) This card is probably my favorite card that I've made in a while.  This card is simple, sweet and just fun!!!!  Of course it wouldn't be right for me to not post the inspiration to this card, I think you'll see the resemblance :)  The creator of this card is Diana Gibbs you can see her card here. 

I love the watercoloing on this card!!!  When was the last time you watercolored???  I love the look of watercoloring, but I don't do it as often as I would like :)  For this card I stamped my image with Staz On and colored it with blender pens and ink pads.  I used markers to highlight a few areas.  I think one of the most important things to remember when doing any watercoloring is it's ok to leave some white spaces.  It adds to the shadows and helps it look more realistic, try it!!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Button Love

I love buttons!  I'm really trying to actually use them and not hoard them :)  When I saw this card on Pintrest I knew I had to use some of my buttons!!!  On the card they covered the buttons with glitter, while I'm a HUGE fan of glitter I wanted a slightly different look.  I've mentioned it before but I have a real problem with what I refer to as 'naked buttons'.  That is button that have exposed holes.  I know it's a little strange but it's one of my little quirks :)  So for this card I used rhinestones on the buttons.   

The rhinestones are just as sparkly as the glitter and since there's no drying time this is a card you could easily do at a class or even just whip up a few to have on hand......that is of course if you're willing to part with your buttons :)

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Bunny Butt

This is such an adorable project!!!  I just love it!!!  As soon as I saw this I knew that I HAD to make it!!  The best part, it was done in under 5 minutes!!!  that's right, under 5 minutes!  Think how many of these you could create in no time.  What adorable co-worker gifts, neighbor gifts, or just a gift for a Thursday :)  Here's the inspiration for this sweet treat, Catherine Pooler has a great video tutorial.  I did change one thing on mine that Catherine didn't do.  I used the 1 3/4 circle punch for the bunny bottom, Catherine used a framelit for hers.  I went with the circle because, well I'm a lazy stamper and the punch was right there :)

Inside are two of my favorite chocolates, Ghiradelli of course :)  The holder is the scallop tag punch.  Just add a little handle to it with the 3/4 inch circle punch and hold it closed with some ribbon.  Some of the yummy Island Indigo Sale a Bration ribbon in this case.  There's still time to get it free, not much time, but a couple weeks, HURRY!  I just love his tail made with the flower trim ribbon.  Don't you just love that ribbon!!! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!

Birthday Butterfly

This is such a bright fun card!  Don't the colors just make you happy!?!  Our demonstrator meeting is next week and our theme for our swap is 'Birthday', so I've been testing a few cards to see what my swap will be.  This will not be my swap.  Cute, yes, but my swap is waaaayyyy cuter :)  But this card is still a winner, I was inspired by this card that I originally saw on Pintrest. 

The butterfly punches are so fun and have to be right up there on the list of my favorite punches!!!  The rhinestone just makes the whole card sparkle and who doesn't love all things that sparkle!?!  On another topic did you notice the new look to my blog?  I'm hoping to change my blog header with the season changes :)  We'll see how long that lasts :) 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Bunny Basket

It's almost Easter, can you feel it, it's getting close....well maybe not that close but it will be here before you know it, you might as well be prepared for it :)  To help you out I have a sweet little basket today.  This is a super easy basket that you could whip up in literally no time at all.  I'll get to that in a minute though.  I have a quick tutorial for you below on making this quick basket.  I used the Ears To You Single stamp for this basket.  Don't you just love these colors together.  Elegant Eggplant, Wisteria Wonder, Summer Starfruit and Pool Party! 

I added some Wisteria Wonder ruffled ribbon to the handle of the basket and attached it with some antique brads.  I'm really working on not hording the brads :)  I added some ruffle around the top with the Summer Starfruit cardstock.  To get that faux suede look you need to break down the fibers until the cardstock separates.  To do this I just used my bone folder and 'curled' the cardstock (like you were curling ribbon on a present with scissors).  Do this a few times and the cardstock will separate for you.  Plus once the fibers are broken it's really easy to work with and ruffle around the inside of the box/basket.  The finished basket is 2x2, the perfect size for some chocolates :)

For the basket, here's a really quick tutorial and two ways to do this basket.  You're going to flip when you see how easy it is! Start with a 6x6 piece of cardstock/DSP or whatever you're working with, here I have some scrap paper I pulled out of recycling.  Once you have the idea down you could make this basket as big or as small as you like.  Score your 6x6 piece of paper at 2 and 4 on both sides, so you'll end up with a tic tac toe board.  Cut up the score lines on one side to the first score line, flip it over and do the exact same thing on the opposite side.  So in my illustration I've cut the vertical score lines from the top down to the 2 inch score line and from the bottom up the 4 inch score line.  Hope that makes sense. 

 

Then you just fold the middle section in and pull up the sides.  You have 2 options here.  You can make a larger basket by folding them up at an angle or you can make a smaller square basket and fold them up so all the edges meet.  Cute and EASY right!   

Now that you know the basic idea you could do this with any square, make a tiny basket with a 3x3 piece of cardstock, just score at 1 and 2 inches on both sides.  Make a giant basket with a 12x12 piece and score at 4 and 8 on both sides.  I think you can see where I'm going with this :)   I hope all that helps! 

 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

A Work In Progress

Things are finally getting back to normal.  For the first time in 2 or 3 weeks we did not spend our weekend at car dealerships looking at cars (thank goodness)!  It was nice to be home (for the little while that we were home).  So glad that part is over!  But we're going to jump right into the card today, I didn't have anything to show you on Friday so I wanted to make today's card 'extra' cute!  This card took about 3 days to complete.  The sweet dress and embossing of course didn't take that long, but once I had the base of the card and the dress form done I couldn't come up with where or what greeting to put.  I have a really hard time making a card with no greeting.  It just feels incomplete to me.  So this card and all it's pieces sat on my desk Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday waiting for the inspiration to be completed.  In the end, I added a quick greeting and dressed it up with rhinestones, cute, but now that I'm looking at it I think I should have added some scallops or another layer to it.  But that's for another day I suppose.

The dress is adorable!!!  I made the little skirt with the little cupcake liner looking things from the Pop Up Posies kit.  I honestly had no idea what I was going to do with those cup cake liners.  I was ready to put them in my kitchen and use them :)  Then I saw Kimberly Van Diepen do this with them and I knew I had to do the same.  When I first saw the dress form stamp and dies in the catalog I knew they weren't for me, but after all the samples I've seen and all the beautiful girly cards made with it I HAD to have it!  Of course if you can get it for free then it's even better ;)  This was my first time playing with it and it was so much fun to play dress up.  If you think you don't need these framelits you're wrong you DO need them!!!  I didn't get the coordinating set but guess what will be on my next order :)  That's it for me I think I've gone on long enough :) 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!

Whew!!

Well I for one am glad it's Friday.  For a short work week this week seems to have taken forever to come to an end :)  The biggest event of the week was Wednesday when Dan and I went to purchase a new car.  It took all day and we are so glad that it's over!  Thursday was spent with a sick boy at home and calling insurance to get everything set up.  Between all of that I'm sad to say I have no new project today.  I'll be back Monday though, make sure to check!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Disney Memories

We're taking a trip to Disney World soon.  I wanted to make something special for Logan.  It will be his first time there. Dan and I used to work there, it's where we met, so we're excited to go back.   He doesn't know when we're going yet, he knows it's this year just not when.  We're waiting until closer to the date we're leaving before telling him and sharing this book with him.  I made this fun book for Logan.  It's a small 5x5 book, the perfect size for him to stick in his bag.  It will be so much fun to see him fill this out.  When we look back on this book in a few years the memories will be priceless! 

There's a page for all the important info, in case the book gets lost....

Don't forget to pack list, it will be fun to see what he puts on this list.......

We'll make sure to pick up some postcards while we're there.  I wonder who Logan will want to send memories to......

Every day, including our travel days, he'll have these two pages to fill out......

....It's a two page layout.  We'll make sure to spend time every night recapping the day.  This will also be helpful for me when I start scrapbooking it at home :) 

He has a final comments pages, another two page spread..... 

........There's 3 or 4 blank pages in the back that he can use for extra note, drawings or whatever he wants. 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!! 

 

End Of Year Gift......WAIT IT'S ONLY FEBRUARY!!!

It is only February but I've been in end of the school year mode, let me explain further.  Logan's teacher (who we've loved this year) is starting her summer break a little early, this week in fact.  She's about to have a little baby so her maternity leave will take her through the end of the year.  Just because she's leaving a couple months early doesn't mean that we don't appreciate all she's done the rest of the year.  So as I would do in May, I'm doing now with an end of the year gift for her.  First up is a potted plant.  I spray painted the pot with chalkboard paint and tied a ribbon on it.  To complete it I wrote (in chalk) 'Thanks for helping me grow!'.

Next up is a gift card that she can use for the baby or hopefully for herself.  I used the gift card template that I LOVE the most!!!!  I got this template from Heather Summers a couple years ago from one of her online classes.  I've used it tons of times since then.  I use a little Velcro to keep it closed.  When you open the gift card holder........

....the gift card pops up!!  So stinkin' cute!!!!  I just love it.  And by pure accident the gift card matches the colors of the holder.  A pure coincidence.  I had made the gift card holder and when I went to Target to pick up the gift card they only had one baby one, it happened to match, OH HAPPY DAY!!!!

Of course one can't give a gift without giving a card.  So I have a sweet card that coordinates perfectly with the holder.  Not a coincidence :)  I used the Perfectly Preserved stamp set with coordinating framelits for both the gift card and card.  They were in the Holiday Catalog but you can still get them!!!  Yay!!! 

That's really all I have today :)  It's been a busy week and it's only Wednesday!  Logan was tested for gifted and we're still working on finding me a new car since mine decided to die forever :(  We haven't shopped for a car in almost 10 years.  I now know 3 things about car shopping 1) I HATE CAR SHOPPING!  2) Car shopping should be a full time job  3) I hate car shopping.  I'll be glad when this is over :)  Have a great day!