SUMMER FUN - CARD

Do you ever get stuck picking out paper for a project? I have TONS of paper, but could not find one sheet of something that I liked for this card. So what's a gal to do? I wanted paper that looked like either sunrise or sunset so I decided to make my own. I took a muffin tin and filled the cups with water, I then added a few drops of food coloring to each cup and mixed with a toothpick. I used a medicine dropper to pick up the colored water and then squirt it on a flattened coffee filter. The colors run together a little, but I really am happy with the end result. You can also fold up the coffee filter as if you are going to cut out a snowflake and dip the corners in the muffin cups to get a really cool looking tye-dyed effect. The palm tree is a "Deluxe Cut" die cut and the stamped image is "Hula Anya" from The Greeting Farm website. Hope you are all enjoying your weekend. Thanks for looking!

SEW CUTE!!

My Girl Scout troop decided they wanted to earn a Fashion Design badge at this past Thursday night's meeting. One of the requirements was that they had to make their own pattern for a garment and then construct it using the pattern. First off, let me tell you I do not know the first thing about sewing and can not even thread a sewing machine to save my life. If given a choice between threading a sewing machine and trying to make fire on next season's Survivor...well let's just say stay tuned to the TV to see how that turns out....I don't do fire either but I think I have a better chance with it then the sewing machine. That being said, thank goodness for friends that know how to sew!! My friend Heather came and taught the girls (most of them have never touched a sewing machine before) in one evening how to make pajama bottoms and how to make their own patterns for them. They did AWESOME!!! I was so proud of them.

Here is Caitlin working on her pajamas. This is actually her sewing machine and she has had a few lessons but it has been a good year or more since she has sewn anything. Just look at the concentration on her face.

Here is the finished project. She did a really great job and now wants to make a bunch for family and friends. She has a bunch of Christmas projects that she wants to complete now that she has reconnected with her sewing machine.

Caitlin and Brittany made a quick trip to Joanne's yesterday to buy more material for Caitlin. Caitlin surprised me with this material. Isn't it the cutest? I am now the proud owner of some very comfy and way too cute new pajama bottoms that she made for me yesterday. She also made a pair for her sister, her sister's friend and one of the daycare babies that happened to stand still just long enough for Caitlin to grab her measurements. She is now obsessed and just sew cute!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY - CARD

I think I told you all that I had my eye on a certain stamp over at Whimsie Doodles.....well here it is.

Below is a quick Father's Day card and little gift that I made for my Dad and FIL. The little gift is actually a bottle of homemade Apple Bar-b-que Sauce that I whipped up yesterday. The bottle is a 14 oz. ketchup bottle that I emptied out. The recipe below is enough to make one bottle of sauce.

APPLE BAR-B-QUE SAUCE

1/2 c. apple jelly

1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce

3 oz. tomato paste

1/4 c. vinegar

2 T. light brown sugar

2 T. water

1 t. hot sauce

1/4 t. salt

1/4 t. ground cloves

Bring all ingredients to a boil and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Cool, cover and refrigerate.

MAKE A WISH - CARDS

Here are a couple of examples of another Whimsie Doodle digital stamp. This one is called Make a Wish. I did one in colors for a girl and one in colors for a boy.

For the first I used the Tiny Bubbles and the Spots and Dots A2 cuttlebug embossing folder to give my random circles some texture and added some random bling that I found in the $1 spot at Michael's. The pattern paper used for the second example is from the DCWV summer stack from last year. If you haven't checked out the Whimsie Doodles site yet, you really should, she has the most adorable images. I have my eye on the turtle with the bar-b-que apron on.....it would be perfect for Father's Day.

U ROCK - CARD

I think I got a little carried away with the stitching on this one. I made this birthday card for my friend Josie who turned 5 Saturday. She loves Hannah Montana and is a ROCK STAR in my book.

The stamp is called Rock Star Anya from the Greeting Farm. I used my Copic markers to color her in. I then hand drew the guitar handle, added stitching for the strings and brads for whatever you call those thingies at the top. The "U" is a chipboard letter and the word "rock" is a rub on.

Thanks for looking...I am off to play some more with my new stamps.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COOL DUDE - CARD

My oldest daughter Brittany surprised me last week by purchasing 5 new Greeting Farm stamps for me...these are my new favorites! I was so excited to get them that I stamped them all right away and colored them with my new Copics.

Here is a birthday card that I made with one of my new stamps for one of the little boys that I watch. The stamp is called Surfer Ian. I have been on a stitching kick lately so I stitched in some waves. The bottle cap and fish brads I have had for years...I just finally found a use for them.

FRIENDS FOREVER - CARD

How cute is this stamp? It's actually a digital stamp that I found on this blog: http://whimsiedoodles.blogspot.com/ She has the most adorable digital stamps on her blog that she also sells on her Etsy store. The stamp I used on this card however is a FREEBIE!!


That's right I said freebie, so hop on over and download it for yourself, while you are there check out her other images they are too cute. I was fortunate enough to win some blog candy that she offered over the weekend and I have two more images coming my way. Yay me!!

I used my new Copics to color in the image. The sentiment is from some random stamp I had in my stash. I should mention that the freebie image comes with the sentiment "this bud's for you".

I have a link to both the blog and the Etsy store on the right of my blog...check it out.

SANTA CRUZ BOARDWALK - LO

Here is a quick LO of our trip to Santa Cruz last year for my birthday. This trip was incredible, it contained three of my most favorite things...my family, the beach and light houses.

All of the paper used is from Cloud 9 Design, the Cinnamon Stick pad. The circles were cut with my coluzzle and I used random buttons from my gigantic button jar and some Primas I had laying around. The word "Santa Cruz" was cut using the Opposites Attract Cricut cartridge and the words "boardwalk, march and 2007" were all cut using my Quick Kutz Calvin font.

I am sooo ready to go back!!

SUMMER FUN (MY FIRST TIME WITH MY NEW COPICS) - CARD

Okay here it is...my first card made with my new Greeting Farm stamp and my new Copic markers. What do you think? Any constructive criticism is definitely appreciated! I am very happy with my purchase of the markers. I will say there is a definite learning curve...particularly for someone like me...let's just say I never won any awards in kindergarten for my coloring skills and leave it at that. They will take some practice in regards to shading and adding depth and so forth. If there is anyone out there that has some tips for me I am all ears. Now back to playing...I mean practicing. Thanks for looking!

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO?

Not so much when you have these cutie stamps to console yourself with. I have temporarily said "bye bye" to da Bellas and have fallen in LOVE with The Greeting Farm stamps!!! Aren't they just the cutest? I have two new loves now (some might call it obsessions), Greeting Farm stamps and Copic Markers. After much deliberation and research I decided to see what all of the hoopla was about in regards to these markers. I love them and do not know how I stamped before them. They are fantastic. They are a little pricey (which is why for now all of my stamped images will be colored in pinks, greens, blues and aquas, as they are the only colors I own) but well worth the money and will last a lifetime. I am off to practice with my new stamps (got them last night) and I will be back later to show you the results.

TO A PERFECT PEAR - CARD

This is a card that I shamelessly scrapjacked from the April edition of "Stamp It!" magazine. Wendy Johnson actually created this card using the stamp kissing technique. Since I do not have a pear stamp I had to improvise. I also do not have any of the Cricut carts suggested for the pear shapes (thanks to all that suggested what carts to use...unfortunately I do not have any of those carts.....yet) so I hand drew one...okay actually several until I got one the way I liked it and used it for a template. I ran my yellow cardstock through the cuttlebug using the argyle embossing folder. The heart is a punch from Posh Impressions and the sentiment is a rub on. Two anniversary cards down and one more to go.

TOGETHER FOREVER - CARD

Here is a quick card that I made for one of several family members' anniversaries I have coming up. I can't remember who makes the stamp I used to make the background squares. I used SU inks (certainly celery, pretty in pink, and almost amethyst) for the background and a SU stamp from the "Fun and Fast Notes" set. This card was quick and easy to make. The only hard part was trying to line up the background squares evenly.

MY FIND

Isn't this just the cutest? I found this little goodie at Marshall's today. I think it is a bill/letter organizer but it is now the new home for my stamp supplies and Copic markers. The added bonus besides new storage is that it holds pics of my cutie patooties. Can't go wrong with that!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CUPCAKE - CARD

Can I just ask....how cute is the Hello Kitty Cricut cartridge?! This is not a cartridge that I own as the girls and I are really not into the whole Hello Kitty thing. I borrowed this cart from a friend to see what the big deal is, and I have to say it has some cute cuts on it such as this adorable cupcake! It also has the most adorable strawberry, cherries and other big chunky puffy shapes. My only complaint is that I tried the "card" feature on one of the cuts and did not like it at all. My card looked lop sided and slanted on the hinge side. I don't think this is a cart I would purchase, but if I could get a cart with just the cupcake and fruit shapes I would be in LOVE!! Speaking of fruit shapes...anyone know which cart I can find a pear shape on?

I whipped up this card for my mom's birthday tomorrow. The background paper is from the DCWV Sweet Stack. I cut the cupcake at 6" and stickled the frosting. I used a random button from my button jar and cut off the cherry stem. The word "birthday" is a rub-on and the word "happy" is cut using my Quick Kutz Calvin font. Pretty simple. Now off to look for a pear.

CUTE LIL' SPOOKS - LO

What can I say? I was on a roll this weekend. Actually I had a good friend come over Saturday and I was up until 3 am scrapbooking. This is another kit from Scrapbook "Fun"addicts. I did tweak it just a little and took out some elements they had included and added my own. The brads, metal spiders and spiderweb embellishments are all from Oriental Trading. This kit did not have nearly the amount of small pieces that the Christmas one did, thank goodness!!!

DECK THE HALLS - LO

This LO is from a kit I purchased from Scrapbook "Fun"addicts (there is a link to the right of my blog) while at a scrapbooking expo some time ago. I actually started this LO a long while back but put it off as there were SOOO many little pieces!! I decided to finally tackle it and finish it this weekend. The kit comes with the background papers, all papers for matting the photos and all of the little pieces needed to put the LO together already cut out. You just add ink, chalk and pen detail and glue them all together to complete. There are supposed to be a lot more Christmas lights on this LO, but I kept losing them and finding them glued to places they should not have been glued to...like the bottom of my slippers, my arm sleeve and so on, LOL!

AMAZING - LO

Here is another LO of Brittany. I started this one at the Swarm last weekend and finished it up this weekend. It's a pretty simple LO as I really didn't want the pictures to have to compete with the LO itself. All of the papers used are from the SU Bella Rose Designer Series. I used various buttons from my button jar and various rub-ons for some of the words. The word "amazing" was cut from the Storybook Cricut cartridge (at the moment this is my favorite cartridge) and the word "sweet" was cut from the Street Signs cart. As I said, it's a simple LO but it's too the point and describes her perfectly!