FWF: THIS much

Happy Friday!

 

I realized this week that Mother's day is rapidly approaching. Yikes!

 

My parents have been ummm.... Helping.... my grandma sort through piles and piles of paper and they said that she had kept a lot of the cards we have sent her over the years. It's time to restock Grandma's stash!

Recieved this lovely stamp in the mail this week. In record time, I might add. Brought out the markers and the newest episode of Glee and had myself a fine old time.

Posting this on the run- work calls. Have a super holiday full of inspiration for all those moms out there!
 

MIM: Rock Star

 

My daughter is a dancer and this year whe was invited to join the competitive dance team at the studio (named Rising Star)

 

 

 

The best thing about this studio and dance company is that it is the complete opposite of Dance Moms. The teachers are all about encouraging and supporting everyone. There is a Big/Little Sister/Brother program where the older company members mentor the younger. My daughter's big sister is one of the sweetest girls I've ever met and I am so thankful she and my daughter were paired together.

This week's Make-It Monday was to use Perfect Pearls. I bought some a long time ago on a whim and haven't actually ever bothered to use it. Craft hoarding, I tell you. I saw this sentiment and immediately thought of the dance big sis. The Star is from a freebie Stampin' Up, and the wire thingamabob was from my hoard, but the rest is PTI.

 

FWF: a Miracle...

For the last week, I've been trying to arrange a surprise baby shower for my daughter's third grade teacher. The other parents have been great about helping me find phone numbers and bring party stuff, but if all 18 8- and 9-year olds keep quiet about this until this afternoon, it will be a miracle.

I thought that since I made a baby card for a Friday, I might as well link it up to Unity's Friends with Flair!

 

The kit is Moonbeams and Heartstrings. It's one of the first I ever bought and still one of my favorites. This was pretty easy to throw together. I should keep that in mind since there don't seem to be enough hours in the day!

 

It's the start of Spring Break for us... Happy weekend and week off!

 

Teacher Gifts

It's been two months since my last post, and the last time I had time to get crafty. The time has flown by, but I miss my crafty stuff.

In the last two months, I found a job IN MY FIELD where it's okay that I haven't finished my Master's yet AND it's part-time so I can still chase my kids around. Job opportunities like this hardly ever happen, so I feel so very blessed. I also finished two more classes towards said Master's degree that I signed up for before the job opportunity presented itself. For Christmas, I asked for a few more hours in the day!

Now, I'm done with the semester both at work and at my school, I only have 3 more classes and a research project to do, kids' activities are taking a Christmas break, so I have time to cook dinner AND get crafty!

Instead of giving gift cards in Christmas cards this year, we are giving them along with a little tree:

 

I found the tutorial here and added my own touches.

 

I used a book from my library's last weeding project. Can't beat free! I inked the edges of two of the trees, then embossed the pages for more texture and also found that there is less need for spacers that way.

 

On the third tree, I inked the edges after embossing so the embossing shows up better. Out of the three, this is my favorite. On all three, I added half-pearls and metal thingies for ornaments. I also added a star to cover the center stick.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

SPARKS: Mutants

Well, this is a new challenge for me. The Sparks challenge at Paper Smooches is to think Woodland Creatures. Since I just subscribed to the PS club, I really don't have many PS stamps at all, so I went with my fun, new October stamps:

My Copics seem to have a mind of their own, and colored my little woodland creature into a fox/gerbil/chipmunk mutant.

I've been working on reducing my paper stash (I could be the next contestant on a spinoff of Hoarders called Craft Hoarders) and making cards for Meals on Wheels recipients that my church supports. I made about a dozen of these while listening to an audiobook. Craft therapy, I tell you!

As an aside, I noticed on my blog stats the other day that someone coming from Pinterest had visited. On Pinterest's search function, I found one of my cards. Kind of flattering, but I think I need to be better about remembering the watermark.

 

Whoo Hoo, it's here!

In the mail today, my November/December issue of PaperCrafts Magazine was waiting for me. I've been waiting for this issue since May

 

BECAUSE....

 

That's my card on the right. I apologize for the picture. We haven't had a scanner since I accidentally let the smoke out of ours with the wrong electric cord.

 

Anyway, this card feels like a fluke- an amazingly fun fluke, but a fluke nonetheless.. It's the only card of mine that's ever been accepted, and that's ok. Life is crazy.

 

The only thing I want to know is,

Is it possible to bronze magazines?

 

MIM: Fun with Vellum

Make it Monday: getting inspiration from mass-produced cards. I was wandering around the card section at Target- boy, it's been a long time since I've done that! And I came across this card:

 

Notice anything funny? The vellum strip was adhered on backwards. It takes a mirror to read this thing correctly. And this wasn't the only one. Both cards available in this style were backwards. I had to laugh.

 

Here's my take:

 

 

The orginal card is embossed in black glitter, which I don't have, so I mixed some regular glitter with my black embossing powder for all of the black on this.

 

PTI stamps, Pure Poppy, True Black ink, embossing powder, glitter

Paper studio vellum

Georgia Pacific cardstock