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

 

 

FWF: Hoarders

My card for this week is one that didn't get picked up in the last submission call:

 

PTI Cardstock, ink

Unity Stamp Co Stamps

Cosmo Cricket dp?

Copics

Twinery twine

 

To make everything as tall as I wanted, I colored 8 giraffes and layered them behind the dp, and I just noticed that I didn't get all of the legs lined up with the rest of their bodies. A little more abstract than my intention (Picasso?). Oh, the details.

 

I think I need to take a break from trying to be all clever for submission calls. The magazines seem to want the latest products, which gets to be a HUGE investment after a while. So instead, I'm working on clearing out the hoard. Jen at The Sparkle Within posted a 6x6 pad tutorial to use up paper with very little waste, so that's been my goal lately. Thanks Jen! The deacons at church work with Meals on Wheels to provide all occasion cards, stamps, and pens to the meal recipients, so that's what I've been doing. Still haven't made a dent, though. Chauffeuring the kids has taken away from my crafting time, darnit!

 

Have a great weekend!

 

MIM: two birds

Two birds, one stone: I wanted to participate in this week's Make it Monday to create a die cut banner, and I needed to wrap a birthday gift because my kids are invited to a party this weekend.

I found the buckets at Target's dollar bins a while ago and bought a few for stuff like this where the gift is smaller, or in this case, lots of small things.

 

 

I used PTI's star prints because it's one of the few where I have the stamp set AND the die. And it's perftect for a 9 year-old girl. I tietd scraps of some leftover batik fabric in between the stars, added some jewels... and done! I kind of feel like one of the roping rodeo cowboys right after they've finished roping a steer- you know, how they throw their hands in the air to show when they're done?

 

I also wanted to try some ombre-like stamping with the little finger daubers I bought forever ago. This was fun to make and pretty easypeasy!

FWF: Finally!

My littlest, my baby, my little guy REALLY starts kindergarten today. Our school eeeeaaaaasses in the kinders because a full day is a lot for those guys. We started off with an hour orientation, then a half hour of one-one baseline testing, which takes two days because of the class size. So finally, on the fourth day of school, they get to start. Kind of. He has two half days before they start with the full school day. He's more than ready to go- I'm stocking up on my personal supply of kleenex.

 

My third grader started the other day, which left a lot less refereeing for me to do. So I got out m'new Phyllis Harris stamps and my Copics and had a BALL coloring the afternoon away. For the first time in about a month. I've missed Friends with Flair!

 

I actually bought this set for the Abraham Lincoln quote: Whatever you are, be a good one. But this little girl reminds me of my own.

 

I'm off to enjoy my few hours of full choice on the TV and junk food for lunch if I feel like it. Have a great weekend!

 

MIM: fabric die cuts

Whew... it's been a while. I completely overscheduled myself this summer, so not only have I not had any crafting time, but I haven't had any ideas for a while. It was a little worrisome, because I have all this crafting STUFF, and it's seems wasteful not to be able to use it.

Crafting guilt?

School starts for my kids tomorrow but my classes don't start for another ten days, so I took the time to watch this week's Make it Monday. And finally got an idea:

I love batik- it's so beautiful without being overly patterned.  All of these butterflies came from the same strip of fabric. I didn't have any spray adhesive to back my fabric, so I used Heat n Bond, die cut several butterflies, and ironed them together so there is some bulk there. I then ran them through my sewing machine chain style and  it kind of looks like the sewing is antennae. They're kind of flat, so I embossed the background and added jewels to the front. I wish I could've figure out how to get the sentiment on the front. I stamped it inside, instead.

Papertrey Ink die, cardstock, sentiment

SU ink

Martha Stewart jewels

Cuttlebug embossing folder

New Challenges

I think I might be stuck in a rut, so I've been looking for some new challenges. Or else wait until school starts and I get my craft room back to myself. In the meantime, I've noticed weird traffic on my blog stats. I think I needed a new challenge just to get some normal people back over here!

One of the new challenges I've chosen is over at the Playdate Cafe:

I recently received an ornament for a favor at a baby shower. What in the world to do with it? Stick it to a card, of course!

Having lighting issues here- the ornament is some kind of silver metal. I used it as a stencil to play with m'new Pebbles chalks and then scor-taped it on. The sentiment is Unity.

Off for more kids' activities!

MIM: Christmas in July

There is a super-fun challenge over at the Papertrey Ink blog: a dice challenge.  After filling out the worksheet, we had to roll the dice to see which combinations to use. Here are mine:

2. Vertical orientation.

Layout #3- but I flipped it upside down

Image stamps:

1. Winter Cheer

2 Holiday Tree

3. Trendy Trees

4. Scattered Showers

5. Mehndi Medallions

6. Star Prints

Sentiment Stamps:

1. Winter Swirls

2. Botannical Silhouettes

3. Beautiful Blessings

4. Handwritten Notes

5. Holiday Spirit Sentiments

6. Holiday Lights (lot of Christmas in this category-eek)

Color Combos: I went to my Pinterest boards for this one since I couldn't think of any by myself:

1. Black, white, grey

2. Pink, orange, turquoise, purple

3. Kraft, green, cream

4. White, light blue, dark brown

5. White, grey, yellow

6. greys & blues

Embellishments

1. buttons

2. ribbons

3. feathers

4. paper flowers

5. sparkles

6. washi tape

And the result is: the most out-of-the box Christmas Card I have ever made. Ever.

MIM: OOOOOOrange

Well, I've finally done it. Finally figured out which order the PTI impression plates go in to work without breaking something. I kind of wish some of these more high-maintenance dies and plates would come with fool-proof instructions.

This week's Make it Monday is stamping on texture. For me, it took finding the right balance of detail to open space. My nephew's 10th birthday is coming up, and I thought that the alphabet impression plate would work- not too babyish, but still kid-like.

Also, I needed a flatty since he lives far, far away from here.

This one is because I had two bases made, I don't really like orange, and it's handy to have an extra birthday card ready to go. And I was having fun playing with my new knowledge :)

FWF: Birthdays, Part II

I've been working on a mini album/massive birthday card for my grandma. But I don't do big, which is where the mini-album part comes in. I'm trying to find every Happy Birthday stamp I own to make enough page thingies to fill this li'l album. Which is quite a few, at this point.

I can't quite figure out where to put the sentiment on this one:

Had to include this lady. She looks a lot like my grandma did back in the day!

Happy Friday and weekend to you all. Praise the Lord, it finally rained!

MIM: Birthdays, Part I

How many birthday stamps do we all have? I have come to the conclusion that it's like black shoes: I can always use ONE MORE.

My grandma turns 90 next week, and I'm supposed to make a card that we (all 40+ of us) can sign. I don't do big. All of my crafy stuff is more the scale of normal sized cards. So I thought that I have a bunch of coasters I have never used, so I made a mini album. I figure if I make enough pages, there will be enough room for everyone to sign. And I have enough birthday stamps that I think I can make that many.

Here are the first few, done in the MIM challenge for this week: stamping on patterned paper.

I'm going to bind them together with a ring in the upper left corner. I'm not sure I've ever seen a birthday card like this before!

Except for the buttons, I think everything I used is PTI.

Chick Challenges: My 'stache

It's been a while since I played in a Chick Challenge, so here goes:

We were waiting for a non-existent worker to show up to help us one day, and found this mustache duct tape during our wait. I think it might be a conspiracy. The workers wait until I've picked up at least 3 things I did not really need before they come to help. Grrr. Although this tape is kind of funny.

Can't ever have too many masculine cards, huh?

PTI Cardstock. True Black ink

RRR twine ribbon thingy

Unity Stamp Co. stamps

Glossy Accents

Duck Tape mustache tape

FWF: Smiles

One more Friday, and one more day until fall. I'm not a big fan of heat, plus the smoke from wildfires around here, plus Colorado and Utah fires are making the air quality horrible. And it's only June. Scary, scary stuff.

I've been trying to do climate control in my house so that the AC isn't going constantly, but that means all of our blinds are down and the house is dark. Which makes it hard to match colors.

I made a square version of this that I actually liked a bit better until I realized that I glued everything on sideways. I blame the lack of light.

Core'dinations cardstock

Hobby lobby ribbon

SU, PTI inks

 PTI dp

Unity Stamp Co stamps.

Stay cool out there and I'm going to go pray for lightning-less rain!

MIM: Tulle

Gotta make this quick.... I really should be cooking dinner, but it's so stinkin' hot I'd rather be here in the AC exerting no heat-inducing energy.

Make it Monday this week is about stepped up embellies. I was walking around Hobby Lobby with my kids on a glue dot run when I found one of those free idea books about making stuff with tulle, and voila! I had an idea.

Tulle is surprisingly easy to die cut. My flower punch died on me today, so I used a Sizzix die and it works through several layers of the tulle. I sewed them together with a star button you can't see in my iffy pic, glued on a gem and it's done! I also used my PTI flourishes dies to balance everything out, stamped my sentiment and I like my black and white creation!

FWF: On the Fence

Happy Friday!

I have gotten hooked on Glee. Enough so that I bought the second season to watch on my computer while I play with my crafty stuff. I made this while watching the season finale:

That was my last scrap of cloud paper, and I'm sad about that because I haven't seen any for a while and I can't justify buying anything for a while. Sniff.

MME cloud paper

October Afternoon dp

Copics

Unity Stamp Co stamps

MFT dies (yay for sales, right?)

Palette, Ranger inks

Off to see if Season 3 is available!

MIM: It's Elementary

Our library has an enormous Thank You that a local elementary school made for the librarians. The kids drew a tree and used crumpled tissue paper for the flowers and leaves. I've been admiring it for a while and decided to do something similar today. This week's Make it Monday is about masking the sentiment.

Besides the Santa Claus tissue paper, the only color I had handy was white, which actually was nice because I colored it with Copics to make my own colors. I cut it into squares, crumpled it up and glued it to the tree. Easypeasy. Thanks, kids.

Papertrey Ink sentiment, rustic cream cardstock

SU, Ranger, Palette inks

Copics

tissue paper

Unity Stamp Co tree

FWF: A Rant

Hellooooo out there!

I missed last week's FWF because we were in Kansas City, where I discovered an Archiver's (we don't have one anywhere in this wonderful state of mine). The only thing I can't seem to find ANYWHERE is a hex punch. I've seen lots of cool ideas that use hexagons, but only dies and not many of those. I think I have a lot more waste using a multiple die, so with my extra cuts, I made two Father's Day cards:

And, making up for lost crafting time, I had to make a card for our house-sitter to get her payment to her:

AND THEN... I saw a cool pillow on Pinterest that had a grey chevron backtround with a yellow flower popped up on top. Love the color combination:

Have a good one- I have lots of books waiting to be read!

MIM: Puffy Heart

In Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer, he talks about how insight tends to come in a flash rather than after hard work. After watching this weeks Make it Monday, it was one of those nice moments where I knew exactly what I wanted my card to look like:

I got an email where the sender sent me a puffy heart and I've kept it because it meant so much. And this was a pretty cool way to make a super easy puff.

By the way, Walmart has fun foam with adhesive backs that makes this even superdooper easypeasy!

Papertrey Ink cardstock and letter dies

Spellbinders heart dies

Zig pen

Batik fabric scrap from my attempts to learn how to quilt- cardmaking is much easier, BTW

Talk about a ten minute card!

FWF: The Fast and the Furious

Yay for summer!

I threw this anniversary card for my parents together while trying to get ready to leave for my own anniversary. My parents have been together for 43 years now. Holy Cow. Today I read a blog post on how to stay together for 15 years and even  that in today's society is a lot. I hope that in the next 33 years I will appreciate and laugh at my husband's jokes just as much as my mom still laughs at my dad's awful puns.

Since summer's here, I have lots of time to read now that I'm not chauffeuring as much as I used to. I read a tutorial the other day where the stamper inked the negative areas of her embossing folder and then embossed a piece of cardstock, so I tried it. I love how it turned out! Very cool effect. And easypeasy. Yay for that.

PTI cardstock

MME dp

Unity sentiment

Cuttlebug embossing folder

SU ink

KC gems

white embossing powder

Make it Monday: Hello

Hellllloooooo!!!

School's out and I am loving that, for the moment, I can drive somewhere because I want to and not because I have to. Today I CHOSE to drive to Hobby Lobby and bought a Corner Chomper because the store brand corner rounders I have keep breaking. It was lovely. It just takes twice as long because I have my kiddos with me.

I spent the long weekend doing chores and dodging raindrops. I love those raindrops, we haven't seen nearly enough of them this spring. I helped a friend move, I shampooed my carpets (ugh) and mowed the jungle that was my lawn. And now I get to play. Wooohooooo!

This week's MIM was to make a pocket card, a new thing for me. I used PTI kraft with Fresh Snow, Dark Chocolate, Aqua Mist and Color Box Ocean inks. I wanted to heat emboss a similar Aqua Mist color, but I couldn't find one. The stamp set is PTI Dot Spot with a Unity Hello. The ribbon and buttons are from my stash. Pretty easy peasy and I love the color combination. I wish pigment inks showed up a bit brighter, though.

FWF: Kiss

This is a tough post for me. I had been working on this for a while because the coloring takes me a LONG time. I don't have all the colors I wish I had and my local store keeps the limited selection they have under lock and key, so I always end up ordering them. The actual coloring and figuring out shadows takes a while because it doesn't come naturally.

I think dog fur is challenging to color, plus my dogs are kind of nappy and I was trying to make the image somewhat realistic. That dog above looks way more groomed than my dogs ever have- they hate being brushed. I set this aside for the night so I could think about it. This morning we woke up to find that our youngest dog had passed on. He was as neurotic as they come, but he loved the daylights out of us. I'm sure he was God's example to us of how to truly love.

Goodbye, Jack. We love you.

MIM: A Punny Birthday

I'm getting a head start on next month's birthdays. Also, I ordered some new Copics in an attempt to learn how to color all over again.

This week's Make It Monday was about choosing patterned papers. I had all three of mine chosen (orange circles, grassy flowers, and a blue stripe) and put together the triangles before I realized that the third pattern would barely show. Feeling slightly lazy, I decided to go with it instead of trimming the square.

Papertrey Ink banner die, rustic white cardstock, True Black ink

Bella Blvd. pp

Unity Stamp Co stamps

Copics

Twinery twine

Memento Blue Sky (for the edges)

Spellbinders Circle die 

FWF: Onward & Upward

End of school year craziness...

I still haven't finished my birthday and thank yous because of school functions. My son and I went on my daughter's 2nd grade field trip yesterday and taught a bunch of them how to play Zookeeper. It was lots of fun, but I'm really sore today. I thought I was in better shape than that!

Also adding to the craziness was the email project acceptance for Paper Crafts. It was my first, and I'm still expecting that email that says they've changed their minds. Well, I say first, but I'm sure this was just a fluke and it seems arrogant to imply that there will be more. As excited as I am, arrogant people drive me nuts so I try not to be as much as possible. 

ANYWAY...

This is a birthday card for my niece. I got a box of goodies from Bella Boulevard's  warehouse box sale a couple of weeks ago and had to play with it ASAP.

This is yet another teacher thank you. It seems appropriate for the preschool teachers since they are the ones who got my kiddos off to such a great start.I actually used two itty bitties on this one, but one is a hot air balloon backwards so that I could get the right shape for the balloons since I can't draw. I stamped the balloons with pencil erasers on two levels to give it some dimension. I wonder if dimensional glaze on selected balloons would add just a bit more, or just settle over the entire thing?

3 Thank Yous to go....

 Have a good one!

Seasons

Around here, people say that there are two seasons: winter and construction. It seems like that at my house, May is Thank You and Birthday season.

My little guy is almost done with preschool and I wanted to give all the teachers a special thank you because both of my kids have had such a good start to school with them.

This week's Make it Monday is to make felt flowers with border dies. I used my zigzag die for the first time ever- it's about time, huh? I did have to trim the bottom before rolling so it would sit flat, or else my rolling skills need work.

I also inked the edges because I found some African daisies yesterday with a really cool purple center and purple edges. Bought the daisies, wish I had a die I could make a paper version. In the meantime, rose-ish things will do.

Papertrey Ink cardstock, dies, sentiment

Ribbon Boutique ribbon

Cosmo Cricket dp

SU ink

Two Birds

It took a while for inspiration to hit, but I have several Thank You cards to make and I'm killing two birds here...

This is the Tuesday Trigger at the Moxie Fab World. I love how fluffy it is.

I met a mom at a birthday party last weekend who makes and sells hair bows, so I picked her brain to learn how to make some new embellishments.

 I used the sketch from the Unity Kit of the Month Sketch challenge.

Papertrey Ink cardstock and Dark Chocolate ink

My Mind's Eye dp

Unity Stamp Co. sentiment

Jenni Bowlin and Basic Grey buttons

American Crafts and Making Memories ribbons

100

This is my 100th blog post and I'm surprised.

I'm surprised I had this much to say. I had a roommate once with a theory that everyone has a quota of words. Some have a lot, and then there are those of us with very few.

I'm frankly surprised at the number of views. Never thought that would happen. I mostly started this so I could learn some new technology and get to make cards at the same time.

Anyway...

This weeks Make it Monday is to use scraps to make a new and interesting background.

I used Echo Park dep for my background with a PTI cardstock base and sentiment. Some of the squares are popped up with foam dots, as is the panel, making for a very thick card. Easypeasy.

Thanks for visiting!

FWF: Branching Out

I love Pinterest.

There's such great inspiration there, although, I didn't mean to copy this one so exactly. Oops.

I did get to pull out my Bella Doilies- one of my all time favorite sets and also to try a color combo that I haven't before. I'm not exactly loving the cardstock- it's too thin. Who knows where I can get this cream color in a heavier weight?

Paper Studio cardstock, pearls

Core'dinations yellow card

Unity Stamp Co stamps

Memento London Fog ink

Make it Monday and New Toys

Going for a little abstract here...

I finally got around to playing with my order from last month's release and I love these colors. The only PTI official ink I have out of that combo is the Ocean Tides, though, so the rest is a little hit-or-miss. The result is a fairly mailable, easypeasy birthday card. I'm collecting them for a Mother's day gift for my mom.

Papertrey Ink cardstock, dp, stamps, dies

Ink: Palette, Memento, PTI

One of those low-quantity word days...

Shh....It's a Surprise Baby Shower!

I found out that my sister and her husband are expecting their first baby last fall. She is due in just a few weeks and we are so excited for them! I've always wanted to throw a surprise party and this was the perfect opportunity. Plus, my brother-in-law was more than willing to help with the sneaky side of planning and my sister-in-law is great at planning parties, so between the three of us, we planned a surprise baby shower even though we live a few hours away from each other.

My sister isn't planning on finding out the gender until the little guy is born (such patience!) so we had to go with a gender neutral theme. Maggie (my SIL) thought that sock monkeys would be good- they're not pastel, they're cute, and the color palette is non-traditional. I have a couple of sock monkey stamps, so I made the invitations:

SU sock monkey stamp

water color pencils

PTI cardstock, twine, dark chocolate ink

Hobby Lobby dp

And a banner for the wall with the name they've been calling their little one:

I found the tutorial HERE.

Unity Stamp Co stamps

Georgia Pacific Cardstock

PTI Pure Poppy, Dark Chocolate ink

Hobby Lobby trim

We used a bunch of tiny monkeys in wee little wagons as table decorations. Super cute, but if my husband wasn't handy, they'd still be sitting in  boxes :) The candy bar was Maggie's idea, too. The treat bags are simple brown bags edged with a Martha Stewart punch and the labels were made with Spellbinders dies, PTI frame stamps, and MS Publisher on label paper.

Maggie found some really good sock monkey printables on Etsy and our kids helped us pull it all together. Without letting anything slip to the guest and 1/2 of honor. Yay!

Fun, fun :)