Cute Hair

Man! Life!! I tell you what! My daughter has had pretty bad hives for almost a month now, and she had a cold for a few days in the middle of that. I had a solid week of migraines, and still had commitments in there, aside from the normal mom and wife things. Our 26th wedding anniversary came and went while my husband had some pretty awful dental issues going on... Something is going on with my van sliding door making school drop off adventurous. And every Saturday from here to Halloween is packed. And that's just the extra stuff! Needless to say, crafting has taken a back seat to life at the moment. 

But here's a quick page I put together for my youngest. Only the black paper and ink are current, ha. This page was actually for a challenge to use some old accessories you've maybe forgotten about. DONE. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Alphabest

Ink: Memento Black
Paper: Crisp Cantaloupe (long retired), Basic Black card stocks
Accessories: 2013-2015 In Color Sequins, retired Washi Tape, Glue Dots, Take Your Pick Tool

I added some handwritten journaling in the blank spot. She'd been asking for weeks, but decided she wanted her hair cut closer to school starting. She's loving it! 

When the paper matches!

These were two layouts of the same event but for different books again. Love that those are getting done! Because many times I'll stop at just one......
This was from last Christmas as well, and the only year we've ever done matching jammies for everyone.
It was another big night- we watched a Christmas Devotional, then opened our new jammies, took family pictures for the Christmas card that year (ha!) and then had our Polar Express night tradition- which is to watch the movie with a hot chocolate intermission! 

Supplies:

Paper: Real Red, Peaceful Prints DP

Accessories: Metallic Pearls

Journaling Font: Xiomara

Supplies:

Paper: Real Red card stock, Peaceful Prints DP

Accessories: Santa Express Memories & More Cards, forgotten washi tape

Journaling Font: Dreaming Outloud Pro

Marching Band at Disneyland!

I have had a sick little one and no time for creating, but I still have LOTS of scrapbooking to share! Maybe one of these days I'll get some posts typed up ahead of time to share on crazy weeks... but don't hold your breath, lol. 

For today, I've got this fun page. My son looved his time in marching band and really enjoyed catching this marching band performance. So of course it had to be mentioned in our scrapbook! 

Supplies: 
Paper: Marina Mist, Basic Black, misc DP
Accessories: Musical Instruments dies, washi tape, Big Shot
Journaling Font: Bradley Hand ITC

Pumpkins 2018!

Continuing on with the Halloween theme this week, I scrapped some more pics for my middle kiddo, of days of Halloween past. I used some of the same things I already had out, and as is often the case, everything is retired except the ink and card stock.

And this actually uses the colors from Inspire.Create.Challenge 

Supplies: 

Stamps: Jar of Haunts (2016), Classic Numbers
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Gorgeous Grape
Paper: Basic Gray & Gorgeous Grape card stocks, Halloween Night Specialty DP (retired) 
Accessories: gray stripe washi, black polka dot washi (both long retired)

And here's a little close up of the edge.

Hope you get to make something fun this weekend! 

Nautical Thanks

I need a number of masculine thank you cards right now! A bunch! So I went scouting challenges and picked this Sailing Home set that I love for the "travel" theme issued by the TGIF Challenges blog. I would definitely have to do some traveling to see the ocean from my house, and it is totally on my bucket list! And I think it works fantastically for a guy! I had a lot of fun putting this one together.

Also, that super great Night of Navy/Sahara Sand twine is retiring and on sale HERE, and that very cool washi tape is also retiring and on sale HERE right now!!

Supplies:
Stamps: Sailing Home
Ink: Memento Black, Pacific Point, Smoky Slate
Paper: Whisper White, Mossy Meadow, Early Espresso card stocks, Come Sail Away DP (retiring!)
Accessories: Navy/Sahara Twine (retiring!), Pressed Petals Washi Tape (retiring!), Watercolor Pencils, Smooth Sailing Dies, Big Shot, Glue Dots

One Sketch, Two Cards

Today I have two more Mother's Day cards for you. One card uses the exact supplies as yesterday's card...but I put it here with the same sketch, lol. I used the Mojo Monday sketch for today and created two totally different cards.

First, if it's possible, an even softer version of yesterday's card?

Supplies:
Stamps: Very Versailles, March 2018 Paper Pumpkin
Ink: Smoky Slate, Pear Pizazz, Merry Merlot
Paper: Whisper White & Smoky Slate card stock
Accessories: Pressed Petals Washi Tape (retiring!), Tin Tile Embossing Folder, Clear Faceted Gems (SOLD OUT), Big Shot

and second, another Paper Pumpkin kit is the star of the show here!

Supplies:
Stamps: April 2019 Paper Pumpkin (Sentimental Rose)
Ink: Flirty Flamingo & Mint Macaron
Paper: Flirty Flamingo, Whisper White & Mint Macaron card stock
Accessories: Tin Tile embossing folder, Big Shot, Dimensionals

And I think now I'm ready for Mother's Day cards to be mailed out!

Mother's Day

You know Mother's Day is THIS Sunday, right? haha.... I have been forgetting everything lately, so I'm just making sure you know. I needed a small stack of cards made so my kids could send them out so this is the first of what I made yesterday!

Today's card used the latest sketch from Inspire.Create.Challenge blog. I love sketches for my cards! I picked this pretty Very Versailles stamp set (which is sticking around, btw- YEAY!) and to me, that means soft colors. But I also wanted this pop of Blackberry Bliss for this sweet washi tape flower (although after looking at the catalog, the flower actually is Merry Merlot).

Supplies:
Stamps: Very Versailles, March 2018 Paper Pumpkin
Ink: Smoky Slate, Pear Pizazz, Blackberry Bliss
Paper: Whisper White & Pear Pizazz card stock
Accessories: Pressed Petals Washi Tape (retiring!), Clear Faceted Gems (SOLD OUT)

Are you making any cards to mail out this week? Any birthday or thinking of you or anything? You really should!

Washi Tape Flower!

Have you seen the new Washi Tape?? There isn't a whole lot in the new catalog, but there is this awesome flower petal roll that makes flowers!

It's only $7.50 for these two rolls, and I seriously love them both. I used both on today's card, combined with the latest sketch from the TGIF Challenge blog. I was also inspired by THIS card, tho obviously it's not quite the same.

Supplies:
Stamps: Well Said
Ink: Rich Razzleberry
Paper: Whisper White card stock
Accessories: Pressed Petals Washi Tape, Clear Faceted Gems, Copper Trim, Pearlized Doilies, Big Shot, Tin Tile Embossing Folder, Dimensionals, Glue Dots

It's a little hard to see the Copper Trim. If I make this design again, I'll use a longer strip of Washi Tape to go over the edge of the doily, and I'll use a longer piece of the Copper Trim so it sticks out a bit further. I've wanted it since it came out in last years catalog, I just hadn't ever gotten it. The Washi, the Copper and the gems are all new-to-me, even tho two of them were in the last catalog.
And as a side note, the flower petals coordinate with Merry Merlot, but I don't have that ink, and noticed that Rich Razzleberry works pretty well too.

This will definitely be a card in my upcoming class! Are you coming?
And don't forget about Bonus Days and the chance to earn free money for August!

For every $50 you spend in July (before tax & shipping) you'll earn a $5 coupon to spend in August!

Send A Card!

Last night I read that yesterday was Send A Card To a Friend Day! I know, I know, we have sooo many tiny, obscure things to "celebrate", but you already know this one is important to me, haha. Did you know you were supposed to send cards yesterday? Did you send any?? I didn't mail anything yesterday but I did mail a card recently that I haven't shared here yet.

I used an old Paper Pumpkin kit (July 2017) to create this variation of the designed card. The stamping came out a little wonky but it worked out. 

Supplies:
Stamps: July 2017 Paper Pumpkin Kit
Ink: Tranquil Tide, Powder Pink
Paper: Powder Pink, Whisper White
Accessories: July 2017 Paper Pumpkin Kit

And, since it's a new month, I totaled up my paper crafting so far and have mailed more than half as many cards as I have made this year, and that is a win in my book!

Birthday Balloons!

I was just looking, and every card I have made this month (three so far...ha!) is a birthday card, that one way or another comes from a Paper Pumpkin kit! And since it's my birthday month, I think that's kind of funny. And, I just realized it's also Paper Pumpkin's anniversary month, haha!

This card uses two past Paper Pumpkin kit stamp sets. Neither are still available, but there are lots of balloon stamps available for purchase if you wanted to create this same card.

Supplies:
Stamps: May 2015 Paper Pumpkin (balloons), Feb 2016 Paper Pumpkin (words)
Ink: Peekaboo Peach, Cucumber Crush (retired), Coastal Cabana (retired)
Paper: Whisper White
Accessories: Big Shot, Brick Wall embossing folder, Dimensionals, forgot-the-name-of-this-wintery Washi Tape (retired)

Or, the idea I used didn't have balloons at all... I saw these two ideas in the demonstrator magazine this month and combined what they did to create my card. I took the embossed card front from the Fresh Fig card, and the strips of Washi Tape from the Old Olive card, and a totally different birthday image. I also tipped it the other way.

Don't forget that if you have never signed up for Paper Pumpkin, and you do so now, you'll get your first two months half off!

And you have just a couple of days left to choose Sale-A-Bration items for FREE!!! See all the options HERE.

Mixing Old & New!

This past week, my first-born went ahead and had yet another birthday. Funny how my own birthdays don't make me feel older, but his sure do...
He is such a great kid and I have been pleasantly surprised to find myself agreeing with more experienced mom's- teenagers are challenging, just like all phases, but teenagers are a lot of fun too! He's a hard worker when he needs to be, and he's willing to do pretty much anything as soon as he's asked. He is generally happy and pleasant, and he is a huge help to me.

He got some big-ticket items in the weeks leading up to his birthday so the day itself was kinda small. I wanted to make a point to make a card for him to read on his actual birthday. While he went to see the new Spiderman movie with my husband, my older daughter was on babysitting duty so I could get it done!
I used the latest TGIF Challenge, which was a sketch, thank goodness. I use retired DP and retired Washi Tape and retired dies, punch and embossing folder, but I used a brand-spanking new stamp, haha! The words came from my newest Paper Pumpkin kit, which arrived earlier the day I made the card! How's THAT for a mix? haha.... But the colors and patterns are all very "him", so of course I had to.

Supplies:
Stamps: July 2017 Paper Pumpkin
Ink: Calypso Coral
Paper: Soft Sky & Whisper White card stocks,
Accessories: Big Shot, Dimensionals, Banner Dies (retired), Lucky Stars Embossing Folder (retired), Wide Oval Punch (retired), Washi Tape (retired, forgot the name)

April's Paper Pumpkin!

A third post for this month and it's only the 11th! Yeay!!

I took some time yesterday to make the cards in the latest Paper Pumpkin kit. WOW. This is my favorite kit. hands down! And it was super popular! The refill kit was sold out in FOUR HOURS. Yes, that means that if you missed this kit, you definitely missed out. However, read on for some tips on re-creating similar projects!

*and as a side note, this was absolutely not a 30 minute project box. This is a watercolored project, which obviously includes drying time. Life distractions included, it took me four shifts to complete all twelve cards. And that's another difference from the 30 minute kits- this one included 12 cards! I would also note that the only un-included supplies were me wanting thinner strips of black stripe DP. Everything you need is included!

First of all, LOOK how pretty!!!

Eight of the card designs included a pre-embossed piece of watercolor paper. The kit included four mini watercolor pencils, and a watercolor brush. For some, I just scribbled the pencil across the whole thing. For others, I just added color inside each section. And then the last four were free-handed watercoloring, which added a fun punch of color.

 The stamps use a great mixed font, and the little ink drips are a very cool touch.

If you do have this kit and haven't yet assembled it, you should know that the black stripe "DP" is actually a sticker. I used adhesive to attach more than one before making that realization. *grin

There are two shades of green leaf stickers, and then the 3D plastic flowers are a really fun addition to the black and white cards.

Honestly, the hardest part was choosing what greeting to use!! Seriously, that took a ridiculous amount of time, haha! 

Some cards have the striped Washi tape, some don't, and really that was because I "lost" it on my table and forgot all about adding it!

You can see how thick the 3D flowers are. I do think this means they can't just be stuck in the mail, so be aware of that.

I almost forgot to show the cute, coordinating envelopes!

And after making all 12 cards, I have this much left from this kit! Plenty of glue dots for future projects, a little DP, more than half that roll of Washi tape, watercolor pencils, brush, and as always the stamps and ink! For $19.95, that cannot be beat! 

So. How would I recreate these for later?
Start by ordering

• Watercolor Paper
• Watercolor Pencils 
• Archival Black ink 
• a black Washi Tape
• Basic Black card stock

We don't sell a watercolor brush, but we do have Aquapainters and Blender Pens! And that leaves you all set to do the freehand style!
If you want embossed images to color in, you'll want to order Clear Embossing Powder, a Versamark ink pad, and a Heat Tool and you can try any "line" stamp sets!
Need some suggestions?

• Flower Shop
• Marquee Messages 
• Birthday Blooms
• Vintage Leaves

Or just any time you could color in the stamped image! It's a fun, easy way to color in your images and make absolutely beautiful cards!

Two quick things

Right now it isn't a lack of material to share- its a lack of time to type it up! So tonight I have a quick idea for you... 

Obviously we are in a new neighborhood this Christmas. We usually do little plates of goodies for neighbors, but this year even more we wanted to get out there and introduce ourselves. (Tho to be honest, of the six homes on our street, at least one of us had met all but one family!) As we were assembling plates, my husband commented in surprise that I wasn't adding anything stampy as part of introducing myself. That is because exactly none of my stamp supplies are unpacked! I dug around for some Paper Pumpkin kits and threw together some speedy tags, using the stamps from the newest kit and the precut tags from two November's ago! So here's a quick idea for gift-giving! 

The second thing I wanted to share is that even tho I'm not mailing out stamped cards this year, (our card was created in the long-retired MDS) I had my daughter stamp the trees from the newest Paper Pumpkin kit at the bottom of our newsletter, and I added a bit of Washi tape to the back of each envelope! Still a little hint of pretty on the cards going out! 

Blog Hop: Step It Up Spring Style!

Well apparently an entire month has passed, which means it is time for another blog hop! Therefore, I have created something to show you!

I got a new stamp set that I haven't got to play with yet. I really wanted to try watercoloring with abstract coloring instead of markers. Well, my first try was not good. I stamped it first, then colored, and even with it drying for a long time, the colors went muddy and the images blurred. sad...
So, I tried again, coloring blobs first, then stamping over the dried color! It's not my favorite card, but my family and friend approved, so here's what you get, haha!

My first card was kept very simple, I just trimmed the bottom part off the Watercolor Paper and separated it from the image part.

But in this blog hop, we like to show you how to step up your projects to make them a little more special. I added three accessories - two strips of Washi Tape, a button, and some twine; and I layered the whole card front onto some colored card stock for a bit more punch!

Supplies:

Stamps: In The Meadow

Ink: Memento Black, Calypso Coral, Hello Honey, Mossy Meadow

Paper: Watercolor Paper, Calypso Coral & Mossy Meadow card stocks

Accessories: Botanical Gardens Washi Tape, Neutral Buttons, Crushed Curry Baker's Twine, Glue Dots, Aquapainter

What do YOU think? 

...I think my stamping skillz have gotten rusty... haha! 

Here's hoping for more creative time in April... but in the meantime, go see what Cheryl has created for you, by clicking on the "next" button. And leave us your thoughts! We all like comments! 

Just For Your Birthday!

Today I have my second Birthday Card Class sample for you!

I mostly used the just-too-late Retro Sketch for this card's layout.

This is another weird color combination, but I wanted to use the slicy Garden Green lined DP from the Love Blossoms DP, and I wanted to use all the stamp images from the Botanicals For You stamp set, and! I wanted to use the Washi Tape that has the flowers that match! But- I've come up with a new plan for handling my classes, more "shoebox swap" style, where all the supplies for each sample are in one box (ie: one spot). And I'd already claimed the Cajun Craze ink pad for a different card. Soo... I concluded that at least in my late night dining room light, Cherry Cobbler was a close enough coordinating shade for the Washi Tape and stamps.

Anyway, I think the card turned out both fun and pretty. What do you think?

Supplies:
Stamps: Botanicals For You
Ink: Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler, Hello Honey
Paper: Whisper White card stock, Love Blossoms DP
Accessories: Botanical Gardens Washi Tape, Dimensionals

Birthday Cupcake!

Today is Feb 15 and that is the LAST day to order these fantastic Sale-A-Bration items! If you haven't gotten them and love them, place a $50 order RIGHT NOW!

~~~~~
This weekend, I finally managed to get some stamping done and that means I get to start showing off sneak peeks for my upcoming Birthday Card class!

If you follow my facebook page, you probably saw some social media "news" featuring the hashtag #imbringingbirthdaysback. If you missed it, check it out HERE. The point is that thanks to email, but mostly facebook, birthdays are simply celebrated with a typed one-liner. Lame. Don't you miss getting birthday cards in the mail?? I definitely, absolutely love cards in the mail, and I know my kids do. So, a girl who happens to work at Stampin' Up! decided, completely on her own, that she wants to mail birthday cards to anyone who wants one. And, ironically, haha, a new hashtag was born combating social media 'birthdays'. Makes me giggle. And I am a huge fan.
And I didn't even know this was a thing when I set up my card class theme! That's just a bonus!

So here's my first card for the class!
The card layout comes from the latest Freshly Made Sketch. The color combination came from the black strip of Washi Tape. The circle comes from tracing the containers our embellishments come in, and cutting it out, haha. The greeting strip is flagged with the Hexagon Punch.

Supplies:
Stamps: Sprinkles of Life
Ink: Mint Macaron, Cajun Craze
Paper: Hello Honey, Whisper White card stocks
Accessories: Botanical Gardens Washi Tape, Hexagon Punch, Dimesionals

Christmas in...August?

I don't know if you have noticed the lack of scrapbooking as much as I have, but I have definitely been missing it...! Yesterday after church my kids pulled out scrapbooks. While listening to my son carry on about how he remembers this and this, I was noticing all the "in-betweens" that weren't scrapped yet...and feeling a little guilty that I'm so far behind... And suddenly, he noticed too! haha! When there's one layout separating two Halloweens...and only a few between birthdays...yeeeeah, I have a lot of work to do!
So! Later in the evening, I pulled out my son's box of printed, un-scrapped photos, and got some pages done! ...with an emphasis on Christmas, apparently...! But hey, he now has all of Christmas 2010 scrapped and THAT is a good thing!

As my starting point, I turned to challenges on Splitcoaststampers.com. These two pages obviously use the same sketch, just flipped. And I used a "stashbusters challenge" too! Which means the supplies used are now retired, altho there IS a new Project Life kit on page 37 of the new Holiday Mini!
I used 3 colors of cardstock, 2 tags, 3 types of accents (punches, sequins and stickers) and I stamped the title!

Supplies:
Stamps: Skinny Mini ABC
Ink: Memento Black 
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Crushed Curry, Old Olive card stocks
Accessories: Scallop Circle Punch, Glue Dots, Hello December Project Life cards (2014), Hello December Project Life Accessory kit (2014)

These two pages are the same paper layout and I kept it very simple. This time I used the retired All Is Calm DP, and the same PL Accessory kit as before. All the little sticker labels come from it, and I think they're so cute!

Supplies:
Paper: Old Olive & Cherry Cobbler card stocks, All Is Calm DP
Accessories: Hello December Project Life cards (2014), Hello December Project Life Accessory kit (2014)

Next up are eeeeven simpler pages, letting the Christmas Morning photos be the star!

Supplies:
Stamps: Taffy Alphabet (long retired)
Ink: Cherry Cobbler
Paper: Whisper White & Cherry Cobbler card stocks
Accessories: Holly Berry Bouquet buttons (long retired)

The fourth in this series (yes really) kept with another very simple layout, but I used several accessories.

Supplies:
Paper: Cherry Cobbler & Whisper White card stocks
Accessories: Hello December Project Life cards (2014), Hello December Project Life Accessory kit (2014), Glue Dots

Finally, for this layout, I used THIS sketch, and really played it up I think...Since I knew I was going to need to seriously embellish the layout, I picked another Stashbuster Challenge. This time I used 2 patterned papers, die cut accents, sticker accents, stamped accents...and sequins and washi tape! I pulled out the Nov 2014 Paper Pumpkin kit for the stamps and some of the embellishments, and I really like how it all worked together!

Supplies:
Stamps: 2014 Nov Paper Pumpkin
Ink: Soft Sky & Lost Lagoon
Paper: Whisper White, Old Olive & Soft Sky card stocks, All Is Calm DP (retired)
Accessories: Big Shot, Banners Die, Hello December Project Life Accessory kit (2014), Nov 2014 Paper Pumpkin kit, 2013-2015 In Color Sequins (retired), Glue Dots

Ten pages later, it was past time to call it a night, and I think I definitely added to his scrapbook stash, hahaha...too bad it was only one event!
...and I remembered why I avoid scrapping Christmases....I take waaaay too many pictures!!!

A Burst of Summer!

It is very warm around here now! Summer has so definitely arrived! We had a cold, rainy May and now it's just hot and dry. The news keeps saying it's at least 10* hotter than it should be so there you go. The heat is bleeding thru to my crafting because today I made a stack of cards that look a lot like summer to me! Lots of hot colors together and a big splash of white! So this:

became this! (along with the help of the June 3 sketch from Viva la Verve!)

Supplies:
Stamps:Let's Get Away
Ink: Calypso Coral
Paper: Calypso Coral, Whisper White, Crushed Curry, Bermuda Bay card stocks
Accessories: Let's Get Away Project Life Accessory Pack (washi tape) Butterfly Thinlits, Arrows Embossing Folder, Regals Candy Dots, Big Shot, Dimensionals

And then I ran out of Crushed Curry Candy Dots so I used some white. What do you think? Which is your favorite?

I think it's a happy card and my daughter fell in love with it too, haha! Praise is always nice to hear!

Retiring & Retired...

On the note of teacher gifts, I had to make an additional card. Apparently my son was not a big fan of the "masculine" thank you cards I had in my stash, and couldn't pick one for his PE teacher... I mentioned (against my better judgement, ha!) that I do have a basketball stamp and he was very excited about that, which meant I had to put this card together, haha!
The basketball stamp is long retired, so it made sense that I added some now-retiring products to the card! I also used the previous Freshly Made Sketch, even tho I missed linking up in time, haha...

Supplies:
Stamps: Slam Dunk (retired)
Ink: Memento Black, Pumpkin Pie
Paper: Pumpkin Pie & Whisper White card stocks, Sweet Taffy DP
Accessries: 1 3/8" circle punch, Stacked with Love Washi Tape, Dimensionals

What is retiring from today's project?

• Sweet Taffy DP
• Stacked with Love Washi Tape