A Wall Project

I'm sorry I have not been creating and thus not posting this month! As I run from one place to another, snapping pictures all the way, I look forward to cold winter days when I can just sit inside and scrapbook all these photos into pages.... hey, a girl can dream, right? LOL! It'll happen. The kiddos might be in their 30's when it does, but it'll happen...I'm sure of it.

In the meantime, waaay back in April I posted about repainting the kids' rooms and promised to share updates when they had curtains. Yeaaah.. they still don't have curtains, but my daughter does have her daisy banner hanging now! We bought the hardware to string it with from IKEA in March and I bought metal office clips from Walmart in April and we finally got it up! And there are pictures on the kids' walls, even if they each have an empty frame waiting for something to be purchased, lol!! Yep, its that kind of summer...

So I will show this part off today, and still promise to share photos of the whole thing when the curtains are hung. No, really, I will! *grin

Supplies:
Stamps: Big Blossom (lonnng retired, but purchased for my daughter's room and finally put to use!)
Ink: Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Wisteria Wonder, Daffodil Delight (promise its not orange...)
Paper: Whisper White card stocks

A little more birthday...

So sorry I haven't posted much this month. I'm sure you all know how summertime goes and you steal a little crafty time when you can...and when you can't, well, that usually means we're off creating memories to scrap later, lol!
I do have my son's birthday card to share... I thought this set was appropriate because he's reached a milestone age and is definitely entering an adventurous future!

Supplies:
Stamps: Daring Adventure
Ink: Always Artichoke, Early Espresso & Midnight Muse Markers
Paper: Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso card stocks, Well Worn DP (retired)
Accessories: Regals Brads, Mat Pack

And here are the thank you notes he's writing up for his friends. I love this note card style that Becky Roberts shares. These are much simpler, since they're thank you notes for children, lol, but its a quick and fun style of card.

Supplies:
Stamps: Sweets for the Sweet, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Lucky Limeade, Basic Gray, Pumpkin Pie
Paper: Pumpkin Pie & Whisper White card stocks

x2

Today I have two cards to show off. They use the same sketch (from Stamping 411) and the same stamp sets but have different feels to them to serve different purposes!

The first is a sympathy card. I am really happy with how soft and pretty it turned out- just what I needed!

Supplies:
Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Petite Pairs
Ink: Certainly Celery, Wisteria Wonder
Paper: Wisteria Wonder, Very Vanilla, Certainly Celery card stocks, First Edition DP
Accessories: Lace ribbon, 1 3/8" circle Punch

And this one is a fun, bright, thank you card, which I need too!

Supplies:
Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Petite Pairs
Ink: Lucky Limeade, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Rich Razzleberry
Paper: Lucky Limeade, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White card stocks
Accessories: White Stitched grosgrain ribbon, 1 3/8" circle punch

I think this flower set is going to be a lot of fun! *grin!

Lego Party!

This involved a lot of crafts so I'm posting it on this blog! We used all sorts of ideas from a number of blogs that feature lego parties. Kinda funny how many people do AH-mazing lego parties. THIS blog post seems to feature all the blogs I had found separately, so if you're interested in your own lego party, there's your one-stop-spot!

The first step to any party is the invitations. We used THIS idea, including the printable.

Next, I made the cake! Again, lots of different ideas going around for how to do this. When I saw the idea of a lego brick cake, I figured it was a cake baked in a loaf pan, and then mini-cupcakes stacked on top for the studs. I borrowed a mini-cupcake pan from my mom for exactly that. Then I watched THIS video, and they used one 9x13 inch cake, and marshmallows! We decided to stick with the mini-cupcakes idea. It took two boxes of cake mix and I double stacked the pieces of a 9x13 cake, and used a loaf pan too. I sure wish I was better at frosting cakes...yikes! But here's how it turned out!

I would like to make a note here that our stamping supplies can totally be used outside our craft space! You see the circles on the invitation? I used them to make the mini-cupcakes too! I wanted everything to come out of the pan easily, and with as smooth an edge as possible and my husband-the-cook told me to use parchment paper to line the bottoms of the pans. ....that's tricky with mini cupcakes...BUT! my 1 3/8 inch circle punch cut out parchment circles that fit perfectly!! Clever, huh?!

Then the party itself! We played a few different games....basically I showed my son the various blogs and resources and let him choose the games he was most interested in (and that I could manage!)
My personal favorite idea was to supply small lego kits with wheels. This was in place of the goody bags. The kids began by choosing a kit and building it. Then we raced them! We replaced a closet door a few weeks ago and had the old one just laying around, so that was our race track! (and yes, I kinda sacrificed my couch for this!)

Then we played "pin the shirikin on Zane" (translation: pin the ninja star on a Ninjago character)

My husband printed this poster on four separate pages, and we just taped it together. You can see it better in the last photo on this post.

This game was a bucket full of legos, kids split into two teams, got a spoon full of legos and ran it across the room to see which team could fill up another bucket first. WOW, was I glad we did this indoors!

This game required us to pick out tiny legos a head of time. The kids then used straws to suck on and pick up lego pieces and make their own piles. I gave them 3 minutes to see how many they could get.

This game was like a circle-story, but it was a circle creation. I started by taking 4 legos and putting them together randomly, and then passed it around the circle, each kid adding 4 legos. Who knows what we ended up with, but they seemed to enjoy this one too.

 These lego candies were the prizes!

 a happy birthday boy, whose lego stash possibly doubled!

 and while we waited for parents, we stuck in a lego Star Wars movie!

 And the party crew - minus one kiddo who was late.

Lego Birthday Party: Success! 

New Stuff!

This time I used last week's Mojo Monday sketch and a bunch of new toys! The stamps are new, the blue ink is new (Midnight Muse!), the button is new and the DP is new to me, lol! The sketch called for an oval shaped focal point, but I wanted to stamp ON the DP as well as use it for the whole rectangle. I cut out a free-hand oval and laid it over the middle and sponged the rest with Crumb Cake ink. Then, I laid down the paper I cut the oval from, and stamped the flowers and leaves inside the hole. Make sense? *giggle

Supplies:
Stamps: Summer Silhouettes
Ink: Midnight Muse, Old Olive, Primrose Petals, Crumb Cake
Paper: Very Vanilla, Midnight Muse card stocks, First Edition DP
Accessories: Paper Daisies, Scallop Edge Punch, Natural Buttons, Linen Thread, Dimensionals

Finally, this was my first time to play with Stampin' Up!'s new firm-foam ink pad. It looks a little bit like a leather or textured plastic type of pad, and it has a lot of give, like the foam craft pads did. The ink does show up richer and darker, which I really love. See the uneven look to the pink flowers? The blue isn't going to do that. YEAY!!! I think I'm really going to like this! Here's a photo of my ink pad and maybe you can see the difference....

That's not to say I'm going to replace the colors I own, but I think this is a really nice change, and I think you'll enjoy the new inks too!

Stamp News & something cute!

Its the 10th of July and I finally managed to send out my monthly newsletter!

The highlights I want to share with you are that this very fun stamp set Reason To Smile is only available until July 31, and its only $5 when you order $50 worth of product!

Also before that July 31 deadline, anyone who hosts a workshop of $450 or more will still receive up to $115 worth of free product, so you might want to schedule your workshop soon!

Guess what else? I finally got to create something today! This sweet card uses the Monday Mojo Sketch and a fun new stamp set that was at the tippy top of my wish list as soon as I saw the catalog! ...how do you like the noon-sun shot? lol!

Supplies:
Stamps: Life Shared
Ink: Basic Gray
Paper: Baja Breeze, Whisper White card stocks, Patio Party DP
Accessories: Red thin taffeta ribbon, Regals Brads, Mat Pack, Bitty Buttons, White Bakers Twine, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Blender Pens, Mini Glue Dots

America the Beautiful!

Happy, happy Independence Day! We had a pretty low-key day, but we did come up to my parents and enjoy some yummy dutch oven cooking, and then got to enjoy a fabulous firework show in a tiny town. I love the 4th of July because I AM proud to be an American. I love our gorgeous flag which is hung in many more places, and all the great music that stirs the soul, and the fact that people ignore politics this week to just be proud of our heritage. That's important to me and I love it.

Earlier this week I came across a scrapbooking challenge to make a page dedicated to the beauty of our country. I happen to live in a state filled to the brim with a wide variety of beautiful landscapes. I also had these photos printed and waiting for me to play with them. I thought they fit quite well- between the hike itself, the views from the top and the stunning summer sunset, it captures a few facets of what I find beautiful in America.
Plus, it makes for a great post on July 4th!

I wanted to emphasize the sunset on the page so I sponged the journaling square with four inks to make it look like the setting sun. I have hiking boot prints from the Daring Adventure stamp set to emphasize the hiking part, lol.

and here's a closeup for how my own sunset worked out, plus the journaling in case you care. *grin This was at a family reunion last Labor Day weekend, which we held at the scout camp my husband has run 5 different summers.

Supplies:
Stamps: Daring Adventure, Just Perfect Alphabet (retired)
Ink: Daffodil Delight, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango, Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Always Artichoke
Paper: Cajun Craze, Old Olive card stocks
Accessories: Stamping Sponges

I hope you had a happy and safe 4th of July too!

Mini Stamp Class for a Mini Stamper!

Last week my daughter needed stitches...

Consequently, she needed to give some thank you cards to sweet and thoughtful friends! I asked if she wanted me to make the cards and she could just write in them, or did she want to stamp the cards herself? Her typical style can be found HERE. But this time she asked if I would create the cards and teach her to make them, just like I do in my classes. awww!

So, I pulled out some retired DP and ribbons and went to work designing! She did a really good job trying new things! Here you can see my card's next to her's.
I used Susan's Sketch for this first card...but since the tree image took up so much space, I'm hoping to use the sketch again later!

Supplies:
Stamps: Forever Young
Ink: Soft Suede
Paper: Very Vanilla & Soft Suede card stock, Everyday Enchantment DP (retired)
Accessories: Lucky Limade organdy ribbon (retired)

I used last week's Mojo Monday sketch for this card:

Supplies:
Stamps: Petite Pairs
Ink: Melon Mambo
Paper: Melon Mambo & Whisper White card stocks, Spring Fever Simply Scrappin DP (retired)
Accessories: 1 3/8 inch square punch, Whisper White grosgrain ribbon (retired)

And finally I used the latest sketch from Stamping 411 for this card. I thought I would like this card, and I know my daughter enjoyed all the colors, but the bingo piece with the polka dot dp makes the card waaay too busy for my taste. Oh well- she likes it!

Supplies:
Stamps: Button Button, Bingo Card, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Basic Gray, So Saffron, Baja Breeze, Pretty in Pink, Wild Wasabi, Real Red, Peach Parfait, Early Espresso
Paper: Whisper White & Peach Parfait (retired) card stocks, Just Add Cake DP (retired)
Accessories: Peach Parfait twill Ribbon (retired)

Basketball!

This page uses a recently retired stamp but I wanted to show it off anyway, because I really like how it turned out!
And if you love the layout and want to recreate it, there's a new sport set in the catalog with a fun basketball, and any other ball you might need!

and here's a close up for the detail, because I really love when inspiration strikes and it works out nicely! I free-handed the bounce line with the marker!

Supplies:

Stamps: Slam Dunk (retired), Taffy Alphabet (long retired)
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Gumball Green marker
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Garden Green card stocks
Accessories: Dimensionals

School kids

Here's another car for my display board...I love this stamp image from Greeting Card Kids. I thought this could be a cute thinking of you for a mom who's kiddos are all in school now, a 'best wishes" card for someone going back to school, a retirement card for a teacher, or a congrats card for someone who landed a new job as a teacher! But since I don't have a need for any of those today, I left it blank. hee hee!
The card design comes from a sample shown in the new catalog! I swapped out the colors but its the same idea!

Supplies:
Stamps: Greeting Card Kids
Ink: Basic Gray
Paper: Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard, Elegant Eggplant, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Regals Brads, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Blender Pens

Trees!

Here are two cards I made last week using the Lovely As A Tree set. One was shipped off for Father's Day, lol, and the other is on my display board!
They use almost the same supplies, and the very same technique - I stamped the whole tree into the Soft Suede ink, then tapped the marker edge sideways (like this: _ ) using the Always Artichoke, Gumball Green and Lucky Limeade markers to make the leaves green.

Supplies:
Stamps: Lovely As A Tree
Ink: Soft Suede, Always Artichoke, Gumball Green, Lucky Limeade
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla & Old Olive card stocks
Accessories: Linen Thread

Supplies:

Stamps: Lovely As A Tree, Four Frames, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Always Artichoke, Gumball Green, Lucky Limeade
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla & Old Olive card stocks
Accessories: Linen Thread, Decorative Label Punch

Pink and Flowers!

Today we're back to the cards on the display board!
This card is the product of this sketch along with my need to use the set Button Button. I really wanted it on my display board but wanted a creative way to use it. Also I noticed my board was lacking in pinks so I fixed that! {ahem}...this is what I came up with!
I did clear emboss and punch holes in the button that I have tied with white Bakers Twine. You can't tell at all in the photo but its shiny IRL.

Supplies:
Stamps: Button Button, Thoughts & Prayers
Ink: Melon Mambo, Versamark
Paper: Melon Mambo, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White
Accessories: White Organza Ribbon, Clear Embossing Powder, Mat Pack, White Bakers Twine, Dimensionals