New Look!!

Hi everyone!! Kerianne found the greatest blog background site...The Cutest Blog on the Block, it has great FREE backgrounds for your blogs...so make sure you go check it out!!

Punch Book & Card

Hi everyone!! I made this great little book a few days ago and haven't had a chance to share it with everyone. Tami White offered a Punch Fun Class where she shared with you 20 different paper art designs you can make with your SU! punches - like a horse, hamburgers, camera and popsicles. Along with the instructions came an On Board Art Journal. I decided I had to dress my journal up so this is what I came up with. I used my Spiral punch to punch the length of my Brilliant Blue card stock and matched it with Jersey Shore DS. I pulled out my Cricut Expressions to create the title using the Tear Drop cartridge. I made my shadow using Textured Basic Black and my letters using Wild Wasabi. The medallion on the bottom uses 6 different punches to create a flower. I also decorated the back of the book using the same layout, just with no lettering...

Since I had some leftover card stock I decided to make a card to match my book...my base is Brilliant Blue with the Jersey Shore DS layered on top. About half way down I added a ribbon holder from the Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware, which is retiring this year :( and some coordinating Jersey ribbon. I made a slip knot towards the edge of the card and left a little tail for some added interest. I used Heartfelt Thanks for my main image inked in Only Orange, Pumpkin Pie, Garden Green and Old Olive and outlined in Basic Black. I inked the edges in Only Orange and mounted it on Brilliant Blue and then on Wild Wasabi, both of which have had the edges inked in tone on tone. The sentiment comes from Short & Sweet and is inked in Only Orange and has the edges inked in Brilliant Blue. All-in-all this is one of my favorite cards - and in a color family that I rarely use...guess I will need to break into those Bold Brights more often!!

Puzzles

So the kids and I have been on a puzzle kick lately...here is the first puzzle we made and wouldn't you know that Kat laid claim to it before it was even out of the box...

We found a 4 pack of puzzles at Target that were all William Schimmel artwork, if your not familiar with Schimmel most of the artwork includes animals and the planet...we are big fans of his work...so needless to say we were quite thrilled to find these puzzles...we are working of some penguins now that I will post when we finish is as well...

An Award & A Big Thanks!!

I recieved this special award from my friend Suzanne and am greatly honored by that! If you haven't been to check out her blog yet make sure you stop by!! Her cards and quilts are BEAUTIFUL!!!!! Reading her blog truly makes me want to learn to sew! Of course this award goes right back to her as well : )

Now the hard part...who to pass this on to...there are so many different blogs that have such wonderful creations...here are a few of my favorites:

One that I like to visit is Diane's Designs. Diane always posts very nice cards and gives wonderful instructions for being able to create them yourself. She is doing a great series showcasing the soon to retire sets that really make me want to go buy them all...

Another great blog is My Reality...It's All Good by Lee...who can resist her great attitute and love of BLING?? Her cards are beautiful...mark my words...she will be on a design team someday...

One more must read is Mom of Five...Diane makes some wonderful cards that have very clean lines and great details! I love the colors she uses in her cards!

There are loads of other blogs that deserve this, but I'll stop here.

I hope everyone has a great day...I will have new projects to load in the next few days, so keep a look out!!

Priceless Memories

I decided to make another mini book today patially becaues they are so easy to do and partially because they are adictive!! Instead of a book of tags, this one is a mini scrapbook...it has been a long time since I worked on my scrapbook and this has really given me a kick start to work on them some more...

Danny got to pick out the paper color and pattern that I used so he went with Blue Bayou Prints Designer Series paper and I picked Priceless for the main stamp set. I pretty much stayed with 3 colors for the whole book, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky and Whisper White, with just a touch of Basic Black.

I added a good mix of my favorite pictures. I think this is a perfect size to tuck into my purse and be able to pull out quickly and easily to show my loved ones off...

I had to include a picture of our Davidson Puppy...even though we lost her over a year ago, she is still a part of the family and greatly missed. I kinda feel bad that my puppies Bonnie and Clyde didn't make it into this book, so I guess that means I'll just have to make another one...

I'm thinking this is going to be a great little gift I can make for people. I'm guessing the next few I make will be for grandparents and family members.

Supplies:

Paper - Blue Bayou DS, Sofk Sky, Whisper White, Basic Black

Stamps - Priceless, Baroque Motifs, That's Nice

Inks - Soft Sky, Groovy Guava, Purely Pomegranate, Blue Bayou

Accessories - Bind-It-All, Step Corner Punch, Ribbons, Ticket Corner Punch, Tag Corner Punch, Photo Corners Punch

Mini book for Hubby...

Yesterday my DH came home from work quite a bit earlier than usual. While we were thrilled to see him at dinner time, I was curious as to what had happened at work. He told me he had a really bad day, some of the higher ups were in his shop most of the day, his co-worker was not getting as much done as he needed to, trucks were needing more parts than they had on hand...the list just kept going, all-in-all just a yucky day. He was feeling a little depleated so I wanted to make him a little something to be able to keep with him, so when work starts to bring him down he has something from us to help lift him back up.

I have been seeing these great mini-books using the Bind-It-All and of course wanted to make one...I found a great tutorial on Barb Mullikin's blog Stampin' IS my job (how cool of a title is that??) on how to make one so off I went to my room to try to make hubby feel better...

I started with a peice of Brilliant Blue 12 x 12 Prints Designer Series Paper and layered a piece of 3 1/2 x 2 1/4" textured Basic Black cardstock with a piece of 3 1/4 x 2" piece of Whisper White. I used Baroque Motifs for my main image, the large swirl was inked with Bashful Blue and the small flower was inked in Soft Sky, both images were stamed off one time before being stamped onto my cardstock. On top of the background I used a stamp from Smarty Pants inked in Brilliant Blue.

All the inserts are Whisper White cut to 3 1/2 x 2 1/4" . I followed the same stamping pattern as I did on the front of the book. I used the stamps from Smarty Pants to add the tone for each tab. On the back of each card I wrote a personal message for DH that related to the stamp. On the final tab I used a stamp from the Occassions Mini Full of Life, just to help keep things in perspective. I can say that he was very happy with it and tucked it into his work shirt for today so he can keep it close incase today is as bad as yesterday. I think I will be making similar books for each of the kids to take to school with them next year...

Summer Challenge Done!!

I was able to complete my summer challege cards today from Susan Daly...and these are what I came up with using the goods supplied and a little from my stash...

First I made this 6 x 6 double page layout. I sponged the outer 1/4 inch edge of the Pixie Pink cardstock with Pink Passion to add the look of another layer. Then I stamped with my Embrace Life in tone on tone for the pink and green layers. I cut the Ginger Blossom DS 1/2 inch smaller than the background to keep my border visible. I layered some River Rock Double Stitched ribbon on the Old Olive rectangles to help add some interest.

The next project I made was this Believe card. I started with a 5 x 4 1/2 inch card base of Pixie Pink and layered a piece of Old Olive wrapped with Linen Thread. I stamped the ribbon from Hope Is in White Craft ink on Basic Black and colored it with my Prismacolor Pencils in shades of pink when it dried. I heat embossed the word Believe in clear on Whisper White cardstock and sponged Pretty in Pink over it. I also sponged Rose Red on the mini clothes pins to try to keep the pink theme going. I added a small pink silk rose to the corner to finish it off. I'm very happy with how this card turned out.

The next project I did was the little gift box. I stamped the swirl from Baroque Motifs in Blush Blossom amd the small blossom in Perfect Plum, stamping it 3 times before I re-inked it to get a nice faded look to the flowers. I stamped Cherish in Elegant Eggplant and finished the whole thing off with some thin organza ribbon.

My next card was the So Saffron Z fold card. It had a few swirls stamped in tone on tone so I added some more swirls and Rose Red butterflies from Priceless. I stamped an extra butterfly on Very Vanilla and cut it out an mounted it on a bit of coiled wire to give it a little bounce. I stamped the sentiment in Old Olive and finished it off with some Old Olive Poly-Twill ribbon.

The final card I made was this one. I started with a Rose Red base and stamped some swirls from Priceless and then layered some Ginger Blossom DS and covered the seam with River Rock Double Stitched ribbon. I stamped the sentiment on Confetti Cream in Rose Red and layered it on a piece of Basic Black. I wrapped the ends with Linen Thread and added a small Library Clip with more Linen Thread tied to it. The main image is from a soda can that was colored, embossed and stamped. I finished off the card by piercing the upper right corner.

The final project was a 6 x 6 piece of desk art. I started with 6 x 6 piece of Going Gray and layered a piece of 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 textured Basic Black cardstock. On that I layerd 2 1/2 inch squares of Pixie Pink and Ginger Blossom papers. I stamped the swirl from Priceless on the pink squares and them used a black rub-on from the SAB set with swirls and flowers onto the squares. In the lower right corner I added another rub-on that says "You make me happy."

I'm very happy with all of the projects I was able to make from this kit. Susan thank you so much for letting me join. I hope everyone like what I was able to come up with.

Michael's Challenge

Hi again, as most of you know I work part time at Michael's Crafts (to help support my habit...) and a few weeks ago there was a board posted by the break room that's white with a question in the middle that says "How do you define Michael's?" The goal is for everyone to put up something that we feel defines what Michael's means to us...there were jokes about pay stubs and work schedules going up, but the point was to put up something that you would go to Michael's for...so I got out my Cricut Expression last night and combined my 2 loves...flowers and paper crafts and came up with this... it is about 15 inches high and was made using the Walk in my Garden cartridge. I mounted it onto a piece of clear acetate to help give it some stability and then trimmed it once the adhesive dried. I also added a tag to the ribbon that said "Michael's allows me to express my creativity!" I also put up a few cards to help add some color to the board. So far the reaction to my flowers has been pretty good. I can't wait to see what you think of it!!

Summer Challenge

Hi everyone!! Things have been slightly crazy since I got back from Kansas City, (more info to follow later...) Before I left I entered into a summer challenge on Susan Daly's blog, http://www.stampindaly.com/. She challenged people to email your snail mail address and she would send you one card she made along with a bunch of goodies to for you to create something to share back with her blog. Well today I got a great package from her stuffed with all kinds of goodies and this very cute card:

You can check here: Always and Forever to see how Susan made this. I love the color combo that is used and how cute is that to tuck a lacy heart under the main image??

Here is a picture of all the goodies she send for me to play with...

I can hardly wait to start creating with all this!! I love the heart that is cut out from a sheet of metal and painted...I will definately share all my creations before I send them back to Susan.