And I'm back...

So, I have been a bad blogger, but I have been busy! As soon as I get my camera near the computer I will post pictures of quilts, cards, and gifts.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and is preparing to welcome in the new year! :-)

Bella Swap - October Card

I am doing a monthly Bella card swap on SCS. Janet hosted for October and sent over these cutie bella images and paper and her's what I came up with. The theme was birthday and I had kind of hard time with the color scheme, but it turned out better than I thought it was. It really had me stumped! Hope my fellow swappers like how they turned out.

Pumpkin Wunkin

In between all the letter shirts I was stitching up, I did manage to make a few little jack-o-lantern shirts. I whipped up the pattern myself and went to town. It was fun to see the pics of the little dudes that got to wear them. Now, I am wracking my brain to come up with boyish ideas for wintery themed shirts. (Seems that all my friends keep having boys!) Y'all have any ideas? If I come up with anything, I may post them on etsy! :-)

Hope you are all having a great week!

What I've Been Up to ...

So, I haven't had much time for fun crafting ... not that I don't enjoy sewing, but sometimes I want to put down the shirts and make something different! :-) Here's one of my 20 (or more!) tshirt orders ... I really dig this fabric and color combo, so I really liked how they turned out.

I did manage to knock out about 80 shirts in just under 3 weeks. Whew! Thank goodness I now outsource some of the manufacturing process to my sweet husband and occasionally some to my mom as well. I have about another 60 or some odd shirts on order, so I will be back to work this week. I did take the weekend off to head to the beach with my college girlfriends. It was fun to get away and relax for a bit.

I am so excited to have tomorrow off from school ... thanks to our Veterans! :-) I am off to bed so that I can spend it at my sewing machine!

Polka Dots!

Hey all ... this will be quick. Gotta get to bed so I can get up in the morning. At least tomorrow is a teacher workday so I do get to sleep a little late! :-)

I made a set of these cards for my friend's bday. I hope she liked them ... I mailed them off to her last week. I love the color combo - it is our alma mater's colors, so it worked out great.

You can see my sewing machine in the background ... its been my best friend all weekend. I finished up 24 shirts and 4 pillowcases this weekend. I also stitched another 20 sets of letters today so hopefully I can get those sewn down on the shirts tomorrow and Tuesday ... I kind of need to mail them on Wednesday. Whew! At least my husband helps out with some of the work (well, I do pay him ...) so that helps it go a little faster.

I have some other fun things to post, but will have to post them later this week. Hope you all had a great weekend. Don't forget to vote on Tuesday!

A Christmas Bella & Sweet Taylor

Hey again ... it was a busy week and will be a busy weekend cranking out some tshirts ... people keep ordering! At least there is a lot of college football on so my husband won't even notice I am in my craft room all day! haha

This little card is for a Bella Christmas swap on SCS. I didn't have the stamp, but Janet was nice enough to send me some images to use. She is cute! I colored her with some Copics, and added some SU Navy and burgundy paper. Then used PTI's Ripe Avocado paper and ribbon as well as the PTI Blessings set for the sentiment (SU! Choc Chip ink). I think it turned out nice - I hope my fellow swappers think so too.

I made a few other things while I whipped these cards together, so I will schedule some posts to appear while I am hunkered down at my sewing machine! :-)

ASLO... Taylored Expressions is the sweetest! She is releasing some super cute cupcake stamps - you should go and check them out. She also has great kits, amazing ribbon, and I am a snob about her tape - its all I use to stick my cards together! And her customer service can't be beat! :-)

Let it Snow!

Ok, we never get snow here, but this snowman is too cute. This is for a Snowman card swap on SCS. I hope no one minds the nontraditional color scheme! :-)

I have made a few small projects, but mostly I have been in sewing land working on letter shirts ... speaking of which, I better get back to work - I have over 100 shirts on order right now!

Will try to post again later this week - hope you are all having a good week so far!

Christmas Quilt

And another swap ... this was a PTI card swap. I used the Quilters Sampler set to make my "quilt" and colored it with copics. (Warning! All this coloring x 6 "quilts" did take some time!) The sentiment is from their stamp set called Believe. And the ribbon is also PTI's Pure Poppy satin. I am not sure this is fancy enough, but I do like how it all turned out. Hope my fellow swappers also like it!

Happy Wednesday!

"Its festive"

Hi all! Its been a busy start to the week already and its only Monday. Not a good sign! Oh well. I did get some stamping done over the weekend. This is the card I made for a monthly swap. Patti sent us the image, patterned paper, and that fun net-type stuff. I added some markers, orange paper, and some olive ribbon and viola! a fall card. I really like how this turned out and my hubby said it was "festive", so I guess its a winner! :-)

I have been busy sewing up a storm ... I have about 60-some shirts on order right now, so there won't be much stamping time available in the new few weeks, but I will try to schedule out some posts to show you some of the other things I have been working on recently, but just haven't had time to post.

Have a great week!

Whats up birdie?

Hello again! :-) I am scheduling posts so that I can post without logging in everyday ... its going to be another busy week, but I still wanted to share the projects I have been working on.

This is another swap card ... I go the patterned paper and images from one of my group members and this is my interpretation. I had a hard time matching that paper with my small Copic collection, but I think it turned out pretty decent. I hope all my group members like my version.

Ta ta for now! :-)

Hoot Hoot Hooray!

Here's a Swap card I made for a monthly swap group on SCS. I hosted this month's challenge - I sent everyone this image, and the polka dot paper and the solid blue papers. And this is what I came up with for my card. It has been really fun to see how different everyone's cards are using the same starting ingredients.

I think this is probably one of the first cards I could actually use for a boy ... well, maybe except for the ribbons! But its close. I reall like it and am into the whole sentiment sticking out from a border - in case you hadn't noticed. :-)

Image from Pink Cat Studio's QT Hooty set. Paper is from the LSS. Ribbon from Taylored Expressions.

Favorite Friend Card

Hey all - sorry it has been so long since my last post ... work has been more time consuming than ever. And I don't like that my real job cuts into my crafting time and sewing business! Oh well. The real job pays the bills ...

Here's a card I made for my bff's birthday. Well, actually, I made her a set of them for her birthday and loved them so much that I made some extra ones for myself. The card is actually based off of a card by Dawn McVey. Her style is so fresh and fun ... I love it! So, I did copy this from her ... layout and color scheme. (Note - I can't find a link to her original ... I think its been removed for publication.)

Anyway .... all the materials are from SU!, except the ribbon, which is from Taylored Expressions. Love her ribbon!

Anyway ... my friend Janet is celebrating her blog hits ... check out her blog.

World Alzheimer's Day

Carolyn King is giving away some awesome blog candy in honor of today's being World Alzheimer's Day. Her grandmother suffered from the disease and she has designed a stamp set that will help raise money to help fight the disease.

To enter to win her blog candy contest, here's the card I am sending to the Staff at the Artman Home where her grandmother had been cared for. Please check out her blog and remember to thank an Alzheimer's caregiver!

Fall is in the Air

Today it actually started to cool down some ... I can't wait for it to stop being in the 90s! Too hot. I love the fall weather - nice and cool but not too cool. Perfect.

I altered this little tin and made "clothes" for my chocolates to go in it a few weeks ago when I held a little stamping class for my mom and her crafting buddies. It turned out pretty cute. The chocolate didn't last though!

Hope you are all having a great week - work has been keeping me busier than I'd like so I haven't had much time to do anything fun the last week or two ... maybe this weekend! :-)

A Polka Dot Christmas

Happy Saturday! Its a football weekend at my house, so I have spen tthe whole day in the craft room working on some tshirt orders with a short break to play with this PTI stamp set called Believe and the new Pure Poppy paper. I really love polka dots, so I added some to the mix from the Polka Dots Basics set. The stars are from the Believe set. I kind of think the ribbon is too much - maybe a solid next time. I colored the tree with 2 different green Copics and then the berries with a red Copic - I did add a little sparkle to the berries with a Sakura glitter pen.

We're off to see a movie - have a great night everyone!

A TGIF wish for you!

Whew! Its been a loooong week! A meeting everyday afterschool (except today) and open house till 8:35 last night. Geez. I think I got home about 30 minutes before my normal bedtime last night. At least its Friday! And its football season ... which means I can craft with no guilt pretty much all day tomorrow! ha!

This card is for a monthly swap I have going at SCS. The kit comes from Molly - she sent the stamped candles and the sentiment and the two patterned papers. I decided to cut the candles out and arrange them over the patterned paper. Its hard to tell in the photo, but the candles are popped up on foam tape. I think its pretty cute! It will be really neat to see what the other 3 girls in my Group 3 group do with the same paper and stamp set! Hope they like my version!

Neighborhood Lane

One of my good friends moved back to CA several weeks ago. It was sad to see them move, but they are from Cali, so they had always wanted to move back there after grad school, etc. So they headed back and I made them a card to send them some mail at their new place.

The image is the Neighborhood wheel that I got through SCS Wish RAK. I colored it with Copics and added some brown twill. I think it came out pretty cute and I know my friend enjoyed the happy mail in her box! :-)

Isn't this Inque Boutique cupcake stamp the cutest? I made this card as a sample for my little "class" for my mom and her crafting neighbors. We learned how to paper piece with the cupcake liner and also add stickles glitter to a card. The frosting and cherry is colored w/ Copics and then we added some Stardust stickles. I ended up making two of these and just put them in the mail for some SCS BRAKs! Hope the recipients enjoy them and have a great birthday!

Thank You!

Here's another card I made while I was working on the WSC and Kristina's color challenge. I really love the Old Olive/Kiwi Kiss/Rose Red color combination.

I stamped the flowers from Upsy Daisy on the Kiwi Kiss in Old Olive ink and then matted it on white cs from PTI. Cut a strip of Rose Red and punched the borders w/ the scallop edge punch. Added some olive ribbon from my stash and stuck it down. Pretty quick and easy!

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Taylor's Cupcake Challenge #32

Here's my take on Taylor's Cupcake Challenge #32. This is kind of a bad photo, but its cute in person! :-)

I stamped the mini cupcakes from Inque Boutique and colored them with Copics and added some sparkle w/ a Sakura glitter pen. I used the Upsy Daisy birthday sentiment and then added dots w/ the PTI Polka Dot Basics mini dot. And put it all together.

Supplies: Stamps - Inque Boutique Party Cupcakes, PTI Polka Dot Basics, SU! Upsy Daisy; Paper - PTI White, SU! Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss & Pink Pirouette; Ink & Ribbon - SU! Old Olive; Copics; Sakura glitter Pen; SU! Scallop and circle punches.

2 for 1 Sketch Card

Here's the card I made for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #56. I used the layout except changed the sentiment square into a rectangle.

The color scheme is from Kristina's Color Inspiration Challenge #21. I am too late to submit it for her top 10 drawing, but wanted to give it a whirl anyway. Really love this color combo. In fact, made another card with it that I will share in a later post!

Supplies: Stamps - SU! Friendly Flowers (dots), Upsy Daisy (sentiment); Paper - PTI White, SU! Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, and Rose Red; Ink - SU! Old Olive; Ribbon - American Crafts.

BRAK Attack!

So I joined the SCS Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) group and they send birthday cards ("BRAKs") ... well, I got inundated with happy mail! This isn't even all of them! I got 2 belated b-day cards this week! What a great group of ladies! :-)

Double Take

Here's a few of those Penny Black girl cards I made for my swap. Same image, different papers and layouts. I actually ended up giving the one on the right to a coworker for her birthday and she really loved it! I like it too and should make more! haha I really need to start mass producing some cards and keeping them around/on hand. :-)

Thank goodness it was a short week - certainly didn't seem that way by the time I got to the end of it. I was falling asleep on the couch at like 4:30 today! (Probably has a lot to do with staying up late to watch some convention speeches! :-) Oh well ... sleeping in tomorrow! Then I will be crafting while the mister lives in football heaven from noon until night! haha

TGIF everyone!

Beate's Be Inspired Challenge # 21

Here's my version of Beate's Be Inspired Challenge (BIC21).

I think I like how it turned out, but I am not so sure about the orange. Maybe I will try the layout again w/ a different color scheme later this week.

Off to bed ... I am super exhausted tonight! Good thing its a short week!

Supplies: SU! Upsy Daisy & Best Yet stamps; SU! Urban Garden DP, Choc Chip & Pumpkin Pie CS; Choc Chip ink; Scallop Edge punch; and olive grosgrain from my stash.

Happy Fall Yall!

It's September! The summer came and went in a flash and the holidays will be here before you know it!

A friend gave me a wonderful gift certificate to Michael's for my birthday, so I bought a few things - including these glittery leaves. Makes for a pretty quick card. I used a Studio G alphabet set to stamp the sentiment - being from the South, the "yall" just makes sense. (My husband just rolled his eyes!) All the paper is from PTI and the chocolate ribbon is from Taylored Expressions and the gold twill is also from PTI. I made another version - which I actually think I like better ... I will post it later this week! :-)

PTI Swap

Here's the card I made for the PTI Round 8 Swap on SCS. I used the Butterfly Kisses stamp set and added some Dark Chocolate ribbon and some tiny Hero Arts pearls to add a little something.

All paper, ribbon, and stamps is from PTI.

Well, this will have to be quick ... we are headed to have some dinner and a game of Scrabble at a friend's house. Hope you are all enjoying the long weekend!

Hey Clickabella!

Happy Saturday! :-)

I got these great Clickabella images from SCS Wish RAK so I decided to color one up yesterday when I got home from school. The layout is really simple - I didn't know what sentiment I might want, so I just left it off. Isn't she cute? Its the perfect image for me - my husband says I am addicted to the internet! haha

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Just a little Note!

Happy Friday folks! TGIF! Can I say that again?! TGIF!! haha

It has been a lonnnnnnnnnnnng first week of school, but its been good. And I love that we get to end it with a 3-day weekend! I have big plans for the weekend - including some sewing (fun!), cleaning (no fun!), a "card class" with my mom and her friend, and getting to hang out and catch up with some people.

College football has officially begun. I don't know if you know that, but I certainly do - its a big deal at my house. I can now pretty much craft w/out guilt since my hubby will be in a trance for the next couple of months game days! Let's just say that he has a count down (to the second) on his computer for when his beloved Seminoles will kick off!

Hope you had a great week and you get to enjoy the long weekend! :-)

You're Just Fabulous!

"You're just fabulous!" I think that is what I would write on the inside of this card! (I mailed this off for a swap, so I left it blank inside.) Check out how blinged out this lady is ... glittery gloves, shoes and jewelry! Makes me think of the movie "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" where they have that ad campaign for women to "frost themselves" with diamonds! haha I love that movie. :-)

Hope you are having a fabulous day!

Blogger RAK from Lynn

I got my first Blogger RAK card in the mail over the weekend! It is from Lynn in St. Louis - Lynn makes some really awesome cards and I read her blog pretty regularly! :-) I really like the color scheme of this card - its simple yet has some elegance to it.

One of the things I like about Lynn is that she shares tutorials on her blog so you can learn new techniques! You should go and visit her!

School is going good - we had a tornado warning today, so we did spend 45 minutes in the hallway on our knees until we got the all clear, but so far the first week hasn't been too bad! I have some great kids and I think we will be able to have a fun year. :-)

I have a bunch of cards made w/ the Penny Black girls stamps - so you'll be seeing a bunch of those over the next few days - I made them for a swap I hosted and I really hated to send them on! But I hope my fellow swappers enjoy them!

Happy Wednesday!

Quick Update!

Hey all - the first day of school went really well. Yay! I am totally exhausted, but did get to stamp a few cards this afternoon ... now that the camera is back I can take some pictures tomorrow and get back to posting! Hope you all had a great Monday! :-)

Back to Reality

Back to reality ... the end of summer is really here now. School starts tomorrow! OMG! I am so scared I won't wake up on time and I will be late. haha I have been going in for teacher workdays, of course, but now I have to get up at 5:15 and not 6:30 - what a total bummer. But anyway. Hopefully, it will all go well. I know a lot of my students already, so that kind of takes the edge off, but I know I will be exhausted from running around and talking all day long (the first day is always like being a broken record anyway). Wish me luck!

Here's a cute little monogram card that I made for one of my SCS swappin' friends. She was really nice and kept our swap up-to-date while I was on vacation, so I made her a little set of monogram cards. What do ya think?

I have a bunch of pictures of cards I recently made, but they are all still on the camera - which my husband hijacked, so hopefully I will get those posted early this week. :-)

I did get a BUNCH of birthday cards from the SCS RAK group - I will have to take a picture of all of them. It was crazy how many they sent me! Its always great to get fun mail. Well, back to my list of things to do. I don't want to be laying awake all night thinking about whats still left on my list!

Altered Tin

Here's another little altered item I made for a swap. I filled it with some yummy chocolate! I cut up a scallop circle punch to make it like it had petals. I think it turned out pretty cute for my first altered tin. Now to think of some holiday tin ideas for coworkers, etc.

Speaking of coworkers - so far work is going pretty well. Lots of teacher meetings, so we'll see what happens Monday when the kids roll in for the year!

Off to get my presentation ready for tomorrow!

A Little Monkey Business ...

If you have been watching the Olympics tonight, I bet you also nearly had a heart attack watching that Phelps race. What a close one that was! Yay! I am a definitely a Phelps Phan! haha

I made this little card for a Changito monkey swap on SCS. I really like how it has turned out. It was pretty quick, too. I actually made six to send in for the swap and I am really lovin' the background paper.

I did make it back to work today, although 6:30 am was rough! (And that's about an hour later than what I will have to do when school really starts.) It did kind of feel good to start getting back into the swing of things, so hopefully it will be a good year. Time will tell!
Well, off to bed ... too many late nights watching the games for this girl!

Card supplies: PTI White & Dark Chocolate CS, Stampendous Changito Solo stamp, Memento Tuxedo Black ink, Copic Markers (E53, E57), Nestibilities, Morex ribbon, DP from My Minds Eye Magnolia stack, and sentiment from Stampendous Jumbo Flower set.

Flower Magnet

So I joined this Secret Sister swap thing and for this month we have to alter something (Altered August Swap). Well, I haven't altered much of anything ... ever ... but it sounded fun. I altered a few things for my secret sister - the first one is this chipboard flower that I covered with paper and then added punches and a prima flower to the center. I got some adhesive magnet strips that I cut and put on the back. Its pretty dern cute if I do say so myself. I hope my secret sister thinks so too.

I went back to work today for a luncheon with my new department people. It was nice to see some folks and touch base with the newbies before things get really crazy. I actually felt better about being back than I thought I would so maybe it won't be so bad giving up the stay-at-home-wife gig! haha I do go back full-time tomorrow, but at least my hubbie is coming over to go to lunch with me and then help me set up some tables and stuff, so that will be nice.

Hope you are all having a great day!

Friendship Quilt

Here's another quilt card that I made. On Monday night, I "taught" a little card class to my mom and her two neighbors. We all made a card with this layout. This is my version. Next time I will definitely take my camera so that we can take a picture of everyone's different versions. The three L's (all of their first names start with L) loved their little class and have already picked a date for a second class! haha

Today is really my last day of freedom. I have to go to work for a mentor/mentee luncheon tomorrow and will probably work in my classroom for a little while since I will be there. And then Friday teacher workdays officially start. Ho hum.

I wish the Olympics had started a week earlier ... I have been staying up WAY too late to watch Michael Phelps and gymnastics. Can't do that once I have to get up at 5:30 AM. Last night I told my husband it would be great if we lived in CA since then the exciting stuff would be at like 8:30 and not 11:30!

Happy Wednesday folks!

Card Ingredients: PTI - stamps, ribbon, Berry Sorbet & Sweet Blush cardstock. SU! River Rock CS and slit punch. Copic markers to color!

Monogram Fun

This is a card I made a couple of months ago for a newly married friend. I actually made her a set of them with her new monogram.

The Just Rite stamper is so easy to use and customize. For $15 bucks you get so many different combinations. I have made a few more monogram sets recently, but I will have to wait until they get to their recipients before I post.

This is my last Monday of freedom. On Friday, teacher workdays start and I am not quite ready to go back! But go back I must ... only a few more days to craft with abandon!

Warm Hospitality

Here's another card I made using PTI's Quilters Sampler stamp set. I stamped all the blocks next to each other - I still need some practice lining them up straight - but hey I need more practice with that in my real life quilts! haha I colored them with Copic markers and went from there. I really love this set, but get stumped when trying to layout a card. I guess I will have to keep playing around with it. This would be a great way to "test" out a color scheme before cutting and stitching together fabrics!

Materials used: PTI Quilter's Sampler, PTI CS (Berry Sorbet, Aqua Mist), SU! River Rock CS, PTI Aqua Mist satin ribbon, Memento Tuxedo Black ink, & Copics - R11, R14, BG11, BG13, YG91.

Monthly Swap - My August Card

I joined a monthly card swap on SCS. Basically, there are 6 ladies to a group and each month a different swapper "hosts" by sending images and designer paper to each of the other 5 members. We all make 6 cards and then send one card to each member.

This month, our hostess chose this purple DP and a pretty ornate rose branch stamp. (The full stamp has 2 blooms and a bud on a stem w/ a lot of leaves and is about 3" square.) This stamp image was WAY out of my comfort zone! I ended up channeling a recent card from Dawn McVey. I colored the image w/ some Copic Markers and then cut it out. And then put it all together. I can't wait to see what my other group members come up with using the same image & DP.

Materials used: Floral stamp & DP from swap, SU! River Rock CS, Moss green ribbon from my stash, SU! Wonderful Words, & SU! Chocolate Chip Ink.

kwernerdersign color challenge

Every week, I look at the color challenge and think about trying it out. I finally did this week. Kristina posted this inspiration for the color challenge:

And, ta da! ... here's what I came up with ....

Whatcha think?

Materials used: SU! Green Galore, Basic Black CS; SU! Slit Punch, DP is from Making Memories and American Crafts; Chipboard letters are Heidi Swapp; Ribbon is from the craft store

AVS05 Challenge

A tall, skinny card! This is a new size for me and I actually really like it. I will probably make more in the future.

This is for day 5 of Verve's anni-verve-sary! Overall, I think it came out pretty good, but I wish I had had some teal ribbon. The double stitched black & white gets a little lost.

All the paper is from SEI's Black Orchid stack. Ink is SU! Basic Black & PTI Aqua Mist. Ribbon is from Michaels.

Hope you are all having a great week!

AVS01

Here's my version of Julee's Anni-Verve-Sary challenge #1. (Yeah, I am posting a little out of order!) These 1/2 square triangles on the side are really getting me! I had a time with this. There is another sketch with these too that I have not attempted yet! haha

Stamp is from Verve (Psalm 37:4 Plain Jane). I also used a clear flourish stamp from Archivers to make the pattern. Paper is PTI Spring Moss and SU! Chocolate Chip. Ribbon is some chocolate satin I had in my stash!

Hope you like it!

AVS03 Challenge

Here's my edition of Julee's Anni-verve-sary sketch #03 at SCS. Once I got the layout measurements figured out, I was good to go. I am surprised how good this came out ... I wasn't sure I could make this sketch turn out cute!

Patterned paper is from My Mind's Eye (big Magnolia stack). I also used SU! Chocolate Chip and PTI Vintage Cream cardstock. The stamp is from SU! Friendly Flowers w/ a few dots to fill some space from the PTI Polka Dot Basics set. A couple of primas and brads and a little SU! Chocolate Chip grosgrain and it was finished! What do you think?

Verve Anniversary - AVS02

It's Verve's anniversary and they have 12 days of challenges. This is the first one I have attempted so far - I did it this past weekend. I think my triangles are a little out of proportion, but its too late now. Taylor's tape is super permanent! haha

All paper & ribbon & ink is from Papertrey; stamps are from Verve; pearls are from Martha Stewart crafts.

Happy 1 Year Anniversary!

Today is our 1 year anniversary! This year has really flown by and we have enjoyed being married. :-)

Our baker makes a anniversary cake top for free for 1st anniversaries! YUM-O! Marble cake w/ Bailey's mousse people ... we are so not sharing! haha They even decorated it like our original cake - well, we had fresh flowers on top, but we had those swirlies!

Happy Monday people!

Cupcake Challenge #27

Here's my interpretation of this week's Cupcake Challenge from Taylor. After I finished it, I realized that I didn't follow the sketch exactly w/ the placement of the circle. I did flip flop the ribbon knot & sentiment circle because the image I used is heavier on the left. I think it turned out pretty cute anyway.

Image is Stampendous Changito Bouquet; Paper is from Martha Stewart Craft (Wal-Mart); Ribbon is from stash; Sentiment is from a clear $1 set from Michaels; Copics were used to color the monkey and the edge of the border circle around the sentiment.

Butterfly Note Cards

Here's a set of Butterfly correspondence cards I made for my MIL's birthday. They were pretty quick and simple to make. The basic idea for them are based on Mish's cards - she shows lots of sets of flat cards on her blog. All the paper, ink, and ribbon is from Papertrey. I stamped the background butterfly onto vintage cream with the lavender moon ink and then layered the flowered butterfly in plum pudding. Cut them out and stuck 'em down. Easy peasy.

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Birthdays are like Quilts...

Here's the birthday card I made for my MIL. She doesn't sew or quilt, but I do, so I love this stamp set. All paper, ink, stamps, and ribbon (except copic markers to color the blocks) are from Papertrey Ink.

I started w/ a strip of vintage cream CS and stamped the sentiment in Dark Chocolate. Then I masked it with a piece of scrap paper and stamped each block on point (on the diagonal). It's a little wonky, but they are mostly straight seams! haha Then I colored all the blocks w/ Copics V12 & V15, which seem to match the lavender moon & plum pudding pretty well. Then I trimmed it, added a border of lavender moon, wrapped a piece of plum pudding satin around it, and stuck it on the plum pudding card base. I think it turned out pretty good and close to what I had in my head! :-)

Does anyone know of/or has any created a chart that kind of matches Copic colors to SU! and PTI paper? If so, I'd love to know!

Mojo48

Here's my version of Julee's Mojo Monday sketch Challenge. This was a pretty easy layout to put together. I used a combination of SU! and Papertrey ink, paper, stamps and ribbon. I am still deciding how I like the color combinations - especially the purple/gold/brown.

I have been trying to get back into the routine since we got home from the beach where all we did was lay by the pool. And work is fast approaching. Kind of excited to go back, but mostly not! haha We'll see how it goes.

Well, we are off to take my MIL out to dinner for her birthday. I will post the card I made for her tomorrow. Happy Friday!

An OBX Sunset

Hey folks! This is tonight's sunset from our rental house in the Outer Banks. Isn't it nice? The Outer Banks (OBX) is really cool because you have the ocean on one side and the sound on the other. You're on basically a long, skinny island. So the views are pretty amazing. This is a photo that my husband (the photographer) took from the 3rd floor balcony overlooking the sound. Pretty, huh?

Hope you are all having a great week. I will post more crafty-type items later this week! :-)

Just Because (Part Deux)

Here's another version of the "just because" card! Same paper pad and stamp set as the one posted a few days ago. I think I like the first one best. :-)

Hope you are all having a great day! I am finally headed home from my teacher conference. Can't wait to get back! :-)