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! :-)

Black & White with a Punch!

This card was for a black and white with a punch swap ... you had to use only black and white and then one punch of color somewhere. I love black and white (have a bunch of b&w fabrics, too!) and I love pink - so this color combo seemed obvious. I did think this swap was harder than I had imagined it would be. But it came out pretty cute. I layered some ribbon and then used the So Many Scallops stamp set to make the flower - punched it out, added a prima with a brad and that was it!

Have a great day!

Just Because

I made this quick little card with my Verve stamps. Julee (the owner of Verve) seems like such a nice gal and sometimes I play along with her on her Mojo Monday sketches. :-)

I made this with one of those 4 x 6 scrap pads w/ the double sided paper. Fun colors - I love those pads - everything already "goes"! haha Not that I can't match, but sometimes I don't want to have to wrack my brain to do it!

Have a great Wednesday!

Thinking of You!

Here's a card I made for a swap that required the use of anything dots. I love polka dots (most of my fabric collection contains dots), so I couldn't pass it up. I went with a color combo of Kraft, Purely Pomegranate & PTI's Vintage Cream. I stamped the kraft paper with SU! Chocolate Chip & Purely Pomegranate to make some background paper and then carefully inked the sentiment (the stamp is actually one line of text), cut it out with some nesties and added some American Crafts ribbon. I made a couple of extra for myself ... may make more - super easy and I think they are pretty cute.

Happy Tuesday! :-)

Friendship Quilts

Ok, some of you may have noticed that I am a quilter. Well, this stamp set is me! Holy cow! I wasn't feeling well today, but played with it anyway. Hopefully, I will feel better in the morning - since I have to go to a teacher conference later this week. It especially stinks b/c I had made 4 card kits to take to my mom's for her and the neighbor gals' weekly craft night. It'll just have to wait.

I made 4 different "quilts" and shaded them with copic markers. All the paper, ribbon, and ink otherwise is from Papertrey Ink. I can't decide which quilt I like best and my mind has been running in circles with all the color combinations that I could do with this! Christmas quilts - bright quilts like I normally make - monotone quilts like this. You can see where this is going .... haha

Well, I am off to bed. Got quite a few things to do tomorrow so I can't be sleeping in all morning!

Christmas in July!

Last night another paper crafting friend of mine came over for dinner and "Christmas in July" crafting. It was really fun and I think she appreciated getting an evening out to relax and be creative since she is a new mom! :-)



These cards came out pretty cute, but both have really simple layouts. All paper and stamps are from Stampin' Up. I colored them with Copic markers added some glitter with a Jelly Roll pen and a little gingham ribbon. (If you click on the pics you can see them in more detail.)



It seems like a long way off until Christmas, but of course, like everything else, it will be here before you know it. Its nice to have a few simple layouts that are easy to whip together.



I am excited about next week - my mom and her crafting neighbors have agreed to let me show 'em some card making, so I am thinking about kits to put together for them. Should be a lot of fun.



Happy Friday!

Simply Pretty & Pink

Here it is! The simple card I made with my new Martha Stewart stickers from Wal-Mart! I think its prettier in real life, but oh well. The paper, ink and ribbon is from Papertrey Ink. The stamp is from Stampin Up. Came together pretty dern quick.

Did some Christmas card crafting tonight ... I will post some pics tomorrow!

Night!

Martha Stewart for the Rest of Us!

OK, I know some people hate Wal-Mart. That is cool - its America so you can choose where you shop. I do shop at my local Super W-M, though. Its like 5 minutes away so its dern convenient and I will still have money to get to work after I buy my groceries. Anyway ... over the past several weeks, I have noticed the scrapbooking section getting torn down and clearanced. Kinda sad ... I didn't like all the stuff they had there, but there were some things that were cool. Today, I walked in and my jaw dropped! They had redone the whole section and its full of - get this - Martha Stewart crafts! Now these are two companies I didn't think would join forces, but then again, W-M is a giant retailer! I have a Michaels, but its kind of a commute from my house. And obviously, some of the products are different and its a different MS brand, but there are some pretty nice things in there - including punches! I starred for a few minutes and eyed the bling - pearls, rhinestones, and more! (A lot of it is wedding favor stuff.) I settled on these stickers for now ... I am thinking simple, but beautiful cards!

Anyway ... back to work ... I mailed 6 orders out today and have some more chores to do before this evening!

Stylish Hootie!

Hi again! Another pink & green owl for you ... I swear I am almost out of this paper! Haha But these are two of my fav colors and I love them together! :-) I added some glitter with a glitter pen to her glasses and flowers. Too cute! I also added some prima flowers with some brads. Super easy and it adds a little something special. What do you think?

Hope you are all having a great week! I have exactly one month left of summer vacation ... so sad. But presenting to some new teachers yesterday was fun and reminded me why I do my "real" job. (Although a crafting job might be fun too ...) I guess you can't always have your cake and eat it too, huh?

Anyway .... more to come later this week!

Mojo Monday #46

Mojo Monday Sketch #46. Here's my entry for this week's Mojo Monday sketch from Julee. I kind of had a hard time putting this together. I wanted to use 3 butterflies, but had trouble placing them without it being too matchy matchy. I think it turned out pretty good. I really like this color combo - PTI Vintage Cream with SU! Groovy Guava and River Rock. I edged the sentiment circle w/ a Copic marker and went over it with the colorless blender to soften it up. The stamps are from Verve (Julee's company).

The ribbon is from American Crafts. Hope you like it!

I also have one more pink & green owl ... I will post her tomorrow :-)

Hoot Hoot Hooray!

Happy Tuesday peeps! This is another one of those QT Hooty images from the Pink Cat Studio set. I love that you can color coordinate the hat and balloon to the paper. I was using up some scraps from the 3 owl card to make this one. Now, I just need someone with a birthday! :-)

Speaking of owls ... Papertrey Ink has a really cool new owl set that is a build-your-own owl! OMG! But since I just got this set, I feel like I should wait. This set also has a "sick" owl and a holiday owl so its pretty versatile.

Papertrey also just put out a set that is all about Quilting! Holy moses! I did order that one ... since you may have noticed that is something else I enjoy doing! Hope it comes soon!

Well, I am off to finish getting ready for a presentation I am giving to new teachers this afternoon. Hopefully, my tips will help them out - they are lateral entry, meaning this is their second career and they didn't go to college for teacher education and get traditional training.

Sketch Challenges...

This first card is for Taylor's Cupcake Challenge that she hosts every Friday. You don't have to use a Cupcake image, but I chose to this week. The cherries are colored with a glitter pen to add some sparkle. I colored the image w/ Copic markers and added some ribbon leading to the flower sentiment ... I handwrote the sentiment since I couldn't find one I liked that also fit. Obviously, I am really into this pink and green paper! haha

This next card is for Julee's Mojo Monday challenge. I made the cupcake paper by repeating my stamp image and then coloring it to "go" with the dotted background paper. I added some sparkle with the glitter pen and used the sentiment from the stamp set - this is one of those $1 babies from Studio G sold at all the big box craft stores. They are sometimes not the best - they can be hard to get a good, clean impression, but it worked out great this time. I really love the swirly "wishes" under the birthday. It turned out pretty cute. And I will probably make more Cupcake paper in the future - it was kind of fun.

Pink & Green & Flop Flops ... My Fav Things

It is summertime and I LOVE some flip flops. This is hilarious because (1) I used to NEVER wear flip flops after a really embarassing fall coming down the stairs at my college dorm in front of a bunch of guys playing volleyball and (2) my husband can't stand flip flops. If I could wear flip flops to any event at any time of year I probably would. In fact, I bought flip flops for my wedding reception - white wedges w/ rhinestones. :-) Anyway. My mom and I have these wallhanging "challenges" and we based this one off a flip flop quilt in a quilting magazine (Fons & Porter May/June 2008). This is so cute and so me that I didn't want to trade this time! :-) We'll see when she finishes her version, though. Here's another photo that shows the flops a bit closer.

Basically, I used the outside border fabric as inspiration for the color scheme and went to town! Of course, I had all these bright colors already in my "stash" so it was pretty easy. My husband has caught me staring a few times and he just laughs. What can I say ... I love it!

I have done a few stamping swaps lately on Splitcoasters. One was a Bella swap and the other was for owl images. Well, for the owls I went a little overboard on the pink & green. But these little ladies are so cute w/ their hats and everything. Its perfect for my mom and her two neighbors (whose names all start with an "L")- they meet every week to craft (or lately swim in the pool) or play a game of super scrabble. I may have to make them some cards ... the sentiment is just perfect.

Whitney's Garden

Here it is! The newest flower/omega hole quilt that I made. Some sorority sisters commissioned it for another one of our sisters who worked super hard at our national convention to make everything run smoothly. Whitney wanted the raffle quilt (previous flower quilt post) so badly, but she didn't win it. So, her friends hired me to make her one before she headed to her mission trip to Africa. From what I've heard, she loved it! (And so did I! I especially love the fabric for the sashing between the blocks, which is what all the colors were based on.) What do you think?
The second picture shows the fabric on the back and the label that I made using my mom's machine since it does all this fancy stuff. Now that I am done with this, its back to sewing letter shirts! :-)

I hope everyone had a great 4th yesterday! We enjoyed my folks' pool and had a cookout with some neighbors/family friends. We even busted out the Super Scrabble board for a little friendly competition. And for once, I actually won a game!

Have a great weekend!

Mojo 44

This is for the Mojo Monday Sketch challenge at Verve. I really love the paper - from Basic Grey's Infuse collection. I also added some PTI Vintage Cream and SU! Chocolate Chip. I had to hand cut my photo corners since I don't have a punch, but they came out ok. I wish I had used a bigger main image, but overall I like how it came out.

Verve has some cool stamps - check 'em out.

Happy Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday! Man ... my summer vacay is going to be OVER before I know it! Geez.

Today I have run a bunch of errands, done some laundry for my mister, and prepped some parts for a few sewing projects. I did stop for a bit to color this cutie stamp image. My camera flash isn't working right - probably operator error - so its a bit washed out in the photo, but the colors are a lot brighter in real life.

My big project that I finished is being given to the recipient tonight - so I will post the pictures tomorrow. I can't wait to hear what she thinks! I met her friend to drop it off yesterday and she let out a huge (and excited) gasp when she saw it. I hated to hand it over b/c I loved it too! :-)

Tomorrow my mom has the day off so we are heading to a few out-of-town quilt stores that we don't get to alot. It will be a fun little road trip and you don't have to twist my arm to get me in a quilt store! Hope y'all are having a great week! :-)