Two Birthdays

Several Saturday's in a row we had nothing planned and I'm certainly not complaining; however, this past Saturday we had two birthday parties at the same time. Friends of ours that moved away a few years ago were having a party for their little girl who is the same age as my son. A couple in my church just adopted a 7 year old boy and they had a birthday party for him. Unfortunately, they were scheduled for the same time so we had to chose. We decided to go with the one we committed to first and so went to the girl's party. We also knew we would be seeing the little boy today. Anyway, I have written all of that to be able to share two birthday cards today.
For the little girl I used a stamp set from Delta called A Kid for Every Season. I also used my nestabilities to create the medallion and layers. I embossed some flowers with my cuttlebug and used my I-rock gem setter to put the bling on the bottom. I have been playing with coloring with the Bic Mark-It markers (being unable to afford the Copics). I really like how bold the markers are compared to my usual coloring medium colored pencils.

I have seen numerous versions of this rocket card however didn't have a cut file for it. I googled for a rocket image and this is what I found. I did a pixel trace in MTC and within a few minutes I was ready to cut. My son really likes it so I think the little boy will too.

Thanks for taking the time to visit. I'm working on a project for a Sweatheart Banquet. I hope to share soon.

Have a blessed day!

Mini Calendars 2012

I am posting my first tutorial. I am not brave enough to try a video but I did keep a picture portfolio of the various stages of this project. I decided to make some mini calendars. I found a similar tutorial on Mary Hasting's blog Very Merry Vintage Style. The one she did was for 2011 but she has updated her free printable for the 2012 calendar. (Thank you Mary for your generosity and inspiration.)

The first picture I would like to share is the finished project. This is one out of ten. Each ended up slightly different (colors and flowers) but they all have the same layout.

I started this project soon after Christmas and thus there were plenty of cardboard boxes laying around ready to be recycled/repurposed. The best ones were from my son's toys. I used my new Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 8 (a Christmas gift from my DH) to cut the cardboard and the matching paper.

 I used Elmer's glue and a sponge brush to cover the cardboard. Then I used a brayer to make sure I got edge to edge coverage and the paper was smooth.

The free printable for the calendars required me to cut all of the months out and then I needed a way to put them together. The tutorial on Mary's site showed how to use rubber cement. I researched a variety of ways and there is a medium out there that is made for this purpose. I chose to try the rubber cement because it was easily accessible. (I don't often have enough patience to wait for things to be delivered.)

Since I was making ten of these I used two rulers to line several calendar sets up at a time and binder clips to keep them together tight. The ends of the binder clips made it easy to hold the calendars as they dried. I put several layers just to be safe.

 You may be able to see in this picture the slight gloss on the top. Hopefully it will allow for easy removal of each month (one month at a time).

All that remained was to put the calendar together. I used a Hero Arts stamp from the set Butterflies and Dragonflies for the butterfly. I stamped each in an Artprint Brown from Memories and colored with my colored pencils. The flowers are from my stash and I used pearls from Queen & Co. for their centers. The ribbon is American Crafts. The sentiment is from a Cloud 9 Design set called Simple Thought - Travel (another Christmas gift).

 I intend to give these to my colleagues at work. Since there are 4 males I thought I should design one more to their liking. I chose a stamp from Heartfelt Impressions. I played around with putting some buttons but couldn't get it right. I think I like the simplicity of the layout.

 So here are the final pics.

While working on this project two challenges were posted. I don't often participate in challenges but follow them regularly. I love to see what others do. This project fits the challenge for My Pink Stamper to make something for someone to start the new year. The second challenge is from Stampin' Sisters in Christ. The challenge is to use something new. In this project I used several new items I got for Christmas.

This has been a long post and if you are still here, thank you. I hope you have enjoyed this project. I thought I appreciated other's blog that posted the how-to-tutorials. Now I have a deeper appreciation.
Have a blessed day!

Simply Stamped

My uncle was having surgery so I made this quick card to send. I used a stamp set from SU that I have had for a while. No cricut for this card. Simply stamped and colored with Crayola colored pencils.  

Have a blessed day!

A Chocolate Snowman

I am very grateful for the staff at my son's school. His teachers are awesome and the ladies in the office are wonderful. I always try to send a little something on the holidays to let them know that I appreciate all they do for my son and for the other students.

For Christmas, my DH (who works at the school) wanted to show his appreciation for the ladies in the cafeteria. He bought these yummy Willy Wonka chocolate bars. I was once again inspired by a pin that wrapped popcorn packets and used a glove for the hat.

I used some green flannel that was easy to wrap around the bar and cinch at the top with small rubber bands. I used small puches from SU to make the smile and the buttons. I cut the nose from.... hmmmm.... I know it's a Cricut cart with all the snowmen but I can't remember the name. A simple snowflake stamp from the $1 bin was used on the bottom. Finally the google eyes.

I love the way they turned out and the ladies enjoyed them also. Thanks for dropping by. I hope to have another project soon to share with you. I have been working on mini calendars.
Have a blessed day!

A "Colorful" Wreath

I love Pinterest. One of the first things I pinned was an idea from The Tip Junkie. I waited until Christmas to create this for Fisher's teacher.

The wreath form is actually two different size embroidery hoops. I used one large box of crayola crayons hot glued into place. The letter was a wooden piece covered in paper. The embellishments are stickers.

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!