Fab Gift Idea

So, I was on SCS the other day, ran across this tutorial. Just what I was looking for! I wanted to make monogrammed cards for my kid's teachers, dance teachers, and misc. ladies. I was getting ready to order from a website to get clear boxes for holding cards, but didn't want to pay for shipping. Than came the searching on SCS. They got all kinds of stuff on there to make. But this was perfect for what I was doing!

The tutorial is easy to follow, gotta love Beate. For my first attempt, I went with some double sided papers I had on hand. I went with double sided, because I wanted the inside of the box to look like it was decorated as well. Than I made some cards with the same pattern paper line to match the box. And what did I end up with? A perfect little gift for my mother in law.

I used a Martha Stewart stamp set found at Walmart for ten bucks. They're clear, comes in a pretty font, and has three circles, (double line, dots, and scallop) around the letter. The letters are even shaped on the clear lining, so they fit in the circle correctly. I used blue bayou, kiwi kiss, and close to cocoa card stocks. The paper line I found at Michael's called Bohemia by My Mind's Eye. Misc CB folders were used, as well as SU scallop punches, and a 1.5 inch circle punch. Added a little bit of star dust stickles, ribbon and another punched out letter to the top of the box.

Liking what I made the other day, I set out to make another one. I found myself in need of more double sided card stock. Lucky for me, Michael's was running some good sales this weekend. After searching on line, I remembered Michael's had a line of papers there that comes in a pad with coordinating colors. K&Company has several pads you can pick from. I picked up three yesterday. They were running a 40% off, plus a coupon for another 25% off if you purchased before 1.

Dudes! That's like a flipping steal! So, I helped myself to a few of those pads of paper! Lots of people are getting these as little gifts this year! LOL! Instead of repeating cards like in the set above, I made 8 different cards for this box set.

Then I looked over my printed copies of the sketch challenges to come up with some different layouts for the cards. I think they all turned out wonderful. This set is going to one of Gabi's dance teachers.

This set used so saffron, wild wasabi, baja breeze, sage shadow, more mustard and close to cocoa card stock. I used SU scallop punches. Close to cocoa is my ink color. Misc. CB folders. Ribbon I had on hand from different places and scrappers floss for one card. Star dust stickles were used on different parts of cards, and the top of the box.

One small tip if you should try to make these. Please pay attention to where you're putting the heavy double sided tape to the ends of the box. Both boxes I messed up, and put it on the wrong side of the flap! Outside of that, this is a very fun and easy project to do, and the end results are so nice, it's a fab gift!

Blessings

I grabbed the latest Amy Grant Christmas CD about a week ago. On there she has a new song that talks about counting your blessings instead of sheep when you're worried. We've had a few interesting challenges this year, and as the year comes to a close, it's ending on a very positive note. Anyhow, the song kinda feels like the Sound of Music's Favorite Things song. She has a lot of old favorite songs on there, and a few new ones, one about unwrapping hubby on Christmas Eve night and giving him a few of his favorite things! LOL!

I have two little blessings, not that I always think about them that way! Goodness, they can wear ya out fighting! Sometimes it's so easy to get wrapped up in making sure they're doing this right or that right that you forget about just enjoying them while they're small. My adventure to capture some photos today started because I want to make a Thanksgiving scrapbook page. I've never made one. I have such cute papers in the DCWV Fall slab pack, and have never taken photos of turkey day. Plus, I have a way cute stamp set from TAC for Thanksgiving. Now, I'm set on photos. I took the kids to the local park for a photo session. I came away with a lot of fun photos of my blessings today. I think I even have the Christmas photograph for the Christmas card! That'll save me some grief with them! I even took a few of them jumping off the bench. Man, was that fun! They had a good time with those! Our neighbors came over and joined us for dinner.

On top of it being Turkey day, today is Gabi's 9th birthday. So, she's a double blessing today. She helped plan our meal, which had country fried chicken as part of our menu. I even made her a pie! I never cook things from scratch, but I did! Well, the pudding came from a box, but I still got the pudding that had to be cooked, not the instant, so that counts for something! I did it just for her. And for the selfish fact that a birthday cake seemed really odd for desert on Turkey day. Here she is with two of her gifts, a matching set of PJ's for her and her American Girl doll Nicki. So, they match when they go to bed now! She was excited when she saw that! And was gleeful when she saw her new My Littlest Pet Shop work out club house!

Happy Blessings to everyone!

Gabi's birthday favors

For Gabi's birthday party attendees, I made them glitter body spray and body powder. I had a bunch of shimmer body stuff sitting around, and mixed it into other stuff for her little friends. I found two small plastic cups for a dollar at Target, and a spray bottle for a buck. For the body powder, I used baby powder, added all the shimmery stuff, and scooped it into the cups. I topped it off with the scalloped circle Hero's Art cupcake stamp that I used for her birthday invite.

The spray body wash was harder to decorate, as ribbon and labels wouldn't go around the bottle well. So, I hot glued them on there. For the body wash, I used distilled water, glycerin, vanilla extract for scent, shimmery powders, glitter, and a little coloring. The girls all loved them! I warned the moms about it when I handed them out. I could see powder all over, shimmering in the lights on carpet and tables!

I had a hard time photographing the powder, to let the shimmer and sparkle shine thru. This was the best photo I got. Doesn't the body spray look perfect for a bunch of 8 year old girls?! I even stamped clear bags with the cupcake stamps, and Palette ink pads.

Harvest Bear stays flat

I just got this stamp the other day, and couldn't wait to play with it. I think it's ubber cute! So cute, that I wanted to pop up the tummy, and couldn't cut the other image I stamped. It was killing me! So, here sits one flat bear! Cutie pie! Anyhow, I used sketch challenge 202 from SCS's. Penelope paper line from TAC is the pattern paper used on this year. I used more mustard from SU for the card base, and wild wasabi is the green card stock. Colored the cutie with prima colored pencils, and gamsol. Added some star dust, and pink stickles, ribbon from Joann's and flower is from the assorted bitty blossoms in the TAC catty.

The gem brad came from my friend Kim.

World upside down

First time I've sat down to scrap in ages. These photos have been waiting for weeks now to put down on paper. After starting gymnastics up again Trey and Gabi flip all over the house after class. After watching them do this for weeks on end, fighting over who's turn it was to go first next time, I had the kids take turns flipping around for me for a photo session. I like to scrap those random moments that show their typical life moments. Man, they flipped over time after time for me to get good photos of them smiling. I used TAC's Sands of time paper pack, and the solid blue is from DCWV. Sands of time is one of my favorites. (Little tidbit, I was published in the Fall 2007/2008 TAC catty with this paper line, and give thanks stamp set.) I find it ideal to use when I'm scrapping a page with both kids. It has blues and greens, and pinks in the designs. I like my pages to be matchy-matchy with clothes. Sometimes it's hard with a boy and a girl to have that work together unless I plan ahead with photo sessions. However for this, I didn't think ahead by planning out the clothes, but I think they both look wonderful with the paper. I used two punches from SU, the photo corner punch-big fav of mine and the scallop punch. My friend Kim from Sunshine days sent me some brads, which worked perfectly with the page. The other embellishments are from TAC. Than to top off my page, I used my scrapbooking program and created the title. I wanted it to reflect the theme of being upside down, so I put flipped over upside down.

The layout was based on a layout in Jeanette Lynton's book "Cherish". That book is one my favorite scrapping supplies! Just makes creating nice layouts so easy! She's got another one out, and I'm dying to get my hands on it!

Wiggle jiggle, baby.

A few days ago, Trey fell and hit his tooth on the water nozzle outside. Not sure how he managed to hit one tooth, no busted lip or anything, just hit his tooth. Knocked that baby tooth loose. The funniest part of the story is the fact that he has an adult tooth growing behind the baby tooth next to the one he hit. That sucker won't come loose for the life of me. So, I mean, seriously, you had to hit the tooth next to the tooth that the dentist is gonna have to pull out? Can't ya help your cheap momma out, and knock out the tooth in front of that adult tooth?! They're right next door to each other! Well, he was all excited about finally having a lose tooth. He's six, and so many of his friends are toothless wonders. His sister lost her first tooth in preschool. She was barely five. Anyhow, I got to school today for pickup, and he's like spinning the sucker around in his mouth. UGH! This is one part of motherhood I can't handle. That wiggle jiggle feeling of a loose tooth icks me out to no end. So, I can't touch it or pull it, because it's makes me squirmy! After an hour of playing with it with his tongue, it came out, with no help from mom! Thank goodness! So, now he has officially lost his first tooth! He wrote a note to the tooth fairy asking if he could keep it. Wants to show it off for show and tell.

This last photo is awful. The tooth wouldn't show up in the shot. I love the expression on his face, so I had to show it off. My little chap finally lost his first tooth! Growing up!

Sweetness!

Tammi is such a dear. She sent me some Polly Packages images a few weeks ago. Oh, my! She's so freaking cute! I went back to the DCWV glitter paper pack I used with the gingerbread card, and thought she'd look darling with the ho ho ho paper. I happen to glance down at my printed copies of SCS's Sketch challenges, and used SC22 for the card. I pulled out some retired SU wasabi paper, and pink pirouette. I used fun flock on her hat brim, shirt, and the bag rim. Added stickles to the berries, and package. Used the SU paper piercer pack for the edge. End result was a darling cute card! Thanks so much for the images, Tammi!

Gingerbread man

This is a retired TAC set. They released it last Christmas as a Vintage stamp, so I grabbed it because it was super cute. It makes me think of the Losties, as a group of them got to go to the Gingerbread Cottage, or Gutterbus Cottage as they liked to call it. I had found this pack of buttons at Michael's, and had to have it. I thought the little gingerbread man button in the bottom right would look so good with that stamp. And I was right. Don't they make a perfect pair? I also saw the snowflake punch at Micheals, and grabbed it because it was 40% off that week. The paper came from last year's DCWV Christmas glitter stack. Added some scrapping floss, wonderful item for cards. I used Cranberry Crisp paper, creamy caramel and Close to cocoa. Had some old heart brads that took the place of the hearts on him. I used color pencils on him with gamsol.

Dashing thru the snow

I started working on this card the other day. I saw this way cute card on Michelle Zindorf's blog with a kid in the snow making a snow angel. I knew I wanted to try to make that type of scene on a card. I pulled out baja blue, bordering blue, night of navy, and ballet blue for the sky, and to try to add depth in the snow. The snow didn't turn out quite how I hoped. Wonder what would be a good color for adding softness for snow drifts? I didn't buy that cool SU tree set years ago when it was on sale, so I pulled out a very fun stamp set from TAC called Spring time. It has two tree bases. I used the straight one for the trees, and stamped twice in close to cocoa to get some depth with them. I wanted the penguin from TAC's Perky Penguin set to be bright, so I used rose red, and orange on him. His hat/gloves are topped off with fun flock. I used frosted lace and platinum stickles. Than a light kiss of pink pirouette on his cheeks and tummy. Add the corner punch embossed with the polka dot CB folder, and a fun snowflake sticker. My papers are rose red, and baja blue.
Michelle's card can be viewed here. http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2008/11/09/wonderful-snow-day-tutorial-145/

Magical Deer

I had time to sit down and stamp something not related to Gabi's upcoming birthday party. I've got Christmas on the brain lately! I pulled out two of my favorite TAC sets, Holiday Magic and Simply Christmas by Mabelle. I think these two sets go so nicely together. I pulled out TAC's Reece SWIC paper pack, and SU's baja breeze paper. I think they go wonderfully together. I used some wine red 2 DCWV paper to mount everything. I did the cracked glass technique on the deer, which was stamped in SU's Close to Cocoa. I stamped the holiday sentiment in Palette Bordeaux. It's such a pretty color. One of my favorites. Than I used the SU scallop punch, and topped off with crystal stickles. I had a brown ribbon floating around, so I grabbed it. I took Palette Haystack, and SU's Close to Cocoa to the cracked glass to showcase it alittle better. The ends of the deer were run across the bordeaux stamp pad for added color.

TAC's Snowmen Nativity

I think this set is so cute! It's one of my favorite winter ones from TAC. It's called Snowmen Nativity. I wanted to try to make one of those cool skies Michelle Zindorf makes. The other day her snowman card was so soft and pretty. I think she just rocks when she gets a hold of a brayer! I took my speckled background stamped it in Versamark, heat embossed with clear pearl embossing powder. I masked over the wise men. Than I took SU ink pads bordering blue, baja breeze, and blue bayou in layers on the card with the brayer. I kept getting lines, so than I switched to a sponge. I sponged the sand with creamy caramel, and close to cocoa. I used my water color crayons by Lyra to color the image. Took the edge distressor to the edge of a blue bayou layer. Layered TAC's Reece sheet with creamy caramel, and put all of it onto baja blue. I than added the big star with sliver pigment ink, and heat set in silver embossing powder. And of coarse, topped those cute sheep in star dust stickles!

Square Bear

I love when Tammi does her square cards. You can see them on her blog called Tropical Dreams. I have a pack of them, but they always throw me for a loop! So, today, I pulled out a stamp set and used one of those square base cards from DCWV. "Freeze" by Stampendous! was my stamp of choice for this card. It's small, so I knew it would fit in the little square in the center. Than I pulled out one of my favorite retired sets of Christmas paper from TAC, called Merry Wishes. They have a index sheet of the pattern papers in the pack. It's about a 3x3 scaled down version of the 12x12 paper. I trimmed it out of the index sheet to be my base. I love those squares also for making photo corners. I brushed the edge of the card base, and the image base with pixie pink.

I cut out the mittens, and the snowman's hat and propped them up with dots. That took awhile! Than I added stickles to the bear and snow. I put fun flock on the snowman's hat, and mittens. I think I'll leave that small cutting and popping up to Kim! The bear mitten was too small to get the pop up under, so I just put it down with two way glue. Than a quick mirror snowflake gem, and bright green ribbon given to me from Kim in a Lostie Secret sister round, and my square card was completed.

Gabi's birthday invite

I finally came up with the theme for Gabi's 9th birthday party in a few weeks. She's actually a turkey baby this year. Her birthday falls on Thanksgiving. But instead of a turkey, I went with cupcakes! I have some ideas for party treat stuff for the girls using this set too. I pulled out my clear cupcake set from Hero Arts, and Hugs and Wishes from SU for my stamps. I had this old pack of pattern paper called Cheeky Collection Abby by Making Memories, and an Easter kit from DCWV where I grabbed 8x8 cardstock. I used two old items I had on hand already! Than since the cardstock was 8x8, I only had to cut it in half to create a 4x4 card! I think the card came out cute. A touch brighter than I planned, but fun all the same. I thought the pattern paper worked well for a birthday card, since birthdays are all about numbers! I used the trusty SU scallop circle punch, and 1.5 circle punch by Marvy. Coarse, I had to pick a card to scan in that the sentiment was slanted! The joys of hand made stuff! I had already put the rest of the invites in envelopes, so I had to use one I had out still. Finally, the cupcake and heart are adorned with stickles. I used stardust for the cupcake, and fruit punch for the heart.

Graceful Fall

Today was Trey's field trip. His class went to a local state park to learn about seeds, and farm life 100 years ago. This is him trying butter. They made it fresh in a little jar. Than the park director smeared it on crackers for all the children to try.

I saw some lovely sites while I was out there. I snapped photos of these flowers by the learning center. It was a touch gloomy when we first arrived. The rain held off allowing for a nature walk for myself after the kids headed back to school.

I haven't done something like that in years. I used to love going to a local park before kids. Somehow, quiet walks under fallen leaves doesn't happen with little people under foot yelling! I really enjoyed the walk. It was just me, for about an hour, walking down a path covered with fallen leaves. I had a river to my right, and crickets chirping to my left.

Two years ago, Gabi had a field trip here. I saw a bridge, and had fallen in love with it. I thought it would be a beautiful place to take photos of, or have the kids stand on it. I had no kids with me, but my journey with the trees today started because I wanted to snap some photos of that bridge. So, here's the bridge.

Isn't it beautiful? I just found it so charming so many years ago! Can't you just picture it covered in snow? Not that we see much snow here. Or Spring flowers blooming near by it?

Than on my way back from the walk, I found something I had missed

the first time. There sitting on a small branch, not too high up on the tree was a bird's nest. It was just right there! I couldn't believe it.

This park is all about nature, as you can see some of the trees are huge and untouched by man. So, it was neat to see a bird's nest so close to see.

It turned out to be such a lovely day to take a stroll thru the trees. I felt so refreshed from the busy Sept and Oct I've had. Only to get thru it, to realize it's time to get ready for the holiday madness! It's November already!

To top of such a lovely day, Gabi's report card came home. She made A/B Honor Roll at school! This is her first time for real grades! She had two A's and two B's! I was so happy for her, and she was way proud of herself!

Spread your wings

This is one of my favorite scrapbook pages. All the elements came together perfectly. The colors are so fun. I had wonderful photos to work with. Embellishments that matched the papers perfectly! I used DCWV paper pack, Nana's Kids glitter stack. I used their spring 2008 stack for my base. I used my favorite scrapbook called "Cherish" by Jeannette Lynton for the layout.

I had taken the kids to our local park and snapped some photos. Gabi looked so cute in her little dress. Gabi had also been diagonsised with ADHD at the beginning of second year. We chose to medicate her, which was a hard road to cross. For her, that was the best decision we could have made. She flourished so much last year, and continues to do so this year. So, this double page was made around that change in her, because she really spread her wings and took off last year.

Printing on Vellum

This was a really cool thing to find out about years ago. A friend of mine, Diana, gave me this idea, and from then on, I've been best friends with vellum. I use it to print titles for scrapbooks and journaling blocks. On SCS they have this even cool thread that has computer printer codes to print the fonts in colors of CTMH and SU inks! Genius! I use it all the time when I'm scrapping to have the printer ink match my colors. For this page, I had my title match sage shadow, and pixie pink. I don't like my hand writing to much, so I try to do as much as I can on the computer. I know some people say it takes away from the personal touch, but honestly, I feel like if they can't read it, than it's not doing a lot for me! Here is the link for the printer codes at SCS. http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137318

The other cool thing about this page is all the fun little details. I used TAC's Running stitches stamp set, and paper pierced at each end. I adore photo anchors, which I first saw in a CTMH catty. Oh, man, that was love at first site! I used SU scallop circle punch. Paired that with TAC's Squiggle ladybugs in SU pixie pink, topped off with Star Dust stickles, and used pop dots to pop them out on the page. Finally, Kissy Fit brads from Queen and Co. complete my list of embellishments on this page.

Amanda's Glitter Card

Amanda totally threw me when I got to her kit. I wasn't quite sure what to do. But that girl is a wiz with acetate! Shoot, she's been published making a card with acetate, and she's a past teacher. She's taking a break while she chases her little strawberry around the house! Anyhow, once I got things going, I think it turned out fine. I colored the back side with sharpies. I took some crystal effects, and layered the ghost with a fine white glitter. Than I layered up the sentiment to make it show up. See the bright green? I love bright green! Than I added eyelets to stick it all together. I had a piece of scrap from Barb's fence from her card, so I added it beneathe the ghost to make it look like he was behind the fence.

Tammi's Fluffy Pirate

This kit came from Tammi. Look at that mustash! Fun! I ran the scallop circle thru the cuttle bug folder. I really like how that looks. I used some new Martha Stewart glitter I found at Walmart on the feather. It matched the colors so nicely. And who doesn't love a little bit of bling!

Kim's Boo Kit

How cute is this chap?! This is a TAC stamp set called Trick or Treaters. Kim said she fell in love with the set from seeing some stuff that another Lostie, Cindy, had been making with the set. I enjoyed this kit! I love bright papers, and she sent them to play with! I realized afterwards that I totally forgot to add some embellishments. Chalk that up to my crazy life lately! I did, however, do a move that I see Kim do often on her cards which was to put that top layer over the scalloped purple layer before putting it all together. But I might have to go back and add something to this card. But I do think it's darling just like it is!

Barb's kit.

This one threw me at first. She'd sent an orange base, and I was lost at first. Granted, I must have been the only one, because all the other Lostie cards rock with this kit. Anyhow, I went with a techinique that Michelle Zindorf does that I adore. So, I think my Halloween sky looks pretty cool! I added her fence that she enclosed, along with the moon and the cat. I was very pleased with the end result! I added some white gel to the tree, and outlined some parts with the clear glitter pen.

Cindy's spidey kit

This was a fun kit to put together. Another one with bright fun papers. I'm a big fan of purple and green for Halloween! I cut out the spider, and popped him up. I also used a cuttle bug folder. I'm in love with that polka dot folder! She had also sent us a square card base, and those are always fun to make.

Colleen's Witchy swap

This came from Colleen. How cool is the spider cuttle bug folder?! I added some clear gel pen to it to make it shimmer a little. This was the first time I played with the headless stamps. Fun type of stamp. The spider punch out is a perfect touch with this kit too.

Debbie's swap.

Debbie was so sweet to host this card swap. We had done this when some of the Losties were lucky enough to go to Colorado to meet up in July. Only four of us did the swap, but we had so much fun! I jumped at the chance to do this one! Sadly, I can't do the Christmas one, cuz I've become so busy! Back to this card. Such a sexy witch! She also sent such fun papers to play with! I think my favorite part is the cute little kitty on the witch's shoulder!

Jeannie's card kit.

I love this retired TAC set. Jeannie borrowed it from me. I had a good time listening to her on the phone as she was picking out her papers for this swap. She did a great job with picking out the papers too. I tried to do a layout that would show off her beautful papers.

Justine's card kit.

I had a blast playing with this card. It just came together so easily for me. Her papers were fun to play with, but I heart her image. I took an extra image she'd sent and cut out the frog and the witch's pot. So, he really looks like he's jumping out of the pot! Such a fun kit.

Kris's Halloween kit.

Owls are a big hit with a lot of the Losties. We had a lot of fun teasing with whoo are you cards with the last Lostie secret sister round. I loved the cuttle bug background she sent. I haven't seen that one in person yet, so it was nice to have a chance to add it to a card.

Liz's card kit.

How cute is this little witch? This was Liz's kit. The witch looked so perfect inside a circle, I layered it up, and added the scallop punch to the last layer. I had seen this fun layout on SCS using a layout like that, so I did a layout with that in mind. I cut the scallop in half, and put the other half on the otherside to add some more layers. I like how it turned out.

Maggie's card kit

Oh, man, this was a fun kit. She had bright colors, my favorite to play with. Fun images of cupcakes. And paper ful of bling! Hardest part was trying to figure out what papers to play with, and which images to pick from! I loved the bright green bling paper the most, so I started with that part of the kit! I used the large scallop circle punch from Marvy. She enclosed the goo punch from Martha. I used McGill's Retro word tag punch. It punches out four different sizes word punches. That was perfect for the sentiment that she enclosed with her kit.