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!