For The Choir Director

I used Mo Manning's choir and followed the sketch at Sweet Sketch Wednesday ***Top 3!*** for my card for the Choir Director at our Church. I am on the Ministry and Personnel Committee at Church and we act as a liaison between the staff and the congregation. Each of us are assigned to a specific staff member and the Choir Director is mine (and I am hers). Although there are times when it feels like I am everyone's go to person because as a Stay-at-Home Mom I am the easiest one to get ahold of (a blessing and a curse, lol).
I colored this wonderful living Christmas tree with my Prismacolor pencils. I followed the color scheme at The Playdate Cafe. The dp's were from the Making Memories Twinkle collection. The 3D snowflake ornament is a Silhouette cut file with a snowflake brad in the center. I also used my Diamond Stickles on it to give it some sparkle.
It sure is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here!!!

I would like to share my card at:

Papercraft Star a Christmas tree, closes Dec. 18,

Charisma Cardz Christmas makes, closes Dec. 19,

Crafts And Me challenge #114 no blues, closes Dec. 19,

PaperPlay Challenges you're a star, closes Dec. 20,

Winter Wonderland oh Christmas tree, closes Dec. 20,  

Allsorts Challenge oh Christmas tree, closes Dec. 21,

The Squirrel and the Fox Christmas, closes Dec. 27,

Card Makin' Mamas Happy Holidays, closes Jan. 3

Library Books

My friend Yaz is a librarian and her birthday is this week. I knew this image from The Saturated Canary would be perfect. I colored her using my Prismacolor pencils and used my Distress Ink in Broken China to ink up the doily behind her. Some hotfix Jolee's Jewels Swarovski Elements add the bling to her glasses. I added the text to a Silhouette image flag and printed it. I glued them all onto a cardboard coffee sleeve and inserted a Tim Horton's giftcard. Her school is a block from Tim Horton's, of course everything in Canada is only a block from a Tim Horton's, we have that many of them ;o) Her mug was colored red and gold to match her schools colors.

I would like to share at:

The Saturated Canary Challenge hot chocolate and marshmallows, closes Dec. 19,



TT's 15

My niece Taylor, the little girls call her TT, is turning 15 this week. This card is for her. I followed the sketch at A and T Emerald Faeries. The image is called Danielle with Laptop by Mo Manning. Colored with Prismacolor pencils. The patterned paper was a Silhouette fill pattern, which I have never tried doing before but it was so beautiful and I loved the colors so I filled a square with the patterned 'paper' and then used the internal offset feature to add a 1/4" smaller square inside. I changed the solid line to a dashed one and then changed the line color to navy. I printed both the patterned square and my faux stitching out on the printer. Amazing. Custom patterned paper. The flowers and leaves were also Silhouette files that I cut out of patterned paper, used a Bo Bunny brad for their centers and lifted off the page with pop dots. I used a pink grosgrain ribbon with silver sparkle polka dots on it (didn't photograph very well) and 1/4" loopy blue ribbon. Of course I colored her up to look like Taylor and her tabby (although I think her cat has a bit more gray, but I think I'm close)!

I would like to share my card at:

Crafty Ribbons Challenge use at least 2 ribbons, closes December 6th,

Stampin' For The Weekend use some texture, closes December 7th

A Princess Card

Well, it's started. My Kaylee got invited to 2 birthday parties last weekend. One on Saturday and one on Sunday. Now that she's started school I think this is going to happen a lot. Honestly, I don't know how I'll afford it if she gets invited to 25 birthday parties this year. And how many presents do 5 year-olds really need? So we said no to the Saturday party but I felt guilty so I sent a card and little gift anyway. The Sunday party was for her new best friend, the little girl she plays with at every recess, so I knew there was no way we could miss. I also wanted to meet her parents too since my Kaylee talks so much about their daughter (and I'm sure they felt the same way).
This card was for the Saturday party that we missed. She was having a Princess party. I overlapped 2 scalloped ovals in my Silhouette program and used the weld feature to join them as a card. Here's a TIP: I used the 'draw a line' feature to draw a line where the fold would be. I then changed the 'line style' to dashed. This created a perforated edge with which to fold my card! I used white backed, glitter cardstock as my card base. The clock was a Silhouette image that I printed onto pink cardstock. The carriage was another Silhouette image cut out of pink glitter sticker paper and black cardstock. It looked so sharp! I realized the sticker paper was going to stick up above the card, so I cut the same shape again out of pink cardstock and stuck the pink glitter paper down to that so that there wouldn't be any exposed sticky paper. Cinderella Honey is a digi stamp from Sassy Studio Designs. I colored her using my Prismacolor pencils. I used Diamond Stickles on her cape and DecoArt Snow Writer as the trim on her cape. Heat set crystals add the bling to her skirt, headband and her earring. I popped her off the page with pop dots. The little flowers were from Michael's and the leaves a Silhouette file.
My inspiration came from a card by Dilyana Kupenska and I just love the way it turned out!

I would like to share my card at:

Stampin' Sisters in Christ for a child, closes Nov. 25,

Fab 'n' Funky Challenges birthday card + 3 of something (flowers, leaves), closes Nov. 27,

Crafts and Me Challenges circles, closes Nov. 28,

Moving Along With The Times lets go dotty, closes Nov. 29,

Top Tip Tuesday kids and teens, closes Dec. 4,

A Winter Craft

I promised the girls that on the first snow day I had a special craft planned for us. Well today we woke up to snow, and lots of it. It snowed all day today in fact. However I was supposed to go to town for lunch. So naturally our craft did not go smoothly. First I used a Silhouette cut file to cut the hanger and leotard out of black and pink vinyl. However, the vinyl did not stick to the canvas. Then we tried cutting them out of black and pink cardstock, which I ran through my Xyron sticker maker. That seemed to help stick them to the canvas. I painted Kaylee's palm with pink Tempra paint and stuck it down onto the canvas. When we lifted her hand, the leotard came up with it. Arrrgh. I sent Kaylee in to wash and painted Abby's hand. I stuck Abby's hand down and her leotard lifted up too. Kaylee came back clean so I sent Kaylee to help Abby wash while I tried to stick the leotards back down. They both came back clean so I painted each of their other hands, stuck them down, and went with them to wash. That's when I found my good hand towel with hot pink paint on it. I now had a 1/2 hour before I had to leave for town, was not ready, and still had to paint their hands again with the light pink paint. It was then that I called in reinforcements. Grandma and Grandpa were supposed to be coming to babysit so I called and asked how soon they could get here. They came right away. Grandpa was put in the bathroom to help with hand washing. Grandma was given the task of trying to rinse the paint out of my hand towel. I painted the girls hands with light pink acrylic paint because I didn't have any other colors of Tempra paint. I made it town on time. When I got home, I added some ribbon around the waists. I then used Elmer's Craft Bond foam glue to try and stick the leotards and hangers down better. That also seemed to work. Once the girls got up from naps, Kaylee suggested adding flowers. I let them choose their colors and used the Elmer's Glue to stick them on as well. It was then I decided I should also stick the ribbon down. I used small pieces of Skor-Tape under the ribbon behind the flowers. I think I have now used every adhesive imaginable on this craft ;o) I used a paint pen to write the girls names under their dresses. On the back we wrote the date and their ages. They sure look great!!!

The Parlour Is Closed

This is my last post as a DT member at The Poodles Parlour. Jacqui is the extremely talented designer of The Digi Garden images and has decided for personal and health reasons to focus on her designing and to shut down the Challenge Blog. And good for her. We all need to take a little more mental and physical health time these days. But I sure will be sad to see our time as a team come to an end. Be sure to visit the girls and drop a kind word.
The theme for this last challenge is thank-you/Thanksgiving. I chose Emily's Harvest, a Digi Garden image, and followed Shell's sketch at Come and Get It Challenges. I colored Emily with my Prismacolor pencils. The wreath of leaves was a Silhouette image. I embossed the purple paper and mat using CuttleBug's Baby's Breath embossing folder. The sentiment I chose especially for Jacqui, was a quote attributed to Sir Winston Churchill, and I thought it spoke so well to her talent. And to say thank-you to her for having me on her Design Team.
The sponsor this fortnight is Di's Digi Downloads. You can link up 3 entries and my favorite part of being on a Design Team is visiting your inspiring works!

I would like to share my card at:

Twist Of Faith Cards Harvest/Thanks Giving, closes Nov. 6,
Sassy Studio Designs thank-you/Thanksgiving, closes Nov. 8,
Crafting For All Seasons falling leaves, closes Nov. 14

98 Years Young

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! May your weekend be filled with family, good food and giving thanks!
My Grandma is turning 98 this week. And she still lives in her own apartment. She also does the 'Senior's' visiting for the Church. She is also a breast cancer survivor. I think it's pretty appropriate that October is her birthday and also breast cancer awareness month. She thinks I am perfect, which is fitting because I think she is perfect.
I used a cut file that I won from craftsUprint for the card base. I used my Silhouette to cut it out. I ran my card through the printer to add the sentiment. The butterfly is a Silhouette file that I cut out of purple vellum. Added some small black Glamrocks to the butterfly with my iRock heat setter and made the butterfly trail the same way.

This is Grandma with my girls just this past September. She bought the party hats and chocolate coins for Kaylee's pirate birthday party. I can't tell you how much it means to me that the girls have had the chance to get to know her. She is such a special member of our family and my Kaylee is named after her (as are several other of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren)!

I would like to share my card at:

Word Art Wednesday love, closes October 10,

The Play Date Cafe color challenge, closes October 11,

CAS-ual Fridays for the girls, celebrate someone special, closes October 12

A Hallowen Easel Card

Hello all! This fortnight's challenge at The Poodles Parlour is Halloween and is sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps and The Digi Garden. Be sure to check out my teamies inspiration too. They will certainly put you into the Halloween Spirit, get it, Spirit, hahaha. I know, puns are awful but I couldn't resist.
I used a Silhouette file to create my easel card. I merged the Bugaboo images Hween Brat Wizard and Hween Bench. I colored them with my Prismacolor pencils and used purple and gold Stickles on his hat and robe and orange Stickles on the pumpkin. Bling on a roll down the side. Pop dots lift my bat and sentiment off the page. The pumpkins along the bottom are another Silhouette cut file and I left room for a sentiment there too which I will add with a white gel pen once I decide who this one is going to.
My lessons learned: I carefully colored and shaded my image and then decided he needed some sparkle. That explains the Stickles. However, I didn't need to be as precise with my coloring if I had decided that ahead of time. Ah well, he has a lovely shaded robe and hat...under all those Stickles ;o)

I would like to share my card at:

Charisma Cardz bling/shiny, closes October 11,

Moving Along With The Times in the dark, closes October 11,

Paper Play shine on, closes October 11,

Catch the Bug Challenge seasonal/fall, closes October 13,

My Sheri Crafts apple or pumpkin, closes October 13, **ooo-la-la award winner!**

Crafting For All Seasons costumes/dress up, closes October 17

A Little Recycling

The challenge this fortnight at The Poodles Parlour is tags. I had a rather clever idea (if I do say so myself) to use a tag with a coffee sleeve. My husband picked me up a sleeve from Starbucks. However it had a very large Starbucks logo on it. So I turned it inside out and used double sided tape to close it again. I used a pre-made tag and Tim Holtz distress inks in Walnut Stain and Pine Needles. My Top Tip: to get my water rings I took an empty water bottle, dabbed it onto the inkpad and stamped it onto my tag. Then spritzed the tag with water. My image is called Cafe Lizzie from Whimsie Doodles. I colored her with Prismacolor pencils using fall colors. I used popdots to lift her off the tag. Tied 2 different ribbons and some raffia through the top to finish.  Maybe not too practical but definitely much nicer than the usual coffee sleeve ;o)

I would like to share my project at:

Top Tip Tuesday recycle it, closes Sept. 24,

The Ribbon Carousel fall into fall + ribbon, closes Sept. 25,

A&T Emerald Fairies use a tag, closes Oct. 2

Kaylee is 5 *Sigh*

I meant to post this yesterday for International Talk Like A Pirate Day! For Kaylee's 5th Birthday party she chose a pirate theme party. We invited 7 other children (for a total of 9) all under 6, and had 9 adults too. Just as an interesting side fact 3 of the children were triplets, so that upped our numbers significantly, lol.

I used a Silhouette file to create a treasure map invitation. I first cut it out of black patterned paper for the backing and then a beige patterned paper for the front. I ran the front through my printer to add the invite/text and then used my Xyron to glue them together. The back then showed white, so I used Tim Holtz distress ink in Walnut Stain to give it that aged look. Rolled it up and tied it with twine. The bottle, now that was a story. I went to 3 dollar stores (every one in our city) to find colored bottles with a cork in them. There were none. Then I thought maybe the small coke bottles would work but the labels were printed right on the bottles. While in the bottled drinks aisle I spotted the Perrier bottled water bottles. Green, flat bottom, removable label, and screw top. PERFECT! And they were $3.49 for 4, cheaper than I would have paid at a dollar store. PERFECT!

I used a Silhouette cut file to make the cupcake wraps which I cut out of kraft paper and the sails which were cut out of white cardstock. A cocktail toothpick doubled as a flagged mast. We made 24 chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing. We had 2 left at the end of the party. Almost all of the kids had 2 each, lol. Always a good sign that they were tasty.

 The Armada ;o)

We took 3 cardboard boxes and covered them in mirror tape found at the dollar store in the hardware section. We found little treasure chest cases at a craft wholesaler and filled them with chocolate loonies and toonies and jelly beans. Then we put 3 little chests into each box. I taped the boxes shut with black hockey tape to look like the straps on the chest. Then we buried them in the yard. My mother-in-law drew up 3 maps. My husband used sticks in the shape of an X to mark the spots. The kids absolutely loved digging for buried treasure!

We also bought pirate hats, parrot decorations and a palm tree scene at the craft wholesale warehouse. The pirate swords were from a dollar store. We set up a photo corner and took Kaylee's picture on 'the island' with all of her guests as they came in.

My lessons learned: we should have taped the little chests shut because by the time the kids were done digging up and ripping open the big treasure boxes the little ones had some dirt in them. Luckily kids under 6 aren't bothered by treats with dirt on them. Also the palm tree decorations were just plastic and not wall clings like we thought they were so they didn't look very good on the wall and we had to figure out a way to get them to stay up there. Wouldn't buy those again next time but they did the job for the day.

I would like to share at:

Dream Valley Challenges celebrations, closes Sept. 30

My Anniversary

It was our 12th Wedding Anniversary this week. The husband handed me a store bought card and says, "where's mine? The homemade one.". So that's what I did. He has a point though, that for me anyways, it's the people I'm closest to that are the last to get one of my cards. I'm so busy making them for everyone outside of the house that the people inside the house rarely get one.
I bought the Moon Love digi stamp from Karber Stamps. And I followed the sketch at Sketchy Colors. I loved all the layers to it, even though that is one of my phobias. But my goal is to use more patterned papers and I love the way it turned out. I printed my image right onto my blue patterned paper. Same with my sentiment. Kraft cardstock is my card base. And the husband was very pleased to have a card of his own, and he deserves one. He really is a wonderful man.

I would like to share my card at:

My Sheri Crafts family, closes Sept. 29,

The Crazy Challenge spots or stripes, closes Sept. 30

My Brother's Birthday

I made this card for my brother who recently started his own home construction business. That is a business that is really booming in our province and in our city. And he's been very busy. I used a Kenny K digi stamp called Home Improvement for the front cover. Inside I used Bugaboo Stamps Stella Nursing ICU. I imported both into my Silhouette and used the print and cut feature to cut them out. I colored them using my Prismacolor pencils and CASE'd Amy's coloring from the Krafty Girlz Embossing Challenge for my Home Improvement image. On my Stella image I added some Glossy Accents to her glasses and name tag. I also tried using my Versamarker Watermark Pen for blending. The Yield sign was a diamond Silhouette shape that I used the knife tool to cut in half. And then the offset feature to make the border. The stop sign was another Silhoeutte image. The banner and bandaids were also Silhouette shapes which I added my sentiments to and then used the print and cut feature again. Used pop dots to lift my images off the pages. Added a little safety pin embellie on the front.
My lessons learned: a Versamark Watermark Pen will blend your colored pencils. However, it takes forever to dry. I learned the hard way that putting my hand or fingers onto the wet coloring would then transfer it onto my uncolored parts.
My cover sentiment reads: Every good handyman needs a good handy helper!
Inside sentiment: My name is Stella and I'll be your handy helper today!

I would like to share my card at:

Scrap-Creations humor, closes Sept. 11,

The Hybrid Chick pop it up, closes Sept. 14,

Sentimental Sundays humor me, closes Sept.16, **Top 3!!!**

Creative Craft Challenges all about the guys, closes Sept. 18,

Hooked On Craft Challenges cards for men, closes Sept. 29,

By The Cute And Girly boys/men, closes Sept. 30



Winged Things

The challenge this fortnight at The Poodles Parlour is winged things. I'd like to start by sharing some photos with you of a few of the "winged things" around here. I am extremely blessed to be able to step out my front door and take these photos. I just have a regular Kodak digital camera but my photos have won prizes at our City Exhibition/Fair. I thought you might be interested in seeing a few too.

This picture is of our Canadian Armed Forces Snowbirds. They are a demonstration flight team and their Base is just outside of Moose Jaw. Coincidentally so are we. We get frequent "air shows"!

Sorry about the picture heavy post, I do hope you enjoyed them! This brings me to my card. I have been feeling like I have been stuck in a rut lately. I know my scrapbooking mojo is MIA and I've been feeling like all I use on my cards lately are primary colors. Now I get that I have an almost 5 year old and a 2 year old so primary colors are the stage we're at...but I see so many beautiful cards out there done with muted colors and stains and I've been so wanting to do something like that. Then I chose a lovely ladybug image from The Digi Garden (one of our sponsors) and well you know what they say about the best laid plans :o)

The frame for my digi is a Silhouette image. I imported my digi into my Silhouette and placed it so that the ladybug antennae stuck out the top. Then I used the print and cut feature to print my image. I selected the 'cut edge' setting to cut them out. The banner is an Echo Park Country Drive Silhouette image. I filled the background with the black and white polka dot pattern and then used the advanced fill settings to adjust the pattern scale. The writing seemed lost on the busy background so I upped the line thickness in the line style settings. The ladybug is an Echo Park Silhouette image that I put together and colored in using the Fill Color and Line Color settings. I also had to adjust the line thickness for some of its parts too so that they would show up when I resized it to teeny tiny. I used the print and cut feature for my banner. I colored my image using PrismaColor pencils. Her face is paper pieced because I first tried to color it using my Copic E11. I desperately need 2 skin colored Copics for that to work. Highlights with a white gel pen and some faux stitching finish off my frame. Flowers and a sheer black ribbon bow round out my embellishments. I used red Stickles to trim out the bow. Ask me how much fun that was?!? Pretty messy really, especially waiting for it to dry.

Thank-you so much for stopping by and though I know it was a long post today there are lots of rewards. Our Winged Things challenge has 2 sponsors, Di's Digi Downloads and The Digi Garden. And you can link up 3 creations for 3 chances to win! I look forward to visiting you all!

I would like to share my card at:

Divas By Design anything goes, closes Aug. 29,

Word Art Wednesday encouraging/uplifting sentiment, closes Aug. 29,

Mema's Crafts anything goes with a twist of red, closes Aug. 31,

Paper Playtime polka dots + a sentiment, closes Aug. 31,

Polka Doodles stitching real or faux, closes Sept. 2,

Stamp And Create stitch it up, closes Sept. 2,

Crafting For All Seasons stitching real or faux, closes Sept. 5,

Clearly iStamp circles, closes Sept. 6,

Little Fishes

The little girls are taking swimming lessons. I made this thank-you card for their swim instructor. My oldest went down the big water slide all by herself and made lots of new friends. Unfortunately neither of those things are on her swimming report card ;o) She still passed even though she doesn't like to put her face in the water. The little one likes to do everything herself. They were to stand on the edge and Daddy was to water her, she was to grow like a tree, Daddy was to chop her down and then she was to jump in. She watered herself, grew tall, then chopped herself down and jumped in, too funny.
I used a Bugaboo image and followed the sketch from their Stella Says Sketch Challenge. The mesh style netting/ribbon, fish and flourishes are die cut Silhouette images cut from blue sparkle paper. I used a Silhouette image as my frame too. I colored the frame yellow in the Silhouette program and then used the print and cut feature so that my frame and image are all one. I used pop dots to lift my image up off the page. The fishy dp is from Michael's. Half pearls make the fish bubbles ;o)

I also thought I'd put in a layout page. I won't tell you how far behind I am in my scrapbooking, but I think you can tell I'm looking a lot younger than I am now. I have fallen even farther behind now that I've been card making. This page was of my nephew's 1st birthday party. The swingset and sun are both Silhouette diecuts. The photos were cut with my Coluzzle circle cutter.

Our challenge at The Poodles Parlour this fortnight is die cuts. We have 2 sponsors. The super cutie The Digi Garden images and Di's Digis. Lots of ways to win, please join us. And I look forward to seeing your entries. Please stop by and see all of my teamies inspiring creations too!
I would like to share my card at:
Monica's Creative Madness pool party, closes Aug. 16

It Was +40 Degrees Celcius Here Last Week (+104F)

Since I did a post in January about the temperature being -45C I felt it only fair to let you all know that we also get very hot here too! It was +34C (+93F) one day last week and it felt more like +40C (+104F) with the humidex.
We took the little girls in to a friend's house to go swimming in their above ground pool. I thought it would be a good dry (wet) run before they started their swimming lessons later this summer. They really had fun and she brought out snacks and treats for them afterwards too. They don't have kids but they do have a VERY active dog that thinks he's still a puppy. He will run off with anything that is not up high enough, chewed on one of the girls towels, and will eat food you're eating right out of your hand whether you are done with it or not, lol. My friend says he has very bad manners around company but that it is good for him to be around little ones. His name is Cooper and he is a Golden/Yellow Lab. So naturally he had to be in the thank-you card! I found this doggie digi at Mo's Digital Pencil Too. The little Wryn Beach Babe digis are from Tiddly Inks. I imported them all into my Silhouette and then replicated one of the Wryn's, flipped her horizontally and resized her smaller. Now I have my Kaylee and my Abby. Placed Cooper at the bottom. Then printed them out on the printer. The pool was a Silhouette file that I cut out of colors to match our friends'. The sentiment was written in white gel pen. I colored my digis and my scene using Prismacolor pencils. To create the grass I used my green Zig marker to make all the grass strokes and then my pencils to color it in. For the sky I used my Frost Blue Copic on the top and some darker pencils on the bottom. Used pencils to shade the clouds. It was cloudy the day we went, which was good because it had been very hot, too hot, earlier in the week. I tried to match the colors for the girls' suits to what they wore that day too. I love my little scene and think it turned out very, very nicely.
My lessons learned: I tried again to blend my pencils using baby oil and again it caused my image lines to run/bleed black onto my yellow dog. I tried to heat set my images, still ran. I tried watercolor paper, still ran. I printed my images out a third time and gave up trying to use baby oil for blending. My Copics (and I only have 2) did help blend the lines a bit, especially on the sky. Otherwise I just used circles when coloring different shades and I think everything blends quite well.

The Originals with Daddy

The Replicas with Cooper ;o)

I would like to share my card at:

Great Impressions your best coloring, closes July 31,

Mo's Challenge Blog in the doghouse, closes August 2,

Pause Dream Enjoy Challenges sports and hobbies (swimming), closes August 2,

Polka Doodle summer, closes August 3,

Dream Valley Challenges summer, closes August 4,

Creative Mondays water, closes August 5,

Creative Craft Challenge summertime, closes August 7

A Play Date Thank-You

The little girls and I went to a neighbor's farm Saturday morning for a play date with their granddaughters. I wasn't sure how the big girls (ages 11 and 9) would enjoy playing with the little girls (4 and 2). But they had the most wonderful time. The big girls took such good care of them. And the little girls were so good. This is a thank-you card for the neighbors for inviting us up to play. I'm also taking them some fresh beans from the garden.
I used a Silhouette card file to make my shaped card. Some ribbon and a BoBunny brad are really the only embellishments.



I would like to share my card at:
The Play Date Cafe color challenge, closes August 1

Sapphire Anniversary

Did you know that the 45th Wedding Anniversary was the Sapphire Anniversary? For my parents 45th I couldn't decide between a funny card or a sentimental so I went with both. Our challenge this fortnight at The Poodles Parlour is Anything Goes (and you can link up 3 entries). And because we are sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps (who are having a 50% off sale for all of July) and The Digi Garden (who have just added new digis to the store) I predict we will have a lot of entries for this one!

I used Stella and Gus from Bugaboo Stamps for my image. The sentiment is also from Bugaboo but comes with a different Stella and Gus image. I colored them using Prismacolor pencils. For the record, my mom has never worn a Cheetah print dress, I just thought it might be fun to try and turn Stella's dots into spots. I also put some red Stickles on the heart and some Glossy Accents on their glasses. The fence is a Silhouette file as are the Irises. The Blue Iris is the flower that symbolizes the 45th Anniversary. There's the sentimental part of the card. The grass was cut from grass dp with a pair of decorative scissors. The gate handle I drew on myself. The stitching around the sentiment is supposed to look like x's and o's. The 4 and 5 are Thickers.

I would like to share my card at:

Come and Get It Challenges bingo (die cuts, free, glitter), closes July 27,

Paper and Such stitching, real or faux, closes July 31,

Crafts and Me Challenges anything goes, closes Aug. 1,

Fresh Brewed Designs photo inspiration, closes Aug. 1,

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge wedding/anniversary, closes Aug. 1

Cupcake Party Favor

I made these as a thank-you for coming to my party gift from one of my little girls. The heart cupcake wrapper is a Silhouette file cut out of white cardstock. Wrap gumballs in plastic wrap and place in a regular cupcake liner. Then put the whole thing into your cupcake wrapper. I put a toothpick into a big red gumball and inserted the toothpick right through the plastic to create the cherry on top. They make such a colorful little giveaway!
My lessons learned: you need something to contain your gumballs while you are putting them into the plastic wrap or they roll all over before you can gather the sides of your wrap. A small cup or even a firm cupcake wrapper will do.

I would like to share my project at:
Sundays Are Lovely linky party, closes August 1,
Monica's Creative Madness cupcake project, closes August 2

Late To The Dance

Well, the good news is my computer is back up and running, oh how I missed my Silhouette and digi files *cheers*. The bad news is I'm late with my DT card for this fortnight's challenge at The Poodles Parlour *shame*. Feels a little like when you stay up late in High School to finish a project due the next day *guilt*. But here we are. The challenge is to use a digi stamp *easy*. We are sponsored by Wonderstrange, which are very appropriately named, and The Digi Garden, who have updated their site and it looks fabulous! Please play along, link up to 3 times, and I look forward to visiting!
I imported Macy and Izzy from the Digi Garden into my Silhouette program. They look so much like my girls *cute*. I resized Izzy and then used the print and cut feature to print and cut them out. Paper pieced the girls and used purple and pink glitter gel pens to add the sparkly highlights. The Grad card giftcard holder is a Silhouette file, cut out in my nephew's school colors (red and black). He graduated from Grade 8 in June. The "Just For You" tag was also a Silhouette file. I used the delete points feature to take the tag part off of the image and used the offset feature to make the background circle. All that's left to do is to insert the giftcard.
My lessons learned: when your less than 4 year-old HP computer quits turning on because the switch is gone and you find out HP no longer carries the part because your computer was deemed "end of life" 6 months ago and it takes over a month to get the part from Heaven only knows where (I'm guessing/hoping eBay) and it costs just as much to fix as buying a new computer you had better make sure you have enough gel in your purple glitter gel pen to finish the accents on your image because your card is already late and you don't have enough time to remake all the paper piecing you've already done. I know there was not enough punctuation there, but I was ranting, so I didn't really need any ;o)

I would like to share my card at:

Tammy's Scrapin Corner anything goes, closes July 15,

Cameo Creations anything goes, closes July 21,

Creative Stamp Friends paper piecing, closes July 22

Sponge Bombs

These are so awesome. Of course I found them on Pinterest. And when I found out my nephew was having a water fight down at my parents farm for his 7th birthday party, I knew I had to make these as his present.
I got all of my supplies at a dollar store (where everything is $1.25 now): Carwash style sponges, J cloths and zip ties. You can use several other styles of sponges too and I did, but I liked these ones the best.

Start by cutting your car wash sponges into 1/3rds.

Cut a J cloth into strips the same length and width as your sponges.

Get your zip tie handy. Then start to gather your sponges and cloths, pinching them together as you go. This will give you an idea of how they will look when tied together.

Tie around the middle with a zip tie. Tighten as tight as it will go. Don't go too tightly though or it is possible to rip your sponges.

Snip the zip tie close to the center. Then flouf. Just move the pieces around to fill any gaps.

We bought a plastic tub with handles at Wal-Mart. Filled it with Sponge Bombs and then your tub can be filled with water for your water fight.

Total cost per bomb: 1.46

Zip Tie - .04

Sponges - 1.25

J Cloth (1 cloth will make at least 2 bombs) - .17

Tub $5 at Wal-Mart

They did not all survive the fight though. 7 year-old boys are not known for 'gently' water fighting and our Border Collie kept trying to 'fetch' them too. But there were still some intact at the end of the battle.

These would be great for any summer family gathering!