These Are So Cool

I LOVE this project! First of all Superstore had their anti-bacterial pillows on with a coupon for buy 1 for $10 get 1 for $1. I bought 8 for this project. Total $44. I don't think $5.50 is bad for a pillow but you could buy cheaper if you wanted. I liked the anti-bacterial because I knew they would be on the floor. Then, according to the pictures on Pinterest, you sew together 5 pillowcases, insert pillows and then sew them closed. I wanted to be able to wash the covers, so that wasn't going to work for me. I considered fabric, but that would be too expensive. I considered buying sheets, which may have worked and I also considered King size pillowcases. But then I would still need a way to open and close them. I considered Velcro, snaps and zippers, but none were perfect. Until...I thought of pillow shams. They have built in closures and the flanges allow them to be sewn together without squishing your pillows inside. I found a 2 pack of standard shams at Sears Outlet Store for $3. I bought 4 packages. Total $12. I had cashed in my points for a $10 gift card, so my actual cost for the shams was Total $2. This made my total per pillow mat $21. I can live with that. My Mom sewed them together, overlapping the flanged edges. We inserted the pillows and TA DA!

Left flat they make a padded sleeping mat. The front and backs above and 1 picture with my models! The patterned backs should help to not show the dirt too. Genius!

This is with one pillow folded underneath for watching a movie or playing games.

And my models of course!



 

This is with 2 pillows folded underneath. Makes a great chair for reading or gaming. As you can see my models have now decided to cuddle together. I love my models!





Easter Sunday

I made this card for Reverend John for Easter Sunday. A story in our Church newsletter a couple of weeks ago talked about a blind boy flying a kite. And even though he could not see it he could feel the tugging. Much like God's love and faith, even though we may not always be able to see them, we can feel the tugging. That was what inspired my card.
The image is a Silhouette image and I thought it had a nice Spring feel to it too. I cut out the scallop shape using my Silhouette and ran it through the printer to add the sentiment. I used a black brad which I folded under the tag rather than push through my card to turn my scallop into a tag.
For those of you that celebrate Easter, I hope you all had a lovely Easter Sunday spent celebrating the Resurrection and the Life with your family. And a few chocolaty treats and jellybean sweets too ;o)

I would like to share my card at:

Crazy 4 Challenges blue and white + 1 other color, closes Apr. 14,

Sentimental Sundays silhouette + sentiment, closes Apr. 15,

Word Art Wednesday challenge #23, closes Apr. 18,

CAS-ual Fridays  opposites attract, closes Apr. 20

The Last One

This is my last challenge as Guest Designer at Digital Tuesday Challenge. I enjoyed visiting the Design Team blogs and getting to know them. I learned a lot about what goes into putting on a weekly challenge blog from Lora (the challenge blog owner). There is a lot of coordination that goes into every week, from themes to sponsor images to posting links to the DT's creations each week. And throw some real life into the mix and it makes for a very busy job. Thank-you Lora for this opportunity. I also enjoyed visiting the entries each week and checking out the other crafty ladies in blogland. There is a lot of inspiration to be had out there. Alright enough with the mushy stuff.
The theme this week is Easter and the sponsor is My Grafico. These are some of the sweetest Easter images I have seen and they have so much versatility. I enlarged the striped egg image to 4" high and 3.65" wide in my Silhouette program and printed it onto light purple cardstock. I cut it out by hand. I used MME Lime Twist twine in "Happy", "Hello", and "Together". Or purple, pink and mint green for normal people. I alternated them between the stripes on my egg and adhered them using my Zig glue pen. Then I used the print and cut feature on the Silhouette for my little girl bunny image. She is colored with glitter gel pens and lifted off of the egg using pop dots. I used a Silhouette image to make the Easter basket pockets. I printed and cut out the tulips using my Silhouette too. They are colored with Prismacolor pencil crayons. I used purple Easter 'grass' to stuff the basket and put my twine egg into it. We are making these for the girls Sunday School Teachers for Easter, we just added the sentiment to the back.

Here's the whole batch...the girls colored the rest of the eggs!

I would like to share them at:

Love to create Easter challenge, closes Apr. 9,

Kaboodle Doodles anything but a rectangle, closes Apr. 9,

Incy Wincy Designs Easter, closes Apr. 9,

Crafty Sentiments bunnies, closes Apr. 9,

Top Tip Tuesday Easter and or animals, closes Apr. 9

The Blues

This weeks theme at Digital Tuesday Challenge (where I am the Guest Designer this month, still happy dancing) is your favorite color. My favorite color is blue. But I am mostly in need of Easter cards right now so I wasn't sure how to make this work. I love this image from Pollycraft called Follow the Leader. I thought it would be wonderful with blues and a couple of little yellow duckies! I printed my image out on a piece of white cardstock 3 3/4" by 5 1/4". I extended the grass line right to the edge of the paper with a black marker. I colored the image using Prismacolor pencil crayons. And outlined it using my other Copic B00. I paper pieced the flower above and popped it off the page with pop dots to add a little dimension. I colored the flower underneath a dark gray. While I have seen this idea around I was inspired to try it by Amy's post from the DT for last weeks challenge. Be sure to check out all the DT posts, there's so much more inspiration there than just a picture! I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Broken China to color the sky. I think I maybe got a little carried away with it, but it does make for a blue card, lol!
Added a 3/8" Grosgrain ribbon in Island Blue as a border for under the image. The bubble border was a Silhouette image cut out of sparkly light blue/gray paper. I then cut just the outer edge of the same border from white cardstock to put in behind. I added Diamond Sparkles to the bubble accents. A thin strip of teal cardstock makes the top border. The clouds were also a Silhouette image cut from Dollar Store glitter paper and I cut and traced the sun from yellow felt. A piece of cardstock with my Happy Easter sentiment makes the sun's center. I used pop dots to lift the sun off the page too.
Be sure to join in this weeks challenge sponsored by Robyn's Fetish!
Thank-you for visiting!

Not Your Typical Wedding Card

This is a complete scraplift from Birds Cards. She offered a cut file and a tutorial on how to make this card. I customized mine to match the bikes of our 2 friends that are getting married. I also added the ribbon ties at the back with some eyelets tied on to look like tin cans and the Just Married signs. Other than that I just imported the cut file into my Silhouette, cut it out, and put it together. It was a little like putting together a ship in a bottle because of the small pieces. While it is time consuming, it creates a unique and personalized card for friends!
My lessons learned: I think I should have made it bigger. I made it to fit an 11" piece of cardstock, so each bike is 5 1/2" long. But bigger would have been better (and easier). I also wish I had used a heavier cardstock for my bike/card base. It does stand up on its own, and I didn't want it too thick with all the layers I knew I was adding, but it could have used a more solid base.

I would like to share my card at:
Love to Create anything goes, closes Mar. 25,
Cute Card Thursday anything goes, closes Mar. 28,
The Poodles Parlour anything goes, closes Mar. 30,
Crafty Purple Frog anything goes, closes Apr. 4,  *won 3rd prize*
Fussy and Fancy anything but square/rectangle, closes Apr. 6

Digital Tuesday Challenge Guest Designer (That's Me)

Hello all, and welcome to my new followers! I appreciate each and every one of you! I hope all the UK Mums had a wonderful Happy Mother's Day and were treated royally!
This week at Digital Tuesday Challenge the theme is 'Life is Peachy'. Now I didn't have a lot of peach paper, so I went with all the different tones of peach; pink, orange, yellow, tan and peach.....and blue, but just for the clouds :o) I decided to make a birthday card for my niece Marley. She turned 3 on March 18th. My image is Woodland Lucy from All That Scraps. Colored with Prismacolor pencils, Zig markers, and my Copic (E11). I used Diamond Sparkles on her lace and barrette. I embossed the background frame with Cuttlebug's Seeing Spots folder. Inked the edges of the pink mat and then used Distress Inks on the corners of the inside frame. I used the print and cut feature on my Silhouette to cut out my image and set her on the edge of the frame. The kite and clouds were a free Silhouette image this week. It even cut the kite tail perfectly. My goodness I love that machine. I added faux stitching and popdots to the kite and clouds. The little pink flowers were from Michael's dollar bin and the peach one is a rolled flower I made.
My lessons learned: my embossing folder is a 4x6 and my card was a 5x5. So I ran my cardstock through my Sizzix Texture Boutique (the one that looks like a purse) once then lined up the dots and ran it through again. This did create a bit of a seam where I overlapped them, but since this was the background frame, by the time I added all the layers it was barely noticeable. Another trick I've learned is to color the white parts of my image with a white pencil crayon. It just adds a nice bit of shine to your otherwise dull white cardstock.
Be sure to join in the challenge this week as the sponsor is Spesch Stamps! And thank-you for dropping by!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I love St. Patrick's Day. It is almost my favorite holiday. So I made this card for my Grandma. You've heard me talk about her before, she is 97, still has her own apartment, and does the Seniors Home visits for the Church. She's a very special lady.

I used a doily lace Silhouette image for my card base. I ungrouped the image and then deleted the inside row of triangles from the doily so that my image could be bigger. I expanded the center section so that it just reached the new inside row of cuts. Cut out my layers and used my printer to put my image onto my white cardstock. My cutie digistamp is from Tiddly Inks new Wryn collection.  I cut the base out of green glitter cardstock, with a white back for my sentiment. I ran the base through the printer to add the Irish verse and then went over it with my green glitter gel pen. The overlay was cut out of regular green cardstock. I cut out the center piece from white cardstock and ran it through the printer to add the image. I colored her with a combination of Prismacolor pencil crayons and my E11 Copic. I also bought another Copic. Now I have 2. I used B00 (Frost Blue) to outline my image. That's going to take some practice, but I like the look. Green Imaginisce glam rocks set with my iRock are her hair barrettes. I used my Silhouette to cut out some very small shamrocks from 3 different colors of cardstock. I placed them over the flowers in the image to create a shamrock bouquet. The centers are some very small, self-adhesive rhinestone gems found at the Dollar Store. I used an orange Gingham ribbon for my bow. For my butterflies I cut 2 sizes of orange cardstock butterflies and the same 2 sizes of a checkered vellum to go over top.

My lessons learned: Don't press down too hard when outlining your image or your thin blue line turns into a thick blue line very quickly. The blue outline does cover up any bleeds from your coloring~bonus. I did have to replace some of the shamrocks because they absorbed the blue Copic color as well.

I would like to share my card at:

Pixie Dust Studio show us your Irish, closes Mar. 14,

Card Crafter's Circle orange and green and St. Patrick's Day, closes Mar. 15,
Card Makin Mamas let's see some green, closes Mar. 15,
Simply Create Too I'm sooo lucky, closes Mar. 15,
Kaboodle Doodles show green, closes Mar. 18,
Sassy Cheryl's wearin' of the green, closes Mar. 19,
Simon Says a bit o' green, closes Mar. 21,
The Squirrel and the Fox for someone you love (My Grandma Kay), closes Mar. 23,
Deep Ocean Challenge butterflies, closes Mar. 26

Guest Designer *Happy Dance*

I applied at Digital Tuesday Challenge for their Design Team. While I didn't make the design team, a very, very, lovely lady named Lora offered me a Guest Design spot for a month. I haven't even mentioned anything about it until today because I wanted to be sure it actually happened first (you know, one of those pinch me kind of moments). Anyway, here we are, my first card as Guest Designer. The theme this week is Think Spring. My image is Charlotte and Butterfly from Milk N Coffee Digital Stamps.
I colored my image with a combination of my Copic (E11), glitter gel pens, prismacolor pencils and Zig markers. I used the rounded lattice card template from my Silhouette images to make the lattice background. I used a rolled flower template from Birds Cards that I imported into my Silhouette and cut my flowers out of. She also provides an awesome rolled flower tutorial on her site too. I cut the daisy from a pastel patterned paper and placed a gem in the centre. I LOVE the way the patterened paper turned out. For the 2 smaller flowers I just used cardstock and a small half pearl in each centre. The bow is a fork bow made from my potato masher. I found the bows made with a regular fork are very small. When I googled "fork bow" and I selected 'images', I saw someone had used a potato masher, which works well to make a bigger bow. A flower brad makes the center of the bow.
My lessons learned: you can get away with doing most of the shaping for your rolled flower petals after you have rolled them. The inside ones get wound pretty tightly so it's really just the outside ones you'll want to bend and shape once you've rolled them.
Hope this has you thinking Spring, and better yet maybe even enjoying some Spring-like weather!

A Good Laugh

This one is funny. It's for one of the husband's best friends. First I ran my card through my printer to add the front page sentiment. I received this lovely (if not very practical in our good old Canadian climate) digistamp from Sassy Studio Designs. I imported the image into my Silhouette and flipped it horizontally. I followed the sketch at Inspirational Card Sketches. To make the background for my stamp I took an oval frame, rotated it 90 degrees and used the knife tool in my Silhouette to cut the bottom third off of it. Then I used the offset button to create a 1/4" mat. I used double sided tape to make the folds in the ribbon and added buttons tied with twine on each side of the ribbon. I colored my image using Prismacolor pencils and Zig markers and my Copic (E11). I paper pieced her bikini, with very small pieces of red gingham patterned paper. Very small. I printed the Stella image from Bugaboo Stamps right onto the inside of the card, along with the inside sentiment. That meant I couldn't use my Copic for her skin, so I just used the Prismacolor pencils and my markers for her. I used glossy accents on her name tag and glasses.
I hope he has a laugh!

Front page sentiment: At your age chasing younger women is bad for your health...
Inside sentiment: At least the healthcare is free!
I would like to share my card at:
Creative Card Crew humor, closes Mar. 11,
Charisma Cardz ribbon, closes Mar. 13,
Creative Craft Challenge boys will be boys,closes Mar. 13,
The Poodles Parlour birthday, closes Mar. 13,
Bugaboo Stamps show us your humor, closes Mar. 17, *2nd Prize Winner!*
Divas by Design favorite things (digi stamps), closes Mar. 21

Her Jacket Makes The Whole Card

This is for one of my best friends. The same one I made Teacher Margaret for. Her birthday is March 2nd and she is a Teacher. I used Bugaboo Stamps Stella Calendar Months - September. I followed the sketch at the Catch the Bug challenge blog but I decided to use my Silhouette to cut out the oval and place my Stella digi right inside the card. I make this sound easy, it was not. My cutting mats are not lined up with the grid in my Silhouette program so cutting the oval right out of the card was a lot of trial and error (and cards). Then I printed Stella right onto my card by running the card taped to a piece of computer paper through the printer. Again it was lined up in my Silhouette program but was just a little off when it came out of the printer. Might have been the actual folding of the card that changed it but on the screen Stella was completely visible in the oval. I used a Silhouette pattern to create the apple patterned paper 1/4" smaller than my card. Since I couldn't use the Silhouette to cut an oval out of the patterned paper (I had no idea how to line it up properly), I traced the oval on the card and hand cut it out of the inside of the patterned paper. The green paper with the sentiment was also printed from the Silhoeutte program. Again I traced the oval and handcut it out then cut right down the middle both ways so that I just had to add the top and bottom corners. Used the iRock to set the black Glamrocks in the opposite corners. I colored Stella with my EK Success pencil crayon/Zig markers combo and added Glossy Accents to her glasses and the apple. Stella also got a pair of rose colored glasses. Every Teacher wears them you know ;o) I wrote on the chalkboard with a white gel pen and paper pieced Stella's skirt and jacket. The fact that the jacket looks like it was made out of upholstery fabric made this whole card for me. LOVE how that turned out!
My lessons learned: when I made my oval so big it weakened the narrow outside of the card. Then when I applied the patterned paper to the front it created a crease there. So I added a piece of yellow cardstock on the inside as a stabilizer. Next time I will not make the oval as big.

I would like to share my card at:

Paper Sundaes birthdays, closes Feb. 25,

The Pink Elephant printing, closes Feb. 26,

Sassy Cheryl's no embossing, closes Feb. 28,

The Poodles Parlour female, closes Feb. 28,

Simon Says 3 different papers, closes Feb. 29,

Craft Your Days Away paper piecing, closes Mar. 1,

The Sisterhood of Crafters use a digi, closes Mar. 4

The Works

This one has it all. Tulle, ribbon, handmade flowers, pearls, distressing, embossing, you name it we got it! This is not my usual style, I'm not usually so...dimensional, but it does seem to be the current style so I wanted to give it a try.
I loved this freebie image from Saturated Canary. I think you will be seeing a lot of cards made with this image! The artist has been having problems with people copying her work and selling the images as their own. So infuriating. Especially because digi artists have been so generous sharing their images with freebies and by sponsoring challenges, which is the main reason I enter them, to add to my digi library by hopefully winning new images. It's not possible to buy all the ones I love so I try to win them. If artists are losing their work to rip off artists I'm worried they may have to stop offering free images. NOOOOO! Soapbox moment over, thank-you. 
I used a pink polka dotty patterned paper and embossed it with the Cuttlebug Script embossing folder. I then distressed it with my Tim Holtz paper distresser. The frame is a Silhouette image, cut out with my Silhouette. Then I threaded red ribbon through the holes around the frame and just tied it at the back. Colored my image with EK Success pencil crayons, Zig markers and my 1 Copic (E11). The flowers were a cut file and tutorial from Birds Cards. I resized the same cut file twice in my Silhouette to make the 2 different sizes of flowers and they both worked perfectly. The tulle I folded into a fan and then attached it with double sided tape. Pop dots lift the image off the page (mostly so you don't see a bump under the image where the tulle was attached). And 4 large half pearls accent the corners.
My lessons learned: I always thought you NEVER put pink and red together, but I have seen lots of examples over the past few weeks where they work very well together. A little trick I did with my coloring this time, I colored with my pencil crayons first and then went over them with my markers. The waxy pencil crayons didn't allow the markers to wet the cardstock and pill it like I have been struggling with in the past. It also provided a nice shine too. I will get this down eventually, my coloring is still very much a work in progress (who'd have thought I'd be saying that at 30 something, lol)!

I'd like to share my card at:

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge Valentine's Day, closes Feb. 15,

Bugaboo Stamps photo inspiration (roses), closes Feb. 18,

Paper Sundaes sundae bar, toppings distressing + pearls, closes Feb. 18,

Come and Get it Challenges red, white, pink + one neutral, closes Feb. 18,

Dream Valley Challenges Valentine, closes Feb. 19,

Crafty Sentiments love, closes Feb. 20,

Crafty Purple Frog flower power, closes Feb. 23,

Creative Craft Challenges Valentine's Day, closes Feb. 28,

I Can't Believe These Turned Out So Well

We made these crayon Valentine's. I saw them on Pinterest. The link took me too a flickr page with a set of photo instructions here. I went to the Dollar Store and bought 2 red silicone heart shaped muffin tins. I also bought 2 boxes of crayons. You could easily use up all of your broken crayons with this project. Daddy and Kaylee peeled the wrappers off the crayons and then Daddy cut them up into various sizes of pieces. We took out the black ones and didn't use very many of the brown because I wasn't sure how they would spread once in the oven. Kaylee and I put even amounts of each color into the tins. You don't have to fill the tins, as long as the bottom is covered. Once we got all the pieces in ours were about half full. Into the oven at 230°F for 15 minutes. Let them cool and then remove from silicone tins. Marvel at their waxy goodness!!! I printed the cards from the blog The Long Thread. I did use my corner punch to round the edges. I used pop dots to attach my crayons to the cards. Because the back of the crayon is not completely flat you will need to be creative to attach them to the cards. That's why the pop dots worked. I made 12 of them and Kaylee took 6 to Sunday School. She was so excited when there were only 5 other kids so got to bring home one of her own Valentine's!
My lessons learned: use real crayons. I bought the cheap ones that don't color very well and the kids instantly wanted to use their hearts to color. They don't color very well. But they would if we had used the real crayons. We put our silicone tins, which were very squishy, on a cookie sheet to make it easier to put them in and out of the oven. You could easily choose whatever colors you wanted to include for crayons too.

 

The Tots Teacher

This Valentine is for Ashlyn. She is in Grade 12 and is the Sunday School teacher in the Tots room (2 & 3 year-olds). She taught my Kaylee and made such an impression on her that Kaylee still seeks her out every Sunday. She also told Kaylee's Sunday School teacher now that Kaylee could come back anytime to her room if she ever had any troubles in her new room (awwww). Well as of last week she's now got my Abby. So I wanted to make a very special Valentine for her.
I used a freebie image from Whimsie Doodles (how awesome is she!!! and free too!!! are you kidding me?)! I colored her using my glitter gel pens and used red Stickles on the heart. For her face I used my 1 new Copic E11 (be gentle). I'm still learning that it takes a few 'coats' for lack of a better word to make it look even. I added the purple bangs because it is for a 17 year-old and I LOVE how they turned out! (Ashlyn does not have purple bangs by the way). I used pink polka dotty patterned paper for the frame. The frame is a Silhouette image. Sent it through the printer to add my sentiment on the back.

I would like to share my Valentine at:

One Stop Craft Challenge for the one I love, closes Feb. 10,

Bugaboo Stamps anything goes, closes Feb. 11,

Tuesday Throwdown be my Valentine, closes Feb. 13,

Stamps R Us Valentine/love, closes Feb. 13,

Charisma Cardz things with wings, closes Feb. 15,

Paper Crafting Journey fairies, closes Feb. 15,

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge Valentines, closes Feb. 15,

Cute Card Thursday pink Valentine, closes Feb. 16,

Do You Stack Up love, closes Feb. 16

Bought My First Copic

So I've been struggling with my printer ink bleeding into the light colors even after I heat set it. So I bought a Copic. E11 Barley Beige. I really don't know anything about Copics. I don't have the special paper, I just used white cardstock and I heat set it the same way I always do. I didn't color over any black lines with it and it took me several 'coats' for lack of a better word to get it even (and there's still a little work that could be done there) but for the most part it worked....I think. I could have done another pass between the eyes, but as I said I was worried about smearing the printer ink. I used an image from Bugaboo Stamps and colored it with my Zig markers and glitter gel pens. I used red Stickles on the strawberries. The frame is a Silhouette image cut out of pink polka dotty patterned paper. I ran my Valentine through the printer to add my sentiment on the back.
My lessons learned: put your freshly Stickled images up high to dry, curious little 4 year-old fingers checking to see if they are dry will leave a perfectly sized little Stickle hole on your strawberry. Easy to fix and even harder to hide a little red finger, hehehe. She was more upset than I was, but lesson learned, by both of us ;o)
And now a Tip for Top Tip Tuesday's: This is one of the best things I have learned in awhile. Color your image the same color as your Stickles (in this case red) before applying the Stickles. That way if there are any spots that don't get perfectly even Stickles coverage, there is no white that shows through!

I would like to share my Valentine at:
Fussy and Fancy Challenge dots, closes Feb. 9,
Bugaboo Stamps Challenge anything goes, closes Feb. 11,
The Pink Elephant Challenge use pink, closes Feb. 12,
Craft Us Crazy anything goes, closes Feb. 15,
Charisma Cardz things with wings, closes Feb. 15,
Paper Crafting Journey fairies, closes Feb. 15,
Crafting for all Seasons love is in the air, closes Feb. 20

A Birthday Card Challenge

This was a hard one. This is for Reverend John's birthday (Feb. 6). I wanted a religious reference but with a sense of humor (because he and I both have one). One of the challenges was to make it masculine. This was harder because he doesn't hunt or fish or play sports and that's what you find when you are looking for images for a masculine birthday card. And this is one time Gus just wouldn't work. I liked the play on words with the shell/shall. I was surprised to learn that "this too shall pass" is not a quote from the Bible. I always just assumed it was. So I went looking for turtle images. Turned out I had one, this guy was a past freebie from Little Scraps of Heaven. I love their images because I can import them into my Silhouette as a cut file. I remember the days when I had to cut the pieces out by hand, this is soooo much easier. I followed the sketch from the Stella Says Sketch challenge at Bugaboo, I just flipped it.

I used seashell patterned paper cut a 1/4" smaller than my card as my base. I printed my own sentiment onto light blue cardstock that I had cut out using a scalloped frame image from my Silhouette. The waves ribbon is also a Silhouette image and I cut them out of my brightest blue cardstock. Sand patterned paper made the base for my turtle. I used a glittery green cardstock (the same glittery green cardstock as the impossible to get a good picture of glittery red cardstock in my earlier Valentine's) for my turtle. I traced around each piece with my green Zig marker to add a little definition. My printer added the Happy Birthday to the small heart. I added iRock gemstones to the sentiment 'shell' and turtle shell. Put some faux stitching around both.
My lessons learned: he's cute, but not very masculine. Thank goodness I have 2 little girls (Kaylee gets to decorate the inside, and Abby gets to do the envelope) so I think it still works.

Those 2 circles on either side of Abby's head are her ears.....so not an exact likeness ;o)

I would like to share my card at:
Dream Valley Challenges use an animal, closes Feb. 5,
Digistamps4Joy for the boys, closes Feb. 8,
Simon Says animal antics, closes Feb. 8

I Was Inspired By This Quote

There is a lady that sits in front of us at Church that always brings her Bible and will reference it at times during the service. When I read this quote I instantly thought of her and thought it would be perfect for a bookmark. I'm going to take it for her this Sunday and I'm kind of excited about it.
I take a piece of 4"x4" heavy cardstock. I mark the 2" point of the top and bottom and then use my ruler to fold in the 2 sides to make a triangle at the top. I cut 1 piece of seashell patterned paper 3 7/8" x 1 7/8" for the bottom. You could do 4" x 2" if you didn't want a border but the 1/8" off allows for wiggle room if any of your cuts are not quite square. For the top triangle I cut a piece of what I hope looks like sunset colored sky paper 2 3/4" x 2 3/4" and then cut that diagonally to get 2 triangle pieces. I put one on the front and the other on the back to cover the fold lines. You don't have to use the same patterned paper for the front and back, but in this case I did. I also distressed the edges using my Tim Holtz paper distresser. I used my Silhouette to cut the zig zag border from purple cardstock for the middle. The Silhouette also cut out my lace border from what I hope looks like a tea stained piece of patterned paper. I like the way the 'lace' looks a little bit like crosses. The sentiment is printed onto light blue cardstock and cut out in a frame shape Silhouette image. I added the faux stitching.
My lessons learned: I try to keep my bookmarks as 1 dimensional as possible because hopefully they will be kept inside of someone's book ;o)

I would like to share my bookmark at:
Craft Your Days Away distressing, closes Feb. 2,
Card Crafter's Circle friendship challenge, closes Feb. 2,
One Stop Craft Challenge stitching, closes Feb. 3,
Come and Get it Challenges anything but a card, closes Feb. 3,
Stampin' Sisters in Christ your style, closes Feb. 4,
Word Art Wednesday scripture or inspirational words, closes Feb. 7

A is for Abby

The downside of being the youngest is that Abby's was made second, so she had to wait longer for hers. The upside is that I was able to make hers better because I had learned from all of my mistakes on the first one. I used the font Headline News and made my letter size 600. I knew I would be using an 8"x10" frame so I then adjusted the dimensions of my letter to 7"x8.5" in my Silhouette program. Pick a font you like and then play around with the sizes to get one that fits with your frame. I cut out my letter using the Silhouette and then traced it using a pencil onto an 8"x10" piece of white foamcore board. I just traced it lightly this time and used a dashed pencil line. Less erasing that way. Another change was the foamcore board. This worked really, really well because my push pin embellishments went right in but not though it and it held them in tightly too. Buttons were a bag of brights from Wal-Mart. And I used the jewelled thumbtacks and half pearls from the dollar store as well as some rhinestone gems this time. And my flower brads too. I again used American Crafts adhesive runner for the bottom buttons, until I ran out. Then I used Elmer's Craft Bond Foam Glue for the rest of the bottom buttons and all of the top row. This worked SOOO much better than hot glue. You do have to wait longer for it to dry but it actually works and there is no burns trying to hot glue tiny buttons! And even if your button does shift a bit while drying, it dries clear so that's a plus too. This time I wasn't as picky about filling in all the spots on the bottom row because I knew one big button on top would fill in any bottom spaces. Another difference was that I used the little gemstones on both the bottom and the top row to fill in spaces this time. Erased my dashed lines as I went. Remove the glass from your frame and put your foam core letter right in. Put the back on, mine fit absolutely perfectly with the foamcore, and you are done.
My lessons learned: If you use a very thick button, it will be very hard to fill in around it because there is not a level surface on top to put another button on. This is where my brads and thumbtacks really came in handy. It is also a good idea to put two buttons of similar heights together so that you do have something level to glue the top row to.

I'm Supposed To Be AIS

All of us are going to the Teacher's Hockey Tournament (my husband is playing, thank goodness they keep the paddles right on the bench ~ clear, hehehe) this weekend. On Everybody Loves Raymond AIS stands for (Butt) In Seat, and if your A wasn't in the S on time you got left behind. My butt is supposed to be in the seat so this will be a short one. The final birthday week challenge at Bugaboo Stamps is to use 3 patterned papers and their freebie image of the week. I am NOT good with patterned papers. As you will see. This is a bit busy but oh well. I loved the sketch at Tuesday Morning Sketches and thought it was a perfect fit. Chose my papers from The Stack 5. I made a rosette using my Silhouette and striped paper as one of the circles for the challenge over at The Paper Variety. Awesome! Twinery twine adds the bows to the buttons. Popdots lift my little guinea pig off the page. I included a pic of the sentiment I made up for the inside.
My lessons learned: don't leave the lid off your glue pen, arrrrgh.

*UPDATE*

I just had to rework this one, it was just too bright for me. Here's the new one. Still used all the same elements and sketch, just toned the background paper down a bit. I also added blue marker and glossy accents to the balloon thanks to a great idea from Melissa!

 

For MY SIL

My sister-in-law's birthday if February 10th and we no longer buy presents for the adults anymore (boooo) so I made her a card. The cleaning fairy is her present. I think my brother should have to break out his feather duster, apron and wings since I'm only sending the one on the card and not a real one.
I used the sketch from Bugaboo Stamps Thursday challenge. I used the cleaning fairy digital stamp from Mo's Digital Pencil Too. I used an old 8 1/2" x 11" piece of patterned balloon paper left over from the old days when I used that size for my scrapbooks (I dreaded the move to 12" x 12", but I made the leap) as my background paper. I then placed a piece of black polka-dotty acetate paper on top of that. I printed out my image and colored her using my EK Success pencil crayons. Distressed and stamped the edges of my image with silver ColorBox ink. The X's and O's border is a Silhouette image cut out of light blue cardstock. The sentiment frame is also a Silhouette image. I really like the way it turned out and I hope she does too (once she gets over the disappointment of no present...or cleaning fairy, boooo).
My lessons learned: I don't think my acetate paper stands out enough, but I tried it on a solid background and it didn't stand out any better. Probably best used as a transparency, over something else, like a frame.

I would like to share my card at:

Card Makin' Mamas something old (patterned paper), closes Feb. 3,

Sparkles Forum Challenges new crafty goodies (digistamp), closes Feb. 14

For Great-Grandma Kay

My Grandma is 97. She still lives in her own apartment and does the seniors visiting for the Church. She's an amazing lady and this Valentine is for her. I used Bugaboo Stamps Sunbonnet Love image. I made a 4"x4" frame from sparkly red cardstock with a white back (so I could add the sentiment there) using a Silhouette image. I was tired of fighting with my markers so I paper pieced her using bright primary colored cardstock which I ran through the printer and the cut out by hand. I even cut the little sliver of skin toned paper above her shoes. The red glam rocks were added with my iRock. The frame was run through my printer to put the sentiment on the back (I'll add our names later).
My lessons learned: it is almost impossible to take a good picture of this cardstock. It reflects the light and looks yellow or orange (it's red). Frustrating.

 

This is for Bugaboo Stamps primary colors and bling challenge.

Paint the Town Plaid

My cousins birthday is on Jan. 22nd. She has real red hair and plays the bagpipes. I knew when I saw this sketch from Bugaboo Stamps that the two panels behind Stella were going to be plaid! I used a little penguin image, his bells just worked perfectly for the sentiment I was thinking of. I used my Silhouette to cut out the penguin image and used the offset feature to create and cut the mat. I colored him with glitter markers and Zig markers. The 3 snowflakes are brads. I printed my sentiment on white cardstock, cut close and added that to the corners.

I would like to share my card at:
Crafting For All Seasons snowflakes, closes Jan. 25,
The Stamp Man use red, closes Jan. 27

A Wedding Card

Bugaboo Stamps offered a free bride and groom from their Tuesday new release and a mini challenge to use one or both of the images and a bow. I noticed that Christine Garner combined this mini challenge with the challenge at The Shabby Tearoom "Gorgeous Gateaux" (use gray or silver, lilac, peach, pink, lace and a metal embellishment ~ whew!). I thought that was a genius idea, until I tried it. I'm not a layers person, or even much of an embellishment person, so this was a bit tricky to fit all those things in, but I did it, eventually ;o) Using my Silhouette I placed the 2 images together, interlocking arms (insert awwww), and then placed the pink heart in behind them. I then used the trace feature and print and cut them all out as one image. Used silver glitter marker, Zig markers and EK Success pencil crayons to color them up. Used my iRock to add the bling and the glitter pink metal glamrocks to her dress and his tie. I used my Tim Holtz distress inks to stain/color the paper lace doily. I embossed some lilac cardstock with my new script embossing folder by Cuttlebug. I made a fork bow following this tutorial. I added the silver, metal, heart brad to the center of my bow.
My lessons learned: it takes a really long time to set the thick bling gems. The fork bow was strategically placed because as I was outlining the heart in pink marker, I slipped. Now you know where!

I would like to share my card at:
Sweet Stampin' Challenge glitter and bling, closes Jan. 21,
Stamptacular Sunday at least 2 different textures, closes Jan, 22,
Crafty Boots Challenge new beginnings, closes Jan. 23,
Divas by Design new beginnings, closes Jan. 25

It's -45 Degrees Celsius Here Today (-49 F)

It's a cold day here today, temperature around -30 C, -45 C with the wind chill. The school buses didn't run but the husband went to work. If your car starts, and if it's plugged in it starts, you go. I know, smart people would take one look at the temp. turn the alarm off and go back to bed! My 30-30 dog was in on the mat today. If it's above 30 or below 30 he gets to come in. The cats were cuddled up together in the cathouse. A good day to finish up some crafty projects!
This is a birthday card for my friend Amanda. Her birthday is Jan. 19th and I believe she is leaving her 20's behind with this one. We met when my husband was Vice-Principal and so he was only in the classroom half-time. She was his other half (we've made lots of jokes about that) and we've been friends ever since. I used a Silhouette image for the purse and cut it out of black cardstock. The 'fabulous' rhinestones were a sticker I bought a long time ago but always new it was for a card or layout for Amanda. We tease her about how many times she says "fabulous" (and she's usually saying it sarcastically). I used Lime Twist twine by MME in pink and threaded it through the holes. I tied 2 small knots on each side on the back to attach the twine. The sequin flower is from Imaginisce Cupcake Flowers brights. I attached it using double sided tape. A BoBunny brad made the flower center. A bow out of pink lace attached to the handle completes the front of the purse. I used the internal offset feature on my Silhouette to create the panels that I cut out of pink floral paper. Another frame image from the Silhouette made the 2 inside panels cut out of white cardstock. I used a sentiment from Birds Cards on the top panel. I'll write our sentiment on the other one. I used a pink and a yellow glitter marker for the faux stitching. Finished it off with a pop dot as my purse closure.
My lessons learned: I had to skip the middle hole on the purse flap so that the ends of my twine both finished on the inside. I covered that with my popdot. I will include a scratch and win lottery ticket (no purse should be empty) and who knows maybe she'll share if she wins the big one!

 

I would like to share my card at:

Card Crafter's Circle Happy Birthday, closes Jan. 19,
Bugaboo Stamps birthday, closes Jan. 21,
Sweet Stampin' Challenge sparkle, closes Jan. 21,
Sentimental Sundays ribbon and a sentiment, closes Jan. 22,
City Crafter Challenge pretty inside and out, closes Jan. 24,
Some Odd Girl bling it up, closes Jan. 24,
The ABC Challenge happy birthday, closes Jan. 31,
I Brake For Challenges fancy folds, closes Feb. 1

Drinks Well With Others

Not all teachers, just all the teachers I know (said completely with tongue planted firmly in cheek)! This is for my teacher friend Yaz who had her birthday on Dec. 20th, 2011. She was in Mexico for it. We usually go out for drinks on the last day of school to celebrate her birthday but she had a pretty poor excuse for missing that this year if you ask me ;o)  I used a Bugaboo Stamp, JJ Tequila. I wanted to make it look like a report card so I used some lined school paper as my patterned paper. I ran the background paper through my printer to add the black square and the sentiment. I printed the image out on white cardstock and used my new heat embosser that I got for Christmas to set it. Colored her with EK Success pencil crayons and a blue glitter marker for her dress. Then I colored her glasses light pink and then added glossy accents to them. I thought rose colored glasses went nicely with a stack of drinks. I also added glossy accents to the martini glasses. I outlined my cardstock with a light blue marker. I used a red Zig marker to add the check mark and the A+. Inside I added that I am one of those 'others'!
My lessons learned: my heat embosser works really well to dry my printer ink, but it can curl the paper up a bit. I also used my new Ott Lite that I got for Christmas to take the picture. With sunlight always a gamble in January and the fact that it's usually well after the children have gone to bed that I finish my projects, I can't tell you what a great investment that light was!

I would like to share my card at:

Fab'n'Funky Challenges something new (digistamp), closes Jan. 10,

Fussy and Fancy Challenge Happy Birthday, closes Jan. 13,

Catch the Bug Challenge anything goes, closes Jan. 14,

Sentimental Sundays sentiment, blue and glitter, closes Jan. 15,

Totally Stampalicious funny, closes Jan. 15,

Aud Sentiments sentiment and use scraps, closes Jan. 17,

Creative Craft Challenges what's your resolutions (to drink more...I mean less, or at least with other people), closes Jan. 17,

Southern Girls Challenge show us your sparkle, closes Jan. 19,

Card Makin Mamas something new(digistamp), closes Jan. 19.

K is for Kaylee

I had seen these button monogram letters all over Pinterest and thought they looked really sharp, and fairly easy to make, a good combination in a craft project ;o) I used the font Headline News and made my letter size 600. I knew I would be using an 8"x10" frame so I then adjusted the dimensions of my letter to 7"x8.5" in my Silhouette program. Pick a font you like and then play around with the sizes to get one that fits with your frame. I cut out my letter using the Silhouette and then traced it using a pencil onto an 8"x10" piece of white cardstock. I bought a bag of bright buttons at Wal-Mart but any and all buttons will work. I used my American Crafts adhesive runner to apply adhesive to the back of the buttons. I entirely filled the inside of the letter with buttons, starting with the largest ones. You may want to overlap your pencil marks to save yourself erasing later. I had bought some jeweled thumbtacks and some small, self-adhesive pearl gemstones at the Dollar Store. I already had the flower brads. I used all of these to fill in any and all spaces left on the bottom row. For my top row of buttons, brads and tacks I used a glue gun. I also added a layer of cardboard behind my cardstock to push my brads and tacks into. I erased my pencil lines as I went along on my top row. I removed the glass from my frame and added my cardstock/cardboard monogrammed button letter K. LOVE!
My lessons learned: My kingdom for an adhesive that works (my battle continues)! A glue gun is not ideal for sticking plastic buttons to plastic buttons, especially where they only overlap a very small amount. If you find something better that works for you, go for it! You should also just plan on making your project 2 layers of buttons. I tried to fill in all the small spaces on the bottom row with other small buttons when one big one on top was a much better idea. And trace your letter lightly, erasing in between small spaces is not easy. Another option to consider would be to cut your letter out of colored paper, adhere that to the cardstock, and then cover it with buttons. This would save you seeing any white spaces. I think foamcore would be a much better choice instead of cardstock and cardboard if you are planning on using brads or tacks as I did. I hope my ideas/suggestions help, and get yourself a frame or shadowbox and make your own personalized piece of artwork!