A Good Book

For my friend Vicky's birthday, I always like to make her something special. I decided to make her a corner bookmark this time. I wanted it to be vintage, romantic and inspire the imagination, everything a good book should do. I used the papers from MME Honey Cake 6x6 paper pad. I used the measurements from here. I don't have a scor-pal but I do have a scoring blade for my cutter. I actually found that just folding them by hand and using my ruler (I also don't have a bone folder) to flatten the folds gave me the best matched fold. In my Silhouette program, I took a 4x4 square and used the border called Moroccan border, overlapped them, and the welded them together so that I could cut out the square and border as all on piece of beige cardstock. My image is called book stack by Bugaboo stamps who are one of our sponsors this fortnight for our Crafting With Dragonflies challenge to use your scrap, at least 5 different dp's. Our other sponsor is Meljen's Designs. I paper pieced my image, using my scraps from my bookmark pieces. The lovely thing about this 6x6 paper pad is that the cardstock is double-sided, so it was very easy to use several different patterns and yet they all still coordinate. Thank goodness, because left to my own devices, I would still be trying to pick out papers, I am just not good at that. I used the offset feature of my Silhouette to create and cut out the peach cardstock mat around my image. I added a teal fleur-de-lis ribbon and my image on top of that. I always try to keep my bookmarks very 1 dimensional so as not to crease the spine of the book. I read that somewhere, but I'm pretty sure reading the book creases the spine, lol, but better safe than sorry.

I'd like to share my project at:

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge paper piecing, closes Sept. 19,

Silhouette the blog use the weld feature, closes Sept. 20,

Kaboodle Doodles anything but a square, closes Sept. 24,

Alphabet Challenge Blog paper piecing, closes Sept. 27,

Creative Craft Challenges2 use a ribbon, closes Oct. 1,



A Halloween Birthday Party

I know not all parts of the world celebrate Halloween, but here in Canada it is on October 31st. Now that usually means we need to find a costume that can fit over a snowsuit. And some years they are so bundled up you have no idea what they are, lol. And yet we faithfully buy (or make) costumes, that they wear only once, for a few hours. So when my Kaylee decided her birthday party theme was going to be Halloween, I thought she was a genius! The kids can wear their costumes more than once, without a snowsuit, and I already had lots of decorations.
For her invitation, I typed it up and printed it onto Kraft cardstock. Then I took gauze bandages and stamped them with Tim Holtz distress inks in walnut. I wrapped them around the cardstock and tucked the end into the back. Then I used Skor tape to put googly eyes on them. Kaylee decided she needed girl and boy mummies, so fork bows were made for ribbon hair bows and bow ties. The really tricky part was wrapping so that the eyes were just a bit covered and stuck onto one piece of wrap so the kids could unwrap them. But they really turned out well.

 To decorate the house, I went to thrift stores and bought flat white sheets. I then put them over all the furniture in the living room. We bought 'potion' bottles at Michael's. All of their decorative glass bottles were 80% off and the Husband gets a teacher's discount besides. So we let the little girls pick out one of each color and some different sizes.
I bought cheesecloth and plastic spiders at the dollar store. Then hung the cheesecloth above the door using removal 3M hooks. We added the spiders. Cheesecloth also made the tablecloths for the living room coffee tables.

I always try to make a photo spot because I take a picture of all the kids that come to the party with Kaylee and then make up photo cards at Wal-Mart as thank-you cards. This time the Husband and I used white crepe paper to wrap one of our doors. I used my Silhouette to cut out the eyes (2 black circles and 2 larger white circles). I make it sound easy to wrap the door. It was not. It took over an hour because the large roll of crepe paper couldn't pass through the back of the door and we had to break and tape the roll at hinges, doorknob, lock, etc. Meanwhile the door was open most of the time. We let in a lot of flies. Thank goodness my Mother-in-law was here, so she was on fly swatting duty. I got a straw bale from my Dad and put a blanket on it. This became our photo spot.

I made most of Kaylee's peacock costume. For her skirt, I used a strip of black elastic and sewed Velcro to the ends of it. 3 different colors of tulle were used in her skirt. The front strips were cut 24" long and the back were cut to 40". Each strip was 3" wide. Tied each strip to the elastic using a lark's head knot. Basically, fold each strip in half and then place the halved tulle strip over the waistband so that only a few inches of the loop stick out over the top. Then fold the tail ends around the waistband and pull them through the loop. I had to Google the lark's head knot name, lol. We bought a spray of peacock feathers at Michael's and I attached them to the back with hot glue. I found a peacock ornament with metal wires on the feet that I wrapped around a blue headband for the top. She had a mask too, but we just couldn't make it work with her new glasses. The leggings and top were her own. My Abby was a Tinkerbell. How her Grandma got her superfine hair up into a bun is beyond me, but she looked cute as a button!

The kids all walked down to my Mom and Dad's to go trick or treating as their activity. Being that we are on the farm, we never get real trick or treaters, so my Mom and Dad went all out. They decorated their house too and bought pencils, erasers, lots of glow wands, and mini chocolate bars for all the children. All 12 of them! I gave each child a little trick or treat bag to take with them and my Mom filled it for them. My Mom and Dad also currently have 6 kittens. I had to phone to tell them to send all the children back for cake and snacks, lol. The kids would have gladly stayed and played there all night.
For birthday cake I made chocolate cupcakes and orange icing. Bought some dollar store rings which I pushed into the icing of the kids cupcakes. I also made 4 cupcakes without icing in case someone couldn't have food coloring, thankfully there was no one that came with any allergies. For those ones, I left them un-iced but used M&M's for the spooky eyes.

For a healthy snack to go with their cupcakes, I peeled Mandarin oranges, because peeled they really look like pumpkins. I also peeled bananas and cut them in half. Then I pushed chocolate chipits into them for eyes and a mouth. They looked like little ghosts. I forgot to take a picture of them but with some creative cropping I can show you what they looked like at least. Apologies for the next 2 pictures.

I made an orange punch and the little girls and Grandma put googly eyes on all the black and orange paper cups I'd bought. Sorry I didn't think to take a picture of them either so with more creative cropping and you can see them too, lol. Paper plates and plastic cutlery also from the dollar store. One of the perks of having the stores put out the next holidays decorations so ridiculously far in advance.

We had a fun party and I'm so glad we could have all the kids out to the farm, most of them are farm kids too so it was nice. But once they left we felt like we had just hosted 1000 children instead of 12. I'm sure if you've ever hosted a child's birthday party you know exactly what I mean. Thanks for visiting!
I'm sharing my invites at Make It Monday

Back To School

Well this morning I put both of my little girls on the school bus. I was not ready. I'm sure you've all heard the phrase, "Good parents give their children roots and wings." by Jonas Salk. That's what I kept repeating this morning, roots and wings, roots and wings. The Husband also left for school today too (he's a teacher) and I was not as sad to see him go after 2 months home of together time. He is very helpful when he's home and I appreciate it but sometimes absence and the heart, well you know. I made this mini album of the girls for him to take back to school with him.
This fortnight at Crafting With Dragonflies we are challenging you to make a mini album. 3 pages is enough, more is completely up to you. I used a Silhouette cut file of an album box and 3 live, laugh, love journal cards. I welded the 3 cards together and then drew perforated lines between them. I then cut out 2 of them, one out of blue cardstock the other out of yellow. Then I deleted all the word blocks and cut it out once more from a bright pink cardstock. Glued the blue to the pink and the yellow to pink on the other side and had myself an album. For the labels/frames I used another cut file that I wrote the text questions and answers on and then used the print and cut feature. I have blurred the text but you get the idea. Each year we've taken the girls for some portraits and I used a photo from each of those years. Their pictures matched up pretty well with the sentiments too.
Daddy was very happy to get his album and keeps it on his desk at school.

We are sponsored by Di's Digi Stamps and Eureka Stamps. Please follow our challenge blog and link up your creations, if you visit my teamies designs you will see so many different and yet beautiful ideas for albums!

One For The Guys, Blokes, Chaps, Dudes....Men

This fortnight at Crafting With Dragonflies we are looking for a card for the guys. Can be for Father's Day if you are in Australia or New Zealand or any other card with a masculine theme. Our sponsors this challenge are QKR Stampede and Sassy Studio Designs. Because we do our winners posts on our off weeks between challenges, we ask that you be a follower of the challenge blog so that you don't miss out on any of our winners posts as well as our challenge posts! I get to visit every entry this time and I'm so looking forward to it becuase I am always looking for inspiration on this theme.
I used Sassy Studio's Wonder Sassy for the front of my card. She is colored with Prismacolor pencils. My star dp is from MME's lime twist Out Of The Blue. I used the zig zag stitch on my sewing machine with some gold thread to do the stitching. Blue glitter paper and gold mirrored paper are the other two papers used. The star border is a Silhouette cut file as are the gold stars and speech bubble. I added the text to my speech bubble and used the print and cut feature of my Silhouette.
For the inside, I again used print and cut for both my sentiment (word bubble) and image. I colored Gus from Bugaboo Stamps using Prismacolor pencils and put some Glossy Accents on his glasses. Added a red check mark for good measure, and cheek ;)

I'd like to share my card at:

Sassy Studio Designs book or bookmark (comic books) and GDT call, closes Aug. 21, *Winner!*

Here Comes The Boys squares, closes Aug. 25,

Digi Galore anything goes and birthday hop, closes Aug. 31, *Hop Prize!*

Cards For Men funny birthday, closes Sept. 1

Hop Winner

Hello all, just a quick note today to let you all know my personal blog winner from the Crafting With Dragonflies wedding hop. The winner of the A Day For Daisies image that I used is....Donna Mundinger! Congratulations! Thank-you so much to you all for hopping by and I so enjoyed all the comments. Remember to link up your altered items for this fortnights challenge, gives me another great excuse to stop by for a visit.
{Hugs} Barb

Flowers From Trees

Our challenge this fortnight at Crafting With Dragonflies is to alter something. We are sponsored by Kenny K and Crafts and Me. I chose to use altered elements on my card. Some of my other teamies chose to alter objects. I look forward to seeing your interpretation of this challenge! Please remember to be a follower of our challenge blog so as not to miss out on any of the great prizes.
I used the image Unstoppable Mom by Kenny K for my card and colored her with Prismacolor pencils. I also paper pieced her shopping bags with Kraft paper. Wanted to stick with the recycling theme. Then I printed her onto a Silhouette cut file frame and added the Happy Birthday text before cutting. Distressed the frame and used some Tim Holtz distress ink in broken china around the edges.
Some navy blue cardstock and my script embossing folder make the base. For my altered elements I took a cardboard box and cut a 4"x4" square (my card is 5"x5"). Then I ripped the top layer off of the cardboard. This can leave quite a bit of paper stuck down still but I just picked it off. Then I used white acrylic paint to distress it a little further.

Next came my flowers from trees. I used the pages of a book to make my flowers (get it, flowers from trees, well they used to be trees, lol). I felt a little guilty cutting pages from a book but I made sure I chose a story I didn't like. That helped my conscience a little. I followed this tutorial here and I used Tim Holtz distress inks in walnut stain and antique linen to mark up my pages a bit.

Then cut out 10 scallop shapes 1.75" using my Silhouette. 5 from each page so that I would have an equal amount of both colors of stain.

Pile your shapes up, I alternated the stains, and put a brad through the center.

Then begin scrunching. Start with the top flower layer and scrunch away all the way to the bottom one.

Awesome or what!?! I made 2 and then filled in with some Wild Orchid Crafts flowers and there you have my altered elements card!

 I'd like to share my card at:

Sarah Hurley Challenge texture and dimension, closes Aug. 25

 

Wedding Belles

Hello hoppers! And welcome to our first ever Crafting With Dragonflies wedding blog hop, this is something new for me, I've never been a part of a hop before. My image is from A Day For Daisies, I love them, their images are so versatile. Mine is called May I Have This Dance and 1 lucky commenter on this blog post is going to win this beautiful image! In fact, be sure to comment on each blog in the hop because each lady has a prize to giveaway! We also all have some words you'll want to watch for that make a phrase. You will be entered to win another prize for collecting all the words and e-mailing them in their proper order to Susan, her address is on the challenge blog ;o)
For my card I made a gate fold card from white cardstock. I embossed two smaller white cardstock panels for the front and then used Distress Ink in Spun Sugar to highlight the embossing. I used gold mirrored cardstock for the frame, cut out with my Silhouette, and then some Wild Orchid Crafts flowers on the corners. I placed some half backed pearls on either side of my flowers. I tucked the top right corner of my frame under the flower to keep it closed. Inside I used more gold mirrored cardstock for the inside panels and the corners, also a Silhouette cut file. My image was colored with Prismacolor pencils. I knew their colors were pink, so that was why I used pink for all the accents.

And now since I have a captive audience, just a little bit about my own wedding. I was married in September of 2000, a beautiful Fall wedding in the Church I was baptized in. Thankfully all the farmers (including my Dad) were done harvest and could attend. Now I know how many years it's been by what year we're in. GENIUS! For my something new my Mom made my wedding dress. I couldn't find anything in my size to try on and so we picked out a pattern instead. I'm very blessed to have a Mom that can do that and be such an important part of our very special day.

The story I would most like to share with you is about our honeymoon. No not that story, naughty minds. We were in the airport going to Prince Edward Island for our Honeymoon on July 24th, 2001. Because we both worked in schools, we were obviously not allowed to take time off in September for our honeymoon so we waited until summer holidays the next year. The attendant asked us if we had been in possession of our luggage the whole time or if anyone had tampered with it. The Husband said, "no, but it might explode." Complete silence everywhere, audible gasp from me. Then he added, "you know, because they're so full". His attempt at humor. If this had been after September 11th, 2001 I am completely confident the Husband would still be in the Regina airport. But as it was I said, "you never say that word in an airport!". And the lady behind the desk said he should use the word, "expand". So we very, very luckily got to go on our honeymoon together. I tell people I was going either way.

You should have arrived here from the lovely Ina's blog and your next stop will be the busy and talented Kelli where I'm sure she will have something new for you too!

You're Sweet

This is a birthday card I made using a free image from Lacy Sunshine called Gemma Gumdrop. Heather offers a free image by e-mail on her challenge blog where I'm going to share my card in her anything goes challenge.
I used some awesome textured glitter cardstock by DCWV for my background and frame. It feels exactly like the hard sugar on a gumdrop and came in some pretty great gumdrop colors too. The embossed background papers were made using the D'vine Swirl embossing folder. My card, image frame and sentiment are all Silhouette cut files. I used the print and cut on my Silhoeutte to cut Gemma out and then colored her with my Prismacolor pencils. I also used some glitter gel pens to outline her here and there to add more sparkle. A gold glitter gel pen made the faux stitching around the frame too. For my gumdrop embellishments I enlarged the gumdrops in the image and cut them out of the same glitter cardstock. I then added 3 layers of Glossy Accents to give them a real gumdrop look. I love how that turned out. I had to keep my card fairly one dimensional because I am mailing it so my gumdrops work really well for that too. Some Glossy Accents on the gumdrops in the image finish things off.

My 2nd picture, to show all the sparkle and glitter, can a girl ever really have too much of either?

I would also like to share my card at:

Just Inspirational Challenges inspiration photo (shape, colors), closes July 16,

Charisma Cardz no designer papers, closes July 17,

Cameo Creations glitter it up, closes Aug. 7 ***Winner!!!***

Star Fold Birthday

Well hello all, I'm a little late posting today, was out picking Saskatoon berries (very much like Blueberries only a little tangier). They have just started to come in and my goodness there is a lot of them. We have to beat the birds to them so I'll be in the berry patch the rest of the week.
Our challenge this fortnight at Crafting With Dragonflies is to use an unusual fold. No easels, not that easels aren't beautiful, but something different. Be great if you could include a link or instructions for your creative fold! I really look forward to seeing what you come up with!
I used a star fold card. I found the instructions here. I don't have a score board, so I use my regular paper cutter with a scoring blade in it. Problem there is that my paper cutter is not as fond of making straight and accurate cuts as I am. So my creases weren't perfect but still workable. I used Kraft cardstock as my base and Sandylion's Little Boys scrapbook theme pack for my papers and stickers. A maple leaf brad and white sticker letters finished off my decorations on the front. This card is for my nephew, his birthday is July 2nd, the day after Canada Day. He was 8, and had just wrapped up his baseball season. Just a plain white cardstock triangle inside for our sentiment.

 

We have 2 sponsors this week and as always a top 3, just remember to be a follower of the challenge blog so that you are eligible to win! Delicious Doodles and Di's Digi Designs are our sponsors.

Now off to bag up today's berry pickings :o)

I'd like to share at:

Cupcake Craft Challenges anything but a square, closes July 14,

The Crazy Challenge no stamps, closes July 22



Happy Canada Day!

Today for my Canada Day post I thought I'd share a creation of mine I like to call S'more Pie. I came up with this when I saw a really good sale at one of our bulk foods stores on graham cracker crumbs and mini white chocolate chips. They were on sale and it was 20% off day. Sold!

Mix 1 1/2C of graham cracker crumbs with 1/3C of melted butter. I added 1/3C of white sugar. This was too much. I would recommend 2 Tbsp. or possibly none at all, more experimentation needed here. Place into a 9" pie plate and bake at 350F for 7 minutes.

Once out of the oven, immediately put 1C of chocolate Chipits and 1C of mini white chocolate chips into your now cooked graham cracker crust. For a more authentic S'mores taste you may want to use milk chocolate Chipits.

Wait approx. 5 minutes or more until your chips melt and then spread around your crust. Not much spreading is needed. Then add 4C of mini marshmallows.

Turn your oven to Broil and move your rack up so that your pie is about 6" from the top. Then watch carefully for the marshmallows to turn golden brown. For me that was about 1 minute and 30 seconds but it could take as little as 20 or 30 seconds so you'll have to watch closely. Serve warm, and you may want to run your knife under hot water to cut.

TA DA! S'more Pie! Happy Canada Day all!

Vintage Birthday

Our challenge this fortnight at Crafting With Dragonflies is vintage/shabby chic. Now I don't make a lot of cards in this style, but I love all the elements of it. We have 2 sponsors this week, Eureka Stamps and A Day For Daisies, which means we will have 2 prize winners as well as a top 3! Be sure to follow the rules to be eligible to win (be a follower, no backlinking, follow the theme) and I look forward to stopping by!

I chose Quiet Fairy from A Day For Daisies for my card. I made this for my sister-in-law's 45th birthday. We even made it to Saskatoon to celebrate with her. The scroll work background was a Silhouette cut file cut from patterned paper. Gerbera daisies are her favorite flower so I used the daisy pattern paper, cut in a heart shape, and stitched around it, behind my image. The image frame was another Silhouette file that I also added stitching to. For embellishments I used a tulle rose found at my LSS, pearl pins, lace ribbon, a copper colored metal heart and half backed pearls in the corners. All very vintage/shabby chic elements. My fairy was colored with Prismacolor pencils and I used Liquid Pearls Platinum Pearl on her wings.

Aunty and the girls!

I'd like to share my card at:

Paper Crafting Journey pearls and swirls, closes June 26,

A Day For Daisies use something from nature, closes June 28,

Pile It On Challenge vintage, closes June 30,

The Squirrel and the Fox use something metal, closes June 30,

Hobby Cutz anything with H, half pearls, hearts, hatpins, closes July 7th

Teacher Appreciation

Sometimes I feel like I could write a PinFail blog. Other times...is that Martha calling? This is one of those Martha moments, I am always shocked (and happy) when a crafty moment works out well. This was for Kaylee's Kindergarten Teacher. I of course got the idea from Pinterest. I bought a straight sided vase. Then I went to the dollar store and bought some decorative pencils. I needed 4 packs of 12 pencils. I had a few left over but how many you need will depend on the size of your container. To test that I had enough before I started sticking the pencils down, I took an elastic band and put it around the middle of the vase. Then I slipped the pencils in underneath it all the way around. This was supposed to also ensure that there would be no gaps at the end (more on that later). Everything looked good so a-sticking I went. Now some people just use the elastic band, put a ribbon over it and call it complete. The advantage to this is that the Teacher can use the pencils. My issue with this was that the pencils all have a lean to them so I went with a stick-em method.

First I placed a piece of painter's tape up the length of my vase to act as straight line/guide for my first pencil. I used my table as the bottom guide. The carpet was used just to take the photo so you can't see the rest of the messy living room. Then I hot glued my pencil and tried to place it on my vase. By the time I got the pencil on the glue had cooled. Second try I put glue on the vase and stuck my pencil on. But when I wiggled the pencil into place it popped off. Repeat first and second try with glue gun. Then I got out the 1/4" Skor Tape. Perfect! It's clear (shows clear through the inside of the vase too), and you can wiggle your pencils into place and they still stay on.

Taped all of my pencils on except 2. Then I learned that while there was room for 2 pencils at the bottom there was only room for 1 and a half at the top. Apparently the silver tops are just a bit wider than the bottoms. I considered leaving the one pencil stuck out a bit at the top (it was really close) but I thought maybe I could pinch the tops enough with a pair of pliers to make them fit. Eureka, I'm a genius, it worked.
More double sided Skor Tape to the beautiful polka dot ribbon from my LSS and then wrapped the ribbon tightly around the middle of the pencils. Next time I would move this up just a bit to leave more room for the tag. I used a potato masher to make the bow. I just Googled potato masher bow. The tag was a Silhouette cut file and the image was from Tiddly Inks - Grow a Little Love. I colored her to look like my Kaylee with Prismacolor pencils. On the back I wrote her teacher's thank-you message. I attached it to the pink bow with pink twine. Kaylee picked out the flowers.

Supplies used:

Straight sided vase

4 packages of decorative pencils/12 to a package

1/4" Skor Tape

Pliers

1 metre of ribbon

Tag optional



Her Teacher loved it. And there were 2 classes of Kindergartners (they go all day every other day) and they graduated 23 from Kaylee's class and just as many in the other class. So I think you can agree with me that she deserved a special something along with our thanks!

Here's a picture of my Kindergarten graduate *sigh*:

 

 

 

 

Hip To Be Square Or Rectangular

Welcome all, our challenge this fortnight at Crafting With Dragonflies is to make a box. We have 2 sponsors, QKR Stampede and Sassy Studio Designs, so we will have 2 prize winners and a top 3! Be sure to be a follower, no backlinking and follow the theme so that you will have a chance to win. I look forward to visiting!
My box is a cut file from Silhouette. You can also buy it as an SVG cut file from Lori Whitlock's shop. It is a card holder with sleeve. It holds A2 sized cards, awesome! I cut the box shapes from Kraft paper. Then used Skor Tape to put the boxes together along the perforated folds.

I then cut my Recollections patterned papers, also part of the Silhouette cut file. Ran them through my Xyron and attached them to my boxes.

The cut file also includes this super cool tag that you can attach with brads and the holes for the brads are pre-cut into your box. They do think of everything. I used mirror paper to cut the frame for my tag and white cardstock for where the writing will go. Attached it with 2 small silver brads.
Then I used the print and cut feature of my Silhouette for my image Little Honey's - Princess Aurora Honey from Sassy Studio Designs. I colored her using my Prismacolor pencils. This time I tried to use grey to do some shading afterwards. I felt like it made her look more like she was wearing Cinderella's cleaning dress than Sleeping Beauty's but The Husband said it looked like shading. I attached her with pop dots.

 

I will make more of these...sometime...in my spare time...well I'll put it on the list anyway ;) I love them because I can put my super embellished cards in there and they won't get squished like they are in the box I am currently putting my cards in. Thanks for stopping by, be sure to check out my teamies Hip creations (see how I brought us back around to my title?!?). Have a great week!

I'd like to share at:

Created With Love Challenges anything goes, closes June 15,

Quirky Crafts more than one fold, closes June 22



For The Girls

Our challenge this fortnight at Crafting With Dragonflies is one for the girls. Our sponsors are Delicious Doodles and A Day For Daisies. Basic rules, please be sure to be a blog follower (so you'll be guaranteed to get our winners posts!), follow the theme and no backlinking. Join in so we can drop by and visit!
I used Mom Hugs by ADFD. These cards were for my Mom and Mother-In-Law for Mother's Day. Such a beautiful and versatile image. I colored them using my Prismacolor pencils so they would look like our Mom's and us when we were babies.
The shaped cards easel cards were a creation of mine. I took a scalloped frame and duplicated it twice in my Silhouette program. I overlapped two of them and welded them together. Drew a perforated line between them for the fold line and cut them out. Then I folded one side in half. This acts as my base. The third scalloped frame gets glued to the folded scallop base to act as my card front. I sent some patterned paper through the embosser and then gently rubbed some distress ink over it to make the pattern stand out. I did this only on my second card, learn as you go and all that, so the embossing on my MIL's card stands out way better than on my Mom's. The sentiment frame was also a Silhouette cut file and then I used pop dots to lift it off the page a bit. I also used some half pearls to Mom it up a bit :o) The flowers are Wild Orchid Crafts and were used at the insistence of my daughters. I thought the cards were done without them but they got the final word and I think they were right!
My lessons learned: you can make any shape into an easel card. Whatever shape you use for your card front is also the right side of your bottom card. You fold that in half and you have your base. Looking forward to trying this with teacups!

 For my Mom.

For my Mother-In-Law

 I would like to share my cards at:
Joanna Sheen Challenge girls, girls, girls, closes May 29,
A Day For Daisies anything goes, closes May 30,
Bugaboo Stamps photo inspiration, closes June 1,
Lady Anne's Challenge easel card, closes June 1,
The Squirrel and the Fox here come the girls, closes June 2,
Lacy Sunshine anything goes, closes June 7,
Addicted to Stamps bingo, lilac, flowers, embossing, closes June 9,
Hobbycutz Challenges flowers/roses, closes June 9,
The Crazy Challenge use a sentiment, closes June 10

Mother's Day Scrapbook Page

Our second challenge at Crafting With Dragonflies this fortnight is to create a scrapbook page with the theme of Mothers. We have our wonderful sponsor, Bugaboo Stamps, which offer the winner 7 digis of their choice. Just a gentle reminder to be eligible for the prize and top 3; no backlinking, follow the theme, and be a follower of the challenge blog. I look forward to seeing your creations! And I so loved my teamies cute and sentimental pages too.
I used a 12x12 dp I bought at Michael's. My tag was a Silhouette file that I used print and cut to put my Bugaboo image Love Blocks - with love on. I then heat embossed my image. I have never done that before and still have a ways to go before I am comfortable with it. I asked The Husband if I should redo my tag and he said, "I thought you were going for folksy". Well I am now, folksy it is ;o) I tied 3 different ribbons through the top. My butterfly and dragonfly are also Silhouette files cut out of yellow and purple vellum and then embellished with Jolee's Jewels hotfix Swarovski crystals. To frame my pictures I used purple tulle that I hand pleated. Not the easiest to get a straight edge and a little tricky at the corners but I like the idea.

These pictures are of my oldest daughter Kaylee and myself in 2008. Kaylee was about 8 months old. I am a chronological scrapbooker and am scrapping 2006 right now (don't say it, I know) so now I can say I am 1 ahead on 2008, lol. The most remarkable thing I noticed when scrapping these pictures, and it truly is a God winks moment as my Mom would say, is that the reflection in Kaylee's eyes is heart shaped. I told her it was because we were cuddling. Works for me!