Today is my friend Teadub's birthday! I made her some goodies and sent them her way earlier in the week…but now I can post them! Now…Ms. Teadub is allll about pink! So her card and prezzies needed to be pink and girlie and sparkly.

Here is the matching card and gift tin:

I decorated the tin with patterned paper and then some rub-ons and some stamped letters. Oh…and don't forget the bling! Pink and brown is the way to go. Before and after… One of my favorite projects for prezzies is to take these short Pepperidge Farm tins and decorate them specifically for the person. (Oh and it doesn't hurt that I have to eat the treats first!). They can hold a gift card, a little jewelry prezzy, some candy, or STAMPS!

Here is the card. I tried a new technique with the cut out. I used my Creative Memories oval cutter after putting the layers of patterned paper together. Then I used my oval punches to make a center piece and hooked it all up with ribbon!

Some cute little pink cupcakes in the background…

I am trying to use some different color combinations in my cards and I found this pretty patterned paper from Crate Paper in my stash to use for inspiration. I love doing the challenges for Taylored Expressions and this card is my entry for Challenge #122. Hey…I used orange…and purple…and brown! Hahaha…and take note…no polka dots!

The sketch image is below. I tried to use different items for the accents, but ended up using butterflies because it looked the best and stayed true to the sketch.

The butterfly punch is one of my favorites from, where else, Martha Stewart. I used some gingham ribbon and tied a lavender button on with some twine. One of my favorite tricks with the butterflies is to glue down the center only and pop the wings off the page.

I just love making these butterflies pop up off the page!

Saturday! Glorious Saturday! Hi everybody…hope you are having a wonderful weekend. I've been holed up in the craft room all day with Mr. Buddy. We're watching Mad Men Season 3 on DVD getting ready for the Season 4 premiere tomorrow night! That Don Draper is dreamy…and a total cad! Does anyone else remember the office party with the tractor? Just sayin' - brilliant television!  

I finally got my craft on this week! Yay! The first card I made today is my entry for the Shabby Tea Room Blog Challenge #19. It's been too long since I entered their challenge. Glad to be back! The theme for this week is "From the Garden" using Red, White, Yellow and Green colors. I got the idea instanty to use the PTI Friendship Jar set with the pretty daisies…fresh from the garden. Hope you likey.

All the stamps are from Papertrey Ink…love that company, don't you? Lots of cutting on this one…the label, the top flower, the scallop red lining on the jar, the bee…

I really wanted the flowers to look like white daisies but it seemed strange to leave them all white. I used my lightest yellow Copics to barely color the petals. I put some prisma glitter in the centers. I used a MS edge puncher and the red paper is also from PTI.

I felt that it needed something in the bottom corner so I added the bee. Notice that I popped up several parts of the card with foam tape to add dimension. I couldn't live without foam tape! I may later add a sentiment on the very bottom also. But for now I just liked it as is.

Today's card is my entry for Taylored Expressions Challenge #121! I haven't entered Taylor's challenge in a couple of weeks and it's fun to play along again. There's still time…why don't you make a card and enter too? After making this card, I realized I need to stop with the yellow and the polka dots! Hmmmm. What will be my next obsession? Anyhoo…here is my card! You best be appreciatin' all the cutting involved in this one! hahaha. This is a great layout. The finished card is 6 inches square.

The sketch image from Taylor:

Supplies – October Afternoon stamps, Copic Markers, Dotted Swiss paper from Bazzill, Amuse cloud paper, Creative Memories circle cutter, and blossom nestabilities…

Chirp Chirp!

Hello chicadees! Oy, it's still roasting here in Sac-town and I'm in the craft room trying to stay cool…

The DH just went up to Target to get the Season 3 Mad Men DVD set so we can get ready for Season 4 which starts next weekend. He got the LAST copy!!! Thanks honey!!! He said he only had to hurt one person! Just kidding! If you have never watched that show, I highly recommend it. I would start from season 1 and watch the whole thing. It's my favorite show – like a wonderful, beautiful movie each week. So well made, I can hardly believe it's television. Sunday nights on AMC. Check it out.

The card I'm posting today was inspired by Julie's Amuse flowers class we took last week at Paper Garden. I made a round card inspired by one of her cards and used the new marigold stamp I bought – which we used on another card in class. I kept it sweet and simple, too. Hope you likey.

I used my large scallop die from Stampin' Up in my Cuttlebug to make the card bases. One tip Julie gave us is to score the back circle instead of the front one – so your card front is a solid circle. I punched two small holes on the side for the bright yellow riboon.

This marigold stamp is very versatile…you can stamp it in any color and it makes a nice crisp image. I used Adirondack Ink in Sunshine Yellow. The "Thank You" is a Stampin' Up image.

Notice the tiny clear rhinestones in the center of the flowers?

This is the inside of the card. The bee is from PTI and the saying is from Paper Source.

Pretty little Thank You's all ready to go!

A friend at work hired me to make some cards for her recently. One card for a little girl turning one and the other card for a little boy turning two. I don't often do cards for the wee ones! I don't really have a lot of images or paper to fit this scenario. I thought I would share my ideas in case anyone else has this dilemma. I am pleased with how the cards turned out and hope you like them too.

What is sweeter than this pink and white checked paper? I made some banners and stamped her name on them. Added some little daisies and a big number ONE!

A really great color combination for boys is blue and orange. Since these are complementary colors on the color wheel, they look great together. To me they imply fun and activity. I can't explain it but I think in color that way. I used Basic Grey paper and letter stickers for this card.

The boy image is from an October Afternoon clear stamp set. I colored him in with my Copic markers to match the paper exactly. I used a small TWO from the letter stickers to put on his t-shirt. I got some new nesties and used them too!

Hi y'all! Whew…just had me some fun this weekend! It went by in a flash…maybe the fastest weekend on record. Lemme tell ya about it! Julie Ebersole, Amuse teacher extraordinaire, came to our local stamp store, Paper Garden, this weekend to teach classes! I have followed her blog for a long time and love her style and her cards and photographs. I was really excited to get to meet her in person and make some great projects. My friend Teadub, also a big fan, came to stay the weekend at my house and take a class with me. I was also very excited that my friend Shauna was in class! We made some new friends along the way too – Erna and Joy and Renee (shout out to ya gals!)

Julie is just as lovely and fun in person as I imagined and also very funny! The cards we made – five in all – we just so cute. We made this one card using some supah cool five inch wide ribbon she found! We stamped on the ribbon for a very soft effect. Also made some poofy paper flowers. The whole class had a flower theme. Great time!

 
Later on Saturday we did some power shopping at Paper Garden. Love the Copic Marker display to take pictures! Sunday allllll day we stamped in my studio and had grilled cheese sammiches. MMMM. I tried to accurately document the tornado that occurred in the studio with TWO crazy crafty girls!! You can see Mr. Buddy in the background. He LOVES Teadub! They are new BFF's.

One of my favorite gal pals recently adopted two brand new tiny baby Scotty Dog Puppies!!! I have seen some pictures and lemme tell ya…they are uber cute! Well…I'm never one to miss an opportunity to make a card so I decided to make "new baby" cards for her.  My friend shares my love of all things vintagey and preppy so I had the idea pop into my head to use kind of an old rose shade of pink for one card. The perfect stamp set from Pink Persimmon. Ugh, I seriously can't stand it.

Well…I made this girlie card ahead of time and set it aside to save for when the new girl baby came home…then I got an email saying that she went to pick her up and ended up with a girl and a boy! I had to quickly go and make a second card! Hahaha. I can't wait to meet the new kids!

With this super cool stamp set you can stamp your doggy and then either color in the sweater or use one of the patterns provided. Also, you can use the tiny bow stamp to make the bow match in the same color. I found some of this herringbone paper in my stash and it was PERFECT! I added a tiny pink rhinestone for just a touch of bling.

And here is the boy card! I used the same herringbone print…in baby blue of course. I then put on a tiny blue rhinestone for the bow. I did not have blue herringbone paper (sad face) so I used some aged vanilla paper to keep the same vintage feel.

This weekend my bestie Teadub is coming to our house for the weekend!! WOOT WOOT! We are taking a class from Julie Ebersole (of Amuse fame) at my friend Stephanie's Stamp Store (Paper Garden) and then attending a party at the store later Saturday night. Sunday we are planning to stamp the day away. I'm so excited! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!