Pink Stuff

Just in a girly mood today, I guess, but I felt like posting pink things. Here is Pippin, all snuggled on the laundry pile.

I made these cute boxes using a video tutorial by Angie. I used some old K&Co. Berrylicious paper, and unknown SU pink color (I bought it at Goodwill, and it had no name on it). The flowers were made with my favorite Tim Holtz "Tattered Florals" die (I love this die!). The sentiment is from Lockhart.

These boxes are about 3 x 3 on the top, and are a good size for treats, or...

...just the right size for some music flash cards! Peter is so thrilled to have them stored in there.

Little Things...

I made these a couple of weeks ago, but am just getting around to posting them....

They are really quick and easy. I got the layout from Michelle Wooderson here. She calls it her Postage Stamp Layout, and I think that it is so cute!

I didn't use bows on my cards, though, because the Post Office has really been charging me extra for anything slightly not flat (even a Braille dot was charged an extra penny!). I really like the look of bows, though, so maybe I'll go back to that and pay the extra postage, because the cards look not as happy as I'd like them to...


I don't know who made up this quote, but I think it is so true in life. Enjoy the little things in your life today!

SUPPLIES:
Stamps...IB Birds (Lockhart)
Ink....Noir (Palette)
Paper...Solar White (Neenah), Aqua Mist (PTI), Urban Prairie (BasicGray)
Misc...classic & scalloped square Nestabilities, Copics, ribbons (stash), computer generated sentiment

Spring Fling Sketch and a Question...

Ellen Hutson is having a sketch challenge over at the CLASSroom, so I thought I'd play along. Here is the sketch:


I wanted to use my Lockhart Picnic stamp for the image, but wanted to use softer colors, to give it the feeling of a Spring picnic. The main card color of yellow was inspired by Anastasia, who vacuumed the stairs yesterday. She said to me, "Mom, you looked tired, and the stairs looked really dirty." Since she's my Yellow Girl, I chose that as my main color.

While I was coloring, I kept thinking of my Mom's strawberry-rhubarb pie that she used to make. Oh, I wish I had a piece right now! Since I don't, I tried to make my pie look like Mom's...

SUPPLIES:

• Stamp...Picnic (Lockhart)
• Ink........Noir (Palette)
• Paper.....Solar White (Neenah), Homespun (Memory Box),
• Guava Dots(Lasting Impressions), Spring Moss (PTI)
• Misc.......Threading Water border punch (Fiskars), buttons #5 Sizzlets (Sizzix),
• white Opal Liquid Pearls, clear glaze pen (Sakura), clear Atyou Spica,
• coral rose grosgrain(Offray), Copics

And now for the question:
This card was supposed to have a bow and a tag with the word "celebrate" on it (instead of buttons). But the grosgrain I use is too thick and stiff to make a cute bow. Does anyone know where to buy thinner weight 3/8" grosgrain ribbon thant's easy to tie?

Thanks for stopping by today!

Bookmarks

Okay, a bit of a break from Hawaii photos today...

I made these for my niece just before we left on our trip. I don't know, I just wanted to make a bookmark. My niece says she used to like blue, but now since she has to wear it all the time for a school uniform, maybe she likes green instead. So I decided to put both colors in the bookmark, because I don't think you could ever completely despise your first "favorite color." :)
These were really fun to make. I sewed the ribbon loops between the DP and the cardstock, hoping to give some strength.
SUPPLIES:
Stamps...IB Birds (Lockhart), Green Thumb (PTI)
Ink...Noir (Palette)
Paper...Urban Prairie (BasicGrey); Solar white (Neenah); Sour Apple, Blue Raspberry (PopTones)
Misc...Copics, ribbons from stash, sewing machine, nesties


Okay, staying with the theme of birds, I just had to include this picture from our Hawaii trip.

We were walking down the street to the market, and some guy had these 2 birds which he placed on a street tree. I didn't know they were real at first, because the colors were so striking, and the birds weren't flying away. We stood there staring at the birds, and the guy jumps up from behind me and said, "Would you kids like to hold my birds?" Umm, is that sanitary? I mean, do parrots get vaccinated? Or even, washed? Plus, how much would he charge for that? ZOINKS! So I just politely refused his offer and shuttled the kids down the street.

Anyways, here's some "Not So Itty Bitty Birds" that I saw in Hawaii:

Lockhart February Sketch

I finally finished this month's sketch over at "Fans of Karen Lockhart" on PCP. It was kind of fun, but a little difficult for me. The biggest hurdle for me was using blue...I just don't get happy with blue; I know a lot of people love it, but I really have a hard time with it.

I made this card with my kids' art teacher in mind. She loves blue, and most of her house has blue in it...so I just thought of her while I made it, and it made coloring so much easier....

For some fun, I stamped & colored 3 Itty Bitty apples and applied Glossy Accents to them. I cut them out, then glued them to the lower right of the card...you know, because teachers like apples? The sentiment was computer-generated and I wanted it to look like a tab on a file folder.
SUPPLIES:
Stamps...Pencils, IB apple (Lockhart)
Ink....Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Paper...Natural White (Neenah), Blue Awning (K & Co.), dark blue (Martha Stewart?)
Copics...YG03, YG91, E55
Prismacolor pencils...violet blue, lt. cerulean blue, cream
Misc....sentiment (AFL Nonmetric font), Glossy Accents (Ranger), dimensionals, rectangle & Labels 1 Nesties (Spellbinders)


I just realized that most of my posts start with a close-up of my card, followed by the entire card...that's getting a bit predictable, so I'll try to not do that next time :) Just for variety, you know...

Flower Inchie

Last month's Inchie Challenge was to create an Inchie with a flower image. I didn't feel like doing the lavender one again, so I used a portion of my Lockhart Picnic stamp. I stamped it on some Memory Box Homespun paper, and colored it with some Copics (they did okay on this paper, but not great). Added some Sakura Stardust to some of the flowers, and GLITTER to the edge of the Inchie...

The little pearls are just snipped off from a strand of pearls (you can buy them at Joann's), and I put them there to cover up a bare spot :)



SUPPLIES: Stamp...Picnic (Lockhart), Tiny Words (Clearly Wordsworth)
Ink...Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Paper...Homespun (Memory Box)
Misc...Rose Quartz glitter (Martha Stewart), Mono-multi glue, Copics, Sakura Stardust pen, white pearls (Joann's), white Inchie squares




And, today...we had sunshine!!! My furry girls looked so sweet out in the sun, so I snapped a quick photo (one of the few times that they weren't chasing eachother). They look so much better today; yesterday, their beards were covered with yellow paint, because both of them decided to eat a tube of yellow artist oil paint. And I had nothing better to do than spend a few hours at the Vet's office and shampoo a few carpets...oil paint is really hard to get out of the rug, I might add...

But today, the sun did shine, and we had no disasters :)

Sweet Valentine Peas

I decided to try and make one more Valentine before the weekend...I used my Peapod of Hearts stamp again, but this time I tried to make it a bit more sparkly and sweet. I guess the sparkliest part is the matting behind the image: I cut out a Labels 1 mat, coated it with tacky glue, and drenched it in some Martha Stewart Rose Quartz glitter. That didn't seem sparkly enough, so I did a 2nd coat of glitter.

I wish you could see the ribbon in real life...it is really shimmery, and is made of green and raspberry fibers; the photo doesn't show the shimmer.

I wanted some bling, but am out of pink jewels, so I used some dew drops...

Had to do something for the inside, so used some leftover hearts from yesterday's card, paired with a $1 stamp I bought at Michael's last year:
Easy Peasy!!!

SUPPLIES:
Stamps...Peapod of Hearts, Sentiment (Lockhardt); inside sentiment (Michael's $1 bin), polka dot backgrounder (CHF)
Ink...Versamark, Tuxedo black (Memento)
Paper...Solar White (Neenah), RazzleBerry & Cotton Candy (PopTone)
Misc...Labels 1 (Spellbinders), heart punch (Martha Stewart), threading water punch (Fiskars), ribbon (May Arts), rose quartz & garnet glitter (Martha Stewart), clear dew drops, white paint pen

Valentine Peas, Country Style

Okay, finally got Mom & Dad's Valentine card done! I made it on Kraft so it wouldn't be too girly for Dad.

Mom & Dad love gardening (especially vegees in the summer), so I thought the Peapod of Hearts image was perfect for them! I kind of messed up on the polka dots, but they'll forgive me. Finally go a chance to use my Scor-Pal and Labels 1 Nesties on it (Christmas presents from dh!)...the vine ribbon is May Arts from a craft store, and I dressed it up by attaching punched hearts with jump rings (found in the beading section at Joann's).

For the inside I punched out some Martha Stewart hearts, and doodled on some dots and dashes for fun:

Peter said he's glad I used Kraft paper on it because" it's like dirt, you know, and the bean is like growing in the garden in the dirt."

SUPPLIES: Stamps...Peapod of Hearts, Peas Be Mine (Lockhart); "valentine" (Inkadinkado mega pack from Costco); Polka Dot BG (CHF)
Ink...Tuxedo black (Memento), New Canvas (Palette)
Paper...Solar White (Neenah); Kraft (PTI);RazzleBerry, Cotton Candy (PopTone); green (stash)
Misc...Labels 1 (Spellbinders), ScorPal, Heart punch for inside hearts (Martha Stewart); vine ribbon (May Arts); jump rings (Darice), Copics (R81, R83, YG13, YG21), Pen-Touch white pen

December Birthdays...

Okay, so this card was obviously done last month, but I didn't want to post it until I was absolutely sure my sister-in-law received it...she has a mid-December birthday, so thought I'd do a holly-type card for her. I used Ellen Hutson's stamp-of-the-month (for December 2008) idea. Really easy and fun card to make...


And for the inside, I printed this using Curlz MT font on my computer:


SUPPLIES: Stamps....Holly Cupcake (Lockhart), Pretty Pattern BG (CHF); Paper...Meadow, Chili Pepper (Memory Box), Solar White (Neenah), Jonquil (Martha Stewart); Ink...Noir (Palette), Versamark; Ribbon (May Arts); Classic circle Nesties; Threading Water border punch (Fiskars); Clear EP...COPICS: YG21,YG63, YG67, YG91, R20, R27 (basically the ones recommended by Ellen here )

Quick and Simple

Last week was the final session of our homeschool co-op for the Fall semester. So, the kids and I decided to make some Thank-You's to give to their teachers. I had a few cards in my stash that they could use, but we made a few more: simple, quick, easy!

The first one was inspired by this card from Michelle Wooderson's blog. I stamped an Itty bitty Lockhart apple on cardstock, then had the kids color it (I think they used a Copic marker). I thought it'd be cute to have "An apple for the Teacher" as a sentiment, so I had Sophia be in charge of putting all those tiny PTI Simple Alphabet letters on the grid block (she has young eyes to see tiny things, and nimble fingers to grasp those little guys). We stamped the sentiment on about 6 card bases, because we might as well mass-produce while we had the supplies out. I showed them a couple of layouts, and this is the one they picked:

Very quick and easy!! Plus, they made it themselves (I only cut the cardstock).

SUPPLIES: Paper...Solar White (Neenah), Berry Sweet (K&Co), Love Bird (Martha Stewart); Ink...Noir (Palette); Stamps...IB Apple (Lockhart), Simple Alphabet (PTI); Misc...Classic & Scalloped square Nesties, dimensionals, Copics

This next card is one I've been making a lot of lately. I sometimes leave the "Thank You" off and use it for a note card. Really simple, and it looks nice too! I have to laugh at this stamp set: It was Stamp of the Month at CHF in January 2008. I wasn't going to buy it, but put it in my cart so that I could get free shipping on my order. Little did I know that this would become one of my most used stamp sets!

I make these in white cardstock with black inked images as well as ivory cardstock with brown ink....Anastasia prefers the latter.

Just make a card base, emboss rectangle Nestie, stamp, color and done! I did also heat emboss the sentiment, because I like to do that.

SUPPLIES: Paper...Natural White (Neenah); Ink...Brown (Palette); Stamps...Image and sentiment (Stamp of the Month 1/08 Cornish Heritage Farms); Misc...clear EP, Prismacolors, OMS & blending stumps

And this is why my cards have to be quick and simple:I think I spend most of my time letting Pippin in and out of the house, and entertaining her...doesn't leave much time for very involved crafts!

Touchable Things

I made a couple of Inchies in September (wow, was it really a couple of months ago...seems like yesterday) for Ellen Hutson's "Inchie Inklings Challenge." The theme was 3-D Inchies...This challenge was alot of fun, and I actually had tons of ideas. I ended up making 2 inchies. Peter thought they were cute...which is sweet, because he never really comments on the cards we make, but these were worthy of his close-up examination; how sweet is that?


Anyways, the first was made using the Itty Bitty Lavender stamp. I found this neat product called "Flower Soft" (www.katysuedesigns.com) at my LSS. It comes in a variety of soft colors, but when I saw the lavender, I knew I just had to use in on my Lockhart stamp.

To use it, just apply glue to paper, and sprinkle the product on...let dry, then fluff it up a bit (kind of like you do with Fun Flock). I also decided to make some mini lavender stems for my daughter's doll. This was done by dipping small pieces of floral wire in glue, then pressing the Flower Soft on glued area.



The second inchie was done by stamping a Lockhart IB butterfly on vellum. I colored it with colored pencils, covered the image with versamark, then mixed glitter and clear embossing power together, and heated it. The result was sort of opalescent; kind of neat. Background paper is Ariel from Memory Box. I first stamped the sentiment on the paper, but messed up, so covered it with sentiment stamped on vellum. Sentiment is from PTI's Mixed Messages. I wanted more sparkles, so I applied glue and crystal glitter to the edges of the inchie...Then I glued the little butterfly on the paper so that it looked like her path was one of the swirls on the DP.




And for some more Touchable Things...
Ziggy's school had an Open House, and we got to check out some of his classes. The school recently opened a new permanent exhibit, which I absolutely love. It is called "Sensory Safari" and is a room filled with taxidermied wildlife for the students to touch. With each animal is a printed and brailled description of facts pertaining to that animal (as well as an audio description, which can be listened to on headphones).

Here are Ziggy and Peter checking out one of the animals:
I am so excited about this exhibit...when Ziggy was young, I had no way of showing him what wild or exotic animals looked like. Most children can watch a video, check photos on the internet, find a picture in a book, or even go to the zoo to see these animals. But blind children have no way to do this. I used to try to give him a sense of what these animals were like by using small toys. I would also "make" exotic animals by describing an animal based on known animals' parts (like a giraffe has neck kind of like a horse, but much longer...a lion's paws are like the cat's paws but 7 times as large). I know it seems like a trivial thing; there are other issues to worry about. But to not have this basic knowledge or exposure to nature is just one more thing that sets these kids apart as different. And it bugs me...

When Ziggy was 6 years old, we got to visit a sensory safari at a conference for the blind. I cried tears of joy to see him finally touch a lion...and it was quite a sight to see him with one hand in his mouth, and the other in a bear's mouth, comparing teeth! I hoped that it wouldn't be the only time in his life that he would see these things, though.

So now, he's 15, and gets to see the animals again. But not just the one time! The exhibit is there permanently..and not just for him, but for the other young blind students at the school. And that warms my heart...

These are some touchable things I love to look at.

Pumpkin Stuff

I was really busy making cards and such last week, and didn't have time to post (bad blogger). Finally catching my breath, and found a bit of time to load some photos.

First, are some recipe cards: I just started doing these, and they are so much fun! I got most of my inspiration for these from Michelle Wooderson's and Sharon Harnist's blogs. The gingersnaps and pumpkin dip recipes came from Nicole Heady, and the pumpkin fluff dip came from Sharon Harnist. I tried Nicole's gingersnaps and Sharon's dip, and both are so yummy! I decided to make recipe cards for myself and my mom, using scraps of BasicGrey Ambrosia and Karen Foster autumn paper. The images are Karen Lockhart itty bitty pumpkin and $1 pumpkin from Michael's. I printed the recipes using my latest FAVORITE Font Combination: Porcelain and Typinoksidi (both are free downloads). (Note: the recipe cards are 4x6)

Well I couldn't just send Mom the recipes without a note, so I had to make some note cards. Again, I got this idea from Michelle Wooderson's blog...she makes these alot, and I finally decided to try them out. They are so much fun to make!
SUPPLIES: Stamps...IB Pumpkin (Karen Lockhart), pumpkin ($1 Michael's); Paper...Ambrosia (BasicGrey), Autumn (Karen Foster, probably retired...I got it from closing of LSS), Orange Poppy (Martha Stewart), Natural White (Neenah); Ink...Noir (Palette); Misc...square and circle nestabilities, prismacolor pencils, OMS & blending stumps.

And now, our little baby is getting so big...I love it when she sleeps; the house calms down and I can get something done! Here is Pippin with her unicorn (and what little girl doesn't love sleeping with a unicorn to give her magical dreams?).

Celebrate Today

Steve is going out of town for the week (again), and Ziggy starts school today...my other kids started homeschool yesterday, and I think it went okay; we even managed to take the new puppy to the vet. Right now, I'm just trying to feel energetic enough to have a good attitude. So I decided a happy card might do the trick. The sentiment I chose was "celebrate today," and why not? The fact that it is indeed Today is more than enough reason to celebrate.

When I saw this Confetti paper (My Mind's Eye), I just smiled. Don't know if it is the dots or the colors or maybe both. It was one of those impulse buys (sorry, Steve, don't growl too much at me), and I even bought coordinating ribbon. I really haven't made much with the paper yet, because I get happy just looking at it. But I just had to put my Lockhart butterfly on it (because she's kind of dotty, like the paper)...maybe I should name her "Dotty" or "Confetti"...hmm...

SUPPLIES: Stamps...Butterfly (Lockhart), Large Polka Dots for envie (CHF), Mixed Messages (PTI); Ink...Berry Sorbet , Noir (Palette), Aegean Blue (Versamagic chalk ink); Paper... Confetti (My Mind's Eye), Stamper's Select white (PTI); Misc...small circle punch, oval coluzzle, dimensionals, prismacolor pencils, OMS, blending stumps, scarlet prismacolor marker

Gift Set for Mom

Okay, this will be short because I am so behind in errands today, and have got to get them done before it gets too hot outside...so another Lockhart cherries stamp, I know, but I really like this one and why not get my money's worth?

Anyways, my mom likes dark colored stuff, and I like brighter ones, so this is kind of a happy medium (although black doesn't make me smile like pink does). This is a post-it note holder and beaded pen set that I made using Emily Giovanni's tutorials. I had some leftover images that I accidentally trimmed too much to use in a card set for my mom, so I decided to use one of them here for a post-it note holder. Stuck it in a cellophane bag and...cute little gift!
SUPPLIES: Paper...Textured black (DCWV), Sanrio Dots paper (Sandylion); Stamps...Lockhart cherries; Ink...Palette Noir; Misc...micro beads from Michaels's, terrifically Tacky tape and paper, dimensionals

Cheery Cherries

I'm really liking this Lockhart cherries stamp...I don't know, it just seems refreshing. We lived by a cherry orchard when I was a girl, and I remember eating tons of fresh cherries, right off the tree. Even though cherry season is over, I still think of it this time of year...

Anyway, I made a cherry card for my mom with darker patterned paper (here's a photo of the card). She really liked it and had me make a set of 6 for her to give as a gift. After making that, I decided to make a few cherry cards with brighter colors, just to show her that bright looks nice, too. I think she still preferred the darker ones, but at least I got a little happier after making these.
SUPPLIES: Stamp...bowl of cherries (Lockhart), cherry for envelope (Fiskars Thankyou set); Paper...Homespun DP, water & hollyberry cardstock (Memory Box), Stamper's Select (PTI); Ink...Palette Noir; Misc...scarlet lake, crimson red, spring green, grass green (Prismacolor markers), cool gray 30% & 50%, cloud blue (prismacolor pencils), OMS & blending stumps, white grosgrain (Joann's generic holiday brand), dimensionals

Stamp of the Month: June

Looks like I haven't posted in a while...been busy making cards and stuff for Mom. Hey, I got the June's Stamp of the Month kit from Ellen Hutson, and made all the cards in the kit! Don't know if I will have time to do this every month, but it was so much fun to have all the supplies ready, and a layout to follow. I changed the card construction a bit, from Ellen's sample, but really the layout looks the same as hers. I took a photo of the sheet of images that I colored: I don't know, it looked so cute, I just had to...

Here's the finished card...

So I did these cards in mass production mode, and it was kind of fun. Here's some of the finished guys...I don't know, just wanted a photo so I could see that I actually got something done last week (sometimes it seems like I work all day, but get nothing done).

SUPPLIES: Paper...Holly Berry, Sapphire? (Memory Box), Neenah Solar White Paper and envelopes; Stamps...Picnic, IB Watermelon, sentiment (Lockhart); Ink...Palette Noir; Coloring...canary yellow, spring green, grass green, scarlet lake, lt cerulean blue (prismacolor markers); spring green, limepeel, canary yellow, goldenrod, spanish orange,carmine red, process red, crimson, copenhagen blue (prismacolor pencils); sakura glitter pen; Misc...Ornare corner flower piercing template, paper piercer/mat, OMS, blending stump.

Too Buzzy?

I hope this card isn't too busy...I thought it looked okay, but Steve said, "Hmm, that's alot of bees." It's just that I was in a yellow-and-black kind of mood, so this is what I made.

I was going to put a bow on the left, but figured the card had enough going on already.The sentiment is printed on the card interior, because this card is for my mom's stash, and she likes the sentiments in, rather than out. Doesn't matter much to me, I just like making cards!Here's the inside. I used Giddyup font for this because Anastasia said the swirlies on the letters look like the swirlies of the bee trail:


SUPPLIES: Paper...yellow note card (colorbok), black perf (DCWV), yellow gingham (making memories),110# white (Georgia Pacific); Stamps...IB Bee (Lockhart); Ink...Noir (Palette); Misc...Martha Stewart scallop punch, dimensionals, Marvy scallop square punch, square Whale of a Punch.

Bee Notes

Thought I'd make a trio of note cards to give as a set...still don't know if it works (maybe I should just do 3 of the same design for a set). I used a layout from Michelle Wooderson with a Lockhart bee stamp. The cardstock I used for the base is SO thick, that I don't know if these will work well for note cards, so maybe I should used a less heavy paper next time? Anyways, thought I'd bundle them up for a note set (maybe I'll make a beaded pen with the black DP to go with).SUPPLIES: Paper...stamper's select (PTI), yellow from Joann's, Perf (DCWV); Stamps...itty bitty bee (Lockhart), Just a Note (Stampendous); Ink...Palette Noir; Other...prismascolors, gamsol, square whale-of-a-punch, Mega scalloped square punch.

Kidspiration (sort of)

So usually, if I do a card challenge, my girls get inspired to make a card, too. But I haven't had time to do any challenges the past couple of weeks, and my girls were complaining to me that they wanted me to do SOMETHING, so that they could get inspired. I said, "What if I give us a sketch challenge?" They said, "Yay!" Sooo, here is the sketch challenge (I think it's an old one that I found on someone's blog), and our interpretations...
Here's the messy sketch I gave them...












Here is Sophia's card, made for Peter. It used a cool Curious George stamp that I found at a thrift store. Stamped in black, and colored with Prismacolor pencils.





Anastasia is still loving the Birds Galore set from Inkadinkado. Here, it is paired with Aerial paper by Memory Box. Letters are Small Variety Alphabet by Hero Arts, stamped in Versamark and clear-embossed (Anastasia is all about embossing).





Here's mine. I just bought this Lockhart cherries stamp and was dying to use it. This stamp is so good that it practically colors itself! I don't have any copics yet, so I colored it with some Prismacolor markers (I have a few that the kids used for an art class 4 years ago. I really only have 10 markers, and it just so happened that I had lt and dk green, and lt and dk red! Just what I need for cherries, yay! I didn't have any marker for the colander, so I used prismacolor pencil and gamsol for that.). Paper is Gramercy Park by American Crafts.

I had to laugh, because I wanted to put the image more to the left, but my girls said that would break the rules of the challenge! There are rules? Anyways, sketch challenges are fun because it really takes the stress off of "what is the best placement" for the image and patterned paper (since I'm new at this, sometimes I'll spend forever trying to decide the best placement, when really there are a lot of options and maybe none are best, but all are appealing?)