Happy Birthday Jeff 08/11

First off, I need to state, I have a hard time picturing and creating a masculine card, this is definitely a weak spot of mine.  However, I rose to the challenge and created this really basic card for my friend Jeff. (Quick note. On HIS birthday, he was hosting a surprise baby shower/arrival for his wife and mother of his 4 boys. It was also her birthday just 2 days before, hence the "Jesyl's card here on my blog and the "New arrival" card too.)

White cardstock cut at 4.25" x11" and folded in half. I then trimmed off the bottom inch of the front and added the Happy Birthday stamp from studio g. Then, I added Kraft cardstock (4.25"x 4") to the front. On top of that, I added decorative paper from DCWV's "The Pets Stack" just a tiny bit smaller than the kraft paper.  Using Martha Stewart's writing pen in "Sepia" I added faux stitching tothe front. Using a blending pen and Stampin Ups Creamy Caramel ink pad, I colored in the sentiment.  Since I like to bling things up a bit, I added Copper Stickles to the darker brown/orange stripe on the decorative paper.

That's it! Nice & simple.

Happy crafting.

Birthday wishes/Jesyl's card 08/11

My dear friend Jesyl celebrates her birthday on August 23.  Just less than a week before, she gave birth to her 4th son. On the day she was released from the hospital, she celebrated her 3rd son's 5th birthday. And, 2 days later celebrated her hubby's (Jeff) birthday and her suprise baby shower Jeff organized.  Talk about a busy week for her.  (I didn't make it to the baby shower to give her this card, my 5 year old came home from kinder just the day before with a fever & vomitting, we didn't want to spread it.)

The card size is 4"x6.5". The brown decorative paper from DCWV's "Glitter Matstack" is cut at 3"x6". Using the EK Success "bubbles" border punch, I punched across white cardstock and then cut it at 2"x6", then I used Stampin Ups Mauve Mist ink pad and inked up the border.  Using some random ribbon I had on hand from Michael's I attached it where the two papers met up at.  Using white gel pen I wrote "Birthday Wishes".

Thanks for reading.

Welcome Home New Nephew 08/11

As I mentioned in my "Birthday Wishes" post, Jesyl had her 4th boy just a few days ago. Her hubby, Jeff threw her a surprise baby shower on HIS birthday, very sweet.  Here is the very simple card I made for my new nephew. 

White card stock base measures 4.25"x5.5".  Using some random light blue card stock I had on hand (possibly Stampin Up), cut at 3x5.5" was attached to the bottom portion of the card front. Using DCWV's "Glitter Matstack", I cut out the decorative paper at 2.5x5.5" and attached it to the upper portion of the card front.  I had purchased some time ago a random bunch of embellishments in a preselected package. The "welcome home" was one of the pieces included in this little kit.  The "welcome home" had a sticky back (sticker, yay!) so I just plopped it onto the card front.  Using white gel pen from GellyRoll, I created faux stitching along the border od the blue paper and the sticker.

Easy peasy.

Thanks for reading.

Handmade baby sling for my new nephew

Note: Sorry about the photo quality, my 9 y/o son took the pic for me.  My 3 1/2 year old son helped demonstrate the sturdiness of this baby sling.  I always like to test them before giving to the recipient.  (He looks miserable, doesn't he?) LOL!

I started making these baby slings back when I started shopping around and discovered that stores were charging $50+ for one.  Ridiculous! So, I visually dissected the baby sling and made my own.  I made my first one back in 2008, just before my 2nd son was born.  It was a real fun an vibrant yellow rainbow striping.  This one here is for my girlfriend who just had her 4th boy last week.  I had made her a sling for boy #3, but she had since gave it to her sister's sister in law, thinking that she was done having kids.  Ooops!  Luckily, this fabric is the left over of the sling I made her last time.  The slings usually measure about 4.5-5.0 feet long to accomodate for mama and baby and are adjustable.  Enjoy.

My JoAnn's haul on 08/24/11

Wednesday mornings are pretty short for time. So my Lil Monkey & I ran a couple of errands. Luckily, I had a few extra minutes to spare, so I headed over to JoAnn's to see what they had in stock.  

I bought:
1. EK Success Diamond Lace Edger punch on clearance for $7.97
2. EK Success Large punch 2.5" circle on clearance for $11.19
3. EK Success Edger Punch "Bubbles" on clearance for $7.97
4. 8 yds black organza for $2.50
5. Sizzix Sizzlits "Architectual Accents Set" on clearance for $4.97
6. Stamps from the $1.00 bins: "Hallo Scream!", "happy halloween", "Brew Stew", jaunted house image, "boo crew", and 3 clear stamps: "Smile You Trickster", "happy HallloWEEN" and cauldron image.
7. 4 sheets of 8.5" x11" glittered black cardstock in "Black Tie"

I normally don't buy any Halloween crafting/stamping items, but I thought since I am participating in a Halloween themed blog hop, I thought I would pick up some items to play with and get some inspiration.

What are your favorite Halloween crafting supplies and/or projects?

Mom's Getaway Card 08/18/11

So, the "Wild Card" I made just wasn't "it" for me, so I chose to make another card.  Once again I used Kraft cardstock for the base measuring 4.25" x 11" then folded in half.  The decorative paper is cut at 4" x 5". I used cream colored cardstock and cut a scalloped circle using the 3" punch from Stampin' Up.  I then cut the top circle at 2.5" from decorative paper and used a "studio g" clear stamp found at Michael's in the $1 bins.  Orange gel pen was used to faux stitch the scallop and card base borders.

Here is the interior of the above mentioned card.  I used a Martha Stewart writing pen in "sepia" to write the sentiment as well as tracing the mini dashes on the green decorative paper.  The green insert is made from Stampin' Up's Bigz Top Note Die and cut from my Epic 6 machine.  The green paper was cut at 5" x 12", then using the Scor-Pal, scored at 4", 6", and 8".  The paper was then folded like a "W" so that the inner section could be glued together to hold the enclosed GC.

I hope she enjoys the gift!

Oh, as a quick side note, I chose the color scheme based off of the GC, but also because we are all going to Hawaii in December! ALOHA!

Welcome Summer Door Hanger

This door hanger was made using craft coasters in the same manner that I did my Spring door hanger.  The difference here, I attached the coaster together rather than hanging from each other.  I think the colors really represent summer well: green grass, gorgeous sunsets and sunshiney days.

Mom's Wild Card 08/17/11

My mom's 60th Birthday is next week and I've been wanting to make her a card.  Today, I finally decided to get her a Starbucks GC because she will never buy one herself, she doesn't buy herself treats very often.  (The last time I went out to visit her, I treated her to a Chai Tea Latte with Soy and she LOVED it!) 

For the card I used Kraft cardstock cut at 4.25 x 11".  I scored it at 3"and 7".  Then I cut 2" off of the 4" section between the 7" and 11" points.  I used the printed paper from DCWV's Safari Chic Matstack.  I wrote sentiment before adhering the top paper so I wouldn't waste any.  (I believe it was cut at 2.25" and I rounded the corners.) I cut more of the paper for the interior flap (holding the GC), but I cut it at about 2.5" and I used a border punch by EK Success (graduated triple dots) for the top of the printed paper.

This card is really simple, but I thought I would share it anyway. 

PS- Quick note, I decided the card front was too bland so I added "Cinnamon" Stickles in random dots to give it a little extra bling.

Priceless Card July, 2011

Sorry I'm posting this so late.  I had a good friend call me and tell me how "down and blue" she had been so I decided to create this card for her.  Unfortunately, our schedules have not allowed for us to meet up, so I still have the card on hand.  On the bright side, this allows me to finally post the card here on my blog.  Yay!

I don't remember all the details, but I will try.

The final card measures 5.5' x 4.25". I used Kraft card stock for the base and used paper from a coordinating paper pack (can't find the paper packaging now, silly me).  I cut the front decorative rectangles at 2" x 2.5". The green rectangle is cut at 3.25" x 3", the printed rectangle is cut at 3" x 2.5" and the top rectangle was cut at 2" x 2.5", all 3 rectangles have their corners rounded.  I used the "Priceless" stamp from Stampin' Up as well as the "Creamy Caramel" stampin' pad from Stampin' Up.  After placing all the cut pieces on the card base, I used a white gel pen and added faux stitching.  Enjoy!