Thinking of You

I needed a thinking of you card so instead of only making one, I decided to make two. It is so easy just to cut enough for two rather than sitting down to make another card entirely.  I am trying to talk my husband into moving all of my stamping stuff today, but we will see. He already told me he doesn't "really" want to do that, but I think we could be quick. Especially since Rhys is taking his morning nap and the older kids can watch Rowan.

  With summer on its way out and fall on its way in, I decided to use some early autumn colors.  I really love light blue and orange paired together.  I used this "Trendy Trees" set from PTI for my focal image. I have only used it once, but I really like using it.  I also used Jen's August SFYTT. Isn't it great? She always does such a good job. One of the things I miss the most is being part of her sketch team. Maybe someday.........

I had a package of cork that was handy and I thought it would work well with the theme of the card. I liked it as the background for the tree. I used a sentiment from the PTI set "Autumn Abundance" which is another one of my favorites.
I have actually been quite busy the last month or so working on some fun sewing projects. They have been for baby showers, but I didn't have enough time to get everything photographed. That is always such a bummer when you work so hard on something but then don't get a chance to get a good picture of it. I didn't really think the mother's to be would be keen on me asking if i could come over and take pictures of their stuff! LOL! Anyway, I had fun and I have been trying to be creative. Thanks for fluttering by!

Baby's First Year mini album

 I have always wanted to make a "Baby's First Year" mini-album and I finally did! I am so proud of myself!  I posted the card I made for the shower I went to in my previous post and now you can see where all of the inspiration came from.If you want to see all of the other baby things I made you can check them out here Once I picked out my papers it all came together nicely.  I have been making these little albums for years and they are so much fun.

 Of course you all know how obsessed I am with banners, so I made a little one for the cover. I also added some die-cut letters to spell baby.  I picked up the tiny tiles that I used throughout the book (you can see it in the left hand corner) at Hobby Lobby and they are the perfect addition and some of them had sweet little baby quotes on them.  I love it when I find the perfect embellishment.  I uses doilies and an accordion medallion for the focal piece.  The "sweet pea" image is just a sticker and I added some glossy accents to all of the little hearts for some added interest.

 For the "meat" of the album, I let my computer do the work. I simply printed out all of the little tabs that indicate which month is being highlighted, the monthly milestone pieces as well as the the "sweet things I do..." pieces.  The album wasn't the only gift I was making so I felt pressed for time.  I figured that the new mommy would have lots of fun little things to add to each page to make it her own, anyway.

 I kept all of the pages similar in design. Each has a little bit of change whether it be in tiny details or layout, but for continuity reasons, everything is pretty much the same.  Well....my little ones are up from their naps, so I better go, but thanks for fluttering by!

Sweet Baby

 I was busy last week making lots of fun stuff for a baby shower I went to on Thursday! I almost didn't have time to make a card, but I quickly whipped this one up with scraps of things I used to make the gift. I will share all of those goodies with you next time.  

 Like I mentioned in my last post....there are a ton of babies being born in the neighborhood. It is so much fun! It is the year of the girls, too.  I had so much fun making lots of fun, girly baby things that I haven't been able to do for myself in a while.  I quickly made a little fabric rosette and some little felt leaves.  I placed the whole focal piece onto a little doily.

I will share the rest of the things that I made soon. I really had a lot of fun! Thanks for fluttering by!

A new little someone

There are a ton of babies due around here, so I went and got stocked up on baby gifts. Of course that means that I need some cards, too.  I made 3 girl cards and one boy card. I couldn't get the boy one to photograph nicely, so I only am showing you the girl ones.  I used Jen's June SFYTT. I always check it out when I am short on time, but need to get a lot done. It really does minimize the guess work and I get on with the fun part....stamping and embellishing!

   I went to my "go-to" baby set and got to work.  I always love to paper piece the cupcake liner. I am sure those with mad coloring skills would prefer to color it, but not me. I think it makes it look like a cute patterned liner.  My favorite part of the whole card is the little die-cut letters to spell baby. You can't tell in the photo, but they are all glossy. I die cut each one out of pattern paper and then also out of cardstock.  Once they were glued together, I mounted them onto the card using cut up foam squares.  I am having way too much fun with that glossy accent stuff. I think you can tell a little bit better in my previous post. I used the same letters and stuff.  The flowers are made from one of my Martha Stewart punches, layered.  I used a dimensional in between each layer to really give it some depth.  The center is just a circle punch out of pattern paper and then some glossy accent...surprise, surprise!
It really is straightforward. I don't have many tricks up my sleeve lately, but I had fun. I was literally going "stir (craft) crazy" if you know what I mean.  I am really, really, really, really (there aren't enough really's to explain) how much I miss my craft space. Creating is part of who I am and I don't feel like me lately! Making these cards was helpful, but not enough.  Anyway, thanks for fluttering by!

P.S. Emma is going to see the new Disney Pixar film "Brave" tonight with her Grandma and Grandpa. It is the Utah premier and she is so excited.  We went to the Utah Highland Games and Scottish Festival on Saturday, so she probably still has bagpipe music ringing in her ears! LOL!  Rowan was helping his Grandpa hold the flag! Such a good helper. He is currently obsessed with flags and balloons.

Be Prepared

My darling little nephew just turned 8 and has started Cub Scouts.  One of my son's friends makes these great survival bracelets out of rope, so I thought I would give him one for his birthday. I asked my son's friend to make it yellow and gold, since those are the two cub scout colors.  Once I had the bracelet, I thought that I would make some "scout" type packaging. I decided to use the PTI set "Father know best". It has a compass and it worked well with the theme. I also used some PTI alphabet dies.

  I couldn't fit the word "prepared" onto the box if I used the die cut letters, so I just created a computer generated strip and printed it out.  I added some glossy glaze onto the letters and the center of the compass. I am really loving that stuff and I like how it dries. I have used "Crystal Effects" from SU! for years, but this stuff is way better. It really makes the letters look like store bought alphabet stickers rather than quick and easy die-cuts. I added a strip of cork for some extra texture. I simply stapled it into place on either side of the box.

I stamped the outside of the box with the compass image to carry out the theme and to dress it up a bit. Not that 8 year old boys really care about "dressed up" boxes!   I hope he enjoys wearing his manly survival bracelet and that he never has to really use it to survive!  Thanks for fluttering by!

Special Delivery: Baby Boy

Ever since I saw the film "Red Tails" I have been wanting to use this little airplane set. I didn't really have a reason, so I kept putting it aside. Since I have gotten back into blogging, I have been visiting some of my favorite stampers. I have sadly realized that while I have been away, so have others. In fact, some of them are just gone. But, I did visit Julee Tilman's blog to discover that she recently had twin boys! How exciting! So...I decided to make a card to send to her darling little twins. She had hoped for some to decorate their NICU walls. I decided that while I was making one, I may as well make two so that I could have one on hand. I think this is a practice that I will keep up on!

Of course that meant that I could use this darling little airplane from PTI. In fact, all of the stamps I used are from PTI. I used quite a few sets to assemble these two cards. Some of them are sets that I have hardly inked, so that felt good. I also used quite a few dies as well. All of them are from PTI except for the circle piece; it is a nestibilities die.

To begin with, I chose my papers which are Authentique and I picked them up at Ellen Hutson's online store. You can see the link on my sidebar under "Places I love to shop". She ships things super fast and she has a great selection of popular items. I love these papers and thought they worked nicely for a baby boy, or two! LOL! Oh....I almost forgot....the sketch is one of the Verve sketches. I saw it while I was on Julee's blog reading about the twins and thought it would be perfect with the set I wanted to use. Now....if you know me, you know that I seem to have a slight problem sticking to sketches, but I think I did pretty good considering.
After I picked my papers, I got to work die-cutting the circle pieces. I stamped onto the Kraft cardstock using Palette Noir ink. I paper pieced the body of the plane using some of the coordinating papers. Once I had it glued in place, I colored in the rest of the plane using copic markers. Once that was all done, I added glossy accents to the body of the plane, the circle on the tail and the nose. I wish that you could see how cute it all looks from the photos.

I set those pieces aside so that they could dry and got to work cutting out the banner pieces. I realize that the alphabet I used was a little large, but I think it looks okay. I also took the time to die-cut a few buttons since I knew that they would need some time to dry as well. Once that was all done, I got to work on the ticket pieces. I used quite a few stamps on these, but I think they turned out quite nicely. I actually hadn't intended to use this stamp set, but while I was rummaging for the ticket set, I stumbled across this neglected set. I thought it would be perfect since I was using the airplane image.

Once every last detail was dry or stamped, I got to work assembling the cards. I needed to machine stitch the felt rick rack border to the left panel. There is something really gratifying about machine stitching on felt, but I think I have already mentioned that. If you haven't tried it, I suggest you do. I also wanted the linen twine "ties" for the banner to actually be tied to the card, so I used a needle and thread to get it through the cardstock. I don't think it should be going anywhere now. Once I got everything done, I thought that the right side looked a little light since the left side was so heavy with detail. I added a quick piece of dark coordinating pattern paper to fold over the edge and added a quick line of zig-zag stitching. I thought it did it's job nicely to balance things out. Thanks for fluttering by!

Celebrate Today and Everyday

My friend celebrated her birthday at the beginning of March, but I didn't get her gift to her until last week! Shame on me! I did, however, have a lot of fun getting her gift together. I was going for a "sewing" theme, so I had to use this cute button stamp set from PTI. I haven't really had a chance to sit and fiddle with all of the button die-cuts and stamps until now.

I decided on all of my papers first and then worked on the cute buttons. The tiny circle ones were die-cut and then stamped using the stamps that come in the set. The larger scalloped buttons were die-cut out of pattern paper. I added some glossy accent stuff to all of them and then let them dry.

While I was letting them dry, I got to work on the fun felt flower. I die-cut four flowers out of felt and then four flowers out of tulle. I am sure most of you know how to make these flowers; they are super easy and super cute. I hot glued it all together and added it to the card. I also die-cut some felt ric-rac which I then layered onto some lace and stitched to the card. This is one of my favorite parts of the card. I really like the way sewing looks on felt. The sentiment stitched to the top left corner is from an Autumn set from PTI, but it is one of my favorites. I also stamped the "superior quality" image onto a piece of pattern paper and paper pieced it onto the button card for some extra color and detail.

The reason why I was going for a "sewing" theme is because I sewed a cute little coin purse for her gift to which I added a gift card to one of our favorite quilting/fabric shops, some gum, hand sanitizer and some yummy lip gloss. I will post the coin purse on my "Thimbles and Thread" blog soon, but you can see it photographed here with the card. ETA: You can check it out here It isn't a perfect match, but I thought it went pretty well. As far as "matching" goes, I found some fabulous fabric today that is the same print as some of my favorite papers. I will be sewing and card making soon to show you a "perfectly matching" pair!