Happy Wedding Day

Good Evening! I hope you are off to a great start for your weekend. I saw on the forecast that we have a chance of a little snow for tomorrow. If you live in the south, that means run to the grocery store and buy all the milk and bread on the shelves! I really did have to go to the store because we are out of everything, except chickpeas, we never seem to run out of those for some reason. I took advantage of the cold weather though and bought the ingredients for making beef stew.

My card tonight is for a wedding. I used a set from Clear Dollar Stamps called Wedding Day. After stamping the image with Memento ink, I colored it with Koh-I-Nor pencils and then used some OMS to help smooth out the colors. I then took some Tulip dimensional pearl paint and made little pearl centers for all of my flowers. I went over the bow with a clear Sakura glitter pen. The white piece of paper is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, but I used the reverse of the embossed image. The pink paper behind the image was cut out with Nestabilities and then raised up with foam squares. Paper is from DCWV and the ribbon is from Jo-Ann's. thanks for stopping by!

Busted!

I love this set from Hanna Stamps that was released at the last release party. The release party challenge is to make a card using this set, using black and white and post it anytime before the next release party. I haven't ever participated in the release challenges before, but I think I will post this card. What do you think? Normally I don't have that hard of a time coloring the Hannas but the one shown here was about the fifth one I started, messed up and then started over. To color this image I used one of almost every brand of markers I have! There is a combination of Copics, Prisma markers, Atyou Spica markers, a Marvy marker and a Gelly Roll Pen! I started with the Copic coloring the skin, then went to the Prismas and then realized I didn't have a dark gray in either of those sets so I pulled out the Marvy pens. All the paper is from DCWV, ribbon is from Michael's and the brads are from Jo-Ann's. I think this card represents more stores and brands than I have ever used on one project before. Thanks for stopping by and have a great night!

Construction Birthday Card

I needed a couple of boy themed birthday cards so I made this one.  I used stamps from Clear Dollar Stamps, stamped with Memento black ink and then colored with Prismacolor markers. I sponged CTMH Chocolate ink on the ground for the dirt and then cut out my images and then glued them down, the trucks are popped up with foam squares. The yellow paper was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. I picked that one because it looks like little roads that the trucks could have made.These trucks make me think of my brother, when he was little he loved Tonka trucks. We spent many hours in the dirt and mud moving rocks from place to place with his trucks. I didn't have cars for my Barbies and he would get upset when they would end up in his trucks.

If you look on my sidebar you will see a listing for the Surfin' Oceans 11 blogger group. Check them out when you have time, there are some very talented people listed there. I have had so much fun with my other blogger group that I wanted to take part with another group. Of course belonging to the first group helped get me hooked on House Mouse stamps, so I can't wait to see what I learn from the new group.

I have a new toy! I go through so much adhesive and have been looking for a cheaper alternative for a while. I  found a couple of things that were cheaper but they were either frustrating to use or they did not hold my projects together. After a lot of reading on SCS, I decided to get an ATG-50 from The Tape Depot. It arrived last week. It is a little large but it is lightweight and not difficult to use. The first time I tried to use it, I loaded the tape backwards and it didn't work but after I loaded it the right way, it works like a dream. 

Bird Silhouette

I picked up this bird silhouette stamp at Jo-Ann's one day. It is from Inkadinkado and was one of the single dollar stamps. I thought it was pretty cute. I really need some photography lessons!  It is a little hard to see some of the details in the card. The black card stock is mounted onto a white base and the white behind the image is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. All in all, this was a pretty simple card, but I really liked the way it turned out. Hope you like it too! The weekend is almost here and I don't know about you, but I am pretty excited about that. 

Hello

Hello and good evening! I hope you are having a good week so far. I am in need of some general thinking of you or hello type cards. I tend to use a lot of these cards and I like them because they fit many different card sending opportunities. This card was super simple and easy. I stamped the letter for "hello" with CTMH Citrus Leaf ink using the CTMH stamp set, Typewriter Keys. I cut the letters out and popped them up with foam dots. In the corner is a Prima flower that has a decorative accent in the center. The flower was white, but I used the same Citrus Leaf ink to make it match. Paper is Making Memories. Thanks for stopping by!

Kip's Valentine Card

This is the card that I made for my husband Kip this year. I couldn't post it early because he reads my blog. Not every day, but I knew if I posted it early then he would definitely see it. I am so loving these House Mouse stamps. I can't believe it took me so long to finally buy one. For this card, I started with a red base and stamped little hearts with Versamark. My image was colored with Prismacolor pencils. I used Red Tinsel embossing powder on the inside of the little heart and then clear embossing powder on the rest of the heart. I finished it off with some ribbon that I got from Jo-Anns. Have a great Sunday.

Valentine Mailboxes

I was so happy that I actually found some of these mail boxes at Target this year. I love the Target Dollar Spot, I find so many cute things there, especially gift containers that can be altered. I had a hard time finding paper that I liked for this project. Most all of the paper I found had the hearts orientated in one direction which made them upside down on one side of the mail box. I was really happy with this Paper Studio paper that I found at Hobby Lobby. It looks good in both directions. The initials on the from used the CTMH Solo Letters and then I used pink embossing powder. Those pink foam hearts are covering my mistake that I made around the flag! Mistakes are just embellishment opportunities, right? Both mailboxes are stuffed with nail polishes, nail files and a pedicure set. I try to not do so much candy, but each girl also has a small sampling of their favorite candy, Fun-Dip for Samantha and Reese's hearts for Jenna.

We had a lovely Valentine breakfast this morning at Cracker Barrel. Kip normally eats breakfast with his Dad on Saturdays. I love eating breakfast out, but not enough to get up and out of the house. Hope your day was great. 

Valentine Treats

This is a sample of the treats that I help the girls make for their Valentine exchange at school. We made about 50 of these little triangle treat boxes and filled them with Hershey Kisses. I bought a giant stamp from Inky Antics that has the cutting and scoring lines on it so all you have to do is stamp it and then cut it out.  They decided to use white paper and then stamp with various heart stamps. Every treat box is an original work of art, I don't think there is a duplicate in the the bunch! I am not sure where all the heart stamps came from, we just picked out all the small hearts from their stamp collection and mine. All inks are CTMH and ribbon is from JoAnn's.  You can't really see it in the picture, but we made tags with a small circle mounted onto a small red scalloped circle. Once again, I was so happy that I have a Scor-Pal now. I have used mine far more than I ever thought I would. When I first got it, I had a place for it, but I use it so much that it just stays on my desk all the time. Kip uses it and the girls like using it too when they make cards and mini-books.

The girl's mom thinks I am a little crazy that I enjoy making things like this. She is not a "crafty" person. She provides the girls with art supplies but they still love coming over to my house because I have more stuff. I am proud to say both girls know how to use the Scor-Pal, can cut their own die cuts with my Sizzix and know the difference between wet and dry embossing! Have a happy Valentine's Day. My hubby and I are going out for breakfast which is my favorite meal to eat out. 

Exercise in Patience

This is the card that I made for Jenna for Valentine's Day. I couldn't decide what to make her, but she really loves the Rileys from Hanna Stamps. Even though this isn't really a Valentine stamp, she will love it. She is a typical nine year old girl and loves pinks and purples. The paper here is DCWV, brads are from Making Memories and the ribbon is from Hobby Lobby. I colored the image with Prisma markers and then went over the knitting needles with a Spica gel pen. Notice the pink and purple yarn?

Are you wondering about the title of this post? It ties in the with card and my afternoon. Samantha has been begging me to teach her to crochet and for months I have been saying "one day" for about six months now. Tuesday we were in Wal-Mart and happened to be in the craft area (I know, shock, right?). She saw the yarn and sighed like only a six year old can and said "I guess I will ever learn how to crochet" and then sighed again. It was quite dramatic but it did the trick. I explained, again, that it would take a little while to learn. She was one happy little girl picking out her bright colored yarn. Today was our first lesson. Samantha wants to make a blanket for one of her Web-Kinz and Jenna wants to make a scarf with her pink and purple yarn. So that was my day, hope you had a great one too!

Heart Shaped Box

I have a not so secret admiration of Martha Stewart and I watch her show every chance that I get. Unfortunately, not every day because of having to work, but I am normally off on Fridays so I can watch it then. Last week she made these cute little heart boxes. The template is available on her website if you would like one. Jenna and Samantha and I have been working on the Valentines for their classmates and they decided that they would like to make these for their teachers. They were very easy to make. We stuffed them with chocolates and then tied them with the sheer ribbon. 

Does anyone have any exciting Valentine plans for this year? Not us this year, it will be pretty low-key, but sometimes that is nice too. Have a great evening.

Farm Yard

Did you have a great weekend? I have had plenty of relaxing time and most important, crafting time! Isn't that little pig just the cutest? This card uses two sets from Clear Dollar Stamps, the pig is part of the Farm Critters set and the barn is a separate set Critter Barn. I colored the barn and pig with Prismacolor pencils and OMS. I cut the pig out and then used foam squares to pop it up and away from the barn. The main barn image is backed with black card stock and then added to the kraft paper background.  I used a Sakura Glaze pen on the weather vane to make it stand out a little. The ribbon is from my stash. I think I have enough ribbon to circle the globe numerous time! I have been challenging myself to make at least one card a week using only scraps and other products that have been opened and used. This card finished off one roll of ribbon. One down and 9,999 to go.

Jackie tagged me. I am supposed to go to the sixth folder in my picture files and post the sixth picture in that file. Since my computer crashed and I am still using Kip's, I only have this one folder of pictures of cards I have made. Sorry, no other pictures to share right now. Have a great week!

Trying Something New

I have long admired these scenes created with all the individual stamps and finally decided to attempt one. I started with glossy card stock and using a brayer, rolled on several different colors of ink. I think there are actually about eight different colors on this card. I wish I had added a little bit more color in my sky but other than that I am pretty happy with how this first attempt turned out. This card using the Mini Silhouette Scapes set from Clear Dollar Stamps and ink from CTMH. This set was just released this month and has 45 stamps in it so it has tons of possibilities. I had fun making this one and will be doing more of them. Recently, I have been trying to try new techniques and products to see how I enjoy them. It's funny, I have discovered I have a little bit more artistic abilities than I thought.

Thank you so much for leaving comments on Samantha's art project. She was so excited to see it on the blog and when she realized she had comments, she was so happy!  One of the first things she does every day after homework is grab my phone and look at my blog (and yours too Julie!). She loves coming over to our house and playing in the craft room. So thanks again for encouraging her.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Last night was our monthly craft night and that is always a good way to start the weekend. We invited the younger girls this month and had a craft project planned especially for them. I knew most of them needed to make Valentine Boxes for school this week so we provided the supplied for that. We had four young crafters that created boxes and they all had a great time. I think it is something that we will definitely do again. 

I did something I never do this morning. The only places I like to go shopping are craft stores, book stores and kitchen gadget stores. That's really about it. I decided to go to the mall today. I think I am good for another few years! I did hit Michael's, Jo-Ann's and Hobby Lobby so the day wasn't a total loss. Do something fun today!

Asian Flowers

Quick post today. Another crazy week at work. Not sure how my schedule has gotten so insane over the past couple of months, but it has. I have been working with the girls on making their Valentine treats for their class. They are turning out to be very cute and I will post them as soon as we get finished. 

I love this set that I recently got from Clear Dollar Stamps. I stamped it with Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored it with Prismacolor pencils and OMS. I have been practicing coloring with them a little more lately. I have really been concentrating on shadowing. I was pretty happy with the way the planter turned out. Paper is from DCWV's Far East paper pack. have a great day!

Giraffe Savannah (Kid Art)

This is Samantha's art project that she made while Jenna was writing her Giraffe Story for school. The tall giraffe in the back is from CTMH's Into the Wild. This is her explanation of her project: 

I made this cute little giraffe savannah thing. I drawed the baby giraffe in the front and the palm trees. I colored the grass with marker. I figured out how to bend the bottoms and glued them to the grass to make them stand up. I named one giraffe Savannah and one Congo. And that's all. Let me know what you think. Samantha.

Masculine Birthday Card

So far, I am on top of this being organized for birthdays! This is one of the cards that I have made for a guy friend that has a birthday this month. He is very much a history buff and love old things. I knew that this watch would be perfect for a card for him. the stamp is from Rubber Stampede and the quote, I am not sure about that. I do know that I got it at Jo-Ann's and it came with a bunch of quotes about memories and for some reason I am thinking that it is from Cloud Nine Designs. The paper is from Making Memories and the brads are from The Paper Studio. Ink is Memento Rich Cocoa. I think I may go back and add some Glossy Accents over the face of the watch, I haven't decided yet.

Did your team win the Super Bowl? I didn't have much of a preference this year on the outcome, other than I tend to root for the underdog. I hope you have all had a relaxing and restorative weekend. The weather here has been glorious all weekend, in the 60s. However tomorrow it is supposed to get cold again. Have a great night!