Mo's Weather Related Challenge

The challenge on Mo's Challenge Blog this week is to make a weather related card. I had printed this image the other day and thought it would be perfect, because for me, as soon as the weather changes a little and the first hint of spring is in the air, it is time to start getting my seeds planted and my pots ready. And a lot of the time I feel like I am standing at the door, holding my pots, waiting no so patiently for it to warm up enough to bring them outside. My card uses an image from Mo's Digital Pencil, paper, flower and brads from my stash.

My plants are growing! I have several little tiny tomatoes that are growing. Tomatoes and cucumbers are what I most look forward too every summer. I have been getting a few strawberries too, here and there. I have been fighting the birds for them and I think they are actually getting more of them than I am which I am not so happy about.

Speaking of little girls ready to grow some stuff; here is a picture of Samantha with her tomato plant. Ever since I have known her and she was a tiny little thing, she has loved tomatoes. Since she has taken such an interest in gardening, my dad sent her a tomato plant of her own. This is a tomitoe (sp?) plant. He has had these seeds for many many years, harvesting them and then starting the new ones each spring. Samantha was very happy to have her own plant to take home. Her mom grows some things too, but we tend to grow different things, except this year Samantha wanted her to plant all the same herbs that I have planted.

Have a great day!!

Samantha's Party Goodies

This is what I have been working on this week! A couple of weeks ago, I showed you the invitations and thank you cards that I made for my friend's daughter. Samantha invited a few friends to spend the day at the zoo. We continued the theme to her party bags too. Since she was taking a group of kids to the zoo, my friend decided that matching t-shirts would be a good idea. And as a former preschool teacher, I completely agreed with that idea! Samantha wanted the shirts decorated with a giraffe. The shirts were yellow so that was a great choice. The originally was to find some iron ons and make a quick t-shirt. But the only giraffes that we could find looked like something you would make a baby onesie with, not something for a seven year old.  I finally found this foam giraffe stamp in the kid's section at Hobby Lobby. I used Butterscotch fabric paint to stamp the giraffe onto the t-shirts. 
When I went to the Copic class and made these Samantha has been wanting me to make some for her and I promised to make them for her birthday treat bags. The idea came from Candace and they were so cute and easy to make. I bought the little mazes from the party favor section at Hobby Lobby, popped off the back and traced the circle onto white card stock. Be careful taking off the back because that little ball falls out and if it bounces away, you will never find it again! Still keeping with her theme, I used Gigi Giraffe from Clear Dollar Stamps, stamped her with Memento ink and then colored with Copic markers. After it was colored, I put it on top of the original cardboard and then pushed it back into place. They were six for a dollar and it only took me a few minutes to make each one, and they matched the party perfectly! Thanks for stopping by tonight!

Zoo Thank You

I had a guest designer help me with the card design and layout. Since Samantha is going to the zoo for her birthday party, we stuck with the zoo theme for her thank you cards. She was standing over my shoulder approving every step of this card. We started with the Changito stamp from Stampendous and colored that with Copic markers, using a Sakura glitter pen to cover the "U". The bananas were stamped by my able assistant to make the white and yellow panels. We used the banana from the Lip Gloss set from Clear Dollar Stamps. She had to have some brads, so we used these orange brads from the Paper Studio. Samantha approves of the card because it uses her two favorite colors: yellow and orange. I have colored some of them and she is coloring them too. I do let her use my Copic and Prisma markers when I am there to supervise and I guess I have given her the "be careful" speech too much. As soon as she reached for the marker, she repeated it word for word to me! She and her sister have been using most all of my supplies for some time now and they know that the privilege will go away if they are not respectful. They also have their own supplies, some they have bought with their money so they know the value of what they are using.  Samantha especially likes to paint and she knows that real watercolors from the art section of the store cost more than the ones in the children's section, but that the colors are more vibrant and if we take care of what we have then we can have a wider variety. Works for me! 

Cupcake Fun

This is our cupcake decorating session! Our monthly craft night is tonight at church and since we have a few younger girls that have joined our crafting group, I decided that cupcakes would be a good snack to take. They are normally a big hit with any age group. Samantha loves going to craft night with me and she loves helping to cook. I got off work about an hour and a half early today so I had time to make homemade icing. Is there anything better than homemade chocolate icing? Yuuumm!!I had the cupcakes baked and cooled when her mom dropped her off so all she had to do was decided on sprinkles. She narrowed it down to four or five choices. She loves those funny feet cupcake holders that Wilton makes so half are done in those and then half were baked in regular cupcake liners. Here is the final tray: 
As if there wasn't enough sugar in those things, the extra pound of sprinkles made sure that everyone will get a sugar high!!