More is More

Happy Tuesday!  This past Saturday our church had a Mother/Daughter Tea and I was asked to head up the craft – a card.  I enlisted the help of my friend Lisa who has been bitten hard by the stamping bug in last year and we prepped projects for up to 60 girls and women of all ages.  For the girls under 12 we simply stamped an Elzybells image on a white card base and let them color.  Here are the two versions of the card for everyone else.

I had never done anything quite like this and it was definitely a challenge.  We purchased the value pack of ivory cards and envelopes on sale at Joann’s (not what I would usually prefer to use, but they worked out ok.) The designer paper is by BoBunny and it is GORGEOUS and glittery.  We got that and the American Crafts purple solid textured cardstock at the Cerritos Tall Mouse in the going out of business sale.  We purchased it before we knew how many people we would need to prep for so I had to make it work.  I used my standard *go to* layout and we cut the oval scallop or blossom purple layer from the main purple matting layer using Nesties…that was the only way we would have enough cardstock.  As it was we had to do a set of 12 with an Old Olive mat instead.

We ended up with something like 42 adults and they were split into 2 groups to come into the craft room.  Lisa and I each had a table set for up to 12 at a time.  Because we couldn’t have 24 people sharing the same ink and images we made 2 versions of the same card as you see.  The teapot and sentiment are from Taylored Expressions CreativiTEA and the Praying for You and flourish are Stampin’ Up! The ribbon is from Michael’s.  One card uses Artichoke ink and cardstock accent while the other uses Olive and Razzleberry.  We also had them stamp the flap of their envelope.

The ladies really seemed to enjoy making these cards.  It’s always fun to see someone who’s never stamped before marveling at what they’ve just created!

Thanks for stopping by.  I’m off to work at the billing office.  Have a great day!

Happy Friday!  It’s been a busy week and I decided to try a “quick card” for my TESC sample this week.  Y’all know I’m not much of a “quick card” gal, so I have to admit I’m not overly thrilled with this card.  Really it was cuter in my head.

Designer paper and Bloomer is Basic Grey Green at Heart.  Rather than use small separate squares in the layout I decided to try some stick on ric rac. I used Tiny Twinkles from the Multi-color shaped pack. Cardstock is Razzleberry, Pink Pirouette and Artichoke.  No stamping here.  Finished card size is 4.25″ square.

Time to see what the rest of the Sketch Crew has created and then head over to Taylor’s blog to see her sample and get the sketch so you can play along with us!

I’m hoping to have a catch up day today…laundry, straightening up, errands, etc etc.  And maybe, just maybe, a little time to stamp.  Hope you have an fantastic weekend!

It’s Release Day at Taylored Expressions!  WooHoo!  So much new stuff including one coffee-themed Apple Doodle Ink set (being showcased today by the Baker’s Dozen and I’m playing along), one tea-themed Whimsical Wishes stamp set with another coordinating WW set of small background images, a full teacher-themed set with a coordinating mini set of sentiments, three A la Carte Cuppies, AND three new Taylored Card Kits.  Plus a whole slew of stuff in the Fresh Out of the Oven Department!  OH MY!!!  You REALLY have to go take a look!

 Before you run off to shop, I have a fun little sample to share featuring Let’s Do Coffee.  As I was preparing to go visit Taylor in Iowa last month, I remembered that she and Jon do not drink coffee. (I know…crazy…right?)  I wasn’t sure they even owned a coffee pot (they don’t!) so I pondered what I would do about morning coffee (can’t live without it).  My mom told me about the new Starbuck’s instant coffees that come in little single serving packets (think Crystal Lite tubes), so I decided to try some.  What a life saver! Next I began to wonder what would be the best way to package and take some Coffee Mate Creamer with me without airport security thinking I was smuggling some sort of drugs.  Lo and behold I came across little individual tubes of Coffee Mate as well!  Hallelujah!  I threw those in a ziploc with some blue sweetner packets and I was ready to go.  But of course I was thinking how much nicer it would be to have a really cute little coffee kit, so that’s what I’ve created to show you today.  I think this would make a nice little gift or emergency caffeine kit.

I started with a Small Perfect Package which is approximately 4″ square and some paper from the new Early Bird Card Kit.  This was seriously such a quick project!  It took longer for the Liquid Pearls to dry than it did for me to make it.  LOL!  I covered the top, all 4 sides and inside the lid with patterned paper using Zip Dry.  I’ve been a little on the fence about this adhesive (I have many friends who rave about it) but it sure did work wonderfully on this project and now I see their point!  I was even able to use it to attach the little row of chocolate pom pom trim!

I stamped a couple of images from the set and colored them with Copic Markers.  I also stamped this sentiment which totally reminded me of Pastor Jeff.  Only he could inject coffee into a rockin’ Easter sermon and have it make perfect sense!  I used Spellbinders Label 13 dies and a SU border punch and finished off the project with some red liquid pearls.  (Can anyone tell me why I insist on using stickles or liquid pearls when I’m in a time crunch to get a project photographed?  D’oh!)

This project would also work nicely with one of the new Tea Tins available now in the TE Store, but I don’t have any…YET!  I do know that the coffee and creamer packets will fit easily in those tins.

Oh I cannot wait to see what the rest of the girls have come up with for today!  Shall we do a little hoppin’?

Thanks for stopping by and happy shopping!

Hi there!  I had hoped to post this morning (getting back to more consistent blogging) but I was just running too late for work.  In my office we celebrate birthdays with lunch of the birthday girl’s choice, cake and a gift card.  Everyone puts money in for each birthday and we rotate who’s responsible to buy the gift card.  Today it was my turn to bring in the gift card and the birthday girl asked for Costco – super easy.  Of course I wanted to wrap it in some fun and special way….so why on earth did I wait till this morning to do that?  D’oh!

I had a few of these fun little clear paint cans on hand (I got them a long time ago at eclectic Paperie but I don’t see them on the site now) and they are really easy and fairly quick to decorate.  I used some SU Pink Flamingo dp along with various ribbons.  My largest circle nestie was the perfect size to cover the top of the lid and I used the Blossom nesties for the tag.

Sorry for the bad photo, but I was snapping these as I was running out the door to work.  At least you can get the general idea.  Do you have any of these clear cans sitting around?  If so I’d suggest you get one out and get it all decorated up for a birthday or Mother’s Day and have it ready to go the next time you give a gift card for a present.  Having it ready ahead of time?  Wouldn’t that be amazing????  LOL!

I have two goals this week – things I want to do every day Monday through Friday:

1. create and blog something – anything.

2. Walk Tessa one mile.

So far I am on track. Now let’s see what Wednesday brings. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by.  See you tomorrow, Lord willing.

So, did you get your free IHOP pancakes or free grilled sandwich at Jack-in-the-Box today?  I got the JitB sandwich and it was pretty yummy…and only three cars in line in front of me.  Cool beans.

I have a sympathy card to share with you today.  It actually started out as a birthday card, but somehow switched mid-stream as I needed both.  I recently got the new SU bird and branch punch and the first thing I wanted to do with it was punch it in a dark color cardstock and put it behind a panel of vellum.

I first tried the bird in Basic Gray SU cs, but the vellum muted it too much so I decided to use black instead.  Of course the tricky thing about using vellum is always how to attach it without having the adhesive show.  I’ve been wanting to make a nestie label window for awhile and this was the perfect opportunity. I used 2 sizes of Labels 5 and just put them down on a Spellbinders magnetic mat and cut the Pink Pirouette frame.  I also used the larger of the 2 to cut the dp panel and the vellum panel.  Once that focal panel was all put together it was adhered to the card with foam tape for some dimension.  The sentiment (from SU Teeny Tiny Wishes) was stamped directly on the vellum.  I added a few dots of liquid pearls to the frame.  The textured blue dp is SU retired and the mat behind that is SU Basic Gray.  The ribbon is gray taffeta and there’s that crochet trim again.  I think I’ve used it on every card since I got it and now I’m almost out.  AAACCCKKKK.

I like to keep sympathy cards fairly simple and I was really happy with how this turned out.  I’m anxious to play with that punch some more.  If you’ve made something with it, I’d love ot see it…please leave me a link in the comments section.

Had my shower, in my jammies and off to watch American Idol.  Saving LOST on dvr for tomorrow night with Curt.  I hope you’re having a great week. Thanks for stopping by.

Popping in to share a fun Valentine that I never had a chance to post.  There’s no stamping on this card.

I actually had these chipboard hearts all painted and ready to go from quite awhile ago.  When I very first received two bottles of Maya Mist from TE (Cherry and Gold) I just wanted to play with them, so I dug through my stash and found these chipboard pieces (pretty sure I had picked them up at eP awhile back) and started spritizing! Once they were dry I stuck them in an envelope and set them aside for Valentines.  I was so glad I came across them a few weeks ago.  Oh and at the same time I created the background piece.  I didn’t want to waste all the Maya Mist left on the wax paper after spritzing my chipboard, so I embossed a piece of red cardstock with a CB folder and then I wiped some of the Gold Maya Mist over it.

The card is super simple with some crochet trim and some SU square rhinestone brads.  Looking at this card again reminded me that I want to get some more colors of Maya Mist.  It’s not something I want to use every day, but it really is fun to play with and gives a great effect.

This promises to be a busy week as I need to get all our tax info prepped and sent off to the tax lady.  UGH!  One of my least favorite tasks and every year I swear I will be more organized to make the next year easier.  At least next year at this time I won’t be dealing with all the records from my SU business – that is always the worst part!  How about you?  Are you done and filed already or have you not started yet?

PS I apologize for the funky no-space between my photo and text.  The text wrap feature I used to use on my blog is currently broken and I’m not sure when it will  be fixed.  Please bear with me on that.

I’m sorry I haven’t been blogging much lately.  December has been such a busy month!  I’ve had some things ready to share, but just no time to sit down and type blog posts.  Plus we’ve been transitioning to a new computer and some of my photos haven’t been moved over from the old one yet.  I just had to get one more post in for 2009.  Overall 2009 has been a really good year for us and I’m very thankful. At the same time it’s always exciting to start a new year and have that fresh blank slate.  🙂

I need to be quick so we can get over to the Game Night at church celebrate with friends!

The project I have to share tonight is the group of gifts I created for the girls in my prayer group (PACT).  Each year we have a Christmas dinner together that we lovingly call *Happy Turkey Night*.  We exchange gifts and mine have almost always been handmade. This year I found myself in a pickle as the day of the dinner arrived and I had nothing prepared.  I went through my stash of alterables and came up with skinny notepads and acrylic frame post-it note holders.  Since I was short on time I worked with a SU Scrappin Kit (I think it was from SAB a couple of years ago.)  It really made things go together quickly.

I had the patterned post-its in my stash and I printed the Bible Verse on my computer and cut it out with nesties.  The felt bags came from the Target Dollar Spot.

I literally snapped these photos on my way out the door that night as I was running a few minutes late for the dinner.  Here are a couple of photos of the group.  My friend Kathy gave us all homemade egg nog.  I’ve never been a fan of egg nog and must admit I tasted it with some trepidation, but OH MY WORD that was some incredibly YUMMY stuff!  I hope she makes it next year too!

Darla, Nancy, me, Kathy

Darla, Nancy, Maggie, Kathy

These ladies have been with me through thick and thin – through years I couldn’t wait see come to an end.  I love them dearly and consider myself incredibly blessed to call them sisters and friends!

I finally did some stamping today, so I’ll be back in the morning with a card for the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge.  I hope you have a wonderful New Year’s Eve!