Carter's Card

The day before we left for our vacation, Carter had a birthday party to go to.  He desperately wanted to help me make a card for his friend (aka...he wanted to do it!).  I'm sure I could have make it a whole lot quicker without his "help", but it was fun creating with him!

He chose the colors, the stamp set and of course he had to use my Big Shot!!!  Here's what he came up with!

I helped him a little with putting stuff on straight and using my cutter, but other than that, he did it!  He was so proud when it was done...I hope his friend liked it!

Have an inspired day!

48 Cupcakes Later...

This morning, I made 48 cupcakes.  Why 48, you ask?  Well, let me explain a little.  I started out with just 24, but then something happened...

-a jingling sound coming from downstairs
-when I went down the stairs, Penny shot upstairs past me
-crumbs on the tile and carpet

-missing cupcakes...5 to be exact

-a dog with a guilty conscience...

When I came upstairs, this is where I found her.  At least she shared with Ollie!  He was still chowing down on the carpet when I came downstairs.

Lesson learned this morning...Put cooling racks at the back of the counter, When Penny is downstairs by herself bad things happen, Penny can reach the counter top and has no self-control!

So, I made 24 more cupcakes since I had no way of knowing which had dog drool on them and I was making them to take to school.  Why you ask, well, at 4:38 this morning, my baby turned 9!  I'm in a bit of disbelief...in my mind, he's not big enough to be 9 yet!!!  Tay is a bit sad that Kevin is missing his birthday, so I decided to surprise him at school with a treat for him and his class.  Enter cupcakes!

Ollie and Penny ate the cupcakes while I was making the cute cupcake picks!  They're super easy!  I chose my colors...Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango and Old Olive,  then I stamped some stars (from the Seeing Stars set) in those three colors on Whisper White cardstock.  I cut it into 1 1/8 x 1 1/8 squares and matted them with scalloped squares in those colors.  The letters were cut with the Billboard die and my Big Shot.  The words were only 19 letters and I had 24 cupcakes, so I made some star picks too.  here's how I put them together.

There's a toothpick sandwiched between two scallop squares so that they could just sit in the cupcakes.  That dimensional is important if you're using round toothpicks like I did!  The star picks were made the same way.  Sorry, I don't have a good up close picture of the finished picks.  In my rush to get to the school before lunch I forgot to take a close up!  Oops!

I also made a little matching card for Taylor...which is waiting here at home for when he gets home from school.

Quick, easy and I only used scraps!  Here's a closer look at the dimension.

And, finally I'm going to leave you with some pictures of the birthday boy.  Here he is when he was 19 days old.

And, here he is now.

It's hard to believe that 9 years has gone by since he was born!  He has grown and changed so much.  And, it's hard to believe that in another 9 years he will be getting ready to graduate from high school!!!  He's such a sweet boy, and I know that the next 9 years will be filled with just as many good times, laughs and memories as this past 9 years.

Have an inspired day!

Matthew's Birthday

Hello!  I can't believe the last time I posted was Monday!  Where has the week gone.  It's been a crazy one, I'll tell you that!

Today I have a birthday card to share with you.  It was totaly inspired by Jan Tink's blog post yesterday.  I used the same stamps, colors and some of the layout, but as started I kind of went off on my own little direction.  But, it is a very similar card to hers!

Supplies:  Extreme Elements, Extreme Skateboard, Sanded & A Little Birthday Cheer stamp sets; Not Quite Navy, Old Olive, Ruby Red & Sahara Sand Classic ink; Not Quite Navy Craft ink; Not Quite Navy, Ruby Red, Old Olive & Sahara Sand cardstock; Star Designer Brads; Stampin' Sponges; Stampin' Dimensionals

I made this card for one of my boy's friends who had a birthday party this afternoon.  My boys loved it and were so excited to give it to their friend.  Here's a closer look at the main image.

In this picture you can see some of the fun stuff I did with ink!  I sponged the edges of the main image with Not Quite Navy and the other layers all have Direct-to-Paper with my ink pad.  I just rubbed the edge of the ink pad against the cardstock.  There's something about the way that looks that makes my heart beat a little faster!

You're probably wondering about that brad.  You're probably thinking "they ARE NOT pictured like that in the catalogue", or "did I miss something...are they colored now", or maybe you're wondering how I did that to my brad.  Well, here's a closer look, and then I'll tell you what I did!

Are you ready?  It's very technical...all I did was smoosh it in my Not Quite Navy Craft ink pad.  Had to be craft ink or it won't work.  After I smooshed it, I gently rubed the excess ink off on a paper towel and the ink in the recessed parts of the brad stays.  I love how this one came out a little rustic or beat up a bit.  I wasn't going for that look, but I'm thrilled with the way it turned out!

Here's one more view of the dimension, and a little peek at the inside!

For the inside, I used a scrap of Sahara Sand and stamped the skateboarded in Not Quite Navy (stamped off twice) and the dot image from Extreme Elements with Sahara Sand ink.

All in all, I love the way this card turned out.  Thanks Jan for the inspiration!

Have an inspired day!

The Twelfth Week of Christmas-Simple Christmas Thanks

I'm back! I decided to take a few days off and enjoy some family time over Christmas. We had a houseful! My mom and dad came down as well as my brother and his family. Their baby is 7 months old and it was so cute to watch him at his first Christmas and I'm honoured that they chose to spend it with us!

Kevin and I have started quite a few holiday traditions with our kids over the years. We watch Polar Express every Christmas, we wear Santa hats while decorating the tree, we always drink hot chocolate after all the decorations are up and so on. I think my favorite is our Christmas Eve traditions! We all get new PJ's, and we open all our family presents (so the focus on Christmas morning is Santa!). Here's what it looked like this year...

My little nephew is missing from the picture...he was so tired, so he went off to bed before we started the present thing. And, I'm not sure where my youngest child is in this picture! I think he may be behind the pile of big presents by the dog (yes that pile of presents was for him and it was taller than him!). No worries, he was only momentarily lost in all the paper, boxes, bow and excitement!

Christmas morning we have a big brunch and get to cooking dinner. We had a YUMMY meal...turkey and all our favorite side dishes. My grandma even sent some yummy treats down with my mom and dad for us to enjoy...that dish at the bottom of the picture is my absolute favorite, and I was so excited she sent some for us! Someday soon I will have to get her to teach me how to make it! We made a good dent in the food, and were stuffed at the end of the meal, but we do have quite a bit of leftovers to clean up! Here's our table! I totally wanted a before and after picture, but forgot to get the after picture. Oh well! Maybe next year. It's not a fancy table, but I'm so thankful for good food, good company and all the wonderful memories we created as a family this year.

So, onto my last project for the Weeks of Christmas! I feel it's so important to thank people for their generosity. Obviously it's important all year round, but especially at Christmas. So, my last project is a simple thank you card. It's easy to reproduce and very easy to mass produce! I have a pile made up ready for some heartfelt thank yous for everyone who gave to our family this year.

I used the Note Cards & Envelopes and scalloped the edge. On the inside of the card I attached a strip of Christmas Cocoa DSP so you can see it behind the scallop edge when the card is closed. The focal point is a snowflake stamped with Whisper White ink on Sahara Sand. I punched some circles with my Crop-A-Dile (Soft Suede) to make Faux Brads, and mounted that piece on a piece of Soft Suede cardstock. I finished it off with a sentiment stamped with Soft Suede ink.

For my cards, I used a variety of scraps from the Christmas Cocoa DSP and just adjusted the focal point colors to match the DSP.

Go shopping to get the products I used on my website or by contacting me!

Until next time my friends!

Dancing Birthday Alien

So, two of my boys had birthday parties to attend yesterday. I figured to make things easier, I would just do the same card for both the birthday boys. And, it was a super simple card so I was able to quickly get both cards done in the morning (yes, I procrastinated making the cards!!) and have plenty of time to get the kids fed and ready to go to their parties.

I bet you want to see the card, eh? Well, here it is...

Supplies: Greeting Earthling & All Holidays stamp sets; Kraft, Dusty Durango, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip & More Mustard cardstock; Watercolor Paper; Jet Black StazOn, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, More Mustard, Dusty Durango & Creamy Caramel ink; Chocolate Chip Corduroy Button; 1 1/4" Square Punch; 3/4" Square Punch; Aqua Painter

Isn't it cute? I used the set, Greetings Earthling, which I received at Convention last summer. Funny story...I was at Convention with some of my stamping friends. While the other girls we were with went to get their bags, my downline Tara and I went to drop off a project I brought for a display board. When we went over to that area, some very nice Stampin' Up! staff asked if we would like to get a free stamp set? Huh? Yes, that's right, we could have a free set if we stamped a card for the display board. Well, we weren't going to pass that opportunity up, so said YES!!! And the set we each got was Greeting Earthling. We were super excited...like kids in a candy shop with all new stampin' stuff to use!!! Here's a picture of us stamping our cards and a picture of me with the project I brought to display and the card I made.


Sorry, I got a little side tracked there! Back to the card. I used a super neutral background, Kraft, for the base of the card. Kraft makes me happy!!! I used a scrap of Dusty Durango, a piece of Old Olive punched with the 1 1/4" Square Punch, and a piece of More Mustard punched with the 3/4" punch.

I stamped the little Dancing Alien with StazOn Black ink on Watercolor Paper. Then I watercolored him with an Aqua Painter and Old Olive, More Mustard, Dusty Durango and Creamy Caramel ink. When I was done, I mounted it on a piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock. I love watercoloring because you can be messy! It's ok to go a little outside the lines and it's ok to not totally color the image when watercoloring. For me, it's a quick way to color in a line art image!


For a little interest, I stamped the More Mustard square with the little spring image from the Greeting Earthling set with More Mustard ink. The Old Olive square has one of the Chocolate Chip Corduroy Buttons on it and I stamped "Happy Birthday" from the All Holidays set with Chocolate Chip ink on the Dusty Durango piece.

Just to finish everything off, I stamped that same little dancing alien with Dusty Durango ink on a Kraft envelope. I hope the two birthday boys liked their cards!

As always, all the products I used can be ordered through my website or by contacting me.

Until next time my friends!