Photo Collage

We recently went to the park and had a friend take some family pictures we could use for our Christmas card. The pictures came out really well, so I bought this frame to put some of the pictures in for my Mother-in-law. Wouldn't you know, we were one vertical picture short! 

I was trying to decide what to put in that slot that wouldn't look odd. I found this piece of scrapbook paper with different words on it such as Believe, Praise, Jesus, God, etc. The colors worked really well with the pictures so I used it as a background and stamped and embossed a cross to add to it. I think it turned out really well!

Cocoa Packet

I made these cocoa packets for some of the teachers I work with. We made these at a stamp camp last year with my Stampin' Up! demonstrator Christi Beck. It's a great, inexpensive idea when you need a little something to give to a number of people. The measurements are the same as a standard card and you just score the corner and fold it under. There is a strip of adhesive across the bottom and a hole punched in the side to tie on a candy cane. 

I used the Scentsational Season stamp set from Stampin' Up and paper scraps.

Mistle "toes"

I always like to give a little something to some of my coworkers for Christmas, but of course it has to be inexpensive. I found this  great idea on Splitcoaststampers.com and thought it was really cute. 

If you can't tell, that's a bottle of sparkly nail polish inside the bag and the tag says "A little something for your Mistle "toes". It may not be a color everyone would wear, but it is definitely festive!

Crafting Away my Cabin Fever...

I'm taking advantage of being stuck at home during Iceageddon 2013 by getting my Christmas crafting done. I finished my Christmas cards, teacher gifts, and some other gift items. The only thing left to do was change my scrapbook wall hanging from Fall to Christmas. 

I really miss my kids being little, especially at Christmas, so I dug out some pics of them when they were little at Christmastime. It's hard to believe how fast time has gone by!

On both themes, I used my favorite line of scrapbook paper - Bo Bunny! The fall paper is the Autumn Song line and the Christmas line is called Silver and Gold. I got the paper from my favorite scrapbook store

 Cat's Creations in Mineral Wells!

One in a Minion

Every year we have to decorate a pumpkin for a PTA fundraiser. This year I made a minion pumpkin. He's a little darker yellow and plumper than most minions, but I think he's pretty cute!

I used mint tins for the goggles, pipe cleaners for the hair, and a scrap of fabric for the overalls. I've gotten pretty attached to him and hate to give him up. I hope he goes to a good home!

Hey Boo!

I'm BAAAACK! I've done very little crafting this summer, but now that it's fall, I'm ready for the crafting season!

We are going to start "BOOing" each other at school this week so I made these little do it yourself smores. The stamps are from the Batty For You set from Stampin' Up! and the ribbon is from Michaels.

Happy Birthday Mom

My mom would've been 78 today. I really miss her. I keep thinking about things I wish I would've asked her about regarding the past, family, recipes, etc. Make sure you take advantage of the time you have with your loved ones!

This is a card I made for her in 2009. I used the Top Note die to cut the card and all the stamps and papers are from Stampin' Up!

Summer Fun from the past

I finally updated my hanging scrapbook with some old summer pics from when the kids were little. I just love updating this each season and being able to look at it and remember when...

Happy Father's Day!

I hadn't made a Father's Day card for my husband, so I asked the kids to pick one out at the store. After awhile, they asked if I could make a card because "all the cards at the store were lame!" Of course, I was thrilled to death that they actually asked me to make a card instead of buying one! Although, their thinking may have been "if we have to give him a lame card, it may as well be one Mom can make for free!"

I dug around in my craft room and of course I had mustache paper and stickers since I love the whole mustache craze and this is what I came up with. Speaking of mustaches, when I married my husband he was rocking a Tom Selleck mustache and looking pretty good in it! Happy Father's Day!!

Birthday Smackdown!

My son is obsessed with WWE wrestling! So of course we had a WWE birthday party complete with a championship belt cake. I used leftover cards from the party decorations as embellishments on my page. The background paper is actually the new Anthem Line from Bo Bunny. The colors were perfect for my layout!

You Crack Me Up!

My sister, neice, and my neice's kidss, came over for Easter. The kids had so much fun cracking cascarones over each other's heads! I found these stickers I had from Bo Bunny and knew they would be perfect for my layout. The paper is also from Bo Bunny, but a different line than the stickers. That's what I like about Bo Bunny. Their lines use the same colors for several years so it is easy to mix and match.

Button Tree

What if buttons really did grow on trees? I made this card based on a sample I saw in a Close to My Heart catalog. The stamps are from Close to my Heart and the paper and ribbon are from Stampin' Up!

It's the Little Things...

I made this card awhile back when I was in a crafting mood. The stickers and patterned paper are leftovers from a Basic Grey kit and the stamp is from Stampin' Up!

 The colors, glitter, and the kite just make me happy! It truly is the Little Things!

Wedded Bliss

I made this card for my neice that just got married. It also uses the Top Note die from Stampin' Up!

 I used the Baroque stamp set (Stampin' Up!), embossed it in black, and added some pearls.

I think it looks very elegant!

Congraduation

This is the graduation card I made for the daughter of a family friend. I've been making graduation cards like this for several years. I folded my card base and placed the fold just below the cut line on the Top Note die (Stampin' Up!). I added the red strip directly on top of that. I think it's fun to make them to match the school colors. The sentiment and cap stamps are also from Stampin' Up!

Now for a little confession, I remember watching an episode of Three's Company where Crissy made a banner for Jack's graduation and she put "Congraduation" on it. For years after that, I thought congratulations was spelled with a "d" instead of a "t"!

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Our principal is retiring after 42 years in the district! I was asked to make a banner for the reception with this saying on it. The teachers thought it was appropriate considering she was an elementary teacher and principal and is looking forward to traveling after her retirement. 

They used brightly colored flowers to decorate for the reception and it all looked really great.

The paper is from a Recollections paper pack from Michaels.

Happy Mother's Day!

I've been so busy and haven't posted in a while, but I knew I had to post today to wish all you wonderful mom's a Happy Mother's Day!

This is a card I made for my mom in 2011. It's one of my all-time favorites! I hope I haven't posted it before, but if so, it's worth another look! When I found all these cards I made my mom over the years and looked through them, this one still had the Walmart gift card I had given her attached to it! I guess I can say that was the gift that keeps on giving!

Happy Mother's Day Mom. Love you!

Birthday or Wedding?

I quickly made this card in about 20 minutes. I was on my way to a Stampin' Up workshop and remembered we were suppoosed to bring a card made with specific stamps to be to be entered in a drawing. When I made it, I intended for it to be a birthday card, but I was in a "fufu" mood. After looking at  the sentiment, I decided it could also be used as a wedding card. What do you think, birthday or wedding?

Bunny Wreath minus the bunny head



I successfully performed bunny head detachment surgery. After carefully storing it away until next year, I removed the Easter twigs, added flowers, greenery, and a glitter butterfly. My bunny wreath is now a spring wreath!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! This is a card I made a while back at a workshop. It was originally on a different base and I was never happy with it because we were using an embossing folder that made a frame around the edge. Mine didn't come out well and one corner wasn't embossed. I decided to pull off the elements and make a new base and emboss the entire backgound.

That's my favorite thing about stamping. You can always fix your mistakes!

If only life were that easy!!

Spring Pics

This is the second time I've switched out my pics since making my photo frame. I chose this paper after I took the Christmas paper and pics down because I thought it was generic enough, but still had a Spring look. The paper is Recollections Portabello Road paper pack from Michaels and was actually leftover from the Craft Masters competition I did.

I don't know how well you can see my kids in the pics, but they were very little! There a couple of pics from them at Easter and in the blue bonnets. They were so sweet!!

WWE Thank you

My son had a WWE party for his birthday. The decorations included a bunch of little cards that I guess was supposed to be large confetti. I decided to save some to add to a scrapbook layout and used a couple to make thank you cards.

When I went to show my son and see if it met up to 12-yr.old boy approval, his response was "why does everything have to be homemade?" Of course I said "because I can make it cuter and it will be cheaper than buying cards." His response: "By the time you buy the paper and other stuff, isn't it about the same?" My response: "Not if you already have everything!"

Then he said,

"Then why do you keep going to the craft stores and buying more?"

I gave up!!

Realtree card

Today is my baby brother's 41st birthday! I saw this paper and knew it would be perfect to make a card for him. After digging in my stash, I found a wooden button and a scrap of burlap to add to the rustic feel.

Manly, yes, but I like it too!

Burlap Bunny Wreath

I've been wanting to make a burlap wreath, then I saw the grapevine bunny wreaths on Pinterest. I decided to combine the two and make a burlap bunny wreath! I think it turned out cute, but it's really big!! After Easter, I can just detach his head and add some flowers to make a spring wreath.

 I can't decide if I should keep the egg/twig picks where they're at, move them, or lose them all together. It would probably look better if it had a couple of larger eggs to ground them, but I didn't want to spend $5 on a whole bag when I only needed 3! Any suggestions?

Vintage Marketplace

I was looking through the new Stampin' Up! mini catalog and the paper reminded me of some that I bought at Cat's Creations NSD Retreat last May.  

The paper is the Vintage Marketplace line from Bazzil and I was inspired by the SU catalog to make these cards.

Animal Crackers Birthday cards

I used the Imaginisce Animal Crackers paper and embellishments that I used on the Birthday Bucket project to make some birthday cards to have on hand. Of course, the little moustache guys make them even cuter!

Bucket of Birthday Fun!

My daughter went to her friend's birthday party on New Year's Eve. She didn't have any ideas what to get her, so I suggested movie theater passes because they go to the movies a lot. We found this bucket of popcorn at the store, added paper shreds, candy, and scrapbook paper accents to dress it up.

I thought it turned out pretty cute!

We "moustache" you to be our Valentine!

This is the Valentine card I sent to my mother-in-law from the kids. We were at Six Flags and they bought these sunglasses with moustashes on them.

I just love the whole moustache craze. I looked everywhere for moustache suckers so I could attach a little tag that said "I moustache you to be my Valentine". I finally gave up when I realized my kids are too old for giving valentines to friends. That makes me so sad!

Today Garrison turns 12 and Meleah will be 16 on Saturday!

Valentines for OWH

I bought a sheet of paper from Authentinque's Lovely Greetings line from Cat's Creations. That one sheet of paper had about 12 vintage Valentine images on it that I was able to cut apart to make numerous cards with. I love it when I can find paper that I can use to make multiple, quick and easy cards for Operation Write Home. I always like to make things when I'm in the mood to make them, so these Valentines won't make it overseas this year, but I'll have them ready when Allison puts out the call for Valentines for OWH next year!
Submitted to Cat's Creations WOW! Wednesday Blog. Be sure and submit your creations, or comment on any submissions for a chance to win blog candy!

Valentine class

I had my Life Group ladies over Saturday for a Valentine making class. We made these cute cards and a little treat holder with Hershey's hugs and kisses. We had so much fun and they were so impressed with themselves! I think we're going to try getting together every other month or so to craft or make cards. I'm sure it will be no time before I have them hooked on stamping and ready to start scrapbooking!!

Quilling

I always look forward to my Mother-in-law's visits because we always take time to do some papercrafting. She gave me a quilling kit for Christmas, so we tried our hand at it while she was here.
I remember watching the Carol Duvall show and seeing someone do it and always wanted to give it a try. It's really tedious and not something you would do to quickly throw a card together, but it is really a lot of fun!

Chocolate Snowmen

We made a chocolate bar snowman at a Stampin' Up! workshop. I thought they were so cute, I just had to make some to give to teachers and staff at school. The big one uses a fuzzy toddler sock from Dollar Tree for the hat (you can get 2 from each sock). I made the hat for the miniature one by cutting the fingers off of a cheap pair of gloves. I was able to use a stamp from a SU stamp set (Cold Play) for the face on the mini one. I drew the face on the larger one.

Everyone had a fit over them and they were really quick and inexpensive to make.

Stamped tiles

I made these stamped tiles for the ladies in our Life Group. I made some additional designs and sold them at school. I used Stayzon ink and baked them for about 5 minutes to set the ink. I've also seen them done with pigment ink and ultra thick embossing enamel. That gives them a shiny, embossed look that is really neat, but I was trying to use what I had on hand.

There's no place like Gnome!

After making about 20 of the previous card I showed you, I found a stash of these that I made last year and never mailed out!! That isn't anything unusual for me. Every year I find at least 1 Christmas or Birthday present stashed in my closet. One year for Easter, I went out in a panic the night before Easter to buy goodies, only to find a stash I had bought several weeks before and forgotten about.

I think I need to start taking Gingko!

I'M BACK!!

I've had some computer issues, so I haven't been able to post for awhile. I hope you don't mind looking at Christmas stuff for the next couple of posts since I am a bit behind.

This was one of my Christmas cards this year. It's made with Stampin' Up stamps, embossing folder, and cardstock. It's really simple, but I think it's very pretty.