Quick pic!

I'll get a full post up later, but first a quick pic. My son was being quiet, so I of course ran to see what he was up to this time...

Bebe in a box! LOL

Lawnscaping Challenge #25: Birthday!

Now that I'm blogging again and the holiday rush is over, I've actually started (gasp!) reading blogs again. I know, it's craziness, but it had to happen eventually. I've followed Lawn Fawn's blog for over a year now but just recently discovered their Lawnscaping blog and challenges. Their current challenge is right up my alley so I decided to jump in and come up with a birthday card!

Here's their inspiration photo, in celebration of their birthday:

Now obviously they'd like it if I used Lawn Fawn stamps for the challenge, but it's actually not a prerequisite. Good thing, too, as it turns out all I have are Christmas stamps and Get Well stamps from Lawn Fawn! Eep! (Their new breakfast set is totally on my 'must have' list, though).

So, what did I make? Take a look:

And then on the inside:

Cute, right? Who doesn't love yummy cupcakes on their birthday, especially chocolate ones.

How I made it:

• ivory linen cardstock base (paperandmore.com), cut to a folded size of 4.25"x5.5"
• chocolate toile paper (Recollections, Michael's store brand) cut to 4"x5.25"
• chocolate cardstock (from my stash), cut to 3.5"x4.75"
• pink cardstock (from my stash), cut to fit the stamp...about 1"x2"
• white cardstock (seriously, you should see how much paper I own)
• birthday stamp set (from my stash)
• chocolate ribbon (stash again), about 4"
• StazOn Java Bean & True Black ink
• Versamark Plumeria chalk ink
• watercolor pencils
• glitter glue
• hole punch
• cutter
• scissors
• adhesive
• Zots 3D dots

I started by stamping the cupcakes onto the white cardstock using the True Black ink. Then I started 'decorating' my cupcakes with the colored pencils. You could probably use Copics as well, but I haven't been able to budget them into my 'habit' yet. Carefully cut them out leaving a little bit of a white edge and set aside.

Ink the edges of the chocolate toile paper with the Java Bean and attach to the ivory card base. Next comes the inked chocolate cardstock. Stamp the sentiment onto your pink cardstock, punch a hole for the ribbon, then ink the edges. (Don't do what I did and ink the edges before punching the hole...you wind up with Java Bean fingers!) Feed a bit of ribbon thru the hole and knot it, trimming the ends to make them uniform and cute. Attach to the bottom corner with the 3D Zots to pop it off the card. Now for the cupcakes - attach them with the 3D Zots as well, then add 'confetti' with the glitter glue. After the glitter is dry, stamp the inside of the card with your sentiment. All done! A pretty, handmade birthday card for friends and family. You can easily make several of these at a time and keep them on hand for, well, birthdays!

Let me know if you make one yourself - I'd love to see how it came out.

Happy Crafting!

Homemade Coasters

It was a very handmade Christmas at our house. Not only was it a financially-sound option, but it was really satisfying to see someone really excited about gifts we made them.

For my sister and her fiance we made two sets of handmade coasters. Each set had four coasters and were actually very simple to make. We did one set with a monogram (luckily, their last names start with the same letter! It's even funnier that the same thing was true with my husband & I...lol) and the second set was with kitties & a puppy. They have several cats and a dog so it was fitting to give a nod to their furbabies as well.

So, how did we make them?

Warning: the photos came out awful! I had no idea until after the holidays, of course...sigh...

•  4"x4" ceramic tiles that we found at Lowe's for $0.16/each
• Mod Podge, matte finish
• spray Mod Podge, matte finish
• 3/4" felt furniture circles, 4/tile
• foam brush
• 4"x4" design*

*for these personalized tiles I made up my artwork in Photoshop, but you could easily use scrapbooking paper as well

Trim up your paper to 4"x4" and set aside. Lay out your tiles on a covered surface and get your Mod Podge ready. Lightly coat your first tile with Mod Podge and carefully lay your paper over the top. Smooth it out to remove all the bubbles and set aside to let dry. Keep smoothing bubbles around the edges as needed while it dries and don't be afraid to go back in with your finger and more Mod Podge to tack it all down. Continue for all of your tiles and let them all sit & dry.

Once dry, give them a second coat of Mod Podge. Once that coat is dry, spray them all with the spray Mod Podge to give it a sealant against spilled liquids...coasters do seem to attract those. (ba-dum-bump) Once everything is dry (we let them sit for a day or so), apply the felt circles on the bottom to give them that non-skid goodness we expect from coasters. Ta da, beautiful handmade coasters that didn't break the bank!

Monogram coasters with the letter 'L'

 

Kitty and puppy coasters

If you're Photoshop-savvy, here's how you make the custom artwork: open a new file and size it to 4"x4". Let your creative self go crazy! You can fit four printouts on a standard letter-size sheet for printing ease. I used a lightweight cardstock and I would not recommend going heavier.

Where did I get the idea for making coasters? Pinterest, of course! I am truly loving that site...all crafters should hang out on there. Feel free to follow my boards on there for inspiration of your own! If you do make coasters, please let me know so I can see how they came out.

Happy Crafting!

Happy 2012

Another New Year is here! I generally do not make resolutions (you won't find me buying gym memberships or exercise equipment) but I did promise myself to make time for blogging this year. Hopefully I can get a good pile of posts going to help me keep that promise!

Today I'm sharing with you one of the Christmas cards I sent out this year. (Note to self: this year, start making Christmas cards in July!)  I really wound up in a time crunch with my personal cards this year, so I was looking for elegant but quick & easy!

I had found a card idea I really liked over on Pinterest (which if you're not a member of, join! It's a great place for ideas.) so I looked through my board and found it again. 

I really liked the snowflake, the layers, the stitching, and the simplicity of the card. Beautiful but rustic, natural but with a 'wow' factor.

Sadly when I first think about a card design based on a sample card, I try to recreate as much of the original as possible. Some day I'll learn! I just wind up driving myself crazy when I do that and then the card isn't me. So after some storming around the craft room, I came up with my own design that is me and that I was proud to send out to our friends and family.

The layered effect I liked is still there with the black cardstock, ivory parchment, and the green plaid all placed on top of a deep red base card. The snowflake is there (my favorite part) and the stamped sentiment of Merry Christmas. Perfect!

So, what did I use?

• brick red paper from my stash, cut to 11"x4.25" and folded in half to 5.5"x4.25"
• black Bazzill cardstock from my stash, cut to 5"x4"
• ivory parchment paper from my stash, cut to 4.75"x3.75"
• green plaid paper from my stash (seeing a trend?), cut to 2"x2"
• EK Success Large Snowflake paper punch
• StazOn ink in Timber Brown
• sentiment stamp
• We R Memory Keepers Sweetheart Inkers in green & white
• adhesive

Yup, this card was made entirely of things I already owned! How cool is that? The Sweetheart Inkers are brand new and are AWESOME. I actually won them over on the Captured Moments blog (they're my local scrapbooking store and I adore them). This was the first project I used them on and they were so easy to use.

Back to the card - start by cutting all of your paper to size. I wound up making 16 of these (I ran out of the plaid paper!) and doing them assembly-line style was the way to go. After cutting, fold up your base cards (if you're using pre-made ones you can obviously skip this step, but I like making my own). Punch out all of your snowflakes from the ivory parchment paper. (I kept the punches for some future project, of course!) Ink all of your edges to allow them time to dry before assembly! I used the white Sweetheart Inker on the black paper and the green on the parchment paper.

Now for assembly! The green plaid paper was attached to the back of the ivory parchment. Ivory parchment goes on the black cardstock, then the whole stack onto the brick red base card. Stamp the sentiment of 'Merry Christmas' and it's done!

This design can easily be used for any punch, any holiday. If you use it as an idea card, be sure to come back and tell me what you made!

Happy Crafting!