Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Baby Love


I recently, with the help of Facebook, have reconnected with some MUCH MISSED high school friends. We have had a couple of gatherings that have lasted well into the wee hours of the morning. It's amazing to see where we're all at, what's going on in our lives and to re-establish those friendships now on an adult level. My darling friend Suzie has a GORGEOUS new baby. He's delicious from head to toe!!! Last Saturday night we all went to Suzie's house to hang out and as a gift I made this tri-picture frame. I at the last minute, while cleaning the glass to cover the pictures, cracked it right in my hands so it ended up being a more 3-D project than I had anticipated but I think it's super cute regardless!! Most of the product used is from SU!

I picked up the frame somewhere along my travels and just attacked it with my sanding block to give it that more antiqued/distressed look.

I had so much fun adding layer upon layer of detail. It also helps to have such a delicious subject to work with!!

Once again we had a fantastic time hanging out and I did not end up getting home until 330 in the morning!!! Needless to say...Sunday was a little rough but worth it!!

Happy Wednesday!!!

XOXOXO

Friday, August 21, 2009

Princess aka Criminal Paige ;)

The other day I posted a 5th birthday card for our darling friend La La. Her sister's birthday was months ago but sometimes I drop the ball so in addition to sending La a gift I sent one for her sister Paige as well!! We've always called her "The Criminal" as a JOKE because she's fabulously mischievous, always scheming (in a funny way) and always able to physically climb or escape from any situation!! (see definition of crib escaping!;) She's a hard core fantastic, super love bug kid.

Anyway - I sent her and her sister packages of art supplies along with their respective cards. I don't have the details of this card with me as I'm on my downstairs computer but it's 4X4 (a size I've been in love with for some time!).

I hope everyone had a GREAT weekend and HAPPY MONDAY!!

xoxoxo




Thursday, August 20, 2009

La La

Just about 5 years ago, this coming October, I was blessed to have my daughter Kendall born. Basking in the glow of new motherhood I was unaware that the winter was really...not that far ahead and that I really didn't have another "mommy" friend in the world! Well...I did but none with infants. So I enrolled in a baby yoga class (go ahead and laugh...but I needed to get out!) Where I met some lovely women...(and some NOT so lovely women;) One of the women that I met I maintain a DAILY relationship with and we are blessed to live close together and have our children be able to play on a regular basis. Our other friend moved away about a little over a year ago =( much to our sadness. She wanted to be closer to family...which we got. But we were going to miss her and her delicious family very much as all of our children got along famously.

Well coming up is HER first daughter's 5th birthday (which I can't believe!!) and I wanted to make her card something super, duper, extra special. She is as girlie as girlie comes. Loves everything princess, dolly related, fairy tales and sparkles. (and honestly...what little girl doesn't?)

So I started thinking...and pawing through my immense paper stash. The first piece I pulled out was Stemma brand Life's A Beach style DP. They spend a lot of time at their lake house in the summer so there's lots of beach play going on!! I then pulled out a slice of my urbanlily.com 123 girl paper...which I've been WAITING to use for the better part of 2 years....seriously. So the colors were coming and speaking to me at this point. So I grabbed the following SU! colors: Only Orange, Tempting Turquoise (a standard go to for me), and Pretty in Pink.

I started with the '5' as I knew I wanted to embellish it and it'd need time to dry. The cardstock was not too heavy so I backed it with blank chipboard that I had on hand. I roughed up the edges a bit and then haphazardly ran over the edges with my SU! Only Orange stamp pad.

I wanted to bling it out a bit so I then grabbed my Scotch Brand 2 way glue applicator and using the small nozzle end I traced the flowers and added some really chunky pink glitter and set it aside to dry.

I then headed back to the card. I used the Stemma paper as the first layer. I then wanted to add some more dimension (without too much height off of the card) so I stitched pieces of the PIP and OO papers using my Brother sewing machine. I ran 4 different stitch styles up and down creating another background-esque effect. The 5 was now nearly dry so I set to the inside of the flower. I used the same Scotch brand glue but then hit the inside of the flower with my Making Memories scrapbook shimmer glitter in peach. I again...set it aside to dry.

I absolutely HAD to add a touch of "queen" in this card so I pulled out my never before inked Imaginisce - Snag'em Stamp from the Fairest of Them All collection - The Castle. I stamped it with my Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue in, coated it in embossing powder and heat set it with my heat gun. I used the Copic markers that you see here to color in various parts of the castle.

I backed it with a slice of SU! TT and tied the sheerest and pinkist ribbon I had just as a little "extra". And if you look closely enough you'll see that I used my Sakura Glue Pen to dazzle up the front door of the castle with some chunky silver craft glitter that I always keep on hand.

I sent this out to her today in a package with a bunch of birthday goodies!!!

I can't wait for her to receive them!!

(Her sister's birthday was back at the beginning of the summer so I have her card to post tomorrow!!!)

Hope everyone is keeping as cool as possible!!!

XOXOXO

Woof!



I am seriously so excited about this card that I can't even WAIT to post it!! It's a birthday card for my rockin' brother in law, Tim. As I am quite positive he does NOT read my blog I'm not concerned that he's going to get a sneak peak of his card.

Tim and my SIL Audra have a GORGEOUS English bulldog named Daisy. Daisy rocks the house and brings it down all at the same time!!! As *tough* as Tim wants her to be...in my opinion of her she's a Diva all around!!! I try to sneak in a few twinkly details every year when I make him a bulldog card. As you can see I've painted her toenails silver and twinkled up her collar *just a little bit* ;)

This year I found this phenomenal clear, acrylic stamp set by Inkadinkado. I also love the other animals this set includes! So stinkin' cute!!!

Anyway - I am very recently hooked on the 4X4 size card. It's cute, it's less of an intimidating size to work on and it takes less time to do just as stunning a card!!!

I layered and layered and layered here, stitched, eyeleted, distressed and stamped!!! I had THE best time making this card and quite frankly...I think it's one of my most favorites in a long time!! I used my PTI Simple Alphabet set to add the sentiment of WOOF! on the inside.

I hope Tim enjoys this card as much as I do!!!

Have a great Thursday everyone!!!

XOXO


Happy Birthday Dear Sister!!!

I had completely forgotten that I did not post this card that I made back in June for my sister's 18th birthday!!

It's hard to believe she's 18 and headed to college in September!!

What a wonderful time!!!

XOXO

Wednesday, August 19, 2009




I waited to post this as I had sent it to 2 darling friends who just celebrated their 9th wedding anniversary!!! I *try* to remember all of my friends anniversaries but it's hard...and sometimes the date slips by and you realize it two weeks late!! But not this time!!

I had it on my handy "birthday calendar" that hangs now in my "office nook" in my newly remodeled kitchen!

I started with this TINY artists canvas that is 2"x 2". Seriously? It was just the cutest. I coated it with white acrylic paint just so that the canvas wasn't completely bare and set it aside to dry. I grabbed some PTI white cardstock as it is the heaviest around (knowing that the front of the card was going to need some strength even to hold the small canvas). I grabbed this fantastic black and white DP (I can't for the life of me remember who makes it right now) but it appears to be sketched and not printed...which I love. I seriously distressed this first layer with my Tim Holtz distressing tool WHICH I COVET!! And believe me...they are hard to find in stores!!! Gotta order those babies online...but I digress...I then used SU! paper (again....I'm forgetting the name) but the black paper with black embossed cherries is from SU!. I pulled up to my sewing machine and set to work zig zag stitching all around this. I used my Sakura glue pen to color in a tiny section on the initial layer and then used my Making Memories scrapbook shimmer glitter in purple (their wedding colors). I also used the same paper as the first layer as my interior section to stamp the 'happy anniversary' sentiment (from MFT). Embossed and heat set with Colorbox craft in in eggplant. The final touch was to add my sentiment on the outside with SU!'s Puns From The Past Set. I stamped it first in black staz-on on the canvas and then again on SU! shimmery white. I trimmed it out and added it on top of the first stamped layer just to add some dimension to it. The sentiment is 'picture perfect' as I've always viewed this couple.

Since it was WAY too dimensional to fit into an envelope I put it in a little acrylic box and brought it to my local postal store and mailed it out.

It was a big hit and my friends had a wonderful 9th anniversary!!

I hope everyone is having a creative *almost* end to summer!!

XOXO

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

I felt compelled to craft this am and I was in need of some botanical style wrapping paper. So I busted out my giant box of butcher paper, craft ink, thick embossing powder, heat gun and stamps and set to it!! I'm loving the results and KNOW what friends will be getting as gifts in the future!!! =)

I hope that everyone has a very creative day!!

XOXO







Monday, August 10, 2009

Happy 3rd Marcello!!




Happy 3rd!!! Postcard style!!! Our friend Marcello is turning 3 and we're headed to his party on Wed!!! The theme...as you can quite guess is T-REX Dinosaur party!!!

I wanted to do something fun and totally different with his card. I recently made a bunch of postcards for my SIL so I was still kind of in that mode. Besides...I figured the party hat wouldn't quite fit IN the card so I made the outside the focal point and used the back to write our message!!

I hope he loves his birthday as much as I love this card!!!

I hope everyone is having a great and creative summer!!!

XOXO