Great Minds. Good Times.

I got to spend some quality crafting time with a pretty awesome friend this weekend. She's got a big heart and a big family, so basically she's got a lot of opportunties to make things for the people she loves. I am usually in my craft room by myself listening to my iPod while Mr. Bean works, so it was fun to have some company. Especially with someone that really loves to create. Anything.

When she approached me a few weeks ago about helping her make a couple of birthday cards for her nieces, I wasn't sure what to do at first. I only know one little girl so it took me a bit out of my element. But, I am really excited about our results. These are probably my two favorite cards yet.

I was inspired by this card. I have been wanting to make a circle card for a while now, ever since Kristina did it a year or two ago. My friend is like my crafting soul mate, so she said she was thinking of a circle shaped card, too. Great minds think alike, eh? Eh??



This first card was really exciting to put together. I've had that paper for a couple of years now and really wanted to just keep it in my "collection". But, when we saw it, it oozed little girls and cupcakes, so it was a no brainer to use it. The glitter paper is from Target. The chipboard is Thickers. The faux stitch is the Signo white gel pen I blogged about earlier.



This second card makes me smile. This little girl will be exactly 3.5 when her sister turns 5. When my friend told me she would be 3.5, a half eaten cupcake came to mind. But, what goes better with cake than ice cream? This card came out exactly how I pictured in my head. Love when that happens. My only regret is that I didn't have the perfect patterned paper for the scoops of ice cream, but I love the stipes and polka dotted ribbon against the solid colored paper, too. So, maybe next time.

The ribbon is from Hobby Lobby. I cut it down because the thickness I had wasn't the right scale. I am not sure where the paper was from. I believe all of it was given to me a while ago by my friend. So glad we could use it. The orange heart is from scraps of Bazzill I had left over from my wedding. The chipboard is Thickers. Is it wrong to say I am in love with this card? Well, both of them really. I would say we make a good team, wouldn't you? :)

Well, I hope everyone got a chance to catch up on some sleep this weekend and make up for the hour we lost. I won't go into detail what Mr. Bean and I did this weekend, but it was enfuriating, exhausting, adventurous, a ton of fun and it made me proud of my city - all in two days.

Springing for Spring

I am the first to tell you that I love cold weather. I love winter and I love fall. This year, though, I am actually looking forward to spring. Maybe it's been all the sunshine we've had lately getting to me or maybe it's all the ruffle-y goodness I've seen in stores. OK, it's the ruffles. This spring it's going to be hard not to spend all my savings at the mall. Really, really hard. But, I have managed to contain my obsession slightly with this little diddy, the Sew Mama Sew Spring Ruffle Top. The tutorial is pretty easy to follow. I did have a few questions, but it wasn't anything I wasn't able to figure out on my own. I did make a few minor changes to the way I constructed mine, but the end result was about the same. Totally making a few more of these for the summer. Here's mine. Love it.

The fabric I used is from Heather Bailey's Pop Garden line.

That's all for now. I have a ton of tv to catch up on. And a lot of this to catch up on.

Baby Love.

So, I've got the baby bug, but it's not what you think. Lately it seems like it's been baby explosion here since I know so many people having babies. Boys, at that. So, I dove into my craft room and started working on my resolution to get started early on all the projects I set out to make and finish them on time. And I must say, it feels good.

My first project was a card for Mr. Bean's co-worker. Since I actually don't have too many embellishments in my craft room, I had a lot of fun cutting out all the shapes from scraps and getting creative with my patterned paper to give the card some texture. I got my inspiration from this amazing card. I actually saw it a long time ago and remembered it's awesomeness. Here is my take on it.


I had the same stamp and, surprisingly, an ink pad that resembled the color of a sky. (I actually purchased the stamp because I remembered this card and dreamt of making a Mario Bros themed card with it one day. Isn't that stamp just begging for some mushrooms to be put in front of it??) The rest is all patterned paper that I sketched, cut out, including the little heart, and then layered with pop up adhesive to give it some dimension. You can't see that too well in the picture, but each piece is popping up somehow.

The elephant's body is actually made from scraps from my very first project that ever took me inside a scrapbook store. The faux stitch is with my favorite thing in the world next to mascara, the Signo Uni-ball Impact Pen in white. And like mascara, it has become a necessity of mine. The twine that is "holding up" the heart balloon is a purchase I made in Iowa while visiting my sister. I got a yard of it, but now wish I got 30. Once I used it, I was addicted. It's the perfect thickness for cards. This was probably the most fun I've ever had making a card because I actually had everything I needed/wanted and it came out exactly like I pictured in my head. I got to hear from Shawn's co-worker's wife, and she apparently loved it. So, my work there was done.

My next project was for the newest member of a close group of friends. There are 6 of us total who have known each other for about 22 years now. Over the last 2 years, our group has expanded with the addition of some bundles of joy. The newest addition should be on his way as I type and I can't wait to meet him. In anticipation, I made some burp cloths in some mod baby boy colors and patterns. I had to throw in some Amy Butler, of course, but that was more for mommy and not baby. :)


It is basically cloth diapers with a sewn embellishment down the middle just to make it look nicer than a cloth diaper on mom's shoulder. On Saturday, I gave some away to another friend having another baby boy and it was received enthusiastically because, all the mothers there said, cloth diapers are the best burp cloths since they are so absorbent. So, I am looking forward to wrapping these up really cute and giving them away tomorrow!!
Enough for now! Off to bed!! We had some snow tonight, so I am praying the roads are slick long enough to sleep in a bit in the morning. It'd be only for my safety.

Happy Valentine's Day

No more love posts, I promise. I realize I haven't posted anything of significance lately. To be completely honest, I am waiting for my dear husband to take the photos off our camera and onto his laptop so that I can then access them. Why he thought it was a good idea to set it up on his laptop, I will never know. He works way too much to worry about my pictures. I will just wait patiently until he has the time to do this.

I've got a card to post that I think you will like. I have to give it away tomorrow, so I will be sure to take pics tonight so I can share.

Until then, Happy Valentine's Day! I actually love Valentine's. It was my favorite school day of the year when I was little. It was always a big deal for me and my sister to get the perfect cards and pass them out to everyone. You had to make sure you didn't give one that said "I like you" or anything that would suggest that you liked or cared about the weird kid or to the cute boy. Something about all the pinks, reds, and purples, the chocolate, the flowers, the cards. What's not to love??

Love.

Castle, if loving you is wrong, I don't want to be right.

A better post later. I just had a scare that Castle was cancelled. Apparently it is just rumor right now, but I wanted to declare my love to the entire world wide web before anything terrible happened.

New Years Cards are the new Christmas Cards

This year I made a vow to myself that I would send out Christmas cards, but well, that didn't happen. I even have some fabulous ones that I got 60% off at a store closing. *sniff* (I loved that store.) I underestimated - as usual - all the things I wanted to do/needed to do/still have to do during the holiday season. My solution? New Year's cards!!! Why didn't I think of this before?!?! Why waste your precious Christmas shopping time writing out Christmas cards? Send a New Years card instead! So, instead of doing the pile of work sitting on my desk, one day my sister and I sat and designed our New Year's cards that we will be sending out. I really like mine, although I wish that one of the fonts had printed bigger, but who is going to notice but me??

Anyway, I decided to brush up on my brush strokes (he he he.....get it? Brush up....HA! I kill me!!) when addressing my envelopes. My calligraphy instructors always encouraged us to practice our calligraphy anytime we are sending out anything. In fact, my copperplate calligraphy instructor would even write her checks out in copperplate. But, I have not whipped out anything in probably 3 years. So, here are the final results before I added the addresses.

I am really rusty so I apologize in advance for those that will be receiving cards that don't met my usual standards of excellence, but I didn't order extra envelopes so you'll just have to deal. These three were my favorite, and frankly, the only ones that received the stamp of approval from moi.

I will be leaving next weekend for India so this will probably be my last post of 2009. Happy New Year!! All the best in 2010! I hope your New Year resolutions include lots of crafting!!

It's not me. It's U (verse).

So, I have been MIA for quite some time. I still maintain that I am busy getting my U-verse fix, but honestly I haven't had much to write about. I have gotten so far behind on my shows that I sometimes feel like deleting them all because it's not realistic to watch that much television and still have a day job. I haven't really been making anything. Work has been very stressful. (I have two gray hairs in the most obvious spot to prove it.) Home life has been so-so. I actually dove into the infamous "blue room" and started my clean sweep of my former life. It's been pretty theraputic to see where I've been, who I was, and how different I am now. Sad sometimes. Motivating other times. Either way, I am feeling good about the amout of stuff I've gotten rid of while still getting overwhelmed at the amount of stuff I have to yet to go thru. But, my motivation to clean out that room has been a bridal shower I am hosting at my home on November 7. I will finish that room by November 7 and it will be pristine and beautiful and magical and clean and empty. Mostly it will be empty. And that is what I look forward to at the end of the day.

I also have my computer to blame. It has pretty much said it's goodbyes, so I haven't read up on my celebrity gossip or my daily blogs. I feel like I am neglecting my blogger friends, but then I realize 'oh, they don't even know who I am' and then I don't feel so guilty. But, I do miss them. Mr. Bean and I decided we will buy me another computer, but I am going to be patient for this one. I am at the point that I just want to finish buying all my furniture and get it over with. So. I will wait.

Anyway. I have recently made a couple of things worth posting. I will post them when I get some decent pics, so you'll have to just wait. I figure the one reader I do have has probably seen it already, so I am in no hurry. :) But for now I will just say, it's not me. It's U-verse. :)