BABY BOY BLUES

Maybe a day late, but this is what I was working on for a couple of weeks. Frank and his new bride are expecting a baby boy, oh happy day! This is Marcela's first and she had never had any kind of shower, so her loving husband ask if I would help him with a couples baby shower. Couldn't resist, as it has been along time since my kids were born and over 12 years since my last grandchild made his presence.

The invitations were very simple as it needed to be less frilly since the shower was for couples. Did a very easy easel card and printed the invitations on the computer. Used some pastel paper for the mat and add a couple of baby die cuts. Each invitation was a little different, but Frank was thrilled with them, and couldn't thank me enough.

One of our fellow workers wasn't able to make it to the shower, so he asked me to pick up some diapers. Couldn't just give packages of diapers, so with the help of Billy we made a diaper cake. This was so much fun, it was even more fun with Billy's help, this was definitely a first for him. We sat around the table and rolled diapers and had a great laugh.

Added ribbon and a few other baby items to the cake to finish it off. The favors for the guests were baby booties. I started with pastel blue cardstock and stamped the paper with a stamp that I found at Ben Franklins in Reno, it was only a $1 (love the bargains). Was going to leave it pretty plain, but found myself coloring in the flowers with felt tip markers. Added a bow on top and filled them with mints.

Had a couple of booties that didn't fit on the tray, so I used one for the cake top and added one to the bottom layer of the cake. This was so much fun to do and Frank and Marcela loved everything, they were so impressed which made me feel good.


Am off to work, worked late last night as the computer went down and will be working an extra day next week, am sure I won't be doing much crafting. Hope everyone is having an awesome Holiday weekend.

Golden Butterflies

Haven't been around for awhile, have been working on an altered book, and also a baby shower. Will post the invitation, diaper cake and favors that I made for the shower tomorrow, but wanted to post this card for a couple of challenges. You know me I really enjoy doing challenges, but just haven't found the time.

It was my goal yesterday to make a new card, here it is. The sketch is from Our Creative Corner, thought this was a great sketch and they do give me a direction for the card. The picture isn't great, but the tiny butterfly on the left hand corner is dimensional. The paper is from the Mariposa Mat Stack by DCWV which was purchased at Joanns.

Gingersnap Creations just issued a new color challenge, to use burgundy, ivory and black. The center oval was created with my classic scallop die cut from Spellbinders, and then the inside oval, with my cutting system from Creative Memories. The gold butterfly is embossed to tie into the wonderful background paper. I also used VersaMark to stamp small butterflies on the background, unfortunately they don't show in the photo.

Crafty Creations challenge this week is to use your favorite stamp, well that is next to impossible, so a used one of my favorite stamp sets from K & Company. It is a set of clear stamps and has a great assortment of stamps, I should just leave it out all the time, it is used for a wide variety of cards.

Getting ready for work, will share some baby shower stuff tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by, have a great day and weekend.

SUNNY SUNFLOWERS

Where has the time gone, was just comment a few days ago that it was already May, now it is the middle of May and things around my home have been a little on the crazy side. Can't believe that I have been a member of the Gingersnap Creations Group for a year, seems like only yesterday that I started to blog. This is such a wonderful group of creative ladies and they give me inspiration each and every day. The Design Team is so supportive and they share such great and new techniques. Haven't had the chance to really be creative because of everything that has been going on. Some have been good, and others not so good.

Grandson's birthday, spent time with my school buddy Sandy. Car in shop for two days, and spent Mother's Day in hospital, the doctor thought I had a blood clot. Don't know why my leg was black and blue and swollen, but no blood clot, thank goodness. Had to keep my leg up and so couldn't really spend much time doing anything creative.

Wanted to do something for the "kraft" challenge at Gingersnap Creations, and had made this mini photo and souvenir album. It is made from lunch bags, can't get anymore "kraft" than that. Used 4 lunch bags, folded in half, every other bag can be opened so that you can put ticket stubs, or brochures in the bag and they are right there.


The cover is bright and cheerful, sunflowers are one my favorite flowers and couldn't resist using them. The title was printed on designer paper. Base of the cover is bright yellow with some yellow polka dot paper to accent. Cheated on this one, the sunflowers are stickers. Had some buttons and added them to the center of the flowers. Each page is decorated differently so that you can add pictures and a little journaling as you go. Made one for my sister Kay, and our friend Barbara when we went on our vacation in the summer of 2007. Used binder rings to hold the bags together and then added lots of ribbon to the rings to give it a really fun look.

Another one of my favorite blogs is The Pink Elephant. This weeks challenge #TPE66 is from Ella's Kitchen which is a recipe to use yellow, design paper and buttons, thought this vacation album fit right in. They have also started a scrapbook challenge on Thursdays. You can meet the design team this week. Know that I will be participating in these challenges as my scrapbooks have been left behind for awhile. Miss doing it with my girls, the creative juices just don't flow when it is just me.

Time to get ready for work. Thanks for stopping by, have a great day.

HUG A TREE

The last three days have been really great. Spent Monday with my best friend Sandy, she is here for a visit with her daughter. Sandy lives in Ohio and I haven't seem her in over 15 years. We really had a great time, doing what girls do the best "shop." Sandy is into quilting and it just so happens that I was working on a quilt. We went to a couple of quilt stores and found some great fabric, that I want to use on an altered book. The book is a work in progress, have lots of things in mind and will be working on that in the next few months.



Tuesday I finished the quilt top, and worked on a couple of cards. Gingersnap Creations has a new challenge for botanical. I used the stamp set from Stampin Up, Thoughts and Prayers. The base of the card is green cardstock and the mat is in cream color, stamped the cardstock using the branch stamp, and then embossed it using a new embossing folder from Provo Craft and my Big Shot.





The tree was stamped on a cream cardstock and then added a green mat. Used a $1 stamp that I found in Reno for the sentiment. Tried to keep the card pretty simple, but added the green rhinestones to each corner. Didn't show a picture of the inside, put stamped a small tree on cream cardstock and added that to the inside.

One of my favorite places to go for other challenges is Crafty Creations, the challenge this week is to make your own background. There are so many ways to do this, mine is probably is the simplest, but does qualify. If you would like to see some other ideas, check out their blog.


Hopefully Sandy and I will be able to spend some more time together next week. It's my Monday, so time for me to go to work. Thanks for stopping by today, and have a great day.

P. S. Almost forgot Week 16 challenge of trees or leaves is at Lots to Do blog.

WINGS FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT

JJ aka Judy B (The Stamping Pad) had posted a few days ago cards that were faux silk, loved the look of the cards and had to give it a try. She was kind enough to give me the information and directed me to a video. The video is from Papertry Ink, this is wonderful video and gives you all the information for this wonderful technique.

The base of my card is 4 1/4 x 5 1/2, cut the blue mat 4x5 1/4, and distressed the edges of the card with blue ink, and the blue mat was distressed with black ink. Stamped a piece of cream cardstock with butterflies from an Inkadinkado stamp set, the size is 3 3/4 x 5, colored in the butterflies with colored markers. Did the faux silk technique, and then stamped a single butterfly, colored it and also did the faux silk technique. The blue strip of paper was also stamped with a smaller butterfly using black ink. Used a paper punch this time for the blue scalloped mat behind the single butterfly. Wanted to keep the card pretty simple so just added the one word sentiment, "enjoy."

This is a great technique and I can't wait to try some different stamps, really "enjoyed" making the card, and hope you "enjoy" it also. Please let me know if you give this a try would love to see all of your wonderful projects.

This card also happen to meet a couple of challenges:

1. Crafty Creations ---distressing

2. Simon Says ---Wings

3. Our Creative Corner--Butterflies

Once again a special thanks to JJ for sharing this information, she is true inspiration.

Also I'd like to send a special shout out to my sister, Kay, she just had knee surgery and is on the road to recovery. She and my daughter and trying some new products out today with their electric Big Shot. Can't wait to see what they come up with.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.

A GUARDIAN ANGEL

Have been pretty busy on my days off, not only have I been working on a quilt, but took the time to complete a couple of cards. This card is for the challenge at Our Creative Corner, they have a different sketch each Thursday.






The card base if 5 x5, with 1 1/4" squares, the paper is from the "Once Upon a Time collection." Used the corner rounder on the center mat, and used my label die cut, from Spellbinders, to make the frame around the angel. The hardest part was the embellishment, didn't want to use ribbon, put after trying twine, beads, wire, and anything else I could find, the double faced picot ribbon was what ended up on the card.

A glue pen was brought out for the wings, and then glitter added to give some dimension. Also added a pink rhinestone to the center of the bow. Used colored pencils to color the angel. Will be sending this card to my sister, she just had knee surgery on Monday, she loves angels and fairies, know this will put a smile on her face.

The other card completed will be posted tomorrow, it is using the faux silk technique, this was really a fun technique and will be doing more with this technique.

Hope everyone is having a great day, time to work on some more projects. Talk with you soon.

ONEIES

Ton of things to accomplish today, so just going to put this card out there. You guessed it, is it a challenge for Crafty Creations. Thought this would be super simple today, but not the case. We were challenged to use only one designer paper, one image and one embellishment. Have gotten so used to jazzing cards up with all kinds of embellishments, it was hard to use just one of everything.

The stamp is from my stash, Hero Arts, and had an inch of dust on it. Colored pencils were used for the coloring. The paper was also in my stash, a few years old. Added the bow to the handle of the basket for the one embellishment.

That's it for today, am going to work on my grandson's quilt, ran out of thread yesterday and ran to Joann's. They had some new products from Provo Craft that I couldn't resist, can't wait to put them to use. Also found that they have added Spellbinder die cuts in the stores, now I won't have to wait until going to Utah to purchase them, or getting them on line, will now have instant gratification.

Hope everyone is having a great week, talk with you soon.