Anything But a Card's Manly Challenge and another graduation card

Hello! So glad you stopped in today! Sunday marked the start of the new challenge at Anything But a Card.  Since we will be celebrating Father's Day soon (in the US anyway), our challenge is anything masculine or something for Dear Ol' Dad.  Remember, we accept any type of art-sewing, mixed media,  scrapbooking, altered items, ATCs... anything BUT a card!  I will be sharing my project next week (need to get busy on that...) and I hope that you will join us too!

Now, on to my card... We celebrated another graduation this past weekend.  I decided to change things up a bit from my last graduation card found here.  I also managed to use up a scrap piece of so saffron paper that was laying on my table!!  My niece's school colors are green and gold, but I thought the so saffron and gumball green were a little softer and more girly.  I colored the rhinestones with a pale green sharpie so they would coordinate with my card colors.  

We had a wonderful time at her party and my brother put together an 'old farts' volleyball team to challenge the younger crowd.  We all cheered when they won, but joked that the 'young punks' would easily beat them in a rematch the next day!  I'm sure some of them were a little stiff Sunday morning!

We have been having some minor mishaps at our house this week.  Half of our house was without electricity this weekend and DH has been using all of his construction expertise to fix it.  He ended up running some new wiring for a few of our outlets and lights.  Hopefully this will fix our issues.  We are planning on building  in a year and hate to do too much to fix our old mobile home, but wiring isn't one of those things we can bypass!  For some reason we seem to think we need air conditioning and lights...

On a happier note, I did find a little time to play this weekend and have some cards to post for Flashback Friday and I'm working on a few other things too.  I hope you have a wonderful day and find some time to be crafty too! Happy crafting!

Card Recipe: Paper-whisper white, so saffron, Ink-gumball green, Stamp Set-Blue Ribbon, Accessories-gumball green ribbon, rhinestones, 2 3/8" scallop circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch

Congrats, Grad!

Do not adjust your computer monitor! Yes, you really are seeing a midweek post from me!  My poor neglected supplies got dusted off this past weekend to make a graduation card for a very special young man, my nephew! I have plans to clean up my crafting table this week so I can actually find everything again and be productive.  Wish me luck!  I would have done this already, but the weather has been beautiful here and I've been working in our little garden and planting some flowering bushes while I can.

My nephew also graduated this past weekend so it's been a little hectic here.  He is such a kindred spirit and we are often partners in crime in driving his mother, my sister, crazy!  She is a little concerned about him going off to college in the fall, but I know he will be amazing and can't wait to see what he accomplishes in his life.  He is very intelligent, loves to read, and has a wonderful sense of humor.  Did I mention I think he's very special?!  But enough of that, here is his card...

Apologies in advance for the picture! It was very overcast when I took the picture and I couldn't get a good shot.  I had the hardest time putting this together!  Every patterned paper, ribbon, and embellishment that fit the color scheme seemed too girly to me.  I wasn't crazy about the dotty paper, but it was the least girly I had in real red.  I actually took the star buttons from DD#1's stash and colored some white bakers twine with my basic black marker. I think I'll have an easier time with my niece's card next week.

I want to take a minute and send a message to any blogging friends who were affected by the  recent tornados and storms.  My heart goes out to the families dealing with such loss and devastation.  I can not begin to imagine what that feels like.  My family is keeping all of you in our prayers.  Hugs!

I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week and that you find some time to be crafty too!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-whisper white, real red, real red DSP, Ink-black stazon, Stamp Set-Blue Ribbon, Accessories-chevron folder, 2 3/8" scallop circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, basic black grosgrain ribbon, bakers twine, star buttons (from DD#1 stash)

Color Me Beautiful Challenge #13 Christmas Sweets

Hello! I hope all of my blogging buddies in the US had a wonderful Thanksgiving and didn't overindulge too much!! We are back, a day late (took a holiday!) with a new challenge at Color Me Beautiful!

**Warning!  The next part of my post relates to my creation for the design team.  It is a little lengthy... If you want to bypass the back story and scroll down to the challenge and my project, I will not be offended!** 

On Thanksgiving day, my Mom and her sisters gathered their families together for our traditional dinner.  It is A LOT of people, A LOT of food, and A LOT of fun!  When I was little, we would also get together for Christmas, as well, and draw names for a gift exchange.  As the families grew and our lives grew busier, we stopped doing the Christmas celebration but kept the Thanksgiving dinner.  About 15 years ago, we decided to add a bit of fun and festivity to the celebration with an ornament swap.  Each person wanting to play along brought an ornament (or two) and then played the Sneaky Santa game (nothing like stealing gifts to put you in the holiday spirit!!) to see which ornament would go to each person.  After a few years, I stopped participating because I already had so many ornaments, and being sentimental, couldn't part with the ones that were special and from family...  Fast forward to 5 years ago and my girls REALLY wanted to be a part of this.  So we went out and bought ornaments and they played along.  It was a lot of fun for them and they wanted to continue the tradition. 

Now, anyone that knows me, knows that if I can take something simple and make it more difficult, I usually do! So the next year, I suggest that instead of 'buying' their ornaments, we could 'make' them.  DD#1 already had better sewing skills than me so I thought this would be a fun thing for us to do.  So we searched online and in books for the perfect ornaments and found some very simple felt ornaments that the girls could make.  My aunts and cousins went crazy! As soon as they found out the girls made their ornaments, the battle to go home with the handmade ornaments was on!! So unwittingly, I started a tradition for my girls and a bit of a headache for me...  With each year, the girls would find a fabric/felt ornament to create, get supplies, and then torment me to 'help' them finish the ornaments on time.  Well, this year, I had a brilliant idea!  DD#1 was getting tired of sewing every year, and DD#2 (who has skills like her mother) was frustrated that her stitches never looked as nice as #1.  Enter brilliant plan...  If you have seen the Holiday catalog for SU, you have seen the beautiful paper ornaments shown in the photos.  Now THIS was right up my alley!  So we decided that this would be the ornament design for this year (not the really fancy one on the front, but the more simple ones inside...) and tried to decide on a color.

Now... If you are still with me, Bless You! Because this is where the CMB challenge finally comes into the story.  I wanted to play with these colors as soon as I saw the fabulous inspiration photo.  I mean, who doesn't love a box full of gorgeous, yummy cookies????

And I just knew these colors would make something equally fabulous and less fattening!

So without further delay, here is the ornament that I made as part of my girls' ornament exchange gift...

and the back w/ a picture of the lovely sisters...

AND... Drum roll please................................................................... From the 2012 collection of C&C Creations, I present to you....... The Paper Ornament!!

They each made one, but silly Mom only took one picture, so I will be trying to pass this one picture off to both of them as their ornament! Quite honestly, I don't remember which one I used for the picture, so technically it could be either one...right???? 

If you are wanting to recreate these, I must give you a tip.  They are NOT difficult at all, very easy to put together as a matter of fact.  After all, if a 10 year old can do it, so can you!!  However, if you are looking for something really quick to throw together, this is NOT your project!!  The cutting alone took quite a while and then we scored the middle of each ornament to make folding easier.  But it was a lot of fun and my girls enjoyed playing with my toys for a change!  The assembly was a matter of looking at the picture and copying it for me, but if you want details, please leave a comment and I will share the 'how to'.  There are three stamped images for each petal and six petals on each flower.  If you want the back to look more 'finished, add an unstamped ornament image as the base for each petal.

We would LOVE to see what you can do with these colors, so please feel free to link up your creations!! The other ladies on the design team have done some fantastic things with these colors as well (even a super cute card for a boy!!!), so be sure to stop by the blog and leave them some love!!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today and especially for sticking it out through my long winded post!! Have a wonderful weekend and amid all of your shopping, find some quiet time to be crafty!!

Project Recipe:  Cardstock-primrose petals, crumb cake, wisteria wonder, Stamp Set-Ornament Keepsakes, Ink-basic gray, Accessories-old olive button (brights collection), snow flurry die, linen thread, Holiday Ornaments Framelits, 2 1/2" circle punch, 2 3/8" scallop circle punch, Tombo glue

Scrapbook Wednesday with a hint of Flashback Friday

Hi! So glad you stopped by to visit my blog today!  I decided to rearrange my scrapbook posting day to Wednesday instead of Monday.  I'm hoping this will give me a little more time between design teams to get my regular posts on here. I'm also calling this a hint of Flashback Friday because I have used a lot of retired goodies from my stash on this layout.

The pictures are from a few years ago when DD#2 was chosen as the student of the month for her class.  As if that recognition wasn't enough to make her head swell, she was then chosen as the corporation's student of the month for the entire elementary school.  She received a very nice award at the school board meeting and even had her name on the school's message board.  We were a little proud as well!  I wanted both pictures on one page and since she wore pink in one picture and red in the other, I thought Sending Love DSP would work nicely.  There are hints of glitter in the DSP which DD loved.  I used an old Page Maps sketch for the layout and as I was working on the layout and digging through my stash, I found a pretty in pink scallop circle from who knows where.  This sparked the idea for the little 'flower' embellishment on the bottom half.

Well, I think I hear a mountain of dirty laundry calling my name... better go tell it to be quiet :P

Hope you have a fantastic rest of the week and find some time to be crafty!

Page Recipe: Cardstock-red base from stash, very vanilla, Sending Love DSP (ret), real red, pretty in pink, chocolate chip, Ink-chocolate chip, Stamp Set-Notes and Details (ret), Accessories-scallop trim border punch, 2 1/2" circle punch, 1" circle punch, 2 3/8" scallop circle punch, large scallop circle punch, corduroy buttons (ret), chocolate chip twill ribbon (ret), bakers twine (dyed chocolate chip), snow burst embossing folder, big shot

ABACC #1 My first project!!

Hello!  It is week two of the bi-weekly Anything Goes challenge at ABACC (anything but a card challenge) and I am one of the featured designers this week!  If you haven't already checked out the other ladies work, you really need to pop in!  I am in awe of the talent coming from this group and feel just a tad bit intimidated!  But only a little!!

I had a chipboard journal in my stash for over a year, from last year's Stampin' UP regional event as a matter of fact!  I kept meaning to get it out and play with it, but never felt inspired until now.  I inked the chipboard with very vanilla craft ink and then proceeded to add lots of different shades of brown from the neutrals collection.  It also got a good dose of early espresso and crumb cake from the color spritzer.  Nice and grungy!!

I used the more mustard and soft suede cardstock, the linen thread, and the mini clothespin which came in the chipboard project kit.  I did not however choose to decorate it like the project page.  I pulled out the daisy from Reason to smile, inked it up with crumb cake and then colored the center with pastels.

I'm planning on using this for a quotes, verses, thoughts, etc. journal... something to make me think and be a better person, which is why I chose the sentiment from Just Believe.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my first creation for ABACC and that you will make time to play along if you haven't already, and if you have, well...play again!!

Project Recipe:  chipboard journal (retired), Cardstock-more mustard, soft suede, naturals ivory, Ink-very vanilla, early espresso, crumb cake, soft suede, Stamp Sets-Reason to Smile (ret), Just Believe, Accessories-linen thread, pear pizzazz seam binding (ret.), color spritzer, pastels, mini clothespin basic pearl, 1 3/4 and 2 1/2" circle punch, 2 3/8" scallop circle punch, non SU flower punch

Merry Monday Sketch 14

Well, I managed to squeeze in one more card for the Merry Monday Past Sketch challenge!  Today's card uses sketch #14!

I was trying to come up with a card for this sketch and saw the piece of green patterned paper from the retired Ski Slope.  I thought it would make a nice little wreath and after that the rest just fell into place!  I couldn't resist breaking into one of my NEW stamp sets! Joyous Celebrations will be available next month and features images that fit perfectly into ovals or circles!  I used one of the sentiment stamps in the center of the wreath.

To make the wreath, I used two scallop punches.  I find that it is much easier to punch the smaller scallop first, then line up the larger punch around the 'hole' left by the first punch. A few colored rhinestones and a little bakers twine bow finished it off nicely!

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit today! I hope you have a wonderful day and happy crafting!


Card Recipe:  Cardstock-baja breeze, whisper white, Ski Slope DSP (ret), Ink-chocolate chip, Stamp Set-Joyous Celebrations, Accessories-2 3/8 scallop circle punch, large scallop circle punch, white bakers twine, rhinestones, red Sharpie,  chocolate chip scallop dots ribbon.

Umm... Another Christmas Card...

No, it's not Flashback Friday, but in my desperate attempt to use up my older Christmas DSP, I have another card to share this week!  I had to get a little creative with this one.  I used the sketch #5 from Merry Monday and knew I wanted to use the snowman circle from Tags Til Christmas, but there wasn't any blue in the DSP... So I grabbed the color coach and found that marina mist was suggested with real red and old olive, which were colors in the DSP! BINGO! Of  course, the snowy image just begged for some dazzling details as well!  Who am I to argue with a snowman stamp?!

I colored the image with markers and also did a little 'splitting' of the sentiment using the marina mist marker.  I love being able to color only what I want to stamp.  Makes fitting things into a punched shape much easier!!

I think there's just enough DSP left to make that mini album and possibly a few scrappy cards or a page or two.  As happy as that makes me, I am even more amazed that I have 10 Christmas cards made already!  I just won't know what to do when December arrives...  Maybe I'll get some more scrapbook pages finished!  Hope you are finding time to enjoy your weekend! Happy crafting!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-very vanilla, real red, Merry Moments DSP (ret), Ink-marina mist, real red, pumpkin pie, basic black (markers), Stamp Set-Tags Til Christmas, Star Studded Season, Punches-large oval, scallop oval, 1 3/4 circle, 2 3/8 scallop circle, Accessories- dazzling details

Shaking the 411

I love checking out the sketches at Stamping 411, but don't seem to find time to play along as often as I would like.   This week, the sketch was just too appealing, and when I saw that Hand Stamped Sentiments had a challenge to make a shaker card, I thought the two would work well together!  This is my first EVER shaker card and it was a very easy technique thanks to my shaker frames!!

The funky dotted border was made using the eyelet border punch.  I had estimated my strip of paper a little too narrow, but when I looked at it, I thought it looked pretty cool anyway!

A close up of the shaker window and all of it's glittery goodness...

It's almost my bedtime, so I'm going to cut this short and hurry off to link it to the two challenges! Thanks for visiting!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-old olive, marina mist, whisper white, Paisley Petals DSP, Ink-marina mist, Stamp Set-Precious Butterflies, Accessories-2 3/8 scallop circle punch, eyelet border punch, 3/4 circle punch, snowburst embossing folder, basic pearls, dazzling details, shaker frame, glass and fine glitter

Crop Night Project #1

Wow!  I had every intention of actually making something and posting here on Thursday, but my week has been super crazy!  Our daycare and preschool celebrated 25 years of operation this year and we held a special fundraising crop night as part of our celebration.  I was in charge of organizing this event and since it was my first time hosting a crop, it was a bit overwhelming!  But, everything went well, pages and cards were created, prizes were won and food was consumed! It was wonderful to be surrounded by ladies with various skill levels and styles.  I have to admit, I mingled a lot more than I created, but I did manage to get a few more Christmas cards finished.  At the end of the night, I was packing up my stuff and saw my camera case...DUH! I completely forgot to take any pictures...

I taught two different projects at the crop and this is my first...

While this was pretty simple, everyone seemed to enjoy it.  That may have had something to do with M&Ms being involved.  If you are looking at the picture and thinking "M&Ms?", no you're not seeing things. My sample had skittles because that is all I had in the house when I made my sample.  At the crop they used red and green M&Ms.  We used the markers to color the stamp so there could be various colors, punched, and then stapled the tag to the bag.  I will give a bit of advice; the ease of stapling is directly related to the type of stapler you use.  My itty bitty Dollar Tree stapler worked much better than my heavy duty Swingline. Be sure to check back tomorrow for part 2!

Recipe: Cardstock-whisper white, Stamp Set-From Santa, Ink (markers)-poppy parade, pear pizzazz, crumb cake, Accessories- 2 3/8 scallop circle punch, 1x8 cellophane bags

A start on Christmas cards

Hello, my name is Margaret and I am a procrastinator...but I can change, if I have to, I guess...
They say that the first step to overcoming a bad habit is to admit that you have one. While I know that my procrastinating can sometimes cause added stress and the occasional 'dropping the ball', I have to be honest and say that some of my best work comes when under pressure. While working my way through college, I loved my job at Big Lots (an eclectic discount retail chain).  Each day when I came in, it was a different area of the store, a special task, or customer service that awaited me.  I loved the challenge of adjusting to my new duties and although most of my coworkers thought I was crazy, I loved difficult customers. Not nasty, hateful customers, but people that came in the door knowing that they probably weren't going to be pleased. I loved the look of pure shock and awe when I would help them with their concerns and offer suggestions they hadn't considered.  This was not a job I could plan for; it was fly by the seat of my pants and I LOVED it.

If you're still with me, you are probably wondering just what this has to do with paper crafting. My point, and I do have one, is that while I do have to keep my procrastinating in check in most areas, there are other times that the impulsive response is the best.  This is how I create my Christmas cards.  I will look through idea books, surf online, and browse the craft stores, but in the end some of my best cards come at the last minute trying to get just a few more greetings in the mail before the big day.  I like to think that at these times I'm not nitpicking my creativity and it thanks me by giving it's best efforts.

I wasn't planning on making a Christmas card this week, but then I saw the sketch at Sketches By Carly and thought about the stamp set Gift Givers, which hasn't seen much ink yet, a card began to form.  It is not at all like most Christmas cards I create, but I really love how it turned out! I even managed to use some Spice Cake DSP on this!!

I really love that SU started carrying Dazzling Details.  I love this stuff for snow! I also have recently started an addiction to Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz. Almost all of my 'girly' cards get a few shots of this awesome stuff!

Card Recipe: Cardstock- very vanilla, pool party, Spice Cake DSP, Ink-basic gray, pool party, island indigo, blush blossom, Stamp Sets-Gift Givers, Snow Swirled, Tags So Much (ret.-colored only sentiment), Accessories-vanilla shimmer smooch spritz, dazzling details, very vanilla seam binding, scallop circle punch, 2 3/8 scallop circle punch

I also wanted to share a picture from the Louisville Regional Event.  Several ladies from our team, The Crafty SisTAHs, went together.  This is such a wonderful group of ladies and we had a great day together. I'm in the back row wearing pink!

I'll share some pics of swaps in my next post!!