A special little guy turns 1!

Hello! Once again, I'm managing just a few minutes to post between ballgames and tennis matches!  My niece's little guy recently turned one year old and we actually had a free Saturday to attend his party.  Of course, Auntie had to make him a special card!

I pulled my design from a similar card I found on Pinterest.  It was a baby card with little zoo animals peeking over the banner, but I wanted something a little more fun and fitting this spunky little guy.  Just about everything used on this card is retired product except maybe the whisper white cardstock and white bakers twine, but he didn't seem to mind!

We had a great time at the party and he really enjoyed his gift from us-a little four key piano and a drum! Not sure his mom and dad will be speaking to us anymore, but he thought they were awesome presents!! Ha!  It was nice to spend a relaxing day with family and so fun to see him enjoying his little cake and all of the gifts.  I even got a little hug before we headed for home.

There is less than a month left of school and I am eagerly counting the days!  Have a wonderful rest of the week!!

If you give a cardmaker scraps...

...she will make a birthday card!  I am frequently teased about the scraps of cardstock and pattern paper that  I save. "Oh wait! There's still an eighth of an inch of paper there..." ha...ha...ha...

I'm not quite that bad, but I do save pieces that I think can be used, including strips of white cardstock that are 1/2 an inch wide.  Why? They are the perfect size to use with the word window punch and the bitty banners!  I also save smaller pieces of ribbon that can be folded and tucked to dress up an image or turned into something else.  These scraps also keep me from cutting into a full sheet of paper when I only need a tiny piece, and stretch a spool of ribbon just a bit further!

I was in desperate need of some birthday cards, especially kids and gender neutral.  I came across the dinosaur image that I made ages ago and put in my "Do Something With This" box.  We won't talk about how many things are in there... I made this paper pieced dinosaur shortly after I made this card.  The background paper just looked like dinosaur skin! So I used the scraps (seeing a pattern here?) to stamp and paper piece this awesome guy!

notice the scrap of paper used for the banner!

I also made a gender neutral card because sometimes I forget birthdays (gasp!) and then need to grab a card as I walk out the door.  These are great for those occasions!  I managed to use smaller pieces of cardstock for most of this card, but the best scrap use is the ribbon scrap as the tails of the badge.

Now I have a few more cards in my file and a few less scraps hanging around! Bonus!!

I hope you are having a wonderful week and perhaps you'll spend a day digging through your scraps too! Who knows what you might find?!  Thanks so much for visiting!!

Card #1 Recipe: Paper-crumb cake, garden green, whisper white, Woodland Walk DSP (ret), Ink-garden green, crumb cake, stazon black, Stamp Set-Dinoroar (ret), Accessories-pastels, bitty banners framelit, big shot

Card #2 Recipe: Paper-whisper white, daffodil delight, old olive, Ink-night of navy, old olive, Stamp Set-Blue Ribbon, Accessories-circle framelit, 2 1/2 " scallop circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, perfect polka dot embossing folder, chevron embossing folder, denim ribbon

Going Manly... um boyly??

Hi! I am so happy you are here!  I checked my stash of thank you cards at the end of the school year and realized all of my thank yous were quite girly.  This is not at all suitable when sending a note of appreciation to 4 and 5 year old boys...  So I decided I needed to add some more manly cards.  If you were a little confused by the post title, I was searching for the appropriate word for a masculine boy card.  I came up with boyly... yes... well aware that this really isn't a word, but I'm ok with that!  Maybe you can help me with a better term!

For those of you who are new to my blog, I recently resigned my position as a preschool teacher after over 15 years of teaching.  I was pleasantly surprised by the wonderful cards, notes, and gifts I received during my last week.  So I really wanted my thank you cards to be extra special too.  I had plenty of butterflies and flowers that worked perfectly for the girls, but nothing suitable for boys.  So out came Dinoroar. I was so sad that this retired from the catalog, since it's my go-to set for young boys, but I figured that these guys wouldn't care if the stamps were retired or not! Kind of makes them more 'extinct'... (insert wink here)

Isn't that T-Rex the cutest?! Not fierce at all!  I used DSP from Woodland Walk and thought the green piece had a wonderful scaley quality (sparked another idea to be shown later...) and when DH saw this card, he commented that the brown piece looked like a nest of dinosaur eggs. SCORE!  I used my trusty pastels to create the sky and sponged some garden green ink along the bottom to make the grass appear thicker.  I really hope my little guys enjoyed their cards as much as I appreciated their thoughtfulness.  While I was making these, I created an extra for OWH.  Thought they might need some boyly cards too!

I hope you find some time this week to be crafty and your mojo doesn't go the way of the dinosaurs! Happy crafting!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-wild wasabi, chocolate chip, whisper white, Woodland Walk (ret), Stamp Sets-Teeny Tiny Wishes, Dinoroar (ret), Ink-garden green, markers-crumb cake, wild wasabi, Accessories-word window punch, pastels

A new product? 'Dino'mite!!

Hi! So glad you stopped by!  I have big news!! Stampin' Up is introducing a new product!

Photopolymer stamps!!

Click the link to see Designer Typeset

I have to be honest; when I saw the information on the new style of stamp, I was not too impressed.  I have used clear stamps in the past and was not happy with the quality of the stamped image.  They just weren't my 'thing'.  So I didn't rush out to buy this set when it became available to demonstrators.  I did however win this set at our team meeting!  I promised Tiffany that I would keep an open mind and try the set.  I have to say I was impressed with how well the stamps stuck to the block and the images were pretty crisp too.  But my favorite part was the ability to curve the banner on my block before stamping! Very cool!  I don't know that I will be getting rid of my other stamps any time soon (still LOVE them!), but this is a nice alternative to the traditional rubber.  I used the banner and the alphabet from this set on my card.

This is a pretty basic card (except for the fussy cutting-gasp!) since I was simply playing with the new stamps anyway.  But I do like the way it turned out and I now have another little guy card for my stash! Or I could be not so nice and send it to one of my older siblings for their birthday... hee! hee!

If you think you would like to try out this new style of stamping, please visit my SU website. Just click here!

I hope you have a wonderful day and happy crafting!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-Baja breeze, whisper white, Stamp Sets-Dinoroar, Designer Typeset, Ink-black stazon, asst. markers, soft suede, chocolate chip

Anything But a Card Challenge #12- Share the Love

Hello! Well, I guess all of my fellow Americans know what today is right? It's Scrapbook Sunday!! You know, the night when everyone else in the family gathers in front of the tv, and you enjoy the peace and quiet as you craft your little heart away.  Oh, and I hear there's some sort of big sporting event being played tonight too...

Today is also the first week of Challenge #12 at Anything But a Card.  And what a 'love'ly challenge it is too!!

"Hello everyone!  Today we begin a new challenge perfect for the season: Share the Love- anything related to hearts, Valentines, love sick, love struck, love stinks, red, cupid, honeymoon, wedding, get the idea?  So this is a nice broad category that should generate lots of fantastic entries!  Be sure to link yours up below!  Just remember that we allow any craft project except cards!"

Now, before I show you my project for today, I want to clarify that this is NOT my design team project!  It is a card that I made that just so happens to tie in well with 'share the love' so I thought I would give you a little something to look at while I'm telling you about our challenge.

If you saw my post on Friday, you already know about the card I made for sweet little Grayson!  Today, I am sharing the card I made for Grayson's big brother, Aydan.  If you are looking for a very good reason to make a few little guy cards, be sure to check out my link.

I went with the Dinoroar stamp set again, but changed up the layout of the card.  I really hope both boys enjoy their cards and that maybe it will bring a little love and happiness to their lives.

Well, as I mentioned at the top of my post, I have been scrapbooking my little heart out and will have several pages to show you very soon! Have a marvelous week and happy crafting!

Card Recipe:  Cardstock-watercolor paper, river rock, always artichoke, basic black, whisper white, Ink-stazon black, always artichoke, crumb cake, river rock, chocolate chip, Stamp Sets-Dinoroar, Just Believe, Accessories-always artichoke denim ribbon (ret), word window punch, modern label punch, 1" circle punch, Houndstooth embossing folder, blender pen

I Dig You! Sending some Happy Mail!!

Recently, my blogging friend Sherry had posted a card she made for a special project.  After checking it out, I had to join in.  Here are the details of this very special card making event...

Grayson is sweet little 2 year old boy who has cancer.  He is getting ready to begin chemotherapy and the very kind ladies at Neat and Tangled have set up a card drive to help keep his spirits up.  If you click on the link, it will give more details about Grayson and also tell you where to send the cards.  Grayson also has a 4 year old brother named Aydan who also enjoys happy mail so we are welcome to make two cards if we like!  The drive will continue until February 28th, so there is plenty of time to make a special card, or two for these very special guys.

At my 'pay the bills' job, I work with many 2 1/2 to 5 year old boys, so I knew right away that I would be pulling out the Dinoroar stamp set for at least one of the cards!  What little guy doesn't like dinosaurs?!

I would love to take credit for the fun layout of this card, but I saw this at Amanda's blog almost a year ago (thank you pintrest for keeping it for me!) and knew I wanted to use it for a birthday card.  Just so happens that it also makes a nice 'happy mail' card too!

We had another snow day today and even with laundry, feeding farm animals, and shopping, I managed to squeeze in some time for card making.  Just think what I could do if I was home all of the time... Boggles the mind!  Have a fabulous weekend and happy crafting!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-always artichoke, basic black, watercolor paper, Ink-stazon black, always artichoke, river rock, old olive, crumb cake, Stamp Set- Dinoroar, Accessories-blender pen