2S4Y and Raspberry Suite Challenges

Just have a couple of cards to post today. First up is a card I finished for Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite challenge. This is the first time I have played along with Dawn's color challenges. Dawn is famous for her color choices and I have loved all of her color challenge colors but I usually don't get the card done in time to post it. I just use her palette. But this time I was determined to post my card and play along.
I love these colors together. The patterned paper is Bo Bunny, Fancy Pants, My Mind's Eye, Crate Paper and the embossed white cardstock is Doodlebug. The flowers are from Prima. The trim is American Crafts and the letter stickers are Making Memories.

I liked the colors from Dawn's color challenge so much that I just kept using them for my card for 2S4Y this week. This is based on Laura's sketch and uses a little bit of everything. The patterned paper is Making Memories, Fancy Pants, Bo Bunny, The Paper Company, and Doodlebug. The cardstock tag is Colorbok. The flourish rub-on is Heidi Grace and the letter rub-ons are American Crafts. The button is SEI. The letter stickers are Making Memories and the ribbon is American Crafts. I sanded and inked all the edges with Tim Holtz ink. I hope you like them. Such great colors. Thank you Dawn for the colors and thank you Laura for the sketch. I love them both. I had better get this posted before I miss another deadline for Raspberry Suite. Be back soon.

You're So "Tweet"

Happy Spring! At least today finally feels like we might get a little spring before the final snow storm of the year comes. But not to worry, it usually arrives right after I get my garden planted and that hasn't happened yet, so we're safe.
I have been busy clearing off my desk after the Mother's Day marathon of projects and so it was looking so clean, I just had to do something about that. My friend Chris had a little giveaway on to celebrate her 200th post on her blog and I ended up winning. I'm so excited. It is a great excuse for us to get together and I decided that I needed to make it more of a swap, so I made this little birdhouse box filled with Clodhoppers for her. It's sad that we live so close to each other but life is so busy that we have to come up with an excuse to get together. Hopefully we can get together for lunch and catch up.
How cute is this little birdhouse box. It is a pattern designed by Nichole Heady. You can find it HERE on her blog. I loved the pattern and I dressed it up with My Mind's Eye, Penny Lane collection.

The bird is my own design and the letter stickers and glitter heart sticker are Making Memories. I also managed to trash my desk again in the making of this project. My creative mind seems to need a little chaos in the work area. Either that or I am a walking tornado with paper. So I'm off to clear off my desk once again but I have to say, this little birdhouse was worth it. I think I'll have to make a few more. I love it. Thank you Nichole and thank you Chris! I'll see you soon.

Have A Berry Sweet Mother's Day!

Well, (I think I start every post with "well", need to work on that) last night I had a very late but very productive night. The creative juices were really flowing, as well as the Diet Pepsi that helped me make it until 2:30 a.m. I pretty much never drink soda but yesterday was a pretty crazy day and I was crashing before I even began to finish up my Mother's Day projects. I had been trying to come up with a cute gift for my grandma all week and last night I finally had an epiphany. Here's what I came up with:

It all started with one of my little berry baskets that I had been saving because "I just might need them someday" and I actually did. I cut a piece of patterned paper to fit in the bottom and glued another underneath (I sandwiched the basket in between the two pieces of paper) for stability. Then I wove a ribbon through the basket and tied a bow. The card is made from my usual Doodlebug embossed white cardstock. The rub-ons are American Crafts and the letter stickers are Making Memories. The strawberry is my own design and pieced with My Mind's Eye and We R Memory Keepers. The flower is cut from Doodlebug's glitter cardstock. I filled the basket with a bag of strawberry bon bons. I love how it turned out. I think she will like it.

Remember all of the square cards that I have been posting lately. Well, I have been slowly getting them done for my mom for Mother's Day. I have to start early and I still usually end up staying up really late getting them done (like last night). Anywhoooo.......here's the last one. There are 16 in total. I was planning on 20 but the container I made for them is at maximum capacity with 16, so 16 it is.

This is My Mind's Eye, Crate Paper, and The Paper Company. The letter stickers are Rusty Pickle and the flourish is Making Memories.

And what you ask, did I make to put these cards?

It's a decorate paper lunch bag. I made it to match the card that I made earlier for Roree's challenge. And here's what it looks like when the card is clipped on.

It's just 2 pieces of cardstock cut slightly larger than the bag. I rounded the corners and glued on a smaller piece of My Mind's Eye red paper. Then I cut handles by measuring the back of the cardstock and punching two circles. Then I joined them together by cutting with my exacto knife along a straight edge. I finished decorating the front pretty much the same as the card and glued the front and back on. I again used my exacto knife to trim out the brown bag from the handle.

And there you have it. My mom loves giving handmade cards and I make her a stack every year. She is the BEST mom and so amazing. I admire all that she has accomplished and she is really the greatest grandma. I love watching her with my kids and my niece and nephews. We are all getting together for a little cookout tomorrow. I can't wait to spend a little time with my family. Hope you have a nice, relaxing Mother's Day (whether you are a mom or not) because you deserve it!

Today Is The Big Day

Well, I've got just a quick post again. I'm trying to quickly get all my stuff done this morning so I can watch today's Senate Confirmation Hearings on CSPAN. Yes, you read that right. CSPAN! I can honestly say I thought CSPAN was only to torture waiting room patients in the ER. It makes sick people come to blows over the one remaining copy of the AARP magazine. But I have cleared my schedule to watch CSPAN. My best friend's dad has been nominated by President Obama to the Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior, Indian Affairs and today is his hearing. Larry EchoHawk is seriously one of the wisest men I know. I am always amazed by his wisdom and ability to handle serious issues. Jenny was able to go to Washington D.C. to be with her family to watch his hearing. Jenny will be famous on CSPAN! Who could ask for more!
I've been working furiously on making a stack of cards for my mom for Mother's Day. I make her cards every year. It's her favorite gift. She's so good with corespondence. Here's a few that I've added to the pile.
Mostly My Mind's Eye, Penny Lane Collection with a few odd scraps here and there. The chipboard letters are Basic Grey and the ribbon is American Crafts.

Once upon a time, there was a line of paper from My Mind's Eye called Kaleidoscope. How I loved Kaleidoscope. I used it for just about everything for a while. I discovered while I was making this card that I have used the last card-sized piece of Kaleidoscope left in my scraps. I can still keep making flowers and things but other than that it's finally time that I bid a fond farewell to my Kaleidoscope. The letter stickers are Making Memories and the jewel brads are Little Yellow Bicycle.

How about this for a random mix. The patterned paper for the background is Cosmo Cricket and Scenic Route. The paper is used on the flowers is just about every other paper company known to man. The letter stickers are American Crafts.

Have a good one. I'm off to prepare to watch a little CSPAN. I can't believe I just said that. I am more prepared for this little hearing than I was for the Super Bowl. Go Larry!

Hello!

Just a quick little hello from me and then I am off to bed EARLY. I can barely keep my eyes open. Here a little Cosmo Cricket, Girl Friday collection card that I made. Those pink dots are my current favorite with the blue flower paper a close second. Hooray for Cosmo Cricket! What would I do without them? The other patterned papers are from Pebbles and We R Memory Keepers. The glitter paper is Doodlebug and the chipboard flower is from a really old We R Memory Keepers set I have. The letter stickers are Making Memories and the button is SEI. Well I'm seriously off to bed. Goodnight y'all.

Mom Card Challenge

I hope you all had a chance to do a little something creative to celebrate National Scrapbook Day yesterday. I finally just had to ignore all of the things around the house that needed to be done and sit down at my desk. Thank goodness for my supportive husband who helped with the laundry and bathing the kids so I could finally burn up some creative energy. I decided to work on a challenge that Roree Rumph has posted on her blog. She is the guest designer for Scrap'n Supply Shack this month and she did some seriously cute cards with their card kit and she offered up a challenge for one of Scrap'n Supply Shack's card kits, so of course I had to take on that challenge. Roree posted a sketch on her blog by Debbie Sherman to use for inspiration to create a card for Mother's Day. So here's mine: I promise I was looking at the sketch when I did this. Pretty soon though, my card started taking on a life of it's own. So I took a little bit of creative license from the sketch but all of the elements are there. The horizontal stripes, the oval sentiment label, the flourish, it's all there just a little different than I planned when I started, but what else is new? I almost never end up where I thought I would when I started a project. Most of the patterned paper is My Mind's Eye, Penny Lane collection but the graph paper is Cosmo Cricket. The flower die-cuts are also from the Penny Lane collection. The polka dot brad, letter stickers, and chipboard flourish are from Making Memories. The flower pieces, flourish, and leaf are coated in Martha Stewart glitter. I have to say, I really love how this one turned out. I'll be sure to post more about Mother's Day later but my little guy wants me to "snuggle" with him. How can I turn down a request like that?

Happy National Scrapbook Day!

Well, I hope you all are taking a little time to celebrate one of my most favorite made up holidays. I still get a little twinge of excitement every time I think of the first Saturday in May. Back in the day, I used to celebrate by going to the all night crop at the Denim & Daisies in Pocatello. It ran from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and was just the best time. Such great friends and creative minds. I still (almost 10 years later) miss it on NSD. I hope to find a little time to do something creative today to celebrate. The month of April has been crazy buzy and even though I have done the last 3 2S4Y challenges, I didn't get a chance to post them. This week I was determined to post it and I am just barely making it by the deadline. Here's to a little more peaceful month.
This is based on Kazan's cute sketch this week. The patterned papers are We R Memory Keepers, Pebbles, and My Mind's Eye. The chipboard letters are Basic Grey. The ribbon is from We R Memory Keepers and the letter stickers are Making Memories. Now all I have to do is just remember to link it to 2S4Y. I'm off to celebrate with a little glue and paper. Yay!