Fancy Halloween!

Happy Friday! Now we are going to switch gears from Christmas to Halloween. I'm all over the place lately. I'm just glad when I get a free moment to stamp so whatever holiday I'm in the mood for, I go with it. I had this idea for a Halloween card in my head. Although I feel like it would probably be better as a fall thank you type card but I was having trouble finding some kind of gratitude type sentiment. And I didn't want to put thank you on it since I didn't think I would have any reason to send a fall thank you. At least with Halloween on it, I'll send this to my mom, haha! So she will enjoy my fancy Halloween card. On to the card details. I stamped Pumpkin Pie cardstock with the chevron stamp from Oh, Hello and then cut out 3 small ovals to make the pumpkin. I stamped an image from Label Love in Crushed Curry which is under the pumpkin. Then I stamped the polka dot image from Four Frames in Pear Pizzazz. This was layered on Crushed Curry chevron ribbon and a deco label die cut with the Champagne glimmer paper. I also added a paper doily as well to spice it up a bit. :) The background DSP is from Afternoon Picnic. Who would have thought you could use that for Halloween. Well on a fancy Halloween card you can! At the bottom I stamped the Happy Halloween from Teeny Tiny Wishes on Baked Brown Sugar cardstock. I finished it off with a few pearls in the top left corner.

Stamps: Oh, Hello, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Label Love, Four Frames
Paper: Baked Brown Sugar, Pumpkin Pie, Pear Pizzazz, Champagne Glimmer Paper, Afternoon Picnic DSP
Ink: Crushed Curry, Pear Pizzazz, Pumpkin Pie, Black
Accessories: Paper Doilies, Deco Label Framelit dies, Pearls, Crushed Curry chevron ribbon, Artisan punch, Modern Label punch, Decorative Label punch

Christmas in August!

Hello! In my last post, I said I couldn't believe how it was the middle of August, now we are here at the end of August. This summer just went by in a flash. I feel like I didn't get to do anything this summer. I hope the warmer weather continues a little longer, I'm not just ready for fall and winter yet. Even though I have a Christmas card for you today. I had a workshop last week where the hostess wanted to do a Christmas card with the Ornament Keepsakes stamp set and dies. So this is the card and tag (see below) that we made. It was a pretty quick and simple card but I think it came out so cute. Using the dies to cut the ornaments make this process super easy. And I think the paper doily adds a nice touch to the card. I used the new Season of Style DSP paper stack along with Gumball Green and Crumb Cake card stock. The ornaments were stamped in Cherry Cobbler, Gumball Green and Baked Brown Sugar. The sentiment is from More Merry Messages (which is on the Holiday Carryover list along with the Ornament Keepsakes stamp set and framelet dies). For the finishing touch I added Early Espresso baker's twine. We also make a cute little tag for the Tag a Bag gift bags. I cut out one of the Deco Framelit dies in Gumball Green, then we stamped and die cut an ornament. On the back of the tag (not shown) I stamped a saying from the Christmas Messages stamp set. I hope this gives you some inspiration to start on a couple of holiday cards!

Stamps: Ornament Keepsakes, More Merry Messages
Paper: Season of Style DSP Paper Stack, Gumball Green, Crumb Cake, Baked Brown Sugar
Ink: Gumball Green, Cherry Cobbler, Baked Brown Sugar, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Paper Doilies, Early Espresso Baker's Twine, Ornament Framelit Dies, Deco Label Dies, Tag a Bag gift bags

A Smokey Hello!

Hello everyone! I cannot believe it is the middle of August already. Where has the summer gone??? And when I woke up this morning I did not feel summer at all! It was freezing! Ok well maybe it wasn't that cold but it was definitely way too cold for my liking on an August morning. I'm just not ready for fall yet. I still want some warm summer days. We were at the beach last week and had some nice days but even those were the hot summer days I was expecting. Oh well, I shouldn't complain. This is all better than rain.

For today's card, I used the sketch from the Fab Friday challenge about 2 weeks ago. I had started it before I went on vacation but never got the chance to finish it. I had just received some items from the catalog and wanted to play with a couple of things. I used the Season of Style paper stack as the background paper. The red stripes don't need to be used just for Christmas. Then I layered a Deco Label framelit on top of that. It was embossed with the chevron embossing folder. I then punched some black cardstock with the decorative label punch. I also stamped Hello on the black cardstock but you can't really see it in the picture. Then I used the artisan label punch to punch soft sky cardstock. And finally I used the modern label punch to punch out the hello. Lots of punches used!! I finished the card off with Smokey Slate chevron ribbon and rhinestones. I used lots of dimensionals to layer all of the punches. So that's it for me today. I'll leave you with a couple of beach pictures from our vacation last week.

Stamps: Label Love, Four You
Paper: Smokey Slate, Soft Sky, Black, Season of Style Paper Stack
Ink: Soft Sky, Costal Cabana, Black
Accessories: Chevron embossing folder, Deco Label Framelit dies, Modern Label punch, Artisan punch, Decorative Label punch, rhinestones, Smokey Slate chevron ribbon

Dahlia Love

Hello! Surprise surprise, I actually have a card to share today!! It's been so long since I've been able to just make a card for fun and I miss it! My stamp room has recently been moved to the basement so I was getting things organized yesterday and while the little one napped, I snuck down there for a few minutes to make a card. I was actually able to get this card done fairly quickly. I used some new goodies on this card. I stamped the dahlia in Crisp Cantaloupe and then colored in the petals with the aqua painter and ink. The sentiment is stamped in Coastal Cabana (which I think is my new favorite color) and then I added some ruffled ribbon to the top and bottom edges. I also added this fantastic ribbon :) to the side as well. The white piece was embossed with the Chevron embossing folder. This was all added to a Pistachio Pudding card base and finished off with some rhinestones. Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Regarding Dahlias, Label Love
Paper: Pistachio Pudding
Ink: Crisp Cantaloupe, Coastal Cabana
Accessories: Coastal Cabana ruffle trim, rhinestones, Chevron embossing folder, Artisan label punch, Aqua Painter

Birthday Party Details

Hello all! To make up for my absence here, I will post lots of pictures today! I am recapping my son's first birthday party. Some of it is paper crafty and some of it is just plain old crafty. I have been waiting for the day to plan his first birthday and put to use some of those "pins" on my pinterest board! But first things first, I cannot believe a year has gone by. He is quite the little dare devil these days but he is just oh so cute! Here is a shot of Mommy and the birthday boy at his party. (He just woke up from his nap so he wasn't all together just yet, haha!) And unfortunately that was the only picture I got of us from his party.

The birthday boy's shirt has one of the monsters (click on the picture for a better view) from his invitation on it. I printed out a monster onto iron on transfer paper and ironed it on his shirt. On the back I added a 1 (you can't see that in the picture).

So let's get started on the details.

First up: The invitation.

I designed the invitation in My Digital Studio, printed it out and then used dimensionals to add it to colored cardstock. I did an invite with Lucky Limeade chevron striped and then one with Tempting Turquoise chevron stripes. {Note, all of the elements on the invitation are from Stampin' Up! with the exception of the monster clip art (which is from Etsy) and various fonts from dafont.com}.

Next up: Happy Birthday banner.

I used the Perfect Pennants die to cut out Lucky Limeade, Tempting Turquoise and Pumpkin Pie cardstock. I printed the letters from Word and then punched them out with the 1 3/4 inch scallop punch. The monsters were punched with the 2 3/8 inch scallop punch. I then used mini clothes pins to attach them to Soft Suede polka dot ribbon.

Goodie bag tags.

I designed these in MDS and then cut them out using one of the Chalk Talk framelits dies. Again, I used mini clothes pins to attach them to the bags.

Monthly photo board.

Every month I took a picture of J on a different fabric background and I would add the month in MDS. I had planned on doing something crafty with the fabric from each month, but I had too many crafty things to do and in the end that project got cut! But I knew that I wanted to display all of the photos from the first year. And the green and black board was the perfect spot for them. This was actually a door to a piece of old furniture in our basement that I spray painted green and then with chalkboard paint in the middle. I had planned on using this as a chalkboard in our kitchen but never got around to hanging it so it became the perfect backdrop for all of his photos. Again, I just hung them up with mini clothes pins on some Soft Suede polka dot ribbon.

Balloon Wreath

I think this was one of my favorite projects. I had seen this on Pinterest and knew that I HAD to do this. Most of the tutorials I saw used the variety pack of balloon colors but I knew that wouldn't go with my "color theme". So I went to Party City and got green, turquoise and orange balloons that went better with my theme. Of course that makes it a little difficult to reuse every year but oh well. I plan on putting it out every year for birthdays! I love how it came out. I also added a cut out of the monster and a number 1. Those are just pinned into the wreath so they can be removed. This project was a little costly but I had so much fun making it.

Final Pictures of the table.

This is certainly my longest post to date! Sorry for the not so great photo quality but I had limited time to get these pictures taken before the party started!! But I hope you enjoyed all the crafty details from my son's party!!

Bridal Shower invites - Part 2

Hello! I am finally sharing the other 2 bridal shower samples I made. Again, these were done with MDS, printed out and added to colored cardstock. I used the Cheers to You and By the Tide sets in MDS. I've been having a lot of fun making these samples. I still have the birthday party invites to share. And I got my goodies from the new catalog so I hope to try to at least make one card with the stuff I bought. Although now we are in party planning mode for my son's first birthday and I have about a thousand craft ideas that I would like to complete before July 6th, haha! Plus the actual cleaning and yardwork that needs to be done. To me, I think the crafts and decorations are more important, haha! Of course, I will post pictures of the things that I get done. So stay tuned for a birthday party post in July.

Stamps: By the Tide, Cheers to You
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Pool Party
Accessories: MDS, glitter

Oh, Hello Anniversary Card

Hello!! Have you all checked out the new catalog yet! Of course I love everything in it as always. I especially love the new In Colors this year! Swoon!! I think Coastal Cabana will be my new favorite. I should be getting my new items in the next couple of days so I hope that I can play a little over the weekend. I would like to start my classes up again so hopefully I can work on some cards for that. I have some ideas floating around in my head. Today's card uses new colors and the Oh, Hello set from the mini which is now in the new catalog. The background is the new Smokey Slate (love this as well). I stamped the large flower from Betsy's Blossoms in Smokey Slate. I stamped the chevron image from Oh Hello in Coastal Cabana onto white cardstock cut with the Labels Framelits dies. The flowers were stamped in Strawberry Slush and Crisp Cantaloupe (the stems are Lucky Limeade). I added 2 flowers from the flower trim and colored them with Crisp Cantaloupe. However they came out way more orange-y than I would have liked. But overall, I like how the rest of the card came out. I gave this card to my brother and sister-in-law for their first wedding anniversary on June 1st. It did feel good to kind of get into the swing of things and make a card. Lately, I've been making a lot of invitations with no time for cards. I will post the other 2 bridal shower invites I did soon and then I have the invitations to show for my son's first birthday party. They came out so cute! I can't wait to share them.
Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Oh, Hello, Betsy's Blossoms, Friendly Phrases
Paper: Coastal Cabana, Smokey Slate
Ink: Crisp Cantaloupe, Smokey Slate, Strawberry Slush, Lucky Limeade
Accessories: Labels Framelits dies, Flower Trim, Rhinestones, Bakers Twine