Be Natural

Cupcake Inspirations Challenge #156

Getting ready for the SPCA of Wake County 3K Dog Walk with the Hubs and the pups, but I wanted to post this card as it is for the Cupcake Inspiration Challenge, which ends today.  When I saw the inspirational photo I knew what I wanted to do.  I have had the background patterned paper for ages and when I saw the photo at Cupcakes I immediately knew I was going to use that paper.

A very long time ago I attended a scrapbook fair with some friends and one of the tutorials was paper piecing in which we learned to paper piece a frog.  Mind you, this was a good 10 years ago, and I could not find that frog for the life of me!  So, I had to go on memory, which isn't all that keen these days.  However, I think my little frog is pretty cute.  I used three different sized circle dies for his body, head, and eyes; oval dies for his legs; and his toes are toes from a dog paw punch.  I embossed his body and head with the Cuttlebug tiny dot folder.  His mouth is about 1/3 of a circle cut and then I edged the bottom half of it with brown ink to make his smile.  His eyeballs are black pearl gems. The lily pad I also made from circles cut and then I just cut on side out  of it.

The background behind him is glitter mist and homemade glitter mist sprayed on white cardstock.  I then stamped the branches all over 3/4 of the paper to make the water reeds.  The dragonflies are a stamp from the bargain bin at Michaels.  I stamped them on white cardstock, colored them in with copics, sprayed a little pearl glimmer mist and cut them out to make them pop out on the card.  And....looking at my photo, I see one of the dragonflies' heads is tucked underneath!  Ok, guess I will have to fix that before putting it in the mail.  So much for careful proofing before photographing!  LOL

SPIES:
Stamps:  Sentiment (Prima, I think). Dragonflies (G Studio); Reeds (Inkadinkadoo).
Paper:  Brown, white and light blue cardstock.  DP from stash.
Ink:  Staz On Timber Brown.  Copics (on dragonflies).  Blue Skies and Pearl Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels); Golden brown and coastline blue homemade glimmer mist from acrylic paint.
Extras:  Postage stamp border punch (Spellbinders); circle and oval dies(Sizzix); dog paw punch (EK Success).Deckled Rectangle die (Spellbinders); small dot emboss folder (Cuttlebug).

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Sihouette Wishes

TGIF Everyone!  Hope wherever you are you are having a joyous April spring Friday.   I am going shabby chic tonight using the colors from CR84FN and the Sweet Sunday Sketch #156 at The Sweetest Thing.
I also tried a new flower tutorial, the Tattered Flower at The Artsiders.  I must say, Paul's on the tutorial looks better than mine.  I used patterned paper for mine and scrunched it up a bit more than he did.  I also sprayed  Pearl Glimmer Mist on it.   Maybe I need to learn to tear paper better!  LOL

I loved this silhouette stamp from Jenni Bowlin Studio.  It's just so whimsical! And this birthday sentiment from Fiskars went perfect with it.  All the patterned paper I used is Lost & Found from My Mind's Eye.  Such adorable shabby chic patterns.  I had a hard time deciding which ones to put together.  I 'holed' the banner strips too for a more shabby look.  I was too impatient and/or lazy to thread my sewing machine today.

Tattered Flower Tutorial from The Artsiders   

SPIES:

Stamp:  Silhouette (Jenni Bowlin); sentiment (Fiskars).

Paper:  Tan and cream cardstock; DP - Lost & Found (My Mind's Eye).

Ink:  Staz On Jet Black

Extras:  Damask emboss folder (Cuttlebug); fancy label die(Sizzix Framelits); scallop border punch (Taylored Expressions); leaf die (Taylored Expressions); hole maker; clear gems; cream floss, cream satin ribbon.  

CHALLENGES:

 

The hubs is working the next five days and so hopefully I will get to craft and post more cards and some other crafts I am working on.  Until then...

Happy Weekend!

All Grown Up

Just thought I would share some photos of my Ben on his 18th birthday last Friday, April 13th.  His grandparents (Dave's dad and stepmom) drove up from South Carolina for the weekend to celebrate with all of us.  Friday afternoon, Dave, his dad and stepmom and myself  met Ben and his girlfriend, Chelsea, for a wonderful afternoon on the campus of UNC--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

  Benjamin Taylor Salkeld
(My not so little baby!)


Pics of Baby Ben

Ben and Chelsea led his grandparents on a tour of the campus, with Dave and me in tow.   As they gave the grandparents information on each and every building, I busied myself snapping photos.   Ben was gracious enough to allow me to photograph his momentous day.  Plus, normally at all the other occasions we have spent on campus, it has been far too hectic and scheduled to take photos.  It was a gorgeous Carolina day with everything in full bloom!

Chelsea & Ben

And of course, you can't go to Chapel Hill without having a photo op at the infamous Old Well.  Thank you Ben for humoring your mother!

                     Ben, his Papa Ian and Gramma Lesley

                   

Ben, Me & Dave

Afterwards we had dinner at another Chapel Hill favorite --- The Top of the Hill Restaurant and Brewery.  If you are ever in Chapel Hill, it is a must for your culinary pleasure!

We finished the evening at home in Cary with Ben and Chelsea joining us for Ben's traditional cookie cake by the Great American Cookie Company and gifts and a friendly game of Wii frisbee golf.

 It is still hard to believe that my baby is no longer a baby and officially an adult.  Time has truly flown but we are very proud of him, about to finish his first year at UNC and of his older brother, Patrick who is finishing his 2nd year at UCO (University of Central Oklahoma).  Therefore, as one door of our lives closes, we begin a new one with new adventures with our family.

Happy Sunday!

Big Day!

Hi all!  Such a busy week this past week.  Trying to finish painting our family room, family visiting over the weekend and our youngest son's 18th birthday this past Friday.  So, I didn't get a lot of time to craft or blog.  I did at least take time to make Ben's birthday card and used the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches.

I used the DP paper from Simple Stories Happy Day pad.  Such cute patterns!  I paper pieced the penguin stamp and added gems for his eyes and his toes.  The calendar is part of one of the patterned papers from Simple Stories that I cut out and stamped the sentiment onto the calendar and added a cut out and colored  penguin's hat to compliment the penguin.  the stars, balloons (oval die cut)and background and border are all die cuts.

SPIES:

Stamps:  Penguin (KaiserCraft); Sentiment (My Favorite Things).

Paper:  Cream cardstock.  DP -Happy Day (Simple Stories).

Ink: Staz On Black; Copics marker on hats.

Extras:  Stars, ovals (balloons), fancy labels die cuts (Sizzix).  Postage stamp border die (Spellbinders). Leather twine for balloon string.

Carousel Dreams

A simple, yet special project implementing photography, stamping, and crafting for the Clean and Simple challenge at The Pink Elephant.  I overlaid a digital sentiment from TLC Creations onto one of my own photos, which I took at the NC State Fair a couple years ago.  I matted the photo on pink and yellow cardstock and then modge podged it all onto a 6x6 canvas.  Wrapped ribbon around the sides of the canvas, made a loop at the top and adhered it with a brass carpet tack.

Peeps N' Treats

More Easter goodies!  I  have had a bunny card template from The Cutting Cafe for over a year now and never used it.  Thought it was time to do it.  So, I made these cute 'peep' cards modeled after the popular PEEP marshmallow treats, which my college boys still love!

I also found another digi stamp at the Cutting Cafe that I used to make these adorable wrappers for jelly bean tubes.  So colorful and perfect.  I printed them off on photo paper to give them an extra sheen.

The bunny cards were very easy.  I had the fuzzy paper in my stash and thought it was perfect and gave them that extra PEEP look.

I embossed the bottom half of each card accordingly, going for a more manly look for the blue bunny and flowers for the yellow one.  These cards are going in gift bags for my 20 year old son out in Oklahoma and his girlfriend.  I gave the boy bunny a yellow tie to match the girl.  His eyes are white buttons with blue gems stuck in the middle.  His nose is a white round button and the whiskers are actually from an old felt cat craft that had seen better days.  For the yellow girl bunny,  I blinged her up with a pearl necklace, heart pendant, and pearly nose.  Her whiskers are pink baker's twine. Her eyes are white metal flower brads with pink gems glued in the middle.

  

 I stamped sentiments inside of both cards --left (blue bunny), and right (yellow bunny) above. I probably should have photographed the backs as well as they are covered with the fuzzy paper also.

CHALLENGES:

Anything Goes Challenge - Challenge #64 Anything Goes
Paper Sundaes:  #144 Easter

Got Eggs? & Easter Gift Bags

Some simple Easter gift bags for my son in Oklahoma and his girlfriend.  Lots of embossing on the eggs and digi-sentiments.

CHALLENGES:

Anything Goes Challenge - #64 Anything Goes
Paper Sundaes - Challenge #114 Easter

Hippity Hoppity Soft

Good evening again.  Or I guess I should say "good morning" as it is after midnight on the East Coast.  Trying to get some posting done before I hit the sack.  I made this card for our neighbor's little girl.  I remember making an Easter card a couple years ago with a bunny face on the bottom like this.  However, after I finished this card and went back in my archive, I discovered that I actually pretty much cased the older card in other elements.  Here is my older card from March 2010.

This time I made the bunny out of felt so it would have a soft texture.  I cut him from a circle die for his head, then cut it in half.  His ears are made from two different size oval dies. I embossed the pink ones, but it is hard to see it.  The top border is a flower border die that has flowers in the middle.  I actually cut one in white to use the white flowers instead of the pink.  I cut an extra scallop die in the light pink to add to the top of the white scallop die.  I thought the wavy green textured paper would give the background a look of grass in a fun way. I also added shaky eyes and fancy whiskers for more whimsy.  I think I love this card  more than the old one.  You just have to love those whiskers and shaky eyes! 

CHALLENGES:

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #154

Our Creative Corner - How Green is Your Spring?

4 Crafty Chicks Challenge #83- Easter

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #154

Our Creative Corner Challenge - How Green is Your Spring?

SPIES:

Stamps:  Sentiment(Craft Smart).

Paper:  White, light pink cardstock.  DP -green wavy textured.  White and pink felt.

Ink:  Rose -Colorbox.

Extras:  Circle and oval dies (Sizzix).  Flower emboss folder (on pink ears).  Large scallop border and large flower strip border die (Taylored Expressions).  Fleur de lis die (Taylored Expressions) for whiskers.  Shaky eyes.  Green brads.  Pink gems.

HE is Risen!

Happy Holy Week Everyone!  I've been holed up in my craft room working on Easter cards and gifts and what not for the last couple days.  The Hubs is still working on repainting the family room in between shifts at the ER, so I trying to stay out of his way and ignore the mess.  Yeah, that's the excuse I'm using and sticking to for spending all my time crafting!  LOL!

I've been wanting to do this canvas for a couple weeks now, just couldn't get it all straight in my head until this week's challenge at Play Date Cafe.  Gave me just the inspiration I needed!  I knew I wanted to create something with the wooden cross and the sentiment to set in our foyer.  In the foyer I hung an authentic crown of thorns from the Holy Land, graced with silk dogwood flowers.  So I think my canvas adds the right touch to things.  I wanted to keep things fairly simple.

It took me a few tries to get it just the way I wanted it.  I first printed the sentiment on tissue paper for a more transparent look, but every medium I used to adhere the tissue paper to the canvas made the ink bleed.  Guess I need to view a couple tutorial videos again and see what I missed.  I wound up printing it out on photopaper and just modge podging the back of the photopaper to the canvas and then brushing a couple coats of Modge Podge onto the cardstock borders (I used a rope border punch) on top, taking care not to run into the words.

The wooden cross I had and I just brushed some darker wood stain onto it, adhered white ribbon with a glue gun and added the crown made of raffia.  The flowers are from the same sprigs as is in the vase and on the crown in the foyer.

SPIES:
Stamps:  Sentiment - Digital Stamp (Create with TLC).
Paper:  White, black and brown cardstock; photopaper.
Extras:  Rope border punch (EK Success); white ribbon; raffia; silk flowers, Modge Podge.

I am very pleased with the outcome of this project.  Thanks for stopping by!  Come back soon, I have several more projects to post.

Multiple Blessings

City Crafter Challenge #102 - Spring Fling Color

A quick card tonight.  My photo does not do it total justice as the dark pink looks kind of red.  The bunnies are descaled bunny card templates from The Cutting Cafe.  I wanted to make them look like little peeps.

SPIES:

Stamps:  Sentiment - Digital Stamp (TLC Creations).
Paper: Cardstock.  DP-zigzag from stash.
Ink:  Printer
Extras:  Scallop Oval nestabilities (Spellbinder); bunny die (digi printable by Cutting Cafe); large dot, small dot and fleur de lis emboss folders; yellow ric rac ribbon; label die (Taylored Expressions).