Teacher's Gift for a man

This is a Teacher's Gift that I made for my oldest son's teacher. He was a great teacher, but a male - and they are so hard to "create" for! I found this large pencil holder (each panel measures 4 x 6). I filled it with snacks and wrapped it in cellophane for giving. Hope he liked it.

ETA: I purchased the clear acrylic pencil holder at where else.... Wal-Mart! It was in the section with the frames.

Happy Graduation Cards

H
Here are some graduation cards I made. The first one is for a H.S. graduate that wants to open up his own barber shop. It's in his school colors. I downloaded the shears image from the internet.

The second card is one that I made for my 6th grader who graduated to Middle School. It's in his school colors and came together very quickly. I was grabbing some scraps in his colors and found a sheet of Night of Navy that had 2 stars punched out of it. I punched one more star and cut it to size then layered it on top of a real red piece. Simple and quick, but cute I think!

fathers day treat

DH was desperate for a gift for his dad and decided on an Arch Card as his dad goes to McD's everyday for a soda while he reads the paper. I hadn't made a card for him as I'm pretty sure that DH specifially said not to, but that's another story.... When I needed a way to present the gift card, I thought red and yellow (new crushed curry to be exact). Then, my thoughts turned to McD's and what else.... french fries! I had the template for this fry box and decided to give it a whirl. I printed the template onto a piece of real red, cut it out and taped it together - easy peasy! Then to bring in some of the yellow (crushed curry). I used my word window along the straight edge of a piece of paper and cut random widths and angles and attached them to a piece of scrap paper, then inside the box. The gift card is in the bag of chocolates inside the fry box. He seemed to like it and my kids were impressed :)

My baby is 9 today!

Here's my little man last fall during football awards. He received the Scholastic All American award for having a 96 GPA. (Must get his brains from me, lol) I guess I have been bad about getting pictures lately if this is the most recent one I can find on my computer! I can't believe that he's 9 already - wow, where does the time go and how is it that I weigh more today than I did 9 years ago today?!? LOL, Damn baby weight :)

Tyler definately has his mom's silly sense of humor and he's my wise guy. It's weird, he looks just like DH, but acts just like me :) T-Man, we love you bud - keep smiling and have a great bday! I am taking a bunch of his friends on my dad's bus to a syracuse sky chief's baseball game later tonight. I have to go by myself as DH and my older son have a little league play off game - wish me luck!

Stampin' Up! Country Living Summer Cookout Kit

This summer, Stamin' Up! has partnered with Country Living magazine to create a unique craft kit, which they will feature in their July 2009 issue. You Can click on the picture at left to see a bigger picture!

You will love how it can help you create special memories with a fun and convenient, coordinated summer barbeque!
Item # 118070
Country Living Summer Cookout Kit
Price: $24.95

The exclusive Country Living Summer Cookout Kit includes the following products:
8 die-cut table tents (2 each of 4 colors)
Die-cut components, bamboo skewers, and envelopes to create 8 shish kabob invitations
12 die-cut coasters (3 each of 4 colors)
16 die-cut tags (4 each of 4 colors)
24 12" x 12" printed food wrapper sheets (12 each of 2 colors)
4 printed recipe cards
5 yards linen thread
Ruby Red Classic Stampin' Spot
Night of Navy Classic Stampin' Spot
Dig In stamp set (item number 116700)
Note: the kit does not include tablecloths, plates, or flatware.

How fun is that?!?

kiwi kiss butterfly

This is a quick card I made while friends were over. It features the butterfly die from stampin up which I don't own, so I took advantage of it while it was here. Gotta be short, my laptop battery is running low and of course because I'm on the computer where I can be seen, everyone in my household "needs" me right now!

Cheers to you dad!

This month's DIVA hostess wanted to make a gift card holder. I looked for something a bit different that I hadn't shown them before (they are getting quite accomplished!) I hope they have fun making this one tonight at DIVA club. I know not all dads drink as heavily as mine... lol, just kiddin' dad :) , but the images can be changed up to suit your dad, or grad, or mom, or sister, or teacher, or - well, you get the idea! Have a great weekend and don't forget to make something for father's day!

Happy Birthday Coach

Here's a card for Cullen's head baseball coach. The team is surprising him with a cake, so I made a card that the whole team could sign for him. His name is embossed on the back. I was blurfing (blog surfing) and was inspired by my friend, Renee's card. I remembered... "Hey, I have that stamp!" The t-shirt is a stamp that I got at the Expo last year and his made by too much fun rubber stamps. They have so many really fun things! I colored in the "trim" with my SU gel pen, and hit the highlight areas with a red marker to give the shirt some dimension. Coach is embossed with white. The baseball glove and ball are from a retired SU set called sporting goods, which I don't think I will EVER part with - it sure does come in handy, lol!

2009 Stampin' Up! In-Colors

Well, probably most everyone has seen these by now (sorry, I'm a little behind on my blogging). These will be the 6 new In-Colors in the Stampin' Up! Catalog that goes live on July 1st. I have placed my pre-order, but opted out of the $50 overnight shipping charge and therefore, got put in the back of the line so to speak for shipping. I just got notice yesterday that part of my order has shipped and should be here on monday (the 15th). Once I get some of these new papers, I can make some cards and show off the colors on my blog. Until then, Dawn has allowed us to use this picture from her blog to show the new colors (she musta shelled out the 50 beans!). If you'd like to see some comparison photos of how the new in colors fit in with the current 48 colors, she has them posted on her blog here.

Thanks to Dawn and other demo's who have gotten some of their pre-order stuff, we can all have a little sneak peak of what's to come! For the first time ever, we will also be getting MARKERS to coordinate with the new in-colors!! From what I've seen of the new hostess sets, I will be busy with parties this year too!

graduation card and some paper shares

This is a graduation card I did for our intern at work. She says she's not a "girly-girl", so I didn't want to go to frilly with this card. I've had this starving artist animal since last year's stamp expo and I don't think I've used him yet. The grad cap is a clear stamp from a MSE set that I found on clearance. I just masked the little cap and stamped the monkey underneath. I also used coal shimmerz on the cap for something special. See that chalkboard background on the orange paper? I love, love, love this stamp.... another I've had in my collection for a while, but never used. It's from River City Rubber Works. I just stamped in white craft ink, then embossed ... cool, huh? Her school colors are orange and blue. Congrats Nikki!

Now - to swith gears.... Those of you on my mailing list now that I put together some paper shares to take advantage of the current Stampin' Up! Special of buy 3 packs of designer paper or 12 x 12 textured cardstock and get 1 free. The first round of shares filled very quickly and the order arrived yesterday (except for one pack of paper which is why there are only 3 papers shown in the rockabilly share. Anyway, here they are all packaged up and ready to go when the backordered pack gets here. If you ordred the Bella Share or the Combo Pack, they are all ready! The deets... get a 6 x 12 piece of each double sided paper included in the 4 selected paper packs - that's 24 pieces per share for only $10!! ($12 for the speciality paper share). email me if you'd like the flyer with all the details to sign up for a spot or two. It's a great way to get a taste of lots of paper without breaking the bank.

Happy Mother's Day

Hope all you mom's out there have a great day doing whatever makes you happiest. My kids are especially wound up today, so I am relaxing in my rubber room cleaning up after a full day of crafting for others yesterday. I made some really cool mother's day and teacher projects, but didn't get any pics before they went out the door as I can't find the cord to charge my camera. Guess I need to keep cleaning, lol! Have a great day all!!

Hambo Stamps - Cool Cat Digi Download

While blurfing (blog surfing) today, I hit the jackpot with this free digi download from Hambo Stamps. There was a challenge on the Hambo blog to make a card using the downloaded image, so I printed it out and got to work. After printing out the image on a piece of white cardstock, I then printed it again on some designer paper from Stampin' Up! I cut out the inner tube from the designer paper and after I colored in the cool cat, I popped the inner tube back on using dimensionals. (SU dimensionals are the BEST for this as they are nice and thin). I then added some fishies and the sun from the SU set Just Beachy. Not sure if you can tell by the picture, but Cool Cat's glasses are covered in coal shimmerz (from www.allthatscraps.com), completing his too cool for school look! Thanks for stoppin' in - hope you enjoy!

WNY Spring Fest pictures - Recipe Swaps

So for the first time at a swap, I signed up to do the Recipe Swaps. Those who know me, know that I don't particularly like to cook. Therefore, I decided if I ever did sign up for a recipe swap, I would use this recipe that I received in an email from a friend a long time ago.... A swap was born! The outside of the card features an oven door complete with a digital clock that I printed using my computer. The oven mits were clip art that I printed onto dsp and cut out. When you open the card, the chicken from Best of Cluck pops out at you. I did this by using some lightweight wire that came on a spool. I poked the end through the recipe paper and taped over the front with clear tape. I had to do 28 of these! Also pictured are just some of the swaps that I received in return. Thanks for stopping by today and sharing some of my swap experience!

WNY Spring Fest pictures - ATC Swaps

Recently, I attended a HUGE swap in Buffalo, NY. For the first time, I signed up for the ATC and the RECIPE swaps. The It's all good ATC shown above was my contributiont to the ATC swap. I used the Gina K set called You are my Sunshine. The surfboard is DeNami. I made the sand dues by tearing creamy carmel paper (didn't photo true to color) and then sponged the edges and stamped on some grains of sands using my itty bitty backgrounds. The other picture is some of the ATC's I received as a part of this swap. I'm so excited to start my ATC collection and can't wait to add to it. FYI... An ATC is an Artist Trading Card and measures 2.5 x 3.5. The object is to showcase as much art as you can using your personal style on to the baseball card sized paper. Don't you love them?

WNY Spring Fest pictures

Here is my van all loaded up and headed for Buffalo (actually this is on the way home). We went to the 2nd WNY Spring Fest held in Buffalo, NY on April 25, 2009. If you look closely, you can see my 3 partners in crime for the weekend. Can anyone guess who they are and how much I had to pay one of them to pose for a picture?!?
What a great time I had stamping, swaping, chatting, learning new techniques and even stamping in our jammies at the hotel! Below is a picture of the stamping action as we were completing our "shoebox" or table projects. There were 75 women attending this event. When we first arrived, we drew our table assignment and set up our projects for our table mates. I was at Table F and made some really cool projects that the other girls brought to share. I aslo participated in the recipe and ATC swaps. I'll post a picture of my projects tomorrow. Thanks everyone who made this event another great one!

A Video Tour of the Rubber Room

Well, I can't figure out how to get the icon of the video where you push play, so if you'd like to see a video tour of my rubber room click on the picture above or click here.

Sizzlets Little Leaves Die Card

I finally opened up my Sizzlets Little Leaves Die I got last month from SU. I wanted to cut some leaves out to see what they looked like. When I saw the negative that the die cut made, I immediately dropped the leaves themselves and went to work with the negative. This is the end result. I love when I have absolutely no plan and something comes together quickly. This card took about 5 minutes to finish! The little kiwi kiss "faux brads" on the corners are done with a galaxy marker I had in my turnabout. I inked up the end and used it to dot them on. Cool, heh? Thanks for stopping in - hope you're having a good weekend

DIVA Project - 2-step, 3d Stamping with Soft Summer

Hi there! We have DIVA club this friday. For those of you who don't know about DIVA club, you can see more info here. If you have some friends and want to form a club, like this - let's talk!This is the full card project we'll be doing once we learn about 2-step, 3d stamping (a technique the hostess chose). I'm not sure if this is the official interpretation of the technique, but it's mine, so as thier fearless leader, I guess they'll have to love it:) The choc chip piece has been run through the cuttlebug using the small dots texturz plate. The new scallop oval punch was used to punch out a window from the front of the card and the celebrate oval is attached using dimensionals inside the card. Can't believe that break is almost over - hope you're enjoying yours!

RAK - punched Easter bunny basket

How cute is this little Easter Basket? My friend and DIVA Stacey surprised me with this over the weekend. Thanks Stacey - you rock! It's a little basket made out of scallop envelopes and adorned with a litle bunny made of punches. I can't tell you much more than that as I've never made one. I did just receive my own scallop envelope die tonight though - yipee! Thanks for stoppin by!

Happy Easter and remember....