Family Tree.
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Since I wasn’t chosen for the design team, I am now free to show you my project I made last month! This was a gift for my mother for Mother’s Day this year. My mom and step-dad are at the top and each child and grandchild has a leaf…including a grandchild who died at 3-1/2 months old. I traced some chipboard tree limbs onto brown cardstock for the limbs and just winged it for the main trunk of the tree. I also just freehand drew one leaf and used it for a template to make all the other ones. The leaves, bird, house, clouds, and sun are all raised up off the canvas with American Crafts foam dots. These are my new favorite thing! They are the best foam dots I’ve ever used.
The little birdie was cut from a sheet of patterned paper from My Little Shoebox. I added a pretty blue gem for his eye and some yellow Stickles to his wing to make him more sparkly. Oh man, was today the day I wished for some of those “fringe” scissors to cut this 12 inch strip of grass. I did each one of those tiny little cuts by hand and my hands were cramping by the time I was done! ha ha
The house was also cut from a sheet of patterned paper from My Little Shoebox and I added red Stickles to the shingles on the roof. Isn’t it cute? Those yellow letter stickers are from My Little Shoebox also. I debated between putting FAMILY and putting SMITH (family’s last name) on there and then eventually decided on family.
The clouds are one of my favorite parts. I also cut those from paper by My Little Shoebox and then used crystal Stickles around the edges. That sun was put together using a scrap of paper from My Little Shoebox. All the patterned paper is from My Little Shoebox except the leaves, and I can’t remember who makes that paper. My Minds Eye perhaps? I don’t know.
So anyway…… what do you think? Cute? Do you like?
Wedding card.
I know, I just showed you a wedding card….but here’s another one. This one was a custom order for a customer. She chose the colors to match the wedding colors and asked me to make the bride and groom walking off into the sunset (it’s a beach wedding too!), so this is what I came up with. I found the silhouette of the couple online and turned it into a cutting file and cut it out of cardstock on my Pazzles machine.
What do you think?
Filed under Projects | Comment (0)Man and Wife.
So my best customer really kept me busy for the month of June with custom orders for cards. Sandie, I am so glad I don’t get invited to as many weddings as YOU do. I’d be broke! ha ha
I with the colors pink and blue because she told me that those were the wedding colors and she likes to coordinate with the colors (one of the nice things about getting handmade cards custom made for you–you choose the colors!). The man and woman are chipboard shapes from an old Creating Keepsakes kit of the month. Man, I wish they still did those kits. I only ever bought one and there was so much stuff it I’ll be using it for years to come! I embossed the hearts into the pink paper with my Cuttlebug.
What do you guys think?
Filed under Projects | Comment (0)Hang in there.
My 11-year-old niece has had a rough couple of months recently and things will be that way for a while. I made her this card and inside wrote her a message telling her to HANG IN THERE, that life is really hard right now but to keep her eye on the future because it won’t be this way forever.
I used a chipboard tree branch from an old Creating Keepsakes kit of the month. That monkey was a stamp I’ve had for years from Big Lots I think and I used paint. It wasn’t real easy to use and his face was just kind of a smushy blob of yellow paint, so I got my artiste daughter Summer to draw a happy face on him and then I hung him from the branch by his tail! What do you all think? Cute, huh?
Filed under Projects | Comment (0)Centsational Girl.
(that’s my sensational girl above with her new highlights May 2010)
I recently discovered a pretty cool blog called Centsational Girl. She’s pretty crafty and that’s what ended me up at her blog in the first place. Oh, but she also bakes and decorates and grows things. Her blog is full of ideas and inspiration! So anyway…..not very long after I subscribed to her blog she came up with this post, and now I really like her! This is the kind of stuff that I am always thinking and saying and trying to keep in the front of my mind as my daughter grows. (This is also why I make scrapbooks, people.)
As a mother, here’s the part of her post that really struck me:
So my message today is simply this.
Forget the laundry and the dirty dishes. Check your email later. Close your computer and put down your phone. Ignore Facebook, and forget all about Twitter today.
Go make some memories with your child. Read to them, play with them, hug them and love them. Be there for them when they stumble and when they are victorious – they will always remember that you were. And even if they don’t remember it all, you will treasure the memories made. Make your legacy your presence in their lives.
It struck me because it is SO TRUE. Which is why my kitchen sink is always full of dirty dishes. Always, Lord help me. Don’t get me wrong. My house isn’t disgusting…..but I wouldn’t eat off my floor if I were you. ha ha Because when Summer says, “Mom, will you play Wii with me?” I don’t say no. And when she says, “Mom, come watch this funny cat video with me,” I don’t say no. And when she says, “Mom, will you pitch to me so I can practice my hitting?” I don’t say no. Ever. Because I know when she’s older she will not remember whether our house was spotlessly (is that a word?) clean or not. She will remember did I spend time with her? Did I have fun with her and play with her? Did we laugh together? And I want the answers to all of those questions to be YES…
Go read the rest of Kate’s post here. It is so well written and wonderful that I asked Kate for permission to show you a piece of it here and send you to her blog to read the rest of it, and she graciously agreed, so you must go please. Thank you, Kate!
Filed under Life | Comment (1)Happy Birthday Cupcake.
My daughter’s birthday was last month and at the very last second (because that’s how I roll) I realized I didn’t have a card for her. I whipped this one up in no time at all. I like it because that sheet music paper is actually from the cover of a Sassafras Lass catalog that I recycle and I love it! The little cupcake is from a small set of valentine stamps from the Target $1 spot. I stamped it onto scrap paper, colored it with markers and then added some yellow Stickles on top for the frosting. I don’t know who makes that ribbon but I’ve literally had it for years so I’m glad to be using it and getting it out of here!
Filed under Projects | Comment (0)Hey…..
What are you looking at?
Are you looking at ME?
What Boys Are Made Of.
I recently showed you a baby boy scrapbook page that I had done for my Practical Scrappers design team blog owner Christine, and here’s the other one that I made for her. Again, I do not ever scrapbook boy pages so it’s kind of hard for me! And there’s always pressure when you are making them for someone else who might like a different style than yours. I have no idea why I had this “boyish” sort of paper, but I’m glad I did!
I wrote these onto green cardstock, and then after cutting them all out inked the edges with Colorbox fluid chalk ink (chestnut roan) so they’d stand out off the page a bit. I also attached them with pop dots to help with that too.
A closer look at the title:
Sweet Dreams.
Here’s a baby boy page that I did recently….. not my typical scrapbook page! I tried to go sort of clean and simple because it’s not going in my personal scrapbook. I made this for the owner of the Practical Scrappers blog that I design for, Christine, who is going to have a bitty baby boy soon. The design team members collaborated and made layouts and sent them in to the coordinator and she put them all together in an album and mailed it to Christine. It ended up looking pretty cool because the book is just a variety of pages from all of us and we all have different styles.
Since I don’t have any boys, I don’t scrapbook for boys, hence I have zero boy scrapbooking supplies, so I had to make what I already had work for me!
I made this flower from ivory-colored crepe paper streamer. I love those little blue pearls in the middle. I got those at Michaels for a buck! For the leaves I used scraps of paper.
My photo mat above is actually repurposed packaging from a pack of Imaginisce rub-ons. I’m really trying to reuse stuff and not throw it away.
Forgive these awful photos please! It was dark outside when I took them, which means it was dark inside my studio too!
Christine, I hope you enjoy your album!
Filed under Scrapbook Layouts | Comment (0)Another teacher appreciation gift
This was a project that I saw on someone else’s blog, and I hate that I can’t find it again now to link to that person! I *think* I saw it linked on Skip To My Lou, but I’ve searched her blog and can’t find it! If you know where this originally came from, please leave me a comment so I can link to it properly.
(I am loving this ribbon for tying up gifts and pretty packages!)
This is the last teacher gift that I made for my daughter’s teacher this year. I had more in mind but just ran out of time.
The papers are from BoBunny and the bird is from My Little Shoebox.
I filled it with a variety of paper clips, bull clips (is that what those are called?), binder clips, push pins, etc. Threw in some chocolate because who doesn’t like THAT, right? And you never have a safety pin when you need one, so I put some of those in there too! You can’t see them very well in the photo and I didn’t think to take a better photo, but I also made her some custom labels and ordered them from Vistaprint. They were free and I just paid shipping of a few bucks. Instead of putting a name and address on them, I put “this book belongs to Ms. Monson” so she can stick them in her books in the classroom library.
Filed under Projects | Comment (1)
