Sympathy and Congrats

One of March-April's featured classes is Special Occasions. You often need a sympathy, congratulations, wedding, and baby card throughout the year, but don't usually make them. This class fixes that problem while using some great new products from SU!

Card #1

The first card made is a sympathy card. I like sympathy cards that aren't fussy or overwhelmingly embellished. I also notice that I tend to lean toward monochromatic sympathy cards. This one hits all those points. 

For this card, I stamped onto vellum and heat embossed it with pearl embossing powder. I then sponged just the center of the flowers. Turning the vellum over, I stamped and embossed the sentiment in pewter. The flowers don't show up well in photographs, but they are gorgeous in person. This is a nice muted card with a bit of sparkle. As a last touch, I added Blushing Bride candy dots to the four corner to help hide the glue dot adhesive.

• Stamps: Flower Shop; Best of Greetings (retired)
• Inks: Versamark; Blushing Bride
• Cardstock: Blushing Bride; Vellum
• Accessories: Blushing Bride Candy Dots
• Tools: Heat embossing gun; Pewter Embossing Powder; Sponge Daubers

Card #2

For my congratulations card, I wanted to play with patterns. I love the Painted Blooms DSP and wanted to highlight it. The contrast between the leaves and subtle watercolor of the blue paper make a nice contrast. Add in the patterned ribbon, and I have a very visually striking card.

• Stamps: Lotus Blossom; Simply Wonderful
• Inks: Island Indigo; Lost Lagoon; Wild Wasabi
• Cardstock: Lost Lagoon; Painted Blooms DSP
• Accessories: Gumball Green Ribbon (retired)
• Tools: Scallop Tag Punch

Desktop Monday #1

Finishing up some bridal shower invitations. These are going in the mail today!

Sunday Haul #8

I got my February stamp club order. While in stamp club, I'll be using it to buy mainly cardstock and tools. This month I bought:

• Silver foil paper
• Gold foil paper
• Vellum paper
• Window sheets
• Blushing Bride Ink Pad

Later in the week I went to Michael's to get some ideas for bridal shower invites and decorations. I came across this collection that was 40% off. I snapped up a ton of supplies to use. I also grabbed some white paper garland, a banner kit, jute rope, and flowers. The berry baskets will be decorated with all these supplies and used as centerpieces and favors at the shower. It's going to be March 22nd, so I need to get moving on all the details!

OLW February

Let's take a look at what I did this past month for my OLW. This year's focus is HOME.

My monthly intentions:

1. Arthur's room and play area -- Finally they are finished! I added a reading corner complete with Ikea spice racks for shelves. They are the perfect design for Arthur it get the books in and out himself. I hung the nice navy blue blackout curtains. I put up his new solar system decals and the rest of the framed pictures. Part of his birthday banner went over his book shelves along with his finger painted A. The closet is organized at least for now. Finally I hung some of his preschool artwork above the bookshelf. I plan on changing them out as he makes new projects.

As for his playroom, I mainly wanted containers for the toys. I bought one of the toys organization systems from Ikea to hold the bulk of the toys. Arthur can actually take them in and out by himself. This left room for the tent and tunnel to be permanently set up. I went with back ivory curtain panels to add some privacy. Nothing fancy, but they help the room look finished. The only thing not done is to hang something about the alphabet decals. We will probably just hang something that we already have.

2. Co-op home inspection -- Nope. Didn't get to it. February was so busy with activities and things like the retreat that this just never happened. I'm hoping to get this checked out during our hosting of preschool next week.

3. Alameda parent's group -- After looking at my parent group options up here in East Bay, I've decided to start my own. Most charge ~$20 a year for membership for not much benefit. Others just don't do anything. I want my South Bay group in East Bay!

4. Email clean out -- Success! I got my emails under control. Deleted a ton of emails, archived some others, unsubscribed from a ton of newsletters and coupons. Next step is to officially close my Hotmail account.

Extras:

-- I didn't do much else for my word this month.

My OLW Pages:

This month's prompt was to create a vision board. Initially I was very hesitant to the idea. Vision boards just aren't my thing... But after some thought I decided to attempt it. I went into Target, grabbed three magazines, and started cutting them up. I had a few 8x10 canvases left over from preschool. This seemed the perfect size for me to try.

And this is my completed project. I think it turned out well. I decided to use patterns and colors for my base layer. I stayed away from any recognizable image. On top, I added words and phrases that spoke to me. Most of my words relate directly to my word: Home. I've propped this up in my craft area to kept me focused.

30 Days of Lists - Day 1-5

I'm participating once again in 30 Days of Lists. Here are my lists for days 1 through 5:

5 on 5

Different 5 on 5 for this week. It's my birthday this week, so here's round up of pictures of my presents...

1. My bridesmaid shoes for a friend's wedding April came this week. Cute, comfortable, and not too tall.

2. The mom who went on the retreat got me this great gift basket for organizing everything.

3. Presents from the in-laws. I always love what they get me. Amazon wish lists are amazing. I'm already using the backpack as our current diaper bag.

4. Pretty pretty flowers from my mom.

5. And the best present of all... a non-napping child. Okay not really a great present, but he didn't suffer much from not napping, so

Fun n' Crafty Blog Hop March 2015

Welcome to the Fun n’ Crafty Blog Hop for March. This month we are all about birthdays. I love designed birthday cards as you can be as crazy or as subdued as you want to be! My card is very simple (just three layers), but packs a large color punch. I've been enjoying coloring lately and had to showcase the technique.

I started with a simple yet bold sentiment in the middle of my white piece. From there I stamped the birthday cake in random spots. I then filled in the empty spaces with the star stamp (from Perfect Pennants). I adhered the stamped piece to a layer of Back to Black DSP. Then came the fun part -- coloring! I picked a few bright markers from my stash and went to town coloring different bits of the birthday cake. After finishing, I realized that while the small hexagon pattern on the DSP was fun, it was too boring in black and white. I colored that as well in a rainbow pattern. Now the card is complete! With all the bright colors and bold images this card would be perfect for a teen birthday.

Do you want the birthday cake stamp? Well it's a part of the Big Day stamp set that's only available as a SAB reward. Through March 31st, spend $50 from any catalog and you get to pick on SAB item for free! It's Stampin' Up's best deal of the year. To make it easy, here's a package of products to order to be able to get that great stamp set!

• Perfect Pennants Stamp Set (Clear) $21.95 133230
• Brights Collection Markers $28.95 131259
• Total $50.90
• Free: Choose Big Day Clear 139112 or Wood 139109

Full product list:

• Stamps: Perfect Pennants; Big Day (SAB)
• Inks: Staz-on Black; Daffodil Delight; Rich Razzleberry; Gumball Green (retired); Summer Sun (retired); Pink Passion (retired); Tempting Turquoise; Tangelo Twist; Elegant Eggplant
• Cardstock: Strawberry Slush; Whisper White; Back to Black DSP
• Accessories:
• Tools:

Fun & Crafty Blog Hop

• Stacey L. of A Work of Carte
• Pam W. of Stinky Tofu
• Tobe B. of The Craft Sea <--- You are here
• Jennifer B. of Northwest Stamper
• Susan S. of Stampin' By The San Francisco Bay

Floral Cards #2

The second half of my All About Florals class focused on simple yet beautiful cards.

Card #1

I saw a great card on Pinterest using hexagons to make flowers. I definitely needed to try this idea. This is a great card design to play with patterns and colors. I pulled a few patterns from the All Abloom DSP stack that spoke to me and played with the combinations until I settled on these. I love how the patterns don't match but do coordinate. For something extra I embossed the white piece and DSP with my Decorative Dots Embossing folder. Just a little bit to make the card more special.

• Stamps: Simply Wonderful
• Inks: Strawberry Slush
• Cardstock: Blushing Bride; All Abloom DSP; Whisper White
• Accessories: Dots Embossing Folder
• Tools: Hexagon Punch

Card #2

My last card also had an inspiration from Pinterest. I love using washi tape and this design is the perfect excuse to use a ton! I pulled similarly colored washi tape (from two different SU collections) and created a pattern of colors as a background. For the stamp, I masked out the "hey there" greeting and just stamped the flower. I love how easy it is to masked out parts of stamps that you don't want! I do not have the Crisp Cantaloupe marker otherwise coloring the stamp would have been just as easy. I added a different greeting layered over the flower. The white piece was feeling very plain so I mounted it to a piece of Basic Gray to give some dimensional. Finally I threw on some silver sequins to liven up the card a bit.

• Stamps: Hey There Buds; Simple Wonderful
• Inks: Crisp Cantaloupe; Basic Gray
• Cardstock: Basic Gray; Smoky Slate; Whisper White
• Accessories: Silver Sequins; Sweet Sadie washi tape; Sweet Dreams washi tape
• Tools:

Currently...

Watching: Arthur and I have been watching Rehab Addict after he wakes up from his nap.

Reading: Finally getting around to reading Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton

Listening: Right now it is quiet in the house. I am loving it.

Making: I need to start making Sarah's Bridal Shower invitations. I've got a few ideas, but I need to play around to determine which one I like the most.

Feeling: I had a horrendous migraine for about four days last week. It seems to be gone thankfully.

Planning: Always planning out our weekly dinners. It's a never-ending process.

Loving: I don't know why but I am constantly turning to iced tea as my drink of choice.

March 2015 Crafting Goals

A recap of last month’s goals:

• January PL pages — Success! I finished both the family album and Arthur's album. That puts me ahead in my book. Now to move to February's pages.
• Get new Meetup group up and running —Success! I started my group when I returned from Indiana in January. I got it moving in February. I've met some wonderful new crafting friends and even made a few sales. I hope to continue the momentum throughout the rest of spring.
• Finish retreat crafts — Success! I got all these done with about a week to spare. So excited!
• Start Sarah’s wedding crafts – Fail.... We (Sarah and her bridesmaids) need to do a Skype date and discuss all of this stuff. I leave for Indiana on March 17th, so I need to have a plan in place the first week in March.
• Prep examples for March and April classes — 50% Success. I've gotten one class prepped, I need to finish the other.

This month’s goals:

• February PL Pages -- Next month on my list. I've got a ton of supplies pulled for it (pink, red, and brown), but now I need to actually do it. And I want to get it done before I leave for Indiana.
• Preschool crafts for March 12th -- We are hosting that day and the theme is colors and shapes. I'm thinking of doing a punched shapes rainbow...
• Prep Sarah's wedding crafts before March 17th -- Need to get this done!
• Have a clean craft area before I leave -- I love coming home to a nice and clean craft area. I need to make sure it's clean when I leave. Right now it's horrendously messy...