Summer Fun Card

This card was sent to one of my demo friends in our monthly swap. And it's a huge departure from what I usually do. I really wanted to challenge myself to use some of the great abstract stamps to create a picture.

Our theme was summer and right away I knew that I wanted to add a sun to my card! I punched out rays with my Banner Punch and a sentiment from I Think You're Great. For added interest, my rays were punched from three different color cardstock. From there, I thought an ice cream cone would pair nicely with the sun. A free-handed cone stamped with a pattern stamp and a top traced from a different stamp from I Think You're Great made the perfect ice cream cone. But the card still looked to plain. Add some "waves" using the Work of Art set and suddenly my card was complete!

• Stamps: I Think You're Great; Work of Art
• Inks: Daffodil Delight; Tip Top Taupe; Pool Party; Lost Lagoon
• Cardstock: Cherry on Top DSP; Tip Top Taupe; Cucumber Crush; Pool Party; Daffodil Delight; Delightful Dijon; Crushed Curry
• Accessories:
• Tools: Banner Punch; Circles Framelits

Desktop Monday #4

Working on the twins' PL pages this week. I'm planning on highlighting this project on Thursday...

Sunday Haul #20

Popped into Michael's to get snail this week and walked out with more craft supplies. Yeah, I have a problem. I grabbed a Heidi Swapp mini album (for $1.99!), HS glitter stickers, HS stickers, HS journaling and design cards, and snail (glad I remembered that!).

I also scored the September Skies Core Kit for half price, two fun clearance stamps, and the PL Christmas theme pack ($1.79!). 

Father's Day Craft

I hosted preschool a few weeks ago and our theme was Father's Day. Actually our theme was something different, but I had to switch weeks and had already prepped Father's Day themed activities and crafts. While searching Pinterest, I found the perfect relatively no-mess craft for toddlers: Golf Ball Painting! I started by stamping "I Love You Dad" onto a piece of cardstock. I've seen others just use paint, but I liked have a message behind the paint. Once stamped, I placed the cardstock into a disposable cake tin.

Then, I added a few drops of paint onto the paper. I found that less paint makes for a better card. Using more paint tends to clump together and obscure the stamped message.

Add some golf balls. I used some plastic toy golf balls instead of the real thing, but either would work.

Before handing to a toddler, make sure to add the lid. Arthur doesn't always follow directions, so a lid was essential to make this craft no-mess. Once the lid is on (and possibly secured with tape, let the toddler loose. The basic idea is that the golf balls will spread the paint around creating an abstract piece of art.

After a fun time shaking the container, a great piece of mailable artwork is left. I let my painted piece dry and then attached it to a folded card base. This made the perfect card to send to those special dads in our family.

Supplies:

• Cardstock
• Stamps and ink (or stickers)
• Disposable cake tin with lid
• Paint
• Golf balls

Project Life May 2015 Part 1

May - Part 1

For May, I went with the color scheme of yellow, pink, and purple with floral accents.

The first page is a hodge-podge of pictures from the month. I added some alpha embellishments and some jewels to my journal card.

Page two highlights our monthly visit to CDM. I finally found a place for the homemade card from our butterfly swap. I added some alphas and it worked perfectly.

The third page is all about our visit to Maker Faire. It was my first time going and we had some much fun!

Page four is mostly about the twins. They graduated from the sixth grade this month. I couldn't be present at the event, but thankfully my mom took a few photos for me. And I threw in an extra photo of Arthur just because it was cute.

Currently...

Watching: We've introduced the twins to Video Game High School this week and they are hooked! We've flown through Season 1 and half of Season 2 already.

Reading: I'm rereading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for book club next weekend. Really enjoying it again.

Listening: The Daily Show is playing in the background as I blog, clean, and craft today.

Making: Finally finished the last remaining pages in the twins' traditional scrapbook album. I'm moving on to switching them to Project Life style scrapbooking. Really excite to get this started.

Feeling: It's been really warm here lately. Mostly it's just the sunshine. I've even gotten a bit of sunburn because of spending so much time in the sun.

Planning: I'm looking toward July's classes, activities, and upcoming events. Getting very excited for some new crafting projects. Hello retreat surprises!

Loving: Arthur's new trick is giving actual kisses. So adorable!

Chalkboard Style

With my last stamp club order, I chose projects all related to the chalkboard style. I saw some really cute cards online and wanted to use them as inspiration. The first card was made for my New Products class. I wanted to showcase one of the new stamp sets: Friendly Wishes. This set is perfect for the chalkboard style. I layered a few pieces of DSP to help highlight the chalkboard paper. I also layered a few different stamps to create the main focal piece. Lastly, I added some rhinestones to finish the card.

• Stamps: Friendly Wishes; Chalk Lines
• Inks: Yellow Citrus Chalk Ink; Aquamarine Chalk Ink; Rose Coral Chalk Ink
• Cardstock: Coastal Cabana (retired); Chalkboard paper; Best Year Ever DSP (retired)
• Accessories: Rhinestones
• Tools:

The second card is my homework for stamp club. Pam gave us a sketch and we had to create a card from the sketch. For this card, I wanted to highlight the chalkboard paper in a different way. I created the tag, but realized that that it looked a little plain just stamped. So I added the stars punch and everything started to come together.

• Stamps: Friendly Wishes
• Inks: Rose Coral Chalk Ink
• Cardstock: Bermuda Bay; Chalkboard Paper; Birthday Bash DSP (retired)
• Accessories: Gold 1/8" Ribbon; Orange Polka Dot Washi Tape
• Tools: Confetti Stars Punch; Scallop Tag Topper Punch

Sunday Haul #19

A few acquisitions this week. The first was actually something that should have arrived a few weeks back. I placed an order with Becky Higgins and my package arrived missing an item. Thankfully I alerted customer service and I received my missing item this week: Floral Theme Pack.

I also received two cute little kits from a FB swap and shop group that I'm a part of. I picked up Echo Park's Scott and Bella Blvd.'s Tiny Tots. These are going into the Arthur PL supplies box.

Build a Birthday Cards

One of my newest stamp sets and I had to play with it. I ended up making two different cards to start with: one for open house make n take and one for stamp club. For the make n take card I really wanted to highlight the new in colors. I decided to do a simple card with candles. Very cute! I love that you can customize this stamp set in so many ways.

• Stamps: Build a Birthday
• Inks: Delightful Dijon; Tip Top Taupe; Mint Macaron, Watermelon Wonder; Cucumber Crush
• Cardstock: Watermelon Wonder
• Accessories: Cherry on Top Washi Tape
• Tools:

This card was made for my New Products Class. I wanted to create a cake with the build a Birthday stamp set. So cut! I layered the pieces to create a three layered cake. For the banner I just had to add some fun rhinestones to add that extra touch.

• Stamps: Build a Birthday
• Inks: Bermuda Bay; Daffodil Delight; Watermelon Wonder; Cucumber Crush; Pool Party
• Cardstock: Bermuda Bay; Crushed Curry; Cherry on Top DSP
• Accessories: Rhinestones
• Tools:

Pic of the Week #7

Water play at the children's museum. Always a favorite.