Papertrey September Blog Hop!

Today is PTI's Blog Hop! Check here for details and to post you own link.

So this month's challenge was to post a technique or skill you have learned from a fellow stamper and to even send a shout out to that person(s).  I've learned so much from other people in terms of stretching my comfort zone yet being comfortable with my personal style.

I really couldn't pinpoint a particular skill to show but I did use this card as inspiration (3rd one down).  I loved the simple  design and that it could basically be used for any occasion.  Her bow-tying skills are definitely more advanced than mine!  Thanks Dawn for the "sketch" and for always inspiring!  She's pretty nice too... I've met her twice!

The card is for a wedding I'm attending today.  Sometimes I try to keep in line with the color scheme that's on the invitation.  I know the thought and care that went into picking it so I try and show my appreciation by reflecting their color choice.  This couple's invite was cream with pink accents and grey text.  So I'm not totally in-line because of the orange ribbon... I said sometimes, ok? :)  Anyways... I am loving the "Mr. & Mrs" sentiment from Big & Bold Wishes, it definitely is my go-to for wedding cards.

I guess I could talk about one of my favorite things to do.  I love adding a bit of shine to my images using the Sakura stardust gel pen... so easy too.. LOVE-EET!!

Here's a close-up for you blingy-viewing pleasure!
Have a great weekend! And have fun hoppin'!

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Big & Bold Wishes
Paper: SU! Cameo Coral, PTI Vintage Cream
Ink: Pallette Charcoal
Accessories: Mini-Rhinestones, PTI Summer sunrise grossgrain ribbon, EK Scallop punch, Fiskars corner rounder

Dino-mite!!

Since getting PTI's Tiny Treats: Valentine I have been dying to use the little dinosaur image.  As you well know, I love "punny" sayings and this stamp set is CHOCK full of them.  I really wanted to incorporate the dino image for T's first birthday but ended up going another direction.  This set is not only good for making Valentine's cards but can be used for pretty much any occassion.

So here's my card... well cards... I figured since I had pulled out my supplies, I should make at least 5. :)

I started out by stamping the "label" image that comes with the set with PTI New Leaf ink.  The dotted line is part of the image.  Then stamped the dino image and sentiment with black ink.  Then I took Copics and colored the dino in.  It's such a small image so coloring in 5 of them didn't take too long.  I took care to shade a little bit with a darker green.  I punched the image out with my pink Marvy Mega Circle punch.  I matted the circle with a scallop circle shape in Aqua Mist (Marvy Mega Scallop punch).  I went back I outlined the dino image with a very light blue copic color after I had matted the white circle.  I think it pulled everything together with the blue & green.


For the kraft paper matte layer I stamped Polka Dot Basics II background on the bottom half, again with New Leaf.  Then used scor-tape & glitter to create a border of some sorts.  The main image was adhered with foam dots for some dimension.

To finish things off, I added a little loop of swiss dots aqua mist ribbon next to the sentiment that was stamped then cut out.  For some visual interest, I rounded the corners of one end of the sentiment using my Fiskars 1/4" corner rounder sqeeze punch.  I did the same to all 4 corners of the kraft layer. I used sentiments from my other sets, Shapes by Design & Fillable Frames #1.  Either mini-rhinestones or regular rhinestones were added then "colorized" with a matching copic marker.


I decided to make a few of the cards birthday cards and the rest thank you cards.  I also love adding a little preview of the card on the envelope.  So now they are all ready to go!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Aqua Mist Wedding(s)

Wow! It's September already! I'm kinda ready for the cooler fall weather- it's been a pretty warm summer even by Chicago standards!

Well today's project is a card, actually 2 cards, that I made for 2 weddings. I've been trying to be productive and if I'm going to pull out supplies, I might as well make more than one card. And you guessed it! I used Aqua Mist CS. As inspiration I used this card.



Using PTI's Big & Bold Wishes I stamped the focal image. This stamp set makes it super easy to create a bold, yet elegant statement. Then with Background Basics: Petal Power, I stamped a background onto another piece of Vintage Cream CS. To add a little bit of dimension to the cream cardstock I swiped neatly around the focal image with the darker color of the Tea Dye Duo. On the background piece I distressed the edges and then swiped not so neatly with both colors of the duo. Since both the focal image and background piece are the same color, adding the distressed edging allows the focal image to standout but ties everything together.

Lately, Nichole of Papertrey Ink has been using double loops of ribbon as embellishement and I wanted to give it a try. So I used the swiss dot ribbon to loop behind the focal image which I popped up on dimensionals. To give the whole thing some bling-bling I added clear rhinestones to the corners but if you look closely, I colored them with a matching Copic marker to make them look like aqua mist. This is cool because you don't necessarily have to buy supplies in EVERY color... sometimes you can alter it to match!

The overall effect was a pretty, vintage card, perfect for any wedding.

Have a great day!

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Big & Bold Wishes, Background Basics: Petal Power
Ink: PTI Aqua Mist, Dark Chocolate; Tea Dye Duo
Cardstock: PTI Aqua Mist, Vintage Cream
Accessories: PTI Aqua Mist Swiss Dot Satin Ribbon, Clear rhinestones, Copic marker

Birthday Hoot

I'm not a huge fan of this card because I made it in a rush but thought I would still post it. The picture isn't that great either 'cuz I took at work in nasty flourescent light. It uses PTI's Wise Owl set combined with Out on a Limb. Both owls are popped up on foam dimensionals. I colored them in with Copics. I was a true Copic newbie... you can see I tried shading but didn't really do a good job... not that I'm any better now :)... a little bit better.

I do love the sentiments... ha ha ha... because they're punny... I love punny. The green mat, I think, is a SU! color. New Leaf wasn't out yet. The leaves on the branches are colored in with a marker, SU! as well. The buttons & ribbon are from my miscellaneous stash.

Just thought you'd enjoy seeing a slightly different, non-baby, non-wedding card :)!
Have a great day!

Sam's baby shower

So remember this wedding card? Well a year or 2 later... it's time for... then comes baby in the baby carriage! Gosh 2 years go so fast!

If you notice a theme with me, I always have blue in stock. I love blue. And for this card it was Aqua mist baby! We were in a little bit of a time crunch so I made it postcard style. I printed the shower details onto ivory pearlescent paper (Paper Source). I stamped the little peapod from Green Thumbs in New Leaf and the inner peas with Spring Moss. Then I added the little baby face from Bitty Baby Blessings. The sentiment was curved a little bit to fit alongside the peapod. If you want to know the fonts I used... let me know, I forgot which ones exactly.

I matted the ivory onto a piece of lemon tart CS. Then for the base, I ran aqua mist through my cuttlebug with an embossing folder and attached both layers onto it. I felt that the embossing was enough to not warrant an more embellishments.

One thing to note is that on shimmery paper like that, the Pallette/original PTI ink dries but just takes awhile. Also when stamping you have to be a little more careful to prevent smudging.

Have a great day!!

Red Flowery First Birthday Card

Hey y'all!

Today's card is one I made to match a really, really cute dress for my friend's daughter's first birthday... yeah... she's 2 now. But remember? I'm catching up! On to the details...



The card utilized a set of 2 peony stamps that I had gotten a long, long time ago based on this post, back when I was researching wedding ideas. The stamp itself is acrylic but it is mounted on a wooden block and it is SUPER CRAZY detailed. I love how it stamps... hmm... makes me wanna take it out and stamp something...

Anyways... I first randomly stamped the smaller peony image onto Pure Poppy CS with SU! white craft inks. I also used my exacto knife to distress the edges of the red layer before I matted it onto a piece of kraft CS. I added some double-stiched Pure Poppy ribbon, embellishing it with a little sentiment tag (from Bitty Baby Blessings & my cuttlebug) and a random button. I matted both layers onto a vintage cream CS base that I had stamped with the larger peony image with Pure Poppy ink.

Instead of centering the matted portion, I offset it to the left so that more of the larger peony image would show. Overall it was a little darker than I had intended but it matched the outfit I had gotten. I don't have a picture but I stamped a kraft colored gift bag using the same large peony stamp using pure poppy ink. That pulled the whole gift package together nicely!

Now that I look at this, I think this would be great for an adult's birthday... maybe it's time to make some more with different colors???

Thanks for lookin'!!

Baby Shower of a Greek Nature

Hi All!

What does the title mean? Heh, this card & gift basket set was for my dear, dear friend who is Greek. There's nothing that really made the gift Greek, just wanted to distinguish this baby shower from the other ones! And actually this is a P.T. (post-tyler) Card! I remember making it during a nap & shrink wrapping after he woke up. :)

So here is the card. I used a combination of PTI's Bitty Baby Blessings and their 2008 anniversary set - Everyday Classics. I stamped the star image from Everyday Classics in Versamark Champagne Dazzle - it really does dazzle. Then used aqua mist CS to paper piece the baby stroller. To balance the image, add color and hold the sentiment, I added a star brad from SU! with bits of new leaf DS, random aqua grossgrain & summer sunrise satin (reversed) ribbon. The patterned paper is from SU! and the blue border is punched with the EK Success dotted scallop edger punch. I also added a bit of green to the stroller to finish things off.

For the basket, I got a cute blue gingham covered basket from Michael's and filled it with all the cute stuff from the registry. Covered it with shrink wrap and used a hair dryer to shrinky-dink that thing. Who remembers shrinky dinks?

I made the bow using wired ribbon I had at home and looping and twisting until it was nice and floofy (puffy+fluffy). Taped the card on and I was set to go!

Stay tuned for pictures related to this little one's first birthday party! I was able to help my friend out and photograph his party!

Baby Shower of Mine

Ok, don't laugh... but I made my own baby shower invites. Well, alright, let's say that I designed them and used husband- & friend-labor to assemble them. But that happens when you're the go-to-gal for pretty cards among your friends. :) And you know I loved every minute of it!

Here's the front.

The color scheme incorporated Soft Sky (SU!) & Summer Sunrise (PTI)- not too different from the color theme for this party, but I already had a lot of the paper & supplies. I was on a "gotta save" kick, especially with buying all sorts of baby stuff. The bedding that I had gotten for the baby's room was sort of a jungle animals theme so that's what we went with for the shower theme as well. Don't worry, after the invites, I stepped back from any sort of planning :).
For the main image I stamped the giraffe image onto white cardstock and colored it in with Copics. I went on a hunt for the PERFECT match to the blue & yellow at my local Dick Blick's and I totally scored. Then not too long after, Nichole & Debbie from PTI came up with a color chart! Talk about bad timing or... great minds think alike(?). Anyways, the "Join Us" was stamped at the bottom with Simple Alphabet in black. I used a ticket corner punch then matted the giraffe onto Dark Chocolate CS. It's hard to see but on the card base I stamped a border image at the top and bottom using Soft Sky ink. You can click on the image for a larger picture. Before adhering the image, I added a strip of patterned paper.

The wording, for mass production sake, was printed from my laser printer onto a textured linen resume paper - chosen for the fact that I had a lot of it :). That's is also why the "Join Us" on the front was in black ink. I would have liked to have done it in brown but I didn't have a color printer. So black it was. For the fonts, I used Century Gothic, which is the same font as Simple Alphabet - that took some time to figure out but I'm so glad I did! The cursive font is Little Days. Nichole featured it in a project long ago and I think it really matches baby items. I also rounded all the outside corners.

For some reason, I really wanted to make a pop-up card. I must of seen it somewhere. I do have a card book that I bought when we went to Japan but I made it simple so that there would be no cutting. Basically you cut a small strip of paper and score it so that when folded, you have a box. You adhere one end to the top of the card and the other to the bottom. Then on the flat piece you can add what you want to "pop-up." I realize this explanation really doesn't explain anything... I'll try and put up a better one later :). To decorate the pop-up piece, I die cut animals using my Cuttlebug and colored in parts of them with marker. It was easier than paper piecing, especially since the hubby ended up helping out with the coloring and adhering. I used a border punch to get the moon & stars edge, so cute!

Fine Print:
Stamps: SU! Bundle of Joy, PTI Simple Alphabet
Paper: PTI Aqua Mist, Dark Chocolate SS white, Father Knows Best PP, misc. resume paper
Ink: Palette Burnt Umber, Black Noir
Accessories: Copics(B14, B12, Y19, Y32E31), Summer Sunrise Grossgrain, Misc square brad, Cuttlebug Zoo Animals die, SU! ticket corner punch, Fiskars corner rounder punch, EK Succes Moon 'n Stars edger punch

Thank You Berry Much

This card was pretty simple to put together. I added paper from my Stampin' Up collection to the bottom of the plain white card base (PTI Stamper's Select White of course!). I first stamped the larger strawberry PTI's Green Thumb, cut it out and placed a foam dimensional on the back. But before adhering the large berry, I started stamping the little berries, using some masking to get a layered look, across the top. That way I could move the larger berry around to see how much I wanted the little ones to peek out. I also purposely stamped off some ink on a few of the berries to get variation in color. I honestly don't remember what colors I used... I think the red is Pure Poppy ink just not at "full strength." It matches the paper, pretty darn well, if I do say so myself! :)

I then added the little curlicue-leafy-things around the berries. For a more finished look, I added the black gingham ribbon (SU!). It kinda adds a little country charm, no? Then finished the whole thing off with a 'punny' sentiment. I love punny sentiments!! If you noticed, I added some sparkle to the large strawberry with my Sakura stardust pen - love that thing!

Alrighty, I'm moving right along in my catching up!
Thanks for stoppin' by!

Christmas Cards 2008

It's a little early to be thinking of Christmas but... oh well...

I don't know if I've ever posted Christmas Cards here. In 2007 I handmade 4 different kinds of pretty elaborate cards. But for 2008, I decided to mass produce a simple design since I was preggo and just getting over being really nauseous.


I started out with a simple white base using PTI Stampers Select White. Then I stamped a frame from SU!'s Frames with a Flourish using Pallete Ink Charcoal. Then using a negative mask- basically a piece of paper with the Frame cut out- I stamped a Stamps by Judith Pine bough over & over until I got the "branch" to look the way I wanted. Then stamped the sentiment from a miscellaneous holiday set I have. I love the modern look of the gray ink on white paper

I stamped a little dot from PTI Beautiful Blooms to make the "ornament." then drew in the "hook" with a black gel pen. The Ornament was then colored over with a Sakura stardust pen for some sparkle, then some liquid crystal over it all to make it shine!

Then on the back of each flat card, I stamped another sentiment:
If the front said "Merry Christmas," the back said, "& Happy holidays" and if the front said "Happy Holidays" the back said, "& Winter wishes" to be a little politically correct for co-workers. The "&" and the greeting with our names were stamped using PTI Simple Alphabet, SUCH a versatile set! The tiny heart is from PTI My Punny Valentine.

Here's a note on mass producting things. I try and do all the stamping of one color all at once. So all the gray stamping was done first, then the green, then the red, then all the other elements added in. This helps to keep your work area somewhat organized since you only have out what you need for that particular step. And if you are making a lot of cards, the repetition helps you zone out a little and it becomes relaxing... at least it does for me :).

Hope you enjoyed this little piece of Christmas in August!
Thanks for comin' by!

New home Card Set

I have been meaning to post this for a very long time. I made a set of cards to give a co-worker/fellow crafter because she was moving out of state. I used the Boards & Beams set from Papertrey Ink. Sorry that the picture quality isn't so great. I've gotten better at taking pictures but lately they're of my cutie son.

I made a set of 10 flat cards featuring the bigger house from the B&B set. I stamped them on kraft paper in black ink. Then went and colored in the roof, windows, railing & door with copics. I liked the fact that by stamping on kraft paper, I didn't have the urge to color in the whole house, which saved me time because I made 10 of them. I cut out each house using my cutter-bee scissors.

Then for the card bases, I stamped the fence image twice onto a piece of vintage cream CS, knowing that the house would cover the middle. I masked the fence on the left side and stamped the tree image. Did I mention I made 10 of them? I matted the cream CS onto Pure Poppy CS then the whole thing onto a kraft 4.25 x 5.5 base. I added a strip of Aqua Mist paper for a little more color, since everything was so kraft-y. I stamped the sentiment "Our New Home" at the bottom, perfect for sending people your new address. I kept the overall design flat and simple to make mailing them easy and it made it easier to mass produce. 10 of them. :)

Now the piece de resistance for me was the box I made to house, haha house, the cards. I used a template I had found somewhere by prchvs (Renée), I think from SCS or internet searching. It's easy to make, you need 1-12x12 sheet and 1-6x6 piece. I used a piece of green CS I had from my stash and a 6x6 sheet from Everyday Blessings PP. I tied a piece of Pure Poppy double stich ribbon around it and added another house I had colored & cut. The top cover has a little velcro closure to keep everything in. All 10 cards & 10 envelopes fit neatly and made for a great presentation when I gave it to my co-worker. The box is meant to hold 5 or 6 folded cards but since these were flat I was able to fit more in. And the box could be used for storing other things afterwards!

Cool, huh?
Thanks for comin' by and let me know if you have any questions about supplies or tools.

Aaaaand... I'm Back (I think)

Well... I've decided to pick up this blogging thing again. I went to the CHA Super Show last weekend and after meeting fellow bloggers, PTI forum members and of course PTI superstars and Nichole (!) (see picture below), I felt the need to contribute to the blogging world again. :) It also helped being crafty, just to be crafty. I went with 2 of my co-workers/scrappy/crafty friends and we had a blast slowly meandering from booth to booth doing some make-&-takes and checking things out.

From L-R: Debbie Olson, Heather Nichols, Nichole Heady, me, Dawn McVey, Jennifer Ellefson, Michelle Wooderson
Why do I look so nervous and short? Cuz I am.

So you may be asking, "where the heck have you been?" And I would answer, "right here, reading and absorbing everything, just not posting!" Then naturally you would ask, "Why not?" And instead of a smarty-pants answer, I would launch into a long summary of where I've been. But since you are not physically in front of me to hear that long summary, I will give you the bulleted list version. And hopefully I'll start elaborating as I get back to blogging.

August of 2008: Pregnant & VERY nauseous
January 2009: Discovered heart anomaly on ultrasound
April 21, 2009: Baby Tyler is born
April 24, 2009: Tyler's first surgery (crazy, I know)
July 2009: Back to work
January 2010: Tyler's second surgery
February 2010: Tyler's first birthday preparation underway
April 2010: Tyler's first birthday party

Now, of course, you're probably thinking, "oh no! She's gonna post an abnoxious amout of gratuitously cute baby pictures." And because you thought it - I will! Just kidding... I'll just put up a small smattering here & there for fun. There's plenty of time for that, plus- that's what Facebook is for.

A somewhat recent picture from this summer. He looks sheepish to convey my feelings for the lack of posting

On the crafty side of things, I did craft up until the baby was born, we will call that period: A.T. (ante tyler) - my Latin is very limited and mostly only to medical terminology. But just did not have the energy to post. Then with the disconcerting news we received in January, I started blogging about that experience separately. Ask if ya wanna read about it. I'm sure pieces of it will start to flow into this blog. Then all you mommies know, it is hard to carve out time to sit and do anything. I've been able to do some stuff here & there but only in sort of an "as needed" basis - in a "oh wedding today?" whip something up kind of way.

So I am calling this time in my crafty life: P.T. (post tyler) and hopefully it will provide some reading fun for you all!

I have a lot of catching up to do so come along on the ride with me!

From This Day Forward...

Yet another wedding card! This was wedding #3 this year, with 2 more to go... eesh :) But then it's an excuse to make pretty cards!

I had a hard time coming up with something so I just started stamping! I was FINALLY able to order Guidelines from PTI when it came back in stock but didn't play with it until a few weeks later. I did have one boo-boo side but that's ok, you just flip it over and try again. I will say that it does take a little practice to get the hang of it but WOW, the finished product is maximum effect with minimum effort

I was initally going to have one more layer but it seemed like a travesty to cover up the pattern :) so I kept it simple by just adding a "tag" with a monogram & ribbon.


Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Guidelines, Flower Garden, Birthday Basics ("H")
Paper: PTI Dark Chocolate, Vintage Cream, Sweet Blush
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate, Sweet Blush
Accessories: PTI Sweet Blush Satin Ribbon, Sakura Clear Glitter Pen, Making Memories Slot Punch

Thanks for looking!

Pretty in Pink

Another one of my good friends got married recently and I wanted to make sure I kept the standard for gift baskets high :). I first made the card and chose pink & brown to go with her colors.


Before I wrote on the insert for the card, I lightly traced the pocket onto it with pencil so I knew where not to write. This way, once inserted, you don't see the writing. I blocked all the writing, it's personal people! :) I'm really, really happy for my friend but sad cuz she's moving to Boston because of her husband's job - but hopefully they'll be back in a few years!! YAY!


So then I wanted to wrap the gifts creatively... I usually try and make it a theme but SOMEONE, who will remain nameless, bought up all the baking supplies on the registry. Making it hard for me to make a baking themed basket. And there wasn't anything thing else "theme-y" so I ended up buying up all her pop-up tupperware things and another boxed set of storage items. In addition I had to buy something extra for the honeymoon!! :)


I went to Michael's to see what baskets were available and found this flat one with brown lining - perfect! Then I carefully folded the unmentionables into 2 of the containers so they showed through and a jewlery box in another. For the 2 empty cannisters I just used pretty paper to line them. I tied pink ribbon on the ones that had something inside and dark chocolate ribbon on the empty ones. so the bride would know which ones to open. Then I stuffed extra wrapping paper around them so there wouldn't be too much shifting. The big box is just the boxed set wrapped up.

Here you can see more detail of how one of the unmentionables shows through :). I also shrink wrapped the basket for a professional finish then tied it together to the gift wrapped box with pink tulle and taped the card to the front. I love tulle.

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Boxes, Bags, & Tags, Shapes by Design ("Celebrate")
Paper: PTI Dark Chocolate, White; SU! Purely Pomegranate & DP
Ink: PTI Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, Dark Chocolate
Accessories: PTI Sweet Blush Satin Ribbon, random button, Scor-Pal, Corner Rounder punch, SU! File Folder Tab punch

Thanks for Looking!!

Mr. & Mrs.

Here is a gate-fold card I made as a wedding card. It's a 5x5 card and I used the tutorial from SCS. I also made an envelope using a template I had from Paper Source out of a 12x12 sheet of Vellum. The oval "Mr. & Mrs." helps hold the card closed.

The designer paper is sponged in Dark Chocolate and the white square is sponged with Spring Moss. The only thing that did not show up in the picture was the background I stamped in Aqua Mist behind the Mr. & Mrs.

I covered the flowers with my Stardust pen to add a little sparkle. The close up kinda shows it :).

I also stamped the branch image inside and outlined it again with my stardust pen. I used my Making Memories slot punch to punch out slots to hold the gift (check). While leaving some room to write something.

Fine Print:
Stamps: SU! Artfully Asian; PTI B&C Monogram Edition, Mixed Messages
Paper: PTI Aqua Mist, White, Dark Chocolate; PTI Everyday Blessing DP
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate, Aqua Mist, Spring Moss
Accessories: Sakura Stardust Clear Pen, Copic Markers, Making Memories slot punch

Thanks for Looking!!

Thank You Card for being 30

Not much to say with today's post. Just wanted to share the thank you cards I made to go along with the birthday theme from my last post. The hard part was getting my husband to write them. Anyone else have trouble with this? I even wrote out an outline for him to use but that totally backfired! I figured that since I had written the ~150 thank you's for our wedding, he at least owed me 8 of them for his own birthday?? Oh well, at least they'll go out soon, I hope!!


Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Beautiful Blooms, Flower Garden
Paper: PTI White, Aqua Mist, Dark Chocolate, PTI Father Knows Best DP
Ink: PTI Aqua Mist, Dark Chocolate
Accessories: Making Memories Square Brads

Thanks for Looking!!

Who's turning 30???

Hahaha... my husband finally turned thirty in August, he's 9 months younger than me. I know, I know, "gasp! younger man?!" What can I say? heh heh heh just kidding. He hates large groups and noise (already acts older than he really is) so we just had a handful of friends over for Korean BBQ. But I wanted to make it a little special.

Sooo... I made this pennant banner to liven things up.

Here's detail of one of the pennants. The letters are also from Archiver's die cut letters, also from the "Chunky" font but I used the capital letters with the shadows. Also if you notice, I use a lot of sheer navy blue ribbon - um... I have a lot, I mean A LOT of it leftover from my wedding (from 2 years ago!!) so whenever I can I try and use it and I mean WHENEVER.

So now you may now wonder where I got the color scheme? Well I got the idea from Amy Rysavy. She had posted a gift she made for her husband using the Father Knows Best paper and set and I filed it away for later. When I was thinking of a theme for the party, this came to mind. I thought the color scheme was nice, boyish but not typically so. Therefore I take ZERO credit for the idea, I only changed the main image and the sentiment. Then I made the pennants to match.

Oh and I used SU! Soft Sky instead of Aqua Mist just cuz I had bought a bunch of it along with the ribbon. But I used it with PTI Summer Sun.

I filled nugget tins with matching Jelly Belly's. Don't they match the color scheme exactly?? I got Berry Blue, Pink Grapefruit, and Peach flavors

The flower from Flower Garden and the sentiment from SU! Simply Said are embossed with White EP.

Also to make it even more special, I ordered a cake from Cake Girls, in Chicago. If you can't tell, my husband likes golf. He has moments when he is obsessed but I have moments when I'm obsessed with crafting so we always consider ourselves even :).

His reaction was so funny cuz he kept asking "what are you supposed to do with it? Do we eat it? Do we eat it? What is that? What is that?" And I had to keep responding with, "yes, yes, we can eat it, it's a cake!" It took some convincing for him to cut the cake but don't worry, we cut that sucker and ate it! It was really good!


So even though we don't have any kids, that doesn't mean you can't have themed parties for adults, right? And without the cheesy kinds you get at a party favor store. After I had spent so much time on my friends' 1st birthday party & baby shower, I felt I had to step it up for that special person in my life - just didn't seem fair to not spend my time on him :). Overall it went well, my friends sorta made fun of me for it but I don't care! :P

Thanks for looking and be sure to send any questions my way!

All wrapped up!

So for the presents that go with the card in my last post... I made my own wrapping paper for cuttlebug dies that I bought my friend, Heidi, for her birthday.

I used regular printer paper because I was in a pinch and PTI Beautiful Blooms randomly all over. I used almost every PTI ink color! Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, Lemon Tart & Summer Sun. Sorry that the colors don't show up in the pic, I was using early morning sunlight before work.

Then as the baby shower gift, the group of crafty girls at work decided to make scrapbook pages so she'd have a head start by the time the baby came . Here are my pages.


This one is a total scraplift from the page I took a picture of at the Jolee sticker booth at CHA. I changed the writing to be like a birth announcement. It was pretty simple and I like how the hand drawn borders give it a whimsical look. I'll post a similar one I did in blue later.


Here's a close-up. I'd never thought to layer the stickers from Jolee but it adds so much more! I'm gonna try and do it more often.


Let me know if there's anything you'd like to know about the stuff I've used.

Thanks for looking!!

Birthday AND a Baby?!?

We threw a surprise Baby Shower/Birthday Lunch for one of my scrappy friends at work and I made this card for everyone to sign. I used the CMWC15 sketch from the PTI forum, kinda. I had just gotten the Green Thumbs set from Papertrey Ink and was itching to try it. I used the rock & roll method for the flowers, I'm still workin' on it :P.

The neat thing with this card was making a slot for a gift card. I saw this on someone's site but I don't remember where- I'll be sure to post where when I do. Before you adhere the layer to the card base you cut a slit just a little larger than the gift card and use a circle punch to punch a half circle. Then stick your layer on but be sure to leave the middle adhesive free.

Fine Print:
Stamps: Green Thumbs, Bitty Baby Blessings, Women of Life additions (&), B&C Monogram Edition
Paper: SU! Kraft, PTI White, Spring Moss, Misc. Lavender CS, Bitty Baby Blessings DP
Ink: SU! Lavender Lace, Almost Amethyst, PTI Lemon Tart, Summer Sunrise, Palette Charcoal
Accessories: PTI Spring moss Grossgrain ribbon, Sakura Glitter Pen, circle punch, foam adhesive, markers (for stems & pitcher).

Thanks for looking!

Baby Shower Galore

So to continue my baby shower theme, here is what I came up with for a gift. I got my friend a diaper bag from her registry and filled it with some goodies. I made a last-minute gift using fabric and stamps to make some unique onsies. I got the idea from Taylor of Taylored Expressions. The fabrics are from something I picked up in Japan last September. I realized I only had very floral fabrics and so I picked the most "boy-y" looking one to make these :).

Three onsies fit inside one of the larger PTI boxes (the ones that the stamps come wrapped in). I made a belly band to match the card I made.

Here's the diaper bag filled with everything and ready to go. I stuffed some paper on the bottom so that things would stick out and tied up the handles with some ribbon.


I also made a banner for the shower (one that I could keep and re-use :) ). I tried to make them look like baby blocks but don't know if I accomplished the look.

Here's a close-up. I used PTI cardstock, Aqua Mist, Spring Moss and Dark Chocolate. The letters were die cut at my local Archiver's using the "Chunky" font. I randomly punched scallops with my SU!, scored lines and rounded the corners.

Thanks for looking!!