Mother's Day Gift Ideas

Little Yellow Bicycle and Petaloo are teaming up this week and today I'm going to show you an idea for Mother's Day. Actually you could use these for teacher gifts, birthday gifts, father's day (with a more manly look of course), etc. 


I also got to play with Petaloo, thanks to a Little Yellow Bicycle Hello Spring swap. I'll be honest and tell you that I'm not much of a flower person unless they are handmade but I really enjoyed working with the Petaloo products.  They sent me a gazillion flowers of different types as well as some velvet-like butterflies. I now have a change of heart about flowers after creating these little gift boxes for Mother's Day.

I know some people prefer to buy gifts instead of gift cards but in my family, anything goes. I don’t mind giving receiving gift cards and I usually invite the person who gave it to me to join me when I go shopping so we can spend the time together. The actual gift cards these days are usually decorated with a great themed design but the card sleeves they come with are often too generic for my liking.  These are super easy to make and I think they add the perfect extra touch.

I created these small boxes by cutting them out the old fashion way. No cartridge, just a TEMPLATE (designed by Nina Yang), scissors and liquid glue. Note that I changed up the front flap from the template design because I wanted variety and wanted to give it a little touch of me.

After I cut them and glued them together, which took me less than 30 minutes, I embellished them with a bit of ribbon and Petaloo flowers & butterflies.  Can you see those butterflies??? They have a velvety finish to them and I adore them! 

Lastly, I choose coordinating papers to hold the gift cards, making sure that the back side of the papers were light colored so that I can include a personal note. I adhered the gift card to the insert with a glue dot. There's a purple gift card tucked in under those little flowers below.

Lastly, I added additional flowers to the inside cards and voila! Oh and I couldn’t stop making them.  These gift boxes don’t have to be limited to Mother’s Day. They can be for birthdays, father’s day, Christmas, anything.  Actually, I made the 3^rd to give for a friend’s birthday. They also don’t have to be limited to gift cards – the possibilities are endless, so long as it can all fit in the box!

Thanks Little Yellow Bicycle and  Petaloo!

Supplies:

Little Yellow Bicycle Hello Spring HS-102 Garden Rows/Lilac Love

Little Yellow Bicycle Hello Spring HS-103 Spring Story/Poppy Linen

Little Yellow Bicycle Hello Spring HS-104 Flutterby/Sunshine Dots

Little Yellow Bicycle Hello Spring HS-109 Pretty in Plaid/Tulip Linen

Little Yellow Bicycle Hello Spring HS-279 Chipboard Shapes with Glitter Accents

Petaloo Floral Embellishments – butterflies

Petaloo Mini Tie-dyed Daisies – Yellow, Item # 1309-004

Petaloo Mini Tie-dyed Daisies- Plum, Item # 1309-021

Petaloo Mini Tie-dyed Daisies – Fuschia, Item # 1309-017

Petaloo Mini Tie-dyed Daisies – Blue, Item # 1309-005

Petaloo Tie-Dyed Jewel Gypsies – Teal/Fusch/Chart/White

Petaloo Tie-Dyed Gypsies – Raspberry Sorbet

Petaloo Mini Florettes - Lt. Blue/Dk. Blue/Green

Petaloo Mini Florettes – Hula Mnky

Spring into Spring Card

Hello there!  I've been having a ton of fun with ribbon in my scrap room lately.  Wanna know why? Imaginisce just came out with this really cool ribbon cutter and sealer and it has made my life so much easier.  It's called the i-magicut.

I have to be honest and tell you that I was skeptical at first. I can cut my ribbon with scissors and I know how to heat seal my ribbon, but........I never cut it perfectly, especially when I try to cut it banner style (live a chevron) and, and this is a big and, I either don't have my lighter handy to seal the edges and it frays OR, I apply the flame and it melts my cut and warps it all up and I have to try again until I get it right. I know I sound like a commercial and I don't mean to be but this tool is just so cool because it cuts it and seals it great each time.

Okay, so I got crazy with the tool and just started cutting away at the ribbon and created this Spring card.

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 I wanted to really test out the i-magicut with this project and it definitely got a workout.  What better way to showcase small strips of ribbon than to create a weave? To make it I adhered the bottom right corner horizontal and vertical strips of ribbon. Then I just worked my way across the bottom overlapping and adhering the vertical strips. Once I had all the vertical strips placed, I weaved in the horizontal strips, double checking that I wasn't skipping under/overs as I went along, and I did have to re-do a couple.  After I laid my last ribbon, I tightened up the rows and adhered the edges with fabri-tac.

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Head over to the Imaginisce blog today and each day post through Thursday, where you'll find video tutorials and you can even try to win one for yourself.

BFF's, Accessory Friends and a Little Gift Bag

Who's  ready for a little Imaginisce release week fun?  This is the first reveal for the new team and I am soo excited for the new gals.  I'm still honored that they asked me to join the team again!!!  They just released a fun little collection called Sole Sisters that was the original brain child of Lori Allred (prior to her departure from Imaginisce) and included input from the 2011 Imaginisce team, including ME! While many of the elements she presented to the creative team weren't included, some of it is.  Here's a few things I created with the line...

Best Friends Forever layout - this is my daughter and one of her bff's playing outside in their princess dresses. This was a big step for my sensory child...she loves to dress up but she seldom gets the dresses on all the way and if she does they come off pretty quick. I hate that she struggles with playing dress-up or not because of this. What little girl doesn't want to dress up at some point in her life?  I mean every.single. princess dress on the market has an itch factor.  Seriously, if I were a princess I would demand some softer feeling fabrics. Luckily she has a crafty momma and two crafty grandma's who are making her some costumes! Until then, she wears soft clothes under the costumes or avoids it altogether.  Anyway, here's my layout about my daughter and her bff. She chooses to have only a few close friends (M, J, I and A) and I think that's just fine!

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Supplies: Imaginisce Sole Sisters collection - Shop Till You Drop, Girl Stuff, I Pick You papers, Picture This Canvas Stickers; Imaginisce i-rock, i-rock LED Lighted Tweezers, Pink Jewel Tray, pink, black and clear hot rocks; Imaginisce Colored Foam Tape - white; Bazzill White Cardstock, Pink Cardstock; Studio Calico Mr Huey mist in Bonny Blue; homemade mist in red; Tattered Angeld Chalkboard mist in Charcoal; Glue Arts Glue Glider Pro adhesive, Zig Pen - black .5mm, misc. thread

A small gift bag perfect for a gift card and/or other small items

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Supplies: Imaginisce Sole Sisters collection - Shop Till You Drop, I Pick You, Chic Chat papers, Girl Die-Cuts; Imaginisce i-rock, i-rock LED Lighted Tweezers, Pink Jewel Tray, red and teal hot rocks; Petal Roller, Imaginisce Colored Foam Tape - white; Cricut Once Upon A Time cartridge - < Gift Bag 3 > size 11x9.9, Glue Arts Glue Glider Pro adhesive, Tombow Liquid Adhesive; Fabri-tac, misc. ribbon

Card: FRIENDS are the best accesories - sooooo TRUE! Want to know a little secret? The red background is part of the collection but it's not in any of the papers or embellishments...it's part of the packaging!

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Supplies: Imaginisce Sole Sisters collection - Shop Till You Drop, Purse-onality, I Pick You, papers, packaging from the Note-orious Chipboard stickers, Girl Die-cuts; Imaginisce i-top 2.0, 16 mm punch and 16 mm brads; Imaginisce Colored Foam Tape - black; Bazzill Moonstruck Cardstock, Glue Arts Glue Glider Pro adhesive.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you are leaving inspired! Make sure to head over to the Imaginisce blog and if you like my projects, leave me some love HERE and THERE!  I know they will be giving away a fabulous Sole Sisters package so be sure to check out the new collection and what some of the other designers did with it!

It's Cookie Time

Yep, it's that time a year again. Time for the Girl Scouts to be out in full force knocking on doors and accosting you as you enter AND leave the store.  Well there's no avoiding it so you might as well order some from my little Brownie so she can earn a sleepover at the Aquarium!!!

We spent a couple of hours last week knocking on our neighbors' doors. We only made it down the cul-de-sac and over one small street and she sold 20 something boxes. Not too bad! I was so proud of her, politely asking, figuring out the check/cash/change thing and thanking them, whether they bought or did not buy. Yes, there was someone who turned her down but she just smiled and moved on. Of course I took pics of her doing her thing.

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I am just loving these Authentique papers included in this month's Birds of a Feather kit. I think Amy might have a few left! Thanks for stopping by today!

My Girl...and Her Dog

This month marks the end of my term on the Birds of a Feather design team.  It was great to be on Amy's inaugural team and the decision not to reapply was a hard one but I love the community over there so I'm not going anywhere.  If you've never seen her kits you should definitely check them out.  And this coming design team is sure to inspire you!

Here's a a couple of the layouts I've made from this kit. 

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Supplies: Bo Bunny Double Dot "Chiffon Journal" and "Shitake", Authentique Gathering "Harmony", "Together", "Grow", "Bloom", Classic Type Alphas Item #SCC002; Making Memories “Paper Reverie Brun Antique” Lacy Stripe Artisan Die-cut paper; Kaiser Craft Fozz Fontz "Fonzo Alphabet Set" in Teal; Color-Me-Crazy Velvet Butterflies (misted bonny blue); Creative Impressions Twill - Caramel; Not in Kit - ADORNit Buckaroo alphas; Studio Calico Mr Huey Mists in 3 colors: Orchard, Pony, Bonny Blue; misc brown thread, Glue Arts Glue Glider Pro, Zig Marker .5 mm Black

The photo above was actually taken while my hubby and daughter were playing around.  We were on the hayride at the Pumpkin Patch and she was making crazy faces and he would just reach the camera out and click, not knowing if he was even getting her in the shot.  Most of them came out blurry but there were a few jewels in there.  This was one of them.

This next layout is of the day we met our new dog, Spot.  I was dead-set on adopting a dog that needed rescuing. I really owe the awareness of the importance of adoption to Pets Alive in NY, of which my favorite singer/songwriter, Rob Thomas and his wife, Marisol (and her family) support through volunteer work as well as through their Sidewalk Angels Foundation. I started following their Tweets (PA & SWA) and get their emails and it really took my heart.  So back to Spot, we found her on PetFinder.com.  We immediately fell in love with her (look at that face) and hoped that she was still available and also that she'd be a good fit for us. I love it that so many organizations post their animals (of all types) to it and you can look at most of those that are available for adoption and it takes you directly to the rescue facility. Spot came from Twyla's Friends and she was 7 months old when we got her.  She's such a wonderful little pup. She's a mix but I found lots of full bred babies and adult dogs (they need a home too) so the next time you are looking at adding a new "furr-ever" family member, please consider adopting!!!! Thanks for reading through my PSA!

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Supplies: Authentique Gathering "Harmony", "Together", "Grow", "Bloom", Classic Type Alphas Item #SCC002; Bo Bunny Double Dot "Shitake"; Kaiser Craft Fozz Fontz "Fonzo Alphabet Set" in Chocolate; Studio Calico Classic Calico Chip Shapes Assortment~Butterflies, Studio Calico "Classic Calico" Die-cut Cardstock Pieces - Tags; FabScraps Die-Cut Chipboard Embellishment – Fleur Frame; Clearsnap Smooch Pearlized Ink – Ocean Soul; Creative Impressions Twill - Caramel; Not in Kit - ADORNit Buckaroo alphas; Studio Calico Mr Huey Mists in Piglet & Orchard; My Little Shoebox small alphas pink(?), misc button; misc pink thread, Glue Arts Glue Glider Pro, Zig Marker .5 mm Chocolate


So apparently I was in a banner type state of mind when I put these together.  I know banners have been around a while but they're still "in", especially if you can find clever ways to mix it up.

Thanks for stopping by today!

2011 December Daily & LYB News

I am so excited to say that I made the Little Yellow Bicycle "Paradise" Cycling Team.  I cannot wait to create with their new Winter CHA "Paradise" collection in January.  See the announcement and who else made the team on the Little Yellow Bicycle blog.

I'd also like to show you some of my December Daily mini album.  This is the first year I participated and it won't be the last.  I created it with my Birds of a Feather December kit, which included the album and lots of Fancy Pants & Lily Bee papers and embellies.

Note: the pages do not have dates, photos or all of the embellies on them.  I have taken lots of photos each day so I decided my post-Christmas task will be to go through them all and add them to the album after Christmas, adding additional pages as necessary.

Cover - I painted it red and misted over it with Perfect Pearls Heirloom Gold mist. Once dry, I heat embossed with CTMH Olive Green embossing powder. I put it on heavy because I wanted it looking distressed (aka lumpy). I outlined the numbers with a black sharpie.

The Insides - I kept the photos small since there's so many. Click to enlarge.

There's always a to-do list for the holiday season...

 I'm planning to put a photo where the banner is missing in the photo below.

 

 I misted over a transparency in the photos above and below

 Used my Imaginisce i-top 2.0 and small brad daddies to create this Christmas tree on the tag

 A pocket and mini pages...

 I was going for presents under the tree here

 A little envelope...

 Mini pages and a giant tag

 The stockings were hung...

 The tag above is made from filter flowers that I ripped apart and adhered to glue on the back of a rolodex card.

 Finally, Christmas Day - presents and trees...

Finding our way through the Corn Maze

If you've been following along, you probably know how much we love out annual trip to Dewberry Farm.  There's a pumpkin patch, jumping pillows, petting zoo, tons of rides and so much more, we always have a blast! There's also a corn maze.  We always go through it but we never finish it. 

A couple of us on the Imaginisce design team were give an assignment.  It's called the Art of Journaling.  That's all we were given as guidance.  I took the assignment very literally.

Supplies used: Imaginisce Happy Harvest colleciton - 003337 (Autumn Splendor), 003338 (Apple Crsip), 003339, 003342 (I Love Fall), 003353 (Fall Friends Icon DieCuts); i-top 2.0 small & medium brads, 18 & 22 mm punches; Bazzill Basics (Navel); Copic Sketch Markers in YG63, YR07, Y17; Kaisercraft Tiny Alpha Stickers (Toffee Apple); Cosmo Cricket Ready - Set - Chip adhesive chipboard alpha - Red Line (Used the negative space); green rafia; misc orange and chocolate ribbon

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 I put a lot more focus on my journaling than I normally do and I got a bit creative with my Copics.  Here's what I did.  While sketching out my layout, I purposefully set aside about 1/3 of my "white space" for the journaling. I put the layout all together and then I wrote out my journaling on a scrap piece of paper.  I chose certain words I wanted accented.  Then I took about half of those and drew a box around them. I took the other half and wrote them in different font.  This was my guide for spacing on the actual layout.  Once I had it how I wanted it I drew lines on my layout in pencil and starting writing with my chocolate marker.  Once dried, I erase the pencil lines, drew my boxes and just randomly started coloring. 

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I also used the new Imaginisce i-top 2.0 tool that I recently got. I have to tell you that I just love the new i-top.  It's just easier to use and the rubber grips at the top are much improved.  Like I said, it's just easier, not that the other was hard.  :)

Did you notice that the brads I made are made from rafia?  I wanted to try to mimic the corn maze. Being on the DT (and actually just in general), I am all about trying new things with the tool. Here's what I did:

1. I punched the disk out of green paper, applied adhesive to the paper with the goodies Glue Arts sent me and then I pressed the rafia to the adhesive.  I was so happy at how well it stuck to it!
2.  Then I cut the snipped the rafia, cutting around the circle as well as between the crevices.

Then I attached the brad using my i-top like I normally would with paper of fabric. It was a bit bulkier but it held extremely well!

I want to show you one more thing...I made the title by tracing the negative space of alphabet chipboard. I did this because I didn't want to detract from the photos or the journaling but it could also come in handy if you are running low on alphas.  If you're like me and haven't cleaned up your scrap stash lately, you probably have some alpha chipboard laying around somewhere.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Itsy Bitsy Spider

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I haven't blogged in over a week, which is soo not my norm, but I've been busy celebrating my now three (or "free" as she says it) year old's birthday, going to pre-school Halloween parties, helping my oldest daughter dress up every day last week for various activities at school - superhero day, camo day, book character day and more.  We also went through some evaluations for my oldest daughter and found out she has severe ADHD possibly coupled with something else that I'm not ready to blog about yet since we need to do more evaluations but either way, we are so relieved that we are starting to get some answers to things we've all been struggling with! 

Anyway, I was just trying to say that we've been busy but I'm here today to show you a couple of things I made for Halloween. The first is a tribute to Reese's favorite nursery rhyme (last year). It just made sense to dress her as a spider for Halloween last year.

I used the Bella Blvd Too Cute to Spook product line that I won in a Bella Blvd contest a couple of months ago.  It's just too perfect for my cute little spider girl!  Lots of fussy cutting, hand stitching and machine stitching but oh so worth it! I made one of those spiders with my sewing machine!

Love the clouds and those little stars were very tedious to cut and glue.  Some are even popped up.

Thanks Bella for the great line to work with!

The next is a little Halloween project I created for Imaginisce.  If you have kids, you've probably been Boo'd by another neighbor kid but if this is new to you basically, you leave a little "boo" gift and poem by the front door, then ring the doorbell and hide.  If you're good and hide like a ghost, they never know who boo'd them.  Anyway, I created these little "Boo" candy corn door hangers, which contain you guessed it - candy corn.

I made a little cone out of scrap paper to get it the shape I wanted and then I used that pattern to cut the different colors.  I cut the yellow a little bigger on the top and then gave it a pretty trimming with a punch.  I used white for the entire cone and stitched the orange and yellow to the white, adhered it with ultra strong glue.  Then I used a Martha Stewart lace punch to create the pretty lace handle.  I cut out some of the lace on the handle and threaded black ribbon through it for that "extra touch".  I found the mini chalkboard signs at Joann's. I painted the frame orange and wrote "BOO" in chalk. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

What do a Pinecone and a Beehive have in common?

In this case, they are non-traditional shaped cards.  Imaginisce challenged a couple of us designers to create cards that don't fit the typical shape and size that you normally think of for cards.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  I REALLY wanted to create a pinecone but I couldn't get the shape right and I didn't seem to have the right Cricut cartridge in my small stash of cartridges. I searched through clip art and even attempted to hand draw one but they just looked like weird blobs. On to Plan B, my next thought was a bee hive and I was lucky to find one immediately on my Sentiments cartridge.  It even had a pretty overlay - SCORE! 

I cut it out and then traced it over white cardstock and cut the shape so that it made a card.  I added the sentiment, a bee and a pretty bow.  I topped it off with some black bling.  It's very cute in person and not so cute in the photo - you can't see the dimension of the overlay, the popped up buzzing bee and most importantly, you can't make out the bling. 

Being the perfectionist that I am, I searched through my cartridges for another idea and low and behold, it's like angels started singing - I spotted a pinecone on the Create a Critter cart. This card came together so quickly.

I cut a base out of brown and then cut 4 more pinecones the same size out of 4 different pattern and cardstock colors.  Starting with the bottom layer, I cut  the first piece and adhered it, leaving the tip unglued so I could fold it up a bit.  I cut the 2nd piece up from the bottom and adhered it over the bottom piece, again leaving the tips unglued.  I did it again on the 3rd piece and the remaining pieces, though I had to add my own scalloping since I was cutting apart the cut-out.  I wantd the scallops to be oddly shaped so did some random cuts.  I topped it off with some ribbon and mesh looking ribbon that I also inserted into the pinecone here and there.  After stepping back to look at it I decided to add the sentiment inside, though a cute little dangling tag would also be cute. 

Supplies: Cricut Create a Critter shadow 5 3/4" cut; cut out of 5 papers - Bazzill Basic Brown T9-943 Mono (background) on Bazzill white cardstock card base. Layers - Bazzill Navel; Imaginisce Happy Harvest Collection - 003339, 003337, 003340; Misc ribbon

Let the Good Times Roll

The afternoon after going to meet the teacher, hubby went back to work but I took the day off and let Rheagan choose something fun to do. She chose bowling and we had a blast.  I created this layout, based on my own sketch for Create 365, a LSS I am now designing for.  If you are in the Louisiana area or driving through on I-10 just outside of Lafayette in Scott, you must stop in.  You'll fall in love with the store and Amy, the owner! In the meantime, check out her blog and "Like" her Facebook page.

Supplies: My Mind's Eye Lime Twist Happy Go Lucky Collection: Happy "Blooms" paper, Hello "Bubbles" paper, "Lines" paper, Cute "Buttons" paper, Perfect "Butterflies" die-cut paper; "Cute" journaling card; "Happy" Accessories sheet; "Happy" twine; Out of the Blue "Playful Alphabet; American Crafts ribbon "Sharcoal; American Crafts Thickers Fabric Letters "Aqua"

Thanks for stopping by today!

Walk with Grandaddy

I am just loving how versatile this month's Scrapbook Circle kit is.  It's obviously great for anyone who has boys because of all the OA Rocket Age goodies but you know what?  I don't have boys and I am loving it so don't let it scare you. Make sure to check out the projects the other design team gals are sharing in the Idea Gallery.

We only make the road trip to my husband's home town once a year with the kids because it's such a long drive.  Technically it should only be 7 hours but it's been known to take 10 hours with 3 kids.  Anyway, we went over the 4th of July weekend a couple of years ago and we headed down to the beach to watch the city fireworks from afar since my oldest daughter can't take the noise.

I snapped this picture of her walking towards the ocean as the tide was going out.  And of course I got all the grand kids together for the group shot.  We may only make it there once a year but they love spending time with their grandaddy.

I used this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch as inspiration and made little accordian half banners because they felt very Americana to me. I used the scraps leftover from the scallop punching to trim the journal spot and also to create some edging to the blue & red mat. 

Supplies from Scrapbook Circle Blast Off! kit: Crate Paper Toy Box Collection "Explore" paper, Simple Stories Book Work paper, Simple Stories Elementary Expressions Cardstock Stickers; October Afternoon Miscellany Pack - ribbon, buttons, chipboard, journal tag; White Bazzill 1/2 the Edge border. Not in kit: Kraft and Red Bazzil paper; homeade mist.

Make sure to play along with this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch for your chance to win some scrapilicious goodies from Cozy Dog! Thanks for looking!