Teacher Gifts!

I wanted to make something special for my children's teachers this year. They've really been good to my son and daughter and I wanted to show our appreciation. I've been seeing a lot of strawberry-themed projects lately, so it's been on my mind. I pulled together these chocolate and strawberry baskets and used the retired Stampin' Up Oh So Sweet stamp set to top it all off!

First, I used these adorable red baskets from the Target dollar spot that I've had for a year now. I lined the bottom of the baskets with white shredded paper or excelsior from Michaels. I found these inexpensive plastic bowls in the candy decorating aisle at Hobby Lobby and put the strawberries in that and added a container of chocolate fruit dip from the grocery store. I added my favorite Offray 1.5" mini check red gingham ribbon and a 3x3 note card and that's it! Easy gift!

The red bags are card sets that I made for the assistants. These red bags are inexpensive party goody bags that come in packs of 10 or 12. I can't remember where I got them, but I find myself using them a lot! I punched holes and tied with ribbon and finished it off with one of my many craft store silk flowers and my favorite big polka dot brads from Hobby Lobby.

I really love to make cute gifts and I love to see how much people appreciate a hand-made gift!

I'm tired from the long week's end-of-school activities. Not sure how much stamping I'll be doing. I'll mostly be hangin' out and relaxin'!

I'll post some more new samples as soon as I can!

SC123

I was able to make a card for today's sketch challenge this morning before work! This card is entirely from scraps that were lying on my table! The card base was already stamped with Simple Stripes BG from a baby card that never was finished, the polka dot squares are from a scrap of DP, the Orchid Opulence was a scrap leftover from my birthday card that I posted last week, and the rest is accessories that I had right at hand.

I rarely use purple, but it's really growing on me! Accessories include a big prima (love it!), ric rac, and SU oval punches.

Gotta go pick up the kids! Thanks for stopping by!

Yet Another Lunchtin

Yes, here's the obligatory lunchtin. I know, everyone's been there and done that. I just wanted to share with you all another way to use a silk flower on a project. We made these in my stamp club. It's funny, some of my club members just loved making these, while others thought it was just too much work. Makes me wonder, what kind of stamper am I? Do I love to alter things and do lots of different techniques? Or am I a stamp and go kind of girl? I think I fall somewhere in between. What kind of stamper are you? Do you love the process or do you prefer more simple projects?

On this tin, I took the flower apart and added a white Prima for the center and a Making Memories rhinestone brad. I love the bling!

This weekend, I'll be planning a Stamp Buffet class. I'll be offerring about 8 different card choices, so I'm looking forward to playing with my stamps all weekend! I'll post my card selections later on this weekend. (Assuming the kids and the DH will leave me alone so I can stamp!)

Have a happy Friday everyone!

Doodle Challenged

I struggle to pull off the current doodle style of stamping and papercrafting. It's not my usual style of stamping, but I love the look and I hope I can learn to use it in my scrapbooks and cards.

Having said that, I really liked making this card. I started with a bunch of pieces of Summer Sun cardstock that I had left over from a class I had taught. I really am not fond of Summer Sun, but I was determined to use it up. I stamped Canvas BG with More Mustard ink to tone down the yellow. Then I stamped the flourish from Doodle This in black and used a gel pen to highlight it. I love that gel pen from SU!

Finally, I added a band of cardstock and ribbon and topped it off with the SU Designer Label Punch box kit. I stamped a sentiment from Just So Sayings to finish it off. Of course, I had to add a flower that I got from a cheap bunch of white flowers at AC Moore. I did use a Making Memories tiny yellow flower to bring in the yellow and used a black SU brad to hold the flowers together.

I do want to give credit to Rachelhope13 over at splitcoast for inspiring this layout. Her card is different, but her layout inspired this card.

Happy Birthday Liz!

One of my stampin' buddies is having a birthday! Liz, are you out there? There are some goodies coming out your way! I hope you have a great day!

I embellished this cute tin from Michaels with some of those flowers I bought at Michaels. I LOVE these flowers! I love primas too, but it's so fun to take the silk flowers apart and layer the petals and add brads and more! Here, I added a big brad from Hobby Lobby. Sorry, I can't remember the brand. I used glue dots to adhere the ribbon and I used tacky tape to adhere the black cardstock to the tin.

Finally, in the window, I stamped friend from the Noteworthy stamp set from SU.

Have a great day everyone!

What's with all the flowers?

Some of my friends might tell you I'm a bit compulsive. Well, I am! Michaels has had lots of good sales lately, and I noticed that they had all of their flowers on sale, so I picked up several bunches. (Ok, a LOT of bunches) I love all of the flowers I'm seeing on cards and layouts these days, so I thought I'd take them apart and add brads, bling, etc.

The next few posts will show what I've been doing with these flowers!

Sunday's Scrapbook Page

My goal for '07 is to complete about one scrapbook layout a week. I've gotten behind and I'm hoping this goal will help! I just bought an 8 1/2 square Christmas scrapbook at Michael's and I've started a holiday album! Each page will be the family photo from each Christmas. Since my husband, Chris is in Iraq this year, the picture from Christmas '06 will just be of the kids. We'll get a new family photo when Chris comes home this Spring.

This album will be super simple, 30 minutes or less layouts. I get so wrapped up in details on my scrapbooks and I never complete the layouts and it seems that I'm never happy with the results. So this album is all about the photos, and not about embellishments or perfection! Thanks for looking!