Monday, March 31, 2008

Prehistoric Pals


This card is for today's Mojo Monday sketch over at Poetic Artistry. I promised my nephew, Ryan, I would make him a dinosaur card. He's got a newly painted dinosaur room, and I have to say- it's pretty cool. The walls are Wild Wasabi, so my color combo came from that. Auntie Erica is trying to come up with some more things to make for his new room. I used Tree house stamps, Prehistoric Pals set again. I think he'll like it!

Friday, March 28, 2008

You Color My World


I got inspiration for this card from Cameron's crayon box. I've been wanting to make a card like this for a while. It was super easy. I cut my card base 5x5 square from More Mustard textured cardstock. I used the Coluzzle circle template and cut out a half circle for the "window". The words on the card; You and my are rub ons and I stamped color and life. I really need a Stamp-a-ma-jig. Thise letters are crooked, but I wasn't about to redo the whole thing. And I wanted it to say..You color my world, but that wouldn't fit. The scraps I used for the crayons or markers were from the retired Primary Colors Simply Scrappin' Kit. If you notice, there are 7 "crayons in the box". They represent the 7 most important little people in my life, my sons and nephews. Love you all!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

My First Treehouse Stamps


I was pretty excited with the new release of Treehouse Stamps Prehistoric Pals set. I don't have any dino sets, but I have 3 boys and 4 nephews. It'll make great boy gifts and cards. For this card I used Julee's Mojo Monday sketch. I used some of the dinosaur patterned paper that I picked up at our local scrapbook store. It's by Karen Foster. I added one jumbo eyelet with the Crop-A-Dile. I wanted two, but they both wouldn't fit. I colored my little Pterodactyl with SU! markers. He is my favorite stamp in the set. I am looking forward to guest designed for Treehouse next month, so check back for that.

Muddy Buddies

Cameron & AustinCarter
Click to enlarge to see the muddy mess!

Yesterday was one of the first descent days we've had in a long time. It was 50 degrees, but everything was a muddy mess. I couldn't NOT let them go outside, right. They were head to toe covered in mud, but they had so much fun. Boys will be boys! I do have a card to share with you, so I'll be back later with that.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Another "Out Of This World" Birthday Card


I'm really loving this Out Of This World set from LAD. I have another boy's birthday that I need a card for , so I used Monday's SCS challenge and made a flap fold card. I used Basic Grey's magnetic snaps to keep it closed. I have some space paper that I just picked up from our scrapbook store. I used the scallop punch, star punch, and hodgepodge on this card. Now it's time to start my work day. Daycare kids are on thier way.

Monday, March 24, 2008

You're Out Of This World



I hope everyone is rested up from another holiday weekend. I am wore out! Of course the kids are on spring break this week, so I have a houseful of school-age kids. Trying to keep them busy is a lot harder than preschoolers. They just want to sit in front of the tv and play video games and I won't allow them to do that.

Here are a couple of cards that I made for little guys having birthdays this month. I used my new Lizzie Anne set, Out Of This World. It's a super cute set for boys cards.

Friday, March 21, 2008

More Layouts

This was Cameron's Thanksgiving feast at school. I got to spend the day with him there. The library pocket hold things that Cam is thankful for.These are some of the pictures from this winter. The chipboard pieces are painted white and covered in glitter. Very sparkly!
This was from one of our nature walks last summer.

Is everyone ready for another holiday weekend? Easter just came way too early this year. And because we are expecting up to 6 inches of snow for the weekend, it doesn't seem like Easter should be here yet. Because today is the first day of the kids' spring break I probably won't get time to stamp today. I'll share a few more of the layouts that I did last week. Have a great weekend and Happy Easter!~

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Paper Plate Easter Basket


I'm back with a kids craft! This week I had the kids paint the backs of 2 paper plates brown. When they were dry I cut a half circle out of the center both to create a handle for the basket. I stapled both together, painted sides out so now we have a 3-D basket. They filled them with Easter grass. Today, using my, A Good Egg, set the stamped eggs, colored them, cut them out, and glued them inside their basket. They will use them Friday to collect their goodies from their Easter egg hunt. Well, I gotta run. The window guy is here to finally fix the shattered window that THEY broke upon installing new windows 2 WEEKS AGO!

Stamped Onesies


Last weekend I posted a gift set for a baby shower that I'll be going to. I said I had a few items to add to it. Here are the stamped onesies that I'll be putting in the mailbox. I used Nursery Nessecceties for the sail boat, elephant, and star. The alligator is from Wild About You (both sets SU!) A couple of tips if you are going to attempt this..... wash the onesies first so that they are preshrunk, otherwise you image will be distorted if it shrinks after stamping it. I put a piece of thin cardboard between the shirt while I stamped. I used SU! craft ink , and make sure your stamp is good and inky before applying it to the shirt because you only have one shot at it. After they were stamped, I let them set out to dry for a few hours. Then I heat set them with a warm iron. Do not use your heat gun. It's too hot! I think the alligator is my favorite. What's yours? I will be back shortly with a kid's craft that we've been working on this week.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Let's Monkey Around


I got these hilarious sentiments from MFT. This one says "Let's monkey around", so I had to make a monkey card to go with it. This little monkey was so easy to make. Just a few circles with the Coluzzle and a few more from different sized circle punches. Put them all together and you have Myles, the monkey!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Happy St. Patrick's Day!




Yesterday I was on a roll again! Layouts were coming together for me without much thought, so I was able to complete 8! I'm going to share a few with you today. Which one is your favorite?

Sunday, March 16, 2008

I Wish I Were At The Beach Right Now

Click to enlarge for detail
Life has sure gotten in the way of my stamping and blogging the is week! So many things going on that I just couldn't find the time to fit it in. Today we are just staying home and taking it easy, so I'm doing some more catching up on my scrapbooks. I hope to have them completely done by Easter so that I can take them along to our family gatherings and show them off. Here is another beach layout for Cameron. Each year while at the beach I take of picture of the boys from behind of them looking into the water. I think these pictures are just precious. I used the Life's A Breeze set from SU! on these pages. Hopefully I'll be back later today with more layouts to share.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

You Make Me Feel All Fuzzy Inside!

This spot is larger than it looks- each of the tiles are 8x8.

I wish that was how I was feeling right now, but it's quite the opposite. I can feel my blood boiling as I type. Those of you that have been visiting this blog for a while know that we had our roof done in September, the jerks robbed us, then left the state. When we found out there was nothing we could really do about it, we let it drop and tried to forget about it....until last night. I walk into my daycare room and I've got water dripping from the ceiling in 3 spots. Nothing I could do about it, so I put a bucket under it. It only dripped for a few minutes, but this picture shows what I woke up to this morning. I called Dustin at work to "vent". He said he would take care of it. He doesn't let me "take care of things". He says that I say irrational things and I let my emotions get in the way. He is absolutely right! I will TRY to wait until he gets home and let him make the phone calls, but I can't promise anything!

So the card is using the bunny image from High Hopes that my s-i-l gave me. The sentiment was also a RAK, but I'm not sure what company makes it. The d.p. on the card is Basic Grey's Two Scoops paper. That's about it. I gotta run- I have a potential recruit that I'm signing up today! (You know who you are)!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Sports Set




Okay- so we have to thank Lauren for this one. She usually does a Saturday sketch, and this past Saturday was no exception. Since I wasn't in a stamping mood I was having a really hard time with the sketch. Then she goes and posts this adorable baseball card using the sketch. I had to give it a try. Since my boys are into sports I went ahead and made a baseball, basketball, and soccer one. The little boy images I used on the cards are by TAC, but can't remember what they are called. Sorry! The d.p. I used is Stampin' Up's East Coast Prep. It is perfect for sports. When I began making these cards I thought of doing basketball first since Cameron will have his first b-ball game next Saturday. I was thinking of the bumps on the basketball when I made this card. I ran the Pumpkin Pie cardstock through the Cuttlebug with one of the embossing folders (the bubbles one, maybe?) to achieve the bumpiness of the b-ball. Not exactly what I had pictured, but you get it. The baseball was simple. I cut all the balls out with the Coluzzle. I simply drew some stitches with my Real Red Stampin' Write marker. The soccer ball was harder. I couldn't draw one to save my life. I found one on the internet and printed it out, then cut it out with the Coluzzle. I hope you enjoy these and give Lauren's sketch a try!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Easter Wishes


My mojo has been MIA for a few days. Since Friday I really haven't had the urge to create. Every time I sat down at my desk I wasted so much time staring into space because NOTHING was coming to me. But I think it's back now. I've gotten a lot of inspiration from other bloggers. This card was for Julee's Mojo Monday sketch from LAST week. It was a really simple sketch, but sometimes simple is better when trying to get back into the swing of things. The patterned paper is For Peep's Sake by Imaginisce. I've been harding it, but decided now's as good a time as any to cut into it. The chick stamp is also by Imaginisce. I did some paper piecing and added a few large brads. There you have it!

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Baby Shower Gifts



Click to enlarge photo
Today I've been able to spend hours stamping away because we are practically snowed in until my brother-in-law gets here to plow us out. We are having ANOTHER snow storm. We have 10+ inches of snow and it is sooo windy. Drifts are 4-6 ft. around the house and down the middle of the driveway. The kids are enjoying the day. They are all still in their pajamas and they've been watching movies most of the day. Since I wasn't able to stamp yesterday because of our new windows being installed, I have several things to catch up on today. I have a baby shower for my cousin to go to in a couple of weeks, so here are a couple of things I made for her. I will have more to go with these gifts before the shower, but I'm obviously not getting to the store today to pick up what I need. First thing I did was altered one of the mailboxes that I've been hoarding since before LAST Valentine's Day. The paper that I used on these projects is ala Carte by American Crafts. I found out that the baby's nursery is going to be blue and brown polka dots, so these papers were perfect! The mailbox is pretty self explainitory. I wrapped the mailbox with the patterned paper. I tied different ribbons onto the flag. I added a chipboard B to the flag also for his first initial. I typed the "special delivery" sentiment on the computer and added it to the side of the box. Next, is an altered lunch box tin. Same deal, I wrapped the box with the patterned paper. I used chipboard letters for his name on the front. I tied lots of ribbon to the handle. On the inside I made 5 inserts so Mommy can add things to note cards that she wants to remember, but doesn't have time to add to the baby book or to scrapbook right away. The inserts say Your Arrival, Month By Month, First Year Milestones, Family Reflections, and A Year In Review. I plan on adding hand stamped onesies and a few other little things to this, so stay tuned. Hope you're having a good weekend so far. Stay warm!

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Bagalope basket


I ended up not having any daycare kids yesterday so I was able to get 6 more layouts finished. I'm going to skip posting them for today though. I have something else I want to share with you. Who knew that you could use envelopes for things other than mail? I found this awesome tutorial here on how to make these great little baskets. I used A good Egg and So Many Scallops on the little bag. I think these are so fun to make, I will be teaching them at a workshop at the end of the month. i hope the girls like them.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Spring Scrappin'

Click on the photos to enlarge for detail.


I've been in a springy mood the past few days, and it put me in the mood to get several layouts done. Apparently Mother Nature didn't get the memo that said spring means warmer, sunnier weather. Instead we got an inch of ice and 3 more inches of snow last night. The kids are home again, but hopefully they'll keep each other occupied so I can get a few more layouts done today. These 3 layouts are for Carter's book. His is almost caught up- to date!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Handprint Sheep


Most of you know that I am a daycare provider, and I'm always doing projects with them to keep their little hands busy so they aren't getting into trouble. At the beginning of this school year I started doing a handprint or footprint project with the kids and put them in a binder for the families to take home at the end of the year. For September they made handprint sunflowers and in the center I put their picture. October was a footprint ghost, November was a handprint turkey, December was a handprint wreath, January was a handprint snowflake, February was handprint hearts, March was handprint shamrocks, and today we started April's a little early because I have so many little people's to get done. The kids were so excited because they got to use some of my punches and the Cuttlebug. I started by painting their hand black. They used the Cuttlebug with the swirls embossing folder and then punched out a large circle with my Giga scallop punch for the body and a smaller one with the scallop punch for the head. They glued on wiggly eyes and a cotton ball tail and using the word window punch made ears. I think they turned out so cute and a great reminder of spring. I might be sharing more kids crafts in the future, if you don't mind.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Just Chicken Up On You


Today I had a little time to play with my new MFT, Punny Farm, set. I built a scene using several of the animals and the farm lady from the set, as well as a fence stamp by Stampabilities. There are several elements on this card that you probably can't appriciate from the picture, but really make this card. I had to do some masking in order for the animals to look like they are inside the fence. I sponged the top half of the background with Bashful Blue for sky. In between the fence posts I colored green to look like grass on the other side of the fence. I watercolored the ground brown, for dirt. I paper pieced farm lady's boots, shirt, and hat. I put flock on the little yellow chick and on the cow spots so they are fuzzy. The chickens look like they are eating, so I thought they needed some food. For that I crushed some bird seed and also put some in farm lady's buckets. The card itself is pretty basic, but with such a large scene there wasn't room for anything extra! Hope you're all having a great weekend. We are having a 50th birthday party here with family for my mom shortly.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Acetate Carrot box

*EDITED* when you click on the link- it will take you to the ruthannzaroff website. From there click on Templates, then icicle treat box.
Finally, February is behind us, which means spring is on it's way! I am so glad, so I felt like sharing a springy project with you. Using acetate (transparencies) I printed this pattern onto it, cut it out and put it together. I filled it the orange Reese pieces (I ate the brown ones) and tied it shut with Celery ribbon to resemble a carrot. This is a cute, easy gift to put in the kids' Easter baskets.