A French Read

Happy Monday!  Today I have my last Graphic 45 French Country creation to share with you. :)  When I was down at The Cape last week we were talking about reading, 'cause of course teachers LOVE to read, and who reads in a book vs. kindle/iPad app.

All that talk got me thinking about how I need a new bookmark!  I've been tutoring this summer and the books we are reading together are all hardcopy rather than electronic.  Good excuse to whip out my goodies and create this little gem.

When I showed my husband what I made his response was "Wow!  That seems too nice for a book."  Well my response "Nothing is too nice for a book!". *smile*

Grab some goods to make your own page marker:
Graphic 45 French Country- Abundance
Graphic 45 Signature Cardstock- Bon Voyage
Graphic 45 French Country- Flowers
Graphic 45 French Country-Tags

Happy Sunshiny Day!

I'm on a "sun" theme these last couple weeks huh?  Today is a throwback post.  Remember this card I made for my retiring co-worker?  Remember I said I made another version of this card 'cause there were so many people who wanted to write messages?  Remember I said I would share that other card- a MONTH AGO??  Well, finally.  Hope you like it. ;)

I used the same sketch for both cards 'cause I like to see how different colors and patterns can change the feel of a sketch.  Hope you don't mind.  I'm cutting this post short as it is late and I still need to pack for The Cape.  It's our annual girls-mid-week-summer-get-together so I'm trying to get a couple posts ready for y'all while I'm gone. 

Have a fantastic Wednesday!  I'll be back Friday with a *gasp* LAYOUT.  Yup, I finished a scrapbook page!  :D

Happy Birthday with Graphic 45!

Good Morning Everyone!  As you read this I am on my way to enjoy some gal pal time at The Cape.  Have no fear though because I have an easy 'n fun tutorial for you today! :)  It's a birthday themed set which seems appropriate since today is my FIL- Don's birthday and 2 teacher pals birthday's as well!

 Here's another peek at Graphic 45's French Country line that inspired this card set. :) 
 

 I started with cutting some yellow cardstock 4 1/16" X 3 5/16".  Then I cut the Sunflower paper 2 1/2" X 3 7/8", the Deja Vu paper  2 1/4" X 3 7/8", and the Rendezvous paper 1 1/2" X 3 7/8".

 I layered everything leaving a 1/8" yellow border.  In retrospect, I probably didn't need to make the middle layer quite as big because I covered a good chunk of it with the bottom clock paper.  Oh well. :)

Next I cut 4 pieces of burlap ribbon about 4 inches each.  I added score-tape to the back of each one 'cause I've had the best luck with score-tape and burlap ribbon. :)

After adhering the burlap ribbon to the card fronts I set about getting the sentiments ready.  I used a couple of dies to cut more of the yellow paper & some cream, layered them together, added a sentiment, blinged them up, and foam taped them on the cards.  I adhered each one to a cream card base with some score-tape.  Now everything is ready to sign 'n send!!


Goodies used to create this set:
Tim Holtz - Distress Card Stock- Straw
Graphic 45- French Country- Sunflower
Graphic 45- French Country- Deja Vu
Graphic 45- French Country- Rendezvous
My Minds Eye- Sweetest Thing- Enamel Dots
Mon Ami Gabby- Burlap Ribbon- Green


Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Rays of Sunshine

Hiya Peeps!  Happy Monday!  Hope you had a relaxing weekend.  On Saturday I taught a new 5x5 class and had a great time with a wonderful group of gals.  I'm already thinking about another one after seeing all the CHA releases this past week.  Totally crushing on a bunch of the new lines for Halloween and Christmas.  It's gonna be so hard to wait for them to become available for purchase!!!!!  Well, in the meantime I dug into my current stash (gotta make room for the new stuff) to create this ray card.  Have you made one?  They are so fun!

I knew I wanted to make this card have lots of eye candy so I pulled out my chipboard stickers, dies, ribbon, and enamel dots.  These colors make me think of lemonade on the porch on a summer evening.  Ah, the idea of being able to sit outside tonight is exciting!  The humidity has finally broken and we may get the chance to eat dinner outside tonight and enjoy that lemonade too. :)

I'm getting ready to head down to the Cape tomorrow to meet up with friends and get our craft, beach, shopping, and fabulous eats on!  Each summer a group of us get together to catch up and have fun.  Some years we make cards, some times its jewelry and sometimes we just end up looking at ideas for both!  LOL!  This year we are going to make a few Christmas cards for our craft and we get to catch up with a fellow teacher who retired 2 years ago- so we've got lots to catch up on!!

No worries though.  I'm leaving you with a tutorial post for tomorrow and a couple of other fun posts.  Have a great week and stay tuned!

Sunshine

Well, it is hot!  Ridiculous, South Carolina in August with full on humidity that steams the wrinkles out of your face hot.  But I'm not in South Carolina anymore, I'm in Massachusetts!  I moved back to the North to get away from this.  Oh well.  Nothing to be done about it, so I'm gonna enjoy some time in Blogland instead. ;)  Truth be told, this ribbon is helping me cool off.  It reminds me of creamsicles, which also make me think of dream pops.  Have you ever had a dream pop?  Vanilla ice cream covered in fruity popsicle.  Delicious!!!  Perfect for these hot, hot days we've been having.

Hard to believe that only months ago we were buried under snow.  Of course next winter when we are again buried under snow and freezing we won't believe we had 110 degree (with heat index) days.  So should I think of the sparkly bling as ice or water droplets to help with my thinking cool thoughts?  Or maybe they are bits of melted popsicles.  I think the number of times I have mentioned popsicles means I need to go buy some! LOL!
  

 

Eeek!  This card is so stinkin' cute!  It's so happy with a girly sophistication.  This is the first card I've made with a flair.  Gotta say, I understand what all the fuss is about. ;)  They are so much fun to play with, especially when they have fun sayings like this one.  It's great for birthday, thank you, or this one could even be a tongue-and-cheek get well card!

Heading out for popsicles and on the way I'm stopping at these fun places:

Cardabilities- Sketch 79
Creative Inspirations- Inspired by ribbon and bling

Stay Frosty!

Bon Anniversaire

Birthdays & anniversaries in July are very popular with my friends and family.  Pretty much every week there are one or two (sometimes four!)  Sadly, I usually don't remember the birthday until after it has passed!!!!  Sit down folks.  This time I am pleased to say that I have remembered two birthdays that are happening this week and have cards ready to go!

This Graphic 45 French Country Collection is yummy!  I knew right away that these papers would be perfect for the two birthdays on the calendar.  Can't go wrong with sunflowers, roosters, and pears for the folks celebrating their special day this week.  One is for a gal that grew up on a farm and the other is for a gal who started a soup kitchen at her church. 

Each pattern paper is framed with the same shade of burgundy cardstock to help make the patterns less overpowering.  The flower dies that come in this collection made for a fun extra dimension and those bees.  I love 'em.  Had to use them for the centers 'cause they are soooo pretty!!!

My words of wisdom for today- check you calendar.  Who needs a French Country card this week?

Here are some goodies to get you started!
Graphic 45- French Country- Flowers
Graphic 45- French Country- Abundance
Graphic 45- French Country- Deja Vu
Graphic 45- French Country- Provance 
Graphic 45- French Country- Banners

Joyeux Lundi!

Mommy Advice Book

Back in May I made this Mommy Advice Book for a gal who was throwing her sister a baby shower.  She was looking for something that she could give each guest a page for a picture and a spot for advice for the new mom.

The color palette she wanted was so pretty, it made my job soooo easy!  The book was made using card bases and my Zutter.  Then I got to make all the pages happy with pattern papers and just a little embellishment.  I knew she would need space for the photos and that once they were in the book the pages could be too overwhelming if there were lots of embellishments.  Since I used cards they automatically created pockets that could hold tags.

Each pocket could easily hold 2 tags (1 for each guest on either side of the card) for adding words of wisdom.  I made them all different and thought then each guest could pick the one they wanted since everything coordinated with the book pages. 

She also ordered a banner kit to hang at the shower.  I got all the supplies together for her to make the banner to celebrate the arrival of her new niece.  I'm thrilled to say she loved everything.  I hope her sister did too and that the album gives her comfort in the hectic/wonderful/emotional years ahead! :)


Have a great weekend!

A Corgi Video!

I was waiting to post this until I had some good news to share.  Maybe it's my Pennsylvania Dutch superstitiousness coming through, but I was afraid I would jinx things if I shared this happy video until Cad got an all clear.

So, the good news-- Cad doesn't have Lyme, Neospora, or Cancer!!!!  Yay!!!!!!  He is still on one painkiller every 8 hours and now has to have Prednisone and Pepsid AC every 12 hours.  They think it might be an auto-immune illness.  Poor guy.  He's already so food centric and the new meds will amp up his thirst and appetite, but he is much perkier than he has been in a while!  The neurologist was surprised at how much energy and leg strength he had- and those folks are hard to surprise. ;D

We can't thank y'all enough for all your kind words!  Hope you enjoyed the video.  He has to get training wheels for the front of his cart because of the surgery and don't panic that he was eating garbage off the street.  We had to toss some treats out in front of him to keep him moving while I was shooting the video.  Told ya he was wicked food centric. ;)

Have a great Thursday!

Peaceful Snow

Happy Wednesday Everybody!  I whipped up another Christmas card for today.  I have a goal of getting about 10 Christmas cards completed this July.  We shall see how close I come. ;)  This time around I thought it might be fun to try using some designer papers that were meant to be "Christmas" and some that were meant for "July 4th".  Let's see what happened...

So what do you think?  The red papers are leftover from this project and the two different snowy papers are from my Christmas stash.  Happily, the silver snowflake is a tag from an old Kit Club Kit (from my LSS).  Have you ever seen Whose Line Is It?  They all get points for the sketches, but the points don't mean anything.  Same thing with Kit Club.  :)  We get points for using old kit, new kit, "pain and suffering", and it's all in good fun. 

This was totally pain and suffering free to create!  Since this says peace rather than being holiday specific we can send it to one of our friends who doesn't celebrate Christmas.  We each write notes in all our cards and we don't like to leave out any of our friends.  This one is probably headed to a newly made friend that lives in England!  Do you have any cards that travel outside of your country at Christmas?  It's so much fun to give & get mail from other countries!!

Well, this card is flying to these festive gatherings:
Festive Friday- Snow theme
Moxie Fab World- Mixy-matchy style 
Sweet Sunday Sketch- Challenge 188

I have good news coming about Cad, be sure to stop by tomorrow!!!!

Happy Anniversary (& Happy Birthday America!)

Today is not only the birthday of America, it is also my 12th Anniversary of being married to the greatest guy ever!  I'm so happy to say I would say yes all over again without hesitation.  Thanks for asking me T!!!

If you have ever read my Christmas Day posts, you know how much I love the games my husband puts together for me.  Presents are nice, but I LOVE the puzzle!!!!  He likes to use the numbers as symbols.  So for our fourth we went to the driving range and he call it "Fore on the Forth, Fourth".  My 33rd birthday he made a card that looked like Larry Bird's jersey.  My 38th he drew a 38 Special on the card.

Since today is our 12th Anniversary, the game was "12 Travel Adventures".  I had 60 second to say the adventure based on the clue.  As it turned out I need 120 seconds (which I have to say numbers-wise goes better with the theme).  He told me after that he thought it might be tough to come up with 12 and then by the time he was done he realized we had way more than 12.

This is the card I made for him to see when he woke up.  He gets up earlier than I do, so I had to put it out when I woke up in the middle of the night.  I wake up a ton during the night, so I knew I would be able to be sneaky then.  I didn't think about that trying to do this in the dark, without waking up the dog would be so nerve-raking!!!

Off to run errands and then hit the beach here in Maine & then fireworks tonight.  It's so nice that America shoots off fireworks on our anniversary each year. *wink wink*

While you are here, don't forget to stop by my Hen's Den Blog Hop post and enter to win!!!

I'm off to share my special day here:
Simon Says Stamp- Patriotic

Merry Trees

Merry-Christmas-in-July Everyone!  I thought I'd quickly share this card in the hopes of helping cool folks off.  It's been brutally hot and humid around here the last few days!  It's hard to believe that just a few months back we were buried in snow and thought we'd never be warm again. :)

I'm just coming off the prep work for my next 5x5 class.  The class is happening later this month, so of course it's going to be "Christmas in July!".  I've been kinda picking themes for the last few classes (can't help it, it's the elementary teacher in me) and the theme I picked this round is Festival of Trees.
The premise is that you make 5 each of 5 designs, so you walk out with 25 cards in 3 hours.  Since it is so many cards in such a short amount of time they have to be fairly simple.

This card is a a kind of reject for the class.  I really liked the look, but the snow-capping with the liquid pearls would really bog down folks, especially with the glittered lawn added too.  25 cards, in 3 hours, with sentiment, and umphing the envies means we gotta GO, GO, GO.  I liked the card though and I loved the look of just the tree having color 'cause it matches the trees in the DP (although looking at the card right now I realize I covered the green trees and only the aqua ones are showing! LOL!)

Have a great rest of your Tuesday!  BTW Cad is doing great and I will post an update later this week (with video if I can get it uploaded from my phone!!!)

Thanks for stopping by!  I'm off to make merry here:

Festive Friday- Tree Theme

Hen's Den Freedom Hop TODAY!

 July 1st is finally here!  I can't believe that school just ended for us this past Friday and July 4th is THIS WEEK!  The Hen's Den Design Team has come great tutorials and tips for you.  Here are the deets:

Hop to all of these places and leave a comment at each one between July 1st and July 6th.  On July 7th we'll pick a lucky commenter from random to win a TON of crafty prizes.

Anita Mulcahey

Moriah Macdonald---that's me!

Carolyn Lontin

Janet Bagnall

Nicolle Kramer

Charlie LaBonte

Facebook Page for The Hens' Den

If you hit all of our blogs and leave a comment not only are you are in the running for some great prizes, but you also get to see all the wonderful things my teammies have created and learn some new tricks.  It's a real win-win!

Charlie sent us all some great papers from the Anthem line by Bo Bunny.  I thought I'd share a paper-piecing home decor project with y'all today.  Grab a glass of lemonade or iced tea (I myself will be hopping while drinking my Grandma Poppy's famous homemade sweet tea warm off the stovetop) and get ready to get excited for the 4th!!!

I have a love-hate relationship with paper-piecing.  I love the look, but I sometimes get frustrated with the fussy cutting.  Like a moth to the flame, I continue to play with this technique 'cause the finished project is always too cute!  This project will have us fussy cut a daisy "Americana" style.  The first thing I did was stamp the daisy on some white cardstock.  I quick-and-dirty colored the center with a couple shades of yellow Copics.

So my husband just looked over my should as I was typing and asked "Why are there red arrows on your picture?"  I bet y'all are asking the same thing!  Well, see the messiness?  They great part about the paper-piecing in this project is that all that will get covered up or cut off.  Love it!  No need to worry about those little uh-ohs. :)

Next I stamped the daisy again on all the Anthem papers that had patterns I wanted to see peeking out of the daisy.  This can be a hard step for some folks- myself included.  It might mean that the best part of the paper is in the middle, but it's worth it in the end.  The extra details that are in a smidgin of the paper can really pop in the final piece.  Let's face it folks, the paper was meant to be cut. ;)

Once you've stamped out the daisy on all the papers, you'll need to begin cutting.  I can't emphasize how important it is to have good light and sharp scissors (in that order!).  I started cutting as the sun was setting and really should have turned on a light sooner! ;)  Matching up the petals to the black and white image was a little tricky until then.  My eyes just aren't what they used to be.  LOL!

My husband just piped in again and asked "Why did you stamp the whole daisy if you were just going to use a small piece?"  Good question (don't tell him I said that!).  You don't have to do that.  I wanted the flexibility to play around with the patterns and switch things around if it didn't quite jell.  The other reason, I was pretty sure I could use the leftovers to make a bunch of cards or tags.  Waste not, want not. :)

For me it's the petals with the blue/star/red splotch that are my favorite & the ones that were the hardest to cut.  The design was like 1/4 of the way in and 1/3 of the way up.  But then again, now that I've made the first cut I will really want to use the paper more!  Saving myself from paper hoarding!!! :D

Okay, okay, I digress.  More about the daisy!  As I cut each part I puzzle pieced it to the daisy.  I would recommend removable tape.  I kept bumping everything and then having to start over matching it up (again lighting- if I had turned the lights on sooner...).  I didn't glue as I went because I wasn't sure I wouldn't switch some petals around in the end (and I did).  Once I had it the way I wanted I glued the base of the petals- NOT the top.  Why?  I didn't want to fussy cut all the tops of the petals again.  Instead I kinda peeled the petals up and cut about 1/4 of the way down of the white underneath so that essentially there is a white circle shape under this daisy.  (This pic is from BEFORE I cut the white)

A new Homegoods opened up nearby.  Dangerous I know!!!  I decided to check it out last week and there in the clearance aisle was this lovely frame- $3.50!  I knew exactly when I saw it (and then whe I saw the price) that I was going to use it with this project.  Ahhh, love it when everything comes together.

I mounted everything to a 4x6 piece of the "Country" paper from the Anthem line.  I added the stars in circles from the sticker paper and the sentiment from the chipboard.  I love the Americana feel of this and had a vision of having a bow so I added Mon Ami Gabby burlap ribbon to top it off.  I am seriously crushing on this creation!!!  I still have more to play with and may have to make a banner or wreath to add to the collection. :)


Now don't forget leave a comment here and then head over to Carolyn Lontin.  You'll love what she has in store for you, I know I always do!

I've got my flag and am singing my way here:
ColourQ- Challenge 196
Simon Says Stamp- Patriotic