Little Bear Blue

Happy Summer Everyone!  I've been absent from my lil' ole blog, but I have been busy with oooooodles. :) I am posting this from poolside in sunny LA today.  School has finally ended for the year (I have always liked snow days, but the last two school years ending in almost July is making me start to rethink that love!)

My DH had to go to LA for work (I know we are all thinking "poor baby" LOL) and since school is out I got to tag along.  I decided that rather than fight any Monday traffic or deal with car rental companies I'd hang poolside at the hotel today.  It is blissfully quiet and gives me time to get around to sharing lots of pretty things with y'all!

Today I thought I'd share one of the baby cards I made this spring.  I made a few since we had so many babies arriving in our school family and in my school family's real-life family. :)

The clouds are from Unity, the bear and sentiment are PTI, the card base is MB, the ink is a wicked old pad from SU that I'm pretty sure they discontinued, and the rest is scraps.  I'm not sure about the washi, I think I picked it up in a $1 bin somewhere.

I've also been sitting on some super cute news I think y'all will enjoy.  If you miss any other posts this week, make sure to come back on Saturday.  I've been swore to keep this out of social media until then, so no FB, no tweeting, no blogging about it until then...

Until then, I've bundled this bear and gone here:
A Gem of a Challenge: card for a child
Glitter and Sparkle: baby cards
Oldie But Goodie: baby (the bear was stamped/cut at last summer and the ink waaaaay old)

Purple Zebra Stripes?

My good friend texted me last weekend asking if I would make invites for her middle daughter. I leapt at the chance to make something girly!!! Then she mentioned purple zebra stripes.  I had to channel my inner 12 year-old.  The one who wanted a hot pink Trans Am (my mom had an 80's muscle version and my step-mom had a Kitts version no wonder I have a lead foot!).

Since my LSS closed, I stopped by M's and was rewarded with a sale on shimmer Bazzill & purple zebra paper!  Yay! I pulled out my purple Copies and the PTI mini birthday set.

The stars got a little yellow and a little Sticklers.  I figured it kept the invites from being too purple- my 12 year-old self would have been appalled.  I LOVED purple, it was my favorite- despite the want for a hot pink car- and I hated yellow with purple.  Alas, the older artist in my wanted contrast.

No "nekkid" envies!  The sentiment is from my all time favorite AveryElle set.  The font is gorgeous and they stamp like a dream.  My friends got their kiddos a pool for Christmas and this will be the first party.  "Oh Happy Day" totally sums up the feelings about the day. :)

I showed everything to DH when I finished and he wanted to know how I made stickers.  LOL!  I told him I stamped and colored all the birthday cakes.  A piece of cardboard placed inside the envies kept the Copies from bleeding through to the back.  Guess I did such a good job he thought I had done it on the computer. :)

This is the whole shebang together.  Little Miss texted me that she liked her invites. Yay!  I was on pins and needles.  12 year-old girly stuff is a tough balance between "I'm not a kid anymore" and "I'm not sure I really want to be a grown-up".  Fingers crossed that the weekend of her pool, bonfire, sleepover birthday party is as gorgeous as this past weekend.  Little Miss is an awesome kid (so are her sisters and parents!).  She deserves a fabulous day!

You deserve a fabulous Monday!  Fingers crossed for you too!

Father's Day Froggin'

We have a shared pond in our backyard, boy I can tell you that the frogs have bunches to say these days!  Lots of talking a dawn & dusk. :) All their noise inspired these Father's Day cards.

This Unity image was a present to myself last winter. :) I figured since I had broken out my Copics for some Mother's Day cards, I'd use them on some Father's Day cards before putting them away.  LOL!

I'm really tickled with how these came out, especially the overalls!  These two are going in the pile to bring to work to sell.  I sold out of almost all my Mother's Day goods when I brought them in the week before the big day and folks asked me about doing the same for Father's Day cards.  We also have a bridal shower coming up, so I've gotta get crackin' on some shower/wedding cards too. :)

What crafty stuff have you been up too lately?

Made My Own Ribbon!

Well, sorta.  I have seen all those luscious hand-dyed seam binding ribbons folks have made and finally got around to making some of my own!! 

Eek!  I LOVE how the coloring came out.  It was a mishmash of Tim Holtz dyes, Tattered Angels spritz, and good 'ol tap water.  I dumped everything into a zippy bag, squished it around a bunch, and left the top open overnight to dry.  The card is a bunch of chipboard shapes leftover from another project and the bling is from a bag of scrap bling I got at my LSS just before it closed.

Thanks for stopping by!  Please let me know what you think of the ribbon and what tricks or mixtures you use to create some custom ribbon. :)

Lighthouse Treasury Fun

This great gal compiled a group of lighthouse goodies on an Etsy treasury- and she included my lighthouse card kit! I thought I would share the whole list with all of you. I'm in a "Maine State of Mind" (despite being from NY originally- Billy Joel please forgive me. LOL) because we are going to open our little Maine cottage this Friday.

It is such a pretty treasury, I thought I would share the items I "favorited".

 This is a really cool necklace on the treasury from the shop Celebrate Today.  I think it is super cute.

 This is a darling print from Pixel Art Prints.  I'm totally crushing on the dimension she was able to give that lighthouse and I, of course, love the banner!

This is a cool art piece from Sugar Bean Island.  This gal has such cool stuff and she just opened her shop a few days ago.  I'm so glad she did- I may have to be one of her first customers!!!

I enjoyed the title of this treasury too.  It's titled "Mom's Favorites" which seems appropriate since both my mom and my mother-in-law have had a long love for Maine, it's beaches, and it's lovely lighthouse scenery. :)

Please hop over and look at all the other pretty listings in this treasury!

One Week From Now...

Is Teacher Appreciation Day!!! Do you have cards ready? This is the other card I made a ways back for a customer. This is yet ANOTHER stamp that had been sorely neglected.  It's perfect for a teacher card though, right?  I colored two of these triple apple images so I could play again later with this image.

That's all for now.  I gotta get busy in my studio tonight.  Vacation is over!  Time to get crafty!!!

A Couple Poises

Ahhh, the last day of my vacation. Sniff, sniff (whiny voice) how come it goes by faster than a work week?!?!?

Can't complain too much though.  We made it to see my Gram, cousin, and DMIL & DFIL for Easter.  Put flowers on my dad's grave in Colonie, made it to the Macdonald grandparents home in Waverly, and were able to put flowers down for them too.  We also managed to stay one night at the B 'n B where we got married.  The weather was fairly good until the B 'n B, but that's okay.  It kept the crowds down and we had the place to ourselves. :-D

Went for a few days without TV.  Gasp!  I KNOW, that's HUGE for me. :) We downloaded an audiobook from the library using my Overdrive app.  Gosh, it was not an small task!  Took me forever to work through the kinks and learn how to do it.  Still having hiccups with downloading on my iPhone, but that could be because I have an antique iPhone.  No seriously.  It's an iPhone 3- not 3S- 3.  My friends let their 7 year-olds play with that model as toys.  LOL!

Since Easter has passed, I thought I would share a set of Mother's Day cards I have in my Etsy Shoppe.  I LOVE making monochromatic cards and haven't made any in a long time.  I made a purple version and a yellow version. The stamp is an old favorite by Memory Box.  It has seen TONS of ink over the years. For instance here and here. :)

Happy Sunday (I'm trying to be happy at least!)