Flowers, flowers everywhere plus a little chocolate!

Hiya! Hope that you are having a nice weekend! We have a giant family dinner planned tonight and since our family is our closest set of neighbors the snow won't get in the way! We have all decided to get together once a month and all bring a few things! There will be between 13 and 17 us! Should be fun! We will be bringing chicken casserole, broccoli, cheese and rice casserole and flourless chocolate cake! Yummmm-o!

My SIL's bday was yesterday and I wanted to make her a little something. She is crafty so I threw together a few little craft odds and ends and made a basket to hold them all! I added some of her favorite chocolates! I used my SU! eyelet border punch for the basket edges and the handle. I used my Cricut to cut out flower pieces and layered them and added a button and some leaves. I stamped flowers all over the basket! It turned out pretty cute! I mean how can you go wrong when the gift you are giving is overflowing with chocolate?! LOL Here is the basket:


Flower front and center:


Basket filled with goodies:


I made the accompanying birthday card from a card kit I got back in a swap! I fell in love with this image! How cute is she?!



I just love the colors of the paper. I tried to pull them in when I was coloring the image.

Ok, time to get cleaned up and ready for dinner! Have a wonderful weekend! I will be back soonest! :)

A basket of love and a little bit of culture!

Hello! Is everything snow covered where you live?! We woke up this morning to lots of snow! They were predicting 15", but we only wound up with about 9". It snowed off and on most of the day and was absolutely beautiful! Falling snow just makes the world feel so peaceful and serene to me! It is quiet and still and everything looks so clean! LOVE it!

Thought I would stop by and share a project we made at my Stamp Club with you! We used Stampin Ups! scallop envelope die to make this cute little basket! It takes four to make it! Simply glue all of the envelope tabs together and you have a cute basket! I reinforced the bottom with an extra stamped square that matches each of the stamped side panels. This one happens to be love themed, but you could change that for any occasion! The best thing about this basket is that it will hold a ton of chocolate which is appropriate for just about every occasion! I used the new heart embosslit die for the border of the heart and then the SU! punch for the center and then added a button and some ribbon! Easy peasy! Here it is:

Front:


Side:


Focal Point:


On a more educational note! This week in our home school group we had an International Day! Each family chose a country and did a project to represent that country. The only requirement was that each family bring a food from their chosen country...otherwise every thing else was no holds barred! We had some really amazing projects and some super yummy food! Thought I would share some of the projects with you!

Cypress:


France:


Haiti:


China/Germany:


Ireland:


Egypt:


Jamaica and the Netherlands:


Philippines:


Greece:

This was my youngest daughter's project! She made the Trojan Horse out of card board boxes, cooked the Baklava by herself and dressed her teddy bear in a toga with an olive branch head dress (the leaves were cut using my Cuttlebug and a Sizzex die!)

Italy:



This was my older son and daughter's project! They made mini pizzas and erupted Mt. Vesuvius (both of which were a big hit with the kids!!)

Aren't you just dripping with culture now?! :) If you made it all the way to the bottom thanks for hanging in there! Have a great night! I will be back soonest with more crafty goodness to share! :)

Crafty Critters Challenge #17

Hello! It is time for another Crafty Critter Blog Challenge! This time around it was a scrap book page challenge hosted by Moira! *Hiya Moira!* This was an excellent challenge! It has been a really long time since I have scrapped anything and although I had a really hard time making this page come together I enjoyed doing it very much! I used to scrap all the time but have fallen away from it. I am feeling inspired to get back to it and this may have been the little kick in the tushie I needed! Since I have four kids I went round and around about who to use as my subject and then decided to compromise! The subject of my page is one of our furry children as a baby! Here are the challenge particulars:

1. Use the following sketch
2. Use only from your stash - no buying allowed!!
3. Use at least two different patterned papers.

You can make this one page - or two pages, but please use the sketch for at least one of the pages.

Layouts are to be posted on your blog sometime between January 23-27, 2010

Here is my scrap book page:



My page is 8x8. I followed the sketch loosely, but kept it as my guideline. I used different patterned papers though and only used stuff from my stash! This was really a fun challenge! :) I am looking forward to scrapping more!

Hope that you have great night! I will be back soonest! :)

It's love and I ain't 'lion!'

Hello! Happy Monday! :) I am so excited to say that I had my very first Stamp Club get together Friday night and we had a wonderful time! It is a fun bunch of ladies and there was a ton of junk food and laughter and of course crafty goodness! I wanted to share one of the cards we made here with you! I found this adorable lion here on Angie's Chic n Scratch blog! I fell in love with this little guy! I thought it would make the cutest valentine's day card so this is what I came up with:



I used SU!'s top note die in red and white and trimmed the white to mat it against the red. I added the two punch art lions and gave the girlie one a pretty red bow! I added a heart on a pop dot in the center to show that they were in love! They make such a sweet couple, don't they?! :)

Today when I was taking the pictures one of our lions tried to get in on the act and steal the show! Here is a picture of our kitty (named Rooster!) posing with the lions on the card! :)



I will be back soonest with another project from my first Stamp Camp get together! I had such a good time with this that I am considering trying to get a second club together! Let the crafting begin! :)

Have a wonderful night!

A little inspiration and a birthday wish!

Hello! Happy Saturday! :) I have a couple of things to share with you today! The first one is a swap I participated in recently! It is a four month swap with three of my very dear friends. We each agreed to host for one month. When it os our turn to host we set all of the guidelines and then we each follow them and send one of our creations to each participating members. I was the January hostess and my challenge was:

1) Create something inspirational that can be framed!
2) It should fit into a 4x6 OR 5x7 frame
3) Use supplies that you already own...NO shopping!
4) Use a button somewhere on the project!
5) Do not send them framed! We can all choose our own frames that way!

This was my swap! I made one for each of us and plan to hang everyone's up together in my craft space!



A close up of the flower:



I chose a fairy as my focal point because to me they are full of inspiration! Always flittering about causing mischief and usually up to no good! LOL They are fun and sweet and cute and always happy! I stamped her in SU! Brilliant Blue and then added Stickles to make her trail sparkly! I used letters from my SU! die to cut out the message "Dream Big!" I added double layers of DSP and vellum punched butterflies and stamped and layered flowers with leaves underneath. I mounted it on SU! Pretty in Pink and then on Old Olive to match the colors of the fairies dress. The whole things sparkles in person! :) It just oozes with inspiration!

This next project is a card I made for a sweet and wonderful scrapping friend! She is a photographer and loves wildlife so I thought the little birds and flowers would make her happy! Hope she likes it!



Ok, I am off to attempt to scrap book! It has been a long time since I have scrapped! Hope I remember how! Wish me luck! LOL Have a great day!

Hi there! Happy Wednesday! It was so dreary and yucky here today that it was almost depressing! I usually don't mind days like that but today was kind of a downer. Hoping for some sunshine real soon! Coooome on Vitamin D! :)

I have a couple of projects to share with you today! The first one is of a sign I made for hubby's aunt and uncle. They are some of the most wonderful people on earth and they have been like surrogate grandparents to my kids! I just love them! We always celebrate Christmas with them post Christmas and due to illness this year we celebrated late (Sunday!). They are both very crafty and appreciate handmade things so I wanted their gift to be handmade (which to me also = heartmade!) It was a hit! I used my Cricut to cut the letters of their name and added some flowers and leaves cut with my SU! die. I popped the whole thing in a frame and it was ready to go!



The next thing is a card that I made for my daughter's boyfriend. He had a birthday recently and we threw him a little party complete with dinner, fun gifts and his favorite cake! He likes dragons so I dug out my only dragon stamp for his card! Now this card came out really cute in person, but try and try as I might I just could not get it to photograph well! I was so frustrated that I almost did not share it! I drew the little gravel road and sponged it with SU! Going Gray. Then I stamped the castle and water colored it. I sponged SU! Tempting Turquoise for the sky and then water colored and added the dragon on pop dots. I cut into the image at the wings so they folded out! Cool boy thing! I am telling you though...totally cute in person, but only mediocre in the picture! Grrrr! He really liked it though! Here it is:



Hope that you had a good day! I will be back soonest with more fun stuff to share! :) Nighty night!

Crafty Critters Challenge #16

Hi there! Quick post tonight. I participated in the CCC#16 hosted by wonderful Tracey. (Hiya Tracey!) Here are the particulars:

Here is my challenge........create a card for your Valentine using Pink, Red, White
and Black (as an accent only) color combo.
There are no vendor requirements.
Post your submission to your blog between January 13 - 18, 2010.
Thanks for playing along and happy crafting!
Tracey (traceyc0103)

Here is my card:



I will be back soonest with a longer post. :)

Hello! I had a jam packed day and evening and am dragging behind tonight, but wanted to pop in for a minute! I made a simple thank you card today and tried my hand at water coloring for the very first time! I finally broke down and bought one of those crazy pen/brushes that you fill with water. I LOVE it! It is so much fun! I used it to pick up color from various stamp pads and went to work! There were lots of tiny little details in this image, but it was easy peasy to color! I am really pleased with the way it turned out! What do you think?!



I am heading to bed! Hope that you had a wonderful day! I will be back soonest!

More shoebox swaps!

Hello! Happy Tuesday! I have been an absolute slug today! I mean it...I have not gotten one darn thing accomplished (well I walked 3 miles and picked up the front of the house and did some planning for my home school meetings and did money and made muffins and answered some e mails and...) Huh, maybe I wasn't a total slug! LOL

Thought I would stop by and show you the rest of the projects from my shoebox swap this weekend! I really had a great time! It is always so much fun to stamps with friends! :) Here they are:

This first one is a cookie and hot chocolate holder! Isn't that paper dreamy? Love it! I haven't bought any, but now I am really jonesin' for some! LOL



Open view:


A box with a beautiful flower from one of the Big Shot dies!



Close up of the flower!



I am off to try to get something done! Have a wonderful day! I will be back soonest! :)

Shoebox swaps!

Hello! Hope that you had a pleasant Monday! :) We had a family birthday party for my youngest daughter tonight and it was a big smash! We had an ocean/beach theme complete with music and bright flowers and ocean animals hanging from the ceiling! We had a half sand half ocean cupcake cake and lots of fishy themed food! It was fun! Now my youngest baby is officially 11 years old...sigh!

I wanted to try to squeeze in a quick post tonight before I headed off to bed! I wanted to share some of the projects from my shoebox swap with you! Here are a couple:

This was my first easel card! It has been on my to do list to try one of these! Now that I have I just love it! :)



Side view:


Open:


A simple card for Valentine's Day:


Thinking of You card!


Pretty Post It Note Holder:


These were all so much fun to make! I will be back tomorrow to share the rest of the projects with you! Have a great day!

Scallop Envelope Basket

Hi there! How was your weekend?! It is cold where you are? It is freezing here! I am such a wimp! LOL 60 degrees is cold to me! It really is freezing though! I went through town on my way to my demo meeting today and the giant thermostat in the sky said 22...brrrrrrrr! Now that is cold!

My meeting today was fun and wonderful! We had a shoebox swap! If you are unfamiliar with what that is allow me to explain! We all showed up with a finished project and enough kits for everyone in the group to make one just like it! There were some really fun projects! I will share those with you tomorrow, but will share mine now! I ordered the SU! Scallop Envelope die on a whim because that tiny little envelope was too cute! Then blog surfing one day I saw a basket made from 6 of the die cuts and thought that 4 would make an adorable option as well! After I made this one I went investigating and found a few other made with 4! They go together very quickly and are as cute as can be! Change your colors and you have a perfect basket for any occasion! I kept mine neutral and added a flower from the new SU! set called Vintage Vogue. I am in LOVE with this set! It is just beautiful! I bent the petals on and layered two flowers. I added some ribbon and gold cording to the center. Then I adhered some leaves and pop-dotted it to the front and there you have it! This was really a lot of fun to make!


Front view!


Side view!


Close up view of the flower!

I am very excited to say that I have broken down and ordered a light/tent kit! I am hoping to improve the quality of the photos on my blog. I sent the link to my mom (who is the WORLD'S BEST PHOTOGRAPHER!!!!) to get her opinion and she liked it so much she ordered one too! :)

Ok, I am off to try to get some stuff done before I call it a night! Have a super evening! I will be back soonest! :)