Baby Shower Decorations

I volunteered to help make decorations for a baby shower. I was a little short on ideas so my friend Camille sent me a picture. I was trying to spend as little money as possible.

The inspiration:

I had gotten these 2 David Stark Topiary's from work during the holiday's (for free). They've been in the trunk of my car for months. I figured they would be perfect.

So I went to Walmart and bought a can of spray paint to try to cover a little of the newsprint. It didnt cover completely, it seemed to soak right in. But I still think it looked ok.

I had cupcake liners (reg and mini sized), but they were white. Since they were white they looked too much like, well, a cupcake liner.. So I used 2 different glimmer mists on them to make them different shades of pink, and attached them to the ball part of the topiary.

Then I used yellow glimmer mist on paper and cut out circles to use as centers.

I added some ribbon around the top and the bottom of the 'planter' part

Here's the completed project. (and it only cost me $2.50 for the paint)

so... 40 SUCKS! lol

Tonight was a friend (Shirley) from Church surprise 40th birthday party. No gifts required but gag gifts acceptable. So I FINALLY got to make the 40 Sucks bouquet I saw a year ago online. (I wish I could remember where I saw it so I could link back to it.) But the whole thing cost me less than $5. The 'pot' was from some gourmet popcorn we had bought at Costco at Easter that I covered in paper. I bought 2 packages of suckers (because I had to have 40 lol) and a package of straws at the dollar store. I had the florist tape, and floral 'foam'(not sure what exactly it's called but it disintegrated fast from touching it)

My boys helped me wrap the straws in floral tape, then I poked them into the foam. Cut the flowers out on my Cricut, poked the sucker stick in the middle then into the top of the straw. I love the way it turned out.

Close up of sucker flowers

Design Team :(

Recently Jen announced that she will no longer be blogging much as she has gotten a job making cards for her local florist, so there is no more Design team :( I was really enjoying getting out of my comfort zone to make some of these challenges. AND it really made me want to craft again. I've not really been doing much in the last year because of my schedule at work.

I had already made my card for the week I just hadn't posted it. We were suppose to use a digi stamp by Tiddly Inks. They have some very cute digi stamps and some very unique ones too. I chose to use the teacher themed set with a stair-step card. I colored it with watercolor pencils. I think it really turned out cute!

Monday's Theme Challenge at POM

Today's theme is Father's Day/Masculine at Pieces of Me

This is my all time favorite Father's Day card. Several years ago a very talented lady (named Angela Sgro) was in the same card swap that I was in, and she made the cutest Hawiian shirt. I turned it into a Father's Day card. You can get the template for the card here. The key is using a paper that is double sided. I didn't have much time this week and this was very easy to make.

See you next week!

POM Challenge for May 30th

I'm trying to challenge myself by using what I have and not buying more. So when I saw this weeks challenge was graduation I knew I still had some paper left from the card I made Sarah last year when she graduated from High School in my scrap box. Love the paper but it said 2010 on it. So I worked around it. Our family was invited to a graduation party for a family at church who has 1 son graduating from High School and one graduating from Jr High. So I wanted the cards to be different from each other while still using the same papers.

Not crazy about how tilted the hat on this one is but it was in place before I took a good look at it and it was too late. I added mini buttons on the side of this one because it needed something a little extra there and I didnt want to use ribbon.


This one I let the paper be the focal point, I felt like the paper background was busy and didnt need anything added to it.

POM Challenge for May 23rd

OOPS! Totally forgot to post last week's challenge. So today I'm posting it and this week's challenge. The challenge for May 23rd was ribbon.
For this card I wanted to ruffle the ribbon to give it a different look. I wasnt sure how to get it to stay on the card while I sewed it so I used my red line tape... oh boy! Not something I recommend doing if you want to sew after. It was so sticky I actually ruined 2 needles.


Here is a closer view of the ribbon

Monday Challenge at Pieces of Me

Hi!
This week's challenge was 1st Birthday. This theme was really challenging for me, I do ok with baby cards (mostly because I always seem to do the same jungle theme).
Make sure and check out Jen and Ali's creations over at Pieces of Me .
I hope you'll play along too!

Pieces of Me Monday Challenge for May 9th

This week's challenge is to use Dew Drops. I use Dew Drops all the time on my card, sometimes I will add 3 of them at the bottom or on the side as an accent or even as the middle on a flower. This week I wanted to do something I've never done before. I made my flower completely with Dew Drops (and their sister the Tear Drop)
Here are 2 gift tags I've made for this weeks challenge. Please visit Pieces of Me to see other creations by Jen and Ali.




Supplies on both, green scrapper floss, dew drops, tear drops, grosgrain ribbon

Monday Theme Challenge: Mother's Day

So very excited to be a part of the Design Team for Pieces of Ali n' Me Challenges! I am on Team Monday. This weeks theme is Mother's Day. I made 2 cards for today's challenge. Basically they are the same just used different colors and card bases. For both I used my Slice with my Vintage Findings card. I cut multiple images in different colors. For the purple card I used a frosted plastic for the base, the inner part of the card is just white cardstock with glimmer mist on it

Front
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Side angle


For the yellow card I used acetate for the base so you can see everything a little better.

Front


Side angle


Please take time to take a look at the work the other ladies on the Design Team have created! What a talents bunch of ladies we have! (the link is over on the right side)

To one of my favorite "Peeps"

Most people that know me understand my little 'quirk' about marshmallows. So, every year since I was a kid my mom or my grandmother would buy me a little package of peeps. *gag* Needless to say it totally cracks me up that I even came up with this card. I made it using my new Spring card for my Slice. I used some shiny yellow cardstock and painted it with yellow stickles to make the Peeps.
Front of the card


Inside of the card.

Easter Banner

Most week-ends my house is buzzing with kids! My own plus nieces and nephews. This week-end the girls and I made a Happy Easter banner. I did the little animals and the letters, Makayla & Kyndra decorated them. It turned out really cute.

How the time flys!

I really need to do better at updating this blog lol

I was asked to teach a class for my ward's Super Saturday and since I had been seeing these necklaces I thought it would be fun to do for it. (SS was canceled but I think I will still offer to teach a class on it for anyone interested) Heidi helped me with the charms and beads.


Something else I made recently was this BOO sign. I actually used my Cricut to cut out the letters lol (but I still miss my Slice!)

Simple thank you card

Just a simple thank you card I made. Used an ink pad on my embossing folder then ran it through the cuttlebug. I really like how it turned out. I'm always unsure of how to make my embossing with words in the background.

Mother's day scrapbook

So I do NOT scrapbook. For me it just seems to take FOREVER. I like the instant gratification of cards and other papercrafts. Well 5 years ago I made a scrappbook for my mom with the intent of updating it every year. HAHA I finally updated it for my mom this year. When I saw the old pages I had done all I could say was "WOW I sure liked stickers" lol. Here are 6 out the 7 of the pages from this year. (the picture of Amanda's layout accidentally got deleted)

2 birthday cards by special requests

My husband recently asked me to make his step-mom a birthday card. I had been trying a new technique I found through the papercraft message board for flowers so I made a few to go on this card. The card has a matching envelope but I forgot to take a picture of it. I love this paper for some reason too.. I love the way the card turned out. (Dew drops rocks!)


The 2nd request I had this week was to make a birthday card with Goofy on it. Wow, talk about out of my comfort zone lol So I put a request out on the Scrapbooking side of the clubck website and Joan came to my rescue. (Thank you Joan, I couldn't have made this card without you!) I wanted Goofy to look like he was actually moving as he danced so I had an idea to make him into a tilt card (you can find the tutorial HERE) Only his legs move.
I went to my LSS tonight just to get out and whipped the card out in no time at all (or at least it felt that way but it took me all 2 hours I was there lol) I made the card into an easel card so it could be displayed better. The paper I used was Disney and I found the ribbon and thought it went perfect with it.
This picture shows Goofy dancing


This picture shows a little better the bottom part (or the 'inside') of the easel

Weekly Challenge on the Cards, Crafts & Decor message board

Every week there is a new challenge posted on the Cards, Crafts & Decor message board at the clubcreatingkeepsakes.com website. This week I was able to do it. I like the colors and the paper, but I'm not crazy about the image I used with the papers/

Easter Exploding Box

This year for Easter I made exploding boxes with candy inside (instead of pictures). Last year after Easter I found some plastic 'chocolate' bunnies and I also bought some plastic 'peeps' when I was out with Tasha last week.
This is the box I made for Jordan to give to his girlfriend. I think it turned out better than the others I made. The flowers are a punch that I punched out of scraps from the box and then sprayed them with Glimmer Mist to give them a slightly different color. I couldn't resist gluing one of the flowers on the bunny. I glued the bunny and the grass to the bottom of the box with 3M VHB tape.

Front view
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Very top


Top and with slight front view


open view


closer view of the bunny

Things I've done in 2009

Here are a few things I've done in 2009 that never made it onto my blog before.

a very simple valentine
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I actually scraplifted this idea - it was just too cute to pass up. I thought it would be super simple but it was a whole lot more work than I realized.


Silly christmas card I made for the friend that loaned me this stamp set. It's paper pieced (actually done in 2008)


Halloween card made for a swap. It opens on the paper where the eyes are


Another simple card


My Dad's birthday was on Thanksgiving in 2009


Card made for Stephanie's birthday. It's a recessed window card.