A gift for Haley...

My beautiful niece, Haley is having a birthday this weekend! This is what I made her for her room. Hopefully, it will hang over her bed. I love how it turned out. The group picture is bad, so I am including individual pictures of each letter beneath.

The letters themselves are 9 in wood letters already finished in white, by Provo Craft. The paper I chose was based on the colors in her room already. I decided on this beautiful paper by K&Company, called Sparkly Sweet. I think this is the first project I have ever made with no Stampin' Up products! The ribbons are various and were all picked to match this paper. The butterfly dimensional stickers are by SandyLion.









I hope to make a matching frame in time, and if that gets accomplished, I will post pictures ASAP! I must learn to take decent pics, I can get amazing shots of the kids, but if my target is sitting still, forget about it! These are so much prettier IRL.

PS---Blogging buddies....if any of you know how to line pictures of horiztontally, I would love to know! I wanted to individual letters all in a line, or two lines, but not have to scroll down that far to see them all. I couldn't do it. Let me know what I am doing wrong if you know!

I made 20 Mother's Day cards this year...

And here are a few of my favorites. This year I decided to make a point to send Mother's Day cards to the important moms in my life. I really wanted them to all know how special I think they are! I am happy with how they turned out. Only the card on the top left was made more than one of, all the other 20 cards were original, with no two alike. I did these in 2 nights!!!

After deciding that I must get some DSP out of my stash, I realized I had barely touched the SAB paper from this year. So, it's not pink and girly, but I LOVE the combos on these cards. I allowed myself ONLY this DSP, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, and Kraft cardstock. The only stamp set I allowed myself to use is the SAB set, Polka Dot punches. I used the ribbon bundle from SAB (opened it when making these, it hadn't even been touched, I am a hoarder), and only allowed myself Whisper White grosgrain besides the bundle. Styled Silver HPH is the only embellishment I used, besides epoxy bubble stickers that I uncovered that must be 2 years old and never opened! Here are some close-ups of my faves....

Don't know why I love this one (above), it's simple. I scalloped down the open edge, lined the inside with a strip of DSP, and stapled the ribbon on. The circles are on Dimensionals atop Kraft circles. Small epoxy stickers are in the center to spotlight the center of the flowers.

And this one is for my sister (above), there is one other like it, just a different brad, I forgot about that earlier. This is a quilted Top Note with the Big Shot. Horizontal Slot Punch used for my ribbon holes. 5-Petal Flower punch made the flower in the bottom corner.

And this one for some reason is my absolute favorite!!! It's a simple concept, one I have never done. I lined the bottom of my card with the blue pattern in the DSP. Used the stripes with the Scallop Edge punch and adhered just above. Took my So Saffron Grosgrain (this is the most yummy ribbon EVER!), and pleated and sewed as I went down the card. I punched various size circles from scrap DSP and decorated the top portion. A couple are on Dimensionals to stand up a little, and the middle yellow piece is covered with a clear epoxy bubble sticker to shine and look nice. A very special friend is getting this one, and it was made with her in mind. I hope she loves it!

So, this year, more than ever, I hope the women in my life who are mother's know how much I love and appreciate them. We often don't hear how great of a job we are doing, and that's a shame! Motherhood is the best thing to ever happen to me, but it's also the hardest job I have ever had. I know other's feel the same way! So, to my 'invisible' friends who I couldn't add to my list or I would have been stamping forever, I want to wish you all a Happy Mother's Day, too!!!

Mother's Day Gift Set

This is the gift set that my hostess club made last week. We made the tag out of scallops from the Scallop Circles #2 with the Big Shot. The card is almost a direct CASE of the catalog example using this set, Always. The small square item is a Post It note holder we made to complete our gift sets! There aren't any special techniques on this one, just a lot of cutting!!!

My Sad Little Blog Has Been So Neglected...

I just wanted to stop by and apologize to all of my wonderful followers and visitors. I have not been updating here as much as I should. I actually didn't even realize that I hadn't posted since my Easter basket post. I actually made several really nice things in the past two weeks as requests and gifts, but I gave them away without taking pics. I never do that...and I won't again! I can't upload class projects until after the class, and that's all I have been working on this week. So, I just wanted to let everyone know to hang in there, keep checking. I will get it updated, and back on track with regular posts!!!!!

Woven Bunny Basket

This is a basket I made from the Top Note Die with the Big Shot. I cut CS, then wove on top of it, gluing down, then ran through with the die. I used the Scallop Edge Punch on the handle, attached with a Rhinestone Brad, and made the bunny out of scrap CS and many SU punches. I really like how this turned out. The picture below just shows how I secured these together and created the inside. This will hold my Mom's Easter treat this year.

PS...If you look closely, I even made teeth for him with the Handheld Rectangle Punch!

I think I will make a few more of these, in more than one color, say yellow and pink weave??? I really like how this turned out and it's easy!

Mail Time!!!

Lookie what the mail lady brought for me today!!! This package was sent to me all the way from my friend, Siohban in Japan!!! It was like Christmas to get this special package, and I just love everything in it!!! The notebook is a gift she made for me as I posted on her blog giveaway (and I have posted the giveaway on mine, scroll down a few entries, only 2 women are getting gifts from me so far, I need to give away 3 more!!!). I love the coffee theme, and on the first page she wrote, To My Coffee Loving Friend...isn't that sweet? I am such a coffee nut! The rest of the package is my gift for a blogger group challenge she and I are both members of. The challenge is posted on here, it's the Drama Queen scrapbook page. I never win anything, so when she said she drew my name, I was so estatic! I am tickled pink. The little packages of stick on crystals even have Japanese writing on them, not that I have any idea what it says, but it's too cool! Oh, and felt shapes for Christmas, just in time as I must do some Holiday pages!!! And a box of chocolate cream covered biscuit sticks! These will be heaven with my coffee tomorrow morning (or tonight...LOL), but according to the nutrition info (I shouldn't have looked at it!), they will have to serve as breakfast, too! I love this gift, Siobhan, thank you SO very much!!!

Baby Girl Carriage...

This is a baby carriage I created from the Sizzix Scallops #2 die, it's the larger one of the two. This measures about 4.75 inches, and is too big for an A2 card, I will either use it on a 5.25 card or on a scrapbook page for my youngest daughter. The paper is a shiny textuted by Archivers, the silver and white are SU. I used various punches for the lace, wheels, and handle. I just cut a notch out of the scallop to get the carriage shape. It's really pretty IRL, this sparkly paper will not photograph for me for some reason. I am trying to work on that. This is something I doodled around with until I liked it, but I think I will be making more. I love the look of things like this on my LO's, but buying similar items from Jolees is just outrageously expensive, so part of my New Years thrifty crafting resolution is to be more creative with things like this.