birthday balloons and someone else's giveaway!

A quick card for a man who's not into sailing, golfing or sock monkeys. lol What do you do for a man who isn't into sailing, golf or sock monkeys? Balloons, Everyone could use a balloon or 2 on their birthday!


The white squares with the stars I picked up last summer in Laval. Wish sentiment is from Papertrey Ink- Text Boxed and the balloons are from PTI- Everyday balloon bits. inside, I used the sentiment from the same set and A wooden "fence post" from Michael's.



Take a look at this
www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com/
It's a new program where the kids can design their own stuffed animal on screen and it comes to life in the printer. Special fabric and tear away paper and a bit of stuffing makes this an easy personalized project. My kids would go nuts for this! She's giving 2 prizes away. Quick, go see...... and look around the rest of the blog. great ideas and projects.

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

cheery time

shhhhh.... I'm home alone. on a Sunday , after church. eating a bacon and egg sandwich with 5 year old Canadian white cheddar. Listening to Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe. Perfection. Shhhhh. I don't know when everyone is coming back. But I hope it's not a for a while! lol

Last night, we went to a family meal to celebrate a dear Tia's bday last month. I made this card using Papertrey Ink's Everyday Button Bits. used the Polka Dot basics 2 on the side of the card and some Bella dots on the bottom. Pleased that the retired SU purely pomegranate matched the current cherry paper.


Almost finished my sandwich. Now must go to my room and sew, sew sew. Little girl headbands are on the menu today.

thanks for looking,
AManda

button tree and crochet flowers

i did it! I got to create today. And what a rainy day it is here! Sorry for the dull pics. there is no happy light here today.


papertrey ink had a challenge to use buttons this week. I LOVED Maggie Holmes' scrap page with buttons on the tree and the white and black outlines. http://maggieholmes.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/03/vintage-button-basics.html
I used it as a starting point. And I love her style. She packs a whole bunch in a little space.

The sentiment on the photo is from Creative memories. I just painted some white under it. The orange butterfly is a new one from Quickutz. The blue one on the bottom is Martha Stewart punch. i punched it on vellum also and used my cropadile to make the holes in it to mimic the QK one. Oh yes, the grass. LOVE this package of goodies also. Michael's- K&Company. It has a bout 6 different borders- bubbles, waves, alphabet, train with cute animals in it, gumdrops.... I could see myself using all of it, but really liking the grass one at present. i added the white to it.



Buttons are from my stash from Walmart and Zellers. The flowers are my own. So nice to just pick 'em out when I need them. I sewed the stems.


I forgot to take a pic of the text bock on top. It says...
" I don't recall what the issue was, but you weren't very happy with me. In this pensive looking picture, you were ignoring me! Exploring the world beneath your feet."




Hoping I stay awake tonight to do the page of Miss Neve. I have 2 frames on my wall that help get me creating new scrap pages to change up the scenery.

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Connect the dots Papertrey style

Did I say how much I'm lovin' this papertrey party??

I bought some new papers today from Winners. They have great scrapbook supplies. It may be last year's stock, but who cares if it's only a year old? Not me.


The white embossed paper is from a pack by DCWV and the printed transparencies is from Dena's closet? I forgot on my trip down 2 flights of stairs. The card base is from Papertrey, Spring moss as is the green ink. Love that colour. And all the other colours. :} The stamps are from Green Thumb.


Here is a close shot of the flocking I put on selected dots on the petal. Make ya feel all fuzzy? LOL half back pearls are from the buck store. The spring moss ribbon is also Papertrey.


Thanks for looking and see ya back at the party...
Amanda

Papertrey colour challenge

Well, seems I have a problem reading time and knowing what day it is. I spent time this afternoon with child on hip to complete the Papertrey Ink bag challenge, only to find out I was late. Like a day late! Oh well, C'est la vie.

Hopefully I'm ok on this challenge. The colour challenge. I don't have any of the inks suggested, so I used some I had on hand.
The flowers didn't come out as clear as I would have liked, but at this point, it is what it is. lol


The stamp set is Text boxed. I used various beads and put them on earring hoops to make the wine glass charms. I stamped the image on shrink art plastic and had fun watching it shrink in the toaster oven. I used my cropadile to make the hole before shrinking.


If you are new to this blog, thanks for looking and hope you come back soon. Let's go back and enjoy the Papertrey celebrations at www.papertreyink.com

Cheers,
Amanda

Papertrey Ink Bag

One of my favorite stamp companies, Papertrey Ink is celebrating it's 2nd birthday. They are having giveaways and challenges galore. Go, look and see some of the fun! www.papertreyink.com

Here is my submission for the bag challenge:




The organza bag is one I had on hand. I cut out the flowers using a Quickutz die on fabric left over from my wedding dress! Then I used various flower bits from the Green Thumb, Text boxed and Butterfly Kisses sets. There are so many little bits in there that worked so well, I layered the flowers as much as I could.

I embellished it with some beads from my stash.

Now go and join in the fun....
Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Glass ornament#1

Last night, I woke up at 3:30 when my daughter crawled into my bed. She was so restless, I didn't get back to sleep. But my mind was put to good use thinking of ways to use the STUFF i have. Too much STUFF not being used. After blurffing, i saw this kind of ornament.



I had square ones from Michael's last year. I'm sure you can still get them. Boy was this baby hard to photograph.
The image is stamped and embossed in black EP on acetate. Then i coloured it in with Sharpie markers and covered the back with white embossing powder. It boosts the colour of the image. A hole was punched at the top to hold a string. (next time, I'll use invisible thread.) You roll the acetate and insert into the top of the ornament. Oh, put the fake snow in first. My friend was over and said it needed a little something else, so I stamped the dog and cheers on the outside of the ornament and embossed. The images are from a snowglobe set from Michael's a few years ago and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Holiday greetings.


Kinda fun to do. I have 3 more bulbs, so you'll see a few more of these. i hope.:}

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Baby clothesline

Don't you just love it when DH comes in the stamping den and makes a quick, quite useful comment to make your mass production quicker?
Such a thing happened with this card. DH is good for these one liners.
I showed him my card in it's development stage. He says, "hey, wouldn't it be cool if you could put all those stamps on one sheet of acrylic?" And I say, "what, like this one?"
Thus, this card became a 3 step stamping card instead of 5.



THe most time consuming of this card was gluing the little green clothes pegs on the line. I had to switch glue to a faster drying one. Who wants to sit around holding down a little piece of paper. "Not I!" said the sheep.

Clothes are from the baby acrylic stamps I got at Joann's. The pole is from Papertrey Ink's Green Thumb and the grass is from Stampin' Up! Pocket Silhouettes.

Hope you like. I made 24 for a shower. Gonna make a kit with the postage stamps, little book to keep track of presents and who gave them and some mailing labels.

Thanks for Looking,
Amanda

Happy Birthday Mom!!

It's my mom's bday today. I made this card 2 weeks ago. She doesn't have it yet. it's still sitting here in my pile. Bites when your family lives far away. I'm always late sending things, but have them before the time to be sent. LOSER i know.
Anyhow,
this card was cased from Renee at
http://reneevs.blogspot.com/2008/10/colour-sketch-challenge.html



I didn't have the set she used, so I used Papertrey Ink's Butterfly Kisses. The stitching is faux. I was too lazy to take out my machine and change the thread to black. Sorry mom, I know you gave birth to me and all, but I was just too lazy! LOL

Happy Birthday. Your card will be in the mail. :}

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Halloween in a snow storm

Well, not the real snow, thank goodness, or I should say, "I hope not!"
I bought this globe a while back, as my son has a fascination with them.
I used last year's Papertrey halloween set and on the other side a not so spooky house stamp, just coloured to look like halloween.

BIG TIP: do not use fine glitter in a snow globe. It doesn't sink and sticks to the side of the glass. It takes forever for it to settle and kinda ruins the effect.

Anyhow, it is a hit and can be changed for the next occasion. Fun fun.
Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Welcome Neighbour!

I sat in my stamping room tonight and coloured. I couldn't think of what to make, so I happily coloured. Then I decided to make a card for the new neighbours that moved in across the street.



Love these houses from Stampin' Up!. It is the jumbo wheel. I should be getting my own tomorrow when the man in brown arrives. The twill is from joann's last year. And the tag is nestabilities. key is from the buck store. Sentiment is from papertrey ink.
I love colouring on the kraft cardstock and then adding the white with a paint pen. pops it up.

I have a few other completed things to show you, just have to get outside to snap the likeness of them. The light at night in my kitchen is blah.

Thanks for stopping by,
Amanda

star wish joy

I spent a few hours in my stamp room tonight and only came up with this. I'm pretty happy with it. So need to get into the groove. I think my happy hour must be some time in the morning, as I have no brain left after the kids go to bed. That used to be my prime stamping time. I'm sure I'll figure it out.

The white square and star stamp is Maya Road. The joy and wish sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's text box Set. I like how Nichole always has something extra in a set and those sentiments are it.

Star is punched with Stampin' Up! on baja breeze. So is the blue ink.

Oh yes, much fun at Bella's last night. One of the girls brought a chocolate fountain. 3 Pounds of chocolate is not a good night time sleep aid! Nuff said. I'll post some of the cards we did another time.

thanks for looking,
Amanda

Pumped???

I don't think there is any danger of my father in law reading my blog and seeing his card, so you get to see it first.


He sells and fixes pumps for a living, so I wanted to take some pump pictures at the pioneer village we went to in Portugal. Knew they would come in handy. lol


DP is Basic Grey's Figgy Pudding and the screw snaps are form Making Memories. Nestabilities and Quickutz on the inside. The sentiments are from different sets form Papertrey. Not much stamping, but it is what I wanted.

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Baby Announcement

Here is a mock up of the announcement cards I'm going to make. They will probably look different once we go to the scrapbook store and see what Dp they have and embellishments. I"m excited as we are in Laval, north of Montreal. Maybe I can treat myself to a french sentiment or 2. I do have some french customers.

you like? It's a card front, not a whole card. Paper: not Quite Navy and Barely banana. DP is SU, but that will change. Hoping for something with stars. Star punch is SU. Glassine bag is from Papertrey Ink, sentiment: Stamping Bella, tag: nestabilities. The white stars on the top is from an acrylic set from Joann's as are the silver star embellies on the tag.

here's the best part:
the pull out will have a picture on the front. inside will have 2 vellum announcements, one in English, one in french. On the back will be a magnet so people can put it on the fridge!!!! Ain't that just da bomb??

so, off to the store once my son and his tante get out of the pool. Think I;m going to have to be very patient !lol

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

lattice all work together

I was inspired by another blogger's card, but cannot remember who it was. It had the lattice front with a handheld bouquet punched from blue paper. I don't remember what else was on it. That's why I strayed and came up with this layout instead. If you know who it is, please tell me so I can give credit.

Lattice is 1/2 inch strips. Flowers are punched with Su retired 3 flower punch. The paper is from Creative Memories. The ribbon was stamped with Stazon and the sentiment is from Papertrey. Not sure which set. it lost it's home. Butterflies, Martha Stewart. Flower centre baubles dewdrops for the buck store.


That's all I got tonight,
Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Tag it!

Yesterday, I sat in my stamp room, air conditioner on, children entertained downstairs, things around me and couldn't think of anything to do. accckk!! I was worried I was in a funk.

This morning, my friend called and requested 3 basket tags for the catch it all ones at the front door. ZING!! ideas were flowing in my brain. thanks for the butt kick Barb. lol Each one created gave me excitement to create. I definitely will make more of these.

Here is the one for Zane:


Inspired by the star theme (does cuttlebug have a star embossing folder??), I started with Papertrey's Textbox set and chose the stars. Versa marked it on Nearly Navy CS and embossed it 3 times with seafoam white EP.
The stars below were using the mini punches my mother in law brought back from the Philippines. put them on popdots with the nearly navy beneath it. The barely banana star was punched with my new SU star punch and the letters were rub ons from the dollar store. Everything was distressed with SU white craft ink. Jumbo brad in the 2 inch barely banana circle.
The tag is big: 3.5 x 5 inches. it fit into some clear bags I have.

it makes me smile.




I was going to show you all 3 tonight, but it's much to explain. So here are some big sneak peaks of the other 2. Check back tomorrow.



Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Flock it!

Howdy!
Another hot, sticky, sweaty day in the big city. I didn't even bother to look towards the CN tower, it's was probably lost in the smog. yuck. But local wade pools and splash pads make for a great day, even when your daughter fouls the water and they have to close the pool for an hour to treat the water!! nuff said.

On to what you're here for!

I've been wanting to try embossing the cardfront with nestabilities. Been having a bit of a time trying to do it well. I've only tried it on the SU mini cards, so don't know if it's a thinner CS. But a managed to get a few salvagable ones.

To make this little set stand out, I used some pink flocking. It doesn't show all that well in the photos. The sun was going down, but you get the idea. I used the Quickie Pen and poured the flocking on it, waited for it to dry before tapping off. Did I tell you before that I don't like flocking? I still don't like it. But it was the effect I wanted. So I suffered yet again for my art. lol



This Wacky weeds image from Stamping Bella was stamped in Spring Moss from Papertrey and then flocked in pink. The blossoms don't look as vibrant as the other flowers because I didn't make the blossoms pink first. They were green like the stem.


With the funky dandelion, also from Stamping bella, I stamped both parts of the flower in different inks. Used the glue pen to outline the flower and then applied the pink flock.


The last image is from Papertrey's Green Thumb set. I love how many different things come in it. I lost the mini strawberry though, so I'm bummed. Hoping I'll find it one day when I clean those corners of my desk. I chose to flock only a few circles for a contrast.


Well, that's it for today. Think I'll crash in front of the boob tube. Hope something decent is on.

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Fly little Butterfly..

It's after midnight. It's official.. I'm going to Portugal today!! SHRIEKS OF DELIGHT!

There is much to do before then, but I'm sure the late departure will allow for us to get things done. We planned on this trip 3 years ago and here we are. Rented a house in the Algarve for 2 weeks with some trips to Lisboa and Coimbra and other day trips, the beach. We'll be sitting on the patio eating just caught sardines, going to the market, BBQ chicken, playing on the beach. All of this depends on the weather of course. It will be colder there on Sunday than it will be here. Hope that changes.

So I'll be using this site to update on our trip for family and friends, or anyone who wants to see some of the life there. You have been warned:} My Dh has already searched out a place to go online. I don't think we'll be able to go more than a few days without getting the shakes! lol

Now on to the card...
This was inspired by Becky Oehlers. http://hemidemisemiquaver.wordpress.com/ She did a card of butterflies and had one of them flying away. Very calming.
THe card base looks like handmade paper. I bought them at Ikea a few christmases ago. THe envelpoe is the same, but has some embroidery on it. Pretty.
The black butterflies are punched from fabric paper using the Martha stewart punch. THe white paper I got from da bella store. It is embossed with velvet. yum.
THe sentiment is from Papertrey's Butterfly Wishes.




Yep, I think that's it. I may have a few photos in here you have not seen, so I may sneak a card or 2 in while I'm gone. I'm too tired to figure out how to delay posting on blogger.

See ya in a few days. Yippee!!

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Pomegranate fern

I enjoyed making the wish book so much, I decided to try that technique in a different colour... purely pomegranate.
Upon a closer inspection of Nichole's original card, http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/2007/06/4.html
I copied it a little closer with the sewing and layers. I didn't have any word punches or matching buttons, so I used a quickutz die and a heart brad. I made a few of these for Mother's Day also.

I have an idea in my head for my niece's bday card. I hope it will work. Off to play.

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Wasabi wish book

I took advantage of the Stampin' up! Wild Wasabi cardstock offer a few weeks ago. The cardstock is textured, but had a boo boo in the cutting and scoring, so they put it on sale and offered many suggestions of what to do with it.

This is the book they gave a recipe for. i obviously didn't use SU stamps except for the french script background stamp.
The leaf stamp is from Papertrey, Text Box set. I again, cased the idea for it from the designer of the set, Nicole Heady.
Check it out here: http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/countdown_text_boxed/index.html

I'm not very creative these days, so caseing is the best way to get some product out.

What else? Oh, I found a new setting on my camera, close ups and super close ups. I don't know why I didn't find it before. it's so good for card picture taking. Hopefully, I won't lose the colour on the blog like the regular photos.

If you're coming to my class tomorrow, this is one of the projects.

thanks for looking,
Amanda