Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

I don't usually post pictures of the cards I make because so many of them are just recreations of nice cards that I see. But, this one I made because of a Challenge posed by the head of Papertrey Ink, Nichole Heady:

"Summer is FULL of so many wonderful colors, sights & sounds! This month your challenge is to get inspired by the lazy days of summer and reflect your inspiration in a project of your choice! Whether it be the colors in your favorite summer treats, the pattern on your bathing suit & beach towel or even the texture of the sand between your toes, use any or all of these things as a springboard for your design. Please be sure to share an image found online, in a magazine or a photo you have taken yourself that communicates your point of inspiration within the body of your blog post! With everyone's amazing contributions, this ought to be one of the most colorful Blog Hops yet! We look forward to seeing you there!"

So, the first thing that came to my mind was an article I had recently read in Real Simple magazine about how to wear bright, colorful makeup in the summer. I was particularly drawn to the story about the nail polish. I just love nail polish! In the back of every issue of Real Simple is a sheet of cardstock that has tear-out cards. They may be recipes, tips for removing a stain, a quote or just something fun from the magazine. I immediately tore out the card that showed the colors of polish from the article and put it on my craft table. Not only did I want to buy the polishes, I knew I could incorporate those colors into a card. Here's a scan of the tear-out card and the page from the magazine...



On to the card!


This picture came out so small! You can click on it and it will open up a much bigger version for you!

I loved the circle-blobs of nail polish, so I picked Polka Dot Basics (PTI) for the focal point and it was cut out with the largest Labels One Nestabilities. I love the tone-on-tone look of the damask, so I used Pure Poppy (PTI) over the Hibiscus Burst (PTI) cardstock. I wrapped my True Black (PTI) ribbon around the card intending to make a bow, but I decided it wouldn't look right. Then I thought about stamping my sentiment directly on the ribbon and PTI ink is perfect for that! The buttons (PTI) were the perfect finishing touch.


Supplies:
Stamps: (all PTI) Damask Designs, Polka Dot Basics, Handwritten Notes
Cardstock: White (unknown), Hibiscus Burst (PTI)
Ink: Only Orange and Brocade Blue (SU!); Pure Poppy, Hibiscus Burst, Fresh Snow (PTI), Stazon Black
Accessories: Ribbon (True Black - PTI), Buttons (True Black - PTI), embroidery floss, Labels One Nestabilities

Just a little something to throw on...

I got this on Wednesday during a trip to Hobby Lobby...



Isn't that yummy? I've already figured out which of my inks match these colors and stamped a lovely piece of cardstock all ready to be made into a card...

Anyway, I was inspired by my friend over at one-hip-mom to make a pillowcase dress. I found some instructions online but was a bit intimidated by the part about finishing off the armholes with binding tape or making your own binding tape. It sounded really complicated. So Ms. Lisa typed up her instructions and she didn't use a pillowcase...just two panels of fabric! So, on Wednesday after lunch while the kids were still at school I started on a dress. I had a few rough starts (actually had to pull out where I seamed the front and back panel together) and I couldn't work on it yesterday due to Buttercup not napping (and I had a raging migraine). I finished it just a few minutes ago and here's what it looks like...



I think it may be tea length on her right now, but it'll be adorable for a long time (if my wonky seams hold up that long!). I'm greatly impressed with myself and if you look on the sides (but please, not too close, I've got a little pucker on the left side) the polka dots even line up! Now I just have to figure out how she's going to wear it and not untie the bows. I think she'll be wearing this on Sunday with a little long-sleeved onesie underneath.

I'm still shaking I'm so excited!

From Nichole Heady's blog, owner of Papertreyink.com (only the cutest clear acrylic stamps out there!):

Release Party Contest Winner
Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

27 Timestamp: 2008-11-15 04:36:15 UTC

Comment #27 belongs to...

I've had many wonderful teachers throughout my years in school, but my favorite would have to be Mr. Nall, my high school band director. I was the ultimate band nerd and even went on to major in flute performance in college. Mr. Nall, though tough, was a great man and truly loved his job and his students. And his best advice..."If you're going to mess up, do it big!!"

Posted by: snarflemarfle | November 14, 2008 at 09:34 PM

Congratulations, snarflemarfle! Please contact Customer Service with your shipping information so we can get your package out to you! And thank you for all the heartfelt stories from everyone regarding the special teachers from your childhood. I highly recommend the comments as good reading material, so be sure to go check them out!

What does this mean? I just won the entire package of stamp sets, paper, ink and ribbon that she released this month!! $176 worth of stamping stuff!!

TC thought I had totally flipped my lid when I went to the computer this morning to see which stamp sets I wanted to order (she releases new ones on the 15th of every month) and I thought I would check her blog to see if by some crazy stroke of luck I won. Good gravy, I nearly wet my pants when I saw my name on her blog as the winner!!

Salvaged Baby Blanket

So, I went to my crochet closet and pulled out the cupcake purse (want the pattern?) and just couldn't part with it yet. In the same space was a partial baby blanket that I had started for a friend, yet couldn't finish. The stitch was just too boring for me (I did make her a different blanket, though). And I couldn't bear to rip it out...I worked too hard on it! Anyway, I picked it up and it was much wider than it was tall. I turned it so that it was long and skinny and made a little flap over. If I could just add a gusset and a strap, I could probably salvage the work!

Here's what I ended up with...



(you can get a bigger picture if you click on it)

I am seriously proud of myself! The gusset was really easy to add and it was handy that I could start at the bottom and join the sides and then just keep going to make the strap and then back down again! Yahoo!

It was my mom's idea to run the raspberry ribbon through it. I was trying to figure out how to crochet a ruffle or something. The ribbon is perfect!

So, I'm going to use this little bag to package the book for the girl whose birthday party X-man is going to. And see that card? It took me two hours to make it! Crazy, but I had fun making it, so that's what matters. And don't remind me that it's for a 3 year old. She'll probably get distracted by something else shiny and never look at the birthday card again. Maybe her mom will keep it...

Fun Bubbles!

I came across this blog yesterday while reading all of my favorite blogs. This post about a bubble snake is way cool and I've had about as much fun playing with it as X-man has!

I made one last night before I started cooking dinner and he played with it at the sink the whole time I was cooking. And then he wanted to take it to the bathtub with him. And this morning as I was getting lunch ready, he ran to the tub and brought it back to the kitchen.

Love it!!

Birdhouse in your soul

Yep...I'm listening to They Might Be Giants and crafting at the same time. (We watched a recorded "Pushing Daisies" last night and Kristen Chenoweth sang "Birdhouse" and I had to giggle...then I had to get my FLOOD CD and put it on my iPod...and while I was looking for FLOOD, I came across a Joe Cocker CD. That's now on my iPod. Yes, I have a quite eclectic taste in music.)

I've finally finished X-man's Christmas stocking:



I'm pretty happy with it. And I'm very thankful to my friends SarahB and ^starshine (I always have trouble finding that crazy housetop!) who suggested other methods that would still let me use X-man's handprint for the tree. It still needs a star on top, but I think I might go after Christmas and try to find a nice, flatish ornament that will work.

And here are the other two I made a few years ago. The one on the left is mine and the one on the right is TC's (only because I like that one the best...it's supposed to look like a Christmas tree with lots of packages underneath).



So, what else is going on? I'm one day shy of 33 weeks and I've had my first real sciatic pain. I've had a few ouches here and there, but today it has really made it difficult to walk...and sit. My poor sister had to listen to me put up all the groceries while I grunted around.

Speaking of groceries, I bought alot at the store today! I think I had 10 sacks! It's not all for the three of us. TC's sister and niece are coming in tonight and his parents will be here on Sunday. So, I've got 4 more mouths to feed. We're going to have pretty easy meals...Chicken Pot Pie, Pot Roast (in the crockpot) and sides and Beans & Cornbread. For our big Christmas meal, I've ordered the biggest part of it from Honey Baked Ham. TC's sister is going to make some dressing, because I love it! And would you believe that my grocery store didn't have any cranberry sauce? I love gellied cranberry sauce. If it's not in a can-shape, I don't want it!!

X-man has finally come back to being a nice boy. Oh, he's usually good, but we had two weeks where he was just a pill. We've decided that it was due to teeth coming in. He even started having some separation anxiety issues but the last few times we've left him he's been fine! He sure is going to love all the attention this weekend!

I think I'm going to go relax with my friends Ben & Jerry and watch some Martha Stewart (gotta love a DVR!).

If I don't get back on the 'puter before Tuesday,

Merry Christmas!!

Of Kids and Crafties

Kid first, crafts second.

X-man has finally gotten over his fever (I hope I haven't jinxed it!). He came home from CDO on Wednesday with a fever. I talked to one of his teachers on Wednesday evening and she said she never would have guessed that X-man didn't feel good. In fact, he ate every single bite of his lunch that I sent (that hardly ever happens...but he'll eat all his lunch on pizza day! Smart kid!).

Anyway, he still had an ok appetite on Wednesday night and all day yesterday. I didn't give him any milk yesterday but he drank a little water. And he had uber-wet diapers, so I knew he wasn't dehydrated.

He appears to be back to his smiley, playing self. He's napping right now so hopefully the end of the yuckies will be all gone when he wakes up.

And that means that TC and I can go to our Sunday School Christmas Party tonight! I've been working on a gift basket for our gift exchange. Wanna see? This is the crafy part...



Here's the whole gift basket. Cute, huh?



In the front are two boxes with Hershey's Nuggets in them. I stamped on an address label and wrapped that around the regular nugget wrapper. I made these cute little boxes from a template I found on Splitcoaststampers (by member cdjkssss...she shared the template for almost any arrangement of nuggets imaginable!). They are so cute!



Next is a box of cards. Again, I found the template for the box on SCS (and now I can't find it). And it's more like a wallet than a box. The bow holds it together and when you open it, there is a pocket on either side with the cards and envelopes.



And the cards...The designs are all pretty much similar to ones I've seen on other peoples' blogs or galleries. I'm not good at designing these things myself, so I have to use someone else's ideas. The middle card came from Nichole Heady's design.



Finally, in the back, you'll see two covered Lindt Truffles bags. I saw this here. It's such a simple idea, but I'm glad she thought of it! It really dresses up a bag of candy!

It's all in a green, plastic "tub" I found at Target.

I'm going to wrap it up in some tissue paper and then some clear cellophane. I even stamped on the tissue paper!!

Now for the product info, for anyone that's interested:

Stamps: Santa from Stampfrancisco (he comes in several sizes, of which I have three...and I used all three of them! Isn't he just so sweet?); all other stamps from Papertrey Ink (Snowflake Serenade, Spiral Bouquet, Believe, Holiday Treats)

Paper: Patterned Paper from Hobby Lobby, all other cardstock from SU! (bashful blue, pink passion, green galore, certainly celery, night of navy)

Ink: Also SU! ink, in the same colors as the cardstock

Other: Rectangle Nestabilities, SU! ticket corner punch, corner rounder, brads, ribbon

Crafting Meltdown!

Today, since it's X-man's CDO day, I wanted to get a good bit finished on his Christmas stocking. Before TC and I got married, I made stockings for both of us. These aren't your usual stockings...they're big enough for an average-size book to fit in it...or a bottle of tequila if you've just turned 21.

Anyhoo...

I was going to make X-man's stocking with a Christmas tree on the front. A tree made out of his little hands (not his real hands, ones made out of fabric from his traced hand!). Before I went crazy and cut out 15 of those bad boys, I decided I'd go ahead and cut one pair and then sew them together and turn them rightside out just to see what kind of perfect little double-sided hand I'd have.

Terrible is the kind of little hand I had!

The fingers are all gathered up in between each other and it just looks bad. So, I'll come up with something else (probably a tree done with several triangles or something). I decided I'd go ahead and start sewing together the back of the stocking.

Well, I guess I just figured if I slapped all the pieces together (the front, the puffy stuff and the inside) it would magically come together in the right order.

I was so wrong.

If I use what I've got sewn together now, I'll have a piece of fabric that's got the wrong side of my pretty fabric out...and then the stuffing and the backing piece.

I'm off to get acquainted with my seam ripper...

Craft Spree

I have been on quite the craft purchasing spree these last two weeks! Good thing I have a little part-time job so I don't have to dip into diaper money!

So, two weeks ago I purchased a cuttlebug. It's a die cut and embossing machine that's pretty affordable (especially with a Hobby Lobby 40% of coupon!) and doesn't take up much room (the sides fold up when you're not using it). It's going to look so nice in my new craft room!!! More on the new room in another post.

After I purchased that, I decided that I needed some Nestabilities dies in plain and scalloped large rectangles. These puppies will cut out a nice rectangle (of course, I can do that with just a paper cutter but it is so much more than that!) and it will emboss a nice little frame just inside the rectangle. But what I really fell in love with was Nichole Heady's project on her blog. The way she embossed a little frame on her card front is just so elegant (you'll have to scroll toward the middle of the post to see it).

Shortly after that, Nichole released her new holiday stamp sets on Papertrey. I only bought three of them (and then the halloween one!) so I'm waiting on those to come in (since I also put a backordered product in my cart but they'll be back in stock tomorrow). I can't wait to get those!!! Fun Christmas gifts are already reeling through my mind!

I have had a chance to play with my cuttlebug and it cuts beautifully! I just don't have the right equipment for the embossing. And since the nestabilities are a cuttlebug product, that's not surprising. I tried different variations of fun foam and cardstock shims to make the embossing work right, but it just didn't cut the mustard (emboss the mustard?). So, I went ahead and ordered some embossing mats made by the nestabilites people and the same product that many are using to emboss with nestabilites in their cuttlebugs.

Whew! Good thing I got paid on Monday!

Gifties

Today is the last day of the summer session of Children's Day Out, so I made little thank you gifts for X-man's teachers (and the program director because she's really sweet!).




They're big clothespins that I've decorated with paper. And I made a cute little card to match. I don't know if you can see it, but the card is a Z-fold and it makes for a fancy-looking card without much extra work! Of course you have to be careful where you write because a portion of the inside of the card is showing, but that's manageable!

The paper is from DCWV - Retro Stack. And I finally got to use my scallop circle punches! Boy are those noisy...must remember not to use them during X-man's nap time!

And today is water day at CDO, so I sent X-man to church with a swim diaper (he wasn't really sure what was up with the strange diaper) and some swim trunks and a shirt and all slathered up in sunscreen. They're just going to have little water tables and some little sprinklers for the little ones, so I don't think there'll be much of a chance of him getting too much water in his ears...gotta always watch out for those tubes!

Of course, we really messed that up last night. TC decided we'd try to bathe X-man in the tub without putting him inside the toddler seat. Boy did that bathtub look big! X-man had a blast scooting around until one scoot sent him flying backwards. Now, there was just enough water in the tub to cover the tops of his little legs. He bumped his head on the floor of the tub and his ears (!!!) went under water. Of course, daddy scooped him up right away and everything was fine. Except he didn't want me to hold him to dry him off like is our usual custom. He wanted daddy to hold him...and he had great big hugs for daddy, too! That helped to make daddy feel better since the no-kid-seat idea was his.

We have a three-month ear check up for X-man tomorrow and I'm sure all will be fine.

I just need a mate!

For my sock, that is!



This sock was a bear to make, but I was so determined to finish it that no amount of frogging (that's rip it, rip it, rip it out) would stop me. Several other ladies on a crochet board that I'm a part of have also been working on this sock and because of several problems we ran into with the pattern, the designer joined the forum and then posted to our sock thread with a slight error in the pattern. That fixed some of my initial problems with the sock. The rest is probably my very beginner status on crocheted wearables!

It's done now and I better get started on the mate to this one. I can't walk around with just one sock on!

Hats Off!

I've finished up two crochet hats and I'm pretty proud of them.




This blue one is for my sister. She got a job in Iowa and it's going to be cold there, so she'll need a hat to keep her pretty little head warm! The cuff on this hat can be rolled down or up. It's a Lion Brand pattern.






This hat is for me. I'm going to take it with me on the cruise. I don't think I'll ever get lost in the crowd with this thing on! TC says that it looks cute on me. I'm going to wear it and just pretend that hats look good on me. No one will ever know!




My mom will probably want me to make one for her, too, and I'm going to use the same pattern as I did for the one for my sister. When they come up this weekend we might get a chance to head to the craft store for yarn.

I've also started making a pair of socks. I'm about one third of the way done with the first sock. I'm pretty impressed!

Another Baby Blanket Finished (almost)

I finally finished X-man's baby blanket...well, except for a few loose ends I need to weave back in. You can tell he's having a great time playing peek-a-boo with it. I think he likes that he can kinda see through it.

I used this pattern for the hexagons.

I've got two friends that are pregnant so I'm getting started on their blankets. And I just found out that crochet hooks are ok to take on a plane. So I'll have plenty to do when we take our flight to the cruise!

During the morning nap...

Instead of folding the dry laundry (which will bite me in the bo-hiney later; it's pants that will probably be all wrinkly) during X-man's nap this morning, I made some cards.

I saw an ad in one of my baby magazines and I just loved the colors in it so I used that inspiration for the colors of these cards:




Colors: Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal
Sets: On the Spot, Riviting, Big Pieces, Little Pieces (all SU!)

The birthday rivet and the gift in the middle are both on dimensionals. Actually, they're on the foam left over from cutting out the stamp sets. I don't have anymore pop-dots and the parts that I cut away from the stamp work perfectly as dimensionals...just pull off the rubber part!



Colors: Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal
Sets: Big Pieces, Little Pieces, Background Sampler (all SU!)



Colors: Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal
Sets: On the Spot, Big Pieces, Little Pieces, Wonderful Words (all SU!)

The scalloped edge around the white cardstock is actually circles that I punched out and put along the edge. I think I saw this idea on an SU! mini catalog. Anyway, it got me the look of a scallop but it sure was a little time consuming!

Now I have three birthday cards for my stash!

By the way, the design of these cards is in no way my own. I don't usually like layouts I do myself. I prefer to look at someone else's layout and base mine on that. I've been inspired by many of the great ladies over at SplitCoastStampers!

Cards

Here are the cards we made at last night's stamp camp over at my neighbor's.



The card on the left is one that I made this morning. I love the Happy Harmony set!



Ok, cows. Not my favorite card, but it's cute.



I like the puff paint on the foam!



This one is my favorite! I love this Big Pieces set and I love the color combo here.

Lotsa Rubbah!

This was one honkin' rubber stamp order! It's SAB time at Stampin' Up. What that means is that they have free stamps you can get when you spend so much money. January was my hostess month in my stamp club so I pretty much got my whole wish list. I ended up with 7 SAB sets (two of which I'm going to give to a friend of mine), 3 free packs of cardstock (I'm finally going to make a set of cards for my sis), two free backgrounds stamps and two free hostess sets.

Only thing about Stampin' Up is that the customer has to cut out the stamps and mount them on the block. No biggie, but that means that I couldn't get right to stamping last night when I got my order!

I've got several of them already mounted but I have two alphabets and one number set to mount (and that's alot of letters and numbers!). I'll work some more on them today during X-man's nap time and maybe I can everything but the alphas put together.

And tomorrow, when X-man's at Children's Day Out and after I've been to the gym and mopped the kitchen floor (dang Cheerios under my feet!), I can take my happy little stamps to the stamp room and get to work on some cards!

I made it myself...

...out of my old bra!

^Starshine, maybe you should carry one of these around while you're bra shopping so you won't feel so self-conscious!

*Just to clarify, I have not actually made one of these.

From Mellow to Hyper

The tubes are working. At least that's what I'm going to attribute X-man's incredibly good mood to.

He's a very good-natured baby and usually quite mellow. Since he's gotten the tubes, he's been almost hyper! It's more than just constant motion. I can't really explain it.

Today I went to my neighbor's for a Stamp Camp. She's a Stampin' Up! distributor and she supplies my rubberstamping habit. Anyway, I was over there for 3 1/2 hour. When I got home, X-man saw me and immediately started giggling. He giggled until I picked him up and then he started really squealing and belly laughing! We sat on the couch and he laughed at me sticking my tongue out and putting it back in for, I don't know, 10 minutes. We both giggled and laughed so much that daddy had to quit watching his tape of Star Trek: Enterprise. X-man really knew how to make me feel missed!

You should see me, though, when I give him his ear drops in the morning. Night ear drops aren't too much of a problem because we wait until he's asleep and then put the drops in. While he's in my lap I can hold his arms down and daddy can give him the drops. He fusses but goes right back to sleep.

The mornings are another story entirely. I was telling my mom that I wasn't sure how I was going to do it by myself. My smart mom suggested that I wrap him up in a big towel and then give him the drops. So I wrap him up in a big beach towel on my bed...he tells me quite loudly how much he does not enjoy that! Then I stradle the screaming kid and while holding his head down, give him the drops. It sounds awful, but it gets the job done and I'm not really hurting him...but he has his own opinion.

I'm hoping that X-man does wonderfully with the tubes and that ear infections are a thing of the past.

Got {kn}it!

I think I've finally figured out knitting. I got some suggestions on how to hold the yarn (just like I do in crochet...how easy is that?!?) and I've been watching Knitty Gritty on HGTV. This is my attempt at a little checkerboard with some Magic Stripes yarn. Nice, huh?



But, I'm going to frog it (rrrip-it, rrrrip-it, rrrrip-it out) because the edges aren't clean and it's really tight at the beginning. And I think I'm not going to try this crazy pattern as a first timer (I already tried a popcorn which was fun, but it wasn't looking so hot). I'm getting really good at the knit stitch, so I might just do a garter stitch scarf (that's knitting every row; something about the purl stitch slows me down).

Now I need to figure out how to keep my hands from cramping when I'm doing this...

Bits and Pieces

I got this idea from Mama C-Ta and she tells where she got the idea.

Basically, instead of a What-Happpened-In-2006 post (which can get out of hand really fast!), this is the first sentence from the first post of the month. Very interesting if you ask me!

January - Um...is that an allusion to the Beastie Boys?

February - Yesterday on my way home from work, I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up a few things and decided that I'd get some more hard candies for my hospital bag since I raided the lemon drops.

March - Our internet connection comes and goes and that really frustrates me.

April - Well, I went a little crazy at SuperCuts yesterday.

May - Well, X-man is the epitome of efficiency.

June - No, that wasn't one of the words in last night's spelling bee, but it sure is fun to say, isn't it?

July - Hey girl! We need your girls for a baby-proofing session!

August - My sister and parents were here for the weekend.

September - I just had the most delicious chicken salad sandwich ever!

October - I was sitting in orchestra at church yesterday and as I was putting up, I heard someone call my name.

November - I met the Diva-Me last night.

December - Yahoo for my birthday and leftover cake!!

If you are so inclined, you can read the actual post by clicking on the month link. If you decide to do this, too, leave me a link in the comments!