The Glue That Holds It All Together

To me, a secretary is the glue that holds a business together.  I could be wrong, but I feel like the secretary knows exactly what's going on in her company, school, wherever.  And she/he keeps things running and running smoothly at that!  They are the troubleshooters, the problem solvers, the multi-taskers.  And if the secretary is in a school, they are the soothers, the huggers, the jokers, and the substitute mothers.

As you have seen in my previous post, I created apples for the kindergarten teachers at my daughter's school.  The teachers LOVED the apples!  And the special treats inside!

I have been feeling bad about the secretary at the school.  She is such a super lady.  And we haven't acknowledged her for beginning another school year!  All those hours at school when the teachers have the summer off.  All of the work that she puts in throughout the year.  All of the phone calls that need to be made or taken.  All of the children that pass through her office with a smile and a wave or tears when something is wrong.  All of the messages that she has to send out.  All of the important things that are on her to do list each and every day regarding our children.  How can we overlook her?! 

This is a meager gift for such an important person in our school, but, as I love to throw out my cliches, 'it's the thought that counts'.

Here's a closer view of the plaque.   I hate that I can't write straight!  If there's no line, I'm all over the place!
That's actual chalkboard paper by DCWV and chalk!  I raided my kids' chalk collection at 1 in the morning!  LOL!  The stacks of books and apple are from Kitchen Sink Stamps.  The rest of the paper, including the background paper of the plaque are all from Graphic 45's An ABC Primer.  I absolutely LOVE this stack!  OMG!  I have to grab some more so that I can make future projects!  It's filled w/ tons of great paper!  I have to hoard this!!!!

Have a wonderful day!  And if you know a secretary, tell them thank you for their hard work!  :D

An Apple for the Teacher

Hi!  Today I would like to share with you a project that I made for the teachers at my daughter's Kindergarten Center!  I am on the PTO this year, and we wanted to welcome back the teachers in grand style!  Another board member baked beautiful cookies in the shape of sharpened pencils!  If only I could bake like that!  Wow!
Since I'm handier working with paper, I decided to try my hand at making the apple shown on this page:  SVG CUTS.

Here are my apples!

We were able to fit 2 K-Cups in each one for the teachers!  They were surprised that the apples even opened!  And then were more surprised by the gifts inside!

The paper used was Ridinghood Red, Garden Green and Handsome Hunter from SU!.  Once the panels were cut w/ the cricut, I embossed half of them w/ the Numbers embossing folder.  The ruler is from Kitchen Sink Stamps' School Days.  I stamped the ruler 3 times in a row w/ Summer Sun for the first layer, Crushed Curry for the second layer and Onyx Black for the third layer.

I used straw for the outside middle, and twine from My Favorite Things.  The tags are layered punches from SU!.  Probably retired by now!  Or changed!  I think that about covers it!  Oh, the A+ and the crayons are from a TPC Studio Teacher set.

Have a terrific school year!!!!

Wedding Card and Envelope

I completely forgot to post my wedding card and envelope that I made for my brother in law and sister in law!  I meant to do that, but time got away from me!

 Here is the card, using Kitchen Sink Stamps' Multi Step Wedding Couple & 3 Step Bells.

This is the envelope.  I realized too late that I should have made the bouquet purple on the card, so I made it purple here on the envelope!  DUH!  I was taking the directions for color too literally!

Here are the links to: Multi Step Wedding Couple & 3 Step Bells

A Special Wedding Present

Today I would like to share with you a special wedding frame that I made for my brother in law and new sister in law!  The day of their wedding, in between the photographer telling them where to go and how to pose, I asked them if I could take a few pictures of them.  Well, being who they are, they hammed it up for the camera, and then I got a really nice one of them!

I had the pictures developed and created this beauty that they can display in their living room!

 This is the scrapbook page before going in the frame.  You can see the candid shots trailing down the page.  Then I highlighted the really nice one of them in the oval picture at the bottom.

 Here's the page inside the frame.  This is a shadowbox frame.  And yes, for all you flat scrappers, I used 3-D objects on my page!  Gasp!

 I took different shots of the frame so you can see.  I made their wedding invitations, so I included one on here.  It has the date on it, so I didn't have to add that anywhere. 

 The flowers that you see, along w/ most of the greenery are from Kitchen Sink Stamps sets.  At the bottom, I have them listed.  The other greenery branches that you can see in the above picture are from a die from PTI.  I sprayed them w/ Tattered Angels Olive and Route 66.

 The pearls that are on each picture and the corner of the invitation are from a hardware set from Tim Holtz.  I attached each w/ a circular paperclip (for lack of a better word) from my stash. 

The swirls are from my stash as well.  Some of them from my Swirlydoos kits that I get each month!

Ok, here are the KSS sets that I used:
Wedding Rings:  4: Onyx Black, 3: Basic Gray, 2: London Fog, 1: Platinum Planet
Ivy & Lily of the Valley:  3: Bamboo Leaves, 2: Pear Tart, 1: New Sprout, 4: Cottage Ivy
Lilies, Hydrangea, Lilac, Rose, Zinnia:  3: Sweet Plum, 2: Perfect Plum, 1: Lulu Lavender, 4: (& sometimes 5:) Elegant Eggplant

Thanks Berry Much!

Hi!  Today I created a card for someone special and was able to participate in the MFT Sketch Challenge this week!  I love a twofer! 

To create the strawberries, I die cut Cherry Cobbler w/ MFT's Berry Box Die-namics, and the stem in Garden Green.  I took one side of the box, and cut it to make an individual strawberry.  I rounded the top of the strawberry so that it looked more realistic.  I cut the stem in half (looks like a star) and adhered to both strawberries on the front.  I added a twine bow to finish it off.  Oh, and I sponged around the edges to give dimension.  I did the same thing for the strawberry inside.

Have a wonderful day!

Valentine Bingo!

My friend had a brilliant idea to do Valentine Bingo at her son's elementary Valentine party last year! I remembered her talking about it over the summer and vowed to remember for this school year!

Here's my interpretation of the bingo card! I used SU!'s bingo card b/g stamp and then filled in the squares with valentine images along with easy to recognize images. These were made for preschool so I had to keep them basic! I used quite a few of the Studio G stamps that are a dollar at Mike's and Jo's.

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

It's a Banner Day!

Hello there!  Today I would like to share with you a little project that I have been working on!  My Favorite Things has a monthly challenge for the Guest Designer spot!  I looked at the challenge and it said hearts!  Well, that's a fun, easy topic to stamp about!

I have to do everything over the top and outside the lines.  So, while lots of people are creating cards to submit, I decided to create a banner!

Here are the close ups so you can see all the details!

If you go HERE, you can see my product list!  It's 2am, I'm going to bed!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Ok, I know!  Christmas is over!  Well, why not start on my cards for next year?  Haha!  Even I'm not THAT ahead of the game!  I'm just still in the Christmas mood, and wanted to create a card using the PI Christmas Stocking Girl from MFT.  She's fairly new to my collection, and I wanted to ink her up.  It worked perfectly w/ the January Guest Designer challenge of paper piecing that is going on now!

The Christmas tree is actually made out of snowflake dies!  I don't have a tree die, (Kim ~ there's an idea!), so I looked through the dies that I do have and wondered how a tree would turn out if I used snowflakes and glued them together!  Well, this is exactly what I wanted it to look like!

The paper piecing that works for the challenge is on her pajamas!  I added flocking on the stocking top and her slippers to add some texture.

Copics to color her face and hair.  A little sewing around the edge of the dp.  I die cut the post card words out w/ the Framed Greetings die, and added the Swirly Flourish die underneath.

Have a great day!
Happy New Year!

Dressing up gift cards!

Merry Christmas!  Just wanted to share a special book that I made for my parents for their Christmas gift.  I purchased gift cards for them for Christmas, because they have everything, so what could I buy them?  And how boring are gift cards? I mean, they are wonderful to have.  The freedom to buy whatever you want, instead of getting something specific that you may not like, and have to return.  I personally love gift cards, but the presentation is usually lacking.  Until now!!!!

I bought them quite a few, because they are awesome, and deserve quite a few!  When I had them all in my hands, I thought, ok, I have to do SOMETHING cool for them!  I first thought of an advent calendar.  You open a door, and a gift card is behind it.  So, this is where that idea led to!

The Christmas Gift Card Holder Book!  LOL!  Ta dah!  ;D

 Here's the cover.  I used a regular white piece of paper, and white embossed the Dec. 25th.  Then I used red Smooch spray, green Tattered Angels spray, and white paint mixed w/ water to create a snowflake effect.  I sponged the edges w/ green Ranger Distress ink. And the snowflake is an MFT die!
The shape of this album is a shape found from svgcuts.com I believe?  Not sure....Simon Says Shapes I think is the name.

 Blogger is being ridiculous, so you'll have to tilt your head to look at this first page.  {eye roll}  I drew the entire oven.  I used copics to color.  White gel pen for the criss cross on the towel, silver gel pen for the oven racks.  The silver brads are "knobs" for the oven.  And above the oven are signs for panini's and soups from Panera Bread.....the first gift card!  The tile work behind the stove is actually just grid lines that I created w/ my ruler.  And I created the wood floor as well.

 This page is pretty easy.  I was tired by this point, so I made it super simple.  I created a bookmark, which my mom can peel off and use.  She still loves to turn the page of a regular book.  I love the touch of a button to turn the page!  ;D  Behind this bookmark are gift cards for Barnes & Noble. 
The stamps I used are from MFT's I {Heart} Books!  I colored her w/ copics.

 Again, this one was pretty simple.  I had too many ideas floating around in my head, I couldn't settle for just one.  I found these carrots from a Flourishes set that I colored w/ copics and cut out.  The turkey is from another set, I can't remember which one.  I think an Inkadinkado set for recipes, if I'm not mistaken.  The plate is resting on a "table".  To get the gift cards out for a series of restaurants, pull on the carrots and turkey!  I cut the words 'Bon Appetit!' on my cricket.

 This page was one of my favs!  I took two MFT sets w/ full dress showing and stamped them on paper.  For the robe, I applied a generous layer of glue and adhered pink flocking all over it.  Front and back!  For the dress, my dad had given me tons of fabric samples a few years ago. I still have them and use them when necessary.  I cut two sides of the dress, and glued them together.  For the skirt, I took a piece of suede material and cut it in half.  I took a sliver of pleather and created a belt.  I stamped the words 'Oooh La La!' and cut them out. 
The gift card is for Macy's and I have it peeking out from behind the clothes rack! 

 These next two were for my dad.  He received a few gift cards for Lands End.  Well, when I think of Lands End, I think of coats, hats, boots.....ah, boots!  That is actually what I created here!  I drew a template from paper, and adhered pleather to the toe and suede for the sides.  I used eyelets and brown ribbon for the laces.  On the inside, I wanted to make it nice and warm, so I put some liquid applique in there and heated it up right after I put it on!  I wanted to make it look like wool!

And the last page!  iTunes was the last gift card of choice.  I could have gone in so many different directions, but time was NOT on my side, so I had to keep it simple.  I found a sheet of music in my vintage folder, so that's my background.  I drew the notes and cut them out.  The gift cards are peeking out behind.

For all of the gift cards, I created a very simple envelope for them to sit in and keep them contained.  I tucked most of them behind the background paper to make it easier for my themes on each page!

I hope you enjoyed viewing this!  My parents LOVED it!  My mom even talked about putting it on her tree each year!  :D

I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas!

MFT Product Tour Time!!!

Hello MFTers!  I hope that you are enjoying the Product Tour!  For a full listing of participants, go to Kim's Blog!

Today, I am focusing on my little cutie, the Pure Innocence Heartwarmer!  I wanted to come up w/ a clever idea of what I could do with him and his snowballs (thought of stamping a PI buddy and having a good, old fashioned snowball fight), but, I wasn't sure how well it would photograph.  I might try that at some point....
I went onto Pinterest, and saw a cute idea of a snowman inside a jar!  And then I got my idea!
A Snowball Fight In A Jar!

 I used a regular mason jar that I found in my laundry room.  I painted the lid white, and adhered the silver ribbon that you see that's kind of frilly and wild and crazy.  I used the Fancy Flourish and Let It Snowflake die-namics to create my scene.  Along w/ the Wonky Scallop Border.  The Fancy Flourish is to mimic wind and on the wind are snowflakes falling onto the snow already piling up at the feet of our little Heartwarmer!  The rhinestones are the sparkly snowflakes falling even faster than the regular flakes!  All you see are the flashes and sparkle as they fall from the sky!  I used my brand new Icicles Border Die for the top to add some detail and make it look even colder!!!!

Inside you will see 2 white circle punches.  These are to signify snowballs.  I took white liquid paint, and mixed it w/ water, and sprayed the inside of the jar to make it look like the jar got hit w/ snowballs.  Of course, my camera couldn't pick up that detail.  But, in real life, it's speckled under the snowballs!  There's one to the upper right of the Heartwarmer, and then behind him to the Left.  You can see it in the next picture.

 This is just a different angle of the jar.

This is what the jar looks like on my hutch in my kitchen!  I used fresh pine all throughout my house this year for Christmas, and I LOVE how it turned out!  This is just one of my shelves!

Happy Shopping my friends!