Fall Goody Bags

I work for a company with several branches, and I had to go to the main office this week for a meeting. I wanted to bring goodies for a special few who really help me out every day, since my position has always been held at the HQ until now, and I can do MOST functions from my desk but I need a little support. I didn't want to leave anyone out but I didn't have time or desire to make a special package for every single person there, so I also decorated a couple of baskets and loaded them up with candy.

For the large sunflowers on the baskets, I used Floral Frames Framelits and Royal Fiber Sunflower paper, sponging the edges with Crushed Curry ink. Garden Green makes the leaves, and Early Espresso embossed with the Fancy Fan folder makes the centers. I hot glued the flowers right onto the baskets and tied raffia bows on the handles. I loaded them up with tons of mini candy bars and Dum Dums.

The goody bags are some small lunch bags I had bought from my company a while back. They are the perfect size for a little treat. I put a generous handful of wrapped candy and a handful of candy corn in each one before tying it shut.

More raffia bows... I have the retired ribbon slot punch, which makes things like this easy peasy. The bow was tied before I hung the tags on the bags. The tag is the large bread bag tag from the Chalk Talk framelit set, cut from Royal Fiber Birch paper. I love the uber natural appearance of the flecks in this paper. The pumpkin is created by punching 3 XL Ovals from Pumpkin Pie, and sponging with Cajun Craze ink. I die cut the Little Leaves using more Garden Green CS. The pumpkin stems are punched from Early Espresso using the middle size Boho Blossoms. The little sunflower is similar to the big ones but just a single layer. These were really simple but they did take some time. Lots of gluing and popping with dimensionals!

I have to give my mother in law a shout out! These photos were taken on her deck, and required zero editing. She has a huge fall/Halloween display out including a little fireplace (non-functioning, I think) where I was able to set my items for some quick pics.

Happy Fall!
Becca

Notebooks

I have made custom covered notebooks for the church bazaar craft sale for a few years now. I have posted a lot of them here. These are the ones I made last year. I used a lot of retired product but they still look good!!

Marina Mist, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla. I used the Friends 24/7 stamp set here, with the damask print embossed with clear powder. I think I made 8 of these. 

I almost didn't want to give this one up. I only made one, using Bashful Blue and the In Stitches DSP, and a couple of pins I bought at a discount store. The focal point is stamped and doodled in Tangerine Tango. Here is a closer peek...

I made a couple other one-offs and then a nice journal - I have a couple of those left so I will try to get a quick pic before I take them back to this year's sale. I have had tons of ideas but haven't started making a new batch for this year yet. I always make Christmas cards and notebooks, so I know what I'll be doing for the next few weeks!

:) Becca 

Super Simple Thank You card

My stepdaughter had a baby this spring. We LOVE her. She is the sweetest, happiest baby. She drools like crazy and when we get her laughing, it is magic. I believe the word is smitten... Anyway, I hosted a baby shower a month before our little pumpkin arrived and made a stack of thank you's. They needed to be feminine but not overly girly, and simple so I could make a lot and not get sick of pumping out the same thing over and over. This is an entirely original design. I love tiny stamps and shapes, and the clean layout of this card with tons of white space makes it so classy. 

Stamps are Lots of Thanks (retired), Tiny Tags (retired), and Lovely Little Labels. The only tools are the Little Labels Punch pack and Itty Bitty Punch Pack for the circle. Colors are Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder, and Rose Red. I adhered the circles to the punched shapes with glue dots and popped up the shapes with bits of dimensionals. 

Sorry for the poor color. I was taking photos as I could, and the natural light is never good when I am home. I'm still working on it. 

One thing I did that I know saved her a lot of time was laid out the envelopes and have everyone write their address on them. I used that to draw for a door prize, and it saved that time consuming step of finding and writing them out later. She was able to get her thank you's out in a very reasonable amount of time. I definitely recommend this for bridal and baby showers, and I'll be doing it again. 

Happy day!

Becca 

This, Too, Shall Pass

This card was made a year ago for our stamp club. I LOVE Downton Abbey and if you are familiar with the sets at all, you will recognize this color combination. Baja Breeze, Summer Starfruit, Basic Gray, and White are the colors I used. Supplies include the Labels Collection Framelits, Butterfly embosslits (which I broke and need to replace, oops), homemade shimmer spray, Vintage Wallpaper and Stripes embossing folders, the Color Spritzer, and a rhinestone. Stamps are From the Heart and the Very Vintage wheel. The image frame is colored with a blender pen and Baja Breeze ink, and the middle layer is sponged with Summer Starfruit ink. Now that I have put the supply list together, I realize there was a lot of Big Shot action happening with this card! A lot of action, period... every layer has at least one treatment.

Do you take inspiration from the shows and movies you watch? Downton is absolutely ripe, with all the rich colors and textures. So elegant! I dig it. :)

Becca

Green & Blue Birthday

This is a quickie - I made this card for the coworker who received the candy cake. I used the Floral Frames dies, Fancy Fan folder, Floral District DSP, and a giant rhinestone for the focal point, any my sadly retired Curly Cute greeting on a hand-notched flag strip.

Looks like maybe Pacific Point as the background to me... Gosh, I am behind, I don't remember what half this stuff is! :)

Have a great week!
Becca

My sister's wedding, part 3

I wish I had pics of the cards I made one of my other sisters 8 years ago, but I wasn't that cool yet... She also got a custom congrats card and a pile of thank you's to go with her beach occasion. Anyway, I wanted to give my lovely baby sister a little encouragement, and play with my new Dress Up Framelits. I LOVE them. I used the fun dies to cut out a dress from Champagne Glimmer paper, and dressed it up with ribbon and flower trim. I think the papers are both Elegant Soiree and Beau Chateau, but I don't remember any more. I wish I would have bought more of both since I'm hoarding what I have. Need to get over it...

I cut the lower half of the skirt 2 times with the die (in addition to the main, full-cut shape) to make a fun, vintage-looking dress, since I was told her gown was a champagne-y color, vintage style dress. I gave this card to her the night before the wedding when we had all the sisters together for a sleepover. I hadn't seen my 2 stepsisters in many, many years and it was so awesome to see them again and get caught up. There were 6 of us sisters plus 2 friends. The groom and his crew, including my brother, went to a friend's to play games all night. Somehow we all made it where we were supposed to be the next day, with plenty of time to spare.

Anyway, that is all I have to post about the wedding unless my stepsister wants me to post her cakes! They were beautiful and delicious! :)

Happy Sunday,
Becca

Fun birthday cake!

I made this fun candy cake for a co-worker. I found the idea on Pinterest and had to give it a try. Let me tell you, it was kind of a disaster... I bought all the candy, used large glue dots to stick them to the cake tray, and bound it up with a ribbon I had bought back at Christmas. I was so happy with it! I went to bed, and when I woke up, the ribbon had popped open and the candy had fallen. Ugh. Luckily, it all fell down in the pattern it had been in, due to the glue dots, so it was pretty much just a matter of setting it up and re-wrapping the ribbon. I found a box and set it in the car. On the way to work, it popped open and fell down again! Really???

So, I was early for work (thank goodness) and needed to figure out how I would make this thing stay together. RUBBER BANDS. Of course. I banded each layer. Inside is a circle of Snickers bars, which are short. Around those, Hershey regular and almond bars. Around THOSE, Kit Kats and Reese's peanut butter cups. On top of the Snickers, I put a handful of Twix minis. We enjoyed candy for quite some time!

I had dotted the corrugated cake tray with sponge daubers and Gumball Green ink to match the ribbon. :) This is a somewhat spendy gift but it was too much fun to make!

Have a sweet weekend!
Becca

My sister's wedding, part 2

I offered to make thank you cards for my sister. Her wedding was tiny, so she didn't need many, and I probably made more than she needed. I made 2 dozen. I LOVE my medallion stamp and will never, ever get rid of it. The Many Thanks sentiment comes from All Year Cheer I, which is another in my permanent collection. Very Vanilla and Sage Shadow are the colors. The Edgelit die is so pretty. I love it - but I will tell you, running that thing 24 times and picking out the cuts 24 times was time consuming! :) Totally worth it...

Of course, I made matching envelopes. I put the whole shebang in a box from My Paper Pumpkin. My sister called me about a week after the wedding, telling me she was at the office supply store looking at envelopes and asking me about sizes... I was confused until I realized she hadn't found them under the cards yet! :) I was happy to tell her she didn't need to invest in more.

Happy crafting!
Becca

My sister's wedding!

My baby sister got married this year! Waaaayyy back in March. Here is card 1, the WEDDING card. I got my inspiration from the funniest place - Taco Bell. Hubby had a pile of sauce packets and I was reading them, because they are always silly. My sister is cute and offbeat, and a non-traditional card was definitely in order. I used the bright designer paper from Sale-A-Bration and went a little crazy. This card is large, for sure. I used an A7 envelope, so this is a full sheet of card stock, I think.

Please forgive the gauche backdrop. I didn't take photos at home, so I snapped a few on my brother's apartment floor. The carpet really helps highlight the fabulous card, don't you think? (Thanks for letting me stay with you, bro!!)

Here is the inside of the card, showing the sauce packet that started the process. To be safe, I put the packet in my liquids bag so it wouldn't get confiscated at the airport! :)

My husband, of course, had to boil it all down and write the best greeting. Grumble. If you can't read it, the packet reads "You have chosen wisely." Ha! My sister loved it.

Have a great evening!
Becca

Simply Sketched sympathy

While we celebrated several births in my extended family this year, there was also a devastating loss. I wanted to share condolences from my siblings and myself, so this card is actually larger than usual. I think it is 5x7 - but I don't remember for sure since I made it back in June. Anyway, the new In Colors are just beautiful and I love how they come together here with a deeper pop from the Bermuda Bay ribbon.

Have a fantastic day!
Becca

Baby ark

My cousin Kate had a baby this spring. She is the sweetest. I made her a Dartmouth Green tutu. :) No photos, whoops. I made this sweet Congrats card using the retired Two By Two set, colored with markers and blender pens. I also used my Circle dies and an embossing folder from my stash. I'm happy with the outcome!

I love babies!

Have a colorful day!
Becca

World Card Making Day and Operation Write Home 2013

Whoops! I sure didn't mean to abandon the blog! Guess I've been a little busy or something. Yes, I have been making cards, but nothing got posted! Picture taking has been hit or miss but I do have some special projects I did record that I will share over the next couple of weeks, since I have time to schedule a few posts right now! :)

So, yesterday was World Card Making Day. I have had Operation Write Home on my heart lately, and I wanted to make Christmas cards to send to the troops so they can send holiday greetings home. I read the guidelines over and over, and made 25 of each of 3 designs with assistance from a couple of friends. I used a combination of new and retired products, with some pretty, shimmery Neenah papers thrown in for a little dazzle. If you want details on any of the cards please leave your question in the comments, or email me.

Card 1 - I wanted a "natural" look and it sort of twisted a little into a more traditional card with natural elements. Colors are Real Red, Wild Wasabi, and Early Espresso. Stamp sets (retired) are Four the Holidays and Pines & Poinsettias.

Card 2 - I used the Modern Mosaic set to make shiny ornaments. I started with the pearly Flash Natural Starwhite from Neenah, knowing I wanted a black background. Of course, this is just the card front since I couldn't put my OWH stamp on the back of a black card! Eliminates the need for lining the inside and creates more space for writing! I popped the ornaments in a group on a strip of Always Artichoke.

Close up shot so you can appreciate the shimmer...

Card 3 - The classic Sketch It set still makes a classy wreath. I used Gold Pearl Classic Linen Neenah paper for the backdrop of the wreath. Sketch It is one of the first sets I bought when I started stamping almost 13 years ago. I used the Stripes embossing folder to add interest to the base.

 I feel like such a dork. I had this photo set up rotated but it won't take via Blogger. Bad blogger!!

Here are all the cards, stamped with the OWH logo and properly tucked for shipping.

We'll make 25 of this card next week at Stamp Club to send overseas as well.

I used the Illuminate Glimmer Pad on the giant star, but even after a day of curing, the ink still smeared and I wasn't happy with that. So, it is embossed. The shimmer shines through!

All in all, a very productive WCMD and I am thrilled to have a number of cards to send off to Operation Write Home. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

Becca