Quick Butterfly Cards..

Mother's Day is coming up this weekend. I feel blessed that Eric and I still have our mothers in our lives. I have a few fun gifts planned but homemade cards from me is always a big hit with both the moms. I've been keeping a stash basket for extra cards but I needed a few more to round out their card sacks.

Seems both our moms like basic cards....thank you, birthday, get well, sympathy and general greeting cards that can be used for any occasion. So for sentiments I stick to the basics. They also don't care for a lot of frills. They send out lots of cards so for me to fulfill the numbers they need I keep designs for them more simple. How about I show you a few I made today? I'm using a cheery mix of supplies including The Girls Paperie patterned paper, green baker's twine, Papertrey Spring Mix Vintage Buttons, Rustic White cardstock, Papertrey butterfly dies, various PTI sentiments and my sewing machine.
Here's a few fun details from my card designs today. Rounded corners to soften the edges of this pretty paper.
Die cut butterflies in two sizes from patterned paper.
Machine stitching down the center of the butterflies with the ends of the thread left long. Buttons sewn on with embroidery floss.
And do you remember me talking about my little scrap basket? I throw in leftover scraps, die cut borders, punches, and all sorts of little snippets. I keep it nearby at all times and reach for little pieces and parts to use on projects. If it gets too full, I make up a bunch of tags for Etsy or simply purge some pieces.
Today I dug out these little gems of patterned papers and a die cut doily.
I stitched little pieces to my sentiment strips of patterned paper. Very mixy matchy. A few fun pops of extra color and pattern here and there.
Added to the tops of my cards for a very eclectic mix.
And finally I added the butterfly embellishments on top of some paper doilies.

A stack of envelopes and they're ready to sack up. Are homemade cards on your gift giving list? I'm thinking I need to make up a batch for teacher gifts too. Hope you enjoy!

Spoiler Alert: PTI 2010 Anniversary Set

EDIT: The 2010 Anniversary Botanical Silhouettes stamp set will be sent to customers who earned the set through the rewards program at PTI. This stamp set is for purchases made last year, not in 2011. The set will not be for sale, you can only earn it through PTI purchases.

Hey Peeps! Spoiler Alert: The 2010 Anniversary stamp set is used for my projects today. If you don't wanna see, click out now. :)

(photo from my pinterest site)

The new set is just divine. It's full of pretty, individual floral images including poppies and little blossoms and stems. The design possibilities and color combinations are just endless.
Using papers from The Girls Paperie, I added a fun plaid and floral print to my card and matching, lined envelope. Whimsical and little shabby.
The font combinations are what I really love about this set. A pretty cursive font plus a nice graphical font in capital letters. If you zoom in on this photo you'll notice that I used heat embossing for the red flowers (Zing Rouge). I also splattered my card and envelope with Studio Calico Mr. Huey Sunshine mist. To highlight my sentiment I used my sewing machine to stitch a line under the words.
Lots of fun color pops here. Primary colors mixed with Blueberry Sky ribbon.
Just for fun, I included the card sketch that I used for my card today. Enjoy!
Off to a track meet. Rain in the forecast so I'll probably drive all the way there and then it will be cancelled. Again. :)

you've got mail..

Edit: Several of you asked about the size of my cards in my Mother's Day post. I've edited that post with the information and packaging tips here.

Hey everyone, you've got mail. :) Today I have a card to show you that I made using Friendship Jar + Friendship Jar Spring Fillers. I thought it would be fun to place the jar lying down so that all the mail goodies could spill out.
I love the look of paper piecing and I think it's even more cute when you stamp on patterned paper and then cut out the paper pieced image. Here I stamped the envelope images twice, one on Rustic White cardstock and then on my patterned paper. I colored the airmail stripes with the YR16 Copic marker. Then on the white cardstock I colored the bottom envelopes with the new E81 Ivory marker.
When the colored envelope gets placed on the white cardstock, the Ivory colored part becomes shadows.
I attached this to my jar image that was stamped with the polka dot filler with pop dots. I added a mini clothespin tied with twine for a fun accent.
The side of the card is fancied up with the little label image from the original Friendship Jar + a die cut and stamped label from Label Basics + a postage stamp from Postmarks. Machine stitching and a tiny staple hold everything in place. Patterned paper is from The Girls Paperie (from my local shop: Scrapbooks, Etc).
Hope you enjoy! Be sure to check out Nichole's blog for the latest sneaks of this month's Papertrey releases. She's got great projects featured today + links to the other stamp designers' blogs.

Mother's Day {meets} Mass Production..

Edit: The size of my cards is A2, 4.25" x 5.5".......since my leaves hang over the card, I will be using my brown paper sacks for packaging. If I mail them, they'll go in a small bubble mailer. :)

Hi there friends. Around this time of year I have to do a lot of pre-planning due to our busy schedules with the girls. That's when mass production comes in to full swing for me. Today I'm using my mass production mode to create all of the Mother's Day cards I need this year. And can you believe I used seven different dies and 5 different stamp on my cards today? Seems like a lot of product but I don't think my finished cards looks overdone. Come take a look as I walk you through my process today.

First up, I spent the biggest portion of this card making session stamping and die cutting my images. Once this part was done, the assembling of my cards came together lickety split. The stamps and coordinating dies I used are as follows: Beautiful Blooms II + dies, Turning a New Leaf + dies, Label Basics + dies, and Polka Dot Basics + the medium scalloped die.
Using Vintage Cream felt, I die cut large flowers and then tried something new by tea staining the felt. It definitely gave a more vintage, shabby feel. The pink flowers were stamped, the polka dot flowers from Library Ledger paper were die cut + scrunched + edged with the tea dye ink, and the leaves were stamped with green ink.
All of the die cut elements from above were then layered together and tied with Rustic Cream Twine. These layered flowers take a little time to die cut and assemble but they sure pack a pretty punch. Love them.
Next I switched gears and worked on my card bases. I used Rustic White cardstock for the card bases, layered with some patterned paper from The Girls Paperie (from Scrapbooks, Etc in Topeka, Ks). The bottom strip is Fine Linen cardstock, die cut with the medium scalloped die and then stamped with polka dots in Fresh Snow ink. Tip: Leave die cut strips long, then adhere to the card, then trim off the excess. This helps to center the scallops on the card and makes sure the strips are wide enough to cover the card base.
And here are my card bases after I trimmed the scalloped strips and added Fine Linen Satin ribbon. Usually I don't tie on the ribbon til the very last but for these cards I needed to make sure that the bows didn't cover up my Mother's Day sentiment label.
Next, I took my small and large labels that I stamped and die cut and just placed them on my card front without adhering them. I layered on my flower embellishment and leaf die cut just to get a feel for the placement of all the card elements. I call this *staging*....just piddling around, moving elements here and there to make sure everything looks balanced. Tip: When you get all the elements just right on cards and scrapbook pages, snap a photo if you need help remembering the final arrangement. I do this all the time with my iPhone when there are a lot of little pieces to adhere.
When I thought my card layout looked good, I went to work adhering my flower embellishments to the large, die cut labels with Scor-Tape (those were inked with the Chamomile Vintage Touch Tea Dye Duo ink). Tip: No need to use scissors with Scor-Tape, it tears easily with your fingers.
Here's my embellishments, all layered + adhered and ready to add to my card fronts.
Here's all my cards, ready for the final adhering of the label pieces. Note: The Mother's Day sentiment is from Blooming Button Bits.
And one final step was to add a mini glue dot under each ribbon knot. This helps the ribbon from sliding around.
And here's my finished Mother's Day cards. I took a little extra time assembling all the pieces but these are very special cards for very special ladies in my life. I know many of you only create one card at a time but I really enjoy the mass production method when I have several of the same type of card to make. I hope you give it a try!
It's a great way to create use those hard earned supplies and in the end you'll save time by using one grouping of products that you've selected for your project. I think my cards came out pretty good....a little shabby, a little vintage....I know they'll be greatly appreciated.
Have a great day everyone and I hope you get some crafty time this weekend!

12 Days of Christmas...Day 12

Happy Monday Friends! Today is the 12th and final day of Melissa's and Mishie's 12 Days of Christmas countdown. Just in time for us to share one more post and then take some time to relax and focus on the holiday with our families. Thanks for joining us today!
As Christmas draws near, most of us are (hopefully) winding down our Christmas cards and holiday packaging. But there's always one way that I like to end my holiday crafting.....and that is with Christmas thank you notes. So our theme for today is thank you cards. I always insist on the reds writing a hand written note to at least the grandparents for Christmas gifts received.

Today I have some fun shaped pocket cards to share with you. You start out with a 6" x 6" piece of double sided patterned paper. I'm using papers and stickers from The Girls Paperie. Fold the square in half and then fold down 1" to create a flap. Stitch all in place to form a pocket.
I used lots of The Girls Paperie stickers to embellish the front of the pocket card. The scallops were die cut from Papertrery's Large Scalloped Border Die.
Wrinkle Ribbon is from my Etsy shop. The half circle tabs were created with the Mini Scrapbook Series: Tabs stamp set and coordinating Mini Tab die.
Recipe Cards from Papertrey Ink were perfect for the card inserts so that we could have lines to write on. I cut them down to fit into the pocket cards, then added a swipe of the Vintage Touch Tea Dye Duo around the edges. Glitter finishes off the top of the insert. I made two inserts for each pocket.....one for the girls to write their messages and one for Eric and I to write our thank you notes.
These cards fit perfectly into plain ol' business envelopes....the smaller size. Whew, one more item crossed of my list. So don't forget to create a few thank you's before you put away that holiday paper. Enjoy!
For my recipe today, I'm sharing some tasty Ham & Swiss Sliders. A perfect sandwich to take to parties or to just fix when all the festivities are over and you're hanging out at home. Looks mouth watering, doesn't it? The recipe is HERE.

(Recipe and Photo Courtesty of Taste the Joy)

And one last item before Melissa and I end our 12 Days of Christmas blogging event. We would like to offer a thank you gift for visiting our blogs during this joyous season. I am offering up this little bundle of goodies from my Etsy shop....perfect for upcoming Valentine projects. Enjoy!

To be entered for my prize drawing, enter a comment at the end of this post telling me what one of your favorite projects was from my blog this year. Be sure to leave your name too. To be entered twice for the drawing, post a link to my blog post today on your blog and paste that direct link along with your comment right back here. Your package will be dolled up all super cute like! Thanks for playing along and Happy Holidays everyone!! Prize drawing winner will be announced sometime tomorrow. Be sure to check Melissa's blog for her post today....and she's also giving away an adorable prize. :)

12 Days of Christmas...Day 3

Etsy shop update: The Brown Paper Sacks are now sold out in my shop. I'll be having more in soon. Back in stock today...Mini Clothespins, Small Clothespins and Cork Paper. In stock soon: Long Sleeves, Short Sleeves, Notebook Slicks, Bookmark Slicks, Brown Paper Sacks...and more polka dot envelopes. :)

Welcome to Day 3 of Melissa's and Mishie's 12 Days of Christmas! Please join Melissa and me as we present some more fun holiday projects for you. Today's theme: It's in the Bag.
Santa isn't the only one with goodies in his gift bag this year. Today I've created some fun gifts using my Brown Paper Sacks that I know you will love. (note: the sacks may sell out but I have more coming to the shop soon).
Actually I've created two fun projects from one nifty idea. All you need to do is take one of my Brown Paper Sacks and make a fold. Stitch around three sides to create a bag with pockets.
The nifty part is that there are now TWO pockets. More room for tucking treats and goodies inside. I'm calling these my Double Pocket Pretties.
To embellish my Double Pocket Pretties, I pulled out some holiday themed supplies including red Wrinkle Ribbon, shiny red sprigs, baker's twine, my jingle bells, patterned papers from The Girls Paperie, Metal Rim Tags and Dainty Doilies.
To embellish, I added patterned paper to the front of the paper pocket along with a sticker border from The Girls Paperie collection.
Wrinkle Ribbon tied up with baker's twine, jingle bell, holiday sprig and a metal tag embellished with word stickers add a nice finishing touch with lots of pretty details. For this pocket, I added a vintage holiday pot holder to the back pocket and holiday candies were tucked in the front pocket.
Now. I love this second version of my Double Pocket Pretties too. Here I've simply folded over the top of the pocket to create an envelope paper pocket. So cute. I folded my doily and adhered it over the sides of the envelope flap. Next I created a slider closure with a strip of patterned paper. A metal tag with a punched circle of patterned paper and more sticker words create a simple and easy presentation. I think I could make these all day. :)
You can tuck all sorts of stuff in the envelope. Here I used more candies but you could easily use embellished tags or small notecards, etc.
Ohhhhh, I see lots of crafty goodness coming out of my Artsy Studio soon. I love these Double Pocket Pretties. How about you?

I can't wait to see what Melissa has crafted for us today. Be sure to check her blog today too.

Please remember: The Double Pocket Pretties and other items that I share on my blog are for your personal use only. You can create them for friends and family and teachers, etc as much as you want. But please don't sell these items in your Etsy shops or else where. :)

My Recipe: Great for holiday brunches!

Southwestern Crescent Rolls

1 pound sausage

1 (8 once) cream cheese

1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies

3 packages crescent rolls

Brown sausage and drain. Combine with cream cheese and green chilies. Add heaping spoonful to each crescent roll triangle. Roll and bake as directed on package. You may have a few crescent rolls left over. Enjoy!

Day 1 of 12 Days of Christmas

Edit: The next 12 Days of Christmas post will be after Thanksgiving. Have a great turkey day everyone!

The much anticipated day has arrived. My sweet friend, Melissa Phillips is joining me for 12 wonderful days of Christmas blogging. Welcome to Day 1! Here is the link to Melissa's post for today.

We're not quite past Thanksgiving yet but we wanted to kick off this week with a special post. We know you all love the notebooks, especially the holiday planners. So our theme today is notebooks. I can't wait to see what Melissa has created, I know it will be swoon worthy. I think a holiday planner is a must during this busy time of year. I like to give my creations to friends and family a bit before the holiday rush begins. Thanksgiving gatherings would be the perfect time to give out these wonderful paper treats.

I wrapped my holiday planner up in a Long Sleeve so that part of the notebook peeks out. I used Wrinkle Ribbon, a glittery holly sprig, baker's twine and a vintage silky threaded ornament to fancy up my packaging. There's nothing prettier than a fancy package.
Here's the front of my holiday planner. I decked it out with papers from Papertrey and The Girl's Paperie. The notebooks themselves are from Papertrey.
I couldn't create a holiday planner and not use my Take Note set from Papertrey. I added a word sticker from The Girl's Paperie to the top of my circle accent. Underneath the circle accent are lots of Papertrey dies and more sticker accents from The Girl's Paperie.
Here I've added some Wrinkle Ribbon tied up with a button, baker's twine and a Small Metal Tag stamped with *no peeking* from Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers and some chunky Martha Stewart glitter. Under all that are some fun banner shapes die cut from Cork Paper and patterned paper.
More word stickers are along the bottom. I love that these have some of the letters colored in.
Here's the inside of my double padded notebook. I covered one side with patterned paper so that nosy little redheads can't see what's inside.
More letter and border stickers. I love those things! And of course, an embellished clothespin that has patterned paper, chunky glitter, and a button tied with jingle bell and baker's twine. Those are perfect for holding recipe cards, little notes and coupons during the holidays.
More word fun with the stickers...
Double sided patterned paper makes for easy work on this cover sheet.
I hope you are inspired to create some holiday planners of your own. Be sure to check out Melissa's sweet creation. Before I go for today, Melissa and I have another surprise for you. Each day of our 12 Days of Christmas countdown, we'll each be posting a recipe. That's a total 24 recipes, peeps!

Today I'm sharing a soup recipe that I made over the weekend for guests. It was the best dish of the night. My nephew ate 3 bowls and said *Awesome Aunt Michelle*. Gotta love that from a teenage boy! The girls said *Mom, we should not just make this when company comes, it's a keeper*. Double bonus points from the reds! Seriously, if you make one soup recipe this winter make this soup. It's creamy and yummy and the best comfort food evah! I served mine with some crusty bread that I drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with cracked black pepper...and we topped it with cream cheese and some of my candied jalapenos that I made a while back. Heaven in a soup pot, I tell ya! Hope you enjoy!
Of course I had to make a recipe card. The above photo is the front of my 4 x 6 recipe card. Below is the back side of the recipe card. Papers are from Wild Asparagus and My Mind's Eye.

Here's the recipe that you can copy and paste, enjoy!

Potato and Onion Chowder

2 cans chicken broth
1 cup water
½ cup yellow onion, chopped
2 bags frozen, shredded hash browns
½ teaspoon parsley flakes
2 cups cured ham, chopped
1 can celery soup
1 can onion soup
1 cup velveeta
1 small tub cream cheese with chives
half and half, 1 pint
cracked black pepper to taste

Brown onion and ham in large soup pot in a little olive oil. Add chicken broth and water and bring to a boil. Add hashbrowns and cook for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add parsley flakes, soups, cheese and cream cheese. Let dissolve and cook for 20 minutes. Add enough half and half to create desired consistency. Add pepper to taste. I like to serve with a crusty bread that has been sliced, drizzled with olive oil, topped with cracked pepper and warmed in the oven. The ultimate comfort food and soooo yummy on a cold day. from Michelle Wooderson Nov 2010.

Edited for questions: Both soups were the cream versions...Cream of Celery and Cream of Onion (not French Onion Soup) and I don't know what size the hash browns were...not the giant bags.