girly birthday cards

Hey friends. What a week it's been! I don't even want to know the amount of $$ I've spent on gas this week hauling the reds around. And we're off for a weekend ball tournament tonight. The fun never ends!

Jordy has a birthday party to go to next week and I've noticed that I never have any teenage/girly type cards in my stash. So my goal this summer is to add a few fun cards in here and there. When I want teenage girl type cards, I always reach for my Stamping Bella stamps. I love the whimsical images, especially the one I chose to work with today called presentahbella.

I stamped the images on solid cardstock and then again on some new My Mind's Eye patterned paper. Most of the papers and twine I used today are from the Lime Twist collection. I used my Copic markers to color in the girls on the solid cardstock and a few more to color in some spots on the paper pieced presents.
I adhered the presents to the main images and added a few quote bubbles that I cut out from this adorable paper. I stamped *happy birthday* sentiments onto the bubbles and popped them up with pop dots.
Next up it was time for a few embellishments. Using more of the Lime Twist paper I cut some strips and then notched the end to create little flags.
These were adhered to my card fronts and then buttons were added using some Lime Twist twine.
I also added some staples using my Tiny Tim stapler + some clear rhinestones that I colored with my Copics. Instant matching.
And here's my little stash-o of birthday cards for the girls to choose from.
I stitched around the focal image to add a little interest to the white + I added some glitter. Love all the mixy matchy colors in this one line as you can see on all my little notched strips of patterned paper.
Again, I love those little quote bubbles. Just too cute.
Hope you enjoy! Do you have some favorite stamps to use for teenage girl cards? I'd love to hear about your favorites.

Okay, we're off to see the Wizard. Well not really. We're really off to see Bud the softball coach. Catch ya later, peeps. Have a great weekend! Stay tuned because on Monday I'm teaming up with a crafty friend for an ongoing summer project. We'll be blogging our progress and I'll tell you all about it June 6th!

You go girl!

My friend Carmen came over to stamp and brought these cute Bella girl stamps from Stamping Bella. We made up some fun cards for our *big loser* friends. There's nothing better than receiving encouragement from friends and family when you're trying to lose weight! I think I should just send all these to myself...I need all the help I can get!!Papers and embellishments are from Making Memories Garden Party line. Vintage Buttons and base cardstock of Aqua Mist from Papertrey. The images are colored with Copic Sketch markers. The brush tips of the Sketch markers are so nice for coloring the little spaces of the Bella stamps.

Here's a closeup of all the little button embellishments.

Thanks for letting me borrow your stamps Carmen! I can't wait to send these out.

Librarian Notebooks

Edit: Watch this Get Out Your Colors video......be inspired! Link HERE.

My friend Lori became the high school librarian this year. She had been teaching history classes but finally got her degree in Library Whatever (Library Science???....sorry Lori, I can't think of your degree) and a new position came open at our high school. She is SO good, she's got these high schoolers reading all the time. I can hardly believe some of the kids that I see reading now. And she's very good at organizing and displaying books by certain themes and making them look very enticing. She's still trying to get me to read the Edward vampire books but I haven't quite caved yet. Anyway, I wanted to give a shout out to all you librarians. Reading is such a great thing, the stories will take you away to anywhere you want to go. You guys have great jobs!! Well onto my post for today. Lori is meeting up soon over Spring Break with some of her librarian friends. They're all to bring one gift item and stuff it in a gift sack. Then each friend gets a goody bag full of sweet surprises. Lori had me make these little notebooks for her gifts. You know they will be one of a kind...well actually 5 of a kind.

I bought this cute librarian stamp from Stamping Bella just to make creations for Lori. I knew she would love it because Lori's not your frumpy type of librarian. She's cool and hip and wears fun glasses, etc. She wanted some fresh, fun colors for her notebooks so I chose some October Afternoon patterned paper that had greens and blues. I colored my Bella librarians in with Copic markers, using the Copic Colorless blender to wash out the shirt and jeans for a faded look.

For some fun embellishments, I used some May Arts fuzzy ric rac ribbon, some Michael's dollar bin ribbon, buttons and felt flowers from my stash. These notebooks are junior size notebooks (like 5 x 8) that you can find in any office supply section. I took them to my local printer (try Kinko's) and had them cut them in half. I simply folded my solid colored card stock around the notebook...measurements are hard to give because each brand of notebooks varies slightly, it's best to measure and score each notebook individually once they are cut. The height is typically 8" high but the spine and width of the cut notebooks can vary. I make these notebooks ALL the time and the recipients always love them!

You can view more of my mini notebooks HERE.....and HERE......and HERE.