I need a cupcake...now!

Funny I should post this card today....I have a batch of freshly baked cupcakes in the kitchen just waiting to be frosted. I'm trying to refrain from having one though. Josey has her first school dance tonight and I volunteered to make cupcakes and cookies. It's an 80's themed dance so it will be fun to see how the kids interpret what growing up in the 80's was like. I'm an 80's girl so it should be a fun time. We asked Josey if she is going to dance with a boy if asked. Her immediate response was, "No way". Ahh, so typical of grade school dances......go to the dance and don't dare dance with anyone! It probably doesn't help that her mother is a chaperon.

On another note, Jordan is feeling much better today. She's home again just to rest up. She has 6 basketball games this weekend if she's feeling up to it, so I gotta get her feeling better. Mama needs a basketball game fix!!
Onto my card. I'm using some brand new products that Just Rite Stampers will be releasing soon. This particular set is called Wood Stamper 2-3/8" (with bonus center cupcake and 25 pt font set). So you get the wood stamper, the font set and the cute cupcake center.

I started by stamping the large base circle with my sentiment that I made up. I cut that out with a large Spellbinders Circle Nestabilities Template. I left the circle in the metal template and then airbrushed it with a pink Copic marker. Then I stamped the cupcake and colored the wrapper portion with Copic markers. I then stamped the cupcake image again onto some My Mind's Eye Penny Lane patterned paper. I cut out the frosting portion of the cupcake and paper pieced it onto the colored cupcake. I then cut the cupcake out with a smaller Spellbinder's Circle Nestabilities Template and adhered it to the larger circle with pop dots.

I used various sized circle punches to punch out designs from some coordinating MME Penny Lane paper. Pink sequins are scattered through out the card.

Because that's what moms do...

Today I was supposed to sub but Jordy came into my bed with a tummy ache. It wasn't long after that the puking began. The flu. Dang. More puking. Double dang.

But you suck it up and go into mom mode......holding pony tails while your sweet little one heaves over the toilet.....bringing cold wash cloths and soda crackers...calling Grandma for 7 Up...fixing hot jello and serving it with ice cubes and a straw(my kids always loved that)....fixing potato soup (she can't eat it but it makes me feel better to make it).....washing every towel in the house and wiping down door knobs. I wouldn't have it any other way. It's what we moms do for our children.

I did find a little time to work in my stamp room today. I'm kinda tired of making plain ol' cards but I've been loving the tiny little size of the smaller cards I've been making lately. So I shuffled through some sketches I made and found a little coupon/ticket type idea I got from the 2009 Hero Arts catalog. I thought about what to make and then the idea popped into my head.

I wanted to make some little love coupons for my girls. They've been coming home lately, telling me stories of the mean girls at school. Jordan's especially been having a hard time. There is this one girl that always gets to her...saying mean things, ignoring her, whispering behind her back. And she plays Jordan's other friends too which doesn't help. As much as I want to shield my girls from kids like this, it still happens. Girl drama is not good. So all you can do is listen and let your kids know that you are there for them. It's what moms do.

So onto my little projects. I came across a box of old cards and found some little cards and notes that my mom sent to me while I was in college. I loved getting mail from home, it was the best! So I thought that my girls might like a little note from me. I'm going to slip these into their book bags so they'll find them at school. Here's the details. I used Spellbinders Label and Scalloped Rectangle dies(in PTI Aqua Mist) to make my coupons. The notched corners on the Label die remind me of ticket stubs. And they nestle perfectly onto the scalloped rectangles. For my patterned paper, I used some new My Mind's Eye paper called Penny Lane. I rounded the corners to fit onto the coupon layers. Then I stamped a sentiment from Pine's Papertrey set called Beyond Basic Borders onto Aqua Mist card stock.

For the main image, I used Karen Lockhart's adorable little Itty Bitty Mushrooms. Mushrooms are so popular right now. I colored them with Copic Sketch markers to match my patterned paper colors. I punched out the mushrooms with a circle punch and adhered them to the coupons with pop dots. I think these little coupons are SO adorable!! Finished coupon size is about 2-1/4" x 3".
For the back of the coupons, I cut another white label layer. I stamped lines from Pines Journaling Lines stamp set in Aqua Mist. Then I wrote my messages to my girls.

I'm hoping that the girls will find a special little spot to keep their love coupons. Maybe in the front of a notebook...or stuck in the back of their locker....or in their agenda. Just somewhere that they can be reminded that their mom is always thinking of them. Maybe I'll make them more from time to time and they can add them to a little metal ring, like trading cards.

On another note, my mom is with my brother today. Earlier this week he had 4 major blocked arteries and was life flighted to a hospital. He got home today and my mom is sitting with him while my sister-in-law goes to pick up prescriptions in town. So it doesn't matter how old your children are, moms do what they need to take care of their children. It's what moms do.

So I hope that today you give your kids big giant hugs. Be there for them and listen to what they have to say. Just listen. Make them something cute. They'll love you forever. Jordan is calling for Jello now so I gotta run.

Damask Designs

Edit: The two circle punch sizes that I used for the monograms are 1-1/4" and 1-3/8". The size of the notecards are 4-1/4" x 5-1/2", with no fold. Dawn and I are so excited that you loved the notecards!!

Well here she is, Little Miss Smiley Girl. It's Dawn McVey and she's just the sweetest and funniest little thing there is! I found out that Dawn lives very close to the Archivers store that I visit in the Kansas City area. How cool is that? We're just a hop and a skip away from each other. Plus I found out that Dawn was at a Papercrafts stamping class in the KC area that Nichole was teaching a few years ago. I was in KC at the time and stopped in for like 5 minutes to say hi to Nichole. And Dawn was there too but I didn't know her yet! It's such a small world! Anyway, I'm so glad to call Dawn my friend and to have her as a fellow Papertrey Designer. And by now you know that Dawn has taken on another role as a Papertrey stamp designer. Isn't that something? Her first set is called Damask Designs and it's SO DAWN. By the way, my middle name is Dawn. Isn't that something? I wonder if Dawn's middle name is Michelle!!!??

I digress so easily, let's move along to Dawn's new set and some samples. When I first saw Dawn's set, I thought *oh no, it's too fancy for this country girl...I'll never do it justice with my creations.* Wrong-0! It's so fresh and fun to work with, I just love it!! And you guys know how much I love to make stationery/notecards. Dawn's set was the perfect companion for some monogrammed notecards. I used Lauren's Timeless Template called Desktop Stationery to make a holder for the cards. It's my favorite template of Lauren's. You need it.

For all of the notecards, I personalized them as a gift for Dawn, using her favorite Raspberry Fizz color. I used the same design for all of the monogrammed circles.....a border from the Borders and Corners Circles set, the letters D and M from Fresh Alphabet, and a little leaf from the Borders and Corners Squares set. You can zoom in on any of the cards to see the monograms a little closer. I also used Dawn's handwritten sentiments from the Handwritten Notes set. I'm envious of Dawn's hand writing. It's so dang cute!!

This first little duo has the *from the desk of* sentiment from the Simply Stationery set. I know I'll be using it together a lot with Damask Designs. For the card, I used one of the bigger damask images and stamped it so only a portion is on the notecard.

Then I a damask border to create some whimsical cards. I used the loops circle from Borders and Corners Circles to outline the monogrammed circles. (See my masking tip at the end of my post). Again, the *Smooches* is a stamp in Dawn's handwriting from Handwritten Notes.

And here's another duo that uses a damask border. The monogrammed circles are front and center.

And here's the front of the stationery box. I adhered Ripe Avocado Saddle Stitched ribbon all around the box. Then for a fun twist, I stamped a skinny strip of white cardstock with a damask border and adhered it just between the stitching. Fun! I finished off the box with some new Papertrey Vintage Buttons in White and New Leaf. Sentiment is from Simply Stationery.

Now. I wanted to show you the close up of this design. Can you see that the border damask stamp does not go all the way across the card? There is a blank circle on the notecard that the monogrammed circles are adhered to.

Here's how you do that. Make a circle mask...I used a Spellbinders circle and a piece of Eclipse masking tape. It helps if you adhere a scrap piece of the Eclipse tape over a piece of cardstock and then make your circle cut. Peel off the mask and adhere it to your notecard front. You can see that mine is all inky, but it's re-usable because it's a low tack adhesive. Stamp over the circle with a border damask stamp.

You'll have to do the left side and then do the right side. This way you can center your damask pattern evenly on each side of the circle. Peel up your Eclipse tape and you're left with a nice, white blank circle. This is where you adhere the monogrammed circle. Easy peasy, but such a nice look.
So there ya have it. Beautiful notecards that look professional...but with just a touch of homemade. I hope you try them!

You are my sunshine..

It's the perfect time for a sun-shiney card. It's about this time of year that I long for Spring...all of the trees and grass are so brown and lifeless. I need lots of sunshine and hope to see green grass soon!


Today's card is the perfect pick-me-upper type of card. It uses Karen Lockhart's Lemon Bay stamp and a Papertrey sentiment from the Handwritten Notes set. Instead of flooding the card with tons of yellow, I chose to use some Crate Paper patterned paper and border strips that had subtle yellow tones throughout the design. I also dug some lemon colored buttons out of my stash to embellish the wavy strip of yellow.
For the main image, I colored it in with Copic markers, leaving white space on each lemon to make some highlights. Be sure to zoom in to see the wonderful glitter. I found some yellow glitter that just adds a special sparkle to this card. I think the sentiment is great for this card too.

My inspiration from this card came from my good friend Val from Cal! Last year or so, she sent me a box of California oranges. Oh my word, that was THE BEST citrus fruit I have ever tasted. I savored each and every one of those beauties. Her kind gesture really brightened my dreary winter days.

Hope you're having a sun-shiney kind of day!

February Papertrey Release Projects

It's going to be a busy subbing week for me so it will be hit and miss on the blogaroonie. Today I have my February Papertrey Release projects to show you. You can view the other designers' projects at the Papertrey Gallery.

Here's some Easter treat inspiration using wrapped candy bars. I simply stamped onto copy paper and added fun tags, ribbons and buttons. Tags are from the Tags for Spring set.
Skinny tent topper cards, using more of the tags I created with Tags for Spring.

Small notecards using Pine's new set called Journaling Lines and Beyond Basic Borders. I love the fresh colors of Aqua Mist, Summer Sunrise and New Leaf on these. And don't forget the new Vintage Buttons. The ovals and scalloped ovals were cut with Spellbinders die templates.

More versions of these smaller notecards using various stamps: Handwritten Notes, Journaling Lines, Damask Designs, Background Basics: Retro and Heart Prints.

A close up of the new colors called New Leaf and Melon Berry..and more of the Vintage Buttons.

And how fun are the sentiments from Handwritten Notes?

Here's one of my hand written sentiments on a little sack of baked bread.

And some monogrammed, single layer notecards using Damask Designs and a monogram set.

I hope you all had fun celebrating the 2 year anniversary of Papertrey. Now you can get to bed early this week and just wait for your orders to roll in. Happy Stampin' everyone!!

Gumball Birthday

Happy Sunday everyone! We're sitting around in our jammies just having a nice, relaxing day. I made purple Play-Do for the girls so we've had fun playing Diary Queen and dentist with those little play sets that make the fun shapes.

For today's card, I used Karen Lockhart's new Gumball Machine stamp. Can you remember the days when you'd beg your mom for a quarter so you could get a giant gumball or some junky toy? Some of my finest jewelry as a child came from gumball machines.

I loved getting back to some coloring so I used various shades of Copic Sketch markers for the gumballs and some warm greys for the gumball machine. I put a thick coating of Ranger Glossy Accents over the glass portion of the gumballs and let it dry. It's amazing how much this adds to images that have a shiny look to them.

I cut out my image using Spellbinder's Labels die and then mounted it on a Spellbinder's Classic Scalloped Rectangle die. I finished off the corners with some shiny sequins. For the Papertrey birthday sentiment, I used a small label cut from the Spellbinders Labels 1 die set. These labels are hot right now so this is a good die set to add to your collection. The glittered background papers are all from My Mind's Eye(purchased at my local scrapbook store). Ribbon and base card colors are Papertrey Sweet Blush. Buttons are from Archivers.

I finished the inside of the card off with another PTI birthday sentiment and some punched circles from the patterned paper scraps. The circle shapes help continue the theme of the round gumballs. A playful little birthday card to add to my collection.

What's coming up: More Lockhart creations, NEW Just Rite stamps, Papertrey Anniversary Set and my Easter Inspiration Station.

Vintage Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Yesterday, I was in the big city to do some shopping, get a new cell phone, get a hair cut and have a fun lunch with Eric. Well, Friday the 13th reared it's ugly head and on our way to the restaurant, Eric rear ended another lady's car!! It was kind of ugly as I witnessed it all about three cars behind. Everyone was okay, but not the vehicles. Eric's ribs are a little sore today from the seat belt restraint. We didn't get to have our nice dinner though so we'll have to have a rain check on that. Soooo today, we're just going to take it easy, go to a few basketball games, watch the KU/K-State BB game on tv and then watch some movies that the girls wanted to rent. I have a Pecan Strawberry Cake that I'm going to make later. We'll invite my folks over for dessert and call it a day.

I have a few vintage Valentines to show you. I had the circle embellishments made from a while back so all I had to do was prepare the card bases. I wanted my Valentines to be a little smaller than a regular A2 size card so I pared them down to a 3-1/2" x 4-1/4" card. I threw all these together in less than an hour one day before I headed out to sub. I utilized a lot of supplies from my Valentine Inspiration Station, including fun ribbon from Archivers, plus My Mind's Eye and Basic Grey Valentine paper.

My circular embellishments use hearts from Papertrey's Heart Prints. The sentiment is also from Heart Prints, my go to set for Valentines. The base cards are cut from Kraft cardstock and the edges are inked with Fresh Snow ink.

These were FUN to make because they came together so quickly and used such fun colors. They look fresh but also vintage to me. I passed these out to friends and family and also stuck a few in the mail...probably late but that's the way it goes sometimes. Hope you all have a LOVELY day!!

Papertrey Bunny Hunt

Welcome to one of the *official* stops on the Papertrey Bunny Hop! Look closely and you may find a hidden bunny that's one-of-a-kind. Perhaps there are more than one or maybe even none! The challenge is yours, enjoy and have fun! If you are starting out here, make sure that you stop by Nichole's blog to read about all the details along with the GRAND prize affiliated with this fun contest!

I've been really excited to show you my projects for today. I know that Valentine's Day isn't quite over yet but Easter and hopefully Spring will be right around the corner. So I'm to introduce you to a new Papertrey set called Tags for Spring. It's like the Christmas tags that Papertrey offered that came in so handy for the holiday season. There are lots and lots of fun tags, all created in a circular fashion...along with some great sentiments. These tags are a compilation of designs from all the stamp designers but come together as one terrific set!

I couldn't decide on which tags I wanted to show you, so I just stamped them all! I used fun, springy colors for the inks and cardstocks and stamped all the sentiments with black ink. I cut all the tags layers out with Spellbinders Circle and Scalloped Circle Dies. Aren't they cute???
Now you know I love to create little stamping kits, so I decided to package all my tags and some little blank cards I made into a rectangle tin. These will perfect to have on hand when it's time to create some Easter treats.

I placed the tin into the bottom of an Egg Box, lined with some pink scrunchy filler stuff.

Now. Here's the part I've been waiting to show you. I reached for some egg cartons that I've been saving. I tore the tops off and cut the cartons down to where there are 6 little egg holes. The one on the right is an egg carton that would hold a dozen eggs, just cut in half. The carton on the right holds 18 eggs, so you can get (3) 6 egg hole pieces out of that one. Use regular scissors to cut the cartons apart. You could even paint them if you like but I like the natural Kraft color. Take notice of the little holes, they will come in handy.

Ackkkk, this is the good part! I filled all the little egg holes with stamping goodies....snippets of ribbon to match my tags, smaller little tags to attach to gifts or cards, new Vintage Buttons and of course a little chocolate truffle for when I get the stamping munchies. See those holes I told you about? I took a length of ribbon and stuck it through those holes to make a little carrying handle. Just tie the ends of the ribbons to form knots on the under side of the carton. It's like you've got your own little egg carrying basket!

Thennnnnnnn....get this.....it fits right into the Egg Box perfectly!! By nesting it on top of the scrunchy filler stuff and the tin that holds the tags, it nestles perfectly into the box. If you prefer, you can put the lid on top and give it as a gift, but I like the look of it sitting out on my stamping table all cute like. Now I have the perfect little Easter stamping kit to create goodies with! You could change up the theme and fill the egg holes with jelly beans, candies, colored eggs, or plain eggs and a coloring kit in the bottom of the box.......oh, the possibilities are endless!

Here's a few projects I did to get some creative juices flowing for ya. Make some simple note cards, using the tags as little card toppers.Or create some simple candy bar wrappers, using the tags and matching ribbons and buttons as fun accents. For the wrappers, I simply stamped some backgrounds onto plain ol' copy paper. The thinness of the paper makes for easy and inexpensive wrapping paper.
And these are my favorites, a skinny variation of my original Tent Topper cards(click on the Tent Topper label at the bottom of the post for more samples). The base cards measure about 2.5" x 4.25", with the tags acting as the topper portion. Notice the polka dot circle border under the tags. That's a stamp from the Borders and Corners Circles set that I've been using so much lately. LOVE it, a definite must have stamp set. I finished the cards off with some matching ribbon, buttons and white card stock that has been embossed with a Cuttlebug folder.

Are ya still with me? To keep all my goodies in one spot, I cut the long end off a clear stationery box. I just nestled all my finished cards in there.

Then I'll just tuck that into my egg box for a cute display. I'll keep adding little cards and goodies into the box and will have a nice selection to choose from come Easter time. I love being prepared ahead of time instead of scrambling for a little gift. It makes life so much easier and stress free.

Oh, and don't overlook my cute clothespin. I used some PTI polka dot patterned paper, a button and some ribbon to dress my clothespin. I just took one of the cute tags from my collection and added it to the box front for a cute embellishment.

Sooooo, are you ready for Easter and Spring now? Well, let's have a wonderful Valentine's Day celebration first and then we'll get prepared for springy stuff. I hope you all know how much I love sharing my creations with you. And it means so much to me to read your comments and feedback. You make my job so fun!! Have a LOVE FILLED weekend everyone!!