Peek-A-Baby!

I don't normally post stamp club cards until the actual day of stamp club, but this was simply too cute not to share!  This little stamp is from a new hostess set called Happy You.  The images are small, good for little notes, but I wanted to make a bigger card out of one.  I love this little baby head popping out of the plant so that's why I decided to do a sort of chronological spin on the plant/baby growing.  What a fun card for a baby shower!

Supply List
Stamps: Happy You
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Gumball Green, Daffodil Delight
Inks: Basic Black, Cajun Craze, Gumball Green, Daffodil Delight (all in marker form)
Accessories: 1-1/4", 1-3/8", small scallop circle punches, Adorning Accents edgelilts, Daffodil Delight 5/8" grosgrain ribbon

For Abigail

A close family friend has a daughter who is turning 2 today.  She LOVES Sesame Street, especially Elmo, so I made this card out of punches.  I've seen lots of examples of this around the internet, so I won't be posting specifics here as you can easily find the directions.  It's basically a bunch of scallops, circles, and ovals.  I used the owl builder punch to make the eyes.  The sentiment is from a retired set called Look Who's Turning.  Its one of my favorite sets to use for child birthday cards as well as my son's birthday party invitations every year.

Father's Day Goodies

Just wanted to share what my son and I created for my husband for Father's Day.

The other night, my son and I wandered around our neighborhood to find some good photo opportunities.  We took along two pieces of cardstock and a black Sharpie and I wrote the letter d on one and the letter a on the other.  I took a series of photos of him in various spots holding each sign.  Once we got home, I uploaded them all and used Walgreen's photo site to create two 5x7 photo collages where I arranged the photos to spell out dad.  I did absolutely zero editing to the photos besides changing some to black and white.  I love Walgreen's photo services - they almost always have a coupon code and it winds up being just as cheap as printing them yourself.  While at Walgreen's to pick them up, I also found these gorgeous matted shadowbox frames to use for the pictures and they were only $5.

In addition to these two prints, I also have a large 11x14 collage of my favorite three shots that will be coming later this week. My local Walgreen's doesn't have the equipment to print that big in store.

Of course, in this house, no gift is complete without a card and I had my son help with that too.  Using just a cheap set of watercolors, I painted the bottom of his feet and had him step on a piece of cardstock.  The watercolor washed right off with no staining, but still left a good impression of his foot.  I wanted to use a recordable card SU! had available for awhile.  It's a 4 1/4x5 1/2 card and my son's foot is now bigger than that!  So I had to make the card front a little bigger than the inside.  I trimmed off as much as I could, although part of his other foot is still visible as well as a misplaced toe, but I kind of like how it balances out the card.  I mounted it on a piece of Pacific Point and attached that to the front of the card.

Once my son recorded a message of "Happy Father's Day!" I printed out this poem that I saw on a project kit in Oriental Trading and attached that to the inside.  The punched start marks where you need to push to make the recording play.  You can see some of the speaker and buttons through the white paper but I didn't want to put anything too heavy over it and mess up the sound.

Welcome June!

Again, I'm making NO promises for how frequent I'll be posting over the next few weeks.  We're down to the last two weeks of school and I know they're going to be super busy.  In fact, I know I have something school-related going on just about every night in this upcoming week.  Hopefully, once school is over, I'll have a bit more time for crafting, but we'll see since I'll also have my little monster home with me full time for the summer.

Speaking of my little monster, here's a little something he and I created last weekend.  He loves all animals and has just been itching to paint something, so I picked up this little birdhouse for him.  For the birdhouse and the paint, I spent a whopping $4, my son had a blast painting it, and exclaims "There's my red birdhouse!" every time we pull into our yard.  Doesn't get much better.

In case you haven't noticed, Stampin' Up!'s new catalog just launched yesterday!  You can click the link over there on the right to view all the new goodies for yourself.  I think it's one of the prettiest catalogs we've had since I became a demonstrator four years ago.  And I'm just tickled by this hostess set, Carry On.  The dark blue in the center is Midnight Muse, one of SU!'s new In Colors for 2012-2014.  I mixed it with Calypso Coral and Pool Party, two of the 2011-2013 In Colors.  I also used the new Bitty Banners die for the Big Shot to emphasize the "and" in the middle of the sign.  This was my stamp club card for June.

During stamp club, I changed it up and made a variation while I demo'd how to make the card.  I also moved the layout around a little bit.  I honestly can't decide which way I like it better!

And for one more fun card before I go...I found a quilt with a similar design to this on Pinterest.  The quilt was also made with strips of black and white fabric.  I made this card using some scraps I have leftover from Night & Day, a DSP SU! had available a few years ago.  I love love love the designs on this paper and wish it would come back! I cut the paper into 1/2" wide strips.  I used a 3 3/4"x 5" scrap of white cardstock and ran it through my Xyron to completely coat it with adhesive.  Once all the strips were stuck on, I trimmed off the edges with my paper cutter, added the ribbon and flower, then mounted it on black before attaching it to a piece of Tempting Turquoise cardstock.  I may try this again with some other colors of paper.