rosie posie+fancy flourishesx10.

Before I get going, just wanted to say thank you to the girls over at CASE study for choosing my card as a top 3 winner!

Sooo, I thought things would settle down a bit after the hoopla of Nadia's baby shower, but this week is already really busy!  I'm meeting with someone to create her daughter's baptism invitations, favor tags, thank you cards, etc.  Would you be interested in seeing some samples that I created for her?  They are pretty! I know which one I hope she picks... now, how to steer her in the right direction ;)

I was also asked to create a set of 10, no-greeting-on-the-front notecards.

Rosie posie + fancy flourishes + patterned papers from the same pack (that way I'm sure they match, right? hee hee).

I couldn't fit all 10 of them onto my cake stand for a good picture :)

Those rosie posie flowers got bulky, but they sure do look pretty, packaged in their clear boxes.

Lawnscaping challenge: distressed.

You all really know how to make a girl's day.  Thank you soooo much for your kind comments on my sister's baby shower!  We worked so hard to make everything look great, and it's nice to know that you thought so too :)

After all the pictures of yesterday's post, I thought I'd keep it simple... this one's for the lawnscaping challenge: using distress inks.

I used some masking to create my little scene.  Everything on the card front is flat, except the sweet little heart popping out of the tree.  I used distress inks and an ink blending tool to create my sky and grass...

Thanks for peeking!

pink & grey baby shower

A little caveat before I start with the pictures: it's really hard to photograph and host a party at the same time.  And even harder, when your sister's home (the party location) is lit with the weirdest, most yellow-est bulbs ever :)  Seriously, I'm buying her all new ones.

Sooo, my baby sister Nadia is having a girl - and once she nailed down the baby room colors, we set out to create a matching party.  There are A LOT of pictures, so settle in!

Things to look out for:

• desserts in all shades of pink
• pink, grey and white hanging tissue paper lanterns - we got the tutorial from the great Martha Stewart
• Nadia's mommy-to-be "belly award"
• tiny notecards and envelopes, where guests could leave a note for our showered mama.

I covered styrofoam balls with either strips of fabric, or punch flowers and nested them onto candle holders for our table's centerpiece.

I printed this simple game onto regular white cardstock, and then embellished it a bit with my own stamps and inks.

Nadia's hubs kept looking around after the party, saying: "I really hope it's a girl, with all this pink!"  We had
a great time.

Oh, and I made favors!  A set of 4 handmade cards for each of the 16 guests.... you do the math:

I'd love to know what you think of our party!  Thanks for peeking!

a sneaky peek and an award.

My sister and I hosted our baby sister's baby shower yesterday!  I'll share more pics and details tomorrow, but I couldn't resist this little sneak peek:

We "awarded" her belly, lol.  I used the PTI loopsy daisy die to make the medallion and cut the ribbon tail out of cardstock free-hand.  Everything was all pink and grey yesterday, to celebrate her due-in-just-one-more-month-baby-girl!

And, speaking of awards, I've been awarded one by Kara.  Liebster' is German for 'dearest'. The award is a 'share-the-love' arrangement, given to inspirational bloggers with less than 200 followers. 

Here's the to-do list of any Liebster award recipient:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your five blogger picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog (see above)
4. Hope that those you award forward it to their favorite bloggers.

My award is passed on to:

Audrey

Meredith

Chari

Karin

Tanya

Thanks, Kara, for encouraging me with this award, and I hope you leave some love for my top 5 picks!

PTI february blog hop!

This month is all about interactive cards!  

I created some slider cards already this month: a train card for my nephew and a rocket card for a boy's birthday.  I also made a pop-up airplane card.

For the blog hop, I wanted to go a different route.

A party on a card-front, lol!  I thought this would be a great card to send in the mail... when you couldn't be around to give a birthday hug or celebrate with a dear friend... Plus, it cracks me up to think that the recipient would actually follow those orders...

I didn't do too much stamping on this card.  I used the mat stack 1 outline image and journaling lines, and stamped the sentiment from the mat stack 3 set (I left out the word "belated").  I also stamped my mini-clothespin with a grid-pattern image.  The birthday instructions are computer-generated. The gorgeous papers are all from My Mind's Eye "love me" pack.

I hope you like it!  I have a super-busy day planned, so I hope to hop around this evening :)

get well wishes.

One of my dearest friends went in for a surgery yesterday, and I sent this little card in the mail a few days ago to cheer her up.

I created a mask in the middle of my white mat, stamped a houndstooth pattern, and used an ink blending tool to smudge more ink around the mask.  I wanted to make sure that when I removed the masking paper, the outline of the label shape would be prominent.

The umbrella, from PTI's "scattered showers," is so cute in plaid!  I adhered it over some glittery clouds :)

The sentiment is a rub-on, and, really the only thing I'm not lovin' about this card.  I keep trying to use up my stash, but I really hate it when it gives that "double-vision-effect" - do you know what I mean?  Do rub-ons have an expiry date?  I had to run pretty hard to get this one to transfer, and it did something funky... grrr.... back to stamps for awhile!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!  I have an exciting one planned, and can't wait to share more on Monday!

Thankful+TMKS Thursdays

TMKS Thursdays - as in, "things my kids said Thursdays..."  - I'm getting lazier by the day.  And, *luckily* I've been around my kids almost 24/7 for the last little while (since they've all been sick) so I have more fodder for my Thursday segment.... (if you haven't guessed yet, the "luckily" was slightly sarcastic - I adore my kids, but less so at 1am, 3am, 4am, etc... le sigh.)

Thomas, yesterday, asked me with mournful eyes why we haven't taught him to tap dance.  Because "tap dancing is the best kind of dancing, you know." Uh huh.  My hubs had to make up a few basic steps to appease him... that was the most hilarious thing I've seen in awhile...

Maia, ever the toddling copycat, has taken to running over to the toilet, spitting over the edge, and yelling "I did it, mommy, I spit!  I sick! I sick!"  This kid's hands are being disinfected on a semi-hourly basis, in case you were wondering... dish-hands, at age 1.

Sofia apparently told her entire class, during morality class, that we celebrated Jewish holidays in our home, as well as the Muslim Eid, and all other major religious holidays.  Huh.  We explained to the teacher that we are a bit of a mixed bag in here - I'm half Egyptian, half Greek, and my hubs is all Indian, and we're Christian... but the teacher thinks she's becoming a little fibber for extra attention.  We've started seeing it at home, too, but don't know quite what to make of it - any advice?

If you've made it through all that banter, congratulations.  And thanks for hanging in there.

I have a card!  Rhonda asked if I'd like to be featured for her "thankful thursdays" feature (so much less of a mouthful than TMKS thursdays....) - color me honored!

I stamped the frame from PTI's "simply jane" over my entire white mat, and then popped up an aqua mist version of it in the center.  I colored the floral image with SU markers before stamping them onto their matching die-cuts.  Gives a kind of water-color effect, doesn't it?

I'm also entering this card into the CASE-study challenge.  I love the frame itself in the inspiration piece, and the cluster of roses at the bottom of the frame.

Thanks for looking!

CAS-ual fridays: ribbon

Hi peeps!

This is my 3rd day of keeping all the kids at home... on the up side, everyone is starting to feel better... but I didn't want a repeat of yesterday, where Sofia lost her breakfast on the school bus riding into school.  Poor kid. And also, I felt like parent-of-the-year.  Whoever had to clean the bus probably thought so too...

Onto the crafting.

I thought I'd throw my hat in the CAS-ual Fridays ring.  I'm not much of a ribbon gal - I mean, I hoard the stuff, but just don't use it much.  But as I watched a PVR-d episode of Top Chef, I decided I meant ribbon-business.  I present to you: ribbon, 3 ways.

1. I cut out a cardboard ring (using circle punches) and wrapped green ribbon around the entire thing.
2. A huge, floppy, gauzy bow at the top.
3. Pom-pom ribbon trim, rolled into a makeshift flower.

BAM.

Ribbon challenge, accepted.  and served.

Magical castle birthday card.

Gabriel's party on Saturday.

Another party on Sunday.  For a girl named Sofia.  My Sofia finds this confusing and funny all at the same time...  I let her pick what would go on the card (sidebar: usually, she creates cards for her own friends, but since the rest of my family is now dropping like sick flies....) and she immediately grabbed for all things princess.

I stamped the Hero Arts castle onto patterned paper (my mind's eye), and colored in the turrets and the front door.  The windows were stamped on a separate sheet of white paper, fussy cut and added in.  While Sofia monitored my progress, I drew in some girly blinds and curtains :)

I cut into some pink patterned paper (studio calico) with PTI's "edgers #3" - what's more girly than a castle up in pink and white clouds?

Before I adhered the castle and all of the clouds, I sprayed the white mat with a healthy dose of pink shimmer spray.  I got a real smile out of my sick girl for that one...

Thanks for peeking!

Out of this world.

Hi friends!

After a bit of time away from the blog, (which included my 34th birthday last Friday... spent mostly on the floor of the bathroom or curled in a fetal position on my bed - blech), I thought I'd jump back in with a card Sofia will be needing next weekend.  When I called Gabriel's mom to rsvp for his party, his mom exclaimed: "oh, he will be sooo happy now that Sofia is coming!"  Cute, yes, but my radar's also up on this kid... especially since Sofia seems to be equally sweet on him...

When I made *this train card* for my nephew last week, it got rave reviews - he apparently played with it for quite awhile - so I figured Gabriel might like an interactive card of his own :)

3, 2, 1.... BLAST OFF!

 

I cut a channel into a sheet of white cardstock (using the same method outlined in the train card post) and proceeded to stamp stars from PTI's "boy basics: out of this world."  I then used a blender tool to rub black soot distress ink over the entire area.  Then, using an aqua brush, I painted the stars using fresh snow ink.  Once that dried, a bit of sparkle overtop :)

Thanks for looking!

thank you card set + things-my-kids-said thursdays.

Hi peeps!

I think the constant crafting for the PTI anniversary tired me out a bit.  While I gather whatever's left of my card-making-mojo, here's a "thank you" card set I made for Thomas' preschool teacher as part of her Christmas gift.

The sentiment stamp is a freebie I got for ordering from the lawn fawn store - love that!

And now, I must admit to being flabbergasted when Sofia (age 6) announced that she'd like to bathe in hot chocolate... be cleansed and sip away all at the same time... "it would be delicious and creamy, and I think I would love it."  That's the dream, kid... that's the dream.

Thanks for peeking!

PTI anniversary, day 10: paper airplanes.

I made a quick 2nd interactive card for today's challenge.  I mimicked their new spiral die and came up with this:

I stamped "distressed stripes" in 3 SU ink colors: pale plum, daffodil delight, and pool party.  The colors are repeated in the paper airplane, the swirl, and the sentiment (all from "happy trails").  The card front is almost completely flat (except for the paper-pieced airplane), but when you open it up:

It's a party, yo.

PTI anniversary, day 10: I choo-choo-choooose you

I was already making a little valentine's day train card for my nephew when I read the challenge from PTI today: create an interactive card.

So, the card that was planned as a simple, little valentine got a whole lot fancier...

I created a track for the train with the SU "word window" punch.  I drew a straight line on my cardstock, and repeatedly punched along that line.

A little devoid of color for a 3 year old, but the sliding train should make up for that :)

happy heart day.

I love waking up to a little something special.

and also, other little things that spell love: a coffee made, bed-covers straightened out, and time to take a shower (without little ones clawing at the shower door, lol.).  My sweet man also dove into my supplies and made me a special card - love that!

My littles enjoyed their chocolate treats and homemade cards at 6:30am.  Along with some pancakes, and pink milk...

Sofia got this card.

Thomas got this one, but with a little something special inside.

A banner of monsters.  He loved it, which is a good thing, since I think I sprained a finger cutting out 22 of these bad boys... and it's already hanging up in his room :)

Any special plans for tonight?  We're hosting my sister's family for a fondue party (which, my hubs would like me to tell you I've been calling our "fond-ue of you" party all week... because that's the kind of geek I am...)

Hope you all feel the love today - kisses from our family to yours!

could Maia look more unimpressed? hee hee.