A crafty break: henderson harbor mini-getaway

Just thought I'd share the reason why there isn't a card on my blog this morning :)  We met up with another family of 5 and shared a lake-front-cottage for the weekend.  It was loud and so much fun!

the view from our balcony of lake ontario

trying to figure out where our friends are at!

late nights made for some cranky mornings :)

nothing that a delicious zucchini bread can't fix (thank you, Paula Dean!)

mmmm.... why can't we get this stuff in Canada?!

smoothies for the kids

and lots of giggling thrown in...

walks on the beach, all bundled up

our weekend home

practicing our cursive writing...

all the kids, minus Maia.  And yes, Liam is quite the little poser!

roasting marshmellows in the fire-pit

chubby bunny.

so calming and beautiful

marshmellow faces

so cute, hee hee!

silly faces, and zoolander on the left...

the milk to my cookie.

a cute little lovey card, just because.

A newsprint-stamped card-base, a red die-cut "you"...

a cute sentiment, made from lawn fawn alphabet sets and images from "cozy christmas", 

and a layer of shimmer, just for fun.

You are the milk to my cookie.  complete with milk and cookies.

happy friday, all!

of bats and zorro...

My little man, my 4 year old Thomas, will be dressing up for preschool today.  He has been wearing his costume pretty much everyday this week, and it makes me smile. every. single. time.

If you read the blog post title, you've probably already surmised that he will be dressing up as Zorro :)  If I can catch him at a standstill sometime before Halloween, I promise to share a picture.  I love the pants with the built-in-boots!  hee hee!

In honor of Halloween at the preschool, a batty-love-card in the most Halloween of color-schemes:

I used the bat and sentiment from paper smooches' "falling for you" set, the PTI gingham background set, and the hero arts ledger background stamp.

The wonky little bat was heat embossed, and suspended, precariously from a black thread...

See?  I used PTI's 2.5 inch circle die collection to cut a circle into both my gingham and orange card base layers.  A length of thick black thread is sandwiched between the layers.  There are actually two bat images...

You can even see the foam squares holding them together in this picture, on either side of the thread.  I stamped the inside of the card with the ledger stamp for extra interest.

Are you envisioning something else hanging there?  Maybe a Christmas ornament?  A bicycle, with the thread crossing lengthwise?  The possibilities are endless...

CAS-ual Fridays - just add color!

Adding color to stamped images, for the new CAS-ual Friday challenge.

I stamped the acorns from paper smooches' "falling for you" and colored them in with copic markers.

The circle frame around each acorn is from a PTI "tag its" set.

Thanks for looking!

PTI blog hop: fabric pumpkins.

From this:

to this:

Would you believe in all of my stamp collection, this was the only pumpkin image I could find?  I guess I really don't make fall & halloween-type cards very often... *shaking head*

Apart from the chocolate brown card base and the chartreuse felt, everything else started out as a piece of white cardstock.  I also pulled a bit of blue from the inspiration photo background - the bobbin thread I chose for my zig zag stitch is light blue...

thanks for looking!


stamps: polka dot basics II, background basics: retro, woodgrain, tag its #7, vintage wallpaper (marketstreet), tiny tags (SU)
ink: memento brown + black, tangerine tango, lucky limeade (SU)
dies/punches: tiny tags punch (SU), half&half die, 1 3/4 in circle die collection (PTI)

Play date cafe challenge #104

These color challenges are highly addictive...

Especially when a new set of stamps comes in the mail...

I'm seriously having to stop myself from taking that little mustache stamp and adding it to everything...  I did, however, print up a picture of my hubby and stamp him with that little mustache... you know, just for fun... hee hee.

Here's this week's color inspiration from the Play Date Cafe Challenge:

And, in full, here's my card:

I started out with a 3.25" circle, punched out from an index card.  I stamped images from paper smooches' "hot concoctions" set in a cute little formation.  (I did some masking so that the black disk could look like a plate, and also masked around the mug so that I could stamp the alpha pattern inside.)

The craft doily was sponged with a green ink to match the little strip of green cardstock framing the bottom of the focal point circle... The purple cardstock was stamped with PTI's "polka dots II" and the yellow cardstock with "chevron stripes" (also PTI.)

I created my own faux-twine by taking a purple copic marker to a length of string, marking it at regular intervals.  Nothing like the real thing, of course, but when you want something to match... it's a good solution!


Thanks for looking!

MIM #37 and a gift.

settle in - this is a picture-heavy post :)

This week's MIM challenge is to layer mats and create frames with different die-cuts.  This cute onesie tag was layered with a mat stack 4 shape.  Into the mat stack 4 shape, I die-cut the car from "enjoy the ride" before stamping its coordinating image into the opening.  The sentiment is from lawn fawn's "admit one."

The gift tag fits onto a homemade drawstring bag:

 I sewed it from scratch (a woman of many talents, I keep telling y'all... hee hee) and I ironed-on the stamped car to coordinate with the tag (I ironed some scrap fabric onto fusible webbing, die cut the car shape, stamped the car outline onto it with memento black ink and the colored part with a blue pigment ink.  The whole thing got ironed to the front of the bag.)

I made the bag from a tutorial found here.  I'm a complete beginner sewer, but I love how I can use my papercraft supplies in coordination with my fabric stash - so fun!

In case you're in complete awe, and you can't believe I made the bag from scratch, here's a close-up of the wonky stitching:

but look at that nice bottom (ha!):

In any case, I can't wait to go see my friend and give her the goodies inside and hold her sweet little boy for the first time.  Wanna sneak peek? (Kimmy, if you're reading this, now's the time to look away...)

First up, the card set from this post:

and who doesn't love some itty bitty clothing? Pinstripe pants on a newborn?  Yes, please!

That's all for now - have a great weekend!

A handmade Christmas, part 3.

Have you been following my black-apple-doll journey?

If you're just starting out, I've already made a doll for my son and one for my eldest daughter.

The last one is for my bitty baby.

I re-sized the martha stewart pattern yet again so she'd be a bit smaller than the others.  She is, after all, the little sister.

All in a row, with their arms around their brother...

With a bow in her hair, and a stuffed heart to cuddle...

I think that's the beauty of giving a handmade gift - you really do give a piece of your heart along with the gift. These dolls were truly a labor of love!  I hope they will enjoy their new dolls as much as I think they will...

Thank you for all of your sweet comments and encouragement.  I really feel empowered to try more sewing projects in the future :)

think pink.

The new lawnscaping challenge is paper-piecing!

My daughter and I sat down to read "Pinkalicious" yesterday evening, and I think I still had pink on the brain when I made this:

Paper-pieced-pink-pigs... *history lesson: when we were really young, my sister swore up and down she wanted to be a pink pig when she grew up... they are so cute when they're little!*

I stamped the pig from lawn fawn's "critters on the farm" onto various patterned papers and cut them out and mounted them with foam squares.

I created a focal point of pigs (!) by stacking them onto a strip of white cardstock and tucking half of a decorative label shape on either end.

I glued that to a white mat, which I'd stamped with "schoolhouse backdrops" - also in pink, naturally!

The sentiment was created with "smitty's abcs".

Thanks for looking!