an apple a day...

It's been so long since I've had time to enter any challenges.  I hope you don't think I've gotten too rusty.

The buttons are for CAS-ual fridays, and the layout for CASE study.  I've been busy making little get well cards for Sofia, to stock up for when she's at home and feeling blue after her knee surgeries.  But this one is for my Thomas.  I wanted something special to tuck into his backpack on the first day of school...  a polka-dotted blue apple, just because.

I cut out the leafy wreath with my silhouette.  (as an aside, if you own a silhouette, how often do you change out your blade for a fresh one? i'm trying to keep some balance between my cheapskate nature and my hatred of jagged, raggedy edges.)

The apple image is by Paper Smooches - my first PS set, and I still love it.  I colored it in with aqua copics, and used my colorless blender to create the polkadots.

I hope you like it!

Card set in a hurry.

When you only remember at the last minute that you'll be needing cards to give out to the teachers at your son's preschool (since today is his graduation -sniff, sniff!), you don't mess around.  I found this post and used it as inspiration to bang out 4 cards in less than an hour.  The procrastination was so bad that I couldn't wait to photograph the set in natural light ;)

Using the apple from Paper Smooches' "falling for you" set and elements from PTI's "it's official," I created these very teacher-appropriate cards.

 All of the patterned papers are from Stampin' Up.  (Fun fact: the notebook-lined paper is from a Christmas pack!)

 I'm entering these into this week's MIM challenge: mixing patterned papers.

Thanks for looking!

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.

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!

aw, nuts!

When one of your bffs asks you to make a card, for a man who had a "lawn mower accident" and has a "great sense of humour"... well, you don't say no!  (Can I just side-bar here to say how traumatized I am to think about getting a foot caught in a lawn-mower?  I shredded my index finger in a hand-blender a few years ago, and all I can do is shudder.)

So how do you go from lawn-mower-accident to entering a CAS-ual Fridays challenge?

Um, it's a stretch, but I think it works for a fall-themed-paper-pieced-card:

"Aw, nuts!"  As in, "aw, nuts!  sorry to hear that you got your foot caught in a whirring blade and are now holed-up in the hospital..."

I started out with a kraft base, which I embossed with PTI's woodgrain impression plate.  The strip of patterned paper was cut with a PTI half & half die - love those!  The acorn is from Paper Smooches' "falling for you" set, and I created my own greeting with lawn fawn's "smitty's abcs".  All of the patterned paper is from SU.

Hope you like it!

CAS-ual Fridays... better late than never!

I'm just getting the hang of this whole blogging-experience... there are so many different challenges, color-inspirations, company contests - it's hard to know where to begin!

I started this blog because

a.  I desperately wanted someone other than my husband to validate my work (hee hee)
b.  I needed a showcase for my style to show clients as part of the JustMePrints business I share with my sister (click here to check us out!)
c.  I wanted to enter a PTI challenge.

But some of the other challenges look like fun too!  And I want in :)

I like to think of myself as mostly a CAS girl (that's "clean-and-simple" for any non-crafters *coughhusbandcough* reading this blog) so this one's right up my alley!

The only graduate I have in my home is a pint-sized one.  My little Sofia is 3 weeks shy of completing her kindergarten year - the time has just flown by!  I'm so excited to give her this card:

It was an excuse to break open my new Lawn Fawn sets.  I created the background with the new "schoolhouse backdrops" set and then stamped the large sentiment with "Quinn's ABCs".  The apple is from Paper Smooches' "falling for you" - I stamped it on SU designer paper and cut an opening to make way for a little sentiment from PTI's "way to go, kiddo".

I couldn't help but stick a bit of bling to the bottom of the card - she's such a girly-girl.  The bling was completely necessary *wink*

Thanks for looking!

monster love!

Is he not the cutest?  

I'm in a great mood today.  A giving mood.  Sooo, I'm going to let you all in on my secret to crafting in a hurry (ie, when the kids are napping or aren't clawing at your legs or asking for more chocolate milk because they're hunnnnnnnnnngry.... lol).  Here goes:

Save yer stuff.  

This card came together in 10 minutes (and I promise you at least 7 of those minutes was spent threading those buttons... grrr....)  The sun-rays were already stamped onto the kraft paper, and the "sun-circle" was already roughed-up.  The monster with his insanely cute googly eyes was already colored and cut out.  The strip of stamped "ground" was also a scrap from another project.  All of these pieces were rejects from different projects.  I couldn't get them to work at the time, but I like how they came together here!

In 10 minutes, I stitched a crazy pattern into the sun (mostly because that's all I can manage for now), stitched the ground under the monster's feet, and stitched the "strings" for the button-balloons.  All that remained was to fill the space on the right with the greeting: monster love x3!

Thanks for looking!  Have a great weekend :)

paper smooches

Sooo, while we're trying out new stamp companies... I'm adding paper smooches to the list.  I've always liked Kim Hughes' (the owner/illustrator) funky style and her stamps are adorable.  With a capital "A".  I couldn't resist :)

Everything was paper-pieced, even the tiny red hearts in the sentiments.  I put my paper-snips to work, lol!  I love my SU papers, and they were a perfect fit for my cute green apple...  thanks for looking!