Mudpie Goodie Bags...

Woohoo! Last post with the Mudpie goodies. The weather has been terrible for shooting pics, so these seem a little washed out, but the colors are very vibrant in person. The goodies bags also coordinate with the other Mudpie decorations I've shared this week. I bought these striped bags from Baker's Bling on Etsy. They come in a variety of color stripes and Baker's Bling carries all sorts of cupcake wraps too. I bought them just to have, but when we came up with ideas for the party, these bags were the first thing that came to mind. When making items for kid's parties, I like to keep them fun yet simple. We all know they will just get tossed out once the candy has been devoured. For the cupcake bags I started with the close pins and covered them with lime green cs and stamped in versamark with polka dots. I cut the circles with my CM punch and the cupcake is punched from SU! Just added a little bling on top of the cupcake and clipped the close pin right on the bag.Now, since a few boys will be at the party, you've got to make them something just as fun...without the girly stuff! I couldn't resist this little SU! pirate stamp. Some of the pirates I wanted to make special for Mom since she is an Eastern Carolina Univ. Grad. (ECU-pirates) so I just used my copic markers to color in the school colors. To make the sword 3-D, I simply added a small dab of crystal effects and it made the sword nice and shiny.

Mudpie Birthday Banners...

Another fun post with Mudpie colors! Today's post is all about banners! The table/wall/fireplace banners are something I'm pretty familiar with, but this was a first for a high chair banner. The high chair banner is my version of 'fun size'! I dusted off my trusty Cricut and cut out the letters as well as the large cupcake in the center. The top of the cupcake actually had holes already cut into the design, but I didn't like the placement, so I covered them with punched circles and added stickles glitter glue. The frosting looks so sparkly and ready to eat!The letters are from the Storybook Cartridge and cut at 4 inches. The black letters are cut slightly smaller at 3.5 inches to give a POP out effect. I stamped the pixie pink(SU!) cs with polka dots. Each letter panel is strung on black satin ribbon and accented with little snippets of coordinating ribbon colors.This is the my new 'fun size' banner! I didn't get a pic of it on the high chair, but we measured and this will fit perfectly across the front. If I get a chance, I will grab a quick photo this weekend at the party.The letter panels are cut out with my nestibility dies. I also did whole panels in the blue and pink and cut them in half then accented with the lime green strip. I cut the letters from the same Storybook Cartridge and added the white dots.Another mini cupcake accents the banner on both ends. In my next post on Friday, I will be sharing the last Mudpie post on goodie bag ideas with cupcakes AND pirates?!!

Enjoying Life with a little Mud Pie...

Hola! I know its been quite some time since I last posted. Shortly after my last post, we had some terrible weather here in Eastern, NC. I had just en joyed a wonderful afternoon at a stamping class and decided to head home right after as I knew we were in for some bad storms. The skies didn't seem any different from other thunderstorms we've had here in the past. Shortly after 8 p.m. that evening I received a call from my Dad in Oklahoma letting me know we were having tornadoes here! We had been watching movies with the kids so I didn't have any idea we were under tornado watch. Now I know it sounds odd to those of you who may have never been through a tornado, but in Oklahoma we have sirens that are very loud(like a tsunami siren) and you have plenty of time for cover. There are no such warnings in NC and for as much damage as we sustained over many, many counties, ours was very fortunate to not have any deaths. Our home did not sustain any damage, but we do have friends who lost everything. On our way up to VA last week for spring break, we passed through several counties where the damage was unimaginable. A house was lifted from its foundation and literally sitting in the middle of the highway!! Mother Nature can be the wrath of all destruction and I really have trouble with the phrase, 'we are very fortunate to not have had any damage'. I feel God made us fortunate for another reason...to be able to get up the next day and live another day. He made my family fortunate enough to be able to help others. Never take anything for granted!

Although it has been rather quiet on the blog, I've been quite busy behind the scenes. I'm currently working on some fun decorations for a 1st birthday! All the decoration concepts came from THIS Mud Pie onesie. I love all these BRIGHT colors and they matched the colors perfectly from the onesie. All papers are from SU! and the only stamp set I used was PTI's-Polka Dot Basics. The cupcake and sprinkles are from the SU! Cupcake punch. The party info. is printed from my pc on PTI's Basic White CS. Since this CS is pretty thick, I do have to hand feed it through my printer, but it looks so nice and the ink does not bleed as opposed to other white cs. The only request for the invites, was to incorporate a photo of the birthday girl. She is just adorable and even her hair bow matches the colors! Stay tuned to the blog this week where I will share the other coordinating decorations with Mud Pie inspiration!

Spring Composition Journal...

Still feeling in a Spring-y like crafting mood, I opted to make another composition journal this week. The main image I cut out(birdies on the mushroom), was actually a lined journal tag from a full 12 x12 page in my paper pad. I covered up the lines with my 'courage' Verve stamp and made the matte circles large enough to cover up most of the journal area.

Lately I've been using patterned paper to stamp my phrases on. Here I used the yellow polka dot paper and it really is a nice contrast vs. just stamping my phrase on white cs. I finished off the image with a few purple rhinestones. You can see below just how sparkly and glittery this paper is! I've gotten a few emails as to what paper pads I've used on my projects and although I'm not very good about listing all my supplies, I figured showing a pic of the paper pad would be easier. What I love about these paper pads is that all the papers coordinate with one another and you can mix a number of patterns together. I'm not sure if this one is still available as I bought it last Spring...I think!

Etsy Shop NOW OPEN!

I have finally gotten around to re-opening my Etsy Shop. My hope in re-opening is that I'm still able to provide my customers with beautifully hand crafted items at an affordable price. My goal is that all my products will remain near or below $10.00, with most items starting @ $3.00. The only exception to this rule will be listings in which more than 1 item is listed in a single post...ie multiple quantities. You can find my Etsy Shop on the right hand side of my blog, just click on the Etsy widget and it takes you directly to my store front. All items currently posted are ready for immediate shipping/delivery. As always, I do take custom orders as well. All payments will be rendered via Paypal, unless we have made prior arrangements. I truly enjoy what I do and love to share. If you ever have any questions relating to the Etsy Shop or my blog in general, you can jot me a quick note on this post or by email: madscrapper24@yahoo.com and I will be happy to help! I would like to thank each and every one of you who have supported my work over the years...YOU are the reason I feel inspired to create every day. Sincerely, Dawn Chau

Personalized Soccer Ball Clips...

Care to kick a few balls around?! This is a recent custom order I did for a local soccer mom. We toyed around with a few ideas until we came up with these cute personalized clips for their goodie bags. This is a wonderful way for you to make a large quanitity of gifts for very little money! I broke out my PTI set-Have a Ball and got busy! The Karen Foster Snap Numbers fit perfectly for the uniform numbers. They no longer make these stamps, but you may be able to find them on Ebay or another crafting forum. I printed the names on Kraft cs and cut them into strips and used scor-tape to adhere them. I kept the bows off the boys clips, but you know how bad I wanted to add them?! I don't think the boys would be all that crazy with my feminine touch! All packaged up and ready for delivery!

Damask 4 of a Kind...

It's very rare these days that I don't use any pre-printed patterned paper, so I was feeling the need to try something new! When I was thumbing through my plain cs, I selected these 4 BRIGHT colors from my SU! paper. Just about any image stamped in white ink shows up really well on bright colored cs. I used Damask Designs from PTI as well as their Fresh Snow Ink. These cards have also been cut down from the normal A2 size...they are approx. 3.5 x 5.5...a perfect size for jotting a quick, but not too lengthy note. The jewels are from Michael's Recollection line and have a Moroccan feel with rhinestones and felt.

Sharing the Odds and Ends...

I decided to gather the rest of the projects I've been working on over the last few weeks, and put them into a single post. These Spring Bird tags were a spin off of the one I made on yesterday's notebook. I'd made the notebook first, and liked it so much, I made several more. I didn't share the others here, but I have another set made up with 'celebrate today'. Here are some fun mini-tags using Sweet Treats and THIS coordinating die/stamp from Verve. I wanted a little more dimension, so I used my woodgrain bg stamp in versamark. The flowers were all die cut with leftover paper I had stamped for a previous project. The red flower is cut from felt. I recycled more of the hearts I used on my glitter heart string for Vday. Using my SU! flower trio punch, I created some fun, 3-D flowers. The rhinestone centers are a sage green. I did a 2-for-1 here and created cards and tags! I really love these phrases from the Verve stamp collections. There are several sentiment sets they sell, and they are nice to use in place of regular images I would normally color.

Composition Journals...

Some of you may have already had a 'sneak peak' of this post as I posted it on the FB page last week. You know when you purchase those paper packs and you often have large patterns that are much too large for a card or small project? Well, I found the perfect solution for using ALL that paper up! I covered 5 composition books...front and back...with the large prints and it made me think, my sister, who is also a teacher, would really appreciate looking at some more beautiful and fun vs. the marble pattern! These were a surprise sell out at the show, but as luck would have it, I stocked up on some more books and I'm eager to play with some new paper! If your a fan of Etsy, these 'keep calm and carry on' signs are everywhere! I just happened to be at Michael's and found that Hero Arts has made this into a STAMP...swoon! This tag is the one and only I've made with this stamp so far...but I can assure you, I will get A LOT of use out of it! I thought I'd share THIS link on a beautiful wreath made with this Blossom Song paper! To DIE for! Amy Butler paper, sentiment is Verve. Finally got around to breaking-in my new bird punch from SU! I hate to admit that I don't use my supplies as soon as they come in...this punch has been sitting around for awhile....I guess I was for just the right time to use it. Love how well the bird coordinates with the patterned paper. Some more YUMMY Amy Butler paper...sentiment is from Verve. Lots of patterns going on here! Luckily I pulled all these pages from the same paper pack, so the colors blend well....no matter how many patterns are thrown together! We are off to enjoy our first Azalea Festival in Wilmington! Hopefully these clouds and rain disappear soon! Happy crafting my friends!

Easter Goodies...

Whew! What a busy weekend. I needed those few extra days to chillax and clean out my crafting space. I hate to admit that I threw out several grocery sacks of odds and ends. Who knew paper scraps would be everyone BUT the trash can?! I'm terrible about making messes when I'm deep into my projects. Luckily I can see the carpet, desk, and I'm officially organized...to make another mess! I thought I'd share a few pics the show. My booth was almost the same setup as the Fall show, just added a new peg board and spinner rack. I purchased my card spinner recently from a scrapbook store that was going out of business...super cheap and it's very heavy and sturdy. I thought I'd make some more M&M sticks since these were a big hit at the Fall show. No matter the crowd or timing of craft shows, these were not a big hit this time around. But now I have Easter goodies made up for Gracie's class! I got a kick out of the puffy chicks on the tags! Here are my Chic'n Nuggets! I made the chick from THIS die by cutting full eggs in white and yellow. I cut the white shell in half and used THIS set for the scalloped edge. To make the avery labels I used THIS set, which is a 3 step process, but looks really nice on the labels. After I had my whole chick assembled, I decided to go back and add a little feather on top. They turned out like little mohawks! I cannot take any credit for these, but a BIG thank you to Elizabeth for giving me the idea. The original idea had a much smaller bunny head, but I found this HUGE one at the Mike's $ Spot and thought it might just work! The bunny did have a little body attached to his huge head, but I simply trimmed off his lower half and this is what you get! I wrapped the nuggets in festive Easter paper and added a little white pom pom on the rear ;) These candies, as well as the Chic'n Nuggets sold out. They also got a lot of chuckles! Overall, this show was wonderful. I met some new fans and other eager crafters who enjoy paper as much as I do. A BIG THANK YOU to fellow vendors and Hidden Talents for putting on a great show! I do have lots of extras and am in the process of updating my Etsy shop again. If your interested, keep your eyes posted to the right side of my blog. I have an Esty widget that will take you directly to the shop.