Valentine Bag Toppers...

One my New Year's Resolutions was to get things back on course and enjoy what l love! When I started out paper crafting, it was ALL about scrap booking. As I was browsing through some old photos (the kid's baby books!) the other day I realized how much I missed scrap booking! I have my nearly 6 year old's book done, and very few pages in my 3 year old's. Last week I took on the task of organizing all our photos from 2008 and had them developed! Surprisingly, nearly 300 photos only cost $44.00, which would have cost tons more had I sent them ALL in for printing. It was such a "chore" going through all my saved photos, but I picked ONLY the best shots for developing. So, now your asking yourself what all this has to do with tonight's post right? Well, tomorrow evening I'm going to a refresher course on scrap booking and I will be in the company of great girlfriends and LOTS of laughter! I wanted to bring a little something for them and I came up with these cute Valentine choco/heart bags! The bag toppers are cut with my nesty die (the largest of this design) and all stamps are from PTI (Polka Dot Basics, BG Basics Text Style II). The hearts are punched from my Valentine K&CO paper deck. The sentiment is 3 separate stamps from PTI's First Fruit. I lined all 3 stamps up together on one acrylic block. If you have the arcylic blocks with a built in grid, it comes in handy in this case! My cello bags (clearbags.com) are the perfect size to fit 4 Dove chocolate hearts.I made up an extra kit for purchase in my Etsy shop if your are interested. This kit will include enough supplies for 10 Valentine goody bags (cello bags included!). I have already assembled 2 of them, so your work is cut out for you:) To break away from my Polka Dot Basics, I decided to break out my Damask Designs set. I love how it made the whole look more "vintage" when I used SU! classic inks.

The Kiddo's Valentine Cards..

A special project shared with my oldest! Both of my girls love to craft and I knew when I saw this K&CO paper, Gracie would *squeal* with delight...actually, it was probably ME, more than her! The characters (froggy, lion, and robot) come on a full 12x12 page and I simply punched them out and added a matte on the back. There are several sheets of each design so you could be making V-day cards for days...if your crazy like that...haha! I purchased the cookie and cracker packages at Sam's and you get 36 for $9.00. If you don't want to purchase the cookie bags, and your school allows home baked goods, you could use glassine bags with these toppers. Mr. Froggy! I did the stamping and Gracie did the sticking! She picked which friend would get which animal and then glued on the button!Ms. Robot! I love the off-centered button here:)Mr. Lion!Handwriting of a sweet pea! The "to" and "from" sentiments are from an old Crafty Secrets set. Now, I haven't been making cards for "days" but I did make up an extra kit for purchase. This kit includes 10 bag toppers, all supplies (minus the cookies of course!), you just need adhesive. These toppers can also be used on glassine bags. New notebooks are also available in my Etsy Shop!

Celebrating Life...

This may be my first sympathy card I've made, but rather making it look like all the others, with trees, sky view etc. I wanted it to be a "Celebration of Life" for the recipient. My dear neighbor and friend lost her young niece last week and I just wanted to let her know we cared and are here should she need anything. I always felt that when your heart lay still, your life should always be celebrated even in death. After I had my card made I was going to attach it to a simple floral bouquet, but decided on an Edible Arrangement...have a party in her honor! All paper is SU! and stamps are PTI. I love my Martha Stewart butterfly punch! You can punch just one or several for a 3-D effect. On a last note, I wanted to share a really cool tradition that my Husband's family shares with those family members who have passed. For those of you that may not know, my Husband is Chinese (hence the picture above...haha!) and family and afterlife are immensely important in their culture. For instance, on the anniversary of his Grandmother's death, all the family members gather at her grave site and have a BIG celebration (compared to American culture!) in honor of her life. First, red incense are lit around the grave site and paper money (it has gold leaf on one side) is burned for wealth. Food is also brought to the grave site, duck, wine, fruit and cake. Not only is his Grandmother served, but they also cut a small slice for her neighbors and share!! Once the celebration is thru, the incense and ashes from the money are disposed of, however the food that has been sliced and served stays at the gravesite. The first time I went, it brought me to tears! Even though I may have a language barrier with his parents, I was overwhelmed by how gracious and amazing this tradition truly is! This all leads me to believe that when my time comes, not only will I be spoiled by my children, BUT I will also be well fed:).

Valentine Notebooks...

Time to break out the festive Valentine Papers! You can always be sure when I step away from my blog that I'm busy creating new projects! New Valentine paper from K&CO. I did a little distressing around all the edges. Sentiment is from PTI-Take Note and the circles are cut with my nesty dies. Selected a few hearts on the bottom and added some adhesive rhinestones.This particular notebook was a BIG work-in-progress! You see, my original layout called for hearts on this notebook as well, BUT after I did the Positively Pink polka dots (which look like RED if you ask me!) and added the leaves (PTI-First Fruits) it started to look like RADISHES!!!!! ACKKK! I had put this notebook aside deciding if I was going to trash or not...THEN, realized, "hey, I've got some radish paper!" So, in the end, I really like that my "trash" was revived into a sweet, little, TREASURE! The radishes are cut from a full 12x12 sheet of DCWV-Farmer's Market.PTI-Polka Dot Basics, First Fruits, Take Note, BG Basics: Text Style II I will be updating my Esty shop this week as well! I have already reduced the prices on some of my Christmas items and I will be adding some new notebooks (some of the above as well!) and a Valentine Bag Topper kit. We worked on my Daughter's V-day Cards over her break last week so I decided to make an extra kit to share if you'd be interested!

Happy Monday!

Card Trio...

Quick and simple post! This card trio is a custom request that I just finished up. I had made these before, but with a totally different layout and design. I really like that I went out on a limb and tried something new! I know I do a lot of cards/notebooks with the "stripe" theme lately, but I simplified this design and left off the sewing! Since the card base is black, I did line all the cards with SU! white cs. Fun pattern with my Cuttlebug embossing folder. I don't use these often enough!Unisex design. Sentiment is from PTI-Damask Designs.Female version. Ribbon is trimmed and tucked underneath the inside, white liner.

Blog Winner Notebook...

Simple, slender notebook I made for my last blog winner entry. I wanted to try something new as I always seem to make the same thing over and over again...or at least it seems that way to me! There is a binder underneath by desk that is loaded with sketch ideas, but somehow I always overlook it! Anyhoo, with all those sketches and paper decks it was time to CREATE!
The patterned paper is from a new paper slab I picked up at Michael's on sale. It is Girl Friday by Cosmo Cricket. Love their spunky style:) The sentiment is from SU! as well as the solid cs. I played a bit with the flower in the center. It started out as a plain white, thin chipboard, and then I added some vintage ink to take out the stark white. After I added the vintage ink I decided to use my PTI bg print and stamped directly over it. I've seen the same concept with vintage printed books where you can just punch the pages with all the sorts of shapes. A great reference for cheap books to punch would be a used book store...sure they have 25 and 50 cent bins. I have started a new painting project...the dreaded living room...so I'm off to add a second coat! The walls are TALL and LARGE in this room so I've had to break it down in to 4 painting sessions...I'm just ready for it to be done:))) Have a splendid day!

Old Fashioned Valentines...

Nothing quite says, "I'm in LOOOOVE!" like these little folks! A 12x12 sheet of Rusty Pickle's Old Fashioned Valentines. I've had this paper for 3 years now (only remember because I purchased it on my last trip home...3 years ago...lol) and I'm not sure I was really "hoarding" it per say, just really didn't know what to do with it! Scroll the next few pics and you can see what I finally came up with! How about a sweet little notebook for starters?!! Love HER! Also the first projects I used my new big scallop border punch. Those punches with the smaller scallops are great too, but I'm thrilled to have found a scallop that was wider...the others were starting to bore me:( All solid paper is SU!, the red gingham is My Mind's Eye-Be Loved, and french script paper is from K&CO. The polka dotted heart was also a selection of hearts on a 12x12 sheet, but I cannot remember the vendor. I made a little boo-boo on the sewing, it's not perfect on the bottom right corner, but I feel it adds more of a vintage-y feel anyway. My paper had gotten soft from distressing it, and then I decided it would be brilliant to sew afterwards...big no no! Sew FIRST, then distress...avoids getting your paper caught in the sewing machine!
6 sweet little cards! Kept the layout simple and sweet and just switched up my scallop border. You will notice the card on the left has no sewing around the border. Just wanted to share that you could still achieve the same vintage look even if you don't own a sewing machine. I added some dew drop (gingerbread) around the borders for an "aged" look.


This one reminds me of my twinkie and I:) We both had a love affair for our Kewpie dolls!
Hope your day is filled with old fashioned warmth! We are expecting snow this evening. Time to cuddle up with my kiddos and some hot "cho-cho" as the wee one says!

Happy New Year!

I hope your New Year's if off to a wonderful start! I had such a great time with my family here for the holidays...certainly went by too fast! Our New Year's was pretty quiet and my hubby and I didn't even make it to midnight:( That is a definite sign that we are getting older!

Needless to say, with the break in blogging I was able to get several new projects created. The past year has brought many folks in to my life that truly made a difference in one way or another. To show my gratitude I'm making up several notebooks as a token of thanks.I will have other patterned notebooks to show, but I started with my these little hot pink/black color combos. I'm back to using those snazzy coffee cups (MFT) again! On the hot pink cs, I decided I wanted a subtle bg image. This particular bg image is from the PTI-bg basics: text style II. It not only gave the subtle effect I was looking for, it with the dew drop ink, it also gave a nice shimmer! Coffee cups are filled to the brim with SU! crystal effects
for a 3-D effect. Fun little gift card holders. I used the same bg text and dew drop ink here, but on a pastel pink cs. This is probably the first project in which I used the same stamp brand, but several different sets. All stamps are from PTI and include: star prints, bg basic: text style II, polka dot basics. I hand cut the polka dotted star, then trimmed a little chocolate chip for an additional matte. Something tells me I really need to invest in those star punches because I plan on making many more of these:).I was trying to "detail" the shimmer of the dew drop ink...my photography skills failed me...again...lol

Simple Teacher Gifts...

ETA: No one got the answer correct to my "faux paux", so I had my girls pick a number and those chose #2 ISABEL Z!!! My BIG faux paus was using the APPLE for a teacher gift...swore I'd never do it, but I just couldnt pass up this cute little girl:) I thought it'd be "ok" to use this image since the apple wasn't an overkill...lol So Isabel please send me your home address via email: madscrapper24@yahoo.com and I will get your notebook out asap! Thanks girls for playing along!


Because I'm running short on time this year, I needed a simple gift for my Daughter's teacher and her aide. If you looking for something inexpensive (this works wonders if your kids have multiple teacher's) try a pocket calendar! I picked mine up at Michael's in the $ section. I don't care much for the the "cheesy" covers they use, so you can see I just make my own:). I customized each PI girl according to the teacher's hair color etc. Added some simple stitches and slipped my finish calendar back into the plastic sleeve. Just a quick post as my "list" of things to do is getting longer!


******Did anyone catch my big faux paux?????!!!!!!! If your a regular reader to my blog, you will know what it is ;). First one to get it right, gets a free custom notebook from me!!!! Just leave a comment ALONG with an email address and I will post the winner by Friday, Dec. 17th @ midnight.

Pretty Little Girls...

My plate was pretty full last week with a very sick baby and washing loads and loads of laundry. It would have been nice to open the windows up and and air the house out, but with chilly weather all the "ickies" got trapped inside! Baby girl is on the mend and we ended the week celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary at Chuck E. Cheese and grocery shopping...signs where your priorities are when you get older....lol I didn't do anything last week, not even step foot in my craft room...but I did manage to squeeze in some crafty time yesterday! I was really inspired by the new PI line from MFT after seeing Jody and Susie's blogs. Love how these girls create...their commentary isn't half bad either:).
Love this ice cream paper! It comes with several different ice cream patterns and I decided to use the pages with wording for this go-around. I colored her with my copic makers and did a little stitching around the edges. The "wish big" is from my PTI-star prints. The umbrella pergola on top of the card is made with my SU! slot punch and I trimmed off the excess on top, then tied with pink shimmer ribbon.I'm off to start my Christmas Dinner shopping. My family is coming from all over to visit with us this year. Parents will be here from OK and my two sister's, one from GA, the other from CA. We don't get to see each other as often as we'd like, so lots of late nights giggling and playing sequence are on the horizon:)

Custom Baby Frame....

Yeah! The sun is out, REALLY out today! A good day to dig out the ol' Christmas decorations and get to work. I usually start the day after Halloween ( a bit EARLY, I know!), but I like to enjoy my decorations more than just a "few" weeks. My favorite decorations are those the girls create...even the scribble scrabbled ones!

On to this pretty frame! A cute 4x6 frame for Baby Karisa. Only requests were that it be purple and not too girlie! I could have gone over the top with some sort of princess theme, but kept with a simple design. I started by painting the entire frame white. I cut 1 inch strips in purple and stamped with polka dots in a shimmer dew drop purple.
Stacked a few Prima flowers together and tied them with a Foo-fa-la creme button.
The leaves are punched with Martha Stewart-Frond punch and stamped with the "twinkle, twinkle" star from PTI's-Star Prints (I've been using this set A LOT!).
Letters cut out with my Cricut Cartridge. I added a little Star Dust Stickles on the outside sage green layer. This really helped POP the purple-on-purple theme.

"Small Gift" Ideas...

Just getting in from a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend spent with my Husband's family in VA. The ride home always seems longer than the drive up! We had an awesome time and the grand kids all love getting together to play. You can see a glimpse of the "wee ones" below:) Before we packed up last week I had a few orders to fill and a special gift to share with a dear friend. My gf's hubby arrived home from Iraq on Thanksgiving Day! So very thankful! She had mentioned they'd be getting away to a B&B for the weekend and I wanted to send a little gift they could share. They are wine enthusiasts, so this gift was pretty easy to put together!

I added the chocolates and used a few PTI sets to put the chocolates together. The tiny star and "hero" stamps are from the Star Prints set. I thought they were fitting, although her hubby would probably shy away from being called a "hero". To keep the chocolates from sliding down, I did use a little sticky tape to keep them down...although I'm sure getting them off was the least of their worries ;).A few more custom gift card holders. I really love these coffee cups! The cups and sentiments are from My Favorite things, but two different sets.Used PTI -Star Prints again! This set really is fun...can be used all year round or festive enough for any holiday!The hills are aliiiiiiiive!! I snapped this pic of the kids walking down the hill. We took family photos this weekend in several locations, but this one had to be my favorite:) I didn't get one pic of my hubby, the kids, and I together, but they photographers did so I will have to wait patiently for those! These are the youngest of the grand kids. The older group is ALL boys and 1 girl...funny how it repeated in opposite direction for the younger ones:) This photo was shot at the Battlefields in Manassas, VA...really beautiful! My two are on the left end:)