CAS-ual Fridays, She's Krafty and She's Just My Type

Happy Friday, friends! Well, today marks the end of the current design team term. We are bidding farewell to Pamela and AJ. It has been a pleasure to work alongside these girls. Stay tuned to the blog for the introduction of the new Girl Fridays. Lots of talent, I tell ya!

 



 So the challenge for the next two weeks is to create a clean and simple feminine project using kraft and text. Our fabulous sponsor this week is CAS-ual Fridays Stamps. The winner of this challenge will earn the stamp set of their choice.

 



 

For my project, I created a one layer card. I inked up Mums the Word in pink and white ink. Then I ran it through my cuttlebug with my Book Print impression plate from Papertrey Ink. Super quick and easy.



This challenge will run until noon, Thursday, September 5th. I can't wait to see what you create!

 

 

DeNami Product Spotlight, Peacock Feathers

 Today is product spotlight over at DeNami Design. The design team is showcasing Peacock Feathers by having a DeNami blog hop. You should've arrived to my blog from Lisa Petrella's blog. If you visit each design team members blog and leave a comment along the way, you will be eligible to win this stamp! You can also add this fabulous stamp to your shopping cart and save 10%, one week only. 

 

 

 To create my card I used an older sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch that you can find here.  I used some navy cardstock for my base and added some strips of cardstock to the bottom. The green strip I ran through my woodgrain impression plate. For my sentiment, I inked up Double Circle and selectively inked up Hello Friend which I cut out with my circle nestie. I added some rhinestones. Then for the focal point, I used my Silhouette and my own cut file to cut Peacock Feathers and I colored it in with my copics.

 

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to leave a comment on each blog to be eligible to win!

Wendy is your next stop!

DeNami blog

Lisa Petrella

Deb <------that's me

Wendy Elliot

Emily Keaton

Lisa Elton

Patti Goldman

Dana Seymour

Tammy Hobbs

DeNami Design, Thinking of You

Today I have a card to share over at the DeNami Design blog. Be sure to head on over for the full card and details.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Pages with Papertrey, Sibling love

Happy Monday! I know it may seem rather strange for me to post on Monday, but with a "bit" of spare time on my hands, I decided that I really need to tackle finishing Joshua's baby album. There is about 12-15 pages left and I am bound and determined that I will finish it sooner than later. So while going through his baby pictures, I discovered that never did post a layout that I have already completed. It is the other half of this page. What I really love about the page I have to share today is the combination of aqua and red. Red can sometimes be so hard to work with, especially in a baby album when you think of pastels.

At 7 months, Joshua was celebrating his first Valentine's Day. It has been a tradition ever since Leah's first Valentine's Day to take pictures on this holiday. Why? Well, this holiday falls a week before her 1/2 birthday, so it is a great way to make sure that I have pictures that show how much she has changed in half of a year. Since Josh's birthday is close to hers, it works out well for him too.

So to create my layout, I used some patterned paper and the love rub on from Becky Higgin's Sweet Baby kit. The gray paper is Cordinations and the rest is PTI. This layout falls into two Pages with Papertrey challenges: Use a combination of fonts for you title (16) and Use at least 3 different dies, bonus if they are from different collections (19). So to create my title, I die cut "sibling" using Block Alphabet in Pure Poppy cardstock. Then I inked up "love" from 2010 Love Tags. I fussy cut it out. To make my subtitle, I inked up "love" again and then selectively stamped the "you" from Big Bold Wishes and adhered it with some stitching.

On my journaling block, I stamped Background Basics: Newsprint in Soft Stone. I also did this to the "love" in my title and subtitle and also to my rectangle label die embellishment. It is subtle, so it is hard to see, but it is there. I guess this also qualifies this page for challenge 14, Use a stamp repeatedly on your layout. The Valentines Day sentiment come from Heart Prints.

The last detail on this page uses the rectangle from Label Basics, stamped in Pure Poppy. Layered on top I added a tag from Tiny Tags II inked in Aqua Mist with a sentiment from the same set inked in Dark Chocolate. I finished it off with the Pure Poppy's bakers twine.

I have one last thing to share about this layout. If you look at Joshua's white onesie, you will notice a red heart and also some red words. I wanted him to have a Valentine outfit for the photos, but the thrifty me did not want to spend $20 on something he would wear once. So luckily he had a red onesie and a plain white Gerber onesie. I used these white onesies for his monthly photo session. So this was the last one in the pack, that he had really outgrown. I decided to die cut "be mine" from Block Alphabet and a heart from Heart Prints and simply glue the paper onto the onesie. You can see just how small it was on him, but in my opinion, it didn't go to waste *wink*.

Well, that is it for me today. As I mentioned, I am trying to work on the rest of his album, so I hope to have more layouts to share with you in the coming weeks. Thanks for stopping by!

CAS-ual Fridays, Color Challenge

Happy Friday, friends! Today I have a card to share with you for this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge. This week the challenge is to create a card using any shade of aqua, green and orange. This is one of my favorite color combos to use. You can see one of my favorite cards here from a previous challenge that I made for my son's first birthday.

The sponsor for this week's challenge is SimonSaysStamp. The winner of this week's challenge will earn a $25 gift certificate.

For my card, I chose to use some scraps of PTI patterned paper. Yes, I still have bits of scrap paper left over from the banner I made for my son's first birthday a year ago. Sheesh, I have so much "stuff" that I should really get rid of, but sometimes it just comes in handy. For my sentiment I inked up Rectangle Bubble from DeNami Design in green and added Thanks Chickie for my sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by. This challenge is another two week challenge so you have until noon on August 28 to link up and play along. I can't wait to see what you create!

A Monster birthday party

Today I have just a few pics to share of Leah and Josh's birthday party that we had last weekend. Josh turned 2 in the middle of July and Leah turns 6 in about a week, so we had a joint party since the guest list is generally the same. A lot of my party inspiration came from Elena over at Just Me. I used these digital papers for the banners and cupcake liners. I also printed out monster grins.. I didn't add as much monster décor as I would've liked for the party, but I did make some monster marshmallow pops and added googly eyes throughout just like Elena did here. Honestly, Elena is the party hostess with the mostess. Her blog is choc full of ideas. If I would've given myself  more than 2 weeks for this working momma to prepare for this party, then I might've been able to do more. But I was still pleased with everything.

 

Leah helped me stuff my little monsters that we gave to the kids that attended. Unfortunately, a lot of them were not able to attend, but that just meant more monsters for Josh and Leah.

 

I also made the cupcakes, all from scratch. Last year I had decided for Josh's 1st birthday to do cupcakes since I dread cutting birthday cake. I cheated and used a cake box last year but made the frosting. This year, I decided to make it all from scratch, thanks to the gentle nudging from my sister. She generously gave me a Kitchen Aid stand mixer for my birthday this past year and so I was hopeful that I could do it and not fail. I haven't made a cake from scratch since my college days. I used this recipe for my buttercream frosting. My sister shared with me this recipe for chocolate cupcakes and this one for vanilla. They were both winners!

 

Here I am wearing an apron that my cousin gave to me when I started attending the University of Florida. Gosh, that apron is almost 20 years old!

 

The birthday boy

 

The birthday girl

 

The family



 

To read more about the party in detail, please visit my sister's blog. She does a phenomenal job capturing our life. Thanks Eva!

DeNami Design Product Spotlight, Apples & Pears

Whew, what a few busy days/weeks it has been.  We have had a family vacation, a birthday party for the kiddos and the start of school...breath...Today, the girls and I over at DeNami Design are sharing our creations feature this week's product spotlight, Apples & Pears. You can add this stamp set to your cart and save 10%, one week only. I highly suggest that you do!

I immediately wanted to create some teacher themed cards with this stamp set. I have two to show you, but I created a bunch to get a head start on some teacher thank you cards. 

 

 

I carefully attached some graph paper using my ATG onto some white cardstock that was die cut with my notebook die. It is very thin, so you must attach it carefully not to see the adhesive. I used some green and red cardstock for the base which I ran through my Cuttlebug with my Linen/canvas impression plate. I embellished the notebook diecut with some red and green washi tape and some red and  green twine. For the sentiment, I used Square Word Bubble which I had die cut with my Cameo and selectively inked up Thanks Chickie. The final touch to my cards showcases this stamp set. I die cut some layers of coaster board using my circle nestie which I adhered using my ATG. I inked up Small Stitched Circle and Apples & Pears onto white cardstock that I used my 1 in circle punch to cut out and then adhered to the layered circle.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by! Please make sure you stop by the DeNami Design blog to see what the rest of the design team has created. I know you are going to love it!



DeNami Design, Sweet and Simple blog hop

Hi everyone and welcome to the DeNami Design, Sweet and simple blog hop.  You should've arrive here from Lyne Blodgett's blog. If not, you can always head back to the  beginning for a full list of participants.

The first card to share on the blog today belongs to my daughter, Leah. Since I had created my card before her, I had suggested that she might want to use my ice cream sundae stamp since the theme was sweet. She reminded me that fruit is also sweet so she wanted to use my  Apples and Pears stamp set. She also has it in her precious little mind that my Medium Bold Hibiscus belongs to her, but I digress. She chose her sentiment so that this could be a sweet card she sends a friend. Boy, do I love that girl! She selected her own ink colors and designed it herself. I love how she chose to color in the apples and pears with her colored pencils. You may also see some comments on your blogs from her because she has informed me that she would like a chance to win a prize. Fingers crossed.

Next up along the hop is me. For my card, I inked up Elegant Oval, Ice Cream Sundae, and You Are Sweet (cling). I did some paper piecing (Lawn Fawn Bright Side) and fussy cutting.  I used my crop-a-dile to hole punch the rectangular panel to attach the bow. I used some May Arts chevron twill ribbon. Love it!!! It does look a bit off center in the photo, but the bow just needed some tightening. We have been super busy these past two weeks with preparing for a joint birthday party for Leah and Josh, that I simply did not have time to rephotograph it.

Next up along the hop is the talented Amy Smidebush. Now if you read down further on her blog, which I do suggest you do, you will see just how much this girl loves to participate in the hops. I know you will not be disappointed.

Don't forget about the THREE gift certificates that will be given away! One gift certificate will go to a random participant and TWO gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop! You have until August 12, 2013 11:59pm PST to comment and be eligible.

 

ETA: After going through the hop, I realized that I can enter my card into this week's CAS-ology challenge: Dessert. It's been a while since I have played along.

 

Happy hopping!

DeNami Design Pin-spired

Happy hump day friends! Today I have a card to share with you for DeNami Design, Pin-spired. Paulina does an amazing job finding our photos of inspiration. This photo screams refreshing and summer.

 



 I inked up  Medium Citrus Slice in various colors to imitate the various citrus fruits and did some masking as well.  I layered a piece of white cardstock over top. Then I cut another piece to go across the card front and inked up Thinking of You script (cling) in orange. Lastly I added a button from my Tangerine boutique pack and tied a bow with 1/4inch silk ribbon.

 

Well, I am going to make this short and sweet since I still have lots to do to prepare for the kids party this Saturday. Don't forget to stop by the DeNami Design blog to see what some of the other designers have created!

CAS-ual Fridays, Buttons

Happy Friday, friends! I hope you are all doing well. I know the blog has been quiet lately, but for good reason. Last week, we took a vacation to visit family in Minnesota. We had a great time in the country. It was so relaxing. Can you believe our last day we had a high temperature of 64! Yep, that's right. Pants and a sweater in July. Now it's back to the 101 heat index of Florida. Oh well.

 

Now onto my card. Today I have a card to share for CAS-ual Fridays. The challenge this week is to create a clean and simple project using buttons (or one if you choose).

Our sponsor this week is Ellen Hutson. The winner of this challenge will earn a $25 gift certificate.

For my card, I created a simple welcome baby girl card. This card is already in the hands of the recipient since she was just showered with kindness last weekend. I used some DeNami stamps like Gingham background and Small Congratulations which I heat embossed in white. I used a Bubble gum boutique button that I tied a bow through using 1/4 inch silk ribbon.



 

This weekend I will be super busy working on the kiddos birthday party decorations. We are having a combined party for the two of them in just a week since Joshua's birthday is in July and Leah's is in August. The guest list is typically the same, so we made it easy for our out of town guests. My fingers are crossed that I will finish most of them before the weekend is over.

 

Remember, this is another two week challenge so you have until Thursday, August 15th to play along. I can't wait to see what you create!