Happy Father's Day

In honor of my wonderful, wonderful father, I made this card for him for Father's Day. The weekend before Father's Day, my dad and his father and brothers all meet up for a fishing trip. It's a tradition that's been going on for years. Since they're scattered far and wide throughout the rest of the year, it gives them a chance to come together and bond in the way that males typically do, over beer (not for my dad -- he doesn't drink), fishing rods, and wild stories made wilder by the aforementioned drink. He always comes home the Saturday evening before Father's Day, so I thought this would be the perfect card to give.


I started with some cream Bazzill cardstock for my card base, and covered it completely with this fish paper from Carolyn Holt. I chose one dapper looking fish and cut him out to mount onto the "wood block" as my focal piece. The "wood block" is in fact the B side of some shark paper -- I wish I could remember who it was by. I've used it all up, so I'll have to check at work tonight if I remember.

Anyway, it's thin (side note: is there a difference between "patterned paper" and "designer paper" and is it called differently if it's thin like regular paper or thick like cardstock?) so I attached it to some chocolate Bazzill cardstock for extra strength and punched some brads through to give it a more masculine touch. I popped Mr. Fish off with dimentional adhesive, and did the same with the "wood block" so it was an extra thick card. I still got it into the envelope with no problems, but it's probably not something I would have tried to send in the mail.


I stamped the "Happy Father's Day" sentiment from Studio G with Colorbox Chalk Ink in Chestnut Roan. Then I tied on a little hemp for added texture. Then I poured out my heart to my father on the inside. He must have enjoyed it, because he was moved to tears when he read it. But all the credit goes to him. He's a great man. One of the greatest.


I hope that you all had a wonderful Father's Day and were able to spend it with the specil men in your lives. Thanks for stopping by!

Catching Up - Mother's Day Card

I know it's nearly Father's Day, but I wanted to share the other Mother's Day card that I never got around to posting. This one was for my wonderful step-mom.


The flower image was made using a cling stamp from Hero Arts, which I colored with Copics to match my patterned paper. I added glitter to the center and all around the edges of the flower petals, but you can't really see it in the pics. I also curled up the petals a bit for more dimention. I used a cream-colored Bazzill cardstock for my card base, and added a little sentiment (which I probably should have popped off) and some sheer, sparkley purple ribbon.


The pictures really don't do it justice. It's much prettier in person where the sparkles catch the light.

I hope you enjoyed it!

Forget-Me-Not

Hey there, everybody! Have you forgotten about me yet?
Not completely, I hope. I'm sorry that I just disappeared like that.
Life had gotten so stressful with going back to work in the evenings, and end of the year school stuff for both my hubby (college) and the boys. Every single moment of every day was accounted for and then some. There was no down-time whatsoever and I was completely miserable. Something in my life had to give, and since it obviously couldn't be my family, and I needed the job, the only thing left was the blog.

For those of you who keep one, I'm sure you know how much time and effort goes in to each post -- from the choosing of a topic, to the photographing of it, the editing of photos, uploading, and then the actual blogging itself, and editing. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it. And I've been missing it. Missing YOU. Missing that interaction, the sharing of ideas, and the support of other ladies out there who are just trying to do their creative best like I was (am) every day. But at the time a break was absolutely necessary.

Now that summer vacation has started and hubby is back to work and the kids are out of school, there's a little more free time. I'm still working four nights a week (and the other three are spoken for as well with various activities between the five of us) but the mornings are a little less hectic, a little less stressful. First on my mind was testing the waters again here and seeing if anyone is still around, still interested in the amateur creations and ramblings of an average housewife, mother, and friend.

I likely won't go back to posting five days a week as I did before, but I will try to update regularly. I've still been making cards and things in the time I've been "away" -- not every day, but as often as I was able. So I have some new things to show you, and I'm eager to get back into creating more often, and living a more balanced life.

As I said in my very first post, creating is what makes me happiest. This last month I've been sad, stressed, and full of self-doubt. I know why that is, and I don't want to fall back into that.

So, forget-me-not. I'm back with a new look, new crafts, and renewed energy. I hope you'll come along with me for the ride.

Distress Ink Happy Mother's Day

I'm going to keep this short and sweet tonight. We are having a MAJOR thunder and lightning storm here and I'd just feel safer getting off the computer as soon as possible. I made a card for my mom today using Ranger distress inks. I inked up this stamp from Hero Arts with Dusty Concord, Broken China, and Peeled Paint, then spritzed it with my mini mister and pressed watercolor paper to it. It gave the image this gorgeous watercolor effect. My mom isn't into "girly" stuff so I thought these cool colors would make a great card for her.


I mounted that on some light olive Bazzill cardstock, then paper pierced the corners and added brads for some contrast. I added a scalloped border using my Fiskars punch and a scrap of purple Debbie Mumm paper, and adhered the whole thing to the card front.


The card base was a sky blue Bazzill cardstock. I cut a small slit in the side of the card so I could thread in some sheer violet Basic Narrows ribbon, then stamped the sentiment from Studio G on a Martha Stewart sticky label and attached that over top.


And that was it! I hope she likes it! And I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a happy Mother's Day!

For You On Your Birthday

Happy Thursday evening! I finished up all my teacher's appreciation card sets yesterday, but I thought I'd spare you more photos of the same, so I skipped the post. Today I've got a birthday card to share with you though. If you remember, I colored this image a while back with my Copics and saved it for a special occasion. Well, today was that day. One of the girls in my writer's group was having a birthday, and she happens to love knitting, so I thought this would make a perfect card for her.


I used some walnut Bazzill cardstock and some designer paper from Debbie Mumm. Added some American crafts ribbon and a sentiment that I just typed up on my computer and printed out, then edged with my V04 Copic marker. I kept everything pretty much flat this time around -- I guess I was just used to it from making all those teacher cards. I thought about popping off the sentiment at least, but in the end decided not to.

Since the card was so dark, I decided to make a little insert where we could sign. I used some basic white cardstock, then dotted it with my BV00.


I passed it around covertly to the other members of the group tonight and we gave it to her on the break. She seemed to really like it, so that made me happy.

In other news, I've been working on cleaning and organizing my office/craft space all day today. It's not quite done yet, but I'm getting there. I might not get to it until next week, since I have to work the next four days in a row, and I've got the two Mother's Day cards to make still. I tell ya, I'll be so glad when this week is over! All I want to do is take a long nap or curl up with a good book and just indulge in some quiet time. Not going to happen in the forseeable future though. I even have to work Mother's Day. :o( I may just have to go in to work a little early on Sunday and treat myself to something using my employee discount. ;o)

Teacher Appreciation Notecard Assortment

Hey everyone! How are you today? I spent all afternoon and part of the evening getting my craft on! I made thirteen out of the twenty-four (four sets of 6) notecards I'm giving as gifts to my boys teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week. I ran out of a a few supplies that I'll need to pick up tomorrow to finish, but I'm very pleased with the amount I was able to get done.

Want to take a look-see? Here are ten of the cards, all using the same products as yesterday's post.










Do you think they'll like them? I hope so.

It's going to be crazy craft-wise for the rest of this week, I'll tell ya. I still need to make the other 11 teacher cards, two mother's day cards, and one birthday card, not to mention that I still haven't figured out what I'm getting/making as mother's day gifts. AND I have to work an extra shift this week -- tomorrow. So stay tuned for lots more projects!

Teacher, You're The Best!

Well, hello, hello, hello! Happy Monday, everyone! Today marks the start of Teacher Appreciation Week here at my boys' school, so I thought I'd make all the teachers a little pack of notecards as a gift. I picked out a few coordinating colors of cardstock and a sheet of designer paper and my plan is to make the cards in each pack slightly different yet all in a matching set. Here's my first one of the bunch.


All the cardstock is from Bazzill -- the sturdiest brand as far as I've found so far. I definitely didn't want these to be too flimsy. I also found these great polkadot cardstock sheets from them at Michaels, and I thought they'd be great for adding interest and texture without getting too carried away with embellishments. Since I'll be giving them as gifts to people who may want to send them via U.S. mail, I want to try to keep them as flat as possible.

The apple designer paper is from K.I. Memories. I cut it into strips and used that for a punch of color. Then I stamped a sentiment from Fiskars onto a Martha Stewart tag, and added some brown gingham ribbon from American Crafts.


Tomorrow is my day off and my only chance to get these gift sets done, so I plan on getting my craft on for as long as it takes me. So I should have a whole bunch to share tomorrow! Hope to see you then!