Pumpkin Basket

I saw the idea for this adorable little pumpkin basket on Becky's blog, but I didn't have the punch she used, so I thought, what do I have that might work?... and I have a large (but not huge oval punch) - so I punched 7 of these for each pumpkin (one on each side of the basket) and voila! (If you have the really big/wide oval punch, then you only need 5 ovals:) It's pretty stinkin' cute - even if I do say so myself;) I dtp'd the edges with red ink to give a bit of a shaded effect. Paper was last season's tangerine tango from SU and the handle is attached with brads.

Quote for Today

On the weekend, we caught 'Akeelah and the Bee', a movie we had wanted to see and had never gotten around to. We just happened upon it flipping channels after our housework. There was a lot of good food for thought in it, and this is the quote that Akeelah's coach had her read as they started working together. I think it struck a chord with all of us, so I thought I'd make a place for it to rest upon our shelves so we could think about it some more...

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."

The frame is an 8x8 wooden frame that I got at Michaels for all of $1.50. Most of the dsp I used is from Webster's Pages (Your Life. Beautiful.) I also used the Baroque Motifs stampset from SU, Chestnut Colorblok Chalk, some Ridinghood Red CS, etc.

Home + Happiness

This is the card I made for our new neighbours. I took inspiration for the colours by the row of houses ribbon I had on my shelf from American Crafts. I was going to bake muffins for them this morning as well, but found my canister was low on sugar - so maybe later...

I have mixed feelings about the new neighbours.. On the one hand the family that moved in seems super nice, but on the other hand they have a tenant in the basement that caused a raucous on Friday night and then this morning was parked so close to our shrubs, I'm not sure how they got out of the car and I am sure that they stepped through them. Forgiveness...I keep telling myself - forgiveness. I haven't even met this person, but how do I ask them to show respect for us respectfully?!

Anyway, I better go get some sugar...

Wiper Card

We made these at the lake last weekend too! There was also a recent tutorial on Splitcoast on this.

Shawna's mum crocheted the big snowflake - isn't it daring?!!

Snowman Card

The new to me techniques on this card were the 'sweet center' part in his belly and stamping with shimmer paint (the camera might not have picked up on this one very well - it's very subtle). The snowman was coloured using an aqua painter and stamp pads (I usually use a blender pen).

Recipe Box

I went to Shawna's stamp camp this past weekend, so the next few projects were all done at camp. I tried to do a new technique (for me) in most of the projects. It was a beautiful day to be at the lake and I have missed crafting with Shawna as I wasn't in her club this year.

The new technique on this project was the colouring of the flower (using markers and pulling the colour down the petals with an aqua painter).

Happy First Day of School

It's our daughter's first day of high school (grade 9) today. I can't believe I'm the mom of a 14 year old. I gave birth to her 7 years ago now - and trust me, it's not easy giving birth to a 7 year old - but it is totally worth it!

Back to School - Part 3

...and this is the suitcase that the card, chocolate and other goodies (you need an assortment of s-f gum, etc. to go back to school don'tcha-know?!)

The suitcase is ala Becky's tutorial (see the set I made here). I thought I'd make my girl a suitcase kind-of symbolically - you know 'oh the places you'll go...' She has amazing dreams - so we want to give them wings (aka the butterflies:)

Back to School - Part 2

...and this is the matchbox full of chocolate that goes along with the letter... every girl needs some chocolate of course when she's facing something new;)

Back to School - Part 1

Every year when our daughter goes back to school I write her a letter to tell her how special she is and give her encouragement for the year - and I try to come up with some creative way to give it to her (along with some treats;)

This is the card I'm writing the letter in this year...

DSP is 'Tessa's Fairytale'
CS is all SU

Matchbox File Cabinet

I got the idea for this from Becky (she made one for the SU convention boards). I don't even remember where I got the dsp from (I grabbed it from my scrap pile;). The CS is SU.

All you do is make 4 matchboxes and then attach them with sticky-strip, cover with dsp and voila - a mini-cabinet:)

Paper Bag Purse

I made this little 'purse' out of a paper bag (...and some Basic Grey dsp; the ribbon and cardstock are both SU). Here's a link to the tutorial I used from Becki - thank Becki for such great inspiration!

It's a set

As you've probably figured out, my posts the last few days form a set of notecards in a box - which I recently gave to a friend:)

Stack of cups

I saw an idea for a card like this on Becky's blog - and since I finally have some teacup stamps, I had to try my own version;)

Tea, coffee, hot chocolate...

Teacup Card

I love cups & saucers, don't you?!

Tea Box

I love this little teabag stamp! Isnt' it darling?!

(The paper I've used on the next few projects is SU candy cane lane:)

Tea Time

I was playing with a new acrylic stamp set on this card (Coffee Cafe by TPC Studios). The images are darling, but I do have to say that rubber stamps leave a much crisper image! That being said, I like how this card turned out - it's for a friend that I'm having tea with this week:)

Tri-shutter Birithday Card

I made this birthday card using this week's splitcoast tutorial...


...I used the same paper as in the frame project I last posted, but aren't the colours so much more vivid in these pictures?! ...we just got a new digital camera (Fujifilm S1500 Finepix) - and I'm loving it! Much better than my old Kodak Easyshare! ;)

Frame

I'm sorry I haven't been posting much lately...work has been busy...home has been busy... so a little less time for creating (and it doesn't help when I give away projects before photographing them;) Anyway, this is what I made this weekend. I was missing a dear friend who lives far away and so I made this frame and played with a coloring technique on their family picture:)

I used the same frame as I did in this project, and I used dsp from my Old World Stack (which I actually didn't get at the lss...I found it at an incredible price at Winners! It pays to dig through the bottom shelf!) Some of the flowers are primas and some I made using a distress technique and a scallop punch.