Quote for the Day

If we all do one random act of kindness daily, we just might set the world in the right direction.

-- Martin Kornfeld

Birthday Card with NO FLOWERS

Had to create a birthday card with NO FLOWERS!! FLowers always seem to be the easiest to make. I had to dig deep in my creative-ness to NOT use flowers! This was my final project. I think it turned out pretty good. The ribbons at the top make me think of confetti!

I made a "hinge" type of fold on this one. It is also adhered down so the ribbon doesn't tear the paper.


I think it turned out pretty cute.

Thanks for looking.
Cathy

Quote for the Day

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.

-- Albert Einstein

Quote for the Day

"Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breads anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success."
~~ Brian Adams

More Card Creations

I created a couple cards recently. This flag card was for a neighbor for Memorial Day. He served in the Marines and is a very proud American. He is a great neighbor!
This card measures 8.5 inches by 7 inches. I stamped a couple stars inside, with no sentiments. Unfortunately, I didn't get the stripe size just right. There are only 11 stripes, not the usual 13. Hope my friend didn't notice those tiny details!!
It was a big hit!

This "coffee card" was for a swap on SplitCoast Stampers. The only requirement were that the front had to have coffee on it somehow. No tea bags or tea pots allowed!! :-) This was a swap for hard core coffee lovers!!

Finally, this was a card for a different swap on SplitCoast. It was an all occasion swap, I decided to do a birthday or celebration card. Here I added 2 pictures of the same card because the embossed cupcake was difficult to see. The first card (hopefully) shows the cupcake with not so good colors. I used a previous card for inspiration.

And, this second card shows the colors much better. It looked better IRL! Hope this makes sense and you can see the details. I love embossing with folders and I used 2 different ones here. The background has circles, I thought it looked like wrapping paper.

Thanks for looking.

Have a great day.

Quote for the Day

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail BETTER!
~~ Samuel Beckett

Dollar Store Leash Hook

Found some great supplies at our local Dollar Tree for a new dog leash hook. The hook is from Dollar Tree, spray paint was 'on hand' and a scrap of scrapbook paper (too cute).

My first step was to spray paint the hook. Looks much better than the blue, and matches my cute doggie print paper!

Next, I used any crafters favorite "tool" - Mod Podge to adhere the cute paw print paper onto the hook.

And, Taaaa Daaaaa..... the final product. How cute is that?!?!

Thanks for looking.

Have a great day.

Quote for the Day

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in a magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

~~ Jack London

ReUse an Old Pair of Jeans

I found an old pair of my denim carpi's and wanted to reuse them! After surfing some very creative blogs, I decided to make a bag to use for shopping.
They started off this way.

And, this was the final product. TAAaaa- Daaaaaa....

I cut off the cuffs to make handles. My all time favorite embellishment is buttons, so I sewed them on each of the handles and at the point where the handles are attached to the bag. That was a lot more work than I planned on but I think it looks pretty nice. The light blue ribbon on the back of the handles is to keep the button stitching in place. It is hot glued on to help keep it strong.

Wal-Mart has some great material, found this bright sunflower cotton material that I thought would be perfect inside the bag. It really brightens it up AND hides all the stitching and my mistakes!!

At the 2 bottom corners of the bag I sewed on buttons also. This helps keep the lining in place and just another detail.

Back view...

Thanks for looking,

Have a great day.

Marine Corp Decoupage Table

My (almost) 20 year old nephew is a proud Marine. He is stationed in Afghanistan and scheduled to return in October. We are very proud of him.

I found this great material at Wal-Mart and wanted to make "something" for him. I used the folding tables earlier for other homemade projects and thought this would be great for him. Not sure why I thought it would be good NOW because he can't take it with him! Guess I was thinking about the future, he can use it in his own apartment when he gets home.

After spray painting the table top and legs, I cut the material so it would fit the top perfectly.

I think it turned out pretty nice, he was excited about it.
Thanks for looking.
Have a great day.

Quote for the Day

"If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it."
~~ Albert Einstein

Fabulous Flowers Card Swap

I needed a card for a Fabulous Flowers Card Swap. SplitCoast Stampers (my all time favorite stamping site- has the best ideas EVER!) has the biggest variety of swaps, and this was for one of them.
The only requirements were that it had to have a flower on it, 2 layers, and at least one embellishment. Buttons are my favorite embellishment, and seem to use them on all my creations!
I never know if the front of the card should have a sentiment on it or not. Here, I like the word Wonderful because it is in Close to Cocoa ink which matches the brown card stock. The card stock is from Michaels, not Stampin Up.

This was a "flip up" layout. I added a white card stock to write on. As I look at it now, I think there should have been something there. The pink shading adds a little dimension though.

Thanks for looking.
Have a great day.

Quick Baby Gift Bag

I needed a quick gift bag for a friend who is having a baby. Luckily I keep a stash of plain white gift bags to be easily decorated. I knew that my friend was having a boy so that made the color selection easy.
With some of the scraps I made a matching envelope, so cute.


I stamped CELEBRATE in 2 shades of blue to give a shadow effect. Unfortunately I couldn't find my congratulations stamps, so had to use the celebrate. I think it turned out pretty good. Buttons are my favorite embellishment, they are pretty cute with the polka dots on the paper.

Thanks for looking.
Have a great day.

Baseball Team Banner

This year my 8 year old son wanted to play baseball for the first time! I'm so excited because it is such a great sport and a way to experience teamwork. He has the BEST coach ever, he expects a lot from the kids but is also so supportive! I'm so happy for him! In only 4 weeks of practice, I've seen so much improvement, such a proud Mom!

At the parents meeting the coach was looking for a "volunteer" to make the team banner. It is used when the team walks in the opening day parade. At the meeting, I was trying to be very quiet and shy, the new parent who didn't want to make waves! Well, all the duties had been handed out and they were still looking for a banner-maker. You can see where this is going! Yes, I was the ONLY Mom with nothing to do! So I reluctantly volunteered myself to get this done for the team.

As soon as the meeting was done, I thought and thought and thought. Our team is the Phillies, and the banner had to have the team name on it along with all 11 kids' names. I had only 1 week to get the project done and no big creative ideas. BUMMER! I did some minor research, found the Phillies logo and then it hit me (Ouch!), just use the logo for the banner.

The team banner started out with a "bunch" of felt from Joanne Fabrics. Forgot to add the blue felt in the picture, but bought a couple yards of that too. Also bought a couple styrofoam balls because I thought I could use them (in some way) to create baseballs. Phillies has 2 i's so in the back of my mind I would dot the i's with baseballs.

Next I printed out the Phillies logo and took it to Staples to make an overhead transparency. Knowing that my sister owned an overhead projector, (how weird is that!) I knew it would be easy to make the cursive word on the felt. I traced the word backwards so after cutting I was sure not to have any of the ink showing.
The total length of the banner is 6' 6" and is 3" tall. I wanted the name to take up most of the space, the letters look pretty good at this point. This is the first part of the banner.
Next I cut out the blue and red for the background. To help the letters stand out I used blue stamp ink to shade the edges of each letter. It might be a little hard to see here, but I think it helps gives a little depth. To dot the i's I cut a styrofoam ball in half and painted it white. To make the red stitching I used a red dry erase maker - cute.
Creating the red, blue, and white bell was next. It was not to bad with the overhead projector. I think the worst part was placing all the pieces on the actual white banner making sure it is straight and gluing it down. To do this I used our king size bed! It was just enough room to spread everything out and not be crawling around on the floor! I glued (used Fabric Tac for the big pieces) all the background pieces first then attacked the kids' names.

My Sizzix die cut machine was prefect for the letters. I used the shadow letters (not sure of the exact name of the set) to cut out each kids' name. Also used the circle die for the baseball. I also used very light black ink to shadow each baseball so it stood out a little from the white background. To adhere the letters and baseballs I used my hot glue gun, that was much easier than the fabric glue.

PHEW!! TA-DAAAaaaa...Finally done. I bought a 10 foot PVC pipe from Home Depot so the kids could all hold it when walking in the parade. It was a huge hit with the team. At each baseball game we will hang it on the fence.
Go PHILLIES!!!

Cricut Card Swap

I was involved in a CRICIT card swap on SplitCoast Stampers. I wanted to break out of my comfort zone (try not to use stamps on a card) and use Cricut cut outs. It was quite a challenge for me, but I liked it! My library of Cricut cartridges is not very extensive which (I feel) limited my choices. Of course my first reaction was to run to Michaels or AC Moore and purchase a couple cartridges, but the hubby said NO to that idea!!

While looking through my cartridges I spied an example of a card in one of the manuals. Walk In My Garden had a cute Thank You card that I copied, oops - of course I mean used as my inspiration!!! My other obsession right now is to use the embossing folders as as embellishment. The background looks nice and I tried to use the same folder on the middle of the larger flower. Finally I used Crystal Effects to enhance the middle of that flower. It isn't really that shiny IRL, but the lighting makes it look that way.

This was my final product, I feel it turned out pretty well. Thanks for looking.

Have a geat day.