Red, white and blue.

It's the Memorial Day holiday here in the US so I've got a couple of patriotic cards to share with you - that I made a longgggg time ago.

I'm keepin' it short and sweet today. That was the short, and now for the sweet. I made the most amazing Buttermilk Fruit Salad on Saturday. I don't cook, but around holidays, I feel the need to be domestic. Anyway - have a look at the recipe - it's Becca's grandmamma's recipe. And it's DIVINE. A big hit with the fam this weekend - so much so, I made another batch.

Enjoy the holiday!

It's like Saturday all over again!

Don't you just love 3-day weekends? Staying up late because you don't have to get up early the next morning. Sleeping in because you can. Barbecuing for 3 days straight. Oh yeah - I'm all about the 3-day weekend.

I've got a couple little My Little Shoebox cards to share with you today. Every single one of their lines that I have ever created with has just made me smile. SMILE from start to finish. Nothing better than being happy when you're creating. But sometimes, you know, you smoosh your forearm on to an ink pad, you glue the back of your card to another piece of paper and can't pull it off without leaving visible damage, you cut a piece of ribbon too short; you know, craft mishaps. Craft mishaps when I'm working on an MLS project just are totally irrelevant. I just keeeeeeep on smilin'.

Hope these cards make you smile too!

Happy day to you, my friends!

Pretty Prima.

Happy Saturday - and happy long weekend here in the US!

Soccer is over, and we have a 3-day weekend - love it! My goal is by end of day Monday to have every ounce of laundry in this house d.o.n.e. Seriously. There will not be 1 shirt, 1 sock, one pair of cute little Tinker Bell panties left that have not been laundered by the end of my 3 days off!!

Anywhoo...kicking off the weekend with some pretty Prima cards. Ocean Tides tends to be a forgotten Papertrey Ink cardstock color for me, but it goes so well with this line of Prima so I've taken full advantage of it. I tried stamping on Prima chipboard a while back, and I was afraid it would smudge. No smudgie - they created it with a non-gloss on the area you would stamp on - genius!

Wishing you a great holiday weekend!

Cupcakes.

This is my second post for today - scroll down for a new giveaway.

Happy Friday!!

Who doesn't love cupcakes? If you don't like chocolate, there's always vanilla, or orange, or cherry or lemon or....

Cupcakes are for everyone!

Today I'm sharing some fun cupcake cards I made with patterned papers from My Little Shoebox. They have the brightest, most fun papers....really good stuff.
All sentiments are from Papertrey Ink - and that fun cupcake ribbon was a clearance find at Michael's a long time ago. I am a ribbon snob for the most part - but that one, I had to have!

TGIF!

:: It's Another Giveaway - TrinketsNH & Mel's Bells ::

Hey Dolls!

So you already know how much I love handmade packaging. The only thing better than handmade packaging is a handmade gift to go with! So how about we have a looksie at a sweet handmade inside and out baby giftness?

Miss Mel from Mel's Bells Cloche Hats sent me this adorable baby gift set. Crocheted bebe hat and head band in sweet cream and lime green. Love the color combination. And it comes just like this - in the gift box with the pretty silver cord. All you gotta do is slap a card or a tag on there and you're good to go; adorable. And did I mention she's giving you one too? Yeah - you can have one of these - and you get to choose your own color in case you want it little boy blue or pretty ink pink, you know.

Miss Laurie of Trinkets New Hampshire makes fabric flowers. I tried making some. I don't have the patience to do them - not a lot of them, not different kinds, and not with the variety of elements that she's got. She's got the stacked fabric flowers and the rolled kind too. Envious!

Oh - and she's giving you some too. A spring/summer sampling sorta like mine - only bigger. Because bigger really is better. So what you're going to get is: 5 hand-cut felt, paper & rhinestone flowers, 3 hand-cut, sewn & layered flowers, 2 shabby fabric rolled flowers, 2 sewn fabric flowers, and 3 shabby frayed fabric flowers with button centers; all packed into a cute zippered bag!

I thought I would make some handmade packaging to go with my handmade gift - who doesn't want to be the talk of the baby shower? "oooo, did you make this...??" No, I won't lie and say I made the baby set - well, I might *giggles* Just kidding. Everyone knows I can't sew (except for on cards) or crochet. Although I think I would like to learn to crochet someday. It's on my bucket list.

Anyway - so yeah, I put a strip of Hambly transparency around the box, topped it with the silver cord and the pretty flowers, made a cute little taggie and off to the baby shower we go!

So here's the details.....:

Comment on this post by end of day Monday, May 31st.For extra entries:

(a new comment for each entry must be left for these extras to count)
01. Tweet about this giveaway with a link to this post.
02. Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post.
03. Be - or become via the link in the top right corner - a follower of this blog.
04. Become a follower of Laurie's blog.

(If you already do some of these things, post a separate comment saying you do.)

The winner will be announced HERE ON THIS POST Tuesday, June 1.
Congratulations, Kerri Girl!
I'll get your info to Laurie & Mel.

DeLovely.

Friday Eve - it's like spring fever over here getting ready for the long weekend!

DeLovely from Cosmo Cricket. This line kinda scared me. I almost didn't order it. Very different color combinations, really bright - but, really fun too. And the chipboard elements are adorable! They have one chipboard piece that is a rainbow/cloud and it's the cutest thing!

All my lace trims and that great pink and white cord that you see on the second card are from A Million Memories. Miss Michelle has got some of the greatest trims there - and she's always got the chipboard to go with the new lines...love that.

I'll catch ya' right back here tomorrow!
Have a goodie!

Max & Whiskers.

Happy Halfway-There Day!

Got some whimsy little animal cards to share with you today featuring BasicGrey's latest line: Max & Whiskers. I'm not a big pet/animal person, but I thought this line would make great kid cards, so I had to.

I've got some pretty lace trim from A Million Memories on my first card, and on my second one I added some cork just for a change of texture.

Have a great day!

More paper flowers.

I can't stop making these paper flowers. And they make for the most impractical of cards, don't they? What kinda envelope are you giving these in? One of those big 9x13 manilla ones? - LOL They sure are pretty though...and really fun to make.

My first card features all patterned papers and transparency from Hambly and some big ol' pink & white ribbon from Practicing Creativity Designs with a little sentiment from Papertrey Ink.

My second card features patterned papers from The Girls' Paperie, some fun Prima pearls, and another sentiment from Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for stopping in today!

Son, love you forever.

Happy Monday, Dolls!

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. It was cold here in the 208 - even snowed on Saturday...what?! I sure hope we all get some nice spring weather soon. Anyway - I've got to tell you about my son...

So the kids have been counting down the days 'til school gets out. Every morning - it's 30 days 'til the last day of school, it's 29 days 'til the last day of school.... When it was 25 days 'til the last day of school suddenly it was 24 days left - on that same day. That's because due to budget cuts the school district is cutting school short by 1 day. It'll save them $65,000 in transportation fees and whatever else. So that night, my son - he's in 2nd grade - asks me how they could do that...and why they had to. Without bashing anyone, I explained about how the schools get money from the government (local, state, federal), how programs get cut, where money goes - highways, police service, schools, teacher pay, etc. I explained that in addition to the shortage of 1 day, the teachers are taking a pay cut next year too. He was very pensive....and then asked if he could give the school the money he got for his First Communion - it was about $20. I thought that was really kind and generous of him - $20 is a lot to a 7-year old.

Later that evening we were talking about our garage sale. My son asked if we could give our garage sale money to the school. I told him I didn't know how much we'd make, what if it was only $20? So we negotiated and decided that he would give the school half of our garage sale money, and if his First Communion money was more, he would use that. We had our sale on Saturday and he is so excited to be taking his school principal a little envelope with $143.25 in it! Definitely one of those proud mom moments.

So here's a little card I made for my son - I just love his sweet spirit to pieces...and forever. I've got a base of Smokey Shadow, with patterened paper and a die cut from October Afternoon, some fun buttons, ribbon and sentiment from Papertrey Ink and a cute lil' pin from Fancy Pants.

Cheers to a new week!

:: It's Another Giveaway - Paddywackles ::

Ohhhh momma have I got a sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet giveaway for you this week! Like brittle? As in peanut brittle? Who doesn't, right? But what about the kind with pecans...or maybe even chocolate? I can't even begin to describe how good the brittle from Paddywackles is. Miss Serafina sent me 3 bags - gourmet sweet goodness overload! Have a look for yourself....

Now wipe the drool off your monitor because (2) 1 lb. bags could be coming your way. That's right - Paddywackles will send one of you fine folks a pound of their original recipe brittle - which will be 100x better than the 99-cent box you buy at the supermarket - AND a pound of the chocolate almond brittle...I chose that special just for you - heh. They also have a Swedish one that's pretty good - reminds me of the cookies that come in the red tin at Christmas. You can order that later. Chocolate almond brittle = heavenly. Think Father's Day - what a great gift, no? - - they'll even package it up all springy and gifty like that too.

So here's the details.....:

Comment on this post by end of day Thursday, May 27th.

For extra entries:

(a new comment for each entry must be left for these extras to count)
01. Tweet about this giveaway with a link to this post.
02. Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post.

03. Follow me on Twitter.

(If you already do some of these things, post a separate comment saying you do.)

The winner will be announced HERE ON THIS POST Friday, May 28th.
Congratulations, Molly!
I'll get your info to the fine folks at Paddywackles.

Happy 9th birthday.

Sunday Sunday Sunday

I gotta tell you that I have no idea who this card is for - LOL I don't know anyone turning 9. Maybe for my son for next year? It wasn't going to be a 9th birthday card until I decided to have that strip of paper hanging off the side and then highlighting the 9.

I've got patterned papers from Sassafras, that fun arrow is from Cosmo Cricket and that big ol' bow is made from ribbon from Practicing Creativity Designs. My stamp - oh that's a sad story. I'm pretty new to Hero Arts stamps and I love this birthday set that I got of theirs and this happy birthday in like typewriter font is my fave. It busted! Broke like I hadn't even had it long either...frustrating. I kept the part that said birthday though - ha....figured I'd still get some use out of it like I did here :)

Enjoy your day!

Happy birthday 2U.

Happy Weekend!

I've got a little Pink Paislee birthday card to share with you today. I see cards that have strips of paper cut in different lengths and I tried that last weekend and here again today. Nothing terribly drastic, but I'm dipping my toe in little by little. My pretty ribbons are from Practicing Creativity Designs, sentiment is from Verve, got some pretty Prima pearlies, and my chipboard is Pink Paislee too on a Making Memories ticket - - those tickets are fun...need to get some more.

Here's something fun: I have a card in the new Card Creations 8 magazine out from the Paper Crafts family of magazines. My card is featured on their Freebie Friday post - head on over there and comment to win some fun Cosmo Cricket goodness!

Hope you have a fantastic day!

Happy birthday.

Happy Friday, Friends!

I think I channeled Heather Pulvirenti when I made this card. This card to me looks like something she would make. Of course she would actually stamp all the different patterns and colors where I've got it all in the way of patterned papers from Hambly. This months CARDs payment box was chockful of Hambly goodness which is so fun to look at, and even more fun to play with! So yeah - Scarlet Jewel cardstock and ribbon, PTI sentiment, papers from Hambly and that little strip of white and scarlet is masking tape from Pink Paislee. More on masking tape to come... *wink*

TGIF!

Birthday boy & birthday girl.

Don't you just love that little car die from Papertrey Ink?!

I've seen it all over the place in blogland which is probably why I haven't used it too much. But once I made one card, I had to make two! So I went with his and hers.

On her card I've got patterned paper from October Afternoon, pretty lace trim & bloomer (flower) from Webster's Pages, Prima leaves, and then I used the Fillable Frames die from PTI for my sentiment panel. I love the way this one turned out!

On his card I used patterned papers from My Little Shoebox to create kind of a city scene or something, some fun stitching, ribbons from PTI, and those fun little pins that you know I love so much.

Have a great day!

Fabric flowers.

This is my second post for today; scroll down for my latest giveaway.

Fabric flowers are all the rage these days, but man are they ever spendy!

So I thought I would try my hand at making some.

I went to JoAnn's and picked up a bunch of fabric.

I got a 1/4 yard each of 7 different kinds.

I wanted to try muslin first because it's such a rich, versatile fabric and I see it used in lots of different ways - not just flowers.

This pink tulle with sparkles was the best value - it was only 90-cents for my 1/4 yard. It's a little messy because the sparklies end up here and there, but it sure is pretty!

I'm not an expert on fabric but this is some sort of sheer something er other with teeny rhinestones on it. I actually picked this one up in several colors.

I cut a strip of each and the way I figured this is that my most expensive fabric was $2.50 for the 1/4 yard - and that was a regular price, not a sale price so it certainly is good to watch for sales and use coupons especially at JoAnn's. And I could get 14 strips out of each. So even if each 1/4 yard only makes 14 flowers, that's still only 18-cents per flower and compared to things you see at the stores and even on ETSY, making these yourself is definitely the cheapest way to go. Not the easiest - LOL - but definitely the cheapest.

I used my circle Nesties to cut circles out of the muslin.

My plan was to fold it in to 3 squares and run through the Big Shot. It was not easy. Took about 6 cranks to get ONE. So I popped that one out and it was much easier to do the 2 than the 3.

Fun little muslin circles.

And since we're making flowers, gotta use the flower Nesties!

Because this fabric is so thin, this one ran through and made 3 like a breeze.

However, my thinner fabrics stuck together so instead of 3 flowers, I got one, dark heavier one which was fine. The colors are so light that putting them together in to one whole flower probably is best.

Now it's time to get a card made with my new pretties.

I'm using many different ribbons and trims these days. Buying a lot from Practicing Creativity Designs, ThisGoodDay and MemrieMare. Having my Clip it Up! ribbon organizer to house my spools in the well across the top and hang other pretty stuff that I want to make sure gets used definitely gives me more options when I am making a card. Out-of-sight out-of-mind is no longer an issue.

Here's my creative little mess making one of my cards with my newly made muslin flowers. I think next time I'll use the smaller Nestie - this one had a lot of open space on it so I punched a paper circle and then topped that with buttons.

And here are my finished products. Pretty simple cards for me - I think after making the flowers and going right in to making a card, I was a little low on the mojo. So I think what I'll do next is make some flowers and put them in my stash for next time and then have them to reach for when I need 'em.

Thanks for stopping by today!

:: It's Another Giveaway - Atinybitofeverything & JustJosie ::

I've got a fun little mother-daughter giveaway up for you girls. Let's start out with for our little girls. Wanna meet mine? This is my cute little freckle-nosed redhead. Isn't she adorable?

And with that cute hairbow that matches her soccer uniform.

These hairbows are adorable. My daughter hoards hair things like I hoard ribbon. Which is great because she's got really thick hair but it's so there...limp....and it's so hard to do anything with, so jazzing it up with something colorful is something I like to do as often as possible. Atinybitofeverything is a great ETSY shop and they're right here in Idaho - love buying local. And what's more - they're giving one of you this great rainbow of hairbows to enjoy. Now isn't that special?

And now something for mamma. Wanna meet my mamma? Crazy ol' lady that she is - she doesn't read the blog so I can say that *giggles* I had her model this awesome flower headband from JustJosie for me and she took it home with her! She gave some lame excuse talkin' 'bout "you don't even feel like you're wearing it, it's that comfortable" - whatev, thief! Miss Noelle is just a few short minutes from my house - another shop local opportunity. And she wants you to have one of her flower headbands too. And! - you can choose the size...for a bebe...a kidlet...or adult. You even have color options. I sort of fancy the moss green that my mamma is sportin'...it does look good on her.

So here's the details.....:

Comment on this post by end of day Friday, May 20th.For extra entries:

(a new comment for each entry must be left for these extras to count)
01. Tweet about this giveaway with a link to this post.
02. Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post.

03. Become a fan of JustJosie on Facebook.

04. Become a fan of Atinybitofeverything on Facebook.

05. Follow me on Twitter.

(If you already do some of these things, post a separate comment saying you do.)

The winner will be announced HERE ON THIS POST Saturday, May 20th.
Congratulations, Shelly!
I'll get your info out to the sponsors.

Simple gift tags.

Hi, Dolls!

I like making tags. I don't make them too often, but I do like them. Maybe I like using them more than I like making them. I don't do as much as I do on my cards, and they certainly are smaller and quicker. I think I want to do more with them. I have seen some amazing tags out there with as much stuff on them as you see on a scrapbook layout - so impressive. Mine aren't terribly impressive - but they are a fun little addition to a birthday gift.

On this first tag I've used some Sassafras papers and the top part is an Anna Griffin journaling tag. My pretty red ribbon is from Practicing Creativity Designs.

This second tag was a quickie for sure featuring October Afternoon papers and die cut, and some Papertrey Ink ribbon and buttons. I love layering buttons for a little more character.

Thanks for stopping by today!