Make It Monday #98

That Betsy Veldman gets me every time.  I loved her technique today in Make It Monday, and this is what I came up with:

Winterberry, Shape Up Snowman, Tremendous Treats: Christmas Stamps, Peace Be Still dies (PTI)

 After I created the faux chalkboard panel, I had to figure out what card base to use.  White was the only color that made sense, but it seemed a bit boring.  So, I added some scor-tape to the edges, and poured glitter over it to give the base a shimmering effect!

You can see Betsy's video for this week's Make It Monday and other entries if you click here.

I have also used this technique before when I created some chalkboard cards for my colleagues.  You can see the post by clicking here. 

Thanks for visiting today!

Make it Monday #97

I've been a bad blogger, and an even worse crafter, but this week, I turned that around.  I've made 26 cards in the last couple of days - mostly for thank you  notes for birthday and Christmas gifts.  My son even sat down and wrote his twelve notes with minimal attitude.  It's a wonder what the promise of candy will do for the attitude.

After seeing a box of cards in the clearance section yesterday using this same color combination and polka dots, I knew I could recreate a card that was similar. I'm lucky enough to be able to include this card in this week's Make It Monday challenge.  You can find details here:

I made these cards for my son to send to friends and relatives:

Polka Dot Basics, Tremendous Treats Christmas (PTI)

I wanted to keep it simple because I had so many to  make, so I began by stamping the cute reindeer in the corner.  After stamping the polka dot background, I added a strip of the glitter ribbon I found last year at Archivers.  I colored in the hooves, tail, star and nose and gave a little sparkle to the antlers and eyes with my Sakura pen.  Before I went to bed, I dotted each nose with some Glossy Accents to give a little dimension to Rudolph.  

Thanks for looking! 

MIM #83

This post is for the current Make It Monday challenge that Melissa Phillips put together.  You can see all the details and submit your card if you click here. Melissa challenged us to find a card in the card aisle and use it as inspiration for our project for this week.

I didn't technically go to the card aisle to find a card. I received this one a while ago.

It's beautiful, I think.  I love the Ocean Tides color, the embossing look and the little bit of bling in the center of the flowers.  I would have never put this color combination together either.  It's so pretty.  I love this card.

Here's my take on it:

I heat embossed some leaves from Turning a New Leaf on the Ocean Tides cardstock, die-cut a couple of strips from the Eyelet Lace border die, and added some bling in the centers.  After stamping the sentiment on a Spellbinders die and adding some twine, I was finished.  Easy peasy.  It's not quite as fancy as the store bought card, but I love this one too. 

Thank you for visiting My Happy Place!

Olympics

I'm going to see one of my friend's for lunch tomorrow.  My son and I usually meet her and some other friends every Friday during the school year for breakfast on Friday mornings at a favorite little restaurant in the area.  She's leaving town soon to accompany her husband to London as he competes in the 2012 Olympics.  We are very excited for him and can't wait to see him win!

I made him a card for my son to give him to wish him luck:

I cut the strips of paper, adhered them and stitched over the red ones.  My sewing isn't perfect, but we can pretend it's a well-loved flag.  The gold medal comes from this site, which has a lot of fun downloads and gift basket ideas. 

That's it for today!

I'm Finished

I finally finished my son's per-kindergarten scrapbook today.  It took a long time, and I had a lot of memories to relive while working on it, which has been fun.  This one took longer than normal because I was completing Project Life at the same time for his Kindergarten year, so this one kind of took a backseat to that.  When I told him I had finished his pre-K book, he said, "That's great, Mommy!  Now you can get started on 1st grade!"

Relentless.

This book is 42 pages long, and on 30 of them are some type of stamping.  That makes me feel like the money I've spent on all my stamps is justified.  Just what I needed.  May spend more now.

Many of the pages I have blogged about, and you can see them if you click on "layouts" in the labels.  Here are the last few pages that I haven't shared. 

I usually have a layout for each month and then throw in special occasion layouts too.   This one is from May 2010 - some of my favorite pictures of my silly boy.  (He had his bike helmet on in the backyard while drawing with chalk.  Safety first!)

 We are a two party system for birthdays, which I'm trying to avoid next year.  Here are the layouts from his parties. 

And finally, I always seem to do the cover layout for each album last.  I think I wait to find a really good picture for it, and this time I chose his school picture.

I framed his picture with sentiments from "Simply You" describing everything is is to me.  A lot of sentiments applied to him.

That's it.  All done.  He's just finished 1st grade, so I better get busy.

Pre-K Graduation

Super Stars, Teacher's Apple stamp sets, Angled Labels die (PTI)

This is a layout I've been working on in my head for awhile, and had most of it mapped, but having the time to complete it was the challenge.  I was going to die-cut some stars for this layout, but instead thought I would give the Make-It Monday challenge a chance, and just stamped right on the patterned paper.  

Yep.  Right. On. It.  

With shaking hands, because I have been looking for the same piece of patterned paper at my Archivers store, and they don't have it anymore.  So, this was a challenge for me. 

I'm almost finished with my son's pre-K scrapbook, so I can move on to his 1st grade book.  (I did Project Life for his Kindergarten year.)  Hopefully, you'll see a couple of more layouts soon!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

First Rangers Game

Wow!
Sorry for my long pause in blogging.  I was running low on time and effort last month, apparently.  Ending the school year, planning for summer, and working on finishing a stack of books got in my way of scrapbooking and cardmaking.

I'm committed to finishing some layouts.  I'm behind in my scrapbooking and have a few layouts in my son's pre-K album to complete and all of his 1st grade year to work on.  Looking forward to reliving those memories!

Here's what I did today:

All-Star Team, Have a Ball, Mat Stack 3 stamps, Mat Stack 3, Layerz, Seeing Stars, By the Numbers, Fillable Frames Block Alpha dies, Woodgrain IP (all PTI), Corrugated Letters (Jillibean)

This was my son's first time to go see our beloved Texas Rangers play. As you can see, he had a blast.

Thanks for dropping by My Happy Place today!  Don't give up on me; I'll be back!

Baby Boy!

I know.  You can hear crickets on my blog lately, right?  There are crickets chirping around my crafting area too!  It's been busy and it isn't even the last month of school yet - almost though!  And believe me, I'm counting down the days this year.  Last year, I was dreading it.  This year - I'm more prepared. 

We did get some good news from a friend, however.  And that's who this card is for.  One of my colleagues is expecting a baby in September.  He and his wife just found out last night that it is a boy.  Which is great - because the card I was making for the little girl didn't turn out how I wanted it to and ended up in the trash can.

Here's the one that didn't end up in the trash:

Bundle of Love, Scattered Showers (PTI), Patterned Paper (October Afternoon)

I cut out a circle from the patterned paper to create the hills for the stork.  After stamping him, I outlined him with a light gray Copic marker.  Popping up the baby blanket and adding the cloud gave me some depth and texture I think the card needed.  I need to use patterned paper so much more.  I really did buy it to use.  Need to do that!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place today!

Lee Anne

I'm Published Again!

A few weeks ago I received an email from an editor at Papercrafts Inspiration magazine asking if I would be willing to have one of my cards that she saw on my blog published in her magazine.  It's the card you see HERE in this post.  

So, you know.  I thought about it for maybe 2 seconds before agreeing to send her an image to publish.  She sent me a copy of the spread today and here's the portion where my card appears in the May issue (soon to be sent out to all the subscribers in the UK:)

It doesn't really do the entire spread justice, so you will have to run out and buy this magazine as soon as possible.  I've heard it's popular in the UK and that Joann's does sell it.  You can also visit several of the other blogs that have published cards in this same spread when the editor includes the links to them on their website HERE.  You'll recognize several of the names - one of them is in my blog-group,, The Paper Dolls one of them organized a blog hop for a sick friend, and one of them is on the design team of a favorite company of mine.  It was an honor to be published next to these talented women. 

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place today - which is happier than usual!

You Are My Sunshine

CAS-ual Fridays has a great challenge this week!  They challenged us to create a card or project based on a song.  You can see all of the details and participate if you click HERE or on the graphic above. Being a child of the 80's - I have many, many songs' lyrics memorized.  You know - useless information stored in my brain.  But the one song that I used for my creation wasn't an 80's tune at all.  It's a lullaby I have been singing to my son since he was born.  We've added beats and kisses at special times in the song as he has grown up and it's a nighttime favorite of ours:

Sunshine die, Fresh Cut Grass die (MFT), Smitty's abc's (Lawn Fawn), Little Bitty Bird, Canvas Impression Plate (PTI)

For this card, I stamped everything first and then ran it through my Big Shot to get the impression on the white panel.  After die-cutting the sun, I ran it through my Xyron and dipped it in some prisma glitter.  I added a few gemstones to the grass and the tree to give a little sparkle to this Spring card. 

If you've been around here awhile, you know that I'm a member of a wonderful group of ladies known as the Paper Dolls.  We try to challenge each other each month just to keep together and support one another.  This month's challenge is "Spring Bling."  I'll post this card over on our blog to share.  You can see our blog and enter in Renee and Suzanne's contest if you click HERE.  (psssst...there's a prize!)

I have a couple of other songs and ideas strumming around in my head, so hopefully, I'll be back soon.  Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Market Street Stamps Block Party

It's time for Market Street Stamps' block party and I'm really excited to share my card with you.  I realize it's out of season, so I'll just let you think that I'm a really organized person who thinks ahead....way ahead!  The truth is that I do have several sets of Market Street Stamps sets, but several of them are background sets and several are Halloween sets.  The ghost just screamed out at me as I was looking at all of my Market Street Stamps.  I'm dreaming of a huge order someday in the near future.  Don't worry - I have my list going!

Here's my card for the block party:

Sweet Spooks (MSS), Fancy Flourish die (MFT), Picket Fence die (PTI)

After die-cutting the picket fences, I rubbed Kraft ink on the Woodgrain impression plate and ran it through a die-cutting machine so that the die-cut resembles a worn fence.  I like the worn look that it gives.  Then I punched out a circle from the gray cardstock, and punched punch again to create the crescent moon. I wanted to add some spooky trees to the card, so I cut two flourishes and adhered them in opposite corners to mimic bare tree branches. I love it when I can use my supplies for unexpected things!  After stamping the CUTE ghost, I cut him out and colored in the cheeks.  I ran him through a Xyron sticker maker face down, and then poured glitter on him for added sparkle.  I used pop-dots to adhere him in front of the fence.   

 

I hope you are able to play along with the Block Party this weekend.  You can get all the details and see more entries if you click HERE.   

 

Thanks so much for visiting My Happy Place!

Gift Box

I'm very excited about this post tonight!  There are several pictures, so please bear with me.  You may have read this post the other day about a sympathy card I made for a dear friend of mine whose mother passed away last weekend.  I was going to insert a gift card for her into the card until today.

One of my colleagues received a gift card from a student packed in a pretty little box.  When she showed me the box, my wheels began turning and I knew that I could make it myself.  Which I did - as soon as I could after school.  Here's the box:

LOOK what I made!  I know.  I'm a little dorky - but I'm very excited about it.  I took some pictures as I was going along.  Of course, a die would be a lot more convenient for this, but I imagine the die would be very large because I had to start with a 12x12 piece of patterned paper.  8.5x11 wasn't large enough. 

I carefully took apart the box that my friend received, traced around it and cut it out.  Here's what it looks like:

After I cut out the pattern, I had to score it on the correct lines so that it would fold correctly.

Added some adhesive and folded along the score lines:

Carefully pushed in on the ends as I was closing the box:

Inserted the gift card and folded in a little more:

(I grabbed this card to show the box here.  I have a different card for my friend.)

Here's a side view of the finished product:

As I did for the sympathy card, I'm entering this project to this week's challenge at CAS-ual Fridays - using BOLD black with BEAUTIFUL pastels.  You can get the information and see all of the inspiration here. 

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place today and sticking with me with all of the pictures!

Play Like a Girl

Here's another one for this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge - using black with touches of pastels - the bold and the beautiful.  If you want to play along and see the wonderful inspiration, click here. 

I wanted to do something a little different and out of my comfort zone.  I love the Clean and Simple style which is what I mostly gravitate to - but I like to add some details or embellishments if I have time.

I ran the soccer balls through my Xyron and then dipped them in Prisma Glitter to give them some sparkle.  I wanted the GIRL to pop out, so I printed it in pink, matted it on some pink cardstock and popped it up with a pop dot!
 
I already know where this card is headed - to my good friend who is a soccer nut!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!






ETA:  Funny enough - this card also qualifies for this week's Make It Monday - which I just discovered!  Great timing!  You can get details here.

Bold and Beautiful

CAS-ual Fridays has a great challenge up this week - using pastels with black/white - which is, I agree, a challenge.  I don't usually combine the beautiful Spring pastels with the bold color of black, and there are several samples at Casual Fridays' blog if you want to play along here. 

Unfortunately, I am in need of a sympathy card, so I took advantage of the Bold and Beautiful challenge to make one for a dear, dear friend who lost her mother this weekend.

Rolled Rose and Fancy Flourishes dies (MFT), Sending You (PTI)

I have a few other ideas spinning around in my head for this challenge, so I hope to get to them soon. 

I guess this will also qualify for PTI's blog hop going on today today - which is full of yellow.  You can see all of the inspiration if you click here . 

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

For Janelle

 Today several blogging friends and I are getting together to let one of our own know that she is in our thoughts and prayers.  If you don't know Janelle, you can read about her and see her beautiful blog here.  Her husband, Ken, has been updating us recently, and I wanted him to know how much we appreciate that. 

I wanted to brighten Ken and Janelle's day with a bright card!

I know the struggles that Ken and Janelle are experiencing and want to let them know that my thoughts and prayers are with them. 

Thank you for visiting My Happy Place!

Happy Birthday, Kim!

We are celebrating our blog friend, Kim's, birthday today.  You can see her blog, Cupcakes, Cards and Kim  and awesome creations if you click here.  I've just recently met Kim as she joined the blog group I belong to - The Paper Dolls - and she already has inspired me with her wonderful creations.  I hope she has a happy, happy birthday!  Here's the card I created for her:

My Type (Hero Arts), Sending You, Heart border die (PTI)

Thanks to Joyce for organizing the blog hop to honor Kim.  You can hop along with this list here.  You may need to scroll down if you are hopping a few days from now!

Joyce
Cathy
Jeanne
Jessica
Kara
Katie
Laurie W.
Lee Anne<--you are here!
Marybeth
Michelle
Renee
Sharron 

So, HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Kim!  I hope you celebrate with style!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place today!

Hello Friend

It's no secret around here that one of my favorite sets is Papertrey Ink's Life designed by Lisa Johnson.  I've used it here, along with a mini-set from Think Big Favorites to stamp on canvas.  Papercrafts Magazine recently had a call for submissions using natural materials like wood and canvas.  I submitted this one, but it didn't get picked up, so now you get to see it.

I combined two colors of twine around the bottom and tied a bow through a natural wood button.  I really need to go and pick up several more packages of those buttons because I love them.  

I'll share some of my other rejected cards this week.  Stay tuned!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!