Altered CD Joy's Life Case with My Little Shoebox Keepsake

This week Joy asked us to alter these adorable CD cases. I was nervous at first, but then I found that the Keepsake collection has some music notes in it. Everything just came together after that. 

I used this adorable sentiment stamp from the Tag You're It TWO collection. The music notes in the paper and stickers, the CD case itself and the stamp just all work so well together to reinforce the theme. 

Of course I had to add some sewing. and of course I had to sew the paper before adhering it to the cd case. That's a trick of mine to make the back sides of cards look good, or to be able to add stitching to ANYTHING - just sew the paper first. So what if you aren't sewing something TO something else?

On a side note, don't you love the bright fun colors of this collection? I think it just might be my current fave!

Cricut Purse with Chocolate Graduation Gift!

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me!

Yep, it's my birthday, but Im not telling how old I am. ;)

Haha, how funny is that? I always wondered why women didn't want to tell their age. Now I finally get it! 

Anyway, here is a graduation gift project that I created for the Joy's Life Design Team blog. I used my cricut to cut the bag, tag and label. The bag and tag are from - lol - the Bags Tags Boxes and more cartridge. The label is from the Lacy Labels cartridge. Fitting right? The papers are Jillibean Soup. The sticker on the tag is SRM. And of course, the stamp is Joy's Life!

Here is a closeup of the stamp. It is from the new Tag You're It TWO set.

Other supplies: Bazzill Cardstock, My Mind's Eye rhinestones, Doodlebug Sequins, May Arts ribbon, button from Hydrangea hippo kits, postage stamp frame from Maya road.

Joy's Life Party Blog Hop Father's Day set

Welcome to the Joy's Life "It's a Party" blog hop! You should have arrived here from . If not, you might want to start at the beginning over on Joy's blog. With all the prizes and inspiration, you don't want to miss one minute of this party!

We were asked to create a coordinated set for a party. It could be any type of party, so I figured I would think ahead and work on something for Father's Day! This is my Father's Day gift set - including a card, tag and treat container.

I decided to go with a mushroom motif, so I could use this adorable stamp from the Wild Life Puns set. To create these mushrooms I used the Walk in my Garden cricut cartridge. Funny enough, there isn't a mushroom on that cart! LOL! So the cut I used here is the Ladybug! The mushroom caps are the top layer of the ladybug cut. I probably could have cut the underneath one with the other layer of the ladybug, but I just used scraps and trimmed them by hand. 

For the stems, I started with a sketched one. I just laid the mushroom cap on the paper and drew the stem, but after I got the hang of it I just freehand cut them. They are a really simple shape and since they are supposed to be whimsical, some variation just adds to the charm.

The papers that I used are Jillibean soup. I love how bright and fun they are. I used one of the die cuts on the top of the tag here. The tag was cut using the cricut and the Tags Bags Boxes and More cartridge. The sentiment is from the Holiday Occasions set.

Finally, I made this little treat container. I cut the popcorn box from the Tags Bags Boxes and More cartridge. The label is from the Lacy Labels cartridge. It said Welcome in the middle, but I carefully trimmed that out to make room for the sentiment stamp. The sentiment stamp is from the Tag You're It ONE set.

You should have arrived here from Lori's blog. If not, you might want to go back to the beginning and start at Joy's blog to make sure you don't miss any of the goodies!

Joy: http://joyslife.com/

Nina: http://waffleflower.com/

Patty: http://craftykitten1.blogspot.com/

Amy: http://redheadedcrafter.blogspot.com/

Jennie: http://earthyscrap.blogspot.com/

Laura: http://www.laurascraftsandmore.com/

Lori: http://got2bcrafting.blogspot.com/

You are HERE ---> Megan: http://thoughtsoftraveling.blogspot.com/

Julie: http://www.cricutchick.com/

Sarabeth: http://www.chroniclesofsarita.blogspot.com/

Stacey: http://staceyscreativecorner.blogspot.com/

Ashley: http://theglamoroussideofscrapping.blogspot.com/

Susie: http://www.thedieshaveit.com/

And now for my giveaway:

Today I am giving away a $10 amazon gift card, because, well I don't have anything scrappy to give away at the moment, and you can get pretty much anything at amazon, right?! This will be an electronic gift card so if you are the winner all you will have to do is give me your email.

If you are already one of my followers, all you have to do is leave a comment here on this post. If you aren't a follower yet, become one and then leave me a comment - easy peasy! I will choose a random winner and announce it here next week. If you are signed in with your email address, or blog, of if you leave me your email address, I will try to contact you if you are the winner, otherwise, check back here to see if you won! Thank you so much for hopping by!

What's going on lately

Things have been a little crazy around our house lately. I've been having some health issues, Seth had finals, and then we found out that our dog, Penny, has lymphoma. She's 10 years old and the best dog EVER! Seth and I got her just before we got married, when the stress of the wedding was really getting to me. I wanted to just elope. I wanted to just be a family. So, we decided to get a dog, a dog that would be ours, that would make us a 'real' family. And she did! She was our 'baby' until Ellie was born. Now she's the 'big sister'. We just can't believe that she's sick. The vet found the cancer on a visit for something totally unrelated about a week ago. Since then we've been trying to wrap our heads around this. Around the fact that our seemingly healthy dog is apparently dying. 

So yesterday Seth took her to the oncology center at the university of pennsylvania and they ran some tests. Today, they are running more tests including a couple of biopsies that she has to be put under for. And then she will get her first chemo treatment today. I've been on the fence about the whole chemo thing. The best we can hope for with this disease is a VERY slim chance at 2 years. More likely we are looking at buying her another year. Of course buying is certainly the operative term here, but also I worry about how this is going to affect her. She's such a sweetie, but she has gotten pretty severe anxiety problems in her old(er) age. I don't want to see her suffer.

But we are going to try. We can always stop if it isn't going well. In the mean time, I have noticed that I need to take more pictures of her! I have like a million pics of ellie but only a few of penny. Penny just doesn't like to have her picture taken, but that's no excuse. I will take more pictures.

That first one was when she was still a puppy, look how skinny she is! The second one is her meeting the baby rabbits that were living in a planter on our porch. She just looked at that one for a minute and it looked at her. then she barked at it and it jumped out of the nest and fell over the side of the porch, so I had to catch it and put it back. And this final picture is me carrying penny back from a hike because she hurt her paws. She HATES to be picked up or carried. The fact that she's letting me carry her is a testament to how much she was hurting.

So, that's what has been going on. and that's why I haven't had much time for posting or scrapping lately. I am feeling better now though. Im glad that we at least have a plan. I'm still nervous and worried for her, but knowing that she's getting the best care possible helps.

Best Pops ever stamped card

Today I am sharing a card that I made for Joy's Life. Joy challenged us this week to make something 'sweet'. Since Mother's day is over, I have moved onto Father's Day and made this card for my Dad, whom my daughter calls, 'Pop'. Kinda perfect huh?

I love how you can layer these popsicle stamps, but I think I'm going to have to get 'make a stampamajig' off of my to-do list and onto the 'done' list, because I have some trouble lining things up perfectly and I am just such a perfectionist. *blush* I saw someone make their own thing to line up stamps and I was all ready to do it this past weekend. I dug into my daughters blocks, which she almost NEVER plays with, and found two that I thought would work perfectly and I asked my husband to hold them for me while I hammered them together to make a perfect corner.... But he got mad! He said I couldn't ruin her blocks! So I asked him if he would rather me go out and buy a stamp positioner. Of course he said no, but he said we could find something better to use than her solid wood blocks that were hand me downs and a great solid wood 'old school' toy. He was probably right, but you know what? We DIDN'T find anything else, so I didn't have a stamp positioner. She really does have PLENTY of blocks. She wouldn't miss two small ones ...

anyway, this card uses Jillibean soup papers, joy's life stamps, clearsnap ink, Twinery twine and a whole lot of sewing. I love sewing! I consider masculine cards to be a weakness of mine, so I couldn't think of anything else to add here. So, I just kept sewing!

Cleasnap Team member!

check it out! I am so excited to be able to share that I was chosen as a Clearsnap team member! Inks and Embossing and Smooch - oh my! I can't wait to get started!

You can see the announcement and all of my fabulous teammates HERE.

And while you are over there on the Clearsnap blog, why don't you check out the blog hop that they are having with Basically Bare?! Why should you? In a word: PRIZES!  and of course tons of fabulous inspiration!

Mother's Day coffee filter flowers in altered vase

I saw these coffee filter flowers on pinterest and couldn't wait to make them. I have a ton of coffee filters laying around because I have switched to using my Keurig. This was a great fun way to use them up! Beware though, we made about twice this many flowers and it took a whole packaged of coffee filters. Each flower uses 5 filters. But they were super easy! All you need is filters, food coloring, wire and tape. I used some metal cake pans to dye them in, and they we spread them out on newspaper on the back patio to dry. Ellie, my 6 year old, even managed to create the flowers all by herself, including the folding, cutting and taping! I was so proud! (That's also why our flowers don't look uniform. I made some and she made some.)

I found this triangle shaped vase at Goodwill and altered it using white spray paint, some My Little Shoebox Keepsake papers and  Joy's Life stamps! The coffee filters flowers didn't turn out as bright as they look in the photos below. I had to tweak the color of the photos a little bit and wanted the altered vase to look just right, so the color of the flowers is a little bit off. The photo above looks more like the actual colors that we managed. I forgot the vinegar though. Apparently, just like with egg dye, if you add vinegar it makes the colors more intense.

Here is the side that my daughter designed. I let her choose the paper, then I cut it to fit. I also cut out the frame details that she wanted from the papers. She chose the elements and arranged them the way she wanted. She also stamped the 'thanks' sentiment and glued the smaller pieces to the large panel. This way she felt like she got to take part in the creation, but all the sides sort of match.

Here is a side view that shows two of the panels at the same time

and here is an up-close of the two Joy's Life stamps that I used. This one is from the Holiday Occasions set.

And this one is from the Tag You're It TWO set.

There are a lot of tutorials for these flowers out there. This is the one I used. Although, as you can see, I didn't follow the color guidelines like she suggested. We used every color - orange, pink, yellow, blue and purple. The blues and purples didn't turn out very well though. They look pink and white.

CAS Rainbow stamped Clearsnap card

I made this card for my husband's grandfather's 91st birthday. I used the Hero Arts Zig Zag thanks set for the chevron design. To create the rainbow color scheme I used the Clearsnap ColorBox Full Size Pigment Inkpad in Primary. It's a rainbow ink pad. So I just carefully applied the ink so that I used just the red orange and yellow for the first stamp. Then I applied the green blue and red, but went over the red section with one of my purple cat eye inks for the second stamp. The hardest part for me was lining up the chevrons   correctly. The sentiment sticker is SRM.

This card is for the CAS-ual Fridays birthday challenge. Also it is for the Simon Says Stamp birthday challenge and the Hero Arts birthday challenge.

First Mother's Day card with My Little Shoebox Happy Go Lucky

This is the other card for my co-worker's daughter who is a new mom. I again used the pagemaps card sketch and the My Little Shoebox Happy Go Lucky line with a Joy's life sentiment stamp. For using the same set of supplies, this one is really different from the other isn't it? I love that!

This is for the pink elephant spring challenge, the creative inspirations animals challenge, the papertake weekly anything goes challenge, the do you stack up circles challenge and the kaboodle doodles dimension challenge.

First Mother's Day Card with Embossing

I created this card for a coworker of mine who's two daughters are both having their first mother's days as moms this year. (the other card will be up tomorrow) I used some My Little Shoebox Happy Go Lucky paper, a Joy's Life stamp, a Tattered angels stamp, and some Hydrangea Hippo trims.

This card was inspired by a pagemaps card sketch. It is also for the Fussy and Fancy Friday butterflies, ribbon and punches challenge, the flourishes butterflies challenge, the Really Reasonable Ribbon mother's day and ribbon challenge, and the crafty creations Mother's Day challenge.

Mother's Day Tea Gift Set

This week Joy challenged to use some new stamps and to make something related to our giveaway. Hop on over to the Joy's Life Design Team blog to check out the giveaways! Today the giveaway on the Joy's Life Design team blog is a d drink sleeve, so I made a tea gift set as a Mother's Day gift. 

 I used the Tag You're It TWO set for the tag on the Honey Bear.The label is cut from some My Little Shoebox Up in the Trees paper using my cricut and the Lacy Labels cartridge. Isn't that red polka dot paper gorgeous! It might just be my favorite. Maybe.

 I also used the Everyday Occasions and Holiday Occasions stamps to create this tag, which is embellished with some handmade crocheted flowers and some more My Little Shoebox up in the trees paper along with a tiny bit of Zva creative bling.

Tuesday Trigger sympathy card

Unfortunately, I had to make another sympathy card this week. I was inspired by the tuesday trigger over at Moxie Fab world to make this card. I always need to use inspiration of some sort - usually more than one kind - for sympathy cards because I just never know where to begin. 

Here is the trigger

I was inspired by the neutral color palette and those gold dots. To create the gold dot look, I embossed the centers of these stamped designs with gold embossing powder. The small pearls bring in the pretty feel that the lace in the photo makes me feel.

The stamps are Fiskars, Basic Grey and My Sentiments exactly.