Finishing Up

We are finishing up the school year down here in Florida. Only 1 1/2 days left until the girls are home again for the summer - the best!!

I had a kindergarten teacher summon me last week asking for some ideas for an end of the year treat for her little ones. We were going for simple and quick! She mentioned having sidewalk chalk in her closet so we decided to go with a theme of "Fun in the Sun" and activities the children could use on their summer break.

She was kind enough to go that night and purchase some of the supplies we needed, including Miracle Bubbles and CD envelopes in bright colors.

As I packaged everything up I decided to make some colorful pinwheels to use as a clip-on for the bag decoration. (No sticks on these pinwheels so the kids are less likely to poke their eyes out.)

Here's what my bags looked like....although you can't see the goodies inside - they were too cute!

I used the CD envelopes as the template for the pinwheel and followed the basic instructions for cutting and connecting the "flags" of the pinwheel together with a brad.

Here is the back of the treat bag showing the clothespin clip which attaches the pinwheel using a medium-sized glue dot:

These were really simple and quick - just like we wanted!! Happy Summer!

Printables Make it Fun

I have a few projects in the works for some of my teacher friends and classmates at school. I knew what I wanted to make, but I wasn't sure about the tagging....but then, I found some really awesome printables for FREE and they were just what I was looking for...

First up is a teacher's gift for my daughter's 3rd grade teacher:

This is a really simple gift using an eco-friendly drink cup and some yummy lemonade single to-go packets. I also used a little bit of scrapbook paper and a stamp set from Papertrey Ink.

I found the idea here and knew I had to make one. Lisa's idea and printable made it so easy to put together really quickly. I found my cup at Walmart and the to-go singles can be found just about anywhere. In fact, these were on sale, so I decided to get two boxes, one for now and one for later. I wrapped the second box up in a glassine bag and decorated it with a sewn on topper. 

Next is a simple end of the year gift for my daughter's 3rd grade classmates. It did involve a little pre-planning to purchase the cello bags from here. They are a 1x8 size and fit regular-sized gumballs perfectly. (Mine are Carousel brand.)

To top off the gumballs bags, I used my scalloped die with this printable. Amanda has some AMAZING printables and I've just recently found her blog....where have I been? It was the perfect topper for my treats.

 20 down and 16 more to go....this is definitely an easy, and enjoyable treat to put together.

As always, if you have any questions just give me a shout! I wish you all a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend! Have fun!

We're Going Nuts

We're going nuts over here celebrating our teachers this week! I have a few small things planned, including this:

I've had this idea in my notebook for a while now, I think the original idea was posted in "Papercrafts" magazine some time back....here's my interpretation:

Begin with some basic supplies, including cello bags, scrapbook paper, pencil, adhesive and peanuts.

Next, I cut my solid colored paper to fit the outside of my cello bag and then I used a square-shaped die to cut a "window" out of the front of the cardstock.

To apply some adhesive, I ran it through my Xyron. 

I applied the cardstock to the cello bag and began decorating it with die cut letters and alphabet stickers. I also used a die cut scallop strip and some fun glossy stickers.

I filled it with peanuts (after sampling a few) and stapled it shut using my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher (love that tool). And, just for fun, I added a colorful paperclip and a snippet of ribbon.

These will be fun to pass out and hopefully will provide the teachers with a yummy, unpredictable treat. Who doesn't like peanuts?

ETA: I'm linking over at Skip to My Lou today - first time!

Creating with Cosmo Cricket

I've mentioned Lulu on my blog before, but I'm mentioning her here again because she is offering up an awesome challenge in conjunction with her new design team gig at Cosmo Cricket. Be sure to check the challenge out by clicking here. Well, I decided to play along by creating this card:

I went to my stash and grabbed my favorite sheets of "Girl Friday" patterned papers. I absolutely love all the designs in this line and have hoarded many of these pages for quite some time. I put it to use with some solid cardstock from Stampin' Up and Papertrey Ink along with a Spellbinders die, Papertrey's Banner Builder dies, Martha Stewart's butterfly punch and some Twinery twine.

Here is a picture of the card sketch I followed:

This was a fun challenge and I thought this card would make a cute mailbox stuffer to brighten someone's day. I hope you like it!!

Enjoying

some card making time lately...and I had a few to catch up on so that's always good when you can get two things accomplished at once!! I'm all about multi-tasking!!

Here's what I put together:

This card was made using a stamp set from Close to My Heart that I purchased while attending the Orlando scrapbook convention a few weeks ago. I had an idea in my head when I started the card, however I'm not sure this is exactly what I envisioned. Can you tell the circles are buttons? I'm not sure they "scream" buttons the way I had hoped they would. This stamp set is called, "Buttoned Together."

Next is a card I made using some Crate Paper die cuts. This is actually a thank you card, but the "Hello" sentiment from Papertrey Ink fit perfectly so I used it instead. I love that ledger paper background stamp from Jenni Bowlin.

And last is a simple card I put together for a group of ladies at my Mom's church. I attended a really nice class on canning and preserving food and they did such a wonderful job with the presentation and the food afterwards I wanted to make sure they knew how much I appreciated their efforts. I found this Mason jar stamp a long time ago at a garage sale (for $1.00) and was excited to put it to good use. I wanted to take a really simple approach (no distressing on this one) because I know what my Mom's taste is like and I thought the other ladies would have the same point of view. After I finished it I thought that maybe next time I might try masking the jar and stamping a pretty background of some kind. Isn't it funny what you think about when you finish something? If there were only more hours in the day...

The little tag says, "thanks so much."

That's it....I'll see you guys later!!

Easter Happenings

It took me a long time to "get into" Easter this year. I don't know why, maybe because both of my girls decided they didn't want to hunt eggs this year, or maybe because lately I've either been working or volunteering at school and our weekends have been busy....not much free time = not much time for holiday crafting and decorating around the house.  We all know the drill, but I did manage to sneek some time in for a few things: 

This is the "one and only" Easter card I made for a special friend. I had the idea floating around in my head for a while and one night when I couldn't sleep I got up and quietly put this together in my craft room while everyone slept.  I made an egg-shaped template and die cut a bunch of scalloped strips using my Big Shot. I layered and adhered the strips on the egg template until it was covered and then simply flipped it over to the back and cut along the outside. Other cardstock includes Stampin' Up's Very Vanilla and patterned paper from a scrap stash that I bought at a garage sale for $1.00. The sentiment stamp is from Kitchen Sink stamps (another garage sale purchase).

Next is a little treat that I found on the internet somewhere....it was something so different I had to make a few of them to pass out:

It is called "Bunny Hop Pop" and when I saw it, it was one of those times when I thought, "How did they think of that?" It just goes to show that there are so many talented and creative people in this big old world of ours. Anyways, it is made using an orange soda and simply covering the outside with decorative paper, adding a green top to the lid using hot glue and finishing it off with a ribbon and tag. I will definitely be making more of those for next year.

I also made 20 more of these little critters for my 3rd grade class:

Although we kept it gender generic by not adding the beauty mark and bow they turned out super cute! I was so excited to get them boxed up and delivered I forgot to snap a finishing picture.

I think I may check out some submission calls and get myself geared up for a few days off and maybe some creative time squeezed into my busy schedule. I also have a Mother's Day craft that I want to share as soon as I get some cute pictures. Another idea I'm borrowing and it's a cute one too!

Just a few...

...cards that I've made recently. No reason for these particular cards, just felt like being creative.

First up is a birthday card I'm sure I'll put to good use one day:

This card was made using some of my favorites by Stampin' Up including Melon Mambo and Real Red cardstock. I also added some jewels and a strip of patterned paper from my scrap stash.

Next up is a wedding card I made during to donate to our school's card stash. I was using a stash of scraps and loved how the colors went together.

I also added a mixture of Spellbinders dies along with a sentiment stamp from Papertrey and my scalloped edge punch. This one was really out of my norm as far as colors go, but I was pleased with how it turned out.