Golden Moments

Gardening themed Thank You cards

Well, maybe not gardening themed exactly, but perfect for someone who is a gardening enthusiast.

Sometimes it's fun to make cards with older supplies... things that might not be the latest and greatest, or uber-trendy... but are products I still like but haven't used for one reason or another. Do you have anything like that in your stash? 

Here are three cards I made using the same basic supplies and were inspired by a sentiment from Papertrey's Inside Out: Thank You stamp set.

Version 1

Version 2

Version 3

Afterall, if you are going to take the time to pick out some supplies that go together, might as well make up a bunch of cards rather than just one.

Using up your old supplies is a good thing... think of it as a form of spring cleaning! :)

French Vintage Birdhouse - Crafts 'n things

Anyone else starting to get spring fever? If so, this is a fun home decor piece you could make while waiting for the weather to warm up. You can find complete instructions and a detailed supply list in the current issue of the Crafts n things newsletter. If you haven't subscribed to it yet, what are you waiting for? It's always packed with great ideas and it's FREE! You can sign up here.

Here are some of the gorgeous photos taken by the Crafts 'n things photographer -

and here are a few of the photos I took in less than stellar lighting in a rush to get this to the post office... 

Front:

Right side:

Left side:

Back:

Details:

Thanks for stopping by - hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Free Class - Birthday Explosion Book

More than half-way through February and still no winter in sight... I'm not complaining one bit!

This Birthday Explosion Book is a mini class I created for Karen Foster Design and we are happy to share it with all of you today! This could be used for so many different things - as an elaborate party invitation, as a birthday card (lots of places to tuck in a gift card or other small treat), as a fun group craft project, or souvenir mini album from the party. 

When the book is all tied up you would never guess what is waiting inside!

But once it starts to unfold...

all kinds of fun nooks & crannies to decorate!

You can download a detailed supply list and instructions - including diagrams of how to score and fold the pages to create the base of the book - for free here: Download Birthday Explosion Book

Enjoy!

Winter Thank You

Recently I found myself in need of almost two dozen thank you notes and I wanted something that had a winter theme, but was easy to recreate and not too bulky as to cause problems if mailed in a regular envelope. 

This is the card I came up with -

I found some old snowflake vellum in my stash and adhered it to the front of the card using the Sticky Tape Runner which is virtually invisible under vellum. I die cut white cardstock and blue metallic cardstock using the Mat Stack 1 dies from Papertrey Ink along with one of their new stamps - this was included as a thank you from them in a recent order - can see this set quickly becoming a new favorite. Rhinestones are flat enough that they shouldn't cause a problem in the mail (and as extra insurance I took them to the post office and requested that they be hand cancelled). Once I settled on the design, these came together pretty quickly. I used leftover scraps of vellum to dress up the envelopes.

Now I'm off to the grocery store to get the ingredients for a special Valentine's dinner for all my guys... this is one of their all-time favorite recipes... it was on the cover of Bon Appetit a few years ago and looked so good, I bought the issue... the recipe did not disappoint.

Here is a link to the recipe in case you'd like to try it for yourself - Mario Batali's Chicken Parmesan.

Victorian Valentine Card

Are you making Valentine's Day cards this year? Thought I would share one I created using the vintage styled Valentine's Day Collection from Karen Foster Design.

The card didn't start out this way, but this is what I wound up with... in keeping with the Victorian style, I really loaded on the embellishments.

The first version of the card was less detailed and layered... I thought it looked fine... until I photographed it. Does that ever happen to you? think a project looks great in person, but once you see a photograph of it, the design flaws become much more apparent?

Remember those "Spot the Differences" drawings where there would be two almost identical scenes and you would have to figure out what was different? How about now... can you spot the differences between my final project and the original?

Here's a close up of the embellishments to help out out...

Before

After

Alas, as it turns out both versions of this card are unloved by magazine editors... hope my husband likes it better! :)

 

Breast Cancer card

As you might have seen in recent advertisements, many of the staff at Me & My BIG Ideas have been touched by cancer and so they have started "Living creatively for the cause", created a line of themed products and are donating $10,000 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

This is a card I created using this line... thought it could work either for Valentine's Day or as general encouragement.

The stamped sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Heart Prints Sentiments set.

Thanks for stopping by!

Baby Boy layout & easy shower favor

Happy Monday! ...well, not so happy for all the disappointed Patriots fans... but I am happy that football season is finally officially over. Looking forward to having my husband and boys back on Sundays! 

Have another project to share today that was created for Me & My BIG Ideas. It's so much fun working on baby themed projects - brings back such great memories - and isn't that the whole point of scrapbooking? I imagine that as the years go by these will be even more special. For this layout I used photos of my oldest son, James, who will be graduating from high school in just a few months.

Loved these new puffy stickers called MAMBI Sticks.

I used my Silhouette to cut out the letters for his name and traced around the edges with a fine tipped black pen to help it pop a bit more.

I also used the Silhouette to create this paper baby bootie... these would be easy to mass produce and I thought they would make darling baby shower favors filled with candies or mints. 

Hope your week is off to a great start!

Birthday crafting ideas

Happy Groundhog's Day! hoping for good news from Punxsutawney Phil this year!

I'm back today with a few of the birthday projects I created for Me & My Big Ideas. Their products are so bright and colorful - perfect for a celebration. First up is a cake I created... started with an inexpensive styrofoam cake round from a local cake supply store. Covered it with paper, gathered ribbon, handmade paper flowers, die cut flourishes, and a custom banner... lots of fun to make!

And every party needs an invitation!

and favors... these were made with my Silhouette and would be easy and inexpensive to reproduce (if you have an electronic die cutting machine)... otherwise a bit more time consuming, but still not too difficult. An easier option is to cover paper towel rolls with patterned paper.

I love to add custom touches to birthday parties... of course, these days my 12, 15, and 17 year-old would die if I tried to hand out any fancy party favors... or even sent a handmade invitation... so for the time being, my birthday paper crafting is somewhat limited to design work projects. 

Hope you are able to put these ideas to better use!

New Products from Therm O Web!

Posting over at the Therm O Web blog today and am so thrilled to be able to introduce some of the new products they have come out with for CHA. 

One is a new adhesive called iCraft and it's like nothing else on the market... adhesive you can tear, cut, punch, or die cut... even works in an electronic die cutting machine! 

I added glitter directly to the die cut adhesive to create the border on this card

it's also perfect for creating paper flowers

The other new product is called Glitter Dust... it's spray on glitter! Really easy to use and you don't wind up with glitter all over your face and clothes.

It's an easy way to give something a translucent shimmer. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Back with MAMBI Birthday projects tomorrow.

 

 

MAMBI - Boys Will Be Boys

* scroll down to the next post to see the list of Karen Foster Design winners

Back again today with a few of the projects I created for Me & My BIG Ideas. Their products are always so colorful and cheerful and I loved that this time around they are showcasing lots and lots of paper crafting ideas in their booth at CHA. You can see a video of their booth set up here: MAMBI CHA 2012 booth set-up

The first set of projects I created were made using their 12x12 Boys Will Be Boys MAMBI Kit. I'm a bit partial to this kit as last year they asked me to create a layout to use on the packaging. This is what I came up with:

When they asked me to use the same kit to create samples for their CHA booth, I was thrilled. These kits are such great value - I made all of the following projects using just one kit and had plenty of leftovers! 

I had an extra set of Design-It Drawers and thought it would make a perfect place for a boy to keep all of those little collections they tend to accumulate.

After I made the drawers, I thought it would be more fun to create a set for a boy's room. This lampshade from IKEA was only $3!

and the last one was the easiest of all - I simply covered the mat that came with this inexpensive frame.

These same ideas would be easy to recreate using one of their girl themed kits too. I'll be back tomorrow with more MAMBI fun.