I'm Back!!!

So I realize that I haven't posted in over a year. Not sure how that happened. I recently cleaned up my craft area and it seems to have inspired some creativity. Pictures according to photo order: 1) birthday card for my daughter's big buddy at school (her favorite color is black); 2) card for a soon-to-be divorced friend- the outside says "life's simple pleasures" and the inside says "she realized that without him she could enjoy life's simple pleasures--shopping for new clothes, new shoes and new purses; 3) cute little notebooks I made for a friends kids; and 4)calendars, clipboards and big clips for Christmas teacher gifts.

I am hoping that now with a clean space, and a clear mind, I can continue creating and maybe even blogging a little more.

It's been a long time!

It has been a long time since I last posted anything. I have been creating cards, but usually it is one of those last minute "need a card" situations, so my blog has gone bare. I do have something to share today though that I actually remembered to take a picture of-whew. One of my good friends from H.S. is getting married (renewing vows really) so I offered to make her wedding invitations. We played around with some different ideas and styles and this was the final invitation. Because my samples were not in her wedding colors I wasn't sure what the final product would look like, but I love the way they came out. The invitation does go in an actual envelope too. It's a 6 x 6 square card, the template was actually for making an envelope, but I liked that it worked for this too. I blocked out all the personal and identifying info. What do you think?

April Calendar

Here's the calendar page for April. This duck holding the flower is one of my favorite Amuse stamps. Has spring sprung in your area?

Color Challenge

I have never done a color challenge, but I've been in a craft slump, so I thought I would give this a try. It was posted by Dawn McVey who is part of the Papertrey Ink design team and does some really cute and adorable things. Her challenge was to make a card using brown (chocolate), celery/moss, white and teal. This is a pretty simple card, but I really like the color combo and think it suits the card well. My picture taking definitely needs improvement, maybe it's my lighting? What do you think of the card?

Calendars

Wow I am behind in posting stuff! I was supposed to make Amuse calendars for Christmas gifts-key words being "supposed to"-and didn't get them done in time. I just recently finished them. Here is pictures of the outside of them and also a picture of what my March page inside looks like. While I had my Zutter out I made a little notebook to carry in my purse where I can write down the names of books I read about or someone recommends so that when I'm at the library or bookstore I will actually remember the names of them. I used the books stamps from Amuse for this one. The other notebook I made at the request of a friend. She was getting ready to buy her daughter a charm bracelet and her first charm. She wants to take a picture of the charms as she buys them, put the picture in the book and then write a note to her daughter to tell her why she bought her that specific charm. Isn't that such a clever idea? I might have to "borrow" that from her once Annika gets older.

Hero Mail

Geeta had a challenge on her blog to make some cards for Operation Hero Mail which sends cards to our troops serving overseas. I made her about 25 cards, all the same so it was easy to mass produce. Of course a card seems like such a small token when you think of our brave men and women who put their life on the line for our freedom. To our servicemen and women--You are my Hero!

Love is in the Air

I have a couple of pictures to post from last week. Last week DH and I celebrated an anniversary and there was Valentine's day. I made this card for the hubster. It is very similar to one Rhonda made and featured on the Amuse Blog, but I thought it was so cute that I thought it would be perfect for the anniversary.

I decided to not make Valentine's cards for Annika's class this year and instead made Valentine's tube treats. Wish I could say this idea was mine, but no, I got this from the very talented Geeta who made them for Halloween and the Amuse Instructor workshop. The inside has Valentine M&M's. I made a quick tag with the milkshake stamp and on the back stamped "You're the cherry on top!" and "Happy (heart)'s day!" and then signed her name. I think they turned out really cute and the kids loved them.

Busy as a bee

I haven't posted anything lately mainly because I've been busy creating, but then forget to take pictures to post. I'm still working on calendars-yes, I know its already February and I'm working on Annika's Valentine's day treats for school. I made this card awhile back, but never posted it.

The paper is from Papertrey Ink (Everyday Blessings and Aqua Mist cardstock). The stamp is amuse. I think the sentiment on the twill ribbon smeared a little. Maybe my ink was too wet for it. The Daisy Girl stamp is one of my favorites, makes me happy and think of spring. Are you ready for spring?

Share your spark 1.21.09

Heather's share your spark this week is to make a card using some type of cutout. Maybe I had the Inauguration on the brain, but I chose to make a card using the flag from the Hero Mail set. I stamped stars on the background using white chalk ink, a little bit of scrap of blue gingham ribbon and the flag which I used spica pens on for all three colors. Overall I'm please with how it came out.

Bling!

Heather Meeson (who is not only a talented card designer, but photographer) had a challenge for Share your Spark Friday to use some bling on a card. I always want to do her challenges, but never seem to find the time. One of my goals this year is to make more time for me and the things I love (crafty things!). So I set out to make a card and since I needed a birthday card for a good friend I combined the two. This is a lot of bling for me as I'm usually the more subtle type. I even glittered the red on the superhero suit and you probably can't see it very well, but the circle on the belt also has a gem/bling in it. I really like how it stands out though. Thanks for the challenge Heather!

Thinking about Heart Day

Even though I still have Christmas decorations up (coming down today!) and I have yet to write Christmas thank you notes, I am already thinking of Valentine's day and my projects. I made this card awhile back for a contest or something, but realized I never posted it. I love this Elsye stamp from Amuse. It was my first Amuse stamp and I bought it last year to make my daughter's Valentines for school. The card ended up different than I planned, because of an "oops that didn't work". Originally the "U", which is a chipboard, was white and I used an ink pad to dye it red. I was then going to use a SU! polka dot background on it and emboss it in white. Well...because the chipboard was textured and not smooth, the stamp didn't come out quite right and it looked awfully. So to salvage it I decided to wrap the chipboard piece in ribbon. The color of my ribbon wouldn't have been my first choice, but it was all I had that would work. I might try this again with a better ribbon and see how it turns out.

Post holidays

Okay, I really did do lots of holiday crafts and make all our Christmas cards, but I was in such a hurry to get everything done that the one thing I didn't do was take pictures. Agh! Such is life. This is a card I made early in December before life got chaotic. It was a birthday card for a relative. I also made the other card for my college roommate, as an engagement card, she's been engaged for 3 months now. Hey, at least she's not married yet! How does life just always pass me by?

Recycle and reuse

I've discovered that many of my other crafty friends are much like me in saving things because you never know when you might use it which leads to hoarding things. I think my hubby tolerates it because on more than one occassion I've bailed him out last minute on a needed birthday gift for a co-worker. I've had these journals for a year that I knew I wanted to do something with, but I wasn't sure how or what because they had this 3-d chipboard thing on them. Well, I discovered that if I was careful the chipboard design came off completely and evenly not damaging the journal at all. Now of course I couldn't just throw these cute chipboards away, right? So, I made these cards out of them. The tag is a flower with a circle in the center and it says "I love your style" which is from a SU! set now long retired. I think it's a cute care for a girlfriend just to say "I'm thinking of you" or something. What do you think?

Crafty Goodiness

I wanted to post these cute notebooks I made for a craft fair, but never got around to it. I had a few left that I took some pics of to share. I think the honey do's ones are so cute.

Christmas Card

This was another card I made while back. I really like the way it came out. It's a 5 x 5 gatefold card, all are Amuse stamps, the white bow in the middle is holding it tied together.

Thinking of You Card

I made this card for a contest awhile back and since it looks like I didn't win : ( I figured I should post it. Most of my cards have at least one stamped image, so this was slightly different since it has no stamping. Most of the die cuts are Quikutz, except for the flower which is Stampin' Up.

Weekly Challenge 10.31.08

This card is for this week's challenge to make a card using no layers. It was a lot harder than I thought. I used spica pens on the mushrooms to brighten them up and also a white sharpie paint pen to add the dots on the mushrooms to dress it up. I thought there was too much white at the top, but I'm not sure I'm happy with the sentiment and how it came out. This was definitely a challenge and out of my comfort zone.

Family Stationery

A friend of mine asked me to make some stationery for them to use as a family. I love this color combo because it was hip/modern, but not too girly in case her husband wants to use them. I used two circle punches for the top and a monogram stamp for their last name from Papertrey Ink in Chocolate Chip (SU!). I printed their names on the bottom onto my cardstock in a dark brown ink. I then layered the white cardstock onto the turquoise cardstock. The set has matching turquoise envelopes. These were so easy to make that I think I might make several sets for family gifts at Christmas and just vary the colors. Think people would like that as a gift?

Not MIA

It's been awhile since I last posted, but I have been doing crafty things, including several cards. This is a card I made for my husband to give to a co-worker whose grandmother passed away. Sometimes I get so caught up with the ease of using Amuse that I forget to use some of my other stamps. This is a retired set from Stampin' Up that is a sympathy set that I've never used. I bought it mainy for the lily stamp. I used aqua mist cardstock from Papertrey Ink along with patterned paper from their Everyday Blessings set. I think it's just enough for a sympathy card without being too much. What do you think?

Stamp of the Week 9.27.08

One of the stamps of the week on the Amuse Addict site is the birthday celebration set. When I first saw this set I thought "parade", so what better way to celebrate a birthday then with a birthday parade. I'm not crazy about the background paper I used, mainly because I don't think you can see it enough, but I do like the stamped portion of the card. I may have to make this one again with some different background paper. I also had to use a 4 x 6 card so all the stamps would fit on there.