Red, White & Blue

Just a quick post today! I'm very busy creating a mini baby album, but I am taking a break to post this card. I can't believe I'm just getting around to posting it! I created it based on our July sketch at the The Sketch File and since it's already the end of July, I figured it was time to post it. As you might have guessed, I was also inspired by the July 4th celebrations here in the US. I ended up using red, white and blue as well as stars.

Please come on over to The Sketch File and post a card or two based on our sketch.

Summer Streamers

We're still playing with STREAMERS at The Sketch File! This is the second week for our Summer Streamers July sketch. Kathy has created a wonderful sketch for all of us to play with so I hope you'll join us for this sketch challenge.

I love the bunch of flowers in the corner of Kathy's sketch, but rather that re-create the lovely sketch just as it appears, I decided to use a cluster of butterflies. They were sitting on my desk top begging to be used, so instead of finding a place to store them, I used them as a focal point on my card. I also replaced the streamers with small dots to represent the butterflies flight pattern.

Kathy has also posted an alternate view of the sketch just in case this one doesn't appeal to you. Both sketches will be up all month. I am looking forward to seeing your creation.

Warm Winter Wishes

I'm back with a second card for the "two-fer" challenge over at Jingle Belles. Here are the details that I shared in my previous post:

The most recent challenge at Jingle Belles has us looking no further than our own craft rooms! We've all gathered quite a stash of crafting goodies (at least I know I have a room full), so the challenge is to use something that is at least a year old to create a Christmas card. Jingle Belles is teaming up with Shopping Our Stash or SOS where the challenges always invite us to focus on supplies and materials we already have on hand. These are always great challenges for me because as I paw through my stash I often discover something I have totally forgotten. With this challenge we also get to link our card up with BOTH Jingle Belles and Shopping Our Stash (thus the "two-fer" challenge)! 

My second card had me reaching for some very old patterned paper. I can't remember when I bought it, but it was many years ago. I think I bought it from Oriental Trading. This particular patterned paper has mittens and hats printed all over it and there are lovely white snowballs as well. I also dug out my Shape Boss....remember those? Mine was a gift from my husband years and years ago. I remembered that the Shape Boss had a mitten image, so I used it to dry emboss the mitten shapes onto green cardstock and white cardstock. Then I fussy cut around the green mittens and adhered the hearts and cuffs from the white embossed mittens.  I attached the mittens to a piece of purple cardstock, inked in some snowballs with a gel pen and matted this on white cardstock. Next I adhered this to the patterned paper and trimmed around the patterned paper with a pair of decorative scissors. These scissors were among the first tools I purchased when I first started paper crafting. (I really should be using them more frequently!) The inside sentiment reads "Sending Warm Winter Wishes".

Thanks for the challenge 

Jingle Belles and Shopping Our Stash!

Let it Snow

The most recent challenge at Jingle Belles has us looking no further than our own craft rooms! We've all gathered quite a stash of crafting goodies (at least I know I have a room full), so the challenge is to use something that is at least a year old to create a Christmas card. Jingle Belles is teaming up with Shopping Our Stash or SOS where the challenges always invite us to focus on supplies and materials we already have on hand. These are always great challenges for me because as I paw through my stash I often discover something I have totally forgotten. With this challenge we also get to link our card up with BOTH Jingle Belles and Shopping Our Stash!

For my card, I found a lovely little stamp from Stampin' Up. I had purchased it at an incredible craft supply garage sale about two years ago. Sadly, I don't think I have ever used it. I used Memento white ink to stamp the image onto a square scrap piece of dark blue cardstock. The cardstock is also old. It was given to me many years ago and it's from a company called Fox River Company. After I stamped the image, I used an Xacto knife to cut around the image, then trimmed a bit more from the frame to leave a bit of white space between the image and the frame. I adhered the snowy image to a white cardbase that I dry embossed with snowflakes. Inside the card the sentiment reads "Let it Snow".

Thanks for stopping by! I'm off to create a second card for this challenge.

July Sketch

Happy JULY! I can't believe how quickly the summer is passing by! I wish things would slow down a bit!

Are you ready for the July sketch. Our DT at the The Sketch File has some very inspiring cards for you! I hope you'll take a peek. Kathy has created a wonderful sketch which at first had me stumped. Then as I looked at it, I saw a waterfall, so I created this waterfall card.

What do you see when you look at the sketch? I hope you will be inspired by the sketch, then link up a card or two with us.

Late Post

I am running a bit behind with this post. I had intended on posting last Tuesday, but forgot all about it....ooops! Oh well, I suppose it's better late than never. Both of these cards are for one of our challenges at The Sketch File. Kathy created the sketch and we're hoping to see how you are inspired to use it. Please visit The Sketch File to see other cards created by the DT and post your creation with us!

July 4th~Independence Day Celebration

July 4th is right around the corner. My community celebrates Independence Day with a day long event. There will be a children's parade in the morning, followed by live music, entertainment, games and various children's activities at a local park. We'll end the day with fireworks if the fire department gives the okay. In the past, there have been some years when it was too dry, with drought conditions, to risk potential fires. This year there will be about 90 booths at the park. I will be working a booth for the first time this year.  I work in a dental office and one of my co-workers and I will be representing our office at the celebration. We will have a booth with games for children. I've created two of the games. One is a ring toss with handmade toothbrushes and a toothpaste tube.  The toothpaste tube is about two feet tall and easily made with a posterboard, paper plate and cardstock. I used the cardstock for the cap...I just scored it, accordion folded it and rolled it into a cap shape.  I stuffed the tube with an old bed pillow, leaving room on each side so I can slip it over two stakes that I pound into the ground. The toothbrushes are made from pool noodles that I cut in half and carved with a bread knife. The brushes are floor brushes from the $$$ store. Because the noodles have a hole running up the center of them, they also slip over stakes pounded into the ground. I made the rings from oxygen tubing. I slipped a wire inside each piece of tubing, shaped them into a circle and used electrical tape to wrap them. To add a decorative touch I used yarn and crocheted a looped stitch around each. The yarn will also make the rings easier to grasp.

I will also be selling some handmade items to benefit "The Race for the Cure". (One of my co-workers has breast cancer.) Two of the items I am selling are quilted wall hangings. I haven't appliqued a quilt in a long time and decided to give it a try. When I was looking for ideas, I ran across two similar quilts on the internet (I don't remember the source). I created my own version of the quilts that I saw. Here they are:

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

To all my American followers....

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Gift Bag Tag for Baby

I made this tag to attach to a gift bag for a baby shower. It isn't a great photo because the colors are slightly off, but it's too late to retake the photo as I've already given the gift to the expectant mother. I tore cardstock to create the bear, added chalked rosy cheeks and inner ears, then used a marker and white gel pen to create the facial features.  At first I had just the bear sitting on the card, but felt it needed a bit more so I added the yellow blanket. I dry embossed the yellow cardstock to give it a bit of texture,  then carefully folded it so the folds would look like a blanket.