Baby Shower Invitations a la Peter Rabbit!

I had the great opportunity last month to organize a baby shower for a co-worker.  She was expecting a baby boy so I thought I would use my Peter Rabbit stamp.  I simply adore Peter because my kid's nursery was Beatrix Potter.  I have several of the Crafter's Companion stamps that are now retired.

Peter was stamped in brown Archival Ink onto Bristol paper.  This is Brandy's new find. She has been researching great stamping techniques and came up with this paper.  A fabulous (3 for 1) sale at Michael's and I have some in the stash.  The image is crisp since the paper has very little texture, just the weight and small amount of texture make watercoloring easy.  I layered Frayed Burlap, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress Markers onto the image using a water brush.  The coat is Faded Jeans, again layered to create dimension.  A little Worn Lipstick Distress Marker in the inner ear and cheeks of Peter and I'm done.  I cut the brown cardstock and Peter out with my fabulous Simon Says Stamp stitched rectangles dies.

I ended up making about 30 of these invitations.  I used a paper pad to coordinate the background patterned paper and various twill ribbons.  The sentiment and information were all printed onto the Bristol paper using the computer and my printer. The paper doesn't like to run through the printer like other cardstock paper.  I may restrict it's use to stamping.  Still, a great add to the supplies.

I'm still working to get those photos of Brandy's work up on the blog. You'll enjoy it, so I'll just keep trying!

Aloha

 I couldn't come back to the office without a treat for my co-workers.  I also couldn't resist the chance to whip up something crafty.  I used clear treat bags and this simple image printed on the computer to create these small tastes of island life for them.  Inside is pineapple hard candies that remind me of the wind and waves during our trip.  I simply used a clip art image of the flower and colored it with my Distress Markers.  You can't color too much as the water in the marker will run the inkjet image.  However if I was quick and careful, these treats finished perfectly.

I'm wishing all of you out there a wonderful week.  Aloha!

A Very Colorful Happy Birthday!

Brandy has been at it again.  I also have several photos to edit and post of her recent card making endeavors.  This beauty was colored with a new set of watercolor markers.  The presents and candles die cut and accented with white marker.  Such a cute, fun birthday card, don't you think?

Graduation for a Girl!

When your children graduate high school it is a fair bet to say that you have friends that also have graduating seniors.  This card was made for the daughter of said friend. My son and her daughter went to elementary, junior high and high school together.

The papers came from a My Mind's Eye paper pad, Be Amazing, Follow Your Heart. I fussy cut the kites out and adhered with foam squares.  The floral pieces were cut from a scrap piece of grey cardstock using a couple different dies.  A sheet of pearl swirls were cut apart and laid in the background to accent the sentiment which was stamped in black Archival Ink using a Simon Says Stamp Friendship Messages stamp.  I left room on the inside for a simple Congratulations stamp and a heartfelt message.

This is a time of passages- these young people into adulthood and I stand on the precipice of an empty nest.  It is probably a few years away, but still the approach is unrelenting.  I didn't think I would be ready, but now that it is here, I'm finding myself more prepared than I thought.  May God bless them all with a full and happy life.

Graduation Son!

I had so much fun getting ready for the graduation party I didn't have a ton of time to make a handmade card.  I opted to purchase this Congratulations dimensional sticker at Hobby Lobby.  I did fancy the card up in a couple of ways: I used a black and white patterned paper as the backdrop.  I also added a die cut S-O-N and used Crystal Accents to create a dimension to the letters, adhering them to the pre-made sticker.  I think what really mattered was the heartfelt words on the inside.  My husband, Dan, wrote some touching words to encourage and strengthen Timothy on his graduation.  Here's some details on the party:

Timothy and his girlfriend, Jessica, as they prepared the photo booth.

We wanted to be sure to get photos of all the guests so we set up a photo booth with my new curtains as a backdrop.

We also played one game where I printed off pictures of Timothy at various ages.  Guests were to guess the month and year of the pictures.  Some were easy- a photo of the newborn Tim - and some were more difficult.  You'd be surprised how tough early elementary years are to discern from!  Guests were given party favors (sorry, no pics!) inspired by this pin.  Creating your own circles for the bottom of Hershey kisses is very easy.  I used internet available free clip art for the Class of 2015.   The following step by step presumes you know a few things about using Internet Explorer and Word.

Step 1 - Internet search for free clip art.

Step 2 - I added the clip art to the Word document as a picture (right click on the image in your internet browser and select copy as image (or just copy).  In an open Word document you can click the Paste button in the upper left corner of the Home ribbon.

Step 3 - Crop the image so that the edges of the image are very close to the edge of the picture.  Click the Crop button on the Picture Tools ribbon (upper right side of the Picture Tools ribbon highlighted in yellow in my image).

Step 4 - I resize the image to 0.75" (or 3/4 inch).  This is so that the image fits on the bottom of a Hershey's chocolate kiss. To do this I click into the height box in the upper right corner of the Picture Tools window.  In my picture below, I've already typed 0.75 in the box and hit the enter button on my keyboard.  The image is resized.  At this point, I click on the image and copy the image into the clipboard before moving on.

Step 5 - With the image copied into the clipboard, I insert a table.  I usually just randomly select a large quantity of rows/columns to fit the page.  Here I used 7 columns by 7 rows.  I then pasted the image into cells of the table leaving a blank row and column next to each image.

Step 6 - At this point is is simply a matter of filling in the table.  Ultimately, I used 240 images.  I selected 5 different images to create a bit of interest.  Once the page is full, print the page onto copy paper.  Really, there is no need for anything more fancy and the thinness of the copy paper made it lie flat to the Hershey's chocolate kiss nicely.

Step 7 - I punched the circles out using my 3/4 in. circle punch.  I turned the punch upside down to see where the image would be cut and fit it in nicely in.









Step 8 - I used a Glue Dot to adhere the punched circles on the bottom of the Hershey's chocolate kiss.  Since this was a boy's graduation party, I simply placed the kisses in a clear treat bag and used the silver foil twist tie to close.





I hope all your end of the school year plans were met with success. I know that Timothy thought his party was great and we finished with a fabulous graduation ceremony.  The young man is now officially graduated.