Graduation Party Invitations

I promised to catch up and here's my first effort.  I went back to edit photos of the graduation invitation that I made.  These were relatively simple when I used my MISTI stamping tool and the computer.

The sentiment is stamp from Hobby Lobby.  I had to remove it from the wood block to use in on my MISTI tool, but once placed I was able to stamp out 35 of these invitations to send to family and friends.  The card fold is easy.  I followed the tutorial provided here.  The tassel was made from some glittery crochet thread I picked up at Hobby Lobby.

I am so pleased with how these turned out.  I received lots of compliments.  Luckily, one of the guests used the invitation as a wrapping decoration, so I received one back.  I'm thinking of including this in Tim's scrapbook of the event.  I planned some fun activities for the party.  I'll post photos of that as well.  Thanks for stopping by.

I'm going to enter this into a couple of challenges.  Come join the fun!

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge: Make It Masculine

Word Art Wednesday's: Challenge #186 Anything Goes/Family Friendly

and the new to me Raisin Boat Challenge: Challenge #34 Graduation

Our Beautiful World - Fun

It's been a while since I posted some crafty goodness.  I promise that is about to change.  Life has been passing quickly over the past two months.  We re-did the downstairs in our home which I shared pictures of last week.  Also, my son Timothy graduated from high school.  I was able to squeeze in some crafting in and amongst all that fun, but I have struggled to find time to edit photos and get them posted.  I'm hoping to change that in the coming week, but know that it may take a while to get caught up.  In the meantime, I thought I would join the fun over at Our Beautiful World this week.  The word prompt was Fun! and, boy!, did we have fun this past week.  My in-laws have a timeshare in Hawaii that they gift the week to graduating seniors so they can enjoy one big vacation as a family before, presumably, launching into their own, grown life.  Tim will stay home to attend ASU in the fall, but we took the family vacation anyways!

Lots and lots of beach time. This is Sunset Beach on the North Shore of Oahu.

Dan and I at the Round Top lookout.

Our hula girl, Katie, at the Dole Plantation.  Pineapple Whip treat, yum!

The entire family at the windswept Pali Lookout.  Timed photo isn't exactly focused, but it's all we got.

Relaxing at the timeshare lagoon.

Big surf on the South Shore while we were there.  

Cloud filled sunsets put on quite the show for our trip.

Thank you for patiently walking through my vacation photos.  I'll return to crafty goodness later this week.  Until then, check out all the Fun! over at Our Beautiful World.  The ladies have some great photos that I hope will inspire you to join the fun.

What have I been doing you ask?

It has been a while on the posting and I thought I would share what I've been spending my time on.  We decided that since my son is graduating high school (tonight even!) we would update the house a bit.  It started with a few lamps out in the front room and quickly escalated to new laminate wood floors, new plumbing (loooong story that isn't the highlight of this tale), new toilets (22 year old toilets needed some updating), and  ultimately new curtains, blinds and a few new pillows.

I still have to get some of my pictures up on the walls.  I simply ran out of time with all the other activities going on at the end of school.  That pulley lamp on the table - started everything!

The same room a few years ago before the upgrades.  My scrapbox remains in that corner, just didn't get a picture!

This is the family room.  The lower half of the walls is Benjamin Moore's Revere Pewter.  One of the most popular colors around.  I wanted to go green (my favorite color), but saw these roman shades in Home Depot.  Sold!  The cornice above the windows were made by my dad 20 years ago when we moved into the house.  The 10 year old Saint Bernard, Abby, would not move for my picture taking.

Another photo to contrast.  That plaid wallpaper was up for 20 years too!

 The switchplates were old and decrepit too.  I almost splurged and bought brand new fancy plates.  Then I was thinking how I Modge Podge things and a trip to Michaels revealed this fabulous fabric tape.  So simple to cover the switchplates and outlet covers with trendy, patterned fabric tape.  If it gets dirty or I get sick of it, rip it off and cover with new tape.  This makeover cost less than $10 in fabric tape for all the covers downstairs.  Fabulous!
















I'm so pleased with how things turned out.  We have a fair bit of work to go through the upstairs and maybe some more updates.  But for now, I'm heading to a graduation family getaway on Friday.  Uploading photos for editing on the plane/trip and maybe I can catch up on some posts.  Thanks for hanging in there with me during my time away.  I hope your summer starts this week with a bang!

Sympathy Card- They Keep Coming

I went back to my technique of die cutting smaller die cuts learned in my Stretch Your Dies online class.  I think the soft pink sets the right tone in this card made for a co-worker.  You can see the outline image a little better too.   I die cut Heartfelt Creations Butterfly Medley die using patterned paper.  I arranged the butterflies and some small white embossed flowers (made out of vellum) on my work surface to fill the flower shape I could cut.  I place transfer tape (sticky side covering the die cuts) over the die cuts and then cut my larger die.  The original shape of the larger die is a large flower- wavy in a symmetrical way.  After gluing down the image, I added some coral prills to the center of the flowers.  I stamped the sentiment in brown Archival Ink.

Finishing Another Set of Gratitude Cards

I decided to shake up the design a little bit for these subsequent cards.  The patterned paper in the background is actually a scrap from the heap.  Here's the details on this card:

• The frame was stamped on vellum and embossed with white embossing powder and then cut using the matching die.  I colored the die cut on the backside with Worn Lipstick, Peeled Paint and Vintage Floret Distress Markers.  
• The flowers were stamped with the Birds and Blooms stamp on vellum and embossed with white embossing powder.  They were then die cut with the matching die and colored with Worn Lipstick.  The centers are filled with Tu Tu Pink prills.
• The butterfly was also stamped with my Butterfly Medley stamp and embossed with white embossing powder onto vellum which was then die cut with the matching die.  I colored with Scattered Straw, Worn Lipstick, Picked Raspberry Distress Ink.  
• All elements on the front are laced with glitter to give it a fine shimmer.
• The sentiment was printed on the computer, die cut into a circle and edged with Vintage Photo Distress ink.  The image was layered onto the patterned paper and everything glued down.  

On the inside I used my stitched rectangle dies to cut out another verse printed on the computer.  I left the die cut in the die long enough to apply some Peeled Paint Distress Ink to the inside of the frame for this effect.  It is applied with a few foam squares to give it a lift.

More of the same.  The glitter effect of the cards is lost in my pictures.  You can kinda see it, but not really.  I'm really pleased with how these turned out...