A Year of Cards

Happy New Year! I don't know about you but I'm looking forward to 2015.  As a crafter, I have a long list of new things I'd like to try and I can't wait to share those with you.

But first things first, let's take a look at my year long commitment of creating handmade cards for my family.  I wish I could say that I was this awesome sister/aunt that remembers birthdays, buys the card and gets it in the mail on time but the truth is I pretty much suck when it comes to that...lol!  It's not that I don't love my family, I just have never been able to get my act together enough to get it done.  Well, a new year meant that I had another opportunity to change things and I'm happy to say that I did.

I made the decision in December 2013 to make each of my family members a birthday card for the next year -- not only make the card, but get it in the mail so they received it on their birthday.  I was successful in doing it for all but one.  Not 100% but certainly a win in my book.

Here is my year of cards review.

My oldest sister Linda's card

My nephew Nathaniel's card

My sister Denise's card -- she turned 50 this year
and she loves a good martini!

My niece Amber's card -- she loves purple!

My sister Gracie's card.  I made this card based on
a piece of artwork she made

My brother Terence's card

My niece Jasmine's card

My sister Sherry's card

My niece Vanessa's card.  This one was missing
the cupcake wrapper bottom but I think it
still looks okay

I was so proud of myself for getting these done that I'm planning to do the same thing again this year.  I didn't stop here though, here are a few others that I did as well.

A thank you card for Cindy, a friend of my sister Gracie

A birthday card for the mom of my co-worker Whitney

As the year ended, I wanted to take the opportunity to teach the little prince about thinking of others at Christmas.  With the help of my co-worker and friend Melissa, she gave me the names and addresses of some of our currently serving military men and we sent six people a little holiday cheer.  We hope that since they were unable to be home with their own families that maybe a little note from us would help bring a bit of Christmas to them.

This was fun and I love being creative -- can't wait to see what 2015 has in store.

All Wrapped Up

When you think of cheerleading, what does that bring to mind?  Cute little girls in their uniforms performing massive acrobatic stunts and perfectly choreographed routines?  Yup, that's what I envision too.  But I've recently learned that there is a place for a craft lady like me in cheerleading...behind the scenes.

My fav customer's daughter is a part of a local cheer squad and they have kept me quite busy this cheer season.  Originally the plan was to blog each thing I did for them, but let's be honest here -- most of my crafts happen after 9pm so the idea of getting them completed on time, staging and taking pictures AND getting up a blog post was way too overwhelming for me.  So I decided to do one post with pics of the items I did.  *Warning:  Poor picture quality*  Late night crafting means I forgo the Canon for my phone camera and pray for a good result (don't judge).

Here is my season with the Cheer Jewels all wrapped up!

These are the awesome cupcake toppers.  After each competition (monthly), the girls receive a 'cheer' inspired goody bag.  A couple of the bags included cupcakes topped with these personalized toppers.

February was all about "love".  Red, pink and white M&M's in candy containers that I purchased from Pick Your Plum were included in the bags.

Year end girls' gift - a framed group picture.  I hand painted each one with the squad's colors and a megaphone then used vinyl for the name.

The end of season card made for the two coaches -- each girl signed {forgot to take a pic...again, don't judge}

The ultimate coaches gift - a spa basket which included a luxury spa gift card to a well known local spa, monogrammed spa robes and several goodies from The Body Shop.  The assistant coaches (two high school students) received a mani/pedi at another local establishment.  Oooh-la-la!

What fun it's been this season helping out behind the scenes for the Cheer Jewels.  Now it's time to sit back and relax...that is until next season!


UPDATE:  My customer sent me a forwarded messages from the head coach.  Here is what she had to say  "I'm not sure who all helped put the basket together so please pass along to whomever.  I just wanted to say how awesome the whole basket was.  The Cheer Jewel card is adorable!!  The robe is my new best friend and the lotions and shower gels are heavenly!  Thanks again for all the time and work it took to put that together.  Very nice!!!"

And this is why I do what I do!  This note has had me smiling for over an hour.  I'm so happy that they are happy -- SCORE!

Thanksgiving Cards

It's almost Thanksgiving!  Retail would have you believe that it's Christmas {don't even get me started on that!} but for me, I love Thanksgiving and everything that goes with remembering my blessings and being grateful for my life.

I have been super busy lately but I just couldn't let the holiday pass without crafting something so I spent my day off playing around with my Silhouette machine.  Since joining my online Silhouette group, I've learned SO much about my machine and what it can do.  I have a long list of crafts I'd like to try, but I decided I would start simple.  Cards

Where is that turkey?

Pumpkin Love

All about the pilgrims

These were fun to make and I look forward to getting them in the mail this weekend to friends.

Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours!

{Note: Sorry about the poor photos -- I'm learning to use my camera so these pictures were me playing around with different settings.  Give me grace...I'm growing in my photography.  (smile) }


Where we like to party!

Happy Anniversary!

Hey everyone, I'm back!!!  It's been over a month since I last posted...did you guys miss me?  Well, I've certainly missed you!  A month away gave me time to just slow down a bit and take a few things off my plate for a while.  Now that I'm feeling more refreshed, I'm back and ready to jump right in.

Today's craft comes to you via an Evite I received from a mommy friend of mine.  Her parents just celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary.  The Evite wasn't to attend a party for them, as they would be out of the country on their anniversary, but to do something much more special for them.  The 'invitees' were asked to send them an anniversary card.  The plan was for them to return home and see all the wonderful anniversary wishes from their friends and family.  They are blessed with amazing children who thought up this wonderful idea and it gave me such 'warm and fuzzies' that I couldn't wait to send my card.

Of course the crafter in me would not allow me to go and buy a card from the store.  For this special occasion I needed to make something just as special.  Here is what I created.

Happy Anniversary Richard and Libby!  Here's wishing you 20 more glorious years together!

The front

The inside

*** 10-08-13 EDIT ***

What a wonderful surprise for Libby and Richard.  Read on to see what they had to say about this heartfelt anniversary surprise party!

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you all for your greetings and good wishes in celebration of our 20^th wedding anniversary. 

When we returned from our trip  we had an “official” US Postal Service tub of mail waiting. Bills and catalogues, right?  We had no idea what was going on when found greeting card after greeting card as well as emails and phone messages all from very special friends and family!  

You would have enjoyed watching a couple of jet-lagged confused travelers trying to understand why and how. One of our neighbors had to explain that it was an Surprise Anniversary Card Party.

Thanks to our adult children for their creativity and effort in putting this together.

With love,

Richard & Libby

They were even kind enough to include a picture.  I'm so happy that they were surprised and that their "party" was such a huge success!

Side note {well because I just have too!}: It's too bad the post office couldn't keep from destroying the key -- next time I'll be sure to put "fragile" on the envelope.  Lesson learned.  

Doll Club Cards

My oh my, summer is winding down and it has been weeks since I've been able to get a blog post done. The last few weeks I've taken time to just hang out with the little prince enjoying a calmer pace and having fun. Currently, we are spending a few days at the beach as a family...a much needed vacation and quality family time!

I've got several projects in the works that I'm looking forward to blogging about but first things first, let's talk cards. My sister is a part of a doll club, the Flights of Fantasy Cloth Doll Club, and she asked if I would make some condolence and get well cards for the club. Now my sister is an amazing artist, and she could have made short work of these cards herself so I feel honored that she would ask me to make them.

One of my favorite sites is Scrapbook.com. I love the site, there are so many great projects you can get inspiration from. After checking out the card gallery, I came across a card made by AliMscraps that I loved instantly and chose to use as my inspiration for the condolence cards (below).


A trip to Hobby Lobby for the correct paper and here is my card design:

Paper cut to the right size

Adding beads using jewelry wire

Adding fabric flowers (beads, wire and flowers are on hand from the topiary project)

Using my Silhoutte to cut a really cute flourish

Design layout

Added a "Thinking of You" stamp in the corner and condolence card complete

In my hurry to get the cards completed before we left to go on vacation, I wasn't able to take pictures of the process for the 'Get Well' cards but I did remember to take a photo of the finished product. Once again I searched for inspiration on Scrapbook.com and found this wonderful card created by Creater - a simple and sweet design.


The original was done in a vertical design but I think it transferred well horizontally

I love how the cards came out and surely hope the doll club does too!

A Hot Pink Birthday

At the preschool where I work part-time, each teaching team takes turns to organize and celebrate the birthdays of the wonderful women we work with. My team is in charge of the summer birthday ladies and I volunteered to make the cards for them.

Though I'm not overly impressed by the way they turned out (this is what happens when I'm doing crafts way too late at night), here are the final products. My teaching partner will be in charge of the goodies - she's planning a cake with hot pink and zebra stripped fondant designs. The cards are color coordinated.




Happy Birthday Ladies!

~ Happy Crafting!