Chicks, Worms and an Intruder?

Look what has hatched in my daughter's kindergarden class! Cute little chicks!! They are noisy little boogers but adorable.

And look at these little guys....they are silk worms and these things can chow! They eat Mulberry leaves. My son also has silk worms in their classroom but they've all cocooned. Cocoons look sorta like styrofoam peanuts with cobwebs.

Now take at look at the following photos of my craftsroom:





No, there was no break-in...this is what happens when you are attempting to pack and keep getting distracted LOL!!!

The photo with all the blocks of wood is the result of my frustration with trying to stamp straight. I "skinned" 95% of my rubber stamps and gained back a cupboard and a half of storage. I bought some EZ Mount and plan on mounting the naked rubber when we get to the new house (get your mind out of the gutter!). Was going to pack the wood blocks too (thinking painting them, stamping or sticking with letter cutouts then attaching magnets for homemade alpha block magnets) but nah...I'll be busy unpacking the entire summer.

Look at these altered cuteness! These are flip flops my daughter and I bought at Michael's for $1 a pair! I had branches of "silk" flowers from the dollar store so we just got to layering them and cutting coordinating ribbons and glued them on with Ultimate Glue. The Cuttlebug Flip Flop die was from the dollar bin at Michael's - gotta make matching tags for them! The flipflops are cut from fun foam and the foot die was cut using SU! Blush Blossom cardstock. These will go to my daughter's friends for their Kindergarden graduation gifts.



Now I better get to bed! No more coffee for dinner but it sure helped - I packed 9 boxes! 500 more to go....

Bridal Shower Favor Purses

The best way to get any project done is to have a group of ladies (and men too!) to help out in the assembly process. These pictures are the result of this afternoon's crafting effort to crank out 40 of these adorable favor purses and 40 coordinating invitations. We had a couple of manly men who helped tie ribbons, added velcro and fasten paper flowers. The rest the ladies did and they were amazing! Sure wish there were a few extras as I would have loved to have kept one for myself :-)! These favors will be filled with chocolates or mints.





Inspiration for the purses came from Inking Idaho.
Recipe
Cardstock: patterned paper is Making Memories, SU! black and pink cardstock
Ribbons: Black organdy ribbon from Jo Ann's, black and white polka dot ribbon and raspberry pink ribbon from Michael's; silver cording from SU! (retired)
Accessories: Cuttlekids shoe die, pink rhinestones from Michael's, tag punch from Martha Stewart, Top Note Die from SU! (Sizzix); assorted brad centers from SU!; flower punch from EK Success; Spellbinders scallop circle die; and Colluzzel (sp?) circle template

Here's a Lindt chocolate holder I made for Easter. These were "carrot" shaped chocolates and I just made a box to hold 2 of them and decorated the outside with mostly Martha Stewart punches (handle, fence, rabbit) and paper flowers I made. The chocolates are being held in place with a piece of cardstock with holes punched, small enough so you can stand the carrots in there without having them tip over. Cardstock used was all from SU! Stamps are from PTI.





I finally got a chance to try this adorable mini magazine holder. This one I found somewhere out there in blog land, can't recall the site but will update this post when I find the link to her blog. This one has the top edges folded down so the holder is a lot sturdier. Also, it uses 12 x 12 paper. Paper is from DCWV and the mixer brad I got at OTC.

Update: I found the tutorial for the magazine holder from embellish me. Check her out - she has a great step-by-step instruction on how to make these!

Serious Case-ing

Wow! Blogging 2 days in a row! Of course, doesn't make up for the month I was out of it....

Finally took pictures of the things I've been creating. Am eager to send these off to my friends so finally stole time away from chores/chauffer duties to take photos. My photo-taking is a bit rusty so got to get intimate again with the camera instruction book.

This one is a copy of PTI's stationery set created by Nichole Heady (go here to see the original) I didn't have any PayPal money to purchase the stationery holder template so I eye-balled it and created my own. The dimensions are my own. If you look closely, I put my Score-Pal to good use by doing a criss-cross pattern on the front. Stamps used are all from PTI (Polka Dot Basics and Simply Stationery). Ink and cardstock used are SU! (close to cocoa and baja breeze).




The next 3 photos below is not a direct case of case-ing (LOL!) but inspired by many of the card cases bags I've seen on SplitCoasters. This one re-uses the clear acrylic boxes that PTI's clear stamps comes package in (I cut them in half). I designed a bag around the boxes and used the same scoring technique as above then attached the clear box with red-line tape and finished it off with the pretty ribbon I've been hoarding (from Michael's). The notecards are 3x3; used the Swiss Dot embossing folders for the dots. The flower stamp on the front is again, from PTI, stamped and outlined with white Souffle pen (thanks, Karen! Love the pens!) and filled with aqua souffle ink. The purse closes using Basic Grey's small magnets. Cardstock is all SU!




The next 3 below are again inspired by what I've been seeing on SplitCoasters. I made mine half the size of what I saw because I wanted the card to fit into a smaller envelope. Plus I didn't want to glue a million little hydrangea flowers on the circles. If you look closely, you'll notice that these are individual small flowers that were punched, shaped then glued individually. I used Martha Stewart hydrangea punch using SU! cardstock colors (I believe it was Lovely Lilac and Lavender Lace). The leaves were punched using a McGill punch, cardstock used is called New Leaf by PTI - it's a beautiful green! Flower pot cardstock is SU Really Rust. The scallop punch on the flower pot is from EK Success. Double click the photo and you will see that the scallops are scalloped! Check here for instructions to make the original version.





The purse pictures below were inspired by purses I saw here and here. I used a corner rounder to cut the scallops around the designer paper - I don't recommend that method! It's hard to get it just right so if you have a large scallop die cut, use that instead. It will save you lots of mistakes. The paper I wasted trying to make perfect scallop circles were recycled to make the accompanying notecards you see here. There are 6 of them and I made matching envelopes (yes, handmade!). The patterned paper is Amy Butler. Purse has a velcro to help keep it closed. If you look closely at the purse, you can see I stitched the ribbon onto the patterned paper. I used some tape first to keep it in place but beware, don't put the tape where you are going to sew or else you'll have gummy mess on your sewing needle! The ribbon I stitched is that same one I used above. Can't waste any of it so took this last strip to use as embellishment. The flowers on the notecards are die cuts from Cuttlebug. Stamps used for the sentiments are all from PTI.




This 3-D flower pot was inspired by InkingAddict. I couldn't wait for her to post her tutorial so I made my own. My template has 3 pieces and I believe hers has a few more so I went with mine as I'm always in hurry to get done because I have to be elsewhere and not at home crafting! LOL! The flowers you see here are my own - I call them Dizzy Blooms and sold some in my Etsy shop back when I was still in business. The leaf die cuts are Sizzix. This box is large enough to hold 2 small bottles of lotion or a bit bag of chocolates.





Whew!!! That's it for now! If you'd like any instructions on how I made my altered case-ings, leave me a comment!

Next post - some HUGE news here!

I hope I win! and Please help us pray

Ok, this is totally self-serving and posting the following pictures so I can have a chance to win a contest at PaperTrey Ink.

These paper purses and bags are my own creations. If you're dying to get a hold of how I made them, you can leave a comment and I'll send you the instructions.

Here we go!

This first one is my version of the paper hat box. As you can see, it's very small but large enough to put a few chocolate eggs inside!


This suitcase is also a mini-version. What's inside? Look at the next picture - a few "shirt" bookmarks (thanks to Martha Stewart for the idea - I made mine out of patterned papers and used mini brad buttons for the buttons and textured paper for the ties).





My personal favorite - a recycled coffee bag using one of my favorite coffees (Tully's)! The only problem with this is that all my coffee-drinking friends and family now save all their coffee bags for me so I can make more of these little coffee card purses. This bag can hold 4 mini cards and 4 mini envelopes.


Doesn't this remind you of the beach? This one uses lots of PaperTrey sentiments (along with a few SU! stamps - mainly the sand and the shell die cuts are Cuttlebug). The plastic mesh you see on the front of the mini purse is a garlic bulb sack from Trader Joe's (gotta recycle more plastic!). This little beach bag measures about 3" x 4" - yep, I LOVE miniatures! All those cards fit inside the little purse and I also made matching envelopes but didn't get a photo of them.


This last photo are all the different versions I've come up with for that mini 3" x 4" bag. All can hold those mini notecards. Patterned papers you see there are all Amy Butler.


On another note, my Dad has gotten more bad news. I don't think he'd want me to write here what he now has but suffice it to say that it is very serious. He continues to battle MDS and CHF but the latest is the scariest. My son said that he wished Pokemon is real so he can take his Grandpa to the Pokemon center and cure him. Then my 5-yr old said she wished her magic wand is real so she could just wave her wand and her "Boppa" would be better. We believe in the power of prayers so please help us pray for my Dad to get better; and pray for my Mom too to stay healthy as she is single-handedly taking care of him. It's times like these that make me wish that they just lived next door and not 3,000 miles away.