Valentine Treats

I like to send my boys who are away, and their girlfriends, a little something for Valentine's Day. This year, I didn't have as much time to devote to this since I'm working full time now. But I tried to plan ahead, and I worked on them a little bit each night. It's not my best work, but the kids enjoyed getting a little something in the mail, and they know that I am thinking of them, and that's all that really matters.

The plastic test tubes came in very handy, since they were really fast and only required ribbon. The Hershey kiss bag uses the SU Top Note as a topper. The image is SU and is colored with Prismacolor pencils. The candy bar is wrapped in Bella Rose DSP and tied with Pomegranate ribbon.
The white chocolate covered cookie is wrapped in a glassine bag from PTI. I decorated the edge of the bag using a scallop punch, and the tag was created with the SU round tab punch.
The best part is that I did get these out in time and everyone got them before Saturday. I hope you all got to show the people that you love how much you appreciate them this Valentine's Day. Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Happy Heart Day, Have A Heat, Party Punch
Ink: Rose Red, Pixie Pink
Paper: Bella Rose DSP, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red
Extras: 5/8" Regal Rose grosgrain, Pure Pomegranate Double Stitched ribbon, Round tab punch, Martha Stewart Lace Edge punch, Scallop punch, glassine bag, plastic test ubes, Big Shot, Top Notedie, large oval punch

A Little Something

I am leaving one of these on each of my coworkers' desks tomorrow. There are 7 of us that work together, so I made six of them. They are very simple, since I was busy making a few things to send to my boys and their girlfriends for Valentine's Day. I'll post them some time this weekend.

These are recycled Starbucks Frapucinno bottles. I used PaperTrey Sweet Love for the cap and SU Bali Breeze DSP for the band around the jar. The ribbon is PaperTrey Sweet Blush swiss dot.

I am hoping my coworkers enjoy these.
Sorry for the quick post, but being full time doesn't leave much time for blogging. But I am so loving my new job! Thanks for visiting! Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have so many things for which to be thankful. My wonderful family, being able to provide for them, and my good health, are just a few of my blessings. I am especially grateful that our son Scott will be coming from Pittsburgh. All of my boys will be home.

I will be working on Thanksgiving, so my sister will be hosting this year. I am making cranberry-applesauce, sweet potato rolls, and four pumpkin pies. These are all things that are easily made ahead and will be brought by my family. I will meet them there after work.

I decided to make these cute little favors for my sister's table. They are super easy and quick to make. You could easily make these, or have your children make these if they need a little project tomorrow. ;)

I used tea lights by Mainstays from Walmart. They come 30 to a box and are available in many different colors and scents. Mine are Mulled Cider. I cut Haiku DSP from SU! into 1/2 " by 5" strips, and adhered these around tea lights. Then I took a cordinating card stock color and punched a scallop to form the base. Very simple, and I think they will look nice at each place setting. Then the guests can take them home as a little reminder of our meal and good times shared together.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and may we all be truly grateful for our many blessings!

Stamps: None
Ink: None
Paper: Haiku DSP, Old Olive, More Mustard, Tangerine Tango, all by SU!

Baby Booties

My sister and I made these favors for a baby shower that my niece is giving on Sunday. We used the pillow box die from SU. The shoes are from an old SU set, Buggies and Booties.

My niece also waned to give thank you cards to the mom-to-be, so we made up the cards with the same design.

We used Baja Breeze and Celery. I like this combo paired with the chocolate ribbon.



Stamps: Booties and Buggies SU, Sentiment from Amuse
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Paper: Confetti, Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery
Extras: Cuttlebug embossing folder, SU scallop punch, Chocolate wide grosgrain ribbon, Pillow box die, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches

Ordination Favors

My sister's parish had a deacon who was serving there in his last year before his ordination into the priesthood this past June. He was from Poland and had no family here. Her parish was hosting a reception for his ordination and my sister thought she and I could make some favors. His family only speaks Polish and came from Poland to witness his ordination, so they weren't able to do much for him here. So I designed this little chocolate holder that I saw on SCS. I didn't use this video by Angie Kennedy Juda, but it is a great one for making this holder. I originally made a cute little box, but it was too labor intensive to make 50 of them.

I used one of the crosses from PaperTrey's Everyday Blessings set and embossed it in silver. I matted that with SU brushed silver.

On the inside, I used Encore silver to stamp the blessing and the little curly in the corner.

A little bit of retired SU silver ribbon finished it off and kept it closed. I didn't have enough ribbon, but we found a similar ribbon at Walmart. The chocolate inside is a Ghirardelli Intense Dark Mint Bliss 60% cocoa square. I only mention this because there are other Ghirardelli squares that are much thicker. They don't fit in the folder well. They are the ones my sister bought and had to take back because they were too thick! You get about 13 or so to a package. I paid $3.99 at Walgreens, so they are about 25 cents each.

I think Fr. Greg and his family appreciated the fact that my sister made them, and many of the guests commented to my sister how nice they were. I was glad we were able to make his special day a bit nicer. Now I am going to eat the chocolate since the photo shoot is over. ;)

Have a great weekend! Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Everyday Blessings - PTI
Ink: Encore Silver
Paper: Basic Black, Brushed Silver
Extras: Silver EP, Silver ribbon from SU or Walmart, Ghirardelli Intense Dark Mint Bliss 60% Cocao Squares

Vintage Christening

Yesterday was the baptism of my niece's son, Benjamin. The babies in our family use a gown that my paternal grandmother made in 1902 for my uncle's birth. My father, my brother and sisters, most of my nieces, nephews, their children, my children, and I were baptized in it. So this image from Buggies and Booties from SU! is perfect.

Several years ago at convention, SU! demonstrated making a baptism record using this set. This is my version of it. I made a pink version for my niece when her daughter was born 3 years ago, so I made her one for Benjamin too.

This is actually quite easy. The gowns are stamped in Stazon on watercolor paper and watercolored with markers. I used Bashful Blue, Almost Amethyst, and Apricot Appeal. I distressed the edges, mounted them on torn Barely Banana panels and tied off-white narrow organdy ribbon around the bottom of each panel.

I die cut 3 tags from watercolor paper and stamped them with date, time and place on each tag, using markers to color in the words I wanted. Then I wrote in the date, time, and church with a grey marker, and tied them onto the ribbons with a length of crochet cotton.

I really wanted to be able to have an embossed background because I wanted the vintage look that embossing would lend. The Cuttlebug folders are only about 4" by 5 1/2", and the Cuttlebug is only about 6" wide, so I wasn't able to emboss the entire sheet. I thought about cutting and piecing the background, but I really didn't want any seams. So, I got out my rolling pin and placed my folder on my large sheet and rolled away. It was pretty hard work, and I had to do it 6 times, moving the folder to a new section each time. The embossing didn't come out nearly as crisp as when it's done in the Cuttlebug, but I was pleased with how it turned out; sort of a "distressed" embossing.

The frame is from Walmart, $9.99. In the corner, I used a Hodgepodge Hardware frame to enclose the baby's name. I attached the frame with some dimensionals and attached some pale blue grosgrain around the corner.

I wanted to create a space, like a shadow box, between the framing glass and the art work, so I attached the glass to the inside front of the frame with my ATC gun adhesive. I tossed all of those filler pieces that come with the frame to help keep your picture against the glass. Mounting the artwork onto the back panel of the frame left a nice space so that the 3 dimensional parts of the project stay that way.

Of course, the baby needed a Christening card, so I used the same gown image for the card. I die cut a tag and stamped the word Blessings from the SU set God's Blessings. The rest of the details for the card are the same as for the baptismal record.

I hope you enjoyed the weekend. We had a picture perfect spring day here in northern Illinois. Spring is finally here! Woohoo! Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: SU Buggies and Booties, God's Blessings
Ink: Stazon Black, Going Grey, SU Markers for watercoloring
Paper:Watercolor, Bashful Blue, Barely Banana
Extras: Hodgepogde Hardware, Ivory narrow organdy ribbon, Oval punch, Cuttlebug tag die cut and embossing folder, pale blue narrow grosgrain ribbon

Happy Spring!

Yesterday I asked my husband if he had seen any robins yet. I hadn't seen any yet, and he told me, rather gloomily, that he hadn't either. This morning, which is a gorgeously sunny but crisp day here, as I was taking the dog for a walk, I saw not one, but about a dozen robins in the field near our house! I guess their flight got in last night. I was so delighted, I told the dog about them. I don't think she cared. ;)

I made up a bunch of these little treat holders for our family who is coming to dinner on Easter Sunday. I thought they came out very cute. I didn't get overly creative on these; I just followed the tutorial by Beate on SCS. You can find it here. They are easy to make, and not too time consuming. I used one of my only Easter sets, a retired set from SU!, Funny Bunny, and a retired SU! wheel, Blossoms and Bugs. I used a bit of Cotton Candy Stickles on the dots and a pink Spica glitter on the nose. If you click on the photo to make it larger, you can see the glitter better. I love those Spica glitter markers! The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Mixed Messages. I had to get that set because Debbie Olsen kept using it on many of her fabulous cards. I love little tags, and this set is perfect for little tags. Debbie is a very talented artist. If you haven't seen her work, check out her blog for some wonderful inspiration.

I have to go enjoy the first day of spring, because we have a winter storm warning posted for tonight and tomorrow here in northern Illinois. They are predicting between 6 and 10 inches of snow. Yikes! Hope those robins brought their overcoats! If I don't post again before Sunday, I wish everyone a very blessed Easter. Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Funny Bunny and Bugs and Blossoms wheel by SU!, Mixed Messages by Papertrey Ink.
Ink: Stazon Black, Certainly Celery and Chocolate Chip ink pads, and Pretty in Pink reinker
Paper: Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal, Pretty in Pink, Confetti White
Extras: SU! scallop punch, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches, Lt. Pink narrow grosgrain ribbon, Ranger Cotton Candy Stickles, Pink Spica glitter marker, decorative edge scissors.

Blooming Gum Covers

Here is our last project for Enrichment Club. Today was our final class. The girls all thanked me and said that they had a good time. I did too.

Today we made these gum covers. These were sized for Dentyne Ice, or any blister pack gum made by Cadbury. If you have a different brand of gum you may have to adjust the measurements. The Groovy Guava is cut to 5-3/4" by 4". Score along the 4 inch edge at 1-3/4", 2", 4-1/2", and 4-3/4". Fold along those score lines well, and then put just a quarter inch of adhesive along the 4 inch edge and adhere the cover together. The seam is on the back, not at the side like the covers that come with the gum. Use a 3/4" circle punch to clip a little thumb notch.

To color in our blossoms and pot, we used reinkers and a blender pen. We used an orange Spica glitter pen on the centers of the flowers. I tried to catch the glitter in the close up, but it's pretty hard to capture in a photo. You'll just have to take my word; it's purty!

I will miss coming to Enrichment club; the girls are so eager to try new things and they get so excited over all
of the projects. It's so much fun to teach such enthusiastic students!

Stamps: Fun Filled by SU
Ink: Basic Black pad, Groovy Guava and River Rock reinkers
Paper: Groovy Guava, River Rock, Whisper White
Extras: SU River Rock double stitched ribbon, 3/4" circle punch, blender pen, Orange Spica glitter pen..

Color Challenge

I was working on a design for the girls in Enrichment club tomorrow, and I was trying to think of a color combo I could use. Although I know that Junior High girls love pink and purple, we've been doing so much for Valentine's Day, that I didn't want to repeat those same color combos. I was planning on making these cute Post It Note holders that I found on Emily's blog. I was on SCS and saw that the color challenge for this week is Orchid Opulence, Pumpkin Pie and Certainly Celery. So I used it for our Post It Note holders. I think it came out very cute! I don't think I ever would have put these colors together, or even thought that they would look good together, but they do. Nothing like an SCS challenge to stretch your creativity.
The scallop flower is from the SaleABration set, So Many Scallops. The center of the flower says "your so sweet", but it is really very versatile, because you can always cover the wording and use another image to suit your needs, as I did here.
The pumpkin CS is cut to 7 1/2" by 3 1/2" and scored at 3 1/2" and 4". If you would like to see a tutorial on how to make these, you can see the one on Emily's blog here.
Thanks for coming to visit!

Stamps: So Many Scallops, Define Your Life, Bold Alphabet, Fresh Fillers, all by SU!
Ink: Orchid Opulence, Basic Black, Versamark
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Orchid Opulence, Certainly Celery, Whisper White
Extras: Scallop, 1", and 3/4" punches, Lt. Orchid grosgrain, dimensionals, The Paper Studio gemstones, Post It Notes.

We Can All Use A Little Love

Let me begin by expressing my heartfelt sympathy to the victims and families of the tragic shooting at Northern Illinois University. NIU is my and my husband's alma mater. None of my children go to school there, but they know many who do. My thoughts and prayers are with all of the NIU community this evening.


On to a lighter note. We had our 5th enrichment club this afternoon. This little guy was our final Valentine's Day project. Didn't he turn out cute? Sorry for the glare on the photo. I was running out of daylight and shot him quickly. He is from SU's Toucan of My Love set. We watercolored him with Orange Peel Twinkling H20s, and filled in the little hearts with Pink Passion marker. We used googly eyes and a clear Spica pen on the hearts. You might be able to see that in the close up photo. I just love those Spica glitter pens. The clear is fantastic. I got mine from Ellen's store, but it doesn't look like clear is available right now. Here is another place I have found litter Pens, and they are on sale too. I wish SU would carry them. The candy is a Nestle Crunch heart which matches SU's PinkPassion perfectly!

Tomorrow I will try to post the other project we did today. I need to get a photo in good light.
Happy Valentine's Day. Go give all of your loved ones a big hug and a kiss. Thanks for stopping by.
Stamps: Toucan of My Love
Ink: Stazon Black
Paper: Confetti White, Pink Passion
Extras: Twinkling H2O's (Orange Peel), Pink Passion Marker, SU small cello bag, googly eyes from Hobby Lobby.

Valentine Care Packages

I try to send little packages to my kids who are away from home. For Valentine's Day I made up packages of all of the projects we have been making in enrichment club. They don't know I didn't make them especially for them! ;) These area few of the tins we made at our first class. They are straight from Nichole's blog. The only thing I changed was the sentiments. You can't see very well, but the peanut butter cups say HUGS and KISSES. Nichole sells these cute tins, or you can get them at SpecialtyBottle.com. The stamp set is from Papertrey and is called Sweet Love. It has nugget labels, ovals that fit in the SU punches, and lots of little words to customize your look. I used Crystal Stickles, but it picked up the Pomegranate ink and turned red. Sort of a custom Stickles color!
I sent these tins, a sour cream container, a covered Hershey bar, a little Nugget Tag Tent, and a Tic Tac holder. I thought they made a cute box full of treats. Tomorrow I will be busy making sour cream containers for the secretaries' desks at my hubby's work. Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: PaperTrey Sweet Love
Ink:Purely Pomegranate
Paper:Very Vanilla, Purely Pomegranate
Extras: Pomegranate Double Stitched Ribbon, circle and oval SU punches, scallop scissors, Crystal Stickles

A Little Kindness

My hubby came home from work yesterday and asked me if I could make "a little something" for someone at his work. He and his staff are having a day to show each other a little kindness. Kind of like a RAK day I guess. Many people are doing candy, and he thought maybe I could do a candy sleeve, but the woman he is giving to is very allergic to many things, so he decided to stay away from food. So I thought of a beaded pen. He liked that idea, and then I thought of a little gift set ala Emily. She is a great stamper and has a wonderful blog with lots of ideas. She combines a beaded pen and a post it note holder to make a small gift set. I cut my card stock to 7 1/2" by 3 1/2" and scored it at 3 1/2" and 4". I used SU's Love It set for the Tempting Turquoise flower and embossed it with the matching template. I attached the flower with a dimensional so that it would hold it's shape. I used a 1 1/4" circle punch to cut it out and matted it with a 1 3/8" Yo Yo Yellow circle. Then I framed that with a Green Galore scallop. I wasn't sure what sentiment I was going to put on the holder and then I remembered my Define Your Life set that I haven't even cut out yet, and I figured the kindness definition would be perfect. For the beaded pen, I used Little Pieces in turquoise, green galore, and yo yo. I used the SCS tutorial on beaded pens. I got my mini micro beads and O So Sticky tape from PennyWiseArts.com. For a great tutorial on the post it notes, go to Emily's blog here. Thank you Emily, for all of your great ideas! If you go to her blog, be sure to look around at all of her great work. I hope the recipient of the gift will like it. Perhaps it will bring a little bit of the hope of spring on a snowy, cold day. Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Love It, Little Pieces, Define Your Life
Ink: YoYo Yellow, Tempting Turquoise, Basic Black, Green Galore
Paper: Tempting Turquoise, YoYo Yellow, Green Galore, WW
Extra: Love It Classy Brass Template, Empressor, O So Sticky Tape, Penny Wise Arts Mini micro beads, SU 1 1/4, 13/8, and scallop punches, black gingham and green apple grosgrain ribbon.

Hearts, Hubs, and More Hearts

Yesterday was the Heart Hop dance at school and my freshman went with two girls. Well, one was his date and the other girl wanted to come too. I'm glad they feel they can go as a group. They had a great time. Adam managed to rip his tie while dancing. Not exactly sure how that happened. The girl that would have asked Mark first was out of town this weekend and Mark decided he didn't want to hurt any other girls' feelings by saying yes to one and no to the others, so he decided not to go with anyone.


My poor hubby spent all of Saturday and a good portion of Sunday after church laying on the cold garage floor changing the brakes on the Astro. Normally this is a 2 hour job, but he was unable to get the hub off one of the rear drums. He was hammering, drilling, blow torching, banging, pounding, using penetrating oil. Everything he could think of. He finally got it off early this afternoon. He was frozen since the high was about 5 degrees today. I felt so bad for him.

And finally some more hearts. Here are the projects we made on Thursday at Enrichment Club.

The first project we made was the candy bar sleeve. I cut card stock to 5 1/2" x 6 1/4". With the 6 1/4" edge on the vertical, I scored it at 1" and 3 5/8". This allows for the seam to be off center and will make punching the notch much easier. Before assembling it, we wheeled it with the jumbo Adoring Hearts wheel in Pink Passion. The Pixie Pink tag is stamped with Be Mine from Have a Heart. We punched the tag and threaded both ends of the ribbon from behind and tied it in front. Before we put in the Hershey bar, we punched a notch with the 1 1/4" circle punch.

Our second project was a match book M&M holder. This used the frog image from the same Have a Heart set. We colored them with Prisma colored pencils and matted with Green Galore. The Pink Passion card stock was cut to 8 1/2" x 3 1/4". It is scored at 3/4", 4 5/8", and 4 7/8", and stamped with the little heart from Toucan of My Love. This holder uses the Fun size M&M packets. This gets stapled under the short fold and the other end gets tucked under the short fold like a matchbook.

The third project is a sour cream container. To begin we took a quarter sheet of card stock and stamped it in Pixie Pink with the Herringbone background stamp. Then we rolled it into a tube with the 4 1/4" edges overlapping. We pinched one edge and glued it shut. We added Hershey kisses and pinched and glued the other end closed, with this edge being perpendicular to the bottom edge. Then we punched a hole in the top edge. We stamped a tag with the tag from Happy Heart Day, threaded it onto a heart shaped paper clip that I found at Target a few years ago, and tied it onto the top edge with black gingham ribbon.

More Enrichment Club

Here is another day's worth of project from my after school club. We made a Tic Tac holder, a Kit Kat Slider and a Hershey Nugget Tag Tent. This day's stamping went much quicker than the last group of projects. The girls really love the to use the punches.

The following picture shows the projects open. We used Hit Mints instead of Tic Tacs. They are available at Walgreens and they come in a package of 4 for a dollar. Can't go wrong on the price! They are perfect for a make and take or a club. I got the idea from Angie Kennedy Juda who has a tutorial on her blog. The slider directions can be found here.
I used those basic directions, but we did not close the bottom of our sliders. I got the idea for the one piece tag tents here. The measurements I used were 4.5 x 1.5 inches, scoring at 1.75 and 2.75. Then I used the tag corner punch on all 4 corners.
I had fun making these and so did the girls. I hope you enjoy them too.

Tic Tac Holder:
Stamps: Much Love Ink: Pixie Pink
Paper: Black, Pixie Pink, and WW
Ink: Pixie Pink
Extras: Scallop punch, Black gingham ribbon.

Kit Kat Slider:
Stamps: Teeny Tinies, Mistletoe Wheel
Ink: Real Red
Paper: Rose Red, Real Red, WW
Extras: 1/4" punch, Red Grosgrain ribbon.

Nugget Tent:
Stamps: Terrific Tags
Ink: Real Red
Paper: Real Red and WW.
Extras: White grosgrain ribbon, Large Tag and 1/8" punches.

Enrichment Club Projects

These are two of the projects we made at the after school enrichment club I teach at my sister's school. There are only 8 girls this year, so that makes it easy. It runs for 6 weeks. We do 3 projects each week. We made these last week.

For the little mint patty basket on the left, I used Cambria's directions here.
These baskets are so cute. I will probably make some for my DH to take to the secretaries at his work. I'll also send some to in a care package to my kids whose are away. I have one son, Scott, our oldest, who lives and works in Pittsburgh. Our second son, Daniel is away at school at Northwestern. Daniel has a long tine girlfriend, Suzy, who is away at Illinois State. She is like a member of our family, so I always send her a care package too.

Stamps: Petite Patterns, Party Punch, Riveting Ink: Rose Red Paper: Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Whisper White Accessories: SU scallop, 1 1/4' and 1 3/8" circle, and SU Tab punches, scallop edge scissors, pale pink grosgrain ribbon and Pearson Chocolate Covered Mint Patties,

The Bag A Lope is filled with starlight mints. I used a standard business size envelope. I really like using the word window punch to make a hanger for the tag. The girls enjoyed making these, and especially using the punches.

Stamps: Love Ya Ink: Pixie Pink, Real Red Paper: SU WW, Real Red, Pretty in Pink Accessories: Tag, Small Tag, Word Window, and Double Slot Punches, Scallop scissors, gold cord, and red grosgrain ribbon