Having a Whale of a Good Time!

One of my co-workers has a birthday this Saturday, so I baked a couple of cookies and created a mini pizza box to put them in. Then, I just needed someone cute to have the honor of wishing the lucky lady a very happy birthday.

And who cuter than Wally Whale! Of course, since he's in the ocean he needed some sparkling water to float in. So, I added a clear layer over my image and covered the lower part of it with Stickles. To cover the adhesive on the clear cardstock and to make it seem like we are looking at him out of a port hole, I cut a circle in my patterned paper before layering it over the image.
Now, Wally's all ready to deliver my birthday message (created with MicroSoft Word)! For only .99 you can create a whole lotta cuteness for very little money. Be sure to head to Sweet N Sassy Stamps to see all the new stamps including Wally.
Have a great crafting day!
Lisa

Let the Sun Shine

If you joined SNS yesterday at the PCP or SNR Digi Day, you got to see some great rainy day projects. But, today the sun is gonna shine! I live in sunny South Texas, so when I saw one of the newest sets released by Sweet N Sassy called Sunshine, I immediately started envisioning warm, sunny days on the lake or at the beach. It may not quite be here yet, but summer is definitely shimmering on my horizon!

Sunshine features four fabulous sentiment in addition to the sun image. I thought the "You shine like the sun" sentiment  and a basket of summer fun goodies would be the perfect way to reward a hardworking student as the school year comes to an end. I placed the sentiment inside the sun image, printed it out, colored it with copics and stickles, and then cut the sun out so I could "pop" it out on the front of my basket. Cute, simple and quick gift giving. Be sure to head over to SNS to see this set and all the newest images. Make a little sunshine yourself today!
Lisa

Rainbow Jelly Beans

I was sitting around eating gourmet jelly beans (until I was sick!) and enjoying the rainbow of colors. That's when I had one of those "AHA!" moments. What if instead of eating all these jelly beans and gaining 10 lbs., I instead jarred them up and created a rainbow gift to brighten someone's day! The perfect image, Sweet 'n Sassy's Rainbow Bird digi, came quickly to mind.

I also grabbed a sentiment set from the store called Springtime Blessings. I re-sized two of the sentiments to sit in the clouds. Speaking of clouds, I used the Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Ovals Nestabilities to create the look of my image sitting in a cloud of its own. I colored the rainbow and birdie with my copics and added some glaze with a Sakura pen, though that's not very evident in the photo.
I sure hope this brings some colorful, springtime happiness to someone who may be only seeing dreary, cloudy days! For some extra happiness of your own, be sure you head over to the Sweet 'n Sassy shop and check out ALL the new digis. If you're ready for some rainbow colors, there are at least two new digis featuring rainbows!
BTW, those are not gourmet jelly beans in the jar in the photo. There weren't enough of those left. Yikes, you know what that means!

Poppin By With a Treat

Don't ya just love the new look on the blog? Korin's been creatively busy, busy this week. New look for the blog and some oh, so cute new digis in the shop. When I saw the new Poppin By set at Sweet n Sassy, I knew exactly what I wanted to create. This little fellow just had to go on a popcorn box, of course. I created this box with my Cricut.

Doesn't this make an adorable treat to give someone? I love the little popcorn man all drippin with butter. Well, as luck would have it, while I was coloring him in with my copics, I got a little hungry. So, guess what happened with the first bag of popcorn I made? Yep, devoured it before the ink on the stamp was even dry! I had to make a second bag before I could finish up my project. (Nope, didn't eat any of that one. My tummy was kinda hurting by then!)
This project took just a few minutes to make because the image was so super easy to color in and the Cricut did all the work for me on the box. If I hadn't taken time out for a snack, I literally could have been finished in about 10-15 minutes! Can't ask for more than that when you need a quick, little something to give. Throw in a movie and this becomes a full-fledged gift package!
Lots of new stuff coming out of the SNS shop this week. Be sure to stop by and check out all the cuteness. Bring popcorn because there is a slideshow to watch on the home page featuring all the new stuff!

Cookies and Cocoa

I had a couple of coworkers who had birthdays last week, and cookies make a great little birthday treat when a whole cake is just a little too much. Now, I have to admit that I didn't make these cookies from scratch. I used one of those Nestle Tollhouse cookie tubs (pre-mixed cookie dough), but I did make sure I gave them a taste test before giving any as gifts (wink).

I found instructions for making these criss-cross boxes thinking they would be perfect for holding and displaying the cookies. Since I needed two, I decided to coordinate the packaging. This way I can utilize all the scraps. I made tags and paper flowers from the scraps, too.

And, yes, Cocoa had to make an appearance at this birthday celebration!

Actually, I grabbed two sets from Sweet N Sassy for these projects. I appropriately used Cookies for Cocoa for my main image. For the sentiments, I used Sweet Birthday Wishes. A little cellophane and some ribbons and these were ready to make someone's birthday especially sweet!

Oops! So sorry if you were looking for green or St. Patrick's Day inspiration. My Irish must be in remission right now!

Well, spring has sprung around here and I still have some days left in my spring break. I'm definitely getting out for a walk to enjoy the wildflowers and sunshine. I know many of you have not seen much of warm, sunny days lately, but I truly hope your turn is coming soon! In the meantime, grab a sweet image that makes you smile and have some fun coloring and creating!

A Piece of Cake

Our oldest son is getting married next year. I think his fiancee' has been planning the wedding since she was ten, lol! In any case, she is very organized and seems to know exactly what she wants. Good thing because I have zero interest in weddings beyond the vows. But, all the wedding talk did peak my interest in the beautiful wedding images at Sweet n Sassy. The wedding cake, in particular, fascinated me, probably because I wish I could decorate cakes. Since I can't (and have no time to master a new hobby), I grabbed the stamp and decorated it with my copics!

I bought an inexpensive photo album at the dollar store and replaced the front cover with this one I created using SNS Wedding Cake. The bride can then insert pictures of the wedding venue, cake samples, dresses, or decorations that she wants to refer to while making her plans. Or the photo album could be used just for notes, clippings, or receipts she doesn't want to lose.
By the way, I used the sketch at The Sweet Stop for my cover. And I couldn't resist making another tissue paper flower to hold my "love" sentiment. I'm so addicted to those flowers! I added stickles to the flowers and airbrushed the pearls. I did not get the pearls as "scarlet" as I wanted but they do look deeper IRL.
Let wedding mania begin! I'm ready...I think!

Sweet and Froggy

What a fun month and so many fantastic digis to play with! I've got a couple of projects to share with you on my last post as a guest designer for Sweet n Sassy Digis. My head is still spinning from trying to decide what fantastic images to use. There are just so many to choose from!
There's this widow at our church that my husband has a soft spot for, so I wanted to put together a little something sweet he could give her for Easter. I think he will enjoy giving it to her more than she'll enjoy the gift itself but then that's usually the case with gift giving. I created a candy bar wrap for a one of those large chocolate bars.

I used the Christ Arose set which has this beautiful image, the sentiment I used, plus several other sentiments. I know the robes on the cross are usually colored with royal purple, but I wanted to use the scarlet to symbolize the blood that was shed on the cross. I colored the image with my copics and prisma pencils. There's no real trick to the wrap. I just measured the candy bar and scored my card stock appropriately. I used a velcro closure to keep it closed.
The Thursday Digi Day Challenge at SNR this week was "silly for stripes". I love these challenges but just have a very hard time getting them finished on Thursday. It's that day job I have that's slowing me down! Anyway, a day late and a dollar short, I wanted to show you the card I created for the challenge.

This card uses the Fenton Frog image which you can pick up for less than a dollar and that's a lot of cute for less than a buck. There's lots of texture on this one. You can't tell it very well in the picture but the floral paper has glazed flowers on it, the prima flowers have chunky glitter on them, and the ribbon is fringed.
Can you believe February is gone? Spring will be here before we know it, so keep coloring all those beautiful flowers to tide us over until the real thing arrives!

Spring Crafting

Spring cleaning....Yuk! But, spring crafting is another thing altogether! I've got three spring fresh projects to share with you today and then I'm off to do a little shopping (another springtime favorite).
First up is a little project I made for my nephew who had a birthday this month. I used the SNS set Early Bird for a little "tongue-in-cheek" gag gift that I hope gives him a little chuckle even if it is kind of corny!

On the card's inside it reads "So I thought I'd bring you dinner!" Now what fourteen year old wouldn't crave a bucket of worms! To match the gummy worms in the bucket, I used red and green stickles on the worm in the bird's mouth. Scrumptious!
Last year we were gripped by a horrible drought and basically had no spring. I really missed seeing the beautiful wildflowers on the sides of the road. This year, thanks to winter rains, should be much more colorful, but to help with the flower crop, I put together this little gift packet of flower seeds.Here's the inside:

I used the Springtime Blessings Sentiment set inside and Kate Planting on the outside. This is tied closed with a bow. The image is colored with copics and prisma pencils.

I wish I were Kate. I'm ready to dig up all the plants killed by the freeze and put a whole fresh crop of plants in the ground....soon!
Finally, I want to share a bookmark I made with the very beautiful Bible image. The scripture is John 3:16. The Bible is surrounded by lovely Easter Lilies. These bookmarks would make great gifts for a Bible study group or Sunday school class. I colored the image with copics and prisma pencils and cut out the image with Spellbinders Oval Nestabilities. Then, I mounted it on the bookmark after adding some patterned paper and a little sewing.

If the winter blahs have you down, be sure to head over to Sweet n Sassy for a Springtime pick-me-up! You'll be feeling warm and sunny in no time at all with all the crafting you can do with these adorable and inexpensive digital stamps and stamp sets. Even if it's not time to put flowers in the ground, it's never too early to put some on a card!

Sew Special Purse

There are so many great digital stamps coming out of Sweet N Sassy I just can't keep up! I want them all! But some of my favorite images are of Cocoa. I love how he peeks out from behind things. So adorable!
I had a totally different project in mind when I first saw this Sew Happy Cocoa image. I was going to actually do some sewing for one thing, but then I found a miniature sewing kit at the dollar store and was looking for a way to package that up and that's how this little Sew Special Purse was created!

I don't know that I would give a small sewing kit to a real seamstress, but this would be a great gift for a grad going off to college. Put a little cash in the purse along with the safety pins, needles, and thread and the graduate is ready for minor clothing emergencies anyway. The sentiment is also perfect for a special graduate. It's from the Sew Many Thoughts sentiment set.
I added a couple of tissue paper flowers and some buttons to give the project a homespun feel. The "purse" is from a template I purchased online. I normally am not crazy about orange, but I really liked it with this project.  Be sure to go check out all the latest Cocoa stamps at Sweet N Sassy. There are some really "sweet" ones available. Happy Valentine's Day!