Megan's Teacher Gift - Finished

I already shared the main part of Megan's teacher gift, but I have finished with the gift card holder as well and wanted to post it all together!

I used Papertrey Ink's School Time stamp set for the gift card holder, and followed Stephanie's directions!

I used the Mat Stack 2 die (instead of the Mat Stack 4 that Stephanie used, even though I have that one also) and I think it turned out so cute and I love the Saddle Stitched ribbon detail.

Calendar and Notepad Gift

I finished another Christmas Gift last night. This one I can post since it is not obvious who the recipient will be.

 

I used the Papertrey Ink Calendar Basics stamp, Die and calendar pages to put together this desk calendar for a friend. The only non-Papertrey Ink supply was the Medallion stamp from Stampin Up, and UTEE. I love this stamp and borrowed it from my sister just for this project! I could not find my clear embossing powder (until after I was done and putting everything away) so I used UTEE. Not perfect but I like the dimension.

Here are the pages for each month:

I also made a coordinating notepad using the Take Note stamp set and the text type impression plate. (all supplies are Papertrey Ink except for the Basic Grey Magnets)

 

And added this detail to the back using Papertrey Ink's Just for You set:

 I hope that she likes it!

Crowne Center

No new crafts to blog about. I have a couple in progress that I ran out of supplies for (isn't that always the case?) and a couple that I can not post here since the recipients regularly read my blog. So instead I will blog about our family evening Friday night.

Two years ago we started our own tradition of visiting Crowne Center, taking the kids to see Santa, eating dinner at Fritz's and Ice Skating.This year Sira joined us of course, along with our neighbor Bea and her oldest Marcus. Marcus and Lauren are the same age, so all evening we were joking that it was their first date.
Marcus did not want to ice skate so Bea took him window shopping while we skated, but we were so glad that they joined us!

 

 

 

 

 As always there are many more pictures here!

Sira's 16th Birthday

I think that Sira had a pretty good 16th Birthday. She woke up to streamers all over the place, balloons, and homemade cinnamon rolls (thanks Amanda!) and got to open one gift - her Abercrombie vest that she had been drooling over.

Her package from her Mom (Hi Walburga!) arrived just in time, ON her birthday.
Sira requested Apple Pie for her Birthday cake, and since my Mom makes the BEST homemade apple pie we begged her to make some for Sira's birthday, and of course she agreed.We even put 16 candles on the apple pie.

 

 There was a house-full of family and friends to sing Happy Birthday to Sira. My parents and Neila, Dwayne and Carla, Amanda and Billy, Aunt Rosie, April and Kelsey, Jason... and me, Eric and the girls of course!

On Saturday I played chauffeur to Sira, Neila, Hannah, Maike, Ashley and Amanda and drove them down to the plaza. They walked around the plaza (while I was nice and cozy in Starbucks reading a book) and then I waited (2 hours) for our table at the Cheesecake Factory. Dinner was excellent of course and we all had a good time. The girls stayed the night with Ashley Saturday night and did not get to bed until after 6 am!

More pictures are in the December Picassa Album!

Happy Birthday Sira!

Today Sira turned 16! We are having her family birthday party tonight, and tomorrow afternoon she is going out with friends to celebrate, so no birthday pictures yet. But here is the card that I made for her:

All supplies are PTI except for the Momento ink and clear embossing powder.

Megan's Teacher Gift

I saw this adorable idea on My Mix of Six (I can not find it now to link directly to it!) and was going to make it for Megan's teacher last year and it never happened. This year I am ahead of the game and just need to sharpen the pencils and make a cute gift card holder/tag  (I am also including a Wal-Mart gift card) to add to it. I hope that she likes it! I figure that any 1st grade teacher could always use sharpened pencils.

Another Birthday Calendar

I made another birthday calendar for a Christmas Gift yesterday! I also used some new Papertrey Ink stamps/ dies that I just got in my last order. I have always loved the In Bloom set from Papertrey Ink, but did not have Copics and really do not like cutting things out. Eric got me Tombow watercolor markers for my birthday last month, and Papertrey Ink released a coordinating die for the stamps so I had to get them! I added score lines to the Orange Zest CS layer, and ran the Harvest Gold layer through my Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder.

The Birthday Calendar images are stamped on the Lemon Tart layer using Summer Sunrise ink (i think...)

Gingerbread Joy Card

Don't you just hate it when you work all weekend on a project, it turns out great... and you cant post it on your blog because it is a gift? Yep.. I just finished my sister Amanda's Christmas gift, and am pretty proud of it. But since she reads my blog I can not post it until after Christmas! I need to take pictures and get the post all ready to go so that I can show everyone after Christmas though.

I did make a quick card last night while playing with my new stamps. I used PTI's Framed and Holiday Button Bits with Fine Linen, Scarlet Jewel and Vintage Cream cardstock. I used a tip that a fellow PTI Post-Its blogger Emily posted about misting the cardstock before embossing it. WOW... It really made a difference! I used Pearl Glimmer Mist on the Scarlet Jewel cardstock before embossing with PTIs linen texture plate. After adding the Scarlet Jewel buttons to the gingerbread man I thought it needed one more button, so I covered the "o" in Joy with another button! I think that it turned out super cute, and it did not take long at all!

This picture shows the misting and embossing that I mentioned.

Fall photo shoot

On Saturday April and I took our girls out to the University of Saint Mary campus to play with April's "husband." It is not as dirty as it sounds... April is not married, and that is what she calls her new camera ;)
We took some amazing pictures. The colors were gorgeous and the weather was just a little chilly, but not too cold. Here are a couple of my favorites. We took over 300 pictures, and there are more on my November Picasa page (though not all of them!)

 

Thank you April!!!

Birthday Calendar

I finished up a Christmas gift last week. I am not sure if the recipient looks at my blog, so I have to leave out a few pictures so that I do not give it away.
All of the supplies are from Papertrey Ink, with the exception of some brads, a Heidi Swapp flower and a Maya Road stickpin. I started with the PTI Kraft Binder and decorated the front and spine with the Calendar Basics and Background Basics: Text Style stamps and Blueberry Sky cardstock, ribbon and felt. The ink is actually from one of my Tombow markers

Here is  a peek at the inside pages. Each page forms a pocket and I put a handmade card in each pocket.

Indoor Tent - Layout

I have challenged myself to use up some of my older embellishments, and here is a layout that I made last week with this in mind. I used the American Crafts Dear Lizzy Spring Collection and some old alphabet stickers from my stash, and some PTI ink around the edges of the layout. The "FUN" element is actually a flocked rubon that I have had for a couple of years in my stash.

So far behind!!!

I am so far behind in posting my projects! In the last post (from Halloween) you can see some trick-or-treat bags that I made for the girls.
I started with some little canvas totes from Hobby Lobby and using some Heidi Swapp masks and Glimmer Mist I added some color and the girl's names to each tote. Then I pulled out the trusty glue gun and added a tulle ruffle and a rosette also made out of tulle with a PTI button in the middle. Then I filled in the names with some glow-in-the-dark puff paint from WalMart. So cute and the perfect size!

We actually added another shade of blue to Sira's after the pictures were taken. These pictures were taken before the addition of the puff paint.

 

We also make one for Maike (before we found out that Hannah and Neila would be trick-or-treating with the girls)

Trick or Treating

We live in the best neighborhood for trick or treating! Neila, Maike and Hannah came over to trick-or-treat with Sira and the girls and they all had a good time. Megan and Lauren loved that the big girls went with them! Unfortunately Sira was our photographer of the evening and we do not have any pictures of her!