Saturday, April 30, 2011

Made Me Nuclear

Okay, I know that most of you know I am a nurse. I don't know if many of you know that I am an oncology nurse. I work in an outpatient clinic of a local hospital's Cancer Center. This week was ONS Congress, which happens to be a national, actually international, conference for oncology nurses. And, we were lucky enough to have it be held in Boston, MA this year. This is the first year that I had the opportunity to go. In order to make it fair to the girls in our clinic, we were allowed to go one day during the week...because it was so close we wanted to make it available to as many people as possible. So anyway, I went on Thursday, which turned out to be a great day because it was opening ceremony day and which is always very moving and inspirational.

This year the key note speaker was a cancer survivor named Charlie Lustman. He is a musician who is a cancer survivor, and he wrote a whole pop album on being a patient. He began with the phone call from the doctor to tests, and treatment, to being "cleared" to return to "normal life". It is a fun, upbeat album. As a speaker/performer he was fun and inspiring....and I urge everyone to check out his website MadeMeNuclear.com and his facebook page.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Easter Basket

Just a quick stop by this morning. I have been off of work for a few days because of school vacation, but I go back today. It was hard to get up this morning! The kids and I had been sleeping until 8 every day! Back to reality.
This card was made using all Stampin' Up supplies. I decided to use some yellow accents to coordinate with my bird. I wasn't sure how hot pink and yellow would go, but I love the results. I think this card would make a cute Easter card. I hope the person who receives this card enjoys it.
Well, back to work for me....The sun is shining....Have a great day!
~Melanie

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Fun Hair Clips


I haven't made a card in days. I have been off of work and haven't made any cards. What have I been doing, besides spending time with my kids? I have been making hair clips. I bought some clips a while back and have been thinking about it, then this week, I was suddenly inspired to start....and couldn't stop. My daughter, Lily, called my sister on the phone yesterday and said "Auntie Chrissy, my mom has been making hair clips since yesterday morning! She hasn't stopped!" LOL I guess I was having too much fun. What do you think?
These were the first ones I made, there are LOTS more! It really is so fun, and Sophia is so excited to be getting so many new hair accessories! I also added some to my etsy store since I have been going crazy and making tons.
Well, these flowers make me think of spring and sun, none of which we will be seeing today, actually we may get some thunder storms this afternoon. Tomorrow I am back to work, so this is my last day of my mini vacation with the kids. We have 3 Dr appts today, so I guess it can rain if it wants to, we are doing nothing fun anyway!
Well, I hope you all have a good day. Thanks for stopping by today.
~Melanie

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Etsy


I am so excited today! I had my first sale on my etsy shop! Hooray!
I have had this account for over a year, but just in the last couple of weeks, I decided that I wanted to do more business. I started adding my goods to my account, and am so happy that someone liked my stuff enough to buy!
Funny thing is that earlier today I was online shopping (browsing actually) and I thought to myself...I cannot buy any more supplies until I start selling some of the things I have made and use up some of the supplies I have. Then this evening...I sell something! Do you think I should start shopping now? ;)

So, this week is school vacation week for my kiddos. I took a couple of days off of work to spend with my kids, now am just trying to figure what to do. Guess it all depends on the weather and the kids behavior! I DO want to do some spring cleaning, not what the kids have in mind I am sure, but if I am only working 2 days this week, I need to get some other stuff done too. And of course some time for crafting. I have been having so much fun today making hair clips. I made a few as gifts, and some for my daughter's hair and am looking forward to making s
o much more! FUN
But what do I have to share with you today? Well, this card is a cute card that I made with the help of my 3 year old, Sophia. She loves to come in my craft room, as all the kids do, and touch EVERYTHING while I am working. So she helped with this card, she punched out the flowers with me and added the rhinestone centers and placed the flower on the card with dimensionals. I think she will be doing this on her own soon!


Thanks for stopping by today!
~Melanie :)

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Birthday Butterflies....

are flying by! I have been using a lot of butterflies lately, I know. But, it's Spring! :)
Did not really feel like it today though, a little rainy and cool and raw. But April Showers bring May Flowers right? I told my daughter, lets just think of this as a nice drink for the trees and plants. She agreed. But now they need a little sun! (me too)
About my card today:
So, I used my scallop border punch on the bottom of the blue card stock. Then I used purple polka dotted designer paper behind. I wanted to do some nice yellow butterflies and did a little purple for contrast. The butterflies are made with my SU embossing/die cutter. So cute and full of texture. I used my SU faux pearls to be the "bodies" of my butterflies and to accent my Birthday wishes sentiment.
Inside the card sentiment "there's something fabulous about your birthday (must be you)" sentiment is from SU, actually all supplies for this card are SU, except the one punch I used on the corner of my yellow paper, which is CM.

Inside the card, I mimicked the scallop and purple polka dot design from the front of the card and added a few butterfly accents as well.

Well, let's hope that tomorrow brings us some nice Spring sunshine!
Have a great day!
~Melanie :)

Monday, April 11, 2011

I uncovered my sewing machine!

But not to sew fabric, I have sewn on my first card!

It was fun! I made this cute card, which is perfect for a new baby or a girl's birthday. The image is a digi stamp from Pink Cat Studio. I colored with my new copic markers, I have been having fun with them as well, although I do realize that I need some more colors!
All of the paper for the card is from Stampin Up! And why pink, well, honestly....I still had pink thread in my sewing machine from the last time I used it (years ago!) so I figured, do something pink! I zig zag stitched on the outside and the inside of the card. I think this was fun and I think I will be doing it more soon....maybe in different colors if I get over my laziness and change the thread! LOL :)


Thanks for popping in today, now it is so nice outside - almost 70 degrees, that I need to get out there! Have a great day.
~Melanie



Friday, April 8, 2011

Doily Birthday


I love this card! I have been seeing cards with doily designs all over lately! So, I actually bought paper doilies at the grocery store and decided to make a card with it! I love it.
I love the colors pink and grey together, I found this designer paper from SU in my stash and thought that I would bring out a little of the yellow color as well.
The sentiment was stamped on white card stock and using multiple punches I created a background for the image. I used designer label punch, oval scallop and circle scallop punches all from SU. Then I used my big shot to cut out the grey leaves. It has all been accented with these cute faux pearls.


Inside the card I used my SU punch to create the bottom border and on top I used one of my CM corner punches to do the corners.
Wouldn't this be a great birthday card to receive?
Thanks for stopping by today!
~Melanie :)

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Lowell General Hospital TeamWalk "Firework" (Katy Perry)


Everyone has to watch this video! This is my work, but I was off the day of the filming :(
The video was made to promote TeamWalk for Lowell General Cancer center. The money raised from teamwalk is used to help our patients who may need rides, tube feedings, etc.
Check it out!
:)
Thanks,
Melanie :)



Sunday, April 3, 2011

Tea Party



Recently my daughter Allison turned 8! How can that be? I remember driving to the hospital for her to be born and now she is 8? Time flies.....Anyway....to celebrate her birthday she invited all the girls in her class over for a tea party. Above is the invitation we made for the party. We stamped the SU image and punched with the circle cutter, Allison colored the tea pots with SU markers. Then we matted it on Tempting Turquoise scallop circles. The ribbon I bought at Michaels craft store and we used the SU swiss dot embossing folder and my Big Shot to texture the white cardstock. Came out cute huh?
Above is the "Tea Table" I borrowed the table cloth and these adorable tea pots and cute little tea cups and saucers. We had all kinds of goodies including cucumber sandwiches, scallop shaped mini cheese sandwiches and those adorable strawberry sandwiches which were so easy and cute! I used vanilla wafers and whipped cream cheese spread then topped each with a half of a strawberry! Kind of like a mini cheesecake. The girls used tea cups and either had decaf tea or juice. So fancy.
Each girl came in her tea party dresses. We did manage to get one nice picture of them together, although Allison does have her eyes closed (second from left bottom).

Below is what we gave the girls for party favors. Mini composition notebooks, RSVP pens and bookmarks. I used pinks and greens, and the back does have some purple colored paper.
I had made similar goodie bag gifts for a friend of mine for her daughter's birthday party and loved the idea so I repeated. We wrapped them in cellophane bags with little princess crowns.
The after noon was a success, although the girls did get bored after a while and went outside to jump on the trampoline! So funny, the ground was littered with dress shoes and all the girls were bouncing on the trampoline in party dresses!

Well, Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!
~melanie :)