Memorial Day Weekend!

(image from zimbio.com)

First I want to say Happy Memorial Day weekend to all!  and, THANK YOU to all of those who have served for our country, present and past!  I thank you and honor you.  God Bless America.

Most of us think of Memorial Day weekend as the kickoff to summer.  Here in Mass we are certainly feeling it.  In fact yesterday, I dragged out a few AC's and put them in the windows!  I just couldn't take it anymore!  A bonus for me is that my craft room is located in my basement.  It is much cooler down there (not so fun in winter...but I have a space heater).  The kids only have a couple of weeks of school left and I have finished with my online courses until the fall...hooray!  So, I have much more free time to craft :)

Yesterday after being lazy for half of the day (hey, it is the weekend!)  I went down to the craft room and had a lot of fun.  I did a lot of projects, from paper to felt to recycled caps...
(there will be a lot of pictures)

This is the first project I made.  I used Papertrey Ink stamps Strawberry Patch to create this fun card.  I had planned to make the card on white card stock and layer on a white card base, but I cut the original paper to small, so I used Stampin' Up Pure Poppy Card stock to mount and I love the result.  The main image is stamped with Momento Ink in black and colored with copic markers.  It is so fun to color with them.

I made a set of 4 note cards, matched them up with envelopes and packaged them in this clear box.  (the box the stamp set came in, I love to recycle! :) )  I then put a little deco on the package and the set is complete.

I did not stop there though...I am making a gift to donate at my work.  I work in a cancer clinic and we are having our 4th annual survivorship night. (This is a fun night that we celebrate the spirit of our cancer survivors - you are a survivor from the moment of diagnosis!  We have dinner, speakers and a candle light ceremony...it really is a special night.)  We get donations for raffles to support our night and we use the money to directly help our patients in need also.  I am making a small set to either use as a raffle or a door prize, whatever it is needed for.

I used the adorable basket die from Papertrey Ink and my SU! Craft cardstock, then I lined it with Pure Poppy card stock for stability and a splash of color through the holes.  I plan on filling the basket with craft shredded paper and then my handmade goodies.  I made the set of 4 note cards, I also covered a mini composition notebook with SU! DSP Just Add Cake.  I added a little strawberry that I had colored and cut, and I did the same to a larger notepad and used the same paper inside the RSVP pen.  Finally, I found this adorable little glass jar candle that is Strawberry Apple scented.

The next project I made used recycled flip caps from medecine bottles.  As I said, I work in a clinic and we are giving tons of medicine and thus we are having tons of waste.  I saw another nurse at the hospital with one of these cute flowered badge holders and thought, I can do that.  So I enlisted the help of my fellow nurses and the pharmacy team to collect these plastic caps instead of throwing them out.  I had tons!  I wish there were some prettier colors, but I do like how these came out.

I broke out the hot glue gun and I used the circular clip badge that holds our name badges and I just hot glue gunned the circles to make these cute holders.  It took all of 30 seconds to make each one!  I am making one for everyone I work with... I think they are adorable!

And since i had my hot glue gun out...I decided to make some felt flowers that I saw online.  I am going to post a few pictures and I will post more details later...

It is kind of hard to see in the photo above, but I also turned the flower into a pony tail holder...Below, is my youngest, Sophia, modeling for me!  <3

Speaking of Sophia, I also had to show this photo:

Please ignore the floor, as I said my room is in the basement.  So, I gave Sophia some scraps and she had glitter and glue and she put herself to work making "Valentines" for mommy and daddy!  She is so sweet.

Well, thanks for sticking around for this long post...I hope you have a fantastic Memorial Day weekend!  And, don't forget the reason for the holiday!

~Melanie :)

More cards!

I made more cards this weekend!  Woo hoo!

I was so excited to get down to some business!  I made 2 new cards.  

The first is a birthday card.  I wanted to use some DSP to make a ribbon for behind my birthday label.  I just cut a strip of Stampin' Up paper and cut a V shape at one end.  I used MFT dies to create the Happy Birthday label.  (all of the paper is Stampin' Up)  I decided to jazz up the label with some buttons that were threaded with embroidery floss.  For some dimension, the label is popped up with foam tape dimensionals.  

To jazz up my background I used Papertrey Inks circle background stamps to stamp the top portion of the card.  I still felt it was too plain, so I used one of papertrey inks edgers border dies to cut the bottom edge of the card, and I layered some dark purple paper behind.

 The second card uses the same paper, that often happens when making cards because I use what is out and go with the flow!  I wanted to use these adorable paper cup stamps and dies from Papertrey Ink.  I punched them out with my Big Shot and then stamped the cup image and used different colors for the paper holders.  I had another piece of that pink polka doted paper laying there, so I grabbed it and matted it with white cardstock.  I was trying to use "the rule of threes" on both of these cards...where you use a color three times throughout the card for a more complete look.  I used the purple ink to make a strip of circles using one of the stamps from the same Papertrey Ink set as the circles above.  And I used the purple again for the sentiment and for one of the cups.  The pink is obviously in the polka dot paper, in one of the cups and in the 2 rhinestones I added next to my sentiment.  The green is in the background paper, the paper cup and then I decided the card was kind of boring and I wanted to add a little something, but not buttons, so I picked ribbon.  I cut a 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon and attached it to my paper with staples, yup, just plain, average staples.  I was pleased with the final product.

What do you think?  Do you also find yourself making multiple cards with similar paper when you have it out?  I would like to hear how you tend to create.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a great one!

~Melanie

MFT sketch challenge

School is over! (for me, not my kids ;0) I actually had time to craft today!  There were probably lots of other things I should have been doing, but I made cards intsead! :)  

I have 2 to share with you today.

  I went over to MFT blog and checked out the new sketch challenge for this week.  I knew I wanted to make a baby boy card for my next door neighbors who just had a baby the other day.  So, I found this cute stamp and got started.  (I cannot remember the brand or names of half of the stuff I use, so sorry...my craft room is in my basement and I am upstairs right now)  Isn't he cute?  I also found this adorable yellow bunny button in my papertrey ink button stash and I had to use it too.  All of the paper is Stampin up and my markers are copics and stampin up.

Next I decided to make a birthday card to replenish my stash...I like to keep a few on hand, but have none left!  I got this stamp set from stampin up and could not wait to use it.  It's so summery and cute.  All supplies for this card are stampin up.  except the flower which I made from felt and a MFT die-namic flower die.  The center is a button from papertrey ink.

I had a lot of fun with this layout and was so happy to get into my craft room!  I hope you enjoyed looking.  Thanks for stopping by,
~ Melanie :)