Easter Blessings!

Happy Easter! I had so much fun this year making Easter cards.  I made a couple of some of these designs, others I made similar cards, but each was a little different.  All of the stamps used were Stampin' Up!  Most of the paper is Stampin' Up too!  Their paper really is so good, no comparison to the store bought stuff.  Much better quality to work with.  

First I used this beautiful daffodil stamp and colored it with my blender pens, love using those, fun to color!  This card is so pretty and elegant, especially with the fancy Easter Blessings font.

The next two cards were very fun!  I actually CASED these cards (CASE stands for Copy And Share Everything) from an adorable card I found on the internet....I have been searching so I could show you the original, but i can' t find the post anymore!  But, I loved the idea of the easter egg garden with this crazy chicken!

Lastly, I used this cute little bunny.  I just colored his ears and gave him a few pink highlights.  Then he was mounted on this pretty pink scalloped border circle.  I tried a couple of different looks, brights and pastels.  

I hope you enjoyed looking at these as much as I have enjoyed making them. 

 Have a Happy Easter!

Thanks for stopping by,

~Melanie 

Pampered Pets

 I love this adorable stamp set, and I knew my daughter would too.  We decided to sit down and play with it last week.  We also have the dies to cut out the pets and decided we wanted to do that for the card.  Sometimes I have an idea in my mind of what to do and others I don't, so I search for inspiration.  We googled card layouts and picked one that we liked and set out to make these cards.  I chose to use the cat stamp and she chose the dog (and you will see we didn't die cut them because we forgot we wanted to!)

We had a lot of fun coloring in our images with our Stampin' Up!  blends markers.  Sophia did a great job!  She shaded the dog fantastically (is that a word?).   She used a little black rhinestone on the dogs collar, and I used a little crystal effects on my butterflies to add a little bling!

You can see the layout we chose had 3 rectangles and i laid mine horizontal and she did hers vertical.  Then we both decided to decorate the inside of our cards (we DID use the dies!  lol) by using the paw die and cutting out the cute little paw prints from our lining layer so the color of the card base showed through.  

It was a lot of fun stamping with her...hope we get to do it again soon!

Thanks for stopping by today!

~Melanie

Stampin up! Pampered Pets stamps and designer series paper

Pink Sunflower

Celebrate Sunflowers - Stampin' Up!  At first I didn't pay much attention to the set.  Then I saw my friend on a video and she had a bag of precut pieces that she hadn't used and she pulled out this black outline and I was like I love that.  And it turns out it was the sunflower die outline.  It would make a great background layer for a card...will have to work on that!

So now that I knew I liked that sunflower die, I wanted to see what else was out there for cards that were made with this stamp set.  I googled it and found a beautiful blue sunflower card!  You can see my inspiration here.   I hadn't thought about making it any color other than a sunflower color!  So i was sold!  Into my cart this set went along with the dies of course!  When it came I was itching to use it!  And I had to color with my new stamping blend markers also!  This one was made with melon mambo and bronze and ivory, and the leaves with old olive.  It was so much fun to color this in.  I decided to decorate the inside of the card as well.  I always like to put a layer inside my cards as well, I feel like it is too plain without it.  So why not pretty it up too?  

This was the sketch I used to plan my design.  Think outside of the box!  Just because a layer is shown as a rectangle, doesn't mean it can't be a flower!  A little crumb cake cardstock and DSP in melon mambo.  And of course embellishments,  some twill and pearls to finish it off!  I really love how this card turned out.

Another tip...while you are stamping and die cutting make extras.  I stamped these flowers four times and colored in 4 different colors.  That way I have them ready when I want to make a card!  

Thanks for stopping by today!

~Melanie

 Long time no see!  I have not posted anything on this blog in years!  I have been busy with other things...my craft room has seen better days!  I decided that i wanted to get back into crafting and making cards and since I love to share what I've made, re-visit this blog!  

I wish I had taken a before picture of my craft room (no, really I don't because you would be horrified!)  I have been cleaning up on weekends in there and I have tossed out 7 garbage bags of who knows what.  The craft room kind of became the we don't know where to put it, oh, the craft room...or so it became known "the crap room". Well, it is time to take that room back!  After removing the garbage and the 3 oscillating fans i found being stored in there, I am not left with an organization problem...but still some room to work!  

This card was made for my nephew whose grandfather had just passed away.   Honestly I can't even tell you what products I used to make this card as it was made with whatever I could find at the time.  

I do know that these are stampin' up! stamps, but from which set, i am currently at a loss!  The stamps were just laying about in bowls, not with the sets they belong!  I really do have a lot of work ahead of me in cleaning up! 

It may sound weird, but I do like to make sympathy style cards, or they could be just thinking of you cards.  I usually use a floral print and color them in.  I have found myself the last few weeks perusing card blogs and really loving the floral ones. 

I have also just gotten myself a beautiful new set from Stampin' up! called Celebrate Sunflowers which I cannot wait to begin to play with!  So, stay tuned for that!  As well as my new chicken sets that I have been making birthday cards with!

So, hopefully it won't be years before I am back on here!  I look forward to sharing more soon, thanks for stopping by!

Cookie People

I just had to share this.  My daughter Ali, loves to bake.  She made these sugar cookies and decided to decorate them like people we knew.  We ate ourselves!  I did remember to take a picture of one cookie though.  This one was made for Auntie Elaine.

She really is a creative and talented girl.  She keeps asking me how old she needs to be before she can  make her own website!  Soon, probably, she has lots to share.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
~Melanie :)

Merry Christmas!

Oh, my goodness, I cannot believe it is December 19th already. I have been so busy all fall with family, kids, work, school, kids activities, coaching cheerleading, etc!  Time has flown by me!  But, this is my favorite time of year, I need to slow down a little to enjoy.  My goal is to have some more "me" time to enjoy my crafts.

I have been up to a few crafty things over the last few weeks, so I thought I would share.  First, I did my annual craft fair at my sister's work.  It is open to her office building and is not a huge venue, but fun to do.  Even more fun this year because my other sister, Kim, has started selling Lia Sophia and she had a booth next to mine, so we got to hang out all day.

Here I am at my table, I did not really have time to make a lot, so I had some things I previously made and added a few new things I was able to make the week of the event.

And, my sister Kim at her booth:  if you like Lia Sophia her website is HERE

Here are my two new items this year...Snowman Hershey bar and Chocolate Christmas tree!

The inspiration for these items came from the internet... Laurie Furnell and Qbees Quest

Here is a photo from when I made a bunch of Christmas trees...looks like a forest of Christmas trees! :)

Well, I have to go and get some Christmas stuff done now...wrapping, wrapping, wrapping!  Have an awesome day!

~Melanie :)

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 :)

Just A Little Note

I love to make card sets. They are so fun, especially baby designed sets. I recently made these adorable cards that can be used for baby thank you cards, or for a note from a new mom or any other reason really.

The shape of this card is actually a die from papertrey ink. I started with a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 card base folded and then laid my die on top while letting the die hang off the top edge of the card at the fold a little more than a quarter of an inch. I wanted to be able to open and close the card, not cut through both layers completely.

After I die cut the card, I stamped my cute whale image from Stampin' Up and my sentiment from Papertrey Ink.

It is hard to see, but at the bottem of the card, I scored a line about 1/2 inch up from the edge, and then I used 2 brads to make "snaps" on the baby onesie.

I left the card blank inside so it can be used for any purpose. I previously had made a set of these for my cousins baby shower and used a thank you sentiment. A new mom can always use thank you cards, right?

For this set, I paired the cards with kraft colored envelopes and packaged them in a clear box tied with a twine bow.

I think this would make a really cute gift for a new mom. I am selling them over at my esty store. And plan to make more colors and designs. It really is fun to make baby themed gifts.

Well, thanks for stopping by today! Happy Stamping!

~ melanie :)