Some Sunshine for the Teachers

Not a lot of crafting happening in this house lately, but we did take some time out from all our activities this week to make some little gifts for Bridie's teachers.  The combination of Washington Apple patterned paper, and the saffron and red riding hood card and ribbon really gave this 'post it 'note holder project a bright and sunshiny feel.  Bridie was really pleased with them, and her teachers loved them.  Success all round!

A Challenge Card for Mother's Day

First things first - Mum, Look away!

Okay, now on with the show.  Creative time has been a little short around here lately, and when that happens, I find that challenges are often just the kick start I need to get creating without too much mucking around and wasting of precious time.

For this card I used two different challenges for my inspiration.  The first was the Inkspiration Inspiration Challenge #21:

The second was the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #67 :

I used the 'Fifth Avenue Floral' and 'Short and Sweet' stamp sets, an assortment of inks and markers (saffron, pretty in pink, rose red, regal rose) and card (pretty in pink, regal rose, and pink pirouette) and finished the flower off with a half pearl bead from the pretties kit.  The patterned card started life as a plain white piece of card, but some stamping and sponging transformed it into a perfectly coordinated patterned piece instead.

Hoping to squeeze in a bit more craft time tomorrow - probably with the help of another challenge or two.   Blogging about it though, is a whole other 'wait and see' kind of story!

Party Favours for 10 Year Old Boys

Earlier in the year we celebrated Hayden's 10th birthday.  Last year he had only been at his new school about a week, and so a party with friends was not on the agenda, but you can bet he wasn't going to miss out this year!  Instead of a party though, he and his friends decided they really wanted to go to a movie.  The boys have all read and enjoyed the Wimpy Kid series of books, and they all agreed that 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' was the movie they wanted to see.  Of course, the movie hadn't actually been released when they made this decision, but they agreed it would be worth the wait!

Which worked out well for me too - it gave me time to figure out what to do about those party goody bags.  Do 10 year old boys even need party favours?  (a quick survey revealed that YES! We HAVE to have goody bags Mum!)

And then I remembered the pile of hardcover notebooks I had in my bargain box.  I had originally picked them up (for just $1 or $2) thinking they might be good for teachers gifts.  Instead, I realised they would be perfect for the boys - which just a little bit of 'decorating' by me first.

I wasn't sure if the boys would appreciate being called 'wimpy' themselves, so I took the liberty of changing it to 'awesome' instead.  I was still a little nervous about how they might be received, and was so pleased to see that the boys all loved them.  And just quietly - if you need to keep a group of ten year old boys quiet at a restaurant while you wait for the food to arrive - give them their own diary to write in - I think the staff were shocked at how well behaved and quiet they all were (and I don't think their teacher would believe it without photographic evidence!)

As for the thank yous - we figured we had two choices.  Hayden was  initially leaning towards a note with a booger attached (actually a glue dot carefully coloured with ink!) but then when I made a 'stinky cheese' prototype he decided that would be better.  Nothing like giving your friends the cheese touch!  

Disclaimer time:

1.  If you haven't read the book you will just think I am being gross now - but I assure you - boogers attached to notes, and stinky cheese slices were not my idea - it is all taken straight from the Wimpy Kid, and despite the gross factor - ten year old boys - and their six year old brothers, love it!

2. While the diaries are great for keeping kids quiet, it is a good thing you don't give the thank yous out right there in the restaurant.  Yelling and running and kids having fun is pretty much guaranteed.  Quiet time - not so much!

Spreading Some Sunshine!

Well lucky me!  The lovely Helen Williams sent me some sunshine yesterday.  If you need a present for Mother's Day Helen has some gorgeous bookmarks over on her blog, not to mention a very clever circle flip up book.

Having received the sunshine award, it is now my turn to pass it around!

Here are the ‘rules’ for the award.
1. Put the Sunshine Award on your blog and/or within your post.
2. Pass the award to other bloggers.
3. Link the nominees within your post.
4. Let them know they received this award by leaving a comment on their  blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received the  award.

So, the bloggers I am going to send the sunshine to are all a wonderful source of inspiration and support to me - lovely ladies who I have been lucky enough to have met through Stampin' Up.

In no particular order, please help me send some happy thoughts the way of:

Rachael Knight
Roz Begbie
and Diane Robertson

If you have a few minutes please go and see the wonderful creations these ladies have been making (maybe have a snack before you visit Diane as she is frequently making wonderful things in the kitchen and making me feel hungry with her posts!)

Thanks again Helen.  You made my day!

Inspired by... Sparkly Shoes!

Take one little pair of sparkly shoes:

Add some card and pink ink, sponging and masking, vintage vogue stamps, a butterfly punch, heat and stick powder and some dazzling diamonds glitter...

And you get one happy afternoon and a pretty girls birthday card, which I think fits in with the latest challenge (Birthdays?) over at Corrosive Challenge.

Now just to get to the Post Office....

More Vintage Vogue

I promise you - it took less time to make the cards than it did to blog about them!  Paper mache rocks for Hayden's Shakespeare Club performance have been taking up my time - but all finished with now, thank goodness (and pretty realistic looking they were, if I do say so myself!)

So back to the vintage vogue one sheet wonder...  This lot of cards really were quick and easy.  Sponged edges, crimped card strips, layers of card,  stampin' dimensionals to pop some of the elements up, and a quick stamped sentiment (or a selection of those things!)  

The second card was super basic - a strip of the stamped one sheet wonder card matted on some perfect plum card that had been crimped and a quick sentiment stamped in coordinating ink.  I could have added so much more, but sometimes it is nice to keep it kind of simple (and if I remember correctly, I was due at the bus stop right about then!) 

Of course, the plan was also to use every last little scrap of my original stamped one sheet wonder card (I still had some left after these cards), so the rest of that strip I had cut for the last card, was cut into squares to make this one.  Originally I had been planning on having another longer strip but with a different card orientation to the last one, but somewhere along the way it transformed into this.  But that is what the playing is all about - making stuff up as you go along, and having fun doing it!

The first of the Vintage Vogue 'One Sheet Wonder' cards

Before I show you the first of the cards I made I want to quickly explain what my understanding of 'one sheet wonder' is.  For me it is getting a plain old piece of card (in this case white, but it can be whatever you want) and going to town with your stamps and inks and decorating up the entire piece of card.  I am a fan of Do It Yourself (DIY) patterned papers, and this is exactly what this is!  When you are done you have a one of a kind patterned card that you can then use for all kinds of coordinating projects.  

One sheet wonder = DIY patterned paper

(at least, that is my take on it!)

What I like about it is that not only are you guaranteed to get the perfect patterned paper for your project (!), it is also a great way to just play, and is especially good for when you are in the mood for creating, but don't have a specific project in mind. I used the lovely new vintage vogue stamp set and grabbed perfect plum and pale plum, along with mellow moss as my ink colours. You can see it all stamped up and ready to go in the last post, if you didn't already :)  When it came to making projects I just needed to pull out the coordinating card and other embellishments, and play some more. Easy and fun!

Obviously the patterned paper was all flowery and pretty and best suited for girly projects (which, when I set out, was going to be an assortment of cards, little gifts, mini scrapbook project...  but ended up being all cards!)  My first thought was how nice a butterfly would look with that flowery background:

I punched out one butterfly in each shade of plum.  I used silver cord to tie them together, and threaded on some little silver spacer beads from the pretties kit for the body (I always forget to use those little spacer beads!)  The pale plum butterfly was then attached flat to the card front, and the darker, top butterfly has the wings free, and folded up to look like it is flying. 

I sponged the edge of the patterned card, and added another girly touch with the eyelet border punch, but didn't bother with a sentiment.  Sometimes it is good to have an 'any occasion' card on hand, and you can always add a sentiment to the inside of the card as needed.

I really liked that butterfly embellishment, so added one to the next card too - although this time with a couple of loops of silver cord instead of beads, for the butterfly body.  

I stamped one of the sentiments from the vintage vogue stamp set on a scrap of card, and added that too, along with some more scraps (I don't have any plum ribbon, and was too lazy to colour any, so card strips made an easy alternative).  I did run the moss card strip through the crimper first though, to add some interest.  And that crimping led me to the next group of cards... (coming soon!)

Still Here!

Oh my goodness - I have been a slacker on the blogging front lately, and just quietly, craft time has been hit and miss lately too.  Family time has taken over.  That and housework.  And school activities.  And family adventures, and taking photos, and blogging about family adventures (I have a tendancy to want to explain every little detail, and that has a tendancy to take a lot of time, as some of you may have noticed!) and school assignments, and upset tummies, and did I mention housework?! 

We have another crazy week coming up, but I have made a promise to myself that there will be some crafting in amongst it somewhere, and some crafty blogging too.  And just to show you that I mean what I say, here is a little glimpse of what I have been playing with - the very beautiful vintage vogue stamp set that has just become available in the newest NZ/Aust mini catalogue  - I will be working on updating the catalogue links over there on the sidebar this week too!

Now I know that this 'one sheet wonder' doesn't look that exciting right now (not to mention the terrible lighting), but it is in the process of being transformed into some lovely projects that are a lot more exciting, and I promise that it won't take me another 5 weeks to get around to sharing them!

Another Masculine Card

Recently Hayden's class had a unit on Ball Room Dancing.  They had lessons over several weeks, culminating in a 'Red Hot Ballroom Dancing' competition, which they all loved.  They took it really seriously too, with all the kids dressing up for it - meaning, for the boys - shirt and tie (for the lessons and the competition). Hayden does have a tie of his own, but when one of his teachers produced a box of ties for the kids to borrow he decided he would do that instead.  Which was great for me - it gave me the perfect opportunity to make one of these men's tie cards :

I had seen a tutorial a while back, and had filed some notes away in a folder.  Unfortunately I failed to note where I saw it, so if you know please remind me so I can give credit where it is due.  

I had intended to have a more, well, 'sophisticated' tie on the front of this card, but then I saw the 'Good Morning Sunshine' papers and it reminded me that the ties in the borrow box did tend towards more of a 'retro' feel.  I teamed the tie up with some saffron, pacific point and chocolate chip card.  It is a little hard to see in the photo, but the tie and 'collar' really pop up off the card.  I think it will work really well as a thank you to Mr D from Hayden.

Lots of Candles Masculine Birthday Card

Some days I don't feel much like crafting.  Some days I don't feel much like blogging.  And then there are entire weeks when I don't feel much like doing either.  Obviously this has been one of those weeks!  Thankfully there are lots of challenges out there to help me get back into it, and inspire this manly birthday card I made this afternoon:

The colours came from the latest Stamping 411 Colour Inspiration - old olive, not quite navy, close to cocoa and more mustard.  The design was inspired by the latest Mojo Monday sketch, although as you can probably tell, I did manage to put my own spin on it again.  These things have a tendancy to evolve a bit in the making!  

 Never mind, still got me back into the crafting and blogging - at least for today anyway!

Stamps used for this card:  'Sanded' background, 'Big Bold Birthday' (candle) and the SAB set - 'Whimsical Words'