Turkey, Turkey.... Gobble, Gobble

Oh, the joys of having a Kindergartener..... all the fun new songs, the fantastic art work brought home by the truckloads and of course the holiday celebrations! Last night we celebrated with the little guy by joining all of his classmates for a Thanksgiving feast followed by an amazing performance of Thanksgiving songs sung to classic childrens tunes. It was very cute and of course my guy was the star of the show! I wanted to contribute something for decoration, but to also give the kids something fun to take home, so I made place settings for each of them. These were made from a really old Stampin' Up! set called "Turkey Talk" and the names were printed on the computer. My advice when you are mass producing things is to take the shortcuts you can, such as printing the sentiment or names on the computer and incorporating that into your project.
Are you getting ready for your Thanksgiving feast? My parents are arriving today and staying for the week. Our boys are out of school all week next week, so for a few days they will be spending some great time with Grandma and Papa. We will all travel to my brother's house on Thanksgiving for a great family gathering.... I'm really looking forward to it! I will sneek in another post before then, so in the meantime, enjoy your weekend!

Not Too Sick to Craft!

I'm scrambling to get these photos posted..... I played with the color some, but decided I'd get them posted. If they look yellow to you, well maybe you have a case of the flu settling in. It is that time of the year, right? We are down hard at the Crafty Corner..... first the little guy, then me and now the big boy is going down quick. I've been home for the week, running around with the thermometer and children's Motrin, trying to keep everyone calm and comfortable. We broke down and went to the doctor, luckily testing negatively for the flu. So, while we don't test positively for the regular flu nor the piggy flu, we have all the symptoms.... who knows, maybe we've got cases of the Ostrich Flu or perhaps the rare strain of Roly-Poly Flu. That's probably it... both of those boys were playing with Roly Poly bugs in the driveway last week. I told them to put them down!

So once I was reassured we would all be fine, although perhaps a little miserable for the next few days, I did what any good mommy would do. I dosed them up with Motrin, plugged in a movie and made a mad dash for the craft room. I had to stop at the top of the stairs because I can't take 5 steps without being winded and exhausted, but I was not going to let that stop me from having some time in the Crafty Corner! Enjoy these projects I made and then go sanitize your hands, would ya.....

I made a little Top Note box full of Christmas gift tags along with a little notebook. The box came from a great tutorial over at Splitcoast; check it out. The tags I just created using a little stash of old Stampin' Up! paper and some Making Memories paper I picked up last week. The notebook is covered with a little Kraft cardstock and embellished like the tags. The tags are so much cuter in real life.... the lighting was really bad tonight. I made two sets of these for little gifts I plan to hand out at Thanksgiving, but I did make myself some extra tags while I was at it.

I will be posting again next week, if not sooner. I can just feel it....we are on the mend around here and I'm getting in the crafty spirit!

I'm here.... really

It's been a long time since I've made my way up to the crafty corner..... You know the drill, life gets hectic and things like stamping and scrapbooking get set on the way back burner ; I continue on with life, while deep inside I dream of getting ink and adhesive on my fingers again!

Since my last post, I have officially withdrawn from being a Stampin' Up demo and I'm just going to craft with all the products I love. It's coming up on my favorite time of year.... the holiday season. It begins with Halloween and ends with Valentine's Day. In between there are all the reasons I need to craft and bake to my hearts content. With the cooler weather, the craft room is more inviting and I'm not sweating too much to turn my oven on.

So, please, if there are any of my loyal readers still lurking around... bear with me. I can feel my mojo coming back, literally as I type this post! So, I am going to challenge myself to post regularly. Let's say once a week, at least, from now through Valentine's Day. I will do my best to stay motivated and creative, but of course, any words of encouragement from out there in blogspace are welcomed!

Getting crafty again....... Stay tuned!

Sweets for the Teachers

This week we're honoring our teachers both at childcare and school. Today we shared little sweet treats with all of our teachers and aides at the childcare center. I made these little boxes using my Bigz Matchbox die..... I {heart} that big die! I used paper from my great find at Micheals the other day - Me and My Big Ideas "School Days" paper pack. It's so much fun and I'll be using it through the week for more teacher gifts. Of course it will also be great to scrapbook the school year.





Inside the boxes are four Hershey's nuggets wrapped in the same patterned paper. Finishing out, I made a little label using one of the tags on the same Matchbox die and the stamp sets Great Friend and Tart & Tangy. Check back tomorrow to see the flower cupcake garden I'm putting together..... Enjoy!

Rockin' Birthday

Ok, so masculine cards are not my strength. I think most of the men in my life have gotten a card with a deer on it because that's about the only stamp set I own that resembles masculine anything. But for my brother's upcoming birthday, I decided to attempt something outside the box.... I'm not too sure about it, but my little brother will know I'm thinking of him. I did, however, get two thumbs up and "that's so cool, Mommy" from my boys.

I used the Harley Davidson paper I've had in my stash for a very long time The backdrop paper and the outer edge of the star are Hot Wheels paper, probably purchased a fews years back as well. These matched well with Stampin Up Basic Gray and Basic Black. The letters and star are Quickutz.

So, here's to creating a little outside of your comfort zone.... Enjoy!

Color Challenge #50

I'm playing along with Kristina this week for her 50th Color Challenge. To sweeten the challenge, she's offering some great prizes. It's always fun to be inspired by her, but I have to admit, the thought of winning a sweet prize makes it even better! If you'd like to play along, just stop by her blog to check out all the details....

I loved the colors she put together this time and it didn't take me long to get my card together. I'm happy to that she made the colors more generic, leaving me a little more room for personal creativity. For my colors, I chose Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red, Summer Sun, Pacific Point and Whisper White.

I created the background using the brayer. On glossy white paper, I first brayered on Summer Sun. Then I brayered Riding Hood Red on the bottom of the paper, overlapping and blending the colors. The colors do combine some to create the orange hue. The ribbon is from my stash; I think it came on a gift and I just tucked it away in my ribbon drawer. I'll leave you with a list of supplies.... Enjoy!

{Supplies Used ~ Color Challenge #50~ Sunset Friend}

Stamps: Upsy Daisy and Great Friend

Inks: Summer Sun, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Pacific Point

Paper: Glossy White, Chocolate Chip, Pacific Point, Whisper White

Misc: Ribbon (from my stash), brayer, Scalloped Edge punch, Matchbook Bigz XL die, dimensionals

Out of this World

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, we're double booked for birthday parties this weekend. For our first little buddy, I created Vintage Birthday; for our second birthday boy, I created this card.

I've been on a watercolor kick lately, and it continues. I used the set "Pun Fun" and stamped the rocket ship on watercolor paper. For coloring the image, I used the aqua painter and classic inks. (For anyone who may not know the secret to grabbing ink from the ink pads, just give them a firm squeeze in the middle while they are closed. When you open them up there will be a pool of ink inside the lid - perfect for blender pens or aqua painters.) I also used some pattern paper from my stash - it's called All Wound Up by Daisy Bucket Designs. It teamed up nicely with Pacific Point.

I'm really looking forward to this birthday party because it's a reunion of sorts. My dear friend is coming out from the East Coast with her husband and soon to be 4 year old. They are visiting for a few weeks and celebrating the birthday boy by reuniting friends who have all been separated by Navy moves. We are all Deep Sea Diver families that have moved from coast to coast, known each other for years, been there for babies, tough times, happy times and everything else. It will be a fun time.... lots of celebrating!