Girlfriends...

What would we do without them?

Here is a little card made with Basic Grey's Lemonade collection that was inspired by the photo.

So summery... so girly... so sweet. That's all I have for today. Thanks for stopping by!

Raspberry Suite's Color Challenge 13

The girls are still sleeping... two days at the county fair wore them out:) Here is my attempt at Raspberry Suite's Color Challenge 13. When I first saw the color combo, I was less than excited, but when I found my card components and started making it... I fell in love with it.

Here are a few details where I tried the this neato flower technique from here.   I also got a bit glitter happy with the word "smiles."

All patterned paper for this one is from the Penny Lane collection from My Mind's Eye; sentiment die from the Breaking Free collection from My Mind's Eye; punches from Fiskars (Apron Lace & Threading Water) and EK Succes.

CPS 126

Hello everyone-- while the girls were napping today, I was able to play along with CPS this week.

The vintage images on the designer's cards inspired me to break out this book, where I was able to find these delightful little puppies. The blue and white patterned paper is part of a bag from my lss; flowers are from BoBunny (but several years old); pink patterned paper is Penny Lane by My Minds Eye.

Thanks for stopping by!

Card Night: Laura's Sketch 31 + Bonus

Hi everyone! I've finally found it! What am I talking about? The perfect outfit for my blog of course:) In case you haven't noticed, I've been changing my blog clothes a lot lately, but I've finally found the right one... fun and playful with a little shabby touch. I got it at Shabby Creations. If you are looking for a new blog outfit... I'd highly recommend taking a look at this site.

Anyway to celebrate, I thought I'd have a little card night. Its been a while since I've played along at 2 Sketches for You... so here's my take of Laura's sketch this week:

and the bonus sketch:

Good night all. I hope you are doing well! 

Products: patterned paper (Sonbourn Designs/Jezebel Collection), stamp (Basic Grey), tulle (Bazzill Basics), pearls (My Little Yellow Bicycle/Zinnea Collection), glitter (Doodlebug & Stickles), flower (Prima).

Tuesday Tips - Flowers... the Sweetest Things

Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into. ~Henry Beecher, Life Thoughts, 1858

Today's Tuesday's Tips focuses on finding one of my favorite things... paper flowers. Don't you just love them? I certainly do and to find ones (or to make ones) made from paper that are just as beautiful as the real things... I just love it.

• To see a brilliant use of all of those paper flowers that you have laying around click here.
• For the best use of patterns and glimmer mist, click over to Anabelle O'Malley's blog here.
• Don't want to make them? Just want to buy them to incorporate in your projects? Click here-- this place has awesome paper roses (all sizes and even a few other varieties) at super affordable prices.
• I'll leave you with one final click here to check out a pro who makes roses out of coffee filters-- yes, you read that right... coffee filters, you'd never guess it- they are unbelievable!

Happy Tuesday!

Card and Page Monday with BoBunny's Alissa

Good Monday All!

Here is the card and page (plus a little bonus) that I'd like to share with you this week. I tackled BoBunny's Alissa Collection for this week's post. If you live in Cincy, you can pick this stuff up at Scrap, Paper, Scissors. Its a fun collection, very girly (love the bits of black- very stylish).

To make this card with the ever so popular vintage, distressed flowers that are just popping up everywhere now:

• cut 6 circles, each a bit smaller than the next. You can use a circle cutting system or just hand cut them--since you will be distressing the edges, they don't have to be perfect.
  
• distress, tear and sand edges. Crumple paper, yeap... just wad it up as much as you can.
• flatten circles back out, adhere it all together (I punched a flower with my center circle, but it looks just as nice if left as a circle).
• Add paper strip and rub on or stamped sentiment. 
• Add pearls and adhere flower to card.

I had a blast scrapping this photo. The journaling reads: "The bigger the smile. The BIGGER the trouble. June 2009" Yes, as you can surmise... I left her for just a minute while I took a phone call and boy... did she have fun:)

Lastly, just a little something to use up some of the scraps. I used Fiskars Threading Water border punch to make the roof shingles and found this cute little bird house at JoAnns for $1-- I figured that it was quite the deal. Campbell has already swiped it for her room.

Thanks for stopping by-- may peace be with you all this week!

Windy

Event Alert 4 Cincy Papercrafters

Just wanted to alert anyone near the Cincinnati area of a great event that is not to be missed if you like papercrafts. It's Stamp-A-Way USA and its coming up August 7 & 8th, 2009 to the Sharonville Convention Center. 

Ok, so you say you are not a stamper? Well... last year at this time I was 100% scrapbooker, and only touched patterned paper and ribbon:) I had a lot of clear stamps (in storage) and decided to go fun the fun of it-- to see if I could find any new gizmos and tools to add to my collection (I was not the least bit interested in the stamps). Well, let me tell you... it was awesome! If you're a shopper... you'll love this show. And without taking any classes, I came away with so many new ideas just from all of the demos that were going on... boy do those stampers know how to demo! Did you know that you can buy rubber stamps unmounted and use them on your acrylic blocks (yes, I know many of you are saying duh! but I had no idea... I always thought it was either  acrylic or bulky mounted blocky rubber stamps)?  I also learned about so many awesome (smaller) companies that make some of the best and most beautiful glitter and embossing powders around. Most of us mainstreamed, brainwashed scrapbookers only think of Doodlebug's 12 colors when we think glitter;)

Be sure to stop back tomorrow for Card and Page Monday... sweet dreams:)

Windy

In the Kitchen and on Vacation

Hi all! I just wanted to make a quick post today with a couple of minis that I made for Scrap, Paper Scissors.

Using Reminisce's Signature Series Baking collection. I put together this 4 x 6 inch album with our favorite family recipes (yes we like to bake more than cook;). The album itself is made by cutting scrap card board from old packaging, and simply rounding of the edges with sander. Photos fit beautifully at a 4x6 in size.

The nice part about this album is that I can add to it anytime we find a new favorite recipe or get any more good cooking shots.

My next mini measures 2 3/4 x 4 inches and uses Reminisce's Signature Series Travel collection. It is a great size to showcase a few 2 x 2 in pictures with just a little embellishment. This is a little memory album to remind me of the trip that Brian and I took a few months before we had Campbell... our official Babymoon:)

Thanks for stopping by! I hope your day is going well. 

Windy

Wednesday Wisdom- Nursery Magic

Today I want to share with you a passage from one of my favorite children's books, "The Velveteen Rabbit." This post goes out to all the moms out there (especially those with young children, who like me, are left wondering at the end of the day if it is you or your the kiddos who won the battle;)

The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainspring and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were laying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made, " said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become REAL."

"Does it hurt?" asked Rabbit.

"Sometimes, " said Skin Horse,  for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

2 comments: 1) WOW-- to be able to write like that! 2) This passage just grips my heart every time I read it as a mother. Thank you my darling daughters, with my whole heart for making me Real:)

Hugs to everyone!

Windy

Raspberry Suite's Color Challenge 12

Hello everyone! Here is my attempt at Raspberry Suite's Color Challenge 12. Dawn is such a good stamper, that it inspired me to break out my stamps tonight. I don't have a lot of stamping supplies, like Copic markers or colored ink pads... so I had to stamp on patterned paper to get my image to mesh with the color challenge.

Well that's it for tonight...I hope you all are doing well! I can't wait to see everyone's take on this challenge:)

Windy

Products: patterned paper (GCD studios, Basic Grey), stamp (Lizzie Anne Designs), ribbon (Piggy Tales), ink (Ranger), other (recycled Making Memories stamp package).

Card and Page Monday with Basic Grey's Lemonade

I just love the new Basic Grey Lemonade collection-- as soon as I saw it, I knew it was right up our alley-- ALL GIRL!  Here is a card and page using a few of my favorites from the collection. 

Journaling reads: Having a sister is like having a friend you can't get rid of. 

You know whatever you do, they'll still be there. - Amy Li 

Lake Isabella August 2008

I'll leave you with a couple of  favorite quotes in case you've got a sister layout on your to do list this week;)

A sister is one of the nicest things that can happen to anyone. - Author Unknown

A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost.  - Marion Garrety

More than Santa Claus, your sister knows when you've been bad and good.  ~Linda Sunshine

A sister smiles when one tells one's stories-

 for she knows where the decoration has been added.  ~Chris Montaigne

A sister is a forever friend.  ~Author Unknown

Our roots say we're sisters, our hearts say we're friends.  ~Author Unknown

Have a great week! Windy

Go Bold and Simple

So I printed these pictures off for a layout that I was going to do for Scrap, Paper, Scissors and they just didn't work. I love these two pictures of the girls (both aged 24 months) and left them out on my desk in hopes that I'd stumble on something that would be a good fit for them... did I stumble... at 11:45 EST, I happened upon GCD Studio's "Go Bold and Simple" contest. The premise is to mix things up and go bold and simple. That is a hard one for me. I'm not usually bold and hardly ever simple. So I decided to do one last layout before bed.

I used GCD's Provence collection. To make it quick I cut my photos as one with a thin white border so I could just adhere it all down at once. I traced a large BoBunny chipboard letter on a patterned paper (I only had a four so I traced it and hand cut the two to match). Added a couple of scrap letters for mo... and I'm finished. I just wanted to remember my daughter's cute little faces at 24 months... that look of ratty hair and dirty little hands after playing hard outside on a hot day... playing without regard, restraint or hesitation.

Here's to being bold and simple!

Windy

Go Green Girl

Good Saturday morning to you! Just a quickie with my entry for Moxie Fab World's Its All Green to Me Challenge.  

Card made from recycled file folder, cardboard, and Prima flower package; scrap ribbon and letters; stamp (Stampendous "Iconic Mom") and ink (ColorBox).

As the primary purchasers for our households ladies, we often determine the type of lifestyle our families have and how we educate them when it comes to consumption. So "go green girl" and start making this place a bit more peaceful and sustainable for our children.

Windy

2 Sketches 4 You - Laura's Sketch 30

Hi everyone! Here is my take on Laura's sketch this week. I used my absolute favorite collection from Piggy Tales, Beauty and the Beast. 

Plus a few other goodies (since I haven't posted in a few days:) 

A couple of gift tags for folks that had recently celebrated a birthday. I love to surprise people with cupcakes on or around their birthday... a cute little box & tag, a yummy dessert... a fun little gift for a neighbor or fellow committee member. Even though I made these tags last week, I think the one on the right looks like the bonus sketch:)

Lastly, here is one of my favorite pages of my daughter and one of her best gal pals.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Windy

Card Night- Card Patterns Sketch 23 and Bonus Sketch

Hope you all had a fantabulous weekend! We hit a major milestone here... today we tossed out all of our baby bottles!! Yeah!!!! What a great feeling... after four years of my cabinets being filled to the brim I finally have some space to bring out my glasses-- no more drinking from plastic cups!!! To celebrate, I thought I'd make it a card night.

Here is my take on CP #23 and bonus sketch. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Windy

Products: patterned paper (Basic Grey/Wisteria), pearls (Queen & Co.), sentiments (freebie from Paper Crafts Mag mailing)

2 Sketches 4 You - Kazan's Sketch 30 + Bonus

Hello everyone, I hope all is well. Campbell had a friend over this morning & the girls played beautifully, so I had some time to squeeze in two sketches from at 2 Sketches 4 You.

Kazan's Sketch 30

My first ever bonus sketch- fun stuff!

I used SEI's Lovebirds line that I won from Moxie Fab World for my Value of Vintage card. I don't normally gravitate toward SEI because I think bold circles... funky colored stripes... graphicy, all of which I AM NOT & I personally have a hard time wrapping my mind around that style (maybe its too much order and organization for my brain to handle:) I have to say though... SEI has come a long way. I really enjoyed working with this line-- very cute:)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend.

Windy

Four Squares

Good Friday Everyone!

Here is a look at a card set that I put together for a class over at Scrap, Paper, Scissors using just a few sheets of designer paper and some ribbon (my favorite paper crafting toys:). 

I call this set "Four Squares" because each card measures 4 in x 4 in. 

Vintage Flower Fun

Quickie but Cutie

Patchwork Punch Flower

Distressed Note

Tote Them Home

If you are from the Cincinnati area, we'd love for you to join us on the 29th.  Call the store at 513-683-6613 for more information.

Oh, I almost forgot to share... check out this Christmas in July post at Cosmo Cricket.  I just love, LOVE, love companies like this.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Windy

Products: Sophisticated from Splendid by Michelle Coleman by Fancy Pants Designs; Fresh Print from Traveler collection by My Little Yellow Bicycle; Big Dot Poolside from Paperie by Making Memories; Ocean Dot from Back to Backs collection by BoBunny; Frog & Flower Print Ribbon by Prima; Cream Tulle and Grosgrain by Bazzill Basics

Wednesday Wisdom- Brene Brown

After a few months of blogging, I'm starting to venture to out to sites that are "of interest" but not crafty. I could just spend hours reading on line... any way, here is a site I found today just full of wisdom. Check it out...

Here's to life's best choices! 

Windy

Card and Page Monday with Basic Grey's Urban Prairie

Happy Monday! Here is a card and page that I had the chance to work last night. 

Journaling reads: I can't believe that my baby girl is two. My favorite memories of you turning two is the way you say twooooo (with your eyes squinty and your lips puckered out - so cute). I also love how you would sing happy birthday to yourself... HAPPY...HAPPY DAY! HAPPY...HAPPY... It makes me feel so good on your birthday to know that your are a happy two year old girl (even though you are no longer my baby).

This page is my entry for PageMaps Challenge (7.3.2009). 

Inside reads: "Nothing is sweeter than motherhood. Enjoy every minute of it!"

A card for a friend who is expecting her first baby.

Thanks for visiting! 

Windy

products: All products from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie collection except for American Craft's Thicker's alphabet & green dot cardstock from BoBunny.