Halloween Teacher Treats!

I made some really quick Halloween treats for my son and daughters teachers. I had picked up this cute mummy stamp from the $1.50 bin at Michaels - so decided to go with a mummy theme. The papers are old KI memories and Creative Imaginations. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up. I whipped out three of these cards in 15 mins.

Then I bought some over sized Hershey bars and made a wrap for each bar. Then I turned them into mummies! Just some punched circles and torn cardstock sponged with Soft Suede ink. Super easy!

Make sure you check back tomorrow to see my card for the Stamping Bella Chichiboulie blog hop! It will be up at 11am EST!

Happy Easter to all my Peeps!

I found the recipe and idea for this on Splitcoast (of course!) and made some to give away as gifts to friends and my son's teacher. I think they turned out so cute - although my son is awfully put out that there were no bunny peeps left for him to eat. I have it on good authority though that the Easter bunny might be bringing him some! Can I just tell you that my son doesn't like chocolate? I think he must have been switched at birth because I LOVE chocolate!

These jars bake up into a bar cookie once you add butter. The tops were made using a Michaels $1.50 stamp. Hope you have a blessed Easter!

Sketch Challenge - Somebunny!

This is my card for today's sketch challenge on Splitcoast Stampers. I really wanted to use this stamp I picked up at Michaels for $1.50 and make some Easter cards. I paired it with some Basic Grey Oh Baby patterned paper. I used my Cuttlebug swiss dots folder for the first time and added some primas and some Basic Grey matching fibers. I think it turned out pretty cute and at least I got some Easter cards made. If I can get them in the mail tomorrow - they might actually be on time too!

I had my SU club last night and I was the hostess. I finally broke down and got the felt flowers - I just think they're so pretty and I love the colours. I also got a whole bunch of punches, a background stamp, some markers, and a stamping scrub. I qualified for 2 saleabration sets - so that's good. Can't wait for everything to come in now!

I made these to take with me. They are so yummy! They are called Chocolate peanut butter cup cookies and I got the recipe from my fave baking blog - Cookie Madness. I'm going to post the recipe - not sure if anyone enjoys these recipes - but I'm posting it anyway!

Lara’s Allrecipes Chocolate Peanut-Butter-Cup Cookies (notes from Lara)

1 c. butter, softened

3/4 c. peanut butter (Lara used Skippy Super Chunk)

3/4 c. white sugar

3/4 c. packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 c. cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 c. semisweet chocolate chips

1 c. peanut butter chips

1 package mini Reese’s peanut butter cups, frozen and cut into halves (freezing is key!)

1 c. Reese’s Pieces (Since chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and peanut butter cups aren’t decadent enough)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl (I used my KitchenAid mixer), cream together the butter, peanut butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, and baking soda; stir into the peanut butter mixture. Mix in the chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and Reese’s Pieces.
Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. (Whoops – I sprayed mine with cooking spray and they turned out fine). Push one (or if you are over-the-top, like me, two) peanut butter cup half into the center of each ball of dough. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. ***Let cool for 1 or 2 minutes on sheet before removing, or they will fall apart.***
36 cookies

Hope you're having a yummy week!!

Sketch Challenge Scrappy Card

I wanted to play along with the sketch challenge on SCS today, but decided I was in the mood to create a "scrappy" card, rather than a "stampy" card. In fact, there are no stamps and no ink on this card at all (gasp!!), but I think it turned out o.k. All the products are from Doodlebug - I absolutely love all their stuff. I especially love the sugar coated cardstock - the bright pink panel. It is so glittery and just so pretty!

Here's another card I created that relies heavily on patterned paper as well. This is shimmery paper from BoBunny and it is just so delicious! The only stamping on this one is the Happy Valentine's Day sentiment in the middle (Michael's $1 stamps). For this one I used Prism cardstock as it matched the paper much better than SU.

101 posts and counting!

I missed my 100th post and didn't even know it! This is my 101st post and I'm hopefully still going strong.

This card is a shameless copy of Jen del Muro's card. I usually don't do this quite so literally but I fell in love with Jen's card and it was perfect for the Michaels $1 stamp I was trying to use. She does amazing work - make some time to peruse her blog - you will not be disappointed!! I used the Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder for the background and the snowflakes are from the Michaels $1 stamp bin. The Noel sentiment (Merry Messages by Stampendous) is stamped twice, once in Cool Caribbean and once in black and there is a rhinestone brad in the middle of the O. Some ribbon and stickles finish off the card. Super elegant and super quick to make! Thanks Jen for sharing your work!

Rejoice

Here's a card I made using some of the Michaels $1 ($1.50 for us Canadians) stamps that I bought. I didn't have any religious stamps so snatched these two up. Can you see the 2nd one? It's hiding amongst the holly in the lower left hand corner - it's embossed in gold. I wish it showed up more and I don't know what the right hand corner needs. I tried different patterned papers and stamped options and they just didn't look right. Perhaps I should have just used the patterned paper the whole way across instead. Thanks for looking!

Baby cards squared!

Here are two baby cards that I made to sell. They are basically the same other than the colour scheme but came together quickly and easily. I'm off to a baby shower - tomorrow I'll show you the card I made for the expectant mom!

Happy World Card Making Day!

Apparently today is World Card Making Day!! So I decided to make a card - or two, or twenty five. I'm working on a card order so I'm in mass production mode, but I did manage to come up with something original. I'd been wanting to try a criss-cross card ever since I saw the tutorial on SCS, so I finally made it happen. The paper is from the MME Costco stack and the stamp is from the $1 bin at Michaels. I coloured the pumpkins with my prismas and gamsol. I've been so productive so I have lots to show you - a name frame and some treat containers to name a few! See you later!

Halloween Sketch Challenge

I must admit that Halloween is one of my least favourite holidays (no flaming please!). Maybe it stems from always feeling like I had the worst costume when I was younger, but I'm just not that "into it". I love figuring out what my kids will wear for costumes, and we have a tradition of having chili and biscuits for dinner and inviting friends over - but I just don't go wild over it. So I've never owned any Halloween stamps until Michaels came out with new $1 ($1.50 in Canada) stamps. I bought a couple and this is the card I made.
I used the sketch challenge at Splitcoast Stampers and am really happy with the layout - I'll definitely use this one again. The ghost originally had a frame around him but I inked only the ghost so the two stamps would go together better. I coloured the ghost using my white signo pen. The paper is all scraps I had from scrapbooking - from Creative Imaginations and KI memories. This card will go to my nephew Robson!

Julee's Mojo Monday

I made this card for Julee's Mojo Monday challenge. She provides a sketch and this week she also mentioned she was using her "almost" cards. Images, backgrounds, etc... that she had lying around waiting to be finished. I can totally relate because I've had images and backgrounds lying on my desk for a couple weeks now, but somehow I just can't seem to put them together. This sketch gave me the chance to do it! Here's what I came up with and I'm really happy with it.
I know it looks similar to the card I made for Beate's sketch challenge, but that's because I'm creating samples for a company whose colours are turquoise and brown and who wants a thank you card with flower images - thus the similar cards.

Wedding Gift

I needed a wedding gift for my cousin who kind of "eloped" and got married at a Sandals resort somewhere tropical (they had a "weddingmoon"). We're going to a family celebration for them and I didn't want to show up empty handed. This is the gift that I made them. Ideally I would have stamped the letters of their last name but I didn't have an alphabet that was big enough, so I just printed them onto cardstock with my printer. The background is stamped with swirls in versamark, and there's a little heart and key charm hanging off the letter "H". The frame I used had an opening of 7"x14" so the ribbon down the left side is to hide my seam. I think this turned out pretty nice and I hope they will enjoy seeing it in their house.

I made this card (in all of about 10 mins!) last night. I used the cool caribbean paper because it matches their wedding flowers and I embossed the sentiment with silver embossing powder. The ribbon is black velvet. I thought it turned out quite well for a 10 min. card!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Baby card

I forgot that I needed to whip up a baby card for tomorrow. This is what I came up with. Seems like I'm really liking my scallop punch and white pen these days! Oooh and I forgot that I coloured the onesie with my prismacolour pencil and Gamsol (odourless mineral spirits). You can get awesome shading with this method.

Flip Flop Challenge Card

I made this for SCS's Limited Supply Challenge. You had to create a card that said summer to you. To me, summer is not summer without flip flops. I think I'd wear them all year round if I didn't live in Canada. I stamped the sentiment directly onto the ribbon because I didn't want to cover the ribbon up (it's too pretty!). And I sewed around the edges!! I'm quickly becoming a sewing addict - it's such a pretty addition to a card!

Oh and by the way - have you seen the new croc flip flops? I've never been a fan of the original croc flip flops, but I think these ones are to die for (and they are super comfy too!)!

Life Friend

I made this because I wanted to play with my winobella stamp some more - she's been badly neglected. I threaded the white Queen & Co. flower sequins through some silver cord for the bottom and added some stickles to the prima flowers for a little bling. I used my snap stamps for the "cheers" and went over the bottle and glasses with my clear glaze pen for a little dimension.

I think the shadow on the bottom should maybe have been a different colour, but at least it's not offensive, just not quite right. Thanks for looking!

Zig Zag Stitching + Liquid Applique

= such a cute card!! (if I do say so myself)

So I bravely decided to "really" try out my new toy - I mean sewing machine. After experimenting with some scrap paper, I took a deep breath and sewed. And it turned out pretty good. Now granted it took me two corners to figure out I needed to go beyond the corner before I turned the cardstock (I catch on quick eh?), but it's all in the learning curve right? And then I seriously needed to play with my new liquid applique. I applied it as the frosting on top of the cupcakes and it's puffy in real life - so cool! The cupcakes are up on dimensionals and I added stickles to the candles to make them glittery. Mmmmm looks good enough to eat!

Tea Bag Holders

These are the tea bag holders I made for a friend. I hope she likes them as she left the details up to me! The bella holders are using some DCWV paper I bought at Michaels (oh the shame!). It's so pretty and sparkly! I mounted the bellas on Bazzill Bling and it is also sparkly - I love that paper.

The mug is from Sunshine Designs and is on the same cube as the refrigerator and the cutlery from previous cards. I stamped it on watercolour paper (my first foray with wc paper) and used my aquabrush and inkpads to colour it. I think I did o.k. for one of my first tries. The paper is from the My Mind's Eye stack that my Mother in law brought me from Costco in the States.

Commissioned Baby Cards

How cool is that? I've been "hired" to make some baby cards. I made these for my good friend Tina Tea. I still need to make her the tea bag holders that she also "ordered" - but hopefully in the next couple days. These cards are all pretty similar due to the fact that I was a little short on time and inspiration. I think they're pretty adorable though and hope they live up to what she's expecting! I got to use my linen background stamp for the first time on the pink ones - it's such a pretty, subtle effect and it's going to be a favourite - I can tell.