Decorated Hat Box

Here is a hat box I made as one of my design items for our local scrapbook store, Scrap Fun*Attic; check them out; the girls there are delightful to work with. I always enjoy visiting!

I took these pictures late last night; hopefully you can see and understand the project. I did a front view which says "Live, Love, Laugh" and "friends"; I love the colors! A side view which shows the handle decorated with fabric ribbon (so delightful and rich) and then a back view which shows the handle even better.

I thought it was hard to do so I enlisted the help of my hubby for a few things, he's fantastic at measuring and 'making it work' - LOL!




It's been a rough week for many reasons, I'm glad the weekend is upon us and some rest is on the horizon. Tomorrow starts bright and early as I need to take my hubby to work in the morning, then I have an appt. at 9:00 a.m., but after that it's our own schedule - thank goodness!

Jared, our youngest, was stung by 3 wasps tonight; 1 on each leg and 1 on his NOSE; I could hear him screaming and knew it must be bad. With all his allergies, I'm most concerned with what his reaction will be so I gave him Benadryl immediately then put him into the bathtub with Aveeno Oatmeal bath to help soothe the pain. He's doing much better now; only one left a deep sting on him. :( He's resting comfortably. I went out to try to find the wasp's nest with no success - I saw 2 wasps, but couldn't find their home...but I will!!!

I hope you each have a restful weekend, thanks for peeking in! ~M.

Hip Kinda Bella

Check out Emmybella - she must be one of my favorites because I turn to her time and time again! I made her pants and the purse on the left out of the same cardstock you see down the left side of the card. The base card is Pixie Pink with flowers stamped in Versamark. The patterned paper is brand new...and I can't remember the name....sorry!

BUT I did a close up shot so you could see her pants and purse - she's rather blurry; but the pants aren't. LOL! Click on the image and you can see a close-up of the picture.Both "bella" and the patterned paper are backed with chocolate chip paper and the "bella" is mounted with dimensionals. I did 3 of these cards; love them all!

Thanks for stopping by; hope you have a great week!

~M.

Red and Apricot Appeal?

I need to get some cards made and had in my mind what I wanted to create, but had no idea what colors I wanted to use. What should you do? Look to your right and there is that ribbon that you have NEVER used - time to use it now! That's it - the ribbon was the inspiration for the card colors.

The base card is SU Real Red layered with SU Apricot Appeal. I added the flourishes to the Apricot Appeal in Real Red and sponged the edges.

The flowers are from SU's Heartfelt Thanks set; I colored them with Real Red, Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive markers and spritzed with water before stamping. I always like the way it makes the flowers look - I like it even more on watercolor paper; but for this I used Ivory paper. I then layered the flowers on Apricot Appeal and then onto a scalloped Real Red oval. I added white dots to the Real Red scalloped oval, put it all together and ta-da...I like it!

Hope you do to! Have a great week; thanks for peeking in! ~M.

Back to school...

All our little ones have returned to school...and the craziness has begun. Our youngest started football this past weekend, both girls will start volleyball this week. AND we've added a new member to our family - you'll have to check back to learn about it!

These pictures were taken the first morning of school - um, that would be the same morning the bus missed us and didn't get the kids picked up! Glad I stuck around to see how the morning went. LOL

Our oldest is in her last year of elementary school - but let me just say - those girls already have middle school attitudes!!! It's been a rough start, but we're still hopeful we'll have a great year!


Our middle one is in 3rd grade and LOVES school, particularly math. She didn't get that from her momma - trust me. THAT'S why God gave us calculators!!



And our last is entering 1st grade and delights my heart. How quickly we forget the important things in life like "what happens if I don't get all the words right on the spelling test?", "did she (meaning the teacher) REALLY say I had to write the words and show her I practiced?", or "if I do good on the test, will daddy and you buy me something?"....ah, the joys of a young, innocent babe!!

Here's hoping for a great year sweet babes!

Thanks for peeking in friends; have a marvelous week! ~M.

Sailboat

A friend at work asked me to make a birthday card for a co-worker; they're in to sailing so this is what I came up with. I didn't have a sailboat stamp; so I printed this image from Clipart, embossed around it and then put the card together. The cardstock is double-sided; striped on the side you see; the inside is a pale blue with darker blue circles; cool paper.

Thanks for peeking in; hope you're having a great weekend!!

Doodle This Wedding Card

Gosh, what kind of card do you make when you need one for a wedding and you only have 30 minutes to get it made? THIS!


I'm thinking this will be a little hard to explain - but I'll try. It's a double-folded card. The base of the card is Ivory layered with chocolate/pink patterned paper. Then the striped paper is layered on pink card stock. The striped paper opens to the right; then the chocolate/pink paper opens to the left and you have the inside of the card! :) Clear as mud?

Here is a close-up of the Doodle This flower; stamped once in Chocolate Chip Craft Ink and once in Rose Red. Both flowers are cut out, I don't think you can tell from the picture, but I curled each petal with a pencil; gave it a nice look. Each flower is mounted with dimensionals to give it some height and then I added the pink jewel to the top.

Now, here's the next shot once I've open the striped panel up to the right.


Isn't that chocolate and pink paper pretty? AND it's textured! (does my nail look nice - LOL) You do what you have to do when you're in a rush.

And here's the final picture once I've opened this side to the left:

The inside says "The joining of two hands makes One Heart!"; it's stamped in white ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I thought it turned out nice for the short timeframe I was under!It was a dear friend that got married; I worked with her about 4 years ago at a church. Although we didn't work together long, we formed a strong friendship. She's a beautiful young lady, it was delightful to see her so happy. I love weddings, although they ALWAYS make me cry. LOL

I served at the reception; we had sooo many people come back and ask for punch refills (I took the easy way out and served up the punch); it was a very hot day and the punch was delicious and refreshing!

Our oldest daughter, age 11, went with me and was quite the helper! The trip was 7 1/2 hours driving round trip and we were there for about 3 hours for the wedding and reception - made for a very long day; but so worth it!

Thanks for peeking in; have a great week. ~M.

Gift Card Set

I have these very dear friends who gladly (I think??) indulge me on my birthday. My birthday is a HUGE deal; I love it, I celebrate ALL-DAY-LONG and annoy everyone I'm sure. How much do I love it? I wore a tiara all day long; I warned everyone a month in advance my birthday was coming...well, you get the idea, right?

I never know what to get these friends as I always want it to be something unique; so this year, their birthdays came and went and I hadn't gotten them a thing! But alas, an idea came to me. I saw this great layout on a blog....well, I thought it was Taylored Expressions blog, but I couldn't find it there. Anyway, I CASEd; the idea form SOMEONE!

I made 10 sets of cards for each friend and then made a magnetic paper clip - guess I didn't get a picture of the cool magnetic paperclip; but here's the cards I made.

And last is a picture of all the colors; bliss blue, almost amethyst, pink passion (which you see in the first two pictures) and tempting turquoise.

I hope they enjoy the cards; I had a great time making them!

Thanks for peeking in; have a great week!!! ~M.

Lola says THANKS!

A dear friend has a black lab named Lola and dear Lola needed to send a thank you card for some treats she received; so here's her card:

The base card is Ruby Red (I think); layered with So Saffron stamped with Ruby Red flowers (stamped off 2 times before stamping on the Saffron). The bottom portion is some misc. patterned paper. Little Lola was stamped on Whisper White then colored with Aquacolors and Odorless Mineral Spirits.

She's then layered on So Saffron and a Ruby Red Scalloped Oval. I added white polka dots to the Scalloped Oval, all tied off with So Saffron ribbon. Even though the stamp isn't a black lab, I think it'll work! I hope the receiver of Lola's card likes it.

Thanks for stopping by; hope you have a great day!

~M.

Wild About You!

I just got this stamp set from Stampin' Up, Wild About You; (I know, the rest of you got it 6 mos. ago) - LOL!! I love all the samples of the giraffe I've seen on really bright, colorful, cheery paper - so I opted for some colorful paper myself.

The base paper is used as a mat around the giraffe on the opposite card, kinda hard to see in the pictures! One giraffe has a large green brad; the other has a So Saffron bow. Both say Wild About You on the outside and are birthday cards on the inside. On one giraffe, I colored all his spots green; the other I colored with green and yellow. I also added a mane to each giraffe with the green color. On the card with the circle background, to the right of the giraffe, I punched 3 holes in 3 large circles. The red and green circle I left empty so you can see the yellow base card showing through; but on the yellow dot, I added the spot I punched from the red circle - thought it was neat and different.

Hope you're having a great week; check back as I have more new things to load this week! Thanks for peeking in; hope to see you back again soon. Hugs, ~M.

Check out my Slide Show!

Thinking of You

This card is actually on a delicate yellow cardstock - but the picture kinda ruined that. Sorry. It's really done in fall colors and was quick and simple.

Not many details here; but something quick, simple and fun!

Thanks for stopping by; have a great week! ~M.

Anniversary Roses in Winter

This past weekend some very dear friends celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary! The husband was my principal in high school and LOVES to tell my children, if they ever get in trouble, just give him a call, he'll tell them lots of things about me - yeah, whatever, I was really a good kid...except for that one time. Hmmmm.....maybe I'll tell that story here in a bit.

Anyway, last year his lovely wife was diagnosed with lymphoma and suffered several strokes. Her test results lately have been very good and she's making such incredible progress. It was great to see them, they're such a delight to everyone - and I do mean everyone. There were a TON of people at the anniversary party.

They have 4 children and they have all turned out great with beautiful grandchildren!!! Of course, my hubby and I are in the middle of raising 3 kids wondering how you get them to 'turn out right'. LOL (anyone have any hints??)

OK, here's the card I made for them:


Do you like the colors? Yeah, you guessed it - more smooshing of the roses....I kinda like that technique, have you noticed?

The outside says "To Love and To Cherish"; the inside says "Happy Anniversary" in the same cursive lettering - I love that!

Of course, I got to the very end and found a mistake that I just couldn't cover up...so I had to use that dratted brad and flower! :(

OK, if you're still here, let's tell that little high school story! Each day at lunch, when you were old enough to drive, you could go home and back for lunch OR you could walk over to the quick stop a block away...but you could not drive anywhere else.

I returned from lunch one day with a cup of pop from the quick stop...but it wasn't the quick stop a block away - oops. My principal was standing at the end of the hall and saw my cup. Now let me back up and say my principal and his family lived right across the street from us and we did everything together. I played with their kids, we had fish fries, all kinds of things.

So....he pulls me aside and says something like "it makes it hard since I'm friends with your parents and you've obviously gone to a quick stop you weren't supposed to go to at lunch". My reply? A typical teenage response "well, don't be friends with my family". DID I REALLY SAY THAT? Yeah...I did. ROFL!!!

I love them dearly, I "think" I'm forgiven. We're greatly blessed to still have a friendship with their entire family. Great people, great friends!!!

Another Bella Chick!

I have had some time to play this week - that's always a special treat. There's something about getting the babes ready for school that makes me think I'm on a merry-go-round and I just WANT TO GET OFF! LOL So much to do to get them ready!

I had some new paper and a new stamp set, so I decided to combine them with one of my favorite bella chicks, Imeldabella. Isn't she the cutest thing?

I colored her clothes with Aquacolor Crayons and Odorless Mineral Spirits; then I did the presents with metallic inks - just having fun pulling all the colors together. The inside says "If the shoe fits, buy one in every color." Great advice, don't you think?

Thanks for peeking in; hope you're having a great week!

Card Details:
Memory Box Cotton Candy card
Embossed with Cuttlebug Swirl Folder highlighted with SU White Craft Ink
Prima flower with light pink rhinestone in center
Imeldabella stamped with SU Black Ink and colored with Aquacolor Crayons & OMS
Packages are colored with metallic pens