Lean closer...I have "s'more" to tell you!

:D

This week at Crafts 4 Eternity we are focusing on Back to School! Michele of Crafts 4 Eternity is sponsoring us with YOUR chance to win 3 digital images and boy does she have some good 'uns! That was my midwest accent coming through - LOL!

I no longer have children in elementary school - PRAISE THE LORD - but I'm sure you understand, it means my children have aged...I have not, please DO NOT make the mistake and assume I have - HA!

I made "s'more" cookies - without the fire since I was crafting in my basement, but seriously, aren't they adorable? I got the idea HERE. I put each cookie in its own cellophane bag then added various school themed toppers. Super simple and quick as I was making quite a few!

Then I made a couple notepads, I'm going to deliver all this to the 2 secretaries at the middle school - I bet they'll love a little treat! The notepads were inspired by Debbie Olson, HERE.

Hope you'll join along this week; it's a GREAT theme!

Hugs,

WHAT'S IT TAKE?

Stamps: PTI Teacher's Apple,, This and That, Imaginisce school stamps

Papers: PTI Pure Poppy, GKD white and cream, DP by Imaginisce

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Rich Cocoa, Fired Brick and Forest Moss distress inks

Accessories: nesties, copics, square punch, misc. ribbon, red and white twine, misc. buttons, PTI notepads, cellophane bags, Deluxe Graham cookies and stacker marshmallows

Challenges:
Cupcake Inspirations 225
The Sisterhood of Crafters - School
Wags 'n Whiskers - School
The Perfect Sentiment - Goodbye Summer, Hello School
BLD 54 - Back to School

Glue--less Gift Bag - Teacher Gift

This post will be full of pictures so my words will be short. Stop it - sit down and quit celebrating that I won't be rambling on...and on...and on!!  :D

I used this post from High Hopes to make my Glue-less Gift Bag. Super easy to make and works like a charm.

I made 6 small thank you cards (2 of each style) for the teacher (size 4.25" x 4.25") along with matching envelopes; the opposite side of the gift bag is filled with 2 candy bars.

Here are the pictures starting from the gift bag empty to each card (2 of each style) and then once it's filled - LOVE this idea!!

Thanks for stopping by - hope this gives you some inspiration for your teacher gifts!


Hugs, ~M.

WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: PTI Polka Dot Basics, Verve Visual Dream Big, Imaginesce school images
Papers: PTI Rustic White, Imaginesce school papers
Ink:  Barn Door, Faded Jeans and Scattered Straw
Accessories: nesties, Copics, misc. punch, misc. ribbon

Empty Glueless Gift Bag

All 6 cards (2 of each style)

Red card

Blue card

Yellow Card with glossy accents on all the windows!

Filled with cards and matching envelopes

Candy - YUM!!

Cupcake Inspriations #123 - Mo Manning

Complete card including belly band

It's time for another amazing Cupcake Inspirations challenge! And I really loved this one - maybe because I seriously considered licking my screen for the frosting of the inspiration photo - HA!!!

This week we are sponsored by Mo Manning Digital Images; if you've been around stamping long and peeked into the digital world, then you KNOW Mo has some of THE. BEST. DIGITAL. IMAGES. EVAH!!!!  AND she has been so kind as to donate 4 - $10 gift certificates, so everyone should join this challenge!

I decided to try Christina's fun fold card which you can see HERE.  Gosh; I just love her card and couldn't wait to give it a whirl.  So there are several pictures, I'll give you just a few tid bits and then all the pictures!  :D

I used Mo's digi image "Big Shoes" and tie it into a little girl playing dress up.  I created the inside sentiment on the computer and printed it onto GKD 80 lb. card stock.  The crayons and little bus on the inside as well as the DP are from Imaginesce. I added some glitter to the crayons - seriously, what girl wouldn't want crayons WITH glitter (hopefully you can see from the close up picture!  I darkened the photo which contains the 2nd generation school bus.  Love the belly band - what a super fun fold card; you'll see more of these in the future!!

Belly band off, gate fold open

Little girl panel folded down to show the inside.

AND the amazing Cupcake Inspiration picture!

Go ahead; take some inspiration from that amazing cupcake (don't lick your screen tho) and join in the fun!

...calorie free sweet treats...

Hugs, ~M.


WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Mo Manning Digi Image Big Shoes

Papers: PTI Aqua Mist, Pure Poppy, DP by Imaginesce
Ink:  VersaMagic Wheat, Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories:  Copics, nesties, Spica glitter pens

Teacher's Gifts

Secret Pal Gift (KindergartenTeacher)

Hello friends!  How are you?  Me....I'm doing good - life has been really hectic.  Still settling in to the new job; but REALLY enjoying it.  The "admin" group rotates early Friday's from May through September, my first one was yesterday - I got to leave at 2 p.m.  :D  Delightful, I must say.

Friday was also the last day of school for our two little ones, so I picked up the oldest (she finished on Wednesday), then picked up the little ones from school, then we headed off to see Pirates of the Caribbean - they had no clue where we were going...once they figured that out, they didn't know what movie we were going to see.  Had a blast and they LOVED the movie.  Upon arriving home, our oldest said "Kaitlyn and I think Johnny Depp is H-O-T"; always fun having teenagers in the house eh?  Made me laugh.  I posted that comment on FB and I received several responses that it wasn't just my daughters that think he's H-O-T!  HA!

Kaitlyn's and Jared's teachers gifts

Since Friday was the last day of school, I made gifts for each of their teachers and also for my secret pal.  I gave them each 2 movie tickets and a little bottle/tube filled with mini M&M's.  The larger bottle used to hold Prima flowers - way to repurpose eh?  I just wrapped some paper around the bottle and tied on some ribbon.  Then I decorated the envie which holds the movie tickets to match.  The tubes are much smaller, so I strictly decorated the envie on those and wrote our thank you note on the back of the envie.  Worked out great.

For all 3 gifts, I used PTI's Teacher's Apple and Take Note stamp sets; love how they turned out; hope the teacher's liked them too!

Have a great weekend; see you Monday, Tuesday AND Wednesday with MORE creations!

...m&m's and mouthfuls of popcorn...

Hugs, ~M.

WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: PTI Take Note and  Teacher's Apple
Papers:  DP by Imaginisce, Basic Grey
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, PTI Pure Poppy, Aqua Mist, Chamomile Tea Dye Ink
Accessories: PTI Notebook Die, twine, PTI Pure Poppy ribbon

Randomness

So...how is everybody doing? Let me tell you; my life has taken a sharp right turn but I'm working to get back on track. If you follow me on Twitter or FB, you were inundated with updates regarding my mother this past weekend. I'm happy to report she is home from the hospital and doing good.

As I said through Twitter, I believe I am stronger for/with my kids than I am for/with my parents - not sure why that is, but it's so true! Delighted mom is home and dad and she are managing just fine!

It's been forever since I've had time to craft AND the last projects I made I had to photograph with my phone (not these photos, some upcoming ones) because I was running out of time before I needed to hit the road to be with mom.

Anyway, this is a notebook with a pocket that I made for a dear friend for her birthday; she loves yellow so I incorporated as much of that as possible. Made another super fun flower from a paperback book along with 2 different ribbons from PTI.

The next project was a card I made for a challenge - weeks ago. LOL Yes, you guessed it, I never got a chance to post it! HA!

Thanks for popping in; I hope you have a GREAT Friday and an even better holiday weekend! Hugs dear friends, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE (NOTEBOOK)?
Stamps: NONE
Papers: PTI Kraft, Hibiscus Burst, MME DP
Ink PTI Summer Sunrise:
Accessories: nesties, MS Punch, SU! Circle Punch, misc. brad

WHAT'S IT TAKE (CARD)?
Stamps: Imaginisce Chick; stamps from PTI
Papers: PTI Raspberry Fizz, Simply Chaurtreuse, Cosmo Cricket DP, GKD White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Rich Cocoa
Accessories: nesties, Copics, paper piecing, corner rounder, EK Success Punch

Luau Birthday Party

A co-worker's granddaughter is having a luau birthday party, and this is her birthday card. I received the flip flop image by Imaginisce as a "thank you" for a recent order I placed through Eclectic Paperie - how cool is that? They worked perfect for this card.

The layout is Jen's Sketch For You to Try (7/31/10); some Cosmo Cricket Delovely paper, paper pieced flip flops, glittery straps, some white sparkly gems, some new Cranberry Dimensional Pearls from Taylored Expressions and we were looking like a luau...or so I thought. LOL

The inside was decorated heavily too with more Delovely paper, some Hawaiian Shores ribbon with a small piece of Delovely paper added to the top of the ribbon. All girly-girl with this card.

Thanks for stopping by; here's hoping you have an incredible week!

Hugs, ~M.



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Imaginisce Flip Flops
Papers: PTI Hawaiian Shores, Hibiscus Burst, Delovely by Cosmo Cricket
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: nesties, PTI Hawaiian Shores ribbon, white sparkly gems by GKD, Adirondack Dimensional Pearls, PTI Floral & Scalloped Dies

Compose a Card #7

Hi friends!

Becky released her 7th Compose a Card challenge last week; you can see the deets HERE. I have to say, I really enjoy her challenges, you have creative freedom...within some guidelines - LOL!

I really liked the little birdy and large polka dots from her inspiration picture so those are the things I gravitated towards. My little birdy is from Imaginese, an older image called "Chick". The chick actually has legs, but my version needed to sit on this swirly rub-on branch, so I omitted the legs when inking her up. I stamped her twice, mounting the 2nd image with dimensionals.

The large polka dots were stamped with PTI's Vintage Cream...I used a few more new PTI products - can anyone spot them? PTI always makes me go cha-ching!!!

The black wool felt is actually from Wal-Mart and is self-sticking - oh yeah, love that. I bought a basic color pack which contains black, white, 2 shades of brown and a dark chocolate, should be lots of fun to play with!

Isn't that ric rac inside the card FUN? Just love it!!! I added piercing around the edge of the card and edged everything with Chai tea dye ink. The bird's flower and the flower of the rub-on both have rhinestones added for some fun bling. The button is tied off with some black hemp. Below are the Copic colors I used for coloring the bird.

Thanks for looking; hope you've had a great weekend! Hugs, ~M.

Fun Fact: 1 in 5,000 north Atlantic lobsters are born bright blue. (really??)



WHAT'S IT TAKE?
Stamps: Imaginese Chick, PTI's 2nd Anniversary Edition (Sending You A Happy Hello - inside the card)
Papers: PTI Vintage Cream, Spring Rain, Summer Sunrise
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: paper piercing, PTI dies (ric rac, Beautiful Blooms II #3), sponging, rhinestones, rub-ons, black spica glitter pen, white gel pen
Copics: Y17, Y38, B21, B34, B41, Colorless Blender

All Kinds Of Happiness - Cupcake

What a great day we've had; what about you? Our DS had a football game this morning - I even got some pictures so I'll share those later; then our two daughters and I got our hair cut this afternoon (before and after pictures to come) and then we attended Wichita State's Volleyball game tonight - those girls are undefeated and ROCK!!! Go Shocks!!

Meanwhile, today was World Cardmaking day and I finally snuck in some time to create. Ahhh...makes for one happy momma!

These cards were made for the Papertake Weekly Challenge; I love these bright colors and this adorable image by Imaginisce; I thought it worked perfectly with the challenge. Changed the colors up a bit and just had some fun.

The base card is Stamper's Select White by PTI (it's 110 lb., so it's incredibly sturdy) layered with SU Pink Passion layered with some miscellaneous DP (trying to use this stuff up - LOL); the center panel uses all the same colors. I embossed both pieces of DP with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dot folder to give it some fun texture - our girls thought it felt so cool. I used Spica glitter pens on both cupcakes, not sure you can really see the sparkle in the picture but it looks fab IRL!

I should have added this strip of green polka dot ribbon to the other card too - but my brain doesn't work that well at 11 p.m. - shoulda had a nap!

I also added two small green jewels to the "sweetie" card. The "Happy Birthday" and "Sweetie" sentiments come from Hey There Cupcake by Stampendous and allowed me to use my window punch to add the text to the cards. Each was sponged in Pink Passion.

Hope you're enjoying the weekend; thanks for popping in!! Hugs, ~M.