A baby shower, and a winner!

First things first....the winners from the comment list on the last post were....number 2, LISA DEAN and number 6, STEPH ACKERMAN!!! Steph, I have given your names to Kimm and she will help you with your stamps! Congratulations! So happy for you both!!!!

Now, for the other business. I posted here awhile back that I was making things for a baby shower. While I didn't actually attend said baby shower, I did help set up. It was a VERY simple affair, but it was appropriate in this case, I think.

This was the food table. They had casserole and other things. I put a few pearls into the flower balls (one of the balls was leaning). I used cloud confetti that I had punched with the fiskars punch to scatter around.

Yay, mason jars! Used them for the paper straws and the mints. No one ate the mints OR used the straws, however. I find that strange.

All of my cute little plasticware bundles ready to be used. 

The "wishes for baby, advice for mum" table. They were to write on the card and place it in the basket. It was against a backdrop of cute baby clothes and lattice. 

 Isn't it adorable? I totally dug the lattice fencing and the baby clothes on a clothesline. Super cute!

Let it shower! I dearly wish I had made the cloud at least 3 times the size it was. I will know better for next time. It is dwarfed by the size of the room. Also, I might should have put the rag line over on the left behind the mother's chair to balance the lattice. 

 Yes, the rag line would have gone nicely over here near the mom's chair. Also, the umbrella may could have been hung differently. It was LATE at night and we were all tired. So....this is how it happened.

 Given the circumstances I believe it turned out well. Do I wish I had planned better? Yes, however it wasn't a shower I was throwing. I was just creating. So, all in all it was great. I was thankful for the opportunity to get to create something I haven't gotten to dabble in before.

Again, I want to congratulate Lisa and Steph on their big win! Be sure to contact Kimm to receive your prizes! Also, be sure to "like" Ms. Kimm Creates on facebook! Just follow the link!

Happy crafting!

Christmas In September

Yesterday, Kristy and I got together and made Christmas cards. got a GREAT start on my Christmas cards for the season! We had Mega Stuff Oreos and MAN were they good! Good brain food!!

Usually I over-think my Christmas cards. And that's a bad thing to do when you have SO MANY to make. Kristy and I got our heads together, did some pinteresting and decided on some simple, but punchy washi tape Christmas cards. MAN I love em! I can't wait to mail them out! I need to make more, but it is completely NOT overwhelming this year now that I have allowed myself the freedom to make a CAS card. 

The stamps used on these cards are made by one of my friends, Ms. Kimm over at Ms. Kimm Creates. December 25 and Dear Santa came from the "Dear Santa" set. I am in love with these stamps! The quality is amazing for clear stamps. So crisp! And the sentiments are flipping awesome. The tapes are mostly Recollections and the twine came from the gift wrap section at Target. 

 This stamp is an old Stampin Up! stamp that I have had for ages. I also embossed a border stamp from Ms. Kimms Creations, "Dear Santa". The stars are confetti/sequins from Joann.

 This card was made using a tag from the dollar spot at Target and some Holiday words from Tim Holtz. Oh, and Washi. And vellum.

This card was created with Recollections and Smash* brand washi tape and a stamp from the Christmas Tradition set over at Ms. Kimm Creates. I distressed the card with some gold leafing. I thought it made a neat statement.  

These next two are shaker cards. I haven't made shaker cards in years and I learned quite a bit in the process yesterday. This first one was a minor failure. The foam I used wasn't quite as thick as I had hoped so when I added the veneers and the confetti, it didn't want to shake. Also, something I didn't account for is the stickiness of the edges of the foam. This caused a bunch of the shaker items to get stuck to the edges and not shake. Lesson learned, though! the stamp is from the set, "Lovely As A Tree" from Stampin Up!. The frame is from Jilly Bean Soup and the paper is Paper Studio. 

This last shaker was a success. I learned from the mistakes made this shaker card with Ms. Kimms set, Dear Santa.  Before I put the shaker onto the card I took microfine glitter and shook it around to coat the sides of the foam so that it was no longer sticky. then I added all of the extra glitter and sequins. I also doubled up the foam to make it slightly less flat. It shakes like a dream. 

I really love the stamps over at Ms. Kimms Creations. In fact, I love them so much that I decided to do a give-away! Ms. Kimm has generously decided to give away two of her Christmas sets!!! 2 lucky winners will receive one of her adorable Christmas sets!!! All you have to do is leave a comment below and September 14th I will choose 1 winner for each set using Random.org. Make sure to leave me an email address so that I can contact you if you win!!! 

Hope you are uber inspired and good luck! And don't forget to check back and see if YOU were one of the lucky winners!!!

*THIS GIVEAWAY IS OPEN ONLY TO THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA. THANK YOU!

Zap, POW!

Its that time again! Lizzie and I have a new release and we are totally stoked to share it with you! So, I wanted to share some projects that I did using our images. I had SO much fun coloring and playing with these.

One of the best things, I think, about creating with something that came out of your mind is how gratifying it is when it turns out as good, or better than your original imagined thought.

So, of COURSE I had to draw some MORE coffee. I mean, seriously. I chose vivid colors. Had to be BRIGHT eyed and bushy tailed!

 Now, this little guy...my baby optimistic Optimus. I love him so much. I had a blast creating him and then coloring him to bring him to life. Makes me "optimistic". Hehehe. OKay, that was lame, but I still LOVE this card and love my baby Optimus!

With Lizzie's images, I created these cards. I love working with someone whose work I believe in and love to work with!! Like, seriously, a CUPCAKE of tea? Come ON! How "sweet" is that!! I had so much fun coloring this up and creating this card. So cute, I could eat it up!

 And then there is this sweet dress form. I loved it the moment she drew it and HAD to color it up and create with it! Even had some Maya Road measuring tape ribbon/trim that totes matched!

Since we just released, we are having a tag/comment contest and will choose one random commenter to win 3 of our freshest images. You can hop over to our FB page for all of the information. It will end September 2nd at 11 am CST so don't wait!

Also, be sure to check out our shop. We have our entire release up and ready for you to create with!

Thanks for stopping by! Happy crafting! 

A Blog Hop Of Another Kind

Hello, again! I have been asked by Louise Gannon-Forsythe to join a fun and different type of blog hop. Its all about crafters getting to know one another and showing a little bit of what makes us tick and what makes you you as a crafter. 

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Question 1: What are you working on at the moment?

Currently, I am working on all kinds of things. I am learning to love the wonderful world of Art Journaling and Mixed Media. 

Question 2: How does my work differ from others'? 

I have always been a "different" type of crafter. I am scrappy in that, I use what I have or make what I don't. I don't need fancy gadgets and gizmos (insert ear worm here). I don't do the "typical" or the "in style". I just do me. :) For example: I will go to Goodwill and buy 99 cent clothes just for the sequins. An ENTIRE DRESS for a buck! Think of the SEQUINS! 

I thought this page about summed it up in a nutshell. I also really enjoy color. Color is the one thing that inspires me above everything else. Once I have the colors, it kinda just falls together. 

I also like making my own stamps. Nothing fancy. Just simple and fun. I make them out of erasers from the dollar tree. :) I told you, I just do me! 

Question 3: Why do I craft?

I honestly and truthfully can not remember a time where I didn't have some type of creative influence in my life. My mother was the strongest influence. She is an artist who was never really encouraged or discovered. I would spend hours sitting in her bedroom floor and watch her create a masterpiece with pencils and paper. Her favorite subject was horses, hands down. 

My mother always encouraged me to create. There was never a time when I didn't have an abundance of crayons, markers, pencils, pens, construction paper, artist pads and watercolor paint. For a family that wasn't well-off, these were affordable items that gave my mother some "quiet" time and me HOURS of inspiration!

I craft because its in my blood. I craft because I can't NOT craft. There have been times when I thought I would have to give it up and the very thought made me sick and slightly depressed. There are times that projects literally torment me until I can get them out! 

These reasons, and so many more, are why I craft. 

(I have always been a little...different, hehe)

Question 4: How does my creative process work?

Typically there are 3 things that inspire me to create. 

1: Color....I am addicted to color combos and color in general. Color drives me crazy until I can create something with it. 

2: A stamp or image...there are certain artists that just have a way of capturing my imagination and coloring and creating with them really get my creative juices flowing!

3: Paper. Specifically, patterns. Sometimes its all I can do to contain myself and NOT buy ALL THE PAPERS of certain brands. I mean seriously...sometimes....its painful how much I love patterned paper. 

Also, I am inspired by other people and take new ideas and play with them and develop them into something of my own. Pinterest is such an enabler!

I hope you have enjoyed this look at the inner workings of my rather odd brain. 

I have nominated the following talented, inspiring ladies and they will be posting next Monday, September 1st. I sure hope you stop by their pages and show some love!

The fabulous LIZZIE!!! She is my crafty bestie and so much more! Be sure to check her out!

Another beautiful crafty soul, ShaunnaMichelle Here: 

A pink explosion!

My mother enlisted my help in planning a baby shower for someone who goes to her church. She had a baby girl so my dining room has looked as though it was throwing up pink for the last week. As a mother of just one boy I am SO not used to this much pink!

We decided to go with a less fru fru look and a more sweet and slightly shabby look. Decided to go with a "shower" theme. Seemed obvious, haha.

I made a poofy cloud out of tissue paper flowers and sewed card stock rain drops together and attached everything with good, strong adhesive. We will hang it at the shower using command strips.

I went to Goodwill and found some baby girl clothing that was almost new and washed and hung it on jute with some small clothes pins to create a clothes line. The umbrella was bought at Hobby Lobby.

These adorable little boots will be filled to overflowing with baby's breath on the day of the shower. I think it will be a sweet touch to add to the table.

The napkins have 1 fork and 1 spoon wrapped up inside. I used a Fiskars cloud punch and some bakers twine to keep them wrapped up tight until the day of the shower.

Also from Goodwill, I bought different sheets and ripped up strips and tied them to some twine to create a banner/bunting type thing. ;) This will hang on the front of the table. 

I created these adorable cards for the attendees to write well wishes for the baby or advice for mum. I used the fiskars cloud punch again and then used a photo corner punch I had to layer the white cardstock with some old Martha Stewart paper (that was given to me. I don't buy her stuff)

I found this wicked adorable frame at Goodwill and HAD to have it to put the instruction thing in for the well wishes card table. It was the perfect color and the perfect size and it was only 99 cents! SCORE!

I really can't wait for the shower next weekend. And no worries, I will def be posting the set up cause, that's what I do! Hope you all are having a craft-tastical weekend and staying in out of this oppressive humidity. For those of you Down Under, I envy you your winter on days like today. Happy crafting!

Southern Girls, Challenge # 95 Texture

I am so excited to share my first DT post with you for the Southern Girls Blog Challenge. I can tell its going to be a blast!

This time around our challenge is Texture!! I love texture. It can really add a lot to a project! I was given this fabulous Dilly Beans image to play with, "Tula's Heart"  I love all things Dilly Beans, so it was exciting to get to play with a new image!

I used papers from Dear Lizzie's "Lucky Charm" pack. I colored Tula with Copic markers. I tried a new hair color. I kinda like it! I used my copics to create texture on her sweater as well. The frame is from Jillie Bean Soup. I popped out part of Tula's headband. To add texture, I used sparklets. I am in LOVE with sparklets! They have a nubby texture and sparkle like crazy!

Be sure to hop over to the Southern Girls' page to check out the rest of the amazing projects and enter for your chance to win some amazing prizes!

Galactic Sunday

Its that time of year again. That time when I begin to obsess over details of a certain little man's birthday party. This year he FINALLY wanted Star Wars, something we have been hoping for for almost 8 years, hahaha. Seriously think its going to be a fantastic party. Lots of fun things planned.

Here is the first of many projects. As always, when the party comes I will do another post recapping everything that we did and be sure to check me out on Pinterest. I have tons of parties planned and posted!

So, light sabers. We have like 4, 2 of which make noise, but when you are talking about most likely around 20 kids? I needed to have some more price efficient light saber action.

Pinterest to the rescue, as always. POOL noodles. Totes awesome. Also, extremely price efficient. The dollar tree had noodles for 1 dollar, and each noodle makes 2 light sabers. 50 cents PER kid? Not too shabby.

I made enough sabers for 20 kids. Might go back and get a few more to make 25 or 26. We shall see. For now, lets stick with 20.

Walmart has their Duck Tape on sale for 3 dollars a roll. I used about 1.5 silver rolls, and about a half of a black roll to create the handles. I didn't try any cheaper tape, but perhaps it will hold just as well. To cut this tape you are going to want a good pair of sharp scissors that had adhesive resistant blades. This pair is from Fiskars.

 I had hubbs draw me out 3 simple designs for handles:

Then, I got to work. I had a cardboard box from my work and covered it in blue wrapping paper from the dollar tree and printed out a label from here. 

It took me 2 or 3 hours to get all of these done (with minor interruptions). For the silver in the handle it took 4 strips of tape that went all the way around. So, basically, stack 4 strips on top of one another and that is how long your handle will be. 

All in all I think the kids are going to have a blast "training" with balloons in our Jedi Training Area at the party. 

Hope this inspires you to start thinking about fun things you can do for a party! And, may The Force be with you!