A Gift for Grandpa

Hi friends!  Tomorrow at work we're having a grandpa shower for our school social worker who just had his first grandchild a couple of weeks ago.  I got him a picture frame and a book, so I thought it would be cute to package them in a handmade bag.  (I had a little trouble getting the bag in my light box, so please excuse the picture!)  I used an 8" x 10" bag and adhered a piece of DCWV patterned paper.  I added an old chipboard giraffe from Basic Grey and thought about adding more embellishments, but decided to make a tag to fill the space instead.

I die-cut the larger tag from Clear and Simple Stamps (Tags 1) and stamped a tag outline from Trendy Tags.  The wagon, stack of presents and sentiment were stamped from Cart Pals: Baby.  I wanted to keep everything from getting too frilly because I'm giving it to an adult male (but this was tricky because the baby is a girl!  LOL).

Of course I needed to make a card to go with the gift, so I used a scrap from the same DCWV paper and used a focal piece I had made for a previous card, but ended up not using.  To finish off the card I added some old chipboard from Colorbok.  I hope you like my little gift ensemble, thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Baby Shower Tags

Hi there!  I've finally wrapped up sharing all of my Christmas projects, so now I'm going to start heading backwards to share the many cards/projects I made last year that never got posted.  First up are some tags I made for my friend Jen's baby shower.  The tag above is the one I put on her gift.  She lives in Seattle, but the baby shower was given here in NY, so guests were instructed to have gifts shipped to her house in Seattle, but to bring a book to the shower (to build the baby's library).  Since I was giving a book (The Polar Express, in case you're curious), I thought this sweet little moon/blanket/book image from Clear and Simple Stamps would be perfect.  I stamped it on a manilla tag and add the to/from sentiment from My Favorite Things.

This tag was just a quick way for me to show Jen what I got for her.  I made a simple pocket out of PTI aqua mist cardstock and adhered an old chipboard embellishment from K & Co.  (I don't know if you can tell what those pictures are, but I got her the accessories for her stroller- that picture peeking out is a tray).

This last tag is the one I made for my mom to give.  I've known Jen since we were in middle school, so my mom wanted to send a little something for her.  I die-cut the tag from kraft cardstock and used another to/from sentiment from My Favorite Things and a dimensional sticker from K & Co.  You can see the tag/stamp set I used here:  Tag You're It

So that's it for tonight, I hope you like my tags.  Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

On Your Shower

 

Hi everyone!  Just popping in before Hurricane Sandy hits to share my SFYTT for this month.  Here's the sketch:

I made this card for my friend Jen who is expecting in December.  I used some Lawn Fawn stamps and some super old paper that was given to me.  The image was colored with my Copics and the sentiment is stamped on little flags I die-cut with my Spellbinders.

I hope everyone on the East Coast stays safe and that we're not without power for too long.  School has already been canceled for tomorrow, so if things aren't too bad outside, I'll be crafting the day away!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )

Rock-a-bye baby

Hi friends!  It's been a wicked week at work (end of the year in the Guidance Office is always super busy!) so I didn't get to post as much as I wanted to.  I made this for a friend who ordered a baby shower card so I pulled out my baby supplies basket and got to work.  I started with an Inky Antics image- this actually came in a set with the sick turtle that you saw in my nursing home card kits but I thought it would be great for a shower card, too! :)  I used this week's Sweet Stop sketch for the layout:

I flipped pieces around a little bit when I found the rock-a-bye baby sentiment.  It's a clear overlay by Making Memories that I've had in my stash for a while.  I really have to stop forgetting what great supplies I have!  :)  I layered the clear strip on some white cardstock so it would stay pink (and not bleh looking with the yellow patterned paper behind it).  Speaking of, the yellow paper is American Traditional Designs and the purple is ATD, but I'm not sure if they're the same company??  Anyway, I finished off the card with some gems and baby shower ribbon that I was looking to use up (success!).  I think this card turned out pretty cute and I hope you do, too!  

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you're staying cool!

-Suzanne :O )

Baby Shower/Stork's bundle set

Hi friends!  My dad's co-worker is having a baby boy, so he volunteered me to make the cards for the faculty to sign.  I thought it might be fun to use the same papers/stamp set to make both cards, so I used some left over polka dot paper by DCWV (Spring Stack) and a Katie & Co. stamp set made by Hampton Art (Oh Baby).  To the shower card, I added some buttons, a charm from Target, and this ribbon I bought on clearance (27 cents!) at Michaels.  The striped paper is also DCWV, but that sheet is from the Summer Stack.  I used some yellow cardstock from atd.  The baby card uses more of my beloved Nestabilities, some gems from Darice, and a bit of ribbon from Michaels.  I colored the image with my copics, and added a touch of shading with my colored pencils.  Some pretty simple cards, but I like how they're a little matchy-matchy! :)  Hope you like, thanks for checking them out!


-Suzanne :O )

elephant & lamb baby shower

Hi there! I have to get better about blogging- I haven't had much time with trying to get all of my Valentine's Day cards finished! :) I will try to post all of them before the big day gets here. For now, I'm sharing these 2 baby shower cards my dad needed for his co-workers... he asked me the night before(!), so theses aren't my best work, but I think they turned out okay. He also didn't know if we had boys or girls on the way, so I tried to keep the colors neutral. This first one uses paper by ATD, matted with some kraft cardstock. The wide white ribbon is part of a huge bucket (one of those wrapping paper holders) of ribbon I scored at the Clean House yardsale I went to last weekend. I paid $10 for it, and then kind of regretted it because most of the bucket was curling ribbon, which I don't really use. But anyway, I added the Colorbok chipboard "joy" tag with some narrow yellow ribbon (also from the bucket) and stamped the Hero Arts elephant and heart with some of my new ColorBox inks. They were on clearance at AC Moore, and I had a gift card, so I bought 6 of them- now I have tons of different ink colors! :)

The next card uses more of my beloved kraft cardstock, with some patterned paper I got in a swap. The yellow ribbon I got in the antiques section (this ribbon doesn't look "antique" to me...?) of an outdoor festival last year, but it doesn't show the manufacturer. I finally started tapping into some of the card candy I've been hoarding, hence the "sweet one" embellishment.  I added a couple of yellow buttons to finish off the card.  


I find baby shower cards difficult to make, in that they're not much different from baby cards.  I wish I had a stamp with the image of a duck holding an umbrella or something, so I'll have to keep my eye out for that kind of thing. ;)  On the inside of both cards, I computer printed "a shower of good wishes for you and baby!".  Someone needs to make that stamp, too! :)  


This is the start of a 4 day weekend for me, so I really hope to get lots and lots of St. Patrick's Day cards made.  I went through all of my papers and ribbons last night; today I'm going to go through all of my embellishments to pull out anything green, orange, yellow or gold.  I'm always amazed at how much stuff I come up with, or how much stuff I forgot I had!! :D  Happy weekend, everyone!


-Suzanne :O )

Sugared Baby Shower

Hi friends! The family friend for whom I made the barnyard baby shower invitations is having her big hoopla this Saturday. My mom and I are giving her a bassinet, so when I saw that image on my New Arrival Cricut cartridge, I knew I had to use it :) All of the papers and "Girl" sticker are from Basic Grey's Sugared line. I added a bit of sheer pink ribbon, a Prima flower, and a gold button, which I hand-stitched to the flower. I also couldn't resist adding a big of Doodlebug's Sugar Coating to the ribbon on the bassinet- yum! :) The scallops aren't perfect, which irritates me, but I traced one of my ShapeCutters templates and hand-cut it with scissors. I would have just cut it using my ShapeCutter, but the corners wouldn't have lined up b/c the template is 8 1/2 x 11. Oh, well. :)

The sketch is caardvarks, sponsored by ShortCuts!:
I hope you enjoy my little card, thanks for checking in!

-Suzanne :O )

Barnyard Baby Shower Invitations

Hi friends! I'm FINALLY posting the invitations I made for Jenn's baby shower. I offered to make the invitations, and then I was told that I needed to make 100 in three weeks- it was a rough three weeks, but I made it happen! :) I took a bunch of photos, some so you could just how many 100 is! :) I also took a close up of the save-the-date-stickers my friend made for me (she's a graphic designer).

I originally thought I would just put a couple of animals on the front, and keep the layout simple (not doing that was my first mistake! lol) but then I got the brilliant idea to make the card itself a barn. I made templates for the barn shape, the roof, and the barn doors. I never want to use a craft knife again! I think my finger is still not right from all that pressing! lol

I searched all over the internet for red cardstock- I wanted a pack of JUST red for not a lot of money, but I wasn't finding anything. I was getting ready to give up and have to pay a ton of money, but I found exactly what I was looking for at Joann's (they had a pack of green and a pack of red, I'm assuming for Christmas), 50 sheets each. YESSSSSSSS! I got two packs (and of course I had a coupon) so I think I spend about $4 all together. Online, I couldn't find anything less than about $10- can you believe that? :( Anyway, so I was super stoked about the cardstock, and then I bought some regular white cardstock at Walmart to keep my costs down.

The "you're invited" stamp came in a double pack of 4x6 clear stamps by K&Co Marcella. I found them at Target for $3.74- hooray for clearance! All of the other stamps are Technique Tuesday (Dog & Pony Show). The "Baby Shower" and "for, date, time, place, RSVP" die-cuts were cut from my New Arrival Cricut cartridge. My poor Cricut is worn out, but I couldn't have made these invitations without it! :D

It was a LOT of cutting, assembly and coloring, but it was all worth it in the end. Jenn and her mother loooooved the invitations- success! Let me know if you have any questions, and thanks for checking out my invitations!

-Suzanne :O )

Use It! #12

Hi everyone! This week, Patti asked us to:

1) Use some old chipboard
check! this is some of the very first chipboard I bought, by Colorbok. The picture below the card is how they looked originally. One was glittery and one was fuzzy, but I wanted the ducks to face the other way, so I flipped them over and added some yummy Doodlebug Sugar Coating. :)

2) Use buttons
check! These came in an variety bag of baby-themed buttons. I used them as my "good wishes". :)

3) Tear some paper.
check! I don't do much of this, but I thought it would be a fun texture for my "water"- I also ran the paper through my Cuttlebug for more texture.

4) Optional: Stitch.
check! I don't do much of this either, but I'm working on my very first cross-stitch project, so the sewing wasn't TOO hard for me.

5) Have fun!!
check! :O )

The umbrella is a die-cut from the New Arrival Cricut cartridge. The baby words and green papers are from the dollar store (Miss Elizabeth's, I think?). I've had this paper forever and this is only the first time I've used it! My dad needed two baby shower cards for his co-workers so I made two of the same card and used up twice as many supplies. Hooray! :D (I cheated on the second card though- I just drew stitches w/ a Sakura pen.) I'm not sure the gender of the babies, so I tried to stick with neutral colors.

I've been using my computer a lot to make sentiments- I just print them on mailing labels and stick them to the inside of the card. Does anyone have any other ways to make your own sentiments? I either get lazy and don't want to stamp a sentiment, or I don't have a stamp/rub-on/sticker that will fit my theme. Let me know if you have other suggestions.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you like my shower cards! :D

-Suzanne :O )