Roses

This is the second project we made at Stamp Club this month. Since I was doing Valentine projects I figured it was time to show how to make these roses. The good thing is these roses don't cost $80 a dozen just because it's Valentine's.

Although, it would be the cost of a Big Shot die and some paper. Oh, and a Big Shot if you don't already own one. The Table Settings Die is $42.95 but it doesn't wither in a week so it's a purchase/investment that just keeps on giving! The die also has numerous other shapes. I used this die to make my Merry Christmas banner last month.

These roses are great, you could even use fabric or felt and put them on a headband or make them into a pin. For this project we put them on a matchbox and put some candy in the boxes. These would look great for a party favor at a wedding or shower. I guess I just love the elegance of these roses.

Ok, I am off to try and make a Valentine card with non-traditional Valentine's colors. Let's see how that goes.... I guess you'll find out on my next post.

Love You

It took me over a week to actually make this card. With the party last weekend I just kept putting off everything non party related. I did start this card but then Malachi had woken up and was cranky so I left it on my desk and there it sat until yesterday.

I think this very well might be my favorite Valentine set that Stampin' Up! has come up with besides I Heart Hearts.

The ladies that were at club last night made this card along with another project. We were missing half our club members. Lorraine had to work, Erin is ready to deliver her baby girl, and Sharon is focusing on her husband right now. Sharon's husband was in a horrible accident last month. I missed all of them. The thing I love about Stamp club the most is that I have been able to build friendships with all the ladies that attend. If it wasn't for this great hobby and my venture into selling Stampin' Up! I may have never met some of these great people.

Grandma, Stacey, Roberta and I still had a good time last night. We ate, stamped, and talked. What better way to spend a Tuesday night but we missed you Rain, Sharon, and Erin!

Dr. Seuss Party

Warning: Picture Overload.
Saturday was Malachi's birthday party and his 1st birthday.
We did the whole Dr. Seuss theme with the decorating and even his outfit. He wore a Thing 1 shirt and his cousin Ryan wore the Thing 2 shirt. They both had on One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish shoes. They both looked adorable. Everything was Red, White, and Turquoise.

We took many pictures at the party but I just thought I would share a few of the many. I wanted everyone to see the decorations since it took lots of work from auntie Berta and myself. I am thankful that my sister Roberta came to help decorate and my sister Alison helped with Malachi. Eric was at work and then when he got home he helped transport all the stuff to the club house and ran to the store for a couple of needed items. What would I have done without so many great sisters to help Eric and I?


All the kids wore the Thing hair instead of party hats. I found these online and a lot of them came in one package so that was great for me since I had such a huge party. I actually wish I could have invited more people but with my large family, a few close friends, and nursery age kids from church (plus their family) I ended up inviting well over 75 people. I don't know exactly how many showed up but there was at least 22 kids (I know this because of the candy boxes.)

We served BBQ pork sandwiches, potato salad, chips, punch, water, and cupcakes. I used little name cards with silly names like diffendoofer potato salad, Red Ink Drink, and so on to keep with the theme. That was so much better than serving green eggs and ham for dinner. I also printed some free clip art images and punched them out and laid them on the tables along with real red, whisper white, and taken with teal punched circles. I love polka dots so this was great! I made the banner with my Pennant banner die from SU!

We played one game, pin the heart on the Grinch. I got the idea from another blog. My step-father drew the Grinch and painted him for me. It looked great. There was a coloring station too for the kids. Since there were so many kids under three I didn't want to play to many games plus with so many people it gets kind of crazy. I think one game was perfect.

For centerpieces I used fish bowls (Dollar Tree) with blue cello paper scrunched in them and a fish (also Dollar Tree) popping out. The fish were so perfect because they looked like the Red fish from the book. Although we now have a ton of plastic fish because each bag came with several fish. Then we tied one balloon to each bowl. So easy and cute.

Instead of cake we made cupcakes with red liners and I punched out Thing 1 & 2 circles and glued them to the outside of the cupcakes. I then put cotton candy on top of the cupcakes. SO CUTE! Only thing is that I didn't realize that after a while the cotton candy would melt. So by the time we had cupcakes the cotton candy was melted. Lesson learned on that one, although I don't think it mattered at that point.

Malachi didn't really smash into his cake like we would have liked him to but I think he was just tired and ready for a nap. He just looked at everyone with wide eyes as they sang Happy Birthday! When Eric pushed his hand into the cake he looked at his messy hand and cried.

It was a great party and I loved planning it for my baby boy. Although I don't think I will be planning any big parties like this for him until he is older. I have great family and friends because they all pitched in and helped us clean up after the party. I am so thankful because it would have taken Eric and I forever. We were all wiped out by the time it was over.

Hope you enjoyed all the pictures of the party. If you want to view larger size pictures all you have to do is click on the photo.

Birthday madness

You could not, would not want to miss a celebration such as this!

Dr. Seuss and birthday stuff has taken over my life this week. Malachi's birthday and party is this Saturday. I can't belive my baby is turning 1. It has gone by way to fast.

I have been wanting to update my blog with a Valentine card made with my new stamp set but I haven't gotten to finish the card yet and it doesn't look like I am going to be able to until after the party. So I pulled out this card that I cased from someone else a few months ago because I can't update my blog without a picture. I can't remember who I copied this card from and I don't have the time to look or I would give them credit.

Anyway, I will update again next week with pictures from Malachi's party and some new cards or projects. Stamp club is next week so I know I will be making something before Tuesday.

I am off to go eat my green eggs and ham.... ok maybe not green eggs and ham but its lunch time.

Malachi's Birthday Invitation

A couple of months ago we decided on a Dr. Seuss theme for Malachi's birthday party. Being that I am a card maker, I wanted to make my own invites but I couldn't find any stickers, die cuts, or paper at any of the local stores. I looked online and found a few stickers but I didn't order them because I wasn't sure on size. I was to afraid that they wouldn't work and I would waste money. Someone suggested looking online for free clip art, so I began my search.

While searching I found a website that would design Dr. Seuss invites for $15.00 but then it hit me, I could make them with MDS and free clip art. So I went to work and this is what I made. It is very similar to the card I had originally found online. I found the wording for the invite on another website and I just altered it to fit Malachi's party. I did order a Cat in the Hat, hat and took a quick picture of Malachi to add to the theme. I love the invite.

Now I need to work on the other party items. I can't believe Malachi will be 1 in just a couple of weeks. Time sure does fly by.

Merry Christmas

For the past several years I have given out picture Christmas cards but this year I completely lagged on getting mine printed and now its to late. So I sent out a mass email to everyone with this Christmas card that I made using My Digital Studio.

Hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Simple

For a long time I had a hard time creating simple projects because I would always look at them and think, "It needs more." Then when I started having classes with my cards, I learned that I needed to make them simpler or everyone would either have to plan a whole day at my house or they wouldn't want to come because they couldn't just play all day. So I have gotten better at the simple stuff, especially now that I have Malachi. OK, where was I going with this rambling? Oh, right.... that is why I love embossing folders, they just add so much to a card and it doesn't take much effort.

I currently own all the ones that SU! has available so I hope they come out with more. I almost forgot there is one that I don't have yet and it is a new one that will be released with the Occasions Mini Catalog on January 4th. Yippee!!

I am working on one more Christmas project. I hope to get it finished this weekend but we shall see. I have a lot to do, youth Christmas party, make some Tamales, Church, and maybe I should start Christmas shopping. I know I am horrible this year. I guess its because Malachi's 1st birthday is in 3 weeks and I have been trying to plan for that and then all the other stuff in life, I just keep pushing off the Christmas shopping. Well I hope to be back before Christmas with that last little project.

Merry Christmas Banner

Here is the Merry Christmas banner I made. I got the idea for this project from the December Stampin' Success magazine. I used the Table Setting die and the Bells & Boughs Stamp Set. This is the reason I purchased the set. Grandma and I both made these Merry Christmas banners. I hung mine over a mirror in the living room.

When taking these pictures I had to make sure the house was picked up because the mirror was showing more than just the project. LOL! I had to stand on the couch at an angle so you wouldn't get my big head in the reflection.

I also took this close up picture so you can see the banner a little better. It was a pretty simple project and it came along rather quickly. The coloring was what took the longest. I just love die cuts because it makes cutting things out so easy. I really am glad that SU! decided to add the Big Shot to their product line. I have been purchasing die cuts for several years and I do have a rather large collection of die cuts from another company and I have two other die cut machines but I never even use those other machines. I still use my dies for scrapbook pages but I can now use those dies with my Big Shot and I don't have to mess with changing out the platform etc... I love my Big Shot and the exclusive Stampin' Up! dies. Ok, I just love Stampin' Up!

Holy Family

I purchased this stamp set last year from the mini catalog but never used it. I had good intentions of using the stamp set but never got around to it. Maybe because I was getting everything ready for Malachi, I was at the end of my pregnancy at this time last year.

Well like I said in a previous post I was determined to put ink on this set. I actually used this card at my last card class. It is a simple layout but it does take time to color the image. I am still trying to perfect my coloring, one of these days mine will look like a professional did the coloring. One of these days!

Jesus is the reason for this season and I never want to forget that. It's so easy to get caught up in the holiday shopping, parties, and gifts that we forget to remember the real reason for this season. So today I give you a traditional "religious" Christmas card instead of one that has Santa or snowman.
Merry Christmas!

Bells & Boughs

I didn't plan on purchasing this stamp set Bells & Boughs but when I received the Demonstrator magazine Stampin' Success and saw a Christmas banner I just had to order it. Which reminds me I need to take a picture of it so I can show it to you. Anyway since I purchased the stamp set for the banner I figured I might as well use it to make Christmas cards too.

So this is a card that we made at my last card class. To be honest I kept wanting to make more vintage looking cards with this set. Maybe its because so many of the samples I have seen with this set are more vintage looking, or maybe because that is the craze these days but when it came down to it I didn't have the supplies for my all of my class attendees to make a more vintage card. I did wait until the night before the class to create the last couple cards and cut up all the materials so I needed to go with what I had on hand. So since I had a lot of old olive card stock and that beautiful satin old olive ribbon, I used those as my starting point. So this is what I came up with, not to shabby for 10:30 PM on a Friday night.

Well, now I need to go and take a picture of the banner I made. I already took a couple pictures of some other cards so I will definitely be blogging again very soon.