Finally something to post and its not a card

Finally got off my butt and bought myself a charger for my camera battery. So I took some pictures of my craftiness. I don't have any cards to post, but I do have a little sewing project to brag about. A friend of mine has a 3 year old son who loves to help her cook. That means he loves to get himself messy with whatever they are cooking. She asked me to make him an apron and I gladly obliged. I'm pretty proud of this. I managed to make it without a pattern. I think it turned out great and by all reports the new owner just loves helping Mom while wearing his shark apron

I've Got Nothing

Over the past month or so I've had so many occassions to make cards for. Why haven't I posted any? Couple reasons. First I'm lazy. I've turned into a big fat lazy blob. For the first time in many years I actually went out and purchased birthday cards for two of my daughter's friends. I'm completely ashamed to admit that ;P



Second reason. I've lost the battery charger for my camera. I have searched this house high and low and cannot locate it anywhere (along with several other chargers that were with it - maybe they've secretly stolen off somewhere to be free). I'm not willing to shell out the $80 for a new one either. So my kids are not having their summer documented at all, and my cardmaking (the few that I've made) haven't been documented either.



Eventually I'll relent. I'll either find the camera gear or I'll buy a new one. I'm not at that point yet though :)

Hartelijk gefeliciteerd!

My Brother In Law's birthday is tomorrow. He's one of the hardest people to buy for. If you ask him what he wants he says nothing or comes up with something stellar like Tim Hortons. So its tough to come up with something unique that he will actually like and get some use out of.

Trying to make a birthday card for him is almost as tough. He's a manly man type of guy. He's a hockey player so tough is a pretty good word to describe him. So making a card with all kinds of fancy paper, sparkles, and ribbon is sort of out of the question.

A few days ago I had a bit of an epiphany. He and my sister are moving to the Netherlands in September. He loves soccer. World cup is on right now. So best conclusion is buy the guy a Dutch World Cup Soccer Jersey. And with that it made my card making a little bit easier.

I found this cardhttp://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1735673?&si=simply repeated on Splitcoaststampers and used it as my inspiration. Not to frilly, simple colours, simple design. Here's what I came up with:

I decided to go with the whole Netherlands theme. I went with the Orange background, because as anyone who has watched any kind of international sports knows, the dutch are usually decked out in orange (its the colour of their royal house). I used embroidery thread using orange again and two of the colours from the flag of the Netherlands, the third colour white is of course the background. The ink I used for the stamps was blue and I coloured in the cupcake with orange and red, again going with the whole theme. Of course I had to throw in just a little bling. What's a birthday card without bling? So I used a little tiny silver embellishment to top off the cupcake.

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I would have been even more happy if I hadn't messed up the happy birthday stamp, but this was the third time I'd made this (thanks to four little busy hands attached to a 4 yr old and 2 yr old, who like to draw on things they aren't supposed to) so I just went with the screw up

Stamps: SU Big Bold Birthday, SU Bitty Basics

Ink: SU Night of Navy

Paper: Recollections cardstock.

With Sympathy - Mojo 144

I have been totally neglectful in posting pictures of my handywork. I've made a bunch of cards in the last little while, just haven't taken pictures of them, and haven't taken the time to post anything about them.

I needed to make a card and couldn't decide what to do, so I decided to turn to Mojo Monday for inspiration. This is this week's sketch:


\ Last night we got news that one of my husbands uncle's had passed away. We had no idea that he was gravely ill. We had known for a while that he was ill, just not anywhere close to knowing the full extent of his illness. So, not really a happy moment to make a card for, but nonetheless I wanted to make a handmade card to express our sympathies to his aunt.



I decided to use green as my main colour. I didn't want to go too bright so I chose to use a bit of a muted celery green in a criss cross pattern as the main background colour of the card. I mostly chose the green because I didn't want the card to be too gloomy, I wanted it to have a bit of brightness to it. I chose to tone down the green a bit by using a few brown accents.

This was the first time I had the occassion to use this Verve stamp set (thank goodness it was the first time, its not really great to have to use it), but I think that the sentiments that are with it, and the simplicity of the stamps really lends itself to the occassion for which the card was made.

I'm quite happy with the way that it turned out, even though its with a bit of a heavy heart that I made it.

Paper: Bazill Basics Petty Cash & Suede Dark Brown, Martha Stewart
Ink: SU Old Olive
Stamps: Verve Forever In Our Hearts

Bringing the Zoo to You

The first kid is turning 4 in a couple of weeks, so its that time again. Birthday Invitation time. I have so much stuff going on right now its absolutely crazy, so I didn't have a lot of time to sit and think about this one. I also didn't have time to do stamp anything, so this card is all about the cricut.


The kid is having an animal party. We've hired a company to come in that brings furry little animals, or snakes, lizards, crocodiles that sort of thing. I asked my daughter what she really wanted to come to the house and the number one answer was a turtle, so that is the animal that got front billing on the card.

I thought about making three or four turtles in a row. Each of them walking with a present on its back, but I thought that was a little presumptuous, and just went with the single turtle and his big bunch of balloons.

The turtle and the "you're invited" I cut out with my cricut using adhesive backed paper and the Beyond Birthday's and In my Garden cartridges. The balloons were made just using a circle punch and then the strings on the balloons are embroidery thread.

I think its a pretty simple card, and just alright. My daughter loves it though and thinks its the best thing since sliced bread, and really that's all that matters right?

Hippity Hop Hop - Mojo 133

There appears to be an explosion of little bunnies in my household :). I've made a couple of cards in the past few weeks using Bunnies because its really the only baby related stamp that I have and really like, and well my friends are going through a mini baby boom. The latest had a baby on Friday, so I got down to work earlier in the week. I decided to use another Mojo sketch to inspire my creation.



So here's what I came up with.

My friend had chosen to not find out the gender of her newest little one, so I needed to use a neutral palette for the colours. I decided to go with the classic green and yellow. I love using greens in cards especially if its springtime. It just makes everything seem super fresh and bright. Because the majority of the card was green I went with making the bunny yellow to match the accent solid that I used. To make the bunny look soft I chose to use blending chalks instead of markers, and I also chose to give it a little bit more depth by using an orange to blend in with the yellow. And of course I needed to just give it a bit more pop, so I raised the bunny off the card itself and then chose to do the same with the bow.

I'm pretty pleased with my little bunny card. I gave up doing the Mojo sketches for a long time because I was completely intimidated by the talent of some of the cardmakers participating in it, but I've decided rather than be intimidated to look at the cards that come from the sketch and use them as inspiration. I learn a lot from them and from the other cardmakers, so even though I don't think my card is even close to being on the level of some of the others, meh I think its still cute.

Paper: Martha Stewart (I think its from a series called picnic), Recollections Yellow Cardstock

Stamps: SU A New Little Someone

Chalks: Inkadinkado Blending Chalks

Other: Dahses Dots & Checks ribbon, Mark Richards Crystals

Better Late.....

Last week I thought I was incredibly organized, and I was out of ideas in terms of card making, so I decided to take a look at Mojo Monday and see what kind of sketch they had come up with for the week. I found this, and thought it was a decent sketch and I could do something with it.




The problem. I wasn't as organized as I thought. I didn't get around to actually taking pictures of the card I did for last week's sketch until this morning, so I didn't get a chance to upload it, but oh well, its better late then never right?

I didn't do a round card, because well I'm not that good and I have no idea how to actually make a round card. I didn't make the card square either because I don't have square envelopes and the last time I attempted to make one it was an abysmal failure. So I went with my standard card.

I needed to make another baby card, so once again I had to turn to the only set of baby stamps that I own, my trusted little SU A New Little Someone. Gosh if this set didn't exist I'm not sure what I would do. I made this for a friend who is due to have her 2nd in a matter of weeks, and she knows she is having a girl. I figured why not go with complete pink overload. I don't often like to mix patterns of papers but I thought using 3 different patterns and a solid with this card would work out well because the patterns were all fairly subtle.

I have massive issues with bows. I have a horrible time tying decent ones, so I cheated a bit on this one and just made a simple loopy ribbon and used a brad to hold it in place.

All in all I'm pretty pleased with my little pink bunny. Now all I have to do is get my butt in gear and get organized enough to actually sew the gift I'm making for my friend. We are supposed to be going out for dinner next Wednesday so it gives me a bit of time, but I'm the queen of procrastination.

Stamps: SU A New Little Someone

Ink: Colourbox Black, Inkadinkado blending chalks: Bold Brights

Paper: Embossed Daisy, TPC Tinted Dawn

Brad: SU Filigree

Ribbon: Straight n Arrow Offrey