I'm baaaaaackkkkk!

I feel like I have been gone forever from the blogging world. I have been checking on all my B7 Gals, but have not posted on my own. School is out so "Camp Janssen" is in session for my two little ones. I don't know who is more tired at the end of the day - me or them! In addition my baby girl turned 2! I can't resist sharing this photo of her on the morning of her big day. Of course I had to sneak a little SU! in there. Her crown is made from Sweet Always DSP cut on the Pennants die. The coordinating scallop circle from the die and a chipboard 2 covered in chunky silver glitter complete the crown. I should have laminated it for all the wear it has had. My baby is very into being our Princess!

So the camera is still having issues. Sometimes it works and sometimes it needs a good smack to work. My DH, tired of my frustration bought me a new one this weekend. Basic and simple...but it does the job. And to be honest, our last camera had a ton of features that I never learned because I never had time to read the book, so this is better!

Here are some cards from the Sale-A-Bration stamp a stack that I held in April/May I think. Hope you enjoy and gain a little inspiration. More to come soon....I promise!

This was embossed with the Manhattan Flower folder in the Big Shot. I then ran the two way glue pen over the embossed area and applied Dazzling Diamonds.
This little golfer was colored in with markers. The scallop frame is a Sizzix die.
I fell in love with this set just for the duck! Here's a close up of his ducky fluff! I actually wet the paper well and kept rubbing with a blender pen just to get a little texture and pill from the paper. It served it's purpose for effect in a simple way with tools I had on hand!

Insert Deep Breath Here << >>!

O'kay..I realize everyone's life is a whirlwind, but doesn't it seem like some times are just wilder than others!?!?!? To begin with my camera has decided to do funky things. In the middle of photographing my son's Preschool Field Days the lens started going in and out on it's own for no apparent reason. Now if you turn it on that is all it will do. Actually it does it 6 times, turns itself off and then pops out for one more little tease before it shuts again. CRAZY!!!! It is only a little over a year old (of course because the warranty is good for one year!) So the photos that I do have of new creations before that, are trapped for now in electronic world. And then the beautiful Mother's Day cards that I made have come and gone with no photos. BUMMER! At least the recipient's (Mom and MIL) appreciated them.

In the meantime, I am the historian for our Preschool. I've kept up throughout the year on our scrapbook. Some of the pages I am quite pleased with and would love to share, but since other people's children are involved I will not post any photos. Trying to finish as much as possible I sent a last call out for some photos and received ones from earlier in the year than I anticipated. I was already done with that section, or so I thought! So wanting to be inclusive to as many photos as possible, I have been rearranging and trying to carefully tear out pages and photos to move things about for a cohesive album. (*Note to self - do not adhere any pages to next year's album until the last week of school!) I won't have it finished by the end of the year because some of the events are too close to the end of school, but I will have what I have received scrapped and ready to present on May 19th.

In addition to scrapping, I volunteered to make favors for our end of year luncheon on the 19th. This is to celebrate staff anniversaries and all the people that make our Preschool a success. So in addition to everything else, I plopped 50 favors to make on my plate as well. Luckily one of my closest friends, and biggest crafting supporter came to help me. I supplied dinner and a bottle of Sangria as a bribe! I pre-cut matchbox bottoms from the SAB paper and then cut the tops from vellum. Added SAB ribbon and an aluminum tag with Matchbox sentiments. They're cute!Hopefully I will be able to post photos at some point.

So as you can tell from above, there are many reasons why my posting has been slim in the last couple of weeks. I hope to catch up with you all soon....and include a project. But for tonight, that is all folks. On to my next project!

Mmmmm....Deliciously SIMPLE!

Although strawberry season has come and gone in Florida, there are still some yummy remnants that can be found in our house. I dug through my card supply that I keep on hand and found another simple, yet enjoyable card that can be whipped up in minutes. This is one of my favorites. I really enjoy this Tart & Tangy set and should really make a class around it. It is versatile and just screams summer to me! (Which in FL lasts 8-9 months!)

This is a standard size card with a 3" wide strip covering the middle. Using my markers I hand colored the stamp each time and just rotated its direction. I think it makes it look like it is rolling along the paper. There is some rub-on stitching (non SU!) along the top and bottom of the paper. The "Be Happy" sentiment is from a previously available hostess set. The inner sentiment that I stamped (with another strawberry of course) is "find joy in the little things" from the retired Polka Dots and Paisley set. As you can see there are also some basic black brads along the upper right hand side to add a little dimension. I hope you enjoy this tasty tidbit as much as I did making it!


Supplies: (All Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted)
Stamp Sets: Tart & Tangy; Polka Dots & Paisley (retired); ? Hostess Set (retired) Cardstock: Real Red and Whisper White Markers: Real Red, Garden Green Accessories: Rub-On Stitching (Michael's Craft Store); Black Brads

A simple cup of coffee...

is sometimes all you need to tell someone you love them! I adore this Pun Fun set. I am actually in the process of coloring several sets of cards made from this set as gifts. I'll post the complete grouping once I am done. The coloring on those are done with my Prismacolor Pencils and is a little more detailed. In the meantime, here is one of my favs. It works well as a note for a friend, or even better, slip a Starbucks gift card in it. YUMMY! I must say I wasn't an everyday coffee drinker until I had kids. Being that my children require absolutely no sleep whatsoever, I have now graduated to a cup of black coffee first thing in the AM if I am to function and be a good mommy!

I did this card very quickly and simply. It was even watercolored the easy way. I stamped it in Staz-On and then used my Stampin' Up! markers to color around the edges. Then using my beloved Aquapainter, I just dragged the color and shadowing where I wanted it. The cardstock used was Chocolate Chip, Rose Red and Very Vanilla. Punches: Word Window and Spiral. A basic gold brad and simple twine distressed at the edges completes the look.

As a side note, here is a little tidbit for those of you that follow many blogs (and really - who doesn't!?) My SIL got me hooked on a great site actually created by my nephew! Go to Start.IO (no .com) and register for free. You can set it up with titles , colors and groupings however you like. What you do is list the blogs you read. Then when you are ready to go online to read your blogs, just go to your Start.IO to check their status. Any blog you follow that has been updated since your last visit will be marked with a dot. No more searching and bouncing from blog to blog to make sure you didn't miss anything. Just click on the ones with dots and catch up easily! It's been great for me. I have one group for my B7 bloggers, another for my friends with family blogs, another for magazine blogs, etc. You can also list your favorite websites there too (although they won't show any dot if they've been updated.) It is so nice to have a clean format to see all my favs in one place.

On that note, it is time to sign off. So glad to be "back in the blogging saddle!"

Thanks for visiting!

Heartfelt Birthday Wishes!

I mentioned in another post that Heartfelt Thanks is a tried and true for me. Well here it is once again. This is a super simple card that I made for a workshop that I did. Pink Passion and Only Orange keep jumping out at me to be used. I'm not usually a Bold Brights kinda gal, but it just speaks tropical summer fun to me. Living in Florida summer is about 8 months long, so maybe that is why. Anyway, this is a two step stamp set, but I used each portion separately. I used the floral part with Whisper White Craft Ink on the pink cardstock and then tore it on the diagonal. The outline portion of the flower was again stamped in Whisper White craft on the orange portion. The "Happy Birthday" scalloped sentiment is from a retired set of which the name escapes me right now. I stamped that in each coordinating color. Punched the orange out with the scallop punch and the center out with the 1 3/8" punch. Then layered them with a dimensional for a little depth. If you look at the close up photo you can see a glimmer of glitter on the scallop. I actually added some Dazzling Diamonds to my Crystal Effects and placed it around the edge for sparkle. This allowed some glam without glitter all around the house. (Not appealing for some hostesses!) I hope you enjoy this oldie but goodie. And if you are interested in owning this card, or any creation of mine, please drop me a line at my email.

I also have some great blogging news!  I have joined up with a team of 20 talented ladies to work on our Blogs!  We are sharing, learning, and challenging each other to be the best Bloggers that we can be!  So PLEASE check out my B7 Blogging Gals by visiting the Blogs listed to the side under SU! B7 Blogs.  They are sure to inspire you as much as they inspire me!

A little something for the ladies!

Here are some small gifts I made for some special ladies in my life. They are Milk Bottle Manicure Sets as I call them. Basically, a dolled up Frappucino Bottle filled with a mini manicure set and polish. ( Both available in the Target $1 spot seasonally.) I used the SU! Heartfelt Thanks set (I always fall back on this tried and true set) and punched out the flower with the Scallop Square punch. Inked the edges with Chocolate Chip ink and added a bow. You can also see the little details that I added in the bottom of the bottle and on the lid. I used the Scalloped Circle punch for that as well as an old retired set called Circle of Friendship. I love those little circles with sayings. Especially the one that says "rubber stamper 24-7, tap, tap, tap" Too cute! Enjoy!

A little backwards, I know....

but I thought this Valentine's treat that we made for my son's classmates was worth sharing. I CASE'd the owl from a talented lady (who I cannot remember the name of) over at SCS. The owl is made up of cut paper from punches and Sizzix dies. I used SU! Real Red, Pink Pirouette, Basic Black and Whisper White CS. The edges of the large scallop circle on the owl were sponged with Real Red Classic ink to add a little depth. I used a Basic Black Stampin' Write marker to draw on eyelashes. The caption I created and stuck on said "Whoooo likes you? I do! Happy Valentine's Day from Zachary." In the cello bag are two heart shaped crayons. My son is obsessed with only using new, well pointed crayons and won't touch the broken ones. (hmmmm....wonder where he gets that from **wink, wink**). Anyway, we collected all the broken pieces and placed multi colors in a Wilton silicone heart mold pan. Baked at 250 until they were melted and swirling on their own. Once they cooled we popped them out and had cool crayons to share. Now maybe he'll use them! His friends were pleased, and I was happy to have come up with something besides candy to give! Hope you enjoy.

St. Paddy's Day (belated)

Okay...I have barely begun and am already admitting to being the worst blogger ever! My goal when I signed up in October was to be up and running in December. HA! Well now it is March and here is my first "official" post. I will do my best to be on the ball with regular posts since it is the easiest way to keep everyone up to date on my creative side. Plus it really has become an industry standard for the crafty set, so I feel a little pressure to join up.

Anyway, here is a cute little favor I made for our Bunco Gals this month. I hosted and the theme was St. Paddy's Day, so I immediately thought of pots o'gold using the SU! Basket and Blooms die from Sizzix. I made the baskets in Basic Black CS and the bands in gold cs purchases from my local craft shop. Both pieces are cut from the same die. I filled the basket with gold chocolate coins of course, and made sure to have a rainbow (in ribbon form) purchased at Michael's. In the second photo is a close up of a 4 leaf clover cut from SU! Wild Wasabi CS (retired in color). This is actually a "bloom" also from the same SU! exclusive Sizzix Basket & Blooms die. I just trimmed the petals on the flower to mimic a clover (with a little imagination!) So you can see what a great tool this die is! Every piece was cut from it, and there are still other items included on the die that I didn't use. This is one of my favs for sure!