Recipe Box

I wanted to share with you a little project I made for my friend Patty's birthday. She loves to cook and we're always sharing stories at work about what we made for dinner the night before. So, I thought this would be a good gift for her birthday last week.

Here's the box with the bag I made to coordinate:

First, excuse the office supplies in the background of the picture :) I'm a big fan of my wrapping matching the gift that's in it, whether it's a bag or wrapping paper. I've been known to stamp my own wrapping paper. But, I think decorating a plain kraft bag is a lot easier.

Here's the contents of the box:

There are inserts for different kinds of dishes (desserts, pastas & sauces, entrees, appetizers, salads & sides, and soups & stews). Then I used PTI's pre-printed recipe cards, and stamped a design on the top of them in a coordinating color. You can also see the box and the lid in the background. Papertrey makes some really fantastic products for making these types of gifts - the stamps are from their Recipe Box set. The box itself is one of their egg boxes.

Wouldn't this make a cute gift for a wedding shower? Maybe even Mother's Day or Grandparents' Day? You could definitely make it a more masculine and include some BBQ recipes and grilling tools for a Father's Day gift. I'm sure I'll be making more of these over the coming year!

Have a fantastic Wednesday!

Some Truths About Me

Random musings for the day:

...I don't need to know how many calories are in my dr. pepper and cupcake to know that I love them.

...though stereotypical, I happen to enjoy the color pink. In all of its forms. On everything.

...my puppy has been known to lick my face. I care more about her kisses than her germs.

...when I say that I'm in love with cupcakes, I do not mean the dry vanilla ones they sell pre-packaged at Wal-Mart. These, in my opinion, are poorly frosted muffins :)

...I have been observed, on several occasions, giving my hips a good shake in my car, while listening to Dirrty, by Christina Augilara.

...it is perfectly okay that I laid on the couch and did nothing all day Sunday. I think watching an NCIS marathon is extremely productive and good for the soul.

...I watch the Bachelor. I even DVR it when I'm not home. I need reality show rehab.

...most of the time, the first thing I do when I come home is change into sweat pants and a tshirt. Even if I know I'm going to have to change into regular clothes in an hour, there's nothing better than sweat pants.

...we picked the day that we got married based on a football schedule. I see nothing wrong with choosing a wedding date this way.

...I often only check my voice mails on my cell phone to make that little icon disappear.

Is that me, in a nutshell? I hope not. But, it is part of my reality. It's good to keep things real. :)

Birthday Wishes

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Valentine's Day! Mike and I spent the day together around the house - which is a very nice change, since Mike has been working on Sundays for a few weeks now and we don't get many days off together. It was really nice!

On to today's color combo (it is Monday, after all). It seems this is the only one of my structured tasks that I'm actually sticking to, for the time being. Whoops. :)

Here's the color combo I chose:

This combo was part of a challenge over on Nichole Heady's blog last week, but I thought I'd snag it for future posts. There were a lot of combos there that I normally wouldn't try, so I'll probably head back in the coming weeks.

So, here's the card:

I'm planning on giving this to my sister-in-law for her birthday tomorrow. It's an easel card. So, the top portion (with the flowers) actually stands up vertically, while the bottom (with the sentiment) lays flat on the table. I think these are super cute cards for displaying. Here's the closed view:

I did add black and white to the given colors. What I wanted to do with all these layers just didn't work with 4 colors :) Supplies are listed below.

I have the day off today for President's Day, which turned out to be a blessing. Yet again, the weather is pretty bad here. I am definitely looking forward to spring.

Have a great (warm) one!

{Birthday Wishes supplies)

Cardstock: kraft, pure poppy, aqua mist, sweet blush, white (PTI) Stamps: upsy daisy, elegant greetings (SU!), polka dot basics II (PTI) Ink: true black (PTI), VersaMark Other: butterfly punch (Martha Stewart), apron lace punch (Fiskers), pearls (Prima), ribbon (unknown)

Thanks, Chickie!

It's Color Me Crazy Monday, or so I hear - and the challenge today over at Papertrey Ink fits in perfectly! I love it when things work out like that :)

Here's the colors we were given:I don't have any orange zest or terracotta tile from PTI, so I subbed in some pumpkin pie and really rust from SU! Here's what I came up with:

What do you think? I've used a color combo similar to this in the past, minus the terracotta tile/really rust. In fact, my college graduation announcements were these colors :) The terracotta/rust color definitely provided a challenge for me though. Supplies for this simple card are listed below. I'll probably list this in my poor, neglected Etsy store later today.

I hope everyone is having a great Monday! Be sure to visit the PTI site to see about their exciting anniversary announcements - including acrylic paint!!

Huggles!




{Thanks, Chickie! supplies}
(All supplies from PTI unless noted)
Cardstock: white, ripe avocado; pumpkin pie, really rust (SU!), Stamps: polka dot basics II, handwritten notes Ink: true black, VersaMark Other: rustic cream ribbon twine, raspberry fizz satin ribbon, ripe avocado vintage button, apron lace border punch (Fiskars)

Hey There, Cupcake!

Happy Sunday all!

I've been following the festivities over at Papertrey Ink in honor of their upcoming 3rd anniversary. They've had a week of fun annoucements and give-aways, and still have a week to go. Nichole Heady's blog is the first place I head every morning.

So, I decided to play along today with the challenge they have going on today over at the Card Positioning Systems site. Here's the sketch they gave us:

And here's what I came up with, based on that sketch:
First of all, excuse the lighting/shadows. We haven't had sun for several days (ahh....Nebraska winter), so I was forced to rely on artificial lighting to take this picture. Needless to say, this looks much better in person!

A few things to note - see the big polka dots on the Plum Pudding layer? Those were stamped with VersaMark ink. I love creating my own background papers that way - in fact, I did it with the cupcake wraper as well, using Lavender Moon cardstock and VersaMark.

The sentiment was stamped in Fresh Snow ink twice. The first time gave me a base, and I stamped it just a little off the original image to give it some depth - it almost looks like there is a shadow around the sentiment. Since I used a lot of layers and dimensionals in this card, I thought the sentiment should also have a 3-D effect.

So, that's that. I like this sketch a lot and will probably turn to it more often, especially when I want to highlight one of the great images Papertrey stamps have to offer.

Thanks for checking out my card! Supplies are listed below. I've updated my Project 365 as well, which includes a preview to a project I'll be showing you during my Friendly Friday post.

Hope you all had a great weekend. Mike & I are watching the Super Bowl right now. Who are you cheering for? We're part of Who Dat nation, just a few hundred miles north!! :)

Have a great day!

{Hey There, Cupcake! supplies}

(All supplies Papertrey Ink, unless noted)

Cardstock: plum pudding, lavender moon, white Stamps: cupcake collection, polka dot basics II Ink: perfect plum (Stampin' Up!) versamark Other: plum pudding swiss dot ribbon, 2-way glue pen, glitter (Martha Stewart), scallop edge punch, corner rounder punch (Stampin' Up!)

Structure

G'morning!

Just wanted to "check in", say hi, and let you all know that I haven't forgotten about blogging. Life is still getting in the way of my creativity, but I'm full of ideas that I can't wait to share.

I tend to do better with self-directed projects if I have some structure. I've been fairly independent in all of my traditional jobs, so I have to come up with ways to keep myself on track. I don't think I'm easily distracted, but I am an avid multi-tasker, and I find myself gravitating toward things I like to do for that moment, rather than things that get done. Anywho... :)

I think I'm going to try to structure my blog posts that way. I can't promise I'll have the right structure to begin with, but at least an idea of where my blog is going will help keep me in line and focused on a particular project and thought to share. So, here are a few of the ideas I've already had:

1. Countdown 'Til Christmas. Yes, I realize that Christmas happened like 6 weeks ago and we have a ton of time until it happens again. I did buy my calendar this year :) However, I love Christmas. It is by far my favorite holiday for a number of reasons, and I'm always overwhelmed with projects to make or ideas I want to try. I've decided this year, I'll work on at least one Christmas project per month from January through November. That's 11 Christmas projects. (Although, I'm already behind for January, so I might have to make up for that somewhere along the way.) To keep things structured, let's say that projects will be posted on the 25th of each month. Then, in the month of December, I'll be going all out with Christmas fun - recipes, decorations, homemade gifts, wrap, Christmas stories and suggestions. Did I mention I love Christmas?
2. Scrapbook Sunday. If you read this post about scrapbooking, you know that I have a goal to create one scrapbook layout a week. I'm failing miserably. But, I have some good ideas, so that has to count for something, right?? Besides, the overall goal is 52 layouts in 2010, and 2010 isn't over yet! Scrapbooking takes a lot more time (for me) than card-making, so I'll reserve that for weekends when I can devote more time to a layout. And, of course, I'll share it here on the blog-o.
3. Technique Thursday. I can't promise this will be an every Thursday thing, as I have some stand-by techniques that I love and turn to again and again. But, I try to challenge myself to learn more about crafting all the time, and chances are, I'll come up with a new technique to try (and show you) at least 3 out of the 4 Thursdays in most months. If you have a technique you'd like me to explore more, let me know. Or, if you have a favorite technique, tell me that as well. That's generally why I try new techniques when making something - because someone I know or know of has "told" (blogged, emailed, posted in a forum) me that it's worth trying.
4. Friendly Friday. One of my other goals for 2010 (geez, I really need to get that goals scrapbook layout done SOON) was to create at least one thing a week to give to a friend or family member. Friendly Friday is where I'll share that project (granted, I'll probably be a couple weeks behind because I want to make sure that person has received their creation before I ruin the surprise by posting pictures on the blog-o.)
5. Color Me Crazy Monday. I will searching out random color combinations or inspirations that I don't normally use and challenging myself to make a project with that combination. This will be sort of like color challenges you see on other blogs, except I don't have thousands of readers. Maybe it's more intimate :) If you would like to be challenged right along with me (and perhaps go crazy as well), I would love to see what you come up with. You can send me a link to your blog or a forum that your creation is posted on. If I find a forum or blog that has a color challenge and I decide to play along, my creation will probably go in this post as well.

(I just realized how random the order of the days in my week is, apparently...sorry about that!)

Anyway, how's that for a start? Like I said, it may change over time as I find things aren't working, and I hope to add to it (though, I think that's plenty of stucture!) I'd love any feedback about things you'd like to read about or projects you'd like to see - I know what's interesting to me may be old news to a lot of you or things you aren't interested in. I'm happy to change things up. :)

I hope you all are having a fabulous day! We're getting lots of snow here (AGAIN), so for the local folks who read this - please drive safely out there! And stay warm :)

Have a great weekend!!

Have A Goodie!

Happy Monday, all!

If you've been looking at my Project 365 album, you'll have already had a sneak peak of the card I'm going to show you today. This is a card I made for my boss during a very stressful week at work. One of the things I hope to do in my creative goals this year is to make and share a card with someone in my life at least once a week. There are plenty of occassions that we can celebrate (births, weddings, birthdays, etc.) but it's so nice to just make and send/give a card for "no reason" - or at least, no scheduled reason.

On to the card:
Pink is one of my favorite colors because it is so versatile, and I love this color combo - white, shades of pink, and kraft. I used 3 stamp sets on this card, and I think they coordinate well. Some fun things to note on this card: the border punch I used on the pink cardstock has some small holes - it allows the white of the text to show through. I think it adds another dimension. I used one of the images (the one stamped in Rose Red) as a background image for the "Have a Goodie" punched sentiment. By doing that, I created a coordinating patterned paper for my sentiment to be stamped on. I also like the way that the pearls on the sentiment coordinate with the pearl tops on the stick pins.

There's a close-up of some of the detail.

So, the point of this post is that you can do something small to make someone's day. Did the card fix the stresses we're experiencing at work? No. But, it did make for a good start to the day, I think.

So, as the card says, I hope everyone has a goodie!

{Have A Goodie supplies}

Cardstock: kraft, pink pirouette (Stampin' Up!), Stamps: guide lines, handwritten notes, text style (Papertrey) Ink: rose red, regal rose (Stampin' Up!), fresh snow (Papertrey) Other: whisper white taffeta ribbon (Stampin' Up!) rustic cream button twine (Papertrey), pearls (Prima), doily lace border punch (Martha Stewart), large oval punch, corner rounder (Stampin' Up!), vintage button (Papertrey), stick pins (Dritz)