Lookie Here

Literally, here. I've started a second blog, which is more home/family based. I've been doing pretty good about updating it regularly. And I've had some really fantastic creative inspiration lately, so I hope to get into my crafty space in the next week or two. For the first time in 2 months. Wow.


I hope to update both blogs more regularly once I start creating again. Some posts may overlap, simply because I'm being creative around my home.

Crossing my fingers for some time and motivation to get inky! :)

MIA

Hi kids,

In case you hadn't noticed...

I'm taking a bit of a blogging break. For many good reasons and many not so fun ones (but no bad reasons), I just don't have any extra time to devote to crafting endeavors at the moment. Again, this isn't necessarily a bad thing :) I do imagine it will change soon though, and I look forward to coming back to the blogg-o when it does. :)

Have a fantastic weekend!

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!)