JULY SWAP FOR THE SIMPLY PAPER DESIGN CHALLENGE.....

Is it the end of July already?!?!?!?!? Time for another Simply Paper Design Challenge. This is the challenge. How can you not do red, white and blue for a July challenge? So it is Riding Hood Red, Whisper White and Not Quite Navy.  Cindy really outdid herself on this sketch. So much so that I came up with 3 cards.
This first one uses the Need for Speed stamp set for the car and Teeny Tiny Wishes for the sentiment. Red, white and blue are great for a masculine card.

Card No. 2 uses the Reason to Smile set, which I really, really love. The sentiment is from Something to Celebrate and the DSP is Summer Smooches. I strayed from the color combo and instead used one from the Color Coach --- Island Indigo, Baja Breeze and Rich Razzleberry. I wasn't real sure about it as I was working on it, but I really like how it turned out.

For the third card, I inked up the Up, Up and Away set.  For the popped up clouds, I used the cupcake punch. Don't they look nice and fluffy?

 So, there you go. This sketch is one I still have ideas for, so keep an eye out in the future --- you will probably see it again. Check out what Cindy came up with here. What an awesome challenge!!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!!!

LITTLE DEBBIES SUMMER SHOEBOX SWAP...

We had the summer meeting of my Stampin' Up group, the Little Debbies, this past Saturday. There is something about a bunch of ladies who love stamping getting together and stamping (and eating) that is like no other. It was a shoebox swap, which is where you cut supplies for everyone and throw it all in a shoebox (hence the name, huh?). Then you just pass the boxes around and complete one of each of the projects. We had 15 ladies attend this year. 15!!! So, we had 14 cards to make in a short space of time. Not being the quickest stamper on the plant, I worked diligently until 1:30, but then I had to head to my DD's soccer game. Luckily, several of my friends (Hey, Cindy, Sherri & Debbie W.!!!!) finished some of the cards for me.

My card was a CASE of a Pinwheel Card done by Gretchen Barron. Her tutorial for it is here. I used the Summer Smooches DSP and the background is from the Polka Dot Parade DSP. The card here has the Real Red paper, but I also had some using the Rich Razzleberry because I only had so many of the Glimmer Brads (did I mention there were 15 people there???). The sentiment is tied up with a couple of pieces of Lucky Limeade Baker's Twine.

We also had a gift exchange, where all of the gifts had to be homemade. I will show the gift I gave and the one I received next time.

You can see everyone's projects & gifts on Debbie Naylor's (my upline) blog.

Thanks for stopping by!!!! Have a great day!!!!

GRADUATION CARDS.......

Ahhhh, high school graduation. A new chapter in life. The theshold of adulthood. They do not know how much they are going to miss being kids.......

The first card I did was for my husband's cousin's daughter. She actually had a dual graduation --- from high school and from the local community college. You go girl!!!! That had to be alot of hard work. I CASEd a gift card holder from our Stampin' Success magazine, which is a monthly demo magazine from Stampin' Up. Her school colors are maroon and gold (I hope). This is the card closed:

And here it is opened with a little treat stuck inside:

I loved the cap so much, I used the design for the front of my nephew's card. The colors for his school are red and black. The template used for the gift card had to be downsized to fit on the card front.

The inside sentiment:

My nephew's girlfriend also graduated and I CASEd a card from Stampin' Pretty with Mary Fish for her. Isn't this the cuteset little owl, armed with his degree? She attends the same high school as my nephew, so it was red and black again.

The inside:

Good luck to all of this years graduates!!!!!

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES - PART 3......

The last of the teachers stuff is the cards to go with the gifts. I used the same DSP as used for their framed word apples from my last post. I did not put anything on the inside so that my son could write his own words of thanks.

This one features the fabric brad that matches the DSP and is no longer available. I CASEd this, but the picture I printed has no identifying items whatsoever. If you know where I saw it, please let me know and I will update this with a link.

 I added a pumpkin pie button and ribbon on this one. It was CASEd from an email for classes from Jill Hilliard. Check out her blog Jill's Card Creations.

Stay tuned --- I am going to show you the graduation cards I did next time. Have a great day!!!

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES --- PART 2....

The second gift I did for the teachers this year was inspired by my friend Beverly Cole. She found this really cool website that will fill in shapes with words of your choice. See the details on her post. My take on them is much more simple (mostly because I did not have any of that wide ribbon to match and, let's face it, I can't make the gorgeous bows that she has on hers).

The first one is the one made for Ms. Witt and it uses the Summer Smooches DSP.

The other one is for Ms. Beyrau and uses the long retired Jersey Shore DSP (no relation to Snooki or the Situation --- this paper came and went long before them).

Are they not the cutest idea for teachers???? Thanks so much, Beverly!!!!

Have a great day, everyone!!!!

CON"GRAD"ULATIONS, LOGAN......

I watched my son graduate from 5th grade today. If I am so emotional for this, I can only imagine how bad I will be when he graduates from High School. I really didn't think I was going to get emotional, but then one of the teachers started crying when she was giving out awards. And then, to really add to it all, three of the 5th grade girls sang the most beautiful song in remembrance of a teacher who passed away this year. Then, there was the slide show that showed all of the kids going from babies to now. It got to me. I am so not tough. Here is my little man with his cap (they did not wear gowns) and "diploma":

Way to go, Logan!!! Your dad and I are so proud of all of your accomplishments. We love you!!!!

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES - PART ONE......

Tomorrow my son will graduate from 5th grade. This means that --- other than the fact that he is growing up way too fast and I am rapidly getting older --- I will no longer have any kids in elementary school. I will only have middle schoolers. What the heck happened???? Where did all of that time go????

So, in order not to beat my head against a wall over how fast everything is moving, I occupied myself with making gifts for his teachers. The first things I thought to make is an altered picture frame turned message center. This one is for Ms. Witt, his homeroom teacher:

A couple of closer views:

I used the now retired Cheerful Treats DSP. For the "notes" label, I used the Sweet Shoppe Alphabet Lower and added the vine at the bottom from the Borderlines stamp set (both retired). The verse is from Pursuit of Happiness and is cut out using the Labels Framelits. I added corkboard to the center with a few push pins all in a row and tied a dry erase marker to the side using a length of baker's twine.

This one is for Ms. Beyrau, who is the other 5th grade teacher:

The close ups:

This one uses the new Floral District DSP. The "Details" is from Notes & Details (retired). This one uses the Apothecary Accents Framelits to cut out the sentiment. The Rich Razzleberry border is made of two of the labels cut and attached a little off up and down. Ditto from the first message center on the other details.

These are only half of what I made for the teachers, but since this post is getting a bit long, I will save the other part for another day. So until then............

Have a great day!!!!!