Five for Friday

1. I only worked one day this week, which has been nice, because it's given me a bit of time to get some other things done......one of these things being taking down my summer decor and putting out some fall decorations.

I filled the container with an assortment of silk leaves. The pumpkins (LOVE that white one!) and gourds were picked up yesterday after school at our town's farmer's market. I felt like I lived the ultimate of a charmed life as I walked home with my kids, under the canopy of yellow leaved trees, carrying my pumpkin in my arms. :)

I got this wreath at Michael's a couple of years ago..... Sage said she doesn't like the glitter on it, but I think it's very delicate looking and pretty.

2. I was super proud of Austin yesterday. He had to run the endurance run at school (1.6 km, or 1 mile for my american friends). Last spring, it had taken him over 12 minutes to run it. When he came home from school, he had me guess his time.......... 9 min 45 seconds! He said he "ran" the whole thing (so, no walking or stopping) and when he was done, he couldn't even talk, it was so hard to breathe! I told him I was so proud of him, multiple times, because to me, this meant that he tried his best, which is all I ever desire from my kids.

3. Sage came home from school yesterday with a tree seedling for us to plant. We chose a nice spot in the backyard, behind our new patio, where I think it will flourish. I said we'd have to take a photo of her in her grad dress (in less than 10 years) beside it.


4.  So, Sage and I have been busy this week..... making bracelets. We're using the new paper bead die from Papertrey Ink, some of my 6x6 paper pads and some beads I bought at Walmart. We've made 16 so far. We're planning on selling them as a fundraiser for my mission trip to Congo.

 

So, I'm still a little unsure of how much to charge. My friend, Val, suggested $10 each, which seems high to me, but $5 seems too low (it is a fundraiser, after all). I'm leaning towards $8 each, but 3 for $20. What do you think?


5. And, I wanted to share the first layout that I made at my crop last weekend. It's the first layout for my photo-a-day summer 2012.

I used American Crafts cardstock (12x12), Papertrey Ink cardstock (white), stamps (fabulous frames) and dies (fabulous frames, modern alphabet uppercase and modern numbers).

Have a great weekend!
Thanks for looking!

PTI September Blog Hop

Once again, I've decided to participate in the Papertrey Ink blog hop this month.

This month's challenge is all about wrapping it up, where we were encouraged to have fun experimenting with fabric & felt packaging ideas.

I have to confess, at first I was stumped. I'm quite frugal, so the thought of using a large piece of my covetted PTI felt to wrap a gift didn't really appeal to me. Then, however, I was browsing through a Christmas magazine at the Superstore and I was inspired! (I love it when that happens!)

I decided to wrap up one of the only gifts I have so far for Christmas--- it's for my brother's girlfriend, Tatiana. I wrapped the box in kraft paper and tied on some baker's twine. For the bow, I followed this tutorial and used some PTI pure poppy felt.

For the tag, I used PTI cardstock (rustic white), stamps (wreath for all seasons, love lives here: holidays), buttons, twine and dies (tag sale #3).

And there you go. One present wrapped and ready to give.... and three months early, too. ;)

Thanks for looking!

A few crop for Congo projects

I wanted to share a few projects that I got done at my fundraising Crop for the Congo on Saturday.

I decided to work on scrapbooking my Photo-a-day for summer 2012 photos.... Here's week 2:

I used American Crafts cardstock (12x12), My Mind's Eye patterned paper and Papertrey Ink cardstock (white, aqua mist), stamps (fabulous frames) and dies (modern alphabet, fabulous frames.)

Then, using my scraps, I decided to make a card for Moxie Fab World's Focal Point Challenge, as well as for the My Mind's Eye Blog September Challenge: which was to create a layout and card using the same products.

I used My Mind's Eye patterned paper, diecuts and decorative brad and Papertrey Ink cardstock (aqua mist), stamps (pretty peonies, rosie posie) and dies (rosie posie).

I also made another card, this time for Moxie Fab World's Repetition Challenge:

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic cream, simply chartreuse), stamps (love lives here: holidays) and dies (love lives here). The patterned paper is new Simple Stories, from their 6x6 paper pad.

I had so much fun at my crop--- I was quite sad when it was over, knowing I didn't have it to look forward to anymore. I could easily get together with friends once a week to scrapbook (if our schedules permitted.) At the crop, in addition to hosting and preparing food, I finished a couple of card sets, made some paper beads and made the layout for week 1 of my photo-a-day for summer, which I'm hoping to post later this week....

Thanks for looking!

Five for Friday

1. I can't believe it's Friday already! This week has flown by!


2. Tonight is my fundraising Crop for the Congo. Well, tonight & tomorrow. I don't have a large group coming (less than 20), but I think it will be really good. I'm trying to decided what I want to work on..... my options include: working on my photo-a-day layouts for the summer, making beads with my new bead dies that I picked up yesterday with my Papertrey Ink order (I'm thinking of making some bracelets to sell for a fundraiser), making some cards to sell or just working on a few layouts, just because. With twelve hours of scrapbooking (okay, with hosting, I won't have twelve.... but hopefully eight or nine), maybe I can work on all of the above a little bit.


3. I got some happy mail earlier this week. I'd won the 10 photo challenge on the My Mind's Eye blog and my prize was a MME collection of my choice! I chose The Sweetest Thing Tangerine and it arrived on Monday! It's so pretty-- I haven't opened anything up yet.... it just looks so pretty in its packaging. I'm definitely taking this along tonight!


4. I made another set of cards to sell as a fundraiser for my mission trip. I decided to look for some inspiration in the "online card aisle" for this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink  and found this card:

I decided to use Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic white) and stamps (vintage ornaments), along with my Hero Arts Pine Bough stamp and a couple of extra PTI stamps from my stash that I decided fit well with a couple of the ornaments.

Here are the cards that I made:

On this one, I added a medallion from Iconic Images to my pink ornament.

And on this one, I added a decorative element from Modern Wood Mat to my ornament. The sentiment is from Think Big Favourites #9.


5. And, my baby girl turned eight this week. I know I mentionned this earlier, but I thought I'd share some photos that I took of her on her last day of being seven:

I've had these printed and would love to scrapbook them this weekend!

And then she took a couple of me:

Thanks for looking!

A Christmas card set

Melissa Phillips posted an interesting Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink this week. She challenged us to shop in the greeting card aisle and choose a card there for inspiration for a home made card. I've been too busy to actually go shopping for a card, so I decided to browse some cards online for inspiraiton.

I knew that I wanted to make some sets of cards to sell at my church, in an attempt to raise funds for my upcoming mission trip to the DR Congo, and I thought that using my Nativity Silhouettes Additions set would be a great choice for a card set.

So here is the card I chose online (it's a Hallmark card):

I liked the fact that it didn't have too many colours, as I wanted my cards to be one layer for these sets. Here's what I made...

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic cream) and stamps (nativity silhouettes additions). To create the "sand", I cut some a curved edge from a thinner piece of cardstock and used my Tim Holtz blending tool and distress ink to colour it in, using the cardstock as a mask.

Thanks for looking!

Look who's eight!

I cannot believe Sage is eight...... or that God would deem to bless me with the most wonderful little (hmmm, can I still say that?) girl ever! I'm so very thankful for her-- she is such a blessing to me!

We gave Sage her gift on Saturday before her party-- an 18" doll and horse-- & she loved it! I wanted to give her a little something this morning, too, so I made her this card last night.

I decided to go with pink. ;)

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (white), stamps (tremendous Treats: Birthday, strawberry sentiment), button, twine and dies (happy day, half & half). I had fun paper piecing the little princess head! The pink patterned paper is Teresa Collins and the floral is My Mind's Eye.

I am submitting this card for the Gallon/Quart/Pint Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. I'm hoping I did it right. ;)

Thanks for looking!

Inspired by...

... the water bottle tags that I posted on Sunday, I decided to make some cards using the same elements.

I also created these cards for the Movement Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.

Here are the cards I made, using PTI cardstock (classic kraft, vintage cream), stamps (leaf prints, counting my blessings), patterned paper (dearest jane), impression plate (woodgrain) and dies (counting my blessings).

At first, I thought I'd just impress my word dies to create my sentiment, but I didn't end up liking that effect too much, so I added the diecut patterned paper into the impression, which made me much happier!

Here are my cards:

Thanks for looking!

A few more water bottle tags...

Okay, 15 more... ;)

I finished making the water bottle tags for my upcoming fundraising crop and thought I'd share them here.

For all of the tags, I used PTI products: cardstock, woodgrain impression plate, stamps and dies (wine bottle tag, counting my blessings.)

For these, I used Summer Sunrise cardstock, Delightful Doilies stamps and Counting My Blessings stamps. (These were my least favourite.... I'm thinking it's the summer sunrise backgrounds....)

I used the same stamps on these, but used Kraft cardstock and PTI text paper.

For these, I used Counting My Blessings stamps, Leaf Prints stamps and PTI patterned paper.

For these, I used Aqua Mist cardstock, some Authentique patterned paper for the diecut words and Wonderful Words Additions stamps, as well as Think Big favourites #4, where I cut out the "here" for this week's Make it Monday at Papertrey Ink: Cutting Stamps. 

Here are some close-ups:

And for my last batch... using the same stamps and dies, as well as for this week's Make it Monday at Papertrey Ink: Cutting Stamps.

Well, that's one thing I can check off my to do list for next weekend....

Thanks for looking!