Inside the Fishbowl

Mini Cake Plate

Have you ever wanted to give a special little treat to somebody, but couldn't find the right packaging?  If you have, I have the perfect solution.  A mini cake plate!

Cute, right?!  

On Saturday I was sitting at home waiting for the air conditioner repair guy to come, looking for something to do.  I was sifting through my stash of all things crafty when I happened upon a tiny terracotta pot and dish.  I don't know how long they'd been occupying space in my craft room or even why I bought them in the first place (probably to make something I saw on Pinterest that I forgot long ago), but I happened to be in the mood to make something from them then.  I kept digging through my (surprisingly) small supply of trims and embellishments and found a bit of lace, some stringy yarn, some pearl and flatback pearl trim, a flower that I'd made that was just waiting for the perfect project, and some mulberry flowers I bought from the $1.50 bins at Michaels.  I broke open my brand new bottle of warm white craft paint, grabbed some light pink paint, and went to town.  This cute little cupcake plate is the result.  

I know what you're thinking.  Cupcakes are so cute on their own, they hardly need any help being cuter! I totally agree.  The best part of this project is that you don't have to use it for a cupcake!  Any small item would work.  It just has to be something that you want to really showcase!  For example, this little plate is going to go in my daughter's room with a mini picture frame on it.  But wouldn't it also be cute at a place setting for a sweet little tea party or little girl's birthday party?  You could put a mini dessert on top for later, or even a name tag to assign seating and send the plate home as a favor.  The sky's the limit with this one!

Wait, what's that?  You're curious about the cupcake?  You want a better view?

That, my friends, is a cupcake from Cravings, an adorable little shop here in Utah.  It's an Almond Joy cupcake. It's a hard job, guys, really, taking pictures for a blog.  But somebody's got to do it.

New Recipe: Rich Chicken Stew

If you're anything like me, you're busy.  Your kids are busy.  It's a fast paced world that we live in.  Many times the things that should not get neglected actually do get neglected because, well, sometimes you just have to make choices about how and where you will spend your time.

Three nights a week my kids have lessons of some kind.  We leave the house just as I should begin making dinner.  We get home well after my early-to-bed kids should be eating.  We have developed the bad habit of hitting a pizza place or a fast food joint on the way home and eating in the car.  I know.  I can't believe I'm even admitting this in public!  Bit it's true, and I have to believe that I'm not the only one.  Last week I decided that I was going to start breaking this habit by making dinner every Monday.  Something tasty and nutritious.  Something that could maybe be made in the crockpot.  Something that would last us for two meals.  Today was the first day.  It was a busy day.  A day that I normally would have skipped making dinner and headed straight to Little Caesars after karate.  But, the funny thing is, I feel accountable now.  In my blogging schedule I planned to write about a new recipe every Monday.  I wasn't about to fail in my first week!  So, after going to the eye doctor, the grocery store, the bank and the local unfinished furniture store all before 10:15 in the morning, I came home and got to work making Rich Chicken Stew, a recipe I found on the Eating Well website when I Googled healthy crockpot recipes.

The verdict--this is a really yummy recipe, but a bit labor intensive.  I think this would be a better recipe to make on a weekend.  A rainy Saturday would be perfect.  Or a Sunday.  Make it in the moring before church, or heading out to the lake, or whatever you like to do on Sunday.  By the time you get home at night the stew is ready.  But here's the catch.  When it's done cooking, you have to separate the meat and veggies from the broth and then cook the broth some more on the stovetop, which takes about 30 minutes.  Not exactly the think you want to do when you're rushing in the door at 7:00 and you're dying to have your kids fed, brushed, jammied and read to by 8:00.

Some of the reviews on the site said that they thought the recipe was bland or too lemony. I didn't think so at all.  I thought it was very flavorful.  I liked all of the lemon, in fact I used twice the amount of lemon zest as was called for.  It was unexpected and really delicious.  I didn't add any salt to my batch (I may have used regular chicken broth instead of the low-sodium kind), but I did add a good amount of fresh ground pepper.  Finally, I didn't serve the stew over noodles or rice.  I ate it more like a nice, hearty soup with a side of some crusty Italian bread that I picked up at the grocery store, lightly taosted with a thin layer of butter.  Now, that made for some yummy dipping! Most importantly, this recipe got the thumbs up from my husband.  It would be a cold day in you-know-where before my kids would even think of putting this dish anywhere near their mouths.  This recipe will stay in my permanent collection, but it will get relegated to weekend-appropriate recipes, or recipes to make on a day when I don't have 100 places to go.

Book Paper Project 1

My trip to Pebbles in My Pocket last week has really got me excited about using paper torn from books on my projects!  I absolutely loved everything in the shop that has book pages on it, which means I basically loved everything in the shop.  And I really mean love!  I'm not exaggerating at all!

I planned to share a garland I made for my front door with book paper yesterday, but when I finally got home at the end of a very long day to write the post and edit my photos, I found that all of the photos I took were terrible.  Have you ever had that happen?  The weather here has been crazy the past few weeks with many cloudy, rainy days.  That, combined with a very shady front porch, just isn't a good combination for photos.  So, here we go again!

I mentioned in this post that I love the paper lollies from Rhonna Farrer's tutorial on her blog.  I think maybe this love might be changing into a fixation, if not a full blown obsession.  I can't get enough of them!  They are such a cheerful little addition to home decor projects!  I decided to follow my new love (ahem. . .obsession) for them and make a garland to top my front door.

Oh, you can't see it that well? let me give you a closeup!

That's a little better, right?  I really love the simplicity of this garland!  It's shabby yet elegant.  It has two colors, tea stained book paper and white.  And can you see the Pebbles doily influence slipping in?  I'm telling ya, book pages and doilies.  That's where it's at!

Here's a detail of one of the lollies.

The book page roses were an afterthought.  I didn't like that all of the bookishness of the lollies was covered up by the doilies.  To bring the book pages to the forefront, I decided to make the roses.  They were so easy, too!  I used the Large Rolled Rose die from My Favorite Things.  I just recently ordered every size they have of these.  They are a great tool to have in your crafting arsenal.  They come in 5 different sizes and are cute enough to put on just about anything--except maybe that card you're making for your son's friend's birthday party.  There are some things a boy just can't live down, you know?  Beside that, I think a rolled paper rose belongs just about anywhere!

Gah!  See what I mean?  They're so pretty!  And made out of paper!  I just might go and make some more right now!

No, I'll finish this post first.  Sorry for the exposure to my crafting ADD!  I hope it's not contagious.

With this closeup you can really see the details of the lollies.  Each one has a paper doily hot glued to the center.  I cut the letters with my Cameo with the Lori Whitlock Vintage Font out of white and kraft cardstock.  I layered the letters slightly offset from each other so that the white letters wouldn't just fade into the white doilies.  I'm really happy with how this white on white worked out.  Finally I placed three paper roses on each lolly.  I really debated using so many.  I tried, at first, having random numbers of roses on each lolly, but in the end the power of the roses won and I couldn't help but load each lolly up with them!

The hardest part of this garland was figuring out where to place the jute twine (found in the jewelry aisle of any craft store).  At first I tried putting it across the middle of each lolly, but the whole thing just flopped forward.  Then I tried to even it out by putting another string below the first level of string, thinking that I could maybe use to bottom string to pull the garland into place.  That didn't work either.  Finally I glued another string into place as high up on the cirlce as I could.  That, of course, worked like a charm.  If I had thought it through a little better I would have done that in the first place.

There you have it.  The first of many book page projects that I'll be sharing with you?  What are you going to make from the pages of a book?

PS  Like the wreath?  I copied it from Pinterest.  Click here to see the pin.  Is it bad to copy something so completely?

 

 

Pebbles Logo Launch Party Part 1

One of the many crafty benefits of living in Utah is having several of the best scrapbooking companies practically in your backyard.  Last week I had the opportunity to attend the launch party for the new Pebbles logo in the adorable Pebbles in My Pocket retail store in Orem, Utah.  And here's the best part!  Not only did we get to see their cute new logo, we also go to see a preview of their new lines that will be released at CHA next week!  Let me just warn you now, this post is going to be a two part post.  Part one will be me gushing over the three new lines that I saw.  Part two will be me gushing over the store.  Both were fabulous!

First, da, da, da, duh!  The new logo!

Isn't it cute?!  I'm a total sucker for a loopy font.  I love them, and this one happens to be particularly pleasing!

Now. . ..are you ready to be blown away?  Really?  I'm not sure you can handle the cuteness.  I almost couldn't!  The three new Pebbles lines are called:  From Me To You, Front Porch and Thirty One. (The line-centric sneak peaks were not up for Front Porch and Thirty One.  Keep checking back to the Pebbles blog for these lines.)

I'm especially loving that roller stamp.  It's an alpahbet!

This second photo shows the colors of Front Porch better.  Don't you just love the red, mint and navy combination?

These two lines have such a varied product offering.  They have gorgeous papers, thickers, frames, chips, embellishment packs, stickers, and so much more!  I'm definitely going to be stalking my local scrapbook stores (ok, realy only Pebbles In My Pocket) for these collections!

For the event they decided to really highlight the Thirty One line, because, yes, it's a Halloween line, and it's already that time to start thinking about Halloween crafting.  This line was displayed differently from Front Porch and From Me To You.  They created an adorable, heart-stoppingly amazing party display from the products.  This display was, of course, really hard to get photos of, because everybody there wanted to stand in front of it and just take it all in! 

Here are the photos I managed to get.

The centerpiece of the display was this amazing set of garlands that were suspended from the ceiling in many differnt layers.  The back layer was made with crumpled up book pages and doilies.  The next layer was made of book pages cut into a pennant shape with Halloween photos clipped to the string with mini clothes pins.  The next layer was solid carstock pennants sewn together with black thread. The final layer was book page pennants with black glitter letters on the cutest tags spelling the word "HALLOWEEN" clipped on with mini clothes pins.  The photo really can't do it justice.  It was beautiful!  I'm definitely going to be incorporating this technique into my own garlands and other home decor projects.  The layering made everything look so rich.

Here's a small detail of the cute decorative tags that were at the begining and end of the "HALLOWEEN" garland.

Here are three of the many displays they had set up.

First is a plate full of those little sour cream container style party favors.

They had all of the materials to make these as one of the make and takes for the day.  Seriously, how cute are these!?  I'm really loving the orange one at the front, the black and white star paper (varied sizes of stars!) and you can't see if very well, but there is a black, white and orange floral paper that you are going to die over!  I wish I had a better picture for you!

Second are the cutest paper straws ever!  I could drink out of these and not mind that the straw is turning to mush faster than I can finish my beverage!

The use of book paper in this display, and in the entire store, really, is inspiring!  It's everywhere, yet it never seems repetitive!  Which reminds me, I need to slap a piece of book paper on a Silhouette mat and try cutting some.  After going to Pebbles I want to incorporate book paper into all of my projects!

Finally, they had these adorable 3D pumpkins.  I can totally see myself just lifting this idea straight from their table right onto my mantle.  These pumpkins are just so simple and cute, but they pack a lot of punch!

I'm sure My silhouette will come in very handy when I'm ready to make myself some!

Did you catch the large rosette in the background there?  My photo of those was too blurry to use, but don't those just make you want to smile?  How great is that doily in the center?

OK, well, if you stuck with me through all of that gushing (imagine how it was seeing it in person!  Lots of squeals and giddy laughing I assure you) you deserve a cookie!  I hope this piques your interest in these fabulous new lines.  I wish I could tell you when they'll be available.  I hope very, very soon!  Like I said, I'll be stalking the store.  You should search out your local scrapbook store and let them know that you want these lines.  If you're one of the sad many who no longer have an LSS, start lurking around your favorite online retailer to grab these lines before they sell out.  I'm positive that will happen very quickly! 

Thanks to Pebbles and Brenda Birrell for hosting such a fun event, for your artistry and creativity.  I feel inspired!  I hope you do, too!

 

Can you stand a little more patriotism?

Well, maybe posting my latest and last patriotic decor piece for the summer doesn't count as patriotism, but I do get in the patriotic mood whenever I look at this cute tray!

A couple of weeks ago I revisited Rhonna Farrer's tutorial video for making lollies.

Since then I can't get enough of them!  I made a welcome banner for my door out of lollies, and I'm still opening the door from time to time to look at it!  It's that cute!

Here are a few detail shots of my second, and final, patriotic decor piece for the year.

I used my trusty old Cameo to cut out these adorable 3-D stars from Lori Whitlock.  You can find the cut file in the Silhouette Online Store or on Lori's website in her store.  I have loved this shape since it came out last year and I was so happy to finally use it!  Don't be surprised if it shows up in some Christmas projects later on!

Next I made lots of lollies.  These little things seriously make me so happy.  They just scream cute!

I made 5 larger lollies for the word "stars"  I used regular trade paperback book (the larger size book) pages that I tea dyed.  I accordian folded the pages and then cut off the margins.  I cut out some stars with my Cameo (file here) and then cut the word "stars" with the Heattenschweiler font that I'm loving these days.

Next I made 7 smaller lollies using the same book paper.  I cut a different style star with my Cameo (file here) and the word "stripes."  Originally I cut the letters in light blue, but I found that they didn't show up against the stars, so I layered red over the blue, and I'm much happier with the results.

I used a tray that I purchased from a local home decor store.  If you wanted to make something similar, but cant find a tray Save On Crafts has a couple cute options, here and here  To make everything stand upright I put a large piece of stryofoam in the bottom and then filled in the top  with moss that I bought at Hobby Lobby.  To center everything I tied a piece of twine around the middle of the tray and worked from the middle out.

Another little detail I added was to tie scrunched seam binding around the stars and lollies to fill in all of the empty space.  I dyed the seam binding myself using Tim Holtz Distress Stains in Barn Door, Tumbled Glass, and Faded Jeans.  

I'm really happy with the way this project turned out!  I can't wait to get it out next year and incude it in a patriotic vignette for the top of my enterainment center.  I'll just have to remember to start early!  No more late projects for me!

 

Cute little gift bag

Last Easter I found these adorable chevron striped gift bags at Michaels.  (Unfortunately, they're no longer available, but Michaels always have this size bag in kraft and white, in packs of 13 for around $5.00. Or you could go here and buy them from this Etsy seller.) I love to use them when one of Kaitlin's friends has a birthday.  They are so cute and just perfect for a 9 year old girl.  They're cute enough to give with no decoration at all, but I like to have a little fun embellishing the bags to make them special for the recipient.  Kaitlin was invited to a friend's birthday party yesterday, so I got to work decorating a bag that would be perfect for her not-so-girly friend.  I have to admit, I love that these girls pride themselves on being tomboys, yet, usually spend their time together painting nails and creating perfumes in the bathroom!

I started with a pink chevron bag and layered hot pink, white and this cute star patterned paper from the My Mind's Eye My Girl collection.  I'm hoarding this paper.  It's one of the few lines I can't bear to part with even the smallest strip of paper!

I created this cute tag with my Silhouette Cameo and tied it to the front with pink and white baker's twine.

I cut three different sizes of stars two times each with my Sillhouette.  Then I sewed them together and adhered them to the front of the bag for a little dimentional detail.  This was totally inspired by my trip to Pebbles in My Pocket in Orem, Utah yesterday for the launch of their new logo.  I'll have photos and a write up of that coming soon.  I'll let you in on a little secret, though.  They gave us a sneak peak of their new lines that will be debuting at CHA in two weeks and they are absolutely delicious!  Really, they've outdone themselves.  I will be stalking the store once CHA ends just for the Halloween collection alone!  If you live close by, or will be in Utah anytime soon, you really need to stop by the store.  It's full of inspiration!

Here's a detailed shot of the bag.  I cut the little banner pieces by hand so that they'd have more of a homemade feel.  Not everything needs to be symmetrical and precise (I repeat to myself in my head, many, many times).  I attached the bakers twine for the banners behind the paper layers with Glossy Accents and then just glued the little triangles straight onto the string, also with Glossy Accents.

I'm pretty pleased with how it all came together, but I can see the benefit of having a stash of tags created and ready to go.  This tag looks more like an afterthought (which it was) and had I had more time I would have embellished it more.  Oh, well.  You live, you learn!  I'll be more prepared next time!

Thanks for stopping by!

Do You Project Life?

Have you discovered Project Life yet?  I've known about it for a long time, but since I was on a scrapbooking hiatus, I never really considered it.  But then Becky Higgins, Project Life's mastermind, really expanded her product offerings.  Then she sold (licensed?  same thing?) her company to American Crafts. That's when I really sat up and took notice.  I love American Crafts!  Anything they touch, their own products, or any of the other brands they own--Pebbles, Crate Paper or Studio Calico--has my instant love and devotion.  I couldn't ignore it any longer.  I bought my first kit, the Olive kit.  It sat in a pile on the floor of my craft room.  I just couldn't do it.  I decided to wait.  I thought it sounded good to begin in January, but never really got around to it.  I think I was intimidated, and that intimidation meant I wasn't really ready to end the aforementioned hiatus.  When I began to contemplate the summer, I thought about Project Life again, and decided to take the plunge.  Project Life recently become available in retail stores. I bought another kit, Blush, to freshen my stash and reinvigorate my interest, and well, I began!

(Sorry for the terrible photos, but you get the idea I hope!)

Traditionally, Project Life is meant to be done on a weekly basis.  One two-page spread covers one week. I decided to take a non-traditional approach and use it to document our summer travels.  That's it. Three trips.  I could certainly do three trips worth of Project Life layouts, right? (Incidentally, am I using the words project and life too much?  From now on it's PL, ok?)  I have to say, I really love this way of scrapbooking.  The kits make it so easy.  They give scrapbookers the option to make very quick and easy, but beautiful layouts.  No extra embellishments are needed to have a very visually pleasing page.  But of course there is always the option to embellish the heck out of your page as well.  For my first layouts I took a middle ground approach.  I embellished some, but not much.  In the future I can see myself adding more to my layouts.  I've been accumulating embellishments for PL for a long time.  You know, it's all about the stash!  I have a big stash.

Here are some closeups of the individual pages from my album.

The best part of PL is that you don't really have to be a scrapbooker to do it.  Anybody can.  You don't have to really even think of yourself as a creative person.  It really is as easy as placing photos in a photo album.  If you haven't discovered PL yet, give it a look.  Google Project Life, and see what you find.  You might just discover a crafty gene in you yet!

Patriotic Crafting

Last year I began a patriotic banner for my mantle--something simple that I could finish relatively quickly to complement my cute Kerri Brandford This+That Freedom printer's tray.  Last! Year!  I didn't finish it.

This year, I have been much better about finishing things, but sometimes deadlines are still not a good enough reason for me to get a project done on time. Unlike last year, though, in the interest of cleaning up and clearing out my craft room, I am no longer putting things off 'til later.  I am committed to not needing any more space for works in progress, which is why on the 5th of July I finished and hung up my "Freedom" banner!

Here's a little peek. . .

And just in case you wanted to see it a little closer. . . 

This was a really fun and quick project (despite that fact that it took me over a year to complete it!). I think it's pretty straighforward. The only thing you may not be able to tell from these photos is that I edged each section of the sunbursts and all of the flags with Pumice Stone Distress Ink.  Otherwise, I just sized everything so that the banner would fit nicely between the hooks on my mantle.   

Here's a list of the materials I used.

Base paper:  American Crafts Cardstock in White

Sunburst:  Red, Navy Blue and Light Blue cardstock (sunburst) from Hobby Lobby

Sunburst die from Papertrey Ink

Medallions:  Old Glory Decorative paper from Doodlebug Designs Stars and Stripes collection

Firecracker diecuts from Silhouette Online Store

Font:  Haettenschweiller (free download)--cut with my Silhouette Cameo

Ink:  Pumice Stone Distress Ink from Ranger Industries

Navy blue satin ribbon

Stay tuned for my next patriotic project!  Yes, there's one more that is yet to be finished!  Thanks for looking!

Something old and something new

It seems like I am on a never-ending quest to declutter and destash my craft room.  It's a circle, not a vicious one, but a happy one.  Less stuff leads to more places to put new stuff, thus the clutter is reduced and the stash is manageable.  (FYI--the stash will never be gone.  I love that my husband or my kids can come to me, ask for something and know that it is to be found amongst my things.  Kailtin, my 9 year old, already knows that I have every adhesive known to man for every possilbe use under the sun.)

In order to meet this goal-that-will-never-really-be-met, I am employing the following methods.  Try, try, try to use what I already have and finish the projects that I begin.  Oh, and go back and finish all of my WIPs (works in progress, for the uninitiated), because they contribute to, if not the clutter, because they are well hidden in storage bins, then the loss of any crafty mojo that I have.  So, for every new project, I try to tackle an old project as well.  Oh, and I try to be realistic about whether or not I really even want to finish a project.  If I don't, it goes in the trash.  Yes, the trash.  It's brutal but freeing.  Kind of like following through on your threats to your kids instead of caving in.  It hurts for a little bit, but then you realize that it's for the best, and you feel proud, like you could actually do it again!

But enough of this obsessive chatter about my personal failings and on to my two little projects!  One is a new one--little Valentine's Day gifts for my kids' teachers.  The other is an old one, repurposed for what is going on in my life right now.  Ready?

First the new--because the current stuff is almost always more exciting than the old stuff, right?

Sometimes I make something that's so cute, I can't humble about it.  I think this may be one of those times.  This is CUTE, right?!  But then reality sets in, and I know that I have to give the credit to somebody else. This is not my original idea.  I am a YouTube junkie.  And no, junkie is not an exaggeration.  I crave my Youtube videos like a. . .well, you can insert your own metaphor here. One of the YouTubers I follow is Bona from Live Love Scrap.  I always know when there is something great in the $1.50 bins at Michaels because of her, and she always makes the best projects with things she finds there.  And she's kind enough to share all of her little lovelies with us.  On YouTube!  For a Youtube junkie, there is nothing better.

Recently she showed us some adorable balsa wood boxes that she bought at Michaels and altered.  I was instantly smitten and ran out, probably the minute after I saw her video, and bought a bunch of these boxes.  I may have been back a time of two more to buy more.  I love these boxes!  I never want to run out of them!  I know that this poses a problem for achieving the stated objectives above, so I have put a moratorium on buying balsa boxes.  It has nothing to do with the fact that I bought out one of the Michaels stores in my area on Friday.  Nothing at all. What!?  Don't judge!

Like I mentioned earlier, I wanted to use these boxes to make some little Valetine's Day gifts for my kids' teachers to show them how much we love them and appreciate all of their hard work.  They make perfect little gift holders.  Since it was Valentine's Day I filled them with foil covered Sees hearts.  But they will also hold a nice bar of soap--perfect if you want to give a little treat to a friend who is trying to lose weight, for example, or who is stronger than I am, and doesn't eat sugar.  At all.  I'm told that such people exist.  I'm skeptical.  Anyway, who doesn't like a really beautifully presented package, whatever the contents?  

To make this box, I removed the bown elastic and the little wooden knob that keep the box shut.  Then I pained the edges of the box a creamy white color.  Next, I used some of the new Love Story collection by Lori Whitlock for Echo Park Paper to cover the outside and line the inside of the box.  I thought that the lined pink paper was perfect for a teacher.  The banner on the outside is a combination of a sticker from the Love Story sticker sheet and little punches from the Jenni Bowlin Blue Ribbon punch.  I then used some mulberry hearts that I found in the $1.50 bins at Michaels and a little bit of lace that I pleated with my fingers and hot glued into place.  I then put the knob and the elastic back on, filled a little celophane bag with chocolates, put a small valentine inside and voila!  A cute teacher gift that came together really quickly!  By the way, if you want some of these boxes, I suggest you finish this post and then run as fast as you can to your closest Michaels.  The stores I have have been to are almost out.  They probably won't restock them.  That's the danger of the $1.50 bins at Michaels.  If you see something you really like grab it while you can!

My next project doesn't need so much background.  As you can guess, I sort of love the $1.50 bins at Michaels.  One thing that they always have is cute cards.  They're mostly just plain--fun designs but no embellishment.  A long time ago, in a year far, far away, I bought a bunch of these cards, thinking it would be fun to make little card sets to give to friends, since I'm always looking for non-food gifts to give to people.  Anyway, way back when, they had some really cute collections, so I bought a few packs.  But like all of my best laid  crafty plans, the cards simply sat on top of the island in my craft room, unused, unembellished, gathering dust.  Until last night!  I finally thought of a use for these cards!  

Yesterday my LDS Stake was split.  In the process they had to realign many of the wards in our area.  Mine was one of the ones who had some major changes.  Until yesterday I was an Activity Days leader.  What that means is that I got to have the cutest group of 9 year old girls over to my house every other week to work on the Faith In God Program requirements with them, or just to have fun and do something crafty.  I wasn't their leader for very long.  I began in September, but I have really loved getting to know these beautiful girls.  They are all so unique, but somehow they managed to come together, love each other, and be really, really kind to each other.  No, really.  I saw so many little kindnesses during my time with these girls.  I am very impressed with each of them.  I wanted to let each girl know what I loved about her and how she touched my life and taught me some important lessons along the way.

Enter the cards.  The cards were perfect--pretty and girly, and with a minimal amount of embellishment, just what I wanted to give my girls!

The card base is from a pack of cards from Michaels.  I used pink cardstock to create a ribbon banner to run across the bottom.  I stamped sentiments from a stamp set by Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday called Simply You.  The cards says, "You are simply the best, the fantastic, incredible, wonderful, amazing person you are."  Next I used the Notched Flowers Die from Papertrey Ink, wool felt, a button and some jute twine to make the little flower.  Finally I cut out some leaves with my Silhouette.  I layered everything together, and a cute little card emerged.  

I still have some packs of cards, but now that I know I can whip up a pack of 8 cards in about an hour, I might feel a bit more inclined to make more and have some on hand for when I need a quick gift.  

I can already feel my craft room getting lighter.  

 

 

January Scripture Challenge

I started doing this when I served in the Relief Society (women's organization) presidency at church.  The new Relief Society president asked me to continue.  Here's the January scripture challenge.  Enjoy!