New School Year

It's been one hectic August, to say the very least.  Ignatius started eighth grade on Friday, with a little dash of high school Algebra on Thursday, and Max starts Kindergarten tomorrow.

I made this card 2x, once for Max's general education teacher, and one for his special education teacher.  The Knight is an image from his elementary's website... he's their mascot.  I loved the "Teachers Rule!" play on words with the School for Changito set.  The inside of the cards used SU! Smile Some More set.  The card also included a Borders gift card with a "learning" theme.  The card uses the school colors (for those of you thinking, "Wow, look how JoLynn has come a little out of her color neighborhood.").  Only when forced do I use an orange base. :)  The blue is, I believe, Blue Bayou, or at least that's the ink I used.

Deep breathing.  I am so much more nervous than Max even knows he should be.  Hope it's for the best.  Starting Kindergarten is stressful enough without a disability.  Just gotta go with God...

My Go-To Set for 2010

Signature Greetings by Papertrey is quickly becoming part of my stamping Hall o' Fame.  There are so many uses for this set, and it fits cards from the casual to the more formal.  Definitely getting my money's worth.

Today's card is clean and oh-so-simple.  My good friends let my 13 year old tag along to Six Flags last week, sparing me the agony of a day at an "amusement" park.  Don't get me wrong, I like Six Flags, but I would have had to take my 5 year old, too, and that was not at all appealing.  OVERSTIMULATION to the maximum!

I knew I had this roller coaster sticker, and I figured I could make a fairly easy, yet still fun-loving, card based on it.  One story from the day was that Ignatius and Erik waited 2-1/2 hours to get on the Raging Bull roller coaster, so I figured a coaster theme would be appropriate.

I am also loving Chalk Box's Creamy Brown Cat Eye.  Talk about versatile!  It is a simple way to make a card pop.  I inked the coaster hill, as well as the outside of the card, with it.  I used SU! Chocolate Chip for the sentiment.  The cardstock is SU! Bordering Blue, and I think the brown is textured SU! Creamy Caramel, or its Bazzill equivalency.

I remember a few years back I was a member of a card club, and the leader of the club said using stickers was becoming passe.  Every time I use a sticker, her voice pops in my head.  It was such a ridiculous statement, especially considering the explosion of Thickers and rub-ons.  If I can incorporate a cute sticker in a fun way, then call me passe, baby!

Button, button...

I thought I would give the Everything But the Kitchen Sink Challenge a try this week.  They asked for us to use buttons.  There are some really creative submissions at the challenge site! Here's mine:

I have to say, I backed away from buying buttons at the CHA Super Show because I have tons of them and I just forget to use them.  So, I was happy to pull out the stash and give them a whirl with this card.  I decided, and undecided, and re-decided... it was bordering on obsessive as far as what I wanted to do with this card.  I pulled out some old SU! DSP, some SU! buttons, the Top Notch Sizzix die from SU!, my paper cutter, my SU! scallop punch, my SU! 1 1/2" circle punch, Glue Dots, and adhesive, and went to town.  I used some Cat Eyes for inking as well.

Tell me, why is it that when you want an adhesive to stick, it doesn't, and when you want an adhesive to be a little generous, it's like cement?  All I have to say is I have some SERIOUSLY adhesive Glue Dots in my stash.  Once something went on this card, there was no movement, despite my best efforts.  Weird twist of science...

For those wanting to cut several pieces of patterned paper as I did, if you decide to use six strips, each strip is 3/4" wide.

This is one of my favorite sentiments, a la A Muse.  Just like my You're da Bomb! card, this sentiment is something I would actually say, so I am excited to get to use it.  I think this one is going to a co-worker who is coming back to school amidst absolute chaos in her home.  I am amazed that she can keep herself together.  Truly God is lifting her up!

A challenge on a few levels

I decided to participate in a challenge while I still had some time.  I will be getting things ready for my classroom soon, so my craft time is fleeting... I know the realities of the school year.  Sigh.

This card is for the wee Memories Scrappy Saturday Challenge.  Yeah, I know it's Tuesday.  Things go a little slowly in the Plato household.

I made this card for my new student teacher.  For those of you looking from the outside in, student teaching is exciting and frightening all at the same time.  You are FINALLY going to get your feet wet, well, soaked, doing what you trained at least 3 1/2 years, and spent thousands of dollars, to do.  You kind of know what you're doing, but not really.  I love student teachers because they are so excited and their ideas are so full of life.  They remind me of why I am, and continue to be, a teacher. 

I tried to find a sentiment that would inspire, or that would be funny, or that would completely fit the situation.  I finally just came up with one from SU! Warm Words: welcome.  That's really what it's all about.  I want her to feel welcome to the school, my room, my students.  I want her to feel welcome to try things, to embrace successes, to learn from failures (yes, you heard it here... teachers mess up... and we know it... and we're not perfect... and many of us are OK with that because we are human).

The challenge asked us to use chipboard.  Man, I have way more chipboard that I will ever use.  And, at one point, I was a hoarder of really chunky chipboard!  I found this medallion that came with an SEI mini album and was left over from the kit.  I coupled it with some SEI Dill Blossom patterned paper, some SU! Sahara Sand cardstock, attached it with a Basic Grey brad (which is one of my favorite parts of the card) and used some SU! Sage Shadow taffeta ribbon for that linear part of the design so near and dear to me.  I used my Fiskars scallop blade on my cutter for a cute little edge.  SU! Tempting Turquoise ink was used on the sentiment to pull the blue in a bit more.  I put an additional strip of patterned paper on the inside, as I am digging the tie in of the inside of cards as of late. 

Enjoy!

There's a little giveaway going on...

Check out this site for cards ideas, a chipboard challenge, and a giveaway!  How fun is that?!

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue...

I had to prep some cards for a shoebox swap I am attending.  If you have read my blog in the past, you have heard and seen about my adventures with shoebox swaps.  It's just a fun time to prep some cards for other crafters.  We usually end up gathering sometime in the summer for this event.  We could design one card and provide enough supplies for each participant to do two cards with that design, or two designs and each participant would make one.  I chose two designs, mainly because one of my designs will be somewhat labor intensive.

I went with the "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" philosophy.  Hey, it's been 18 years since I was a bride, so why not?  The first card hits, something old and something blue.  I started with a totally different card concept... and I mean way different.  That became too complex, so I decided clean and simple was necessary (especially since I made this card after my first one).  I pulled out my Encore Ultimate Metallic silver ink for this one.  I stamped using A Muse's Bomb stamp, and the inside of my card uses the same ink with their Da Bomb! stamp (beware: after a while, this ink fades... not a good choice if you're keeping something in your stash).  I loved these stamps the first time I saw them because this is one of my pet phrases.  After stamping on a piece of 2 3/4 x 2 3/4 black cardstock that had been corner rounded, and allowing it a few minutes to set, I pulled out my SU! Crystal Effects to give the bomb some sheen.  I also used my Waterfall Stickles on the sparks to pull in some of the blue from the base of the card, and to add some more dimension.  I used SU!'s Bashful Blue (and then realized that was my only sheet, so many of my fellow swappers will be using SU! Baja Breeze, which is just slightly darker in hue) for my base for a 3 x 3" card.  You can't really tell from the photo, but I affixed the black panel using Dimensionals, which gave it a little lift from the blue.

I went fairly girly with my next card.  It, too, is the culmination of a few different tries.  I love how it turned out.  My something new: I am using my new Papertrey Ink Plum Pudding cardstock and my new Dawn McVey Signature Greetings set also from PTI.  I have the whole set in the shoebox, so my fellow swappers can choose a sentiment they need.  Something borrowed is the idea of crumpling patterned paper for flowers.  I crumpled some SU! Bella Birds DSP, then punched some flowers with my SU! Daisy punch (another oldie, but goodie).  They have a fabric-like feel to them when punched from crumpled paper (click on the photo for a closer look).  I affixed the flowers with some brass brads (I think they are from Hobby Lobby).  I used SU! Barely Banana for the panel, which I paper punched as well as inked with SU! Perfect Plum ink.  I also used the SU! Scallop punch for the panel.  I mounted the Barely Banana panel on another panel of Bella Birds.  I stamped the sentiment using SU! White Craft ink... a staple of mine when it comes to sentiments on darker paper.  I placed a panel of Barely Banana inside for note writing.  I love the heaviness of the PTI cardstock.  While it's not the best when you want to cut out an image (a little too heavy...scissor boo boos become glaringly apparent), it's a fabulous 4.25 x 5.5" base.