Quick and cute

Some SEI patterned paper, a trading card envelope template, my SU! tag punches, some Basic Grey brads, an SU! stamp and marker and...VOILA!  A quick thank you gift card to some fellow teachers who helped me with some grad class activities.  Sorry I can't be more specific with my recipe... I'm a bit tired.

Yes, it is I!

I know, I am like a monk lately as far as crafting goes.  I have been doing dribs and drabs here and there.  But I enjoyed this craft very much, and I thought I would share.  It all started with my Secret Santa.  I loved getting someone I knew well, however, the challenge became that I had to hold back on the "crafty," as she would immediately know it was I.  I held back until today, when I gave her a gift card in a snow cap cardholder.  When she saw me at lunch, she made a comment that perhaps her Secret Santa was someone she knew who was crafty.  I had been found out!  Well, at least it was almost the last day. :)

She mentioned she liked "fun" pens, and you would think that, being the holidays, I could find "fun" pens.  Not so.  I had made beaded pens before with microbeads.  Having left my stash of beads in my classroom, I moved to plan B...Bella's Baubles.  The pen I used is more purple than it looks in the photos.  You take a fun pen (I used a gel pen) and wrap it in super sticky double-sided tape,  Then start adding the baubles.  It's best to let it "cure" at least a night.

I hope she'll like it.  It's accompanied by a Jimmy John's gift card, some pretzel M & Ms and some Butterfinger bells.  Ah, the holidays!

My First Larger Canvas

My BFF Jessie needed help with a project. Her sweet mama turns 70 this year, and her family is throwing a party for her tomorrow (July 4). One of her sisters suggested a family tree canvas. {Background: Karen, fellow BFF, made a beautiful canvas for Jessie's birthday. I believe they replicated the canvas for more family members.}

The basic recipe:
Canvas: 36" x 48" purchased at Hobby Lobby {n.b. not a cheap canvas size by any stretch of the imagination... pardon the pun}
Leaves: Color Box Cat's Eyes in Olive Pastel, stamped directly onto the canvas
Sky {seen more clearly IRL}: Color Box Chalk Ink in Ice Blue
Tree truck: Color Box Chalk Ink in Chestnut Roan
Grass: Color Box Chalk Ink in Olive Pastel
Sentiment: American Crafts Pajamas Thickers (brown)
Leaves with pictures: various SU! green cardstocks

I used the ink pads for ink application and when more of a brush was needed, I used disposable sponges. Each leaf has a different family member's name and a photo (1" x 1") headshot. The leaves were adhered with Alene's Tacky Glue. The eight main children were popped up on dimensionals. Jessie's mother's picture is on the trunk of the tree.

Administrative Professionals {Secretaries'} Day

For our two school secretaries, I made the following "lazy Susans." They absolutely loved them. I was happy that they did.

Office Gifts

My husband has about 7 people whom he wishes to give holiday gifts to at his office each year. This year, I purchased several Subway gift cards from Ignatius' SCRIP program (percent of profit goes to the school, cost of card remains the same).

Scott, of course, was happy just to hand them a gift card. I wanted to make it a little more in depth, however. My friend, Kim, just returned from Florida where her daughter was married. For favors, her daughter wanted to list the wedding participants and a photo on a label on a water bottle (it was a beach wedding). I hadn't seen that before, and I thought it was adorable.

So, I went with that idea. I printed our message on Avery 2 x 4 labels using Designers (free) font and CK Becky, a free font of Becky Higgins' writing which can be found here. I used a template for an artist's trading card envelope found here. I had purchased a slab of holiday-themed paper from The Paper Studio, and I used some of it that would not be typically me. It a had red and pink grid with pink and white snowflakes. It went well with the Raspberry Ice packet of Crystal Light on the Go I attached to the bottle. I made a tag with SU! Punches Three, my square scallop punch, and SU! Real Red ink. Then, I finished it off with some Offray red grosgrain. Simple, easy, yet Scott was very impressed in the end. Will he ever trust the crafter vision? Time will tell.

Since it seems like a Becky Higgins kind of weekend, I should add that I made her Pretzel Hugs recipe today with Rolos and Hershey Kisses. Yummers. Thanks to Krystal, who made them for Karen's Christmas Crafters Gathering. I am officially addicted.

Summer School Thanks

Thanks to a "Karen Kick Start" with a great Bella card, I created this gift for my son's summer school teacher. I was wandering through Meijer looking at candles and such, when I happened upon the aisle containing these cute picture albums. This one had a window in front, so I immediately thought about personalizing the album (I used Gift Box Chipboard Thickers by American Crafts). I then bought a disposable camera, and, Voila, a gift was born. I think it's pretty creative. Inside the card I wrote that she could use it for some last minute snapshots of the students this week if she wanted.

The Bella card features teachabella. She makes me laugh because she is so... together. She looks like a first year teacher on the first day of school. I have a very funny Bella in mind for the teacher on the last day of school. Hmmm... perhaps I should sketch that out. :) Anyway, here are the specs on this Bella as I can piece them together (I made her at Stamp Camp, so bear with me):

Size: 6.5 x 5 inches

Ink: Adirondak black, Color Box black Cat's Eye

Other stamps: Hannah Stamps (sentiment)

Coloring media: Copics, black colored pencil, Gamasol

Paper: Papertrey white, SU! Basic Black, SU! Prints DSP (Real Red?)

Ribbon: Could be SU!; not sure

Circle cutter: Creative Memories

Scallop punch: SU!

Multitasking

Multitasking takes all the fun out of crafting for me. I was trying to do some "work" along with some "play," and I got totally frustrated with both. Lesson learned.

Anyway, it's 1:30 AM, and I need to catch some zzzs. So I thought I would post today's challenge. Every decision seemed to be slightly off tonight. One particular problem was I didn't want to print the envelopes on the cardstock/paper because the lines would show on one side and that bugged me. However, when traced, the template was too big for the box. So, I tried elongating the flap (hence, the blue flap) and that flopped. Now, looking at the pic, everything looks OK. But this will be a prototype, I think, for future boxes of cards like this. Too many little things that could turn in to big things if given as a gift. But, the prototype is kind of interesting, I think.

The template for the box is found here. The template for the envelope is found here. Thanks go to sandee74 on Splitcoast for these templates. Please heed my warning above and make necessary changes. Play first, then commit to paper/cardstock you love.

Paper: SU! Always Artichoke, Always Artichoke Prints DSP, Chatterbox Scrapbook Walls Chateau Stripe, Chatterbox Scrapbook Walls Gazebo Bias Plaid

Stamps: Friendship Sentiments (My Sentiments Exactly!)

Ribbon: Offray wide blue grosgrain

A Gift for my Husband

You might be thinking... JoLynn, why are you posting this? I am 99.9% sure Scott is in no way, shape, or form interested in reading my blog. If he is, he should stop NOW, or he will see his Father's Day gift. If he can't stand the suspense, he can read on.

While at Creating Keepsakes Convention - St. Louis (in Collinsville, IL), in April, I went to a class entitled, "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," hosted by Scrapbooks 'N Stickers. You might recall that was the class where Karen worked. In the class, we began to create an accordion album for a dad. Here is a link to the kit if you are interested.

I love how it turned out. I can't decide if I am going to get sappy and write something or not. But most of the work is finished, once I finally committed to getting it done. It only took about a day to finish. The hardest part was selecting pictures. I wanted to span both of the children's lives. That's an experiment in humor for many reasons, not limited to the increased quality of digital photos over the years as well as the decreased pigment in his hair over the years. :) I am sure several of those gray hairs have my name on them.

If you don't have Adobe Flashplayer 8, you might want to do a free download to see the slideshow below. If you want to see a larger image of any of the photos, just click on the thumbnail as it comes up in the show.

Secretaries' Day

Well, I started making these over a month ago. In fact, I was even going to post them for the Dirty Dozen Challenge on SCS when the focus was on office supplies.

Now, here I am, at the 11th hour {surprisingly} trying to finish the cards for our six secretaries {I know... not PC... I guess I am old school} for their big day tomorrow. I think the least I can do is thank them for putting up with me and the things I screw up.

I started by making the little manila files. I bought these ages ago, and I thought they were adorable! Then, I forgot about them, of course. I stamped their names in SU! Lovely Lilac, in honor of our school colors. Then, I put cute ribbon through multicolored paperclips. I had no idea where I wanted to go from there, so they sat on my craft table staring at me.

Finally, I saw tonight's SCS Color Challange and became inspired. I loved Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip, and Pretty in Pink! So, here is my prototype. I have 5 more to make, so I better get going!

Size: 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches

Stamps: SU! Office Accoutrement, Making Memories Rummage Magnetic Stamp Alphabet, SU! Circle of Friendship

Ink: SU! Lovely Lilac, Certainly Celery, and Chocolate Chip

Paper: SU! Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Prints DSP in Certainly Celery, index card

Ribbon: SU! Chocolate Chip twill

Clip: Hodgepodge Hardware

Scrap Your Walls

We finally celebrated Christmas with the in-laws yesterday. I decided to venture into the world of framing scrapbook pages. I bought some great frames at Micahels (today they are 40% off... grrr). I knew what pics I wanted to use, but I had to think of their homes for papers and embellishments. I like how they both turned out. Similar, but slightly different, yes? I also gave them these ornaments, previously showcased on Karen's blog.

Left Frame:
Matting: Chatter Box Scrapbook Walls - Courtyard Flowers; SU! Mellow Moss cardstock
Base: Bazzill brown textured cardstock
Lettering: Basic Grey Periphery punch out letters
Brads: American Crafts copper mini brads

Right Frame:
Matting: SU! LeJardin Designer Series Paper and SU! Baroque Burgandy cardstock
Base: Bazzill (can't recall color) textured cardstock
Lettering: Cricut Alphalicious (used LeJardin paper and Baroque Burgandy cardstock for shadow)
Brads: SU! Build a Brad