February Card Swap, Card

Hello, hello!! Welcome back!
I made this little beauty of a card for the February card swap group. Our theme was "Primary Colors". We were supposed to use Red, Blue & Yellow.

The first thing I thought of was a card for a toddler or child. But, then I thought that would be too obvious. I wanted to think a little more out of the box. So, with the help of my friend Monica (whose also in the group and is a wiz with colors & patterns) I picked out the papers & fabric at Hobby Lobby. The Fabric was her idea and we spent well over an hour just browsing and trying to make decisions. My whole idea started with the Prima stamp set of the little boy fishing. Generally I tend to make cards with a feminine flair. So, this card is well out of my comfort zone! But, I absolutely love the finished project!

Fairy Dust party crown

I am delighted to be able to share with all my blog friends my newest item up on thebabygarnder.com website!

My sister makes the Fairy Dust Birthday party line for the Baby Gardner. And, I make the matching party crown! Just this weekend the crown went up on the site! Oh how pretty and oh how much fun I am having making them! Here's the link to the website! http://www.thebabygardner.com/productpages/birthdays/bdaygroups/gfairy.html Thanks for looking :))

I might have already mentioned that one of my top 3 favorite holidays is Valentine's day. I adore everything about it...love, chocolate, flowers, friendships, hearts, red, pink, doilies... hmmm the list just goes on and on. As I went through my stamp sets I had a hard time figuring out which ones I wanted to use to make my cards with this year. I ended up playing around with quite a few before I got tired of making Valentine's day cards and moved on to my Christmas card.

OMG, yes, I have picked out my patterned papers, my stamps set, spellbinder shapes, designs, etc already for my Christmas card 2012! Okay, maybe I am boasting (??), but I am so thrilled I HAD to share...I just hope I am able to finish way before Christmas. Unlike 2011 where I was kinda last minute. 

Okay, back to Valentine's Day. My first card was inspired by the SU demonstrators catalog. The front cover has a picture of a very similar card. I had so many issues getting the deminsions just right and it never really came together. I loved the idea of making a non-traditional Valentine's day themed card-- and being a tea lover, the doilies spoke to me! And, the colors of pink & orange is my Bestie's favorite color scheme. So I was playing around with it here. It is much prettier in person, I promise :

I just winged this card. I was trying to make a background out of one stamp set. I do like the way it came out. Again, it is prettier in person. Maybe I should stop taking pictures for my blog with my iphone. But, it is so much easier!!

Using the same stamp as above, I just made a few different changes. It's a cutie!

And, finally. This one took me forever! I mean FOREVER!! My husband didn't think  I would finish in time to send it out before Valentine's day! But, a late night is all it took to complete it. The main struggle I had was figuring out what size to make the base card to fit into a medium size envelope. I wasted so much paper! And, good paper because my supply of "crap" paper has dwindled. Also, this card uses my NEW favorite accessory-- it's the pearly dots on the green scallops. Its from a pen and I purchased it at our Heirloom stamp show a few weekend's ago. I have used so much of it I need to find a place to buy it online to replace my pearl & possibly choose a few more colors! :))

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! 
xoxo

More Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking, YES I've been scrapbooking :)) I've been busy making lots of cards - Valentine's Day, Easter & Christmas!! I haven't had much desire to scrapbook. I think I am feeling stress over how quickly our first year home with our son has gone and I'm still doing China pictures! My picture pile is ever growing!! How can I keep up? Any tips??

I'm learning how to use the new Blogger changes. I hope these two page layouts actually show up side by side, even though I am pretty sure they won't. Below in the 2 page LO "Entering a Time gone by" was one of our favorite excursions while in Beijing- The  Summer Palace- We are at the entrance standing in front of several of the Dragons.

   I turned 40 while in Beijing, bringing our son home from China! It was a glorious trip for many reasons. I couldn't resist making a page about "Julia at 40"

Beijing Zoo, Giant Panda (2pg lo)
My friend Monica helped me with this particular LO. She let me scrap lift the page design from a class she took at CKC. I was so out of practice with sbing but with her help I managed to make my way through it! We went to the Beijing Zoo on my 40th Birthday. It was my request to go see the Pandas. After the Panda Exhibit the guide said let's go, I said, no way! And, looking confused he asked, "What other animals do you want to see?" I said "Everything, Lions, Tigers, Bears, Elephants..." For some odd reason he was surprised but he took us around the rest of the zoo. We were disappointed to see the state of the zoo. The animals had horrible living conditions (mostly in small cages) and there was all kinds of trash thrown in by the crowds. However, that said it was a lovely day. I was 40 (urgh) and had my son in my arms and my husband by my side. A GREAT day!

 

Stampin' Up Hostess Club February Club Projects

Tonight is my Stampin' Up hostess club meeting. I am excited to show the club members how to make a few fun items with themes of my two favorite holidays- Valentine's Day & Easter!

Since Valentine's Day is just a week away I decided to create a project that could be given away as a gift. And, who doesn't like gum? Not anyone I know of. So, our first project is an Orbitz gum wrapper designed to be given out as gifts. It is so cute!! And, easy to make. This particular gum container required a 4x7 card stock, scored four times. Easy easy!! So adorable and this pack is sugar free! :))


Valentine's day Giftable

Our second project is an Easter Card. We will be using the new Easter stamp set in the NEW mini occasions catalog. So many items on this card are new!!! The sizzlits frames, smooch spray, the dsp, and the stamp set! Oh so cute! This particular stamp set has a boy (as seen below) and a girl. So, the stampers will get to choose which one they prefer to stamp. And, this was my first time using the Smooch spray. And, I've got to say how much I love it! It is very similar to tattered angels mistables but the Smooch doesn't come off on your hands! Loves it!! Also, I'm so loving gray and yellow. I think Yellow is supposed to be one of the "IT" colors of spring. So, when designing this I didn't realize how in fashion I was being :)) LOL
Easter Card


Sometimes I simply forget abou the inside of Cards... not this time. As I went to stamping "Happy Easter" straight onto the card stock I made a boo-boo so I had to cover it up with a strip of dsp. Then I decided to keep on stamping...it was a happy accident. I love how it turned out!

The Baby Gardner, Vintage Mom-to-Be Corsages

I am over the moon excited to share that my newest product that I made for Thebabygardner .com is up on the site for sale! This spoon corsage has been a year in the making so I am excited to see it up on the site. Thanks Deanna!

Here is a link to check them out: Vintage Mom-to-Be spoon Corsage

As I mentioned above, it was a year ago that Deanna approached me with the idea for a Vintage corsage for the Mom-to-be. And, unfortunately for the corsage, my Husband and I shortly received the news about our son. So, the corsage went on the back burner. However, it was always on my mind. I am grateful that Deanna didn't give up on me!

This last week I have been focusing on completing party crowns for some NEW Birthday lines that The Baby Gardner will be putting on her site. I have a box sitting here on my desk, ready to be mailed out first thing Monday morning. It contains two crowns for the soon to be "Fairy" line!! I can't wait to show you all pictures as soon as I can.

Organize, scrap space

Organization seems to be ever changing in my craft room. Part of the problem is that I am constantly bringing in new things to my stash that need homes. As you crafters know, if your stash isn't organized you will never be able to find that perfect little sticker set that you remember buying but you have NO idea where to find it.


Unfortunately I didn't take a true "before" picture. However, I will do my best to describe my set up before the pretty white cubes... I had a folding table and underneath the table were various file folders of card stock & various other organizers. But, NOW I have a nice little stack of the Making Memories cubes. I'm well on my way to better organization.

Through my search for these white organizing cubes I found different options at Hobby Lobby and Michael's craft stores. They seem to be made by different manufacturers. But, they fit well together. The two stores do have a few of the same pieces but they also offer different varieties that can only be purchased at their store.  I used my 40% off coupon to buy at HL. However, the majority of the ones in my collection were purchased at Michael's. Because they have been having a 40% off sale on the organization pieces for the past two weeks. No coupon needed!
After having the cubes put together I thought I should invest in the wall pieces as well. In the below picture you can see the whole set up. I am so pleased with how it turned out. I think the wall pieces just add a nice clean look to everything.

 And, a full view ...

 And, the best part of these organizing pieces is you can add on to them as your stash grows :))