Safe Sparklers

**Sorry for the late post....Blogger refused to let me post =( **

Ok, so here's a non cardy thing for the 4th of July. I made a total of 7 of these and I love them! I mailed off 5 (Kristin, Beka...look for the box in the mail) and the last to are for my rugrats.

Every morning like a crazy crafty stalker I check out the daily deal on pick your plum dot com. It's a website that has these insane deals such as the ric rack I used here, I've also gotten vinyl sheets for a quarter a piece and grosgrain ribbon for a crazy cheap deal. The ric rack for instance was 10 cents a yard I think. They have a certain amount of whatever is for sale and they sell it for 24 hours or until it's sold out......very cool!

When they have an item they have pictures of things you can make with the craft supply. They had the sparkler made outta ric rack and I knew I had to make it. (You can google ric rack pick your plum and you can see the pics)

Super easy to make, 3/8 inch dowel, scrap piece of felt about 2 1/2" by 7", 6 pieces of ric rack and glue.....easy peasy lemon squeezy.




I actually added glitter glue for a more sparkly effect, well that and I have a girl who loves all things sparkly =)



They're cool, you wave 'em around and they sparkle and completely safe....unless you count the kids using them as swords which guaranteed mine will do once they get their hands on them.

I really don't care for fireworks so this is the perfect thing for me =)

Happy Thursday....Weekend is almost here!!!!!!!!

Summery Flowers

Happy Tuesday! Did you survive Monday, I did.....bearly.....

For this card I pulled out the Prima flowers I got a few months back and put them to use. The sketch I used was from Clean & Simple and the colors were from SPCC but I changed 'em up a little. Instead of of Certainly Celery I used Pear Pizzazz and I used Peach Parfait in place of Pumpkin Pie.

One of my favorite things is embossing folders because they make adding texture so super easy. A plain card goes from blah to awesome with just a simple roll through the machine.

Notice the ric rack? I did some organizing this weekend and now have all my loose ends of ribbon wound around popsicle sticks so they are visible and I can see what I have. If I don't see it, then I usually won't use it. Hence all the ribbon I have, it used to be in drawers but now it's nice and organized so I can see what I have.


Ingredients:
{Paper} SU! Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzazz, Peach Parfait
{Ink} SU! Chocolate Chip
{Stamp} SU! So Happy For You
{Extras} Cuttlebug embossing folders Swiss Dots and Swirls

Firecracker Monday

Can you believe it....7 days until the 4th of July! Where has this year gone to? On a good side only 4 days until we can order from the NEW SU! catalog =)

I used THIS sketch from Eat, Sleep, Stamp and I think I might have my stampin' mojo back. I made 4 cards...yes 4 cards this weekend. That's more than I think I've made all month so I'm back on the right stamping path.

This card uses my cute Firecracker Changito and I colored him and the firecrackers in with SU! markers and blender pens. Of course some bling is needed when speaking of firecrackers so I used a Versamark pen and highlighted the ends of firecrackers and one of the firecrackers and added SU! heat and stick powder and added Dazzling Diamonds glitter to it.......firecrackin' fun.


Since Fillmore is the only place in Ventura county to buy fireworks, we now have roughly 20 firework booths set up along about a 4 mile jaunt.....insane if you ask me but then again I'm not a fan of fireworks.

Happy Monday everyone and hopefully it goes fast!

Ingredients:
{Paper} SU! Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla; Paper Pizzaz star scrap paper
{Ink}SU! Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, Basic Grey, Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy, Versamark pen
{Stamp} Stampendous Changito
{Extras} Sizzix die Stars #2, SU! Heat & Stick powder, Dazzling Diamond glitter, Irridescent Ice embossing powder, Blender pens, white gel pen

Branching Out

***WARNING NO NEW PAPER WAS BOUGHT/USED ON THIS PROJECT*** =)

I took on another personal "pet project". In a perfect world I am a SAHM and make everything homemade, but, crazy things happen and I ended up with a full time career and only dashed daydreams of one day staying at home full time.

But I do still try as hard as I can to make my own stuff or improve on old stuff just to save and let my creativity roam free for a bit. I've had this dream of fabric lately, just tons of fabric and I'll sew cute things and decorate and all that.....mind you I don't own a sewing machine and can't even sew a straight line! It's all these blogs I stalk....they make me want to sew =)

A few years ago we got these beach chairs for a $1 each at a yard sale....cool but now as the kids are a little bigger they are dirty and I can't clean 'em. Sooooooooo I bought F-A-B-R-I-C!!!!!!!! Me and the girl walked around Joanns for 30 minutes while I ooed and ahhhed over cute fabric....the girl not so impressed, but me, I was in heaven!

I decided on some lightweight canvasy stuff with a cute pink polka dotted pattern. So I cut, ironed (I had to explain to the girl what an iron was), and velcroed the covers on. I was going to initially remove the old fabric but left it on for the sturdyness (i.e. I didn't trust my mad skills as a sewer/putter togetherer) I never sewed one piece either. They make this stuff that you just iron on and it basically hems stuff. I'm sure there's a proper name for it but it's like a miracle sewing machine challenged people like me. I just glued the velcro on too, such an easy peasy project. Except for the burned fingers from ironing =)

So here's the pics, I did the boy one too but in boy color polka dots, his is drying tonight so I'll have to take pics later =)



Back view.........

Front view...........


*NEW* Bottom view........

*NEW* Back view........

*NEW* Front View........


Ok I'm outta here it's almost the weekend ba-bay!!!

Back to Normalcy

Like all good things my vacation came to an end. I didn't win the lotto so staying home was not an option....BOO! But I did get some projects accomplished that I'll post here once I get pics of them. This is one of the projects...



It's a countdown to the new Breaking Dawn moving from the Twilight Series. I made this for my coworker who L-O-V-E-S Twilight, she's the one who actually got me hooked on the books. (Actually there are now 150 days until it's out) Hopefully she'll like it! It was the easiest to make too, just some wood, paint and vinyl and it was done.

Hopefully today will be a nice transition back to work with not too many people yelling...yeah probably not but I can still dream right?! =)

Small Project=Lots of Time

Have you ever found project and decided to do it only to find that it took 3 times as long as you planned to finish it? That's what's happened the last few days, but I finally finished it.

"IT" being my faux topiary trees that I found HERE at Simply Designing. Very cute huh?! Red, white and blue was very cute but I seriously don't want to store them to use just a couple times a year so I improvised and used matching colors for my family room.


Notice the can I have the dowels in? That my friends is an Almond Roca can, painted because I knew someday I'd find a use for it and just couldn't throw it out =)

Here's a ding-dong moment: I didn't have a star punch so I went to Michaels armed with my 50% off coupon and scored a star punch, the ding dong moment is that instead of punching 9 sheets of stars I should have had either my Cricut or Silhouette cut them....DING DONG! I felt like such a dork when DH looked at me and said "you have 3 machines and your punching stars, why?"

The most painful part of this whole thing was pushing the pins through the paper and into the styrofoam....my fingers are still sore but looking at it is so worth it!




Ingredients:
{Paper} Bazzil Basics in String of Pearls, Flat Broke and Red Carpet
{Paint} Leather Brown and red spraypaint (I sprayed balls before sticking stars on 'em)
{Extras} Dowels cut in 12" 15" 19" increments, can, stick pins, 5" styrofoam circle, foam block to push dowels into, star punch (use your Cricut or Silhouette and save time...lot of time...oodles of time), fabric to cover foam in can holding dowels (I woulda used raffia but I lost it only to find it after I finished)

An Epiphay!

I've said it before and I'll say it again.....I'M A PAPER HOARDER! We aren't borderline anymore folks, I'm a full blown hoarder now. There's no going back you realize, once I've crossed the line to hoarderness there is no going back, especially with all the pretty paper I have.

I had this realization when I moved my paper stacks from one location to another. They were in the bottom of a cabinet and while that worked ok, I didn't have real access to them and kinda forgot they were there. I decided to switch places and pull out what was in 2 cubes and move that to the cabinet and the cabinet paper to the cubbies....insert epiphany here! I realized I have over 3 feet...yes 3 feet of paper, and that folks is just paper stacks, that doesn't include my cart of loose scrapbook paper or my DSP from SU! or my scrapbook kits or my regular plain cardstock (don't get me started on my over abundance of cardstock)....where did the madness begin?!

My new "plan" is to not buy any new "pretty" paper, use what I have, and I have plenty. Will it work? Probably not, but at least I will attempt to try, but there is some really cute DSP in the new SU! catty that I may HAVE to have =)

So in this card I used the same paper I did for my SUMMER banner and used my cupcake punch that I love muches. The picture is horrendous but I do like the colors.

The non-related most awesome in the world grandparents and cousins are coming this weekend for a visit.....so excited, kids are too! There will probably be no crafting accomplished but I did get the supplies to attempt this topiary tree while I'm on vacation this week =)


Ingredients:
{Paper} SU! Cherry Cobbler; DCWV glitter paper stack
{Ink} SU! Basic Black
{Stamp} SU! Sweet Treats
{Extras} SU! cupcake punch, corner rounder, jewel brads

Grad Card

Really, where does time go sometimes? An amazing person I've known for the last nearly 10 years graduated High School Tuesday night. She is an awesome talented person and is on her way to college with full scholarships!

Although I originally made this card for her, I just don't particularly like it so I'll have to make another that screams "Miss A"!

Ingredients:
{Paper} SU! Bashful Blue, Real Red, Pacific Point, Basic Black, Celebrations DSP
{Stamp} SU! Fun Fast Notes
{Ink} SU! Basic Black
{Extras} 1 3/4 scallop punch, eyelets, white ribbon

Finally....my firecracker!

Have you ever found a stamp and found out it was retired/discontinued/company closed???? 3 years ago I did! I was cruising around the gallery on splitcoast stampers and came across a card made with this cute firecracker stamp. I sent the artist a message asking what brand the stamp was and where she got it. I got an sweet answer of Stampa Barbara for the company but they closed many years ago and she got this off of eBay....great sky high prices!

I've watched only a couple come on and they in fact went for over $20 each time, much too high for my liking for buying just one stamp, even if it is cute =)

After 3 years I had kinda given up, I had put an alert on eBay so that it would let me know if any Stampa Barbara firecracker stamps came up for auction.....lo and behold a few weeks ago this wonderful one came up! Only paid $8 including shipping...oh yeah baby...uh huh....I got ....wahoooo!!! (You didn't see my crazy dance through the screen did you ?!)



I still haven't had much time to play with it with work, migraines, end of school, migraines, jury duty, and oh yeah did I mention migraines =( So here's my first card with it, I really thought it was a bigger stamp but I still LOVE it!

Ingredients: {Paper} SU! Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy, Whisper White {Stamp} Stampa Barbara Firecracker {Ink} SU! Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy, Crumb Cake, white gel pen, sudio G burgundy {Extras} Versamark pen, SU! Irridescent Ice embossing powder, scallop scissors, swiss dots embossing folder