September Blog Hop

This month's challenge is to find a new way to use the things that we normally throw away when we get our brilliant PTI packages. I decided to utilize a few different things: the tissue paper, the box everything comes in, and the bags from the Vintage Buttons. I always keep the tissue paper but I used them differently for my project. I actually did two different projects and am now hoarding boxes, paper, and things that used to be considered "trash".

For my first project, I made some napkin holders by using my Nestabilities to cut the ring and then twisted up my tissue paper to tie it together like ribbon. I had picked up the Christmas bulbs at Michael's in the $1 section for this year's Christmas stuff. I wanted to make the napkin rings so that it could be at anyone's seat so I didn't stamp names but rather phrases from Signature Christmas (LOVE Dawn's handwritting!!!). Also, used the great stocking and flocked the top of each one. These were hard to photograph, that's for sure!

A little closer:

Even closer:


My second project is my favorite and will be such an easy gift to put together for those last-minute gifts that we all know we have to put together two days before Christmas. I used the Nestabilities Labels 1 and the great stamps to make a cover for the button bag. I also made a little card for each set and then an ornament to go inside the bag. I used my Nestabilities to cut the background square and hand-cut around the tree that I stamped from the new PTI set. I decided to get out my embroidery floss and stitch the lines on the tree and added some sweet buttons.

Here are the ones I was able to make. From this order, I now have three little Christmas gifts and I'll know what to do with those bags. I think you could fill them with candy for Halloween or Easter. You could even do a little felted heart for Valentine's Day.


One complete set:

Close up of the embroidery (So fun!):


If I left out any details or you have any questions let me know!

Have a great time at the Blog Hop...I can't wait to go check out what everyone did with their "trash". Check out Papertrey Ink and their message board for the other blogs!

New Blog Look

I decided to change the look of my blog and with a little help with Photoshop, I'm pretty happy with the results. I got the header and page layout free from Shabby Blogs and then changed the header in Photoshop to make it look a bit more shabby.

I'm wondering what I can do to get more feedback and/or comments on the blog. Does anyone have any ideas?

I'd like to start including posts for my other hobbies, as I'm spending a lot more time knitting and finding other crafts that I enjoy. I went to a teddy bear workshop this past weekend and as soon as I make one more addition to my bear, I'll post her. I need help on naming her too so maybe we'll do a little blog candy. Just look for a post in the next few days.

At the teddy bear workshop, I was able to meet some of the most amazing women and had such an inspiring day out in the middle of nowhere. We laughed, stitched, and stuffed bears all day Saturday. It was a brilliant day. I was even able to sell some of my cards and it made me feel good about my cards because all of the ladies were really impressed with them. Sometimes in the blog world, I get caught up with the fact that there aren't any comments but yet I see that people visit. I've decided a long time ago that I know in my heart that I enjoy my hobbies and I appreciate comments but I don't have to have them to make me feel like my work is good.

Well, off to enjoy the last couple of hours of a three day weekend and it's back to teaching Spanish to 125 high schoolers. I can't believe we've already been in school for a full month and that it's my sixth year of teaching.

Milk Made for Friends

I must say that I have purchased every Timeless Template from PTI. Lauren is so very talented and I admire her creativity and just love to see what she has each month. I've particularly fallen in love with the Milk Made template. I envision a very vintage project with it also in the near future. I was able to get some awesome stamps from Crafty Secrets at CHA to add to my vintage collection and just think of when milk was delivered door-to-door.

Anyway, I made this project using the In Bloom stamp set, which just rocks! I love the saying as well and all of the flowers are great for coloring or to stamp and then just cut out the images. I used Enchanted Evening, Raspberry Fizz, and Kraft. I love the blue and the pink together...such bright colors! I had to add a little something to the lid of each milk carton so I just punched out a little border and added some Martha Stewart punch butterflies after stamping the texting backgrounds onto the butterflies. I really enjoyed making this project and it'll be such a cute gift for lotions, candies, or other great friend gifts. I put a little 1/4 inch base inside of the box to pop up the cartons just a little bit because I wanted more of the flower to be visible. Okay, I think that's enough info...I'll just post the project :)



Here's a picture of one of the milk cartons.


Here's a close-up of part of the saying that comes with the In Bloom set:


I just love the butterfly with the text background stamped on it. I had to add a little Raspberry Fizz colored rhinestone on each butterfly too.

PTI Button Challenge II

Here's another card I entered for the button challenge for this Guest Star Stamper. I've been focusing on my cards this past week and realized I really missed making cards and papercrafting. I'm glad to be getting back that fire! Yea for CHA!

I also realized that my sewing machine that I won at CHA only had one bobbin with it so I went to Hancock's yesterday and hope that I bought the right size.

I really like the color combinations on today's card. I love the blue, yellow, and white look that seems to be a popular color choice in design. I guess I think especially of kitchens. I'd love a brighter blue also but the Enchanted Evening color is just wonderful too. I love the Everyday Button Bits and used the Lemon Tart buttons for the wheels. I love that these particular buttons have a really pretty sheen. I added some blue rhinestones in the center to bring it all together. I colored in the bike with Copics and added some Spica glitter on the pedals.

Here's the card.


The bike just has to have it's own picture :)

PTI Button Challenge

I made some cards for this month's Guest Star Stamper contest over at Papertrey Ink. I know there were some problems with the gallery so you can still enter your work until the 16th so get busy :). Anyway, I'll go ahead and start sharing my cards here. I'll start with my favorite of the three button challenge cards. I must say that I just love seeing a rainbow of colors and when you can mix that with a rainbow of buttons and a beautiful flower, it makes me happy :).

I used the wonderful flower and patterned paper that came out last month, I believe, called In Bloom. I used my Copics to color the flower and just love how easy it is to add color to it and to cut out the image.

Remember that you can click on any picture to see the image larger.


Of course, I have to do a close-up too....usually of my favorite part. I had matching rhinestones for all of the buttons except the Ripe Avocado so I got out my Copics and colored a clear rhinestone. Worked perfectly!

Raspberry Suite Challenge #14

Dawn has the coolest color challenges on her blog and after meeting her and being inspired in general at the CHA Convention, I decided to start participating in the challenge. Plus, Dawn has some of the BEST color combinations!

Here's the challenge for this week:


Before I share the card, I just have to say that the Everyday Button Bits is the coolest stamp set. I worked with it a bit for the PTI Guest Star Stamper Contest for this month so I'll start sharing those cards this weekend. Love it! Nichole is ingenious. Plus, the PTI buttons are so cool and I think I could spend an hour just going through and trying to find the perfect button.

At CHA, I was so happy to find the Fiskar's Upper Crest punch. I know Dawn has used it a lot and I've seen it on other blogs so I've been using it like crazy. I did something a little different with the sentiment because I had punched out the sentiment with the crests on the top and didn't really like it so I added some bling and added it along the bottom. I think it looks pretty neat.

Okay, onto the card :)


And a close up of the flowers with the cool PTI buttons:

CHA 2009

Wow! What can I say? CHA 2009 was incredible. I went primarily because of PTI....I'm such an addict. I do love the free set and am so glad it's at home with me. Being at the conference inspired me to immediately get back into some ink and stamps. I decided to start with my free PTI set :). School is back in session this Wednesday and I needed a clock. I went to Wal Mart and bought a $3 clock and knew that I'd change it's image. I'd seen others online do it so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult. It ended up being really simple...I just stamped my seven just a tad bit too much to the left lol. Guess it gives it character. Anyway, I took the clock apart and just started stamping.








I also won a prize at CHA :). My friend Claudia and I each entered a drawing for a Project Runway Limited Edition Sewing and Embroidery machine. Guess where that machine lives now?

Yep, my house!!! Claudia and I were literally jumping up and down and screaming while everyone around us were staring. We checked out at the booth we were at and ran over to the Brother machine booth. I was so excited!!! I had been saving my pennies for an embroidery machine but knew that it would be a long time before I could buy one. When I won the machine I almost cried with joy. Instead, I had a goofy grin for the rest of the day. The machine is worth more than the cost of the trip and hotel together! I can't wait to really find out what it's capable of and work embroidery into my purse business.

Here's my baby!

Blog....What's That?

I have truly neglected my blog but I still check the blogs in my blog roll. I forgot how much time was involved in posting to the blog and getting everything as I want it to be. However, now that it's summer, I hope to have the extra time that I didn't have during the school year. I have specific goals for the summer, which I have to do so that the whole summer doesn't pass by and I haven't gotten anything done.

I'm really working on my sewing and getting a store open on Etsy featuring my purses. I am looking for advice though....I'm looking for a good sewing machine. I have a Singer and I like it but I want one with more bells and whistles. I am open to any and all suggestions, especially if it's something that you are already using and you are happy with it. I'm sure this is a pretty generic request and I'm not even sure that I'll get any responses, but I can hope! Thanks everyone in advance.

Another Masculine Good Luck Card

Good morning everyone! It's spring break and I've been trying to enjoy it as much as possible. I spend this past Monday in Louisville with my sister-in-laws, mother-in-law, and a friend shopping at some craft stores. My favorite stop was at Sophie's Fine Yarn Store. It was incredible! I got some of the softest yarn!!! I also got some really nice cotton that will make nice apple cozies.

I just wanted to post a reminder that I still have my Cricut for sale. It comes with Mini Monograms and 5 packs of mats (10 mats total). I'm now asking $140 for all of that. Please comment or email me if you are interested. It comes with a hand-sewn cover too.

I also have a card today. It's the last card in the good luck series for my students. I go through stages where I post a lot on the blog and then I get discouraged or busy and don't post for a while.

Here's today's card:

Masculine Good Luck Card

Today's card was for one of the gentleman in the Spanish play. He brought in a DVD copy of the play and it was so nice to watch them and for my other students to be able to watch them. I'm just bursting with pride still! I also had a pretty stressful day....I had to spend an hour of my 90 minute planning watching a Literacy First lesson, then I had a formal observation during my 3rd block and another observation from the Literacy First consultant during my 4th block class. I came home and took a nap :). It was a long day.

Here's today's card:

I used the Wise Owl set by PTI after figuring out that I do not have very many good masculine sets. I loved it though when I gave my students the cards. They couldn't believe that I had actually made them :). I guess they think I live in the school and don't have a life.

And more yummy yarn...today's is a chunky malabrigo called Amoroso.

Second Good Luck Card

Today was another great day. We went to the Foreign Language Festival today and my students did so well. I was really proud of them. In May, we'll go to the state festival. Today's good luck card was for the other girl in the play. I used the same color schemes for both of the ladies and I'll start showing the boy's cards tomorrow.

Today's card has mostly PTI stuff :). The flower is Martha Stewart and comes in a package of 15 flowers. I love their glittery centers. I also love the Martha Stewart butterfly punches. I added a stripe of black and pink cardstock along the phrase which dresses it up a bit.


Here's some more of the yummy malabrigo yarn. This one is called "Citrus":

Good Luck Card Series

I am a very proud Spanish teacher tonight! In Kentucky, there's a foreign language festival where the students can do cultural or language assessments. Tonight was cultural night. I had a group that did a play in Spanish (I am SO PROUD of them!), three projects, and two art projects. Of those, all but one art project placed and I will have the drama and two projects going to state competition. Did I mention how proud I am? Also, tomorrow will be the language/grammar assessments so another good day!

I was so proud of my drama kids that I made good luck cards last night. I don't think they can even begin to realize how proud of them I am. They have memorized a 10minute play and can act it out...all in Spanish :). I'll post a good luck card for the next four days since there are four kids in the drama.

Here's the first one:


This card uses primarily PTI stuff :).

I know the other day I said I was going to share some of my new yummy yarn....here's the first :)
Velvety Grapes Malabrigo yarn

Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge

Lauren asked us all to make a card to send to Alicia's little boy Ethan who is struggling with his battle with cancer. Just to think about this sweet little boy and his struggles puts me in tears. I'm praying for his return to health and that the cancer will leave his little body.

Here's the weekly sketch:



Onto the card...I decided to use little boy colors of blue and chocolate brown. I had this little monkey sticker in my stash from a 50% off sale at Michael's and thought that it would be help to make a boy card. The stars are American Crafts and I Stickled them to add some glitter. I hope this puts a smile on Ethan's face. If you want to send him or his family a card, please let me or Lauren know and we'll get you their address.

I'll post my new yarn in the next day or two. I ordered Malabrigo and now I'm spoiled. It's just lovely! I've already made two coffee cup cozies for the craft festival in May.

Thanks for looking and you can go look at the other ladies' blogs too to see which sketch they chose and how they interpreted it:
Lauren Meader: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Tamara Harder: http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine: http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton: http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque: www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper: http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
Alicia Weimen: http://www.happystamp.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler: http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/
Kendra: http://apigonfire.blogspot.com/