Basket No. 4

My fourth crocheted basket, and my favorite by far. I tightened this one up by using a smaller crochet hook. And I made it bigger around than my first, with a shorter side. I am very much enjoying having a little crochet back in my life....even if it is just one round around the basket on the good days!

Hoping one of my friends has a little boy soon so I can pass this on to their nursery! :)

Cake Card

I am not in love with this card, but you can't love them all, right?? I stamped this cake (Stippled Celebrations) three times in black & Bashful Blue. The blue one is up on Stampin' Dimensionals, the blacks are adhered directly to the blue cardstock. Then I printed the sentiment on the computer in blue & black, matted it in black paper and adhered it all to the card. I feel like it needs a little something exciting on it, but that may be just because I am in a sparkle mood.....

Another Chocolate Card

This may look a little familiar because I cut these chocolates and the ones from a few days ago from the same card! I printed this sentiment on the computer and pasted this all together, and that is all I did! The color scheme was totally taken from the chocolates. The front reads, "Friends are like fine chocolates" - the inside "it's what inside that matters."

Tadpoles

Another funny card from tonight in the craft closet. Front reads "We may not be tadpoles anymore" Inside reads "but at least we haven't croaked!"

I printed the sentiment from the computer onto white paper and matted it with some dark blue scraps I had. Then I stamped the frogs from Very Punny in Always Artichoke onto white and cut around them. I punched some Artichoke circles to mount them on to define them. Then I took paper that matched the card and stamped it with the linen background in Artichoke and ran the upper & lower edges across the ink pad for definition. Pasted it all together and done! A funny, manly card - great for an aging spouse! :) Hee hee!

Glittery Birthday

This was SO FAST! I took part of a card someone gave me for my birthday last year and cut it out and mounted it on black cardstock. Then I added some pink flower eyelets to match, put a sliver cord through and pasted it to the white card. I stamped "Happy Birthday" on the inside. There is a squiggle of Dazzling Diamonds glitter on the top and bottom - and it looks a lot better in real life! This card is very girly & glittery. And it encourages satisfaction of the sweet tooth....what woman wouldn't love it?!

Still Card-Making

For those of you who are wondering....I haven't completely quit card-making. I have been enjoying doing some other crafts, but I think I will always go back to making cards. They are so useful, fun, and a great thing to share!

I made this one today with inspiration from a thread on splitcoast stampers that has funny lines for cards. The front reads "Dance like no one is watching..." The inside reads "We could all use a good laugh."

I stamped the girl five times onto the peachy cardstock in Chocolate Chip and added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter to her skirt and ran my ink pad over the edges to soften them. Then I stamped the Crosshatch background onto white cardstock. I printed the sentiment off the computer in brown. Then I matted the girl and the sentiment in Chocolate Chip paper. I think it's simple, but fun.

Quilled Julianna

I made this for a baby shower last night. A friend from playgroup is having a little girl and chose flowers & butterflies on the sheets. I hope this will match her room, and that she likes it. I really like making these because they're personal and they can be used for years and years. They're not too terribly baby-ish.

Quilled Name

I made this over the past few days for a friend who's in the hospital, trying not to have little Elijah yet!! I really enjoyed that little frog; he makes me smile! The first picture gives you a good shot of the quilling, but the colors aren't right. The second shot shows you the colors, but is an odd angle for seeing the quilling......So I decided to put them both here for you to see!

First-Ever Flower

I made this flower today from fabric scraps and decided to make it into a hairbow for my daughter. It took about one hour to make. She has been looking at it in the mirror and touching it all afternoon! I think it would be fun to make red ones as poinsettias for Christmas....maybe I can find some red fabric!

First Basket

This is my first basket. It is fabric (sis, you might recognize this yellow & white check!) torn into 1" strips. Then crochet, just like yarn. (For those of you who don't know, this is my absolute favorite craft ever!! And maybe a big cause of the carpal tunnel!) It was a one afternoon project, and I split it up into two segments so my carpal tunnel wouldn't hurt so badly. I have enough fabric to make one & a half more! It was so easy and fun! I think I'll be making more of these!

Santa Ball

Is this an old idea and I've just never seen it? I thought these were so cute when I saw them recently. Then I ran across a sleeve of 5 red balls for $1 today and snatched them up. There were 3 shiny ones and 2 fuzzy ones. This is one of the fuzzy ones. It takes about 2 minutes to make one. So simple & so Christmas! I'm excited about the season already!

Cut a strip of about 1/2 inch black paper (8 inches long) and a square of metallic gold paper a little bigger than the strip is wide. Glue the gold square to the end of the paper with part of it sticking off the end, so three sides have gold edges. Then attach the black paper around the width of the ball. I used SNAIL adhesive to attach it all....I have never used it on a project like this, so we'll see if it holds around that circle.

Sympathy Card

I've been working on my babe's scrapbook, so I've not been posting much, but had to make this for a friend. The Stippled Stencil grapes are stamped in Chocolate Chip, the square background is stamped in Always Artichoke, stamped off twice before stamping it here to make it lighter. Then I matted it with the two matching papers, and put a brad in the top right corner. I put it on the confetti cardstock with Dimensionals, though I don't think it shows in the picture. I stamped the sentiment on the card in Chocolate. Then I cut a strip of Sage Shadow and stamped on it in Artichoke & ran the edges in Chocolate to give it dimension as well. I originally punched a hole in this strip to put in more brads, but didn't like the brad on the strip, so I tied this ribbon and attached it over the hole instead. I like the soft texture of the ribbon on the card.

Congrats Baby Foster

My doodles aren't the best, but it does add a little to the card. This is a square 4 1/4 inch Whisper White card. I started with a Shimmery White square, with the elephant from Year After Year stamped in Basic Black onto the center of that. I colored him in with my chalks & Blender Pen and doodled around the edge with a Black Journaling Marker. There's a Basic Black, then Soft Sky, and finally Not Quite Navy square behind the elephant. Then tie a white Organdy ribbon around this part and knot once. When knotting the second time, insert a small piece of the Black & White ribbon, so that the white is knotted over it. I stamped the sentiment from Holidays & Wishes in Black onto a scrap of Whisper White and punched the ends of it with my Corner Rounder Punch. Then I did the same with a scrap of Basic Black and attached them all to the white, square card.

Pocket Card

This card is a pocket. The card you write on is the part that you pull out of the center. It was fun to make, everyone loves it, and it's nice to have something different. Start with half a page of Certainly Celery cardstock and fold it in half. All of the stamps on this project are from Polka Dots & Paisley. I stamped polka dots first with my VersaMark ink pad onto the Celery cardstock. Then punched half of a 1 1/8 inch circle out of one of the sides. Ran SNAIL adhesive down each side and glued down. Then stamped paisleys in black onto the Whisper White cardstock, and colored a bit of the paisleys in with my Blender pens and Chalks. Then matted with Basic Black and Rose Red. For the tag, I stamped the flower in Black and the outline in Red. The tag is punched from Rose Red and the smaller one is free-hand to make it smaller. Then I glued a piece of ribbon tied in a knot on top of the tag and attached to the card. (I'd recommend a pop-dot here, it would make it look so much better - but I didn't think about it last night!) Then for the inside, adhere a white square to a larger Mellow Moss. Punch a Red 1 1/8 inch circle, fold in half and attach to the top center. Punch a 1/2 inch black circle and adhere to the front of the Red circle, punch a 1/4 inch hole through all layers and tie a ribbon through. It was really an easy project, but sure gets some WOW's.

Anniversary Card

Stampin' Up! releases 6 new colors each year, and they are only available for that catalog year. I was excited to be playing with the new colors today. They go so well with my old favorite, Chocolate Chip! I folded and stamped the 4 1/4 by 8 1/2 Purely Pomgranate cardstock with my linen stamp in Chocolate ink. Then I stamped the flowers from Year After Year onto River Rock cardstock and ran the edges in my chocolate ink pad. I punched 1/16 inch holes and inserted silver brads into the center of each flower. Then I placed the piece of Chocolate cardstock in the center of the card, letting it go off the top. I used the linen technique on the Very Vanilla cardstock and distressed it in the ink as well. Then, using my Chocolate marker, I stamped a portion of the sentiment from God's Blessings onto Groovy Guava, cut it out and ran the edges of it in Chocolate ink as well. Then put it all together. I decided last minute to add some flowers to the card, so I used my marker again to ink the flower and stamp only that in the background. I improved this card greatly by stamping the flowers again onto the Guava cardstock and cutting them out and putting them onto the River Rock flowers.