...with sympathy...

My husband's uncle Zareer passed away last week. He was a very kind man, and lived a good, long life with his family in India.  He traveled to the States with his wife a few times, including a special trip for our wedding, which was great!  Our wedding pictures are from the pre-digital era, otherwise I'd show you a super-cute photo of Zareer holding our friends' 6-month-old son at our rehearsal dinner -- the youngest and oldest attendees in one shot. Perhaps some scanning is in order :)

The sympathy card we send to his wife needs to be relatively flat to survive the rigors of the Indian postal system, which is far from speedy. Here's what I came up with:

I used a soft gold metallic cardstock, some die-cut leaves for (flat) flair, and a simple stamped frame and image (all but the base -- Papertrey Ink). The focal point was originally stamped on white cardstock, but that proved to be far too bright, so I grabbed some distress stain in antique linen and blotted it on to tone it down a bit and give a softly mottled look. 

Since the base is a bit smaller than a standard A2 card, it'll still fit in a regular envelope even with the leaves. I sure hope it survives the long trip!  This is also the first week I've played along with Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday challenges -- this week's challenge is to make a sympathy card. 

In other news, Saturday's roller derby bout went really well -- pretty exciting stuff, excellent skating, no injuries...and it was a lot of fun. My NSO (non-skating official) team did a great job, too!  In other other news, d'you like my new blog header?

Have a delightful day. 

Supplies: Round and Round set, Mat Stack 1 die, Turning a New Leaf dies (Papertrey Ink); Night of Navy, Tangerine Tango, and Old Olive inks, Old Olive cardstock (Stampin' Up); Distress Stain (Ranger); Gold brushed-metallic cardstock.

Chevron Chic!

Happy Saturday, y'all! It's an absolutely gorgeous day here, so I'll type fast and then go play outside :)

I've got a card for you today -- one that I've had in my head for awhile, and it just happens to fit in with something happening over at Moxie Fab World right now -- Cath's Chevron Chic Challenge!

But first, the inspiration. When I was in Atlanta last month, I visited my pal Michelle and her sweet little family. Michelle happens to have a real knack for interior design, and the nursery is no exception. Check it out:

Teeny, tiny room, but with such style. Love the curtains, love homemade mobile and the wave of butterflies on the wall (which she hand-cut from magazine pages, btw), and love seeing proof that little girl rooms do NOT have to be pink and purple! (You can see the sweet resident of this room more clearly in this post).

So, without further ado, here's the card inspired by the challenge and the room:

I stamped a stylish background using Background Basics: Chevron Stripes from PTI, then punched a whole lotta butterflies from a Gardener's Supply Company Catalog -- no hand-cutting for me, thanks! A sticker sentiment was all it took to finish it up. I think I'll have to send it off to Michelle now, don't you?

Before I go, wish me luck -- the first public scrimmage for my roller derby team is tonight! Don't get too excited -- I'm not a skater, I'm an NSO (non-skating official). But I'll be out there with my clipboard tonight, keeping score like a boss. Go Dimes! And thanks, Kasia, for your good wishes! It's nice to know another skater/stamper out there :) For the rest of you -- I'll do my darndest to get some scrap-worthy photos to share with y'all.

Now get out there and have a fabulous day!

other supplies: SU Basic Black ink; Studio Calico Label and letter stickers; Martha Stewart butterfly punches; nesties

all carded out...

...whew! I've been making all kinds of cards these days, but I gotta keep 'em under wraps for now. So, how about a layout instead?

The photo you're about to see is kinda funny...my first night visiting some pals in Atlanta, we were out to dinner when a Face Time request came in from my sweet husband. I think he was hoping to video chat with me, but he got to catch up with our friends instead! I stole a quick shot of them deep in conversation.

feel free to click for a closer look

They had to use headphones, though, since it was kinda noisy in the restaurant. Ok, it was a bar. But a bar with delicious food! (warning: didgeridoo on website. I think.)

I whipped this layout up in my flurry of Scrappy Chic projects before Mega Meet earlier this month. Here I've used Cosmo Cricket's Upcycle -- I love that overlapped scallop print, and it wasn't too much of a pain to do some trimming to turn it into a nice wide border, just ripe for the stitching. 

And this is my new solution to my all-too-frequent "dang, I'm out of E's again!" quandary: hack through the chipboard and use the negative backed w/paper! I'm pretty pleased with myself for that one.

Anyway, I hope your day is as lovely as can be. It might be chilly and grey outside here, but I'm warm. And my house is full of the scent of lilacs -- what more could I want, really?

a recipe page, plus!

Hi all!
Before I get on with today's project, I gotta say that Mega Meet was so fun! I worked in Scrappy Chic's booth pretty much all day Friday and Saturday, and had a lot of fun meeting people, running make and takes, and meeting up with my crafty pals, like Sue:

And, of course, it was super-fun working with Chris and the gang! Here I am with Chris, her fab mom Linda, and fellow dt member/scrappy pal Liz, having a yummy little snack:

Fun times were had by all :) I still have more (way more) booth projects to show you, but today I thought I'd make you hungry instead. Check it:

Unity posted a challenge for National Scrapbook Day: to make an 8x8 page using a recipe (and a kraft base.) Now, I'm pretty sure I've never scrapped an 8x8 page -- or any square page, for that matter! I'm an 8.5x11 kinda gal. However, I had a lot of fun with this one! I made a strawberry shortcake trifle for my Mom on Mother's Day, using her (family secret) recipe for the shortcake, and Martha's (probably copyrighted) recipe for pastry cream from her latest Pies and Tarts cookbook.

For the background, I stamped the sweet little strawberry from the Garden Variety co-brand set over and over and over again, and then colored each one in using watercolor pencils (I'd forgotten I had them until I heard that a pal of mine had picked some up -- thanks for the reminder, Em!) .

Let's look at some details:

You can see the background better here, along with some epoxy accents I made with my new Epiphany shape maker.

(sorry about the color in this one...) I also played with my new Sew Easy from We R (available at Scrappy Chic)...and I only missed once ;) (letters from Girls' Paperie.)

Here, I added a label from Kitchen Logic behind a three-strand twine bow -- did a little watercoloring around the edge just for fun. (Twine from the Twinery, papers from October Afternoon and PTI, pins from my stash).

Whew! Lots of pics for one post, eh? Anyway, I hope you check out the Unity challenge, and I hope you have a delightful day!

Mega Meet time!!

Yes indeedy, it's that time of year once again -- time for Mega Meet! It's a shopping, cropping, shopping, crafting, shopping kind of event. And of course, Scrappy Chic will be there -- and so will I. The design team has made all kinds of goodies for the booth, using products from KaiserCraft, 7gypsies, Cosmo Cricket, and Tonic. (Psst...starting today, you can get the brand-spankin'-new, not-available-anywhere-else lines from Cosmo Cricket and 7gypsies! Save some for me!)

Anyway, here's a mini-album I whipped up the other day, chronicling all the delicious food I ate in Atlanta last month --

The mini itself is KaiserCraft; the papers and tickets and label stickers are 7gypsies, and the alphas (small and large) and Gluber (LOVE those things) are Cosmo Cricket. I don't have good photos of every page -- and besides, I don't want to make you drool on your computer checking out all the yummy treats -- but I do have one more shot for you:

You can see more of the papers and tickets and stickers, along with a fun bubble-wrap stamp from KaiserCraft and some bits and bobs from my stash of embellishments. Oh, by the way, I made the Gluber flower using some of that now-ubiquitous rose ribbon, and it took literally less than 30 seconds. So fun.

Well, keep an eye out for this album in booth 722 -- and keep an eye out for me, too! Have a delightful day.

Easter...plus a week!

Hi there!
In the midst of my last batches of essay-grading, exam-planning, pie-making, laundry-doing, yard-working and roller-derby-bout-preparing (!), I managed to make some Easter tags for my family -- and yes, I really did make them LAST week! Blogging just fell to the bottom of my list, so they're going up here a little late :)

Here's my last-minute, throw-'em-all-on-the-floor pic:

(click for a closer look)

Grabbed a bunch of Honey Pie scraps (a three-year-old Cosmo Cricket collection that I still think is really cute), die-cut some cardstock tags (spring moss and aqua mist from pti - yum), added a paper rosette (Tim Holtz die), die-cut border (new pti die), and buttons to each, along with some super-quick stamping (spring jar fillers and retro bkgds -- also pti).  Ribbon, twine, and I called it good. And quick.

Oh, and in the centers of each rosette I added either an epoxy shape or button made with my new button and shape-making tools from Epiphany -- won 'em on the CK blog. They are fun, and even more fun, they were free!

I have a stack of other projects to post...and I will, soon. Soon-ish.

In the meantime, I'll also be prepping for the big ol' Mega Meet next weekend -- look for me and my projects at (who else?) Scrappy Chic's booth! I'll be there Friday and Saturday -- if you are, too, stop over and say hello!

Have a lovely Sunday.