Experiencing beauty in your creative life

Monday, August 29, 2011

Make a donation, enter a drawing!

Hi friends!  Today's card is a little Breast cancer awareness project.  It is a pretty basic card with a very important reminder.

  As most women today have, I have had breast cancer touch my life though the diagnosis of two friends.  I am thankful to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for funding research that has been key in treating these friends of mine and keeping them in my life.  One of these friends is Nancy Firchau.  She is celebrating five years cancer free by participating the 3-Day for the Cure.  It is a 60 mile walk that takes place over three days.  Fundraising in this tough economic climate as proven to be quite challenging, so I thought I would throw in a fun little twist.

If you go the The 3 Day, click donations, find Nancy Firchau's page, and make a donation, you will be entered in a drawing for this the group of goodies.
The package includes one CTMH My Creations Display Album, one set of K & Company - Grand Adhesions Dimentional stickers (8 pieces), and one set of Ki Puffies fabric stickers (5 pieces).

When you have made your donation, leave a comment here or email me and I will add your name to the drawing.  All donations made between now and September  9, 2011 will be elidgible to win.

I had the good fortune to walk in the local race for the cure last year, and had such a great time.  Here is a picture of the group I walked with that day.

Thanks for considering contributing to this great cause.  Be sure to let me know when you make your dontation so that your name goes into the drawing!

Have a great day!
jamie

 

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Gift Card in a Box

Good Saturday afternoon everyone.  Today I want to show a little project that I came up with this summer.  I love to give gift cards to friends for birthdays.  I know it's kind of boring, but this way I know they get something they really want.  I came up with a fancy little gift card box to add some pizazz to an other wise pretty uncreative gift.  The entire box was assembled with paper and chip board, so as for the base of the box nothing outside of the normal craft room supplies needed.

This is the top of the box.  Embellished with some of my favorite goodies.  Resin Crown by Melissa Francis, cute seam binding ribbon and a great felt flower I made using a flower die from My Favorite Things, it cuts felt like a dream.






Next I am showing a picture of the top of the box with the card open.  I assembled the box so that the card was just a flap on top on the lid.  Nice and tidy, all one piece.






This photo shows the inside of the box,  sorry for the reflection.  I loved having the rhinestones as part of the hinge, but they made photo taking tricky.  The gift card sits in the bottom of the box (on top of the blue ribbon).  The tail of the ribbon is visible and with a slight pull it helps the card pop out of the bottom with ease.





Lastly, my box all dolled up and ready to give.  I am crazy obsessed with Cellophane bags.  They really add to the presentation of any gift. 

That's it for me today...I have a long list of chores to accomplish this weekend - fortunately I added "make something good" in several different spots on the list (wink).  So I should have more to share at the beginning of the week.

Thanks for making me a part of your weekend!
jamie

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Back to School with more digital images

Happy Wednesday afternoon!  School starts here in North Texas on Monday.  I always like to give my nieces and nephews a little treat to wish them well on their first day.  This year I came across some great digital images on line and decided to create the gifts around these images.  Thanks to the girls at eighteen25 you can find the printable images here and here.  After you check out the images give their blog a visit, it's full of super cute ideas.

Anyway with the "sharp" theme in mind, I went shopping and  was thrilled to come across these little tubes of colored pencils at Michael's.  They were only a dollar a piece!

 

They did have a sticker holding the lid in place so if you purchase them be sure to have some undu on hand.  It was a little sticky but didn't take very long to remove them.  Then I used the images I printed to decorate the tubes and attached a little tag.  I love the fact that I could change the sizes of the images and designs to custom fit my project.


Super fun and super easy!  I can't wait to deliver these little goodies! 

Do you have any back to school ideas?  I would love to hear what you are planning.

Thanks for stopping by,
jamie 

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The cutest thing I have ever seen...

No it's not something I made, but something I came across this morning while reading email.  I should definitely add that had I owned this hat - in blue -  when my boys were babies, I know their pictures in it would have been cuter (wink). 

This was on an ETSY sight you can find here.  Along with some other super cute hats and headbands for little ones.  Are you dieing?  She just makes me smile.

Photo credits: Ann James Photography


Now on to a little stamping...

I am still using this little silhouette stamp more than anything else I own right now.  Every time I start a project, especially when I am using those vintage inspired digital  papers by Iralamija,  I look down and find this stamp in my hand.

The super cool thing about this card is that the six smaller papers behind the main image are actually one panel.  So instead of measuring, cutting and piecing six different pattern papers you need only cut one piece.  So easy and I am pleased with the out come.  "Easy" and "happy with the result" rarely go together when I am stamping and I'm delighted to finally use them both to describe a project. 

Short and sweet on the inside. 

Have you been working on any quick and easy projects of your own lately?  I would love to see what you have been up to.  Email me a photo and I will post it here.

Thanks for stopping by!

jamie
 

Monday, August 1, 2011

Banners & Silhouettes, I'm hooked!

I am in love, love, love with the silhouette stamps that I see these days.  If it features children add one more love to that statement.  Here I combined the banners, children's silhouette stamps, and a favorite new find of mine...digital images by Iralamija.  Each banner is made with a different digital image I purchased from her  Etsy shop.  (Click the name above to go to her shop)


I have been a little leery of digital images in the past but really couldn't find any shabby chic style papers at local craft stores.  So I took a chance and bought a few.  Then I went back and bought a few more.  No waiting on that stinky old UPS man either, she emails them to you within 24 hours of your purchase.  They print out beautifully, you can resize them and print them as much as you like!  You can let go now, you don't have to hoard papers for fear you "will want another piece of that beautiful sheet music with the roses behind it" and not be able to find it.  It is on your computer!  Can you hear the angels singing?

I enjoyed making this card so much I decided to keep the blueprint and enlarge it a bit to make a cover for my lesson plan binder.

Yes!  Those scrabble tiles are some of the images she has available.  Is your heart leaping with joy?  I printed mine on regular copy paper, cut out, glued them to chip board squares and distressed the edges a little.  I can't wait to do lesson plans now.  If you plan to make a project with dimension for a binder cover I suggest making it about 1/2" to 1" smaller than the size of the opening.  That way there is enough room in the plastic sleeve for anything extra thick.

I hope your week is off to a good start!
jamie