Happy Day!

Hello! Hope you are enjoying your weekend so far!  I am going to my cousin's wedding today so that is always a fun time :)  Here is a little card to celebrate the warm (finally!) weather we have been having lately: 

I used Midway paper, buttons and shape stickers from October Afternoon on this card!! Totally love the big ole' cotton candy!  Bring on Summer!'

I'll be back later this week with a fun blog hop and another giveaway :) See ya soon!


Thanks for stopping by!

Tag Wall Calendar

Hello! Happy Monday! Thanks so much for all the comments and emails from my last post.  I just love my super fabulous blog friends!

Last year I created a wall calendar made up of tags that hang on this birdcage in my kitchen.  I decided to update the tags for 2013 since it has been a big conversation piece in my house.  The tags feature SRM Mini Calendars and a LOT of other SRM stickers (listed below!)  You can see in the detail pics all the other stickers I used (including lots of border stickers!) Here is the finished product that was on the SRM stickers blog last week:

SRM Stickers used:
Stickers by the Dozen- Valentine’s  #62004

We’ve Got Your Border- Halloween  #57005

Express Yourself- St. Patrick’s Day #42036

Freestyle Winter #50001

We’ve Got Your Border- Valentine’s #57007

Mini calendar 2013 Standard #48009

Mini calendar 2013 Decorative #48008

Sticker Sentiments- Life is Good #51014

Year of Memories 2013 #48007

Express Yourself- Water Fun #42039

Express Yourself- Graduation #42019

Quick Card- Class of 2013  #52043
Express Yourself- School #42020

Other supplies used are from these companies: The Twinery, Ranger (Distress inks), Gina K Designs, My Favorite Things, Bella Blvd, October Afternoon, Little Yellow Bicycle, Echo Park Paper, My Little Shoebox, Lori Whitlock (Penguin Silhouette Shape).

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Escaping the Comfort Zone

Welcome to another Cardmaker Blog team hop!  The theme is Escaping the Comfort Zone. Create a card that is a departure from your norm such as no stamping, no layers, etc.

Whew! This one was really tough for me.  I don't do one style ALL of the time. I tend to make different styles of cards because I get bored easily.  So, I had to think about the things I use often on my cards--

A few of my favorite products that I use on most of my cards include: patterned paper, stamps, ink, baker's twine or ribbon.  I am also quite fond of layers (at least two of them anyway!)

So for this card--I went without.  No patterned paper, no stamps, no ink, no ribbons or twine, no layers--

So here is my one layer card made entirely out of....STICKERS! That is it.

 And sure I love stickers...but I HAD to use something on the card, right?

Supplies:  Shape Stickers- Sidewalks (October Afternoon); Clear stickers--Sticker Sentiments: Thank You, We've Got Your Border-Birthday (SRM Stickers).

I CANNOT wait to see what these gals did with this challenging challenge:
Cardmaker Blog
Kimberly Crawford
Carolyn King (you are here!)
Colleen Schaan
Anya Schrier
Trudy Sjolander

Thanks for stopping by!

Sight Words Box

Hello!  Today I have a fun project I created using an amazing Lori Whitlock file.  The original use of this box is for a Valentine's box.  You can see the graphic of it HERE.  It is a super cute holder for all those Valentine's the kids will be getting next week.  I thought it would be fun to take the same exact file and show you another way to use it so that you can see that it isn't JUST for Valentine's Day!

So, I used the same file (but shrunk it down a bit using my Silhouette Studio Software) and made a flash card box for my 6 year old.  She gets new sight words to study every few weeks and I thought this would be a cute way for her to store the index cards. It makes it easy for her to grab the box and study by herself too: 

I added a star index card so that she can place the words she already knows behind the star and the ones she is still working on in front of the star.

The box was cut out using some October Afternoon patterned paper and some chalk stock paper for the front panel.  I used embellishments from Little Yellow Bicycle and from October Afternoon to  decorate it:

You could also make a cute note holder for beside the bed or at your computer desk for different notes you want to jot down or for computer passwords.  The possibilities are endless!

I know my daughter loves her new sight word box so hopefully that will make studying more fun for her.  Here is a link to the Valentine Box I used.  Here is a link to Lori's online store!

Thanks for stopping by!

My Favorite Releases from CHA!

Hello!  I am finally recovering from the time change from attending CHA earlier this week.  CA is a lot farther of a flight from PA than it was from Texas and it hit me harder than usual.  I just downloaded some of the product pictures I took and thought I would share some of my favorite products that will be coming to stores very soon!

First up---this Scissor Mouse by Westcott.  This is really cool. There is a blade underneath and you run it along your paper just like a computer mouse.  It runs smoothly and the best part---you don't have to put it on a mat...there is a protector underneath that protects the surface so you can cut anywhere:

SRM Stickers new release includes these crystal clear border stickers- We've Got Your Border-- that you can add to anything---cards, scrapbook pages, the Tubes, ribbon etc! Fun to be able to create your own patterns:

I love these 3d pieces from Studio 490 (Ranger).  You can stamp them with coordinating stamps, add patterned paper and/or ink:

Paper Smooches (Kim Hughes) released new stamps for CHA that will be available in March.  The collection features wonderful backgrounds and some more adorable hand drawn images that we all know and love:

October Afternoon had a big display of their Sprinkler sprays in so many colors that coordinate with their papers and I really liked the new collection called 9 to 5:

Little Yellow Bicycle always has fun papers and embellishments and I was excited to see what was new with them.   The Escape (June release) features these papers and embellishments. Cute!

 And this is Splash (May Release)....soo cute. Love those fish and the circle paper:

 Jillibean Soup stands out to me because they have their own style, never confused with another brand.  I love the little Cool Bean Buttons:

They have some great paper lines coming out too---this one is called Southern Chicken Dumpling Soup! (I love how they name their lines!)

 Echo Park Paper has several lines being released and they have some smaller collections being released with the thought that those collections are needed but you might not need a whole collection.  The themes of these range from 4th of July to sports.  Very cool.

They also have some full releases coming out and here are two of my favorites--
Note to Self:

 This & That:

Clever Handmade is a new paper company by Heidi Grace that features paper but also other products that enable you to go beyond the typical paper projects...definitely clever stuff!

Here is a look at the Decorative Iron ons:

 And this is one of my favorite lines called Above the Clouds:  (VERY cute but hard to photograph with the lighting)

Finally, Nikki Sivils has some really cute lines---
I loved these--- Audrey and Exit Here:

 

There was so much to see and look at that I am sure I missed a lot of great things.  I was really interested in checking out the new paper lines and products that were new and unique.  One other product I really liked but failed to get a picture of was by Imaginisce--the ribbon cutter. It cuts and seals the ribbon in one step. Very cool!

CHA was so much fun but now I can't wait to get my hands on all the new stuff!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tag Calendar

Hello! Well...I alluded to this project I was working on in my post yesterday. I finished it (finally!) and am so excited to have something I created as a functional piece in my home.

I recently got the new calendar stickers from SRM stickers and I was inspired to make a calendar with them. But, I thought it would be fun to make a calendar that would also be a display piece. I used a bird cage to clip the month's calendar tags on it. (You could also just use each tag to create a tag book using the title piece for the cover.)
I designed each tag individually to reflect either a holiday or an event in that month or just the season in general. Here is the calendar hanging in my house: Since it is difficult to see all the detail on the pieces in that picture, I took individual pictures of each month and the title.

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

October:

November:

December:

Supply list:

Mini calendar stickers and sticker sentiments by SRM stickers.

Patterned paper- Echo Park Paper (Jan, Feb, March, April, June, July, August, Oct, Dec.); October Afternoon (May, September); Recollections (November).

Dies- My Favorite Things Dienamics (scalloped scallop, banner day, homespun birdhouse, open scallop, stacking stars, fresh cut grass ); Cricut (leaves, apple, bunny); Spellbinders (Ice cream cone)

Ribbon (assorted); buttons (assorted); rhinestones (assorted)

Thanks for stopping by!