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Card Making Galore!

I was lucky enough to take a Lawn Fawn specific card making class with Jenn from Shurkus.com on Saturday at a local scrapbook store and afterward I was incredibly inspired! I learned some new techniques that I am psyched to try out soon, mostly copics. I finally got to play around with them and I'm in love! They are so easy to use but boy oh boy they are expensive. That is going to be an investment that I'm going to have to talk my husband into letting me purchase. For now I will settle for my prisma colored pencils and gamesol.

So after class I did a wee bit of shopping from some old and new Lawn Fawn products. The older things I picked up were the Let's Polka 6x6 paper pad, Stitched Journaling Card die set, and Speech Bubble Border die. From the new release I picked up the Beep Boop Birthday stamp set and matching lawn cuts. I am pretty sure I'm going back to get Chit Chat stamp set and matching lawn cuts, I was eyeing it and totally regret not purchasing it! And of course onto the cards I put together using my new goodies...

 Supplies:

• Beep Boop Birthday Stamp Set and Die Cuts (Lawn Fawn)
• Let's Polka 6x6 Paper Pad (Lawn Fawn)
• Prisma Colored Pencils & Gamesol
• Speech Bubble Die (Lawn Fawn)
• Stitched Journaling Card Die (Lawn Fawn)

Supplies:

• Beep Boop Birthday Stamp Set and Die Cuts (Lawn Fawn)
• Let's Polka 6x6 Paper Pad (Lawn Fawn)
• Prisma Colored Pencils & Gamesol
• Simon Says Stamp Love This Clear Stamps (SSS)
• Stitched Journaling Card Die (Lawn Fawn)
• Twine in Tangerine (Doodlebug)

I also used some non new goodies to work up one out of 3 Father's Day cards I needed to make. I'm terrible at masculine cards! They are always so difficult since I am in love with all things pinky and girly but I think I did alright for my first try. It's always fun to break out old products and use them in new ways. This was also my first time embossing an image on watercolor paper and then using distress inks on top to do a watercolor resist effect, this is probably my favorite technique so far and I really love the look of it, perfect for a manly card using darker colors!

Supplies:

• Chevron Background Stamp (Hero Arts)
• Enamel Dots (My Mind's Eye)
• Distress Ink in Peacock Feathers (Tim Holtz)
• Simon Says Stamp Love This Clear Stamps (SSS)
• Watercolor Paper (Ranger)
• White Embossing and Gold Embossing Powder (Stampendous) 

Hershey Kiss Stickers

While planning a baby shower I thought it would be cute to do the Hershey Kiss stickers you see all over pinterest/etsy as part of the table decorations. You will need to create 3/4" diameter stickers for these. I believe Avery makes labels in a size that will work but I used my Silhouette Cameo and regular sticker paper to do this project. It was super simple to create images in the Silhouette program using the same graphics I used on the rest of the baby shower projects I did. I got 40 stickers per sheet. I might have been able to get more done but my printer is extremely fussy and if I take up too much of the print and cut area it will completely cut off my project during printing! I was too afraid of wasting ink and sticker paper to see just how many I could get out of there.

I am going to try and do a video tutorial soon on these since they were so cute and such a hit I'm going to make them for Landon's 5th birthday. Yes, I am THAT mother that is already planning her child's birthday when he still has 7 months until then...

Simon Says Stamp June Card Kit 2014

I really adored this month's card kit, believe or not I think this is my first flower stamp set! I just adore the two tone effect you can get with the flowers but it did make me realize I really need more ink pads and colors! I ordered a Simon Says Stamp Lavender stamp pad last month to test out and I am digging it, I think I might order some more colors. I'm also excited to try out the resist embossing and water color technique I've been seeing all over Youtube lately with these flowers.

Supplies Used:

• My Mind's Eye Enamel Dots (SSS June Card Kit)
• SSS Favorite Flowers Stamp Set (SSS June Card Kit)
• SSS Watt's Up Stamp Set (SSS)
• SSS Slate Cardstock (SSS June Card Kit)
• White, Purple, and Pink Cardstock (Michael's Craft Stores)
• Stampendous White Embossing Powder and Versamark
• Hero Arts Ink: Soft Pool, Soft Vanilla, Pale Tomato, Field Greens, Soft Cantaloupe, Pool, Soft Olive, Red Royal 
• Heidi Swapp Ink: Navy Blue
• SSS Ink: Lavender

Easter Basket - Sand Pail

For my son's Easter basket this year I went with something I saw on Pinterest - buckets with the child's name in vinyl. I picked a sand pail with shovel instead because we go to the lake a ton in the summer and my son was very much in need of a new pail. I think next year I'll go with a regular bucket so I can reuse it every year. Or maybe I'll just keep doing new sand pails! The best part of this project was it was my very first one in our brand new home and my awesome new craft room.

I cut the vinyl on my Silhouette cameo and just used their stock settings and brand of vinyl. I don't have any issues with their vinyl but I always have a ton of issues with their transfer paper. If anyone has a recommendation for a better transfer paper please let me know. The font I used was Impact, I wanted a nice bold font that would stand out.

We are trying to go more simple in life so his basket has goodies that he'll actually use, didn't cost a ton, and isn't 100% candy.

He is getting:
Planes Play Pack $1
Bubbles $1
Pinwheel $1.50
Shovel and Pail $1
Lego Kit $10
Pez dispenser $3
Total - $17.50

Not bad considering he (and me) love Legos right now and that was more than half the cost!

Happy Spring!

I wish I could say Spring is here for real but sadly today is 54 degrees and in just 2 days were supposed to get more snow. I can't even remember the last time we had snow so late in March and I'm not really happy about it. I cannot wait for when our days are consistently warmer not just here here and there.

But yesterday we got some great news! Our mortgage commitment paperwork came through! So now we set our closing date and wait. In my previous post I mentioned closing on April 1st and it still looks like that is going to happen thankfully. I am beyond thrilled. And also scared as all hell, I mean a house is a huge step. I still don't feel "grown up" enough to own a house. We were also going to paint/do some work before we moved in but we just hate our current location/apartment so much we said screw that we're moving right in so now I'm even more excited.

As for crafting I'm trying to get some cards made before we move because I don't think I'll have much time to do any the first month or so. I also have a banner order to make. Tonight after Landon goes to bed my goals are to sketch out the banner and make 2 cards. I also made a few cards last weekend I need to file away in my card box, I want to do a post on my card box but it's from a kit literally 10 years ago and not available anymore so I feel I need to find something new or at least similar to it first. Ahhh my to do list seems a mile long all the time! Does anyone else feel that way?

Hope you all are enjoying warmer weather! :)

Growing Up

Most girls I know dreamed of their wedding, the perfect house, kids, etc. And I certainly dreamed of those things but of course life doesn't always go the way you want them to or things get out of order. For instance my husband and I knew we wanted to get married before we were pregnant but we started trying to conceive a baby and apparently the universe decided to have a baby before wedding. Every book told me conceiving takes 6-12 months which for us it only took 1. We didn't have the big wedding, yet, we plan to, just haven't gotten around to it. We decided to just go ahead and do the whole courthouse thing and by gosh it's sad to say but our 4 year marriage has outlasted some pretty lavish and expensive weddings. The venue doesn't equal a great marriage.

As far as children go I like to think my son is pretty perfect, just like every mother thinks of her own child. And yes we did want more children. That didn't seem to be in our plans either. I guess just because the first one is easy the second isn't. And that's ok too. We have a great marriage, and a pretty awesome kid. Life is good. But we didn't have a house.

But now we do. Or we will. Our tentative closing date on our "dream" house is April 1st. I haven't packed a single thing, I'm already freaking out about our mortgage payment, and I'm a pinterest addict trying to plan room colors. But man oh man, it will be OUR home. We can decorate and paint and do whatever we want with it. I'll have my very own craft room, a master bathroom off our bedroom. It's wonderful. The location is amazing. It has everything I wanted in a home. Of course it's not perfect, one of the bathroom will need renovations but again, it is OURS.

And I can't wait to share my renovation/decorating journey on this blog once we move in next month!