Oh, this girl...

My little Kati, Kate-Kates as we call her, lost her first tooth the other day! She has 2 teeth already in behind the one that came out, so I'm sure we'll have many more teeth coming out soon! She absolutely couldn't wait for the tooth fairy to come, who brought her a shiny $5 bill - now she's ready to lose MORE teeth!

This is a layout that I made for one of Shimelle's journaling classes last fall. My assignment was to look up a word in the thesaurus and use similar words for my journaling. I used the word "sweet" and found some other descriptive words that I could better use to describe Kati. I kept the layout clean and on the simple side, but added a stitched detail to enhance the punched hearts.

The journaling describes her to a T. She is so loving and compassionate for others...I can't wait to see what she'll be when she grows up...I have a feeling it will be a career in which she'll help people. I love this precious girl!

I am really feeling the need to work on more layouts, as I have such a great time with them, although they are more of a challenge for me. It goes in spurts. In the winter, I don't have as many new photos to scrap or opportunity to take pictures, so the other seasons seam to be more conducive to layouts for me. :) Well, I better get going, have so much to do today. Take care. xo

Spring egg wraps...

One more post for me today! My "Stash It" assignment was due today over at the Pink Paislee blog, so I pulled "this and that" from my Pink Paislee box of products and created these little egg wraps!

If you don’t celebrate Easter, you could use this as a Spring centerpiece as well. To make these egg wraps, I cut a few of the House of 3 – Daily Junque papers (Numbers and Map) 6” x 1.5″ for the bases to hold the eggs. Just wrap them around and adhere the 2 ends of the paper strip together in the back. At the top of the bases, I wrapped some of the Artisan Elements around the paper. The decorative Artisan Elements (dimensional swirls) are adhesive, so they stick right to the paper.

The eggs are simply decorated with Soiree twine and the Clear Pops Stickers (butterflies) from the Butterfly Garden line! I used the Sweetness journaling stickers to set them on and a bit of Spanish moss from the craft store to tuck around the bases. Everything is set on a white cake plate.

I am so yearning for Spring to arrive!

a joyful heart...

I am back from my trip to MA and am totally exhausted! The classes went really well (I think! I hope everyone liked them...) and it was awesome to meet all of the store owners. One of the people I really enjoyed meeting the last day was Cheryl Mezzetti from Creative Imaginations - she is so sweet and I adored her Boston accent. :) I have never been to a CHA show, so I really enjoyed meeting some people that I know from on-line! And of course meeting new people as well. Thank you all for the warm welcome!

Just a quick card to show you today made with a Penny Black stamp- I stamped the swirly heart on pink cardstock with coordinating ink, then machine stitched around it a few times for more definition. I printed "from the bottom of my heart" on paper with my computer, punched a circle out of the printed paper, then punched a heart out of the center of the circle.

Flowers are by Prima and twine is from the Twinery. I am off to put all my things away and catch up with the house cleaning, pack up the trade show boxes, etc. Thanks so much for reading today and for all your sweet comments!

celebrate with style...

I'm off to Framingham, MA for the weekend to the Collins Group Trade Show! Here is a tiny peek at my second class I'll be teaching for Melissa Frances, made with the new 5th Avenue line.

The other class will be a Kitschy Kitchen class - we'll be making a coupon saver mini book- which you can see here.

And I'll be doing a fun make-n-take Saturday night! Here is a peek of that:

These products make it so easy to create, because they are just so beautiful all on their own. Paper, glass glitter, crepe paper, tinsel are by Melissa Frances. I made the seam binding myself. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Big & Bold Wishes set. The butterflies are cut with the Sizzix. Thank you for stopping by today, have a terrific weekend!

Hot hues for March...

Happy Spring to you! Boy, am I glad to see Spring arrive here in New York. The sun has been shining, and that makes me oh, so happy! Today over at the Pink Paislee blog, there is a beautiful Spring color combination for you to try...

I mixed the Soiree, Daily Junque and Parisian Anthology lines for this card. The pin was used to hang my little banner. I found some fun little mini spools in my crafting stash and thought they would add a little uniqueness to the banner.

The stickers are the Pink Paislee Soiree - Flags. They come in a long piece, you just fold them over the pin and they are sticky, so they are really easy to use. I stamped with the Soiree stamps on the ticket and the side of the card.

Next is a little party hat card. I used a large banner chipboard piece by Jenni Bowlin, covered it with paper, added a card base the same shape, a Soiree sticker and then some fun fringe made with the Printed Sheets tissue paper!

I like the "flair" that the tissue paper gives this card!

Stop over to Pink Paislee for a supply list and to read more about these! I hope you'll give this color combo a try. Make sure to link me up if you do - I'd love to see your cards or projects!

Sweets for you...

Happy Friday! Wishing you a sweet, colorful day...

These are made with the Favor It Box 1 die by Papertrey Ink. The sentiment stamp is Fillable Frames Additions 1. These dies are used in any cutting machine...Cuttlebug, Sizzix, etc. Just run them through the machine over your cardstock to cut the treat bags out, stamp the sentiment on the front, then fold them up and adhere the sides!

My girls have been loving the cutting machine and dies and LOVE to "help" me run my dies through! lol

I added some little Jenni Bowlin tickets for the "gift tags" with tiny clothespins. I think these would be cute for treat bags at a party. Fill with a cellophane bag full of gumdrops or other colorful candy! Speaking of tickets, if you are looking for some new uses for tickets, stop by the Jenni Bowlin blog  for a quick tutorial I posted recently.
Wouldn't a candy-themed party be fun? Right up MY alley! I love sweets. Mmmmm....
Enjoy your weekend!

Modern Basics...

Today I wanted to share with you a new stamp set from Papertrey Ink called Modern Basics by Maile Belles.

I will admit when I first saw it, I felt a little intimidated by it! Maybe it was the name, as "modern" doesn't fully describe my scrapbooking style. But...having said that...I sat down and played more with it yesterday and now I'm totally in love! I found out it DOES work with my style and had so much fun breaking out of my norm a tiny bit! :)

The first card is a Dad card. My dad is turning 60 in a few days!! I used the Background Basics: Newsprint set in the background with a slightly lighter blue ink.

A little splash of pink and coral here on this one. The zig zags are from the Button Boutique from last month! Was too lazy to get my sewing machine out. :) Hearts are from the Tiny Tags set.

This one is the similar to the last one, just wanted to try it in some different colors...

If you've done a lot of work on your card like I did here on these cherries, and you are afraid to stamp right on your card, stamp on another piece of paper and cut the little leaves out! I created my own little border on the bottom with one of the polkadot leaf stamps. "You make life sweeter" is from an older set called Cupcake Collection.

More little button flowers...

Here I used the little leaves as a background with a plethora of buttons! The other stamps are from Button Boutique.

Last, I made some butterflies on this quirky little card. Super simple, you could make a bunch of these in no time.

Before I go, I wanted to show you how I keep track of my Papertrey Ink stamping ink colors. I was forever pulling them all out, trying all the colors before deciding which color I wanted to use. I decided to stamp them all on a piece of paper, so at a quick glance, I can choose a color quickly! (There is a mistake here, the green one's not Enchanted Evening, it's Ripe Avocado. I had the wrong lid on it!)

This has saved me a lot of time and keeps me organized. Looking back at all of these cards....wow, I have a thing for buttons, don't I! hee. Thank you for visiting my blog today!

say it with flowers...

Hello there! I'm back today with a few more Papertrey Ink projects. Each month, PTI comes out with 10-12 new stamp sets. I already showed you the Postmarks and the Tiny Tags, so let's see what else is new this month!

This little "Thank You" set was made with a little flower from the Tag-its #2 set. I used Berry Sorbet ink and just randomly stamped them on creme cardstock for a background. The sentiment is a new set called Think Big Favorites #2. The leaves are cut with the new die called Turning a New Leaf with Pacific Vineyard paper. Black ink is True Black and the ribbon is Lemon Tart Twill Ribbon 3/8" that I made little ribbon flowers with.

Speaking of ribbon flowers, if you would like me to make some for you, please email me: dflanders71@hotmail.com. I will charge $10 for 15 ribbon flowers. Please specify what colors you would prefer and if you'd like them large or small. The large ribbon flowers come out to be about 2" around, the smaller ones are about an inch. (U.S. only please - if you are out of the country, we can discuss shipping costs.) The ones on this card are smaller.

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This card is one of my favorites, because I am loving yellow and gray lately. I cut an envelope with the new Tiny Envelope Die out of canvas, folded it and stamped on it.

The little leafy stamp is from the Sending You set and the saying is from the Ribbon Tails set along with the center background stamp (polkadots). The twinkly background is the new Background Basics: Twinkle. Remember the Tiny Tags set from yesterday? I used the Tiny Tags dies to cut these little orange flowers and arranged them to make one larger flower! Leaves are cut from the Sending You die. I mixed and matched a lot of the sets this time. :)

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This one was super simple...we all need a quick card once in awhile. I used the Pacific Vineyard paper for the card base. Then stamped with the Sending You set in Berry Sorbet ink, Summer Sunrise ink and a brown from my stash called Old Paper (Tim Holtz ink). The canvas is sticky on the back, so it came together very quickly. Added a pin and a little lace scrap.

I'll be back to share a couple more.
Sending you...wishes for a happy day,

Tiny Tags...

We're back with another group blog post by Papertrey Ink, this time showing projects made with the new Tiny Tags stamps and dies! Love, love, love these and I hope you will too.

Here I had fun mixing the Tiny Tags with the Postmarks set from yesterday! I backed a Melissa Frances frame with felt, then hung the little tags on the frame. I used the Postmarks paper in the background and added a bit of stamping in the background from the Postmarks stamps.

This one is similar, but a little more clean lined. I love how the tags take center stage on the simpler card!

Two of the little tags were cut and stamped in black and I attached them to the edges of my cards, wrapped them around to the inside and adhered. This way, I could string floss across my card and hang the cute little tags!

I have one more to show you...this one uses the Tiny Tags with the Angled Label die cuts and Label Basics stamps, all new this month.

As you can see, I stitched the Tiny Tags on before adhering the Label shape to the card. The Label here with the polkadots kind of reminds me of a little cork board. I am imagining little tools hanging on it for a Father's Day card! lol

Now hop on over to other ladies' blogs to see how they used the Tiny Tags!

• Betsy Veldman
• Dawn McVey
• Erin Lincoln
• Heather Nichols
• Jessica Witty
• Lisa Johnson
• Maile Belles
• Melissa Phillips
• Michelle Wooderson
• Nichole Heady

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{Just a Note For You}

• STAMPS: NEW Tiny Tags, NEW Postmarks
• INK: Ocean Tides (blue), Pure Poppy (red), Summer Sunrise (yellow), True Black
• PAPER: NEW Postmarks paper pack, Aqua Mist cardstock 
• DIES: Tiny Tags
• OTHER: Melissa Frances resin frame, twine, brown ink.

{All the Best For You}

• STAMPS: NEW Tiny Tags, NEW Postmarks
• INK: True Black, Summer Sunrise, Pure Poppy, Ocean Tides
• PAPER: NEW Postmarks
• DIES:  Tiny Tags
• OTHER: embroidery floss, Melissa Frances pearl, brown ink, corner rounder.

{Friend card}

• STAMPS: NEW Tiny Tags, NEW Label Basics
• INK: True Black, Summer Sunrise, Pure Poppy, Ocean Tides
• PAPER: By the Numbers, Pacific Vineyard
• DIES: Angled Labels Die Collection, Tiny Tags Dies
• OTHER: Ribbon – Lemon Tart Twill Ribbon 3/8”