Happy Easter!  I made these cards to send to my boys at a stamping class a week or so ago.  I told the teacher I couldn't make them anything "girly" and this was the solution, haha.  Oh well, I'm sure I'll hear about it from them.  They won't receive them until tomorrow because of my procrastination.  At least they'll know they are being thought of, right?

Chevron Burlap Wreath

I've made a bunch of fun things lately, but by the time I think to post them, the season is over! 

I had some friends over Monday.  They've been wanting to learn to make deco mesh wreaths.  They are really big here right now.  I've made several, and gave some away for Christmas presents.  They learned how to do those, and I made this one, which is a little different than the deco mesh.  It uses 4" burlap.  This one happens to be printed with a black chevron pattern.  I got it and all of the supplies at Hobby Lobby.  (The burlap is considered "ribbon" if you are watching for sales.)

I used a 10" straw wreath to make this wreath.  You will also need the floral pins that are shown below.  Fold over about three folds and start on the outer edge of the wreath.  (You can get an idea of where I started in the third photo, even though it is shown from the back.)  I make the folds around one inch each, and stick a pin in it.  You'll be able to tell if you need more than one pin by how well it is holding.  The pins are a little harder to get through the burlap than they are through the deco mesh, but it can be done!

After that first row is complete, I cut the burlap, then started the second row on the inside edge of the wreath.  With the deco mesh, I just continued on, without cutting.

The flowers I used came in one bunch, believe it or not!  No thought whatsoever went into it!  I just love how they turned out.  I didn't even cut them apart.  I just folded up the "handle" that they were all hooked together with, and then wired them onto the wreath. 

The last thing I did was added some coordinating ribbon along the edge of the inside burlap, so the pins wouldn't show.  I just attached it with push pins.  I twisted it every which way, just so it covered like I wanted it to.

 One thing I would definitely advise is to attach a piece of jute for hanging to the wreath before beginning.  I thought it would hang fine, but found out it needed something after I was finished.  I ended up having to force the jute through the burlap/pins and it wasn't the easiest thing to do.

I hope you'll give this wreath a try!  If I wouldn't have been chatting, I could have finished in about 15 minutes, haha!  

MY COSTS:

Wreath   2.99

Flowers   5.99 (was 50% off)

Burlap     5.99 (had 40% off coupon, some left over)

Ribbon    3.99 (a ton of ribbon left over)

Pins      1.00 (I already had some, but they were $1 when I got them and I used less than 1/2 bag)

-------------------

TOTAL  19.96

I love having a wreath that can be used for many months out of the year!

Fall Scarecrow

We made these cute scarecrows at a stamping class that I went to recently.  Doesn't look like it should have, but it took us four hours, haha!  It was a lot of fun, but Mod Podge can be difficult at times!  My demonstrator made one to auction off at our scout auction that we held last weekend.  It was about the fourth one she had made, so she had it down by that time.  Every one that was made had a different personality, depending on how you positioned the hat, eyes, nose and how you drew the mouth.  No two looked alike!  I used the Sweater Weather Designer Paper on this one.

I accidentally put up a second post today (see below!)  I wanted to save it for later, but it wanted to go up today for some reason.  :)

Bake-It-Forward Plates

I made these plates a couple of months ago for everyone on the Relief Society Board.  Our ward is fairly new, and we decided the theme of our board meeting would be "Connections".  Everyone is so nice, but none of us really know each other very well at all.  I was amazed at the board meeting that some people who have lived here longer than me didn't even know everyone there.  One of our counselors, who is a professor at U.T. gave a wonderful talk about experiences she has had making connections with various people in different places she has lived.  She said the difference in a true connection with people is serving them.  

One of the ladies attending asked me on Sunday something about the handouts she'd be getting.  PANIC!  No handouts were planned and we hadn't planned to give them anything at all.  It was going to be very simple.  I decided to start looking around to see if I could find something EASY.  Well, these Bake-It-Forward plates, weren't the easiest thing ever, especially when you have to make 16 in a hurry, but they turned out fun.

So the idea of the plates is to bake something, give it to someone you don't know well (hopefully within the ward since we are trying to make "Connections" that way, but we know it won't stay forever in the ward).  Then they'll do the same for someone else.

A few notes:  

~I definitely didn't love the poem.  I would have come up with something a little better if I had had some time, but I only had a day, and no time to waste. 

~I would advise using double-sided background paper, such as the kind Stampin' Up! carries.  I think the lighter weight stuff that just had a design on one side would be a disaster to work with.  I had a hard time keeping the bubbles out as it was with the heavier stuff.  (I still got a few bubbles.)

~The Envirotex Lite stuff is great, but does take a ton of drying time.  More that what the girl who wrote the blog says.  We couldn't even place anything on the plates to give to the ladies at the meeting.  They were still too sticky.  Give at least 3 days drying time.  

~In the blog, the girl says to use a long lighter to get the bubbles out (and you DO have to babysit it for a while, because the bubbles do keep popping up).  In the instructions however, it says to use an acetylene torch.  Not many people will have one.  My husband happens to, so we used it and it is MUCH faster than the lighter, but a lighter will work.  You just have to practically touch the resin to get rid of the bubbles.

I don't want it to sound like they were a royal pain to do!  :)  I just wish I would have had a few more days to work on them!  Everyone absolutely loved them, so that was fun!

These are a couple more butterfly cards that I made for my friend.  Both of them use the Merci set.  If I remember right, it was a free set during Sale-A-Bration several years ago.  I watercolored both of them using reinkers and blender pens.  The greeting on the first card is from the Fundamental Phrases set.  The paper is Pixie Pink and So Saffron, with the Kaleidoscope Designer Series Paper.  I keep "saving" that paper, because it is just so cool.  WHY???  It makes such great cards and does me no good sitting in my incredibly large stash, haha!  Looks much better on a card!  I also used a scrap of the bright pink handmade paper.  To tear it easily, just wet it with a blender pen and rip it.

As I was making this set of 12 cards, I was using up some things from past classes.  The part that is watercolored was already finished and even had the ribbon around it and a rhinestone ready to go.  It also had glue on the back.  It must have fallen off a card at some point and I just stuck it in the stamp box.  Anyway, this card obviously came together very fast!

Today I got to go to an Open House hosted by the demonstrator I've been going to.  She and the group she belongs to put it on...maybe about 10 ladies?  Anyway, it was so fun.  They had a big sale of all their old stamps, demonstrations and make & takes.  Sort of made me miss the old days of demonstrating, but not too much.  ;)   I bought a few stamps and some accessories.  Fun new stuff to play with!

Cards for a Friend

A friend from church is very ill, so a couple of weeks ago, I made a card for everyone in Relief Society to sign.  I remembered to take a picture of it, so I would have something to put on here, haha.  So you can get an idea of the size, it is a full sheet of paper, folded in half.  This card uses Baja Breeze card stock and Walk in the Park Designer Series Paper. The flower stamps are from Flower Factory.

Over the last couple of days, I've also made her a dozen other cards that she can send to her daughter who is on a mission for our church.  When she would come to stamp here, she would always make her daughter purple cards with butterflies because those were her favorites.  All of the cards have butterflies, but I did branch out a bit from the purple and use other colors.  Quite a bit of the paper I used was already cut from classes waaaaayyyyy back when......, such as this one.  I used Kraft paper for the main card, and Not Quite Navy, Parisian Breeze DSP, then card stock vellum for the butterfly.  The stamps I used are Fine Lace for the background, God's Beauty and Sassy Salutations.  

Something Extraordinary

Thursday we had our Relief Society Birthday Celebration.   We centered our theme around a video we used in the program, which had daffodils in it, so I used that on the invitations and the posters.

It turned out to be a great night, with great company, food, and the program was exceptional!  I'm especially impressed with the counselors in our bishopric.  One of them attends every RS activity we have, but both of them were there on Thursday.  The bishop's wife and I were on kitchen duty, but we didn't serve anything, or wash a single dish.  They did it all.  I've never seen anything quite like them, and they did it with a smile on their face!  :)

Valentines for Veterans

Thursday at our Relief Society activity, we made Valentines to send to the Veteran's home.  I was asked to come up with one of the four designs, and this is what I ended up with.  I had all the pieces ready to go and everyone just had to assemble them.  (This is what everyone did to save time.)  We made 100 all together.  They'll be receiving them today on their food trays!

We also decorated heart shaped cookies.  They were given those on Friday, while they were still fresh, and we've already received a letter saying how much they enjoyed them and how they brought smiles to their faces. It was a great activity!

Valentine Cookies

I made some Valentine cookies for my Primary kids today.  I'm going to let them frost and decorate one on their own.  Mistake?  Probably.  Will they love it?  YES!

RESULTS:  They absolutely loved it, and it is probably the quietest they've ever been.  I think we'll frost cookies every week!  ;)

Small Calendar

I like to cover a small calendar to keep in my church bag, because if I don't write down dates and times, I forget everything!  I found this calendar at the drugstore for only 50 cents a couple of days ago, and it is a two year one!  Usually the inside pages are just plain, but these are very nice (although the paper is pretty cheap...I don't really care about that).

I buy the ones with the plastic covers on them, so I can cover the calendars with cute background paper and decorate them up just a little so they are more my style.  Then I just slide everything back into the plastic cover.

Cut the background paper just a little longer than the calendar...as far as the length goes where it is being folded.  Does that make sense?  It needs a little extra paper when you actually fold it to get all the way around the calendar.  You might want to try it out first with a scrap piece of paper before you cut into the good stuff, then you can just take measurements off your scrap.

Decorate it up the way you want and you're done!  For the teal background, I crumpled up a piece of card stock a bunch of times until it looked and felt the way I wanted it to.  I also embossed the bird by using a Craft ink pad in a teal color, then used clear embossing powder and heated it with a heat tool.  Before that, I ran my vanilla card stock through the printer to get the "2012-2013" on the paper, then used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to place the bird in the perfect spot.

Things Remembered

We recently had a meeting with our Primary teachers at church.  I was elected/forced/volunteered/nominated....something to that effect, to make the invitations.  I find this kind of thing fun most of the time, but had a hard time coming up with something that I felt like went with our theme of "Things Remembered" well.  Still not sure I did, but it's done now! 

The heart from this card comes from the Polka Dot Punches set.  I think it looks great embossed!  To emboss it in the exact color I wanted (Sahara Sand to match the printer ink on "Things Remembered"), I inked up the stamp in Versamark first, then directly onto the Sahara Sand ink pad, then the paper.  Next I poured clear embossing powder over it and applied the heat tool.  Using the Versamark ink pad (a clear, sticky ink pad) and clear powder this way, you can make any colored ink pad into an embossing pad.

I'm not sure how many cards I've made in the last month, but it's over 300.  My neck, shoulders and head are still feeling it!  This feeling brings back memories of why it was necessary to stop doing SU.   :( 

Thank You Cards

I made a bunch of these thank you cards to give to a friend's daughter for part of her wedding gift.  She had needed a bike stamp to go on the front of her wedding invitation envelopes.  I was able to find this one that I borrowed from a stampin' friend.  The bride has been riding her bike for years as she goes to college, therefore the bike. 

Wildlife Card

I made this card for one of my kids.  He had a pretty neat experience and I wanted to congratulate him on it with a card.  It took about six weeks and three tries for the card to actually make it to him, but it was worth it!   We're proud of the great example he is.       

Stamp Sets:  Wildlife, Fundamental Phrases, Flannel
Colors:  Sage Shadow, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Handsome Hunter, Natural Ivory
Tools:  Blender Pens, Tearing Edge, Sponges

Happy 40th

I keep forgetting to put this card up.  I made this last November for a good friend, who obviously turned 40! 

For all the "40's" in the background, I just typed "40" a bunch of times, and then changed the font for each one of them and printed it on card stock.

Stamp Sets:  Doodle Alphabet, Classic Alphabet
Colors:  Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, More Mustard
Designer Series Paper:  Rockabilly

Out of the Box

Here is a fun little card I made. It could be used for Valentine's Day, or any pink and red occasion. ;)

Sets: Out of the Box, Whimsical Words

Background Paper: Bella Rose

Colors: Riding Hood Red, Pirouette Pink, Basic Black

Primary Wordle

I just made this Primary Wordle to use as a binder cover. After I was done, it gave me the opportunity to share it with others, so I am, just in case anyone else would like something similar. I love Wordle!

Flowers

I have the hardest time staying away from flowers! I really have to make myself resist! This set is called No One Like You. I think this is the only card I let myself make with flowers for the craft fair. I already had too many in my FOUR full boxes. I needed to branch out a little. OH WAIT! I just realized I already posted a flower one. See, I told you I have a hard time. It could be that 90% of my stamps are flowers. Ugh!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you love this as much as we did. Have a great day!

Lovely Trees

I've had these trees stamped on this paper and sitting around forever, and finally decided to do something with them! I think I was showing someone this technique, and just stuck the piece of paper back in the stamp case. I inked up the trees in Certainly Celery and then used several colors of markers, including blues and purples to tap some ink onto the stamp before pressing it onto the paper.

The trees come from one of my oldest sets, Lovely As a Tree. The background stamp is Canvas.

Pretty Leaves

Autumn Splendor is one of the best sets! I have really enjoyed it. For the most part, I have used it for fall cards. However, as you can see below, you can use it for other things too, just by changing up the colors. The leaves are so beautiful!

This is one of those cards where you could make a bunch, then leave off the greeting and add one when you need it....Happy Birthday, Thank You, Thinking of You, etc.