Teacher's gift and a new soap!

This year I wanted to give a "homemade" gift to my children's teachers. Between the 3 children in school, there were 7 very special teachers I wanted to give a gift to, so the gift needed to be something that I could mass produce. I came up with something that was summer-themed and relatively easy to make.

The card is a PTI Kraft CS base and a really cute paper from October Afternoon. The sentiment is one of PTI's Fillable Frames...inside the card I modified an idea I saw on Dawn McVey's blog for a money holder and made mine out of a strip of Ocean Tides die cut with the eyelet die. I then adhered only the edges so that my gift card could slip in...

I also made "Jersey Shore Beach Soap" for each teacher. I got the idea from a fantastic bar of Bobbi Brown's Beach Soap I got as a present last year. My soap has a layer of sand (from beautiful Cape May) embedded in it as an exfoliant and is colored with green mica which makes it look like ocean water. I scented it with a beach-y scent I got from Bath Time in Cape May and packaged it all up using PTI's Just for You set. The pictures show the front and back views of the soap. I thought that the teachers could use the Barnes and Noble gift card for a beach read and the soap was for after a day in the sun. I hope they enjoyed it!

Papertrey Princess Challenge #10...Make it Pop!

Hello fellow Princesses! Hope this blog post finds you and your families all healthy and happy!

My challenge for this week is to show me how you use foam dimensionals (Pop-Dots, 3Ds). It can either be a card or scrapbook page, but make it *Pop*...I always seem to get in a rut and pop up the sentiment, but with this card I decided to do things a little different. I stamped my floral images onto a kraft CS base and then stamped the images again onto extra kraft CS. I colored the flowers with my Copics, cut them out and then adhered them with foam dimensionals. The dimensionals made this fairly simple card into something a little more special. Can't wait to see what you all come up with!

Color Throwdown, PTI Princess Challenge #8 and a scrapbook page...

Color Challenge #94 from www.colorthrowdown.blogspot.com

I saw this challenge posted on I {Heart} Papers blog and wanted to play along.

Next is my card for Melissa's Papertrey Princess Challenge #8...we were to come up with something inspired by the following picture. The base is PTI Kraft CS stamped with SU's Chocolate Chip ink. The patterned paper is from PTI's Turning a New Leaf, mounted on Spring Moss. The center sentiment is from Daily Designs, mounted on Ripe Avocado.

Lastly...here's a scrapbook page that I finally photographed. The patterned paper is from BoBunny, the ribbon is PTI's Terracotta Tile. It's hard to tell, but I stitched and inked around the edge of the paper.

Papertrey May Blog Hop Challenge

This month's challenge for Papertrey Ink's Blog Hop was to come up with projects using their gorgeous new felt. With 2 little girls and hundreds of hair clips I thought I would give making my own clips a try. The felt cuts so easy with the new dies and with coordinating ribbons, was easy to come up with lots of combinations. My favorite is the "cloud" clip. I sewed little seed beads to give the clip some dimension. It would be a great clip to wear on a cloudy, rainy day! I also really like the way the black gingham clip came out. It's amazing how little time they all took. I just made all the little embellishments at

one time and then hot glued them onto a ribbon covered hair clip. I can't wait for more felt colors to be released...I was a bit limited by the few colors available. But here's to hoping for next release!

The last picture is of my goofy little models...trying to get them to hold still is near impossible!

A Card and Soap!

This card was actually made by my six year old son last week while recovering from getting whacked in the face with a softball...we had to keep all physical activity to a minimum-like that is at all possible-so we took out some PTI goodies and he put this little gem together. He then wrote a sweet note to all the members of our local congregation who had been showering him with sweets and balloons.

Speaking of showering, after seeing a post on Lisa Johnson's blog, (http://www.poppypaperie.typepad.com), about the ease of soap-making, I decided to give it a try. These are really simple melt-and-pour soaps, using supplies from my local Micheal's store (clear and olive oil soap, fragrances, molds and lavender buds). I did put in an order to www.brambleberry.com which is scheduled to arrive on Monday...definitely check out their website and the Soap Queen's blog. Lots of video tutorials there...these soaps were the easiest things ever to make...I think they have the potential to make fantastic hostess gifts. Just wrap them all pretty using Lisa's new PTI set, Just for You.

Happily Ever Challenged #6-Eat Your Heart Out

Thanks to Ted on his blog www.happilyevercrafter.com for this great challenge. Based on the last digit of my birth year (1973), I needed to come up with a card that had a blue base (I used Enchanted Evening base and Spring Rain as the 2nd paper), heat embossing (the coral stamp is from Amuse), glitter (which I sprinkled on the coral and applied to the little fish) and incorporate an animal (the fish, but of course as I am typing this I noticed the nautical theme for #4...hope the fish counts as an animal!). I made the little hook with some wire, which was I inspired to do after seeing what Little Miss "T" did with wire on her guy cards. Hope you like it and thanks Ted for such a great challenge. I loved it!!

Papertrey Princess Challenges #7&8

Hello ladies...this post has been a while in the making. I've had the cards done for some time, but getting some time to post them on my blog has been near impossible. Better late then never (coming from someone who sent out her birth announcements when the baby was 6 months old!).

The first challenge was from Bethie...with spring in the air we were to use a new technique, new idea, new color combo. I came up with a card using 3 different sets: "Through the Trees", "Fruitful" and "Signature Greetings"...on the front is a peach tree, hence the sentiment inside.

Next was Diane's challenge to make a card using a B&W color scheme with one additional color to pop. I love the way Raspberry Fizz looks with B&W. I also got to use my BB dies, which I absolutely LOVE. I can't wait to play with them some more!

Once again ladies, thanks for the great challenges! This has been fun!