Thursday's Throw Aways - Week 8

There's a reason that manufacturers put a lot of thought and effort into their packaging. It's a big part of what attracts us to their product in the first place. It has to be eye catching as well as pleasing to the eye. These are some examples of some packaging that I have stashed.

The examples above are all chipboard weight and would make great embellishments. This week I chose to use the cookie box in the first picture. This box of cookies was part of a Christmas gift basket. What caught my eye about this box was the beautifully embossed letter A.

How would I use it? I didn't know at the onset, but I did know that I have a couple of friends whose names begin with that letter. My second thought would be to use it as the beginning of a longer word such as Anniversary or Always. Or possibly it could be used as the beginning of a phrase like A Big Thank You... and so on and so forth.

Well, when my friend and co-worker Anthony was named the Teacher of the Year at our school it all fell into place. He needed to be congratulated. Check. He is a guy, so the colors would be good. Check. He is a guy so the design should be simple. Check.

I used a background of More Mustard and framed the letter in Real Red and Basic Black. The sentiment was stamped in Basic Black using the SU Hostess set Congrats. The last touch was the red and black grosgrain ribbons.

The picture was taken from the side to show the metallic embossing that the letter had and to also show the edges of that piece. You will usually find that the color is only on the top layer of a box or package and when you cut it the back layer(s) will show. If you don't want that color to detract, take a marker the same color as the front and run it around the edges. It will blend in much better.

So don't be surprised if someday in the future you see something with that eagle, or Yankee emblem, or.... I'm thinking those flowers would make a particulary cute die cut butterfly..... hmmmmm.

Teapot Tuesday 44

Is it or isn't it - a teapot that is? I has a spout and it has a handle, ah but does the lid come off? I'm not sure about that either. But whether it does or it doesn't it's darn cute, don't you think! I do. I'm loving the colors. There's something about those blues and that lavendar, where have I seen that before - oh yeah, here. The green makes it so much more lovely.


You have to visit Cindy's glob to read her story behind this teapot/genie lantern, and to see what she came up with besides her teapot card. You'll be pleasantly surprised. And, if you want to see the rest of the teapot cards, check out this link for the Teapot Tuesday Gallery. The ladies that come to these weekly tea party's are so creative!!!!

When I was thinking about what to do for my card this week my eyes wandered to a jar of ribbons that I had that contained all of the colors in this weeks teapot. I don't know what made me think that using ribbons instead of stamping would get me results quicker, but I am pretty satisfied with the end result. It's been quite hot here, this evening being no exception, and I didn't want to spend too much time on it. But, I'm pretty satisfied with the result. What do you think?

The sentiment is a stamp from SU's Dream A Little stamp set which I thought fitting for the Genie Lantern Teapot. And, I actually used my new texture plates to emboss the upper part of the white panel - don't know if you can see it in the picture, it is very subtle.

Okay, back to making treasure chests .... more about that at a later date!

INKredible Color Challenge 4/21

I have been so bad about the color challenges as of late. I always have good intentions, but somehow I have fallen behind. This week's colors were Basic Gray, Riding Hood Red, and Always Artichoke.

This flower pot card was going to have oval punched tulips in it, but after trying to ink up my leaves and turning not only my thumb green, but three more fingers as well, I opted to get out the Petal Pizzazz set and stamp the flowers and leaves. Believe me, it is much better this way.

The DSP on the flower pot is from the Urban Garden pack. I happen to like gray (the color of my new car!!) but my mother-in-law doesn't, so she'll probably not like this. Oh well, I'm sure my mom will!

Please check out the "Color Girls" in my left column for their projects with these colors. I'm sure you're going to like them all!

Nest Update

As you can see, there are now 5 eggs in the nest and the Blues have been taking turns keeping them warm. Arent' they gorgeous?!? HWNSNBP has decided to name them Morticia and Gomez (he's like that sometimes).

I should have captioned the picture on top "It's Hot In Here" - it was taken today here in NJ, when in April it hit the 90's. I know I'm not prepared for this heat and I don't think the Blues are either.

On a side note, I have not seen our little chipmunk in over a week now and I'm worried. HWNSNBP has been telling me about this feral cat that he has seen several mornings sitting against the base of the tree that we keep our bird feeder in. This is where the squirrels, birds, and little chip hang out. I don't dislike cats - we've had two of them in the past - I just don't want one scaring away all the other wildlife (or eating it!).

I'll keep you posted on the nesting.

Show and Tell

At our downline meeting last month we did some pretty fantastic projects. We used the new Big Shot embossing folder to create the lovely pink card below designed by my Upline Debbie. Then we used the magnetic mover and shaper to create the cute little birdie card designed by Dolly. And we made the Easter card below designed by yours truly. And lastly, we did some 3-D work, using the scallop envelope die to create the cute little Easter basket and we played around with the matchbox die (I didn't finish my projects yet, so sorry).

And I almost forgot to post these lovely handmade birthday cards that I received from Debbie, MariLynn and Carol. Aren't I a lucky duck!!!

Friday CPR 4/24 - The Newest Dance Fad

To read my Friday CPR post for 4/24, click here.

Thursday's Throw Aways - Week 7

Do these little clips look familiar?


I have been mailing holiday socks to my daughter and her college roommates since, well, since they were roommates in college. Before I mail them, I remove those little metal clips that hold them together at the top and bottom. I've always thought that they would make great embellishments for cards or scrapbooks. Here is what I came up with this week.



I used the Great Friends stamp set for this. Tempting Turquoise and Certainly Celery ink was brayered over the circle. Then I stamped the leaf image in those same colors onto the circle. I added the sentiment in Tempting Turquoise which I know you can barely see in the picture, but I assure you, it is much clearer IRL.

The butterfly is inked in Apricot Appeal and then rock-n-rolled in Tangerine Tango. The butterfly's body is one of the metal clips as are the hangers for the ribbon pieces.

Can you think of other uses for these clips? If you can, leave me a comment or e-mail me. I'd love to hear your ideas.

Happy Earth Day/Administrative Assistant's Day

Can I tell you how confusing this week has been? There has been so much going on at school - voting and visitors and bells and report cards and class trips and the play and a birthday and a death and Earth Day and Administrative Assistant's Day and 3 visits at home from the cable company..............shall I go on!

So confusing that I thought today was just Earth Day and tomorrow was Admin. Asst. Day, but they both were today. So when I got to work with my watering cans for Earth Day, the three that I had with me turned into gifts for the other secretary in our office and the girls in our sister school. And those clips that I made a couple of weeks ago for Thursday Throw Aways, the ones that I said I would use for the admins were left at home. I still haven't decided if I'm going to send them tomorrow or not.

I used my new flower embosslits die for the decoration on these. It was die cut in Whisper White and I used a sponge dauber to apply Pixie Pink ink to the raised areas.

Again, I copied the pattern from Julia Bettencourt's blog. I think these little "cans" would make great shower favors.

Teapot Tuesday 43

Oooooh, somebody sent Cindy a sweet teapot from England. Isn't it cute!!! Not only did they send the teapot, they also made her some cards. If you check out Cindy's glob you will be able to follow the links to the cards she posted from the two children who, with their mother, sent the teapot. I think they did a spectacular job on their cards!

I cheated just a little today. I was making these little watering cans for Earth Day. (I'll post a picture of the other ones that I made later today. ) And while I did plan all along to make them white, when I saw the white teapot for the challenge I knew that I had the opportunity to decorate one of them especially for the challenge. What worked out even better to my advantage is that Earth Day is actually the birthdate of a friend of mine, so decorating it with a cupcake tree was very fitting. If you can see the lid in the picture above, it is polka dotted, which is the inspiration for the polka dotted ribbon.

This watering can pattern is very similar to the box in a bag that I had made on a couple of occasions. I actually saw it on a blog called Creative With Julia . Julia made some pretty cute water cans and I knew that I had to try them. I know that I will be using this idea again. Thanks Julia for the inspiration!

The cupcake tree is stamped using the Crazy for Cupcakes set and the water spout is stamped with the swirly tree top from Trendy Trees. I colored the cupcakes with my SU markers. The pansies were put into a plastic sandwich bag before they went into the watering can.

So, even though it's not a teapot - how do you think I did with the challenge this week? I'd love to hear from you.

In Memory Of

It was a bittersweet day today. The school that I work in celebrated it's 50th Anniversary. Part of the celebration plan was to plant a tree in the front of the school to honor one of our retired teachers whom we recently learned was in hospice. But because it rained today the tree planting was postponed until later in the week. And sadly, as we learned just as school started, our friend had passed away early this morning. Thus, the tree will be in her memory.

We are planting an American Redbud which happens to be one of my favorite trees. The tree will have lovely magenta blossoms in the spring which will give way to beautiful heart-shaped leaves. A fitting tribute to a woman who had held so many students in her heart throughout her teaching career and who will remain in our hearts through many seasons to come. My condolences to her family.

My heart is heavy tonight. I have lost two friends in the last four months to breast cancer. Two wonderful women whom I will dearly miss.

The Sweetest Sight Today

Friday CPR 4/17 - Blah, Blah,Hmmmmm

To read my Friday CPR post for 4/17 - Blah, Blah, Hmmmm click here.

Thursday's Throw Aways - Week 6

Gosh and darn! I really had every intention of getting this project posted on Thursday, but I had one or two set-backs this evening. HWNSNBP has an event at work tomorrow and I had planned to make deviled eggs for him to take, and had in fact, gotten up early this morning to cook them so that they would be cooled when I got home from work. I planned to get them done right away so I could get this project posted, but instead I got a frantic call from HWNSNBP telling me that he just found out that his boss is deathly allergic to hard-boiled eggs - can't even be in the same room with them. So before he got home I had to come up with something else for him to take. Looks like they'll be having my sweet and sour meatballs cause that's the only thing I had time for.

But then what about the 18 eggs that I had already hard-boiled? Well, looks like my staff will be having them as a surprise tomorrow in the faculty room! You know how hard it is to peel fresh eggs? If you don't just ask my thumb!

Anyway, here is the project that I sort of had planned for today. I was going to use the TP tube for something else, but this was quicker and more useful for me today as it turns out. HWNSNBP will be taking the crockpot tomorrow and this cord cover will come in handy and look nice also.

Before - a hum drum cord.

After - pretty and neat.
Supplies

Stamp and punch the flower pieces. Add a brad for the center.

Cover the tube with DSP. Use sticky tape to adhere.

Add your stripe to the tube, again using sticky tape.


Use dimensionals to add the flower to the finished project.

Another view.

Teapot Tuesday 42

After all the chocolate and jelly beans I'm sure we've all experienced this past weekend, everyone could use a good dose of their greens. And this week's teapot will definitely provide you with them. Isn't this the cutest little head of cabbage you've ever seen!!! Cindy's got quite a collection of teapots and her cards are the greatest. Check out her glob and see what I mean.

This teapot was a bit of a challenge. Not having anything that remotely resembled a head of cabbage I was almost going to give up when I thought about creating my own cabbage leaf out of tissue paper. As I was told by HWNSNBP this weekend, he considers me a pack rat and I can't deny that I have a significant stash of stuff, both new and used. This would include an extensive amount of tissue paper. Again, both new and used. So I knew that the chances of finding something suitable would probably be to my advantage.

After I caused an avalanche of tissue paper from the shelf in my den, I managed to find this green waxy tissue for the leaf and some dark pink for the edging. But how would I marry them? I cut the pink in a strip about an inch wide and slightly scalloped one edge with a scissor. Then I got out my sewing box and with pink thread put a running stitch down the other edge and gently gathered it. Then I got out the closest green that I had and used that to stitch the ruffle to the leaf. The bottom of the leaf is gathered just a wee bit to make the leaf curve outward a little.


Before I adhered my cabbage leaf to the card I wadded up a clean tissue and glued that to the Confetti White background first. Then I used sticky strip to put the leaf on the card. The ribbons are all from my green ribbon box. (Cindy said that we were going to have our greens this week at the party and I didn't want to come empty-handed.)

The butterfly was punched with a Martha Stewart butterfly punch and I colored the body with Rose Red and added crystal effects to it. The sentiment in the corner was stamped in Purely Pomegranate on Certainly Celery using a stamp from the retired Lots of Thoughts set. And I added the little flower jewel in the corner that came from the dollar bin at Mike's. Here's a close up so you can see the dimension of the leaf.

So I'm thinking that no one who doesn't see the teapot will ever be able to guess that this is a cabbage leaf, but that's okay. I think it could pass for a flower or maybe a crazy pinata or something. What do you think? Be honest now!

It's A Boy, It's A Girl

I love it when my daughter comes home. She's been here on her Spring Break from the school where she teaches. We only had a couple of days that overlapped. I must return to work in the morning, she will have the rest of the week. So, besides spending time with the extended family for Easter, we managed to get a bit of shopping in, together and separately (with mom's checkbook and credit cards - but that's the way it should be, no?!).

She had e-mailed me last week and told me that she would be needing some cards. Three baby cards and a thank you. I had a few suitable thank you's but no baby cards on hand.

I happened across a card on Sandi MacIver's blog that I really liked. What I liked is how she added the Chocolate Chip to the baby card and how it made it pop! I didn't have such nice polka dot ribbon like she did, and I didn't feel that my CC grosgrain would do the job, so I altered the layout a little. I also paper pieced my baby carriages. Maybe that was a bit too much, but I like it. The sentiment is on the inside of the card. The image and the sentiment are from the set Fun and Fast Notes. I used the flower brads for the wheels like Sandi did, but I had some small pastel brads that I used for the hinge on the carriage.

So my daughter will be heading back soon and she'll have the cards she needs, plus a carload of other "stuff". I'm glad she gives me these little projects to do for her.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone. Here are a couple of Easter things that I cased. The bunny on the little buckets is from Jami Sibley's gallery . The large chick is from LauriF's blog , and the little chick (which gets attached to a peppermint patty) is from rosowskimom .

Friday CPR 4/10 - Does That Ringing in My Ears Bother You

To view my Friday CPR post for 4/10 - Does That Ringing in My Ears Bother You, click here.

Thursday's Throw Aways - Week 5

A friend of mine gave me a bag full of these lovely orange magnetic clips. They had a raised sticker on them with the name of a product which I've blanked out. I thought they were pretty cool as you can put them on a fridge or filing cabinet and they can hold papers, or coupons, or whatever. But the sticker was kind of yucky so I carefully peeled them off and redecorated the area as you can see.

I had some DSP that had the same color in it as the clips, and I also had these die cut flowers from SU that were in shades that matched the paper and the clips. Then I grabbed some MS leaf punches, some Kiwi Kiss cardstock and punched some leaves. The last touch was adding the jewels to the center of the flower for some sparkle.

Just a note to add that when I peeled the stickers off, I stuck one of them to a piece of wax paper and used it as the template to cut the paper to the size of the indentation on the clip. There were 9 of these lovelies in the bag (unless I put some somewhere else) - so now I have nine potential Administrative Assistants Day gifts. They should brighten up someone's office.

We Have a Nest

I didn't clean up this picture like I usually do, so it may look a little washed out. It was taken on Sunday. Definitely a bluebird nest.

It's been a little cold here the past couple of days and I haven't seen much activity around the box. That is not to say that there isn't any, because I don't have a round-the-clock camera (maybe next Christmas, hint,hint!).

We have heard the blues in the trees calling back and forth. How do we know it's them? They do have a distinctive call that we've become cognizant of. It also helps that I gave HWNSNBP a mechanical bluebird that has a motion sensor that will play their call.

Yes, I know we're nuts. But it's a good kind of nuts, don't you think?

Teapot Tuesday 41

Aha - we have an "artsy fartsy" teapot this week. A very colorful still life - with pear on the side. Check out Cindy's glob to get the whole story and see her acrylic masterpiece. We are really in need of a gallery this week with all these lovely works of art.

My first intention was to only color the pear and have the rest in black and white, but I think I got a little carried away. The pear is stamped using the retired Infinite Goodness set. The rest of the picture is hand drawn. I used ink pads and an aquapainter to do the watercolor work although it's meant to look like the fruit was colored by the tea.

Now I'm going back to the Splitcoast Gallery to find out what's been going on at the Tea Party this week. I've heard a rumor that we're playing poker, there's a gorilla on the loose, and heaven knows what else! I think we're all a little Fruit-tea this week!

Friday CPR 4/3 - The Need to Know

If you would like to view my Friday CPR post for 4/3 - The Need to Know click here.

Thursday's Throw Aways - Week 4

On my Teapot Tuesday card this week I included a butterfly made from recycled items. Here is another butterfly card and a picture tutorial on how to make the butterflies.

You will need the following items:

Aluminum foil lids from yogurt, jello, or pudding cups (or larger ones from other cans)
Paper Crimper
Sharpies
Needle tool or other pointed object
8" of thin wire
Beads for the body
Sticky tape