Back to School, Kitchen Construction and Other Fun Stuff

September is here and that means back to work for me. I enjoyed my summer immensely and cannot say that I am all that excited to be going to work every morning. I like my job and the hours but just wish I could get paid for staying home and doing what I want. Don't we all?

We also are going through a kitchen remodel. I spent last week emptying the cabinets, shelves and a hutch. Yesterday the contractors came and gutted our kitchen. They are still working on getting the floor up. Unknowingly we had 3 layers underneath our tile!! It looks like a big mess. I will post photos later on this week.

Our poor isn't liking the construction very much. Stinky peed his crate tonight when we went out to dinner and he hasn't done that for a couple months. I am convinced he had a seizure that was brought on by all the chaos but since we weren't home, we don't know. The only reason I think this is he usually pees so that it is all outside the crate when he is mad. He doesn't like to step in it!! Tonight it was mess inside the crate and we had to give him a bath. Poor thing!

Enough about our chaos and now to the fun stuff! Tonight I am going to show you the gift tag and card I made for one of Char's friends last month. However, as things often go in my life, I had to make the card twice. 

The first card I had created was personalized and had a 12 on it. However, when I went to buy a gift box, the only one that I could have bought that would have matched was bright pink. The birthday girl was not a pink type of girl. So I carefully removed the number and added the cupcake. 

Supplies: Card stock and dotted paper-Paper Trey Ink, Word Paper and striped paper-October Afternoon, Stamps-Paper Trey Ink, Tape-Bella Blvd, Ink-Paper Trey Ink, Die Cut-Paper Trey Ink and Cupcake-Martha Stewart

I have to say that this card was a CASE of a card created by Dawn McVey. I really like the pink and aqua color scheme on this card. I also love how easy the tape was to use. I will be utilizing my tape like this on many cards!!

Since this card was a reject, I had to make another card in the color scheme that matched the box. I liked how it came out and was feeling really good about it until Charlotte told me she thought it looked too much like a boy. I told her too bad because I WAS NOT making a third card!!! Looking at the photo now, I get where Char was coming from but I think it is cute anyway. 

Supplies: Blue Card stock, Polka Dot Paper, Stamps, Dies, Ink-Paper Trey Ink, Glitter-Stickles, Patterned Paper-Making Memories and My Minds Eye, White Card Stock-Stampin Up!, Kraft Card Stock-Paper Studio, 

Tape-Queen and Company

I had to make a matching tag for the gift and I used a fun mix of curling ribbon to decorate the handle. I have not been a fan of curling ribbon in the past for gift wrapping, but I really like the looks of this gift. I will be repeating it for the future.

Supplies-Stamps, Dies, Ink-Paper Trey Ink, Kraft Card Stock-Paper Studio

Here are both the gift and tag together. I know the photos don't look like the blues match the box but IRL they did. It was a cloudy day when I took the photos and I only get so much light in my room when that happens.

Thank you for looking. I promise I will be back later in the week with some photos of what has been going on in my kitchen!!

Nora

A Pillow and some Scrapbook Pages

Happy Friday!! I cannot believe it is August and my summer is almost over. I still haven't done everything I planned for this summer but here are a few projects that I created the last few weeks.

My first project is a sewing project. I made a 16" pillow and created this without a pattern. I am NOT a sewer and though this looks like a piece of cake, it took me a long time to make. I wasn't sure how to much extra to cut out to make the seams and the envelope pocket was not in the middle on the back. I have a larger pillow to make and will doing it a bit different when I sew that one.

Here is the pillow with my bedding. The lighting in my bedroom is horrific so please forgive me.

This is a more accurate photo of the colors.

I had so much fun scrapping this photo of Charlotte and my friend Jil's son Noah. It was taken last year at our annual get together in Wickham park. I used Nostalgia die cuts by My Mind's Eye and used spray mist on the background paper. 

I LOVE these photos of Charlotte. Don't they just shout Pre-Teen? A very simple page using die cuts and spray mist.

Have a great weekend!! I hope you all get some time to do something creative!!

Nora

More Baby Cards!!

I don't know what it is about baby cards lately. I seem to be addicted to creating them!! I bought the adorable Sweet Baby stamp set from Paper Trey Ink and I just had to use it. 

The first two cards were inspired by a card from my favorite PTI designer, Dawn McVey. 

I used some old October Afternoon patterned paper I had, the Sweet Baby stamp set and dies by PTI, as well as PTI Half Note and Border dies.

For the second card I used the same basic design but changed up the yellow. Not sure which one I like better.

I used a TON of different patterned paper scraps for this card and chose to make it especially for a girl. Isn't that elephant cute?

The last card I created for a friend that I haven't seen for a while. All the stamps are from Paper Trey Ink and the lace paper I created using my Silhouette digital craft cutter.

I hope you enjoyed my projects today!!

Nora

My Vacation!!

Char, Chris and I took a trip to Chicago to visit my brother last week. Though I don't usually share photos of non-creative stuff on my blog, I decided to post some so that my family can have a chance to see my brother's children. We don't get to see them that often and it was so nice to be able to spend some time with them!!

The boys love their sister. She is fun to squish!!

I could just eat her up!!!

Look at that dimple!!! So cute!

It has been so long since Chris fed a baby!! My niece was so much easier to feed then Charlotte ever was and it was a fun change of pace. I even offered to do it and I would always hand it off to someone else if they were around when Char was a baby.

Charlotte and my brother. Are these two related or what?

My brother and family.

 
A photo of my brother's children and Char altogether. After looking at this, Charlotte said we need to get ALL the cousins together and have a professional photo taken.

Isn't my niece delicious? She was so squishable and you just had to kiss those cheeks!!!

Char had fun climbing the wall with her cousin at the science museum in Chicago.

I took so many photos over the two days with my brother's family that I only took two more for the whole rest of the vacation and we were gone five more days!!! Charlotte even complained and she is always up for a good photo shoot.

Have a great week!!

Nora

A Few Projects

I love summer. I have time to do things I WANT to do rather then just what I have to do. One of my favorite things is getting into my craft room to make cards. Here are a few of my favorites that I have made over the last month or so.

The first two cards I created for a challenge at scrapjazz.com. It was to create your own background paper using text.

The first card I chose to only use the text in a small area. I used the Buttercup Collection patterned paper by Lily Bee and a fun Sizzix telephone die cut.

The second card I chose to use the printed text background for the whole card. I printed it out on white cardstock but it looked too stark so I misted it to make the background more like patterned paper.  I used the Sizzix telephone die again and some patterned paper scraps for the circle and the telephone.

I had a lot of fun creating this third card. I used my Silhouette machine to cut out the lace paper, colored it using mist spray and then accented it with some patterned paper circles. The butterfly was an extra that was left over from a scrapbook layout and was a perfect addition to this card.

Though this card has a telephone on it, the die cut is a PTI die rather then a Sizzix. I used some paper by My Minds Eye that I bought at AC Moore and a lace accent from Prima. I think this is my favorite!!

This last card is SO EASY!! I just used die cuts and stickers to create it. You can never have enough thank you cards either!!

I want to thank you for looking!! Have a great Sunday!!

Nora