My Thoughts Exactly Thursday: September

You might have noticed there was no release for My Thoughts Exactly this month... Not to worry, there are currently several sets in production and things got a little backed up but you will soon get to see the new sets and it will be worth the wait... ;-)  But honestly, Alyssa's sets have so many sayings in them that we could post projects for months with just one set!!... ;-)

Here I used the Birds & Bees set again, because it was such a great match for my Fluffles and my Echo Park paper, and I thought it would be a great pick-me-up for a sweet friend of mine... :-) Of course I had to add a little bit of Trendy Twine there too... ;-)

This week my partner in crime is Bee, and don't forget to also visit Alyssa's blog for more DT projects... :-D

Trendy Twine Tuesday: RED Project

As you know, Trendy Twine has just started a Design Team and I am one of the lucky members! :-) This month starts the beginning of our monthly projects. Each month we will focus on a different color and make projects with it. The 1st Tuesday we will all post together, and every Tuesday afterwards a different member of our team will post a project with that color.
For September we chose Peppermint Stick RED as we are all in the mood for back to school and apples come to mind... ;-) In honor of this kick off, Peppermint Stick Trendy Twine will be on sale for $7.50 this whole week. :-)

My husband was in France last week and he brought back some nougats (probably my favorite treat...;-P). He wanted to share some with his coworkers, so I made a cute little packaging for them.
I started with some adorable (and so easy to use) Mini Kraft Gable Boxes  from Annie's Paper Boutique. All I had to do was stamp on them and decorate them a little. The beauty of those little boxes is that kraft goes with everything and with all of the twine colors! ;-) 

Here I used some organza ribbon and some Peppermint Stick RED twine. I really love the color combo of red with craft and white! :-) I finished it off with a little tag, attached with matching twine, and a little medallion glued over my twine and ribbon using foam tape (this way the medallion is glued to the box and the twine and ribbon can move freely under it).
The square medallion stamp is by Stampin'Up, and this adorable little ladybug with a flower is from Stampendous. :-)
As you can see, I was really good and ate the props only after I was done taking pictures... ;-D

So in order to kick off this month's introduction of twine, we decided to have you participate in a little challenge.
The theme this month is "what's your favorite use of twine". For me aside from cards, I like to use twine on packages and gifts and with tags just like above. I think it always adds a little something happy and fun to gifts.
Once your project is done, head over to the Trendy Twine Blog, where you will find a Mr Linky at the bottom of the post where you can add a link to your project. You have till September 29 to enter.
The DT will pick their favorite project, and this person will receive a big spool (160 yards) of red twine, then we will pick a random winner who will get 30 yards of red twine. I hope to see how you like to use twine on your projects very soon! :-)

And last but not least, don't forget to check Alyssa's and Kim's blogs to see their projects featuring Peppermint Stick Trendy Twine. :-)

A rainbow of thanks

A simple rainbow card made with the strips that come at the base of the colorbok paperpads before your tear up the page. (I love this kind of recycling!... I think Myrna will approve! ;-))... :-)
The punch is Martha stewart and I LOVE it! <3 I added tiny rhinestones in the middle of the "flowers"...
This card just makes me happy, but then again (in case you didn't know) I am obsessed with rainbows and clouds... ;-)

Warm wishes

A little get well soon card for one of my aunts who had surgery recently. I used my beloved Fluffles... ;-)

Big bold flowers

I made those 2 cards a little while ago with some leftover cut out flowers and leaves that happened to match some leftover paper I had... ;-)

I am not completely happy with them but cannot figure out why exactly. I think probably the big scale of the flowers... Or maybe it's the prominence of the yellow, the only color I really dislike... ;-)

I embossed some of the flowers with the Cuttlebug and then highlighted some parts with a versamark pen and heat embossed with clear powder (which doesn't show on the pic, but brings a little bit of gloss on the pattern).

Jungle Birthdays

Still playing with Melanie's furry friends, I made those birthday cards for my twin nephew and niece. She gets the zebra, he gets the giraffe. I used giftwrapping as my background because I thought it looked so cute. The banners and added animals are on foam tape, of course... ;-)

Happy Birthday Noah!

This is the card I made for Noah's 7th birthday. I'll admit I was scratching my head a little when I sat down at my desk, not quite knowing what to make... Then I decided, instead of trying to figure out what would appeal to him, to go with something that made sense to me, hoping that one day we can sit down together and re-read his old cards. He doesn't seem to care much about the cards now, but maybe one day it will matter to him that he had them.

So I leafed through my new stack of DCWV Flowers Shower and found this rainbow/clouds paper.

I always say Noah is my ray of sunshine so the tag grabbed my eye right away, I just added the Happy Birthday, and the little ladybug for fun... ;-) Then I made little rays out of cardstock and added the button to create a little sun. I love rainbows (who doesn't! ;-)) and the clouds reminded me of Noah's autism... :-( The rainbow peeking out of the clouds, is my hope that he will get much much better... Finally I added little rhinestones as rain drops (the tears I shed from watching my child struggle with life) and some Stickles on the clouds just to make it more interesting for him to look at, and because autism can be quite fascinating... :-)

The last touch was a little heart button, because I love this little guy to pieces...

Red Hello

Another card for "my soldier", using 2 new Cuttlebug folders, Herringbone and Moroccan screen. Now if you think my card is crooked because of the bad picture, maybe a little, but it is also in real life! LOL I noticed it actually after taking the picture, and since everything was put together I just let it be! *shame*. Apparently the herringbone folder distorted the cardstock, I guess I need to try with thicker cardstock next time... :-S Cute stamp is by Stampendous, I just added a tiny leaf because to me it was missing!... ;-)

Simple Holidays

A simple holiday card I made for "my soldier". The medallion is heat embossed with silver powder, and I used a silver sharpie for the dots on the cuttlebugged card front. The deep blue cardstock is from PTI and has this gorgeous metallic silvery shimmer (I took the picture with a flash to try to catch that shimmery effect). The stamp is from Stampendous and one of my favorite, this is all I wish everyone for the Holidays, Peace on Earth.

(as always click on pic for details).

Mini briefcase gift-card holders

I made those little briefcase gift-card holders for Noah's teachers and therapist. They were fun and easy to make, no need for a template or anything. They are closed with velcro, and I just stamped and wrote my little message in there instead of making a card.

The inside is pretty much the same for all 3, I just colored the cat in different colors.. :-)

The only problem is I discovered when I uploaded the pics, that the Prismacolor markers bled through the cardstock and made stains on the front of the light blue holder! :-( Luckily the paper has kind of an uneven color pattern so it almost looks like it's part of the paper pattern!... Phew...

Wouldn't those look cute hanging in a Christmas tree with little name tags attached to the handle?...

Holiday card? *gasp*

Yes, I know, I don't do Holiday cards!!! ;-)

But this year being as crazy as it is, I decided there would be no "real gift" *gasp* (well, aside from our kids obviously! ;-)), only gift-cards or even checks... so I need to put those in a card! And since our Holiday card consists of a pic of the kids, and with everyone being really sick we haven't even taken said pic... You see where I am going with this! Hanukkah is in a mere 8 days and Christmas barely 10!...

So anyway, this is a card I made for my brother & family. I really like the mix of blue, white and gold for the Holidays, I am very anti red+green! LOL! ;-)

(Sorry the pic is a little blurry but you get the idea...)

Everything gold is heat embossed with gold powder, it adds a nice texture. The dove stamp is from Stampendous.

I used my new papertreyInk set "basic polka Dots" that I had been coveting for a while... the enabler was the baby to come, since I have plans to use this set for the birth announcements or most likely for the thank-yous matching the birth announcements (more about those another time, I don't want to spoil all the surprise yet! ;-)...)

"To-do" album

This is not a very involved project on the creative side, but hopefully it will make my life easier nonetheless!! It's a journal I bought at Michaels for $1 and turned into a "to-do album" for the family.

I love to be organized but I am usually not!! The older I get, the more I forget things, and I hate lists (and sometimes misplace them!... ;-))

So I used little tabs with each family member's name to customize this booklet and have everyone's stuff in the same place (yes "baby" is written in pencil so I can erase it afterwards and write the baby's real name! ;-)). The tabs stamps are by Stampendous and you can find them here http://www.mylittlestampshack.com/catalog/item/5737001/5610981.htm. If you haven't visited Carrie's online store yet, it is time, she has a great selection of clear stamps: http://www.mylittlestampshack.com/

For the cover I just used a white label and stamped & embossed (for durability!) "to-do" to hide the original "journal" title.

Now let's just hope we actually do some of the things already listed in the booklet!... LOL ;-)

Fluffles in the meadow

This is a little RAK for a very nice lady who, when she isn't busy giving stuff away on her blog, also posts tutorials... On a recent one, her hands were in such bad shape I had to do something, so she'll receive this card with my beloved Neutrogena Fast Absorbing Hand Cream (the perfect choice for a stamper, for soft hands but no stained projects!)...

The card is nothing original but it uses 2 of my favorite things : my dear Fluffles, and the swiss dots Cuttlebug folder! :-)

Happy Easter to everyone celebrating this Holiday!

Fluffles is back...

Ok I couldn't stay very long without putting Stickles on something so I got my dear Fluffles out so I could make the flowers sparkly... I stamped my image in brown which I think gives a softer feel than black, and it goes with my ribbon better ;-) ...

Of course the Stickles made the bee's wings smear... :-( I really need to get permanent ink!!

If you read this, please feel free to tell me which one you use! ;-)...

I am really confused by all the different kind of inks on the market!!! :-S

I made the card for a friend of mine who had surgery a couple of weeks ago and is still pretty tired. I thought Fluffles might cheer her up. That's why I went with the polka dots paper also, I thought it was happy paper....I think I will stamp some kind of sentiment inside maybe...

I didn't have any Prima so I made a flower myself with white carstock and paper and Stickles (what else!?;-)) but I would have loved to use a little sunflower, it would have been cute, or even a brown Prima would have been nice there....

Believe it or not, I haven't bought any of those yet! :-P

Fluffles

If you don't know Fluffles the cat from Stampendous, it is time to meet him!

I use the little bee over the bouquet on the back of my cards, as my signature, that was the primary reason for getting a stamp with a bee but Fluffles just cracks me up...

My favorite one (which I don't own...yet...) is "Life's uncertain, eat dessert FIRST", you can see it here, it's called "Fluffles full" (sorry I don't know how to hide the link, feel free to help me with that BTW!!) : http://www.allthatscraps.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=360_363_417&zenid=8214370af1b68dfcaf3ff97008631325

And the one where he is dangling in the Christmas tree is really fun too!...

When I was done with this card I thought there was something missing and that's when I added the little bees everywhere...

Ladybug

New stamps, new tools, new papers...and a little time for me, what could be better? :-D

I had been waiting for those stamps forever so it was great to finally ink them!

So this morning my friend Sandrine came over and we gave heat embossing a try.

I think she is now convinced that she absolutely need to invest in rubber stamps and embossing powder and a heating tool!... LOL! ;-)

Here's my 1st card, with a cute little ladybug by Stampendous.

I'm very happy with the result, especially since this is all new to me. I used versamark for the little ladybugs all over, I just wish I had made the pattern a little less random but that's just the OCD in me talking right now!! ;-) ....