Been way too long…

since I made any new cards. Life got in the way…pulling our house together to put up for rent, finding a not too expensive moving company to move us to Wyoming and trying to locate a rental house in our new home town…accomplished all but the last. Hoping this will change soon!

So...it feels good to finally be able to get my hands crafting again and decided to start with a card for the current Caardvarks “Shape Up” challenge.

I got the idea during a recent visit to AC Moore when I saw some Jolee flip flop embellies and thought…hmm.


I traced my foot to make a template.

I knew I wanted to use ribbon and flowers.

The back strap “evolved” after I attached the bow and has a button glued to a brad to look a bit like a snap or a clasp...of sorts.

It took a while to find a cute saying but I immediately liked the “happy feet wear flip flops,” which I got off the internet and it gave me the idea to turn it into a gift card holder…for a pedicure!! The rest followed from there.

The stitching was added for a little ump and is open at the top to slip in a little gift card, which I forgot to add before taking photos!

I had a lot of fun making this card.

While searching for cute flip flop sayings, came across this cute idea for offering flip flops to bridesmaids or female guests at a wedding with the following poems…

"All night you've been on your feet,

Dancing to the music's beat,

But don't sit down and admit defeat,

Kick off your heels and enjoy this treat!

Compliments of the Newlyweds"

and

"Bought new shoes to match your dress

and now your feet are sore?

Help yourself to a pair of flip flops

so you can dance some more!!"

Thanks for stopping by…

Under the weather and a few simple cards…

I haven’t done much this past week. I came down with a cold on Sunday, which has left me fatigued and drained, and I can’t seem to shake the darn thing. If fact, it seems to be getting worse! After working mornings at the pre-school, I don’t have energy left for much else…let alone crafting.

Haven’t been visiting on-line much either…occasionally here and there to pay a return visit or comment on a card. I enjoy seeing everyone’s newest creations…they make me smile and hopeful that this cold passes soon…don’t like being energy-less!

Before I caught this cold, I was busy finishing bar mitzvah invites and creating stationary samples for a friend’s 10 year old daughter.

Thought I would show a few of the samples I gave my friend. Since her daughter is just a young girl, I wanted to keep them simple.

She likes blues...

and greens!

Letters are from the HA Clear Design Bird Branch Alphabet set.

Stationary using the branch stamp from the HA Clear Design Bird Branch Alphabet Set.

Here’s to being full of energy and in the craft room again…soon!

Thanks for stopping by.

A wonderful surprise in the mail…

A few weeks ago I admired the card shown above by Kathy Rosecrans, which can be found on Kathy's photostream. Something about the saying...the “ttude” of the little owl…and the execution of Kathy’s design captivated my attention. I chatted with Kathy about her card and how much I loved it and she generously offered to send me her “how to” design! It arrived in the mail yesterday...together with the card!!!! Thank you Kathy! Your photo was great...but the real thing is wonderful!

My husband even thought it was cute…and that’s high praise!

Thanks for stopping by...

Thinking of you...all year long

Card created for last week's "Inspired by" Hero Arts Blog challenge, which was a toughie for me as there are so many people who inspire me. So I kind of felt like I was chasing my tail trying to decide what to do!!! But I loved the seasons artwork by Silvakelly54, which you can see here and decided to let her work inspire me using the Windy Tree.

Inside reads..."Thinking of you all year long. Happy Birthday!"

Had a lot going on last week and didn't have much in the way of craft time so I didn't get to start on this until late Sunday evening...the challenge deadline! It doesn't quite fit how I envisioned it so I hope to tweak it to achieve a more polished and professional look.

Thanks, SilvaKelly54, for the inspiration and to all you other Rock-Star papercrafters who inspire me every single day!!

Love you, mom!

Been busy finishing the Bar Mitzvah invites for close family friends and haven't had time to do much of anything else these past few days. Now that they're done, had to make a quick and dirty mom's day card to send to my mom today. Alas, it won't get there on time...but at least my mom knows it's "in the mail"!

Thanks for looking...

Success!!!

I FINALLY managed to get the HTML tag down!

Thanks to all the marvelous ladies over at the Hero Arts discussion thread for all the tech assistance.

Couldn't have done it without you!!

I'm so excited...and I just can't hide it…

I’ve been invited to be a Guest Designer over at the fabulous Caardvarks site!

I’m up for their June 20th Challenge, together with the fabulous crafty ladies…Gina Cunningham and Kelly Rasmussen!!!

I don’t know what to say, except…Thank You Caardvarks!

I LOVE you!

Someone is going to have to show (well, tell) me how to put a big SMOOCH on my blog.

Thanks for stopping by...

Card for Kevin...

Crzy4stamps-kathy over at the Hero Arts discussion thread came up with a generous idea to send cards to MonikaReeck’s five year old son, Kevin, who had surgery a few days ago.

Kathy asked us to create a card to send to Kevin, using at least one HA stamp. Great idea Kathy! Here’s my card.

I originally had this idea for this card during the Hero Arts pocket's challenge, but I never got an opportunity to create the card. So I'm glad for the opportunity to finally get this idea on paper... so to speak! Here's a close-up of the first pull out from the pocket...

with both tabs pulled out of the pockets...

Thanks for stopping by…

So Very Happy...Me!

I'm so thrilled...one of my projects is featured on the Caardvarks Reader's Weekend Celebration, which can be found here...
http://caardvarks.blogspot.com/2009/05/karen-aka-joshua-jiraffe-designs.html

Thank you Caardvarks! Thanks for the opportunity to showcase our work and for all the great inspiration and challenges!

Stamped Baby Onesies…

A query was raised over at the Hero Arts discussion thread regarding tips for stamping on fabric, and in particular, stamping on onesies. Taylor Vanbruggen had an excellent post on this, which can be found at http://tayloredexpressions.blogspot.com/2008/05/baby-onesies.html#links

Last summer after seeing Taylor’s post, I decided to give it a try.

I used some patterned fabrics, like Taylor used in her project. Whenever I work with fabric I always reinforce it first, with iron on fusible web. I stamped on the patterned fabric, cut out the stamped design and then ironed the stamped image onto the onesie…like an appliqué.

Backside of the onesies.

I asked my mom to stitch around the design for reinforcement and she decided to add some French Knots and little cross-stitches.

I'm pretty certain I used StazOn ink, but don’t remember. I can see from my photos that some of the stamping isn’t very sharp or dark.

Thanks for looking…