Play Date Cafe - Splash of Yellow

It's been a while since I've played along with any card challenges.  I just couldn't resist when I saw this one from Play Date Cafe though.  Lovin' the grey and black with a splash of yellow  of the inspiration photo. 

It also helped that the umbrella stamp and die set just showed up in my mailbox a couple of days ago.  :)

Here's my card:

I made it for my sister and brother-in-law who have been so supportive of my family the past few years as we've dealt with life's ups and downs.  They are awesome and we're so fortunate to have them in our lives.

Here's the scoop on the card...
I die-cut the umbrella base from an old page protector.  I had those old transparent umbrellas in mind.  The clouds were stamped with background stamps and then I cut around the cloud image.  The raindrops have little bits of sparkly clear Stickles on them to be shimmery and shiny like rain.

Thanks for peekin'.  :) Julie

Yo Gabba Gabba - 1, Julie - 0

I love my customers.  They come up with the greatest ideas for my paper bag puppet cards and really get my creative mojo going by asking me to create custom items for them. 

In the past couple of months I've had several people ask me if I make Yo Gabba Gabba invitations.  What?!   You haven't heard of Brobee, Foofa, Toodee, Muno or Plex?  How about DJ Lance Rock?  My littlest one just entered double digits so I hadn't either, but these happy little dancing beasties are all the rage with the preschool crowd these days. 

So I spent the other day designing, cutting and pasting and came up with these little wonders.

Kinda cute, aren't they?  I was so pleased with the way they turned out and added them to my Etsy shop right away eagerly awaiting some feedback. 

But alas, (queue the creepy music) before you could say "Tiny Ugly Germs" (villains in Gabba Gabba Land)

an attorney for GabbaCaDabra came raining down on my parade uttering big words like "Copyright Infringement" and "Deactivation" and "Exclusive Property".

Oh.  (Unhappy face)  Yeah,  I did make them look like the characters.  But ...
there are lots of other Yo Gabba Gabba items on Etsy...digital ones and mass-produced ones not hand-crafted piece by itty-bitty piece with tender loving care like mine.

 I don't think that argument will pull any weight with her though.  I guess what Mom said is true.  "If all of your friends were jumping off a cliff..."

Darn.

R2D2, Where are you?

"Excuse me sir, but that R2-D2 is in prime condition, a real bargain" - C3PO to Luke

You betcha.  A customer asked me if I could make one of my paper bag puppet cards into Yoda, R2D2 or Luke Skywalker.  Always one to take on a challenge I heartily replied, "No problem!  Of course I can!"  To me there is something very endearing about good ol' Yoda so I tried him first.  No go.  Those ears of his just don't work on this kind of card.  I thought about Luke, but trying to make him look like Luke, and not just some guy, would be tricky.  R2D2 it is.  Lots of little bits and pieces on this guy and fiddly little gluing but here's what I came up with:

She loves him!  Yay!  I keep hearing little "bleep-bleep-bleep" noises in my head while working on these.  :)

If You Give a Kid a Camera...

...you will get some very interesting pictures indeed. At least if that kid is 9 and using a disposable camera.  Pictures like this self-portrait of his incredibly sunburned little face.

To celebrate National Scrapbooking Day yesterday I set my Etsy hat aside and picked up a dust-covered envelope full of pictures of my kiddos.  I happily scrapped away and added some long-awaited layouts to our albums.  When I reached over to grab pictures of my youngest's overnight trip to camp last year I leafed through them but couldn't quite find any that struck my fancy; mostly because they were pictures like these:

I decided the best tactic here was to create a little mini book for him using ALL of his wonderful pictures.  I left some space on each page for him to record what in the world he was thinking his precious camp memories.

He got a big smile on his face when I showed it to him.  Mission accomplished.

Face Painting and Cards

Yes, an odd mix to be sure.  I teach at a preschool and we're having an end-of-year BBQ/auction/carnival in a couple of weeks.  I volunteered to do some face painting.  What was I thinking?  I don't do face painting!  But they were going to skip it if nobody offered and you just know the kidlets love to have their cherubic little  faces painted.  So today I plan on sitting down with some watercolors and working out some REALLY SIMPLE designs that my little kiddos will like.  I'm thinking stars, butterflies, flowers, snakes, lizards/dinosaurs, lightning bolts.  If anybody out there has other ideas take pity on me and please SHARE YOUR IDEAS.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart (hey, hearts!  I could do those too!).

As for cards, I recently went through my stash and realized I have a bunch that I've never photographed and added to the shop.  So that's what I've been doing the last few days.  Some I've posted about before but here are a few new ones that I've added:

While I've listed these separately they can be purchased via this great deal which applies a 15% discount when 4 cards are purchased.

I love this card.  The guy was hand-stamped 4 times on different papers and then I cut out pieces, colored them and layered them for a cool, dimensional look.  I made the background by inking up some bubble wrap (love that technique).  The text star is from a book I saved from the recycle bin.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today.  YOU make ME smile.  May your skies be sunny and your cares be few.

Oops Baby

No, this is not an announcement!  LOL...

I am a frequent visitor to the Moxie Fab World blog and really liked the latest Tuesday Trigger challenge. 

The watercolor idea struck a chord with me so I got out my dusty watercolors and played around.  Whipped out some markers and ink.  Woo Hoo!  I'm on a roll!  My mom hasn't gotten a card in a while so I excitedly put everything together, matted the watercolored flowers, stamped the sentiment and dots.  I like it!  

 So I go to open the card to write a message to her... oh... dang. I put everything on upside down.

Let's just call this a trick, alternative card, shall we?  Oh well, Mom loves me no matter how goofy my cards turn out.

Happy Weekend, one and all!

Teacher Appreciation Week is Almost Here!

Yay for teachers! 

Next month is Teacher Appreciation Week.  It's always nice to know that you're appreciated but teachers don't expect you to go overboard in expressing your thanks.  Many times a hand-written note from your child is all they need.  If you want to do a little more consider gifts that don't have anything to do with apples (most teachers are "appled-out") or involve items that they will need to store.  Gift cards to office supply stores, craft stores or book stores are usually a good bet (they spend more than we realize for the classroom out of their own pockets) or if you know what hobby he or she is interested in a gift card to that type of store is perfect too.

This is what I'm doing for my son's teachers (if you know Lynn and Mr. Barnes don't tell them!).  It's small, inexpensive and doesn't need to be stored. 

The tag fits over a standard 16.9-oz. water bottle.  The little pocket holds the drink mix (plenty of room for a gift card too) and all they have to do is dump the contents into the bottle and shake for a tasty alternative to plain ol' water.  The mix is Iced Tea with Lemon - and it's really tasty.

Little added details include the green & white bakers twine and the hand-stamped and embossed lemon wedge that's lifted off the base with dimensional foam dots.

If you'd like to do this for your child's teachers too I've put them in my Etsy shop here.

Have a great day!