Yay! It's your Birthday!

We went to a birthday party the other night and I needed to whip up a card.  (Why don't I have a stash of these ready to go?  Good question!).  I had seen something like this on Karen Burniston's blog and thought the pop up idea would be fun.  I don't have the die she used but this was actually really simple to make.  As luck would have it this card works for the CAS-ual Fridays Pretty in Pink Challenge as well.

Fun, yes?  The "posts" fold into the middle when the card is closed and pop outward as it's opened.  The trick to the mechanism is that the pop up is cut on an angle.  I added a little pizzazz with blue, pink, green and yellow Stickles near the sentiment as well.

This came together really quickly so I'm going to make more of these for sure.  Maybe even get a stash of them. ;)

Oh, Baby!

We have a new baby in the family!  My husbands' cousin's son and his wife (what is that?  Second cousin??) just had a bouncing baby boy.

 It's hard to believe my three kiddos were once such tiny little bundles.  He is so dang cute.  :)

I made a couple of cards - one for the proud grandma and one for the new parents.

 

I love Grandma's card.  I have a thing for yellow, black and white together - just works for me. Especially with that bit of gingham ribbon.

 

This little onesie stamp is so cute too.  I stamped the background and then stamped it again on patterned paper and cut it out.  A few pop dots on the back lift it up off the base.

Only two days left until summer break starts for us - yay!

SAM I am

Yesterday I went on a field trip with my youngest and his class to the Seattle Art Museum.  Our primary focus was the Australian Aboriginal Art exhibition.

For more info on this image go here: http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/ancestralmodern/

Our docent was incredible and I loved that she didn't talk down to the kids but still spoke their language.  Talk about inspiring...the artwork was amazing and the stories behind the work really intriguing as well.  One piece in particular really caught my eye.  It is large - took up a whole wall - with a black background and white dashes of paint all over.  The kids' interpretations of the painting were really inventive and creative.  It was similar in style to this one by Gloria Petyarre but imagine a huge canvas and dashes the size of of your pinkie toe.

As soon as I got home I started googling aboriginal art like a mad woman.  I'm really fascinated by it and hope to get back to SAM before the exhibit closes in September.  I highly recommend it if you're in the Seattle area this summer.

Fold It, Pop It, Flip It, Zip It

I recently took an interactive card class taught by Julie Ebersole.  It was fantastic.  She is an incredible teacher and I learned so many great techniques that I had always thought would be much too time consuming. 

Here are some of the cards I created:

The umbrella lifts to reveal a message ("Feel Better")

A shadow box card.  This lays flat to mail but pops up to reveal multi-dimensional embellishments.

This is a buckle card.  The middle element flip around to reveal a sentiment or image on the back.  I've listed this one here in the shop.

A zipper card.  When the tab to the right is pulled a hidden message is revealed ("You're one of a kind!")

I also learned how to make scratch-off (you know...with the grey stuff that you rub off with a penny), honeycomb pop-up, spinner, marquee, and view master cards (and a couple more).  Lots of fun and talk about papery potential?  Get outta here!

If you enjoy making cards I highly recommend Julie Ebersole as a teacher.  Good stuff.

I Love a Good Book

I am so ready for some long, lazy summer days.  I love to sit on my backyard deck soaking up some rays with a good book to keep me company.  Sometimes I get book recommendations from friends or it might be something I grab off the display that the librarian has kindly put out at our local library. 

I have a feeling this summer I'm going to get even more reading in.  My daughter has decided to play club soccer again which means three times a week trips to practices that are too far away to come home between drop-off and pick-up. 

In honor of my projected summer book-reading extravaganza I'm making some Summer Reading Journals.  I hate it when I vaguely remember a book I've read but don't remember enough of it to know if it's recommendable (is that a word?).  I'm going to make some for my kiddos too...they don't know that yet.  :)

Not wanting to keep this excellent idea (if I do say so myself) all to my lonesome I'm also adding some to the shop.  So far I've added these two:

At 4.25' x 5.5" these little gems fit nicely in a purse or beach bag.  You can find them here in the shop.

Okay, Seattle weather gods.  Please cooperate by giving me a nice, sunny summer!

Crayons in a hot Car

I hear the audible groans but it's not what you think.  I grew up in Southern California.  On more than one occasion I recall getting into the hot car with the eau du Crayola permeating the air because I'd left my box of crayons sitting on the seat (sorry, Mom!).  This was the flashback I kept having while working on this project. 

My kids were never big on crayons so I have loads and loads of them stashed away.  In my blog wanderings I stumbled upon a woman who did some fun crayon art with her kids and that led me to this.  This is an exercise in Melted Crayon Pointillism.

I was thinking I'd make something to put in the shop but instead made something to put on my office wall.

 

It took longer than I expected but I have to say, there is just something about the smell of crayons that brings back such happy childhood memories.  (That and the fact that I bought a new box of Glitter crayons for this too.  Love a box of new crayons with their pointy little tops!).

I used adhesive-backed 4" x 4" canvases for the base.  I think I'll plop them in a frame and stick them on the wall.  Loving the bright cheery colors on these. 

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

Beautiful Sunny Days!

... make me a Happy Camper! 

We are finally getting a little sunshine again after several days of cloudy, rainy weather.  To top it off, today is the beginning of a 4-day weekend for my kiddos.  All is well with my world and that will have to make for a quick post so I can go out and play in the sunshine.

I found this card in my Etsy stash the other day.  I never got around to listing it - oops.

I had made it as a mock-up for a customer who was having a dinosaur-themed party for her little girl.  She ended up switching themes and so this little guy was relegated to the card box.  I love the lumpy, bumpy texture on his head and googly eyes always make for a fun addition.  I could leave off the outside teeth to make him more snake-like for a birthday card saying something along the lines of

"Have a S-s-s-s-SUPER Birthday!"

So if you know any herpetologist- and/or paleontologist-minded peeps consider this as a birthday card! See it in my Etsy shop here.

Cheers!