Graduation Cards and Gifts

I know it's mid-summer but I wanted to share some of the graduation cards and gifts I made this year! First, I made cards for all the graduates at my daughter's school. It's a very small, private school. My son graduated from there a few years ago (see this post about graduation decorating) and I also served as the school librarian for several years, so I knew most of the students who were graduating. I made a boy version and a girl version, using the school colors of red, white and blue, as well as matching bookmarks.

I also made cards for faraway friends.  I have an internet friend whose daughter graduated and we have some special friends who moved away years ago but remain close in our hearts.  

These last two were my favorites. I used an adorable Stamps of Life set called "Hats4Critters." One card for another internet friend's daughter and the other for another of my daughter's friends who moved away.

My daughter also had a sweet teacher who is moving away (why does everyone leave us??). She came to the school as a Biology teacher and ended up teaching English...phys. ed...and almost anything BUT Biology - that's how it goes at small private schools! I made her a going away card and gifts.

I do have to tell you about the absolutely awesome heat transfer vinyl I used for the shirt and bag. HappyCrafters.com has the most beautiful patterned vinyl, it cuts like butter and weeds like a dream!! It is wonderful, AND they are based here in my home state of West Virginia! How cool is that? I will definitely be ordering more vinyl from them in the future!

That's all for now! Thanks for checking out my blog. I do hope to be back soon with some other fun things I have worked on recently.

Cards Cards Cards

I've been getting into stamping lately, something I thought I'd never do.  I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos, and buying a lot of stamps and inks and dies. Cardmaking is rewarding because it's something I can actually finish in one sitting usually. I've been trying to make up enough cards to get through a year of birthdays and other occasions so I will have cards on hand when I need one. I don't have enough yet but I'm still working on it!  Here are some I have made recently.

I am beginning to get a little Stampin' Up! collection, but there are so many different companies I love, that I can't commit to just one. These first three cards use mostly Stampin' Up stamps.

 

I love roses! The two- and three-step stamps are challenging for me, but are so pretty with the different shades of inks.

 

These roses I colored with Spectrum Noir markers.

   

Two looks from the same die. The first one is inked with a sponge and the second one is cut from foil paper.

For this one, I followed a sketch from CardzTV.

I decided I was using too much pink so I should make some other colors! ;)

I got a Gina K Designs card kit for my birthday in May and I followed some of her tutorials for making cards with it.  All of the stamped images were colored using Spectrum Noir markers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for now! I've sent some of these out already, and there are others I made that I didn't include here. I have several other projects that I did over the summer that I want to share next.

Tote Bags

I tend to make gifts with a similar theme. Recently my theme was tote bags.

I made this bag for my daughter's piano teacher. I had been eyeing that rose trim at Hobby Lobby for months. Finally I knew exactly what to use it on! Everyone knows I don't (cant!) sew, so of course it is glued on with fabric glue, haha!  The verse was purchased from the Silhouette store and cut on green holographic heat transfer vinyl.

This bag was made for my friend who loves dogs and is very involved in dog rescue organizations. I used a silver sequin trim around the top and black and red heat transfer vinyl. It hung in my craft room for a very long time because I thought it needed something else, but I couldn't get her to tell me her favorite color. I just knew she doesn't care a lot for red so even though something red would match the "love," I didn't want that. I finally found this big black flower and decided it would be perfect.

My daughter's friend's 16th birthday was coming up and she wanted me to make her "something Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman!" because that's her favorite show. Let me tell you, there's not much Dr. Quinn merchandise or quotes to get ideas from.  I looked forEVER and finally found an "I (heart) SULLY" picture and, since I had another bag left over, thought it would work. I traced a drawing of Sully - that thing was a beast to weed, he has a lot of hair! In fact, I gave up weeding and just left it how it was because it was beginning to rip in places. I used the same gorgeous rose trim that I used on the black bag.  I think it turned out OK and she loved it!!

It's always fun trying to get pictures of my stuff - this is my cat, Luna, knocking down the display board with the bag as I was trying to photograph it. Silly kitty.  More kitty photobombs to come in future posts!!

I have some different tote bags I picked up that I hope to work on soon, once I figure out what to put on them. I've been in a card making mood lately though so I'm thinking my next post might (hopefully) be cards.

50th Birthday Party

My husband celebrated the BIG 5-0 a week before Christmas. He's not one for surprise parties, but I couldn't let the day go by as a normal birthday, so we had a little surprise party with just our family of four. He worked that day, giving us time to decorate, but got off a little early. We waited in the dining room and when he came in, we jumped out and yelled "SURPRISE!" He WAS surprised and genuinely loved it.
  

I found that black and white chevron wrapping paper for 50% off in the Christmas section at Hobby Lobby! That paper doesn't look very Christmas-y to me, does it to you?

My goal was to have 50 presents for him to open, but, being the week before Christmas, I had a hard time with that! So I settled for 25 presents, making him feel younger ;)

Can you believe that is actually 50 kisses in that cup? It is!

50 sucks! I made all the centerpiece sticks with my Silhouette Cameo.

The banner was a Silhouette file.

We added the balloons shortly before he got home so they wouldn't go flat too soon.

And...my favorite thing. I agonized for hours --days!-- on what to put on the cake when suddenly a lightbulb went off.  It was so simple! I made a devil's food cake (because being 50 is...you know...haha!).  Records have always been his favorite form of music and he has been regrowing his collection lately.  I cut a black sugar sheet using my Silhouette Cameo in the shape of a record with the word "ROCKS" cut out.  I used a light up color changing "50" candle holder in the center.

It was a fun birthday!

Birthday Week!

Birthday week! My kids have birthdays just two days apart.  My son turned 19 and my daughter turned 16 this past week.

The obligatory birthday pic

I had been thinking of having her a surprise Sweet Sixteen party since last year and then time got away from me as it tends to do and combined with some setbacks, it almost didn't happen. It wasn't a "real" party, but she was surprised and I think she loved it anyway.

If you know me, you know I am "themey." Everything has to have a theme and it has to coordinate. I searched Pinterest for ideas for a sweet sixteen party and most of the things that came up were candy related. Then I saw a Starbucks party and I knew that was it! She's a Starbucks girl, she likes her iced and flavored coffees and frappuccinos.

I wanted to do a party with her church youth group but couldn't get the timing worked out. The youth leader graciously allowed me to bring cupcakes and some decorations on Wednesday night, the day before her birthday. I enlisted the aid of one of her friends to coordinate the teens to yell "surprise!" when she walked in. I wish I could have been there, but that would have given away the surprise. Scroll on to see what I crafted for the big event!

The Starbucks themed decoration board for the party. The idea was to make it look kind of like a Starbucks store, with the chalkboard menu and pictures of drinks.

I tried to duplicate the look of the Starbucks coffee cup with the wrap. I made about 4 dozen "Starbucks Salted Caramel Frappuccino cupcakes." YES!  I! MADE! THEM! If you know me, you know I don't "do" food. I just don't like to cook/bake/decorate and I HATE to clean up the mess. But I found the recipe on Pinterest and it sounded easy enough so I just went for it. They turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself! My daughter's reaction was priceless when I told her I made them. "YOU made these????"  She thought I had gotten them from my cake supplier ;)

The surprised birthday girl. She couldn't believe I pulled it off.  She couldn't believe that her friend, well known for not being able to keep secrets, kept the secret!!

This is what she got in her lunchbox the next day, on her actual birthday. She wasn't supposed to open her lunchbox until lunchtime, and I had included a note that she had to wear the crown in order to get lunch (which I was bringing to her). The little stinker found it before lunch and then left it in her locker so she wouldn't have to wear it!  Sometimes she's no fun at all!  It's not a very good picture of the bottle, but I glittered the bottom part of it. One side says "Birthday Girl" and the other side says "Sweet 16." I made the vinyl part removable (I mean, she's only a birthday girl for one day) but the glitter part is really pretty and is supposed to be washable even in the dishwasher so we'll see how it holds up!

Nothing crafting related here but this is cute! The only thing she wanted for her birthday was a dog! She didn't get one, ha! But we had gone out to eat and as we were leaving the restaurant, this super friendly dog (and her owners) were outside. So she got some dog loving and a doggie kiss on her birthday after all!

The cake!!  I made the cake!! My kids don't like traditional birthday cakes, so she had requested a cheesecake. I had been wanting to try cutting a sugar sheet in my Cameo and I'm happy to say it worked very well!! Glenna at MyPaperCraze has a fantastic tutorial on cutting sugar sheets. There were a few spots that were difficult to remove, especially the centers of the letters "A" and "R" (thank goodness there were only those two)! It's not perfect but overall, I was very pleased with how it turned out. I will be doing this again since it was a pretty easy way to decorate a cake! (Bonus that it was also yummy!)

Of course, no party is complete without a birthday banner! Yes, even though they are not all in the picture, there are sixteen pennants.

That's all for now, time to work on my next project!