A Couple Notebooks

 Here's a notebook I redecorated for my sis-in-law.

I used Berry Blossom DSP because she likes bright bold colors. The ribbon is the organza ribbon from Sale-a-bration!

Then I realized the cherry needed Crystal Effects! :) As you can see I hadn't used it in a long while, and after I unstuck the tip, I squeezed it pretty hard. Oops. :) Look at the glob that came out!

Here it is all dried! The perfect amount! Granted I left this to dry for about 24 hours.. you can't be to careful, right?! 

And here's a similar one for a close friend. I did more Coral and Poppy... not as much CE, but the cherry is still shiny.

I used my white gel pen to draw some lines on the bottom of the cupcake. It looked a little lost. ;)

Hope you're all having a great week so far.

Leave a comment, if you'd like. They are always SO welcome!

~Natalie

Birthday Boy!!

My friend's little boy turned 2 last week, so we had dinner with them yesterday to celebrate. I had the idea in my head of what I wanted to make, so this card came together pretty quick, all things considered. :)

Obviously I used the Cupcake Builder Punch, and a white gel pen to give it a little dimension.

The balloons were made using the 1" circle punch and the Boho Blossoms. A little more gel pen and they are shiny! :) The Red and Green balloons are popped up on Dimensionals. I wrapped a little Espresso Twine around the 'blossom' part and tied the strings together, which is stuck to the card with a glue dot.

I finally got this sentiment out and colored it! So proud of myself. -Hey, it's the little things!- haha! :D

Happy Monday!

~Natalie

Teacher Card

My older daughter has the best Kindergarten Teacher ever! She taught my son last year and will have my youngest this fall and it's so great to have a continuing relationship with her! She has so much fun with her class and the kids learn so fast! I can't believe how far my kids' learning came that first year! (I'm kinda nervous about my baby going this Fall. I just really don't want them to grow up so fast!)

My daughter wrote her a little note about what she did over Spring Break (she learned to ride a bike w/o training wheels!) and that she missed her. How sweet!

I made this card especially for her (inspired by my Grandma's card in this post). 

Sorry about the photo. I had to snap it quick before it went into the backpack. ;)

 Soft Suede, Beau Chateau DSP, Pink Pirouette, Naturals White. Suede for sponging.

I got out my Vanilla Smooch and sprayed it on... quite liberally. (It was my first time.) :) It made it so shiny!

This looks so great IRL. 

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

~Natalie

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Here's the card I made earlier this week for my Grandma's 86th birthday today.

She and my Grandpa are spry young things, live in a cabin in the wood, have a big garden and raise chickens & ducks! She's a crazy crafty lady: sewing, quilting, cross-stitch, crochet, knit, teaches Sunday school with my G-pa and makes all the little crafts they do in class, as well as sends the cutest little crafty things for my children at holidays and birthdays!

Quick card notes: Natural Ivory, Crumb Cake, lots of sponging. The ribbon border is Natural Ivory sponged with Blushing Bride and Mist.

I stapled the Crochet Trim onto the Crumb Cake and then mounted the 'Grandma' on top usaing Dimensionals, so it isn't going anywhere!

Well, off to help my hubby put steak and sweet potatoes on the table!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

~Natalie

Re-visited card

I had the card from my last post (HERE) sitting on my desk, and it started growing on me, so I re-visited it, using different colors for a softer look and DSP to add texture. 

Card base is Pear, DSP is Saffron and Rose Red. 

This time around I used Espresso Baker's Twine and Rhinestones.

I'm having some friends over tonight for a stamp night, and they will be making variations of this card. I'm putting out lots of paper and card stock out so they can play around with the colors.

Hope you have a great day,

~Natalie

Wow! It's been a while!

Well, I'll start by saying sorry for not finishing my Valentine's count down. Had a kid break her arm and another with a fever every weekend in Feb. I actually didn't get to craft for an entire month! I added a little something to a card I'd started a year or more ago, but other than that, I wasn't in my stamp area from Feb9-Mar9. Sad, I know.
So here's the card I finally finished...
Before:
I'm going to guess at the colors: Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango and Garden Green? Not sure.

After/Finished:

New stuff:

 A Large Scallop in Bashful Blue. The flower is stamped in Parfait, punched out with the 1 3/4" circle punch. I tied some White Baker's Twine around the scallop and popped the flower on top with Dimensionals.

The sentiment is stamped with Espresso, and I found some matched card stock for the Itty Bitty punched flower.  

Here's the broken arm. Doesn't she look sad? ;) This didn't phase her at all, and she only had to have the cast on for 2 weeks, since it had been a week after breaking it before she got the cast. Kids heal so fast!

Thanks for sticking with me. More to come....

~Natalie