One more Lawn Fawn Card...

Here's my last Lawn Fawn card I was working on. I had to run to Joann's to get the tulle today to complete the idea I had. For $.17 I came home with enough tulle to embellish 3 or 4 cards. Such a deal and yet I think it was the perfect finishing touch!

It's really hard to see, but the darker green has a bow print and the lighter green has a flower print. I think I need to switch to a darker ink, but luckily the subtle look works for this card.



Thanks for peeking and thanks again to Lawn Fawn for the entertaining challenge--If nothing else it was a pure pleasure to have a good excuse to play with my toys! :)

A Fun Lawn Fawn Challenge

It's once again been a long time since I've updated. Apparently I need a good excuse and today I have one! Over on Lawn Fawn's blog they've posted a fun new challenge here looking for ideas using their adorable "Sew Lovely" set. Actually they're looking for ideas for several sets, but I only have two of their sets and this just happened to be one of them. I love these stamps!!! They're so whimsical and made from excellent quality polymer for crisp images every time!


Part of the challenge was that we couldn't use patterned paper and could only use the stamps from this set so I ended up making my own "homemade" patterned paper by repeating many of the stamps in the background. Some of them are hard to see in the picture but almost every paper has a pattern. I was having so much fun I ended up making 5 different cards. I'm still putting the finishing touches on one of them though so I'll just share 4 of them today:

CARD #1

CARD #2

CARD #3

CARD #4

We were having an extremely gloomy Northwest weather type of day today so I was having the hardest time getting good photos. The stamped images appear more washed out than they are in real life. Thanks for peeking! It was such a fun challenge to play along with! :)

An Unexpected Endeavor!

Yeah! It's official! We heard that the developer has accepted our offer on a Prune Hill lot we put in an offer for yesterday. It will be a little scary scraping up the down payment so close to Christmas shopping, but I'm thinking this glow can get me through it. Our plan is to hold onto it for a couple years and "maybe" start building in 18 months or so.

It's hard to see it, but our lot is just shy of 1/3 acre on a steep culdasac back there. Yoshi and I were talking about maybe selling in 4-5 years, but on a whim we both woke up last Saturday in the mood to window shop for houses to see where the market is. Before we knew it we really fell in love with this great location in Camas close to the freeway on a subdivision that went bankrupt 2 years ago at the height of the market. It felt ideal to buy and hold for a better time to sell our current house. Now we're thinking maybe we'll sell in 2 years right before Sydney enters middle school. I can't believe how quickly the deal is going--God has actually made everything fall into place so easily. It turns out I called the realtor just 5 minutes before he was heading into a meeting to sell the remaining lots to a builder that they were in discussions with. Bless that builder's heart--They said they would be willing to give up the lot we we're interested in! We close in 30 days! To think this time last week we had no intentions of buying anything... :)

This is our view from the edge of our culdasac/Front side of our lot:

Nightviews of NE Portland off the back of our lot

If you squint, far off in the distance on a clear day you can see downtown portland from the backend of our lot. I think I'm going to pin this inspiration photo next to my monitor to remind me to stop all my frivilous online spending (particularly when it comes to scrapbook supplies since I already need a dedicated u-haul to move what I have). We'll be pinching our pennies for that scary construction loan downpayment! :)

Well, I'm off to daydream about my future scrapbook room! :)

Sydney's 10th Birthday Party Invites!

I just put the finishing touches (addding wiggly eyes) on Sydney's birthday party invites last night. I found this package of print-your-own invites at my friends yard sale earlier this summer for $1. Gotta love that. I could have totally made these on my own, but it was so fun cranking these out in just a few hours. The set came with these really fun lime green envelopes and I was thinking of dressing them up with a daisy accent or something and then Sydney came up with the suggestion of adding a turtle instead. It turned out to be perfect for this color scheme.

I diecut the little guy using my Silhouette with a design by Lori Whitlock. I had personally sent them several requests begging them to design a cute turtle with her as a designer for many months. In response they kept cranking out ugly turtle after ugly turtle by other people (sorry to the other designers out there) until I finally got the one I had been waiting for. I love his cute little scalloped bottom. Sorting out polka-dots on a dozen turtles was a bit of a pain, but they were done in 3 hours from beginning to end, so who am I to complain?

Thanks for peeking. :)

August Pagemaps Blog Challenge

About the only scrapbooking I get done these days is for various scrap challenges and Becky Fleck's Page Maps Blog challenges are always favorites of mine! I wasn't totally feeling this sketch when I started (a rarity when it comes to her stuff), but as I started going and made it fit my needs I ended up really enjoying it.

Here's the challenge Sketch:


The pictures and journaling are from a post I made here last June when I saw my actress idol, Keri Russell, in person. I was kinda fearing working with these precious photos and not doing them proper justice, but they were some of the only 3 vertical photos I had to play with and in the end I'm satisfied with how it turned out. Here's my take on it:

Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper: BoBunny
Journaling Notebook: Making Memories
Flowers & Leaves: Prima
Buttons: Basic Grey
Ribbon: Michaels
Embroidery Floss: DMC
Fonts: Bernard MT Condensed &
SlashHmkBold (title) cut out on Silhouette

Hero Arts Thinking of You Girly Princess Cards

Just thought I'd share a couple cards I made to mail to Sydney and Hayley who are Japan with Daddy for 13 days. Made use of a my huge hero arts order I placed several months back. I just love these!

I also made an extra one of the "hug" cards to mail to Jennifer for Grace. Info on her card drive can be found here





I also made this special magnet for Grace to include in her card using the Spellbinder die, hero art stamps, an old advertisement magnet and LOTS of paper glaze. I loved making it, but there was a huge learning curve for me with the paper glaze. It's so wet that it completely distorted my cloud stamp and grass stamp to look like some odd dreamy airbrush technique (note to sell: next time use Memento ink for everything). My second problem came in trying to move it to a better place to dry (away from my cat who likes to sleep on the table where I work). After painstakingly removing all air bubbles (and spending more than an hour on it up to that point) it fell and faceplanted into the carpet. Eak! I didn't know what to do first--Save the carpet which had blue and green paper glaze bleading into it or trying to salvage this project. The butterflies were added to hide where I stuck my finger in trying to see if it was dry (smack myself in the head). In the end I think it still turned out cute, but I will know better when I make more for my own girls. :)




Thanks for stopping by. :)

Page Maps July 2010 Sketch Challenge

Yeah, after several months of meaning to get on here, I'm finally updating my blog!!! Now that I'm here I'm not quite sure why I was avoiding the task...

Anyway, I'm so happy to share a layout I just completed for Becky's Page Maps blog Sketch challenge. I had so much fun with this one! For an added twist she included a color challenge and since I have been really interested in what they're doing over at the Color Room it made it all the more fun for me! These colors were really a step out of my comfort zone, but after I realized it meant I could play with some of my new Echo Park Papers I was estatic!

I turned to my Silhouette to cut out the banner flags, journaling label, scalloped border and tickets! Love that thing! Was even able to kinda cut the tickets to a size to match my Hero Arts ticket stub stamps. :)

Becky's Fabulous Sketch:

My Take:




Supplies:
Echo Park Summertime Papers
Making Memories Canvas Letters
Heidi Swapp Phrase Sticker
American Crafts Ribbon
Prima Flowers
Embossing Powder
Distress Ink
Colorbox Chalk Ink
Sizzix Egg Die
Quickutz Embossing Folder
Sizzix Embossing Folder
Hero Arts Ticket Stamps
Font: 2Peas Typo
Twine

Thanks for peeking! :)

New Haircuts

Today was half days so while Hayley was in preschool, I took Sydney out to lunch and drove her to Kid's Kuts in Gresham to get her haircut (Hayley had her special date there on Friday). They always come back feeling like pampered princesses, but this time much to their delight the gal snuck in some glittery goodness when Mom wasn't looking. Sydney walked around all night trying to make sure none of it would shake out. Love this place! We can usually wash it once without removing the rubberbands so we get many days of enjoyment with it afterwards.




I may be biased, but I think I was blessed with the most beautiful girls! Don't they look so grown up?! They had very definite ideas about how they should pose. Well, I'm off to enjoy at least part of a movie in my cozy bed (Yoshi's on business so it's a rare treat for me to watch late night TV in bed). :)

A Late Valentine's Day Share

I have become completely hooked on the idea of these little treat bags. I made a handful of them for the girl's teachers (and one for Yoshi) in just over an hour using up old Paper scraps...


Then I made a couple more to surprise Sydney and Hayley with on Valentine's Morning...

I can totally see myself wanting to make these for all kinds of occasions (Easter, Halloween surprises for the neighbors, etc). I kinda wish I would have thought to make these years ago for co-worker's birthdays. It's like a card and small present all wrapped into one. Would even be cute to put a couple home-made cookies into. Anyway, needless to say I think they are my new favorite, quick and easy project! :)

A Quick and Simple Birthday Card

This is just a super quick, simple card I made for my girlfriend's birthday who loves all things Heidi Swapp. I had so much fun shopping for a matching gift of scrapbook embellishments in the same theme!




Off to watch the Good Wife. Love that show! :)

A simple set of Children's Get Well Cards

I am in love with Jennifer McGuire's blog. I am convinced if I lived in Ohio we would be great pals (LOL). Well, she has this awesome card drive for sick children who need some cheer in their lives so I finally got around to making some cards to send over to her. Check out her blog and card drive at www.jennifermcguireink.com




The insides say "Owls you feeling today?" and then a personal message to them.

Thanks for stopping by. Off to make some more cards. :)

Knee Deep in Valentine's Day Cards

Well, right around Christmas I was officially overcome with a cardmaking obsession. Honestly I've never really had a passion for making cards, but at the last minute our Church decided to have a craft bazar and I thought it might be fun to make cards to sell. Well, it didn't take long for me to realize I wouldn't have enough made in time so I sat this year out. BUT, for next year I thought if I could make about a dozen each month I would be ready without too much panic come next December. Apparently it turns out I'm not capable of doing anything half way so I have been in a word OBSESSED (so much so that I was overtaken with an idea for Christmas cards so now I have finished my cards for next year--Woo-Hoo!) Anyway, I recently came to the conclusion that I will have way too many cards to sell in a 1-day Bazar so yesterday I sat down and opened a "store" at Etsy and I sold my first card this morning. :D

You can view my store front at http://www.etsy.com/shop/snippetsbymendi

Here are a few of my favorites that I produced assembly line style this week:

Supplies: Hero Arts Stamps (Cupcake/Polka-dots), CK Puppy Love Font, Copic Markers, Stickles & Diamond Glaze.

Supplies: Hero Arts Stamp, Copic Markers, American Crafts Paper, Fiskars Border Punch, Stickles, Diamond Glaze.

Supplies: Hero Arts Stamps (Hugs & Kisses, Birds & Stripes), Versafine Ink, Stickles, BoBunny Paper.

I am completely in love with Hero Arts new stamps! I have a mile long wish list. I bought these birdies on an impulse buy yesterday. They weren't even on my list, but when I saw them this card idea popped into my head. I also treated myself to this striped background which I saw in their catalog can be turned into checks just by stamping it in two directions. So clever!

The Copic Markers were one of my Christmas presents to myself. They're a bit on the expensive side, but I'm head over heals in love (and I'm actually using them vs. collecting them). If you haven't heard of Copic Markers I would highly recommend checking them out. Here are a few of my favorite websites I found on them:

This is just a good general question and answer website: http://debbiedesigns.typepad.com/muse_and_amuse/FAQs_on_Copic_Markers.html

Here's the cheapest place to buy them and they offer free shipping on Sketch Marker purchases over $100: http://www.carpediemstore.com/listCategoriesAndProducts.asp?idCategory=24

Here's a great website who also sells them and her color recommendations are awesome: http://www.ellenhutson.com/servlet/the-971/COPIC-Sketch-Marker-Sets/Detail

I like this site's color recommendations too: http://www.papertreyink.com/acc_copics_sketchmarkers.html

Here's a cool website that did a test using the markers with different inks and papers: http://ilikemarkers.blogspot.com/search/label/paper

Happy Crafting! :)