Teacher Appreciation: Thank You For Helping Us Bloom!

It's National Teacher Appreciation Week, and although the Mess Maker's preschool doesn't really "celebrate" the occasion (which I think is a travesty!), I wanted to do something for the teachers to let them know how appreciated they are!

The idea for this plant stake came from an original design by "Dimple Prints" HERE.  I designed a similar sentiment in Word, and then punched it out with a circle punch.  I added a green and white circle mat (Cricut: George cartridge), and then a yellow scalloped circle (Cricut: Storybook cartridge) for the flower. 

I attached the flower to a wooden skewer.  But I wanted to make sure the teachers knew it was from the entire class, so I decided to add each child's name to a leaf (Cricut: Doodlecharms cartridge).  The leaves were cut at 3/4", and then I ran them through my printer to print the names on them.  I have a tutorial HERE on how to do this if you're interested!

I hot glued the leaves to the skewer and added a narrow green ribbon.  Mrs. S gets a green Hydrangea plant because green is her favorite color, and Mrs. T gets a Gardenia plant because that's her favorite flower.  :)

To all of the wonderful teachers out there who educate, nuture, entertain, shape and encourage our children...

THANK YOU!!!

"Thanks A Latte!" Coffee Cup Slider Card / Gift Card Holder

I wanted to give some giftcards to Starbucks to the volunteers that helped with the Book Theater play I coordinated at the Mess Maker's school...and I wanted cute packaging!  So I searched the web and found this coffee cup slider card idea HERE.

I changed up the sentiment to read "Thanks a latte!" instead of Happy Birthday, and changed up the color scheme a bit, but the base of the card is the same.  And it has a Starbucks card inside!

I won't repeat the instructions here, because I think "Creative Cucina" did a great job with her photos and instructions.  But I will show a few photos of the part where you add the sticky strip or Terrically Tacky Tape, because I had to play around with it before I could figure it out!  :)

Here is how you apply the TTT:

Then fold in the right side:

And the fold in the left:

And this is how you trim the "cup"/sleeve to the correct size:

The rest of the information and instructions are at Creative Cucina. 

Here is a photo of all of the cards I made:

Thanks for looking!  :)

Thank You Cards (CTMH Boom Di Ada Collection)

I made these thank you cards using the Boom Di Ada patterned paper collection from CTMH.  To make the "thank you" stamped square, I combined several "thank you sentiments" from different CTMH stamp sets and randomly covered a 4x4 acrylic block with them!  Using Olive ink, I stamped the sentiment onto Colonial White cardstock and then rounded the corners.

I wrapped coordinating ribbon around the square, adhered a green flower (craft supply) and then layered a circular "thank you" sentiment in the center.  Then I matted the square with Boom Di Ada paper and adhered it to the card base.

Thanks for looking!!!  :)

Red/Black Snowflake "Thanks" Card

Each year, the day after Christmas, I get to work on my thank you notes for the wonderful and thoughtful gifts my family and I received over the holidays...this year I got started a couple of days late, but I finished them today and I'll be filling them out tomorrow and (hopefully) mailing them by Jan. 1.  Whew!!!  :)

These thank you's were made with the Magic Of The Season paper pack from Hobby Lobby.  I just LOVE the papers in this pack and the awesome black/red/cream color combo!  I used a cream card base, cut black cs slightly smaller than the base, and then cut the red snowflake pattern slightly smaller than the black cs (and inked the edges in black).  I cut a 1" x 5" strip of the cream snowflake pattern and used my scallop edge scissors to trim both sides (I inked the edges of this as well).  I adhered the strip in the middle of the card.

For the embellishment, I used the Home Accents Cricut cartridge and cut a snowflake at 2 1/2" out of black cs.  I used black glitter glue to cover the top outer edges of the snowflake, let that dry, and then layered a cream flower over it.  I used cream satin ribbon to tie a bow and stamped "Thanks" (CTMH "Thank You" #D1361) on each tail of the bow using black Staz-On ink (CTMH #Z888) and attached it to the snowflake/flower with a large black brad.

Thanks for looking!  :)

Just Buggin Challenge #13: Sew It!

This week's challenge at Just Buggin is called "Sew It!"...use sewing on your project (and of course include a die cut!).  You can use traditional stitching, faux stitching, stamped stitching, etc.  I decided to use faux stitching on this project.  It gives it just a little extra detail, without having to break out the sewing machine!!!

To make the card, I used an 81/2 x 11" piece of dark brown cs, cut in half, and then scored in the middle.  Then I looked through my stash of brown "scraps" and found all of these coordinating pieces which I turned into a collage on the card front!  I can't tell you the manufacturer for them all b/c they were all pretty small pieces.  But I do know that none of them were initially bought to be used with each other!  I inked the edges of each piece with Cocoa CTMH ink and then adhered them to the front.

The die cut is from Accent Essentials and I used the shadow feature to mat it with dark brown cs (Bazzill).  I added a small silk flower with a brad (Paper Studio) and a ribbon (craft supply) for extra detail and then stamped my sentiment with a CTMH acrylic stamp.  To finish the card, I used a CTMH black ink pen to draw alternating dots and lines to look like stitching, both around the floral mat, and around one of the small pieces in the collage.

Thanks for looking!  :)

ICSketches 2009 Design Team Call: Two Card Examples

ICSketches (Inspirational Card Sketches) is having a Design Team Call.  They are looking for three new designers and I decided to give it a shot!  I've been wanting to be on a design team both for the challenge and for the inspiration, and I love this site (I have it linked to my blog so I can check it often...see sidebar on right, scroll down).  I'm not getting my hopes up, but I just think it would be so fun to join this team!  Here is the sketch provided:

I made two cards using this sketch and this is the first one...  I had some tan and brown flourish paper by Paperie I recently purchased and I have been wanting to use it on a card.  So I decided this project was perfect for it!

I used the accent stripe (on back of flourish paper) for the rectangle on the right and inked it.  I used brown cs with a flourish printed transparency by Creative Imaginations for the bottom rectangle, inked on the edges and held together by brads painted in brown.  I added tan and brown ribbon (the tan is actually the back side of some leopard print ribbon, but it was the perfect color) in place of the red rectangle in the sketch.  I cut an accent photo corner and flourish (Cricut Storybook Cartridge) in tan and inked the edges.  I stamped "Thanks" (CTMH) using a second generation stamp to mute it a little and then used adhesive foam dots to pop the brown rectangle and flourish.  I finished it off with a brown paper flower and another brad.

My second card using this sketch is a more feminine card using paper by SEI (I just love this butterfly paper!) and mirrored butterfly accents by Heidi Swapp that I've had forever! 

I inked the edges of all pieces.  The white/pink print is the reverse of the brown butterfly print.  I used brown and light pink cs for the small mats.  I stamped "Thinking of You" (CTMH) on the pink and popped it with foam adhesive dots.  I added brown flourish rub-ons to the butterfuly mirror to give it some detail.  Then I tied a pink flourish print ribbon (with glitter accents...to match the glitter accents on the paper) around the card and glued a paper flower and the butterfly on top. 

 TFL!!!  :)

Turtle Shaped Thank You Cards

I needed to make some thank you notes which are long overdue...so what better theme than a "slow turtle"???  I found this super-cute example by Kimberly Watson on the Cricut Message Board, and decided I wanted to make turtles like hers, but I decided to make the actual card in the shape of a turtle.  Here is what I came up with:

The turtle comes from the Walk In My Garden Cricut cartridge, cut at 4".  I used the shadow feature for the black cardstock turtle-shaped card base (with a white square mat on the inside for writing) and the regular 4" for the green patterned paper by Imginisce (LOVE IT!).  I accented with green glitter glue.  I added a green rhinestone brad for the eye, silk flowers and adhesive rhinestones for the turtle's back and finished off with a bow and sentiment (printed on the computer).  Ta-da!  TFL!!!  :)

Craft: Purple Thanks Card (MojoMonday Mojo Turns 100 Day 2 Sketch)

Just to let you know how addicted to these sketch and challenge blogs I am, I went ahead and made this card even though I feel like a truck ran over me! Could it be the flu??? God I hope not. But it sure does feel like it... But even sick people need a creative escape, right??? :)

This card is based on a sketch from the MojoMonday blog. They turned "100" and had a new sketch each day this week. This sketch was from day 2. This card was made with some purple patterened paper I've had forever. I decided to use it up along with some purple flowers for this sketch.

No fancy techniques this time...give me a break...I'm sick, remember????? : () --That's me coughing...hah!

Craft: Blue/Black Thank You Card

The projects I do the most often are cards, namely Thank You cards. I just love them! I think it's one of the best ways to show my appreciation to someone or for something. This is a card I made recently out of some random supplies I had on hand. I have had the black 'thank you' ribbon for probably 4 years!!!

Craft: "Thanks" card

I'll admit it...I'm a scraplifter. I see ideas in magazines or online and "oooh" and "aaah" over them until I re-create them for myself. And since I usually make batches of cards rather than just one of each kind, any changes I make (to make it more of "my own") have to be somewhat easy to duplicate. Sometimes, I pretty much re-create exactly what I see. This card (above) is one of those that I pretty much just kept as I saw it, except for the sentiment. Loved the contrast of the black card with the bright colors.

Original "Mom card" (below) by Michelle St. Clair, was featured at:
http://www.papercraftsmag.com/articles/Mom_card