Be My Valentine!

I was SO in the mood - to make valentines, that is! Valentines Day is the perfect opportunity to play with all my stamps and stuff, and at the same time show my dear ones how much I love them.

And when I make valentines, there is always chocolate and candy involved, of course - another motivating factor.

I was anxious to try my new Petal Cone die for my Big Shot which makes this perfectly adorable cone shaped box!

I just love the red and white wide striped ribbon and the crinkly gold paper!

Crowns, the Eiffel Tower, and the key to my heart - so very French! This Valentine is so ME! Amour!!!!

I also made these candy bar holders. So fun and easy. XOXO!

When you pull up on the ribbon, the candy bar pops out! What's not to LOVE?

For the kids in my seminary class, I made these cute little baggies. I found the small paper bags on clearance years ago, thinking I could do just such a project. The toppers are just cut with my Top Note die. The heart is shiny and puffy using Crystal Effects. LOVE - from the bottom of my heart!

For my own kiddos, I simply dressed up some boxes of conversation hearts with my new Be My Valentine stamp, the jumbo scallop circle punch, and a bubbly texture folder on my Big Shot!

I (heart) my boys: Alex, Nate, Derek, Dylan, Caleb, and Luke!

My younger guys also made their valentines for all the kids in their classes. It is a tradition. We make these every year, and have since my highschooler was in preschool - lollipop holders. They are quick and cute, and the kids do most of the work themselves. Caleb and Luke worked so hard on them. It was so fun to watch. Both crafters after my own heart!

Happy Valentine's Day, my fellow Attic Diggers! Hope you just feel the love!

Birdies and Babies

Attic Gal Rachelle says:

On Wednesday I threw a surprise baby shower for my friend Shea and her sweet new baby.  The theme was birdies, and it was so fun to do.

This was the first time I didn't hand stamp all my invitations thanks to my brand new My Digital Studio software from Stampin' Up!  I had just received it in the mail when it was time to do the invitations, so I thought I'd give it a try.  HOW FUN!  It was really, really easy to use - very intuitive!  I sat down and created this invite in only about an hour my first time using the program.  It is so fun because it comes pre-loaded with tons of SU! artwork and exclusive colors.  Super fun!  I was in luck because I took photos of Shea's baby a little while ago, so I already had his pictures to put on the invitations.  I just emailed the invitations to everyone, and printed out and sent a few to people that I didn't have email addresses for.  (Sorry, I am pretty excited about my new program, as you can see!)


Since it is finally fall here in the desert I decided to chance it and have the shower outside.  It was a bit warm, but we managed.  For a table cover I used a fun quilt top I found at a garage sale a few weeks ago.  It is from the 30s of 40s and the fabric is so very fun and retro!  It is an unfinished quilt top, but works perfectly as a tablecloth for my big square table.  Also a pitcher of flowers and some little fat green birdies.  I also did the Baby Isaac framed picture on My Digital Studio.  It took me just minutes now that I had the program figured out.  Cute!

The fun thing is, that the images and colors on the software match the stamps, inks, and decorative papers that SU sells, so I was able to make everything to match the invitations exactly.  The BABY pennant banner (see beginning of post) I made for decoration was made with the cutest decorative papers with the same birdies and same colors!



Yummy fruit pizzas (thanks Ann!) and icy lime water worked to cool us all off a bit.  You can't see it from here, but I stamped little birds on branches on the cups and napkins. 

The invitations worked.  We had 20 ladies and the Uncrustables and pre-sliced apples were a hit with the kiddos.

My dear friend Shari made her incredible famous homemade chocolates for the occasion!  Scrumptious!

Using the same stamps and papers I made little picks to go on top of the cupcakes.  Instead of putting the bright sprinkles on top, I rolled the edges in them instead.

Cheep!

As part of her gift, I stamped Shea a bunch of thank you cards.  I meant to have the ladies put their own addresses on the envelopes while they were here, but I forgot.  Oops.

Here is a close up.

For the kids I made fun birdie lollipops (the yummy caramel apple ones - love them!)

The mommies got a little something special too!  I made these little matchboxs with my favorite toy, my SU! Big Shot.

They slide open to reveal four little chocolate nuggets wrapped in the decorative paper.  How cute is that?!?

I even stamped another little birdie on the inside.  I just love details!

What a fun party it was in the middle of the day in the middle of the week!  My friend Shea really was surprised, and everyone had a great time.  Thanks to everyone who helped make it all work!

 (I got a little carried away, I know with all the fun little goodies, but I just couldn't help myself when I have all the matching darling stamps, papers, and now even software at my disposal! More excuse to get creative!)

Have a happy day!

A Pocketful of Posies!

On Wednesday I threw a mother/daughter dinner for the young women from  our church in my backyard.  It was really a great evening, and the theme was flowers.

For a craft we made pretty fabric posies with a huge pile of different fabrics and a two gallon tub of old buttons that I am proud to own.  I just love old buttons!  My kids will dig through that tub for hours finding their favorites.  

We simply ran the fabric through my Big Shot die cut machine, with a few of my Bigz flower dies, then they sewed them together with the button using a needle and thread.  They got to choose between putting their flower on a hair clip or a pin back.  The girls made flowers for their moms and vice-versa.

Here are a few of their creations:

They are super cute in the hair, but you can pin them on a hat, purse, or jacket.

I put my toile posie on the fun polka dot bag my mom gave me for mother's day, and included the red ribbon the gift came wrapped in.  Love it!

Everybody's flowers turned out darling!  And after they all left, I just couldn't put all the fabric and buttons away without making a pocketful of posies of my own:

Which are your favorites?

I love the yellow and blue toile of course, and the yellow striped one is just sweet.

Black and white is always a great combo.

Hee Haw!  The denim  ones are just fun!

The orange one is one of my favorites.  I really like the monochromatic flowers!

Show a little posie patriotism for the 4th.

The pink and brown one on the bottom just makes me happy, and the bright pink with pinstripes and bling is very classy, don't you think?

But the natural muslin one on the bottom is my favorite I think, and the brown velvet one above it is simply luscious!   I am going to have so much fun with these.

Try making some posies of your own with some scraps of fabric.  I liked the heavier weight, textured fabrics best.  If you don't have a die cut machine, you can always trace a pattern and cut them out, or even freehand cut them.  I really don't think you can go wrong.  Just have fun with it!

Favorite Things - A Giveaway

Attic Gal Rachelle says:

Relief Society, our church's woman's organization was having a party, and the theme was "Favorite Things."  We were supposed to bring a wrapped gift that represented one of our favorite things.  Well, I have a LOT of favorite things.  I didn't even know where to start.

Here is what I came up with...

* I love, love, love milk glass!  I have hundreds of pieces, all garage sale finds, and all so pretty together. (I'll show you my collection at another time. Promise.)

* I love stamping!  

* I love my Big Shot die cut/embossing machine from Stampin' Up!  Everything, except for the bird was popped out of my Big Shot.  So easy.

* I love birds.

*I love ribbon.

*I love springtime... and pastels... and Cheer too- Why not?

And even the wrapping was one of my favorite things:

* I love toile! But you might have already guessed that.

My sweet friend, and brand new mom, Kendall, won my gift.  I hope she enjoys it.

Speaking of favorite things...

* I love flowers, and this time of year, I especially love tulips.

* I also love my new camera.

So when last year's tulips popped up out of the ground to welcome spring, I couldn't help but snap a few shots.

The tulips were a bit unexpected because I thought it didn't get cold enough here for the tulip bulbs to do their thing.  I guess it does.  A happy surprise.

* I love happy surprises!

I feel inspired.  I think I want to paint this flower.

* I love to watercolor!

I'll show you when I'm done, OK?

Oops.  Now I'm committed.  Its been a long time since I picked up a paintbrush, but I will do it this time.

P.S.:

* I love comments!

* I love giveaways.

And since I had such a great garage sale morning, and found another milk glass plate just like the one above, I have decided to make another one and give it away to an attic digger who leaves a comment and  shares their favorite things with us.  How 'bout that?  Leave a comment, tell us few of your favorite things, then check back on April 1st and see if you won.

So, what "favorite things" would you put in your gift bag?

A Spring Thing!

On Wednesday night, Alysa and I locked ourselves in the "pink room" and had one of our midnight crafting sessions (isn't amazing how much you can accomplish when you aren't constantly being interrupted by kids?).  We made these absolutely adorable SPRING pennant banners.  We had found a rare moment to meet at JoAnn's earlier to pick out the perfect spring fabric, and what we found so so stinkin' cute that it gave me the "girlies"(my definition for the aching desire to have a little girl), particularly the sheer pink fabric dotted with little tiny daisies. A-dor-a-ble!

We used my Big Shot from Stampin' Up! and the pennant die to cut the perfect scallopy pennants, two layers each with the sheer flowery fabric in back, and different pink or green patterned fabric in front.

Then we sewed them onto the perfect striped wide ribbon.

We found the letters on clearance at JoAnn.  They matched perfectly and already had eyelets in them.  We punched holes into the banners with the Crop-a-dile, and tied the letters on with sheer white ribbon.

To finish it off we threaded some buttons with pink taffeta ribbon, and used them for centers to out die-cut flowers that we layered over the scallop circles that get cut with the pennants, and stitched them between each pennant.  Sew sweet.

We are thrilled with how darling and springy they turned out!  What do you think?

And for those of you who missed it, here is a peek at my very first fabric pennant banner I created for Valentine's Day.  I made them and surprised Alysa with hers.  I was so excited when I saw my finished project that I was truly giddy!   One of my favorite crafts ever!

I made this banner the same, except I use the leftover scalloped circles to make rosettes  instead, and I used smaller chipboard letters that I glittered.

Which banner do you like better?

Can't wait to make my next one!