A Start on May

Can you believe that we are almost into May already?!?!?!?!?!?! It seems like it was just February! May is a busy month for us, and this May will be even busier than usual. In the first two weeks of May, we have 4 birthdays and Mother's Day, and then our anniversary and Memorial Day at the end of the month. I haven't start much, but I have started working on a few cards and gifts.

Below is a simple card that will be going to my MIL. She loves butterflies. These butterfly stamps were from K&Company, as was the patterned paper. The card stock was basic Recollections cardstock, and the ribbon was from a gift that I saved the ribbon from.

I also put together simple thinking of you card, as I was being inspired by the butterfly theme. The butterfly is just one of the clip art graphics in Microsoft Word, with the color of the butterfly changed to black and the sentiment was typed out in Microsoft Word as well. The patterned paper was from the Recollections Teal Butterflies patterned papers. The button was from the dollar aisle at Michaels and the cardstock base is from the Recollections basic cardstock packs and their loose card stock options.

I live :)

Hello All, I thought I would share a quick picture of a card I made a few weeks ago for a friend... Sorry for the lack of blog posts, between the hubby and myself having bronchitis for a combined month (I'm still trying to kick the cough completely) and work, there just hasn't been much time to craft! 

But back to the card....

It is a small 4 1/2 by 5 1/4 card, with a piece of one of the standard Colors Fashion Packs you can find at acmoore or Michaels as the base. I used patterned papers from First Edition Papers' Bird Song 6x6 designer pad and used a flower digi stamp from D2D Digi Stamps. I colored the image with my Sharpee Markers. The pearls are the Q&Co line and the ribbon I got at the dollar tree. The flower came from Prima pink flower pack and the gem came from Q&Co as well.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Spring!

Giveaway

So....I have been building up a small pile of goodies for a giveaway....and eventually I shall have the time to take pics and post it!

Between studying Spanish with Rosetta Stone, a new job, church,  trying to get to the gym more often,  and another bout with Bronchitis, I just have not had much time to spend crafting or taking pictures. I did sit down and make a card last night and I do have a couple of other small projects to share soon though!

Hope you are all having a beautiful Spring!

Birthday Boys

Today I am going to share some more pictures of projects I worked on in February. My dad's birthday was on Valentine's Day and one of my co-workers had a birthday in February as well, so I whipped up a couple of cards for them. The third card I made to have a male birthday card on hand. I also made a card in the same layout as the first two and posted to my Etsy Shop.

Supplies:
Paper: Recollections pre-cut, pre-scored cardstock and coordinating envelope, scrap patterned paper and cardstock
Embellishments: earth tone brads from Michael's Recollections line and square metal brads from Joann Fabrics (online), ribbon from a friend
Sentiment: Happy Birthday stamp (unknown brand), hand written, balloon stamp (unknown brand)

Valentines Care Package

Hullo all, I finally got some pictures that I took with my phone about a month ago downloaded on to the computer and I thought I would share a quick post with you on sending care packages to college students. My sister is in her first term in a college in Florida by herself. She went to bible school for two years, but she was only 3 hours from home that time and my parents and brother could visit her there. Down in Florida she doesn't have that, so I thought I would send her a care package for Valentines Day.

I tried to mix things that were relatively good for her/necessities and also some fun, ridiculous things to make her laugh. Not all of the items are shown in the picture below as I bought them as I was on the way to the Post Office to mail her package!

When sending a care package it helps if you know what kind of items the person could use, especially with food and toiletries. I try to choose non-perishable/non-breakable items that will travel well and be useful to the recipient.

My Sister's Care Package:
1. Box of Sponge Bob Square Pants fruit gummies
2. Spong Bob Square Pants candy dispenser (got for like 15 cents in the Christmas clearance aisle in the grocery store. This is a great place to check after holidays. Things are UBER cheap and you can pick them up and either save them for the next holiday, or re-purpose them for something else.)
3. FiberOne Pretzel snack bars (something relatively healthy for her to snack on)
4. Hot cocoa packs (a must in a care package!)
5. Dove Chocolate Raspberry bar (It was Valentines day!)
6. Lip gloss
7. Bright green stuffed animal frog (If you knew my sister, you'd understand ;) )
8. Toothpaste and a toothbrush (She doesn't have much spending money, so my mom and I have been trying to give her every day supplies that she needs. We both gave her giant bags/baskets full of toiletries right before she went off to college as well)
9. Valentines Day Card
10. Sticky Note/Pencil holder (She loves the color pink ;) ) - I can't claim credit for the flower though, that was repurposed from a gift that I was given

I took a lot of the stuff out of their original wrappers for two reasons - I could fit the things in a smaller box with the items in bags instead of boxes and because it looked cuter all prettied up with special packaging.

Making a Chevron pattern with Microsoft Word and Paint

Hello all, today I thought I'd show you a quick way to create a customized chevron pattern using Microsoft Word and Paint.

Step 1: Open up Microsoft Word (I used 2010, these steps should also apply to 2007). Go to the insert tab and select the rectangle option.

Step 2: After you have drawn a rectangle on the page, go back to the insert tab and select the line option.

Step 3: Draw a line at a downward angle, starting in the top left corner of the rectangle.

Step 4: Selecting the line option once again, draw a line slanting up and to the right starting at the bottom point of the first line.

Step 5: Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you reach the far right line of the rectangle.

Step 6: Copy and paste the row completed in step 5 and position directly above the above row until you have completely filled the rectangle.

Step 7: After you have completely filled the rectangle, select each row as well as the bordering rectangle. Once you have selected the contents of the screen, hit CTRL + C to copy the pattern and open up paint. Once paint is open you want to hit CTL + P to paste into Paint.

Step 8: Go to the first tab and select Save As. When the Save As dialogue box appears save as chevron. (The default file type is PNG).

Step 9: To customize the colors of the chevron pattern, choose the paint bucket icon in the tools section of the Home tab.

Step 10: Then select your desire color and click on the lines that you wish to color. To change colors, choose another color from the options and then click in the space you want that color to appear.

Step 11: When you have achieved your desired look, you can save the picture, and then open the graphic back up in Word to adjust size and print.

Etsy Shop

I finally hunkered down last night, re-shot several pictures of the projects I've been working on lately (the first ones didn't turn out...lighting was awful. I really have to figure out something for lighting when I take pictures), edited them and posted them to Etsy. I now have a whopping 9 items in my etsy shop, as opposed to the 2 items before. I have a couple more things to post I think, but for now it's progress!