Unconventional Wedding Package...

Hey Peeps ~ Hope your weekend was fabulous!  Just popping in today to show you a wedding package I put together that we went to this weekend.  I was shopping at Target last week and I couldn't find gift bags that I liked; however, I did find these gorgeous bags and decided they were bright and pretty ...so what the heck!  Then I came home and made these cards to go along with the gift bags.  

I used this pretty wildflower set from Hero Arts and stamped it twice ~ once in a bright orange and once in a bright pink just over the top of the orange.  Then I added the sentiments from some Gourmet Rubber Stamps sets.  Easy Peasy!

A quick little punched out butterfly with gems added the perfect touch to this card.

Gotta love a 5-minute gift card!  Tip: Always buy your gift bags first and then make a matching card ~ the recipient will think you're brilliant!

June Diners Set for Gourmet Rubber Stamps!

It's June 1st!  I know... I can't believe it either!  I'm not too sure where May went, but I'm pretty sure I was driving to one of my kids schools for an event.  Speaking of school, now that my daughter is in high school, she has lots of friends who are seniors and need she needs a whole stack of graduation cards to give her friends.  So....this new Diners Set from Gourmet Rubber Stamps called Bloom and Grow came out just in time!  I also used the great Coveralls set called Circles.  I stamped the Coveralls background in black ink using cardstock in the school colors ~ easy peasy way to add color when you don't have the pattern paper you want.

It's always important to get our grads ready for college life with a gift card or cash, so I've made these fun cards into money holders.  I got the layouts ideas for my cards from my sweet friend Valerie Stangle who just recently made some super fun graduation cards on her blog ~ make sure you check them out because she has the instructions for her cards on her blog posts.

And here's one more fun layout that Valerie also used recently ~ as you can tell, I love her style and then just added a few extra touches of my own ~ the ribbon and a 2012 charm.

And here's the inside of the card with a money pocket and I used the YOU ROCK sentiment from the Sketched Sayings stamp set.

You'll love all the fun themes in this stamp set ~ graduation, circus, and a beautiful floral garden!  Check it out in full on the the GRS Blog and then check out the designers blogs for all the fun samples...

• Deb Felts
• Jeni Allen
• Kendra Wietstock - You're Here
• Kelli Palmer
• Taylor Usry
• Jennifer Ingle 
• Stepanie Lee

Have fun hopping along!

Home from Washington DC!

I'll bet you were beginning to wonder about me!  LOL... maybe not.  Anyway, I went to Washington DC with my daughter's marching band for an extended Memorial Day weekend.  They marched in the National Memorial Day Parade in the heart of DC.  WOW ~ what an experience it was for all of us!  The trip was JAM PACKED with activities ...which left time for very little sleep!  I'm still trying to get back on track.

I thought I'd share a few pictures from our trip...

Day #1 included: A tour of the US Capitol Building; Lunch at Union Station and a performance of music and precision marching at the Marine Barracks Evening Parade.

The dome...inside

The Parade grounds with the Commandant's House in the background.

The US Marine Band

 The mascot of the US Marines

One Day #2, we drove to Baltimore, MD and visited Ft. McHenry.  We saw a fabulous presentation about the inspiration for writing the Star Spangled Banner.  Then we toured the fort and the band had the honor of helping raise the morning flag at the fort.  It was stunning to see the kids lined up around the enormous stars and stripes.

Some of the guys tried to see if the cannon would still work, but no luck.

Next up that day, we drove to downtown Baltimore and then hung out for a few hours at Harborplace ~ everyone would have loved to spend more time here.  We all loved it!

We boarded the buses and headed back to Washington DC to tour the monuments in the city.  The first stop was the World War II Memorial.  The girls found the Indiana section right away.

This was a stunning monument, but...

heartbreaking too...

We also stopped at the Korean War Memorial...

The Lincoln Memorial...

The Washington Monument...

The Vietnam War Memorial wall.  Since it was Memorial Day weekend, everything was packed with people.

The next stop on our busy day was Arlington National Cemetery.  It was quiet, peaceful, and much cooler with all the shade trees.

The changing of the guard at The Tomb of The Unknowns

The grave site of President Kennedy

After we left Arlington National Cemetery, we stopped briefly at Pentagon City Mall for a very quick dinner and then finished up touring more beautiful monuments ~ The Martin Luther King Jr. Monument, The FDR Memorial and finally The Jefferson Memorial at night.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Monument

My favorite picture from the trip!
These are my DC Chickas ~ Ashley, Sammie, Heather, Tori, Megan and Hailie!
I loved spending time with these amazing young ladies!

Megan and Heather hold up the Washington Monument! 

So that's just the first two days of our trip!  YES ~ just TWO days!!!!  I'll share the rest of our trip very soon.

CAS Birthday

Hope you're having a great long weekend!  Here's a super quick and easy birthday card using stickers and papers from Bo Bunny.

Happy Memorial Day!

Gourmet Rubber Stamps ~ Monthly DT Challenge

Hello ~ Hello!!!  Welcome to DT Challenge Day for Gourmet Rubber Stamps!  Today, it's all about the boys ~ so today I used a few images from the May Diners Set called Swingin' Spring.   I think this card will be a perfect card for my dad for Father's Day or his birthday.

I paired up these great images with some fun paper from My Mind's Eye called Dilly Dally.

With Father's Day fast approaching, I know you're gonna want to see some other great cards for guys, so hop along and take a look at what the DT girls came up with today...   

• Deb Felts
• Jeni Allen
• Kendra Wietstock - You're Here
• Kelli Palmer
• Taylor Usry
• Jennifer Ingle 
• Stepanie Lee

Supplies from i{heart}papers:
Stamps ~ Gourmet Rubber Stamps (Swingin' Spring)
Pattern Paper ~ My Minds Eye (Dilly Dally)
Ink ~ Palette
Twine ~ Divine Twine

couldn't be any easier birthday card...

I'm still here ~ just crazy busy with the end of the school year!  WOW ~ I can hardly catch my breath!  SO today I have a quick and dirty 5 minute birthday card to share.  The coordinating HB sticker and paper are both from Bo Bunny & super fun!

I'll see you tomorrow for the Gourmet Rubber Stamps monthly DT challenge!  Have a great day!

Star Student Care Package

Happy Monday!

With the school year ending soon, our older kids are crazy busy with important tests.  Last week my daughter, who is a freshman in high school, had the biggest test of her school career ~ AP World History.  If she scores well, it will be worth college credit.   We told her all year long that whatever happens is fine ~ but she put a lot of pressure on herself to do well.   She's been pretty stressed about this test, so I wanted to make up a little care package for her backpack the day of the test so she would feel some love and support from mom!

Here's the little gift bag.  I made the tag using the pre-made tag and letter stickers from the Elementary collection by Simple Stories.

and here's a close up of the tag

My daughter felt like she did well on the test ~ I think it had everything to do with my little care package {wink}.

Gourmet Rubber Stamps ~ Today's Weekly Recipe

Hey there crafty friends!  Today it's my turn to share the Weekly Recipe over on the GRS Blog.  I have a rather simple, but fun, layout that has endless possibilities!

I've used this sketch in two different ways on my blog today using the great Clothesline Greetings Appetizer Set.   First up is a fun little baby card.   I dug out this cute paper from October Afternoon to paper piece my images.  I added some extra color with my Copic Markers (R85, BG11, YG95, E35).   The fun clothespins are from Canvas Corp and they come in tons of colors as does this great bakers twine from Divine Twine.  I added some cute little letter block beads for the baby sentiment ~ just to change things up a bit.

For my next sample, I used the same layout and set but get my card a totally different look and feel.   For this card I paper pieced the images from the other stamp in the set using some fun paper from Fancy Pants.    I also added some Glossy Accents to the clothes pins and flowers for some texture.  Then I added a banner along the bottom for the sentiment.

Play along on the challenge today and post your creations to the GRS Facebook page so we can enjoy your creation as well.