Classroom Valentines

Well,  it's been a while since I've posted.  But, I wanted to share the little classroom Valentine's I made for my son's school this year.  There are a cute little swing top box filled with sour peach gummy hearts.  (Which were delicious, because I had to test them you know, to make sure quality)  This year we made them for not only Kieran's classmates, but all the other specialist teachers and principals and office staff as well!  The morning of Valentine's Day we went to the office and put them in the various faculty mailboxes which he thought was pretty exciting.

SuppliesStamps: A Muse dino clear set and with love set and JustRite DIY Curlz monogram set and Times New Roman font setInk: A Muse cherry and VersaFine onyx blackPaper: A Muse cherry heartbreaker, sugar, and cherry chevron cardstockMisc.:  A Muse onyx baker's twine, A Muse heart twinkle stickers, foam mounting tape, Spica jet black glitter pen, Lifestyle Crafts nesting hearts die set, and Mama Elephant Union Square Creative Cuts die set (clear plastic bags and washi tape on the inside to hold the candy)

Abundant Autumn No. 1

Well, I did my Abundant Autumn class back in October, but now I've got time to blog about it AND it's closer to actual Thanksgiving!

Many of you may know that pie is a VERY important thing in my family.  We take it VERY seriously.  My grandmother was an amazing pie maker, and as a child she taught me.  Now that she's gone, the pie making duties for our family fall to me.  I have lots of opinions about butter vs shortening in the crust, spices, whipped cream from scratch, and so on.  So, when I saw this AMAZING pie box favor and toppings set that A Muse came out with for their October collection I think an entire 30 seconds elapsed before I placed my order.  I mean, lattice top, 3D whipped cream, and and side crusts?!  GET IN MY CRAFT ROOM!

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse turkey day set
Ink: A Muse dye marigold and Memento Rich Cocoa 
Paper: A Muse pumpkin, toffee, kraft, and sugar shimmer couture cardstock
Misc.: A Muse orange baker's cording, foam mounting tape, A Muse pie box, pie box add on, and tag you're it tag bundle die sets

Halloween No. 4

Happy Halloween everyone!  I wanted to make favors for Kieran's classroom party this year.  I had plenty of extra glow sticks from this project.  And then I had TONS of grey ghosts from making this project! So this is what I came up with! I think they turned out pretty cute.  And what kid doesn't like glow sticks?  I know mine was thrilled with it.

Supplies

Stamps: A Muse happy haunting

Ink: VersaFine onyx black

Paper: A Muse orange, orange chevron, onyx, and slate cardstock and orange crush asterix notecard

Misc.: Making Memories slot punch tool, A Muse halloween baker's twine, foam mounting tape, Lifestyle Craft banner die, and A Muse ghost tag die

(here's our family of pumpkins this year!  Kieran wanted his to be Cluny the Scourge from Redwall!)

Bees and Berries No. 5

 Back when I did this spring border mini popcorn box I discovered that a tealight fits PERFECTLY inside the mini popcorn box from A Muse Studio!!  I felt this was a genius discovery!  I thought that a little beeswax tealight, from my favorite local candle company Big Dipper Wax Works, would make an adorable little favor for when I did my bee themed class!  So here it is!

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse tiny bee (retired wood mounted), bee happy, and sweet summertime sets
Ink: A Muse cherry, buttercup, and black dye
Paper: A Muse papaya petite dot, sugar, and seattle petite pinstripe
Misc.: foam mounting tape, A Muse mini popcorn box and mini banners set, A Muse cherry satin ribbon and vanilla twine, small cello bag, Copic markers

Classroom Valentines

We did a non-food treat this year for Kieran's class valentines.  I found some cute kid self inking dinosaur stamps on Amazon.  His class had already decided to name themselves "The Dinosaurs" earlier this year, so it seemed appropriate.  The packaging definitely looks similar to last year's.  But, since they are 4 year olds, I'm not all that worried about it.  To make them, I die cut the little bags out.  This was the part Kieran helped the most with.  He LOVES to work the die cutter.  I also had him die cut the little polka dot tags.  Then, I stamped the dinosaur with extra heart on each of the tags and the sentiment near the bottom of the bags.  Getting the holes lined up between both side of the bag and the tag was really tricky once they were assembled.  So, after trying that once, I did it a little differently for the rest of them.  Before folding and assembling the bag, I lined up both sides of it and the polka dot tag where they would all be once assembled.  Then, I taped them together with a little Washi tape.  Once held together, it was MUCH easier to do the hole punch with my Crop-A-Dile.  After removing the Washi tape, I assembled the bags, added the favors for the kids, and tied them up with the baker's cording!  Ta-Da!  (Oh, and the back of the tags has a little stamp that says "From Kieran".  I stamped that upside down, so that when you flip it up to read it, the words are going the right way.)

Supplies

Stamps: A Muse dino clear set and JustRite DIY Curlz monogram set and Times New Roman font set

Ink: A Muse Berry

Paper: A Muse bubblegum heartbreaker and popsicle pink tiny dots cardstock

Misc.: A Muse lunch sack and card catalogue tag, We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile, double sided tape, Washi tape, and A Muse blush baker's cording

Sock Monkey Favors

For the Sock Monkey themed shower, I knew I wanted something banana flavored.  You know, monkeys, bananas.  But also, the mother to be LOVES banana runts (I do too, but that is completely beside the point).  Since she was having twins, it seemed a perfect opportunity to use this cute treat carrier die that would make a space for two different items.  Banana taffy seemed the right  accompaniment to the runts.  And then I discovered you can order them both in large quantities from Amazon!  And just the banana runts!  Perfect!

Supplies
Stamps: Stampin' Up Sock Monkey set
Ink: A Muse cherry
Paper: A Muse french roast petite gingham and
Misc.: Fiskars Fuse, Lifestyle Crafts treat carrier die set, cellophane bags, red Waste Not Ribbon, A Muse cherry grosgrain stitched ribbon, banana taffy, banana runts

Baby Shower No. 1 Favor Box

To go along with the owl themed baby shower, I and my co-host made these cute little favor bags. Inside them, we put a few Frangos of various flavors. Which happens to be the Dad to be's favorite candy and they are kind of a big thing here in the Northwest. I'm not gonna lie, I bought the Frangos well in advance and my husband and I might possibly have eaten them all before the shower. Oops!! But no worries, I got more in time.

Fortunately, to make this favor I didn't need to cut a label shape in half to make the owl face as I did with the invite! I found a die that already had that shape as the flap for it! Brilliant! These little owls were much smaller than the invites. So for the eyes, I used little paper daisy flowers and button brads instead of all paper circles. I also used the same mini pennant punch for the beak, but just trimmed a little off the top to scale it down and then more removable glue dots to close it without damage.

Supplies

Stamps: A Muse owl's well set

Ink: Memento rich cocoa

Paper: A Muse latte woodgrain, papaya, and bermuda petite dot cardstock

Misc.: Fiskars Fuse, Lifestyle Crafts treat bag die set, A Muse petite daisy paper flowers, EK Success mini pennant, circle, and 2" x 1 3/8" oval (for Stampin' Up) punches, foam mounting tape, Making Memories button brads, glue dots and removable glue dots

Favor Tags

To go with the circus invites I made in the last post, the first crafty project I did in our new house was to make little thank you tags for animal cracker boxes that were the party favors at the same baby shower! They were quick and easy, but really cute! I added a little glitter glue for some bling. I made these using the same polka dot paper. Since it has a white core, I could stamp on one side and have the back still be pretty to look at with color and polka dots! I tied them onto the boxes with the same yellow ribbon I used on the invites.

Supplies

Stamps: A Muse under the big top set and Savvy Stamps thanks

Ink: A Muse cherry and bermuda

Paper: A Muse bermuda petite dot

Misc.: Sizzix BigShot, A Muse tag die, Copic markers, and Stickles yellow glitter glue

Update: here's a picture from Christie's (one of the hostesses) blog of the finished favors with tags!

 

 

Good package, bad photo

This little box goes with the card I gave to my friend Cat for her birthday earlier this week. Once again, it was a bad photo. I took it at the same time as the photo for her card, and it just had too much light, or direct light, so things end up in obvious shadows and the colors don't look quite right. Or something. I'm not a photographer. I've made a few cards since then and I feel the pictures of those have been much better. Just as with the card I made for Cat, I used some crystal glaze that you can't really see. In this case, I put it on the bottles of nail polish to make them look more like the real ones do. And of course inside for her was...more nail polish!

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse glamour girls set
Paper: A Muse sugar and onyx petite gingham cardstock
Inks: A Muse black dye
Misc.: foam mounting tape, copic markers, Sizzix BigSot and Bigz XL carry all box die, American Crafts ribbon, A Muse crystal glaze

Another Cute Box

My in-laws arrived today for a visit. So, we were finally able to give my MIL her Mother's Day gift. Which means, I am finally able to post about it! I was really pleased with the finished product for this one. Inside were a pair of earrings that we found for her on our recent trip to Washington, D.C. I layered a couple of pieces of the sage gingham cardstock for the earrings to hang off of as well.

Supplies
Stamps: A Muse kindred spirits set
Paper: A Muse sugar, sage petite gingham, and latte cardstock
Inks: A Muse sage, blush, and bubblegum
Misc.: foam mounting tape, Sizzix BigShot and Bigz pillow box die

Kieran's Baptism

In starting to blog again, I've done some work on my blog's layout. I also added labels to all previous posts. As I was going back through my posts, I discovered many drafts of posts I started (during the September through now period where I didn't blog at all) but never finished. Here is the first of them that I have now finished and am ready to publish for you all. This one has two of the things I made for Kieran's baptism. First, there is one of the cute little pillow boxes that had thank you gifts for Kieran's godparents in them and the second is one of the three identical thank you cards I made for the godparents and our pastor. We had a big brunch at our house afterwards and I made TONS of decorations for that in the same color scheme (which also happens to match the birth announcements that I also haven't gotten around to posting) but I don't have pictures of them. I had put my dad in charge of taking pictures of them for me, and he did. But then later on managed to delete all the pictures off his camera. Boo!

Supplies

Stamps: A Muse essential sentiments set and flower cross

Paper: A Muse sugar, sky, sky gingham, sage gingham cardstock

Inks: A Muse sage and black dye, VersaFine black onyx

Misc.: A Muse sky pearl stickers, foam mounting tape, A Muse vanilla twine, copic markers, Sizzix Big Shot and pillow box die, EK Success large corner rounder punch, Martha Stewart Crafts screw punch

And here we all are! Myself, Nathan, godfather David, godmomma Cat and Fr. Cleaveland, and Kieran of course! This was in mid-August, I can't even remember, thank goodness, what it was like to have a baby that young.

 

What's next?

Now that I've finished posting all the Mother's Day cards, I can post the cute packaging I made for the gifts for my mom and mother in law. Well, I can't actually post the one for my MIL yet since I haven't given it to her yet. So, here is what I did for my mom. I have to say, I LOVE using cute packaging dies! I think I need more of them. You'll notice that I did the three dimensional butterfly again. I liked it so much the first time, I couldn't help but do it again.

Supplies
Paper: A Muse sky gingham, sage gingham, sage, and latte cardstock
Misc.: A Muse vanilla twine, Sizzix BigShot and Bigz XL carry all box die, A Muse buttery fly trio die set, Martha Stewart Crafts woodland branch edge punch, A Muse latte pearl stickers