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Mother's Day is Coming Soon!

4/28/2015

Usual scenario:
5-7 days before a holiday or birthday:
*Looks at calendar* Oh look, holiday/birthday is this coming up soon! I should make a card at some point this week.

Night before holiday/birthday:
Shoot, I still haven't made a card! Well, I guess I'll have time before the party/meal/outing tomorrow.

Day of the holiday/birthday:
Aww man! I didn't make a card, I guess I'll have to find one in my stash that will work. (Thank god for my stash!)

Except not this time!!!!!
This time, I made a Mother's Day card in March!!!

I had been experimenting with Distress Ink techniques for a while and wanted to do some resist stamping with the inks. Unfortunately, most of the stamps I already have are too small, too fine, or too specific. I didn't have anything that would fill a whole card and look good with a water-color effect background without getting lost in it. So when Jo-Ann's had an amazing sale one day, I got a new stamp. It's a lot bigger than I normally use, but it's perfect for the technique I wanted to try.

Mother's Day card - emboss resist with distress ink

I stamped the image with Versamark ink and covered it with white embossing powder. After I heat set the powder, I used a blending tool to apply different colors of ink over certain areas of the image. Then I just spritzed the whole thing with water and watched the colors magically and perfectly blend! I love distress ink!

Once it was dry, I adhered it to the card base (which I colored green using the same green ink as I used on the flowers) and added the little flag sentiment (which I colored using the pink and purple inks) and voila! Easy-peasy and oh-so-beautiful!

Now I just have to remember I have it when Mother's Day rolls around...

When do you typically make or buy Mother's Day/Father's Day/Birthday/Graduation/Wedding/etc cards? Are you a last-minute card-er like me?

Happy Crafting!

P.S. This card was so much fun to make, I made more! If you'd like to give your mom a beautiful Mother's Day card too, you can get one from my Etsy store! Or talk to me in person, if you know me. :-)

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Another Family Wedding!

4/21/2015

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It's time for another family wedding! This time, it's my husband's sister (we both have 1 younger sister). Emily and her boyfriend Lindsay got engaged in Hawaii last fall and are getting married this summer!

I love weddings, but I LOVE family weddings! It's so much more fun when you are related to the bride or groom and it's the best when you get to be involved in the planning. To me, at least. And I am super excited that I get to help create another wedding vision for another family member!

We began with save-the-dates. Their wedding is going to be pretty small, around 100 guests, so I only had to make 55 save-the-dates. Which is still a good amount, but after Erin's wedding last summer with about 150 invitations, 55 seems light!

Emily and Lindsay want a natural/fresh feel to their wedding, so we went with bright spring green and some earthy browns. I found a fern stamp that works well as a corner accent, and used brown ink for that and the text.

(I've blurred out names and locations for privacy - I forgot to make one with fake info)

I decided that the save-the-dates needed a little something more after I had done all the printing and stamping, so I pulled out some bright green spray ink. I've had this stuff in my craft room for years and never really used it before (I wasn't a messy crafter until recently), but it seemed like the perfect addition. I set up a spray-tent and went to work. The green spray ink was just what these save-the-dates needed to really make them pop!

Here's a close-up of the green spray. It's got a slight shimmer to it that really catches the light in person. It was hard to capture it in a photo.

I also decided to spritz the envelopes, and by the time I was finished with everything, my fingers were dyed bright green!

Emily and Lindsay loved them, and I am very excited to make their invitations and other wedding details in the upcoming months. I will have a full run-down of their stationary in the fall after the wedding.

It seems like there are a lot of weddings this summer - we've received save-the-dates to three weddings already! Is anyone else going to any weddings this summer? Or maybe hosting your own? Are you DIY-ing any part of it?

Happy Crafting!

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Ahoy, It's a Boy!

4/14/2015

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A few weeks ago, I posted about my sister's first baby shower, and last weekend, she had her second! My mom hosted a nautical-themed shower for her because she's decorating her nursery with nautical decor. When mom told me the theme, I was super excited because nautical items are really hot right now! I thought, "Oh! It will be super easy to find nautical supplies!"

Wrong.

The home decor world is filled with nautical items, not the craft world. Or at least, not the paper craft world. So it was fairly difficult to find supplies for this invitation at first!

I finally came across a lighthouse embossing folder, and with some deep blue cardstock, I created the base.

I wanted to add some detailing to the circle, so when I found this white cord, I was very happy!

Unfortunately, when I attached the cord to the invite, it was very thick. I knew that it might not make it through the mail without getting damaged and it may require more postage if it was too thick.

I ran it through my die-cut machine to flatten the cord and it worked perfectly!

I love these invites. They are simple, elegant, and unique. And don't you just love the phrase "Ahoy! It's a Boy!" So cute! Plus, I had to be creative to solve some practical problems. Those projects are usually the most rewarding!

Have you ever had to solve a practical crafty problem? What did you do? Did it work? Let me know in the comments, I love to hear about other people's triumphs!

Happy Crafting!

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Two New Hershey Kisses!

4/7/2015

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My husband and I were hanging out with friends the other day and we were talking about candy. My husband pipes up, "Oh, you know those Hershey Kisses you got? I may have eaten all of them." To which I replied, "I hope there's at least 3 left, I still have to take photos of them."

And all my friends stared at me.

So I explained that I 'collect' Hershey Kisses. I find new flavors and take a photo of them so I can record my collection on my blog. Each photo has 3 Kisses; one wrapped (to see the foil), one unwrapped (to see the outside of the Kiss), and one cut down the middle (to see the inside). And then I eat them. And sometimes I share.

I've talked about my Kiss collection here before, but I just found a new (to me) flavor last week! Vanilla Creme! I found them at CVS last week with the Easter candy, but I have not seen them anywhere else. I'm not sure if certain stores get special flavors or if the other stores just choose not to order the unique flavors. Either way, I've learned to look everywhere for new flavors. You never know where a new one will show up!

These have a milk chocolate kiss with a vanilla center. I like them well enough, but they are super-sweet, so I can only eat 1 or 2 at a time.

Then the day after I photographed the Vanilla Creme (there were some left after all), we went out for Easter Brunch with my family. My mom had just returned from a trip to Las Vegas and had gifts! Guess what she found for me?!?!

Macadamia Nut Kisses!!!

I was pretty excited, but the rest of my family was confused, so I had to explain my collection. Again.

The macadamia nut Kisses are good. Milk chocolate outside and a small macadamia nut inside. The nuts are pretty soft, so it's not a crunchy Kiss like the almond ones. I like the flavor - similar to the almond Kisses, but not as nutty.

Has anyone ever tried these flavors before? What did you think?
If you'd like to see all the flavors of Hershey Kisses I've tried, you can check out my Quest for Kisses page.

Happy Crafting! (and eating!)

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Mother's Day is Coming Soon!

Another Family Wedding!

Ahoy, It's a Boy!

Two New Hershey Kisses!

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