A Little Bird Told Me... (TCPTUES203)

Hi there!! Hope you are doing well! I don't have a lot of writing time today, but I did want to share the card I made for this week's TCPTUES203 challenge, a color challenge! Here's the colors: 

I decided to use a new TCP set that I haven't used much yet, and also my new nest die from there!  I really love this one! Sweet little birds... :)

Here's another shot...

and I had to decorate the inside, too....

That's all for me today! Have a fabulous weekend! :) 

xoxo, Noelle

supply list: stamps and dies: TCP; paper: Authentique; solid cardstock: SU!; brown inkpad: Memento; other inkpads: SU!

Easter Basket Tags (MFTWSC/JAI)

Hi there! Did you miss me??? ;) Haha, bet you didn't even know I was gone! I'm kind of a sneaky one that way.... not that I mind sharing with you, my lovely blog friends, that we took a little mini-vacation. More that you never know what creepizoids could be lurking around, reading your blog, and then knowing you're not home for a few days.... **shudder** We went to Glenwood Springs for a few days, a city that's normally about 3 hours from the Denver area. They have a huge Hot Springs there, some beautiful caverns, and lots to do. Since hubby and I went to Cancun last summer, we hadn't taken a family trip  since we went to WDW in October 2010. Except for the reunion, but it was very close, so I almost forgot to "count" it!! It was time for some R&R, and the boys absolutely LOVED it. We stayed in this cool hotel with a mini-waterpark inside, perfect for when we had nothing else to do. Ate at the "famous" Italian Underground restaurant, and of course spent a whole day at the Hot Springs Pool. Got Ian and Collin all day slide passes, and then hardly saw them after that. It's so nice they are getting big enough to go off on their own a bit! The weather was perfect, too. And my Mom, stepdad Motty, stepsister Amy and her 4 kids went, too, so it was some big family fun! :) Oh, we had a few mishaps... seems like we always have a few.... the 3 hour drive took 7 hours going up because the Interstate was closed in 2 places, due to accidents. And Collin wasn't feeling so hot (poor kid, I think he was sicker than I thought, waiting for Strep test results on him now, ugh!!) And, a wildfire broke out near our hometown, so that was a bit worrisome, our dogs were here, even though they were being played with and let out by a friend, I was still worried about my "furbabies!" There started to be all this talk on facebook about evacuation, and that's just a wee bit disconcerting when you are several hours away! Here's a couple pics :)

My guys in the Hot Springs!

I know, it's really hard to tell from all these that Evan is a TOTAL ham.... he's so "shy and retiring" in pictures! LOL!! 

Not the greatest pic of me :( really of any of us! But there was only a few to choose from since I am the photographer.... "Momarazzi" at it's finest! ;) Mr. Ev chose the "youngest brother pout" for this one, little stinker.... 

These are Easter Basket Tags for the boys Easter baskets. I used the sketch at My Favorite Things Wednesday Stamp Club, and the JAI challenge Just Add Easter!

I got some new stamps and dies! They all arrived while I was gone, yea! There are a few more sets you'll see soon! You can see I paper pieced the bunnies, I cut out the center where the faces were, the carrots, and the centers of the ears with an exacto knife. So, even though not a ton of coloring, a bit time-consuming!  I cut eggs on my die cut machine and replaced the center stripe with a die cut rick rack piece.

I am bummed you can't see it better here; but the background paper was made by lightly taping die cut clouds to white cardstock, and spraying my very own spray ink "blend" over the clouds and then removing the die cut clouds, to reveal the white clouds that had been masked off. The ink was easy, just added some pearl powder (in this case a bluish shade), some pale blue drops of ink refill, one drop of bright blue ink refill, and some water into a tiny mister type bottle. SO much cheaper than buying spray ink, and I could make it just the color I wanted. 

Ev came in while I was working, INSISTED that his tag be the "yellow guy" and also got hooked on this one carrot brad I had left from ages ago, so his tag is a teeny bit different:

Well, that is all for me! Hosting Easter here next weekend and I am waaaaay behind! Haven't even pulled out my Easter decorations yet, not to mention a menu and cleaning! I'll pop in at least a couple times before that, though! :) Hope you are having a wonderful week.

xoxox, Noelle

supply list: stamps/dies: MFT; Cricut with SCAL; papers: DCWV, MME, SU!; October Afternoon; assorted ribbons; Copics; Exacto knife; sticker letters: Cosmo Cricket, October Afternoon, Authentique; glitter tape: American Crafts; rivets: Tim Holtz; gems

DUST IT OFF!: Some of the ribbons, most of the papers and that darn carrot brad are so old! All work well together with a cute new stamp for some fresh new tags:)

Ferris Wheel/Elitch's scrapbook layout (CQC130)

Hi there, before I even get started writing this post, I want to apologize for the quality of these photos.... they really are not the greatest. I was editing these, and realizing I should take some more and start over, when Ev spilled coffee all over the pages. Really not a great moment, particularly since I really struggled with these, and had been working on them on and off for the 3 days prior. Grrrrr.... but what can you do, right? So, these are for this bright juicy palette at ColourQ this week! Here it is, so you can see.

I thought these amusement park pics would be a good fit for the colors, Even though I tend to shy away from pink on the boys pages, this bright pink really added a fun vibe to the pages. I was really tickled with the way that still ferris wheel photo turned out. I'm trying to add more still life to my pages, it really can be an interesting addition. I was going to just do a single page, but all these photos of Collin and Evan were so good, I decided to do a second page. I didn't have another sheet of the same green paper I used on the LH page, and had to alternate, and do the opposite (pink/green instead of green/pink) for the RH page.

These glittery silver sticker letters are so cute, and perfect for an amusement park page. I am only bummed you can't see them better in these pics. I didn't have many embellishments in the right colors, and thought the tickets would be a cute accent, so I stamped them and cut them out by hand. the funny thing is, at Elitch's, you just pay one price to get in, you don't have tickets like at a carnival, but it still turned out fun, don't you think? :)

Really wanted to include a Ferris Wheel accent somewhere on the layout, so I found a free Ferris Wheel clip art here, and my sweet hubby helped me change it into a vector, so I could cut it with SCAL. He rocks, and actually it wasn't difficult, but I don't think I would have figured out to rename the file to get SCAL to cut it on my own. I don't really speak computer, even Mac! ;)

Well, that is all for me today! Have a wonderful day & I will "see" you soon! :)

hugs, Noelle

supply list: papers: Stampin' Up!, DCWV, MME, letter stickers: Sticko; stamps: Inkadinkado; stickers: The Paper Studio; SCAL software

DUST IT OFF!: Those papers are really old & I've never used those ticket stamps before, but they sure are cute! :)

TCPTUES 201 & 202 Bright and Springy

Hi there! Once again, I'm catching up on my Cat's Pajamas challenges, I know I've mentioned before, thank GOODNESS we get the whole month to play, otherwise, I'd never make it! ;) It was really fun to ink up some new stamps I had from there, and play with my new dies, too. This card (above) is for TCPTUES202, a "grass" challenge. I don't have the "Kick Some Grass" stamp set, but I did use my new grass die, and also the clouds die, as well as this cute set from the last release called Warm Fuzzies. This card reminds me of the "normal" Springtime we have here in the Rockies.... Beautiful, clear, fabulous blue skies, and COLD! See how cold she is? She's wearing her scarf over her nose! And the little birdie is so cold, he's hanging out on her head! LOL ;) We have been lucky this year, though, soooo much warmer than normal March in CO! It was almost 80 today! Woot woot! Here's another pic, I just got this rainbow paper, and I love the colors/mood it set for this card.

For the "grass" part of the challenge, I layered up several layers of grass behind my little friend, there. Here's a close-up:

Moving backwards in time to TCPTUES201, there was an inspiration challenge; here's the inspiration pic:

and here's my card for that one:

This is another new set, Away We Go, it was released last year, I think. The pistachio cupcake frosting in the photo made me go green for Mr. Bun. He looks good in green, dontcha think? ;) I used the striped paper on the main panel, "channeling" the chevron print on the inspiration pic. I wanted the background sort of in the vein of the recent cloud thank you card that I made, in that I wanted to fit the die cut clouds together with the "sky" pieces, like a puzzle. So, that's what I did, but the TCP cloud die is a strip of clouds. Here's a closer photo:

I paper pieced the hot air balloon, and Mr. Bun. I used the Circus Panel CutUps for the sentiment. 

Well, that is all for me, for this weekend! I will be back Tuesday with a very Springy ColourQ palette! See you then:)

xoxox, Noelle

supply list: stamps: TCP; dies: TCP & Spellbinders; papers: echo Park, MME, Recollections, SU!; punches: EK Success; buttons: dear lizzy, pebbles; large velvet adhesive "buttons": Jolee's Parcel; aqua Divine Twine; Copic Markers; Zig chalk markers; SU! markers

Flying W Ranch scrapbook layout (LYB sketch challenge)

Hi there! Decided to try a new challenge today :) This is for the Little Yellow Bicycle Feb/March sketch challenge. And here is the fabulously dynamic sketch; LOVE this, it's a keeper! :) The pics are from the last night of the family reunion we had last summer. The last evening of the reunion, we had a fun dinner at the Flying W Ranch. It's a western place, a real working ranch, and they have a fun cowboy show with dinner. The boys loved it, we had such a fun time! :) Most of the product I used on this LO was from LYB's new Saturdays collection, I love the denim feel to this collection! And, I love that is has an elegance to it, but is still appropriate for the boys pics, which you know, is mostly what I scrap, so that's a big deal to me! :)

You can see, I used the sketch for my first (LH) page, and then created a companion page on the right of my own layout. :)

I don't mind telling you.... backstitching that baker's twine all around the border of the page was very time-consuming! Not for the quick scrapper, it took over an hour, so I "cheated" a bit on the second page, and just added the stitching to the top of the pocket piece. I wanted to draw the element into that page, but I wasn't up for another 90 minutes of sewing! Ha! Plus my finger and thumb were really starting to smart! ;) LOL 

Some elements on the first page. I used my old-school star punches, and some old denim brads from my stash...

For the second page; I did all the accessorizing on the pocket piece, using several stickers, some staples, and a tag for journaling. 

Well, that is all for me today! if you want to play this challenge, too, you need to upload your page to the   Little Yellow Bicycle facebook fan page, the deadline is tomorrow! :)

Have a stellar day! 

xoxox, Noelle

all products are LYB except punches: EK Success & Stampin' Up! star punches are retired; denim brads: manufacturer unknown (maybe Oriental Trading?); bakers twine: Divine Twine; stapler; paper piercer

DUST IT OFF!: Those star punches are retired, and the denim brads are so old, I'm not even sure who made them. But they look fresh and new when combined with this new collection. :)

Extreme Easter Luncheon Invitation

Hi there! What a week! I don't know about you, but I have just been totally crazy/busy this week! Even more so than usual, since I was catching up after having been sick, and the boys had their last day of school today before Spring break, so I was trying hard to get stuff done, housework, laundry, and maybe even a few posts ready to go. They are off now, and I'm still only halfway there! Ack! They've been really good about helping and listening to Mom, though, so, I can't really complain. :)

This is for the Extreme Invitation Challenge @ Spotted Canary! If you go to that link, you can sign up to take a free online class, and enter your own "extreme" invitation! I had the idea to make a little Easter basket to put my egg-shaped invitation in. :) I added a few Easter Tree ornaments as extra "eggs." I did a complete tutorial on the Spotted Canary site, here. But I will give a you a quick basket overview, it's really pretty simple, like weaving a placemat when you were a kid. :)

Start with a 6" circle as your basket base. Cut 8 12" by 1 1/4" strips,
adhering them all in the center of the circle with staples.
You will end up with this octopus-looking thing.
Notice I said octopus, not any sort of insect with 8 legs.
Not that I have a problem with spiders.... unless I see one that is. ;)

Cut 10 more strips of the same size, staple two each together,
so you have 5 long ones.

Bend octopus legs vertically. Weave long strips, starting
from the center of the strip, so you can make sure and
hide the staples behind the woven part. 

When basket is 4 strips high, take any strips that ended
up on the outside, and bend them into the basket and adhere.
Trim off any strips that ended up on the inside, at the top. 

For handle, cut a couple inches off each end of remaining strip.
Then add border sticker to center of strip, to hide seam and staple. 

Attach handle to inside of basket with adhesive, and also secure by
punching a hole through basket and handle, and adding a decorative brad.

For basket filler, crimp scraps and cut with fringe scissors,
or use a paper shredder, if you can find yours. ;)

Line basket with tissue paper to prevent basket filler from falling
through the cracks.

The invitation was printed out, and the stamped banners were added. The crosses on the ornaments were stamped on kraft, fussy cut, and colored with chalk markers. I thought the wreath stickers, reminded me of the thorny crown that Jesus wore when he was crucified, so I adhered those to the top of the crosses. 

as I mentioned, a complete tutorial, and supply list is at my Spotted Canary post. Thanks for popping by! 

xoxo, Noelle