Eye Love You! (TCPTUESMay13)

Hiya crafty "peeps!" Ok, cheesy, I know.... Hope all my American readers had a fab holiday weekend!  We did, and the weather in CO was downright glorious this weekend! Wanted to share with you another card I'd made for this month's TCP Tuesday Challenge! And here's a word from Miss Meowy about the challenge:

***This month's challenge is a KISS challenge! This challenge is all about Clean and Simple cards. 

Some people are good at it. Some people are not. I know I tend to just keep piling on the embellishments and paper layers.

This challenge is about really looking at your stamps and making them the focal point. 

It can be a classic, elegant card, or a fun and whimsical one. 

Design a card using TCP stamps and/or CutUps dies with clean lines, minimal elements, areas of white space and few or no embellishments. 

Here's my card! I used the new Glasses CutUp  as my focal point on a white on white card. I used strips of washi and half a sticker to create the cluster in the upper LH corner of the card. 

The sentiment was made with the Coolvetica Alpha (I literally could *not* live without that alphabet set! It's the best!) and the heart and some words from Admit One. I also used the Big Scallop CutUp on some red dotted DP (no card is complete without DP, I think!) ;) and the white layer along the bottom. 

A strip of ribbon and some red rhinestones are the embellies I used on this card. I gotta say, CAS cards are not normally my gig, but "eye" really LOVE this card! Probably the most fave CAS card I've ever made. These glasses are the best! Hope you have your new goodies from TCP and you can show off how Swanky you are! You can link your cards up on the sidebar of Alma's blog until the end of May! 

big hugs, Noelle

End of Year Teacher Gifts 2013

Hi all! Here was my solution for teacher gifts this year, I wanted to go ahead and put these up, since I know this is the time that folks might still be looking for an idea for something like this.

I actually ended up making 6 of these, all a little different. I haven't made tags for the final 3 yet, but I'm planning on something a bit more "teacher-y" than these floral ones, maybe using a fave apple stamp-so I may have another related post later on.

I always like to give a gift card, but want a cute way to give it and something a bit more personal, too. I personally LOVE these plastic tumblers. I'm a big iced tea lover in the summers, and these tumblers are the greatest way to tote that around. After I made these two (these were purchased at Hobby Lobby), I found that (my least favorite store-but this is a great deal) WalMart has 2-packs of these tumblers for 5$. They are in the kitchen section in my WalMart if you want to check them out.

I cut the teachers first names out of vinyl on the Cricut and adhered the vinyl to the tumblers. I filled the cups with candy and added the gift cards inside.

These 2 were for Ev's teachers, and he wanted to draw them each a picture, so he drew them on index cards and I added that right beneath the tags which were smaller.

The vinyl is NOT dishwasher safe, which I forgot to mention to the preschool teachers unfortunately... I'll make a point to tell the elementary school teachers, though! ;)

That's all for me today! Have a great Memorial Day! :)

Noelle

I'm a fan of you!

Hi all! Hope your holiday weekend is off to a fabby start! We have a family BBQ planned, and I'm excited for a bike ride with friends tomorrow morning :) Also, the practical mom in me is hoping to get the garage cleaned up! Just that time of year, I guess.

These are just some cards I made a few weeks back that never got posted. I picked up this cute 1$ stamp set at Michaels in CA when I was out there for my sister's wedding!

I just thought the little fan was so cute, and what a fun thank you note it would make. I thought I had some fan printed paper in my stash and sure enough I had a couple pieces in my scraps basket and a full 6" sheet in my stash. It made a fun accent with this stamp. I cut a die cut in half and accented the fan stamp with a little flat gem. :)

Thats it for me today! Have a great weekend! :)
Noelle

Sneaky Peek week: Wrapping It Up!

*NOTE: If you are doing the TCP Blog Hop, you actually need to go to the post BELOW this one, thanks! :)

Hi all! I just wanted to pop in today and share the final 3 cards I had made for Sneaky Peek Week. These were on Splitcoaststampers, but I hadn't gotten them up on the blog yet. :) I have had such a crazy week-I am training to do my first mini-sprint triathlon in a few weeks and yesterday was my "simulated triathlon day." My dear friend, Donna, and I spent the morning doing all 3 parts of the race on the actual race course in the morning, then of course after that we needed lunch-with sangria! ;) Anyway it was great, we actually swam last (normally triathlon is swim, bike, run) because we wanted to shower after swimming. I was thrilled to find that I had shaved a minute and a half off last years swim time (last year I did the relay and I was the swimmer). And that was after doing the rest of the course! :) Now I have relieved a lot of my nerves, I'm just excited for race day to come.

But I'm guessing you are stopping by to see some cards or something ;) Thanks to all for all the wonderful comments lately! I will getting back to returning them today. I have missed being in blogland these last few days. :) I could use some inspiration and I always love to see what you've been up to. :)

These cards are for the following sets What's Mew? and Reel Experts. The first one is silly Sprinkle peeking from a tropical plant in "What's Mew?"

This second one was actually the card I made for the Sprinkle card, but after debating it I decided it was too busy with the colored Sprinkle image and decided to add the simple sentiment from "Reel Experts" on a tag cut with the new Luggage Tags CutUps and a sweet flower button. It seemed silly to waste the cute card even though it wouldn't work for Sprinkle!

The final one is also using the Luggage Tags CutUps and the image from "Reel Experts." These are a bit more elegant papers than I would typically use for these silly penguins, but in the end I liked the way it gave the card a sort of "icy" arctic feel..... I also used half of one of the Circus Panels CutUps for the sentiment on this.

Sneaky Peek week BLOG HOP!

Hi all! Our New Release is up and swinging at The Cat's Pajamas, such a GREAT one too. The whole DT was in agreement, we couldn't quit playing with these new things! :) If you are hopping, you should have come here from Nancy's blog, if not and you'd like to Hop {I'd highly recommend it, ladies!} ;) then go back and start at Alma's blog. Today I'm showing off a fun shaker card I made with more sand from Ev's sandbox in it! You likey? This was one of those painstakingly slow cards as I had to completely tear it apart and start completely over on the first one. UGH! I hate when that happens. But in the end, it's really fun and I think it was worth the effort.

You can see that Mr. Beach Bun is getting a bit pink on his ears and his feet! LOL, I couldn't resist, since I colored him a pinky tone. ;) Gotta keep a sense of humor when stamping you know! 

The frame was created on the acetate with some washi tape and accented with buttons. I made a sun in the corner with some punched layered circles, some Aqua Divine Twine and an orange button. I fussy cut Beach Bun and left a bit of white area around the edges to accomodate the whiskers. Normally I'd stamp him down, cut off his whiskers and paper piece another Bun on top, but since he was going on acetate, that wasn't going to work.... I think in hindsight I'd prefer to cut off the whiskers, and draw them on with a permanent pen. I'm not too crazy about those white bits, but most folks probably wouldn't even notice! LOL ;) 

The sentiment, clouds (made with the Cloud Border CutUp) and sand are inside the shaker part. :) 

That's all for me! Pop on over to Kimberly's blog to continue Hopping! And, enjoy your new goodies in pink and yellow striped bags! ;) 

hugs, Noelle

Sneaky Peek Week Day 7: Summer Sentiments

Hi all! I have my last Sneaky Peek before the Pajama Party tonight to show you! Hope you join us to Party on our Splitcoaststampers Forum. I'll be there with a couple more cards and things that didn't make it onto the blog this week! At midnight EST we will begin our Blog Hop and all these fun new things will be available on the TCP website. Today's Peek is a quick one. I decided to make a set of Journaling Tags for a scrapbook page. We normally vacation by Road Trip, and I knew these would come in handy sooner or later! ;) I used the new set "Summer Sentiments" and the "luggage Tags" CutUps.

These tags are SO great for so many things! I can tell I'll be using them A LOT! Great size and I love that they are each a bit different.

These were cut from some DP scraps, and quickly accented with some fun ribbons, and Tim Holtz paper clips and brads. Simple, and they'll be a great way to add detail to my next Road Trip page! :) 

Hope to "see" you soon! I'll be back at midnight EST with my Blog Hop post. It's my fave card of the whole release, so I hope you'll be able to come by! :)

hugs, Noelle

DUDE, Happy Birthday. (CQC189, STB17)

Hi all! I am just rolling out cards tonight. But I guess that's not all that surprising seeing as I haven't had time to stamp ALL week! and here's why.....

Yeah, the little man graduated pre-school! I can hardly believe I'll have a kindergartner next year! Then today was older bros first race of the season! Love that we don't have a game to go to every week with triathlon, but when they are doing a race, it kind of sucks your weekend away. Getting ready much of saturday, getting packed, bike checks, etc. Then up at 5am this morning to get them to the transition area in time. This mama is beat! ;) Plus as you can see here, my oldest took a spill on his scooter in the rain last week and we ended up needing an x-ray for his hand (chin got banged up too, obviously..) Fortunately it was NOT broken for once! Yea! :)

But I was itching to play a couple challenges since it's been so long. This is for ColourQ #189 (sure miss my ColourQ DT friends! So grateful for Facebook so we can still keep in touch!) :)  and Seize The Birthday #17! Here's the graphics:

I still had all the stuff out from my Gallery Idol Cards, thought I'd make some use and make another youth male birthday card. I can always use those!!

I used the Stampamajig to line up my "Dude" stamp (Verve). The top one and the fourth one are both stamped in Ruby Red ink, but the top one was stamped off first. Of course I also used the Certainly Celery and the Calypso Coral ink pads.... The birthday stamp is Stampin' Up! the paper is We R Memory Keepers and the flair is from Bossy Joscie, so fun that flair!

I ripped up the edges of the Celery card really good with my distressing/razor tool and then added some grunge to it with some black ink sponged on.

Well, that's it for me today! Be back soon as we are approaching our new TCP release very very soon! Tomorrow night is the Pajama Party on Splitcoaststampers! Hope you can join us :)

Hugs, Noelle

2013 Gallery Idol Cards

Hi all! I wanted to throw my hat in the ring for this year's Gallery Idol Contest! I thought the theme was a great one: Teen and Kid Birthday cards, and there is a limit of 3 this year (smart thinking if you ask me!) Even though it's been a crazy week with Ev graduating preschool, the boys first race of the season, and Sneaky Peek Week. I really felt this was important. Here's the cards I came up with for this! :)

This first one is probably my fave.... I made it with my oldest son in mind. He will be turning 13 this fall, I can hardly believe I'll have teenager! Anyway, he is a triathlete and cycling is his favorite part of the sport. He got a road bike for his birthday 3

years ago, and he's still majorly in LOVE with it! He was actually the reason I bought this bike wheel flair from Bossy Joscie. I printed the "have a wheelie great birthday" sentiment on white cardstock in navy ink (font is called "Cracked"). then using a negative frame left over from cutting with this oval die (PTI, it's a skateboard actually...) I taped that over my printed sentiment centering the sentiment in the frame. Then I was able to tape the die right inside that frame so it would cut exactly where I wanted! After it was cut I stamped the "Dude" stamp (Verve) over the top and grunged it up a bit with some Basic Gray ink. The banner was die cut from  some bike printed paper, and I punched a 1" hole in the top of it to frame out the Happy Birthday flair.

For this second one I had more of a teen girl in mind, though the colors aren't particularly girly, I just tend to think the "Omg" sentiment is! I used lots of TCP goodies on this one, some MME papers, and added a candle for fun. :)

The final one was the first one I made. And in the end, I ended up making two since I had the "leftovers" from the first one it was super simple, and I can ALWAYS use kid birthday cards! I used the Cricut Expression, the Cricut Craft Room software/app, and the cartridge called "Wrap It Up." The stamps are PTI. 

Well that's it for me today! Thanks for popping by paper & ICE. :)

hugs, Noelle