Mother's Day Tea Layout (CQC152)

Howdy folks! Here is my page for this week's ColourQ challenge! Lovely, COOL colors this week! I love when Arielle mixes the neutrals (i.e. both a beige and a gray) like this.... because I love the way it looks and I can tell you, I would never come up with that on my own! It's SOOOO good to think outside of your self-imposed creative box sometimes! KWIM? :)

So here's the fabby COOL palette, love this bedding.... I love owls, I always did, even before they were the "in" thing. :) Have you ever seen a live owl? If you live near me, I bet you have, they are really neat! This photo reminds me of the owl table runner and pillow covers that I made last Fall! The runner turned out so cute that it's been on my dining room table since I made it! :)


I had pinned this cute layout on Pinterest, and that's where I started with my own layout of the page.
Pulled out these pics from Evan's Mother's Day Tea from his first year of preschool. Look how little he looks here! *sob* Between these pics and dropping Ian off at MIDDLE SCHOOL yesterday, I am seriously about to lose my mama marbles! But, I keep reminding myself, it's good too. I have been at at-home mom for over a decade. And I am really ready to have a job and some more freedom. Not that volunteering at 3 schools and driving them to 3 schools, blogging, submitting, etc. gives me much free time right now! LOL, but it's coming soon. And even though it's a little sad to have them get older, it's really neat too.

Why there aren't any photos of me (the MOM) at the Mother's Day Tea? Who knows, I guess I just didn't hand the camera over to another mom, and say "here, take one of me, too!" ;)

I took the owls and the trees from the photo as well as the colors. Hadn't used my owl punch in awhile... these guys are so cute though! Used my MFT tree die with some circle punches for the tree and PTI teacup die and stamps for the "tea" part of the title.

Kept it to a single page, I only had 4 photos to scrap from this event.

And that's it for me today! Please come play at the ColourQ with us this week!

*hugs*
Noelle

supply list: DSP: Stampin' Up!; owl punch/circle punches: EK Success for SU!; corner punch: EK Success; scraps for punching owls; Letter stickers: Sticko

DUST IT OFF! That owl punch is several years old, but still so cute, who could resist? Scraps make great paper for punching out of, and then I mixed and matched my owls to my hearts content. :)

Apple Harvest Time!

Hey there! Just wanted to give you a peek at what I've been doing aaaalllllll weekend! Last year my hubby mentioned that he thought our apple tree would actually produce some fruit. Last year we got 6 or 7 small apples. This is what we got this year.... :)

LOL, not to mention, my in-laws gave us about 3 lb. of apples from THEIR tree, so we had another bowl than the 4 pictured! I'm no gardener, so this fascinates me, and it's pretty cool that they are actually good apples! A few years ago, I made apple butter in the Crock Pot, and it turned out really good... so that's where I started with this ginormous pile o' apples. So far I have 36 of these little 4 oz. jars. (More on the cute jar labels to come!) Plus I made 24 apple oatmeal muffins (sadly didn't turn out so great... they *might* get eaten, we will see) and a very yummy apple cake (found it on Pinterest!) that *did* turn out good and it was SO easy! The only thing was at our altitude and dry climate made it so I needed to add a LOT of water to it, probably about a cup and a half of water, but so good and easy! I have a delicious apple cake recipe from my hubby's grandma, but it's from-scratch and super time consuming, so I'm glad to have this easy alternative! Anyhoo... after all that made, I still have 3 of these big bowls of apples! LOL, I am learning more about canning this year than I have ever known before. I think I might attempt jelly next. Clearly I have enough fruit that if it doesn't turn out well, it won't be a big problem! ;)

Well of course I had fun with the baking/making food, but even MORE fun with making the jars cute. :) Everything I used on these is a dust-off, old products that still work great! :) The apple stamp is Unity, the punches are EK Success, the letter/number stamps are this magnetic stamp set I've had forever and will probably never part with. You arrange the magnetic stamps on the metal block to say what you want. Old OLD Making Memories, I just love them! :)

Those mini tags are truly ancient, but I didn't have enough. So I dove into my little box of parts and pieces, was able to cut apart several die-cuts that were leftover to make tags. Also I found some old SU! canvas pieces that worked great!

The "From The Kitchen Of" labels were from one of my Spotted Canary prize packs, they are Martha Stewart Crafts. I didn't know if I'd ever get around to using them, loved to find a purpose! There's only 12, but that's ok. :)

The apple was inked up with multiple markers, then punched out and finally the words stamped over the top. I punched a larger green circle and added a heart brad to the apple stem. Used some of my huge spool of bakers twine to tie on the tags with the date.

And that's all for today. Tomorrow I am dropping my son off at his first day of middle school, and to be honest it's been a hard week for me. These darn kids grow up too fast! *sniff sniff* It was good to have something to occupy my mind with besides him growing up! Besides all this apple yumminess makes me happy that Fall is on it's way!

have a great day:) xo,
Noelle 

Just The Ticket/thank you note for Kara (TCPTUES223 and SFYTT)

Hey folks! Hope all is well, another crazy week, and on Monday I get rid of one more kid! Ha! ;) Actually to be honest, I will likely be a bit of a wreck on Monday, since my Ian is heading off to *gulp* middle school! He had the opportunity to go to this cool tech-based charter school for middle/high school, and even though it meant pulling him from the last year at our neighborhood elementary (which we truly love...) it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. So, I have this feeling I might be crying a little (ok a lot!) on Monday :( My baby is growing up too fast! How does this happen?!

Ok, anyway, I wanted to make a thank you note for Kara! She was so sweet and sent me her ColourQ card from last week (for FREE!) after I offered to buy it for Ev's birthday that's coming up in a few weeks! I just LOVE that big "5," don't you? And those colorful circles are just TOO cute! I can't wait to give it to him! :) Plus, he's my kid, so I technically am not really giving it away, LOL. I get to keep it around here for some CAS inspiration! ;) So, short story long... I wanted to send her a note. I decided to use last week's TCPTUES223 color challenge:



AND I'm getting to use this month's Sketch For You To Try


So loving this, and it's definitely something I wouldn't have come up with on my own! I initially though of using arrows in lieu of the rectangles, but then saw that someone in the SFYTT Gallery had already gone that route. I recently bought these Big Ticket CutUp and Admit One Stamps from The Cat's Pajamas, and hadn't used them yet, so they became my focus for the whole card. A tip: repeated elements can make your whole project "flow" better! Often times I will use a repeated shape, like circles, on this one I am using a repeated element, that big ticket! :) 

I made 3 ticket strips. This die is so cool that way, it's meant to be used end to end, so you could make a big long ticket strip. Can't wait to use it on my next amusement park pages! Wouldn't these giant tickets make such a cute border on a scrapbook page?

After the three strips were arranged as per the sketch on my card, I cut 3 individual yellow tickets and stamped the top one with all those fun stamps, layering the colored images over the black text. After taping them together, I used a SU! clip to make it look as they were paper-clipped together. :) And that was it, pretty simple, mail-able card to send to kara! Thank you again Kara! I can't believe the card was even cuter in person! You rock:)

Well, that's it for me today, folks, hope you are well.

Big hugs, Noelle

supply list: stamps/die: TCP; clip: SU!; papers: MME

Wishing You An Epic Year (CQC151 & RS25)

Hey there! Hope you all had a great weekend. I am laying here just wiped, we just got home from 2 nights camping. It was fun, but I'm definitely a gal who could be described as "indoorsy" (ala Jim Gaffigan, he cracks me up!) I like to exercise outside, but the whole being one with nature thing escapes me. So, I hadn't been camping in years. Hubby and the boys usually go with his folks every summer. This year they all wanted me to go, but now I think I'm good for a few more years.... First of all; this is all we brought: the 5 of us, our 2 dogs, 5 bikes, a giant canoe, paddles, life vests, fishing poles, tackle box/net, 5 helmets, clothes for us all, 5 pillows, sleeping bags, a tent, a queen size air mattress, etc, etc, etc. This was all in/on our minivan with no trailer or anything! My in-laws are awesome, they brought their pop-up camper, all the food, and everything else. The second night I slept in the camper, and it's definitely more comfortable than the tent! :)

We live within 5 minutes of two state parks, a huge reservoir, and a gorgeous canyon, so it's not hard for us to get out and canoe, fish, hike, bike, etc...... and we do! Living so close as we do to all those things, guess I just don't understand why we need to sleep on the ground and pee in a hole to go do those things somewhere else.....It's just ME, I guess! I'm the camping grinch! ;) You can take the girl out of the city, but you can't take the city out of this girl. I'm fond of my air conditioning, running water, and my comfortable bed. So anyway, very GLAD to be home.

I haven't been feeling my best these last few weeks anyway, I think my thyroid is out of whack again. *sigh* So, I'm tired and not having my normal amount of energy.

But, I'm sure you didn't only pop by to hear me complain! Ha! ;) Here's the STELLAR palette for this week's ColourQ Challenge! Loving this, perfect for masculine cards, and living in Broncos-land, you can't go wrong with orange and blue! ;)

I was just in LOVE with Kara's card this week! I asked her to make me one for Ev, he will be 5 in a few weeks. And she didn't even charge me, she is so sweet! I can't wait to get it! :)

Boy birthday cards always get used around here! So that's what I went with, and I also used this week's   Retro sketch #25.

You can see for that one vertical panel, I used an acetate piece that I dry embossed in the Cuttlebug. I think it turned out cool, though I think if I were making this card again, I'd probably use a slightly more subtle, even texture instead of the "happy birthday" folder. It got a bit busy layered over that number printed paper! 

For that round piece in lieu of the button, I used a circle punch and the punch from my Imaginisce I-Top. I have found it makes a cool gear looking shape if you're not using it to upholster a brad with! Gotta stretch those tools and use them any way you can! :) A giant library clip and a funky brad finish this off with a fun vibe.

Well, I hope you like my card, and I hope you will come play with us at the CQC this week! Big hugs:)

xoxo, Noelle

supply list: stamps: Papertrey Ink; embossing folder: Cuttlebug; punches: i-Top (Imaginisce) and EK Success; paper: Authentique and Stampin' Up!; clip and ribbon: SU!; acetate

DUST IT OFF!: A punch that makes a brad topper also looks cool as a gear shape! 

Recent Pages

This layout inspired by the 3rd photo down on this post.

Hi there! No challenges today, just wanted to share some recent pages with you. Lately, I've been pushing myself when I pull out a stack of photos, to FINISH scrapping that event instead of putting the leftover pics back in the box with good intentions to scrap them later! Chronological scrapping went out the window a couple years ago when I started blogging. Often, in order to find the "right" pics for a particular color scheme or sketch, I jump around in time. I use slip-in page protectors, so it works out ok in the end to arrange them in my books by date. But lately I'd gotten in a really BAD habit of scrapping one or 2 pages from a big event, and then putting the rest of the pics away in a box to get back to later. The problem with this is that by the time I get back to them, I'm kind of "over" them and ready to move onto something new! So these pics are the ones that go along with the Vegas pages from last week and also from last year! And the birthday pages go along with the ColourQ pages from earlier this week. :) I still have a couple more pages to do from Ev's school party last year, but they are sitting on my desk until I get to them! ha! So, no supply lists; but here's some pics and a little inspiration. :)

This LO was one I'd pinned (link above (below the top photo) to the original post about it.) I though these Circus themes Graphic 45 papers and tags would be a great fit for a page about Cirque de Soleil, and I included other Vegas pics, too, hence the long, involved title! I added lots of rhinestones and glitter to give the pages a "Vegas" feel. 

Some more fun ones from Vegas, not super creative, but quick and cute! And hey, they are DONE, which makes me really happy! :)

The other birthday pages from Ev's party! This page was easily coordinated by using items all from the same line of "Simple Stories" brand products. I still have quite a few stickers and papers left, and I love the brown instead of the normal birthday brights. :)

Add caption

And here's something not-so-pretty but EASY and a great way to use those last few photos from an event! 6 pocket page protectors! I often use my last few stickers to create a "title block." I love that neither the stickers or the photos get wasted, and they aren't gathering dust in a box somewhere, either! :)

Well that's it for me today! I hope you like my pages:) Have a great day!

xo, Noelle

Birthday Banner Card using Felt and Washi Tape (TCPTUES and Tuesday Trigger)

Hi there! Wow, FOUR days in a row!? Even though I've still got 2 kiddoes at home, I am really starting to get my mojo back! Just think how prolific I'll be once they are ALL back! ;) Haha, a girl can only hope, right? Loving the weather in CO today, too... A little cool front blew in last night and it's like 65 degrees outside! Aaaaaah, I am SO ready for Fall, I normally get my autumn decorations up in the house sometime the first week in September, so I'm counting down! :) So, it seemed like it might be fun to channel some Autumn into today's card. This week's Tuesday Trigger is the perfect fit! Love this gorgeous Trigger photo:

Several things struck me about this photo that I tried to capture.... the colors, the movement, the femininity, the elegance, these were all things I tried to capture in my card. There's also a formality here, a real 1940s vibe that I love! 

This week's TCP Tuesday Challenge is to use washi tape! I really am digging on washi tape right now! It makes great borders, backgrounds, works wonderfully to die cut with, like I did on this card, I just love that it can take the place of so many other "traditional" craft supplies, like ribbon, or card stock. 

So, for my card, I used the washi tape to make banners, since I was trying to give the card some movement, like the photo has, I left the ends of the banners "unstuck" and gently tapped them with my embossing bag (you could also use a little cornstarch or baby powder) to keep them from getting flattened once the card goes into an envelope. The tape I used is polka dotted which was a very popular pattern in the 40s. 

I thought a felt flower would give the card both a feminine and autumnal feel I wanted. I used my TCP flower die, LOVE that thing! I also used the heart/leaf shape from another TCP die set. The sentiment is only part of one of the sentiment stamps from the TCP Mustache set. It originally said "you to have a great birthday," and I just inked up the "have a great birthday" part and used that on my die cut banners. 

The colors used are Stampin Up: Summer Starfruit, Handsome Hunter (retired), and Cajun Craze. 

That is all for me! Hope you enjoy! 

Hugs, Noelle

supply list: stamp: TCP; dies: TCP and PTI; solid card stock: Stampin' Up!; felt; pin: LYB; washi tape: SMASH/EK Success

I'll Have A Pink Christmas Without You (JB12-17 & MM28)

Hi there! Hope you are both happy and surprised to see me for the 3rd day in a row! I am so happy and feeling the groove to create! However, I do have a lot of housework to finish today, so I'm going to keep my writing short and sweet! I have a few more challenges bookmarked to get on this week, so here's hoping I can make the time for a record creative week! I could use one about now! LOL

This first card is for the latest challenge at Jingle Belles! Stef created this super-cool sketch as a jumping off point! I created a dimensional ornament by die-cutting 5 green ornaments, scoring 4 along the middle and then layering them on top of each other. :)

The second card is for this week's Merry Monday challenge! I basically cased this card from LeAnne, I used some washi tape for two of my layered banners. 

Both cards ended up being non-traditional PINK holiday cards! The ornament one has a Melon Mambo card stock base. Gotta love that. :) Both have a modern twist. Both were quick, the longest part was making the dimensional ornament. :) Both used a funky decorative brad from the same pack. I hope you likey, have a fabulous day! 

xo, Noelle

supply list: papers: Crate Paper and The Paper Studio; dies: Spellbinders and LID; washi tape: Target and Martha Stewart Crafts; sentiment sticker: Stampin' Up!; brads: The Paper Studio

DUST IT OFF!: This is all years old, in fact I was thinking I need some new Christmas papers! Too bad I just ordered some new stamps! ;)