sweet 16

We have had a busy few days around here.  Yesterday 15 went on a fieldtrip to UCLA and Pepperdine.  She really liked Pepperdine.  The sun the surf.  The campus is really beautiful too. They went to the pier afterward and ate dinner.  Check out this pic she took. 

She took an even better one with her phone but we can't figure out how to download pics off her phone yet.  We're technologically challenged around here. 

Then today the boy went paintballing with the band.  Now all the boys are crazy for it.  He had a really good time but he is so sore right now.  AND he has welts!  Sounds like fun to me........


Now tonight, 15 is at a Sweet 16 birthday party sleepover.  Of course I had to make something super cute.  We went to Target and got her a cute necklace.  Check out the packaging:

Letterpress numbers (retired).  Kraft, whisper white, pretty in pink, melon mambo, rose red, and old olive cardstock.  Melon Mambo ink.  Ticket corner punch, large oval punch, 1 3/8"circle punch, coluzzle, pink Chunky glitter, Tombow multi glue, scallop trim border punch and polka dot embossing folder (wart maker).

This is just like the valentine boxes I made.  Its smaller though.  Its 3" x 3" x 1 1/2".  It turned out so cute! 

I made the card 2 3/4" square so it would fit inside the box.  I was running short on time and couldn't get quite as fancy as I thought a Sweet 16 card should be, but my girl was breathing down my neck making me hurry!

I stamped the numbers in Melon mambo and then went over them with the Tombow multi glue.  Then I squished the chunky glitter into it.  I ended up just drawing squiggly lines around the edges.  Probably a little squigglier than I would have liked but, I was hurrying!

Anyway, I hope she likes it. 

I also found something else at Target. 

Jacob Black in da house! 

Here is a funny story.  Well, I thought it was funny. 

The girls and I are in Target and of course the first thing in the cart is New Moon.  The Three Disc Version!  So we're getting our shopping done and we stop to look at something and a lady looks at me, points to my shirt, and says, "Is that what I think it is?"

"What?"  Then I look at my shirt and then look back at her and see she has the movie and the Forks documentary in her hands.  I had on my Team Jacob shirt. 

So laughing I say, " Yeah, it is."

She starts laughing and points out her pants.  They say Quilette on them.  We both laugh.  15 is looking at us both like we're crazy.  I look at the lady and pointing at 15 say, "She doesn't understand the whole Twilight Mom thing."

"Oh, have you been to TwilightMoms.com yet?"

"There is a website?", I say.

"Oh yeah.", says she.   Hmmm...

So of course I've checked it out.   You know, I really like the books and plan on taking them with me when I have to leave on a jet plane in a few weeks.  And I'm looking forward to reading them again.  But really people, there is more to life.  So there ya go.

Okay, I've talked too much and its time to kick the boy off the big tv so I can watch my movie.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great weekend!

Blessings, b.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone is having a great day. 

I tried fiddling with the blog formatting yesterday and downloaded a new formatting thingy.  Sometimes when I post, it scrunches up the text towards the bottom and doesn't flow right and I can't correct it.  So we'll see if this works better.  From this point of view, things are already different.  So wish me luck here. 

Yesterday, Grace and I sold Girl Scout Cookies with our troop.  Our troop is dwindling down and we only have 8 girls.  4 of them came yesterday.  They had fun but were sure ready to go home after the 2 hours were up.  So was I. 

Okay, are you sitting down?  I have a news flash, my husband actually sat down at my desk and MADE me a Valentine card this morning.  I promised I wouldn't show it here.  There is no actual stamping on it but he did use punches.  WOW!


So, I wanted to show you the Valentine's I made for my family.  I made little boxes, 3 1/2" square and 2 1/2" tall and filled them with candy for the kiddos.   Heres a reminder on how I made the boxes.  Mind you, these are a different size, you just gotta do the math.

No stamps!  Melon Mambo,whisper white and old olive cardstock.  Small heart punch (occasions mini), coluzle, large oval punch, scallop border punch, brads and dimensionals. 

Pretty huh?  I wanted to make something they could keep out on their dressers after the candy was gone and fill with some kind of kid treasure.   I just punched the little heart through the white so the pink would show through. 

The scallop circle punch that I used before was going to make too small of a flower, so I used the Coluzzle to cut out bigger ones.  I cut 4 big ones and 3 the next size smaller.  Then I did the same thing that I did here.   Then I just punched out 2 leaves using the oval punch, scrunched them up and glued the whole thing together. 

This is some really old pink organza ribbon we used to sell.  I used the scallop trim border punch along the bottom of the lid.  Extra pretty!


I made Grace's lid a different color.  Instead of Melon Mambo I used Regal Rose. 

Really old white organza we used to sell.

I used 2 big circles of  Rose Red, 1 big circle of Melon Mambo, 3 smaller circles of Regal Rose and a 1 3/4" punched circle of Rose Red.   I think it came out so pretty!  I wrote  little love notes on the inside of their lids. 


Now for the boy's box.  

Lovely as a Tree and Sanded background.  Kraft, soft suede, basic black and watercolor paper.  Stazon Black ink, soft suede, more mustard and old olive inks.  Aquapainter and dimensionals. 

I still had out the stuff from the last card I made so I thought I'd use it for this too.  This way its not all Valentiney and he can leave it out on his dresser.

Crooked lid!  I think I overfilled it with candy.

Now here is the one I made for my hubby.  Remember the "Can O' Love"?  Its just a Pringles can that I covered with DSP several years ago.  Every holiday I fill it up with candy. 

I {heart} Hearts and Woodgrain background.  Kraft, soft suede, basic blackand whisper white cardstock.  Soft suede and real red inks.  Sponges, hemp and dimensionals. 

You may wonder why everything is wood looking.  He works with wood.  Well, actually right now, he works with everything.  He works for a home builder.  But his first love (besides me) is wood.  He can make anything from wood.  Seriously, he can. 

Its so funny, when I look at a card, it looks great and wonderful.  I look at this pic and it seems my hearts are going downhill.  Why don't I notice that when I'm making it.  I just went to look at it again and really, it isn't that noticeable.  Oh well.   

Okay, I'm finished for today.  I'm gonna hit "publish post" and we'll see what happens. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Blessings, b.

ahhhh......the weekend

I'm so glad its the weekend! How about you? It is raining and windy this morning and I'm loving sitting here listening to it. So relaxing.

Then I realized I haven't shown you what we made on Thursday night yet. I had so much fun Thursday. Those ladies just crack me up!


This is what I made my hostess:

I {heart} hearts set (Occasions Mini) and Vintage Labels set(SAB). Rose red ink. Pretty in pink and very vanilla cardstock. Candle, Scallop trim border punch (SAB), Real red satin ribbon (Occasions Mini), wide oval punch, regal rose wide grosgrain and natural hemp.

I almost forgot to take a pic of it. It was already wrapped and I didn't have time to unwrap and then rewrap so I took the pic of it wrapped. I love stamping on candles. I hadn't done it in so long. So easy too.

Let me know if you'd like to know how to do this and I'll see if I can work something up for you.




This is one of the cards we made.

Well Scripted (Occasions Mini). Not quite navy and very vanilla cardstock. Not quite navy ink. Wide oval punch, kraft taffeta ribbon, Bella Bleu DSP, brads and dimensionals.

Isn't this beautiful (if I do say so myself)? So simple but just has such a WOW factor. I think this was the favorite card of the night. Everyone was trying to think of what the flower looked like. Camillia was the favorite, but I think it looks like a gardenia too.









Okay, want to know how to make this flower?



I first saw this idea on Dawn McVey's blog and she got it from someone else's blog. I'll see if I can find the link. eta: Okay, I guess I'm not supposed to link to her blog because she promotes another stamp company. But she is still a genius and I love her stuff. Google her and you'll find her.



Anyway, these flowers are everywhere right now. They are so pretty and you can make them out of any paper. The possibilities are endless.






I just used SU!'s scallop circle punch. Punch out 6 scallops. You can punch out more or less depending on how full you want your flower.

1,2,3,4,5,6.

Then stack them all together. Notice how my scallops aren't lined up with each other? You can if you want, but there is no need. I think it looks a little more natural if they aren't.







Now, take one layer at a time and scrunch the heck out of it. Get those aggressions out!

Oh no! The thumb is back! It could use a little moisturizer too by the looks of it.

Just keep scrunching away until you have a little ball of scrunched paper.

The bottom will be flat and thats a good thing.

Then loosen up the petals. You can make it as scrunchy as you like it.

How many times can I use some form of the word scrunch?

There ya go. A beautiful flower! I do leave the middle (first layer) of the flower pretty scrunched up so I don't see the brad. You like it?

One of the best things about it, you can mail it and not worry about your flower getting crushed. It may look even better! If thats possible.

I'll be back with the pics of the other cards we made. Those pics didn't turn out so great so I'm going to redo them.

Thanks for stopping by today and checking in. I love it when you do that.

Blessings, b.