Have a Magical Birthday

My oldest son was recently invited to a birthday party for a girl in his class and this is the card I made for her. I decided to use Pink Fresh Studio's set Magical Unicorn. This is one of my only young girl type stamp sets, but I really love it!


The flowers, leaves, ears, and unicorn horn are all cut with the matching Magical Unicorn dies. The horn was embossed in gold, and the leaves and flowers were stamped with their coordinating stamps from the set. The ears are only glued on at the base, and then I sort of curled them up a bit for some dimension.

I used the Essentials: Braided Oval die to layer all of my unicorn pieces on. My inspiration for the layout came from the very talented Kelly Lunceford, who did the same thing on her card.

I stamped the eyelashes directly on the oval die cut, and then embossed the sentiment in gold. The oval is popped up with foam tape over a piece of polka dotted pattern paper that is from a very old Stampin' Up! pad I've had forever. I think it turned out very cute and I hope the little girl liked her card!

Have a great weekend!

SUPPLIES:

Stamps: Magical Unicorn (Pink Fresh Studio)

Paper: Stamper's Select White (PTI), Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, pattern paper (SU!)

Ink: Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery (SU!), Versa Fine Onyx Black, Versa Mark

Dies: Magical Unicorn, Essentials: Braided Oval (Pink Fresh Studio), Nesting Basics: Rectangles (PTI))

Other: gold embossing powder, adhesive pearls, foam tape

First Day of School Cards

My last post was for teacher appreciation gifts and now I am posting back to school cards; summer certainly flew by! I wanted to make some special cards for each of my boys to celebrate their first day of school, and what better way than with a fun shaker card?

My oldest had his first day of school last week, I now have a first grader! Both cards center around the Shaker Shapes: Pencil die from Papertrey Ink. So fun! I die cut the pencil from traditional colors and filled it in with little alphabet confetti, cut from a die that is included with the shaker die set. There are also a few gold and clear sequins.

The words "first day" are from School Days and "1st Grade" is from School Time Additions. I really love the additions set because it includes everything from preschool to senior, I'll be using this one for a long time!

To give the shaker dimension and hold everything together, I used double sided foam adhesive sheets. These are a life save and make shaker cards to much easier than piecing together little bits of foam tape!

The notebook paper is actually pattern paper called Pencil Me In, also from Papertrey Ink. I added the spiral edge with the Moments Inked: Edged die. I gave this card to my son at breakfast on his first day of school and he loved it! I hope it made the day a little more special and calmed any first day jitters.

This next card I will give to my three year old when he has his very first day of preschool next week. Everything about this card was done the same way, only I switched out "1st grade" for "preschool" and reversed the colors. 

I hope this provides some inspiration and if you have kiddos going back to school as well I hope they have a great year!


SUPPLIES
Stamps: School Days, School Time Additions (PTI)
Paper: New Leaf, Hibiscus Burst, Sweet Blush, Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold, Kraft, Smokey Shadow, Pencil Me In (PTI), Brilliant Blue, Real Red (SU!), silver
Ink: Brilliant Blue (SU!), New Leaf (PTI)
Dies: Shaker Shapes: Pencil, Moments Inked: Edged (PTI)
Other: sequins, doubled sided foam adhesive sheets, 1/8" score tape, clear acetate

End of Year Teacher Gifts

 

These are the end of year gifts I made for the teachers who taught "specials" at my son's school, as well as the secretary, school nurses, and custodian. I found the popcorn buckets 3/$1 at Dollar Tree and I filled them with a bag of microwavable popcorn, a mini can of Coke, and a coupon code for a movie rental at Red Box. I thought the idea of having a movie themed gift to celebrate the end of the year would be fun and different!

I wrapped them up in clear cellophane to keep everything together and made tags to dress them up. The schoolhouse image is from Petite Places: School, the "thanks" is from Ways to Say: Thanks, and "for everything" was from Enclosed: Apple.

And this is the gift I gave my son's classroom teacher. I wanted to do a bit more for her as she is with him day in and day out, and as his mom I know that is a lot of work! Ha! This larger popcorn bucket is also from Dollar Tree, and this time it was filled with an assortment of movie theater candy (more Dollar Tree finds), three bags of microwavable popcorn, a bottle of Coke, the card I shared yesterday, and Red Box codes for three movie rentals.

This tag is very similar to the others, with the same school house image. This time I used a larger tag to accommodate the larger sentiment and also used a scallop border punch on the bottom.

I was very happy with how they turned out and hope his teachers all enjoyed their gifts and enjoy their summer break!


SUPPLIES:

Thanks for Everything Tag
Stamps: Petite Places: School, Ways to Say: Thank You, Enclosed: Apple
Paper: Stamper's Select White
Ink: Real Red (SU!), Bright Buttercup, Weathervane (PTI), Versa Fine Onyx Black
Dies: Traditional Tag STAX die namics
Other: red stitched ribbon, hemp twine, crop-a-dile

For a Special Teacher Tag
Stamps: Petite Places: School, Great Teachers (PTI)
Paper: Stamper's Select White (PTI)
Ink: Real Red (SU!), Bright Buttercup (PTI), Versa Fine Onyx Black
Dies: Traditional Tags STAX Die Namics (MFT)
Other: Scallop Border Punch (SU!), crop-a-dile, red stitched ribbon, hemp twine

Thank You, Teacher

This is the end of year thank you card I made for my son's kindergarten teacher. I had really been wanting to make a red bicycle card, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I love how the pure poppy bitty big pattern paper pairs with the bike. The bicycle panel is stamped on a stitched rectangle die cut, and layered over the pattern paper which is cut with the smallest of the scallop stacker dies.

The sentiment is from Petite Places: School, and was just the right size to fit in the small upper corner space. The stitched panel is popped up with foam tape for some dimension.

That's it for now, have a great weekend!

SUPPLIES:
Stamps: Pedal Pusher, Petite Places: School (PTI)
Paper: Stamper's Select White, Pure Poppy Bitty Big (PTI)
Ink: Pure Poppy, Classic Kraft, Green Parakeet (PTI), Smokey Slate (SU!), Versa Fine Onyx Black
Dies: Scallop Stackers: Small (PTI), Stitched Rectangles (SSS)

Thanks for helping me grow!

I've been working on end of year teacher gifts for my son's classroom teacher and each of his specials teachers, and I'm really excited to share when they are finished. In the mean time, though, here are what we gave to his preschool teachers last year (life got busy after school and I never posted them!).

My son absolutely adored his preschool teachers last year and as I was thinking about what to give them I wanted it to 1) Be something they would actually want and 2) Reflect how special they were to our family by helping my son feel loved throughout the year. I came across this sentiment on Pinterest and it really resonated with me. He had grown physically of course, but also socially and academically, so it was perfect!

I purchased several succulents and repotted them in terra cotta pots. Then I created the sentiment on my computer and printed out a sheet of them. Once printed, I used a tag die to individually cut each sentiment out. Each pot had a different color ribbon, and I stamped a small spade image behind the sentiment in a matching ink. These were given to the teacher's assistants and music teacher.

I also had three lavender plants that were given to his classroom teachers. I left them in the plastic containers they came in, but to dress them up a bit I put them in brown paper lunch bags that I had trimmed down with a scallop edge punch.

I tied some delicate hemp twine into a bow around the hole in the tag, but stapled them to the actual brown bag. Each of the spade images were stamped in purple to match the lavender.

I was really pleased with how they turned out and I believe his teachers liked them too. :)

For a Special Teacher

With young kids in school I'm learning that May means end of year teacher gifts (and cards!). These are actually the cards I made for my son's preschool teachers at the end of last year but never posted. I still think they turned out cute and hope they'll provide some inspiration for others as well!

For my focal point I used Papertrey Ink's Enclosed: Apple die, along with their Keep it Simple: Teacher mini stamp set. The cards are all slightly different, mostly by changing the pattern paper in the background. Most of the red pattern paper is from an old Stampin' Up pad I have from ages ago. The gray paper is Smokey Shadow card stock, with the sentiment embossed in white. 

Here is what they all look like together. It was fun to mass produce them but have them each be unique as well. I remember letting my son decide which teacher received which card, and him being very excited about and giving great thought to.

I have a half done teacher card on my desk right now for my son's current teacher. When it is finished I'll share it, hopefully before a year goes by!


SUPPLIES:
Stamps: Keep it Simple: Teacher (PTI)
Ink: VersaMark
Paper: Stamper's Select White, Smokey Shadow (PTI), Old Olive, pattern paper (SU!)
Dies: Enclosed: Apple (PTI), Stitched Rectangles (SSS)
Other: button, baker's twine, white embossing powder

Hoppy Easter

I realize we are well past Easter but I wanted to share this card just the same. This is the card I made for my two boys. The original plan had been to make a different card for each of them, but since this wasn't made until the Saturday night before Easter they had to share!

I cut my card base with the Noted: A2 Scallop die from Stamper's Select White card stock. The little bunny image is from Papertrey Ink's Bunny Basket set. I picked out a pastel rainbow of inks and then used my stamp positioner to make sure my row would fit within the card. Simple and sweet!


Supplies:
Stamps: Bunny Basket (PTI)
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Marigold Morning (SU!), Lemon Tart, Vintage Jadeite, Spring Rain (PTI), VersaFine Onyx Black
Paper: Stamper's Select White (PTI)
Dies: Noted: A2 Scallop die collection (PTI)
Other: Stamparatus (SU!)

Happy May Day

Happy May Day! For the past couple of years I've wanted to revive the old tradition of leaving May Day flowers for neighbors with my kids. Again this year the idea had been percolating in my mind but I hadn't really done anything about it. Then this morning my youngest son and I were in Trader Joe's for a few groceries and right at the entrance they had the sweetest mini potted flowers on display. I decided that was serendipitous and bought two, one for each of our immediate next door neighbors.

I had my son, who is three, pick out which two flowers we were going to buy. It was actually very hard for me to let him pick because he didn't necessarily pick ones I would have chosen, but I really wanted him to be part of the process and help. He was very emphatic about which neighbors were going to get which flowers, he definitely had an opinion!

The flowers came in bright plastic pots, which were a bit tacky looking, so when we got home I went to work to make them into sweet little gifts. I took a regular brown lunch bag and opened it up flat. Then, using pinking shears, I trimmed it into two squares large enough to cover the pots. I wrapped the squares around each pot and tied them with regular white kitchen string.

I also made little banners so our neighbors would know why a potted plant was showing up on their doorstep! I used a banner die and alphabet stamp set to make the banners, then adhered them with glue dots to bamboo skewers I had trimmed down and stuck down in the dirt. I think they turned out very well!

We waited until my oldest son got home from school to deliver our May Day gifts. The boys were so cute running up to our neighbors' doors, leaving the flowers on the doorstep, ringing the doorbell and then high tailing it home as fast as they could! I hope our neighbors enjoy their little floral surprise!

Pteranodon Birthday Card

My youngest son just turned three and, wanting to be just like his big brother, he also had a dinosaur birthday party. His was a little more specific, though, in that he kept asking for a "pteranodon" party. So here is his special pteranodon birthday card! 

I wanted to have my little pteranodon flying around, so he needed a sky. I started by die cutting a rectangle from Stamper's Select White card stock with Papertrey Ink's Nesting Basics: Rectangle die. Then I used a cloud stencil from My Favorite Things and some Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink to create a layer of puffy clouds over the entire panel. 

The pteranodon, from My Favorite Things Delightful Dinosaurs, was stamped with VersaFine Onyx Black ink and then colored in with colored pencils. I used the matching die to cut him out. I wanted him to be able to fly around a bit so I die cut the smallest spinner channel from My Favorite Things Circle Spinner Channel dies in the sky panel. It's really fun how much he spins around!

The volcano was made by die cutting Chocolate Chip card stock with My Favorite Things Volcano die-namic. The lava was cut from Pumpkin Pie card stock and then sponged around the edges with Riding Hood Red ink. The number three was die cut with the Block Alphabet Numbers dies. It was the perfect size to fit on the volcano!

The grass is cut from Wild Wasabi card stock with the Honey Bee Stamps Grass Border die. The sentiment, from Papertrey Ink's Ways to Say: Birthday, was heat embossed with white embossing powder. The entire front panel is adhered to the card base with foam tape. 

The inside of the card was really fun. I used the spiral die from Papertrey Ink's Movers & Shakers: Poppers die collection. The top tab of the spiral die is adhered to the top of the card base with a glue dot, while the bottom tab of the spiral die is adhered with a glue dot to the bottom of the card base, so that when you open the card the spiral springs open. Then I used a small dab of liquid glue to add three more die cut and colored pteranodons along the spiral. When you open the card up they spring up like they are flying! 

Here is another view of how the three little pteranodons look on the spiral. Then I stamped the sentiment, also from Ways to Say: Birthday, at the bottom in Wild Wasabi ink. My little guy was so happy when he opened his card on his birthday. He especially liked the 3 on his volcano. Success!

SUPPLIES
Stamps: Delightful Dinosaurs (MFT), Ways to Say: Birthday (PTI)
Ink: Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide (Time Holtz), Onyx Black, Versa Mark (VersaFine), Wild Wasabi (SU!)
Paper: Stamper's Select White (PTI), Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Riding Hood Red (SU!)
Dies: Delightful Dinosaurs, Volcano Die-Namic, Circle Spinner Channel (MFT), Nesting Basics: Rectangles, Movers & Shakers: Poppers, Block Alphabet Numbers dies (PTI), Grass Border (Honey Bee Stamps)
Other: Cloud Stencil (MFT), colored pencils, foam tape, white embossing powder