Merry Christmas - Chalkboard Style

To my friends and family here and all around the world, Feliz Navidad! May this season bring you and your family blessings and good health.

This is my annual photo Christmas card. The stamps are all from the Holiday Sayings set from Hero Arts, except for the Lawn Fawn banner stamp.

With all the inspiration on Pinterest regarding chalkboards and when I saw Betsy Veldman's chalkboard-inspired cards here, I knew I had to create our Christmas card with that inspiration. This card is probably one of the most time-consuming cards I've ever tried to mass-produce. It involved embossing, die cutting felt, using a white pencil to color in chalky details, rubbing white pigment ink over everything (my favorite step) to give the chalkboard authenticity, and slicing an opening above the banner to insert the photo. I ran out of steam after creating 60 of these babies. Sorry to all my local friends who will not be receiving one of these cards this year.

Thanks for stopping by! I've got to get downstairs to get dinner prep started. Ho, ho, ho.

Happy Birthday, Judy!

I recently spied this cool Silhouette design in the Silhouette Online Store. Now that all the designs are 50% off until Nov 30th, I decided to download several.

Today we had an impromptu birthday celebration at school for my friend, Judy. I made this card for her.

The cardstock is from Stampin' Up and the rhinestones are from Michael's.

Thanks for stopping by...especially, my sweet blogging friend, Amy, who always manages go leave a kind word. Woman, you were up in the middle of the night just like me!

Simple Tag Using An Instagram Photo

I love Instagram! It's got to be my favorite app on my iPhone.

Last month, Kalino went to a birthday party for Lillie, my friend Nadja's daughter. A while back, Nadja posted an awesome photo of Lillie dressed as an Jedi. I love girls that love Star Wars. I loved the photo so much, I used it to make the tag for her gift bag. I love that Nadja has a chalkboard wall in her house. I didn't add "Jedi" and the arrow, that was on their wall. I wish I had a chalkboard wall. So cool!

I used the editing tools in Picasa to add the Happy Birthday text. Before I could add any text, I had to "erase" their light switches in the photo because it was right where I wanted to put the happy birthday sentiment. I downloaded a free Star Wars font. I glued the photo onto a plain shipping tag and I was done. Very simple! Thanks for stopping by.

Happy World Card Making Day!

My dear card-making friends,

I hope you had a great World Card Making Day today and found time to make some cards. I didn't get time to make anything, so I'm actually showing you a card I made for my friend, Lutex, back in August. The design is completely based on this great card by Nichole Heady.

The floral stamps all come from the Natural Beauties set from Papertrey Ink. The sentiment is from Birthday Bash Sentiments stamp set (also from Papertrey Ink). The papers used are also from Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for stopping by!

Janet, We Will Miss You!

I just posed this question on Instagram:

Am I still a card blogger if I haven't blogged since August 2nd? 

I still consider myself a blogger. Life has gotten in the way: volunteering at school and having work done to the exterior of our house.

I have made cards during the summer, I just haven't posted them on this blog. Well I'm back today.

I made this card for a dear friend at school, Janet. She and her family are moving to Salt Lake City very soon and all the volunteers and staff at school are really going to miss her. She was such a great volunteer in our library and all other events we had. We took her to lunch on Friday at a really good Vietnamese restaurant I'm town.

The stamps I used are all from Lawn Fawn: Quinn's ABCs and Harold's ABCs. The papers are from a great paper pad from My Minds Eye called Dolled Up. The heart button is from an older American Crafts flair collection.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy 9th Birthday Kalino!

Yesterday was the Little Guy's 9th birthday. This is the card I made for him.

The card started with this Silhouette design. Instead of using a number in the middle, I used the same photo I used on his Evite.

This kid loves his birthday. For example, on New Years Day he said "8 more months until my birthday." And he's been counting down every 1st of the month ever since. He also loves to have his party on his actual birthday, and since it's summer time, we have been able to accommodate his request. He invited 8 friends from school to play laser tag at Laser Quest in Mountain View. He attended a birthday party there last month and was totally excited to have his party there. Since they didn't open until 2PM, we took all the kids out for burgers at In N Out before driving to the party location. He had a great time. Here's a collage I posted yesterday on Instagram.

I did very little crafting for his party. Kalino and I decorated small water bottles with By the Numbers Papertrey Ink patterned paper. My friend Judy added numbers to the bottles so the kids could keep track of their own bottle. I also wrapped the same Papertrey Ink paper on jars that I up-cycled to hold the spoons and forks (didn't include a picture).

Instead of giving a traditional party favor bag, I bought gift cards at Baskin Robbins and made these gift card holders (Kristina's pattern). I added a photo of Kalino with a speech bubble that says "Thanks for making my day sweet." I used the Phonto app on my iPhone to create the speech bubble on the photo; I love my iPhone!

I researched laser tag cake ideas on Pinterest. I found several that all had glow sticks. I found several packs of them at Big Lots for $.60 for a pack of 4. Just stick the glow sticks in and "break" them to start the glowing effect. I had Costco customize their All American chocolate cake. I asked them not to put chocolate shavings on the perimeter. I also asked for neon-colored frosting. Did you know that Costco customizes more than just their sheet cakes? You can even take swatches of color and they will color-match the frosting to your color(s).

Thanks for stopping by!

I Love My Dad

I loved the free Father's Day frames from the Silhouette Online Store this past week. It made it easy to create a couple of Father's Day cards. I made this one for my Sweetie. He is such a great dad. My son is a lucky kid.

I took this photo of the guys at Legoland during our Spring Break. I processed the photo using Instagram on my iPhone.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Sweetie

Hi there! Today I made a birthday card for my hubby. We happen to share the same birthday. It's been a great day already: lunch with friends, hugs, flowers, gifts, red velvet cakepops, and a red velvet cake. Oh my...such sweet friends!

I love this Happy Birthday design from the Silhouette Online Store. It felt like a perfect design to use on a masculine card. The patterned paper is from Stampin' Up and the heart was cut from an older piece of Cosmo Cricket paper (I think). The letter stickers are from Cosmo Cricket.

The guys and I are off to dinner this evening to continue the celebration. When the principal at school asked me if I had any philosophical thoughts on my birthday, I remember saying I didn't have anything profound to say. But, I really do believe that age is just a number. It doesn't define us unless we let it.

Life is good. Thanks for stopping by!

Look Who's Turning 2

Our friend, Little Miss A, turned 2 this weekend. Here's the card I made for her 2nd birthday. The white card base was made with the heavy white cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I recently bought some new washi tape from Target and Groop Dealz, so I layered different washi tapes on the card base.

The design and dry embossing was completely inspired by these cards Lisa Spangler made where she dry embossed the washi tape after she placed it on cardstock. I loved the look so much, I had to try it out immediately. I used the By the Numbers impression plate from Papertrey Ink on front of the card.

I took this picture of Little Miss A when the kiddos had a playdate and I ran it through the Instagram App on my iPhone. After printing the photo on 4x6" photo paper, I trimmed it to look like a Polaroid photo.

The sentiment stamps are from Papertrey Ink and the chipboard number is from American Crafts. The baker's twine is from The Twinery. I also got a great deal on this baker's twine from Groop Dealz.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the inspiration, Lisa! 

Wishing You All Things Wonderful

Hi there! Here's a card I made last month for Daisy, one my favorite school secretaries who transferred to a different school. My son won't be done with his school year until June 15th. I'm sure most of you with school-age kids are already on your Summer break.

All the stamps are from Hero Arts. They were a gift last year from the fabulous Jennifer McGuire. I sewed several dozen flower pins for the Hero Arts booth at CHA last year and sweet Jennifer sent me a lot of stamps as a thank you. The sentiment stamp is from the Just Find Me set.

The papers are from Stampin' Up and Papertrey Ink. I love the weight of their cardstock.


I'm watching "House Hunters" on HGTV right now and the couple featured on the show are searching for a house in Maui. Lucky! Ahhh...love that island!


Well, thanks for stopping by!

Earth Day Notebooks

Hello, my dears!

Sorry, I haven't posted in a while. We were on Spring Break last week. We took a trip down to Southern California. We spent days in Legoland, Disneyland, and California Adventure. It was Kalino's first time in Disneyland. This kid is not a Disney kid. He's never wanted to go to Disneyland until now. He loved Tomorrowland.

Here are some notebooks I made for my sister-in-law's students to celebrate Earth Day. The notebooks started with recycled cardboard from boxes of crackers, cereal, packaging, etc.

I covered the cardboard pieces with various papers. I used a lot of Hambly overlays and Hambly papers. I also used a lot of other papers from various companies, like Stampin' Up. Each notebook is approximately 4.25" x 5.5". Some notebooks were a little smaller. I used various types of binding. Mainly I used "cola de rata" (rats tail...I know...weird name). I also used bamboo skewers for binding on some of the notebooks. The stamp I used was perfect. My sister-in-law provided the stamp. I can't remember the manufacturer. It shows the Earth surrounded by children; perfect for Earth Day!

Well, I've got to get to bed soon. We have an early morning. We are doing a Community Cleanup event at Kalino's school tomorrow. We are also showing all the great art the kid's created this week during our craft camps. They up-cycled trash into great works of art. The kids love the event that all of us mom's organized. Thanks to our leader, Nadja! I heard comments like "this is better than recess". That's a huge stamp of approval. They had so much fun. Yesterday, I helped the 3rd graders glue their robot creations together. Kids love building robots; not just my robot-obsessed son.

Happy Botday Dante!

I've said it before, but I love robots! And nothing says young boys birthday more than a birthday card with a robot on it.

We went to a birthday party for 6 year old cousin Dante this past weekend. Here's the card I made for him.

Here's a closeup of the Best Bots Forever stamps from Stampin' Up.

The embossed background was created with an embossing plate from Papertrey Ink.

It's been a busy week here, so I'll make this short and sweet. Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

A Love Maze - Inspired by Aga

Happy Friday! I saw this amazing card designed by Agnieszka (Aga) on Pinterest last week and I just had to create one!

I started with a maze design from Silhouette Studio. I cut it out 4 times with my Silhouette SD and glued the 4 layers together to give some dimension off the card. 

In this picture you can see how the maze pops off the card base.

I finished off the card with two heart-shaped gems. That's it! Thanks for the inspiration, Aga!

Happy Birthday Mr. G.!

Hi there! I made this card for my son's principal who celebrated a birthday this week. He is a huge proponent of up-cycling. Last year he took apart an old broken laminating machine and converted it into a piece of metal art. His home and outdoor living spaces should be featured in a home decor magazine; his house is that amazing!

I couldn't make him a card without using some recycled element. The "happy birthday" on the card is die cut letters from some Starbucks "java jackets". I used the Block Alphabet Die Collection from Papertrey Ink and my Big Shot machine. I love how the corrugated paper actually came out looking look wood.

The star is also recycled paper from another project with chunky glitter glued to the front.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy 1st Birthday - A Gift Bag and Tag

Hi everyone!


I made this gift bag and tag for my niece who celebrated her 1st birthday party yesterday. The inspiration for the gift bag design was a photo I took with my iPhone and ran through the Instagram app. She is the cutest little thing. I get to babysit her once in a while. She's pretty good when her mom drops her off.


The patterned papers are from the Martha Stewart Valentine's Day collection and the larger paper is an older piece of paper from My Mind's Eye. The stamps and rickrack border die are from Papertrey Ink. I used VersaMark ink (the most versatile ink on the planet) and I embossed the words with white embossing powder. I cut the number "1" with my Silhouette SD. The light blue paper and button are from Stampin' Up. The twine is from The Twinery.

Here's the matching tag I made for the gift bag. The white tag is from the office supply store. I just added scraps of rickrack and patterned paper. The felt butterfly is from and older pack of Making Memories felt shapes.


Thanks for stopping by! 

Robot Candy Valentine's Day Treats

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope today is treating you well. 

I saw some really great Valentine's Day ideas on the Scrapbooks Etc. website a few weeks ago, and I thought these robots were amazing, especially for my robot-loving kiddo to give away to his classmates.

These treats were a great way to use up older Stampin' Up and Cosmo Cricket patterned paper. Each robot was unique. They are cute, but a lot more time-consuming than I anticipated. I didn't do as much to the robot's head as the sample on Scrapbooks, Etc. I started running out of time last night, so I made these for Kalino's teacher, the girls in his classroom, and his close friends outside of class (the boys got Superman Valentines with a mini chocolate attached).

While I was working late in the studio, I was watching "Downton Abbey" on the PBS website. They have Season 2 episodes. Have you watched the show? I love it! I noticed Season 1 was on Netflix last week, so I started watching the show. I was hooked. I watched all 7 episodes within a few days.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Happy Belated Birthday

Hope you had a great weekend. Here's a belated birthday card I made for one of my sisters. I also made this card for the Embossing & Debossing Challenge on the Moxie Fab World blog challenge.

I used the In Bloom Impression Plate to emboss the Royal Velvet card front. I die cut the frame with Fillable Frames #12 die. I stamped and heat embossed the frame with the Fillable Frames #12 corresponding stamp set. The sentiment comes from the Birthday Bash sentiments set. I used the rickrack border die to cut a scrap of Simply Chartreuese paper.

The heart paper punch and stamp are from Stampin' Up. I finished off the card with a touch of bling and rounded one of the corners of the card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Happy Birthday Kim

Hi there! I was just watching the Real Housewives of Atlanta. Oh my goodness...what crazy drama and arguing! I had to change the channel.

Here's a card I made earlier this month for my friend Kim. 

In my rush out of the house, I didn't have time to photograph the card until we were all at El Torito's for Kim's lunch. Thanks to my friend, Nancy, for holding up a white napkin as the backdrop of the photo while I took a picture with my iPhone. Crazy!

The papers and stamps are all from Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for stopping by!

Look Who's Turning 5

Hey there!

We went to a party today for little Ms. M who turned 5 today. She is one of my best friend's daughters and so cute! I love that she is bilingual in English and Spanish and she has the cutest voice.

This card combines some of my favorite things:

• Using my Silhouette SD to cut the number 5
• A cute heart
• My iPhone and the Instagram App
• Some great Papertrey Ink stamps
• My Corner Chomper

Have a great week! Thanks for stopping by.