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!

Hero Arts Video For Those of Us Who Did Some Sewing

Today was an exciting day. I stayed up until 2 AM to see Libby from PSA Essentials on the Home Shopping Network. I didn't need to stay up, because TiVo was recording the show, but I wanted to see it live. Libby was also on again at 10 AM my time. It was a thrill to see some of my work on TV. More about that tomorrow.

Another reason it was an exciting day was this video I just saw on YouTube. Jennifer McGuire  and Sally Traidman from Hero Arts made a video to thank those of us who did sewing for them in the last 2 weeks. So sweet!

Plus, when I was up late last night, I was browsing pictures on Flickr from the trade show when I saw this picture. Jennifer seems to be wearing one of the flowers I made! I can't be positive, but that is the same fabric I sewed. I don't know how many other people were sewing that particular color of fabric.

Fun, fun, fun!

Made Some Stamped Flower Pins for Hero Arts

These fabric flowers started from a simple Tweet that Jennifer McGuire posted a few weeks ago:

"All you Hero Arts fans - can any of you sew? Reply if you do. Thanks!"

I replied to tell her I knew how to sew (thanks for teaching me at a young age, Mom!). A few days later, I got an email from Jennifer asking for my mailing address so she could FedEx a box with all the supplies to make these amazing flowers. Hero Arts needed hundreds of these to give away at their booth during CHA.

I had seen this video from Sally Traidman several months ago so I knew I had a great tutorial to follow. These flowers are also on the cover of the current Hero Arts catalog and their website.

Sure enough, I quickly received the box with a lot of stamps (Three Leaves, Large Flower, Striped Flower and many more), batting, red and green fabric, paper flowers, buttons, thread, embroidery thread, fabric glue, pin backs, and white felt. I offered to make 50 flowers. They needed a quick turn-around on this project. I landed up FedExing 49 of them to Jennifer's hotel at CHA in LA.  I lost track of the 50th one; I found it later. For 5 of the flowers, I stamped on the reverse side of the red fabric to get a different look. That's the flower in the center of my collage.

Here's how the back of the flower looks. I glued the pin back to the felt circle and I also stitched it to make sure it stays secure.

Here's a picture of one of the flowers on me. This was such a fun project. When I was sewing the third flower, my sewing machine started acting up. I wasted a whole afternoon and evening troubleshooting everything (needle size, tension, upper and lower threading, bobbin). I even added drops of machine oil into the bobbin area for maintenance. I almost put my hands up in the air to give up, but I was persistent. I finally beat the sewing machine into submission. :-)

Thanks, Jennifer and Hero Arts!

Happy Mother's Day

Hola! Here's a clean and simple Mother's Day card I created based on this gorgeous card Jennifer McGuire posted (the second one in her blog post). I like my card, but I love Jennifer's a lot more. I should've stamped the sentiment higher on my card.

I've got two more Mother's Day cards to show you, but I'll have to do that later. Time to pack lunch for Kalino. See ya!

Card Ingredients

Stamps: I {Heart} Hearts (SU!), All Year Cheer II (SU!)

Paper: Melon Mambo (SU!), white (Papertrey Ink)

Ink: ColorBox Frost White, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo, Tangerine Tango, Rich Razzleberry (SU!)

Tools: heart punch (SU!)

Other: white embossing powder, foam tape (3M), Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers)

Happy 10th Birthday!

Wow, I'm running late on Kristina's Color Inspiration Challenge #31. I made this card with a pop up gift card based on this Hero Arts YouTube video by Jennifer McGuire.

My niece, Gabi, turns 10 next week. In the second photo, I show the inside of the card. You see a Starbucks gift card...that's not her gift. I didn't want to ruin the surprise in case she sees this blog.

I based this layout on p. 4 of the SU 2008 Occasions Mini catalog.

Pop Up Gift Card Ingredients
Stamps: Birthday Whimsy
Paper: Whisper White, Close to Cocoa, Pumpkin Pie, Elegant Eggplant, So Saffron, Parisian Summer DSP
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, VersaMark
Punches: 3/4" circle, scallop circle, 1 3/8" circle, Fiskars scallop border, Fiskars 2" circle
Other: White embossing powder, Heidi Swapp chipboard, Sakura Gelly Roll, Martha Stewart Circle Cutter, Pumpkin Pie Grosgrain ribbon

Belated Mini Pocket Card

My friend Rebecca's birthday was on Saturday. I didn't remember until Sunday...too late to mail her a card. I hate when that happens. Today I mailed her this belated mini pocket birthday card (hopefully, she won't see my blog before the card arrives).

When I saw this Jennifer McGuire Hero Arts video a few months a go, I knew I wanted to try it out.

The final size is 4.25 inches x 4.25 inches.

Pocket Card Ingredients
Stamps: Priceless, All Holidays
Paper: Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky, Spring Silhouettes DSP, white
Ink: Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky
Other: Making Memories eyelet, foam tape, SU Priceless brass stencil, corner rounder, paper piercer, 3/4" circle punch, gold cording, ribbon (Michael's), flowers (thanks, Jenn), gold rhinestones (Michael's), Zots