Thank Goodness for Thank Yous!

Thank you cards are always useful and they are great to have ready at a moment’s notice. There are a lot of November challenges that focus on Thank you cards and Raisin Boat and Shopping Our Stash are no exception. As I was digging around in my stamps, I unearthed an older Stampin’ Up set that has 4 great sentiments called Wonderful Words.

The paper is from the Studio Calico Snippets collection. Recently, I’ve been working on adding the little groupings on cards. I always like the way they look when other people do them, but I find the cohesive randomness needed for a nice looking grouping often out of my reach. It’s still hard for me to use things that seem random to me, but look like they work in the end. It’s a great way to use up leftover bits and pieces though. I guess I’ll just have to keep practicing (OH NO ;)!)

Thanks for visiting!

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A Finally Finished Bookmark

Whew! I’ve been spending my mini-retreat finishing up some projects that have been sitting around my craft room for awhile. All I needed to do was add a piece of cork to a message center that I was working on, and it’s been sitting for weeks. Sheesh Marissa!

One of the other projects that I’ve been wanting to finish was a tag bookmark I had started. I had the background paper picked out and I had her stamped out and partially paper pieced, but that’s about it. And she’s been staring at me. The Shopping Our Stash stitching challenge was the kick in the butt I needed.

Shhhh! She’s reading!

She is a My Favorite Things stamp called Here’s the Story. I used a bunch of different papers from my scrap stash to build her pants and books. Smooch Inks were used on her shoes, hair and the pages of the books. The sentiment is from Mama Elephant’s Say What set. I used my favorite white Uni-ball pen for the faux stitching around the tag. I hope to invest in a sewing machine at some point so I can do actual sewing on my cards and tags. She’s really enjoying her Bug Book! The Paper Girls Challenge is all about bugs this time and I love any chance to use these sparkly ones! And since Anything Goes over at Simon Says Stamp this week, I’m going to enter it in there too 🙂

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Dollar Store to Divine

This week at Shopping Our Stash, we were challenged to use a Dollar or Bargain Bin find. There’s an AMAZING store up near my Grandparent’s house called Northern Merchandise and I have to stop in every time we go for a visit. They have everything. Candy jars and wine glasses? Check! Jumper cables and power tools? Check! Craft supplies and a snake holding salt and pepper shakers? Yup! They have it. I often find some really good deals on craft supplies. I grabbed a little Making Memories kit called Vintage Findings  to use for this project. Here is a look at everything that came in the kit.

All these goodies for just $1.19!!!

I pulled out one of the larger cards and the sequins. I’m not sure how you would even begin to use the yellow bulldog clip. Here’s my card.

Simple Birthday Greetings

I added a few extra sequins I had, one of my punched sparkly bugs and some ribbon. And of course…Fruit Punch Stickles on the flowers for a little sparkle.

I love Stickles!

I think it turned out nice and now that I’ve actually opened the kit, I have a better chance of using some of the other odds and ends and that’s the whole idea, right?

Off to Make Something for day 3!

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Shopping Our Stash:Challenge 89

Since I’m trying to be better about using what I have instead of buying more (I SWEAR I am!), the Shopping Our Stash blog challenges are perfect for me! The current challenge is They Say It’s Your Birthday!

Here’s my card:

HapBEE Birthday!

I made this card at the crop I went to last weekend and EVERYTHING on it is either scrap paper or borrowed stamps! I tried something new and ONLY brought my scrap plain and patterned paper with me for the 12+ hour crop. People at the crops know I love paper scraps since I also make jewelry and can often use just little pieces. So my friend Shana gave me some pieces of her Buzz & Bumble Close to My Heart paper and I had a little EK bug punch with me. I really need to get more of that paper–it’s wonderful! My friend Ellie gave me some twine. I used a CTMH alpha set to create the sentiment on my fabulous Tim Holtz Grid Blocks. Love those things!

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon (or sign-up to follow my blog!) for my week-long self-imposed series of Play Every Day!

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