Rue de Fleur-Thanks!

 Here's a couple of quick "thank you" cards I made, using Stampin' Up's "Rue de Fleur".  I used Pool Party and Calypso Coral, along with embossing powders to coordinate.  I even decorated the envelopes with the ornate pen from the same set.  I LOVE this set!  Thank you to everyone who came to my party!  I hope you all enjoy your thank you cards!  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Baseball Valentine

My friend, Lisa, and I spent about five hours crafting just prior to Valentine's day, and she wanted to make some cards for her family.  One of her children is really into baseball, and she came with this adorable background paper!  We brainstormed a few ideas, and this is what resulted!  I cut a baseball player out from the Cricut Baseball cartridge, and stamped the sentiment, then punched it with SU punches (I can't remember the set the sentiment came from).  Lisa layered the players, and we decided it needed something more.  I suggested the player be "catching hearts", and punched a few out of glimmer paper.  We both loved how the card came out!  Hope you enjoy it too!  ~Hoppy Crafting!

To Gnome you, is to love you...

This is a little Valentine's Day card that I made for my husband this year.  I used the SU sets "Gnome Sweet Gnome" and "Gnomenclature", as well as some red glitter paper, a fly stamp from another company (behind the hearts), and some cute puffy Lego paper to finish off the wheelbarrow contents.  I used an Xacto knife to cut a slit in the wheelbarrow so that the Legos could sit below the line and really look like they were "in" it.  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Valentine, You Color My World!

I made these fun Valentine's for each of my almost 50 kinders.  After melting crayons (more info at the end of this post), I packaged each in a 3"x4" bag from G.T. Bag Company, and created toppers for each.  For the toppers, I used pink cardstock, and stamped "Valentine" from a ProvoCraft dial-a-word stamp (since I couldn't find just the word WITHOUT an "s" at the end!), in Early Espresso. 
I used the SU Definitely Decorative set "Crayon Kids" to stamp the crayons, using Tempting Turquoise and Melon Mambo ink.  In SU Early Espresso, I stamped the phrase "You color my world", from Pink by Design's "Simply Everything" set. 
I love how each of these turned out, and they were a huge hit with my kinders!
How did I make the crayons, you may ask?  I found some silicone heart baking pans, and, after peeling millions of crayons (maybe not MILLIONS, but MANY---and THANK YOU to Terri and her family for also peeling a TON!!!), I set my oven to 250 degrees and broke up crayons to fill each mold.  Just for safety sake (didn't want to ruin my oven with melted crayons), I lined a cookie sheet with foil and baked the molds on it for approximately 15 minutes.  You have to check the crayons to make sure they are fully melted.  Depending on the oven and the brand of crayon, they may take longer to melt. 
After baking, I sped up the cooling process by placing the molds in the fridge.  When set, I popped the crayons out and began a new batch.  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Valentine Treat Sticks

Happy Valentine's Day!  I made these cute 1"x8" bags of Valentine-colored candy corn for my co-workers, using the P.S. I Love You stamp set in the new Stampin' Up Mini Catalog.  They were super easy (after stuffing all the bags, of course!). 
I got the 1"x8" bags from either Stampin' Up or the G.T. Bag Company (www.gtbag.com).  I have been loving the bags I ordered from G.T., and will definitely order from them again! 
I used SU Melon Mambo ink on two tones of pink cardstock, then punched with the 1 3/4" scallop circle, and 1" and 1 1/2"  circles.
One scallop circle was placed behind the bag, and one placed on the front with the dark pink circle centered.  I backwards stapled through all the layers, then added a dimensional and the smallest circle with "Hand crafted with love for you". 

~Hoppy Crafting!

Creative Hiatus

Apparently I've been taking a hiatus from posting.  I can't believe we're a month and a half into the new year, and I haven't posted!  January flew by!  I had the best of intentions, but feel like I hit one of those crafting blocks (like writer's block). 
Also, we had a snow storm, followed by a freezing rain storm, which led to trees breaking everywhere and our power being out for a few days.  We even had a week "off" of work with the crazy weather! 
This weekend I had a guest over for about five hours, and we had a fantastic card-making frenzy!  In addition to that, I have also finished 50 Valentine's for my kinder kiddos, and another 60+ other special treats in bags with toppers!  I will have to download the pics and share everything!  I'm hoping that I'm back in the craftin' groove (even though my work remains crazy-busy!!!)! 
~Hoppy Crafting!