Rue's Parasol

Rue de Fleurs is an amazing set from Stampin' Up!  This parasol looks fantastic, whether you stamp it or emboss it.  This is one of the cards I taught my mother how to make, while I was visiting her. 

2012 Northwest Paper Chase--Day 1

The Northwest Paper Chase has become a yearly tradition that I love taking part in!  It started on March 2nd, and runs through March 18th.  To take part in the Paper Chase, you purchase a "Passport" from any participating store, and take it to get stamped at each store you visit.  You also get a lapel pin and 20% off at every store.  This year's theme is "Let's Eat!", and each store has a layout for a recipe of their theme! 
While I love hitting the chase with the girls, everyone seemed busy, so I rooked my husband into riding along with me! (With the promise of VooDoo Doughnuts and Otto's in Portland, Oregon at the finish! He he he!) 
We ended up getting a little later start than planned, due to a super late night the evening before, but we were in Lacey at Sharin' Memories by the time it opened.  The laughs started right off the bat!  We were greeted with "Hello, ladies!", and I looked back at my husband and laughed! The owner laughed and quickly added "gentleman". LOL!  Of course that was all it took for my husband to start bantering with them as I shopped.  I swear he flirted with all the ladies throughout the chase! 

Once back on the road, we headed towards Centralia to Cindy's Simple Stuff and Scrappy Stamper, both stores I enjoy travelling south for!  At Cindy's, my husband was lured in with the promise of their yummy pumpkin bread, and sat at the table to "guard" the remainder of the pieces for all.  Soon the store was incredibly packed, and all he had to do was say "Honey", and about 20 women all stopped and stared at him in response.  Of course he let that go to his head, and then he joked that the picture opportunity only cost $1 for each to sit on his lap!  Well, one of the shop ladies just kept going with it and actually offering to take pictures of other women on his lap for $1!!! It was completely hilarious!  He said he was pimping himself out for lunch money, since I wouldn't feed him.  Lol!

After visiting Centralia, we ventured on to Scappoose, Oregon, to visit the newest (and farthest!) store on the hop.  It was quite the drive, but we finally made it.  Not sure that I'd venture there again...it really was quite small, and not much selection, but the owner seemed nice. 

At that point, we were done with our plan of stores for the day, so we trekked to Portland.  This was my second time, ever, to Portland, and this time we were able to find parking and hit VooDoo Doughnuts.  I swear that I had THE BEST bacon MAPLE BAR, EVER!!!  We also bought a few others to try, as well as a couple of requests from friends.  Rounding out the Portland places we had to visit, we went to Otto's and bought some yummy sausage, horseradish, a pastrami on rye sandwich, and other assorted yummies to enjoy at home. 

All in all, we had a great (and very tiring!) day, and drove around 300 miles of paper chasing fun!  I can't wait for the next weekend!  :o)  ~Hoppy Crafting!

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!

Resolutions

NYE 2010 @ Friend's house

So, I'm not one to make a lot of resolutions.  I set goals throughout the year, and once something is accomplished, I make another.  I don't think it's practical to make resolutions for the next 12 months of your life to share with the world on one crazy (often alcohol-induced) night.  BUT, I found these 10 resolutions posted on the Scrapbook Expo's Facebook page, and had to share!  These resolutions totally feed into everyone's scrapbook addition.  Enjoy! 

Scrapbook Expo

Top 10 New Year's Resolutions

1. Spend more time with the family  and friends- more pictures to scrapbook!
2. Get more exercise - Deep knee bends while picking up dropped brads and buttons from the scrap room floor!
3. Give up drinking, at least for the first week of January - Spills and scrapbooks don’t mix!
... 4. Get out of debt- so you can buy more scrapbook supplies!
5. Learn a new skill or take up a new hobby - scrapbooking DUH!
6. Put something back into the community - help others learn to scrapbook!
7. Get organized - clean scrapbook room you’ll find a lot of hidden treasures there!
8. Become more security conscious - lock those permanent ink pads in a special place. Permanent ink and kids uh-oh!
9. Start  (or religiously maintain) a journal or blog - Best place to showcase your beautiful work!
10. Give up a bad habit - replace with scrapbooking!

~Hoppy Crafting!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas one and all!  I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas together.   Here are some cards that I made using Stampin' Up "Many Merry Messages" and "Dasher" stamp sets, as well as "Petals-A-Plenty" embossing folder from SU (and Snowflakes from Cutttlebug), and some Lifestyle Crafts "Nesting Scallops" dies.  ~Hoppy Crafting!