WCMD Cards to share

Happy Monday!

I know I've been missing for a while.  I recently felt like I hit a wall with my crafting and decided I just needed a break for a while.  I have a hard time letting things go, but sometimes I need to get back to the necessities and just enjoy life with my family.  Now I'm feeling the desire to get back at it and start creating some little things for Thanksgiving and also some gifts for Christmas.  I hope this next month and a half doesn't fly by too fast!

Today I have a couple of cards that I made for the World Card Making Day contest at Papercrafts Magazine.  They weren't winners there, but I liked them! 

These were both made with Cosmo Cricket's Togetherness line.  I love the happy colors and patterns in this line!

Hope you have a wonderful week!

-Rachel-

Tea Mix - Quick Gift Idea

Hello! 
I have just a few minutes to spare, so I thought I'd share with you a quick and simple gift idea.  Don't we all love and need quick and simple gifts to have around?  This is a little jar filled with Friendship Tea Mix.  With a few minutes and some cute paper, the jar is ready to give away. 

Here's the recipe for the tea mix if you're interested.  We call it Friendship Tea, but it's also known as Russian Tea.

Friendship Tea Mix

1 + 1/3 c. TANG (orange flavored drink mix)

1/2 c. sugar

1/3 c. instant tea (unsweetened 100% tea)

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

Mix it all together and divide up into jars.  Makes 2 cups total mix. Directions for making tea:  Stir about 1 Tbl. mix into a cup of hot water.  Enjoy!

God Bless you today!!

-Rachel-

Coordinating Set of Notecards

Hello!
Hope you've been enjoying your weekend.  The kids (and I) have had off since Thursday, so it's been a nice break for all of us.  We celebrated our oldest daughter's birthday on Thursday with a full day of shopping, so I was thankful for a few extra days to recover!  We've been having such beautiful fall weather here, and I've been trying to enjoy and savor that as much as I can.  My youngest daughter keeps saying "I can't wait for winter", because she LOVES playing in the snow, but I can definitely wait a while for that.  Last year we did get snow in October (very depressing!) but at least we don't have any of that in sight. 

I do have some cards to share with you here today. I made this simple set of notecards that I think would make a nice gift.  I'm finding out that it's so much simpler and time-efficient to buy coordinating paper and make several cards at one time.  I have some extra little plastic cases from Stampin' Up stamp sets, so I covered one of those to put the cards into.  (Actually I decided that first, so I knew what size cards I should go with.  For once, I was happy I had planned ahead!)

I think I bought the patterned paper at Michael's but I'm not sure of the name. (sorry)  The rub-ons were from Stampin' Up - I have loved that set and wish I had more of them!

Thanks so much for visiting!  Enjoy your day!  

-Rachel-

I'd love your help!!

OK, so I wish I had a ton of things to show you today, but instead I'm going to ask (aka beg) you to help me out.  As you know I LOVE Cosmo Cricket, and I just saw on their blog today that they're offering a one-month spot on their design team for November.  The catch is, they want people to nominate others, and the 5 with the most nominations will go in the hat for the one spot.  I would so appreciate it if you would go to this link, and post a comment nominating me - Rachel Schumacher.  I would be forever grateful!!  (I think you have through the weekend to do it.) 

Thank you!  I have a big (painful) birthday coming up in 2 weeks, and this would be the coolest birthday present!

I promise I'll have cards to share next time!!
-Rachel-

Tis the Season?

Yes, I know it's only the beginning of October, but you can never start too early on Christmas planning!  Actually this all came about because of the challenges going on at Cath's Moxie Fab World blog.  A couple of weeks ago they were celebrating their new issue "Holiday Cards and More", and then designed some challenges to go along with it.  I'll admit to you that I don't make my own Christmas cards.  It's the time of year that I need to go simpler and quicker.  But I do LOVE making cute little gifts, especially fun ways to give away treats at Christmastime.  I'll also admit that I save a LOT of different items throughout the year, thinking that some day it will be perfect for making it into something else.  So for the Season's Giftings Challenge, I made a little treat container that would be perfect for the neighbor, teacher, or friend.

It started out like this:

And this is what I turned it into.   

The house paper is from Fancy Pants, the alpha stickers are from Cosmo Cricket.  I printed out the house sentiment from my computer and die cut it with my cuttlebug. 

So next time you're about to toss that empty container, think first about what you could make it into.  I think anyone would be happy to receive some treats in just about anything!

Have a great week!

-Rachel-

A Classy Wedding Card

Hello and Happy Wednesday to you!

The Tea Party birthday party we had last Saturday went great.  It was a lot of fun to decorate and the kids had a really fun time together.  They made some necklaces from Shrinky Dinks in the shape of tea cups and we played a few games - Bingo (I made the cards with related pictures and the names of all the girls), pass the hot tea cup, and drop the marshmallows into the cup.  The table was decorated with lots of little tea sets that we had and the girls had different fancy tea cups for their pink lemonade.  I made tea cup cakes from cupcakes for each girl - it was a little difficult but the turned out ok.  All in all a very fun day - and the most important thing was that my daughter loved it.

I still feel like I'm getting things back in order from that, and we also have 3 nights of football/volleyball games this week.  So I'm still craving that crafting time I so desparately want to enjoy.  Hopefully this weekend!!  I do have one card to share with you.  I started making this one for a recent Play Date Challenge, but instead decided to submit it for a magazine call.  Well, it didn't get picked up so now I will just share it here.  I love these colors together for a wedding card.

It's hard to see in the photo, but the circles were all embossed with my cuttlebug, and then are all adhered with foam tape for some added dimension.

I hope to be back here soon with some new things.  I have a few challenges I really want to enter, so that is my goal for the weekend. 

Enjoy your day!

-Rachel-

Scrapfest Recap

Hi friends!

How can it be Wednesday already?  It seems like it was just Saturday night and I was getting home from Scrapfest.  Speaking of that, my sister and I had a blast there on Saturday.  This was our first time going, so we really didn't know what to expect.  There was definitely a ton of people there, but it was fun chatting with them as we waited in lines together.  I got so many new ideas and we both felt like our brains were in overload with all that we saw.  Of course I bought some new products, too, and I'm dying to sit down and create something.  But right now I'm in the middle of planning my daughter's Tea Party birthday party here on Saturday.  So my crafting will probably be on hold till after that.

One of my thrills at Scrapfest was meeting the owners of Cosmo Cricket - one of my favorite paper lines!   I've followed their blog for probably 2 years now, and it's one of the most entertaining ones out there.  Do you remember when I told you I won a bunch of their fabric a few weeks ago?  Well, last week I scrambled to make something out of it, so I would have something fun to show them.  I managed to make this bag:

And here's a picture of me with Julie Comstock - she had an adorable apron made from this same line of fabric.

And since I was so excited to meet her, I even made her an artist trading card to trade with her.  Here it is:

I haven't taken a picture of the one that she let me pick out yet.  All in all, it was a super fun day.  We've decided to make this into an annual sister tradition.

Have a great day!

-Rachel-

Sock Monkey Love

Hello!

Hope you've been having a good week.  It's been a crazy, busy week here, but I've managed to get a few projects done, and have others still in the works.   My nephew turns 3 this weekend, and I've finally completed his gift.  To backtrack a little, 4 years ago I spied this little book and so began my love for sock monkeys.

So I found a pattern and made my first sock monkey for my daughter.  For four years now, she has LOVED her sock monkey, sleeping with it every night.  It's looking a little stained and worn, but she loves it the same.  About a year ago we decided "Mr. Sock Monkey" needed a family, so I made "Mrs. Sock Monkey".  Thankfully I found a baby sock monkey in a store, because I don't think I could make one that small.  Here's her little monkey family:

Since then, I've made a few monkeys for friends and also my niece.  My sister told me that her son needed one of his own, so that's what I decided to do for his birthday.  Since his dad is a HUGE Phillies fan, I made the simple t-shirt so Sock Monkey can be a Phillies fan, too.

They all come out a little different, with little imperfections and all (since I'm not a perfectionist when I sew!!).  Of course I needed a matching card for him, so this is what I came up with. 

Yesterday I started a bag for myself, using my Cosmo Cricket fabric, and I hope to finish that up today.  It felt good to do some sewing projects again! 

Do you have other hobbies besides the paper-crafting type??  I'd love to hear about it!



Enjoy your day!!

-Rachel-

Black and White and Pink all over

Hello everyone!
Hope you're enjoying your day!  We have a beautiful day here, so I need to get outside and enjoy it soon before it passes.  This is definitely my favorite time of year - nice days and cooler evenings; there's nothing better!  I also love to bake in the fall.  Is anyone else craving pumpkin recipes since we still can't buy the canned pumpkin in the stores?  I'm sure hoping there will be some soon - I can't wait to bake some pumpkin bread and frosted pumpkin cookies! 

Well, I have a card today that is for The Play Date Cafe Challenge.  This week's challenge was to use Black and White along with either Pink, Copper, or Gold.  I love the look of black, white and pink together and I think they make for a cute and fun baby card.

Thanks again for looking!  I so appreciate you visiting my little blog and I'm so thankful for the comments you leave me.  Have a wonderful week!!

God bless!

-Rachel-

Happy Wednesday!

Hello! 
I haven't had much time to paper craft lately since school started, I started a new job, and we have 2 kids in sports right now.  I'm missing it, but I'm hoping my trip to Scrapfest at the Mall of America in a couple of weeks will jumpstart my creative juices, and then I'll be able to craft away again.  I have been working on a non-paper craft project which I'm excited to share with you once I complete it.  I also have a huge stack of fabric fat quarters that I won from Cosmo Cricket's blog that are just waiting to be cut into.  I'm still trying to decide what I should use those for - maybe a small quilt or a bag?  Any ideas??

I do have a couple of cards to share with you today.  The first one was made with my Cosmo Cricket garage sale find.

The next one was a made a while back but is one of my favorites.  I love this color combo - which would be obvious if you saw my house.  Plenty of beige, red and yellow in there. The flower on this one is made from Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird line, and the alpha stickers are some more Cosmo.

Both cards have basic stitching on them, which is my favorite way to dress up a simple card.

Have a wonderful day, friends!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Rachel-

Back to School Treats

Hello!  Hope you're having a great week so far!

Well, two of my kids headed back to school today and my youngest goes back tomorrow.  I'll admit my eyes were a little watery today to see my oldest walk into high school.  Doesn't seem possible.  Wasn't it just yesterday that I was walking her into kindergarten? (I definitely had watery eyes that day, too.) 

My youngest is starting 1st grade tomorrow, so I came up with a little bag of treats and a card for her teacher.  It's always nice to start the year off with a little chocolate, right?!  The card is made from some Cosmo Cricket paper (red polka dot) and some October Afternoon (school ledger).  Love these papers together!  I used my computer to print out the sentiment and used my circle punch to make it into a little tag.  The pencil was just glued onto the paper with the ribbon tied onto it.  Pretty simple, but a fun little card to make.

The cookies were just put in a cellophane bag and topped with a simple paper topper.  The "ENJOY" are Jenni Bowlin stickers.

Here's a closer look at the card:

By the way, these cookies are one of our favorites:  Monster Cookies.  If anyone's interested, here's the recipe:

Monster Cookies:

1/2 cup softened butter

1 c. sugar

1 c. + 2 Tbl. brown sugar

3 eggs

2 c. (18 oz. container) peanut butter

1/4 tsp. vanilla

4+1/2 c. regular oats

2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 c. m&m's

3/4 c. chocolate chips

Cream butter, gradually add sugars.  Add eggs, peanut butter and vanilla and beat well.  Add oats, soda and salt.  Stir in m&m's and chocolate chips.  Drop onto lightly greased cookie sheets.  Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. 

I get about 5 dozen smaller size cookies, but they taste great as monster size, of course. 

Thanks so much for visiting!  Have a great rest of the week!

-Rachel-

Just Be You!

Hello Everyone!
Sorry I've been MIA for most of the past week.  School starts in 3 days and I'm also starting a part-time job this week, so I'm feeling the pressure to get everything caught up around here first. 

I did get around to making one new card for the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger.  Here's the trigger picture:

I drew my inspiration from the colors - the teal and yellow of the pillows, with just a  shot of the hot pink thrown in.  Here's what I came up with:

I have to admit I'm not sure what I think about it.  It's a different style for me, but I guess it's always good to try something out of the box for a change.  Since I didn't have a bird stamp, I just hand cut these out.  The branch was my own creation, too. :)I also did a little dry painting around the edges of the teal paper for something different.  Let me know what you think - and I already know one thing - I either need a cute bird stamp or some bird patterned paper before I try this again!  (Cosmo Cricket has some adorable bird paper in their new Togetherness line.  Can't wait to get some!)

Have a wonderful week and hopefully I'll get my creative juices flowing again to make some new creations to share with you.

God bless you!

-Rachel-

A good laugh is sunshine in the house!

Hello! 
We just got home this afternoon from a weekend with my brother and his family at their cabin.  We had a great time with many good laughs.  My best friend from college also lives in that city, so it was wonderful to see her and her husband as well.  We only see each other once a year at most, but when we get together it's like no time has past.  I'm so thankful for friends like that!

Today's card is one I made for the Paper Crafts Simple Sentiments Challenge.  I don't know why I've never used them before, but there are free downloadable sentiments on their site that are perfect for cardmaking.  And did you catch that they're FREE? Gotta love that!  Here's the link - they have new ones added every month.  Something I'll definitely be using again in the future.

I just love that sentiment!  I printed it right onto some Cosmo Cricket paper and then colored in the house with markers.  I've had the chipboard sun for a while - it came in a Jenni Bowlin kit.  The yellow paper is more Cosmo Cricket and the blue lined paper is Love Elsie - another one I've been hoarding a while.  I'm actually thinking that this is one of my favorite cards I've ever made. 

I also found some happy news when I got home when I saw this.  I don't think I've ever won in a contest (besides runners-up or random drawings), so this made me extremely happy. And speaking of random drawings, I found out last week that I won some Cosmo Cricket fabric, which I can't wait to receive in the mail!  So I'm feeling rather blessed today!

Thanks so much for visiting, and I pray that you are feeling blessed today, too!

-Rachel- 

Friends 4Ever

Hi and Happy Friday!!

Wow, I'm on a roll this week with another card for you!  I made this card for the Everything But the Kitchen Sink Challenge.  This month's challenge was to use this sketch:

And this is what came to be:

I used my Stampin' Up Girlfriends set and my blender pen to color it in.  It really is fun to color, I don't know why I don't do that more often. (very time consuming!) The sentiment is a rub-on from Melissa Frances - my favorite!

 I have a ton of things to do around here today, so I'm making this a short one.  Have a great weekend!

-Rachel-

2 Cards in a Day!

Hi everyone!

How's your week been?  Mine has been good, though it's going so fast, mostly due to the fact that I've been running kids to and fro for volleyball tryouts and football practice every day.  All that running definitely breaks up the day!  But despite all that, I was still able to make 2 new cards yesterday.  I've also managed to get a couple scrapbook pages done this week, so I guess it's been a pretty creative and happy crafting week for me!

The first card is for a challenge that Kim Kesti posted on her blog.  Here is her card that she wanted us to use as inspiration to make a card of our own:

And here is my card.  I've wanted to try those scallops on a card, so here was my chance.  To make mine, I punched several circles and then cut them all in half before layering them on.  I like the look, even though this is a very different style for me than I usually make.  Different is good, though!

I have to say that without even thinking about it, I like to put hot pink together with turqouise.  I think it goes back to 18 years ago to my wedding day.  My bridesmaid dresses were this bright turquoise and the flowers were hot pink roses.  (Yeah - definitely an early 90's wedding!) 

My next card is more my typical style.  I think I'll always love Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird line - the colors are just me.  This one is for the Paper Crafts Sketch Challenge #6.  Here's the sketch:

And here's my take on it:

I love these happy pinwheels!  Alpha stickers are from October Afternoon (LOVE those too! and all patterned paper is Cosmo Cricket.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful day and God bless you all!

-Rachel-

Play Date Cafe Challenge Card

Happy Saturday everyone!

We are heading out to the lake with some friends in a little while, but I first wanted to get a quick post done and show you the card I made for this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge.  The colors for the challenge were dark brown, green, and beige.  I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but there is a circle cut out in the front of the card, and the butterfly rub-on (Stampin' Up) is on the inside of the card.  I also used Glossy Accents on the butterfly for a little extra sparkle.

Sorry this is so short and sweet!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

-Rachel-

Make a Wish

Hi everyone!  Hope your week has been going well.  It's been a hot one here...kind of makes me excited for the cooler fall weather that will be here before we know it.  Fall is definitely my favorite time of year - jeans and sweatshirts, football games, pumpkin spice candles, visits to the pumpkin patch, and lots of baking.....things to look forward to!

I found another card challenge that I decided to enter this week.  It's the EtsyInspired Challenge, and it just so happens to be their 100 challenge this week.  (So the prize package is pretty awesome!)  This challenge site features an Etsy shop and we were to find inspiration there to base our project on.  This week's shop was Cathy Walter's.  She makes beautiful pendants for necklaces.  I saw so many that I just loved.  And I have to be honest...I've tried about 4 projects for this challenge, but nothing seemed to be working out this week!  So I'm finally settling on a tag that I made today.  My inspiration came from her "Make a Wish Pendant":

This is the back of the pendant - more inspiration!

And here's my take - thanks to her inspiration:

I love cupcakes, so I used my Studio G stamp and paperpieced the cupcake and adhered it with popdots.  The "MAKE" is from an old Scrabble game, the "A" is from Karen Foster (I've had that alpha set for a while) and "WISH" is from Cosmo Cricket.  I decided to add a fabric ruffle to the bottom - that was my favorite part of the whole project.  I gathered it with some loose stitches first, then ruffled it and attached it with a zig-zag stitch.  I generally make cards, but I really had fun with this tag and think I need to make some more! :)

Thanks for looking!  God bless!

-Rachel-

Cute as a Bug

Hi Again!
 
I'm back with another card for the Everything But the Kitchen Sink Challenge. This time I made a baby card using the buttons as the ladybug's spots.  I've always loved this saying and it reminds me of a t-shirt that my daughter had when she was really little.   

The ladybug was adhered with pop dots to give it some more dimension and the antennae were made from wire.  Kind of a simple card with just cardstock, my sewing machine, a circle punch and some buttons and wire...but I have to admit I like how it turned out.  

Have a great day!

-Rachel-

EBTKS Challenge

Happy Saturday!!

Hope you're having a wonderful summer Saturday.  We enjoyed the day yesterday hiking around the trails at a state park, so today is more the cleaning-around-the-house-day.  And I'm so glad we did the hiking yesterday because it was so gorgeous and not nearly as muggy out as it is today. 

My card today is for the Everything But the Kitchen Sink Challenge.  This month's challenge was to use buttons.  Now I use buttons often on cards, but so do so many other people!  So I tried to come up with something a little different for me.  It's a new style for me, and the colors kind of say "summer" to me.  I have another idea brewing, so hopefully I'll sit down this weekend and try to come up with a second card for this challenge. 

Enjoy your day and keep smiling!

God bless you!

-Rachel-

Play Date Cafe Challenge

Hello!

I'm surprising myself that I've found the time to make another card this week already! :)  Amazingly, this card came together really fast (that doesn't happen very often!)  And is it bad to say that I'm really happy with how it turned out??

Anyway, I just discovered a new card challenge site called The Play Date Cafe. I'm still learning how it all works out, but this week's challenge was to use the colors black and white with green.  I'm hoping cream counts for white! 

Here's what I came up with:

I've had the bookprint paper for a while, but I'm pretty sure it was Jenni Bowlin. The flower rub-on is from Stampin' Up and the sentiment is Lucida Handwriting font. 

I'm really enjoying these card challenges - they sure help get my creative juices flowing.  Give them a try!!

Thanks so much for looking and God bless you!!

-Rachel-

Paper Crafts Sketch Challenge

Hello!!
Hope you're enjoying your weekend.  Can you believe it's already August? School will be back in session in exactly one month, so we're going to savor these next few weeks!  Of course they'll be filled with a week of VBS, a week of volleyball tryouts, and the start of football season, but we'll have to squeeze some fun in the middle of all that, too.

I finally found some time to make a card for this month's Paper Crafts Sketch Challenge.  I tried using some crepe paper on this one - something I've been seeing used more and more lately. 

Hey, is anyone else going to Scrapfest at the Mall of America in September?  I've never gone to it before, and so my sister and I decided that we're going to spend the day there together on that Saturday.  We haven't done anything with just the 2 of us in years, so I'm looking forward to it.  I've been seeing lots of fun, new releases from some of my favorite companies, so I'm excited to get my hands on some new paper! :) 

Have a great day, everyone.  And may God Bless You!

-Rachel-

Another card for Sketch Challenge

Hope you're all having a great Saturday!  I thought I'd take a short break from our weekend projects to share another card I made for the EBTKS Challenge. I really like this sketch - and it's easy to change it up a bit.

Again, here's the sketch:

And here's my second take on it:

Patterned paper is more Cosmo Cricket and the rub-on is All My Memories.  Now I really like the quote, but for some reason these rub-ons come off really hard. I'm wondering if they were old when I bought them, and if there's anything I can do to make them work easier.  Any tips or advice on that?  I will say that my favorite rub-ons are the Melissa Frances ones.  They come off perfectly every time in seconds.

Well, I better get some more things done around here.  Enjoy your day!!

God bless!

-Rachel-

EBTKS Challenge Card

Hi!  I hope you've had a good week so far.  Do these summer weeks just fly by for you like they do for me?  It seems like I blink and the weekend is here again.  And I love weekends, but I would just like to savor the rest of our summer vacation. I couldn't believe I already got a back-to-school ad in the mail this week - I'm not ready for that yet!

Today I worked on a card for this month's Everything But the Kitchen Sink Challenge.    This was the sketch:

And here's my take on it:

I've had these Jenni Bowlin bingo cards for a while - I liked them so much that I really didn't want to use them up.  But enough of the hoarding! The paper and chipboard are from my box of garage sale goodies. (Cosmo Cricket). Still happy about that deal. :)

Thanks so much for checking in!
God bless!!
-Rachel-

Card Style Week

Happy Wednesday!  It's been a wild day around here with lots of rain and thunderstorms rolling through the area.  Made for a mellow day of just staying indoors, reading and doing puzzles.

Over at the Moxie Fab World blog this week, they are celebrating a new issue called Card Style.  I had never been able to pinpoint my style before, but now I'm thinking that it's usually what they call "fun and cute" style.  Cath is issuing new challenges in each of the styles, and today's card was made for the Card Style Fun and Cute Challenge. 

The patterned paper is Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday line,  the cupcake stamp is a  Studio g i-cling stamp (either from Michaels or Target), and the happy birthday stamp is from Stampin' Up. The paper piecing was a little tedius, but I love how it turned out.  

So what's your style?  Go ahead and try the challenges along with me.  I'd love to see what you come up with.

Enjoy your day!
-Rachel-