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-