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-