Always....

I am ALWAYS waiting till the last moment to do challenges.  It's a shame really, I'm under the gun and pressured to get the projects done with-in mere moments.  Sometimes I create some real winners, other times...well...  It was the same last week.  I was really busy with the fundraiser plans, and thought I would have the time at the crop to make some cards for the Paper Crafts Gallery Idol contest they are hosting.  No such luck.  There I was, Monday night after the baby went to bed at 8pm, whippin' up some cards that I had had on my mind for 2 weeks.  They weren't awesome feats of craftmanship, but a few turned out nice.  Here is one..

I'm really into the grey and yellow combo right now...it's so fresh and fun!  As I look at it now, I should have added some pearls to the strip of silver ribbon or some Ava pearl swirls to it.  It looks a bit plain. 

Fresh thanks

Cardstock:  SU! Going Grey, So Saffron, TPC silver damask, white vellum paper

Ink:  Silver Encore, SU! So Saffron

Stamp set:  PT Delightful Dahlia

Accessories:  Friskers border punchy, Quikcuts Cookie Cutter die, silver Offray satin ribbon, Kaisercraft pearls, stitching

Fundraiser Sample - again

I hosted a fundraiser for our local Relay for Life team on May 22nd called Hilliard Craft Camp 2010.  It was a paper crafting event, with fun things every hour during the 12 hour event!  It was a great time and we raised $1200 for the RFL!

This is a paper-bag scrapbook I created as a sample for this event.  Every participant recieved a paperbag scrapbook base, a sheet of Bo Bunny card stock stickers (donated by Simon Says Stamps) and tons more (a $40+ value).  I demonstrated the how-to's for this project.  I thought it was a perfect project for this weeks The Shabby Tea Room challenge, since it's covered in polka-dots, my favorite pattern!  I'm new to their challenges, but have always really loved Debbies sense of style and craftmanship. 

These are the first two pages, when designing small books, I use the same layout on each page, and just turn it to keep it interesting.  I will be creating a small card to tuck under the bag flap on the left (under the green scallops) with a photo.  The green flower on the right is the handle for the card that is tucked inside the opening of the bag.

This is a photo of the card pulled out a little bit.  I used my scallop punch to make the negative space on the bag and placed a positive shape on the card as the handle.

This is the center layout of the book.  Again it has the same layout throughout the book.

This is the same as the first two pages, it has a pull-out on the right and a photo will be tucked in behind the what scallops on the left behind the bag flap.

It's Over!!!

I can't believe it's over!  The fundraiser went smoothly, no hitches or major problems.  I guess 4 months of planning paid off!  My husband is happy to have it over as well, as I tend to over-focus on things. This last week I was a horse with blinders on...focused straight at my target... blocking out all other distractions...aka responsibilities (oops, sorry family).  We had 29 ladies sign-up for this fun day and while we did miss our ultimate fundraising goal, we did raise $1,200 for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life and everyone there had a great time!  Here are some of the photos from the event.

I made all these fabric yo-yo's for the name tags.  It was a little something extra for them to use as a cute addition to a creation.

This was one of the most coveted prize packs, probably because of the AWESOME stamp sets donated from Julee at Verve Stamps.  The catch on this one was that only cancer survivors and current cancer fighters could enter their names for this prize.  Congrats to Paula Blackhall for winning not only the package but in her fight!  Our other cancer winners (as I had little things for them as well) were Terri Mehan and Erica Mathias. The other prize a ton of ladies wanted - the free night's stay in a King Jacuzzi room at the Holiday Inn Hilliard!  Who doesn't want to escape life for a night.

Busy, busy, busy!!!

Thank you to everyone that participated!  Thank you to our amazing event sponsor, Alecia Creasap - owner of B&B Scrapbooks in Powell!  Thank you to our Gift Sponsors, as they provided gifts to everyone there:  Julee Tilman from Verve Stamps;  Paper Crafts Magazine; Bow Easy from Posi-Bendr;  Simon Says Stamp; Terri Mehan - Stampin Up!; Stephanie Jacobs - Creative Memories; Tracey Jacobs of Lovin' It Photography, and LilyBeth Boutique (that's me!).  Thank you also to our Gift Givers; Taylor from Taylored Expressions; Craft 2000; Walmart, Kroger and Giant Eagle!  Thank you to our food donors Chipotle and Smoothie King!  Thank you to uber-resourceful Jill Todd for helping with our last-minute lunch issues - you are a talented cook - start that blog and business!  A HUGE thank you to Brenda and the staff at the Holiday Inn Hilliard.  They were BEYOND gracious and helpful for our event, including getting extra tables from other hotels with our jump in registrations!

A final thank you to some members of the Hilliard Helping Hands relay team; Allison for editing my grammatical errors, writing the press-release and giving some fun prizes; Monica for spreading the word and getting me some great participants during a difficult time; Karen for assisting with set-up and registration.  Most importantly, my right-hand woman Diana - you are AMAZING!!!  Thank you for your help for the entire day; picking up our smoothies; dinner; the three things I forgot; selling $100+ worth of tickets and being my cheerleader for this event.  I appreciate all that you are and all that you do! 

That's it!  I'll get back to creating this week, hopefully this evening as I really want to participate in the Paper Crats Gallery Idol contest!

Another sample

This is another sample I made for one of the challenges at the fundraiser on Saturday.  It's based off this photo from A Creative Mint.  She is so stinkin' creative with her inspriation photos.  This is what I came up with from this.  The onsie is a Hambly clear sticker, they are too cute.  I combined it with the Dear Lizzy Warble sweet stamp and surrounded it with a cloud.  The letters are fom Americn Crafts and the blue ribbon is acutally a satin, that I flipped over to use the non-shiny side.

That's it!  Wish me luck today at the fundraiser!

Sew much fun

I decided to submit a card for the Paper Crafts Phone Book Challenge.  I didn't want to make the same thinge everyone was doing, flowers and phone themed cards.  So I cut out a section of the Yellow pages and went from there.  I'm into sewing and have these great Hambly rub-ons so that's were I jumped off from.  I used paper as the background, with the sewing portion of the Yellow pages, a map of Columbus from the Restaurant section ('cause I like food) and a random section of the white pages.  The stitching and the sewing machine are the Hambly rub-ons.  I colored the pins to match and that's it!  It's much more fussy that I usually like, but it works.

Samples

Only 2 days to the big fundraiser!  We now have 28 ladies coming which is short of our goal, but better than 8 - which we had on the May 9th.  So I've been busy getting things ready for this and created some samples that of course fit into some of the challenges I participate in!  Here is the first one. 

I had applied for a space on the Just Us Girls DT at the beginning of the month, but didn't make it.  They did however send a very nice e-mail letting me know I wasn't picked.  A very gracious bunch of girls.  This is for their JUGS #33 Color challenge: red, white, blue, and kraft.  I got this craft colored damask paper and have been dying to use it!  The flower is made from phone book paper (a Paper Craft Connection idea).  The sketch for this one is from Get Sketchy #38.

Since my time is limited until Sunday, I'm not going to list the deet's today.

Pluggin' away!

I have been crazy busy with this fundraiser for the ACS Relay for Life!  Here are some photos of the goodie bags and prizes my friend Jill Todd and I put together for the event. She's the best - and so darn resourceful!  Don't they all look fun?  I'm really excited, even although we may not reach our ultimate goal of attendance, we will have well over half of the spaces filled!  Not bad considering last Monday I didn't even have 10% of the spaces filled. 

These are the goodie bags with all the fun freebies the ladies get.  They are also going to get 3 more make-n-take items not included in this photo.

All the prizes collected for the event!  Don't you want to win one? (excuse the construction in the background).

A special thanks to Terri Meehan and Lisa Curry (SU! Demo's), Stephanie Jacobs and Erica Mathia(Creative Memories Demo's), and Alecia Creasap (Owner of B&B Scrapbooks our event sponsor) for spreading the word to their clients!  Without you guys, I'd be there by myself - looking pitiful - with TONS of freebies going to waste.

Oh happy day!!

What an exciting day!  3 new people signed up for the fundraiser I'm coordinating - yea!  Then, I found out I won the JUGS # 32 challenge - YEA!! - I LOVE that blog, it's so inspiring!  Finally - I found out I had one of my projects accepted for publication in Paper Crafts Magazine - YEA!!!.  All and all a great day!

Oh...the Drama!!!

Who doesn't want to make a dramatic statement when they walk into a party?  I was creating items for the PaperCrafts last publication call, trying to think outside of the box for New Years party items.  What goes with a New Years party...wine, party hats, invites...then PRESTO!  It hits me!  A new take on a New Years party hat - or headband in this case.  I bought a headband from the dollar store and dressed it up Carrie Bradshaw style for a bit of New Years head drama.  I thought it was way fun...but it didn't fly.  Oh well!  Better luck next time with that.

Speaking of drama - my dear sweet 6 year old daughter had a fun, but rough 2 days.  Daddy has been off, and the two of them have been having lots of fun together.  Dave & Busters and painting yesterday, going to the park, a familly fun time at her Art Show at school, and finally play time at the neighbors today.  All fun and no work makes Lily a tired girl!

Now, when Lily is tired, she is even more sensitive that normal.  'Everyone is picking on me and taking from my happy bucket' she claimed as she got off the bus today.  Well, playing with the neighbors pushed her over the edge, as her best friend Andrew was 'antagonizing her' and made her cry.  When Rob and her returned home, seeing how exhausted she was, I gently (really, I was sweet) declared it was time for her to hit the sack.  She looked at me with her red rimmed big blue eyes and declared

"WELL... this just completes the worst day of my life!!!"

Oh sweetie, I can only pray this will be the worst day ever.  I love you dear, sweet, little Lily.  Every laugh, every tear, every dramatic reaction just re-inforces the wish my mom had made for me many, many, many times:

"I hope when you have children, you have a daughter just like you!"

Sorry mom...

It's almost over!!

My fundraiser for the American Cancer Society is next weekend - so life will get back to normal after Saturday.  I have neglected you...I'm sorry...are you out there...you are, you show me your love!  I have lots of projects to make for the event this week, so I'll be posting them for you to see. 

For now, I'm going to share this fun project I made for the Just Us Girls DT call!  I love that every week, their challenges change, it's always fresh and challenges me to think outside the box - which is when I'm at my best creatively.  They are asking for a card and a 3D item to sample our work.  I hope they like it!

Spooky
I love those white pumpkins with black painted shapes that were so popular last year.  The background was inspired by that.  I used antique book paper, stamped and embossed it with SU! Black Craft and Black embossing powder - then I burned it!!!  Remeber doing that as a kid?  No?  Perhaps I'm a pyro...  Again, I used burlap - my new fav...and red velvet, it's not just for Christmas ya' know!  I love the little bats, I added red rhinestone eyes to them, aren't they cute? 


Spooky Tree

This is a centerpiece item.  I made the tree by making a trunk template and copied onto 3 pieces of Basic Black paper.  I hand drew and cut out the branches on each different, so that they look more 'real'.  I then embossed each layer on both sides black embossing powder with Houndstooth, Print Pattern and Lithograph background stamps.  I sewed the three trees together up the center, and folded them to make them stand.  The box has a window sheet on the top, that I colored with permanent markers in yellow, red and orange.  Under that is a tap light (from the dollar store) that shines up into the branches.  I embossed the outside with the Print Pattern and Houndstooth, embellished with the burlap and stamped and embossed 'spooky' on it.  The 'town is cut from my Cricut, using the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge. 

Exhausted!

I spent the day preparing for our annual garage sale tomorrow.  Generally we do this the beginning of every summer to purge and clean.  I have so many baby girl clothes...its shameful really.  I could provide a wardrobe for 4 children with how much is out there.  What ever doesn't sell, goes directly to Goodwill.  Since I'm so tired, I'm going to post a card I made for Just Us Girls 32 challenge - Pocket cards, and the sketch is remarkably similar to the Get Sketchy #37 challenge this week! 

Celebrate New Years
I'm not going to list the ingredients for this one, like the title says, I'm exhausted!  If you want the list, leave me a comment and I'll update this post after Sunday.

Whew!!

What busy day!  I'm so busy preparing and getting participants for the crop fundraiser I'm chair-ing, I haven't had time to create.  I pre-posted my creations earlier in the week, but decided I earned some time in craft heaven.  I made this card to submit to Paper Crafts for their current call.  I must have also had the 2S4Y #51 sketch in my head, 'cause it totally fits it!  It was a quick card to make, perhaps theyy will accept it...we'll see, I haven't had much luck with that lately.  I've made other items for the call, but I'll share them another day.

WHOOPPPIE!!!!

This is a busy week for me so I had scheduled my posts ahead of time.  WELLL....I didn't get a chance to check out the challenge results on Get Sketchy #35 for my 'Super Quick' post I made last week.  It's 12:48 a.m. here and I am just now getting to my e-mails and I had a comment on my post...from Bree...the founder of the Get Sketchy Blog...you know her.  Low an behold, I won the challenge!!!  YEEE-HAAW!!  Thank goodness I'm in the basement, otherwise I would have woken up the family!  Look at all the goodies I won with this honor!

Are you OOZING with jelousy?  Well if you come over to create with me, I just might let you use some (I said might...)  THANK YOU ladies!  You really warm my heart with this honor.  HUGS!!!

Simple...whaa??

So this is for this weeks Clean and Simple #88 challenge...hummm.  I decided to use this flower I made, 'cause I just learned to make it and it was begging to be used!  It's not exactly simple, but it's pretty.

Simple Birthday
Cardstock:  SU! Almost Amethyst, Whisper White and Almost Amethyst DSP
Inks:  SU! Old Olive
Stamp Set: PT Damisk Designs
Accessories:  May Arts olive silk ribbon, Martha Stewart double scallop punch, star dust stickles.

Get Zennias

Or Dahlias perhaps...  I think this flower I made looks more like a zennia than a dahlia.  Ever since I started making these paper flowers, I've been iching to try making it in red to look like this.

My creation came out more orange than red, but I still like it.  I started off with 4 large flower layers of Real Red, 3 large flower layers of Pumpkin Pie (water colored red) and 2 small flowers for a Pumpkin Pie center.  Next time I'll do a Summer Sun center with the tips yellow and the inside orange, only 1 large Pumpin Pie flower and the rest red.  If you're totally confused...don't worry, I will try to find the blog where thye directions were and post it here.

The layout is based on this weeks Sketch Challenge #62 at Card Patterns, if you haven't checked them out, they are a great inspiration!

Get Well Zennia

Card stock: SU! Real Red, Basic Black and Pumpkin Pie; 110 white

Inks:  SU! Real Red, Craft White and Versamark

Stamp Set: PT Delightful Dahlia, SU! Sincere Salutations

Accessories:  Martha Stewart double scallop punch, orange grosgrain ribbon, aqua painter, gold beads, QuickCuts cookie cutters scallop circle

Time flies!

Has it been really 5 days since I last posted?  How does the time fly by so fast?  We've been busy, school commitments, working as an event planner for my old boss a few days again, keeping up with family demands, planning fundraisers....I must say no to something, 'cause I'm tired of having to give up my creating time!  I can say no, I can say no, I can say no...

This is this weeks Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger.  I adore this outdoor set from West Elm.  Clean and simple wood slats, it reminds me of the beach house we stayed at for Spring Break.  Now, if it was my outdoor set, I would have yellow and blue with touches of pink flower pillows on it...with a chandelier above... wine chilling in a bucket...aahhh... *snap*  Back to reality.  These are the cards I made that were inspired by this photo.

Wasabi Thanks
I scored the white card stock in 1/2" increments to look like wood slats and added my new obsession on my cards, burlap.  I'm sure I'll get over that one soon enough.
Cardstock: White 110 lb, SU! Baha Breeze and Wild Wasabi
Inks:  SU! Wild Wasabi and White craft
Stamp set: PT Delightful Dahlia
Accessories: burlap, Wild Wasabi stitched ribbon, brown button, hemp twine

Florida Birthday
My dad turns 70 on the 16th...WOW he really doesn't seem to be that old to me ;) (hi dad).  This was inspired by him and my parents recent purchase of a new home off Hawk's Island in Bradenton Fl.  I'll be making a different one for him - I'm not sure this is special enough for such an amazing man.
Card Stock:  SU! Cool Caribean, Chocolate Chip and Old Olive; Amy Butler paper
Inks: SU! Chocolate Chip and Old Olive
Stamp Set: PT Delightful Dahlia
Accessories:  SU! Old Olive grosgrain ribbon, burlap, mini buttons, SU! 1 3/8" & 1 1/4" square punches

Just under the wire!

This weeks Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab was a challenge for me (hence the name I suppose)!  I just couldn't get into the circle napkins.  So every morning during my cup of tea I would take a glance at it and hope inspiration would hit me.  Nuthin...for days...  Perhaps I needed to pull out papers and it would flow out my fingers...like magic...do you still believe in magic?  I do.  However... still nuthin...  I decided to make a fabric yo-yo out of the colors hope that would get me un-stuck.  So this first card is what I did in about 8 minutes, and what do you know...I like it! 

Simple, to the point, perfect for...well I'm sure I'll find a reason to use it.  The color in the photo is a bit off, the purple satin is much more lavender than it looks here.
Now, since this card was so easy and I was impressed with my creative skills, I decided to create a second card.  With this one, I used the same color story, and also made the same patterned background but instead of circles, I used Dahlias.  It was pretty bold, so to soften it up, I placed a piece of vellum over it.  The large Dahlia on the front totally ate up my blender pen, so perhaps I should invest in some copics...

Super quick

Hello blogger world!  Well, it appears I didn't get invited to be on a DT I really wanted to join...Oh well, perhaps next time.  I made this card for this weeks Get Sketchy #35 challenge.  I thought it was cute and fun, and it gave me an excuse to use another one of those felt coasters!  I'm also loving the burlap on my cards, it's an unexpected element to an elegant card

Praying

Card stock: Pink Pirouette, 110 lb white, vellum paper

Ink:  Versamark, SU! Pink Pirouette and Close to Cocoa

Stamp Set:  PT Guidelines Two
Accessories:  brulap, Soft Sky stitched ribbon, felt coaster

Happy Birthday Baby!

I guess she's not a baby anymore... (sniffle)  My baby is 6 years old now.  It's amazing how the time flies when you have children.  It seems like yesterday when I dropped her off at her first day of pre-school and cried on my way out of the building.  Now she wants to do everything on her own, dress herself, do her own hair, go to the potty by herself when we're at a restaurant (I have to say no to that one).  I tried to hold her on my lap today for some snuggle time, and the two of us didn't fit so well on the cuddle chair anymore.  It's hard to let go of the little things like that, so I told her I would buy us a bigger chair for cuddling (I'm so logical!)

It's tradition in our house for me to make the girls cakes.  At first it was for my own pleasure of making a sweet creation, but Lily has been putting in her requests for the last 3 years.  Since we love to watch the cake challenge shows on the Food Network together, she imagines now, big 3D cakes for every occasion and she can certainly come up with some doozies!  Last year she wanted a butterfly with moving wings sitting on a flower...yea, she is totally my daughter.  After explaining that I was unable to make a moving cake, this is what I came up with for her 5th birthday.  Not a Challenge worthy cake, but she really liked it. 

This year she wanted a Tinkerbell house with fondant icing and a Tinkerbell on top with 'magic' sprinkles coming out of her wand to make everyone fairy size - just like at Disney...   How do I get myself into these things?  Rob explained that the 'magic' has to stay with Tinkerbell in Disney and since we weren't having a big party palooza this year, we talked about down-sizing her cake for our small family party of 8.  After seeing some ideas on the internet, she decided she wanted a rainbow cake with m&m's.  Thank goodness she forgot about the m&m part 'cause each color is $5 bucks a pound!!!!  This is what I came up with for this year's sugary perfection!

Here is the post baking, pre-icing photo.  I made 2 batches of white chocolate cake batter (doctored plain white cake mix).  I took out 6 -1 cup scoops and placed them into separate containers to dye with food coloring into the colors I wanted.  I then baked each 1 cup serving in my 8" round baking pans, (I only have 2 8" pans) at 2 pans per cycle of 15 minutes of baking and 15 minutes of cooling, it took almost 2 hours to bake.  The rest of the un-dyed batter I placed into 2 6" round pans and baked until done.  I made icing to match the layer colors and used them to layer the cake and then I froze them for the night. 

The next morning I cut off the bottom of the layered cake and shaped it into a rainbow and placed the ends on the 2 6" cakes. (I really like making 3D cakes)  I piped colored icing for the rainbow with a small star tip and piped the clouds with a large star tip with white icing.  This could be done flat if you are afraid to go 3D, but it's really not as hard as it looks!  Below is the cake cut...how fun are all these colors?  I really looks like you are eating a rainbow!  Wouldn't it be a hit at a kids party?

Here she is peeking thru her cake!

I don't know where the time has gone...she is so beautiful!

Elizabeth enjoyed the cake too!

Can you relate?

I just saw this on this blog The Idea Room.  I can so relate!