Don’t Forget the Dads!

I know, Moms… it’s easy to forget that any other holiday exists beyond Mothers Day, right?? HA!

But I know some pretty FAB dads, my husband and my own father being at the top of that list.  And Fathers Day is June 17th… not that far away!

I used to get all creative with my dad’s gift each year until he confessed he LOVES getting a boring old gift card to the big box home improvement store.  Of course I can’t just put the dang thing in a card and send it.  Borrrring!  So each year I try to come up with fun packaging to make the gift just a bit more personal.  Last year you might remember this tool belt card.  That was a fun one to make. 

This year I used Fancy Pants’ Wave Searcher collection and my Silhouette to craft this adorable car box, card and envelope set:

Dad's-Day-Beach-Buggy-Set

Dad's-Day-Beach-Buggy-Card-detail1
You know, because my dad loves to surf.  Ok, I lie.  But he DOES love the water and cars so that has to count for something! 

Dad's-Day-Beach-Buggy-Car

Dad's-Day-Beach-Buggy-Car-Open
The car box is just too cool.  I love my Silhouette to bits! There is just enough room in there to add the gift card.  My dad is going to think this is pretty stinkin’ cool.  And that’s all a crafty gal can ask for, really!

I have Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

Lately we’ve had a ton of clouds and rain here in New England.  Boo!  Last weekend was gorgeous but we are now back to five straight days of dreary. 

I had to do SOMEthing to bring out the sun around here!  Last week The gals at Pink Paislee played along with the designers at Punky Sprouts and this was my resulting mini album:

Sunshine-Mini-Cover

Punky Sprouts makes some pretty fab mixed material albums with chipboard, cardboard, and canvas.  I had fun with the Sprocket Sprouts gear-shaped album.

Sunshine-Mini-Detail2

Each page is covered in Prairie Hill papers and sweet embellishments.  I love how the different shaped pages allow some of the elements to peek out. 

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Sunshine-Mini-Page2

Sunshine-Mini-Page3

Sunshine-Mini-Page4

Sunshine-Mini-Page5

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So at least there’s something bright and fresh around here these days!  Thanks for taking a peek!

Pretty in Pink

This page is a few months old and I just keep forgetting to show it to you!  My best friend’s little girl turned two and she loves hamming up the camera almost as much as my Owen.  I’ll take the excuse to go girly and PINK… I used Fancy Pants’ Summer Soul line here:

Pretty-in-Pink-3

Gah!  I just love that rainbow striped ribbon! 

Jess Mutty - Pretty in Pink detail1

    Jess Mutty - Pretty in Pink detail2  Jess Mutty - Pretty in Pink detail3

Ok, now back to your regularly scheduled boy stuff! Winking smile

Hey Ombre!

No, no, no… not hombre… OMBRE! You know, the French word meaning “shadow” or “varying shades of a tone”, like a graduation in color. That’s what a bunch of us were up to last week on the Pink Paislee blog. 

I ended the week with a bright wedding page.  When I got this assignment there was really no question that I would be using some of the Mistables line to experiment with the ombre technique.  The Mistables Collection is absolutely perfect for experimenting with color and the variation of its intensity.  Many times you see the ombre look done in soft colors… beachy looks or romantic fades.  But I wanted to do something bright and vibrant so I chose to use intense blue ink.

D&O

I blended several types of ink on this Mistables background starting at the lower corner and lightening towards the center and did the same in a smaller area at the top right for balance.  The background paper really takes on life when we add color like this!

D&O-detail1

D&O-detail4

I brought out the shades of blue in various places around my page: the dark blue on the Mistables tag, lighter blue on the “&”, dark blue edged ruffled trim, and stitching too.

The trail of butterflies follows the ombre pattern as well.  I started them plain white in the center of the page and they increase in intensity towards the top.

D&O-detail2
D&O-detail3
If you want to see more examples of ombre check out the rest of the posts last week on the Pink Paislee blog.  I just love how all the projects have been very different from each other but make use of the same technique!

Basically, this class is going to be fab!

Check it out you guys!

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. As crafters, we have all had moments when nothing in our stash was perfect for the layout on our desks, and no amount of invention could make that purple button work where a red one was needed. In recent days, however, that has all changed. Basically Bare has released dozens of embellishments can be customized easily to coordinate with any project with a minimum of fuss. In “The Bare Necessities,” Miss Art’s Teacher Jess Mutty teams up with class sponsor Basically Bare to bring you the tools to ensure you are never without the perfect embellishment again. From felt to acrylic to chipboard to canvas, the easy-to-follow videos in this class will have you customizing colors and textures with the ease of a true artist. Crafting the perfect embellishment will become your newest necessity on May 20th, 2012.

BasicMain

So yeah, if you’re not a student at Miss Art’s yet you need to get yer motor running and sign up!  My class (and tons of others) is a super fun way to learn new techniques and get inspired.  I hope to see you there!

Fresh Picked for Mom

Mother’s Day is coming up on Sunday and no crafter wants to be caught without a sweet something for Mom!  I got the inspiration for this and the printable tag from the girls at eighteen25 and put my own spin on it with the help of some Fancy Pants Summer Soul. 

Fresh-Picked-Basket

I used a wooden pint berry box and covered it with plaid Summer Soul paper and a border punched trim.  The fruit was cut from Summer Soul and Be You papers with my Silhouette.  How cute are they?? 

       Fresh-Picked-Fruit  Fresh-Picked-Card

All the products are from the “Fresh Picked” line of soaps at Bath and Body Works.  They smell super yummy and could not have been more perfect for my theme. 

Fresh-Picked-Strawberry

And this little Silhouette strawberry just makes me smile.  They’re my mom’s favorite fruit and I know she will get a kick out of how adorable this is! 

I hope you all have something sweet planned for the moms in your life too!

Fleece Baby Toys

I have a new tutorial at May Arts right now…  a little something for the wee ones.  As I mentioned, my best friend recently had her second baby and I am now 29 weeks with our little girl.  Add another few pregnant friends in there and we could pretty much start our own daycare!  I need some new baby toys around here STAT.
So I whipped up a couple of soft fleece toys with ribbon tags for tactile stimulation.  I chose different shapes and textures for the ribbon because we know babies love to discover the world through touch.  I used fleece so these would be washable as well as snuggly.  They’re safe, bright, and soft.

Supplies (per toy):
  • Two squares of fleece, approximately 8” x 8”
  • Smaller scraps of coordinating fleece for the appliqué
  • Coordinating embroidery floss
For the navy/gray/orange: (all May Arts)
Or for the pink/aqua: (all May Arts)
- Cut two circles from your squares of fleece.  I traced a small plate but there is no set size for these.

- Freehand or trace an appliqué shape from the coordinating fleece scraps.

- Use the embroidery floss to sew the appliqués to the circles.  You could machine stitch these if you prefer but I liked the chunky look.

- Now cut two lengths of approximately 5” from each type of ribbon.

- Fold the ribbons in half with the patterns to the outside.  Pin each ribbon piece towards the INSIDE of the fleece circle as shown:

- Place the other circle on top of this, right sides in, creating a “ribbon sandwich”.  Give yourself a generous seam allowance to be sure you firmly catch all the ribbons and sew almost all the way around.  Leave enough of a gap to turn the circles right sides out.

- Trim the edge and turn your circles through the hole.  Stuff with polyfil/batting.  Carefully turn the edges of the hole under and hand stitch the circles closed.  You will see that the ribbons are now sticking out towards the outside.

And that’s it! One sweet little baby tag toy to give or keep for your little one!

I'm linking this up to the party at Tip Junkie!  Check out all kinds of great crafty inspiration!

Tip 
Junkie handmade projects

 

Awesome Stuff

Last week some of us at Pink Paislee were playing along with the gals at Basically Bare.  You DO know about Basically Bare, right?? They make super fun “naked” albums and embellishments from chipboard, cardboard, felt, canvas and acrylic.  And these were a perfect pairing with the Indigo Bleu line!

I created this mini album of “Awesome Stuff @2” to document all the things my two year old loves right now:

Awesome-Stuff-Mini

Awesome-Stuff-Mini-Fan

This album has a pocket on every page and an insert to go in it… so cool!

Awesome-Stuff-Mini-AllInserts

Here’s a look at my pages:

Awesome-Stuff-Mini-Page1

Awesome-Stuff-Mini-Page2

Awesome-Stuff-Mini-Page3

Awesome-Stuff-Mini-Page4

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I love this album.  Owen already loves it too… he likes to flip through it and pull out the inserts, naming all the pictures. 

And speaking of Basically Bare… I have a Miss Art’s Papercrafting School class coming up this month using another album from this company!  Stay tuned for sneak peeks and details coming soon!