Weekend Cropping

So this past Friday I went to a crop with my mom at one of the closest Local Scrapbook stores (which actually is 45 minutes away) Scraptacular. In that 6 hour crop I completed 3 single scrapbook layouts, 2 cards and one altered item for a secret sister swap I am in coming up. So here are the two cards. I'll show you the scrapbook pages later. :)

(I used the most adorable Cricut cartridge (kitchen...) borrowed form my mom to make this cute apron. I love how it turned out. Pair that up with the sentiment stamp from Papertrey Ink, makes a happy card!)

(And this card was made completely from a card kit that my mom got in a swap (not sure which) but gave to me because I thought it was adorable colors.)

Hope everyone's Monday isn't as rainy as it is here right now. Hugs!
-M

Tweet

Valentine's day hugs

So I am finally getting around to making thank you cards for family members who gave me Christmas gifts. So I decided to make them early Valentine's day cards besides thank you cards. Here are two of the cards I made. (the others I just so happened to have a few thank you cards and valentine's day cards left over from when I made them for something else, that I only had to make 2 cards!). So without futher ado, here are the Vday/Thank you cards. :)

(Monkey hugs!)

 

(I love this vday felty! so cute! it worked perfect as the "flower" the monkey was holding) 

 

(I had an extra colored image I made originally for my card club, and made it into this card. The hearts are from the $1 bin at Target. Gosh I love saving money on supplies. )

(sparkles!)

So there you have it. Stay tuned later in the week for some more card fun! :)

-M

Tweet

Scared turkey

Today I'm sharing with you another card for a co-worker (it's beginning to be a weekly think, I know!...all these custom card orders, I need to make myself a business card or something, haha!) and what I decided to make my placecards look like for this year's Thanksgiving here at the house of Mo. :)
 To start, the card is for my co-worker's son, a middle schooler, so I decided to make it a little funny. Hence, alive and scared turkey out front, and then cooked turkey inside...hehe. I finally found a card idea to use one of the awesome Recollections felty embellishments, and I think it matched perfect with the paper. The funny part about that paper (also by Recollections) I had actually adhered the two pieces of paper together, then realized I like the combo of what was on the other side (double sided paper), so I flipped it over, and added a ribbon around it, and started my card from that choice! Don't you just love it when things like that happen? Anyways, here's the card!

(I wouldn't have thought teal would look so pretty with the rest of the fall colors, but I dig it!)

(scared turkey, buttons, and felties! All the best things in life...hehe)

(cooked turkey!)

I also worked on my placecards for our Thanksgiving dinner. This year, since my 'rents are coming to visit, but coming in from Michigan on Thanksgiving itself, we decided to celebrate on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. That way, the 'rents can relax a little beforehand, and my hubby's famiy can all make it too! However, I'm a scared turkey myself, since this is the first time we have ever hosted Thanksgiving at our house. Eek! So, the table cloth chosen looks like this:

So I decided to pick the colors from there the best I could, and made these placecards using my new Nesti I got 50% off at Micheal's over a month ago (That was my big purchase of the month, lol!) and I also used an adorable Thanksgiving stamp set I got on sale also at Micheal's (that same day), since the day after Halloween they were ushering in all the Christmas stuff, and had all the Halloween and harvest/Thanksgiving stuff 50-75% off. I love sales...I think these days I only shop in the sale racks anymore. :)

(this one is mine- the first one I did, so if I screwed it up, it was ok. hehe)

(I <3 buttons!- These are from Papertrey Inks!)

(here's the whole slew of placecards, 7 adults and 2 kiddos)

I think it has the feel of some of the PTI designers, like Nichole, Mish and Pine, but I think it works, and should match the tablecloth. I now have the centerpiece and rest of the placesettings to figure out. This year I want to go all Martha Stewart on Thanksgiving, so I have to have everything match. :)
Hope everyone is having a great Friday. I'm off to go do some cleaning around the house. It's amazing how quickly your home becomes a reck when live with a messy man! haha
Have a Friday Funday!
Hugs all!
-M

Tweet

A year in Cards-Oct. 2009 sketch challenge

So I decided to whip up some cards for the Two Peas/KWerner "A year in cards-Oct. 2009" sketch challenge. She basically had 3 card sketches and you can either use the sketch as a starting point or make autumn/gratitude cards. I decided to do the gratitude plus sketch a whirl. I went and used more of these lovely K&Company bohemian-esque popup sticker/embelishments on these. I am just in love with them right now! Below is the sketch and all three cards!



I also started writing down a list of what all I'm doing for Christmas (I know, it's October still, but I have a lot to do from now to then!). I wrote out pretty much ALL of the people I can think of that I want to make cards for, treats, or gifts. For my close friends and family I'll do all three, and then for my not-as-close friends and co-workers I have an idea what to do for all of them. This year, I want it to be a Crafty-Christmas! The more I can make, the less I need to buy. :) I hope I can set aside time to do it all, but I'm gonna try. I also gotta think of what I'm doing for Thanksgiving before then. This year the fam. is coming to our house...eek! I still don't know if my in-laws are coming down too, or if it will just be my parents and my hubby at our place. We are gonna have to celebrate it a little late, due to when the 'rents are coming in on the train, so we'll see what happens. All I know is I totally want to make it cute and decorate the place and especially the dinner table- I want it to look as nice as possible, since it is our first time hosting Thanksgiving. :) Anyways, enjoy the cards and have a great Sunday! (yay, day off for me!)
Enjoy!
Laters and hugs to everyone out there!
-M

Tweet

Laundry thanks

Ok. So this card kinda has a story behind it. You see, my hubby and I wanted to start saving up money for a washer and dryer, since our new apartment has the hookup for it. However, with paying 2 rents (which we officially are done with this month-THANK HEAVENS!) we haven't had a lot of spare change to put towards our Laundry room fund. We lucked into finding a dryer for sale on the side of the road (someone was moving...aka. I think getting foreclosed, and needed to sell it) so we got a great deal on a barely used dryer. As far as the washer- here's the deal:
This past 4th of July weekend, my hubby, me, and 3 of our friends decided to head over to the one friend's beach house. I had to work the night shift the day everyone was getting there, so I was to meet up with the crew after I got out of work. Well, around 10pm when my hubby and the friend who's beach house it is, call me up explaining that they realized they forgot the key to the beach house. I was then begged to drive to our friend's house, pick up the key from his mailbox (which his mother was to place the key in) then drive back to the beach house. Problem- it would take 45 minutes to the house from my work, another 45 minutes back and another hour and a half to the beach house from the spot my work was. I'd be rolling into the beachfront area at about 4am- not my cup of tea, since I'd be driving alone no doubt. So what does our friend do- he offers me a deal. "What if I buy you a washer?" "What?! You're kidding right?" "No...I'm serious. I'll buy you a washer if you go get the key."
I didn't believe him, but me being a good friend went and got the key anyways, still thinking he is joking with me about the washer, and rolled into the beach house's driveway at around 4am, hopped up on Monster energy drink and Sweettarts. To my surprise, when our beach house trip was completed, our friend reminded us to pick out a washer (one under $400 preferably), and to email him what we liked.
So today our washer arrived, all thanks to a wonderful friend. Some people take their friends for granted I think. I don't care that our friends may have more money than use, but I do appreciate that they actually listen to us and care about what happens to us. To be honest, I would of been happy with just getting a large margarita in return for the trip out to get the key. :)
I still don't know what to say, as I am still in disbelief that he actually bought us a washer. So this card is for him.

It was all I could think of to do. It's a "spinny card" where the "washer cycle" part actually rotates back and forth if you blow or push it. I thought it was a cute idea and all I knew going into making the card was to make a thank you card with a washing machine on it. :)


We have some of the best friends a couple could ask for I tell you. I love you guys!
Anyways, enjoy the card. I even included a "laundry bag" that was taken from a "college/back to school 3d sticker set". I thought it worked well for not knowing what I was doing at all. haha. Anyways, have a great night/day.
Laters.
-M

Tweet

Last weekend of shows

So today starts the last weekend of "Hello, Dolly!" shows. As promised on previous posts, here are the rest of the cards I made for those who helped with the show. Today is the "men" cards. One to the director, the assistant director and music director. Can I just tell you how much I hate making cards for guys. Ugh!

(Luckily the Stars set by Papertrey Inks that I just recently bought has come in handy for such occasions as a man card. lol)

(I tried to find the most manly colors and designer paper I could find in my stock of stuff. This is what I found)

(Did I mention I love buttons!?)

(I know I know, MORE BUTTONS! I tried to do a "song bird" type idea, since this is for the music director. It was tough to do that idea and still keep it somewhat manly)

(My husband Wren liked the bird (of course being "birdman" himself) lol)

(More star madness. It was all I could think of to go with theater and a guy-type card)

(I did do a trick of stamping half of the thank you saying, then the other half below it, instead of next to each other...it was the only way I could get it to fit in the star. haha)

I did my best. The music director's card is slightly less "manly" but heck, it has music on it!
If you haven't been following my blog this week, check out my previous 2 posts for the rest of the cards I made- those have a "victorian feel" to most. (I like the girly cards better to be honest). :)
Enjoy all and wish me luck for our show tonight!
Hugs!
-M

Tweet

Victorian Week continues...

While many fellow cardmakers and bloggers are off to the summer CHA, I am soaking up the sweltering heat in Pennsylvania. This coming Friday and Saturday are my last shows for "Hello, Dolly!" so even though I am sad to be finishing the show, it will be nice to have free time again. Yay! Like I mentioned in my previous post, you will be seeing "Victorian-type themed" cards that I am making for the 'special people' that helped with the show for the cast to give (aka. the Director, assistant director, music director, choreographer, etc.)
These three cards are going to the set construction designer, stage manager, and the props mistress. Tomorrow I'll post the cards that are going to the director, assistant director, and music director (aka. the "men" cards...since most of the other cards are for ladies). Busy busy busy.
Anyways, without further ado- some more cards.

(so this is one of my fav color combos. The bright colors I think are a big contrast to the lacy/victorian look. I know I've used the corset stamp before, and I must admit it is one of my favorite stamps. So classic!)

(More and more buttons! I couldn't get enough of them today!)

( I went a little button crazy I think on this one. I also was having MAJOR issues getting my layout to work, but I think it works ok now.)

(I had to make a card SOMEWHERE that had a big letter sticker/chipboard type thing!)

(this lady stamp is SO "Hello, Dolly!" however the rubber is chipped by her arm and bottom of dress, so I added the big flower accent to cover it up.)

(This actually took a lot longer than I expected. A similar layout I found on someone's blog a while ago, however it was reversed and a circle instead of an oval, and didn't have a butterfly, flowers, and all that jazz. Sometimes you just need to get a sketch inspiration in order to create. )

(as you can see up close here, I hand stitched the oval. I dabbed blue ink on the edges to give it some pop of color, but it needed something to break the two colors apart, so I added stitching!)

I quickly realized I don't have very many "thanks" stamps. Luckily I got a few from my mom when she visited last weekend and gave me a whole big back of goodies that she had for me after cleaning out HER craft room. She's been crafting FAR longer than me, so she has collected a lot of stuff over the years. Also, she doesn't love the same supplies as I do, such as buttons, chipboard letters, and lace. :)
Anyways, Have a great Thursday everyone. I am heading to bed soon (it is 4:30am here) so I can get up later for the night shift I have for Thursday. yeehaa! lol
Night night, or good morning to some of you!
-M

Tweet

Victorian week

In light of our last weekend of shows this coming weekend for "Hello, Dolly!" I was asked to make the cards to be given to the director, choreographer, music director, etc. So this whole week you will be seeing Victorian, aka. "Hello, Dolly!" themed cards.

(this one is loosely based on a card that Dawn McIvy did a while ago and I saved in my "card ideas" folder. She had a butterfly up top instead of a lady, no feather, and totally different colors and bracket thing at the bottom, and less buttons. So it more so is the sketch it is based on).

(the gold I cut the border from the gold version of the laced circle and kept the full white version below it. They came in a pack from Martha Stewart collection, which matches perfect to the punch I used on the side).

The first two are for two of the ladies I haven't decided who is getting what, I just know I have x number of woman cards and x number of men cards needed. lol

(I do not know where this stamp is from, but it was given to me by my mother. It is on loose rubber, so I have no idea. I thought it was PERFECT for the show "Hello, Dolly!" since my character runs the hat shop. I might end up giving this one to the costumer.)

(I decided to pop up the ladies hats to give it some dimension. I originally thought to pop up just the hats, but it looked odd, so I did their whole heads popped up. I probably wouldn't have picked those colors to color them, but I wanted to match that designer paper I used at the bottom, and the colors I had were the closest I could find with my LePlume markers. I don't have any Copic markers at all, sadly, so I did the best I could in coloring them.)

Enjoy this week of Victorian themed cards!
-M

Tweet

I'm back!

FINALLY I got to sit down and crank out some cards/crafts. I did 5 cards tonight, worked on my ribbons hat for Dolly! and made a "chocolate covered peanuts-unshelled" box also for Dolly!
Phew*
Been busy as heck with work and the show, so I was happy to have a night off from the two. But now that I look at it, I realllly need to get to bed. So here is a quick post with 2 of the 5 cards I made. The others 3 are for the July release for Digiments...can't wait to show you all the cards I made for it- stay tuned next week.

(I'm giving this to my sister-in-law for her baby Jayden's baby shower)

(Because Fun-Frilled died, I never got to use this kit that one of the gals put together. But here's my card with the kit- with a few things added and only the brads not used from the kit)

Now that Fun-Frilled no longer is existing (I'm still a little bummed about that- I loved the themes!), Digiments is my only real papercrafting commitment except for my Battle of the Bulge swap at SCS. As much as I want more to do, right now with the show, I'm glad those are the only things on my plate.
Anyways, have a great morning/night/day...whenever you read this.
Hugs!
-M

Tweet

Thank you cards and updates

So, I feel bad because I haven't had much blogging/cardmaking done recently except for my design teams, so I finally had some free time to make a card that wasn't for a design team this weekend. Now granted, it was for a co-worker, who's only request is a thank you card to give to someone, but still there was no immediate deadline for it.

Now I will tell you this, it is not the biggest and grandest card I have ever made. I did use an old card from one of my many blogs I follow (no clue who though) as my inspiration as far as the layout goes. You see, I have this folder on my computer, "card ideas". I basically open up that folder when I am stuck. When I surf the net, I just grab photos for inspiration. Now I would never outright copy someone, but sometimes you need great design to inspire you to do your own designs. It's just like looking in a magazine for inspiration, except on my computer. Sometimes I get color combo ideas, and others I get techniques or sketch-type ideas from them. Every now in then I need a little boost in my creativity. :)
As far as the moving to the new apartment goes, we are pretty much done. We have all the major stuff and all the things we NEED here. There is still basically a bunch of little stuff left over at the old place. We plan to make it a habit of picking up one load every Saturday till the end of August (when that lease is finally up), that way we don't get bombarded with having to grab and clean it all in the last week. I hate moving and I hate having boxes everywhere still. Ugh.
The musical, "Hello, Dolly!" is in full swing. I can't believe that we open in less than 5 weeks! Tomorrow my hubby and I hope to make it out to a secondhand shop to search for some props/costume ideas, since the costume department is having problems finding costumes to fit my "bust" area. lol I guess all the people they've had in shows before never had big boobs! I can't wait for the performances- that is one of my favorite parts of theater. This is basically my first big role in a show since my sophomore year in high school. I can't wait. If anyone is in the King of Prussia/Philadelphia, PA region, let me know and I'll give you info to see the show!

Other than the move, musicals, and my cards, not a whole lot happening in the world of Morgaine. We're trucking along, even though I'm working for 10% less pay these days (got a paycut), but with more work. (darn you economy!) But what can you do?
Anyways, here's the card I was talking about.

And if you haven't seen any of my weekend posts because you were too busy this weekend, check them out here and here. Fun-Frilled is still doing wonderful themes (check out this past weekend's Summer card of mine here- it's one of my new favs.) and Digiments just had their June release party, so check them all out too!
Have a great Monday everyone and stay smiling!
-M

Tweet