I hope you are all having a wonderful Shark Week! I do have another special card for all my CHUMS out there (haha... had to do that Tracy!)
I do believe this is my first time ever using this diver stamp and I'm quite pleased. I'm pretty happy with how this card turned out. Could be the diver. Could also be the fabulous mica glitter... or maybe that cute shark... Or maybe that I would seriously dive to see sharks. Goodness all around :)
More fin-tastic shark week goodness awaits you... check back later!
Hello friends! Are you ready for more Shark Week goodness????
I saw these super fun cards that my friend Glenda made for this week's Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge - Designer Drafts and I KNEW I had to play along! :)
I've never played before, and only recently acquired my very own Paper Smooches stamp sets (happy happy!). The challenge is to make a card based on this sketch:
Um, HELLO shark fin!!! :) I love that Glenda and I see eye to eye on this one! LOL I'll admit that I had already peeked at Glenda's post, so I had to think different on this one. I remembered seeing this fun photo on Pinterest with a little fish all dressed up like a shark... and viola! My card was born :)
Oh, if only we could all be as jawsome as a shark!
Hope you are enjoying Shark Week! Check back later for more sharktastic cards!
It's the most wonderful time of the year...
Happy Shark Week everyone! In case you've been living under some kelp or something for the past 25 years and weren't aware, Discovery channel features a week of shark goodness that premiers tonight at 9pm (Eastern). I got {hooked} on shark week many years ago when I was teaching at a local aquarium. Now, I'll admit I'm not really a fan of the drama-hyped episodes that occasionally get aired, but some of their shows are interesting with stellar footage and some good educational twists - and that's what I love. Most sharks are not the big "bad boys" that first pop into our minds, and ALL serve critical ecological roles in their environments. Sharks really could give a rats-pattotie about us, they aren't "out to get us", and yet many people have this twisted vendetta against them - I've even worked with very young children say that sharks are bad (astonishing). As a human population, we have decimated sharks (some by as much as 90%). Tragic! There is still so much we do not understand about sharks - but one thing that is painfully obvious is that these population declines are having negative consequences beyond what we could have imagined. We have lots to learn and, at least for a week, Discovery helps bring attention to sharks.
I feel grateful that I have some wonderful friends with open minds (who support the geeky marine bio nerd in me) and have a great sense of humor! I threw out a crazy challenge to them and they have agreed to help me kick off Shark Week with a Shark Week blog hop! As an added twist, I challeneged them to use two of three elements in their card (1. a turqoise washi tape, 2. a stamped image of a little shark, 3. the phrase "jawsome")
Here is my card, with all three elements (and still getting used to the new camera...):
Hop on over to their blogs and give them some jawsome love!
I'll be back again this week with more shark goodness! Stay tuned!
Ah... Boris...
For those of you new to his charms, Boris is an old A Muse "mad scientist" image. He's quite the guy, if I do say so myself. I'm completely smitten with him.
I was reminiscing with a friend recently about how much we loved Boris. I knew I had to make her a fun Boris card for her birthday.
Since she is a big fan of a nice martini, I knew the regular test tube and flask wouldn't do, so I fashioned Boris a nice shaker to go along wih a tiny martini glass (althogh it appears to be quite the ample size for him).
Cheers to all you Boris lovers out there!
(sorry for the slightly blurry image... getting use to my new camera!)
It's time for another baby post! This time, very close family friends are expecting their first baby. My aunt hosted the baby shower and as a special surprise to the mom-to-be, ordered live butterflies that each guest was able to release (what a fun idea!). Unfortunatelly, the shower took place while I was on the road and I was unable to attend.
Since I knew of the "butterfly" plans ahead of time, I wanted to do something special to make up for the fact that I couldn't be there in person. I commissioned my good friend, Jenn Shurkus to make a canvas for the nursery. The only problem, is we had no idea what the room colors were! There was no indication of a color theme by looking at the registry as the bedding was being hand made. The only info my aunt and I were able to get from the mom-to-be was that it had chevrons, birds, and was pink, orange, and grey - but I wanted to make sure the colors were spot on. After a lot of sleuthing, the nice folks at The Baby Guy sent me a photo of the bedding fabric so Jenn could color match. I love how it turned out:
I know the butterfly stressed poor Jenn out, but I think it turned out so cute :) I especially love the touch of grey on the border. Thanks, Jenn, for making the canvas so quickly and shipping it out to me in time for the shower!!!
I tried to match my card to the bedding too:
and had fun wrapping up the gift...
Just wish I could have been there in person! Best of luck to the new parents!
What a great week I've had! The hubby and I have managed to sneak away for a little road trip (and our first vacation in... well... we can't remember!!!) We decided we *needed* to do something fun this summer and, so, road trip it is. We hunkered down at my parent's place in Oregon and managed to convince my parents that it was a great idea to do a Volcano Day (because, really, who doesn't LOVE a volcano???) We trekked on over to Mt. St. Helens - a HUGE BUCKET LIST item for me.
There is no question, this was a spiritual place for me. I vividly remember this eruption as a child and am in complete awe of the forces at play here. I am in love... Maybe next time I can convince the hubs to do the helicopter tour...
We all loved it so much we decided, quite on the '"fly", to make our way over to Mt. Rainier - another beauty, and perhaps the most potentially destructive, in the Cascade Range...
But, I digress, and know you have come for the cards. I am sad that we are leaving in the morning. It's getting harder and harder each time to say goodbye to my parents. It's also hard to say goodbye to my nieces, the Chiquitas. It's astonishing how much OLDER they are from the last time I saw them. But I made sure we got in a little crafty time... and fireworks watching from the craftroom windows...
(Can you *believe* how BIG they are now???? Gah!!!!) And to officially say goodbye... I leave each a special card at their spot on the craft table, to discover the next time they come to "grandma's" to craft. I think they will love these cards...
They are just now *intrigued* by washi tape, so I wanted to use it two different ways - to inspire them :)
Goodbye volcano's, Mom and Dad, and goodbye Chiquitas... Until we meet again...
Happy father's day to all you Dad's out there! Several friends in my life have become father's this year and are celebrating their very first Father's Day - it's very cool to see them in that role and I imagine they must be enjoying their very first Father's Day - Cheers Jesse, Michael, Hugh, and Brett!
Today we will get to spend time with my hubby's Dad so I whipped up a quick card for him:
He likes to take photos, so I thought this would be a fun card for him.
Today is one of those days, though, that makes me miss my Dad more than usual. Inspired by my friend Jenn's video she posted on her blog today, I thought I'd send my Dad this fun collage.
I've slept in for 2 DAYS STRAIGHT!!!! Hello summer break - I'm a happy girl (well, at least for a couple weeks until the summer jobs kick in). I've been busy tackling some projects around the house I've been meaning to get to since about {forever ago} which also feels great.
Before school got out, however, I was in a frantic state trying to acknowledge all those awesome folks who make my job a million times easier. Besides my fabulous 8th grade TA's (see their card here) I wanted to give a huge shout out to a few other amazing people too. I did a variation of the TA card for my awesome custodians:
I also made several thank you's for the awesome teachers and awesome volunteer Mom's who helped me run our character building program this year:
I just printed our logo onto cardstock (designed by our student's with the help of a volunteer graphic designer), added some washi and bling, piece-o-cake!
Finally, I made some personalized stationary card sets for our fabulous office staff:
Again, I kept it REALLY EASY {thank you washi tape} so it didn't take me too long, but yes, I've appreciated the extra sleep these past couple days :)
For all my friends still teaching - I do feel your pain. I've felt it all year long when you got that extra few days at Thanksgiving or that extra Spring Break week or those snow days. It's all a wash in the end right? A break from the norm at any time of the year is appreciated. I wish you a speedy race to the end and students who take mercy on you in your fragile-almost-summer state.
I have loads of cards I need to make for the coming week - the last week of the 2011-12 school year! Yahoo! I'm really lookng forward to a change of pace and a little much needed down time before my summer jobs start - but first, I must get cracking on some cards.
I wanted to make a special card for the two girls that have worked in my classroom all year - they are moving on to high school (*sniff sniff*) so I wanted to send them off with something special. I thought this was a good time to try out the "spatter" technique since there's a challenge for that over at Moxie Fab World and I've never tried it before! I figured the girls would like this since I actually do a blood spatter lab with my students (I teach a little unit in forensic science), I just haven't tried it with ink before, haha!
Hopefully they will make the connection :)
I added a few black pearls and red twinkle stickers for added pop. School colors, of course :)
This fun Moxie Fab World Spatter Challenge ends tonight (got mine in at the last minute - eek!) hurry up and play along if you can.
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