Sweet Dreams Banner

I just finished this banner for Brook's *belated* birthday this weekend. I had seen a photo for a wedding where the couple was arranged on a picnic against a shed backdrop with a pastel banner across the background and thought that would be cute for Brook's room. Banners are all the rage and Close To My Heart has these cute chipboard banner pennants in packs of 8, so now to the designing..

Her room is in pastel butterflies in Spring Iris and Sweet Leaf with a little of the old Breeze thrown in. Really cute, but hard to match decor surprisingly!! To get the right colors I used a bunch of scraps from my stash. Some old Breeze cardstock along with B&Ts from Life Delights and Whoops-A-Daisy, all of which are retired. Sorry for all the old stuff, but I bought it when we picked her room colors a few years ago. She has been asking me for decor for her walls, but I wasn't quite sure what to settle on until I saw these banners.

The letters are cut on the Cricut out of Chocolate cardstock and the stamping is in Chocolate, White Daisy and Spring Iris with a pop of Watermelon (retired) on the daisies to match the B&T. We have a glitter and unicorn kinda girl, so Prisma Glitter is used in liberal amounts. Check out each picture in finite detail by clicking on it for a larger image.

Brook loves it and I think it turned out pretty cute, too! 

Supplies Used:

My Creations Chipboard Banner (2) *8 pieces are included per package

Chocolate cardstock

Prisma Glitter

White Daisy Embossing Powder

Clear Detail Embossing Powder

White Daisy Grosgrain Ribbon

My Acryix Stamps: Simply Splendid, Treasures, Find Your Style

Retired products: Watermelon ink, Whoops-A-Daisy My Reflections, Life's Delights My Reflections, Daydream My Reflections, Breeze cardstock and Top Coats Rockin'.

 Warm wishes,

Celebrate U Card

This is a card we made a few years ago that was one of my favorites. I haven't put it up on the blog before, so I thought I would share it with you. It was made with That's Amore papers and Damask Tiles. I'm so glad so many of you liked it! I have received it back a few times from friends and family. It's great to see you are sending your cards out to those you love! Designer's Tip: Use a little Liquid glass over the small tiles to make them pop and add dimension!

Happy Crafting!

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Tickled Pink and Happy Birthdays

Birthday month is almost complete and while I'm crazy about birthdays, I couldn't possibly eat another piece of cake! For some reason we decided to group all of the birthdays in a month in our family.. Okay, we didn't try but it worked out that way! So a big happy birthday to my bestest daughter Brook, my dad, and my niece, Danni this week!

The card featured today is a flashback from last year's Tickled Pink. Rather than scrapbooking it as was suggested, I've been slowly pecking away at it and turning out beautiful cards. My mother-in-law received this  card last week for Mother's Day. It's fun, flirty and floral all by itself, so I left off excess embellishments, instead going for a simple and classic look.

I made this card using a pattern from Wishes, one of our two Card Confidence program volumes (the other is called Originals.) If  you're ever stuck with a bunch of supplies and not sure what to do, our How-To books are the best! There are 4 scrapbook page volumes and 2 card confidence volumes giving you PLENTY of inspiration! Each book shows beautiful full-color examples a sketch of the pattern, cutting guide and complete assembly instructions along with some great tips and techniques on most every page to add WOW to your art. These books are invaluable as they can be reused again and again in different papers and colors or rotate the patterns for a fresh approach. They're never stale!

I hope your May Day is going great today. Speaking of MayDays, check out my layout of my daughter on my new Facebook Fan Page. I'd love for you to "like" it and come for a visit! I post art and conversation pieces on there frequently to help get your creativity rolling! You can link to it here. Please stop by and leave me some love! Happy crafting and see you soon!

Warm wishes,

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Happy Friday the 13th!

Just because the rumor's out it's an unlucky day doesn't mean it's fact!

Make someone feel lucky today and send them a handmade card. This is another super easy card using Grace. (It's the same pattern as in the last post, but this is the full color front of the B&T!) Add a simple tag from Salutations Seals and you're good to go! This card took 5 minutes to make from start to finish but it's going to put a BIG smile on my pal's face!

Warm wishes,
Trish

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Simple Scalloped Flower Card and Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Brandon's parents are celebrating their 38th wedding anniversary this week. Isn't that fabulous? It seems like such a far away place from my vantage point of a modest 11 1/2 years. I can't wait to get there, though!

Grace seemed like a great kit to celebrate this milestone with. One awesome thing about Close To My Heart's B&T pattern papers is they have a monochromatic pattern on the back of the paper so it's like getting 12 B&T's in your level 2 kits! This pattern is quite bold on the full color side, but a beautiful and serene Bamboo on the back. Just right to highlight this simple scallop flower.

Using our 2" Scallop Circle Punch, make 4 twilight cardstock circles. Lightly spray My Spritz Cleaner and crumple them up. Let them set a bit to dry. Then stack them and attach with a brad. That's it! Instant Awesomeness and a card that works for any occasion!

Don't forget the fabulous deal this month for National Scrapbooking Day now through May 31st. You can get your very own consultant kit for only $64.95. With that you can get two options including a Studio J 12 month membership, Mayberry or Lucky deluxe paper and stamp bundle, scrapbook albums or stamps and a My Acrylix Holder all for FREE! You got it! Every one of these bundles are priced over 64.95 retail and you get to choose TWO for that price! Call or email me today for more information or join my team today by following this link. I'd love to have you on my team, whether you want a career or a hobby. YOU are the BOSS!

Warm wishes,

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Scalloped Flower Card

Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day and spent it with people you love. I had to work yesterday morning, but when I got home, I had two eager kids bearing gifts! They could hardly wait until I got in the door! Both Brook and Aidan had made gifts at school and decorated their own cards and artwork to give. Garrett, he was just happy to see "Mama!"

Brandon cooked me lasagna and we visited my Mom, where Dad treated us to strawberry cheesecake - my favorite! All in all, pretty great day. I didn't quite get the nap, but I didn't have to cook, dang it!

Here's another inspiration from Jeanette's blog. The pattern is from Wishes card confidence program and features papers from Dream Big. I random stamped the white daisy cardstock in Lilac Mist with a small snowflake swirly from my favorite snowman set to coordinate with the swirl pattern on the flowers. The large flower is made from 4 2" scallop circle punches. The petals are hand-cut. On the small flower, I used 2 scallop punches but trimmed the size down with scallop edged scissors and then added petals. The cute flower brads are from our White Daisy Mini Medley collection which is currently 33% off on my website and only $4 while supplies last!

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Happy Mother's Day Ladies!

Hey girls! Hope all of Moms are having a good day despite the crummy weather! I'm looking forward to lasagna cooked by my family for me and a strawberry cheesecake with my own Mom! Speaking of Mom, here is the card I made for her. It was inspired by Jeanette Lynton's blog. You can check it out here. She posts wonderful, creative projects weekly!

This card pattern is from Wishes and features the Miracle papers. I used A Tweet for the flowers. The 3 larger flowers are second generation then rock n rolled in Hollyhock. The small flowers are second generation in Hollyhock. The stems come from the cute photo corner swirls in Take A Picture. A Little Everything provides the phrase. Wrap it all up with some cocoa grosgrain and it's pretty as a picture!

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April 5 for $5 Card Class Instructions

Hey ladies! Thanks for your patience in getting these pictures and instructions up! We had a great class with some fun new ladies this month! Be sure to bring a new pal next class so you can pick a prize out of my goodie basket (valued up to $34.95!!) Kari, Anja and Becky all got to pick prizes this month! On to the fun!

This first card pictured is from the Miracle kit, which we also worked with during Play Dates. Featured stamp set is Fill in the Blank. The clouds are stamped using the flower stamp. Remember with our My Acrylix stamps you can position them on the block any way you want and they just spring back to their original form when you pull them off! So smush some clouds, baby! The butterflies are adhered only in the center to lift the wings up a bit as if in flight. Edges are distressed with Desert Sand using the Direct to Paper technique - just rub the ink pad along the edge for as bold and edge as you wish! The words on your Sweet Leaf piece are barely inked to give it a sponged effect. Remember to click on the picture to zoom in to see detail!

Anj requested this one because she LOVES buttons! Using Salutations Seals, we stamped the Buttercup piece then the White Daisy piece with the same stamp. Using the Circle Punch, punch your buttercup piece around the stamp and then using Micro Tip scissors, trim around the edge of the stamped image on the White Daisy piece. Adhere the white over the buttercup using the stamped image as a guide and set aside. Dry emboss the front of the hollyhock base every 1/2 inch, making sure the raised image is facing out from the front. You can do this by running your stylus down the groove in your paper trimmer - make sure the face is down. Then lightly sand the surface to expose the white core. Adhere as shown.

Over The Rainbow is such a fun, cheerful set. This is my dark twisted spin! Lol! Cut out the center, black rainbow band and adhere in the space between the two Pansy Purple bands. Then trim around the whole image. Cut out the cloud and cut down the center. I sponged the edges in Pansy Purple, also. Cut out the tags, "Somewhere" and "Over the" and Direct to Paper distress with Pansy Purple. In this image, the letters for "hill" are from the Lots of Dots Irresistibles cardstock adhesive-backed alphabet. For your kit, I just Cricut cut the letters in Pansy Purple to keep the cost for the kit at $5. You could achieve a similar result by stamping in White Daisy pigment ink and/or embossing with White Daisy embossing powder.

This is on a Desert Sand base and most if it is done for you! Cut out the red lantern and adhere with some 3D Foam Tape and the hanging "strings" with a Chocolate, Desert Sand or Black marker. This was inspired by Vicki Wizniuk's art.

This 5 inch square card is from the Hope For Japan set, available now until April 30th. It's discounted at only $5 for this A-size stamp set and all profits go directly to the American Red Cross and their efforts in Japan. Papers are a retired paper kit, That's Amore, plus Black and Colonial White Cardstock. The central image is stamped twice. Once on the main square pieced and once more on a scrap, then punched with our 2" Scallop Circle Punch. After sponging the edges of the scallop in black, the image is overlaid to match the image below with a little 3D Foam Tape. Card design by Karen Pedersen - yet another wonderful reason for becoming a Consultant on my team!

Thanks so much for stopping by! My next 5 for $5 card class is the first Thursday of the month, on May 5th at 630 pm. Let me know if you would like to attend or would like to purchase a kit.

Warm wishes,

Whole Wheat Bread

Who doesn't love fresh bread warm from the oven, er... bread machine? I know I certainly do - it's my worst weakness! I thought I would share with you this recipe. It's my best success story at a long line of failed bread recipes! Too, dry, too flat, too flaky, too doughy. You name it, we've tried it. This is the best recipe ever, though! Who'd have thought to try recipes for regular bread in the bread machine? Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

And speaking of winners, I just have to congratulate Yvonne Wickham on signing her first downline, Sara Armstrong! Welcome to the team, Sara! Now, without further ado..

Simple Whole Wheat Bread

1 cup warm water
5/8 (.25 oz) package dry active yeast (one slightly rounded tsp.)
1 Tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoon honey
1-2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon butter, melted
1 Tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup and 4 Tablespoons whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons butter, melted

1. In a small glass, mix warm water, yeast and 1 Tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoons honey. In the bread machine, add 1 2/3 cup all purpose flour, then pour in the yeast mixture. Mix until just combined and let set for 30 minutes or until big and bubbly.
2. Add 1 Tablespoon melted butter,  1 Tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoons honey, salt and 1 cup plus 4 Tablespoons whole wheat flour.
3. Start your bread machine cycle as directed. I set mine at the smaller 1.5 lb. loaf size, and light color. It shows 2 hours and 53 minutes on the display for the cycle time. (I actually stop it at about 27-25 minutes to go on the bake time.)
4. After the mix cycle and during the first rise cycle, brush approx. 1 teaspoon melted butter over the top. This makes the crust really soft. Then on the final rise cycle, brush the second teaspoon over the top.
5. Don't forget to pull it out early at about 27-25 minutes to go.

The recipe originally made 3 loaves in the oven in 9x5 bread loaf pans on 350 for 25-30 minutes in case you've a hankerin' to do it the old fashioned way.

I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does!

Warm wishes,

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Happy Birthday cards tonight

Tonight for my card class we're making a few birthday cards. Here's a sneak peak...

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