A Fabulous Bag!

I just found out about a challenge over at Melissa Phillips' blog (LilyBean's Paperie) and decided to enter. The challenge is "a girl and her bag" and it's all about POLKA DOTS! Good stuff. She's got this bright, fun bag (pictured above) by Jillie Willie up for grabs and the bag was the inspiration for the challenge. But...a funny thing happened on the way to my finished product... I'm not quite sure how it all went down, but my finished product contains NONE of the supplies I got out to use when I started! I love the bright colors and original style of the bag and here is a photo of some supplies I INTENDED to use at the start:

And here is my finished project for the challenge:

So...What happened? Beats me. It's a days' worth of design evolution, I suppose. But, I like it! I probably won't win the challenge--there are a lot of AWESOME, BEAUTIFUL entries--but my end card does have a lot of romantic polka dots! And I was inspired to make this because of that Jillie Willie bag and the LilyBean's Paperie challenge so it's all good. I'm not mad AND I keep looking at the picture of what could have been with all those great greens and blues and that big pink flower and I know I will end up making something with all of that stuff. But right now, I've got to get this entry in before time runs out.


{Supplies: Cardstock: Blush Blossom, River Rock (Stampin' Up!); Paper: Ric Rac Roses, Ric Rac Polka Dots (Daisy D's), Brown Polka Dots (Jenni Bowlin) Green Polka Dots (no source); Tags: Avery; Ribbon: Pink Sheer, Lace Hem Tape (Wrights), Gathered Lace (Joann), Sheer Brown Dots (Michael's); Bird Punch: (Martha Stewart); Buttons: (Autumn Leaves); Adhesive Pearls: (KaiserCraft); Flowers: (Prima); Stamps: Polka Dot Heart, "Friend" (Inkadinkado), "Happy Birthday" (Papertrey Ink), "To" "My" "Beautiful" (Impression Obsession)}

Cute as a Button!

The next card I made is a baby card. February marks the start of Wedding and Baby Season--though I'm not sure why since babies are born all year long. But I suppose that it's close enough to spring which means time to think about new beginnings and isn't a baby the very essence of that? (My own sweet niece Violet is turning 2 in April and my cousin's smarty-pants daughter Mallory turns 5 in March so there are a couple of older-new beginnings for you.)

For this design I took a 4" square scallop chipboard tile from Maya Road and covered it with yellow polka dotted paper from Stampin' Up! as the base of the card. I made a smaller folded card out of Sage cardstock from Paper Source and dotted it with buttons, stamps and ribbon, then adhered it to the scallop base. To finish the whole thing off, I tied a flower to the upper corner. How sweet!


{Supplies: Cardstock: Sage (Paper Source); Paper: So Saffron dots (Stampin' Up!); Chipboard: 4" Scallop Square (Maya Road); Stamps: "Cute as a button" (Fiskars), "Hello" & "Little one" (Papertrey Ink); Ribbon: Green satin (Offray), Green grosgrain polka dot (Michael's), Buttons: (American Crafts, Autumn Leaves), Flower: (Prima)}

This little guy (or girl) will also be featured at casualfriday.etsy.com. Once my Etsy page is up and running, I will make a grand announcement here on the blog and will have a permanent link to my page, as well. In the meantime, check out Etsy anyhow--it's got millions of handmade products from jewelry to clothing to paper goods and everything in between. Happy shopping! I'm coming back after dinner with at least one more post! Can you believe it??

Welcome Back!

Hi Everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful 2009 so far. Pretty good here. I can't believe Christmas is over and Valentine's Day is a week away already! I just wanted to share a few card designs with you. I've made so many since my last post (which, sadly was TWO months ago!!), but thought I would show you a design or two I just finished the other day. After spending the day with my girl Gayle on Thursday and having a little look at what she's been doing--see her blog--I took a cue from her and made this Butterfly Card.



I really like that little pop of green and finally found a way to use this sheer frame from Maya Road. Thanks for the inspiration, Gayle!!

{Supplies: Cardstock- Baja Breeze, Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!); Paper- Butterflies (Jenni Bowlin), other (Stampin' Up!); Stamps- Butterfly (Stampin' Up!), "Enjoy the Moment," "Happy Birthday" (Papertrey Ink); Rub On (American Crafts); Ribbon (Wrights); Sheer Frame (Maya Road); Gem (Darice); Button (Joann); Punches- Ticket Corner, Scallop Edge (Stampin' Up!), Tag (EK Success); Brown bag Envelope (Clearbags)}

Good news: You will soon see this card at casualfriday.etsy.com where you will be able to purchase it, as well as other goodies handmade by yours truly! It's been a long time coming but I'm really excited to get this business rolling!