Birthday Balloon Cards

A few summer cards

I've been playing around with Faber Castell Gelatos this summer, as well as water-soluble wax pastels (basically watercolor crayons). My goal was to figure out the best materials to use while Bible journaling, but I colored a few sets of flowers during practice. Here's a card I made with the gelatos and a stamp from Papertrey Ink.  The inside note was a wooden stamp I bought on clearance years ago and always forget about. 

I used the same stamp on the inside of this next card, a beautiful bouquet of tulips colored with Copic markers. The flowers are from Papertrey Ink.

I used the same hydrangea stamp as before with water color crayons to create this weird but cool effect. The inside is blank.

I colored these Papertrey Ink strawberries a few months ago and added my own Copic Pen scribbling around the edges. Tonight I finally finished it by adding a sentiment, though I wish I had neater handwriting!

I love this card. It makes me want Autumn! The stamps were Papertrey Ink (I was obviously on a 'friendship jar' kick for awhile) and the sentiment is from Our Daily Bread Designs.

And another bouquet of tulips to finish off the evening.

Magnolia Birthday Card

Here's another card I made today, this time using the magnolia blossom from JustRite Papercraft. It's quite lovely! I colored the flower with my copic markers, and added a sentiment inside the card from Our Daily Bread Designs. They're getting to be my two favorite places! The "Your special day" tiny tag is from Papertrey Ink. I have to add that I LOVE the svg cuts on my new Cricut Explore. They made the magnolia shadow a breeze! 

Hydrangea Birthday Card

Using my new Cricut Explore and the svg files from Just Rite Papercraft I made this card for my little sister's birthday earlier this week. I stamped it with my JustRite stamps I recently bought, and colored it with my copic markers. 

We also got a special treat (though schools weren't closed) on Thursday. The weathermen were forecasting "less than an inch, turning to rain by noon" but it turned out to be "more than 3" all freaking day long." :-) I thoroughly enjoyed it, but we didn't get much done in class. I had several little boys who kept their eyes peeked through the blinds more than they looked at their work!

View from our classroom windows:

Dogs and Babies

My mini schnauzer, Toby, recently chewed up a really nice pair of shoes for the first time ever a few days ago. I bought a pair of quality flats to wear at school since my foot/ankle had been giving me such problems, and these shoes felt like a dream. So yes, anyway, I spent almost $200 on a pair of shoes (yes, I know... $200?!? But trust me, it was worth it) and my dog chewed one up less than 6 months later. The company is WONDERFUL, though, and offered to give me a discount on a new pair if I would send a picture of the shoe and offending pup. I sent them this dog-shaming picture and ordered a new pair the very same evening:

Anyway, he inspired me to pull out some doggie paper and make a few cards. For starters, I practiced coloring with my copics on a piece of yellow card stock. 

Then I made these!

And one of my co-workers lost her cocker-spaniel after a long sickness, so I made her a sympathy card.

I also practiced coloring a new island stamp and playing with Tim Holtz distress inks to make a thank you card.

And for some reason I never posted about this I made in the fall... we had a baby shower at work for one of the ladies. This card was made out of a sheet of white paper and some ribbon (yay Cricut New Arrival and my copic markers!)

 And, being on the hospitality committee, I was responsible for making a banner. A friend gave me some zebra print fabric, so I covered it with starch and added some more Cricut lettering and ribbon and other decorations for cuteness!

HP Wand-Making

*Here's to hoping my little sister doesn't happen upon this post before Christmas!*

My little (college-aged, not really little!) sister finally finished reading Harry Potter this year, so she and I finally have something in common! I ordered her all kinds of HP-themed things for Christmas this year (Griffindor scarf, muggle t-shirt, snitch necklace, etc.) but decided to make the wand myself. I looked up several tutorials on Pinterest (my go-to site for EVERYTHING these days) and figured out how to make one... or a bunch... using materials I had on hand.

I started out with several bamboo skewers and wrapped random items around the bottom few inches of each one. Then I covered the objects with hot glue. For some, I just played around with the glue (slowly watching it run as I twirled it around and added a few drops of gold Tim Holtz Adirondack alcohol ink mixative. 

It was a little messy!

I painted on the mixative after the glue was dry over the entire wand on this one.

Here is a button I wrapped in a bit of fabric and added a rubber band for dimension.

This one- an old clothespin glued to the end of a skewer- was my favorite! 

 You can see how I'm adding more glue and more gold coloring on each one. They all turn out differently.

I swirled glue around the entire skewer of them when the base was warm enough to handle. On some of them I made a spiral pattern, on others I pressed the glue gun tip onto the wood to smear the glue around. Both gave awesome effects.

I colored them with various shades of brown copic markers. I'm pretty sure I ruined a couple nibs, but the result was well worth it!

And here they are! Seven finished wands, each magically perfect in its own way!

I'm not sure what I'll do with the extras just yet... but I couldn't resist making several!

More Copic coloring

I spent my snow day/President's Day coloring with my markers. Hopefully with a little more practice I'll start making cards. One of these days I'll have some ready when I need one. 

Anyway, here is a butterfly.

Shady snowman #1

Shady snowman #2

blue-violet tulips in a jar

The only actual project I created today

Here are some pink and yellow tulips

I'm really proud of these red tulips. The colors don't show up nearly as well on camera as they do in real life. 

And all of them together